The streets of Beacon Hills were deserted this late at night. The only lights were the the streetlamps at regular intervals and the headlights of Lydia's little blue car. Lydia was driving, her boyfriend sitting in the passenger seat, and Skyler was in the back, twirling a strand of hair around her finger absentmindedly. She had been at Lydia's all day and was planning to stay over until Jackson had turned up and commandeered Lydia's attention. Apparently, it was 'date night', which meant that they were going to watch a movie while Lydia had her hands down Jackson's pants. It was not something she wanted to witness. Lydia was dropping her home on the way back from the the video store.
Skyler was halfheartedly listening in to their argument about which movie to pick, 'Hoosiers' or 'The Notebook'. Personally, she wouldn't pick either. She would have chosen something like 'Batman Begins' or 'The Big Lebowski', but Jackson refused to watch anything but sports movies and Lydia refused to watch anything but tacky romance flicks. They pulled into a parking space right outside the store, both of them still sniping at the other.
"'Hoosiers' is not only the best basketball movie ever made." Jackson was was using his 'I'm-putting-my-foot-down' voice, but it wasn't even close to working on Lydia. She just stared straight ahead, lips pursed, without any intention of giving up on 'The Notebook'.
"No," her voice was sweet, but scarily firm.
"It is the best sports movie ever made."
"No."
"It's got Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper in it."
"No."
Jackson's body was tense with barely restrained frustration, he too a yoga breath and released. His jaw was clenched to the point of his bones nearly bursting out of his skin. "Lydia, I swear to God you're gonna like it!" He had his shoulders raised slightly and his arms tucked in tight by his sides. Skyler smirked, it wasn't that often that Jackson didn't get his way, and she loved it when she was around to witness the occasion.
"No."
"I am not watching 'The Notebook' again!" Jackson snapped, his nostrils were flared and his eyebrows jumping all over the place. Lydia tilted her head to the side, and turned to face her boyfriend, raising her eyebrows and pouting even further. After about fifteen seconds, Skyler saw Jackson's body slump in defeat, and push open the door.
Skyler smirked and snorted to herself in amusement. She climbed between the two front seats, trying not to kick Lydia in her face with her studded leather ankle boots, because she had been hit by one of those shoes once and it had really, really hurt.
"What are you doing?" Lydia asked her, not bothering to look up from her phone.
"I'm gonna get a movie for tonight." Skyler stretched her legs and turned to look at the front window of the store. "Rebecca and Nick are having a movie and dinner night, so I am going to shut myself in my room and watch some shitty horror movies."
"You should get 'The Notebook'," Lydia sing-songed, still tapping away at her phone screen.
Skyler grinned at her friend's comment as she pushed the heavy door open just in time to see Jackson round one of the shelves and ask, "Can somebody help me find 'The Notebook'?"
She wandered over to the horror section, tapping her fingers off of the shelves as she passed them. One of the lights overhead was hanging down, a ladder left abandoned just underneath. She jumped in fright as a shrill noise pierced the air, and it took her a moment to realise that it was just the phone ringing and felt stupid.
"Hello?" Jackson called, craning his neck to try and find any employees. "Is anybody working here?"
Skyler flicked through the DVDs idly, trying to find something so low budget, it would make her laugh. Possession flicks, no. Vampires, nope. Serial killers stalking slutty, busty coeds and their borderline sex pest jock boyfriends. Nah. Werewolves...
She turned away, swallowing the lump in her throat. She now couldn't even look at the cover of 'An American Werewolf in London' without feeling like she was going to cry or vomit or both. Stiles had been calling an average of once an hour between the hours of ten in the morning until ten at night for the past three days. They really needed to talk to Stiles, Scott and Derek too, but mainly Stiles. However, for the past few days Skyler had barely worked up the nerve to leave her bedroom, let alone sit and have a rational discussion with two werewolves. She was skittish and jumpy, spooking at any unexpected noise or movement. What she had seen in the woods the night that she had found out about what Scott McCall and Derek Hale really were had terrified her beyond belief. For the first time ever, she had actually feared for her life, and that wasn't something she was going to get over anytime soon.
"You gotta be kidding me." Skyler spun around to see Jackson walking slowly through the shelves wearing his resting bitch face. She wandered over to stand next to him, holding 'Leprechaun 4: In Space' and 'Leprechaun: In the Hood', which were, in her opinion the best of the 'Leprechaun' franchise. She was looking at the cover of the movies when she walked into something solid and realised that Jackson had stopped walking and she had strolled straight into his back.
"What are you looking at?" She asked curiously, peering over his shoulder.
He pushed her behind him with his arm, keeping her hidden, pressed against his back. "Stay behind me, Skyler." He told her in a shaky voice, unusually protective.
"Jackson, what the hell is going on?" Her stomach started to twist painfully, anxiety rising up from the deepest parts of her psyche. She reached up and grasped his bicep, feeling oddly comforted when Jackson laid his hand over hers.
They moved forward at a shuffle, Skyler poking her head around Jackson's arm and trying to get a look at what Jackson had seen. She wished that she hadn't. There were a pair of feet poking out from behind one of the shelves. Skyler gagged heavily, turning her head to the side and feeling the bile rise in her throat. Jackson stepped slowly around the corner and stopped dead. There was a body lying on the floor. A dead body. An actual dead body with it's throat slashed open, blood dripping down his stiff body.
Skyler let out a wordless shriek, her pulse was roaring in her ears, entire body screaming at her to run but she couldn't. An icy fear was invading her stopping her from making any movements. Jackson began to stumble backwards, shoving her into the ladder. It clipped the edge of the light, taking the entire thing down, narrowly missing the two teenagers by a few precious inches. They practically fell into the main aisle, Skyler holding tight to Jackson in fear. She felt him turn, and his whole body began to shake violently, tremors running down his spine.
She copied his movements, moving her body to face the back of the store. Two shockingly familiar eyes watched her from out of the darkness. The creature was crouched on all fours, splayed out across the floor, lips drawn back in a snarl. Skyler let out a horrified whimper, shrinking as far into her jumper as possible. It was an odd moment to realise that the hoodie she was wearing was Stiles'. It was his maroon lacrosse jumper that he had left in her room last time he was over at her house. She felt comforted for a minute by the distinct Stiles smell that hovered on the material.
Jackson wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto the floor. She sat pressed up against his side, her breathing shallow and rapid. Jackson slowly stretched, poking his head around the corner. She could see him scan the store, then turn back to her.
"Whatever it is, it's not there anymore," Jackson whispered, his voice cracking and wavering. This was the first time she had ever seen his tough guy act drop. He put his hand on her back, pushing her in the opposite direction to the beast. "Go, now. We gotta go, before it comes back."
Skyler scurried forwards on her hands and knees, keeping as low to the ground as possible. She turned back to make sure Jackson was following her. He climbed to his knees, and knocked a handful of DVDs to the ground. The noise was like a gunshot in the silent store. There was a bang, and Sky jumped to her feet, brandishing the two DVD boxes she was still inexplicably holding as weapons. The shelves had been knocked, and were falling like dominoes towards them. She finally dropped her movies and dove out of the way of the shelves, rolling painfully onto the carpeted floor.
She came up into a crouch, spinning on her heel to see Jackson's legs trapped under the shelf they had been hiding behind a few moments ago. She crawled to the shelf, positioning herself into a squat, her hands under the shelf. Skyler took a deep breath, and attempted to stand, and bring the shelf with her. She could only manage to raise it an inch or two from where it lay and then dropped it back down, making Jackson groan in pain.
"Shit, shit," she whispered, "I am so sorry, I am so so sorry!"
"Just go and get help, for fuck's sake!" Jackson snarled as quietly as possible, but his voice was shaky.
Skyler duck-walked in the direction of the front door. She heard Jackson whimper, and turned to make sure he was alright, smacking her knee off of one of the fallen shelves and over-balancing. She landed on her ass and hissed in pain. She could see the creature from her position on the floor. It was crawling over the fallen shelves and DVD boxes, it's nails clicking lightly on the plastic. Skyler hesitated for a second, then army crawled underneath one of the shelves. She just about managed to fit under the shelf and dragged herself through to the other side, poking her head out just enough to see Jackson lying on the floor, completely still and facing away from her.
She could see the beast, hovering over Jackson, crouched low until his face was nearly pressed to the back of Jackson's head. It raised one clawed paw, and lowered it until it was just under the collar of Jackson's jacket. The claws curled, pulling the jacket down to uncover his neck. There was an oddish purple glow radiating from his skin. It retracted it's claws like it had been burned, and drew backwards until it had disappeared from sight. Skyler wriggled her way out from underneath the shelf. crawling over to Jackson on her hands and knees. The creature had vanished which made Sky uncomfortable, it could show up again at any second.
She wrapped her arms around Jackson's torso as best she could and tried to haul him out from the shelf. Neither of them spoke, they were too shaken at the moment to exchange even words of comfort. She had nearly managed to shift him an inch she heard a sharp intake of breath. She looked down at him and saw that he was watching a spot over her shoulder. She turned around as slowly as possible, dreading what she knew she would see. It was right behind her. How cliché.
It was so close she could feel it's hot breath and could nearly count the hairs around it's snout. She raised her eyes to meet the beast's, drawing herself up as much as she could while she was cowering on the floor. It leaned closer and closer to her until there was barely an inch between them. It's head tilted to the side like it was studying her. She would almost say that there was a hint of amusement in its eyes. With a final outward breath, the beast sprang forwards leaping once, twice and then right through the front window of the store. Both Jackson and Skyler's heads snapped to attention as they heard a piercing, terrified scream.
"Lydia!" The two of them roared at the exact same moment. Skyler looked back to him pleadingly, torn between the choice of who to help.
"Go." Jackson grunted out. "Make sure she's okay and call the cops."
He started trying to wiggle himself out from where he was trapped, and Skyler pushed herself to her feet. Her body felt like electricity was racing through her veins. She sprinted to the front of the store, jumping through the shattered window. Lydia was sitting in the front seat of her car, practically hyperventilating, shaking like a leaf in stupidly strong winds. Skyler pulled the car door open, crouching down beside her and resting her hand on Lydia's leg.
"Lyds?" She murmured gently, "Lyds? Are you okay?"
Lydia turned her head slowly, her mouth was hanging open slightly, eyes wide and unfocused. Sky moved her hands to Lydia's shoulders, shaking her gently. The redhead's eyes jerked over to her, jumping like she had been shocked.
"Skyler." Even her voice was trembling. "What was that?"
Skyler's heart broke. Lydia looked so terrified, falling apart in her seat. Skyler wanted to look into her eyes and say that it was nothing, that it was just Lydia's imagination and it would all be okay in the morning. She also wanted to tell Lydia the truth, or at least, what Skyler thought was the truth, that it was the Alpha. From what the boys had told her, she was fairly sure that this was the Alpha werewolf. It would explain the glowing eyes, the strength, size and why it was both a quadruped and bipedal. Or she could tell Lydia what would hopefully help her deal with what she had just witnessed.
"It was a mountain lion."
Lydia's face screwed up in disbelief. "It was NOT a mountain lion."
"Lydia," Skyler held the other girl's face in her hands, feeling like absolute shit. "I saw it up close, it was practically pressed against me. It. Was. A. Mountain. Lion."
Lydia looked almost betrayed. She pulled back from Sky's touch, curling back into her seat. Skyler could see that Lydia was fighting the urge to curl up into a ball and cry. Skyler stood, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing the Sheriff's station. She looked back to the car as the phone rang. Her strong, beautiful, brave best friend was huddled in a lump on the driver's seat, mascara running with silent tears, body trembling, falling apart. She knew that she was the worst friend in the world. She should have told Lydia the truth instead of lying to her face, but at least if Lydia truly believed that it was a mountain lion it would be in keeping with the story that was taking over the news at the moment. And this way, her boys would be protected from the hunters.
"Hello, Beacon Hills Sheriff Department, how may I direct your call?"
Just over twenty five minutes later, Skyler was sitting with Lydia in the open back of an ambulance. There were police cars, ambulances, even the coroner all around them. Both girls were wearing shock blankets even though Sky had insisted that she was fine and just wanted to go home, and Jackson was saying the exact same, just in a more forceful way.
"Why the hell can't I just go home?"
Skyler raised her head. She was sitting with her legs spread, elbows on knees, face buried in her hands. She had just sat through an EMT checking her over because she had apparently managed to cut her leg open on a nail sticking out of the shelf she had crawled underneath. They had just disinfected it and wrapped it in a bandage, telling her it would be better in two days at most, but they had acted like it was the end of the world. She also had a few superficial injuries, bumps, bruises and scrapes. When she looked up, she was met by the sight of Sheriff Stilinski being angrily berated by Jackson.
"I'm fine," Jackson snapped at him.
"I hear ya kid, but the EMT said you hit your head pretty hard," the Sheriff was explaining, his tone that of a man speaking to a child throwing a tantrum because they can't get what they want. Patient, yet firm. "They just wanna make sure you don't have a concussion."
"What part of 'I'm fine' are you having a problem grasping?" Jackson snarled, getting right into the Sheriff's face. "Okay, I wanna go home!"
Skyler could feel a muscle jumping in her jaw. How dare Jackson speak to him like that?! She threw off her shock blanket.
"And I understand that." The Sheriff tried to soothe Jackson unsuccessfully.
"No, you don't understand, which kind of blows my mind, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum wage rent-a-cop like you!" Jackson shoved himself into the Sheriff's personal space until they were practically nose to nose. "Okay, now I wanna go home!" Jackson screamed the last part.
"Jackson!"
The volume of Skyler's voice shocked everyone in the vicinity, including herself. She was tired and angry, and Jackson's behaviour towards the Sheriff had just poked her inner mama bear.
"I get that you want to go home, I really do. I'm probably the one that understands it the best," she snapped, advancing on him with a dangerous look on her face. "But you need to be checked out by medics so that you don't die, and give a statement so hopefully they can catch the animal that killed the man in there. Now, go and sit down, comfort your girlfriend and shut the fuck up!"
By the time she was finished, she was breathing heavily, chest to chest with Jackson. He stared down at her, looking at her like she had just smacked him in the face. He took a halting step back, then two. His eyebrows furrowed in irritation and he stepped back towards her opening his mouth as if to shout back at her. She squared her shoulders and prepared to face Jackson in a screaming match, when...
"Oh, woah, is that a dead body?!"
Sky would recognise that voice anywhere. Of course Stiles would be here. Of course this day could get worse than it already was. This was just fan-fucking-tastic. She turned to the front of the store and retched as she saw the coroner wheeling a gurney out of the doors. There was an arm dangling out from underneath the cover blanket.
"Everybody, back up," Sheriff Stilinski called, "Back up!"
"Oh, fuck," she moaned, pressing the heel of her hand against her forehead.
"Hey, hey, Skyler," the Sheriff asked concernedly, throwing an arm around her shoulders in a comforting manner. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay, I just feel a bit sick," she murmured, leaning into him. It felt nice to have a father figure, even if it only was for a few minutes every few days. Whenever she had been at Stiles' or ran into the Sheriff at the store, he had always treated her like a the daughter he had never had.
"Have you given your statement yet?"
"Yeah, the blond one over there," Sky pointed him out with a shaking finger,
"Well if the EMTs have checked you out, you're free to go." Skyler pulled away from the Sheriff, going to check on Jackson and Lydia, but he caught her arm, pulling her back to face him. "Listen kiddo, I know I don't have any right to lecture you or anything, but I think you should talk to Stiles."
Skyler broke eye contact, looking at the ground in embarrassment. If it was anyone else saying it to her, then she would have defended her choice to stop talking to Stiles' completely, but seeing as it was his dad, she wasn't sure what to say.
"Look, I'm not sure what's going on with you two, but since you stopped coming over he's been really down. He hasn't even been eating fourth helpings at dinner anymore," he told her with a smile. "He misses you, he keeps trying to get in touch with you, but..."
Skyler smirked at the ground, then raised her head to look at Stiles, who was hanging out of the passenger door of his father's patrol car. She stared at him for a second, taking in the dark circles under his eyes, the pale skin and the adoring look on his face as he watched Lydia in the ambulance. She moved her gaze to the Sheriff, ready to spout off some excuse about why they weren't speaking.
"Sheriff, I'm really sorry but I can't explain-"
"Skyler! Skyler! For fuck's sake, let me through!"
They both spun around to face the crowd. Rebecca was shoving her way through the police barrier, hitting people left and right with her cream purse. It struck Skyler as slightly odd at just how often Rebecca had been coming to her rescue in the past few days. One of the deputies grabbed Rebecca's arm as she passed. She spun quickly, whipping the man in her face with her auburn hair, and began to angrily smack him on and around the torso with her bag.
"It's okay!" Sheriff Stilinski shouted, trying to hold in his laughter at the short, fiery woman attacking a policeman with a Gucci bag. "Let her in!"
The second Rebecca was released, she sprinted forwards, her Ugg slippers falling off her feet. She tumbled inbetween the Sheriff and Skyler, nearly overbalancing and falling flat on her face. She grabbed Sky's shoulders, spinning her around so they were facing each other. Rebecca then surprised Skyler by throwing her arms around her and pulling her close. Sky tensed for a second, then hugged her back.
"What in the fuck happened to you?!" Rebecca asked, pulling back but keeping hold of Sky.
"It was an animal attack, a mountain lion," Skyler mumbled, looking down and shuffling her feet.
Rebecca removed one of her hands from Sky's shoulder and placed a finger under her chin, tilting it up and inspecting her face. The worried look on her face was enough to make Skyler's stomach churn in guilt. She felt awful for making her worry.
"Is she okay?" Rebecca demanded of he Sheriff, pulling her close and wrapping her arm around Sky's shoulders. "Can I bring her home now?"
"If you're happy that you've been taken care of, and given your statement," Sheriff Stilinski addressed Skyler, "Then you are free to go."
"Thanks, Sheriff," she muttered, Rebecca already pulling her towards the Hummer, which was parked haphazardly almost touching the police barrier. She felt something warm fall across her and realised that Rebecca had just covered her with her blue cardigan. They reached the edge of the crowd in silence, both trying to ignore the media flashbulbs and journalists screaming probing questions at her, Lydia and Jackson. Just as two policemen parted the barrier for them to pass, Skyler felt someone grab her arm. She turned, expecting someone shoving a microphone in her face, but was instead met by familiar brown eyes and pale face.
Stiles' expression was both worried and angry. His eyes were wide, brows furrowed, mouth set in a hard straight line. Even though she could still feel Rebecca holding onto her, it was like everything else had faded and it was just her and Stiles standing there. They stared at each other. And stared. Neither of them wanted to speak. That wasn't true, they both wanted to speak. Stiles wanted to cry when he saw her battered face, wanted to ask if she was alright, hold her close and comfort her. Skyler wanted to scream at him, demand to know why the Alpha was after them, hug him, cry on his shoulder. But neither of them did any of that.
"I'm fine." She whispered, never tearing her eyes away from his. His hand squeezed her upper arm and he leaned forward, opening his mouth like he was going to say something to her.
"Stiles! Get back in the car!"
Skyler took that opportunity to pull her arm away from Stiles, and follow Rebecca threw the crowd to the Hummer. She walked Skyler around to the passenger door, bundling her into the seat then slamming the door. A few seconds later, she pulled herself into the driver's seat immediately turning on the heating and the radio. There was silence for a few minutes as Rebecca eased the car out of the packed parking lot.
"You don't wanna talk about it, do you?"
"Not really, Becca." Skyler breathed out, bringing her knees up to her chest. "It was a mountain lion and I don't wanna talk about it, if that's okay."
"Of course it is," Rebecca ran one hand through her hair, breathing out heavily, "But if you ever do need to, please know that I'd listen to anything you need to say." She shoved one hand down into the door well, pulling out a paper bag and handing it to Skyler, "I got you this earlier, you mentioned before that this was the only one that you didn't have."
Skyler turned the small package over in her hand, opening it and pulling out the CD. It was 'In Utero'. The only Nirvana album that she didn't own. She had mentioned it in passing two weeks earlier, when her father had yelled at her for playing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' as loud as she could during breakfast. It made her feel like crying that Rebecca had remembered, gone out and bought the CD for her.
"Thank you." She reached over, laying her hand over one of Rebecca's. The woman looked over at her and smiled softly. It was then that Skyler realised what Rebecca was wearing. She had on her slippers, and a matching Snoopy tank top and shorts.
"I thought you and Nick were having a date night tonight." Sky asked, gesturing to her attire.
"No, uh, we were going to, but..." Rebecca trailed off, taking a deep breath, her hands clenching on the steering wheel. "He's going to New York tomorrow and he wanted to go out with his friends for a drink before he leaves."
"I'm sorry." She was so quiet that for a second, Rebecca wasn't sure if she had spoken at all. "He's a prick."
Rebecca snorted, but didn't correct her like she usually would. The rest of the journey was spent in silence, Rebecca shooting her furtive glances every few minutes and Skyler spinning the CD case between her fingers. The lights were on when they pulled up to the house, the front door was even open a crack. Rebecca jogged around and hovered by her side as Skyler climbed out of the Hummer. They walked to the door together, Skyler still tucked under Rebecca's arm. The house was comfortingly warm and Skyler shrugged off the cardigan, hanging it over the bannister.
"Do you want something to eat?" Rebecca asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "There's still some pasta left over from earlier."
"I'm not really hungry, but if it's okay," Skyler stood at the foot of the stairs, twisting her hands, feeling awkward at asking a favour of the older woman. "Could we watch a movie or something?"
Twenty minutes later, the two girls were sat on the sofa, wrapped in blankets. They were watching "When Harry Met Sally', Skyler's favourite romantic comedy. She was tired enough to fall asleep right then, but every time her eyes started to close, she saw the red eyes of the Alpha staring at her from the inside of her eyelids. She was resting on Rebecca's shoulder, snuggled under her arm. She pushed herself up for a second to get a drink, downing half a bottle of water just to have something to do.
"You know," she started, still not looking directly at her father's girlfriend, "I had two DVDs picked out when I was in the video store. They were really funny too. I really wanted to watch them tonight. I really wanted to-"
Skyler broke off as the full strain of the past few hours finally took it's toll on her and she let out a sob. Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, trying to stop her shoulders from shaking. She felt Rebecca move closer to her, pulling her close and letting Sky lean on her. She felt bad for a minute that she was getting tears all over Rebecca's top, but then she thought about the last few days. Seeing the Alpha, twice, getting attacked in a video store, the loss of her friendship with Scott and Derek, and the loss of whatever she had with Stiles. She thought about all of this, and cried. And cried.
