s e v e n t e e n
b l u e e y e s
"SO, THANKS FOR ANSWERING OUR QUESTIONS, MISS MARTINEZ SEALGAIR," was the thing the Sheriff told her.
Dahlia was laying on the hospital bed while Amelia was sitting right next to her, with a Vogue Magazine opened, looking at the Sheriff as he closed his notebook.
"I just wish I could be of more help," Dahlia told the sheriff, innocently, and it almost made Amelia throw up.
"Ladies," said the Sheriff before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.
Amelia heard Dahlia sigh. "God, Stilinski men. You tell them something and they don't believe a single word of it." Amelia looked at her furiously. "Don't blame them though, I definitely did not say the truth."
Amelia grabbed Dahlia's wrist, growling at her as her cousin whimpered. "What are you doing here?"
"Jeez, did you get stronger all of the sudden?"
Amelia was exhaling loudly, looking at Dahlia as her eyes were slowly turning bright purple.
There was a reason why Amelia left Dahlia in Scotland, and it wasn't because she wanted to connect to a Scottish guy or something, or because Dahlia wanted to stay.
It was because, after Dahlia had found out about the mirror wound ability, she had threatened to kill Scott, Isaac and Derek.
"Jesus Christ, would you let go?" Begged Dahlia, upset. "If you haven't noticed, I'm severely hurt. I'm in a hospital bed."
"Ha! You'll wish to keep thinking this is what severely hurt looks like after I'm done with you," Amelia threatened her. "Why are you here and how did you end up in that vault?"
Dahlia tried to free herself, but she didn't succeed.
"I was going to look for you at the clinic! I figured you still worked there since your boss is a freaking lunatic that creeps me out with his knowledge," Dahlia replied, moving her arm, but still, not being able to make Amelia let go. "And the guy was there, and then I closed my eyes, opened them again and I was at the vault. That's it."
"That's the same thing you told the police."
"Because that part is true. I lied so I could explain why I didn't try to free Deaton from the ropes considering I was untied. I couldn't tell him that it was for a magic seal of Mountain Ash that didn't let me in! Now let go!"
Amelia let go of her wrist, Dahlia proceeding to look at the red marks Amelia left, watching her cousin stand up from the chair and grab her stuff.
"Where are you going? You done threatening me?"
"You were the one that threatened to kill Scott, Isaac and Derek if I didn't break connection, didn't you?" Snapped back Amelia, heavily, looking at her cousin. "Excuse me for thinking you are somehow involved in all the human sacrifices going around considering you are a psycho."
"Hey, I might be a psycho but I'm not a killer!" Amelia raised her eyebrows. "Of humans," she corrected herself. "Besides, why would I go around Beacon Hills sacrificing virgins and soldiers like some kind of Greek guy? Me and Zeus are not up to chat, you know? And if I had to do a sacrifice, I would start with a werewolf. Humans are like... the least ranked in the sacrifice scale."
"Okay, I got it, you are not doing the sacrifices," told her Amelia. "But you gotta admit, it's awfully strange that you were there that night."
"If I was doing the sacrifices then why would I lock myself up with him? To smell the rotten body as the Gods appreciate my offer? I may be a psycho, but I'm not mental!" Amelia placed the strap of her bag on her shoulder. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"
"You are really desperate."
"Yes, I need attention 24/7, common knowledge. Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Derek's apartment to talk with Stiles and Cora about Derek's disappearance. Obviously, you wouldn't care."
Dahlia raised her eyebrows. "I thought you and Stiles broke up, and you were with Isaac now."
"So what? It's about Derek and his mysterious disappearance after Boyd's death. And how do you even know that?"
"Deaton told me." Amelia raise an eyebrow. "What? The guy can be creepy but he's definitely a Gossip Girl kind of guy. With his dying breath he was willing to keep me up to the date with my favorite cousin. It was probably to distract himself of the fact that he was dying, locked in a room with me."
"I am with Isaac, for your information. I'm just gonna meet up with Stiles to talk about Derek."
"What does Isaac say about that? Is he the jealous kind?"
"I don't know. The only thing I do know is that when Melissa comes here, be nice to her. I told her that you threatened to kill her son and showing a big smile is the only way to make sure she doesn't put aconite in your I.V." Dahlia stopped smiling. "Now... toodles."
• • •
"They were there for two days," Cora said to end her story about Peter and Derek. "Waiting, hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us. Hide and heal."
"Okay, so is two days standard then?" Questioned Stiles. "Or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?"
Cora turned around. "I understand why Amelia cares... but why do you care?"
Amelia raised an eyebrow towards Stiles. "Why do I care? Let's see, because over the last few weeks, my best friend and my ex girlfriend tried to kill themselves, their boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by Alphas. You want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, alright? For like an hour!"
Amelia exhaled. "I just have a bond with the guy, you know? No biggie."
Cora stepped forward, looking at Stiles seriously. "You think Derek can do anything about that?"
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it. Yeah."
Amelia sat down on one of the chairs, looking at the two like they were cheap TV, bickering at each other.
"I don't know," started Cora. "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."
"What was he like?" Amelia asked, curious.
They heard steps on the spiral staircase and Amelia looked up, identifying Peter as he walked downstairs.
"A lot like Scott, actually," told them, surprising Amelia. "A lot like most teenagers. Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic..." Amelia raised her eyebrows. "Tolerable really only to other teenagers."
"And so what happened? What changed him?" Amelia questioned while Stiles stood next to her.
Peter sighed. "Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men. A girl."
"Aww," exclaimed Amelia, making Stiles look at her, "little doggie was in love."
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart?" Stiles asked. "That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha had blue eyes?"
She recalled, and how Jackson had blue eyes too when he turned into a werewolf. She always wondered why.
"Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?" Peter asked, and Amelia shook her head.
"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing," told Stiles.
"I feel like you're gonna tell us why," said Amelia, raising her eyebrows. "Are you gonna tell us why?"
"Oh yeah," whispered Peter and Amelia smiled. "If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes."
• • •
Peter told them about how Derek met Paige. And while Amelia found it incredibly sweet, Stiles wasn't even paying attention to the romance part of the story.
She liked how Derek was teasing her with the basketball, and how Paige teased him back with the "play any instrument and I'll tell you my name" thing. It didn't surprise Amelia that Derek came up with a clever solution for that.
"So Derek was a sophomore back then. How old was he? How old were you?" Stiles asked at Peter and Amelia raised her eyebrows before looking back a the werewolf, frowning.
"How old are you now?" Amelia questioned and Stiles frowned too.
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think."
Amelia blinked several times. "Huh?"
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague," mentioned Stiles before looking at Cora. "How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen."
"See, that's an answer," Stiles said quickly. "That's how we answer people."
"Well, 17 how you'd measure in years..."
"Alright, I'm just gonna drop it," interrupted Stiles abruptly.
"No, wait," intervened Amelia quickly, looking at the werewolf. "Don't drop it. What do you mean—"
"We don't have time for this!" Exclaimed Stiles and Amelia scoffed, before looking back at Peter.
"What happened to Derek and Paige?" Amelia asked excitedly. She liked to know about Derek's past, especially by Peter. It was entertaining.
Peter sighed. "What do you think happened? They're teenagers. One minute it's 'I hate you, don't talk to me'," Amelia and Stiles looked at each other before looking at Peter, "the next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone in for five minutes."
"That was an oddly vivid description," whispered Amelia.
"Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills, " he said before he starting telling about how they will go there to kiss and stuff.
That doesn't sound romantic like... at all.
"Alright, hold up," interrupted him Stiles. "How do you know all this? You just said they were alone."
"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's uncle."
"You were a psycho narcissist killer in this timeline too?" Questioned Amelia, making Peter look at her angrily.
"Anyway... back then I was his best friend. His closest confidante. That's how I know."
"That's hard to believe," whispered Amelia. "Please... continue..."
Peter told them about how the hunters had killed a beta, one of Ennis pack before he and Kali and Deucalion formed their Alpha pack. Ennis has made an spiral on the metal door of the distillery with his claws, and Peter mimicked in on the window.
"Our mark for vendetta," he let them know.
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to, like, a whole new level, don't you?" Commented Stiles as Amelia put her feet on the table, looking as Peter turned around.
"It's not just revenge," clarified Cora. "Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family..."
"It's like losing a limb..." whispered Amelia.
"You felt it," Peter told her as she looked up. "When you thought Derek was dead, you felt that pain."
Amelia nodded slowly. "Prefer not to talk about that..."
Peter exhaled. "They wouldn't let Ennis see the body," he continued, telling them how at the hospital, just because he wasn't family, they wouldn't let Ennis see him.
"I don't get it," spoke Cora. "What does this have to do with Derek?"
"Everything," Peter replied, and Amelia frowned. "It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity."
"Opportunity to do what?" Stiles asked.
"To always be with her."
Well isn't that just romantic?
"The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day. Always on his mind."
He was talking about turning her into a werewolf.
"I kept telling him not to do it," Peter said. "Every say the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. You know teenagers. I bet he even blames me. He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea."
Amelia raised her eyebrows, looking towards Stiles. That did not sound like Peter at all.
• • •
"They keep us connected to humanity," explained Cora. "But they're a secret even in the pack. Sometimes only the Alpha knows who the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton."
So that's what Deaton was, an emissary.
"Or his sister, Morrell," mentioned Peter.
"My French teacher is an emissary too?" Asked Amelia.
"For the Alpha pack."
Stiles snapped. "Our guidance counselor!?" Amelia had forgot about that too. "Why the hell don't you people tell us any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her."
"And did she give you good advice?" Questioned Cora.
"Actually, yeah."
"That's what they do," talked Peter. "That's what Deaton used to do for Talia."
Peter, after telling them about what Deaton had said to Deucalion and Talia about Gerard, whatever, stuff that Amelia did not care about... Peter revealed who ended up giving Paige the bite.
"Ennis?" Asked Amelia. "Why would you choose him?"
"Why not?" Shot back Peter. "Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" Questioned Stiles.
"If he does, he keeps it to himself."
Amelia frowned before looking at Stiles, who asked again. "So then what happened? Did he turn her?"
"Almost," Peter answered. "Derek came at Ennis. A 15-year-old boy against a giant." Amelia stared at Peter as he looked at the floor. "There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."
Ugh, that was what she was fearing.
"So did she turn?" Asked Amelia.
"She should have."
What kind of answers does this man give? For real.
"Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time."
"When you offered it to me—"
"He did what?" Amelia interrupted before looking at Peter, who raised his hands in innocence.
"—you said," continued Stiles, "If it doesn't kill you..."
Peter sighed. "If..." Amelia looked at him before exhaling. "He asked me what was happening to her... But he knew the answer. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this." Amelia glanced at Stiles before looking at Peter. "She fought. She struggled desperately. Trying to survive."
• • •
"I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
Stiles had his arm around Amelia's waist as they listened to the end of the story. She was biting her nails, and Stiles slowly pulled her hand away, softly.
"And what about Derek?" Asked Cora.
"Taking an innocent life takes something for you as well. Bit of your soul. Darkening it. Dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow... to a cold, steel blue. Like mine."
He showed them his eyes, making Amelia close hers and lay her head on Stiles's shoulder as he pulled her closer to him.
• • •
As Amelia and Stiles walked towards his jeep, Amelia turned around to look at the guy.
"What?" She asked. "Why do you have that look on your face? That look you make when you're trying to figure something out?"
They both got into the jeep, the guy looking at her.
"I know you have a whole thing for trust and you trust people and that's your thing." Amelia scoffed. "But... I just don't believe him," he admitted. "In Ms. Blake's class we're reading Heart of Darkness. And it's in first person, right? Narrated by Marlow."
"I'm reading the book, Stiles..."
"Okay, and you know that... he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective."
"And now we heard the story from Peter's perspective."
"Right, but I don't think we got the whole story."
Amelia stared at him. "We didn't— so what? Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with and then killed?"
Stiles looked down. "If I have to... yeah."