chapter twenty-seven
❝ so much for my happy ending ❞
fireflies
━━━━༺❀༻━━━━
The little boy, Billy, and his sister, Breanne, ran as fast as their legs could take them. Something was chasing them. A monster. A figure ran by, cutting them off. They squealed in terror. "Come on!" Kennedy Hale said, holding her hand out. Breanne grabbed it, and Kennedy swiftly picked up Billy as she lead them to a small shed.
Kennedy locked the shed door, putting Billy with his sister. "He's going to find us!" Billy cried. Kennedy shook her head, knowing Scott would meet up with them soon.
"Be quiet, I'll protect you." Kennedy says with a reassuring smile. Something about her made the kids trust her. Kennedy turned her head as she heard a low growl. The kids held on tighter to one another as Boyd's fingers wrapped around the bottom of the shed. Kennedy stood up slowly, her eyes flashing gold as Boyd ripped the top of the shed off. The children screamed as Boyd roared. Kennedy roared back, her teeth turning into fangs. As if on cue, a jar of fireflies rolls over. Boyd looks down, and all of them fly up. As hes distracted, Scott grabs Breanne, while Kennedy grabs Billy. The two run off with their speed, keeping the kids close.
After a safe distance is made, they slow down. "I'll call Derek." Scott said. Kennedy nods, leaning against a tree.
Breanne turned to Kennedy, "So, are you a super hero?" She asked.
Kennedy smiled, "No, I'm just a high schooler."
"A high schooler that saves the day!" Billy chimed. Kennedy smiled as the two kids smiled at her. "You're like, the bravest brave person ever!"
The Hale's smile fell as she thought about all that's happened in the last 24 hours. Erica was dead, there was no question anymore. Allison had found her body. Kennedy remembered seeing Erica in the closet, such a horrible place to be found. The memory was still fresh and stinging. Erica was tortured and died a brutal death. Meanwhile, the entire summer Kennedy had been hanging out with Stiles or Lydia, trying to be normal. Whatever that meant. "I'm not that brave," Kennedy whispered to the two kids.
Scott hung up with Derek, turning to the girl. "Are you gonna stay out here tonight?" He asked.
"Lydia's been texting. I think she's having an emergency. That, and Stiles literally thinks I died." Kennedy listed off. She sighed, "I'll keep an eye out, and I'll be back in an hour, alright?" Scott nods, knowing Kennedy had a lot on her plate. Kennedy could only do so much when all that was on her mind was her dead friend. She needed a break, and Scott made sure she had it.
༺❀༻
Kennedy sat in the passenger seat of Lydia's car, now changed into Lydia's old blue sweater. "So," Kennedy said, "Where are we going?"
Lydia shrugged, "The store." She stated. "Just needed a drive to clear my mind." She said shortly. Kennedy nodded, looking out the car window. "So, bad fight in the Hale house?" Lydia commented, gesturing to the healing wounds on Kennedy's face.
The Hale chuckles, "Something like that," She says. Kennedy looks around in confusion as Lydia pulls up to the local swimming place. "Um, Lydia?"
Instead of answering, Lydia nonchalantly walks out of the car. Muttering under her breath, Kennedy follows suit. Lydia didn't seem to notice where she was until she looked up from her phone. "This isn't the store." Lydia whispers.
"No, I think this is a pool." Kennedy says sarcastically. Both girls look around, unsure what this meant. "The hot girl is always one of the first people to die."
Lydia looks over, "What?" She asks.
"In the movies, the hot girl is always one of the first people to die." Kennedy begins, "Except we're both hot, so who's going to die first?"
The redhead rolls her eyes, looking at the pool in confusion. Her face drops. "Oh, God."
"What- oh, my God." Kennedy uttered out as there was a figure in the pool. Not just any figure; a body.
"Oh, my God, please don't be dead." Lydia mumbled.
Kennedy looked at Lydia, "He looks dead!" She retorts. Lydia and Kennedy subconsciously step closer to each other as they near the body in the water. Kennedy gets a scent, unsure if it's the body or not. Lydia kneels down, grabbing the body's arm. She quickly flips it around, and to both girls relief it's a dummy.
"Oh, my God." Lydia let's put a relieved sigh, "Are you kidding me?"
"That is so not cool!" Kennedy groans. The scent fills her nose again, "But what is that smell-" She looks down at her shoes just as Lydia looks at her hands. Kennedy's white shoe was in the middle of a puddle of blood. Lydia looks at Kennedy, her own hands covered in the same substance. Both girls slowly turned around, looking up at the lifeguards chair. A man sat there, his throat slashed. Blood pooling onto the pavement. Both girls looked at him in terror, letting out screams.
Kennedy grabbed Lydia, pulling her away from the scene. "We have to call the cops!" Lydia yelled, pulling out her phone. The girls approached Lydia's car, and Kennedy climbed into the passenger seat to grab her own cell.
Stiles's phone rang twice before he answered. "Kennedy! Where are you?"
"Im with Lydia," Kennedy said, anxiously running a hand through her hair. "We were just driving, and Lydia and I found a body, and there's blood-"
Stiles stood up from his desk, "Wait, what?" Instinctively the boy grabbed his car keys, "Where are you? I'll be right there."
Kennedy sucked in a heavy breath as Lydia talked with the police. "The local swimming pool." She said quietly.
"I'll be there soon, just don't go anywhere."
And Stiles was right, he was there sooner than Kennedy anticipated. The blue Jeep halted, and he flings himself out. "Ken? Kennedy?" He saw his girlfriend standing with Lydia, and he rushes over. His arms wrapped around her tightly, and Lydia admired them for a moment. Lydia didn't know how to feel about Stiles and Kennedy for a long time, but it was clear Stiles was the best thing that happened to her best friend. Aside from Lydia herself, of course. Stiles pulled away, his arms still around Kennedy as he looked at both girls, "Are you two okay?"
"We're okay. That, over there," Lydia began. Stiles looks up to see the body, "Not okay."
Stiles sighs, "Yeah, all right. I'm gonna call my dad."
"I already called 911." Lydia followed. Stiles looks at her, then his girlfriend in disbelief.
"You called the police before you called me?"
"We're supposed to call you first when we find a dead body?" Kennedy asks him.
Stiles hawks at her, "Yes!"
༺❀༻
Scott was on the phone with Stiles, "Are you sure?"
Stiles looks around, "Yep. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the frickin' shining over here." He said. Kennedy stood next to Lydia, both girls still a little distraught. "Two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."
"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?" Stiles asked.
Kennedy stepped closer to the body, looking at the blood. "This is gross." She said quietly. Stiles looks at the body, observing the ring on the mans finger.
Stiles looks over at Kennedy, "Scott said he's going to make sure to meet us here." He told her.
"Take Lydia home, please," Kennedy said. Stiles paused, going to protest. "I can handle the police and Scott, just please get Lydia out of here." The redhead goes to speak up, but stops as Stiles leads her away. Kennedy sighs, looking back at the body.
Police came, body was recovered, and Kennedy stood at the pool watching the entire thing. She gave her statement to the deputies as she watched a van slowly roll up to the parking lot. She frowned, walking over. Scott begins to climb out, waving at her. Kennedy smiles, walking around the car to hug the boy tightly.
Chris Argent looks at the dreadful scene. "They did this? Boyd and," He trailed off, forgetting the other wolfs name.
"Cora. My cousin." Kennedy told him. She was confused on why Scott was with him, but said nothing. Chris looked back at the scene, before the two wolves.
"Where's the last place you saw them?"
༺❀༻
"You're tracking them by print?" Chris asked as he tossed down his bag.
Scott nods slowly, "Trying to."
"Well, then, you've been wasting your time." Chris stated. Kennedy looked up at him in confusion. "There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these,"
Isaac gestured his band, "Are Cora's."
"Nope." Chris stated. "They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here." Isaac looks at his shoes, trying to match up the prints. "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." Kennedy nods, crossing her arms over her chest. "They put the pedal to the floor where you three are barely hitting the speed limit."
Derek kept his usual arms crossed stance, "So what do we do?" He asked the hunter.
"Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred Miles a day by scent." Chris explained to the werewolves. Kennedy nods slowly, "A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two Miles, which means we can draw them to us, or into a trap." Kennedy sighs, knowing that could be promising. Chris hands Scott a net. "Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." Isaac is tossed goggles, and as is Derek.
The elder Hale looks at it. "Thanks, but I've got my own." He says, flashing his red wolf eyes.
Chris looks between them, "Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings." He explained to them, "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 five of them all walk up to a clearing that over looked Beacon Hills. Kennedy felt the moon wash over her, and she felt good. She held down the wolf side, at least as much as she could. Kennedy wondered if she gave in, if she would still be able to find Cora and Boyd.
The Argent looked at Derek and Kennedy. "When's the last time you saw your sister?" He asked.
"Nine years. I thought she died in the fire."
Chris looked down, "Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" He said. Derek shook his head. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"
"Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell." Scott says.
Chris looks around, "All right. 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?" Asked Isaac.
"No. But there is an important difference to recognize." Chris told him, "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?"
Scott speaks up, "We can't kill them."
"What if we can't catch 'em?" Derek follows. Kennedy purses her lips, unsure what to feel.
Chris looked back at Derek, "Then maybe we just need to contain them." He said slowly in thought. "There's no one in the school at night, is there?"
"You want to trap them inside?"
"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside."
Isaac shrugged, "What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door." He explained. Kennedy nodded, shivering in the cold.
Chris looked at the three teens. "You're sure the school's empty?" He asked. Kennedy paused in thought. After they were all trapped in the school together last year, the school board made sure to keep it extra locked up. There was no way anyone was there at this time.
"It has to be." Scott answered Chris. "There can't be anyone there this late, right?"
Kennedy shook her head, "Not unless they're psychotic." She mumbled. Chris walks to his truck, everyone following.
Derek pulled Kennedy to the side, keeping her out of ear shot. "Are you sure you want to do this tonight?"
Kennedy nods, "Why wouldn't I?" She shrugged her shoulders, wearing one of Stiles's hoodies. Derek sighed, having so many reasons but worried which one was the best one.
"You've already dealt with a lot tonight. Maybe you should go to Lydia's house for the night." Derek told her. In all honesty, he didn't know if she was safe in his own house. He didn't know if she was safe anywhere. Kennedy had a target on her back, but only Sloane Valet would have understood just how big.
The youngest Hale scoffs. "I'm doing this. I'm helping Boyd and I'm helping Cora. And anyone who's in my way will have to deal with me." She retorts sharply. Derek exhales through his nose as she walks past him. He knows now that he's not getting a voice in her choice, and goes to stand with them in front of Chris.
"These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run." Kennedy watched Chris push a button. bright light & a sound emits from the tool. "Gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear."
"God, no kidding!" Isaac hissed. Kennedy looked over, seeing the wolves all holding their hands to their ears. She frowned. She heard the noise, and it was annoying, but it wasn't deafening.
She looked at Chris in confusion, "Why am I not barreling down in pain?"
Chris sighed, "I think when you were forced to be human you gained a tolerance. Things like this won't affect you." He told her simply. Kennedy hummed at the convenience. He turned off the tool, and opened his trunk. Kennedy looked at Scott, Isaac, and Derek.
"You're a bunch of babies." She teased.
"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked
Chris nods, "And then it's up to you to get them into the basement."
"Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we just, uh, kill 'em?" Isaac asked. He grunts as Kennedy punches his gut, and he winced in pain
"It's going to work." Scott said. The others looked at him unsure, "It'll work."
Kennedy nods, "It will." She confirmed.
༺❀༻
Kennedy hopped over a car as she hit one of her transmitters into the ground. She looked up, noticing she was in the school parking lot. She turned around, seeing Scott. She smiled as he flipped himself over, coming down. "Took you long enough."
"Chris didn't exactly give me the easy route." He told her shortly. The pair looked back at the school, beginning to walk towards the door. "How does Stiles feel about you doing this?"
"I think he hates it but he knows he's not gonna stop me." Kennedy answered honestly. Her brown hair blew behind her as the wind washed over them. Scott nodded. It was strange. So much had changed for Kennedy, and yet she was still the same. The two saw Isaac jogging down from the other side.
Isaac slowed his pace, "You ready?" He asked. Both Kennedy and Scott nodded as they approached the door.
Kennedy paused, "I'm not ruining my nails." She said, pointing to her painted purple nails. Isaac and Scott made eye contact, but just walk to the doors. Kennedy watched as the two pried open said doors. The doors of Beacon Hills high swung open, and the three werewolves looked inside the scary dark building. "Well, good to know I'm still living in a horror movie." She mumbled before walking away.
The front of the school, Chris Argent puts his last transmitter into the ground. Isaac runs around the school, while Scott and Kennedy approach the hunter.
"Do you see that?" Chris asked. Kennedy looked up, seeing a small glow in the sky. It floated around, flashing a yellow color.
"Yeah, it's a firefly."
Chris shook his head in thought, "No, no, I know, it," The hunter trailed off, unable to understand.
"What?" Scott inquired, noticing the confused look.
"It's very unusual." Chris stated. Kennedy frowned, unsure how fireflies are unusual. "The, uh, California fireflies aren't bio-luminescent. They don't glow."
Kennedy looked back up, seeing the glowing bug again. "Does that mean something?" Asked Scott. From the distance, they all could hear loud howling,
"Does that answer your question?" Kennedy asked as she heard the werewolves. "I have to find Isaac."
Isaac looks around slowly in confusion, the low growling getting louder. Kennedy ran over, and he paused when he saw the look on her face. "Oh, great." He mumbled. Turning around slowly, Isaac saw both Boyd and Cora. Kennedy's eyes turned gold, and she growled back. Isaac did the same.
Chris pulled into the parking lot, honking his horn loudly. Cora and Boyd looked at the car, before running. Kennedy watched the two run to the doors. Instead of jumping in, they jump over. Scott gets out of Chris's car. "They're not going through the school. They're going over it."
Derek walked outside, unsure what to do. "The red doors, someone has to get them open." Chris said. Derek nods, running off.
Scott looked around, "Someone has to drive them inside."
"I'll go." Chris said, holding up a stun gun.
Isaac shook his head, "No." He said. Scott and Chris looked at him and Kennedy. "We're faster."
Kennedy gave a wild grin, that reminded them all of Peter, before the two ran off. Kennedy jumped up, grabbing onto the top of the building. She ran along the roof while Isaac ran around the side. Kennedy saw a figure on the top of a bus, firing blinding, but not harmful, arrows at Boyd and Cora. Kennedy runs, flinging her body off the roof. Allison Argent watches as Kennedy flips through the air, landing in front of the bus. She lets out a loud roar, Isaac running over. Boyd and Cora run towards the school doors, and the Lahey shuts the doors completely, locking them inside. He turned around, seeing Allison standing there. The Argent quickly ran off, leaving him and Kennedy. Isaac looked at the Hale girl, seeing her eyes darken to a darker shade of yellow, almost orange. He frowns, unsure how that was even possible.
Kennedy's eyes turned brown, and she stood up slowly. "Did it work?"
Isaac nods, looking back at the building, "I'd say it worked." He said slowly. Kennedy sighed, leaning onto the bus as she felt a slight victory. She closed her eyes, and something washed over her. Her body slammed to the floor, and hard.
It was Derek.
He stormed into the boiler room, letting out a roar as he attacked Boyd and Cora. There was a woman in the room, but Kennedy couldn't make out who it was.Kennedy had no idea what was going on, except that Boyd and Cora started beating up Derek. Their claws scraping through his body. Derek let out a loud growl, louder than any sound he made that night.
Isaac shook her arms, causing Kennedy to shoot open her eyes. "Ken, are you okay?"
The Hale sat up, her hands clutching on to Isaac's. His eyes flickered to their stance, but he said nothing. She breathed heavily, looking at the Lahey. "Yeah," She whispered, "I'm okay."
༺❀༻
Kennedy stood in front of the school, on the phone with Peter. "I have to go in and find Scott and Derek, but everything worked out."
Peter hummed, "Do you want me to come pick you up?" He asked his daughter.
"Dad, I'm fine." Kennedy laughed. She walked into the school, "Theres no Alpha pack trying to kill me, I'm fine." Kennedy paused, hearing the loud sound of a roar. Louder than anything she had heard. She realized, that it was the sound from her vision moments ago. It was Derek. "I have to go."
Kennedy hung up the phone, running to the boiler room. Scott stood just outside, watching as she came barreling down the steps. "I have to go in there."
"Kennedy, no-"
"They're going to kill him!" Kennedy reached for the door, but Scott grabbed her, pushing her back. "Scott!Theyre going to kill him!" Kennedy tried to push against Scott, but he pinned her back into the wall. She pushed against him, unable to move. Kennedy screamed and cried in protest, trying to save Derek. "They're killing him!"
Upstairs, Isaac looked outside as the sun began to rise. Everything was coming to an end. Isaac ran, seeing a flailing Kennedy being pinned up by Scott. "The suns coming up!"
Scott let go of Kennedy, who rushed to open the boiler room door. The three teens ran down the steps, stopping when they see Cora and Boyd on the ground. Derek was covered in blood and scratches. He was on his knees, looking down at the ground. Kennedy watched as Derek weakly looks up, panting heavily. Kennedy smiled softly, running to him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, feeling his arms wrap around her torso. She didn't know how she knew this was going to happen, she didn't want to know. In this moment, Kennedy was just glad her family was safe.
Derek looked at the others, keeping Kennedy in his arms like she was the same child he used to teach ABC's to. "There's a teacher. I'll take care of her. Get them out of here."
Isaac and Scott oblige, getting Cora and Boyd. Derek watched as Kennedy pulled away from him. "I thought you were dead." She whispered, her eyes filling up with tears. Derek held her head in his hands, seeing something in Kennedy's eyes.
Sloane.
It was strange, seeing her mother in her. Sure, they had similarities, but it always felt like Kennedy was a mini Peter. Tonight was different. Kennedy was becoming more like Sloane Valet, but it was hard to say if that was a good thing or not.
Derek gave her a small smile, something few other people would ever get to see. "I'll never leave you. Kennedy. Ever." He tells her matter of factly. The teenage Hale hugged her cousin again, the two of them happy to have each other. At the end of the day, they'd always have each other.
༺❀༻
Kennedy smiled at Isaac as the two of them sat in her room, the boy helping her clean up her injuries. "So, you and Stiles doing good?" Isaac asked, cleaning up a cut above her eyebrow.
"Yeah," Kennedy chirped, "Really good," Isaac pursed his lips together, happy for her. "Are you looking for anyone?"
Isaac chuckled, shaking his head as he patted her scratch with a cloth. "Please, I lost my chance at love a long time ago." He mumbled.
Kennedy groaned, "You sound like Derek," She laughed, smacking Isaac's chest. Isaac laughed, holding his hands up in defense. "Come on, theres nobody that you remotely want to make out with in a closet?" She asked, her hands falling in her lap.
Only you, Isaac thought to himself. He couldn't say that of course. She was with Stiles. And as much as Isaac disliked the human boy, he was good to Kennedy. Kennedy deserved the best, and that was definitely not Isaac. "I fall too hard too late." Isaac answered simply. Kennedy's brown eyes studied his face for a moment. Maybe in an alternate universe, Isaac told himself. Maybe she would've noticed him first, or maybe he would've been more obvious. Kennedy reached up, her hand wrapping around his wrist. His hand froze it's moments, pulling away from her face as she pulled him away.
"Thank you, Isaac," Kennedy's voice was just above a whisper as she leaned over, kissing Isaac's cheek. Isaac sat there in silence, watching as she climbed off her bed, walking by. "You know that anyone would be lucky to be with a guy like you, right?"
The Lahey turned around to look at her. "You think so?" He asked her, a small smile on his face.
Kennedy smiled back, her hand on the door. "Yeah. Yeah I do." The door slowly closed, leaving Isaac alone in her room. He exhaled sharply, feeling a little less bad about himself for just a moment.
༺❀༻
Kennedy looked at Heather's body with a sad look. She felt bad for Stiles. Heather was his friend, and now they were all looking down at her corpse. Stiles slowly brought the cover back over the blond.
Scott spoke up first, "So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" He asked,
"You're gonna wish they did." Stiles said.
Scott and Kennedy shared confused looks.
"Why?"
Stiles looked down, "I'm not exactly sure yet. the other girl who was out in the woods, Emily?" He told the wolves, "Eventually they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather," He glanced at Kennedy, "That guy you and Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins, and they're all gonna have the same three injuries." Kennedy looked back down at the morgue table. "Strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called the threefold death." The Hale felt nauseous as she thought about what Stiles was saying.
"So if these aren't random killings, then what are they?" Kennedy asked, looking at her boyfriend with a worried look.
"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."