"Okay," Stiles begins, slamming down blueprints to the bank on the vet's table. "You see this? This is how they got in. It's a rooftop air conditioning vent. Leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here. Okay?"
He circles something on the map, bringing the marker back up to his mouth and biting the end of it afterwards. "Okay? One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft. Now, that space is so small, it took him about 12 hours to drill into that wall--which is stone, by the way- Then throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof through that one little shaft in the wall. Boom."
"Can we fit in there?" I raise an eyebrow at Stiles.
"Yes we can, but very, very barely. And they obviously patched the wall so we'll . . need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking of maybe a diamond bit-"
"Look, forget the drill." Derek interrupts darkly, "If I go in first how much space do I have?"
Stiles gawks at Derek, his eyes squinted in disbelief. "What- What are you gonna do, Derek? What, you gonna punch through the wall or something?"
Derek crosses his arms and smiles at him, "Yes, Stiles, I'm going to punch through the wall."
"Okay, big guy, let's see that fist." Stiles taunts, "Big old fist. Make it, come on. Get it out there. Don't be scared, big, bad wolf."
Derek rolls his eyes and raises a single fist in front of him.
"Yeah, okay, you see this?" Stiles grabs Derek's wrist, holding his other hand up to it. "That's maybe 3 inches of room to gather enough force to punch through a solid-"
Derek shoots his fist forward, hitting Stiles' palm with unimaginable force. Stiles falters and yelps out as he leans on the table for support, holding his hand. He gets up and begins pacing, walking back towards the kitchen area. I sigh and go after him, standing next to him so he would heal faster.
"He can do it." Stiles huffs, wringing his hand out. Seconds pass of his seething "Ahh"s of pain, making me chuckle lightly. Unexpectedly, he slips his wounded hand into my own in a pancake hold. I turn and raise a single eyebrow in question.
"What?" He asks, "I-I just thought, maybe it'd speed up the healing process . ."
"I don't think that's how it works." I deadpan, confused by his actions. I merely brushed it off and allowed him to hold my hand anyways.
"I'll get through the wall," Derek nods at all of us, "Who's coming with me." His eyes drift across the room slowly until they land on Peter.
"Don't look at me," Peter scoffs, "I'm not up to fighting speed yet, and honestly, with Isaac out of commission, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself."
He was right. Isaac had bailed on the mission earlier this morning, claiming that he wanted no part of it this time, still shaken up from his memories of the nights before. It all worked out in his favor anyways, as Derek told him he couldn't go even if he wanted to. Over the summer, he still had trouble grounding himself on the full moon, but I had it down pact. Isaac told me to be careful, and with that, sent me on my way. I admit, it seemed bogus after our conversation last night, but I wasn't going to force him to do something he wasn't comfortable with.
"So I'm supposed to just let them die?"
"One of them is already dead." Peter remarks, making my blood boil.
"You'll be next if you don't shut the fuck up," I growl at him, taking a step forward, but Stiles yanks me back with his hand. I sigh and shut my eyes for a second, regaining myself.
"Do I have to remind you what you're up against here?" Peter scoffs at me. "A pack of alphas. All of them killers, and if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha. I'm sure Erica and Boyd were sweet kids, and they're gonna be missed."
"Could someone kill him again, please?"
Peter tilts his head, squinting at his nephew. "Derek? Seriously? Not worth the risk."
"What about you," Derek grumbles, looking back.
"Me?" Stiles perks up, "Well, I mean if you wanted me to-"
"Not you," Derek booms, irritated.
"Right . . Scott."
I sigh heavily, looking to Scott, who's eyes were trained on Stiles and I's hands with furrowed brows. I clear my throat awkwardly and pull away, ignoring his stares and looking back up at Derek.
"I don't know about Erica, but if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something." Scott states.
"But?" Derek eggs on, noticing the hint of hesitation in his voice.
"There's someone else in there with Boyd," I chime in. "I'm coming with you guys. If there's any chance that I can help, I'm taking it. I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt."
▲▼
The three of us stop on the side of the bank, looking up at our route in. I inhale deeply, hugging myself tightly. I was ready for this. Peter was right- This was a stupid idea. But we had to do something. I wasn't just going to be a bystander in all of this, it was time to stop being useless for once.
"What?" Derek snaps at Scott, noticing his discomfort.
"I don't know, there's just . . something I can't get out of my head."
"The full moon's rising, Scott, what is it?" I push.
"Risk and reward."
"Which means what?" I roll my eyes. This whole ordeal was just wasting time.
"We're not measuring the risk with enough information. We don't know enough."
"We know that time's running out," I scoff at him.
"Yeah, but think about it. They put the triskele on your door three months ago. What have they been doing all this time? Why wait until now?"
"We don't have time to figure out every little detail." Derek spits at him, looking up at the ladder hanging from the balcony.
"Okay, but what if this detail, the reason why they waited what if it's the most important one?" Scott insists, looking between us.
"Then we do nothing, and Boyd and Erica are dead." Derek barks roughly, making Scott take a step back. "I know what I'm risking. Our lives for theirs."
Derek hops up onto a garbage can, latches onto bars on the wall, and hops to the left to grab onto the ladder and begin climbing up. "And I won't blame you if you don't follow me."
Scott sighs as we watch Derek disappear into the building through a hole. Scott cuts in front of me, repeating Derek's actions, climbing halfway up the ladder before stopping and leaning down. "Come on, I got you."
I scramble up onto the garbage can and take a step back before charging forwards, reaching my hand out for him to grab. He latches onto it tightly, letting me swing for a second before he begin climbing upwards with me. We both land on the floor with a thud, grunting from the impact, but recovering quickly. We make our way across the room where Derek stood in front of a black wall, his fist clenched.
No words leave his mouth as he gets to work on the wall. One punch, and the wall begins to crumble. Two, and you can make out something from within the wall. My heart starts beating faster- I had no idea how this could turn out. But, I came into this confidently, and I wasn't planning on letting my guard down. If I went down tonight, I was going to go down fighting. This was my choice, and I was going to carry through.
Three punches, and the wall caves in, Derek stumbling through.
We made it.
Scott and I quickly climb through after him, looking around the room. It was extremely dark, and at first glance, it seemed as if nobody was in there.
"Are we too late?" I breathe out, searching around for something- someone, in panic.
My prayers are answered when a large, dark shadow emerges from behind a pole. Instinctively, I take a step forward, but Derek shoots an arm out to stop me.
"Boyd?" I call out. He turns around to stare at us angrily, his claws out and his chest heaving. "Boyd, it's me. It's Carmen."
"Stiles, now is not the best time," Scott seethes into a phone behind us. I roll my eyes- We were in the middle of something, didn't Stiles know better than to call us?
Derek and I ignore the two hooligans' conversation, inching closer to Derek with a comforting hand help out. "Boyd, we're here to help you, okay?" Derek soothes. Boyd only snarls at us, this time more violently. I let out a shaky breathe and glance over to Derek.
"Derek," Scott whispers, "We got a problem- A big problem."
I furrow my eyebrows at him, looking back to Derek, but he was in a trance. His eyes were glued past me, watching as the other infamous inhabitant of the vault emerged from behind Boyd, looking up at us creepily.
"Cora?" Derek breathes out, his voice shaking. It was one of the only times I've ever heard him so weak, so helpless. What was going on?
"Who?" Scott questions, moving closer towards us.
"Derek," The girl breathes heavily, her claws extracting from her fingers. "Get out. Get out now."
I look around the room, something catching my attention. It was a line- Much like the one we had seen at the rave. Mountain ash. I follow the line with my eyes and stop at the vault door, where Ms.Morrell, the school counselor, was crouched. I had seen Lydia walk in with her on occasion, and she always seemed sweet, but now she was anything but as she released a handful of mountain ash on an open spot in the trail, sealing us all in here.
"Stop!" I scream at her, but it was over. She wiped her hands off and walked away from the vault.
A growl emits from behind me and I'm slashed across my back, sending me flying to the ground with a groan. I quickly turn around just in time to push the girl off of me before she could attack again. She goes flying backwards and I get up, looking around the room. Scott and Derek were busy battling Boyd, leaving me alone with the girl, Cora. Good to know they trusted me enough to handle her alone, but the fact that she seemed beyond-crazed made this a lot less appealing. This was much more than just temptations of the full moon.
She charges towards me and I parry to the left, letting her run past me. I kick at her chest and she falls to the ground with a thud. I place my boot on her chest, holding her down while Scott and Derek talked briefly behind me.
"You know her!?"
"She's my sister- My younger sister!"
"What the hell is she doing here?"
"Like I have a clue, I thought she was dead!"
"Look out!" A feminine voice shouts from outside the vault. I whip my head around to see Allison, her eyes wide open. Boyd tackles Scott and they begin to go at it again. Apparently Derek's sister wasn't done, either. Slipping through the cracks of my hesitation, she grabs my leg and swipes me off my feet, knocking the air from my lungs when I fall to the ground.
I cough and attempt to get back up, but she grabs me by my arm, literally swinging me into the wall behind us. I fall like a ragdoll again but get back up, my eyes now flashing yellow. How I was able to control myself for so long without changing was beyond me. She quickly renders my powers useless, though, as she digs her nails deep into my stomach, reaching places inside of me that I didn't even know existed. She drags me up the wall ruthlessly, blood now spewing from my mouth and landing everywhere- My shirt, the ground- Anywhere within the projectile range of my mouth.
The girl sticks her other hand into my neck, making my eyes skew shut as I tried so hard to push her off of me. I was supposed to be strong, but I really couldn't blame this one on myself; i wasn't the one who was locked in a vault for three months straight.
"Don't open it!" Derek shouts, his echoes bouncing off the walls, making my eyes open slowly. I knew that I would heal from the girl's wounds eventually, but that thought didn't help me ease the current pain I was in. More blood flew from my mouth as I coughed, splattering all over her clothes and hair now. I look up to see what Derek was yelling about.
Allison was crouched at the line of mountain ash, her hands cupped together as if she were contemplating splitting it. We all knew that now that this had commenced, there was no going back, and that splitting it would only wreak hell if the wild wolves were able to escape.
But Allison didn't care. She didn't understand. She looked between all of us in our broken states and let her emotions get the best of her. Her hands skid across the line, splitting it. The two, Cora and Boyd, immediately let go of all of us and set out, sprinting out of the vault in record speed. Allison's face showed guilt, remorse, and sadness, while mine was a still, cold, hatred. And I had no problem in showcasing that.
I jog up to her and grab her by her collar, getting her white material bloodied. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Don't touch her!" Scott yells from behind me, trying to pull me off of her. I yank him away and focus on the girl, who now looked like a deer in the headlights.
"I had to do something!" She cried out.
"She saved our lives," Scott attempted to reason, but I wasn't having it, and neither was Derek.
"Yeah, and what do you think they're gonna do out there?!" Derek shouts, "Do you have any idea what you just set free!?"
"You wanna blame me!?" Allison shouts, her voice softening, "Well I am not the one turning werewolves into killers."
"No," I squint at her, shoving her away only to walk closer to her and poke her chest, "No, it's just the rest of your family."
"I made mistakes," She shakes her head, speaking so lowly we could barely hear her. "Gerard was not my fault."
"And what about your mother?" I cock my head, speaking in a bitter-sweet tone.
"What do you mean?"
Derek glances over to Scott, a cocky look on his face. "Tell her, Scott."
Scott refuses to make eye contact with Allison, his guilty eyes trained to the ground.
"What does she mean?"
Derek goes off to do something else within the building, leaving me with the two. Scott groans and rubs his hands over his face, beginning to tell the full story that happened that night- About how Allison's mother tried to kill him during the rave.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Allison growled, a mix of anger and sadness in her voice.
"I-I couldn't," Scott shakes his head, "Allison, I couldn't let that be the last memory you had of her."
Derek's footsteps pick up behind us slowly, and suddenly, everything felt as if it was going in slow motion. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Derek, holding someone. Scott's mouth goes agape and tears begin to spring in my eyes upon the first glimpse of blonde. My hands begin to shake and my face twists in horror, my eyes skewing shut tightly.
"No, no, this isn't real, this isn't-" I cry out, cut off by my own choke.
"Carmen." Derek calls softly. I sniff and begin to slowly turn around. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.
Erica layed in Derek's arms, bloodied and mauled. An ugly sob escapes my lips as I take a step closer to them, taking her corpse from Derek's arms. I sit down with her, cradling her in my arms, rocking her back and forth.
"I'm sorry, Erica, I-I'm so sorry," I sob, moving a strand of hair behind her ear. "You deserved so much better, I should have been better for you, I should have been better."
I press my lips to her forehead, shutting my eyes. "You didn't deserve this, y-you . . I'm going to avenge you. I promise, I'll make them all suffer.
"I promise, if it's the last thing I ever do."