Inujuju712 – Oh, don't worry. You'll get more hints. If only you know where to find them. Muahaha.
emily – Thanks for jumping in this late in the show! Glad you like it. (:
Enecs – Ooh, that would be a nice twist. Unfortunately, that's not correct. But I like the way you think. Ha! (:
baby Cyclopes – Here it is!
The Darkest Powers series belongs to Kelley Armstrong.
"Did you guys find anything out?" I asked as Tori and Simon came in together. Well, together wasn't technically correct. They were obviously trying to beat the other in without looking like they were in the middle of an immature competition. I wasn't sure if they succeeded. Derek, who was sitting on the couch, snorted. I ripped open another frozen dinner and put it in the microwave, taking the warmed-up one out. I stirred it with a fork and motioned for Derek to the table to eat.
"Not much," Simon answered, running a hand over his limp blonde spikes. "The neighbors weren't really willing to talk. They seemed a little scared, from what I gathered." He said, slipping into a seat at the table. Derek collected his dinner and sat across from him.
"That's all?" He asked, stirring the food a little more. I tried to get it evenly lukewarm, but even then, it looked pretty gross. It was supposed to be lasagna, but it didn't look like any lasagna I'd had. Still, it was better than nothing. We didn't have any true groceries – only frozen meals and a bruised fruits we picked up for cheap.
"There are four other people, aside from us, John, and Abigail. Only two of them opened their doors, and they didn't want to tell me much of anything." He replied. "Sarah told me that Chelsea was around a lot. Apparently, she and Abigail lived out here, though Sarah wasn't sure what her powers were, if she had any. And Bruce told me that if I came around knocking on his door again, he'd put a bullet through my forehead. So yeah, that's all."
Tori shriveled her nose up at the food I put in front of Simon. "They're big boys, Chloe." She said sharply. "They can feed themselves."
"Leave her alone, Tori." Simon said, giving her a short glare. He turned to smile at me. "Thanks," he said. I just gave him a smile back and handed him a fork. I put a third frozen lasagna lump in the microwave and lifted up another, still in its box, to see if Tori wanted any. She shook her head, but I tossed her an apple from the bowl on the counter.
Tori caught it easily and peeled off the sticker. "I got a little bit from Abigail," she said. "She didn't tell me much about herself or Chelsea. She didn't mention any abilities, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have them." She bit into the apple and leaned against the table. "She did tell me, though, that she had the feeling that Chelsea was killed by someone she knew, I'm guessing someone around here. Apparently, the dead girl wanted to get out of the compound and find others 'like her,'" Tori said, using air quotes. "Some people hated her for it, because they were sure that she was going to lead Cabals back here." Tori relayed. "But that's the only stuff remotely useful."
Derek and I looked at each other. We'd talked about Chelsea's death being a result of someone trying to protect themselves. It looked like that was the most plausible reason. But that still left us with five suspects – all the neighbors, including John. I hoped that we could've cut down on the number of suspects, but in the end, they were all still dangerous.
Derek shifted a little in his seat. "Ezekiel and Maggie didn't have much to say about her. Abigail is Maggie's daughter. They only said that it was a shame that she'd been killed. Ezekiel said that she was curious and adventurous, and that he thinks it got her back in the end." He didn't tell them about the cemetery, but it wasn't really important. I'd only seen Chelsea's headstone.
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"I talk to John," Derek said. We all stopped to look at him. Simon had his fork halfway to his mouth. As he sat there, the lasagna slid off and plopped back into the plastic bowl it came in. Derek shoveled another bite into his mouth, ignoring his brother.
"I don't think that's a good idea," I said finally. And it wasn't. John was cleverer than we gave him credit for. Derek was practically a genius, but John had experience on his side. And, I realized, he had nothing to lose. He was alone, and didn't seem to care much for anything else here.
Derek glanced up at me. His eyes were burning, but not in the way of a Change, or even because of emotion. They looked darker. Suddenly, I lost my appetite. Derek didn't look at me like that often, and when he did, I was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was different. So many people had pointed it out to me, and I always told them that I understood, but I realized now that I didn't. For the first time, I realized how scary he could be. "It may not be your idea of a good idea," he snapped, "but last time I told you something was a bad idea you didn't listen to me."
"Whoa," Tori said. "Unnecessary." She gave him a dark glare and bit into the apple.
Derek ignored her. "Sorry," he said softly, putting his hand on my knee under the table. I could see the regret in his eyes. But there was worry there, too. Next, he would be telling me that he was dangerous, and that maybe I should get away while I could. It was why he was so distant when we first got here, and if we weren't careful, he was going to do it again. "I'm just stressed. I'm positive that John knows that we're on to him, and he's either going to try to disappear or he's going to retaliate against us."
"Here we go again," Tori deadpanned. "Poor little Chloe certainly can't take care of herself. We need a big, gruesome wolf-boy to protect her." This time, I glared at Tori. Sometimes I couldn't tell if she was just making a dig at Derek because she knew he hated when she teased him about his emotions for me, or if she was trying to get at the both of us, implying that I needed Derek. I would be the first to admit that I needed Derek sometimes. I wasn't completely incompetent. "What?" She asked innocently.
"Stay out of it, Tori." Simon piped up, pushing the remainder of his dinner away from him. It looked like he ate as much of it as he could manage.
"Only if you do," Tori replied sweetly. She threw her half-eaten apple into the trashcan and stood up, one hundred percent of the haughty queen she thought she was at the Lyle House. I was beginning to think that she reverted back to her nasty side whenever she was stressed, like it was some sort of default. "I'm sick of this. Let's get out of here already."
Derek stabbed his fork into his plate. "We can't," I said. "I promised."
"Promised who?" Tori asked, turning sharply. Her fingertips weren't crackling with blue energy yet, but I felt like I could see an energy cloud around her.
"Chelsea," I replied. I didn't delve into the fact that we went to the family cemetery. Tori would just stare at me, because she'd been there last time I was in a cemetery and nearly made every corpse into one of my own personal soldiers. She probably wouldn't admit it, but I knew that she feared the fact that I reanimated the dead.
"She's dead, Chloe." Tori said. "What, do you think that you're going to solve every murder in the entire world?" Her voice was snide, but I could hear the worry underneath. As much as she probably would've hated to admit it, we were starting to learn about what made Tori who she was. The little tics and faces that we used to roll our eyes at were slowly starting to make sense. I realized, even in that moment of her messing with me, that I trusted Tori. She might not be the nicest person, but she would fight for me. Probably.
"Yes." I said meekly. It was the only thing I could think to say.
Tori snorted. "The girl's dead, just like Liz is. I didn't see you going full force to avenge Liz. And you actually talked to her when she was alive."
"Enough," Simon said, scooting back from his seat. I'd only seen Simon truly angry twice, the first time when he accused me of making up stories about Derek being violent, the second time when he realized that I loved someone else while we were on our ice cream date. Today marked the third time. Simon wasn't as scary as Derek, but he had a different kind of fire in his eyes.
"What are you going to do about it?" Tori hissed. "Use a knock-back spell?"
"Stop!" I cried out before they could really get at it. "Just, stop it, okay?" Tori and Simon both turned to look at me. "We're all stressed out, but we've got to figure this out. Any supernatural that walks through here is in danger. We'll figure it out, and we'll leave. We only have like, seven suspects." I exclaimed. I'd seen enough investigative shows to know that seven wasn't a bad number. It wasn't the best, but at least it was controlled.
Tori turned her nose up. "Fine. But I'm telling you, the sooner we get out of here, the better. I'm not going down with you guys." She headed to her room and slammed the door shut behind her with enough force that the cabinets in the kitchen shuddered.
Simon let out a breath that he'd obviously been holding. I knew that he liked to act like he was all macho, but we all knew that if it came to a magic fight between him and Tori, she'd have the upper hand. The experiment had worked on him, making it harder for him to use his abilities. They'd worked opposite on her, multiplying her powers. Tori could, without a doubt, kick Simon's butt. I didn't tell that to him though, since he'd stood up on my behalf.
I turned to thank him, but stopped when I saw Derek standing up. He came up to me, his hand wrapped around my upper arm, and pressed his lips to my temple, only for a second. "I'll be back. Don't wait up for me."
And then he was gone.
# # #
"Where do you think he went?" I asked Simon. We'd decided to work on our book while we had nothing else to do. Tori had only come out of her room to go to the bathroom, but other than that, she'd stayed locked away, completely silent. Derek had left hours ago. He told us not to wait up for him, but it was getting closer and closer to midnight. I didn't know where the day had gone; we'd spent the majority of it talking to Ezekiel and Maggie and trying to plan our next move without alerting Kit.
Simon shrugged. "Well, we know he went to go talk to John. I don't know what's taking him long, but there's probably a good reason behind it." He placed a colored pencil to the side and reached for the next one, eyeing it in contrast with a few others before placing it to the page. I stayed silent, sitting on the couch with a notepad and a pen, trying to write. I felt like there was a mental block. I just didn't have my heart in it.
When I didn't reply, Simon turned around to look at me. He'd taken up a nearly permanent residence at the coffee table. He sat on the ground and leaned against the couch, his back curved as he drew. At night, he climbed up onto the couch with a nest of blankets and pillows. The first few days, he tried to clean up the couch so we could sit on it, but he didn't bother anymore. We all just sat on it whenever we felt like it.
"He'll be fine," Simon said with the conviction that I wished I felt. "You know how he is. He goes off, because he's such a big bad wolf," he smiled at his own lame joke, "but he always comes back in the end. If there's anything that I'm sure of, I know he'll come back for you." His eyes looked a little downcast at that. Maybe he felt like he'd been pushed to the side, just for me. Maybe he felt like he didn't matter anymore, which, when it came to Derek, was as far from the truth as he could get.
"Did I ever tell you that he told me that he only brought me along because he needed a damsel in distress to get you to leave?" I said. Without waiting for him to answer, I said, "Because he did. He wanted you to get out of the Lyle House, but he thought he belonged there. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if he wished we were back there, taking those stupid pills and sitting through those therapy sessions." I hadn't realized it was true until I said it out loud. The majority of the time, I was confident with the fact that Derek was glad to be out of there, to be with me, and Simon, and his dad. Even Tori. But there was a small part of me that remembered that if he hadn't begun to Change that night, there was a possibility that Simon and I would've gotten out and left him there. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him, I realized. We wouldn't have done what we did. We might've been dead.
Simon shrugged. "We're his pack," he said simply. "And I don't mind being a member of it." He shot me a genuine smile. He had known all along what Derek was. The two of them were so close, I thought. Derek would do anything to keep Simon safe, and Simon would do anything to protect Derek.
"Me neither," I said softly. I cast a glance at Tori's door. Whether she liked it or not, she was a part of the pack, too. I figured she probably liked it enough, or else she would've been gone. She tried to leave me once, but didn't get far. She'd called the man she thought was her biological father to come get her, and he'd called her psycho witch mother. We only had each other.
Simon turned back to his sketchpad and continued to draw. I chewed on my thumbnail for a moment, then put my pen to the page and started to write.
# # #
When I opened my eyes, it was dark. I blinked, but it didn't go away. "Chloe," Derek said softly. I turned my face to the sound of his voice. His nose skimmed over my cheek. I sucked in a breath. I was suddenly aware of the pressure of his weight on the bed. He had to be leaning over me, I realized. "Chloe," he whispered a little more urgently.
"What?" I murmured. The longer I stared into the dark, the easier it was to see vague outlines. I blinked a few times. Now I could just barely make out the curve of his shoulders. "John knows. We've got to get out of here." Before I could complain, he said, "We're not going far. We're just going to go to one of the other cabins, the ones without our names on them. Come on." His hands were gentle but rough at the same time as he pulled on my hands.
If he hadn't woken me up in the middle of the night, I'd be running to gather our things. We needed all of our clothes, our food, and anything else that we needed. By the sound of it, we'd be holing up in there for at least a little while. We still needed to find things out, but if Derek felt like we weren't safe, it was time to move. Moving around was easier when we didn't have a house and instead were just sleeping on the streets or in rundown motels.
I shoved my feet into my shoes, and reached for my bag of clothes, thankful that I hadn't bothered to unpack and instead had been living out of my backpack. Derek slung it onto his shoulder before I could reach it. In the living room, Tori was balancing a bunch of frozen dinners in her hands and Simon was weighed down with a bunch of blankets and pillows.
"Simon and I can make a second trip," Derek said, his voice eerily low. I stepped forward and grabbed the rest of the food from the freezer. Derek turned all the lights off, and I had to blink to adjust to the sudden darkness. He opened the door, and we all stood there, leaning out over the threshold. I could tell that Derek was straining his ears to listen. After a few moments, he took a step down and quickly led us towards Maggie and Ezekiel's house, which was further away from John's cabin. The cabin we went to didn't have a nameplate on the door, so it wasn't locked. The door swung open, and Derek shuffled all of us inside.
He and Simon turned to get the rest of our things while Tori and I stocked the shelves of the freezer. I spread out some of the blankets and the pillows to make Simon a bed on the dusty old couch, and then went to what would become my bedroom. I tried to dust out the sheets and the mattress, and managed to clean up some of the room by time Simon and Derek got back.
Tori crossed her arms over her chest. She was still dressed in a too-large T-shirt and a tiny pair of cotton shorts, and she didn't look too pleased about us sneaking across the path, moving our things in the middle of the night. "Are one of you going to tell me what happened, or are you guys just going to stand there?"
Simon collapsed on the couch and tossed his hand dramatically over his eyes. He looked wiped out. Derek quickly turned the lock on the front door and doused the lights. "I went to talk to John. He's smart. I could tell that he thought we were up to something."
"We are up to something." Tori intoned, rolling her eyes. "I was wondering how long it would take him to notice."
"That's not the point," Derek said gruffly. "I just mentioned Chelsea's death, and the weird fact that we were away from everyone else. John stopped talking almost immediately, and then he fed me some bald-faced lie, even though he knew I wasn't going to believe it. He knows we suspect he had something to do with Chelsea's murder. And he knew exactly where we all slept." He said. He hovered by the front windows, lifting up the edge of the blinds to peer out into the dark.
"If we know it's John, what are we doing hanging around here?" Tori leaned against the wall. For the first time, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Apparently, she hadn't been sleeping well lately. I didn't blame her. I didn't feel safe around here, knowing that someone was going around murdering people.
"We don't have proof," Simon piped up, "just some crackpot theories. Good crackpot theories, but theories nonetheless." He sat up a bit, leaning on his elbow. "So our next order of business is to find the proof. Then we can nail John with it, and leave Ezekiel or whoever to make him pay for his crimes."
Derek didn't say anything for a long moment. We all seemed to be waiting for his input. After all, he was the werewolf of the group, and he was the one that had been closest to John. Finally, he dropped the edge of the blinds and turned to look at the three of us, huddled near the couch. "I don't know," he mused, "but there is something off about John. He almost seemed to be gloating, like even if we could pin it on him the others wouldn't do anything. I don't like it."
"Unless he's a psychopath," I said, leaning on the back of the couch. "Maybe he gets off of killing girls. Like Teddy Bundy or something."
Derek shook his head. "There's more to it than that."
"So now what?" Tori asked, yawning. "Do we fake that we still live over there, just in case the big bad wolf has his eye on us?"
"Better yet, we should stay in here and not go out for anything." Derek replied. He flicked the corner of the blinds up again, simultaneously reaching out to check the lock for the door. It was still bolted into place, but that didn't stop him from checking every so often. "We'll just have to gather more information."
"I know it's important and all," Simon said sleepily, "but can it wait until morning? None of us are going to be any good if we don't get some sleep."
"Simon's right," I agreed. "We'll all think better when it's morning, after we've had some sleep. Besides, we're all a little stressed out from running around in the middle of the night."
Derek seemed to mull it over for a second, and then he gave a curt nod. Tori didn't say anything and just slipped into her bedroom, closing the door soundly behind her. Simon tugged one of the blankets over his head. I stood there awkwardly for a moment until Derek glanced back at me. "Go on, Chloe," he murmured, his voice just loud enough for me to hear.
I bit my lip and tried to give him a smile, but he didn't return it. It had been a while since I'd seen him this wound up. Derek was always tense, but it was rare that he acted like a tyrant. I didn't say anything as I headed off to my bedroom, pausing to snap off the lights.
# # #
When I woke up, Derek was nowhere to be seen. I didn't even think he'd come into the room last night. Had he stayed by the window all night, peering into the darkness, looking for our own personal nightmare? I rubbed my bleary eyes and blinked a few times. Yawning, I stretched out my arms and reached for my backpack. Tori had grabbed the soap from our bathroom, and I intended to take a shower.
I stepped out into the living room. Simon was still sleeping, and Derek had passed out in the recliner, which he'd pulled over to face the window. I lingered there for a moment, watching him sleep. I had no idea how long he managed to stay up, but my guess was that he'd waited at least until the first few rays of light shone over the horizon. I expected nothing less from him, not when he was in protector mode.
I slipped into the bathroom and took a hot shower, then changed into my clean clothes. Ezekiel and Maggie had mentioned that they had a cabin up by the house with a few laundry machines for their guests. We all needed our clothes to be washed. I'd done enough laundry at the Lyle House when I was assigned to, so I wasn't too bothered at the idea of seeing someone else's skivvies. Besides, we were probably clear to walk around in the daytime, especially with Kit and the other adults well aware of our presence. Kit knew about John, too, since he'd helped us set up our dinner, where I tried to convince him that I was a clueless girl submersed into the supernatural world.
With a sigh, I peered out the front windows. If I told Kit where I was, we'd probably be safe. He could help me wash laundry, for all I cared. I just knew that while Derek wasn't wild about any of us going out in the public eye right now, there were things that had to be done. At least I wouldn't be alone if I enlisted the help of his father.
After I decided that it was all clear, I slowly undid the lock on the front door and twisted the knob, eyeing Derek the entire time. I wasn't sure what he would do if he saw me trying to leave. He wouldn't be happy, that was for sure. I bit my lip and slowly pulled the door open.
It didn't get far before Derek was suddenly there, his hand pushing on the door so hard he nearly slammed my fingers in the frame. I was shocked that it didn't wake up Simon. "I told you last night," he said gruffly. His eyes still looked a little out of it, sleep dazed. "We can't go outside."
"I was just going to get your father," I replied. "He has a right to know what we've uncovered. And we need to do our laundry." I added for good measure. That was my real reason for trying to venture out onto the path, but I'd rather him think that it was merely because I wanted to keep his dad in the loop.
I was sure he saw right through me. We'd discussed as a group how best to handle it, and Kit hadn't been in our plans for quite some time. "Okay," I admitted. "I just really think we need to do laundry. So come with me," I said.
"It's not safe," Derek replied.
"And what is? If we stay here, we'll be like sitting ducks. And you said so yourself, there's still information out there that we need to find."
"Fine," he conceded after a moment. He glanced over at his brother. I never realized what a hard sleeper Simon was before. "Grab the stuff." He commanded. I rolled my eyes at his tone but did what he said. I knew he didn't like what I was doing, and I knew that he wasn't happy that we were risking it all for laundry, especially when we'd gone weeks without a change in clothes. But he also knew that I was right, we couldn't just sit there, waiting for the worst to happen. We needed to uncover everything.
I gathered all the dirty clothes I could find and dropped them into a large, dusty hamper from the closet. All of our clothes together almost didn't fit. Derek reached out to grab the handles, since we both knew I wouldn't be able to lug it down the path by myself. Derek peered through the blinds again, and then opened the door and shuffled me out.
We only made it halfway down the path when I was suddenly aware of the fact that someone was watching. I paused, causing Derek to run into me. He was usually much more graceful than that. I turned to look at him, to tell him that something wasn't right, just in time to see John looming behind him. Before I could warn him, John wrapped an arm around Derek's throat. The two of them dropped to the ground as Derek tried to gain the upper hand. Just like I'd always feared, Derek and John had gotten into a fight, and I knew that Derek wouldn't be able to hold him off forever.
"Chloe!" Derek called out. I knew that he was going to tell me to run. I also knew that he knew I wouldn't just leave him there to die. John was smart and strong and experienced, and we all knew how this little scuffle would turn out. I looked to my left and saw Kit's cabin. It was extremely early, so he may not even be up yet, but if I could go get him and then Tori and Simon, we'd at least have an army on our hands.
I didn't make it another step before something whacked me across the back of the head. For a moment, all I felt was a flash of pain, and then my vision tunneled down into black.
Guys. Like, seriously guys. I think we're getting to the last few chapters. I know you're sitting there like, "Yeah, we knew all along that John was a jerk." But I don't think you're going to expect what's going to happen in the next chapter or two. Keep your fingers crossed for a quick update!
Please ignore any grammatical or spelling errors, since I'm not usually good about editing before uploading. I edited at least half of this, if it makes you feel any better. Please leave me a review in the box below (you guys know how much I love them.) Thanks for reading! Check back soon! Peace (: