echo [completed]

chapter 19

kyle woke up to the sounds of isaac and cora arguing about something.

"i'm buying you clothes whether you like it or not."

"i already have clothes." she argued back.

"technically those are derek's. some of them i think even belong to stiles."

"stiles? i never borrowed anything from him. we weren't even that close."

"must've ended up in derek's pile then." cora nodded at that.

"well, good morning to you too."

isaac and cora paused, both looking at kyle with hints of red on their cheeks.

"sorry 'bout that." isaac said sheepishly.

"it's all right. i needed to wake up anyway." kyle shrugged the blanket off of him and decided to take a cold shower to solidify his awakeness.

once the door was closed, the arguments blew up again and kyle could only laugh at it.

during times like this, he was thankful that he has some sort of beacon to look up to when things get too hard to handle.

the cold water hit his back and the tension eased up a bit, slowly untying the tightly knotted muscles, giving kyle relief.

he showered fast - always has - and zoe tends to tease him about it, saying that he probably only washes his hair and runs the soap all over his body once. they argued about that too. zoe saying that it was highly unsanitary to rinse the body with soap once. hell, she even gave him a bubble bath one time.

"kyle.."

the soap stung his suddenly wide eyes.

he clutched and scrubbed it as fast as he can, but they still hurt when he tried to open them.

on the third try he was able to open them in little slits.

a figure was standing in the corner - wearing the same dress with the same distortion on her face.

the towel was out of the handle as soon as kyle noticed that the woman was slowly lifting her arms.

his lungs felt like they were being crushed by a an invisible force, making his breathing uneven and painfully hitched.

before things had gotten worse, a large thud was made on the fancy bathroom door, which caused the woman's powers to falter. it was enough time for kyle to wrap himself up and scavenged his mind for some kind of spell.

but before he even had the chance to mutter the spell and for the door to break open, the woman in black was gone and all that was left on the place she was standing on was a note.

"kyle!" cora screamed under the noise of the running shower. "what happened? isaac said there were more than three heartbeats in the room so we decided to barge in. are you hurt or anything?"

kyle couldn't reply, his hands were still trembling from shock, letter attached on his barely dry hands.

"what is this?" cora asked and maneuvered kyle's cold hands to get a better look at it.

"you're getting closer,
but not quite yet.
things get uglier
everytime i count down to ten.
i know you've been looking
i've seen you everywhere.
don't worry, i'm leaving another clue.
this time, though, it'll be hard.
let's see if your dogs can handle that."

cora reread the note again, but still quite confused.

"all these notes and shit she gives you make my head hurt." she said exasperatedly. "why can't she quit all the dramatic riddles and just get to the point."

she helped kyle back up to his feet and excused herself out of the room so kyle could dress himself up without flashing his body to her.

once he was all pampered up and ready to go, isaac took all the stuff they have left - double checked it - and grabbed the piece of paper that's been bothering kyle.

"i agree with cora." he said out of nowhere as they waited for the elevator to echo a ding. "this lady or thing or whatever has a soft spot for riddles. do you know anyone else who does that?"

kyle shook his head, quite disappointed that the lady in black didn't leave anything other than the letter.

"she mentioned she was leaving a clue...but i searched the room before we left and didn't find anything." cora spoke with a soft voice kyle only heard once; it was when she was murmuring to chloe's ear back in the woods.

"let me see that letter again." kyle gave the letter to isaac. "what the hell was that?" isaac dropped the letter to the ground and rapidly rubbed his hands on his jeans.

"what is it this time?" cora groaned as she picked the paper up.

she too felt it: there's a condiment on the paper.

"i guess we won't be heading to botiques." cora informed and sniffed it one more time to make sure. "we're going to beacon hills."

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A/N: just four (!!!) more days until Reign comes back omg

anyway, i just want to let you guys know that the book of life made me so happy and sad at the same time :):

01/04/2016

- lani