"THIS IS THE ONE CONTROLLING HIM? This kid?" Derek questioned with a 'really?' look as Matt leaned over, staring down at his paralyzed body with a sneer.

"Well, Derek, not everyone's lucky enough to be a big, bad werewolf. Oh, yeah, that's right. I've learned a few things lately," Matt told them, standing back up to look at Scott who was staring at his best friends, shocked that the Daehler boy knew. "Werwolves, hunters, Kanimas. It's like a frickin' Halloween party every full moon. Except for you two, Stiles and April. What do you guys turn into?"

April shook her head at the Stilinski boy, warning him to not make a sarcastic comment. It was pointless, though. "Abominable snowman. But, uh. it's more of, like, a wintertime thing. You know, seasonal."

The blonde gasped as Matt gestured to the Kanima with his head, and it's hand jerked to make a small slit on the back of Stiles's neck. When the two other best friends moved to catch him or do something as he fell onto Derek, the monster held a clawed hand out, stopping them and causing April to back into Scott so that she didn't get Scott.

"You bitch," Stiles exclaimed before he collided with Derek's chest.

The Kanima shook it's finger warningly at Scott and April as the Hale man grunted out, "Get him off of me."

"Oh, I don't know, Derek," Matt responded, smirking down at them. "I think you two make a pretty good pair. It must kind suck, though, to have all that power taken away from you with just a little cut to the back of the neck. I bet you're not used to feeling this helpless."

"Still got some teeth. Why don't you get down here a little closer, huh? We'll see how helpless I am," Derek taunted.

Stiles, his voice muffled and cracked, added, "Yeah, bitch." Scott and April's eyes widened in fear as they heard another car pull up, and headlights shone through the windows.

"I wonder which one that is." The Daehler boy stood back up straight, turning the the McCall boy. "Do what I tell you to and I won't hurt her. I won't even let Jackson near her."

"Don't trust him!" Stiles warned, but the blonde girl could tell from the look on her best friend's face what he was going to do. She would do the same thing if she were in his position, which she was, but for some reason, Matt wasn't addressing her.

Angrily, Matt flipped Stiles over onto his back and pressed his foot against his airway so that he couldn't breathe. He gasped for breath while the boy on top of him asked, "This work better for you?"

"Hey, just stop." He wasn't stopping, and the Stilinski boy was beginning to turn purple. "Stop!"

"Please," April breathed out, her voice breaking.

Matt seethed, "Then do what I tell you to."

"Okay," Scott agreed, but Stiles was still suffocating under the foot. April breathed out a shaky breath, and a tear slipped down her face. "All right. Stop!"

"You, take him in there." The Daehler motioned to the Kanima, taking his foot off of the sheriff's son and gesturing to him. His head turned to the other two teenagers. "You two...with me. It's time to see who came to visit us."

They watched as Melissa walked through the door. "Mom?" 

"You scared me, where is every..." she trailed off and froze when she saw the scene in front of her. Her son and basically her daughter were standing in front of her, a gun pointed between them.

Just then, the door swung open once again, and Ashley stepped through it. She was searching through her purse for something, but she seemed to give up after a second. She looked up and screamed when she saw the gun pointed at April.

"Mom, Ashley, just do what he says. He promised he wouldn't hurt you guys," Scott told them while the strawberry blonde woman let out panicked, shaky breaths. 

"He's right," Matt confirmed with a nod before turning the gun onto April and pulling the trigger.

Time seemed to move in slow motion. Ashley let out a sob, and the blonde girl braced herself for the impact of the bullet that never came. She gasped when Scott fell to the floor, holding his stomach. He must've jumped in front of her.

"That works too, I guess," the one controlling the Kanima shrugged as the women in front of him let out screams and April rushed to her best friend's side. "I didn't say I wouldn't hurt you."

"Baby," Melissa sighed through a sob, and she tried to move toward her son. April could hear Sheriff Stilinski shout something from the room that he was chained up in.

Pointing the gun at her, Matt yelled, "Back! Back!"

"Mom!" Scott warned, holding his hand out to stop the worried woman from doing something stupid. "Mom, stop. Mom!"

"Are you okay?" April whispered to him, holding her hand over the wound as he groaned in pain, trying to stop him from bleeding out.

He nodded quickly. "Yeah, I will be."

"I can't believe you did that," she muttered, looking him in the eyes. "You absolute idiot."

"That's not usually what people say when I save their lives," he chuckled out, and April might've smiled if it weren't for the very very serious situation that was going on that moment.

Matt's voice brought them back. "I said get back."

"Scott," Melissa said, her voice broken as she looked to her wounded son with a worried expression. April knew that this was killing her to not be able to help him.

He begged, "Mom, do it. Please, Mom."

"April," Ashley finally spoke up, looking to her niece through scared tears. "April, what's going on?"

"Just listen to him, and we'll be fine," the Sharpe girl responded.

The Daehler boy grunted to the McCall that was leaning against the bench. "Get up, McCall."

"Matt!" shouted Stilinski, his voice clearer this time as he attempted to negotiate with the boy with the gun. April knew there was no hope, though. "Matt, listen to me!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Everybody shut the hell up! Now get up, or I shoot someone else next, and this time, you won't be able to save them!"

"Please," Melissa pleaded at Matt locked her and Ashley in the cell next to the sheriff. Scott leaned against the walls, and April was helping to support him. "He needs to see a doctor."

"You think so?" Matt questioned, and the blonde girl took a deep breath, scared for his next words. The last thing they needed at that moment was Scott to be outed as a werewolf to his mother.

Stilinski stood up from the bench and pointed angrily at the kid. "Hey! Hey, you listen to me!"

"It's all right," Scott assured them. "I'm okay."

"No, honey, you're not okay," the McCall woman said between crying as mascara ran down Ashley's cheeks. April wished more than anything that she could just reach through those bars and give both of them a hug. She wanted them to tell her that everything would be all right.

Scott told her, "It doesn't hurt, Mom."

"'Cause that's the adrenaline, okay?" Melissa explained, but the teenagers in the room knew better than that. "Please let me...Let me just take a look at him, okay? I mean, I can help stop the bleeding."

"They have no idea, do they?" Matt quizzed Scott, ignoring the woman's begging.

Sobbing, Ashley tried. "Please just let us go. We won't tell anyone. Just let me get to my niece. Let us get him help."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Matt screamed, before looking at them menacingly through the bars. "Ladies, if you keep talking, I'm gonna put the next couple of bullets through their heads."

"Okay, okay," the female McCall gave up while Ashley just fell silent.

"Back to the front, guys," the boy with the gun told the two best friends, and when they didn't move, he gestured with the weapon. "After you."

Once they were back in the sheriff's office with the two paralyzed males on the ground that remained silent, Scott turned to Matt. "The evidence is gone. Why don't you just go?"

"You think the evidence mattered that much, huh? No, no, I want the book," the other boy told them aggressively.

"What?" Scott questioned, confused. "What book?" 

Matt groaned, rolling his eyes like it was obvious and they were all just idiots. "The bestiary. Not just a few pages, I want the entire thing."

"We don't have it," the Sharpe girl replied quickly, and Matt looked around with panicked eyes. "It's Gerard's. He has it. Why do you want it, anyway? Jackson not doing as good a job of killing everyone as you want him to?"

"I need answers," the Daehler muttered, ignoring her comment and answering the question.

The werewolf exclaimed, "Answers to what?"

"To this." He lifted up his shirt to show them, and all of their eyes widened, even the ones on the floor. The skin on his torso was slowly turning to the scaly one of the Kanima.

《❀》

AFTER SHOWING THEM HOW HE WAS slowly turning into the Kanima, Matt led Scott and April into a the separate room filled with desks for the deputies. 

"There," he said, indicating that they should stop. The McCall boy breathed out a pained breath and looked down at his gunshot wound. This caused April to stare at her hands that were covered in his blood. "You know, I feel sorry for you, McCall, 'cause right now, you're thinking, 'How am I gonna explain this when it heals?' And the sad part is, you don't even realize how incredible it is that you actually are healing. 'Cause you know what happens to everyone else when they get shot? They die, and if you're not careful, I'll demonstrate on Sharpe."

Scott questioned as Matt turned his back to them and his blonde best friend inched closer to him, "Is that what happened to you? You drowned, didn't you?"

"He shouldn't have let them drink."

April furrowed her eyebrows at the boy in confusion. Who the hell was he talking about? "What? Who? Matt, what do you mean?"

"Lahey! He shouldn't have let them drink," he yelled back.

The werewolf took a small step closer, and when the Sharpe girl grabbed his arm to pull her back, he looked at her with a look that said to trust him. "What? Who was drinking?

"The swim team, you idiot!" Matt exclaimed. "I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know they had just won state, and Lahey, he's letting his favorites come over to have a couple drinks to celebrate. Who cares if they're seventeen, right?"

"Were you at Isaac's?" April quizzed, tilting her head to the side at the mention of Isaac's last name.

"He had this first edition Spider-Man, or was it Batman? And we were gonna make a trade. But then, I'm over there, and I hear music. And everyone's having a good time, and I see Sean. He throws Jessica into the pool. And then Bennett goes in, and—"

Scott asked, "Bennett? What, the hunter?"

"And then Camden. Isaac's jarhead brother, he grabs me. He thinks it's funny," Matt told them, ignoring their questions. 

In realization, the blonde girl muttered, "They threw you in." The Daehler walked over to Scott and stared him right in the eye as he explained the next part.

"I—I yelled that I can't swim, but nobody listens. I go under, and I swallow water, and no one cares. And I see these bodies underwater. I—I see Jessica's got her hands down Sean's board shorts, Tucker's grabbing Kara, and I'm drowning. I'm dying, and they're laughing! All of a sudden, I was just — I'm lying by the pool, and Lahey is right there, right above me, and he says...He says 'You tell no one! This, this is your fault! What little bastard doesn't know how to swim? You say nothing! You tell no one!'

"And I didn't. I didn't tell anyone. And I would see them at school, and they wouldn't even look at me. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, I'd gasp for breath, and my parents, they thought I was an asthmatic. They—they even gave me an inhaler. They didn't know that every time I closed my eyes, I—I was drowning. You know that little white light that they talk about you seeing when you die? Well, I didn't see anything. Just darkness. Everything was dark. But then... then came the Argent's funeral, and everything changed.

"I was taking some photos, and then, purely by accident, Lahey gets in one of the photos. I look down at the screen on my camera, and I just had this unbelievable rage that fills up inside of me, and I just — I look at him, and I wanna see him dead. And the next day, he actually was. You know, Einstein was right — Imagination is more important than knowledge. It was like something out of Greek mythology, like—like the Furies coming down to punish Orestes." When he saw the two looking at him with confused expressions, he sighed. "You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Was he the guy who stabbed out his eyes?" Scott guessed.

Matt groaned. "God, that's Oedipus, you dumbass! The Furies are deities of vengeance. Their tears ran of blood, and they had snakes for hair. If there was a crime that had gone unpunished, the Furies would do the punishment. Jackson is my Fury. You know, when I saw him the next night, it was like this bond had been cemented between the two of us. I knew he had killed Lahey for me, and I knew he would do it again. So, I went to Tucker's garage — I even paid for an oil change — and guess what? He didn't even recognize me. So, when he wasn't looking, I took a shot of him from my camera, and in a few hours, he was dead.

"So, I took more pictures. All I had to do was take their picture. And Jackson would take their life." All of a sudden, the place went completely dark, and the alarms started blaring loudly. "What is this? What's that? What's going on?"

"I don't know," Scott answered, and they all froze when headlights shone through the window to reveal at least five hunters with machine guns in their hands.

Then they fired.

Diving to the ground and behind desks, Matt and Scott were able to avoid the shattering glass and gunfire, but April wasn't so lucky. One of the bullets caught her arm just below her shoulder, and she fell to the ground.

She barely had time to recover from the fall when smoke began to fill the room. She heard Scott call, "April!"

"Scott, I'm here," she yelled back. "Go get Stiles and Derek. I'll get the adults."

"Why do I smell blood?"

She sighed, cursing under her breath as she held her arm tightly and blood soaked through her shirt. "Don't worry about it. Go get Stiles. We'll meet you outside."

"Be safe. Watch out for the Kanima. If you get into any trouble, just scream, and I'll come find you," he assured her. She could hear him get up, and she did the same.

She used the desks and walls to find her way out of the room and to a clear spot before racing to the cell room. She saw Stilinski trying to break the pole off the wall and reached toward the keys on the hook on the other wall.

As she made her way to unlock his handcuffs, Ashley gasped when she saw her niece's arm. "April, what the hell happened?"

"I'll be fine," the blonde muttered, and with one twist of the key, the sheriff was free. "I'm gonna get you guys out of here."

Melissa laughed in relief, but when April reached to unlock the cell, all she heard was a gasp and two thuds. She spun around just in time to watch the Stilinski man fall to the ground, unconscious with Matt behind him. Turning to her, the Daehler boy grabbed her shoulders and slammed her against the wall so that she slid down. She wasn't knocked out, but between the blood loss and the hit on the head, she was really out of it.

She heard the sound of what seemed like Derek growling followed by loud crashes. It seemed like whoever he was fighting actually stood a chance, so it must've been the Kanima. Her vision cleared up in just enough time to see Scott enter and get rid of the lizard monster.

Derek opened the door to the cell to let the women out, but Melissa backed into a dark corner of it when she saw what her son was. More worried about her niece, Ashley pushed past both the werewolves to the girl.

"Oh, my God," she sobbed, taking a look at the bloody arm. "We have to get you to a hospital."

That was when everything went back for April.