Bad Moon Rising

[Yuki]

Per Aiden's instruction, the three members of Portland plotted for nightfall, and when it finally hit, they split up into their corresponding areas, cellphones in hand, prepared for an attack by a vengeful werewolf. As Yuki patrolled the area near the cafeteria, en route to the building she was to be stationed in, she wondered if the being would even attack. It had launched attacks on cities other than this one. What was to say that it wouldn't switch locations now? And if it didn't attack, where would they go?

She understood how to kill it. Unlike other supernatural creatures, where killing the thing was part of the tricky part, this was pretty straightforward. A silver bullet. A simple fire from a gun, no salting remains or encasing anything in a complicated symbol.

The tricky part was luring it out. Her alert senses and watchful gaze upon the campus did not prevent Yuki from letting out a sigh of frustration. Why couldn't any supernatural animal be like any other ordinary animal? If the creature had left tracks, or something of the like, it would have been muchh easier to find.

But of course that wasn't the case. Pausing for a moment and taking cover behind a wall, Yuki looked at her phone, hopeful for perhaps a missed text message. She squinted her eyes a bit at the screen through the darkness, and was disappointed to not see the envelope icon upon the screen. What a shame.

Putting her phone away, she resumed her walk, looking out for any sign that a werewolf could possible by within the vicinity. Perhaps her faction mates were having more luck than she was.

[Aiden]

Yeah, searching out one person with a bruise out of a campus full of thousands of students a day was going to be a cake walk. Really, how were they supposed to find someone with a bruise? There were going to be tons of people with bruises what with the martial arts classes, other accidents, and it wasn't like they knew if the thing was male or female. But he kept his mouth shut, wondering just how strong this wrestler friend of hers was and why the werewolf didn't just snap him in two and take his heart.

Then again, Teagan was lucky that this guy was around. And it seemed like she knew that, so he let it go. "Yes, another all nighter. We can't really vanquish evil in broad daylight in the middle of campus, now can we? At least not without going to jail for however many counts of whatever we do. Manslaughter or something or other," Aiden mumbled the last part to himself.

While Teagan returned to her room to sleep, Aiden returned to the car in order to stock up on weapons and silver, and then decided to take Yuki and visit the cafeteria. He had swiped Teagan's card earlier, so lunch was going to be on her. Hey, she had enough meal points, right? No problem, and after all Aiden provided for her back in Portland, it was due time that Teagan paid him back.

Eventually night fell, and they split up after dividing the weapons between them. Aiden walked his way over to the parking structure, constantly checking his phone through his pocket when he thought it was vibrating. No action. He sighed, slowly walking up the structure to the higher floors for a better vantage point--the more he could see, the higher chance he had of seeing the werewolf.

He was somehow unaware that the whole time he was being watched, and as he made his way onto level six, he paused when he heard the shuffling and heavy breathing that reverberated throughout the concrete floor. Parking structures hid no noise, and so he grabbed for his gun, and looked between the cars that were still parked there. Slowly, he drew his phone out, and began dialing.

It was only when the phone went to his ear and the tone on the other end was rhythmically telling him that Yuki was in the process of grabbing her phone that he was rushed. He dropped the phone, which was still connected to Yuki, and pulled his gun out. One shot was sent off, although it fired into the roof above him as he slammed into the concrete.

Above him was a disfigured human, the werewolf, and it seemed pretty intent of ripping his heart out. He grabbed one of its hands, and then hit it in the side of the head with the butt of his gun using his other hand. It rolled off of him, growling in an unnatural way, before it leaped again. Aiden shot one more shot, warding the werewolf off before taking off and weaving through the cars and making his way towards the ground level.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap," he hissed to himself as he flew through the large spaces between the few remaining cars. Behind him, he could hear the snarls and the scrapes of claws, further motivating him to run. Finally, he rounded a pillar and spun on his heel, holding his gun up and steadying his breath, ready to fire when the beast came around the corner into his trap.

[Teagan]

After carefully planning out the method for patrolling the campus later in the evening, Teagan numbly watched as her friends -friends, were they reduced to? Could one actually be friends with Yuki?- walked away to continue preparations. Her gaze never left their fading forms until long after they had exited the building. She rubbed her eyes.

Upon looking up, another person leaned casually against a nearby bookcase, mindlessly flipping through pages in a novel.

A sharp sting of irritation and betrayal swept over her, causing the girl to grit her teeth. "We both know you aren't reading that book. Give up the act."

"If you insist," Lucas shrugged with a wry grin, closing the book quickly and returning it to the shelf.

Teagan glared as he started walking closer. "Stop where you are."

"C'mon. It's just me," he raised two hands in the air, signalling no harm intended.

"Which means I should be grabbing some salt right now," she shot back harshly. "

"But you're not." Lucas softly approached her, taking one of the seats across from the teen. "And that means something else entirely."

"What do you want, Lucas?" If that even really was his name. She couldn't be sure anymore. "I'm not really in the mood to talk to you right now."

"I wouldn't be in the mood to talk to anyone if I stayed up all night either," he lightly replied, unfazed by the girl's frankness. "But, it's not about what I want." He sat up, leaning closer to Teagan. "Your friends are back. What are they doing here?"

"Picking up the pieces from last night," Teagan said evenly.

"We've got the situation under control though." Lucas returned to a slouched position, scanning the book on the table. "They aren't needed."

"First off, there is no 'we'." Teagan's anger, fueled by her tiredness, radiated from her dark eyes. "Demons don't work with hunters, or they get killed. Bug off and leave me alone before I send you back to Hell." She quickly stood, grabbing one of the books she had already checked out and her notebook.

Behind her, Lucas shook her head. "I saved your life last night. The least you could do would be to show a little respect."

Teagan froze, wincing at the truth of his words. The demon smirked as she paused mid-step before regaining confidence to continue forward.

"Alright, have it your way. I’ve never harmed you once or lied about anything, but go ahead, walk out on the one person you can trust when things are about to go haywire.” His words wrapped around her thoughts, obviously his intent, but she pushed aside the desire to turn around and kept moving forward. This was the last thing she needed.

If Aiden and Yuki ran into Lucas tonight, she wouldn’t care what they did to him.

Almost.

She walked at a brisk pace back to her dorm. The roommate with the attitude had disappeared, for which Teagan was thankful. It meant no questions about her notes, whereabouts, or why she was about to crash in the middle of the day. The notes and library books went straight under her bed and she set her phone on the nightstand beside her pillow.

The last thing she remembered before falling asleep on her bed, above the sheets, was the distant sound of her phone vibrating to announce the arrival of a message. Intentionally ignoring it, Teagan rolled onto her side to catch up on much needed rest.

She didn’t catch the alarm going off around sun-set.

Or the entrance and exit of her roommate a half hour after.

What brought her out of her deep doze was the sound of gunshots echoing across the campus. Her eyes flew open, immediately snapping over to the clock on the wall. Oh crap. Aiden and Yuki were going to kill her if they found out where she was.

…unless their arrival had all been a dream? She glanced around the room, nearly completely devoid of any hunting-related items. It would be so easy to write it off. What seemed real was the room in front of her at that moment. The soft blanket beneath her feet and the breeze of the wind blowing through the window.

Who on earth had opened the stupid window again?

Wiping the sleep from her eyes, Teagan stood to shut the window. Right as she shut the latch, gunshots rang out again, this time in a rapid-fire session. Not a dream. Crap. She had missed the rendezvous with Aiden and Yuki earlier on. She reached beneath her mattress to grab a gun she kept hidden for emergencies before racing out of the room, phone in hand.

“C’mon Yuki, pick up!” Teagan growled at the phone in frustration as she raced down the steps of the housing unit. This couldn’t be a good sign.

[Yuki]

After checking for any missed alerts from either of her faction mates, Yuki continued her inspection of the nearby buildings, listening for any misplaced sounds and on the look for lurking silhouettes. Still, she spotted and heard nothing.

That is, until her phone began ringing noisily, echoing throughout the empty campus. Her hands lunged into her pockets to pull out the phone, but when she answered, all she heard was gunfire, doubly loud because she heard it both through the phone and in Aiden's direction. Kuso! she hissed. Clearly, he had spotted something, likely the werewolf, and if not, then something else. Aiden didn't let out a gunshot in the middle of a college campus unless he had good reason. Taking this as a sign that her own area was clear of werewolves, and seeing as Aiden's call had ended without so much as him saying a word to her, Yuki knew he would need her help, and bolted to where he was stationed.

Along the way, she received a call from Teagan. Yuki furrowed her eyebrows briefly as she looked at the screen. Why would Teagan be calling her when Aiden was the one who had encountered the werewolf? Did she find another supernatural creature? Was she in trouble?

"Yes?!" Yuki blurted, as she answered the phone. "I am in a bit of a hurry, child, so make it quick if you need my help."

[Aiden]

Aiden stood there, his chest rising and falling rapidly, firmly holding the gun and waiting. Any second, the werewolf would surely come around the corner and into sight. Any second. Any...where was the thing? Aiden took a few cautious steps forward, the gun not leaving its place in front of his body. It was slightly unnerving how his location was broadcast throughout the entire floor with the echos, but he couldn't stop that now, not unless he wanted to run around barefooted.

Still, the werewolf was nowhere to be seen, and Aiden continued to shuffle forward slowly trying to find it. He neared the pillar, and edged up against it, flattening his body and his gun. He slowly moved along the rounded support beam, and then snapped his gun into the air when he came around the corner. Nothing. "Where the hell did--"

Wham. It felt like a giant bag of bricks had fallen on him, but the thrashing told him that it was the werewolf. He felt the skin on his arm split open and blood trickle out, but somehow he had managed to keep a death grip on his gun. Once his arm was free, he swung it up and smashed the butt of the gun against the werewolf's head, causing it to howl in pain and give him the leverage he needed to roll out from beneath it.

This thing just wasn't giving up, nor was it giving Aiden a chance to get a clear shot at it.

He scrambled to his feet and began sprinting the opposite direction, attempting to gain some ground so he could take aim and fire. He spun on his heel once more, and leveled his gun, letting off two shots. They missed. Wait...they missed? He glanced at the gun, now trembling in his shaking hand, the wound on his arm causing his aim to unsteady. It didn't even hurt that badly, why was his arm shaking?! Switching hands, he leveled the gun once more, and eyed the werewolf.

"Come on, puppy, come here," he hissed.

[Teagan]

"Gunshots somewhere nearby! I'm assuming Aiden. Head in his direction." With a snap, Teagan closed her phone and shoved it back in her pocket as she burst through the doors and into the cool night air. She scanned the dark scene before her, the stillness eerie and unnerving. Which way had the shots come from?

Another round sounded to her left, and without a second's hesitation Teagan darted in the direction, her feet flying across the pavement. The sound echoed rapidly...only the parking garage could make a noise like that. The only question was what level the shot had been fired on? The stupid thing was over five stories tall! A flash of despair shot across her face as she realized that the stairway would provide the quickest way to scale all of the levels and provide the best shelter; running in the middle of each level would make her stick out like a sore thumb.

She took a deep breath for morale and charged forward, climbing the steps as quickly and quietly as possible. Second floor-clear. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Teagan groaned, pausing a moment to take a deep breath. They had to be on the next floor, but she would be an idiot to join the fight unable to breathe.

A moment later she continued, the entire floor coming into view in moments. Two figures in the distance seemed at a standoff, causing Teagan to slip her gun out and carefully aim.

She crept closer, silent until the wind changed and blew her scent in the direction of the werewolf, whose gaze immediately flickered from Aiden to her own. It was her first sight of the werewolf -any, actually- but what she saw startled her beyond belief.

Teagan lowered her gun. "Brianna?"

[Aiden]

As he heard the creature approaching, Aiden was slowly backing up while keeping a steady aim, trying to catch his breath and keep himself ready for anything. He hoped that by now, Yuki had gotten a hold of Teagan and they were on the way. He had no way of knowing, because his phone had dropped somewhere on the level below him, cracked on the concrete. His shoes squeaked in an irritating fashion on the slick concrete, yet his opponent faced no such burden.

The werewolf came into sight just as Teagan stumbled onto the scene. With the new arrival, the werewolf stopped to survey the new person, and Aiden didn't waste any time, firing two shots into the girl's heart. She stopped to the ground, a spatter of blood around her. He sighed, and tucked his gun into the back of his pants, and took a step towards Teagan.

"Thanks for distracting your erm..." Aiden paused as he realized who the misshapen form was, "roommate." They had a limited amount of time before the body was discovered, and therefore they were discovered. Yuki arrived shortly after, and he waved them to the stairs, and took off running.

Once they were in the safety of the dorms, Aiden sighed and found now the right time to tell his story. Teagan was obviously frazzled by the fact that her roommate had been her hunt, and that was why you made no connections. "Look, Teagan. Once you get into hunting, you just can't live a normal life. A few years ago, there was this girl in Portland, and we had this sort of kindred connection. But then when demons kidnapped her in an attempt to use me to get to Malcolm, she died, and I realized that just running a tavern is dangerous. You have no idea how much precaution Lori is even under."

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Look, just come back with us," he said, as if it was still up in the air. "I'm sorry that college didn't work out for you, I really am. We'll be waiting in the car," Aiden finished, looking at the remains of Teagan's torn apart room. He joined Yuki in the hallway, and proceeded to the car.

A normal life just wasn't possible anymore, no matter how much a hunter tried.

[Teagan]

A wave of coldness swept over Teagan as, without hesitating for a moment, Aiden put two bullets into the heart of a girl she had just started getting to know over the past week. She froze in place, not quite able to comprehend that he had shot her. The body lay crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood, twitching, but clearly no longer alive. Brianna couldn't have been the werewolf! Sure, she was creepy sometimes and extremely self-obsessed, but that didn't mean she was a creature of the supernatural realm! Aiden had killed acivilian, not the creature!

He rushed over to her, and Teagan instinctively took a step back. A civilian! Brianna was dead. Gone. A victim of this terrible, horrible world that the Seattle-native had tried to escape from. Did Aiden know what he had just done? The boy shook her once, commanding Teagan's gaze to unlock itself from the corpse and come back to her senses. She blinked, mouth agape.

Before she could protest, Yuki appeared and he motioned both of them to run. Automatically she followed, numb to her surroundings. How she managed to keep up and stay with the two in front of her, she wouldn't be able to recall later. But her thoughts began to clear, allowing the reality of the situation to sink in.

Aiden would never shoot at anyone -anything- that wasn't deserving of death.

Brianna was a jerk who didn't deserve it, but as Teagan thought about it, all of the stupid open windows fell in as undeniable evidence against her.

Aiden led the trio back to the dorms and snuck into Teagan's room without detection from the other inhabitants. To the girl's surprise, the room was in shambles, long scratches tearing the walls and furniture shredded to the point where Teagan wasn't quite sure she could identify which part was her desk and which part was the dresser. Shocked, she slowly took a seat on the only thing left standing: Brianna's bed.

Damn. Damn it all.

Her fingers nervously entwined within one another as Aiden spoke, trying to offer some sort of condolence that fell a mile short of making her feel better. She hadn't even noticed he stopped talking when he placed a hand on her shoulder, startling her into looking up at him with a weary expression.

"Me too," she replied weakly. "I'll be out in a few minutes. Just....gotta get my stuff."

He walked out, and Teagan momentarily entertained the idea of running. Just running. As far as she could go and as long as she could muster the energy for. She had the means to create a new identity and the skills to make it work. But as soon as the idea disappeared, it vanished. The same story would be written every town she tried, every path she traveled. At some point, someone would get hurt and she'd be powerless to stop it. If she returned to Portland, maybe the future would still be crappy, and maybe they'd all die horrible deaths.

But at least she'd be making a freakin' difference in the world.

Teagan ran a hand through her disheveled hair and glanced around the room. Once they found Brianna and discovered Teagan was missing, she'd either be blamed or placed on the missing list. She'd prefer to be missing, although if her parents found out? If they were still following up on her, somehow. She still hadn't heard any word back from them, something which concerned her greatly. But that was for another time. She needed to make it look like something had taken her.

Which meant leaving a majority of the items she owned. Including her wallet, ID, keys. None of those things would be important once she returned to Portland -a beautiful thought of its own- but she still felt a small discomfort just leaving them there in the open. Sighing, Teagan fished out her journal and hunting notes from beneath her mattress and slowly wrapped the leather cord around the outside to keep the written words safe during travel.

A vibration from her pocket caught her attention. Emerald orbs glared downward in frustration as she dragged the phone out of her pocket, frowning when she recognized the number.

When you're ready for the answers to your questions, you've got my number.

-Lucas

"Freak," she snapped the phone shut and returned it to her jeans. "Just leave me alone."

Shame Aiden and Yuki hadn't run into the bugger.

Clenching tightly to her journal, she reached for the door handle, not bothering to worry about fingerprints. Hers would be all over the place anyways. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her as she watched the door handle turn on its own until she stepped back as the door swung open, a mysterious figure peering in from the hallway.

"Who are you?" Teagan's eyes widened. In a flash, her gun was unveiled and pointed directly at the stranger's heart.

[Casey]

“Ya know,” his accent dripping into every word, “it ain’t polite to pull a gun on some one. You’re lucky I’m reasonable. And jaded, that’s an important plus. Otherwise I’m sure the panic would stop me from answering your very proper question.”

He slowly pulled his hands out of his jacket, showing the girl his hands were empty. He stepped into the room and began looking at it’s contents.

“Bit of a mess,” he said idly. He bent over the dead body and poked at it gently, “Shame about this lass. Honestly I thought you’d be the one to get this after you found my bookmark. I lost a quid to my man at the library. Don’t bother looking for him, all you’ll find is the real Mr. Miller wondering why his desk’s been rearranged.”

Straightening up he looked at the girl a little more seriously, “By the way did you even read my note? Would probably answer the question as to whom I am, seeing as I went to the trouble to sign it.”

[Teagan]

Teagan kept the gun steady as the stranger rambled on. The night had already taken a ridiculous amounts of unexpected turns- last thing she needed was to add this creepy stranger to the list of Supernatural creatures. Frankly, Teagan was quite sick of them by now.

She relaxed a bit when he put up his hands, showing that he meant no harm. Sure, that's what he did now, but Teagan knew, more often than not, the situation would be drastically different within five minutes. While lowering the gun, she still kept it clenched in her hands, safety in the off position.

"I said it once, don't make me say it again: Who are you?" Teagan glared at the man, watching him waltz around the room like he owned the place. Something was wrong. Her room looked like the scene of a violent attack, her roommate was dead, and this man just glanced around like it was a sight he saw daily. No calling the police, no asking what had happened...

...he had to be some sort of Hunter. Nothing else would explain the eerie calmness he radiated.

"Wait- you're the one who left the note in the book?" She glanced at him, disbelieving. "Out of the millions of books in the many floors of the library, not to mention the thousands of people in the school, you leave a note and know somehow that I'll get it?" Her eyebrows narrowed. "That makes you Sylus, right?"

Without waiting for a response, Teagan continued. "Well then, Sylus. Thanks for the note, but mind explaining what the heck you're doing here? Hunters don't just show up places without reason." The gun moved to a position where if she raised it a foot, her gun handicap would compensate for what others might misjudge as her "poor aim".

[Casey]

“Didn’t I just say that was my man at the library?” He shook his head slowly, “I may be one to know this are up to chance, but I don’t rely on it. He wasn’t going to give that book to anyone random, he knows his job as well as me.”

“Aye,” he shifted his weight and smiled at the girl, “I’ve been going by that name for a good while now.”

He walked over to bed that was still mostly intact and cleared off a spot before dropping down onto the mattress. Grinning like a little kid he bounced on it a few times. Then he sobered some, sitting up straight and resting his hands on his knees.

“Clever girl,” he tilted his head, “and your right, most hunters don’t just wander around. Now me personally, I was keeping an eye on you. Making sure you didn’t go about things the wrong way or get yerself killed. Wasn’t the easiest thing with the twin furies looming overhead, but I managed to avoid them. Got to admit you did okay. Green as grass but you didn’t make the usual mistakes. You got a lot to learn Miss Cassidy but you got a good start, mostly.”

“On the other hand,” he said more seriously, “you did possibly make one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever seen in my time. Letting that demon go? Please tell me you have a plan ‘Love. “

[Teagan]

She eyed the man warily as he made his way to her bed. She kept the gun trained on him steadily. The man before her, confirmed as Sylus, moved around with an unnatural familiarity. Her heart raced in the near-silence, thrown off by the random chance in events. Then again, werewolves, killing her roommate and suddenly dropping college hadn't quite made the list either.

"Keeping an eye on me?" Teagan replied sharply, interrupted by his continued explanation. She stared at him fiercly until he finished. "What makes you think that I need help on something? And if I did, why on Earth would I ask a complete stranger, much less someone who is stalking me?" She unconciously shifted toward the door behind her, ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Teagan should've gone with Aiden when she had the chance. No time to regret that. She needed to get him back into this room so that he...no, not Aiden, Yuki! Yuki could deal with the creep. Turn that devilish wrath on someone who deserved it.

Teagan tucked her journal under her arm and slowly reached for the phone in her pocket. Just had to hit speed dial number fou-

...

Her hand froze halfway to her pocket, and her eyes examined the man sharply in a new light. He knew about Lucas. How did he know? They had been alone in the library. Of course, she had personally escorted the librarian out during the conversation. Perhaps he had listened in? "I don't know what you're talking about. But any problems I encounter have been taken care of, and, quite frankly sir, are none of your business." She sent him a glare Yuki would be proud of.