It did not take long for Eli to find the club. It was in one of the classrooms on the lower floors.
His tail had stopped hiding the fact that he was following him. He looked exhausted. He moved as if every step was weighed down by something heavy.
Eli ignored him for most of the walk, but he had made several preparations.
He pushed open the door to the club room.
The sound of it opening was followed by a pop, then falling confetti.
Eli was not impressed.
Neither was the ringleader when she saw who had entered.
"Why are you here?" she said, her voice sharp.
Eli noticed that the moment everyone in the room heard the anger in her voice, they looked up at him with the same expression.
It was strange.
Not that they didn't like him. He didn't like them either.
It was the ease of it. The way the other three people in the room shifted from whatever they had been doing to openly despising him. Instantly.
He wished he could actually look at them properly, but that would cause problems right now.
So he focused back on Harley.
She still had his ring.
Noticing his gaze drop to it, Harley quickly hid it behind her back.
"This is not yours. It was a gift—"
"From your mother," Eli cut in.
The people in the room seemed to grow even angrier.
What was that about?
Eli studied her for a moment. He could probably force the ring off her finger, but that would cause more problems than it solved.
So maybe there was another way.
It was clear she didn't want him here, but if he chose to stay. She couldn't just throw him out.
Then he could slowly steal all her friends until she had no one left, and make a deal with her in the end. He would leave in exchange for the ring.
He almost smiled at his own brilliance.
"I'm just here to make jewelry. Isn't that what this club is about?" he said, looking at Harley, not bothering to hide his smirk.
"If Harley doesn't like you, why did you even bother coming?" someone said. "Go find somewhere else to make stuff."
Eli shifted his gaze to the speaker briefly, then back.
She had made a useful point.
If this really was Harley's club and she didn't want him in it, he shouldn't be able to join. But there were only four people here.
His mother had led several clubs back in her day. She had mentioned more than once that you needed at least five members to keep one running.
There were only four.
He glanced around the room. A shabby setup and the poorly made flyer. Nothing about it felt official.
This wasn't a club.
It was simply a passion project.
And by the looks of it, it was Harley's.
Harley's group was running on goodwill. Someone's family knew the principal, or a teacher. That was how things worked here. As long as nobody made noise, nobody had to respond.
Eli was very good at making noise.
"Fine," he said. "If you don't want me here, I'll bring this up with the principal. Four members. You need five. We'll see how that turns out."
He paused.
"However, I'm willing to reconsider if you give me my ring back."
His ring. That was all this had ever been about.
He closed his eyes slightly and tilted his head up.
Any second now.
"Ahahaha!"
The entire room burst into laughter.
He heard small snorts behind him.
"You're going to tell the principal? What's next, calling my mom?" Harley said.
The laughter grew louder.
One of the others, a boy, puckered his lips mockingly. "Do you need me to change your diaper too, little baby?"
The noise swelled again. Even the person behind him wasn't trying to hide it anymore.
Eli stood there, unmoving.
Why were they laughing?
He was being serious.
A bitter rage rose in his chest, and his eyes began to glow.
Wait.
Something was wrong.
A faint light stretched from the ring on Harley's finger to the others in the room.
Threads.
Thin and almost invisible, connecting them all. Pulling tight every time someone laughed. Every time someone looked at him with that borrowed contempt.
And one of the threads stretched behind him.
Eli turned, following it.
The wendigo stood there, head lowered, laughing.
The sound was wrong. It started almost human, then thinned into something hollow. It stretched too far, too long, until it became something closer to despair than laughter.
Like it couldn't stop.
Eli could see it now. The creature had stopped clawing at its stomach. Its hollow eyes lifted and locked onto the closest thing.
Eli.
This guy was no longer a vegetarian.
The wendigo lunged straight for his neck.
Eli threw his arm up in front of his face as it slammed into him, driving him to the ground.
For a moment, the others were still laughing.
Then they saw the blood.
Eli's arm was in the thing's mouth.
It bit down.
Blood spilled instantly.
Two of the girls screamed and ran. The boy rushed forward, trying to pull the creature off him, while Eli struggled to force it away.
The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt.
Worse than lightning.
The creature lashed out.
Its arm slammed into the boy, sending him crashing into the wall. He dropped, limp.
Eli screamed as the beast tore a chunk from his arm.
Then it turned, its mouth dripping with blood, and roared at Harley.
Her face went pale. She stumbled back.
The creature noticed.
New movement.
New prey.
It stepped off Eli and began walking toward her, slow and certain.
That was a mistake.
A sound came from behind it.
The wendigo turned.
Eli was standing.
Something had changed.
His eyes were orange, slit like a predator's. His cheeks were marked with faint, scale-like patterns.
The wendigo hesitated.
Too late.
Eli moved.
His arm cut through the air.
Three clean lines opened across the creature's neck almost instantly.
The light left its eyes.
It collapsed.
Harley stared as the body fell in front of her.
Blood dripped from long, unnatural nails as Eli turned toward her.
He focused.
She froze.
Those eyes locked onto hers.
He took a step forward.
Then his eyes fluttered.
He collapsed.
Harley jolted back in fear as he fell in front of her. For a second, she froze.
Then panic took over.
She scrambled to her feet and pressed herself against the wall, shaking, hoping, praying that somehow it had died too.
It didn't move.
That was enough.
She ran.
As the door slammed shut behind her, a thin black mist slipped through the crack in the window. It gathered for a moment, then surged forward, forcing the window open with a sharp pop.
Inside the Jeep
"What's up with Eli?" Scott asked.
"Other than the fact that he just woke up from a four-year coma and had to start school almost immediately? Yeah, I have no idea," Stiles replied.
Scott gave him a tired look. "Stiles. I'm being serious."
Stiles lifted both hands off the wheel in mock surrender. "So am I."
The Jeep swerved toward the side of the road.
"Stiles!"
He grabbed the wheel again instantly, correcting it. Scott braced himself, one hand already reaching for his inhaler out of habit.
"Sorry," Stiles said.
Scott gave him a look, the one reserved for when his sarcasm went too far.
Then he refocused on the road.
"Things were finally starting to get good," Scott said after a moment. "I did well in lacrosse. There's a new girl at school who I think might like me. And Eli… Eli woke up, but he feels different."
Stiles glanced at him. "You forgot about finding the body."
Scott rolled his eyes.
"Eli is still the smart twelve-year-old we used to know," Stiles said. "That's the problem. Imagine it was you who woke up after four years and found out everyone had moved on without you."
Scott's eyes widened slightly.
"You're right," he said. "I didn't think of it like that."
Stiles leaned back slightly in his seat.
He had seen the way Eli flinched at certain things. The Jeep. His mom, that he could understand, especially because Eli used to love making tea for her. Maybe they had pushed too much, too fast.
They just wanted things to go back to normal.
Back to when it was the three of them.
But it wasn't the same anymore.
They had changed.
Eli hadn't.
"Hey," Scott said, his voice cautious. "Do you think we should tell him about his mom before he finds out? Maybe we could soften it a little."
Stiles shifted in his seat, one hand moving to his chin as he thought.
"No, Scott," he said quietly. "No."