Fourteen \\
"Derek." Koda nudged him with her foot, only half awake and getting irritated by the ringtone littering the loft. She groaned, opening her eyes. She reached across his sleeping form and plucked the cell phone off of the nightstand. Seeing Scott's contact, she went ahead and answered it. "Hello?"
"Derek?" Scott hesitated, clearly checking his contact to make sure he didn't get the wrong person.
"It's Koda." She, back in a tee and underwear, climbed out of the bed. "He's sleeping. Is everything okay?"
"Uh, not exactly. There's a lot to explain, but we should start with the fact Deputy Parrish was set on fire by one of the assassins."
Dakoda's lips parted, "What?"
"Thing is, he's alive. Stiles said he came in after, covered in ashes and beat up Haigh. It was his partner who tried to kill him," Scott explained. "Look, he's really confused. Lydia and I are confused. Can we bring him to the loft? Derek might have an idea what he is."
"I'll wake him but I'll have to leave. He's a deputy, right?"
"No, we need you, too. You've got knowledge about this as well," Scott said. "He won't know you and we won't tell him who you are."
"Okay fine." She looked over her shoulder, Derek rustling in his sleep. "Just get here, I'll wake him."
He agreed, saying they were on their way.
Koda tossed the phone onto the bed and found her jeans. Wiggling into them, she turned on a lamp to help pull Derek out of sleep. "Derek."
He mumbled, having to roll around. "Why are you up? This is a shitty sneakout if you're trying to wake me up."
"No, dumbass. Just get up," Koda told him. "Scott just called, he's coming over with Deputy Parrish. The deputy was set on fire."
Derek propped himself up on his elbows, "But he's coming with them?"
"That's the catch. Parrish survived somehow. He wants us to help." Koda threw clothes at him, "Get up."
"It's police. Are you staying?" Derek sat up, pulling on the purple shirt before putting on his jeans.
"Parrish is the young one, right? I doubt he'll know about Brett and I." Koda said, checking her own phone, it nearly two. "We just won't tell him who I am."
Derek ran a hand over his hair, glancing around the loft for no apparent reason. "Survived a fire?" he asked himself, trying to think.
"They're here," Dakoda said, tuned senses hearing an arrival to the loft.
"Unlock the door. I'll get lights." Derek gave loose instructions, turning on a few more lamps in the loft.
Koda went to the door, manuvering a panel and sliding it open. Not long after, she let in Scott, Lydia and Deputy Parrish. She shut the door, the police officer giving her an unfamilar look as the group walked to Derek.
"Hold out your hands." Derek, next to Koda and Scott, had Jordan across from him.
As the deputy got his hands examined, he unsurely looked to Scott who only lightly shrugged.
"He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asked with a guess, recieving a nod.
"It's the hair and nails, isn't it?" Lydia looked around, "The parts of the body that are essentially dead."
"Well they should be gone," Derek replied.
"I was set on fire," Parrish said. "All of me should be gone."
"Not," Koda said, arms loosely crossed below her chest, "if you're like us."
The deputy was growing even more confused, "Like you?"
"I don't think he's like us," Derek interviened, looking to both Koda and Scott.
"Then what is he?" Lydia asked, intruiged.
"Sorry, but I have no idea."
"But you knew about Jackson and Kira," Scott said, hoping they could solve Jordan's mystery.
"This is a little out of my experience," Derek admitted. "There might be something in the beastiary. Did you try Argent?"
"I don't know where he is," Scott said with a soft shake of his head.
So many new words had hit the deputy. "Okay, hold on. What's a beastiary? Actually, that's not even my first question. Just...just tell me one thing. Are you all like Lydia? Are you all psychic?"
Dakoda lifted an eyebrow, "Psychic?"
Scott replied once Parrish agreed, "Not exactly."
"Okay, then," he almost looked like he didn't want to know, what are you?"
Dakoda and Scott both exchanged glances before angling towards Parrish. Each closing their eyes, they reopened in new colours.
"Jesus-"
And then they tried to explain everything.
\\
"What's a kanima?"
"We'll get back to that." Scott came over to the sofa Jordan was on and sat on the arm. "Just know, that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability, is on the deadpool."
Jordan was still trying to process, "But I don't even know what I am."
"I'm pretty sure they don't care," Koda said, speaking out of personal experience.
"How many assassins are we talking about?" Jordan asked, looking from Dakoda to Derek.
Lydia was lightly pacing, "We're starting to lose count."
"But," Scott put in, "is it still just professionals?"
"I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance."
"Well that means anyone with the deadpool can take a chance," Derek said, his arms crossed.
"But if Haigh had it, then who else does?" Parrish seemed to be taking it fairly well. "How easy is it to get this thing now?"
There seemed to be a dismal realization that you could get it anywhere.
To follow, Lydia had a story to tell.
"Meredith was only at my grandmother's lakehouse once, but I think once was enough."
Derek was leaned against a banister, "How'd your grandmother know her?"
"She didn't," Lydia replied. "She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy. The woman she loved." She stood from the edge of Derek's bed, holding a picture in her hands. She handed it to Scott, "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the lake house of all the ragattas she'd won."
"How'd she die?" Parrish asked, standing opposite from the bed.
"How's not the story," Lydia said. "It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound...like rain."
All four watched Lydia, the strawberry blonde visualizing the story.
"But when she looked out the windows...all she saw was blue sky."
"But she kept hearing the rain," Scott said, invested.
Lydia only looked out the window, "And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder cracking like gunshots in her head. So loud. She finally just screamed."
"Like a banshee," Koda softly said, sitting on the table facing Lydia.
Lydia went on, "She called Maddy, who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But Maddy said that the sun was shining there too. So Lorraine didn't say anything."
Parrish chimed in, "There was an accident."
"It took them four days to find Maddy's body," Lydia said. "And it took decades to figure out how Lorraine knew. She started with parapsychologists. The PhD in their name made it sound more scientific. They built the study in the lakehouse according to every pseudoscientific theory they could find. None of it worked. Then she started getting into more extreme occult things like mediums and psychics. All of them were failures. Until Meredith.
"They found her in Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study. And they almost killed her. She was hospitalized for over a year. She...never really recovered." Lydia grew a little more tense, "My grandmother drove her insane. And I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help."
Dakoda got down from the table, everyone coming over to it. She leaned on it with her palms down on the surface.
Lydia pulled a folded piece of paper from her bag. "My grandmother created to code for the deadpool." She set it on the table, "I think she's the banshee who put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code."
"But she didn't leave you a cipher key, did she?" Scott asked as if he already knew the answer.
Lydia shook her head and knew that was all they had.
"I, uh, I'll walk you two down," Dakoda offered, able to tell Scott needed a moment with Derek.
Jordan rubbed the back of his neck, agreeing to Koda.
Lydia did the same, taking the code and photo of Maddy and Lorraine with her.
Dakoda shut the loft door behind them, trying not to listen in on Scott and Derek. "How are you feeling, Deputy?"
"Just a little overwhelmed."
"You'll get used to it," Lydia, in the middle of the trio, told Jordan. "It takes time, but you will."
He nodded his head as they went down flights of stairs, glancing over to Dakoda. "Who are you? I've never seen you before."
"I'm not from here," she replied. "I'm not important, don't worry about it, Deputy." Koda held open the exit door open for them, following them out once the door had been wedged open to avoid getting locked out.
"Are you on the deadpool?" he asked, Lydia walking off to her car as Koda stopped by the Sheriff's Department labelled vehicle.
"Unfortunately, yes." She had her arms crossed, the deputy at the driver's door but not in the car.
"How much are you worth?"
"Too much," Koda simply replied, forging herself into a mystery. "I'm in a situation like yours. I'm not sure what kind of wolf I am, but that doesn't really matter with my pricetag.
"All of this is kind of messed up, isn't it?"
Koda only lightly smiled, "You have no idea." She started to turn, "Have a good rest of the night, Deputy. And it'll be in your best interest to keep a gun in arm's reach at all times."
"Noted, thanks." Jordan was about to say her name, but he still didn't know it. He could tell she wanted it that way. "Have a good night."
Dakoda nodded, heading back for the door. She moved the rock out of the way and let the door lock. She ran a hand through her hair, starting back up the stairs.
"Whatever Kate did to me, it's still happening."
Koda slowed her pace, hearing Derek's voice.
"If the deadpool really was made by a banshee, then there's something else you should know about." Scott's voice followed, "Your name broke the third list. It was a cipher key."
Dakoda covered her mouth, the words feeling like a punch to the stomach.
"And the other two keys were Allison and Aiden."
"And I...I don't wanna make you nervous, but, it kind of feels like there might be a pattern there, doesn't it?" Scott said, "Allison, Aiden, you."
"Names picked by a banshee."
"It, it could mean that you're in danger."
But banshees don't predict danger, they predict death.
-I know I haven't updated much but I've been writing a ton! And I also hit 900 followers last night so that's incredible! I hope all of you are having a good day and I want you to know you look beautiful, and I love you -Melissa xxx