♡ 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 ♡
𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 thirty-three

checkmate.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

DALLAS GARCIA SAT UPRIGHT IN THE WAITING ROOM CHAIR.

The cotton was rough against her skin. It tore at the molecules while it gifted warmth into her body. Her lips were chapped and slightly faded from their pinkish tone. As the piercing white light bore down on her, she watched the doctors come and go through her father's medical room.

They shared anxious glances at her. Some had the look of dread, while others seemed to avoid looking at her at all. She fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. The sickening, but familiar, weight sank on her chest. It made it difficult to breathe. The only words she would use to describe it was each breath was like the stretching of a rubber band - each one slowly tearing at the material and bringing it so much closer to snapping completely.

The moments replayed in her head like a jeering cassette. They stained the corks in her brain and became the defining moments of her life. She wasn't ready to be alone yet, not more than she already was. There were too many questions left unanswered; possibilities left unexplored. The story of Marilyn and James Garcia surely couldn't end there.

While her brain tore at itself, she didn't pay much attention to how Lydia Martin took a deep breath and took a seat beside her. Her jacket was bunched up on her lap as she glanced at the Siren.

Lydia parted her lips and let out a small string of sentences. "How long has he been in surgery?"

"12 hours," she responded in a timely manner.

"Why didn't you call me?" the strawberry blonde knitted her eyebrows at the familiar brunette. They had experienced much together - particularly things that consisted of Dallie's parents.

Dallas let out an unamused huff. "I doubt it would've mattered."

"Of course it would've." Lydia snapped. She placed down her bag and pulled out a short blanket and a couple of bottles of water.

Dallas gave her an unimpressed look. "What are you doing?"

"I'm staying here with you." the Martin answered blankly. "I know you've been here all night and chances are, you've had no sleep."

"Lydia, you can't-"

"Dallas, please let me stay." she swallowed hard. "I'm can't make it up to you if you won't let me."

The siren meditated briefly. She was standing at a cliff's edge and quite frankly, she needed people there to pull her back. Maybe Lydia Martin being one of those people could become a possibility again.

Dallas swallowed down her words and flickered her eyes back to the door.

Lydia noticed her silence and the edges of her lips curled in a little smile. She lay her eyes on the same door and inched closer to her. "I couldn't go home even if I wanted to." Dallas paused. "There's been officers there all day transferring documents and evidence from other cases from his office back to the station."

Melissa approached the two girls with a clipboard in her hand. Dallas immediately sat upright and awaited an update. "Dallas?" the McCall spoke softly. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

The young Garcia nodded and propped herself up from the chair. The blood rushed to her legs and made her feel a little funny, but she ignored it and followed the nurse into the halls before being pulled aside.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, Dallas. Surgery was difficult. The hemothorax and pulmonary contusion made it difficult to operate. The doctors had very little hope." Melissa spoke professionally, however, she watched the water gather up in the teenager's eyes and how her arms folded around herself and hugged her torso. "His surgery was successful, his heartbeat is steady and the anaesthetic is dulling the pain. However, his condition is still very unstable. They want to move him to a hospital up north so he can retrieve better treatment."

She swallowed hard and nodded along. "He needs to leave Beacon Hills.. he needs to leave me, doesn't he?"

Melissa frowned and placed her hand on the daughter's shoulder. "Is there anyone that can take care of you while he's away?"

Dallas shook her head in dismay and cleared her throat. "I'll be fine. That house is all I have now. I wouldn't want to be anywhere but there."

The nurse stared at her with skepticism. One that was mixed with remorse and hesitation. "I'll keep you updated, okay? Just go home. Try and get some sleep."

Dallas found that a little amusing. After everything that had been on her mind lately - sleep was the least possible thing to do.

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Dallas listened to Scott speak from the phone as she paced around her living room. "Remember Malia Tate? She was the last one to see him at Eichen House." he paused. After his last episode, the Stilinski's had finally agreed to check Stiles into the asylum. He had done it without his friends and girlfriend's knowledge, as he knew they would all persist against it. Dallas hadn't heard from in a while as Eichen House had become a desolate and crazed place over the years. No visitors or calls were permitted much to her distaste. "Your dad's definitely out of town?"

Dallie nodded and glanced around the dark and empty home. "They took him upstate hours ago."

"Good." Scott nodded before clearing his throat. "I just, Dallas.. he tried to kill your dad. I heard what that.. thing said." he referred to the Nogitsune. "We don't know if he'd try again."

"I know." she ran a hand over her face - visibly upset. "Let me know if you hear anything else, okay?"

She heard a long sigh from Scott's side of the phone before his distant hums overpowered them. "You got it." The line soon fell dead and the phone slipped from the Siren's hands.

The cold air of her home pricked at her arms and the darkness engulfed her. She tried to turn a blind eye to the family pictures hanging on the walls, but it became too difficult. The smiling photograph of her, Marilyn and James stared back. Dallas felt mocked - cursed even.

Her family had done everything to protect her, one of which had apparently cost them their life. She slowly began to understand why people would distance themselves from her, as she would do it too if she had the chance.

Dallas didn't think she was dangerous. She knew she was.

Her blank stare was directed to the floor and it wasn't until a shadow poured across it did she glance up. Once she did, the bloodshot and tired eyes of Stiles Stilinski stared back. However, the brown swirls were not as comforting, but rather threatening. With a simple look, she knew she wasn't looking at Stiles anymore - but somebody else completely.

"Don't look so glum, Dallie." Void frowned at her. He knelt down to her height as she was sat defeated on the floor. "It's not your hurt I want."

She gave him a bizarre look and glared into his strifeful eyes. "What do you want?"

"Well, I can't tell you that," he stated while tucking her hair behind her ear with cold fingers. Her skin was warm against his touch while his eyes flickered to her lips. "But you should know that you and I are more alike than you think."

"You don't know me." she narrowed her whitish eyes at him.

An effortless laugh broke through his chest. He gave her a knowing look before leaning forward. "I've been with Stiles for awhile now." Void hummed. "I'm in his head.. in his mind. Everything he knows about you, I do too." he continued to taunt her. "Everything he feels about you? I feel all that too. Every time you've kissed him, hugged him and told him you loved him? I was right in there experiencing it all." he lifted his finger and tapped against her forehead lightly.

Dallas pulled her face away from his touch and knitted her eyebrows. "You're insane."

"Well, I'm not the one hearing thoughts and eating people am I?"

Her entire position froze. There was no possible way he could've known about that - how Stiles could've known about that. "I got that one from your dear old dad." he snickered. "All that pain and guilt he felt for letting you succumb to that, It was exhilarating. You made a smart choice sending him away."

"The next time you lay a finger on him," she lifted her head as her eyes became beacons of white light. "I'll tear you to shreds."

He held an intrigued, desiring and proud look on his face. "Let me help you." he lay his finger underneath her chin and lifted her eyes to his. "And I promise I won't."

Her chest rose and fell with her erratic breathing. She hoped Void wouldn't notice it but his cocky and intimidating demeanour suggested otherwise. "You said to never trust a fox."

"And they say to never trust a Siren." Void smirked. "Can't trick a trickster right? What do you have to lose?" Images of her family, friends and loved ones at his feet flashed before his eyes. In retrospect, she had a lot to lose. Perhaps being dangerous wasn't a bad thing - and maybe it could be the only thing that could save her at this point.

He held his hand out for her, blood-stained and bruised. Her hand wrapped around his and a grin stretched across his face. A small smirk broke out on his face before he pulled at her hand to bring her closer and buried his lips on hers. His cold, firm hands clung at her waist and until she pulled away, she didn't realise she had kissed him back. Somehow, he managed to make everything feel and sound like Stiles.

That was when Dallas knew how deeply she was being deceived. She was determined not only to play his game but beat him at it.

You couldn't trick a trickster? He'd soon see about that.

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Dallas stood before Derek Hale, Chris Argent and Noah Stilinski. "My son, he was there?"

Dallas shook her head and remembered the way he touched and spoke to her. "Yeah, but it wasn't Stiles." she paused. "But he thinks I trust him. That's his mistake."

Chris gave her a skeptical look. "How do we know he's not tricking you?"

"Because I only let that happen once." she glanced down at the chessboard the Nogitsune had set up. Each piece represented one of the pack. She noticed how she was the Queen, but how she was also one move from being struck. "He's not the only trickster here." She picked up the chess piece and fumbled with it in her hands. "I gave him the intention that I'd be here, at your loft."

Derek watched the pieces carefully and raised a brow at his goddaughter. The worry and protective tendencies had started to set in. Without her father, he was all she had left. "We use you as a pawn to get him there?" he paused. "What would it want with you?"

"He thinks I'm the weak link," she explained calmly. "I did something bad and he's trying to use it against me. He thinks I'm giving in. Sacrificing my piece." she mumbled, picking up Derek Hale's, Chris Argent's and Allison Argent's pieces and placing a few inches away from hers. "You three will be outside. I can't be sure if he'll be expecting it or not, so you need to be prepared if things go south."

"Sheriff, you'll be here.." she placed his piece beside hers. "Talk some sense into him. See if there's any bit Stiles left in there. I'll be right behind you." Dallas responded, her answers accompanied by a heavy sigh.

Chris flickered his eyes from the chesspieces to the Siren. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"No," she responded honestly. "But you're never going to win the game if you don't move."

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Stiles Stilinski stared out at the setting sun through Derek's high window. His hands were pushed into his pockets. Shadows poured out onto the cold floor and stretched out his figure.

Noah pulled open the loft doors. A heavy frown sat on his face as he lay eyes on his son. It wasn't until he felt the supportive hand of Dallas Garcia on his shoulder did he remember who he was doing it for. Stiles Stilinski turned to them both. He seemed rather vulnerable, something that gave Noah a wave of confidence. "Hi, Dad."

Dallas watched as he pulled the handcuffs from his pocket. The metal clanking overpowered the silence in the room and caught the attention of Stiles. "You want to handcuff me?"

Noah gave the siren an affirmative nod before stepping forward. "If my son is still in there, he'd put these on and come with us willingly."

The Sheriff gestured her over with the slight knock of his hand as he kept his eyes on the Nogitsune. "Stiles, we're protecting you." she pleaded. Once she reached him, she placed her hand on his cheek while a sorrowful look lay on her face. "Even from yourself."

Stiles didn't look at her but simply held his hands out to the officer. The metal was cold against his skin while the cuffs tightened around his wrist. His expression of sorrow and guilt didn't last very long as when he glared back up at his father, a malevolent smile gleamed back. Noah took a few steps back and flickered his eyes to Dallie who had noticed it too.

"You're not my son."

Void shook his head in dismay before pulling his wrists apart and shattering the metal around the room. He took his left hand and grabbed Dallie by the jaw and forced her to look at him. "You lied to me," he spoke darkly but a hint of amusement plagued his voice.

"I prefer the term tricked." she spat back. The Siren glanced to the door as Allison, Chris and Derek poured in. Dallas snatched her jaw from his grip and stood beside Ally, who raised her hand and shot her tazer at him.

However, the Fox gripped at the electric wires and threw the tazer towards the wall. Derek let out a menacing growl and lunged for the young boy but was easily tossed against the wall. It wasn't until the sun had finally set did he stop resisting.

"Well, you made a good decision bringing all your friends, Dallie." he paused and gave her a wicked grin. "Cause now you need to protect me from them."

Dallas felt her heart sink at the sight of the Oni appearing from the darkened corners. This whole time she was tricking him, he was doing the same to her. She had no chance of winning.. especially since the game between the two had only just begun.

☆ word count: 2,541. ☆