♡ 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 ♡
𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 forty-three

familia

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

DALLAS STOOD IN THE GIRL'S LOCKER ROOM.

She was the only one left. The siren was stood in front of the cold metallic door as she glanced in the mirror that was taped to the inside. Her hands traced along her neck where her fateful bate used to be. Her skin was a tad discoloured in that spot which made her frown outwardly.

Her posture then stiffened as she pushed the hair out of her face and deepened her gaze into the reflection. 'He told me that you might be a little fragile at the moment, you know, go easy on you.'

Her look soured. The only fragile thing here was his ego.

She loved Stiles. She really did, however, the more she loved, the colder she was when they inevitably disappointed her - which was becoming a sadly common sight from the men in her life.

Nowadays, it felt like she had more balls than all of them combined. Werewolves included.

Letting out a large huff, she attempted to grab her cheer uniform to throw it in her bag, but to her dismay, it wasn't there.

"What the fuck?" she hissed while rummaging through her locker. Pompoms too. Everything completely missing.

With her eyes slightly narrowed, she slammed it shut and slung her bag over her shoulder. The slam of the changing rooms' door and the dissatisfied glare of the cheerleader caught the attention of students while she stormed her way to Coach's office.

She didn't bother to knock and instead shoved her way through the door. "My uniform is gone." Dallas watched as he disacknowledged her and instead continued scribbling whatever nonsense he had on his clipboard. "Like, vanished, gone."

"It didn't vanish. Don't be ridiculous." Finstock finally spoke up. "I took it. You're being cut from the team."

The words didn't even leave her mouth as she remained speechless. What the fuck?

"Are you kidding me?" she spoke through gritted teeth. "I've led that team for over five years. I organised the routines, the work ethic, the goddamn rhymes that somehow make the crowd believe instead of just a few, that the whole team, are good players." Dallas spoke with ice. "And you're cutting me?"

Coach leaned back in his chair and fiddled with his pen. "And that's exactly why I did it." he pointed it towards her.

Still on a venomous rampage, the girl crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "What?"

"You have more physical skill than half of these boys combined." he nodded to her. "You're more qualified than any of those players we had today." Finstock lay his hands on his desk as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Yeah, obviously, so?"

"I don't want you swinging pompoms anymore. Its wasted potential." he paused as he tilted his head. "A lacrosse stick would fit you better. I want you on the team."

"You cut me from the squad just to put me on your lacrosse team?" she scoffed. "You can't be serious, Coach."

"Well, let's look at your academic history. Pre-trained ice skater. Head cheerleader reigning 7 years. Aced the pacer tests each year." he rooted through her file that he pulled from one of his drawers. "I'm baffled how I didn't consider you sooner."

Dallas always cheered for the lacrosse team. She never really considered being apart of it. Not until now. To be honest, the idea was quite sweet to her. Lacrosse player, huh?

"Misogyny, probably." she muttered out with a concentrated look on her face. He gave her a stern look to which she grinned at.

"I'll think about it." The pre-cheerleader glanced around the room as she allowed the thought to take place. She never sat on the sidelines in any other part of her life, so why would she academically?

Besides, she could probably squash half the team underneath her heels from the word go.

Who knows, maybe Stiles would be the one wearing her jersey instead.

"Yeah, I'll see you at tryouts."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Derek Hale stared down at the dead body that was slouched against the hospital roof while Sheriff Stilinski stood beside him. Officers swarmed the scene as a thick layer of mist coated the graphite.

"Uh, I guess you've been here long enough to hear that we need to be quick about this." Noah cleared his throat at the werewolf. "Scott said he caught himself a wendigo."

Derek nodded along. "Cannibalistic shape-shifters, that kind of stuff isn't a new thing for me." the Hale spoke in a low tone. "Haven't heard of them in Beacon Hills for a long time, though. They don't usually dare to feed where Sirens do."

"Let me guess, bad blood?" Noah raised his eyebrows sarcastically.

"Don't like sharing the food." he furrowed his eyebrows and glanced around. "Must've been well-hidden." Derek paused before feeling an odd chill run up his spine. "How many people did Scott say were up here?"

"Just that guy and the axe murderer, who apparently has no mouth."

Derek stood to the edge of the roof and frowned at the large bloodstain that blotted on the material.

Noah gave him a suspicious look. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"There was someone else." Derek stated confidently while connecting eyes with the moon that crept behind the dusty clouds. He sniffed the air and allowed the words to pour from his mouth. "Someone young. And male."

"You can smell his fear?"

"And his blood."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Dallas ended the day on a big all-time-high. One that couldn't possibly be dimmed. That was until she walked back through her front door.

"Marilyn, you shouldn't be so harsh on her." she heard the voice of James Garcia scold from the kitchen. "She's just a teenage girl."

"She was a teenage girl, James, now she's a young woman with cannibalistic tendencies." Marie snarked back. "She needs tough love. Do you think Sirens just bake their men into heart-shaped cookies? She's a Bull in a Fine China shop without my guidance."

Swallowing hard, Dallas slammed the door shut with a hard slam until dull silence coated her ears.

"Hey, sweetheart," James called from the kitchen with a sweet tone.

She dropped her bag to the floor and marched towards the kitchen. "Guidance?" she directed a sour look towards her mother and ignored her father's persistent attempts to calm the situation. "Guidance? I don't need a step-by-step tutorial on how to fail as a mother, Mom. I have common sense." she spat. "Controlling myself is just another thing I learned to do without you."

Marilyn inhaled sharply as she watched Dallas disappear from the kitchen but followed in pursuit. "I failed as a mother?" She scoffed as James watched hell unfold in his living room. "Okay, you know what? I broke my back giving you the opportunities I never had. I left town. I stayed away from my family for seven whole years. Why? To let you grow up normal because my sisters never let me!"

Dallas spun around. "What?"

Marilyn's face dropped from anger to deep regret. "I.." she swallowed.

"You said the Hales were the only family you ever had." The much younger siren narrowed her eyes. "That a lie, too?"

"It's not a lie.. not technically." Marilyn spluttered for words.

"Jesus," Dallas let out a harsh laugh as she planted her hand on her head. "What's next, Mom? A twin I never knew about? Is he even my real dad?" she pointed to James who gave her an offended look.

"Don't be ridiculous, Dallas." she scolded her. "There are just things you're better off not knowing. I only protect you. You're my family. Not my sisters, not the Hales, you."

Dallas glanced between her parents and dropped her hands to the side. "Pretty shitty way of treating your family, then."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Stiles Stilinski ran after Scott McCall as they rushed through his dimly lit home. "Like I said, I told my dad everything I could."

The werewolf glanced anxiously at his best friend. "But you didn't tell him about Liam?"

Stiles gave him a crazed look. "You barely told me about Liam," he mumbled. "What did you do with him anyway?"

The McCall avoided his look. "He's upstairs."

"Doing what?" He queered as they climbed the stairs of the McCall residence. His questions were quickly answered when he threw open the door to the bathroom and inside of the tub lay Liam Dunbar, arms tied and wrapped in duct tape with a single piece strapped to his mouth.

The Lacrosse player fearfully flickered his eyes between them as he let out a cluster of muffled grunts. Letting out an unsurprised sigh, Stiles pulled the shower curtain back over him.

They both sat defeatedly on the boy's bed before the human spoke up. ".. So you bit him?"

"Yeah."

"And you kidnapped him."

"Yeah."

"And then you brought him here."

"I panicked!"

Stiles nodded his head aggressively. "Yep." the Stilinski sighed. "This isn't going to end with us burying the pieces of his body out in the desert.. is it?"

Scott gave him a peculiar look. "Could.. feed him to Dallas?"

Stiles sent him a scowl while muffled cries of Liam sprang from the open door of the bathroom. "Kidding." The werewolf held his hands up in defence.

"As a reminder, this is why I always come up with the plans." he pulled out his phone. "Maybe Dallas can get into his head. Calm him down, make him forget, whatever weird mermaid persuasion she has going on."

Scott gave his best friend an unimpressed look. "Isn't she ignoring you?"

Thinking for a moment, Stiles dropped his phone in defear. "Maybe you should call her."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Liam Dunbar was sat in the middle of Scott's room taped to a chair as he glared towards both his captors. The room was silent until the door creaked open and an unimpressed Siren stood in the doorway.

"You guys are morons."

Stiles winced at her tone and instead directed his look towards Liam. "Okay, Liam, I'm gonna remove the duct tape," he warned. "But if you scream, it goes right back on. If you talk quietly, it stays off. Got it?"

Liam hesitantly nodded. "Okay," Stiles muttered before yanking the tape from his mouth earning a harsh hiss from the boy.

"Okay, Liam, now you've seen a lot of confusing things tonight," Stiles explained. "But you see, Dallas here can make all that go away-"

"You're making me sound like a therapist."

Stiles dropped his hands to his sides and directed a stern look to his girlfriend. "Dallie? not helping!"

She rolled her eyes. "Even if I do manage to make him forget, he's gonna change anyway. What's he gonna think when he turns into Scooby-Doo the next full moon?" she snickered while Scott directed her a slightly offended look. "I'm just saying, we have two options here."

"We can't kill him." Stiles crossed his arms at her, knowing exactly what went on in that pretty head of hers.

She huffed disappointedly. "We have one option." she brushed the hair out of her face. "You do what Derek did!" Dallie suggested rather half-jokingly.

Scott nodded along. Stiles seemed to agree with her and stood by her side. When Liam widened his eyes at the words the Siren spoke, he let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, Scott, you might have to tell him."

"Tell me what?"

Scott crept closer with a gentle step. "Liam," he began with a soft tone. "What happened to you, what I did to you, which I had to do in order to save you.. it's going to change you."

Dallas watched rather bored. "Unless it kills you-" she barely got the words out before she felt Stiles' arms wrap around her shoulders and cross over the lower half of her face - coincidentally covering her mouth. While he rested his chin on her head, he whispered out to her in a sing-songy tone. "Not helping."

She didn't come to help. She came to get out of the house. She came to get the hell away from her parents.

"What?" Liam whimpered out.

"Uh.." Scott scratched the back of his head. "Really, Dallas?"

She pulled Stiles' arm from over her mouth and shrugged "I'm not the one who bit him, Scotty."

Interrupting their conversation, Stiles furrowed his eyebrows. "Is he.. crying?"

This caused Scott to kneel before him and try his best at comfort. "Liam, it's okay. You're gonna be alright." he overpowered the silent sobbing. "You're not going to die."

Dallas shrugged "Mayb-"

Stiles' arm covered her mouth once again.

The boy then left to help untie him and helped raise him to his feet. "Liam, are you okay?" Scott cooed. "We're really sorry about that.. really sorry."

As Liam rose from the chair he kept his look directed to the floor. However, within moments, he gripped the edge of the chair and slammed it against the two boys. Stiles attempted to clamber to his feet but a thick punch was directed against his jaw and he fell back to the floor.

He ran straight past Dallas with surprising speed, but the thumping of his heart and the dragging of his feet confirmed to her that he wasn't going to get very far. She didn't bother to wait for them as she left the bedroom and followed in a relatively slow pursuit. "Liam," she called out in a tune, identical to that of a siren song.

He shot his head to her as her eyes flashed white. "Don't run." she knocked her head to the side.

Oddly, he seemed to listen. The Dunbar took a step closer to her as a semi-transparent gloss of white coated his eyes. He was under her spell.

Or rather, he was until the two boys darted past her and broke her concentration, tackling Liam to the floor - and unfortunately, down the stairs.

"I got him!" Stiles screeched out. "I got him!"

Turning the corner, the siren let out a disappointed huff. He was grasping Scott's leg. Behind them, the door creaked open and Liam Dunbar was nowhere to be found. Dallas leant against the wall before shaking her head in dismay. "That's it, I'm calling Derek."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Marilyn Garcia paced up and down the halls of her home while James watched. "I can't believe I said that. Why did I say that?"

While he hated seeing his wife and daughter on such bad terms, he quirked a brow. "Is that why you hate your sisters? They.. made that decision for you?"

Marilyn clasped her arms around herself and swallowed. "I don't want to talk about it."

James, however, did. "When you said your sisters were bad, I assumed it was because they stole your boyfriends or made fun of you." he took a step forward. "You never mentioned that they were like you."

Marie's head snapped towards him. "I am nothing like them." she started to stutter. "I'm nothing.. nothing like her."

"Like who, Marilyn?"

"Like Sybil."

☆ word count: 2,438. ☆

a/n: *x-files theme* yall think I mentioned vampires for nothing huh?