I promise you won't be alone

[Declan Finnigan]

This was nothing they wanted to bear witness to.

Hunter. That other man was a hunter, but only a human—nothing compared to the immense power of the man directing them to head on off to the Carter ranch. What was that keychain, though? Dec wondered about it, and about the little fox on the dangling charm, as the pickup lumbered up the hill. He chanced one last glance back through the rain-soaked window at the two figures rapidly disappearing out of sight.

Lily let out a whimper too, and Dec realized her arms were tight around him. Dec gently barked and licked her cheek, then took a chance on shifting back. If there were other hunters around, they would surely be taken care of. Surely, humans weren't capable of taking down somebody like the creator. He didn't know the creature's name but he knew what he saw was a god, an ancient being walking amongst men.

It was just strange to think that of all the places a god might visit, Hazleton was one of them.

His limbs elongated again and stretched back out. As soon as he returned to his human form Lily was on him, burying her face into his chest. He gathered her close, up in his arms, and stroked the back of her dark head gently as the car wound its way toward the Carter ranch. Like hell Dec was disobeying a direct order from somebody like that.

"...we should look at your vision again later," he said softly to Wade, who... Really, what the hell did Wade even make of all this? Dec barely processed it himself.

[Wade Calhoun]

Wade had no idea what the key chain thing meant but he kept it, regardless. It seemed unwise to throw away something given to an entity as powerful as the one they had just encountered. Best to pocket the keychain and hold onto it... Maybe he would need it for something later. Or maybe it was just some weird gift from a weird entity. Whatever the case, he could still feel the power of the man--not man... God? Whatever he was, Wade could feel it down to his bones. Not nobody to fuck with, that much was for sure.

"What's that mean?" Wade asked. What did he not see proper? Or was that a remark on his driving? Because it wasn't his fault the wind was so strong that it buffeted the truck from side to side.

Either way, he was relieved when he saw the sign for the Carter ranch up ahead. It existed! Eureka! That and it meant they could get inside and out of this strange storm that came from outta nowhere. As the truck rumbled its way up the path to the enclosed ranch fence, a young man came out, decked out in mucking boots and a rain slicker. He opened up the gates for them and ushered them inside, then carefully closed them after the truck was safely inside the ranch.

"Freak storm, huh?" The young man greeted them with as he lifted a hand to his hood and got a look at them through the window Wade rolled down. "Are you guys the new ranch hands? Anybody else coming up this way right now's gotta be nuts."

"Yup, that'd be us. Wade and Dec Calhoun, at your service." He slanted a look over at Declan, whose last name he didn't know. He doubted Declan wanted people to know his full name, anyway. He didn't even want Wade to know it. Might as well use his own last name instead.

[Declan Finnigan]

"What you--we saw earlier," Dec said with a slight tilt of the brows at Wade's offended tone. He meant the vision--the one of him getting shot. Things might have changed now that they'd had a brush with somebody powerful enough to change fate.

He attributed the testy response to the freakish storm and the run-in with something far beyond their comprehension. Dec looked back again but there was nothing to be seen except the rain and trees getting tossed around. As they bumped along, he grabbed some clothes from his bag and hastily slid them on so that when they reached the ranch, he wouldn't be caught stark naked. Not the kinda first impression Dec wanted to make.

At the gates, he thought he'd have to get out and push them open himself but a kid came up. Kid wearing... boots and a hooded slicker... Dec's thoughts went to the vision again, of him laying at the boots of a hooded figure, bleeding out in the rain, and his grasp on Lily tensed. But the kid was just that--a kid. Hardly seemed older than twenty or so, and he wasn't holding a gun. Although Dec didn't relax, he tried to tell himself that he was being paranoid.

Not everybody with a hood and boots was out to get him.

Wade and Dec Calhoun, however, gave him pause. He didn't contradict Wade but he did make a disapproving noise at him, though doubtlessly it was lost above the roar of the wind. That made it sound like they were. Well. Dec thought of them as a family but he wasn't angling to take another man's last name. Hopefully people thought they were cousins or something.

The truck trundled on through and up the path to the ranch, where another kid with similar boots and slicker and sopping mop of curly brown hair waved them towards a small cluster of cabins. "Mister Carter'll talk to you guys in the morning!" he shouted above the howling wind which blew his hood off--looked like it was gonna blow his hair right off his head too. The kid clutched his hood frantically.

"You can take the second one on the right, that one's empty!"

[Wade Calhoun]

"What?" he said, somewhat distracted. By now, he wasn't thinking of visions or danger. His mind was more on the ranch itself and the boys that met them, looking like they had probably been ushered out in their raincoats and boots. But then the boots and coat combination reminded him of the nightmares, the visions that had been haunting him for weeks now.

"Oh."

He spared Declan a glance. Now he got it. Yeah. Revisit the visions. That made sense. With both of them looking at it, they might be able to pinpoint a time, exact location, all that. And maybe... see who it was that was going to apparently shoot Declan. It would be a lot safer to do in the privacy of a room than sitting on the side of an old road in a beat up pickup truck. Goddamn it, he was every country song's cliche, wasn't he? Pickup truck, dogs... They were even border collies.

"Yeah."

And he heard that gruff little sound coming out of Declan but all he did was give him the briefest wink--blink and you'd miss it--before continuing to talk to the boys. They were directing them to a set of cabins up ahead.

"Yeah, second one's ready for you!" the other boy shouted above the wind as he was pelted with rain. "It's not EMPTY, dude." He seemed to be saying that to his friend. Brother? No, they couldn't look any more different. Definitely not brothers. Were any of them the Carter boys? Now didn't seem the best time for introductions so Wade nodded, waved, rolled up the window, and drove the truck up to the indicated cabin.

"Fancy, ain't they?" Wade said as he regarded the cabins. There weren't a lot of them and they were pretty small but they looked expertly built. "No keys? That's country livin' for you."

Wade cut the engine, then turned to look at Declan and then at Lily. The back at Declan. He was going to say something about the Calhoun business. Even lifted a hand as if to speak but thought better of it. Instead, he slid the keys out of the ignition and tucked them into the same pocket as the odd little fox keychain. He opened up the car door with its usual old groan.

"Home sweet home!"

[Declan Finnigan]

Dec blinked.

That was his story, he was sticking to it, and wild horses couldn't drag the truth out of him. Hopefully the kid by the truck didn't see that wink. Because Dec didn't. No sir.

"Looks fine," was his generous appraisal of the cabins, which he took to be reserved for ranch hands or visitors. "Guess the place is too far out even for thieves."

Looked mighty cozy; lots of windows were curtained but he saw the warm glow behind them, saw the spirals of smoke from the chimneys whisked away by that violent wind battering the side of the truck. If not for the storm, he bet he could've smelled supper cooking too, and the scent of wood burning in the hearth.

"C'mon honey." Dec got Lily out first, putting a worn leather jacket over her to keep her dry(ish) as they made a mad dash for the cabin. Things could be unloaded later off the truck; they'd better get the heat going inside, and warm some food for empty bellies. Lily couldn't subsist off snacks forever, and Dec didn't want her to, either. He grabbed the door handle and flung it open--helped by a vicious gust of wind.

"Daddy it's spooky in here!" Lily's disembodied voice in the darkness was shaky. Dec laughed dryly as he sought out a switch and flipped it on, bathing the interior in a warm golden glow.

"Not bad," he said of the comfortable furniture and the real fireplace that met his eyes. "I'll get some wood, saw a wood pile out back as we drove up. You get yourself and Lily dried off, Wade."

[Wade Calhoun]

The Carter ranch was pretty far out from the rest of the town, which was just fine with Wade after seeing those visions and realizing they were in downtown Hazleton. Made a man want to keep away from it, just to make damn sure they didn't happen. Even if he did know fighting the visions would be futile... couldn't stop him from at least trying to mitigate whatever damage came of them.

The interior of the cabin was cozy even without the fire going yet. It was nice; nicer than a good number of places Wade had stayed at in his travels over the years. While the furniture didn't look spanking new, everything looked clean and tidy. There were even pictures on the walls to make it homier. They looked to be paintings, various landscapes and animals. Wade smiled. Who painted them? And who was in charge of the cabins? Somebody had a touch for interior decorating.

"Sure, will do!" Wade saluted Declan in response. He gently took Lily's hand. "Come on, Lils. I'm sure one of these doors is the bathroom."

There weren't a lot of doors within the cabin. As they trailed around the cabin and opened each door, Wade found that there was a single bedroom with a queen-sized bed... That would probably be left to Dec and Lily to share. Wade was used to sleeping in a truck so it didn't bother him in the least to have a soft couch to sleep on. There was a covered porch--that was nice. There were even a couple of rocking chairs on the deck. Weirdly, the bathroom was attached to the bedroom. That might make things weird.

Better than not having a bathroom, though.

Inside the bathroom, he found that there was both a nice spa tub and a shower. Interesting. The cupboards were already filled with clean towels and Wade pulled a few out.

"Here you go, sweetheart," he said as he took Dec's leather jacket off Lily and replaced it with a big fluffy towel. "It's not that spooky here now, is it?"

[Declan Finnigan]

"I like that picture!"

"It's a closet!"

"Yup! It's not spooky anymore!"

Dec heard Lily's cheerful voice as he went in and out, first with an armload of chopped up logs, then with food from the truck, and a final time with some of their personal effects—toothbrushes and changes of clothes and things. Even in three short trips, he was already soaked through and by the time Lily and Wade emerged, he was standing at the door dripping water all over the welcome mat.

"Think that's everything," he said, slightly out of breath. The wind had knocked all the air out of his lungs. It was really howling out there now, and torrential rain lashed down on everything as though God had finally opened up the heavens to drown all living things. If this was the second coming of Noah's Arc, well... they were pretty well screwed.

"You get all dried off, honey?" He asked Lily, who had run over to the couch and clambered onto it. "Hey come down from there. You'll get that couch all wet." Dec gestured to the damp bags sitting a little ways off. "Got some of our clothes, Wade. Figured you'd want to change." Dec could take Lily into one room to change, leaving the bathroom free for Wade.

[Wade Calhoun]

Lily was the cutest lil thing. Everything she saw blew her away. What was behind that door? A closet! She really enjoyed the pictures on the walls, especially the ones featuring animals. They seemed to be local wildlife; raccoons, foxes, birds.

After viewing the whole place and seeing there was nothing mysterious about it--and that it was pretty small, so there weren't a lot of scary hiding places for any monsters, Lily seemed satisfied with the cabin's contents. It was nice to see her chirping happily about everything after that fear she was starting to show earlier. That was partly their fault; they shouldn't have talked about the visions in front of her. Wade should have known better.

Wade only laughed as Lily jumped onto the couch. The state of the couch should have mattered to him but it wasn't like he couldn't borrow a sheet or something, as long as there were extra ones somewhere in that closet. He forgot to check.

"Thanks," Wade said, going over to the damp bags Declan indicated. "That storm came straight outta nowhere."

Almost like... magic or something. Wade tried not to give it too much thought. Just because it was raining didn't mean that tonight was the night. They would be safely tucked away in this cabin all night. That meant Dec was safe for now.

Grabbing the most comfortable clothes he could find, Wade nodded, before entering the bathroom to change. Made more sense for him to take the bathroom, since he didn't have to change himself and a little girl. From behind the closed bathroom door, he said, "Checked the kitchen, looks like there's some groceries in there. We should eat here. Stay out of the storm."

[Declan Finnigan]

Lily was a real artistic kinda kid; she loved music and colorful things and was always making up fanciful stories. Where she got those ideas Dec didn't know, but he knew for a fact that it wasn't from him. Probably from her mom. Dec was more of a practical guy, dealing in the here and now. That was his job as a dad, though; Lily's job was to be a kid. As long as she didn't grow up too fast, he was doing his job just fine he reckoned.

"Ain't fit for man or beast out there," Dec remarked as he sorted through the bags to find his and Lily's clothing too. They met Wade as dogs but Dec managed to sneak their bags—of which there weren't many—into the back of the truck while he wasn't looking. Of course, even after Wade discovered their secret and undoubtedly found their personal effects, Dec continued playing dumb.

How did that bag get there? Whose little blue princess dress did that belong to?

Dec didn't know. He put on his innocent dog face and just stared Wade down, refusing to budge even one little bit.

After Wade went into the bathroom, Dec took Lily into the bedroom with their clothes. He stripped off her wet dress and helped her put on a hoodie and some pants. "You're all drippy daddy!" She giggled as she pointed to the little pool of water at his feet.

Dec smiled and ruffled her damp hair, then gave her a little pat on the butt to get her out of his way, so that he could peel off his soaked clothes and slip into something warm and dry. "You wanna help me with dinner?" He asked Lily, to which she nodded vigorously. Then, louder to Wade, "I'll go see what's in there. You take your time."

He grabbed their discarded clothes—using his own to mop up the pool of water on the floor—and went to hang them up in front of the homey hearth. Dec knelt to pile on some logs and started up a fire by carefully setting light to some dried up twisted newspapers in a container by the fireplace. After they caught, he poked them into a crevice between the logs and soon there was a cozy, crackling fire sending warmth throughout the small log cabin.

"All right, let's see what's for eatin'," he said to Lily as he took her hand and drew her into a small kitchenette. The fridge was small but stocked, just like Wade said. Dec rifled through the groceries and pulled out some vegetables—to which Lily let out a hearty "YUCK! VEGGIES!"

"Hm." Was there meat? He could fry some up, maybe make a salad... "Ey. Put that back." Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Lily trying to make off with a bunch of leafy greens, which he suspected she was going to throw into the fireplace.

"Mister Wade! Tell daddy veggies are gross!"

[Wade Calhoun]

Yeah, yeah, take his time. Wade eyed the shower, then the tub. A hot bath sounded so good with the rain pattering outside but the idea of the power getting knocked out while he was in there, not so appealing. Although... Was this cabin set up with a generator? It was pretty far from the grid, so...  possible? He should have checked but now wasn't the time for baths, anyway. Even if Declan said to take his time, he imagined he didn't mean to sit and soak in a bath for an hour.

So he opted for the shower, turning it on and taking off his clothes while he waited for the water to get warmer. He set his keys down on the sink counter, along with the weird keychain. Putting his hand under the spray of the shower, it seemed like it was taking its time getting warmer. He made a face and wandered around the bathroom, coming back to his keys and the keychain. He picked it up, turning it over in his hand.

Why? Why did that strange man hand this thing over to him? And there was power rolling off that guy. Declan felt it; he felt it so acutely that he froze in his presence. But they didn't talk about it. It was like they were stepping around whatever happened back there. Trying to pretend it didn't happen.

Setting the keychain down, Wade tried the water again. Warm enough. He hopped in, took a quick shower--probably three to five minutes, tops. After he dried off, he slipped on a loose t-shirt and his only pair of sweats, which he usually wore to sleep in. Opening the bathroom door to let out the steamy air, he heard his name being called by Lily. He stuck his head out and called out, "Sorry, Lily! I like some veggies! Don't you like sweet potatoes? And I bet you'd like broccoli if you added some cheese to it!"

[Declan Finnigan]

Having lost Wade as an ally, Lily trudged back with the stolen veggies and put them back on the narrow countertop. She did like sweet potatoes, Dec knew this for a fact, but only if they were steamed and soft and easily scooped up with a spoon. It was the harder vegetables that gave her trouble—like broccoli. After making a horrible face, she ran out of the kitchen and Dec could hear her saying to Wade, "Broccoli is yucky!" There was a pause, a light tinkle of something metallic, and then she piped up again, "Is that a fox, Mister Wade? It's pretty! Look, if you do this, it looks like it's moving!"

Dec shook his head as he pushed some of the vegetables back into the fridge—not all of them could go into a salad. He was just seeing what was available for them to eat that night. Salad greens were left, alongside a red bell pepper and a small container of cherry tomatoes. He found ham too—not the thin slices used for sandwiches but proper ham, honey-glazed and still in its foil wrapping. It would be tasty fried up in a little bit of oil, so he got to hunting for pans and found one and got to work. Someone really took the time to put food in their fridge. He'd have to find out who, and thank them when the storm let up. Maybe Mrs. Carter, if there was such a person.

It was a little known fact that Dec didn't mind cooking. He got pretty used to it, being a bachelor for most of his life, and after he had to take care of Lily he learned to expand his menu to more kid-friendly items. It was harder to cook for a baby but as Lily grew up and was able to eat more, finding something to appease both of them became easier too. The only problem was getting her to eat her vegetables, but Dec had one sure trick up his sleeve.

He'd tell her to eat it and sit there waiting until she did, watching to make sure she didn't hide any in her pockets.

As Lily chatted to Wade about foxes, he sliced ham and set it into the pan, where the thick-cut slices sizzled appealingly. Then he washed the greens and as he did so, he kept an ear open to the conversation being had. That keychain bothered him a great deal but he didn't want to scare Lily again so he said nothing about it, nor about the man who gave it to Wade. It wasn't a subject that was proper for a kid to listen to anyway so he kept his mouth shut about it and got on with the cooking.

[Wade Calhoun]

Since Declan seemed to have the food situation handled--who knew the guy could cook?--Wade entertained Lily by answering her questions about foxes. Wade knew enough about foxes, growing up with the kind of family that chased them away with shotguns. (Not that he told her that part.)

He sat with her on the couch as Declan made dinner, the keychain in her hands. She seemed intrigued by it, and she was right. It did sorta look like it moved when they turned it just so. If it was just a trinket he bought himself, he would have told Lily to keep it. Since it came from a stranger with a dangerous aura, he decided it was best to keep it for himself. When she handed it back, he tucked it into his pocket again.

"You know what, though?" he said. "I bet we'll see real foxes out here."

Not right at the moment, of course. Right now, any fox with any self preservation was hiding in their dens, away from the rain. But the Carter ranch was situated way out from the town proper and it was surrounded by forest and wedged by mountains. It had to be an ideal place for foxes.

"And you know what else? They have horses here. And pigs and goats and sheep and chicken. When it stops raining, we should go check them out!"

[Declan Finnigan]

"REAL foxes?"

Dec glanced over his shoulder and saw Lily staring wide-eyed at Wade, as though she couldn't believe her ears. Not only foxes but other animals--anything one would expect to reasonably find on a farm. Dec shook his head; Wade didn't know what he was getting himself into. Now that he'd promised all those animals, he'd be expected to produce them all once the weather let up.

When he turned back to tend to the food, though, Dec was smiling a little bit. They made a pretty picture--Wade and Lily sitting on the couch in front of the fire, chatting and keeping each other company. Dec wasn't a terrible father but he was sparse with his words and he didn't know how to encourage a child with a vivid imagination like Lily's. He was better with the practical aspects of raising a child--getting her clothed, fed, looked after.

The ham didn't take long to fry up and salad was easy to make. He poked his head out of the kitchen after the food was ready. "Dinner's on the table. Come eat."

[Wade Calhoun]

"Yep. Real foxes."

And he could track them, too. He knew how; it wasn't something he forgot over the years. Lily would probably alert any foxes in the area to their presence, though, so he wasn't sure how he was going to show her any wildlife while they were here. He could teach her, though. How to be quiet so that nature came closer. He thought she would like that. Plus, all those farm animals.

"Let's eat!" He took Lily's hand to lead her to the table. Whoops. Seemed kinda bad on his part to tell her about pigs on the farm right before they ate ham. Hopefully, she didn't make the connection. Wade made a little face at Declan as he sat down, although he wasn't sure if Declan was on the same page as he was regarding that fiasco.

"Didn't know you could cook," Wade said as he picked up a fork. He wasn't a terrible cook himself, living mostly on his own for the majority of his life. But mostly he ate like a bachelor; out of fast food drive-thrus and fire pits.

[Declan Finnigan]

Dec was of the opinion that children shouldn't be sheltered. He wasn't going around telling other people's kids that Santa Claus wasn't real or that all dogs didn't go to heaven--unless Heaven was the bald patch of dirt out back--but with Lily he wanted to strike up a more realistic approach to child-rearing. Protecting her too much now meant that she had a longer ways to go when she grew up. Dec didn't want to set her up for that long fall later on.

But he wasn't no bastard either, and sometimes even his heart softened. Like when she came in hand-in-hand with Wade with that big ole happy grin on her face, telling him that "Mister Wade's gonna show me baby piggies!" Dec looked up in time to see Wade's expression and the corner of his mouth tilted slightly in amusement. "Don't take much to fry up some ham."

That amusement faded a bit once they sat down and Lily asked, without missing a beat, "What's ham made of daddy?"

"Pi--" Dec started to say, then cut himself off. He looked at Wade and then back down at Lily, who had pushed the salad on her plate as far away from the meat as humanly possible. "Never mind. Eat your dinner."

"Aww!" She pouted but resumed eating.

Next bit of ham sorta stuck a little in Dec's throat. He looked at Wade again and felt an odd desire to laugh. He didn't, but he wanted to.