Hello everyone! I have another exciting installment to our story.

Challenge King: I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter.

Gdayshadyrusher: He showed up just in the nick of time.

Yes, it was Bissette the entire time, though I did hint at it earlier when she lied about what happened to Courtney when people started getting concerned about her. Why is she behind it? You'll have to keep reading.

Monsters are actually human, a twist to the inspired work.

Twilight Warrior 627: You know that Courtney is dead and she lied about her then had to do something to take care of Sinjin when he started looking.

I decided to give a twist in why Freddie's dad isn't around and the title is 'iHunt the Animal' and so far, it's been the animals hunting them.

Fanfic-Reader-88: He literally is Superman in my 'Dark Dame' story, which I have to get back to before the end of the month.

I was debating until the very last moment before posting whether or not to have that scene at all with Jessica. If you recognize the name she called out, it's the same character that she wanted to avenge in the second story of my Jade: The Vampire Slayer stories. Also, her last name is 'Wolfe', so…

Tori ran into Miss Bissette and she just clobbered the mess out of Tori. Whether she's one of the actual animals or not, you'll have to keep reading.

Trina is ready to kill him for what 'Rex' did and she's not having any of it.

I watched SDRR and the next morning looked at replay for LSB.

Okay, on with the story.

Rating: T, Language

Chapter 11

Jade and Freddie were making good time even at the leisurely pace back to the ranger station. There was no point in running and Jade was tired and sore from all the running and falling. She figured she was going to have more than a dozen black and blue bruises over her body by the morning if they hadn't already started forming. She just wanted to soak in a warm bath and relax for a week—or maybe in Tori's Jacuzzi and be boiled for a witch's stew if the girl would allow her and that them finally letting out what they thought of each other actually had turned their relationship into outright and open enemies.

The dark haired actress had remained close to the Seattleite as he had asked and found she was giving him glances more and more often as something was gnawing at her.

They were more than halfway to the station when she softly uttered, "I'm sorry."

Freddie turned his head with a curious gaze and asked, "For what?"

"For… kind of flirting with you earlier. If I led you on in any way, I'm sorry, I was just… I appreciated the attention you were giving me and maybe I was… trying to get under Tori and Beck's skin. It's kind of obvious she likes you, maybe more than a friend, so it was an easy thing to mess with her with it and Beck… it would be nice if he would show some jealousy every once in a while instead of it always being me—then getting chizz for it. I guess I was using you for that with him."

Freddie bashfully grinned to her over his shoulder and answered, "It's alright. I kind of figure there was a reason that you were that friendly. I know a girl like you would really be interested in a guy like me."

Jade grabbed his elbow and brought him to a stop and face her. She slightly knotted her brow and pursed her lips. "What do you mean by that?"

Freddie slightly tilted his head and answered, "Come on Jade. You're a beautiful, smart and talented girl and though you have a rough exterior—something I'm used to handling—you… there's something there, something good and that is attractive to people if they get a chance to see it and I'm the nerdy, geeky guy that if I'm lucky I get a pity date or because I'm kinda famous from the webshow—those fangirls are not wanting me for me."

Jade snorted out a laugh, causing Freddie's face to knot in confusion. The inspiring actress briefly thought on Tori's words about André supposedly seeing such a thing, but brushed it aside and explained with a smile still playing on her lips, "Do you realize how good looking you are? Throw in the brains and that gentlemanly charm…" She pinched his bicep through his jacket sleeve as she finished, "…you're a packaged deal."

The Seattleite licked the inside part of his bottom lip and glanced away while smiling. He patiently replied, "Gentlemen and nice guys finish last these days. A lot of girls want the bad boys that have no problem disrespecting them and discarding them without a second thought. They think that it's sexy and perhaps think they can change the guy, they can tame him. "

The remarked hit a little close to home about the willingness to take the disrespect by some, but Jade tightly smiled then licked the front of her top teeth before answering, "I'll admit there are plenty of girls that would want that and I think they're being stupid, but what girls are worth having—when they mature enough—want a strong guy that will be there for her and respect her. I know one particular girl that would appreciate such a guy after her past failures… a brunette that looks pretty from certain angles… and you know, in another life… in other circumstances…" She smiled as her voice became teasing, "…who's to say I wouldn't have made my run at having this pretty little chunk of boy?" She licked her lips and slightly tilted her head to accentuate her point, "So there is someone good out there for you."

Freddie chuckled at her teasing more than the actual prospect of them a possibility in another life. "I appreciate it. I really do."

Jade returned the smile, something that she didn't share that often, and answered, "You're welcome and I mean it."

The shared smiles for several more seconds then Freddie turned to continue leading the way to the station.

After another minute, they were approaching the tree line and back of the ranger station when Freddie crouched down and shouldered his shotgun to look down the sights. Jade followed suit and kept a hand on his right shoulder.

He whispered before he cleared the tree line, "One last thing."

"What?"

"I do want to say that I would be a pretty lucky guy in one of those other universes… I'm showing off my nerdy/geeky side, but I don't know how much they cover this in your science class, but there is this theory about the behavior of subatomic particles that all the possibilities for their behavior each actually takes place in a separate universe, so… if that's true, there is a universe where… we did happen."

Jade softly smiled and whispered in return, "Interesting thing to know… and I'd be a lucky too."

Freddie motioned his head towards the station and spoke with a grin, "Okay, stay quiet and prepare to run if you have to."

Jade wanted to argue with him about what sounded like abandoning him if necessary, but she remained silent as she figured out he was as stubborn as Tori. She actually felt a twinge of pity for him and Tori if they got into a lover's spat as they may never resolve a disagreement.

As Beck and André carefully rounded the lake and made their approach to the Ranger Station armed only with hammers used to construct the stage earlier in the evening, they heard in the far distance several echoing booms somewhere far behind the Ranger station.

They stopped in their tracks and André voiced the obviously question, "Was that a gun?"

Beck slightly turned his head to try to pick up the sounds better with his right ear and darted his eyes back and forth. "It sounded like it. Maybe one of the rangers was actually out here and got one of them."

André sardonically remarked, "Or it got him."

Beck held back a biting remark about how 'optimistic' André was sounding, still expecting to die. "Come on."

The long haired actor picked up the pace and the pair of friends finished rounding the lake and slowed down when they spotted the station several yards in front of them. They cautiously approached, their respective eyes darting all around to pick up any sign that they were approaching a trap. They could see in the distance that the top of the front door was literally smashed.

Beck's hope faded of Jade finding safety inside the cabin even if she made it. He was the one that took the lead in approaching the door while André kept look out.

Beck looked inside, seeing that there was a desk partially blocking what was left of the door, and shockingly seeing that Mark was covered in blood and resting his back against the adjacent right wall. In front of the teenager, there was another teenager on his back completely naked and a gapping neck wound that had bled out into a large pool on the floor.

André slightly pushed Beck to the side to peak inside. He went wide eyed and uttered at seeing the literally bloody mess on the floor, "Holy Chizz."

Mark raised the pair of scissors in a stabbing motioned as he was startled by the pair's presence. He looked to them and ironically laughed in relief to see that it wasn't another monster, "That's one way to put it."

Beck questioned as he climbed through the hole of the ruined door, "Are you alright?"

The charming teenager snorted out with heavy sarcasm, "Except for a leg that's killing me and covered in monster blood, I doing pretty good."

Beck finished crawling over the desk to get inside then carefully walked around the dead body and pool of blood to get to Mark. He hooked an arm under Mark's right arm and lifted him up into a stray chair while André climbed inside behind him.

Mark settled into the seat formally held by Tori while they had hunkered down earlier then Beck asked as he straightened up, "Are you alone?"

"Unfortunately," the fellow Hollywood Arts heartthrob answered in disgust.

"Unfortunately?"

Mark regretfully looked up to Beck and explained, "Jessica, Tori and Jade were with me, but when they were busting through, we decided to make a break for the window and I would hold them off the best I could. I wasn't going to outrun them on this leg, so… I thought I'd go down swinging."

Beck asked in a near panic, "Jade was with you? Tori? Are they alright?"

"Other than a cut on her leg that Tori patched up, Jade's okay… before those things busted through. Tori's find and she got out the back and Jade was the last one out, but… I don't know if either of them made it. There were at least two of them busting through and I got that one," Mark answered while motioning to the body on the floor. "So, hopefully one of them got away."

Beck turned away and strolled to the desk against the opposite wall. He braced his hands on the edge of the desk and leaned forward, hiding his internal battle to keep his fear for Jade from overwhelming him.

André glanced to the body and asked, "Who is he?"

"He is—was one of the monsters. After I got him with the scissors to the neck, he turned into that."

The songsmith's jaw dropped and uttered in disbelief, "They're actually werewolves?"

"Something like that, but they look like mutated rats or something. Their faces don't look anything like I've seen in the movies. I guess if you sever their janking necks, that'll kill him."

Beck turned around and muttered casually, "I guess Dalton has a chance against the one he's trying to kill."

Mark sat up straight in the chair like a meerkat and demanded, "Dalton? You've seen him? Is Suzy with him?"

Beck and André passed glances, unsure how and who should break the horrible news to him.

Mark easily picked up on the uncomfortable expression and fearfully asked, "What?"

The inspiring actor regretfully answered, "We found him, Trina and Robbie. He's planning a trap to kill one of them and hoped to give us cover to get out here."

"You didn't answer my question, where's Suzy?"

Beck paused in answering and glanced at the floor. André couldn't meet Mark's eyes either and took up looking at the body between them.

Mark swallowed and uttered, "No…"

Beck lifted his head and answered, "I'm sorry. Dalton said one caught up with them and he tried to fight it off, but it… I'm sorry."

Mark's shoulders slumped and took several shallow breaths.

The long haired teenager pointed out, hoping that it brought a little comfort to Mark, "Dalton's not leaving until he kills the thing or it kills him. He's not concerned about his survival right now."

Mark snapped his head up and snarled, "He damn well better not. She really likes… really liked him. He better kill it because if he doesn't, when I'm back on my feet I'll kill it and him for letting it happen."

"Hey, you can't blame him for that. I'm not going to blame you for Jade and Tori."

"I'll blame him for any damn thing I want to blame him for! And I don't give a damn whether you blame me or not for anything! I actually killed the thing that went after Jade and Tori." He pointed to the dead teenager on the floor. "I can't chase down the other one."

Beck sighed, seeing there was no point in arguing. He brushed a hand down his mouth and saw from his left that there was the radio they were hoping the station would possess. He started a new line of thought, "Okay, one of them is dead and the girls ran out the back." He looked to André and instructed him, "See if you can get anyone on the radio while I go looking for them."

André looked quite dubious at the suggestion. "You just can't start chasing after them. You don't know which way they went and what are you going to do when you catch up with it? You really think you're going to be able to beat it to death with that hammer?"

Mark pointed out, "Jade beat one of them over the head with a branch and it didn't put it down and the radio doesn't work. I mean it works, but no one is answering. You're going to go chasing out in the middle of the woods and hope to find her? That's nuts."

"If I have to by myself then yes. I will go out there to find them."

Jade's tired voice called from behind him through the broken door, "Well you don't have to look far."

Beck turned to see Jade bashfully looking back at him on the other side of the broken door. She looked exhausted with weary eyes, but she was the most beautiful thing to his eyes.

Mark and André looked just as stunned that she was there and didn't initially register that Freddie was standing beside her.

Beck ran to the door and shoved against the desk away from it. André snapped out of his surprise and helped push the desk away to clear it out of the way. Beck pulled the door open and Jade flung her arms around his neck.

He closed his eyes and returned the hug with the intention of never letting her go again. He kissed her cheek then pulled back enough to face her and crash his lips against her lips. She wrapped her arms around behind his neck and pulled him closer if possible to return the kiss.

The other three in the room embarrassingly glanced away.

They finally broke the kiss and he cupped her cheeks while asking, "Are you alright?"

Jade vigorously nodded and answered in a heavy breath and a few tears starting to run down her cheeks, "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm going to be sore for a while and have a lot of bruises in the next few hours, but I'm okay."

Beck let out a tension relieving breath. He looked down to see her bandaged leg and asked, "What about your leg?"

"It's a little sore, but it'll heal. It might leave me a scar."

The future teenage sensation actor sighed, regretting that she would carry any marks from this experience. He kissed her forehead and pulled her back into a hug. She snuggled her face into the side of his neck and the strained couple just held onto one another.

André finally realized Freddie's presence and questioned, "Freddie?"

"Hey," Freddie answered with a bashful smile.

The conversation finally caught Beck's attention of Freddie standing with them. He looked over Jade's shoulder to the Seattleite and asked, "You found her?"

Jade pulled her face from the side of Beck's neck and answered, "He saved me from the monster chasing me."

Beck smiled in relief as he gave Jade another glance then looked to Freddie and thanked, "Thank you."

Freddie just nodded, refrained from pointing out that he didn't save Jade for his benefit.

André curiously looked to Freddie and asked, "Where did you get a shotgun from?"

"It was in my trunk."

Beck looked away from Jade and joined with a curious expression of his own.

Mark questioned with a laugh, "I guess this is a rhetorical questioned, but that was what you grabbed from your trunk?"

Freddie returned with a confused expression.

Jade continued in order to clear up his confusion, "I told you that we ran across your car, but we saw that it was open and only found the emergency roadside kit."

Freddie nodded along in understanding. He figured he was in such a hurry that he didn't close it. "I had this stuff in a compartment under the trunk floor."

Mark asked to satisfy his curiosity, "You just carry a shotgun in your car? How was your car intact and everyone else's was trashed?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "My dad warded his car. I guess they can't touch it being unnatural creatures."

The songsmith nervously laughed, "Your dad was prepared for monsters?"

Freddie sighed then answered with a lopsided smile, "Long story short, my dad turned out to be a monster hunter and left me a lot of his stuff with the car which included a shotgun and a few other weapons and a notebook all about monsters and how to kill them."

Beck voiced his surprise, "A monster hunter?"

Freddie pointed to the dead body in the middle of the floor. "There's a monster right there or once was. It's not as crazy as you might think. I actually know a practicing witch in Seattle."

"Okay, if your dad was monster hunter and left you notes, what is that?"

Freddie looked back at the dead teenager and answered, "Well, I really don't know since they're not exactly described in his notes. They're a mishmash of a werewolf due to their size and body structure and it's a full moon, a wendigo with their leathery grey skin and hunger matches up more with them, but they're too small to be one of them and don't look like that in the face. It could be a new form of skinwalker, but they're usually just dog—according to my dad's notes."

Mark tiredly laughed, "So we're facing things where someone took several monsters and put it in a blender?"

"It looks like it, which is scarier since there is nothing new. Monsters don't evolve from my understanding."

Beck finally took a good look at the formerly living monster and questioned, "So what made them like…" He furled his eyebrows as he actually recognized the person. "Wait a minute, isn't that Gerold?"

He released Jade from his arms and knelt down to the deceased teenager to get a better look at his face. He brushed away some of the long brunette hair away from the body's face to get a better look. "Yeah, this is Gerold, that hambone guy that went up against Robbie because he was mad for calling himself the 'Hambone King'."

Jade challenged with a disbelieving expression. "You're kidding."

Beck avoided touching the body's bloody neck and grabbed his chin to turn his head to get a good look at his face. He looked over his shoulder and up to his girlfriend and asked, "It's him. Did you recognize the one you killed? I assume you killed him with the shotgun blasts we heard?"

Freddie answered for the dark haired beauty, "I shot him in the face with twelve-gauge silver buckshot to the face… he's not recognizable… he doesn't have much of a head left."

André whistled, unavoidably imagining the sight.

"So the mystery deepens," Freddie commented with look of disgust and shake of his head.

Mark asked incredulously, "You call this a mystery?"

"When you were clearly led into this deathtrap with cellphone jammers have been put all over the place so no one can call for help—Jade told me the radio is jammed too—then yeah, it's a mystery, but one we really don't have time to solve."

André snorted out darkly laughing, "Yeah, we have to figure out a way to get out of here and have the cops figure it out when they get here."

The others looked at him with various confused and questioning gazes.

The sometimes neurotic teenager looked back at them innocently, "What?"

Freddie unequivocally stated, "I'm not leaving without Tori and we still have to find Trina, Cat and Robbie."

Beck readily agreed, "Trina and Robbie are safe at the moment, but you're right. We can't leave. Tori's missing and we know one of those things has Cat too. She'll be dead before anyone could get back here to help… if she's not already dead."

Jade's face seemed to lose even more color before demanding, "It what?"

Beck regretfully sighed and explained, rubbing a hand up and down Jade's left arm, "Robbie told us that it snatched Cat."

Jade may have been happy that Robbie and Trina were alright, but her overwhelming concern for Cat was paramount. "Snatched her? She's not dead?"

"They don't think she is. One knocked out Robbie and when he woke up, Cat was gone, just gone. No blood or anything."

Mark questioned, angered that perhaps she was inexplicably spared, but not his sister, "Why would it take her and not just kill her?"

Freddie hazarded a guess, "Since we know they're actually people, it could be for any number of reasons. Maybe one of them has a thing for Cat and doesn't want to eat her? I don't want to imagine what one of them could do to her."

Jade raised her hands and stated, "We can figure out motivations later. We just have to find her and Tori."

The former tech-producer readily agreed, "She's right." He walked around Gerold's dead body and around Mark to look at the large map. He studied the map, trying to get a general feel of the area and maybe pick up an idea where to start looking. "I'm not sure where to start looking for Tori since we don't know in what direction she ran, but we know they took Cat, so he had to be taking her somewhere. They had to be camping out somewhere before they… 'wolfed out' to attack us tonight. Where could they have camped?"

Jade pulled from Beck's protective grasp and walked next to him and glanced over the map with him, joining him in his search.

Mark pointed out the obvious with a hint of sarcasm from his seat next to Freddie, "It's a National Park with dozen's of places where they could have camped to wait until dark."

Freddie spared a glance down as he retorted, "True, but they would need someplace where they wouldn't be noticed, but close enough spring their ambush on us."

Jade spotted a particular place and pointed on the map to a cave entrance to a network of caves in the forest that was about two miles behind the station. "How about a cave?"

Freddie looked to where she was pointing and Beck joined her to her left. "It's close enough and out of the way. Few are just going to randomly start exploring a cave especially when there's the lake and everything else we were doing today."

Beck worriedly questioned, "So you want to check them out?"

Freddie looked past Jade and shrugged a shoulder. "It's either that or we just sit here and wait for your parents to start worrying and sending somebody, but I'm not going to just sit around."

Jade volunteered in a heartbeat, "Then I'm going with you."

"Jade—" Beck clearly began to object.

"I'm not arguing with you on this. Not this. I got to find Cat and… Tori…"

Jade glanced down, letting her guilt about the exchange she had with her rival earlier in the evening.

Beck placed his hands on Jade's shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. "Jade, I've have spent the last few hours fearing that you were dead and now that I found you, you're telling me that you want to go back out there and face those things?"

Jade placed her hand over his right one on her shoulder and answered, "I was afraid for you too, but we're okay—"

"You're not okay. You have a slashed leg that may leave you scared up and—"

Mark interrupted and looked at his leg that was still stitched up and securely wrapped, "Hey, if these things are something like werewolves, could they infect us?"

Jade instantly felt her stomach churn in fear that could be a possibility for them. If she thought—and anyone who really knew her—she was going to be any supernatural creature it would be a vampire, not a werewolf.

Freddie answered in a near clinical tone, "Did it actually bite you? Get some saliva in you or its blood?"

"No."

"I think you're alright then."

Mark questioned with dread in his voice, "And if we're not?"

Freddie hesitated with a brush of his hand over his mouth. "Then we'll figure out to cure you."

"Is there a real cure?"

"From my dad's notes… no, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. There are plenty of cultures that say there are and from what I've learned over the last few months, there is a grain of truth in a lot of folklore."

"You're making me feel so much better."

Jade interrupted before Mark could have any pity-party, "We can worry about that later. Right now we have to find Cat and Tori."

"Did you forget about Jessica? I could overhear your shouting match. Don't care about her because what she told you?" Mark glanced to Beck and finished rubbing salt in the wound, "That your boyfriend would rather do Tori than you?"

Beck looked stunned while Freddie looked away uncomfortably.

Jade grabbed each side of the armrests of the chair and leaned forward to meet Mark's eyes. She answered him in a dark tone, "The caves are nearly a direct line behind the station and if she ran in that general direction, hopefully we'll find her too. My 'argument' with Tori is between me and her and we can settle it after we find her."

After what Mark had experienced, he wasn't afraid of the girl's intimidating stare.

Beck gripped her left shoulder to get her attention. Jade pulled her glare from Mark and met Beck's eyes as he spoke, "If you're going then I'm going with you. I'm not letting you out of my sight. I'm not risking losing you again."

The famous Hollywood Arts kisser pointed out, "That's exactly what you're doing if you go chasing with him."

Freddie spared a glance between the couple and softly uttered, "He has a point. You could fortify this place and hold out until help comes. There's no need to go out there and tempt fate."

Jade made the obvious point, willing to be as stubborn as him, "You're going out there."

"I haven't had that kind of brush with death and someone terrified about my safety and I can actually do something about it."

Jade grabbed a fistful of his shirt under his jacket and over his heart. "Hey, we were afraid for you. I was afraid for you and Tori was afraid for you and I'm… happy doesn't cut it for knowing that you're alright, so don't you dare think no one wasn't worried about you."

Beck wasn't sure how to interrupt Jade's words about Freddie's wellbeing, but he wouldn't question any gratitude she would have towards Freddie for saving his life. He was far too happy for her safety to worry about any disagreements between them.

Freddie thankfully smiled, carefully gripping Jade's hand to get her to release him and answered, "I appreciate it, but you two just found each other. You really want to risk losing each other again?"

Beck wrapped arm around Jade's shoulders. "We're going with you. You're not going to out argue Jade over this."

Freddie raised an eyebrow with his look to Beck and answered, "I wasn't arguing with her, just making a point. It's her decision to make. If I were, the days where I'd be bullied into a decision are long gone and she wouldn't win the argument with me."

Jade smirked raised her usually pierced eyebrow, pleasantly surprised by his self-confidence.

André shook his head and muttered as if everyone had lost their mind, "This is nuts, but I guess I can't let you go out there alone, so I'm in."

Beck smiled in appreciation of his friend. "Thanks… Don't worry, you'll make it out just like LL Cool J."

Freddie questioned from the sheer randomness of Beck's remark, "What?"

The taller teenager motioned to André. "He's afraid of dying since apparently we're in a horror movie. I was pointing out he survived the movie."

"Ah… he didn't originally survive."

André blinked and stuttered, "Wh-what?"

"In the first cut of the movie, he's eaten at the end. It played poorly with test audiences, so they changed the ending so he survived."

The soulful songwriter swallowed the fear trying to bubble up because the revelation gave him an entirely new perspective of the film and his prospects of getting out the forest alive.

Freddie attempted to reassure him, "André, you're going to be fine. We're going to be fine."

Mark shook his head and remarked, "Really? It still sounds nuts even if you're packing." He questioned, reasonably so for his safety, "So, you're going to leave me here?"

Freddie pointed out the obvious, "I'm going, you don't want to go and we can't carry you, so yeah, it looks like you're going to be here by yourself."

"So I'm janked?"

Freddie half smirked then pulled off the backpack and sat it on the desk. He pulled a zipper opened of one of the smaller pockets and pulled out a snub-nosed .45 revolver. He handed the weapon to Mark. "I assume you know the rudimentary of using one of these?"

Mark took the weapon and sarcastically questioned, "A revolver? You're giving me a revolver if one of those things comes back."

"It's a forty-five and it's not likely to jam. He'll certainly feel it a slug going into him and if that doesn't put him down…" He noticed the flare gun resting on one of the desks and motioned to it. "Use that on him. Fire works just fine on them."

Mark shook his head, still disbelieving they would willing rush back into the jaws of death after escaping. "Fine, but could you at least board the door back up? And could someone help me clean up a little and go to the bedroom and get my shorts before you go?"

The others looked at each other with various degrees of embarrassment seeing that he was in his boxers.

Author's Note: So Jedi friendship, Mark survived, Bade happily reunited and now they are on a mission to save Tori and Cat. We're winding up the story and I'm seeing three chapters left. Take care, OneHorseShay