To Hell And Back

Chapter 10

After school, I met up with Stiles and Scott. They gave me a choice. I could go to Eichen and see Lydia, which would be good. But it would be hard for me to see her like that, if I even could see her. I don't know if she's in the area protected by Mountain Ash or what. I don't like that place. Or, I could follow Liam with Scott. I chose to go with Scott, only because I didn't really want to see Lydia on her catatonic state.

We got in my car and Scott told me where to go. We ended up following his scent to the tunnels. Where we've been so many times within the last few weeks. Walking down a few of the tunnels, I heard footsteps. I reached out to stop Scott from walking and we hid around a corner. Watching as Liam walked right by us. A few minutes later, he walked by us again... and again. Liam stopped and took his phone out.

"You lost?" Scott walked out from behind the corner we were hiding behind.

Liam jumped and turned around. "Completely." His eyes shifted between the both of us. "How did you know I was down here?"

"We followed you." I nodded and folded my hands behind my back.

"Why are you following me?"

"Why are you down here?" Scott asked.

Liam shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out where they took us. Hayden and I." Sighing, "Malia said she was down here too. That the scent was the same. She said you were right."

"Uh, there's a turn you keep passing. It's easy to miss."

"How many times did you watch me pass it?"

"Five." Scott smirked slightly. "Come on. Let's see if we can find it together."

We walked for a few minutes and I felt the hairs on my arm stand up. They were tickling me. Liam stopped in his tracks. "Do you feel that?"

"Like something's vibrating." Scott confirmed.

"I can't tell where it's coming from."

"It's coming from everywhere." I looked around.

Liam sighed. "I was just trying to do something right."

"You do a lot right."

"Yeah, but I did one thing really wrong."

"Hayden's alive. Everything before that doesn't matter." Scott shrugged.

"It should. I feel like I had to do more than just say sorry."

"Actually," Scott turned to him. "You still haven't done that."

Liam sighed. "Back at my old school... at Devenford, I got into a fight with this kid. I knocked two of his teeth out. They made my write a letter of apology. We both knew it meant nothing. We both knew that sooner or later, we're going to get into another fight. I can't just say I'm sorry. I feel like I have to do something. Like maybe, somehow I have to save your life."

"Don't worry." Scott lightly shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you'll get a chance."

Liam scoffed. "Well, not down here. We've been walking around for hours and all we've been able to find is some stupid snake sculpture on the wall." He pointed out the sculpture that I've seen easily 4 times today.

I watched Scott walk over to it and put his hand over it. "You think it's important?" I asked him.

He grabs the snake and starts to turn it. The walls started shaking and a door appeared. We all shared lookes of curiousness as Scott opened the door. The second it opened, I heard a gun cock. Chris Argent was pointing a gun at us. As soon as he realized it was us, though, he put it down.

Scott sighed. "You didn't." I looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. 

"I had to." Chris shrugged.

Wait, what? That's when I heard an extra heartbeat and smelled something putrid. I heard footsteps and someone walks around the corner. Oh, great. Here comes the asshole that's still on my shitlist walking around the corner with a goddamn cane. "Are you kidding me."

"Hello, Scott. Ashlyn." Gerard smiled wickedly. Scott growled and I saw his eyes flash red. Which made me growl and flash my own eyes. "I haven't seen that color on you. It suits you." Then he looks at me. "And Ashlyn? A Beta? This is an interesting turn of events." My hands balled up into fists.

"Who's the old guy?" Liam leaned over to me.

Gerard chuckled. "Uh, at the moment... they would call me a necessary evil. But you can call me Gerard."

My eyes darted over to Chris. "What were you thinking?"

"What she said." Scott nodded.

"That we need him." Chris answered.

"He's right." Gerard spoke up. "If you want to catch a Werewolf like the Beast of Gevaudan, you're going to need more than one Argent."

"He knows all the stories. All the folklore. Everything written and everything passed down, Take a look." Chris motioned us to follow him. I am beyond mad. He walked up to a wall and there was a painting on it. A big black beast on one side, a figure on fire on the other. "The one on the right is the Beast of Gevaudan."

"Do you know what the other one is?" Scott asked.

"The Hellhound." Gerard said. "The guardian of supernatural places. They're both creatures of the night. But you may know them as ordinary people during the day. And most likely neither of them know what they are."

Chris watched as Scott and I's facial expressions changed. I hope he was thinking about the picture he took the other day of the writing on the floor. His heart rate sped up. "What is it?"

"We found a message in Latin..." I started.

"Damnatio Memoriae." Scott finished.

"They want it to remember itself." Gerard nodded.

"That might give us some time." Chris said.

"Time for what?" Liam asked.

"To prevent this." Chris started kicking the bottom of the wall to break away the remaining brick to reveal the whole picture. Underneath the Beast and Hellhound... there were bodies... hundreds and hundreds of bodies.

"Who are they?" I asked, biting my bottom lip. I don't really think I'm gonna like the answer I get.

"Us." Scott sighed. "It's all of us."

Yep. Definitely don't like it.

Scott got a text on his phone and nudged me. "We gotta go. Uh, we'll, uh, catch up with you guys later." He grabbed mine and Liam's arms and we raced out of the tunnels. I still had no idea what was going on. Scott told me to go to the animal clinic.

When we showed up, Scott raced in with Liam and I right on his heels. Walking into the lobby and straight to the back, we saw Deaton and Scott hugging. Wait, Deaton?! He's back?! Thank God. I vaguely heard about him being taken for information.

I looked over at Malia and she smiled at me. Almost like she was proud of herself. I smiled at both her and Braedon, who was standing off in the corner.

*****

I showed up at Scott's house a few hours later because Stiles texted me to show up there. When I got there, Kira, Stiles, Malia, and Liam were standing around the kitchen table with blueprints spread out everywhere. The gang's back together.

"Hey, guys." I nodded and walked up to the table. Scanning the table top, I saw the blueprints that caught my eye as soon as I walked in the door, along with a security log book, and a key card from Eichen. I gave Stiles a look, knowing he stole the key card. He just smiled sheepishly at me.

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and Scott walked over to me. Putting an arm around my shoulder with a smile. "Now, we get Lydia."