𝐓𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ➢ ᴅᴇʀᴇᴋ ʜᴀʟᴇ / ᴊᴏʀᴅᴀɴ ᴘᴀʀʀɪꜱʜ

Ch. 45 - PERISHABLE

"Okay, hold on- what's a bestiary Actually, that's not even my first question. Just... Just tell me one thing. Are all of you like Lydia or Aurora?" Jordan asked making them look at him confused, "Are you all psychic?" Jordan asked making Derek look at him crazy while Aurora hummed slightly.

"Wasn't aware that I'm now psychic." Aurora mumbled as she and Derek glanced at each other, "Not exactly." Derek said. "Okay then what are you?" He asked and they all looked at Scott and nodded. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them to reveal his ruby-red eyes.

💰

"What's a Kanima?" Jordan asked sitting on the couch making Scott sigh softly, "We'll get back to that. Just know that everyone like us- everyone with some kind of supernatural ability, is on the Deadpool." Scott explained, while sitting down on the arm of the couch.

"But I don't even know what I am."

"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek said making Jordan look over at him, "How many professional assassins are we talking about?" Jordan asked and Lydia sighed. "We're starting to lose count."

"But is it still just professionals?" Scott asked and Jordan slightly shook his head, "I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance." Jordan said looking at each of them making Aurora sigh and run a hand through her hair. "That means anyone with the Deadpool could take a chance." She said glancing at all of them.

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

💰

"Meredith was only at my grandmother's lakehouse once... But I think once was enough." Lydia said as she sat down on the bed. "How did your grandmother know her?" Derek asked and Lydia looked at him and shook her head.

"She didn't. She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy." She said, standing up to hand Aurora a picture of two women, which Aurora showed Derek. "The woman she loved." She continued, standing up to hand the picture to Scott. "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?" Jordan asked.

"How's not the story... It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM." She explained then started to walk back and forth. "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."

"But she kept hearing the rain?" Scott asked and Lydia nodded slightly, "And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder, cracking like gunshots in her head... so loud, she finally just... screamed."

"Like a Banshee." Aurora said and Lydia nodded. "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." Lydia said and Jordan raised his eyebrows slightly, "There was an accident?" He asked asked and Lydia nodded.

"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 Ph.D 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 more extreme occult- things like mediums and psychics, all of them 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... never really recovered."