CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE REAL LIFE HORROR STORY
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"I told you he was evil!" Stiles exclaimed for the millionth time.
"Yes, you thought he was evil. You were right, we get it," Scott muttered from the passenger seat.
The three of us had just left Lydia's party, easily slipping away from the police which was good. Having a restraining order was the only thing I'd like to have on my record, than you very much. I was in the back seat, my head stationed between the boys' as my mind tried to wrap its way around the revelation we just endured.
Matt Daehler was the kanima master. Matt freaking Daehler, the creep with the camera who was stalking Allison was the goddamn kanima master. I seriously did not see that one coming at all. He was literally the last person I would ever think to want anyone dead. Well, besides Scott for obvious Allison-related reasons.
But alas, he was the master and he was one the one going around trying to kill people. He was responsible for the murders of everyone, including Mr. Lahey, the girl from the rave, the mechanic, and those people in the woods. He was the one getting Jackson to do all of it.
We had no freaking clue why he would want any of them dead, or why he was even connected to the swim team in any way. Those people had graduated long before we even started high school. There was no motive linked to Matt at all, and none of us could figure one out. I mean, sure, the swim team sucked but was that a reason to want them dead?
On top of being a deranged killer with no motive, Matt also appeared to have mastered the element of vanishing within seconds. One second he was on the crowded street, with Jackson's creepy ass tail wrapped around his legs. Then a crowd had hurried past in front of them. And like any cheap horror movie, once the crowd passed, Matt and the kanima were gone.
So now we were sat in the jeep, heading towards Stiles' house. He said something about telling his dad. I had no clue how he planned to explain Matt being the killer without divulging the werewolf secret. But I guess we'll just have to see how that pans out. Right now, however, Stiles was pretty hell bent on rubbing his theories in our faces, having yelled about Matt being evil for the past five minutes.
"You two didn't believe me and look who ended up being right," Stiles chuckled to himself. "Oh yeah, Stiles. Scott, I told you that you should listen to me for the rest of your wolflihood."
"Yeah, you also told me not to hit you while you were driving but that doesn't mean I'm not tempted to do it," I called from the back.
"My girlfriend's abusive," he muttered.
"Last time I checked you were okay with that," Scott chuckled. "Didn't you tell me once about some dream that involved her and a wh—"
"Scott! Dude, shut up!" Stiles screeched girlishly. In the moonlight, I could see his cheeks burning a very vibrant red.
Scott was laughing himself to tears in the passenger seat and I rolled my eyes. That was one topic I was not going to try to dig into and discuss. I did not need to know about his sex dreams. Oh God. Biting my lip, I asked, "So how do you plan on explaining all of this to you dad?"
Stiles shrugged. "Matt's evil. He's killing people."
"And he's capable of ripping people to literal shreds and paralyzing them?"
"I'll work out the details later," Stiles mumbled as he pulled into his drive way.
Scott and I nodded. The second the jeep was in park and off, the three of us began scrambling out of the car. Scott pulled the seat forward for me and I clambered out rather ungracefully. But we did not have time for graceful anymore, considering there was a homicidal teenager with a lizard fulfilling all his murderous wishes.
We sprinted into the Stilinski residence. Stiles' dad, who was seated in the living room, looked up at us like we were crazy. Stiles began ushering Scott and I upstairs before yelling, "Dad, meet us in my room in like three minutes! We have big problems, big, big problems!"
As we headed up the stairs, I could faintly hear his dad muttering, "I swear to God if she's pregnant..."
My eyes widened. What the hell was with people thinking we had sex every five freaking seconds? We're not sex addicts for God sakes! I was a freaking virgin.
"It better be a freaking immaculate conception if I was," I muttered. "Sorry Mary, I one upped you."
Scott let out a small chuckle, which increased once he saw Stiles horrified face. I smacked Scott's arm, before yanking both of them into my boyfriend's bedroom. Stiles pulled himself free of my grasp before speed walking to his desk.
Flicking on his lamp and sitting down, Stiles started ransacking his desk for something before producing an old yearbook. He began rapidly flipping through towards the back, where all the class pictures were. The second we hit the end of the C's and the start of the D's, he stopped. Matt Daehler was the first person with a D last name, surrounded by a few girls I didn't recognize.
"Hand me a sharpie," Stiles told me, holding the page open.
I nodded, before slipping a red marker out of the cup of pens. I gave it to him and he yanked the cap off with his teeth and immediately began crossing out a bunch of people's faces. He then proceeded to circle Matt's picture a few times before drawing an arrow to his name on the side. He crossed out the other three names and put a box around Matt's.
"There," Stiles said, capping the marker.
Scott and I looked at each other before Scott said, "I think circling Matt would have gotten the point across that it was him.
Stiles shrugged, "I don't really like these people anyways."
I let out a small laugh, just as Papa Stilinski came in.
He sent a pointed look between me and his son before asking, "She's not pregnant, is she?"
I let my palm smack into my face as Stiles's let out a horrified squeak. Damn, I didn't know his vocals could produce such a high pitched noise. He started shaking his head rapidly, probably worried he was about to get another sex talk.
"No, she's not," Scott answered for the both of us. "But we think we know who's killing everyone."
"Guys, you're not supposed to get involved—"
"Mr. Stilinski, please just hear us out," I pleaded, pointing towards the year book. "That's him, right there."
Papa Stilinski came to stand behind us, before leaning over the picture. He took a long glance at it before looking back at us.
"You're telling me that this kid is the real killer?"
"Yeah," Stiles answered, swaying back and forth in his chair.
A brief pause came before his dad shook his head. "No."
"Yes," Stiles said adamantly.
"No."
"Yes!" Stiles exclaimed. Scott groaned and I crossed my arms over my chest. Stiles stood up before saying, "Dad, everybody knows that police look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So, all you need to do is look through their transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common."
"Yeah except for the rave girl Kara wasn't in Harris' class," his dad told him sternly.
"I swear to God, everything comes back to this guy," I groaned.
"So did they drop the charges against him?" Stiles asked his dad, raising his brow.
His dad began pointing slightly before exhaling loudly. "No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges against him. But that doesn't prove anything."
Stiles looked like he was about to have a break down. "Dad—"
"Do you two believe this?" Stiles' dad asked us. That seemed to annoy Stiles.
Scott nodded. "It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just have to trust us."
"We know its Matt," I added. "It has to be."
"He took Harris' car, okay? Look, he knew that if a cop found tire tracks at one of the murders and that if enough of the victims were in Harris' class, they'd arrest him."
His dad groaned. "Alright fine, I'll allow the remote possibility that but give me a motive. Why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?"
Stiles, Scott, and I glanced at each other. These were one of the things that we had not figured out on the drive here. We had the who, the when and the how, but we didn't have the why. All we knew was that Matt was sending out kanima Jackson to kill people. As I said earlier, we had no clue how Matt could be connected to the mechanic, or the pregnant girl, or Isaac's dad. None of it made any sense. The only logical answer we had was that Matt was controlling the kanima because its tail was wrapped around his legs.
But we very well couldn't tell Mr. Stilinski that. He and basically everyone outside of our little circle had to stay in the dark about our secret lives and all the danger that Beacon Hills was harboring. It was for their own safety. But when it came to murders, we needed to have some way of explaining.
"Isn't it obvious?!" Stiles exclaimed, throwing his hands out. "Our swim team sucks! We haven't won in like six years..." He trailed off at the end, clearly not even convinced by his own argument.
Mr. Stilinski just stared at his son.
"Okay fine we don't have a motive yet," I answered in exasperation. "But let's be real, how many cases has this town closed without a motive? You guys nailed Kate Argent for the arson and she didn't have a motive. Just a bunch of signs pointing towards her being the one to set the Hale house on fire. And we have a bunch of signs that point to Matt. And I mean, come on, does Harris even have one yet?"
His dad stared back at the three of us, mulling everything over. "What do you want me to do?"
Stiles let out a breath, before looking back at Scott and I.
"We'd need to look at the evidence," Scott said after a moment. Stiles and I nodded.
"Yeah, that would be back at the station," Stiles' dad relented. "Where I no longer work."
He sent a pointed look at Stiles for that. I'm assuming they still weren't past the whole 'Stiles getting his dad fired' thing. Then again, I'm not really sure how you would get past that.
"Trust me, they'll let you in," Stiles complained.
His dad's eyes widened. "Trust you?"
Stiles sighed. "Trust...trust them?"
Scott and I grinned as Stiles' dad looked between the two of us. He sighed before nodding his head at Scott. I furrowed my brow in confusion.
"Scott I trust," Papa Stilinski let out.
"Hey!" I exclaimed. "What about me?"
"You spend way too much time with this one," he shrugged, jerking a thumb in Stiles' direction.
I rolled my eyes as Stiles shot a smug grin at me. Smacking him on the arm "So, are we going to go get a teenager arrested or what?"
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The four of us entered the police station. It was basically empty, save for one girl working the desk. I recognized her as the girl that Derek had kept distracted when Stiles and I were trying to stop that guy from killing Isaac. It had only been a few weeks ago but damn it felt like it was long time.
"It's two a.m.," the girl told us, as Stiles' dad went to go speak quietly to her.
Stiles, Scott and I stayed at the door and Stiles' began whispering to us.
"Okay, so we'll look at the hospital stuff first," Stiles told us and I nodded.
"Wait, why?" Scott questioned.
"All the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one. The pregnant girl, Jessica, was suffocated to death in the hospital. I don't think the kanima would kill with a pillow."
"Carson's right. Matt had to have done it himself. Someone in the hospital could have seen him.
At the desk, the girl side, before nodding her head towards the back.
"Thank you," the former sheriff told her. "Boys, Carson."
The three of us nodded before following him to the back.
Ten minutes later, we were gathered around his old desk, watching surveillance footage from the hospital the night Jessica was murdered. We were scanning through it but so far, no Matt. Just a lot of people in wheelchairs and strapped to gurneys. I was starting to doubt that we would be able to find him in all that footage. We had a specific time frame, but it was a hospital for Christ's sake! Hundreds of people are in a hospital at once!
"I don't know, guys. I mean, look at this. There was a six car pileup that night," Papa Stilinski told us with a sigh. "The hospital was jammed."
"Okay, just keep going. He had to pass one of the cameras on that floor to get to Jessica. He's got to be on the footage somewhere."
And then out of nowhere, a male figure appeared. His back was towards the camera, with dark hair and a leather jacket. My eyes widened. I knew it was going to be hard to prove, but that definitely had to be Matt.
"Stop! Stop the video, that's him," I exclaimed, pointing out the figure.
Stiles and Scott nodded in agreement as the former sheriff paused the footage.
"Scroll back a little," Scott ordered. The video rewound and Matt was walking backwards towards the bottom of the screen.
"That's him! That's Matt!" Stiles let out.
Papa Stilinski looked at us oddly. "All I can see is the back of someone's head."
"Yeah, well that's him. I sit behind him in history. He has a very distinct cranium."
"Are you crazy?" his dad asked him.
"We all ask him this question, can't get a straight answer," I muttered with a small laugh.
Stiles shot me a look before pointing to the screen. "Fine, look at his jacket. How many people do you know that wear black leather jackets?"
Well, I can name a couple...I mean, seriously that was dumb question.
His dad gave him a look, clearly acknowledging the stupidity of it as well. "Millions, literally. Your girlfriend is wearing one right now!"
I looked down, seeing one of my many jackets covering my torso. "Well, would you look at that."
"Thanks for nothing," Stiles grumbled childishly at me. I merely grinned, causing him to roll his eyes.
"Well, scroll forward! There has to be a shot of him coming towards one of the other cameras," Scott tried.
"He couldn't have made it through the hospital without one camera catching his face," I added. "It's not physically possible."
Stiles nodded in agreement. His father sighed, before flipping to one of the other videos. This time it was focused on a different part of the hospital and Matt was there again. His back was still facing the camera, but this time he was stationary. A familiar looking woman had halted him and was now speaking to him.
"Hey, look, he's talking to someone!" Stiles exclaimed.
Scott furrowed his brow, before leaning closer to the computer. "He's talking to my mom."
Our eyes widened as he began fumbling for his phone.
"Well, this is going well," I mumbled.
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After a couple more minutes, Scott had his mother on speaker phone, having just explained the situation. It was safe to say that she was utterly confused and slightly irritated. It was kind of ridiculous for us to be asking a nurse to remember one person she talked to for under a minute.
"Scott, do you know how many people I deal with in a day?" his mother sighed.
"Yes, but this one's sixteen, he's got dark hair, looks like a normal teenager," Scott tried.
Really, Scott? A normal teenager? I was starting to realize why his creative essays for our English class never got good marks. He was not a good descriptor at all.
"He looks evil," Stiles called out to our friend's mother. I rolled my eyes.
"You're not going to drop that are you?" I asked him lowly.
He shook his head and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Never."
"Scott, I already talked to the police about this," Mama McCall told her son.
"Alright, well I'm gonna take a picture and send it to you," he told her before bringing up his camera and snapping a photo of Matt's yearbook picture. We waited as he sent it. After a moment he asked, "Did you get it?"
"Yeah," she answered.
"Well, do you remember him? Recognize him at all?"
"Yeah, I did. I remembered I stopped him because he was tracking mud in the hall," she told us.
The four of all looked up and Mr. Stilinski nodded.
"Bingo," I muttered under my breath.
"Scott, what's going on?" Mrs. McCall asked us.
Scott bit his lip before shaking his head. "It's nothing mom, I'll explain later, I gotta go." With that he hung up the phone.
The former sheriff started digging through piles of folders and papers quickly. He opened one, skimming along the words. "Okay, we've got the shoeprints alongside the tire tracks at the trailer park."
"And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of three murders: the trailer, the hospital and the rave."
"Maybe four," his dad said as he glanced at something else. "A credit card receipt signed by Matt at the garage when the mechanic was killed."
"What, when?" I asked.
"A couple hours before you got there," he told me and Stiles.
My eyes widened. "Alright, you know that thing you have about threes? Well, if ones an incident, twos a coincidence and threes a pattern, then what's four?"
"Four's enough for a warrant," Stiles' dad answered, a sure look in his eyes.
Stiles did a little victory fist thing and a grin lit up his face. I could feel the corners of my mouth tugging into a smile as well.
"Scott, call your mom back and find out how quick she can get here," Mr. Stilinski ordered. "If I can get an official ID, I can get a search warrant. Carson, you go to the front desk and tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here."
"On it," I said, snapping a salute.
"I'll go with—" Stiles started before getting cut off.
"No, Stiles, I need you to help me find something in one of these files," his dad stated. "Carson, you go."
I nodded before heading out of the room and down the hall towards the front. There was subtle wave of déjà vu falling over me. I remembered walking down this hall trying to find Stiles when I saw the trail of blood. I passed one room, which Stiles, Scott and I had been issued a restraining order in. God, I was in this station a lot for a sixteen year old girl.
I was grinning as I headed towards the front desk. We were finally going to get Matt for these murders. I had no clue how we were going to get him to stop controlling Jackson or how we would even get Jackson to stop killing, but it was a start. I mean, technically we could probably get Matt arrested for stalking Allison. I swear to God he really was. But I think him getting indicted on four counts of murder was a little bit better.
I made it to the front, but the girl was no longer at the desk. I raised an eyebrow, my eyes glancing around for anyone. The silence in the room was almost deafening and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck sticking up. It was creepy and I swear to God I was one flickering light and a dead body away from being in a horror film.
"Hello?" I called out. "Anyone here?"
Where the hell did that girl go? I sighed before walking around the desk. What I saw next made me jump.
The front desk girl who had been perfectly fine less than half an hour ago was now on the floor, covered in her own blood. Her clothes were slightly torn and I was pretty sure that there were claw marks running up her torso. Almost as if someone had taken claws and ripped upwards, trying to shred her.
I did not scream, having seen too many dead bodies at this point. But I could feel my heart plummet into my stomach and every part of me was on high alert. The kanima had to have done this. And with the kanima, came Mr. Crazy aka Matt.
My first instinct was to start screaming for help and get Stiles, his dad, and Scott out here. But the rest of me was screaming 'bad idea'. I stood there for a few moments, just staring down at the poor girl whose lip had literally been ripped away from her. Dead body, check. All I needed were flickering lights and we could make Carson Bradley: The Real Life Horror Story.
I heard an audible click sound and I gulped. What now?
I turned around slowly, only to be met with the last thing I wanted to see. Matt stood before me with an evil ridden smirk on his face. In his hand, he had a gun. And unfortunately for me, it was pointed right at my face.
"Crap," I squeaked lightly, my whole body freezing up on the spot.
"Hi Carson," he laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh. No, it was a bitter murderous laugh. One that made me slightly more afraid for my life as I stared down the barrel of the gun. I gulped, my eyes drifting up to meet his. And just like his voice, there was a sense of murder in them.
Oh, I was so screwed.
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I'm really sorry if this chapter sucks guys. I really hate this episode as a whole, along with Matt. I was literally killing myself through this. But oh God, Carson gets herself into a lot of bad situations.
I'm getting really excited because after this I only have two and half episodes left before season three. Season three is like the ultimate goal for me and now it's looking like it's coming towards me soon! God, I really love being able to write all day lol.
Let me know what you think. Comment/Vote/Follow