Remington “Rem” Riley's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The axe dragged Rem deeper into the tunnel. Its red light bounced off wet stone. His side burned with every step. Somewhere ahead, Beth stumbled toward the beast, drugged and slow. He had to reach her first. But the flower's scent clung to the walls here too, and he could not outrun a wolf while bleeding. He needed a way to hide the smell or turn the hunt aside. He stopped to think. A hand closed on his shoulder from behind. Rem spun. The grip was strong and wrong, the fingers too curled. He knew the face. It was the missing guest from Room Seven. The man everyone thought dead on the mountainside. Marcus Hollow stood swaying in the red light, alive. But he was changing. Coarse dark hair covered his jaw where the beard had been. The claw scars under it had split open and spread. His eyes had gone yellow. His teeth pushed long past his lips. He breathed in ragged pulls, half man, half something else. "You," Rem said. "You were dead. We saw you." Marcus dragged in a breath. His voice came out low and torn. "It doesn't kill you." He gripped his own arm and shuddered. "It makes you. The bite makes you." He bared his teeth and fought them, jaw working. "I've been fighting it two days. I can't—much longer." Rem understood then. The creature did not only hunt. It bred. The man from Room Seven had not been prey. He had been the next wolf. And Marcus still had enough man left in him to warn Rem. Marcus's nose worked the air. He turned toward the deeper dark, toward Beth's fading scent, and growled. The sound was not his own. His body wanted to hunt her. "No," Rem said. He raised the axe between them. "Fight it. Help me reach her." Marcus's hands shook. He looked at the blade, then at Rem. Something human held for one more second. "Take my coat," he said. He tore it off. The fabric reeked of the red flower, soaked through from his days in the cave. "It's all it can smell. Drag it. Send it wrong." Rem grabbed the coat. The plan came fast. The wolf tracked the bloom, not the body. If he dropped the scent behind him, the beast would chase the coat, not Beth. Marcus staggered back against the wall. His growl deepened. The man was slipping under. "Go," he snarled. "Before I'm gone." Rem ran, the reeking coat trailing from his fist, the axe pulling him toward Beth. Behind him, Marcus dropped to all fours and howled. The sound chased Rem down the tunnel. He did not look back. He had a lure now, and a truth worse than any monster. The wolf did not just kill his guests. It turned them into more wolves. And one was loose in the dark behind him.