Prophecy of the Starnik

Chapter 2- The Trip

"So guys, I've been thinking…" Dean leaned across the table. This lesson was more of a catch up time, during this time in the school year, finals would be soon. This was one of those lesson were it was time to knuckle down and finish those unfinished essays and pieces of course work. It wasn't one of those strict classes, neither was the teacher, she encouraged everyone to work together, help one another. Just as long as whatever they spoke about was the topic at hand and in front of them. It was a good thing Mrs. M was on the other side of the room dealing with another student. Of course, the three double checked that before listening in. "I'm not doing anything over the term, and I doubt any of you are?"

Looking at on another, everyone shook their heads replying with hushed voices. "Not really."

"Well, I've been thinking that we should all take a trip up to my parent's cabin up in the mountains for the holidays. What do you guys think?"

"You really think we can do that?" Tony questioned.

"Sure, they told me it'll good fun. A time to reflect and relax through these grades."

"I'll admit, I think I could do with something like that now." Skye cracked a grin, clicking her pen a few times.

"It's perfect, secluded, five miles from any town, deep within the forest with a Valley not far away. We used to do hikes around there all the time.

"Well then count me in." Tony Scott said enthusiastically, but silent.

"Then don't leave me behind" Tony added with a large smile.

"Then it's settled, we'll have a week up there, we can do hikes, mess around, not to mention the wildlife up there. It's incredible. "I arrange things with my parents and email you guys the details."

"Wildlife you say? This'll be good for Animal Studies." Scott added intrigued.

"Oh you said it, the moose, a bear every once in a while, there used to be wolves but they aren't around much these days." It was then the bell rang, the natural reaction was the grab their things, sliding them into their bags and, more or less, run out the door and leave, which is pretty much what everyone did.

"I'm genuinely excited about this." Tony said, tapping the table eagerly while grabbing his belongings.

"I'll send you guys the details."

"See you around guys." Skye said patting Scott's shoulder before walking towards the door. She wasn't really one of those girly girls you seen. To be honest, most of her friends were guys. As she said quite often, "I'm just like one of the guys".

Anyway, Scott gathered his belongings and slid them into his side bag. But upon doing it up he came to a startling realisation. "Don't take lightly to this; I'll see you after school." His usual threat, he'd be sat outside the fronts doors ready to either grab him at the door or start following him home with a group of friends. He was afraid of him, no questions there, but he'd still put up a fight against him.

"Hey Tony!" He called to his friend before he walked out the door. "I need a favour again." Immediately he knew what his friends was talking about and had already extended his hands to catch the set of keys thrown at him.

"You got it buddy." He then carried on along his way.

Sam had eyes throughout the school, unlike Scott; he had a large social group. The wrong move or the wrong turn and Sam would be on him like a bloodhound to a rabbit. He had to negotiate the hallways and long corridors without drawing the attention he so didn't want to. This was becoming an art, so it was a piece of cake. Getting from one side of the school to another, walking across the sports gym and opening the fire exit, he peeked outside and waited. Not long after the familiar sound of his Vauxhall Corsa came from the other side. It was nothing special, small and cheap, it got him from A to B. Silently stopping, he smiled and walked straight to the driver's door while Tony shuffled across to the next seat.

"This is becoming a habit." Tony chuckled making Scoot do so as well.

He clipped in his seat belt and readied to pull away when someone shouted behind him. That voice feared by name. "Crap…" He muttered when seeing Sam with his group of buddies coming up behind him.

"Looks like you'll need to find another way out from here on." They were relaxed; they were driving a one ton driving machine. He started to pull away, Sam automatically giving chase on foot. His Lacrosse training made him a fast runner and he was behind him in seconds. But Scott still smiled.

"Check this out." Without warning, the brake light blared, and although he thought his reactions were good, he didn't see this coming. Being right behind the vehicle, Sam's face pressed into the glass with a big thud. It was with a great deal of force to, enough to make him more or less bounce straight off the back and to the floor. Moving away again, Scott and Tony couldn't contain their laughter. Sam however pushed himself up with his elbow with a groan, running his hand underneath his nose to inspect the amount of blood trickling from it and his nose. One of his closest friends came running up behind him, grabbing his arm to help him up, which to when he was up at his feet Sam pushed him away, not wanting to appear weak. "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch." He growled.

"You know that's the worst thing you could've done right?" Tony laughed away.

"That's after term's problem now."

"You know, I don't think saying "sorry" is going to work."

"You know what…I don't think so either." Scott chuckled.

Scott lived on the other side of town, so it took no more then ten minutes to get there. However, along the way they always had to pass one place that sent shivers along their spines. Kalispell Airport. Abandoned now, allegedly, yet lights from inside could still be seen at night, military looking vehicles drove through the main gates, always guarded by armed guards. It was "closed down" after a serious fire enraged inside somewhat thirty years ago, but that wouldn't explain why it was still guarded and people still seemed to be inside. Rumours where it was haunted, hence why the light turned on and off at night and shadows could be seen from the fences. It was a eerie place, whether or not that was true, nobody went in or came out unless those guards at the main gate let them.

On the brighter side, Scott's apartment was located a few minutes away, thankfully not in view of the horrendous building. Tony's home with his parent wasn't more then a couple of blocks down the road. So after pulling up in the parking lot, discussing tomorrow's plans to avoid Sam beforehand, they departed ways. Scott walked up the outdoor steps along the balcony to room 9, where he could finally relax. He leaned back against his door after stepping inside; letting out a content sigh now he could relax. He flung his coat onto the hanging post to his left, his nag on dropped at the foot of it. To the right of the door was a shoe cabinet, onto top a music player already hooked up to a play list. With the press of a button, speakers mounted around the apartment played his favourite music. It was a little place, one bedroom, living room and kitchen as well in one area. Bathroom, complete with shower and bath tub, and that was more or less it. It doesn't sound like much, neither did it look like much, but it was the preferred option compared to the care home.

He's only lived here five months, five months of freedom! No more beatings, money always in his pocket rather then out and in the pockets of others…privacy and independents! This was a, sort of, halfway house. At the age of sixteen a child in care can choose to move out of the home and live elsewhere. If they decide this, they get a steady set of income to support them until they are employed, a check-in once every few weeks and the rest to down to them. At aged twenty one, they're on their own, no matter what their employed status or the situation. Scott had his heart set, his mind made up, everything was planed out.

Evening rolled in pretty quickly; with the sun a hour or two from setting, dinner was already on the go. Asian beef, simple and easy to do. Music still played around him, he even did a little dance while he was cooking just to amuse himself. He turned around to the newspaper on the table behind him, flicking over a page when suddenly the music turned off. Strange, it only did that when someone made it. A man then walked around the corner, a smile on his face. "Is that going to be the only way to get your attention now?"

"Ken? What are you doing here?" Scott asked with his own smile.

"Being a good social worker, as always." Ken here was always one of the good guys, the person Scott could turn to with any problems and such.

"And really?" He wasn't buying it.

"The term's done; I need you to sign your life away." He dropped his bag on the floor, rummaging through quickly before laying a piece of paper on the table. "With your signature, this says that whatever you do to yourself is not my fault." Scott leaned over the table a little more and read through it carefully. In that time, Ken started nosing around, even though he's been here countless times before. "Settling in nicely here."

"Of course, no more sharing rooms, everything in here I can happily call mine."

"It's good to see you happier, you know." He said and turning back around, dropping a pen beside Scott's hand afterwards. "You've really come out of your shell."

"You can thank crap parents for that." He put his mark on the line where it was required before clicking the pen and sliding them both back towards Ken. "And I guess I've got to thank you in a way."

"I wouldn't have done my job properly if I hadn't fine what I have." Ken replied and putting it all back in place in his bag. "So, planning on going anywhere this term."

"Nope, some alone time with some friends." He lied. "Finish studying maybe, other then that, I'll be right here."

"Now when have you ever been that boring?" Ken questioned as they walked towards the door.

"Always, nothing amazing has ever happened in my life, so I guess nothing ever will for a while yet."

The following morning, it was relatively early still. Most would still be asleep on this Sunday morning; but most didn't have an epic trip to get started on. With the help of Skye Scott carried with luggage inside. A week's worth of clothing packed into this suitcase, and a couple of other small bags with utilities and such suggested by Dean. This was his home; his parents were out of town for this weekend so they were sure they said goodbye on the Friday that they left. Being Tony, the more disorganised of the four and the one to always arrive late, Dean offered breakfast, already underway by the time Skye had arrived ten minutes prior to Scott. They shut the door and proceeded inside, through the living room and left into the large kitchen area where Scott took a seat at the table.

"It's good to offer us this." Scott spoke thankfully.

"Be glad Skye's here, she's the one you've got to thank for the bacon. Heck, I burn cornflakes!" He said. Knowing Dean, that was probably about right. How they'd survive this week without starving would be interesting.

"Oh come on, what's so hard about this?" She giggled, bringing over a plate for her and Scott and together they ate while Dean ate his on the side with a map in front of him. He was marking the roads they needed to take, he had one and whoever went in the second car would have this one. Dean had his father's pick-up they left behind for him and Tony was bringing his parent's car luckily he was now insured with.

Ten minutes into their wait now, Tony was still to arrive and everyone was starting to grow impatient. But finally they heard something promising, the sounds of a car pulling up outside, only this one sounds loud, even music could be heard blaring out despite it was on the other side of the house and away some more. Accompanied with a few blasts of a horn, instantly they knew he was here, and at the same time they all spoke. "Tony's here…"

Opening the door now, there he was turning his music off and the engine to step out and slam the door. "You guys won't believe how long I've wanted to drive this thing." He grinned ear to ear. The three simply rolled their eyes and started grabbing bags. Together, they filled up the cars, putting a rough equal weight and amount in both before performing final checks and who went with who. Within fifteen minutes of Tony's arrival, they were locked and loaded and ready to leave town. Skye and Tony and Dean and Scott.

Driving out of town, the fun and games begun once they passed that eerie looking building at the top of the hill. With a couple of playful and careful races down the freeway, this two and a half hour journey wasn't as long or boring as they thought. Until they got lost sue to Dean's leading and Scott's map skill, prolonging their journey by an additional hour. This was one of those journeys, as Dean put it, where when you're in the middle of nowhere that's when they were close. Eventually, the maps ran out of usefulness and they had to rely on his memory when they came to the outskirts of the forest. Trying to remember which of the many off road tracks to head down as the next puzzle, some were trial and error until Dean recognised the little sign he made back when he was five hanging on a tree by the start of the beaten track. There were six cabins located in this part of the forest, but separate from each other, around a miles walk if you wanted to borrow something from one another. Between one another and all around was wild territory, Dean filled Scott in along the way of the potential dangers out here which included bears, wolves and a number of stags that would charge if you went close enough.

They almost hit one of those stags driving along the track towards the cabin; it ran out in front of them at great speed, hardly giving them time to stop. "Damn, that thing came out of nowhere." Scott muttered. But suddenly a second creature appeared; it darted from the right, suddenly coming to a stop in front of them. A wolf, a kind of light brown coloured wolf that gave them a hard glare. Other then seeing them in a zoo once, this was a first for him, magnificent. Dean gave a blast of the horn, spooking it and it ran off in the same direction as the stag to the left. "Now how beautiful was that?"

"That's life out here." Dean answered and after signalling to Skye and Tony behind them they continued on. Driving on through, they were almost there, but behind them a set of hazel eyes peeked through the bushes again and watched them leave. Her instincts may have been good, but this instinctual pull she felt she hadn't experience before. It confused her, something was coming, something was going to happen soon. But what? She didn't like it, she needed to go home now, today's meal was long gone.

It was amazing, everything Scott dreamed of living in one day. He hated living in town, he wanted to live in a place like this, secluded, peaceful. This was a good sized wooden lodged, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, garage, kitchen, gas and electricity. Rooms were called out as soon as they stepped foot inside. Dean called his parent's room, Skye his own and Tony and Scott compromised. Tony would spend the first half of the week in the last room and Scott would take the last few days, if they weren't in the room then they'd be on the couch downstairs in the main room. It was perfect, amazing, it was tempting to just stay here forever.

An hour after arriving, there was nothing to do, there was hours of daylight left so just hanging around when there was a beautiful forest to explore outside wasn't an option. They decided to take a small walk in the nearby areas that Dean knew of. There was a trail that did a nice loop of the forest starting behind the cabin. The four gossiped and spoke about random topics that young teenagers do before things took a different turn when they ran out of conversations an hour into their walk. "Hey guys, I've got an idea." Skye said with a devilish grin. The boys listened in keenly. She then punched Tony's shoulder and darted down the hill to the left. "Catch us if you can!" She screamed when in an instant Scott and Dean darted off in their own directions. Tony took chase after Scott who ran right and up the hill, the thrill of a catch, who'd have thought it would be so entertaining?

They darted around trees together, with the other's long gone Tony had his eyes set on this one person. This forest was huge, if he lost him then there'd be no chance he'd find Scott or the others again. In fact…that was a worry, how would they know when the game was up and to head home? Wait…which way was home? Those thoughts were quickly wiped from their minds when Scott almost ran into a tree. He swerved left, then right to avoid another with Tony copying his actions as he gained on him. Tony was the faster one and they both knew it, but Scott was more cunning. When Tony came within a few inches, he leapt in an attempt to tackle his friend in turn Scott darted left and away, leaving his friend to fall into a pile of leaves. By the time he picked himself up, Scott was running into the distance.

He knew his friend would be behind him soon again, so an extra precaution was needed. He saw a mound coming up, perhaps a hill it might be. He glanced back and Tony couldn't have been more then twenty metres behind him. He quickly ran down the hill where he saw a fallen tree. He jumped over it and landed on his side, quickly scrambling back to hide behind it. He tried to quieten his rapid breathing, it was harder then it seemed, he had to muffle his mouth with his hand when he heard footsteps behind him that passed. He looked to his right, Tony was moving at a fast paced walk in completely the wrong direction along the top of the hill. He took this as a chance to move on and start heading back towards the path, if he could remember where it was anyway, he was sure it was in this direction, further down the hill. If he was wrong, at least it was the direction Skye ran in.

He continued looking around him for signs of his friend, nothing, he spun in circles to make sure he wasn't being crept up on, walking backwards to the point it was a stupid mistake. He suddenly became weightless as he fell down an eight foot rise which felt like he was falling for minutes on end. Never had falling eight feet felt higher in his life. Still, he had to hit the ground at some point, and he did with an almighty thud flat on his back. It knocked all the wind and his breath out of him, he couldn't breath or get up, so he laid their with his hand on his chest for some time. He looked up at where he was standing before he fell; it was dauntingly high from his lying position. He tilted his head back behind him, a large rock protruded out of the rock, so he shuffled backwards painfully so he could leaned against it. Now he regretted giving Tony the slip, he wished someone was here now. So for the time being he'd just have to wait so he could get his breath back.

He checked himself over for wounds, nothing broken, feeling in all his limbs. Cuts, none, bruises...most defiantly, he'd have to put some ice on his head later. As his mind seemed to settle and his pain slipped away, he started to take in his surrounds and instantly his eyes set in front of him. A dark hole in the mound he fell from the top of, some kind of cave is seemed. Curiosity started to get the better of him, he wanted a closer look. Placing his right hand down, quickly reeling it back when he touched a bone, in fact, a pile of the small bones along with a skull of what must have been a rabbit or something of that size. Looking from that to the cave, he started to wonder if it was occupied by something, which only peaked his interest all the more.

He shouldn't be doing this, it was crazy! But he started to find himself taking careful steps towards it. A gust of wind blew behind him, so he turned back behind him where a new topic caught his attention. "Woah…" Dean mentioned a Valley a few miles north east of the cabin, stretching on from east to west. It looked like some sort of massive quarry even. It looked like a bowl within the forest, hills descended down until it made a giant plain of grass herds of caribou sometimes inhabited. That's what he heard from Dean anyway; from this part he could just see a small area of it. Looking down, this rise had to be twice of that of the cave behind him, the rest of the way was a hill that had to have gone down another hundred metres before it reached the flat area of this valley. The view was incredible, if only he had a camera.

Then he heard something, a whine of a dog. He whirled his head around and stepping out of the darkness of the cave was a small pup the size of a medium sized dog. From what he knew about wolves in his Animal Study classes, this one had to be no more then five to seven months old. It was cute in a way. "Well hey there little guy." He smiled. It whimpered and whined again, this time a little louder. It scented the air while watching him, trying to suss out whether or not the human was a threat. Scott held his hand out for it, the gap between them was around eight feet. But then a daunting realisation hit at the precise moment. If baby wolf was here…where was mummy wolf?

Suddenly a loud chilling snarl screeched in his right ear and a much larger wolf leapt from that side jumping before him. He rolled backwards; quickly scrambling away to create as much distance as he could, but that large rock stopped him as he leaned up against it. He was panting hard and fast, fear struck in deep inside his chest, he was paralyzed. The small pup jumped backwards being shielded by its mother who just growled and snarled in his and the pup's direction, a warning and a scolding it seemed. Scott wanted to scream out, shout for help, but the nerve racking fear stopped him from doing this also. It was after what felt like hours of this standoff, when really it was but a few minutes, that he noticed something. It was the same wolf as this morning that jumped out in front of the car! The light brown along the head, back and tail with everything underneath white. Not so "magnificent" now…

Then it did something more then growl, it started taking menacing steps towards him. Once again, he couldn't move, his muscles contracted with the fear locking him to the spot. Six feet, five feet…when it came to just four feet of hackles, teeth and growls, he closed it eyes, which was all he really could move. Eventually, he could feel it breathing on his neck, the deep throated rumble never ending.

The wolf looked back at her pup, she needed to know that the only good human there was, was a dead one. But she was young; there was no need to learn this lesson now. But it wasn't this that made her start to fall silent, a nudge in her head, like something poked her, The more she thought of ripping this whimpering, quivering human apart the more it nudged her. She didn't understand it, but a wolf always listens to their instincts.

He didn't understand what was taking so long, what if he was dead already? What if he opened his eyes and he was sitting on a cloud, at the base of some stairs? But then he noticed the silence, which only added to the notion he was dead. He cracked open one eye, to see not only was the wolf gone from his face, but now looking at him from the den entrance. It still didn't look happy; the last he saw of it was when it turned around and faded into the den. He patted his chest, pinching himself to make sure he was alive and not dreaming. "What the f…" He couldn't believe it.

"Alright Scott…I give up!" He heard his friend's recognisable voice shout. "Well it's about time!"