Wednesday, February 11th.

9:45 PM. The evening of the Full Moon.

There's a knock on the door of Keelie's office but she doesn't hear it over her paperwork stacked high on the desk. A file sticks messily out of her desk drawer as she stares blankly at bloody images and blotchy black text.

The door opens and she's still in her own world. The woman that walks through the door has a patient expression as she leans her coffee-colored skin against the doorframe. Bright violet eyes shine like marbles, staring intently.

"Hey, Keels." She holds up a white smartphone in a floral, rubber case. "You gotta stop leaving your phone lying around, girl."

"What?" Keelie looks up in a haze. "Oh. Hey, Val. Why do you have my phone?"

The woman drags her acrylic decorated hand across her face and walks up to the desk. The door closes heavily behind her but neither acknowledges it. It's too familiar.

"Hey, what is going on with you?" She leans heavily on the desk with one hand and her curly black hair falls over the patch on her uniform that reads deputy. It's just two friends in the room now. No prying eyes or uniforms.

Keelie sighs and runs a hand through her long, platinum hair.

"It's nothing new. I'm just worried about Max."

"Okay, I don't buy that at all." Valerie moves some papers onto the chair so she can sit on the desk and Keelie makes a face at her but it doesn't matter. That's just her. "Spill."

"I talked with Max yesterday. He told me about his scar."

"Was it bad?" She puts a hand up to her chest in such a mom way.

"It was a car accident. If he wasn't supernatural he probably wouldn't have lived."

"Pobrecito." Val gasps.

"But that's not what's been distracting me." Keelie motions to the images on the table. A man and a woman torn to shreds. They're unrecognizable except for the woman's long, white hair and the man's dark skin.

"Heidi." Valerie frowns deeply.

"He was already in foster care for a long time when the accident happened. He doesn't remember much before that so I have no more leads." Keelie buries her face in her arms over the bloody images. "I'm never going to know what happened to my sister." She sulks.

Valerie reaches a soft hand over to Keelie's head and pets it. "I'm sorry, love."

"How am I going to tell, Max? He probably doesn't know what happened to them."

"You never know. Maybe he'll remember."

"But is that what's best for him?"

Silence. The two sit together like that for a while, as if in mourning.

"It's about ten." Valerie finally speaks. "It's the full moon tonight."

"Geez, is it that late already?" Keelie stands and both women tie their hair back. Badges out in plain view, officers again.

"Are you up for this?"

"I'm Sherriff, Val... besides, I promised Aatu I'd protect this place."

"I know, I know." She waves dismissively at the Sheriff and walks passed her. "Let's just hurry up. I don't want to find any bodies tonight."

The two leave to the car and drive off toward the woods. The sun is struggling to light up any portion of the sky and the moon is huge and omnipotent.

Wednesday, February 11th.

10:30 PM. The evening of the Full Moon.

Abbie and Max walk silently out into the darkness and Max stops to lock the door behind them. Abbie leans her head toward Max as they approach the road.

"Okay, we're not supposed to be out this late so we have to be careful--"

"Not to get caught?"

Abbie reflexively steps in front of Max to defend him against the mysterious voice. The energy is dangerous but soon her shoulders slack and Max comes out from behind her.

"Russell?" Max squints in the darkness. What are you...?"

Russell looks expectantly at him for the rest of his sentence and Max feels smaller than him in every way. The rest of the sentence hides behind the blush on Max's face and Abbie glares disapprovingly at the pair.

"Alright, alright!" She whisper-yells, waving her cloaked arms in between them, more so at Russell.

"What are you doing?" Russell moves away from her.

"Being a good friend." She dismisses. "What are you doing?"

"Breaking curfew because I want to."

Abbie watches the obvious lie fall effortlessly out of Russell's mouth and grimaces as Max believes it.

"W-why w-would you do that?" He says it in that 'I could never' kind of way but Russell just smiles.

"So if you two are out here passed curfew on a full moon, I can only assume this is about that stupid dog."

"Narhi--"

"What do you care? You guys aren't friends anymore." Abbie steps in before Max can spill the beans.

"I don't care." Russell leans casually against one of the many young Redwoods behind him and Abbie eyes the road. They're wasting time.

"Cool, then you won't mind if we just leave then." She takes Max's arm and walks him passed Russell.

"Sure. I'll just let Keelie know what time you left so they can get an accurate time of death."

Max stops dead in his tracks and Abbie violently rolls her eyes before glaring back at Russell.

"Look, I know you don't like Usko, but you're being unnecessary."

"I'm not." Russell chuckles. "Why do you think there's a curfew? Because it's safe out there where you're going and the cops are just idiots?"

"Narhi's in trouble," Max says.

"That stupid dog has experienced a full moon before. He'll be fine."

"Narhi is in trouble," Max says again, more stern, and for a moment, Russell thinks he hears it being whispered in his ear. There's a strange confidence in Max's eyes and Russell isn't leaning anymore.

"How can you know that for sure?"

"We don't have time to unpack that," Abbie says. "Let us go and don't tell anyone we were here. We'll be back before the sun comes up." An unsaid 'probably' lingers in the air.

"I'm going with you." Russell is suddenly serious and Abbie finds her smile again.

"I thought you didn't care."

"I don't care about the fleabag or some random duck."

"Wow, are you 90?" Abbie scoffs.

"But I care about Keelie and she'll be devastated if something happens to Max."

Max smiles about a half of a smile and Abbies sighs about a sigh and a half.

"Okay, whatever, just hurry up. It's going to take forever just to find him."

Russell makes a face at Abbie like she's dumb and she makes a face back like she's thinking about slapping him.

"So can hedge witches not do tracking spells?"

"Okay, first of all. Yes, I can do a basic one. Second, it's not really our thing so there's no need for all that judgment." She waves her hand all in his general direction with the biggest amount of attitude. "And third. I would need something of his to do it anyway and I don't have that."

Russell looks at Max expectantly but Max just fumbles.

"I-I don't… He doesn't."

"Puppy boy is a bit of a minimalist." Abbie folds her arms and Russell sighs.

He pulls the necklace out of his shirt and hands it to Abbie. "What about this?"

She takes the necklace suspiciously from his hand and examines the pressed leaf behind glass that's hanging from it.

"That's aconite." The phrase slips out of Max's mouth before he can think and the two look at him, clearly wondering how he could know. "I-it… it has the same… um… leaf… structure…"

"Why do you have this?" Abbie asks defensively. "This belongs to Narhi?"

"Wolves use it to help them control the shift sometimes. You know when they suck at everything like him."

"But why do you have it?" She persists.

"He gave it to me a long time ago…" Russell looks away. "For Pennie."

Abbie's shoulders slack and Max stares, confused, but no one explains. Instead, Abbie reaches into her bag. And pulls out another jar. This one is bright blue and glittering as she pours it over the pendant in her hand.

"Ouvrir la marche." She whispers and sparkling blue smoke swirls through the air until it settles into a path that runs off into the night. "Yes! It worked!"

"Why the hell is this sparkling?" Russell coughs.

"I thought… it was just magic?" Max rubs his eyes.

"Oh, no." Abbie laughs. "I put glitter in it."