Jessica's head throbbed as consciousness seeped back in, each pulse a reminder of the brutal fight she'd just survived. Someone was shaking her shoulders, their hands urgent but gentle. The familiar scents of her friends—Salina's violet-lavender shampoo and Kevin's mint gum—mixed with the acrid stench of burnt alien tissue that permeated the air.

  "Jessica! Come on, wake up!"

  She recognized Salina's voice immediately, the usual sharp edge softened by genuine worry. Her eyes fluttered open, and her vision gradually focused on both Salina and Kevin, who crouched beside her in the dim furnace room. The emergency lights cast harsh shadows across their faces, making them look gaunt and haunted.

  "What..." Jessica croaked, pushing herself up on her elbows. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest, a symphony of pain from being thrown against walls and grappling with an otherworldly creature. Her enhanced healing was already at work, but even werewolf regeneration had its limits. "How long was I out?"

  "Just an hour," Kevin said, adjusting his glasses with trembling fingers. His usually pristine white shirt was a disaster of dirt and sweat stains. A fresh cut above his eyebrow had left a trail of dried blood down his cheek. "But you'll never believe what happened. The cocoons—they just kind of... vanished. Like they never existed."

  Jessica's head snapped up, suddenly fully alert despite the pain. Her heart raced as she remembered the trapped cheerleaders. "Good…” She rubbed her head. “So… Is everyone okay?"

  Salina nodded, a rare smile crossing her face and softening her gothic features. "They're all fine. Confused and freaked out, but alive. Though I think Tiffany might need therapy after seeing what was left of her skirt."

  Relief flooded through Jessica as she staggered to her bare feet, Kevin and Salina steadying her on either side. Their touch helped ground her, remind her that this was real—she'd actually done it. She'd killed the creature that had been terrorizing their school.

  "By the way, it is totally gone," she said, the reality of her victory finally sinking in. Her voice held a mix of disbelief and pride. "I trapped it in the furnace… Don't ask me how.”

  "Good," Kevin said, grinning. His glasses reflected the emergency lights, momentarily hiding his eyes. "I knew that would work. Fire can kill anything."

  Jessica couldn't help but smile. After everything they'd been through tonight—the terror, the fighting, the desperate gambles—the old nickname didn't seem so bad anymore. It felt more like a badge of honor than the taunt it had once been.

  The basement hallway was eerily quiet as they strolled back to where the cocoons had been. Their footsteps echoed off the walls, mixing with the distant hum of emergency generators. Jessica's enhanced hearing picked up heartbeats and frightened whispers ahead with the soft sounds of crying.

  They found the cheerleaders huddled together in the corner, looking shell-shocked but unharmed. Tiffany was the first to spot them.

  "Jessica!" She launched herself at Jessica with surprising speed, wrapping her in a tight hug that made her bruised ribs scream in protest. The scent of fear clung to her normally perfectly coiffed hair. "Oh my god, I thought we were totally goners and—" Her voice cracked with hysteria.

  "I know," Jessica cut her off, patting her back awkwardly. The physical contact made her wolf stir restlessly, still on edge from the fight. "But we're all okay now. It's over." She tried to infuse her voice with a confidence she didn't entirely feel.

  "Over?" Amber's voice cracked like thin ice. She was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, her usually perfect makeup streaked with tears. "How are we supposed to call for help? Ms. Becker locked them in the safe..."

  Jessica exchanged grim looks with Kevin and Salina. They all knew what they had to do, even if none of them wanted to say it.

  "I'll get the keys," Jessica breathed. "I... Found Ms. Becker’s remains."

  The group made their way to where Jessica had last seen Ms. Becker. The sight that greeted them made several of the cheerleaders turn away, retching. All that remained of the teacher was a skeleton, clothes still partially intact, keys glinting dully on a chain around the belt. Near the wall, they found Mr. Rosso's remains in a similar state.

  Jessica forced herself to approach Ms. Becker's skeleton, trying to be as respectful as possible as she carefully removed the keys. Her hands shook slightly as she did it, guilt and grief mixing in her chest. They hadn't been able to save them.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered to the teacher's bones. “I hope there is a good detention class in heaven for you.”

  *****

  The safe in Ms. Becker's office opened with a heavy click. Inside, their phones sat in neat rows, exactly as they'd been confiscated at the start of detention. It felt like a lifetime ago.

  "Our parents must be freaking out," Mia said, clutching her phone. "It's been hours."

  "We need a story," Kevin said firmly, pushing his glasses up. "Something believable." He looked at the others meaningfully. "It was a bear. A big one. That's what we're telling everyone, okay?" His tone carried a hint of desperation beneath the certainty.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "A bear?" Camella raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Her cheerleader's skepticism cut through the fear. "Another bear somehow got in and..." She glanced toward the door, probably thinking about the remains.

  "You got a better explanation?" Salina challenged, crossing her arms. Her black clothing blended with the shadows, making her pale face seem to float in the darkness like a gothic apparition. "One that won't get us locked up in a psych ward?"

  That shut everyone up. Jessica could see the wheels turning in their heads, weighing the impossibility of what they'd experienced against the need for a somewhat plausible explanation. The distant hum of machinery and someone's muffled sobs broke the silence only.

  As the others made their calls, their voices a chorus of reassurances and choked-back tears, Jessica pulled Kevin and Salina aside into the shadows. "We should have saved them," she whispered, the guilt weighing heavy on her chest.

  Kevin's face fell, his usual animated expression crumbling. "We didn’t know the thing was coming here. That thing... it ambushed them. By the time we figured out what was happening..." He trailed off, unable to finish.

  Salina squeezed her arm, her grip firm enough to anchor Jessica to the present. "You did everything you could. More than anyone else could have. Without you, we'd all be like them by now."

  Before Jessica could respond, sirens pierced the pre-dawn quiet, their wailing growing steadily closer. Those wailing sirens from outside made Jessica's wolf bristle with unease.

  "That was fast," Kevin muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  Jessica's heart rate picked up as she recognized one voice outside, a voice she'd known all her life. "My dad's here." The words came out barely above a whisper.

  Sure enough, Sheriff Daniel Tumblerlee's authoritative voice carried down to them: "This is the police! Is anyone inside?”

  "In here!" Jessica called back, leading the group toward the exit. Her voice cracked from smoke inhalation and exhaustion. "We're coming out!”

  They emerged into the gray light of early morning, squinting against the sudden brightness after hours in the dim basement. Emergency vehicles surrounded the school, their lights painting everything in stark colors that made the scene feel surreal. EMTs rushed forward with blankets and first aid kits while deputies secured the perimeter, their hands hovering near their weapons as they scanned for threats.

  Sheriff Tumblerlee strode toward them, his face a mix of relief and suspicion. His thick beard couldn't hide the worry lines around his mouth, lines that seemed deeper than ever. Jessica noticed fresh coffee stains on his uniform shirt—he must have come straight from the station when the calls started coming in.

  "Jessica?" He pulled her into a quick, fierce hug before holding her at arm's length to examine her. His eyes cataloged every scratch and bruise with professional concern. "What happened? We got reports of strange noises and lights at the school, and then all these calls about students trapped in the school..."

  Jessica took a deep breath, steeling herself for the lie. The familiar guilt of deceiving him settled in her stomach like lead. "There was a bear, Dad. A huge one. It broke in through the basement entrance while we were in detention."

  Her father's eyes narrowed, years of police work making him instantly suspicious. "A bear."

  "Yeah." Jessica forced herself to meet his gaze steadily, channeling every ounce of conviction she could muster. "It went crazy, started destroying everything. We had to hide. Kevin and Salina helped me keep everyone safe until we could get away."

  Sheriff Tumblerlee looked past her at the destruction visible through the basement windows. His jaw tightened as he took in the twisted metal and structural damage. Jessica could practically see him trying to reconcile the scene with what he knew about normal bear behavior.

  "And Ms. Beaker? Mr. Rosso?"

  Jessica's throat closed up, grief and guilt choking her words. Kevin stepped forward, his voice quiet but steady, taking on the burden of delivering the news.

  "We think... we think the bear got them before we could warn them."

  A heavy silence fell, broken only by the crackle of police radios and distant sobs. Sheriff Tumblerlee's hand dropped to his gun belt, a habit Jessica had noticed whenever he was processing hard information.

  "I'm going to need statements from all of you," he said finally, his cop face sliding firmly into place. "Detailed statements."

  "Of course, Sheriff," Tiffany spoke up, her cheerleader's smile firmly in place despite her trembling hands. The facade of normalcy seemed to help her cope. "Whatever you need."

  As the authorities led the others away to waiting ambulances and patrol cars, Sheriff Tumblerlee held Jessica back with a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder. His eyes, so like her own, searched her face.

  "You sure it was a bear?" he asked quietly, pitching his voice below the general chaos. "Another bear attacked the school?”

  Jessica met her father's concerned gaze, hating the necessity of lying to him. The weight of her secrets—both old and new—pressed down on her like a physical thing. But what choice did she have? The truth was too fantastic, too dangerous. And she couldn't risk exposing her own nature in the process of explaining it all.

  "I'm sure, Dad," she said, forcing conviction into her voice. Years of hiding her werewolf nature had made her a better liar than she liked to admit. "It was just a bear."

  He studied her face for a long moment, and Jessica felt a flicker of fear. Had she given something away? But finally, he nodded, though the worry didn't leave his eyes.

  "Alright. Go get checked out by the EMTs. We'll talk more later."

  As Jessica walked away, she could feel her father's eyes on her back. He knew she was hiding something—he was too good a cop not to sense it. But for now, at least, he was letting it go.

  The sun was cresting the horizon as Jessica joined her friends in one ambulance. Its golden light caught the remnants of alien slime on the school walls, making them glisten like fresh blood. Kevin and Salina flanked her silently, a familiar comfort in their presence. They'd been through hell together tonight, and that kind of experience forged bonds that couldn't be broken.

  "What do we do now?" Salina murmured, watching as Tiffany gave her statement to a deputy, gesturing animatedly as she described the "bear" attack. Her black nail polish was chipped, and Jessica noticed it absently, probably from their desperate escape attempts.

  Jessica wrapped the shock blanket tighter around her shoulders, suppressing a shiver that had nothing to do with the morning chill. Her wolf was restless beneath her skin, still on alert for danger.

  "We go home," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "We try to forget."

  "You really think we can?" Kevin asked quietly, his usual humor absent.

  Jessica thought about the weight of her secrets—both old and new—pressing down on her. The monster she'd become, the monster she'd killed, the lies she'd have to keep telling. The nightmares that would surely come.

  "Yes," she admitted, watching as another patrol car pulled up to the scene. "We moved on after our previous encounters with deadly monsters. It's what we do.”

  Around them, Moon Valley was waking up to what would become another ordinary day. But Jessica knew things would never be ordinary again. Not for any of them. The world had changed, even if most people would never know it.

  She watched as her father organized a forensic team to collect Ms. Becker and Mr. Rosso’s remains in the basement, knowing they wouldn't find anything else. The alien had been thorough in covering its tracks, leaving behind only questions that could never be answered and grief that would never fully heal.

  An EMT approached with antiseptic and bandages. Jessica submitted to the examination mechanically, her mind already racing ahead to the challenges that awaited them. How would they explain this to their families? To their classmates? How long before someone poked holes in their bear story? And what if there were more creatures out there, more threats lurking in the shadows?

  But as she caught Kevin and Salina's steady gazes, she felt a glimmer of hope. Whatever came next, she wasn't facing it alone. Not anymore. They'd seen her at her most monstrous and hadn't run. Instead, they'd fought beside her, trusted her, and helped her save the others. In their eyes, she saw not fear but acceptance, even pride.

  The sun climbed higher, burning away the last traces of night's horrors. But Jessica knew better than to think the darkness was gone for good. It was still there, lurking beneath the surface of their ordinary lives, waiting for its next chance to emerge.