Summary: Sequel to By Gravelight. Troy struggles to return to a normal life after everything he and his closest friends have been through. Tryan Slash.

Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned Disney, I don't. So I don't own High School Musical either.

Warning: This is Slash, which means hot boy on boy action, if you don't like it, don't read it.

Warning: If you haven't read the two prequels, you'll be pretty lost.

Warning: It's horror, so there will be some deaths, but I promise that Troy, Ryan, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, Jason, Kelsi, Sharpay, Jesse, and Joey survive.

Warning: There will be werewolves and other supernatural critters.

Chapter 1

My name is Troy Hunter Bolton, and I don't have any secrets you don't already know about. Ryan insisted I start my part of the story off this way, and I just can't say no to him.

I woke up, someone was leaning against my side, snoring. I opened my eyes and saw a shock of platinum blond hair. I snuggled closer to my boyfriend. It still felt weird to think of him like that, but he's the best thing that ever happened to me.

I looked around the room. Jason and Kelsi were passed out on the far end of the couch, and Gabriella was sleeping on the floor with a pillow.

Sharpay was sitting in my father's chair, her eyes red and puffy. It looked like she'd been crying, but was now chewing on her fingernails.

She saw me move and her eyes darted up to meet mine, and then she looked away.

After so many years of knowing her as the 'ice princess' I didn't think I'd ever get used to seeing her like this. So vulnerable. So human.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

She met my eyes again, but only for an instant. "You should talk to your mother."

Worried now, I disentangled myself from Ryan, pausing to smell his hair and place a kiss on his forehead before going into the kitchen.

Mom and Kelsi's parents were there, having a quiet conversation that died as soon as I entered.

"Mom, what's going on?"

She gave me a sad smile. Her eyes were even redder than Sharpay's.

"Sit down, honey." She stood and offered me her chair.

I sat down.

"Do you want some breakfast?" She asked, heading towards the refrigerator.

"Uh, sure… I guess."

Neither of Kelsi's parents would meet my gaze as I looked around the table.

"You're father… had to leave, honey."

"What?" My eyes focused on my mom, she continued pulling things out of the refrigerator.

I didn't understand what she was trying to tell me.

"When will he be back?"

She turned and looked at me again, with the same sad smile. "He can't come back, Troy. Not for a long time."

My jaw hit the floor. "What?" I asked again.

"The police are going to have questions, lots of them." Mr. Nielsen said.

"We can't just cover everything up. Someone had to take the blame." Mrs. Nielsen said.

"Why him?"

"Troy, the police already suspected him. It's the only way." Mom turned on the stove as she spoke.

"Why didn't he wait? Why didn't he say goodbye?" The only emotion I felt was shock.

"He thought… he thought it would be easier on you this way."

I blinked. I couldn't think of anything to say. I sat in silence for a long time.

Mom set a plate loaded with pancakes down in front of me.

I picked at them.

I wanted to be hurt. I wanted to cry. But my thoughts kept drifting to Jason, sleeping in the next room. How could my grief compare to his. My dad abandoned us to go into hiding. He'd found his father's head lying on the floor of a god-forsaken cave.

A yawn from the doorway startled me.

"Why didn't you tell me breakfast was ready?" Ryan asked in mock anger.

I tried to give him a smile, but failed.

He was at my side in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"My dad left." It hadn't seemed real until I said those words. Somewhere deep inside I still hoped that Mom was just playing some sick joke on me.

"What?" Ryan turned to look at my mom; she avoided his gaze as she had mine.

"Someone has to take the blame." Mrs. Nielsen said.

Ryan nodded, and then folded me into a hug.

At least I still had him.

I hugged him back, holding on to him like an overboard sailor grabbing for a life preserver.

Sharpay came into the room and helped herself to the pile of pancakes growing by the stove as Mom continued to cook.

Ryan pulled back from me, a single tear falling down his perfect cheek.

He turned to his sister. "Sharpay…"

She held up a hand. "I know, Ryan. I heard everything."

He nodded and turned back to me, taking a bite of food from my untended plate.

I reached up and pulled him onto my lap. I craved his presence, his smell, everything about him. He ground his butt against me as he continued to eat my breakfast.

Sharpay sat down at the table. "They bit Joey."

Ryan nodded.

I shrugged.

"How's Jesse doing?" I asked.

"His wounds aren't bleeding any more, and I cleaned all the filth out, at least all that I could. It's in his hands now." Mom said.

"If you find any more hunters, please be sure to let us know this time." Mrs. Nielsen said.

I shot her a glare.

Sharpay nodded. "We will."

I looked at Sharpay like she was an alien.

"What?" She asked before shoveling a forkful of pancakes into her mouth.

Mrs. Nielsen rolled her eyes and stood up. "We're going to go clean the Cross's house. Keep an eye on the kids, Lucille."

She led her husband from the room, and I heard the front door open and close. Just like it must have when Dad left.

A tear rolled down my cheek.

I felt angry; angry at Dad for leaving, and angry at Mom for letting him.

I wrapped my arms around Ryan's waist; at least I still had him. I leaned close to his ear, and smelled him. "You could use a shower."

He turned his head, and mumbled passed a gigantic wad of pancakes. "So could you."

I gave him a wink.

He stood up, and I led him upstairs to the guest bathroom.

"You're going to wake everyone in the house." Sharpay called after us.

As soon as we were in the bathroom I pushed Ryan against the bathroom door, with more force than I'd intended. He didn't seem to mind.

I pressed my lips against his, tasting the fake maple syrup still on his lips.

I opened my mouth and nibbled on his upper lip, savoring the taste of the syrup.

He gnawed for a moment on my lower lip, and then his tongue pressed against my mouth, begging for entrance.

I opened my mouth and let his tongue force its way inside.

I nibbled on his tongue as I had his lip.

He turned, forcing my back against the door.

A moan of pleasure escaped through our kiss. I couldn't tell if it was mine or his, at that moment I wasn't sure there was a difference.

I grasped his head with my right hand, and ran my fingers through his short, soft hair.

I pressed my tongue into his mouth and he let me.

He pulled back and began unbuttoning his shirt.

I pulled off my t-shirt, and unbuttoned my jeans.

Once we were both naked he pushed me again into the door. His hands pressing against my shoulders.

-Cut Sex Scene-

"They're going to kill us for waking them up." He said.

I grinned. "Let them, you're worth it."

He smiled wider and leaned in, placing a chaste kiss on my lips. "We should finish before we use all the hot water."

I nodded and took my bottle of shampoo off the shelf. I lathered his hair up and he did mine. After we were clean we turned off the shower and stepped out. There was only one towel; I let Ryan use it first.

After we were dry, well as dry as I could get from a wet towel, we put our clothes back on and went downstairs again. Kelsi, Jason, and Gabriella all shot us murderous glares as we walked past the living room.

"Well it sounded like you two had fun." Sharpay said as we entered the kitchen, she was leaning back in her chair, an empty plate before her.

I smiled and pulled Ryan into a kiss.

We spent the rest of the day working on our stories while cleaning out our cars.

To my surprise Gabriella and Sharpay had already done a thorough job on both Ryan's car and my truck, but we had to go over them again with a black light, and get as much as blood out as we possibly could. The upholstery was a loss, there's no way to get blood stains out of it, and worse there'd be blood we couldn't even see that had soaked into the padding.

We scrubbed the upholstery with ammonia, so that at least if the police searched our cars, which we hoped they wouldn't have reason to, they wouldn't get any DNA.

The story we were going to tell, which didn't quite mesh with the facts, but it was the best we could do, was that Mr. and Mrs. Cross had gone with my father last night, and none of us had seen them since.

We just had to hope that none of Jason's neighbors had seen who got into whose car the night before, and that none of my neighbors had seen my father leave that morning.

Kelsi's parents took everything incriminating from Jason's basement and hid it in a storage locker they rented under an assumed name, and then took Jason home that night, where he'd call the police and report his parents missing.

He was a mess all day. He just walked around in a daze without saying a single word. I can't even begin to imagine what he was going through.

This left us with only the problem of Jesse.

The police would search our house, everyone was sure of it, and we couldn't afford to let them find him in his condition. He hadn't woken up, we weren't even sure if he ever would, but he couldn't stay at my house any longer. We carried him downstairs with all the care we could, accompanied by Joey's protests every step of the way.

We took them back to Ryan and Sharpay's house, my mother supervising the transport as best she could. After that I hugged Ryan goodbye, and we returned home, just the two of us.