Chapter 31:
Brittany’s P.O.V
“Call Jackson and tell him where she is. That’s all you get for her,” Peter said as he stood there with his arms crossed across his chest. Stiles pulled out his phone and called Jackson. I held Lydia’s head in my lap like she did to me at the school when I hurt my head. She was as pale as a ghost and she had blood dripping all over her. I started to cry as I hugged her head. Why did this have to happen to her? She didn’t do anything to deserve this! “Stand up Brittany.” I shook my head no. I wasn’t going to listen to this guy. “NOW!” He screamed as he grabbed my hair, forcing me to stand up.
I could feel his claws ripping open the stiches on my neck that I haven’t got out yet. Yup, when I went to the doctors they told me my cut was so bad that I had to leave it in for a few more days.
“STOP! Can’t you see you’re hurting her?!” Stiles yelled as he put his phone in his pocket and ran to my side. Peter let go of my neck and wiped his claws on his coat.
“Does it look like I really care?” He asked. “Now let’s get to your jeep.”
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I rested one hand on my neck, and my other hand was intertwined with Stiles’. He was shaking like crazy, and so was I. He kept on whispering to me, “I won’t let you get hurt, not again,” but his words weren’t very reassuring at this moment.
We made it to Stiles’ jeep, where he shakily got out his keys and unlocked the door. Stiles opened the door, and I slid in first. Peter was on the other side of me, and then there was Stiles in the driver’s seat. “Drive to the parking garage,” Peter said as he stared at the couple in a van making out.
“What? What parking garage? There are a bunch of parking garages in Beacon Hills-” Stiles started, but was stopped by Peter giving him the dirtiest look you could imagine.
“Just follow my directions, or…” he put his claws over my neck. Stiles jumped forward, but Peter started to dig into my neck making Stiles sit back down. “Her pretty little neck will get ripped open.” I sat there, motionless, too scared to even move. I wasn’t crying, which was a surprise. But I was screaming on the inside.
“Fine! I’ll drive you! Just please, leave her alone!” Stiles exclaimed as he turned the keys and started his jeep. Peter let his hand fall to his lap and he smirked at me as we pulled out of the school parking lot and headed to a parking garage.
Peter rested his hand on my leg the whole way there. Stiles noticed it, because he kept on huffing, looking down at my leg, and then giving dirty looks to Peter. But I’m sure his dirty looks aren’t directed just towards his hand being on my leg. They’re directed towards everything he’s done to us. All the hell he’s given us.
“Now Brittany, I did know your mother, don’t you know that?” Peter asked, breaking the silence. I stared at him in shock.
“Don’t you dare mention her mother you little-” Stiles started, but Peter put his hand up.
“Don’t interrupt me,” Peter said. He placed his hand back on my leg. “Yes, she used to live here.”
“What?!” I screamed. No, she did not. My mom said she was born in San Francisco. I have to calm down; he’s just saying that to freak me out. And it’s working. “You’re lying,” I said, trying not to make my voice sound shaky.
“No. I don’t lie,” he said. He took a breath and looked out the window. “I actually used to have the biggest crush on her. You see, she was our family’s babysitter,” He looked over to see if he got a reaction out of me. He smiled, seeing the look of shock on my face. “I was truly devastated when she left for college in New York City.” I slapped his hand off of my leg then punched him in the face. He smirked as he wiggled his hand and his claws popped out. He put them against my neck. I whimpered in fear and looked at Stiles who was trying his best to keep calm and drive as fast as he could. “I wouldn’t do that ever again if I were you,” He tightened his grip. Stiles let go of the wheel and jumped forward, gripping his hands on Peter’s. The jeep went out of control and swerved to the side, almost crashing into a tree. Stiles grabbed the wheel before it could.
“Just get your hands off of her!” He screamed. “We’re almost at the stupid car garage you want to go to!” Peter put his hands off of my neck as we drove into an abandoned parking garage. Stiles quickly parked his jeep and hopped out of the car. I followed him, and fell into his arms as I got out of the car. He held me tight against him and stroked my hair. “I’ll get us out of this,” he said into my hair. His voice was shaking. “I promise.”
“Oh for the love of god, just follow me,” Peter said. Stiles let go of me, but held onto my hand as we walked. As we were following Peter, my feet started to hurt. I guess I should have worn flats. I winced as I took the heels off as we were walking. I looked down at my feet that had blisters on them. Stiles made a disgusted face.
“Is that what really happens when you wear those things?” Stiles said. I let out a small smile.
“Yes, and thanks for letting me know that my feet really are ugly,” I said as I squeezed his hand.
“No! I didn’t mean-”
“No, it’s fine, I hate feet with a passion,” I looked over at Peter. “Almost as much as I hate him.”
“Thank you, Brittany, I truly appreciate it,” Peter said as he led us to a car.
“Whose car is this?” Stiles asked.
“It belonged to my nurse,” Peter said as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pair of keys.
“What happened to your nurse?” I asked. Peter opened the trunk of the car quickly and I screamed at the top of my lungs at what I saw. I heard Stiles yell “Oh my god!” Lying there, decaying in the trunk of the car, was the nurse. Peter’s dead nurse. Peter simply pushed her arm out of the way to get to a tan bag. He threw it into Stiles’ arms who stared in shock at the dead body.
Peter looked from me to Stiles, then to the nurse. “I got better,” he said as he closed the trunk. Peter took the bag from Stiles and pulled out a computer. “Now get this connected,” he told Stiles. “I need Scott’s username and password.”
“No! I’m not gonna do this for you!” Stiles yelled. Peter grabbed his neck and slammed his head into the keyboard that rested on the trunk of the car.
“Stop it!” I yelled as I ran towards them. Peter put his hand up. “You’re hurting him!” I cried.
“Oh, you’ll do this for me. And you wanna know why? Because you don’t want Scott hurt. He’s your best friend,” he leaned in closer to Stiles. “And you’ll also do this because of her. You don’t want her dead,” Peter whispered as he stared at me.
“Fine,” Stiles grunted. Peter smiled and let go of Stiles. Stiles stood up and started typing.
“What are you gonna do once you find them,” I asked. Peter looked at me confused. “Derek and Scott. Are you gonna kill people?” I asked with tears in my eyes.
“Now, now, Brittany. Only the responsible ones,” he came up to me and ran a claw down to side of my face. “I won’t touch a hair on your pretty little head, or Stiles, or your father. Just the responsible ones.” Peter turned on his heel. “You know how wolves work better in packs? Well there are three of us. How about if there were five?” Stiles looked over at me. I started to shake like crazy. He was gonna turn us. There’s no question about it. Here we were, trapped in a parking garage with no way out. We could try to escape, but he would catch us. “I like you Stiles,” he said to Stiles. “Since you’re helping me, I’m going to give you something in return. Do you want the bite?” Stiles’ eyes widened as he stepped away from the computer and farther away from Peter. “If it doesn’t kill you, you’ll become like us. Don’t you want that? You’ll be as powerful as Scott, no more standing by his side and going unnoticed. No more watching him become more powerful and him getting the girl. You’d be equals.”
Stiles looked at me terrified. He won’t take it, I know he won’t. He gulped and looked back at Peter, who grabbed his hand and lifted it up to his mouth. For a moment it looked like he was going to take it, like he did want it. But before Peter could bite down, Stiles yanked his hand away. I let go of a huge breath I was holding. “I don’t want to be like you,” Stiles said as he huffed.
“Wanna know what I heard? Your heart beating faster when you said the words, ‘I don’t want.’ You’re lying to yourself,” Peter said turning away from him and facing me. “Now get back to work, or I’ll kill her.” Stiles quickly got back to the computer and stated typing again. “Now Brittany, I’m not giving you a choice.” He walked closer to me and I backed away.
“Wh-why? Why do you want me in your pack? I’m nothing special,” I tried to sound strong when I said that, but I could tell that he wasn’t buying it.
“Oh, you’re special. Brittany, you’re psychic. You’d be the all-powerful werewolf. Don’t you hate going outside every day and not feeling safe? Don’t you hate being weak and vulnerable? Do you want to lose that look of innocence and take care of yourself? Maybe when you wake up in the morning, the pain of your mother’s death won’t haunt you for once. You’ll stop crying when you get home, you’ll stop crying whenever you see a mother and daughter on the street, and maybe you’ll stop crying yourself to sleep.” I stopped in my tracks and stared at him in shock. How did he know that I cried myself to sleep, and that I cry quite frequently. I looked over at Stiles who was staring at me with a sad and protective look on his face. He didn’t know that I did cry every day. That was the only thing I have ever been embarrassed to tell him about.
“I don’t care how I am now, or what I do or how much I hate myself. I’m will not be a werewolf,” I yelled. “I don’t care how much power I’ll have. I don’t-” Everything went black. And it was black for a while. Until I saw the Hale house. I went down further into the ground until I saw Derek chained up to a wall, shirtless. He looked pale and sickly. He lifted his head up and howled. I blinked and I was back in the parking garage, on the ground. Stiles stood at the computer frozen as Peter gripped onto his shirt.
“Well?” Peter yelled. “What did you see?!” Peter let go of Stiles shirt and marched on over to me.
“I- I saw Derek. I know where he is!” I cried as I closed my eyes. I could feel his breath on me. He slowly backed away.
“Where is he?”
“Got him!” Stiles yelled. Peter turned away from me and marched over to Stiles. I followed him. The computer screen showed a map. “The Argents hid him in his own house. Why?”
“Not in it, under it,” Peter said. He looked at me. “Did you see Derek under the house?” I nodded. “TELL ME!” He yelled.
“Yes! That’s where he is!” I screamed back. I felt Stiles grab my arms and he led me over to him. He stood protectively in front of me. I put my head on his shoulder, shut my eyes and tried so hard not to cry. I can’t cry. Not right now. I have to be strong.
“Just leave her alone! You’ve put her through enough hell!” Stiles yelled.
“Give me your keys,” Peter said, holding his hand out. Stiles huffed and dug in his pocket for his keys. He handed them to Peter. Peter took them and squished them in his hands. Stiles and I looked at the keys angrily. What an ass Peter is. He then handed the keys back to Stiles. “I don’t need you anymore, but Brittany, I’ll be back for you.” He stayed still for a moment. “It seems like I’m not the only one who has found Derek.” Peter then walked into the car and drove out of the parking garage. Stiles and I stood there motionless for a while. He squeezed my hand and turned to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked as his voice trembled.
“I don’t know,” I said looking past him. He put his index finger on my chin and moved my head to face him.
“Do you want to talk about her?” My heart raced. I had so many questions right now, and Stiles probably felt terrible now knowing that I cry myself to sleep. I started to tremble and Stiles held onto my arms. “Don’t be embarrassed that you cry. I cried a lot too,” I looked into his eyes, but my vision became blurry now that tears were in my eyes. “Months it took me to stop crying randomly. Years it took me to stop crying myself to sleep. I think I’ve gotten over the panic attacks.”
“You’re not making me feel any better,” I sniffled. He pulled me into a hug.
“I’m a guy, I don’t do good with mushy feelings,” he said. I let out a laugh. “I’m just saying eventually it does get a little better,” we pulled slightly away so he could see my face. “But in the meantime, you’ve got me. You can talk to me about anything, you know.”
I smiled. “I know,” I wiped my tears and put my heels back on. “I think we should go to the hospital,” I said. “See if maybe our dads are there and hopefully Lydia.”
“Yeah, good thing it’s not too far of a walk from here.” Stiles grabbed my hand and we made our way out of the parking garage. My hair was a mess, my feet were bleeding, my dress was ripped, and my makeup was smeared. I also left Isaac with no explanation. And there’s the fact that a psycho werewolf is on the loose and we have no idea where Scott is. What a lovely night.
“I wanna know more about my mom’s past,” I said as we crossed a street. Stiles looked over at me. “I had no idea she lived in Beacon Hills for most of her life. I wonder if my dad knows that she did. And also the fact that she babysat Derek, Peter, and possibly Laura is a big question mark. Do you think she knew about them being werewolves?”
“I have no idea,” Stiles said. “But I’m sure she was a big part of their lives. Why would Derek’s mom just trust a random girl to babysit her children? They were a family of werewolves and were probably in danger most of the time. Your mom had to know something or be someone pretty special.”
“She was,” I said quietly, but I don’t think Stiles heard me. “I miss her,” That one Stiles did hear me say. He pulled me into another hug as we waited for these cars to pass. I heard Stiles sniffle. Was he crying? I pulled apart from our hug and looked up at him. I wiped the tear that was going down his cheek. “I’m sorry,” I said. Talking about my mom must trigger memories about his mom.
“I miss my mom too,” he sniffled and grabbed my hand again. “Well there it is, hopefully our dads are in there.” We crossed the street over to the hospital. We opened the door where people stared at us probably wondering why the hell we looked like we just awoke from the dead. We walked up to the secretary’s desk.
“Do you know if Sheriff Stilinski and Officer Mcarthy are here? And possibly Lydia Martin…?” Stiles asked the last question quietly. The nurse typed something on her computer before looking up at us.
“All the officers are up on the fourth floor in ICU. Why?” She asked, sassily.
“They’re our fathers,” I said. “We really need to see them. Please.” I pleaded as I bat my eyes. She smiled at me.
“Fine,” she breathed. I smiled.
“Thank you so much,” I said.
“And Lydia Martin is here,” the nurse said to us before we made our way to the elevator. “She’s the one in ICU.” We smiled and gave our thanks again before heading to the elevator. We pressed the number four button and impatiently waited for it to get there. As soon as the elevator door opened, we wished we could go back down.
Our fathers quickly noticed us and stood side to side with their arms crossed. My dad looked as if he were about to transform into the Hulk. His muscles were bulging and veins popped out of his neck. Even though Stiles’ father was shorter than my dad, he didn’t look less intimidating. His face was beat red and his eyes looked black. They both stomped forward. My dad looked at Stiles and my hands entwined and we quickly let go.
“Where. The hell. Have you BEEN?!”