Chapter 16: The Man with the Scarred Face
"This is detention, Ms. Crowe, not American Idol," Mr. Harris drawled in Melanie's ear. He pulled one side of her headphones away from her ear to relay the message to her. She ducked her head and flinched away from his hot breath on her ear – which lacked garlic, she couldn't help but notice. "Less singing, more cleaning."
"Sorry Mr. Harris," Melanie muttered, shifting her headphones so they hung around her neck. She reached into her pocket to turn off her mp3 player, cutting Owl City off in the middle of a lyric. The catchy pop tune screeched to a halt and the contrasting silence of the chemistry room.
The repairs to the room had finished and now she was stuck cleaning off the tables and the blackboard of that room and a few others for detention. She didn't mind it too much, spraying down tables with disinfectant and wiping them down wasn't that bad of a gig. It was the fact that Mr. Harris was the one how had to make sure she got it all done. If people thought he wasn't pleasant during school hours they hadn't dealt with him afterwards.
Every scrub of her cloth atop of the black tables, Melanie imagined she was scrubbing off Scott's face. It just didn't make sense! Stiles was allowed to run around with Scott as they continued on their werewolf endeavors but she was benched to the sidelines! Just like in lacrosse. Did they not trust her? Was it because she was a girl in the boyish world they were now immersed in? It just didn't make sense that he suddenly did a total one-eighty about it. Was it bad that she was concerned about them?
"I think that one spot is clean, Ms. Crowe," Mr. Harris commented dryly. Melanie jerked her head up to look at him and then down at the table. One spot had a large, wet circle on it while the rest of the table remained untouched. "It's good to see that you're thorough but there are other tables to tend to."
Sighing, Melanie moved across the aisle to the other table. She only had a few scrubs on the table before she looked up. Her reflection stared back at her through a fixed window rather than the broken one from where the Alpha threw Stiles's car battery into the classroom. Standing in the room that kicked off the horror of that night made Melanie's throat tighten and her chest heave as she tried to get her breathing back.
She still had nightmares from that night, when she could sleep that is. It was a wonder how none of them ended up in therapy from it. Hell, she was surprised it wasn't suggested or forced upon them. Lydia had to be put on anxiety medication and kept at home for days after the Alpha attack at the video store. And yet with the idea of a murderer chasing them down they were interviewed by the police and that was that. Beacon Hills had a funny way of operating sometimes.
She moved onto the next table, turning her thoughts to the lacrosse quarter-finals coming up at the end of the week. She had to play in that game. Just had to. Maybe then her mother would see how important it was to her. Maybe then Coach and Jackson would take her seriously. Maybe then the rumors would finally be put to rest. Maybe then something in her life would finally go right.
Clang, clang, clang! Both Melanie and Mr. Harris looked up when the sound of slamming locker doors echoed in the hallway. Mr. Harris's eyes narrowed behind the lenses of his glasses. Her scrubbing slowed as her eyes drifted over to the front door. The legs of Mr. Harris's chair scraped against the floor as he pushed away from his desk.
"You stay here," he ordered, smoothing down his tie as he approached the door. As if she really ha that far to run. He would only catch her when she came in to school the next day. Besides, she'd just run straight for the showers. After sleeping on the couch in a musty, dusty, burnt-out house she just wanted to get clean.
The door closed behind Mr. Harris with a soft click. Sighing, Melanie turned her attention back to her work. She quickly fell into a rhythm of spraying the table and then wiping it down. She was on her second to last table when a knock sounding at the door made her look up. She paused as an older man in a leather jacket strolled in. Half his face was marred with scars, making half his face appear frozen. She pulled a face.
"Oh, god! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have – that wasn't nice of me, sorry," she stammered, covering her face with her hands.
"That's okay," the man laughed. "When you look like this you get used to every reaction thrown at you. Believe it or not, that was one of the tame ones."
"Well, it was better than what I was thinking," Melanie admitted.
"Which was?" the man prompted, stepping further into the room.
"If someone ran a lawn mower over your face," she replied. The man laughed. Melanie allowed a small smile through. Someone who could laugh at a joke like that couldn't be that bad. The hair on the back of her neck that had sprung up at the sight of him laid back down. "Can I…help you with anything?" she asked.
"Ah, yes. I was wondering if you had maybe seen my nephew around," the man replied.
"Considering school's over for the day, probably not," she said. "Who's your nephew? Maybe I know him."
"That's doubtful," the man replied. Melanie blinked and peered at him. "He's a bit of a loner. Doesn't have friends. Tends to go his own way and do his own thing. I'm, uh, just here to pick up a book for him."
"Well, freshman lockers are by the cafeteria, sophomores in the main hall, Juniors up stairs and Seniors by the art room," Melanie explained, pointing in random directions to gesture the general area of where the certain lockers were located. "If he's like any of the other boys around here the combination is already set for tomorrow so all you have to do is tug on it and it'll pop open."
"Thanks for the advice." The man's eyes flickered around the room before landing on the headphones around her neck. "Into music, I take it?"
She looked down. She completely forgot the headphones were resting around her neck. "Yeah, I love it. Singing, playing, listening. It's all so much fun."
"Is that why you're here after school?"
"No, I got detention." Melanie sprayed another table and began wiping it down. "I got to school late due to sleepwalking."
"Oh?" the man's eyebrows lifted. "Wind up anywhere interesting?"
Melanie snorted. "If you call the woods and the Hale House interesting," she replied.
"The Hale House?" the man repeated. His eyebrows jumped up and curiosity latched onto his words. She nodded her head. "What brought you out there?"
"Who knows? Sleepwalkers don't really have a destination in mind. They just go where their feet take them. Mine decided to take me to some creepy house." Melanie laughed a little and shook her head.
"Was anyone lurking around?" the man pressed. Melanie's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him. "A young girl alone in the woods? Gotta be careful about those things," he said.
"True, but I can handle it," Melanie said. "I'm a tough girl."
"With a very, dare I say, enchanting personality," the man said, a smile stretching on the good half of her face. Melanie smiled in return.
The classroom door creaked open. Mr. Harris strode back in, his face much more pinched than usual. He mumbled something about a prank and sighed heavily. He dropped back down into his chair, pushed his glasses up his nose with a finger, and grabbed his discarded pen off his desk.
"These tables are clean enough. Move onto the next room. I'm sure I don't need to watch over you like a young child. Try and hurry up if you can. I don't want to be here all night," he said without looking up. He waved his hand to motion her out of the room.
Melanie turned back around and blinked in surprise when she noticed that the man with the scarred face was gone. Almost as if he had vanished into thin air. Shrugging, she grabbed the cloth and spray bottle and walked out of the room with a new pep in her step. He didn't say she couldn't listen to music, after all.
# # #
"No, it wasn't too bad as far as detentions go," Melanie said into her phone. Her head was tilted to hold it up against her ear as she used her hands to continue to put polish on her toenails. "It was actually kind of fun."
"Only you can find a way to make cleaning fun," Erica commented. Melanie didn't miss her laugh which was crackly due to slight static on the line.
"Hey, as long as you get some music going cleaning can be a party," Melanie replied, finishing up her pinky toe on her right foot. Setting aside the blue-green metallic polish bottle, she grabbed the polish varnish can off the bedside table and sprayed it on her toes, flinching at the cold temperature.
"Nope. No matter what you say cleaning sucks. You must have some sort of super power."
"Some people get spider powers. Some people get bat powers. I get party powers."
"Batman didn't have powers. He bought all of his stuff. He's only called Batman because he dresses like a bat under the guise of night."
"So why don't they call him Nightman?"
"It doesn't work like that, Mels."
"Hey, I'm not the one who spent most of study hall pouring over comic books in junior high. You can't blame me for not catching onto the lingo."
Erica sighed. Melanie could almost see her rolling her eyes. "So are the Valentine's plans for your parents set?"
"Yep. I made them reservations for tomorrow at seven at that Italian place. The one with the good wine. That should get them in the right state of mind, right?"
"Wine, cheese, candlelight, Italian food. Sounds like a perfect night of romance to me. I'd love it if someone did that for me."
"Please, Eri, no boy in our grade is that thoughtful or that rich. Besides Jackson. And even then I don't think he'd go that far with it. I mean he's bought Lydia jewelry as far as I know and that's it. Maybe some lingerie. But that's more for him than her." Melanie picked up the bottle of nail polish, shook it, and then began polishing the nails on her left foot. "Did you know he got Allison roses?"
"Isn't there supposed to be buyer-seller confidentiality with this whole thing?" Erica asked.
"In this case the topic is allowed to be discussed," Melanie replied. "I mean, he's basically cheating on Lydia isn't he? With how much he's hanging all over Allison. And she's not even saying a word!"
"If this is bothering Lydia she wouldn't say anything about it. That would be like putting a sign on her forehead saying she can't control him."
"I just think it's ridiculous she's giving him so much leeway. She's practically telling him to cheat. It's lame. Even for her."
"Yeah, well, you know what they say. Love is blind."
"Or selective."
A quick succession of knocks on her bedroom door was followed by Laurence sticking his head in between the gap of the door and the door frame. Nova's head perked up at the noise but he settled back down on his pillow when he saw who it was. Melanie lifted her eyebrows, signaling that she was waiting for him to say whatever it was that he knocked for.
"Dinner's ready. Spaghetti. Set the table please. I'm going to get your mother," he said.
"Okay Dad, I'll be right there." She waited for the door to close before continuing her conversation with Erica. "Anyway. After detention I stocked up all the flowers so they're ready to go tomorrow. The labels are all sorted and everything so all that needs to be done is the delivery. Isn't it great? I'm like a real life Cupid!"
"Don't tell me you're going to be wearing wings tomorrow."
Melanie swung her legs over the side of her bed and walked on the heels of her feet out the door and shuffled to the stairs. "I hadn't planned on it but now that you gave me the idea I might. But don't worry about that. Worry about being extra excited for your gift in the morning. I've totally topped myself from last year."
"Ugh, you're spoiling me."
"Yep, because God knows you won't do it for yourself," Melanie pointed out. "Anyway, I gotta go. I'll call you after so we can catch up on ANTM. Otherwise see you bright and early in the AM."
"Okay. Talk to you later."
Melanie jabbed the end call button with her thumb and rolled off her bed. Snapping her fingers, she signaled for Nova to follow her. Once outside her room she picked up the puppy and cradled him in her arms due to him still being afraid to climb and descend the stairs. She kissed the puppy between the ears and then scratched the top of his head. "Let's get you some food. We want you to grow big and strong. Yes we do," she cooed.
The stairs creaked as she put her weight on it to descend but the largest creak sounded when she stopped altogether to listen. Her parents' muffled arguing voices weren't new. She managed to block out if not outright ignore it most of the time but there were a few phrases that she picked out that made her take pause. "Don't have time for this", "You just don't understand", "It's not that easy", "You're being selfish" came out. But even then it wasn't what was said but rather the conviction that they used. It sounded almost hateful. A tone that she had never heard used no matter how frustrated her parents had gotten with each other.
She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat as more barbed words were thrown back and forth behind the closed doors. Pinpricks covered the surface of her eyes until tears rolled across the bottom lids. Her lower lip trembled despite her best efforts to keep it stiff.
She blinked and looked down at Nova who had started to lick her on her chin. She forced a smile and wiped the dog drool off her chin. "I'm fine," she told him. "Nothing…nothing to worry about. Mom and Dad are just a bit tense. That's all." She kissed between Nova's ears again and moved away from her parent's door. She had descended the last few stairs when her phone rang. Cradling Nova in one arm, she dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, briefly noting that the name STILES flashed on the screen.
"What's up?" she asked as soon as she answered, her heart now racing for a different reason.
"The Alpha attacked Harris!" Stiles yelled.
"What!?" Melanie cried out. Her phone almost slipped out of her hand in shock but she held onto it although she set Nova down so as not to risk dropping him. Once on the ground Nova trotted away. "The Alpha was at school again!?"
"Derek tracked him down. Hunters showed up. We're outrunning them now and—whoa! Geeze, Scott, learn to drive!"
"Stiles!" Melanie barked into the phone. "What is going on? Why would the Alpha attack Harris?"
"Do I look like someone who would understand the mind of a psychotic killer? Search me, Mels!"
"But it doesn't make sense."
"None of this makes sense! We're dealing with werewolves here; any version of sense has gone completely out the window."
Melanie shoved her fingers through her hair and began to pace. She chewed on her bottom lip. The Alpha was getting brave, far too brave. This only meant it didn't have much else to lose as it went on its killing spree. But why? Why those targets? Why was Mr. Harris involved? The questions flew through Melanie's mind in such rapid succession that it made her head hurt and no question stuck around long enough for her to come up with any semblance of an answer.
"Why are you telling me this? I thought you didn't want me involved," Melanie asked, traces of bitterness attached to her words.
"That doesn't mean I want you to get fucking killed either! You said the Alpha was outside your house once. I'm not just going to cover you in meat and throw you to the dogs. If the Alpha is going after our teachers there must be a good reason. And if he's getting bold enough to do it with hunters around then he must be close to completing his goal, whatever it is. And I'm sure terrorizing the community isn't at the top of his Werewolf List so we don't have much time left. If we're going to stop him and get Scott back to normal we're going to have to act fast."
Melanie sighed and looked out the nearby window into the darkness that blanketed the street of her neighborhood. Her lips formed a thin line for a brief moment and then she spoke: "So I guess the million dollar question is how to catch and Alpha werewolf."
a/n - And we're back! Thanks everyone for the new reviews, favs, and alerts. You're excitement is getting me excited for what's going to happen next. It's gonna be so good! I can't wait for you all to see it. So a new face has showed up around Beacon Hills High. What does he want? Well, you'll find out in future chapters. Please read and review, I love knowing what you think and if you have any guesses for the future of UIA.
Review Replies
Biancs - Your english is great! I don't see anything you have to worry about with it. She may be a harpy, she may not be. We shall see soon. Yeah, Jackson can be an asshole but then he wouldn't be the asshole that we love if he weren't. As for Melanie and Isaac, they have a few trials ahead of them that will bring them together and test their relationship with one another. Erica and Mel have made up, thankfully, but whether they stay that way or not is the question, muahahahahaha. Thanks so much for your review.
Guest (1) - You have no idea how much it means to me to know that you gave this story a chance when it doesn't fit your normal M.O. when it comes to stories and that you're enjoying it so much that you'll stick with it to the end. I hope you enjoy what I have planned for the future. Thanks for your review!
Guest (2) - Mel doesn't like to be told what to do, that's for sure, and being placed on the sidelines is something that she can't handle. Like in lacrosse, she wants to be a part of the action and that isn't exempt here. Thanks for your review.
