By The Light of The Moon

Friday arrives quickly, and yet not soon enough. Danny picks her up at seven, looking like something out of a magazine. He's wearing a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled twice, with his jet-black hair slicked back almost entirely, besides a culry tuft of hair falling effortlessly above his brow. Feeling insecure, Cindy smooths down her gingham skirt as she approaches his black and chrome Bel Air idling at the curb. He gets out of the car to come open the passenger door for her. "You look beautiful, Doll Face." She blushes and smiles shyly as she steps into the car. The Moonlight Springs Drive-In sits in an open field just beyond the edge of town. The marquee reads CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON in tall plastic letters, a few of them slightly crooked. Danny pulls the Bel Air into a spot near the middle of the lot. As he kills the engine, Cindy breaths in the smell of October air and popcorn wafting from the near-by concession stand. It feels, Cindy thinks, like the beginning of something. Danny stretches his arm along the back of the seat. //What do you do?// [[Lean in close->ArriveClose]] [[Stay where you are, but smile->ArriveNeutral]]

The lot fills in around them. Families in station wagons. Couples fogging up windows. A group of boys from school a few rows back, already hollering at nothing in particular. The big screen flickers to life with a reel of coming attractions, and the speaker crackles with a swell of orchestral music. Danny's fingers drum once on the back of the seat. Just once. Then they stop. You notice. You're not sure why you notice. (set: $seatChoice to "close") (set: $connectionLevel to $connectionLevel + 1) [[Continue->The Dog Incident]]

Danny relaxes into the seat beside her. He's easy to talk to, she's decided. He asks about her family, her classes, whether she's thinking about college. She asks him the same things back. He smiles at that, like most people don't bother to ask. The concession stand glows warm and yellow at the back of the lot. Cindy watches a little boy drag his father toward it by two fingers. A woman in pin curlers leans against a station wagon, smoking. Ordinary Friday night stuff. Then the dog appears. It's a stray; medium sized, ribs just visible beneath a dull brown coat. It noses along the gravel between the cars, following some invisible trail toward the concession stand. Nobody pays it much attention. Danny does. His whole body stiffens and his jaw locks tightly. His eyes are fixed on the dog with an expression can't quite explain. Some sort of cross between fear and anger. Maybe even a tinge of sadness. Danny lets out a very low, very quiet growl, which startles Cindy. The dog stops and lifts its head, looking directly at the Bel Air, before tucking its tail and hurrying back toward the dark line of trees bordering the lot. Danny relaxes a bit in his seat, shaking his head as if waking up from some sort of trance. "Mangy things," he says. "Hate when they let strays wander around like that." Cindy laughs a little because she doesn't know how else to respond. [[Continue->Sitting in car]]

The feature rolls on and they settle back into their seats. The screen shows a murky lagoon, the camera creeping through the water toward something that hasn't shown itself yet. Beside her, Danny seems to have loosened back up. He makes a quiet comment about the monster's costume looking like a man in a rubber suit. She laughs and tells him that's because it is. He grins at that. For a little while, it's just a date at the drive-in. Then her stomach growls loudly. Danny doesn't seem to notice, but she still covers her face with both hands in embarraament. "I'm going to get something from the concession stand," she says, reaching for the door handle. "Do you want anything?" He thinks about it for a second. "Surprise me." She exits the car and makes her way to the concession stand. It's a perfectly ordinary night. //Isn't it.// [[Go to Concession Stand->Concession Stand]]

The concession stand is a small cinderblock building with a chalk menu board and a string of yellow bulb lights. A teenager in a paper hat slides a box of popcorn across the counter to an older couple without looking up. The smell of butter and hot oil fills the air around her. Cindy joins the short line and looks around. There are a few things that catch her eye. [[Take a look at the bulletin board->ConcessionBulletin]] [[Notice the couple by the side of the building->ConcessionCouple]] [[Look toward the treeline->ConcessionTreeline]] [[Look at the projection booth->ConcessionBooth]] [[Just get the popcorn and head back->ConcessionReturn]]

As she approaches the Bel Air, Danny reaches across and pushes the passenger door open for her. She hands him his popcorn and root beer before climbing in, and he looks genuinely pleased, like she made a good guess about him. On screen, the creature is closing in on something. The score gets louder shrill. A woman in the front row of a different car covers her eyes with both hands and her date laughs and pulls them away. Cindy watches this and half-smiles. Then she notices Danny isn't watching the screen. He's watching the sky. His head is tilted back slightly, eyes fixed on the moon, hanging brightly above the treeline. His root beer sits unopened on the dash. His jaw is tight in that way she noticed earlier, during the thing with the dog, and he is tensed up like he's bracing for something. She watches him for a moment. He doesn't seem to know she's watching. Or maybe he does and it doesn't matter, because whatever has his attention has all of it. //What do you do?// [[Ask him what's wrong->MoonRisingAsk]] [[Tease him about it->MoonRisingTease]] [[Let it go->MoonRisingLetItGo]]

The movie is almost over. On screen the creature has cornered the woman in the lagoon, one clawed hand reaching through the dark water toward her ankle, and the score has climbed to a pitch that feels like nails on a chalkboard. She's almost forgotten about the odd occurances from earlier. Then Danny enhales sharply beside her. It's the kind of sound you make when something hurts unexpectedly. She glances over and finds him sitting forward, elbows on the dash, one hand pressed to his ribs. His popcorn is on the floor. She doesn't know when he dropped it. "Danny?" He doesn't answer right away. His breathing has changed to slower, deeper breaths, like the ones Cindy takes when she's trying very hard to control a panic attack. The veins in his forearm are standing up and a sheen of sweat drips down his temple. "I'm fine," he says. He is not fine. On screen, the creature breaks the surface and the woman screams and the whole lot seems to flinch at once. People honk their horns, and laugh loudly, but Cindy barely hears it. Danny's hand is gripping the steering wheel now. His knuckles are white. "Hey." She reaches toward his arm. "Danny, what's —" He pulls away from her touch. He turns toward her and his eyes are...indescribable. Almost as if they were changing color, or even shape. Cindy let's a tiny gasp escape from her mouth in response. "I'm sorry, I have to..." He stops and swallows. "I can't...you shouldn't..." He shoves the door open abruptly. Danny moves swiftly across the gravel in long uneven strides, heading for the dark edge of the lot where the yellow light ends and the trees begin. He doesn't look back. //He said: I don't want you to see this. Or maybe he said: I don't want to do this.// It happened so fast you're not entirely sure. The screen plays on. The couple two rows up is laughing. Nobody else seems to have noticed. The speaker box on the window crackles the triumphant final theme of a movie that is almost over, and Cindy sits alone in a Bel Air that smells like his cologne and watches the tree line swallow him whole. The moon is directly overhead now. She has about thirty seconds before she has to decide. //What do you do?// [[Follow him->C1IntoTheTrees]] [[Stay in the car->S1TheRealization]]

A man and a woman, older, maybe her parents' age, stand close together at the side of the building just beyond the reach of the yellow lights. They aren't arguing exactly, but whatever they're saying has a weight to it. The woman keeps glancing toward the tree line. The man has his hand on her arm like he's steadying her, or holding her back, she can't quite tell which. Then the woman looks up and catches Cindy watching. Cindy looks away quickly, acting as if she hadn't been staring. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the man place a hand on the woman's back and gentlly turn her back towards the lot of cars. Cindy faces forward in line and studies the menu board like she hasn't already decided on popcorn. (set: $sawNervousCouple to true) [[Continue->ConcessionReturn]]

The bulletin board is mounted beside the entrance, half covered in thumbtacked flyers. Cindy sees a small notice. MISSING, it reads across the top in block letters. Below that, three names. Three photographs. Two men and a teenage girl, all from Moonlight Springs, all reported missing within the last six weeks. The notice is signed by someone named Ruth Calloway, concerned mother and neighbor, with a phone number at the bottom. //Calloway.// Cindy reads the name twice before turning away and taking a step forward in line. (set: $sawMissingPersons to true) (set: $callowayNameNoticed to true) [[Continue->ConcessionReturn]]

The trees at the edge of the property are tall and close together, the kind of dark that doesn't have any end to it. For a long moment she stands there with the line shuffling forward without her, looking at the place where the lot ends and the woods begin. Nothing moves. And then she thinks she sees something, just for a second. A shape, low and fast, slipping between the trunks and gone before she can decide what it was. A deer, probably. //Probably a deer.// The man behind her in line clears his throat and she steps forward. (set: $sawTreelineMovement to true) [[Continue->ConcessionReturn]]

The boy in the paper hat is looking at her. "You ordering or just browsing?" She orders two popcorns, a root beer, and a cream soda. "You've got it." he says before quickly scooping the popcorn and grabbing the soda from a refrigerator. She tucks the drinks under her arm, takes a popcorn in each hand, and starts back across the gravel toward the Bel Air. She notices that the moon is higher now than when she left. [[Continue->MoonRising]]

"Hey." She keeps her voice soft. "You okay?" He blinks, coming back from wherever he was. When he looks at her, he seems unguarded, his eyes conveying gratitude, or relief, or the particular exhaustion of carrying something heavy for a long time. "Yeah," he says. Then, quieter: "Sorry. I get a little...the moon does something to me. Always has." A beat. "Sounds crazy." "It doesn't," she says. He looks at her like he's deciding whether to believe that. Then he squeezes her hand once, and turns back to the screen. You believe him. //You think.// (set: $connectionLevel to $connectionLevel + 1) [[Continue->MoonRisingRejoin]]

"You know the movie's down there, right?" He blinks, looking confused for a moment. Then he laughs and drags a hand across the back of his neck. "Full moon," he says, like that explains something. "Makes me restless. My mom always said I was part wolf." A moment of silence passes that feels too long. "Guess she wasn't wrong." Danny doesn't laugh, but Cindy does, thinking it was a reference to him being on the Werewolves. //Of course that's what he meant.// [[Back->MoonRisingRejoin]]

She turns back to the screen and says nothing. A minute passes. Maybe two. The creature drags itself onto the deck of the boat and the woman onscreen screams and Cindy eats her popcorn and pretends she isn't aware of every small movement beside her. Eventually Danny shifts in his seat. She feels his eyes on the side of her face. "I don't want tonight to end," he says. It's feels like both a sweet and strange thing to say, but she still smiles at the screen. "Me neither," she says. He doesn't say anything after that. But when she glances over he's looking at the moon again, and she wonders for a second if they meant the same thing by those words. [[Back->MoonRisingRejoin]]

Danny eventually turns back to the screen and settles. His shoulders drop. He exhales. After a moment his hand finds hers in the dark, and she lets it, and they watch the movie in a silence that is almost comfortable. Almost. She steals one more glance at his profile in the blue-white flicker of the projector light. He looks like himself again. Handsome and easy as ever. He still steals uneasy glances at the moon every once in a while. [[Continue->FilmClimax]]

She's out of the car before she's decided to be. The air is colder and sharper than it was before. Gravel crunches under he shoes as she makes her way to the ever-dark line of trees. She stops at the edge of the lot. The rational part of her brain, the part that got straight A's in every class and looked both ways twice and never stayed out past curfew, tells her not to do this. She steps into the woods anyway, and the trees close around her. She tries to listen for Danny. She can hear the movie faintly behind her, and her own footsteps sound too loud. She keeps moving forward with her arms slightly out, eyes still adjusting slowly. Then she hears him. It's not a human sound exactly. It's not an inhuman one either, which makes Cindy's heart sink into her stomach. It's coming from somewhere ahead and to the left. She hesitantly moves toward it, scared of what she might find. Then she finds him. He's on his knees at the base of a wide oak, with his hands grasping desperately at the dirt beneath him. His back is to her and his shoulders are heaving. Even in the dark, she can see that something is wrong with the shape of him — it's unnatural. "Danny." He goes rigid at his name. "Don't." His voice is cracked and strained as if he's been screaming. "Cindy, don't come any closer — you need to go back. Right now. Please." She doesn't go back. Her brain can't compute what she was seeing in front of her. His body just looked...wrong. Like something underneath the surface of his skin was fighting its way out, after a long time of being denied. His fingers are wrong. The line of his spine is wrong. Everything is wrong. He turns his head just enough for her to see his profile, which juts outward more than usual. "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm so sorry." She believes him. That almost makes it worse. //She has to do something. She has to do something right now. What do you do?// [[Speak to him — try to reach him while he's still in there->C1Speak]] [[Hide and watch — don't let him know you're still here->C1Hide]] [[Search the environment — there has to be something useful nearby->C1Search]]

She doesn't follow him. She tells herself it's the smart choice. She tells herself a lot of things in the thirty seconds after Danny disappears into the tree line. He just needs air. He'll be back in five minutes. She tells herself the guttural sounds coming from the woods are just the wind. She knows they're not. The hair on her arms stand up as she realizes she is in danger. (after: 3s)[ The sounds from the woods change. ] (after: 6s)[ Something large moving through the undergrowth. ] (after: 9s)[ Close. ] (after: 12s)[ Very close. Choose. [[Stay in the car->S2aTheCar]] (if: $noticedBooth is true)[[[Run for the projection booth->S2cTheBooth]]] [[Look for something to use->S2dTheSearch]] [[Run for town->S2bTownRun]] ] (after: 22s)[ (go-to: "S1BadFreeze") ]

She takes one step forward. "Danny." She keeps her voice low and level, the way you talk to something frightened. "I'm not leaving. Okay? I'm right here." A cry of pain tears through him. His hands...looked more like claws now, leaving scraping marks in the dirt. "You don't — you don't understand what I am. What I'm capable of." "I...I'm not sure." She sutters. "But I think I have an idea." There's a long silence, only broken by something small moving in the undergrowth to her left. She doesn't look at it. It looks like it takes all of his effort, but he relaxes by just a fraction. It's something. "Cindy." He sounds broken-hearted. "If I lose it — if I hurt you, I'll never forgive myself." She doesn't say anything. //He's still in there. For now. Hold onto that.// (set: $connectionLevel to $connectionLevel + 1) [[Continue->C2TheDecision]]

She takes slow, careful steps backwards until her back presses against a solid oak tree. She can still see him through the gap. She watches, somehow both teriified and sympathetic. It is one of the hardest things she has ever done — standing still while someone she likes is suffering twenty feet away. But something tells her that moving right now, revealing herself, could make this worse. So she just watches. He is fighting...something. That much is clear. Whatever is happening to him, he is not surrendering to it willingly. His whole body heaves, shifting into something she can't explain. Whatever this thing is that he's becoming, it seems to come in waves, and leave a little more behind each time. The moonlight falling through the canopy of trees seems to make it worse. He angles himself away from it instinctively, like it hurts. (set: $observedMoonWeakness to true) (set: $observedFighting to true) [[Continue->C2TheDecision]]

She tears her eyes away from him and forces herself to look at the woods around her. Think. There has to be something. She moves carefully, keeping low and quiet. The ground is thick with roots and fallen leaves. She almost misses it — a rusted length of chain half buried under a rotting log, heavy gauge, the kind used for logging or towing. She wraps her hands around it and pulls it free. She coils it as quietly as she can manage and loops it over her shoulder. It's heavy. It'll do something, at least — she just doesn't know yet whether that something is restraint or last resort. Nearby she notices something else: a gap between two root systems, deep and narrow, almost like a channel. The kind of space that might hold something in place, if it came to that. (set: $hasChain to true) (set: $hasFoundChannel to true) [[Continue->C2TheDecision]]

(set: $hasChain to false)(set: $hasFoundChannel to false) (set: $observedMoonWeakness to false)(set: $observedFighting to false) (set: $sawMissingPersons to false)(set: $callowayNameNoticed to false) (set: $sawNervousCouple to false)(set: $sawTreelineMovement to false) <h1>(text-style:"bold","shadow")[By The Light of The Moon]</h1> <h2>''By: Desiree Howell''</h2> (set: $noticedBooth to false)(set: $connectionLevel to 0) (set: $seatChoice to "neutral")(set: $hasFlareGun to false)(set: $hasExtinguisher to false) (set: $foundFenceGap to false)(set: $hasFlashlight to false) (set: $hasBat to false)(set: $doorBraced to false)(set: $bitten to false)

Her eyes have fully adjusted to the dark, which means that she can see, but not necessarily more clearly. She does know that the boy on his knees at the base of that oak tree is still Danny, still in there somewhere. He's fighting something and losing, She knows he won't be himself for much longer. She thinks about the dog in the parking lot. The way it ran. She thinks about the missing persons notice on the bulletin board, Ruth Calloway's name at the bottom, and she thinks about the look on Danny's face when he said I'm sorry like he'd been practicing it. Like he'd known this night was coming for a long time. She thinks about the week that followed that night at the football game, how it felt longer than it had any right to. She takes a breath. She has to make a decision. **[[Try to save him->C3aContainment]]** (if: $hasChain is true)[→ [[Restrain him with the chain->C3aChainRestraint]]] (if: $observedMoonWeakness is true)[[[Draw him away from the moonlight->C3aMoonManeuver]]] **[[Accept he's a threat->C3bConfrontation]]** (if: $hasChain is true)[→ [[Use the chain as a weapon->C3bChainWeapon]]]

She doesn't run. He's still at the oak. Still fighting it. The sounds he's making have changed, even less human than before somehow. Almost growling. She watches him take off his now sweat-dreached white shirt and tries to think clearly. She needs to slow this down. She needs to buy time. The deep channel she noticed between those two root systems before, narrow enough to hold something, seems like it //might// hold him until sunrise. It isn't much, but it's something. [[She has a plan->C3aThePlan]]

She doesn't run. The chain is still looped over her shoulder, cold and heavy against her collarbone. She'd almost forgotten she was carrying it. She trys to think about how she could use it. The chain is barely wide enough to wrap around Danny and the wide oak. The question is whether she can get it around him before the window closes, and the window is closing fast. She tightens her grip on the chain and moves. [[She has a plan->C3aThePlan]]

She doesn't run. She watched him long enough to know one thing: the moonlight is making it worse. Every time a gap in the canopy let the light through, the transformation surged. Every time the shadows closed back over him, he got a few seconds back. The canopy here is thick. If she can move him deeper into the trees, away from the clearing, away from the light — she doesn't know if it'll stop it. But it might slow it down. She looks around. There's a path leading away from the clearing into denser growth. Dark enough to matter. She just has to get him moving. [[She has a plan->C3aThePlan]]

She takes a step back. Not out of fear exactly. Out of clarity. Danny Calloway is becoming something dangerous, she is alone in the woods with it, and she needs to survive, even though she cares about him. She learned that somewhere between the dog and the moon and the way he said I'm sorry like he'd said it before. Her mind works quiet and quickly. She looks at the woods around her and starts to think. [[She needs a plan->C3bThePlan]]

She takes a step back. The chain comes off her shoulder before she's fully decided to use it as a weapon. Her hands make the decision first — wrapping it around her fist twice, letting the rest hang loose and heavy. He's still in there. She believes that. She also believes that isn't going to be enough to stop what's out here. This is what she has to work with. She adjusts her grip. [[She has a plan->C3bThePlan]]

She moves toward him slowly. "Danny." She keeps her voice low and steady, even though she feels terrifies. "I need you to listen to me." He tilts his head slightly in her direction, which she decides is a good sign. It means he's still in there. "I'm not leaving," she says. "So we need to figure this out together, right now, while we still can." He turns toward her slowly, and what she sees when he finally faces her is something she will spend a long time afterward trying to explain. It is Danny. It is also not Danny. His eyes find hers. They've now gone completely bright yellow, like the lights from the concession stand. His pupils are narrow slits. Still him. Barely. But still. "There's not much time," he says. His voice is wrong. It's too low, like he's inhaled sulfur hexafluoride, which she learned about in Chemistry, just a few weeks ago. "I know," she says simply. She tells him what she needs him to do. (if: $hasChain is true)[[[Use the chain->C3aChainSequence]]] (if: $observedMoonWeakness is true and $hasChain is false)[[[Move him into the dark->C3aMoonSequence]]] (if: $hasChain is false and $observedMoonWeakness is false)[[[Use the root channel->C3aChannelSequence]]]

He doesn't fight her. That's the thing she wasn't prepared for — that he would make it easy. That he would sit with his back against the oak while she looped the chain around him, around the trunk, hands shaking so badly she drops it twice. "Tighter," he says. "Danny —" "Tighter, Cindy. Please." She tightens it. There is no lock on the chain, so she winds the end through itself as many times as the length allows and tucks it, just like she'd learned in Girl Scouts. She steps back, examining her work. "Okay," he says. He sounds almost calm. "Okay. Now get back. As far back as you can." She moves back until she hits a tree on the edge of the clearing, and she slides down it until she's sitting in the leaves, pulling her knees to her chest. she watches the moon move across the patch of sky visible through the canopy, and she waits. [[Wait for sunrise->C3aWaiting]]

Getting him to move is harder than she expected. She keeps her voice low, coaxing him forward a step at a time. He keeps drifting toward the patches of moonlight breaking through the canopy, like they're pulling at him. She keeps steering him away from them. "This way," she says. "Keep your eyes on me." He keeps his eyes on her. The deeper they go, the thicker the canopy gets, and she can feel the difference in him almost immediately — his shoulders drop, his breathing slows. It isn't gone. But it's quieter. She finds a spot where almost no light reaches the ground and stops him there. He sinks to his knees. Neither of them says anything for a moment. "How long does this last," she says. "Until dawn," he says. "Usually." //Usually.// She sits down across from him, pulls her knees to her chest, and watches the dark between the trees. [[Wait for sunrise->C3aWaiting]]

It takes her ten minutes and every ounce of nerve she has. She talks him into the channel. The narrow gap between the root systems is deep enough that the roots rise on either side of him when he settles in. Not a cage, but close enough. She sits at the open end, close enough to touch, far enough to move if she has to. "This won't hold me," he says. "If it gets bad enough —" "I know," she says. "But it might not get that bad." He looks at her for a long moment. "You don't know that." "No," she says. "But I'm staying anyway." ... He said it wouldn't hold him. He was right. She doesn't know exactly when it gives — one moment she's watching his face, counting breaths, and the next the roots are cracking and he's not Danny anymore and she scrambles back but not quite fast enough. It isn't much. Just a graze, his teeth catching her wrist as she pulls away, over before she registers it's happened. She gets to her feet and puts distance between them and stands in the dark with her back against a tree and her wrist pressed against her cardigan and waits. He settles. Slowly. The channel still holds him on three sides and whatever surge broke through seems to recede. She watches. She doesn't look at her wrist. (set: $bitten to true) [[Wait for sunrise->C3aWaiting]]

The night is very long. She doesn't sleep. Out here there is only the dark and the cold and Danny, who is sometimes Danny and sometimes not and sometimes something in between that's the hardest to look at. She talks to him when he can hear her. She doesn't know if it helps. It helps her. She tells him about the first time she tried out for the squad — how she fell on the dismount and got back up before the judges finished writing anything down. Her brother who collects baseball cards and sleeps with the radio on. The drive to her grandmother's house in Tacoma, how the mountains look at a certain hour like they've been cut out of paper and set against the sky He tells her things too, in the hours when he can. She listens to all of it. It strangely feels like one of the more intimate moments she can recall in her 16 years of life. Around four in the morning the woods go quiet. She looks at her hands in the dark and thinks about the week after the Homecoming game. How every ordinary hour felt like it was building toward something. She had thought it was just the date she was waiting for. Then, slowly, the sky begins to change. (if: $bitten is true)[ She is still looking at her hands when she notices the mark. Small. Just above the wrist. She hadn't felt it happen — or she had, somewhere in the worst of it, and filed it away without looking at it too closely, the way you file away a lot of things on a night like this. She looks up at the pale suggestion of sky through the canopy. Something looks back. [[Don't let go->SecretTheCurse]] ] [[Sunrise->C3aSunriseEnding]]

The light comes back slowly. First just enough to make out shapes. Then color, little by little — the trees, the leaves, the ground. Danny. He's himself again. She's slightly annoyed by how effortless he still looks, despite the exhaustion on his face. They both look at eachother. "You stayed," he says. "I said I would." Neither of them says anything for a moment, as the light keeps creeping in. "Cindy." His voice is rough. "I need to tell you some things. About my family. About what this is." A pause. "You deserve to know." She thinks about the bulletin board. Ruth Calloway — concerned mother and neighbor. Three photographs. Three names. "I know," she says. Beyond the tree line she can already hear the town waking up. Just a regular Saturday morning. They have no idea. She gets up. Brushes the leaves off her skirt. Reaches down. He takes her hand. They walk out of the woods together and she doesn't know what comes next, but she finds she isn't afraid of it. //The curse is still there. It'll come back with the next full moon.//<br>//But so will she.// — END —

She doesn't move. She expected something big. A pain, a sound. Instead it's quiet — like something that was always slightly off finally settling into place. She looks at her hands. Chipped nail polish, the small scar on her left index finger. Everything where it should be. And yet. Across the dark Danny goes still. "Cindy." Her name in his mouth sounds like a question he already knows the answer to. "I know," she says. She doesn't know how she knows. She just does. Her body has been making its own choices all night. This is just the last one. The cold isn't cold anymore. The sounds of the woods — she can hear all of it now in a way she couldn't before. It isn't frightening. That's the part that gets her. "How," Danny says. "I stayed," she says. He looks at her for a long time. Then the sky starts to change. Danny comes back with the light. He looks exhausted. He looks at her and she watches him understand what he's seeing. "I'm sorry," he says. Different from the first time. She thinks about Ruth Calloway's name on that flyer. The woman by the concession stand. The dog that ran. The moon, which knew before any of them did. She gets up, brushes the leaves off her skirt, and reaches down. He takes her hand. The drive-in is empty. Screen blank, lot still, a paper cup rolling across the gravel. She sits behind the wheel. It feels natural. She doesn't examine that too closely. Danny is in the passenger seat, still watching her. She unhooks the speaker box and sets it back on its post. "What happens now," she says. "We drive home," he says. "And figure out the rest." She puts her hands on the wheel and looks at them for a second. The moon is still just barely visible through the windshield if you know where to look. She knows where to look. She starts the car. //The night always ends.//<br>//But it always comes back.//<br>//And now, so will she.// — END —

Danny is twenty feet away and she has maybe sixty seconds. She does a fast scan. The oak he's braced against. The root systems. The gap in the trees to her left that she hopes leads back toward the lot. Silver. She'd heard that somewhere — a story, a movie, something her cousin told her at a sleepover to scare her. She almost laughs. She's wearing her mother's silver cross. She's been wearing it all night. Her hand goes to her throat. It's there. She works the clasp with fingers that are steadier than they have any right to be. (if: $hasChain is true)[The chain is still in her hands. Between that and the cross, she has more than she came in here with.] (if: $observedMoonWeakness is true)[She thinks about the moonlight — the way the transformation surged every time it broke through the canopy. If she can get him into the open, into the full light, it might give her a window.] She closes her fist around the cross. [[Move->C3bTheMove]]

She doesn't wait for him to come to her. The window is closing and standing still is just a slower way of losing it. She angles around the clearing, keeping the oak between them as long as she can. She can feel him start to track her. The cross is in her hand. One shot. (after: 3s)[ He shifts his weight. ] (after: 5s)[ His eyes find hers in the dark. ] (after: 7s)[ He is no longer braced against the oak. ] (after: 9s)[ Move. [[Press the cross against his arm->C3bTheHold]] (if: $hasChain is true)[[[Swing the chain — drive him back->C3bTheHold]]] (if: $observedMoonWeakness is true)[[[Step into the moonlight->C3bTheHold]]] ] (after: 11s)[ (go-to: "C3bBadFreeze") ]

It works. Not completely. Not cleanly. But it buys her time, and right now time is everything. He recoils from the cross with a sound that is half pain and half anger. Two steps of distance. She keeps the cross between them. His eyes — wrong, still wrong — move between her face and the silver in her hand. Fury or recognition. Maybe both. "I'm going to walk out of here," she says. "You're going to let me." (if: $hasChain is true)[ She swings the chain once — not at him, just enough to let him hear it. He goes still. Good. ] (if: $observedMoonWeakness is true)[ She steps into the full column of moonlight deliberately. His attention splits between her and the pull of the light. She uses the second it buys her. ] One step back toward the tree line. Then another. He doesn't follow. Not yet. [[Run->C3bTheRun]]

She freezes. Just for a second. Just long enough for the second to matter. She waited for something to tell her it was going to be okay. That she wouldn't have to do this. It doesn't work that way. He is no longer at the oak. She doesn't hear him move. That's the worst part. One moment he's there and the next the space is empty and she spins around and he is — — END — //Some decisions have to be made before you're ready.// [[Try again->C2TheDecision]]

She runs. Not in a panic — or not only in a panic. With intention. The cross is back around her neck. The drive-in glow should be to her left. She thinks it's to her left. (after: 3s)[ The sounds behind her change. ] (after: 5s)[ Something moving through the undergrowth. Fast. ] (after: 7s)[ To her right — no. Behind her. She can't tell. ] (after: 9s)[ There. A gap in the trees. Pale light bleeding through. Two paths. No time. ] (after: 11s)[ (if: $sawTreelineMovement is true)[ [[Something moved out there earlier — head for the light anyway->C3bEscapeRun]] ] (if: $sawTreelineMovement is false)[ [[Head for the light->C3bEscapeRun]] ] [[Cut left->C3bBadWrongWay]] ] (after: 18s)[ (go-to: "C3bBadWrongWay") ]

She runs the wrong way. She doesn't know it until the trees close around her and the drive-in glow is behind her instead of ahead. She turns around. The sounds behind her are closer than they were. She picks a direction and runs. It's not the right direction either. — END — //The woods look the same in every direction when you're not paying attention.// [[Try again->C3bTheRun]]

She hits the gravel and doesn't stop. Past the empty cars. Past the speaker posts. Past the dark concession stand. The road is right there. She takes it. She doesn't stop until she's under the first streetlight of Moonlight Springs with the road empty in both directions and nothing but her own breathing in her ears. She stands under the light. She made it out. [[Choose your ending->C3bEndingGate]]

She stands under the streetlight and breathes. The town is quiet. A dog barks somewhere and goes silent. She lets herself believe for just a moment that it's over. She opens her fist. The silver cross has left a mark on her palm — a small red line, like a crescent moon. She looks at it for a long time. (after: 4s)[ The town is very quiet. ] (after: 7s)[ She should move. ] (after: 10s)[ The woods at the end of the road are very still. ] (after: 13s)[ They've been still for a while now. It bothers her. ] (after: 16s)[ Move. [[Find a phone->C3bEscapeEnding]] (if: $sawMissingPersons is true and $callowayNameNoticed is true)[[[Go to Ruth Calloway's house->C3bMercyEnding]]] ] (after: 24s)[ (go-to: "C3bBadTooLong") ]

She finds a payphone outside Heller's Diner. She thinks about what she's going to say for a long time. Then she picks up the receiver and dials home. Her mother answers on the third ring, voice thick with sleep and then sharp with alarm. Cindy says I'm okay, I'm on Main Street, can you come get me. Her mother says don't move and hangs up. She doesn't call the police. She thinks about Danny — about the look on his face when he said I'm sorry and meant it. She thinks about what a police report would look like. She doesn't call. Her mother's car turns onto Main Street seven minutes later. Cindy watches the headlights sweep the storefronts and feels something loosen in her chest. She's going to have to figure out what to do about all of this. About Danny, the woods, the thing she now knows exists that she can't unknow. Not tonight. Tonight she gets in the car and lets herself be driven home while the sky turns from black to grey to the first pale suggestion of morning. The moon sets somewhere behind the tree line. She doesn't watch it go. — END —

She knows the address because it was on the flyer. 414 Sycamore. The walk takes twenty minutes. The town is still mostly asleep. She walks through all of it with the cross back around her neck and the crescent mark still red on her palm. 414 Sycamore has a porch light on. Left on all night. She stands on the sidewalk for a moment. Then she walks up and knocks. The woman who answers has Danny's eyes. She looks at Cindy — leaves in her hair, red mark on her palm — and steps aside without a word. "Come in," Ruth Calloway says. "I'll put the coffee on." Ruth listens to all of it. She doesn't interrupt. She doesn't look surprised. "He's alive," she says when Cindy finishes. "Yes." Ruth looks down at her mug. Relief and grief and something like a very tired love. "I've been trying to stop it for three years," she says. "I haven't given up." Cindy thinks about Danny on his knees at that oak, fighting it with everything he had. "Neither has he," she says. Ruth looks at her. "This doesn't get simpler." "I know." "And you came here anyway." Outside the window Moonlight Springs is waking up, ordinary and unhurried, with no idea. "I came here anyway," she says. — END —

She stands under the streetlight for too long. She isn't sure what she's waiting for. Some clarity about what you're supposed to do when you've just run out of the woods from something that used to be your date. The woods at the end of the road are very still. Then they aren't. — END — //Standing still felt like a choice. It wasn't.// [[Try again->C3bEndingGate]]

She slides across to the driver's side and yanks both locks down. The chunk of the door locks is the best sound she's heard all night. She sits behind the wheel and breathes. Steel and chrome and sixty pounds of door between her and whatever is in those woods. The screen is still playing. Nobody else has noticed anything. The keys are in the ignition where Danny left them. Okay. She can work with this. She could drive out right now. Be on the road to Moonlight Springs before anything gets close enough to matter. Her hand goes to the key. [[Start the car and drive->S2aDrive]] [[Wait and watch first->S2aWait]]

She doesn't move. She sits with her hands in her lap and watches the tree line and waits for...something. The movie plays on. The couple two rows up laughs at something. Then the tree line moves. The dark between the trees shifts into a shape she recognizes and doesn't recognize at the same time. It is looking directly at the Bel Air with golden eyes. She barely has time to scream before everything goes black. — END — //The smart choice and the safe choice aren't always the same thing.//<br>//But doing nothing is never either.// [[Try again->S1TheRealization]]

She takes her hand off the key. Starting the engine right now is going to announce her position. She waits one more minute. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She clicks the flashlight on under the dash, beam low. Enough to see by. ] She watches the tree line. (after: 4s)[ The movie ends. The lot starts to empty. ] (after: 8s)[ She should go with them. ] (after: 12s)[ The last car pulls out. She is alone in the lot. ] (after: 15s)[ (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ The utility light on the concession stand flickers. Goes out. ] (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She clicks the flashlight off. Stays still. ] The tree line moves. ] (after: 17s)[ Start the car. Right now. [[Start the car->S2aStartNow]] (if: $hasExtinguisher is true)[[[Ready the extinguisher first->S2aReadyExtinguisher]]] ] (after: 24s)[ (go-to: "S2aBadTooLate") ]

She turns the key. The engine catches. Headlights flood the gravel and she puts it in reverse and — Something lands on the hood. The dent is deep and immediate. What's crouched on the other side of the windshield is looking directly at her and the glass between them is not as thick as she would like. (if: $hasExtinguisher is true)[ She cracks the window and jams the extinguisher nozzle through and pulls the trigger. The noise is enormous. The weight on the hood stumbles and she hits the gas. [[Floor it->S2aEscape]] ] (if: $hasBat is true and $hasExtinguisher is false)[ She grabs the bat and hits the windshield from the inside. Just enough noise to buy two seconds. She hits the gas. [[Floor it->S2aEscape]] ] (if: $hasFlashlight is true and $hasBat is false and $hasExtinguisher is false)[ She clicks the flashlight on and aims it at the windshield. It recoils from the light. She hits the gas. [[Floor it->S2aEscape]] ] (if: $hasExtinguisher is false and $hasBat is false and $hasFlashlight is false)[ She has nothing. She hits the gas anyway. [[Floor it->S2aBadStall]] ]

The engine catches on the first try. She throws it in reverse, gravel spraying as she aims for the exit. (if: $hasBat is true)[ The bat is across her lap. It makes her feel better than it probably should. ] The headlights sweep the tree line as she turns and for just a half second she sees a large figure with glowing yellow eyes. She looks away. She keeps her eyes on the road and doesn't look in the rearview mirror once, not until the drive-in is behind her and Moonlight Springs is ahead. She pulls over outside Heller's Diner and sits there for a long time. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

She waits one minute too long. The lot is empty now except for the Bel Air and whatever is crossing it toward her. (if: $hasExtinguisher is true or $hasBat is true)[ The engine catches but the thing is already at the door, already pulling at the handle. The lock holds for one second. She swings the (if: $hasBat is true)[bat](if: $hasBat is false and $hasExtinguisher is true)[extinguisher] as hard as she can. It isn't enough. ] (if: $hasExtinguisher is false and $hasBat is false)[ The engine turns over and over and doesn't catch. Then it catches. Too late. The door caves inward. The window spiderwebs. ] — END — //The car was never as safe as it felt.//<br>//It was just familiar.//

It's so tiny and far away that she almost doesn't notice it. Up on the rise at the back of the property, past the edge of the lot, a small concrete building, light spilling from a narrow horizontal window. The projection booth. She can see the beam cutting through the dark above the cars, the source of everything on the big screen. A shadow moves behind the glass. Someone up there doing their Friday night job, completely unaware of everything down here. She files it away without knowing why and gets back in line. (set: $noticedBooth to true) [[Back to the concession stand->ConcessionReturn]]

She runs for the road. It's about half a mile to town. She feels grateful for all the conditioning exercises Coach Hardy gave the team right about now. She hits the asphalt and turns toward the lights. Empty in both directions. Just the road and the dark and Moonlight Springs glowing in the distance. The marquee behind her still lit — CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, a few letters slightly crooked. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She keeps the flashlight off. Runs by the glow ahead. ] (if: $hasBat is true)[ The bat is in her hand. It makes the road feel less empty. ] (after: 4s)[ Something behind her. She doesn't look. ] (after: 7s)[ Closer. ] (after: 10s)[ The tree line on her left is moving. Don't look. Run. ] (after: 13s)[ The first streetlight is right there. So is the breathing behind her. [[Keep running->S2bStreetlight]] (if: $hasExtinguisher is true)[[[Turn and use the extinguisher->S2bExtinguisherTurn]]] (if: $hasBat is true)[[[Turn and swing->S2bBatTurn]]] (if: $foundFenceGap is false)[[[Cut into the field->S2bFieldCut]]] (if: $foundFenceGap is true)[[[Cut through the field->S2bFieldCutKnown]]] ] (after: 21s)[ (go-to: "S2bBadCaught") ]

She gets out of the car. Every instinct says don't. She does it anyway. The car is glass and steel in the middle of an open lot — if something comes out of those woods it finds her in four seconds. She needs to move and she needs to find something useful. She stays low and uses the cars for cover. [[Check the concession stand->S2dConcession]] [[Check the fence line->S2dFence]] [[Check the cars->S2dCars]]

She runs. Across the gravel, past the rows of cars, toward the hill where the projection booth sits. Squat concrete building, light still on in the narrow window. If anyone's still in there she can pound on the door and scream. If not she just needs it to be unlocked. Her shoes slip on the wet grass. She catches herself on a fence post and keeps going. The door is metal. Heavy gauge. She grabs the handle and it opens. She gets inside, throws the bolt, and stands with her back against the door breathing in hot machinery and cigarette smoke. The projectionist is gone. The last reel is still spinning, beam cutting through the window and out across the empty lot below. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She clicks the flashlight on and does a fast sweep. Good. ] (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ A utility light throws everything in orange and shadow. She lets her eyes adjust. ] She looks around. [[Assess the room->S2cAssess]]

Small space. Maybe ten by twelve. The projector takes up most of it — warm to the touch, ticking as the last reel plays out. Metal shelving along one wall. Film canisters, a toolbox, a half-eaten sandwich she doesn't look at for long. One window. Eight inches tall. Not an exit. One door. Bolted. (if: $hasChain is true)[ She looks at the chain. Then at the door. She loops it through the handle and around the bolt housing and pulls it tight. (set: $doorBraced to true) ] She goes to the window and looks out. She can see the whole lot from up here — speaker posts, blank screen, road out, dark tree line. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She keeps the flashlight off. Light through the window means visible. ] (if: $sawMissingPersons is true)[ Ruth Calloway. Three photographs. She thinks about that flyer and feels something cold settle in her stomach. ] Something moves at the edge of the lot. [[Stay quiet and wait->S2cWait]] [[Search the room->S2cSearch]]

She goes to the toolbox first, but can't seem to find anything useful. The film canisters are heavy and round. She stacks three of them near the door within easy reach. (if: $hasBat is true)[ She sets the bat beside them. ] Then she sees it. Bottom shelf, behind a stack of maintenance logs — a flare gun. Orange plastic, squat and ugly, loaded. She has no idea what it's doing in a projection booth. She doesn't particularly care. She picks it up. (set: $hasFlareGun to true) [[Back to the window->S2cWait]]

She positions herself where she can see both the window and the door and waits. The projector ticks down. The beam through the window shortens and cuts off. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She keeps the flashlight off. She knows the room well enough now. ] (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ The booth goes dark except for the orange utility light. She hopes it stays on. ] Below her the lot is still. (after: 5s)[ Something crosses the gravel. Slowly. Like it's looking for something. ] (after: 9s)[ It stops. Looks up. ] (after: 13s)[ (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ The utility light flickers. Once. Twice. ] (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She presses back against the wall. ] She steps back from the window. ] (after: 16s)[ (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ The utility light goes out. [[Stay still->S2cDarkWait]] (if: $hasFlareGun is true)[[[Use the flare gun for light->S2cFlareLight]]] ] (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ Something hits the base of the hill. Moving fast. [[Continue->S2cBreach]] ] ] (after: 24s)[ (if: $hasFlashlight is false)[ (go-to: "S2cBadDarkBooth") ] ]

Eight inches. She looks at the window and she looks at herself and the math is not encouraging. But the bolt has opinions about how much longer it plans to cooperate and the window is the only other way out. Toolbox under the window for height. Arms first, then head, then the rest — one agonizing inch at a time, concrete scraping her shoulders, cardigan catching and tearing. She falls out the other side. Rolls down the hill, grass and wet earth, hits the fence at the bottom and loses all her air. She lies there staring up at the pale sky. Above her the booth door gives. She gets up and runs. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

She stands to one side of the door and waits. The bolt gives on the third impact. The door swings hard and she doesn't think — just raises the flare gun and fires. The booth turns red. The sound it makes when the flare connects is something she won't find a way to describe later. She covers her face and moves — through the door, out onto the hill, cold October air — and runs down without looking back at the light behind her. She hits the gravel and keeps running. The road is right there. She takes it. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

She moves fast. (if: $doorBraced is true)[ Chain plus shelving plus the projector shoved in front of all of it. Three points of resistance. Not a fortress, but close enough. ] (if: $doorBraced is false)[ The shelving is bolted to the wall but the bolts are old. She gets her shoulder behind it and shoves and it comes free in a shower of rust and film canisters. Wedged under the door handle at an angle. Not perfect. It buys time. ] (if: $hasBat is true)[ She puts the bat within reach. ] The door shudders. She gets the projector in front of the shelving. The door shudders again, the bolt holding. Then stops. Silence. She stands with her back against the wall and waits. One minute. Two. Five. A car passes on the road below, headlights sweeping across the window. Then the sky starts to lighten. [[Dawn->S2cDawnWait]]

She runs out of time. The bolt gives while she's still deciding. The door swings inward and the room is suddenly much smaller than it was a second ago. She backs against the projector. Nowhere else to go. What comes through the door fills the frame completely. — END — //The booth was the right choice.//<br>//Staying still inside it wasn't.// [[Try again->S2cTheBooth]]

Padlocked. She rattles both and gets nowhere. She almost misses it — propped against the back wall behind the crates, bracket still attached. A fire extinguisher. Heavy and full. She has no idea if this works on what's in those woods. She suspects it doesn't. But it's pressurized and loud and she can aim it. Right now that's enough. (set: $hasExtinguisher to true) [[Keep looking->S2dSearchHub]] [[That's enough, move->S2dMove]]

She tries three before she finds one unlocked — an older Ford, the kind that belongs to someone who stopped worrying about theft around 1948. Glove compartment: registration, road map, reading glasses, three sticks of Juicy Fruit. Under the seat: a flashlight. She clicks it on. It works. Back seat: wool blanket, a thermos, and — she almost laughs — a baseball bat. Youth league, grip wrapped in electrical tape, someone's name written on the barrel that she doesn't stop to read. She takes the flashlight and the bat. (set: $hasFlashlight to true) (set: $hasBat to true) [[Keep looking->S2dSearchHub]] [[That's enough, move->S2dMove]]

She follows the fence to the back corner where the lot meets the tree line and finds what she was half hoping for and half dreading. A gap. Not a cut — just a place where the bottom has pulled free from its post and bent outward. Maybe eighteen inches high. Big enough for a person. Big enough for other things too. She notes the location. If the road is blocked, this is her other option. Open field isn't ideal. It beats cornered. Caught on the wire nearby — a length of heavy chain from a broken padlock. She works it free. (set: $foundFenceGap to true) (set: $hasChain to true) [[Keep looking->S2dSearchHub]] [[That's enough, move->S2dMove]]

She's found what she's found. The woods are still making sounds. She can look in one more place or she can move. (if: $hasExtinguisher is false)[ [[Check the concession stand->S2dConcession]]] (if: $foundFenceGap is false)[ [[Check the fence line->S2dFence]]] (if: $hasBat is false)[ [[Check the cars->S2dCars]]] [[Move->S2dMove]]

She has what she has. She takes stock quickly — whatever she's carrying, however much time she spent looking — and then she stops looking and starts moving because the sounds from the tree line have changed again and changed is never good. She picks a direction. Where does she go. [[Head for the road — run for town->S2bTownRun]] (if: $noticedBooth is true)[[[Head for the projection booth->S2cTheBooth]]] [[Get back to the car->S2aTheCar]] (if: $foundFenceGap is true)[[[Use the fence gap — cut through the field->S2dFenceEscape]]]

The gap is right where she left it. She gets down and goes through — wire catching her cardigan, gravel biting her palms — and she's out, in the open field, fence between her and the lot. She runs. Dark and uneven. She stumbles twice and catches herself. Flashlight in hand and she doesn't use it — light means visible. She runs by the distant glow of town. Behind her the fence rattles. She runs faster. The field gives way to a side road. Streetlights. She hits the pavement and turns toward the lights and doesn't stop until she's standing under one, breathing hard. She made it out. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

She swings the car toward the exit and doesn't look at the hood. Doesn't look in the mirror. She finds the road and takes it until the drive-in is behind her and the streetlights of Moonlight Springs are ahead and her hands won't stop shaking. She pulls over outside Heller's Diner and sits there for a long time. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

The car lurches backward but not fast enough. The thing on the hood comes through the windshield before she can get it into drive. Just enough. She tries to get the car in gear with her back against the door, but her hands are not cooperating and by then — — END — //She needed something between her and the glass.//<br>//She had nothing.// [[Try again->S2aTheCar]]

She gets the extinguisher up on the seat, nozzle toward the window, before she touches the key. Start the car. If anything comes at the glass, she has an answer. She turns the key. The engine catches. Nothing comes at the glass. She pulls out and aims for the exit and keeps the extinguisher on the seat the whole way, just in case. She doesn't need it. She pulls over outside Heller's Diner two minutes later with it still sitting there and almost laughs at that. Almost. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

Something hits the base of the hill. She tracks it by sound — up the slope, onto the landing, and then the door. The bolt holds on the first impact. The second. The frame starts to buckle. (if: $doorBraced is true)[ The chain is doing work. She has time to set up. ] (if: $doorBraced is false)[ Just a bolt and a prayer. She has to move now. ] (if: $hasFlareGun is true or $hasWire is true or $hasBat is true or $hasExtinguisher is true or $doorBraced is true)[ [[Brace the door->S2cBrace]] (if: $hasFlareGun is true)[[[Wait and use the flare gun->S2cFlare]]] (if: $hasBat is true)[[[Stand your ground with the bat->S2cBat]]] (if: $hasExtinguisher is true)[[[Blast it with the extinguisher->S2cExtinguisher]]] [[Go out the window->S2cWindow]] ] (if: $hasFlareGun is false and $hasWire is false and $hasBat is false and $hasExtinguisher is false and $doorBraced is false)[ [[Brace the door->S2cBrace]] [[Go out the window->S2cWindow]] ]

She doesn't move. The dark has weight to it. She stands with her back against the wall and listens. Footsteps on the hill. Heavy. Uneven. Up the slope. Across the grass. Onto the concrete landing outside the door. It stops. She hears it breathe. The door handle moves. (if: $doorBraced is true)[ The chain holds. It tests the door twice, three times. The chain rattles but holds. A long silence. Then the footsteps move away. She stands in the dark and doesn't move for a very long time. [[Wait for dawn->S2cDawnWait]] ] (if: $doorBraced is false)[ The bolt holds. For now. [[Continue->S2cBreach]] ]

She raises the flare gun toward the ceiling and fires. The booth turns red. She can see everything — door, shelving, window, her own hands shaking. Outside the footsteps on the hill stutter and recoil. Three seconds. She gets the shelving unit wedged under the door handle before the flare burns out. When the dark comes back she's against the far wall, empty flare gun in one hand, film canister in the other. (set: $hasFlareGun to false) (set: $doorBraced to true) [[Wait for dawn->S2cDawnWait]]

She stands in the dark and waits. She counts her breaths — something to hold onto, something with a number attached to it. She gets to four hundred and something before the window starts to lighten. Grey first. Then shapes. Then color. She goes to the window. The lot is empty. The tree line is still. The road is clear. She unbolts the door and walks out into the cold air and stands on the landing and looks at Moonlight Springs waking up in the distance and breathes. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

The dark does something to her that the transformation and the chase and the bolt on the door didn't quite manage. It unmoors her. She moves when she should stay still — just one step, trying to orient herself, trying to find the wall — and her foot catches the toolbox and it hits the floor with a sound like a gunshot in the small space and she freezes but it's too late, the sound has already gone out through the window and down the hill and been heard by whatever is at the bottom of it. The door doesn't last long after that. — END — She needed light. She had none. [[Try again->S2cTheBooth]]

She stands to one side of the door, bat on her shoulder, and waits. She played softball two summers ago. Not the best hitter on the team. Not the worst either. The bolt gives on the second impact. The door swings in and she swings faster — don't aim, just commit, her coach always said. The crack reverberates up her arms. The thing in the doorway staggers back onto the landing. She doesn't wait. She bolts through the door, down the hill, gravel, then she hits the road. She keeps running. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

She stands to one side of the door, extinguisher up, and waits. The bolt gives. The door swings in. She pulls the trigger. The noise is enormous. White cloud fills the doorframe — she can't see through it and neither can anything else. She hears it stumble on the landing and moves through the cloud before it clears. Down the hill. Gravel. Road. She doesn't look back. [[Continue->C3bEscapeEnding]]

The shelving isn't enough. She gets it wedged and watches it flex inward on the first impact. The bolt holds but the frame is separating from the wall, crumbling at the anchor points. Second impact, the shelving skitters sideways. Third — She goes for the window. Arms through. Head through. She's halfway out when the door gives completely. She's not fast enough. — END — //She needed more than the shelving.//<br>//She had nothing to back it up with.// [[Try again->S2cTheBooth]]

She hits the pool of orange light at a dead sprint and keeps going — past it, onto the sidewalk, past a hardware store and a laundromat and a house with a light on upstairs. She doesn't stop until she hits the payphone outside Heller's Diner. She looks back down the road toward the drive-in. Empty. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She plants her feet and turns. No time to aim. She swings with everything she has and the impact travels up her arms into her shoulders and the thing goes sideways and she goes forward. She runs. Streetlight ahead. Past it, onto the sidewalk, all the way to the payphone outside Heller's Diner. Her hands are shaking. The bat is still in her grip. She doesn't remember deciding to hold onto it. She looks back down the road. Empty. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She cuts right into the field. Long wet grass, hidden furrows. She stumbles on the first stride and keeps going. Darker than the road. She navigates by the town glow and nothing else. Behind her it follows her off the road. Of course it does. (after: 3s)[ Something to her left. Closer than it should be. ] (after: 6s)[ She's not going to make it across the field. [[Cut back toward the road->S2bFieldRoad]] (if: $hasExtinguisher is true)[[[Turn and use the extinguisher->S2bFieldExtinguisher]]] (if: $hasBat is true)[[[Turn and swing->S2bFieldBat]]] ] (after: 12s)[ (go-to: "S2bBadField") ]

She plants her feet and turns. Spin, aim, pull the trigger. The extinguisher goes off in the face of whatever is three feet behind her. Enormous and white and immediate. She hears it recoil. She runs. Streetlight, sidewalk, hardware store, laundromat, payphone outside Heller's Diner. She looks back down the road. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ She sweeps the flashlight down the road once. Nothing. Clicks it off. ] Empty. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She cuts right. She knows this field — clocked it earlier when she found the fence gap. Town lights are due north. She runs north. Grass long and wet. Ankles complaining. She doesn't care. Behind her it follows her off the road. She cuts left toward a low rise, goes over it, puts it between her and whatever's behind her. Three seconds. She changes her line. (if: $hasFlashlight is true)[ Two seconds of flashlight — enough to find the old fence line — then off. ] She finds the fence and follows it toward the road. [[Continue->S2bStreetlight]]

Something cuts her off at the shoulder of the road, out of the tree line faster than anything should move. She pulls up short. Drive-in behind her, field to her right, tree line to her left, fifty feet of road she is not going to be able to cover. She had options. She needed to use them faster. — END — //Open ground is only good if you're the fastest thing on it.// [[Try again->S2bTownRun]]

She stands under the streetlight and breathes. A dog barks somewhere and goes silent. (if: $hasBat is true)[ She sets the bat against the payphone booth and looks at her palm — red from the grip, shaking slightly. ] (if: $hasBat is false)[ She looks at her palms. Scraped, shaking slightly. ] (after: 4s)[ The town is very quiet. ] (after: 7s)[ She should move. ] (after: 10s)[ The road behind her is very still. ] (after: 13s)[ It's been still for a while now. It bothers her. ] (after: 16s)[ Move. [[Find a phone->C3bEscapeEnding]] (if: $sawMissingPersons is true and $callowayNameNoticed is true)[[[Go to Ruth Calloway's house->C3bMercyEnding]]] ] (after: 24s)[ (go-to: "S2bBadTooLong") ]

She cuts back toward the road. Closer than she thought. She hits the asphalt running, turns toward the lights, solid ground under her feet. The streetlight is ahead. She makes it. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She stops. Turns. Fires. White cloud in the dark field. She hears the reaction and she's already moving — back to the road, asphalt, north toward the lights. She makes the streetlight with forty feet to spare. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She stops. Turns. Swings. She connects. The impact knocks her sideways and she stumbles and keeps moving — back to the road, asphalt, north. She makes it. [[Continue->S2bEndingGate]]

She picks the wrong line. She knows it three seconds before it matters — hidden ditch, left foot drops, hard fall, ankle turning under her. She gets up. She's slower now and it's close and the town lights are ahead but not close enough — — END — //The field looked like escape.//<br>//She needed to know it better than she did.// [[Try again->S2bTownRun]]

She stands under the streetlight for too long. The light is warm and the road behind her is empty and she lets herself believe it's going to stay that way. It doesn't. She sees it at the edge of the light. By the time she moves the edge has moved too and the town is right there but right there isn't close enough — — END — //She made it to the light.//<br>//She just didn't keep moving.// [[Try again->S2bTownRun]]

Our story begins on a cool autumn night in the small town of Moonlight Springs. It is the start of Senior year for the graduating class of 1955 at Moonlight Springs High School. For Cindy Marlowe, a soft-spoken but spirited Junior, it is also her first night cheering on the sidelines as a member of the squad. At the Homecoming game, beneath the blaze of the stadium lights, she finds it difficult to concentrate on the routine. Her eyes are on the star quarterback of the Werewolves, Number Twelve - Danny Calloway. She tells herself she is just watching the game. As he jogs back to the 20-yard line, to her surprise, he looks over and flashes her a daredevil smile. She almost drops her metallic red pom-poms entirely. The stadium erupts as Danny scores the game-winning touchdown, with not a second to spare. She watches him receive congratulations in the form of back-slaps from teammates, an approving nod from Coach Briggs, and several coos from fawning cheerleaders. He steps past all of them and crosses the track to where Cindy sits on a bench at the edge of the field. She is mid-conversation with a friend and loses her train of thought entirely. Her friend excuses herself, and almost as soon as she does, Danny Calloway takes her place. Cindy's cheeks warm as he drops onto the bench beside her. They talk more easily than she expects. He compliments the precision of her routine during the halftime show and she tells him she's never seen someone make it look that effortless out there. He laughs at that. Danny is leans forward, elbows on his knees, "What does a pretty thing like yourself have planned next Friday night?" "That depends who's asking.", she says, proud of herself for the clever response. He asks her to the drive-in and she says yes. The week that follows feels longer than it has any right to. [[Continue->The Drive-In]]