Frayed

I wait outside Allison's new apartment while Scott goes to talk to her. I keep looking at my phone, waiting for Derek to text or call me but he hasn't once. Once Scott comes out, he seems a little awkward. When we get to the elevator, Deucalion is there waiting for us. We extend our claws as soon as the doors close. The Alpha Pack leader seems amused saying, "I would have to be blind, deaf and quadriplegic for you two to have a chance of taking me down. You should take the chance, kill an Alpha and become an Alpha."


"No thanks," I reply, staying close to Scott.


"We're not like you, Deucalion. We don't have to kill people," Scott adds.


"Well, that might change. A circumstance may arise where the only way to save one person is to kill another," Deucalion says.


Scott thinks the leader is there to spark a confrontation with us but Deucalion says he lives in the building. He points out that the neighbors are surprisingly friendly. "What do you want?" Scott asks


"I want to see what you're made of."


I step from behind Scott and growl. "Oh, I'll show you."


The elevator opens and Scott pulls me out by my arms. Scott insists we report what Deucalion said to Derek. Scott reports the Alpha Pack is living in Allison's building. Derek's pack already knew because Cora and Boyd followed the twins there. "Maybe the Alphas want us to know where they are," Scott suggests.


"Maybe they don't care if we know," Peter also suggest.


"We plan to attack tomorrow and you two are coming with us," Derek says.


The Alphas live in the penthouse right above the Argent's apartment. Derek plans a preemptive strike to kill the Alphas first. "Why is killing is always the plan for werewolves?" Scott wonders.


"Yeah, why is it always the 'go to plan'?" I add.


Peter agrees with us but puts a hand on my shoulder and says, "You don't get tired of being blandly moral, do you?"


I grab him by the wrist, twist it and throw him over the table. He groans as he lies on the floor. "Note to self, don't touch Scarlett McCall while insulting her."


"Actually, don't be a psychopathic killer and touch Scarlett McCall."


"Guys, back on topic," Scott orders. "It's a terrible idea to attack the Alpha pack."


Cora disagrees with us and asks Derek, "Why do we need these kids?"


I step toward her. "Well, we 'kids' saved your life," I say, my voice low. "And this 'kid' can end it just as easily."


Scott tugs at my arm. Derek tries to convince me and Scott that we can't just sit back and wait for them to make the first move. "We can't defeat the whole Alpha Pack," Scott says.


"We're not going after the whole pack, just Deucalion," Cora replies.


Boyd describes him as 'the head of the snake'. He believes that, if we kill him, the rest will fold.


Peter says it's not a snake but a Hydra, a mythical creature the demigod Hercules fought. Scott rightly points out, "When Hercules cut off one of the creatures seven heads..."


"Two more grew back in its place," I finish.


Peter congratulates us for doing our 'summer reading'. Scott and I visit Deaton after our small meeting. "We don't know what to do about the situation," Scott says.


"We don't know how to save someone who doesn't want to be saved and we don't know how to stop them," I say.


"Scott and Scarlett, you shouldn't try to stop them, you should lead them."


We then decide to meet with Deucalion ourselves. I change into a white tank top, black jacket, black skinny jeans and my black boots that stop under my knees. Scott wore a black shirt, blue jeans and his old black and white sneakers. We were about to leave but we get stopped by Isaac. We lie and say we're going for food but Isaac insists on going too. We arrive at an abandoned mall where Deucalion is perched on a broken down escalator. "You were supposed to come alone," he says.


I look at Isaac. Scott and I do apologize. Then Derek walks out of the shadows. Scott and I try to talk Derek down. "No one needs to get killed," I tell him.


"Deucalion also broke the rules," is all Derek says.


We turn to see all the members of the Alpha Pack reveal themselves. Kali comes sliding down a concrete column, leaving claw marks all the way down. Ennis comes up another escalator from the floor below and the Alpha Twins are standing on a ledge one floor above. Boyd and Cora step forward. Oh no....


The Battle


Derek makes a move on Deucalion but Kali stops him with a kick to the head. The twins somersault from the upper floor and land merged. Boyd is facing off with Ennis who seems to easily avoid most of his blows but the young man does score one good uppercut. Isaac takes on the merged twins and is tossed aside easily. Scott and I reluctantly transform to help Isaac. The merged twins throw us both into a concrete wall. We try again but we are no match and Scott gets a nasty scratch on his torso. I go to defend him but they manage to scratch me too. I look down and the wound starts to close up. Through it all, Deucalion stands serenely on the damaged escalator, listening.


I see Ennis fighting Derek, Derek losing. I turn to help but a sharp pain makes me gasp. I look down and see Deucalion's cane blade sticking right through me. I slowly turn to see Deucalion standing in his same spot, still but grinning. I cough and, before I'm grabbed by the twins, I get a glimpse of his eyes glowing through his glasses. The twins make sure I can't heal again. They take my arms and twist them behind my back and bite down on my shoulder. I fall to the floor, wincing at every little move I make. The stab wound healed but the bite throbbed in my head. I take a deep breath and pull out the cane.


Boyd is down. Kali has her foot on Cora's neck. Scott and Isaac are on their knees. I'm lying at the feet of Derek, barely able to breathe or keep myself awake. Deucalion urges Derek to kill me saying, if he does, then the others can go. Deucalion says Derek should take the first step referencing what he told Derek about killing his betas to become stronger. The twins grab me and lift me up by my hair. I cry out from the pain all over my body. "You kill her, or they will."


"Scarlett!" Scott calls.


"Scott, I'm scared," I sob.


"It's gonna be okay, I promise."


Kali thinks Derek is laughable, mocking that he is Alpha to a couple of useless teenagers. Deucalion looks toward me and Scott. He says that some have more promise than others. Kali then threatens to kill Cora if he doesn't and tells Derek he must choose between family and pack. Derek grips the back of my head and pulls me up. The whole room is silent, anxious. I hold my breath and shut my eyes.


I expect his fangs at my throat or his claws tearing out my heart. Instead, I feel his warm lips against mine. The kiss is sloppy but I know he's only making a statement for the Alpha pack. An arrow flies over Derek's head and strikes the merged twins who immediately separate into two separate people again. Someone firing flashbang arrows and Deucalion warns us to cover our eyes. Whoever continues to fire, gives me, Scott and Derek time to regroup and begin to help the wounded out of harm's way.


Scott and I regain our feet and take aim at Ennis. The three of us hit each other with equal force and merely slide away from each other. I shake my head. Derek attacks Ennis from behind. As the two struggle, they get closer and closer to the ledge over a three-floor drop. Scott and I jump forward to help, slashing at the tendons in Ennis' leg. Ennis spins and begins to fall over the ledge, pulling Derek with him. The two crash down on another escalator far below. I scream after him but Scott grabs my arm to keep me from jumping.


After-math


I'm sitting on Stiles' bed while he's patching me up. He's wrapping my stomach when I start crying out of nowhere. "Scar, I know it hurts. You don't have to go to the track meet tomorrow."


I wipe my tears. The Cross Country team has to head toward a meet on a desert highway this morning. "No, I can go."


I slip on my shirt and stand up. My pain killers numb the pain physically but not my emotional pain. All I can see is Derek falling to his death. I sit back down next to Stiles and huff, tears still coming no matter how hard I try to stop them. "Scarlett, I... I didn't know you were so...attached to him."


I shake my head and look at my friend. "He was my sour wolf, Stiles."


He wraps his arms around me and rocks me like the true best friend he is. We get to the bus and go straight to the back. I sit in the back seat by myself and on the other side is Scott and Stiles. Stiles is running vocabulary words with Scott using an app on his iPad. The word 'Incongruous'. "It's incongruous that we're going to this meet after what just happened," Stiles says. When he tries to work in the word 'DARACH', Scott doesn't respond.


My mind is somewhere else. I keep replaying what happened to Derek in my head. The image of his dead body is burned there. The bus hits a bump in the road and I wince in pain. Stiles is worried. Our wounds, Scott's deep scratch on his torso and the bite on my shoulder, is not healing. "I know we shouldn't have come," he replies.


"We had to," Scott replies.


"Safety comes in numbers," I add.


"Well, there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre, or bloodbath, carnage, slaughter, butchery..."


"Okay, Stiles we get it!"


"It was an Alpha," Scott claims.


"It takes longer to heal," I add.


Stiles points out that Boyd and Isaac have already recovered. Scott leans his head against the window. "I can't believe Derek is dead."


I start to cry again. Scott winces as he gets up and sits next to me. I move to keep the least contact with my wound. I lean my head on his shoulder. We start to doze off and the Coach thinks we're carsick. "We're fine, Coach," Scott tells him.


"Your wounds are bleeding again," Stiles whispers.


I look down and blood and staining through our shirts. We notice Ethan, who's sitting with Danny, listening to our conversation. "He won't try anything in front of a bus full of people," I say.


Stiles wonders aloud if the same can be said of Isaac and Boyd. Scott says if they try anything he'll stop them. Boyd begins to wolf out. His eyes glow and he claws the back of the seat. Scott and I make our way to Boyd's seat and try to talk him out of attacking Ethan pointing out that he doesn't know what would happen to him if he attacked the Alpha on the bus. Boyd says he doesn't care about his own future but Scott says we care about Boyd. Isaac notices we're bleeding. This seems to shock Boyd into submission. "'We're fine," Scott says.


"Please, give us a chance to figure something out," I say. "We hope for a plan that doesn't end with someone else dying."


Boyd agrees. We return to the back with Stiles. He is worried that Ethan keeps checking his phone because he's up to no good. He texts Danny several times to get him to ask about Ethan's behavior but Danny refuses, resulting in a ridiculous amount of text alerts, typing and beeping. Danny eventually does ask and reports back to Stiles that someone close to Ethan is sick and he's waiting for an update. Stiles tries to convince the Coach to stop for food at the next exit but the Coach refuses, saying nothing is going to make them miss the meet. Scott has been trying to call Deaton but keeps getting voice mail.


Stiles calls Lydia and Allison. He explains that we aren't healing and they decide they have to get Coach to stop the bus so they can tend to his wound. Stiles tries to reason with the Coach but gets nothing but a whistle in the face. He then sits down with Jared and somehow makes him vomit. The bus pulls into a rest area. Lydia, Allison, and Stiles get me and Scott into the restroom to treat our wounds. "They're not healing because of something called Somatoformic. Their brains are causing their own very real physical illness," Lydia explains.


"They're not letting themselves heal because they feel guilt over Derek's death," Stiles thinks aloud.


Lydia comes up with a plan to sew up the wound because, if we believe we are healing, we might actually start healing. She takes a sewing kit from her purse. Scott and Allison go to the bathroom while I sit outside, waiting. Stiles slides down next to me. "How do you feel?"


I glance down at my bite mark that has finally stopped bleeding. "I'm okay. I just...wish I could've done something to save Derek."


He wraps an arm around me. I lean my head on his shoulder and we sit in silence. A couple minutes later, Allison and Scott come out. Stiles stands up and helps me to my feet by my good arm. Since they're out of gas, Allison and Lydia will be coming on the bus with us.


Isaac attacks Ethan, punching him again and again as Boyd stands by watching. The Coach steps into the break it up but Isaac doesn't stop. "Isaac!" I scream.


Everyone stops. Isaac looks at me and I shake my head. He moves away from Ethan and toward us. I pull him off to the side, away from everyone else. "Isaac, you have to promise you will never attack them again. Any of them."


He hesitates. "But..."


"Promise me," I say, softly.


He sighs. "Okay. I promise."


On the bus, Lydia and Stiles discuss the murders. Lydia brings up the fact some ancient cultures used human sacrifice to prepare for battle. Stiles sums it up as, "We have Alpha werewolves against a dark druid."


"Derek is dead. It's not our fault."


Scott thanks her for not listening when we warned her to stay away. Allison stares at Scott and says she is just looking at his eyes.

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