The Shadows Within 》Teen Wolf (Shadow Series #2)

14 - Pictures

        The officer opens the door for the three of us. There's one hour until I go out with Matt and dad decides to take Allison and I to the morgue. Not really what I had in mind, but I still need to play the perfect daughter card. Two tables lay side by side in the middle of the room, a bright light shining down on them. A pair of feet are sticking out from underneath the white cotton sheet on each table. 

        Dad checks the tags on the bodies. He gets to the second one. "This one, Sean. Sean was killed by this thing Gerard says is a kind of shapeshifter." Dad walks to the end of the table where they heads are laying. "It hasn't been around for centuries."

       Allison nods. "The thing you shot outside the club the other night." 

        I merely glance over to her to see that she has that worried look on her face. She has always had the same look on her face when she knows something that she isn't supposed to tell anyone. I swear if Dad figures out that she is lying, I am going to punch her. I've been working so hard to play both sides of this and she is not going to screw it up for me.

        "South American legend we know of calls it the kanima." Dad says carefully watching Allison's face.

        Allison nods once more, but adverts her gaze to the floor. Seriously? She can't just nod and not look away. Does she not know that we can easily tell she knows something? 

        Dad points to the first body. "This one, Jessica. She was smothered to death after giving birth. The police think it was done by someone else. We think it's a person who's controlling this other shapeshifter. That means two killers, Allison. One human, one not. You know, the question I had after Gerard first told me about our family - "why us?" He quoted me Winston Churchill. "The price of greatness is responsibility." Personally, I think it's more about knowledge."

        He walks back over to us. "What we know, the truth, what we know about the world, that makes us responsible, for a young couple, their newborn daughter, anyone that doesn't have the power to defend themselves. Are you starting to get it?"

        "I get that this isn't a lecture." Allison's voice shakes. "It's an interrogation."

        Wait a second. He was mainly talking to Allison about all of this. Right now, he not even looking at me. All of his attention is on her. I'm still in the clear. Dad still thinks I am one hundred percent on his side. Allison is the one that needs to get in check. 

        "That depends on what you know. Gerard showed me the library. Cameras didn't catch everything, but do you really think a little high school fight can explain that amount of damage? We know you're trying to protect your friends, but people are dying. A child was orphaned. What you know makes you responsible." Dad flips the first sheet back. "It makes you responsible for this." 

        Allison quickly looks away from the dead body. "What do you want me to tell you?"

        See, after the fight at the school, I called dad and gave him a very rough idea of what had happened. I didn't say much. All I really said was that I was in the aisle with Allison when lights were breaking and books were falling. I heard Erica scream, but I knew I had to keep Allison safe, so I stayed with her. I heard growling, but I never actually saw anything. Now, Allison, on the other hand, she did manage to get away from me for a split second, which is not a lie because on the camera, you see her at the end of the aisle and you don't see me. 

        "Anything you know. Anything that can lead us to answering the one question that might mean everything. Who controls the kanima?" Dad raises his voice. 

        "W-We don't know." Allison stutters, taking a step back. "No one has been able to figure it out yet." 

        "Then when you find out, you tell me right away." Dad says. He looks my way. "That goes for you, too."