The sound of someone calling my name and shaking me is enough for my eyes to flutter open. I become aware of my surroundings as my mind begins to clear of the fog from falling asleep. I sleepily rub my eyes and groan at the ache in my back from being hunched over on Parrish's desk at the station.
Sheriff Stilinski stands above me with his hand still on my shoulder. "Shouldn't you be heading home?" He checks the time on his watch.
I cover my mouth with a yawn and sit up in the chair, noticing that an hour has passed since Parrish was supposed to be off the clock. "I was waiting for Parrish."
"He's not back yet?" Sheriff frowns in realization.
I shake my head. "No. He said he was driving around and he'd be here to drive us both home. I guess I feel asleep."
"He probably lost track of time." Sheriff Stilinski motions for me to stand up. "Come on. I'll make us some coffee."
I push myself to stand up, stretching all of my limbs. I follow him to his office and sink down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Sheriff Stilinski disappears for a few seconds, but that's all it takes for me to fall back asleep curled up in the seat.
"- it's not just that she could still be alive."
"It's that she would've had to fake her death."
My head rolls around on the arm rest of the chair until it drops down a few inches, which in turn jerks me out of a dreamless sleep. My eyes snap open and I suck in a breath. I place my legs back down on the ground, noticing Sheriff Stilinski has been joined by Lydia and Stiles in his office.
The three of them briefly stop talking to glance in my direction to see that I'm awake. How long have I been asleep for? I crane my neck to see the clock on the wall. It's nearly two in the morning. Where the hell is Parrish? He was supposed to be back by midnight.
Sheriff Stilinski hands over a coffee mug over to me still talking to Lydia and his son. "Your grandmother, Lorraine Martin, faked her death?" He sounds very doubting at the possible thought.
I hold the coffee between both of my hands. My eyes move between the three of them carefully listening to their discussion. What's this about Lydia's grandmother?
Stiles nods, "Definitely."
"Maybe." Lydia corrects him with a stern look.
"More than likely, yes."
I roll my eyes at them. They are, like, an old married couple the way they picture. Honestly, they were perfect for each other and I have no idea why they aren't together yet. Well, Stiles is dating Malia...
"Oh, I'm guessing you got a story to back this up?" Sheriff Stilinski says with a bit of sarcasm heard in his voice.
"She might be helping the Benefactor."
I sit up straighter in the chair. "What?" I throw myself into this conversation.
"Or is the Benefactor." Stiles add after shooting a look in my direction.
Sheriff Stilinski bobbles his head taking in all of this information. "That sounds like a story worth hearing." He shuts the door to his office to keep anyone from coming in.
I slide my phone out of my pocket to send a concerned message to Parrish. "Hey, Sheriff?" I lift my head up with my fingers speedily typing out the message. "Have you heard from Parrish yet?"
The message to him starts to send before a new message pops up saying that it was unable to send. That's really weird. Parrish always has his phone on him. I was just texting him earlier today. I know his phone was working. A feeling of dread fits in the bottom of my stomach.
Sheriff Stilinski pops his head out of his office calling out to the other deputies, "Anybody seen Parrish?"
I scramble to my feet genuinely concerned. Something's not right here. I look over to my two best friends curious to know if they have the same feeling. "Something's wrong. I just know it."
"Haigh?"
Deputy Haigh looks around the station and shrugs. "Haven't seen him."
Lydia hastily comes to my aid. "He probably fell asleep in his car or something."
Sheriff Stilinski closes the door once more. "Let me try his radio." He crosses the room to go behind his desk.
Three gunshots go off in the other room sending everyone into a panic. Lydia crouches down and covers her head. Stiles tries to shield her body and mine, but I move too quickly out of his way while grabbing the Chinese ring dagger I always keep on me. Sheriff Stilinski draws his own gun and rushes out of the room.
I abruptly stop walking when I see Parrish covered head to toe in what looks like black ashes and completely naked. "Parrish?" I whisper, confused at the sight of him throwing Deputy Haigh to the ground.
"You're dead!" Haigh screams.
"Hey! Hey!" Sheriff Stilinski tries to interfere.
Haigh's gun goes off in his hand when Parrish punches him in the face. The bullet goes right into Sheriff Stilinski's right shoulder.
"Parrish!" I shout at the guy that practically feels like an older brother to me, but more in a best friend kind of way. I lower my dagger, knowing I could never hurt him any way.
"But, you're dead!" Haigh yells out in disbelief.
Oh, my god. He tried to kill Parrish because he's on the deadpool. Parrish uncontrollably punches Haigh over and over again.
I rush forward and kick Parrish backwards with my foot on his shoulder. "Enough!" I order him in a strict voice.
Parrish breathes heavily from the floor. Something in his eyes flash and reality sets in. His shaky hands are held out in front of him as he gawks at them, like they don't belong to him. I grab a random deputy jacket from a nearby desk and throw it to him suddenly remembering that he's naked.
I look over my shoulder to Lydia. "Call Scott."
"What's going on?" Parrish stands in the doorway of my bedroom.
I finish pulling on Allison's leather jacket and pull my hair out from under it. "We're going to talk about it at Derek's." I grimace just by saying his name. "We're meeting Scott there and he'll help explain everything."
He stands still in the doorway to prevent me from leaving my room. "You can explain how I'm not dead after being burned alive?"
"Surprisingly, yes." I cross my arms over my chest. "There's a lot about this town that you don't know about- and a lot about me."
"You mean how Lydia and Stiles call you Clara instead of Claire?" Parrish surprises me by saying. He must have noticed the alarmed reaction from me. "And how you easily became friends with all of them, like, you've known them for years?" He points to my bow in the corner of my room that I haven't put away yet. "And the fact that you use a bow much like Clara Argent did and you act just like her?"
Taken aback, I observe Parrish's body language as he shares all of this with me. His stance is straight and tight. How does he know all of this? Parrish is much more observant than anyone ever gives him credit for. My mouth opens and then shuts unable to form a word or even a proper sentence.
"So what? Lydia's psychic and you've been reincarnated?"
How is he taking this so well? How did Parrish figure out who I really was and Derek did not? Liam's words from yesterday come back to me. The younger beta seems to know what he was talking about.
I struggle to find the right words to say. "In a way, yes, but it gets a little more complicated than that."
"So, you're actually Clara Argent?" Parrish furrows his eyebrows together with his arms matching mine as they fold over his chest. I slowly nod my head and bite down on my lip. "If you were trying to be subtle about all of it, you shouldn't have picked such an obvious name. I mean, Claire Silver? Really?"
A giggle slips between my lips in relief. "I-I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, but Scott and I will explain all of it when we get to Derek's."
"That explains why I felt like I could trust you when we first met." Parrish mutters under his breath. "There was just something about you that felt familiar and the way you acted- Oh, wow. You attended your own funeral."
I groan at the memory. "That was when I came back to life. It was hard to take in." I push on his chest to get him to move out of my doorway and down the hallway of our apartment. "We can talk all about my coming back to life when we get back home. Right now, we really need to go. Stiles and Lydia are still waiting for us downstairs.
Parrish lets me push him backwards all the way to the door. "Okay, okay."
Twenty minutes later, Parrish has his hands out in front of him for Derek to examine. The rest of us- Lydia, Scott, and myself- silently watch Derek flip Parrish's hands over. I made sure to keep my distance from Derek when we walked inside of his loft because he shot me a dirty look. Apparently, he's going to hold a grudge to me for 'pretending' to be Clara.
"He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asks him. His hands fall back to his side.
Parrish nods his head and folds his arms back over his chest.
"It's the hair and nails, isn't it?" Lydia questions out loud. "The parts of the boy that are essentially dead."
Derek angles his head to talk to her. "Well, they should be gone."
"I was set on fire. All of me should be gone." Parrish reminds all of us as if we've forgotten.
"Not if you're like us." Scott tells him.
Parrish stares at him, perplexed. "Like you?"
"I don't think he's like us."
"Then what is he?" I demand. Parrish has to be something. No human can be burned alive and live to tell the tale like he did. He's not worth a crazy amount on the deadpool, but he's on there nonetheless.
Derek briefly looks in my direction, annoyance hidden deep within his dark eyes. "Sorry, but I have no idea."
"But you knew about Jackson and Kira." Scott presses on.
"This is a little out of my experience." Derek responds, "There might be something in the bestiary. Did you try Argent?"
The mention of my dad forces my lips to turn downwards. "I-I don't know where he is." Sometimes, dad would just fall off the grid and disappear for a couple of days. This was one of those times and it was seriously worrying me.
Parrish interrupts us, "Okay, hold on. What's a bestiary?" His head moves from side to side. "Actually, that's not even my first question. Just- Just tell me one thing. Are all of you like Lydia? Are you all psychic?"
Derek scrunches his face at his comment. "Psychic?"
"Yeah."
"Not exactly." I tell him.
"Okay then what are you?"
Scott shares a look with me before flicking his werewolf eyes on. The color red shines back and he turns to Parrish.
"Whoa." Parrish stares at the color change in Scott's eyes.
I set a hand on his bicep. "You should probably sit down. This is a lot to take in." I lead him over to the couch with the low table. I press down on his shoulder to get him to sit down. "Scott's a werewolf. That's how he has the ability to change his eye color among many other supernatural abilities."
A look of doubt is thrown my way.
I settle down on the couch next to him. "Yeah, werewolfs exist. So do banshees like Lydia, kitsunes like Kira and her mom, Liam is a werewolf, too. There's kanimas-"
"What's a kanima?" He cuts me off.
I look over at Scott for him to join in.
Scott sits down on the arm of the couch near me. "We'll get back to that. Just know that everyone like us- everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the deadpool."
"But I don't even know what I am."
"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek deadpans.
Parrish looks from Derek to me. "How many professional assassins are we talking about?"
Lydia walks to a new spot in the room to stand. "We're starting to lose count."
"But is it still just professionals? How did Haigh even know about the list?" I think over the events of tonight- or this early morning I should say.
Parrish bobs his head, understanding where I am coming from. "I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance."
I lean forward with my chin in the palm of my hands. "That means anyone with the deadpool could take a chance." I run my fingers through my hair, willing myself not to freak out. This just makes everything harder.
"But if Haigh had it, then who else does? How easy is it to get this thing now?"
XXXX
Sometimes, I have enough time to update my stories and I take advantage of that. Lately, I've been able to update this story quite a bit. Now, all of that might change tomorrow because I won't be home. It's a family thing. Enjoy what I did update.
You might might get another update tonight- or should I say this early morning? It's nearly two in the morning where I am.
Anyways, PARRISH FIGURED IT OUT. He's a lot smarter than people think.
Just so everyone knows, Liam was not flirting with her in the last chapter. He was just stating the truth and giving her advice. Nothing more than that.
Question: Do you want another scene between Kate and Clara?
So, yeah!