The Lone Wolf

I must have fallen asleep at some point...or I was caught off guard. The last I remember I was in a coffee shop.


I woke up about 15 minutes ago in the backseat of the car. The car I left behind.


My laptop was sitting on the floor, along with a pile of red and black feathers. Some of them had spots of blood.




First thought? "Think optomistically. Maybe I fell asleep somewhere and Todd put me back in the car."


And then I remembered that I left the car in Missouri.


"Maybe Todd found the car, drove it to the edge of Kansas where I was, found me, and put me in it."


But then where was he?




I sat up fully, looked in the front seats...and found a disemboweled fox sitting in the driver's seat.


Out the windshield, I saw Him. His head snapped up to acknowledge me looking out the window, and then He vanished.




My laptop tells me I'm still in Missouri. That...thing...it also left crow feathers littering the parking lot.




Am I the only one left?




I'm going to pull myself together enough to drive out of here. Alex taught me enough on our way down here-


I'll never see him again.




I'm going back now, Aiden. As fast as I can. I'm driving to the closest public transport possible and dumping this fucking car.






I'm all that's left now. Everyone is dead.


...time to join the rest of the survivors.

Showdown

We stopped in Missouri late afternoon yesterday. Left the car in the parking lot of a plaza. Alex and I needed more gas and supplies.

By the time we came back, this was on the hood of the car...

All the pieces are sitting on this desk in the library I'm hiding in...just staring at them...

All my best friends. She killed them.

...I have never felt so angry...too angry to even be sad...and now...just numb.

Now I wait. Alex took a short nap so that he'd wake up as Todd. He's going to confront her.

Todd told me to abandon the car, head to a halfway point, let him know my general location, and wait for him there.

If I don't hear from him by midnight, I need to go back to Oregon.

He left around 8:00 this morning.

...please come back.

Panicking...

Casey's gone.






Not gone as in dead. I mean we can't find her and I-


I'm having a really hard time not freaking out right now. She's like my sister. I don't know what I'll do if something happens to her.


We joked we were half-sisters once on like...Jinopets or something. Everyone believed us.




She's been trying to call Danielle since we got here. The last update I got about it...just two hours ago at midnight...Casey had received a voicemail, covered her mouth with her hand, and started crying.


She wouldn't tell us what happened.


She went to go to the bathroom to wash her face. She didn't come back. She got out somehow, or she was taken or...ohgodIdon'tknow.




Todd thinks that she left to find Danielle and Madden...but...why wouldn't she tell anyone?










Why wouldn't she tell me?








We're getting ready to head out now. It's extremely stupid and extremely dangerous, but I'm not leaving my best friend and Todd's not letting another one of us die.




We're coming Casey.






...please be okay.

Then there were three.

I let them grieve. They've all been strong long enough. We are but three now. It has taken awhile, but I think we're all ready to get back on our feet.


Branwen had tried frantically to get ahold of her brother after...they died. She had no success. It seems that Alexander must be a substitute sibling for her. However I cannot allow him to be here now. Alex cannot function well enough yet in an emergency.


It is now up to me to keep the three of us alive. I must keep them safe. I have already failed Seth and Skyler...


We are truly sorry for the lack of any sort of update on this. As far as the phone and computer go...you can blame the Crow Queen. The Morrigan. The filthy, dirty bird who has blood on more than just her hands. She is wading in it. Basking in the body count, most likely.


This is my fault...I told Branwen we could help her friend and now look. There is not a single damn thing we can do about her except...


...it is hard for me to accept killing her if I can still remember when she used to be a person. And that's my fault too. I am part of the reason she isn't a person anymore.


That means I am part of the reason Seth and Skyler are dead.


We had been in Oregon, if but for a mere two days. We had moved because of the threat of The Morrigan. She had, of course, followed us and we would by no means want her complicating things any more than she already had as we tried to find Aiden.


We should not have moved. We played right into her blood covered talons.


She had perfected her illusion and we fell into it once more. It was easier to break with the knowledge that we knew what it was, but much harder to hold it off as we kept running into it time and time again. And it was not healthy. None of them had said anything about it, but The Morrigan's illusionary art is based off of what makes parallel travel possible, and if you remember correctly it is not safe for anyone not affiliated with Him to remain in it. The initial desert ruse was not powerful enough for any deadly side effects to occur, but it left them sore and hurting. This new repeated exposure was starting to greatly damage their health.


The parallel also blocks off all electronic communication, at least when used correctly.


We tried to answer the phone several times...all in vain.


She struck on the 30th. I was awake at the time. I was the only one not feeling the effects of the parallel, but the other four were too weak for what happened next.


She struck Skyler first. Just one blow was lethal enough to bring the Panda down. Thankfully, for both Seth and Skyler's sake, she died not long after the head injury. She did not suffer for long.
I have never seen Seth enraged. I could not even imagine the Buck fighting back with murderous intent. He was holding up well against The Morrigan's remaining army (I suspect she has been killing some of her minions off for sport). I tried to get to him. I had been defending the Wolf.


I was a fraction of a second too late. The knife was already in his neck. Another second later, and we had lost Seth as well.


This seemed to satisfy The Morrigan well enough, and she drew back with whatever proxies we had not killed or rendered unconscious.


...to leave the remaining two of the original five to wallow in sorrow. The weight of it all finally collapsed on them. I could do nothing of any sort of consolation. I thought Alex might be better suited for the task, but he could not bear it either.


We buried them not long after.


And then we were quiet for a long time.


I allowed Alex to be conscious earlier today because he told me he had an idea. He had taken the girls into a pet store so they could see the puppies.
They have not genuinely smiled in such a long time. It was good to see that. Alex is much better at handling emotional matters than I.


We will arrive in Oregon shortly. The phone is working now, Aiden. The remaining three of us are relatively healthy, physically speaking. I don't know what to say about our collective mental state. I'm sorry.


This is my fault.


I'm not going to let anymore of us die.


But for now, we need to rest.