We're getting close to that chapter, and I'm super stressed because Stiles and Scott fighting makes me so sad, and now I've got to put Riley through it too ughhh

From here on out, it's just Riley's POV

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✧･ﾟ:*Riley*:･ﾟ✧

It had begun to get late, and Melissa didn't want us all staying late since the next day we still had school. I had been reluctant to leave at first, not want Lydia to wake up alone, but her mother assured me that she would call me as soon as she was awake.

I was still hesitant, but Melissa just continued to lead us all towards the door. Stiles offered to drive both Scott and I home, while everyone else was getting picked up. We both accepted, and the ride was rather quiet.

When Stiles pulled over at the front of my house, I opened the car door and got out. Stiles didn't leave straight away, tapping his fingers on the wheel.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay? With everything going on, you know."

I shook my head with a small smile, walking around to the driver's side of the Jeep. "I'll be fine. Charlotte and Iris are both home and you should be with your dad. Don't worry about me."

Leaning through the open window, I kissed gently. "I'll see you tomorrow."

As I went to go inside, I heard the Jeep door open. I thought it was going to be Stiles again, but when I turned around, I was face to face with Scott. His face wasn't showing many expressions, so it was making it rather hard to know what to expect.

"I- I wanted to ask you about, um, what you said in the parking lot," he said almost nervously.

"You guys can't actually be serious right now? We've all killed or almost killed someone before, and we all were given the benefit of the doubt."

"Guys, let's just concentrate on catching her first. We'll figure out the rest later."

"Okay, well, come and get me when you decide that killing her isn't a part of the plan."

Clearing my throat, I nodded, "What about it?"

Scott seemed unsure, but he was the one who wanted to have this conversation. He looked over his shoulder to Stiles, but he wasn't getting out of the Jeep; he knew this wasn't a conversation he needed to be a part of.

"I shouldn't have stayed quiet-"

"No, you shouldn't have," I said firmly, cutting him off. "But you did."

"I know," he replied, head bowed.

"Scott, you don't get to pick and choose who you find worthy of a second chance, you understand that, right?"

His brows furrowed as if what I said had made no sense. "I don't do that."

My head fell back with a laugh of frustration, "But, you do. You literally said that you believed that Peter could still be saved; Peter, who has tried to kill us, and mainly you, several times. He's literally my father, and I can't even agree with you.

"Scott, Peter killed so many people, Stiles killed people when he was possessed, I nearly lost control and killed a hospital floor full of people, but you believe we could all be saved. Tracy wasn't herself and killed one person, and that's where you draw the line at saving her? That's what I mean when I said that you pick and choose."

The werewolf's mouth was slightly agape as he stared at me. He had heard my words, and they had hurt. But they had to be said.

"I'm not going to say that I'm sorry, Scott, because I'm not. Tracy needed our help, and when the suggestion of killing her came up you said nothing. You're supposed to be better; the True Alpha," I told him, not pulling any punches.

Scott looked ashamed, having trouble meeting my eye. "You're right. I should have said something. I'm sorry."

Pursing my lips, I nodded.
"I don't mean to sound like a child, I just- I don't want things to change just because of the supernatural. I don't want us to change."

"We're not going to," Scott assured me.

I just hoped he was right.

I gave him a small nod, but didn't go over to him or anything. Instead, I turned and went inside my house. I looked out the window to watch the Jeep driving away.

Taking a moment, I tried to figure out what was going on with me; why I wanted them to help Tracy so badly. I mean, obviously killing her is the wrong option, we should be trying to save people, but it was more than that.

What if Stiles or I, or someone else in the Pack slipped up? When would Scott decide that we weren't worth saving too?

Shaking my head to clear the thought, I headed into the living room. Looking around, I saw Charlotte on the couch with Iris, seated right beside each other, hand in hand.

"Well, aren't you two just adorable," I teased as I dropped down on to the other couch.

Charlotte rolled her eyes with a smile as she looked over to me. When she saw me, her smile fell. "What happened to you? You look like shit."

Rolling my shoulders I cracked my neck which was still a bit stiff from being paralysed. "Oh, you know, attacked by a Kanima and left paralysed on the floor. Just the usual."
Noticing how Iris' brows were raised, I moved my gaze to her, "Still happy you stayed?"

The woman laughed, "Well, I can't imagine getting bored here."

"I hope not," Charlotte said quietly, moving closer to Iris.

"Alrighty," I said standing up. "I'll leave you guys to it. I'm gonna go take a shower. Don't you kids stay up too late."

My sister chuckled beneath her breath, watching me leave, "Good night, Riley."

Going down the hallway, I walked into my room and grabbed some fresh pyjamas, before heading to the bathroom. After turning on the shower so that it could heat up, I removed my shirt carefully. Turning around in the mirror, I looked over my shoulder to examine my back.

The cut from Tracy was still healing. I could only imagine that it was taking a bit longer since it was from a Kanima tail. Taking off the rest of my clothes, I got under the water. The water hitting my back made me wince, teeth biting my lip as I took a deep breath.

When the stinging sensation in my back finally stopped, I began to wash myself, each movement careful so as to not agitate my back while it healed. I could feel my skin knitting itself back together slowly as I washed my hair, the suds sliding down my body.

I had just wanted for us to be able to save Tracy. Scott even finally admitted that saving her was the mindset we should have had from the beginning. But now she was dead. I just hoped Scott didn't change his mind after what we spoke about.

♧♤♢♡

My first class the next day was AP biology. I was in my usual seat, with Sydney sitting in Lydia's since she was still in the hospital. We were mindlessly chatting as I was flipping to the chapter for this week's class.

Scott was to my left sitting next to Kira. We hadn't spoken since my driveway the previous day, so I wasn't completely sure what to make of that. All I knew, was that we were at least on better terms than we had been after he was tight-lipped about killing Tracy.

Mrs Finch was at the front of the class, walking away from the board where she had just finished a DNA chalk diagram.
"If 99.9% of our DNA sequence is the same as other humans, what could account for the missing 0.1% difference? Theo?"

I found myself peeking over my shoulder to look at the boy. He was a few rows back skim reading a page out of the textbook. At the sound of his name, he glanced up, "Um, nucleotides."

"That's right. Yes, Kira?"

"Can there be more than one species in the same DNA?" my friend asked.

Mrs.Finch shook her head. "No, but there can be multiple sets of DNA in the same individual. We call that a Chimera."

I quickly put the pieces together in my head. Kira was enquiring about Tracy. If she didn't have more than one species in the one DNA, then maybe. . . she had two sets of DNA. Both Kanima and werewolf.

But how could that even be possible?

I looked over to Kira, both of us wide-eyed. Chimera. That's what Tracy had to be. But that still begged the question, how? We had never seen anything like this before.

"Anyone know where that term comes from?" Mrs Finch asked, continuing the conversation about Chimeras. I noticed Scott taking notes, realising that he had come to the same conclusion that Kira, Scott and I had.
"Sydney?"

"Greek mythology," the girl answered from Lydia's seat. "It's a lion with a goat coming out of its back and a tail that ends in the head of a snake."

"That's right, Sydney. Do you want to read us the full Wikipedia entry off of your phone?"

Sydney lowered her phone, a light blush blooming in her cheeks. I turned back to Mrs Finch to avoid her any further embarrassment.

"But that does get us into the next topic of mutation," Mrs Finch continued. "As you know from the reading, DNA is a fragile molecule. Isn't it, Scott? Or did you miss last night's assigned reading?"

Kira and I turned to Scott, to see the boy looking flustered all of a sudden.
"Kind of."

"Kind of or yes?"

He lowered his head shamefully for a moment, before nodding a little. "Mostly yes."

The woman gave a tight-lipped smile as she walked over to her desk. "Well, then thank you for another helpful transition in topic. Drop forms," she announced as she held up a small stack of papers. "All those now acutely aware that they do not belong in this class, you should fill one out. The rest will be on my desk."

Mrs Finch placed a few forms on the desks of students she wanted to make clear should drop the class, before returning to the front of the room. I was having déjà vu to Mr Harris' chemistry classes at this point.

Everyone began to pack their books back into their bags as the bell rang. Zipping up my bag, I noticed Scott stepping to the front of the classroom.

He hesitated for a moment, before picking up one of the forms and walking out of the room. Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I told Kira I'd meet her later, then rushed out after Scott.

"Hey, Scott!" I called.

The boy slowed down, glancing over his shoulder to see me approaching him. "Riley, I really don't want to hear it."

"Scott, you can't drop this class. What about Berkley?"

Folding the drop form, he looked down at me. "I don't know. But there are more important things."

"I'm sure there are," I agreed. "But you have to keep your future in mind, Scott. School is going to end eventually, and we still need to have a life after this. So you are going to tear up that form, and Lydia, Kira and I are going to help you study and pass this class because when school is over you, me and Stiles are moving out together. Stiles' vision; that's our vision. The three of us. And I'll be damned if I let you give up. Hell, I'd let Theo help tutor you before I let you drop out."

Scott's jaw clenched as he let my words sink in. He raised the hand gripping the form slightly, before tearing it in half and handing it to me. "Okay."

I went to the nearest trash can and shoved the form in, before walking back over to Scott. I hesitated for a moment, before putting my arms around him. "We're going to get through this," I told him.

"I know," he responded with a sigh as he embraced me in return. "We always do."

Pulling away from him, I shifted my backpack up higher. "Good. Then let's get to the library and you can catch up on last night's reading."

♧♤♢♡

Kira had met Scott and I in the library and we had gotten stuck into our AP biology work. Scott knew the content, he just needed to be able to keep on top of the workload. That was usually the hardest part though, wasn't it?

We were about to move on to next week's work when I noticed that Scott was no longer looking at the textbook.
"Scott? Come on, we're doing well."

I glanced over to where he was looking, to see Stiles and Malia heading our way. When Stiles' eyes met mine, we exchanged smiles. He looked tired, like he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. I wondered what he and Scott had spoken about after they dropped me off.

"Did you get in to see Lydia?" Scott asked as our friends came over.

He sighed as he shook his head, "No. I tried using my free period but she's still in the ICU and no one outside the family is allowed in."

I was going to go with Stiles to the hospital, but I couldn't miss AP biology. I made a promise to Charlotte that I wouldn't let my grades slip, and the only class I was hellbent on not missing, was AP biology.

"We got one thing," Malia told us as she placed an open book on the table.

Stiles walked around to my side of the table, putting an arm around me as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my temple.
"Hey," I said quietly. "Sorry I couldn't come with you this morning."

He shook his head, "It's fine. We couldn't see her anyway."

We all turned our attention to what Malia had placed on the table. Our written version of the bestiary, the one we had converted from Gerard's USB version.

"Anything in here about half-werewolves, half-Kanimas?" Kira asked.

"The Chimera," Scott said as he turned through the pages.

Stiles' brows narrowed as he sat down beside me, "Um, what?"

"Chimera," Scott repeated as he looked over to Stiles. "It's a creature made of incongruous parts. And if Liam said he found two burial sites, it means Tracy's not the only one."

I felt my heart drop at the thought. "So, if Tracy is one, then who is the other?"

"And why would they bury them?" Stiles added.

"Deaton thinks it's part of their process," Scott answered. He had obviously spoken to Deaton about the situation with Tracy some more.

Malia's face grew solemn as a thought seemed to occur to her. "The people in masks."

She was right, they had to be connected. They came for Tracy, after all. But why kill her?

There were too many questions.

♧♤♢♡

We stayed at the library for hours poring through the bestiary and other books to try and find out more about Chimeras. Unfortunately, a lot of it was only Greek mythology, which didn't always relate to the modern creatures we faced now.

Just like how when we were told that silver killed werewolves, it was actually the Argents; French for silver.
Any time we found anything about Chimeras in the books we were reading, we did our best to cross-reference it with another book. We figured that at least if more than one book had the information, maybe it was more likely to be correct.

Scott and Kira had left maybe half an hour ago. Melissa had called Scott, saying some kid had come in with supernatural style injuries.

They left and Malia, Stiles and I stayed back to continue on with the research. It was labouring work, but it had to be done.

Malia was mindlessly clicking a pen, Stiles was asleep on a book, and I had read the same paragraph at least three times now. We were all burnt out and weren't going to get anything done in this state.

Suddenly, the clicking noise stopped and Malia picked up her books and bag. "I'm done. I need to go. Can you take me home?"

I rubbed my eyes with a small yawn, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, sure."
Shoving all of my books into my bag, I shook Stiles' arm a little. "Hey, I'm going to drop Malia home. Do you want me to meet you at your place?"

Stiles' mumbled incoherent words but didn't bother to open his eyes.

"Don't stay here too late, Stiles. Pack up and head home."

I followed Malia out into the car park, not wasting any time getting in the car and leaving. As I went to pull out of the car park, Malia cleared her throat.
"Can we make a stop somewhere?"

"Yeah, sure. Where do you want to go?"

"Tracy's place."

My eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why do you want to go to Tracy's house?"

She shrugged, staring out the window. "I just want to make sure that we didn't miss anything last time we were there."

I obliged her request, changing the direction we were heading in and driving straight to Tracy's. The street was quiet this late at night.

The house was completely abandoned now that both occupants were deceased, so it wasn't all too hard getting inside. We walked up to Tracy's room which had police tape stretched from wall to wall.

I stood to the side, letting Malia have free roam of the place. She seemed like she was looking for something in particular, and I didn't want to get in the way of that.

She first went over to Tracy's bedroom wall, which had drawings tacked all over it. When none of these appeared to give her the answers she was looking for, she walked over to the girl's vanity.

Something had caught her eye, which intrigued me also. Walking over, I saw Malia was staring at a book.

Sitting on the book was a note.

'Here's the book you asked for.
Cheesy stuff, but still a fun, scary read.'

Malia moved the note to the side so that we could see the cover. The book was titled 'The Dread Doctors', written by T.R. McCammon. The only imagery on the cover was an illustration of three strange figures, who I assumed were the doctors.

"It's them," Malia gasped.

"Who?" I asked her, examining the cover.

"The ones who killed Tracy. The people in the masks."