1 hour and 25 minutes earlier,
KNOX
Blood rushes to my head.
My vision sways as I tip the pipe back, cold metal pressed to my lips.
"Chug, chug-CHUG!"
The chant crashes over me, loud enough to rattle my already shaky bones. Booze floods my mouth, bitter and foamy, spilling down my chin as I force myself to swallow quickly, my throat burning in protest. The world wobbles, bonfire flames stretching into smeared orange halos. Someone whoops, slamming into my side. Another asshole slaps my back hard enough to knock the breath out of me.
I lower the pipe and laugh because that's what you're supposed to do. My stomach twists, heat crawling up my spine.
People cheer. The world swells with people and noise. Too much noice.
Most of these guys probably have no idea who I am. However, my drunk ass doesn't ponder on that too much. I let out a burp before giggling to myself.
Fuck. I should have tried this stuff ages ago.
Stumbling through the party, I slip and almost fall into the dirt when I feel an arm wrap around my neck, supporting me.
"Knox, what the hell?" The person exclaims in my hair. A toothy grin appears on my face when I see those iconic little curtain bangs.
"Elly!" I squeal excitedly, my cheeks burning, "I'm so glad you could join the-" All of a sudden, I feel nauseous.
"Fuck it, dude. Since when did you even drink?" He scolds, but the only thing I can think about is the acid racing up my gut.
I retch, placing my hand on my mouth. Tearing from Ellis, I race to the edge of the forest and let it all out.
"Now that's just nasty." I shine him a toothy grin. He rolls his eyes with the evidence of a small grin on his lips, then jumps, startled, when a rustling sound from the woods is heard. He looks around as if suddenly noticing how far out in the dark we both are. An expression forms on his face.
Worried?
Scared?
No idea. I make my way back to the party.
A hand grabs my arm and yanks me back.
"Ok, that's it, dude, we're leaving." Ellis declares, dragging me away.
"Leave me alone," I utter, sloppily. Pushing him away. "Your n-not my f-fucking dad."
"Come on, Knox, we need to go-" he prys, grabbing my arm despite my assertion.
Some people stare at us as they pass, some stare longer than others.
I push him away again, shaking my head negatively.
"Hey," some random guy hands me a paper cup filled with brown liquid, "want one?" The guy's other arm is wrapped around a pretty dark-skinned girl. I take the cup from his hand. Ellis grabs it from my hand and offers it back to the same dude.
"He's fine, really doesn't need it."
A frown forms in my brows before I snatch the cup back from Ellis outsreched hand.
"Hey!" I take a quick sip before leaning towards him and laughing at his face, my cheeks burning red. He recoils probably from the alcohol in my breath.
"Come on, Knox, give it back." He attempts to snatch it back from my hand. I wrestle it free from his grasp, spilling brown liquid on my shirt. A deep, indescribable anger burns somewhere deep inside of me. I stare at my stained shirt, then at the same time, we both stare at each other. An apologetic look was already seeping into his face.
"Knox, I'm so sorry, man," he begins, making his way towards me, "I didn't mean to-" I push him away, the rage pumping into my bloodstream from that deep, indescribable place, mixing with the alcohol already there, creating something poisonous.
"I told you to fucking leave me alone didnt I? It's that so fucking hard?" The sounds that escape my throat are loud and hoarse and definitely not mine. I add that to the list of things I don't give a shit about today. W-who was this guy to tell me not to have a good t-time?
"Knox, come on, man." He reaches towards me again, and I slap his hand away, the force nearly pushing him off balance. He stumbles, nearly falling to the ground, but regains balance. "Fuck you, Ellis."
"F-fucking moron." By now, a small crowd has gathered around us. Some guys are yelling at us to fight, I think, but the world is a hazy mix of people and bright lights.
"Fuck you." I spit, the word burning on the way out. "Leave me the fuck alone, you stupid freak. Always dragging everyone down with you... Fucking deadweight. Coward!"
He stares at me with wide, dark eyes. I can't read the expression on his face. But a part of me, I'm sure, breaks.
Ellis steps back, and the space between us suddenly feels like the distance between Ashford and another galaxy. My mind is too foggy to understand why.
"El-Ellis I d-didn't-"
"Fine," he begins, then brushes past me to get away. "Just do whatever the fuck you want."
He walks into the woods, a few disappointed sighs following him from the crowd, probably annoyed they didn't get to see a fight.
Assholes.
I watch him go until the fog swallows him whole. And for whatever reason, a feeling of deep loss fills my chest... Like I have just watched someone get tossed into a lake of fire, ignited by the now extinguished flames from my own blood.
Staggering away from that place, my mouth suddenly went dry.
***
After a few chugs of water and vomiting and me slumping around the bonfire, I finally came to a fraction of my senses, several minutes later.
Maybe even an hour or two.
Fighting the wariness hanging in my eyes, I decide I need to find Ellis. I think... Was the guy even here? Of course he was, right? I groan internally, ignoring the gaps that have begun to form in my head. I stagger into the forest.
"Ellis," I call his name, before tripping over a tree root, "Ellis! Can we t-talk?" I scream on the ground, paying no heed to the bruises on my palms.
Venturing deeper and deeper into the forest, I continue to scream his name. The air here feels saturated, as if it's been wrung out of some wet dream. My breath vanishes the second it leaves me, swallowed whole. I can't tell where the mist ends, and the darkness begins; they've made some secret treaty against my eyes.
A branch snags my jacket. I apologize to it, patting it and whispering words of comfort to it like an offended cat, and then stumble on a root that wasn't there a moment ago. I swear the forest is playing tricks on me. Yet deeper and deeper I go till the faint music from the party drowns away in the darkness, replaced by the whirring of insects.
"Ellis!" I call, before pausing with a frown. What the hell am I doing here again? Oh, that's right, Ellis. Why would he even be here... Where was here? I turn around and realize that I'm lost in darkness.
And like that, the fog doesn't just sit on the ground anymore - it climbs. It drags itself up my shins, the trees tower like judges, and for whatever reason, adopts the face of my father, his eyes contorted.
"Useless son." They seem to whisper, laughing at me. Taunting me.
"Fuck you." I flip the finger towards the shadows.
A rattling in the trees steals my attention. I watch as a familiar figure emerges from the woods.
It's him, Ellis. At first, I'm relieved. He's standing there, half-lit by the moon, shoulders tight like he's pissed. Of course he is. I grin, stupid and wide, because this is the part where he sighs and tells me I'm a dick and drags me home.
"Ellis," I say again, softer now. "I didn't mean it, man."
He turns.
And something about his face makes my stomach twist. There's some sorta wrongness my muddled mind doesn't recognize.
Then he shouts.
It isn't my name. Or maybe it is, but it's torn up, mangled, pushed out of him like it's agony. The word hits the trees and breaks apart, reverberating throughout the air around us. I flinch, laughing nervously, because why is he y-yelling like that?
It's official, Ellis Callahan has gone batshit crazy.
"Hey-what's your problem?" I slur. He grabs me by the arm, screaming in my face.
That's when the dark behind him moves.
Not stepping forward. Not charging. Just simply unfolding. A shape peeling itself away from the darkness like it was always there, and I just didn't notice. It's a giant man, tall and imposing. Extremely hairy with a... I rub my eyes, but the image remains the same, glowing red eyes with beastly facials.
My head swims.
Vision smears. It's a big dog. A prank. Someone is messing with us. One of those dipshits from the party is putting on a fucking costume to scare us.
Fucking prank.
Ellis looks at me again.
Really looks at me, his eyes widening as he begins to sprint towards me.
And this time he yells something else-shorter, sharper, desperate. It sounds like a warning. Or a command. Or maybe a goodbye.
I don't know. I never know. The night tilts and turns around me like it's lost its balance.
Ellis stops suddenly, then moves sideways, and I don't understand why until my foot catches on a root and the world tips. I see the wolf-man lunge towards him in the direction he went, away from me.
I go down hard.
The breath slams out of me. Dirt fills my mouth. I hear something heavy rush past-too fast, too close- and then there's a sound I can't make sense of. Not a scream. Not a growl. Something worse. Something final.
"Ellis?" I whisper.
I wait for him to answer. I wait for him to yell at me. I wait for the punchline. The usual smart-ass jabs he throws at me.
Nothing comes—just silence and the night pressing around me.
I hear someone scream.
Chest tightening. Hands shaking. I push myself up, panic finally crawling in, late and useless now. I don't look back. I don't think. My legs take over, and I run.
The world moves in slow motion. Branches whip my face. My lungs burn. The ground disappears beneath my feet, and suddenly there's no ground at all-
Cold slams into me.
Water closes over my head, stealing the sound, the light, the night. I sink, choking, spinning, alcohol and fear tangling together as the surface pulls farther away.
And underwater, in the ringing quiet, the last thing I think is this:
Ellis was right there.
He was right there...