Chapter Sixteen ✧Read Your Heart Out✧

If anybody heard that I was having a bunch of friends over for a book club meeting at my house later today, it would've seemed absolutely normal. But this reading session was going to be unbelievable far from normal.

For starters, the book that was going to be the center of attention was one written about the Dread Doctors by a guy with a third eye that Scott and the others had gone to see in Eichen House. Then there was the fact that Scott had asked me to stay home tonight with them and look out for anything that happened to them while they read it, because this book was supposed to trigger a forgotten memory somehow involving the Dread Doctors. Luckily, Malia would be there with me, too, as a supervisor in case anything goes wrong seeing as she already read the book and relived the awful memory of her mom and sister dying in a car accident. 

Tonight was going to be fantastic. And by fantastic I meant surely a disaster. 

But right now, I wasn't thinking about tonight. Instead, my mind was dwelling on the events from the night before. When I'd woken up this morning, I'd really hoped the cemetery and Genevieve had all been a really messed up dream, but it wasn't. The locket that was on my dresser was proof of that. 

While I should've been getting ready for school, I'd been spending my time trying to open the locket. It was an impossible task. I could see clearly how and where it was supposed to open, but it just didn't seem to want to. I thought of asking Scott for help, but I didn't want to have to face his questions on where I'd gotten the necklace from. So instead, I had a still unopened locket practically burning in my pocket and close to none of my homework done. 

Even so, as I sat in the library, I wasn't attempting to catch up on the work I was now very much behind schedule on. Instead, I sat at a computer in a corner far from prying eyes doing research on a subject I didn't know if I wanted to learn about. 

Giving an anxious side-glance to my surroundings, not that anyone would be interested in what I was looking up, I slowly typed in the name 'Genevieve Carodine' into the search engine. 

I was expecting much. Actually, I wasn't really expecting anything. Genvieve had died in the late eighteen hundreds, so I didn't think there was going to be any records of her, at least nothing that would do me any good. I was shocked to see how wrong I was. 

It wasn't like I was suddenly flooded with information, but I did find something that struck my interest. Genvieve Carodine was in fact a real life resident of Beacon Hills back in the eighteen-hundreds, which was a relief to know that she wasn't just a figment of my borderline hysterical imagination. The weird thing about Genevieve's existence was that as far as I could tell, she had no family. There was no information on her parents, or any siblings, and most of all nothing on her ever getting married or having kids, even though I distinctively remembered Genevieve mentioning her children. 

After looking for a while more, I found a picture of Genevieve. I clicked on it immediately, blowing up a grainy black-and-white picture of a woman. She looked to be in her thirties. She had a long high-collared white dress was draped around her tall, thin figure. Her eyes looked like they were completely black, which matched her dark bangs draping over her forehead. The rest of her hair was pulled back, leaving her sharp features to stick out. 

Her face seemed so familiar, but I knew I'd never seen it before. Still, I studied it for a bit longer before I could finally pull my eyes away. Then my eyes fell onto the necklace around her neck. The picture was a lot of things, none of which were clear. But I still knew it was the same locket as the one she'd given me. Without taking my eyes away, I pulled the locket out of my pocket. 

I sighed, putting the locket down for the time being before I had the chance to get transfixed on it all over again. For now, I opted to keep looking at the results I was getting on the woman that seemed to be haunting me. And as I kept looking, I found out that I wasn't the first person Genevieve had appeared to. There was a book written over thirty years ago about urban legends in California, and it seemed that Genevieve Carodine was a part in that. 

Feeling hopeful, I clicked on the book, trying to fine more details, but unfortunately the entire book wasn't online. There was however, the same picture of Genveive that I'd already found displayed on one of the pages that was available on line. 

"Whoa, creepy chick." Mason Hewitt's voice came out of no where and caused my soul to be ripped from my body and jump six feet in the air due to purly anxious shock. I turned around to see him and Liam coming to a stop behind me. "Even creepier wardrobe. What is she wearing?" Mason added humorously. 

"What's this for?" Liam asked curiously. He pulled up a seat and sat beside me. He looked at me with such intensity that I knew every ounce of his attention was being put on me and only me, and I felt awful in wishing that it wasn't. 

"Nothing. Just some homework for history." I shook my head in a hopefully inconspicuous way. 

Mason, who had pulled up a seat on the other side of me, frowned. "We had homework for history?" 

"Well, no." Suddenly, I remembered that Mason and Liam were in my class. "What I meant was, it's extra credit. I'm supposed to do a report on an unknown historical figure. This one's no good, though." 

I hoped to myself that Genevieve wasn't currently haunting me and heard me say she was no good. 

Trying not to seem suspicious, I exited out of what I had up and turned to Liam, who was still looking at me with blue eyes I could drown in. I think they must be the same color of the water surrounding the island of the Sirens, the water sailors willingly threw themselves into just for because of the beauty of it all. I would've, too. 

"Is everything okay?" Liam asked softly. His Siren-eyes read me too well. "You're heart beat's crazy right now." 

That's because I can't lie to you. 

"Things have been weird," I admitted. I looked over to Mason, who also was looking at me patiently. I was lucky to have the two of them, but they were far from lucky to have someone like me. 

For a moment, I wanted to tell them everything. I wanted to tell them about Genevieve and the voices in my head and the things I could do when I didn't mean to. I wanted to tell them something was horribly wrong with me and I didn't know what to do and I actually hadn't gotten better at all. I was worse. I was so much worse. And even worse, I was so completely lost in it all. 

But there was no way for me to make myself tell them. I was most definitely breaking, maybe even going crazy and there was nothing they could do about it, I was sure of it. They'd have to give up on me, put me in Eichen House or something and I knew i wouldn't last very long in there. 

Somehow, my mind wondered to the night when Dad chased Isaac and I out of the house after one of Isaac's wounds had magically healed. What some people saw as a gift our father had seen as another opportunity to screech harmful things at us. I could only imagine what would've happened if we had stayed. And I couldn't bare to try to imagine myself in the situation Isaac had been in. I didn't want to deal with that at all. Even if I wasn't becoming a werewolf, something was happening to me and it was terrifying. 

"Char?" Liam called to me. I didn't realize his hand was holding mine until he gave it a squeeze. 

"I'm okay." I knew my shaky tone wasn't convincing anybody. "Just to much stress right now, you know?" 

"Anything I can do to help with that?" Liam raised his eyebrows in concern. 

"Oh, my mind went to a really dirty place just then," Mason chuckled. Smiling to himself, he shook his head with sheer amusement practically oozing from his grinning eyes. "I'm not even sorry, honestly." 

"Mase." Liam rolled his eyes, letting out a short laugh to acknowledge his friends humor before looking back to me, his gaze softening. 

"I think I should just get to class," I told him. "I need to get ahead on my work. With everyone coming over tonight, I know I won't be able to." 

"Right, their reading the Dread Doctor book." Nodding understandingly, Liam gave my hand one last gentle squeeze before letting it go so I could gather my things. A part of me wished he didn't have to let me go while another part of me wished he'd never touched me in the first life. Everything seemed to make my emotions feel so conflicted anymore. 

My things were gathered in a way that defied physics. More books and papers were in my arms then were in my backpack, most of them spilling out in odd angles that could topple at any moment. I was really testing my limited luck with this balancing act. 

I began backing away from the two, pondering which class I was supposed to be going to for a moment before I for the second time in under ten minutes Mason caught me off-guard. 

"Oh, Charlotte, wait." He stood up slowly, glancing at something in his hands. Giving it a good look-over, he handed this to me. "I think you left this?" 

It was the locket. Moving quickly, I managed to grab it without dropping any of my books. 

"Right, the necklace for my extra credit project," I explained quickly. I quickly shoved it back in my pocket. 

Trying to avoid self-incriminating myself any farther, I gave the two boys a faint smile before quickly turning around. All I wanted right now was to get out of the library as quickly as possible. To stop feeling insane would be a nice thing to happen too, but I needed to tackle my problems one at a time. 

As of right now, I was joined by a banshee, a werecoyote, a kitsune, two werewolves, and a Stiles Stilinski as we all gathered around the coffee table. Everyone's eyes were directed to the hundred's of pages of the Dread Doctors book that had been printed out for them to read. It seemed as though they were all taking a moment of silence before they threw themselves into possible horrifying vivid visions that could reveal god-knows-what to them. 

"My moms book club normally has more wine," Lydia finally noted. 

Stiles looked over to her. "Well, they also probably didn't read books that caused violent hallucinations." 

"That's why Malia's here," Scott told them. His eyes then flickered over to me and he smiled subtly and gently. "And Charlotte's going to help her keep an eye out for anything we might do, too."

"So none of us go running into traffic," Kira nodded, referencing Malia reaction to the book. 

A small part of me wanted to read the book. What closed of memory would I see as a result? Then I reminded my self that I already had more then enough unbelievable hallucinations to deal with. I don't think I could handle anymore. 

"Or worse," Scott murmured under his breathe. 

Across the table from him, Malia nodded solemnly. "Like what happened to Judy." Noticing the others looking at her curiously, she added, "Chapter fourteen." 

Poor Judy. On a completely and utterly related note, I no longer wanted to read the book. 

Probably also thinking about Poor Judy, Lydia reached out and picked the only solid copy of the book we had. She flitted the old worn pages through her fingers and frowned. 

"Maybe I should have my mother read it," Lydia said in an absent tone. She closed the book slowly. "Then she might remember a girl with a tail leaping from the ceiling and attacking everyone." 

"Just out of curiosity," I piped in quietly. "Why are we so sure this is going to work?" 

Stiles snapped his fingers and pointed them at me. I assumed that meant he was agreeing with what I'd said. Or he was trying a magic trick out. Both were pretty plausible with him. 

"It has to." Lydia continued to look at the book. 

Scott lifted his head inquisitively. "Why is that?" 

Slowly, and clearly unhappily, Lydia looked up at us. "I think I saw them during my surgery." Taking in a short breathe, Lydia looked back down as her fingers traced over the picture of the dread doctors. "When I look at the cover of the book," She explained, "It's almost like a..." 

For possibly the first time ever, I witnessed Lydia Martin at a loss for words. It was unsettling, almost as unsettling as Theo being able to sweep in and finish the sentence for her. 

"A memory trying to surface," Theo said for her. 

Still not looking particularly thrilled with the subject, Lydia lifted her gaze and looked over to Theo. "Yeah." 

"Isn't that what Valeck wanted when he wrote it?" Kira questioned. She looked over to Malia, who nodded her head slowly. 

"If they did something to me, I want to know what it is," Lydia decided. She gripped the book tightly in her hands, her eyes glowing with determination as she took a step back and found a seat to sit in. Then, she began to read. 

Nodding in agreement with Lydia, the other's stepped up one-by-one to grab a pack of papers from the stack so they too could begin to read. Soon, everyone had situated themselves somewhere in the McCall living room and I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was still standing. Quietly, me and Malia moved to the kitchen. 

I knew it was going to be a late night, so I began working to make coffee. As it began brewing and the scent of coffee beans filled the air, I leaned against the kitchen counter and looked to Malia. 

"Can I ask you something?" I questioned softly. 

Malia, who was getting mugs from a shelf I had trouble reaching, looked over her shoulder at me and nodded. I sighed as I thought of how to say what I was thinking. In all honesty, I wanted to what her vision had been like so then maybe mine wouldn't seem so weird. Were they as vivid as mine? Were mine perhaps not as insane as they seemed? 

"What was it like when you remembered everything?" I asked after a moment of pondering. "Was it like you were watching a movie or like you were actually in it." 

"In it," Malia responded quickly, much to my relief. 

"Could you... I dunno, feel it? Like, physically." I thought of the hand of Genevieve-in-Allison's-body reaching out and actually being able to pull me from the grave. That had all somehow been very real. It had to have actually happened, because I couldn't have gotten out myself and if it was all just a figure of my imagination then there would've been no way I would've gotten the locket. 

"No." Malia shook her head slowly. There was a distant look in her dark eyes and I had a feeling she was reliving it all. "It was like it was all happening in my mind, and my body was acting outside of it. The only thing physical that would've happened would've been if that car had run me over." 

I nodded my head and tried not to look to disappointed. It looks like the things I saw were in a league of there own after all. Genevieve appearing to me was a incredibly foreign subject. 

With me no longer asking her questions, Malia excused herself to go to the bathroom. I was terrified with the thought of being left alone with my worries, but luckily I didn't have to go into depth thinking about my many problems and fears as Stiles then entered the kitchen asking for coffee. 

Happy to have something to do that made me feel remotely helpful, I poured him a cup of coffee in a cup that I didn't realize said World's Best Mom on it until I began handing it to him. Another thing I noticed as I handed Stiles the black mug was the way he winced as he accepted it. 

"What's wrong with your shoulder?" 

Stiles looked at me curiously, seemingly trying to play it off even though I could clearly see him rub it. "What? What are you talking about?" Stiles frowned. 

"Stiles, I literally just saw you wince when I handed you the coffee," I retorted. 

"Oh, right," Stiles murmured. He cupped the coffee in his hands and stared at it for a moment. "The jeep died on me again. I went to check the engine and the hood fell on it." 

I'd never known the Jeep to hurt Stiles like that, but knowing the current condition the vehicle was in, I suppose I could see that happening. I decided to drop the subject and began pouring my own cup of coffee. 

"Whoa, hey, who's that for," Stiles looked at me unhappily, disapproval clear in his eyes. 

"What are you talking about?" I frowned back at him. "It-It's for me." 

"Yeah, but you're young. That much coffee will stunt your growth, and stuff," Stiles warned, sounding like a bad informercial. Then he hesitated, his gazing falling away from me as he thought. "Then again, maybe that's not so bad. It definitely would be good for Liam's ego if you shrunk a little, you're practically the same height as the surprisingly muscular little guy." 

Stiles looked back to me and he cracked a small but joking grin. Falling into the trap, a smile broke out across my own lips.  As soon as it happened, a felt a bit of the weight that had been dragging me down fall away. I suddenly realized how long it'd been since I'd truly smiled. A allowed myself to enjoy the moment to it's fullest, because who knew the when the next time I'd find myself smiling would be. 

okay but like??? I updated??? again??? in like twenty-four hours i managed to write another chapter??? how often does this happen?? i'm just really proud of myself and happy that i found my mojo again, if you couldn't tell. 

Questions- What are your thoughts and guesses about Genevieve Carodine as of right now?