Her eyes were throbbing like mad. This was nothing new to Hazel as it was something that she had been dealing with for most her life, and as a child she had learned to live with it. For the most part the pain was relatively manageable yet there were days when the pain was searing hot, like… was unbearable. Today was one of those days and that was never a good sign. No doubt she was probably going to have to stay home for a few more days in order to get a handle on things. Probably have to skip school when it resumed in a couple of days. Hazel could not afford to have another incident occur. Her mother would almost certainly come to Beacon Hills and make good on her promise to kill her if she had another 'accident'.

A cold shiver went down Hazel's spine.

That thought and it's reality was too scary for her to dwell on.

It was a fear of another incident that had brought Hazel deep into the woods today. Her guardian Mags had been unintentionally driving her mad, telling her that trees turned into diamonds, whatever the hell that meant. Hazel assumed it was another one of Mags' roundabout ways of saying shit happens and then that shit turns into compost..

No doubt Mags was trying to be helpful, but a sage life lesson was something that Hazel wasn't in the mood for at the moment. Being confined to the house for a better part of a week had given Hazel a serious case of cabin fever, so she had absconded for a few hours to take a much needed walk throughout the woods.

The weather tolerable enough that Hazel didn't need to put on sunglasses to protect her eyes whilst they were going through another 'growth spurt' as Mags liked to refer to the process as.

Hazel always stuck to the trails off the beaten path as most people in town were too afraid to come this far into the woods, too afraid of what lurked within them, but for Hazel? There was nothing in these woods that posed any danger to her. If anything she was the real threat. Here she would get some welcome peace without worrying about accidentally killing someone.

Not many sixteen year old girls had to be worried about killing someone. But then again Hazel wasn't normal, she only pretended to be when she was outside the house.

It was quite the double life that Hazel lived here in Beacon Hills.

Always trying to fit in, pretending to be someone she really wasn't and struggling with who she was or what she was. The mistakes that she had made in the past that clung to her always, along with her mother's threat about what would happen the next time she screwed up. Yet none of that mattered when Hazel was outside, all her problems seemed insignificant and small. Being here, outside in the fresh air and completely alone always allowed Hazel to switch off mentally and simply enjoy the moment she was in, to be just a girl.

Her thoughts as she wondered in a rather aimless path, centred around one thing, or rather two people. Serilda and Edwina, her two older sisters by three years and fifteen months. They had been on her mind lately which was quite often the case since it had been a while since she had heard from either of them. Perhaps Hazel would write them a letter when she got home.

Old fashioned yes, but that was the only way Hazel was allowed to communicate with her sisters since she was a child. It was a strict rule that her mother along with Mags lived and would certainly die by.

Hazel's mind was so preoccupied with thoughts of her own family, that she hadn't realised where she had ended up at. The Hale House. Or rather what still remained of it. Six months had passed since Hazel had last been here. It wasn't a place that she liked coming to, but for better or worse, she had taken it upon herself to keep an eye out on the keep unwanted company away from it, and to make sure no one ever desecrated what little trace of the Hale family still remained in Beacon Hills.

For the most part the house was left in peace, somehow still standing after the devastating fire that had taken place here many years ago, killing most of the Hale family. There seemed to be some structural integrity but Hazel had chosen to never set foot in the house, out of respect of what had happened here.

The Hale family were, what you could describe as beacon's of the community and the light that they shone, had effectively been snuffed out, the night of the remains of the family home seemed like a relic of tragedy that most people in Beacon Hills had forgotten about, but not Hazel. The years may have passed but she would never forget.

A senseless tragedy.

A family destroyed.

Memories forever lost.

Hazel wasn't sure whether she had ended up here by chance or her subconscious had dragged her here, for some weird psychobabble reason. She couldn't help but let out a dreary sigh as she looked up at the house, her eyes wondered up to the windows. It was a shame to see a house that used to be so full of life, stand as empty as it was now. The Hale family had died in a cruel manner and every time Hazel came to check in on the house, her mind always wandered to a dark place, imagining the suffering that the family had suffered during the fire that had claimed their lives.

It was beyond heartbreaking.

With one last look at house, Hazel turned and began to walk away but only to come to a stop after a few steps.

Someone was watching her.

Hazel could feel someone's eyes on her. Cold eyes that were searing a hole into her skull with an intensity that was almost painful.

There was something unsettling about it, unnatural in a way that Hazel couldn't fathom a way to describe. At first glance of her immediate area, Hazel couldn't see anything that warranted her suspicions of being watched. The Hale House had long been abandoned, none of the remaining family had returned ever since that dark night. They weren't what you called local any more. Other than Hazel and Mags checking in on the house every so often, the burned out remains of the Hale house were left alone.

Yet Hazel couldn't quite shake this feeling off. If she was normal like everyone else then she would think that she was being paranoid. But she wasn't like everyone else and this wasn't her being paranoid. Her instincts were screaming at her and she wasn't going to ignore it. Someone was watching her.

Once more Hazel looked back up at the house, to the window that had previously caught her attention and there was a some kind of movement, it moved quick enough that she would have missed it otherwise. But Hazel was certain of what she saw.

Someone or something was in the Hale House

Hazel kept scanning the windows again, but there was nothing there.

She was going to have to go inside.

May the old gods protect whoever was in the house from Hazel's fury, she would not forgive the person who thought it was okay to trespass here. Her steps were silent and cautious as she made her way to the house, her mind calculating how she would approach this best.

Until the front door of the house opened and the trespasser stepped out.

A tall figure stood in the doorway, dressed head to toe in black with an indifferent expression on his face. Just as Hazel was looking straight at him, he was certainly looking straight at her even from that distance. He could see her clear as day. There was something familiar about him. The towering figure, dark hair, the stony expression on his face and the intense hazel eyes.

She knew him.

His face had changed every so slightly in the last few years but Hazel was certain of his identity.

Derek Hale.

Back in Beacon Hills after all these years

Hazel was stunned. They had known each other growing up, his mother Talia was a pillar within their community and Hazel went to school with his younger sister Cora. Hazel had known the Hale family forever, since she had no real family of her own here, they were somewhat like a surrogate family to her as they knew what it was like to be different. Not once did Hazel ever have to hide the truth about who she was when she was with the Hales. The last time she had seen him was a little over six years ago, shortly before Derek and his sister Laura had left Beacon Hills, after the death of their family perished in a devastating fire at their family home.

Show me those baby blues. Hazel quietly murmured to herself, her eyes never leaving Derek. Even though she was certain that the man she was looking at was who she thought he was, she needed to verify it.

Moment's later Derek's hazel eyes turned a steely blue. A blue that was too abnormal to be human.

The eyes of a werewolf who had taken an innocent life.

There was all the proof that Hazel needed.

The pain in her eyes were of no further concern to Hazel in this moment, and the urge to go home and sit in the dark room had very much disappeared as her feet began moving of their own accord. Soon enough Hazel found herself walking back towards the Hale House, making her way towards the porch and soon enough Derek was in close proximity and she came to a stop a couple of feet in front of him. Even though Hazel had seen him with her own eyes, seeing him in person and up close was something else entirely and she could not help the stupid looking goofy grin that was no doubt spread across her face.

"Been a while kid."

"No shit, you got old." Hazel couldn't help but quip back in response, Derek was still in high school the last time she saw him, barely eighteen and she was a preteen in dungarees, braids and braces. In the last six years, lots of things had changed. Both of them had changed. Hazel wasn't sure that the Derek that she once knew was the same Derek that was standing in front of her. The man in front of her seemed so serious, a far cry from the teenager who used to love to pull her pigtails when Hazel refused to share her sour patch kids with him.

"Whilst you still have a dirty mouth." Derek retorted, his tone very much serious but the small smile tugging at the corner of his lips giving him a way. Whilst he had no doubt changed due to the trauma of losing his family and whatever happened over the last few years, inside there was still some of the old Derek that Hazel knew and had been fond of.

"Tends to happen when you live with Mags."

"Still with the glasses I see, thought you would have ditched them by now."

Hazel let out an almighty sigh. To the outside world, to the normal people here in Beacon Falls, everyone believed that the tinted glasses Hazel wore, were due to an eye condition that caused her severe photo phobia. But that wasn't the case. Hazel was forced to wear these glasses in order to keep not only herself safe, but everyone she came into contact with due to her true nature.

Derek was one of the few people who knew the truth about what Hazel was; a Gorgon. But not just any Gorgon, a Medusa. Hair that turned to snakes and eyes that could turn a man to stone and all that jazz. Hazel's core power came from her eyes. She had the ability to petrify people with one look, kill them even, if she maintained eye contact for too long. The glasses were a necessary precaution and allowed her to life a somewhat normal life

"Yeah, I'm still working on it." Hazel admitted, with a forced smile.

"What happened?" Derek questioned.

Yeah. That wasn't something that Hazel felt ready to hash out with any one, let alone an old friend like Derek, the one person who could possibly understand.

"Dad came for a visit a few months ago and I petrified him, managed not to kill him, thank god… I left him with partial paralysis. He's only now starting to get feeling back in his left arm. Mom lost her shit and even came down in person to rip me a new one. You know you've really messed up when the Clan Leader herself deems it fit to visit you in person. The great Sariah Reeves. The Mother of All. I got the usual crap about how she was disappointed in me, that I should have learned to control the petrification by now. Before she left, Sariah gave me a very real warning about what would happen if she had to return here." Hazel wearily replied, shoving her hands into the pocket of her jeans.

It wasn't the real truth about what she had done, but it was a real story. One of Hazel's many screws up albeit a very recent one.

"Your mom won't kill you, Sarahi may be many things but she wouldn't hurt you.." Derek replied eventually, picking up the meaning of what Hazel meant by her mother's threat.

"She won't have a choice. I don't get my shit together than I die. That is the way of the Gorgons. We must always be strong, impregnable, unforgiving." Hazel added after a few moments, going out of her way to avoid meeting Derek's eye

The whole Gorgon thing was complicated. It got even more complicated being a Medusa. They were rare. In every generation there were only a few Medusa's born, and as such they were treated differently, raised differently. From the moment Hazel had come into her petrification abilities, she had been shipped off here to Beacon Falls to receive tutelage from a fellow Medusa.

Unable to return until she had learned to control her abilities. If she had learned to control her abilities. That was the way they did things in Gorgon Clans. Medusa's were considered a threat within their own clans until they could control their own powers. The only ones immune to their gift was a fellow Medusa, hence why Hazel was living with Mags.

Hazel had come to Beacon Hills when she was ten. She had been here for almost seven years, but with every passing day, Hazel was giving up hope of ever returning home again.

"You still have time, right?"

It was impressive that Derek still remembered all the lore about Gorgons. He was right after all, Hazel still had time. A gorgon wasn't considered fully grown until her eighteenth birthday. Still being sixteen, Hazel should have just over a year to get her petrification abilities under control. If only life was that kind. In this case it wasn't, Hazel seemed to be having a real good run of Murphy's luck.

"Mags is losing her eye sight."

"Oh shit."

Hazel let out a haughty laugh, as oh shit was right. For a Medusa losing your eyesight was a sure enough sign that the end was near. It wasn't immediate, it would take a few years for a complete loss of sight, but once that happened death was only hours away. It was painful and unforgiving, much like the Medusa's themselves. But with every day, Mags' eyes got worse and Hazel's got stronger. They were running out of time.

"You got that right."

"Marielle…"

Hazel narrowed her eyes at her dreaded first name. Derek wasn't even supposed to know about it, but a slip of the tongue several years ago resulted in him thinking he could use the name whenever he saw fit.

"Even after all these years, I'm still having to remind you about the Marielle thing." Hazel hissed.

"Yeah yeah, it's a clan thing. You can't use your name until you come of age or what not. I still think Hazel is a stupid name." Derek retorted and Hazel let out a small giggle in response.

"You and me both, but I'm stuck with it."

Hazel's full name was Marielle Hazel Reeves although she had been going by her middle name pretty much since the day she was born. It wasn't by choice. All gorgon's first names were derived by the type of the gorgon they were. Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Her mother Sarahi and eldest sister Serinda were Sthenos', her other sister Edina was a Euryale. Then Mags and Hazel were Medusa's. Simple enough, right? Not so much.

Per tradition a Gorgon's name had to be earned and it was an honour that Hazel was still working towards. As such she was known as M. Hazel Reeves until she finally came into her own and was able to stand alongside her fellow Gorgons with her head held high as Marielle Reeves, the Medusa.

Like Hazel said, it was complicated.

"Enough about me. What brings you home?" Hazel questioned moving things along to the more important Derek to be back in Beacon Hills something important had to have happened. He had never returned home since the fire and Hazel had expected for it to remain that way, pigs must surely be flying somewhere…

"I'm looking for Laura, I've not heard from her in a few days." Derek stated, a small frown etched across his brow.

"Huh? Laura's here too?" Hazel questioned, the surprise etched across her face. She had no idea that the elder of the Hale siblings had come back to town, which was weird in itself as Laura touched base with Mags every few months.

"You didn't know she was here? Laura didn't check in with you and Mags?"

Hazel dumbly shook her head. She hadn't a clue and there was no way Mags would have kept quiet about something like this. A troubling thought was beginning to bubble in the pit of Hazel's stomach and she could see a dark look cross Derek's face. Something had to be terribly wrong. Laura was an Alpha werewolf, more than capable of taking care of herself but for her to come back to town and Hazel not to hear about it, and Derek to follow her here after no contact...

Oh shit. This couldn't be good.