Winnie’s heart was still pounding by the time she got back to her cabin. The altercation with the vampires and then Wendy had left her feeling disjointed from reality and utterly exhausted.
Collapsing onto her bed had been the one thing that had kept her legs moving through the forest, but once there, images of the brutality of the evening wouldn’t leave her mind. She tried rolling over, pressing a pillow into her face to drown out the sounds of birdsong from outside, but even that didn’t help her feel any more collected. Resigned to a sleepless afternoon after a sleepless night - how many hours had she been on her feet now? - she filled her bag with food and water and headed back out.
Unsure of what exactly she was intending to do, she wandered aimlessly around the open green, perhaps looking for a spot to settle in that wasn’t in the full blaze of the sun. It was then that she noticed a familiar pair of trainers - so white they were blinding - and the face to match.
“Jack!” He turned at the sound of her voice and waved her over, grinning as she broke into a light jog. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know.” He waved a hand carelessly, the other holding a half-rolled joint. “Thea may have recommended it, although I now know it had some ulterior motive. Want some?”
“Sure.” She folded herself to sitting and watched as he rolled with ease, barely watching what he was doing as he hummed to himself. The quiet was nice, being with someone enough to take the edge off the dark thoughts that had been plaguing her. The faint ringing of a bell had her sitting more alertly, memories of her own cat immediately letting her know where the sound originated from.
“Hey, I think there’s a cat around here!”
“Oh, really? Maybe it belongs to the campsite owner.” He sparked up and inhaled, the sickly sweet scent already invading her personal space. True to her words, a cat slinked towards her, bell on the bright pink collar chiming with every cautious step.
“Hello, sweet one!” she cooed, bringing a hand out to coax her forward. A nametag glinted in the sunlight and she caught the word Millie etched into it.
“So your name’s Millie, huh?” The cat purred in what seemed like agreement, as she brushed a hand over the ginger and black fur. She was a tortoiseshell, just like Cookie, and the reminder made her want to take Millie in her arms and give her a giant cuddle.
“Dogs are better, you know.” Jack muttered, eyeing the cat warily as it rubbed up against Winnie’s arm. Millie stopped purring and glared.
“You shouldn’t have said that, it’s probably considered rude.”
Jack shrugged, flicking some ash onto the grass. “It is kind of cute, I suppose.”
That comment only served to aggravate the cat further, ears flattening into her small skull.
Jack leaned forward slightly to stroke Millie, blowing smoke into her face as he did so. She flinched, and then lunged, claws hooking into his neck.
He dropped the joint in shock, and Winnie leapt forward, arms circling Millie’s midriff to pull her off. Jack managed to get a hand in the way of her open mouth aimed at his jugular, and teeth sunk into his fingers instead.
She remained wrapped around his neck for five long seconds before Winnie managed to wrangle Millie off, sending her skittering across the grass.
“Fucking hell, the damn thing tried to kill me!” Jack’s hand and neck were both bloody, long ribbons of sanguine streaming over skin and dripping onto the pristine white trainers.
Winnie watched Millie, brain going blank with shock. Three things that had been hellbent on killing in the space of a day.
Millie was advancing slowly, hackles raised and hissing loudly. She looked...well, she looked rabid. No longer a sweet housecat, the pink collar was almost laughable.
“It literally wants to kill you!” Her voice sounded too shrill, too panicked to her own ears, and she cringed.
“That really hurt,” Jack whined, backing up a step and almost tripping over his own bag. He dropped to a crouch and dug around in there, pulling out a box of…
“What is that?”
“Earl Grey tea,” he said blandly, before throwing it directly at Millie. It bounced off her head, and her back arched even more in outrage.
“What did you do that for?!”
“Tealeaves! They calm cats down!”
“That’s fucking catnip, you idiot!”
“Have you got any better ideas?”
“I...here!” There was a large stick less than a foot away, long and fairly sturdy. She picked it up and pointed it towards Millie, heart pounding. She hoped the action didn’t make her a target, too.
“Please stay back,” Winnie murmured, voice low and sweet to try to appease the feral cat. Millie ignored the hushed tones and dodged the sweeping arc of the branch, lying low. Her large eyes were tracking Jack, ready to pounce again.
“I still think the tea was the better idea,” Jack grumbled, hands coming up ready to protect his face.
“Because it worked so well, didn’t it?” Jesus, she thought her heart would never go back to a resting rate for the rest of her life. Some relaxing camping trip this was.
As a last resort, she pulled out her water bottle and unscrewed the cap. Millie diverted her attention from Jack for just a moment, and watched warily just as Winnie jumped forward two steps and poured the entire bottle over her. Millie yowled with a propensity that actually hurt the ears, sounding as if she’d been murdered.
Her tail flicked in annoyance once, before she turned and fled, darting through the underbrush and disappearing just as quickly as she’d appeared.
Winnie and Jack both collapsed into the grass at the same time, exhaling heavily.
“Is this a fever dream?” Jack asked as he pulled out his tin with supplies, rolling once again as if nothing had happened. She wanted to take a leaf out of his book, and tried to calm her breathing.
“I don’t know, but make it a blunt this time. I think I need it.”
