Chapter: Seven
Zara almost forgot what day it was when she walked into school with Malia. They had their PSAT's today. Zara didn't feel very stressed about it considering she was a A and B student and she caught onto everything pretty easily when she and her siblings decided to get themselves back in school.
That felt like forever ago.
She stood in line with the pack, they all looked pretty calm except Malia, and Lydia seemed to be missing. After Zara has spilled her guts about Derek to Malia last night she couldn't get herself to think about anything other than the fact that Malia's name was on the Deadpool, but not only was her name on it... her birth name was on it.
Hale.
Malia Hale.
Zara already knew about Malia being Peter's long lost daughter but she swore to Derek that she wouldn't say a word about it, and now some Deadpool was going to destroy everything, especially Malia with having a father like Peter in her life. The entire group has already seen the list, everyone agreed to keep it quiet from Malia, but honestly... the guilt was eating Zara alive.
She shook her head as she tried to push those thoughts away, "Where's Lydia?"
"She took this test in freshman year, my sister has always been a genius." Lyla shrugs as she's being embraced from behind by Isaac who has his head in the crook of her neck, Zara can hear him snoring.
He really went to sleep on her shoulder, lovely.
Zara turned towards Malia whose eyes were flickering, brown to blue. "Hey, Malia. Your eyes."
"Shit." She mumbles before blinking long and hard, when she opened them they were back to her usual dark brown.
"Malia, you're gonna be okay. You studied with so hard for this when you were with me." Kira says before gently caressing her arm for moral support.
Zara hides her smirk.
"That doesn't mean I'm gonna do good!" Malia exclaims
"Malia, you're gonna be fine." Jackson replies before squeezing her shoulder, but the light brown brunette just frowned.
"Why do we even have to take these stupid test anyway?" Malia groans
"College shit." Stiles replies
"It's mandatory if you wanna go." Scott replies
"Why can't I be smart like Lydia?" Malia sighs
"Malia, this isn't about who's smarter. And being smart is just about school. You are survival smart, if any of us got stranded in the woods with no food and now resources we would be dead. But you? You would know exactly what to do to save our asses wouldn't you?" Kira says locking her eyes with her.
Malia gives her s tiny smile, "Okay.. that made me feel... somewhat better."
"Good." Kira sighs before throwing her arm over her shoulder, "You can do this."
Malia nods, "I can do this."
Pretty soon they were all walking into the classroom and printing their thumbs on a paper before being given booklets and sitting down at their desk. They were given test instructions and then they were told to begin.
Zara scanned the paper, she quickly filled in the bubbles for the answers she knew and she was flipping through pages of the math faster than she really thought she would, she was multitasking, using a calculator and counting on her hands.
It was a trade off mostly.
But then.. a student dropped from their chair. Everyone turned around and looked at her, the vice principal Mrs. Martin (Lydia and Lyla's mom) helped the girl off the floor and glanced at her wrist. Zara listened into the conversation. Apparently the girl had some kind of mark on her arm that she doesn't recall ever having.
Things only got worse as she told the man in charge of the test that nobody leaves the room, Zara looked around the room as she felt the anxiety of all of her pack members through the bond.
This was not good.
After a minute or two the entire class heard screaming, Mrs. Martin was yelling for students walking in to stay out. Zara's eyes widened, "Guys... are we going under a quarantine?" She mumbled under her breath knowing the pack can hear her and that Isaac and Malia will tell Lyla and Kira what's going on.
"I think so, what the fuck is going on?" Stiles mumbles
"No clue, stay alert, all of you." Scott orders
"Got it." Jackson mumbled
"Yes sir." Stiles replied
"Always." Isaac replies
Malia just nodded before leaning over and telling Kira who was in front of her, Kira nodded same as Lyla once Isaac informed her.
The pack were the last ones out of the class when everyone piled into the hallway to see what was going on, they all stood in back. They were then all ordered to go back into the classroom, Lyla nodded for them to go as she tried to talk to her mom, Zara was sitting down again when she saw Lyla being gently pushed back into the classroom before her mom shut the door.
"Guys, she's calling the CDC." Lyla says
"For what?" Jackson asked
"I think.. somebody here is sick.. like really sick." Lyla says before being engulfed in Isaac's arms who suddenly doesn't look so sleepy anymore.
Before they knew it there were people making their way into the building, they were wearing huge yellow suits with their heads covered. Zara stuck by Scott who had his brows raised as they walked passed them and through the hallway with all their equipment.
"This is a fucking nightmare." Jackson mumbled
"I'm gonna go see what the hell is going on." Scott says before walking the room that the people in suits set up.
Zara followed her friends back into the classroom, they all sat on the desks as everyone else just talked like nothing was even happening, that's life in Beacon Hills isn't it? The pack does all the panicking while everyone else get's to be blissfully ignorant.
"Apparently they're thinking smallpox." Stiles says
"Not likely." A voice said, it was the guy who was giving them instructions on the test. "Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. We've only managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was Rinderpest. It killed cows."
Jackson blinks, "So we should be comforted by that?"
"Unless it's something worst." The guy replies, Zara doesn't even know what this guy's name is and to be honest he's creeping her the fuck out, and she's the fucking vampire.
Jackson just nods curtly before rolling his eyes.
"Well whatever it is, they're taking it pretty seriously." Malia says
"Yeah, there's a shit ton of cars and trucks, I heard the police. Stiles, I think you dad might be here." Isaac pauses, he nods, "Yeah, he's here."
Stiles stand up, "I should probably call him." he walks over to the bucket where all their phones are placed in envelopes.
"Don't bother, they would have shut off any access to all outside communication by now." The man says at the desk, like they asked for his two cents at all.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?"
The man smiles creepily, "Just call me The Chemist. As I was saying, No cell service, no Wi-Fi, No one starting to panic. Looks like we're all just going to have to wait here and see what happens." He flips a page of his book.
Zara feels her skin crawl, she's got a bad feeling about that guy.
Kira and Malia walk back into the classroom, Kira is holding her arm with a look of panic on her face.
"Kira what happened?"
"One of the doctors from CDC tried to poke me with a needle, I shocked her, it went right through her yellow suit. Malia dragged me out of there before anybody could ask any questions." Kira said quietly considering A. We're in a classroom full of people and B. Majority of us can hear her without her needing to talk loud.
Zara then hears Scott's voice, the pack did too, Kira and Lyla being the only ones who cant. Scott is calling for them, he's in the locker room and he sounds like he's struggling with something. They all get up and walk towards the locker rooms, there they find Mrs. Martin knocking on the door and trying to get Scott out, Lyla nods before grabbing her mom and walking her down the hallway.
Kira's dad follows them into the bathroom, he must know something about this.
Zara follows her friends as they walk into the locker room, Scott is gripping the sink, he's sweating bullets. He turns to the pack and he kneels over the bench, Malia then looks down at her nails, she struggles as she tried to retract them, but nothing.
"They won't go back in." She says holding her hands out.
Isaac looks up and his canines are on show, "I can't get them to go away."
Jackson has the same issue that Malia has, with his amber eyes glowing.
"The virus is affecting you guys differently then it would a human." Mr. Yukimura says
"I feel fine."
"Me too." Stiles replies
"What if it doesn't affect vampires?" Scott says still leaning over the bench.
"Would a hybrid be fine?" Stiles asked
"Vampires don't get sick, and we have very specific weaknesses that most people in Beacon Hills don't know about." Zara says
"So Stiles being half vampire is keeping him immune?" Jackson scoffs
"I feel bad for you guys but... that's kind of awesome." Stiles smiles, Jackson growls, Stiles' smile drops. "Sorry."
"Wait, so am I immune? Dad?" Kira asked
"I'm afraid not, you're being affected neurologically. I was able to take a look at your test papers." Her dad says giving one to her, She glances at it before showing the pack, Kira's answer sheet had empty bubbles, but that's because the part where she filled them in wasn't even in the bubbles.
Yeah.. she's not immune.
Lyla burst into the locker room, she's sweating bullets, black stuff staining her lips.
"What the hell.. is going on?" Lyla asked weakly, Isaac runs over and holds her in his arms as he walks her to the group.
"We're all being slowly killed by a virus and Stiles and Zara are immune because of their fantastic vampire immune systems." Jackson says, clearly agitated.
"Okay so we need to quarantine you guys from.. well.. the quarantine." Stiles says
"But where? And what if they get violent?" Kira asked
"A classroom is definitely not gonna hold us." Malia shakes her head.
"What about the basement?" Lyla asked
"Nope, too many ways out." Stiles replies
"We need a place secure, where nobody can find us." Scott adds weakly
Zara thinks for a second, and then it hits her.
"The vault, the Hale vault."
"They always have an escape route, like their house. We need to find another way in." Scott replies
Pretty soon they were all making their way to the basement, they were running down the stairs until they made it to the room. They began searching for a secret passage, they knew finding the vault was definitely not gonna be easy so they were checking everywhere.
And then Stiles pushed a cabinet out of the way, he placed his had over the symbol on the wall.
"Guys, this has to be it." He says
"Okay, so how do we get in?" Malia asked
"We could just take turns breaking it down." Isaac says
Scott shakes his head, he's still sweating like crazy, "No, this is the Hale vault, it's not that simple."
"It's how the entrance outside is, I saw it the night of the Berserker attack, you have to open it with claws...." Zara trailed off, his voice getting quieter.
Oh shit, they needed a Hale to open this.
And Malia... was a Hale.
It seemed like everyone else realized what had to happen considering how awkwardly quiet it got, the pack avoiding eye contact.
Malia raised her brows, "Somebody open it it already."
Kira gulped, Zara nodded at her to talk to her.
"Hey Malia, how about you try doing it?" Kira said anxiously
"Yeah I can, after you guys tell me what you're hiding from me."
Zara tries to keep her heart from falling to her stomach, Malia will notice. Come on, Zara. Keep it together.
"Guys I know I'm on the list okay?" Malia sighs
Zara blinks, "Yeah.. you are. All of us are."
Malia nods, "So how much?"
"How much?" Kira asked
"How much am I worth?" She asked
"Uh.. one million." Stiles says
Malia nods slowly, "Okay so since you guys are worth more than me, they'll come for you first." She then walks over to the wall and opens it up, she shrugs before walking past the open walls, the pack follows behind her, everyone seems to be on edge.
Zara walks around and starts scanning the area it's a very ancient looking room. There's dust in the air and Zara's pretty sure she just saw a mouse scurry past one of the cabinets. But it will do if it keeps her friends safe.
Zara glanced at her friends, Malia was laying on Kira's lap who was brushing her hair out of her face, Zara smirked. She looked over at Scott who was sitting down on the floor, he was still sweating but now he had red rings around his eyes, Jackson's eyes had stopped glowing but now he was shivering and sweating, Isaac's fangs went in by themselves but he was shivering and sweating as well.
Lyla was pale and her lips were almost completely covered in the black stuff coming from her mouth, Isaac was holding her to his chest as she was curled in his lap, she was shivering as well. Stiles was sitting on the floor next to her watching his friends with a frown.
Having a virus is not fun but being on the opposite end just watching your friends suffer wasn't great either.
"This all started down here by the way, the vault. 117 million in bearer bonds." Stiles says
"How do you ever change bearer bonds into cash?" Kira asked
"The bank I guess." Stiles replies, "They just let it sit here the whole time collecting dust." Stiles sighs ,"You know bearer bonds are basically extinct?"
"Why does that matter?" Jackson asked weakly
"Do you know how many problems you could fix with that money?" Stiles scoffs, he frowns deeply. "My dad is having a lot of trouble with bills, the hospital for the MRI and then Eichen's harassing him about my stay. It's just... I could help him."
"My mom does this thing.. where she'll write down all the items in our budget, how much they cost, and then she'll add it all up and figures out how long we have until..." Scott sighs, "We lose our house."
After that nobody says anything, they all just sit and think about all the problems they having going on in their lives. And that's when Zara starts thinking about Derek, she pulls out her phone and looks at the text he sent this morning that she ignored, he told her to
Please stay safe.", when she saw it earlier she rolled her eyes and shoved her phone into her pocket. But now all she wanted to do was throw herself at him, wrap her arms around his neck as he held up her thighs while she hid her face in the crook of his neck.
She knew she got irrationally mad last night, she knew that Derek wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Just the sight of someone as amazing as Braeden being so close to Derek makes her so insecure, maybe that was something she needed to figure out instead of having a tantrum like a kid.
She needed to talk to him, she just needed to see him.
It's not like she has very much time left, with the Deadpool and Derek being the key meaning.. he's gonna die soon. She didn't know how soon that meant but what she knew was that she didn't know what she would do with herself if she never got to tell Derek how she really felt about him before he...
She couldn't even finish the thought, she didn't want to, and she shouldn't have to. She held a hand up to her mouth as a sob escaped her lips, she felt Stiles wrap his arm around her as her sobs continued uncontrollably, pretty soon she was crying into his flannel as he held her tight.
"It's Derek, isn't it?" Stiles asked gently
Zara just sobbed harder, this wasn't fair.
None of this was.
Eventually Zara managed to stop crying and now she, Scott and Stiles were all leaning against the wall that led them into this room. Zara heard voices, she heard Lydia's voice, Parrish' voice, and also the Sheriff.
"They're looking for us." Stiles says
"You guys go, they need to know that you guys are okay." Scott says, he looks worse than he did when they got down here. In-fact all of them did, Jackson, Isaac and Scott had gross veins around their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, Lyla and Malia's lips were smudged with a black tint and they had black stuff dripping from their noses, they were also pale as fuck.
Her friends looked like they were all on the verge of death.
"But what about you guys?"
"We'll be fine, go." Malia croaks as she shivers with Kira's jacket wrapped around her as she's still laying in her lap.
Zara looks at Scott, she mouths, Tell Malia the truth about Peter.
Scott frowns, but nods slowly.
Zara purses her lips before she and Stiles make their way out of the vault, they vamp speed up the stairs and back towards the school. Stiles suggests they check coach's office for any clues considering he was the first human to actually get sick. But after searching through damn near every file and cabinet, they gave up.
Stiles huffed as he sat in coach's chair, Zara sighed running her hand threw her hair.
"Wait Zara, look at these." Stiles picks up a bunch of papers with the word approved on them, the stamp was red.. until it changed to black.
The two of them shared a look, and then Stiles glanced at the mug.
Coach's finger prints, they were two black prints.
Just like, everyone who placed their thumb on the paper for a stamp.
"Zara.. that creepy guy... he--"
"Is the one who gave everyone the virus?" She finished his sentence.
"I thought you guys would never figure it out, oh well." The man said with a gun in his hand.
Zara hisses, her fangs barred.
"Oh, you thought I forgot about you huh?" The man tosses a smoke bomb onto the ground, in seconds it explodes and Zara feels her lungs being squeezed, she coughs as she hits the floor clawing at her throat.
Vervain in gaseous form, how original.
She chokes as she curls up on the ground, she watches as the man walks towards Stiles who has his hands up in surrender, Zara didn't catch much of the conversation because she can't breathe but she does know the man was smart and laced a bullet with Vervain and Wolfsbane. Stiles is immune to both separately but the two together? He's good as dead.
"S-Stiles." Zara chokes out, her lungs feel like sandpaper.
"Zar, it's okay. You'll be okay." Stiles replies with unbridled fear in his voice.
"I'm gonna count to 3, and then I'm gonna kill you." The man says
"You think you can scare me?" Stiles growls
"No, I think I can kill you. I just thought the countdown would be more exciting.
The gas in the room weakened but just like Zara jinxed herself or something, the smoke bomb went off again. If she couldn't fight this then she couldn't save Stiles, she had to get up. She used all of her strength to push onto her arms but they just buckled beneath her as the vervain weakened her system more and more with every breath.
And then there a gunshot.
Zara weakly forced her head up, Stiles was still standing but he had blood splattered all over his face. His facial expression was a mixture of horrification and complete and utter shock. He quickly leaned down and pulled Zara off the ground, she leaned on him for support while her body was failing her from inhaling too much vervain.
She looked up and realized it was Scott's dad who shot the creepy guy who tried tried to kill her friends.
"I got a call from Melissa I don't know much about this but there is a cure. It's called Reishi Mushrooms, it's in the vault. Go tell, Scott now!" Mr. Mccall said
Zara who was gaining back her strength nodded before she and Stiles ran off, once they were sure no one could see them they vamped down the stairs to the basement, when they got there the door was closed, they forgot they closed it before they left. They started banging on the door but there was no answer, Zara could hear everyone's heartbeats but no one was probably strong enough to get the door open.
"Scott! If you can hear me, get the antidote! They're in there with you!" Stiles yells through the wall.
Nothing.
"Zara we have to break this door down." Stiles panics
"We can't it won't work that way!"
"They need to hear us before..." Stiles trails off
Zara knew what he was trying to say.
After about 10 more minutes of banging on the door and slamming their bodies into it using all their strength they both slid down the wall in exhaustion, Zara could hear everyone's really slow heartbeats but they probably couldn't even move so what was the point in trying to break down a wall that they know they can't break down.
And suddenly, the door opened up, Stiles and Zara shot up from the ground. Scott looked better, everyone did when they walked in, but there was definitely something wrong with Malia. She was glaring at everyone, and then pulled out a folded piece of paper.
The Deadpool.
"So when were you guys gonna tell me that I was a Hale?" Malia asked with anger in her voice.
"Malia.. we were going to but.. we didn't think that you would want to know that Peter was your father, he's not a good guy." Scott explains
"Good guy or not Scott, he's still my dad. I would've liked to know who the fuck I came from considering I can't remember my mother, I killed my adoptive family, and my dad thinks I'm a lunatic who doesn't know what being a human is. Yeah, I would like to know who my birth father is especially when I've already met him." Malia crumbles the list and tosses it on the floor, I'm assuming all of you knew?"
The room gets awkwardly quiet.
Zara feels even worse because she knew before anyone else did..
Malia scoffs, a tear slipping down her cheek, "Lydia too?"
Lyla avoids eye contact.
"Just.. none of you speak to me. Okay?" She exits the basement shoving past Scott who just turns and watches her leave with a deep frown.
They really should've just told her the truth.
—
Well, this was a long one.
Or at least it felt like one while typing it.
It's almost 4k anyway.
Yeah I decided to switch up Malia's reaction to what happened, considering in the show Stiles was hiding it from her and that messed with their relationship a little bit.. but here I just made the entire pack hide it from her.
Which is 10x worse, I'm so sorry Malia.
Alright, I'm gonna keep watching Teen Wolf and then later I'm finishing a Sterek book I recently started because yes.
Alright, until the next one guys.
Byeee
— Mic ☔︎︎