Trey

The trio offered to let you leave, asking you to leave the keys with them, and you agreed. But the attempt failed. The creature from the forest blocked the road with a fallen tree, and while trying to detour, you ended up in a ditch because of a boar. Two people were injured—Cole and Effie. Eventually, you somehow made it back to Nate, Trey, and Chris's house.

Today you decided to talk. You needed to set the record straight. Cole was recovering from his injuries in your shared room. A voice came from behind the door.

"Cole, what are we going to do?" Effie's voice sounded quiet, unusually worried.

"Nothing," it was Cole's voice now. Gloomy and unexpectedly dry. "We won't tell anyone anything."

"How can we not tell?! The fox is my friend! And I... we..." Effie's voice became even hoarser.

"What are we going to say? 'Fox, I'm sorry, we slept together. It was an accident'?" Cole hissed, his voice seething with despair and rage.

"I... I wouldn't have done that. We were just drinking... and Trey, he wasn't paying attention to me..."

— I don't give a damn about your Trey. What should I do?

Silence fell over the room. Tears blurred your vision, and you walked down the stairs and then down the hallway as if in a fog. The collision with someone happened so suddenly that you didn't even register it.

Her fingers clutched the dark fabric of her T-shirt to keep from falling, and strong, hot hands abruptly grabbed her. Who it was was completely unimportant. Tears flowed of their own accord, soaking the black fabric of someone else's T-shirt.

"So. What's this number?" came a low, chillingly calm voice. Trey.

Ever since I was little, life was unthinkable without Ruby, Effie, Hayley, Lena, Cole, Zirk, and you. The seven of you stuck together, always.

About six months ago, something sparked between you and Cole. A long-held mutual attraction finally came to the surface: you confessed, and he said the feeling was mutual.

You were always like this—you had to get used to it first, trust it. Hugs, light kisses—and that's it. It didn't go any further. And Cole really didn't like it.

When Ruby's parents bought a country house and everyone was planning to go there for the summer, you agreed, really hoping that you and Cole could mend fences there. But things only got worse.

First, something dangerous was prowling the forest, watching you and calling you into the thicket. Second, Cole had tried several times to achieve a greater, more intimate connection. Rejected, he distanced himself. And at some point, he suddenly, suspiciously, stopped acknowledging your existence. As if something had happened. In such a dire situation, you needed support, but all you got was his silence and cold indifference.

Thirdly, on the very first day, three guys with bats showed up on the doorstep. It turned out they were also hunting this creature. There were now ten of you in the house. At first, the new faces were intimidating. Nate was a brave and relatively normal leader; he quickly became friends with Lena. It seemed like a spark flew between them. Chris was a jokester and generally friendly. But the last of the three was Trey—stern and grim. He alone remained indifferent to everyone except his two friends. Sometimes it seemed as if his gaze could simply burn you and everyone else to death in a second.