Learn to Howl {Alex Vreeke | Jumanji}

3; blood red & abandonment

"Tetra! You're alive!" When Nigel saw her, for the first time in what had to be ten years, he hugged her. It's strange, she's pretty sure it's not written into his programming because the moment he touches her he begins to vibrate, before clipping through the ground. He's stuck waist-deep in the solid Earth, but he's beaming up at her. He can't move his hands. "I saw you fall! How did you survive?"

"I didn't." Tetra said, kneeling down and trying to dig Nigel out, who just seemed content to be stuck in the soil.

"I saw you fall! How did you survive?" The NPC responded in the same chipper tone, and only repeated the question a third time when Tetra gave him the same answer as before. They're both quiet for a long moment, the woman scrabbling away at the dirt while the NPC gives her a faraway smile. When she reaches his elbow, he clips further through the Earth, and she hears a shout of pain, followed by nothing. It takes a full week of waiting, of ducking and weaving through the trees of the beginning field, killing Van Pelt's motorcycle goons, before Nigel's jeep came barreling over the hill.

"Tetra! You're alive!"

He won't give her the gem, and she kills him for it. For barely a moment, her rage over takes her and without a single word, her wolves pounce, tearing the mild-manner NPC to shreds. Rage ebbs away in the moments following the attack, and she's left with the overwhelming horror of her own actions.

He returns, one week later, and she rolls herself out of the ditch she had been inhabiting in the forest, eating mostly bugs and scraps the wolves had brought to her. Nigel, however, doesn't seem deterred, even when she looks as though she's a B-Grade horror movie monster.

"Tetra! You're alive!"

He won't give her the gem, and she asks him why. It's not that he says he doesn't trust her, but he's definitely thinking it, it's written on his face. Perplexed and a little hurt, she asks him why. Surprisingly, he doesn't actually say anything, instead, the world around them fades in to a memory. It's unnerving, an out of body experience, she's looking at herself through Nigel's eyes, from years ago, from when she was with their party. She and Van Pelt. They fight together, explore together, a dynamic duo if ever there was one. Nigel watches them scale the Jaguar Mountain, and he can see the faint outline of Tetra triumphantly holding the stone with it's distinct green glow, followed by Van Pelt taking it and-

The memory cuts out.

"What happens next, Nigel?" There's an unsettling calmness to her voice that hadn't been there before. Nigel's never heard it, never been actually threatened by someone he had considered a close friend. They both knew what came next in that memory, they all know how that story ended.

"Yes, but-" The wolves get him. She isn't disgusted by her actions this time, she's disgusted at the memory. How dare he. How dare he. Not sure who she's referring to, she contemplates going back to Alex's camp, to break the news to him that she can't get the gem, that they can't get home, but she can't bear to face him empty handed.

"I'm working on it," she goes back anyways, and Alex looks so damn hopeful, "it's just that," letting out a noise of discomfort, she hovers at the edge of the camp, refusing to sit down, "Nigel keeps, uh, dying, if I'm being honest, before I can get the gem." It wasn't a lie, per say, she just left out the part where it was her who kept killing him. "He respawns, don't get me wrong, I just-"

"Hey, hey Tet, it's okay. It's gonna be okay." Alex, realising she wasn't going to sit down any time soon, stood up and crossed the threshold of the camp, holding her shoulders and giving her a reassuring smile. It had been years and he'd never seen her this flighty or uncomfortable before.

"I'm trying, Alex," she admitted, barely audible, refusing to meet his gaze, "but what if we can't do it alone? What if I can't get the stone?" Her hands are clasped together in front of her, knuckles white.

"We'll think of something, Tet." He assured, and just like that, her fidgeting stopped, the tension left her body, and she looked up at him with something akin to hope in her eyes. There was still an unrelenting knot in her stomach, but when she wrapped her arms around Alex, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah, we've survived this long, haven't we?" Her words actually surprise a snort of laughter from Alex, and his response is accompanied by them both moving, looking at their own, singular tally over the other's shoulder.

"Mostly." When they part, there's a strange silence between them, one they're not used to, especially not while sober. "Could you, um, get the wolves to hunt us something?" Alex asks, making his way to the workbench by the campfire. "I've been working on this new spice mix while you were gone, I haven't been able to test it on actual meat."

It's domestic, it's routine, something they had fallen into over the years, side by side in the camp once occupied by Alan Parrish in the forest. They share dinner by the campfire, laughing and talking; they're both nineties kids, both from the same city, he doesn't know her last name so he can't remember if he knew her or not, but she's actually pretty enthusiastic about watching him play air drums, so he doesn't care. Sometimes they'll steal into the bazaar for something for dessert, or Tetra will get quiet and contemplative, climbing the tallest tree and looking at the fabricated stars, but usually, after cleaning up their few dishes, they'll simply retire to bed, sharing it both out of a lack of a secondary bed, and an enjoyment of simple human contact. The bed is padded with the pelts of animals that Alex hopes the wolves have taken down, he hasn't seen Tetra attack anyone since the instance with the hunting knife those years ago, but he thinks she could be terrifyingly lethal if given half a chance. Instead, she's unguarded, trusting, her head on his chest as the two of them look up at the stars through the canopy of leaves above. Neither of them say it, but they treasure those moments, for in the morning it starts again, Tetra will leave and Alex will scour the market for something that could help them, and maybe she'll return that night but he knows she probably won't. He's still got Stevie for company, but it's not the same.

He knows she doesn't like coming home empty handed, but he doesn't realise just how far she's willing to go to not let that happen. More accurately, he doesn't realise this is the last time he will see her in a long, long time.

"Alex?" It's the morning she's decided to leave, to get the stone or die trying. He does not know this. It hurts her to look at his smile. "I..." It's like she wants to say something to him, but the words won't come out, his expression softens, something full of adoration, of lo- "I'll get us home." She can't look at him anymore. Can't be here anymore. They can't keep hiding.

"Just don't get yourself killed." Alex chuckles, ruffling her hair affectionately as he passes her on his way to the secret entrance to the bazaar. Stopping himself, he looks back at where she's looking at the ground and frowns slightly before walking back and pressing a kiss to her temple. "'s alright, Tet, you'll do good."

No.

No she won't.

She'll kill her former best friend, the unsuspecting NPC, another two hundred and seventy one times. She doesn't get the gem, she doesn't go back.

"Tetra! You're alive!" Two hundred and seventy two.

It's almost a full week after she'll killed him the last time, and suddenly there's a sound that makes her blood run cold. The drums. It's been years since she'd heard the drums, and now it sounded as though they were right on top of her. Without waiting, she runs for the forest, her wolves making themselves scarce. Something was coming, who knew whether it was salvation or damnation, but the forest would be the first place she'd find it.