Chapter 19:
Letting Go
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When they arrived, they found Derek, Peter, and Isaac there. "Why haven't you tried to stop him?" Stiles demanded, as his brown eyes took in the sight of his best friend holding a woman down on the pavement with his claws on her throat. He almost threw up when he saw the gashes and ripped flesh she had.
"He'll rip out her throat if we get closer." Derek muttered, his eyes on the young man he had grown to care for over the years and was worried he might do something that will change him.
Imogen stared at the love of her life, growling at the woman beneath him who was struggling to get away from him. Even though she was hurt, she still tried to fight. It would be so easy for Imogen to let him kill Monroe. He would be doing the one thing she wished she had done back in the tunnels. It would've changed a lot of things if she had.
Omar looked like he was going to use magic to stop Scott and she waved her hand, stopping his flow of magic completely and putting up a barrier with ease. "What are you doing?" He hissed, trying to go after her but was blocked. He was shocked that she was able to perform magic this swiftly. The barrier also kept them from seeing inside so they didn't know what was happening.
"Let her handle it." Peter said, wishing he could see what was going on.
He shook his head, "She's going to let him kill her."
"Do you really think she'd do that to Scott?" He retorted, "That's not who she is." Omar clenched his fists but stayed silent.
Inside the barrier, Imogen crouched down beside Scott who gripped Monroe's throat tighter. "Do it. Kill her." She noticed his hand twitch and she smiled bitterly. "At least that's what I wish I could say. Killing her won't change anything. I've been going through all the stages of grief since that night." She made a face. "Although, I might have gotten the order mixed up. You would think that I have this whole grieving thing down considering how much I've been doing it."
His hand remained on her throat. 'I'm just so angry.'
She heard him say through their bond. "I know the feeling. You think killing her is going to appease the pain, but it won't. Maybe for a brief moment you'll feel like everything is better but over time... you'll just be reminded of what you did lose. I killed Sylvia and I still lost." She swallowed. "Don't kill her. Because she'll be taking a part of you that you won't ever get back."
'I don't care if I lose my alpha status.'
"But I care." She confessed softly, "Not about you being an alpha, but if you kill her, you're going to be losing a part of yourself that you won't ever get back. Besides, her death won't bring back our baby or Deucalion. We can still punish her another way." She showed him through their bond of what she had in store for Monroe and he was appeased by what he saw.
Scott released Monroe who was whimpering in pain. His red eyes went back to their normal shade of brown and he looked at Imogen with tears in his gaze. "Are you going to do it now?"
She nodded, trying to ignore her own eyes that were burning. She turned her hand and a watch appeared. It was the same watch she had used to seal away Theo before except this time, there would be getting out. Her eyes flickered to Monroe who had a light green hue around her and her wound closed up but the woman was still unable to move.
"W-What are you going to do to me?" The woman rasped out, feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation.
Imogen stared at her without remorse as she spoke, "You're going to be spending the rest of your life with the people you think of as monsters." She could tell this woman was just filled with pure hatred and felt no guilt for her actions. "You'll never know peace and you'll never get out. There's no redemption for you."
Monroe begged her body to move as the girl began chanting a spell and she felt her body start to burn. She shut her eyes and let out a scream. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the parking lot but there was no Imogen or Scott. She could move once more and immediately got up. She stiffened, hearing the sound of growling. She looked back and saw the monster that had first attacked her. It was the beast from that night. She heard more growling and looked over and saw more creatures coming out. She let out a scream.
Once Monroe was gone, she clutched the watch tightly, destroying it so there would be no escape for the woman. Imogen looked over at Scott who was already looking at her. She walked over to him, ignoring the fact that their friends were still outside the barrier. "I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you." She mumbled, fidgeting in her spot. "I-I didn't handle what happened really well."
Tears filled her eyes when he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. His face in the crook of her neck. "There's nothing for you to feel sorry for. You needed space and I didn't want to push you to talk. I apparently didn't handle it well either considering..."
She sniffled. "I didn't know about the baby and I know that we're still too young... But it's not fair." She whimpered, burrowing closer to his chest. "I just wish..."
"I know." He mumbled, tears slipping down his cheeks. The two of them cried, holding each other tightly, finally letting out the pain they had been holding in. Once they stopped crying, the barrier dropped and told their friends about what happened to Monroe.
Imogen walked over to Peter who was standing off to the side while everyone made calls to their other friends to make sure that all the hunters had been apprehended. "Are you okay?" He asked her, relieved to see her unharmed.
"I should be asking you that, dad." She retorted, referring to how he had been turned to stone earlier. She had been relieved to see that he and everyone else was unharmed despite having turned to stone earlier.
His eyes brightened. "Dad?" She hadn't referred to him as such since the night of the ghost riders.
Her face burned, "Don't make a big deal out of it. You're my father aren't you?" She muttered, looking over at Derek who joined them. "It's good to see you, Derek."
"It's good to see you, too." Her cousin said, giving her a small smile before he had a pensive look on his face. "But, what about everybody that's found out about the supernatural? Is it really a good idea for all those people to know?" He wasn't sure he was comfortable with walking around town knowing that people knew what he was.
"We were just talking about that." Isaac said, joining them along with everyone else. They had called Melissa who told them that they had subdued the hunters in the hospital. Even the sheriff called to tell them about the people who found out.
"Can't you do some spell to make everybody forget?" Malia asked, looking at Imogen and Omar who both were startled by the attention on them all of a sudden.
Stiles flinched at the loud ringing from his phone and pulled it out, seeing it was dad. He answered. "Dad, what's wrong?" He looked at them and furrowed his brows. "Parrish is doing what?" His dad hung up on him and he grew worried. They all shared a look, wondering what was going on with Parrish.
Meanwhile, Noah was following Parrish who had suddenly gone all hellhound on him and had begun prattling about it being bad that the people of Beacon Hills knew about the supernatural. He knew it hadn't been Jordan who had been speaking but the hellhound inside him. The sheriff had followed after his deputy who led him to the nemeton that suddenly lit up in flames. The man flinched back when a burst of fire shot out from his deputy. The strange part was that the fire hadn't burned him. When he looked back at Jordan, the young man was passed out on the ground.
Back with everyone else, they had been caught off guard by the burst of fire that had passed by. Melissa was startled to see that some of the nurses who had been cautious before, now had no memory of what had happened. It seemed like the people who hadn't had malicious intent were no longer aware of the supernatural. The people who had tried to kill them, only seemed to think they had gone crazy.
It seemed that the hellhound within Parrish had taken it upon himself to protect the supernatural from people who would do them harm from finding out. But because people had died, Rafael had no choice but to arrest the people who had been responsible.
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A couple of days passed by with everything seemingly going back to normal. No one remembered aside from the supernatural and the humans who the hellhound had deemed accepting of the supernatural to remember. One of them surprisingly being Noah. Jackson, Aiden, and Ethan had all gone back to London. Brett and Lori had also been able to go back to school without much trouble.
Imogen was fast asleep beside Scott in her old room. They planned to head back to their shared apartment in a week because they wanted to spend time with their friends/family before going their separate ways. Though, she was unaware of what was happening to her as got out of bed, leaving Scott in bed alone.
She was snapped awake and was startled to find herself back at the old house that had belonged to her mother's side of the family. It had also been the place she had died. She got up, shivering at the slight breeze. She was uncomfortable with the fact that she was only wearing Scott's shirt and shorts. She was also confused on why she was here.
"Why am I here?" She asked, knowing this was probably the ancestors doing.
"Because we wanted to talk."
She spun around and found her grandmother standing there clear as day. She gave her a wary look. "Why? Not that I'm not grateful for the help before but, what is that you want from me?"
Her grandmother gave her kind smile, "I'm sure you've felt it. That power you've been sensing inside you is from the anuk-ite. All that fear it had absorbed for weeks converted into magic that you took in when it was destroyed is inside you. It's why you're able to perform all this magic with ease."
"Is something bad going to happen to me?" She asked, suddenly now worried that she might hurt someone or herself.
"It's too much power even for you. You have to release it soon or else it'll start to destroy you from the inside out." The old woman glanced over to the side, seemingly able to hear something.
Imogen blinked, concern flooding her veins. "So what do I do?"
"Before that, I would like to apologize for the other witches for ignoring you after you came back half a werewolf." Her grandmother paused. "It wasn't right to shun you like that. It's why although this is normally something we do, we decided that with the power of the anuk-ite inside you and ours that it would be possible without consequences."
Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Do what?"
Her grandmother gave her a smile, but didn't answer her question. "Just hold my hands and repeat after me." Imogen was confused but trusted her grandmother as she took her hands, a bit surprised that she could feel her and repeated after her.
The power inside her slowly disappeared and she felt almost normal again. "So now what?" She asked, wondering just what kind of spell she had casted.
"Now you live." Renee said, her eyes wistful and she looked happy. "And if you ever need our help, don't hesitate in asking." Were her final words before disappearing, leaving Imogen alone.
The hybrid shuddered at the breeze and wrapped her arms around herself. Scott! She called out through their bond and could sense him startle awake and begin to look for her. Scott. I'm fine, but I need you to come get me. Her eyes flickered to her lack of attire. And bring a jacket.
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Later in the day, Imogen was in the kitchen taking out the chinese take out they had ordered. While she still had no idea what the spell her grandmother had her do meant, she decided to just continue with her day. Scott had been worried but trusted her judgement.
She had also sat him down to tell her that she was deciding to change her major. Her becoming a teacher for younger kids had come from her teacher who had been so kind to her after her mother's death. She hadn't treated her with pity nor had she pushed her to talk like her other teachers had.
But, as much as she liked the idea of being like that teacher, she had been really thinking it over the last couple of days and decided to change her major. She wasn't sure how difficult it would be but hopefully she would be able to do it. Luckily, they had picked a school that offered the program she wanted to do.
When she told him that she wanted to become a doctor, he had been surprised. She decided to work towards being a surgeon. She knew it would be years before she would finally get to work in a hospital but she wanted to do this. Scott had been supportive of her decision.
Her eyes flickered to the food and she felt slightly queasy. "Scott, foods ready!" She called out, it was just them tonight. Stiles was with Lydia, Omar was out with Allison, Malia had gone with Isaac to the mall with Brett and Lori joining them while Liam was with Theo. They weren't as shocked as Liam had expected them to be considering he was the only one unaware of the obvious tension between them.
"I'm coming!" He called out, he had been searching for a movie for them to watch in the living room.
The doorbell ringing had her setting down her plate of food and walking to the door wondering who it could be. The nauseous feeling grew as she reached for the door handle and opened the door. There at the door were three people she hadn't seen in so long.
There was silence that engulfed them before Imogen suddenly threw up at their feet. Scott had rushed out, hearing her throw up and froze in his spot as he stared at Ben, Viola, and Grace standing there in the flesh.