|| Jump
An uncomfortably quiet patrol car gained a segway as the radio crackled to life.
"Any available units, Beacon Hills telecom is requesting an 11-5 at the communication towers off Cypress Lane."
Deputy Clark picked up her mic swiftly. "10-4, Dispatch. I'm in the area."
"Copy Unit 5. A technician was sent over an hour ago and telecom hasn't heard back."
"Copy, I'm 10-76," replied Clark. Rehooking her mic to the unit, she sent a mild look in her sister's direction.
Hayden rolled her eyes. "You're going to drag me to work every night?"
"If I have to."
"You can't keep an eye on me 24/7."
"You disappeared for three days," she corrected. "I'm keeping an eye on you for the rest of your natural born life."
Hayden's irritation grew. "I told you I was with Liam."
"Which doesn't improve your argument." Although still watching the road, she took frequent glances in her sister's direction. "Maybe you think you can do your own thing now. I don't care. You still need me. We look out for each other, remember?"
Remember? Did she remember the night the police arrived at their house, when the girls had been left alone for a date night?
How could she forget?
"For all I knew, you could've been dead."
She remembered that, too.
Deputy Clark pulled up outside of Beacon's telecom building, turning to Hayden as she opened the patrol car door. "Stay here."
The engine of the SUV continued to whir, blasting headlights out into the foggy entrance of the telecom center.
An abandoned yellow truck still running sat empty in Clark's path.
Deputy Clark shined her flashlight into the cab, cautiously opening the driver's side door. She reached in, turning off the vehicle.
A technician was sent over an hour ago.
Hayden watched from afar, Valerie heading toward the fencing that led into the power center. Even from the patrol car, she could see it was unlocked and slightly ajar.
Call for backup, Valerie thought. Something's wrong.
Instead, she went in.
Clark pulled out her gun, positioning it and her flashlight level as she descended a flight of industrial stairs into what seemed like nothingness. Her breathing was beginning to catch, but she did her best to steady it. "Hello?" she called out, voice echoing. "Beacon County Sheriff's Department. Hello?"
Back in the car, Hayden could hear what Valerie couldn't.
"Help me."
Hayden's brows drew in, the sophomore hesitantly climbing out of the SUV. Her eyes were trained on the entrance of the telecom power station, tucking a wave of hair behind her ear to listen closer.
As she shut the car door, her heart jumped at the reflection in the glass, causing her to swing an arm back.
"Liam!" she shouted as she sharply turned. "What are you doing here?"
"I sent you like a hundred texts," he meekly replied.
"I saw," she said, catching her breath.
"You saw? That's it?" Liam asked. "How could you not tell me that you're alive?"
"Maybe because you left me for dead."
Liam gave a slight head shake in confusion. "You were dead."
"Liam," Hayden's voice was tight, "you need to go."
Distantly, the same painful voice arose from below. "Here...S-still here."
A burst pipe.
A roar.
Hayden and Liam turned toward the power station, the sound unlike their own.
Coming up from the darkness, a large creature appeared, glowing blue eyes staring from a height triple their own stature. Dark fog seeped off of it, blurring it's full form.
The metal fence separating the wolves from whatever was on the other side began to crinkle like paper, soon launched in their direction and clattering to the ground just shy of the patrol car.
"What the hell is that?" Hayden shouted.
"Run!" Liam yelled in reply, taking her hand before bolting from the massive creature.
The sophomores took off into the forest, hearts pounding.
"Hayden, run!" Valerie screamed in the distance. "Run!"
"What is that thing?" Hayden asked Liam, calm only on the fact that she knew her sister was alive. "Liam, what is it?"
Heavy footfall followed them, the rhythm of all four paws taunting undertone.
"I don't know! Just run!"
The two skidded to the edge of a cliff, grabbing onto one another as their pulses thrummed in their ears.
"Jump."
Thundering feet behind them.
"Are you kidding?" Liam retorted.
"We can make it," she confidently said, grabbing Liam's hand. "Come on."
The pair backed up, getting a running start before launching themselves across the expansive gap between mirroring cliffsides.
Hayden landed on her hands and knees. "See," she said with a soft pant, as she worked her way up to a standing position. "I told you."
But when she looked over her shoulder, Liam was hanging onto the edge for dear life.
Hayden's eyes bulged, clawing at Liam's back to pull him up.
The thing following them, however, landed farther in than the wolves, turning in their direction.
Still hanging onto the edge, Liam met Hayden's eyes. "Do you trust me?"
"What?" she sharply asked. "No."
Liam, however, grabbed her arm as he let go of the cliffside, the two falling deep into the basin.
And although Hayden dutifully landed on her hands and knees, Liam was less fortunate.
Hayden dusted herself off, cracked bones mending quickly as she stood. Spotting Liam not too far off laid out on his back on a massive rock, she walked over to him. Looming over him as his eyes stayed closed, her own narrowed. She mumbled to herself, slapping his cheek. "Liam," she hummed, winding up before laying her hand out across his face.
Liam jolted back into himself, sucking in a deep breath. "What are you doing?"
"I had to make sure you were still alive."
"Oh, god, I can't move my legs," he winced. "I think my back's broken."
"Will it heal?" she asked, nerves tingling.
"Eventually, I think."
"Good," Hayden replied, turning on her heel.
"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?"
"To find my sister and make sure she's okay," she casually replied.
Liam's brows furrowed. "You're going to just leave me here?"
"You pulled me off a cliff," she countered. "I'm lucky I healed."
"I saved your life."
"This time." Hayden turned, heading away.
"Who saved it last time?"
Stopping in her tracks, Hayden paused, unable to look over her shoulder.
"I did, teen wolf."
Liam, barely able to turn his head to spot the face, recognized Theo's voice immediately.
Toting one shoe as he appeared through soft fog, Theo moved his shoulders oddly. Blood had seeped through his jeans at both knees, but he walked without falter. He stopped just shy of the rock that had broken Liam's fall, slipping on his shoe.
"What are you doing down here?"
"No questions," Theo told Hayden, joining up next to her as he looked to Liam. "How's life being an omega?" He put an arm around Hayden, turning away. "By the way, enjoy the view. It'll be a while before you'll be able to move."
"How's life with your zombie pack?"
Still drawing Hayden forward, away from Liam, Theo tensed. "Don't listen to him," he told her lightly. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."
"And you don't know what he did, Hayden," Liam called out, footsteps receding from him. "What he's still doing."
"Easy, Dunbar, or you'll never get up from that rock."
And without a pack and seemingly without girlfriend, he was tempted to ask for it.
||
"Hey, you've reached Jacy Parrish. Sorry I can't answer the phone right now. Who knows what I'm up to. If it's important, give me a reason to call you back after the beep."
Stiles' eyes shut tightly as the aforementioned beep sounded, ending the call instead of leaving her a reason to call him back.
He'd already left eight in the span of an hour.
"She said it would happen. I just didn't believe it, that it would be so soon."
Stiles, awoken two hours before by two texts from Olivia asking if he'd seen Jacy, had since asked everyone to try and contact her.
No one had had any luck.
"It won't be like last time, right?" asked Allison, the crew of four gathered in Stiles' living room as the mid morning sun beat through the windows. "She won't pop up in our houses and cars playing tricks, right? She knew what she was doing then. She sounded clear that when whatever this new thing is happens, she'll be completely engulfed."
"Does it mean mentally or physically?" Isaac questioned. He gestured slightly to Stiles. "Are we talking void, or Peter's Alpha."
And as if knowingly, all phones but Isaac's dinged with an incoming message from their missing girl's older brother.
"Is this security footage?" Scott asked, opening the message with furrowed brows.
Isaac leaned over Scott's shoulder, eyes narrowed. "From last night. That's over at the telecom near the edge of the Preserve."
As they all clicked play together, silent but horrified looks were earned.
It was a clip of only a few seconds, but it held a thousand words.
Allison rubbed her temples, discouraged beyond belief. "It looks like Peter on crack."
The phones chimed again, another text coming into the group chat.
Aloud, Stiles read, "I don't suppose any of you have seen Jacy today?"
And to Isaac, the clock had started.