...

Derek examines Jordan's hands in the dim light of his loft, Scott and Lydia standing nearby to hear the Hale's verdict. "He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asked for clarification. Jordan had been zip-tied to the steering wheel of his cruiser by his his coworker, Haigh who then proceeded to dump gasoline over him and the car before setting it on fire. Jordan had miraculously survived the ordeal, clothes burned and covered in soot, but alive and without a scratch. Lydia had called Scott who immediately took them to Derek.

"It's the hair and nails, isn't it?" Lydia asked before she clarified. "The parts of the body that are essentially dead."

"Well, they should be gone."

"I was set on fire. All of me should be gone."

"Not if you're like us." Scott pointed out to Jordan.

"Like you?"

"I don't think he's like us." Derek said.

"Then what is he?" Lydia wondered.

"Sorry, but I have no idea."

"But you knew about Jackson and Kira." Scott said.

"This is a little out of my experience. There might be something in the bestiary. Did you try Argent?"

"I don't know where he is."

"What about Y/n? There might be something in her grimoire."

"She won't answer my calls." Scott frowned. None of them had heard from her or Malia much since she found out about Peter, and despite many tries, she has yet to answer any of their calls or texts.

"I'll see if she'll answer mine."

"Okay, hold on." Jordan cut in. "What's a bestiary? Or a grimoire? Actually, that's not even my first question. Just... Just tell me one thing. Are all of you like Lydia and Y/n?" Lydia's brow twitched up, waiting for him to elaborate. "Are you all psychic?"

"Psychic?"

"Yeah."

"Not exactly." Scott answered.

"Okay. Then what are you?" Scott looked to Derek, but the man only tilted his head a bit, silently telling Scott that it was his choice. Without saying anything Scott closed his eyes and faced Jordan, opening them to reveal the crimson glow they now sported. Derek called Y/n while Scott told Jordan a bit about the supernatural world he is now a part of. Derek made his call and, to Lydia's and Scott's surprise, Y/n actually answered the phone to her newfound cousin. He told her what happened to Jordan and that the deputy was at his loft now, both of them hoping she could provide some answers. He didn't mention Scott or Lydia, thinking that there was a better chance of her showing up if she didn't know they were there.

He was right and it wasn't long before Y/n was walking into his loft. She gave Derek and Jordan a little smile in greeting when she saw them, but it faltered when she saw Scott and Lydia. Her eyes hardened a bit when she looked to Derek and he shrugged in apology. He can understand why she would want to be distant from everyone for a while at least, but they needed her help right now.

"You think you can figure out what he is?" Derek asked.

She huffed a quiet breath. "I'll see what I can do." She moved to stand in front of Jordan and held a hand up to his face. "May I?" He gave a hesitant nod and she touched her fingers to his temple. Her eyes closed as she let her magic flow over him, feeling for anything that would tell her what he was. Jordan was surprised to see that when she opened her eyes, they were glowing purple. She could feel something in him, but it was almost like it was hiding, not quite ready to be known. She stared into his eyes, searching deeper. She caught a glimpse of fire in his eyes before she decided to stop.

Y/n let her hand fall to her side as she stepped back and her eyes dimmed. "Did you feel anything?" Scott asked.

"He's definitely something. But it's almost like it's hidden."

"What does that mean?" Jordan wondered.

"There's a bit of a disconnect happening inside you. The natural and the supernatural parts of you are not in sync and it's making it hard to see what your nature is. The most I can tell you is it's fire related, if that wasn't obvious enough from the fact there's not a singe on you."

"Well, thanks for trying."

"No problem."

"So, are you like Scott, then? Or like Lydia?"

"What do you mean?"

"He thought I was phsycic." Lydia spoke for the first time since Y/n arrived. She was a bit nervous around Y/n and felt a little guilty.

"Phsycic? I mean, I guess that's technically right in a sense. I'm a witch. And I can assume Scott already told you about everything else?"

"Some of it. Mainly just about me and Lydia." Scott said and Y/n nodded a bit in understanding.

"I guess it's time for a crash course in Supernatural 101." The four then filled Jordan in on everything that they had experienced so far, including any creatures they had come across.

Jordan sat for a moment in silence, trying to process everything. "What's a kanima?" He finally asked.

"We'll get back to that." Scott assured. "Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the dead pool."

"But I don't even know what I am."

"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek said.

"How many professional assassins are we talking about?"

"We're starting to lose count." Lydia frowned.

"But is it still professionals?" Scott wondered.

"I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance." Jordan mused.

"That means anyone with the dead pool could take a chance." Derek pointed out.

"But if Haigh had it, then who else does? How easy is it to get this thing now?"

"Depends on how bad The Benefactor wants us dead." Y/n started. "If they're eager enough, then I have a feeling it's going to get very easy, very soon."

After a few minutes Y/n was going to leave again, but Lydia asked her to wait. She said there was new information she had to share and Y/n needed to stay to hear it. Lydia didn't say she needed to stay because it was so hard to get ahold of her recently, but Y/n knew that's what she meant. So she did as asked, and stayed to hear what Lydia had learned.

Lydia had sat on Derek's bed as she got ready to tell them the story of her grandmother. "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once. But I think once was enough."

"How did your grandmother know her?" Derek asked.

"She didn't. She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy. The woman she loved." She sighed and looked down at the picture she held in her hands of a young Lorraine and Maddy. She got up and handed the picture to Scott. "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the lake from all the regattas she'd won." She slowly started to pace around the room.

"How did she die?" Jordan wondered.

"How's not the story. It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. 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 guessed.

"And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder cracking like gunshots in her head. So loud. She finally just screamed."

"Like a banshee." Y/n said, voicing what everyone was guessing then.

"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."

"There was an accident?" Jordan said it more as a statement than a question.

"It took them four days to find Maddy's body. And then it took decades to figure out how Lorraine 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. Then she started getting into more extreme occults. Things like mediums and psychics. All of them were failures. Until 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. My grandmother drove her insane. And I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help."

"Lydia, that wasn't your fault." Y/n's tone was gentle as she tried to assure Lydia. Yeah, she was still wary around her and the others right now, but Lydia was still her friend and she didn't want her blaming herself for what happened to Meredith.

"It feels like it." Lydia lightly shook her head as her mouth drew into a thin line. To distract herself she went over to the table Derek had, the other four following her, and she pulled out a paper with a series of letters, numbers, and symbols scrawled out in pencil and layed it on the table. "My grandmother created the code for the dead pool. They think she's the banshee who put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code."

"But she didn't leave a cipher key, did she?" Scott asked in the sliver of hope that they would have a teensy bit of good luck. Yet it was soon doused as Lydia shook her head. When there was nothing left to be told Y/n said a quick goodbye and made a hasty exit. She didn't pause when Scott and Lydia called for her, leaving the two to frown after her. They understood her reaction and her hesitancy around them, but it still made them sad.

...

Y/n was making her way to Coach's office to talk with him about the bonfire that night. Coach had already asked her to be one of the chaperones, Scott being the other, because he had decided she was the more responsible one out of her, Scott, and Stiles. She agreed, albeit a little hesitantly, and was wanting to go over what she had to do when she got there. When she turned a corner she saw Liam sitting on a set of stairs, alone. She could tell something was wrong with the young Beta and wanted to help. She glanced down both halls, not seeing Scott or anyone else, before she walked down. Liam, hearing her footsteps, glanced back at her as she sat on the step just above him.

"Hey, Liam." She called with a little smile. "Are you okay?" He glanced at her before he turned his gaze back to the lacrosse stick in his hands. "Hey, I know I'm not Scott, but I'd like to help if I can." Scott had been heading in the same direction Y/n had earlier, but paused around the corner when he heard her voice. He stayed where he was, doing his best to keep quiet, hoping that after she finished talking to Liam he might get a chance to talk to her himself.

Liam turned to her again, getting a better look at the concern on her features. He took a breath and fiddled with the stick again. "Last night my printer went off by itself. I couldn't turn it off. I hit the cancel button. But it just kept printing."

"Printing what?" He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it up and saw one of the dead pool lists, yet something was different about it. Some names were crossed off, indicating who was deceased and no longer up for grabs. But one of the more startling was the line where Derek's name was is now blank.

"What the hell is this?!" Coach suddenly yelled from his office catching their attention. They got up and quickly made their way to the man, Scott right behind them having given up on hiding to see what was wrong. Y/n gave Scott a quick glance, but kept her focus on the scene in front of them. There were papers scattered all over the floor and under Coach's feet, more in his hands as his printer kept spitting them out. Y/n and Scott both picked up a paper as Liam pulled them to the side. Y/n eyes were seemingly glued to the page in her hand as she idly held the one Liam gave her to Scott.

"You see the difference?" Liam asked them.

"Derek's not on the list anymore." Scott said after he scanned them both.

"And I'm not worth three million. It's 13 now. $13 million."

A quiet sniffle pulled Scott's attention away from the papers and to Y/n. Her hand was trembling and he could see a wet spot on the page. "Y/n? Are you okay?" He reached a hand out to put on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. But she stepped out of his reach, wiping her eyes and crushing the paper in her hand.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm fine. I gotta go, I'll see you around." And without another word she turned and rushed down the hall. Scott saw her pull out her phone before she turned the corner. He knew he probably shouldn't, but he focused on his hearing anyways and listened to her call.

"Yes?" He recognized the voice of Peter.

"I don't need you to find Geneveive anymore." Scott recognized the name and looked to the paper in his hand to see Geneveive Pierre's name was one of the ones that had been crossed off.

"I saw the list."

"I need you to find her grimoire now. Can you do that?"

"I can."

A few seconds passed before Y/n said a hesitant, "Thanks."

"No problem." Scott stopped listening then, although he assumed she hung up already. He was worried about her talking to Peter, but he was more worried that because of what happened, he would lose one of his best friends.

...

A large group of teens were gathered around a large wire frame in the shape of a cyclone as a guy held a torch to the bottom, lighting the fuse and making the cyclone go up in flames. There was a chorus of cheers as music began blaring and the party started. Laser lights shown through fog machines while the DJ bobbed his head as he did his job.

"Come on, Y/n, dance with me!" Malia yelled over the music, holding a flask of vodka as she bounced to the beat.

"I'm not really a dancer." Y/n shrugged.

"I've seen you dance before!"

"Then I'm not in the mood."

"God, you're such a buzz kill!" Malia joked, but continued to dance by herself. Y/n smiled at her sister, happy to see her have fun and let loose for a while.

Malia had been a little stressed lately, and when Y/n asked her what was wrong Malia had confessed that she was scared about getting closer to Y/n. Malia blamed herself for what happened to her mother and sisters, even when Y/n reminded her that she wasn't to blame, and that it was just an unfortunate accident caused by the affects of the full moon. But Malia had told her that she had had a fight with her mother right before, she couldn't remember what the fight was about, but she remembered what she said. Malia said, "I wish you were all dead" and soon after they were. She was scared she would somehow do something similar to Y/n. Y/n had assured her that nothing like that would happen and that, whether she liked it or not, Malia was stuck with her.

Y/n was pulled out of her thoughts when Scott walked up to them with a smile. "Hey." He greeted. "What are you doing here?" He asked Malia.

"Getting drunk. What are you doing?"

"Trying to make sure no one gets hurt."

"That sounds fun too." She took a swig of her drink.

"I don't want to ruin your night or anything, but we kind of can't get drunk."

"What?"

"I think it has something to do with our healing."

"It's definitely because of your healing."Y/n snickered and Malia looked at her with wide eyes.

"You knew and you didn't say anything?" Y/n just shrugged as she continued to laugh to herself.

"But, trust me, I've tried. You're not gonna feel anything." Scott finished, amused with their interacation.

"Well, maybe you should tell him that." Malia gestured behind her and the three turned to look at Liam who was sitting on a bench with Mason, pouring a generous amount of alcohol into a soda bottle.

Scott looked to Y/n who was watching the partying crowds, trying to avoid looking at him he guessed. "Look, Y/n, I'm sorry. We're sorry. Stiles-"

"I don't want to talk about Stiles." She cut him off, finally glancing at his kicked puppy expression, and she sighed. "I understand why you guys didn't tell me, really, I do. I mean, we don't really have the best history with Peter. But the fact that pretty much everyone around me knew about it and kept it from me hurt. My best friends, my boyfriend, even Kira who hasn't even been here a year knew about it." Scott frowned as she looked away from him again. "I'll get over it, eventually. I'm not gonna be upset forever. But, I just need some more time."

"Y/n-"

"I'm gonna go check on Liam." Y/n cut him off again, using the excuse to follow Liam, who had presumably gotten up to get more drinks.

After a moment Malia looked at Scott who was looking between her and where Y/n disappeared to. "You need something?"

"I just want to talk." He said.

"Well, I just want to dance."

"We had our reasons. We didn't tell you guys about Peter-"

"To protect us. That's what Peter said you would say. And guess what he said next? That you were right." Scott furrowed his brows at that. "Does that surprise you?"

"No. It makes me wonder what he wants. Malia, we need to stay together. You, me, Y/n, Stiles-"

"I don't want to talk about that anymore. Honestly, you should be talking to Y/n more than me. She took it a little harder than I did."

"I tried. If you couldn't tell, she's avoiding me."

Malia shrugged as she continued to bounce to the music. "Don't know what to tell you. I just want to dance. And get drunk." She raised her flask in the air and stumbled a bit, Scott catching her before she could fall.

"Malia- whoa! Whoa, whoa!" Malia chuckled happily as Scott helped her stay upright. "You are drunk." He realized.

She giggled at his bemused expression. "Yup!"

"But you can't be." He looked over to Y/n and Liam, the witch having to help hold the Beta upright.

Malia suddenly groaned, no longer feeling good. "Is this what drunk feels like? It doesn't feel as good as I hoped."

"I don't think it's supposed to be." Malia blinked rapidly, her vision going in and out. "Malia?" He grabbed her flask and sniffed it, trying to see if there was something in it that would be affecting her. "What's in this? What did you have to drink?"

"Just vodka."

He looked past her to see one of the security guards staring at them in a way that put Scott on edge. "Stay on your feet and keep moving." He put her arm over his shoulder and led her over to Y/n and Liam. He set Malia down on the bench and Y/n watched her and Liam while Scott went to get water. When he got back he handed a bottle to Y/n and she got Malia to drink it while he made sure Liam drank some as well. "How much has he had to drink?" He asked Mason.

"Not enough to get him like this." The boy answered.

"Scott, something is happening. We- we need to... We need get out of here." Y/n said, her voicing wavering as she closed her eyes and leaned heavily against the table, suddenly hit with light-headedness.

"Y/n?" He reached for her, but had to stop as he also became dizzy. He looked at his hand, noticing his vision was starting to waver.

"How much did you two drink?" Mason asked, his voice echoing in the wolf's ears.

"Nothing. Not even a sip."

"I haven't had anything." Y/n answered, rubbing her forehead to try and make whatever this was go away.

Scott leaned on the table, trying to clear his head, when he heard the music start to pick up. Something about it caught his attention and his blurry eyes found the DJ booth, watching as the man turned something up and the sound Scott could hear just under the music got louder. "It's not the drinks." He realized. "It's the music." He stood up, and looked at Mason. "I have to... I have to turn off the music. Don't let them out of your sight."

Mason didn't understand, but agreed anyways, knowing that something serious was going on. Scott made his way through the crowd, pausing at a clearing and looking at the DJ who watched him. The DJ smirked as Scott started to walk towards him and turned the sound up even louder, the subsonic sounds affecting Scott even worse and making him fall to his knees. He tried to get up, but he had become too weak, and two deputies who had been hired as security guards lifted him up and hauled him away despite his weak protests.

Three more guards had rushed over to the bench. "Let's go." The bald one said, the seemingly head of the group, grabbing Y/n by the arm.

"No, don't touch them." Y/n tried to pull away to help Malia and Liam, who were being manhandled as well, but there was nothing she could do.

"Hey, what are you doing? These are my friends." Mason protested.

Baldy put a hand against Mason to keep him back. "Your friends are overly intoxicated. They need to be escorted out."

"Okay, I'll go with them."

"That won't be necessary."

"I said they're my friends-" Mason tried again, but the guard had enough and shoved Mason making him fall onto his back.

"Mason, you have to- you have to stop it." Y/n called out as loud as she could as the guards dragged her, Liam, and Malia away, unable to do anything to defend themselves.

The two guards carrying Scott burst through the school doors and dropped him in front of some lockers, next to his three friends already lying on the ground. Scott propped himself against the lockers and looked at the red jerry can in Baldy's hand. "What is that? What are you doing?"

Baldy smirked. "It's gasoline. Haigh says we gotta burn you." The cap clatters on the tile and he started to pour the flammable liquid onto the four incapacitated teens.

"No." Y/n whimpered, trying in vain to move away from the gas that was already soaked into her hair and clothes. This was one of her worst fears, a fear etched into her bones from generations of terror and carved into her mind from one tragic night. To be burned alive.

Scott tried to get up but the man shoved him back down with his foot to Scott's chest. He crouched in front of Scott and held up a lighter with the flame glinting in the dark hall. He smiled as Scott glared past his blurred vision. He closed his eyes, trying to gather any strength he could to save himself and his friends. The music from the party came to an abrupt halt and Scott's eyes flew open, their Alpha red shining. The man looked at the doors, the lack of music catching his attention, and Scott took that moment to grab onto his hand. Scott closed the lid and squeazed the man's hand, making him groan in pain as he twisted it.

Braeden came around the corner and hit the man in the face with the butt of her gun. Derek walked out behind her and the pair faced off with the four other security guards who had come running down the hall. When they were all knocked out Braeden turned around to see Baldy trying to reach for the lighter again. She swiftly made her way over to him and used her hand and leg to grab hold of his head and snap his neck.

"What happened to the gun?" Scott asked Derek as he walked over to them.

"You're covered in gasoline."

"Oh, yeah." Derek reached down and helped Scott up. Scott smiled when Derek patted him on the shoulder.

"Y/n?" At Malia's call the two looked over to see Malia and Liam looking at Y/n with concern. The witch was staring at her slightly trembling hands, seemingly completely oblivious to her surroundings. She was in shock. If Mason was just a few moments late, if Scott hadn't recovered so quickly, if Braeden and Derek hadn't shown up, then she would have been dead. Her friends would have died.

Derek nudged Scott and tilted his head in her direction, telling the Alpha to go over to the witch. Scott did just that, although he was worried she might push him away again. But this was his best friend, and he had to do something to help her. He kneeled next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped up to him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

"He- he almost- we almost-" Her voice was strained, and he could tell she was terrified. Reasonably so as she almost just lived her worst nightmare.

"It's okay." He spoke softly. "It's okay, now. You're safe." He pulled her into a hug and she clung onto him, taking a shaky breath as she let his words repeat in her head. And as she calmed down another thought came to her. Just how fast it could all go wrong, and how there was so much still unresolved between her and her friends.

She said she needed more time to get over everything, but what would she do if she suddenly ran out and nothing was dealt with?

~~~
Published: 2/23/22
Edited: 4/12/22

You get four videos this time instead of two because I forgot about it last week hhkdjdh 😂

☽︎𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒅☾︎

☽︎𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆☾︎

☽︎𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅☾︎

☽︎𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔☾︎