Unspoken - Book 4 - S.S.

The benefector

Just as Lydia had predicted, the talk with Charles Hills had not been an easy one. Sure, seeing his daughter there, alive and considerably well had been a shock - a shock that Declan hadn't really taken long to overcome, considering Stiles had told him everything about the supernatural after Diana's death - and the hug the three of them had shared had been a long and sweet one, but the conversation after... That had been a shock. After all, werewolves, banshees, kitsunes and a phoenix? How was Charles meant to digest all of that thirty minutes after receiving the news that his daughter - who had been dead and burried for the past three months as far as his knowledge could tell - suddenly appeared in the hospital, alive? Still, Charles tried and, as much as he told Diana and Lydia it would take him a while to get used to it all, he promised he'd try. He'd try anything really, if it meant having his daughter back. Including, but not limited to, apparently, lying to the police once they came in to try and understand what was going on.

It had taken them quite a while to explain everything to everyone, but, eventually, they did. Coming up with a whole story about how someone had actually wanted - and actually managed - to kidnap Diana all along and leaving behind a body that looked quite a lot like hers so everyone would think she was dead while they kept her with them for the three months she had been gone. And, of course, none of that actually made sense, but when sheriff Stilinski corroborated the children's version, there wasn't much anyone else could argue about. So, thankfully, the hospital let her go when they realized she didn't have any bad wounds and the school allowed Diana to go back to her activities as usual. Of course, everyone was whispering about the weird Diana Hills case, but she had been the focus of lots of gossip around school before, so what was new about that?

As Diana sat in her health class beside Lydia, everything seemed so normal Diana almost forgot the fact that she had just gotten back from the dead, somehow. Well, if it wasn't for the fact that she was having to read through all of Lydia's notes for all of the classes they shared, Diana could swear this was just another week for her. But considering the fact that she couldn't understand a single thing written on Lydia's math book, Diana was starting to worry she'd end up being held back that year because of the months she lost.

"These are your math notes?" Diana frowned down at the book in front of her as Lydia sat beside her with her notebook open. "God, I'm so gonna fail this class..."

"No, don't worry about them." Lydia was quick to reassure, reaching over to her book and closing it for Diana before nodding her head toward her laptop instead. "I mean, some of them are my notes. The rest, I think might actually be a code..."

"A code for what?" Diana frowned, taking a peek of the screen in front of Lydia and noticing how the girl had, apparently, transcribed everything from her notes to the computer.

"I don't know yet."

"And you don't remember writing it?"

"Not in the slightest." Lydia shook her head, as Diana sighed. "But, considering my drawing of a tree led us to the Nemeton, I should probably figure out what it means before it tries to kill us."

Diana nodded her head then, leaning her chin against her palm as she watched Lydia working. From her best friend's other side, Diana saw Kira leaning closer as well as she looked over the code in Lydia's screen.

"Maybe it's like the Enigma code the Allies used?" She offered, causing the two other girls to stop for a second and look at her. "Remember, my dad was a World War II buff? And my mom was, well... In it."

"I think it's a variation on something called the Vigènere Cipher." Lydia said, as Diana raised an eyebrow at her.

"Do you know how to crack it?" She asked.