Allison's POV

Work sure was boring.

I mean, it usually was pretty busy with customers coming in and out of the store, but today, it was like a desert out there. All day for the most part I've been sitting up against the counter tapping my fingers, waiting for that hand on the clock to tick to the ten. Avery's shift was with me today, leaving just the two of us, and she was doing the same thing as me.

"Why is it so dead today?" she breathes, blowing a stray strand of hair from her face. "It's a Friday night; you'd think there'd be at least someone that would come in here."

"Maybe there was a big party we didn't know about," I smile, teasing around with her.

She glances over at me, her eyes wide. "If there is, I'm leaving right now to go. I'm sorry, but I never miss a party. Especially a big one."

"I'm just teasing," I roll my eyes slightly as she reaches down and pulls out her phone, probably to check and make sure there wasn't actually a party. "It's probably just slow because it's Labor Day weekend."

Avery taps away on her phone still, her manicured nails tapping against the screen. "Yeah, you're probably right. I just want to go home, and it's only 9:30. We have like an hour left."

I raise my eyebrow. "You mean half an hour?"

"Whatever," she rolls her eyes, clearly not the smartest person on the block. I watch her tap away on her phone for awhile before something occurs to me, causing me to sit up a little bit farther.

"You're left-handed?" I notice as she swipes with her pointer finger.

She nods. "Yeah, you?"

"No," I say, watching her closely. I tried to picture her as the black dog, but couldn't. No way in hell could a dainty little girl like Avery be the killer. However, I shouldn't rule her out. I'll keep her in mind if or when Stiles and I find another piece to the puzzle.

Suddenly though, I hear footsteps, relieving me from my boredom. I look up, expecting to see a customer, but instead it was Cole; walking straight towards the two of us.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "Back to buy another bra?"

He gives me a pathetic look as Avery puts her phone away, practically drooling over him. I could tell that she went totally googly eyed. "Actually, I'm here to talk to you this time."

I figured that he wanted to talk to me about something, but hearing him actually say it made me wonder what it really was. Avery watches him closely as he walks up to the counter, his eyes darting to the side as if he wanted to talk to me privately.

"Yeah, sure," I say before turning to Avery, her eyes still not on me. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," she hums, sounding dazed off. I roll my eyes at her before walking around the counter and going a little ways to where Avery couldn't hear us even if she wanted to. When I finally turned and looked at Cole, I realized then that his face was in panic mode.

"What's wrong?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

Cole shakes his head as he twiddles his thumbs. "I couldn't find Stiles and I remembered that you worked here-"

"Cole," I say sternly, wanting him to get to the point. He looked scared, and that was weird for him. "Seriously, what's up with you?"

"I don't know," he breathes, scratching the back of his neck now. "I was just leaving class earlier today when I got a headache, and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up half naked in the woods."

I widen my eyes. "What?"

"I don't remember any of it," he shakes his head, panic in his eyes. "I blacked out for literally six hours, and I don't know what the hell I did in that time frame and why I was in the woods."

"You must have transformed," I say, remembering Cole say earlier the night of the full moon that he didn't remember much during his transformation.

He nods, agreeing with me. "Yeah, you're probably right..."

"You don't remember anything at all?" I ask again, trying to trigger some type of memory in him. "Nothing like the pain, where you were, or any other details?"

He licks his lips. "No, nothing. All I remember is the migraine and waking up in the woods."

I'm silent for a moment as I think, not realizing how long of a pause there was between. In that time, Cole's face drifts from panic to despair, probably thinking that I didn't know how to help him. He was right, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

I reach out and rest my hand on his shoulder. "Cole, it's going to be okay, alright? We'll figure this out."

"I hope so," his eyes drift to the floor. It was weird not seeing Cole acting like a dick. "I don't want to lose control and hurt someone."

I was about to reassure him again that he wouldn't hurt anyone, but just before I could, Avery was yelling for me. "Allison!"

I look around Cole then to see Ms. St. Clair standing there in front of the counter, holding a laptop bag that was mine. I must have left it in class or something. Cole looks as well as I walk over, her face lighting up when she saw me.

"Hey Allison, I think this is yours?" she asks me as she holds up the bag, causing me to nod my head.

"Thank you," I smile, taking the bag. "I didn't realize I left it in class."

She smiles at me. "I figured it was yours, and I remembered you saying that you had to work tonight, so I thought I'd drop it by before heading home for the weekend."

"I really appreciate it," I nod, sticking the bag under the counter.

St. Clair brushes her hair out of her face. "Of course, have a good Labor Day weekend!"

"You too!" I say back as she walks out of the store, heading back towards the exit in the mall.

Avery looks down at the bag. "Well aren't you just miss popular tonight."

"She was just bringing me back my laptop bag," I say, fading out as I looked down at it as well. "Which was actually really nice. I needed it this weekend too; it has my charger in it."

I was about to turn back to Cole and talk to him some more, but then my eye caught something. On my laptop bag was a sticker that we all had to get at registration; one that included our names, phone numbers, ect. in case we lost something or needed to be identified on campus. Just then, I realized that they also put your own signatures on there, including your dominant hand.

If I could get ahold of the system, maybe Stiles and I could narrow things down. We could figure out who was left handed on campus, if the murderer was on campus that is.

"I'll close up," Avery says to me, breaking me from my concentration. I look up then and see that it was already five minutes till. "You can take hottie over there home or whatever it is you're going to do with him."

She winks at me before walking away, making me feel very uncomfortable. I wanted to protest at her accusation, but she was letting me leave early, so it didn't matter that much to me. I quickly gather my belongings, such as the laptop bag, before looking up at Cole, nodding at him to follow me.

"What? I have to be escorted out now?" Cole smiles, shaking his head as his eyes trail the ground. "I'm not three."

"No, but you are a blacking out were-" I stop myself. "Shapeshifter-or-whatever-you-are."

Cole pushes the doors open as we both walk outside, finding the parking lot pretty much abandoned. It really did amaze me that no one was here tonight; a lot of things must be going on that I didn't know about. I notice a few other cars parked here and there in the lot, but the ones I noticed were mine, Avery's white Buick, and then Cole's truck.

"I guess I do need a babysitter now," Cole shrugs. "I doubt anyone is up for the job though."

I cough, fake of course. "You've always had two babysitters..."

He rolls his eyes at me before changing the topic, it being something I wasn't prepared for. "Speaking of the other babysitter, what's going on between the two of you?"

I stop in my tracks, furrowing my eyebrows as I look over at him. It took him a moment to stop and realize that I was staring at him, but then he gave me a look of confusion as well. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Cole starts again, that careless look washing across his face once again. "You two have been pretty close lately, and I didn't know if there was something else there-"

"Why are you asking?" I say, suddenly growing defensive for some odd reason. It wasn't like I didn't have feelings for Stiles; I assumed that Stiles had feelings for me as well, but I had no idea on how to let him know that. Cole asking me about it only made my emotions towards him grow more confusing, and I lashed out.

He widens his eyes, realizing that he stepped over some type of line. "I've just been noticing things, Allison. Geez, I'm not asking you if you sleep naked or anything...do you?"

I smack him, causing him to wrinkle his face up, but I knew it didn't hurt him. "Noticing what?"

"The looks you two give one another," Cole says, rubbing his arm where I slapped him as if it really did hurt. "The little comments you make towards one another too. It's not like you two aren't always together either."

"We're roommates," I scoff, not sure what he was hinting at here. "What else do you expect?"

"So I take it as you don't have feelings for him?" Cole accuses me, making me grow really angry then. My emotions right now were just mixing up in my head and I didn't know what to think, so I went to anger.

I shake my head. "No-I mean, I do...I think. I don't know, Cole. It's complicated."

"Everything is always so complicated, isn't it?" he raises an eyebrow at me. Just then, I realized why I was angry at him; finally pinpointing the main reason.

I point a finger at him. "Why does any of this matter to you, Cole Clearwater? Are you taking census on everyone's relationship status or something?"

He widens his eyes, taking a step backwards. "If I knew you would have been this angry, I would't have asked. I was just asking because I can tell he has feelings for you too, but neither of you idiots has made a move yet."

I lower my finger, suddenly feeling bad that I lashed out on him. "I'm sorry...I-I just don't know. I mean, I've had boyfriends before, but Stiles seems different this time...it's like I'm scared to make a move."

Cole opens his mouth to say something else, but just before he can speak, a loud roar from behind me cuts him off. Suddenly, I'm whipping around to find the cause of the noise, not seeing anything but ultimate darkness. I squint, trying to see, but all I saw was a single spot of light casted by the streetlight and faint outlines of the cars in the parking lot.

"What was that?" Cole breathes under his breath, trying to stay quiet like me. I slowly reach down into my boot as I grab my dagger; one that I always carry with me in case of situations like this one.

I hold it out in front of me. "I can't see anything, can you? Use your eyes."

It takes Cole a moment to understand what I mean before his iris' are shining a bright gold, piercing through the darkness. After a moment of scanning the area, he shakes his head, whispering. "Nothing. Should we split up?"

"Splitting up is a stupid idea," I breathe, trying to think of another option but not thinking of anything. I pause for a moment. "You go left, I got right."

Cole furrows his bushy eyebrows. "I thought you said-"

"Just go," I hiss before walking to my right, taking large but careful steps. I hold my dagger out in front as I try to peer through the darkness, still not seeing anything. I sure wish my phone wasn't dead so I could use the flashlight.

I turn to look around the side of Avery's car, seeing nothing but pavement before I hear Cole's scream behind me; it being something that would haunt me forever. Just when I turned to look and see what was going on, I see his body fly into view under the light of the street lamp, motionless.

"Cole!" I scream, starting to run to him before I hear a low growl behind me. I hold my breath, trying to look over my shoulder, but I couldn't see anyways. That was when I felt hot breath down my neck, but I was too scared to turn and see what it was. Usually things like this didn't scare me, but something about this thing didn't feel right. Like it wasn't normal, if that made sense.

Just when I find the courage to turn and look, catching a glimpse of bright white eyes, I feel a sharp pain on the back of my head, followed by infinite darkness.

-*+*-

Allison, stop getting yourself into so much trouble.

So, what do you think is going to happen to the huntress? Will she be another victim in this little game? *wink wink*

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