"Don't feel bad for the suicidal cats, gotta kill themselves nine times before they get it riiiiight," Patrick Stump's voice sang through the bedroom as the teenage girl tried to finish getting everything ready for the first day of the school year tomorrow.
Between Patrick's wailing from the Macbook and the clattering of hangers while she tried to put outfits together, she almost missed the slight knocking on the door.
"Come in!" Her airy voice called out. The door opened and an older man, late forties, peaked his head in.
"It's almost 11. You should get some sleep, kiddo." She walked over to the laptop and paused the song before turning to her father.
"As soon as I finish getting this stuff together," She replied with a scrunched up face and dropped face first onto the bed. He chuckled.
"Alright, just don't stay up too late. First day of school tomorrow. Goodnight, peanut." He waved before closing her door.
"Night, dad." She picked her head up and sighed heavily. The raven haired girl lounged on the bed just as her phone rang from its spot next to the bed. She picked it up and looked at the screen.
Stiles
This can't be good.
"City Morgue, you kill 'em, we grill 'em," She answered in a bored tone, looking at the polish on her toes. She'd have to give it a fresh coat before tomorrow.
"Okay. One, that is disgusting, and two, do you have shoes on?" Stiles replied. She looked down at her bare feet.
"Uh, no. I have no reason to because," She pulled her phone away to check the time, "It's now 11:02 and I'm going to bed."
"What? No, no, I'm coming to pick you up," He practically yelled into her ear.
"Yeah, actually, I am. I'm still grounded from your last stupid adventure into your invasion of your father's privacy, remember?"
"My dad got a call abo-" She cut him off.
"Seriously, Stiles! I've been grounded the entirety of my summer! Because you felt the need to drag me to a car chase involving the police! With guns! There is a bullet hole in your Jeep, Stiles!"
"Well that-"
"And! And you were dumb enough to get us caught! My summer was ruined, Stiles!"
"Okay, I'm sorry. I've said it like, five hundred times. I'm sorry." There was silence. "But my dad got a call-"
"You are seriously damaged,"
"There's a dead body in the woods!"
"So your first instinct is to go and find it? This might qualify as worse than a car chase," She practically screeched. "Stiles, this is the last night of my sentence. School starts tomorrow and I'm home free. I am not messing this up," She heard a sigh from the other side of the line.
"Jules. Think about it. When was the last time something like this happened? This is monumental!"
"No! Do you know how many parties and get-togethers I've missed this summer, Stiles? Do you?"
"You have to!"
"Twelve! Twelve, Stiles! I missed all of Lydia's parties. I missed Danny's party. I missed everyone's parties because your stupid idea!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He said, going faster and faster with each apology. "I'm getting Scott now. I'll be at your house in five minutes. Wear black." She just stared down at the phone, shocked, and at the same time, not. She shut her eyes and groaned.
"I am so dead."
After changing into black skinny jeans, a black hoodie, black converse, and a black beanie, she opened her door to see if she could hear anyone up. She heard her dad's snores from down the hall and didn't see light coming from under her brother's door across the hall. With the coast deemed clear, she silently shut her door and locked it, turning off the light before she walked to her window. Seconds later, Stiles pulled up to the curb in his Jeep. She opened the window and climbed over the sill and into the tree that was next to the house. With a successful shimmy down the trunk, she ran to the Jeep and hopped into the backseat.
"I hope you know that if I get caught, I will never see the light of day again." She growled to Stiles, kicking the back of his seat after she shut the door. She scooted to the space in between the driver and passenger seat and looked to the both of them. Stiles filled her in on a few details he left out, like how they called in every available officer for the search.
"Wait, wait, wait. If they found the body, what are they looking for?" The giddy look on Stiles' face was alarming. He was practically jumping in his seat.
"That's the best part; they only found half!" Scott just shook his head at Stiles, while she tried her best not to throw up in his backseat.
"This is the plan?" She asked incredulously. She crossed her arms in a huff after they all got out of the vehicle. "Just wander around the Preserve until we maybe come across a rotting corpse? What if we just happen to stumble across the thing or person that decided to rip her in half?" She frantically flailed towards Stiles, but he completely ignored her.
"We're seriously doing this?" Scott asked, looking just as freaked out about this as Julie felt.
"You're both alway bitching about how nothing ever happens here." Stiles replied as he took the initiative to go forward with us following.
"I just wanted to get some sleep before practice tomorrow." Julie snorted.
"Does riding the bench take that much out of you, Scotty?" She smirked, teasingly. He gave her a light shove before following Stiles.
"Ha ha" He said sarcastically. Scott and Stiles kept going back and forth between pessimism (Stiles) and optimism (Scott) about Scott actually playing first line on the lacrosse team. Julie learned to butt out when they get into their weird discussions about a sport she knew next to nothing about.
"Just out of curiosity," She spoke up, trampling over branches and leaves, "which half of the body are we looking for?"
"Didn't think about that," Stiles chuckled nervously.
"Or that the killer is loose," He stopped and looked at Julie and Scott.
"That too," He shrugged.
"Did you think about anything before you so graciously scooped us up and carted us to a murder scene?" She asked with a perfect eyebrow raised. He rolled his eyes and led them up a hill. Scott said something about being asthmatic and leaned against a tree while he shook his inhaler and inhaled the medicine.
"If we die because of Stiles, I am going to come back as one seriously pissed off ghost." She grunted to Scott before continuing forward, with him picking up the rear. Stiles suddenly scrambled to the ground once they made it to the top. When she heard barking, she grabbed Scott and immediately pulled him down to the ground. "They have the dogs out?" she quietly screeched to Stiles "We're screwed. It was nice knowing you guys, except not really because I'm dead!" Stiles shushed her. All they could see in between the trees were a row of lights moving in every direction, slowly coming towards them. Stiles suddenly jumped up and ran.
"Stiles!" Scott yelled as quietly as he could.
"Goddamn it!" Jules screeched and pulled Scott up and ran after Stiles. "Never again! Never again, Scott!" She seethed. We trampled through the leaves without trying to gain the attention of the entire Beacon Hills Police Department, as well as the surrounding forces.
"Stiles!" Scott called to him, and just as he turned around, he was surrounded by police and a barking German shepherd. Stiles, in shock, slid to the ground with the dog snapping mere inches from his face.
"Get down!" The officer yelled as Scott and Jules hid behind two trees. She pulled her hood over her head and with eyes as wide as saucers, she looked over to Scott and shook her head. Maybe they didn't see us.
"Hang on," The same officer said, "This little delinquent belongs to me." Shit. Papa Stilinski. The dog was still barking, but they couldn't see what was happening.
"Dad. Dad, uh, what are you doing?" He tried to play dumb. Well, I mean, he didn't need to try.
"So, do you listen to all my phone calls?" He asked his son.
"No!" He defended himself, "Not the boring ones." Jules nearly smacked herself in the face at her friend's stupidity.
"And where are your partners in crime?" Her breathing stopped and if Scott wasn't asthmatic, she was sure he would've as well. She kept herself as still as a statue, silently praying to every deity that she could slide right through this one.
"Who, S-Scott? Julie?" He started stuttering. Come on, kid, don't fold now. "Scott's home. Jules is grounded. It's just me. In the woods. Alone." There is no way the Sheriff believes him.
"Scott, you out there?" The Sheriff shouted. Julie looked to Scott and shook her head. "Julie?" at the silence that answered him, Papa Stilinski sighed. "Well, young man, I'm gonna walk you back to your car and you and I are gonna have a nice, long talk about invasion of privacy." We could hear Stiles groaning as his dad yanked him back to his jeep. Once they were gone, Jules let a deep breath out.
"Shit, Scott. How are we getting home?" She panicked. To make matters worse, thunder sounded from overhead and small droplet of water started to fall. She held her hand out. "Great," She grumbled and started going the direction the Sheriff dragged Stiles off in. "Come on, Scott."
They had been walking for god knows how long. She looked back at Scott trailing behind her, slightly wheezing. "You know, this is the last time I listen to him-" She was cut off by the sound of a wolf howling. She stopped in her tracks. "Did you hear that?" She looked over at Scott. His eyes were wide as he nodded. "I thought wolves weren't in California."
"Me too." There were noises coming from all around them, spooking them every second they were in that god-forsaken preserve. They stopped once the pair got to a clearing, but it didn't look like they were anywhere near an exit. Scott and Julie looked in every direction, hoping to see a sign of where to go. She turned back around and saw Scott zoned in on something in the distance. She walked back to him and squinted her eyes, but couldn't see anything.
"What are you-" Deer started to stampede towards them from the trees. Scott shouted and dropped his inhaler before grabbing Jules and running. And of course, as the stereotype of 'the girl running in the woods in the dark', her foot got caught on something on the ground, which resulted in Julie face-planting into the earth, pulling Scott down with her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her to the ground, shielding her from the giant deer jumping over them. Both of them were shouting, nearly getting trampled as a few deer almost fell on top of them. Once they were gone, Scott and Julie just looked at each other, breathing heavily.
"Thank you." She said dumbly before dropping her head onto the ground, still out of breath.
"Yeah," He replied, in shock at what just happened. They got up just as the leaves started to settle. "Crap, my inhaler," Both of them got their phones out to use the flashlights.
"I can't see anything," Julie said lamely as she searched the area. It seemed like they were digging through leaves for hours, but he needed it. A sudden scream from Scott made her whip around, but he was gone.
"Scott?!" She shouted for him. Jules spun around in a panic. "Scott!" She shouted more frantically. "This isn't funny, Scott!" When he didn't reply, she stopped where she was and looked around. "Don't panic. Don't panic. Do. Not. Panic." She kept telling herself. "Scott?" Julee whispered, hesitantly moving forward, taking each step slowly. Suddenly, screams echoed between the trees. Scott's screams. Her breathing became ragged in fear as she spun around, trying to locate where it was coming from. "Scott?!" She shouted back, her voice cutting out from the force of her shout. "Scott?!" Frantically, she ran through the woods, hoping to find him. Once she came to a fork in the path, she stopped, trying to make myself remember logic when it came to being lost in the woods. You'd think five years in girl scouts would've taught me something, right? Just as she was about to head towards the right path, the sound of a snapping twig echoed behind her. "Scott?" She asked hesitantly before slowly turning around. What she saw wasn't Scott.
A giant, black, wolf-like creature stood about fifteen feet away from the shaking girl, teeth barred and breathing heavily. It's growl a low rumble, but she felt it vibrate through her chest. It's bright red eyes glowed in the darkness. What do I do? What do I do? She started to back up slowly, but the creature growled directly at her in warning. When she stopped, it took a deep breath through its nose, like it was smelling her. Julie's eyes never left its face. Tears sprang to her hazel eyes. This is it. I am going to die. I am going to be ripped in half by this thing and I never got to say goodbye to anyone. They'll most likely never find my body. Scott is probably dead.
Her thoughts were racing through her head, going into full panic mode. The creature started to slowly stalk towards her.
I will not die here.
She did the dumbest thing she could think of; she ran. Fight or flight kicked in, and she spun around, running as quickly as her legs would take her. She didn't know which direction she was going in, but she could practically feel that thing breathing down her neck. It's toying with me. It could catch me in a heartbeat. I was the rabbit. It was playing with its food.
The trees started to clear as she made out the entrance to the Preserve where Stiles had parked his Jeep earlier. She could make out the shape of Scott and she felt a new hope burst through her chest.
"Scott!" She screamed just as that thing lunged and tackled her down to the cold, wet ground. The right side of her face scraped against the dirt and gravel as she slid across the ground, along with a heavy pressure holding down her back. Tears started to make their way down her face, and soon she was sobbing. Her entire body trembled. Hot air exhaled along her neck and into her face. The black beanie was long gone, leaving her raven hair a wild mess. It put its muzzle next to her face and inhaled deeply, letting out a guttural groan.
"Julie!" Scotts shouts were muffled out by the noises directly in her left ear. "Julie! Where are you?!" Her eyes were clenched shut as she whimpered in helplessness.
She didn't know what this thing was doing, but the second it moved its face, she was flipped over onto her back, knocking the air out of her. Her hazel eyes opened and came face to face with the wolf. It's giant muzzle and red eyes were inches away from her own. It's muzzle got closer to her face, its hot, putrid breath coming towards her in humid puffs. Its muzzle turned her head to the left, showcasing her injured cheek. The animal slowly licked its tongue up her bleeding cheek. Her bloodshot eyes snapped back shut, willing her end to happen. Suddenly, a blinding, searing, white-hot pain took over Julie's body. The scream that came out of her mouth echoed through the trees, waking any nearby critters, sending them fleeing. She could vaguely hear Scott frantically shouting for her, then everything went black.
knock once for the father
twice for the son
three times for the holy ghost
