“Youngsik!” Luhan screamed against the howling wind. “Get back here! Tell me how to fix my friend!”

“There is no help for him now,” came the reply from somewhere to Luhan’s left. He spun to face the source of the noise. “It’s much too late.” Now the sound was coming from his right.

Luhan found that he couldn’t be sure of the voice’s source as he continued to look for the creature, shielding his eyes against the waves of rain. A thin bolt of lightning cracked far in the distance.

It was impossible to see anything through the heavy rain, which is why it came as a complete surprise to Luhan when something knocked him to the ground, smashing the back of his head into the concrete. He could only blurrily make out the neon glow of the hospital sign as he looked up to see Suho’s face staring back at him, a wicked grin plastered across the hovering face.

“You couldn’t just leave me alone, could you?” he hissed into Luhan’s face. “You four had to take things into your own hands; couldn’t just let me up your friend’s energy in peace.” The beast brought its face closer to Luhan’s bruised one as it continued to raise its voice. “You had to escape and make me follow you! Had to uncover all my secrets and dig up all my old demons!”

The creature pushed down hard on Luhan’s shoulders, crushing him into the asphalt. Its voice began to morph as its face tore and shifted, eventually turning into the disgusting, dog-like countenance from the dead man’s journal. The jaw appeared broken and dislocated, and hardly moved as the abomination continued to screech.

“I may not be human anymore, but I sure as hell don’t want you sniveling, putrid creatures digging around in my woods. In my cabin. In my-”

A deafening boom cut the creature off, and at the same time caused Luhan to close his eyes. All around him, the wind continued to circle as the rain pressed itself into his bangs, flattening them against his forehead. After several seconds, he risked opening one of his eyes, just a crack, to look up at the beast still poised above him.

Something smooth and slick dripped onto Luhan’s cheek, and left a red trail down his neck as it fell to the pavement below. The Skinwalker shivered once before slumping over, falling slightly to Luhan’s right side. Breathing heavily, he dragged himself out from underneath the thing’s limp body, noting the small hole that had emerged on the side of its head. Still on the wet ground, he pulled his knees close to his chest as he swayed back and forth, eyes plastered to the vaguely canid form that was lying in front of him.

He heard footsteps behind him before he was pulled up by two sets of hands, one belonging to Officer Kim, who was holstering his gun, and the other to Suho, who wrapped Luhan in a suffocating hug punctuated with tears of joy.

“Thank goodness you’re okay,” cried the shorter man as he dragged a limp Luhan back into the building, leaving the police officer to deal with the corpse of the thing that had been hunting them for the past several days. Somehow, all of that terror seemed impossibly far away as Luhan was once again washed by the bright lights of the hospital lobby.

Suho brushed the slick hair out of his and Luhan’s eyes as several of their friends ran up to them, visibly overflowing with relief. Chen, who now had a sling supporting his injured arm, was among them, and he was the one who stepped forward to take Luhan’s hand.

“I heard you had quite the run-in with our friend the Skinwalker,” he laughed.

“‘Friend’ is a very strong word,” Luhan replied, the last trails of his adrenaline rush sputtering to an end. “How’s the arm?”

“Sprained, according to the doctor. Nothing worse than that, thankfully.” His eyes twinkled as he smiled from ear to ear. “Kris’ leg is broken in a few places, but it should heal alright. And Xiumin is still in a little bit of shock, but other than that he’s perfectly fine. He even seems to be getting over that already.”

“What about Yixing?”

Chen opened his mouth to give an answer, but was stopped before the words could pass his lips.

“So sorry to interrupt.” A new nurse was approaching the gaggle of happily weeping men as several other visitors looked on incredulously. “But I just got paged to tell you all to head up to his room. Mr. Zhang appears to be…” she checked the small, black device clipped to her waist. “Perfectly fine.”

«««

The half dozen men burst through the doors to Lay’s room, where the remaining members of their group were already gathered around the bed. Pushing their way through, Chen and Luhan saw that Lay had made an entirely miraculous recovery. The scratches across his chest were barely visible, and the bite was nothing but a faint, double-ringed outline on his thigh. He smiled warmly, showing off his dimple, as his friends each took one of his hands in their own.

“You should have seen him before,” said Suho, amazed and almost breathless. “His skin was falling off in chunks.” His fingers lightly brushed up and down the other man’s arm.

“Hey, are you saying I was… ugly, Suho hyung?” teased Lay, his eyes lidded but bright.

“Only for a minute back there,” replied Chanyeol, slapping Lay on the back. “When things got real dicey.”

Lay winced, but smiled through the slight pain, happy just to be alive and with his brothers.

“It is a pretty amazing recovery, though; I have to admit,” said D.O., stepping forward so that he, too, could look at Lay more closely. “It must have something to do with the fact that we killed the Skinwalker that bit you - although I don’t understand how that’s possible.”

“Does anything that’s happened for the past few days seem possible anymore?” asked Kai, earning him several hearty laughs and many nods of agreement.

“So can we all just agree that Lay really does have magical healing powers and leave it at that?” joked Baekhyun.

“It makes about as much sense as anything at this point,” agreed Chanyeol.

“If that’s the case, then I really hope I’m actually able to fly,” groaned Kris, who was lounging in a wheelchair at the foot of the bed. He glanced down at the bright purple cast on his leg.

A few people laughed as the friends split up, congregating into several small groups and starting their own conversations. Luhan found himself drifting toward Xiumin, who was snuggled into a thick blanket on one of the chairs that rested against the wall beside a large window on the south side of the room.

“Hey,” he said, pulling up the chair next to the eldest before taking a seat.

“Hey,” echoed Xiumin as he straightened out a bit.

“Some relaxing, week-long trip that turned out to be.”

“I’ll say,” agreed Xiumin, smiling softly.

Luhan took the older man’s hand in his, intertwining their fingers before lightly tracing an invisible pattern on the scraped but still soft skin of Xiumin’s palm.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply.

“For what?” Xiumin’s ears perked up as he looked at Luhan with wide, calm eyes.

“For everything. For leaving you. For not coming back. For-”

“Lu-ge, it’s okay,” Xiumin stopped him. “I understand. You didn’t even realize that I wasn’t with you. I was just… scared.” He paused to play with some loose fringe on the wool blanket. “That I would lose all of you.”

Luhan looked deeply into Xiumin’s eyes, and saw that they were misting over slightly.

“But, Lu-ge? Promise me one thing.”

“What, Minseok?” Luhan prompted eagerly.

“That you’ll never, ever ask me to go camping again.”

So that's it! I feel like maybe the ending was a little too abrupt, but I wanted to finish on a happy note. Also, honestly, I started this story over a year ago and then put off writing it for several months before I got back to it, so I'm not even sure what my original intentions were as far as plot/conclusion/etc. I like where it headed, though, and definitely had fun writing it, so I guess I can't be too upset.

Thank you all so, so much for reading and leaving comments. I've really enjoyed seeing what you guys have to say, and I continue to be interested in what everyone thinks of my writing - so don't be shy, and feel free to ask any questions. Also, thanks to EXO for being the inspiration for this story; I hope none of the boys have quite this bad an experience if they ever decide to go camping.

Until next time : )