Chapter 6

It was late afternoon and down at North Kill Police Station, Laura and Max were finalizing their escape plan. They knew Travis would be back to check on them soon and that this might be their last chance to escape. Laura paced around her cell restlessly. They couldn't afford to make any mistakes this time…

She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned her attention to Max's cell at the end of the room. "Okay, Max. It's almost time. Remember what we talked about. Just try to act natural and don't overdo it."

She couldn't see Max from her cell, but his voice sounded distinctly annoyed when he replied back to her. "What are you trying to say, Laura? That I can't act?"

Laura threw her arms into the air in exasperation. "Oh, you can act just fine. You had me fooled for so long about your college rejection. I still can't believe you kept it from me all this time!"

Max let out a weary sigh. "Why do you have to bring that up now? I already told you that I was sorry! What else do you want me to do, Laura?"

Laura was about to protest, but stopped herself when she heard footsteps echoing in the main hall.

"What? You're going to ignore me now?" Max asked irritably.

"Shhh! I think he's coming back! Get ready…" Laura whispered urgently.

Laura closed her eyes and psyched herself. "Okay, Laura. You can do this!"

She lay down on the floor and started writhing like she was in agony. As Travis approached the cells, he heard Laura whimpering in pain, followed by Max's voice shouting frantically.

"Help her! Laura needs help!"

Travis was still not thinking rationally after the events of the morning. With the dreaded anticipation of the full moon looming heavily in his mind, he acted on pure instinct as he unlocked Laura's cell and stepped inside.

"What the hell is going on here?" He crouched next to Laura and placed his hands on her arm tentatively. She let out a shriek of pain and recoiled from his touch as though he'd shocked her.

Travis cursed to himself. "Fuck. If you two had just listened to me when I told you to go to the motel, none of this would be happening right now!"

Max was shouting at Travis from his cell hysterically. "What are you waiting for? Help her!"

"Damn fucking teenagers!" Travis muttered through gritted teeth as he got up and moved to Laura's other side. "What's wrong?"

He leaned over Laura to try to get a better look at her. Then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Before he could react, Laura snatched his gun out of his belt and was pointing it at him threateningly.

"Give me the fucking keys!" She demanded fiercely.

Travis rose to his feet and put his hands up instinctively. He stared at her in shocked silence, his mind still struggling to process what had just happened. He noticed that she seemed completely unharmed. An expression of stone-cold determination appeared on her face as she pointed the gun at his chest, her finger hovering dangerously close to the trigger.

Travis could feel his heart racing from panic. "Please! You don't have to do this!"

He gave her a pleading look and nodded in the direction of Max's cell desperately. "You don't know what you're dealing with. He already took your eye while he was locked up! You can't imagine what he…"

"Shut up!" Laura cut him off impatiently. "Give me the fucking keys, asshole!"

She waved the gun at him accusingly. "I know how to take care of myself. If you hadn't handcuffed me so close to Max's cell that night, I'd still have two good eyes!"

Travis looked at her apologetically. "Can't we talk about this?"

Laura was still pointing the gun at his chest, her expression determined as she took a step closer to him. "You've had your chance to talk! Give me the keys! NOW!"

Travis' heart was beating so fast, it felt as though it would burst. But he tried his best to hide the fear and desperation he was feeling from Laura. He kept his hands up cooperatively and nodded in resignation.

"Okay. Okay. Fuck…" He unhooked the ring of keys from his belt and tossed them over to Laura compliantly. He watched helplessly as Laura locked him in her former cell and went to free Max. An intense feeling of despair and hopelessness settled over Travis as he walked up to the cell bars and looked out at the two counselors pleadingly.

"Please! Please don't do this! My family is in danger!" Travis begged them desperately.

"Fuck you and your family!" Max spat back reproachfully.

He made a threatening gesture as if he wanted to punch Travis through the bars. He flinched impulsively and Max frowned at him resentfully. "What about me?! I've become a monster and hurt the girl I love because of you and your family!"

Travis dropped his gaze to the ground remorsefully. He heard Max's angry voice call out one last time as he and Laura stormed off together. "Damn all of you Hacketts!"

The next thing he knew, Travis was all alone in the police station. He sat down on the bed and fought back a helpless sob.

"Forgive me. I've failed you all…"

Kaylee was up in her room, looking through a box containing some of her mother's cherished possessions. She was flipping through a photo album when a piece of paper fell out onto the floor. Kaylee picked it up and realized that it was the old sketch her uncle Travis had drawn of Amelia. She gently ran her fingers over the pencil lines of the drawing and closed her eyes. Kaylee could feel the late evening breeze caressing the back of her neck, almost as though a presence was standing beside her. But when she opened her eyes and looked, there was nothing there and she let out a sad sigh.

"What did I expect to see? It's just my mind playing tricks on me again…" Kaylee told herself dismissively.

Suddenly, a small white feather floated in through the open window and landed on the drawing in Kaylee's lap. She picked up the feather and stared at it in wonder. There was no way it could have been a coincidence. That feather must have been a sign from her mother!

Kaylee felt a few tears rolling down her cheeks as she held the feather close to her heart and whispered softly. "I love you so much. You are the best mom in heaven and I know you are always beside me."

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Gammy's loud snoring from downstairs. Kaylee shook her head in bemusement. "Gammy must have fallen asleep in her recliner again. So much for her keeping an eye on me…"

Kaylee got up from the edge of her bed and carefully gathered all the photographs of her mom and put them back into the album. Then she took it over to the wooden box containing her mother's belongings and placed it back inside. She looked at Travis' sketch one last time and kissed it gently before putting it into the box along with the white feather which she had no doubt, was sent to her from heaven by her mom.

Kaylee looked through her bedroom window and noticed that it was already dark outside. She felt her heart sinking when she caught a glimpse of the full moon as it appeared from behind the clouds. It was as if a switch had been flipped somewhere within her and the darkness which had been dormant was now fighting to get out. Kaylee started to feel a ravenous hunger taking over her. Her body began to change as the beast awakened and threatened to burst out of her at any second.

Her last rational thought before the darkness fully consumed her was that she needed to protect her grandmother. She had to get out of the house now!

Kaylee ran out of her room and down the stairs as fast as she could. As she headed towards the front door, she thought she saw a misty white light shining though the doorway as if guiding her. She barely made it outside before the transformation was completed. She let out a haunted howl and ran off into the forest as the full moon's light shone brightly overhead.

Laura walked silently through the woods, her senses on high alert as she searched for Chris Hackett. She had left Max on the island in the middle of the lake were she hoped he would be safe. She clutched the shotgun she'd taken from the police station tightly in her hands. She was going to end this tonight, one way or another. She needed to find and kill Chris. If everything went to plan, then the curse would be lifted from Max and they could go home in the morning.

She would worry about how to save their relationship later…

As she made her way along one of the dirt trails on the outskirts of Camp, Laura kept her one eye peeled for the slightest movement in the shadows. Every sound made her feel uneasy. She could hear the wind rustling through the tree branches all around her and the hooting of an owl nearby.

Suddenly, Laura froze in her tracks. Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn that she heard a woman's voice whispering her name.

"Laura…"

She felt a shiver roll down her spine as she looked all around her. But she couldn't see anyone and dismissed it as a figment of her imagination. A raven cawed close by but aside from that, she was alone in the woods for the time being.

"Focus, Laura." She told herself nervously.

The clouds parted overhead and she saw the full moon shining brightly in the night sky. Then from a short distance ahead of her, she heard a blood-chilling howl. Laura felt a wave of adrenaline surge through her and she started walking faster in the direction of the sound.

"This ends now, you bastard!" She promised decisively.

Laura heard the howl again and followed it to a large open area with some sort of building nearby. As she got closer, she realized that the building had a swimming pool off to the side of it and she could make out what appeared to be cabins not too far away.

That's when she saw the creature. Laura stopped abruptly. She felt like her heart was in her throat as she stared at the beast in front of her. It looked exactly like the thing that had attacked Max in the storm shelter two months ago!

Laura's hands were shaking as she raised the gun and took aim at the creature. The thing had its back turned to her and hadn't noticed her yet. But before she could shoot it, the monster sniffed the air then dropped down on all fours and started running in the direction of the pool building. Laura lowered her shotgun and gave chase. Up ahead, she saw a group of people standing around the cabins talking and she realized with horror that the creature was running towards them.

Laura started running faster as the creature reached the pool house and climbed over the fence. Out of sheer desperation, she fired the gun without aiming properly. Her shot missed the creature entirely. But it did succeed in getting its attention. It stopped and turned around to face Laura just as she reached the fenced-off pool area.

"I've got you now!" Laura declared boldly.

The creature stood up on its hind legs and growled at her savagely. Laura tried to steady her breath as she raised the gun and took aim at the horrible beast. She pulled the trigger and watched as the silver bullet found its mark. The creature let out a dying whimper as the bullet hit it in the side of its head, killing it almost instantly.

Laura was already gone by the time Kaylee's body fell into the pool. But the shot that had ended her curse and her life still echoed through the night hauntingly.

BANG!

Author's Note:

It all started and ended with a BANG! Hopefully Kaylee Hackett can finally rest in peace together with her mother…

I just want to thank all the readers who decided to check out this story. The game doesn't really tell us much about Kaylee Hackett so I decided to give her a voice. As for Amelia, she's merely a name mentioned in the "Hackett Family Tree" clue, but I tried to write her character the way I imagined she might have been like. I intend to write some more stories about The Quarry in the near future and I promise they won't all be centered around the Hackett family. There will be some stories focusing more on some of the Camp counselors (and of course some that will be about the Hacketts as well!) If you haven't guessed already, I am a huge fan of the Hackett family! They are really fun characters to write about 😊

I will be taking a short break before I start working on my second story idea. That one is going to be a little humorous story about Bobby Hackett- kind of like an interval story between my first sad story and the third one I am planning to write which will also be quite tragic…

Thanks again for reading and if you love The Quarry, I hope you stay tuned for my future stories!