Destiny [D.H.]

57

Derek's lips pursed. "That means anyone with the deadpool could take a chance."

"But if Haigh had it, then who else does? How easy is it to get this thing now?"

Lydia sighed. "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once. But I think once was enough."

Derek turned to her. "How did your grandmother know her?"

Lydia shook her head. "She didn't. She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy. The woman she loved." She let out a sigh and continued. "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the lake house from all the regattas she'd won."

"How did she die?" Parrish and Evan questioned.

"How's not the story. It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound... Like rain. But when she looked out the windows... All she saw was blue sky."

I glanced at my friend. "Let me guess. She kept hearing the rain."

Lydia nodded. "And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder cracking like gunshots in her head. So loud. She finally screamed."

"Like a Banshee," Derek realized.

"She called Maddy who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But Maddy said that the sun was shining there too. So Lorraine didn't say anything."

"There was an accident?" Parrish wondered.

"It took them four days to find Maddy's body. And then it took decades to figure out how Lorraine knew. She started with parapsychologists, like the PhD in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific theory they could find. None of it worked. So then she started going to a more extreme occult. Things like mediums and psychics. All of them were failures. Until she found Meredith. They found her in Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study. And they almost killed her. She was hospitalized for over a year. She... she never really recovered. My grandmother drove her insane. I drove her to suicide. All she ever wanted to do was help. My grandmother created the code for the deadpool. They think she's the Banshee who put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code."

We glanced at the code while Scott asked, "But she didn't leave a cipher key, did she?"

---

At Stiles' house, Lydia, Stiles and I were talking in his room trying to figure out the cipher key. Stiles' printer kept beeping, letting us know it was out of paper.

I glared at the printer, then at my friend. "I'm about to smash that to bits."

Stiles frowned at me. "No breaking my printer."

I growled softly and said, "Maybe Maddy is the key. Try that."

Lydia narrowed her eyes at me. "Doesn't Maddy feel a little obvious as a cipher key?"

Stiles nodded and stood next to me. "I guarantee it's Maddy."

Lydia typed in MADDY and it didn't work. Stiles took a moment to think. "Okay, your name. She left the code for you, right? So it's got to be your name."

She typed in her name. Didn't work. "Your mom's name?" I wondered. Nope.

"Do you have any beloved family pets?" Stiles asked.

"Mmm," Lydia hummed.

I tousled my hair. "It's all for you, Lydia. The ashes, the code, everything. I think she wanted you to figure this out."