It was Krystal’s turn to become pensive as she waited for Seulgi to emerge from the supermarket. She stared at the neon signs and large poster advertisements pasted in the windows, trying to let the news of last night sink in. She had been so worried about Seulgi that the reality of what had happened hadn't quite hit her yet. She was already getting notifications from her work's group chat that they would be short-handed tonight, considering one of their summer hires had just been brutally murdered in the massacre. Would it finally feel real to her when she saw his name erased off the schedule in the back room? Would she finally believe it when they sold out of flowers for the numerous funerals in the coming week? (What was the most delicate way she could tell her boss that they only had one display of lilies left?) When she saw Seulgi finally emerge with a bag full of chicken and fries from the deli, she sighed in relief and slowly reached over the gear shift to tug on the latch of the passenger door, unlocking it from the inside. 

Seulgi carefully climbed in, waiting until the door was shut once more before offering an apology. “I shouldn’t have just blurted out your name,” she said as she passed Krystal her change, “We don’t… really know anything about them.”

Krystal wore the same expression for a wide spectrum of emotions - when she was concentrating, sad, not feeling well, angry, or around strangers - and Seulgi hoped she was getting better at reading the very subtle differences between each frown, but it had been a years-long learning process. The expression Krystal currently wore, unfortunately, defied Seulgi's powers of analysis.

Still, the apology softened Krystal's frown into something more resembling a pout. “I probably would have told them myself anyway,” she admitted. Seulgi fished the box of chicken out of the bag and offered it to her, but Krystal shook her head. “I don’t want to eat here at work,” she grumbled, starting up her car.

Seulgi buckled up seeing Krystal was intent on leaving. “Can you take me to my car, then?”

“Are you going to see Joy?”

“I should,” Seulgi replied, shifting the hot box in her lap as Krystal drove off towards the high school.

“Do you want me to come, too?” Krystal asked.

Seulgi shook her head. “I mean you can if you want, but I’ve known her and Yeri since we were all kids.”

Krystal didn’t respond, understanding Seulgi’s implication. Seulgi’s friends may have warmed up to her a bit recently, but to Joy and Yeri she was still “the new girl” - or perhaps worse, "the ex". In a small, stagnant town like Brinton, poor first impressions could be hard to shake.

Krystal gave a half-hearted smirk. “What a crazy couple of years.”

“Yeah. Crazy.”

Krystal drove the few blocks to the high school in silence, waiting until a slow-moving pickup passed by to make her left turn into the long parking lot. The old school appeared larger than it was; both girls knew that inside the long, L-shaped building, half the hallways were empty with rows of lockers barred off from use and classrooms repurposed for storage. Every year the class sizes got smaller as more families moved away or students dropped out.

Or, in last night's case, died.

But even though it had been a full day since the high school’s graduation ceremony, the parking lot was surprisingly busy, with a couple of police cars pulled up near the entrance. Krystal and Seulgi watched as a few students milled about on the lawn in small groups, hugging each other and talking with their heads together.

“What do you think?” Seulgi asked as Krystal parked. She mindlessly reached into the bag and ate some of the cooling fries.

“Maybe there’s a crisis center inside?” Krystal offered, reaching into the box on Seulgi’s lap for a piece of chicken.

Seulgi's attention was drawn to her friend. “What about you, though? How are you?”

“Me?” Krystal asked after a beat. “I’m fine. You were the one who was at the party,” she rebutted. “I should be the one asking.”

Seulgi shrugged, realizing she still had her seatbelt on. She clicked the buckle and squirmed out from under the belt as she sought for an answer. She was tired and still in a bit of shock. Once she had left the forest and made it back into town, there had been no real evidence of the violence from the night before - nothing concrete to confirm that Yeri’s brutal massacre hadn’t just been some terrible nightmare.

Not until Seulgi had seen The Ones from the Lake again anyway, walking through the middle of the police station lobby with perfect ease.

“Irene,” she muttered aloud, recalling the Garou’s name.

“That Garou at the station?” Krystal asked, not at all surprised that Seulgi ignored her question. Even in the best of times, Seulgi always tried to handle things by herself and not burden her friends.

“Garou? Is that what they’re called down in LA?” Seulgi asked, glancing over curiously.

Krystal shook her head. “That’s what they call themselves. It’s like French for 'werewolf', or something.”

Seulgi had never heard her dad call them that before. They had always just been The Ones from The Lake, whenever she'd hear them mentioned at all. 

“I don’t think she liked me much,” Krystal mused after a moment.

“Do you want her to like you?” The note of mild surprise in Seulgi's voice drew a small smile from Krystal.

She raised one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t know. I mean she seemed to know Jessica.”

Seulgi gave a light nod, letting her hands rest around the long-forgotten box of chicken.

“Or knew her, I guess,” Krystal added very quietly. And not for the first time did Krystal wish her sister was still around.

Seulgi didn’t want to point it out, but she hadn’t been able to help also noticing Irene’s aloofness towards Krystal. And maybe it was because she knew Jessica. She wished she had had the courage to ask Irene more questions. She wanted more closure about Yeri’s new situation at the Lake. She wanted to understand more about the members of her family no one ever wanted to talk about. She just... wanted to see her again.

The fake leather groaned as Seulgi’s figure slid a bit lower in her seat and she let her forehead rest against the window, thinking about a small girl with long black hair and cold, predatory eyes.

A loud knocking on her window startled her out of her dangerous train of thought.

“God!” Krystal swore.

“Yo!” a muffled voice called from outside.

“Is that…?” Seulgi asked.

“Amber…” Krystal answered, a frown firmly planting itself on her face as a wide smile broke across Seulgi’s.

+++

“Everyone’s looking for you,” Yeeun called out, sitting on a section of damp tree trunk that had been set up as a sort of stool beside an old fire pit. She had been quietly enjoying the end of the morning, watching the noontime sun burn off the last of the fog as she waited outside Taeyeon's cabin.

Taeyeon changed directions from walking towards her door to head over to the sept alpha. She stopped on the opposite side of the ring of burnt stones and followed Yeeun’s spaced-out gaze to the ash melted into a paste from last night’s rain. “I left for a day and suddenly everyone wants to talk to me?”

Yeeun shrugged. “You didn’t tell us where you went.” She tilted her head against her shoulder and looked up at Taeyeon. “I’m used to Sunmi wandering off, but you?”

“Maybe I wanted to take a walk.”

Yeeun made a derisive noise. “Uh, huh. Well anyway, I suppose it just figures that the minute you decided to ‘take a walk’, all hell breaks loose in town.”

Taeyeon met Yeeun’s appraising gaze. “The Wyrm?”

Yeeun shook her head. “A frenzy at some sort of party. Eleven kids died. I sent the Red Song pack to deal with it and pick up the new pup.”

Taeyeon listened with appropriate concern. “Were they able to handle it?” Their numbers in the Sept were the lowest they’d been in years; sending their newest pack out to take care of a frenzied werewolf was dangerous, but she realized disappearing like she had must have left Yeeun without any other options.

Yeeun sat back on her hands on the old section of tree, feeling the crumbling wood press into her palms. “Yeah, they were fine, and you know who they brought back with them?”

“The pup you mean?”

Yeeun nodded. “It’s Yeri. She’s here.”

Taeyeon looked around suddenly, as if expecting to see Yeri right there amongst the cluster of cabins near the Lake’s shore.

“She’s with Yubin and Sunmi,” Yeeun stated, answering Taeyeon’s unspoken question. “That’s really why we’ve been looking for you.”

So her sister was here. It had happened. They had both turned.

“Sit,” Yeeun admonished, scooting over so they could share the seat, but Taeyeon ignored her, her eyes slowly wandering as she fell into her own thoughts. “Or… don’t, I guess.”

“How is she?” Taeyeon asked.

Yeeun smirked faintly. “She’s Garou, Tae. She’ll be okay.” She gave a short laugh. “She'll get over it, just like the rest of us.”

Taeyeon appreciated a bit of cynicism as much as the next supernatural murderer, but this was her sister they were discussing. A glance over to catch Yeeun’s knowing gaze told her that behind her light demeanor, the sept alpha understood.

“I know you’re probably in a hurry to go see her,” Yeeun continued in an easy, if slightly sarcastic tone, “But I’m still curious about where you went.” She could tell Taeyeon was beginning to tune her out, probably searching for Yeri’s scent somewhere in the camp, but she wasn’t going to let her get away that easily.

Taeyeon swung her gaze back to the sept alpha. “I guess this is the part where I confess I wasn't taking a walk," she began in a quiet voice.

Yeeun simply raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue.

"I was pulled into the Umbra again.”

“By who? A spirit? Did Snow Leopard summon you?” Yeeun asked, leaning forward, all mirth gone from her voice.

Taeyeon finally came and tiredly sat on the small bit of stump Yeeun had reserved for her and sighed. “It wasn't Snow Leopard, it was someone else. It was about the compass... and Daniel.”

“Kang Daniel? That poor pup?”

Taeyeon held Yeeun’s gaze until the sept alpha’s eyes widened in understanding.

“... .”

The smell was overpowering. A normal human would have picked up on the distinct odor of meat right on the edge of decay but for a werewolf, all was blood and flesh. It was almost enough to drive Taeyeon into a frenzy, the feral part of her heritage clawing at her remaining faculties, begging her to give in to her most primal urges.

The desire to kill.

But the one sense that was keeping her focused was her hearing, assaulted by an incessant clicking noise, a chittering of sorts, echoing down the long, dark, subterranean chamber. She followed it, the footing almost familiar to her by this point, even in the gloom. It wasn’t the first time she’d had been pulled into this domain, and she knew what was waiting for her at the end.

Taeyeon knew she was in the Umbra. She had somehow been pulled from the Lake straight into the Space Between before she could even consider resisting. And if she had had any warning about where she was going to get pulled to, she definitely would have fought.

The cavern itself was something Taeyeon tried not to think too much about: the terrain was soft and spongy, the walls a ruddy pink, and if Taeyeon slowed her pace, she could feel it through the soles of her feet. She could feel it all the way up through her legs and deep in her chest; the whole place pulsed.

As she made her way farther into the reaches of what she tried to convince herself was just a cave, she reached a large open area, dimly lit from a source beyond the thin, membranous ceiling high above. Like stalactites grown clear down to connect with their counterparts on the floor of the cavern, pillars of that same throbbing substance the walls and ground were formed of interrupted her path. She threaded her way through the room with clenched fists, drawn on by that feverish clicking noise to the sole resident of this nightmarish lair.

“Ah, the small Garou graces me with her presence once again,” a hiss of a voice issued from the shadows. An incredibly large, bulbous figure barely kept back out of the faint red-pink glow from the ceiling.

The persistent stench nearly made Taeyeon’s knees buckle even as watered - though whether it was from the urge to sink her teeth into some fresh kill or to vomit, she couldn’t be sure.

“Why am I here again?” Taeyeon asked through gritted teeth.

Another long, wet hiss. A laugh? A sigh? Taeyeon didn’t care. The creature spoke again: ”Because you didn’t heed my previous warning. Was I being too obtuse for your mortal mind?”

Taeyeon’s lip curled, the whispers of the Beast inside of her egging her on to violence.

“Tut, now you’re angry with me. Snow Leopard’s children always have such short tempers,” the figure clicked, shifting its massive weight. Taeyeon caught a glimmer of glistening chitin in the dull light - mandibles? “Although,” the figure continued, a hint of laziness in its whispery voice, “if I had lost my precious heirloom, I suppose I too would be very quick to anger.”

“If you know where the Compass is, just tell me!” Taeyeon spat. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand this place before she succumbed to a frenzy.

“Now, now, don’t be rash. I have every intention of telling you what I know, but I’ll be honest with you, little one. You don’t seem terribly interested in retrieving your precious Compass. Will I just be wasting my breath?”

Taeyeon took a deep breath through , trying not to growl in her waning patience. “If you tell me something useful this time, then maybe I can find it.” Last time Taeyeon had found herself in this damp, pulsating cave, the figure had only told her that the compass had gone missing - no, she paused to recall - that the compass had been stolen.

“My, so impatient. Just try to remember that I’m telling you all of this as a favor, little Garou, and not out of the kindness of my… well, heart for lack of a better word. I could have kept this little secret all to myself, but out of respect for your little sept, and all of Gaia's chosen warriors, of course, I thought I’d reach out to help.”

“What do you mean a favor?” Taeyeon asked suspiciously.

There was a rattle and clicking that was probably supposed to be some form of a laugh, and the bulbous figure shifted again. It’s head was fully visible now, towering a dozen feet over Taeyeon, and she could see that she had been right about the chitin. Like some massive, bloated tick, the figure loomed into the light excitedly, and almost more disturbing than its tangle of dripping mandibles for a maw, was the fact that Taeyeon couldn’t see any eyes on its head.

“I’ll expect something in return for what I know. Nothing major; I just may have a bit of housekeeping for you and your pack later. Tit for tat, you understand,” the tick hissed.

“And how do I know you’re telling the truth?” Taeyeon continued, still searching for the creature's eyes.

“How about this: I will tell you what I know, and you will be free to go find your heirloom. If I am wrong, then you are no worse off than you are now, hmm?” The tick-like figure scooted its obese form closer to Taeyeon and leaned down so that they were practically face to face. “But if I’m right, then you will agree to perform one simple task for me in return for my generosity.”

Taeyeon swallowed a gag as she was assailed by a fresh wave of the scent of blood from the giant tick. She desperately wished Sunmi were here to help her think through the proposition. What did this creature stand to gain by asking for help from the Garou? What could it lose if Taeyeon refused? Taeyeon knew what she stood to lose if she didn’t accept, however. After everything the Sept of the Sacred Shore had gone through, the Compass was no longer just a valuable , but the last gift she had ever received from her.

And Taeyeon couldn’t help but think that this parasite seemed to fully understand its importance.

“Fine. If you’re right, my pack owes you one,” Taeyeon finally agreed, crossing her arms. “Now tell me what you know.”

“You made a deal with Tick?” Yeeun sputtered, ghostly pale. “You just… went ahead and made a deal with Tick?” The sept alpha grabbed a fistful of Taeyeon’s shirt and stood, dragging her up to her feet. “Are you out of your mind?”

Taeyeon half-heartedly tried to shrug out of Yeeun’s grip. “He's just a minor spirit? That insect was probably lying, anyway.”

Yeeun wasn’t so sure, and from the way Taeyeon was dodging her gaze, she could tell the other alpha knew better.

“You’re coming with me. We need to go see Sunmi right now,” Yeeun insisted, and Taeyeon didn’t even resist as she was forcibly pulled along. She hadn’t even told her the worst part.

+++

Seulgi practically jumped out of the car to give Amber a hug while Krystal took her time. When she finally straightened up and turned to face Amber across the roof of her old subaru, she was greeted by the aperture of a camera.

“Gotcha!” Amber called over with a click, watching Krystal through the viewfinder.

“Ugh.”

“What are you doing here?” Seulgi asked, intercepting the conversation before Krystal could think of an even less enthusiastic response at seeing their old friend.

Amber flashed a ready smile at Seulgi and tousled her hair. “Summer internship,” she replied, using the camera in her hand to gesture at the school. “The paper agreed to let me write and take pictures for them to help build my portfolio.”

“For free?” Krystal asked with a raised brow.

Amber shrugged. “Better than spending the summer wearing a little paper hat and asking people if they want fries with that.”

“I wish this town had a fast food place I could work at instead of the gas station,” Seulgi grumbled dourly.

“What happened to the forest service thing you were doing?” Amber asked with a frown.

“That was just for one summer,” Seulgi said, lowering her gaze. She almost stopped there, but didn’t want to leave Amber with such a clipped answer. “It was just data entry anyway, stuck in that tiny building on the end of town all day. I can’t stay cooped up like that,” she added, and it was the truth; Seulgi couldn’t stand wasting an entire summer stuck indoors.

Amber nodded sympathetically. “Come take pictures with me,” she suggested. “Or you can help me clean them up after.”

Seulgi gave her a weak smile. They had become close in high school after joining the Photography Club together, but while Amber had left town to pursue her passion, Seulgi had been left behind.

“Thanks, but-”

“Nooooo,” Amber interjected, not willing to put up with whatever excuse Seulgi was about to offer. “Come on, Seul. You don’t have a few hours a week to help me sort through all the crap I got on here?” she goaded, hefting her camera.

But while Seulgi had other reasons for not wanting to get involved in Amber’s work with the paper, she finally relented. “Alright, alright, I’ll text you when I’m free.” She did miss Amber after all. Maybe it could be like old times. And speaking of old times...

"So, are you two still…?" Amber asked curiously, startling the other two girls.

"No, we-"

"Not since-"

"- right after high school-" Krystal and Seulgi hurriedly explained, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh, uh... sorry," Amber replied. "It’s a real shame, though. You seemed pretty good together," she added, recovering quickly with a smile.

Seulgi swallowed her reply, keeping the fact that Amber was the only one of their friends who thought so to herself. Krystal was similarly silent.

After her blunder, Amber took to fiddling with her camera over risking any more small talk.

"Are you going to Joy's?" Krystal prompted Seulgi after a moment.

"Oh, yeah," Seulgi muttered. She gave Amber another half-hug while she fished around in her pockets for her keys. "I want to check in with her and make sure she's doing okay..." Seulgi stopped herself there with a sudden realization.

"What a freak accident," Amber commented somberly, resting a hand on top of her head.

Krystal and Seulgi exchanged a look, neither one of them confident enough to ask what Amber meant - or what she had been told as a reporter for the paper. It was different for Amber. It had always been different, since she wasn't Kinfolk.

"I'm actually going inside to take some pictures and talk to Changmin. He's managing a crisis center here in the gym," Amber said, hooking a thumb at the school behind her. "You know, counseling and stuff." She let out a dry laugh. "I don't think either of us thought we'd ever have to deal with something like this. Not here, anyway."

"It's crazy," Seulgi commented evasively, her exhaustion returning. She had always hated leaving Amber in the dark growing up.

"Although,” Amber continued thoughtfully, “I guess we said that about Yeri's sister, too. After that, I suppose anything's possible."

Krystal gave Seulgi a little push at the small of her back, prompting another goodbye between the three of them. But before Krystal climbed back into her car, she gave Amber one last mixed expression. "For what it's worth," she said, "- you know, despite the circumstances - it'll be nice to have you back."

"Yeah?" Amber asked with her goofy, llama-like smile.

"...Yeah," Krystal admitted with a small smile of her own, though she was already regretting even mentioning it.

+++

"Mimi!" Yeeun called as she dragged Taeyeon into the clearing. "Sunmi, Taeyeon was pulled into the Umbra again. Talk to her," she added, giving the petite alpha a little toss in Sunmi's direction.

Sunmi disentangled her long limbs from the pipe corral just in time to catch Taeyeon before she stumbled into her.

"I can walk...!" Taeyeon protested.

"Then walk over there," Yeeun instructed, pointing to a place a little ways away from the training pen. "Tell her everything you told me, and then we'll try and figure out what to do about your little bargain..."

"Bargain?" Sunmi asked worriedly, and Taeyeon merely responded with a sheepish shrug.

As she turned towards the edge of the clearing to discuss the issue more privately, however, Taeyeon's attention was diverted by the sight of a certain familiar teenager in the training pen, currently trying to avoid the snapping jaws of two light-colored wolves: Yubin, Hyoyeon, and "Yeri..."

Sunmi wore a sympathetic expression, but gently tugged Taeyeon's arm. "They're just showing her the basics. Come on, tell me where you went."

Taeyeon relayed the story to Sunmi dutifully, though as she approached the part about the deal she struck with Tick, her tone became hesitant and guilty.

“Yenny wasn’t kidding,” Sunmi murmured, blowing out a breath as she took in the information. “That was definitely Tick… I guess the good news is that Tick is kind of neutral. He isn’t a patron spirit of the Garou, but he also isn't a servant of the Wyrm… yet.”

“But that’s not all,” Taeyeon continued, trying to push past her own regrets regarding Tick. “The spirit told me who has my Compass.”

Sunmi leaned down, her face quite close to Taeyeon’s in her excitement. “Well? Who?”

“Daniel.”

Sunmi blinked at her for a moment, then slowly stood up straight.

“Tick said Daniel took it when he left the Sept.”

Sunmi tapped her lip with her finger as Taeyeon went on.

“I thought he just… couldn’t stay after everything that had happened. You know, after losing his whole pack. I thought he had just decided to leave...”

“But why would he take the Compass if he just wanted to get away from this place?” Sunmi interrupted. “If it were me… that would be the last thing I’d want to have with me if I was just trying to run away.”

Taeyeon paused to reel in her straying thoughts. “That’s what I think, too. We all just let him go, thinking the same thing, but what if we made a mistake?”

Sunmi tilted her head down and pursed her lips. “We can’t let him keep it.”

Taeyeon already knew that. She didn't want to admit what she'd do to get it back, even if it meant challenging the poor boy. “So…?” Taeyeon led, though she suspected she already knew the answer.

“We have to get it back. We need to go after him,” Sunmi said pensively.

“It’s been days, he could be hundreds of miles away by now,” Taeyeon sighed, but her breath caught as her wandering gaze settled on the training pen where an exhausted Yeri was staring back at her, her expression a mix of anger and fear. As Taeyeon forced herself to inhale and fix her own expression into a soft smile, Yeri's gaze remained tempestuous.

“He still has family here. We can start by asking them...” Sunmi posited, then trailed off, seeing that Taeyeon had abandoned the conversation.

Taeyeon walked away, back towards the pen. Yeri was so much older now; she was practically an adult. How many years had it been, again? Too many, Taeyeon thought, but from Yeri’s dark expression, perhaps not enough.

As she carefully rested her hands on the cold fence, watching ash-colored fur slowly cover Yeri’s arms and fangs lengthen between her frowning lips, she had to laugh. This was going to take some work, and they should probably get this over with. Hyoyeon and Yubin soundlessly slipped out of the pen in their wolf forms as Taeyeon climbed inside, dropping onto the packed sand heavily.

“Hey kiddo,” Taeyeon greeted with a small wave. She rolled her eyes and sighed as Yeri dropped onto all fours, her clothing splitting under the stress of her transformation. “Well,” Taeyeon muttered wryly to herself as Yeri charged at her with a vicious snarl, “so much for a heartwarming family reunion.”