Calculatingly Wise

18

The sheriff placed an X through Tracy's picture and said, "Chimeras."

Stiles shrugged. "Well, yeah, two dead Chimeras."

"And new eight ones," Tessa said, slouching in her chair. "That's ten now."

Sheriff Stilinski didn't turn around, focused on his board. He tacked up another picture. "I'm thinking 11." Tessa noticed Stiles tensing up as his mouth opened. "Out station tech guys confirmed something for me." He turned around. "They said both the holding cell lock and cameras could have malfunctioned because of something electromagnetic. You said that, uh, these guys..."

"Dread Doctors," Tessa interrupted.

The sheriff frowned, turning to her. "Are we really calling them that?"

"Unless you can think of a better name, yes. You're thinking they broke Donovan out?"

"It's how they got into Eichen, isn't it?"

"Donovan's a Chimera," Stiles said.

The sheriff nodded. "Yeah. But is he a failure like Lucas and Tracy?"

"If he is, he's probably dead."

"Not until I've seen a body." He studied his son. "You're uncharacteristically quiet."

Stiles locked eyes with his dad. "Yeah. Sorry... I'm, uh, I'm just trying to think about it. Uh... these are are all strangers, right? So, now shouldn't we be trying to figure out why these teenagers? If the Dread Doctors, if they went through all that... burying them, killing them, breaking one of them out of jail..."

"They couldn't have been chosen at random."

Tessa shook her head, standing. She walked towards the board and looked at it. "There's something in common with them. There was something that made them right for this experiment."

They made their way to Scott's and Tessa sighed. "Oh, I am so looking forward to this."

Lydia ignored her. "My mom's book club usually has more wine."

Stiles let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Well, they also probably didn't read books that caused violent hallucinations."

"That's why Malia's here," Scott told him.

Kira frowned. "So none of us go running into traffic?"

"Or worse."

"Like what happened to Judy," Malia said. She noticed their confused looks. "Chapter 14."

Lydia grabbed the only actual book and looked at it. "Maybe I should have my mother read it. She might remember a girl with a tail leaping off the ceiling and attacking everyone."

Tessa was handed a stack of papers and sighed.

Stiles muttered, "Yeah, if it works."

"It has to," Lydia replied.

"What does that mean?" Scott asked the strawberry blonde.

Lydia met his eyes. "I think I saw them during surgery. When I look at the cover of the book, it's almost like..."

"A memory trying to surface," Theo finished.

Stiles tensed up and Tessa stood in front of him.

Lydia glanced at Theo and nodded. "Yeah."

"Isn't that what Valack wanted when he wrote it?" Kira questioned.

"If they did something to me, I want to know what it is."

Each teen, excluding Lydia and Tessa, grabbed a stack of papers and scattered across the room. Malia and Stiles were on the couch. Scott and Kira were across from them, on the other couch. Theo and Lydia were both in a chair and Tessa was on the floor.

They started reading and after a few minutes, Tessa began closing her eyes. The book was an exhausting read, and she already despised it.

"Anyone feel anything yet?" Scott asked.

"I hate this book," Tessa muttered.

"Tired," Kira replied, trying to keep her eyes open.

"Hungry," Lydia answered.

Theo gave a small smile. "I think he meant the book."

Tessa tried reading again, but the book seemed to drone on more than before.

Scott looked between Tessa and Kira. "You two aren't giving up, are you?"

"Just resting my eyes," Kira told him.

Tessa sighed. "I'm so tempted to toss this book into the fire like Tall Tales was done in Meta Fiction."

"And she's talking about Supernatural again," Stiles muttered. "Not surprising."

Tessa rested her head back and her breaths evened as she fell asleep.

Everyone eventually dispersed and Stiles remained a moment longer.

He picked Tessa up in his arms, took her upstairs, and laid her in her bed before saying, "Sleep well, Tess."

---

The next day at school, Scott looked between his friends. "We keep an eye out for each other today, okay?"

Stiles glanced at Tessa. "Yes, and keep an eye out for eight other potentially homicidal Chimeras."

"And keep an eye out for the Dread Doctors," Kira added.

They separated and made their way to class.

In the midst of class, Scott began panicking.

Tessa rushed to her cousin's side and tried calming him, but nothing she did worked.

Scott was sitting against the teacher's desk.

Tessa shook Scott's shoulder a few times, but he didn't respond.

Liam appeared and showed his werewolf eyes and growled Scott's name.

Scott shook his inhaler and took a puff. "Thanks, Tessa. Thanks, Liam."

As they made their way to the hospital, Tessa was in a room staring at her father's body on the ground.

"Dad?" she called softly, running to the body. "Dad!"

Her father's eyes opened and they were hollow.

Tessa screamed and Scott ran to his cousin's side. "Tessa, are you okay?"

The blonde nodded. "Fine. I'm fine. Actually, no. I'm not. I haven't heard from Stiles, and that usually means bad news. I'm gonna go check on him."

"Okay. Be careful."

"You too."

Scott glanced after her, taking a moment to focus on her chemosignals. Something had terrified her, and Tessa Moore didn't scare easily. He also caught a whiff of grief and anxiety, both of which he knew were still greatly affecting her.