Calculatingly Wise

25

Scott went inside his house to talk to Liam and Stiles remained outside to work on his Jeep.

Eventually, Scott returned and Stiles turned to Scott and asked, "So, what did he want?"

"To help," he answered.

"You gonna let him?"

He shrugged. "Eventually, I guess."

"Okay, but shouldn't he be a little higher on your priority list right now? I mean, since he's the only other actual werewolf, your only actual Beta."

Scott shook his head. "You didn't see the way that he came at me. You didn't see the look in his eyes."

"Well, I've been with you on a full moon, so I've seen that look." Stiles let out a sigh before saying, "You want to get the band back together, Scott, you don't leave out the drummer."

The engine roared to life and Stiles pumped his fist into the air. "Success! Yes!"

Scott turned to see countless bottles of antifreeze in the back and Stiles glanced at him. "It's a minor leak. Very minor."

As they were driving, Scott let out a sigh. "Man, I think the Jeep's overheating again."

Stiles shrugged. "Probably."

"Should we pull over and put more antifreeze in it?"

Stiles shook my head. "No, we can just turn the heat on." He did so and went on to ask, "You find anything yet?"

Scott propped open a book. "They're mostly the same stuff you already knew. "Damnatio Memoriae was a Roman practice, a government decree to destroy the images of the damned. And they would scratch off their names from inscriptions, chisel their face off of statues. The Romans believed it was a punishment worse than death.""

"Being forgotten."

"Listen to this. "Damnatio Memoriae, was later used on a serial killer in 1598, known as the Demon Tailor. He lured children into his shop in Paris where he would kill them and boil the flesh off their bones to eat. The courts believed the crimes so horrible, they ordered all the documents destroyed. To this day, no one knows his real name."

"So the Dread Doctors resurrected a killer who was so bad that he had to literally be erased from history. A killer that became a werewolf. Which probably made him a better killer. That's great."

"Stiles, I can smell your fear and concern. We'll get Lydia and Tessa back. Trust me."

"I know we will. I'm just worried y'know? I just... Tessa was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She never should've gotten taken."

"No, she shouldn't have. But she's smart enough to find a way out."

The Jeep sputtered, slowly coming to a stop. "What's happening?" Scott asked.

"Um... Yeah, we're out of gas. It's out of gas," Stiles replied.

He frowned and looked at the gauge. "It says we have half a tank."

"Yeah, not necessarily."

"You didn't fix the gas gauge, didn't you?"

"Not necessarily."

---

In their dream, the girls walked up to Valack's old cell. "Do you know how he did it?" Meredith asked.

"He put the recorder in the cup to amplify Lydia's voice," Tessa remembered.

Meredith shook her head and looked at Lydia. "It didn't just amplify your voice. It gave it direction. Focus. Valack used your screams as a tool focusing it. If you're going to use it as a weapon, you need to learn to do the same."