Peter drops his hand from my shoulder and reaches into his pocket when his phone goes off.
He looks up to us as he answers and brings the phone up to his ear "Derek, what happened?– wait wait wait, did you say Cora?"
I share a look with Stiles who shrugs and Peter moves away to start pacing next to us as he listens to whatever Derek is filling him in on you could at least put him on speaker for the non enhanced hearing people of the room
About a minute later, he hangs up and walks towards the door, however, we are right on his tail "Okay what happened?"
Peter grabs his coat and goes about putting it on as he fills us in "They're alive, barely. They were locked in a mountain ash barrier inside the vault with Cora and Boyd but the Argent girl showed up and broke the seal, much to Derek's fury for her not to."
"Allison– wait who's Cora?" I question coming to a stop next to him at the door while he adjusts the collar on his coat.
Peter nods and continues "Now they're trying to chase after Boyd and Cora– Derek's sister, who is not dead by the way– since they escaped from the vault and are running rampant in their much bigger Colosseum. Which now consists of the entirety of the Beacon Hills population. It's going to be a long night kids, grab your coats."
"Hold on, what is the plan– to literally chase after two werewolves who can't even be reasoned with?" Stiles' states before it sounds like his voice is fading and the same feeling I had last night at Deaton's overcomes by entire body again.
My nerves feel on fire and there's too much around me, everything is too much. I set my hands on the sides of my head, closing my eyes as I focus on taking deep, even breaths my anxiety has never been this bad before
I open my eyes when I feel hands on my forearms and see Peter's furrowed expression, he moves his mouth, though I can't hear him over the noise in my head that is increasing.
Stiles pushes forward, trading spots with Peter, and reaches out to wrap his hands around my wrists. I feel him squeeze them before he shouts "Addy!"
Just like the other night his voice breaks through the noise and everything clears. The thumping in my head stops and he lowers my hands from either side of my head slowly.
Stiles slides his hands from my wrists and grasps my hands in his as Peter makes a noise and points towards me "What the hell was that?"
I take a deep breath connecting my eyes with Stiles' worried ones as he rubs his thumbs soothingly on the back of my hands, answering Peter "Whatever it is, that's the second time it's happened to her in twenty four hours."
Peter looks fascinated as he moves his eyes back and forth between mine, crossing one arm over his chest and lifting the other to rest against the side of his mouth "I couldn't connect with your mind, but that doesn't mean I was wrong" he mumbles absentmindedly and I share a look with Stiles who furrows his brows and takes a step towards him "What– what do you mean you weren't wrong? Wrong about what?– Peter!"
"Hmm" Peter snaps out of his thinking face and looks between us and our raised brow expression before he just shakes his head "Just focus on what you hear Addy, don't shut it out."
I make a face towards him "Are you impersonating a terrible fortune cookie– because what does that–" Peter looks to his phone interrupting my words as he turns to walk towards the door.
Stiles makes a noise and looks from his retreating back, over to me and back to Peter before shouting "What the actual fuck does that mean Peter, do you know what's happening to her?"
Peter sets his hand on the door and looks over his shoulder at us "Listen to your gut Addy," he states before he's closing the door, leaving Stiles and I more confused than ever.
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
We make it downstairs and into Roscoe when Scott texts me the address where they're meeting Isaac near the preserve to start their search.
Stiles starts up the jeep and I look over to him, setting my phone in my lap and pointing towards the windshield "Okay so head this way and make a right on Burton street," he nods before I turn to look out my window, chewing on my thumb nail.
Stiles weaves onto the street and clears his throat before making the turn I previously advised "Are you at all on to what Peter might have meant?"
I give him the next set of directions before I shake my head "No, whatever is happening– it's not a listening to my gut type of situation. Everything gets too loud and I can't handle the pressure in my head. I thought it had to do with the shouting when we were at Deaton's and my anxiety was just going haywire but you weren't yelling just now– that was a pretty calm delivery of your question to Peter."
Next set of directions before I set my elbow on the window frame and rub my forehead and continue with a huff "I mean the situation is stressful with everything happening and what we just learned about Boyd and a not dead sister– but I don't know. I mean they were two different situations, conversations, people– but the feeling was the same"
He shifts in his seat and looks over to me quickly "What was the feeling?"
I hesitate before I turn to look at him, he flicks his eyes from me and the road twice before I digress "So overwhelming I needed to scream"
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
"Ok pull in to park here" I point and sit forward in the seat.
Stiles looks between me and the parking lot before making a noise "I thought we were meeting them at one edge of the preserve?"
I furrow my brows and look over to him "We are–"
"Wha– Addy this is the pool" he lifts his hand from the steering wheel to indicate out the front window.
I move my eyes from him to look out front, opening and closing my mouth a few times at a complete loss for words.
Reaching over, I unlock my phone and open the directions from the address I put in, immediately frowning at what I see "I don't understand how I read them wrong, I could have sworn I knew exactly where we were going... but we're nowhere where we should be right now."
He lifts a shoulder "I mean technically you knew where you were going, just not to Scott."
I lift my hands up from my legs "Well what does that mean?"
He hesitates and then sighs before reaching for his door handle "Maybe it's tied to whatever happened earlier, something told you to come here Adds– I fucking hate saying he could be right, but Peter said to listen to your gut."
He moves to get out of the jeep and I reach across to grab his arm "Seriously what are you doing?"
Stiles gets out, closes his door and sets his hands on the window frame "Get your ass out of the car."
"Stiles– Sti– Stiles!" I loudly whisper towards him attempting to stop his steps but does he listen? No– are you shocked?
I get out of the jeep and meet him in front, shoving my hands in my jacket pockets before we walk through the gate into the pool. We see someone standing by the edge of the pool, before they turn around quickly and I furrow my brows at who I see "Lyds?"
She gasps before quickly walking towards us "What are you guys doing here?"
I share a look with Stiles before I shake my head "I– well I can't really give you an answer on that, we just kind of ended up here."
She jerks her head back and moves her lips to the side "Addy– what do you mean?"
I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly before filling her in "I was following directions to the preserve, except I wasn't aware I wasn't actually following them– and then we ended up in the parking lot."
"Me too" she states so softly that if it wasn't the middle of the night and completely quiet around us I wouldn't have heard her.
I set my hands on her upper arms "Lyds what do you mean 'you too'?"
She flicks her eyes between Stiles and I before taking a breath "I woke myself up by screaming hysterically, I have this horrible headache and I left my house to go to the store to get some more tylenol– however I ended up here even though I know I was headed for the store."
Softly squeezing her arms once before I drop my hands, I look over my shoulder at Stiles who makes a face and steps forward pointing to her "Is that blood?"
I look down to her hands and she moves them around on the towel she has "Umm yes– there's a uh– a body over there."
"A body?!" he states before walking over to the lifeguard chair, gasping and taking a step back once he sees what Lydia was talking about. He brings his hand up to rest over his mouth before walking back over "Are you okay, what happened?"
She nods a few times "I'm okay, but that over there is not okay– he was like that when I got here" she points over to the chair and visibly shivers.
I move my worried look between them and Stiles nods "Yeah, all right– I'm gonna call my dad"
Lydia shakes her head and drops the towel on the ground near us, setting her hands on her hips "I already called 9-1-1."
Stiles widens his eyes like she's insane "You called the police before you called us?" he shares a look with me as I cross my arms in front of me, lifting one hand over my mouth to hide my smile.
Lydia jerks her head back and makes a face "I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?"
She swings her eyes to me silently asking if he's serious he's completely serious
"Yes!" He shouts into the otherwise silent night around us.
Lydia rolls her eyes and I snicker into my hand before clearing my throat and Stiles digs in his pocket for his phone "This had to be them– we gotta call Scott, tell them Boyd and Cora were over here."
I nod, though I frown at the swimming pool sign and then over to the body in the chair, Stiles notices and sets his hand on my arm causing me to jump "Hey, hey, hey it's okay– what was that look for?"
I shrug "We're nowhere near the direction Scott and Derek were headed earlier– how did they make it over here so fast?"
Stiles sighs and shakes his head like he's got nothing and he taps on his phone. He steps closer to me, setting his arm around my back as he lifts his phone up to his ear to call Scott, talking as soon as he answers "Hey, it's uh– hard to explain but, well we found a dead body at the community pool."
He nods before he continues and turns towards the guy in the chair "Yep. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the fuckin' shining over here. Two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking us to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised"
I snort and cross my other arm over my chest as I look down to the ground and back up to Stiles when he scoffs "Make sure it was them? Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out?"
At whatever Scott says Stiles rolls his eyes to look back at me and sighs even harder before dropping the phone down to his side and stepping closer to the body.
Nodding his head once he brings the phone back up to his ear "Unless his purity ring deeply offended anyone, it had to be them Scott. His throat is slashed like we've seen certain other werewolves do way too many times."
He finishes the call with a "Okay– yea see you soon" and we see the flashing lights of some deputy squad cars pull up.
We walk towards the main entrance, seeing Mr. S immediately "You kids okay? What are you doing here?"
Stiles shoves his hands in his pockets, though it's Lydia that chimes in first "Oh, I forgot my bag earlier in the changing room, so I came to get it and that's when I saw the body– called you first before I called Addy who was with Stiles to come wait with me."
I try to hide my shock at her lie on the spot and smile softly to Noah when he looks at his son and I.
He nods and then reaches in his pocket to take our statements as an ambulance, coroner, and some other cars pull into the parking lot shortly after.
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
We follow Lydia home and offer her a wave when she gets out of her car to head inside her house.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Stiles turn to look at me and open his mouth before he faces forward again.
I huff and look at him "Go ahead, ask your questions you've been dying to ask since we got to the pool and saw the body."
"Wha– I'm not– I haven't been dying to ask anything. I– nope no questions here for Stiles. Nothing."
I scoff "Did you forget who you're sitting in this jeep with? I know you, plus I can see it all over your face" I finish with a circle hand motion with my hand towards him earning a contemplative frown before he offers "Maybe my face just has, like, a naturally interrogatory exp– expression, my dear Watson."
"Well, your interrogatory expression is getting on my nerves, Sherlock," I huff and immediately soften my face towards him, adding softly "I have no idea what happened– why we ended up at the pool, or why Lydia was there first with seemingly the same reasons for getting there as we did."
Stiles taps his hand on the wheel "Right but the last time something like this happened with her–"
"I know– Peter. I mean that could explain Lydia being there but why would Peter bring her to a dead body– and me for that matter?"
He shrugs and slaps his hand on the steering wheel "I don't know, maybe he knew Boyd and Cora were over there and wanted someone to find him?"
I give him a look and he sighs setting his elbow on the steering wheel to scratch a finger over his bottom lip in thought "Yeah, you're right, he's not that decent of a person" but also how would Peter know they killed someone
I shake my head and chuckle before I hear my phone ring, I furrow my brows at the screen and lift it to my ear answering "Mom?"
"Honey, I wouldn't ask you to do what I'm about to if I didn't think it was incredibly important– are you still with Stiles?"
I look up to Stiles who drops his arm and furrows his brows before I answer her "Oookay– yes I'm with him, what do you need us to do?"
"Come down to the hospital...'s morgue. There's something with the body you guys found that I need to show you guys."
I close my eyes and hear her let out a soft sigh at my silence "I know honey, but something is happening and I don't think it was of the werewolf side of the supernatural okay?" she whispers the last part and I swallow thickly before nodding "Okay– yeah of course, we'll be right there."
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
We walk up to the doors and Stiles waits a step for me to move in front of him as we walk through the sliding doors of the hospital.
He sets his hand on my lower back and we walk up to the nurse's station where mom is standing.
We come to a stop at the counter and she closes the chart to look at us "Hey guys"
"Hey" Stiles answers as I smile towards her.
She steps away from the counter pulling each of us by our elbows and links her arms with ours as she falls in the middle of us "Over here. And if either of you tell anyone that I showed you this, I swear to God, I will kill you painfully and slowly."
Stiles lifts his wide eyes from the ground and over to me before looking down to her "Why do you want to show us a body we've already seen– pretty up close and personally I might add?"
She turns towards him and looks over her shoulder before whispering "Because you haven't seen everything."
We walk into the morgue and see two sheet covered bodies laying on the metal tables in the room.
Mom walks over to the supply table and gets a pair of gloves on before walking over to one of the bodies and lifting the sheet down to expose the head of the guy we found earlier "See this around his neck? That's a ligature mark. That means that he was strangled with something, like cord, rope–"
Stiles makes a noise, interrupting her "Ah, okay, wait a second. What kind of werewolf strangles someone? You know, that's not very werewolf-y..." he trails off and makes a face that has me scrunching my mouth to the side to not laugh at.
Mom smirks as well when she swings her eyes my direction and nods "My thoughts exactly– and then there's this," she walks around towards the guy's head and tilts it to the side, causing Stiles and I to shudder with our disgust clearly I won't be following her footsteps in the medical field
Stiles drops his head to the side and scrunches his face up "Holy jesus– man, what is that? Is that brain matter? Yeah, it's brain matter, of course."
Mom offers a look saying she's sorry, however, she continues nonetheless pointing towards the back of his head "See the indentation? He was hit in the back of the head, hard enough to kill him. In fact, any one of these things could have killed him. I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead." dead threefold
She looks towards the door whispering the last one and Stiles makes a face as he works out "All right, so then this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora, you know? They wouldn't have done all that. So maybe this is just one murder. I mean, maybe it's just a random coincidence."
Mom covers him with the sheet again, immediately shaking her head as she digresses "I don't think it was just one," I look over to her "How come mom?"
She nods towards the table behind us "Because that girl over there, she's got the exact same injuries." girl? oh no
Going with my gut of who I think is under the sheet, I attempt to stop her "Mom–" however she's already pulling back the sheet, continuing with her train of thought "The M.E. said this one wasn't just strangled. Whoever did it used a garrote, which is a stick that you put through the rope, and you just kind of keep twisting, and– Addy– guys?"
I raise my tear filled eyes from Heather's face up to mom and she gasps softly "Oh, my God, did you two know her? I'm so sorry. I didn't even think" she quickly covers her face back up with the sheet and I clear my throat "That was Heather, mom, from–"
"Oh my god, Jodie's Heather?– from when you were little?" we offer her nods of confirmation before Stiles' broken voice fills the room "I was– I was at her party the other night. It was her birthday."
I reach out and place my hand in his, feeling him slide his hand to the side as he intertwines our fingers.
He squeezes my hand once as he reaches his other arm up to wipe over his eyes and mom sets a hand on his shoulder "Okay, we need to call your father, 'cause you're a witness."
Stiles nods before his face changes from sadness to holy shit in 2.9 seconds as he looks from Heather over to the guy we found tonight and back to me, squeezing my hand harder and bringing his free hand up to rub over his mouth.
He moves his eyes between Heather and the other guy once more before I share a look with mom who hesitantly states "Stiles?"
He swings his eyes between the four of us again before he turns from me and back to face mom as he stammers out quickly "Has anyone else been through here tonight? Any– any other bodies, or even anybody missing?"
"What is it?" I question and he looks over to me again "I– just trust me" I nod and he turns to look expectantly at mom who scrunches up her brows and looks at the body in front of us "Uh, no, no bodies, but, um–"
"What?" Stiles offers softly, earning a slight shake of her head from mom who looks like it couldn't be connected to this but still fills us in "Two girls. They brought the first one in, Caitlin, for a tox screen, and then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily, just disappeared. I mean, they were out in the woods and–"
"Nobody's found her yet?" Stiles interrupts and mom shakes her head and connects her eyes with mine "I don't know."
"Okay, first one," Stiles begins earning mom and I to correct him "Caitlin."
Our correction earns me another hand squeeze from him as he pauses before he continues "Okay. Is she here? Is she here right now?"
"I think so," Mom incredulously answers with his persistence for the information "Okay, where?" Stiles states and pulls me with him as he moves to go and find her, however, mom lifts up her hands halting our steps "Okay, okay, wait. Just wait a minute–"
"I have to talk to her," He stresses and mom raises her brows "Why?"
"Because I think I know what's happening."
I'm not sure if it's the urgency and confidence in his voice or the look on my face telling her to trust him, but mom moves her eyes back and forth between us before she nods and tells us to follow her.
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
Reaching Caitlin's room, mom asks if she's up for talking to us about what happened to her tonight and she hesitantly nods after looking between Stiles and I.
Mom stands guard by the door and nods back towards us that the coast is clear.
Caitlin bends her head forward slightly and keeps her eyes on her hands in her lap "We weren't doing anything that bad. I mean, I've camped out there plenty of times," she begins to tell us as mom comes to stand next to me and Stiles crosses his arms in front of him "Right, but why tonight?"
"We wanted to be alone for one night. Emily lives with her mom, and I have three roommates. Not exactly romantic settings, you know?"
I smile softly even though her eyes are still cast downward "How long have you two been together?"
"Three months," she answers earning Stiles to offer "And you wanted to make it romantic."
I lift my head towards him before I hear her next words "Yeah, you know, because–" Caitlin trails off and Stiles raises his head slightly, knowing he's right "Because it was her first time."
She makes a face and lifts her eyes to us "They're gonna find her, right? Aren't they?"
I drop my eyes not wanting to answer that, however, it seems like even she knew it was rhetorical because she lowers her eyes as well and takes a deep breath in.
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
Stiles calls Scott and mom lets us wait in the hallway near the morgue for him to get there so we can fill him in on our terrifying discovery after researching the way they were killed someone's murdering virgins– which is zero good news for me
I lean against the wall and Stiles comes to lean next to me once he's off the phone "Scott's on his way."
I nod and cross my arms over my chest casting my eyes to my shoes as I offer softly "I'm sorry about Heather."
He nods and I see him tilt his head to the side "You knew her too."
"Right but I mean you knew her knew her so–" I trail off, instantly regretting bringing it up.
He looks over to me quickly, wide eyes in full force as he chuckles nervously and looks back to the ground "Oh earlier– yea no that wasn't– I didn't– we didn't– jesus christ..."
I raise my brows at his stammering before he clears his throat and turns towards me "When I was on the phone with you and needed to get away from the noise, I went into the basement because it was the closest door to me. When I was walking around the aisles of the ridiculous amount of wine her parents have, I saw that on the floor and just picked it up– couldn't tell you why now that I'm saying those words, probably thought it wouldn't be good for her parents to find that on the floor," such a considerate friend
I look over to him as he reaches up to rub behind his neck and continues "After I got off the phone with you I heard some guy telling his friends that Heather bailed on him after telling him she didn't want to be a seventeen year old virgin– I rolled my eyes at what he was implying at the time but now–"
He moves his eyes over towards the door of the morgue and I uncross my arms, reaching out and setting my hand on his arm "Hey you couldn't have known– and what happened to her was completely out of your hands."
He nods and sets his hand on mine, taking a minute before he looks up and connects our eyes again "I just don't want you thinking that I– that we–"
I chuckle softly and drops my eyes to the floor, interrupting him "Shouldn't really matter what I think though right?"
He stands up straight from the wall and squeezes my hand again muttering "No, Adds–"
Scott running down the hallway interrupts whatever he was about to say "Okay what the hell happened, how did you find a dead body and what was so important I had to get here so quickly?"
He sets his hands on his hips and looks expectantly at each of us as he swings his eyes between us.
Stiles drops his hand, takes a deep breath and nods towards the door "Come on, we need to show you something."
⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇
We pull the sheets down to uncover both Heather and the guy's heads and point to their wounds just like mom had, before we also tell him about the missing girl as well.
Once we're done Scott takes a minute before he raises his scrunched up brow expression from the table towards us "So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?"
Stiles reaches forward and covers Heather's face again stating "You're gonna wish they did."
Scott widens his eyes and looks between us pondering hesitantly "Why?"
"We're still researching it so we're not exactly sure yet but the other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather– the guy we somehow found at the pool. All three were virgins..."
Stiles pauses and I look to him before I connect my eyes with Scott's and continue "And they're all gonna have the same three injuries– strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called the threefold death."
Scott shakes his head looking between us "So if these aren't random killings, then what are they?"
Stiles shares a look with me and shifts on his feet before stating grimly "Sacrifices– human sacrifices."