PROLOGUE

"The flowers you gave me are rotting and still I refuse to throw them away. Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully but they might so I'm waiting and staying awake. Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep. I'll never know if I go to sleep."

"Slap yourself in the face." Carmen grit her teeth, digging her nails into the flesh of her thigh. She was sitting in a chair with her back to Danielle, who was leaning up against a coffee table.

"How old are you? Seven?" She sneered, rolling her eyes. She retied her dark brown hair up from a ponytail and into a messy bun then clapped her hands together. "Come on. Make me do it, Carmen. Concentrate harder." The past four months had been exactly like this. Getting stronger. Opening doors. Unlocking places of her ability that she had no idea existed. It was repetitive but that was the only way for her to practice and it was the only way she'd be able to stand up on her own when the time came.

Carmen shut her eyes tightly and took in a deep breath, calming herself down before she spoke again. "Slap yourself in the face."

And Danielle did it.

One of the places of her ability that Carmen had learned to unlock was how to override people's willpower without even looking at them. She'd learned how to turn her ability on and off and now if put enough thought into it she didn't even need to look at people to control she turned around, Danielle was rubbing her cheek with a pout on her face. "You gonna try that on Isaac when you see him?" She smirked, making Carmen shake her head with a laugh. "I thought you guys were broken up."

"Not broken up. Going with the flow." She put the chair back in its place and crossed her arms over her chest. She was pretty confident in her answer. He was busy and she was busy. There was no other way for her to explain it.

"You haven't seen him in like three and a half months. It sounds like you're broken up." Ever since she had started living with Danielle she barely talked to anybody from Beacon Hills. She talked to Stiles over the phone every once in a while and she texted back and forth with Scott, but that was it. Her brother had been to see her a few times, but he was busy with work and she didn't want to give him an obligation.

"He's trying to find Erica and Boyd. You know, to make sure that they're not dead." Carmen rolled her eyes. Every single question she had been getting from her friends had to do with what was happening with Isaac and she never wanted to answer them. They just wouldn't believe her when she said she was going with the flow. She needed to concentrate on preparation and getting stronger and Isaac needed to concentrate on finding Erica and Boyd. Their paths didn't exactly intersect anywhere.

"You can't just go back home and pretend that nothing ever happened so you can go back to normal. You can't go in and expect that from everyone." Danielle knew a thing or two about people pretending. Her ability was telepathy, something that had put her through hell before she learned to control it. All she could hear was other people's voices in her head and she thought she was going absolutely crazy until she found out how to switch it on and off. It had grown into a valuable asset for her, especially when she was trying to discern people's intentions. That's why she didn't completely rebuff Peter when he asked her for a favor. "People don't work like that."

"Isaac works like that." She laughed quietly. If she knew one thing about him it was that he was obsessed with stability of any kind. He craved it. Once he had it he held on for dear life. "I miss him a lot." She admitted, just thinking about what it would be like to see him again after they had spent so much time away from each other.

"Do you think he's okay with all of this? With staying away for so long?"

"I really hope he is." Whatever unease she had been feeling was deposited into those words. It was sort of an unspoken fear for her. What if Isaac didn't want to be with her anymore? Or what if she didn't even want to be with him? She was different in a lot of ways, but she knew that he couldn't stay the same either. The kanima had just been a preview for what was coming...like it was practice. The real battle would be coming soon enough.

The song for this was "The Flowers" by Regina Spektor which is worth a listen because it's the inspiration for the title hahaha.

Alrighty guys so the sequel's here and things are definitely going to be pretty interesting. Thanks for all the support you gave to my last fic and I hope that you guys like this one just as much/more haha. I'd love to hear about any ideas that you have or something that you'd want to see developed so drop me a review and tell me about it! :)