SIX

"All right, since inertia is a subject of which you all know plenty, why don't we start with momentum?" Mr. Harris asked as he had finished writing on the board, I sit next to Scott who was going to talk to Isaac. Isaac had a lot of rage towards the twins. 

"They're here for a reason. Give me a chance to figure it out before you do anything." Scott whispered to Isaac, I bite down on my lower lip nervously. I'm sick of people dying. "Okay?Isaac." 

"Danny, what do we know about momentum?" Danny looked up from his notes. 

"It's the product of mass velocity," Danny replies, I knew Stiles was in this class with us somewhere- he's a bit salty at me because I didn't sit with him and choose Scott over him. "The more massive something is, the faster it's going." 

"Mr. Harris, can I use the bathroom, please?" Isaac asked, looking up from his desk. Mr. Harris made a hand gesture towards the door, allowing him. 

Isaac got up from his seat, and walked towards the door. Scott quickly jumps from his seat. "I have to go to the bathroom, too." 

"One at a time," Mr. Harris told Scott. 

"But I really have to go, like, medical emergency have to go." Scott said quickly, bouncing of the top of his feet. 

"Mr. McCall, if your bladder suddenly exploded, and urine began to pour from everyone orifice, I would still respond, one at a time." This is why I hate Mr. Harris. Actually, one of the many, many reasons why I hate him. "Is that enough hyperbole for you, or what you like me to come up with something more vivid?" 

"No. No, that's pretty good." I looked down at the phone that was in my hand under the table, it was a text message from Stiles, asking what's happening. I glanced over at him, and he shrugged. I then start to type back but was cut off. 

Mr. Harris is the worst teacher in the world. Mr. Harris then walked out of the room, and everyone followed. "What is this?" I stand behind Scott and saw Aiden... or the other twin on the ground and Isaac standing there, completely baffled. "What's going on?" 

Danny had skidded to his knees, to see if the twin was okay. "You all right?" 

"He just came at me." I didn't believe a word that boy had just said. I know Isaac, he wouldn't have... would he?  

"Isaac, what the hell did you do?" Mr. Harris asked Isaac. I clenched my jaw. 

✢  

"You know there's a temple in Calcutta here they used to sacrifice a child every day?" Stiles asked as we walked outside in school. "That's every day a dead baby, Stacey, every day! Hey, wanna know what today is? It's dead baby day. Oh, no, wait, that's every day, 'cause every day is dead baby day, yay!" 

I turn to Stiles and chuckle. "Why are you telling me this?" 

"Because Scott's dealing with the Alpha twins." Stiles answers, twins? Alphas? I stopped and looked at Stiles. "You don't know about the twins?" 

"Alphas?" I asked. 

"Ethan and Aiden." I tried to hide my surprise. 

"Oh, yeah." I nodded, and Stiles nodded back. "Yeah, I know about them." 

I continue to walk, and Stiles followed me. "Okay, okay, good. So look, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking the murders come in threes. Accident people love things in threes, right? So first maybe it's three virgins, and then, I don't know, maybe it's three people who own little dogs." 

"Lydia owns a little dog." I reminded Stiles, and he nodded. "I am not telling Lydia to get rid of her dog." 

"Would you just think about telling Lydia to get rid of her little dog?" Stiles asked me quickly. 

"No. And by the way, you cannot discern any pattern by a single data point, so stop trying." I reminded him. 

"Okay, so what, I'm just supposed to wait around and for someone else to die, then?" Stiles suggested. "I'm just supposed to sit there and watch them die? Just wait for them to wither up and die right in front of me-" 

I then grab Stiles t-shirt by surprise and pulled him closer to me, and I crashed my lips together with his. He was surprised and caught off guard, but quickly kissed me back. I closed my eyes and he cupped his hand on my cheek, I then pull my lips apart, and I smiled. 

"Whiter?" I asked with a chuckle. Stiles rolled his eyes. 

"You know what I mean. Die, in just a hideously awful, strangulating, head-bashed in, throat-cutting kind of way, now. Can we kiss again please?" Stiles exhales, and I chuckled, patting his chest and shake my head. 

"Maybe it's not your job." I told Stiles softly. "You said it yourself they were strangled with a garrote. That's a human thing to do, so maybe just leave the figuring it out part to someone... human." 

"You mean someone like my dad?" 

I step back. "Yes, Stiles I mean your dad. Let's go." I then take his hand and drag him down the halls. 

"Go where?" 

"You know excatly where." 

✢ 

We enter the Clinic, and Deaton was at the receptionist. "Out of school early," Deaton told us. 

"Yeah, we both had a free period, actually," Stiles replied. "We were just headed home to see my dad. You know, I guess you probably heard some people are getting murdered again. It's his job to figure it out." 

"I gathered as much from the sheriff title." Deaton responded. 

"Yeah, um, you know, it gets kind of hard for him to do his job when he doesn't have all the information. And we all know he's missing pretty much half of the story here, right? So I started thinking, and I remember someone who does have a lot of information. Someone who seems to always know more than anyone else around here." 

"You." I said, looking at Deaton. 

✢ 

"All the symbols and things, the triskeles, the bank logo, the mountain ash, all of it is from the Celtic Druids. and anyone who's ever looked up human sacrifices before knows that the Druids had a pretty big hard-on when it came to giving up to the gods." Stiles explained as he, Deaton and I entered the animal clinic's main room. 

"You ever heard of the Lindow Man?" I asked Deaton. "2,000-year-old body found in England? He was found strangled, head bashed in, throat cut. Threefold death. They also found pollen grains in his stomach. Guess what favorite Druid plant that was." 

Deaton then grabs something out of the jag- it was the plant. "Mistletoe," Deaton told us, holding the mistletoe in his hands. 

"We're just telling you everything you already know, aren't we?" Stiles asked. I exhale as Deaton drops the plant onto the bench. "Then why aren't you telling us?" 

"Maybe because when you've spent every moment of the last ten years trying to push something away... denying it. Lying about it. Becomes a pretty powerful habit." Deaton explained, and I gulped. 

"All right, so this guy, is he a Druid?" I continue on. 

Deaton looks over at me, and shakes his head. "No. It's someone copying a centuries-old practice of the people who should've known better. Do you know what the word Druid means in Gaelic?" 

"No." Stiles replied. 

"Wise oak." Deaton and I spoke at the same time, they both looked at me. I shrug. 

"The Celtic Druids were close to nature." Deaton continued on. "They believed they kept it in balanced. They were philosophers and scholars. They weren't serial killers." 

"Yeah, well, this one is." Once again, with the low voice that Stiles sometimes do, makes him sound even more attractive than he is. I'm trying to stay focus, but instead, my eyes trace up to Stiles' beautiful face who was concentrated on Deaton's. 

I then let out a sigh as I felt my phone ring. I feel Stiles' stare on me as I bring out my phone, and I put it up to my ear, answering it. "Hey, I can't talk right now." I told Lydia. I frown. "Wait, what... okay, are you sure he's missing?" 

"Not just missing, taken." Lydia's voice wavers over the phone. 

I then drop my phone, and Stiles looked at me. "What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you on the way, let's go."  

✢

There were chants from the phone that Deaton holds in the music room where Lydia told me to go. I stand next to Lydia. Deaton paused the recording. 

"Can we get a copy of this?" Deaton turns to Lydia. Lydia nods, taking the phone from Deaton. 

"Hey, Doc, or Stace, any help would be, you know, helpful." Stiles calls, as he was digging through the teachers draw, trying to find anything. 

"Each grouping of three would have its own purpose, it's own type of power." Deaton continued. "Virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors..." 

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Warrior, could that be like a soldier?" Stiles asked from over the desk, and I walk over towards him, my heels making a clicking sound on below me. 

"Absolutely," Deaton replied. 

I stopped when Stiles then held up a wedding photo, there was a man in a soldier uniform and obviously, his wife, in a beautiful white wedding dress. 

"Kyle was in ROTC with Boyd." Stiles continues, placing down the photo. 

"That's got to be it." Deaton told us. "That's the pattern. Where's Boyd?" 

"He's probably home right now." Stiles digs his phone out of his pocket. "I'm going to try get him on the phone." 

My face dropped when I realized who else was in the military. Deaton looked over at me concernedly. "Stacey? Something wrong?" 

"No... I mean, I just... I just thought of someone else with a military connection." I pursed my lips together. 

"Who?" Stiles looked over at me. 

I do a deep exhale. "Mr. Harris." 

✢

"This is just one of many possibilities," Deaton told us as Stiles and I search through Mr. Harris' draws, Lydia came walking behind Deaton. Mr. Harris isn't here, he was taken. I have this feeling. "He could have simply left for the day," 

"Yeah, well, not without this," I told them, lifting up his big bag. What the hell does he have in here? I then drop it, and Stiles started to look through the papers that were on his desk. 

I notice Stiles frown as he picked up one piece of paper. "What?" Deaton asked. Stiles turned the paper, and showed it to us. It was a marked sheet, and it had the letter R. 

"This test was rated R." Stiles pointed out. I frown, there was no such thing as an R in grades... 

I pick up one that has an H. "This one has an H." I informed them, and Deaton walks over to me. Lydia walked next to Stiles. Deaton then takes my piece of paper and Stiles. I walk next to Stiles, and he soon wrapped his arms around me. I purse my lips together. 

Deaton then dropped those papers, and started to sort out the papers that were also on the desk. On each and every single one of them, they had a letter. 

Deaton then looked up, realizing what this meant. "Stiles and Stacey, do you remember I told you Druid is the Gaelic word for wise oak?" I nodded, I knew that. 

"Yeah." Stiles said and looked at Deaton, so did I. And Lydia. 

"If a Druid went down the wrong path, the wise oak was sometimes to have become a dark oak. There's a Gaelic word for that as well." Deaton informed us. "Darach." 

I then looked down at the papers, and I saw that there were six letters spread out on test papers. I stumbled back into Stiles, I stood on his toes and my eyes widen when I fall to the ground and my hands catch me before my fall. 

I look up, my eyes still widen. Those words were spelled Darach.