|| The Psychic Thing
Sheriff Stilinski walked with Lydia and Jacy, keeping his voice down as they went though the station. "I'm aware this is probably about the deadpool, but I can't let her leave the station. And, in about a minute, I'm gonna have to call Eichen House and let them know that she's here."
"Give us an hour," Lydia said.
Stilinski hesitated with a scoff, "You got 15 minutes."
"We'll take it," Jacy replied before going into Stilinski's office with Lydia. She heard her brother's voice, able to see him just outside the door as she stood next to the desk.
Meredith looked ot Jacy with slight concern, her eyes scanning over her.
"Meredith, this is Jacy-"
"I know who she is," the banshee said, interrupting Lydia.
"Or because of the other thing?" Jordan asked Stilinski, questioning why Lydia was called.
Stilinski got concerned but didn't show it. "What other thing?"
Jacy minorly panicked, worried she'd done something wrong when taking memories from him.
"The psychic thing."
Jacy laughed, getting an odd look from Jordan through the door.
"You think Lydia's psychic?"
"Do you?"
"No, I do not. I think that she is, uh...intuitive," Stilinski replied in cover up.
"That's what they used to call psychics," Jordan said. "Intuitionists."
"Don't do it," Jacy mumbled.
"Yeah, and I used to call myself a rational human being. Get in here and shut the door."
Parrish followed his boss in, shutting the door behind him.
"Hi big brother," Jacy said in greeting to Jordan as he came to stand next to her.
"Ask what you need to ask," Stilinski told Lydia after letting out a sigh.
Lydia held down her phone to Meredith with a light smirk, offering it to her. She knew phone calls were how she interpreted her senses. As Meredith took it, the strawberry blonde got confused why she didn't start. "Meredith, aren't you going to answer it?"
Jordan looked down to Jacy with a raised eyebrow, wondering what the hell was going on.
Jacy motioned for him to wait, Meredith standing.
The girl leaned in next to Lydia, whispering, "It's not ringing." She sat back down, about to start testing Lydia's patience.
Lydia crouched down, "Meredith, you came here to help us, remember?"
Meredith hesitated but smiled, "You called me."
"What do you mean I called you?" Lydia asked in reply.
"I heard you," she said in a whisper.
"Meredith," Jordan spoke up, causing Jacy's eyes to widen slightly, "can I ask you a question?"
Meredith looked up to Jordan, giving a nod.
Deputy Parrish went down on a knee, "When you need help, when you need to find something, is there someone you reach out to? Maybe someone you can call," he said with a glance to Lydia.
"It depends," Meredith said, responding well with how he spoke to her. "Different people for different things."
"So maybe there's a number that can help us?" Jordan suggested in question, "Someone we can call."
"Yes," Meredith said.
"Would you be okay telling us?" Parrish asked.
"Yes," she repeated. "It's two, four, three, six." and then, she looked up as if she were done.
"Mer," Jacy said, "we're gonna need a few more numbers."
"No," the banshee replied. "That's the number."
"There are 10 digits in phone numbers," Jacy said as she stood back behind Lydia and Parrish.
"That's the number."
"Meredith," Lydia said with mounting annoyance, "phone numbers always have 10 digits."
It was beginning to stress her out, "That's the number."
Jordan stood, backing up by his sister.
"Meredith-" Lydia sharply tried.
"Lydia." Stilinski took her shoulders, "Hey. Come here." He stood her up, "I think that's the best we're gonna get."
"No," she softly said, "there has to be more." She turned, raising her voice. "What's the rest of it, Meredith? Hm? Just concentrate!" she yelled.
"But that's...that's...that's the number." Meredith looked up, "that's the number. That's the number."
"It's okay, sweetheart," Stilinski calmly said to her as Lydia went back to Jacy. "We're gonna get you-"
Meredith pushed away his help, breaking. "That's the number!"
And it was.
||
Chris Argent adjusted a rifle, in the basement of their apartment complex where he'd owned a storage unit. He held up the scope to his eye, stilling as he heard the floor creak.
Allison looked up as her father lowered the weapon casually. "Wasn't me," she lightly said even though he couldn't hear her.
Chris flicked the switch on the side of the desk where Allison leaned.
The room sparked in a surge of electricity, a body dropping from the ceiling.
Chris pulled a gun from his jeans, spinning around only to point it at a familiar face who did just the same.
Severo.
Araya Calavera walked into the space, practically smiling. "In Mexico, we just call this a standoff."
Allison furrowed her eyebrows, looking between Araya and Chris. "Dad?"
"The girl we hired to find Kate hasn't responded in days. You know her, don't you?"
"Braeden," Allison and Chris said together in unison.
"Well," Araya went on, "maybe your sister got to her. Maybe killed her. Maybe we should stop hiring other people to do our work. Maybe we do it ourselves." She grabbed both Chris and Severo's guns, lowering them.
Chris sighed as Araya stood in front of him, not fighting her.
"We're hunters, Christopher," Araya said. "All of us, we follow a code. Severo, what is our code?"
"We hunt those who hunt us."
Araya smiled, nodding. "Christopher? What is out code?"
"Dad," Allison said as Chris looked away. "Dad."
"Say it with me," Araya whispered. "We hunt those who hunt us."
"Dad, that's not our code anymore," Allison tried.
But her words only felt like a cold breeze to Chris.
Araya raised her voice, "What is our code? Remind him, Severo."
Severo repeated himself, "We hunt those who hunt us."
"Tell her that's not our code!" Allison attempted to touch his shoulder, but only slipped across him with no impact. "Dad!"
"Say it, Christopher," Araya angrily said.
Chris' jaw clenched, beginning to walk away.
"Say it for your wife, Victoria." Araya went up behind him, "For your daughter, Allison. Say the code."
Allison felt her eyes tear, "Dad, you know that's not our code."
"Speak the words," Araya said. "Say it! What is out code?"
"Dad, no."
"We hunt those," Chris inflictedly said, anger starting to grip him, "who hunt us."
||
Jacy paced the sheriff's office, she and Lydia alone as Jordan and Stilinski were handing Meredith off to orderlies from Eichen House.
2-4-3-6
Lydia rubbed her forehead, stress weighing on her like a brick.
Jacy picked up the piece of paper with the numbers from Meredith. Tearing it in half, she dropped it into the trash can. "There's got to be another expl-" she stopped mid sentence, looking at the desk phone by Lydia.
The banshee looked up when Jacy fell silent, "What?"
"Look," Jacy said as she flipped around the phone to face them. "Maybe the numbers are actually letters?"
Lydia quickly reached for a pen and paper, writing out the letters that corresponded to the numbers.
ABC GHI DEF MNO
"Oh, god," Lydia lightly said. Circling five letters that made perfect sense, she quickly reached for her laptop.
Jacy bit her lip, absently touching her back as she looked at the name. Her eyes lit up purple and blue, fading only a moment later.
And somehow, she knew that had to be the one.
Lydia open her computer, letting the code sputter onto her screen.
Jacy went around behind the banshee, leaning in to see.
C://KEYWORD : AIDEN
The girls exchanged a look before hitting enter.
And it took.
The code stripped down into 13 names, its total worth at $77,250,000.
Kate Argent 12
Noshiko Yukimura 5
Joanne McLaughlin 1
Steve Grace 1
Tom Hill 1
Brett Talbot 1
Reed Schall 250
Richard Marsland 250
Jordan Parrish 5
Jacy Parrish 50