Chapter 2
A/N: Heya! Chapter 2 for you guys! It's short but sets up the rest pf the story. There's no Jackson in this one, either, but you'll see a lot of him in the future, I promise.
Also, I've used a mythical creature for this story, and would like to warn everyone that I have changed many things about the creature to make it fit with my story. I repeat, most of the things written here about the creature are a result of my imagination, although it is all inspired from the real thing. I hope I don't offend anyone with the amount of changes I've made.
Also also, reviews make me smile!
Disclaimer: I do not own, MTV, Teen Wolf, Or European Mythology.
Lydia has trouble focusing for the rest of biology class.
"He's afraid he'll lose you."
What in the world was that supposed to mean? She keeps throwing furtive glances in Stiles' direction, but he's lost in concentration, his fingers rhythmically drumming against the cold wood of his desk. They hadn't talked much after Lydia had returned to class, but he had reached over and squeezed her hand, seemingly apologizing, and she had put her other hand on his, assuming that he understood that they were fine now.
Now, she's not fine anymore. She wants to talk to him. She wants to tell him that Jackson would never, and she emphasizes, never come between their friendship. What she shares with the pack, she could never give up for a boy. They were her friends, and she loved them more than she dared to think.
She looks in Scott's direction, and the alpha, as if sensing her gaze on him, momentarily stops furiously scribbling his pen against his notebook and sends a shy smile her way. "Don't worry," he seemed to tell her, and she tore her gaze away from his, only to have it land on the seemingly zoned out boy next to her once again.
How can she not worry when her best friend doesn't have faith in their bond?
Lydia isn't sure when it happens.
One instant, she's lost in the details that make up Stiles' hoodie, and the next, she's holding her head against her hands. Her entire body is throbbing with pain and all she can hear is loud and continuous thumping, almost as if someone was using her temples as drums.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The banshee squeezes her eyes shut and forces herself not to scream, knowing full well that her voice, if not controlled, could be lethal.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She's on her knees, Scott and Stiles kneeled down next to her, keeping her from collapsing to the ground.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She suddenly feels being lifted up bridal style, and is able to open her eyes long enough to see a familiar navy blue fabric rubbing against her face. She hears Scott's footsteps follow Stiles', both the students running at full speed towards the exit of the building, neither of them paying attention to the teacher's shouts behind them. Once the school doors open, Lydia feels the cold October air hit her face, and a bit further, in the center of what she assumes is the Lacrosse field, Stiles gently lays her down against the grass and takes a few steps back.
"Lydia, scream," Scott says.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Ssssssssss.
"Scream," Scott says again, louder now.
Thump. Thump. Sssssssss. Thump. Sssssssss.
"Lydia," Stiles says this time. "Scream. SCREAM, LYDIA!"
And Lydia does.
The scream is so loud she feels windows breaking in the facility and she swears she can physically see the air rippling around her. A few feet away from her, her two friends are kneeling down in pain, their hands covering their ears, but neither makes an attempt to get away from her.
Lydia is grateful.
When she finally closes her mouth again, the young banshee takes a few seconds to regain her senses. She feels lightheaded, and all she can see is a blank, white, landscape of nothing. She isn't sure if she's standing, crouching, or collapsed on the ground. When her vision comes back, Scott is the first one to approach her kneeling form. His ears are of a scarlet red, but he seems otherwise unscathed. When Stiles uncovers his ears, however, Lydia is able to see a trail of blood dripping down to his neck, disappearing into the fabric of his top. He hastily wipes it in a desperate effort for it to go unnoticed and walks towards his two companions.
"Lydia, what happened?"
Lydia recalls the last few minutes of her life and can't help but tear up at the intensity of it all.
"Somebody died," she replies. "Actually, a number of somebodies died."
Scott nods.
"Anything else?"
"I think they were killed by a snake."
It's a pain for the three of them to try to explain themselves when they're at the door of their classroom with almost thirty pairs of curious eyes upon them.
Scott tries and tries, but nothing he says seems to convince Mrs. Rao that Lydia is, in fact, in perfect condition. Add that to the fact that the entire school heard the scream that broke two of its windows, and the trio was perfectly, what they would call, stuck. After maybe ten minutes of fruitless arguing from Stiles, the teacher decides that the three of them needed a break, and dismisses them from the rest of class.
Well, guess that went in their favour anyways.
The trio makes its way to the library then, and Scott texts the rest of the pack to meet them there. Until then, Stiles, Scott, and Lydia would try to find what it is that they were up against this time.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Lydia asks, sitting with her laptop open, ready to type.
"Search up 'killer snake'," Scott suggests, receiving disbelieving looks from the other two.
"Scott, there are almost a million different types of killer snakes out there."
"'Supernatural killer snakes'?" he tries again.
Lydia looks reluctant, but begins typing away, a look of determination spreading across her face. Stiles, on the other hand, tries to find anything he can on snakes in the bestiary.
They search for almost an hour, but turn up answerless. Lydia browses from site to site and Stiles goes through the pages of the bestiary in thorough detail, in search of anything having to do with snakes. By the end of the period, he's only halfway through. Scott for his part, has been going up and down the aisles in the library, trying to search for something, anything that may have even the most remote connection to the situation at hand, but not only does the search turn up to be a waste of time, but the alpha now has the disturbing image of two freshmen going at it,in the non-fiction section, stuck in his head.
He's almost surprised it's been that long when the rest of the pack shows up to help.
"So we're looking for a homicidal snake?" Malia asks Stiles, bemused.
"Death by snake venom is completely natural," Hayden adds, "why are you guys looking in the bestiary?"
"Because Lydia believes that the incident has to do with the supernatural," Stiles answers, still furrowing through the pages, not bothering to look up at them.
They don't question him after that. Instead, they pull out their phones and begin surfing the net in hopes of finding something.
They all sit there, quiet, curious, and a little fearful for the next half an hour until Liam pipes up and nudges Scott.
"Can't we do this after school? I mean, we're all starving."
Scott lifts his head up and out of the book on Irish mythology he has in his hands to see Hayden, Mason, and Malia looking expectantly at him. Closing the volume, his clears his throat, grabbing Lydia and Stiles' attention and nods.
"Maybe we should go get something to eat. We'll do some searching afterwards."
Lydia stares at him incredulously, but when he refuses to acknowledge her, she turns off her laptop and gets up, grabbing her purse and making sure to hit Scott with it. Scott doesn't flinch. He knows he kind of deserves it.
Stiles starts shoving the bestiary back into his school bag, but as he's about to zip it up, he feels his phone vibrating in his back pocket.
It's a text from his dad.
"Uh, Scott? You might wanna skip lunch and come with me."
At the hospital with Melissa. We have dead bodies. Bring Scott.
"They came in about twenty minutes ago," Melissa explained, "And we have reasons to believe that the cause of their deaths was supernatural."
"And if you don't mind," Stiles begins, flinging his hands in wild gestures, "might we know what those reasons are?"
Melissa gives Stiles a look, effectively shutting him up, and unzips the bag in which one of the bodies is found. The Sheriff just stands behind her, an air of confusion pressed upon his features.
When she unzips the corpse, the two boys have trouble telling what about the body is abnormal. The man looks like he must have been in his late thirties, with short black hair, and a round face, the kind that you'd expect to see an old uncle wearing. His lips have been strained of color, but otherwise, it's hard to tell that he's dead. If you didn't pay close attention, you'd think that he's taking an afternoon nap.
"His name was Marlin Rosoff," the Sheriff says at last. "He was a dentist working across town. He left behind a wife and three children. They say that he heard a weird noise in the old water filtration building and went in to take a look. He died inside."
"And why do you need Scott and I?" Stiles asked.
Melissa sighs and forces one of the body's eyes open with her fingers, leaving Scott and Stiles bewildered.
Instead of a human eyeball, there lay a smooth, grey rock in the victim's eye socket.
"There have also been large traces of an unidentified venom found in his body," Melissa adds.
"Problem is," Sheriff continues, "they don't know the poison got in there."
The nurse zips the bag back up and turns to face the three men again.
"There was no injection. He hadn't ingested or digested it, and the venom is evenly distributed throughout his entire body, so they're having trouble determining how he got poisoned in the first place."
Scott stares at his mother for a while, and then averts his gaze and lands it on the black bag behind her. He then looks at Stiles, who seems to be thinking the same thing as he is, and finally asks what they both want to know the answer to.
"Is it possible that he died because of snake venom?"
Soooooo did you like it? Did you hate it? Did you fall asleep halfway through? Tell me! See you all (hopefully) soon with a new chapter!