"You're lucky I was heading to the mechanic's." Stiles turned to me in his seat and I smiled lightly. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't have called you if I had thought about calling Jackson." He shook his head, "I don't mind Jayla. You don't have a car yet." He laughed lightly and I sighed, nodding. "Yeah I'm aware of that thank you for reminding me." He grinned and brought it into the mechanics.
We sat in the waiting room near the desk while the guy worked on the jeep. "Wait, here. I have to go see what this guy's doing." I nodded as he got up and left the room, going to the room where the mechanic was. He left and I texted Lydia. I talked to her for a few minutes but got distracted by Stiles' voice. "Oh. Nice. It's real sanitary. Quality establishment you're running here." He came in the room and wiped his hand on his shirt, pulling out his phone. I stood up and grabbed the door knob to close it, so the sounds from the other room wouldn't be as loud and some liquid stuff was on it.
"Ew, gross Stiles can I-" His phone dropped to his side and I turned quickly to see his hands shaking, slowly my hand went numb and I looked at it, it started shaking like Stiles' and he fell to the floor. My entire body felt numb and my knees were weak, they gave out and I fell, hitting my head on the metal seats that we were sitting on and I blacked out.
----------------
A light was shone in my eyes and I groaned, clenching my eye closed. "Jayla?" I opened my eyes slowly and saw a man standing over me with a flashlight in his hand. "Yeah." I sat up and immediately felt dizzy. "Whoa, slow down there. You took a hard hit on your forehead. Pretty deep gash."
"Will I have to go to the hospital?" He nodded and I sighed. "Is Stiles okay?"
"Who's Stiles?" I sighed again. A figure stood at the open door at the end of the ambulance. "He's okay Jayla. You hit your head, they want to take you to the hospital, just to make sure you didn't injury your head internally. Stiles will meet you there he has something he has to do first okay?" Stilinski had answered my question and I nodded. "Okay."
He nodded and shut the door of the ambulance. The sirens wailed as we drove there, I don't see what the big deal was, I could easily just walk in there, go to my mom and ask her to check out my forehead. Right when I was wheeled in mom ran over to me. "Jayla? Sweetheart what's happened?" I shrugged. "All I remember was that I was at the mechanics with Stiles. I must have fell and hit my head, they want to check my head."
She placed her hand on my cheek to check the gash on my right temple. "Let's get you checked out." I sighed and nodded. "Mom I'm fine. I just need to get my cut cleaned." She shook her head. "No, if you hit your head hard enough you'll definitely have a concussion."
"Mom-"
"Jayla please." My eyes closed lightly and I nodded. "Okay." She smiled and kissed my forehead. She left my room that she had brought me to and I sat on the bed. This is a waste of time. I should be figuring out what happened. Why did Stiles collapse to the floor? Why did I lose the feeling in my hands along with the rest of my body before I passed out?
"Jayla, there's somebody here to see you." My head snapped up from my hands and nodded, as she moved out of the way to allow Stiles in along with Scott. "Hey." Stiles smiled lightly. "Hey, how's your head? The cut looked deep." I nodded and gently touched the cut. "Well it hurts, that's for sure. What happened anyways?"
"The mechanic got killed." Scott looked at Stiles with wide eyes. "Did you see what did it?"
"What about the whole 'going numb' thing? Aka the reason that we both collapsed to the floor."
He sighed and shrugged, sitting in the chair next to the bed. "Yeah, that I don't know yet. All I know is that there was some type of lizard thing that was most likely the reason the mechanic died. its eyes were almost like, reptilian. But there was something about them." He answered both questions at once and I raised my eyebrow at him confused. "What does that mean?"
"You know when you see, like, a friend in a Halloween mask, but all you can actually see are their eyes and you feel like you know 'em but you just can't figure out who it is?" I nodded quickly and glanced at the boys. "So you know who it is?" He shook his head and leaned forward in his seat. "No, but I think it knew me."
"Well that's profoundly disturbing." He nodded and scoffed. "Pft uh-huh, yeah." Mom came back in. "Come over here Jayla. I'm gonna check out your head okay?" I nodded and scooted to the edge of the bed. She reached over and pressed against my forehead, asking me where I felt the pain. She finished up by cleaning my cut, earning a couple winces as the rubbing alcohol burned my skin. After she finished cleaning it she placed a band-aid on it.
"There. All done." I grinned and stood up. "So I can go?" She reluctantly nodded. "Yes, but go home and rest. Scott, make sure she rests." I sighed. "Mom, I can take care of myself." She sighed and nodded. "I know I just want you to be safe." I gently grabbed her shoulders. "I'm safe mom, okay? I'll see you in the morning." She hugged me and kissed my left temple where I didn't have the gash.
"Okay, I love you guys." Scott smiled as he stood next to me. "We love you too now go and help save somebody's life or something." She nodded and left the room. "So let's get you home then."I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Yeah yeah I know, I heard."
-------------
The next day I was standing with Scott at his locker as Stiles came up to us with another message from Allison "I'm so sorry about the other day. I'm trying. We'll get through this. Uh, I know, because I love you. I love you more than - oh, my God. I can't - You and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate." I grinned and shook my head.
"Come on, you're the only one that we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?" I scoffed. "Well thanks." He patted my shoulder and looked back to Stiles. "Yes! Okay, message complete. Now, tell me about your boss?" Scott closed his locker and looked at Stiles. "He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of, uh, records of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book." I nodded.
"A bestiary." Scott turned to me, obviously confused. "What?"
"A bestiary. Deaton was talking about a bestiary." Scott shook his head and lightly laughed. "I think you mean bestiality." Stiles poked in, talking to Scott. "Nope, pretty sure isn't. It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures." Scott glanced between the two of us confused. "How am I the only one who doesn't know anything about this stuff."
I shrugged. "You're my brother. You're a werewolf. I took it upon myself to brush up on my knowledge of supernatural creatures. I already had most of it, remember when I had that phase of wanting to be a vampire because of The Vampire Diaries?" He sighed and nodded. "Yeah and you're my best friend. you're a creature of the night, it's kind of like a priority of mine."
Scott nodded again as Stiles leaned against the lockers. "Okay. If we can find it, and it can tell us what this thing is -" I nodded. "Not only that. but also who it is." We all exchanged glances. "We need that book." We said that at the same time and I went out to find Allison. I promised that I would help with the whole communicating thing between her and Scott but Stiles hasn't thought of the fact that he could just text me while I was with Allison and he with Scott.
So he sat next to Allison on the stairs. "A bestiary." She looked at him, also with a small smile on her face. "I think you mean-" He shook his head right away. "No, I mean And the two of you, I don't want to know what's going on in your heads." Allison shook her head and glanced at me. "Okay, um. Can you describe this thing?"
I nodded, "Yeah um, it would be a book. Worn out. Old." She widened her eyes and glanced at Stiles. "Like bound in leather?" He nodded and she thought for a second. "Tell him, I've seen my Gerard with a book like that." He nodded and ran off to tell Scott the message. "Does he know that he could have just texted Scott?" I shrugged and looked at her as we went to sit outside. "He'll realize eventually.
After a few minutes he ran back out to us. "Where. Does he. Keep it?" She laughed lightly at him and I sighed. "It has to be in his office. I never see him with it at home." He nodded and ran the other way. "Should I tell him?" She shook her head. "No he'll be okay." I shrugged and nodded. "He's gonna feel so stupid when he realizes." She smiled and turned completely to me.
Before she could say anything Stiles' footsteps were heard running towards us. He took out Scott's inhaler and used it causing Allison and I to laugh. "You know, drug dealers have been using disposable cellphones pretty successfully for years." Allison shook her head. "My parents check every call, email and text message I send. Trust me, they'd find it." Stiles nodded and was still catching his breath so I turned to her, "All right, can you get the book?"
Allison shook her head. "Not without his keys." I nodded and glanced between the two. "Well then we need to get that key." I pulled out my phone to text Scott and Stiles' face dropped. "Wha- I could have been texting you. You guys made me run back and forth. You knew didn't you?" I giggled and shrugged. "Maybe I did Stilinski. Maybe I didn't. Come on, Allison tonight at the game. Get the keys, Stiles and I will sneak into his office and get the book alright?" She nodded.
"Okay." I pushed Stiles in front of me until we got to Scott. "You guys have final practice. Come on."
-----------
At the game that night I made sure that the plan would work and then Jackson called me over. "Hey." He smiled and put his arm around me, kissing my lips quickly. After a couple seconds Danny came up to Jackson with somebody else, obviously on the lacrosse team as well. "What the hell is this? Dude, I thought I could trust you -" The guy rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Relax dude, it's my camera, okay. He just needed to ask me some questions." Danny nodded and glanced at the boy. "Matt's the one who found it anyway." His names Matt got it.
"Found what?" Matt held out the camera and I looked at it and Jackson looked confused. 'What am I looking at?" "It's an edit point. It's been looped. Two hours worth." Jackson looked at Danny confused and I continued to watch the video which was just him sleeping. "What does that mean?" God dammit Jackson please stop being an idiot for once in your life. "That means there's two hours of footage. Missing."
Coach blew the whistle and the team had to run out onto the field. I went to sit with Allison. I was on her left and during the game she rubbed her arms. "I knew I should have brought a warmer jacket." I glanced at her and she turned to her grandpa. He took off his jacket and put it on her shoulders, she put her hands in the pockets and noticed the keys. I could tell by how she looked at me and removed her hand and shoved something into my hand.
"I have to go to the restroom. I'll be back." They nodded and I stepped down the bleachers and saw Stiles. He glanced at me and I nodded, tilting my head to signal to follow me. He jumped up as I walked around the back of the bleachers and came up behind me. "Here the keys." He grabbed them from my hand as we walked to the parking lot. I glanced to my side and saw Lydia crying in her car.
Instantly I hit Stiles' arm and he turned to me. "What?" I pointed towards Lydia and he frowned quickly and turned to the car. "I'm going to go talk to her. Stay, here." I nodded and stood where I was, letting Stiles go and try to make Lydia feel better. After about five minutes he came back up to me. "Go talk to her. I have to go find the book." I shook my head. "Stiles. Go to her. I can get the book myself." He shook his head back at me and pushed me towards Lydia's car.
"Be careful okay?" He nodded. "Always will be." He ran inside with the keys and I bit my lip before going up to Lydia's car and getting in the passenger seat. "Lydia." She turned to me and wiped her eyes. "What." I bit my lip and sighed. "Why are you crying?" She sniffled and shook her head. "Nothing, you'll think I'm mental." I softened and shook my head.
"No Lydia trust me you could tell me anything and I wouldn't think you were mental." She nodded and let out a shaky breath. "I've been having- hallucinations. Of some- some guy. He's all burnt and covered in dirt. I don't- I don't know who he is and I think I'm going crazy and I-" She choked up and started crying again. "And not just that but that, on top of Jackson breaking up with me." Her voice cracked and instantly I reached across the middle console and pulled her into the tightest hug I could and rubbed her back.
"You're not crazy okay? I promise you. No I can't explain why you're seeing those, are you getting enough sleep?" She nodded and I sighed. "I don't know Lydia but you'll be okay." She cried against my shirt and I just sat there rubbing her back. It felt weird though. Half the reason she's crying is because Jackson broke up with her and I'm comforting her even though Jackson and I are some sort of thing. It's just ironic. My phone rang and I jumped as Lydia sat up.
I answered and heard Stiles' voice. "Jayla-"
"Stiles. You know I can't talk right now." I hung up and turned back to Lydia. "Are you okay?" She nodded and I hugged her again. "Let's go back to your house okay? Eat some ice cream or whatever it is girls do when they're upset." She smiled lightly and let out a breathy laugh. "Okay."
She turned on the car and I looked around not even realizing that it was nearly empty. When we got to her house I grasped her hand to squeeze it tightly. She looked at me and smiled lightly as she held onto my hand. I sat on her bed as she took a shower to calm herself down and when she came out she looked better than before. "You okay Lyds?" She shrugged and fell onto her bed beside me.
"I really just want to sleep." I nodded and sighed, closing my eyes slightly. "Huh, you're tellin' me." She faced me and smiled sweetly. "You don't have to stay if you don't want. I'll be okay." I shrugged. "Nah I'll stay. Improv sleepover." She nodded and pulled back her blankets and laid down. "Come on Jayla." I nodded and slid off my shoes, going under her blankets as well. My phone rang the second I closed my eyes causing me to groan.
"What Scott."
"Get to the school. Now." I nodded, getting up right away and slipping on my shoes. "Lydia, Scott needs me but I'll try to come back later okay?" She nodded with her eyes still closed and I ran outside and literally ran to the school. "Okay. I'm here. What" Scott patted my back as I knelt over to catch my breath. "We know what the killer is." I nodded and stood up straight looking at Scott along with Stiles and Derek.
"Okay, well what is it then?" Derek sighed with his arms still crossed. "It's a kanima. Like a werewolf, a shapeshifter, but it's not right it's like an abomination." I nodded along as I took in the information. "Okay well do we know who it is yet?" They all shook their heads and I bit my lip. "Okay. Well glad we had this talk. You couldn't have just texted me?" Scott shook his head.
"You're coming with me to pick up mom. Come on." I sighed and waved to Stiles and Derek as Scott pulled me to the car. "Where were you? I was worried. To make thinks worse Gerard invited me over for dinner. I had to sit through another award family dinner with the Argents. Only worse thing is this time one of them is completely ruthless."
"Oh bro that's harsh. I mean Kate was pretty ruthless. She did shoot me in the leg. And I was with Lydia. Stiles and I found her crying. I figured that I would try to cheer her up. We were gonna cuddle." He nodded and drove to the hospital. When we got there Scott got out of the car first and I herd him groan when he stood up causing me to look at him. I saw Gerard with a knife in Scott's stomach and my eyes widened as I jumped out of the car, nearly slamming the door.
"What the hell-" Gerard pushed the knife farther into him which shut me up. "Don't move. Even though I can practically feel the tissue around the blade already trying to heal, you never know with a beta. Besides, we'd lose this perfect picture. The kind old grandfather embracing his favorite grandson after hearing good news from the doctor. That's right. I can play the nice doddering grandpa who likes to cook and tell stories and be sweet and charming, and trust me, I can do it far better than you playing "average broken - hearted teenage boy". Are you listening?"
My heart was pounding in my ears, Scott was being stabbed and I couldn't do anything about it because once he removed the object, Scott would heal and it would all have to be covered up. "Yes sir." Gerard nodded and glanced at me.
"Perfect. Now, you're gonna do me a favor one of these days and you're gonna do it, because if you don't, this knife goes in her. Scott? I truly believe that it's so much easier when bad things don't have to happen to good people. Don't you agree?" Scott nodded as Gerard pulled the knife out and turned to walk away. The second he was gone I ran over to him. "You okay? Want me to drive?" He nodded and slid into the backseat just as mom walked out of the building.
"Hey mom." We got in and she looked at Scott. "Hey, there. You okay?" Scott nodded. "Yeah, fine." I bit my lip and gripped the steering wheel as I drove. "Yeah everything's fine. Hey mom I'm gonna drive myself back to Lydia's, Scott you wanna drive the rest of the way?" Mom shook her head and he forehead scrunched up. "It's okay I'll drive." I pulled up in front of Lydia's and nodded. "Okay, bye I love you." She kissed my forehead before I walked up the paveway to the house.
Her mom wasn't home and I saw her bedroom light was on, so when I stepped inside I glanced around. "Lydia. I'm back." She appeared from her kitchen with a smile. "Hey, I couldn't sleep so I made tea. Want some?" I nodded and smiled lightly. "Sure." I followed her into the kitchen. There was a row of cabinets going over a black marble counter where the sink was. The stove to the right of it was black and metallic, the refrigerator was a shining silver and I could almost see myself in.
The floor below me was covered in small white tiles covering every inch of space on the ground. The walls were also covered in pure white, giving the room a feeling of cleanliness and purity. "Here." She handed me a cup of the tea she had made and walked into another room after shutting the stove off. The dining room was much like the kitchen. White walls that were covered in painting. Once really stood out. It was dark and of wolves, ironic right? There was even a full moon in the background which gave me chills.
I studied the picture and noticed two red dots in the blackness of what I assume is the tree line. My body went rigid as I stared at the picture. I don't know what happened but I couldn't breathe for a couple seconds and then Lydia grabbed my hand. "Hey. you okay?" My head snapped towards her as I nodded. "Wha-? Oh yeah. Yeah I'm fine sorry. Just kind of zoned out." She nodded at my words and I faked a smile, turning to her. "Thank you Jayla."
I nodded and took a sip of the tea she made. "It's no problem Lydia. I'm right here if you need to talk. No matter what happens, alright?" She nodded and I smiled, putting my hand on her arm with a weak smile on my face. "We should go to bed." She took a final sip of her tea and stood up. "Yeah, we should. Come on." I let out a deep breath and followed her back to her room. The purple wall where her bed was seemed darker than usual as we laid on the bed.
Absentmindedly she grabbed my hand when she got under the blanket.
-------------
The next day at school I saw Isaac in the hallways before econ and my eyes widened. He's not supposed to be here. He stopped what he was doing and turned around. Quickly I turned back to my locker but obviously that wasn't enough because a couple minutes later he came up to my left. "Hey, Jayla." I glanced up at him and sent him a quick wave. "Hi Isaac. Bye Isaac." I shut my locker and turned to leave when he grabbed my bicep.
Without turning around I ripped my arm out of his grasp, going to class. Stiles ran in the room after me as I sat diagonal from Scott. "Dude, I just talked to my dad, who just talked to Jackson, and I've got really terrible, horrible, very, very bad news." Scott nodded and pointed ahead of us at Isaac. "Yeah, I think we know." I clenched my jaw and rolled my eyes. "I hate that he's back acting as if he isn't some kind of toy of Derek's." Stiles nodded and sat in the desk next to Scott. Just as the bell rang Jackson ran into the room.
He sat behind Scott, next to me and I glanced at him and he leaned forward in his seat. "Hey testicle left and right." I rolled my eyes and faced forward. "What the hell is a kanima?" My eyes widened and Scott turned in his seat as coach blew his whistle. "All right, listen up. A quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might want to start their own study groups, because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult - I'm not even too sure I could pass it. Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question. Who's got it, huh? Come on, let's go, buddy."
Stiles turned in his seat to look at me and I shrugged. "Paralyzed from the neck down. Do you have any idea what that feels like?" Stiles nodded and rolled his eyes. "I'm familiar with the sensation." Scott was confused. I was too but this doesn't make sense. Derek had gave Jackson kanima venom because he thought he was the kanima. Of course it didn't work because it's not him but still.
"Wait - why would Derek test you? Why would he think that it's you?" Jackson turned to me and shrugged. "How should I know?" Stiles groaned and looked at Jackson. "Wait, do they think it's Lydia?" I nodded as Jackson shrugged. "I don't know, all I heard was her name and something about chemistry."
Coach blew his whistle, catching our attention. "Jackson! Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?" Jackson shook his head quickly. "Um - just an undying admiration for my - my coach." Coach smiled smally and I rolled my eyes. "That's really kind of you. Now shut up! Shut it! Anybody else?"
"How do we know it's not her?" Stiles sighed, turning to Scott. "Because I looked into the eyes of that thing, okay? And what I saw was pure evil. And when I look into Lydia's eyes, I only see 50% evil. All right, maybe 60. You know, but no more than 40 on a good day." Scott looked back at Stiles skeptically. "Stiles, that's not a very good argument." Stiles nodded. "I'm aware of that, but I swear it's not her. It can't be, all right? Lydia's fine."
"Yeah and I told you. I was with her the night the kanima attacked. It's not her."
There was a whimper from the front of the class and I turned front quickly. Lydia was stood in front of the chalk board with the chalk in her hand, her back to the board and facing the class. Her makeup was smudged under her eyes and I quickly got up, putting my arm around her and walking her out of the room. "Lydia. Lydia it's okay. You're okay. Why are you crying? Did you have another hallucination?" She nodded ever so slightly and whimpered again.
Without a hesitation I grabbed her and pulled her to my chest. "That's all it was. It was just a hallucination okay?" She sniffled and nodded. "Okay." I smiled lightly and stood her up. "Let's fix your makeup and get back to class okay?" She nodded and sighed. "You won't tell anybody about what's happening right?" I nodded. "I won't. I promise." She smiled and I nodded again. "Alright, onto this makeup."