"He's going to kill me! I can't stay here with you traipsing around a ghost town!" Kai urges.

"I need you to look after my mom," I say, arms crossed tightly over my chest. I run a hand through my hair, clearly frustrated with Kai's indifference.

"Well, I can't do that if I'm dead now can I?" he retorts. "Anyway, your mom doesn't need a babysitter, you do."

"He's right, Arden," my mom says. She cocks an eyebrow. "I was here long before you were and seen things you haven't."

"You died," I point out.

"That was when Lucien's pack was at its height," she says, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. "You killed his pack — remember?"

"Look, I'm going to Canaan because I need to help out Scott's pack," I say to Kai. "And what will you be doing?"

"Helping out Scott's pack, too," he says.

My mom cocks an eyebrow. "I can take care of myself," she says. "Kai can go with you."

"Why, though?"

"Well, if I'm being completely honest, I could use a day without you youngsters wreaking havoc around the house and Beacon Hills."

"But we're not the ones wreaking havoc. The bad guys are," I say matter-of-factly.

"That's why you're both going to Canaan to stop the bad guys," she reasons.

I sigh, tired of the debating. "So, Kai, what time do you wanna leave?"

***

"You know, I've been thinking," Kai says. He sits right beside me in the car filled otherwise with Lydia, Scott and Malia. After vigorously trying to convince them that Kai wasn't as bad as his puns were, they finally agreed to let him tag along. He flicks through a celebrity magazine propped up on his lap. "I can totally find a way to meet Kim Kardashian using magic. God, I love her. Woman crush Wednesday."

There's a collective groan from the car. "Why, Kai?" I ask. "Why are you focussed on meeting Kim Kardashian when we're literally on the way to a ghost town?"

He whips out his phone. "I've been taking selfie tips from her, Arden, wanna see?" He snaps a picture, his teeth bared in a wide grin. My mouth is opened slightly in unprepared surprise. Wow, nice one. I open my mouth to say something but he cuts in. "Pull over in about two hundred metres, Scotty."

"What?" he asks.

"There's a roadside diner," he says. "Whoop, there it is. Pull over."

"We need to get to Canaan," I point out.

"Oh, my god!" he hollers. "Don't you people stop and eat ever? Obviously not, judging from your worn out expressions and abrasive personalities."

"Why did you invite this dude, again, Arden?" Malia pipes up.

"Pull over," Kai repeats. Hesitantly, Scott pulls over. "What's half an hour gonna do anyway?" the witch continues. "Nothing."

"I don't know, Malia," I mutter, cocking an eyebrow at Kai all but leaping out of the car to the diner.

As I shuffle out after Kai, he says, "Because we're besties obviously. You know BFFLs."

"Kai, nobody says that anymore except ten year old girls," I sigh.

He throws an arm around me. "We are, though. So, your shout?"

Since Kai has been a not-so-great-but-great sidekick, I decide to agree. After all, what's the worst that can happen? I soon realise that Kai is perhaps the most extravagant eater I've ever been acquainted with.

"I'll have a hot dog, extra large fries, chicken nuggets, a cheeseburger, chocolate milkshake...oh, and a salad please on the side. Need to look after the waistline, hey?"

I stare at him. After a while, all I can muster up is a sombre, "What?"

"What?" he shoots back.

"What do you mean what? I'm paying!"

He rolls his eyes. "Well, obviously."

"Obviously? Wow, I should've left you in Beacon Hills to die at the hands of Kane."

"But you didn't," he retorts. "Not my fault."

I roll my eyes. "Ugh, I hate you."

He shrugs. "Whatever," he says. "I'm still getting my food. That's all that matters."

"So how'd you meet?" Lydia cuts in.

"In a cafe, actually," Kai says. "The start of a fairytale."

"I swear—" I start.

Malia cocks her head to the side. "I'm confused," she says. "How do you manage to find all these weirdos, Arden?"

I shake my head. "I wish I knew."

After Kai finishes every last bite of his banquet, we set out on the road again. About halfway through the drive, Scott falls asleep. When Lydia's car slowly creeps to a stop, it's in the middle of an empty road.

The houses are derelict and rundown with weathered down wood adorning the structures. The homes look as if they have the same stability as a house of cards — like they could be swept away with a single breath. Yellow and orange leaves are strewn across the footpaths, the roads. Broken down cars line the roads, gutted of their parts. The whole town wears a deadly grey pallor.

It didn't take a genius to know that we were the first to step foot in this place for many years.

I prod Scott softly. He jolts awake. "Where are we?" he urges.

"According to the GPS, this is it," Malia says, her voice is hushed.

Lydia steps out of the car and we follow suit, filing after the banshee as she slowly takes a few steps into the abandoned town. "This is it," she says. "Canaan is a ghost town."

"I can't hear a single heartbeat," Scott says. Even before he's said it, I'd felt the same. Even though I didn't have his super hearing, it didn't take superpowers to know this place was cold and dead.

"I'm not catching any scents," Malia replies.

As we pass a red BMW with a streetlight speared through it, a standing streetlight flickers menacingly.

"I wonder why Stiles would send us here," Scott murmurs.

A torn banner looms ahead of us, casting a tattered shadow over us.

"This is the place I saw in the mirror," Lydia breathes. She looks up at the banner, her jaw set and her lips pursed tensely.

Scott and Malia wander off, something that I wouldn't do here. It was scary. And as much as I tried to play up the fearless siren — could I consider myself a siren with no powers? — demeanour, I couldn't neglect the creeping chill that worked its way through my body.

Something creaks and Scott and Malia rush to rejoin with the rest of us. I turn my head to the sound and am met with the haunting sight of an archaic carousel. It's blackened by years of no use and a dark liquid runs down some of the horses' necks. When I look closer, I realise it's blood.

I feel a lump in my throat.

Scott goes to step onto it and the carousel starts up, the chilling lullaby typical of carnival games echoing through the otherwise uninhabited town.

And as if in a trance, everybody starts focussing their attention elsewhere. Malia goes off to an empty space behind the carousel, and Scott makes his way towards a house. When I look behind me, Kai is no longer there.

A soft voice comes from behind me. Sweet as honey and as familiar to me as my own. "Arden, it's okay." It's my father.

"Dad?" I breathe. When I turn around, my father is as alive as he was when I was a child.

His sea blue eyes shine as bright as stars, and as I look into them, I can't believe he was the leader of the Vinceret pack once upon a time.

"Arden," he says. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'm here."

"You're not here, are you?" I ask, knitting my brows together as my bottom lip quivers.

And as if in answer, his arms close around me in a tight embrace that feel as real as I do right now. He's here. He's really here.

I feel a sharp pain penetrate my shoulder blade. I tense up, letting out a pained cry as my blood gushes down onto the ground beneath me. There is a blade in my shoulder. There is a blade in my shoulder.

"Arden," another familiar voice says. "It's not real." My father dissolves into thin air, and when I look down there is nothing in my shoulder. There is no blood, either.

"Arden, it's okay," Lydia reassures. "Nobody's there."

***

Hello pumpkins :) there is no excuse for not writing recently but I hope you can find it in the good of your heart to forgive me since Psycho Daddy is coming back next chapter. This was originally gonna be part of a large chapter but I thought I should cut it off after that pretty traumatic hallucination. Hope you enjoy and have a lovely day

xx Georgina