Chapter 6

Cole came up to us looking like we were ghosts, which we kinda were. We had been there silent not moving, because if we moved or said anything Grace would die. It's not true of course but both Sam and I felt that way. What's anyone going to say anyway.

"Heads up" Cole said to us as he dropped two bins into the water. They made a splash that hit we and made me shiver more.

"C-cole?" Sam asked

"Stand on the bins. One might be enough. How heavy is she?" Unlike me and Sam, Cole is all action. Cole is moving to help us.

"N-not" Sam stutters.

"Then you can hand her up to me." Sam and I move pulling grace through the water. Sam needs to turn the bin to make it into a step for Grace to step onto but he can't do it while holding grace. I trust that Sam has Grace and I let go of her and swim toards the bin. I flip but in the process I go under. The muck gets in my hair covering me in the muck and the sensation of being under the water brings back the memories of my dad holding me under the water.

It wasn't a good enough effort the bin is still tuned up and in my minute under the water Cole has gotten into the lake

"Hot damn," Cole muttered as the coldness of the water hits him.

"Better hurry," Sam calls to Cole.

"You think?" Cole says back to Sam.

I get to the pin the same time Cole dose. "Help Sam with Grace, I got this," Cole says his face dripping with sweat and his face looking like he was being stabbed with thousands of needles. I swim back and help Sam hold up Grace.

"Hold it steady, Sam said. L-let me get her and…." He didn't finish. Instead he lifted her out of his arms and into the bin. I felt like we were dealing with a dead girl here. She looked dead like something inside of her had collapsed and died and would never come back to where it was.

"Fast" Cole hissed. Right now we were all clutching the bin like it was saving our lives, not us saving Graces life. "Cole you get out first. Haze and I aren't going to change," Sam says. I'm not getting out. I dont want to change back into a wolf. Not with the hunt going on so strongly. Not with Grace in this state.

"Climb" Sam ordered Cole. I could tell by Cole face that he was turning wolf and fast. "Climb, get out" Sam insists to Cole now pretty much going insane over this. Sam then climbed up the side by jumping onto the bin. He pulled Grace out and laid her out and we could see she was still breathing.

But there was no time for celebration. We were losing our grip on the bin and we were almost falling. Sam grabbed Cole arm and Cole pulled him up. All of them were out of breath but they made a final effort to pull me out of the water.

"Haze," Sam said to me while paying attention completely to Grace. "You're going to change on us aren't you"

"Yes, and I can't stay in the woods. I need to go somewhere safe when I'm a wolf. Or you can keep me cold" I say to Sam I already feel myself changing my head each is strong and I feel fur starting to grow on the bottoms of my feet. Sam starting reciting poetry for Grace and I let myself get caught in the conversation listening to the two voices move.

There are to change creatures here right now I realize. I am turning wolf and Grace is turning human. Sam tucked a towel around graes body and I felt myself become fully wolf.

"Haze" Cole says to me, a newly changed wolf. How about you stay in the shed by Becks house."

"My house" Sam grins. He seems more relaxed now, like the calm after a storm.

"Sam's house" Cole agree's. Sam then scoops up Grace's body and Cole and I follow behind in silence. There's nothing else to say to each other. My brain felt like mush and my memories were hazy- no pun intended. In the forest I would see a squirrel and chase it a few minutes later I would catch up to the boys, and grace.

There is something about having a heart of a wolf that calms me down. The beat of the heart is strong and you are the beat, and I love it. I realize that right now I love being a wolf. We spend all of this time trying to escape wolfs and being them. But the truth is that the wind flying through my fur is the most satisfying thing in the world. Sometimes I wouldn't mind staying a wolf.


When we got home Sam laid Grace out on the couch and started caring for her. Cole helped but then he started blasting music from the speakers. I went the shed, left the door open because if I close I will go insane from being locked up.

I rest the rest of the day. I was tired not only from jumping the river but from changing. My bones ache and my head eachs. My fur is still wet from the lake and my eyes are drooping.

Then I woke up at 7:30 and I was changing. I air was cooling and I was cringing changing three times in a day is not something to be proud of, no matter how cool it sounds. This couldn't become a thing. I can't turn into a nocturnal animal.

You would think with all of this changing that I would be used to and know what to expect but that's not how it works. Sure I expect the pain but that doesn't stop me from screaming like I was getting choked and crying liked I had been electrocuted.

I got up and felt the cool air and and thankfully I saw that Sam had left out some shorts and a tee-shirt out for me. I was glad he went with some cooler clothes.

If I was going to be awake and human I better take advantage of it. I was going to talk to Cole. Today the climb up want so hard. Maybe because I had stopped feeling pain almost. Changing had taken all of my feeling receptors and muted them so when ever I stepped and a nail. Or got caught on something It was more of a nuisance than pain.

"Haze!" Cole said when I climbed into his window.

"Cole, I can't do this. I can't change every night and every morning, there has to be a solution or I…," I don't continue we both know because maybe both of us have come close before. "I was thinking you could get me a cold that would keep we cool."

"Like with the fever and Grace, and Sam." Cole nods. "But I can't inject you with the flu. It's unsafe and it won't give you great results. But I can call around. There has to be a sick kid somewhere in Mercy Falls."

"Thanks, Cole," I turn away trying not to cry. I start to climb out the window, when Cole comes over and hugs me, I hug him back and I know in his arms I am safe. I start to cry onto his shoulder pouring tears onto his shirt. My heart is beating fast.

"Haze," Cole says finally letting go. "Go into the night and be a human that you are. I will get you sick."