▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 ━︎━︎ 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧   𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄, a groan left her lips. She blinked a few times in an attempt to clear her vision, glancing around at the all too familiar white hospital room. A heart monitor was attached to her along with an IV drip. Elaine carefully sat up, moving to rip the IV from her arm when her mother's voice stopped her. "Oh, no you don't. Remove that hand young lady." Elaine looked at her mom as she walked further into the room.

      "Mom? What happened? Why am I here?"

     "You passed out from exhaustion and dehydration." Melissa answered, walking over to the monitors to make sure everything looked alright. When she was done she turned to her daughter, sitting on the edge of her bed. "How are you feeling?"

     "Tired." Elaine truthfully answered.

     "Honey, you can't keep doing this to yourself." Melissa softly said. "This strain that you keep putting on yourself, it's going to get you killed."

     Elaine let out a helpless chuckle. "What else am I supposed to do, mom? I have to help them, I have to make sure the people I love are safe."

     "Even if it means getting yourself killed in the end?" Melissa asked.

     Elaine bit on the inside of her cheek, looking down at her hands as she softly whispered, "Even then." She met her moms eyes. "I have all these powers. I'm supposed to be this. . . this powerful hybrid. But the smallest things can beat me down. I thought I was growing stronger, I thought I could handle this."

     Melissa moved closer, gently grabbing her hand. "Sweetheart, you're just a teenager. You shouldn't have to handle this."

     "But I do." Her voice cracked and she pressed her lips together, attempting to swallow her tears. "I don't have a choice, mom. I'm not like Scott or Liam, I was born this way. I was born with this curse. And I can't stop it. I can't stop the pain, I can't stop the tragedy, I have no control over any of it and it's starting to kill me. I mean, am I even worth saving if I can't even save my friends?"

     "Elaine."

     "It's always one thing after the other. There's someone or something always trying kill us and I can't. . . I don't know how much more I can take."

     Melissa's heart seemed to shatter in her chest at her daughters words. Elaine leaned forwards and Melissa embraced her daughter, running a hand through her hair, biting back her own tears. "I know, baby. I know." She pressed a kiss to the top of Elaine's head before pulling back and brushing away a stray tear that dripped down Elaine's cheek. "I've called the school, explained the situation. So all I want you to do right now is just relax, okay? Just take a second."

     Elaine nodded. Melissa stood, standing up and beginning to make her exit. "Mom?" She stopped, turning to look at her daughter. "Is Lydia going to be okay?"

     Melissa sent her a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, she's gonna be alright."

Time went by slowly and in the few hours she'd been there she'd received two calls and multiple text messages from Stiles checking up on her, a message from Malia, and a message from Kira. The only person she hadn't heard from was Scott and if she was being honest, it hurt her feelings just a little. She'd flipped through the few channels on the television multiple times and now she was just bored.

     A knock came on the door and Elaine glanced up to see Scott. She huffed, turning her eyes back to the television as she watched a kung-fu movie that was playing. "Hey, El." Scott moved further into the room, Kira lingering by the door. "How are you?"

     "Didn't know you cared."

     Scott frowned. "What? Of course I care."

     Elaine hummed. "Really? Is that why I haven't heard from you all day? It's dark out, it took you almost an entire day to say 'hey, glad you're not dead'."

     Scott sighed, pulling up a chair right beside her bed. "I'm sorry. I kept asking for updates from mom. She said that you were fine and to stop calling her at work. Something about exhaustion and dehydration." Elaine held up her arm, showcasing the IV, before placing it back in her lap. Scott nodded. "Well, I found out something interesting. Tracy wasn't a supernatural."

     Elaine furrowed her brows. "What? Scott, she was a kanima."

     Scott shook his head. "No. Not exactly. She had everything close to a kanima except her claws. She had the claws of a werewolf."

     Elaine sat up. "How's that possible?"

     "Deaton thinks someone's blurring the lines between science and supernatural."

     "Tracy was. . . made?" Scott nodded. "But how? Who would do that?"

     He shrugged. "We don't know. But we think it has something to do with the masked people Malia saw when she was trying to help Tracy. They killed her. On top of that, Liam found these holes in the woods and we think it's part of the process. They bury them there and then they crawl out."

     "That doesn't make any sense." Elaine mumbled, running a hand over her forehead.

     "For right now, we're calling them chimera. It's basically mixed DNA. That's why Tracy could cross the mountain ash line."

     "Because she wasn't supernatural." Elaine muttered. "Okay, so, how do we find these masked people?"

     "We, uh, haven't gotten that far yet."

     The sound of screaming could be heard echoing down the hall. The three teenagers exchanged a look before Elaine ripped out the IV and stood up. Scott opened his mouth to protest, but before he could Elaine was already walking out of the room. Scott and Kira quickly followed after her only to come face to face with Melissa. She pointed at Elaine. "I'll yell at you later. Right now, I need you three to come with me."

     They followed after her, coming to a stop in front of the room the screaming was coming from. "He came in about 45 minutes ago." Melissa explained.

     Liam's dad quickly walked up to her. "Melissa. I'm gonna find an anesthesiologist covering acute pain. See what you can do." Melissa nodded and he walked away.

     The screaming continued and Elaine couldn't help but wince. "Mom, what's happening to him?" Scott asked.

     "It's the pain. Nothing's working. We've already pumped him full of morphine."

     "Can't they do anything to help him?" Kira asked, a worried frown falling on her lips.

     Melissa looked at her. "We can put him in a medically-induced coma. It's how we help burn victims deal with the pain."

     "Let me see if I can help him." They entered the room, Scott and Elaine standing on either side of the boy who Elaine found out was called Cory.

     "Please," he begged, "make it stop." Scott grabbed his hand and the black veins crawled up his skin but his own face twisted into one of pure agony. The veins crawled up his neck and Kira ran over to him.

     "Scott, let go. Let go of him!" Melissa and Kira pulled him away and he let out grunts, trying to catch his breath.

     "I'm okay." Scott breathed. "Let me see it. Let me see his arm."

    Cory had stopped screaming, having passed out. Melissa walked over, carefully removing one of his restraints and pulling back the bandage that covered his arm. Elaine covered her mouth, the skin had been melted away through multiple layers. It was something she'd never seen before. "What is that?"

     "The lab says scorpion venom."

     Scott raised his brows. "Scorpion?"

     "I know. But that's not the weirdest part." She placed the bandage back on the wound. "Because a sting that bad means that he should have been dead ten hours ago, and the scorpion that stung him would have been ten feet tall."

     Kira's eyes widened as she looked to Scott. "Please tell me that doesn't mean there's a giant scorpion running around Beacon Hills."

     "Lucas. . ." Cory said the name, his eyes open once more as he looked at them. "It was Lucas."

     Elaine met her brother's eyes. "Who the hell is Lucas?" He shrugged.

     "Hey Cory, what Lucas did to you, he's gonna do it to someone else, and it's gonna be much worse." Scott softly said.

     "We need to know what happened." Kira finished.

     "I don't really know," Cory answered. Carefully, he sat up, wincing as he did. "He's never been like that before."

     "Like what?" Elaine softly asked.

     "Aggressive." He sighed, looking down at his lap. "We were taking it slow, but it wasn't me. He was the shy one. Then we're hanging out today and it's like he was a different person."

     "Different how?" Scott quizzed.

     "Like, super confident. We were just kissing and then I felt this sharp sting on my arm and. . . and then I looked up at him and I swear his eyes turned black."

     Kira stepped closer. "You mean totally black?"

     "The whole eye." Cory confirmed. "But it was only for a second. And then he said sorry, that he'll see me at the club tonight and then he just left. And then a few minutes later, I'm in the worst pain of my life."

     Elaine rubbed her brow. "Hold on, you said club. What club?"

     "Every Friday night. Sinema."

     Elaine nodded before looking at Scott and Kira. "Let's go."

     "El, are you sure you should come for this one?" Scott asked, quickly catching up to her as she pressed the down button for the elevator.

     Elaine glanced at him. "Scott, I'm fine. If I'm not, I'll tell you." Scott stared at her as the elevator opened, sharing a look with Kira before they both entered, leaving the hospital and headed for the club.

     "A kid turning into a half-scorpion, half-werewolf?" Kira said as they approached the club entrance. "Is there even a myth for that?"

     "Sumerian." Elaine hummed.

     Scott looked at her. "I learned that from the bestiary. Where did you learn it?"

     "I got bored." Elaine answered.

     They pulled open the door and as they entered an alarm went off. Kira grabbed the circle on her belt, tossing it at the alarm making it stop. Scott smiled at her. "God, I love you."

     Elaine scrunched up her nose. "You two disgust me." Elaine pushed her way into the club, walking through the crowd with Scott and Kira walking behind her. A faint roar echoed in her ears and Elaine looked around, meeting Scott's eyes. It wasn't Liam, but it was someone else familiar. She quickly went running and the other two followed her.

     They pushed past a beaded curtain just in time to see Liam with his back against a table, holding back Lucas who had his claws and stingers out, trying to get to Liam. Liam turned his head to look at them. "You're a little late!"

     "Get to Brett." Scott instructed before jumping into the fight.

     Elaine ran over to Brett, kneeling down before him to see he'd been scratched. She pressed her hands against the wound. "Brett, are you alright?" She forced herself to ignore the fighting in the background which Kira had joined in on. Mason joined her side, taking over to keep pressure on the wound.

     "What the hell is that thing?" Brett grounded out.

     "A scorpion." Elaine breathed. "And a werewolf."

     Brett looked at her in disbelief. "What?"

     She waved a hand. "We'll explain later." She turned her head just in time to watch Liam slam Lucas to the ground and the scorpion/wolf didn't move. The fox surrounded Kira and she charged forwards, yelling in Japanese as she went to stab Lucas but Scott quickly stepped in and stopped her.

     Scott stared at Kira with worry before forcing himself to look at the others. "Is everyone okay?" They all nodded. "We need to get him out of here. Liam, give me a hand." They grabbed him by his wrist and ankles and just as they lifted him up an arrow was shot right through Lucas' chest. Scott and Liam quickly dropped him and they all turned, spotting the masked people Malia had mentioned.

     Elaine slowly stood, staring at them. There were three of them, not an ounce of skin was showing and they were all wearing outfits and old doctor masks. Scott looked up at them in disbelief. "Why did you do that?"

     "His condition was terminal." The doctor answered, his voice almost mechanical.

     "What does that mean?" They didn't answer him as they turned to walk away. "What does that mean?!"

     The doctor who had spoken before turned to look at him. "Failure." The lights around them sparked and when they all looked back, the doctors were gone.

     Scott took Lucas to their mom back at the hospital and Elaine began her walk home. She pulled out her phone and calling Stiles. It rang a few times before going to voicemail. "Hey, babe. I just wanted to call and let you know that I'm currently walking to your house. So, uh, if you get this, would you mind picking me up since my car is parked in your driveway? Thanks." She sighed, hanging up the phone. It was going to take at least an hour to get to the Stilinski household from here. Her own house wasn't much closer. She could run but she decided it was nice outside and she could use the fresh air.

     Ten minutes into her walk, a feeling formed in her stomach. Her steps began to slow as the feeling grew worse. Her eyes began to glow as she recognized the feeling. "Stiles." Instantly, she went running.