Flash◦Scott McCall [ 1 ]

[ two ]

He nodded his head from the doorframe, his smiler growing wider, "I've missed you too, pumpkin."

"Now, i'm going to let you settle in while I go make dinner," he pushed on the heel of his shoe, "What do you want to eat?"

"Surprise me."

He nodded his head at his only child before turning on his heels, and walking out the door towards the kitchen, leaving Annalise in a room of pure silence.

She stood up from the bed, walking over to the other side where a couple of picture framed where placed neatly on the bedside table. She picked up one of the frames, running her fingertips across it when a sad smile appeared on her face. It was a picture of Emily Marin smiling straight at the camera with a younger Annalise hugging her leg tightly, many years before she was murdered. Annalise remembered that day clearly, it was the first day of her new school and her parents dropped her off. She remembered almost crying because six year old Annalise believed they would never come back for her. What she didn't know was that years later, that belief wouldn't be any more true for her mother.

She hated mentioning her mother. Not because she was embarrassed of talking of her or disappointed, but because she'd have horrible flashbacks back to that tragic afternoon. She recalled her mother going on about wanting to talk to her about something important but she didn't think anything of it.

"Mom, what are we doing out here again?" Annalise complained, flailing her arms around in frustration, "As much as I love to go walking, I really need to get home and do my math homework. Geometry is a complicated subject, you know."

Emily needed to talk to the girl for a bit and confess something she had been holding in all these years. She and her husband never believed she was old enough to know so they made a mutual agreement of telling her when she'd understand. That day had come sooner due to the maturity their daughter had developed over the short years. It was time. So they thought it be best for the woman to tell her, it was her secret after all. She concluded on telling her when she cane back from school, then she'd take out the girl on a walk ( something she loved so at least it would calm her rage down after she confesses ) and it will spiral from there.

Emily let out a laugh at how dedicated the girl was to her schoolwork, "I told you I really needed to talk to you. It's important."

"Whatever it is, can it be quick?" The cold wind ran by her, sending chills up and down her arms causing her to shiver as she crossed her arms over one another, "It's getting cold."

"This is really important, honey," she pushed a strand of her hair that had fallen on her face behind her ear as she slowly caressed her cheek. "And I want you to know that whatever happens after this, I love you and i'll always be your mom."

The girl stood straight, slightly worried over what she was going to say to her, "Mom, you're scaring me. What are you not telling me?"

"Honey, I - "

Emily didn't get to finish her sentence due to the ear piercing roar bellowing behind them. Once she turned around, she couldn't help but gasp. Her tears were threatening to spill out, her heart felt as if it were going to break through her ribs and burst through her chest, her head was spinning as if it were a dream. She snapped back to reality once the giant furry creature pounced on her mother, her screams were so loud, she could feel her ear drums pounding and her yells echoing.

"Mom!" The girl yelled out for her as it began to scratch and growl at the woman.

"Go, run!" Emily yelled out, putting her arms in front of her as a shield but to no avail, the creature clawing at her. Even at the brink of death, she managed to send the girl a small smile with tears forming at the corner of her eyes, "I'll be okay."

That wasn't the first time Emily Marin lied to her daughter.

Annalise snapped out of her horrible recurring memory, when she heard her dad call out for her. It wasn't something new for her, she'd usually have the mention of her mother trigger the memory and it would be a mess of tears and anxiety from there. After all that time, she never really brought up the subject of what her mother was on the edge of telling her that day. All because she didn't think it was important. It was dismissed the second the woman lost her life.

"Anna! Dinner's ready!" She could hear her dad exclaim from down stairs, causing her to put the picture back on its place and make her way towards the stairs. As she placed her foot on the last step, the doorbell dinged.

"I'll get it!" She yelled out to her dad. She placed her hand on the doorknob after unlocking it, then proceeded to open the thick door. Only to be met face to face with an oddly familiar tan teenage boy and an unfamiliar pale boy.

"Can I help you?" Her eyebrows furrowed at them, inquisitively.

Scott, being the awkward werewolf he was, stood there wordlessly. That is until his best friend, slightly nudged him causing him to jump forward a few steps.

"You're Annalise, right?" The true alpha spoke, his eyebrow raising slightly. If it were up to him, he'd be talking to her at school about the whole fiasco that occurred at the hospital - and the fact that he just gained a beta bitten by him. But then Stiles explained to him about a case his dad was working on a few years back about a woman being mauled to death by a 'mountain lion' and seeing as how they were introduced to the supernatural world not long after, they started to suspect something. Then, he learned of the reason, after asking his mother, she was at the hospital that night. He couldn't believe it. Of course, Stiles couldn't either but that was predictable as was his constant persistence on talking to her.

"That depends," she stood straight, a challenging look on her face, "Who's asking?"

"Um, a survey," the pale boy slowly dragged out, it being the first thing to pop into his mind when the tanner boy sent him a look for help, "For a charity?"

"Oh, really?" Annalise, having had enough of playing around while her food was awaiting her, challenged them, her arms crossed, "What charity?"

Stiles looked over at his friend for a brief second, after seeing the look of defeat on his face, before turning back to the curly haired girl, using his hands to make many wild movements, "The Full Moon Charity. For the complete and total insane."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she honestly said, a look of annoyance on her face.

"Uh...," his hands rested in his pants pockets as he turned to look at the true alpha for any sign of help.

"I don't know what you're talking about either," the true alpha raised his hands, defensively, a look of despair in his face.

And that's when they began to bicker, more of it coming from the pale boy than anything. For a mere second, Annalise watched the two, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed at them.

But after a couple of moments later, the two were too busy arguing to notice that the girl had slammed the door shut and was now happily eating her dinner with her dad.

--

- lidia