No Rest For The Wicked

Chapter 11

I was at the police station with Lydia and Stiles. Because who wants to go to school anyway?

"You dad should be back within the hour. You want to wait in his office?" Parrish asked Stiles.

"Actually, we want to talk to you." Stiles said. I forgot, Parrish's name was on the list.

"Privately." Lydia added.

We walked into Sheriff Stilinski's office and handed Parrish the list.

"This is a hit list?" He asked.

"We call it a dead pool. Recognize any of the names?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah. Sheriff had me run a bunch of these through the system last night. But we couldn't find any of them."

"Show him the other thing." Stiles said and Lydia turned the paper over. The side that had Parrish's name on it.

"Okay. That's kind of terrifying. What's the number?"

"That's how much you're worth." I answered.

"I'm worth five dollars?" Parrish turned around.

"Five million." Stiles clarified. 

"I only make $40,000 a year..." Parrish looked at the paper again. "Maybe I should kill myself." He mumbled. Just loud enough for me to hear, I chuckled. "I don't get it. Why... why am I on this?"

"Honestly, that might be a question for another day. Right now, there's still another third of the list we gotta crack." I said.

"We need the third cipher key. But we need help getting it." Lydia spoke up.

"From who?" Parrish asked.

"Meredith."

"The girl from Eichen? The last time you saw her, you almost gave her a nervous breakdown."

"Uh... almost."

Parrish rolled his eyes and nodded towards the door. We headed to Eichen House. I like Parrish. When we got there, we got one of the workers to show us to her room and was trying to unlock the door.

"Oh, no, not this guy." Stiles hissed. I turned and looked down the hallway to see a mean looking man walking up to us.

"What the hell are we running here? A bed and breakfast? We do not just open the door for anyone with a badge." The guy came and snatched the keys away from the worker, making him leave.

"We need to speak with Meredith Walker. It involves a murder investigation." Parrish spoke up.

"Well, you can talk to her all you want, but these three, especially that one..." He pointed at Stiles. "They're out of here."

"They're crucial witnesses in an ongoing investigation. I wouldn't have brought them if it wasn't absolutely... crucial."

"Okay, Deputy. How about you come back with a court order, then I'll listen." The guy then turned to Stiles. "As for you, Mr. Stilinski, how about you come back with payment in fill. That's right. Daddy may be the Sherriff, but he's late on the bills. I guess those government jobs aren't as reliable as they use to be, huh?" I filled with anger.

"But they do help when you need a favor. Like, how a month ago, Canaan P.D. helped you get home after blowing a 0.1 on a breathalyzer." Parrish smirked.

"No.." I smirked.

"Alright. I'm not against a little quid pro quo. Not at all. Not at all." The guy switched gears real quick. He gave the keys to Parrish and walked up. I saw Lydia flip him off out of the corner of my eye.

"You. You, I like you. I'm gonna keep you." Stiles kept saying to Parrish.

"Meredith." Lydia spoke up. "We need you to help us get the third key."

"I can't tell you." She said.

"Meredith, what do you mean you can't tell us?" I asked softly.

"We just need the third key. You can give it to us in numbers, letters, hieroglyphs. Whatever you want." Stiles added.

"I can't." Meredith whispered.

"Then why did you give us the second key?" Lydia asked.

"I wanted to help. That's what I want to do. I want to help."

"Great. So help us now. Okay? Give us the third cipher key."

"Things have changed. I... I can't."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Guys. Go easy on her." Parrish warned.

"I'm sorry. I can't. He... he doesn't want me to." Meredith started to panic.

"He? Who is he?" Stiles asked.

"Meredith, who doesn't want you to tell us the third cipher key?" Lydia asked.

"The Benefactor."

"What's his name? You could just tell us his name."

Meredith started shaking her head. "Okay, you're shaking you head. What's that mean? Does that mean you don't know? Or you don't want to help us?" Stiles asked.

"I can't... I can't help anymore." Meredith started rocking.

"How do you know about him?" I used a softer voice.

"Guys, I think we better stop." Parrish warned.

"Meredith, a lot of people are going to die if you don't tell us." Lydia kept going.

"I don't... I don't know. I don't know." Meredith repeated.

"Please, Meredith, it's okay. You're gonna be alright. Please."

"I don't... I don't... I don't know."

"Meredith." Parrish stepped closer.

"I said, I don't know!" Meredith screamed. So loud that it made Lydia's ears bleed.

I think we just broke her...

****

"Okay, well, we know one thing. Both of the first two keys, Allison and Aiden, they're both names of the dead. Right?" I asked.

"But we've already tried every other dead person's name we could think of. And if you haven't noticed, there were a lot of tries." Lydia sassed.

"Yeah, I noticed. You okay?" Stiles asked.

"The only other Banshee I've ever met. And I think I might have just drove her over the edge."

"Lydia, it wasn't your fault. Ashlyn and I were there, too. And you're probably not the only... hold on." Stiles paused. "Banshee's predict death. Right?"

Wait a minute.. "What if the third key is someone who isn't dead..." I added.

"But will be." Lydia opened up her laptop and brought the list up. She closed her eyes and started tying a name. Derek. More of the list started generating. "Call Parrish. We need to call Parrish." Lydia said. She got her phone out. "I need to speak with Deputy Parrish please? Thanks." She paused. "How's Meredith? We think we found the other cipher key and I might need to talk to her again..." Lydia furrowed her brows. "What are you talking about?" She dropped her phone. "Meredith's dead. She - she hung herself."

I immediately walked over and hugged her. "It's going to be okay." I felt another pair of arms and recognized them as Stiles. We stood there and hugged Lydia for a while. Hoping to put the pieces back together.