┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐
chapter thirty-one!
THIS IS HALLOWEEN
└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

( illuminated, pt. i )

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SURPRISINGLY, THIS IS not the first time Vera has been detained in the Sheriff's office for questioning. The first time she'd been brought in was in 2005 when the catastrophic fire had burned down the Hale house— the police had wanted to know if she or Mai knew anything about possible survivors. Then things had gotten quieter until Scott had been bitten at the beginning of the year. That had been the catalyst of the rest of the town going to shit, so she's gotten very good at lying to law enforcement.

Agent McCall is still in town for whatever reason. He's the one questioning them, and from the half-bored, mostly exasperated expression on his face, he can tell they're bullshitting everything they're saying, but it's not like they can tell him that Kira had somehow absorbed enough energy to black out the entire city.

The station has a generator, so it's not pitch-black inside, but the lights are dim and flicker every so often as if they're struggling to stay lit. Stilinski's office is smothered in shadows. If Vera hadn't been used to this by now, she may have considered it foreboding, but all the darkness does is make her want to go to sleep.

Stiles, Scott, and Kira are squeezed together on the sofa against the glass separating the office from the rest of the building. Vera and Lydia sit in chairs to the left of Stilinski's desk. The sheriff sits behind it with his hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh at the agent's failed attempts at getting them to tell the truth.

"So, when did you get there?" Agent McCall questions as he leans against the sheriff's desk and crosses his lanky legs.

"At the same time," Stiles replies.

He doesn't look amused by the smartass response. "Same time as who?"

"At the same time as me," Scott says.

"By coincidence?"

Stiles furrows his brows in mock confusion, clearly having way too much fun with this. "What do you mean 'coincidence'?"

Vera removes the towel she has pressed to her injured nose and asks, "Is it a coincidence that a couple of friends met up at a place they knew a classmate was going to be murdered in? If you have to ask us that, Agent McCall, you may be unfit for your job."

Speaking does make her face hurt like hell, but she couldn't miss an opportunity to jab at the insufferable man before her.

"I'd advise you to keep that towel to your nose and your mouth shut, Miss Pérez, and tilt your head forward." Scott's father does not look impressed in the slightest. His voice isn't cold, but it lacks all traces of humor and carries sharp edges that cut like a blade.

With a purse of her lips, Vera gently presses the blood-soaked rag to her face and slumps back in her seat with her legs splayed out in front of her.

"Now, let's continue. The two of you" — he motions to Scott and Stiles since they had been driving — "arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"

"Are you asking me?" Scott inquires.

"I think he's asking me," Stiles says.

"I think he's asking the both of you," Lydia chimes in.

"Okay, let me answer the questions," Agent McCall interrupts their pointless conversation. Vera bites her lip to hide a grin, which must look psychotic given the blood spurting from her nose. He closes his eyes in annoyance before correcting himself. "Let me ask the questions."

Stiles points at him with a wink.

"Just so I have this absolutely clear..." He flips back a few pages in his notepad, reading off the statements they had given. "Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then, Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."

"Sounds about right," Stiles confirms. Lydia nods as well.

"How'd you know he'd take her to a power station?"

"Well, 'cause he was an electrical engineer. So... where else would he take her?"

Agent McCall nods, almost looking impressed. "That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles."

"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops. He's in law enforcement." Stiles winks again and points to his dad, who tries and fails to hide a snort with his hand. Agent McCall turns to face him with a raise of his brows. The sheriff quickly raises his hands in innocence and turns it into a fake cough.

Apparently they're not the only ones who dislike Scott's father.

"Stiles, just, uh... just answer the man," Stilinski orders.

"We made a good guess," Stiles tells McCall.

Agent McCall glances at Scott and Kira. "What were you two doing?"

"Eating pizza," Scott answers at the same time Kira says, "Eating sushi."

They quickly glance at each other. Then, they try again, this time with Scott saying, "Eating sushi," and Kira saying, "Eating pizza."

Both of them close their eyes and wait a second before answering in sync, "Eating pizza and sushi."

Agent McCall blinks and turns to Vera. "And you?"

Vera motions to the rag pressed to her nose. Agent McCall rolls his eyes and seems to regret every decision he's made in his life before saying, "You can take the towel away to answer a question when I ask you something, Miss Pérez."

Vera obeys and cringes at the eye-watering fire that shoots through her body at the movement. "I'm supposed to be at home. Don't tell my mom I'm here— she kinda put me under house arrest given that a mass murderer was running around town."

Scott's dad turns back toward the sheriff and asks, "You believe this?"

Stilinski sighs. "To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak. But... I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time, and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."

"Kira, is that how you remember it?" Agent McCall inquires.

Scott, Stiles, Lydia, and Vera simultaneously lean forward to give her pointed stares. Lydia's lips stretch into a pleasant smile but her eyes flash with warning. Stiles fidgets.

Finally, Kira lowers her gaze with a nod. "Yes. Can I get my phone back now?"

"Sorry, but no. A deputy is going to take you home, but we'll need you to fill out some paperwork first. Vera, please see Deputy Parrish for your nose."

Agent McCall motions to a young man whom Vera has never seen before. He has short blond hair and light eyes that appear darker thanks to the power outage, but his smile is friendly when she approaches him with a wince after every step.

"Elbow to the nose, huh?" he asks. When she nods, he says, "Let's see."

Vera removes the rag from her face and allows him to look at it under a flashlight. The brightness reminds her of whatever the hell had happened with Kira barely an hour ago, the heat from the bulb sending her back to the explosion that should have fried the girl. She flinches when the deputy gently presses the pad of his finger to the bridge of her nose.

"Sorry. Gotta see how much damage was done."

"Are you new here?" she asks, trying to move her mouth as little as possible. "My friend's dad's the sheriff and I don't think I remember you."

"Yep," Parrish replies. Another slight prod makes her suck in a sharp breath from the pain. "Today's the first day. I've gotta say, it's one hell of a town."

Vera almost scoffs. This guy has no idea.

There's a click when the flashlight turns off. Vera blinks her eyes open as he says, "Doesn't look broken. It should be okay in a few days— mainly looks like he ruptured one or two of your blood vessels and did some bruising." Vera must look confused, because he explains, "I was in the army. You pick up a thing or two."

That makes sense, but it still doesn't explain why he looks so familiar. There's something about it that tugs at the back of her brain. He can't be older than his mid-twenties, making him a little older than Derek. Maybe he'd been on Derek's basketball team? But what he'd said about their town... it had made him seem like he's new around here.

Vera shakes her head. Weird. Maybe he just has one of those faces.

After a wave goodbye to Kira from across the station, Vera, Lydia, and Stiles load into his Jeep for a ride home. Lydia insists that Vera should take the front seat because she's injured — which, honestly, she doesn't complain about because she gets to sit shotgun — and then begs Stiles to drive calmly for once. He pulls out of his parking spot smoothly but immediately hits a curb as he turns onto the road. Vera yelps at the stabbing pain it brings to her nose and glares at the boy, who shoots her an apologetic wince.

She'd given Isaac a quick update as they'd headed to the station. It was short and sweet.

PÉREZ: kira's alive. barrow's dead. going to station for questioning.

Isaac's response had been just as concise.

LAHEY: what the hell

Now, she pulls her phone out again to text him that she's on her way back. They'll reach her house before Lydia's, so it'll only be about twelve minutes until she returns. Isaac has his read receipts on — they used to leave each other on read out of spite — but the entire time they drive through an eerily dark Beacon Hills, he doesn't open her message. She checks the time. It's nine forty-two. She could chalk it up to him falling asleep, but it doesn't seem likely, especially when he'd texted at nine twenty-four asking how the questioning was going.

Maybe Mai discovered Vera's disappearance and is in the middle of scrubbing the floor with him? No, because that would mean her phone would be blowing up with calls from her irate mother. It has to be something else.

"Stop chewing your nails," Lydia orders with a light slap on Vera's left wrist. Vera zones back into her surroundings to find her hand near her mouth, nails bitten out of nerves, an action she hadn't even realized she was doing. She cringes and wipes her hand on her jeans. She really has to quit that disgusting habit.

Stiles finally pulls up to her house. It's dark like the rest of the town, but she can see candles flickering through the half-drawn blinds in Mai's room. Stiles quickly turns his headlights off to not attract attention to his running car.

"See you tomorrow," Vera says, because of course they'll be returning to school like normal teenagers after a catastrophic supernatural experience, and hops out of the Jeep. She shuts the door as quietly as she can and sprints across the street on the balls of her feet, cringing at both the pain and every sound her shoes make on the pavement.

At least getting inside will be easier than sneaking out had been. Vera simply becomes intangible and phases through the front door, becoming invisible in case her mother decides to leave her room. She creeps up the stairs at the edges to avoid too much noise. It's lucky that she remembers to avoid the fifth step because it creaks, scarcely daring to breathe until she reaches the second floor and returns to normal.

The door to the guest bedroom is closed. It's not unusual, but something gnaws at Vera's gut and compels her to walk up to it. She gently raps her knuckles against the white wood. "Isaac?"

There's no answer. She knocks again, louder this time, and decides to continue their previous act in case Mai can hear. "Isaac, come on, I want to talk."

Still no response from within. She presses her ear to the door and waits a few seconds, straining to hear even the faintest of sounds. There's... nothing. Not even a scuffle or creak of the floor.

Vera tries the knob. It's locked, which is odd, because why would he lock the door? He hates the sensation of being trapped anywhere, even when he's the one who has control over the lock.

Hades trots up the stairs and appears as a shadowy figure with glowing eyes. As soon as he reaches the top, his tail points straight up, his back arching fiercely. A low yowl emerges from deep in his throat.

"Hades, stop it," Vera chastises. But her cat creeps closer as if stalking prey, his gaze locked onto the closed door. Another guttural sound escapes from his mouth. Then he pounces at the door, standing up on his hind legs to scratch at the wood with his front claws. Vera releases an exclamation of protest before picking him up and placing him a foot away. She can't have him messing up the paint.

"Isaac, I hope you're decent, because I'm coming in," she announces. She gives him a final opportunity to reply. When it remains silent, she turns intangible and ghosts through the door.

It's almost pitch-black inside except for a sliver of moonlight that pokes through the bottom of the blinds. Now that she's on the other side of the door, she can hear a sound she couldn't before— shallow, labored breathing, almost like shivering. Her heart leaps into her throat as she fumbles for her phone to turn on the flashlight.

The burst of bright light from her phone reveals a completely immobile Isaac, curled on the floor in a fetal position, and shuddering with his hands awkwardly folded over his chest as if he's paralyzed. Vera hardly has the sense to unlock the door and yank it open before screaming, "MAI! ¡Mai, ayúdame!"

She drops to her knees beside Isaac, the action so abrupt and violent it causes a fresh wave of blood to gush from her nose. Her eyes instinctively water from the fiery agony, but she blinks the tears away and presses a hand to Isaac's bare arm. His skin is ice-cold.

"Isaac? Isaac, what's wrong? What happened?" She touches his face, trying to get him to look at her, but he flinches at her touch and stays locked in the same awkward position. The chords of his neck are prominent with strain.

A series of footsteps pounds up the stairs. A moment later, her mother appears in the doorway, dressed in a pajama shirt and pants with her hair wrapped in a towel. She instantly bursts into a flurry of questions in Spanish, kneeling down to see what's wrong.

"I—I don't know," Vera stammers. "He's so cold, Mai— he's like ice."

Mai presses a hand to Isaac's forehead and immediately yanks it back once she feels his freezing skin. She takes the falling towel off of her head and tosses it aside, grabbing his face even when he tries to fight her off, forcing him to look at her. Except he doesn't. Even though his eyes are aimed right at her, he seems to be looking straight through her.

"Derek always said... " Vera squeezes her eyes shut, struggling to recall what he'd told his new pack in the spring. "He said sometimes you have to force a shift... to — to trigger the healing process."

"How do you do that?" Mai questions. "Pain?"

Vera shakes her head. "We are not hurting him."

She doesn't have many ideas. Allison had forced Scott to heal by having him think he was getting better, but there aren't any wounds to sew up this time. They don't even know what's wrong with him.

"We don't have to hurt him," Mai responds, her face pinched in contemplation. She takes Isaac's hand and forces his fingers to bend. His paralyzed body fights the movement, but soon his hand is balled into a tight fist, his muscles so stiff that it looks painful. Mai pulls back. After a second, a droplet of blood drips from under his nails.

Vera's gaze zips to Isaac's face once his eyes burn a bright amber. He releases a wolfish snarl, curling his lip to bare his teeth at Mai, but Vera turns Isaac's head so he's looking at her instead. Once he recognizes her face, his eyes shift to their usual blue. He jerks to a sitting position and backs away until he hits the bedframe. His legs tuck into his chest like he's trying to make himself smaller.

Mai stands and opens the blinds, allowing more pale moonlight to flood into the room. It's then that Vera notices the tears in Isaac's eyes. She places a concerned hand on his knee, her face scrunching with worry.

"Did you see them?" he questions, his trembling voice barely above a whisper.

Vera shakes her head. "The room was empty when I came in. Who did you see?"

"There were five of them. They wore black. I couldn't... I couldn't see their faces— they were covered." He swallows thickly, trying to catch his breath, which is slowly evening out. "One of them... I could see his eyes. They were a greenish-yellow like a... like a firefly."

"How'd they get in?" Mai asks, checking for signs of damage around the room.

"Or out?" Vera adds.

"They didn't," Isaac answers. "It was like they came out of the shadows."

Vera reaches up to place the back of her hand against his forehead. His skin is warmer than before, but only by a small fraction. She grabs the duvet from the bed and wraps it around him until he's tightly situated inside. He hugs it closer to him and gives her a grateful look before blinking and wrinkling his brow. "What happened to your nose?"

Mai's head whips around at the question. As soon as she notices the blood dripping from Vera's nostrils thanks to the additional lighting, she grabs a tissue from a box on the nightstand and crouches down to gently wipe the blood.

"Mai — Mai," Vera protests, cringing at the burn, and finally gets her mother to stop. She holds the tissue in place herself before lying, "I fell out of my bed and smacked my face on the ground when I heard you fall. I don't think it's broken or anything. I'll be fine."

Her mother takes her golden cross necklace between her forefinger and thumb while she examines Isaac's state. She doesn't know how to help, and Vera can tell that it's killing her on the inside.

"Why don't you get him something hot to drink?" Vera suggests. "Chocolate con leche espesa, ¿sí?"

Mai nods and leaves the room to make her signature spiced drink. Once she's halfway down the stairs, Vera scoots on the rug until she's sitting next to Isaac. She can feel him still trembling.

"What do you think they were after?" she asks, keeping her voice gentle since he's obviously still affected.

"I have no idea. They just... they came out of nowhere. Within the blink of an eye."

Vera's gaze drifts across the room, examining every dark crevice and every shadow that creeps along the wooden floor. She loathes knowing that those things, whatever they were, could enter and leave her home without a trace. It's disconcerting. They aren't safe in her own house.

Hades pads into the room and jumps onto Isaac's lap. Even though his legs are still pulled to his chest, the cat manages to squeeze himself through and plops down, satisfied that he'd found somewhere to lay. Isaac unsurely lifts a hand and scratches at Hades' head.

Vera's forehead wrinkles when he tilts his head down to look at the cat. She catches sight of something she hadn't noticed before— a smudge right behind his ear.

"Hey, what's that?" she asks, leaning forward to get a better look. As she gets closer, she realizes it's not a smudge, but a backward number five seemingly burned into his skin. It's an angry red that stands out starkly against his pale skin.

"What?" Isaac reaches up and searches for the spot with his hand.

"A mark." Vera traces the shape on the blanket covering him. "A backward five. Behind your ear."

"The hell does that mean?"

"I don't know."

Her lips press into a thin line. Whenever there's something supernatural that she can't figure out, she usually has two places to go. One option is Deaton, but she'd hate to bother him yet again. Her second choice is Chris Argent. He may have been a werewolf hunter, but he knows more about the supernatural than just wolves.

She reaches for her phone and opens up her contacts. After a moment, Argent's name flashes across her screen when she selects his number.

He picks up quickly. "Vera? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. Well, uh, no, actually. There's something I need to ask you about."

— ✯✯✯ —

Halloween. It's a day that used to be filled with magic, the promise of candy and a sugar rush that would certainly give kids stomach aches, jack-o-lanterns, and spooky decorations all over town. Now it's just another day at school. Even with the power out, they're still expected to show up since the weather has cooled enough to allow them to survive without air conditioning.

Vera tries not to be grumpy this morning, but it's hard not to be when she'd almost watched a classmate get fried last night and Isaac had been attacked by shadow monsters with glowing eyes. She'd scarcely slept in fear of them appearing again.

It doesn't help that Argent hadn't given her much information. He'd merely asked who else she'd told (no one), who else was attacked (no one), and to keep it to themselves for the day (cool). So it's clear that he knows something, but in regular Argent fashion, refuses to tell her.

A megaphone screeches as it's activated and an angry, amplified voice screams in her ear, "TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN AND GET TO CLASS, PÉREZ."

Vera turns to see Coach Finstock with the megaphone still aimed down toward her face. Instead of smiling like he'd told her to, she merely raises her eyebrows and says, "You almost blew out my eardrum, Coach."

"AS LONG AS YOU CAN STILL PLAY LACROSSE, ANY MINOR INJURIES CAN BE IGNORED."

Vera winces and rubs her ringing ear, unsure of why he's still using the megaphone when he's right next to her, but it's Coach, so nothing he does makes sense. Eager to get out of range of his deafening device, she speed-walks to her locker.

It proves to be a slightly more productive day than yesterday. It's mostly because they aren't concerned about a psychotic mass murderer lurking around the school, but also because Lydia's mother is substitute teaching for Mr. Harris' classes, so now they're actually doing work. Vera is almost grateful to learn. It helps her feel a bit more normal when she's anything but.

In fact, she's so eager to get back to some semblance of normal that she skips out on eating lunch and sits in the library to do her Physics homework with Allison instead. They haven't talked the entire time. Both girls are so focused on their work, noses buried in their books, that they hardly notice that they have visitors until Vera is tapped on the shoulder.

Danny Māhealani stands to her right. Especially since she's sitting down, he towers over her, though his height and muscular stature are juxtaposed by his warm personality. He has a few books tucked under his arm that suggest he'd come here to study as well.

"Hey," he greets her, giving Allison a small wave as well. "I had to ask Dom where you were. Didn't expect to find you here."

"Yeah, well, Miss Martin takes her job very seriously." Vera motions to the packet they'd been assigned for homework. Receiving a bucketload of work from Lydia's mother on a holiday seems very fitting for the Martin family. Like mother, like daughter.

"That's true," Danny agrees, pulling out the chair beside her and sliding into it so they're more at eye-level. "Um, well, I came to talk to you about a blacklight party I'm hosting. I've got a few generators we can use. Problem is, I need somewhere to have the party. Aiden said that you know a guy who's out of town and has a loft we can use?"

Vera feels eyes on her and turns to see Aiden peering at her from behind a bookshelf. When she catches his eye, he gives her a pleading expression and even folds his hands as if in prayer — like he's ever prayed a day in his life — which makes her glare daggers at him. Danny follows her gaze to see who she's looking at. Aiden quickly ducks behind the shelf before he's seen.

That jerk. What has he ever done for her? Murder her friends? Attempt to murder Derek? Attempt to murder her? The list goes on. She has no reason to do him this favor.

But she can do it for Danny, and also because a blacklight party at the loft sounds pretty sick.

"I can get you in," she tells him, "but only if I'm invited."

Danny jokingly rolls his eyes and gives her a soft punch on the arm. "'Course you'd be invited. Alright, thanks. Meet me here after school so we can talk more?"

"Yep."

As soon as Danny leaves, Allison glances at Vera and says, "Derek's gonna kill you."

"Yep."

After school, Dominic, Vera, Danny, and the twins are roaming Derek's vacant loft, as dark as the rest of the town. The shadows dancing across the floor and walls would have made a past Vera shiver with unease. Now, she merely folds her arms across her chest and glances around, squinting to see in the lack of lighting. Something catches her eye as she passes the sofa pushed against the left wall. There's an indent in one of the cushions as if someone had recently been sitting there.

Vera glances at the boys. Aiden is out on the balcony, trying to start up the generator, while Dom and Ethan are helping Danny unpack his lights. None of them had sat here, which can only mean one thing.

Derek might be out of town right now, but he'd come back. And he hadn't told her.

She stifles a sigh and turns her eyes heavenward. The next time she sees Derek, she's going to kick his ass for doing this again.

"Where did you say the guy was who lives here?" Danny asks as he sets a heavy bag on a table.

Ethan glances at Vera, whose facial expression reveals nothing. "He's... out of town."

The muffled sound of an engine greets their ears. Through the window, they see that Aiden has successfully started the generator, the light from his flashlight bathing him in a pale glow. He takes a step back from the machine before giving them a thumbs up.

"Alright," Dom says with a clap, "this party is officially gonna start. Where do you want this?"

He holds up one of the stands for the lights. It's pretty big, making Vera wonder where the hell Danny had gotten all of this equipment from.

"Just put it over there, Nic," Danny tells him. He's been calling Dom that since they met, and he's the only one who does. He points to a spot next to the table. "I'm thinking this can be where the DJ sets up."

Vera raises her brows. A DJ? Damn, Danny really is going all-out.

Ethan walks to one of the wooden support beams and flicks a switch. One of the black lights that he'd secured there turns on, making Danny grin excitedly, his striped shirt and teeth gleaming. "Oh, yeah."

Vera finds herself mimicking the boy's contagious grin. She pushes away the thought of Derek and helps them prepare for the party, knowing that this is exactly what she needs to get her mind off of the creepy things that are starting to happen again.

_________

a/n:

i have plans for parrish and i'm SO excited to dive into them. he technically hasn't made his first appearance in the show yet, but he had been there for a few weeks by the time he did appear, so i decided to bring him in.

i'm so sorry for the long wait! i've been working every day and i just finished summer classes. i wanted to put the whole episode in this chapter, but i figured that would be too much and it would be better for me to space it out. it took a while for me to decide to do that, so that was a part of why it took so long.

please let me know what you thought!!

—kristyn

TRANSLATIONS:

¡Mai, ayúdame!: Mom, help me!

Chocolate con leche espesa, ¿sí?: Spiced hot chocolate, yes?

( word count: 4.8k )