Young Writers Society

Taber reached out his only available paw, grabbing the human's hand. "Haha," he said, "if my girlfriend were here, she'd probably come up with something clever like that." Then he heard the scraping of wood from behind him. His heart skipped a beat. Somehow, they were moving the bed. Sure enough, he could hear the door swinging open just a few seconds later. "Uh, can you pull me out quick?" he said to the human, trying to hide the anxiety in his voice. It wasn't working.

Clarice narrowed her eyes when Isaac and Sebastian moved to block her view of Gabriel. She wasn't oblivious, she knew what they were doing. And if obscuring her view was suspicious in and of itself, it was only made worse by the fact that Gabriel had called himself a djinni. Clarice had a very vague understanding of what a djinni was — enough to know that people usually didn't go around calling themselves one, even if it was just a nickname. Tightening her grip on the large shard of glass, she walked through the now open door and into the room.

As she saw the werewolf stuck midway through the window, a smirk tugged at her lips, obscured by her bandana. It was a comical sight, Clarice's she still felt a little guilty for having laughed at it.

"Funny." She said, dryly, before turning to glance back at Gabriel, Sebastian, and Isaac. "But we should probably get them out."

"Hey Bo," Raiden said, gripping Taber's paw as he looked to the big bad Bo, "wanna help me pull this guy out?"
He didn't wait for a response, as Taber's request required his immediate action. As such, he contracted his bicep muscles and exterted a pulling force on Taber's arm, hoping it would be enough to pull him through

Bo heard his name being called, and despite feeling both the threat of being known (despite not sharing his name) and the confusion on why someone would be talking to him in the first place, he beckoned. It was a short turn around the building to find one of the guy who'd asked for help pulling-

He froze when he saw the werewolf sticking out of the window. Denial, was naturally the first thing to rise up in his mind. But as if running on autopilot, his body carried him over to the two and he began to help pulling the werewolf from the window with a steady tug.

Taber watched as the bulky dude - Bo, he guessed - came around the corner and froze. For a couple seconds, Taber almost panicked. Bo wasn't one of the people inside the room, but he looked big and strong enough to have been the person who had broken the window and shoved aside the bed. Fortunately, whatever thoughts Taber had about Bo being a threat dissipated as soon as Bo headed over and joined the other human in steadily pulling him out of the gap.

At first, neither the wall nor Taber would budge. Soon enough, however, Taber was able to dig the claws of his trapped arm into the wall, giving him enough space to free it. Then it was easy to push through to the other side. He flopped onto the ground in front of Bo and the human's feet.

"Yay!" Taber said, jumping onto his feet. "Thanks, you guys!" He gave Raiden and Bo a big hug.

He was being hugged by a werewolf, yet the logical, reasoning half of his brain was still stubbornly in denial. In a delayed response, he hesitantly returned the hug in an awkward manner before pulling away.

"Uhh, you're welcome... guy."

Kaelynn carefully walked up the stairs that lead to the second floor of the hotel. Outside, she could hear the voices of the three guys she had seen before discussing loudly. She didn't have time for the other people as the paranormal was more important than helping a hairy man through a window. When she made it to the second floor, there were cobwebs in each corner of the walls and dust particles that danced in the dying evening sun. Kaelynn grabbed the flashlight out of the bag and flickered it on, moving it along the doors and hallway. She set the bag down near the first door and unzipped it, holding the flashlight in her mouth. She dug around until she found a small tripod with a camera on top.

Taking a deep breath, she set it down on the floor. Kaelynn then grabbed another small tripod from the bag and made her way across the floor. Though, as she stepped forward, the floor creaked loudly but Kaelynn ignored it. As she continued on, the floor groaned louder and louder with each step. Thankfully, she made it to her target, which was across from where she put the first small tripod.

With another deep breath, Kaelynn continued her way back. As she was nearing the final tripod, the floor groaned loudly and before Kaelynn could register what was happening, the floor beneath her gave way.

It appeared that someone outside the motel had helped the werewolf get free from the window, something that Sebastian was incredibly grateful for. He wasn't sure where he would have even began with something like that. Now all that he had to worry about was actually talking with the werewolf. Considering that the guy had been clearly terrified of them once they entered the room, he didn't have that many high hopes for the future conversation.

So now they just had to meet him outside. He wasn't going to risk that window; he'd just go back to one they had entered from. Issac and Gabriel seemed to get the same idea at right around the same time. Both had already entered the hallway. But Sebastian would wait at the door for Clarice. She had come in with them, and the last thing he wanted to do was alienate someone. He looked over at her and gave her a warm smile. Gabriel wasn't one for pleasantries, and Issac struggled with giving one that wasn't lowkey terrifying.

There was a loud crash outside in the hallway. He whipped his head around to see Gabriel and Issac standing among rotted boards that had fallen from above. Gabriel looked mildly irritated. Issac looked outright shocked, as it seemed like the floor above them had given way when one of the girls from the parking lot had stepped on it. The girl in question was now in Issac's arms - he must have just managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

Clarice turned to follow the others and was surprised to see that Sebastian had waited for her. She was even more surprised to see that he was smiling at her. It'd be a long time since she'd been around people, and it'd been even longer since she'd had someone regard her with more than just indignancy. It felt nice. Welcoming, even. So even though it was hard to tell with her bandana on, she smiled back.

Just as she moved to follow, there was a loud crashing sound. Clarice shifted into a fighting stance instinctively and readied her shard of glass. It took a second for her to register what had just happened, and it took another second for her to believe that it had happened. After all, it wasn't every day that people fell from the ceiling and into the arms of a stranger. When she did realize what had happened, she couldn't help but laugh.

Stifling her laughter with a hand over her mouth, Clarice managed to speak. "Nice catch."

Leaping when he heard the crash, Taber hid behind Bo. "What was that?" Taber said, voice higher-pitched than normal. It must've been the people who'd smashed the window, he figured; maybe they were tearing up the place, looking for him. Then several voices came from the building. Muffled as they were by the walls, he wasn't sure if somebody was laughing, or if that was more like screaming. Even if they were hunting him down, he wasn't about to leave them, or anyone else, trapped in a pile of rubble. They weren't his enemies. "Wait, is anyone in danger? Oh no, we need to help them!" He ran off in the direction of the motel, heading to the nearest entrance and throwing open the door.

Kaelynn believed the fall had killed her. She thought about the pointy wood spikes and how now she could be a ghost, overlooking her dead body. She continued to think this until she heard someone calling out her name. Blinking her eyes, Kaelynn looked up and saw a guy in shock, staring at her. Finally, her vision cleared and the guy was holding her. He had caught her just in time before she fell into the bed of rumble.

Next to him were the other guys, one of which was smiling. This constant staring made her feel like a complete fool.

'Thanks for catching me. Now, can you let go of me?" Kaelynn asked, embarrassed and confused.

Raiden was too stunned by the surprise hug to do anything. But when Taber rushed off to the door, he rushed in through the hole he had just helped the (seemingly)cuddly werewolf. Raiden, being lithe and supple, managed to jump through it without losing stride, and he threw open the half closed door.
"...can you let go of me?" he heard the girl in the one dude's arms say. He looked up. The ceiling/floor seemed to have broken. He looked back at the girl in the man's arms.

"...are you...are you good my girl?"

And now they were running. Coming in right behind Taber, he saw a girl in the arms of one of the three guys who'd broken the window to get in. After the werewolf, this was nothing unusual.

Issac was so startled by the girl's question and the situation in general that he dropped the girl - well, almost. He managed to catch her before the ground and gently put her down, but it was still another unnecessary and sudden burst of emotions that he really didn't need to deal with.

"Well, now she's definitely not good," Gabriel commented, sliding his hands into his pockets.

Taber stopped in front of Bo, if only because his claws were getting stuck in the floor.
He watched the scene with wide eyes. Three boys and two girls stood beneath a large hole in the ceiling, which still spilled dust and pieces of wood onto the floor. "What did you guys do?" Taber said, looking at the dark hallway stretching beyond the hole. "Were you looking for me? 'Cause I wasn't up there."

He noticed everyone staring at him intently. Feeling the fur on his neck rise, Taber shuffled to a door, opening it just enough to partially hide himself. He kept one eye trained on the group.