School went along as school usually did for the two, save for Louise spending more time looking at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts of how the night would go. That, and other methods to possibly kill the Wendigo. A crossbow, maybe a sharper, heavier greatsword? Or maybe the benefactor could airdrop her a new weapon? She kept thinking more and more until the final bell rang.

She grabbed her bag and bolted out of the school.

Back home in a matter of minutes, she tossed her backpack to the side and ran into her room. Through the mess of papers and books and throwing open her closet, she made a quick change of clothes: Brown cargo shorts, and a t-shirt with an alien face on front, all while still keeping on her jacket. Off in the corner was a large camping backpack, one she bought ages ago that she hoped to use for a moment like this.

She dragged it downstairs, tossing some pans into it, followed by throwing open the pantry. She threw in sports drinks, water bottles, granola bars, and mixed nuts before slamming it shut.

She hurried over to the garage, grabbing a neatly folded tent and shoving it in. She finished off her scouring by strapping a rolled up sleeping bag to the top of her pack, and clipping a lantern to the side. With everything ready to go, she pulled out her phone, checking the clock.

It was only 3:30.

She sighed. There was no way Davis would be prepped to go right now, would he?

She dropped the backpack by the door and sat on the couch, browsing through sites on her phone and glancing at the clock every few minutes.

By 4:00, she thought he had to at least have SOMETHING ready, or at least something by the time she’d arrive. Before flying out the door, she spent a bit of time cooking herself a few hot dogs, wrapping them up in foil and tossing them into a small bag. Swooping up her backpack, she hurried over to Davis’s home.

By 4:45, the sun was on its last legs, preparing to dip beneath the horizon. Louise stood in front of Davis’s home, sitting quaintly at the edge of the forest. She banged on the door.

“DAVIS, I’m HERE! YOU ASLEEP IN THERE?”

She waited for a minute. No response. She immediately lifted the doormat, finding the key Davis mentioned. Unlocking the door, she stomped into the living room and tossed her camping pack onto the couch. Down the hall, his door was slightly cracked open. She grinned to herself as she pulled out two pans from her pack. Slowly pushing the door open, Davis was found asleep under several fluffy blankets. She crept closer, stretching out her arms, one pan in each hand. She brought them together like cymbals over and over, yelling

“HEY DAVIS NAP TIME IS OVER WE GOTTA GET TO WORK!”

Davis screamed, vanishing into a poof of shadows, his cocoon of blankets deflating. Louise giggled madly to herself as Davis re-materialized with a very upset look on his face. The fact that Davis was still wearing his big green jacket only made her giggle more.

“Come on, what was that for? Couldn’t you have like, shaken me awake or something?”

Louise shook her head, still smiling. “You prob would have fallen asleep shortly after, wouldn’t you?”

Davis huffed. “No, I’m perfectly capable of waking up if somebody wants me up.” He stretched his arms out and let out a yawn. “Couldn’t you have also given me 30 more minutes?”

“Well I also wanted to check in on the new thing you said you were gonna do? For the wendigo?”

“What?” He let out a big yawn. “Oh yeah, that. I haven’t started yet.”

“Come ON, it’s nearly dark out and you haven’t started?”

“Hey hey, don’t rush me! Plus it’s only,” He pulled out his phone. “What, we got five to six hours till it’s dark enough? I wanna eat first too.”

“Ooh, this I came prepared for! Sit at the table, wait for me!”

She dragged Davis into the kitchen, giving him a seat as she placed the baggie in the center. She unwrapped the two hot dogs, and handed one to him.

“We’re gonna need a bit more energy for today, and I don’t think frozen food would cut it too well, so I took the time to cook something nice! Eat up!”

Davis couldn’t deny, it was a very nice looking hot dog. Nice browned skin, lined with relish and topped evenly with ketchup and mustard. There was, however, one issue.

“I… I’ll heat up some pizza. I don’t like mustard-”

Louise’s happy expression vanished. “I worked hard on this to make sure you’d have energy for tonight. Eat it.”

Davis nervously chuckled to himself. “Uh, shoot, you did? I Thought you microwaved it or something… uhh…”

She stared daggers at him. He returned a sheepish grin before swiping the hot dog, taking a chomp out of it. The sweet relish at least balanced out the taste of mustard.

“Sorry” he said with his mouth full.

Louise smiled again and tore into her hot dog.

“So,” She said, mouth also full, “What did you have planned?”

Davis swallowed. “Long story short, glowstick bomb. It’s a case with those chemicals that glow, so you pull a pin and it mixes them, then you throw it.”

Louise nodded excitedly, taking another bite of her food.

“It’s like, a lot of that chemical stuff too, so I’m HOPING some might drip off, giving it a glowing trail we can follow. Worst case scenario we can look for the green glowing monster on foot.”

“That sounds real smart!”

“Oh, it’s nothing…” He quickly took a few more bites, finishing up the food. He went over to the fridge, pulling out and cracking open another energy drink.

“Now just give me like, a few hours tops.”

“HOLD ON!”

Davis froze in place.

“If you’re gonna make me wait, at least give me the wifi pass or something?”

“All done, and set to go.”

Davis emerged from his garage, fully clad for the night: Night vision goggles lifted up to his forehead, a neck gaiter scrunched beneath his chin, and his jacket jingling with what only he knew was tucked away in its pockets. In his hands were two bottles of bright green liquid, with a small plastic bulb on top. The bulbs had a plastic tab running out of its stem.

“Here’s our uh…” He scratched his head, staring at the bottle. “Wendigo tracker? No, it’s wendigo marker… No wait it’s just glow marker I guess? I can think of a name later.” He handed a bottle to Louise, along with a hip holster.

“So once either one of us finds the wendigo, pull this tab, shake it up, make sure it’s glowing, then chuck it at it. Then we meet up, wendigo runs away, and we chase it.”

Louise took them, strapping the bottle and holster to her hip.

“Yup, that’s the plan! I got some pans at home to make lots of noise.”

Davis showed the inside of his jacket, revealing dozens of pockets and a utility belt around his waist. Opening one of the pouches, he pulled out a golf-ball sized object with a fuse sticking out of it.

“These should hopefully be a lot better. These are cool fireworks called cherry bombs. They pretty much sound like gunshots so hopefully the wendigo will home in on me.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen these for sale before.”

Davis laughed nervously. “Uh yeah, they’re kinda special, and I’ll leave it at that. Oh, and here.”

He handed her a walkie talkie and a headlamp.

“These are really old, but they’re way sturdier than your phone.” He pulled out one for himself, pushing the button on the side as Louise’s crackled to life. “You know how to use these, right?” His voice echoed through the walkie.

“Yeah, no problem!”

He clipped it inside of his jacket. “Well, let’s get going then. The sooner we catch it, the better, right?”

The sun was completely gone, the sky overtaken by the night. Thousands of stars were peppered over the thicket of the woods, little moonlight from the half-moon trickling on through. Starting at Louise’s “hideout”, she set up her tent and sleeping bag, a somewhat upset Davis watching.

We’re not gonna be out that long, are we?

She finished it off by setting up a high-powered lamp.

“So if we get lost, we can just follow the light back here, right?” She said, slipping on her half-gaunts.

“For you probably, but don’t worry about me.” Davis crossed his arms. “I know this forest like the back of my hand.”

“Good then, you can help in case we lose track of everything. Let’s get hunting!”

The two nodded to each other, before turning around and heading off in opposite directions.

Shining the light around, there was nothing but more and more trees, with the faint glow of her camping lantern behind her.

“Should be far enough…”

She took off her backpack, pulling out two pans. For a minute straight, she clanged them together, hollering at the top of her lungs. Sounding like some deranged banshee, she wondered if maybe she should have brought earbuds to protect her now-ringing ears from all the noise she was making.

She eventually paused, bending over and catching her breath from the nonstop yelling, glancing around periodically.

Nothing heard and nothing seen. She groaned.

“Maybe he can’t hear me?”

She grabbed her pack, and moved off to a new location, flinching as a sudden BOOM resounded through the trees.

Davis kept walking until he couldn’t see the light of the campsite anymore.

I know how these beasts work, I know where I’m going, I got this. He repeated in his mind. Despite the evening chill, he was still sweating.

He took a deep breath, pulling out a cherry bomb and lighter, lighting the firework. He threw it, turning running to cover and covering his ears.

Wait, this won’t start a fire, would it? Oh crap-

The resounding explosion rang through his body, feeling like all of his bones were shaking. He clenched his teeth and his eyes harder for several seconds, creeping them open ever so slowly after the shaking stopped. He turned to where he threw the bomb.

Thankfully, there was no fire, just the soft glow of some burned foliage. He sighed in relief.

Just gotta wait a few minutes, then throw another. Rinse and repeat, you have this solid.

Louise continued her nuisance spree, resorting now to simply walking mindlessly around and slamming her pans together.

“COME ON OUT WENDIGO, I WANNA FINISH WHAT WE STARTED YOU RUNAWAY BABY.”

Pausing to rest her throat for a few moments, she noticed she was awfully close to the edge of the forest. She could see a few homes, and the road as well.

Another boom eminated from within the forest. She sighed.

Davis is probably making better progress than me.

She turned to move deeper into the forest, when she froze, hearing a siren behind her.

“Hold it right there!” A commanding voice spoke.

Louise’s eyes widened and her heart went into overdrive. She reached down to her hip, turning off her walkie talkie.

God please don’t get into any trouble Davis.

She turned around, face to face with a police officer shining a light onto her face.

Davis glanced at his clock. It had been 15 minutes since he threw the first cherry bomb.

Should I wait longer? It’s been a bit, maybe he’s stalking me? Maybe he didn’t hear it. It wouldn’t hurt to throw another now, right? I only have four more. Maybe 5 more minutes, I’ll throw up another.

He had been sitting against a tree, glancing around with his night vision goggles looking for any sign of movement. There was still absolutely nothing. No birds, no deer, no giant spiders or bigfoot or moving trees or anything.

Is the wendigo even out tonight? Maybe Louise was being way too hasty.

He lit and tossed another bomb, this time taking care to run far off to avoid the rattling feeling.

BOOM

He sat back at the tree and waited for a few more minutes, catching sight of nothing still. He groaned to himself, about to sink back into his thoughts.

His ears abrputly caught an incredibly soft sound: The slight crackle of somebody stepping on a dead leaf. He shot up to his feet, frozen in his place like a deer in headlights.

The noise came from behind him.

He very, very, carefully turned around.

The police officer was dragging Louise by the shoulder.

“Come on, my mom knows where I am! I have every right to be out here!”

“Yeah, but you don’t really have a right to be making enough noise to wake up the entire block.” The officer grumbled. “It’s also against the law to be setting off fireworks in the woods. Don’t you remember Smokey the bear?”

Louise tried to shake his grip off of him, cautiously trying not to use the power of the gauntlets. “You don’t understand, it’s not me setting off the fireworks!”

The officer paused, raising an eyebrow at her.

“You mean somebody else is with you too?”

“Uh…” She looked at his feet. “No I just mean I didn’t use any fireworks. I was just banging pans and screaming, there’s nothing wrong with that, right?”

The officer let out a grumbly sigh. “Look, I don’t care, we’re just going to take you to the station and call your parents, all right?”

A new ear-deafening BOOM blasted through the forest, even louder than the last, causing the officer to flinch and instinctively cover his head. Free from his grasp, Louise turned to the location and broke into a full blown sprint, bounding far away from the officer before he recovered.

“HEY HOLD IT!” The officer screamed from behind.

She didn’t even bother to look back, focusing on sprinting as fast as she could into the thicket. The officer shined his flashlight into the forest as she vanished into the trees.

“Man, just screw this,” He muttered to himself, as he turned back to his police cruiser.

Davis locked eyes with the wendigo, it’s monstrous face alone overwhelming his entire presence. The face raised higher as the monster reared to its full height, swinging downwards towards the boy. He quickly de-materialized into a puff of smoke as the beast’s claws smashed into the ground, throwing dirt everywhere.

Davis, despite being immaterial to the physical world, lost in a mess of shadow, grabbed his walkie and pushed the button. Nothing but terrible static ran through.

Great, no radio calls while I’m like this.

He maneuvered behind the Wendigo before re-materializing, turning on the radio.

“Louise, I found the Wendigo! I’m uh… Just a little bit to the west of our campsite I think?” He said, panting between words. He dematerialized again, barely dodging a swiping claw. This time, he moved directly behind it, hoping hiding in a blind spot would work better.

He turned corporeal again, this time whispering into the radio. “Please Louise, confirm you’re coming! I’m in a really tight spot here!”

He suddenly felt an impact as the monster slapped him away. He quickly phased out, flying through the air as he tumbled through the ground, thankfully passing through several trees that would have hurt him pretty terribly. He glanced towards the direction of the camp, thinking of making a retreat.

We have him right here by sheer luck. I can’t let this opportunity slip!

He pulled out one of his pepper spray bombs, lighting the fuse. He waited patiently until the fuse was at half before he phased back in front of the wendigo, chucking it straight at the beasts face.

He de-materialized right after, but even phased out, he could hear the ear-shattering explosion of the bomb, along with the shriek of the monster. He phased back in, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. The monster was reeling and clawing at its face, which was moist with the burning repellent.

He grabbed his walkie again, screaming. “LOUISE, PLEASE ARE YOU THERE? IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN HOLD OUT.”

He gripped the walkie like a crucifix, hoping for some form of divine intervention.

“I hear ya partner!” A cheery voice responded. “I ran into a little trouble that WASN’T a wendigo, but heard your fireworks! I’ll be there in a few moments!”

Davis sighed in relief, his heart still pounding against his chest. Seeing the still-reeling wendigo, he grabbed his glowstick bomb, removing the tab and shaking it together. The bottle began to glow a bright green, and he threw it right at the stomach of the beast. It shattered, the monster barely even noticing the hit, but he was marked and dripping with the glowing substance.

The beast continued to claw at its face for several more seconds, until with one final shake of its head, it locked onto the winded Davis.

“HERE I COOOOOMMMME!” echoed through the forest. Both Davis and the Wendigo turned to see Louise approaching at high speeds. The wendigo quickly climbed a tree, leaping away into the distance. Davis collapsed to the ground, lying flat on his back and laughing.

“Thank God it all managed to work.” He continued to take deep breaths between chuckling to himself. Louise skidded to a halt right next to him.

“Come on, we gotta hurry and chase! I kinda just ran away from a cop, and I think he may still be following me.”

“A WHAT NOW?”

“I CAN EXPLAIN LATER! Just, hurry and get up!”

Davis’s heart was still racing, and he stumbled to his feet. “Can we take it a bit slow? I’m kinda a bit shaken from that encounter-“

“I got somethin better!”

She easily scooped him up in her arms.

“We’re going NOW!”

Davis’s eyes widened, wiggling in her grip. “No wait wait, I can walk fine, I can walk fine!”

She eyed the each splat of the glow fluid on the forest floor and began running, following the trail.

“Nope, you said it yourself, you need some rest! So rest up, I can carry you just fine!”

Louise followed the glowing trail for several minutes, able to keep Davis held up without breaking much of a sweat. They continued undisturbed into the woods, the trail coming to an abrupt end at a clearing, where a large hole around the size of a single story house sat.

“Well, looks like we found his lair.” Louise said, finally letting Davis back to his feet. “You all rested now?”

“Don’t ever do that again, all right?” He scowled. “I could walk just fine.”

Louise rolled her eyes at him. “So ready to walk you were all pooped and wanted to take a power nap in the heat of the moment, huh?”

“Hey, I can’t just nap anywhere! I would have preferred to return to the tent. Anyways, now.”

He pulled an actual glowstick from his jacket, cracking it and dropping it down the hole. It fell for a few seconds before hitting the bottom, the two still able to observe it.

“Good, it’s not a death pit at least. I think it’s around 20-ish feet deep? I couldn’t exactly carry that much rope with me, but I think-”

“I got a good idea!” Louise scooped Davis up again, jumping down into the hole. Davis screamed as she crashed on the mossy cave floor, the impact shaking through her body.

“Euuughhh, okay. Uh maybe I should have climbed down, but see, we’re down!”

“Did you ever think of how we were supposed to get out?”

Louise nodded, leaping up and grabbing on a protrusion on the wall, still while holding onto Davis. “You just gotta ride on my back or something, and I can just climb out easy!”

Davis stared for a few moments, grumbling. “You can just throw me out or something…”

“I’m not sure if that’s safe enough, don’t wanna accidentally hurt you!” She said with a goofy grin.

Taking the lead, Louise set her headlamp to low, and quickly yet quietly dove deeper into the cavern. Davis, night vision goggles on, froze up several feet behind the upbeat girl.

“Louise, hold up right now.”

She turned around, cocking her head at him. He turned off his night vision goggles, pulling out a high-powered flashlight from his jacket.

“Don’t worry, the wendigo isn’t anywhere near that I saw, but…”

He turned on the light, illuminating the corridor. Up ahead, inches away from Louise, were bones.

Several skulls were mounted on top of human wrist bones, creating an ankle-height barrier of human remains. Beyond it were dozens of mixed human remains, stripped clean of any flesh. Adorning the walls were complete skeletons, buried inside as if they were shoved in the wall and decomposed stuck in that pose. Some of the bones in the walls had snapped off and fallen onto the floor.

Louise’s smile evaporated, staring at the collection of death. She took a step back, trembling. Davis ran up behind her.

“Uh, hey, you doing all right, right?”

She audibly gulped, staring at the bones.

“I uh…”

She slowly sat herself down, eyes still locked onto the bones.

“You see the pictures of them online from time to time but seeing them here… How many has this cryptid really killed around here? I can’t count…”

Davis took a deep breath, holding it in for a few moments. He exhaled.

“I don’t know. But”

He took another deep breath in and out.

“I… kinda knew some of the people who ended up here?”

Louise broke her focus from the bones, turning to him.

“Oh, I didn’t… I’m sorry, I shoulda-”

“No no, not like KNOW know them, I mean like, I tried to warn them. I said last night I tried to warn people from going into the forest late at night, and…”

He sighed.

“A bunch never returned. I hated those nights, just watching people ignore my warnings and trekking on in and it was agonizing knowing that I couldn’t do anything else. I’m not strong enough, I don’t have any special weapons or anything to take on the wendigo or anything else. Just some deterrents. And, worst of all.”

Davis clenched his eyes tight. “I was too afraid, I didn’t want to die.”

He exhaled.

“But this time, it’s different. I’m not any braver, I still don’t have the right tools or weapons. However, with you along, even now I’ve achieved way more than I could even think, and now we’ve tracked down where this monster lives. I feel confident with you, we have a solid plan, and I can do something that can actually make a difference in some people’s lives. Sure, nobody is gonna notice a dead wendigo, nor will it bring back the dead, but it’s gonna make things a bit better for everyone, right?”

He crouched down. She was still staring at the death scattered in front of her. He moved forward more, awkwardly trying to give her a hug.

She stood up, wiping her eyes with her shoulder before he could wrap his arms around her.

“You’re right.” She cleared her throat. “We’ve gotten this far, no need to let this… display trip me up. Gonna smash his skull open, and everything is gonna be better.”

“And I’m gonna… Throw some bombs and hopefully not hit you or anything? I’m not sure what I can do.”

Louise smiled, snorting.

“By the way, you still have that knife with you, right? Something I forgot to mention till now.”

Davis pulled his sleeve down, the blade popping out.

“You mentioned its hide is too tough to stab though?”

“Yeah but, this is just a guess, but typically for armor, there’s always weak points, like at the armpits, inner knee joints, maybe the neck too? If you can’t cut those, just try your best to distract it with those cherry bombs, and try to make an opening for me!”

Louise smiled, giving a thumbs up. “We’ve got a solid plan, so let’s just commit to it our best!” She grabbed the sledgehammer, gripping it tight.

Davis nodded. “Yea, let’s do this!”

Trodding past the collection of bones, Davis had Louise turn off her light, opting to guide her through with his night vision. The tunnels ended in a large cavern, the center of which the wendigo was seated. It was surrounded by a ring of bones and half-decayed corpses, macking on the arm of a victim.

“It’s not a pretty sight,” Davis whispered. “It’s right ahead, snacking on human remains.”

Louise felt a lump well up in her throat. She swallowed it, grunting. Her disgust turned into anger at the cryptid.

“I’ll be all right, just gonna focus on bashing his head in.”

It was too busy snacking to notice the two, thankfully. Davis pulled out a flare and a bar of chocolate from his jacket.

“I’m going to light up the area with some flares. Hopefully the change in light might disorient it enough for a clean hit from the hammer.” He whispered. He carefully tore open the wrapper of the bar, chomping into it and taking a deep breath.

“I’ll make it count!” Louise gave a thumbs up with a dumb grin on her face. Davis smiled and nodded.

“Cover your eyes, it’s gonna be bright.”

Louise did so and Davis removed his goggles as he struck the flare, red light flooding the cavern. The wendigo reeled, letting out a growl and turning its head away from the light. Davis tossed it forward.

“Nowhere to run now!” Louise cried out, gripping the sledgehammer tight with both of her hands. She leapt up to the head of the beast, swinging the hammer upwards and striking it right at the chin. Its head flew upward, howling in pain as Louise touched down.

“Got a hit!” She yelped as Davis nervously ran towards the monster, knife in hand. The monster regained its composure from the blow, swiping its arm along the length of the cave.

Davis turned incorporeal and Louise attempted to jump it, but the beast foresaw her move, adjusting it’s swing to swat her out of the air. She struck the cave wall with a thud, grunting and clenching her face.

The wendigo reared up its other arm for another swipe, but recoiled, letting out an ear-piercing screech.

Davis had re-materialized behind it, leaping up and cutting it right at the armpit. He landed, falling to his knees, arms shaking.

“It’s… It’s soft, I cut it there! I CUT IT THERE!” He screamed, letting out a laugh of relief. The wendigo tried to stomp down on him, but he phased out before it was even close. Lifting its claw, trying to look where he went, Louise leapt up and bashed the sledgehammer down right on its forehead, causing it to slam down onto the cavern floor. Cracks began to form where she struck. She kicked off its skull, putting distance between the two, and Davis phased back in next to her.

She turned to him with a triumphant smile and fire burning in her eyes.

“Let’s try that again” Davis quickly said. “I’ll go for the joints, get its attention, and you smack on the head, right?” He was starting to wheeze, but the adrenaline of the fight was keeping him up and running.

“Exactly what I was thinking. Go get em!”

The two charged together, the wendigo this time backing up. It watched Davis vanish out of thin air and Louise swing the hammer down on its claw. It retracted it, and slammed its fist into the cave roof. The room shook, Louise losing her footing, and chunks of rubble fell, ranging from pebbles to the size of tires. She changed her focus, hoping to avoid getting pinned by the rocks. Dodging between them, the wendigo swept right through the falling debris, grasping ahold of Louise. She yelped, struggling as much as she could to try to break free from its grasp. Even with the enhanced strength from the gauntlets, she still barely felt like she was budging.

The wendigo retracted its arms, protecting its armpits, and glanced around the cave, Louise still tight in its grip.

From behind, Davis phased back in, launching up with his knife outstretched. He tried slicing at the back of its neck, which made a small cut, but enough to cause the beast to scream, trying to swat him off its back.

Panting hard, Davis phased out, and back in moments later, launching himself towards the inner elbow joint that was holding Louise. With another swift cut, the beast released Louise from the pain.

Louise crashed onto the floor, scrambling to her feet when she saw Davis was reaching into his jacket.

“Take cover, I’m gonna toss a pepper bomb!”

She scrambled for cover behind the debris as he lit the fuse, tossing it up in the air, and phasing out.

A mist of the burning liquid flooded the cavern space, and the wendigo screeched, covering its face. It scratched it, trying to get the liquid from out of its eyes. Louise peeked out at the screaming beast, and Davis phased back in next to her. He was gasping for breath, and sat down next to her.

“That should buy us at least 15 seconds tops.” He wheezed. “I think he’s getting used to my tricks, and I only got one ghost left in me. Any more and I think I’ll collapse.”

Glancing at the wincing monster, Louise turned back.

“Well, he can’t counter us if he can’t see us! There’s one other un-armored part, the eyes!”

“It’s gonna be a miracle if I can even reach that high, and even more of one if I can strike-”

Louise picked him up by the shirt, hoisting him over her shoulders.

“Don’t think about anything else than grabbing its skull and stabbing it in the eye!” She yelled. She charged forward, Davis screaming in fear, before tossing him right at the monster. The pepper spray had worn off enough for the monster to notice the flying white-haired boy heading straight for it. It swiped a claw upwards to try to retaliate.

For the split second the claw would have struck him, he barely managed to phase out of the way, and back in, before gripping onto the skull for dear life. Everything felt absolutely sore, but by sheer will he managed to hang tight. Without a second to think, he plunged the knife into its eye. It screamed even louder, shaking Davis off of its head. He fell limp to the ground, Louise sliding in and catching him at the very last second.

“Gotcha!” She said, smiling. She looked up to the beast, trying to pull the weapon from its eye. “I’ll take it from here!”

She leapt up, with one hand holding the hammer, the other grabbing onto the furry arm of the monster. She used the grip to launch herself up, far over the head of the monster.

She gripped the hammer with both hands, tight enough to dent the sturdy handle, and aimed, falling and swinging it right down on top of Davis’s knife.

With Louise’s force combined with gravity, it sent the knife right through the eye and into the brain of the beast, the skull shattering with the force of the blow. There was no last howl, as the strike caused it to quietly fall over, face slamming onto the floor. Chips of its shattered skull spilled outwards, and a slow stream of blood trickled from the eye socket. Louise smiled, putting the hammer on her shoulder. She turned to Davis.

“Pretty good for our first cryptid hunt, huh?”

Davis stumbled back to his feet, giving a shaky thumbs-up.

“Now, how are we going to hide the body?” she stared at the unmoving corpse.

“I t-think… W-we don’t have to worry about that…” Davis took a few more deep breaths, coughing. He collapsed back onto the floor, sitting. “E-excuse me. Considering nobody was able to f-find this lair and the w-woods are already pretty off limits.” He took another deep breath. “I don’t think anybody is ever gonna find this.”

“You do have a point… Hey, it saves us a lot of trouble, doesn’t it?”

Davis shrugged. “I-I could always bring back a lot of lighter fluid.”

He pulled out a lollipop from his jacket, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. He sighed in relief.

“Hey, hold on!”

He turned to Louise, her arms crossed.

“You gonna share? I’d like a victory treat too!”

Davis squinted at her. “But these are… Fine.”

“Cherry please, I love that flavor most!”

He pulled out one and handed it to her. She unwrapped it to find it colored orange.

“Hey, I thought I…” She stared at it for a few seconds. It WAS still free candy. She stuck it in her mouth as well.

They sat next to each other, sucking away at their victory treats, with Davis occasionally glancing at the corpse to make sure it didn’t move. Minutes later, Louise got up to her feet.

“Hey, I just realized something.”

“Yeah?”

“Do we remember how to get back to our camp?”