MOONLIGHT SHADOW

CHAPTER 1

BANG!

Another rusty can flew off the wooden fence as Kaylee Hackett cheered and did a little victory dance, shotgun in hand.

"Holy schmoly! That makes three in a row!" She turned to her uncle Travis standing beside her and gave him a high five.

"Did you see that, uncle Travis? I'm becoming a pro at this!" Kaylee looked up at her uncle proudly, the shotgun still smouldering in her hand.

Travis nodded in approval. "You sure are, Kaylee. That was impressive." He noticed that she had inadvertently pointed the gun towards herself in her excitement and a stern look appeared on his face as he gave her shoulder a slight squeeze. "But could you please be more careful about where you point that gun? Only aim at something or someone that you're intending to shoot."

Kaylee quickly lowered the shotgun and gave her uncle an apologetic look.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

They both heard applause coming from the direction of the house and turned to see Chris Hackett standing on the porch, still chewing on a slice of toast smothered in raspberry jam.

"Way to go, kiddo. That was some mighty fine shootin'."

Kaylee's eyes lit up in glee and she walked over to her father excitedly. "Did you see me, dad? I knocked those suckers right off the fence!"

"I sure did, sweetheart. With skills like those, you can give your uncle Travis a run for his money. Maybe you should consider joining the police force? You'd make a fine sheriff someday." Chris chuckled as he stepped closer to his daughter. Suddenly, his face took on a mischievous expression as he dipped his finger into the raspberry jam on his toast. Before Kaylee could react, he smeared two sticky red strips of jam across her cheeks.

"In the meantime, I mark you as a warrior!" Chris declared playfully.

"Gross dad. It's all sticky." Kaylee protested as she tried to wipe the jam off her face with her sleeve.

She looked up to see her uncle Bobby emerge from the house and raised her hand in greeting. "Hi, uncle Bobby."

"Hey Kaylee. Did I hear Chris saying something about you being a warrior?" Bobby looked at his niece thoughtfully as a sly smile appeared on his lips. "Are you going to be like Xena the Warrior Princess? Because that would be so awesome!"

Kaylee glanced at her father and Travis quizzically. "Who's Xena?"

"Don't you worry your pretty little head with that nonsense, darlin'. She's just some half-naked cavewoman that your uncle Bobby watches on TV." Constance said as she appeared in the doorway with a steaming mug of coffee in her hands.

Bobby gave his mother a defiant look. "She ain't no cavewoman, ma. Xena is a real warrior princess!" He puffed out his chest and added decisively, "I'm going to ask her to marry me one day."

Constance almost choked on her coffee as Chris and Travis glanced at each other and snorted in amusement.

"Robert Hackett! You put those ridiculous fantasies out of your head and make yourself useful! You need to help your pa make important preparations for tonight. You can't be distracting yourself with nonsensical bullshit like that." Constance reprimanded her youngest son sternly.

Chris nodded at his younger brother encouragingly. "Ma's right, Bobby. You wouldn't want to short-circuit your brain by concentrating too hard on your fictional girlfriend. You're the thoughtful one in the family after all…"

Hey! What do you mean by that…?" Bobby inquired his brother with a mixture of uncertainty and defensiveness. He wasn't quite sure if Chris was giving him a compliment for being a deep thinker or making fun of him. One way or another, he called his dream girl fictional! Xena is real! He saw her on TV so she couldn't be fictional! Bobby was prepared to defend her at all costs…

Before he could say anything else, Constance cleared her throat and spoke up impatiently.

"Now, now Chris. Don't be a smartass. Your brother is a hard-working man. Unlike that lazybones son of yours; Caleb." She threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Speaking of, where is that lazy, handsome grandson of mine anyway? I thought the two of you had a lot to do today…"

"I'm right here, grandma." Caleb stepped past his grandmother onto the porch. He looked at her with a coy grin. "Why are you calling me lazy? All this time I thought that I was your favorite grandson."

Constance smiled at him affectionately. "Of course, you're my favorite grandson, hun. You're my only grandson silly!" She placed her hand on his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Caleb gave a shy smile as he glanced over at his father and Bobby. A mischievous expression appeared on his face as he turned back to his grandmother. "I heard you mention something about Bobby being a hard-working man. Were you implying that I should be looking up to my uncle Bobby as a role model?"

"I suppose you could say that, hun." Constance said with a bemused chuckle.

Suddenly, they heard Jedediah's gruff voice as he appeared out of the nearby woods, hauling some rusty bear traps and rope. "What are you all yammering on about? There's still so much work to do before nightfall and you leave a poor old man to do everything by himself while you stand around talking? Bobby, come help me set these traps."

Bobby strolled over to his father with a proud grin on his face. "Hey, dad. Ma said that I'm Caleb's role model." He stopped and scratched his head in confusion. "Wait. What does role model even mean?"

Jed waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that right now, son. We have a lot of work to do today so let's just get on with it already."

He handed the bear traps to Bobby and the two of them disappeared into the woods. Chris looked at his watch and cursed. "Shit. I better head on to the lodge and make sure those counselors are packed up and ready to go." He motioned to Caleb to follow him as he started walking off in the direction of camp. "Would you mind giving me a hand, Caleb?"

Caleb groaned. "Do I have to, dad? I was hoping I could finish up some work at the scrapyard before tonight. Can't Kaylee help you with the counselors instead?" He glanced over at his sister hopefully, but Chris just shook his head and sighed impatiently.

"No. I'm asking you Caleb. Your sister has enough on her plate already. Just be a champ and come help me. You can go to the scrapyard later."

"But dad…" Caleb protested.

Chris gave his son a stern look. "That's enough, Caleb. Let's skedaddle."

"Yes, sir. Coming…" Caleb mumbled as he followed his father reluctantly to camp.

"At last, some peace and quiet again." Constance stated as she took another sip of her coffee. She grimaced in disgust and spilled the remnants of her lukewarm beverage into the flowerbed with a huff. "Why am I even drinking this? It tastes like shit anyway."

Travis rolled his eyes at his mother's snide observation as Kaylee stifled a little giggle. She went up to her grandma and gave her a reassuring hug. Constance reached out her hand and stroked Kaylee's hair affectionately. "My sweet girl. Do you want to help your Gammy with the washing up? There's a mountain of dishes waiting to be cleaned in the sink."

Kaylee gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Gammy. But I really wanted to hang out with uncle Travis today." She glanced over her shoulder at him and noticed that he looked slightly taken aback. Kaylee smiled sadly and insisted quietly to her grandmother, "It's just that I hardly get to see him. He's always so busy at the police station that he doesn't spend much time with us anymore…"

She felt Constance's fingers gripping her shoulder a little tighter as she looked at Travis with a hint of disdain. "Busy? Busy doin' what? Polishing his sheriff's badge?"

Travis averted his eyes from his mother's gaze. He was used to her bitter remarks and temperamental outbursts. But her comments still stung like fire sometimes and he couldn't disguise his hurt, especially when he felt that it was particularly uncalled for. He loved his mother and he knew that deep down she loved them all. But she could be downright nasty at times and Travis seemed to cop the heat more than anyone else in his family.

Constance sighed and let Kaylee go reluctantly. "Very well my little Kaylee. If that is what you wish, then I won't stop you. You go and have fun while I do all the cleaning, washing up and slavering alone…"

"And ranting…" Kaylee mouthed silently to Travis as her grandmother disappeared into the house behind them. She looked at her uncle thoughtfully. "Are you okay?"

"Eh, sure. It's nothing…" Travis waved off her concern and nodded towards the makeshift shooting range they had set up in the yard earlier. "Alright then. Where were we? You want to shoot some more targets?" He handed her the shotgun and made a sweeping gesture with his arm at the row of tin cans still standing on the wooden fence. "Whenever you're ready, take aim and off you go."

Kaylee raised the gun and centered the sights on the can propped at the very edge of the fence. She let out a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. But instead of hitting the intended target, her shot strayed to the left and she wound up shooting one of her grandmother's prized pot plants. The ceramic pot exploded in a shower of dirt and pottery shards as both she and Travis cringed.

"Oh no! What have I done? Gammy's going to be so mad at me…" Kaylee uttered in a small voice.

Right on cue, they heard Constance's angry voice calling out from the kitchen. "TRAVIS! You idiot! That had better not be one of my pot plants…"

Travis winced and took the shotgun from Kaylee hastily. "It's not you she's mad at. But we better go practice somewhere else…" He threw a nervous glance over his shoulder as he picked up a few cans from the ground and motioned for Kaylee to follow him into the woods. "If we stay here, she might start shootin' at us!"

The two of them hurried down a dirt trail, the trees hiding them from view as Constance emerged on the porch with a huge broom in her hands and shook it in their direction threateningly. "That's right! You'd better run!"

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading! If you are enjoying the story so far, be sure to stick around for more chapters. The Quarry is in my opinion, one of the best-looking games I've played in a long time and I have a few story ideas I'd like to explore. There are many characters from the game that resonate with me, but I am rather fond of the Hackett family (especially Travis.) I can relate to the Hacketts. Many people see them as a little weird or creepy. But the impression I got is that despite their reclusiveness, they deeply love and support each other in their own way.

Some of you may be wondering about the Xena reference I included in this chapter. As I mentioned, Travis is my favorite character from the game and he is voiced and played by the incredible Ted Raimi who happened to appear in the show Xena the Warrior Princess :)

I just want to point out that although this chapter had some humorous parts, this is actually a sad and tragic story about Kaylee Hackett's last day alive (the hours before Laura shot her outside the pool house.) Hopefully you'll tune in to see what secrets will be revealed as I delve deeper into the Hackett family's past and share with you my interpretation of a part of the storyline that the game didn't really touch on (but hinted at in some of the clues we collected during gameplay.)