Parrish easily got us in. Police uniforms. Works like a charm every time. One of the orderlies was unlocking the door with me, Stiles, Lydia and Jordan standing back.
“What is this?” A harsh voice stopped us all in our tracks.
“Oh, no. Not this guy.” I heard Stiles mutter.
“What the hell are we running here?” The guy asked as he walked over to the other orderly. “You don’t just open the door for any guy with a badge.”
“We need to talk with Meredith Walker.” Parrish stated, “It’s about a murder.”
“Well you can talk to her all you want, but these three, particularly that one,” He gestured to Stiles, “Aren’t going near her.”
“They’re crucial witnesses to an ongoing investigation. I wouldn’t have brought them here if it wasn’t absolutely… crucial.” Parrish stammered at the end.
“Okay, deputy…” The guy got up in Jordan’s face, “how about you come back here with a court order, than I’ll listen. And as for you, Mr Stilinski how about you come back with payment, in full. Daddy may be Sheriff, but he’s late on the bills. I guess those government jobs aren’t as reliable as they used to.”
“But they do help when you need a favour.” Parrish cut in. “Like how about a month ago PD helped you get home after pulling a point one on a breatherliser.”
“No.” Stiles whispered with joy as I chuckled.
“Alright…” the guy finally said as he handed Stiles over the keys. “I’m not against a little quick pro quo, not at all.” He walked away.
Stiles turned to Parrish. “You. I like you.” He said as Lydia and I smiled. “I’m gonna keep you.” He muttered as Parrish opened the door. I was about to follow through, but I stopped sensing Scott. He was panicking or was pumping with adrenaline I wasn’t sure, but his heart rate was through the roof.
“Anna? You alright?” Jordan asked.
I took a second to answer. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Scott had calmed down very quickly. Maybe he was with Kira or something. That was something I didn’t want to think about so I continued with what we were doing.
Meredith was sitting calmly on her bed and her head slowly turned to face us as we entered. Lydia walked over to her and said hi before asking; “I was wondering if you could tell me what the third key is? The cypher key, like the one you gave me before.”
“I can’t tell you.” She stated.
“Meredith, what do you mean you can’t tell us?” Stiles asked as he and Lydia took a seat on the opposite bed to Meredith while I stood back next to Parrish. “All we need is numbers, letter, hieroglyphs, whatever you want.”
“I can’t.”
“Then why did you give us the second key?” Lydia asked.
“I wanted to help. That’s what I want to do, I want to help.”
“Great!” Lydia exclaimed. “So help us now, okay? Give us the third cypher key.”
“Things have changed… I can’t.”
“Why not?” Stiles asked.
“Guys, go easy on her.” Jordan said from beside me.
“I’m sorry.” Meredith said. “I can’t… he… he doesn’t want me to.”
“He?” I asked. “Meredith who is he?” I asked.
“The Benefactor.” She stated.
“The Benefactor?” Stiles clarified and Meredith nodded.
“Meredith, is he the one who stole from the Hales?” I asked. Meredith nodded as answer just as a sharp pain rippled in my side and I doubled over a little, clutching onto Jordan’s arm.
“Anna? What’s wrong?” He asked, but just as quickly as the pain had come it was gone. Scott had healed and was recovering.
“Nothing. Nothing I’m fine.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
“Scott?” Stiles asked me.
I nodded. “He’s fine now. I’m going to try and ring him if, I can’t get through I’ll go and find him, you keep asking questions.” I stated as I left the room. Stiles and Lydia went back to their interrogation while Parrish just looked confused out of his mind.
I rang Scott and thankfully he answered on the second ring. “Hey, I’m fine.” He said right away, knowing why I’d rung. “I should of said something I know, but you were busy with Meredith and I thought I could handle it on my own.”
“Handle what?”
“Garret took Liam and he said I had to help him break Violet out while they were transporting her if I wanted to find him, but when we were about to intercept the van we found it had already been attacked. The berserkers were there, the Sheriff was injured, but he’ll be fine. They knocked me out and when I came to I was at the VET with a knife in my side that Argent ripped out.”
“Alright… that’s fine, glad to hear your okay…”
“You’re going to yell at me later, aren’t you?”
“Yes I am. Where’s Liam?” I got to the point.
“The Berserkers killed Garret and Kate took Violet.”
“So you have no idea where Liam is. Oh god, okay, I’ll come and meet you now.”
“No, I have Argent and Deaton, Derek and Malia are still out looking for the other pack, but if I need back up I’ll ring them, you need to get that key out Meredith.”
“Scott, I’m fairly sure Lydia, Stiles and Parrish have that covered.”
“Alright, but I don’t need any help right now, if I do I’ll ring or send a text. I’ll talk to you later.” He said before hanging up.
“Scotty!” I yelled a little to late. “God damn it.” I muttered as Parrish opened the door into the corridor.
“Everything alright?”
“Yeah, nothing our of the ordinary, unfortunately. Tell me does that belief that they’re indestructible, that annoying hotheadedness and need to prove ones self ever lessen as guys get older?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nope.”
“Wonderful.”
“Hey, I’m not any of those things.” Stiles defended.
“Remember that time you skateboarded down a hill on your stomach with no helmet.”
Stiles looked at me with confusion. “No…”
“I rest my case.”
“Guys!” Lydia snapped us back to the task at hand. “Focus please.” She added. “Okay, Meredith, can you tell us his name?”
Meredith shook her head. “What does shaking your head mean? You don’t know or you don’t want to help us?”
“I… I can’t help anymore.” She continued to shake her head.
Lydia stood up. “How do you know about him?”
Meredith shook her head more violently. “Guys I think we better stop.” Parrish suggested and I couldn’t help agreeing with him a little.
“Meredith, a lot of people are going to die if you don’t tell us.” Lydia ignored him.
“I, I don’t know, I don’t know. Please, I don’t…”
“Meredith it’s okay, you’re going to be alright.” Parrish tried to reassure her.
“I can’t! I can’t!” she yelled before really opening up her lungs and screaming. “I don’t knooooooow!!!!” Lydia fell back into Stiles, cupping her ears as I clamped my hands over mine and couldn’t stop screaming a little myself from the pain as Parrish grabbed me before I fell over. Stupid supernatural hearing. Why was it screaming? Why did banshees always have to scream? When she stopped I began to recover and stand on my own while Parrish had both concern and confusion written all over his face. The screaming clearly wasn’t as loud for him, like it wasn’t for Stiles.
When I looked over to Lydia I saw that Stiles had sat her down on the bed, but she had blood coming from her ears. Meredith had now curled into a sitting position against the wall on her bed as she continued to shake her head back and forth.
“What the hell was that?” Jordan whispered to me.
“We have sensitive hearing.” Was my reply before walking over to Lydia and sitting down next to her.
“You’re not bleeding.” Stiles stated to me and I shook my head.
“I’m not a banshee.” I whispered so Jordan could hear.
I looked over to Meredith and then slowly stood up and made my way over to her bed, sitting on the edge. “Meredith, you can’t tell us, I know, I understand.” I said softly. She stopped shaking her head and began to nod. “But is there any other name, it doesn’t have to be a cypher key or the name of the Benefactor, that you can tell us. You won’t be giving anything away just maybe, someone else like you or someone who maybe saw something or knows anything else. We’re just trying to protect our friends, Meredith.” I whispered. Her eyes flicked behind me to where Stiles and Lydia were and then over to Jordan before resting on me again. I looked at her in confusion, picking up on what she wanted. “Guys, can you give us a minute?”
“I don’t think…”
“Jordan, please. Just 30 seconds, that’s it.”
He sighed and then ushered the other two out and I turned back to Meredith. “Okay, Meredith. What is it?” I kept my voice as calm and sweet as I could.
“You’re his friend, you trust him. You won’t betray him. You’re a lot like her.” She said.
The memory of the first time I had met Meredith flashed through my mind. “I’m a lot like her? You mean, Selene?” Meredith nodded. “Meredith, are you talking about Peter?” She nodded again. “How can Peter help? He never saw who took the money.” I asked calmly.
Meredith smiled a little and then shuffled forward on the bed and leant in to whisper in my ear. “It’s all for him. It’s what he wanted. You’re a lot like her.” She said again before sitting back. Parrish came back into the room with Lydia and Stiles right behind him.
“Anna?”
“Coming.” I said back. “Meredith why don’t you lye down and get some rest.” I offered with a small smile. She smiled back and nodded as she made herself comfortable lying down on the bed.
I stood up and began to walk to the others when she spoke again. “You won’t like it.”
I turned back around at the same time Stiles stumbled past Parrish. “What?” He asked.
“Shhh.” I turned to him making him glare at me. “What, Meredith? What won’t I like?” I asked, keeping that same calm tone.
“The third cypher key. You won’t like it. He won’t like it, but it’s out of anyone’s control.” She said. I knew the He she was referring to was Peter, but I didn’t say anything.
Lydia stepped forward, but I shook my head. “Leave her, we’re not going to get anything else out of her.” I whispered. They seemed to agree so we all left Meredith in peace.
We left Eichen and started to drive back to Beacon Hills. It was now dark and the car ride was silent. I told them that Meredith hadn’t said anything to me accept the same thing about Selene I’d heard before which I had to quickly elaborate to Parrish who was growing more confused by the second. I needed to speak with him first. It was true that his name wasn’t on any of the lists, but there was still one more to get and he had a lot of enemies so I was willing to bet that whoever started all of this wants revenge for something and that’s why they were using his money, but either way I wasn’t jumping to conclusions just yet and I didn’t want to tell Stiles and Lydia until I’d spoken to him. There was no need to add more wood to that fire unless I had to.
As we approached Beacon Hill I received a text on my phone from Scott.
Found Liam, where at the VET. –Scott.
“Aah, Parrish, could we make a side trip, please?”
“Yeah, sure. Where?”
“Beacon Hills VET Hospital?” He looked at me with confusion. “Scott works there. Could you drop me off?” I stated even though he hadn’t really worked there for a while, because of werewolf things.
Parrish drove Lydia and Scott home after he dropped me off so they could get back to cypher key things.
“Hey.” Scott smiled as I walked over to him and pinched his arm. “Ow! What was…”
“You know what that was for!” I cut him off, raising my voice.
“It all worked out!” He defended. “I mean Argent and I ran into Kate and her bodyguards again and she killed Violet, but I found Liam in time.”
“In time?!” I yelled. “You had a time limit?!”
“Well… yeah… Garret used wolfs bane when he stabbed him… I thought I told you that.” I pinched him again. “Would you stop that!?”
“No!”
Liam stumbled out of the room behind us. “See look, Liam’s fine.” Scott concluded.
“Really? Liam, are you okay?” I asked him.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Little light headed, but I’m fine.”
I pinched Scott again. “See he’s not okay, Scott.”
“He’s heeling!” Scott yelled back. “Did you get anything from Meredith?” Scott asked.
I glared at him again before say; “Ring Stiles, he’ll tell you.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“You’re petty.”
“Yes I am.” I grinned before turning to Liam. “Why are you standing? Go sit down.”
“Actually I’m feeling much better.” I gave him a warning glare. “But I could still sit down for a bit.” He added.
I took in a deep breath and let it out. “Okay so, I just came to make sure everything was okay, but I need to go and see someone.” I turned back to Scott just as he was about to ring Stiles.
“Who?”
“Peter.”
“What? You can’t tell him about the money.”
“Why not? It’s his money.”
“No, Anna, not yet, please?”
“Scott McCall.” I warned.
“I’m not stealing it!” He defended. “But I don’t think we should give it back until we know why it was his money that was stolen.”
“It was stolen from him because he’s supernatural like all of the victims and he was an idiot that decided not to set up a bank account.”
“Anna…”
“Fine! But you will have to give it back.” I concluded before getting ready to leave. “You.” I turned to Liam. “Rest.” He nodded, not wanting to argue before I finally left and began to walk to Peter’s. walking alone at night while I had assassins after me was really a habit I needed to get out of.
OKay, i'm sorry. It's been forever, but i've been a little distracted with other works. The Hobbit just came out on DVD, Game of Thrones is starting up again and the new Avengers movie is coming out so i got caught up in those franchises, but here it is. Happy Easter :)