Snow Demons

Cain knew agreeing to join his friends' tomfoolery was a bad idea, but he was helpless when it came to Tess. The second she grabbed his arm and looked up at him with a gleeful expression on her face, he was done for.

Maybe he should have joined Judith with whatever "more important things" she claimed to have.

Somehow along the way, they formed into unofficial teams of two: 5-2 and Cain, and Ryan and Tess. Leeds was left to fend for himself. Not that that was much of a problem, these barrens were his domain after all. (Cain was very careful to dodge Leeds' snowballs in particular, as he wouldn't put it past the demon to try and hide a rock or too inside them.)

He and 5-2 had taken to hiding behind a snow covered bush, ears pricked and snowballs in hand, ready to launch at the snap of a twig. It had been suspiciously quiet for the past few minutes, and he was starting to grow concerned. Either his opponents had gotten lost, or they were lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike.

An audible chatter of teeth snapped Cain out of his thoughts. He turned to look and his comrade to find him curled in on himself, his cheeks and tip of nose bright red in contrast to his pale, almost gray skin. Snot was dried on his upper lip, and his lips had turned from blue to almost purple. 5-2 had never been good with the cold. He frowned.

"Hey, Five Two," he made his normally gruff voice as soft as he could, "you good?"

5-2 nodded weakly and tried to grin, only to shudder as another gust of wind chilled the air. Cain sighed and put an arm around his friend's shoulders in an attempt to warm him up.

"We're going inside. Right now." His tone was no longer gentle, he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

5-2 tried to protest as Cain roughly pulled him to his feet, but gave up as soon as he realised that he was shivering so badly that he could barely stand on his own. Leaning on Cain, they trudged back to small house Ryan had rented in the neighborhood closest to the Pine Barrens.

"Th-tha-anks," 5-2 said as the house came in sight, his voice barely loud enough to hear over the sound of snow crunching beneath their boots. Cain only grunted and walked faster, the cold was starting to get to him too.

With an arm still around 5-2's waist, he pounded his fist on the door. After a moment of silence, 5-2 looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Cain felt his ears heat up slightly and growled, daring him to say something. 5-2 fought back a grin amd shrugged.

Grumbling, Cain reached into his pocket to fish out his keys when the he heard the deadbolt click. The door swung open revealing Tess, clad in an oversized yellow sweater and sweatpants.

"There you guys are!" she chirped, "We were just about to send Leeds back out to find you guys!"

Cain's face, (what was left of it anyway), twisted into a menacing snarl. "What?" He growled dangerously.

Ryan appeared behind Tess, holding a large mug of what Cain assumed to be hot chocolate. He looked over at 5-2 and made a small hum of disapproval. He held out a hand to the shivering man and muttered something about a warm shower and pulled him inside.

Tess was unperturbed by Cain's anger and pulled him inside as well, paying no mind to the snow still stubbornly clinging to his boots.

"Yeah, we've been waiting for like, an hour for you guys to come back. What took you so long? Leeds said he told you guys that we were heading back and that you said you guys were gonna catch up-" Cain slapped a hand over her mouth.

"What do you mean Leeds told us to come back? We haven't seen any of you assholes for, well, I don't know how long, but it was a while!"

Tess looked confused and pushed his hand away, she looked like she was going to say something, but was cut off by a deep cackle from the living room. Cain stomped past her and stopped when he saw Leeds lounging with his feet propped up on the coffee table, dwarfing the couch with his massive size and a nasty grin on his face.

Cain narrowed his eye and growled lowly. Leeds' grin widened, baring his sharp teeth before taking a sip from his mug, which looked more like a teacup in his hand.

"Daniel Timothy Leeds!" Tess snapped as she shoved past Cain, "That was a dirty trick!"

"Not a trick, just a lie," he snorted as his eyes sparkled with mirth.

"Doesn't mean it wasn't a dick move!"

Cain scoffed and left the two to their bickering, but not before shooting Leeds a look that promised bad things to come. He headed to Tess' room, hopefully she wouldn't mind him borrowing her shower.