[THE BIRDS]
"it hurts to be something, it's worse
to be nothing with you"
Song: promise - laufey
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Heartbreak. Aaliyah had read it in books, watched it in movies, heard it in songs. She knew it sucked but she never imagined that it felt like this. That it felt like your actual heart broke in half, making it hard to live, hard to breath. She never thought the word was meant to be taken so literal. But that's what she felt. All summer long. All summer long with no contact with Allison, no matter how hard it was.
For about a week and a half she couldn't stop crying. Every night she'd think of Allison and cry wishing she was there with her. After that came the anger. Angry at Allison for what she did, angry at herself for not trying harder. Then soon she became numb to it. Numb to everything. She suspected that was from a myriad of things though, not just Allison. It came from all of the trauma adding up. Making her numb to it all. Sometimes it was nice. She never cried, she never got angry, never felt sad. But she also never felt joy. That soon passed once she removed herself from Beacon Hills.
Over the summer Aaliyah had distanced herself from most of her friends, figuratively and literally. She talked to Scott and Stiles a few times but mostly only spoke to Theo or her brother. None of them knew what he had done at the club over the summer, and none of them would ever know. What's another secret for Aaliyah Dunbar anyway? She was excited to see them once school started, though it was someone else she was worried about. It was the day before her junior year and Allison was coming home, she had been home for only a few days herself.
Aaliyah couldn't bring herself to leave her room, when Scott called her asking if she wanted to come with him to get a tattoo she declined. Just like she had on every other attempt he made to hang out with her. She felt guilty about blowing her best friends off but she didn't wanna risk possibly seeing her ex. Scott told her that it's unlikely to find Allison at a tattoo parlor but Aaliyah wouldn't listen deciding to stay home.
A knock was heard on Aaliyah's window and she got off her bed and opened it. She was greeted by the familiar smile of Theo Raeken. "I brought ice cream and a movie." Aaliyah smiled grabbing the items from him as he climbed through the window. "Allison's back today, right?"
"Yes," Aaliyah sighed as she placed the movie he brought into the blue ray player.
"I'm guessing you're really excited about that?" Theo asked sarcastically as he got situated on Aaliyah's bed opening up the ice cream. Aaliyah sat next to him under the covers glaring at him.
"I don't want to talk about her." She snatched the ice cream out of his hand dipping the spoon in and taking a bite. She laughed at Theo glowing his yellow eyes at her, she brushed it off as she took another bite.
"Okay, fine. Just watch the movie then."
About an hour into the movie Aaliyah's phone rang. "Who's that?" Theo asked.
"Scott." Aaliyah answered the phone. "Hey. Did you get the tattoo?"
"Hey, uh. I did the tattoo but it didn't stick. It healed and disappeared."
"Oh, that sucks."
"Actually I called for another reason. Uh, Lydia and Allison are back and we ran into them."
"Scott." Aaliyah warning still not wanting to know anything about her ex.
"Just listen, okay. We were driving and a-a deer hit their car."
"They hit a deer?"
"No, they had stopped and a deer hit them." Scott specified.
"A deer...hit them?" Aaliyah doubted.
"Yes. It was scared. Do you know what that could mean?"
"No, I- I didn't even know that was possible. Why? Do you think something's gonna happen?"
"I don't know. I think maybe we should just watch out if something happens."
"Okay." Scott hung up and Aaliyah put her phone back down.
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Aaliyah ran down stairs already running late on her first day of school. She walked by Liam in the kitchen grabbing toast off his plate. "That was mine!" Liam shouted at her.
"Not anymore." Aaliyah shrugged taking a bite of his toast. Liam grumbled angrier getting up to get more breakfast. "Are you sure you'll be at fine at school without me?" Aaliyah teased taking a bite of the toast. Liam has enrolled into a prep school after getting into a fight at Beacon Hills.
"I was fine before!" He argued grabbing his new toast. "It'll be better cause I won't have to see your ugly face." He smacked the back of Aaliyah's head as he walked by towards the door to leave.
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Aaliyah parked her car next to Scott's bike. She got out and they walked in together to meet Stiles. "Hey, Aaliyah. Haven't seen you in a while." Stiles lit up at the sight of the girl.
"Yeah, I got back a couple days ago." Aaliyah smiled slightly at her friend.
"We have to figure out a way to get this tattoo to stick." Scott changed the subject to something he's obviously been thinking about for a while.
"Maybe we could ask Derek." Aaliyah suggested.
"You wanna ask Derek for help? Why? Why?" Stiles protested.
"He's got the triskele tattooed on his back. So there has to be a way to do it without healing." Aaliyah convinced.
"Okay, yeah, but still, doesn't he have his hands a little full?" Stiles point to the two missing posters of Boyd and Erica.
"Look, here's the applications to the career advisors. I need them sorted." The trio heard a man's voice from the principals office. "And whatever happened to the library while I was gone, I want it cleaned up." The three teens looked into the room to see the old principal back. "And what the hell is this?" He asked holding up one of Gerard's swords.
Aaliyah and Stiles both looked to Scott. "Go, go, go." Aaliyah urged and the three quickly walked passed the room.
While they walked to their first class of the year Aaliyah was pulled aside by Lydia. "Hey?" Aaliyah greeted confused.
"Can we talk?" Lydia asked nervously.
"Sure." Aaliyah agreed hoping it had nothing to do Allison, plus she could tell Lydia was nervous about whatever she was thinking.
"I never apologized for what I did. It was really messed up and I don't want to be like that anymore. Especially since we're probably going to be seeing more of each other because of this werewolf thing." Lydia explained. Aaliyah could tell she was being genuine, she seemed to have changed after everything with Jackson. After he died and came back as a werewolf he moved to London.
"Yeah, I guess we will be seeing more of each other. Don't worry about, we're cool." Aaliyah smiled and the two girls walked to english class. As much as she wanted to be mad at Lydia for cheated, she hadn't even thought about it in a while.
Aaliyah sat between Scott and Stiles and behind an open seat. She looked around the room taking a mental note of who she recognized in the class. She finally looked forward her eyes setting upon Allison for the first time since the last day of sophomore year. They had managed to avoid each other the last semester and all of summer, so this wouldn't be hard, right? Allison looked around nervously for an open seat ultimately having to sit right in front of her ex.
"Is someone..." She waking up to Aaliyah nervously pointing to the desk.
"No, no, uh, it's open. It's all you, all yours." Aaliyah pressed her lips together nervously trying to avoid eye contact. Allison sat down and Stiles sent Aaliyah a sarcastic thumbs up which she rolled her eyes at.
Everyone's phone went off and the whole class pulled them out receiving a text. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of immense darkness." The brunette teacher read the text as she entered the classroom. Aaliyah didn't know how she got all of their phone numbers but brushed it off not wanting to think much into it.
"This is the last line to the first book we are going to read." She announced. "It is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone." Aaliyah didn't listen keeping her phone on but putting it in her bag.
The teacher gave an assignment and the class started it. Part way through Aaliyah was interrupted by Allison reaching back to hand her a paper. She grabbed it and opened it up to read what she wrote.
'Can't we talk?' Was written in pen. Aaliyah scribbled a 'no' in response giving it back to the girl who seemed disappointed by the answer. But Aaliyah didn't care. She couldn't fully get over what Allison did. No matter how much she understood, or how much she wanted what they had back, she just couldn't forget it yet.
The principal walked into the room and whispered something to the teacher. "Mr. McCall?" Scott looked up and the teacher called him out of the room.
"Maybe it means something's coming?" Aaliyah over heard Stiles and Lydia's conversation.
"What's coming?" She pipped in.
"I don't know, something bad." Stiles told her.
"It was a deer and a dog." Lydia spoke making Aaliyah even more confused. "What's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice..." Lydia was interrupted by a bang on the window, they all turned to look. There was a blood stain on the glass. Ms. Blake walked over to the window looking out at a flock of crows that had gathered outside. They flew towards the window, each one crashing into it, it started slow but quickly became so many crows the glass broke allowing them into the room. They swarmed around the students.
"Get down, everyone!" Ms. Blake screamed. Aaliyah grabbed Allison as if it was instinct and pulled her under a desk. The room had emerged into chaos as students screamed and birds squawked. Aaliyah looked over to Stiles who had held Lydia close to him shielding her from the mess as Aaliyah did the same to Allison.
Her arms were around the girl as the Argent tucked her head into Aaliyah's shoulder. The birds suddenly stopped and everyone stood up. Aaliyah looked back and forth between Stiles and Allison wondering what the hell just happened. The desks has been pushed all out of place and black feathers coated the classroom.
The class calmed down as they waited for parents and police to arrive. Aaliyah leaned up against a desk, Stiles and Lydia between her and Allison. She wanted as much distance to her as possible, afraid that if she sees too much of her she'll fall in love again. And that's the last thing she wanted at the moment. She stared at the ground as a million thoughts ran through her mind about what had happened. Mostly what had happened between her and Allison. Why'd she grab her? Was it purely out of instinct or was it to protect her? Why her tho? She could've grabbed anyone. Was it because she was closest to her? Or because she was her?
Stiles spoke pulling Aaliyah from her thought, "Are you okay?" He asked pulling a feather out of her brown, now messy, hair.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?" Aaliyah looked up to the blood coming from his forehead.
"I'm okay." He smiled reassuringly. Parents began to arrive, including Stiles' dad and a few deputies. The Sheriff asked Allison's dad if he had any idea about what happened because he overheard Stiles saying he was a hunter. Chris told him he didn't do that anymore. Stilinski turned to Stiles and Aaliyah.
"Remind me never to listen to him again." He told the girl while pointing to his son. Aaliyah let out a small laugh as Stiles rolled his eyes. The sheriff walked away to talk to someone else and Stiles called Scott to tell him what happened. Aaliyah spotted her mom and went to go talk to her.
"Aaliyah, what the hell is this?" The woman asked looking around the room.
"Birds crashed into the windows. People got hurt, it was bad." Aaliyah waited for a response getting nothing but her mom staring at her phone. "I'm okay, though. If you were wondering." She smiled nodding slightly trying to get her mothers attention. "Mom."
"Not right now, Aaliyah. I had to leave work for this." She called someone putting her phone to her ears. "Come on." She grabbed Aaliyah's arm pulling her out of the room. Aaliyah waved to Stiles before she left. "I thought you wanted to be a hunter?" Her mother snapped quietly as they walked to the car, her hand tightly holding onto her daughters arm.
"I am a hunter." Aaliyah was confused.
"Real hunters don't need to call their mom at every odd occurrence." Her mother scolded as they entered the car.
"I didn't call you the school did." Aaliyah rolled her eyes, her mother didn't seem to buy it but the two stayed quiet the rest of the ride while.
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Once she was home Aaliyah got a text from Stiles telling her to meet him and Scott at Derek's house. When she got there Stiles was holding Scott down as Derek burned the tattoo into him. Aaliyah turned away as Scott yelled in pain. Eventually Scott passed out from the pain and Aaliyah noticed an unconscious Issac set on a table.
"Is he okay?" She worried.
"He'll be fine." Derek assured her. Aaliyah stood next to Stiles waiting for Scott to wake. When he did he looked down at his tattoo in amazement. It was as simple as two bands around his bicep.
"It worked." He smiled.
"It looks nice." Aaliyah complimented. Scott got up and the three teens started walking towards the door as Scott admired his tattoo.
"Looks pretty damn permanent now," Stiles said.
"Yeah. I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happened to us, everything just changes so fast. Everything so..." The trio stopped in front of the door. "ephemeral."
"Studying for the PSATs?" Stiles asked.
"Yep." Scott opened the door noticing the new paint job. "You painted the door." He looked over to Derek who was with Issac. "Why'd you paint the door?"
"Go home, Scott."
"And why only one side?" Scott used his claws to scratch the red paint off to reveal a symbol painted beneath it. It was a triangle shape with with lines bending off from each point, similar to the triskele. "The birds at school and the deer last night, just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the alpha. How many are there?" Scott began to put the peices together and the three all turned to the older wolf.
"A pack of them. An alpha pack." He disclosed.
"A whole pack? How does that work?" The hybrid wondered.
"An alpha pack? That's what my dad was looking for." Aaliyah recalled.
"I heard there's some kind of leader. He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Issac, and I have been looking for them the last four months."
"Issac knew?" Scott asked the sound of betrayal cracking through his voice as he found out the guy he's been seeing has lied to him for four months. Derek nodded. "Let's say you find them." Scott stepped forward towards the alpha. "How do you deal with an alpha pack?"
"With all the help I can get."
"Where is she?" Issac's voice echoed through the house. Everyone looked over to see him sitting up on the table. Scott rushed over to him.
"Who?"
"Where's the girl?"
"What girl?" Derek asked.
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a/n
If i started posting edits on tiktok again would anyone watch them?