Jo arrived at a rustic looking two story house. The place looked homey as ever. Jo parks the RV at the side. The location of the house is something Jo is somewhat familiar with. She would spend her time in some forests on her trip. Listening to trees and looking up to the stars. This is something you would describe as the best home near the forest. Must be something she might've picked up when she spent her time as a kid.
But after hearing that howl. Jo shakes her, "Snap out of its Jo." She turns the engine off and hops out of the vehicle. She grabs Gimli in her arms and heads straight to the porch. She'll get her belongings after she sleeps. As she gets close to the door she kneels down and lifts up a small potted plant and finds some keys under it. It's probably not safe to hide it, but its just for today.
She opens the screen door and unlocks the main door. Except the door was already open. Confused, Jo opens the door wide, the hallway lights are off, except the ones upstairs. She puts Gimli down and heads up. "Mom? Dad?" She called out as soon as she headed up the lights started flickering.
She turns her head to an open door; she can hear the sound of a radio coming out of it. "Dad?" She asked slowly. She can feel herself the sweat. Nervousness? Fear?
She grabs the handle and everything goes dark for a second. Then the door slams open knocking her back to a wall. Inside the room she sees...
Blue glowing eyes.
She can feel her heart beating out of her chest as she stares at it. Frozen in fear. She can hear the low growling coming from it, it sounds of claws scraping on the wooden floor. Jo is screaming inside her head begging her body to just move. To run.
The blue-eyed creature stops. Jo felt her heart stop as she stared at it as it stared back. Waiting for it to move. Then with a loud roar. It started running, Jo jumps away and starts running the stairs down only to feel claws scratching her back. She loses her balance and falls down stairs. She slammed her head at the bottom of the staircase.
She groans in pain. Her head felt like it had been hit by a bat. She can hear barking, Gimli's barking. "Gim..Gimli?" She slurred. She reaches out blindly for her dog, her precious baby. She opens her eyes, the only light source she has is the open door. She can see a blurred image of a tall brooding creature towering over a very brave pug. Trying to protect his owner.
Then she sees it bring its arm up then down. She can't hear Gimli anymore. The last thing she heard was yelp and slashing noises. "Gimli?" She got to her stomach and started crawling from where she heard her pug. "Gimli? Come here boy, come to mommy."
She called out; she was blindly grabbing around the floor to find him. Then a small body was kicked right Infront of her. Bloodied and slashed was her pug Gimli. She choked back sob, "Gimli, Gimli baby no." She whimpered as she pulled him close to her.
She looks up to see a furred creature growling down at her. Mouth bloodied, teeth glistening. Its eyes weren't blue anymore, they looked blood red. She opened her mouth to scream, but the creature came down at her, its jaw clamping down on her throat and just ripped it.
THUD
Jo sits up, her body tangled with a blanket. She looked around; she was at her room. Her room at her grandparents. "Jesus Christ." She mumbled; she rubbed her head to ease her anxiety. It was only a nightmare. A simple, but terrifying nightmare. It's been a while since she had a nightmare like that. "I thought I moved on from this bullshit." She muttered.
She felt something licking her leg, she looked down to see Gimli licking her and letting out some cute concerned dog noises. "D'awww, Gimli" She picks him and kisses his face, making weird kissing noises,
"I'm fine Gimli my little baby, momma just had a bad dream." She assures her dear pooch giving one last kiss she lets him down. She sighs and thinks for a moment.
The howl she was three days ago and It still left Jo thinking. That was the first time she heard a howl whenever she visited Beacon Hills. She wipes away the sweat from her forehead and stands up. No use just sitting around, she thought. She had a funeral to attend.
She goes out the room and heads downstairs to the kitchen with Gimli right behind her. The smell of bacon and pancakes fills the kitchen. A man and woman were preparing the table. Beside the table is a sleeping bulldog named Biscuit. Jo kneels down and pets the sleeping beauty. "Morning angel."
She looks up and gives huff. Gimli darts towards her and starts licking her face. Her mother sets down two bowls of dog food. Gimli immediately heads for the food while Biscuit just walks to it.
The man looks up and smiles, "Morning, JoJo." He greets.
He offers her a plate of pancakes. "Morning poppy." She takes the plate and kisses him on the cheek.
She takes a seat and smears the pancake with butter and tops it off of syrup. She takes a bite, moans in delight. The pancakes were light, fluffy and "Delicious" She said. Her father flicks her forehead. "No talking with your mouth full."
Her mother sets down a cup of chamomile tea and kisses her head. "Morning flower." She sits down and drinks her coffee while her father reads the newspaper with a cup of coffee. "We heard a thud upstairs. Did you fall from your bed?" Her mother asked. Jo shrugs, "Yeah, I sometimes move around in my sleep. You have no idea how many times I fell from my bed at the RV." Her father answered her, "9 times." Jo looks at him with an offended look. Her fork is still on her mouth and she stares at her father. She told him with confidence!
"Life on the road isn't an easy one huh?" Her dad chuckles at the thought of all the funny stories Jo told him that happened to her while she waa on the road. "That story of Adams was my favorite."
Jo looks at him in horror. "The Adams incident was a terrible secret between us poppy!" He laughs heartily at Jo babbling explanations on how it wasn't her fault that it would end up being a food war.
The woman with short dirty blond hair gives her husband a look as he coughs and covers his face with the newspaper. "Ahem, Joanna is a grown woman Olivia. She's been traveling around the country with that bad boy for 3 years now." He reasons.
Olivia scoffs, "Her living in a RV isn't something I pictured for our child to live in at all Duncan." Jo gives her mom a look after taking a bite from her luscious pancakes. "Mom, I don't want to talk about this again." Her mom raises her hands in surrender and goes back to drink tea.
Duncan sets down his cup and sighs, "Jesus, I can't believe someone like her was around." Jo looks at the front page of the newspaper her dad was reading.
"Woman tied to Six-Year Old Arson Case Behind Beacon Hills Murder?"
"Wait, murders?" Jo asked. She looks at her parents, Olivia hits her husband's newspaper and glares at him before reaching out to her, placing her hand on Jo's and squeezes it in for assurance. "Oh, honey we didn't want you to know until we knew that it would solve itself. And it did! Last night a woman named Kate Argent who did all those horrible acts committed suicide. Beacon Hills is safe again."
She says. She looks at her husband and tilts her head to her direction, looking at him with raised eyebrows. Duncan squinted his eyes in confusion before getting what his wife was trying to indicate.
"I even talked to Noah while I was out around the town. So, everything should be fine." Jo nods her head. They resumed back into a comfortable silence eating their breakfast while they were playing behind after their meal. As they finished their meal Olivia picked up the plates and headed to the sink.
Her father glances at her then turns his attention back to the newspaper. "By the way Jo, have you decided?" He asked. Jo picked up her plate and glass and headed to the sink. "I'm not sure yet." She quietly said. Knowing it's about the inheritance her grandparents left her with.
After meeting with the lawyer, her grandparents left her dad and mom their old cabin house back in Scotland and Ireland. While they left Jo their house, everything in it, the truck and the business to their bakery. But there was more, if she accepts. She'll have to work under a good friend of theirs who'll train her and guide her on owning the bakery. And he'll decide when she'll get her-
"Two million dollars?!" Jo exclaimed to the lawyer in shock. Her parents looked at the man who told them something they would have never expected. They expected money to be given of course, but a million dollars? "How did my parents even have that kind of money?" Duncan whispers to himself in disbelief.
The lawyer, Mr. Williams, continues his explanation. "Yes, currently Owen is the one handling the bakery at the moment. But you are given the option to accept this or not. Your grandma wrote here that you are given a chance to decide to either take the business or not."
Jo felt her heart racing, a business of her own. "But what happens if… I don't accept it?" Her mom and dad looked at her in shock. Mr. Williams simply says, "The bakery will be sold. You won't inherit the two millions." He gave a letter to her.
It was too much for Jo that time. The lawyer told her that she has until week to decide apparently or else everything will be sold.
The house would still be hers as well as the truck, but the bakery… Oh the bakery. Jo had fond memories in that bakery. She would help her grandma with the baking and her grandpa would teach her how to make drinks.
Oh, baking was her absolute favorite thing to do. Even when she couldn't do baking in her RV, she would get chances whenever she visited some old friends and new ones in their homes and baked them some homemade goods. She missed staying inside a house and having the space do anything she wanted. But she couldn't help but feel a little scared at staying in Beacon Hills after hearing the news of the murders and that howl.
Olivia stops washing the dishes for a moment before resuming to wash. She gave Jo no room to help her in the kitchen chores. Instead she asked her.
"Jo, I know you hate it when I say this, but please, please take the business." Duncan stands up and opens his mouth to stop his wife, but she turns around and holds one hand up. Signaling him that she isn't going to shut up. "Jo please, you on the road have been going on for three years. But this could change everything! You grandma and grandpa left you they're house, the truck and the bakery!" She says. "They even left so much money enough for you to settle down here and-" Jo groans and steps away from her mother.
"Mama I love you but seriously I haven't decided yet." She said exasperated. She heads to the stairs. "I'm going to take a shower. Get myself ready for the funeral."
"JoJo, Joanna!" Her mother called out to her down stairs. Jo ignores til she reaches her bathroom, "Stop running away! And just stay just for once!"
SLAMS
Olivia huffs, Gimli followed her upstairs. They can hear scratching noises of a paw against a door until the door opens then closes again. Olivia sits down, as her husband stares at her. "I don't think pushing her will make her stay Oli." She gives him an annoyed look. "At Least I'm trying to make sure our daughter is going to have a steady future! She just keeps driving away moving state to state- It's just she was never like that! She had plans Duncan! Plans that we would have supported a hundred percent, but dropping out college and attending a community college-" Duncan scoffs. "There is nothing wrong with that." Oliva slams her hand down.
"Absolutely nothing wrong with that!? Duncan she purposely dropped at her time at school!" She raised her voice in question and frustration that her daughter, who dreamed of opening her own shop in Oregon, had a plan. "But she just threw it all away just to attend a community college?" Duncan stands up and slams his hands down. Biscuit huffs and heads upstairs to where Gimli had run to.
"You know why she did! Why are you making so much of a problem Olivia?! She's been doing so well by herself; she should decide on what she should do with her life. Not us."
The room was filled with tension and unbearable silence. They both stared at each other down, until Olivia let out a choked sob. Duncan's eyes soften. "I know, it's just I can't stand-, She couldn't even stay back at home in Oregon for the holidays. It's always here, here and I just!" She looks up to the ceiling blinking back tears. "I'm not trying to be-"She waves her hands. "A worried wart! It's just that... she hasn't visited us, at our own home where she and Cedric grew up and it always feels so empty. She would just-"
She turns her head away and wipes the tears away. Duncan pulls his wife to his arms and hugs her tightly. "I know, I know. But we can't push her too much or she'll shut us out again. We can't help her if she doesn't want help." He wipes her teary face. "She got her stubbornness from you know." He said, then Olivia slaps him on his arms. "Who are you calling stubborn you-"Duncan laughs and just hugs Olivia as she struggles to break free to slap the living shit out of her husband.
Jo comes out of the room, her hair braided to the side and wearing a plain black dress and black flats. She heads down stairs to see her parents ready. They left the dogs back at the
House and get to the car and head to the graveyard where they held a small funeral being attended by close friends and family. As they arrived, they were greeted by people, people who were close to her grandparents, saying their condolences and it just goes blank for Jo. Everything was passing by like a blur, people were crying, people were saying their condolences to her. It was just dark at the moment. An old familiar feeling.
When it was time for the caskets going down she had flashbacks of a single casket going down, her mother crying in devastation on the floor with her father trying to console her in any way. It was raining that day, everything was so dark and cold…
She felt someone grab her shoulder shaking her out of her daze. She turned to see her father and mother looking worried. She gave them a strained smile and the funeral just continued on without much of a problem. And then it was over.
Everyone was leaving their cars to their homes and some stayed a little longer to chat with one another, a man and his son approached Duncan and gave him a nod. "Duncan." He said. Jo's father rolled his eyes at the gesture and just pulled him to a hug patting him on the back.
"Sheriff of the town through all these years and you're still uptight Noah? You really should loosen up buddy it would be bad for the complexion" He said. The sheriff laughed, "The moment I stop being 'uptight' the town would be in chaos." Duncan shrugs. "True, very true." Olivia steps forwards and hugs him. "Thank you for coming Noah."
She turns her head to the lanky teen with a buzzed head. "Stiles, you've grown so much the last time I saw you." She smiles at him warmly. Jo looked at the teen in surprise. Stiles Stilinski? He was wearing a simple, but formal attire for the funeral, but he looked like he just wanted to rip it apart and breathe. "Stiles wow you actually clean up nicely."
Stiles made an offended noise at that comment. She tilted her head. "And here I thought you would have been fighting crime in a red and blue spandex by now." Stiles groans as the parents laugh.
Back then when Stiles was a kid at the Leyva residence playing with Scott and Cedric at the yard and Jo was sketching on sketchbook by the porch. Stiles ran to Jo crying and told her that he got bitten by a spider or he thought it was a spider. Cedric was crying too while Scott looked sick looking at Stiles hand where the so-called spider bit.
Jo could do the only thing she could think of, she told Stiles in shock and amazement that he might have the superpowers of spiderman! So, for the next hour Jo introduces Spider-Man to Stiles and Scott, Cedric knowing who Spider-man calmed down as Jo ushers them inside and puts on a Spiderman Movie while she makes some snacks for them.
Since that day Stiles believed he'll be like a cool super hero like him when his powers come out.
It was funny explaining to the adults about why the kids kept chattering about Stiles becoming spiderman.
Scott and Cedric grew a little jealous afterwards and tried to look for spiders to get bitten. Jo had to think of a really believable story to make sure they don't do something reckless. Like how the spider choses the Spiderman and all that. It went on for a while, but Stiles grew tired of Spiderman the moment Batman entered his life.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Haha very funny, like what when I was 5?" He said. He looks at Jo up and down. He raises up a clenched fist and stares at her with narrowed eyes. Jo rolls her eyes and does their signature handshake.
"Bang" They both said at the end of their handshake, hooking their thumbs together and pointing finger guns at each other. The sheriff looked at them with a deadpan look. "Did you two have to end it like that? Couldn't you change it?" Stiles and Jo look at each other before simultaneously answering him "Nah." Olivia sighs
"Noah I am so sorry for Jo influencing Stiles through these years." the sheriff shakes his head. "Actually, Olivia I should be the one apologizing to you and Duncan. Stiles happens to have that effect on people. Like what happened to Scott." Both parents kept on half-heartedly apologizing to each other while their kids just rolled their eyes.
"Also, for your information, most of my ideas happen to work out, sometimes, but Scott also makes bad decisions too." Stiles said, crossing his arms. Jo puts her arm around his shoulder and walks with Stiles to their cars.
"Thanks for coming today Stiles, how's it been?" Stiles shrugs his shoulders. "Well, sides the whole murdering thing. Everything was…" He paused for a moment, thinking. Jo looked at him in worry. She just came to Beacon a few days ago, but Stiles has been here the whole thing.
"Eventful? Scott finally got himself a girlfriend. Her name is Allison, she's really cool and a badass." He finally said. He looked like he wanted more to say, but he looked wary. Jo pats his cheeks, "Wow, good job for Scott I didn't expect that from him at all. But I honestly thought you would get yourself a girlfriend first."
Stiles looked at her with a surprised look. "Me? You thought I would get a girlfriend first, before Scotty." Jo shrugs her shoulders. "You always talked about Lydia Martin back then, and you put so much effort into this girl I thought she would crack and just smooch you." She said honestly. Stiles narrowed his eyes before stopping his tracks.
He turns to her, "Lydia still has Jackson." Jo crosses her arms. "And who's stopping you?" Stiles stares at her. "Jackson" Jo makes an 'O' face "Oh right, but look Stiles sometimes I'm right about my intuition." Stiles snorts "But I have a feeling that you'll get your chance on Lydia, someday, you'll get a sign just," She pat him on the shoulder. "Keep being you."
"Are you going to give me the whole 'be yourself' speech again?" Stiles groans as he follows Jo back to their parents who were chatting by the car. "Nah, maybe later after I hear from Scott later at the house. Oh, actually Stiles tells Scotty to bring his girlfriend. I am dying to know more about her."
Stiles bites his lips and has this 'oh boy' expression. "Woah, dude I'm not going to interrogate her or something." Jo says after seeing his expression. Stiles flails his arms around, "Wait no, no that not it I swear it's just." Stiles rubs his neck. "Look you heard of the 'murder' right? Kate Argent?" Jo nods.
Stiles sighs and says, "Well the killer was her aunt." Jo looked at Stiles with shock and horror. Oh god, she thought. Stiles nods. "Yeah, so I'm not exactly sure if she could come, or Scott." Stiles muttered the last part, but Jo grabbed both of his shoulders and looked at him.
"Bring her, and make sure Scott comes. If she can." Jo said, "Honestly, with news like that and being related to someone who did all this." Jo shakes her head. She then turns and walks to the Sheriff and her parents. Hoping her parents would understand what she's going to request.
-
Hi everyone I apologise for any typos and for my grammar! Also I apologise for the doggy scene, thanks to my beta reader who finds time to help me out UwU. Anyway everyone till next time! Take care! And hope y'all enjoyed.(Also if anyone is willing to be a beta reader that would great huhu)