CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT:
THE ROOT CELLAR

SHE WAS DRAGGED BACK INTO the room by her brother, who claimed that if he had to suffer, so did she. She sat there with her arms crossed over her chest, refusing to even meet her father's eyes as he talked. Scott stood behind of the seat his sister sat in, keeping a hand on her shoulder as if to keep her calm, knowing how much the man's presence would upset her.

     "I'm not gonna lie." Rafael spoke. "I'm more than a little disturbed, not only by the number of missing parents, but the fact that it's Stiles' father, your father, and your mother."

     Isaac, who had opened a back of icebreaker mints raised a hand before saying, "Mine are both dead."

     "Technically one of mine are too." Elaine hummed. "Well, he's dead to me at least."

     "Save the cliched teenage apathy for your high school teachers. The four of you know more of what you're saying, and I'm fully willing to keep you here all night if I have to."

     Ignoring her father, Elaine turned to Isaac and held out her hand. "Isaac, can I have two of those please?" The wolf nodded before handing them to her and she smiled before popping them in her mouth, taking it upon herself to loudly crunch them, smiling even wider at the annoyed look that crossed her father's face.

     "You can't keep us here." Scott told him.

     "Not without some kind of warrant." Allison continued.

     "I've got a desk full of probable cause." He motioned to all of the weaponry laid out on the table.

     That's when Allison stood up. "My father is a highly respected private security consultant and federally licensed firearms dealer. That means he has to own a few weapons. Like this 1575-pound draw tactical crossbow or this carbon steel marine combat knife, .50AE desert eagle." She hummed before picking up a smoke grenade. "Smoke grenade with pull ring igniter." And then she pulled it before quickly running out of the room with the other three following after her.

     "That was badass, Ally!" Elaine laughed as they got into the car and Scott got on his bike with both him and Allison quick to speed off. They both stopped, getting out of the car as Scott got off of his bike.

     "Are you okay?" Allison quickly asked Scott.

     He nodded. "I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't come up with anything, but what you did, that was awesome."

     "I still haven't gotten anything from Stiles, have you?" Isaac joined the group, looking between Elaine and Scott. That's when a gasp fell from Elaine's lips, one hand going to her heart and another going to her head.

     "Elaine?" Scott was quick to snap his head towards her.

     "Stiles." Elaine gasped. "Something happened to Stiles."

     "Elaine, I'm sure he's fine." Allison told the girl.

     "Well, we can't wait for him, come on." Isaac walked away and Allison followed him. Elaine stood there for a moment, exchanging looks with Scott before she nodded her head and the two followed after them. They all stood there, and Elaine's eyes fell on the full moon. The sound of footsteps came up behind them, announcing Deucalion's appearance.

     "Cutting it a little close aren't we, Scott?"

     "We got a little delayed." Scott answered. "Where are the others?"

     "Occupying themselves with other pursuits." The alpha replied.

     "So its just you and me against her?" Scott quizzed.

     "I think you'll be surprised at what a good team we make."

     "Okay, get Stiles, and then get to the root cellar, okay?" Scott told the three, but his eyes focused on his sister. She met his eyes before nodding her head. "We'll keep Jennifer away long enough for you to get them out of there."

     "How are you gonna do that?" Isaac frowned.

     "I have a plan." Was his simple response before moving to follow Deucalion.

     "Hey, asshole." Elaine called towards Deucalion. The blind alpha looked in her direction. "So much as a scratch on my brother, I will kill you with the snap of my fingers."

     "Oh, I don't doubt it, Elaine." The alpha responded before he and Scott walked away.

Isaac, Allison, and Elaine rain through the woods. A storm was violently brewing, the wind was quickly picking up which caused Elaine's hair to fly everywhere. They were trying everything they could to find them, but it seemed Isaac couldn't catch their scent.

     "Are you sure we're going the right way?" Isaac asked Allison.

     "I know we're near it." She answered. "You think you can pick up a scent?"

     "I'm trying but I can't―︎" Isaac cut himself off and suddenly stopped, grabbing the two female's attention. "I hear something. It's an―︎it's an emitter. It's one of your dads."

     "Are you sure?" Both of them asked in sync.

     He nodded. "Has to be. Come on." And then they were running through the woods. They kept running until they found the tree, stopping for a split second before running towards it. They looked around, trying to find the way in before Isaac spoke to both of them. "Allison, Elaine." And that's when they spotted the doors to the cellar.

They quickly ran over to it before pulling it open with Allison going in first, Elaine following her, and Isaac following Elaine. The storm was only growing stronger and stronger by the minute. They made it down the wooden steps and Elaine practically jumped off of them when she saw her mother sitting there, tied up, but alive.

      "Mama." Elaine whispered before quickly running over to the woman. She quickly hugged her and felt tears cloud her vision before she swallowed and offered her mother a small smile.

     "Where's Stiles? Where's my son?" Noah was quick to ask as Isaac started untying him with Elaine and Allison doing the same for their parents.

     "And Scott?" Melissa asked, looking at Elaine.

     "They're coming, all right?" Isaac was quick to answer. "They're on their way to help." They looked up at the sound of cracking and were quick to close their eyes as the ground above started to pour into the cellar. Dirt and rocks flew every which way.

     "The ground." Elaine called. "It's caving in on itself."

     "Hurry!" Isaac yelled as they managed to get the parents from their ropes. Things were toppling over, beams were falling, and just as they went to get out, the stairs collapsed.

     "Oh for fuck's sake!" Elaine snapped.

     "Elaine!" Her mother snapped at her and Elaine rolled her eyes.

     "Ground me for cursing later, we've got to figure away out."

     When the shaking stopped momentarily, Argent moved forward trying to see if there was a way they could even possibly get out but he shook his head as he turned to look at them. "It's blocked." He then looked towards Isaac. "What do you see? Anything?" Isaac just shook his head. More cracking could be heard. "Look out!"

Another beam fell and just before it could land on Isaac, Noah was quick to pull him away. Another one started to crack, and Noah was quick to usher Elaine and her mother out of the way. But Elaine did the opposite. She watched as Isaac held it up with strain and she was quick to join him before her eyes started glowing and she used a non-verbal spell to help keep her strength up along with Isaac's.

     "Is it me or is this place getting smaller?" Isaac grunted out.

     "My magic won't hold much longer." Elaine told them. "Someone needs to do something fast."

     "I can't do it." Isaac spoke. "I can't hold it. I can't hold it" By now they were all holding up one of the beams, trying to keep it from collapsing on them. Just as they thought it was, the beam suddenly became stable. They turned to see Stiles there, with his metal bat placed under the beam.

     "I always said aluminum was better than wood." Noah said as he looked towards his son. The two were quick to exchange a hug. Elaine relaxed, she practically fell to the floor in exhaustion. She swallowed, glancing up when the storm suddenly stopped and not moments later Stiles got a call.

     "Scott?" Stiles answered the phone.

     "Hey, are you okay?"

     "Yeah, we're okay." Stiles nodded. "We're all okay. How about you, you okay?"

     "Sort of."

     "You think you can come get us?"

     "Yeah, of course."

     "Great, okay. Um, uh, bring a ladder." This caused the group to chuckle before watching as he hung up. Stiles turned his head and found Elaine and she met his eyes before offering him an exhausted smile. Holding up a simple beam drained so much from her, she didn't realize that what she had been drained of in that moment was all of the good parts of her soul that were left. Because soon, Elaine was going to be swallowed by darkness, just as her mother had predicted a year ago.

━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎

     "If we don't have a goddamn family dinner tonight, I'm moving out of the house." Elaine told them, looking between her brother and mother. "Hell, we could even invite the Stilinski's."

     "You've gotten a lot bolder around me with your use of words." Melissa noted. "Small words only, at least around me."

     Elaine smiled before giving her mother a two fingered salute. "Yes ma'am." Her mother laughed before gently shoving the girl out of the kitchen, and started cooking.

After everything that went down, Derek had went out of town in order to keep himself as well as his sister Cora safe. Elaine had finally forgiven her brother for siding with Deucalion, and it seemed that the two became closer than ever. Her father wasn't leaving any time soon, so the girl started sleeping over at Stiles' house more often, in hopes of being able to have a wink of sleep. And not only that, but within those weeks, she could feel something change in her. Something dark. She just wasn't prepared to discover what that darkness was.