Archive of Our Own

When the Future Firefighters at School (FFS) group and the wannabe-bikers that called themselves the “Mad Burnish” were both, separately, invited out on a camping trip, the inviters received very similar responses to the news.

“Hell yeah let’s go camping,” Varys said, pounding a fist on the table and making the Styrofoam lunch trays hop an inch off its surface.  Galo grinned widely at him.

“Awesome!  We’re also asking the Mad Burnish!”

“We?”

“Mad Burnish?”

“Oh, not those guys!”

“Why?  What’s wrong with them?” Galo pouted. 

Aina pulled a face at him.  “They’re just… not the type that would go camping.  I’m not really, either.”

“They’re okay once you get to know them!” Galo protested.

“Is this because you’re boyfriends with Lio now?” Lucia ribbed him, chewing on the tines of her plastic fork.

“No!”

“Why are you denying it, Galo?  You’re as subtle as a sledgehammer,” Remi said dryly, looking up from his book.  Galo frowned at him, feeling mildly insulted.

“Okay, fine, we’re… a thing,” he hedged.  Remi quirked an eyebrow over the rim of his glasses and Galo stuck his tongue out at him.  Remi relented, raising a hand in concession.  “Yes, it’s because of them.  I thought camping would be fun and I wanted to bring my friends along and they thought it would be fun to bring their friends along, sue me.”

“I’ll see you in court, Thymos,” Aina grinned.

“Oh, come on!” Galo wailed, throwing his hands in the air.  “We’re gonna go up to the cabin at Prometh Ridge, it’s really nice and we already talked to the park ranger there, Ignis, he’s super cool, he said it would be fine if we went this weekend!  He said the fire risk is low, too, so we can have a campfire!”

“How low?” Varys asked.  In the FFS, this is critical information.

“Zero, because it’s going to rain on Friday and the humidity will persist through the weekend,” Galo said.  Varys snapped his fingers and pointed at Galo.

“That’s my man!  Checking all the boxes.  I’m in.”

“Aina?” Galo wheedled, doing his best puppy-eyes at his best friend.

Aina gave him a long, critical look that gave nothing away.  He puppy-eyes’ed harder at her.  “Pizza, s’mores, hot dogs, and cider or I’m out.”

“Deal!” Galo bellowed, giving Aina an enthusiastic double-high-five.  She grinned back at him.  With Varys and Aina secured, Remi and Lucia would fold easily.  Remi fell first with a nod of the head once he knew adequate food was to be provided, and Lucia followed soon after only because she didn’t want to be left out of the group’s weekend activity.  The girl got pretty bad FOMO, though she did her best to act like she didn’t.

Meanwhile, in the lunch courtyard, Lio was attempting to break the news to the Mad Burnish and having somewhat less success than Galo.

“We’re going camping with the FFS—”

“For fuck’s sake!”

Lio glared at Gueira.  “What?  Isn’t that what FFS stands for?” Gueira shot back.

It took nearly all of Lio’s willpower to not respond to the comment, but they managed it.  “We’re going camping with FFS this weekend, they’ve invited us up to the cabin on Prometh Ridge on Saturday.”

“You say that like you’ve already decided we’re all going,” Meis observed, a snide edge to his voice.

“The Mad Burnish have been invited,” Lio reiterated.  “I know for a fact none of you have plans this weekend.”

“Why the hell are the Boy Scouts inviting us out?” Gueira countered.  “It’s because you’re dating their mascot, right?”

Lio sighed and rolled their entire head, putting a hand on a hip.  “Thyma, would you like to come camping with me and the firefighters on Saturday at the cabin at Prometh Ridge?  It should be a nice time and they are, actually, good company.”

Thyma glanced nervously at Gueira and Meis and then over her shoulder at Cordelia.  Cordelia shrugged one shoulder.  “Okay, it’ll be like a girls’ night…?”

Lio gave a tight, slightly pained smile.  “Sure.”

“Aw man, if it’s a girls’ night,” Gueira said mockingly, “then I don’t want any part of it.  None of that girly shit.”

“Dude,” Meis said flatly, stabbing a stiletto elbow between Gueira’s ribs.  He gestured at Lio, who was standing right in front of them, completely unamused.  “Tact, motherfucker.”

“Thanks, Meis,” Lio intoned.  They saw Thyma’s apologetic blush.

“Sorry, Boss,” Gueira muttered, rubbing what was likely a deep puncture wound under his shirt.

“Wanna make it up to me?  Come camping with us.  Hang out with the manly men firefighters if it pleases you.”

“Aw, c’mon, Boss, you know I didn’t mean it like that, I meant it like them,” Gueira gave a half-nod towards Thyma and Cordelia.

“Wanna make it up to them?  Come camping with us,” Lio repeated.  Gueira hung his head and Lio relented a little.  “The ride up to Prometh Ridge is really nice.  We can take the long way and get a good ride in.”

“Sounds good,” Gueira grinned.  “There’s gonna be something to drink, right?”

“I’ll have to talk to the firefighters, but I’ll do my best,” Lio said airily, waving one hand.

“What about scary stories?” Cordelia piped up suddenly.  Lio shrugged.

“Be my guest.  I love a good campfire story.”

And that’s how the two very divergent social groups roll into the Prometh Ridge campsite at noon on Saturday, the windswept bikers arriving to find the FFS have already begun setting up.  The parking lot is a thirty-minute hike down the ridgeline from the campsite itself, a collection of three sturdy log cabins arranged side-by-side in front of a deep and well-made flagstone firepit, surrounded by dense old-growth forest.  The Mad Burnish arrive toting a large cooler held on one side by Meis and the other by Gueira; they drop it with a resonant thunk on the stones surrounding the firepit and everyone can hear the tinkle of glass bottles inside.

Aina arches an eyebrow.  “Whatcha got there, biker boys?”

Gueira squints at her, but Meis answers, “whatever you want it to be.”

“I doubt you’re the wine cooler type,” she laughs.  “Corona?  Bud Light?  Don’t tell me it’s Mexican Coke.”

“Actually!” Thyma says brightly and thoroughly out of breath.  She pries open the lid and pulls out a cold, wet bottle of the good Coke, the stuff made with cane sugar, that comes from Mexico and you can only get at random corner stores.  “Wanna?”

“Please!” Aina holds out her hands and Thyma tosses the bottle, but it slips from her fingers a fraction of a second too early and it’s only Lio’s quick reflexes that catch the bottle inches before it shatters on the stone.  They hand the bottle to Aina.  “Thanks,” she says, using the hem of her shirt to protect her hand as she twists the cap off.  “I don’t think Galo knows you’re here.”

“Where is he?” Lio asks, looking around for their boyfriend.

“Getting firewood with Varys, I think.  They took Remi with them too.  You can leave the cooler there,” Aina leans around Lio to address Meis.  “We’ll probably want that out here.”

“This is a pretty nice place,” Lio observes, looking up at the dense canopy over their heads, and around at the big logs surrounding the firepit.  They’ve been worn smooth over the years of being used as benches.  The campsite is nicely-maintained and it’s the perfect weather for use this weekend; Lio’s somewhat surprised there aren’t more families or Girl Scout troops trying to use the space.

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” Aina says, taking a deep swig of her Coke.  “Galo talked to Ranger Ex specially to get this place all to ourselves.  And it’s nice that we have three cabins, ‘cause then we can do a boys’ cabin and a girls’ cabin and not have to worry about space.”

Lio stifles their expression of irritation.  “Ranger X?”

“Yeah, Ignis Ex.  He’s the head ranger for the park and Galo loooves him,” Aina grins.

“Ah, so I have competition,” Lio says lightly, a grin tugging on one corner of their mouth.  They look over their shoulder at the rest of the Mad Burnish.  “Don’t you want to sit after having to walk all the way up here?”

Thyma and Cordelia flop down on the log next to Aina’s.  “This is super nice,” Cordelia says, leaning back on her palms.  “Thanks for strong-arming us into this, Boss.”

“Oh, you too?” Aina asks conversationally.

“Yeah, when Boss declared we were camping with For Fuck’s Sake,” Cordelia laughs, not needing to complete her sentence.

“Kind of the same for us, when Galo said ‘hey let’s go camping,’ and that was fine, but then he said ‘we’re going with the biker emos,’ but he did call you Mad Burnish when he said it.”

“It’s like meeting the in-laws,” Thyma supplies, and that gets a laugh out of Aina.

“I suppose introductions are in order,” Lio says, cutting back into the conversation.  “This is Thyma and Cordelia,” the girls raise their hands in turn, “and those two degenerates are my best friends, Gueira and Meis.”

“’Sup,” Aina raises a hand to them.  “I’m Aina, that’s Lucia,” she gestures across the firepit where the small blonde girl is hunched over her Nintendo Switch.  “The guys are all out getting firewood, though based on how long they’ve been gone, we’re going to have a bonfire, not a campfire oh my god—”

In an immaculate display of perfect comedic timing, Galo appears at the edge of the campsite with what looks like three full cords of wood in his arms, and Varys and Remi appear behind him carrying similar amounts.

“How many trees did you chop down?” Aina shouts at them.

“None!” Galo says cheerily, dumping his load of wood at the edge of the flagstones before bounding over and sweeping Lio off their feet.  “Hi, babe,” he says into their neck.

“Galo!” Lio cries, wrapping their arms reflexively around his neck for safety as they’re spun in a tight circle.

“Sorry,” Galo says without a hint of remorse, setting Lio back down on the ground and bending to kiss them.  Then he turns back to Aina.  “I did kick down standing dead wood though!”

“Of course you did,” Aina mutters.  Varys and Remi put down their wood and brush the dirt, bark, and wood detritus off themselves.

“Okay, everyone’s here, right?” Galo says, looking around at the group.  “Perfect!  Let’s get this party started!”

The fire started at three and was built so big that once it was fully lit, Cordelia remarked it looked like a “Viking funeral pyre” and Varys immediately started bellowing out a Norse war song, much to everyone’s surprise, and Meis joined in with throat-singing, much to everyone’s complete shock.  Galo had insisted Meis drink some cider and rest his voice and Meis had counter-insisted that he knows how to throat-sing so his voice is fine, and they had eventually compromised with Meis cracking open the first beer of the night, while the sun was still well above the horizon. 

They spend the hours leading up to sunset getting good and tipsy, though being inexperienced drinkers, they don’t know how to get roaring drunk yet, and that’s probably for the best.  As the sun is nearing the horizon, Galo skirts around the pyre and slips his hand into Lio’s, pulling them up off the bench from in between Meis and Thyma.

“Sorry, I’m just going to steal your boss here,” he says, grinning, as Lio steps over the bench and everyone wolf-whistles and begins the obligatory (obnoxious) chorus of “ooh”s and “day-um”s.  “There’s a nice place to watch the sunset on top of the ridge,” Galo says loudly, as if that’s going to do anything except fan the flames.

“Yeah, maybe you’ll see the sunset reflected in Lio’s eyes,” Lucia cackles.

“Use protection!” Remi shouts, fumbling for his wallet and pelting something at Galo from the other side of the fire.  The object is nearly incinerated in the flames, but it lands close enough to Galo’s feet, slightly singed, and Galo sees it was a condom.

“Uh, thanks, but that’s not… um.” He trails off uncomfortably, wondering exactly why Remi even had a condom in his wallet.  The guy has taken a vow of celibacy, as far as anyone has determined, or is just very self-assuredly ace.  Nobody can really tell.

“Piss off, we’re going to have a great time making out in the sunset away from you jealous lonely hearts,” Lio crows, grabbing both of Galo’s hands and pulling him away from the fire as the “ooh”s become louder and even more pointed.

Once away from the group, Galo laces his fingers fully with Lio’s and tugs them to a stop in the middle of the trail up to the top of the ridge.  “Hey,” he says softly.

“Hi,” Lio says, turning and offering that small, soft smile that they keep only for Galo.

“I’m really glad everyone came.  This is gonna be nice,” Galo says, pulling in Lio a little closer.

“Everyone’s getting along,” Lio agrees, though they keep to themself the opinion that the booze helped a lot.  They press flush up against Galo’s front, soaking in his warmth through the thin layers of their clothes.  Galo’s fingers under Lio’s chin tip their head back and they look up into their boyfriend’s very fond and very soft expression before they close their eyes and press their lips against his.  Galo’s arm wraps around the small of Lio’s back and Lio makes a “nuh-uh” noise against Galo’s mouth.  “Are we gonna get up to the ridge to make out with a good view, or are we gonna make out in the middle of the trail?”

“I don’t really care,” Galo confesses.

“Well, I want to see the sunset, since you said it would be nice on the ridge,” Lio says, slipping down and out of Galo’s grasp.  “If you wanna kiss me again, you’re gonna have to catch me.”  And then they take off.

“Hey!” Galo shouts, “I wasn’t ready!”

“Too bad!” Lio hollers over their shoulder.  They may be tiny, but they’re fast and the adrenaline of having Galo chasing them down only makes them faster.  They race up the trail, arriving at the top of the ridge in no time at all.  The trail opens into a clearing at the top of the ridge, overlooking the valley and forest below with a gorgeous view.  The sun is melting into a giant ball of honey, dripping syrupy orange light down onto the forest below, and dissolving into thick pinks and purples in the sky above.  The sight is so beautiful, Lio completely forgets they’re being hunted and when Galo slams into them from behind, it’s a genuine surprise.

They both hit the ground hard, tumbling over each other with shouts of surprise and laughter until they come to a rest with Lio draped over Galo’s chest.

“Caught you,” Galo chuckles softly, stealing a kiss from Lio.

“You did,” Lio agrees fondly, melting into Galo and rubbing their thumbs across their boyfriend’s cheekbones.  The sunset goes completely unwatched as they sink deeper into each other, their kisses becoming longer and more searching, Galo’s hands skimming down Lio’s back to the hem of their shirt, sliding up underneath and pressing hot handprints into their skin.

Lio drags their fingers through the velvety buzzed hair on the sides of Galo’s head, scratching nails along scalp.  They revel in the warm, soft, slick feeling of Galo’s lips against theirs.  Galo’s warmth is all around them; they can feel the beat of his heart in his ribcage right up against theirs.  Galo breaks the kiss to breathe and Lio sucks in a deep breath too; then Galo kisses their cheek and somehow that’s the thing that makes Lio’s stomach flutter.  Galo’s lips find their way to Lio’s neck and the exquisitely sensitive and intimate touch makes Lio gasp out a soft, “oh.”  He lavishes attention and soft kisses all across both sides of Lio’s neck and throat and gently tugs on Lio’s earrings—an oddly pleasant feeling, if only for the neat contrast of the smooth hardness of Galo’s teeth to his plush lips.  Lio keeps running their hands through Galo’s hair, tracing their nails in swirls along his scalp, fisting their hands in the longer mohawk part and tugging lightly.

It isn’t long before Lio shivers, and that snaps them both back into reality.  Lio opens their eyes to find it’s significantly darker than when they closed them; gone are the honeyed tones of sunset and the deep indigos of dusk have taken over.

“Cold, babe?” Galo asks, sounding dazed.  Lio nods.  Neither of them are wearing a jacket or sweatshirt—there was hardly any need for those things earlier—and now they’re missing the warmth of the bonfire.

“Let’s get back to the fire,” Lio says, rolling off of Galo and standing shakily.  They hold a hand out to Galo to help him up and he takes it even though he doesn’t need it; then they start back down the trail to the campsite.

Under the trees, the paltry light of dusk is blocked out entirely and it’s nearly pitch black.  Through the little light that does filter through the canopy, Galo and Lio can just barely make out the path in front of them.  Around them, the woods are coming alive with the sizzling sounds of night insects.  The songbirds of day have been replaced by owls, their plaintive round cries echoing through the tree trunks.  Galo squeezes Lio’s hand, as if to remind himself they’re still there and he’s not walking alone through dark woods at night.  An animal moves through the brush ahead of them, rustling leaves as it passes, and a dark bulk appears on the trail several yards ahead of them.

“It’s just a deer,” Lio says.  “JUST A DEER,” they shout, and the dark form disappears; the deer bounding through the brush on the other side of the trail with loud crashes.  “See?”

“Uh-huh,” Galo says, uncertainty clear in his voice.

“Are you scared?” Lio teases.  “It’s just us and the animals out here.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Galo says.

Lio scoffs.  “I do.  The scariest thing out here is Lyme’s disease.  Here.  Listen.  That’s an owl,” they say, gesturing with their free hand in the direction of the owl’s call.  “Those are crickets.  That was a deer.  There’s definitely squirrels sleeping in these trees.”

“Sure, sure,” Galo says, his palm turning sweaty against Lio’s.  The owl hoots again, low and insistent, and Galo doesn’t understand at all how that eerie noise doesn’t set every hair on Lio’s body standing on end like it does his.  Then, from the opposite direction of the owl, another owl calls back, only it doesn’t sound right.  “What was that?” Galo whispers.

“Another owl,” Lio responds, unconcerned.

The other owl calls again, but instead of the low, rounded, smooth who-who-who of the first owl, it’s a sharper sort of how-how-how that sounds like something mocking an owl.

“That’s not an owl,” Galo hisses.

“Sure it is.  It’s just a different kind of owl,” Lio says.

The not-owl cries out again and it sounds like something out there is laughing, and it’s very close to Galo and Lio.

“If I imitate it, will it call back?” Lio asks, their devilish grin lost in the darkness.

“No!  Don’t do that!” Galo yelps, but Lio pulls their hand out of Galo’s and cups both hands to their mouth, tipping their head back.

“Ha-ha-ha, how-how-how!” Lio screeches into the deafeningly-loud woods.  Every nerve in Galo’s body is alight and shivering, screaming at him to run back to the safety of the fire.  In the wake of Lio’s scream, the woods go silent for half a second, like somebody had quickly pressed mute.  The not-owl does not call back.  “See?” Lio says.  Galo grabs for their hand tightly and starts walking faster.  It’s taking all his strength not to turn around or bolt.

A warm, safe, orange glow touches the edges of the tree trunks ahead of them.  They’re nearly back at the campfire now, but Galo won’t relax until he’s surrounded by people and standing with his back to the fire.  Just as he’s about to round the last curve in the trail that will bring the campsite into full view, Galo hears it.  It’s not a noise he’s ever heard before in his life.  It rakes its nails down his spine and twists up his guts inside his body.

Less than six feet away, directly to Galo’s left and somewhere slightly above his head in the darkness, something is gurgling.  It’s a deep, wet sound like the last dregs of bathwater disappearing down the drain.  It’s trilling at Galo at the same time, something high-pitched and needling and scratchy.  Galo is completely frozen with fear and it’s only Lio’s hand in his own that keeps him from losing all grip on reality.  He stares unseeing into the darkness, but nothing moves or reveals itself.  Six feet away, just above Galo’s head, something keeps gurgling and trilling at him.  There’s a sharp scratching noise, like nails skittering down a tree’s bark.

“C’mon,” Lio says, tugging Galo forward oh-so-nonchalantly, but Galo can feel how wet Lio’s palm is now too.  But at least they’re able to move, and to drag Galo away to safety.  They round the last corner of the trail and the firelight blazes before them.

“Ay!” Gueira calls out, waving a bottle at them as he notices.  “We were just about to send out a search party!”

“No need,” Lio calls back, their voice so even, like they’re not even scared.  They’ve got the best poker face out of anyone Galo knows.  Galo still has one ear pricked to see if he can hear that gurgling trill behind them but it’s gone quiet.  He still can’t shake the feeling that something was right next to him, making that noise at him.

“You two look way too sober!” Aina laughs, knocking her foot against the cooler.  Lio pulls Galo over into the bubble of warmth surrounding the fire.  As that washes over him, it smooths some of the tension out of Galo’s kinked and frazzled nerves.  Lio presses a cold, wet glass bottle into Galo’s hands.

“Drink up,” they say, settling down on the warm wood beside Aina and patting the space next to them. 

“Back’s cold,” Galo says, raising the bottle to his lips and drinking.  The drink tastes like Sprite, but with the definite bite of alcohol.  He backs up to the fire, gazing out at the mouth of the trail up to the ridge.  The firelight bathes the surrounding trees in a homey orange glow, its heat so intense it feels like a physical presence pressed up Galo’s back.  His shadow flickers over the trunks and stones, tall and wavering.  Galo takes another deep drink.

“It was just an animal,” Lio says softly, snapping Galo’s attention back to them.  They reach out a hand and grab two of Galo’s fingers.  “Probably a squirrel or an owl.”

“I guess,” Galo sighs.  “I don’t know what it was.  It sounded close and I don’t like it.”

“What happened?” Aina asks, close enough to be privy to the quiet exchange.  She, however, is loud enough that it draws everyone’s attention.

“Did y’all run into something scary?” Meis asks.

“We heard a weird animal in the woods while we were coming back,” Lio says, trying to make it seem like as much of a non-incident as possible.

“What did it sound like?” Varys asks.

“It was an owl or something,” Lio responds, finishing their drink.

“Oh, oh, like this?” Lucia asks excitedly, tapping at her phone.  Then she holds it up and motions for everyone to be quiet over the whooshing and crackling of the fire.  A low, warbling trill emanates from her phone’s little speaker and Galo wishes that was what they’d heard. 

“Oooh, it sounds like an alien,” Cordelia coos, then does an uncanny impression of the noise.

“It’s an eastern screech owl,” Lucia announces, looking at her phone screen.  “Or—wait—what about this?”

An ungodly screech rips through the campsite, saw-edged and high-pitched.  Thyma yelps and nearly jumps into Cordelia’s lap and Galo almost crushes Lio’s fingers in his grip.  Lucia cackles.  “That’s a barn owl!”

“Jesusfuckingchrist, give us some warning next time!” Gueira shouts, having spilled his drink down his front.

“That wasn’t it,” Galo mutters, consciously relaxing his hand.  Lio shoots him a grateful look.  Lucia taps at her phone again.  Galo chugs the rest of his drink.  He’s not drunk enough to deal with this right now, and he’s bringing the mood down.

“What if it was a wendigo?” Remi asks suddenly, and all eyes snap to him.

“Is it scary story time?” Cordelia chirps, fishing around in the cooler for another round of drinks.  Galo finds himself with a fresh drink in hand as Remi collects himself to tell the story.

“Wendigos are flesh-eating shapeshifters that come out at night and prey on those who wander through their woods,” Remi begins.  “Nobody knows what they actually look like, as they take on appearances that will lure their victims into traps.  They will stalk their prey and imitate them, crying out for help, until the prey steps into the trap and becomes the wendigo’s meal.”

“Ooh, what if there’s a wendigo stalking you, Lio?” Aina laughs.

Lio waves a dismissive hand.  “I don’t believe in that stuff.”

“I’d beat it up anyways!” Gueira yells and Lio busts out laughing.

“Sure you would!”

“If anyone could beat up a wendigo, it’s either Varys or Galo,” Lucia says.  “Who’s got bigger biceps?”

“Why does that matter?” Galo laughs, and even though they’re talking about the very stuff of his nightmares, the alcohol is streaming through his blood and the fire has his back, so he can laugh along with all of them.

“I do!” Varys shouts, flexing.

“Oh yeah?” Galo challenges him, handing his drink off to Lio so he can flex back.  Varys stands and flexes harder, bellowing wordlessly at Galo.  Galo returns the display, jumping up and down, much to everyone’s delight.  They’re shouting words of encouragement and laughing and Gueira and Meis are chanting “fight, fight, fight!”  Galo’s stomach picks that moment to rumble traitorously.

“Aww, is my little buddy hungry?” Varys says, reaching out to put Galo in a headlock and noogie him mercilessly.  Galo barely manages to avoid the grab, stumbling sideways over the nearest bench.

“Aina!” Galo shouts, desperate for backup.  “Help!”

“No way!” Aina laughs.  Varys advances on Galo and he turns and runs the fifty feet to the center cabin where they’d put all the pizza and s’mores materials.  He sticks his head out the front door and yells back at the fire,

“I’m gonna eat all the pizza, then I’ll be unstoppable!”

“You better not!” Aina hollers, vaulting over the bench and making a drunken run for the cabin. Like sharks sensing blood in the water, everyone else rushes the cabin, not wanting to miss out on pizza.  They pile into the three-room cabin, body heat quickly warming the front room and kitchenette area even before Galo heats up the pizzas.  They only take ten minutes, fortunately, and soon everyone is going to town on three cheese pies.  The atmosphere is loud and boisterous, everyone drunk on alcohol, the weekend, and a lack of adult supervision.  Someone starts playing music on their phone; it’s bright and tinny and surprisingly loud and through all the bodies in the small room, Galo ends up with Lio pressed up against his front, arms wrapped around his neck.

“Look,” they murmur in Galo’s ear, leaning up on their tiptoes to reach.  Galo looks over the top of their head and sees Aina making out with Meis.

“Oh my god,” Galo laughs.  “Should we show ‘em how it’s done?”

“Absolutely,” Lio purrs, and climbs Galo like a tree.  They wrap their legs around his waist and kiss him deeply with tongue, no pretense about it.  Galo yelps in surprise but Lio swallows the sound and fists their hands in Galo’s hair.  He doesn’t need any more encouragement than that.  He grabs Lio’s ass, half to support his partner, half to cop a feel, and kisses back enthusiastically.  He never gets tired of kissing Lio.

“Oh my god, you two!”

Galo almost drops Lio in surprise.  They detach and Lio looks over their shoulder, sticking their tongue out at the other Mad Burnish girl whose name Galo doesn’t quite remember at this point.

“Just suck Thyma’s face or something,” Lio laughs and Galo blushes on their behalf.

“No, I think I’m ready for s’mores, Aina said we have the stuff,” the girl fires back.  “But if everyone doesn’t stop being horny on main right now, I’m going to eat all the chocolate myself and everyone else can suffer.”

That gets Aina’s attention.  She shoves Meis away from herself and lunges for the box of Hershey’s bars on the counter.  “No, we s’mores now!” she shouts in her mad dash.  Lio hops down and blows a raspberry at the girl.

“Well played, Cordelia,” Lio chuckles.

“Touché,” Cordelia responds, giving an ostentatious bow to usher Lio out of the cabin.  Meis picks himself up off the floor, looking put-out and bedraggled, and follows everyone else out.  Galo brings up the rear and in the forty-five seconds it took for him to join the rest of the party at the fire, Aina has already kebabbed four marshmallows on a stick and is gleefully setting them aflame.

“You are such a sugar demon when you’re drunk,” Remi deadpans, watching the almost manic joy on Aina’s face as the sugar burns on the end of her stick.

“You’ve never seen me drunk before, I’m not even drunk right now.  I’m just having a good time,” Aina refutes, blowing out the blue flames dancing across her blackened marshmallows.

“Havin’ a good time, havin’ a good time,” Lucia sings, off-key, and everyone immediately joins in.  Lio wraps an arm around Galo’s waist and sways, belting out the lyrics at the top of their lungs while their neglected marshmallows turn to ash and drip into the fire, sending up spats of blue flames from the coals.

“Don’t stop me now, if you wanna have a good time, just give me a call!”

Galo’s blood turns to ice in his veins and the pleasant haze of alcohol turns into a cold, disorienting wash.  “Stop!  Stop!” he shouts, flailing his arms wildly at everyone.

“Galo, what?” Aina asks, confused and alarmed.

“Listen!” he yells, holding his arms up higher.  Lio silently grabs his arms by the biceps and lowers them.  The night is completely silent around them, save for the crackle of the fire and the hiss of the marshmallows.  The crickets have stopped.

“I don’t…” Aina says, then stops.  Deep off in the woods, probably a couple hundred yards out, something is laughing.  It sounds almost like a hyena, fast and manic, getting faster and faster until it turns into one long, unbroken trill.

“What the fuck,” Gueira whispers, horrified.  The trilling gets louder and something is crashing through the underbrush towards the fire.  As it approaches, Galo can hear that deep, wet, sickening gurgling.  The leaves of the saplings begin to shudder.  Something dark and human-sized is emerging out of the darkness, the trilling gurgling so loud it echoes through the clearing.

Galo is the first one to scream and bolt to the cabin.  Within seconds everyone has piled in and Galo is throwing the door shut, locking it, and pulling the curtains on the front room.  He’s shaking violently from head to foot, his heart jackhammering in his throat.  Lio stoops to peer out the gap in the curtains.

“I don’t see anything,” they report.

“There was something there,” Galo barks.  “Don’t tell me it was nothing.”

“I saw it,” Lio says, still very calm.  How are they so calm?

“Can you hear it?” Meis asks.

“No,” Aina says quickly.  “Why?  Can you?”

“No, I was just askin’,” Meis says, wrapping his arms around himself.

“What did you see?” Lio asks.  Galo’s eyes flicker from the door to Lio and back.

“Something.  Human-sized.”

“That’s what I saw.  I didn’t see any more details.  You heard the noise?”

“Gurgling.  Trilling.  Laughing.  How could I not?  It’s the same one we heard earlier,” Galo responds, his heart beginning to slow down a little.  “You called back, Lio!  What if it’s coming because you invited it or something?”

“You what?” Aina rounds on Lio now.

“It was an animal in the woods—an owl—and I called back!  It’s the same damn thing you were doing on your phone!” Lio points at Lucia.

“What does that have to do with anything?  Nothing called back to any of the videos!” Lucia defends herself.

“Everyone stop!” Varys bellows, standing and holding his arms out to create a tiny bit of distance in the overcrowded cabin.  “Something scary just happened, but we don’t have to be at each other’s throats.  Nobody did anything wrong.  It was probably a hillbilly with a duck call trying to scare us.  Now, let’s have the rest of the pizza and calm down, okay?  I don’t want my weekend ruined.”

Galo takes a deep, measured breath.  Varys is talking sense, as much as his animal hindbrain doesn’t want to believe it and keeps replaying the thing’s noises as it stepped out of the woods towards the fire.  It hadn’t looked at all like a hillbilly—it hadn’t even looked human other than the fact that it was about six feet tall and upright.  But the allure of pizza is one Galo can never resist, even cold pizza, so he goes over to the boxes on the counter.  Between the two leftover pizzas, there’s eleven slices, so he should be able to have an extra (or an extra half) if everyone’s okay with it.

Once the pizza has been distributed and people are sitting and eating and calming down a little, Galo perches on the bench underneath the front window next to Lio.  “I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he says.

Lio bumps their shoulder against his.  “Thanks.  I know you’re really freaked out.  I just thought it would be funny.”

Galo grunts and chows down on the rest of his slice.  Lio finishes theirs and hesitates a moment before offering Galo the crust.  “Want my bone?” they ask.  Galo laughs.

“Nah, I’m gonna see if everyone’s cool with me taking the extra slice.”

“Extra slice?” Lio asks.  Galo goes over to the counter to prove Lio wrong and to claim the last slice, only to find both pizza boxes empty.

“Hey guys, not cool,” he announces, holding up both empty boxes.  “Who took two?”

“Nobody,” Aina says.  “We all got one.”

“No, somebody definitely took two,” Galo refutes, gesturing with the empty boxes in his hands.  “I counted.  There were eleven slices so there should’ve been one left over.  There’s ten of us.”

“There’s ten of us?” Thyma asks, looking around the room.  She raises one hand, pointing at each person in turn, mouthing the numbers silently as she counts.  Then she screams, “who are you?”

“Who?” Gueira roars, almost jumping into Meis’s lap.

The breathy, trilling laugh fills the cabin.

Galo scrambles for the door, his hands shaking like leaves in a gale, fumbling for the lock.  The trilling rings in his ears as someone shrieks in his ear and bodies press up against him and he can’t get the door open they’re trapped inside with that thing and it won’t stop laughing and then suddenly the door is open and Galo is falling forwards into the night air and hands are dragging him up and they’re getting closer to the fire which is burning low, everything is so dark and it’s colder now and Galo’s staring at the cabin, the door still shuddering and heaving from where it hit the side of the cabin with such force. 

Inside it’s dimly lit, just the kitchenette light over the sink.  Someone behind Galo is saying something, but he can’t tear his eyes away from the small building only thirty yards away in the darkness.  It had been inside with them, and they hadn’t even known it.  How did it get in?  How did nobody notice?

“What did it look like?” Lio’s voice asks.

The door drifts all the way open, coming to rest finally against the wood of the cabin.

“I don’t know!” Thyma cries.  “I saw it, but I don’t know what it looked like.  It was just there, it didn’t look like anything!”

The curtains in the window to the front room twitch, almost like they’re blowing in a breeze, but the night air is entirely unmoving.

“How can you not know what it looks like?  It was sitting right next to you!” Gueira yells.

Something inside the cabin moves, like a piece of the darkness detaching itself.

“I don’t know!” Thyma cries again, sounding even more distressed.  “I just saw it, I knew it was there, I knew it was a thing, but I don’t know what it looked like!  I can’t remember!”

“There!” Galo roars, reaching blindly behind him for anything to use as a weapon.  A big, dark, inhuman shape crawls out the front door of the cabin and skitters off into the darkness, giving a piercing trill as it disappears.  One of the girls shrieks and Varys screams and Galo can hear it crashing through the foliage and undergrowth, then everything goes silent and still again.

“What the fuck was that?” Gueira screams.  “We have to get the fuck out of here, I’m leaving right now, fuck this—”

Gurgling emanates from the trailhead down to the parking lot, freezing Gueira in his tracks.  He hisses a curse and steps back towards the dying fire.  Galo reaches down and grabs a partially-burned stick out of the heap of coals and hurls it with his whole body at the source of the gurgling noise.  It explodes into a burst of sparks as it hits something solid and unseen on the trail four feet above the ground.  The gurgling takes on an angry, screeching, high-pitched trill.  Manic, inhuman laughter echoes through the woods on their other side.

“Are there two?” someone screams, the group drawing closer in to the fire and blocking more of its paltry light.  The clearing becomes darker still and the laughing, trilling, gurgling even louder as it surrounds them completely, bearing down on them.  Someone is crying—one of the girls.

“I’m not afraid of you!  Fuck off!” Galo howls his challenge into the deafening night air, filled with the thing’s noises.

Galo had not wanted a response to his challenge.

Something out there in the darkness, alarmingly close and still unseen, gurgling and trilling and laughing that inhuman hyena-laugh at them, responds.

It sounds like an animal trying to form human speech deep in its throat.  It’s deep and wet and wrong and all twisted up, an inhuman mouth chewing and choking on Galo’s words.

“I’M—NOT… AF…RA—AID OF –OF YOU.”

The crying girl gives a small, broken sob.

“I can’t take this!”

Thyma breaks away from the group and tears towards the cabin.

“Thyma, no, wait!” Cordelia shouts at her fleeing form, but Thyma has already disappeared into the darkness of the cabin.  The gurgling, trilling laugh cuts off suddenly, reverberating through the pitch-black woods and the kids’ skulls.  Then Thyma begins screaming.

The group is racing towards the cabin in an instant.  They’re blood-curdling screams; something is wrong, it’s inside there with her, it’s got her—

“Thyma!” Lio bellows, bursting into the cabin first.  “Thyma!”  They find her in the fetal position on the floor under the small table in the front room.  “Thyma.  Someone check the cabin, make sure it’s not in here.  Lock the door.”

They crouch down next to Thyma, then they wave Galo over.  “You’ve got EMT training, take a look at her.”

Galo nods, his earlier tremors gone, his body filled with angry adrenaline.  He takes a deep breath and tries to feel Thyma’s pulse in her wrist.  She pulls her arm away from him, curling into herself deeper.  “Thyma.  Can you look at me?” he asks, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible while everyone is crashing around in a panic behind him and Varys is shouting “clear!” from the other room like a police officer and the door is slamming shut and being locked.  Thyma doesn’t respond.  “Can someone get me some water?”

Aina passes a room-temperature water bottle, already half-drunk, into Galo’s hand.  “It’s all that’s in here,” she says apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Galo says, focused on Thyma.  “Thyma, can you drink this?”  Thyma still doesn’t make any move to respond to Galo.  “I don’t know,” he says, looking over at Lio, whose face is drawn tight in fear and concern.

“Maybe we can put her in bed in the other room and she’ll be okay after she gets some sleep?” Lio suggests.

“I guess,” Galo says.  Remi and Cordelia appear at his side to help him get Thyma up off the floor and carry her into the single small bedroom in the cabin.  She’s surprisingly heavy, but puts up no fight as the three carry her in and lay her down on the bed.  Cordelia draws a blanket over her.

“We’ll just let her be in here.  We should keep watch,” Remi says, then everyone leaves the bedroom and he shuts the door.

The atmosphere in the other room of the cabin is tense as a bowstring.

“It’s definitely not in here?” Gueira is grilling Varys.

“Dude, yes, I checked all two rooms in this building,” Varys says, sounding exasperated.

“Okay, everyone listen,” Lio says, and everyone shuts up and listens.  They’re in full leader-mode and they still have a rock-solid air of calm about them, like they’re somehow not scared out of their mind right now.  “Thyma’s going to sleep in the bedroom tonight.  She should be fine after she gets some rest.  We’re going to stay out here, all of us together, and I’m going to stay up and keep watch.  Once it gets light in the morning, we pack everything up and we leave as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll stay up with you,” Galo says immediately.  “I’ll help you stay awake.  I can talk to Ranger Ex tomorrow.”

“Why not talk to him now?” Lucia asks.  “We have cell phones.”

“I don’t know his number,” Galo confesses.

“But what about the ranger station’s number?” she presses.

“It’s not manned at night.  Ranger Ex goes home.”

“Fuck,” she mutters, flipping her phone over and over nervously in her hands.  “What about the cops?”

“What the hell are we gonna tell ‘em, that a bunch of high schoolers are up in the woods drinking and there’s a… fuckin’, I don’t even know what coming after us?” Gueira sneers.

“A false 911 call is a punishable crime,” Remi contributes unhelpfully.

Lio waves their hands to try to get everything under control again.  “It’s just easiest if we get through the night, then get help tomorrow once we actually know what happened and everything is over.  Just for my sake, everyone count off.  I’m one.”

“Two,” Galo chirps.

“Three,” Aina says, raising a hand.

“Four,” Cordelia says, inching closer to Lio.

“Five,” Lucia flips her phone over again.

“Six,” Gueira grunts.

“Seven,” Meis says, glancing around agitatedly.

“Eight,” Remi raises his hand too.

“Nine,” Varys says.  “That’s everyone.”

Everyone looks around to verify that this is, indeed true.

“Okay.  Nine.  Remember your numbers.  I’ll ask you to sound off occasionally,” Lio instructs.  “Now, I guess, everyone find a place and do your best to get some rest.  It’s…” they pull out their phone and glance at the time, “eleven-fifteen.  Sunrise is at five or something like that.  Let’s get six hours of sleep or so.”

The group distribute themselves across the floor, tucked close to each other out of fear, and Lio and Galo sit cross-legged on the bench under the front window, both staring out cracks in the curtain.  Outside, the clearing is almost completely dark.  Galo can pick out the logs around the fire and the pit of glowing coals, but it doesn’t cast enough light to define anything further away.  He can’t hear anything through the window, not even crickets or birds or, as unsettling as they sound, any owls.  He would definitely take owls over whatever the fuck this is.

“I think it should be okay,” he whispers to Lio.

“I hope so,” they whisper back.  Galo can tell nobody is sleeping; everyone’s breathing is too quick and tense, but they’re doing their best to pretend.  It’s better that way.  For a few minutes, Galo starts to consciously un-tense his muscles, even as his eyes dart back and forth across the clearing outside, imagining movement in the depths of the moonless shadows between the trees.

Then the chuckling begins.

It’s a horrific combination of the manic cackling and the gurgling; low and damp, like chuh-chuh-chuh, with a high, breathy, whinnying edge to it.  It starts off quiet, definitely coming from outside the cabin, and it makes all the hair on Galo’s arms stand up immediately.  A frisson of fear runs down his spine and he locks eyes with Lio.  They hear it too.  He glances out of the corner of his eye and it doesn’t look like anyone else has heard yet.

“Where is it?” Lio mouths silently to Galo, who shrugs back and looks out the window again.  The chuckling is faint, but close by, as if the thing is standing just out of view right up against the cabin.  Then it turns into the screeching, racking hyena-laugh, jagged as a saw’s blade against everyone’s ears.  Instantly, everyone lying on the floor sits bolt upright and huddles closer together.  Lio stays stock-still on the bench, frozen.  Galo reaches over to slap his hand against the deadbolt, checking to make sure it’s in place.

“Sound off,” Lio says softly.  Galo, Aina, Lucia, Cordelia, Gueira, Meis, Remi, and Varys whisper their numbers in order.  Lio casts a gaze over them to verify no extra bodies are present.  “Just stay quiet.  It’s outside, it can’t get us.  It can’t get in.”

The cackling fades in and out of existence for the next hour, at times sounding like the thing is standing right outside the front door, and at other times sounding as if it’s deep in the woods, far away.  There’s no pattern to it, and it never stops laughing.  After an hour, the cackling dissolves into that awful gurgling trill.  That’s a somewhat quieter sound and eventually, a few people do succumb to exhaustion and fear and pass out on top of each other in the middle of the floor.

Through it all, Lio and Galo remain at their posts at the window, always watching, never seeing anything.  The thing, whatever it is, stays completely out of sight somehow.  After sitting tensed and on edge for hours, Galo finds himself trembling.  Lio reaches out and puts a hand in his.

“It’ll be okay,” they mouth.  Galo gives a grim nod.  This entire ordeal feels like a nightmare.  This sort of thing doesn’t happen.  It’s not supposed to. 

The minutes crawl by agonizingly slowly.

The thing outside never stops making noise.

Hours and hours it goes on, ever circling around the cabin.

For several heart-stopping minutes, the gurgling trill is so loud and so clear inside the cabin Galo fears it’s gotten back in somehow, but then Lio counts everyone off and the number checks out and the thing has to be pressed right up against the glass on the other side of the window, only inches away.

It finally moves away, gurgling off in the woods until it’s faint as a night bird would be.  Galo breathes again, feeling dizzy.

Then he smells blood.

He looks at Lio immediately for confirmation that they can smell it too.  They give Galo a quizzical look, then Galo remembers:  he’s always had a strong sense of smell, while Lio is nearly nose-blind in all regards.  “Are you on your period?” he mouths.

Lio frowns and shakes their head.

“I smell blood,” Galo breathes.  Lio’s frown deepens and they look around at everyone on the floor and shrug.  Galo carefully unfolds himself from the bench, wincing at the stiffness in his over-tensed joints, and follows his nose.

The scent of blood is stronger towards the bedroom door, but it doesn’t seem to be coming from the bedroom.  No, it’s stronger at the closed door next to the bedroom—the bathroom.  Lio comes up behind Galo, still frowning, and nods their head towards the bathroom door.  Galo nods in affirmation.  He puts a hesitant hand on the doorknob, fearing what he’s going to find on the other side.  Lio puts their hand on top of his, and together they turn the knob and push.

The door puts up an unusual amount of resistance.  Galo pushes harder, leaning his body into it, and the door gives a few inches, then bounces back.

Outside, the thing is still gurgling far away.  Galo’s ears are so attuned to that awful noise that he can still hear it.

Galo braces his shoulder on the door and shoves again, then leaps backwards as if burned at the sound of a small, pained groan.  It sounded wholly human, but everyone is accounted for.  Thyma in the bedroom, the seven others on the floor, Lio and Galo standing at the bathroom door.  Even the thing is accounted for, still trilling in the woods outside.

Sucking in a deep, terrified breath, Galo pushes the door open again enough to slip his hand and wrist inside the bathroom and takes a picture of the inside, with flash, on his phone.  The flash nearly blinds him but he pulls his hand back and taps on the picture.  Lio gasps.

“We’ve got to get her out of there,” they hiss.

The photo shows Thyma sprawled on the bathroom floor, head haloed in a pool of blood from a gash stretching from the center of her forehead to her left temple.  There’s blood on the edge of the sink and spatters across the toilet and mirror.  Galo’s stomach turns and heaves at the sight.  Lio’s first thought was helping Thyma, which is good, but Galo’s first thought was decidedly darker:  if Thyma has been bleeding and unconscious in the bathroom this whole time, then who or what did they put to bed?

Immediately, Galo turns and crouches down in front of the pile of people, shaking shoulders indiscriminately until everyone is blearily awake.  “We found Thyma,” he says shortly.  “She’s in the bathroom and she’s hurt.  Help us get her out.”

Varys is on his feet within seconds.  He braces the bathroom door open enough that Lio, the smallest in the group, can slip in and rearrange Thyma so that she’s seated on the toilet and no longer blocking the door with her body.  She’s somewhat responsive to Lio but very dazed.  Remi and Aina administer first aid, cleaning up the clotted cut and bandaging it to the best of their ability with the first-aid kit that Lucia finds under the sink in the kitchenette.  Lio and Aina support Thyma on either side out into the front room while Remi and Lucia hang back to try to clean up the blood in the bathroom.  Cordelia goes to Thyma immediately, sitting on the floor next to her, both leaned up against the wall.  She wraps a protective arm around the injured girl.

Through the whole rescue operation, Galo has stood in front of the bedroom door, his heart racing a mile a minute, the sound of his heartbeat roaring in his ears.  Once Thyma is taken care of, he nods at Lio.  They approach the bedroom door and, with a trembling hand, open the door.

It swings open to reveal a sight that makes Galo feel sick all over again:  the bed is empty and the window is open.

“Fuck,” Galo rasps.

Outside, close to the front of the cabin, the thing starts cackling.  Three people inside the cabin scream and Lio bolts for the front door, pushing the curtains aside.

“No!” they shout, and Galo instantly follows them.  He looks out the window and feels all the blood drain from his face.  In the dimmest glow of the last coals in the firepit, he can just pick out Thyma standing there on the other side of the dead fire, staring at the cabin.  She’s shivering violently, a horrible shuddering that borders on convulsions and then Galo realizes she’s the source of the cackling.  He’s looking right at the thing, and it’s wearing Thyma’s appearance.  Its head tilts inhumanly far to one side then rolls back around to the center and its eyes flash a bright teal, like a deer’s in headlights.  It’s looking right at Galo.

Then it’s not there.

It doesn’t walk away or jump off or crouch down into the darkness, it just simply isn’t there the next second.  “Where did it go?” Galo barks.

Footsteps on the roof of the cabin directly overhead answer him.  Cordelia screams and pulls Thyma in closer to herself; nearly everyone ducks and covers.

“The window!  Close the fucking window!” Lio roars, the only one not so completely paralyzed in fear to have some common sense.  The footsteps thunder down the length of the cabin towards the bedroom.  Galo lunges for the bedroom, the footsteps pounding overhead like thunder, scrambling over the bed and slamming the window shut.  The cabin is deathly silent.

“Closed!” he hollers back through the cabin.  Everyone unfolds themselves slowly, staring at the ceiling with trepidation.  There are no more footsteps.  Cautiously, Galo lets go of the window sash and exits into the front room, leaving the bedroom door open behind him.  He peers through the curtains.  Nothing is out there.  For the first time since nightfall, he can hear the crickets again.

“I think…” he pauses, listening carefully, “it’s gone.”

There is a collective intake of breath at his soft announcement.  “Yeah?” Gueira asks.  Galo nods.

Lio lets out a deep, bone-weary sigh, then checks their phone.  “It’s two.  We’ll be out of here in three hours.  Everyone try to sleep.”

Galo slumps against the wall next to the window.  He can’t quite relax enough to sleep, but he’s far from being strung like a piano wire like he was earlier.  Beside him, Lio turns to jelly.  “It’s okay,” Galo breathes.  Lio gives him a slightly confused look.  “You can sleep too.”

With that, Lio passes out on Galo’s shoulder.  Galo’s head falls back against the wall.  Even as tired as he is, though, sleep can’t quite touch him.  Through his half-open eyes, he can still see the pile of his friends on the floor, and he can still hear the crickets outside.  He drifts in this half-conscious dozing state for what feels like forever.  Then one of his friends on the floor stirs and pushes themself upright, looking around blearily.  They stand all the way up and Galo’s heart drops into the pit of his stomach.  That’s not one of his friends.

A breathy, whistling, deep-wet chuckle fills the room.  The thing shakes as it chuckles, swinging its head around pendulously to survey all the helpless sleeping bodies at its feet.  Then it turns its head to Galo and its eyes flash animal teal.  Galo is frozen, eyes locked with this softly chuckling thing, his heart rate skyrocketing to dangerous levels.

It had gotten back inside somehow without anyone noticing, had laid down with everyone and slept next to them and nobody had noticed.  But it knows, and now it knows that Galo knows.

Then it lays back down and falls silent again and Galo can’t pick it out of all the other bodies on the floor.  He blinks, his eyes too dry to keep half-open anymore, and is startled by the amount of light coming through the curtain when he opens his eyes again.

Lio is gone from his side and Galo struggles to understand what has happened.  “Sound off?” he croaks.  Everyone sounds off, and Cordelia says “ten” for Thyma at the end.  Galo rubs his fists into his eyes and blinks hard at the group in front of him.  Eight bodies on the floor and Lio standing at the sink; Galo makes ten.  Ten people.  “Fuck,” he mutters.  “Let’s get out of here.”

In the dawn light breaking through the treetops, the ten pack up their things with silent, military efficiency.  Gueira and Meis dump the water from the cooler to make carrying it back easier, and in rows of twos, they wordlessly march down the trail to the parking lot.  Lio and Galo bring up the rear.

“It was in the cabin last night,” Galo says quietly enough that only Lio can hear him.  Lio hisses under their breath.

“Where?”

“Laying down with everyone else.  After you fell asleep.  I was dozing.  I didn’t even know it was there for the longest time, then it stood up and looked around at everyone and laughed quietly and it looked right at me.  It knew I was awake and staring at it.  It wanted me to see it.”

Lio takes Galo’s hand reassuringly.  “I don’t doubt you, after everything that happened last night, but I have to ask:  what if it was a nightmare?  You said you were half-asleep.  Weird things like that happen when you’re half asleep.”

“I know what I saw,” Galo whispers with conviction.  “I saw it there, in the cabin.  I just… this dark thing stood up in the middle of everyone and started shaking and I knew instantly it was the thing.  I don’t know how it got back into the cabin.”

“It was on the roof,” Lio mutters.  “Maybe it got in the window before you closed it?”

“Like it was in the bedroom with me?” Galo asks in alarm, his heart stuttering.  “I would have seen it.”

Lio looks at Galo and squeezes his hand.  “I think you can only see it when it wants to be seen.  I can’t think of any other way it could have gotten into the cabin twice.  Thyma was sitting right next to it.  I probably handed it pizza.  And nobody can actually say what it looks like because we can’t remember.  It was fucking with our heads the entire time.”

The sound of something moving in the underbrush beside them draws Galo’s attention.  It’s like an animal is walking a parallel track through the woods on Galo’s right, not more than fifteen feet away.  It sounds big, human-sized, moving carelessly and snapping branches as it goes.  He squeezes Lio’s hand firmly for comfort, his heart leaping immediately into this throat.  Lio squeezes back.  They don’t turn to look but Galo knows they hear it too.  After a dozen yards, the animal stops keeping pace and Galo can let his breath out again.

Then, behind him, he hears a faint watery trill.  His head whips around of its own accord and he nearly stumbles over his own feet.  Something is standing fifty feet behind them on the trail.  Galo’s breath catches in his throat and his mouth goes dry and he nearly jumps into Lio’s arms.  It’s following them, it’s going to come home with them, it’s going to keep haunting Galo, it’s seen him, it knows he’s seen it.  He staggers to a halt.

“Lio,” he gasps, strangled.  Lio’s head whips around and they take in a sharp breath.

The thing chuckles quietly, shaking slightly, and then disappears into the forest.