Grease Monkey

Chapter Eleven: I Am Phoenix


"Stupid… stupid… stupid…"

I had been muttering that to myself for about eight hours. Ever since Derek left and up to the point where I was getting ready to head to the school to take a look at Melissa's car. Why did I push him away? Because he was wearing my dead husband's shirt? I wear my dead husband's shirts! It's completely ludicrous. It was almost the anniversary of his death and I hadn't been with a guy since. Unless you count those few odd moments with Derek when I couldn't tell if he liked me or liked messing with my head. Ugh. Life. It sucks.

So, there I sat. Tapping a wrench against my forehead muttering, "Stupid… stupid… stupid…" Over and over and over again. I probably would've sat there all night if I wasn't so absurdly loyal to my friends. I promised Melissa McCall I would check out her car so check out her car I will! I threw the wrench I was abusing my head with into my toolbox and I went into my room to find something more appropriate to wear out into the cold.

Skimpy tank top and skimpy shorts were not gonna cut it. That decided, I tugged on a pair of sweatpants and I zipped myself up into a Victoria's Secret sweater. The only nice sweater I had! And the only thing in my closet that cost me more than 30$. When I was all bundled up I pulled on my hiking boots and headed out, giving Kipper a kiss as I left.

About half an hour later I was at the school watching a couple parents dragging their children through the front doors. I chuckled to myself. Suckers. I shook my head and got down to business. My blue eyes scanned the parking lot for the McCall family car. It was parked right out front. In previous situations such as these Melissa would leave the keys on top of one of the back tires. The problem was that it looked extremely shady, me hunched over checking the tires of a car people knew wasn't mine. Everyone in town knew I was a little zany so you can only assume what they were assuming.

So I found the keys where they usually were and used them to get into the car and pop the hood. My eyes glanced over every inch of the engine trying to find anything that was out of place. Besides a bit of rust there wasn't anything obviously wrong with it. I scratched the back of my head, 'Guess I'll have to try it out, see what ticks!' I thought, moving away from the front of the car, going to lean over the driver's seat and sticking the keys in the ignition.

There was this weird rattling sound each time I turned the key. Usually rattling meant a loose valve. I turned off the car and returned to peering under the hood. I caught sight of the valve still settling after the engine had been turned on then off. I expertly reached in with a small wrench and tightened it. After revving the engine again and no more unusual sounds to be heard, I packed away my tools and waited for Melissa and Scott to finish their meeting… not so secretly I hoped that they could at least drive me home for my services.

It was another ten minutes or so before I saw Melissa exiting the school with her phone placed firmly against her ear, "Scott, you need to call me right now." She said harshly into the receiver before hanging up.

I approached her, "What's going on?" I asked, causing her to jump.

"Oh, it's just you, Brooke." She sighed in relief, "Scott was supposed to be at this meeting with me but he never showed." She said, letting out an angry puff of air.

"I'm sure he's fine." I reasoned.

She started laughing, "He better be okay, because I'm going to kill him!"

"Melissa, that isn't necessary." I said jokingly as something in the distance caught my attention. It was that damn jack ass who put a rifle through Derek's car window. Well, it wasn't the same guy, but it was his ringleader.

He was talking into his cell phone. I trained my ears to hear better, "Allison, answering your cell phone will make determining the terms of your grounding much easier." He said in a cold, angry, fatherly tone, "You will call me back before your punishment reaches biblical proportions." He finished.

Behind him a woman approached, I could only assume it was the wife, "Kate hasn't heard from her either."

I was so concentrated on what they were saying I completely missed Melissa approaching them. I turned the werewolf off and ran to catch up with her, "You're not Allison's parents, are you?" She asked the couple, "I'm Scott's mom and I hate to say it but he's not answering his phone either." She explained. The man turned his attention to her, his eyes briefly settling on me. He recognized me. Good thing, too. Hope he'd get arrested for what he did.

"You're Scott's mother?" He asked almost rudely.

Melissa leveled him a look of disbelief, "Funny how you say that like it's an accusation." She returned in her usual sassy fashion.

"Well I wouldn't claim it as a source of pride since he basically kidnapped my daughter today." He said so viciously I almost slapped him.

"How do we know skipping school wasn't your daughter's idea?" I asked, my arms crossed tight against my chest, "I remember being her age, I remember wanting to do something reckless every now and then. Besides, she has a car. He doesn't."

The wife glared at me, "And who are you, exactly?"

I smiled ever-so sweetly at her, "I'm a family friend. And I'm the one who watched one of your husband's lackey's bust out a guy's window at the gas station the other day."

The old man leered at me. I stood my ground, "For your information my daughter…" He paused and looked behind us. I didn't have to look to know that Scott was there. Same pine, same Axe, same werewolf. Allison's dad sighed, "is right there." Everyone turned. Sure enough, Allison and Scott were nervously standing beside her car. Melissa approached her son and I wasn't far behind her.

"Where, exactly, have you been?" She asked, her arms crossed.

Scott tried to speak gently, "Nowhere, mom…"

"Nowhere meaning 'not at school'?" She continued to ask.

He looked desperate of saving. His brown eyes darting from Allison to me. I could only shrug. I wasn't getting in her way. No one in their right mind got in Melissa McCall's way. Finally, Scott admitted, "Kinda…?"

Next to him, Allison pitched in, "It's not his fault." She explained, "It's my birthday and we were just-"

"Allison." Her father interrupted. Uncomfortably close to me, he was. I sort of wanted to stomp on his foot… for good measure, "In the car." He commanded, motioning to her vehicle. That's when someone screamed.

The Argent family problems were momentarily forgotten as we all frantically looked for the source or the cause of the screaming. Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary so I started sniffing at the air as subtly as I possibly could. The only unusual smell I could pick out of the crowd was the burning flesh. A good indicator that the Alpha was near.

I grabbed Scott by the arm and pulled him away from everyone, "He's here."

He arched a confused brow at me, "Who's here?"

"God." I groaned, "The Alpha, you ninny!" He made a noise of understanding and we proceeded to scan the area as frightened parents and children practically dove into their cars. I'll admit it was hard to see. Hard to tell what could be a vicious homicidal werewolf from the dozens of people running around like chickens with their heads cut off!

Scott started walking out into the parking lot, "What do we do?" He asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I lamented.

After a few more seconds of searching, we finally caught sight of the thing. It was crouched low, hiding behind a car. Scott locked onto it, his eyes turning gold. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't, but Allison was venturing farther away from her werewolf hunter daddy: a good person to be beside during a possible werewolf attack! Not only was she away from her dad, she was drifting into traffic. I nudged Scott and pointed to her, "Allison!" He yelled as he ran towards her.

He successfully got her out of the way so I could return my attention to the more important task at hand. The Alpha was on the move, catching the eye of the Sheriff, "Move," He ordered those around him, "move!" He began pushing people out of the way only to have a car back right into him.

"Shit!" I swore. I would've gone to the Sheriff but I needed to stop that thing from hurting anyone else. I started to chase after it only to have my attempts thwarted by Allison's dad. His gone went of twice, burying two bullets into the flesh of… a mountain lion. It was a mountain lion, not the Alpha. The headless chickens stopped running about frantically and started to close in on the poor animal.

No one said a word. They just looked at the thing that they believed had caused so much harm. Scott and I both knew that it was just an innocent bystander in a sociopath's master plan. I approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder, before heading home. I didn't want to stick around. But, for good measure, I sniffed at the air. Still the smell of burning flesh lingered. The Alpha was close. Probably got off knowing that the people of Beacon Hills thought they were safe. I didn't particularly care.

I just wanted to go home and go to bed.

But is my life ever that simple? Of course, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was dreaming. Always with the god damn dreams.

I dreamt of myself. Sitting with my legs crossed on my bed I was stitching up a pair of disintegrating converse. A reoccurring ritual. As I stitched and sowed, I didn't notice the lanky figure in my doorway. It was the man with the Chestnut hair but his face was now grotesque and deformed instead of smooth and handsome. He looked upon me with a curious eye. It disturbed me.

I looked up from my sowing, "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked.

He chuckled, "Just checking up on you."

"Why?"

He shrugged with a weird smile on his face, "I want you to feel my pain."

I directed an incredulous look at him, "Excuse me?"

Slowly, he moved towards me. Only when he was right in front of me did he say, "I want you to know the pain that I felt." He said, reaching his hand up towards my face. His rough skin brushed across my check and suddenly my room was up in flames and he was gone.

I shot up out of bed, relieved that it was only another god damn nightmare… but it wasn't. My room was actually on fire. And, by the status of my almost-burned-to-a-crisp bed, I'd say the fire had been roaring for some time.

Frantically I threw myself off my bed, cautious to avoid the flames, as I extinguished my shirt. There wasn't enough carpet that wasn't on fire for me to safely escape. I could barely move without catching something on fire! But… I had to get out. I shook my head of my inhibitions, held my breath, and charged out of my room. I cursed quietly to myself at the tenderness of my feet. Luckily they hadn't actually caught fire.

"Kipper!" I called out, ending in a cough. My throat was bone dry; I hadn't noticed it earlier. And if that wasn't enough, my eyes were stinging like mad and I needed to find an itty bitty Jack Russell-Beagle terrier when I was incapable of seeing ten inches in front of my face. And why the hell wasn't the fire alarm going off?

There wasn't time for me to worry about that. I called for Kipper one more time. His whining could be heard from the couch. Knowing him, he was under it. Seeing as there was no way around the coffee table I just picked it up like it was nothing and threw it towards the front door. With that out of the way I dove down to the floor. I could see Kipper trembling back against the wall. His ears were pressed flat and his whining could practically break your heart.

He clearly wasn't moving. Usually when I needed to coax him out from under the couch I'd lay out his favourite blanket and he'd just come bounding out. I didn't have time to find the goddamn thing, "Come on, baby. It's okay!" I cooed. He didn't budge. Guess I'd have to improvise the blanket. I yanked off my shirt and beckoned him towards it. Hesitantly he started to move in my general direction. Once he was within arm's reach I yanked him out and wrapped him up in the cloth. As I stood to run I found myself hacking profusely. Being a werewolf wasn't enough to save me from the flames. So I guess I'd have to be my own saviour.

I tucked my chin to my chest, held my breath, and barreled at the back door. It didn't give way easily but I managed to break it down after I took my foot and put it through the door handle. Ignoring the splinters I ran outside and headed straight for the tree line. Me being so exhausted from the whole ordeal I planted my back against a large oak and slid all the way to the ground. In my arms, Kipper was wiggling about and looking up at me with his big eyes… it was like he was trying to warn me.

"What is it?" I asked.

He looked back towards the house. A black silhouette stood against the inferno and was approaching us slowly. As it moved, it started to change. From a man to… something I couldn't describe. All I knew is that it made my skin crawl.

Deep in my subconscious I could hear something growling, "Do you feel it? Do you feel my pain?!"

"Holy shit!" I cursed. Before I even knew what I was doing I was scrambling to my feet and running through the woods, "You seriously need to get a life!" I yelled towards the night sky. The thing growled in response.

Weaving in and out of the trees would've been a piece of cake any other day. But my lungs were full of smoke and I was significantly handicapped. I wasn't moving nearly as fast as I should've been. And I have no idea where I was going. I just kept running, despite my burning lungs and legs. Every now and then I'd clip a tree; scratching up my arm pretty badly. Honestly, if my night couldn't get any worse, I ran right into a boulder. I fell backwards, landing painfully on my ass.

"What the hell are you doing out here?"

I rubbed my eyes before squinting up at the talking boulder. It was Derek, his arms crossed and his eyes questioning. I waved my hand flippantly, "Running from the Alpha, again." I wheezed.

My physical restrictions must've caught his attention because he was eye level with me in seconds, "You're hurt?" He asked.

I nodded, "House caught fire and I ran into a few trees."

With a slightly worried expression he reached for my hand and helped me stand, "Get inside and wait there until I get back." He commanded before running back towards my house. I wasn't in any position to object so I turned and wandered into Derek's ramshackle house. I had no idea I was even at his place. Guess it was the luck of the draw. Once inside, Kipper jumped from my arms and I stumbled towards what looked like a couch. It wasn't long before my knees gave way. I collapsed onto the couch but my knees didn't quite go far enough. So I just leaned against it as Kipper started licking my burned feet. I'll admit, that made them feel better.


Author's Note: Another chapter, kind of short. Sorry :/ but this is pretty much filler. Things will hopefully pick up in the next installment. Perhaps more kisses? :O Who knows. Depends on what I'm in the mood for. xoxo, Momma Love