As a child, Ansley always had a connection with dogs. They always trusted her and were much calmer when she was around. That's what led her to pursuing the field of animal medication. She had finally finished up her last semester of tech classes and had gotten her veterinary technician certification and was excited to move back to her home town of Beacon Hills. She originally wanted to move somewhere else, to a place that didn't remind her of her high school best friend but many factors were preventing her from doing that and she was now in the process of moving back into her childhood bedroom.
There were only a few boxes left in the hallway for her to unpack when she heard the tapping from her brother's window. Being six years older than Scott, she felt the need to protect him, even if it was from making stupid mistakes. Ansley looked down the hall to see her brother, who should have been asleep, walking down the stairs with a baseball bat.
"None of us even play baseball, why do you have a bat?" She asked him from the top of the stairs. Her brother jumped as he turned to look up at Ansley.
"There's something outside," He tells her, ignoring her original question. He turned back to the door and opened it.
Ansley shook her head but stood watching from the top of the stairs. No one was outside the door, causing Scott to look back at her with a confused look. Suddenly, a person fell from the roof of the porch and got caught causing them to hang upside down. Scott let out a scream and held the bat up as if he were going to hit the person but stopped when he realized who it was. As the screaming stopped, Ansley saw that it was her brother's best friend, Stiles. She shook her head as she turned back to finish unpacking, tuning out the conversation they were having.
She had just finished unpacking another box when she heard the front door close. She looked out into the hallway again to see her brother gone. He had school the next morning and knew that their mom would kill him if she found out that he snuck out on a school night. "Dammit Scott," she muttered as she ran down the stairs to try to stop him. She opened the front door to see him getting into Stiles' jeep. "Where do you think you're going?"
Scott looked at her from where he was sitting in the jeep. "I'll be back soon. Stiles just wants to show me something." He tried to shut the door but Ansley shook her head.
"You both have school in the morning."
"Then don't tell her," Scott tries to argue.
"Better yet, come with us to make sure we're safe," Stiles suggests from the driver's seat. Scott looks over at him shaking his head in protest. Ansley looked at the pair, unsure of what to do. She wasn't really in the mood to argue with her brother so she climbed into the back of Stiles' jeep.
"Let's go then," she told them as she pulled out her phone and started playing a game on it. She wasn't really interested in what was going on but she wanted to make sure Scott didn't get into any trouble. She was completely unaware of their conversation until she heard the words ''dead body." She looked up to see that they were driving through the middle of the woods. "You're going to see a dead body?" She asked with disgust. She was fine with helping out on the veterinary operating table but the thought of seeing a dead human body grossed her out.
"Half of a dead body," Stiles corrected her as he started to slow down. They were getting near the lights of police cars. Before getting too close, he pulled off to the side of the road and parked.
"That doesn't make it any better," Ansley muttered. "I'm staying in the car."
"Suit yourself," Scott said as he and Stiles climbed out of the Jeep and wandered off into the woods. Ansley locked the door behind them even though the soft top of the jeep wouldn't provide much safety. She had a feeling that something bad was about to happen but she didn't know what and she sure as hell wasn't leaving the vehicle. She returned to the game on her phone and tried not to worry about what could possibly happen.
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It was about twenty minutes before Stiles was knocking on the door for her to let him in. Ansley unlocked the door for him and looked round for Scott. "Where is he?" She asked, the worry in her voice clear.
"Well, we kinda got separated when my dad found me," Stiles told her as he started up the jeep. "We'll drive along the road until we find him."
Ansley had already opened the door and began to climb out. "Call me if you find him before I do." She could hear him attempting to protest but she shut the door without listening and started to wander through the woods to find her brother. Her mom would kill them both if she found out that she let him get lost in the middle of the reserve when there was a possible murderer on the loose. The woods were dark as the foliage was still thick on the trees, blocking out any light that the moon may be casting.
She had lost track of how long she was in the woods by the time that she heard it. A howl that chilled her to the bone. She knew that there were no wolves in Northern California, not the normal ones at least. "Scott!" She began to yell, not caring if the police were still searching in the woods. She needed to find her brother and get him out of there before it found either one of them. She heard what sounded like a stampede not far from where she was and took off running in the direction of it. "Scott!" She called out again.
"Ansley!" She finally heard him yell but it quickly turned into a scream. She didn't stop running as she followed the direction of his voice to a small clearing where she saw him rolling down a hill.
"Scott, are you okay?" She asked him as she made her way down the hill to his side. Her eyes widened as she saw the bite mark on his side, knowing she was right about what she thought was out there with them. "We need to get you out of here now." She said as she pulled her brother up to his feet, ignoring the groans of pain that were coming from him.
"Wait," he gasped out as he dropped down to the ground and started searching for something. "My inhaler."
"Leave it," she snapped as she pulled him back up to his feet again, but she realized why he needed it now. He was having an asthma attack. She searched through her purse, finding her own inhaler and holding it to his mouth. He took it, puffing it a couple times until he was able to breathe easier. "We'll come back and look for it tomorrow." She didn't give him another choice as she began to pull him towards the edge of the preserve.
"Ansley," Scott said as she continued to pull him up another hill.
"Scott, I will buy you another one if I have to." She said as she looked over her shoulder at him. She realized that he wasn't looking at her but at a pair of glowing red eyes that seemed to be circling them. "Run." She told him as she started to run again.
She didn't understand why it would come back, Scott was already bit. But you're not. She shook the thought out of her head as she pushed forward, racing to the road that she hoped wasn't much further away. Another howl made her jump and trip as it started to downpour. She lost her grip on Scott's hand as they began to roll down a very steep hill. She could hear the paws of the wolf growing closer to her as she tried to stop rolling but it felt as if the hill was never ending. She saw the tree getting closer as she continued to try to stop herself. She was moving too quickly to hit the tree without injury. She threw her hands out to try to stop herself but she still slammed into the trunk of the tree, the right side of her head slamming into it as well. She tried to push herself up but stars clouded her vision as she saw the unmistakable red eyes growing closer to her.
"Scott," she tried to call out but sound barely came out of her. She could see the outline of the beast as it was now only a few yards away. She curled into a fetal position to try to hide her body from it but knew that it was no use. The sharp feeling of fangs piercing her shoulder caused her to scream, the pain so overwhelming that it caused her to pass out.
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She could hear arguing but the voices were so muffled that she couldn't figure out who they belonged to. She attempted to open her eyes to see what was going on, but the bright lights caused the pounding in her head to become sharper, causing her to let out a groan as she moved to cover her eyes but a burning sensation in her shoulder stopped her.
"Ansley, stop moving," she heard. Mom? She didn't understand what was happening but the last thing that she could remember was being at home with her brother. "Do you remember what happened to you?"
Ansley tried to remember what happened to leave her in this pain but couldn't remember what it could have possibly been. "No," she said as she tried to open her eyes. She was able to see the dull walls of the hospital before the pain made her have to close them once again.
"Scott said you fell down the stairs with a glass of water in your hand. The glass broke and cut up your shoulder. The fall knocked you out. We are taking you in for a CT to check for a concussion," her mom explained to her. She was holding onto her left hand, the one that wasn't injured.
"That sounds like me," Ansley muttered. She was always a clumsy person, and her mom knew that as well. Small flashes of what had actually happened started to come to her. It was definitely something that her mom did not need to know. She could only hope that Scott's injuries were not as bad as hers. She slipped back into unconsciousness as they pulled her into the CT room.
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The next time Ansley awoke, she was in a hospital room. The lights were dimmed and other than a soft beeping that was coming from a IV drip, the room was silent. The clock that hung from the ceiling read 8:35. Scott was asleep in a chair beside her, his backpack spilled out on the floor with many different papers scattered around it.
"Scott," She croaked out. Her throat was sore, probably from not having anything to drink for however long she was out.
His eyes flew open at the sound of her voice and he quickly scrambled for a cup of water that was sitting on a tray, handing it to her so she could drink it. She gratefully took the cup and drank the contents of it, instantly feeling her thirst being quenched. "How are you feeling?" He asked her after a couple of minutes.
She hadn't noticed until then but her shoulder no longer hurt, in fact, it felt better than it had before. The throbbing in her head was gone, leaving no indication of what had happened. "I feel fine," she told him, sitting up in bed. "What about you?"
"I'm alright, completely healed," Scott told her.
Ansley bit her lip, not knowing what to do with the information that she had about what had happened to them. "How long have I been out?"
"Two days. You didn't tell mom we were out there, did you?"
"No," she told him, shaking her head. "She doesn't need to know about that." Their mom had plenty to worry about. She wasn't sure if her mom could handle what had happened to them on top of everything else that she was dealing with.
"Ansley, I need to tell you something... about what happened to us." Scott's voice shook, seeming to be scared about what he was trying to tell her. "The thing that bit us wasn't just a normal wolf." He was searching for the right words to say now.
"It was a werewolf. I know what they are," She told him with a sad smile. "I used to be friends with a family of them. That was before some crazy bitch decided to burn their house down with most of them inside of it." She looked down at her hands in her lap as she allowed Scott to take in what she was telling him.
Scott stared at her surprised for a moment. "You know Derek Hale?"
The name caused shivers to run through her body. She had barely even thought of the boy since they left Beacon Hills all those years ago, yet he still had the same effect on her. "Yeah," She told him. "I would spend the night with him and Laura when we were in high school." Derek, Laura and their uncle Peter were the only ones that were left alive after the fire.
"Derek was the one who bit us."
Ansley shook her head. "It couldn't have been him, Laura became the Alpha after their mother died and they aren't even in Beacon Hills any more."
"Laura was the dead body that was found in the preserve." Scott's voice held sorrow but that didn't hurt the pang of hurt that she felt in her chest. A tear slipped down her cheek in the memory of her once best friend.
"Derek would never kill his sister," she whispered. "Where is mom?" She wanted to change the subject now, maybe even get out of the hospital.
"She should be getting off soon. They've been letting her off early so she can stay with you." As if on cue, the door to the room opened and their mom walked in, followed by one of the doctors.
"Ms. McCall, it's good to see you're finally awake," the doctor said as he started to check her vital signs. Her mom gave her a gentle hug before she started to check her over, removing the bandage from her shoulder, revealing a light pink scar. "You seemed to have recovered very quickly. I'm going to discharge you and allow you to go home, but no extraneous activities for the next week so we can be sure that your concussion is indeed gone."
"Dr. Deaton already knows what happened and told me to tell you that you are fine to start whenever you are back up to par," her mom told her. "And I don't care how you feel, you are not starting work until the week has passed."
"Alright," Ansley grumbled, knowing that her mom was only looking out for her, but little did she know that she would no longer have to worry about her daughter having a concussion ever again.