Chapter Text
The pounding in your head had slowly started to fade and luckily the wound on your hairline had stopped bleeding. What was unlucky, however, was the all sorts of fucked up situation you had somehow found yourself in. The previous events of the night were now somewhat blurry, but you could vaguely remember receiving the butt of a shotgun to the face from an old man after running frantically from some… wolf-like creature. That in itself was embarrassing, how the old bag of bones had managed to sneak up on you was a mystery to begin with and now you were locked in a fucking cage. Your first instinct had been to reach out to try and shake the bars and you’d gained a painful shock to the hands that had melted the skin due to your grip, your muscles were still occasionally spasming minutes later. The sound of a door swinging open caught your attention as you stood and got as close to the bars as you dared, desperate to see what was going on. However, the scene before you was the last thing you were expecting. Yelping you reared back at the sight of two men dragging… something behind them and locking it in the cage next to you, before they turned to leave once again.
“HEY! HEY! Let me out of here you motherfuckers!” you yelled, putting on a brave façade only to be promptly ignored as they walked out. The shoddy lighting in the room made it hard to make out exactly what the creature was that had been dumped in the cage but you could tell it wasn’t any normal animal or human. Not finding any options for a way out you laid back down on the ground in frustration, tears welling in your eyes as the realisation began to set in that you might die here. The increasingly loud growls coming from behind you had caused you to abruptly turn only to rear back as the creature attempted to lunge for you. All of a sudden you were incredibly grateful for the electricity flowing through the bars. Forcing your breaths to slow you closed your eyes in attempt to drown out everything.
Zoning out, you were unsure of how much time had passed before you were once again alerted to someone entering the room. Immediately gasping in shock as you noticed the hunter’s newest victim.
“Oh my god! Jacob. What’ve you done to him!” you shouted at the men only to be immediately threatened with a shotgun levelled at your face as you were told to step back. Watching in worry as your fellow counsellor was roughly thrown inside with you and you were once again left alone. Kneeling beside his prone from your shaking hands frantically hovering as you assessed him for injuries, unsure what to do. Ripping your shirt, you attempted to clean the mangled gore that was his foot before eventually wrapping it up as tight as you dared to stop the blood flow. Sitting back down you pulled his head into your lap, hands stroking over his hair unconsciously as you squeezed your eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears.
You weren’t particularly close with the man, preferring to hang with Dylan most of the time and occasionally Ryan when the kids got to be too much and you both needed the quiet. However, he’d always gone out of his way to include you and you’d never belittled him and had even ripped Dylan a new one for doing so. Looking down at his unconsious and bloodied body you hoped to any god out there he would wake up.
Jacob slowly awoke to the sounds of sniffles and the warm feeling of thumbs slowly rubbing circles across his cheeks. Eyes opening, he was surprised your face hunched over his, your eyes were closed and he took the time to take in your features. He was quickly startled at the realisation that not only were you crying, but your face and hair were covered in blood and he had the sinking feeling that it wasn’t from an external source.
Eyes opening at the confused call of your name, you looked down to see the source staring up at you “Oh thank god you’re awake” you said, voice watery from the tears. Noticing him start to move you pushed him back down by the chest “Woah, woah, woah don’t try to get up yet. You’ve got a head injury. Not to mention your fucked up foot.” Wiping a hand over your face you attempted to wipe the exhaustion away in a futile attempt.
“Why are you helping me?” Jacob blurted out somewhat dumbly as his traitorous brain wondered how he'd never noticed how pretty you were even covered in blood.
“Um why wouldn’t I? Even if it wasn’t the right thing to do, I wouldn’t just let you suffer” you answered back, confused at his reaction.
“I, uh, I don’t know… I just got the feeling that you didn’t like me all that much” he trailed off in a whisper, eyes darting away from your shocked face unwilling to look you in the eyes and missing your devastation at his confession.
“I’m so sorry I made you feel that way Jacob” the remorse in your voice apparent to his ears “Is that why you were always so quiet around me.”
“I guess… you’re the only one who’s never been mean to me before… I just didn’t want to annoy you” he said, vulnerability incredibly evident in his tone and you found your heart breaking for him.
“I don’t like who you and Emma are when you’re together” she admitted “you’re not good for each other, she doesn’t take your feelings into account but you need to accept that she doesn’t want a relationship” she tried to explain, not wanting to offend him but desperately needing to convey the message. “I mean you sabotaged our ride out of here just to try and change her mind” she huffed out.
“How did you know?” the panic in his tone evident
“I didn’t entirely, but you just confirmed my suspicion. You weren’t exactly subtle, you know” you snorted throwing your head back to look at the ceiling. Only to look back down immediately as your ears registered the sounds of sniffles.
“I’m so stupid. This is all my fault” he said, crying in earnest now “Emma still doesn’t want me, Abi and Nick got hurt… you got hurt and now we’re stuck in this fucking cage!” he ended with a yell, hitting his fist against the ground in frustration.
“Hey, hey, hey, stop that” you said, desperately trying to soothe him, taking his hand in one of yours and using the other to lightly smooth over his hair in an attempt to calm him down as you suddenly wished you’d gotten to know him better during your time at camp. You began randomly blathering on about anything and everything trying to take both of your minds off of how fucked everything had gotten. Unaware of Jacob’s eyes tracking your every movement in awe, enraptured by your cute expressions and flailing hands as you recalled the last time you’d been to a party that had ended in you pushing some jerk into a pool.
You’d shifted a few times in the hours, especially after Jacob had noticed your mangled hands, raw and bloody from grabbing onto the electrified bars for so long, still occasionally shaking as the muscles spasmed. Refusing to let you continue rubbing the comfortable circles into his skin with your less affected fingertips, Jacob had taken your wrists in his hands to help stop the light trembles. He’d pulled you into his lap and wrapped you in his arms at some point, your back pressed to his chest as you desperately tried to conserve warmth. Feeling immeasurably guilty Jacob had gone out of his way to try and make you laugh; he hadn’t forgotten the tears you’d tried to hide from him and the longer you spent together the more he enjoyed your laugh. That was how Ryan found the pair of you hours later, fully wrapped around each other in an attempt to share heat and comfort.
Being let out of the cage by your fellow counsellor you and Jacob had finally managed to hobble outside in what had been a slow and painful process, him having to lean most of his weight on you due to his ankle. You had collapsed on the ground in a fit of relief and exhaustion forgetting about the additional weight you were supporting causing Jacob’s bulk to land on top of you. Wheezing out laughs as Jacob quickly apologised, worried he’d hurt you. Eventually your laughs devolved into deep heaving sobs as the stress of the night caught up to you, your head was pounding and your poor hands were burning and you worried greatly they would never heal properly. You sniffled out a light laugh between the sobs, touched at his concern for you and awkward attempts to make you feel better. Throwing your arms around his neck in a bruising hug it was now Jacob’s turn to reel at the weight, back hit the ground he allowed you to cry into his neck as his arms slowly snaked around you in return, one hand coming up to rub the back of your head lightly as you had done for him earlier.
Jacob wasn’t sure how long you cried in his arms before your breathing evened out, looking down as the sobs stopped his breath hitched as he noticed you’d cried yourself to sleep. Face smoothing out serenely and breaths tickling his neck causing a familiar fondness to fill his chest at the sight. Hesitantly he pressed a kiss to your hairline and slowly manoeuvred you until he could slowly stand. Wary of waking you he slowly began to walk in the direction of the lodge, occasionally checking to make sure you were still sleeping peacefully he allowed himself to think back on the night’s events. Recalling your kind touch and words, the way you’d laughed at his jokes, eyes crinkling in delight. How you’d teased him but not in a malicious sense as people usually did, refusing to leave him behind during your escape and Jacob felt his ears flush and butterflies fill his insides. He’d decided, once this hellscape of a night was over, he was going to ask you out on a date. He could only hope you’d say yes, giddiness filling him as he tried to think of the perfect first date.