|| The Dread Doctors
"You don't think we'll get caught, do you?"
Petunia pulled to a stop outside of the vacant Stewart house, Jacy killing the lights and the engine before looking over to Allison.
"Honestly," she Jacy, still in her attire from Sinema, "if we did, I wouldn't care. I just...I just need to see her room. See her."
Allison sighed, nodding softly. "Okay. Let's go."
The huntress remained sympathetic toward Jacy, never voicing her concern despite being truly worried for her. Although she hadn't heard the clairvoyant say the same as the Surgeon, she knew she was fairly good friends with Tracy, who also happened to be last seen alive by Jacy.
Did Jacy kill the hybrid kanima? Allison's heart said no, but a lot of unanswered questions made a definite answer hard to nail down.
Jacy, oblivious to Allison's inner turmoil, climbed out of the Honda, her heeled boots replaced by converse, and went around to Allison's side. "Any word on Lucas?"
"No, Scott's still at the hospital with his mom trying to figure out what to do about the stingers."
"Good, okay." Jacy double checked her phone. "Mason and Liam got home all right, same with Brett."
Allison nodded mildly, surveilling their surroundings. "Are you sure about this? I know you, and it feels like you're stalling."
Jacy inhaled, attempting to nod. "I haven't heard from Stiles in an hour."
"He's probably fine," Allison said, walking toward the empty house. "He's at the school trying to find more info on chimeras, right? Knowing Stiles, he must've just fallen asleep."
"You're probably right," she agreed, grabbing Allison's shoulder as they reached the front door.
Allison winced, shutting her eyes a a gust of cool air blew, cautiously opening one to reveal the small foyer of the Stewart home. "God, I hate that," she said as Jacy let go of her.
"Well, it gets you places," Jacy replied, heading upstairs without pause.
Allison shook the uncomfortable feeling off, following after the other brunette. "You know the layout of her house?"
"We had a study group last year. It was pretty much only us, but we could drag Hayden in sometimes." Jacy held a light smile at the thought, it slowly fading as reality set in. She turned the door knob to Tracy's room, pushing in cautiously.
Allison wondered if she should've let Jacy do this on her own - to say goodbye to Tracy alone, but in the same way, she knew she should be there for her.
Tracy Stewart's bedroom bloomed with genuine, introverted personality, walls covered in artwork tinged with darker tones as the time progressed toward the present.
Her bed was made, never to be slept in again.
Jacy let her fingers trail the newer artwork that had been put up since the last time she'd been there, eyebrows lightly furrowing as the images simmered something deep in her gut, a feeling she couldn't quite explain.
"She seemed nice," Allison said, stirring the silence that had attempted to suffocate them. "I never really talked to her. Makes me wish I had."
"You couldn't have known she wouldn't be there to talk to anymore," Jacy said quietly. "Time's fleeting. No one could've known she would die when she did."
Allison nodded a little, sitting carefully on the edge of Tracy's bed. "Yeah, I know. Same with not knowing you'd never be able to talk to anyone again."
Jacy smiled without looking to Allison. "You had me."
"Thank god for that."
Jacy jumped as her phone rang, it tucked into the band of her miniskirt. "Oh, good," she said with relief, "it's Stiles." She answered without hesitation, putting her phone to her ear. "Stiles, hey. What's up?"
"Hey babe, I'm on my way out of the school," he chimed from the other end of the call. "I fell asleep in the library."
Jacy mouthed 'You were right' to Allison, wandering around Tracy's room. "Okay, no worries. Anything on the chimera front, by chance?"
"Nah, no dice," Stiles replied, the rickety Jeep door echoing in the background followed by him shuffling around. "Work go okay?"
She paused slightly, "Yeah, it was...sorta eventful. I'll fill you in in the morning."
The engine of Roscoe puttered violently, Stiles huffily attempting again.
"Ah shit," Stiles suddenly said. "She's smoking again. I gotta go."
"Do you want me to come help?" Jacy asked, absently touching Tracy's wallet on her desk.
"No, no it'll be okay. If I don't call back I'll see you in the morning."
"All right. Love you." Jacy noted a green background under the coral wallet, distracted as she got a 'Love you, too, Jace' before the call ended. Lifting the wallet and setting it on the side, she was met with a note on a musty, thin book.
Here's the book you asked for. A little cheesy but still a fun, scary read.
Jacy's handwriting.
The teen absently plucked the note off, revealing their name and three steampunk-decked figures.
"Jacy?" Allison asked, looking up from her own phone, having missed the entire transaction with the mysterious note.
"Look," Jacy said as she held up the book void of any note.
"The...Dread Doctors?" Allison spoke with mild confusion, eyes flickering between the title and Jacy.
"It's the - it's those people from Sinema." Jacy brought the book over, tapping the faces at the bottom. "The masks."
"How..." Allison's concern grew, "how is that possible? That doesn't make sense."
Jacy shook her head lightly. "Your guess is as good as mine. But this is...uncanny, and damn near impossible."
Allison stood from the bed, nodding almost nervously. "Okay, let's take it with us, but I don't think we should stay much longer. Call Stiles back, see if he'll meet up with us."
Quickly agreeing, Jacy held out the book to Allison, redialing Stiles as she grabbed the hunter's shoulder once more, zapping back outside onto the damp lawn.
"Son of a bitch," Allison muttered, the change in temperature giving her goosebumps so strong they stung. "At least give me a warning."
Jacy only gave an apologetic shrug, the phone still to her ear as ringing persisted.
You dropped your phone. It's Jacy. Should I text her back?
As the call declined, Jacy gave a confused look to Allison as they climbed into the Honda, soon driving back toward Jacy's house to pour over the mysterious novel.
Little did Jacy know she was the culprit of the hell Stiles Stilinski was about to go through.
||
Early morning bled through the thin curtains of Jacy's bedroom, the lingering scent of coffee wafting throughout the house in attempt to draw the three occupants awake.
It had already worked on one.
Allison was perched at Jacy's desk, a nearly finished copy of The Dread Doctors in her hands and an empty mug next to her.
A phone call woke another.
Jacy startled awake to her phone vibrating under her pillow, both eyes and hair wild. Barely noticing Allison out of bed, Jacy sat up and answered the call from Scott. "Who's dead?"
"Is Allison with you?"
Jacy put Scott on speaker, angling out her phone in her hand. "We're both here." She glanced to her alarm clock as she yawned, it barely 6 a.m.
"Someone's taking the bodies. Tracy's body is gone from the clinic and my mom said Lucas' is missing from the hospital. Someone's stealing the bodies."
Allison bookmarked the novel, joining Jacy on the bed. "Who would do that?"
"Maybe the better question is why," offered Jacy, running a hand through her bed head. "Why is someone taking the bodies of the chimeras? What's the point?"
"God, who knows?" Scott asked with a sigh. "I highly doubt it's good news."
"Speaking of not good news," Allison said. "We found something at Tracy's house last night. It's a book called The Dread Doctors. It has three people on the cover that look like the ones with masks from Sinema."
"What? Seriously? Have you read it yet?"
"Jacy hasn't yet but I'm about to finish it. It doesn't make a lot of sense, though. I don't know how to explain it, but it's...strange."
"Maybe we should all read it," Jacy suggested. "I'll head to school early and make copies. If it's the same guys we saw kill Lucas, it's probably worth a read."
"Okay, yeah," Scott agreed, almost exasperated. "Sounds good. I'll see you both there."
Once saying goodbyes, Allison quickly got off the bed and grabbed the book again, only a couple pages away from finishing.
"Can you give me a lift home?" she asked, the clairvoyant teetering out of bed.
"On it," Jacy simply said, yawning as she, lacking pants while in an oversized t-shirt, took Allison's shoulder.
Allison, nearly rigid, looked over hatefully to Jacy. "I meant drive me home, Jacy."
Brown eyes dully blinked, the two in Allison's bedroom in a different neighborhood. "If you clench up it makes things a lot easier."
"At least give me a warning!" Allison stressed, the entire concept of teleportation never agreeing with her body. "I - here, let me finish this and I'll let you take it so you can make copies for everyone."
Jacy didn't put up much of a fight, still docile from sleep. "While I'm here, can I borrow those tall black boots you have? The heeled ones?"
Allison sat on the edge of her own bed, in borrowed pjs from Jacy. She motioned to the closet as she started to read again. "All yours."
"Sick," Jacy said, sounding like an 80s surfer as she meandered pantless to the walk-in closet.
The youngest Argent tried her best to focus - tried her best to comprehend what she was reading, but it was a struggle the entire way through.
By the time Jacy resurfaced carrying the knee high suede boots, Allison had finished the book. "Nada?"
Allison gave a shrug. "Confusing as hell. Almost illegible, honestly."
"Wonderful," Jacy sarcastically replied, taking the outstretched novel. "Oh, are you picking Lydia up or am I? It's her first day back but Natalie doesn't want her to drive."
"I'll get her," said Allison as she ruffled her hair, stretching. "You make the copies, I'll catch Lydia up to speed and we'll meet in the middle."
Jacy gave the best thumbs up she could, a pair of boots in one hand and the book in the other, before disappearing from the Argents and returning to her own room in a flash.
Doctor Dane screamed at the top of her lungs, in the midst of picking up Allison's empty mug of coffee before dropping it completely.
Jacy awkwardly smiled, unable to give much a wave. "Sorry, Momma."
Olivia took a deep breath, picked up the mug from the carpet and left the room without a word.
"I appreciate you taking an oath never to harm anyone," Jacy called after her mother. "I definitely wouldn't be here if you hadn't."
Jacy set both the book and the boots on her unmade bed, sighing as she stretched out her lingering drowsiness.
For a moment too long her eyes lingered on her bookshelf, finding a thin space on the third shelf, vacant of a green paperback that had been there for months.
||
"Stiles says he can't find anything on the author. He thinks it's a pen name."
Lydia and Allison trekked the halls of Beacon Hills High, the entire student body unaware of the event that had taken place in the early hours of that morning.
"T.R. McCammon," Allison continued.
Jacy met the pair at the corner, carrying clipped-together copies and, actually wearing pants this time, held out the full book the Lydia, the back facing up. "Give it a gander," she said, pushing up the sleeves of her grey wool cardigan to her elbows.
"In a small New England town, teenagers are taken in the night and buried alive." Lydia hesitated, looking between Allison and Jacy as they walked through the halls. "Days later, they emerge transformed, wreaking havoc and spreading terror, commanded by an ancient order of parascientists known only as...The Dread Doctors."
"Sounds vaguely familiar, huh?" asked Jacy, heeled boots lightly clicking on the linoleum.
"How does it end?"
"It doesn't," Allison said, the only one currently able to answer. "It's supposed to be volume one."
Lydia mildly scoffed. "And there is no volume two?"
"I think we're living volume two," Jacy told her.
"Then maybe the real question is," said Lydia, "is this a novel or someone's prediction?"
The answer, like many, was beyond them.
"I don't think the Dread Doctors are the ones stealing the bodies," Allison voiced as they stopped at her locker.
Lydia winced lightly. "Are we really calling them that?"
"Think about it." Scott surfaced behind the trio, absently holding the straps of his backpack. "They likely killed Tracy and walked away. They killed Lucas and walked away. Why would they leave and come back to take the bodies?"
Jacy couldn't agree more. "Someone else has the be taking them."
"But the bodies aren't just bodies," Allison said. "They're...they're failures."
"So if the chimeras are failures," asked Jacy, "what's the success going to be?"
What if they knew they were looking at one?