Chapter 10

I jog more regularly now. And with that I mean every day of the week. Sometimes Scott joins me. It helps a lot. I also think about texting Thomas but I don't know what to write so I don't. I´ll see him on the field on Thursday so it´s not that urgent anyway. Also Isaac and I start to get along a little bit better, probably because we have to live with each other which means family dinners and all those weird things. And he sometimes calls me with my right name. That's progress.

We don't talk about the party incident until Wednesday except for Melissa who keeps us informed on Stacys recovery. Stiles brings it on the table again. In school, at lunch. He sits down between Malia and me and puts his laptop onto the table with a determined expression. "Okay guys, I have decided that we can´t just sit around doing nothing. We have to do this old school style." The whole table groans and Lydia looks virtually pissed. "I hope that you are not talking about that bestiary!", she says warningly. "Of course I am talking about the bestiary! At least we should search for…I don't know…invisible homicidal mind controlling bastards."

He opens some file on his laptop and I lean over to get a better look. "Wow, that's impressive!", I say. "I mean, we had a bestiary in Germany too but this number of pages is extraordinary!" "Exactly!", Lydia agrees. "And that's why it´s a bad idea. I don't wanna read through all of that on my own once again!" "Lydia it´s not my fault that you are the only one who can read Latin around here, alright? I will keep you company and look at the pictures", Stiles says, waving his hands awkwardly around as he sometimes does.

Latin. I open my mouth for a sec, then I close it again. Those are a lot of pages! At the same time it´s maybe my fault that we have to do this in the first place. I can´t let Lydia do this alone.

"Actually she is not the only one who can read Latin", I sigh. They all turn towards me. The surprise isn't very flattering. "Hey, I lived in Germany after all!" "And Latin is kind of a witch language", Isaac adds with a nod. Stiles cuts us off before we can start to bicker. "Great, we can research in a trio then! Can you come over this evening, Joe?" "Why aren't you asking me too?", Lydia complains. "Because I count on you, Lyd, but Joe is still new. So?" "I don't know…can I borrow your motorbike?", I ask Scott. I secretly hope he will say no and spare me a night full of boring texts but Stiles doesn't give him a chance. "Of course he will! So that's settled. I will organize pizza."

There is no way to talk myself out of this. So I only drive home after school to take on something more comfortable because I am pretty sure that this is gonna get long and unnerving. As I go down into the living room to get Scotts keys I encounter Melissa and Isaac who are discussing living arrangements. Again. "I already organised a bed, we just have to get the stuff out of there and maybe paint the walls", Melissa tells him. "Are you sure you don't need the office?", Isaac asks like the millionth time. Melissa smiles. "I haven't used it since forever. Where are you going, Joe?" She looks up as I pick up the keys from the table. "To Stiles. He thinks he can solve our little mind controlling problem with reading. Could get late", I explain with a hint of grumpiness. Satisfyingly for me, Melissa actually looks like she´s sorry for me. "Okay…I hope you will have a little bit fun nevertheless." "Thank you. See you later." I am already out of the door as Isaac calls after me: "Drive safely." "Thanks for reminding me, Lahey", I answer sarcastically.

I am the last of us three who arrives at Stiles house and his father opens the door as I knock. "You´re Joanne, right? The…what exactly are you again?" "The witch", I answer with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Sheriff Stilinski." We shake hands and he lets me in, shows me to Stiles room. My mouth drops open as I take my first look into his room. "Yes…I am so sorry, Joe. If you feel the need to punch him I allow you to do so", Sheriff Stilinski apologizes for his son. The room is a mess of printed bestiary pages. Many printed bestiary pages. Lydia sits on the floor in the middle of them and already looks desperate. Stiles glares at his Dad. "Yeah, really funny, Dad. You can go now."

"Okay, is there any order to this chaos?", I ask Stiles as soon as we are alone. "Absolutely. Over there, at the desk, that's your pile. We will arrange them in four other piles. Absolutely not possible, not likely but possible, more likely and possible and very suspicious." "You could´nt have made it more complicated", I sigh while I get down where he showed me too. Damn, that pile is awfully huge. "What are you doing while we read?" "I will research some files I got from my dad. Maybe that girl wasn't the first victim of mind controlling in Beacon Hills." "That's actually not a bad idea", I admit surprised. "Well, thank you." "He´s usually the one of us who figures out stuff", Lydia explains, her eyes fixed on the paper in front of her. "Yeah…I´ll write that on my list", I mumble before I help myself to the first text. The great language of Latin. No wonder everybody hates it.

Many of the papers are out of the game after the first sentences. The Absolutely not possible pile grows and grows. The only distraction is the pizza Stiles orders after an hour, a brief visit from Malia who disappears quickly after she sees the work and a text from Scott.

From Scott:

Any progress?

To Scott:

If you mean with making me crazy,

Then yes. But with the invisible homicidal

Mind controlling bastard: no.

"I am pretty sure many of those beasts are already distinct", I break the busy silence as I put away an article about the Minotaur. "Maybe we are doing this the wrong way", Lydia mumbles, frowning. I turn around to her and raise my eyebrows. "What do you mean?" "Like you said, some of those creatures don't exist anymore. Some have changed over the years. What if this one has too? What if we don't find a creature like him in here because he has evolved?" Stiles and I exchange a look. "You mean like transformation?", Stiles asks. "Exactly. He could've found a way to build up some powers he thought more helpful than others. It happens all the time in evolution."

My hand sinks down. "That makes perfectly sense, Lydia, but it doesn't necessarily make the task at hand easier." She looks around the room with empty eyes. "Right. But maybe it helps us to understand him better." "How?" "Well it´s like when you are in a relationship and it fails because you just drift apart because of your character", Lydia starts. "And you try to change yourself because you want it to work again. But you can´t. It´s nearly impossible to transform what makes you you." "And you think it´s the same with those powers?", I press on. "I guess. If he made it, and he obviously has, it must have taken him a lot of will power. A very good reason to do it. And practice. A lot of practice on chosen victims."

"I am already looking through the files, Lydia", Stiles reminds her unnerved. "And I haven't found anything yet except for obviously very crazy people." "But what makes you think that he practiced in Beacon Hills?", Lydia wonders. "Joe came from Germany. Isaac came back from France. This little town isn't the only place in the world where freaky supernatural stuff happens."

Stiles falls silent as it dims on him. I sigh and lean back. Evolving. It could be nearly every creature then and he could´ve practiced in every town imaginable. "What do we do now?", I mumble, closing my eyes for a second and resting my head against Stiles bed because fatigue washes over me. "Scotts dad", Stiles says suddenly. "Scott has a dad?", I ask confused. "Yes, he´s with the FBI. Maybe he can help us to get those files, at least within a certain radius in America", Stiles suggests.

Lydia nods slowly and gets up. "Great plan. So we forget about the bestiary?" "For now", Stiles admits. "I´ll call Scott." He climbs out of his bed full of files to phone him in the bathroom. Lydia and I stay back. I stand up for the first time in hours and stretch my body before I go over to the board on the other side of the room. A brainstorming board. It´s depressingly empty. "Lydia?", I mutter. "Mh?" "Do you think we can find him before something bad happens?" She stays quiet for a moment. Then she says: "Do you want me to be honest? Because my banshee feeling tells me we won´t"