Payne's Hollow

I8I The After Party

Ian had been kind enough to help Carly back to the main party area, after which he had disappeared without a trace when a group of medics swarmed around her. Carly was aware of a woman with plump cheeks and glasses leading her to a hospital van, one of the many that had crammed themselves into every available space not taken over by police cars. Officers in uniform hurried across the park, which was peppered with the glow of blue and red. The officers helped panic stricken teenagers to their cars, trying to coax them into revealing what had happened. People in white quickly set to work, covering corpses littering the part with white sheets. Others tended to the wounded and the hysterical. Every few minutes, an ambulance would take off, its sirens wailing and momentarily silencing the moans of pain. Amongst the shell shocked babble was the constant back and forth radioing of the authorities as rangers were dispatched to find whatever had terrorized the teenagers.

Carly watched the chaos unfold around her, blurred figures rushing bloody sheets past her as she tried not to look at them too closely. She did not want to recognize the face of any bead body.

\The medic was hastily cleaning and bandaging Carly's injury, going on about how it was going to be okay. Carly, despite the obvious tragedy around her, felt nothing but an odd sense of detachment. She knew it was temporary. It was only a matter of time before the night's events hit her with full force.

"There, all done." The medic said, looking up at Carly with a reassuring smile. "You're really lucky to have gotten away. It'll heal soon enough."
The pain seemed to indicate otherwise, but Carly did not argue. "Thanks." She managed a small, grateful smile, suddenly aware that someone was calling her name. She looked around to see her father in his green forest guard uniform hurrying up to her, looking relieved.

"Carly! Thank God, my little girl is alright." He exclaimed, his arms opening wide in what was obviously a hug. But Carly shrunk back at once, the look in her eyes making her father stop in his tracks. Carly ignored the guilty feeling in her gut as she noticed the crestfallen, but resigned look on his face.

"Sorry." He muttered. "I'm just happy you are okay."

She nodded as he turned to thank the medic. As he did, Carly became aware of commotion in the parking lot. More vans had begun appearing, bright splashes of paint indicating that they were by no means ambulances.
"News teams." Her father breathed as cameramen and pretty reporters piled out, surging through the crowd determinedly. Her normally polite and mild mannered father cursed from behind her.

"We should go, they're going to pester the hell out of everyone."

"But-" Carly stared, but her father was already pulling her to her feet gingerly. He offered his shoulder for her to lean on, but she waved it off, ignoring the concerned and slightly hurt look on his face as she hobbled after him.

They found the car easily, as it was parked well away from the crowd. They drove off without a second thought, leaving the mess of car lights, ambulance wails and dead bodies behind.

They drove in silence for a while, the car interior dark save for the glow of the headlights. Every now and then, police cars and ambulances would thundered by, but Carly was too busy worrying about her friends, sending messages back and forth as she found out that Mark, Ashley and David had gotten away just in time. Overcome by relief, it took her a few seconds to realize her father was speaking to her.

"I know this is not the right time to ask, but I need to get to the bottom of this tragedy." He said carefully, blue eyes similar to her own gazing back at her from the rear view mirror. "Please Carly, can you tell me what happened? What kind of creature attacked your party? I've asked around and all I heard was some nonsense about werewolves."
"That's because it was a werewolf." Carly cut across, staring at her father seriously. "A werewolf attacked the party. I saw it tear apart a boy before my eyes."