I've been sitting in my aunt's room for about an hour, mindlessly using my phone. I'm still thinking about all the information she told me back at the Beacon Hills Hospital.

I have no choice to believe it. I've seen it with my own eyes already.

I heard some noises downstairs some time ago, and I assumed it was Scott since my aunt hasn't come to her room. Honestly, I was quote skeptical of approaching my cousin, so I stayed in my current position.

Now, I hear some shuffling and steps again, and I decide to check on him this time. I shut my phone off and get up from my cross-legged position on the bed, tightening my sneakers that I haven't taken off yet- sort of gross, I know.

As I walk down the hall, I start pondering on what I'm going to say to Scott. I have no idea how I should react when I see him again, so my mind is basically blank.

"Scott?" I say with a knock on his door. When I do that, the door just opens further because it had been left ajar. I let myself in and look around, noticing he's not here. Well, at least I've got a few more seconds to think.

"Scott," I say again. Instead of hearing a reply from him or simply silence, muffled sounds come from his bathroom, making me look at that direction, startled and starting to panic a bit.

It's like in one of those movies where the character just keeps walking towards the danger and the audience keeps begging and demanding that she doesn't, but she keeps going, of course- that's kind of like my situation right now. For all I know, there could be a murderer about to kill my cousin inside his bathroom at the moment.

I swing open the bathroom door. Nothing... yet. But the shower curtain is covering the bath tub, and that's the only place left in here that's hidden.

I slowly creep my hand up to the white curtain, preparing myself, and finally, I push it open to the side with a loud sound.

I gasp at the sight; the one and only Liam Dunbar is all bound up by duct tape, from his arms to his lower legs, including his mouth, which explains the muffled sounds.

"Oh my god, Liam!" I kneel over the tub, ready to free him because that's my first thought of what I should do. At least he hasn't been killed by that cannibal that attacked him, aunt Melissa, and I... How did he get out of that situation anyways? Was Scott really able to save him, or was it someone else?

But why in the world is Liam even here, all strapped up, and why would Scott do that? Was it Scott who even did all this?

When I start to move closer, he simply looks at me nervously and with pity the whole time, and just when I place my hands on the tape, his eyes widen, looking at something behind me.

"Mmm!" he mumbles, eyes still wide.

I stare at him in confusion and suddenly, a hand comes from behind me and goes over my mouth. A number of other arms wrap around me also and start to drag me away. I start trying to scream and free myself and I manage to remove one arm, whom I later realize was Stiles's.

I am now away from the bathroom and back in Scott's room and there's a chair in the middle. They force me to sit down, and I already know the first guy here is Stiles, so it's no surprise when they walk over in front of me to face me and one of them is Scott, whose hand is covering my mouth and is still somehow holding my arms behind the chair with the help of his superhuman strength- well, werewolf powers.

I'm not even scared right now, I'm more of puzzled, curious, and frankly, annoyed at the two boys.

"Okay, Riley," begins Scott, "I'm going to remove my hand now, and we have a perfect explanation, just don't-"

I cut my cousin off my licking his hand as much as I could.

"Oh, god! What the hell, Riles?" He jumps away, freeing my arms and mouth. He also wipes his one hand frantically on his jeans, and I make a disgusted face as I realize that I just licked his hand.

"That's got to be nasty," Stiles comments, looking both grossed out and amused at the same time if that's even possible.

I stand up angrily, saying, "Okay, both of you can explain now! Why have you kidnapped Liam and why did you basically attack me when I tried to help him?"

"Lower your voice, will you?" Scott directs me.

"I will not!" I glare. "Explain."

"Alright, alright," he says carefully. "I'm sure you've, um, seen me-"

"As a werewolf, yes," I cut him off restlessly. "And?"

"Boy, isn't she impatient?" says Stiles, approaching me. I send him a glare, too, and he puts his hands up in surrender and shuts up.

"So you know I'm a werewolf?"

Wow, can Scott be any more repetitive?

"Obviously!" Stiles and I chorus.

"Still trying to fully grasp the idea, to be honest," I add. "But I've seen you, so..."

"Yes, and I know it's very weird, but we'll explain more about that later. Okay, so I guess you know that if a werewolf bites someone, they, er, change?"

I nod, a frown still on my face as I look at Scott and Stiles intensely.

"Or die," Stiles says casually.

Scott gives him a pointed look, saying, "You really know how to make a situation worse, don't you?" He then turns back to me and continues. "So earlier, I kinda had to bite Liam to save him..."

"You what?" I say disbelievingly. "How will that save him?"

"You know that bloody guy who attacked you, too?" says Scott quickly. "He threw Liam over the edge and I couldn't hold him any longer since he was fighting with me, too, so I had no choice."

Silence envelopes us all as I think over and digest even more unbelievable information. How did I go from a freshman learning chemistry to learning about supernatural creatures that are actually real?

"Oh, and a dude with an axe came and killed that guy," Stiles breaks the silence. How can he sound so normal about this?

"He had no mouth, too," Scott tells me randomly. I seriously have no idea what we're even talking about anymore. Bewilderment must be really evident on my face because he adds, "Look, the point is, he will either become like me or-"

"Die tragically," Stiles jumps in, making my jaw drop.

"Dude!" Scott scolds his best friend who just shrugs.

I have to endure another few minutes of a hushed conversation with these two. Then, when they have finished, Scott asks what we should do about the poor boy kidnapped inside his bathroom.

"That's your problem," I tell them.

"It's yours now, too. He already saw you, so he'll be wondering what happened to you."

"You mean after you attacked me, too?" I clarify.

"Exactly," says Stiles simply, and he and Scott sit down on the bed in unison as I stay standing, right in front of them. "So let me get this straight: you bit him?" he continues, facing Scott again.

"Yeah."

"And you kidnapped him?" Stiles ticks them off one by one on his fingers.

"Yeah," he sighs yet again.

"And you brought him here." That was more of a statement than a question.

"I panicked," defends Scott.

"Yeah," Stiles says knowingly. "This isn't going to end with us burying pieces of his body out in the desert, is it?"

Just then, more muffled cries and whimpers come from the bathroom and the boys immediately look in that direction. I instinctively take a step towards the bathroom, but Stiles says, "Uh uh uh, you stay there."

I make an impatient sound and take a step back, worried and unsure of how they're going to solve all this. How do you explain to someone why you kidnapped him? And... bit him?

After a few moments, Stiles takes a deep breath and says, "This is a reminder why I always come up with a plan. Your plans suck."

"I know," Scott cuts in, "which is why I called you. So what do we do?"

Next thing you know, Stiles grabs me and turns me around so that I'm facing away from him.

"Stiles!" I say angrily. "Now what are you doing?"

"I gotta tie you up so that you seem just as clueless to everything that's happened as Liam," Stiles explains, and as if on cue, I feel the rope's slightly rough material wrap around my wrists.

"She won't really be restrained, right?" says Scott worriedly.

"No, no, of course not. This is just for show," Stiles shakes his head, "and to make sure that she doesn't run away."

I feel the ropes tighten enough for me to be stuck in that position for quite some time, but it doesn't hurt. Nevertheless, when Stiles turns me back around, I send him another glare and stomp on his foot.

"Hey! Ow, ow." Stiles begins to hop on one foot and Scott sighs at his best friend.

"Alright, alright. Seriously, what do we do now?"

A minute later, as I am forcefully sat down on chair in front of my cousin's desk, they bring Liam out, setting him down on the chair I formerly sat on. He was breathing heavily, and I'm not sure of it's out of fear, anger, or both.

"Liam," Stiles does the talking. "We're gonna take the tape of your mouth. If you scream, it goes right back on. If you talk quietly, it stays off. Got it?"

I watch as Liam ponders for a moment, glances at me, then nods hurriedly.

"Okay."

Scott and Stiles both motion for each other to remove the tape, and when they don't budge for a few seconds, Stiles decides to do it.

"Argh," Liam grumbles when the tape is taken off.

"Okay, Liam, you've seen a lot of confusing things tonight, and more confusing things are gonna happen because of the confusing things that happened tonight. Do you understand?"

"Huh?" I speak up, making all three of them look at me.

"Not really," says Liam after me.

"Good, that's good."

"I don't understand either."

"Maybe you should tell him."

"Tell me what?" demands Liam.

While the three boys were having this odd conversation, I've been untying the ropes around my wrists. I seriously don't see the need for this, it's not like I have any where to run away to at the moment. It's a good thing they're too busy; it gives me time to inconspicuously remove these irritating ropes.

"Liam," Scott finally begins. "What happened to you- what I did to you, what I had to do in order to save you... it's gonna change you."

Wow, Scott, that was really descriptive of you to say, I think with a roll of my eyes. On the bright side, the rope around my wrist is loosening.

"Unless it kills you," Stiles jumps in.

"Oh shut up," I hiss at him.

"I shouldn't have said that."

"What?" Liam gasps quietly. And then he does something very unexpected: he tears up, sniffs, and all of a sudden, starts to cry.

"Uh..."

"Oh, uh, oh oh..."

"Is he- is he crying?"

"It's okay, you're gonna be alright," Scott comforts, now kneeling in front of him. "You're not gonna die."

And just when I think Stiles is going to join in with the comforting because he bends over next to Scott, he says, "Probably not."

"Stop it."

"'Kay, possibly."

"Would you just help me untie him?"

"Yeah."

Then they stand up together and after what felt like forever, they strip the duct tapes off of him. I don't know if it's a coincidence that I am actually almost done untying the stupid rope on my wrist.

"Liam, you okay?" asks Scott worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, we're sorry about that," adds Stiles. "Yeah, we're really sorry."

Since I'm sitting on the side, I can see from this angle that when Liam turns around, he picks up the chair. My eyes widen because the other two don't notice it, and in a quick motion, Liam hits my cousin with the chair and it breaks into pieces. Was that because of Scott's body strength or is it because maybe Liam's turning, so he's gotten much stronger, too? I really don't know.

"Liam, what the hell is your prob-" Stiles starts in disbelief but is cut off when Liam punches his face. That makes him grunt and fall to the ground, and also makes Liam the only guy left standing.

"Liam!" I try call his attention. My wrists are finally freed and I jump up as he faces me.

"Sorry," he mutters quickly before running away.

"Wait, hold up!" I hop carefully over the two boys rolling and attempting to get up from the ground, and then slipping a bit as I turn the corner to catch up with Liam.

"Liam, stop!" I attempt to say in a commanding voice. "They can explain!"

"So you're not part of this?" he asks hurriedly.

"Well, I'm not sure," I reply in a fast tone, still not knowing where I stand. "Considering the fact that they strapped me to a chair, too, told me some crazy stuff as well, and I was only able to free myself a few-"

I stop abruptly when I hear more grunts from the door of my cousin's room, and soon, out comes two stumbling boys.

"Get him!" yells Stiles. The two charge at us- well, Liam, but I'm sort of standing near him- with battle cries. Liam shouts in shock and fear and I don't really have a certain reaction, but suddenly, I am forcefully pushed onto Liam and the other two are pressed upon me as we roll down the stairs painfully.

The breath is knocked out of me, but I use all the energy I presently have to get up and untangle myself from this mess.

"Ah!"

"Ow!"

"Hey, hey!"

"I got him!"

"No, no, I got him! I got him!"

"Ouch, that was my boob, you idiot!" I screech.

At that, we all stop struggling and stare at each other, realizing our positions. I'm currently gripping Scott's shirt, Scott is holding Stiles's foot which is squishing his right cheek, and Stiles's other foot is where I think you can guess he practically kicked me. Oh, and Liam is nowhere to be seen.

→ → →

The next day, I find myself constantly checking my phone for any text messages from the three boys I've had weird talks with last night, especially Liam. I don't even know if he believes anything he's been told, and for all we know something bad could've happened to him already- or he's done something bad to someone else.

The bus comes and stops right by the sign at the corner of my street, and I get inside it, my mind still elsewhere. I find Mason sitting alone and Garrett and Violet sitting beside each other on the seats across him.

"Hey, Riley!" Mason gives a friendly wave. I manage to smile back, make my way over to him, and then sit next to him after acknowledging Garrett and Violet.

"Where's your neighbor?"

"What?" I ask distractedly.

"Liam," Mason repeats. "Your neighbor, remember?"

"Oh, right," I laugh falsely. "I, uh, I don't really know. Didn't see him at all."

"Huh." Mason leans back on his chair, thinking. "Probably rode with someone."

"Yeah, probably..." I trail off, staring out of the window.

Mason strikes up a conversation with me about movies, and one thing in particular that caught my attention is his question of which version of the Spider-Man movies I like better.

"The original one," I reply.

"What? I was expecting you to like the Amazing Spider-Man because-"

"Because of Andrew Garfield?" I guess with a giggle and he nods, chuckling. "He's damn fine alright, but I'm not basing the movie off of him."

"Well..." Mason says thoughtfully as if he's deeply thinking about him. "I can honestly say that he's the reason why I like the newer versions better."

I open my mouth to say something else and he says, "Oh, and if you couldn't tell, I'm gay."

I don't show any signs that I'm surprised to find out he's gay, or ask if he's serious. It doesn't bother me, anyways, so I just laugh and say, "Well, that's biased of you to like the movie only because of him."

Finally, we arrive at Beacon Hills High School. While getting off the bus, Garrett and Violet now join us as we chat about a movie night.

"I'm not watching another movie on Friday night," Garrett says at once, walking hand-in-hand with his girlfriend. "Mason, there's gotta be something going on."

"You remember that we're freshmen, right? We just got of a school bus," I say in a matter-of-factly way.

"Yeah, we're not exactly going to be hitting the clubs 'til 4am," agrees Mason.

"Okay, movie at your place tonight," Violet sighs with finality. Mason simply shrugs and she sends a look before leaving with Garrett, so I am left alone with Mason.

When I turn to look at a different direction, I am both relieved and startled to see Liam running breathlessly towards us. It seems that his ankle is not at all injured anymore (Scott explained some of these werewolf abilities last night after Liam ran away... they're honestly quite cool) but he has a bandage where Scott bit him yesterday.

"Liam," I say, walking closer to him as he catches his breath, leaning on a post.

"Hey, dude, why weren't you on the bus?" Mason asks the same question he first asked me today.

"I, uh, I ran," explains Liam, still heavily breathing.

"You ran three miles to school," states Mason, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"I just started running."

"Guess your leg's okay." He doesn't even reply, he just continues trying to breath normally again. "And what happened to your arm?"

I bite my lip, waiting for his reply. Once again, he doesn't answer. Instead, he looks as if he's about to pass out with all his sweating and wheezing. He even faces the other way to lean over, and I approach him in alarm, trying not to make it seem like I have an idea what's happening.

"Dude, are you okay?" Mason questions in concern, copying my actions.

"Liam, breath," I instruct him quietly. He then looks up and a look of realization comes over him. I watch him for a moment and follow where he's looking, but I don't see anything except for the usual students either sitting on the grass or walking towards the school.

"I-I'll talk to you later. I gotta get to class," he excuses himself from us. I sneak a look to the side again and this time, I see Scott standing motionlessly by the sign of our school. What the hell is he doing there, just staring at the innocent boy he bit?

When Liam runs away for the second time in two days, Mason follows my eyes, and I realize that my cousin has disappeared. I frown in confusion and without even looking at Mason, I say, "I'll get to class now, too. I'll see you later." Then I jog over to where Scott formerly stood, then go to the nearest entrance to the school, suspecting that maybe he passed there.

I am mildly surprised to find out that I'm right. He's standing in the hall when I enter, and when he meets my eye, he goes over to me.

"Hey, Riles," he starts, putting both his hands on my shoulders as if to steer me where to go.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I ask, looking up at him weirdly.

"We are cornering Liam."

I don't have time to speak because we now walk down an empty hall with Liam in front of us since we're following him and Stiles walking to him from the other end of the hallway.

"Liam, hey!" Stiles calls out.

Liam then halts, probably taking note that he has nowhere to go for now.

"Liam, we need to talk," Scott tells him.

"No, you need to back the hell off!" he says irritatedly. "Both of you."

"Both of us?" Stiles says again, looking at me. "What about her?"

"What makes you think I wasn't talking about her?" Nobody answers and there's an awkward silence, so he continues. "The point is, you kidnapped me. I even saw with my own eyes that you did the same to Riley in some way last night, so I just have no idea what's going on."

"Look, can you just listen for one second?" pleads Scott, directing us back to the main topic. "Please."

Liam looks at the two before gesturing for them to keep going.

"Liam," Scott then says seriously, "we're brothers now."

Cue the face palm.

"What?" he questions, looking completely weirded out.

"Oh, god, that's just..." mumbles Stiles.

"What are you talking about?" Liam says, louder this time. "We just met, and you bit me."

"The bite," Scott tries again, "the bite is a gift."

Stiles, who can't take it anymore, goes over to him and says, "Scott, stop. Please stop." Then he points his finger at Liam, saying, "You? You, we're trying to help you, you know what?"

"By kidnapping me?"

"Just to clarify, Scott kidnapped you, okay? I... aided him a bit."

"Yeah, and both of you restrained me for no reason," I grumble at them and Stiles nudges for me to be quiet.

"Liam, I have gone through this before," Scott now says, this time making actual sense. "Something's happening to you. Something big."

"Nothing's happening to me," Liam denies with a shake of his head. He lifts his left arm up, ripping the bandage off and revealing no sign of a bite or wound, or even a scar. "Nothing!"

We watch in silence as he walks away from us, nobody bothering to stop him.

"Now what?" I sigh.

→ → →

"I'm not sharing my basement," says Malia firmly.

"Actually, it's my basement," Lydia says, "and my mom knows how you tore it up last time."

Okay, so it turns out Malia is a werewolf, too- no, wait, a were-coyote... yeah, that's it. Lydia's a banshee, Kira's a kitsune (I've gotta look that up since I don't really know what that is to be honest- except that it's got something to do with being a fox), Scott's obviously a werewolf, and Stiles is... Stiles.

"Alright, she's still learning," Stiles helps her out.

"But we're gonna use the boathouse for Liam, it's got some port beams we can chain him to," Scott announces.

"But how do we get him out to the lake house if he doesn't trust us?" asks Kira.

As I am deep in though of suggestions to Kira's question, Stiles suggests something about throwing him into the lake. I snap my head up and look at him in annoyance.

"We're not killing or kidnapping," says Scott thankfully.

"Then let's be smarter," Lydia says obviously.

"Let's tell him there's a party and invite him," I pipe up, all of them now looking at me.

"And who'll do it?" asks Malia.

"Riley, of course. He trusts her, I think," says Kira.

"I don't know if he exactly trusts me at the moment, he's probably confused if I'm working with Scott to murder him or if Scott is going to murder me," I say nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" Malia asks.

"It's a long story involving duct taping Liam, Riley trying to help him, and then me and Scott attacking Riley and strapping her to a chair, too," Stiles explains. "Then the next day, she shows up at school side-by-side with her attackers."

"So," I look at Lydia, "you're gonna ask out a freshman."

"No," she says instantly. "I'm done with teenage boys." Aren't we all still teenagers right now? "But, if we're going to play a trick on someone, we're going to have to use the trickster."

Everybody's heads turn to Kira and she says nervously, "Who, me? No way, not me."

"Yes, you! Can't have another person backing out. And do you know what they call a female fox? A vixen."

"Me?"

"You can do it, Kira. Be a vixen."

"Fine... only if someone will come with me!"

And that's how I ended up walking down the stairs with Kira, trying to look cool.

I give up after a few steps and start to walk normally, then I see Liam walk out of a classroom, talking to Mason. He stops and watches, and everything feels like it's in a movie.

Unfortunately, Kira misses a step, falling forward and hitting me in the process. Luckily, I don't fall dramatically like her and instead trip. I think I could've landed anyways, but I feel a pair of arms catch me.

I smile sheepishly up at the face of Liam Dunbar and laugh nervously. "Hey, Liam, how's it going?"

"Are you girls okay?" he asks concernedly, his eyes flitting from mine to Kira on the floor. I quickly let go of Liam and straighten myself up, looking at Kira and waiting for her to start talking.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," she answers his question, posing unnaturally and then going straight to the point. "You wanna go to our party tonight?"

A/N: The rest of this episode will be in the next chapter, so stay tuned 👅 Not much drama in this, but hope you liked it anyways! There'll be more emotion in the next, though, and I'll hopefully be uploading it soon 😁