Long story short, I ended up walking out the store having bought a box on incendiary shells, two boxes of silver-tipped .308, and a nice dog whistle, turning what would have been a fifty-dollar shop into triple that and some change.

But hey, twenty rounds of silver-tipped .308 was undoubtedly a smart purchase, so at least I had that going for me.

“That looks like a good deal more than a box of .308,” Nolan remarked amusedly, meeting me at the truck not long after I’d reached it and dumping a box of various items in the back, “how many Werewolves are you going up against again?”

“Four,” I replied, climbing into the truck’s passenger seat once he’d unlocked it, “but you never know.”

“Yeah, they might be those special kind of Werewolves that need to be hit five times a piece.” Nolan joked, “Well, I think you’ll be happy to know I didn’t go crazy.”

“No laser-guided faucets then?” I asked with a smirk.

“Unfortunately,” Nolan said, nodding solemnly, “but with all this you should find yourself in a nice little house by tomorrow.”

“That soon?” I scoffed with amazement, “Shit, I figured you were still a few days out.”

“Nah, you’d be surprised how quickly this stuff comes together when you have the right pieces.” Nolan replied after climbing in and starting up the truck, “Need anything else?”

“Nothing comes to mind,” I said, prompting Nolan to out the truck in gear and pull out, “you think we’re up for a Werewolf fight?”

“Why not?” Nolan chuckled with a shrug, “Seen you go against worse less prepared.”

“Yeah, but that was before…” I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence, “Point is, I’m worried I’m not ready for this sort of thing. Shit, I got my ass handed to me by a couple of Chupacabras.”

“I get that,” Nolan replied understandingly, “but who hasn’t gotten swarmed before? At least with the Wolves you’ll be able to keep an eye on ‘em.”

“S’pose that’s a good point,” I sighed, “still though, rarely get second chances with Wolves, especially without stab vests and whatnot.”

“It’s like you don’t want to be reassured,” Nolan laughed, “trust me, you’ve got this. Your sister’ll have your back, not to mention the girls.”

I was nodding along as he spoke, but there was no denying the doubt I felt, doubt that only worsened as I thought over just how dangerous doubt could be in a fight.

In my eyes, the issue was that it was definite; we weren’t ready for that sort of a fight, and it was driving me up the wall that no one seemed to get that.

I had to do it though, if only to try my best to make sure Gwen had a chance of getting out of there alive.

And then it hit me.

“Gwen’ll be watching my back.” I muttered to myself.

“That’s right,” Nolan agreed, “as much as she’s your sister, you’re her brother. Your problem is that you’re used to being the one that watches everyone else’s back, the hero that rides in and saves the day.”

“You saying I’m not a hero anymore?” I jokingly gasped.

“Brave as one, sure,” Nolan said with a nod and a smile, “but…”

“But I’ve got a while to go before I’m wrestling Werewolves to the ground with my bare hands,” I finished for him, “and that’s okay.”

“There you go,” Nolan replied happily, “knew you’d get there eventually.”

“I am a slow one,” I yawned before realizing we were less than thirty seconds from pulling into the driveway, “how’d we get home so quickly?”

“What do you mean?” Nolan asked as we pulled in.

“Weren’t we just leaving town?” I replied, genuinely baffled.

“Not really,” Nolan said concernedly, “we talked for a bit, you zoned out for a few minutes, then we started talking again.”

“Oh, right… right.” I chuckled unconvincingly, realizing just how badly I needed some real sleep, before seeing what waited us at the end of the driveway, “Um… Nolan? Where’s the house?”

“Best guess, she tore it down,” Nolan replied matter-of-factly, nodding to Connie who sat splayed out next to where my house had been like a tired Labrador, “you didn’t think she was going to build the new one around it, did you?”

“No, but… but…” I stammered after climbing out of the truck, staring at the patch of dirt and the various pipes poking out of it like steampunk daisies or something, before letting out a long, exhausted sigh that almost had me on my ass, and started marching towards the bare plot, “I’m going to bed.”

“Good idea,” Nolan said, pulling a jerrycan from the back of the truck while I struggled to make the short distance, “make sure you let the girls know not to come up, I’ll give ‘em a knock when there’s some shade.”

I gave him a thumbs up without turning around, convinced that swiveling at that point would end with me on the ground with a mouthful of dirt.

Reaching the hatch, I gave it a few good knocks and waited, swaying as I did, before hearing a muffled voice calling up to me and taking that as my cue to slowly open the hatch and slip in.

“Hurry up…” Liz groaned from the bed, the blankets up over her head.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’…” I trailed off after trying and failing to untie my laces, “Sleep good?”

“I was, yes.” Liz replied tiredly, “Come cuddle up, it’s cold.”

“I’m getting there.” I said as I violently kicked off my barely loosened shoes and finally collapsed onto the bed face first, “I didn’t get you any breakfast.”

“If you don’t shut up, you’ll be breakfast…” Liz murmured, “Love you.”

“Love you, too…” I mumbled into my pillow, feeling the heavy weight of consciousness simultaneously crushing and leaving me as I drifted off to sleep.

Not to make a big deal of it, but I’m pretty sure that was the first time we’d dropped a proper ‘love’ bomb on each other.

No biggie.

I’m cool.