Haunted

Chapter 7: Stranded

When Derek pulled into the virtually empty Beacon Hills High School parking lot with three missed calls on his phone, he had been fully expecting immediate car door slamming and an annoyed younger brother's glare. Instead, he pulled into the lot in time to see Clark randomly jumping for joy and proceeding to have a conversation... with nobody. He knew his brother had been lying to him about his nightmares but the action in front of him was even more concerning.

Having seen enough, Derek pushed the horn and the sudden, loud noise startled Clark who quickly looked for, and found, the source of the sound. Clark marched over to the car and Derek received the car door slamming and annoyed younger brother's glare that he had been expecting instantly upon arrival. "Seriously?" Clark asked as he chucked his bag onto the back seat.

"What were you doing?" Derek asked in return, an eyebrow raised as he waited for a good explanation for the scene he had just witnessed.

"What was I doing?" Clark repeated the question in utter disbelief. "You're the one messing around and making me wait around for you so you can get your childish payback. It's the full moon tonight. It's hardly the time. You were the one who was going on about being serious!"

Derek wasn't sure if the rant was an attempt of Clark's to distract him from the craziness he had seen but he wasn't going to drop it until he got some answers. Ignoring the rant, he pressed again, "What was that?" He added a head tilt towards the bench Clark had been near to ensure they were on the right lines.

Clark glanced nervously out the windscreen and at the bench before looking back to Derek. "You saw that?" he questioned, receiving a nod of confirmation from his brother in response. Clark sighed. "This friend of mine is trying to get me to join the theatre club. Not that I would! But in my utter boredom, I decided to attempt one of the scenes."

After registering no change in Clark's heartbeat, Derek accepted that explanation and turned the key in the ignition, starting the car engine. Clark made sure to put his seatbelt on before Derek made it out of the parking lot. "We've got a few problems," Clark confessed as Derek pulled out the parking lot, hitting the road with his usual speed.

"A few?" Derek repeated with a sideways glance in Clark's direction. His word choice did not fill him with confidence.

"A lot of problems." Clark corrected his choice of words and making Derek tighten his grip on the steering wheel.

"Care to expand?" Derek prompted. The lack of detail would not help them find solutions to these supposed problems.

"I'll start with the most urgent one," Clark replied decisively. "This plan we had for tonight? The one where we didn't tell Scott because he'd only think we're crazy and not give us a chance to explain? The one where we were going to lure him out of his house and into the woods and then explain after the full moon?" Derek nodded. He was well aware of the plan; it was his plan after all. "It's not going to work."

"It will work," Derek argued, confident in his plan.

"No. It won't work. Because it's Friday night and what high school teenager stays at home on a Friday night?" Clark pointed out, realising he should have noticed that flaw when Derek had first put forward the plan. He was fully willing to let himself off given the ghost-filled week he had had. "There's a house party. Tonight. Scott's going and he's got a date. Argent's daughter."

"Then we're going to have to go to his house and tell him everything," Derek decided.

"Yeah, that sounds great and all except for the flaw in this new plan," Clark commented in response, earning a 'don't make me ask "what"' glance from Derek. "Unless you know his address, which would be very stalkery, how are we going to find his house?"