ೃ⁀➷ ˗ˏˋ 'ˎ˗
sirens, sirens
( teen wolf. s3A )

chapter one.
the girl of premonitions

THERE she lay, blonde hair cascading around her like a multitude of clouds. Her breathing was peaceful, eyes shut as she let the nightlife overtake her senses... until something caused her to immediately stir.

Her breath caught in her throat, stuttering, shuddering to regain back the air she needed to breathe. As she coughed a few times within her hands, gulping down mounds of air so she didn't choke, her once tightly shut eyes fluttered open, and she swore her heart stopped in her chest.

     What surrounded her wasn't her bedroom, wasn't her usual occurrence to wake up to━━instead of her more-than-comfortable mattress laying underneath her figure, it was the tough surface of a forest floor. Instead of her eyes gliding over her white-stained, picture-filled walls, it was the ever growing fields of a forest unknown to her. There was no window needed to look out unto, because she was already outside.

     This wasn't right━━she didn't remember coming here, at all. The last thing she remembered was speaking to her mother the night before, seamlessly falling into a slumber in order to get a good night's rest before her first day in a new school. And, she had fallen asleep in her bed, not in the middle of a forest-like place. She didn't even recognise it.

From where she sat, crumbled upon the ground just as the fallen leaves were, she could tell the sun had long since set, the beautiful image of the moon soon taking over. Darkness enveloped her like some kind of blanket. This one wasn't comforting, however━━it wasn't something your grandmother made you in honour of your birthday, or her love; this one had scratchy material embezzled within, holes scattered about, letting in the cold harsh air you wished to escape from.

It seemed there was no escaping this darkness, either.

The girl in question was just moments away from plucking up the courage to stand up and move around, understand her surroundings and attempt to know what was happening, why this was happening, into a crow swung down suddenly, close enough for her to feel the wind against its wings as they flapped. She waved her hand in the bird's direction, causing it to retreat, a low caw echoing within the distance.

But, it wasn't just one crow, it seemed. After the first one appeared, tens more did so. One after another, they swooped down upon her, attacking her like she posed some sort of threat. Claws dug into her skin, tangled themselves within her hair, and a scream fire through her throat, begging for release, begging to be left alone.

They kept coming, continued to tear through her skin until gashes were made and slight drizzles of blood began to pour through the wounds. Nothing seemed to help get the birds to leave her alone, the darkness surrounding her once more, this time seeming to cover her completely, encasing her within its self-made trap, and then━━

A gasp sounded from her lips, startling her own figure awake. Suddenly, she was no longer trapped within the confines of her mind like she usually was; she was instead safely tucked within a moving car, as it headed towards its intended destination.

At the sound of her waking up, the woman next to her turned in concern. "Alani, everything okay?" She questioned, her tone lacerated with worry. "You got a little lost, back there."

     Rose Mordor was a woman who could only really be described as prefect. Light blonde hair that fell just underneath her shoulders, stark brown eyes piercing into anything they wished to, Rose was a true woman. She was someone who always wore fancy clothes, ones that always made sure to accentuate her figure more than it really needed to━━expensive taste, for an expensive woman, Alani would say. 

     Now, here's where you shouldn't get confused━━Rose Mordor was not Alani's biological mother. When Alani was just young, her parents had left her isolated within a forest (much like the one she had dreamed of before... coincidence? It was hard to tell, nowadays), and never showed up again. Since then, Alani had firmly believed that her parents were the shittiest people to ever reside on Earth. Think you can come up with someone better? Try again.

     Rose had adopted the young girl at the age of ten, taking her into a home of just one parent and desperately trying her ultimate best to be something she clearly wasn't. Time and time again, Rose Mordor would try and fulfil both positions of Alani's absent parents, and no matter how hard she tried, it didn't exactly work. She meant well, Alani knew she did, but there was something holding them both back. There were times where Alani would suddenly admit to herself that it was her fault their relationship had continued to roll over in turmoil, with no signs of improvement on the horizons━━she hadn't exactly tried as hard to be a family as much as Rose━━and, then she'd remember that parents were the worst.

     She didn't want parents, she didn't want a mother━━Alani Mordor firmly believed that she'd be perfectly fine on her own; a lone wolf. Yet, she couldn't exactly do anything about it, could she? Until she turned of age, she was forced to stick with the woman.

     Alani crimped in response. "Uh, yeah," she coughed quietly, rubbing her eyes lightly before sitting upright, "just another one, you know?"

     "Another vision?" Rose questioned, brown creasing, but she continued to look at the road ahead of them. She sighed. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say they've been getting worse since we arrived just a few days ago━━wouldn't you?"

She hated to admit it, but her mother was right. The new residents of Beacon Hills had arrived just under a week ago, just in time for the teenager to start her first day at their local high school. And, since that imminent arrival, her visions had been happened a lot more. Alani had absolutely no clue as to what they were signifying, what they were trying to tell her, but they just kept appearing.

What made Alani worth more so, was the fact that her visions normally appear whilst she's sleeping during the middle of the night━━like dreams, but involved within reality. This one hadn't been like that; at least, she didn't think it had been. In fact, Alani had no memories of getting up that morning, getting dressed and getting in the car.

It made her grow more concerned than she wished she was.

"Yeah," Alani contemplated, "but, it's fine. I can handle it."

Rose shook her head. "You don't need to handle it on your own. If you need me, I'll━━"

"It's fine, Rose." Alani quickly cut off. It was possibly the worst time to call her mother by her name, rather than what she actually was, but she had already made the mistake. She couldn't take it back, so they simmered in the awkward, tense silence that soon followed.

     With firm lips compressed down to stop her from saying something she knew she'd regret, Rose nodded her head, quickly deciding to change the subject. "Did you hear about last night━━the crash?"

     Alani furrowed her brows in determination, trying to remember what her mother was talking about. The more she thought about it, the more her head seemed to hurt. If she couldn't even remember one single moment from that very morning, there was no way she would remember something that didn't even involve her.

     "Um, no━━what happened?" she questioned.

"It was said there were two girls involved in a crash, but the car went into a deer. Well, the deer went into the car, but, either way━━" Rose rambled, hands moving about in a gesture as she continued to drive.

Alani shook her head. "Wait, a deer went into the car?" She took a moment to think, before a single breath shuddered and she shivered. "That doesn't normally happen, does it?"

"Not to my knowledge," Rose chuckled.

The teen looked to her mother, expecting to hear more on the matter, but the woman said nothing else. Alani shook her head in slight disbelief. "Well, are they okay?"

"Who?"

"The two girls!" she cried out in exasperation. Sometimes, she wondered how she'd even lasted as long as she did with her mother being the only other person in their house.

"Oh," Rose breathed, another chuckle. "Yeah, they're fine. Probably just a bit shaken up, you know?"

Her only response being a slow motion of her nodding head, Alani relaxed back in her seat, again. She thought the news over in her head━━she hadn't had a specific vision of anything like that happening, but there was something about the one she had that caused goosebumps fo crawl up her skin.

     The vision had depicted a distressed, barely-awoken Alani, attacked by birds relentlessly, uu animals. Alani didn't know much, but she was sure an attack like that was normal, unless it was provoked, and that was something she knew she definitely didn't do.

     It began to sound like a similar situation to the one her mother had just told her about. A deer━━an animal━━had gone into the car, seemingly without provoking it. Was her vision trying to tell her something, after all? But, what? There were no clues, nothing of the sort that she believed could help her understand.

     The more she thought about it, the more she got creeped out.

She shook her head a little discreetly, attempting to rid herself of the idea of it being somewhat related. As Alani's eyes looked up and out the car's window, she realised they had pulled up to their destination━━Beacon Hills High School.

It was common knowledge to everyone that starting a new school was the most terrifying thing to go through, more so when you didn't know one single person. But, Alani Mordor wasn't looking for someone to befriend━━it was bad enough having her mother bearing down upon her and constantly asking questions she knew her daughter didn't have the answers to; she didn't really want to add a friend to that list. Besides, she couldn't imagine someone actually believing her, anyway. If anything, people would shun her out before she'd even had the chance to mutter a quiet hi.

So, with a sigh of exasperation, Alani moved to pick up her bag from the floor, sliding it over her shoulder, before opening the door. She muttered an almost inaudible see you later, without even looking in her mother's direction.

But, before Alani was able to place her second foot on the ground outside, Rose's hand clasped around her daughter's. "Have a good first day, and if you need anything━━"

"Call you," Alani guessed━━her mother always said the same thing, even if she was going out somewhere for a few hours. Rose was constantly fretting over her daughter, and whilst some would find that sweet and caring, Alani couldn't help but feel it was overbearing━━but that was just Alani. In these situations, she couldn't exactly be called a reliable narrator.

Alani made to move out the car again, but Rose was persistent, squeezing slightly on her daughter's hand. "I mean it, Alani. Anything."

For a moment, as Alani looked into her mother's eyes, and depicting that the only thing present was distress containing her safety, Alani faltered, wondering if maybe she really should be better towards her mother. She hadn't exactly ever dont anything wrong, anything to tell her that she was the worst human being alive, but Alani preferred to be shit off from people who wanted to care about her━━an instinct, if you will. It simply reminded her too much of her biological parents, and she didn't exactly want a repeat of that, did she?

Alani nodded, a brief, but definitely-there, smile lighting upon her lips, before leaving the car and making for the front entrance. Alani knew she had around ten minutes for the bell would ring, signalling the start of her first lesson, and it was then that Alani was grateful for having taken the option of receiving her timetable via email, and printing it out herself.

Plucking up the courage, Alani did her best to walk through the crowds, bumping into several people along the way as she watched each sign upon the door move past her. She kept going, continuing forwards, until her eyes suddenly landed on a notice board. Alani noticed it to be covered in leaflets and posters, some including news and some including promotions, and the girl thought it wouldn't hurt to take a moment to divulge in what it had to show.

The first thing she looked at was a poster containing the promotions for the swim team━━JOIN THE SWIM TEAM! BIKE A SPLASH!━━and Alani cringed. The school had a swim team? She hadn't exactly been to many schools, but she'd never heard of one having a swim team, along with every other sport on the list possible. Alani didn't even know there were that many sports. Must be an athletic school.

     Just as Alani was about to move away and continue on her search for her first class of the day, something caught her eye that caused her heart to falter slightly. Missing posters. Two of them. Two students who went to that school━━Vernon Boyd, and Erica Reyes. As she thought about it, Alani hoped that the teens were just missing because they'd run off together, or wanted to just simply leave town and start afresh. She hoped, prayed, there was nothing more to it than that.

"━━doesn't he have his hands a little full?"

"Stop it━━shut up, quickly!"

     Two voices sounded from behind where Alani was standing, and she turned, coming face to face with two boys, seemingly her age. One was taller than the other, paler, with long limbs that Alani wouldn't doubt would get in the way when he was scared, or apprehensive. And, the other was still tall, but just slightly shorter than his friend, sporting tanned skin, and seemed to resemble the signs of some muscle.

     Alani quickly diverted her gaze, hoping they wouldn't catch her looking at their appearances.

     But, they did.

     Attempting to turn around and move out of the way, Alani was soon stopped as they called out for her. "Hey, hey━━!"

     Stopping in her tracks, closing her eyes and blowing out air of light irritation, she slowly turned around, once again meeting the figures. "Um, hey?" It came out more like a question, rather than a normal greeting━━she was confused as to why they were even talking to her, but continued anyway.

     It was the shorter one who spoke to her. "You're new here, right?"

"Yeah, uh," Alani began to stutter, and she became a little embarrassed━━why was she stuttering? It wasn't like she was nervous; she didn't get nervous; at least, not like this! She was only introducing herself to new people━━what harm would it do? (Except find out about her, and shun her, and deem her the biggest weirdo ever━━calm.) She cleared her throat. "Yeah; it's my first day."

     The guy next to the one who had originally spoken to her━━the taller one━━pursed his lips, keeping his eyes on her and nodding, muttering a small, "Sweet."

     He seemed just as awkward as she currently felt.

     "Oh, well," the other guy continued, clearing his throat and gesturing to them both, "I'm Scott, and this is Stiles."

     A teasing smile took over her features, and Alani shook her head. "Stiles?"

     "Yeah..." the boy answered, looking between the girl and Scott.

     With a small laugh bubbling up within her throat, she nodded. Everything about the situation was awkward, and Alani wanted to do anything to get her out of it. And, she did.

     Suddenly, without another word spoken between any of them, Alani turned back around and walked away, retreating to look for the door she needed. Behind her, both boys looked to one another in disbelief, before attempting to speed after her.

     "Wait━━"

     "Aren't you gonna tell us your name?"

     Without looking back, Alani replied, "Nope."

     Alani didn't stick around to watch their reactions, either.

♡

Alani Mordor walked into the classroom━━English━━making sure to keep her head down as she sauntered to an available seat. Fortunately, she managed to snag one not too far away from the back of the classroom, with a huge mount of windows stationed to her left. Unfortunately, she seemed to be positioned too close to the two boys she had met before for her liking, just diagonally to her right.

But, they paid no attention to her figure as she made herself comfortable, grabbing out a notepad, prepared. She watched a scene play out in front of her━━a strawberry blonde female shaking her head slightly towards another girl, this one attaining shirt brown locks, who smiled tightly in return, before hesitantly moving towards the Scott boy.

     There was no doubt some tension there.

     As everyone began to wait within their seats, phones buzzed all around them, signifying some sort of group text. Alani was surprised to see she was involved with that, too.

     Suddenly, a voice pierced through the student's confusion. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." A woman walked through the doorway, heels clicking rhythmically against the solid ground, reverberating through the classroom and averting each student's attention her way. "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read." She paused. "It il is also the last text you will receive in this class━━phones off, everyone." She finished, added with a small, almost-proud smile upon her features.

     Alani did as she was told, along with everyone else, and couldn't help but feel so overwhelmed with this new school she was attending. Things seemed so different to what she was normally used to━━first the amount of sports teams you were able to participate in, and now this; their teacher sending messages to her students. The girl wondered how she even got their numbers in the first place, especially someone like Alani Mordor, who's first day literally only started five minutes ago.

     Their teacher turned, making her way behind the desk and began to write her name upon the chalkboard━━Ms. Blake. A harsh name, for a harsh-looking woman. Her features were quite prominent, pointing out, but not too vividly; just enough to make tu feel a little uneasy━━and, she did. Maybe it was the way her sharp features juxtaposed so much against her warm and welcome smile that made Alani feel unsure of the woman, but she shook her head of the thoughts, unable to decipher an opinion on the woman so early on in actually meeting her.

It wasn't long before people started taking notes on the book they were given━━Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad━━and the silence settled amongst them. Up front, Ms. Blake was writing key notes upon the chalkboard, her back faced against her students, allowing the sneaky ones to continue with an almost-forgotten conversation, or just not do the work.

To her left, Alani could just about make out the distinct sound of rustling paper, and looked up, only to find the girl sitting in front of Scott passing a piece of paper back to him, no doubt with a hidden message written on the inside. Alani shook her head lightly━━trust one of the first two people for her to meet to be someone sneaky like that.

     She didn't need people like that━━she didn't need people, but she was stuck with them, either way.

     Alani looked back down at her notes, scribbling key words and language techniques about the page with her touch handwriting, making sure to get every detail down. English was something the young teen quite enjoyed━━she found the history of it enticing, but also how you could escape the world you were so forcefully thrown into whenever you wished to leave. Plus, she had a shit memory━━sue her for wanting to remember everything she needed to in order to pass the one class she was good at, and actually enjoyed.

     The door opened quietly, a man of high importance walking through and speaking in hushed tones to Ms. Blake━━and, if it hadn't have been for their female teacher calling out Scott's name, Alani wouldn't have bothered looking back up and sticking her nose in their situation.

"Mr. McCall?" Ms. Blake called out, and Scott quickly scrambled to hide away the note he was obviously replying to━━rookie mistake. Their teacher didn't say anything else; she just signified for the boy to follow her outside.

Everything seemed to be happening to Scott. God, Alani needed to remember to stay away from him.

As their teacher left the classroom with the young boy, Alani continued on with her work. But, it seemed others didn't want to. In front and to the right of her, the boy she remembered to be Stiles started flapping his pen about, creating a distraction within Alani's mind. She sighed, biting the inside of her cheek, attempting to continue on with her writing and ignore the sounds he so annoyingly creates. A few seconds passed as he carried on, and she noticed the girl in front of her sigh in irritation, too, but didn't say anything.

"Can you stop that?" Alani suddenly snapped, but her voice continued to be just a harsh whisper so as not to draw too much attention to herself. The two teens in front turned around sharply, clearly not having expected someone to speak up so suddenly in that way.

The former two must've continued looking towards her, as she forced her head back down after Stiles kindly stopped what he was originally doing, as a hand's shadow suddenly poked itself in front of her view, over her page. She looked up, and saw the girl in front of her wearing a pearly smile. "Lydia."

     Alani looked down at her hand, before back up at the girl, again. "What?"

     "My name━━it's Lydia."

     "Oh," Alani stammered out. She hadn't exactly expected to be greeted by the people she snapped at━━although, technically she snapped at Stiles, so maybe she should've expected it. Hesitantly, she took Lydia's hand within her own grasp, and they shared a small shake. "Alani."

     For a moment, within Lydia's little world, time seemed to falter, because something felt different. The second her own hand touched the new girl's, she felt as though there was something trying to reach out to her, grasp at her with open arms and scream some important information into the air, letting the entire world know. Her smile slightly faltered, and her eyes widened a little more than usual, but neither Alani nor Stiles seemed to notice her change.

     "Ha!" Stiles loudly exclaimed━━loud enough for their fellow students and teacher, who, ironically, had only just walked back into the classroom a few seconds before, to look in their direction.

Ms. Blake's brows creased. "Quiet, please."

"Yep. Sorry." He nodded his head in slightly embarrassment, slumping down in his seat as though that would shield him from the view of their teacher. Once she turned back around and carried on writing on the chalkboard, Stiles turned towards Alani, Lydia continuing to watch the interaction play out. This time, the boy's voice stayed as a hush whisper, allowing them to continue conversing. "You said your name."

Alani's brows furrowed in slight confusion, and, in her peripheral vision, she noticed Lydia's doing the same. "What?"

     "Before━━" he began to explain, his proud and teasing smile quickly deteriorating by the second, "━━you said you weren't gonna tell us your name." At this point, his voice was barely audible, coming to terms they neither girl cared, despite Lydia not really being involved. "But, you just did."

     A breathy chuckle escaped past Alani's lips, shaking her head at the boy's antics━━he was definitely weird, a little awkward and seemingly all-over-the-place, but maybe his heart would be in the right place. She hoped so; he needed it to be, if that was all she got from him as a first impression.

     Nothing more was said between the trio as they continued on with their work, the other two finally turning around and leaving the girl alone, but even then, something else was brought up.

     Stiles let out a big huff at feeling slightly embarrassed, but his expression quickly changed once he noticed something towards the floor. "Hey, Lydia." The girl in question sighed again at being distracted, but let the boy continue, nevertheless. He pointed to her feet. "What is that? Is that from the accident?"

Alani couldn't help but tune her ears into their conversation, again, despite wanting to finish the work. She's nosey, she knows. The accident? What accident? Wait━━did they mean the accident her mother was mentioning to her that very morning? The one with the deer?

Before Lydia could even begin to open her mouth to form a reply, Alani added herself into their two-man conversation, not particularly caring about the annoyed expression Stiles wore on his face. "Wait, you were in an accident?"

Lydia slightly turned around, her eyes falling upon the girl behind her, and she nodded her head slowly. "Yep."

     "The one from last night? With the deer?"

     The pair of teens in front looked to one another, expressions exchanging as they wondered why she was so intrigued.

     She looked back. "Uh, yeah."

     The dots hadn't yet connected for Alani. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

     Surprise filtered across the girl's features, and Alani didn't really understand why. She had been in an accident, where a deer had crashed into them, head first, through the windshield. If that wasn't traumatising, Alani begged to never experience what was.

     "Yeah," Lydia nodded, this time with a kind smile painted across her lips. "Yes, thank you."

     Even if she wasn't okay after going through what she had done, Alani took it as a good sign━━she'd no doubt probably suffer from PTSD, or something, but she wanted to let Lydia know that someone like Alani, some outsider, was worried about her condition.

     To both girl's right, Stiles had his lips pursed, eyes glaring playful daggers towards the pair, tapping his pen, once again. Alani pulled away, but Lydia continued to be halfway round, looking a little incredulously at the former girl, and he took that as his opportunity to interrupt. "Are you two done with your like chit chat, or do you want me to wait some more? I was trying to say something before you so kindly interrupted."

Lydia seemed taken aback by his words a little, whilst Alani's face only acted as a home for a smirk dancing upon her lips. She shrugged. "Be my guest."

He huffed, sparing one last longing glance at the girl, before motioning for Lydia to answer his previous question.

"No," she sighed, "Prada bit me."

"Your dog?"

"No, my designer handbag." At Lydia's comment, Alani did her best to stifle her laugh behind her hand, but they still heard it. Lydia held a proud smile on her face, and Stiles only rolled his eyes. "Yes, my dog."

Stiles didn't let her sarcasm falter his intended point, however, as his voice only continued to sound around them. Alani looked up towards their teacher, wondering if she was going to turn back at some point and catch him again; she hoped━━it would be funny. But, it seemed their not-so-hushed conversation was going over her head, only continuing to write on the board. Alani sighed in defeat━━she knew she wasn't going to complete all the work she originally wanted to, but those in front of her only continued to pique her interest without her really understanding why.

     "Has it ever bitten you before?" Stiles questioned, seemingly already knowing the answer despite his question. Alani wondered where he was going with it.

     Lydia only shook her head.

     Weird.

     Alani's head stayed trained in front of her, constantly listening in as she only wanted to find out more. She didn't know if either of them knew she was listening in━━technically without their permission, but she didn't really care in that moment━━but, even if they did, they didn't make a move to stop her from doing so.

Instantly, Stiles sat up straighter. "Okay. What if it's, like, the same thing as the deer?" he nodded, his words causing Lydia's head to slowly move up, and they suddenly hit Alani. "You know, like, animals start acting weird right before an earthquake, or something?"

She couldn't tell, but Alani was sure she felt her face pale. This was something she had heard before━━well, not exactly heard, but had been foretold. First, the deer, then a dog...

"The birds." Her words were only a mumble under her breath, a slight tremor prevalent as her voice wobbled, but clearly, it wasn't quite enough.

     The two others turned their heads towards her, confusion written once more on their features. "What?" Stiles questioned the girl.

     It seemed time stood still for a moment, and it was only Alani within that room, no one else━━just her and her thoughts, her visions. Her eyes were glossed over, foggy, as they stared ahead at nothing in particular, mouth slightly agape. "The birds." She could only manage to repeat the same words again, unable to do anything else.

     Now, she was scared.

     Now, she knew the birds were coming.

     But, her words didn't mean anything to the other two. Lydia kept her gaze focused intently on the girl, wondering if she was okay, wondering if this was the something she felt before, when their hands had connected, and Stiles simply shook his head, disregarding the matter and probably thinking the girl was crazy. For once, they weren't the crazy ones.

Lydia momentarily looked away from Alani, who continued to stay frozen. "Meaning what? There's gonna be an earthquake?" The tone of her voice showed she didn't think so.

"Or something." The boy immediately suggested. "I just━━maybe it means something's coming..."

The birds.

"...Something bad."

The girl in front hesitantly looked back to Alani, checking up on her, but nothing changed━━she still seemed as though she was somewhere else. She sighed. "It was a deer and a dog━━"

The birds.

"━━what's that thing you say about threes? Once, twice..."

But, Lydia was never given the chance to finish her sentence. Within a sudden second, a crow smashed itself against the window, creating a loud thud throughout the room, causing Alani to jump out and back into reality. Stiles noticed this, giving her a shocked look as he pieced the missing bits together.

She had said about the birds before that...

Everyone's attention was completely focused in on the massive walls of windows, taking in the sight of splattered blood staining the glass, bits of feathers sticking to it. Everyone, but Stiles and Lydia. They shared looks of worry, before turning to look at Alani, finding her looking more terrified than anyone else. Confused expressions, intrigued ones, took over, and it was then that they knew there was more to Alani Mordor than she was originally letting on.

     For a moment, there was silence all around the room, embracing each and every one of them. Ms. Blake hesitantly moved towards the windows to inspect what had just happened, and the beginnings of a mass of squawking could be heard over the breathless lands and reckless heartbeats.

     That was when even more birds fluttered into everyone's restricted view from where they were sitting, waiting. Alani suddenly tensed, gripping her desk with one hand, and her pen with the other. Both sets of knuckles began to turn white and shaking with the uncontrollable force of terror━━it was happening.

Stiles was now sat facing the wall, and as Ms. Blake turned to give her students a false reassuring look, letting them know that everything was okay━━it definitely wasn't!, Alani wanted to scream out━━he took in her trembling form. "Hey, are you━━?"

Another bird. More blood. More deceased feathers. More and more and more, until every bird within the swarm was desperately trying to force their way within the once-safe confines of their classroom. One after another, and the glass began to crack ever so slightly. Then, one window did.

The birds encircled around the room, cawing and screeching and squawking relentlessly, claws digging into anything they could find━━students, teacher, books, tables. Everyone suddenly ducked, in disbelief of what was happening around them━━this simply wasn't normal.

"Get down, everyone!"

And, what was even more unusual, was that Alani Mordor was able to predict it happening.

They continued coming, continued attacking until open wounds were gushing out trickles of blood, and cries and screams filtered every crevice of the room. Alani's eyes widened upon realising she was experiencing it again, yet this time, in her reality. Her breath was quick, hollow, and she immediately made for the ground, along with everyone else who had a brain and knew attacking them was only going to provoke them more.

In front of her, she watched as Lydia scrambled for the floor, Stiles not too far behind her. Immediately, he wrapped his arms over her head, shielding her from the onslaught of crows as their attack never seemed to cease.

It was never-ending.

Alani held a book over her head, desperately trying to calm her breathing and restore it back to its usual pace, but nothing seemed to be working. A crow suddenly made contact with the book attempting to shield her, pecking and clawing away, wanting to get through to the girl underneath, to the girl who had experienced it all before; to the girl who knew more than she let on.

     "Get down!" They could hear Ms. Blake's scream over all the noise, somewhere at the front. Alani didn't risk trying to get a look at her; it was dangerous, and she already knew what she'd come to see━━the teacher hunched down, possibly protecting other students, blood trickling down her distraught face. "Get down!"

     They didn't know how long it lasted for, didn't know how long they tried desperately to hide in a safe place, stuck within a classroom with walls that only seemed to be decreasing as the drawling seconds ticked by. But, eventually, the crows had stopped, seemingly giving up, as the noise calmed drastically in comparison. Slowly, students began to move back up, peeking out over desks or behind books, scouring the place to determine whether it was okay to let their guard down, once more.

     All around them, desks and chairs were flipped about the place, no longer in a neat formation. Pages of work were littered across the floor, long since forgotten the work that had to be completed by the end of the lesson. Dead birds, lifeless feathers and drained blood was what stood out the most━━they were everywhere, surrounding every person and not disappearing any time soon.

     Alani finally got to her feet, hands shaking slightly as she carelessly dropped the book she used as a momentary shield on the floor, the noise causing a clatter. It made some people jump, but her eyes stayed focused on the ground.

     In front of her, Lydia and Stiles' eyes were only trained on her.

     Immediately, the police were called; parents, too. Students sat, catching their breathing back and trying to understand what had happened, how that had happened. Up front, Ms. Blake stared solely to the ground, looking traumatised━━it was her first day as their teacher, and something like that happened. Alani understood the feeling━━she was sure the day would go down in history books for being the weirdest first day ever!

     Alani sat, her too staring solely on the ground, but this time, on a bird. This was her vision, she had lived through it, and it was just as traumatising as it was in her dream, if not more.

     God, why couldn't she just be normal?

     Faintly, within the near distance, Alani could hear the girl from before━━Allison, she learned her name was━━speaking to who she assumed was her father, before the Sheriff got involved. Alani didn't bother trying to tune her ears into another conversation. Her heads were already full━━with blood, with the past caws of the crows, with a voice inside her telling her she should've warned everybody. But, how exactly was she supposed to do that? It was impossible. If anything, what she had was a burden; a burden she desperately wished would just━━

     "Alani?"

     A voice cut through the surrounding atmosphere, and said girl sharply shot her head upwards, noticing the familiar sound of the voice. Her eyes landed on Rose, her mother, her beautiful blonde hair sticking lightly to her face, panting, eyes slightly teary, standing within the doorway.

     Once she spotted her daughter's motionless figure, she rushed forwards, and immediacy embraced her within a tight hug. A sniffle of her nose could be heard to Alani, and she didn't really know how to react. They were never like this━━never. She sighed. "Thank god, you're okay━━you are okay, aren't you?"

She pulled back, keeping her hands upon her daughter's arms, keeping her secure. Alani appreciated the gesture, but it was definitely not the time━━she was sick of these visions, now, and having (what she believed to be) an overbearing mother around her was the last thing she needed.

Alani forced herself to nod. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Maybe Rose noticed her discomfort about everything, and maybe she understood that she had seen something like this... she couldn't be sure, but, either way, her mother didn't pester her. Instead, she nodded her head in understanding, slowly beginning to rub her hands up her arms, her phone tightly clasped between her fingers lightly hitting her. Alani bit the inside of her cheek━━now wasn't the type to act like an ungrateful daughter.

"C'mon," Rose's voice was soft, softer than it had ever been before, and Alani almost had to double-check that it was her mother speaking. She nodded to the direction of the door. "They've said you can go home and do the rest of your work there, if that's what you want."

Alani hated how Rose knew her so well━━this wasn't just a situation of a traumatised teenager who had been relentlessly attacked by a swarm of crows in the middle of an English lesson. This was a traumatised teenager who had known it was going to happen, time and time again, but not being able to do anything about it.

This was a girl of premonitions.

She needed to go home, even if it was her first day.

     Then, as she walked through the doorway, one of her mother's arms keeping a close distance around her daughter's shoulders, Alani Mordor didn't care that she should probably stay and continue the rest of the school day, like many other people would. She didn't care if she looked like someone who couldn't deal with birds━━she couldn't; not like that.

     She didn't care that people were watching her as she left the room, those people being Stiles, Lydia and Allison, all bunched together as they conversed about the mysterious, retreating new girl.

♡

They were home now, with Rose in the kitchen, preparing a warm beverage for her daughter, who sat silently within the living room. A blanket was tossed carelessly over her shoulders, beginning to drape along the back of the sofa. Her eyes were distant, far-off, but slumped in defeat.

     Alani was so tired.

     She was tired of constantly feeling like she was the resident head-case, no matter the town she was living in or the school she was attending. People didn't know of what she could do, of things she could see, but that made it worse. Every now and again, Alani would accidentally let something slip that she shouldn't have, because it hadn't happened by that point, and suddenly she was deemed a weirdo. That's why she never bothered to make friends━━it was simply too much of a risk, one that she didn't like the chances of.

Already, she had ruined everything.

She remembered when Lydia and Stiles were talking quietly in the classroom about bizarre actions of animals, and the first things she had blurted out was the birds. Those goddamn birds! And, then, the next second, they appear! Like the world was out to get her, make her look like some fool, like a freak.

In the split second of a moment she believed maybe Lydia and Stiles weren't so bad to be around━━quite funny, actually, when they were teasing Stiles━━everything had gone down the drain. They wouldn't want to talk to her, now━━maybe they'd have one more conversation where they'd insistently questions how she knew the birds were coming, but that would be the end.

Her first day, and she was already at the end.

"Hey," the soft voice of her mother spoke, walking in through the doorway and handing the warm cup to her daughter. Alani took it gratefully, sending a tight smile to Rose, wanting to show they she was grateful, she just... struggled.

With a whisper of a small thank you, Alani took a sip of the hot chocolate, closing her eyes in satisfaction and allowing the remedies to work their magic, calm her down and make her feel somewhat slightly normal, again. Even if it was just for a second, she'd take it with both hands, firmly.

"Alani," Rose's voice sounded again, but this time it was a little harder, but not harsh. The teen could tell there was intent behind her tone, and she prepared herself. "What happened today... did you see that?"

The teen in question could only heave a big sigh through her nose, before slowly nodding her head in response. Her eyes were then tightly squeezed shut, internally begging herself to control the tears that threatened to spill drastically from her eyes.

But, as Rose took in her daughter's sudden change in emotion, noticing that she was slowly beginning to open up to her with how she was acting then, the woman sat down beside her, hesitantly placing an arm around her shoulders. Rose was shocked to feel Alani lean into her touch.

"I just..." Alani heaved out, breath shuddering as the racks of sobs in her throat caused her to struggle. "Why me?" The question caused Rose to falter; she hadn't exactly expected that, and it caused her heart to break knowing her daughter was suffering so much━━she knew she was, but to what extent? At what cost? "I just want them to go, but they keep coming back. And, it makes me feel like... like..." she searched for the right word, hands clenched in her lap, around the ceramic mug, begging for it to break into shards and cut deep into her skin. It wouldn't be the worst pain she's felt. "...like shit. I can't do it any more, I want it gone."

Rose didn't know what to say at first, because what response is the right one to a monologue like that? Nothing the woman could say would ever be enough, she knew that, but she'd be damned if she never tried.

     "I know you don't want it, and I know it's caused you so much pain throughout your entire life." She paused, looking down at her daughter, who's head continued to lay comfortably on her shoulder, eyes sprinkled in tears. "But, you've gotten this far, haven't you? You've gotten through years of this... shit," as she said the word, a laugh bubbled up within Alani's throat, forcing itself out, and Rose's heart warmed, "who's to say you can't get through some more? It'll be tough━━of course, it will be━━but you'll have people by your side. And, if they eventually move on, you'll always have me."

     Alani looked back up to her mother, watching her eyes as they oozed warmth and love and adoration, and she had never felt worse. Because, Rose Mordor had always cared for her daughter, through thick and thin, always put up with the mounds of shit Alani threw her way just because she was scared of being loved by a parent, in case they were going to abandon her like they had done before.

     Alani Mordor always believed she deserved more, but maybe she already had more.

     Rose Mordor did deserve more, but she was completely content with the traumatised, scared teen that sat in front of her, bundled within her arms.

     Maybe through the acceptance of them both, they could finally start acting like a true family.

NOTE.
heheh i'm SO excited for this book, honestly!! depending on the length of some chapters (seeing as i was originally planning on dedicating a just one chapter to one episode), it may be one full episode, it may be split into several, who knows.
so!!! what do we think of alani?? i fucking love her. at the moment, she may seem a bit bitchy?? idk? but she's been through a lot, and she's only gonna go through more & i hope you all come to love her like i do. on a similar note, if you want more information on this book n everything, you can check out my pinterest━━only link on my profile 🖤🖤