Of Phonecalls and Open Minds
They leave the basement slowly as he calls the station for back-up and Lydia shivers, but not from the cold of the basement.
He doesn't ask her if she's okay. He didn't talk to her at all, really, after he unzipped one of the body bags.
A bit of her was glad that he came by the house. It was reassuring to know that maybe, this time, she wouldn't have to find a body all on her own.
Of course, she wasn't always alone; at the gas station, she was with Kira, but she saw the body first. She found it all on her own. Kira wasn't there with her.
Deputy Parrish was here with her now.
She got this comforting feeling when he said he had an open mind. Heck, he even asked her if she was psychic - she actually used that as a reason once - and it really was comforting knowing that he'd follow her into a dark room just because she had a feeling that had a potential of being nothing.
When they leave the house there's already another car in the driveway and for a second Lydia feels a bit of anxiety. It disappears as Sheriff Stilinski walks out, and Lydia lets out a relieved sigh.
"I told you we were missing something.", Parrish tells him as Stilinski puts a hand on Lydia's shoulder.
"Are you okay?", he asks and she nods automatically. She's grown so accustomed to the question that her mind doesn't even properly register it. "Okay.", Stilinski replies, believing her although not completely. "I'll go check that out. The forensics team should be here soon. You," - he nods to Parrish - "take Ms. Martin here home.", he adds, a sympathetic look on his face.
"Yes, sir.", Parrish replies and puts a hand on the small of Lydia's back as he guides her to his car.
After a few steps, he pauses. Lydia looks up at him, a look of confusion on her face. He takes a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket.
"I know you said you're not psychic.", he starts. "But if you ever get a.. feeling again, give me a call.", he says as he hands her a piece of paper with a string of numbers on it. Lydia takes it, studies it a moment and then puts it in her pocket.
She nods. "I will."
When they get into the car, he starts the engine and turns to her. "You don't have to go alone next time.", he says and she nods again.
They leave the driveway.
When she gets home, her mother is watching the news and Lydia overhears something about a massacre in a house and that the youngest son, Sean Wilcott - the only survivor - is currently at the Beacon Hills Hospital.
Lydia quickly goes to grab her phone. She calls Scott - who's the first on her speed-dial after her parents - and impatiently waits for him to pick up.
"Where are you?", she hisses before telling him to go to the hospital immediately and find Sean Wilcott.
Scott replies that he's already there and ends the call.
The first time she calls him it's three in the morning. He doesn't recognise the number, but he answers, anyway. There's nothing but silence on the other line.
"Hello?"
The silence continues. He almost decides to end the call before; "You told me to call-"
"Lydia?", he jumps of bed quickly and starts putting on clothes. As he puts his gun holster around his belt, he lets his phone rest between his elbow and his ear. "Where are you?", he asks and grabs his car keys.
She gives him the address, and he goes.
The second time, he knows it's her. He's saved her number in his phone and, although he didn't think she'd ever call again, his body goes on full alert as his phone screen reads Lydia Martin.
"Lydia, what is it?", he asks and it takes her a moment to reply. He doesn't know whether it's because she hesitates, or because she doesn't really know what to reply. "Lydia?"
"I don't..", she starts and there's this anxiety in her voice he hasn't really heard before accompanied with a sense of urgency. "I don't know. I just have this.. feeling.", she finishes and he doesn't ask more questions.
"I'll be right there, Lydia, okay?"
She just gives him an address and hangs up.
The third time she decides to call Deputy Parrish, Scott's there with her.
He's not entirely pleased with the idea, but it's late and Lydia doesn't want to bother Stiles and his dad right now; the Stilinskis have enough problems as it is and Lydia wouldn't mind holding one problem from them both for just a few moments longer.
"Lydia.", Scott takes her hand before she makes the call. Lydia looks up at him, lifting an eyebrow. "Can we trust him?", he asks and she could swear she saw the lightest hint of red in his eyes.
Lydia nods.
"Okay.", Scott says and releases her hand. Lydia doesn't make the call yet.
"You told me, once, that if I gave you time, you'd help me save someone from getting killed.", she says and Scott just looks at her. He remembers. "This call is me giving you time."
He nods. "Then do it."
She makes the call. Parrish answers almost instantly.
"How do you know where to find them?", he asks her one time as he's driving her home. Lydia just found another body and she's shaken up, although she's not letting it show.
She can handle it.
"The bodies, I mean.", he continues. "You said you're not psychic, but how do you.. How do you get that feeling? How do you know?"
Lydia pauses. "You know how you said you had an open mind?", he nods. "How open did you mean exactly?"
He gives her a puzzled look. "How open do you need it to be?", he asks and she thinks for a moment.
"Really open.", she replies with a sigh.
He pulls over and stops the car. "Lydia,", he starts, "what are you?"
Lydia considers answering that question.
"A banshee.", she says as she slowly looks at him with the corner of her eye. It feels good to let something like that off her chest. A part of her feels that this might be the stupidest thing she's ever done, but she doesn't care.
He stays silent and starts the car, pulling back into the road.
They get to the house and, before she exits the car, he speaks. "Call me if you need me, Lydia, okay?", Lydia nods. She goes inside the house.
Before the next time he sees her, Parrish does research on banshees. He visits about a hundred sites on Wailing Women and mythologies and theories and what nots. Halfway through his research, it hits him that he never once thought that what Lydia told him could've been a lie, or a joke.
He likes to think it's just because of his open mind, but - to be honest - you have to have a really really really open mind to be ready to accept the existence of something supernatural.
But, man, this is Beacon Hills and if he doesn't believe in the possibility of the supernatural, then he's nothing short of an idiot.
He wonders, though; if what Lydia said was true (which he didn't doubt for one moment) - if she really was a banshee - then what other things are out there?
He really doesn't want to think about that.
Instead, he grabs his phone and writes a text.
Give me a heads up the next time you feel like screaming.
The fourth time, she doesn't call.
She doesn't call because Stiles and Scott and Derek are there and Liam too, even, and Malia and Kira are right by her side so she doesn't call because she doesn't need to.
Also, she really doesn't want to involve anyone else in this crap.
But she still feels a sense of anxiety because they're fighting a damn whatever it is that's killing off every single supernatural creature and, fuck, whether she likes it or not she's one, too.
She doesn't call because she feels death everywhere around her and, most of the time, she doesn't even remember that he told her to give him a heads up before screaming, doesn't even remember that she has a phone in her pocket.
All she's doing is trying to press down the need to scream, press down all the feelings that are making her want to fucking scream because the last time she screamed her best friend died and her boyfriend died and Stiles was possessed by a nogitsune.
She doesn't want to scream anymore for the rest of her life.
But there has just been death, so much death, and there are so much feelings that are trapping her, containing her, making he unable to move and breathe and speak and maybe, just maybe, if she opens her mouth, things will be easier. Maybe, if she screams, all the feelings will go away and she wouldn't feel so helpless anymore.
Maybe screaming will give her strength.
So, no. The fourth time, Lydia Martin doesn't call.
The fourth time, Lydia Martin screams; and that's not a sound anyone will easily forget.