A/N: THE REWRITE. POSTED 2018/08/12.
Full explanation in the end note.
Running Shadows
Chapter 1
The Crane family was one of the most important families in the New York supernatural community. They were well respected in all supernatural communities, but in New York and Beacon Hills, their two base communities, they were especially praised and respected. There were stories about them, of the ruthless Crane demon head that ruled the supernatural below him with destruction and malice. Then, after his fall came his son's turn, seemingly a more stable Crane demon – some guessed it to be because he had a daughter, that it had softened him. Those people quickly changed their mind once he slaughtered the people responsible for his father's death. While the new demon head – Markus Crane – was more understanding, violence usually wasn't his first choice, yet still he demanded respect, and everyone gave it to him. Because while he was understanding and much more stable than his father, Markus Crane was just as dangerous as any of Crane demons before. And then there was the daughter, the next supposed Crane demon head, the girl whose mother was a mystery to most of the supernatural creatures. Some creatures had started betting on whether she was going to be as sensible as her father when it came to taking the role of the demon head, or would she follow her grandfather's path as soon as she was born.
The Crane family as a dangerous family, they were known to be vicious – what else was to be expected from demons? Even Markus' wife and her son, once they were welcomed into the family, were instantly referred as the Crane demons – just as vicious, as dangerous and deadly. Which was why not many of the supernatural creatures of New York were surprised once they were requested for help to find Markus' enraged son. The young Alex Crane had lost his control and had given in to his murderous side, his non-human side. Seemingly out of nowhere the young demon had lost his control and started killing and maiming, ripping his victims apart. He started with the hunters – which made the search slower since most of the supernatural creatures weren't opposed to living hunter-free – but then he gradually became more dangerous, attacking anyone and everyone in his path, innocent humans or other supernatural creatures. Then it became a problem of the whole New York supernatural community and everyone were more than invested in finding and returning Alex Crane back safely to his home, so his step-father could deal with him accordingly, just like with every other demon that lost their control the very first time.
Emily Crane – the daughter of the demon head – lounged in the living room of her family's townhouse. Her pale skin almost shining in the moonlight coming from the window, her emotionless gray eyes set on the two guards standing by the entrance, making them fidget slightly, while Amelia Crane – Markus' wife and Alex's mother – paced the length of the room, clearly showing her worry about her son. The two women were both similar and different. While Amelia usually was put together and rarely showed her emotions to strangers that weren't her immediate family, currently she looked like a completely different woman. The distress was clear in her appearance and emotional control – she was snappy and angry with workers, guards and supernatural allies. She was disheveled, her normally perfectly styled dark hair were in a messy bun, her clothes chosen in a rush, dark bags under her brown eyes and a frown was marring her lips. She was moving around, not being able to keep still while her son was missing, the usually cool exterior broken completely.
Emily, on the other hand, was way too calm. Her brother was missing, her anchor that was keeping her sane and in control was currently god knows where murdering anyone and everyone that came in his way. Alex had been gone for three days and all Emily had done was brood silently, observe everyone – her step-mother especially – and occasionally, when her powers were too much, possess one of the servants, sending then to almost blinding pain. But nobody spoke out, she was the boss's daughter, the next demon head in line – who was stupid enough to challenge the next leader in line?
The two guards that stood by the entrance observed the two women closely, they wished for the search to end soon, for the calmness to return to the Crane household. And as if their thoughts have been heard by a higher power, there was commotion coming from the front of the house, the door being pulled open quickly and a group of different supernatural creatures rushing in, followed by Markus and Alex. Amelia instantly stopped pacing the room, frozen in the middle of the living room, her eyes set only on her husband and son. While Emily had finally shown some more life, sitting up in her seat, her cold eyes widening slightly and getting back a bit of emotion that usually could be seen.
As Marcus made his way further into his home, with his son's tall frame leaning heavily on him, his eyes searched for his wife and daughter. When he spotted both, there was a slight sign of relief on his face before Alex began struggling against the hold he was in and Markus turned back to his stepson, trying his hardest to restrain him without hurting him too much. Noting her husband's struggle and the appearance her son was in, Amelia rushed closer to them, firstly taking hold of her son, trying to look into his eyes as he kept yanking his face away from her hold and mumbling something.
Ever so slowly and carefully Emily stood up and began making her way closer too. She observed her brother, how he seemed fully covered in blood and dirt, his clothes were tattered and his hair a dirty mess. The closer she got, the clearer she heard that Amelia was asking her son to keep calm, while Markus was doing the same, but Alex wasn't listening, he was trying to get free, to go back to aimlessly killing around. When Emily finally reached her father, she didn't dare to reach out and touch her brother, instead she looked over to her father, meeting his tired eyes.
"I want everyone to go back to cleaning this mess up. I will hold a meeting tomorrow." Markus announced to the room loudly, not even sparing a glance to the allies or the servants. "You shall all disappear from my view until further notice." He added and then looked over to Amelia. "We need to get him to his room and cleaned up."
"I'm not a child, stop babying me." Alex argued and tried once more to get free, raising his head enough to catch a glimpse of his sister. There was even more blood and dirt on his face, the bags under his eyes were clear and looked almost like bruises – he was a mess compared to his sister. However, it was nothing surprising, he always suffered on the outside while she kept everything hidden and locked behind a perfect mask that just a few people were granted a permission to see behind.
"Alex, you need to calm down." Amelia demanded and took a stance on the other side of her son, pulling him with Markus towards the stairs, closely followed by a silent Emily. The family quickly made their way to the second floor and down the hall where the children rooms were. "Emily, please find a change of clothes for Alex to get into after the shower."
"Can you just leave me be." Alex complained, his voice hoarse and deep, as if his throat hurt. He tried to push away both Amelia and Markus, but Markus simply gripped his arm tighter as a warning to Alex. "I'm fine." He tried again, trying to pull his hands from his mother's grasp. He just wanted them to leave him alone, he was fine, the last three days nothing but a pure bliss in his mind and who were they to ruin it to him, to bring him back to the pristine townhouse with all those servants and guards, who were not as easy to kill as those hunters had been. To bring him back to Emily, to his sister, his best friend, his anchor, to the only person he felt like he had betrayed. Alex was glad that she hadn't yet said a word, hadn't even addressed him in any way yet because he was sure that it would've broken the last of his control he still had.
Alex knew Emily too well, he knew how her mind worked, what she had been thinking while he was gone and what was going through her mind at the sight of him. He had betrayed her, and she would remember it, she would not forgive the betrayal easily. She was going to understand – losing control was awaiting her as well, the mindless murder a topic they had spoken about many times – but the fact that he had just abandoned her was what she would find hard to forgive. And Alex didn't blame her for it, Derek had abandoned her, Cora did too, fuck, even her own mother had abandoned her while she was still alive – Emily had some serious abandonment issues and Alex had just added to it.
"Stop struggling, Alex." Amelia commanded in a firm tone. "You need help and we will help you. We are family, and that is what families do." The only answer from Alex was a sarcastic chuckle, but she decided to let that pass. Instead she glanced over to her stepdaughter, meeting the wide gray eyes with worry. She observed how Emily moved over to Alex's huge closet, looking for a change of clothes, with worry in her mind, but Amelia had to take care of her son first before giving her attention to her daughter as well.
As the three of them made their way into the bathroom that was joined to the bedroom, Emily allowed herself a calming breath. She could already feel some of her control coming back just with Alex being back. She knew that she shouldn't get used to that, soon enough he was going to be sent away, her anchor disappearing again and leaving her with that uncontrollable anger and wish to just snap, she would need to find another anchor and quickly, and the only suitable person seemed to be Lydia her best friend who lived back in Beacon Hills – the town that had destroyed almost everyone in Emily's family.
Emily didn't allow herself to dwell too long on the thoughts of new anchors or Alex being sent away, she just continued rummaging through her brother's closet until she found a change of clothes. She pulled the articles of clothing closer to herself and carried them to the bathroom door, where she knocked and soon Amelia opened them, taking the clothes and setting them on the sink near the door before she and Markus left the bathroom, closing the door behind them. The two of them shared a look, knowing that there was a big mess waiting for them to solve it, before looking at Emily.
"I'll wait for him, go deal with everything." Emily spoke for the first time in days it seemed. She didn't remember if she spoke while Alex was gone, to be fair she didn't really have much to say then. Emily looked over to her father, who eyed her with worry and she forced herself to give him a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Alex is home, just go deal with the mess. We need to get back to normal." She said, and it seemed to be exactly what Markus needed to hear to push him into action.
"You're right. We do need to get back to normal." Markus agreed before reaching out for his daughter ang pulling her closer to himself, looking right at her gray eyes that mirrored his perfectly. He observed her face for a few moments, noting all the telling signs of slipping control before offering her a small smile and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You and Alex should rest." Markus added before giving another smile to his daughter and then walking out of the room.
With Markus gone, Amelia lingered in the room for a moment longer. She reached out, taking Emily's hand in hers and squeezed lightly. "Everything's going to be fine." Amelia tried to sound optimistic, but Emily simply shook her head.
"No, it won't. Dad will send Alex away. It's how these things go." Emily mumbled making Amelia sigh.
"That is true, but we will be okay. We have to stay strong as a family." Amelia pushed and brushed a strand of silky black hair behind her stepdaughter's ear. "I'm going to help your father, if something happens – come find me, okay?"
"Yeah, I will." Emily nodded with a small smile and squeezed Amelia's hand.
Without another word Amelia pulled her stepdaughter into a quick hung before following her husband's path downstairs to deal with the mess her son had created.
Left alone to wait for her brother, Emily moved to the huge bed in the middle of the room and climbed on top of it. She had spent the last three days not sleeping and just waiting. It had drained her, but she was unwilling to relax until Alex was going to be there, besides her, so she could pretend just for a little bit that her life wasn't quickly falling apart.
After getting rid of some of the allies that had decided to linger even though Markus had told them to get lost, it seemed that everything had fallen back in order, the servants got back to their work and the townhouse guards disappeared into the shadows of the luxurious place. Amelia lounged in the armchair in the study, one of the servants constantly hovering around, offering her tea and coffee, and just getting on her nerves. As the same servant approached her again, Amelia couldn't control herself and gripped the hand rests tighter, sinking her nails into it. "Will you just fuck off before I fired you!" She snapped, and the servant instantly jumped away, apologizing profusely. "Just go away, if my husband and I are going to need anything, we will request it." The servant rushed away, he was still new in the household and it was completely strange to him how Amelia Crane, the well-respected doctor, could be so warm, patient and supporting to her husband and kids, but completely cold and passive to the servants. She always kept her tone emotionless and didn't devalue the servants or disrespect them, but she never showed them any warmth. Only a few guards had managed to get a smile of appreciation from the woman of the household and they were the ones working for the family the longest. While she was all smiles and laughter with her kids and husband.
"You should stop scaring them like so." Markus spoke calmly, stepping into the room after the server rushed away. He heard his wife scoff as he rounded the old oak table that once was his father, and sat down in front of his wife, placing his phone on the table.
"We need fewer servants, they are starting to get on my nerves." Amelia said before crossing her legs and leaning forward, placing her hands on the table top. Markus instantly reached over, taking her hands into his and squeezed them lightly. "To be honest we should minimize the amount of guards as well, there are way too many and I believe that some of our allies may find better use of them than us."
Smiling lightly at his wife's words that clearly was a way to distract herself from the reality of their situation, Markus shook his head before glancing at his phone. "They have a place for him, they are expecting me to bring him there tomorrow's evening." As Markus spoke he felt his wife tensing, her whole body going rigid and her face turning into a mask of indifference that he so often saw Emily putting on as well.
"Tomorrow evening, so soon." She murmured, and Markus hummed in response. He knew that it was going to be hard to send Alex away, but it was for his own good. "I can't believe it, Markus. My baby boy, he was going to start his senior year and now he is going to have to be sent away just so he could get his killing under control." A lone tear fell down her cheek and Markus followed it with his eyes. "I never wished this hell over our kids, but now Alex is going away, and it is only a matter of time before Emily follows too. You didn't see her during these three days, Markus. She was slipping, it is only a question of time before she loses control as well."
"I know." Markus mumbled lowly. "That is why I'm going to finally agree to Laura's constant request and send Emily back to Beacon Hills." As he said that Amelia pursed her lips in thought, steeling her features.
"The Hales always did have that annoying moral high ground, maybe it will be Emily's salvation, at least for a while longer." Amelia spoke with a slightly judgmental tone. The Hale family was a slightly difficult subject for Markus' wife, she had nothing against the children – she cared for them as much as she could even if she barely knew Laura or Derek, not like Cora. The judgement came from knowing about Talia and Peter Hale, those were the ones she had a problem with, even if one was dead and the other in a comatose state. "But what if she loses control? We won't be there to get her quickly enough, before she goes full ballistic."
"Alex lives with us and we were still not quick enough, Amelia." Markus sighed before leaning back into his chair. "I don't know what to do anymore, I just hope that being closer to Laura and to the Hale side of family will be good to Emily."
"Let's hope for that." Amelia agreed.
Alex looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His wet light brown hair fell onto his eyes, obscuring his vision, but he wasn't too bothered to do anything about it. He felt empty, apathetic and bored – the worst combination in his opinion because it reminded him of the buildup to the snapping and going all murderous on the New York hunters and then some random people. He couldn't clearly remember all the people he had killed in the past three days, the people that he tore limb by limb, those whose heads he had ripped off or ripped in half, all he remembered was the high of the kill and the fulfillment that came from it.
Alex knew that he had to leave the bathroom and go face Emily, he was aware that she was in his room, it was as if he could feel her and the familiar pull of their anchor relationship. She was there, waiting for him, and he was scared to face her. He was scared to look her in the eyes and to admit that he was leaving her too, just like Derek did when he ran away after the fire, like Cora did as well just a few years later, disappearing in the middle of the night without even a note left behind. Alex was afraid to admit that he would disappear from her life too. He was scared and ashamed, not of the murders, but of betraying Emily, his sister. Brushing his hands down his face, he slapped his cheeks a few times before forcing himself to step out of the bathroom into the dark bedroom. He instantly felt her eyes on him, but he didn't meet them, instead he walked to his bed, climbing on top of it and falling next to Emily, placing his head on her lap.
Emily sat still for a few seconds before reaching for Alex's hair and starting to brush them with her fingers, her long manicured red nails scratching his head lightly. She allowed a few moments of silence and calmness before speaking up. "You have fucked up greatly, Alex."
Emily felt Alex chuckling lightly and it made her frown slightly. Turning her head to the side, to where the full body mirror was placed, she met Alex's eyes in the reflection and held his gaze as she continued to brush his hair with her fingers. "You don't have to tell me that twice, Ems." He mumbled. "How soon do you think they will send me away?"
Emily's fingers stilled for a second, but then returned to the motion. "As soon as possible as I can imagine. It is only a matter of time before you leave…" Emily trailed off, but she didn't need to finish that sentence for Alex to understand what she meant.
"It was never my intention to leave you, you know that." He mumbled, watching in the mirror how she looked away. "I lost control, it felt fucking amazing to finally be free and not to worry about the rules or anything. It felt amazing just allowing myself to be a demon, to surrender myself to my nature and just kill." Alex said almost dreamily. "And you know that you will feel it too, Ems. You know that is only a matter of time before you lose it too, we all go through it, there is no avoiding the unavoidable." He mumbled before chuckling lightly. "How fucking poetic." He added and then lifted himself from Emily's lap, sitting on his legs and looking at his sister's face.
Alex was looking at her face while she was avoiding his eyes. Reaching forward, Alex placed his hands on Emily's cheeks and tried to catch her eyes with his. "Can you look at me?" he requested, and Emily wanted to deny that request, but she couldn't, she could never say no to her brother. "Look, Ems, I swear to you, I will try my best to come back as quickly as possible, so we can continue breaking any and every rule and bring actual class and style to the dirty streets of New York and live up to the respectable name of the supernatural world upper class that we have. Deal?" Alex asked and watched closely as Emily pursed her lips, trying her hardest to not smile and it made a small smile to appear on his face.
Finally allowing herself a genuine smile, Emily nodded to Alex's words. "Deal. I give you a year tops. If you don't get out until then, I will hunt you down and then force you to get better." She threatened, and Alex chuckled, pulling her close and hugging her.
"I'll hold you to it, Ems." He mumbled to her hair before pulling back and yawning. "I'm knackered and from the circled under your eyes I can tell that you are too. Now be a good sister and scoot, if you are having a sleepover in my room the least you can do is to allow me some space as well and to not hog all the covers." Alex smirked, and Emily laughed lightly, moving to the side and allowing Alex to fall into his pillows.
"Who says that we are having a sleepover? I have been obsessive over you enough these past three days, I think that now we need some time apart." She shrugged teasingly, but Alex simple glanced at her before reaching for the duvet and pulling it to cover them both.
"Shut up and sleep, Ems. I'll need you to manipulate the staff to make us celebratory special breakfast in the morning." He grumbled and then waited for Emily to settle next to him before adding. "And don't forget the deal, Ems. We still have to get Markus to buy your way back into the pretentious ballet studio, so we could get you kicked out again for even worse behavior."
The sun shone brightly while the two of them drove through the wide and winged streets. The city seemed dull, like really dull, exactly how she remembered from her childhood and it was making the whole deal of living there even worse. Coming from a city like New York back to a place like Beacon Hills was a serious downgrade in her eyes. The only thing for what Emily was excited was seeing her best friend again after almost a year. The music was blaring loudly through the car speakers and Emily knew that it was annoying her sister, but the loud music meant that they didn't have to talk and that was exactly what she needed. Emily wasn't ready to go through another psychology session with her sister, she didn't want to talk about how Alex leaving made her feel, or how she felt about being sent back to Beacon Hills. She just didn't want to think about it, she was fine, there was nothing to talk about. Emily just needed to move on and continue living her life until Alex was going to get his control back and her dad was going to see that she was – in fact – completely fine. Then she was going to collect her things again and leave Beacon Hills behind her, for good that time hopefully. Her siblings and Lydia could always come and visit her in New York, just so she wouldn't have to step her foot in the God forsaken town that Beacon Hills was, the town that took away her mother, the town that broke the Hale family.
They drove through another green light and Emily saw her sister glancing at her before sighing deeply. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke and as it appeared after a few seconds, Laura was the one that broke first. She reached for the stereo, turning the volume down before tapping her red painted nails on the steering wheel. "Could you at least remove your feet off the dashboard?" Emily sighed dramatically before removing her feet slowly per Laura's request, receiving an eye roll from Laura. "Thank you." She said sarcastically while pushing her glasses up her nose and Emily offered her an overly sweet smile.
After straightening her posture, Emily looked over to her sister with a small frown. "You know what I find ridiculous?" She asked in a serious tone.
Laura glanced at her for a second before looking back to the rode. "I'm sure you're going to say it no matter my answer, so shoot."
"You keep wearing these glasses, not because you need them, because we both know that with those freakish werewolf genes you'll never have myopia or hyperopia. But because you try to look more mature that way. Or smarter, that I haven't figured out just yet." Emily pointed out and then pulled out her phone, answering a few texts to her friends back in New York before sending a quick text to Lydia.
Laura scoffed and glanced at her younger sister, lifting one eyebrow. "You are unbelievable, Emily."
"I know." Emily grinned. "It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it." She sent her sister a wink before pursing her lips. "So, were you completely serious when you said that you have no house servants? Like at all?" skepticism was clear in Emily's voice and Laura chuckled lightly, offering her sister a pitying look.
"Of course, I don't. How spoiled are you?" Laura questioned, glancing at her passenger almost expecting a joking expression on Emily's face, but only found seriousness.
"Excuse me? My father is literally filthy rich. Like it is almost disgusting how rich he is. I'm not kidding, and it is no secret that I'm spoiled. That's what happens when you always get whatever you want. And you could've experienced all of that and even more as well, only if you'd have taken dad's help for longer." Emily shrugged before pulling out a lollipop from her bag and unwrapping it. "And servants are a great addition to the household. They cook whatever you want, they help you clean, which is especially important in a demon household, you know, with all the killing." Emily rambled slightly, putting the candy in her mouth.
"You're kidding right?" Laura asked seriously, looking over to her sister who seemed to be looking through the window to the scenery they were passing, twirling the candy in her mouth with no worry.
"About what exactly?" Emily mumbles, reading a road sign that warned the drivers to be careful of wild animals running out into the road. That was one of the reasons why Emily preferred New York to Beacon Hills, no weird animal sightings and worries of a deranged deer running in front of your car and possibly causing a crash. In New York there was no such possibility really.
"The whole killing thing. Markus doesn't kill." Laura stressed her words out and Emily turned to look at her, removing the candy from her mouth.
"Dad is a demon, you do understand that, Laura?" She asked and after her sister nodded, she continued. "So, being a demon entails that you are a killer. Not to mention that he is the head demon, or the fact that he is a Crane. With this last name comes not only respect, as you know as well and are enjoying those perks, but also there is responsibility. Grandfather ruled the demons of New York and Beacon Hills with strong and ruthless hand, dad is following quite similarly. He may not be crazy, like grandpa, but he is still his son. And we are all killers, you need to get used to it." Emily rolled her eyes and placed the candy back in her mouth. "Not to mention that grandpa's craziness resulted in a lot of enemies for us." She added after a few seconds and returned her attention to observing the scenery.
Pursing her lips, Laura gripped the steering wheel tighter. The silence fell for a few seconds before Laura spoke up again, her voice cold and calculated. "Not you, Emily. You don't have to lose control, you don't have to start killing." She said it with such conviction that Emily wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be moved by her sister's belief or to pity her for being so naïve. "You are a Hale and we don't kill without a serious motive."
"Well calling me a Hale would be a stretch, Laura. Talia never really admitted me as her own and kept me as a secret, so I don't really think that this whole honor code of the Hales fits me. And not to mention, have you heard me talking about my grandfather? The psycho Crane demon? The one who killed anyone who looked wrongly at him? Yeah, being a serial killer is pretty much in my DNA." Emily quickly glanced over at her sister and gave her a wink before pointing to the road in front of them. "I'd greatly appreciate if you'd keep your attention on the road. There are way too many signs about dangerous animals running out into the road for me to feel completely safe with you not watching the road as you drive. I'd like to reach you servant-less house alive. Thank you very much."
After returning her attention back to the road, Laura kept the silence for a few moments before speaking up again. "Don't you think that you are overdoing now?" Laura asked and made another turn. Emily turned in her seat in order to look at her sister fully and crossed her hands on her chest. "And buckle up, I don't need to get a ticket the first day when I'm your official guardian."
"First of all, you are my older sister, not a guardian. Since you know, my father is alive and well. So is my stepmother. Second, I see no cops and even if they stopped us, I would be able to get you out of the ticket, or you know, you would." Emily spoke with the candy still in her mouth, her lips stretching into a barely there smirk as she observed her sister taking in a few deep and calming breaths, probably one of the calming down exercised that she kept on suggesting to her patients. "And finally, how can you question me about my actions, when you're the drama queen of our family?" Emily removed the candy from her mouth before shifting in her seat again, sitting properly, but once again lifting her feet on the dashboard. "The fingers on both of my hands wouldn't be enough for me to count all the dramatic meltdowns you have had. While me? Well my breakdowns are a lot less public and dramatic. They are usually controlled by a wild shopping spree that dad pays for." Emily smirked fully and heard Laura mumbled something under her breath.
Laura removed one hand from the starring wheel, slapping Emily's knee to get her to remove her feet from the dashboard, and Emily did so with an obvious eye roll. "You know, Emily, I love you to death, but sometimes I wonder how come I haven't ripped your throat out on the full moon yet." Laura spoke out through gritted teeth, but that only received a light chuckle from her younger sister.
"Here is the perfect example of your dramatic nature, Laura." Emily shrugged and then looked back to her phone, continuing scrolling through her social media. "And if you do decide to maim me on the full moon, be quick and don't drool too much. My clothes are expensive and designer brands. It would be a shame if they were ruined too much. You know what I mean? Since I would be dead you could at least donate them to a charity or something." Emily shot a quick look at her sister before returning her attention back to her phone.
Rolling her eyes at her younger sister's antics, Laura returned her whole attention to the road before speaking again. "Then I suggest you to not step even one foot into the woods of Beacon Hill's with your expensive clothes. There is a feral wolf on the loose, last night half of a body was found near the old Hale house." Laura explained, expecting instant interest from her younger sister, but was soon disappointed but barely any reaction from Emily.
After dropping the phone back into her bag, Emily leaned back to her seat and concentrated on watching the boring scenery. They were surrounded by trees and after spending so much time in the bustling, loud and colorful streets of New York, Emily as quickly getting bored of the barely changing scenery. "You don't have to warn me. I have no wish to go hunting for any feral werecreature any time soon. But this does sound like a problem that you would have to deal with it. The random supernatural nonsense just loves to drop in front of our family, so I guess it's only a matter of time before this becomes a big problem for you." Emily said and received a questioning look from Laura. In a certain way, the older sister was relieved by knowing that Emily was not interested into the whole supernatural mess of Beacon Hills, but on the other hand Laura wanted her at least to care that there was a dead body found.
"Well actually, I'm not going to be dealing with this alone." Laura spoke up again, getting her sister's attention. "Derek is back in town." She offered the news and a bright smile to Emily, but the only reaction that she'd gotten back was a raise of a skeptical eyebrow.
"Der's back? Shocker." Emily mumbled. "And let me guess, he is here to frown and mope around the burned down the house and be all broody and morally superior?" she questioned as Laura made a turn into a suburban neighborhood that was slightly familiar to Emily. Before Laura had a chance to answer, Emily sat up in her seat and looked around closer. "Wait, we are in the street where dad's house was."
"Correct." Laura smiled, happy that she had finally managed to get some different reaction from her younger sister. She drove down the street, glancing at her sister's face occasionally.
"Does that mean that you are living in dad's old place? Because that house is huge and amazing." Emily turned back to look at her sister but received a slight chuckle and a shake of hand.
"No, Ems, I do not live in Markus' old house. I live nearby." She explained, and Emily slumped in her seat once more.
"Way to disappoint me, Laura." Emily mumbled before pulling out the stick of her lollipop from her mouth. "But can we at least get one maid? Please? I can even pay her." Emily offered, and Laura gave her a skeptical look.
Making a turn to the driveway of her two-story, modern looking house, Laura eyed her sister. "Pay her? With what money, Ems?"
"Am, hello?" Emily rolled her eyes. "Did you forget? My dad is filthy rich. I have money. Actually, you probably don't even want to hear the limit on my credit card." Emily answered and completely ignored Laura's exasperated sigh.
Laying down on her own bed, in her new bedroom, Emily had to admit that it was quite a downgrade compared to her own bedroom back in New York. Her room in Laura's place wasn't bad, far from it, but it was too different from her home bedroom. There was nothing really hers, it lacked character and was simply quite boring and plane. Turning her head to the side, Emily glanced at the chest filled with her things taken from her father's old house in Beacon Hills. She knew that it was filled with old photo albums and notebooks, but Emily, differently than Laura who was all about that emotional connection, didn't have even the slightest wish to look inside that thing and bring up the unwanted memories.
Emily would've continued laying like so in her bed until the evening, but there was suddenly a doorbell and just a few moments later Laura's voice called her name. Raising into a seating position, Emily stretched before making her way out of her room and towards the first floor. She slowly made her way down the stairs, her eyes concentrated on the steps in front of her. A gasp of excitement made her raise her head and she met the excited eyes of her best friend.
"Lyds!" Emily exclaimed, moving quicker towards her best friend and falling into the awaiting hug. She felt how tightly Lydia wrapped her hands around Emily's frame and buried her head into the brunette's shoulder. Emily did the same, breathing in the strawberry scented shampoo of Lydia's hair. "I've missed you so much." Emily mumbled to her friend, knowing perfectly well that Laura was able to hear it, but not caring that much. Emily never really hid her connection with her best friend, and she knew that now with Alex away, she needed to find a new anchor and Lydia was a clear answer to that, since the two of them were as close as sisters ever since they were children.
Pulling away, Lydia met Emily's eyes and offered her best friend her signature smile. "Of course you've missed me. Who wouldn't honestly?" Lydia said, receiving a laugh from Emily.
Looking over to her older sister, Emily met her eyes and Laura took a step forward. "Well, I will leave the two of you to catch up. I have a few things to take care and some shopping to do." She walked to stand by her sister and leaned slightly closer, speaking so only Emily could hear. "Derek is coming for dinner, make sure Lydia doesn't see him." With that Laura stepped back, offered another smile to Lydia before grabbing her bag and leaving the two girls alone in the hall.
Following the older woman leaving, Lydia waited until they were alone before looking back to her best friend with raised eyebrows. "Well that was not weird at all." She mumbled, and Emily shrugged.
"Oh, it's just Laura being Laura." She rolled her eyes before grabbing Lydia's hand and starting to pull her into the living room. "Now you have to tell me everything that has been happening."
"Me? I'm sorry, Ems, but I'm way more interested in hearing why did you finally decide to return and what the hell has happened to Alex? I've tried to text him and ask about this sudden trip back home, since you've ignored my questions, but he has been AWOL for the past two weeks." Lydia demanded as she settled by her best friend, and Emily knew that it was the time for her to spin her best lies.
…
The dinner in Laura's home was an awkward affair that evening. Derek was keeping to himself, not sure how to break the ice and begin speaking with his youngest sister, who sat right in front of him. Even after the hug they shared as a greeting as Derek stepped into the house, it was clear that the sibling relationship was strained. Not to mention that Derek felt as if he no longer knew the girl in front of him. The Emily he remembered was much younger, much more innocent and less demon like. He could clearly see it in the way she carried herself, and from those few words that she had spoken that evening, he also noticed in the way she spoke that she was different, no longer naïve and trusting, she was colder and more calculative. She was also spoiled, that was clear from the way she behaved. It was one of the things that Derek worried about, the fact that Markus never shied away from his fortune and, apparently, he had given the same ideals to Emily. All over, the teenager in front of him was not the same sister he remembered leaving.
Emily continued staring down to her plate of the glass of water in front of her. She refused to meet Derek's eyes, seeing too much regret and maybe worry. It was like as if he didn't recognize her anymore, which she couldn't have blamed him about. Both of them had changed and the fact that he no longer saw her as the same person as before or looked at her as a stranger was all his fault. He was the one that left them all, so he had no right to be looking at her as if she was the one responsible for the awkwardness of the evening. Emily pushed around the vegetables of the vegetarian dish that Laura had made just for her that evening and continued to tone out Laura's mindless babble that she tried to push onto them, to get them to talk and fill the awkward silence.
Laura was almost at the point of giving up. Neither of her siblings were doing anything to participate in the dinner chatter. She knew that it was probably too soon for them, the two of them had lost their contact quite some time ago, and to expect them to just jump back into things was way too naïve of her. "There is this ballet studio in the town that you could join, Emily." Laura tried once more and actually managed to get her younger sister to look at her.
Emily seemed to contemplate the idea for a few second before shrugging. "Pass, I'm waiting for my return back to New York before getting back into my old ballet studio." She explained, and Derek raised his eyes to her. Both Laura and Derek looked at her with questioning looks and as if feeling their eyes on her, Emily looked at one and then the other, before picking up her water and taking a sip. "I mean, not that this place isn't great or anything, but I prefer to dance in my familiar surroundings. Also, it would simply be too strange to just start dancing again here."
Sharing a look with Derek, Laura cleared her throat and then chose to change the topic. "I was thinking that we could hire a construction company and have the old Hale house rebuilt." She said, and Derek nodded strictly while Emily simply returned to her food.
"We first need to deal with the werewolf problem at hand before even considering rebuilding the old Hale house and the pack." As Derek spoke, noting how Emily instantly tensed up. "We can't feel safe there while the feral beast is on the loose."
"I agree, but that doesn't mean that we can't start planning the rebuild of the old house. We are all finally back together as a family, maybe it is time to commemorate it. You know, as a new beginning." Laura smiled at her siblings before Emily spoke up and the smile vanished from Laura's face.
"We aren't all here. Cora is still God knows where trying to find herself." She reminded the other two and looked over to her sister, catching the painful look cross her features. It was no secret that Laura had taken Cora's disappearance the hardest. After the fire Laura practically took up the mother's role for the younger werewolf, trying to fill up the loss of mother figure and offer the love, but Cora was stubborn, she was hurt, and she was filled with anger. Which made Cora lash out often and find herself relating to the demons more before disappearing without another word and in that way crushing Laura.
Sobering up, Laura set her utensils on her plate and reached out for her glass of water. "Yes, Emily, I know that Cora isn't here. But we don't know where she really is, so we can't do anything about it, now can we?"
Emily knew that Laura didn't expect answer to her question, she knew that she shouldn't even answer, but Emily was stubborn as well. Laura wasn't the only one hurt by Cora's disappearance, so was Emily. The sister closest to her by age had just left without a word, solidifying her abandonment issues even more. In return that disappearance pushed Emily into Cora's place, she became the new object of obsession for Laura, the new person to care about when Emily never needed it. She had her father and stepmother, she didn't need Laura to be her mother too.
The silence fell upon the three of them. Emily no longer felt hungry and she honestly couldn't stand to pretend that everything was okay between her and Derek any longer. She slowly set her utensils as well and pushed herself from the table. Both of her siblings looked up to her and she forced her best polite-public smile on her face before speaking.
"I'm going to lay down. The plane trip exhausted me, and I have an early morning tomorrow. So, goodnight." Emily said and didn't wait for either of the other two to speak before walking away from the table and to her room.
Once he was sure that Emily was out of the earshot, Derek turned to Laura. "She's a stranger here."
Sighing deeply Laura stood up the table and grabbed her plate. "You've disappeared on her just after the fire, of course you are strangers to each other." She spoke while also collecting Emily's barely touched plate.
"I know, I expected her to be a stranger to me. But she is also a stranger to you, Laura." Derek said, and Laura glanced at him with a questioning look. "We need to admit it to ourselves, Emily isn't the little sister we had. She is a stranger amongst us and I'm not sure if there is anything that we could do to change that."
Emily woke up way before sunrise, the difference of time zones affecting her sleep. She had spent the couple of hours until her alarm either staring at the ceilings above her or scrolling through her phone. It seemed as if the friends and quittances that she had left back in New York were seriously concerned and were already questioning of her return. She didn't give any of them any clear answers but maintained the story that her family had agreed on. That due to a sudden family issue, she had to leave New York to be with her sister. Emily considered that plan as ridiculous, but it seemed to work, so she had no purpose to change the story. When the alarm finally rung, she forced herself out of the bed and into the shower. Emily was always more of a shower person than baths, she preferred the water running down her body instead of having to sit in it, no matter how relaxing it was supposed to be. That morning she had spent more time than usual in the shower, allowing the water to cleanse her before getting out and beginning to get ready. She had the difficulty of choosing an outfit for herself in front of her, since back in New York she went into a private school that had uniforms in place. While in Beacon Hills, her sister had decided to enroll her into the same high school as Lydia, instead of choosing the preppy private school further away.
Once dressed impeccably in her casual yet still clearly expensive clothes and after applying make-up to help her fix the usual mask that she wore in the public, Emily grabbed her bag and made her way out of the room. She descended the stairs quickly, trying to calculate whether she had enough time for a cup of coffee before Lydia was going to come to pick her up. Since Emily's car was still in New York, and if honestly even there Emily didn't drive that often because of the crazy traffic, she was stuck with carpool with either Lydia, or hoping that Laura would pick her up.
Emily found her sister in the kitchen, leaning to the counter with a cup clasped between her hands. "I've poured you one as well." Laura motioned to another cup near the coffee machine and Emily picked it up without a word before settling down on one of the bar chairs. She took the first sip and hummed in appreciation, not noticing that Laura was still watching her. "I do not understand how you can drink it straight black and with no sugar." Laura murmured, and Emily smiled lightly, glancing at her sister with a wicked look on her face.
"It represents me, dark and bitter." Emily winked before taking another sip and Laura simply shook her head. Emily quickly eyed Laura's clothes before humming in appreciation. "I guess you're not only the town's favorite psychologist, but also the hottest."
Laughing lightly at her sister's words, Laura glanced at her watch before looking back to her sister. "Of course I am, somebody has to be." She answered, repeating the younger sister's words from the day before, and Emily nodded her approval. "Do you need me to drive you to school?"
"Nah." Emily shook her head. "Lydia's picking me up." As if on a que, there was a loud car horn, signaling that Lydia had gotten to their place. "Speaking of the she-devil." Emily mumbled and quickly got up from her seat and walked to set her cup into the sink.
"Have a good day. And remember to keep the sass and sarcasm to the minimum. I do not want to be called out to the school on the very first day, just because your spoiled little head has gotten a little too big." Laura warned, and Emily rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll be good. Cross my heart and all that bullshit." Emily smiled sweetly, before turning around and grabbing her bag. With the last wave to her sister, she rushed out of the kitchen and out of the house. Emily saw Lydia's car parked right in front of their house, loud music blaring through the speakers and the opened windows. Emily walked over to the car and pulled open the passenger side door, getting in and greeting her best friend, who was busy checking her appearance in the mirror. "Morning, babe."
Lydia looked over to her best friend offering her a charming smile before starting her car. "Ready to face the student crowd?" Lydia questioned, lowering the sound of the music and tapping her fingers to the rhythm of the song on top of the wheel.
Pursing her lips in through, Emily pulled out her phone, sending a quick text to her father to inform him that she was fine. "I went to a private school with snotty and rich kids back in New York, and this is not me being mean or something because I am also snotty and rich, so the Beacon Hills high school doesn't really scare me that much."
Humming to her friend's words, Lydia concentrated on the road in front of them, making a turn when needed. "I mean, this is not going to be as pristine as the New York private school, but this place has its own levels of importance when it comes to students."
"And you must be on the very top." Emily grinned, and Lydia nodded.
"Of course I am. Just like Jackson." At the mention of the boyfriend's name, Emily rolled her eyes. "Stop it, you'll like him."
"Well it's either that or you'll force me into interacting with him, so I guess my chances are shit both ways." Emily said, and Lydia glared at her. "Glare at me all you want, but I'm just being honest."
Pursing her lips, Lydia rolled her eyes before speaking. "Fine, you might not like him that much. But you must remember, as my best friend you'll be in the same circle of friends as me and him, so at least behave."
"No promises, Lyds. I was never really known for being a good girl." Emily smirked, and Lydia laughed out loud. "But what I most certainly won't promise is being nice to your lackeys. If they piss me off that, you know, I won't hold off."
"Wouldn't imagine it any other way." Lydia murmured. "But I feel that the only one to really annoy you might be Monique. She is annoying, even I have to admit it, but you know what they say – keep your friends close and your enemies under your toe." Lydia smirked, making Emily lough loudly.
"God do I love you, Lydia Martin."
Emily eyed the school building as Lydia pulled into the parking lot. "I mean it looks quite nice." She murmured, and Lydia hummed in agreement. As Lydia parked, Emily didn't rush to get out of the car, since she knew from personal experience that Lydia Martin never left her car looking anything less than perfect.
Lydia pulled out her lipstick, proceeding to reapply it on her lips while Emily relaxed in her seat. She wasn't nervous, not even slightly. These kinds of social interactions didn't faze her, Emily was used to the attention, both from humans and the supernatural. Especially in New York. Her father was well known and so was his family, so she was used to people staring, especially the supernatural creatures. It all came down to the fact that after her father, she was the one to control the Crane family business.
Once Lydia was done, the two of them had gotten out of the car, walking in front of it and Lydia instantly linked their arms together. They made their way towards the stairs that lead to the entrance of the school, Lydia mentioning some of the people of interest to Emily. The two of them reached some of Lydia's friends and Emily was instantly introduced to them, not that Emily really cared who they were. As they began to climb the stairs to the entrance of the school, she and Lydia had let go of their hold and Emily pretended to care what Monique, one of Lydia's friends, was telling her about while looking down to her phone, reading the new message from her father. As they were passing through two guys, one of them accidentally knocked into Monique and she instantly glared at him, making the guy blush.
"Watch what you're doing." Monique's annoying high pitch voice forced Emily to raise her eyes and she observed the scene. She saw how the guy with buzz cut was staring at Monique with wide eyes, while his friend was trying to control the grin on his face. "Gosh how can you be so careless?" Monique continued to bitch in clear disgust and the guy in question looked away from her, his eyes falling on Emily and growing twice the size.
"Knock it off, Monique. Your bitchy tone is already getting on my nerves and there hasn't even been five minutes of it." Emily drawled the words with boredom clear in her tone and rolled her eyes as Monique turned to her with wide mouth. Further away Emily saw Lydia waiting. She was watching everything with amused expression and the strawberry blonde instantly knew that Monique and Emily were not going to get along.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Just because you're Lydia's best friend doesn't mean that you can talk to me like that." Monique placed her hands on her hips and Emily had to force herself not to laugh right there. The whole situation was becoming more ridiculous than some dramatic fights in New York and that was saying something.
Putting her phone away, Emily straightened her posture and took a step closer to Monique, towering over the other girl slightly due to her high heeled boots. A calm and overly polite smile stretched over Emily's lips, a smile that Alex referred to both as her socialite and her demon smile.
Monique was confused about the way Emily was acting, she was used to people covering when she raised her voice on them, but it didn't seem as the case with Emily Crane.
"I'm Emily Crane for once. You know, rich, brilliant, gorgeous." Emily's lips turned into smirk. "And you should reconsider your tone. Because, sweetie, you don't want to be on my bad side." Emily's calm tone was the key factor in making Monique to take a step back and look away in almost shame. Then there was the time for the killing blow. Emily was perfect at playing the social games, she had more than enough practice in both the human teenagers and the supernatural creatures world. She was a master manipulator for a reason. That was exactly why she brushed past Monique and stepped closer to the two guys that had offended Monique so much and extended her hand to the one with a buzzcut first. "Emily Crane." She offered her most dazzling smile and heard Monique scoffing loudly behind her.
"S-Stiles Stilinski." He mumbled, shaking her hand. He was clearly taken aback by her actions, and the blush on his cheeks was a clear proof of how uncomfortable he was.
Releasing Stiles' hand with the dazzling smile still on her lips, Emily turned to greet his friend. The other guy had a longer hair and had an amused look on his face. She extended her hand to him with raised eyebrows. "And you are?"
"Scott McCall. Nice to meet you." He offered her a smile and took her hand in his. Emily's smile almost instantly faltered, but she had caught herself, forcing the mask to stay in place. There was something seriously off with the guy, demons were naturally close to the supernatural and could practically sense other creatures, and the feeling she had from Scott McCall was definitely not of a human boy.
Emily released Scott's hand quickly and returned to the task at hand, she glanced over her shoulder to where Monique stood and gave her a wink before turning on her heel and continued the way up the stairs to her best friend.
"Was that really necessary? They are nobodies." Lydia rolled her eyes as Emily was besides her and linked their hands once more. The two of them together made their way into the school, feeling several pairs of eyes on their backs, but only one pair was of interest to Emily.
"Yes, it was. Monique was annoying me." Emily answered simply and then glanced at her friend. "I have to get to the main office. I'll meet you later?" Emily asked, and Lydia nodded.
"Text me your locker number and I'll meet you there if we don't end up having the same first period." She said and with another smile turned to walk down the hall to her own locker, while Emily proceeded to make her way towards the main office.
Locating the main office was easier than Emily had anticipated at first. As she entered the office, she was instantly greeted by the secretary, and elder woman with an ugly yellow color shirt, badly applied pink lipstick and messy hair. Mustering the nicest smile she could, Emily leaned to the table and met the woman's eyes. "Hi, I'm Emily Crane. I came to pick up my schedule."
The woman seemed lost for a second before starting to type on her computer. "Oh yes, Miss Crane, welcome to Beacon Hills High School! I believe that you will be really happy here and will manage to find your spot in the student community easily." The secretary greeted with an overly cheery voice and Emily nodded to her, her fake smile starting to twitch. "Now let me just print your schedule and then you'll just have to wait for the principal to walk you to the class." She added, and Emily's smile fell.
Emily had no wish to be babied by the principal and she was not going to waste any more of her time there. As the secretary printed the class schedule and handed Emily the papers with her locker code and number, and the paper slip she had to give to the teachers informing that she was new, Emily allowed the demon possession to run through her. The secretary was a simple human, it would be no issue to possess her and get her to do whatever Emily wanted. As the secretary placed the class schedule in front of Emily and settled back in her seat, Emily allowed the possession to run through her and onto the older woman, making her hands to freeze over the computer keyboard and her eyes slowly raised to meet Emily's.
"Now, let's not wait for the principal. I can manage without the welcome parade, so you should just inform him that you've let me go ahead because I already have friends here that are going to show me around. Okay?" Emily asked sweetly, and the woman slowly nodded. Satisfied with her achievements, Emily allowed the possession to fall and then gave the woman a satisfied smirk. "Great, see you around." With that Emily turned around in her spot and proceeded to walk out of the main office.
It was fairly easy for Emily to find her locker, and once she had gotten rid of some of the unnecessary stuff she quickly texted Lydia the number of her locker and the first class she had. Not long after she received an answer where Lydia had informed her that they didn't share the first class of that day. It didn't make that big of a difference to Emily, so she simply closed her locker and proceeded to move down the hallway, following the numbers on the classrooms to find the right room for herself. She had managed to find the correct class just as the bell rang and she didn't waste any time before entering. There were already some students inside, but she didn't pay them that much attention, instead choosing to instantly walk up to the teacher, who stood with his head bowed down. She silently handed him the pass that informed about her being a new student. She could feel the pairs of eyes on her back, but she paid them no mind – it was nothing new to her.
The teacher picked up the paper in front of him, scanning the information before raising his eyes to meet Emily's. He quickly eyed her before looked behind her towards the classroom that was filling in with students. "Class listen up!" he raised his voice to be heard over the noise of the students and that way attracting even more attention to Emily. He moved around his table to stand besides Emily and she was forced to turn and face the classroom, meeting pairs upon pairs of curious looks. "This is your new classmate, Emily Crane. Miss Crane, please take a seat." He added, handing her back the slip and Emily quickly nodded. As she proceeded on her way to a free seat by the window, Emily met few of the people's looks, keeping the calm and slightly cold expression on her face. She knew that her last name was widely known in the town, her father did have some business there as well, and her sister was a well-known town psychologist. Emily walked straight, her steps confident, she was not going to allow anyone intimidate her, especially not when she knew her real worth, and especially not by teenagers of Beacon Hills High.
As she settled in her seat, she noticed that guy from the morning, Stiles, sitting behind her. Offering him a slight smirk, she was not surprised by his slightly awkward reaction. Stiles managed to offer her an awkward smile and a slight wave, his cheeks tinting pink slightly. Looking over to the side, she met the eyes of Scott McCall, sitting nearby his friend and she felt herself tensing slightly. As the other boy offered her a genuinely friendly smile, Emily had to force herself to remain calm and offer him slightly strained and faked smile. Turning to face the front of the classroom, Emily was greeted by one of Lydia's friends from the morning. Amy was her name, Emily remembered everyone's names and faces clearly, that was the hardship of having a great memory. Th girl had dark skin and amazing short curly hair to die for, and the slightly wicked smile that stretched on her lips and the glint of something mischievous in her dark brown eyes intrigued Emily, but she was never one to openly show her admiration.
"Hey again." Amy greeted her and placed her elbow on Emily's desk, resting her chin on her palm.
"Amy." Emily nodded and pulled out her notebook and the needed book. "It's nice to see some somewhat familiar faces." She added half-heartedly but it still made Amy smirk.
"Yeah, the barely ten seconds greeting we had most definitely solidified out friendship." She sighed and then rolled her eyes when she heard the teacher beginning to check the attendance. "Don't worry, this class is easy, if what just pretend to be reading and the grandpa in charge won't even notice you." She winked and then turned in her seat to confirm her attendance.
Emily smirked in amusement before settling in her seat and pulling the book closer to herself. She zoned out for the rest time the teacher was checking the attendance and instead she glanced over to the side where Scott McCall sat. he was fidgeting slightly in his seat, as if he couldn't concentrate on anything. There was something seriously up with that guy, the vibe she got from him was familiar – like Laura and Derek familiar. But could the random guy in her school be a werewolf? Was he alone? Did he have a pack? Was he the feral wolf? There were many questions in Emily's head about it, but at the same time she was questioning herself. Should she care about it? About anything really? This was the problem of Beacon Hills, there was always some kind of supernatural nonsense going on in that town, but it didn't instantly become her problem. Well it kind of was, since her father was the protector of the supernatural in Beacon Hills, but she wasn't, it was all by the association. And if she wanted to return to New York sooner, the smartest thing to do would be to separate herself from the supernatural completely. But there was a problem with that – the supernatural always found a way to find her no matter what.
As the teacher finally instructed the students to open the book they had to start reading, Emily rolled her eyes in annoyance. It seemed that she was going to be bored in that classroom, especially considering that back in New York she had already had to read that book and had analyzed it. As all the students opened their books, Emily glanced through the window. She was almost hypnotized by the calmness of the outside, but she knew that she couldn't had spent too much time staring, she at least had to pretend to be reading the book to not get in trouble on her fist day. As Emily glanced at the teacher, she saw him writing something down in his notebook, completely ignoring the slight murmur coming from the students that were talking amongst themselves instead of reading the book. Looking over to the students, Emily noted some of the people in the classroom that had managed to catch her attention, she even met a few of the people's looks, either hardening her glare or offering them a slight and wicked smile.
As her eyes once more moved over to Scott, she noticed that he wasn't reading the book either, instead he was staring in front of himself, his eyes not focused on anything really. Emily frowned slightly, trying to make sense of the guy, but then she saw how his head jerked suddenly and he looked over to the classroom door. Only a few moments later the door was opened, and a tall man walked in, followed closely by a girl that looked their age. The girl stood beside the man, looking nervous and glancing at everyone rather skittishly. She had long black hair and wide doe like eyes, and Emily instantly deemed her as the innocent and boring kind of a person, truly not someone worth her attention.
Emily was quickly growing bored of the things happening in front of her and was considering rereading the book. As she had lowered her eyes to the text, the unknown man spoke up, but she still didn't look up at him.
"Students." His voice was clear and filled with authority. If Emily would had been forced to guess, she would had guessed that he was the principal. "Let me introduce another new student to your group. This is Allison Argent, please welcome her in your community warmly. She has only recently moved here, so I expect you to welcome her with open arms and make her feel as a part of our wonderful community." The man spoke, but Emily struggled to listen to a word he said after mentioning the new girl's name.
After the principal identified her, Emily's head snapped, and she looked at the innocently looking doe-eyed girl again, seeing her from a completely different view. The girl was an Argent, no the Argent. She was from a family of hunters. From a family that had been hunting her mother's side of family for decades, they were most likely responsible for the Hale fire, for the slaughter of almost the whole werewolf side of Emily's family. So many dead relatives, humans and wolves.
Emily was so caught up in her mind that she didn't see the principal leaving and the girl moving to the seat in front of Scott and near her. The teacher's loud voice finally snapped Emily out of her trance like state and she quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed her weird behavior. Fortunately for her, nobody seemed to be looking at her, but when she looked over to the side where the Argent sat, she saw the girl skittishly looking around before turning to hang her bag. Emily observed how Allison met Scott's eyes and offered him a kind smile before Scott extended a pen to her without any request. Emily frowned at the exchange, but then Allison had turned her head to the side and caught Emily's eyes. The Argent offered her a friendly smile and Emily forced her mouth into a completely fake smirk before rushing to return her attention back to the book in front of her. Emily spent the rest of the class pretending to read the book, just because she didn't want to be caught looking at the Argent again.
As the bell rang, Emily quickly collected all her things before pushing her way through the other students and making her way into the hall. While walking to her locker, Emily pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Laura's number. She had tried to call her sister twice, each time getting her voicemail, which meant that Laura was busy with a patient. After reaching her sister's voicemail the second time, Emily had decided to leave a message. "Call me back ASAP. This is serious problem, there is an Argent at school."
Once by her locker, Emily quickly opened it and dropped her things inside. She was already feeling the tension building up in her. It was her first day in the new school and the supernatural bullshit was already pilling on top of her to drown her. This was some seriously shit karma that she had, and yes, she might be a horribly spoiled demon with a tendency to manipulate and use people for her benefit, but she surely didn't deserve this. Not this. Anything but this mess.
Emily was so lost in her musings that she didn't hear anyone approaching her and when the girl spoke up, she had managed to startle Emily. "Hey, I'm Allison, but I guess you've already heard that."
Emily quickly looked to the side and saw the locker next to hers opened and Allison standing in front of it. Clearing her throat, Emily tried to gather her senses and place her public mask back on. She straightened her shoulders and smiled at the other girl confidently. "Yeah, it was kind of hard to miss." Emily spoke out and quickly eyed Allison, making the other girl laugh uncomfortably. Emily knew that she wasn't the friendliest person – and she wasn't event trying or wishing to be friendly – just like she wasn't the most approachable. And when it came to Argents, she wasn't even going to pretend that she wanted to have anything to do with their type. "Welcome to Beacon Hills, I guess." Emily added and offered Allison another overly sweet smile before turning back to her locker and starting to collect the needed things for the next classroom.
Emily knew that she had confused Allison with her behavior, but that was none of her concerns. Emily just wanted to get away from her locker and get to the other class and to Lydia without another interaction with the huntress. From the corner of her eye Emily saw that Allison had looked away in confusion or nerves, but she was opening her mouth to speak again, but luckily, they had been interrupted by Lydia, who sauntered over to them with one of her friends tailing behind her. "Emily, ready to go?" She spoke up and stopped by her best friend, offering a quick once over to Allison. "And you are?"
Emily hiked her bag on her shoulder and closed her locker before turning to look at her best friend. She caught her best friend eyeing the huntress and then waited for the girl in question to answer. "Oh, I'm Allison. I'm new."
Emily stepped away from her locker, instantly gaining her best friend's attention and gave Lydia a small smile. "I'll meet you in math." She rushed and without waiting for an answer, Emily walked away, trying to dial her sister's number again.
Their group sat at the center table in the cafeteria. While Jackson was telling everyone about the tryouts happening later that day, Lydia was constantly taking photos of herself, while others were either listening to Jackson or trying to ignore everything and eat their food. Emily was pushing her salad around while constantly glancing at her phone, waiting for the call from her sister. She was trying to ignore Jackson's annoying bragging about lacrosse, but he seemed as if he was dead set on talking about it all the time.
After another boring lacrosse fact, Emily had finally snapped and looked over to Jackson with an overly friendly smile. "Jackson, do everyone a favor and shut the fuck up about lacrosse finally." She said and instantly received a glare from both Jackson and Lydia. "We've got it, you are the lacrosse dream star of this place. Can we move on to something actually interesting? Like, I don't know, the weather or that weird mold smell in math classroom?" Emily added receiving snickers from the fellow people by their table.
"What's your problem with lacrosse?" Jackson spat, and Emily rolled her eyes at how offended he looked.
"I have no issue with the sport. It's just that you have been yammering about it nonstop ever since we've gotten here. Enough is enough." Emily said and then leaned back to her chair and grabbed her water bottle. "It would be a real shame if you were overhyping your abilities and then we would be left more than just disappointed." She added with a smirk and Danny, who was sitting by her, almost chocked by laughing while chewing.
As Emily looked across from her to Lydia, her best friend was sending death glares to Emily, but Emily wasn't bothered by that. From the second Emily and Jackson were introduced, it was clear that they were not going to get along, so Lydia should had been ready for the kind of scene as the one during lunch. It seemed like Lydia was going to say something else, but Emily's phone started to ring displaying Laura's name on the screen and Emily quickly grabbed it and got up from her seat. After quickly excusing herself, Emily grabbed her lunch tray into one hand and pressed the phone to her ear with the other before walking away from the table, her bag slung over her shoulder.
"I'd say finally. I've been losing my mind here for the past couple of hours." Emily hissed to her sister as she quickly disposed her dishes and then turned to walk out of the cafeteria.
"Sorry, I'm having a horrible day, so I couldn't contact you earlier." Laura explained, and Emily heard the stress in her sister's voice, but she couldn't force herself to care about it, not while she was in crisis herself.
Emily was pushing herself through the sea of people and had managed to knock into another person. "Sorry, I wasn't looking." She mumbled quickly, barely noticing the tall guy and his ridiculously curly hair before walking away. "You think you are having a horrible day? At least an Argent isn't your classmate and your best friend hasn't decided to befriend her." Emily ranted, walking down the halls and towards her locker.
There was a deep sigh from the other end before Laura answered. "Look, I know this is bad, but it is not the time to lose your mind. Just stay calm, Emily." Laura spoke calmly, like she would with her patient and it made Emily snap.
"Stay calm? Are you fucking kidding me, Laura? Stay calm?" she rose her voice slightly, but then looked around to make sure that nobody was listening to her. "I came back here to get my control back, so I wouldn't snap like Alex and now I'm at the same school as a fucking Argent. I didn't not want to get involved with the supernatural mess of Beacon Hills, but our family just seems to be cursed with that. Not to mention that there is probably a werewolf in my class who might be the feral wolf." Emily gritted through her teeth and sighed deeply, raising her hand to rub her eyes, but stopping just a few inches short because she remembered her make up. She was sure that must have looked crazy to anyone looking so she really hoped that nobody was paying any mind to her slight breakdown in the hall.
"Wait, what? What do you mean?"
"Scott McCall. I mean him. I don't know what he is for sure, but I think he is a werewolf. And on top of that he is making eyes on Allison Argent. So, hey, good fucking luck for you and Derek while dealing with this shit because I want none of it. Do you hear me, Laura? None." With that Emily ended the call and stopped walking. She just needed a moment, so she moved away from the middle of the hall and stopped by the stairs. She just needed to collect herself again.
The whole point why her father had sent her back to Beacon Hills, apart from Laura's constant whining about how Emily had to return "home", was that this place was supposed to allow her a supernatural free life. And yet she was already facing more problems than back in New York. Sure, there were hunters back in New York, but they were scared to hunt a Crane. Their family had too much power there, and while they did have power in Beacon Hills, but it was different. This place was supposed to allow her to get herself back together, so she wouldn't go down the road that Alex had gone.
"Hey, are you okay?" Emily heard someone's voice and instantly turned to face them, coming face to face with the guy from the morning – Stiles.
Straightening herself, she pushed her hair away from her face and got into her defensive state, which pretty much meant her bitchiest side. Emily didn't like to deal with emotions publicly, she didn't like to show that she was weak or something like that, so she tended to just become a cold-hearted bitch when faced with situations like the one at the moment.
A smirk stretched on her lips and she crossed her hands on her chest before answering. "I'm great. Fantastic even." She said and eyed Stiles slowly, making him fidget a little.
"Okay, that's great." He mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and heat rising to his face. "I just saw you standing here, not that you can't stand here, but you just looked like…" He trailed off after noticing that Emily watched him with pursed lips and a bored expression on her face.
She raised one eyebrow to his clear discomfort before stepping closer and making him take in a deep breath. "As I said, I'm great." She repeated before turning on her heel and walking away from him and towards her locker.
"Go Jackson!" Lydia chanted while Emily simply rolled her eyes and slouched back in her seat. They were sitting on the bleachers, Lydia sitting in between Allison and Emily because Emily was not going to even pretend to like the huntress. The same way how Emily wasn't even going to pretend to be interested in lacrosse tryouts, but Lydia was her ride, so she had to suffer through it.
"Who's him?" Allison suddenly spoke out and Emily looked over to the guy she was pointing at with the number 11 shirt. He seemed fairly good, managing to catch every shot Jackson threw to the goal and that way making that jackass look worse.
"I don't know." Lydia answered slowly, curiosity clear in her voice as she too began observing the unknown player instead of cheering on her boyfriend. "I don't remember anyone playing on the field with the number 11."
"Maybe he's new?" Allison guessed, but Lydia was quick to shoot that down.
"Oh sweetie, nobody is that good when they're new." Lydia said sweetly and then stood up from her seat. "Let's look at him closer, Ems, you coming with us?" She asked and to Lydia's surprise Emily nodded. The three of them made their way closer to the field and stopped by the player bench where Stiles and other players sat observing everything closely. As Emily observed the quick reflexes of the player number 11, she had to admit to herself that they were not due to pure talent, but more likely to the supernatural power. And she had quite a good guess who the person in the number 11 shirt was.
As Emily looked over to the players' bench, she caught Stiles looking over to her and met his eyes with a raised eyebrow. She motioned to his friend on the field and saw how Stiles tensed up, making a smirk to appear on her face. It seemed as if Stiles knew something, what exactly – that was another question, but he most certainly knew something. At that moment the coach blew his whistle marking the end of the practice and Emily saw Scott pulling off his helmet and both Allison and Lydia cheering him on, even if Jackson seemed utterly pissed about that.
"Hey, Lyds." Emily managed to get her friend's attention. "I'll wait for you by your car." with that Emily turned around and started making her way out of the field. On her way to Lydia's car she pulled out her phone and quickly typed out the same message to both Laura and Derek.
"Scott McCall is definitely a werewolf. Could he be the feral wolf?"
A/N: Okay, yes, I'm rewriting the "Running Shadows" story. I've decided to change up several things (for example making Emily brattier and more spoiled, and a few other things that you'll see), also I have decided to rewrite it in the third person because that way I can give you more glimpses into things happening without Emily's presence there, like in this chapter you saw Alex's point of view. Also I've added a few scenes from Emily's life back in New York. But yeah, the main point is that the plot of the story won't change that drastically (the main things that had happened won't change), but there will be new scenes and interactions added. All of this is due to the fact that I had taken quite a long hiatus from writing anything related to Teen Wolf and had finally decided to come back (let's not jinx it) and have decided that changes are needed. So yeah, you'll see in the progression of the story how things will change and yeah. I hope you'll like the changes.
So tell me what you've thought about the changes made in this chapter.
Thanks for reading. Review!
Face claims:
Emily Crane – India Eisley
Alex Crane – Bill Skarsgard