x x
"It's genuinely weird how much you like Halloween."
Elora looked up from a box of decorations, wearing a wide brimmed pointed hat. "What do you mean?"
Narrowing his eyes, Isaac motioned around the house covered in fake spiderwebs and floating candles. "We're in Hogwarts, El."
The brunette rolled her eyes as she waved him off, bringing out an array of Halloween decorated tableware. "You don't really think JK Rowling came up with that idea all by herself, do you?"
Isaac's mouth opened with a question just as El threw a spooky cat blanket at him.
"Put that in the den please," El requested with a sweet smile. She adjusted her pointy hat, relishing in a holiday that encouraged witches.
Witches with warts and green skin, but witches none the less.
Elora's phone went off as it rested on the kitchen table, the expression on her face falling.
Waving a hand, the phone fell silent as the call was denied.
Isaac lifted an eyebrow as he walked back in from the living room He picked up her phone, squinting at the screen. "It was Derek." He scrolled, "This time. But holy shit, this international number-" He jumped, the phone vanishing from his grip.
"I didn't think it was Derek," El defended, immediately calling him back. She looked desperate through the rings, relieved once he answered.
"El?"
"Derek, thank god." Elora ran a hand through her dark waves, slightly pacing the kitchen at 11:30 p.m. "Are you okay? Duke told me Braeden got you guys out."
"Yeah, both of us are fine."
"Speak for yourself, I lost a finger."
"We're fine," Derek repeated without a care about Peter. "We also got what we came for. The Calaveras had it like we thought."
Elora's eyebrows lifted, "You found them?"
"In a box made of a Rowan tree completely filled with mountain ash, but luckily Braeden could get it out."
"They'll definitely be on your ass now that you have the triskele box," El told him as she leaned on the kitchen counter. "You'll have to be careful."
"We are," Derek assured. "We're taking an extra day or two to get back to Beacon."
"Good, as long as you guys are safe." El took a beat, "Are her claws really in there?"
Derek softly laughed, "Yeah, they're hers."
"Derek, let's go."
"I've gotta let you go, El, but I'll see you soon," Derek said with subtle reluctance.
"All right, stay safe, Der. Love you."
"Love you, too."
Elora pocketed her phone with a warm smile, it falling as she found the look on Isaac's face.
"El," Isaac asked, "who's calling you that you won't answer?" He joined her in the kitchen, leaning on the island across from her. "For the two days since you guys shut the doors, someone's been calling you nonstop and you won't give them the time of day."
"The time of day is about the right one for you to go participate in Mischief Night, it starts in 5," El attempted with an innocent smile, hoping he'd give her a free pass.
Isaac sighed, "Elora, what's going on?"
El pulled the witch hat off of her head, setting it on top of a decorations box. "It's someone who doesn't deserve the time of day."
"Care to elaborate?" Isaac questioned as he crossed his arms loosely.
"I'd prefer not to, but his name's Charlie. He's been exiled in Russia for the past 5 years." Elora looked annoyed just talking about it. "Deucalion had only heard of him dealing with a situation like ours and I guess he thought that he was helping by giving that asshole my phone number."
"On the bright side, you don't need this Charlie guy. All the doors are shut," Isaac offered as he held out a hand to her.
El softly smiled, letting Isaac pull her into a hug. Able to see the microwave clock, she leaned back while keeping her arms around him. "Mischief Night has officially begun, Lahey. The high school needs trashing and Coach's house needs to be an omelette."
"Y'know," Isaac thoughtfully said, "I think I could get into just as much mischief here." Grinning, he leaned in and pressed his lips to Elora's.
El smiled as he pulled away, "Y'know, I think you're right."
And while the quaint Danielson house was exempt, hell was breaking loose around town just as mass murderer William Barrow was admitted into Beacon Hills Memorial.
x x
With morning lingering over Beacon, Isaac shook his head as he leaned on the breakfast counter. "I don't think you should go alone."
Pouring a cup of coffee, Elora looked over to Isaac with half a smile. "I'm a big girl, Isaac. And I'm not going to be alone, Marin is there."
"I don't exactly find that comforting, seeing as she was Deucalion's emissary," countered Isaac.
"Duke would have killed her otherwise, Isaac. I know her, it'll be fine."
Isaac watched Elora with a lifted eyebrow, "You're willingly going to Eichen House."
"I know it's terrifying but I can handle myself. I'm going for Malia," she told him as she lidded her coffee cup. She tied up the top half of her dark hair in a clean knot.
Narrowing his eyes, he'd only now realized the classy black trousers and flattering white blouse. "You look like your Winchester persona...Eichen isn't just to keep an eye on Malia, is it?"
El took a sip of her French roast, "I may or may not have a job there."
"No interview first?" questioned the beta as he leaned forward on his elbows.
"I didn't need one for the high school, did I?" she retorted with a grin as she set her mug down. "It's temporary, just like the school. I can't sit on my ass all day, I need something to do." She checked her watch, "And you need to get to school."
Never liking that sentence from Elora, he grumbled in response. "But only because it's Mischief Day and we're allowed to throw toilet paper through the halls without getting in trouble."
El smiled as she went around the kitchen counter and kissed Isaac warmly. "Now you've gotta go make up for missing last night."
Laughing, Isaac kissed her forehead before standing from the counter and grabbing his backpack off of the small dining table. "Be safe."
"Isaac," Elora tossed a set of keys to him from the counter, "take mine."
Catching the bundle, he gave El a strange look. "What about you?"
"I'm at heightened power and with the doors shut," El gave a shrug, "I can apparate again." She picked up a briefcase, revealing a different set of keys. "Oh," she held them up with a feigned gasp, "and Derek left me his camaro."
Isaac shook his head with a smile, "And that could be why." He leaned in as El wlaked up to him, pressing his lips to hers. "Love you."
El smiled as she pulled away, "Love you, too. Call me if you need anything." She waited in the doorway until Isaac disappeared down the street. She softly sighed with a hint of a smile, going back and sliding on red label black pumps. She flashed a resume onto the counter, on the move. She crammed the resume into her briefcase and headed out the door with camaro keys balancing on her coffee cup.
The darkness swelled around Elora as she stepped out of the house and into the garage where a shiny black camaro sat. She'd hit the garage door button, shining light onto the prized car.
"Best cousin ever," Elora happily said before climbing into the leather interior. Setting her things aside in the passenger's seat, she turned on the radio.
With the music that didn't match her interview clothes, the camaro carried her to the wrought iron gates of Eichen House faster than her own would have.
Elora parked in the visitor's lot, walking up to the shut gates in front of the mental institution. Carrying her briefcase as if she did every day of her life, she pressed the button on the gate panel to signal her arrival.
The fall brushed over her shoulders, Elora looking up as the gates unlocked for her. She didn't want to spark a panic by forcing the door open.
El walked up through the greenery that appeared as if they let the patients out, going in through the heavy double doors.
The orderly at the front office looked up from his paperwork, "Hello-"
"Elora," Morrell said from behind the gate as she unlatched it, "good to see you."
Smiling, she gave the orderly half a look before joining Marin within the institute. "Thanks for having me."
"I owe you one anyway," Morrell said as she walked Elora back to her office. "And Malia hasn't spoken to anyone in more than three word increments so when she asked for you I was more than happy to oblige."
"She saw me while in her coyote form so I assume she trusts me. I doubt she has much of that," El said as she followed Marin into her office.
"She also doesn't have a lot of adaptation."
El's eyebrow lifted, "How so?"
"She was a wild animal for eight years, Elora. Longer than your family ran from Deucalion." Marin stood in the way of El sitting down, "She's been here for two days and she's gotten into five fights with other patients. She animalistic."
"She was an animal, Marin. Cut her some slack." Elora narrowed her eyes, "Where is she now?"
"Isolation," she replied with her arms crossed.
Elora's expression faltered, "I want to see her."
"Your interview is in five minutes-"
"Oh come on, Marin," El quickly said. "Do you not remember what I am? As Stiles would like to say, I'll do some 'witchy woo' and the position's mine. I'm here for Malia, so let me be here for her."
Marin gave her a stern look, "At least secure your job first."
El swirled a finger in the air, motioning behind her without taking her eyes off of Marin. "Done. What room is she in?"
"One floor up, 417." Marin unfolded her arms, accepting a new colleague. "Your office is across the hall, and take off anything shiny."
"I get an office," Elora said with a softly surprised grin before stepping out of Morrell's room. She found the abridged door, the name plate empty. "20 with an office," she said under her breath, "hell yeah." She unlocked the door easily, her last name appearing on the name plate as she walked past.
Marin softly laughed, shaking her head as she shut herself into her office.
Elora set her briefcase on the empty desk, looking around the sparsely furnished room. "Better than a classroom," she said aloud to herself as she took off her necklace and left it in one of the drawers before heading out. She locked the door behind her, clearing her throat as a badge appeared clipped onto her blouse.
The odd sense of mental instability lingered over the building, Elora leaving the professional side of Eichen and coming across the day room holding an array of patients wearing roughly the same garments. They remained distant from each other while guarded by tranq-armed orderlies in blue scrubs.
Elora cleared her throat, continuing past the recreation room that looked more like a prison. She was let through into the residential halls, an orderly shutting the door behind her. She took the stairs up one flight, happening across another gate in her way.
"Reason?"
Looking at the guard with a raised eyebrow, she said, "Tate."
Glancing to her badge, the dark haired guard unlocked the ward to the isolation units. He followed Elora in, unlocking 417 for her. "Careful, this one bites."
"You have no idea," Elora said under her breath as she went into the close quarters room bearing a single bed, a side table and a sealed window with a brick wall view.
Elora motioned for the guard to leave, shutting the door behind her. She waited, Malia's back to the witch as she stared out the window.
"I'm not hungry, you can take the tray with you."
"Not even for candy?" Elora questioned with half a grin as she waited for Malia's response.
Malia hesitated, turning around when she heard the familiar voice. "It's you."
Elora produced a packet of skittles, offering it out to her with a warm look. "I can officially be your adviser," she said. "I got a job here to keep an eye on you."
Malia, having practically dived into the rainbow candy, gave Elora an odd look. "You'd do that for me?"
"Of course," Elora replied, taking a seat on Malia's bed when the coyote scooted over for her. "Morrell said you'd asked to speak with me."
"I don't like the vibes off of any of the head people," Malia told her as she crammed skittles into her mouth. "They don't understand, either. I can't exactly tell them I was a coyote for eight years."
"Well," Elora lightly said, "you could. You are in a mental hospital. I imagine they've heard crazier. But, they would put you on a different floor, so maybe don't."
Knitting her eyebrows together, Malia watched Elora carefully. "What d'you mean?"
"They, uh, they have a special floor for people like us. And, surprisingly, it's more inhumane than ones with normal patients."
"Normal patients?" Malia asked with subtle smile.
Elora softly laughed, "You know what I mean." She kept her gaze on Malia, trying to imagine what she was thinking. "Why'd you come here? You finally had your dad back."
Malia grew quiet for a moment, resting her hands in her lap as she looked at Elora. "I could see how even though he loved me, he still wanted my mom and sister to come home, too. But he can't have that because I took it away. I killed them. I did. I can barely look at him without feeling guilty.
"As a coyote, I could suppress my memories. I was focused on survival and not the wreck as much." Malia looked up to Elora with tear-threatening eyes. "I know I lost some human connection within myself, but I know it didn't hurt this much when I was still a coyote."
El's eyes flickered to Malia's arm, her other hand trying to warm it up. "Are you cold?" She pulled a fluffy crewneck sweater from thin air, holding it out to Malia.
"I haven't been able to get warm since I turned back," Malia replied after pulling he sweater on over her head.
"You did lose a fur coat," El defended with a light smile. "You'll be okay, Malia. It may take time, but you'll be okay."
"Do you really think so?" asked Malia, her eyes such a familiar shade of brown to Elora.
"I do," Elora replied. "Hopefully we'll all be okay."