Everything went to shit in five minutes.

Five fucking minutes.

She ended her conversation with Mason. Gave Liam a hug. Set up Die Hard.

Five minutes into the movie her phone rings again, and it's a call she never wanted to receive in her life.

Armed hunters had attacked the McCall house, and everyone had been injured. Scott and Malia were both fine thanks to their fast healing. Melissa, Mason and Lydia, on the other hand, were all rushed into surgery. They would be okay, but there was a lot of healing for them to do.

A lot of work for them to do, as well.

Scott and Malia went to search for allies; Katherine's first suggestion had been Peter. Scott agreed, and planned to speak to Deucalion as well. Her Dad brought Monroe in for an interrogation, and after calming himself down, Liam went to speak to Nolan.

The peace likely wouldn't last long, but the gesture still counted.

While they went their separate ways, Katherine stayed home. She got her meals sorted out in the morning so she wouldn't get lazy, got dressed into a tank top and pyjama shorts, and went out to her small backyard with her bat.

The first thing she did was stretches.

Her neck and back. Her legs. Her arms.

She jogged the perimeter of the yard for a few minutes to get herself ready. She hated running but since she seemed to be doing a lot of it, she figured the practice wouldn't hurt.

When her heart was hammering and it was hard to breathe, she began practicing all the defensive moves she had learned. First her blocks, then all the safe ways to duck out of the way. Rolls, dodges, dives.

Mainly, to protect her head.

For hours, she moved her body in ways that would be agonizing the next morning. The sun was blazing near afternoon when she decided to switch her role.

Now she practiced for offensive. Every part of her hurt, but she carried on anyway.

Punches.

Kicks.

As the techniques became more difficult, a lump formed in her throat. Focus, Katherine told herself. You're supposed to focus.

She couldn't.

It was hard to focus when she could hear Allison's voice in her head, telling her what to do. A lot of the time she couldn't remember what she sounded like because it had been so long. But these phrases played like an audio track.

You're going to kick your leg out...okay not quite like — yes! Just like that, good.

Remember to protect your face as you punch.

It's okay to be scared and panic but you have to remember that you know what you're doing.

It didn't take long for her to start crying. Choked sounds tore their way out of her as she practiced her offensive moves and after just a few short minutes, she was on her knees in the grass, sobbing. She was so absorbed in her feelings she didn't hear the pair of footsteps until they were right behind her.

She didn't have to turn around to know one of them belonged to Scott. "Kat," was the first thing he murmured.

There were a lot of things she wanted to say. All she could manage was, "I hate him."

"I know," he responded quietly.

It didn't take a mind reader to know she meant Gerard.

Katherine sniffed harshly and wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms. "What's going on?" She then asked, rising to her feet.

The second pair of footsteps had belonged to Malia and she said, "Theo and Liam found bodies at the school. We're going to see."

She blinked. "Of course they did."

For the entirety of the drive, Katherine sat in silence and listened to the explanation Liam had given Scott.

Through generally harmless persuasion, Liam had managed to get Gabe to tell him about another trio of bodies hidden in the school. They were brought to the science teacher's office and shown three bodies kept on the specimen freezer.

The bodies had been discovered after the hunters present at the school had tested students and faculty to determine who was a werewolf. The three had already been tested.

The idea was brought up by a freshman named Aaron, who they believed was likely the Anuk-ite. Their best guess was that the freshman was one of the Anuk-ite's faces and with the crude tests they had been exacting, he was looking for his other half.

The other half of the Anuk-ite was a werewolf.

When inside the school, the first person Katherine saw was Gabe walking towards her down the hallway. He kept his gaze trained on the floor and passed her without a word. Little bitch.

In the science teachers office, Theo and Liam directed them to the massive chest freezer with papers taped to the lid. Inside was the source of nightmares.

Three bodies — the science teacher along with two students — had been completely drained of life.

It looked as if their eyes had liquified and fallen out, streaks of blood from the sockets dried down their faces. They were pale, as dead bodies were meant to be. Blood streaked out of their mouth and ears.

She thought back to the start of the year and remembered the wolf that had been on the lacrosse field. The terrified wolf that had retreated into the woods to die, and had thousands of spiders crawl out from inside of it. Its face had looked like that.

Katherine grimaced, knowing it was likely the same as what had happened to these people right here. She didn't even know their names.

"It's a bad day for finding bodies," Malia grimaced as her and Scott shut the freezer.

From behind her, Liam sighed. "There's gonna be a lot more if we don't find Aaron's other half."

"Which we know nothing about," Theo concluded.

Scott shook his head. "We do know one thing. We know it's a werewolf."

"Well," Katherine muttered, "we need to find this other werewolf right fuckin' now."

"Preferably before they merge," Theo nodded his agreement.

"What happens if they merge?" Malia frowned.

Glancing back at her, Scott's mouth pulled to one corner. "I don't know, but I got a feeling that it's not going to be good."

Liam slowly stepped forward, stopping when his arm bumped into Katherine's back. "Any chance you got to put together that army, Scott?"

"You're looking at it."

There was hardly a moment to breathe before another voice cut into the conversation. "Let's hope this thing doesn't feed off desperation, because this room reeks of it."

Katherine turned around and couldn't help but raise her eyes. A usually put together Peter stood in the classroom doorway covered in smudges of ash, his hair sticking up at odd angles and small holes in his clothes where they had been singed.

"What happened?" Scott asked, eyes wide.

Peter held up a steering wheel and stared at them all blankly. "The hunters destroyed my perfect automobile. So, if this thing had anything to do with it, I'd like to see its demise is appropriately painful."

"I thought you had two cars?" Malia asked as they all glanced at each other.

Peter tossed another piece of his car onto the floor. "There's going to be hell to pay."

They all split up after that.

Malia and Peter left in his second car while Scott and Theo stepped outside to talk about the conversation with Gabe. Liam stayed with her.

Katherine moved to the side of the room and sat down with her back squished into the corner. She set her chin on her knees.

"What do you need from me right now?" Liam asked her softly.

She blinked. "Gerard's head on a stick."

Katherine didn't turn as he sat next to her. "I think we all need that," he sighed. "But I'm not sure Scott would be happy with it."

"He can hate me as much as he needs to," she shook her head quietly. "I don't care; Gerard dies."

Katherine set her jaw as she stared blankly ahead of her. He's going to die, and I'm going to make sure of it.

AUTHORS NOTE: this is short as fuck but I'm trying guys