Midnight Monster Hunt Part 1

America 1983

"Make your move, Cam," a young teen boy said, looking over his cards at the blonde boy across from him.

Cam looked across the small circular table at his friend Pierce, a passive look in his eye. "I call you," he said confidently.

Data, a boy who stood to the left of the boys watched in anticipation and said "ooh" at Cam's words.

Pierce smirked and placed his cards upside up for all to see and watched happily as Cam threw his cards onto the table.

Pierce let out a sadistic laugh, taking the little pebbles and marbles that had been placed in the middle of the circular table. "If we were playing for money instead of bragging rights, oh boy! I'd be the richest boy in West Virginia" Pierce said proudly, counting his winnings.

"Yeah, yeah, Pierce. Put one of your winnings in your mouth and shut up!" Cam growled, gathering the cards so he could shuffle them for the next round.

"Nicely played Pierce," Data told the boy who had a smirk on his lips, chuckling to himself. He patted the winner's shoulder with an impressed smile.

Data turned his attention to Cam and took the newly shuffled cards. He had just begun to hand them out again but stopped when the trap door across the little room opened. The three boys watched as a certain blonde-haired girl climbed inside the treehouse, her retro jean jacket bundled around her body and the grey baseball cap on her head.

"Did you get them, Sophie?" Cam asked, watching her close the trap door and walk over to them.

Fake hurt spread across her face as she let out a gasp. "Of course I got it, Cam," she said, taking out a glass bottle of coke from her bag and handing it to Cam. She took out two more and handed them to Data and Pierce, then took her seat in the bean bag chair across from Data pulling a bottle for herself.

"So what did I miss?"

"Cam getting his ass whooped!" Pierce bragged, looking at Cam smugly.

"I didn't get my ass whooped! That only applies if you and I got into a tussle, Pierce. And I would be the one whooping ass!" Cam growled.

Pierce stood from his pillow on the ground and glared into Cam's blue eyes. "You want to bet, Blue eyes"

Cam stood from his chair and returned the glare. "Bring it on, Bandana boy."

Pierce was about to jump across the table when both were stopped by Sophie jumping onto the table. "Would you two sit your whooped asses down before you bring the whole treehouse down? Because if it does come down, my uncle will make the two of you fix it," she told them, crossing her arms as she looked at them with a bored stare.

Cam and Pierce look at each other than up at Sophie before they sit down on their seats.

Sophie climbed off the table and returned to her seat, gesturing for Data to hand out the cards.

Data began to hand out cards while declaring they were now playing rummy.

The game went into a routine of clockwise and each player took their turn, playing the game quietly until Pierce spoke up, "My sister last night when I got back home told me her friends have been teasing her ever since the mishap a week ago."

This had the group stop and look at Pierce, all with looks of shame on their faces.

"I thought that we found one that time. Too bad it was Chuck and his gang playing tricks on us again," Cam said looking down at the table.

A light bruise still was on Cam's left cheek, a healing bruise from the one he had gotten from his father a week ago back when the incident happened and the man had been angry with Cam for embarrassing him in front of the whole town.

Sophie placed her hand on Cam's arm, giving it a comforting squeeze and giving him a soft smile. She spoke, "My uncle didn't care. He told everybody to be thankful it wasn't night because otherwise Benny could've been shot."

Data laughed at Sophie's words. "If only our parents all shared your uncle's opinions. My parents are almost ready to send me to that private school in Washington. They keep telling me that it would give me advantages for when I go to college and my future endeavours with engineering," Data told the group, placing his selected cards on the table in front of him.

Sophie shook her head. "At least they all see the hope of you changing and becoming mature. I, On the other hand, they expect to either become crazy like my uncle or a drug addict like my mother. They look at you and see kids who have a future. Me... they are just waiting for me to fall," she says and finishes her turn as she says, "Rummy."

The treehouse went silent as each teen had their head down looking at their cards. It was as though these cards weren't the cards with numbers and symbols but instead images, terror cards foretelling their futures. And each was trying to figure out what they meant.

"Are we still going to sneak out tonight?" Pierce questioned, ending the silence.

Lifting their heads they all looked at each other, smiling widely. "One mistake can lead to many lessons. Two mistakes... that just doubles the number of lessons we learn," Sophie said with a smirk.

"Eight o'clock meet here. We have monsters to find," Cam said.

The four teens separated on their bikes, biking off away from the treehouse in different directions going into the town of River Springs.