CHAPTER ZERO ; BROKEN RIBS POKE OUR LUNGS

SHE WAS PRETTY SURE, sitting home and doing nothing would be relaxing, but nope, according to Carmen it was waste of time and Kelsie needs to spend some quality time with her cousin. (Not her words, but Carmen's). Sure, she thought her older cousin was dead for years but it still felt a little bit weird being around her. Don't get Kelsie wrong, she's happy Carmen is back but knowing your eight years of a missing cousin, is not so missing anymore can leave things on the awkward note, especially when she is — was a guardian for Ethan and Aidan.

She sure as hell, didn't want to go to Derek's place with her. That makes things even more awkward, especially when she knows Carmen has a crush on Derek or had, when she was her age. She wasn't even sure anymore. Things were complicated between Carmen and Derek, telling lies to Wes was complicated. Malia was complicated to explain. Everything at this point was complicated. Ugh.

But speaking of Derek —

"Okay, but I do have a question about Derek, "she starts, "How come, he can afford a loft? Like he doesn't even work, — wait does he?"

Carmen couldn't look at Kelsie as she was too focused driving but Kelsie notices Carmen knitting her eyebrows together, "One, why does that matter? And two, his life is a mess right now as you can see but no he doesn't work— not that I know of. Talia saved up money when she was still alive and when she died, all that saved up money went to him and Cora."

"Oh."

That was everything she could say. Nothing else followed after, just her reply to Carmen's question, "I was just curious, I mean in the beginning he was too busy stalking Scott as a creep, then he was a cocky Alpha who wanted to kill Lydia and then you showed up with Deucalion's pack, and his focus went on you. So I tried to put two and two together and it made me wonder. But I guess, that explains a lot." She shrugs her shoulders.

They had rules — well, kind of. Between both of them. Kelsie won't talking about the Alpha twins with her and Carmen won't talk about Allison in front of her. They will dodge questions related to both of those touchy subjects. It was just better that way and didn't create drama between both cousins. However, there was nothing said about Carmen's moms. That she could talk about. Maybe she's adding more fuel to the fire but oh well. You only live once, right?

"Have you talked to moms yet?" Kelsie continues, playing with the ends of her hair.

Silence. Kelsie waits, glancing out of the window and stealing glances at Carmen but mainly her hair had her full attention.

Seconds later, there was a loud sigh coming from Carmen and she already knew the answer. Carmen confirmed it by saying out loud a simple, "No."

The brunette creases her brows together and turns her head to Carmen, "Why not?"

Carmen didn't reply until she parked the car in parking lot. She turns the engine off and relaxes in the chair, her attention if front of the building where Derek lives. Kelsie, on the other hand, looks at Carmen, trying to read the answer from her facial expressions but got nothing. So she waits until Carmen speaks up and moments later she does, "I–I, I don't know. — I'm not ready. They will ask questions and everything that will come out of my mouth will be a lie."

Kelsie's features soften at her words and she knew how Carmen felt. Not really, but in a way. She didn't want her moms to know she was alive only because she didn't have the right answer without further explanation and her moms weren't ready for that either. The whole 'keeping supernatural life a secret and still be a teenager' thing was harder than she thought. With everything going on right now, lying to the people they care about is killing everyone from the inside. Kelsie knows how it feels like not being able, to tell the truth. Her brother didn't know and he was already questioning everything that's going on with Kelsie, especially after the events that happened recently before her spring break. Her brother, Wes was too afraid to let her go outside without him being concerned about her well-being. Apparently, now her curfew was at seven pm — which may Kelsie add was so freaking ridiculous and not okay for a seventeen-year-old.

"They don't need to know about everything now. Amara and Bridget will be just happy and relieved seeing you alive—"

"With following questions like 'where have I been? What happened? Am I okay? Was I kidnapped? Who was responsible for my disappearance?'" Carmen interjects and Kelsie rolls her eyes.

"What I'm trying to say, "She drags her words out to make Carmen listen to her, "Your moms deserve to know you're alive, it's better than getting the news from someone else. Then you will hurt them even more."

Carmen shakes her head and laughs in disbelief, "I'm not having this conversation with you right now. It's sad and I'm not here for it."

And with that Carmen gets out of her car, leaving Kelsie puzzled. She sits there for a moment debating whether she should stay in the car and let the awkwardness pass by, then get out of the car. Or change the subject . . . to something less sad. Or maybe not say anything at all. Or . . . or she could just disappear from there right now. Yeah, the last option sounds perfect.

Kelsie sighs heavily and checks her phone if she had notifications but there was nothing. Well, René was live messaging, more like blowing up her phone with unread messages of her watching Gilmore Girls for the first time ever. Besides that, there was nothing interesting on her phone, so with that, she locks her phone and gets out of the car. Kelsie hesitatingly approaches Carmen with a concerned look on her face. She's not sure if she pushed her buttons and already ruined everything like she always does. Kelsie can never do anything right or say the right. She's the reason why everything goes wrong. And all because she couldn't shut her mouth and let curiosity to take control. Whatever, that wasn't really surprising. It was nothing. Pointless thoughts, that's all.

Carmen turns as she hears steps behind her, and when Kelsie sees her, she could feel stinging in her chest and she swallows hard. Carmen had a smile plastered on her face and not the happy kind of smile. The smile you wear to make yourself feel better, the metaphor where if you feel sadness washing over you, smile for a minute straight until you don't feel sad any more. All because of Kelsie. She just had to ask about Carmen's moms and ruin the atmosphere between her and her cousin.

They walk in silence, not saying a word. Kelsie wants to apologize but the words didn't come out from her mouth. They were stuck at the back of her mind. Like the 'apology' was forcing itself to stay in the corner and shake its head.

Kelsie closes her eyes and inhales deeply, "Carmen— Look, I wasn't — I didn't mean to—"

Carmen stops dead in her tracks, not paying attention to what Kelsie is saying. "Shh."

Kelsie shakes her head but stops with her. "No, I didn't think—" Carmen puts her arm in front of Kelsie and automatically she knows something was off. Carmen doesn't go all protective mode whenever she wants, so if she feels like something's off then something is definitely off. Not questioning anything, she waits for Carmen to say something. Kelsie looks up at her cousin and arches her brow for further details on what's wrong.

"I smell blood. Stay here." Carmen leaves Kelsie's side, sprints toward Derek's loft and calls his name multiple times with a hint of fear in her tone.

Kelsie stays put and waits for Carmen to give her a signal when she can go. Not that if there was something wrong she couldn't defend herself. It's just she only has human strength with fists that could punch only people who were non-supernatural creatures. Carmen, on the other hand, had claws, glowing eyes, supernatural strength, so yeah it was safer for Carmen to go in first. However, when Carmen abruptly stops calling out Derek's name, Kelsie feels herself slowly making her way towards Derek's loft. Every step she takes becomes faster and faster until she finds herself sprinting towards the loft.

Running inside she stops dead in her tracks, a loud gasp escaping her lips at the sight around her. Her heart was racing and a sickening feeling rushing through her, her arms felt weak yet they were by her sides. Color draining away from her face, she tries to call out Carmen's name but nothing comes out. Kelsie starts to blink rapidly and snaps out of the trance she was in.

The loft she once knew was now destroyed with dead bodies laying around. She has seen way too many bodies in short period of time and she still could never get used to it. Kelsie just doesn't like the feeling she gets every time she finds a dead body or multiple bodies.

That was even worse.

Whatever the hell happened in the loft, she knew it wasn't good. She could tell by scratch marks on their bodies that whoever these people were, they were no good guys. (That was pretty obvious, Derek didn't have any friends besides her and the pack but that was beside the point). Kelsie makes a step forward but stops again when she feels something hard underneath her right foot. Looking down, she only now notices empty gun shells and bullets scattered around with guns laying on the floor. She creases her brows together, tilts her head to the side and kneels down to pick up one of the gun shells.

Examining the gun shell she gets even more confused when she notices skeleton skull carving on one of them. She has seen a lot of bullets because of Argents but never in her life a skeleton carving. Which automatically sends alarming flags around her. She just could feel something wasn't right about any of this. The clues were right in front of her but she just couldn't grasp them. The shells weren't the ones, something was missing. She stands up and looks around, trying to imagine what exactly went down and how. Derek was in the middle of the room, that she could tell with dried blood on the ground with no traces where they went. It was the only spot with dried blood with no body. Someone needed Derek and needed him bad.

Hunters. The dead bodies, they were hunters, they knew about Derek being a werewolf so they went after him. It all made sense now. Derek got captured by hunters that survived and the skull on the shell casting was their symbol.

"Derek's gone. I can't find him." Carmen's voice rings from the second floor, making her way down the stairs. Kelsie looks up from the gun shells to Carmen with a hopeful look on her face.

"I think we have a lead where Derek might be." Kelsie goes up to Carmen and gives her the skull shell, "Do you know what that symbol stands for?"

"I have never seen this symbol in my life. Do you know what that means?" Carmen asks, Kelsie shakes her head. "Deaton?"

"Deaton." Kelsie nods in agreement. Deaton always knew everything, so Deaton it was. Hopefully, he had some answers and he did.


Author's note ::

not much about the plot or anything but i just wanted to make my own version on how they ended up in mexico, cause like there was never a scene of someone finding derek missing? so like i have always wondered that.

oh, i post sneak peeks on tumblr and make sad edits of her and allison, if you want to check it out, my user is httpscoot.

as of title meaning, broken ribs poke basically mean what they went up against like oni & nogitsune, darach , alpha pack, people that they lost along the way and now derek's disappearance. our lungs is the recovery/ healing time. the events that occurred don't let everyone to have their time to heal and find closure. so yeah, the more you know.