After finding out that the kanima sought a master, Allison and I pushed Lydia to translate as much as we could find in the bestiary about the scaled creature. We kept having to deflect her confusion as to why we were so interested in the supernatural but, fortunately, she seemed to enjoy showing off her skills enough that she didn't ask too many questions.
With the translation typed onto a tablet by the next day, my sister and I ducked behind the tall bookcases of the school library - where we were safely hidden from most security cameras - and pretended to peruse the historical fiction section while Scott and Stiles spoke to us through the shelving from the other aisle.
Beside me, Allison whispered through the gaps left behind where books had once been stocked. "If Jackson doesn't know what he's doing, then he probably doesn't know that someone's controlling him."
I saw Scott nod, pretending to examine a book and picking it out from the collection on his end; freeing a larger space for us to speak through.
"Or he doesn't remember."
"What if it's the same kind of thing that happened to Lydia when she took off from the hospital," I suggested. "A fugue state?"
My sister weighed this option but hesitated to agree. "Are you sure Jackson still has no clue about any of this?"
"He still thinks he's becoming a werewolf and that being with Lydia somehow delayed the whole thing," Stiles leaned his shoulder against the bookshelf and shook his head.
"So do we try to convince him he's not?"
"If it helps us find out who's controlling him."
"Will he even talk to us after what we did? I doubt he's excited about being around us or starting up a conversation after we locked him in a prison van."
"Yeah, completely the opposite of excited actually," Stiles mumbled, running his thumb across the end of an open page. I noticed the muscles at the back of his jaw tense."In fact, we've got two restraining orders filed against us that prevent us from doing just that."
Tilting my head back, I commended the situation sarcastically. "Great."
"His Dad, who happens to be a lawyer, handed them out for both Stiles and I," Scott explained, shifting his eyes sideways to make sure there was no one around us. "And I'm in deep trouble with my mom. I'm being forced to make up my missed Chemistry test later today."
Stiles raised his eyebrows. "Yeah and I'm not exactly winning the award for 'Son of the Year' either."
"So we've hit a dead end with Jackson, but at least we did manage to get some more from the bestiary," Allison extracted the computer tablet from her bag with the screenshots from the ancient records and their noted English translations. She carefully sent it through the bookshelf as if she was filing a novel away, only for it to be grabbed from the other side by her boyfriend. "That's everything Lydia can translate. Trust me, she was very confused."
"What did you tell her?"
"That we were part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures," I blushed at my excuse, noticing both Scott and Allison crack a grin.
However, Stiles was looking at me seriously. "I am a part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures."
At that, I let out an involuntary snort of laughter, causing the librarian making her organizational rounds through the aisles to shush me violently. I immediately jumped and apologized.
"What?" Stiles looked between the three of us.
"Nothing," I smiled. "Good for you."
"Okay, does it say how to find out who's controlling him?" Scott asked, scrolling through the pages while Stiles bounced on his heels nervously and read the screen over his friend's shoulder.
"Unfortunately, no," I sighed. "But Stiles was right about the murderers-"
With this news, the boy slammed his book closed excitedly and clenched his hand into a celebratory fist.
"-It calls the kanima a weapon of vengeance," I continued. "There's a story in there about a South American priest who uses the kanima to execute the murderers in his village."
"See? Maybe it's not all that bad," Stiles offered with a shrug.
Allison shook her head. "Until the bond grew strong enough and it started to kill whoever he wanted it to."
"Just kidding. It's all bad. All very very bad."
"The thing is, the kanima is actually supposed to be a werewolf but it can't be until-"
My sister's sentence dropped off temporarily when another student walked past our aisle, leaving Scott to read aloud from our tablet notes to finish her statement. "Until it resolves that in it's past which manifested it."
"Okay," Stiles huffed, leaning in closer to our shelf barrier. "If that means Jackson could use a few thousand hours of therapy, I could've told you that myself."
I filed my current book away and picked at the broken spine of another.
"What if it has something to do with his parents? His biological parents."
"Yeah, does anybody know what actually happened to them?"
"Lydia might," Allison offered.
"But what if she doesn't know anything?" Scott worried.
"Well," my sister put away her novel and zipped up her bag. "Jackson doesn't have a restraining order against me so I'll talk to him myself."
Immediately picturing the worst and imagining Jackson breaking out into the kanima at school, I worried for my sister's safety. Obviously she wasn't a murderer, but I had no idea how strong him and his master's bond was. For all we knew, Jackson could've already been killing whoever the one controlling him wanted. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
I squirmed and the teen wolf protested her idea as well. "But-"
"Scott, you can't do anything," Allison defended the plan. "You have a makeup exam, remember?"
As he let out a heavy sigh of frustration, Allison took the opportunity to reach her hand through the gap between the books and rest it over his. Over the shelf, I watched Scott's eyes flicker from their hands up to her face before he nodded; remembering my twin sister's mantra of independence.
"I can take care of myself," she assured with a grin.
"I know you can take care of yourself but if you get hurt while I'm busy writing some stupid test, someone will need to take care of me," he insisted. "If Jackson does anything, run the other way. Anything weird, bizarre, just... anything."
"Anything like...?"
Suddenly, Stiles burst forward and stuck his upper body through the space between books. His head floating between editions of the same Charles Dickens novel, he squinted at us. "Anything evil."
I rolled my eyes playfully at his face a few inches from ours before pressing my palm against his forehead and shoving him back through the shelf to his original position. He made a strangled noise and knocked a few books over in the process.
"Okay," he sputtered, straightening up and motioning from himself to me. "What's our job?"
"We can talk to Lydia," I told him. Knowing the level of closeness her and her boyfriend had reached while they were still together, I trusted she would at least know something. Although they were usually cold towards each other ever since breaking up, they had spent more time with one another than any of us had. "Hopefully she'll have some information about Jackson for us."
She didn't.
After Scott had ran to Harris' class to attempt to finish with a passing grade and my sister had left to talk to the snake himself, Stiles and I had tried our best to casually ask Lydia about what she knew surrounding the topic of Jackson's birth parents.
Unfortunately, she wasn't caving.
"I'm not supposed to tell anyone," she chirped, trotting with a fast pace ahead of us down the hallway as we struggled to keep up. "Why do you wanna know?"
"We can't exactly tell you that," I mumbled, glancing at Stiles quickly.
She rolled her eyes and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Well then I'm not telling you."
"But you are saying that you could tell us something if you wanted to...tell us something," Stiles pressed on.
"Was that even a question?"
"It felt like a question."
"Well, tell me if this feels like an answer," she hummed. "No."
"Come on Lydia," I sighed. "Please."
But my plea was met with silence as she simply moved faster and effortlessly darted between passing classmates.
"Lydia!" Stiles called after her. "Wait!"
Out of reach, she didn't turn around and simply kept strutting past students until her strawberry blonde hair disappeared among the crowd.
"Well that went well," I mused.
Before Stiles could agree or make another sarcastic comment in return, a blur of motion suddenly came running at us and it wasn't long until someone was colliding into Stiles and slamming his body against the wall of lockers a few feet behind us.
I hadn't seen her coming, but Erica had pounced and was pinning the boy under her fingertips as he squirmed and groaned at the pain from the collision.
"Hey!" I yelled, running over to them. Stiles' body had been propelled away from the crowd, and I was surprised no one even stopped to notice the girl in the leather pants who seemed to have the strength and power to overthrow him. Granted, he wasn't that heavily built, but still.
"What do you think you're doing?" I went to shove her hand off of the boy's chest but she simply clamped her other hand around my wrist, stopping me.
"I'm doing whatever I want. You should be careful," she warned me. "I'm not exactly pleased about how you treated me at our last encounter."
"You said yourself that you knew you sounded like a bitch. I thought that was what you deserved."
She laughed condescendingly and tightened her grip. "I was fine with being a bitch if that meant stealing your boyfriend. I wasn't fine with being deceived and paralyzed from the neck down."
"Leave him alone."
"What are you gonna do? Throw another knife at me?"
Meanwhile, Stiles was still trapped and shifting his gaze between Erica and I rapidly.
"Wait, did you guys...like... fight over me?"
Erica rolled her eyes at him with a smirk and I stared at the dumb look of excitement brought on by the concept written all over his face.
He noted my incredulous expression and shook his head, stammering.
"N-Nevermind."
Pressing harder on Stiles' chest, Erica transformed her nails into the long claws of her werewolf persona. "Why are you two asking Lydia about Jackson's real parents?"
"Why are you bringing out the claws on camera?" Stiles countered, nodding towards the white box mounted to the nearest corner wall, recording our every move.
Whipping her head around to notice the box, Erica immediately deflated and brought back her normal nails.
Retracting her hand from Stiles and releasing her grip on my wrist, she stepped back from the two of us and crossed her arms over her chest - which was already being notably showcased by a low cut bustier top and push-up bra. Self-consciously, I ran my fingers over the high neckline of my plain t-shirt.
"If you're wondering where Jackson's birth parents are, they're about five miles from here," Erica muttered. "In Beacon Hills Cemetery."
With that, she turned around and began trotting away from us which meant that, for the second time that afternoon, Stiles and I were speed walking to keep up with a beautiful girl in heeled boots.
"Wait, they're dead?"
"Cemetery would imply dead, yes," she rolled her eyes.
I shuffled my feet. "Do you know how they died?"
"I might tell you if you tell me why you're so interested."
Glancing nervously at Stiles, I opened my mouth only to clamp it shut again. Telling Erica about Jackson's supernatural identity would immediately lead to that information being reported to Derek Hale, and Derek was not exactly the saving or protecting type when it came to this kind of thing. If he hunted Jackson down, he would most likely kill him.
However, with the two of us not knowing how to respond, our silence went on for long enough that I could see the gears clicking into place in Erica's mind. We didn't need to say a thing: she had already figured it out.
"It's him isn't it?" she gasped and a smile spread across her lips. "The test didn't work but it's still him. It's Jackson."
I heard Stiles curse under his breath.
"Wait, Erica," I exclaimed in a panic. "You can't tell Derek about this, alright? There are a lot of things going on with this that you don't know about."
The boy in the flannel was hurrying along on the opposite side of Erica, so that the two of us were sandwiching the werewolf and attempting to persuade her. Stiles nodded at my statement. "Yeah, and just because you got the alpha bite makeover doesn't give you the license to go around destroying people."
"Why not?" She seethed, coming to a stop finally and turning to face us both. "That's all anyone ever used to do to me. I was invisible at this school, alright? Before all of this none of you used to notice me."
My gaze trailed down to my feet to avert her eyes. Even though I had been new at the school at the beginning of the year, I still knew she was right. And I wondered if I had walked in without Allison, that maybe my habitual personality of being too quiet and reserved would've led me to become exactly like Erica.
However, my mind drifted off somewhere else when I noticed something peculiar on the floor.
We had just stopped in front of the closed door of the boys locker room, and along with Scott's bag being haphazardly thrown outside of the entrance, there was a growing puddle of water draining out into the hallway from inside.
Hitting Stiles' arm, I pointed him in the direction of the puddle that was inching closer to Erica's feet.
Meanwhile, the blonde girl just scoffed. "Yeah, just like you aren't noticing me now."
"Erica-" I started to explain, but her eyes were already following ours and widening at the sight on the floor.
Suddenly, the door to the locker room burst open, causing us all to jump back.
Flying out of the room with great force and splashing into the puddle was Jackson and Scott; the two co-captains wrestling each other to the ground. Scott was in his full hoodie and jeans combination suggesting he had come straight from his makeup exam, while Jackson was only in a pair of athletic shorts and I assumed his hair was wet from the shower.
My thoughts drifting to where my sister was, Jackson gripped Scott by the shoulders and pinned him roughly to the floor before picking him up and slamming him down again repeatedly. Erica jumped into action and leaped towards the boy she now knew was the kanima, wrapping her arms around his torso and using her supernatural strength to heave him off of the teen wolf on the floor.
Jackson continued to writhe against her grip and backed her into the wall, but she was able to miraculously keep a hold on him, her arm now shifting to his neck.
Stiles took this as an opportunity to do the same with Scott who had malice in his eyes, with the help of my sister who was finally emerging from the locker room. I ran over to her and protectively wrapped an arm around her side.
"I HAVE A RESTRAINING ORDER!" Jackson snapped angrily at Scott.
The teen wolf pressed against his best friend's holds. "Trust me, I restrained myself!"
The hallway was filled with shouting and strained grunts as the mediators of the situation attempted to calm the fighting boys' tempers. It wasn't long until a teacher was running towards us down the hallway and a group of onlooking students were beginning to form a crowd.
"ENOUGH! What the hell is going on here?" Harris demanded as we all froze in place at the sound of his voice, chests heaving. "What do you idiots think you're doing?"
"Jackson! Calm down," the chemistry teacher continued to order. Erica loosened her grip on him and Scott broke free from his own restraints, running a hand through his hair. "Mr. McCall! Care to explain yourself? Stilinski? Miss Reyes? Either Miss Argent? No?"
"You dropped this," a boy from the crowd stepped forward: the boy who owned the expensive cameras and always seemed to be watching us or specifically me and my sister, and the boy whom I had finally looked up in our yearbook and registered as Matt Daehler. I assumed he was a part of the yearbook committee by the way he always had his lens pointed at someone. Currently, he was reaching out to Scott in attempt to hand back the computer tablet with the bestiary notes on it.
However, Harris snatched it from his hands and continued to yell at the group of us.
"You and you," the teacher pointed at Scott and Jackson before shaking his head and spinning around to motion at all of us, even Matt. "Actually all of you. Detention. Three o'clock."
Dropping my head, I cursed at yet another prolonged day at school. Of course at the hands of Harris, a teacher I despised.
"But sir-" Matt was trying to defend himself, but Harris shut him down immediately.
"No, I don't want to hear another word from any of you."
And I knew there was no getting out of it.
Wondering how detention would compare to Ms. Morrell's office and hoping to avoid anymore visions this afternoon, I battled my way through art class which had recently become a larger struggle due to the inspiration drought I was experiencing. My final project had been started, torn apart, and restarted too many times to count. I had officially stopped using red paint; only seeing blood whenever I tried to use it. Luckily, my teacher thought my still life warm-up painting of a bowl of fruit was creative when I made the apple bright purple.
Aching to go home once three o'clock rolled around, I was clinging to the prospect that at least this time guaranteed an opportunity to get more information about Jackson's backstory from Erica.
Filing into the library for detention last out of all seven of us, I was forced to take the only vacant seat: the one right next to the girl in leather. Allison sent me an apologetic look since Matt had taken the spot next to her one table over.
Fortunately, I was across from Scott and Stiles. Unfortunately, Jackson had to open his mouth about it.
"We can't be in detention together," he stated to Harris. "I have a restraining order against these tools."
"All of these tools?" Harris questioned, amused.
"No," Stiles muttered and motioned to Scott. "Just us tools."
"Fine," the teacher huffed and directed the best friends out of their seats. He was acting like he would rather be anywhere else and I wondered why he didn't just let us go, considering we were all on the same page of wanting to get out. "You two, over there."
I noticed Scott clamp his hands into fists and Stiles hold him by the shoulders in order for him to remain calm as they pushed back their chairs and stood up to relocate; leaving me alone with Erica.
I curled my toes to calm myself down but figured it was no use anyway since she could probably already hear my heartbeat or smell my anxiety or use some other werewolf power to have an advantage over me.
However, the mean spirited sly remark I was waiting for never came. Instead, Erica pulled out her laptop quietly and dropped her shoulders; giving off a vibe like she wasn't up to a fight.
"About what happened at Scott's house," she whispered and I waited patiently for her to get angry. But she remained calm and her tone was actually genuine. "If I'm honest, I was a little impressed. I didn't exactly expect that from you."
My eyes widened at her surprising opinion. "Oh, well... thank you?"
"When Derek bit me, I suddenly had all of this power and confidence that I had never had before. I've always been the girl people laughed at or stepped on so I thought, why not change that? Dramatically."
Recognizing she was actually letting her guard down, I let out a breath and tried to do the same.
"Don't get me wrong, I love the way I am now," Erica continued. Her eyes didn't meet mine but she tilted her head sideways. "It's actually kind of fun being the bitch, but I don't want to be like that all the time. Especially to people who don't deserve it. Then I'm no better than the people who made fun of me when I was invisible, you know?"
For once, her expression wasn't cold and I could catch a hint of vulnerability that I had never experienced with her before.
"I understand," I spoke softly and her hazel eyes finally met mine.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is sorry," she chuckled lightly at the idea and shook her head. "I know it sounds stupid but I am."
After a few heartbeats, I closed my jaw which had fallen slack. "Well, um, thanks for the apology."
"What I said about having a crush on Stiles was true. I used to. But I guess it comes back to what I was saying earlier about no one noticing me before all of this," Erica mumbled. "He never looked at me the way he looks at you."
"Oh... okay."
She chuckled and started scrolling through some folders on her laptop. "Don't worry about it, I'm over it. I'll drop the boyfriend stealing angle, alright? You can have him."
"He isn't really my boyf-"
"Yeah, sure," she laughed again, brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Well if we're doing apologies," I cleared my throat. Not entirely sure why we were being honest with each other, I hesitated for a moment. Although, with someone as fierce as Erica, I concluded it was better to be her friend than her enemy. "I guess I'm sorry for paralyzing you, but you've gotta admit that you were coming on a little strong. And maybe, just maybe, the only reason why I reacted so much when you talked about stealing my - er - well Stiles, is because I feel like you actually could."
Embarrassed at my own statement, I looked away from her eyes and scanned the other tables.
Already looking over at the two of us, Stiles waved as if we hadn't seen each other not even ten minutes ago.
Erica rolled her eyes and smiled, reminding me of Lydia for a quick second as she shook her head. "Trust me, I couldn't."
Abruptly, our conversation was cut off with the squealing noise of Jackson's chair pushing back from his table.
Erica and I, along everyone else in detention, shifted our eyes onto the boy who was standing up in a hurry and rubbing his forehead like he had an intense migraine.
"Dude, are you okay?" Matt asked.
Harris perked up from his marking. "Are you alright? You don't look so good."
But everyone else remained quiet, knowing full well there had to be more going on with Jackson than a simple headache.
"I have to use the bathroom," he excused himself, and he spoke with the sharpness of intense physical pain. "I'm okay, I-I just need some water."
The minute Jackson was out of the room, Harris stood up as he recognized his job as the guardian to make sure everything was alright with the students, making me wonder if he really did care or if he just didn't want to be held accountable.
"No one leaves their seats," the teacher instructed, before trailing the suspicious boy's footsteps and letting the door slam behind him.
Scott and Stiles immediately disobeyed the rules and scurried back to their original seats, rejoining me and Erica.
"Stiles tells me you know about Jackson's parents," Scott stated firmly. "Talk."
Erica didn't seem fazed by Scott's intensity. In fact, she chuckled at how serious he had turned. "Calm down, detective, I was just about to tell Eleanor."
Stiles shot me a look of surprise and a thumbs up as if I had cracked an unbreakable code.
"It was a car accident," Erica proceeded, rolling her eyes at the overly enthusiastic boy. "My dad was the insurance investigator and every time he sees Jackson drive by in his Porsche, he makes some comment about the huge settlement he'll be getting when he's eighteen."
"So not only is Jackson rich now, but he's getting richer at eighteen?" Stiles groaned.
"Yep."
"There's something so deeply wrong with that."
"You know what, I could try and find the insurance report in my dad's inbox," she offered, opening a browser on her laptop. "He keeps everything."
The three of us nodded encouragingly and I watched Scott begin drumming his fingers on the table in anticipation.
"Scott McCall."
My body froze at the voice of my mother calling over the P.A.
"Please report to the principals office," it continued to echo into the library.
Originally, I had been glad when she didn't show up as the substitute in English again that day. But another part of me wasn't surprised to discover that Gerard had found another place for her: a permanent position as a secretary.
Allison's eyes were full of worry when I caught her gaze from across the room before she darted her attention towards Scott, who rubbed his hands together anxiously and slowly stood up from his chair.
He made his way towards the door hesitantly and as my sister jolted forward in her chair, I thought for a moment she was going to run out after him. Matt watched and crunched on his potato chips obnoxiously.
Scott shook his head at Allison over his shoulder and offered a nervous smile before making his way out of the door behind us with a mumble. "I guess I'll be back."
Stiles gently tapped my shin under the table with the tip of his sneaker. I swiveled back around in my chair to give him my full attention.
"Do you know what that's about?" he nodded towards the door.
"No idea," I sighed. "I seem to never know with my family these days."
Within moments of Scott disappearing into the hallway, Jackson came walking back in with his eyes glued to the floor. The library fell silent once again as he stumbled into his chair and Harris followed behind him; taking a seat at his post behind the librarian's desk.
I noticed Stiles begin to grow impatient, now being alone on his side of the table without Scott. After attempting to crane his neck around to see Erica's computer screen as her and I scrolled through some records, he sat back and gripped the armrests of his chair to begin pushing himself around to our side of the table.
The legs of his chair making a lot of noise as he slid around, everyone else in detention stared at him. With a few more grunts from his effort and a large sigh as Stiles had finally stopped on the other side of Erica to view the screen, Harris shot him a questioningly look.
Stiles glanced at all the eyes on him and cleared his throat, pointing at the laptop. "Group project."
The teacher eyed him suspiciously, but went back to his own work. Allison, Matt, and Jackson's table followed.
Once everyone had gone back to themselves, Erica proceeded to pull up a few more investigative files on the case. The three of us huddled together closely and scanned the screen for any helpful information.
"Wait, look at the dates," Stiles pointed.
"It says 'The two passengers arrived to the hospital D.O.A.'," Erica whispered. "Their estimated time of death is 9:26 p.m. June 14th, 1995."
"Jackson's birthday is June 15th."
Interrupting our investigation, the sound of Harris zipping up his work bag caused all of the students to turn around and watch. The teacher filed all of his papers away and slung his bag over one shoulder, walking towards the door.
Consequently, we all began to slowly reach for our own bags.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Harris threw up his hands to stop us with a laugh. "Yes, I am leaving but none of you are."
I let my bag drop to the floor again.
"You may go when you are finished with the reshelving," he extended his arms to pat the tops of books stacked on multiple overflowing library carts. Harris noticed all of our defeated looks and waved with a smile as he headed out of the door. "Enjoy the rest of your evening!"
The first one to stand up was Jackson as he huffed over to one of the carts and started wheeling it to the nearest shelf. The tension was thick in the air and was only broken with the breeze of Scott trudging back inside the library, causing Allison to leap up from her chair to console her boyfriend and for Matt - left alone at the table - to shuffle over to help Jackson.
"As much as this is fun," Erica sighed and shut her laptop off. "I'd really love to get out of school before it's dark out."
Stiles and I nodded, watching her find her own cart and aisle to work on.
I stood up to grab another cart and Stiles pushed the other end, joining Allison and Scott who were tucked away behind shelves where they could comfort each other off camera.
"What did my mom want?" I asked Scott.
"Oh, it's nothing really," he shrugged off the question. Knowing my mother always had intentions and wouldn't call Scott for no reason, I furrowed my eyebrows. However, Scott was ready to change the subject immediately, as he began to work on filing books away. "What did you two find out about Jackson's birth parents?"
"Well they died in a car accident the evening of June 14th. But considering Jackson's birthday is the 15th, he was born after his mom died by C-Section."
"They had to pull him out of her dead body," Stiles frowned.
The four of us fell silent for a moment.
"So was it an accident or not?" my sister whispered.
I leaned against the library cart and chewed my lip. "The word all over the report on Erica's computer was 'inconclusive'."
"Wait," Scott hushed in disbelief. "His parents could've been murdered?"
"If they were, then it falls in line with the kanima myth," Stiles shrugged. "You know, 'seeks out and kills murderers.'"
"But for Jackson or the person controlling him?"
"We have to talk to him," Scott concluded. "We have to tell him."
He began moving towards the end of our aisle, heading for where Jackson and Matt must've been set up a few rows over.
"He's not going to listen!" my sister hushed, but her boyfriend hurried away anyway with one goal on his mind.
Stiles grabbed a book from the cart and pushed it into the nearest empty space. Meanwhile, Allison threw her hands up in annoyance.
"He's not gonna wanna hear it right now," my sister groaned as we waited for Scott to return with an update.
But it was taking longer than it should've been.
"Why is it so quiet?" I asked.
Stiles paused. "Because it's the library?"
"No, I mean wouldn't we be able to hear Scott talking by now?"
Suddenly, the library burst into action.
Something crashed into the overhead lights, shattering the plastic coveres and showering us all with sparks. I could see the blur of a figure jumping over the library shelves and breaking ceiling tiles with every leap. As the weight of the kanima jumped off of each aisle, books began raining onto our heads along with plaster and shards of plastic.
I yelped in shock, reaching for my sister, but she had hidden herself behind the library cart and held her hands over her head.
I felt a hand snake around my waist and pull me down towards the floor as Stiles bent his body over mine as an attempt at protection.
"ERICA!" Scott's voice rang out through the loud crashing sounds, followed by a shriek of pain I had to assume belonged to the girl he had just called for.
Gripping Stiles shirt, I watched a flurry of figures pass through the maze of library tables, knocking them over and aside in the process.
First I heard the sound of Scott growl, but a shiver raked my body when I heard the low and terrifying hiss that followed.
With more loud crashes and plaster raining from the ceiling, the lights fizzed and crackled.
Abruptly, another growl was heard and the three of us crouching in our aisle watched as Scott's body hurtled past us and collided with one of the library carts; knocking it over with his weight.
"Scott!" Stiles yelled and beckoned for him.
The teen wolf with his fangs out and yellow eyes blazing crawled over to the three of us in a hurry, scrambling to the edge of the shelving where he could still kneel in front of us and extend his arm out to block our group. Allison latched her hands around his bicep.
We all waited with bated breath as Jackson stood by the chalkboard at the edge of the room. I noticed that he hadn't fully transformed but was staring off into space, twisting his neck around and holding a piece of chalk haphazardly to the blackboard's surface.
While the lights flickered around us and the dust began to settle, the tapping noise of his writing filled our ears as we watched him scrawl out a message.
Stay...
out of...
my way...
or I'll KILL...
ALL OF YOU
Jackson stepped back from his work and gave us one more menacing glare with his snake-like eyes before climbing the shelves stacked against the back wall and smashing his way out of the glass windows and into the street.
The second he was gone, we all stood up from our row.
While Scott and Allison - followed by Stiles - moved closer to the chalkboard, I heard a rustling noise behind me and turned to see Erica alive but convulsing on the floor.
She began to make strangled noises as her whole body seemed to be fighting against her.
Immediately, I sprinted over to her and tried to support her torso while flipping her onto her side.
"GUYS!" I shouted to the rest of the group. When my eyes met Erica's she was looking at me with full panic. "Guys I think she's having a seizure!"
Her hand gripped onto my arm as she continued to thrash.
Stiles and Scott rushed over to help me and Allison clued in to help Matt.
I tried to keep my hands from shaking nervously as I supported Erica. "We need to get her to a hospital."
"T-To D-D-Derek," Erica tensed her grip on my arm and my eyes widened at her responsiveness. I wasn't sure if she had experienced a seizure since she was bitten by the alpha or how that affected things. "Only to D-Derek."
Meanwhile my sister called from us in relief from the aisle over. "He's breathing! I think he was paralyzed and knocked out but he's breathing!"
"Okay," Scott nodded. "When we get her to the hospital-"
"T-To Derek," Erica insisted. "P-Please."
Allison looked at us - specifically her boyfriend - through shelves that had been hit and emptied during all of the action. "Go."
"But I'm staying here with you-"
"No, if this was caught on camera, Ellie and I can't run off to Derek's or it will lead our family right to him and there's no guarantee Erica will be safe. And Stiles can't take her alone, not like this," my sister shook her head. "And Matt, w-we have to call an ambulance for him. Just go."
"This doesn't feel right," Scott protested.
"Go! Scott, just go! It's okay."
"No, it's not, it doesn't feel okay."
"Just go," Allison cried out.
Although Scott was obviously hesitant, I watched him nod anyway and turn back to the few of us. He reached his arms out and tried his best to scoop Erica up to carry her out of the library.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Stiles turned to me with worry.
"I'm fine," I nodded to the two boys and glanced nervously at Erica. "Just be careful with her, okay? She's the priority. Please, just, Try your best to keep her on her side and stay with her until she's okay."
Stiles gulped and nodded furiously at me before helping Scott lift Erica up on his feet in a cradle position.
Before they were about to leave, Erica swung her arm out and grabbed my shoulder.
"Thank you," she strained out a whisper and I bit my lip.
"You're welcome."
With that, she released her grip and Scott nodded at me once before he began shuffling away to the exit with Erica in his arms. I watched Stiles trail off behind them and, once they were out of sight, scrambled to my bag strewn across the floor to pick out my cell phone and call an ambulance.
While I was dialing, I looked at all of the destruction and wondered how on earth Gerard was going to explain it to everyone.
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a/n: i thought i was going to get to the rave in this chapter but i overestimated lol so here is 6,000 words of stupid teachers, female bonding, and kanima attacks to tide you over until then (the rave will be next update!) (also lydia's birthday party is to come!) (and the infamous night at the station!)
hope you enjoyed! please let me know what you thought by voting or commenting and I will see you lovely readers next update xx
p.s. watching all of these old eps gets me even more emotional about season 6 being the last