After being conned by Stiles to go to a party, I found myself walking with Scott and Stiles to a stranger's house. I was wearing a simple pink cardigan paired with a grey camisole. I tugged at the end of the sleeves so they would cover my hands as I walked in between the two silently. I looked over at Scott who was uncharacteristically quiet and genuinely looked like he didn't want to be here. I'm sure my face mirrored his as I kicked a rock down the sidewalk.
"What?" Stiles asked, looking in between us.
"What, what do you mean what?" Scott asked, confusing himself in the process. I pressed my lips in a hard line and picked up the pace to avoid them talking over me and confusing the hell out of me as well. To be frank, I wasn't too thrilled about going to a party right now. Especially a different high school's party, but I decided to grin and bear it along Scott. With the full moon nearing, I was definitely feeling on edge and needed a distraction. So here we all were walking into some party hosted by a girl named Heather. Plus Stiles seemed really excited it and his sad face is just…ugh.
We all invited ourselves in with Stiles leading the way and Heather, without missing a beat, attacked Stiles' face with her mouth. I slowly watched the entire interaction while a pang of jealously shot through me. I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips without realizing I resembled a bitter old man. I turned to Scott whose mouth was hanging open at the scene in front of us. I dropped my bitter facade and manually shut his mouth by pushing his chin up. "I'm gonna head out."
Once Scott brought himself back to earth, he blinked and frowned down at me. "But you—we just got here."
"I know," I said, rolling my eyes. "But it's a different high school with different kids..."
"Right?" Scott exclaimed. "It's weird, and Stiles is..." he trailed off. I followed his line of vision to see that Stiles and Heather left hand in hand down some stairs. My nose scrunched up on instinct and I turned back to Scott who was pointing to the door. "Do you wanna just go get a burger or something?"
"Yes," I said with excited eyes. "I'll even pay."
Scott chuckled and opened the door the same time as the doorbell rang. Allison and Lydia were on the other with surprised faces to see Scott and I. Immediately I felt the tension in the area rise as Allison and Scott kept their eyes on each other awkwardly. "Uh, hey guys," he greeted. "This isn't the talk we were gonna have, is it?"
Allison shook her head no and rolled up her sleeve. "I need to show you something."
Lydia walked over to stand by Allison and displayed her arm. The same pattern was there, but was outlined with eye liner to make it easier to see. Lydia seemed completely uninterested in the whole thing. "I still don't see it," she shrugged.
Scott examined the markings before looking back up at Allison. "I'll ask Derek about it tomorrow. Maybe he'll know something."
Allison nodded and rolled her sleeve back down. The tension began radiating again as no one spoke. Allison moved toward Scott who opened his arms, but then quickly lowered them. They moved in an awkward dance until Allison finally stood still. "Oh, uh, I was just trying to…" she trailed off, pointing to the door behind her. I stepped down and pulled Scott by the sleeve of his shirt to get him out of the way. Lydia and Allison sent us both a wave before disappearing inside the house.
The second they were gone, Scott hung his head in embarrassment. "I thought she was gonna hug me, but—"
"I know, buddy," I interrupted, patting his back. "I know."
Early the next day, Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Allison, and I were all waiting on Derek in an empty classroom. I had taken residence on a desk a few rows down from Stiles intentionally. I was sitting cross-legged and using my hands as my personal head holder. No one was talking to each other which was understandable at 7:30 in the morning.
I lightly tapped my fingers on my face in attempt to channel my full moon jitters. This was technically my first full moon without locking myself in my room all day and night. My mom was actually really upset and confused about the amount of pillows and sheets I had went through in such a short amount of time. But hey, it was better than a body, right? Right. Since I had school, I had no choice but to come out of hiding. I'm sure Scott could feel my anxiety and moodiness from anywhere in the school.
"You feeling okay?" Scott asked as he walked over and leaned against the desk beside me. I looked over at him and glanced at Stiles who was sitting on someone's desk behind him. He seemed like he wasn't paying attention to Scott and I, but truth be told he is a sneaky little bastard.
"Yeah," I nodded, straightening out my back. "Just the moon is all."
"Been there done that," he cringed. I furrowed my eyebrows slightly as I waited for him to explain. "I don't really feel it anymore."
"Right," I sighed, glancing behind Scott again. "Must be nice."
Scott turned to look behind him and returned to his leaning position on the desk. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yes."
"Charlie?"
"Hm?"
"You know I can tell when you're lying," Scott smirked.
I waved my hands in front of me mockingly. "You caught me, Scott."
"Seri—"
"What is it?" Derek demanded as he walked through the classroom door. Scott stood up straighter on to his feet and walked over to Lydia and Allison who were already rolling up their sleeves. Derek eyed the two arms as his already deep frown, deepened some more. "I don't see anything."
"Look again," Scott egged.
Derek merely glimpsed at their arms again before glaring at Scott. "How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"
"It's the same on both sides," Scott argued as if it were the most obvious thing. To be honest, it was and it was literally in Derek's face. "Exactly the same."
"It's nothing," Derek stubbornly said.
"Pareidolia. Seeing patterns that aren't there," Lydia said in a matter-of-fact tone. It sounds like a made up word to me. "It's a subset of apophenia."
Yeah, she's definitely making up words now.
Scott sighed as the girls rolled their sleeves back down. Scott stepped in front of Derek. "They're trying to help."
"These two," Derek began, pointing at Lydia accusingly. "This one, who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle, thank you," he ranted sarcastically. He moved on to point to Allison. "And this one, who shot about 30 arrows into me and my pack."
"Okay, all right, now, come on," Stiles interrupted. I found myself glaring at him the second he started speaking. "No one died, all right? Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay, a little mangling, but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."
"That's easy for you to say," I spoke up in a bitter tone. I unfolded my legs and slid off the desk. I crossed my arms and poked my hip out and looked down at Stiles. "You weren't mangled, maimed, or murdered."
Stiles put his hands up defensively and didn't say another word. I rolled my eyes as I began pacing in front of the classroom.
"My mother died," Allison pointed out.
"Your family's little honor code killed your mother. Not me," Derek argued. He sent a glare my way and placed a firm hand on my shoulder. "Stop pacing," he growled. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the ceiling and actually began counting the dots to keep myself busy.
"That girl was looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you," Allison pressed.
"You wanna help? Find something real," Derek said with finality. "And you," he began, turning to me. I held my place on the ceiling tiles and tried to focus on Derek.
"What?"
"Since there's a full moon soon, I have something for you," he said in an ambiguous tone.
My eyebrows shot up in response once I realized he wanted to restrain me until the full moon was over. "Oh, no. I'm not doing that."
"You don't have a choice," Derek said with crossed arms.
I pretended to be in deep thought for a split second before busting out into a sarcastic grin. "No, I think I do."
"I can't have you running around town killing everything you see."
"Give her a break, Der—"
"I can handle this myself, thank you," I interrupted I'm sure was a heartfelt speech from Stiles. "Derek, you're not my alpha," I denied, feeling my eyes flash gold. Automatically, Derek clenched his jaw as he took a deep breath through his nose. I, myself, took a step back and shut my eyes to calm down. I wasn't necessarily angry, but just thoroughly irritated was close enough. I blinked over at Stiles who was biting his nails nervously at the confrontation.
God, I hate it when he does that. It was disgusting and I even went as far as painting his nails when he was asleep to get him to stop. Clearly, it didn't work.
"Fine," he said after a pregnant pause. I had found myself significantly calmer after being annoyed by Stiles stupid nail biting habit. "Be an omega; we'll see how long you'll last."
And with that, Derek left out the same door he had come through. The bell for first period rang and everyone started clearing out to go to class. I was last to leave until Stiles shut the door and broadly stood in front of it. I rolled my eyes and let out a groan. "Come on, Stiles. It's the second day of school, we can't be late."
"No," he said stubbornly, attempting to cover the door more. "Not until we talk."
I frowned at his poor attempts to keep the door secure as he kept writhing against it. "You know there's another way out, right?" I informed, pointing to the other door behind the teacher's desk.
"Yes," he lied, his heart skipping a beat. "But you would've have left by now if you really didn't wanna talk."
"Fine. What do you wanna talk about?"
"Us."
"Stiles," I scoffed. "There is no us. You made that pretty clear with your little friend last night."
"Nothing happened," he insisted.
I heard his heartbeat stay steady and cleared my throat. "Okay. Why not?"
"Well…she sort of went missing last night before we had the chance to actually do anything," he mumbled quickly. Fortunately, the moon had me on edge and my senses were heightened more than they already were.
"That's nice to know," I scolded sardonically. "Really, it is."
"Look, Charlie," Stiles began, slackening his stance to where he was leaning on the door. "I wouldn't have gone through it anyways because I couldn't stop thinking about you."
I looked up at him through my eyelashes and bit my lip in guilt. My ears began to take on a light shade of red due to the fact he was being so honest with me right now. "It's you."
"I'm sorry, what?" Stiles asked leaning closer to me.
I rolled my eyes and scratched a nonexistent itch at the back of my head. "It's you; you're my anchor."
"Real—really?" He asked with wide eyes. He started to that fidgety thing with his mouth that I hated. Or maybe the full moon hated it? Gah, who knows anymore? "It's me?"
"It's more complicated than that."
"But, ultimately, it's me, right?"
"Eh," I shrugged. I knew he was going to get a swelled head, but jesus I didn't think he was going to this fast.
"Explain then, Daehler."
"You piss me off," I deadpanned. "I mean, yeah I'm pissed off a lot more than I used to be, maybe even more than Derek, but you just…piss me off."
Stiles gaped at me with his mouth parted slightly. "Now I'm really gonna need you to explain."
"I have a few things to be angry about and originally anger was my anchor and still is. It was easy to access and even easier to suppress, but one day you just…got in my face when I was about to shift and I was good for the time being. Over the summer when I felt a shift coming, I would just imagine you and I could hardly remember what I angry about," I explained. Stiles opened his mouth to speak, but I placed a finger on his mouth. "No, I'm not done. I like you, Stiles. I do, like a lot and it scares me because when I look at you it's sometimes hard for me to decide if I wanna smash your face in or kiss you. Because I mean, god," I stressed, using my hands to poorly execute what I was feeling. "When I see you, I want to punch you, but that's not the only thing I want to do to your face, you know?" I sighed and felt the full moon jitters rise inside me again. I took a step back and looked down. "Look, I get if you don't want to be with me because of the insane risk involved and I prefer it that way, but just know that you're not 'Stiles, the useless human.'"
The bell rang again to signal the late bell for first period. Stiles remained silent with his mouth hanging open and his heart racing. "Uh, w—we should probably head to class," he stammered, pointing to the general direction. I waved him off before disappearing out the door located behind the teacher's desk.
Great.
Since Allison and I had a deal with each other, it was her turn to hold up her end. I'm pretty excited about getting some free tutoring with English. Not too excited about the actual information though. I found Allison crouched over some French homework and a laptop open and glowing. Lydia was there sipping coffee and focused on a set of twins.
"Be careful with them, Lydia," I warned cryptically. I could smell the familiar woodsy scent that Isaac, Scott, and Derek all had. Lydia blinked and titled her head.
"I want one," she decided with finality.
Allison looked up from her work followed her line of vision. "Which one?"
"The straight one, obviously," she quipped, setting down her coffee. I frowned alongside Allison and didn't bother to hide my leering at the twins who smelled way too familiar.
"Ready to get started?" Allison asked, clearing a space for me. I nodded while taking a seat next to her and placing by books in front of me. "So Heart of Darkness."
"Does that make sense?"
A made some vague hand gestures and a noise in response that I sort of understood. After an hour or so of going over the first few chapters of the book, I was thoroughly confused. To be fair I had a lot on my mind so it wasn't really a good time. But then again everything seems pretty ill-timed as of late. Allison laughed and shut her laptop and started gather her notes. "Don't worry, you'll get it once we actually read it in class, I promise."
"God, I hope so," I sighed while getting my things together. My eye caught her purplish bruise again. "Did you ever get any leads on that?" I asked in a quiet voice while pointing to get bruise.
Allison glanced around before reopening her laptop. "I did actually." She zeroed in on her screen and clicked a few times before showing me the end result. "It's a logo from a bank that closed down a while ago."
"What do you think it means?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But the girl who put it there must have done it for a reason. And anything that happens in this town happens for a reason."
"Yeah, but Derek insists that it's nothing."
"He makes it way too hard to trust him."
"You're telling me," I scoffed. "So, what's your plan?"
"Break in."
"Your plan is to break into an abandoned bank?"
Allison gave the logo a long look before looking back at me and nodding.
"Sounds solid," I said, checking my phone which was lit up with notifications. I stood up and pocketed my phone. "Duty calls, but let me know if you need any back up," I proposed. She smiled and sent me one last wave before I left the building to head to my car.
After several texts and missed phone calls, I left the school library and hurried to Deaton's office where I was apparently needed asap. They probably though I was out about straight murdering people, but truth was that I was held up with Allison at school. Once Deaton let me behind the desk and into the back room, I took in the scene around me. Isaac was shirtless while starting reluctantly at a steel tub filled with ice and water. Stiles was in the corner wearing a single glove that came to his elbow and Scott and Derek were merely staring at me. I bit my lip and crossed my arms as a frown formed upon my face.
There were so many things happening right now that I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. "Someone just..." I trailed off, throwing my arms up. "Someone just tell me where to stand."
"Where were you?" Derek asked.
"At the library with Allison," I shot back. "God forbid I be at sc—"
"Why?" Scott and Derek interrupted in curious unison.
I lifted an eyebrow skeptically. "Shouldn't I be asking the questions?" I asked pointing to each Stiles and Isaac.
"It'd be better if you didn't," Deaton answered gently.
I sighed heavily and ran a hand through my hair. "Fine, what do I do?"
"Hold down his ankles," Derek ordered. With no other words, Isaac stepped into the tub reluctantly. The second he lowered himself, he lost all the color all over his body. Almost immediately, Derek and Scott forced him under as I had no choice but grip onto his ankles to avoid being kicked in the face. Isaac began thrashing and kicking on instinct and I felt myself let go of Isaac. I knew exactly what he was feeling and the memories of drowning came flooding back to me.
"Hold him!" Deaton yelled, although he sounded far, far away. My hands found their way back around Isaac who resurfaced, but was shoved back under. My vision began blurring from tears welling in my eyes, but I kept my grip locked on Isaac. After more thrashing and kicking, he became eerily still and miraculously paler.
I listened for a heartbeat to find a very, very faint and slow beat. I swallowed the lump in my throat to speak. "Wha—"
Deaton placed a hand on my shoulder and shushed me. "Now, remember, only I talk to him. Too many voices will confuse him and draw him out," Deaton said. There was a unanimous agreement while I was still utterly confused. I was shaking so bad from either the freezing cold water on me or the scene unfolding in front of me. "Isaac? Can you hear me?"
"Yes," Isaac answered in a cold, distant voice. "I can hear you."
"This is Dr. Deaton. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Is that all right?"
"Yes."
"I want to ask you about the night you found Erica and Boyd. I want you to remember it for me in as vivid detail as possible, like you're actually there again."
"I, I don't wanna do that," he refused, beginning to kick a little. My hands were close to feeling numb as I continued to hold his legs down. "I don't... I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that."
"Isaac, it's all right. Just relax," Deaton consoled. "You can't be hurt by a memory. Relax. Relax. Good. Now let's go back to that night. To the place you found Erica and Boyd. Can you tell me what you see? Is there some kind of building? A house?"
"It's not... it's not a house. It's stone. I think marble."
"That's perfect. Can you give me any other descriptors?"
"It's dusty, so empty. Like an abandoned building?"
"Isaac?" Deaton asked after Isaac became quiet. His eyes stopped moving. "Isaac?"
"I hear him," Isaac relayed suddenly. "He's talking about the full moon, about being out of control when the moon rises."
"They're worried. They're worried what they'll do during the moon. That they're gonna hurt each other," Deaton pieced together. I shook my head and closed my eyes out of confusion. I dropped down to my knees and focused on the beat of Isaac's heart which was starting to increase rapidly.
"If they're locked in together on the full moon, they're gonna tear each other apart," Derek said in a low voice.
"They're here. They—they," Isaac stuttered. His heart began racing faster than I've ever heard it before. It was like hearing a hummingbird which was obviously not normal under any circumstances.
I'm assuming Derek heard the spike in Isaac's heartbeat too because he held down in the water further. "This isn't working. Isaac, where are you?"
"I can't see them. It's too dark!" Isaac yelled. He started to kick and thrash again and at some point I let him go.
"His heart rate," Deaton began. "He could go into shock. "
"Derek!" I yelled, standing up. "Back off!"
"Derek, let him go!" Scott yelled as he too let go of Isaac.
"They—they captured me and drug me to a room. There's a dead body. It's Erica's, she—she's dead."
Everyone froze and Derek finally released his grip off of Isaac who shot up out of the water. He stood up with the help of Derek and Scott and stepped out of the water. Once he was wrapped in a blanket, I diverted my attention to the soaked ground and stuffed my frozen hands in my soaked pockets. "It's, uh... B-beacon hills first national bank. It's, um... it's an abandoned bank, and they're keeping them locked inside, inside the vault," he explained, chills interrupting his normal speech. Everyone stayed silent and Isaac took notice. "What?"
[line break]
Everyone aside from Deaton had gathered at Derek's loft after discovering the new information from Isaac. I snuck away for a second to gather my bearings with Isaac. I had taken refuge on his bed in his room upstairs. I diverted my attention to the blank walls as Isaac changed into dry, warm clothes. Once he was finished, he came over and took the empty spot next to me. I wrapped a dry blanket around his shoulders to stop the shivers that were still coming from him. He had the same vacant expression on his face since Stiles relayed him the information that he had forgotten before he came out of it. I was all caught up with the situation and was still trying to wrap my head around what happened since the events still seemed out of order. Sitting with Isaac was a good distraction for the time being since the full moon was slowly, but surely coming.
I rubbed my hand back and forth over Isaac's back in an attempt to warm and comfort him. "You okay?"
"How could I forget something like that?" He asked with the same stoic expression. A small amount of color had returned to Isaac's skin, but he was still as pale as ever.
"It's not your fault," I assured gently.
"Yeah, but how do you know that?" He scoffed. "How do I know that?"
"Isaac, come one, you've been through a lot. A lot, okay? You're entitled to forget a few things," I argued. He turned to me and placed his head on my shoulder. "It's not your fault. You know that, I know that," I said aloud as I continued rubbing his back. I can't tell you how many times I've repeated those words to him. They applied to so many awful things that had happened to him in his life. I heard a muffled sob from my shoulder. In response, I wrapped both arms around Isaac and pulled him into a full embrace as he quietly sobbed on my shoulder.
"It's not your fault. You know that."
"Isaac's out of commission," I announced, walking down the spiral staircase. I convinced Isaac to get some sleep after our short talk. Derek, Scott, Stiles, and Peter had snapped their heads toward me. The latter was sitting away from the group that was standing around in a circle. I stood over to stand by Stiles as I tiredly rubbed my face with my hands. "He's taking Erica's death pretty hard."
"She's not dead," Derek argued.
"Derek, he said, "There's a dead body. It's Erica." Doesn't exactly leave us much room for interpretation," Stiles explained wryly.
"Then who was in the vault with Boyd?"
"Obviously, someone else," I defended, rolling my eyes at Derek. "I seriously doubt Isaac's making up something like that."
"We need a plan," Scott proposed.
"How are we gonna come up with a plan to break into a bank vault in less than 24 hours?"
"Uh, I think someone already did." Beacon hills first national closes its doors three months after vault robbery." Doesn't say here how it was robbed, but it probably won't take long to find out," Stiles proposed, reading from his phone. I tuned out of the rest of the conversation as I pulled out my own phone. I kept it on silent ever since I was at the library with Allison. Hence the several missed calls and texts from earlier. I put my phone on vibrate and began acknowledging all of the missed calls and texts to get rid of the icons mostly.
I have a plan but I could use some back up.
I quickly texted back Allison telling her I would be over soon. I locked my phone and decided to check back into the conversation.
"You ready, Char?" Stiles asked.
My eyebrows rose as Scott and Derek looked at me expectantly. I blinked slowly before looking back at Stiles. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Were you even listening?" he sighed. I nodded dubiously and began biting the inside of my cheek. "What's the last thing I said, hm?"
"Hm," I answered confidently. Stiles let out a frustrated groan and threw his hands up and walked away from me. Scott gave me an amused grin as he watched Stiles saunter away.
"Get out," Derek ordered, moving to walk upstairs. "All of you."
Stayed the night at Allison's. Don't worry; I'll be home for dinner.
I hit send on the text to my dad and tugged on my (borrowed) floral dress with another frustrated groan. Lydia peered at me through her vanity mirror on the passenger's side. I had accidently fell asleep at Allison's last night while we were putting together a plan. We ultimately decided that we would have to take what was thrown at us considering we had no idea what we were walking into. And now here I was, in the back seat of Allison's car and wearing a very pretty (annoying) dress that refused to stay down like a normal article of clothing. The stupid dress pretty much set my mood for the entire day, but I also have a feeling that the full moon had something to do with that. "Simmer down, Charlie. This is better than your plain Jane look."
I glared at Lydia through the vanity mirror. "I don't wear jeans and a t-shirt because it's cute; I wear it because it's comfortable and a lot easier to kick someone's ass in," I ranted, giving the dress another useless tug.
"She has a point you know," Allison pointed out to Lydia.
Lydia sent me a softer look through the mirror. "All I'm saying is relax a little."
"Fine," I sighed with an eye roll. I folded my hands together and placed them on my lap. I was still for five whole seconds before I started fidgeting around all over again. To keep my hands busy, I twirled the loose strands of my hair that didn't make it into the braid in my hair.
We pulled up to the school just as was Scott and Stiles. I jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped moving and headed into the school. After my entire spiel to Stiles yesterday, I'm still feeling pretty awkward about it so today is pretty perfect for me to ignore everyone I didn't have any obligations with. I didn't even bother to stop by my locker to grab what I needed for English. Instead I headed straight to class and got a seat in the very back corner and waited for class to start.
School wasn't as bad as I had built up in my head. It was pretty elaborate distraction and I managed to keep myself under control. My eyes did slip up once because I was stuck behind a couple of slow walkers in the hall. But other than that, I was gravy.
After school, I was waiting for Allison by her car so we could go over our own plan before it was time to execute it. I know for a fact that if I told Scott or Derek; they would freak. Plus Derek has an awful habit of shoot first, ask questions later so it wasn't hard to make the decision of keeping Allison and I's plan under wraps.
"Hey," she greeted, walking up to her car. "So 6 o'clock meet at the bank?"
"Sounds good," I said, nodding in agreement. "Did you figure out a way in?"
Allison nodded silently and guided me to the back of the car. She popped the trunk open and revealed a pair of fence cutters. "There's only a chain on the door as security."
"I—so why—really?"
"Really," she grinned, letting down the trunk.
I lifted an eyebrow in surprise and subtly tugged at the dress again. "It's like they're trying to turn an abandoned bank into a place for Bond villains."
[line break]
The second I got home I changed into something more comfortable. There was absolutely no telling what Allison and I were going to run into tonight and I was barely prepared for any of it. My fighting skills are half what Derek taught me in a month and the other half is mimicking what I've seen Isaac, Derek, Allison, Scott, and of course movies and TV shows do. But either way I had to be prepared.
After a short, silent dinner with my dad, I excused myself to my room and waited for six to come around. I lied on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I wasn't used to how quiet it was around here ever since Matt's death. There was usually some sort of noise coming from someone's room, but now it just my dad and I in a two bedroom apartment downtown. I haven't seen much of my dad lately and there was a pull in my stomach telling that it was going to stay that way for a while. My mom refused to move back here. Something about her job requiring her to travel a lot and she wanted me to finish high school before I started living with her. Until then, I was stuck with my closed off dad. Yeah, he lost his son, but he still had a daughter.
I felt my emotions swirling around in my head. I rolled my eyes at my brain that was thinking way too much and sat up. I reached for my phone and dialed the last person I wanted to talk to. Once the ringing on the other end had stopped, I listened for the breathing. "Hey, Stiles."
"Hey, Charlie," he greeted cheerfully.
I almost cringed at his cheerfulness, but instead I threw myself back on my bed to stare at the ceiling. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to convince my dad to give me the blueprints of the abandoned bank so I can make the world a better place," he added, shouting the last part. I cringed at the volume of his phone, but kept my phone to my ear. "But so far—nothing."
"You're telling me that the infamous Stilinski charm doesn't work on the man himself?" I teased with an eye roll.
"Hey," he scolded. "It worked on you."
I bit my lip as the blush crept on my face. "About that, Stiles. Yester—"
"Let's just talk about it when we're at Derek's, okay?"
"You really wanna have a conversation surrounded by nosy werewolves?"
"…no," he answered after an elongated pause. "But I'd rather have this conversation face-to-face."
"Fair enough," I sighed.
"Good, I'll meet you there at five o'clock?"
"Uh—I actually—Yes…Five is good," I decided, biting down on my lip even harder. Lying to someone who wasn't a werewolf was almost too easy, but I felt bad about lying to Stiles.
"Oh, and Char?"
"Yeah?"
"You looked really pretty at school today," he complimented in a soft voice.
I blushed even deeper before saying anything. "Thanks, so did you." My eyes bugged out of my head as soon as I realized what I said. "See you at Derek's," I said quickly before hanging up the phone in his without letting him reply. Tossing my phone blindly on the floor, I placed a pillow over my face and let out a spine-chilling growl into the pillow.
Good one, Daehler. Good one.
As six rolled around, I decided to run to the bank instead of taking my car. It helped with full moon creeping up on me and the frustration of my awkward phone call with Stiles. My hair was pulled back into a ponytail as it bounced behind me. I took a shortcut through the woods and hoped to god I wouldn't get lost. Fortunately, my heightened senses helped me find my way to the bank where Allison was patiently waiting in her car. I sprinted my way over and accidently scared her when I popped up beside her car window. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's just me," I assured, waving my hands in front of me defensively. Allison had her crossbow loaded and pointed at me ready to fire. She sighed as her heart was still fluttering. She got out of her car in a fluid movement and handed me the fence cutters.
"Sorry, about that," she said meekly.
I shook my head and waved her off. "It's fine. As long as you don't go stabbing everybody again; I'm good."
Allison laughed once uncomfortably before looking up at the sky. I looked up to and took note that the moon hadn't made an appearance yet. "Ready?" She asked, wielding her crossbow.
"Ready," I declared. With that, we headed to the poorly secured doors. I easily cut the chains and started to unwrap them from the entrance while Allison kept a sharp lookout. We slid our way inside and I immediately began listening for other heartbeats. I placed one particular beat that was getting closer and closer until something ran between Allison and me.
There was a flash of black hair and Allison was pinned to the wall with her mouth shut. "Ms. Morrell?" I asked, squinting my eyes in the darkness. She snapped her head at me before uncovering Allison's mouth.
"Keep your mouths shut and listen close. You have no idea what you just stepped into. Right now you've got maybe 20 seconds to get your asses hidden," she explained in a rushed manner.
"What are you doing?" Allison panted.
"Get in that storage closet over there. Lock the door. When you hear the fighting start, that's when you come out," Ms. Morrell ordered. She stepped away from Allison who quickly walked over to me.
"What fighting?'
"You'll hear it," she insisted, with a push to Allison. "Now go!"
I blinked slowly in confusion as Ms. Morrell ran away from the mysterious direction she came. Considering how cryptic her advice to Allison and I just was, she should quit her day job as a guidance counselor.
Allison literally pulled me out of my thoughts and into the storage closet. She shut the door with a soft click behind us. I took in a deep breath and started gagging at the smell in the closet. I placed a hand firmly over my mouth to quiet my coughing. Allison turned the flashlight on her phone and began looking around the room. My nose was burning at the rotting stench while my stomach was turning. I stood as close to the door as I possibly could to get away from the smell. Allison let out a loud gasp from the corner of the room. "Charlie, look," she whispered. I turned around and followed her line of vision to see a decaying Erica sitting very, very, very still in the corner.
I too let out a gasp and almost threw up the Chinese I had for dinner. I dug around in my pockets to text someone, anyone, that Erica was definitely dead. Footsteps in the near, near distance stopped me. Allison looked at me in fear once I realized that she heard them too. She kicked over a bottle of something that made my nose burn even more. I bunched up my shirt to cover my nose and glared at Allison. She put a finger to her lips.
I heard about two or three footsteps past right by us. I placed my hand on the door and prepared for a fight until whoever was on the other side of the door kept walking. Once the footsteps were gone, I looked over at Allison who was shining the flashlight over at me. "That was amazing," I praised with a whisper.
"Thanks," she whispered back. She handed me her phone and took of her jacket and placed it on the ground to soak up the rest of whatever saved our ass. My guess was ammonia considering how bad it was irritating my nose. I heard a crash followed by low growling and voices.
"Did you hear that?" I whispered, uncovering my nose and mouth. Allison frowned and shook her head. I heard more growling that I didn't recognize and pressed my ear to the door.
"Charlie?" Allison asked aloud. I threw up my hand to quiet her and shut my eyes to focus on the sounds I heard in the distance.
"Derek, we got a problem, a really big problem."
"It's Scott," I gasped. "Scott and Derek. Something's happening," I explained hurriedly. "Stay here," I said, before running off. I easily followed the scent to the vault where Derek and Scott were standing around. The same unfamiliar growling I had heard before began again.
"Charlie? What are you doing here? Get out!" Scott barked, with his phone still pressed to his ear. I didn't have time to be confused once Boyd and an unfamiliar girl came of the shadows slowly.
"C—Charlie?" Stiles asked from over the phone. "Charlie's there?"
"Cora?" Derek asked in a quiet voice.
"Who?" Scott and I asked at the same time.
"Cora?" He asked again, taking a step toward her.
"Scott?"
I rolled my eyes in frustration at the name game all of us were playing at the time. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and saw Ms. Morrell closing a gap out what looked like mountain ash. I pieced together all the information I knew and realized that I stepped into an arena along Scott and Derek.
In perfect timing, the moon shone through the windows and the hole in the vault. Boyd and Cora each zeroed in on Scott and Derek while I easily shifted into my wolf form. I took advantage and stepped out of dodge and waited for a distraction. Derek took on his supposed sister who instantaneously began clawing at him. She got in hit after hit until she finally threw Derek into the wall. I came up behind Cora and swept my leg under her ankles to get her off her feet. It worked for about .5 seconds until she was back on her feet and facing me.
"Crap," I growled. Without wasting anytime she slashed at my stomach that caused me to falter at the impact. Luckily, I saw her other hand come swinging toward my face. I ducked as she lunged toward me. Unfortunately, Derek was right behind me and took the blow instead. I sucked in air through my teeth and cringed. I backed up slowly only to be stopped by Boyd. I jumped and turned around to see Scott hanging high in the hair by Boyd's claw. I backed up again to get a running start and tackled him into the ground where we hit a wall. My infamous run-and-tackle had a pretty good track record up until now. Boyd jumped up before I did and performed an encore by entering his hand into my abdomen. I gasped at the impact and immediately tasted blood as a result.
"Look out!" Allison warned.
"No, don't break the seal!" Derek yelled. Suddenly I was relieved of pain as the healing process began. I sank all the way to the ground and looked over at Allison while I shifted back into my human form. She had broken the seal of mountain ash so Boyd and Cora could take off. Scott was holding himself up against the vault door as Derek stormed over to Allison.
"Don't touch her!" He yelled. I shakily stood up as my wounds from the outside scarred over. I used the giant hole as an impromptu seat and waited for the inevitable internal bleeding to stop. "What were you two thinking?" Derek growled, moving his head between Allison and me. I shook my head dismissively and wiped blood on the sleeve of my shirt. Hopefully that was enough for Derek to get the hint that I didn't want to talk until any all internal bleeding had stopped. Plus, I wasn't in the mood to get yelled at now.
"That I had to do something," Allison defended.
"She saved our lives," Scott pointed out.
"Yeah, and what do you think they're gonna do out there? Do you have any idea what we just set free?" Derek asked sardonically. I could feel his rage radiating from him as he crossed his arms.
"You want to blame me?" Allison scoffed. "Well, I am not the one turning teenagers into killers."
"No. No, that's just the rest of your family," Derek shot back.
Whoa, it's getting pretty crafty in here.
I cleared my throat and stood up on my wobbly legs to leave. "Well, this have been so much fun but—"
"No," Derek interrupted. "If you go home they're gonna follow your scent and kill your dad and then you."
I pursed my lips and sat back down silently.
"Look, I made mistakes. Gerard is not my fault," Allison continued, looking at Derek.
"And what about your mother?" He asked with an unconvinced look on his face.
Allison frowned as she looked in between Derek and Scott. "What do you mean?"
"Tell her, Scott," Derek ordered. Scott stayed silent with a hesitant look on his face.
"What does he mean, Scott?" Allison repeated. I stood up again, feeling stronger this time, and slowly walked out of the vault to give Allison and Scott some privacy. I heard footsteps follow me and only assumed it was Derek by the sound of his raging heart beating. I stopped short in front of the storage closet and stood there silently.
"So that was your sister, huh?" I asked, still staring at the storage door.
"Yeah," he answered from a few feet behind me. I turned all the way around to face Derek who was staring at the ground with his hands shoved in his pockets. His ripped shirt resembled mine and I rolled my eyes at the amount of clothes I've been through ever since the bite.
"We'll find her and Boyd, but right now we have to deal with this."
"What are you talking about?" I shot my head toward the storage closet and waited for Derek to get the hint. Soon after, he walked over and slowly opened the storage door. He disappeared inside for a few moments. I could his heartbeat pick up and then shuffling. Scott and Allison had appeared behind me when Derek, nearly in tears, emerged with a lifeless Erica.
Review?
