Night 49: End of the Forest of Nightmares

--- Jon ---

“Think any of them are still following us?” Audrey asked, looking back at the tree line they’d just burst through moments before.

“I can’t hear anything.” He told her, before glancing at Wolf. “How about you?”

His canine companion tilted her head for a moment before shaking it.

“Well, either way now that we’re out of the forest I doubt they’d keep following us.” Audrey admitted.

“Yeah, especially since it’s looking like most of the force they’re building is hiding out there.” He nodded, before frowning in thought. “Shouldn’t we report that?”

“We will, or I will when I call them out here to see how many of the Creep corpses we can collect in the daylight.” Audrey assured him. “Sanctuary, The Hero’s Guild, and the Hunter’s Association all track Creep encounters to try and track Bleed activity. So reporting it is a natural part of collecting the bounty in most cases.”

“So then shouldn’t they know where the Creeps are nesting already if they do this every year?” He asked, crossing his arms.

“Uh, yes and no.” Audrey answered with a so-so gesture. “You remember how they cycle the seal between the three cities? That mixes things up for them a bit.”

“Ah, I get it. Moving the seal vent changes their migratory patterns.” He realized. “And if they don’t simply alternate -say clockwise- then that increases the number of possible patterns. What’s more they probably can’t figure out a control since they need to manipulate the variables to keep everyone safe.”

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go with all of that.” Audrey nodded, pulling out a rolled up… something before noticing him looking and offering it to him. “Want one? It’s organic.”

“Uh, I’m good.” He grimaced, taking a step away from her knowing from walking around his school he couldn’t stand the smell of anything smokable. (Save burning meat.)

“Suit yourself.” Audrey shrugged, lighting her joint before closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. When she opened them back up there was a faint glow to her eyes. “Alright, well getting back to actual business. Given how spread out the Creep Corpses are, a fair few are going to be cannibalized or melted by morning. Meaning we’re probably not going to be able to collect the bounty on all of the ones we killed tonight.”

“Well, the money ‘s nice but it’s not why I’m doing this.” He admitted, not honestly caring how much they made.

“Maybe but I’m still running a business on my end.” Audrey reminded him as she pulled out her phone. “Though from the looks of it, even splitting the numbers between us we’ve got more kills than Artemis and Val tonight.”

“How many did they get?” He asked.

“Artemis got a couple of fliers over in the suburbs, while Val took out one of those werewolf creeps and one of the insect ones too.” Audrey told him, continuing to go through her phone. “So all in all, if I include you, The Southside Coven is looking at somewhere between ten and fifteen grand for the evening. Not bad for a bunch of high schoolers.”

“I guess not.” He agreed, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck. “Though I’m not sure what I’d do with that much money myself.”

“Whatever you want, though I’m probably going to have to spread it out since like I told you these big events are more the busy season than the actual income averages. Meaning me and the girls have to use this as seed money to get us a more professional set-up, if we want a more stable income through the year.” Audrey explained as she frowned at something. “If we each kickback half of our bounty then that means we need roughly a hundred bounties by the end of the Haunt. Most years the hunters only collect around three hundred between all the teams, but since this is our seal year that number should double and given how the actual Haunt peak is in a few days… Even accounting for the rapid fall off after that, we might just barely be able to set ourselves up for the year without having to throw everyone’s plans off.”

“That’s uh, good?” He guessed, just barely understanding everything the other teen just said.

Audrey blinked as she turned back to him. “Oh, uh, sorry about that. I was just thinking aloud.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged.

Audrey shook her head. “Right, um, where were we? Oh, right, the bounty collecting. I’ll add your cut to the money I’ll be giving you once they cash us out at the end of the Haunt, but given how Halloween is right around the corner I’m probably not going to be available until after since I’ve got to restock and recharge as much as I can before then.”

“Yeah, it’s probably not the best idea to get into anything before then.” He nodded.

“You handled yourself pretty well today and in the storm drains. If you want on Halloween you can meet up with me and the girls to see how much of the final wave we can collect?” Audrey offered.

“That’s nice of you, but I’ve got this uh, family thing at the police station on Halloween so I don’t think I’m going to be getting involved in the actual Haunt.” He admitted.

“Really?” Audrey frowned before sighing. “That’s a shame, but it’s your life so you do you.”

He ran a hand through his hair, before telling her, “I’d offer for you guys to come to our haunted house but you sound like you’re going to be busy.”

“Yeah, but hopefully it’ll be a profitable little venture.” Audrey nodded before looking at the sky. “Fuck, it’s getting late. If I’m going to be dealing with Sanctuary’s garbage I need to head home and crash.”

“Uh, yeah, it’s been a long night.” He agreed, despite being used to staying up far later when he had to.

“Then I’ll be off.” Audrey told him with a wave before turning to leave. “Night.”

“Night!” He called back, before looking at a nodding Pix and a yawning Wolf. “Guess we should call it a night too, huh, girls?”