I N S T I N C T | Jackson Whittemore

08: squeaky plans

Squeaky Plans
Chapter Eight

Jackson stood at his locker, his mind still fluttering at the thought of Annie. Oh, Annie. She was pretty, smart, she smelled amazing, and was toned and 100% lean... Jackson wanted her. Jackson also recognized the fact that Annie was smart, caring, trust-worthy... all things Jackson, himself, lacked... but it was no secret he felt different around her. He let his vulnerabilty show. He let her in.

"... Jackson," Lydia commented, breaking Jackson out of his trance. Lydia had been talking to him for about a minute now, and Jackson hadn't heard any of it. He was too transfixed on Annie. "Can you like, look at me from half a second?" Lydia complained. Jackson sighed, turning to his compulsive, annoying, erotic ex.

Lydia sighed, "They said if you hadn't found me and carried me back... I could have died. So I just... I wanted to say thank you," Lydia smiled at the boy she was still in love with from saving her from that monster, the one that attacked her on the lacrosse field. She still didn't understand what happened... and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Lydia," Jackson sighed, "we're not getting back together."

Lydia scoffed, "What?"

Jackson shook his head, the anger rising up inside him once again, "And just because I kept you from bleeding out on a field once, don't expect me to come running every time you start screaming."

Lydia shook her head, "I never said—"

"I'm not responsible for you, okay?" he flipped on her, and immediately regretted it. He calmed down, and inhaled, "But I will give you one piece of advice. If I were you, I'd stay home tonight."

Lydia huffed, "What does that mean? What's tonight?"

Jackson looked down the hallway at Annie talking to Allison, and smirked, "It's a full moon."

Annie quickly grabbed her jacket and turned around, only to run into Scott. Scott and Annie both were worried and freaked out, they both knew that Isaac was going to be locked inside a cell that couldn't even hold him tonight if they didn't do something.

"Hurry," Scott said to her as they cascaded out of the building.

Annie ran down the steps first, and stopped at the bottom as a black camero pulled up and opened the front door. Annie sighed and shook her head as Derek Hale rolled his eyes, "Get in."

"Are you serious?" Scott scoffed, "You did that. That's your fault!" he yelled, referring to Isaac getting put in handcuffs and getting taken to jail as a suspect.

"I know that," Derek said sternly, "now get in the car and help me."

Annie scoffed, "No, I've got a better idea. We're gonna call a lawyer. Because a lawyer might actually have a chance of getting him out before the full moon goes up."

Derek shook his head, "Not when they do a real search of the house."

Scott shook his head, "What do you mean?"

"Whatever Jackson said to the cops..." Derek gulped, "What's in the house is worse... much worse."

Annie scoffed, walking away as Scott got in the car with Derek. Annie watched as they chaotically drove from the high school and down the street. Was it really her fault that she didn't—couldn't—feel safe in a vehicle who's uncle murdered her aunt, and the man, himself, was turning teenagers into killers? She thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head.

No. It wasn't.

* * *

Annie walked into her house to find most of the lights on, but voices only echoing from one room. Gerard, Chris, Kyle, and Sam all stood in Kyle's office talking the battle plan for tonight.

"Is the next step killing him?" Kyle, Annie's dad, questioned.

Gerard scoffed, "The next step is eliminating the threat. Do we have proof?"

Sam snorted, "I haven't been in history class for a while, but I'm pretty sure straight-up genocide hasn't worked out before."

Gerard rolled his eyes, "Do we have proof or not?"

Kyle sighed, "Not irrefutable. But not insignificant. The driver's side door of Lahey's car was pried off."

Gerard raised eyebrows, "Pried off?"

Kyle sighed, "Ripped off," he corrected.

Annie ducked behind the wall as her brother looked into the hallway. Annie smiled and nodded as a guy dressed as a police officer walked past her, and then she let out a sigh of relief, before shaking her head in worry, again. If her father and their team get the cops on their side... who else was out to murder Isaac, possibly Scott, when it came to it?

Sam eventually brushed off the sensation that someone was watching him and refocused his attention at the task at hand. Annie pulled out her phone, ready to call Scott, when she remembered the whole "No social interaction" thing. She ran out to her car and started down the street as fast as she could drive to Isaac's house where Scott and Derek were...

Her family was going to kill Isaac.