𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗

𝘎𝘏𝘖𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘋

━━━ "OKAY, SO YOU HEARD A VOICE THROUGH THE RADIO AND NOW YOU'RE CONVINCED that it's the voice of . . . "

"Stiles, your son," Meilani cut across Noah Stilinski, standing with her head held high in front of his desk at the sheriff's station. The second she'd woken up that morning all Meilani could think about was getting to Noah and telling him all about what had happened the night before when she heard Stiles' voice over the radio. The same voice that couldn't stop playing on a loop in her head, sending her heart into a speed that beat out the speed of a race car. She was just surprised it hadn't leap out of her chest yet.

Noah hummed and crossed his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow at Meilani to show that he didn't believe a single word she said. "Right and maybe it's just a random signal cross?"

Meilani huffed and fumbled in her leather jacket pocket for the little notepad and Stiles' keys that rested inside of it. She slammed them both down on the table, pressing a finger into the keys that belonged to Stiles. "We found Peter in the woods last night, Noah. Me, Isaac and Malia, okay? He gave us the keys to the Jeep and it started right up. Claudia's Jeep."

Noah waved his hands for Meilani to stop talking as he shook his head. "Okay, and now we're just supposed to suddenly trust  Peter Hale? He's kind of the reason you howl once a month. He's the cause of half of the catastrophes in this town, Lani. Now you wanna trust him?"

"I want you to trust me. I heard Stiles on that radio, I'm sure of it because I felt it right here," Meilani explained, pressing a finger to her chest where heart currently beat inside. "If you had heard it, too . . ."

"Enough, Meilani! Enough, okay?" Noah shouted, pushing the keys and little notepad with everything Meilani had written the night prior back towards her. 

Clearly, Meilani would not be getting through to Noah today.

A few hours later, Isaac, Meilani, Lydia and Malia all found themselves in the town of Canaan. Meilani had been woken up to Malia stopping the car suddenly in a random spot in some desolate town. Her brown eyes had fluttered open, head peeling itself off Isaac's shoulder where she'd subconsciously laid for the long journey and her eyebrows furrowed at the pure desertion of the whole town. 

Not a single soul was seen or heard as the four stepped out of the car, eyes glancing around them for any source of life. Cars around them were dirtied and rotted, almost like they'd been left behind for years upon years and would probably never work again unless someone gave them some serious tender, love and care. A dirtied and ripped up banner hung up above their heads and from what Meilani could read of the left over letters, it looked like some sort of carnival or fair banner from just before the town turned into the emptiness it was now.

Meilani strained her ears as they continued down the deserted street, but she couldn't a single heart beat that wasn't hers, Isaac's, Lydia's or Malia's. It was quite literally a ghost town. "I don't hear a single heart beat."

"Yeah, I'm not catching any scents either. Even with Meilani near me," Isaac added in, his senses all heightened thanks to his mate's close proximity. However, that did nothing to help him sense anything anyway with no one but them being in the vicinity. 

"Why would Stiles send us here?" Meilani wondered out loud, stepping around a lamp pole that had crashed over the top of a car. 

Lydia stopped underneath the banner and tilted her head, her green eyes scanning over the tarnished item. "This is the place I saw in the mirror at school. We're in the right place."

Meilani, Malia and Isaac split off from Lydia to the right to inspect a near by picnic table. It had been scattered with old receipts all of which had the date of 1987 on them, an old newspaper that was too old to read anymore as the lettering and paper had grown too faint from years of harsh weather, and other miscellaneous items that the people had been using before they were suddenly gone. 

A metal gate screeching up ahead caught the pack's attention and they slowly made their way up to the abandoned carousel. Vines and leaves had begun to grow over it from the neighboring trees, the horses and other animals that children used to be able to sit on were discolored and rusted from years of nonuse. However, when Meilani went to step on it to inspect a splash of dried up blood on one of the outside horses, the carousel suddenly kicked on and she stumbled back into Malia who shot her hands out to stop the true alpha from toppling over. 

An eery sort of music played from the carousel as it skipped over itself and slowed down at random points. The metal of carousel was like nails on a chalkboard to the wolves and they all covered their hands, cringing at the harsh sound grating their ears. 

Once the carousel had stopped it's horror movie-esque taunting with music, the pack split up amongst themselves again to see if they could find any sort of life in the town. Or at least a reason as to why Stiles would send them to Canaan. Meilani took the liberty of checking out a house that was across the street, pushing open the rickety and old wooden door and stepped inside. She called out into the empty space of the house in the hopes it'd get her a response. To which, she did when the back door suddenly flew closed as if slammed shut by someone.

Rushing forward, Meilani pressed out into the backyard and froze in her place when she saw Melissa and Scott stood before her with blank faces. She opened her mouth to speak to them — as if they were actually there — but both turned to reveal massive cracks in the back of their skulls. No way either one of them having been able to come out of that one alive. They both turned their backs on Meilani and went to continue off through the large backyard and Meilani would have ran after them to try and get answers, but a hand fell onto her shoulder. 

"It's okay," Lydia whispered, scaring Meilani slightly at her sudden close proximity. She'd been so distracted by Melissa and Scott that she hadn't heard Lydia, Malia or Isaac appear behind her. She frowned softly at the sight of Isaac's severely pale face and she could only assume by his face that he'd seen his face. "Your  mom and Scott aren't here. That's who you saw, right?"

"No, but — but I saw them. Their heads it . . . looked like someone took a bite out of their skulls," Meilani breathed, gulping down the bile that rose up in her throat as the image of her brother and mother were practically ingrained into her head.

"It wasn't real, Lans," Isaac promised Meilani, squeezing her shoulder gently to show her that this was real. "I know it felt real, but . . . it's not. They're both safe at home, I promise. Lydia said it has something to do with the energy here. It's causing hallucinations. We have to get going before they get worse."

Meilani blinked at her mate and shifted her eyes over to Lydia who offered her a sorrowful smile. "But . . . we can't leave, Lyds. Stiles sent us here for a reason."

Lydia exhaled heavily and slapped a hand to her side. "Yeah, but who are we going to ask? There's no one here."

"We can ask him," Malia announced, pointing over Lydia's shoulder to a little boy across the street.

The little boy couldn't have been more than ten and he had a pair of shorts on with a button up shirt. His blonde hair hung just above his collar in the back and he stared blankly at the breaking down house before him. Meilani called out to him, which only spooked the little boy and sent him into a panicked run. The pack were quick to follow after the boy through the empty streets, trying to track him down so they could ask him anything they could about what was going on around them.

The pack were lead to a house a few blocks down where a white curtain floated in the wind, like someone had just moved from behind it. With raised eyebrows, the four made their way inside the house and cautiously glanced around them, the wolves all keeping their ears perked for any sort of heart beat or sound they could pick up. It wasn't long before they picked up another heart beat and all turned to see a woman with short brown hair in a dress shuffle in from the attached dining room with a beaming smile. However, the smile only sent shivers down Meilani's spine at the sight of it.

"Visitors? I can't believe we have visitors! Oh, Caleb will be so happy to see you. It has been such a long time since he's had anyone to play with," the woman greeted the pack while Meilani made sure to keep her friends behind her as something felt off about the house she stood in. She just couldn't figure out what it was. "Oh, you must be thirsty. Come on in and have a seat while I get you something to drink."

"Seriously? What is with her?" Malia whispered to her friends once the woman had turned to run back into the kitchen for some drinks. 

Lydia let out a shaky breath and slowly moved forward with the others towards the dining room. "She's the woman I saw in the mirror."

By the time the pack sat down around the rounded dining room table, the woman came back in with a tray of glasses filled up with fresh lemonade. The beaming smile was still on her face as she walked into the room, placing the tray down in the middle of the table. "This was my mother's lemonade recipe. At least as much as I can remember. We always served this when we had friends to visit."

Malia had been the only one in the pack to actually drink the lemonade. Upon closer inspection, it was noticed how light the lemonade truly was and some sort of dirt floated on the top which turned the others off instantly. "We didn't come to visit. We're looking for someone."

"A friend of ours," Meilani chimed in, subtly pushing her cup slightly further away from herself as she sat forward. "Maybe you've seen him. His name is Stiles?"

The woman took the seat between Malia and Isaac and hummed in thought. "It's been awhile since anyone came through Canaan."

"How long?" Lydia questioned, still eyeing the woman warily.

When the woman didn't respond right away, Malia dug around in her pocket and held out one of the receipts that had been on the picnic table. "Since April 8th, 1987?"

The woman stared at the receipt and a tense air took over the room suddenly as she stared at Malia in horror. "Why would you disturb those things? They don't belong to you."

"We need to know what happened," Isaac pressed, blue eyes narrowing at the woman as she obviously knew what happened. Or at least, knew something that could help the pack out with figuring out what the hell was going on.

"There was a picnic. A community party. People have been leaving Canaan for a long time. That's the day the last of them left," the woman informed the pack, sitting up slightly taller in her chair as if out of fear.

"All at once?" Meilani asked in disbelief, eyes widening at the new information. "They all just disappeared?"

The woman shot her stern gaze to Meilani and that only sent more chills down the true alpha's spine. "I didn't say they disappeared. I said they left."

Malia barely flinched when the table around them shook violently for a moment before settling down again. The other three exchanged wary looks with each other while Malia stared at the woman without so much as blinking. "Did they leave in a cloud of green smoke?"

"They just left!" the woman screamed, flying out of her chair and slamming her hands down on the table. This caused for the room to shake violently for a moment much like the table had and Meilani instinctively shot her arms out to grip onto Lydia and Malia's arms until the room around them settled once more with the woman breathing heavily.

Lydia wrapped her hand around Meilani's that gripped to the short sleeve of her maroon floral dress she wore and licked her dry lips. "We — we didn't mean to upset you. We'll go now."

With a jerk of her head, Lydia motioned for the pack to get up and the trio followed her up and away from the table. Though, before any of the pack members could leave the house, the front door flew closed with a loud slam and caused Malia to jerk back from the door with a blink of her eyes. All heads snapped over to woman with freaked out expressions.

"No one is leaving. No one is leaving Canaan ever again."

Meilani pushed forward towards the door and tried to open the door, but it was as if an invisible force had been pressed against to keep it closed. No matter how much of her alpha strength that Meilani put into the door, it wouldn't budge an inch. The handle barely even turned, nor did it break off in her hand like she half expected it to with how much force she was putting into opening the door. 

"Meilani, open the door. You're a werewolf," Malia quipped at her, not tearing her eyes from the woman stood across from them.

"I'm trying here!"

Malia huffed at Meilani's response and walked over to the window next to the front door, flinging open the curtain to reveal the glass. She brought her fist back and sent it shooting forward into the glass of the window, but nothing happened. Not even a tiny crack in the glass formed where Malia's fist impacted with it. No matter how many times Malia punched at the glass, nothing happened to it and the werecoyote gave up after a few more harsh punches that should have sent the glass raining down like a sharp rain.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?" Malia muttered, lowering her fist and stepping away from the window.

Lydia turned to the woman and took in a deep breath before addressing her again. "Lenore? Could you unlock the door, please?"

Lenore shook her head slowly, keeping her stance in the archway between the living room and dining room. "Now that you're here, you need to stay. Caleb likes you."

"And we like him," Lydia responded softly, making her way back over to Lenore again. "But we need to help our town. People are disappearing, uh, leaving, I mean leaving. You could really help us."

"No one can help you. If they want to leave, they're going to leave. They'll go, and they'll go, and there won't be anything you can do about it."

Sensing a new heartbeat in the room, Meilani whipped around to see the little boy from outside — who she now assumed was Caleb — stood in the archway that lead towards the rooms in the back of the house. He stood with his arms behind his back and his dark eyes were dead set on Meilani.

"Come with me," Caleb demanded in an echoey tone. He didn't give the others a chance to argue as he turned on his heel to make his way down the hallway and leading Meilani, Malia and Isaac all down into the basement. 

Meilani paused at the bottom of the steps when her boot covered foot splashed into a puddle of water. She furrowed her eyebrows at the water and held her hands out for Malia and Isaac to stay on the final step. Her brown eyes flickered up to Caleb who stood across the room near the small box TV and stood with his arms behind his back once again. However, her eyes caught a window to her right and she stepped away to walk over to it, but she had no luck in opening it as it remained sealed shut.

"Caleb, can you help us find a way out of here?" Meilani questioned politely as Malia and Isaac both stepped slowly down into the watery floor of the basement.

Caleb didn't respond to Meilani, just walked over to the TV on his right and crouched down. He picked up a black VHS tape with nothing on it and placed it into the VCR player. An image suddenly appeared on the screen of a happy and smiling Caleb running around on the backyard of the house. His childish laughter was heard and the date in the corner read August 12th, 1985. 

"You have to stay because Mommy said so," Caleb said to the trio, eyes staying focused on the images of him running around and playing with no worries in the world. 

"No, we can't stay. We have to go home," Isaac told the young boy, Converses soaking up the water beneath his feet and he shook his foot out as if that would do anything to dry his sneakers.

"This is home," Caleb said in an echoey voice that had a hint of Lenore's tone to it and the door the basement suddenly slammed closed on its own accord. He still didn't move from his spot in front of the TV and continued to watch the images on the screen as if in a trance.

Malia turned to Meilani and waved for Meilani to move back over to her and Isaac. "Mei, come here for a sec. Look at the date on the TV."

Meilani walked back over to Malia and Isaac, whose gazes were both fixated on the screen. Her eyes followed their line of sight to the bottom right of the screen that still displayed the date in which the video had been recorded. That did not hold a good omen for any of the pack members.

"Uh, Caleb? Do you know what year you were born?" Isaac asked warily, gulping quietly to himself as he dreaded whatever response Caleb would have for them.

Caleb stood up to his feet once again and turned to face the pack. However, when he lifted his head, the tips of his hair were drenched and dripping with water as if he had been thrown into a pool. Even his clothes dripped tiny beads of water into the already small pool of water that circled around the ankles of the occupants in the room. "1976."

Meilani inhaled sharply and closed her eyes tightly, wishing above anything that this was all just a huge nightmare. "And when did you die, Caleb?"

Without responding, Caleb suddenly flashed from in front of the pack to behind them on the bottom step of the stairs. This caused for werewolves and werecoyote to whip around and put some distance between them and the soaked little boy. Water began to pool in from every wall in the room, some even seeping through the small window that Meilani tried to pry open. The water soaked all the drawings on the wall, causing the crayon and paint colors to run down the images and smudge them into unrecognizable images and blobs. Lydia's screams echoed around the house and Meilani's head snapped from the wall and over to Caleb who blocked their exit.

"We have to get out of here," Meilani breathed, brain working at warped speed to try and figure out what they could do.

"I know you're not going to beat an eight-year-old's ass, but I will," Malia offered before she turned and rushed at Caleb. Though, she didn't get very far as a choking sound erupted from her throat just inches away from Caleb and her hand went up to wrap around her throat that had been sucked clear of air. She dropped to her knees and gasped for air, water pooling out of her mouth as if she inhaled a lung full of pool water.

Meilani cursed and ran forward, dropping next to Malia and brushing the hair back from the werecoyote's face as she continued to spit up water. "Lia, hey. Hey, listen to me — you have to breathe. Come on." She frowned deeply when Malia could only respond in mouthfuls of water and went to run up the steps to call for Lydia when the same pressure built up behind her own throat. She collapsed on the third step and coughed up a mouthful of water.

"What are you doing to us?" Isaac wheezed from behind Meilani and she heard his own mouth spit out water much like Malia and her's had. 

"You're drowning just like me. Now we can be friends forever," Caleb explained to the three gasping teens before him, watching them as if he were watching a TV show. 

Meilani could see the black spots begin to form around her vision and she shook, trying to get herself to stand. She barely got herself up an inch before the water clogging up her lungs and throat suddenly vanished, causing for her, Malia and Isaac all to take in sharp intakes of fresh air. Their violently coughs echoed around the basement while Caleb opened up the basement door, letting them know they were free to go thanks to Lenore. The trio couldn't get out of the basement fast enough and they all ran out of the door to meet up with Lydia who stood on the front lawn of the house they'd been previously trapped in for Lord knew how long.

"Lyds, can we get out of here now?" Meilani pleaded, feeling the relief flood her body the second her feet were on the ground outside of the house.

"Yeah, absolutely," Lydia agreed, but didn't move to go towards the car with the others when she noticed Lenore and Caleb step outside the house. "You know you can still come with us, Lenore."

Lenore offered a small smile but shook her head in response. "I couldn't leave Caleb behind. Even if I know he's not real. I won't leave my son."

Not wanting to argue with the woman, Lydia nodded and turned to walk with the trio back towards the car and get themselves far, far away from Canaan.

Meilani had never been more happy to see her house in her life. She had all but flew out of Malia's car when she pulled up in the McCall driveway, but froze instantly at the side door that lead into the kitchen. A familiar scent rushed into her senses, a scent that thrust her back a few months prior when her pack was falling apart. The reason her pack fell apart in the first place. There was no way she could be catching that scent . . . could she?

Without answering, her pack's questions of why she froze, Meilani tore her way into the house and stopped dead when she saw none other than Theo Raeken stood in the kitchen with Liam and Hayden. She could hear Liam's scared gulp come from where he stood on the other side of kitchen island and Theo merely glanced over his shoulder at the true alpha.

"You know . . . somehow I don't think we're gonna hug this out."

word count: ( 3.9k )

CHAPTERS LEFT: 14

— welp . . . everyone say hello to Theo because he's back ! the rest of this part is going to get real interesting and i am ready for it because we're so close to Stiles coming back, ya'll ! bring it on.

MEILANI FACT OF THE CHAPTER:

meilani's lucky number is six and that's why she chose her lacrosse jersey to be that number. mostly it's because the number 6 is in her birthday ( 16 ) and everything else around her just always lead to something happening with six and she instantly became attached to the number. plus . . .it's my lucky number so we're twinning and idec

( beginning banner by hellstarshipper / ending banner by murdersongs )