CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
FREDDY KRUEGER STYLE
FINDING BOYD AND CORA WAS something she hadn't been expecting to take up half of her night. They had managed to save two little kids from being ripped apart by the two wolves, but now they were chasing their footsteps, Gwen having called Isaac in hopes of getting him to help them. And now they were deep in the woods, where a girl was shouting for Emily in hopes of finding her only to stop when she saw Cora. That's when Isaac appeared, a smirk on his face as he quickly took the female down only for Cora to jump back up and quickly throw him into the tree, sending him face first to the ground.
That's when Gwen and Scott decided to jump in, Scott quickly knocking Cora to the ground whilst Gwen turned towards the female who was watching the whole thing with wide eyes. Gwen made her fangs and claws disappear as she ran up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and looking her over for injuries. "You okay?" The girl nodded. "Good. Run. Get out of here. Get out of the woods, and as fast as you can, okay?" The girl didn't hesitate, quickly listening to Gwen's words.
The blonde turned her head towards Scott who had been waiting for her whilst Derek and Isaac chased after Cora. Giving him a nod, the two were quick to run after the others, stopping when they found Isaac and Derek, but not Cora. Gwen was quick to join Isaac's side, causing the boy to look down at her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head as they looked towards Scott who was currently on the phone with Stiles.
"Are you sure?" Scott frowned.
"Yep. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere―︎it's like The-frickin'-Shining over here! If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised." Stiles answered.
"Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"
"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out?"
"Please, just do it." Scott sighed, and after a few moments he hung up and turned towards the three.
"This doesn't make any sense." Derek spoke up, shaking his head. "The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there."
"Derek, they killed someone." Scott frowned.
"How are they moving so fast?" Derek continued, confused.
"Derek."
"But they can't be that fast on foot." Derek argued.
"They killed someone." Scott snapped. "Some totally innocent kid is dead, and it's our fault."
Derek clenched his jaw for a moment. "It's my fault."
"We need help."
"We have Isaac now." Derek nodded.
"I mean real help." The three looked at him. "They're too fast for us. For all of us. They're too strong, too rabid."
Derek shook his head. "We'll catch them."
"What happens if we do?" Isaac asked, making Gwen look at him. "We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?"
"Maybe it would be easier if we just kill them."
Gwen looked at him with wide eyes. "You're not actually suggesting that, are you? Listen, I killed someone before, I really don't want to do it again."
"Killing them isn't the right thing to do." Scott agreed.
"What if it's the only thing to do?" Isaac quizzed. "If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?"
"Find someone who knows what they're doing." Scott answered.
"Who?" Derek sighed.
"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves."
Gwen sighed as she nodded her head in realization. "Argent."
━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎
Sitting in the car with Derek and Isaac, the trio watched as Scott approached Argent, who immediately dropped his groceries and turned to Scott, pointing a gun at his face. Gwen watched this in amusement. Isaac was the first one to speak up.
"Do you think this is gonna work?"
"Nope." Derek shook his head.
"Yeah, me neither."
"Have a little faith in the boy." Gwen tried, looking between the two wolves. "Maybe I should've talk to him. Because unlike you three, Argent actually likes me."
"He has to, you're his daughter's best friend." Derek muttered. Gwen only scoffed in response, rolling her eyes. She watched as Argent finally put the gun down, stuffing it in the back of his pants.
"Progress." Gwen whispered, narrowing her eyes at Derek who only turned his head to look at her in response. "They're peacefully conversing with each other."
"You're not listening in on this conversation at all, are you?" Isaac questioned his girlfriend.
Gwen shrugged. "Privacy, people. Not like you two have ever heard of it." She watched with confusion as Scott followed Argent to his car before getting in it and watching as the car pulled out of the parking lot. Derek followed after the car and Gwen smiled slightly. Maybe this was actually going to work out. When Scott called, telling them to go to the last place they saw Boyd and Cora, they made it back into the woods.
"You're tracking them by print?" Chris asked, placing his bag on the ground.
"Trying to." Scott nodded.
"Well, then you've been wasting your time." He looked at the group. "There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man." He stood up and Gwen's hand seemed to tighten around Isaac's. "And if you're not trained like me, you had no idea that this print is Boyd's and these―︎"
"Are Cora's." Isaac finished, only to be wrong.
"Nope." Chris shook his head. "They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Listen, I know the four of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage. To Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor. Where you four are barely hitting the speed limit."
"Well, if I gave into my urges, none of you would probably be standing here right now." Gwen gave a sarcastic smile, and suddenly flashes of what happened to her father passed through her mind, making her go tense. Isaac wrapped an arm around the girl, allowing her to lean into him and hiding his smile as she almost instantly relaxed at his touch.
"So what do we do?" Derek quizzed.
"Focus on your sense of smell." Argent answered. "Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us. Or into a trap." He tossed a net to Scott. "Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared."
He tossed infrared cameras to Derek and Isaac who caught them. Derek looked at the object for a moment before saying, "Thanks, but I've got my own." He showed his red eyes to Argent before turning them back to normal.
"Just remember we're not hunting wild animals." Argent reminded them. "Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive."
The group moved to stand on the edge of the hill, looking over the town of Beacon Hills that was decorated in different toned lights. They stood there for a moment before Argent spoke up once more. "When's the last time you saw your sister?"
"Nine years." Derek mumbled. "I thought she died in the fire."
"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Derek only shook his head in response. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"
Scott looked at him in surprise before scoffing. "Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell."
"Alright." Argent sighed. "The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of beacon hills."
"They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?" Isaac questioned with a frown on his face.
"No. But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. But Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?"
"We can't kill them." Scott sternly told the man.
"What if we can't catch them?" Derek shot back.
They looked towards Argent and the man paused for a moment before answering. "Then maybe we just need to contain them. There's no one in the school at night, is there?"
"You want to trap them inside?" Gwen frowned at this.
"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside."
"What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door."
"Yeah, Freddy Krueger style." Gwen hummed, looking at her boyfriend with a nod. "Just, without the whole murdering part."
"You're sure the school's empty?"
"It has to be." Scott nodded. "There can't be anyone there this late, right?"
"Let's hope not." Gwen breathed. "'Cause if so, the murdering part might just happen."