Chapter 2: Mysteries Unsolved

The blankets were wrapping Roy in such a way that he was lucky enough to get out with all his limbs in place. After the struggle that nearly costs him his life, he went to dress himself with the first clothes he saw. A blue shirt, a white T-shirt under it with a pair of jeans and white trainers. Finishing with his clothes, he went to the bathroom to wash his face. Looking at his face he wondered about what happened the other day with that random person. Why was it so important? He realized he had better things to do like not combing his hair due to him being lazy and actually liking his random hairstyle "made on bed". Obviously his dark short hair agreed with this fact proved by his fight with gravity all day and ultimately winning the match.

"Dwarf! Get here and have breakfast before I make you MY breakfast."

"Brothers, you have to love them." Said to himself before going downstairs.

The three siblings reunited at the kitchen where the alchemy made by the coffee, toasts and orange juice was being mixed with family humor.

"I want toasts!"

"I want to be rich!"

"I want to ditch you and marry a famous British Actor!"

The display of broken and funny dreams was interrupted by the clock. Everyone left the house in a hurry at the same time almost blocking the entrance and went to their respective places in their vehicles. Roy was halfway to school when he saw in the distance someone resembling Scott. Taking his chances he cycled faster to catch up with him until he was to his side.

"Hey Scott!"

"Roy! What's up?"

"Going to class like a good student willing to learn, and you?"

"I would say the same thing but it wouldn't be true."

They laughed and continued the journey talking about school stuff until they arrived and Stiles joined the conversation.

"You can't believe what happened."

The arrival of police cars and their subsequent policemen going elsewhere proved Stiles wasn't joking around.

"And well? What happened?" Roy urged him to talk.

"They found a body in a school bus; he was... apparently attacked by a mountain lion."

That made Scott very nervous. Roy looked at him when he noticed the sensation of alert concerned.

"Is something wrong Scott? Don't tell me you are afraid of a mountain lion?"

"N-no, not at all actually."

Lying is also something he could sense, and of course he knew he was lying. But at the same way he understood the reason. He is a man and as such he has to pretend to have everything under control and that means not to be scared by anything. Hypocrites.

-I better hurry; I don't want to miss any minute of chemistry class. If I do, I won't understand how I can make blood disappear without leaving any trace."

The startled faces on both of them was satisfying enough to leave them be and actually go to class with a disturbing grin.

There he encountered Allison and Lydia talking about possible plans to do at night with their boyfriends and since he didn't want to be a candleholder nor see a fight to show who is the manlier between Scott and Jackson, Roy decided to only wave at them and leave them be with their romantic plans.

Instead of going straight to his seat, he went to the window and looked at the police in the bus. The fact that a person was inside a bus and that a mountain lion really entered after them to attack him was, in his humble opinion, ridiculous.

Before he continued with his train of thought, teacher Harris arrived earlier and told the students to sit down, open the books and turn to page 394. At first he thought that they were at the dungeons of Hogwarts and Harris was actually professor Snape. When he obeyed and read said pages Roy was not able to understand a thing even if he read it several times and made him enter into a state of panic until the person next to him corrected his error.

-Page 39, not 394."

He blushed as his companion turned his book to that page becoming more readable for a dumb chemistry student as he was.

-T-thanks, it would seem I prefer Snape to Harris for teacher."

The student laughed and readied his hand for a handshake.

-Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Danny"

Roy froze for a moment. He remembered him from seeing him in class but he didn't notice until now that he was right next to him.

-H-hi, I-I'm Roy"

After shaking hands they both saw that the teacher was staring at them which is a clear signal of the next message: If you keep being distracted I'm gonna kick you out. And as such, they complied.

The class was going as normal before a student jumped out of their seat and screamed: They are carrying a body!

Of course everyone did the right thing and did not succumb to the curiosit-

"Oh god! It's a body!"

"Is he alive or dead?"

"I think it's moving!"

"Roy? Why are you talking to yourself?"

Everyone was looking through the window to see the scene. Stiles, on the contrary, stared at his friend with a combination of fear and fun as Roy was saying those things out loud. Roy just ignored him and continued looking at the scene. Suddenly he sensed something strong, something he didn't experience or sensed in such a pure way: Extreme Fear. At that moment the supposedly dead body moved and screamed trying desperately to run away from the ambulance crew in vain. The strong feeling had invaded Roy in such a way that all his body was trembling uncontrollably. Stiles noticed this and went near him preoccupied.

"Buddy? Are you alright?"

Allison and Scott were startled for what they heard from Stiles and joined him with concern.

"What happens? Are you feeling ill?"

Roy couldn't answer. A few seconds later he felt that he was unable to control himself and ran away from the classroom with all their fellow students staring at the scene while Harris tried unsuccessfully to stop him.

Screams and shouts of a man filled his ears. He ran and ran until he arrived at the locker room of the lacrosse team since it was nearer than the bathrooms. He fell to the ground and started shaking with more intensity. An image of two red eyes was constantly forming in his mind and he could also hear occasional groans and a howl. It was so real he thought he was going to die right now at the hands of… an animal?

"Roy! Roy! Snap out of it!"

Scott arrived at the door and saw Roy on the floor. He got in front of him and tried to calm him by stopping the shake but it was no use. He got up and looked around for something that could help him but to no avail so he tried a very primitive but sometimes useful solution. A couple slaps to the face finally did the trick. Roy stopped shaking and afterwards he was swearing Scott for hitting him.

"W-well, what did you want me to do? I didn't know how to stop it"

"I'm going to murder you in such a way that even if they catch me, they will give me a trophy for originality!"

Scott backed off just in case he was serious about his murderous intention but after a few moments Roy got up with a bit of difficulty and supported himself on a basin.

"What happened Roy?"

"I-I don't know, it was almost like I... I..."

Even if he was still in a state of shock, a light bulb managed to turn on inside his brain. What if what happened was that he somehow empathized with that man and experienced the same feelings he had at that time? That would certainly explain the situation and just raised more questions. How is he able to do that? Did he trigger something by seeing the scene or was just a passive process? Scott looked at him worried that he was going on a panic attack again.

"It was nothing, well, it was something, but that something is now under control, I think."

His plans didn't involve telling anyone about his ability since he always think that if it becomes known to everyone, he will be dumped in a mental hospital or something along those lines.

"Thanks for helping but I'm fine, really."

His friend didn't feel very convinced about that but he was willing to accept that for now.

"If you say so, let's go back to class."

"... I'm SO eager to come back to CHEMISTRY I think I'm going to cry!"

Scott laughed at that and led the way being "oblivious" to the truth that he was really crying.

After school, he put his things in his bag and was ready to go when he saw Scott and Stiles going to the locker room. He quickly caught up with them and asked them about something that was bugging him off since he started in this high school.

"What the hell is Lacrosse?"

This question was welcome with Stiles performing a face palm and Scott dropping his bag on the floor. Several seconds later Roy found himself grabbed from his arms and dragged outside and left there like he was a dog waiting for his master to come out of the "not allowing dogs" supermarket.

"Idiots"

He waited for a couple of minutes and his patience was rewarded with the team going out for training. He just stared with a neutral face a bit of the training and resisted the urge to shout: FOOTBALL IS MANLIER THAN THIS CRAP. But he resisted for his own health and sake.

A while had to pass in order for him to "tolerate" this sport and wishing for something amazing to actually happen. He could see Allison and Lydia seated below him and thanked that they didn't notice him.

"I'm boooored."

Doing something more productive than watching a bunch of teenagers trying to ram each other in order to score with a stick was now a priority, and as such, was going to be fulfilled. Roy sneaked out of there and ended up in the crime scene. Curiosity piqued, he balanced the probability of getting caught and it was high, but the punishment would easily be a lecture. With a transgression of the law in mind, he sneaked to just outside of the bus. When the policeman wasn't looking, he entered and saw the scene.

Blood almost everywhere near the end of the bus, a few seats were violently cut and one of them were pulled out of the floor of the bus and thrown to the middle section. This was no mountain lion case at all.

"Hey you!"

Suddenly he was dragged out of the bus by the force of the law. A random policeman grabbed his arm tight and began questioning him. In that situation he was still recovering of the jump scare and was trembling while trying to catch a bit of breath but it would seem that the policeman didn't notice it and continued with his way of work until something weird happened.

He let go of his arm. Roy saw him questioning the reason behind that but the answer was right in front of him. The policeman was shaking like he couldn't control it. He dropped his gun and tried to get a hold of himself. Roy was going to help but it seemed that the sound of the dropped gun alerted the others in duty. With regret he left the crime scene praying that the man didn't remember or recognize him later on.

Cycling away from school he finally had a chance to put in order his thoughts. It would seem that empathy worked in a way that he couldn't predict. The fact that he felt it in his own flesh the same suffering which that man endured after the attack is proof enough of that. But what the hell happened to that policeman? He couldn't be as empathic as he was... right?

"Argh! This is so giving me a headache. If only I could get some more info."

The youngest brother reached his home the first. He had the house for himself for quite a time and he took the chance to investigate more on the matter. The problem is that he had virtually nothing to work on. The newspapers don't talk about the incident because it happened at night and now is when they are investigating it. And he wasn't going to sneak in the Sheriff's office to get some info. Never.

"Frustrating, frustrating as watching lacrosse."

He rubbed his head multiple times thinking with no results. There must be a way to know what really happened. But he is not an officer and in reality what would he achieve if he actually found something? He can't just lend it over to the police without consequences and if they cannot solve the crime why can he? A pretty average student? The translation to all that negative thinking led to a definite conclusion: I give up. Reality crushed him and the only way he knew to recover from such pain was watching the television and praying that there was a comedy program going on.

Reality had in mind a bit of a mental torture so when he turned the TV on he saw on the news the report of the investigation.

"... I hate coincidences."

Willingly accepting his punishment he convinced himself to watch the entire thing so he could leave it be and focus on homework and study.

"The victim is now recovering in Beacon Hills Hospital in a stable condition and the police are waiting to question him about the incident.

"... No, no and no! I'm not going there! I won't! I'm not an investigator and I'm not a prodigy who has been shrinked to a child form by a criminal mafia!"

~A few minutes later~

"I should consider hiring a psychologist or something."

He was inside the hospital. Considering it was indeed a hospital, it was full of people moving around and doing medical business. New territory to explore with guardian trolls disguised as hospital staff trying to stop him. It's a risk he is willing to take. Or at least that was the idea until he turns around the corner and saw Scott trying to hide behind a newspaper.

"You have to be kidding me."

Scott put aside the newspaper surprised about the encounter.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same you know."

"My mother works here."

That smart teenager was not going to leave this place triumphant.

"Well, I'm going to check on the victim of the bus incident and make sure that it wasn't a mountain lion."

"Wait what?"

"Exactly."

Without letting him time to keep the conversation he eavesdropped a conversation between two nurses that hinted where was the victim's room and sneaked in there. Roy was fortunate because of two facts. First he found the victim on his first try. And second he managed to convince Scott to be with him with his erratic and non explaining behavior.

The man was behind a curtain. Putting it aside showed a man sleeping in his bed with bad looking wounds all over his body. Scott was approaching slowly to the injured man while Roy was looking at his wounds. Could it be claws?

"Mr. Myers? Are you awake?"

Roy wanted to kill him in that instant, he grabbed his arm and tried to shut him up, but he woke him up first. This Mr. Myers looked at them with a mix of surprise, fear and insecurity but suddenly he started screaming. All the equipment were making noise and soon a nurse came in.

"What the hell are you doing here? Get out. NOW!"

They ran away from the room and left the hospital only to stay in its surroundings.

"Great Scott, now we know that he is scared of teenagers."

"Not now Roy."

He remained silent for a moment and started dialing a number on his phone.

"Ok, great, ignore me. At least I don't scream when I look at you. It would be funny to randomly scream at people like they were going to attac-"

When he noticed what words left his mouth, Scott already left on his bike. It couldn't be like that. Maybe Mr. Myers was screaming because he had a nightmare or still thinks he is in danger or because…

"It's not ethic at all that I suspect a friend, since it's impossible for him to do what he supposedly did. You know, he doesn't have claws to tear apart a man and a bus and I'm not even talking about the strength to throw a bus seat a considerable distance."

But he was afraid when the incident occurred and also when he mentioned the mountain lion, without mentioning the recent events.

"It can't be a coincidence right? After all, a coincidence led me here. I have to prove my theory somehow… If only I had the chance to follow him."

It was already too late. Scott was no longer visible and at night it was dangerous to go alone without any kind of sword or defense. Retreating to fight another day, he returned home.

Adam and Lauren were in the dining room discussing about something without relevance so he left them there and went straight to bed.

"Tomorrow I will do the homework I didn't do today and at the same time I will discover the truth behind all of this mess."

He lied to himself. He knew he could not solve anything at the moment and he only had vague hints that made no sense at all with the facts he knew.

That night he dreamt about a world full of possibilities, a world that did not obey human logic and all was plausible. Waking up from such dream only pissed him off.

"Even my subconscious hates me. Way to go Temens... Way to go."