My bottom lip finds a spot between my teeth as I resist the urge to smile at Derek's text message. I quickly message him back, following Stiles through the police station. I slide my finger on the top of my phone to press the off button. My phone is snatched out of my hand by Lydia's petite hand. 

        Lydia smirks, reading the messages. She tilts her head in my direction. "It's about time." 

        I snatch my phone back, cheeks a little warm. "Not your business."

        Stiles glances back at the two of us, brows raised. His eyes dart to my cell phone pressed to my chest. Lydia chuckles, softly. "What are you-"

        Thankfully, Deputy Parrish steps in front of us just before we can enter Sheriff Stilinski's office. "Your dad should be back in an hour." Parrish opens the office door, letting us inside. "You want to wait in his office?"

        "Actually, we want to talk to you." I flash Parrish a smile to take the attention off of me.      

        Lydia steps up to my side. "Privately."

        Stiles shuts the door to keep anyone from overhearing what we are about to talk to. He grabs the piece of paper he had folded up in his pocket. I snatch it out of his hand, unfold it, and hand it over to Parrish. Parrish takes the paper, not asking any questions, but we can see how confused he really is by all of this.           

        "This is a hit list?" Parrish silently reads off the names. 

        Stiles uncrosses his arm. "We call it a dead pool." 

        I rock on my heels. "Do you recognize any of the names?"

        "Yeah." Parrish holds the paper in one hand. I had kept it folded just enough to hide his name from him until it was the right time to show him. "The Sheriff had me run a bunch of these through the system last night, but we couldn't find any of them."

        Stiles waves his finger in the arm before crossing his arms one more time. "Show him the other thing."

        Lydia glances between the two of us. I guess she wans't expecting to be the one to show him the other side. Lydia grabs the paper out of Parrish's hand to switch the paper over.                         

        Parrish sucks in a deep breath when he sees the final name- his name. He stands up and walks a little bit away from us. "Okay. That's kind of terrifying. What's the number?"

        "That's how much you're worth." I answer his question.

         Parrish spins back around to face us, stunned and a little disappointed. "I'm worth five dollars?"

        Stiles holds up a hand. "Five million."

        "I only may forty thousand a year." Parrish looks back dow at the dead pool. "Maybe I should just kill myself. I don't get it. Why- Why am I on this?"

        "Honestly, that might be a question for another day. Right now, there's still another third of the list we gotta crack." 

        I look towards Lydia then to Parrish. "We need the third cipher key, but we need help getting it."

        "From who?"

        Lydia makes a face. "Meredith."

        "The girl from Eichen?" Parrish crosses the room and opens the door to let us out. "The last time you saw her, you almost gave her a nervous breakdown."   

        Lydia cocks her head to the side. "Uh, almost."

        Parrish is a really good guy. I can understand why he wouldn't want to completely want to trust us. I mean, we are always involved in some kind of trouble, finding dead bodies, being involved with things none of us dare try to explain. We make it hard for anyone to trust us. Somehow, Parrish decided to take a leap of faith with us and go see Meredith. 

        Parrish is one of those guys that can easily convince others to do what he wants. He does it really politely, though. If someone actually ever said no to Parrish, I would be extremely surprised. He's just too nice. 

        The Eichen House worker was kind enough to lead us to Meredith's room. The Eichen House gave me chills as soon as I had stepped inside of the building. This place just isn't nice. I don't like being here. Knowing Stiles stayed a few nights here, makes me feel even worse. 

        The man has his keys in the lock of the door. Another man comes around the corner, eyes narrowing on all of us. "What the hell are we running here? A bed and breakfast?" The other man snatches the keys away. "We do not just open the door for anyone with a badge."

        Parrish faces the meaner worker. "We need to talk to Meredith Walker. It involves a murder investigation."        

        The man whirls around to face Parrish. "Well, you can talk to her all you want, but these three, especially that one-" He turns to the three of us and points directly at Stiles. "They're outta here."

        "They're crucial witnesses in an ongoing investigation. I wouldn't have brought them here if it wasn't absolutely...crucial." Parrish fights back, rather nicely.

        The man squares up. "Okay, deputy. How about you come back with a court order, then I'll listen." He turns to face Stiles. "As for you, Mr. Stilinski, how about you come back with payment in full. That's right. Daddy may be the Sheriff, but he's late on the bills. I guess those government jobs aren't as reliable as they used to be, huh?"

        I lay a hand on the man's chest, pushing him away from Stiles. I don't like how close he has gotten to him. "You don't talk to him like that."

        The man smirks down at me. I hold my position, partially in front of Stiles. I feel Stiles' hand wrap around my wrist, like he doesn't like how the man is now looking at me. 

        Parrish quickly steps up beside us. "But, they do help when you need a favor. Like, how a month ago, Canaan P.D. helped you get home after blowing point one on a breathalyzer."

        "No." Stiles smirks and nods at the man.         

        The man backs off, fake smiling. "Alright. I'm not against a little quid pro quo. Not at all. Not at all." He pats his hand on Stiles' chest after I step out of his way. He had the keys in his hand when doing so, giving Stiles the keys we need to get in Meredith's room.

        Stiles' pats Parrish on the back before handing the keys over. "You. You, I like you. I'm gonna keep you."

        I watch him walk away, my lip curled in distaste. "I don't like that man." 

        Stiles' fingers tighten a little around my wrist. "No one likes Brunski."

        "He even has a bad name." I shake my head.      

         Parrish unlocks the door and pushes it open. The room is only lit by one lamp on a white table betwen two, white beds. Meredith is perched on the left one, like she was expecting us to arrive. With Meredith being a banshee, I honestly would not be surprised at all if she really did know that we were coming. 

         Lydia is the first to waltz in the small room followed by Parrish. I try to walk until I feel Stiles' hand still on my wrist. I raise a brow at him until he catches on. Stiles  quickly drops my wrist, shoving his hands in his pockets. My mind wanders back to last night. Does he really like me? Not like it really matters now. 

        "Meredith, we're here to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?" Parrish hovers near the doorway.

        Lydia and Stiles sit down on the opposite bed and I manage to squeeze in next to both of them. 

        "I can't tell you anything." Meredith deadpans.

        "Meredith, what do you mean you can't tell us?" Lydia calmly asks her.

        "We just need the third key. You can give it to us in numbers, letters, hieroglyphs. Whatever you want." Stiles waves his hands around as he talks.

        "I can't." Meredith shakes her head.

         I slide forward on the bed a little. "Then why did you give us the second key?"

        Meredith's eyes dart over to mine. "I wanted to help. That's what I want to do. I want to help."

        "Great!" Lydia smiles. "So, help us now, okay? Give us the third cipher key."

         "Things..." Meredith looks around the room, like she is worried about being watched or something. "-have changed. I-I can't."

        "Why not?" Stiles presses.

        "Guys, go easy on her." Parrish says from by the closed door.

        "I'm sorry." Meredith sincerely apologizes. "I can't. He- He doesn't want me too."

        My lips part at the last part. "He? Who's he?"

        "Meredith, who doesn't want you to tell us the third cipher key?"

        "The Benefactor."

        Okay. Now, we are getting somewhere. Meredith knows who the Benefactor is. This is great except I don't think we are going to get the name out of her. She's already said she can't tell us. Something tells me that she is going to keep to that. 

        I hesitantly stand up, cross the room, and sit down beside Meredith. I take a deep breath before reaching for her hand. She doesn't fight me, which I find rather shocking. "Meredith, what's his name? Could you just tell us his name?"

        Meredith shakes her head from side to side in response. 

        "Okay, you're shaking your head. What's that mean? Does that mean you don't know or you don't want to help us?" Stiles questions her.

        "I can't- I can't help anymore." Meredith shakily states.

        "How do you know him?" Lydia climbs to her feet. She quickly closes the distance between us. 

        Meredith grips my hand a little tighter, something that I was not expecting. Lydia is scaring her. 

        "Lydia, calm down." I whisper to my friend.

        Lydia ignores me as she continues on. "Meredith, a lot of people are going to die if you don't tell us."        

        Meredith's head moves from side to side, visciously. Her hand is ripped from mine. "I don't- I don't know. I don't know."        

        "Meredith, it's okay." I hold a hand out for her to calm down. "You're gonna be alright."

        Her head whips from side to side, never stopping. "Please."

        "I don't... I don't... I don't know." Her yells become louder

        "Meredith." Parrish tries to step in.

        "I said I don't know!" Meredith screams unbelievably loud.

        I jump off of the bed, covering my ears with my hands. Lydia stumbles away, the screams bothering her most of all. Stiles grabs Lydia in his arms. I step forward towards Lydia when I see a trickle of blood oozing out of her ear. Meredith's scream did that.        

        I stare at the laptop screen that has the first part of the deadpool. The cursor is blinking to wait for Lydia to start typing the cipher key in. Stiles keeps pacing his room, trying to think of what the key could be. 

        "Okay, well, we know one thing. Both of the first two keys-"

        "Allison and Aiden." I whisper from the bed, cutting Stiles off. 

        Stiles nods. "They're both names of the dead, right?"

     "But we've already tried every other dead person's name we could think of. And if you haven't noticed, there were a lot of tries." Lydia reminds him. 

        "Yeah, I noticed." Stiles sighs. He stops pacing when he sees how upset Lydia suddenly looks. "You okay?"

        "The only other Banshee I've ever met and I think I might have just drove her over the edge."

        "Lydia, it wasn't your fault. I was there, too. And you're probably not the only-"

        I hold up a hand to stop Stiles from talking. "Hold on. Banshees predict death. Right? So what if the third key is someone who isn't dead..."

        "But will be." Lydia finishes off with wide eyes. She hovers her fingers over the keyboard, shutting her eyes. 

        Stiles and I share a worried look until we hear a key be pressed down. The letter 'D' is in the small box on the laptop screen. I lean in closer. Another letter is pressed down. E. I suck in a deep breath. A name has already popped in my head and I am very worried about what the next few letters are. R. My heart beats erractically in my chest. E. No. Please no. K. 

        I stumble away from the laptop. "No. This- No."

        Lydia presses enter. Names fill the screen, but I stumble backwards away from the desk. Derek can't be dead soon. He just can't. I grip my hair in my hands, falling on Stiles' bed. 

              "Call Parrish. We need to call Parrish." Lydia scrambles for her phone. 

        Stiles sets a hand on my shoulder. "Arden, are you okay?"

        "Derek, he can't be..." I trail off, worriedly. 

        Stiles gives me a confused look. "Wha-?"

        Lydia sends a look my way, phone pressed to her ear. "They're dating." She explains. "Parrish? We have the third of the list. We cracked it."

        Stiles freezes. His eyes are full of sadness and most of all, hurt. "You're- You're dating Derek?"

        I flip my head up to stare at him. My eyes widen. Oh, god. I didn't want him to find out like this if he really does like me. "Um..."

        Lydia climbs to her feet, abruptly. "What are you talking about?"

        I step around Stiles to stand close enough to hear Parrish on the other end of the call. 

        "Lydia, Meredith's gone. They found her an hour ago in her room. She hung herself. I'm sorry."

XXXXXXX

Woooo! An update! I like this update! This was a good update! 

I didn't want Arden to come right out and say that she was with Derek, so Lydia was the one to do so. Poor Stiles, though. Holy goodness, guys. Darden is official. They are officially official. You are welcome.

Although, a small part of me likes her with Stiles. 

Question: What do you think?

So, yeah!