"Monster, how should I feel?

Turn the sheets down, murder ears with pillow lace

There's bathtubs, full of glow flies

Bathed in kerosene, their words tattooed in his veins"

Monster by Meg & Dia

When the cops arrived at the power substation, they escorted us to the Sheriff's Station. Agent Douchebag sat us all down in the sheriff's office. He leaned on the desk in front of us and Noah was sitting in his chair behind the desk. I was wedged between Scott and Kira on the couch with Stiles on Scott's other side and Lydia in the chair next to Kira.

"So, when did you get there?" Agent McCall asked.

"At the same time," Stiles answered.

"At the same time as who?" Douchebag pressed.

"At the same time as us," Scott said, gesturing to me and himself.

"By coincidence?"

"What do you mean coincidence?" Stiles asked.

"That's what I'm asking you," Agent Douchebag said, growing more annoyed with us. "The three of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"

"Are you asking me?" Scott asked. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from smiling and laughing.

"I think he's asking me," Stiles said.

"I think he's asking all three of you," Lydia pitched.

"Okay, let me answer the questions," Agent McCall cut in. We all looked up at him with confused expressions, and he huffed, annoyed that they had successfully confused him. But considering he was Scott's dad, he should've been used to the antics of Scott and Stiles by now, even if he hadn't been around in a few years.

"Let me ask the questions," he corrected. Agent Douchebag opened his notepad, flipping through the pages. "Just so I have this absolutely clear. Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira." That I hadn't known until Stiles said it earlier when they were first getting our statements. Fucking freaky. No one should've known she was a kitsune except for me and her parents. "Then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her which blacked out the entire town."

"Sounds about right," Stiles said.

"How did you know he'd take her to a power station?" McCall asked.

"Well, 'cause he was an electrical engineer." Stiles scratched the side of his head. "So where else would he take her?"

Agent Douchebag looked so unamused it warranted being photographed and framed. "That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles."

"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops. He's in law enforcement." Stiles winked and pointed at Noah behind Agent McCall, and Noah snorted, almost chuckling.

When McCall turned around, Noah started coughing to cover it up as best he could. "Stiles, just, uh. . . Just answer the man," Noah tried. Not fooling anyone, Sheriff.

"We made a good guess," Stiles said.

"What were the three of you doing?" McCall asked, looking between Scott, Kira, and me.

"Eating pizza," Scott said at the same time as Kira said, "Eating sushi."

They glanced at each other and switched, Scott saying, "Eating sushi," with Kira saying, "Eating pizza." It sounded like they were lying and hadn't agreed on a story.

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. "Oh, my god," I said. "Kira's dad made sushi to impress Scott, then Kira ordered us a pizza because that plan had backfired. Scott had never had sushi before, which honestly baffles and disappoints me considering he's lived in California his whole life."

Scott frowned and looked at me. "Hey. . ."

Agent McCall turned to Noah and said, "You believe this?"

Noah waved his hand. "To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak. But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."

"Kira, is that how you remember it?" Agent Douchebag asked her, staring her down.

We all looked at her for her answer, and she nodded and said, "Yes." Agent Douchebag wasn't particularly happy. "Could I get my phone back now?"

"Sorry, but no." He then stood up. "We're done here." The agent walked to the door and opened it, each of us following him out. "Kira, a deputy is going to take you home. But we'll need you to fill out some paperwork first."

Kira turned to me and I smiled at her before a deputy escorted her away. Scott and I were about to walk away from the office to leave the building, but his dad called his name, getting his attention. Scott nodded at me, so I left them alone.

I walked out of the building, going to my car and leaning on the hood to wait for him. When I spotted Scott walking over, I asked, "Everything alright?"

"He knows we're lying," Scott answered in a low voice. "But he can't really do anything about it, so. . . We really need to figure out who was controlling Barrow."

The pit in my stomach grew. "Yeah, don't remind me." Whoever pointed Barrow in the direction of Kira either wanted to kill her or wanted to kickstart her abilities. Either way, none of it sat right with me.

At school the following day, Kira was trying her hardest to avoid me when I saw her before class, so I reluctantly sighed and decided to wait until lunch to approach her. While at my locker switching out my books between classes, Scott leaned on his locker next to me.

"Hey, do you think Kira could be like me?" Scott asked quietly. "I mean, Stiles said she couldn't be because of the electricity, but why else would Barrow try to kill her, and how else would she have survived?"

Sometimes I forgot just how new at supernatural life Scott was. I closed my locker and shouldered my bag, turning to him. Spotting Kira at her own locker down the hall, I jutted my chin towards her.

"Look at her," I said plainly.

Scott glanced at Kira then back at me, his eyebrows furrowing and the corners of his mouth dipping. "What do you mean?"

"I mean look at her." I gave him a pointed look. "With your wolf eyes."

It took him a moment to realize what I was getting at. "Oh, you mean. . . like an aura. . ." He perked up. "She's like you then, isn't she? She's a kitsune."

"Yeah, but she doesn't know." The wonders of different parenting styles. At least my mom always told me there was a possibility of getting powers, and when I did, I was prepared even if I wasn't on particular speaking terms with my mom at that time. Kira had no clue about any of it.

"Is that why you befriended her?" he wondered.

I shook my head and sighed. "Not at first, but I figured it out shortly after. That's when I started trying to get her closer to the rest of you."

"Why didn't you tell me?" That hit me right in the gut, especially when paired with his signature puppy dog eyes that he wasn't even trying to do.

I looked him directly in the eyes no matter how much it hurt to look at his sad eyes. "Because she didn't even know. Why would I tell everyone what she is when she doesn't know? Riichi and I grew up knowing we might end up with powers, but she didn't. And there was no guarantee that she would have powers. I'm sorry, Scott, but she didn't deserve to be. . . outed without her consent." I didn't know how else to phrase it.

He winced. "I get it. I'm sorry." He rubbed his forehead. "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I think Stiles got into my head when he said something about how we don't know if she's like Jennifer or the kanima."

"Well, I can assure you she's not. She has the potential to be, but then again, we all do. I'll talk to her at lunch, okay? See how she's doing."

At lunchtime, I didn't see Kira in the cafeteria, so I roamed the halls searching for her and found her sitting on the floor eating a sandwich. She looked up at me when I walked over and put her half-eaten food back in the Ziploc bag, setting it on the floor in front of her. I sat down next to her, letting my bag lay at my feet.

"I don't want to talk about it," Kira said before I could say anything.

I nodded, pursing my lips. "Okay." I paused, trying to figure out what else we could talk about so I could at least get her talking. "Uh, want to talk about how crazy Finstock is with his megaphone? I always knew he was eccentric, but that man is something else when he gets to walk around the halls yelling at students to get to class."

I was hoping that would at least get her to smile. It didn't, but it did get her to look at me. "Do you have your phone?" she asked. I nodded. "I'm going to show you something no one else has ever seen. No one except for Barrow." She shifted in her spot to completely face me. "Take a picture of me. And use the flash."

Her spirit. She's seen her spirit.

Pulling out my phone, I moved to take a photo of her, using the flash as she said. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious if hers looked like mine had with flash photography. Sophomore year of high school, I had to miss picture day at school so they wouldn't see it. The yearbook that year reused my freshman photo, but I didn't mind too much.

After taking a photo of Kira, I looked at it and smiled. It looked almost exactly like mine had, just instead of a fiery effect, it looked more electrified.

"Freaky, right?" Kira said, picking at her nails.

"No, it's not," I told her. She picked her head up, her expression twisting. I swiped the picture away, going back to the camera. I handed her my phone. "Take a picture of me." Taking in a deep breath, I allowed my spirit to surface enough for it to be caught in the photo.

Kira looked down at the picture and gasped. "It looks. . . it looks like mine." She snapped her head up to me. "How? Mine started showing up a few months ago."

"I was fourteen when mine showed," I revealed, taking my phone back and putting it away. "You're not as alone as you think."

"Wha-what are we?"

"We're kitsune."

She shook her head. "None of this makes sense. Kitsune are myths." She leaned against the wall. "And I don't know how, but Barrow knew about it. He used my own phone to take pictures of me."

I gaped. "That's why you asked for it back."

"If someone sees those pictures. . ."

"We need to get your phone back."

A few hours after school, Scott and Stiles met Kira and me outside of the Sheriff's Station. Before climbing out of my car to go talk to them, she put a hand on my forearm. "Wait, what did you tell them?" she asked, worry in her voice and expression.

When I had initially told Kira that I was going to them for help with the matter, she had been confused as to why them. I told her they were prone to making trouble and breaking the rules, and with Stiles and his connections to the police and Scott being his partner in crime, they were our best bet. I told Scott the truth about the pictures, obviously, but she didn't need to know that until she knew about him. I don't know what he told Stiles though, but I did imply that he should keep it on the down-low, so I assumed Stiles didn't know the truth.

"That you had some pictures of you that you wanted to delete." I felt a little bad for lying, but it was easier than explaining the truth at the moment.

She didn't seem to get the hint from me specifically stressing 'pictures.' "What kind of pictures?"

"Nudes, Kira. Nudes."

"Oh." Kira slowly nodded then perked up a little. "Good idea."

We got out of my car, meeting Scott and Stiles at Stiles's Jeep. The human stayed inside, leaning out of the window to talk to us. He handed a card to Scott. "Okay, this one will get you inside all of the perimeter doors," Stiles explained. He handed Scott another card. "This one into the evidence room." And one last card. "And this one's for my father's office."

Scott held them all separately between his fingers. "You didn't steal these, did you?" Scott asked.

"No, I cloned them using the RFID emulator."

I frowned, my eyebrows pinching together. "Is that worse than stealing?"

"It's smarter," Stiles decided. He shifted in his seat. "Okay, so now almost everybody's out dealing with the blackout, but there's always somebody at the front desk. Dispatch, usually a night shifter or two. You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster." He pointed in the direction of the door. "Alright? Nobody uses it. Now, I'll text you if anyone comes out, but, Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. My dad's under investigation for impeachment because of your dad, so, if anything happens, I will run and leave you all for dead."

"Thanks, Stiles. Love you, too." A little sarcasm shined through my words even if I was grateful for him helping us.

"Got it," Scott said with a more amicable tone than me. "Thanks. Seriously, dude."

"I'd ask my dad, you know, but. . ." Stiles trailed off.

"No, I know," Scott said. "I get it."

"Alright, just, uh, hurry up."

We left Stiles, following Scott around the building and inside. Once inside, we stayed low to the ground and had to hide from a deputy walking around.

When we were safely inside the evidence room, we started looking around for the lime green phone, digging through evidence bags. Scott found it and drew our attention by whisper-calling our names. He handed it to Kira when we knelt beside him.

Kira pulled it out of the evidence bag and tried turning it on, then sighed and whispered, "It's dead. We have to take it."

"No, they'll know it's gone," Scott countered.

"Then we have to charge it somehow," I said. "But the power's out."

Scott's eyes caught something. "See if you can find a charger cable." He inched towards the desk where a laptop sat. Perfect.

We dug through the drawers of the desk, and I pulled out a black cord. "Awesome," Scott said and opened the laptop.

I handed the cable over to Kira as she was by the charger output then noticed Scott freeze when looking at the background on the computer screen. It was a picture of a young kid in someone's lap.

"Scotty?" I quietly said, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"That's me." He stared wistfully at the screen. "Me and my dad." He didn't seem heartbroken or angry or trepid, only nostalgic. It was nice to know his childhood years weren't completely crappy with his dad, it seemed.

I gave him a small smile and rubbed his shoulder as Kira started charging her phone.

A few seconds later, Scott's attention was drawn away from Kira and her slow-charging phone. He crawled over to the door and looked out the window. I could see Stiles and Agent McCall. McCall looked annoyed while talking to Stiles, but that was nothing new.

"It's on," Kira said. "It's on."

"Great, hurry," I told her, not bothering to hide the panic in my voice and glancing between Stiles being a distraction and Kira going through her phone.

She went to her pictures and quickly deleted them. I unplugged the charger and put it back where I found it, Scott closed the laptop, and Kira put her phone back in the evidence bag. We then hurried out of the room. I closed the door behind us, and we crossed the bullpen. Scott opened the door and we followed him out.

Once we made it outside, we ran back to Stiles and the Jeep.

"We did it," Scott said, grinning. "All the pics deleted."

"That was awesome!" Kira exclaimed. We looked at her strangely. I didn't think she would find any of that enjoyable. "I mean, terrifying. Completely terrifying. But kind of awesome." She grinned at me and I laughed.

"Glad you think so," I said. "Let's never do that again."

Kira rubbed her hands on her thighs to ease her nerves. "I've never done anything like that. Have you?"

Scott, Stiles, and I glanced between each other, probably each recalling a different moment in time, such as busting Isaac out or the kanima incident or maybe something I didn't know about.

"Yeah, once or twice," Stiles awkwardly said.

I nodded a few times. "So, uh, we should probably get out of here." I looked at Kira. "Do you want to go home, or would you be up for a party?"

"Party?" Scott repeated then remembered. "Oh, right, Danny's Halloween blacklight party. I think most of the lacrosse team's going."

"I'd be up for a party," Kira answered.

I turned to the boys. "What about you guys?"

Scott and Stiles glanced at each other and shrugged. "Yeah, why not?" Scott said.

"Where's it at?" Stiles asked. "I heard the original venue canceled."

I beamed from ear to ear. "That's the fun part. It's at Derek's loft."

I pulled up outside the loft and looked up at the building. I could hear the music from the parking lot, though it was faint. Kira and I got out of my car, but before leading her into the building, I stripped off my jacket, flannel, and beanie and left them in my car, knowing it would be warm in the loft with all the dancing people, leaving me in my red tank and light denim shorts.

"Come on," I told Kira, waving for her to follow. As we entered the building, I saw the Jeep and dirt bike pull into the parking lot.

In front of the loft, I pried open the large metal door and we walked inside, stopping at the bottom of the stairs just inside the door. Kira looked around the room, her eyes wide. "Wow," she said. "So this is what Beacon Hills parties are like."

I shrugged and smiled. "I guess. Haven't been to too many." My eyes searched the room and landed on Boyd hiding in the corner nearby, watching the party-goers uncomfortably. I wondered if he arrived with Isaac and Allison, Lydia, or assumed some of us would show up. Or found out the party was in Derek's loft and wanted to be prepared to keep Derek from murdering anyone. All were plausible but my money was on the last one. "Hey, there's Boyd." Kira immediately looked to where I was gesturing. "Go talk to him."

"What?" she blurted.

An amused grin settled across my face. "Talk to him. Spend time with him. Dance with him. Whatever. You have a teeny tiny crush on him, so go do something about it, or don't, but he's still your friend."

She took in a deep breath, her eyes settling on Boyd. "Do I look okay?"

"You look great, now go." I steered her in his direction and pushed her forward. It took her a moment, but Kira started walking towards Boyd. I watched her walk all the way over and saw Boyd smile at her. "Good."

A few seconds later, Scott joined me. "You do that?" He gestured to Kira and Boyd.

"Yep." I turned to him and frowned. "Why are you wearing a jacket still? Come on, koinu, it's a party. Relax. It's also really hot in here. Someone should really open a window."

He laughed and moved to avoid being run into by someone. "I don't know where to put it now."

I rolled my eyes, grabbed his hand, and dragged him further into the room towards the spiral staircase leading up to the second floor of the loft. Other jackets were strewn about the stairs and the railing. "Leave it on the stairs. No one will touch it." Scott peeled off his jacket and listened to me, but before he could say anything else, I spotted a table with paint and gasped. "Bodypaint! Let's go!" He yelped as I tugged hard on his arm, bringing him to the table. Things of paint and brushes littered the table. I looked up at Scott. "Can I paint you? Please?"

"I don't think I've ever seen you give someone the puppy dog eyes, so yeah," he said.

Fuck yeah. I grabbed a container of neon orange and its corresponding paintbrush and turned back to Scott still standing there awkwardly and not moving. "Strip."

He blinked a few times. "What?"

"Your shirt," I pointed out, gesturing to the long sleeve, button-down that he was wearing. "You said I can paint you, so unless you want me to paint your shirt. . ." I mimed him taking it off. "And even if you meant just your face, I don't want to get paint on it. It's too nice for a damn rave, and I'm not sure this paint will wash off clothing easily."

"Oh, right." Scott quickly moved to take it off, fumbling over the buttons, then tied it around his waist. He picked at his dark tank. "The tank too?"

"That one's up to you, Scotty." I winked at him and smirked. If it hadn't been so dark in the room, I probably would've seen him blush.

"What're you gonna paint?" he asked, still holding up some of the fabric.

"Depends on if you take it off." His dark eyes bored into me for a few moments, thinking it over, and I raised an eyebrow, almost daring him to.

Then he swiftly stripped off his tank and tossed it aside, completely baring his chest. "Go ahead."

I grinned. "Look at you, Scotty. Throwing caution to the wind and stripping in public." Scott chuckled and looked away. "What are we going to do with you? You already strip at school. Now here. Next, you'll be stripping at the grocery store." He simply continued to laugh. "Okay, now stand still. I haven't held a brush in about a year. I don't want to mess up." Scott bit his lip and nodded.

Dipping the brush in paint, I brought it up to his chest and he jumped a little. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Sorry, it's cold," he explained. I smiled at his excuse and focused on painting his torso. His well-built, tanned torso. Urging myself to not think about that, I kept painting.

Ten minutes later, he had a large, orange and yellow tiger lily painted across his chest and shoulder. I set the paint and brush on the table and said, "All done."

Scott looked down at his chest and grinned. "Cool. What kind of flower?"

"A tiger lily."

"Isn't that a character from Peter Pan?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I prefer the flower."

Scott eyed the paint behind me. "Uh, can I. . ." He trailed off.

I looked at the paint then back at him. "Are you asking if you could paint me?" He pursed his lips, shrugged, and leaned his head back and forth, not confirming or denying it. "Go ahead, Scott." I gestured to the paint.

"Can I paint on your face?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" I moved my hair, so it was going down my back and wasn't in my face.

He picked up the white paint. Or at least it glowed off-white, so it was probably blue in regular light. Scott held the brush up and moved closer to me. "Uh, close your eyes."

Complying, I shut my eyes and felt the paintbrush delicately move up the side of my nose and then outline my eye beneath my eyebrow, flicking upwards. He outlined beneath my eye, too, flicking upwards again. He copied the pattern on the other side of my nose and eye. Then he framed my eyes and cheekbones with small dashes.

I slowly smiled. "Are you making fur?" I asked. "You're making me into a wolf, aren't you?"

"You'll just have to wait and see," I heard him say, but I could hear the smile in his voice, so I took that as a yes. He finished up the minimal fur effect. "Okay, you can open your eyes if you want." Before I opened my eyes, I felt the brush on my collarbone. I looked down to see him tracing along it with the paint so it stood out in the blacklight. He then painted a line on either side of my throat. Scott set the brush into the paint. "I think I'm all done."

I was painfully aware of how close we were standing since he hadn't taken a step back when he finished, and I liked it more than I should've. I glanced down at the paint still in his hand then up at his eyes. The whites glowed under the blacklight.

"Anywhere else you want to paint?" I asked boldly.

The corner of his mouth twitched up. "I don't think that'd be appropriate in public." Cheeky.

Plucking the paint from his hand, I said, "Fair enough," and set it down on the table. I turned to face the crowd of dancing people and grimaced. "Was thinking about dancing, but that just looks like a mess."

Scott laughed as he looked at the crowd as well. "Wanna head to the roof?" he asked over the music.

"Yeah, parties aren't really our thing, huh?" We then started towards the spiral staircase.

Before going very far, I grabbed Scott's arm, pulling him closer to me, and said, "Wait, wait, I need a picture." I pulled my phone out of my pocket, opened the camera, and held it above our heads in selfie mode so some of the paint on him was seen glowing, too. "Make a face." I bared my teeth like a growl and he laughed and followed my lead. I made a claw motion with my free hand and snapped the picture. Lowering my phone, I zoomed in on my face to look at the paint job Scott had done. "I like it. I'm one of the wolves now."

"And I belong in a garden."

I playfully pushed him away. "Oh, hush."

Putting my phone away, we hurried up to the roof. Pushing out into the clear air, I took in a deep breath and sighed. Inside smelled like booze, sweat, and paint. Not exactly a good mixture. And the sky was clear for Halloween night.

I sat down on the edge of the skylight. Scott sat down next to me. It was quiet for a few moments as we looked out over Beacon Hills.

"What do you usually do for Halloween?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Stiles and I usually go trick or treating," Scott said. "This is the first year we didn't. Last year, I dressed up as a zombie and he was a zombie slayer."

I could easily imagine Scott dressed in torn clothes and fake blood while Stiles carried around a bat. "Sounds like a lot of fun."

Scott tore his eyes away from the horizon line and turned to me. "What about you?" he asked.

"Isaac and I would go to every haunted house in the county. Then he would have to go home because of his dad, so I would go home and binge horror movies and Halloween flicks until I fell asleep or had to go to bed because of school. And they were actual horror movies, not the stupid paranormal stuff that some people call horror."

Scott nudged me with his shoulder. "Guess this year we're both doing something different then."

"Yeah," I said wistfully. "It's not necessarily a bad different though. Although, if Isaac and I went to the haunted houses, it wouldn't be as fun because he's a werewolf and is harder to scare now. Growing up is bullshit, too."

He let out a sharp laugh. "Yeah, I'll miss trick or treating."

I turned to him and smiled. "Maybe next year. We can try to all go together."

He nodded, smiling too. "I'd like that."

Silence spread between us again as we looked at each other, but it was comfortable, and I quite liked it. I liked the intimacy of it. His shoulder brushed gently against mine and I moved just a tad closer to him, his warm gaze pulling me in. His lips parted.

Just then, a loud roar from down below broke the silence, both of us springing apart.

Scott, with his eyes wide, looked at me. "Derek's back. I better go keep him from killing anyone."

I nodded quickly. "Right. That's a good idea." Scott shot up from his spot and ran back inside while I moved slower, not in a particular hurry to go see people. My heart felt heavy in my chest.

Did we almost kiss? No, no, no, no. Fuck, what was I thinking?

One of the most obvious things about Scott was that he still very much had feelings for Allison. He needed to fully move on from his ex on his own, and maybe once he did, I'd be willing to let him kiss me then. But otherwise, I had no plans to be a rebound. Even if he was kind and funny and easy-going and attractive and. . . No, no. You're just horny. You have Brett for that. That's the whole reason you kept his number in the first place.

Dragging my feet, I slowly trudged towards the door to the stairwell, then I heard an odd snarling sound behind me and froze. Eerie, mechanical, echoey snarling. Turning around, a waspy, black-cloaked figure with a silver mask materialized in front of me. Gasping, I stumbled back and turned around only for another one to melt out of the shadows, blocking my path. The pitch-black eyes glowed green as it brought a hand up to my head, staring into my eyes.

Everything went cold.

Koinu - puppy

Don't mind me celebrating inauguration day by posting a new chapter. And I feel no guilt about this chapter lmao.