LETHAL
CHAPTER TEN

( MONSTROUS )

— ☾ —

Alex sighed as she blew out a breath. Lucas had just left, and the girl was already feeling more alone than ever.

She glanced at her bedroom ceiling as she laid down on her bed, her arms resting on her stomach.

She raised her head slightly so she was facing her wall across from her bed. She glanced at the pictures on it, the majority of them of her and her friends, some of her and her parents.

She had recently added the photo of her whole family, including Lucas. Lucas and Alex did end up photocopying the photo, true to Lucas' word.

Suddenly, Alex received a text from Scott. She sat up and took her phone out from inside her pocket, reading the text in her head.

Meet me and Liam at my place. Now.

Alex quickly got up, putting on the closest jacket she could find as the girl hurried to Scott's house.

••••

"Kira found Brett. They're fine, but we need to go. Now." Scott explained as he handed one of his motorcycle helmets to Liam, Alex following the two as they began to walk to the door.

"More assassins?" Alex questioned.

"Maybe a lot more." Scott answered.

"Different then the ones who just tried to set us on fire?" Liam raised his eyebrows, Alex frowning in confusion.

"I think so, yeah." Scott responded before Alex could ask. Him and Alex stopped at the door as they glanced at Liam, who was glancing at the ground.

Liam placed the helmet down onto the table, Scott sighing.

"How about I take you home?" Alex suggested.

"I'm not like you." Liam started slowly. "Both of you."

"Not yet." Scott responded.

"I don't mean I'm not strong, or I'm never gonna learn how to be in control." Liam added, glancing between the two werewolves in front of him. "I mean everything else. You and your other friends try to protect everyone. Have you been doing this the whole time? I mean, how are you all still alive?"

"Not all of us are." Scott replied quietly, Alex's gaze softening.

"Liam, at least let me take you home." Alex sighed, Liam hesitantly nodding.

••••

Alex inhaled a breath, exhaling it soon after. She glanced at Melissa, the older woman nodding encouragingly. "Can't go back now."

Alex sighed, nodding. She knew Melissa was right. Alex moved to the side, allowing Melissa to walk into the hospital room Stiles was in.

"You find a tape player?" Stiles asked Melissa eagerly as he quickly turned to face her.

"No, but I found someone looking for you." Melissa responded, moving to the side, Stiles frowning in confusion.

Alex walked in the room slowly, her heart skipping a beat as she glanced at Stiles, the boy standing up slowly, his eyes scanning the girl's body.

"Hey." Stiles spoke to the girl softly, Melissa closing the door gently, giving the two some privacy.

"I heard you almost got killed." Alex started, a fair distance between the couple. "You okay?"

"Brunski punched me in the face." Stiles began, gesturing to his cheek. "Turns out he was a serial killer."

"Makes sense..." Alex frowned, Stiles nodding.

"What about you? What happened with Lucas?" Stiles asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, he's gone..." Alex blew out a breath.

"You okay?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah, as okay as I can be, I guess..." Alex let her voice trail off. After a moment, she spoke again. "I'm gonna go..."

"You don't have to." Stiles started quickly, trying to get the girl to stay.

"I should go." Alex responded immediately, trying to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked." She frowned.

"Why would she lock the door?" Stiles frowned in confusion, referring to Melissa as he walked closer to the door, Alex tensing slightly and moving aside.

Stiles tried to open the door, but it still wouldn't open. "Uh, hey, Melissa? Melissa?"

"Worse case scenario, I could just break it." Alex suggested, glancing at Stiles with raised eyebrows. She turned around, walking a fair bit away from Stiles and crossed her arms, putting distance between her and the boy as she turned around to face him again.

"Maybe you shouldn't." Stiles responded, glancing at the girl. "I already owe this hospital enough money."

"Why would she lock the door?" Alex frowned, referring to Melissa.

"Maybe she didn't mean to." Stiles shrugged.

"You don't just accidentally lock a door." Alex's frown deepened.

"Okay, well, maybe she wasn't thinking exactly..." Stiles suggested. "Or wasn't thinking it through, you know? People sometimes do things without thinking them through..." He referred to himself not telling Alex about her brother.

Alex sighed, glancing around the room. "Whatever. That was stupid of her to lock the door."

"Well, sometimes people do stupid things because they think it's the right thing, you know?" Stiles responded, Alex glancing at him again, not saying anything as Stiles went on. "And I don't think we should hold it against her for the rest of her life. Especially because she's tried apologising hundreds of times through texts and voicemails."

Alex immediately knew what Stiles was talking about. She took a step closer to him. "Is she gonna keep begging?"

"She might." Stiles replied, taking a step closer to Alex, only a small amount of distance between the two now.

"We stopped talking about Melissa awhile ago, didn't we?" Alex asked, Stiles nodding.

"Yeah." Stiles replied quietly, his eyes flickering between Alex's.

"I just hate it when people I care about keep important things from me." Alex sighed, Stiles taking another step closer to the girl. There was only a few centimetres between the pair now.

"Do you hate me?" Stiles asked quietly, his gaze flickering from Alex's eyes to her lips.

"I could never hate you, Stiles." Alex spoke softly.

"I can work with that." Stiles replied, a small smirk ghosting his lips.

Suddenly, Alex closed her eyes and cupped Stiles' cheeks, connecting her lips with his softly but lovingly, Stiles closing his eyes immediately as his hand went to the back of Alex's neck gently, briefly stroking her hair, both his hands sliding down to Alex's waist.

The kiss didn't break as Stiles gently squeezed Alex's waist, bringing her closer.

The two gently pulled away, glancing between each other's eyes, Stiles' arms still around Alex's waist, and Alex's hands still cupping Stiles' cheeks.

Their attentions were brought to the door when it creaked open, the pair frowning.

"Stiles." Alex spoke softly, Stiles glancing at the girl, his eyes flickering between Alex's. "I forgive you."

Stiles smiled, squeezing her waist again. "Really?"

Alex nodded, her gaze flickering between his eyes. "Lets never fight again."

Stiles nodded, huffing a chuckle. "Definitely."

••••

Malia huffed a bored sigh. She finally forgave Stiles and everyone else too.

She was sitting next to Alex, who was sitting next to Stiles. The three were listening to the tape Brunski recorded when he was talking to Lorraine Martin, Lydia's grandmother.

"Let's go, Lorraine."

"Listen to me. Please listen. There's something I have to do...something I have to stop."

"I have to take you back to Eichen, Lorraine."

Stiles raised the volume of the tape as him, Alex, and Malia continued to listen to it, frowns placed on all of their faces.

"No, no, I don't think you're going to be taking me anywhere. I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it? You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."

Stiles turned the radio off, sharing a glance with Alex. The two spoke at the same time.

"This didn't happen in Eichen House."

"But then where did she go?" Malia frowned, glancing between the pair.

"That's what we need to find out." Alex responded.

Stiles turned the radio on again, the three listening intently.

"No, no, I don't think you're going to be taking me anywhere. I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it? You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."

Suddenly, Malia realised something. "It's the record player."

Stiles turned the tape off, frowning at Malia. "What record player?"

Alex nodded at Malia's statement. "The one in the lake house, in the study." She stood up.

"So she escaped from Eichen House to go back and listen to a record player?" Stiles frowned in confusion.

"Well, she was like Lydia, right?" Alex responded, glancing between Malia and Stiles. "She was a banshee?"

"Yeah, but only once. She predicted Mary's death, and then spent decades trying to predict something else." Stiles replied.

"Maybe she finally did." Alex spoke in realisation, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows as she glanced between Malia and Stiles again. "And what if this time, it wasn't just one death."

"The dead pool." Stiles realised.

"What if all those years ago, Lorraine predicted it?" Alex continued. "And she knew there was something inside the study that could stop it."

Malia raised her eyebrows as her and Stiles stood up.

"Then we're going to the lake house." Stiles spoke quickly, approaching Alex. "God, you're so smart." He spoke with a grin as he then kissed her a few times on the cheek, Alex chuckling.

••••

Alex, Stiles, and Malia were sat on the floor, listening to the record player.

"What are we doing, this room wasn't even made for us." Stiles spoke annoyedly as he stood up. "You know? We need someone like Lydia, or Meredith, and we're just sitting here, listening to a stupid record player play a record that doesn't play anything."

He leaned over and turned the record player off. "Come on, there's plenty of other things we can be totally useless doing."

He walked to the door, Alex and Malia standing up, Malia going to follow Stiles, however, Alex remained where she was, frowning at the record player.

There was a flat whirring sound, despite the record player being turned off. "Stiles. Malia." Alex spoke, frowning at the wall.

"Yes?" Stiles asked, walking back in the room, Malia following him.

"I can still hear it." Alex spoke.

"But it's not on." Stiles frowned.

"I'm aware of that, thank you." Alex rolled her eyes. "It's probably something else."

"Like what?" Malia frowned.

"Something's spinning." Alex spoke. "Malia, can you hear it?"

Malia frowned, now hearing the sound Alex was hearing. "Yeah, I can."

Stiles looked around the record player, trying to find the source of the whirring sound. He noticed an electrical cord plugged into the wall. Stiles frowned.

He moved the record player to the side as he squatted down to the electrical cord. He pulled on it gently, beginning to tighten his grip as he pulled it more. Stiles glanced at Alex and Malia, Alex nodding, while Malia shrugged.

Stiles pulled the cord roughly, the wall beginning to break as the cord tore through it.

Alex and Malia helped Stiles tear the wall down, revealing six larger record players inside, all six of them spinning rapidly.

"What is this?" Malia frowned.

"The dead pool." Alex answered, still glancing at the record players.

Malia was about to punch the record players, however, Stiles grabbed her fist before she could. "Woah, hey, you can't just smash it to pieces, okay? If this thing is being used to disseminate the list, then it's probably gonna keep going until everyone's dead."

"Then what do we do?" Malia frowned in confusion, glancing between Alex and Stiles.

"It needs some kind of prompt or command." Alex started, glancing at the record players, Stiles and Malia glancing at the girl. She walked closer to the record players, noticing a key hole. "It needs a key."

••••

Stiles face-timed Lydia, showing her the record players. "You see it? There's gotta be a way to turn it off, right?"

"I don't know." Lydia responded from her end. "I don't know anything about computers from the 1970's."

"Neither do we." Alex added, moving so her head was on Stiles' shoulder, Stiles nodding.

"Okay, where's the monitor?" Lydia asked.

"Lydia, there is no monitor, there are buttons, knobs, spindles, no monitor." Stiles sighed.

"Wait, turn the phone back, face it to the carpet." Lydia responded, Alex frowning from her place.

"The what?" Stiles frowned.

"The floor, just show me the floor." Lydia sighed, Stiles flipping the phone so it was facing the ground.

"Where's the stain?" Lydia whispered to herself. "There should be red blotches. A wine stain."

Alex shared glances with Stiles and Malia. "There's nothing, Lyds."

"That doesn't make sense." Lydia frowned. "I gave the five hundred dollars I was supposed to use to hire cleaners to Brunski."

"Lydia, what the hell does wine have to do with anything?" Stiles asked impatiently.

"Red wine doesn't just disappear, Sti." Alex spoke, Stiles glancing at her.

"Unless it wasn't wine." Lydia frowned to herself.

"What? What do you mean?" Stiles frowned.

"The ashes weren't ashes, the study isn't a study, the record player isn't a record player, so maybe the wine wasn't wine." Lydia spoke, Alex nodding.

"Guys, you have to find the wine." Lydia continued. "Find the bottle, there could be something about it."

"What kind? What's it called?" Stiles asked.

"It's a 1982 Cotes du Rhone." Lydia informed the three.

••••

"I think there's something inside." Stiles burst in the room with the wine bottle, Malia and Alex rushing to his side. "Do you have, like, a wine opener or-"

Malia cut him off as she grabbed the wine bottle, smashing it to the ground, Alex and Stiles moving back quickly to avoid the glass and wine.

Stiles rummaged through the glass, being careful not to cut himself as he found a tiny key. He shared glances with the two girls, quickly unlocking the main record player.