Chapter Twelve ✧A Long Days End✧

Somewhere in the distance came the sound of hurried shuffling. Malia was on her knees next to me, trying not to look at Tracy's body just feet away. I could feel the paralysis wearing off, and i could move my arms again, though they felt a thousand pounds heavier. 

"What can I do?" Malia asked worriedly. She kept reaching out to me, then withdrawing her hands just before she touched me. Obviously, she was fortunate enough not to have dealt with a kanima before. 

"It'll were off," I explained as calmly as I could. That was just about my first fight ever, and I'd lost. Felling like failure wasn't anything knew, but it didn't feel any better then it had before. I wish the kanima poison worked on paralyzing emotions to, because feeling so angry and sad all at once made me feel like I was about to explode. With a lot less effort then I had to use minutes ago, I turned my head, locking eyes with Tracy's and getting a shiver down my spine. "Is she really-?" 

"Yeah." 

Malia didn't say anything else, not they I really wanted her to know to many more details about Tracey's current state. I felt like my head was a ticking time bomb and one more word could be its trigger to spontaneously combust, and, in all honesty, I wasn't quite sure what would happen to those around me when it did. 

In the distance, voices echoed, bouncing off the walls in a disarray of worried tones. It wasn't until the voice was directly over me that I realized the one calling my name belonged to Scott, who had rushed down to the basement with Stiles, Deaton, and the Sheriff. 

Scott stood over me, looking down at me with wide eyes and immediately dropping to his knees. I tried smiling up at him, tell him he didn't need to look so horrified, but it was hard to smile when you couldn't feel the rest of you body. 

"It's okay, it'll were off," Scott promised, apparently forgetting that this wasn't my first time falling victim to kanima venom. Gently, Scott lifted the top half of my body up, and held me so that i was leaning against his chest, the slowly functioning nerves in my body beginning to feel how tight his arms were as he wrapped them around me. His grip never loosening, Scott asked Malia, "What happened?" 

For what seemed to be the first time, everyone's attention was directed towards Tracy. The others moved towards the girls body, but Scott stayed were he was, cradling me like I was a small child which, for the time being, I didn't mind. 

"It wasn't me," Malia said quickly. She held her hands up defensively, and this girl, this werecoyote, who I was sure was the complete antonym for fear, had a shaky voice as he eyes pleaded for our friends to believe her. 

"What the hell happened to her?" The Sheriff questioned, and I wasn't quite sure if the her was me or Tracy. 

"There were these people, they had masks! Um, there-there were three of them. I think there were three of them," Malia stammered, and I realized that the entire time she'd been talking, she'd been staring at Stiles. 

The teenage boys back was facing me, but I could tell even from that angle that his stance was rigid. But why that was, I wasn't sure. Why wouldn't he believe Malia? I guess maybe her story did sound strange to the others, because they weren't there like I was. 

"What- what are you talking about?" Stiles asked her. 

"They were strong, Stiles." Even from where I was, I could see Malia was searching Stiles' face for some sign of belief. 

"She's not lying, I saw them too," I finally spoke up once I remembered that I still could.My voice was weak though, and I realized how tired I felt. All at once, I could feel the guys foot on my chest again, pressing down until he was about to crush my ribs, and I knew that feeling was the farthest thing from being fake. And I also knew what it was like to not have anyone believe that someone was doing that to you. "I-I thought they were going to hurt us, or something, but they just, they stopped us from helping Tracey." 

"She's not changing back," Deaton interjected, talking about Tracy. "We're going to need to get her out of here." 

"What? Hey, absolutely not." Sheriff spoke in a stern voice as he stepped towards the veterinarian. "This is a crime scene. We call the coroner." 

"I think the coroner might be very confused by this girls severed reptilian tail," Deaton countered. 

"I don't care!" The Sheriff was beginning to raise his voice now. 

"You should." Deatons voice was much softer, but not any less firm then Stiles' fathers. "Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills." 

To this, the Sheriff didn't had a response. His lips formed a tight line as he closed his eyes, shaking his head. He must've felt like he was betraying his duty as the Sheriff of the town, but this couldn't be helped. Deaton had been dealing with this sort of thing much longer then the rest of us, and he knew the consequences of the supernatural world better then anyone. 

"Dad, he's right." Stiles said softly. 

"Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back, and then call the coroner?" Scott added hopefully. He looked down at me, and I nodded softly in agreement. 

"There is a line that we have to draw-"

"Dad, we've already crossed it. More then once." Stiles reminded the older man. 

Deaton, who was still examining Tracey's state, looked up the the Sheriff. "Sheriff, Please. Let me help. I've dealt with things like this before." 

The sheriff looked like he was having a painful internal battle with his morals. He shook his head, not looking at all pleased with his decision, and said, "Just do it fast." 

I was more then happy to leave the sheriff's station, but not quite thrilled to be going to the hospital. If we weren't going there to see how Lydia was doing, I'm not sure I would've been able to go inside at all. 

My entire body still felt shaky, but I wasn't sure if it was because of any remaining Kanima venom or because I hadn't been able to do anything to help Tracey. I'd tried to use whatever the hell was wrong with me for good, and in the end a young girl had still died. 

Scott had yet to leave my side, apparently sensing that something was still going on with me. He probably believed it was the kanima venom, because he kept putting a hand on my shoulder, or my back, trying to keep me steady. Neither of us had mentioned the fact that I had gone after Tracey, which I was thankful for, because it probably end it Scott telling me I should've been more careful, or, even me worse, maybe me telling him the truth. I didn't want to do that, because after everything that had happened today, I wouldn't be able to handle Scott changing how he looked at me. 

"Charlotte! Scott!" Liam erupted through the entrance of the hospital, and immediately rushed towards us. Once he reached us, he touched my arm softly, and looked at me with eyes full of concern. After having one of the worst days of my life, I just wanted to melt into him, but I held myself back. Mostly because I knew the day wasn't quite over yet. 

"I heard what happened and I'm just- I'm sorry I wasn't there," Liam said softly. "Are you okay, Char?"  

I nodded my head. "It's okay, I'm fine. I promise, everything all right." I hoped Liam and Scott weren't listening to my heartbeat, and if they were, I hoped they didn't notice the change in it's tune as I lied. "What about you? What did you find?" 

Liam hand slipped from were it was on my bicep down to my finger tips. The soft skin of his hands felt warm, even soothing to a certain extent, and my fingers intertwined with his before I could even think about it. I looked down at our hands, his thumb brushing over mine subconsciously as he told his story, and I barely listened to his words. I just needed his voice, which was just as soothing as his touch. 

"Tracey was buried?" Scott asked when Liam was done speaking, his question snapping me back to reality with such a force I was sure I'd gotten whiplash. 

"In a hole, buried alive, crawled out." Liam explained the order of events chronologically, but they would've made just as much sense if he'd said them backwards. This was Beacon hills, after all, and everything seemed to be a little backwards. "Then we found another hole." 

I frowned, finally inserting myself into the conversation. "Who was buried in that one." 

Liam looked from Scott to me. "I don't know, but I kind of feel like we're going to want to find out." 

An elevator nearby dinged, and the three of us dipped inside of it. Scott and I tried to explain what had happened to Lydia, but we stopped when the elevator opened back up. In front of us was Scott's mom, talking in an urgent tone to Stiles, the other standing around them with identical looks on their faces. I knew how they all felt, there was a familiar twisting feeling in my gut at the thought of our hurt friend. 

"It could've been worse," Melissa was telling Stiles as Liam, Scott, and I got close enough to hear the conversation. Melissa then looked past the pale boy to someone I hadn't noticed was there. "Theo, nice going on that tourniquet, you probably saved her life." 

I looked over at Theo, who's expression wasn't quite something I could read. He didn't look as devastated as the others, which I guess was because he didn't have the same emotional tether to Lydia as the rest of us did, some obviously more then others, but still there nonetheless. 

"Alright, she's going in to surgery, so it's going to be a while," Melissa was explaining to us. "Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch her up and hope for the best?" 

"It was the tail," Kira spoke up hurriedly. 

I nodded slowly, remember in far to vivid detail the moment Lydia had gotten hurt. "Yeah, when Tracey cut her, it was with her tail, if that makes any difference." 

"Okay," Melissa nodded once, touching the stethoscope around her neck carefully as she turned in the direction I assumed Lydia was in. 

"But it wasn't just Tracy," Malia reminded everyone once Scott's mom had left. "There were the others." 

"The men in the masks," I murmured, a small shiver going down my spine at the thought of them. 

Nobody said anything else after that. For about a half an hour, we were pretty quite, waiting for some news on Lydia but, unsurprisingly that had yet to come. For all we knew, there could still be a few more hours before we even heard anything, especially since we weren't immediate family. At least, that's what the doctors and nurses thought. But we were her pack, and that's as close as family as you can get without having to share the same DNA. I would know, seeing as I was short on the DNA kind of family. 

The next time we saw Melissa, I got excited that we were going to hear some good news, then worried that it was actually going to be bad news, and then disappointed when all Melissa said was that we should be going home. 

Kira offered me a ride home seeing as Scott only had his motorcycle and she had wanted to come by anyways. Liam walked out to her car with me, the two of us trailing behind Scott and Kira. 

"So, would you still want to go out tomorrow night?" Liam asked eventually. 

I looked over at him surprise, not sure what he meant by that. Then, all of a sudden, I remembered Mason inviting us to some club earlier that day. After everything that happened, potentially having fun had been the last thing on my mind. 

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that," I admitted sheepishly. 

Liam stopped to open the door to the parking lot, but neither of us made an attempt to go through just yet. "So do you not want to go anymore? I mean, I totally understand, and so will Mason. It's not you really your scene, and I don't want to make you do something your not comfortable with." 

Suddenly, I felt like we weren't just talking about going with Mason to a club, and I felt my face flush from embarrassment. So this must be what it feels like to have normal teenage situations happen in life. What a not quite refreshing change in pace. 

"I didn't say I didn't want to go, just that I'd forgotten," I muttered, ducking my head ever so slightly in an attempt to get some hair to cover my face. "Let's go," I nodded. "What's the worse that could happen?" 

"You'd think you'd know better then to ask that by now," Liam joked softly. I smiled back at him, and he reached out to tug my fingers with his, until I was right in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something else, but instead thought better of it, and decided to kiss me instead. Still smiling, I kissed him back up till the very moment I heard Scott hooting at us from outside. 

Laughing to hide our embarrassment, Liam and I walked out to them, all thoughts of all the bad things that had happened to us slipped from my mind as I found myself wondering if Scott's hoots of encouragement had been him attempting to use reverse psychology. 

So big announcement guys, SCARED TO DEATH HIT ONE MILLION READS ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO!! I wanted to update sooner in celebration, but sadly I couldn't work through my writers block until today. But I really just want to thank you all for your never ending support towards charlotte evangeline lahey and larlotte! Some of you have been reading this series from the very start, while some of you may have come across scared to death a week ago. No matter when you came here, I just want you to know that I thank you from the bottom of my heart and that I love every single one of you!

 I also want to do something special to celebrate, and I'm currently trying to figure out what to do. Right now, I'm thinking maybe a one shot book? So that way we can see some of charlotte moments from season three and all that we haven't gotten to see. I also might want to have little one shots from my other stories too, now that I think about it. 

Question - How would you guys like a one shot book? Or do you have some ideas of a way for celebration?