Ignite

The first thing Derek remembered was the smell of smoke. The first clue that something was wrong, that something had gone horribly, terribly wrong, was the smell of ash and decay coming from the hallway. It was bitter in his nose like too much perfume, and his nose crinkled a little when he caught the scent.

Then the door opened on Mr. Morris’ calculus class, and there was a policeman there, stinking of fire like he’d just rolled in ash. The officer’s eyes scanned the classroom until they locked on Derek, and they stayed there for the extra second Derek needed to realize something had gone really, really wrong. His eyes followed the officer from the door to Mr. Morris, who had frozen mid sentence when the officer entered.

They talked quietly together for a moment before Mr. Morris put his piece of chalk down and looked straight at Derek. “Derek, Officer Stilinski would like to speak to you in the hall, please,” he said. Everyone turned to look at Derek as he slid his books into his backpack and retreated out the door, Officer Stilinski following behind him with his head ducked low.

Laura leaned against the lockers outside the classroom, chewing the nail on her thumb absentmindedly and staring at the ground. Her usually flawless makeup was smeared and smudged, and those large blue eyes of hers were hollow and puffy. She looked at Derek when he entered the hall, and her face crumpled a little.

“What’s going on?” Derek demanded, his voice higher than usual. He looked from Laura to Officer Stilinski and back, but neither of them spoke. “What’s happening?”

“Derek, there was an accident at your house this morning,” Officer Stilinski began slowly, looking like this was the last thing in the entire world that he wanted to be doing. Derek’s heart sank a little further in his chest. “A fire got started; we’re still trying to figure out how…” He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. “Your uncle and your sister Cora made it out, but they were the only survivors.”

Derek just stood there, unable to move or scream or even breath as his world crashed down around him. He turned to Laura for confirmation, but she had started to cry again. He looked back at Officer Stilinski. “That’s not possible,” he managed, shaking his head stubbornly. “I saw them just this morning.” He’d sat with his mother at the breakfast table, watched his father drink his morning coffee perched by the window, kissed his little cousins on their foreheads and promised his grandparents he’d pick them up groceries on the way home from school. They couldn’t all be gone, they just couldn’t.

“I’m sorry.” Officer Stilinski didn’t seem to know what else to say; he shifted his weight from one foot to the other like he was standing on nails. “We’re going to do everything we can to determine how this happened, and find the person responsible if we find out foul play was involved.”

He might have kept talking, but Derek’s ears had stopped working. His eyes stared blankly ahead, reflecting back his memories from the morning over and over in his mind. He didn’t want to forget their faces, their smiles, their laughs… the way his father looked at each of them, the way his mother won every argument with a flash of her red eyes. He looked at Laura helplessly. She would be Alpha now that their mother was gone, but what pack would be left for her? She was too young to lead, and they were all too broken to follow her.

“I’ve made arrangements for you to have some place to stay,” Officer Stilinski continued, and Derek turned back to look at him. “Until you can get back on your feet. Do you have any other family you want to contact?”

Laura took Derek’s hand in her own, squeezing it so hard it burned. “No,” she said, her voice grating against her throat like it was made of sandpaper. “It’s just us now.”

Officer Stilinski nodded. “If you want to get your stuff from your lockers then, I’ll take you to see your uncle and sister. I’ll be at the main office whenever you’re ready.” He looked at both of them for assurance, and they nodded. He smiled, kindly, and retreated down the hall towards the main office, leaving the Hale siblings alone in the hallway.

“How could this happen?” Derek asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Who would do something like this to our family?” He looked up at Laura, and her eyes glowed deep, blood red in response. The grief that had clouded her eyes before was gone, replaced by a cold murderous stare: the stare of an Alpha.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, her voice little more than a growl in her throat. “But when I find them, I’ll tear them in two.” She looked down at Derek and released his hand. “Go get your stuff from your locker,” she told him. “We have to get to Peter. He’ll know what to do.”

Derek didn’t want to leave his sister’s side, but the glow in her eyes seemed to make his feet move against their will, and he found himself hurrying down the hall as fast as he could towards his locker. Uncle Peter would have an explanation for them; he’d make everything right, like he always did. His grief subsided a little, replaced by a burning curiosity to know what exactly had happened, and if anyone would know, it was Peter.

It took him four times to get his locker to open; his hands shook so much, he kept missing the numbers on the lock. He jammed his books into his backpack and slid on his dark leather jacket. It still smelt like home, not like the fire and death that coated Officer Stilinski like a fine layer of ash. He trotted back to the main office, where Officer Stilinski and Laura waited for him. Laura had wiped her running makeup from her face, and despite her puffy red eyes looked as close to normal as she could. Her lower lip trembled when she saw Derek again, but she held firm as she took his hand, and together they followed Officer Stilinski out of the building and into the sun.