Chapter Seventy-Three
π Codominance π
Scott's in the middle of reading a book about damnatio memoriae while Stiles drives the Jeep. Stiles let's out a deep breath and wipes a bead of sweat off of his brow, and Scott sighs deeply, making it clear that the heat is starting to get to them both.
"Man, I think the Jeep's overheating again." Scott said and Stiles sighed, "Probably." He said. "Should we pull over and put more antifreeze in it?" Scott asked and Stiles sighed, slightly shaking his head. "No we can just turn the heat on." He said before doing so making Scott roll down his window.
"You find anything yet?" Stiles asked glancing over at Scott who shook his head, "It's mostly the same stuff you guys already knew." Scott said before reading out loud. "Damnatio Memoriae was a Roman practice, a government decree to destroy the images of the damned. And they would scratch off their names from inscriptions, chisel their face off of statues. The Romans believed it was a punishment worse than death."
"Being forgotten." Stiles said.
"Listen to this "Damnatio memoriae was later used on a serial killer in 1598 known as the Demon Tailor. He lured children into his shop in Paris, where he would kill them and boil the flesh off their bones to eat. The courts believed the crimes so horrible, they ordered all documents destroyed. To this day, no one knows his real name." Scott read while Stiles made a face.
"So, the Dread Doctors resurrected a killer who was so bad that he had to literally be erased from history?" Stiles asked and Scott looked over at him, "A killer that became a werewolf." Scott said.
"Which probably made him a better killer. That's great." Stiles said sarcastically and they glance at each other for a moment before Stiles revs his engine and hits the gas, clearly in a hurry to get Kira back and return to Beacon Hills.
A little while later Scott was now the one driving while Stiles sat in the passenger seat. "Have you talked to Malia?" Scott asked, glancing over at Stiles and he sighed. "She's not talking to me... or anyone, I guess. I assumed she was pissed about Wren." He said and Scott sighed.
"I think I know why. I think she found her mother." Scott said making Stiles's eyes widen, "Her mother? As in the Desert Wolf?" Stiles asked and Scott nodded. "I knew she was still looking. She erased her name off my board, but I just... I knew she hadn't stopped." Stiles said and Scott sighed softly.
"When I was at her house, I'm also... pretty sure Braeden was there, too." Scott said making Stiles glance at him, "Braeden? What, did you catch her scent?" She asked and Scott shook his head. "Actually, it was her motorcycle. I smelled her exhaust." Scott says and Stiles sighed, "What the hell do you think they're gonna do?" He asked and Scott shook his head slightly.
"Something that Malia doesn't want to tell us about, so... probably something bad." Scott said and then Stiles notices the look on Scott's face and immediately realizes what is going on. "Oh, my God! You already know, don't you? It's like... It's the chemosignals, right?" He asked and Scott hesitates for a moment before he finally nods in agreement, "Aggression." He said and Stiles raised his eyebrows.
"How much?" Stiles asked, "I think she's gonna kill her. She's gonna kill her mother." Scott said and before anyone could answer the engine starts to sputter, making Scott look down and furrow his brows when he noticed nothing wrong.
"What's happening?" He asked and Stiles frowns slightly, leaning over to look at the dashboard. "Um... Yeah, we're out of gas. It's out of gas." Stiles said and Scott raise his eyebrows, "It says we have half a tank." He said and Stiles shrugged slightly.
"Yeah, not necessarily." He said and Scott sighed and looked over at him, "You didn't fix the gas gauge or think about telling me about it, did you?" Be asked and he looked at him slightly embarrassed as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
"Not necessarily..."
π
Wren walked through a perfect replica of the closed unit of Eichen House until she walked up to Valack's cell. Her head cocks to the side as she examines the large hole broken into the glass of his cell, barely noticing the fact that she's walking over broken shards of glass as well as she approaches it.
"Do you know how he did it?" Nora asked making Wren jump slightly before looking up to see her birth mother on the other side of the glass she held a paper cup and an audio recorder "He put the recorder in the cup to amplify Lydia's voice..." Wren said and Nora nodded, "It didn't just her voice- it gave it direction. Focus." Nora said.
Nora held up the audio recorder in her hand and turns it on as she walks toward the pane of glass separating them. "Valack used her scream as a tool by focusing it." She said as she put the audio recorder into the cup and held the cup flat against the glass. "You may not have a Banshee's scream but you can still focus your abilities for defense."
Suddenly, the recording of Lydia's Banshee scream is heard, shattering the glass into pieces that fall to the ground at Wren's feet.
π
Scott and Stiles walked up to a gas station and Stiles went up to the door and pulled on it. "Locked." He called back while Scott takes off a chain around a gas pump. "You got a twenty?" Scott asked and Stiles nodded and pulled some money before shoving it through the gap in the door before walking over to Scott. It was quiet for a moment before Stiles finally spoke up.
"There was a pin. There was one little metal pin attached to the scaffolding. He was trying to pull me down." Stiles said and Scott nodded, "He was trying to kill you." Scott said and Stiles nodded. "Yes... and then I pulled the pin... and all these metal braces came down. And one of them just... just went right through him." Stiles said and Scott look pained by the realization of just how badly Theo manipulated them.
"Why didn't you think you could tell me?" Scott asked, "It was just the way you were looking at me that night... you know? You were standing there with a wrench in your hand, and you were looking at me like I just bashed your head in with it. You know, like I'd broken your sacred rule, and that's it- there's no going back."
"I know the difference." Scott said making Stiles look at him confused, "What?" He asked. "I know what self-defense is." Scott said making Stiles stare at him for a moment.
π
Nora watches from behind as Wren walked over to the bookshelf where the seniors inscribed their initials during Senior Scribe and frantically knocks the yearbooks onto the floor, only to find to her horror that the shelf itself is completely blank. "Our names are gone. Our initials..." She said in a slight whisper and Nora walked up to stand next to her.
"Not just you and your friends- everyone." Nora said and Wren furrowed her brows, "What am I supposed to do? How do I save them?" Wren asked and Nora disappeared but Wren could still hear her whisper, "Don't be afraid..."
Wren walked over to the balcony and looks over it to the ground floor, where she sees Nora laying on one of the work tables, looking up at her as Theo, partially wolfed-out with his glowing gold eyes, fangs, and claws, stands over her. He looks up at Wren and growls menacingly as he reaches he clawed hand toward Nora making Wren's eyes widen.
"No, don't-!"
Despite Wren's protests, Theo rips out Nora's throat in the vision in her mind. All of the sudden Wren saw flashes of an earthquake that happened to Beacon Hills years prior.
Suddenly, a light bulb explodes in Wren's room as her entire room shook like there was an earthquake. Nurse Cross and Schrader rush through the opposing doors to the closed unit, the electronic locks buzzing as they swipe their key cards.
"What the hell was that? Did you feel that?" She asked and Schrader nodded, "It felt like it came from Wren's room." He said before they both rushed into Wren room. But when they get inside, they find that nothing is amiss, and Wren continues to lay motionless on her bed as she stares up at the ceiling. Despite the fact that there is no evidence that anything happened, both Nurse Cross and Schrader look freaked out.
"What did you feel? What was it exactly?" She asked and Schrader frowned and shook his head slightly, "I heard a kind of explosion..." He said. "What did you feel before that?" She asked making him look at her almost nervously and she gave him a look, "You know what I mean." She asked and he hesitated for a moment.
"An earthquake... Like the one that happened here a few years ago..."
π
"Hey, Scott? Scott, take a look at this." Stiles said, waking Scott up as he points out toward a large, tall plateau in the distance, where thunder is rumbling overhead. Scott's eyes widen in shock when they see lightning striking the top of the cliff, and Stiles turns to give Scott an incredulous look.
"What the hell do you think's happening to her out there?" Stiles asked and Scott shook his head slightly making Stiles shifts gears on the Jeep and hits the gas to speed up even faster.
A little while later, just outside of Shiprock, the two of them stood outside the jeep watching the thunder. "I don't know why I believed him." Scott spoke up making Stiles look over at him, "I don't know why we didn't just keep talking that night. Five more minutes, and we would've figured out that there were two different stories. We would've filled a lot of blanks."
"We should've just kept talking." Scott says and Stiles sighed softly, "He knew we wouldn't." He said and Scott sighed. "I didn't want it to happen like this." He said making Stiles look at him confused, "Like what?" Stiles asked.
"I knew, sooner or later, one of us was going to get a little too much blood on our hands. I half-thought it would be Malia..." Scott said and Stiles nodded, "Well, Malia seems like she's working on it." Stiles said.
"I just always thought that if it were to happen, then it should be me. I'm the one who's constantly putting you guys in danger, risking your lives... for people you don't even know. It should've been me." Scott says looking down at the ground while Stiles seems both relieved and comforted by Scott's confession.
"We should probably get going." Stiles said after a moment and Scott nodded and started walking back to the jeep but then Scott stops and looks out at the distance. "Hey, Stiles... Do you see that?" He asked and Stiles walked back over to him, "It's Kira." Scott said as there was a flash of light closer to the ground.
Minutes later they pull up right behind Kira and Noshiko, who was holding up a sword. Scott instantly jumps out the jeep, roaring at the Skinwalkers with his fangs and Alpha eyes out, "Get in! Get in!" Stiles called out.
Kira rushes toward the car, with Scott following after her to make sure she makes it safely, though Noshiko stays behind to keep an eye on the the Skinwalkers. The second Skinwalker throws her spear at the Jeep in hopes of disabling it as well, but Noshiko uses her katana to slice the spear in half lengthwise.
"Come on, come on! Let's go!" Stiles yelled and Noshiko rushes into the passenger seat of the Jeep, and as soon as she's inside, Stiles wastes no time before hitting the gas and speeding away.
"Everyone okay?" Stiles asked and Noshiko nodded while Scott and Kira stayed quiet making them glance back to see Scott and Kira kissing passionately. "You came back for me." Kira said happily when they pulled apart and Scott smiles and nods. "I love you. I love you so much." Kira says before kissing Scott passionately again.
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