Chapter two
Chaos rising
❀ꕥ
Flora was currently leaning against one of the empty desks in the empty classrooms as she watched the interaction between Derek and the others. Allison and Lydia showed the bruises to Scott and Stiles last night while Flora decided to stay home and not disturb the boys from a party at some girl's house - yes, it was because Flora was a little bit jealous.
"I don't see anything."
Derek's voice snapped the brunette out of her jealous thoughts. She knew that the bruises meant something for sure, why would two different bruises look the same if it wasn't something important?
The girl groaned and pushed herself off the table behind her. She wished that her issue with Stiles would be the only problem but somehow the supernatural world found the teenagers again.
"How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?" Derek questioned the teenagers in front of him as he tried to figure out why were they showing him some bruises.
Flora rolled her eyes. "It's the same on both sides, Derek." She pointed at their forearms and then raised her eyebrows.
"It's nothing," Derek answered even though he respected Flora as much as he did respect Scott.
"Pareidolia." Lydia and Flora spoke up at the same time. "Seeing patterns that aren't there." The strawberry blonde specificated for the man.
"They're trying to help," Scott whispered to the male, hoping that it would make him sympathize.
Derek raised his eyebrows at the teen. "These three?" He snickered and pointed at Lydia. "This one, who used me to resurrect my dead uncle. Thank you." The older male thanked sarcastically before pointing at Allison. "And this one, who shot about 30 arrows into me and my pack."Derek then pointed at Flora who watched him with crossed arms.
"You got nothing on me, buddy." The girl smirked and raised her eyebrows mockingly at the man who just rolled his eyes.
"Come on. No one died, all right?" Stiles tried to uplift the mood which made Flora wince.
"My mother died." Allison squinted her eyes at the man in front of her, showing that she knew what happened a couple of months ago.
"Your family's little honor code killed your mother. Not me." Derek disagreed with a straight face. "You wanna help? Find something real." He advised the girls and walked out of the room, Scott running after him.
"We'll figure it out alone," Flora reassured her friends and side hugged the girls.
The group then went separate ways - Flora, Scott, and Stiles went to their Economics class and Lydia had a 'study' date with Allison in the library, trying to find out something about the bruises.
Stiles watched the girl sitting down behind Scott and frowned. Part of him wanted her to sit close to him but he was too stubborn and hurt to back down from ignoring her - at least that what he was trying to do.
The girl quickly pulled out her new notebook for the Economics class she had with Coach Finstock. She ignored Stiles' stare and continued with writing some of the notes that were already written on the board.
"Scott, you have a tattoo?" The girl squealed when the boy took off his jacket, exposing his (now) more muscular arms. "It's cool." Flora complimented and gently touched the tattoo.
Scott grinned, his skin wrinkling from the grin. "Thanks, Flo, at least you like it." He thanked and threw an annoyed expression at Stiles who scoffed.
Flora nodded and smiled at the nickname Scott just gave her.
The Coach was picking people to play some 'Risk and Reward' game with a coin and mug but Flora couldn't be more bored. She wished that she could be with the girls in the school library and gossip or help them with the bruises.
"Does anybody have a quarter?" Coach asked the class.
"Yep, " Stiles smirked and tried to pull a quarter out of his pocket.
XXL condom fell out instead.
Flora's eyes widened and her mouth opened in shock. Her brown eyes watched the packaging of the condom with furrowed eyebrows. She ignored the small ache in her chest as she watched Coach slowly picking it up.
Finstock clicked his tongue and looked at the blue wrapper. "Stilinski, I think you dropped this." He handed the condom to Stiles with an awkward cough. "And congratulations." The man smiled and then looked from Stiles to Flora with a proud smile.
Flora felt her cheeks getting red when the class started laughing at the awkward situation. She tried to keep her attention towards the class but the image of the condom was burning in her head. The image of Stiles being with another person sent an ache to her chest. The brunette knew that she had no right to order Stiles what to do but she hoped that the two of them could make up.
"Young!" Coach called out after failing with Danny. "Risk or reward?" He asked and showed her the quarter.
The brunette shook her head. "Sorry Coach, not today." She apologized with a small smile and ignored his eye roll.
"Who wants the quarter?" He asked again and laughed when Stiles clapped his desk and got up. "There you go! There's a gambling man!"Coach celebrated Stiles and rushed him towards the mug.
Just as Stiles was about to throw the coin into the mug his father showed up with a police officer. Flora scrunched her eyebrows, confused by the sudden visit.
"Stiles," Finstock said slowly.
"Yeah, Coach, I got it," Stiles answered without looking up from the mug.
"Stiles." Noah Stilinski called out for his son which made the boy look at his father. "We need to talk."
Scott quickly wrote what he heard with his little werewolf ears on a piece of paper and carefully handed it to Flora.
The girl quickly grabbed the paper so the teacher wouldn't see and unfolded it.
'Stiles' friend Heather from last night's party is missing.'
🥀
After spending the rest of her day at the library, the girl was dragged to the animal clinic by Scott who didn't care about the awkward atmosphere between Flora and Stiles.
"You wanna do what?!" The brunette raised her voice when Deaton wanted to put Isaac into cold water full of ice. "I understand that we want to find Boyd and Erica but are we sure we want to almost kill Isaac for that?"
Stiles scoffed. "Look who's not selfish anymore." He rebuked quietly, not realizing that the whole room heard it.
The four males awkwardly looked from Stiles to Flora, not knowing what to expect next but Flora only smiled at Isaac and continued, ignoring the boy's remark.
"It's too risky Isaac, you don't need to do this." The girl consoled the curly-haired boy as she tried to hide her offended and hurt feelings from Stiles' words. She knew that she did a bad thing but she would've never guessed that it would make him so mad.
Isaac looked at Flora and exhaled. He was grateful that at least one person from the group cared enough to tell him that he didn't need to do it. "I want to." He admitted and took off a t-shirt before he stepped into the tub full of ice.
Flora felt the ice-cold water as her powers helped her with connecting a little to the werewolf. Her lungs started burning when Derek and Scott pushed Isaac under the water. Isaac grunted and tried to catch his breath but the others held him under the water while Flora held her chest and tried to sit down.
"Is Flora okay?" Derek asked, concerned for the girl when he saw her hands holding her chest.
Deaton looked at the girl and then at Derek. "She's fine, she just shared the shock with Isaac." The older man replied and took a step closer to the tub with unconscious Isaac.
Suddenly Flora and Isaac both inhaled as if both of them were in the same tub. Stiles and Scoot let go of Isaac's legs and rushed to Flora, helping her up. The brunette grasped both of their hands as she dragged herself up, still shaken up from the shock of drowning.
"Remember, only I can talk to him," Deaton warned the group before leaning towards the teen.
Deaton was talking to unconscious Isaac for a couple of minutes and Flora's emotions were slowly pulling her in. She felt the anxiety, hurt, and anger from the whole situation and Stiles' remark in her and that made her power mix with the emotions which lead to the storm that was starting outside.
"I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that." Isaac obeyed Deaton's request of reliving the night he saw Boyd and Erica alive for the last time. Scott (who was now holding the young werewolf underwater again) noticed the flickering lights and turned at Flora with a confused look.
Flora ignored the stare of her friend and continued to stare at the unconscious teenager. The more Isaac refused to talk the more Flora's emotions affected the weather and the lights.
"Someone's here." Isaac cried and tightly grabbed Flora's arm, almost pulling her in the water.
When Isaac started freaking out the lights started to flicker even more.
"Quit it." Stiles snapped and tried to pull Flora's hand out of Isaac's grasp.
Flora scoffed. "If I knew how I would dumbass." She spat and kneeled next to the tub.
Flora ignored the spilled ice cubes under her knees and tried to help Isaac with his anxiety which somehow worked and he calmed down.
The air was tense around the group when Isaac was describing his memories. Suddenly the young werewolf jolted up and stared at the space behind Stiles.
"They're here." He pointed out and kept looking behind Stiles. "They're here!" He yelled and started freaking out again. "They see me! They found me!" Isaac screamed, moving around in the tub.
Derek started asking questions, ignoring Deaton's warning. "Isaac, where are you?" He yelled at the boy, ignoring his pleads.
Isaac was gasping, trying to get out of the tub but with Derek and Scott holding him under he failed.
The brunette stood up next to Derek. "He could go into shock." She warned him as he continued to push the boy under.
The older werewolf pushed the girl away. "Isaac what did you see?!" Derek yelled at the boy.
"A vault! It's a bank vault!" Isaac yelled back after recalling what he saw a few weeks ago. The boy then jumped out of the tub, snapping out of his 'coma'.
Flora jumped back and had to look away when she heard what the boy said during his time in the tub.
The males helped him out of the water and Flora put a warm blanket over his freezing torso.
"It's Beacon Hills First National Bank," Isaac recalled while shaking from the cold.
Isaac continued with explaining what he saw but the whole room was quiet. Flora exchanged unsure glances with Scott and Derek before looking at the ground.
Her slumped shoulders and the silence in the room made Isaac realize that something was wrong. "What?" He stopped talking and frowned.
Stiles sighed. "You don't remember what you said right before you came out of it, do you?" He asked him with a calm voice. "You said when they captured you that they dragged you into a room and there was a body in it," Stiles answered when Isaac showed that he had no idea.
"What body?" He questioned, not recalling what he said.
Flora gulped and looked up from her shoes. "Erica." She sighed and tried to hide a small sob escaping her lips. "You said it was Erica." The brunette added and then sat down on the metallic table, too shocked to do anything else.
The room was silent for a couple of minutes, everyone was trying to process what just happened. Flora always somehow hopped that Erica and Boyd were far away from Beacon Hills, living a happy werewolves' lives while trying to be normal teens. The girl didn't expect to find out that Erica died.
Sure she wasn't her biggest fan but she didn't deserve to die.
"She's not dead!" Derek's raised voice full of denial that made Flora jump a little.
Flora understood his anger, he was Erica's Alpha, he turned her, he felt responsible for her.
Stiles shook his head next to Flora. "Derek, he said, 'There's a dead body. It's Erica'." Stiles quoted Isaac. "Doesn't exactly leave us much room for interpretation."
Derek stepped closer to them. "Then who was in the vault with Boyd?" He snapped at the boy angrily.
Scott crossed his arms and stepped between the two. "Maybe it was the girl on the motorcycle. The one who saved you?" He turned at Isaac.
The curly-haired boy shook his head. "No, she wasn't like us. And whoever was in the vault with Boyd was."
"What if that's how Erica died?"
The moment the sentence left Stiles' mouth the moment Flora decided that she's calling it a day. She pushed herself off the table and walked towards her bag that was on a chair in the corner. "I'm sorry, I'm tired and I already made plans with Lydia but keep me updated okay?" Flora raised her eyebrows at the teens. "Okay?" She repeated when none of them responded.
"Sure." Stiles shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to Derek.
Flora scoffed and angrily yanked her bag off the chair and left the animal clinic. Luckily for her Lydia's house wasn't so far away so she had no problem with walking. The storm already passed and the air was fresh from the rain and that made her calm a little.
'Stupid Stiles'. She whispered under her breath and then clapped a hand over her mouth. The brunette started feeling guilty, she was going about Stiles when she found out that Erica died just a couple of minutes ago.
Flora sighed and pulled out the key that Lydia gave her when they were fourteen. When their only problems were not knowing who was '-A' on Pretty Little Liars and first kisses. The girl smiled at the memory but when a loud feminine scream ran through the house Flora dropped her bag and ran towards Lydia's room.
"Lydia!" She hurried towards the now calm girl. "Are you okay?" Flora's fingers gently pushed some of Lydia's hair out of her face as she watched the dull look in Lydia's eyes.
"Yeah, I just need some pills for my headache." The strawberry blonde smiled and got out of bed as if nothing happened.
Flora pouted and jumped out of the bed, following the girl out of her room. "Then I'm going with you." The brunette said and walked down the stairs, following her friend.
The two girls jumped into Lydia's now fixed Toyota and Flora pulled out her phone, ready to text Stiles because even though the boy promised (more like Flora made him promise) that he would inform the girl about how their plan of getting into the bank was working, he hasn't texted her yet.
Sure Flora tried to understand him and his behavior. She knew that he was hurt by her sudden summer trip to Europe and she knew that his friend Heather disappeared but she still wanted to be informed and since the boy was ignoring her texts it was quite difficult.
The girl groaned when she saw the "read" under her message again. "He's being such an ass." She cursed and rolled her eyes. "I mean I get that he's hurt but he needs to get over it so we can talk about it." Flora expressed and pressed her lips into a thin line, too stubborn to think about her mistakes.
"Don't you agree with me?" The brunette looked at Lydia who just hummed but kept her eyes on the road.
Flora continued ranting when Lydia stopped and got out of the car. The brunette slammed the door and followed her, finally looking around for the first time since they got in the car.
"Lydia? This isn't a pharmacy." Flora pointed out when she saw the town's swimming pool.
Lydia bit her lip and turned at her friend. "I know." She whispered and looked at the water in the back.
Flora let out a shaky breath and followed the girl with unsure steps. A bad feeling settled in her stomach when Lydia kneeled next to the pool.
"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead." Lydia kept whispering as she touched the thing lying in the pool.
The two girls let out relieved breaths when it turned out to be a pool dummy. Flora took a step back and shivered when she felt her hand getting sticky after she grabbed the lifeguard chair. The girl started panting, not brave enough to turn around.
"L-Lydia?" Flora stuttered when she saw that her hand was covered in a dark liquid.
The two girls let out an agonized screams when they saw the dead body of a young male sitting in the chair.
🥀
Flora ignored that her butt was freezing thanks to the cold ground she was sitting on and continued to stare at the body of the boy she remembered seeing in the school halls.
She leaned her head against her knees, too tired to even talk to her friend who was currently on the phone calling 911.
"Flora? Lydia?"
Flora's head snapped up when she heard Stiles' voice behind them. The girl stood up and dusted off her butt as she walked closer to Lydia.
"Are you okay?" He ran towards them and tried to check if they weren't hurt.
"We're okay." Lydia nodded and then pointed at the dead body.
"He's not," Flora added but refused to look at the dead boy again. She started to get sick with seeing dead bodies, the girl thought that she saw too many of them for her age.
Stiles looked at the body and then back at the girls. "Yeah, I'm gonna call my dad." He pulled out his phone, ready to dial Noah's number.
"I already called 911." Lydia stopped him with a shaky voice, refusing to look anywhere else but the gray ground.
Stiles looked at Lydia and then at Flora before grimacing. "You already called the police before you called me?" He asked, offended that the girls called him second.
Flora blinked and scrunched her eyebrows. "We're supposed to call you first when we find a dead body?" She questioned with crossed arms.
"Yes!" He yelled and then dialed Scott's number.
Flora listened to their phone call with a hand over her mouth and wide eyes. She finally knew what was going on when she heard that Boyd escaped with Cora (who was Derek's sister) and that they haven't seen Fullmoon in three months which lead to them getting into their beast mode.
Stiles walked closer to the body when Scott begged him to take a closer look to see if he was killed by werewolves. He first looked at his neck but then his eyes trailed down to his hand where he saw a silver purity ring.
"He was a virgin." He whispered before the cops arrived.
After explaining the situation to the cops Stiles offered to follow the two girls' home and of course, Lydia lived closer so she was the first one to get escorted home.
"You didn't have to follow me home." Lydia sassed the two teenagers who were right behind her.
"I just wanted to make sure that you're okay." Stiles pointed at the two of them, earning a small scoff from Flora.
"We had a police escort." Lydia reminded the boy and sat on her bed, throwing her purse in the corner.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "I know the inner workings of that force, all right? They're not nearly reliable as people think." He informed the girls.
Lydia smiled and squinted her eyes. "You didn't have to follow me into my room." She murmured and raised her eyebrows at the now speechless boy. "Just ask what you want me to ask." She sighed.
Stiles swallowed and shook his head. "I don't want to ask you anything?" He said with an unsure voice.
Flora crossed her arms and stepped in. "Lydia, how did you know where to go? We were on our way to the Pharmacy and since I kept looking at my phone." She threw a look at the boy next to her. "I didn't have a clue that you were driving towards the pool." The brunette continued and looked at the strawberry blonde with a softer look.
Lydia sighed and looked at her legs. "I have no clue how I ended up finding that body." She admitted. "I didn't even know where I was driving until i got out of the car."
After the three teens realized that the last time something like that happened was when Lydia brought Peter back alive, the strawberry blonde got up and started pushing the two teens out of her room. "Drive Flora home." She smiled sweetly and closed the door behind them.
Flora smiled, not knowing how to react to the boy and Stiles looked at his Nike shoes, not knowing what he should next. Thankfully his phone rang and that freed the two stubborn teenagers from an awkward silence.
"Melissa wants me in the hospital, let's go."
🥀
After Scott's mom greeted Stiles and tightly hugged Flora (after not seeing her for a couple of months) she guided them into the morgue.
Flora closed her eyes for a couple of seconds when Melissa pulled off the blanket covering the boy's body. The girl was still getting used to seeing dead bodies and she still didn't like it.
"See this around his neck?" She pointed at the bruise covering the corpse's neck. "That's a ligature mark. That means that he was strangled with something, like a cord." The older woman guessed.
Flora took a closer look at the neck and mentally slapped herself because she hasn't noticed sooner.
"And then there's this." She lifted the boy's head and showed them the injury on his head.
Stiles groaned and looked away, not wanting to see the blood. "Is that a brain matter?" He asked with closed eyes.
Flora looked away when she noticed the injury and gagged. 'Why me.' She thought and kept looking away from the corpse.
"See the indentation?" Melissa asked, ignoring the two disgusted teens. "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." The older woman stepped back and looked at Flora and Stiles. "I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead."
Stiles took a closer look. "So then this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora." He acknowledged, earning a silent nod from the girl next to him.
Flora agreed, even if it meant that the was another killer on the loose. There was no way that Boyd or Cora did it. "Maybe it's just one murder?" The girl questioned and hugged herself, the cold temperature started affecting her body.
Melissa shook her head at the girl and walked towards another body next to them. "I don't think it was just one." Melissa pointed at the body. "That girl has the same injuries." She pulled down the thin blanket off the woman's corpse and revealed a girl their age.
Melissa continued talking but Flora noticed the blood draining from Stiles' face when he saw the girl on the metallic table. A moment of realization clicked in Flora's head when she saw the look on Stiles' face. It was Heather - the missing girl. "Stiles?" The brunette whispered and lightly touched the palm of his hand.
Stiles shook his head and pulled away, not wanting to touch the girl next to him. Flora frowned but she ignored the pain in her heart, the girl knew that Stiles was going through something far more serious than her feelings.
"Oh my God, did you know her? I'm so sorry, I didn't think." Melissa apologized and covered the body again.
Stiles glared at the body with glossy eyes. "I was..." He stopped for a couple of seconds, scared that his voice might break. "I was at her party. It was her birthday." He admitted and looked at the ground. "Her name is Heather." Stiles wiped away his tears with the end of his sleeve.
Melissa looked at Flora and then back at Stiles. "We need to call your father because you're a witness."
And as if the sentence coming out of Melissa 's mouth made him snap - Stiles looked up and then from Heather to the dead boy. He remembered the purity ring on his finger and that Heather told him that she was a virgin. "Has anyone else been through here tonight?" He asked the woman with a shaky voice.
Flora knew Stiles well, she knew that he figured something out so she stood up straight, ready to support him no matter what crazy theory he came up with. "Any other bodies? Anybody missing?" Flora questioned, already on her detective mode.
Scott's mom shook her head. "No bodies, but the brought one girl Caitlin for a tox screen, and then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily, just disappeared."
Stiles ran out of the morgue when he found out that the girl, Caitlin was in the hospital, he was ready to ask her some question, to help him with his theory about sacrifices.
"Stiles wait!" Flora stopped him and pulled him back by grabbing his striped hoodie.
"What?" He snapped at her, which made the girl jump in shock from the harsh tone. "Why are you even here Flora huh?" He narrowed his eyes, frustrated that the girl who broke his heart acted as nothing happened. "Why are you even getting involved?"
Flora froze in place, the atmosphere around them started to get tense. "I'm only trying to help." She mumbled as she tried to fight the tears that were forming in her eyes. The girl cared deeply about the boy and she wanted to talk to him but it seemed like Stiles hated her more and more, sure he always came through when she was in danger but when that passed he was back in his crappy mood.
"I don't want your help!" He yelled at her, his face red from anger and frustration. "God! Just go home Flora, we don't need you." He said with a calmer voice, not realizing how much his words hurt the girl in front of him.
Flora took a step back, the tears were already rolling down her face as she stopped trying to calm herself. She scoffed and wiped the tears. "I can't stand you sometimes." The brunette admitted and hiccuped.
"Then leave." The boy shrugged and angrily walked towards the hospital room where Caitlin was.
Flora watched him leave with red eyes and slumped shoulders. She didn't know how to react, Flora knew that he was sad, frustrated and maybe even scared but that didn't give him the pass to act like an asshole.
"Flora?" Melissa whispered and quickly pulled the girl for a hug.
"S-sorry." Flora sobbed and chuckled. "I shouldn't be crying about something so stupid when people are dying." The girl wiped her tears and smiled at the older women.
Melissa smiled back and pushed back some hair out of Flora's face. "You don't need to push your feelings away, Flora, you're allowed to be sad." The woman advised and squeezed her shoulders. "He's going to apologize, just give him a couple of hours okay?"
Flora smiled sadly and left the hospital with her head down, too sad too even care about the fact that there was a killer on the loose.