Breathe

chapter thirteen: three million

"Meredith, what do you mean you can't tell us?" Lydia asked her for the third time.

"We just need the third key. You can give it to us in numbers, letters, hieroglyphs. Whatever you want." Stiles said.

"I can't." She stuck to her ground.

"Then why did you give us the second key?" I asked.

"I wanted to help. That's what I want to do. I want to help." Meredith said

"Great. So help us now. Okay? Give us the third cipher key." Lydia said, smiling.

"Things have changed. I... I can't." She got nervous.

"Why not?" Stiles asked.

"Guys, go easy on her." Parrish picked up on it as well.

"I'm sorry. I can't. He... He doesn't want me to." Meredith said.

"He? Who's he?" I asked.

"Meredith, who doesn't want you to tell us the third cipher key?" Lydia asked.

"The Benefactor." Meredith said, and the four of us were dumbfounded.

She knows the benefactor.

"What's his name? You could just tell us his name." Lydia asked, and Meredith shook his head.

"Okay, you're shaking your head. What's that mean? Does that mean you don't know? Or you don't want to help us?" I asked.

"I can't... I can't help anymore." Meredith answered.

"How do you know about him?" Lydia asked.

"Guys, I think we better stop." Parrish said, noticing Meredith's change in body language.

"Meredith, a lot of people are going to die if you don't tell us." Lydia said.

"I don't... I don't know. I don't know." Meredith said.

"Please... Meredith, it's okay. You're gonna be all right." Lydia said. "Please."

"I don't... I don't... I don't know." Meredith said.

"Meredith." The deputy interjected to try and calm her down but it didn't work, it actually counter acted.

"I said, I don't know!" Meredith screamed, sending Lydia flying backwards into Stiles' arms, her hands over her ears.

I ran up to her as she uncovered them, blood oozing down the side of her head.

"Hey, Lydia can you hear me?" I asked and she nodded.

"I think we better go." I said, pulling Lydia out of the room and down to the car.

~

"Okay, well, we know one thing. Both of the first two keys, Allison and Aiden, they're both names of the dead. Right?" Stiles asked, and hearing Allison's name followed by the word dead still hurt like a bitch.

"But we've already tried every other dead person's name we could think of. And if you haven't noticed, there were a lot of tries." Lydia said.

"Yeah, I noticed." Stiles said.

"You okay?" I asked Lydia, as she was in a far away place.

"The only other Banshee I've ever met. And I think I might have just drove her over the edge." Lydia sighed.

"Lydia, it wasn't your fault. I was there, too, even Brooke. And you're probably not the only... Hold on." Stiles said, grabbing our attention. "Banshees predict death. Right? So what if the third key is someone who isn't dead..." Stiles said.