SCOTTIE'S DREAMSCAPE -- BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL
It was night, and Scottie and Alec were holding hands as the former led the latter out of the main building of the school and into the parking lot. Overhead, the fluorescent lights flickered ominously. They slowly ran over to a nearby bus, giggling all the way.
"Come on," Scottie said.
"Where are you taking me?" Alec asked.
Scottie, still holding Alec's hand, turned back to look at him with a big smile on her face. "Somewhere where we can be alone."
Alec chuckled softly. "We are alone..."
Scottie turned so her back was resting on the door to the bus, and she gently pulled Alec toward her so their faces were nearly touching. "Somewhere where we can be more alone."
Scottie elbowed the folding door open and looked at Alec suggestively. The two stared at each other, both still smiling, before Scottie finally turned to lead him inside. "Come on!"
Scottie walked until she was about three rows from the back of the bus before sitting down in the seat on the right side, resting her back against the window. Alec, deciding to tease her, sat on the seat across from her on the left side and stared at her suggestively, interested to see which of them would concede first and moved towards the other.
Scottie stared at Alec with a shy smile on her face, and Alec shrugged and smiled back as if to say, "Hmm, what are we going to do?" Scottie bit her lip and waited for a beat before she finally moved toward him and joined him in the other seat, bracing herself on the back of the seat in front of them as she leaned over and kissed him.
The two continued to make out for a few long moments before Alec started to unbutton Scottie's blouse, revealing a lacy bra underneath. Just as Alec started kissing Alec's neck, the hand braced on the back of the seat grips harder, causing her claws to start to extending, darkening her nailbeds in the process. She gripped even harder to try to control herself, slashing the leather seat with four of her claws.
Realizing she was starting to transform, she pulled away from Alec, keeping her head down so her bangs covered her face and the shadows concealed any Werewolf features that might be emerging as she struggled to control herself. Alec, still somewhat dazed from the kiss, looked up at her with half-lidded eyes and whispered to her, "What's wrong?"
Scottie stepped back and turned 90 degrees so that she was facing the front of the bus, now bracing herself on the backs of two seats with each hand as her breaths became even harder, keeping her head down as she spoke in a low, urgent tone of voice, "Get away!"
Scottie turned another 90 degrees so that she was now facing directly away from Alec, revealing that her eyes were glowing gold and her fangs had emerged as well.
"Scottie?"
As she panted, her brow became ridged, her hair line developed a widow's peak, and her sideburns lengthened and grew into mutton-chops. Alec stood and moved so he was standing behind her, looking at her with a concerned expression. "Scottie?"
Scottie, barely hanging onto control, begged him to stay away, her voice turning into a growl. "Get away from me..."
After a brief second, Scottie's ears finally lengthened until the tips were pointed. Unable to hold herself back any longer, she turned to face Alec, who was predictably terrified as he backed away, now panting for breath himself as Scottie watched him, her vision bleeding red around the edges.
Alec slowly backed down the aisle towards the door as Scottie just as slowly skulked toward him like a predator chasing his prey. Moaning in fear, Alec turned around and ran toward the exit, but Scottie was too quick, kneeling and grabbing him by the ankle before yanking him backwards toward her.
"AHHHHHHH!" Alec screamed as he began trying to kick Scottie away, not wanting to hurt her.
As Scottie pulled him backwards toward the rear of the bus, Alec scrambled to find anything to hold onto in hopes of breaking her hold, including the metal bars bolting the seats to the floor of the bus and the back of the seats themselves.
"Ahhhh!" Alec cried again.
He finally managed to grab one of the bars bolted to the floor, giving him something to lean on as he kicked Scottie in the gut with enough force that she flew backwards and smacked against the emergency exit at the back of the bus. Now that there was some distance between them, Alec was able to get back on his feet and run toward the front door once again, only to slip and fall down the short staircase leading there and falling right into the door itself. Since the door folded open from the inside, Alec couldn't get it to open without the bus being turned on, and turned his head to see that Scottie had completely ripped one of the back seats of the bus off of the floor.
The small amount of moonlight shining into the bus revealed that Alec was bleeding from a small wound near his hairline, along with another wound on the side of his mouth, two trails of blood making their way down his face as he frantically pounded against the door to no avail. Scottie threw the seat down the aisle, and he was forced to smash his body against the door to avoid being hit by it. He had just barely managed to squeeze his bloody fingers through the crack between the door and the door frame when he saw Scottie skulking back toward him and screamed in terror.
"AHHHHHH!"
Scottie's vision was completely red as she made her way to the front door, and Alec, who now had the fingers from both hands shoved through the crack in the door, had just barely managed to pull it open when Scottie grabbed him by the face with her hand, covering his mouth to muffle another scream, and pulled him back, causing the door to shut again. Alec was slammed face-first into the window in the door as Scottie tore him apart.
END DREAM
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL - ENTRANCE/HALLWAY - DAY
Scottie and Stiles opened the front doors to the school and entered as Scottie explains the strange dream she had the previous night.
"So, you killed him?" Stiles asked.
Scottie shrugged exasperatedly. "I don't know. I just woke up. And I was sweating like crazy, and I couldn't breathe. I've never had a dream where I woke up like that before."
Stiles raised her eyebrows. "Really? I have." She shrugged as she gestured with her hand to emphasize her words. "Usually ends a little differently..."
"A) I mean I've never had a dream that felt that real, and B)-" she looked at Stiles with a disgusted expression, "never give me that much detail about you in bed again."
Stiles shrugged again. "Noted." She took a deep breath before speaking up about something she knew Scottie wouldn't want to hear. "Let me take a guess here-"
Scottie cut her off. "No, I know -- you think it has something to do with me going out with Alec tomorrow, like I'm gonna lose control and rip his throat out."
Stiles gaped at her as though she was offended by what Scottie was implying. "No, of course not." Scottie gave Stiles a look that communicated that she knew Stiles too well to believe that, and Stiles finally conceded. "...Yeah, that's totally it." When Stiles saw Scottie sigh with a glum expression, she scoffed and tried to cheer her up. "Hey, come on! It's gonna be fine, all right? Personally, I think you're handling this pretty freakin' amazingly. You know, it's not like there's a Lycanthropy for Beginners class you can take."
Scottie raised her hands at Stiles as though to say, "Seriously?" before she frowned and thought for a moment before getting an idea and said thoughtfully, "Yeah... not a class, but maybe a teacher."
Stiles balked at the suggestion. "Who, Danica?"
When Scottie continued to stare at Stiles, Stiles sputtered incredulously before smacking her on the back of the head like a misbehaving puppy. "You forgetting the part where we got her tossed in jail?"
Scottie, fully aware of that fact, responded in the same exasperated tone of voice as Stiles. "Yeah, I know, but chasing him, dragging him to the back of the bus... it felt so real."
Stiles rolled her eyes in disbelief and responded sarcastically. "How real?"
Scottie shrugged. "Like it actually happened."
Scottie and Stiles simultaneously pushed the back doors open to walk toward another building before they were both stunned speechless and stopped dead in their tracks.
At the bus bay, the Sheriff's deputies had taped-off a crime scene around one of the buses. The back of the bus was splattered with blood, and the emergency exit door had been almost completely ripped off and was hanging by a single hinge at the bottom. A crime scene investigator was snapping photos of the wreckage, including one of the back seats, which had been clawed open and was spilling its stuffing out onto the floor.
Stiles, mouth gaping open in shock, looked over at a similarly stunned Scottie. "...I think it did."
Scottie looked back at the bus in horror and looked like she was about to throw up from fear, guilt, and shame.
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL - HALLWAY
Scottie and Stiles were walking through the halls yet again as Stiles tried to reassure a panicked Scottie, who was staring at her phone, that they needed more information.
"He's probably fine-"
"He's not answering my texts, Stiles." She started to frantically look around at the students in the hallways, trying to see if Alec was among the crowds milling in the halls, while Stiles continued to reassure her.
"It could just be a coincidence, all right?" Stiles, realizing that the evidence made this somewhat unlikely, added to her previous statement in a somewhat defeated voice. "A seriously amazing coincidence..."
Scottie turned to look at Stiles with a panicked look on her face. "Just help me find him, okay?"
Scottie was turning in circles as she walked, trying to spot Alec in the crowd, and Stiles, more calm than her best friend, turned her head back and forth to visually scan through the students as well.
"Do you see him?"
Stiles sighed. "No..."
Scottie continued to look, anxiously running her hand through her hair while she did, until she finally sped up and turned the corner, losing control. Stiles, now panicked as well, scrambled to follow her but got lost in the crowd.
Around the corner, Scottie was struggling to control her breathing, her heartbeat loudly thumping in her ears, as she pressed herself against one of the lockers, bracing against it with both hands. Her head was resting against the metal door of the locker, her eyes starting to flash gold.
After a long moment, Scottie yelled as she punched the locker with so much force that it broke the combination lock and warped the door to the point where it could no longer close properly as she yelled, "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Surprisingly, her action didn't attract any attention from her fellow students, and the pain from her fist hitting the locker grounded her and allowed her heartbeat to return to a normal rhythm and volume, and her eyes to go back to their usual brown color.
Having come back to herself, Scottie realized what she'd just done to someone's locker and rushed away before anyone could notice what happened and connect the damaged door to her. She backed herself down the hallway until she reached the junction between the two hallways and turned around, only to smack directly into Alec, who was completely fine and who had just dropped all his books and school supplies onto the floor. He sighed in exasperation at his perceived clumsiness and laughed when he sees it was Scottie.
"You scared the hell out of me!" Alec said.
Scott couldn't help but sigh and smile in relief at the sight of Alec standing there, alive and well. "You're okay!"
She knelt down at the same time as Alec, who assumed she was talking about the collision they just had, and helped him pick up his books and notepads as he nodded and huffed another small laugh before saying, "Once my heart starts beating again, yeah."
He finally saw the look of relief on Scottie's face and made a face. "...What?"
"I'm just happy to see you."
The sound of Principal Thomas' voice was heard over the PA system, and Alec, Scottie, and the other students paused to listen. "Attention students, this is your principal. I know you're all wondering about the incident that occurred last night to one of our buses..." Alec and Scottie stood back up as Scottie handed Alec the last book off of the floor while the announcement continued. "While the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as usual."
The students in the hallway groaned in unison out of disappointment that classes hadn't been canceled. Alec, seemingly ignorant of what the principal was even talking about, simply smiled at Scottie before ruffling her hair affectionately with his right hand and asked, "Save me a seat at lunch?"
Scottie, still overwhelmed by relief that she didn't actually kill Alec, smiled in a slightly delayed reaction. "Yeah."
She watched as Alec turned and headed to class as she slowly started walking down the hall in a different direction toward her own. When she got back to the junction between the two halls, she was distracted by the sound of Jaxon groaning in annoyance and turned to see that it was Jaxon's locker that she punched and broke moments earlier. Jaxon, irritated, tried to get the locker to shut and was annoyed when she couldn't.
Jaxon looked up and saw Scottie watching her before immediately before asking snidely, "What are you looking at, asswipe?"
Jaxon's line of sight was blocked by several other students walking down the hall, so she didn't see Scottie's guilty-yet-amused expression as she turned to head to class.
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL - CHEMISTRY CLASSROOM
Stiles was seated at a two-person desk in the second row from the back, while Scottie sat at the desk directly in front of her. Their teacher, Caroline Harris, was writing notes on the chalkboard at the front of the class while a beaker full of clear liquid bubbles in a stand, where it hung over a Bunsen burner. Scottie and Stiles continued their discussion over what Scottie could have possibly done the previous evening to cause all that carnage in low voices at the back of the classroom.
"Maybe it was my blood on the door..." Scottie guessed.
"Could have been animal blood," Stiles said as she shrugged and gestured with the pencil in her right hand. "You know, maybe you caught a rabbit or something?"
Scottie shot her a look, appalled by that theory. "And did what?"
Stiles shrugged again. "Ate it."
Scottie was even more horrified by that statement. "Raw?"
Stiles scoffed and gave Scottie a look before responding in a sarcastic tone of voice. "No, you stopped to bake it in a little Werewolf oven! I don't know, you're the one who can't remember anything."
Scottie was still offended, and neither one of them had noticed that Ms. Harris had noticed their conversation and had turned to watch them talk with a stern look on her face and her hands on her hips.
Ms. Harris finally spoke up in a snide voice to interrupt them. "Miss Stilinski, if that's your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while."
Stiles, slightly embarrassed, huffed out a laugh. "Uh..."
"I think you and Miss McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?"
Stiles scoffed in irritation. "No!"
Harris, not messing around, stared at Scottie and gestured toward the front of the room, implying that it was where she wanted Scottie to move, before doing the same with Stiles and picking a seat in the back but at the opposite side from where she was currently sitting. Scottie and Stiles sighed in annoyance and reluctantly picked up their books and papers before moving to their respective desks.
"Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much," Harris said.
Scottie settled in at the desk with Harley, who wasn't surprised by Scottie and Stiles' shenanigans. After a moment, Scottie sensed something off and turned back to find Jaxon staring at her intently, clearly still trying to figure out Scottie's secret.
Harley looked over at the window and was distracted by what was going on outside. Suddenly, he stood and rushed over to the window to get a better look. "Hey! I think they found something!"
The rest of the class, eager for a distraction, jumped to their feet and ran over to the windows to join him. Outside in the parking lot, an ambulance was parked at a corner with their lights and sirens on, and two paramedics were quickly wheeling a stretcher with a middle-aged adult woman on it towards the open doors in the back of the ambulance. Scottie, horrified and certain that the woman was dead, looks over at Stiles, who had joined her at her left side.
"That's not a rabbit..." Scottie trailed.
The paramedics were about to lift the stretcher into the back of the ambulance when suddenly, the woman jumped into a seated position, grabbed the shoulders of the paramedics on each side of her with her hands, and began screaming in fear. "AHHHHHH!"
The sudden movement and scream caused all the students watching inside to flinch, visibly startled. Scottie, unable to watch any more, backed away from the windows until she was in the middle of the room.
Stiles, seeing her distress, came over to try to comfort her. "Okay. This is good. This is good! She got up, she's not dead. Dead girls can't do that."
Scottie looked completely dismayed by the fact that they had confirmation that someone was seriously injured in whatever happened the previous evening. "Stiles, I did that."
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL - CAFETERIA
Scottie and Stiles left the lunch line are carrying their trays of food to one of the empty tables as Stiles whispered to Scottie, "But dreams aren't memories.:
"Then it wasn't a dream..." Scottie said as she set her tray on the table before taking off her backpack and sitting it on the chair next to her, Stiles repeating the gesture. They continued their conversation as they sat down across from each other at the table. "Something happened last night, and I can't remember what."
Stiles asked skeptically, "What makes you so sure that Danica even has all the answers?"
Scottie, overwhelmed, accidentally responded in a voice that was way too loud. "Because-!" Stiles gave her a look, and she bashfully looked around before continuing her train of thought at a lower volume. "During the full moon, she wasn't changed. She was in total control while I was running around in the middle of the night, attacking some totally innocent woman."
Stiles sighed, not wanting to believe that was the truth. "You don't know that."
Scottie wasn't convinced by her best friend's words. "I don't not know it." She paused, biting her lip as she thought for a moment before sighing in defeat. "I can't go out with Alec. I have to cancel."
"No, you're not cancelling, okay? You can't just cancel your entire life! We'll figure it out."
Just then, Lyndon appeared behind Scottie, looking at her curiously before slamming his lunch tray down on the table to Scottie's left to get their attention as he asked, "Figure out what?"
Stiles, startled by the appearance of the guy who had a crush on her, especially annoyed he was choosing to sit next to them at lunch, stammered nervously, "Ha... Uhh..."
Seeing Stiles was unable to come up with a decent answer, Scottie quickly lied to cover up the real topic of their conversation. "Just, uh, homework..."
Stiles nodded in agreement. "Yeah."
While Lyndon was distracted by someone passing the table, Stiles leaned forward to whisper to Scottie, "Why is he sitting with us?"
Scottie gaped at Stiles and shrugged, as if to say, "I don't know!"
Suddenly, more people started to sit down at their table. An unknown boy sat at the head of the table, while Dani took a seat on Stiles' right. Scottie turned to see that Alec was sitting down on her right and smiled before moving her backpack so he could sit down.
"Thanks!" Alec said.
Harley sat on Stiles' left, and she chuckled at the sight of him, causing Harley to roll his eyes good-naturedly. After a moment, she rolled her eyes and looked at Scottie, annoyed that their Werewolf-related brainstorming session had been interrupted by all of these popular kids. She turned the other way and accidentally made eye contact with Dani, causing her to flick her head in greeting, only for Dani to roll her eyes as though Stiles was the most tedious thing she'd had to deal with all day.
To make matters even more complicated for Scottie and Stiles, Jaxon approached the table and stood next to the unknown kid, glaring at her intensely before ordering her away.
"Get up," Jaxon said
The student groaned in annoyance. "How come you never ask Dani to get up?"
Dani, who was in the middle of eating a green apple, smirked at her. "Because I don't stare at her boyfriend's lower half."
The student got up to move, and Jaxon shoved her out of the way before taking her seat, causing Scottie to scowl at Jaxon's rude behavior. Before they could say anything to each other, Dani started a conversation.
"So, I hear they're saying its some type of animal attack," Dani said. "Probably a cougar."
"I heard mountain lion," Jaxon stated.
Lyndon, staring at his tray, spoke up in an annoyed tone of voice. "A cougar is a mountain lion."
Jaxon and Dani stared at him blankly, surprised by that answer. Lyndon, realizing he was dangerously close to revealing just how smart he actually was, tried to backtrack and added, "...Isn't it?"
Jaxon raised her eyebrow and scoffed. "Who cares? The lady's probably some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway."
Stiles, who had started to look up the case on her phone, spoke up when she got more information. "Actually, I just found out who it is. Check it out." She pulled up a video on her phone and turned it so the others could see it. It was from a news website, and a reporter narrated the story.
The reporter said, "The Sheriff's department won't speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Gretchen Myers, did survive the attack. Myers was taken to a local hospital where she remains in critical condition."
Scottie gasped when she recognized the name of the woman identified as the victim. "Wait, I-I-I know this lady."
"You do?" Alec asked.
"Yeah, when I used to take the bus, back when I lived with my mom. She was the driver."
Scottie and Stiles shared a pointed look before Lyndon spoke up in a bored, annoyed tone of voice. "Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please? Like..." He smiled when he got an idea and turned to talk to Alec, talking right over Scottie, who was sitting between them. "Oh, where are we going tomorrow night?"
Alec and Scottie's brows furrowed, making it clear they had no idea what he was talking about, so Lyndon clarified, "You said you and Scottie were hanging out tomorrow, right?"
Alec raised his eyebrows and gulped nervously, realizing exactly what Lyndon was about to do and trying to keep it casual in hopes of Lyndon staying out of it. "Um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do..."
He looked at Scottie apologetically, knowing Lyndon was about to invite himself and Jaxon into their plans, and Stiles' eyes widened when she had the same realization.
"Well, I am not sitting home again, watching lacrosse videos, they get boring after awhile, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun."
Scottie, completely stunned at the turn of events, gaped helplessly. "H-H-Hanging out? Like, the four of us?" She turned to Alec, who had covered up his displeasure at their plans being crashed by drinking out of his water bottle. "Do you wanna hang out?"
Scottie forced herself to spit out the rest of the sentence, clearly hating the idea, and Stiles, knowing this was about to be a disaster, covered her mouth with her hand to prevent herself from interjecting. "...Like, us... and them?"
Alec looked about as excited by this prospect as Scottie but didn't want to be rude to his new friend, either, so he replied in a wary voice, "Yeah! ...I guess... Sounds fun..."
Jaxon's annoyed expression made it clear that the only person excited about the double date was Lyndon, and she sounded extremely irritated as she raised her fork in the air to emphasize her point. "You know what else sounds fun? Stabbing myself in the face with this fork."
Lyndon, annoyed by her rudeness, grabbed the fork out of her hand, while Stiles, taking a drink from her own water bottle, rolled her eyes and gesticulated wildly with her hand, not liking her friend being disparaged like that.
Lyndon ignored Jaxon and continued planning their date like she hadn't spoken. "How 'bout bowling? You love to bowl."
Stiles shoved a French fry into her mouth and tried to get Scottie's attention, shaking her head wildly as if to communicate that Scottie needed to put the brakes on this plan as soon as possible.
Jaxon scoffed in annoyance. "Yeah, with actual competition."
Alec, now offended on behalf of him and Scottie, spoke up, trying to keep his tone of voice friendly. "How do you know we're not "actual competition?"" He turned to Scottie. "You can bowl, right?"
Scottie shrugged and replied uneasily, "Sort of..."
Jaxon gave Scottie a pointed look and responded in a patronizing tone of voice, "Is it-is it "sort of," or "yes?""
Scottie didn't want to be shown up by Jaxon or made to feel any more inferior than she already was, so she lie instead. "Yes." She straightened her back to appear more confident. "In fact, I'm a great bowler."
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL - HALLWAY
Scottie and Stiles walked down the stairs from their last class. Stiles, appalled by what she just witnessed, was loudly berating Scottie for what she was planning to do.
"You're a terrible bowler!" Stiles cried.
Scottie groaned, agreeing with her friend. "I know! I'm such an idiot."
Stiles continued ranting, despite her friend's obvious discomfort. "God, it was like watching a car wreck. I mean, first, it turned into the whole group-date thing, and the out of nowhere comes that phrase-"
Scottie rolled her eyes so hard she threw her head back and nodded. ""Hang out.""
Stiles continued to gesticulate with her hands as she spoke. "You don't "hang out" with hot girls, okay? It's like death. Once it's "hanging out," you might as well be his gay best friend. You and Dani can start hanging out."
Scottie groaned again before she spoke. "How is this happening? I either killed a woman, or I didn't."
Stiles was suddenly distracted by her mention of Dani and started going off on a tangent, completely ignoring Scottie's anxious train of thought. "I don't think Dani likes me very much..."
Scottie, just like Stiles, ignored her in favor of continuing to worry about her own predicament. "I ask Alec on a date, and now we're "hanging out...""
"Am I not attractive to gay girls?"
"I make first line, and the team captain wants to destroy me, and now..." She looked at her phone and sighed when she saw the time. "Now I'm gonna be late for work."
Scottie rushed out the door, eager to make it to work on time, while Stiles, annoyed at having been ignored, exasperatedly called out after her, "Wait, Scottie you didn't -- am I attractive to gay girls-"
Stiles raised her arms on either side of her as she sighed in annoyance and muttered under her breath, "You didn't answer my question!" She licked her lips before turning to head the other direction.
BEACON HILLS ANIMAL CLINIC
Scottie arrived at the animal clinic on her bike, which she leaned against the side of the brick building before rushing inside.
Scottie's boss, Alana Deaton, was in the exam room when Scottie shuffled in and immediately started to apologize for her tardiness. "Sorry, sorry..."
Deaton, who was unpacking boxes on one of the metal tables, rolled her eyes affectionately. "You're all of two minutes late."
Scottie set her bag down on the floor in the corner of the room. "I just don't want you to think I'm slacking..."
Deaton smiled and scoffed at her in amusement. "Scottie, I guarantee you, you're one of the least slacking kids in this town."
Scottie was getting everything situated on one of the back tables when she turned to see Sheriff Stilinski standing outside of the exam room door, looking stern and serious. Scottie instantly started to worry that Stilinski had figured out that Scottie killed Gretchen Myers and was there to arrest her and began to panic, gulping nervously. However, the sheriff simply opened the door, smiling suddenly as she revealed that she had one of the K-9 unit dogs with her and was only there so the dog could get a check-up, which Deaton confirmed.
"Hey!" Deaton greeted. "I see somebody's ready to get their stitches out!" She bent over at the waist and patted her knees to get the dog to sit for her while Sheriff Stilinski took off her sunglasses and walked over to greet Scottie.
"Hey there, Scottie," Sheriff Stilinski said. "You staying out of trouble?"
Scottie, still caught off guard by Sheriff Stilinski's appearance, watched as Deaton picked up the German Shepherd dog, whose right "arm" had a bandage wrapped around the lower half, and sat her on the table before she realized she was asked a question and answered with a nod.
"Yeah..." Scottie replied.
Sheriff Stilinski was too distracted by Deaton's assessment of the dog to notice how uneasy Scottie was acting. She turned to talk to Deaton about work. "Hey, listen-" She opened the zipper on her briefcase and started to rifle through it. "While I'm here, you mind taking a look at those pictures I was telling you about?"
The sheriff pulled a file labeled "EVIDENCE ENVELOPE" and held it out to Deaton. "Sacramento still can't determine an animal."
Deaton's voice was hesitant as she took the envelope and opened it to pull out the photos inside. "I'm not exactly an expert..." She turned the photos so they were upright before beginning to rifle through them, intrigued by what she saw. "Oh, this is the woman who was attacked in the bus?"
Deaton turned the photo so Sheriff Stilinski could see it to confirm. Scottie, unable to hide her curiosity, turned to look at it over the sheriff's shoulder. The photo was of what looked like Gretchen Myers' upper arm, which had a defined bite mark above the elbow that was smudged with blood.
Sheriff Stilinski nodded. "Yeah. And, we found wolf hairs on Louis Hale's body."
Scottie, shocked, spoke up from behind the two women. "A wolf?"
The sheriff, surprised to hear Scottie was paying attention, turned to look at her, and Scottie, realizing she spoke out of turn and just drew attention to her possible involvement, tried to cover up her interest in what happened to Myers and said nervously, "Um..."
Deaton looked up at Scottie, visibly intrigued by Scottie's reaction, as though she knew something Scottie didn't.
Scottie continued. "I mean, I think I read somewhere that wolves haven't been in California for, like, sixty years..."
Deaton's attention returned to the photos in her hands as she nodded in agreement. "True enough, but wolves are highly migratory. They could have wandered in from another state, driven by impulse or strong enough memory."
Scottie's brow furrowed as she frowned, surprised by the information. "Wolves have memories?"
"Longer-term memories, yes -- if associated with a primal drive. See this one here?"
Deaton turned the photos again so Sheriff Stilinski and Scottie could see it. It was a photo of Myers -- she was laying on a hospital bed, and the photo was focused on her face, where there were vertical claw marks from her brow down the side of her face past her temple to her cheek, and another one in the same direction from under her eye down to her mouth. There was a third gash on the side of her neck that went diagonally right to left from under her ear toward her throat.
Sheriff Stilinski nodded to confirm that she got what Deaton was saying and said, "Yeah."
Deaton pointed at the various wounds on Myers' face in the photos. "Those are claw marks. A wolf would have gone for the throat or the spinal cord with its teeth." She gestured to her own throat for emphasis.
"So, what do you think, it's a mountain lion?"
"I don't know..."
Scottie looked back and forth from Deaton to Sheriff Stilinski and back again as the women speak, starting to get overwhelmed by the new information.
" A wolf could chase down its prey, hobbling it by tearing at the ankles-" Deaton informed, and her words launched Scottie into a brief flashback to her dream.
FLASHBACK—SCOTTIE'S DREAM, PREVIOUS NIGHT
Scottie, fully transformed into her Werewolf form, grabbed Alec's ankle as he tried to run down the aisle toward the bus's exit and yanked him backward toward her as he screamed.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
END FLASHBACK
Scottie looks at Deaton with a barely-concealed expression of alarm as Deaton continued. "-and then the throat..."
BEACON HILLS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Scottie was walking through the sliding doors of the hospital, a white plastic bag of Chinese take-out food in her hands. She smiled as she walked toward the nurse's station in the ER, where her father was standing at work.
He laughed cheerfully when he saw her and said, "Is my beautiful, talented, and wonderful daughter actually bringing me dinner?"
Scott smiled as she leaned against the desk on her elbows. "Thought you wouldn't mind skipping the cafeteria tonight..."
"You are the most thoughtful, loving..." Scottie smiled bashfully as Michael continued, "...most conniving little con-artist ever." Scottie's smile fell as she gasped in mock offense. "You are so not getting the car tomorrow night."
Scottie gasped again in disbelief, this time for real. "Dad!"
Michael scoffed incredulously. "What? There's a curfew -- no car." He clicked his tongue. "But, I will take this." He plucked the bag of take-out food out of Scottie's hands before turning and walking away, calling out his goodbye over his shoulder as he did so. "Love you!"
Scottie sighed in disappointment but reluctantly returned the sentiment. "Love you, too..."
Scottie was about to leave the same way he came when she stopped in her tracks, visibly catching a familiar scent that caused her to turn around again. She followed the scent past the nurse's station and down the hallway to the end, where she found the room where Gretchen Myers had been admitted and quietly slipped inside before anyone could see her.
Scottie pulled away the curtain separating the two halves of the room to find Myers laying in bed on her back, her eyes closed, asleep. Scott was obviously overwhelmed with shame and horror as she took in the sight of her former bus driver -- Myers' head was wrapped in gauze, and she was covered in nicks and cuts from the attack, an IV inserted into her right arm and a nasal cannula administering oxygen through her nose.
She spoke up in a quiet voice. Mrs. Myers...?" She took a step towards her, and Myers slowly woke up, turning her head to look at her. "Are you okay?"
After a short moment, she seemed to recognize Scottie and began to panic. She opened her mouth to speak but gasped as she tried to back herself up into a seated position. As she tried to speak, she grabbed Scottie by the sleeve and pulled her toward her, groaning as her panic became even stronger. Scottie tried to pull out of her grip as Myers started screaming, causing Michael to run into the room.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" Michael asked as he ran toward them and grabbed Myers by the wrist so that he can get her to let go of Scottie's sleeve before he ordered her out of the room. "Get out! Now!"
Scottie looked torn, and Michael shoved her towards the door before turning to try to calm Myers down as he said, "Go! Go, go!"
Suddenly, Myers' muscles tensed up and she went into a seizure.
HALE HOUSE
A Sheriff's deputy had just pulled up to the Hale House ruins in her cruiser, where she got out of the car and walked around it as she visually scanned the area before picking up her radio and calling into dispatch. "It looks pretty deserted, dispatch. Did you want me to take a look inside?"
"Unit Sixteen, it's county property," Dispatch replied. "Orders are to make sure it's vacant."
The deputy, uneasy to be at the abandoned ruins of the Hale House, especially after it was revealed that Danica, who was still a suspect in the murder case, had been squatting there, continued to stand outside]
"I don't... I don't think anyone's home."
[The dispatcher sounded exasperated as she replies to the deputy, "For the love of God, Sixteen, go inside and see if anyone's there!"
"Copy that."
The deputy sighed in annoyance before slowly stepping closer to the house. However, the K-9 unit dog in the backseat started barking almost immediately after she started moving, causing the deputy to become even more nervous.
She turned to scold the dog, startled by its barking. "Don't do that!"
The deputy kept walking toward the house. However, at the angle at which she was turned to face the porch, she couldn't see Danica standing slightly behind the door, where she was peering outside through the broken window on the second story. She flashed her blue Werewolf eyes at the dog, which only made it bark even louder and more frantically, intimidated by Danica, who was above her on the canine food-chain. When the dog started freaking out so badly that its saliva began splattering all over the half-opened window, the deputy, completely unnerved, started looking for the source of what was spooking it. The dog got even more freaked out and stuck its head out of the back window, causing the deputy to ultimately decide she'd checked it well enough and turn to get back into the car as she reassured the dog.
"Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming..."
The dog continued to bark as the deputy got into the driver's seat and began driving away. Danica watched the woman drive away and smirked in satisfaction at not getting caught squatting in the house. Once the car was out of sight, Danica heard the sounds of footsteps approaching and turned to see Scottie walking out of the edge of the woods that bordered the Hale property.
Scottie paused for a moment, shifting nervously back and forth on each foot as Danica stared at her out of sight. After a moment, when she realized that Danica wasn't coming, Scottie decided to make the first move and spoke up.
"I know you can hear me," Scottie said.
Inside, Danica continued to stare at Scottie, who looked at the house with a pleading expression.
"I need your help," Scottie added.
Rain started and Scottie had moved onto the porch, where Danica opened the door and come out to join her. However, when Danica remained silent and stared at her blankly, Scottie realized she was going to have to work a little harder to get Danica's assistance and continued with a sigh.
"Okay, I know I was part of you getting arrested... and that we basically announced you being here to the Hunters... I also don't know what happened to your brother..." Danica continued to stare at Scottie blankly, not giving anything away as Scottie kept rambling. "But, I think I did something last night. I had a dream about..."
Scottie hesitated for a moment, not wanting to advertise her continued relationship with Alec, before deciding to keep her tone evasive. "Someone... but someone else got hurt. And, it turns out that part of the dream might have actually happened..."
Danica's expression didn't change, making it clear that she had some idea of what had been going on. "You think you attacked the driver?"
Scottie's tone and expression became incredulous, and she assumed Danica knew more than she was letting on. "Did you see what I did last night?"
Danica's facial expression remained impassive. "No."
"Can you at least tell me the truth? Am I gonna hurt someone?"
Danica said bluntly, "Yes."
"Could I kill someone?"
Her tone remained blunt. "Yes."
"Am I gonna kill someone?"
"Probably."
Scottie looked as though she was about to cry at the prospect of being a killer as she turned and walked toward the end of the porch, keeping her back turned to Danica. After a moment of watching her, Danica sighed before taking pity on her.
"Look, I can show you how to remember. I can show you how to control the shift, even on a full moon. But it's not gonna come for free."
Scott was so despondent she not only didn't have it in her to argue, but she couldn't even look Danica in the eyes. "What do you want?"
"You'll find out." She paused for a moment, and Scottie continued to stare at the front of the house. "But, for now, I'm gonna give you what you want." Scottie didn't turn to face Danica, but her eyes shifted so that she could look at Danica out of the corner of her eye. "Go back to the bus. Go inside. See it. Feel it. Let your senses -- your sight, smell, touch -- let them remember for you."
Scottie's brow furrowed in confusion and incredulity. "That's it? Just-just go back?"
Danica looked at Scottie curiously. "Do you want to know what happened?"
Scottie finally turned to look Danica in the eye with a vulnerable expression. "I just want to know if I hurt her."
Danica sensed exactly what Scottie was afraid of and gave her a pointed look before calling her out on it. "No, you don't -- you want to know if you'll hurt him."
Scottie sighed and looks down at the floor, knowing that Danica was at least partially correct.
BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL
Scottie and Stiles were driving up to the school in Stiles' Jeep, though they took the back way that was closest to the woods. Scottie got out of the car, only for Stiles to follow after her, leading Scott to instruct Stiles to stay back.
"Hey, no-- just me," Scottie said. "Someone needs to keep watch."
Stiles stopped in her tracks and scoffed, offended at being left out. "How come I'm always the guy keeping watch?"
Stiles, ignoring her, started climbing up the chain-link fence between where they parked and the school bus bay, but Scottie grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her down.
"Because there's only two of us!"
Stiles stepped back down to the ground level before pointing at Scottie in an accusatory tone of voice. "Okay, why's it starting to feel like you're Batman and I'm Robin?" When Scottie looked at her exasperatedly, Stiles scoffed again. "I don't want to be Robin all the time!"
Scottie, equally exasperated now, argued back in response in an exasperated tone, "Nobody's Batman and Robin any of the time!"
Stiles was both offended and disappointed by the resolution of the argument. "Not even some of the time?"
Scottie sighed before giving her final order in a stern tone of voice. "Just stay here."
Stiles groaned in annoyance, as though Scottie was her mom who was telling her what to do. "Oh, my God! Fine."
Stiles returned to the Jeep while Scottie climbed up and over the chain-link fence. As she walked toward the buses, she started to get visibly anxious, afraid of what she was about to learn but knowing that she needed to see the truth.