Chapter Nine : Banshees and Doppelgangers
I passed under the last lamp to get to Stiles' house. I had to sneak out to have this conversation. It would just be Stiles, Scott, Allison and myself. I wasn't really sure but something in my gut told me I was late, but it didn't matter as long as I was there.
I didn't even get the chance to knock on the door because the Sheriff opened it, headed out for his night shift. "They're upstairs."
"Thanks." I mumbled out heading inside the house.
I paused when I got in front of Stiles bedroom door. "Yeah, but don't you ever think we are keeping her.. Them from their lives?" Scott was talking but I couldn't tell who about.
"Sometimes. Other times I know I would be six feet under if they weren't here. So we'll cross that bridge when it comes."
"Yeah. Allison's right. And didn't Cait say that when she got back, it would have only been 7 second on her earth. That's no time at all." So they were talking about me.
"Yeah, yeah. I guess you're right. Speaking of Cait, where is she?"
I think I was safe to enter so I knocked on the door pushing it open. Stiles stood staring at a clear crim board covered in everything related to the deadpool, Allison and Scott on either side of him. "Okay, what do you guys got?"
"So far. A name." Stiles paused taking a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Well and a licence and registration." Stiles handed the paper to me. In the top corner was a colored picture of a girl who looked identical to me. "Catherine Maria Roads."
"Got it." Allison held up her phone, "Her instagram that is. Do you really think that it could be the doppelganger who's causing all of this?"
"I truly have no idea. But better safe than sorry." I said, reading over the information I could get from Catherine's licence. "Nashvill? Who would willingly live in Tennessee?"
Scott let out a laugh, "She is 16. I don't know how willing it was."
"Glad you two had better luck. Nothing from socials." Allison said, sighing.
"Wouldn't She need to come to Beacon Hills to get the money?" Scott asked, taking the paper from me.
"Yeah. So if it was her she would have to be in beacon county, right?" Stiles said turning to me.
I sigh, "That's the thing. I'm not sure. And for all we know it still could have been a banshee. God why is there never a clear answer?"
"Well the only Banshee that it could be is Lydia's grandmother. Seeing as her ashes were completely not human." Allison said, falling back onto Stiles' bed.
"Yeah but she would have had to fake her own death." Scott pointed out.
"To be fair, you faked your own death." I remind, folding up the piece of paper with Cathreine's licence.
"It's not just that she faked her own death. It's that she could still be alive."
I shake my head, "I still don't get it. Why would Lydia's grandmother fake her own death? Then years later put her granddaughter on a hitlist?"
"That's the part we don't know." Stiles phone starts to ring. "Yeah, Dad what's up...What are you talking about?....Parrish claimed to get burned, then blacked out?...Yeah, yeah we're on our way." Stiles hung up the phone. "We gotta put this conversation on hold."
~
Scott pulled off his bike helmet as we parked in front of the loft. "Okay, be honest with me Cait. What is he?"
"Hellhound." Scott looked at me like I was insane. "The reverse of my job. Instead of protecting the humans of every earth, he protects the supernatural of one earth."
"Alright, then."
~
Derk turned Parrish's hands over in his own. Looking for any sign that Parrish was burned. "He covered you in gasoline?"
"It's the hair and nails, isn't it?" Allison asked, "Sorry Lydia said something about it once. She said they were the parts of the body that were essentially dead."
"Well they should be gone. The only person who can handle flames like that is Cait." Derek said in disbelief.
"I was set on fire. All of me should be gone." Parrish turned to look at me, "And how the hell would you survive that?"
"Well... You remember when Stiles told you that you were kinda on a hitlist?"
"Yeah. You really don't forget that. Especially considering that's why I was lit on fire."
"We're here to tell you why you're on a hitlist."
"Okay but why would any of us be on a hitlist?"
"It means you're like us." Scott said from where he was standing.
"Like you? What does that mean?"
"I don't think he's like any of us." Derek paused, "I mean Cait found out what she was because she lit her room on fire when she was like six. While sleeping."
"Okay. Then what is he?" Allison asked, her eyes moving around the room.
"I have no idea." Derek said with a sigh. "Cait any ideas?"
I bit my lip. "Screw it. Parrish put your hand out."
"What?"
"Just put your hand out." This time the deputy did as I said. I lit a flame, watching it dance along the palm of my hand.
"What the hell." We all ignored Parrish's statement. I placed the flame under Parrish's hand, immediately he pulled back. "What are you doing?"
"We just want to help. And to do that, I need you to not think. Put your hand back out, and this time stare blankly into space." Parrish gave in, reaching his hand out. Once more I placed a flame under his palm, and counted. 1...2...3..4...5..6..7...8..9..10. I pulled the flame back. "Allison, do you think you can get the bestiary from your Dad?"
"He hasn't answered me all night." She said with a sigh.
"Okay. Hold up, what is a bestiary?" Parrish put his hand down, shaking his head. "that's not my first question Actually, that's not even my first question. Just.. just tell me one thing. Are all of you able to do that? Just light yourself on fire?"
"No." Everyone in the room spoke at the same time.
"Then are you like Lydia?"
"Like Lydia? What do you mean by that?" Allison asked the young officer.
"Are you all psychic?"
Derek's eyes widen, "Psychic?"
"Yeah."
I bit my lower lip to hide a smile, looking to Scott for help. "Not exactly." He said rolling his head to the side.
Parrish squinted, "Okay. If you're not like Caitlin or Lydia, then what are you?" Everyone's eyes flashed to Scott, his locking with mine. I just shrugged, giving a smile, causing him to look towards the floor. When he looked back up his eyes were red, giving a small red hue to the darkness of the loft.
~
"What's a kanima?" Parrish asked from the couch he was now on.
"We'll get back to that," Scott said, taking a seat on the coffee table in front of the deputy. "Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the deadpool"
"But I don't even know what I am." Parrish defended.
"We know." I spoke from the table I was sitting on, "But what I did, you having no reaction to the flame, it narrows the possibilities down."
"Not to mention, I really don't think people trying to kill you care." Allison said with half a smile from the other side of the room.
"How many professional assassins are we talking about?"
"We lost count." I sighed, "At least eight. Five of which are dead. Those five, The Mute, the orphans, the chemist, and that girl who attacked Satomi at the hospital."
"But is it still just professionals?" Scott asked.
Parrish shook his head, "I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance."
"Then you're one lucy son of a bitch." Allison pointed out.
Derk crossed his arms, "That means anyone with the deadpool could take a chance."
"But if Haigh had it, then who else does? How easy is it to get this thing now?"
Third Person POV
Liam Dunbar rolled over in his bed. He couldn't sleep, not since before the other night. Not since before the night at the hospital. He kept seeing those.. Things everywhere he looked. They were haunting him, stocking him.
The young beta froze when he heard a sound. He took his head off of his pillow and watched his printer spit out pieces of paper. It wouldn't stop, just scanned and then another feel to the ground.
Liam got out of bed, unsure of what was happening. He grabbed one of the pages from the floor. It was the deadpool completely printed out. Anyone who was dead had a mark next to their name.
Keyword : Heather
David Walcott 250 (D)
Sean Walcott 250 (D)
Michel Walcott 250 (D)
Lydia Martin 15
Scott McCall 25
Caitlin Roads 20
Demarco Montana 250 (D)
Carrie Hudson 500 (D)
Kira Yukimura 5
Keyword : Aiden
Kate Argent 11
Noshiko Yukimura 5
Isaac Lahey 1
Tom Hill 1 (D)
Brett Talbot 1
Richard Benefield 250 (D)
Joy Waldrop 250 (D)
Cheryl Calix 250
Jordan Parrish 5
He stood to turn the printer off. But every time he hit the power button pages came out quicker. The beta pulled the plug from the wall, but the pages went on for three more minutes. When they finally stopped he allowed himself to look at the last third. The third his name was on.
First Person POV~ Caitlin Holmes
Lydia walked into the loft after her call with Allison, filling the banshee in on everything that happened since Stiles' father called. Derek started to pester her with questions, only one of which she knew the answer to. "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once, but... I think once was enough."
"How did your grandmother know her?" I asked as calmly as I could.
"She didn't." Lydia sighed, taking a seat on Derek's bed. "She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy. The woman she loved" She dug around in her bag, taking out a photo then handing it to me, so that both Scott and myself could see it. "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere." The photo was in a washed out color. One of the two girls had fiery red hair, the other brown. Both had bright smiles on their faces. It was almost as if you placed Lydia and Allison into 1966. "She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the lake house from all the regattas she'd won."
"How did she die?" Parrish asked the young banshee.
"How's not the story. It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM." Lydia started to pace up and down the room. "She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound... like rain. But when she looked out the windows.. All she saw was blue sky."
"But she kept hearing the rain?" Scott asked, trying to understand why Lydia was so dazed.
"And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder, cracking like gunshots in her head. So loud." Lydia's face was full of fear. As if she could hear what she was talking about. "She finally just screamed."
"Like a banshee." Derek realized.
"She called Maddy who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But Maddy said that the sun was shining there too. So Lorraine didn't say anything."
"Then something happened, didn't it?" I asked, handing Allison the photo.
"It took them four days to find Maddy's body. And then it took decades to figure out how Lorrain knew. She started with parapsychologists like the PhD in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house, according to every pseudoscientific theory they could find. None of it worked. So then she started going to more extreme occults. Things like mediums and psychics. All of them were failures." Lydia started to raise her voice. "Until she found Meredith. They found her in Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study. And they almost killed her. She was hospitalized for over a year. She.. never really recovered." Lydia shook her head, a few tears starting to form in her eyes. "My grandmother drove her insane. And I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help."
Allison unfolded a brittle paper, "Lydia's grandmother created the code for the deadpool. They think she's the banshee who put the names on it in the first place."
Scott picked up the paper as Lydia spoke again. "She left me this message in the same code."
"Let me guess. She gave you a code with me key?" I asked, warping my finger around the edge of the table. Lydia just shook her head no.
~
I started to wander around the loft. Part of me didn't want to go back to the house. My mind was trapped inside itself. Most of it was focused on what Scott, Allison, and Stiles had been talking about before I got to Stiles house.
I stopped when I noticed the pistol placed on Derek's bed. Almost in a trace I picked the small weapon up, turning in over in my hands. I could tell it was back weighted, but by the way it slipped back in my hand so that the barrel was in my palm. "Careful with that." I turned as Derek walked closer to me.
"I thought you didn't like guns." I say, unsure what else I could have. Derek just held out his hand for me to pass the weapon over. "Does this have something to do with your eyes?"
"My eyes, my strength, the healing,.." He trailed off. "All of it."
"Gone?"
"Whatever Kate did to me, it hasn't stopped."
"If the deadpool was really made by a Banshee then there's something else you should know." I started to twins my fingers into the chain of my necklace, trying to stop the nerves. "Your name broke a third of the list. It was a cipher key."
"And the other two keys were Heather and Aiden."
"I.. I don't want to make you nervous, but it seems like a pattern, doesn't it? Heather Aiden...You."
"Names picked by a Banshee." Or a doppelganger.
"It could mean you're in danger. But Derek-"
"Caitlin banshees don't predict danger. They predict death."
"But see that's the thing. It- it feels off. Like that's only half of it."
"What are you saying? You think I die and come back?"
I sigh, passing over the gun, "I don't know."
~
"Cait." I turned to see Scott coming down the hall. "Have you seen Liam. He's been off all day."
I hummed, "No, but . I have a free period, if you want I could help you find him."
"Could you."
I gave Scott a nod, closing my locker. It seemed wired the last Liam was MIA the two of us were stuck at the bottom of a well. I checked my phone, Mason having given me the GPS location of Liam's. At the very least we knew he was in the school.
Scott and I rounded a corner to a small staircase. Lia sat at the bottom restringing his lax stick. I looked to Scott before both of us took a seat on either side of the beta.
"Hey. You okay?" Scott asked, as I placed my hand on Liam's right shoulder.
He didn't answer so this time I tried, "Liam?"
The beta sighed, "Last night my printer went off by itself. I couldn't turn it off. I hit the cancel button, but it just kept printing."
I felt my heartbeat in my temples, "Printing what?"
Liam dug into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. He unfolded half of it, passing it to Scott. Before Scott or myself could look over the page Coach yelled from down the hall. "What the hell is this!"
The three of us stood, making our way over to Coach's office. The man stood in front of a printer, that wouldn't turn off. Pages of white paper covered in black ink littered the floor. I bent over picking one of the pages up, reading over the deadpool.
"See the difference?"
"Derek's not on the list anymore."
"And I'm not worth three million. It's 15 now. 15 million dollars" My eyes travel down the list trying to find Liam's name but it doesn't look to be anywhere.
"Cait." I look over to Scott, reading the fear on his face. "You may want to see this." Swallowing my spit I take the page in Scott's hand.
Keyword : Derek
Satomi Ito 6
Malia Hale 4
Liam Dumbar 15
Meredith Walker 1 (D)
Lorelee Rohr 250
Patrick Clark 1
Elias Town 250 (D)
Charlotte White 1
Evlynn Holmes 1
Chloe Holmes 1