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August 23, 2021 Hackett House Upstate New York, New York
TRAVIS HAD PARKED THE POLICE CRUISER IN THE DRIVEWAY. The engine was pretty quiet, a low rumble, soothing to his ears. He could equate it to color noise. White noise, if you wanted to be specific about which one it was. But it wasn't helping his anxiety. His right leg was bouncing and he was drumming his fingers on the door. Travis has been sitting here for five minutes, contemplating whether or not to go into the house.
Time was relative, but every second, minute, and hour that passed mattered.Travis never realized just how late—early?—it was until he gazed out the window while sitting there in the car. It wasn't as dark as it had been earlier when the sun first started to rise. The darkness was fading pretty fast as it was possibly nearing somewhere around seven o'clock. The black and deep purples of the sky had already started morphing into shades of pink, orange, yellow, and hints of blue, more blue now as the seconds ticked by and got later into the morning.
He turns away from the window and brings a hand up to his face, rubbing his eyes as a sigh leaves his lips. He's had no sleep for three days straight. Cassidy knew about, well, everything. Kaylee, Constance, Jedediah, and Mary were all murdered last night. Fenris was dead in the woods. Silas was at the camp with all the remaining counselors and Caleb and Gabriel. Chris and Bobby were inside the house, alone, with four corpses. The counselors were alone at the camp yet again. Travis had been doing the same shit he'd been doing all week—he's getting tired of his job. And nothing was getting any better for anyone.
Even thinking about what would happen when it could finally be resolved. When the truth could possibly—
No.
That still had to be kept secret. No one could know how the whole werewolf thing started. No one could know the full truth about the now-dead Fenris Driscoll. No one could know that Silas Vorez was no longer a threat to the current residents of North Kill. No one could know anything about last night.
No one but him and his remaining family, Ray, or even Ryan knew about what happened in the fire six years ago.
No one should know about anything that happened in North Kill since Hackett's Quarry first opened in 1953. It's not like anyone believed the news stories anyway. Everybody thought witnesses to any of the matters had been lying.
It was all overwhelming and Travis had no idea what to do anymore. He couldn't keep lying to the entirety of North Kill county. He was certain they'd all lost his trust already. So, maybe Ray and Cassidy had been right this entire time. And everything had been going wrong because of himself, because of his father, and because of his grandfather. He, Jedediah, and Septimus always held the truth from people, whether or not it was to someone they could trust. Ultimately, that was their downfall, and it took this long for Travis to realize that nothing could ever go right for them. All because it was their faults.
