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Melanie really needed to learn to silence her phone at night.
It was 1am when Liam called Melanie phone asking to come to the school to study for a bio test and it was 3am when Scott picked her up to go back home. That was when she put her phone on silent.
When they pulled into the driveway, Mel's eyes were barely open. She slowly got out of the car, almost zombie-like.
As she trudged to the front door Brett's sister, Lori, came out from behind the bushes. Melanie let out a scream, almost falling over. Scott came running over from the other side of the car, skidding to a stop when he saw Lori.
"Lori..." Melanie whispered, going to grab the girls hands but noticed a bloody lacrosse stick in one of them. Melanie's heartbeat picked up as she grabbed the hand that wasn't hold the stick.
Lori's eyes were filled with tears and Melanie squeezed her hand a bit tighter. "I found this. It's Brett's, and he's missing, and I heard gunshots." Lori said, her voice shaky.
Scott took the lacrosse stick from Lori and furrowed his brows before he looked back up at Lori. "How do you know this is his blood?"
"Because he's her brother, Scott." Melanie said, looking up at the boy and Lori nodded. "It's mine, too."
...
Scott had called Malia while Melanie called Liam for backup. The five of them headed out into the woods to look for any sign of Brett.
When Liam and Melanie split off from the rest of the group, Melanie felt something hard under her foot. Melanie looked down and moved her foot, her eyes falling on a cell phone. As Melanie bent down to grab the phone, Liam noticed that tree closest to them had been shot at with an arrow.
Liam made a small "pssst" noice to catch Melanie's attention and when she saw the stick, she turned to the direction of Scott, Malia, and Lori. "Here!" Mel yelled.
Melanie stood up when she heard the the three come up behind her. She handed the phone to Lori as Liam looked in the direction the arrow came from before turning to Scott. "I think he set a trap."
Scott smiled, nodding his head. "He's fighting back."
"And now we know he's alive." Lori quietly cheered as she walked towards the tree. She grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of the wood. She sighed at the sight of the blood covering the end of it. "But he's still hurt. We need to find him, he needs to know we're here."
Lori turned around, ready to roar, but Malia put a hand up, stopping her. "You want the hunter to know we're here, too?"
"He's new. We can take him." Liam said, but Malia shook her head again, this time, only watching Scott. "What if Brett howls back? He'll lead the hunter right to him."
Scott pursed his lips at Malia's scenario. "No, we could find him first. There's no human that can track sounds faster than we can. And we've got the advantage, we've done this before."
