♡ 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 ♡
𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 sixty-two

gingerbread man

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

DALLAS WATCHED THE TREES PASS AGAINST THE DUSTY CAR WINDOW WITH DISCONTENT.

It wasn't like her to be so quiet. She usually had something to say on anything. But this time, glancing at how Stiles clutched his steering wheel with a killer grip and narrowed eyes, she decided it was best to keep the peace.

Mostly.

She slouched back into the leathery seat of his jeep and pursed her lips. Stiles had offered to take her home from Eichen House - and by offered, he told her to get her pretty ass in the car or he'd drag her there himself.

God, she hated him. She hated every part of him. She hated the way he wore his hair, the stupid strong cologne she'd recognize anywhere, his piece of crap car and his stupid brown eyes that made her feel all the things she tried to suppress.

Pulling her gaze away, Dallas swallowed the lump in her throat.

"I don't want to go home." She mumbled out in a slightly sour tone. Her arm rested up on the edge of the passenger window and her head rested against her knuckles.

"No?" He quirked a brow but didn't look her way.

"No." She knitted her eyebrows and spoke with a stern tone. "So, you can stop wasting your gas. Go pick up some other girl and let me out."

A suppressed smile stretched across his face and his grip softened. "Now why would I do that when I have all your different personalities to keep me entertained?"

Dallas pursed her lips and bit back a sharp breath. She hated his smart and sarcastic replies, too.

However, the hidden smile that she resisted insinuated that the girl mixed up love and hate a little too much.

"What? No snarky reply?"

Dallas huffed. "Like you could even handle it." Her acrylic nails tapped against her seat belt while he pulled up to her driveway with a sullen look. "I don't even understand why you're mad. It's my humanity he fucked with."

Stiles slipped his grip on the steering wheel as he pulled up to her driveway and spoke through clenched teeth. "Do you honestly believe I won't flip it? Or even try?"

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wouldn't I?" His tone was firm while his body leaned over and arm propped up against the back of her seat. "Dallas, if it was something I did, or said, just tell me."

Dallas cocked her head to the side in a devious demeanour. While his stare was infectious, planting insecurity in the crevices of her brain and calculating each breath the dared to take, the Siren remained stiff. "Let me help you."

The words were sweet. The sentiment, teeth-rotting. He had an oven-baked embrace that curled her up into his chest and melted her savoury skin - and for a few moments, her worries seemed to fade away.

Her erratic heartbeat began to steady. The ashen clouds of her mind parted. The thrashing waves of her humanity fell gently back into form. Perhaps this wasn't so bad.

Placing her chin on his shoulder, Dallas felt him mumble whatever words he had carefully chosen into her skin with endearment. She remembered how warm his skin was. How tender it was against her touch and how it swayed to the beat of his pulse.

Dallas could sense the thump underneath her chin and tried to swallow down the hunger that clawed it's way up her throat. Placing both hands on his shoulders, she shoved him back into his seat and ran frustrated hands over her face.

Stiles gave a bewildered look and hissed at the sheer force of how hard she had pushed him away, that was, until he saw the her hungered glare strike upon him. The parted lips that homed flesh-tearing teeth. The eyes that held spitfire and sadism. It was a sight that you couldn't really look away from - even if your life depended on it.

He attempted to reach for her once more but she backed away from his hand. "Don't."

"I'm not scared of you, Dallie." Stiles pushed once more. Despite this, the hairs had arose on the back of his neck and clear goose-bumps littered his skin. "I don't care about this, okay?" he referenced to her sirenic state. "I care about you. We can fix this together. I promise I'll be here."

"There's nothing to fix, I'm fine!" Dallas scoffed harshly. After all his tender attempts to tap into her softer side, it seemed to blow up in his face. It wasn't as easy and batting his eyes and buttering her up. "I'm never going to flip it back, Stiles."

The cold gust of air seemed to cool her skin and soothe her bubbly heat. That was, until she felt a clutch of warmth grasp her wrist. Something told her snatch her hand away and ignore whatever he had to say. Although, another part of her dismissed that. It urged her to turn her head and allow his gentle grip to linger on her for a little while longer.

"I'll never stop trying." His voice above a whisper - and his look holding no sign of grievance or frustration, but instead, ambition.

Deep down, she knew that already. A part of her loved that about him - and the other, well, shuddered at the thought. What if he actually succeeded? She'd drown in her own emotions.

Fuck, no. That wouldn't happen.. because she was completely in control.. right?

Almost encouraging him, she felt a smile prick her lips and slipped her hand away from his with a devious smile. "I know."

Yet, with each step away from his vehicle and feeling his eyes burn into her back, the staggering yells from inside her house became louder. Ugh. She made it very clear to him this was the last place she wanted to be.

The wind practically ushered her towards the house while Stiles' jeep hesitantly left the street.

It was peculiar, to say the least.

The doorknob was already twisted to the side and stamped with a bloody-handprint. The door remained half-way open and muddy footprints littered the carpet she walked across.

"Somebody needs to find Dallie-" The familiar voice of Derek Hale yelled out over the mixed voices. Mostly female, by the sounds.

Then came James Garcia. "No, nobody tells Dallas anything-"

Dallas pushed the door aside and knitted her eyebrows together. All the voices stemmed from the living room. She made sure not to make a sound while clicking the door shut behind her.

"Marilyn! Get the stitches-!" Sybil's voice overpowered his.

"James! Have you seriously been trying to contact Elijah Mikaelson?" Her mother seemingly scolded him much louder than everybody else.

The maneater stepped lightly against the carpet and avoided the points of weak wood beneath. Her ears perked up at the uncommon names and secrets they tried to hide from her.

Who the hell was Elijah Mikaelson?

Seline yelled - which was a common trope in this conversation - over the others in a pained tone. "Who cares about Elijah? We're going to go extinct if we don't do something about the Dread Doctors-"

She paused mid-step. Why the fuck would they go extinct?

"That's it. I say we move again." Marie butted in. Dallas felt her heartbeat echo in her ears while she crept closer.

"Bullshit. You can move. James and Dallas are staying." Derek hissed back at the woman he had grown a distaste for. "It's all you ever do anyway."

"Okay, yeah, we'll stay and be sucked up into juice boxes instead just so you can play Dad for the day, Derek." she snapped back.

Lost in her own confusion, Dallas stood beside the living-room door and kept her reign of silence in the hallway.

"Elijah's an original, right? They can compel anyone. I thought maybe he could compel Dallas-" he felt the words clog up his throat as he saw her turn the corner. "..Dallas. You're home." Jim coughed out as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Immediately, she felt all eyes on her. Yet she kept her narrowed ones at James.

"What the fuck is going on?"

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

The Garcia residence, for once, was silent. Dallas stood in the doorway with her bag adjusted over her petite shoulders and arms crossed with a dissatisfied grunt. "Well?"

No word was spoken. Mainly because nobody dared to speak. For someone who was decades - sometimes centuries - younger than the adults before her, they seemed to be more than a little intimidated by her presence.

"Hey, Dallie. You, uh, you had any more B-Positive today? If not, we could go get some-"

Dallas ignored her aunt and clenched her jaw at her father instead who avoided her look. "Not today, Sybil." The youngest maneater hissed before stepping towards the lawyer. "Who's Elijah Mikaelson, dad?"

Tensions grew high in the home of the Sirens. It was deadly silent except from the steady breathing of the inhabitants and the pained sighs of Seline Garcia.

Sybil flickered her eyes over the room with unease.

Derek Hale kept an icy stare towards Dallas, seemingly prepared to disarm her if needed - but she doubted she'd ever let him.

Dallas then watched James intently, who kept his eyes glued to the floor except to occasionally glance to Marilyn.

And Marilyn, in all her glory, glared back towards her sisters.

It fell silent again. Much to Dallie's distaste. "What? Suddenly we're all quiet?" she stepped forward and dropped her bag to the floor. Each step was as intense as the last as she revelled in the apprehension she caused. "Have I ruined the mood?"

"Dallas, stop it." Derek warned her with a gruff tone.

"No, I don't think I will." she hummed before leaning against the doorframe. "I don't wanna force anybody to spill, but just know, I totally can."

Those words were what sent Marilyn Garcia over the edge. She hated this side of Dallas. She hated hearing her speak to those she loved in such a way. She was having none of it. "Okay, that's enough."

Gripping her daughter by the shoulders, the matured maneater pushed her daughter away from the doorframe and pulled the living-room door closed behind her. Shortly after, the teenager felt herself cornered into the kitchen by her mother.

"Let go of me!"

Marilyn didn't respond, but instead, whipped her head around to certify their isolation from the rest of the family. Only then did she respond. "Where have you been all day?" she checked her over for injuries but felt the siren resist under her touch. "Did they see you?"

"What? Out." She slapped her hand away and took a few steps back. The last thing she wanted was her mother to act like, well, her mother. "Did who see me?"

Marilyn had a tendency to be stubborn. That much was clear when her immediate concern fell flat towards the girl. "The Dread Doctors, Dallas. Have they seen you?"

Dallas chewed on her bottom lip. They had done more than just seen her. She recalled how one fiddled with her blood between his gloves and reached towards her before Stiles pulled her away.

"Yeah, maybe. So what?"

She watched as her mother's eyes lost their spark of hope. Her expression shifted and all features seemed to slide downwards in an everlasting frown.

Dallas, in all her years of atleast seeing her mother, had never seen her so worried. Even on the days before her alleged disappearance she had the upmost confidence. "Why?.. Mom, what is it?"

She held a shaky breath and placed both hands gently on her arms. "They're after us, sweetheart." Marilyn pursed her lips. "All of us."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

The next day of school rolled around quicker than Dallas initially wanted. She'd hoped for a couple of more hours to grill her family about the mysterious figure 'Elijah Mikaelson' or what exactly James meant by an 'Original' but nonetheless, they only left her with more questions than she started with.

Sitting beside her mother, who had her usual scarf draped around her head, Dallas rolled her eyes at how the doors still remained locked. "Dallas, wait." she frowned. "I need to talk to you."

Dallas deadpanned her mother with an unamused look. "You are."

Acknowledging her sarcasm, the woman tutted silently.

"Promise me you won't go out looking for trouble." Marilyn clutched the steering-wheel while allowing her worried gaze to peer over the rimmed sunglasses. "I know I haven't always made the right decisions, but I need to know that you're safe."

Dallas listened absent-mindedly while fiddling with her golden-letter necklace. "When do I ever?"

"Promise me, Dallas."

She huffed out and met the eyes of the woman she swore she despised. "I promise." Dallas gave her a faux look of sincerity. "Now can I go?"

Marilyn felt the tension radiate between them and frowned idly. She was never going to win back the affection of her daughter - and that was her own fault - but even so, it still stung.

Despite it, she split a grin towards her and pressed down on the lock with glee. "I'll be here to pick you up, maybe?"

Dallas gave her quick glance-over before turning away. "Yeah, whatever. I need to go." The brunette muttered out while staring down at her phone - her attention spam clearly elsewhere. Still, this gave Marilyn Garcia a pip in her step and hope in her cloudy heart.

Elijah Mikaelson's name lit up her screen along with family branches of Klaus, Rebekah and Kol Mikaelson amongst others. With eyebrows furrowed at her phone, the maneater paid little attention to anything in-front of her. "Geez, and I thought my name was weird." she managed to mumble out before disappearing into the crowds of archaic school cliques.

On the second floor of the highschool, however, Theo Raeken and Scott McCall slouched over the metallic fence that circled around the building. Their eyes remained glued to the clusters of students that plagued the courtyard while holding a specific glint in their dreary gaze.

Theo ignored the chills that slithered up his spine from the frosty metal and mid-spring air. While he basked in the warmth his hood brought, he extended his head outwards to face Scott. "So, basically, we're looking for abnormal behaviour?"

Scott nodded along, his eyes tracing over the familiar and not-so-familiar faces of his classmates. "Anyone acting a little off or a little weird."

The teenager bit back his scoff and turned back to the teenagers with an exasperated look. "..Isn't everyone a little weird in high school?"

"Yeah.. good point." Scott scoured through the faces before backing away from the fence, clutching his bent copy of the 'Dread Doctors' with unease and plunging down the stairs. Theo followed in pursuit all while planting doubt in the Alpha's already muddled mind.

"You remember Tracy went on a killing spree after reading that?" The Raeken boy winced scarcely.

That seed of doubt what just enough to have his entire body freeze and turn to Theo. "You think it's a bad idea?"

Theo stared blankly ahead with clenched teeth and hands dug into his pockets. "I think Malia almost getting run down by a car could've been bad." He watched as the werewolf bowed his head and rose both eyebrows. "That's why you guys haven't finished it, isn't it?"

"We're going to."

Shaking his head in tune with the whistle of the wind, Theo huffed at his denial. "Scott, I came here hoping to find a pack. I wasn't planning on watching one fall apart."

"The book's all we've got." his words barely escaped his mouth before the back of his collar was yanked and that very book pried from his hands.

Behind him, Dallas narrowed her eyes at the two boys before soaking up the image of the discoloured pages. "What's this?"

It didn't take Scott long to straighten his posture and meet the eyes of the vivacious teenage girl. "A book. Never seen one before?" He spoke out with a tad of bitterness.

Theo snickered at his Alpha which earned a deathly glare from the maneater herself. "Bite me, Raeken." she hissed before turning to Scott.

By the look of the discoloured skin that dotted on her neck, it looked like someone already had.

"How long have you had this?" Dallas ignored the burning stare of Theo beside the werewolf.

This was where Scott McCall got a little confused. Dallas Garcia wanted no part in defeating the Dread Doctors before - to be honest, she could care less about their existence - but now she stared at him with raised brow and anticipation. Taking a step forward, he examined her slightly worried features. "I thought you didn't care."

Dallas swiped her thumb across its cover and flicked through the pages. "Or I just have a newfound interest in psychopathic physicians?" She attempted to shrug off the question but found herself under their curious gaze.

Theo glanced between them curiously. Dallas and Scott had quite the unique relationship. At eachother's throats one minute and then bantering the next.

Still, Scott's glare didn't budge.

The Siren dropped her stare back down to the book with tensed shoulders. "My mom's scared of them." Dallas felt like the reigns had been ripped from her hands and left stumbling in the dark. This was her town. She was the biggest terroriser here. Coming for her family was a bold move.

"..So?"

"My mother's never been scared of anything, Scott. Not like this." She tapped her finger against the paper while rumbling through her thoughts. The mere mention of extinction made her shudder underneath Stiles' hoodie. "How bad have you gotta be to shake the scales of a Siren?"

While Scott grew quiet, leaning over the girl's shoulder to assess the book with her, Theo Raeken's eyes climbed up the slouched silhouette of Dallas Garcia.

Siren, huh?

"Don't read it here." He spoke out coldly while tilting his head to the side in a delicate fashion.

"We'll do it all together. Tonight."

☆ word count: 3,044. ☆

a/n: sorry for not updating! this has been the most hectic christmas period of my entire life. love you all and we'll be back to regular updating soon enough <3