ACT TWO, CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Mind Games

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     "AT THIS POINT, I SHOULD BOOK A FLIGHT BACK TO ATLANTA AND PRETEND ALL OF THIS NEVER HAPPENED," Andi said as she leaned against her locker and Isaac chuckled lightly.

     "If you go back to Atlanta, who's gonna save our asses?" he asked and Andi rolled her eyes but she couldn't help but smile.

     "Maybe that witch who keeps fighting me can take over when I'm gone. They seem pretty powerful," she suggested and laughed when Isaac groaned.

     "No! If you leave and that witch takes your place, I might end up killing them," he said as he slammed his locker shut and Andi smacked his arm with the back of her hand.

     "God, damn it, Isaac! I will jump off a cliff before I let you have murder on your hands," she said and the both of them laughed as if they were regular teenagers and not a werewolf and a witch with a pack of alphas occupying two thirds of their attention.

     Isaac leaned down a little bit to speak quietly into Andi's ear so nobody else could hear them. "Speaking of murder, it wasn't Boyd or Cora who killed that boy at the pool that night," he said.

     "Then, who was it?" Andi asked.

     "We don't know yet. Stiles said there were two other bodies with the exact same injuries, including that girl, Heather and there was another one this morning," Isaac said and Andi sighed heavily.

     "What were their injuries?" she asked.

     "Ligature marks on the neck, the back of their heads bashed in, throats slashed open. All three of them," Isaac said.

     "Strangulation, blunt force trauma and throat cutting. We're talking about a threefold death here. It's rooted in Irish folklore and is thought to have been a form of prehistoric human sacrifices by modern researchers and people committed these human sacrifices so they could appease gods, spirits or even dead ancestors," Andi said as they walked to class.

     "You sound like Stiles," Isaac laughed.

     "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that. But does Stiles have an idea of who could be committing these human sacrifices?" Andi asked.

     "Not a clue. We're just touching the tip of the iceberg here," Isaac replied. "Also, you were right about the twins."

     Andi stopped walking and pulled him around a corner. "What?" she asked.

     "The twins. They're part of the alpha pack. I think they killed the girl who saved me that night and I think they killed all those people too," Isaac said.

     "As much as I want to deal with them, I don't think they're the ones committing human sacrifices. It doesn't seem like the typical alpha werewolf behaviour to do something like this. Why not just leave it at throat slashing? Why strangle these people or hit them in the head hard enough to bash their brains in? It just doesn't make any sense," Andi said.

     "You're coming to the same conclusion as Stiles. But think about it. None of this started happening until they showed up," Isaac said.

     "That is a good point, but could it be possible that the alpha pack isn't the only thing we're dealing with right now? Maybe, just maybe, we might have a secondary issue here?" Andi asked and Isaac sighed as his shoulders dropped.

     As sure as he was that the alpha pack was responsible for all the deaths so far, he couldn't exactly deny Andi's proposition. It wouldn't be surprising if they did have another issue separate from the alpha pack but if they didn't and the alpha pack was the only thing on their plate, maybe things would be slightly easier. But now there was a possibility that they were dealing with something else as well.

     "If it's not them, then who is it?" he asked.

     "That's what we're going to find out. But right now, we need to get to class before Mr. Harris gives us a lecture we'll never forget," Andi said and Isaac nodded.

     "I still think it was them," he said as they walked into their chemistry class.

     "I promise, we'll figure it out later but right now, sit down and be a regular high school student even if it's just for a couple of minutes," Andi said as she sat down and Isaac sighed as he sat down beside her.

     Mr. Harris went on and on about the lesson but Andi noticed the clenching in Isaac's jaw as he stared ahead. He seemed very set on his notion that it was the alpha pack killing all these people and Andi would've agreed with him if she didn't take the other elements into account but she couldn't just ignore those details that were most definitely important. Scott tried to tell him not to let the twins get to him but it was like talking to a brick wall because Isaac asked to go to the washroom. Andi looked at Scott, both of them sharing worried glances and he asked if he could use the washroom as well but Mr. Harris refused. After a while of Mr. Harris talking to Scott like he was a three-year-old, he agreed to just sit down and Andi tried to focus on the subject material but couldn't. After some more time, they heard noises from the hallway and everyone got up to see what was going on. Andi already had an idea and she could tell by the look on Scott's face that he had a similar idea. When they walked out of the room, they saw one of the twins on the floor with a bloody face and Isaac was standing over him.

     "What's going on?" Mr. Harris asked.

     "I don't know, he just came right at me," the boy said and Mr. Harris looked at Isaac.

     "Isaac, what the hell did you do?" he asked.

     "He didn't do it," Andi said.

     "Excuse me?" Mr. Harris asked.

     "Judging by the damage on his face, if Isaac did it then his hands should be bruised and bloody but they aren't," Andi said and Isaac lifted his hands and just like she said, they weren't bruised or bloody, just clean and pale.

     "If Isaac didn't do it, then who did?" Mr. Harris asked.

     "Ask him," Andi said with her arms crossed while looking at the boy with the bloody face.

     "I'm telling you it was him," he said.

     Andi scoffed as she walked over to him and pushed Danny out of the way and spoke quietly so nobody else could hear what she had to say. "I may not be able to get inside your head right now but I'm onto you, all of you. I will find the witch protecting your thoughts and I will find out why you even bothered to show your faces here," she whispered and she could see the slight change in his face as she stood up straight like nothing happened. "Someone should take him to the nurse's office. His nose looks pretty swollen."

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     "What were you thinking? Now they know you're a witch and not just any witch, a telepathic witch," Scott said as the three of them walked to their lockers.

     "What's the best way to flush out a perpetrator?" Andi asked.

     "Make them think you're onto them," Isaac replied.

     "Exactly. We know they're part of the alpha pack but we don't know why they're here yet. If I can make them think that I am close to figuring out their plan, it's only a matter of time before they get messy and make a mistake. And maybe, I can also find out who is making these human sacrifices and kill two birds with one stone," she said with a crooked smirk. "I'm gonna make these bastards sweat."

     "You sound like you're starting to lose it," Scott said and Andi shrugged her shoulders.

     "Maybe I am. After last year and these last few months, I'd be surprised if I wasn't," she said.

     "Fair enough," Isaac said with a small shrug of his shoulder.

     "Do you even have a plan?" Scott asked.

     "It's already in motion. I already have him thinking I'm onto him and his pack so all I have to do is wait for someone to get sloppy," Andi said as she opened her locker.

     "How can we help?" Isaac questioned and Andi laughed.

     "No need, boys. You already have your hands full. With a little advice from Grams and a couple of minutes looking in the grimoire, I should have more than what I need to get inside their heads. Who knows? Maybe I can find the witch protecting them," Andi said as she closed her locker. "I got this."

     She left the two of them as she walked to her next class, formulating what she was going to do as she waited for the Twins to slip up somewhere. Everybody makes mistakes and that includes them as well. For all she knew, they could be experts at hiding their true intentions, especially when they had someone securing their minds with a protection spell. And maybe after talking to her grandmother and looking through the Grimoire, she just might find a way to break the spell, a loophole, anything that would allow her to get inside their heads. She needed to break them down.