Cara had trouble sleeping that night. The wolf was showing its wrath. Each echoing roar through the lakeside cottage seemed to show contempt for the notion of a cure. Cara kept her gun close that night, an unsettled feeling in her gut that the wolf would break out persisted. But morning came as usual without occurrence. Logan stayed in bed, sleeping off and on, only a daze of consciousness when Cara checked on him. She herself went down to the water and walked along the shore for a while, waiting while the sun rose, praying that Daniel would come back today. It wouldn't be a full moon that night, but the one after. It was close, and the closer it was the harder Daniel had to fight.

Cara smiled warmly though as she returned to the basement and saw him sitting against the wall as usual, wrapped in the now tattered remains of the previous day's blanket. She sighed with relief at the sight of him, but he only answered her gaze with a solemn look.

"Daniel...?" she said tentatively, walking past the chair, which was her normal spot and instead sitting against the same wall as Daniel, with the bars splitting them apart. "I'm sorry the tea didn't work. But we can try again. Maybe more of it, maybe a different method of taking the herb. I'll talk to Logan and we'll come up with some ideas." She glanced over at Daniel who was staring over at her with those same somber eyes. He looked down at his lap, rubbing his fingers together slowly.

"I've been thinking a lot this morning, thinking about my parents mostly," Daniel said softly, his eyes moving away from her, looking into the distance. "I'm never going to see them again. Or my sister. Anyone I knew. Life has moved on without me, and that's okay." He licked his lips.

"I've been thinking about what the rest of my life would look like. Its not all bad." At this he gave her a meaningful look and he held that gaze. "But there's no version I can see that doesn't involve a cage."

"That doesn't have to be the case," she interjected. "There's more we can try, we'll figure something out."

He sat up straighter, so he could face her directly. "Cara, I think its time we face the reality of the situation. There isn't a magic cure waiting out there. If there was, someone would know about it, but there isn't, anymore than there's a cure for cancer. I've got a disease. The difference is my disease can hurt a lot of innocent people. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt anyone else, you especially.

"Sure maybe we could keep me locked up here indefinitely, but odds are eventually the wolf will break out. And even if we could keep me secure in here for the rest of my life, what kind of life would that be? What type of life would it be never seeing the sky again, or trees, or eating a proper meal at a table? What life would I have always being separated from you by these bars, never being able to hold you in my arms, or give you a kiss." He glanced down shyly at this. Cara realized she was crying.

"You don't have to give up yet," she said. "We'll keep searching. I'll find a way to save you." He looked back at her, tears forming in his own eyes.

"You did save me. You brought me back from that endless, nightmarish oblivion. You let me be myself again, gave me my humanity back." He sighed deeply. "But it's time now. I need you to... kill me, Cara, please." She stood up and turned away from him, wiping her eyes.

"I can't, Daniel," she whispered.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you. If you bring me a gun, I think I can do it myself. It makes me scared, but I think I can." Cara gasped sharply, trying to regain control of her body.

"No," she said firmly, and faced him again. "I won't leave you to do this alone." She wiped her cheeks again as the tears flowed freely now. "I'll do it, if it's what you really want. But not right now, not today. I'm not ready yet to say goodbye."

Daniel nodded. "Tomorrow then?" he asked softly. She nodded. "Thank you." He leaned back against the wall looking at her, and she looked back longingly at him. "What do we do today then?" She sat back down, reaching her one hand out through the bars, stretching towards him.

"I think we just sit here, together." He smiled and reached a hand over to her until their fingertips were touching. And they stayed like that for hours, until the first throws of Daniel's transformation began, but Cara held onto the feel of his skin against hers until she was back in her bed that night.

Sleep didn't come easily for her that night either. She cried into her pillow at the thought of what tomorrow would bring, the loss of a friend. 

No, more than that. 

In the darkness alone she could admit to herself that it was someone she truly loved that she would be losing. For hours they had stayed together that day, barely touching fingers, but she wanted to hold him close, and he wanted it too. Life was so cruel, she thought as tears cascaded along her cheeks.

Eventually sleep took her, but it wasn't the restful sleep she needed. This was the panicked realm of nightmares. Cara stood on the shoreline, looking out at the dark blue of the lake, ripples of fading light gleaming on the surface. Daniel stood on the lake itself, out in the distance, his feet disappearing in the water. She wanted to go to him, but as she walked out, the water sucked her in, she couldn't walk on it. And more of Daniel was disappearing. He was slowly sinking below the surface. She tried to call out to him, swimming further out, trying to reach him, but the water was thick. And it was red. Red all around her. She saw his hand, the last glimpse she had of him before he vanished completely. 

Cara dove down through the dark red depths, following his hand as it sank further away, until it was gone from sight. She was now drowning in this red water. Blood. It was blood. But she could reach the surface; all she had to do was swim up. She didn't want to. All she wanted was to reach him, and save him.

And then she fell, as if it was a massive wave she had been swimming through the whole time, and now the wave smacked her down on the shore. But the shore wasn't sand and grass. It was sharp black rock that sliced into her hands as she braced herself against it. The cuts hurt, but they didn't last. They were already healing as she scrambled up the stony shore. There was a thick fog all around her and she couldn't see anything or anyone.

"Nolan!" she cried out, desperately. "Nolan, where are you?" Cara ran ahead, frantically. But she soon found she wasn't alone, running into a naked old man who shrieked and recoiled at the sight of her. There were others too, men, women, old, young. They didn't want to be seen by her. She didn't want to be seen by them. Was she naked too? She looked down to check, but no, she was still dressed. Her clothes were soaked in blood, but she was dressed. It was the clothes she'd been wearing to go see Angel that night; new tight jeans she hoped would turn her on. They were ruined now, torn and soaking with blood. Whose blood? Her mom's blood she remembered.

Sobbing now, she kept running through the fog, calling her brother's name. And then she saw a child up ahead. A child with Nolan's curly hair. It had to be him. She ran towards him. But he wasn't alone. Nolan was gripping the hand of some figure, a figure with charred black flesh, oozing puss from cracks in its skin. The thing turned and smiled a wide grin at Cara full of rotting teeth (no, fangs), its eyes somehow blacker than its flesh. She felt something draining from her. Her knees buckled underneath and she collapsed, only able to watch as the thing walked off with her brother in hand.

She wanted to leave; she wanted the nightmare to be over. She felt the sensation of falling; only she was falling upwards, into the sky, through the fog. And then...

Cara sat bolt upright in her bed, panting, sweat soaking her nightshirt to her chest. She curled her legs up tight and wrapped her arms around them, and then sobbed, heaving great heavy breaths. One thought kept persisting through her mind, even as she tried to shake it away: that wasn't a dream, it was a memory.

Cara slowly regained her composure as the early morning light began to fill her window. She took gentle sips from the cup of water on her bedside table. Her hands were still shaking, but her breathing was steadying itself.

"That couldn't have been real," she said quietly, reassuring herself. "Living people, can't be taken to Hell. It's...impossible." The word caught in her throat because of course it wasn't impossible. Jack was trapped there now. She remembered the demons, the one at the McDermott's place, and Yeqon, and how they had both talked of Nolan. But they were both just trying to get in her head, wanting to frighten her.

But what if...

Cara shook her head. The thought of her little brother, trapped in Hell, being tortured in every way imaginable for all these years. The thought was just too horrible to fully form. She thought of Jack when she had talked to him, the frightened look on his face, scared beyond recognition.

Cara sat up, swinging her legs over the side of her bed, vaguely aware of the dim sunlight shining on her face. She had spoken to Jack. There was a way to be certain about all of this, if she concentrated hard enough. But did she really want to?

No. But she had to find out.

Cara sat and thought about her little brother, his bright brown eyes, his grin that was minus a few teeth, his curly black hair that matched hers. She thought back to hugging him. It had been so long since she'd really thought about him, and she felt tears rush to her eyes once more. The memories were far away now, but still there. She could still feel his small arms around her. She missed him.

And then... he was there.

She blinked, but he still stood there. Nolan, just as she remembered, standing in her bedroom only a few feet in front of her. He was wearing the blue and green-stripped pyjamas that he had always worn to bed, only now they were stained almost completely red. Blood red. It was him though, just as Cara remembered him.

"Nolan?" she asked delicately, still sure she was hallucinating. Then he smiled and waved at her.

"Hi Cara, I've missed you," he squinted, looking more closely at her. "You look different. You look like mom." Cara got a flash of her mom. She saw her dangling from the ceiling, her mouth taped over, trying to scream, shaking, crying. Cara blinked and the image was gone, Nolan still stood in front of her though. Cara climbed off the bed and knelt down in front of him, so they were eye-to-eye.

"Nolan, I've missed you so much," she sobbed. "Do you know what happened to you?"

"My friends wanted me to come play with them," he said simply. "It's a really fun place. I'm allowed to do anything I want." Then another flash ran through Cara's mind. She remembered Nolan at that house they lived in. He hadn't been the same once they moved there. He spent all his time in his room. She'd heard him talking to himself as she walked by his room. Was he talking to himself? And those drawings he'd been doing. She remembered one that she'd looked at. A little kid, Nolan, walking hand-in-hand with two tall figures, both drawn completely in black crayon, their eyes dark swirls.

"Nolan, I'm going to get you out of there," Cara said, snapping back to the present.

"You don't have to do that, Cara. The voice says we'll be coming to see you really soon, we all will." Nolan grinned. It was a childish grin, but there was something sinister there too. Cara reached out to try and hug him, desperate. And what flashed in front of her eyes was the worst of all. 

She saw Nolan standing beside their mom and his dad as they hung from the ceiling. His dad's throat was already cut, bleeding out into the pool. Their mom was still shaking. Nolan hugged her head and ran a sharp kitchen knife around the length of her neck, opening up the fountain that followed. Then he sat down in the kiddie pool as it slowly filled up with blood, waiting as it covered him.

She tumbled forward. Nolan was gone, but she heard his whisper, "See you soon, Cara." She let herself collapse completely to the floor. It was all so clear in her mind now. 

Hadn't it always been? Hadn't there always been a part of her that had understood what had happened that night? Logan had steered her away from such thoughts, told her it was impossible, whether he knew or not, simply to protect her from what he suspected. Nolan had been corrupted by those demons, and followed them willingly through that pool. Into Hell. He was gone, more gone than she had ever been willing to accept.

Cara stayed immobile on the floor as the sun rose higher. Eventually she glanced up at the gun sitting on her nightstand, loaded with silver bullets. Was she really going to use that to kill Daniel today? No. How could she? Nolan had always been out of her reach, beyond her ability to save. Maybe Daniel was too, but she wasn't going to be the one to kill him. She kept thinking of their fingers brushing against one another.

She stood up, only half aware of what she was doing. Logan still lay in his bedroom, unconscious it seemed. He was fading faster now. If things went badly today, he may not even know it.

Cara descended into the basement and stared at the wolf, glaring at her through the bars. She sat in the chair and faced it down. It would be the full moon that night. On previous days before the full moon, Daniel hadn't been able to change back, but Cara didn't think that would be the case today. If she had stopped to really think about things she wouldn't have been able to explain why. There was just a feeling burning inside her.

She waited, and the wolf stayed calm, glaring at her with those hateful yellow eyes, but calm all the same, until the change happened around noon and Daniel stood before her once more. He gathered up a blanket and wrapped his waist, then faced her with a calm smile.

"Time then I guess?" Daniel said. Cara smiled best she could back at him.

"Can you do me a favour? Turn around." Daniel took a deep breath, but nodded and did what she asked. He paused for a while though, gazing at her face, focusing on every detail. Once he was turned away from her, Cara walked up to the cell door. She took the key that she had grabbed out of her pocket and unlocked the door. She stepped inside quickly, closing it and locking it once more before Daniel realized what she was doing. Daniel wheeled around, horrified to see her standing on that side of the bars. He backed away to the wall on the other side.

"Cara, what are you doing?" he cried out. "You have to get out of here. I could change at any moment. I could hurt you." Cara stepped closer to him.

"No, I don't think you will," she said, determined. "You're so much stronger than you realize. The wolf isn't in charge now, you are. And you would never hurt me." She reached forward and took his hand. He was trembling, back still pressed against the wall, but he didn't stop her. He gently stroked his fingers along her hand. She stepped in closer and put her other hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating heavy beneath it. "Do you still want to kiss me?" she asked.

"Very much," he managed to say softly. She moved her hand up to his neck and pulled him closer. Daniel leaned in, his lips connecting with hers. She held him tight, wrapping her arms around him, breathing into him. He moved his arms around her and held her, close, but staying gentle. Cara felt him beneath the tattered blanket and it soon fell off. She'd seen him naked many times now, but this was different. She wanted to see his body. And she wanted him to see her.

Cara took a step back and pulled her nightshirt off, followed by her pants. She was now as naked as he was and happy to be so. She liked the way his eyes washed over her, desire building. She moved in close again and carefully led him down to the floor, laying him on the blanket. She spread herself along his body, feeling his skin against her own. His fingers moved and delicately brushed along her hard nipples. Cara leaned over him, looking deep into his grey eyes as he slid into her. She gasped and he echoed her breath.

They made love, holding each other close, gazing into each other's eyes. When they climaxed together, it was the most euphoric experience of Cara's life. They stayed holding each other late into the afternoon, despite the full moon ready to rise in the sky. And Daniel did not transform until well after Cara was safely on the other side of the bars again.