I found my way to the school. Why, I wasn't sure. I saw Lydia, "Lyds? What are you doing here?"
She frowned. "I could ask you the same thing. I don't know how I ended up here."
"Neither do I. Whoa. What's that?" I pointed to something being dragged.
"I think it's a body," Lydia said quietly. "Should we--should we follow it?"
"Yeah. Let's see where it takes us."
We followed the body into the locker room. I pointed to the showers and Lydia nodded. I stood at the entrance and saw my corpse underneath a stream of flowing water. The Darach placed a garrote around my neck and choked me, leaving my bloody body sitting against the wall.
I couldn't breathe and began panicking. I felt someone grab my shoulders, but I didn't know who it was. My breath raced and I struggled to catch it. I registered a familiar female voice. My best friend. I heard her say that it was okay. I heard her call my name. My breathing finally slowed and I saw Lydia looking at me with a terrified expression on her face. "It's okay, Lyss. I'm here."
I hugged her as I heard a voice say, "Lydia? Alyssa?"
I turned to see Stiles and Allison. "It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, and ended up here. Lyss told me the same. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."
Stiles looked at the two of us. "You guys found a dead body?"
I shook my head. "Not yet."
""Not yet?" What do you mean "not yet"? Lydia, Als, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body."
Lydia shook her head. "Oh, no, I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."
"We're not doing that again," I said, expanding on Lydia's comment.
Stiles groaned. "How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the ones finding the dead body."
"Guys," Scott called, "I found the dead body."
"It's always the school," I muttered. "Why is it always the school?"
The next day at school, I saw Stiles talking to his dad, and I could only presume it was about Tara and the sacrifices.
I walked into English and sat at my usual desk as I pulled out paper. Subconsciously, I began drawing a werewolf and various other things I'd seen. I also drew a tree. Why, I didn't know. That was Lydia's thing.
Ms. Blake was going on about writing and English terms. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story. Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many talents. I see you have hidden talents as well, Alyssa."
Lydia looked up from her tree. "You and every guy I've dated."
Ms. Blake hesitated a moment. "Oh, um, well, that was an idiom, by the way. Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture. They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Saying "jump the gun" is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race, or a phrase like "seeing the whole board.""
"Like chess," Stiles noted.
Ms. Blake nodded. "That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"
My boyfriend shook his head. "Uh, no. My father does."
Moving on, Ms. Blake asked, "Now when does an idiom become a cliché?"
After class, Scott told us a plan he'd thought of during class. "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."
"What do you want to do that for?" Stiles asked.
Scott shrugged. "The druids are emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"
Stiles looked at Scott in disbelief. "Okay, first of all, I cannot believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like "what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?" actually makes sense to me. Second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."
"What's that?"
"Going through Aiden," I told him.
As we tried to hatch our plan, Stiles looked at the two of us. "Ever since he's been back at school, they're always together. How are we gonna separate them again?"
While Lydia was talking to Aiden, the boys and I talked to Ethan, who stared at us. "Why are you even talking to me? I helped kill your friend. How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?"
My boyfriend argued angrily, "Is he looking at me? Are you threatening me? You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to break off an extra large branch of Mountain Ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe, and shove it up your freaking..."
"Stiles, enough," I whispered as I took his arm.
Scott did the same. "Whoa, Stiles, okay. We get it. We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd. And I think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again."
Ethan shook his head as he said, "You don't know what we owe them, especially Deucalion. We weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't alphas."
Hmm. Interesting development. "What were you?" Scott asked.
"Omegas," Ethan answered, as he continued telling his story.
Earning confused looks from us, Ethan continued, "In actual wolf packs, omegas are the scapegoat, the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the rest of the pack."
"That's horrible," I breathed.
Stiles nodded and continued on to say, "So you are your brother were, like, the bitches of the pack?"
"Something like that," Ethan replied.
"What happened?" Scott asked.
Ethan sighed. "They were killers. I mean, people talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us the reputation. And our Alpha was the worst of them."
"Why didn't you fight back?" I questioned.
"From voltron wolf, you know? Kick everyone's asses?" Stiles added.
Ethan shook his head at me and Stiles. "We couldn't, we didn't know how to control it back then."
"Deucalion taught you," Scott realized.
"And then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one. And by the time we got to our Alpha, he was begging for his life. And we tore him apart. Literally."
I instantly covered my mouth. This was even more horrible than I'd originally thought. "What about your emissary?" Scott wondered. "They're all dead? Kali and Ennis' too?"
"You mean Morrell?" Stiles and I asked.
"Ah!" Ethan suddenly cried out in pain.
"What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Scott asked hurriedly.
Ethan shook his head. "Not me. My brother."
He ran off to the locker room and we followed. I got there in time to see Aiden holding a weight over his head, ready to injure Cora, worse than she already was. I knelt by her and Stiles appeared next to me. Stiles looked behind at the others. "Hey, guys, I think she's pretty hurt."
Ethan and Aiden left and I asked, "Are you okay?"
Lydia shook her head. "She doesn't look okay."
"I'll heal," Cora retorted.
"Uh... Oh," Stiles replied.
"I said I'm fine."
"Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was? What were you thinking going after them?" My boyfriend asked.
"I did it for Boyd. None of you were doing anything."
"We're trying," Scott admitted sadly.
"And you're failing," Cora retorted. "You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed. But all you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies."
With that, Cora got up and left. Stiles glanced at her as she walked off. "She's definitely a Hale. Mm. I'll make sure she gets home."
We got a call from Allison as Stiles and I drove Cora to his house. "Philosophers?" Stiles repeated.
"And guardians, which after last night has to mean something like law enforcement, right? Stiles, you have to tell your dad. Tell him whatever you need, but you have to get him to believe. Tell your dad. Warn him."
"Okay, okay, okay, I know."
"What are you gonna do?" Cora asked.
Stiles turned to Cora. "I'm gonna tell him the truth. And I'm gonna need your help."
We got to his house and Cora immediately sat on Stiles' bed while I sat on the floor. Stiles began pacing and muttering nervously, "Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes, okay. No, oh..."
Sheriff Stilinski crossed his arms and stared in annoyance at his son. "Stiles?"
Stiles sighed. "Dad, I'm sorry, okay? I'm just... I'm trying to... I'm just trying to figure out how to start here."
Sheriff Stilinski looked at my boyfriend in annoyance. "Hey, I don't have this kind of time."
Stiles let out a nervous breath. "Um, for the last year, you've had all these cases that you couldn't figure out, right? I mean, all the murders involving Kate Argent, and then Matt killing all the people who had drowned him, and all these murders right now. It's like... it's like you've been playing a losing game."
"Stiles, the last thing I need is a job performance review from my own son."
"I know. Okay, see, but that's... that's just it, dad. The... the reason that you're losing the game is cause you've never been able to see the whole board. I need to show you the whole board."
My attention was drawn to a chess board with labeled pieces. He began explaining the pieces to his dad, and it was not going well. Like, at all.
"Scott and Derek are werewolves?" Sheriff Stilinski asked.
"Yes." Stiles nodded.
"And Kate Argent was a werewolf?"
I shook my head. "No, she was a hunter. Purple is hunter."
"Along with Allison and her father," Cora added.
"Yeah, and... and my friend Deaton, the veterinarian, is a kanima?" Sheriff Stilinski questioned.
"Well, no, no, no, no, no. He's a druid, okay? Well, we think," Stiles informed.
"So who's the kanima?"
"Jackson."
"No, Jackson's a werewolf."
"Jackson was the kanima first, and then Peter and Derek killed him and he came back to life as a werewolf. Now, he's in London."
"Who's the Darack?"
"It's da-rock."
"We don't know yet," Cora replied.
"We don't know yet," my boyfriend repeated.
"But he was killed by werewolves?" Sheriff asked.
"Slashed up and left for dead."
"We think," Cora said.
"We think."
"Yeah. Why was Jackson the kanima?" The sheriff questioned, trying to understand.
"'Cause sometimes, the shape that you take reflect the person that you are," I explained.
Sheriff narrowed his eyes at his son. "And what shape would an increasingly confused and angrier-by-the-second father take?"
"Uh," my boyfriend began nervously, "that would be more of an expression like the one you're currently wearing."
"Yeah."
"Dad... Dad, would you... I can prove it, okay? Look, she's one of them. A werewolf."
By this point, Sheriff Stilinski had grown increasingly impatient with his son. "Stiles, Stiles! That's enough."
"Dad, can you please just hold on? You ready? Alright, dad, just watch this okay?"
Cora stood up and collapsed to the floor. I saw that her head wound has reopened.
"Call an ambulance," the sheriff demanded.
I called an ambulance as I turned to the sheriff. "I hate to do this, but I promised Ms. Blake I would help set up for the recital tonight."
He nodded and said, "We got this. Go. And be careful, Alyssa."
I rushed off to the school, knowing I was already late. I ran into the auditorium and ran into Ms. Blake. In a breathless voice, I said, "I'm sorry I'm late. I got here as fast as I could."
Ms. Blake gave me a small smile. "That's perfectly alright. Most everything is done, but if you want to set up the last couple rows of chairs, that'd be great. Then, I think we're set."
I nodded and got to work. A few minutes later, I finished what I was doing.
An hour later, the concert started. I was standing by Lydia and Scott walked up to the two of us. "I thought you two were going home."
Lydia shook her head. "I can't. I don't know why we're the ones that keep finding the bodies, but maybe if I just stopped trying to fight it, I'd find them before something happens, maybe with enough time for someone like you to do something about it."
"What she said," I replied as I pointed at Lydia. "There's got to be a reason we keep finding the bodies, and if we can get ahead of that, maybe you can save someone."
Scott nodded. "You guys get me the time, and I'll do something about it. I swear to God, I will."
Lydia got a text from Aiden and I get a text from Stiles.
From: Sarcastic Goofball <3
Urgent. I need to talk to you about something I found. It's important.
I slipped out of the auditorium and subconsciously entered a classroom. I looked over to see Lydia there and opened my mouth to say something when I heard loud chanting, much like before. Ms. Blake appeared and slapped both me and Lydia across the face. Ms. Blake gave the two of us a smirk. "You recognize it, don't you?"
"What are you doing?" Lydia asked.
"What's necessary. I'm still surprised none of you seem to get that. You call them sacrifices, but you're not understanding the word. It's derived from the Latin sacrificium, an offering to a deity, a sacred rite. A necessary evil."
Lydia closed her eyes and shook her head. "Stop."
"Oh, I wish I could. But you don't know the alphas like I do."
"You're a psychopath! Just let us go!" I cried.
"Please, stop," Lydia whimpered.
Ms. Blake shook her head. "But you two, you're not sacrifices. You're just girls who know too much. Actually, girls who knew too much."
It's then I knew what I had to do. As Ms. Blake placed the cord around Lydia's neck, Lydia reached her hand up to the cord around her neck and both of us screamed. It's a shrill scream, a scream a normal human was unable to make. "Lydia, Alyssa, don't!" Ms. Blake cried.
Ms. Blake stopped and looks at the two of us in amazement. "Unbelievable. You two have know idea what you are, do you? The wailing woman. Two Banshees, right before my eyes. You're just like me, Lydia and Alyssa. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it. It's too bad though... And too late."
"No, please..." Lydia whimpered.
Ms. Blake took duct tape and bound Lydia's hands to her chair. She covered my mouth so I couldn't scream again. She stood behind Lydia and placed the cord around her throat as she twisted tighter. She took the dagger and placed it to Lydia's neck. "One last philosopher. And a girl who got in the way."
Lydia struggled to catch her breath and I felt tears falling down my cheeks. I wanted to scream so badly, but I couldn't open my mouth very far. Suddenly, Sheriff Stilinski appeared. I didn't think I'd ever been more relieved to see him. He pointed a gun at Ms. Blake. She took the dagger from Lydia's throat and threw it at the sheriff, landing the dagger just below his right shoulder. Sheriff Stilinski grunted as he dropped his gun in pain.
Scott made an appearance, as his werewolf self, and looked at Sheriff Stilinski before going after Ms. Blake. She swatted him away with ease and with enough force that blood began coming out of his mouth. I saw a desk get pushed out of the door, and whoever it was, probably my boyfriend, was unable to get in the room.
By this point, the sheriff had recovered enough to pick up his gun. He pointed it at Ms. Blake once again and said, "Drop it! There was a girl. Years ago, we found her in the woods, her face and body slashed apart. That was you, wasn't it?"
Ms. Blake glared at the sheriff. "Maybe I should have started with philosophers, with knowledge and strategy." Sheriff Stilinski shot the gun, hitting Ms. Blake in the leg, only to have it heal. "Healers..." Ms. Blake grabbed the dagger and lifted the sheriff off the ground as she twisted his left wrist, causing him to release the gun. She forced him back and he slammed into a stack of chairs in the back. "Warriors..." She ripped off his badge. "Guardians..." She crushed the badge in her hand, and dropped it to the floor. She stepped closer to him and said, "Virgins." She kissed the sheriff and his eyes widened. I saw a bald, gray head, instead of Ms. Blake's usual brown curly locks.
I heard glass shatter and next thing knew, the sheriff was gone. Stiles finally walked in and Scott got up, but they were too late.
Scott released me and Lydia. As soon as I was free, I ran over to Stiles and hugged him tightly. He said nothing as he placed his head on my shoulder in silent fear. It was heartbreaking, and I knew there was nothing I could say that would make him feel better. He finally met my eyes. "I'll text you where we're meeting. Go home for now, be safe, Alyssa."
I pressed my lips to his and whispered, "Be careful and I hope you find your dad. I'll look too. He's like a second father to me, and I will not give up looking for him."
With that, my boyfriend and best friend headed off to confront Ms. Blake.