HARSHER THAN THE BARK
A/N: I am literally so excited for you to read the rest of season 3 and here what you all think!
Enjoy!
It was dark when the bus pulled up to a motel. Scarlett, Scott, Stiles, Lydia and Allison were the last people off of the bus.
"I've seen worse." Scott said as he took in the shabby-looking motel, with a flickering sign that lit up saying 'Glen Capri.' Scarlett gave him an incredulous look before turning her stare of disgust back to the run down motel. It looked like the place in movies were drug deals went wrong and people got murdered.
"Where have you seen worse?" Stiles asked, incredulous.
"Listen up!" Coach said once they had joined the group of students. "The meet's been pushed till tomorrow and this is the closest motel with the most vacancies and the least amount of judgement when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely." He said before handing out the room keys. "And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"
"Let's go roomies." Scarlett said, holding up a room key to Allison and Lydia. There was an odd number of people so they had to go as a three and none of them minded. It would just be like one of their sleepovers, except in a scary, beat down, old, disease-infested motel.
Allison and Scarlett began to walk away towards the motel but Lydia didn't move. "Lydia?" Allison asked when she saw her friend hadn't moved an inch.
"I don't like this place." Lydia said, her voice quiet and serious.
"I don't think the people who own this place, like this place." Allison laughed.
"True, but it's only for a night, Lyds. And if I'm staying here then so are you so move your ass." Scarlett said, taking Lydia's hand.
Lydia still looked terrified. "A lot can happen in one night."
When they got into the room Scarlett stared blankly at the beds. They were a horrible green colour, the material was thin and cheap and she could see stains on them that were from God knows what.
"There's no way I'm sleeping in either of them." Scarlett announced with disgust. Allison rolled her eyes and set her bag down on one of the beds.
"They're not that bad." She assured her before walking into the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower, would one of you mind going to get some new towels? These ones stink of smoke." Allison said, walking out of the bathroom with a look of disgust.
"Anything to get out of this room." Scarlett sighed, grabbing the towels that seemed to have been drenched in nicotine before also grabbing Lydia's arm and taking her out of the room while Allison hopped in the shower. Lydia didn't say anything as they walked outside and down the stairs and she was really starting to freak Scarlett out. "Lyds? Are you really that scared of this place? I mean, I know it's a shit hole but it could definitely be worse. Like Scott said."
Lydia shook her head. "I'm not scared. I just have this feeling that something bad happened here and it's going to happen again…"
Scarlett gave her friend a weird look. It sounded like something a scared person would say to get out of staying somewhere like here, but Scarlett knew she would be stupid not to heed Lydia's concerns. After all, Lydia did have a knack for finding the bodies. And her premonitions were not something to be ignored.
"Okay well…we can't exactly leave so I guess we're just gonna have to see how it goes." Scarlett told her truthfully, not knowing what else to say. She hoped Lydia was wrong. She didn't want anything bad to happen. Enough bad things had already happened before and on this trip and Scarlett didn't know if she was prepared for whatever weird shit might happen here.
"I guess." Lydia agreed and the two girls continued walking towards the front desk to ask for new towels.
"Excuse me," Scarlett said, placing the towels on the desk. "The card in the dresser says we have a non-smoking room but- "
"These towels reek of nicotine." Lydia interjected, getting straight to the point.
"Sorry about that sweetheart." The lady at the desk croaked, turning around to reveal that she had some sort of device and tubing around her throat that was clearly there because of how much she smoked. Scarlett pursed her lips. No wonder the towels stank when the people running this place probably smoked ten packs a day.
"What's that?" Lydia asked, changing the subject when she noticed a number on the wall behind the woman. "That number."
"It's kind of an inside thing for the motel. My husband insists on keeping it up." The woman croaked out.
Scarlett's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?" What was the point in keeping a random number up on the wall?
"It's a little bit morbid, to be honest. You girls sure you wanna know?" The lady asked.
"Tell us." Lydia demanded.
The woman nodded. "We're not gonna make the top of anyone's list when it comes to customer satisfaction- "
"Obviously." Scarlett whispered, looking at the towels.
"But we are number one in California when it comes to one disturbing little detail. Since opening, more than any other motel in California, we have had the most guest suicides." The woman smiled creepily, causing shivers to go up Scarlett's spine.
"One hundred and ninety-eight." Lydia said with wide eyes, looking back at the number.
"And counting." The woman cackled, making Scarlett feel sick. God, who were these people?
Once they had the new towels that, honestly, didn't smell any better they made a quick getaway back to their room.
"Okay, I'm completely on board with the whole 'bad feeling' thing." Scarlett said, still freaked out from what they had learned from the woman about the suicides. She knew the motel was bad but bad enough for almost two hundred people to have committed suicide in it?
Scarlett walked into the bathroom to hand Allison a towel. "Thank God, what took you guys so long?" She asked stepping out of the shower and wrapping the towel around herself.
Scarlett pursed her lips and gave her a look. "Let's just say that when Lydia has a feeling, she should all listen to her."
"What do you mean?" Allison asked, following Scarlett out of the room to where Lydia sat, like a statue, on the bed.
"She means that there have been one hundred and ninety-eight people that have committed suicide in this place." Lydia informed her with a distant voice, while Scarlett sat down on the other bed and Allison started to get dressed.
"One hundred and ninety-eight?" Allison repeated with wide eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Yes." Scarlett and Lydia confirmed at the same time.
"And we're talking since this place opened which has been forty years." Lydia went on to explain. "On average that's…four point nine five a year." She calculated the math quickly in her head. "Which is…actually expected."
"Still," Scarlett interjected. "What kind of sick fucks commemorate that kind of thing with a framed number right at the front desk for everyone to see? What kind?"
"And they were all suicides?" Allison queried.
"Yes." Lydia confirmed. "Hanging, throat-cutting- "
"Both barrels of a shotgun in the mouth." Scarlett added in.
"I don't know about you but-" Lydia quickly stopped what she had begun to say.
"Lydia?" Scarlett asked when she noticed that Lydia had fallen silent.
"Did you hear that?" Lydia asked.
"Hear what?" Allison shared a look with Scarlett. Neither of them had heard anything.
Lydia stood up slowly and tilted her head at the air vent before climbing on to the bed, causing Scarlett to jump up and stand beside Allison.
"What the hell is she doing?" She whispered. Allison shook her head, continuing to watch Lydia.
Lydia's breath became shaky. "Oh my God, oh my God." She began whispering over and over again.
"Lydia?" Allison walked forward slightly.
Lydia waited for a few more seconds and then jumped back with wide eyes, looking as if she'd heard something that scared her back. She nearly stumbled off the bed but she caught herself just in time.
"What is it? What happened?" Scarlett asked, Helping Lydia down from the bed.
"You didn't hear any of that?" Lydia asked, frightened, her eyes filled with tears.
"Hear what?" Allison asked again with wide eyes, startled by Lydia's reaction to whatever she heard.
"The two people in the other room…" Lydia sucked in a breath. "They shot each other." Before Allison or Scarlett could say anything else, Lydia bolted for the door, yanking it open and running outside.
Scarlett looked at Allison who mirrored her confused look before they both went after Lydia who was walking along the hall before stopping in front of the door of the room beside there's.
Lydia slowly opened the door. Strangely, it wasn't locked. "Hello?" She called out before walking in. Scarlett and Allison flanked either side of her as she tried to turn on the light but it wasn't working.
Lydia walked into the room, her breath coming out in short puffs. Scarlett followed closely behind her, barely being able to see Lydia in front of her because it was so dark.
"What're you guys doing?" Allison hissed from outside. She was wary about just walking into some random motel room where Lydia thought she heard two people commit suicide.
"Come on." Scarlett said to Allison, who looked hesitant but walked in anyway, not wanting to leave her friends alone.
"Hello!" Lydia called out again, moving along the wall until her hands found a portable work light. She flicked the switch on it and it illuminated the room. The room looked as if it was under construction. There was plastic on the walls and sheets on the floor and buckets of paint left open. "It had to be right here." Lydia said, walking into the middle of the room. "It was a guy and girl and they sounded younger but…they were here."
Allison nodded and walked forward. "I believe you. After everything we've been through, I believe you."
"So do I." Scarlett assured her.
Lydia sighed and turned around, her eyes widening as she stared at the wood panelling of the wall before walking towards it with slow, shaky steps. Scarlett followed her and, she too, noticed what Lydia noticed in the wood. The darker parts made the shapes of faces. Faces that were screaming.
Lydia jumped back, shaking her head. She grabbed Scarlett's arm and then yanked Allison out too. "Oh no, we are not staying here." Lydia marched the two girls back to their room with haste and as soon as they were inside, she was grabbing all of her belongings and throwing them into her bag without any care. "There is something seriously wrong with this place and we need to leave."
Scarlett sighed and looked at Allison before looking back at a frantic Lydia. "Where are we gonna go, Lydia?"
"Anywhere but here." Lydia snapped.
Allison stepped forward. "Lydia they were suicides, not murders and it's not like this place is haunted, right?"
"Maybe it is." Lydia said, stopping her actions and turning around to look at her friends. Her eyes were wide and full of fright like they had been all night. "You know I bet that couple made their suicide pact in that very room. Maybe that's why they're renovating. Maybe they were scraping brain matter off the wood panelling."
"Maybe they're friendly ghosts." Scarlett suggested
"Maybe we should find out." Allison decided.
"How?" Lydia asked.
"We talk to the woman that told you about the suicides." Allison told her.
Scarlett sighed. "Really? I mean, she's just as scary as the rest of the motel."
"Come on." Allison said, shaking her head. Scarlett was unsure at first but she decided she would rather go talk to the creepy woman than be alone in the creepy room next to the other creepy room where two people supposedly killed themselves.
When they arrived at the front desk they saw a card on the window that read 'back at 6am.'
"Well there goes that." Lydia sighed.
"Didn't you say the sign said one ninety-eight?" Allison asked.
Scarlett's brows furrowed and her head snapped up to the numbers before her jaw dropped open. The number was now 201.
"It did." Lydia answered her shakily, staring at the number.
"Well what does that mean?" Allison asked. "That there's been three more suicides?"
Scarlett's whole body filled with dread as she spoke up. "Or maybe there's three more about to happen." She hoped she was wrong. The motel was mostly taken up by her classmates and honestly, she didn't think any of them were going to commit suicide but she was still worried.
"Guys," Allison spoke up. "There's four werewolves here."
Scarlett's eyes widened. "Why do you think it's them?"
"When you were going to get towels, Scott showed up. He wasn't himself." Allison explained.
"What do you mean?" Scarlett pressed.
"I mean; it was like he was under the influence of the full moon." Allison told her.
"But it's not a full moon." Lydia clarified.
"I know. Text Stiles, tell him that we need to talk to him. Alone." Allison instructed Lydia while the three headed back up to their room.
Five minutes after they got there, Stiles showed up. They explained everything to him. The suicide number, the voices of the couple and the number rising by three.
"We think it might mean three werewolves." Allison told him, waiting to see his reaction.
"Why?" Stiles asked.
"Well the last time I saw Scott act the way he did with me was during the full moon." Allison said, pacing the room while Scarlett and Lydia sat on one of the beds and Stiles stood next to them.
"Yeah, he was definitely off with me too…but, actually, it was Boyd who was really off. I watched him put his fist through a vending machine." Stiles informed them.
"Maybe you're right then." Scarlett admitted to Allison. It couldn't just be a coincidence that two out of four werewolves were acting strange.
"See? It is the motel." Lydia concluded. "Either we need to get out of here now or someone," She opened the drawer next to the bed and pulled out a red bible. "Needs to learn how to do an exorcism ASAP before the werewolves go crazy and kill us."
"Okay, just hold on." Stiles said, putting his hand up to calm Lydia's frantic movements. "What if it's not just the motel? You said the number went up by three."
"Like the sacrifices." Scarlett put the two together.
"What if this time, it's three werewolves?" Stiles suggested. "What if we were meant to come here?"
"Exactly!" Lydia snapped. "So can we get the hell out of here now?" By this point they were all standing in a small circle.
"Wait, hang on, let me see this." Stiles said, taking the bible from Lydia's shaking hands. He opened it up to where he saw paper sticking out of it. He then pulled out a newspaper clipping.
"What is that?" Allison asked as Stiles read out the headline.
"Twenty-eight-year-old man hangs himself at the infamous Glen Capri." He put the clipping down on the bed and then shook the bible, making a few other clippings fall out too.
"Look at these two." Lydia pointed out. "They both mention two seventeen. These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room."
"If every room has a bible…" Allison started.
"There could be articles in all the rooms." Lydia filled in.
"Well, most places leave a mint under the pillow…" Scarlett began before Stiles finished her sentence.
"This place leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred. Beautiful." He finished sarcastically.
"What if the room next door has the one about the couple?" Lydia asked. As soon as she said that, Stiles ran out the door and to the room, followed by the girls. He tried to open the door but it was locked. "That was not locked before, I swear."
"Forget it, we need to get Scott, Isaac and Boyd out of here." Allison said.
"She's right. They're our top priority." Scarlett agreed, following Allison. They were about to walk away but they all stopped when they heard what sounded like a hand saw being turned on.
"I'm not the only one that heard that, am I?" Lydia asked.
"Nope." Scarlett told her, her eyes wide.
"It sounds like someone turned the hand saw on." Allison clarified.
Stiles came running back to them. "Hand saw?" He asked disbelievingly. Stiles tried the door again and this time it swung open to reveal Ethan aiming the hand saw at himself. "Hey, no! Ethan, don't!" Stiles ran into the room and grabbed the handsaw, trying to take it away from Ethan so that he couldn't hurt himself.
Ethan threw the hand saw on the ground and thankfully, Lydia pulled the plug for it right before Stiles almost landed on top of the saw. Allison quickly pulled Stiles away from the saw and Ethan stood in front of them, his claws projecting from his fingers. They all thought he was going to attack Stiles but instead he dug his claws into himself.
"No!" Scarlett ran forward and struggled with Ethan, soon being backed up with Stiles' help. They eventually got his claws out of his skin and Ethan stumbled, trying to find something to grab so that he wouldn't fall. However, the only thing in front of him was a heater that was turned on. He yelped when his hand touched it and he fell to the floor, seeming to have snapped out of his trance.
"What just happened?" He asked, standing up and being on his guard immediately. When no one answered him he ran from the room.
"Ethan!" Stiles shouted after him. They all followed Ethan out of the room and down the stairs. "Come on, just tell us what happened!"
"Didn't you just hear what I said? I didn't know what I was doing or how I got there." Ethan told them again, doing up the buttons on his shirt as he tried his best to escape the foursome that were, more or less, harassing him for information he didn't have.
"You know you could be a little more helpful." Stiles told him. "We just saved your life."
"Well you probably shouldn't have." Ethan snapped at them before going into his room and slamming the door.
"What now?" Lydia asked.
"I'll find Scott." Allison said.
"I'll come with you." Scarlett offered.
"No, you should go with Stiles and Lydia, it'll take the three of you to take on two werewolves." Allison countered. Scarlett was confused. She didn't understand why Allison was so hell bent on being Scott's saviour recently. She understood that Allison still loved Scott and she wanted to keep him safe but it just came across as odd that, all of a sudden, Allison seemed like she might want to be back in a relationship with Scott after so long of avoiding him.
"Um, okay." Scarlett said. "Be careful." Allison took off up the stairs. Lydia was about to go as well to find Isaac and Boyd like Allison said they should but when she caught the look on Stiles' face, she stopped and sighed.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing." Stiles mumbled.
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Stiles!"
"Okay, listen, I didn't want to say anything but this, everything we're going through…we've kinda been through it before." Scarlett narrowed her eyes, wondering where Stiles was going with this.
"What do you mean? When?" Lydia questioned, folding her arms across her chest.
Stiles sighed. "Your birthday party. The night you poisoned everyone with wolfsbane." Everything clicked for Scarlett then. Everyone who had drank the punch that night had started acting all strange, hallucinating, in her case. And it was because Peter had made Lydia put wolfsbane in the punch and she had no idea. She had no clue that she was being controlled by him. And the way the werewolves were acting was like they're being controlled by someone but they don't have a clue about it.
Lydia's eyes went wide and she looked offended that Stiles would even slightly insinuate that she had anything to do with the killings. She huffed and walked away from the two.
"Accusing a girl of murder is not the way to her heart, FYI." Scarlett told Stiles before jogging after Lydia. "Lydia, wait!"
"Lydia, I'm sorry! I didn't mean you're the one killing people. But maybe…maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves." Scarlett gave Stiles an incredulous look.
"Shut up!" She hissed at him. He wasn't making anything better.
Lydia didn't say anything, she just stopped walking. "Do you hear that?" Not again.
"This is what happened last time." Scarlett whispered to Stiles as Lydia knelt down beside a drain. "What do you hear?"
"A baby crying." Lydia told them, her voice sounding far away again. "I hear…I hear water running. Oh my God. She's drowning the baby." Lydia's voice cracked and then she stood up. "Someone's drowning!" Lydia turned and ran for the stairs, closely followed by Scarlett and Stiles. "In there!" She pointed to one of the rooms. Stiles threw open the door and rushed inside, seeing Boyd under the water in the bath with a safe on top of his chest.
"Oh my God." Scarlett whispered. She couldn't bear to see another one of her classmates dead.
"He blocked the drain with something, I can't get it out." Stiles told them.
"What do we do?" Lydia asked frantically.
Stiles looked at the safe. "Here, help me." He said, starting to try and lift the safe. Both girls immediately tried to help him but it was no use. It was far too heavy for normal human strength.
"Is he dead?" Scarlett asked, wide-eyed.
"How long can werewolves stay under water?" Lydia asked.
"You think I know that?" Stiles asked, incredulous, still trying to get the safe to budge. Angered, Stiles stood up and fell back, burning his arm on the wall heater. "The heater. Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."
"What?" Lydia asked, not knowing what he meant.
"It's the heater, the heat! Heat does it!" Stiles exclaimed. "We need something- "
"Stiles, he's under water!" Scarlett shouted at him as if it weren't obvious enough to him.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that." Stiles said.
"Wait, wait," Lydia spoke up. "The bus. On the bus there will be emergency road flares. They have their own oxidisers. They can burn under water."
"Are you serious?" Stiles asked.
"Yes, go!" Lydia shouted at him. Stiles ran from the room to get the flares. "We need to keep trying, I don't know how much longer he's got."
Scarlett nodded and again, they tried to lift the safe or even push it off of Boyd but it wasn't working.
"This isn't working." Scarlett stated the obvious. "Stiles better hurry up."
The two girls waited for Stiles, praying that he got back in time to save Boyd. Scarlett walked back into the room when she heard noises. Like someone sniffling and crying.
"What're you doing?" Lydia asked her.
Scarlett put her finger to her lips to signal for Lydia to be quiet. Slowly, Scarlett kneeled down beside the bed and lifted the cover that was hanging down. She jumped back up when she came face to face with a terrified looking Isaac who was cradling himself under the bed.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, putting her hand to her chest when she saw it was Stiles with the flares in his hands.
"Okay, what do I do?" Stiles asked.
"The cap, the cap's like a match." Lydia told him. Stiles took the cap off and tried to light the flare but he wasn't having any luck. "Stiles!" Lydia squealed.
"I'm trying!" He said, finally getting the flare to light. Stiles ran to the bathroom and wasted no time in dunking the flare under the water. Within seconds, the safe was thrown off of Boyd and he rose from under the water, bearing his fangs and making Stiles jump back into Lydia and Scarlett. Once Boyd was out of the bath and safe, Scarlett informed Stiles that Isaac was under the bed. Stiles knelt beside the bed like Scarlett had and had the burning flare at the ready. "Hey Isaac…got something here for you." He said before sticking the flare in Isaac's face, snapping him out of his trance.
Allison appeared in the door way a few minutes later and Scarlett, Stiles and Lydia followed her outside.
"I can't find Scott anywhere." She told them as they jogged down the stairs.
"Does that mean the same thing's happening to him?" Scarlett said, her voice full of worry for her brother. She had been so close to losing him earlier that same day, there was no way he was just going to kill himself.
"It must be." Stiles answered her.
"Didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia asked, figuring they could use that to snap Scott out it as well.
"Yeah." Stiles said as they rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, only to come to a halt at what they saw.
Scott stood next to the bus, drenched in gasoline with a lit flare in his hand. Scarlett felt her heart sink as she tried to hold back tears.
"Scott?" Allison walked forward carefully, keeping her voice calm as Scarlett's heart started to beat erratically in her chest. "Scott?"
They all looked at him with wide eyes as he looked down, hopeless.
"There's no hope." Scott spoke, his voice broken and sad.
"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison asked, tears in her eyes. "There's always hope."
Scott shook his head. "Not for me. Not for Derek…"
Scarlett stepped forward. "Derek's death wasn't your fault, Scotty. You can't blame yourself for it. I won't let you." Scott looked at her with sad eyes. "If anyone's to blame," Scarlett tried to swallowed the huge lump that building in her throat. "It's me. Blame me. I'm the one who broke up with him and because of that he made reckless decisions. I'm the one who made him think no one cared about him…and that's why he went head on into that fight. So don't you dare blame yourself, Scott."
"Don't you see, Scarlett? Every time I try to fight back it keeps getting worse, people keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed…"
"Scott, listen to me," Stiles said, walking forward. "This isn't you. This is someone inside your head telling you to do this."
"What if it isn't?" Scott asked. "What if this is just me? What if doing this is the best thing that I can do for everyone else?"
"No, Scotty…" Scarlett protested, feeling the tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched her brother give up and felt her heart break.
"It all started the night I got bitten. Do you remember the way it was before that? You and me…we were nothing. We weren't popular." Scott spoke directly to Stiles but it affected Scarlett that he actually thought that. "We weren't good at lacrosse…we weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again."
Scarlett couldn't stand to watch this happen. She wouldn't. This was her brother, her twin and she would fight to save him from anyone, even himself. "You were never no one Scott. You were always someone to me. The one I talked to about everything. My shoulder to cry on. You were always there for me when no one else was. You and Stiles," Scarlett looked at Stiles and took his hand, knowing that he was just as much a part of Scott's life as she was. "You guys are my everything…you're my brothers."
"She's right, Scott. We've always been there for each other and that's not gonna change now. We're family…so," Stiles took a step forward into the puddle of gasoline and Scarlett did the same. "If you're gonna do this then I guess you're just gonna have to take us with you. Because we need you, Scott."
"And we love you." Scarlett said, squeezing Stiles' hand as he put his other hand on the flare too, easing it away from Scott. Scarlett's heart pounded in her chest, even as relief flooded through her when Stiles threw the flare away. Never feeling more relieved about anything in her entire life, she threw her arms around Scott, appreciating the fact he was still alive and she hadn't lost her brother. He put his arms around her too and squeezed, crying into her hair.
"NO!" Scarlett didn't have any time to react to Lydia's scream before she felt herself being knocked to the ground by not one, but two bodies. Lydia and Stiles rolled off of her and they all turned just in time to see the puddle they had been standing in burst into a fiery blaze. Scarlett shielded her eyes from the bright flames by burying her head into her brother's chest.
Eventually the fire went out once it had burned up all of the gasoline. The group rose to their feet, still recovering after almost losing their lives in the name of love.
"You idiot." Scarlett breathed, pulling Scott into another hug. "Don't you ever try to leave me again; you hear me?" She cried.
"I won't Scar," His voice was muffled by her mass of curly hair. "I promise."
"I'm not going back into that place." Lydia declared.
"The bus it is then." Stiles nodded as they one by one climbed back on the bus.
"Thank you." Scarlett whispered to Stiles, kissing his cheek lightly. She knew that he was fiercely loyal to Scott but to put his own life at risk to save her brother…that was admirable. They may not be family by blood but he was definitely her brother too.
The group was awoken in the morning by a loud voice. "I don't wanna know. I really don't wanna know." Coach said, watching as the teens woke up groggily, stretching from sleeping in such uncomfortable positions. "But in case you missed the announcement, the meet's been cancelled so we're heading home. Pack it in! Pack it in!"
Ethan sat down next to Scott, unexpectedly, gaining Scarlett's attention.
"Look, I'm pretty sure you saved my life last night." Ethan started.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure I saved your life, but whatever." Stiles interjected.
"So I'm gonna give you something." Ethan ignored Stiles. "We're pretty sure Derek's alive." Scarlett's eyes widened and her heart rate sped up. She had spent this whole trip thinking Derek was dead but something, in the very back of her mind in a small corner, she thought maybe, just maybe there was a chance he could still be alive and with Ethan confirming it, Scarlett needed to see for herself if it was true. Scarlett's happiness was short-lived when Ethan spoke again. "But he killed one of ours. Which means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack or Kali goes after him and we kill him. That's the way it works."
This was good news and bad news for Scarlett. The good news was that the love of her life wasn't dead after all. The bad news was that there was a good chance he would be if he didn't decide to join the Alpha pack. She didn't know what to make of the situation but she knew one thing, she had to see Derek as soon as possible and tell him that she was sorry.
Ethan walked back to his seat next to Danny and Lydia stood up, grabbing Coach's whistle from around his neck.
"I'm gonna need that back!" Coach shouted.
"What is it, Lydia?" Scarlett asked, intrigued by her sudden fascination with a whistle.
Lydia blew the whistle into her hand and when she bared her palm, there was a crushed up purple powder on it. "Wolfsbane."
"So every time Coach blew the whistle on the bus…Scott, Isaac and Boyd- "
"And Ethan." Lydia cut Stiles off.
"If we all inhaled it…" Scott began.
"You were all poisoned by it." Allison concluded.
"So that's how the darach got into your heads." Scarlett clarified.
Stiles grabbed the whistle off of Lydia, opened a window and threw it out.
"Hey!" Coach shouted, not being able to get out and get it before the bus started moving. "Stilinski!"