chapter nine
[ season 2 | episode 5 ]
[ venomous ]
A BRIEF WHISTLE ON THE WIND, a breeze rustling the beige plants, the sun shining down on her earth like a prideful mother. That was it. That was the dream that swallowed Marley the night after the lizard made her a prisoner of her own mind. She saw the mystified clouds lining the silky blue sky, felt the soft brush of tall grass against her bare thighs. All she knew that night was true peace.
In that dream she wore a white sundress reaching her mid-thigh, its neckline forming a light scoop with soft scallops and the waist cinching before flaring out so tenderly. It was a dress that she wouldn't be caught dead wearing in public, a dress that made her feel pretty and happy but enhanced all of her countless insecurities. The dress her mother once wore to church.
Despite her criticism of the outfit, she did love the feeling of that kind fabric against her skin. It was almost satin-like but also possessed cotton qualities; a river of cloth that ran down her sharp edges like a deadly waterfall. She knew her grandmother would have nearly fainted at the sight of her in such an outfit. Not out of discontent but more shock— seeing how beautiful her granddaughter looked would have easily brought tears to Louise's eyes. She also knew how literally everyone else who knew her would gawk at the sight.
There was so much emotion, so much feeling in that dream that it filled her chest with something so close to content and made her feel truly happy for once. She knew that every rise and fall of her skin, every expansion and shrink of her lungs, every inhale and exhale meant something. They held so much laughter, so many tears, so many words that they just had to mean something.
In her dream, the world was golden. Held together by shimmering threads and the paint of beautiful white clouds and a bright sun made of watercolor, the world was simply golden. It shined as those droplets of watercolor touched down on the sewn earth, a pool of light ready to blind the darkness. It smiled as the silk of the sky gently met with those rolling hills of fabric. And it thundered like a precious heart as Marley moved her feet against the knitted dirt.
And that small beating of the earth pumped in sync with her own organ, a connection between the two entities, a tether binding them as one. That feeling of unity with this terrifyingly powerful planet made something twist in her heart, gave her a shock that ran so deep it echoed in her hollowed out bones. The Earth ran through her just as she ran through it; they flowed amongst each other, moved in harmony, a chorus of melodic blood and harmonious beating of that little heart. She was it just as much as it was her.
It was unlike her usual dreams. Instead of the fiery rage and mournful cry that plagued her, this one was filled with simple beauty and an elegance that put gala's to shame. Until it was infiltrated by a flurry of fangs, teeth, and terror.
That was when she woke up. Her breathing was short, ragged, and came in small gasps as her forehead glinted in the moonlight, a sheen of sweat covering it completely. What started out as something so peaceful, so serene, ended with her blood soaking the ground beneath her.
It didn't get off her mind all day. Not when she left for school, not when Derek called her to the station, and not even while she stood in the rancid boy's locker room with Erica Reyes. The memory was burned into her brain, just like all of the other nightmares she'd dealt with in her short sixteen years. As she stood behind one of the rows of blue lockers, her mind just kept running back to that perfect world of yarn and silk and watercolor that quickly turned to rot.
According to Derek, Jackson was in the running to be Mr. Kanima, meaning they had to kidnap him and take him to that dusty old station. So she and Erica were sent to the high school to complete that simple task. Except it wasn't so simple because Danny just had to be spotting him.
The two laughed about some hot chick that was in Shittemore's first hour, her name was Rosie or something, and Marley held in a gag. The way he spoke about her like an object made her want to punch him perfectly in his sharp little jawline. Not Danny, though. Danny was an angel against the darkness. The first person to befriend Marlowe on the lacrosse team. But Jackass was a little bitch.
Her knuckles ached as he continued on, sitting on the bench and ordering the Hawaiian boy to put weights on the bar. There were two already on as he asked for another. Was the dude trying to kill himself? His hands wrapped around the slick metal, straining as he lowered it to his chest and tried to lift it. She saw his muscles tremble, heard the slight rise of his pulse as he pushed against that bar. Danny's hands quickly helped lift it when his straining proved to not be enough.
Smelling the anger against that horrible B.O., she rolled her eyes. Erica flicked a bug from her leather jacket with a red fingernail, whispering something about how stupid he was. "No! I said I don't need any help."
"Don't help you as in don't spot you, or don't help you as in let the bar crush your throat?" Danny sounded incredibly sarcastic, sending an incredulous look to his best friend. The boy was trying to carry a bunch of weight by himself when he obviously couldn't. It was stupid.
Jackson laid his head back against the cushioned bench, eyes squeezing shut and nostrils flaring. "I should be able to do twice that." Marley smirked; she could do triple that.
Danny let out a scoff and carried weights from the metal bar to the concrete floor. "On the moon, maybe." Once some of the weights were back on the cold, hard ground, he shook his head. "I'm hitting the shower. If I come back and you're lying dead underneath a pile of weight, I'm taking the Porsche!"
But instead of giving up his impossible dream, Jackson slowly wrapped his hands around the bar and pushed against it. He completed the easy part, lowering it onto his chest once more before trying so desperately to lift it. But it didn't work. He struggled as the bar crushed his chest, constricting his lungs and bruising his ribs. Erica quickly moved to lift it.
"...Thanks," he whispered, a grateful gasp meant for his best friend.
Erica sent Marley a wink, smirking with that iconic red lipstick. "Anytime." Two eyes opened into hers, terror filling that small room. She smiled, a gorgeous and terrifyingly breathtaking smile, before grabbing his neck and dragging him up from the bench.
Once he passed out from the weight of her blood-red fingernails on his fragile neck, the two girls dragged him into the silver sedan and started off towards the subway tunnel. The one they grew to eventually like.
The idiot woke up about halfway there, though, and started yelling at them from the back seat. It was a mix of stupid bitches, gonna tell the police, and if those two idiots Scott and Stiles are involved I swear to God— before Marley slammed on her breaks. She swiveled her head, facing a tough-guy Jackson, whose heartbeat was racing, with the deadliest look she could muster. "Alright, Shittemore say one, just one, more thing and I will kick your ass. And don't ever call me a bitch again."
Smiling against her frown, she head his heart speed up, heard the little skip as soon as she turned back around and lightly pressed on the gas. She definitely liked being able to scare the shit out of Jackson. Instead of continuing on with his rant, he settled into the back, getting stares from Erica every now and then.
When they sped into the old parking lot near the subway tunnel, Erica grabbed both of his arms, using her heightened strength to bruise the flesh beneath. "I suggest you stop struggling and simply comply, pretty boy," she sneered, her red lips curling as they spat out the simple threat.
It was no secret that Jackson was among the many, and most ruthless, bullies of the late Erica Reyes. His weasel brain came up with the numerous nicknames, pepperoni-face, piss bitch, and more, that the kids of Beacon Hills liked to taunt her with. And now that she was this hot, blonde bombshell, she'd no doubt make them all regret even sniggering at the slightest insult once aimed towards her.
As she dragged his sorry ass down the old stairway, Marley followed behind, the incessant panting becoming music to her ears. She really, really liked knowing he was hurting. Did that make her a bit mentally fucked up? Perhaps. Did she regret the content feeling that she felt? Not at all; Jackson was a horrible person and horrible people deserved horrible things.
When the duo reached the bottom, Isaac appeared to grab his other arm and the two held him in front of a kneeling alpha, his all-black outfit making him seem incredibly angsty. Marley situated herself off to the side, leaning against a wooden pillar instead of standing in front of Derek.
"What happened to you on the night of the full moon?" He played with something in his hand, eyes trained on the object instead of the terrified teenaged boy in front of him.
"What?" Jackson gasped, struggling against the grip of the two incredibly strong werewolves. "Nothing. Nothing happened." She could sense the disappointment and regret that poured from his raging figure, smelling that awful stench of despondency while he pulled against the cuff-like hands. Against everything she stood for and believed in, she felt her heart pang a teeny tiny bit with what felt like pity towards him.
But she would never, ever admit such thing. Instead, she would curse him out in her head, possibly aloud, and declare an absolute hatred for him. If it weren't for the fact that Jackson was a heartless, cold monster, she would've displayed her pity as a trophy, but that wasn't the case.
She still remembered the first day they met with near perfect clarity. It was summer so the weather was unbearably hot and she felt her usual hatred of the world— thanks to be a hormonal and depressed fourteen year old with mass amounts of trauma. It was the second week of school, Marley's first, so students already had cliques and were already pretty well acquainted with their classmates. She arrived at her grandmother's not long after the first day of school, meaning she would be the new girl just a mere week after school began.
That was two years ago, making her a small eighth grader and incredibly awkward. Marley, being her stupid self, couldn't figure out how to read the map that portrayed the winding halls of Beacon Hills Junior High. Instead of crawling so tentatively out of her comfort zone, she decided to just wing it. Unfortunately for her, though, she had a small, undiagnosed thing called dyscalculia, which was basically dyslexia for numbers. So instead of walking into room 215, she walked into 251.
When the teacher told her the mistake she'd made, she nearly began to cry. It was humiliating considering the other hormonal fourteen year olds couldn't contain their constant laughter and teasing, the worst of all being a certain boy at the front who decided it would be smart to sport a bowl cut. His name tag, which they all had thanks to the terrible memory of Mr. Delcan, said Jackson Whittemore in a barely legible font. He stuck more with name calling than laughter, though.
That day forward, Marlowe decided to refer to the godawful human being as Jackass Shittemore, and she swore to hold a deep hatred for him with everything in her. She'd never been the type to crave constant friendship but that whole ordeal definitely landed her onto the to-be-bullied list.
Now, watching her two pack mates hold his arms while surrounded by layers of dust, she knew that moment two years ago was incredibly different from where she'd ended up. Two years ago, the only idea she had of werewolves was that one retelling of little red riding hood and the suspicions following the animal attack that killed her family. And here she was, a fang-bearing, claw-having werewolf. A part of her felt some shard of disappointment at what she'd become.
She couldn't think about that now, though. Instead of dwelling on the idea of what happened to her, she shifted her focus to the trembling lacrosse co-captain. He stared at Derek with so much fear piercing his heart that she didn't know whether to smirk or act grim. "You're lying," her alpha bit out calmly, a mask of serenity in the dusted station.
He put whatever had been in his hands to the side, grabbing a black glove instead and wiggling his hand inside. "No, wait. I can—I can prove it. I tapes myself."
Isaac chuckled and Derek smiled at that, reminding Marley what side she was supposed to be on. She barked out a laugh and dug invisible dirt from beneath her nails. Why did she feel so bad for a horrible person?
"You taped yourself?" The blond's curly head ducked in as he said his sentence with so much humor. She tried to see the old boy in him, the one who shrugged away from her touch, but failed. Would that soon happen to her? Would everything that made her weak and human be stripped away until she was a cocky, selfish jackass? She doubted Scott and Stiles would let that happen.
Jackson stared at Isaac. "Yes." The two locked gazes, caught in a piss off. "It was the full moon. And maybe while you were curled in the corner having an existential crisis about turning into a monster, I was preparing for the so-called gift your big, bad alpha promised me, and what did I get? Nothing." Marley's stomach clenched. He looked so feral, so vulnerable as he was held up in the two blond wolves arms. Feral, vulnerable, and so utterly disappointed. In himself. "You want proof? Let me get the video."
A stretch of silence, and then a lazy "no" from her alpha. The brooding adult grabs something, something sharp, before revealing it. A sharp, ragged cut shard of glass from the pool. "No, I have a better idea." He twists it in his hands before letting the light catch it perfectly. Everything beneath her flesh freezes.
Shards of glass, sharp cuts, broken mirrors and glasses. An old, dirty house with three bedroom and five kids. One man, one woman, both cruel and merciless. And one little girl, her thigh burning and a river of blood. Marlowe remembered to keep bleeding as a kaleidoscope of shiny light fell upon Jackson's colorless face.
"What is that?" As soon as the question leaves his lips, his body is forced down and he struggles against the crushing force. Both Isaac and Erica sport wicked grins as they put him down on his knees, one manicured hand holding his hair and one calloused hands holding his chin.
Derek, still holding the glass, stalks closer to the trio. "You know, Jackson, you've always been kind of a snake. And everyone knows snakes can't be poisoned by their own venom." The sight and those words puts something evil in Mar's stomach, forcing her to straighten her spine and let go of that lazy stance.
Her pack mate, the one she once thought she could relate to, forced his chiseled jaw open, fighting the tension lines throughout his face. Above them all, Derek held the glass perfectly angled over his wide mouth, waiting so agonizingly slowly for a drop of venom to fall into the waiting abyss. When it did, everything holding Jackson fell away as he choked on the rancid drop of poison.
She strained against every instinct and moral whisper yelling at her to helps him up as she watched him collapse to the hard concrete, completely unmoving. The poison didn't work. She, along with Derek, sighed. The latter knelt before the panicked teenager.
Fighting back a smile, he whispered, "You're still a snake Jackson. Just not the one we're looking' for." With that, he rose and walked into the abandoned train, a loud ringing coming from the tattered and fogged glass as he dropped it.
Before Marley could move, she watched Isaac himself kneel before the captain, his face enlightened and holding an infuriating amount of cockiness. "You're still gonna have to do one more thing for us. Well, actually, for me." An understanding dawns on her and Erica as they group up. "Apparently allegations that I might have murdered my father were taken very seriously and you, mister snitch, are the only person who can take those words back. I do quite enjoy freedom." And with a mock British accent he adds, "With that, I bid you a goodbye."
Left alone with the still corpse, Marley hugs herself, fighting off a sudden chill. She wanted to take on the heartless mask of the others, wanted to ignore the sweating classmate, wanted to retreat into a soft cocoon of safety at her grandmother's house, but no matter how hard she tried, her feet were anchored. Anchored until she began moving towards Jackson instead of away from him.
"Derek might kill me if he sees me do this, but I'm not gonna leave you here, c'mon." Hauling him from the floor, she leaned his weight on her, barely straining from it. Her absolute resentment of the boy was present, but her morals just kept on nagging.
With this new understanding of Jackson and how high of a standard he held himself to, all visible during the rant about him taping himself, she saw him as less of a demon and more of a kid. Just like her. A kid dragged into an unforgiving and cruel reality that harbored dangerous snakes, paralyzing venom, and power hungry alphas. Just like her.
About halfway to his house, he regained some of his nerves back, mostly his phalanges, head, and arms, which mean he was back to speaking.
"Your little pack mates are gonna get what's coming to them, just you watch."
She rolled her eyes, now unafraid of the boy she once thought was so awful. "Yea, yea. Just shut up and get your legs back."
Once they reached his house, he was in control enough to walk himself to the door and leave. But not before slowly turning, with confusion laced into his expression. "Why did you help me?" At her own confusion, he sighed. "You could've left me on the ground, but you didn't. Why? Do you have some secret agenda or something?"
"You may be a complete dick, but I still have my morals." With her arms crossed and heart rabid in her chest, she decided to truly be honest. "You're just a kid, you don't deserve to freeze to death in an abandoned subway station." She turned, trying to ignore the whispers still screaming in her ears. Once she reached the end of the walkway, she turned her head just enough to see his silhouette in her peripheral vision. "And I'm sorry. About the bite not working."
As she walked away, her mind finally free of the nagging little voices, she thought she heard a quiet "thank you." Perhaps Jackson wasn't a demon after all, instead just a kid with too high expectations for himself.
When Marlowe strolled into Beacon Hills High with Erica, Isaac, and Boyd, all she wanted to do was crumple in on herself. Kids, ones she recognized from class or lacrosse and those she couldn't name, stared. Whispers were shared, and she heard her name among many of them. She didn't even know so many people even knew her name.
Isaac, his blonde hair curled and shoulders sporting a tacky leather jacket, held such an arrogant little smirk the entire time. When she picked him up from the station and he crawled into her passenger seat, when they stopped by Erica's house, when they picked Boyd up from just down the street of the bus stop. That cocky smirk was there the whole time. And she just wanted to smack it off.
There was a murderous gecko running around Beacon Hills and he was acting so high and mighty after being falsely accused of said murder. Prick. She definitely did not miss the way he avoided her stares and strayed closer to the other two. Or how the other two, more Erica than Boyd, kept their own distance. To them, she was a traitor for associating with the enemy. To them, she was filthy and disgraced.
But she shook her head of all that. If she let her own thoughts affect her, she would break before she even got a chance to prove herself. To them or anyone else.
She had first hour with Isaac, Scott, and Stiles. Meaning she would have to deal with the arrogant wolf, and the two idiots who were just starting to trust her. Strolling into class, putting on a facade of nonchalance, she watched as everyone turned to look up at her and the brooding, leather jacket-donned, tall, ex-felon beside her.
One of the people turning to look was none other than Scott McCall. His brown, chocolate eyes stared at them with so much confusion it made her want to laugh. Then they turned to her, and she watched his eyebrows raise. He looked almost betrayed.
It took nearly everything in her to walk with Isaac instead of talking up the vacant seat beside Scott. All of her instincts, mainly the ones that determined good from bad, screamed at her to ally herself with Scott and Stiles instead of Derek. Her morals, which were so present that it nearly hurt, stirred up a storm within her stomach. She felt dirty and evil, confused and angry.
They all had chemistry together. Her, Dumb and Dumber, Isaac, and Erica. Plus Lydia and the little huntress. So, when Derek presented his genius idea, there wasn't really much difficulty in it. Aside from the press of humanity against Marley's rib cage.
She still felt that connection with the redhead, despite her nasty attitude and stuck-up way of living. She didn't want to hurt the girl, and the thought sent a shard of something through her stomach. It felt similar to the thought of Scott getting hurt.
Perhaps it was the fact that they'd been bit by the same person, the fact that they were all supposed to be a pack. She didn't feel like that with Boyd, Erica, or Isaac. Though she did flinch at the idea of them in pain, it felt nothing like that of the other two. With them, it was more an ache, rather than the gut-wrenching sting that came with Martin and McCall.
"Stop it."
The voice pulled her from her thoughts, head swiveling to meet Isaac's heated glare. "Excuse me?"
"Stop doing whatever you're doing." Quirking her eyebrows, she stared at him. "God, stop thinking about whatever you're thinking about. I can smell it on you, and it's distracting."
Pulling her hand up to cup her chin, she refocused her gaze on the board. "And that's my problem because?"
She felt his foot connect with her calf beneath the desk. "I'm trying to learn something. I don't know if you know, but I've kinda been absent from school for a few days, so I need to catch up."
"Again, I care because?"
The warm feeling of his eyes on her head went away as she heard a faint bitch from his direction.
Class went by quickly, the ring of the bell sending a flurry of bored and exhausted students out into the hallway. Instead of joining them, she found herself latched to a certain arrogant person. His hand wrapped around her bicep as he dragged her to Erica's class, stopping just before the blonde.
"So you don't run off with your little friends," he whispered, smirking down at her. Rolling her eyes and pulling her arm from his grasp, she met the humored gaze of Erica, finding solace in the third presence. Isaac's voice interrupted that solace. Stupid Isaac. "Erica."
"So, Derek wants this done during chemistry?" She ran a manicured hand through her curls, her silver bracelets clinging against each other.
Isaac inclined his head, tilting it and having to cast it downwards to look them both in the eye. "Yeah, and if it's Lydia, I'm gonna kill that bitch, right?"
Marlowe paused. "What?"
Brown eyes quickly darted to hers, Erica quieting any protests that might've risen. "We have to test her first."
"Kanima."
The bell rang again, stopping the conversation before it could escalate any more. The pit in her stomach grew, turning her mood even more sour.
She knew she'd been nothing but a traitor recently. Switching between teams and betraying her alpha, she wasn't loyal. She wasn't even trustworthy. But the nagging feeling inside of her chest made it impossible to do anything but protect. She wanted to see everyone make it out of this, wanted to see Lydia and Scott and Stiles and her pack all make it out alive. And, to be fair, she didn't really care who she betrayed to do that.
Walking into Economics, she spotted Jackson behind Dumb and Dumber, his eyes quickly darting to her before he continued to, probably, berate the two. The seat next to him was empty.
All three of the boys stared at her as she sat, obviously confused by her presence. Before anyone could speak, though, Coach slammed his book on a desk.
"All right, listen up." Everyone turned to him, knowing that diverting attention would mean humiliation. "A quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might want to start their own study groups, because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult..." he scoffed, "I'm not even too sure I could pass it. Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question. Who's got it, huh? Come on, let's go, buddy."
"Paralyzed from the neck down. Do you have any idea what that feels like?" Recognition rang through her head at Jackson's words. They were talking about the kanima. She remembered seeing him in the hallway, near where her pack mates spoke. He must've heard something.
Stiles' eyes flicked to her before landing on him. "I'm familiar with the sensation."
She chuckled, ignoring Shittemore's harsh gaze. "Wait... why would Derek test you?" Her chest hardened, rib cage squeezing her lungs. Did Jackson tell them she was there? "Why would he think that it's you?"
"How should I know?" His eyebrows were pinched, lips pulled into a hard line. He looked annoyed, but Marley could sense the overwhelming pool of terror beneath his facade of just absolute dick. She almost felt more pity towards him, though, again, she'd never admit to it.
Stiles, unamused with Jackson's act, leaned forward the slightest bit more. "Wait, do they think it's Lydia?"
Marley heard the slight hop and skip in Jackson's heartbeat. He was worried for her, and the lack of knowledge hurt. She'd been there before. "I don't know, all I heard was her name and something about chemistry."
"Jackson! Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?" Coach snapped, his beady eyes trained on his co-captain.
"Um, just an undying admiration for my— my coach."
"That's really kind of you." His beady eyes softened, forehead vein dying down, and Jackson tilted his head. There was almost a smug look across his face. "Now shut up! Shut it! Anybody else?"
In front of them, Scott tugged Stiles down, not-so-subtly, and started furiously whispering. "How do we know it's not her?"
She felt Stiles cast his eyes back before responding, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. There was almost a sense of desperation dripping from his frame. "Because I looked into the eyes of that thing, okay? And what I saw was pure evil. And when I look into Lydia's eyes, I only see fifty percent evil."
Marley scoffed, leaning forward the tiniest bit. "Fifty?"
Dodging a hand from Stiles and an amused look from Scott, she continued listening. "All right, maybe sixty. You know, but no more than forty on a good day."
"Stiles, that's not a very good argument." Scott sounded so pained that it almost hurt Marley. She knew they both wanted Lydia to be good, to be either on the right side or untouched by this evil, but there wasn't any guarantee. She'd been bit by an alpha, meaning something had to be going on inside of her. Something none of them knew yet. Something Isaac and Erica were going to get to the bottom of, and possibly kill her for.
Stiles tugged at his jacket sleeve, voice lowering and eyes cast downward. "I'm aware of that, but, I swear it's not her. It can't be, all right? Lydia's fine."
Once he finished trying to convince them, the only sounds heard were the tapping of chalk and scribbling of pencils, student staring up at the board to take notes. Marley joined, writing down the definition plastered on the chalkboard and following whatever the kid up front was writing.
Until a shriek interrupted everything.
word count: 5003
a/n
!!!!!! i updated?????
first of all: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 3K READS
the last update was me thanking you for like 2k and i just— that fast??? it means so much to me that people like this because it comes from such an emotional and genuine part of myself and i have major vulnerability issues so it really helps LMFAO
second: i finally updated oh my god.
i'm so sorry i haven't in a while (writers block <3 no inspo) tbh, i've been slowly writing more and more every now and then until i finally decided to sit down, watch the show, and freaking write
third: the next update will also take a while!
i'm getting back into the groove of things (and coming out of depression episodes lol) so I'm hoping to write more, but i can't promise anything.
i think that's all so i'll hurry up and finish this a/n so that i can finally update lol ily byeeeee
also, seeing all the votes and comments and support is what drives me to continue updating this story instead of giving up so thank you. this is here because of yall.
-andy