♡ 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 ♡
𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 fifty-three

I did something bad.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

DALLAS HAD NEVER FELT SUCH INTENSE PAIN HER ENTIRE LIFE.

The fork's frequency rang through her hollow bones while the wood was harsh against her knees. She tried to open her eyes, but blurriness stared back mockingly while tears escaped them. Dallas tried to focus on the words between Stiles and the Assassin. However, that was a bust too. All she could focus on was the pain. Pain from the fork. Pain from Scott. Pain from the world.

The assassin wrapped his fingers around the fork and cocked his head to Stiles. "Take me to the rest of them, or I'll make sure this one rips out her pretty little brain right here and now."

Stiles flickered his eyes down to Dallas, who had her hands clasped to the edge of her temples and anguished hissing leaving her lips. Her nails dug deep into the wood and drew claw marks across the floorboards.

He lifted the fork to slam it against the desk once more but Stiles lifted his hand up and leapt forward towards her. "Stop, stop!" the human swallowed at the gun that was pointed his way. "I'll show you, just stop."

The teacher allowed a sick grin to spill across his face. Before he could take a look back at her, he was being ushered out the door while the gun pressed to the back of his skull.

 Meanwhile, Dallas couldn't shake the helpless feeling from her gut. Like rotting from the inside, each emotion she felt turned bitter from it. All alone and collapsed into herself, she felt like a kid again. Nobody would make her feel that helpless. Nobody had the right. 

She wanted to feel free.

No matter what she did, what she said or where she went. Dallas accepted she would never be like Scott. She wasn't built to be the hero. She wasn't built for happiness. Destruction and fear were all she had. The blue faded away. Now, everything felt a little black. An empty, neverending abyss of black.

Stiles fell against the wall as he was roughly shoved into the locker room. He tried to turn around but had no choice but to hold his hands up in defence as he met the gaze of the pistol. "You still look feverish, Mr Stilinski."

"But you should know something." he mocked. "The virus doesn't kill humans. You'll get better."

Dallas narrowed her eyes from inside the classroom. Scott was convinced she'd fly off the rails again. Hurting people was her nature, after all. 'It wasn't her fault!' But then, 'It is her fault!'

The teacher taunted Stiles some more as he came to a halt. "So, don't you think you should tell me where they are?"

Nobody would hurt her again, nor would they ever hurt Stiles.

Dallas lifted her hand and the sapphire glow waved around her hand like silk. Her head tilted to the side as her reflection stared back from the glass window. White eyes. Blue hands. Cold heart.

Stiles turned to the man from inside the locker room with a taunting look. "Think you can scare me?"

Dallie's fingers wavered slightly like the pulling off puppet strings. When she lifted her hand, so did the assassin. When she looked up, so did he.

When he met Stiles' eyes, they were just as white too.

The human watched as the man's face fell expressionless and his entire being became captivated in her trance. While Dallas was away, sat on the classroom floor and toying with his mind in her hands, he gave Stiles a small look of panic before his hand pressed the gun underneath his jaw.

The gunshot echoed through the halls. His body thumping to the floor not long after.

Stiles stumbled back as the white faded from the eyes that had rolled to the back of the corpse's head. He stared down at the fork that was folded into his back pocket and felt shivers prick his skin from the mere sight. Before he could speak, or register what had happened, Rafael McCall jumped through the doorway and dropped his eyes to the dead man on the floor.

"Stiles," he stepped back from the door. "I.. I got a call from Melissa. I don't know what it means, but she said there's an antidote. It's in the vault, reishi mushrooms."

He tore his eyes away from the dead body. Tore his mind way from the sickening look of the white mist that had covered his eyes moments before death.

"Wait, what... what's in the vault?"

"It's in a jar on one of the shelves." he panted his swift run here. Upon gunshot, he had assumed it was Stiles who had met his demise. However, he wasn't too sure why a man with such intense motive would kill himself - but he didn't have time to think about that now. About anything. "She said to tell Scott. It's in the vault."

Stiles' shoes pounded against the floor as ran back to the vault.

Dallas, although, still sat on the classroom floor. She relished in the pain she had caused. Her hands dropped to her sides and her eyes faded back to brown. A minuscule small pricked her lips and just like that, Dallas stepped down from the reigns. She didn't want to tear herself apart trying to fit people's expectations. She would be what she was from the very start. A Siren. 

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Dallas pushed past panicked students as she mercilessly walked towards the locker room. Her stare was blank and steps heavy. She followed the scent of metallic blood all the way down the hall until she stood over the assassin who was glued stiff to the floor.

She didn't care about him. Or about his flesh.

She had bigger things in mind. More specifically, why such a small prong of metal caused her so much anguish.

The fork was cold against her hand and she winced slightly at the touch. So, out of everything, that was what could hurt her? That's what people wanted so bad?

Maybe what she was wasn't a curse. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Maybe being feared was what she needed to protect those she loved. And with the fork in her hands, she could sleep well knowing it wouldn't slip through her fingers this time.

"I've been looking everywhere for you."

Dallas turned her back to her father. A look of relief washed over his face. "I heard about the quarantine and came as fast as I could." he engulfed her in a hug that felt foreign to her. It made her break a little inside. Yet, while his arms wrapped around her, his eyes peered over her shoulder. They peered to the man she left with a hole in his head.

He stepped back and dropped his hands on her arms with a suspicious look. "Dallas.. what did you do?"

"What I had to." she inhaled sharply while taking a quick glance back at him

He didn't like the sound of that. Instead, he watched as she draped her hands over the Tuning Fork. The same one the sirens had warned him about. "And what's that?" 

Her look was conflicted. "What he was going to use against me."

He held his hand out to her and with a slight cock of her brow, Dallas cradled it to her shoulder. Only then did James furrow his eyebrows. "I don't want that, Dallas." he furrowed his eyebrows. "I want you away from.. that." he dropped his eyes to the dead assassin. 

"Oh." 

 James frowned at her protectiveness of the fork. "Come on before somebody sees."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Sybil and Seline stayed many nights at the warehouse. Very few people in Beacon Hills knew they were there - and that's how they liked it. Under people's radar and spectating from afar.

Sybil watched Seline pace back and forth while she filed her nails. "Anyone could have that fork, Syb." she let out an exasperated sigh. "What happens when they find Marilyn and Dallas? What happens when they find us?"

"Then I'll kill them, simple as." her sister hissed. "There was no need to bring that dog into it. I have it handled." she referred to Derek.

Seline narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to snap back, but it wasn't Seline's voice that came next, but Dallie's.

"Looking for this?" She swayed the fork back and forth from her fingertips.

Sybil stood up from her seat. "Where'd you find that?"

"One of the assassins had it. Great in theory.. not in practice." she frowned, noting how highly he spoke moments before having a hole in the top of his head.

Sybil gave her sister a knowing look. "Why bother coming here with it? Why not give it to Marilyn or Derek?"

Dallas let out a small tut and pointed her finger towards her. "Yeah, I could've." she took a seat on the old chairs and leaned forward. Her elbows sunk into her thighs and she twirled the metallic tuning fork in her hands. "But eventually, they'd use this fork against me." she took a glimpse at her reflection through the rust.

"What do you want, Dallas?" Seline crossed her arms at the teenage girl.

"I want you to teach me how to control it." Dallas let out a heavy sigh. "I want to be like you. Not like them."

The girls shared a look and Seline's blank look curled into a smile.

"What do you wanna learn first?"

☆ word count: 1,816. ☆

a/n: i was gonna change the move-in with sybil&seline but they really are the only people who are qualified to show dallas the ropes tbh