Boyd followed them, asking what happened. I sighed, leaning against the wall and sliding into a sitting position. I pulled my legs up to my chest and ran a hand through my hair. Derek sat down next to me for a moment. "Do you think the hunters are why Deaton wasn't at the clinic today?" I asked, looking over at him. He bit his bottom lip as he thought the idea over. "Maybe." He finally answered. Which only left the both of us unsure of… just about everything.
I tipped my head against the wall, letting out a sigh. I heard the basement door open and close. Derek and I both stood, shifted and ready to fight in case those hunters were actually stupid enough to follow us here. But it was just Scott. I sighed, letting myself return to normal and watching as Derek did the same. "What are you doing here?" I asked. "Look, I talked to Deaton this morning-" "Really? Because we haven't been able to find him anywhere!" I said angrily. He looked slightly hurt for a moment. "He was in at like 5 this morning. He left early." He said. I ground my teeth together, letting out a breath and running a hand through my hair. "Look, Derek-" He began, walking the rest of the way down the stairs. "Deaton told me about something he thinks might help." I narrowed my eyes at the thought. "How'd he know the wolfs bane didn't work?" I asked. "Because it tried to attack him last night while I was there." Scott said. "It's this thing called mountain ash- he says it can be used as a barrier. He said that once the perimeter is made, supernatural beings like werewolves can't pass to the other side of the line." He explained.
"And he just forgot to mention this when I asked him for the wolfs bane?" I asked. "Well- he said he knew it worked on werewolves, but he wasn't sure it would work on the Kanima until last night- when it tried attacking us at the clinic. We managed to put up a barrier around the clinic before it could get in." He explained. Suddenly it seemed as if light dawned on his darkly haired head. "You know who the Kanima is." He stated, obviously not making a question of it. I bit my bottom lip. "Who is it?" He asked, his gaze moving from me to Derek and back again. I was reluctant to tell him what we knew- while he seemed to have good intentions, I didn't really know that much about him. I wasn't sure how much I could trust him. But looking up at Derek, he nodded down at me. And him- him, I trusted. I looked over at Scott. "It's Jackson, Scott. Jackson's the Kanima." His jaw clenched, and while he seemed to be a bit on the less surprised side, the truth seemed to make him angry. He nodded, looking away for a moment. While I got the sense he and Jackson had never exactly been brotherly, I could understand that he didn't want to see him get slaughtered by Allison's psychotic family. "Look, if we can trap him in a circle of mountain ash, maybe we can help him." Scott said. I looked up at Derek. "We need to lead him here." I said. "It's the only way we can trap him without anyone getting killed." His lips were set in a tight line, and for a moment I could see the storm forming behind his eyes at the thought of having Jackson here in our last safe-haven. "Not here." He finally said. "The house in the woods." He said, looking over at Scott. Scott looked up at him and nodded. What house?
A half an hour later, and we had a plan. Scott had gone to go find Jackson, while Derek decided on showing me what house exactly he was talking about. Once Scott found Jackson, it was going to be my job to lead him to the house. The ash itself was poisonous to us wolves- which is where Stiles comes in. He was the one who had to pour the circle around Jackson. Hopefully before he shifted. "So, why is this house abandoned?" I asked, as we trudged through the woods on foot, moving around trees and over logs. "Remember how you read about the fire that killed my family?" Derek asked, looking down at the leaf scattered ground. "Yeah." I said, avoiding a fallen oak tree. "Well after the fire, nobody claimed the house, and it was never taken down." He said. Just then, we reached a clearing- and just then, I understood the pure meaning of tragedy. I gazed up at the charred, gutted remnants of Derek's old house. It was like I could hear the screams wailing from it's open windows, and I could picture the sight of the neon orange flames licking up the sides of the house, destroying everything in it's path. I was nearly engulfed in the smell of old smoke that remained forever burned into the wood of the unsteady house. "This is where it happened." I murmured, gazing up at the horrific memory that-while it didn't belong to me- made me sick to my stomach.
Derek led me inside, through the front door and to the overwhelming smell of burnt flesh and charred oak. I nearly choked, taking breaths through my mouth until I was used to the scent. A long, narrow staircase extended upward, ascending to what my guess would have been the bed rooms. To the left was a large entryway into a small sitting room. It held nothing more than a few charred seats, and two not-so-bad couches. Had the fire never happened, it would have been a beautiful home- I'm positive. I let out a shaky breath, touching the walls. That's when I heard the screams. It seemed as if the walls had held onto the memory of the deaths in the house, because I heard the earth-shattering skull splitting screams of the ones who were trapped in here- and I heard them loud and clear. I abruptly ended the tragic moment- yanking back my hand. It was cruel, and terrible, and I desperately had to fight back the tears that sprang to my eyes. I heard Derek's angry voice in the recesses of my mind. "This is where they all burned."