No sooner had I got out the shower of my motel room did I hear my phone going off on the nightstand with Allison's caller ID on the screen. "Cordy? You need to get over to our room right now, something's going on here and we might need your help."
"Sure, just give me a sec." Quickly pulling on some shoes I slipped out of my room where my roommate was already fast asleep, heading over to Allison's room where Lydia and Stiles were waiting with her. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"
"No everything's not okay, we think there might be something wrong with the motel because I keep on hearing voices of people trying to kill themselves and people are acting weirder than normal. Turns out, this place just so happens to be the top recommended spot for all kinds of suicidal guests. The owners keep count of how many people have died here, and tonight the numbers went up by three." Lydia announced as she paced restlessly back and forth. Okay. I just wanted one normal night but I guess that wasn't going to happen. How is it we always seemed to attract trouble even in the middle of freaking nowhere?
"Yeah, Scott came into my room whilst I was in the shower and he felt way off. Last time I saw Scott act like that was during the full moon." Allison informed us all as I went over to the bed in order to sit down.
"Yeah, I know. He was definitely a little off with me too, but actually, it was Boyd who was really off." Stiles agreed, looking just as twitchy and restless as Lydia. "I watched him put his fist through the vending machine."
"See? It is the motel." Striding over to the nightstand, Lydia pulled open a draw and picked up the complimentary bible that was kept there. "Either we need to get out of here right now, or someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism asap, before the werewolves go crazy and kill us."
"Okay, just hold on, alright? What if it's not just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?"
"You mean like three sacrifices?" Allison guessed as Stiles gestured a hand at her in a thank you for catching on.
"What if this time it's three werewolves?"
"Scott, Isaac, and Boyd."
"What about Ethan?" I supplied, counting him too since he was also a werewolf, alpha or not. Everybody just looked at me. "Oh come on, you know out of the two of them Ethan is far better than Aiden for people skills. He's not a total lunatic." If there really was something up with the motel, then what was going on? So far we just had two werewolves acting out of character, was that really something to be worried about? Just knock them out and let them sleep it off.
"Maybe we were meant to come here."
"Exactly! So can we get the hell out of here now? Please?" Still holding the bible in her hand, Stiles noticed several pages sticking out conspicuously, drawing his attention.
"Wait, hang on. Let me see this." Pulling out one of the pages, I got up off the bed as Stiles read it then put it down, searching through the bible for more to reveal newspaper clippings revealing the method of each suicide in this very room.
"Oh, no. Look at these two. They both mention the room two-seventeen. These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room."
"So if every room has a bible..."
"There could be articles in all the rooms."
"That's a beautiful thing." Stiles started sarcastically, dropping the bible as the bed was scattered with newspaper articles, each describing on horrible suicide after another committed in this very room. Now I had chills and a very strong desperation to get out of this room and not go back to my own. "Most places leave a mint under the pillow. This one leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred."
"What if the room next door has the one about the couple?" We all looked up at one another, a moment passing of realisation before Stiles took off for next door as we three followed after him but when he tried the handle, it remained firmly shut as Lydia frowned worriedly. "No, that was not locked before."
"Forget it. We need to get Scott, Isaac, and Boyd out of here."
"I'll find Ethan." Each of us turned to head off in separate directions, however when the sudden sound of a machine whirring came from inside the locked room we all turned back, staring at the door blankly as Lydia gulped, asking aloud if we all heard the same thing she did and it wasn't just her hearing voices again.
"It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on." Oh god, not good. Reaching inside with my senses, I found a hollow and empty heart belonging to Ethan himself, causing me to rush with a panic at the door and yell his name, slamming my palm against it in a desperation to get inside. When door didn't budge, I grabbed Stiles and made him help me, the two of us shouldering the door all at once which forced it to give way and we both stumbled inside to find Ethan standing with his shirt open to reveal his abdomen, the handsaw being brought to his stomach in order to cut himself open.
"NO!" I screamed out loud as Stiles launched himself at the handsaw and grabbed it from Ethan, wrestling with him as Lydia smartly pulled the plug to cut the power just as Stiles managed to wrench it from his hands. "Ethan, Ethan don't! What are you doing?!" Flinging out his hands to reveal his claws, Ethan began to press them into his belly so I flung myself at him, wrapping my arms around his as Stiles took the other and together we wrestled with him desperately to keep him from becoming another number on a sick person's suicide chart. Throwing us off him, we managed to trip Ethan up so that he fell forwards onto a heater, burning his skin and the sharp pain snapping him awake from whatever possession had taken over his body.
Crying out with a yelp, Ethan staggered back to his feet before looking around him in perplexity, unable to understand where he was. "What just happened?" He looked at each of us in turn. When none of us answered, he stiffly began to button up his shirt and stalked out of the room, prompting us to quickly follow him as Stiles called out and asked him what he was doing in there. Ethan insisted that he didn't have a clue, but when Stiles asked again he just got annoyed. "Didn't you hear what I just said? I don't know how I got there or what I was doing."
"Okay, you could be a little bit more helpful, you know? We did just save your life." Stiles pointed out, making Ethan stop and look back with a glare at him.
"And you probably shouldn't have." Well, this night is going fantastically so far. Looks like this place really is haunted, because there is some kind of voodoo sorcery going on here and I don't like it.
"What now?"
"I'll find Scott. You guys grab Isaac and Boyd. The best thing we can do is get them out of this place." Allison decided and I told her I'd go with her to find Scott. "I'm sure I'll be alright…"
"You said Scott walked in on you showering then refused to leave. If he's going to be creepy like that whilst possessed by some vengeful spirit or other…then I got your back." Patting her lightly I earned a smile from Allison who led the way to Scott's room. Immediately we noticed that the door was slightly ajar so we shared a glance with one another, preparing ourselves. Allison called out to Scott but got no answer so I carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside first, my entire body on edge and ready to respond to anything, including a rabid werewolf. "He's not here."
Relaxing only when I was certain I couldn't feel Scott's presence in the room, Allison bit on her lip worriedly. "Where could he be? Do you think he went looking for us?"
"Possibly, but something's definitely not right here. I keep on getting these chills up my spine…like there's a presence I can't see but it's watching us." I admitted, scanning the room with a deep frown as Allison listened. "You know how, as a siren, I can look into people's hearts and tell what their true feelings and intensions are?" Nodding her head, I felt another chill ripple through my entire body, physically making me shudder. "Well, whoever's here…they're nothing but blackness, and it's terrifying." Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and my mind began to turn towards Isaac, growing worried about him. "I need to find Isaac. I've got a bad feeling."
"I'll look for Scott. Just be careful." Nodding my head, I made my way over to Isaac and Boyd's room, intending to check on them but when I sensed the dread and alarm coiling within Lydia I picked up into a run and rushed into the room, scanning the bedroom before seeing her in the bathroom where Body's feet were hanging over the bath with something large and heavy looking resting over him.
"Lydia!"
"Cordy! Boyd's drowning, he's drowning!" Wordless I ran inside and rushed to the bath, seeing Boyd lying motionlessly at the bottom of the tub completely engulfed in water so without pausing I sucked in a deep breath then shoved my head underwater. The coldness swept over me before my body naturally adjusted, my skin rippling with a bright shimmer as the scales of my transformed state began to appear and gills opened in three slits either side of my neck as I forced air into Boyd's lungs, giving him oxygen to keep him alive before lifting my head out of the water, replenishing the air before returning again. His smooth, flat lips started to move as I returned a third time, fighting against me in order to refuse my help so I reached in and grabbed his head to keep him still, literally forcing him to breathe as Lydia observed worriedly in the corner, biting her lips until Stiles arrived.
"I got 'em. What do I do? How do I do this?"
"The cap, it's like a match. The cap's a match." Pulling myself out of the water again I saw Stiles struggling to light a flare, striking it with the cap before finally catching a spark and the flare burst into life with a deep redness. Heat. Oh I get it not, heat will wake Boyd up. Drawing aside so that Stiles could press the flare against Boyd, burning even underwater the werewolf gave a loud roar of pain, jolting upright and throwing the vault off of him. A little breathless from having wrestled with him underwater I took a moment to recover, dripping wet from my head to my shoulders as Boyd furrowed his brow in confusion.
"You were trying to drown yourself." Lydia explained to him after letting Stiles know that Isaac was under the bed like some kind of gremlin. "Cordy passed you oxygen and Stiles woke you up."
"You did?" Boyd looked at me strangely, as if surprised that I would bother to help him so I shrugged. In the small bathroom mirror I caught sight of my reflection, seeing the prismatic scales covering my entire body with a silvery blue tint, my angular cheekbones sharpened slightly with the slits in my neck beginning to close up so that I could breathe normally. With my hair pulled back I noticed that my ears also changed shape, forming fin like appendages whilst my eyes glowed steadily like an ocean wave of colour.
"It was nothing." Shrugging it off, I grabbed a towel and started to dry myself off, rubbing my hair as I then looked in on Isaac. He was skittish and jumpy so I soothed him with a few sounds and words, calming him down before instructing him to stay here until we came back for him and Boyd. We had to find Scott and fast. Since we'd thwarted two attempts of death, I can only imagine whoever's pulling the strings around here would be desperate to achieve the third.
"I can't find Scott anywhere." Allison announced as we all met up, quickly beginning our search for Scott.
"It's happening to him too, isn't it?"
"It has to be. Didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia asked and Stiles quickly went to go get it as we descended the stairs, turning around to face the bus only to see Scott standing there. We all stiffened, freezing in place as we saw the bright glow of red in his hand as well as the pool of liquid he was standing in water. It looked like water, but the smell told us gasoline.
"Scott..." Allison moved first, cautiously walking around to face Scott who continued to stand perfectly still, the flare in his hand and completely soaked in gas. In his heart I felt such devastating hopelessness that I had to grip onto my chest to keep my heart from pounding through my ribs, staggering slightly as I gripped hold of Lydia in horror.
"There's no hope."
"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison asked with a shaky smile, trying to figure out a way to stop him from thinking such demoralising and heart shattering thoughts. "There's always hope."
"Not for me. Not for Derek."
"Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault."
"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed." Oh god this can't be real, please tell me this isn't real. He's serious, he's going to do it. Scott really is going to set himself on fire to kill himself, and I couldn't tell whether these feelings inside of him were his own or the result of some kind of possession by an evil spirit.
"Scott, listen to me, okay?" Stiles tried to reason with him, taking a step forwards. "This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay?"
"What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" He asked, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks as the rest of us looked on with dreaded trepidation, listening to him as Scott lamented all that had happened. "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You and me, we were...we were...we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all."
The breath caught in my throat, feeling the harsh reality of his regrets as his mind continued to spiral out of control. "Cordy, Cordy do something." Allison whispered to me desperately as I just stared blankly. "Sing to him, talk to him, you'll know what to say right? Snap him out of this."
"I can't." I spoke, reaching out my hand for Stiles, feeling his fingers shaking until I wrapped them up with my own and gave them a firm, confident squeeze. "Because I'm not the one who he needs right now." Understanding what I meant, Stiles began to take slow, tiny steps closer to Scott, already crying with emotion and terror for his best friend's life.
"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay? You're someone, you're...Scott, you're my best friend, and I need you." My throat ran dry and an uncomfortable lump rose as Stiles's voice began to reach through to Scott, making him listen and hesitate. "Scott, you're my brother. Alright, so...so if you're gonna do this, then..." Stepping into the pool of gasoline at Scott's feet, placing himself directly in danger, my hands jumped to my face as I struggled to keep myself composed. "I think you're just gonna have to take me with you. Alright?" Reaching up, Stiles closed his hand around the flare as Scott's shoulders heaved, struggling to catch his breath as the two of them stood face to face with one another, staring each other down until finally, he let go.
Relief flooded through me as Stiles tossed the flare away. I breathed, finally relaxing as the bleakness in Scott's heart alleviated itself, lifting away the pressure that had been crushing against his chest. Feeling a breeze against my neck pulling at my hair, I looked towards the flare to see it rolling back towards the gas, making Lydia shriek and rush forwards to tackle Scott and Stiles to the ground as Allison and I lunged for each other whilst also diving out of the way. We hit the ground, clear of the explosion which rocketed upwards though as I blinked against the sharp pain in my head from where I'd hit it, I once more felt that sense of someone's malice and malevolence.
The sharp buzz in my head made everything feel distant and unreal as I gradually pushed against my hands, trying to get up but my head throbbed and caused me to drop. "Cordy? Cordy you okay?"
"Water…" I really want to heal, because not only does my head hurt by my arm was killing me. I think Isaac's scratches were getting infected. Allison helped to sit upright but when she saw the blood streaked down the side of my head, she called for help and suddenly everyone was crowding around me. I blinked dazedly, asking again for water though their voices were just a dulled murmur, like a bubble had encased itself around me.
"She's asking for water."
"Well then get her to some water!" Lydia instructed as two pairs of feet came pounding down the steps and clearing the final few to come racing towards us. "She can't heal unless she's in water."
"Cordy! Cordy look at me, Cordy. Cordy!" Isaac grabbed hold of my face in order to try and make me focus, pulling me out of Allison's arms and quickly picked me up. "I'll take her. I got this." He refused Scott's help and instead carried me back to his room where the water was still in the bath from where Boyd had tried to drown himself. The moment Isaac dipped me into the water, I felt all my senses sharpen. I could focus and the pain dimmed into a faint twinge as the water immediately seemed to know that I needed healing.
It churned around me as I breathed, scales rippling into view and my features shifting as I opened my eyes underwater to see Isaac hovering directly over me. My voice bubbled as I sang, encouraging my own body to heal. As the itching feeling came to my arm and head, I waited until it had disappeared before pulling myself out of the water and breathing real air, feeling a thousand times better as Isaac gripped the side of the bath, watching me worriedly. Looking to my arm I pulled off the bandage so that it fell from my arm, the residue blood now dried and no more injury remaining.
"I'm sorry." Speaking quietly, Isaac touched the area where he had unwittingly scratched me, feeling the smooth subtleness of my skin. "I didn't mean it."
"I know." Feeling exhausted, I wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep. Whatever had been here trying to cause three people to kill themselves, I no longer felt its presence so I dared to presume that we were safe. For now at least. "Isaac? Can I be lazy and ask you to carry me out of here?"
"Uh yeah, sure." His head turned to the side, listening to something before relaying a message Scott had given him that they were all going to just sleep on the bus to stay together and hopefully avoid any further incidents. "So…Boyd told me you kissed him."
"I was providing him oxygen. Hardly something I'd call romantic." I corrected him as Isaac brought me a towel so I could dry off a little.
"You seem to do that a lot." Now that I think about it, he's right.
"Well it seems I'm surrounded by idiots who keep on trying to drown themselves. Coincidentally, I'm the only person who can actually breathe underwater. You rather I let Boyd drown? He was close to dying." Shaking his head, Isaac rubbed his arm the way he did when he was troubled about something.
"No I know, it's just…I…I had a kind of…nightmare, I guess. About my dad." Softening towards him, I pulled the towel around my neck and got up, reaching out for Isaac's hand to hold it between my own. I kissed his knuckles then tucked his hand to my cheek, listening to him. "Whilst I was losing my mind, I suddenly started thinking of you. Then I could smell your scent, and it made me think of the ocean." I'd been told many times that I smelled like the sea, I'd always assumed it was because I was a siren. "And then I didn't feel so trapped. I could practically hear the waves and feel the water around my feet. No restriction, no dark empty space. Just the ocean. Just you." Smiling warmly, my heart gave a slight flutter as Isaac brought his hand to my face and thumbed my lips. "I think thinking of you kept me from doing anything stupid, it must've staved off whatever it was trying to kill us."
"Well, I'm glad it worked. I would hate for anything to happen to you Isaac, otherwise I'd have to find myself another lover and that's just hard work. I have a very vigorous screening test and high standards, you know." I joked a little, speaking quietly as to not break the mellow atmosphere we had going. His mouth twitched slightly before his head came to rest on mine, thumb still resting on my lower lip.
"You're my anchor, Cordy. You help me stay in control when I get angry or start to shift. I think of you and then suddenly it feels like everything's normal." Touched that I was so important to him, I let go of his hand in order to slide my arms around his neck.
"What can I say? I am pretty phenomenal." Chuckling richly, Isaac suddenly swung me up and carried me bridal style out of the bathroom and back towards the bus, letting me rest my head against his shoulder and before we'd even reached the others, I was fast asleep.