Stiles was dropping in and out of sleep, the lack of comfort making it impossible to get more than ten minutes of rest at a time.
Jackson was still keeping his ears honed in to any sounds in the hopes someone was coming for them. He watched over Stiles too, knowing that something had to be done soon because humans couldn't put up with this sort of thing for too long, especially not when Cal was dishing out beatings the way he was.
Jackson noticed that Cassie was a little more lenient. She gave Stiles water, tossed him the occasional piece of food. Jackson, of course, had gotten nothing since arriving, and he didn't expect that to change.
It had been almost an hour before he heard the sound of tyres pulling up nearby.
"Stiles," he said as he tried to listen in.
"What?" he said sleepily, looking up with tired eyes.
"They're back," he said.
Stiles tried to sit up a little more, wincing in pain as he did and Jackson turned his head to the door.
It took a few minutes before Cal kicked through the doors, lugging a body over his shoulder and throwing it to the ground besides Jackson. As he chained it up and drew the line of mountain ash around it, Cassie walked in.
Her face was dirty and her eyes were unfocussed as she went and leant her hands on the table. Stiles thought she looked like she was going to be sick.
"Stay here while I get the other one," Cal said, walking past her and back out the door.
"Scott?" Jackson said and Stiles' heart thudded in his chest.
"He's alive right, he is?" he said.
"They wouldn't have chained him if he wasn't," Jackson said. "He's breathing, just passed out."
Stiles looked up at Cassie whose hands were clearly shaking. She was gritting her teeth and had her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Without warning she let out a loud scream, followed by a few quiet sobs before she was pulling the knife out of her holster and throwing it across the room, thankfully in the opposite direction to the three of them.
Jackson and Stiles locked eyes for a moment before turning their attention back to her. She was breathing heavily, her nostrils flaring and her eyes red and glassy. Neither of them could tell whether she was seething with rage or heartbroken.
She started pacing, muttering to herself, like something had taken over her body and she was fighting to keep it inside. It was something they all knew too well, it was denial.
"No, no, no…" she whispered. "No, no…"
Jackson raised an eyebrow at Stiles who just watched her carefully until they heard Cal coming in with another body over his shoulder, throwing this one far more callously onto the ground than he had the last.
It was Isaac.
"Get the chains," he barked at her and she looked up, strands of hair falling over her dirty face.
She gave him a glare but did it, grabbing what was left from the corner and walking slowly over to him, staring down at Isaac's limp body before Cal was snatching them out of her hands.
Her face had softened as she looked down at him with sadness in her eyes and maybe even betrayal, more than anything she looked like a person who had lost something.
Cal tightened his chains, drawing his circle in his spot next to Scott before turning to look back at Cassie.
"You saw him for what he truly is tonight," he said. "Maybe now he'll stop blinding you to the bigger picture here."
She said nothing, she just stood staring at Isaac and Cal shouldered past her, leaving the room without another word.
"Through here!" Boyd called as he walked through the trees with Erica and Derek close behind him.
"I'm going to kill Isaac when we find them," Erica said, her hair bouncing furiously on her shoulders. "No kind of love should make anyone this stupid."
"It shouldn't, but it does," Derek said coming to a stop and sniffing the air around them. "Can you smell that?"
"It's blood, right?" Boyd said.
Derek nodded.
"Scott's?" Erica said, looking around and keeping her eyes sharp.
"It's both of them," Derek said.
"Tyre tracks," Boyd said, crouching down to look at the trail marks that marred the grass and dirt.
"Looks like this is where they collapsed… or were shot down," Erica said, picking up a bullet shell and holding it up. "So they took them?"
"Why would they do all this to get to you?" Boyd asked. "They went after the alphas, so why take them all just to get to you?"
Derek's brow was furrowed as he took in the scene and he shook his head. "They didn't plan this. They weren't going to take either of them."
"Derek, they took Stiles and Jackson why wouldn't they―" Erica started.
"Because they called Scott, they didn't call Isaac. This was about Scott."
"Why Scott?" Boyd asked.
"It was her," Erica said with a roll of her eyes. "It was all about Scott. She's cares about Isaac and if she's crazy enough to kidnap two teenagers and kill god knows how many other supernatural creatures then who says she's not crazy enough to go after Scott too? Because he's dating Isaac."
"She had to know Isaac would come after him," Boyd said.
"Not necessarily," Derek said.
"You think she didn't know about him?" he said.
"Maybe not, sometimes we're blind to things that we don't want to see."
"Look at you being all philosophical…" Erica muttered sarcastically. "What's this?"
She reached down to pick up a small canister but Derek had her arm firmly in his grasp before she could touch it.
"Don't touch that," he said. "You see the powder? It looks like some kind of smoke grenade. Last thing we need is to knock ourselves out."
"So what now?" Boyd asked, the look on his face one of exhaustion.
"The odds are they're playing it by ear now, if what Erica said about the girl is true then she won't kill Isaac, at least not right away. It gives us some time," Derek said.
"Time to what? Get more of us kidnapped?" Erica said.
"We find out everything we can about the two of them," he said. "In the morning we call Allison and Lydia and we get to the bottom of this. No one else gets taken."
Jackson watched as Cassie paced the room, her eyes red and swollen and her lips muttering all but silently. She was breathing heavily and seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown and it made him all the more wary.
"They have to know, right?" he asked Stiles.
"Know what?" he asked wearily.
"Derek, and the others they'll know by now that―"
"About her?" Stiles asked and Jackson nodded. "I hope so, maybe they talked to… maybe they found the same information that I did."
"Shut up…" Cassie's soft voice came out unexpectedly and both their eyes looked up at her as she stared down at them, her hands shaking. "Would the two of you just keep your mouths shut?"
"They'll find you," Jackson said. "You know that."
"Well it will have taken them long enough," she said.
"They're smart," he said. "Smarter than I ever give them credit for."
"Didn't think you cared so much," Stiles said with a tired chuckle.
"I didn't mean you," Jackson quipped back just as fast.
Cassie let out a maniacal laugh that echoed through the room and her eyes went wide. She put a hand to her hair and just grinned with an expression that neither Jackson nor Stiles could read. "You're both so mind numbingly ridiculous!" she said between her laughs. "If I have to listen to your idiotic conversing for one more day I swear you'll―"
"We'll what? Regret it?" Jackson snapped. "Yeah, I think we already regret a lot of things that got us here but don't worry, they'll get us out of here and you'll be the ones carted away in body bags."
"Jackson…" Stiles said gently.
"No, no she can say what she wants but I'll say my bit too, even if they are my last words. They'll find you," he snarled. "Derek, Lydia, they'll―"
"Lydia, Lydia, Lydia," Cassie said with another eccentric laugh. "Cal wanted to take her first you know."
Jackson seemed to growl under his breath and Stiles narrowed his eyes.
"She's not a part of this," Jackson said through gritted teeth.
"Not part of this? She might just be the biggest part," she said.
She saw the confused looks on their faces and it clicked to her.
"You don't know, do you?"
"Know what?" Jackson asked.
"You don't know what she is."
"She's human," Jackson said. "She's just―"
"Human? The girl who tracks down death? No. I have to tell you, it makes it a whole lot harder to hide a body when you've got something like her to find them," Cassie said.
"It's not like you tried hard to hide them," Stiles said.
"Maybe not, but the last thing we need is to be caught in the act by a banshee."
"A what?" Stiles asked.
"What did you call her?" Jackson growled.
"The wailing woman? Banshee? No?" she made a tutting sound with her mouth and shrugged, her cold eyes narrowing in on them. "I guess none of you are as smart as you thought you were."
Jackson and Stiles just looked over at one another, too confused to answer back and Cassie just turned to walk over to her makeshift table where she sat and stared off at one of the walls, breathing in and out slowly.
"Dude, she's losing it…" Jackson muttered.
"Don't," Stiles said quietly under his breath just enough for Jackson to hear. "You can see she's not stable, don't push her over. It's personal for her now."
"You feeling okay?" Jackson asked.
Stiles sighed, trying not to feel the ache in his body or think about how much longer he could go without food or water, especially now that Cassie was in no state to give him any kind of relief in that department.
"For now," he said quietly, looking over at Scott and Isaac slumped on the floor. "Oh god I hope they know enough to get us out of here."
The room was a white blur as Isaac rose from his drugged state in the early hours of the morning. The light hurt his eyes and his senses were being bombarded with so many things at once. It didn't take long for the memories too flood back into his mind and for him to realise that his wrists were bound with chains.
He started to involuntarily panic, his breathing getting faster as he tried to check his surroundings and figure out what was happening. His eyes landed on Jackson who was just giving him a blank stare.
"Welcome to the were-house," he said dryly and Isaac was just still staring at him. "Get it? 'Were-house'?"
"Where are we? Where's―"
"He's right next to you," Stiles said with a croaky voice and Isaac's head snapped over to him.
"Stiles, you look…"
"Fantastic, I know," he said and Isaac gave him a little nod before he was searching for Scott.
His breathing got faster again and he tried to get to him.
"Scott? Scott?" he said.
The chains were restraining him but even with the leeway he had he hit a barrier, looking down he saw the circle of mountain ash. Jackson scoffed a little.
"Rookie," he said and Stiles chuckled a little.
Isaac looked at them both, confused and slightly freaked out.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" he said and Jackson groaned again.
"No, you're not dead, we've just been here long enough to not be doing the freak out thing that you're doing," Jackson said before he started to laugh. "Oh god, you have no idea what you're in for, do you?"
"You're laughing? He's laughing?" Isaac said.
"Don't blame him, okay?" Stiles said. "It's the stress. Do you remember anything? What happened? How did you get here?"
"They were going to kill him," Isaac said, staring down at Scott. "I got in the way, knocked one of them over and then… well, it gets blurry after that."
"Do you know who did it to you?" Stiles asked and Jackson scoffed.
"Does he look like he knows?"
"Jackson just―" Stiles began but was cut off when Scott started to stir.
"Scott? Scott? Are you okay?" Isaac asked.
"You should have… you shouldn't have come after me…" he grunted as he sat himself up and began to regain his bearings. "Where are―"
"We don't know," Jackson and Stiles said in unison.
"They were going to kill you Scott," Isaac said. "You shouldn't have been stupid enough to believe that they wanted to trade you for Stiles, they were going to kill you."
"And what good would it have done for both of us to be dead?" Scott said.
Isaac shook his head a little. "There is no world where I would just leave you to die Scott," he said softly.
"Please, one of you ask why they picked him," Jackson said and Stiles shot him a glare.
"What are you talking about?" Scott asked.
"Jackson you don't have to―" Stiles said.
"They're going to find out anyway she'll be back any minute," he said. "Don't you think it's better he hears it from us?"
"What's going on?" Isaac asked, looking between the two of them and Stiles sighed.
"They picked Scott because of you Isaac," he said. "Or… she picked him."
"What do you mean?"
"You wouldn't be talking about me would you?" Cassie said from the doorway, her expression blank as she stood next to Cal and his dark scowl.
Isaac's stomach dropped, he must be hallucinating because the girl before him appeared just like his friend but she looked like a stranger. If it were possible for his temperature to drop his skin would have gone cold and the blood in his veins with it.
"Cassie?" he choked and her nostrils flared at the sound of his voice.
"Hey monster," she said in a flat tone and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Derek had barely slept since getting back to the loft. He didn't change his clothes or even shower before he lay down on his mattress. Not that any of it mattered, the ache in his chest and the unbearable pain of Stiles' suffering made it impossible to even close his eyes for a moment.
He didn't know how badly they were treating Stiles but he could feel his discomfort inside him, the bond between them was telling him that Stiles was hurting.
It had only been a few hours since they had been out in the woods and daylight was breaking. He could hear Boyd and Erica stirring downstairs and sat up in his bed, his fingers caressing the straightened sheets. If Stiles had been in them they wouldn't even be attached to the bed anymore.
He never even thought about how all of his annoying, frustrating, maddening little idiosyncrasies would be the things he missed the most.
As he headed downstairs Erica was rummaging through the loft looking for her phone.
"It was here, it was right here…" she muttered.
"What are you―" Derek began.
"She thinks there's something on her phone that can help us," Boyd said.
"Both of you shut up, I know… I think I have something," she said, pulling the phone out of the pocket of her jacket that was lying on the floor.
As she flicked through it the two boys watched her, she looked wide-eyed and frazzled like this was the key to it all and it was up to her to find it.
"Here," she said, holding the phone out so they could see it.
They walked closer, looking at the screen closely.
"It's a picture of Cassie with Stiles and Isaac," Boyd said with a shrug. "What's so―"
"Her car," Erica said. "That's her car."
"The licence plate," Derek said.
"You think we can trace it?" Erica asked.
Derek grabbed a piece of paper to write down the numbers.
"You'd need access to the database," Boyd said. "We can ask the sheriff to use the computers at the station."
"He doesn't know any of this, and he won't tell us any of the case details if they do track something down," Erica said. "Besides, how are we supposed to explain to him that we know who's behind this?"
"He's right though, we need to get in there to track the plate number back to him," Derek said.
"He needs to know something," Boyd said. "It's his son who's missing."
"We can't tell him without explaining how involved in all this we are," Erica said.
"He deserves to know if we have any idea about where Stiles is!" Boyd yelled and the other two just looked over at him.
"Boyd…" Erica said softly.
"We'll tell him the moment we find anything," Derek said calmly. "As soon as we know he can help, we'll call him."
Boyd let out a sigh and just nodded. "Okay."
"I have an idea," Erica said with a glance to Derek. "I'll need Lydia's help but I have an idea."
"Call Allison and Lydia, tell them to get here as soon as they can," Derek said. "What have you got?"
Isaac couldn't hear anything but the beating of his heart and his own heavy breathing in his ears. Surely he was dead, because the sight before his eyes couldn't possibly be true.
"Cass…" he all but whispered.
"Quiet," she said as she walked in with Cal by her side.
He had a grin on his conceited face, directing it squarely at Isaac.
"This can't be real…" he said with a shake of his head.
"Why not?" she snapped. "Because I couldn't possibly be this strong or because you never imagined you'd turn into… this?"
"Cassie… Cass… what are you doing?" Isaac asked, his voice shaking.
Stiles and Jackson kept their mouths shut, eyes darting from Isaac to Scott and back up to their two captors standing before them.
"She did this…" Scott said, a horrified look on his face as he turned to Cassie. "You did this, you killed all those people―"
"Those 'people' were not human," she said indignantly. "We're making the world a better place, taking out the monsters… the old you would have seen the beauty in that."
"Don't listen to her Isaac," Scott said. "She's not who you thought she was."
Cassie's gaze snapped to Scott and she glared down at him. "Was I talking to you?" she said calmly.
"Do you think I care if―"
"Was I talking to you?!" she roared, leaning in to face him and breathing in and out quickly with crazy wide eyes.
None of them said anything more, they all just stared up at her. Only Stiles could really see how far she had descended into her madness. In the beginning it was different, she really believed in what she was doing.
Now he could see that she doubted herself. Isaac was involved, and even before she knew it Stiles had noticed cracks forming. Cal was different, he was cold and focussed. Stiles doubted he even had emotions to break.
"You sure you can handle them?" he said with a sneer.
"Please," Cassie said, her eyes never leaving Isaac's. "I've got this."
"I'll be back later," he said, fingers tightening around her arm as he pulled her in to kiss her cheek. "Have fun."
She stood stoically, eyes not fixated on anything in particular as Cal grabbed his jacket and headed out of the room, shooting Isaac a wicked grin as he went.
His gaze was still on Cassie and finally she looked up at him with lifeless eyes. "When I get back, we can have a little fun," she said before she was turning to head into another room, leaving them chained and alone.
"Do you think this will work?" Lydia asked as she walked with Erica towards the sheriff station.
"Depends how good an actress I am," Erica said. "And how fast you can work."
"I'll be fine, are we sure he's even in there this early?"
"Stiles has been gone for way too long for him to be doing anything but sleeping in his office and trying to find him," Erica said with a shaky breath. "He'll be there. You know what you're looking for?"
"You want an address, a name, anything we can use to figure out where these… people are hiding," she said, turning to look at Erica. "I know what I'm looking for."
"Okay, let's do it then," she said.
They headed to the door and headed inside the sheriff's station. The woman at the desk looked tired, one hand on her computer mouse and the other on a coffee cup. As she saw them walk in she took in a deep breath.
"Can I help you girls?" she asked.
"We're here to see the sheriff," Lydia said quietly. "We're friends of his son."
The woman nodded and got up from her chair. "I think he's in his office, just give me a minute and I'll check."
Lydia nodded and wrapped her arm around Erica's waist.
When the woman was out of earshot Erica squirmed a little.
"This feels wrong," she muttered.
"This was your idea," Lydia said.
"Not the idea," Erica said. "You. Hugging me."
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Do you want to do this right?"
"I didn't say stop," she said.
It wasn't long before the sheriff came around the corner looking tired and dishevelled, like he'd been awake since the moment Stiles went missing.
"Girls, what can I do for you? Is it Stiles?" he asked and they both felt a pang in their chests at giving him false hope.
"Uh… no, no we just…" Lydia stuttered.
"We just didn't know where else to go," Erica said.
The sheriff sighed and nodded like he knew that feeling all too well. "Come on, we'll go to my office."
He led them through the station, people seemed to have hit a standstill, no idea why a group of teenagers was being targeted like this.
He closed the door behind them when they got there and he rubbed his wrinkled forehead with his fingers.
"Have you slept at all?" Lydia asked gently.
"Well, my son's missing, and Jackson Whittemore, and I got a call from Melissa saying that Scott's probably with them, something about a phone call… and I have no leads, so… no, I haven't really been sleeping."
He sighed as he leant against the desk, no malice or sarcasm in his voice, just the remarks of a very weary man.
"How are the two of you holding up?" he asked.
Lydia just shrugged and bit down on her lip and Erica let out a loud sniffle followed by an even louder sob.
The sheriff tilted his head sympathetically as she reached a hand up to wipe at her eyes.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I just―" she wept before her body was shaking with loud ugly sobs again.
The sheriff shook his head and walked over to put an arm around her. "It's alright, it's okay, you don't need to apologise. We're all worried."
He tried to console her but Erica just cried harder.
"She doesn't cope well with stress," Lydia said softly, biting down hard on her lip to fight the sting in her eyes.
He nodded and rubbed her back with his hand. "Let's go get you a glass of water," he said and Erica just nodded back, her blonde hair bobbing wildly. "Are you alright to just wait here a minute? I'm just going to take her through to grab a drink and calm down a little."
Lydia nodded quickly and just took a seat in front of the desk as the Sheriff escorted her out of the room. She waited until the door had clicked closed behind them before hopping to her feet and making her way quickly around to the sheriff's desk chair, exhaling heavily as she opened the search server.
She took out her phone and dialled Allison's number, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she fished around for the license number.
"Hey Lyds, you in?"
"Almost, I'm about to put the number in, I don't know how much time I'm going to have," Lydia said as she plugged the digits in.
"Okay, let me know when you find something," she said.
Lydia typed into the computer, looking up every few seconds and straining her ears to see if anyone was coming. She hit enter and waited a few seconds before the screen popped up before her eyes.
"It's not her car," she said. "It's her partner's, Calvert Rochester."
"He's the one who's been working with her?"
"Erica said her boyfriend's name was Cal, got to be him right?" Allison said.
"Yeah well if it is, he's a got a hell of a record," Lydia whispered. "This guy's been in juvenile detention so many times I doubt he even received a high school education."
"What for?"
"Well, he had a lot of petty theft and then a charge for armed robbery and assault which is what got him in the last time. After that it seems clean."
"How old is he?"
"Twenty four."
"Maybe he made a new identity after his last arrest," Allison said.
"Does that really work?"
"There are ways," Allison said like she knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Okay I do not even want to know," Lydia said. "There, I found an address listed in Beacon Hills, I'm sending it to you now."
She took the phone away from her ear and snapped a photo of the screen. She looked up and around one more time as she hit send.
"Okay, it's done."
"Alright, we're going to check it out."
"Be careful."
"Yeah," Allison said before hanging up the phone.
Lydia closed the page and walked back around to the front of the desk and leant against it, tapping her fingers against the wooden sides. This had to work out in the end.
Isaac just sat limply against the pillar, his glassy eyes staring over at the door and every now and then he just shook his head in disbelief.
"Isaac?" Stiles whispered as the three of them watched him. "Isaac…" he just couldn't think of what to say to make this any easier for him.
"She's… she used to walk home from school with me…" he said under his breath. "Her backpack had… she would draw little hearts and stars on…"
"Is he having some kind of mental breakdown?" Jackson asked and Stiles shot him a look.
"Isaac," Scott said. "Isaac she's killed people."
Isaac shook his head a little. "I know her, she's… no, she's not like―"
"Katherine and probably Daisy, Karissa's mother, her sister, who knows how many more."
"No," Isaac repeated as a tear dropped down onto his cheek. "Not her, she wouldn't―"
"Isaac, look where we are!" Scott hissed.
"Don't Scott," Stiles said.
He looked over with an incredulous gaze. "We can't just pretend this isn't happening Stiles, it is."
"I'm not saying we act ignorant to the whole thing. I'm saying let him adjust to it," he said.
"She's not who he thought she was Stiles," Scott said.
"Shades of grey," he said. "Just, shades of grey."
"What are you talking about? There aren't shades of grey in murder Stiles!"
"Scott you can't ― ugh!" he winced in pain and reached up to clutch at his chest.
Jackson strained to look closer at him. "Stiles? Stiles you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," he whispered. "Just… ribs don't feel so good."
He grimaced and took in a few short and sharp breaths until he was sighing heavily and relaxing his body into the pillar behind him.
"He's not okay Scott," Jackson said so that only he and Isaac could hear. "He needs to go to a hospital and soon."
"Has he had any water? What else have they done to him?"
"Apparently she gave him a few things but not enough, and since they got back with the two of you… she's completely lost it Scott, I mean, more than just hunting werewolves for sport, she's actually lost her mind. She's fucking crazy."
"She's not crazy," Isaac said, finally looking at the two of them. "She's not crazy, she just―"
"She's killing people, and kidnapping teenagers, and now she's having a psychotic break," Jackson said dryly. "She's crazy."
"Now I'm sure you're talking about me," Cassie said as she stepped back into the room.
She walked slowly, purposefully, as she stared in at them. It didn't take them long to realise that she was wielding a knife.
"Don't go quiet on my account," she said.
"Cassie, what are you doing?" Isaac asked quietly.
Her lip twitched as she stared down at him and then she smirked just a little.
"You're all the same," she said. "The same stupid questions, the same dumbfounded look on your faces."
"What do you want from us?" Scott snapped.
She sent a look his way that was sharper than the knife in her hand. "Well you were going to be dead, until that plan went out the window."
"What are you doing?" Isaac asked again and her gaze shifted.
"What's right," she said.
"What―"
"You have asked me that question every single time you've opened your mouth," she barked. "Sing a new god damned song."
"You… what happened to you?" he asked and she scoffed, her eyebrows shooting sky high.
"Me?" she asked, laughing franticly. "What happened to you? I found a purpose, I found a way of making this fucked up world a little bit better and you, you turned into a monster!"
Isaac shook his head at her, "Is that what you think? You thing I'm the monster here?"
"You, your kind, you're deadly and dangerous and I've seen what they can do!" she shouted.
"Not every member of the same species acts in the same way," Scott said and she turned her murderous glare to him. "We're just as human as we are anything else."
She shook her head. "You can keep your mouth shut."
"This is not who you are Cassie, this is not you," Isaac said.
"This is me," she hissed. "Getting rid of monsters and making this world safer, wasn't that always what I wanted?"
"She saw her professor after he was killed by werewolves," Stiles piped up. "Apparently it wasn't a pretty sight, and don't get me started on Cal."
Cassie put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes as she looked over at him. "Do we need to get the shock-gun out again?"
"You think I need it? Cal gave me a pretty good work up last time," Stiles said and she just looked away from him.
"So what's your excuse for hurting him?" Scott asked. "He's human, he's not part of your little plan!"
"I haven't hurt him," she said firmly and Scott just narrowed his eyes. "He's human but we need him, he's tethered to the alpha."
"He'd still come for the three of us Cass," Isaac said. "Just let Stiles go."
"I can't do that," she said.
"I can't believe you did any of this," Isaac said, shaking his head with a sad expression on his face.
"The old you would have understood," she said with a hitch in her throat.
"How could I have ever understood this? You're hunting and killing people, so called 'monsters'―"
"You would have been proud of me!" she yelled and he just couldn't understand it.
"Proud of you?" he asked incredulously.
"You of all people should be happy that I'm done defending monsters," she said, the tears spilling from her eyes.
He just looked at her, at the pain and sadness in her eyes but she wasn't done.
"I stood by them for so long, lived with them and knew exactly what they were and I did nothing and that was my weakness. I pretended that they weren't or that I didn't know but I am done with that because they exist, they're real, they're not just living inside my mind with no one to believe it. I can see them, and feel them and I am done with letting them get away with everything because they have power or because they threaten me!" the tears were streaming down her face now and she was yelling so loudly that it was reverberating around the room. "I can't protect the monsters anymore."
She turned to walk back to her table and Isaac felt his own tears fall because he didn't think he'd be able to talk her down from this one.
Allison, Boyd and Derek made their way down to the address Lydia had lifted from the police files. They had no idea if anyone would be there but they were relying on their senses filling in the gaps. They drove down the street and with Allison pointed out the house as they passed it.
"Car's not in the driveway," Boyd said.
"We should go take a closer look," she said and Derek pulled up at the end of the street.
"Stay here," Derek said to Boyd. "Let me know if you see someone coming."
Boyd nodded, standing by the car with his hands in his pockets.
"Let's go," he said and he and Allison started walking back towards the house.
It looked just like the others around it, small and a bit run-down. There was a rustic white porch around it and an old gate that lead to the backyard.
They walked slowly past it as Derek tried to listen in and when he gave Allison a nod they got closer.
"Sounds like it's empty," he said.
"Shall we get a little closer then?" she asked and walked up to the porch.
Derek came to a halt as he tried to climb the first step and let out a growl. Allison stopped at the top and looked back at him.
"Well, it's definitely the right place, you had to know they'd have it protected," she said. "I'll go in, we shouldn't break the circle."
"You're not going in alone," Derek said.
"They're not here, let me go in and look around. I'll put the headset in and you can tell me if we've got company," she said.
"Be careful," he said.
She reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small coil of wire, straightening it out a little before beginning to pick the lock. It wasn't long before they both heard it click and she was opening the door.
"Nice job," he said.
She smiled, "Not my first time."
"In and out, headset on now and tell me what you see," he said. "Don't take any unnecessary risks."
She headed in, closing the door behind her and Derek sighed, taking out his phone and calling her number.
She put her headset in as she walked through the front passage, walking slowly and checking out her surroundings.
The place was very bare, minimal furniture and no television set in the living room. There was a stack of books on the kitchen table and another of unopened mail.
"What do you see?" Derek's voice in her ear made her jump a little.
"Not a lot, a few books, one on anatomy and another few on mythology," she said. "That's comforting."
She headed up the stairs and saw two bedrooms, going into the master first. The bed was made neatly, it almost looked as though it had been days since anyone had slept in it.
"There's blood on the bed sheets," she said softly into the receiver.
"Most people have blood on their sheets, you should see mine," Derek said dryly.
"Do I want to ask?" Allison replied, moving into the bathroom.
"Stiles is always restless, I get a lot of blood noses," he said impatiently.
There was a toothbrush on the sink and a glass filled with water and when she looked up at her reflection it was in fragments. The shattered mirror was missing a few pieces but they didn't seem to be lying nearby.
"Mirror's broken too," she said.
She made her way to the second bedroom, opening the door to a room kept far messier than the first.
While the master bed was neat, almost cold in its lack of character, this one actually looked lived in. The sheets were rumpled, more blood spattered on the pillow, there were a few personal items scattered about and a fiction book beside the bed.
Allison opened one of the draws and there were more books like the ones from downstairs. Poking out from under them was the corner of a photograph and Allison lifted them to pull it out. It turned out to be a small stack of them.
The first was quite old, low resolution. It was a picture of a little girl with a flower crown sitting atop her head, a big toothy grin on her face. The others were older, more recent. One had a picture of Cassie with an older man, possibly in his late forties or fifties. They sat together with a set of books laid out before them as if they were working on something. They were both smiling.
In the last picture Allison sighed as she looked down at a young Isaac, beaming up at the camera with an unruly mop of curly hair atop his head and Cassie stood beside him, fingers holding onto his arm and smiling with a toothy grin.
"Everything okay?" Derek's voice made her jump again and she put the pictures back where she found them.
"Yeah, I just… how do people become like this? Kidnap and murder, how does that happen?" she asked.
"Faith, belief in a cause, sticking to a code…" he trailed off and Allison closed her eyes for a moment, remembering all too well how easily she fell for Kate's tactics.
"I guess so," she said.
Derek could hear her making her way back downstairs and hoped she would find something to help them.
"Derek!" Boyd's voice in the distance made him snap to attention. "Derek someone's coming and I think it's their car!"
"Allison, you need to get out, now."
He quickly hid himself in the neighbours' yard, still able to see the street from where he stood. The car was fast and it was only a few seconds after that he saw it emerge at the end of the street.
"Allison!"
She stood at the table and felt her heart start to pound.
"You have to find another way out, he's almost at the house," he said.
"Great," she said.
She snatched something up with her hand and ran to the back door trying quickly to unlock it but she needed a key and she knew she wouldn't have enough time to jimmy it open. The adrenaline rushed through her but she stayed calm and searched for another exit.
"Allison, get out now!"
Cal had parked the car on the front driveway and climbed out of the driver's side door, making his way to the front door. Derek didn't dare say another word when he was within earshot.
He stopped at the top of the porch and looked like he was thinking. Derek could only just see him through the gap in the leaves but he knew he saw him reach into his back pocket and take out a gun.
Allison heard his footsteps on the porch and knew the only option was upstairs and so she ran, trying to stay as light on her feet as possible because that door would be open in a second.
Cal opened it slowly, walking inside and leaving the door open. He looked around the room and made no sound with his feet as he walked through the hall and into the kitchen, gun drawn.
Derek was searching for Allison anywhere but the phone was still pressed to his ear and he could hear her breathing quickly.
"Allison, you need to move," he said in barely a breath.
His eyes scanned the house and he saw her figure appear in a window in the front top story window. He couldn't smell Cal because he was masking his scent but he could hear him and he was far enough inside the house for him to make a move.
He dashed out of the garden to see Allison looking down at him.
"Is it unlocked?" he asked and he saw her nod in reply. "Do it quickly, jump and I'll catch you."
His voice was hardly more than a whisper and she nodded again, taking one quick look behind her before slowly getting a good hold on the window and she prayed that it wouldn't get stuck.
With a quick pull the window slid easily up, banging against the top of the windowsill just before she was climbing out and Derek could hear Cal make a run for the stairs.
She didn't have time to hesitate, she just jumped from the roof and Derek grabbed her, running as fast as his legs would take him until they were hidden behind the neighbours' front fence and barely breathing.
Cal appeared at the window moments later, looking out as though he wasn't sure whether the window had been left ajar or whether someone had been inside just before. Either way, he didn't come back out for another five minutes and this time with a bag over his shoulder.
Allison and Derek crawled around to hide themselves from view of the car and watched him drive off again, finally letting them take a breath.
"He is one guy," Allison said, her chest heaving. "How is that so terrifying?"
"He's one guy with a gun, and he's trigger happy," Derek said. "Not to mention he has four people held hostage."
"Our people," she said.
He nodded and not long after Boyd came running to meet them.
"Are you guys okay?" he asked, looking probably as freaked out as they did.
"We'd be better if we had something," Derek said with a grunt.
"I've got something," Allison said, holding up the letter in her hand.
"What is that?" Boyd asked.
"It's an overdue notice," she said. "For a lease."
"How does that help us?" Derek asked. "We already have that information."
"It's a commercial lease Derek," she said.
Realisation began to sweep across his features and Boyd understood it too.
"It's the address to a warehouse property on the edge of town, far away from prying eyes and ears," she said. "This is where they're keeping them."
Lydia and Erica walked back to Derek's loft as they waited to hear from the others. On the drive there Erica had worked hard to get herself back in control, trying to keep her breathing steady.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Lydia asked.
"I'm fine," she grumbled. "I just didn't realise that once I started it would be so hard to stop."
"No judgement," Lydia said. "Believe me."
"He's going to be okay you know," Erica said with a sidewards glance. "Jackson."
Lydia took a deep breath in, pursed her lips, and nodded. "I can't think about that right now, I need to focus on finding them."
"Do you think we should have told Stiles' dad?"
"Told him what? There's not much you can say about this," she sighed.
"Still, I think my crying might have made him feel worse," she said. "Made it even harder to stop."
Lydia gave her a small smile before they turned to corner to the entrance to the loft. As they did, they all but walked into the back of a woman standing there and game to a quick stop.
She turned to them and they both seemed taken aback.
"You know, every time I leave this place I seem to find my way back," Karissa said with a smile.
"You got our messages then," Lydia said.
"I got about ten dozen actually," she said. "I hope you've got an idea of who's behind it all."
"We've got more than an idea," Erica said and Karissa smiled again.
"Well then I'm here to help you tear them to pieces."
Lydia and Erica exchanged a look before Lydia sighed. "Well I think right now we're going to take all the help we can get."
