The first thing they did was send Liam to open the cell.

It took very little time to organise, but it was agreed that they were going to going out the front doors of the sheriff's station and they were going to tear their way through the mob of hunters. There was no other choice.

The werewolves and Malia would avoid hurting as many people as they could.

Lydia would use her newly acquired abilities.

And they would let Katherine have her bat.

She had no plans to give it up so she was glad they'd come to their senses. For a teenage human with no coordination, she had impressive aim.

The deputies had all gathered at the back exit to wait for her father, so the bullpen was eerily empty. Flickers of shadows moved outside, creating odd shapes in the drawn blinds. Even through the wall, Katherine could hear the angry chatter of the mob; it grew louder by the minute.

They readied themselves at the station's front door.

"Are you ready?" Scott asked quietly.

Lydia nodded once.

Malia bared her teeth and snarled in response.

Liam flicked out his claws and when everyone turned to look at him, Theo rolled his eyes and did the same.

Before they even touched the front door, Katherine heard her dad speak. "No one's going anywhere."

"We can get through them," Lydia promised quickly.

When she turned around Katherine could see her dad had come in from the back exit. "We're not going to fire the first shot," he said. "Not get back from the door; all of you. Parrish, get these two back in the cell," he gestured to Jiang and Tierney. 

"What happened?" Scott frowned as he crossed the room to stand with her father.

"She gave us until midnight."

The deputies came in shortly after, and everything changed quickly.

Desks were flipped over and covered the lower halves of the windows. The blinds were all twisted shut, everyone was moved as far away from the glass as they could. All weapons were brought out and filled with ammo. The lights were switched off.

Katherine watched her dad speak with Parrish, Lydia went down the hall with Quinn, and Scott was doing what he could to keep Malia calm. Everyone had something to do. So, as quietly as she could, Katherine ducked out of the bullpen and back into her dads office.

For quite a while, the bottom file drawer to the right of his desk had been filled with toys she played with on days she didn't have school. There were still marks on the desk from when she had tried colouring with a blue sharpie.

The sheriff's station was most of her childhood, and now she was hiding inside it from a mob with guns.

My life is ridiculous.

A ridiculous nightmare.

She sat down in the seat Quinn had used, away from the windows and out of sight. She leaned her bat upright in the corner and brought her knees to her chest and set her chin on them.  Her entire body felt shaky, and that anxious prickle worked its way up the front of her, but she ignored them.

Theoretically speaking there would be time for a panic attack later. If everything works out and all of us walk away from this, there'll be time. Just not now.

The office door creaked open. She wasn't surprised to see Liam standing there, one hand stuffed awkwardly in his pocket. "What's up?" He asked quietly.

Despite the anxiety, she couldn't help but smile. "I'm tired," Katherine then admitted. "I'm really fucking tired."

He crossed the room to sit in the empty chair beside her. "I know, Kat," he murmured and hooked an arm around her shoulders.

As always, Liam was warm.

It would normally be stifling with the number of anxious bodies crammed into such a small space, but for now it was comforting. Katherine quietly leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed. Right here, right now, I'm safe.

Neither spoke again until the interior lights shuttered off.

Without moving, Katherine sighed. "Okay what the fuck."

Hand in hand, and her bat in the other, they stalked back out into the bullpen. "How easy is it to cut the power to a sheriff's station," Malia was asking.

"Too easy."

Katherine turned in the direction of Deputy Vargas' voice and felt all of that calm melt away as Nolan Holloway was thrown to the ground, wire cutters snatched from his hands.

"Throw him out," Liam snarled, stalking forward.

Scott blocked his way and turned to her as if to ask for help, but Katherine merely shrugged her shoulders. "Give him to Malia for five minutes," was all she said.

Nolan was smart enough to go pale. "Please -- please don't," he choked out. "She'll know I messed up if you do."

Please?

Please?

With slow and deliberate steps, Katherine stalked toward him. "Are you really saying please?" She asked quietly, kneeling down so she was level with him. She slammed the tip of her bat down on the floor next to him, and a part of her flooded with satisfaction when he flinched. "Do you remember, Nolan, how many times I said please when you and your little bitch-boy friend were trying to beat Liam to death?"

Nolan only stared at her, his entire body stiffened. His face was now paler than paper.

"Do you remember it?" She demanded again, bashing the tip of her bat on the floor again.

He managed a jerky nod, his eyes not leaving her once.

Katherine inhaled a careful breath. "The memories are a little fuzzy for me because I was forced to watch," she snapped at him, "but tell me; did you listen to me begging? Did you Nolan? Because I'd love to hear your reason for answering no."

Silence.

With her father and all the deputies watching, Nolan looked ready to cry.

"Katherine," Scott spoke up quietly.

She ignored him. "And you're going to go out there and tell that actual failure of a counsellor that if she wants to kill another kid she can take a swing at me and we'll see who walks away."

Again, Scott looked to Liam for help. "He's sick in the head," was all Liam said as he stalked over and lifted Katherine off the ground.

"Let me go," she hissed, thrashing in his grasp. "It's wrong if any of you handle him, that'll just make things worse, but what's he going to do when he gets his ass beat with a baseball bat by a human, huh? That'll tell him who the real monster is here because I swear to god--"

"--he's under arrest," her dad cut her off, watching her carefully. "Parrish, go put him in lockup."

Even as Parrish dragged him away, Liam didn't let her go.

"Put me down," she grumbled.

"Are you going to try to kill him?" Scott asked from behind her.

Liam turned so she could face him. "Maybe," she muttered.

"Then no."

"And if I said definitely not?"

"I still wouldn't believe you," Scott rolled his eyes.

Liam set her down anyway and kissed the top of her head, then moved down the hall towards the main hall. She watched Theo stalk after him.

Scott stepped towards her and set both his hands on her shoulders. "We have to be better than them," he said quietly.

Katherine met his gaze. "You can all be better," she promised him with a small smile. "I want to be worse."

Sighing, Scott just pulled her in for a tight hug. "We'll figure things out," he promised her.

She bit down on her bottom lip. There was no point in arguing with Scott over her desire to handle things her own way. He was afraid and angry, and he still wanted things to work out for everyone.

I was right.

It's us humans that are the monsters here.

Something clattered on the ground behind her and before she could even turn, Parrish was screaming, "everybody down! Shut your eyes!"

Less than a second after she followed the order, a bright light flared around her; bright enough that even with her eyes closed it was uncomfortable. Her ears rang loudly. She could smell a faint smoke and began coughing as the scent grew stronger and immediately cursed. "What asshole threw the flash bang," she choked out weakly.

In the chaos, no one heard her.

"They said midnight!" Her dad bellowed and stalked to the door.

Parrish intercepted his path. "The grenade came from inside," she heard him say quietly.

Her heart dropped.

Who would do that?

Then a furious Liam came barrelling through the mouth of the hallway with Nolan cringing in his grasp. "Wolfsbane," he snapped, holding up a glass vile filled with a purple liquid. "He was trying to kill them." Katherine was in Malia's grasp before she could blink, keeping her firmly rooted to the ground. Scott closed his eyes for a moment at the information. "And there's something you need to see."

Katherine leaned against the wall and studied the room; Scott went with Liam, Nolan was escorted to a separate room by two deputies. It was minutes later that Scott came back with information. Jiang and Tierney were omega's. They had killed innocent people. Him and her father went into his office to talk about it.

Glass shattered, and something pierced the wall five feet away from her. Several people yelped.

The arrow sticking out of the wall belonged to a crossbow, that she was confident about. A crumpled piece of something had been attached somehow. It had been shot through a window from outside.

Malia was the first to reach it, and handed Liam the material after pulling it out of the wall.

When Katherine got closer she could see it was a bloody piece of green sports fabric. A piece of a lacrosse jersey. Liam unfolded it to reveal a number 7 outlined in silver trim. "That's Brett's number," he said quietly.

"They're trying to rattle us," Lydia said through a sharp breath.

Katherine's grip on her bat tightened. "I'll rattle their heads like a fuckin' snake tail."

Theo, whom she hadn't noticed came in behind her, said, "it's working." Sure enough Liam's eyes were glowing a brilliant gold.

Before anyone could say anything a loud scream pierced through the silence from the direction of Nolan's holding room. When she managed to barge through the crowd of people in the doorway, nausea rolled through her.

The deputy watching Nolan had hung himself.

"I didn't do anything," Nolan was rambling. "I didn't even say anything, he just got up and and started tying the wire around his neck--"

"--get him down," her dad cut him off.

Him and Parrish moved to do just that.

Deputy Morrow, the woman who had screamed upon finding the body, was now trembling with uneven breathing. "Fifteen minutes," she whimpered, tears building in her eyes. "Fifteen minutes and then they come in and kill us all. They're coming to kill us and no one is coming to help us."

Katherine shoved her way through the crowd to stand with her. "We're going to figure something out," she murmured, reaching out to hold the deputy's hand. "We still have fifteen minutes."

Teary eyed, Morrow looked at her. "We're already dead."

"No, we aren't," Katherine told her softly. "A lot can happen in fifteen minutes."

But Morrow wasn't listening. "We're already dead."

It all happened in the time span of a breath.

Inhale; Morrow pulled her gun from her holster.

Exhale; she positioned the barrel beneath her chin and pulled the trigger.

Katherine stood frozen, unable to move. There was blood splattered everywhere. Her clothes, her shoes, her face. It was everywhere.

And Morrow...

Her empty eyes were now permanently focused on a spot on the ceiling.

"Kat!" She heard her dad yell.

She blinked.

It was Doctor Valak in those tunnels beneath Eichen all over again. Her brain was...and the blood all over her face...

Katherine closed her eyes.

I can't throw up.

I can't.

Not right now.

There'll be time later.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and she could see her Dad's face staring at her, brows drawn together in panic. His hands fluttered over her, her arms and her face and her hair, checking for injury.

She managed a shaky breath. "How," she asked hoarsely, "did I end up seeing someone's brain again." Her entire body trembled in her dad's hands. Her bottom lip quivered.

Before anyone could respond, Katherine forced the nausea to stop and darted down the hall towards the bathroom.

AUTHORS NOTE: you guys have to hold me accountable for this but I'm going to throw every single one of my cracked out brain cells into finishing this book by Sunday. (I make no promises). But I need to be cranking out AT LEAST 2 chapters a day so you all have to annoy me about it. It's okay if I cry, I talk to my therapist on Tuesday, but pls don't aim for that