[AN]
Time for some Christmas fair, hope everyone has a good festive time.
I own nothing, hey are all the property of Jeff Davis and MTV's Teen Wolf.
I just play in the sand box.
[/AN]
A warning from beyond the veil.
The Hales were dead to begin with.
That above all else must be remembered or what passes will seem less wonderus.
The cold wind whipped the snow that was falling into icy blasts that laid more thickness to the mounds that had already fallen that threatened to cut the decrepit remains of the Hale house from the rest of the world. The wind howled and curled its way into the gaping structure bringing only cold and echoing emptiness.
Derek stood looking out of the frosted fractured panes of glass in the window onto the dead yard now covered with snow and ice and tried to strangle the memories threating to swamp him, memories of times spent playing there with the others pups that once lived within the now dead walls.
Behind Derek something sparked and there was a muffled curse. "What are you doing?" he growled.
Isaac looked up from the hearth where he was trying to start a fire. "Trying to get some warmth in here. It's freezing my fangs off." He replied with a shudder. "It's too cold even with Werewolf metabolism." He tried once more and managed to get some of the tinder to smolder.
Derek didn't turn from the window and the past. "Then go."
Isaac put the matches down and looked at Derek with a frown of his own. "What?"
"You heard me, go, I know the McCall's offered to put you up. Go." Derek ground out his reply.
Isaac stood up. "But…" he started then stopped. "No one should be alone, especially at Christmas." He said with a trace of a whine in his voice.
"Christmas means nothing, I don't need you here. Peter has gone to where ever he goes, if can't stand it here either then leave as well." Derek told the teen.
Isaac was stuck, his wolf was saying not to leave Alpha like this and it wanted to obey what he was being ordered. "Derek, you don't have to be alone." He tried again.
Derek turned around, his eyes were glowing redder than dying embers and he had shifted to Beta form. "GO!" He roared. "If I want you I know where to find you."
Isaac paused only for a second before he ran from the room. As Derek listened he could hear his Beta stuffing possessions into a bag and then leaping from the window rather than face his Alpha again.
Derek stood alone in the room, in the house, in the forest. He looked over to the fire and saw a wreath that Isaac had hung over the mantle. Snarling he tore it down and threw it onto the attempt at a fire where it too smoldered but did not light. Turning back to the window he returned to his former place and his vigil over the long dead, around him the darkness drew in and night began to fall covering the place in a darkness that could not match the darkness in his own heart.
..oo00OO00oo..
Isaac ran through the forest, his body reviving somewhat in the heat from the run. He remembered the look of anger on Derek's face and felt himself whimper at it. It was the same kind of look that his father had worn when he had lost himself to the past, Isaac had thought he was past receiving such looks.
Peering through the snow he realised he was close to the McCall house and slowed down some. He came through the backyard and up to the house proper, he raised his hand and paused. He stood there his insecurities aroused by recent events held him from knocking on the door.
The door was wrenched open and Scott stood there half ready to attack, half puzzled by familiar heart beat at the door. "Dude?" He asked when he saw Isaac standing there, relaxing he frowned at Isaac and put a hand on his shoulder in support.
Isaac stood there not knowing what to do next, then burst into tears. Scott pulled him into a hug and into the warm house.
"Who is it Scott?" Melissa asked coming into the kitchen, she was holding her trusty bat. She then saw the weeping Isaac in her son's arms as he tried to sooth the other boy. She knew that Isaac still had issues that needed to be addressed, but he had been making progress especially with the caring relationship that had grown between Scott and him culminating in them becoming boyfriends. Melissa closed the door and placed a soothing hand onto Isaac shoulder and made soothing swirls on his back. For a boy that had suffered so many painful blows by the ones he had loved, Isaac still responded best to touches of compassion and caring.
After he had calmed down and told them what had happened, he sat at the kitchen table sipping his coco. Melissa looked over his head at Scott and the pair shared deep frowns over Derek's conduct. "Well Isaac of course you're always welcome here. Let me take your things up to Scott's room." She said.
Scott blushed. "Mom." He hissed.
Melissa just smirked. "Like he wouldn't end up there anyway." Scott ducked his head and a coy smile played on his lips.
Isaac on the other hand was more embarrassed by the state of his clothes, which the partially open bag showed. "Don't worry, I'll get it!" He started and reached for it, there was a brief pulling and the contents of the bag were spilled. Isaac shrunk back at that.
Melissa surveyed the contents as she stopped to pick them up. Frowning again she asked. "Doesn't Derek get you new things when you need them?" She asked noting the disrepair and damage nature of the greater majority of the clothes.
Isaac looked embarrassed again. "Umm… he gets me things when he can."
Scott fumed. "Zac, this isn't right, you live out in a rundown building, your needs aren't being met, I bet you don't eat regularly. You need new clothes. Every time I tried to talk about it to you, you either clamed up or changed the subject. I didn't know it was this bad."
Isaac almost whispered. "He tries his best."
Melissa shook her head. "No. you didn't trade one abusive father for an absentee guardian. Right you're moving in here. No I won't take no for an answer, I've thought about this before and now is the time to act on it. I'll sort out the paper work tomorrow. You can borrow Scott's things till we can get you sorted out. I'm sure you won't mind that." She said and the pair blushed at her.
Isaac chewed on his lip unsure how to answer when Melissa swept in and took him into a hug. "It's not your fault." She reassured him.
..oo00OO00oo..
Derek stood in the darkness, it wrapped around him like a cloak.
They all leave him he thinks to himself, all of them gone, and now he is alone again.
As he stared into the darkness in front of him he became aware of dragging rattle. Derek tried to find the source but it seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere. Tensing as the sound grew louder he extended his claws in preparation for whatever it was that was coming.
Derek suddenly turned claws slashing to neck height and then he stopped.
Standing in front of him was Kate Argent, not the Kate that had been in life, but one of ghostly transparencies and flickering reality. Around her arms, leg and torso were chains that seemed to be made of a cross between barbed wire and iron bands, each seeming to glow with an inner fire. Derek looked to where the chains went and saw that they disappeared into the shadows.
"You're dead." Derek growled and his eyes glowed red.
"Dead doesn't seem to stop people around here lover." Kate said in a throaty voice, and wicked grin playing on her face.
"I don't believe in ghosts." Derek finally said.
"Then what am I, hmm? You having a psychotic break because of all your self-torture?" Kate asked in reply.
Derek sniffed disdainfully "It's more likely than you being something from beyond death."
"Says the Werewolf." Kate replied with a full laugh. "Oh put your claws down, I'm beyond them now, though they or their like did me enough damage in life." She added as she pulled down a silk scarf she was wearing around her neck revealing the ripped jugulars and throat and ruined vocal cords that had been left when Peter has slashed her throat.
Derek stared unmoved at the wound. "You deserved that." He said plainly.
"Oh Derek honey, I deserved that and so, so much more." Kate's grin turned rictus as she rattled the chains that bound her. "I forged these chains in life with all the actions that I took, each link forged by a death or decision that caused others to suffer. The chains burn with the fire I set in this house, and are barbed with the weapons I used in life."
Derek looked closer at the chains and saw that they were barbed with the tips of blades and arrows and fragments of bullets. They cut into her and ghostly blood flowed from the wounds only to disappear from existence before they could touch the ground.
"I've been sent to deliver you a warning. Another act of penitence that I have, seeing as I spoiled you oh so long ago. You wear chains such as these, they are forged from the darkness in your soul and are tethered to the remains of your heart." It sounded like the words were being forced from Kate's mouth. "We build these chains in life and wear them in death, the chains you are forging are far worse than any than I could make because you make them from your own guilt and pain." Derek's claws brushed across his heart almost feeling for the chains. "Every time you drive someone away or hurt them, you add weights heavier than lead to those chains."
"Is that all you have to say Kate, a dire warning that I will suffer for what I did… News flash I already am." Derek spat at her.
Kate reached out a ghostly hand and Derek felt a chill when she traced her fingers down his cheek. "Oh honey this is nothing to what's waiting for you, and believe me I would like nothing better that to see you wear those chains for all eternity, unable to stop or stay wandering the earth unable to interact with it." Then her shoulders slumped. "But I don't get to see that just yet, it seem that your family pulled some strings for you and you're getting visited by three ghosts."
Derek looked shocked. "What?"
"Your family, they got you one more chance, you'll be visited by three ghosts. If you learn the lessons that they have then you might avert the future that you are heading towards." Kate replied again with a vicious grin. "I hope that you don't, you can haunt with me forever."
The chains began to pull and tug at Kate. "Expect he first ghost when ten Clock strikes twelve." Then with a searing ripping sound she was pulled from the room leaving only an after trace of sulphur and pain.
Derek watched the shadows where she had disappeared and then looked at his watch, two hours until the first one was meant to arrive. Derek turned back to the window and thought about what Kate had said to him.
..oo00OO00oo..
