As the blue skies were taken by black, a lone man was walking through the forests of Beacon Hills with purpose. Not taken aback by the howling and odd noises in the dark trees, he kept walking with great precision not once checking to see if he was going the right way. It was as if he knew the forested roads by heart
His body was found near the outskirts of the forest a few days later. As usual, Sheriff Stilinksi was on the case.
Although his son had tried everything from using his great charisma to begging he'd left him at home. After the events of a few months ago, he'd rather cut off a limb than put him in danger again.
It had been a few months since the traumatizing events brought on by the nogitsune. It hurt a great deal but people had no choice but to move on. Though the wound's healing was forcefully sped up it was still tender to the touch.
The sheriff came back home in the afternoon, clearly distraught. He grabbed a drink from the kitchen and threw the case files on the kitchen table before settling there himself. As he took in both the whiskey and the bizarre circumstances of the man's death he wondered why the house was so quiet. Dropped everything and nervously went to his son's room.
He knocked on his door and was filled with relief when Stiles called him to come in. He was laying spread across his bed staring at the ceiling.
"Hey kid, you okay?" the sheriff asked.
He didn't make an effort to look at his dad and instead remained still, "Yeah, just thinking."
"Anything you wanna talk about?"
"Nothing already not said."
The sheriff sighed. He knew that Stiles was getting stuck on… he didn't even wanna say its name. He thought about his promise to himself earlier and sighed again, he wouldn't be putting his son in danger he only got involved in the thinking right? Besides it would be a good distraction.
"I have the case files in the kitchen if you wanna take a look."
"That's fine," Stiles said as he turned his head to his dad. The sheriff studied his face. He looked miserable. Not the, will go away after a shower and good nights sleep kind of miserable but the type of miserable that didn't go away too easily.
"Are you sure? It's a really odd one, I could use your help."
Stiles took in a deep breath and got out of bed, "okay you got me," he smiled briefly.
The next day came quickly. The Stilinksi's had spent the majority of the night brainstorming about what might have caused the strange series of circumstances but nothing came to mind. So they went off to bed.
School was as usual, a grey atmosphere filled the corridors, only barely muffled by the light of the students lingering in the corridors.
The pack gathered together at lunch where Stiles was debating whether to tell them about the case or not.
Had it been long enough? How were they coping? Would they go crazy on him if he suggested another supernatural goose-chase? And was he, himself ready for this? After all, he was still haunted by the nightmares of what he'd done. His heart still sank whenever he looked at any of his friends, afraid that they'd suddenly turn on him, blaming him for everything that had happened (not that they could blame him more than he was already blaming himself).
Unfortunately his mouth was too quick for his own good, "So did you guys hear about the body the other day?"
An awkward silence filled the air as everyone looked at him.
"What?" Stiles asked.
Scott cleared his throat, "No, is it bad?"
"What dead body?" both Malia and Lydia said at the same time.
"Some man was found drowned in the forest outskirts"
"So?" Malia asked.
"There isn't a body water anywhere near there," Lydia answered.
"There also weren't any signs of trouble or other injuries found."
Scott shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Does it have anything to do with us?"
"It doesn't sound very natural, but I don't know." Stiles shrugged.
"Should we really get involved? It hasn't been that long since…" Lydia didn't finish her sentence, everyone already knew what she was talking about.
The sheriff and deputies had gone back to where the body was found. The water from the victim's lungs had been tested and revealed to be from a natural water source. It didn't make sense. Their first assumption was that the man had been taken first but there weren't any tracks near the body either way and the autopsy had made it clear that no one had laid a hand on him.
Once identified, a background check was done on him, which showed there was no one to notify. He had no family. He was completely alone.
"Are we sure we want to do this?" Scott asked one last time. He really wasn't sure if he wanted to get back in action just now. What if they lost someone again? What if something even worse happened?
"Relax, we'll be fine," Malia said and got closer to the police.
Though they were definitely out of earshot for any normal person, thanks to their super-hearing they could understand everything. Stiles on the hand, was retired to keep watch in case any of the cops wondered into their location.
He couldn't help but feel nervous. How could he not feel nervous? His father had made it very clear that he didn't want him messing with this but Stiles was ready to face the killer alone if that's what it took to convince everyone (including himself) that he was still good.
"Anything?" Stiles asked impatiently.
Both shapeshifters shushed him and turned back to him a few moments later.
"There isn't any new information, they keep repeating the exact thing you told us." Scott said.
"Maybe if we saw the body we could catch a scent or something." Malia said, clearly frustrated with the lack of new information.
"The body's already at the morgue, we'd have to break in"
"Nothing we haven't done before," Stiles suggested.
Scott sighed, "Look, I know I agreed to come out here and I know you're worried there could be something supernatural going on here but maybe we should take it a bit slow."
"Yeah but, this is always how it happens, we say there's nothing on then all of a sudden we have ten dead bodies plus others piling up," Stiles argued.
"I don't know Stiles but I think Scott might be right here. I didn't know," she hesitated to call Allison by her name but then decided to change her sentence all together, "I don't know what else you guys went through but maybe we should keep it safe right now."
Stiles felt like he was hit over the head but he wouldn't let up, he couldn't let anyone else die if he could help it, "What about the people after this man? Are we just going to let them die?"
"We can't keep everyone safe," Scott said uncharacteristically.
"Not if we don't try. After what happened at the- I killed them-" Scott tried to interrupt him but Stiles didn't let him, "Please, I can't let anyone else die, I need this." He held his tears in but the others didn't need to see them, his scent already gave everything away. Even though they really didn't want to, both Malia and Scott reluctantly agreed to help.
Outside the hospital a plan was formulated. Scott would stall his mom and Stiles and Malia would slip in the morgue and get out without anyone seeing them. However when they came face to face with the reception the plan seemed a lot harder than before.
Scott went up to his mom and did his best to stop her from seeing either of his friends as they slipped past. As the others started to quickly try and walk past he and his mom Scott felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up and out of nowhere he leaned over the reception and gave his mom a hug, making sure that she was facing the other way.
First part of the plan was successful, they were in the morgue. A sense of urgency washed over them as they shuffled through the name tags to find the right body. Little did they know, Noah Stilinksi was right behind the door waiting to give them a long lecture.
Stiles cringed as his dad tightly held him by the shoulder and dragged him and the others out of the hospital.
"What part of 'I don't want you getting involved' didn't you understand?" Stiles didn't need super-senses to tell how angry his dad was.
"The 'don't' part?" he answered and immediately regretted it. His dad frowned even more.
He looked at the all teens, "None of you are to get involved any further. Got it?" when the teens nodded he turned back to his son, "we'll talk about this later."
They sat in silence in the jeep until Malia spoke up, "I got a scent."
Before anyone could say anything thunder echoed throughout Beacon Hills.
"I think you got your answer," Stiles said as it started raining hard.