Elsa didn't know how long she stood in the same spot, glaring at the empty space that her uncle's car had occupied but she didn't doubt that it was a good few minutes – given the strange looks people around her were casting in her direction once she finally snapped herself out of it. Blinking rapidly and giving her blonde head a quick shake she brought herself back to reality just in time to see Oli heading towards her, a look of pure confusion etched upon his handsome features. She inwardly groaned, Oliver was going to have questions, ones that she wasn't necessarily ready to answer – especially not without Shane, who was still MIA.
"Hey!" Oli called out, stopping Elsa in her tracks and preventing any sort of sneaky escape.
"Morning." She'd hoped that her voice sounded as breezy and carefree as it usually did, but the frown that furrowed Oliver Blackwood's brow told her otherwise.
"Where were you last night? I phoned you like a billion times, and then I went to your house. Your mom said you were out." He folded his arms across his chest and Elsa all of a sudden felt very, very small. Oliver was her oldest friend, she'd known him longer than she'd known Shane and up until very recently she couldn't recall ever lying to him. She hated this.
"I was out; I was at Scott McCall's house…uh…all night."
Oli's eyes went wide and Elsa could've sworn she saw a hint of a smirk etch itself upon his lips before vanishing almost as quickly as it had appeared, being replaced once again by his stony 'concerned best friend' expression. For a moment he was silent, mulling over Elsa's answer before a horrible thought dawned on him and he asked. "Was Shane there? Like…with you? With McCall?"
Elsa couldn't help it; she wasn't sure whether it was his question or the look on his face that she found more hilarious, and so unable to suppress it she laughed. "God, no! Not that I'd be totally opposed to that but no. It was just me. I'm not sure what Shane was up to last night actually, I've not seen her."
"Oh okay, good. I mean…whatever, it's not like I care what she gets up to all that much anyway. I was just worried about you two; normally your cell phones are permanently attached to your hands."
"That's sweet Oli, but the pair of you have got to stop pretending you're not into each other, at least around me, it's actually kind of offensive that you think I don't already know."
"The pair of us?"
Elsa linked an arm through Oliver's and grinned up at him, choosing to instead steer the conversation in a different direction than answer his question. "Come on lets go find Shane."
The search for the illusive Shane Campbell had been, quite frankly, a lot easier than Elsa had anticipated. She'd been expecting an intensive search, spanning the entirety of Beacon Hills High School, something akin to finding a super rare Pokémon, or a two headed albino rattle snake. In actual fact Oliver and Elsa found Shane exactly where she was supposed to be – right next to her locker, throwing books into it without a care in the world.
"Where were you last night?" Oliver blurted out the question before Elsa even got the chance to announce their presence with a subtle throat clearing. At the sound of his voice Shane popped her head around the side of her locker door and raised a perfectly shaped brow.
"Good morning to you to." She muttered a response before her gaze settled upon Elsa and a wicked grin lit up her pretty features. "And an especially good morning to you Miss Kirsch, how was last night?"
Elsa felt her cheeks warm and hoped desperately that the pink blush that was washing over her face wasn't too noticeable, though from the amused expression on Shane's face it was pretty clear that she'd gone bright red. "It was fine, we just uh, studied and then went to sleep."
"That's right, save the sordid details for when we are alone. Blackwood is too innocent to hear such things."
"I am not." Oliver protested, his brows creasing into a frown. "So where were you whilst Elsa was with McCall?" He repeated his earlier question, and to his surprise Shane actually answered this time.
"I was at home."
"No you weren't." Elsa and Oliver said in unison. They instinctively turned to one another with a grin, if they hadn't had been so invested in finding out what Shane had been up to the night before they probably would've 'jinxed' one another and been silent for the rest of the day. Instead Elsa nudged Oli with her elbow and the pair of them turned back to Shane with much more serious expressions etched upon their faces.
"How would you know?" Dark brows were raised once more and Oli folded his arms defiantly across his chest in response.
"Because I called round, Lisa said that neither of you were in."
"Well I was, all night."
Elsa watched in silence as the pair of them bickered like an old married couple, listening intently to Shane's words before shaking her head and siding with Oliver. "Your bed wasn't slept in…and neither was mine." She added as an afterthought. "Mom and Vik said you weren't home all night…"
Shane sighed heavily, turning back towards her locker to retrieve one of the books she needed for her first class. "Are you two honestly going to demand a detailed breakdown of my evening?"
Oliver and Elsa nodded in perfect synchronisation, making Shane roll her eyes.
"I finished school, headed to the mall, got a smoothie, bumped into that Theo kid you're so hot for Els, bought a cute top and then umm…" Her voice trailed off as she attempted to remember anything else she'd done the previous evening.
"You saw Theo? At the mall?" Elsa asked, doing her very best to hide the sliver of jealousy that laced her tones. Shane nodded slowly. "What did you do with him?"
"I don't know, talked?"
"What about?"
Shane rolled her eyes for what felt to her like the millionth time, tossing her hair over her shoulder and adjusting her bag as if she had other things to worry about.
"What didn't we talk about? All we did was chat...you know….how's your day? Did you do the homework? Do you want a ride home? Etcetera, etcetera…" the normally excited and upbeat brunette sounded positively bored.
Elsa practically stumbled. Which was an incredible act given that she was standing completely still.
"What do you mean want a ride home? Whose home? Whose car? Did you go with him? What happened next? Is he a chart hits guy or R&B cause the snapbacks give me all kinds of mixed signals If I'm really honest." Elsa threw her hands in the air violently in a very Stiles-esque fashion, trying to swallow the urge to run around breathing fire and screaming over the fact that her best friend had been fraternizing with the supposed enemy. Not only was she extremely concerned by the fact that Shane had dropped off the face of the earth for an entire night with next to no explanation as to why, but she was also lowkey jealous that her beautiful brunette friend had officially spent more time alone with Theo Raeken than Elsa had so far been able to.
"Wow…" Shane breathed out a low whistle, a laugh tumbling from her full lips soon afterwards. Oliver joined her in laughing though the expression that flashed upon his handsome features was definitely more of a puzzled one, unlike Shane's extremely amused one.
"That was kind of crazy, even for you Els which is kind of saying something." Oliver added when the laughter subsided. Elsa merely frowned a response, as a soft rose pink blush peppered her cheeks.
Oliver and Shane exchanged a bemused glance and Elsa didn't doubt that their teasing would have continued had they not been interrupted by the stunning beauty that was Miss Lydia Martin who cleared her throat to announce her presence. The three friends turned to face her, Oliver's mouth dropped a little at the sight of her, her strawberry blonde hair fell in loose curls over her shoulders and she was wearing a particularly flattering blue dress. Shane took notice of the way Oliver was practically drooling over the redhead and promptly hit him over the head with her Psychology textbook – which just so happened to be the biggest and thickest one in the pile she was currently holding on to.
"Put it away Blackwood." Shane muttered before turning her attention back to Lydia and offering the girl a small smile, one that said 'sorry my friend is a leering asshole' but one that also said 'but he's my leering asshole so you know, don't get any ideas.' Lydia returned the smile halfheartedly before instantly turning to Elsa.
"Elsa can I talk to you for a minute…alone?"
Shane kinked a brow and Elsa chewed gently on her bottom lip as she scrutinized Lydia's expression. She was still yet to tell Oliver about everything that had happened these past few days, but something told her Lydia wasn't about to let the cat out the bag in the middle of a crowded high school hallway.
"You can say whatever you need to in front of my friends Lydia..."
"Oh, okay then, well me and Kira are taking Malia out for a driving lesson tonight and we wanted to know if you wanted to join us? Malia is sorry about what she said yesterday, not that she'll actually express it but you know?" Lydia shrugged lightly, glancing towards Shane before looking back to Elsa. "Shane can come too of course."
"Oh yeah no worries, I'm totally busy anyway…" Oliver muttered quietly to himself, earning a smirk from Shane who simply shook her head.
"Don't worry Lydia I've got plans tonight, but you guys have fun. Elsa is an excellent driver." Had Lydia known Shane as well as Elsa and Oliver did then she would have picked up on the subtle change in the tone of her voice, she was being sarcastic – which was a near constant thing for the brunette – because both Elsa and Oliver knew that Elsa was without a shadow of a doubt, the worst driver on the face of the earth.
"Oh well that's great then, we'll come by your place later? Around sixish? It's opposite Scott's isn't it? Okay, tonight!" The redhead was already halfway down the corridor and reunited with Kira and Malia by the time she'd finished her sentence. Elsa held up a solitary hand to wave her off before she turned back to Shane.
"That was weird right? Was that weird?"
"No that was awesome." Oliver cut in with a grin. "Lydia Martin is the most popular girl in school, when did you two become friends?"
"I'm uh…not really sure we are."
"But you're definitely part of the pack now." Shane mused, turning back to her locker and tossing a few notebooks inside before closing with a bang.
"The pack?" Oliver scoffed.
Elsa and Shane exchanged a glance before shrugging. "We call ourselves the Potato Commodores Oli, we can hardly judge."
Oliver nodded, accepting that other friendship groups had every possibility of being as weird as his without question. When the bell rang the trio said no more, instead Shane secured her bag on her shoulder and Oliver slung his arms lazily over the shoulders of his two best friends. Guiding them both, to the English class, that all three of them had first period. They didn't talk about Shane's mysterious disappearance, or the fact that she'd spent time with Theo Raeken, they spoke about what was to them more important; the new episode of Orange Is the New Black which was airing tomorrow.
Shane, Elsa and Oli were a tangle of bodies on the sofa in Elsa's front room when the blonde's phone buzzed on the coffee table in the middle of the room. All three of them groaned at the sound of it, and even more so when they were forced to untangle their limbs and upset the balance of the perfect snuggle in order for Elsa to clamber out and grab her phone.
"Shit." She muttered, running a hand quickly through her hair and tucking her phone safely into the back pocket of her ripped skinny jeans.
"What?" Shane asked without looking away from the television, she opened her mouth wide and Oliver expertly threw a piece of popcorn into it from the opposite end of the sofa, Elsa couldn't help but be impressed with his aim.
"It's Lydia she's outside, I kind of forgot about the whole Malia's driving lesson thing."
Shane paused the television and turned to glance at her best friend; Oliver lolled his head over the arm of the chair and watched her carefully upside down – a là Spiderman. "You promised at lunch that you'd post a new chapter tonight." Oliver said, pouting his lips out ever so slightly. Elsa simply rolled her eyes.
"Oli is right, you've not updated in weeks. I'm getting antsy." Shane added, leaning to grab another handful of popcorn and popping it into her mouth.
"It's written, it's on my laptop and you guys can read it if you want. I'll post it tomorrow I promise. I've uh, got to go. I love you!" With that the bubbly blonde blew them both a kiss and ducked out of the room, pulling on her jacket before slamming the front door behind her – much to Lisa Kirsch's disgust who pulled a face at Melissa McCall who was sat opposite her on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Both women took another swig from their obscenely large glasses of wine before going back to chattering between themselves.
"So John and Natalie?" Lisa asked, her accent thick. Melissa nodded slowly and Lisa frowned a response. "I never would have thought."
Back in the front room Shane sighed heavily, shifting her position on the sofa so that she was now lying next to Oliver, her head resting on his chest as the pair of them began another episode of From Dusk Till Dawn. "You want to read it later then?" She asked casually, Oliver nodded.
"Dramione is my otp of course I want to read it."
All three of them were Harry Potter super fans.
Outside Malia had parked her Toyota about as far away from the curb as possible without actually being on the opposite side of the road and Elsa found herself feeling somewhat smug about it, perhaps there was another person who was as bad at driving as she was, or even worse, now that would be a sight to behold. The blonde pulled open the back door and climbed in beside Kira who beamed her sunshine and light smile at Elsa who returned it brightly. She half wondered whether it physically pained Kira to be so happy all of the time, but she decided not to ask.
Lydia turned in her seat to smile at Elsa. "Cute top." She commented before twisting so that she was facing forward once again. Elsa glanced down at the t-shirt she was wearing, it featured a piece of corn in blacked out sunglasses, definitely not something she thought Lydia Martin would be impressed by.
"Uh thanks?"
Malia turned next, sniffing the air in a very unsubtle manner and cocking her head to the side in a particularly puppy like fashion when she was finished. "You smell like butter popcorn."
"You don't smell so bad yourself." Elsa replied with a wink.
"I have a boyfriend." Malia stated simply as she turned back to the front, frowning when Lydia, Kira and Elsa laughed quietly.
All four girls were quiet for a while after that, giving Malia the chance to concentrate fully on not wrapping the mechanical contraption they were all sitting in around a tree. The only voice that was heard was that of Lydia who occasionally piped up to direct Malia on turns, wanting to get them to a quieter side of town where she knew the chances of a head on collision with another car were reduced exponentially.
Eventually they found themselves on a secluded stretch of road that ran alongside the edge of the preserve. Malia pulled the car to a stop on Lydia's orders, and then began checking her mirrors. Kira leaned forward from her position in the back, and Elsa mirrored her movements.
"Okay, hands on the wheel at ten and two." The kitsune explained, her voice just as upbeat as usual, though Elsa could swear she heard just a hint of apprehension.
Malia did as she was told, placing her hands on the wheel at the ten and two positions, only to take them off again when Lydia spoke. "Actually the recommended position is now nine and three, at ten and two a deployed airbag could break your thumbs."
"Mine would heal." Malia stated simply, making Elsa smile in the backseat. Lydia shook her head ever so slightly.
"Save your strength, and try not to destroy your beautiful new car…nine and three." Malia did as she was told.
"You know," Elsa began, "Oli sometimes drives just using his knees…"
Malia glanced at Lydia before looking down at her legs, the redhead shot out a hand resting it on Malia's thigh and gently pushing her knees away from the steering wheel. "No…" She warned. "Oliver Blackwood, like many boys on the lacrosse team, has a death wish. Nine and three."
Turning the key in the ignition, Malia pressed her foot gently on the ignition and as the car started to slowly roll forwards Kira piped up. "Alright, just ease into it, good…good. Okay, here you go!"
"Shut up." Malia muttered through gritted teeth.
"No problem. Shutting up." Kira pursed her lips, exchanging a quick glance with Elsa who simply shrugged.
"Uh, the other way Malia…" Elsa said quietly, leaning forward so she could get a better view out the front windscreen.
Malia continued to drive in the direction she was headed, which happened to be straight towards the trees that lined the edge of the Beacon Hills preserve. When the car moved from tarmac to earth Elsa felt it rumble beneath her and she momentarily covered her eyes.
"We are now off the road." Lydia said calmly, Elsa peeked out the gaps in her fingers to see that the redhead was very much correct, they were off-roading and headed straight for a tree.
"This is not the road." Elsa squeaked.
"Malia." Lydia said sternly.
"Please go the other way." Kira added.
"W-what is that? What's beeping?" Malia asked irritably as the impact warning light flashed on the dashboard between her and Lydia.
"The car is telling you not to run into the tree, turn the wheel. MALIA!" Lydia demanded, her voice finally getting a little more frantic. Elsa breathed an audible sigh of relief when Malia turned the wheel last minute and the car swerved, narrowly missing the tree they had been headed directly for.
"…and try to stay on the actual road." Elsa muttered from the back seat.
The car turned slowly in circles for a few minutes and Malia smiled to herself in the front seat, obviously thinking she was doing an excellent job of driving her friends to wherever it was Lydia had planned for them.
"Maybe you should press just a little harder on the gas?" Lydia suggested, and with a grin Malia did as she was told. Slamming her foot down on the ignition. Elsa and Kira near enough fell on top of one another in the back seat, but after a few seconds the ride smoothed out and they both sat back in their rightful places looking decidedly more dishevelled than they had done when they'd gotten into the car.
"Turn up here." Lydia ordered, gasping when Malia whirled around the corner at breakneck speed. "Slowly! Slowly…okay…go." She pointed forwards.
Elsa sighed, glancing out the window. "Where are we headed anyways Lyd?"
"The school, I thought we could finish with parking practice in the lot?"
"Lydia, we're actually heading downtown…" Kira said quietly, a puzzled expression flourishing upon her features.
"What?"
"If we want to go to the school we should do a U-turn shouldn't we?"
"No…" Lydia said quietly, her voice suddenly very serious. Elsa glanced towards Kira whose expression had turned from one of puzzlement to one of concern. "Keep going."
"You sure?" Malia asked.
"Yes…we're almost there."
They drove for a little while longer before coming to a stop in the middle of a dimly lit road. Elsa took her time clambering out of the car, stretching her limbs whilst the other girls walked a little way ahead of where they'd put the car in park. "Well that was a wild ride from start to finish." Elsa mused as she ambled over to where the girls were stood staring at something in the distance.
"It's about to get a little wilder." Kira said quietly.
"Yeah, no shit." Elsa's mouth fell open at the sight in front of her. A prisoner transport vehicle was stuck sideways between to two high walls that lined the street, the back doors were near enough torn off their hinges and blood was spattered all over the place. That was not the most disturbing thing however, what made Elsa's blood run cold was the man who stared up at them, his entire body covered in deep cuts, blood pooling around him.
"Call 911." Lydia said calmly, almost as though she was not surprised in the slightest by what she was seeing. Elsa had so many questions, but instead she dug her hand into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out her phone to call the cops.
It took a matter of minutes for police cars to swarm the area, a deputy Elsa didn't recognise was first on the scene and he took Lydia to one side to talk to her privately. Elsa watched them over her shoulder for a while before turning to the other girls. "Is this a regular thing for you guys?"
Malia shrugged. "It's normally Lydia that finds the bodies."
"Normally? How many bodies have you guys found."
"Oh tonnes."
"What?" Elsa couldn't really believe what she was hearing, or how casually Malia talked about stumbling across a dead body. Her wide eyes found Kira who smiled meekly. "Do the cops know?"
"A couple of them, Parrish does…and Stiles' dad." Kira explained.
"This is so fucked up."
Stiles' blue Jeep pulled up about five minutes after Sheriff Stilinski arrived on the scene and Elsa found herself even more confused when Stiles, and Scott who was a few paces behind him, ducked under the investigation tape without once being questioned by any of the officers who were supposed to be guarding the crime scene. "Gill Grissom would never allow this kind of crime scene contamination." She muttered quietly, Malia pulled a face which Elsa could only assume meant she didn't understand the reference but Scott and Stiles prevented her from regaling tales of Gill Grissom and the Las Vegas CSI team fighting crime.
"Are you guys okay?" Scott asked, genuine concern lacing his tones. He look at each girl in turn, nodding at Elsa finally.
"Yeah," she spoke for all of them. "Can't say the same for those guys though." She motioned her head towards the bloody crime scene and the body that the coroner was currently covering with a white sheet. The two officers were still alive, although in a critical condition, the lawyer, who had apparently been in the front seat, hadn't been so lucky.
"What happened?" Stiles asked, walking around to Malia to give her a quick once over.
"I don't know, Lydia lead us here."
"No I mean with Donovan," Stiles corrected himself quickly. "Where is he?"
"We don't know that either." Elsa shrugged.
"Why are you here anyway Kirsch?" Stiles asked after a moment, his tone perhaps a little harsher than was entirely necessary. Scott frowned at the sound of it.
"I was invited."
"To the crime scene?"
"No dumbass, to Malia's driving lesson." Elsa folded her arms across her chest and raised her brows, challenging him to confront her further. Stiles didn't press the matter instead he turned to his father who had walked towards the group after being briefed by a couple of deputies.
"Boys," The Sheriff said before turning fully to face Scott. "Scott…you saw this kind Donovan, he wasn't like you right?"
Scott and Stiles exchanged a glance. "I don't think so." Scott shrugged.
"Unless he knows how to hide his scent." Stiles offered a possible explanation.
"Well human or otherwise, this kid might have just murdered his lawyer and mortally wounded two officers. We've got an ABP out on him but, you think you can find him faster?"
Scott nodded slowly. "I can try."
"Alright," The Sheriff handed Scott a radio handset, "Keep it on channel two."
With that Scott took off, nodding quickly towards the girls before disappearing into the night. Elsa shifted where she stood and although the Sheriff was not used to her being involved in these sort of events he didn't question her presence.
"Dad what if it wasn't Donovan?" Stiles suggested, turning to face the girls, away from the crime scene.
"I'm guessing you've already got a theory?" The Sheriff asked.
Whilst Kira and Malia stood giving their statements to deputies a little way away, and Lydia was deep in conversation with the deputy Kira had called Parrish earlier Elsa found herself the only person actually looking at the crime scene, or rather the surrounding area. There was a person standing up on one of the high walls that enclosed the road, in the darkness she couldn't exactly make out who it was though the defined jawline and perfectly styled hair that was shining in the moonlight gave her a pretty good idea. For reasons that she didn't entirely understand she said nothing however, and when Theo Raeken slinked off into the night she turned and walked silently back to where Kira and Malia were standing.
The girls gave their statements to the deputies one at a time, and Elsa was just about wrapping hers up when Scott McCall's voice came crackling through the radio headset attached to Parrish's shirt.
"Scott is that you?" The deputy asked. Suddenly finding himself surrounded by Lydia, Kira, Malia, Stiles and his father and Elsa as soon as she'd thanked and said goodnight to the officer taking her statement.
"Yeah I found Donovan." Scott's voice was distorted by the static on the radio but they could just about make out what it was he was saying. "He kept saying some name…"
"What name?" She Sheriff took the radio from Parrish.
"Theo…" Stiles muttered under his breath, Elsa didn't dare look at him for fear that he'd see she was keeping something from him, from everyone. Thankfully for her, no one else seemed to have heard him.
"Tracy. He keeps saying Tracy." Scott's voice crackled through the receiver once more.
"Tracy who?" Sheriff Stilinski questioned.
Lydia, who had been silent throughout the entire exchange glanced upwards. "Stewart. Tracy Stewart."
Elsa's phone buzzed in her back pocket and she stepped out of the small circle of people she found herself in to read the text.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
THANK YOU
T X
A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! It's been about a million years since I updated From Ashes and I am so sorry! I struggled for a long while finding Elsa's voice, but I stuck at it and hopefully I've done her justice here. I promise it wont be this long before I update again (well I hope at least) As usual please let me know what you think, reviews/follows/faves are greatly appreciated and motivate me more than you will ever know! If you feel like seeing any fun edits of Elsa (which I have been continuing to make despite not actually writing her for a while) then head over to my blog on tumblr (lydamartin) Also if you ever want to take Elsa in posts on there then use the tag 'Elsa Kirsch' cause I follow that! Thank you so much again guys, you all mean the world to me. Hope you enjoyed the update!