It's Always Been You || Stiles Stilinski

Chapter 53 - I.E.D.

I shrug before I set my hands on my hips "I kind of wrote it"

Stiles makes a noise and elaborates "Actually, she transcribed it– without realizing it."

Nodding, Noah raises a brow with his reluctant guess "Banshee?"

"Banshee" We all mutter as I nod towards him.

His nods his head to the side and mutters "Beautiful. All right, what are these numbers next to the names?"

Stiles points his free hand towards the list on the desk "We're getting to that. First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key."

"Wait. You mean, like a... like a keyword?" Noah scrunches his brows as he looks up to us and I feel Stiles nod before he informs "It's actually a name."

Scott looks up, connecting his eyes with mine before looking to Noah as he croaks out "Allison."

Noah looks sadly between us and I feel Stiles tighten his hold around my side before he elaborates to his dad "Her name broke a third of the list"

I reach up and wipe my eyes to prevent the tears from falling as I clear my throat "Based on how the code broke down when I entered her name, my best guess is that there's two other cipher keys we need to figure out."

Noah nods and lifts up his hand as he states "Which will give us the rest of the names. Okay. So how do we get the cipher keys?"

"Same way we got the code" Stiles smiles reassuringly and Scott answers with a point my direction "Addy and Lydia were at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two key words."

Noah looks expectantly at me and I clear my throat "The way we found the first name was apparently a one in done, so we're trying to figure out what else to do."

Pulling me into his side, Stiles kisses my temple and Noah smiles softly before flipping through the crime scene photos of Demarco's body which by the by is missing his head "You didn't know about Demarco or Carrie. Hmm?" Noah looks over to us with his question.

At our slight shakes of our heads in the negative to knowing they were werewolves, he continues with a point to the list "And what about these other two names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher and Elias Town. They werewolves too?"

Scott shakes his head and connects his eyes with Noah "I don't know– but Deaton said that the Nemeton would draw supernatural creatures here."

"Here being Beacon Hills? Or Beacon County?" Noah questions quickly before he continues "The population of Beacon Hills is just under thirty thousand."

"And dropping..." Stiles grumbles before Noah continues "But if we're talking Beacon County, then you're looking at close to five hundred thousand."

Hearing our exasperated sighs he sits down to continue his thought processes "Look, how many werewolves, banshees, kitsunes and whatever the hell else is out there are we talking about? And what if the next cipher key uncovers not twelve names but one hundred?"

"We don't think there would be that many. There's a limit." Stiles points forward and I elaborate "Because of the numbers. We think that once we decode the names, the numbers will add up to one hundred and seventeen."

Scrunching his brows together, Noah looks between us "One hundred and seventeen what?"

"Million" Scott and I state before Stiles steps forward to grab the list from his dad.

He starts marking a 'K' for thousand or an 'M' for million next to each of the typed out numbers next to the names on the list, hesitating on mine and looking over at me before he continues down the list.