--
"Happy birthday, Silver." Laura smiles when she opens the door to my room.
"Go away." I tell her and hide underneath my covers, hoping she'll listen to me. She sighs, "You'll have to get out of your room, Sil. School is starting in a few days and you haven't left this apartment since we got here.
"I don't wanna go, now please leave me alone."
"She needs time, Laura." Derek tells her, "Just like I did." His voice sounds empty and emotionless instead of his usual happy voice. The goofy smile he used to give Silver hasn't appeared in months. Not since the fire.
"I gave her time, I can't give her more time, Derek. People are going to notice."
"I don't care what people will think." I speak up and remove the covers so I can look at them. "Is it really that weird to be sad after you just heard your family scream in pain? I saw my father, right before he went up in flames. It's a miracle he's still alive, but he will never wake up. I just loft my family, if people think it's weird that I'm mourning than they can screw themselves."
"Hey, language." Laure scolds me before sitting down at the end of the bed. Derek hesitates but walks into my room too, siting down on a chair pushed in the corner.
"You didn't lose all of your family, we're still here, Derek and I. We're not going anywhere, we'll always be here. We needed time too, and I understand some need more than others, but don't push us away when we want to help you. In a few weeks school will start, for both you and Derek. You'll have to get used to the city first, all the different scents and heartbeats."
I sigh and sit up, "I wish we stayed in Beacon Hills, I want to see my dad."
Laura looks at Derek, who sighs too. "I've got this." She nods and leaves us alone. He gets up and sits down next to me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in a hug. "Going here was good for us, if we stayed there... we'd be able to smell their scents all over Beacon Hills, we'll be reminded everyday, and people would give us looks. I know you want to see your dad, I want to see him too, but we can't. The way he looks now... it's traumatizing."
I wrap my arms around my cousin, "Don't ever leave me. Promise me."
He kisses my forehead, "I won't. Ever. I promise."
--
"Hey? You okay?" I look up and see Stiles worriedly looking at me. I sigh, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just remembered something."
"Anything important about the kanima?" He asks and I shake my head, "No, nothing about the kanima." I look around, "Why did you ask me to meet you here?"
"We got Jackson, he's in that police car over there." He points at it as we walk closer. Scott awkwardly waves at us. "You kidnapped him?" I ask him surprised.
"No... we... yeah."
I shake my head and we walk towards Scott.
"Stiles! McCall! I'm gonna kill you!" I hear Jackson yell and we look at the car. Scott and Stiles look at each other before awkwardly looking away.
"Good that he doesn't know I'm here." I say and lean against a tree.
"Someone has to give him food." Scott says and grabs a bag from the front of the car. They both look at me but I shake my head, "No thanks. Last time I really saw him - not counting what happened at your house - was when Derek paralyzed him."
Stiles sighs, "I'll do it." He grabs the bag from Scott's hands and walks towards the police van.
"So... You and Stiles...?" Scott says, trying to make a conversation. I shrug and look around the woods. "Are you back together?"
"No, I... No." I shake my head and avoid his eyes. "This isn't... I don't think I can..." I trail off ans sigh. "You can't stay here, you're failing classes. You can't skip school."
He looks at me confused, "How do you know?"
"I heard teachers talk, I just wanted to know my grade." I tell him and shrug.
"You're ride, I... I'm gonna go."
--
"Silver?" I look up from where I was sitting on the ground, studying for history, and see Allison.
I stand up, quickly put by books back into my bag and follow her to Stiles, who's leaning against the van.
"Oh, my God!" He says and jumps when Allison touches his arm. "They know." She tells us.
"What?"
"They know Jackson's missing." She screams at him and panics.
"No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue" Stiles tells us confused.
"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know." Allison says. Stiles' eyes widen and he looks at the phone - now covered in his finger prints. He gives it to me and runs towards the van, listening to the police radio.
I try to wipe away our prints with the sleeve of my hoodie and follow them. "All available units proceed to beacon hills preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Repeat: Proceed with caution."
"Well, that's great." I mumble sarcastically. Allison and Stiles quickly get into the car, "Wait, what about your car?" I ask her.
"Oh, I forgot. Thank you." She quickly gets out and runs away, probably towards her car. I sigh and get in the can, "Where are we going?" I ask Stiles.
"Somewhere very far from this." He tells me. He throws the phone out of the window before driving away.
I look out of the window and watch the trees passing by.
"Why didn't you tell me it's your birthday?" Stiles asks, breaking the silence.
"Because it isn't important." I tell him, "I turned 16, so what. We have a dangerous supernatural creature in the back of this van and hunters trying to kill me and Scott."
"Birthday's usually are important. And I guess it reminds us that we're still teenagers. We're supposed to only worry about what to do with our birthday."
"I haven't celebrated it since the fire, and I'm not planning on starting now. I don't really care about birthdays anyway."
He sighs and I know he wants to protest but he stays silent. After I don't know how long we meet Scott and Allison at the other side of the preserve.
"If Jackson doesn't remember being the kanima, he's definitely not going to remember stealing Danny's tablet" Scott says after explaining that the tablet was gone.
"Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Stiles asks and we walk towards the look out point.
"What if someone else took it?" I suggest. "Then somebody else knows what he is." Stiles answers.
"Which could mean someone's protecting him." Scott says.
"Like the Bestiary says, 'the kanima seeks a friend,' right?" Allison speaks up. I frown, for some reason that doesn't sound correct, not like the stories my dad told me. But I don't remember what is wrong with the sentence.
"Okay, hold on. So, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the kanima, and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know?" Stiles asks. "I mean, who would do that?
"Somebody who wanted to protect him?" Allison suggests.
"There's something else. You said the only thing you found online about the kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?" Scott asks.
"Well, no, it can't be. Tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you three, but I haven't murdered anybody lately." Stiles says, I look down at my shoes, suddenly uncomfortable. Allison sends me a confused look but I ignore her.
"But, I-I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us. Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?" Scott asks Allison. Wait, she was there?
"You're right, it just ran off." She says.
"And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage." Scott says to Stiles. "Well, yeah but it tried to kill me and Derek in the pool." Stiles tells him.
"Did it?"
"It would've. It was waiting for us to come out." Stiles answers.
"What if it was trying to keep you in?"
"Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"
"Because there's something else going on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him." Scott says.
"Know thy enemy." Allison says, making us look at her. "Just something my grandfather said."
"All right, I got it. Kill Jackson. Problem solved." Stiles says to us. "He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?" Scott asks him.
"And we're not killing anyone." I add.
"Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny." Stiles answers.
"Yeah, it doesn't mans he's not still worth saving."
"It's always something with him, though." Stiles says and rolls his eyes.
"He doesn't know what he's doing." Scott says to him. "So what?" Stiles asks him.
"So, I didn't either. You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson?" Scott turns to Allison, she nods softly. "I had someone to stop me. He has nobody."
"It's his own fault." Stiles answers.
"Doesn't matter." I tell him, "If we can save him, we should try." Scott and Allison nod in agreement.
--
"Silver? Wake up! Damn it!" Stiles knocks on the window of the police van. I groan and open my eyes, I guess I fell asleep.
"What?" I ask him and open the door. "Jackson's gone." My eyes widen and I quickly jump out of the car, following him to Allison's. Of course Scott and Allison are half naked, when do they not think about sex.
"You might wanna come take a look at this." Stiles tells them. They quickly get dressed and we walk back to the car. The doors are wide open.
"I have to tell my father." Allison says to us. "Scott... He's going to kill someone."
"Okay, tell him. Tell him everything.
"Scott, I gotta tell mine too." Stiles says. "Don't worry, I don't have a dad we need to tell this to." I add, but they ignore me.
"This is all my fault." Scott mumbles. "It's not. But we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this." Allison tells him.
"You're right." Scott answers. "How you gonna make your dad believe all this?" I ask Stiles, he shrugs, "I don't know." Scott turns around and shows us his yellow eyes, "He'll believe me." He says.
I raise my hand, "Or me."
--
"You sure I don't have to come with you?" I ask Stiles when the car stops in front of the Stilinski house. He nods, "Scott's here too. You should get some rest."
I sigh and get out of the car, "Okay, I'll see you." He throws me his keys so I can open the door. I watch them drive away before I get in. I let out a yawn and immediately get upstairs.
"Had fun in the woods?" I let out a soft scream when Derek's suddenly behind me. I guess my senses aren't really working when I'm tired. "Derek, hey." I awkwardly say and look around. The curtain before Stiles' window is closed and Derek is standing in front of the door. There's no way out of here.
"We need to talk."