Argent House
Chris' POV
"When last did you see Scott McCall, Mr Argent?" Deputy Clarke asked once we arrived at the car.
"When he came over for dinner," I lied. "My father, the current principal of Beacon Hills High, invited him over for dinner after the game last week."
"Why?"
"I have no idea," This time, I told the truth. "But after Scott left, my father voiced his approval of him."
I realized that although Allison was nervous, she was pleased when my father said that he didn't get it, what was there not to like about Scott, although she shrugged... And suppressed a smile.
Thinking back to that moment, I wondered if she was happy that there was someone else who saw what she saw in Scott, and that someone was a member of her family, a hunter.
"What did your daughter trust you with?" Deputy Clarke shifted focus. "What did she tell you?"
"What you know makes you responsible."
"Her secret relationship with Scott," I replied with a lie, my hand a fist as a form of coping mechanism, and then it dawned on me. "He knew."
"Who knew what?"
"My father," I said. "He must have known that Allison and Scott were secretly dating."
"Why were they secretly dating?" Deputy Haigh inserted himself with a question, getting out of the car.
"Do you have a daughter, Deputy?" I responded with a question of my own, looking at him, I doubted it. "Scott McCall wasn't exactly the kind of boy a parent would want his daughter to date.
He was a jock, a captain of the lacrosse team, failing two classes, and had a restraining order against him by a fellow student. No parent wants that for their daughter(s)."
"You forgot to mention that he was also a good kid, not the typical jock, and that he worked as an assistant at the most popular animal clinic in town," Deputy Clarke said. "When you combine being cocaptain and a popular veterinarian's assistant, you get one busy kid. It's no wonder he failed a few classes during his first semester as a cocaptain.
Your father, the person who knows Scott's academic record and school history best, approved of him, regardless of being 'the kind of boy' he was, why couldn't you?"
I didn't grace her with a reply, but her question echoed in my head.
"What did you do after you learned about the secret relationship?" Deputy Haigh inquired.
"Scott went missing before I could speak with him," I answered.
"Isn't that convenient."
"Why did your daughter say, 'I trusted the wrong person and everything fell apart, and now he's missing?'" Deputy Clarke carried on with the questions. "Referring to trusting you."
"She knew that I didn't support her relationship with Scott," I began, forming the answer as I went. "And the argument she had with Scott was their last interaction, and it was about her telling me the truth. I guess she blames me for being the reason they didn't part on good terms because I insisted that she come clean."
"Do you blame you?" Deputy Haigh asked.
"What you know makes you responsible."
"It's hard not to blame myself when my daughter is suffering," I answered.
"May I ask Allison a few more questions?" Deputy Clarke inquired, a moment before the front door opened and out came Allison, although she stood by the door and looked at us.
"Don't you think you've asked her enough questions?" I responded.
"Not when two - three - other cases may be connected to this case," Deputy Haigh said. "Maybe more."
"Which cases?"
"Confidential cases, Mr Argent," Deputy Clarke replied. "I'm only going to ask her one more question."
CUT
Allison's POV
For a moment, I felt stronger than I have ever felt standing up to my mother, and when she didn't stop or come after me, I felt like I reached a significant milestone in my life.
This was the first time that I stood up to her and won an argument, and I couldn't help but feel on top of the world because people rarely got the final word when dealing with my mother, even my dad.
But as much as I was on top of the world, reality quickly brought me down as my father and the deputies approached.
"May I ask you one more question, Allison?" Deputy Clarke asked me.
"Only if you'll tell me why you asked if Scott had anything to apologize for," I replied, crossing my arms and avoiding looking at my dad.
"Fair enough," She agreed. "If you were dating Scott, why did you go out with Matt Daehler the night Scott disappeared? There are witnesses that say they saw you kissing."
I tensed, and stole a look at dad, and he was now looking at me with an unreadable expression.
"I, er," I began awkwardly. "Matt asked to hang out, and I agreed without thinking, I don't know why. (Erica flirting with Scott came to mind.) I told Scott and he... And he..."
I realized something strange, totally unlike Scott.
Scott was a jealous boyfriend, proven by his attempted attack on Jackson and me during the full moon when we were in the car after I broke up with him and how he reacted when he found Jackson naked in the locker room with me.
Something about Scott not showing any usual jealousy or protectiveness when I told him about agreeing to hang out with Matt was strange, very strange, especially when he actually suggested that I kiss Matt to throw off my mom...
"Hey, it's OK," Scott had said assuredly."That's not bad. If he (My dad) knows, fine. I'm actually more worried about your mom."
The words came back to me and I realized that Scott wasn't concerned about my dad as much as he was about my mom after she spoke with him.
Something about my mom and that talk, and pencils being sharpened, whatever that was about, scared Scott more than my dad has even managed with a gun to his head.
I knew my mom was scarier than my dad, she scared me more than my dad, but to get Scott so afraid of her finding out about us that he made the suggestions that he made...
I turned to look at her as she approached us, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
She managed to do something that Derek, Kate, Peter and my dad never managed to do, and Scott disappeared just a few hours later, and she has been avoiding looking at me ever since, and actually letting me get away with a lot of things the whole week, including the argument we just had, which was a troubling highlight.
"You told Scott and...?" Deputy Clarke prompted.
"I - I told Scott," I turned towards her, doing my all not to tremble. "And he took it well, and we agreed to go along with it to keep our relationship a secret. Some time after Scott left, Matt kissed me, but I pulled back, and I left."
"Did you have any interaction with Matt after that?" Deputy Haigh inquired.
"No," I responded honestly, shaking my head. "That was actually the last time I saw him. I overheard some people saying that he's in the hospital."
"So, you don't know anything about why he's in the hospital?" Deputy Clarke asked.
"No, I don't," I answered, and though I haven't been interested in anything that didn't have anything to do with Scott all week long, I wondered now. "Why is he in the hospital?"
"We can't tell you that," Deputy Clarke said. "But we can tell you that we found Scott, but..."
"Where is he?" I interjected, unable to stop myself.
I needed to see him, and nobody was going to stop me. I didn't care anymore.
"I'm sorry, Allison," Deputy Clarke adopted a sympathetic expression, one I didn't like right away, something about it was just wrong. "We - we didn't find him alive."
My heart came to a sudden halt, and so did the world.
"We didn't find him alive."
The words replayed over and over and over again in my head, and my heart grew more and more numb, hollow, with each replay.
"N-no," Someone breathed with a trembling voice.
