Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Break Of Dawn

(Ending)

***

Dawn broke over Hackett's Quarry in a soft shower of gold.

Warm sunlight creeped across the camp and the woods, banishing the shadows of the night away and transforming it once more into an idyllic place for kids to make many cherished summer memories at, not a place of horrors and death, where monsters stalked between the trees under the silver light of the full moon. A sense of calm filled the camp with the advance of the dawn's radiance, touching all who survived—and all those who didn't.

As four girls who survived the horrific night stepped once more into the golden light of a new dawn.

***

Dawn washed over Sarah, gilding her bloodied skin gold as she stirred from where she laid on the forest floor.

She looked down at herself, blood slicking her naked body and the torn shreds of her clothes, the circular burn of her silver bracelet that not even werewolf healing had fixed wrapped around her wrist, bits and pieces creeping in from the night, hazy in the light of the dawn. The bonfire... the dare... the werewolf's teeth in her shoulder... her slow transformation, then... nothing but impressions of memories through a fog of aggression and animal instinct, of running under the light of the full moon and tearing apart anything that smelled like prey. Even those who were her friends, even the girl she loved so much.

Sarah's eyes widened. Nora.

She had to find Nora—had to find the others. To find Nick. She had to know if she and Nick were free of the curse, or would they face more sunrises waking up naked and bloodied, hazy memories of the night left in their brains. To see if the others had survived, that they hadn't hurt or killed them under the curse.

So Sarah got to her feet and walked to the only place she knew the others who might have survived the night—who she hoped survived the night—might be.

The lodge.

***

Hayden, Nora, Abi, Kaitlyn and Dylan extricated themselves from their tight hold moments before the golden light of dawn flowed in through the shuttered windows.

Hayden let it glide across her face, basking in its gentle warmth, in how it symbolised they'd all survived, bloodied and scarred physically and mentally, but they had all survived. They were all alive.

And so were Nick and Sarah, who were cured, who could be coming back to the lodge right now. Hayden could see her brother again, her brother, the brother she knew and loved, her other half once more returned and completing their set.

They just had to wait.

As she turned away from the sun, Hayden looked at her friends, all alive and in mostly one piece, Nora supporting Abi with her ankle as werewolf's blood still stained her, before she noticed they were all looking at something.

Hayden looked and saw the werewolf had transformed back to human, with a frighteningly familiar face.

Caleb Hackett, staring with unseeing eyes.

Regret surged in Hayden—if they'd stayed inside, if they'd managed to get the van fixed, then maybe his death and Nick and Sarah being bitten and everything else that night could have all been avoided—before she stumbled slightly, remembering now her wound. Dylan caught her with his remaining hand, leading her to a chair while Nora did the same with Abi, Kaitlyn rushing to the nurse's station for any bandages still left.

It didn't take long before she came back, arms filled with bandages, disinfectant and a bottle of water, sunlight haloing her hair, as she bent down and cleaned Hayden's bite—Hayden, perhaps, the only person in the world who was bitten by a werewolf and still bore the proof while still remaining human—with the water and then the disinfectant before winding bandages across the bite, then fresh bandages across the claw marks on her left arm.

As Kaitlyn did that, Hayden caught Nora's eye and offered the knife back to her. Nora shook her head, the answer clear—Hayden should keep it.

It was hers now. She earned it through blood and determination to survive.

Hayden smiled, slipping it into her pocket as she tilted her head to where Abi's bracelet was, Nora nodding as she went to grab it. As she did, Dylan sat down on the other chair and wrapped his arm around her, the stump resting as comfortingly on her shoulder as his left hand once did.

Hayden slumped against him, as Kaitlyn sat beside her, taking comfort in her best friend, in that he was alive, she was alive, they were all alive.

They were alive.

***

Dawn turned Abi's silver bracelet gold as Nora picked it up.

Once it was in her possession, she walked back to Abi and gave it back to her, who smiled thankfully as, finally, she rested her foot on a chair. It was swollen and perhaps it might never heal properly, but that was a small price to pay. A small price to pay in getting through the night and into the new dawn alive.

Squeezing her shoulder, Nora walked away and into the surveillance room.

The screens showing the trails were still glitching and yet Nora looked, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sarah, of Nick for Hayden, human again and always human from now on. But there was nothing and Nora consoled herself that she would have to wait until she saw Sarah again. That they would all have to wait for their friends to return.

She was about to leave when she caught sight of the bloody axe, glinting slightly in the light of the screens.

Nora picked it up, weighing it, before bringing it back with her as she left the surveillance room and back into the dining hall. it had saved her life more than once tonight, and despite its bloody edge, Nora didn't think she wanted to be parted with it, with a weapon that had ensured she would live to see the dawn.

She returned back to the others, collapsing into a chair next to Abi, as she noticed Hayden, arms bandaged, her bite not dooming her with the curse with the werewolf—Caleb, Nora corrected herself, the name a shard of grief in her chest—dead thanks to her and Kaitlyn, and still in Dylan's hold, eyes slightly closed as she rested against her best friend and he leaned against her, Kaitlyn beside her and giving her a comforting look.

A squeeze on her hand came and Nora turned to see Abi, holding her hand and smiling. Nora returned it as, with her other hand, she pulled out Sarah's bracelet and held it, watching it gleam gold in the sunlight.

They would wait for their friends to come back, but Nora would always wait for Sarah to come back to her.

She would always wait.

***

Dawn warned Allison's face as she, Ryan and Laura stepped out of the shadows of the woods. She didn't raise a hand to block out the light, instead letting it pour over her, the sun's warmth and golden light welcome after the light of the full moon, as she could feel it banishing her terror, her sins, away.

For while the Hacketts were all dead with the possible exception of Caleb, and Allison felt a small twinge of regret for that, they had done it. She and Laura had achieved the impossible and killed Silas, curing everyone he ever infected. Curing Sarah. Curing Nick.

Nick would be normal again, never again to turn into a werewolf, to be doomed to turn into a monster every full moon. He would be human and he'd be Nick again, the Nick she loved. The Nick Hayden loved, and Sarah would be the Sarah Nora loved. She'd saved them—saved him. And, perhaps, everyone was still alive. Hayden, Abi, Nora, Dylan, Emma, Jacob, Kaitlyn, they could all be alive. She could have saved them, saved everyone.

In the light of the new dawn, Allison smiled.

Now, all they had to do was take the car and return to the lodge, and wait for the others to arrive.

But that did not seem so bad as she slid her bow over her body and she, Ryan and Laura walked toward the car, Ryan going into the driver's seat before he started the drive back to camp.

Because, in the dawn's golden, welcome light, Allison felt hope.

***

Four girls survived the night. Four girls lived to see the dawn along with their friends and those they loved most. Four girls left the darkness behind and embraced the golden light of day.

And in that dawn light, they and those they cared about, never had to worry about monsters with an infectious curse in their snapping teeth prowling underneath the cold silver light of the full moon again.

It was all, at last, over.

****

Or that's what it seems to be... 

AHHH ONLY THREE MORE CHAPTERS LEFT AHHHH!!!

But seriously, I'm so excited writing the end and giving these girls (and the characters in general) some closure and some much-needed reunions!! But this chapter was just calm as Sarah, Hayden, Nora and Allison just welcomed in the light of dawn and that they'd survived, they were alive and the curse was broken, the shadows chased away forever. It was honestly really nice to write, especially after all the pain and terror I put my girls through 🥰

But next chapter, there's gonna be reunions!!! (and questions. LOTS of questions) including reunions I'm looking forward to the most...

But yeah, in three chapters, this will all be over, so I hope you all enjoy the closure these chapters will bring and the last, final part of this crazy ride

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!