Chapter Text
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“This is so stupid.”
10-year old Derek Hale couldn’t hide the annoyance that was laced through his tone as he climbed the steps behind his 13-year old sister. The allure of their Uncle’s attic had been too much for Laura to ignore anymore. She had been begging Derek to explore the off-limits space with her all summer, and he’d been able to distract her enough by pointing out that it would be at least 120 degrees up there, and they couldn’t really explore if they were worried about heat exhaustion, now could they?
But that excuse wouldn’t hold up anymore, because it was late fall now. The leaves had fallen, it was too chilly outside to do anything, and they were working on day four of a driving rain that kept everyone and everything inside in the shelter. And Uncle Peter was gone all day at a conference, so he wouldn’t be any the wiser for their snooping.
Derek kept teasing her to go into the attic by herself if she really wanted to know what was up there, but he knew she’d never do it alone. She’d never actually admit to him that she was scared--reputation as the big sister to maintain, after all--but he knew it anyway. The truth is, he was scared, too. Their Uncle Peter lived in the Hale family mansion that had to be at least 150 years old, and houses that are that old have...secrets. Everyone knows that.
God knows what they would find up there. Derek had a vivid imagination, and he could picture all kinds of things that may be lurking in the shadows.
But no matter his fears, he still finds himself on a lazy Saturday afternoon, following Laura, who had practically sprinted up the stairs ahead of him once he finally gave in to her relentless nagging.
Above him, he hears a squeal and takes the last five steps quickly, expecting to find her covered with cobwebs (or maybe being attacked by a mummy), but instead finds her rifling through a heavy trunk she has found just past the top of the stairs. It’s dark up here--their only sources of light were a small window at the far end of the attic letting in light from the streaks of lightning outside, and a solitary, flickering bulb that looked like it could lose power at any moment.
“Derek! Come look!” Laura’s voice is muffled as her head is buried down inside the large trunk, but her excitement filters through, and Derek can’t help but smile. She has such pure, unbridled joy. And even though he’s still nervous about being up here, he can’t help but be wrapped up in her joy, too.
“You know Uncle Peter will kill us if he finds out we’re up here. What is it?” He stands just behind her as she piles things up next to her.
“It’s a trunk of mom and dad’s old stuff. There’s a bunch of letters, a few pictures, some old books, an old leather jacket--”
“--ooh! Awesome! Gimme that!” Derek grabbed the package from her hands.
“Easy! Don’t ruin it!”
“I won’t, butthead,” He dropped the cloth that had the jacket wrapped to the floor, and unfolds it carefully. “Do you think this was Dad’s?” His hands stroked the leather, surprised to find it still soft.
“I guess it would’ve been. This journal has mom’s name in it. This must’ve been their stuff.” Laura’s voice takes a melancholy turn for a moment, and Derek puts his hand on her shoulder. He doesn’t remember his parents quite as well as she does--he was only 5 when they died, and he misses them, but he’s lived without them longer than he lived with them, so he’s kind of used to it by now. A loud crash of lightning breaks Laura out of her thoughts and she shakes herself off and dives back into the trunk.
Derek’s attention returns to the jacket in his hands. He unfolds it and slips it over his arms, pulling it up onto his shoulders and testing it out. He pulls on the lapels and slides his hands down the front. It’s a little oversized, but it won’t be too big for long--he’s growing fast. Uncle Peter already complains about how much he eats.
“Well, whaddya think?”
Laura’s head pops up out of the trunk and she peers at him before bursting into laughter.
“It’s too big!”
Derek sticks his tongue out at her. “I’ll grow into it. I like it.” He lifts the collar and wraps it around his neck, pulling up on the leather so he can take a deep breath into it. Such a good smell.
Laura shrugs and returns to her search, her voice muffled again as she speaks to him from the depths of the trunk. “Whatever. You look ridiculous, Kenicke.”
Derek is still feeling out the jacket, testing out the pockets and the zippers when Laura squeals with joy.
“What is it?” Derek asks.
Laura pulls up a long box, wiping the cover off and showing it to Derek. “A Ouija board! Come on! Let’s try it!” She pushes herself out of the trunk and settles close to the flickering light bulb, pushing stray furniture out of the way to clear a space on the floor.
Derek lets out a groan, “Are you serious? I don’t wanna play with a Ouija board!” He kicks his feet in the dust and watches as Laura sits, pulling out the board and the plastic triangle piece.
“What’s wrong, Der?” Laura asks him, one eyebrow raised. “Are you chicken?”
As if on cue, a huge clap of thunder shakes the roof around them and the light flickers off and back on again. Derek’s grip on the leather collar tightens, and he hears Laura’s snicker.
“I’m not scared, Laura,” he says with resolve, hoping he sounds braver than he feels. “I just think the game’s stupid.”
“You’re totally scared,” Laura mocks. “Come on, play with me! It doesn’t work if I try by myself.”
Derek sighed and pulled the leather jacket around himself. He shuffled over to where she was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and flopped down across from her, the board between them.
“I’m only playing because you won’t stop bothering me about it.”
Laura smiled broadly at him. “Good call, little brother.”
“I’m not your little brother anymore, Laur.”
“You might be taller than me now, but you’ll always be my little brother, Der-Bear,” she grinned at the use of the nickname he hated.
Derek groaned at her, “Can we just get this over with please? I wanna go back downstairs. I don’t like it up here.”
“Stop being such a scaredy cat. Just put your hands on the other side of this triangle. Lightly! ” she slapped at his hands when his fingers pressed down too hard, making the triangle flip over.
“Hey! Do you want me to play or not?”
Laura sighed audibly. “Please, be helpful? Less like a barbarian, okay?”
Derek sighed in return. “ Fine. ”
Another rumble of thunder sounded around them as they fell silent, the room lighting up intermittently with the flashes of lightning. Derek watched the triangle, waiting.
Derek heard Laura’s breathing get deeper and he peered up at her. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be muttering something unintelligible under her breath. He looked down as he felt movement on his fingertips and he noticed her fingers twitching on the triangle. Derek’s eyes went wide with fear, and his breathing shallowed. He felt the triangle start to move, and his heart rate went up, his nerves tingling with anticipation. The only sound was the steady pounding of the rain on the roof, and the slight scratch of the triangle on the board as it began to slide around.
“Whatcha guys doin’?”
Derek startled from his thoughts abruptly and Laura shrieked in surprise as a head popped up into the space just off to the side of the board. Unruly blonde ringlets and a loud pop! from an exploding bubble of gum made Derek groan, and Laura smack the top of her head playfully.
“Erica! You scared us half to death!”
“Ooh! A Ouija board! I wanna play!” She pulled herself the rest of the way up into the attic and situated herself on the floor next to Derek, between he and Laura. Droplets of water rained down from her as she sat down, causing Laura to squeal again.
“Erica Reyes, you are soaking wet!”
“Well, duh. It’s raining , in case you hadn’t noticed.” She smiled at Derek and smacked her gum loudly, removing her cross-body bag and jacket and throwing them behind her haphazardly. Derek rolled his eyes as another clap of thunder shook the far window on its hinges.
“Did you walk here in the rain?” Derek asked her incredulously.
“It’s just water.” Derek shook his head at her. Not a lot stopped Erica when she made up her mind, not even a torrential downpour. She continued, “Plus, my house was boring. You guys should really lock your doors if you don’t want anyone coming in.”
“Can we get back to the board please?” Laura asked impatiently.
“No, Laura! Can’t I go downstairs and hang out with Erica?” Derek whined.
Erica frowned. “No! I wanna play! I’m an only child; I never have anyone to do this with. You’re staying, Hale.” Laura smiled at her, and then turned and raised her eyebrows at Derek.
Derek knew the fight was lost. “ Fine. But I get to pick the movie later.”
“Deal,” Erica smiled. Her hands moved to the third side of the triangle, her fingertips joining Laura and Derek’s.
Laura took a deep breath. “Okay. We have to be quiet, and tune our minds to the things in the spiritual world.” Derek could barely contain his snort of laughter, but he shut up as he heard Laura growl at him under her breath. They sat in silence for a few moments, the rain seeming to pound louder overhead, the triangle underneath their fingers still and quiet.
Erica broke the silence with a whispered, “I think we’re supposed to ask it something.”
The three of them looked at each other, Derek with a skeptical look, Laura with a contemplative one, Erica with an excited look.
She spoke first. “I know! Let’s ask who is going to win the baseball game tomorrow!”
Laura groaned. “That’s a stupid question!”
Erica shook her head. “No, it’s not. We find out who wins, then we place bets on the winning team and we’ll be rich .”
Laura rolled her eyes. “You can’t legally gamble anyway. You’ll get sent to jail before they can even get you the check.”
“Fine,” Erica huffed, disappearing into her thoughts for just a moment before her eyes brightened again. “Ooh! Let’s ask who we are going to marry someday.”
It was Derek’s turn to groan. “Oh, come on! None of that annoying girly stuff. I don’t care about who you’re going to marry.”
Erica looked at him with sharp eyes. “I already know who I am going to marry, Derek Hale . I’ve known since kindergarten. I meant let’s ask for you .”
Laura laughed at Derek’s reddening face, giving Erica a gleeful smile. “Ooh, yes! I like this idea.”
Derek pulled his hands from the triangle, giving Laura an annoyed huff. “I am not asking this dumb game who I am going to marry someday.”
“Come on, Derek! It’ll be fun!” Erica shuffled around in the bag that rested behind her and pulled out a pencil and a notepad. Then she pulled on his hand, coaxing him back to the game board. “And if you don’t do it, I’ll tell everyone at school that you have Paige Krasikeva’s name with hearts all around it in your notebook at school.”
Derek’s eyes widen fractionally, then narrow at her. “You wouldn’t.”
Erica smacks her gum at him. “You know I will. So shut it, lover boy. Put your hands on the triangle and let’s find out if Paigey is your one true love.”
Derek looked helplessly at Laura, dismayed to see her smirking at him. She was going to be no help whatsoever. He stuck his tongue out at her again and reluctantly put his fingers back on the triangle.
Silence descended over the attic again, the rumble of thunder and the flickering of the lightbulb above them creating a spooky atmosphere. Derek looked up at a particularly bright flash of lightning, but his eyes were drawn back to the triangle when Erica spoke in a low, eerie voice.
“Ouija Board of Destiny,” she said in a ghostly voice, Derek rolling his eyes at the sound of it, but not moving his hands for fear of the consequences. He glanced over to Laura to see her with her head raised, her eyes closed tightly. He sighed and closed his eyes. “We summon your power to this glorious space to ask you to humbly bequeath your knowledge upon us. Please, oh spirit, inform us of the person to which Derek Hale will be betrothed to in his future.”
A rumble of thunder punctuated the end of her request, and Derek’s breath caught in his throat as the triangle began to move.
J--A--
“Stop it!” Derek hissed, looking at Erica. “Stop doing that!”
Erica looked at him indignantly. “Stop doing what?”
“Stop moving the thing! You’re pushing it!”
“I’m not pushing it! You’re pushing it!”
“SHHHH!” Laura interrupted them both. “No one is pushing it! The spirits are guiding it! Will you two shut up already?”
C--K--
Derek didn’t want to believe it. Erica was definitely pushing it, he thought as he looked at her. But her eyebrows were scrunched in concentration, her eyes completely closed, so she couldn’t see the board at all. His gaze flew to Laura, but her eyes looked back at him, registering just as much surprise in them as Derek’s.
At the pause on each letter, Erica would remove one hand and write the letter down on the piece of paper next to her. Derek followed her hand, but frustratingly couldn’t see what she was writing. He tried to keep track of the letters in his head, but there were too many after a while, and his head was swimming with too many thoughts to keep track of them.
This can’t be happening. Spirits aren’t real. It’s just a dumb game.
He tried to convince himself. But he couldn’t control his shallow breathing as the triangle on the board continued to move of its own accord.
But...I’m not pushing it.
The triangle moved a longer distance this time, down to the word GOODBYE at the bottom of the board. The silence was thick and heavy, and broken with a loud boom of thunder that caused all of them to jump.
The three of them looked up at the same time, then over to the floor where Erica had been writing. She lifted the notepad, looking at her writing for a moment. She squinted her eyes and showed the paper to Laura, whose eyes widened a bit. She tilted her head in thought, and then pointed to a place on the paper. Erica made a small mark and then tore the paper off and handed it to Derek.
Derek took the paper from Erica’s hand, turning it over and reading the words printed on the paper. His eyebrows raised in faint surprise, and he asked aloud,
“Who in the world is Jackson Whittemore?”