Chapter Text
Monday January 10, 2011
Waxing Crescent Moon
9 Day Till the Full Moon
7:00am
The sun comes in from the open wall. My head is pounding and the light only makes it worse. Laura must have left the blinds op- Laura is dead.
My body is covered in dust from the burnt floor. There used to be a soft carpet and an obnoxious rug that was as soft as a cloud. I don’t even know how many nights I fell asleep right here with Laura beside me. Whenever one of us had a bad night or an especially good one, this is where we went. Laura’s green and pink disco rug that was so soft I couldn’t even complain about the colors. We’d spend all night talking or just holding each other without saying anything. Sometimes Cora would come in and lay with us, something even our parents would after an argument or our cousins when they stayed over.
It's gone now and every last one of them is dead.
I need to go back to where I found her. I should have searched for trackable scents last night. Any trail left by her killer could be gone by now. How did I let myself fuck up so badly.
I jump through the space where Laura’s window used to be. The landing hurts. Something impaled my right foot and something in my ankle definitely broke. It will heal.
Her body was far from here, a few miles at least. I should have checked it last night. The run there is long and painful. I left my shoes in Laura’s room and I didn’t give myself enough time to heal. It's what I deserve for letting this sit for so long.
I can smell Laura’s blood. It's dried up and hidden under fallen leaves but it's there. I dig my claws into the fresh scars of my palms. There is less rot and decay, the scent of it is still evocative but faint. I shouldn’t have waited.
I close my eyes and get closer to the ground as I face upwind, letting each scent hit me. Antiseptic, like a hospital room, clings to the air. Decay, it's not Laura, it's sickness, human. Two… No three, maybe four people. I don’t know. I should know. A few of the scents are faint, Laura is the freshest and most clear.
The wind whistles blowing the leaves. Plastic and human sweat. They rise and swirl with the forest's aroma, overpowering the putrid concoction of death and sickness. My eyes open and there lays an inhaler. Laura was killed by an asthmatic?!
—
7:45am
“Mom, three calls on my first day is a little overdoing it.” Why does she keep calling? For all she preaches about independence and self-reliance…
“I’m making sure you have everything you need for your first day.” And now I can’t even be upset with her.
“Everything except a pen.”
That seems to be the opening she was looking for because she doesn’t even waste a breath, “I have a bit of time before my first meeting.”
“It's fine Mom,” it really is. If there is anything a school has its things to write with.
“Alliso-”
“Ms. Argent,” a voice calls out from my right.
“I gotta go, love ya,” I let out the words quickly before turning to the man who just saved me from overprotective parent number 1. “Yes that’s me, Allison Argent,” Oh god that made me sound like a freak, who goes ‘yes thats me, full name’.
“It's nice to meet you Allison, I’m Principle Richards,” he sounds nice enough. “I have your class schedule right here, it looks like you have tenth grade english with Mr. Andrew. Follow me.” He hands me my schedule and starts walking me to my class. Great, I'm going to be the new girl with an escort. It’s bad enough that I’ll be the new girl, now I’ll be the new girl who can’t even find a classroom by herself.
The principal reaches a door that looks just like every other door and oh no he’s walking in. This better not be a ‘this is our new student make sure to be nice to her’ speech.
“Class,” and he’s doing it, “This is our new student Allison Argent.” Please just let me take a seat. “Please do your best to make her feel welcome,” Has this man ever talked to a teenager?
Now everyone’s looking at me. The boy in front of me hands me a pen, “thanks,” oh my god my voice was definitely too high. He has such a big smile and chocolate eyes. His hair is dark and a bit messy but not in a bad way.
“We’ll begin-,” the teacher begins, reminding me that I am currently in class and very late to that class and oh wow its weird that he handed me a pen. That’s weird right? But he does have a really cute smile and I did need a pen.
—
2:32pm
Her hair is long and curled, even if a bit unkept. She looks like she’s ready to storm into the woods but the look surprisingly suits her. Like army chic. She has this innocent look about her and oh no she is looking at Scott McCall. I need to save her.
“That jacket is absolutely killer,” it's not exactly a lie. It is killing my eyes looking at it. “Where’d you get it,” She looks a bit like a spooked squirrel. Cute.
“My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco,” enticing.
“And you are my new best friend,” she definitely has potential. I mean look at those dimples. She really does have a beautiful smile.
—
2:32pm
“Can someone tell me how New Girl is here all of five minutes, and she’s already hanging out with Lydia’s clique?” Nessa struts over with too much sass for such a short person.
“Because she’s hot,” I shrug. Why is she looking at me like that? It’s the truth, “Beautiful people heard together.” Just like the animal kingdom. Well not exactly, female birds usually match the environment, but then again Jackson and his smolder could…
“So you think New Girls hot?” I am soooo not going to like whatever she says next am I? “What happened to Lydia Martin?” Nessa throws a hand to her chest in mock concern, “She’ll be so hurt.”
“SHhhhh,” I put my finger to my lips to emphasize as I whisper yell, “She’ll hear you.”
“She has never even looked at you,” now she’s just being mean.
“And I’m not going to let it start with your loud mouth. You know there really should be a height limit on unlimited speech.”
“But you would get so bored without my lively commentary, I know I would just die without your hyperactive dialogue,” she quips sarcastically.
I deadpan,“I’m hurt.”
“I only keep you around for DnD and tutoring anyways.”
“Well that makes it okay then.”
“Stiles, we should head to practice,” Scott says from behind me. I kinda forgot he was there and wow Scott looks like he’s in a daze. Or on something but Scott really isn't the type.
“What’s up with him?” Nessa asks, gesturing at Scott who is currently skipping down the hallway. That definitely won't help his social standing.
“No clue,” I pat Nessa on the shoulder and turn to follow Scott. Wait, I quickly turn, walking backwards, “We still on for Wednesday?”
She gasps dramatically, “How could you even suggest,” she really needs to leave the theater more often. “That I could possibly skip such a time where I get the opportunity to learn from your great knowledge of high school geometry,” she throws her hand to her forehead like some shakespearean maiden.
“Just don’t be late. Rosco waits for no one,” I yell out before turning around to chase after Scott.
—
Tuesday January 11, 2011
Waxing Crescent Moon
8 Days Till the Full Moon
2:48pm
The trail is gone. The inhaler only took me to an empty road where the scent abruptly ends and any other scent trail left was already long gone. I feel like I’ve searched every inch of the preserve only to find nothing. What kind of a wolf am I? I can’t find even one person.
I punch the nearest tree. I really am useless.
The windshifts. I hear a splash and then voices coming from the stream.
A male voice is speaking, “It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that’s not the only weird thing. I can hear stuff I shouldn’t be able to hear. Smell things.”
I move upwind of them, not making a sound.
Another voice joins in, “ Smell things? Like what?”
Who the hell are these people?
“Like-,”
I take a deep breath in. One of them matches the inhaler. One of them-
“So all this started with the bite.”
A bite? No. No no no.
“What if it’s like an infection?” There is not a baby werewolf running around. Not right now. “Like my body’s flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?”
“You know what? I actually think I’ve heard of this. It’s a specific kind of infection.”
“Are you serious?”
That would mean there’s a rogue alpha running around.
“Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called lycanthropy.”
No.
“What’s that? Is that bad?”
“Oh yeah, it's the worst. But only once a month.”
Is this why Laura left? A rogue alpha?
“Once a month?”
“Mmm hmm. On the night of the full moon.” The second boy howls.
These idiots. Now I have to deal with a new wolf that can’t even figure out that he’s a wolf. How long has it been since he was turned? He could hurt someone. Maybe he already has…What kind of useless alpha turns a random person?
“I saw the body, the deer came running.” He saw Laura? “ I dropped my inhaler.” Of course he did, you idiot.
“Maybe the killer moved the body?”
Why were they even looking for a body?!? They need to leave, right now.
“If he did, I hope he left my inhaler.”
I should give the kid his inhaler. It wont do him any good but he looks like he might pass out with anxiety before he realizes that. At the very least they won't have a reason to come back so I make myself known.
“What are you doing here? Huh? This is private property,” I let out.
“Uh, sorry, man, we didn’t know,” he’s clearly lying.
The baby wolf says, “Yeah, we were just looking for something, but..” is he seriously not even going to tell me why he’s actually here? “Forget it.”
I throw the inhaler toward the baby wolf. He catches it with ease. I can’t deal with this. This is not what I came here for. I am not going to babysit some little werewolf .
“Dude, that's Derek Hale. You remember, right? He’s only like two years older than us,” the taller one with the buzz cut says, trying to be quiet. He looks familiar.
“Remember what?”
“His family. Seriously Scott, they burned to death in a fire a few years ago.”
So the baby wolf’s name is Scott.
“I wonder what he’s doing back?”
Apparently making sure you don’t kill anyone. I can practically hear Laura laughing at me as they leave. How am I gonna do this without her?