"One of the most heavily discussed criminal cases in Californian history is coming to a close in just five short days. Arthur Lyon was charged with manslaughter, child endangerment, and multiple counts of assault and domestic violence with the prosecution asking for at least 25 years in prison. Their wish was granted and then some with the jury coming back after three days of deliberations with a verdict of the death penalty.

The conviction caused a public outcry and media frenzy, saying that the verdict was too harsh for the worst charge of manslaughter. Despite several appeals from the defense, the court has continuously upheld the verdict and after twelve years in prison, Lyon is to be executed by lethal injection this Friday. The Beacon Hills Herald reached out to attorney Daniel Carter for a comment.

"Despite the unfair circumstances, my client has accepted the court's decision and will take his punishment with his head held high. He has requested to see his daughter one last time before the execution, hoping to make peace but she has not yet gotten back to us."

Scarlett Lyon was just four years old when she watched her father beat her mother to death; she was found not an hour later sitting next to her mother's lifeless body. After the trial, Sheriff Stilinski, who was just a deputy at the time of the crime, became the legal guardian of a young, scared child who was the same age as his own son. Scarlett has not seen her father since the trial and while the Herald has reached out for a comment, she has yet to respond. Scarlett Lyon is a junior at Beacon Hills High School."

Scarlett closed the paper, and put it down on the counter, rolling her eyes. Daniel Carter had sent emails, called her cell, the house, and even the school office in an attempt to get ahold of her, trying to convince her to see her father before the execution. The worst part was that she was tempted – she had spent the last twelve years wanting answers for what happened that night, and she had spent endless nights wondering what had turned him into a violent drunk. But her temptation was outweighed by the fear of her guardian's reaction if she decided to go.

"Did you read it?" Stiles asked as he came into the kitchen wearing nothing but boxers and a t-shirt. Scarlett turned her eyes to the ceiling.

"Please put on some pants, Stiles," she groaned. "We've talked about this a million times." He closed the fridge, and took a long sip from the juice carton. She grimaced despite her lack of surprise at the bad habit, she should've gotten used to it after living with him for the past eleven years.

"You didn't mind when we were kids." He grinned, and put the carton back in the fridge. He walked over and picked up the paper with a big picture of Scarlett on the front page next to a court picture of her father.

"Did you read it?" He asked again. She nodded.

"I'm just waiting for Attorney Doucheface to show up at the door to beg me to come see him before the execution." He disappeared into the laundry room, and came back wearing dark sweatpants with a dried up ketchup stain on.

"You're not gonna go, are you?" She shrugged, and stood from her seat at the kitchen counter. They walked side by side up the stairs, stopping in front of the doors to their rooms.

"I don't know," she mumbled. "Maybe just to punch him." His face lit up.

"That's what I'm talking about." He offered her a high five, which she returned. He would be furious if she decided to go, and it was entirely possible that Stiles hated her father more than she did. "I vote wolf strength." She laughed but even as the sound escaped her lungs, she could hear the joylessness of it. She hated lying but one of the benefits of being the werewolf was that she didn't have Stiles listening to her heartbeat for the sound of lies - she could lie to him all she wanted and he'd never know.

"You're still dropping me off at Lydia's tonight, right?" He nodded.

"You should just get your license already," he replied. "Or have Lydia pick you up on the way." Scarlett blatantly refused to get a driver's license for the exact same reason that she had never, and never would, have a drop of alcohol in her life. It made people more reckless than necessary, and operating heavy machinery was outright terrifying to her.

"Just drop me off there later," she grumbled and entered her room without looking back at Stiles. She paced around for a minute or two. She checked her phone and saw that Attorney Doucheface, which Stiles and Scarlett had settled on calling him, had tried to call yet again. She sat on the edge of her bed. Scarlett stared at the display, her finger hovering over the green dial button but she couldn't quite bring herself to press it.

"What are you guys doing anyway?" Stiles asked as he burst through the door without knocking. Scarlett threw her phone on the bed.

"What are you guys doing?" Scarlett countered. "And what happened to knocking?"

"When you turned knocking became redundant." Scarlett snorted.

"You're not answering my question," she retorted trying to throw him off.

"And you're not answering mine!" Scarlett sighed but stood from her bed. She walked to her closet and opened it to look for an outfit to wear for a triple date tonight. Lydia had insisted it was the perfect reunion with Allison since she'd come home from spending the summer in France just a few days ago. She'd also threatened to tell the Sheriff everything about the supernatural if she didn't go, and Scarlett knew when not to argue with Lydia.

"A date." Scarlett kept her tone casual and added a shrug for good measure. She could see Stiles' reflection in the mirror but she couldn't read it – his lips were shut tightly together as if he tried not to fire a comment back at her and she couldn't help but smile. Lydia was convinced Stiles had a crush on Scarlett but refused to do anything about it because they lived under the same roof. Scarlett had no idea where Lydia came up with those things so she'd simply ignored it but something about Stiles' expression made her wonder if there was any truth to Lydia's claims. But when Stiles snorted, she pushed the thought away.

"A date?" He fell back on her bed and placed his arms behind his head. "Who's it with?" Scarlett pulled a top out of her closet, studying it.

"No idea," she replied and hung the top back in her closet. "Lydia set it up."

"Double?"

"Triple," she said as a smile crept onto her lips. "Allison's coming." Stiles nearly knocked over the lamp on Scarlett's bedside table when he scrambled to sit up, limps flying everywhere.

"You haven't told Scott she's back, right?" Scarlett shook her head. They'd agreed not to bring up Allison over the summer unless Scott did so himself and he hadn't. After her mother's death, she'd gone to France with her father to visit some family but she hadn't trained as far as Scarlett could tell from their Skype conversations. She abandoned the search for a top, and sat next to Stiles on the bed.

"Your turn to answer my question," Scarlett said and slumped down next to him on her bed. "What are you guys doing tonight?" Stiles hesitated. Scott and him had made plans to meet that night but they hadn't extended the invitation to Scarlett, which usually meant it was a guy thing, and she wasn't allowed.

Before Stiles could answer, Scarlett phone buzzed and when she looked at the display it was Attorney Doucheface's number. Stiles looked over her shoulder but for once, didn't say anything about answering it or not – usually he told her not to but with the execution coming up, maybe he'd decided to go soft on her. She looked over her shoulder at him and found his face closer that she'd expected, he didn't pull back but nodded – Scarlett pulled away slightly and stood. She pressed the accept button.

"Daniel," she said, trying to sound casual but by the palm Stiles slapped to his forehead, it didn't worked.

"Scarlett," a deep male voice said on the other end. "How are you?" Scarlett rolled her eyes.

"Cut the crap, Daniel, I'm not visiting him." Stiles offered her a fist bump but she pushed his hand away so he accidentally hit himself in the face – she tried not to laugh.

"Five minutes, that's all he wants."

"Tell him to go to hell," she snapped back. "Stop trying to contact me, okay? If I change my mind, I will call you." Without hearing his response, Scarlett hung up the phone. She ran her hands through her shorter hair which she'd cut over the summer – Stiles had chosen to grow his out, Scarlett chose to chop hers off, it was ironic actually. Stiles had gone quiet, and completely still, that was unusual even for him. Scarlett furrowed her brows but didn't ask or sit back down next to him.

"You're gonna change your mind?" He asked after a moment's silence. He movements had slowed as they often did when it was a sensitive subject. He spoke slower, too.

"Probably not," she shrugged and sat, bumping his shoulder so he'd look at her. "It was the only way I could think of to get him off my back. You know Attorney Doucheface." Stiles snorted but nodded in agreement.

"Someone should tell that guy to take a day off," he agreed. Scarlett laughed and for a moment, she noticed that Stiles smiled at her in a way that seemed different as if something was going on in his head that he didn't want to share with her. Once again, she pushed the thought away.

"Now," she clapped her hands and jumped to her feet. "If you don't want to tell me what you and Scott are doing tonight, you can help me pick an outfit for my date." Stiles was about to protest but when Scarlett raised an eyebrow, he sighed and silently admitting defeat.

"Alright, what've you got?" Scarlett turned to her closet again and dug through it.

/

Hours later Scarlett was in the car with Lydia and Allison on the way to their triple date. It seemed that everyone had changed their hair over the summer besides Lydia – Allison's was shorter, too.

"It's not an orgy!" Lydia argued when Allison kept countering her questions with more questions.

"Since we're going to be six people," Scarlett said and stuck her head out between the two front seats so she could hear her friends better. "You could technically call it an orgy if we all had sex." Allison laughed while Lydia offered an exasperated sigh.

"You sound just like Stiles," Allison said turning her head slightly to look at Scarlett. "Has he made a move yet?"

"Seriously, you too? You guys are unbelievable." In her peripheral vision, Scarlett saw an all too familiar jeep pull up next to the car and while Lydia and Allison seemed totally unaware, Scott and Stiles had definitely spotted them. She listened out of Scott's heartbeat and heard that it had sped up at the sight of Allison, and his scent gave off the sense of shock and uncertainty that came with seeing her – Scarlett couldn't blame him. She cleared her throat.

"What?" Lydia asked but she didn't have to reply before Allison had spotted exactly what Scarlett had meant

"Oh my god," she repeated several times. "I can't see him, not now. Go Lydia, just go!" Lydia looked up at the light that was still red.

"I'll get you off if you get caught, just drive!" Lydia stepped on it before Stiles had rolled the window of the jeep down all the way. Scarlett looked back over her shoulder and saw the jeep following them and when she listened, she could hear them argue about whether or not it would look like they were following the girls. Stiles hit the brakes. Somewhere in the back of her mind, where she wasn't really paying attention to the conversation in the car, Allison asked Lydia to stop so she could talk to Scott. Allison looked out the back window once the car was still.

"They stopped," she stated. "Why did they stop?" Lydia looked over her shoulder, too.

"It's Stiles and Scott," Lydia stated. "Do you really want to try to apply logic to those two?" As Lydia finished her sentence and before Scarlett could warn them, a deer crashed through the windshield of the car sending the three of them screaming and scrambling out of the car.

"You okay?" They heard the boys yell as they came running towards them. She took deep breaths to calm her nerves, Stiles came a put and hand on her back to check if she was okay but the touch sent a chill through her entire body.

"I'm fine," she muttered. "It just came out of nowhere." Scarlett slipped from his hand and walked around the car; Scott followed closely behind as if wondering what she was looking for.

"Something's off," she commented. "We were parked. We didn't hit the deer, it came straight at us."

"It was like it was crazy," Lydia said, her breath heaving.

"It was scared," Scott stated but when he touched the deer, his expression changed. "Terrified actually." He looked from the deer, to Scarlett, to the rest of their friends standing at the rear of the car, and when Scarlett turned and locked eyes with Stiles, he gave her a knowing nod.

"It's starting again."


So, that's the first chapter of Hollow. I hope you guys enjoyed it and please leave a review if you have some time, I'd greatly appreciate it.
If you want to know more about Scarlett, feel free to ask me on tumblr, stydiaokaybye.