Chapter 10: Murder on the Mind
Chapter Song: KILLA KILLA by GALXARA
"If you know what's good for you, learn to recognize a killa, killa, killa, killa, killa, killa. I got a fever, bitches know they better run."
~
My Nike sneakers hit the crunched up leaves under my feet as I walked to the opening of the forest where Coach had said we had to meet for the first Cross Country practice of the season.
I had no idea if I was actually going join the team because of everything going on, but Coach Finstock practically harassed me until I said I would run for him. He knew I was a running star in Las Vegas after he had violated my files looking for new talent. He threatened me by saying he'd never let me sit on the lacrosse bench with Stiles which I couldn't let happen. This is the main reason that I am out here at this ungodly hour before school.
The other reason I had come was that I needed something normal in my life. Something to remind me that not everything in life had to be about the supernatural. Even my home life was completely taken over by the supernatural because I had spent all of last night caring for and nurturing Cora after I " accidentally" knocked her out on the boiler last night.
The few hours I wasn't caring for Cora I was on skype with Stiles who thought it would be cool not to let me sleep. He yelled at me every time I dozed off and then continued to talk to me about how he thought sacrifices were being made in something called a threefold death. He had also told me about Heather, the girl who he'd been worried about being one of the sacrificed. It wasn't that I didn't want to listen to him or that I didn't believe him, or even that I didn't feel bad that Heather had died but at the moment I just had wanted to sleep.
And with all of that... to say I was tired was an understatement but hopefully running could be the outlet I needed like it was in Las Vegas, just maybe.
I sighed and pulled my hair into a tight pony tail on my head before starting to stretch out my legs. No one knew I had actually agreed to do this not even my dad so I guess it would be a surprise to all. I knew I'd see everyone on the lacrosse team today because Coach had informed me that, " I was not allowed to run off and make out with McCall just because he was making the lacrosse team join the team."
I was so lost in my thoughts while stretching that I didn't even notice a pair of two boys walking up behind me with their main goal of talking to me on their minds. Just like it had been on their first day of school at Beacon Hills.
I jumped in surprise and fell out of my stretch onto my butt when one of their muscular hands fell down on my shoulder. When I saw the two looking down at me with a smile I couldn't help but feel fearful now that I knew what they were. Aiden and Ethan's perfectly identical faces and bodies loomed over me as they both held hands out to me.
My heart began to beat out of my chest as I looked up at their hands hesitantly. Didn't they know that I wasn't oblivious to who they were anymore? Or were they playing a game? What did they want with me?
I looked around me hoping to find one of the boys I actually trusted coming out of the locker room, but no one was in sight to help me out of this situation. I honestly hate them...they can't be early for one thing?
I turned my gaze back to the twins and gulped nervously before taking one of each of their hands, allowing them to pull me up. I immediately looked down and began nervously dusting dirt off my shorts in hopes that they'd leave me alone, but unlucky that wasn't going to happen.
" Sorry if we scared you." Aiden chuckled as he looked me up and down with a smirk.
I gave them a nervous smile and shrugged my shoulders, " Uh, it's okay. Just wasn't expecting anyone to be out here yet."
It became silent for a few moments as we all stood there and I was just wishing on a star that Scott, Stiles, or Isaac would hurry their asses up and get out here. I began to fiddle with the extra hair ties on my wrist to avoid the awkward moment. I hadn't really looked up at them since I replied to Aiden and the only reason I knew they were still there was the beating of their identical hearts.
I heard Aiden sigh next to me and the movement of shoes on dry dirt and rocks which made me look up to see he had moved closer to me.
I looked at him with a curious look. I had no idea why he was doing this until he leaned in my ear and whispered, " We miss you. You haven't replied to any of our texts."
I licked my dry lips and gulped before letting out a small chuckle, " Oh yeah sorry about that. I've- um been a bit busy, my Aunt just came to town so I had to show her around."
His face broke out into slight realization and he gave me a small nod, " Ah, I see..." He turned away for a moment and began to move back towards his brother but he stopped briefly and said over his shoulder in a menacing tone, " Her name wouldn't happen to be Cora would it?"
My body froze at his words and I stared at his back as he walked towards Ethan who was smirking at me evilly. It was obvious now that they knew that I knew who they were and what they had helped do to my Aunt. I guess I wasn't going to see the nice twins act from them ever again. It was a damn shame because I honestly thought that they were nice guys, well up until the moment I found out they were killer Alphas.
My body soon unfroze as a mob of people suddenly flowed out of both the girls and boys locker rooms coming straight towards where the twins and I were with Coach Finstock guiding the herd. I let out a sigh of relief when I caught sight of Scott and Stiles walking together and instantly ran towards them.
They both gave me looks of confusion as I practically ran into them and when they took in my attire. I held up my hands to stop their questioning, " Don't even ask. Coach forced me to be apart of the team after he violated my school records and found out I was a star runner at my school in Las Vegas."
Scott went to reply and I held my hand up to him again as they started walking with me walking backwards in front of them, " No don't speak yet, I'm not finished. Scott, even though you and I are not together at the moment do you think it's possible you could beat up some twin Alphas for me? Because I can't tell if what they did just now was a threat or not."
Scott grabbed my shoulders and stopped me in place with worry in his eyes, " They just threatened you?"
I shrugged my shoulders and made weird gestures with my hands as I said, " Well technically, no. They didn't directly say anything that was of concern to my safety but they do know that I'm aware of who they are now. They brought up Cora which means they definitely aren't hiding their true intentions or identities anymore."
Scott and Stiles looked around my body and gazed at the twins nervously. They were already looking our way as they tied their shoelaces with identical smirks plastered on their face. I scoffed under my breath when I saw their expressions.
My arms folded over my chest, " I should just let Isaac kill their smug asses."
Scott gave me a reprimanding look that you would give your child when they told you something bad they just did, " We can't kill them. If we do we'll be just like them."
I rolled my eyes and threw my hands up in the air as Scott grabbed me by the shoulders and started guiding me back towards the rest of the team, " It was just a suggestion, I wasn't going to actually do it."
Stiles raised his eyebrows mockingly at me, " Oh really? Just like you suggest that your going to hit me all the time?"
I gave him a condescending smile, " Exactly. I don't ever do it."
His jaw dropped in shock as he spazzed out in a sporadic manner in disbelief, " What do you mean you never do it?! You hit me all the time!"
I shrugged my shoulders as Scott let go of me once we were with the rest of the team and put my finger to chin, " Hmmm.. I don't recall, Stiles. Sorry."
Stiles rolled his eyes and grumbled as he bent down to tighten his shoelaces. Under his breath he began to mumble, " I'm going to die because of all this running and now I have to deal with her annoying ass."
I squinted my eyes down at him before a wicked smile came to my face and I kicked him slightly as he was crouched down. This immediately caused him to fall over dramatically with his arms flailing.
" Izzy! You always do this!" He shouted at me as he threw his hands up in the air and then hit the ground with them.
I smiled down at him before walking away towards Isaac who I had just spotted near Coach Finstock. Before I got too far through I yelled over my shoulder, " Still have no clue what you're talking about, Stiles!"
I heard a faint 'I hate you' come from behind me but I simply just shook my head with a chuckle and proceeded making my way to my brother. When I reached him he was staring the twins down with a crazed look in eye.
I looked at him with concern and put my hand comfortingly on his shoulder, " Please tell me you won't let them get to you today. We don't need to start anything today no matter how much they piss us off."
He never looked at me as he continued to stare at the twins who now were staring back, as if to taunt Isaac.
Isaac shook with anger as he growled under his breath, " They killed Erica. Now, I'm going to kill them. I know it's them."
My body froze at his words... I had never been told if anyone had actually found Erica's body and hearing him say that so surely hit me hard.
My eyes welled up with tears as I finally pulled my hand off his shoulder and I took a timid step away from him as my body shook, " How do you know? When did they find her?"
His body stopped shaking in anger as his body relaxed and he turned to me rapidly with a look of realization which made me feel as if he didn't mean to say that to me, " Izzy, I'm sorry you had to find out right now but um-"
Isaac paused and ran his hand down his face nervously, " Look, I don't know how to say this-"
I stared at him with tears still flowing down my face which was slowly adopting a look of anger as I cut him off and spat out, " Just fucking say it, Isaac."
He winced and shut his eyes tight before sighing heavily and looking at me with guilt, " Fine, okay, Derek found Erica last night at the bank and she was dead, Izzy. Decomposed and rotting in a supply closet. He didn't want me to tell you in case the empath inside you spiraled because you couldn't save her which might have been a good call because you look to be doing just that right now."
He was right, something inside me was breaking because of the news even though I had already known it deep down. I had known it since I heard Boyd and Cora's conversation in my head while I was at the loft. I knew it but now I had to accept it and that was the part that was killing me.
I couldn't make eye contact with Isaac anymore but I knew he was looking at me with worry filled eyes. I could feel them bearing into my soul. I was breathing heavily as I stared down at the leaf covered dirt beneath my feet, I couldn't handle this. I could feel myself loosing control, of what I didn't know but I knew I was about to snap soon.
I had planned to run away and leave at that moment but a piercing whistle made me jump in my spot and snap my head to the one who had blown it. To no surprise it was Coach but what did surprise me was that he was right behind me.
" Everyone gather around before I start the most tortuous run of most of your lives," As everyone walked over, Coach walked closer to me and put his arm around my shoulder, " I want you all to know that the majority of you do not matter because this girl right here" He smiled over at me and squeezed my shoulder, " Is our star and she will be the standard that I hold you all up to."
I smiled awkwardly at everyone as Coach patted me on the back before walking away towards the entrance of the forest. We all followed behind him and Isaac looked at me funny as we walked and questioned with his eyebrows raised, " Star, huh?"
I shrugged my shoulders, " I mean, I guess."
We all lined up along the entrance of the woods together as coach prepared to let us go with the sound of his whistle but before he did the twins stepped in front of Isaac and I and looked back at us with smirks plastered on their faces. I didn't know what they had hoped to gain from that until my head snapped to my brother to see him seething with anger and ready to charge at them.
Before I could grab him to stop him Coach blew the whistle making them run off with Isaac following behind them with one thing on his mind: Murder.
Scott gave me a weird look from next to me and I just sighed and reluctantly chased after my dumbass brother who was about to get his ass beat by two Alphas with Scott following closely behind me.
I honestly should be the one going out of control since I can't seem to stop myself when people hurt the ones I love. Erica meant a lot to me believe it or not after all the time I hated her, she really did grow on me those last couple of months. It should be me doing this not Isaac, he had no idea what he was doing... he was just acting out of pure rage which in most cases is what gets you killed.
I ran so hard while trying to catch up with the three werewolf boys that I could feel the dirt I was kicking up hitting against my own legs. I didn't even know I could run this fast.. I knew I was fast but not this fast. I'm pretty sure I lost Scott a few minutes back. Maybe, it was the feeling I had in my heart, the one telling me I couldn't loose another pack member to these monsters. I couldn't save Erica but I could save my brother.
My running finally ceased at a curved part of the path when I caught sight of the twins holding my brother up by the back of his neck as he struggled and growled under their hold.
I had no idea how they hadn't seen me run over since I was obviously out in the open but I took it as a good chance to catch them off guard.
Aiden looked down at my brother as I stalked closer to them and chuckled darkly to his brother, "Ethan, I always forget, how many bones are in the human body?"
Ethan smirked at smiled evilly, " I don't know let's count."
Ethan began to try and pull my brothers arm basically out of its socket but I took this as my shot to lunge at him. I balled my fist and swung it right into Ethan's jaw. He fell to the ground with a grunt as Aiden looked over to me with a shocked expression.
I blew my fist off as if it were a gun with smoke coming out of it and rubbed it on my shirt before looking over at Aiden and smirking, " That's one."
Aiden quickly dropped my brother with a growl and came at me but before he could even get anywhere close to me another fist collided with his jaw sending him to the ground.
A proud smile came to my face as I looked up and met the gaze of the boy I loved who I wanted nothing more than to kiss but I couldn't, " I guess that's two. "
Isaac stumbled to his feet and stood beside me as the two twins used each other to stand and both simultaneously cracked their jaws. As they stood and growled at us now with their fangs and claws out I leaned into Isaac and whispered, " Why don't we do things in sync like that?"
He shook his head and prepared himself to fight as well and harshly whispered out to me through his canines, " Now is not the time, Izzy!"
I put my hands up in surrender and closed my eyes for a moment before slowly letting them open to now show off my glowing amber ones," Okay then, who's ass is getting kicked first?"
Just as I was about to charge at Aiden who looked to have stepped up to take the ass beating an ear piercing shriek rang throughout the forest causing all five of us to stop what we were doing. I gave the two boys next to me a worried glance before taking off with them behind me as we followed the sound of the shriek.
When we had reached where the cry had come from my hands immediately flew to my mouth and I let out my own cry into my hand. Attached to a tree, with something cutting through his neck, and a side of his head bashed in was a guy that I saw everyday in my French class... dead; his name was Kyle. He had all the injuries on his body like Heather and the body that Lydia had found, Stiles was right, people were being sacrificed. If I knew one thing for certain in this town it was that if Stiles had a theory about something he was right.
Scott grabbed me by my shoulder and tried to hide my face in his chest but I pushed away from him and walked down to the crowd of people which included Stiles. I grabbed his shoulder and hung onto him.
His head snapped to me and I gave him a worried look, " This is another one isn't it?"
He looked back at the kid and nodded his head sadly as Scott and Isaac came up behind us, "Yeah, There's no doubt."
" You were right, Stiles." I whispered as we all stared in disbelief at the dead boy found on our very own schools property. Just from seeing this body I knew it was just the beginning.
Stiles looked at me again this time with tears in his eyes and went to speak but was cut off as a loud voice rang throughout the area where the whole team had now gathered to see the dead boy.
We all looked up as Sheriff Stilinski ran over to us and began shouting at a kid and pushing him out of the way, "Hey, get out of the way. Get back."
Scott, Stiles, Isaac and myself backed up at words of the the sheriff as he hurriedly trudged up the small hill towards the dead kids body. I still hung tightly onto Stiles in hopes that it would somehow comfort this moment, unluckily it didn't last long because Stiles broke away and started to walk towards his dad like the idiot he was.
"Get this area cordoned off before they trample - every piece of evidence." The sheriff yelled at his deputy. I actually really liked her, whenever I went with Stiles to give food to his dad she was there and would always greet me with a smile and ask me about my day at school. Tara was just an all around nice lady.
She smiled at me and I quickly returned it as she stomped up the small hill before whisking her body around and yelling while holding her arms up to block anymore of the team from coming up the hill towards the body, " Back up! Everyone back!"
Sheriff Stilinski stalked closer to the body and I could see him shake involuntary with uncomfortableness before turning around and yelling once again, " Get these kids out of here."
Just as he said this Stiles reached his father and grabbed his arm, " Dad, just come here." He guided him even closer to the body and pointed at it, " Look, Look, look at it. It's the same as the others, you see?"
" Yeah, I see that." He pointed his hand towards Stiles and said sternly, " Do me a favor. Go back to school, yeah?"
Stiles looked at him with disbelief as if he was wondering why he couldn't stay. It was actually quite obvious why he couldn't stay, this was a freaking crime scene. I knew that he would never leave voluntarily so I walked over to him and grabbed his shoulders, " Stiles, let's just go."
He turned his head and gave me a mocking look before he shrugged my hands off his shoulders. All the while his dad had been watching the exchange and he shook his head at Stiles' stubbornness before turning to Coach who had just now arrived on the scene for some weird reason,
" Coach, can you give us a hand here?"
Coach nodded and turned to all the students nervously standing around not knowing what to do about seeing a dead body, " You heard the man, nothing to see here."
Unfortunately this wasn't the first body I had seen, I wish it was first and my last but that was impossible. It was scary to think that we were going to see so many more bodies because of this threefold death thing, I shuddered thinking about it.
" He's probably just some homeless kid." Coach said as if trying to reassure us that this death meant nothing. I gave him a disgusted expression, how could he say that? No matter if he was homeless, which he wasn't, every life matters... his life mattered.
I crossed my arms over my chest and scoffed as I squinted my eyes angrily at Coach. I then brought one hand out and motioned toward Kyle's body with my hand, " Uh, Coach...he was a senior here."
Coach let out a worried sigh and put his hand over his mouth before turning his head to me and asking worriedly, " Oh...he wasn't on the team was he?"
I squinted my eyes even more at him and growled under my breath, I could literally feel myself about to blow up, I was fuming. I was about to go off on Coach about how his comments disgusted me, who cares if he was on the team or not, what matters is that someone murdered him, but I stopped in my tracks as a girl ran on the scene and started screaming out.
"Kyle!" She rounded the corner and caught sight of the boy hanging dead from the tree and tears started raining down from her face as she screamed, " Oh my god, Kyle!"
It was obvious by the amount of distress she was in that he was her boyfriend, I felt bad as I watched Tara grab her body and began trying to hold her back as she cried and screamed out for her lost love. I turned around and looked at Scott who was deep in conversation with Stiles and I couldn't help but frown. I couldn't imagine if that was him dead, it would make it even worse if we were in the state we we're now, not together. I knew that he felt terrible for what he said, but I just couldn't get past the fact that somewhere deep down those words meant something to him. That's the reason I haven't jumped back into his arms already.
I was caught staring as Scott turned to me, he gave me a sad look before he sighed and walked down to me and grabbed my shoulders from behind, " Let's get out of here before Stiles gets himself in trouble."
He started guiding me away with his hands still planted on my shoulders and for the second time today I let him to do it, Isaac stood beside us as soon as we reached him and walked away with us.
Stiles watched us as we walked away with an unbelievable expression before shaking his head angrily and stomping after us until he was right next to us. When he reached us Scott let go of my shoulders and I went to stand between him and Isaac as we walked down the path. Stiles continued to pout like a child as we walked away from the crime scene that he wanted to stay on but we all knew he couldn't. We were just teenagers and we weren't supposed to know about this stuff, we knew too much about this that the cops would probably think we were doing it.
As we got further and further away we stayed in silence taking in the impact of this murder until Isaac suddenly growled out under his breath next to me and said angrily, " Did you guys see the way the twins looked at him?"
Stiles rolled his eyes and kicked rocks under his feet, " What? Like they had no idea what happened?"
Isaac shook his head angrily and glanced back at the crime scene that was slowly fading away as we walked, " Nah. Nah, they knew."
" The kid was strangled with a garrote, alright? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of "werewolfitude" in these murders?" Stiles said as his voice rose and he used his hands to show his anguish.
I raised my hand and shrugged my shoulders, " I agree with you. There's no way that was them."
We all began going down a small hill that led back to the entrance of the woods as leaves crunched under our feet while Isaac rolled his eyes at me and scoffed, " Yeah, of course you believe him, you two are like the same person. You guys really believe it's just a coincidence that they show up and then people start dying?"
It was my turn to roll my eyes, I shook my head at him and threw my hands up in an annoyed manner as we all stopped at the bottom of the hill, " Well, no we don't but I still don't think it's them. I spent some time with them before I found out what they were and I know that was all a lie now but that...." I said pointing back into the woods that we were almost out of, " Does not look like something a werewolf would do."
Isaac just shook his head and disregarded my statement. He wasn't letting anything shake his opinion and it was obvious that this was his way of coping with Erica's death, blame and anger. I gave him a sad look which he didn't see because he was too focused on getting the opinion of the person who was yet to speak up.
Isaac nodded at him to get his attention, " Scott?"
Stiles arms immediately flew over his chest and he gave Scott a sassy and expecting look. If Scott goes against Stiles right now and he proves to be right yet again I say he owns Stiles curly fries for the rest of his life. I never am going to doubt him, he was right about Matt and Jackson. He was 2/2 and I had a feeling he was going to be 3/3 with this one.
Stiles continued to look at Scott expectantly before nodding his head, " Yeah Scott, what about you?"
Scott looked around at all of us staring at him nervously, even though I wasn't really concerned with his opinion.. I was sticking by Stiles no matter what Scott thinks. Scott shook his head and sighed as he shrugged his shoulders, " I don't know yet."
Stiles rose his eyebrows in surprise and said mockingly with his arms still crossed, " Oh, you don't know yet?"
Scott winced and said while motioning towards Isaac, " Well, he's got a point."
Stiles' jaw dropped and he threw his hands down to his sides in disbelief that his own friend thought he was wrong. I had to admit Scott was being pretty oblivious and so was Isaac, why would a werewolf take all the time to do that when they could just slit their throat?
Scott saw Stiles now disappointed look and turned to him again, " Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"
Stiles' eyes held confusion as Scott claimed his idea to be ridiculous and scoffed as he walked closer and motioned towards Scott, " Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, and if I were to stab you right now it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?
"Also this girl over here," he began motioning to me making Scott's head snap to me as I gave him a small wave," can feel people's emotions and replicate their wounds, so don't try to tell me that sacrifices are too strange."
Scott sighed heavily and turns to Isaac, " That's a good point too."
Isaac just stared at him before shaking his head, " I don't care. They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me, and I'm going to kill them too."
Isaac gave us all one more angry look before walking way from us and back to the school with more determination radiating off him then I've ever felt, it almost overpowered the rage.. almost. We now had yet another problem on our hands, A determined werewolf who wanted to murder two other werewolves. And that was only the beginning of our problems to come.