Stiles supposed that one of the benefits of living across the street from June's house was the constant surveillance he could keep on the occupants. He also figured that given the circumstances of his and June's relationship, keeping watch on their house might be frowned upon in normal situations. He shrugged off the implications of creeping on the Child household from his room, and waited.

Ever since he woke up, since June pushed him out of her head, he'd been intent on listening to her. She was still trying to help them, despite almost everyone running off and leaving her to try and hold them together. She knew about the Dread Doctors' message, what it meant to their situation. A paper on la Bête, or the Beast. It was in her house, and Stiles knew he wasn't welcome there. 

Knowing that there wasn't any other option, he'd have to resort to getting into June's home by another means. It was a means that he couldn't necessarily share with his dad.

"It's not legal, is it?" Scott asked.

"It's not legal." Stiles watched several students pass them as he shared his plan with Scott. "Okay, but look, we don't have a choice. June said something about a beast and damnatio memoriae. It's a little too specific to be a coincidence. I just - I have to try."

So there was Stiles, sitting in his room, watching the house across the street through an old pair of binoculars he acquired for boy scouts. He tensed when he saw Ginny leave her house. A pang of sadness arose in him when he realized that at this time of day, she was most likely going to visit June. Shaking his head, he watched her car roll down the street and out of sight. 

Very nearly face-planting on the floor, Stiles sprung into action. He leapt over clothes strewn about the floor and bounded down the stairs. Wrenching the door open, he stiffened in posture, suddenly remembering the neighbors that wouldn't hesitate to call a certain police station if they saw him acting suspiciously. Burying his hands deep inside of his pockets, he strolled across the street, whistling a random tune.

His arm reached out along the metal mailbox, and felt his way alongside the bottom of it. Feeling the key, he peeled it off from under it and brought the key up to inspect it. Just like June had previously told him in one of their many conversations, the spare key indeed had a strip of magnet superglued to the end. He mentally commended his listening skills and walked up to the front door.

Walking into the foyer, Stiles was faced with two options: June's room or the study. June kept many books in her room, but as far as Stiles could tell, they were just the ones for fun. In his dream, she instructed him to go to her library, which answered his question for him. Heading down the hallway, he walked inside the large room. 

Since there wasn't a need for a desk in here, Ginny and June utilized the space for bookshelves upon bookshelves. It was all slightly overwhelming, thinking about where to start. But June hadn't published any books in her lifetime. Sure, she'd been published in unofficial journals, but nothing longer than papers. 

"If it's a paper, where would-?" Stiles stopped mid-thought as he stared at the small filing cabinet in the corner of the room. Approaching hesitantly, he noticed the years labeled on each of the drawers. The earliest dated back to four years ago.

He scoffed, not realizing that June apparently wrote about everything under the sun while she was back in New York. It also began to feel more and more like police work, and that made Stiles feel slightly better. He opened up the drawer with the earliest year, and began searching. He praised the higher beings out there that June and Ginny were both so organized, as every file had a clear label as to what paper lay inside.

Finally, about three drawers in, his eye caught onto la Bête, and he immediately grabbed for it. Skimming over the first page, Stiles' heart began to pick up its pace, and his eyes slowly widened.

"June, you brilliant, brilliant soul, thank you," He murmured. Pulling out his phone, he opened up the camera application and enabled the flash. He snapped a clear photo of every page and quickly stuffed the paper back in the file and into the drawer once again. He was careful to make sure the office looked exactly as it had been left, and quietly snuck out to the front door. Suddenly, it occurred to him that June lived here, and he froze in his footsteps.

Longingly, Stiles' stare turned back up to the stairs, which he knew led to June's room. The longer he looked, the more this house felt like a graveyard, completely empty and cold. Blinking rapidly, Stiles accepted the fact that he needed to see June, and as quickly as possible. He marched out the door, locked it, and placed the key back under the mailbox before returning to the safety of his room.

He plugged his phone into his computer and downloaded the pictures in order to study them better. He opened up all the pictures and began reading the essay about the Beast of Gévaudan. As the story progressed, so did the opening of Stiles' mouth. If any of this was true...

He quickly reached for his phone and dialed Scott's number, who picked up almost immediately. "Stiles, what-?"

"The Beast of Gévaudan," He stated firmly.

"The what of who?"

"The Beast of Gévaudan, or just the Beast. That's what the Dread Doctor's brought back."

Scott sounded worried. "What was it?"

"It was a werewolf killed in the eighteenth century, it terrorized a small French village, killing men, women, and children for the hell of it. Official reports say it killed about 113 people, but..."

"But what?"

"This is June, we're talking about here, she dug farther into it than it probably needed to go. Unofficially, it looks like it killed-" Stiles stopped himself abruptly, not sure if he'd read it correctly. 

Meanwhile, Scott could hear his friend's breathing pick up over the phone, "Stiles? Stiles! Dude, what is it, what's the number?"

"Um - it looks closer to 500." Both Stiles and Scott nearly jumped out of their skin when Stiles' police scanner that was positioned in his room suddenly blared.

"All available units, be advised, a call came in regarding twenty three 10-54's down in the tunnels by the Beacon Hills Water Treatment Plant."

"What are those?" Scott asked, but was unable to receive an answer.

"Dispatch, did you say twenty three?" Sheriff Stilinski was heard over the radio, confusion and concern in his tone.

"Negative, Sheriff, caller confirmed: 10-55."

"Copy that, Dispatch. All units en route." Stiles turned the scanner down, hands shaking slightly.

"Stiles, what the hell is a 10-55?"

Stiles grabbed at his keys, prepared to drive down to Scott's. "I'm coming to get you and Kira. A 10-55 is a coroner's case."

                                                              *****

Parrish was really starting to despise his dreams. It wasn't as if they were really coveted dreams to begin with, but he loathed the fact that they were coming true. He was grateful that there wasn't a werewolf in the hospital hallway to hear his heartbeat, it probably would've rendered them deaf too. The only other sound to reach Parrish's ear drums was the squeaking of gurneys as they rolled each body into the morgue.

Sheriff Stilinski limped around the corner and stopped next to his deputy. He observed alongside of him, and immediately sensed Jordan's fear.

 "Parrish," Stilinski called gently. When that didn't work, he barked his name again. Jordan turned to him, the worry never leaving his face. "I know what you're thinking. The dream's coming true. It's not."

"Sheriff, there's twenty-three bodies. Twenty-three of them."

"Which means you're gonna go back to the station, and you're gonna go through every missing persons report for the past two weeks. That's what we do," Stilinski realized someone needed to remind Parrish that his dreams and whatever supernatural creature he happened to be didn't define him. He was a deputy first and foremost. "You got it, Parrish?"

 The deputy looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he nodded and marched away. Stilinski barely had time to begin to worry for him when the elevator doors behind him opened. Stiles, Scott, and Kira all stared at the zipped up body bags still being filed into the room as they met up with the sheriff.

"Who found them?" Stiles asked, and his dad turned to face them.

"Argent. And he said the Doctors were down there. He also said you guys might know what this thing is." Stilinski's expression took on one of expectance, awaiting an answer.

"We've got a theory," Scott confirmed.

"It's a slightly terrifying theory." Stiles added.

"Well the ME said the victims were killed somewhere else and then dumped in those tunnels."

Scott narrowed his eyes and looked to Stiles, "Hey, what if the Dread Doctor's are hiding the bodies?"

"Why would they do that?" Kira asked.

"Maybe they're covering for it," Stiles suggested. "Protecting it, like a parent would."

"Protecting what?" Stilinski questioned.

"A werewolf," Scott answered.

"It's called the Beast," Kira elaborated, and watched his eyebrows raise.

 "We know. Horrifying." Stiles swore he saw his dad age about five years in that split-second.

"We better figure out what we're going to call Parrish. Because it looks like his dream is coming true."

                                                                         *****

"By order of the sheriff, a county-wide curfew goes into effect tonight at sundown. All after-school activities are cancelled until further notice. Students should go directly home at the end of the school day." Scott turned a corner at school and was nearly run over by two deputies carrying loaded shotguns. Over the stench of typical teenage hormones, Scott could smell the fear and tension the other students felt staring at the large weapons that weren't meant to be in a school setting. Scott set his sights on Stiles, who was further down the hallway and talking to a deputy.

"You don't think this is a bit much in terms of firepower for a high school?" Stiles asked. 

The deputy, whose name tag read "Strauss" shrugged, "Your dad's the one who issued these and he wouldn't officially say why."

"Did he say anything unofficially?" Scott asked, clutching the straps of his backpack.

"No, but everyone's got a theory."

"What's yours?"

"I shouldn't be talking to you guys, don't you have class?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Come on, Strauss. What's your theory?"

Looking down the hallway to make sure the other deputies weren't listening, Strauss leaned in closer. "Do you guys believe in the supernatural?"

Stiles blinked, not sure which of the multiple sarcastic replies that came to mind he should use first. He turned over to Scott, and shared a look with him. Before anyone could say anything else, a bell rang overhead. Strauss practically shooed away both the boys before stationing himself by the student doors. 

"What good's a shotgun going to do against something that's already slaughtered over two dozen people? Did June's paper say anything about killing it?"

Stiles shrugged, at a loss. "Some girl with a spear or something killed it. I don't know it - it's based mostly on lore. Although, I guess now we know it's not lore at all."

They both lacked any viable theories by the time class started. Scott asked to meet up with Stiles later, but found that Stiles was indeed visiting June right after school, for Ginny had just started allowing visitors to see her. So it would appear, Stiles was not the only person visiting June that day.

                                                        *****

To say Malia had a lot going on would've been a colossal understatement. For starters, among the many secrets she kept, Deaton was at the top. He was being held captive by her mother, and she wasn't sure how she was going to break that news to Scott. Secondly, her mother herself, the desert wolf, was in Beacon Hills. She was close to murdering her own mother, and she wasn't sure how to come to terms with that. Third was her friends: the further she distanced herself from them, the closer they seemed to get. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, Malia tried to reason, tried to justify distancing herself. 

The last was June, Malia had been having strange thoughts about June, mostly to do with her in Eichen House. She wasn't sure how, but often times, she felt like she was watching June walk around the halls of Eichen, only to stop at a room that contained June's body. Those moments, which mainly appeared during the most inconvenient times, sent her reeling in a bout of claustrophobia and panic. She could only begin to wonder what June herself was going through. 

She'd somehow ended up with the knowledge that Alan Deaton was located in Fort Jewett. She wasn't entirely sure why the drill goggles of death were necessary, but her regrettable partner-in-crime, Theo, claimed they were the key. Through them, she'd figured out where Deaton was, and now all that was left was to plan. Theo had taken her to the operating theatre of the Dread Doctors to gather this information, and assumed the location would remain a secret. Malia realized that people seemed to underestimate her too often, for she could recognize the scent of where they stood. Once she realized they were in the tunnels, she knew Scott had to be informed. Although how to let him know was the question.

Since she'd been avoiding her friends in order to not be talked out of killing her mother, she needed a messenger. She found the perfect candidate in Liam, and approached him in the boys' locker room the day after she'd figured everything out. Liam had been stuffing clothes into his lacrosse bag, and shifted uncomfortably once she was in his presence.

"I need you to tell Scott something for me," She ordered, and Liam's mouth gaped similarly to that of a fish.

"Uh - why me?"

"Because I can't right now. Are you gonna do it, or not?"

"Um - he's not really talking to me," He didn't appreciate all the odd looks other boys were giving the pair. "You should get someone else. Literally anyone else."

Malia exhaled sharply through her nostrils, not taking no for an answer. "Just tell him he was right about the tunnels. Just tell him that, okay?"

 "What do you mean?"

 "When we were down there, looking for you and Hayden, we didn't know it yet, but we were a lot closer than we thought. There's an operating theatre down there. Down in the tunnels."

Liam shook his head in doubt. "How do you know?"

"Mostly by scent, just tell him, okay? Tell Scott he was right." She left for the animal clinic to meet with Braeden, not realizing she dropped a rather large conundrum onto Liam's shoulders.

                                                      *****

Lydia had called in sick to school, merely because there were still some things she needed to understand. Things that only Meredith could tell her. Knowing that June was the only gateway to Meredith, she needed to work on her meditation skills. Under the suggestion of Scott, Lydia practiced meditation in her free time, trying desperately to get a hold of June. Much to her surprise, it had begun to work. 

Small flashes of June in Eichen and New York came about from her efforts, and every single time, June was there to encourage her. Her last bit of advice came through and had Lydia itching to try again.

"Just imagine that you are here and nowhere else. This is the only world that matters."

About a half hour's worth of creating the perfect setting led to nothing but success. Lydia was, after all, one of the smartest people on the West Coast. Meredith and June were awaiting her in the hallways of Eichen, ready to start teaching Lydia. 

She thrust her hands up in frustration, and the shriek that escaped her lips seemed to be as ordinary as ever. She sighed in frustration as June and Meredith watched on.

"I said use your hands, I didn't say punch the gate."

"Well, it's all a little new to me, so, don't hold back on specificity." June pursed her lips as she watched Lydia practically hold on to the gate in order to stay upright. She silently wondered if this maybe was a bit too exhausting on Lydia's part: both fighting to stay focused in this plane of reality and learning more about her own ability.

"Your hands can guide your voice. They can help push it towards the target." Meredith was proving to be an excellent teacher despite her unrelenting attitude. June watched and silently commended her patience with the feisty redhead. "Try again."

"How did you learn?" Lydia whispered, tilting her head to the side.

"It doesn't matter," she dismissed. "You have to find your own way."

"Well, what if your way works for me too?"

"Lydia, find your way." It didn't seem to be up for debate, and that didn't sit well with Lydia.

Her face grew tense and she let out a grunt of frustration, "But none of this is even real! I'm in June's head while her body is lying in a room down the hall staring at the ceiling." Lydia watched June flinch quite noticeably. Her frustration dwindled into pity as she watched her friend swallow back tears.

Watching June had completely blindsided Lydia to Meredith's painfully loud scream. It almost didn't register in her brain until she was flying through the air. By the time she had landed, she realized she was cornered into a cell, Meredith and June staring directly at her.

"Did that feel real?" Meredith asked as she shut the door, effectively locking Lydia inside.

"What are you doing?"

"You want out? Break the glass."

"It's not just glass," Lydia reminded her. "It's bullet-resistant polycarbonate."

"So make yourself a bullet," Meredith instructed, shrugging like what she was asking Lydia to do was nothing. "Break the glass."

Suddenly, June tensed in posture. The other two turned to her in confusion. Lydia broke her concentration on Meredith and turned to face her. "June? What's wrong."

June started hugging herself and scratching her arms, "I'm not really sure. It's like - like I'm walking through a spiderweb and - and at the same time-" She gasped, turning to face down the hall.

"What is it?"

"Someone's in my room." Lydia's eyes widened in concern, but June looked back at her and shook her head. "I'm just going to go see who it is. Break the glass, Lydia, I know you can do it."

                                                          *****

The more hallways Stiles walked down in Eichen House, the heavier his heart felt. How could they put her here? How could they put such light so far down into darkness? 

Ginny was tentative in letting him see her. The only reason she did was because of an insistent Stiles, arguing that he would come back every single day and ask again. It was the absolute truth, he would've asked her everyday, but he knew Ginny could only take so much pestering.

So there he was, walking into the closed unit at the very bottom of the mental institution where he'd almost died. Twice. Where June was staying. Well, where her body was staying. He wasn't entirely sure where her mind was at the moment.

He'd braced for the moment he'd see her, and he hoped that he would be somewhat desensitized to her state, but he wasn't. It was just as fresh of a blow seeing her again as it was the first time. She was on her bed, staring up at the ceiling and unaware of things surrounding her. All he could wish for in that moment was her head to turn to him, for her to recognize that he was in fact there.

He sat down and placed a tentative hand on top of hers. He flinched when he was met with little warmth, and he began running his thumb over her hand in order to warm it up slightly. She didn't even blink.

"Your teachers - uh - gave us some of the stuff you'd been working on in class. Well, I guess just the one teacher, since you technically only have the one class. Anyways, um - it has to do with the Kansas Jayhawkers, and since that apparently has nothing to do with the basketball team, it went right over my head." Stiles laughed slightly, his smile falling when he received no reaction like he'd hoped.

 "Maybe you can wake up and explain it to me?" Still, silence. He held her hand tighter and sighed. "Oh, come on, June. Y-you - you have to come back to us. There's no way we're getting through this without you. There's no way I-" He stopped, swallowing the lump in his throat, "-we have to talk, I need to talk to you. I - I need to say I'm sorry, and I need you to be awake to hear it."

"I think that's enough." Stiles turned around to see Ginny leaning on the doorway, eyes rimmed red. Stiles had no reason to think his speech to June was the cause, as she'd donned the red-eyed look since he'd arrived. She raised her eyebrows when he didn't move from his seat. "Stiles."

Reluctantly, Stiles removed his hand from June's and made to stand up. It wasn't until he looked at her face once more did he notice something else. "Wait a second, what is this?" He moved a part of her hair aside and saw nothing but skin. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, "What are they doing?"

"Alright, you need to go."

Stiles jumped up from his chair, not leaving June's side. "They shaved her head. Look at it. Did you - did you know about this?" He couldn't help the accusatory tone, and Ginny didn't like it one bit. "What are they gonna do, drill a hole into her head?"

"Okay, despite knowing that we are, in fact, in a mental institution, I have to ask: are you crazy?" Ginny brushed Stiles out of the way and smoothed down the blonde hair on June's head. "It's for ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy. They shave small portions of the scalp. Stiles, it's done under anesthesia and it's perfectly safe." Stiles wasn't biting, but neither was Ginny. "Look at her, Stiles. She's everything to me. Do you really think I'm not doing everything I can to get her out of this?"

Stiles shook his head, "No, that's not ECT."

"Is everything alright in here?" A nurse suddenly appeared behind Stiles, and he turned around to face her. "Cross" was on her name tag, and she looked almost bored at being there.

"It's fine," Ginny assured, before turning back to Stiles. "Our guest was just leaving." Stiles looked at her incredulously, but she merely crossed her arms in indifference. "Stiles, go. Or you're not coming back."

Looking down at June one last time, he sighed, exiting the room. He walked down the hall, knowing full well that June needed to leave this place, and she needed to leave it quickly. Whatever the staff was doing here, they were going to hurt her in the process. Stiles' golden opportunity to start his rescue operation came in the form of two nurses, walking together in the closed unit. He purposefully bumped into one of them, sneaking his hand inside the nurse's pocket. He nearly smiled in glee as his fingers pulled out his key card and hid it in his hand. 

Quickly apologizing, he walked as fast as he could out of Eichen. Based on how dark it became outside, he guessed that he would only have an hour at most before the library closed. He headed over there at a nearly dangerous speed, and began pulling everything he could in regards to Eichen House, whether it was blueprints, past patient history, or any other public record. It was time to get her out of there, June had waited for them long enough.

                                                        *****

Liam seemed to be going in circles. Or maybe just a straight line, he wasn't sure at that point. He was amazed he got service down in the tunnels he was exploring, but regretfully couldn't text any of his friends. His tenacity might've kept him down in the tunnels for hours, had he not run into Scott.

"You lost?" He asked tentatively. 

Liam, surprised as much as he was sheepish, nodded. "Completely. How'd you know I was down here?"

"I followed you."

"Why are you following me?"

"Why are you down here?" Scott countered.  

"I'm trying to figure out if this is where they took us. Me and Hayden. Malia said she was down here too. That the scent was the same. She said you were right." He could barely meet Scott's gaze, but when he looked up, Scott was simply nodding in understanding.

"Uh - there's a turn you keep passing. It's easy to miss."

"How many times did you watch me pass it?" Liam narrowed his eyes.

Unapologetically, Scott answered, "Five." He watched Liam, before walking down the hallway he had come from. "Come on, let's see if we can find it together."

The pair walked in silence for a considerable amount of time, and after Scott led them down the right path, they were merely trying to sense out what was in their environment. Rounding a corner, the two of them stopped after being hit with a wave of an unfamiliar energy.

"Do you feel that?" Scott asked, holding his hands out in front of him and turning to Liam.

"Like something's vibrating."

"I can't tell where it's coming from."

Liam crouched to the floor, placing a hand on the concrete. Looking back up to Scott, he replied, "It's coming from everywhere." Looking around, both of them were at a loss. Nothing seemed to be coming from their endeavor, and Liam felt like he failed once again. He sighed, staying closer to the ground. "I was just trying to do something right."

"You do a lot right," Scott assured him.

"Yeah, but I did one thing really wrong."

"Hayden's alive. Everything before that doesn't matter."

"It should," Liam argued, not understanding how Scott could move on from something like this. "I feel like I had to do more than just say sorry."

"Actually, you still haven't done that yet," Scott corrected.

"Back at my old school, at Devenford, I got into a fight with this kid. I knocked two of his teeth out. They made me write a letter of apology, but we both knew it meant nothing. We both knew that sooner or later, we were gonna get into another fight. I can't just say I'm sorry. I feel like I have to do something. Like maybe, somehow, I have to save your life."

Scott sank down to his level, feeling less bitter as he did so. "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure you'll get a chance."

Liam scoffed, "Well not down here. We've been walking around for hours and all we've been able to find is some stupid snake sculpture on the wall." Scott perked up, snapping his head over to where Liam had pointed. "You think it's important?"

 Scott shrugged, and began to fiddle with the peculiar image of the snake eating itself. Jerking it side to side, it gave way once he started turning it. When the snake refused to move anymore, both Scott and Liam felt the constant hum of energy cut itself off almost immediately. To the side came a sliding door, and both the boys eagerly opened it.

On the other side, they were met immediately with a gun pointed at them. To their relief, Argent was the one they met, and he immediately put down the gun once he recognized the pair. Scott tentatively stepped into the room, and was immediately overcome with a familiar scent. A scent that put a knot in his stomach and dread in his heart.

"You didn't," He chastised, and Argent nodded his head.

"I had to," He admitted. Everyone watched as another man rounded the corner that was farther in the room, and he stood next to Chris. He was significantly older, and the last time Scott had seen him, he was bound to a wheelchair, coughing up a black substance. He wasn't supposed to be on his feet, or so healthy looking.

"Hello, Scott," He smiled, his black eyes glinting. Scott's eyes flashed in aggression and in anger. Argent's father didn't seem perturbed. "I haven't seen that color on you. It suits you."

"Who's the old guy?" Liam asked, sensing the history between the three.

The man chuckled, turning to his son. "Uh - at the moment, they would call me a necessary evil. But you can call me Gerard."

                                                   *****

Shit hit the fan quickly, and the next thing Malia knew, she wound up with a shotgun wound to the abdomen. Braeden was slumped over due to a head injury, and Theo was being handed a set of talons. The same blue talons that the Dread Doctors had procured and placed on a genetic chimera. Deaton was bound to a chair, and Malia's mother was nodding at Theo.

"You should've listened to Braeden," Theo chided. Had Malia not been gasping in pain, she probably would've said something in reply. All she could do was turn her gaze from Theo's retreating figure and focus on the desert wolf, who had her sights set on her.

                                                   *****

"My way got people hurt." June was back with Meredith and Lydia quickly after seeing who was in her room with her. It was the first time she'd seen him since she took him to New York, and she was still distraught. She was back with Lydia quickly, and in time to hear Meredith explain why Lydia couldn't just try her way.

"Some days it was quiet for me. Other days, all I could hear was screaming. People dying."

"What people?" June asked.

"Everyone." June flashed Meredith a look of pity, while she merely gave her a sad smile. "Everywhere. I was in chemistry class when it happened. I had my hands over my ears, the teacher was trying to figure out what was wrong. I took my hands and I started hitting the desk, until I couldn't take it anymore and I just screamed."

"What happened?" Lydia was quiet, drinking in every word.

 "All of the windows shattered. I saw kids with glass in their arms, in their faces. Some of them had blood coming out of their ears. They said it was an explosion, caused by chemicals. But everyone knew it was me. Find a better way, Lydia. My voice is like a bomb going off. Yours needs to be a bullet."

It was as if something was waiting for Meredith to say the word bullet, because quite suddenly, all three girls heard the sound of a gun cocking. 

"Did you hear that?" Lydia looked to June, who was staring directly behind her, eyes wide. She turned around and found herself not staring at a wall, but at another set of glass windows. Only this time, Malia was on the other side.

"Malia?" Lydia walked to the other side of the glass, pressing her hands up against it. They all watched a shadow that carried a rifle slowly approach a terrified Malia.

"Malia!" June knocked on her bit of glass, trying to get her friend's attention.

Lydia turned back to face them, "Is this real, or is this some kind of figment of June's imagination?"

"I think you know what a banshee premonition feels like." Meredith's tone was solemn, and June did not like that one bit. She nearly shoved Meredith out of the way to reach the cell door handle, and tried to yank it back. To her dissatisfaction, the door wouldn't budge. June wrung out her hands, and held them in front of the lock, trying to remember a spell for opening such a door. In the middle of her thinking, a searing pain shot up from her wrists, and she looked down to see Meredith grabbing them tightly.

"Meredith, she's my friend, let go-"

"She needs to figure this out."

June watched desperately as Malia clung to the rock. Her cries of fear were magnified, and it physically pained June to watch. "How is a banshee premonition making its way into my head? Lydia's the banshee, not me."

"Lydia and all of her abilities are being channeled in here right now, that's how we've been able to practice. How we might be able to get out of this."

"Get out of what, Malia dying?"

"No, June. Get out of your head." Above them, the lights began to flicker, and the sound of running water, much like a shower, was soon heard over almost anything else. Meredith turned back to Lydia, who was looking around in confusion. "Don't get lost, Lydia. You can help your friends, help June, but you have to get out of here first."

"She's in trouble." Tears were dotting Lydia's eyes, a look of fear on her face. "I think it's happening now." The sound of water was diluted by a scream of pain, followed by another gunshot. June flinched, covering her mouth and praying for Malia.

"You know your real name isn't Malia."

"Oh, god," June exclaimed. "She found her."

"You don't have a name. Talia Hale took you away from me before I could give you one." Another groan of pain came from Malia. "What you do have is power. Strength, speed, and the capacity to heal. You know where you got it from, Malia? You know who you stole it from? Me." 

At that point, Lydia had collapsed to her knees, bending over to face the floor. Whatever she was feeling in that room, was growing to be too much. 

"You can help her!" Meredith was doing her best to coach Lydia through this process. "LYDIA! Lydia! Break the glass." Lydia flung her hair back and stared determinedly at the glass in front of her. Standing up, she gathered herself in preparation for what was about to come. "BREAK THE GLASS!"

As soon as Meredith saw Lydia's hands come out in front of her, she stepped over to June and dragged her to the line of fire. Meredith moved to the side, and watched, as Lydia drew in a large breath.

                                                       *****

Three things happened after Lydia screamed.

                                                       *****

The first was that Lydia was thrust out of her meditation. Panting, she stared around at her bedroom, and she watched as the furniture still trembled. She realized she must have screamed in reality, and stared down at her hands. She began to recall all of the things that occurred just before she woke up.

She shattered the glass easily. It, along with the cement walls of Eichen were still crumbling to the ground by the time she left June's head. She couldn't explain what she felt, only that it somehow felt like the entire structure of where June was residing fell apart. 

Somehow, she knew that she wouldn't be able to reach June that way again. It was gone, whatever was in June's head wasn't there now. It didn't matter anyway, all that mattered were the two words she knew she had to tell Scott, two words that had her immediately dialing his phone number.

Animal clinic.

                                                       *****

The second thing that resulted from Lydia's scream actually managed to save Malia. Lights in Fort Jewett exploded due to the high frequency, and made the desert wolf relinquish her grip on Malia's throat and back up in surprise.

Malia took this as an opportunity to defend herself. She brought up a boot and landed a heavy kick into the desert wolf's chest, sending her flying backward. Malia stumbled to her feet, leaning on a truck before baring her fangs at her birth mother.

Her adrenaline landed her a few punches and kicks, but before long, her mother gained her footing. She threw Malia back into the truck, but Malia quickly turned around.

"I killed them because of you," She growled, saying everything she'd ever wanted to say since she remembered the desert wolf appearing in her memories. "I killed my own family."

"Your adopted family," The desert wolf corrected. "I'm your family, sweetheart. But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't care about them. I was just trying to kill you."

Malia growled again, only to be interrupted by the unmistakable sound of tile being chipped away slowly. Both women looked over to where Deaton was tied to a chair, and saw the wall behind him collapse. What was unearthed was perhaps worse than what Malia was currently fighting. 

A massive black figure emerged, eyes glowing blue and some kind of smoke drifting off of it. Its teeth were jagged but sharp, and all of them were bared. Initially Malia thought it was a giant shadow, and it seemed to emerge from the darkest depths of hell.

As soon as it started clawing its way out of the wall, the desert wolf fled. Malia watched as she ran, and debated going after her, until Deaton called out to her in panic. She watched as a single claw grabbed onto the back of the chair, and was slowly pulling him backwards. He was panicked, especially since the chair began sliding up the wall.

Malia knew in her heart that there really was no choice to make at all. She ran forward, and using her claws was able to quickly get Deaton out of the chair. He collapsed onto her, and helped her move over to Braeden. She was easy to rouse out of her state, and once she laid eyes on the giant beast in the back, she was just as quick to get out of the fort as the rest of them. With the bone chilling sound of the creature's roar at their backs, the three of them fled to the animal clinic, where they could recuperate.

                                                      *****

"Alright, you've had long enough, let's go." Nurse Cross received no reply. She huffed, "I'm not buying the catatonic act, so don't think I'm gonna drop my guard. I know you can hear me." The shower water kept running, but the girl under the hot water wasn't moving. Cross advanced, frustrated and bitter. "Look at me when I'm talking to you. I said, look at me. June." She grabbed June's face and turned it to her, only to again receive no response.

Nurse Cross quickly turned off the shower and dressed her, leaving her hair damp and feet bare. Her and another nurse named Schrader walked June back to her room. 

"She alright?" Schrader asked, staring at her sunken face.

"She's fine, it's all part of the act," Cross assured him before menacingly leaning forward and whispering in June's ear, "She's just a dedicated performer."

They helped her get into bed, and Cross prepared to leave Schrader to administer her daily rounds of medicine. She turned back, ready to exact her punishment for whatever June had done to set her off. "Up the dosage to three mils. She wants catatonic? Give it to her." She slammed the door so it shut halfway and stormed off.

"Sorry about her, June," Schrader apologized, staring at the blue eyes that were fixed on the ceiling. "She doesn't have the gentlest bedside manner. But I can be gentle." A gloved finger worked its way up June's sleeve, rubbing against her inner arm in order to find a vein. "I promise to be gentle."

He watched her face for some kind of reaction as the needle entered her arm. "Are you alright, June?" The needle had almost entirely disappeared inside her arm when Schrader removed it. "Sorry about that - I - couldn't find a vein. I'll have to try again." Had June been present, she might've been grateful to not be able to hear the tone he was using. It was sincerely perverted, as if he sadistically enjoyed prodding his patients with needles.

The next try wasn't a success either, and that might've been on purpose. "I'll just have to find a bigger vein." He twisted the syringe around in his hand and moved June's head to the side, exposing the arteries that ran through her neck. As he prepared to stab the needle into her neck, he was caught off guard by the sound of a scream. Staring around, it sounded as if the scream had come from inside the room, and it was powerful enough to cause the light fixture to explode. What happened next was not at all what Schrader was expecting.

A powerful wave of magic sent Schrader flying back against the wall as the third and final result of Lydia's scream took place. June Child flung herself over the side of the bed, barely taking in her surroundings as she fled for the exit. Running into the hallway, she noticed a nurse on either side, attempting to get into the hall where she currently was. 

Turning towards the exit, she decided to take on that nurse first. He ran at her and attempted to throw a punch. She dodged, and quickly thrust her hand up into his face, feeling the cartilage of his nose crunch underneath. She landed a kick to his stomach and another behind his knees, allowing him to fall to the floor. June turned around to face the other nurse, and before he could get within five feet of her, he was sent flying back telekinetically.

Not hesitating, she ran up the stairs and out the door. Ignoring the rain that pelted her clothes, her eyes landed on two security guards that blocked her exit. Turning around, she saw another guard pursuing from inside. Something overcame June, and quickly, her eyes turned pure purple, no sign of blue or even white. 

The first guard attacked, but June, or June's magic, sent him spiraling off into the staircase, where he didn't get up. The crack of electricity sounded, and June noticed the guards carrying staffs that sizzled with electricity, ready to be used. In an instant, June grasped on to each guard's emotions, and empathetically molded them to her desires. Almost immediately, both guards saw the other as the threat, and jabbed each other with their staffs. June hadn't even stuck around to see the damage, she just kept running.

She was nearly to freedom, a single staircase kept her from the gates of Eichen House. Well, so it seemed. She nearly slipped on the wet pavement in order to stop in her tracks. Wide-eyed, June watched as Allison Argent walked up the steps towards her. Her face screwed up in pity, she tilted her head to the side.

"I'm sorry, June. But your treatment's not done. Not yet."

It was as if her words were a command, for instantly after they were spoken, June was jabbed in the back with an electric current. She howled out in pain, collapsing to her knees as a second wave engulfed her.

"PLEASE, I HAVE TO TELL THEM!" June was hardly struggling as the multiple security guards apprehended her, placing her hands behind her back. June only stared at Allison, feeling the rain on her face. "They're all going to die," She cried, the adrenaline quickly leaving her body, "My friends. They're all going to die."

                                                      *****

The storm had passed, and Scott and Liam were both still reeling at the revelation of Parrish being a hellhound. Still reeling from the painting that was in the Dread Doctors' operating theatre of the Beast standing on top of countless bodies. Still reeling when both Lydia and Malia texted Scott simultaneously to meet at the animal clinic. 

Deaton was okay, Malia explained everything once he had arrived at the animal clinic and hugged the veterinarian. The desert wolf was still a looming threat, but at least they had their druid back. Things were finally turning around, everyone could feel it. Melissa McCall was right, when the time came, Scott would be there to give everyone hope. 

He felt it even more when Stiles texted him, informing him of his discovery. June wasn't safe in Eichen House, certain things were about to take place there that could only end in disaster. In his bones, he knew this was the last puzzle piece, the last bit they needed to be whole again. June was all that was needed in order to face the fight that was ahead.

Stiles and Lydia and Scott all convened early over at Scott's house, pooling over the information Stiles had gathered from the library and from his own extensive research. Once an idea of a plan formed between the three, Scott called Liam, Malia, and Kira over to his house. They all arrived, and gathered around the table that contained a blueprint of Eichen, a security log, several exterior pictures, and the key card Stiles had extracted. Scott felt the energy, everyone was ready for what was about to be said.

"Now we get June."

I hope it wasn't too confusing how she woke up. For those who didn't get it, Lydia screamed inside of her head, and it was powerful enough to not only bring herself out of that meditative state, it was powerful enough to shake June out of catatonia. Anyways, let the fun begin. Happy Labor Day, don't work too hard, or at all! Love you all, hope you enjoy this extra long, seventy-five-hundred-word chapter for the long weekend. Unedited. Xx.