Chapter 13

"Off, off with your head. Dance, dance 'till you're dead. Heads will roll, heads will roll, heads will roll on the floor."

Erica's watchful eyes studied the crowd, looking back and forth between the regular party-goers and Isaac so that she could give him a signal if she spotted Jackson. She looked for anything out of the ordinary, and then she noticed how one person from the back seemed to be wading straight through the crowd. Bingo. Isaac saw the look on her face and flicked his head to the left to see Jackson making his way to the front of the room.

"Show time." He said, pulling Carmen with him. Once they were close enough to Jackson she was the one to walk up to him with Isaac's hand still holding onto her own. She traced her fingers down the back of Jackson's head and neck, making him turn around to face her. Her chest was thumping but she promised herself that she would stay calm. Her mind flashed back to that first day when she had met him and she knew she was the one in control now.

"Wanna dance?" She whispered softly, brushing her lips against his ear. He seemed to be in a trance of his own, but that wasn't going to deter her. She batted her eyelashes at him and pressed her body up against his, feeling his fingers dig into her hip bones. Exactly the way Issac's always did. He pulled her into him but it was suddenly countered by the feeling of her boyfriend pulling her backwards into his own body. His hand slid to her stomach where he felt her hand on his. She was absolutely terrified and he could feel it. Jackson got closer to her and she kept staring into his eyes, trying to lull him in as much as possible. She kept her hand on the back of his neck and tried as hard as she could to not lose contact with his bare skin. She could do this. She would be worth more than what people took her for.

She could feel the growl rising in Isaac's chest but she pulled him closer to her and he quieted down. Then Jackson's strong hands slid down from her hip bones and she could feel them resting on her ass. His mouth dove in and hungrily kissed her neck and her jaw, and an incredible heat grew in her stomach as she felt his teeth drag across her sensitive skin. She gasped in and let out a moan, suddenly losing herself and breaking her concentration. The moment those sounds left her mouth, Isaac's insides twisted with rage as his possessive instincts begged to be unleashed. She was his and only his. It was supposed to be him leaving the love bites on her neck. It was supposed to be him touching her like that. It was supposed to be him making her heart beat faster and making her chest heave for breath. Nobody else.

He grit his teeth, trying to tell himself to hold it together but he was about to lose it. He reached behind his back and gripped tightly onto the syringe, wishing that he could make it as painful for Jackson as humanly possible. He wanted him to suffer. He slowly began to raise his arm but he felt the painful sensation of something sharp digging into his other hand. Carmen had pressed her nails so hard into the back of his palm that he was starting to bleed. Her lips were trembling and she was trying her best to stay concentrated but she could smell the kanima on Jackson. It was his pheromones again. Her fingers were shaking and Isaac knew that something was wrong. His reflexes kicked in and he yanked her down to the floor as Jackson's claws swiped the air where she had just been.

As he fell to the concrete ground, the syringe slipped out of his hand and slid across the floor. "You're fine? Can you move? Tell me you can move." His panicked voice rattled off quickly. She shoved him off her and tried her best to catch her breath.

"GO!" She screamed, pushing him away when he tried to move closer to her to see if she was okay. Jackson was moving faster now. If Isaac didn't get there in time it would be too late. He tripped over his feet and struggled to grab the syringe which was continually getting kicked around. Finally he reached out and gripped it tightly, pulling himself up and jabbing the needle into Jackson's neck, wrapping his fingers around the trigger. The sedative pushed through into his veins and Isaac grunted as Jackson passed out on top of him, leaving nothing but dead weight.

"And you're sure you're okay?" Isaac raised one of his eyebrows, running the pads of his fingers over a patch of scraped skin on Carmen's palm. She breathed in sharply and yanked her hand away, leaving him with a hurt look on his face. She didn't want him to worry about her.

"My hands are going to look so ugly. Nobody's going to want me to touch them for the rest of my life." She mumbled, wincing whenever her brother pulled yet another tiny piece of bloody glass out of her skin with his tweezers. They were sitting in a musty but nevertheless quiet motel room, and she sat on the edge of the bed while he sat in a chair across from her so he could fix up her hands. She just had the feeling in her chest that she would never feel safe again. There was a fear planted in the back her mind that she would always have to keep running because there would always be a threat.

"If you stop moving then I'll get everything out and you won't scar." Troy gripped her wrist tighter, making her cringe. "This isn't my first rodeo. I know what I'm doing so stop making me feel like I'm a soccer mom armed with a couple of ice-packs."

"What happened to you?" Stiles asked, noticing the patches of red on her skin.

"Nothing. I'm fine." She replied, wiping the blood on her dark shorts. All she had to do was wait for it to clot and then everything would be okay. He could tell that she didn't want to talk about it so he looked over at Isaac who was glowering at Jackson's sedated body. He walked over and flicked his wrist, releasing his claws. Before he could get close enough, Jackson's arm sprung out and grabbed Isaac's wrist with a vice grip. Carmen's breath got caught in her throat and she could feel her insides burning up at the sight of him in so much pain. He yelled out in torment and tightened his face, feeling his bones crack. The more the grip twisted the more he tried to desperately remove Jackson's fingers from him. He cried out in agony and ripped himself away, holding his slackened hand. Stiles and Carmen tried to tend to him but he shook his head.

"It's already healing. I can feel it, don't worry about me." He breathed in and out deeply, shutting his eyes. He held his wrist against his leg, rocking back and forth to ease the pain. He could feel his bones binding back together and some of the sting started to ebb away but it still hurt pretty badly. He felt a warm hand against the back of his neck and immediately he let go of his wrist, feeling nothing but ecstasy coursing through his body.

"Seriously, though. I'm never gonna get over how cool that is." Stiles shook his head and chuckled, watching as the strawberry blonde-haired girl massaged her fingertips around the back of her boyfriend's neck.

"I thought the ketamine was supposed to put him out..." Isaac mumbled, looking up at her.

"You're lucky he didn't do more to you." She said softly, focusing on helping him take away the pain. "Let's just hope that whoever is controlling him decided to show up tonight."

"Shit." Stiles jumped backwards and pushed himself up against the metal wall behind him. The three of them stared at Jackson who stared back at them with death written in his eyes.

"I'm here. I'm right here with you." A voice left his mouth but it sounded nothing like him. It was cold and robotic, like somebody was speaking right through him. Using him as a puppet. Stiles walked towards him and Carmen tried to hold him back but he ignored her and lowered himself to eye level.

"Jackson...? Is that you...?" His voice cracked and he swallowed, telling himself to stay calm.

"Us. We're all here."

"Get behind me." Isaac stood up and he backed her against the wall.

"Are you the one killing people?" Stiles took a deep breath in, searching for a sign that could help him make sense of what was going on.

"We're the ones killing murderers." Jackson's mouth and eyes were starting to twitch every-so slightly but it was more than enough to make Stiles back away a little bit.

"So all the people you've killed so far—"

"Deserved it."

He thought back to the beastiary. The kanima killed murderers and only murderers. Anything else warranted consequences. "See, we've got a little rulebook that says you only go after murderers."

"Anything can break if enough pressure is applied."

"So the people you're killing are all murderers then?" Somehow he found that a little difficult to believe.

"All. Each. And every one of them." The voice filled with unbridled rage, and Jackson's eyes were beginning to slowly roll into the back of his head.

"Then who did they murder?" Stiles's voice was cold and calculating, displaying his courage under situations that called for it but were never nurturing towards it.

"Me." A shocked looked covered the faces of everybody in the room. What was that supposed to mean? The master was talking through Jackson and the master had to be alive. None of this made any sense. "They murdered me!" Stiles looked back towards Isaac but the look on his face had transformed from shock to fear. Carmen ran to Stiles and pulled him up off the ground as Jackson's body began to shudder and twist as the scales of the kanima covered his body.

"GET OUT!" Isaac yelled, pushing all of them out of the door as the scream of the kanima echoed in their ears. They huddled closely together against the metal door and heard nothing but silence for a few seconds, like they were the only people around. They started to breathe a little easier thinking that it was over, but that wasn't to be true.

The kanima's scaly body ripped through the wall and ran off into the night with its tail slithering behind it. Somebody was going to die tonight and nobody could stop it from happening.

"Okay! You guys go find Erica and I'll see if I can find Scott." Stiles said to the couple, running out the door of the warehouse.

Immediately Isaac turned to his girlfriend and she could tell that he was upset about something. "When we were back there...why wouldn't you let me touch you?" He was still confused about her pulling her hand away from him.

"It just hurt, that's all." She lied right through her teeth and he could tell. She moved her head around and tried to scan the crowd to see if she could find Erica anywhere. "I really don't think we should talk about this now."

"Why won't you tell me?" The anguish in his voice was easily detectable. He was only trying to care about her. There was nothing wrong with that. He was worried.

"Later, Isaac." She shook her head, feeling relief wash over her once she saw Erica in the crowd. That was a first. She pulled him along with her but he dragged his heels. "There's a murderous lizard running around this place and you want to talk about why I wouldn't let you fucking touch my hand!?" She hissed at him, yanking his arm as hard as she could. "We can talk about it later, I promise. Just not now."

Later. Somehow he felt like she'd never tell him. Every time he had tried to ask about her past she brushed it off like it was nothing and the subject was never brought up again. He didn't know what she had been through but he wanted to. He wanted to understand her more. He wanted to show her that he cared.

Once Erica spotted them, she ran up to them out of breath. "I saw it. I saw the blood...the body...everything. Somebody's already dead." Her face ran pale and she tried to push the image out of her mind but it was something she'd be seeing for the rest of her life. "I thought Stiles was with you guys?"

"He ran out to go find Scott. We should go too." Carmen said, leading them all out the door. They saw Stiles and Derek by the Jeep and they started to walk towards them, but Isaac's nose twitched and he put his arm out in front of both the girls. He kneeled down and saw a trail of black powder, running along the length of the building. Whenever his fingers moved towards it they started to burn so he backed away as far as possible.

Sheer joy covered Stiles's face as he bounced up and down on his toes. "Oh my God it works!" Even after all the events that had just transpired he still managed to be excited. "I did it! Look at what I did! It works!" He squealed at Derek who rolled his eyes. He was so proud that he had finally been able to do something that mattered. He didn't screw up.

Too bad the kanima was inside of the circle along with Erica, Carmen, and Isaac.

"Yo! Carm, move out here and admire this!" Stiles gestured to her. The smile dropped off his face when she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "What is it?"

"Obviously the girl who can control emotions isn't a supernatural being and can totally cross this line of mountain ash!" She snapped sarcastically. Stiles scoffed at her. At least the circle still worked. She started chewing on her nails and she paced around, trying to figure out what the next move would be. Jackson was still running amok and there was no telling what he'd do next. They still had no idea who was controlling him. She heard a high-pitched yelp that caught her attention and she looked up to see Derek grabbing Stiles by the shirt.

"Break it!" He yelled with urgency in his voice. "Scott's dying! Break it now!" He demanded, looking at the circle.

"What do you mean he's dying!? How do you know!?" The only thing he had done right. And it was about to go down the drain.

"I JUST KNOW, OKAY?! BREAK THE DAMN CIRCLE!"

Stiles knelt down and broke the trail of mountain ash apart. He sighed deeply as he looked at his handiwork gone to waste. Derek rushed away, leaving everybody very scared and very confused. "Do you think Jackson's got Scott?" Stiles asked, running over to the group on the other side of the circle.

"No," Erica shook her head, shutting her eyes tightly. Her body was still shaking.

"What? Why not?"

"Because the kanima already killed tonight."

This chapter's song was "Heads Will Roll" by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

OKAY. RAVE. OVER. It was a little confusing to write because I had to work it out the way I wanted but I'm glad that I didn't go completely according to the episode and I tried to be original with it. Also: I got a question asking why Carmen hears voices in her head. That ties into the panic attack/episode she had back in Chapter 8 after the kanima screeched. You guys will find out what it all means in the next chapter!