The sound of birds chirping in the distance threatened to jostle him awake, but no sooner had Shawn waded close to consciousness than sleep reached out and pulled him back under again. An indeterminate amount of time passed, though this time when something roused him, his eyes fluttered open, shutting twice before staying open for longer than a few seconds. By the time he woke up fully, he the sun had nearly reached it apex, beating down on him through the tree line.

Slowly, Shawn forced himself to sit upright. Doing so made a wave of nausea and dizziness crest over him, and as he shut his eyes, he directed most of his attention toward calming both his stomach and his nerves. Opening them again, he took a deep breath and released it slowly, surveying the forest around him and struggling to remember how he’d gotten there. He and Edwin had come out to the lake and the faint sound of laughing and splashing in the distance told him he’d not wandered too far from there. Brow furrowed, he struggled for the rest of those memories and inhaled sharply when he remembered the three men who had confronted them.

“Edwin,” Shawn said, placing his palms down on the ground and using them to push onto his feet. Immediately, two things happened almost at the same time; his head spun and an unholy amount of pain shot from his shoulder down his arm. Swearing under his breath, he stumbled toward a tree and clung onto it, which only made his shoulder scream louder at him. “Hey,” he called out toward the cacophony on the other side of the tree line. “Hey, can anyone hear me?”

Nobody responded. Lumbering forward, Shawn set his sights on the next nearest tree, lunging for it when his footing threatened to falter. He cried out as his palms caught the rough bark, and though the world had begun to spin again, he still repeated the process with the next tree and willed himself to the edge of the woods. Where the trees ended, and the clearing began, Shawn tripped and fell onto the grass, but this time the noise he made seemed to garner some notice. Feet scrambled toward where he landed.

Just in time for him to lose consciousness again.

During various moments, he became aware of what was happening around him. Voices congregated around him, and after another lapse into blackness, he felt someone examining him, followed by him being lifted onto something flat and carried off. Shawn didn’t wake fully until he found himself in a hospital and even then, the concept that he had traveled from one place to another only made his thoughts feel thicker than they had been in the forest.

Within moments of rousing, however, somebody entered the room and assumed a place beside him. He turned his head, blinking away the last remnants of sleep and furrowed his brow at the woman dressed in a white coat, covering a set of green scrubs. “There you are,” she said. “I didn’t know if you were going to wake up again today. The people who found you said you just collapsed.”

“Yeah,” Shawn muttered, lifting his hands to scrub at his face. As he did, he tugged at the end of an IV line and examined where it led, up to a bag dripping fluid into his arm. “When did I get here?”

“Only about an hour ago. We put you in one of our emergency room bays for observation.” She broke eye contact, in favor of examining a monitor for Shawn’s vital signs. “Do you remember what bit you?”

“What bit me?” Shawn blinked. Something instinctive told him to move his arm and as he did, pain shot from his shoulder, causing him to wince. “No, I don’t. I was in the woods with my boyfriend and…”

“And what?”

A thousand thoughts crashed into Shawn all at once, recalling not only the memories he’d left the forest with, but what else had happened the night before. Edwin had bitten him, which, while the oddest thing that had happened, wasn’t what held his thoughts captive as the doctor turned to face him again. “I, uh. There were people there, and I think he ran off to be with them. I can’t remember.” Shawn’s heart raced. He remembered the golden eyes and the beginning of Edwin’s admission, just before their race into the woods. “I think I need to leave.”

“Well, we should make sure first that animal that bit you wasn’t rabid.”

“They weren’t. It’s hard to explain. I need to talk to his cousin, I think. It’s still kind of foggy.” Shawn realized as he spoke how confusing his words probably sounded but didn’t pay any mind to it. Instead, he pushed the sheet off that had been covering him. Looking himself over and focusing first on the large bandage over his shoulder before glancing again at the IV. “Can someone take this out?”

The doctor rushed to stop him from standing. “We can work on that, but you should really wait until we can run some tests on you.” Her hands settled on his uninjured shoulder. “Besides, I’m not letting you walk out of here without someone accompanying you. Can we get ahold of your boyfriend?”

“I-I don’t know. We can try to call him.” Shawn glanced around. “Is there a phone?”

“There’s one here in the emergency room that you can use.” The doctor held up a finger. “Stay put until I can get one of the nurses here to help you. Okay?”

Shawn nodded, scolding himself to take the moment to finish wading back into reality. The picture of the world had already sharpened from the time he woke, and while his shoulder still hurt whenever he moved it, he realized some of the fogginess in his head had probably been caused by painkillers. ‘Bitch of a bite,’ he thought, tempted to follow it up with the same suspicions he’d had the night before. His brain issued a protest, however, and when the doctor appeared again, a nurse in tow, he told himself the best course of action was to hold back any theories until he didn’t want to vomit.

“Take my hand and Gregory here will help you to the other side of the curtain,” the doctor said. “We have a wheelchair over here for you.”

“Alright,” Shawn said, allowing the doctor and nurse to help him to his feet. His first steps wavered, but Gregory obediently kept Shawn upright and while Shawn knew he wouldn’t be leaving the hospital on his own steam, he already began to wonder how he would get back to the cabin without Edwin.

Sighing, he mused on the concept of Uber while calling Edwin’s cell phone. Ringing on the other line carried on past the point when Edwin usually answered and when it clicked into his voice mail, Shawn felt the first pangs of genuine worry twist his stomach. The doctor wandered off, but Gregory stood by, making Shawn nervous about leaving a voice message. “Hi, babe,” Shawn finally said after Edwin’s recorded message stopped playing. “I’m at the hospital. Please let me know that you’re okay.”

He hung up before adding his customary ‘I love you,’ trying the number again and hanging up when it clicked to voice mail again. “You done?” Gregory asked as Shawn set the receiver down.

“No, hold on,” Shawn said. He stared at the phone, racked with urgency and all too aware they were still in the Poconos, three hours away from Philadelphia. Still, the only person he knew he could turn to lived there and if anyone would understand this insanity, it would be Dominic. Shawn lifted the phone receiver again and, after pausing to recall the number his phone normally had programmed, he waited for his friend to answer.

Dominic’s voice chimed after the third ring. “Hello, this is Dominic,” he said.

“Dom, it’s me, Shawn.” Shawn paused to catch his breath, some of his worry exorcised by the familiar sound of his friend. “I need your help.”

“Hey, hey, hey. I thought you and loverboy were up in the woods for the weekend.”

“Yeah, we were, but I’ve run into a problem. I’m in the hospital, and Edwin is missing.”

“Shit.” Dominic paused and in the background, Shawn heard his friend shifting position. The strange onslaught of a new sound made him blink, but Dominic spoke before he could question it any further. “Are you talking to the cops up there?”

“Sort of. I need your help. This is an awful thing to ask, but can you get up here?”

Dominic chuckled. “Yeah, I mean, I can but you realize it’s going to take me a while to, right?”

“Well, it’s either that or the world’s most expensive Uber ride. I need to get back down to Philly.”

“Shouldn’t you stay up there in case the cops need to question you?”

“It’s sort of more complicated than that.” Shawn glanced at Gregory and while he did, the recollection of Edwin’s command to contact Rob resonated in his head. “There’s a good reason why I shouldn’t, but I’d rather discuss it with you in person, if that’s okay.”

“That’s… okay, but you’re worrying me over here.” Dominic sighed, and again, the odd sound of shuffling filled the silence that proceeded. Shawn heard keys jangle and a door click shut. His mind filled in the image of Dominic locking up his apartment and starting down the stairs. “I’m on my way. What hospital is it?”

“Lakeview Memorial. I’m in the Emergency Room for now. Hopefully can convince the doctor that I don’t need to stay.”

“If you need to stay, you need to stay, Shawn. Don’t make me have them tie you down. We’ll find where Edwin is, I promise.”

“It’s that. It’s other stuff, too. I swear, I tumbled into the Twilight Zone. Just hurry up, okay?”

“Hurrying. I’ll be there as fast as the PA state troopers will let me.”

“Thanks.” Shawn hung up the phone and swallowed back another wave of nausea. Looking toward Gregory, he caught the nurse’s eye and sighed. “Now, I’m done. Can you let my doctor know that my friend’s coming up from Philly to get me?”

“I’ll let Dr. Saunders know.” Gregory wheeled Shawn back toward the bay he’d been occupying and, once they reached it, assisted him back into bed. As Shawn settled, he watched Gregory unhook the IV bag from the back of the wheelchair and secure it back onto its pole. Mercifully, Gregory left shortly afterward, allowing Shawn to rest without supervision.

As time went by, however, Shawn felt himself steadily improve. Dr. Saunders revealed their cursory lab work had at least come back and everything about his vital signs indicated a man in model health. “I don’t think you ever told us what bit you,” she said. “It would be nice to fully clear you, but we can’t until we know it wasn’t rabid.”

“I’ll be okay, I promise,” Shawn said, brushing her off a second time. The words ‘I’ll sign a waiver,’ were on his lips when she relented, but as she walked away, he glanced at the bandage on his shoulder again, tempted to peel it off and look. Dominic arrived before he could make good on the temptation, however. Gregory showed him into the bay and as he did, Shawn called to him, “Please tell the doctor I want to get out of here now.”

“We’ll get you your discharge papers,” Gregory said, leaving Shawn alone with Dominic.

Dominic frowned. He waited for Gregory to leave before turning to address Shawn. “Can you tell me what happened now?” he asked.

Shawn shook his head. “Not here, no. I’ll start to tell you in the car.” He looked down at the shorts he still wore and frowned. “I need a shower and a change of clothing. Maybe Edwin’ll be back at the cabin, though I’m not counting on it if he hasn’t shown up here.”

“You’re playing it cool.”

“I’m a wreck, but my brain can’t figure out what to focus on first. It’s all a bunch of chaos upstairs.” Shawn paused speaking when a different nurse entered with paperwork, followed by Gregory who helped to remove the needle from Shawn’s hand. Another bandage was secured, and as Shawn came to a shaky stand, Dominic reached out to help Gregory walk Shawn to the waiting wheelchair.

“I can help you get him into the car,” Gregory said.

Shawn opened his mouth to issue an objection but held it back. Within moments, he’d signed papers and let his friend and the nurse fuss without complaining. The minute they drove away from the hospital, however, Dominic sighed and shot a quick glance at him from the driver’s seat. “Alright, we’re in the car,” he said. “Now, spill it.”

“It’s insane, man,” Shawn said. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Start with what the hell that is on your shoulder.”

“You’re never going to believe this, but Edwin bit me.”

“He what?”

“I’ll tell you the story, but you need to just listen before you drive me to a mental institution.”

Dominic nodded and followed Shawn’s directive to drive to the cabin first. Along the way, Shawn began to explain, from the incident several months ago, to the night beforehand, describing his skittish boyfriend and the admission he made toward being ‘not quite human.’ As he’d been instructed, Dominic stayed quiet, even when the explanation stretched into Shawn’s shower and past helping Shawn secure another bandage over his angry shoulder.

“This doesn’t look like a human bite mark,” Dominic said. “I mean, I know you said he’d told you something about him wasn’t, but this isn’t even small enough to be a wolf bite. Looks like you got mauled by a bear.”

“Feels like I was mauled by a bear,” Shawn said. Shutting his eyes, he stayed as still as possible, hair dripping from the shower. Dominic taped the bandage into place. “I don’t know what happened, because he didn’t look any different when he lifted his head from there. None of this makes any sense.”

“I’d accuse you of making it up if not for this. And the fact that I know you too well to believe you’d pull my leg. At the same time, there’s got to be an explanation for all of this. I know what you think you saw, but maybe he was trying to trick you somehow.”

“By getting himself kidnapped?” Shawn glanced at the suitcase that had belonged to Edwin and felt his stomach twist again. “That’s not Edwin, Dom.”

“You think it’s not Edwin, but you’ve only known him for what? Four or five months?”

“Almost five and seriously, he’s not into pranks. Especially knowing that I’d kick him to the curb for something this screwed up.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, then. All I know is that I’d be going to the police, and it’s weird that you can be so worried and not be screaming at me to take you there next.” Dominic finished and tossed the medical tape back in the bag that the hospital had given them. As he sat on the bed beside Shawn, he raised an eyebrow. “You want me to take you back to Philly?” he asked.

“Yes,” Shawn said. “I need to go in the apartment and find his cousin’s number.”

“The same one that tried to dissuade you two from dating?” Dominic sighed, shaking his head. “Shawn, I swear if I’m driving you away from a murder scene I am going to be royally pissed.”

“Please don’t kid like that.” Shawn shot Dominic a look of warning, prompting the other man to raise his hands in surrender. Once Shawn finished dressing, he followed Dominic back out to the car, his steps less tentative then they should have been, strength returning to him in leaps and bounds as a vague tickle began to manifest in the back of his mind. Every piece of Edwin that he laid eyes upon made the sense flare and while he couldn’t figure out what fueled it, the instinct to follow its demands felt nearly overwhelming. “I know this makes no sense,” he said while they left the cabin, Shawn grabbing his phone and charger while they did. “But I need you to trust me.”

“Dude, you shouldn’t even be on your feet right now. You have me thoroughly at a loss.”

“Good.” Shawn frowned at the empty cabin while reaching to shut the door. “That makes two of us.”