𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭
𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲
{𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝}
Evelyn and Stiles were in Derek's loft with Cora, keeping her focus on her as she told them a story. "They were there for two days. Waiting and hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us. Hide and Heal."
"Okay, so is two days standard then?" Stiles asked Cora. "Or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?"
Cora turned back to face them, "Why do you care?"
"Why do I care? Let's see, because of the last few weeks, my bestfriend's tried to kill himself, his boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by Alphas." Stiles ranted, "You want me to keep going? Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour."
"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora asked him.
"Well, he seems to be the one everyone's after, I understand he's going through something but a lot of people need his help." Evelyn spoke up softly.
"I don't know." Cora said, "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."
"What was he like?" Stiles asked, a voice from the stairs responding. "A lot like Scott, actually. A lot like most teenagers. Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic...Tolerable really only to other teenagers."
"Who's that?" Evelyn whispered the question to Stiles.
"That's Peter Hale." Stiles responded, "The one that turned Scott."
"Ah, the one that everyone hates." Evelyn nodded, Peter glaring as he listened to their conversation.
"Alright, so what happened?" Stiles questioned, "What changed him?"
Peter looked over at the human boy, "Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men. A girl."
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart?" Stiles asked him, "That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"Do you remember Derek before he was an alpha had blue eyes?" Peter asked, "Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing." Stiles responded to the question.
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes." Peter told them, staring off into the distance as if he was recalling a memory.
Peter told them about Derek and Paige, a girl who hadn't fallen for Derek immediately but instead overtime. She had simply been trying to play the cello when she heard a group of boys playing basketball which was annoying her, a group of boys Derek was a part of.
"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he?" Stiles asked, "How old were you? How old are you now?"
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think." Peter responded vaguely.
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague. How old are you?" Stiles asked Cora. "I'm 17." She responded.
"See, that's an answer. That's how we answer people." Stiles stated, waving his hand.
"Well, 17 how you'd measure in years." Cora said as Evelyn smiled in amusement. "All right, I'm just gonna drop it." Stiles said, "What happened to Derek and the cello girl?"
"What do you think happened?" Peter asked rhetorically. "They're teenagers. One minutes, it's, "I hate you, don't talk to me." The next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone in for five minutes. Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills."
"Okay, hold up, how the hell do you know this? You literally just told us they were alone." Evelyn spoke up, Peter rolling his eyes. "Back then, I wasn't just Derek's uncle. I was his best friend. His closest confidante. That's how I know."
Peter then went on to tell them about a night Derek and Paige had gone to the distillery and talked before Derek caught the scene of blood and heard multiple footsteps, moments after the two teens had left several alpha's and their packs had entered the place. The members of the alpha pack were all there, only to twins hadn't joined them yet. Peter walked over to the window and traced the symbol the alpha pack left. "Our mark for vendetta."
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to, like, a whole new level, don't you?" Stiles asked.
"It's not just revenge." Cora told him, "Losing a member of you pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb."
"They wouldn't even let him see the body." Peter mumbled, he told them about how Deputy Stilinski, Stiles's father, wouldn't let Ennis see the body no matter how hard he tried.
"I don't get it." Cora stated, "What does this have to do with Derek?"
Peter turned his head to face them, "Everything. It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis's circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity."
"Opportunity to do what, exactly?" Evelyn asked, raising a brow at the man.
"To always be with her." Peter responded, "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day. Always on his mind. I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. You know teenagers. I bet he even blames me. He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea."
"You told him the bite was a gift?" Evelyn asked, "What do you think being a werewolf is, a birthday present?"
Cora chose to ignore the girl and began explaining emissaries to the two teens. "They keep us connected to humanity. But they're a secret even in the pack. Sometimes only the Alpha knows the the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton."
"Or his sister, Morell." Peter added. "She's an emissary, too?" Stiles asked, "For the alpha pack." Peter replied.
"Our guidance counselor?" Stiles asked again, "Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her."
"And did she give you good advice?" Cora asked him. "Actually, yeah." Stiles responded.
"That's what they do." Peter said, "That's what Deaton used to do for Talia." He then went on to tell them about what happened to Paige and that Ennis had been the one to do it.
"Ennis?" Cora asked, "Why would you choose him?"
"Why not?" Peter asked in return. "Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" Stiles questioned the man. "If he does, he keeps it to himself." Peter responded.
"So then what happened?" Evelyn asked curiously, "Did he turn her or?"
"Almost." Peter replied, staring off into the distance. "He came at Ennis. A 15-year-old boy against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."
"So did she turn?" Cora asked, Peter shifting his eyes to her. "She should have. Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time."
"When you offered it to me, you said "If it doesn't kill you..." Stiles said, Peter nodding. "If."
"He asked me, "What's happening to her?" He knew the answer, though." Peter told them, "It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this. She fought. She struggled desperately. Trying to survive." Peter told them that Derek had taken Paige's life because she asked him to. "I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
"And what about Derek?" Evelyn asked softly, both her and Cora's eyes teary.
"Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well. Bit of your soul. Darkening it." Evelyn swallowed heavily at Peter's words, she knew what that was like. "Dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue. Like mine."
After Peter has gone upstairs, Evelyn, Stiles and Cora were all sitting side by side on the steps when Cora asked. "What?"
"What's this look on your face?" Cora asked, circling a finger around her face.
"What look?" Stiles asked, Cora rolling her eyes. "The kind of look that makes me wanna punch you."
"Oh, my god." Stiles said, "You are so Derek's sister. I forgot."
"What is with the look?" Cora asked again, "I just don't believe him." Stiles responded. "All right, in Ms. Blake's class we're reading "Heart of Darkness." And it's in first person, right? Narrated by Marlow. The thing is that he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective."
"Okay, so we heard the story from Peter's perspective." Evelyn said, Stiles nodding. "Right, and I don't think we got the whole story."
"So, what? Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with and then killed?" Cora asked the boy. "If I have to, yeah." Stiles responded.