"Sorry, Lahey, but I'm more of a cat person."
Vera Pérez is no stranger to the supernatural. Growing up alongside the Hale family has kept her fairly well-informed about the creatures that lurk in the darkness. However, she didn't become one of thos...
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( alpha pact, pt. i )
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
DOMINIC RETURNS TO school the next day. If anything, their friend group has grown accustomed to returning to their academic lives after a near-death experience like it's no big deal. After a trip to the police station to confirm he's alive, he spends the night at Vera's because his family is still held back by the storm.
The building is unusually empty today. After the disaster at the memorial recital — Jennifer had caused the demise of another teacher, completing her third death for the Philosopher sacrifices — it seems that most parents had wanted their children to stay home. Scott is off God-knows-where with Deucalion. Allison isn't picking up her phone. Isaac is nowhere to be seen. It's just Lydia, Stiles, Dominic, and Vera wondering what the hell their next move is going to be.
Being stagnant is the worst phase of a battle. There always comes a point where there's nothing to be done as each side reevaluates their plays. The problem is that Vera doesn't even know what they can possibly do when she can't see the whole board. Even the people on her side — Scott and Allison, for example — seem to be hiding things.
But what is her side anymore? She'd always thought it was her and her friends versus the Alphas, but now that Jennifer is involved, they've formed an overlapping triangle. Derek needs Jennifer to heal Cora. She and Scott need the Alphas to keep their mothers safe. The lines between ally and foe are becoming more blurred than she would like.
Even though she'd wanted nothing more than to give up and show up to school with unbrushed hair and still dressed in her pajamas, she'd forced herself to look presentable. She'd sluggishly pulled on a pair of black jeans and a white top with a light blue denim jacket over it. Her mother had styled her hair into two french braids like she was a little girl again, the action far more comforting than Vera would like to admit. She hadn't bothered to put in her contacts and had instead opted for her glasses.
Between third period and lunch, while Vera and Dominic are standing at her locker, she gets her first message from Isaac all day.
LAHEY: jennifer took allison's father
Vera's phone almost slips from her grasp before she quickly catches it again. She doesn't feel anything at first, just a harrowing sense of numbness. Her entire body becomes encased with cold. It can't be over so soon, can it? Have they really come this far just to lose?
"What?" Dom asks, his brows pinched in worry after noticing her vacant expression. "What is it?"
She turns her phone so he can read the message. After he does, he squeezes his eyes shut and rubs them in dismay, stretching out the pale skin of his face. His messy hair is characteristic of his now-panicked mood. The pastel-green hoodie he wears sends a punch to her gut— everything has gone so, so wrong that anything bright feels like a lie when Vera's insides feel so dark.
