˗ˏˋ⋆ H E A V E N L Y ⋆ˎˊ˗
↳ 𝒙𝒊. 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏
𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧, 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦
(𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔣𝔩𝔦𝔢𝔰)
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GRACIE SAT AT A PICNIC TABLE JUST OUTSIDE OF THE CAMPGROUND part of the preserve, her hands clasped and her eyes closed. She listened carefully to hear if Cora or Boyd was close, while Scott split away from her and Derek to search in the other parts of the preserve.
Cora had already tried to terrorize the drive-in if Derek hadn't stepped in but unfortunately, she ran off before he could catch her.
Apparently, she was much faster than Derek when she went without feeling the full moon for three full months.
"Scott?"
"Hey," Scott greeted. Gracie could hear him panting over the phone. "I lost Boyd."
"You lost him?" Derek asked, disappointed.
"Yeah, I kind of had to."
"That wasn't exactly the plan."
"I know, which is why I think that we should stick together," Scott stated. "Trust me, he's too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We've got to do this together."
"Scott, we're at the edge of the preserve campground," Gracie spoke up, exchanging a look with Derek. "Can you meet us here?"
"Yeah," Scott confirmed. "I just got to drop something off first."
Gracie furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll fill you in later. See ya soon."
Gracie ended the call and locked her phone, setting it on the table before looking up at Derek. "This is a nightmare."
"No kidding..."
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"ARE YOU SURE?" GRACIE ASKED IN DISBELIEF.
Apparently, on her way to the pharmacy, Lydia had drive to the school. That's where she found a body. The boy had already been killed by the time she got there.
Standing by the pool with Lydia, Stiles rolled his eyes as he inched closer to the body so he could check it out for himself. "Yep, throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the freakin' Shining over here. If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."
"Okay, okay," Gracie said quickly. "Um, can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"
"Make sure it was them?" He repeated in disbelief. "Gracie, who else is going around ripping throats out?"
She sighed. "Please just do it."
Stiles stepped closer to the dead body, stepping around the huge puddle of blood that had collected on the edge of the pool.
Like he told Gracie, the guy's throat was ripped out when Stiles got a closer look. He bled a lot; his whole arm down to his purity ring wearing fingers was covered in the crimson-colored liquid.
"It was them," he confirmed for her. "Listen, Lydia called the cops so I'll call you when we're done with them."
"Okay," on the other side of town, Gracie pressed some fingers to her temple, sighing. "Thank you, Stiles. Really."
"No problem. Talk later."
"You too," Gracie locked her phone and slipped it into her jacket before turning to Derek, Isaac, and Scott.
Derek shook his head in denial.
"This doesn't make any sense," he declared. "The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there."
"Derek, they killed someone," Scott pointed out needlessly.
"How are they moving so fast?"
"Derek."
"But they can't be that fast on foot," Derek insisted.
"They killed someone," Scott said firmly. "Some totally innocent kid is dead...and it's our fault."
Derek was quiet for a moment, blinking slowly. "It's my fault."
"We need help," Gracie interjected.
The four of them weren't getting anything done when it came to Cora and Boyd. They had no experience hunting werewolves, and why should they? They didn't hunt their own kind. That was a whole new kind of barbaric. They weren't the Argents, for crying out loud.
"We have Isaac now," Derek pointed out.
"No, more help," she clarified, a plan forming in her head. "Look, they're too fast, too strong, and too rabid for you guys."
"We'll catch them."
"What happens if we do?" Isaac asked his alpha in response. "We're just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up."
Derek shook his head grimly. "Maybe it would be easier just to kill them."
Gracie immediately went to protest but Scott beat her to the punch. "Killing them isn't the right thing to do."
"What if it's the only thing to do?" Isaac replied. "If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?"
"We find someone who knows what they're doing."
They turned to Gracie, curious. "Who?"
"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves," Gracie said decidedly. "Like Mr. Argent."
Derek scoffed. "You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm not. Mr. Argent isn't as bad as the others and we all know it. When his father kidnapped Stiles, he let him go," she defended Allison's father. Chris Argent was probably the mildest of the Argent hunters compared. "If he knows the trouble we're facing and about the innocent people getting hurt, I bet he'll help us."
"She's got a point," Scott backed her up. "Me and Gracie can talk to him."
"And if he says no?"
"Then we make him say yes."
With a call to Allison, they tracked down Mr. Argent to the grocery store. Derek and Isaac stayed in the former's car and let Gracie and Scott take the lead on him.
Mr. Argent wasn't a big fan of Scott and he didn't adore Gracie, but he was more tolerant of them than the other werewolves.
Gracie and Scott waited for him to come out of the store behind the car next to Argent's SUV. When he came out, his arms full of grocery bags, they came out of hiding and watched as one of his bags fell to the ground.
Argent picked it up with a sigh. "It had to be the one with the eggs..."
Once the bag was safely in the back of his SUV, he shut the hatch and abruptly turned around. Gracie flinched away as he held a gun up to her and Scott, both of them immediately putting their hands in the air to show that they didn't mean any harm.
"Hi, Mr. Argent," she squeaked. Mr. Argent pressed his lips together.
"Gracie, Scott," he greeted them cautiously. "What are you doing here?"
"We need your help," Scott said before he started explaining all that had gone on that night so far.
Argent didn't look happy to be approached. "First of all, why would I care about anyone related to Derek?"
"Ouch," Gracie mumbled under his breath but Argent steamrolled on.
"And second, I don't know this kid, Boyd. I don't even know his last name."
"Boyd is his last name," Gracie informed him.
"What's his first name?"
"Vernon," she said simply.
"...Yeah, could you put it down, please?" The Hale girl asked politely. "You're freaking me out a little."
Argent shifted the gun away from her and more toward Scott; Gracie sighed in relief.
"Is there a reason why the gun is still pointed at me?" Scott was offended at the fact that he would lower the gun from Gracie but not him.
"Well, there's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you," Argent answered honestly.
Scott raised his eyebrows and nodded. "I get that."
Argent sighed and lowered his gun, putting it back in its holster.
"I watched my father brainwash my daughter and almost turn her into a killer," he shook his head. "That world –– your world –– decimated mine. My wife, sister, father, my entire family. Why would I ever step foot in it again?"
"Because people are going to die," Gracie said bluntly. "...and because you know how to catch Cora and Boyd without killing them."
Argent hesitated for only a second before shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I can't help you."
He went to enter his SUV when Scott stopped him. "Uh, do you think you could do us, like, one tiny little favor?"
Argent lifted his chin. "What's that?"
"Can you give us a lift to the public pool? We're supposed to meet Stiles and Lydia there," Scott stretched the truth. Gracie gave him an impressed look, immediately catching onto his plan.
Argent would see the police and medical examiner at the pool to pick up the body and investigate the scene and hopefully it would sway him to help them catch Boyd and Cora.
It was manipulative but necessary.
"Get in."
Ten minutes later, they were pretty close to the community pool. The whole ride was silent and awkward and Gracie was nervous, hoping that Cora and Boyd weren't out terrorizing the town while they played carpool. If Argent would agree to help them, though, they'd have a significant advantage over them.
"Left or straight?" Argent asked.
"Left," Scott answered from the backseat. "Sorry, it's right about the corner."
Argent turned onto the street on their left and slowed down, looking for the pool. Gracie could already see the red and blue lights coming off the police cruisers.
"That parking lot there," Scott pointed to them. "Yeah, just a little further up, right here."
"Thanks again for the ride," Gracie said as Argent came to a stop and parked.
She and Scott watched Argent's face as he took in the scene. There was already an ambulance there, ready to take the body to the morgue, and it looked like the kid's parents were there, too, to identify their son for the record.
It was a disturbing image, how heartbroken the parents were as they sobbed over their child.
It made Gracie's chest hurt a little. Erica's parents would soon find out that their child was dead, too.
Scott went to leave the vehicle first, but Argent stopped him. "They did this, Boyd and...?"
"Cora," Gracie supplied her sister's name. "Yeah."
Argent lifted his gaze to look at her. "Where's the last place you saw them?"
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𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄:
So there's chapter eleven. If you like this chapter, please vote, comment, and share.