Chapter 2
I rushed past the two frozen and rather confused were-beings as they exchanged worried glances. Within seconds I was with Lydia at the computer, who was still staring intently at the screen. Kira sat up on the bed, as Malia and Scott came back into the room. Scott went and stood on the opposite side of Lydia, and Malia huddled over my shoulder, a few loose strands of her hair tickling my neck.
"Lydia," I said, gently rubbing her shoulder to wake her from her banshee trance. She didn't flinch, but instead she started mumbling things.
"I have to do it," She repeated, "I need to find it." She spoke so quietly that I could barely here her, but the worry and fear in her voice was clear.
"Lyd's, I know the keyword," She gradually turned to face me, the strangled expression on her face still showing, but it was an improvement to have her concentration.
I straightened my back a bit, so that I could address the whole group, "If you think about it, the two keywords so far, have been…" I paused; it still hurt to say their names, the people that I killed. My hesitation didn't go unnoticed and Malia wrapped her hand firmly around mine, sensing my nerves. She calmed me, and gave me the strength to continue.
"Allison, and Aiden. Two people who died the night we took down the Nogitsune." The words came out as if they stung. Scott looked down at the table the second I spoke her name, and Kira, who'd now joined him by his side, looked rather uncomfortable.
"But that's what I don't understand," Kira stated, trying to diffuse the rather tense environment, "Nobody else died that night, I mean nobody that we know." She was in some ways correct, but in so many others, she was wrong.
"It's Stiles." I said bluntly, causing the other four to glance at me. "Think about it, technically, I died, or a version of me. You know, the whole evil spirit that cloned me-" I babbled until finally Malia interrupted me.
"Okay Stiles, we get the point, but are you sure?" She sounded nervous again, a tone that really didn't suit her voice. As for her question, there's only one way to find out.
I slid the laptop away from Lydia so that it faced me and Malia, and the others shifted around to see the screen. As I lifted my hand to the cursor, I couldn't help but notice my hand shake vigorously, I was worried for Malia; tired as hell; and nervous as to what the next step is after revealing this list.
As if she could always sense my fear, Malia leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "It's okay to be scared." The corners of my mouth curled upwards, and even though the others heard it I didn't care. It was sweet as hell for a girl that's spent most of her life as a coyote. Regaining my earlier confidence, I swiftly moved the cursor over the 'Keyword' tab and clicked it.
"I'm not scared." I replied as I typed my name. With each letter I felt my heart bang against the inside of my chest, until eventually, the only thing left was to press 'enter'.
I looked back at her as I went to press it, stared her confidently in the eyes, "I'm nervous."
Click.
The screen blinked onto a new window, with coding that was unscrambling at the speed of light. My exhausted eyes struggled to keep pace with it, until eventually a list of names began to roll off like they were credits in a movie. Nearly every name on this part was new to me, people I'd never heard of, and maybe one or two that I'd heard around the halls at school. The first recognisable name that passed was Peter. Considering he was the reason for us all being here in the first place, none of us really cared.
The second name we knew was Liam, now that was worrying. Not only for the fact that he was now a part of our pack, but he was turned a few days ago. How the hell can someone have known about him yet?
The list continued, definitely the longest one so far. Thankfully, Malia hadn't appeared yet. I stepped back to allow everyone a better chance of seeing the screen, and stood at her side, giving her hand a firm squeeze to make sure she was okay.
Several minutes passed as the list filled and came to a final halt- but no sign of Malia!
"I'm not on it," She shouted, instantly pulling me into an embrace, and although I couldn't see it, I knew she had that perfect full teeth smile on show. The sort of smile that can make your heart melt in seconds. It was a little bit selfish, considering the other three in the room were on the dead pool, but I think that we'd all agree to be happy for her on this occasion.
"Wait… Guys," Lydia said, an edge of worry attached to her voice. We all turned our attention back to her, "It's frozen, there are three more names to go." I looked at the screen, she was right. The last few names were still in coding form, but with the click of a button, we could unscramble them manually.
Releasing Malia's hand, I went back to the computer, kneeling down beside Lydia. We shared a short glance at each other, this was it. Slowly, I placed my hand back on the keyboard. It was slightly damp after the previous use- sweaty palms.
I went to the first of the three names, and without hesitation clicked. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as an unknown name passed by. But there were still two to go.
I can't explain why, but as I hover the cursor over the second set of coding, I feel as if revealing Malia's name would almost be like betraying her. Hell, I was once possessed by an evil freaking spirit that killed a lot of people, but I'm not going to be on this list because I'm human!
Click, another unrecognisable name shot on the screen. One more to go, surely Malia wouldn't be the very last one! I know she's not the best at maths, but right now she needed probability to be on her side.
"Last one," I announced, hoping it would somehow relax everybody. I looked back at her, I had to. It must have been some sort of 'I'm sorry if it turns out you're on the supernatural hit-list' look because that's honestly how I felt. She stared back with nervous eyes, wide and ready for whatever was about to happen. I clicked on the last name.
But what appeared was something that none of us were expecting.
"Malia Hale"
***END OF CHAPTER***
Thank you everybody for reading! Hope everybody following the story is enjoying it so far, got some nice feedback from the first chapter so I will try my hardest to update regularly.
Thank you to everybody who favourite/followed the story, and especially to those of you who reviewed, it's so nice to see people appreciate what hard work you've put in!
To the person who asked about Scira, I will try to add some Scira fluff in there, got some ideas for what I can do with that, but this is going to focus mainly on the relationship between Stiles and Malia… So how do you think she'll react to him lying about who her real father is?
