After Stiles' voice from the radio had lost contact with us, Scott and I made our way to the sheriff's office.
We were going to attempt to convince him that Stiles was indeed real and his son. I hadn't been working so far.
"Alright." Sheriff sighed, shutting the door behind him as Scott and I ushered into his office.
"You heard a voice coming through the radio, and now you're convinced that it's the voice of-" Scott cut him off.
"Stiles." Scott said firmly. "Your son."
The Sheriff nodded, crossing his arms as he glanced at us with a confused expression. "Uh-huh. And maybe it's just a random signal cross?"
I narrowed my gaze, reaching into my pocket, slamming the keys onto the table. "Peter gave us the keys to the jeep and it started right up. Claudia's Jeep."
"Oh, wait, wait. Now I'm supposed to trust Peter Hale?"
I shook my head. "Sheriff. I want you to trust me."
Scott sighed. "I heard Stiles on that radio. I'm sure of it. We're all sure of it." He said, glancing over to me, causing me to smile.
"If you had heard it too-" Sheriff cut him off. "Well, I didn't"
"Yeah. But if you had-"
"Enough!" Sheriff yelled, pushing the keys back towards us. "The both of you, out."
I narrowed my eyes, snatching the keys off his desk before storming out of the room.
"Aubrey, you know he can't help it." Scott trailed off, causing me to shake my head.
"I'm sick of everyone telling me he's not real Scott. You know how hard it is." I muttered, turning towards him as I leaned against the car.
"Trying to convince all of our friends that the one person, that means so much to me is actually real. That I'm not going crazy?"
Scott placed his hand on my shoulder. "Aubrey I remember him." He stated, causing me to chuckle.
"Now you do. But before we found his jeep, you didn't even think twice about agreeing with Malia that he wasn't."
Scott sighed. "Aubrey, we had no proof-"
I laughed. "You sound like dad."
I ignored his calls, walking into the library, sitting down with Malia and Lydia.
"You saw a carousel?" Malia asked as I sat down, causing me to furrow my eyebrows.
"What?"
Malia turned towards me. "Lydia had a dream about Canaan." She said, causing my eyes to widen.
"Canaan? As in the place, Stiles was talking about?" I asked, causing Lydia to nod.
"There was a big sigh that said, Canaan. And people disappearing in clouds of smoke."
Lydia shifted in her seat as Malia turned her gaze away from the computer. "Do you ever have nice dreams?"
Lydia rolled her eyes. "We need to go to Canaan." She stated as I nodded. "Agreed."
"It would be helpful if we actually knew someone about the place before just invading it." Malia pointed out. "I keep calling the number for City Hall, and no one answers. The only map I can find it on is 30 years old." Malia said as she pulled out a map from her pocket.
"So far, the only thing I know about Canaan is where it is." She said as she laid her finger on the dot.
I shrugged, picking up the map from the table, stepping away from my chair. "That's all we need to know."
We had been driving around for about 2 hours now, pulling up to a deserted city. Cars left abandoned on the street. The buildings covered in dust. A thin layer of fog covered the road as Scott, Malia, Lydia, and I got out of the car.
"According to the GPS, this is it." Lydia muttered, taking a few steps forward.
There was no sign of life anywhere, which made me wonder. What if this is what Beacon Hills would look like once the Ghost Riders had gotten all of us?
"This is it." Lydia confirmed. "Canaan's a ghost town."
A slight wind blew, causing dirt to fly off the ground. "I don't hear a single heartbeat." I muttered as we trailed deeper into the deserted town.
"I'm not catching any scents." Malia added.
"I wonder why Stiles would send us here." Scott questioned, causing me to roll my eyes. As if it wasn't obvious. My brother really wasn't as smart as you think he would be, considering the fact that he is the leader of a pack.
"This is the place I saw in the mirror." Lydia confirmed, glancing upwards.
A sign hung down from two broken lamp posts, faintly reading Canaan in a musty red paint. Walking towards the right, I noticed a carousel, perhaps the one Lydia had seen in her vision.
As I got closer to the carousel, small details started to stick out.
The wood of the houses was stained a bright red; it also looked as if it was decades old.
Bending down, I picked up an old newspaper, wiping off the dirt smudges from the print. The paper had been dated from the year 1874; it was over 30 years old.
Had this town been taken by the Ghost Riders that long ago? What took them so long to come to Beacon Hills.
I placed the paper back on the ground, shifting my attention back to the carousel. As I stepped closer to the machine, I noticed a small symbol, printed on the side of one of the sides of the middle.
I carefully stepped onto the carousel, observing the symbol. It looked like a triangle, but the top of it had been shaved off. An L-shaped line was coming off of it.
Suddenly, the carousel started to move, causing me to grip onto the bar. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that this wouldn't be my last ride.
As I opened my eyes, I was no longer on the carousel, but at the back of the school. It was dark, rain pouring down onto the ground.
A familiar figure stood a few feet away from me. As I took a few steps forward, I instantly realized who it was.
"Stiles?" I muttered as he stood motionless, his face stone-cold. "St-" I went to say before a figure appeared behind him.
It was me, but not me at the same time. Same face, different feeling.
"Void Aubrey." I bit my lip as she cracked a smirk. Her hands flung to Stiles' neck, twisting it, causing him to fall to the ground.
I felt my heart drop as I ran towards him, kneeling to the ground.
"No.no.no. Stiles." I muttered, lifting his head off the ground.
"You see Aubrey." Void Aubrey said, pain shooting into my head as I was lifted away from Stiles.
She pulled me back, pinning my hair against the wall. "You didn't get rid of me. And you never will."
I felt a tear drip down my face as I shut them tightly.
"Aubrey?" I heard a new voice say, causing me to open my eyes.
Scott stood in front of me, holding out his hand. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, slowly standing up, grabbing his hand. "I think I had a hallucination."
I stepped off the carousel as Lydia and Malia came up to us. "The energy here, it's causing us all to have hallucinations. We can't stay here."
I shook my head. "We can't leave. Not until we figure out why Stiles sent us here."
Malia rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Who are we going to ask? There's no one here."
"We can ask him." Lydia said, pointing to a little blonde boy across the street. He had his back turned away from us, looking at a house in front of him.
"Hey!" Malia yelled, causing the boy to turn around before running off down the street.
"What do we do?" Lydia whispered.
"Go after him!" I said, running in the same direction as the boy.
As we ran down the street, I stopped after the boy was out of sight, stopping in front of the house he was looking at. As I watched the house, I noticed movement coming from the curtains.
"Guys." I muttered as the curtains stopped moving.
Walking up the pathway, I slowly opened the door, peering inside the house.
"Hello?" I asked, walking into the house, Scott following behind me. "Anybody here?"
"Visitors?" A voice said, causing me to whip my head to the right. An older woman stood in the room, smiling.
She chuckled to herself. "I can't believe we have visitors." She clapped her hands together.
"Caleb will be so happy to see you. It's been such a long time since he's had anyone to play with." She was smiling to herself, staring at the ceiling.
Suddenly, she brought her head down, holding up a finger as she turned her gaze to meet our confused ones.
"Oh, you must be thirsty." She beckoned us forward. "Come on in and have a seat while I get you something to drink."
We slowly followed her into her dining room, taking seats at her table. "I'll be right back." She said as she walked out of the room.
"Seriously? What is wrong with her?" Malia asked, causing Lydia to sigh.
"She's the woman I saw in the mirror."
The woman came back into the room, placing a glass of yellow liquid in front of the each of us. "This was my mother's lemonade recipe. At least as much as I can remember." She chuckled to herself as she placed down the tray she had used to carry them.
"We always served this when we had friends to visit."
I glanced down at the glass, before looking up at the others. Scott and Lydia had pushed the glass away from them, while Malia had been chugging it down.
"We didn't come to visit. We're looking for someone." Lydia stated, causing me to nod.
"A friend of ours. Maybe you've seen him. His name is Stiles?" I said hopefully.
The woman shook her head. "It's been a while since anyone came through Canaan."
"How long." Lydia asked, pursing her lips together.
The woman glanced down at the table as Malia pulled out the newspaper from earlier. "Since April 8th, 1987?"
The woman shot up from the table, narrowing her eyes. She yanked the newspaper out of Malia's grasp. "Why would you disturb those things? They don't belong to you."
Scott stood up from his chair, watching the woman. "We need to know what happened."
The woman sighed, her heartbeat pounding faster than ever. "There was a picnic. A community party."
Lydia nodded. "It seems like everyone left in a hurry."
The woman shrugged her shoulders. "People have been leaving Canaan for a long time." She placed the newspaper back on the table. "That's the day the last of them left."
"All at once?" I questioned. "They all just disappeared?"
The woman violently shook her head. "I didn't say they disappeared. I said they left."
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Did they leave in a cloud of green smoke?"
"They just left!" The woman screamed, causing the pot in the back of us to break.
I slowly stood up from my chair. "We didn't mean to upset you."
Scott nodded. "We'll go now."
As Scott was about to grab onto the door, it slammed shut, causing us to whip around to face the woman, who held her hands out at the door.
"No one is leaving. No one is leaving Canaan ever again."
Scott gripped onto the door knob, attempting to pull the door open.
"Scott you're a damn werewolf, just open the door." I muttered causing him to sigh. "I'm trying."
Malia glanced around the room, shaking her head. "What the hell is wrong with this place?"
Lydia took a deep breath, turning towards the woman. "Lenore? Could you unlock the door, please?"
"Now that you're here, you need to stay." Lenore said, not removing her gaze off of Lydia.
"Caleb likes you." She mumbled causing Lydia to nod.
"And we like him." She said as she edged closer to her. "But we need to help our own town. People are disappearing, uh, leaving. I mean leaving." She corrected herself.
"You could really help us." Lydia pleaded as Lenore shook her head.
"No one can help you." She shook her head. "If they want to leave, they're going to leave. They'll go, and they'll go, and there won't be anything you can do about it."
As Lenore stared down Lydia, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I noticed the little boy from earlier, whom I presumed was Caleb.
"Come with me." He said, his voice deeper than expected.
I glanced back at Scott and Malia, hesitantly taking a step forward. Lydia glanced back at us, giving us a small nod.
"Go."
Turning around, we followed Caleb towards the door at the end of the hall. Slowly pushing the door open, I noticed Caleb, standing in front of a tv, static coming out of it.
I stepped down the stairs, my sock getting damp. Looking down, I noticed a thin layer of water covered the floor.
Scott ran over to the window, trying to undo the latch, sighing in defeat as he brought his arms down.
"Caleb, can you help us find a way out of here?" Malia asked as Caleb turned around, playing a VCR tape into the tv, turning it on.
"You have to stay because Mommy said so."
On the screen was a video of Caleb, dated back to August 12th, 1985.
Scott shook his head. "No, we can't stay. We have to go home."
"This is home." a voice came from Caleb's mouth, except it wasn't him. It sounded like Lenore.
"Scott? Malia?" I whispered, beckoning them over to me. "Come here."
They slowly inched their way over to me as I pointed at the television screen.
"Look at the date."
Scott squinted his eyes as he glanced at the screen.
"Uh, Caleb?" Malia asked. "Do you know what year you were born?"
Caleb nodded, standing up. "1976." He answered, his hair dripping with water, as well as his clothes.
I took a step back, crossing my arms. "And when did you die?"
Caleb walked back towards the stairs as water started to pour into the room. It poured down the walls, from the ceiling, dripping onto the floor.
"Am I having another hallucination?" I asked, watching as the water poured down.
"If you are, I'm having the same one." Scott answered.
"Me too." Malia agreed.
Lydia's scream erupted into the air, causing Scott and I to share a worried glance.
"We've got to get out of here." Scott stated, causing Malia to nod.
"I know neither of you are going to beat an eight-year old's ass, but I will." Her claws came out, her eyes turning blue as she ran towards the kid.
As she was about to slash him, she grasped onto her neck, coughing.
"Malia?" I questioned as she fell to the ground. She continued to cough as Caleb stared down at her.
"You don't look so good. Maybe you should sit down." She started coughing up water as even more water poured into the room.
Scott and I ran towards Malia, kneeling down next to her. Scott took ahold of Malia's throat as she continued to vomit up water.
"Breath, Malia, you have to breathe." Scott encouraged her, but receiving no reaction.
"Lydia!" I screamed, trying to run up the stairs.
Suddenly, my throat started to burn as something felt like it was coming up it. I heaved, leaning onto the stairs as water came from my mouth.
"What are you doing to us?" Scott questioned as my throat started to hurt even more.
"You're drowning just like me. Now we can be friends forever." Caleb said as the pain got worse.
Now I truly knew how Matt felt back when he told us his story. My lungs felt like they were going to collapse any moment. My heartbeat was getting slower by every second that my brain had without air.
My eyes started to grow heavy, it took every muscle in my body to keep them open.
As I slowly started to shut, my lungs filled with oxygen. I gasped for air, taking in a deep breath as the pain started to subside.
"Are you okay?" Scott, Malia, and I said at the same time.
I nodded, slowly standing up.
"Mommy says you can go now." Caleb said.
Without hesitation, I quickly ran out of the room, Scott and Malia following behind me. We all quickly made our way out of the house, not looking back as we headed for the car.
"You guys think Stiles sent us here to warn us?" Scott asked, causing me roll my eyes.
"Isn't it obvious. He's trying to tell us that Beacon Hills is going to be the next ghost town." I answered, causing Malia to nod.
"If we don't stop it, yes."
Scott nodded. "We need to get them to leave. Now."
I shook my head. "We can't. Not yet."
"Why can't we get rid of them?" Scott asked as he turned towards me.
"Because Stiles is still in there. I'm not letting him go that easily." I replied.
"She's right." Lydia stated. "I saw what happens to the people they've taken when they leave. It's something worse than death. I felt it in Lenore's memory. It's like their souls hollowed out. I think they become Ghost Riders."
"So what happens after that?" Malia asked, causing Lydia to shrug.
"They were gone."
Lydia pulled up to the house, parking in the driveway. I got out of the car, walking up to the front door.
"You okay?" I heard Scott ask. Turning my head, I noticed he held Lydia behind, who had a distraught look on her face.
I turned back around, opening the door, walking into the kitchen. As I entered the room, my eyes widened, my heart dropping.
"Theo?"
A/N: I have to say, Season 6A was amazing. I'm kind of upset about the fact that they just randomly go to college though. I was expecting more out of it and it sucks that 6B won't be out until the summer.
I have plans for this book though when I do finish 6A because obviously it's going to end before 6B comes out. I hope you guys will enjoy the chapters I have to come <3
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