Hell raising, hair raising, I'm ready for the worst

CHAPTER FOUR —
full moon friday

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

SOMEONE WAS TOUCHING HER, Maeve couldn't see but she could feel the tight grip these hands had on her arm. A blindfold covered her eyes and it felt like the person who was holding onto her was leading her somewhere, but they weren't doing it gently.

This stranger moved fast and it was almost as if they were dragging her because she kept tripping over her own feet. Maeve could feel her heart racing in her chest, it was matching the vibration of the room next door, and the sound of her breath was loud in her ears.

She wanted to ask where they were going but her mouth wouldn't open, maybe it was the fear paralyzing her or the whisper in her head telling her to shut up.

There was a sound of a door opening and the music got louder, it was a party and they had walked into the middle of it. Maeve felt the heat of shining strobe lights as they went up some stairs onto a stage and then she felt the ground move away from underneath her as another two sets of hands grabbed her right arm and her legs.

The panic got worse and they moved her to lay on what felt like a table. She could hear the music loud and clear; people were partying around her, not a care in the world. The three who had lifted her began to strap her limbs down and she wanted to scream. What in the actual hell was happening right now?

They stepped back and smaller hands came to wipe the tears from her cheeks, she hadn't noticed that she was crying until then. She was shushed gently, somehow hearing it over the music, "No llores."

She sniffled and the hands left her face, she had a second before there was an agonizing sharp pain under her sternum. As the knife dragged up, the scream ripped from Maeve's throat and her body shot up in bed.

The fear and pain in her scream echoed as one hand gripped her stomach and the door to her bedroom practically slammed open. The lights turned on and someone was grabbing her arms again. She thrashed in their hold and then she heard the voice of her grandmother, "Maeve, please calm down!" The soft hands of her grams moved from her arms to wrap around her shoulders and she stopped trying to pull away.

Now, instead of screaming and crying, she was just shaking and sniffling. The brunette looked up to see her grandfather standing in the doorway with a bat in his hands. The absurdity of seeing his wooden bat would've made her want to laugh a bit, but the looks of concern in her direction and the unsettled nerves prevented that.

"Maeve, what happened?"

Maeve's breath stuttered before she could answer,"It was a nightmare, I'm sorry."

"My goodness Maeve, you about gave us a heart attack. We thought someone was in here," Her grandfather's gruff voice came this time. "You're screaming like a banshee, I thought you got murdered."

"Oh please–just hush, Coop," Grams said and then looked at Maeve expectantly.

She was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say to them to get them to relax. "It was just a nightmare...I don't even remember it." It wasn't really a lie, she could only remember the fear and pain that she experienced.

"Please, let's just go back to bed?" She offered when they failed to say anything in response.

Her grandfather moved from the doorway and she felt his hand rub against the top of her head, "Alright. Try to get some sleep, yeah? You have school in the morning."

She nodded and mumbled an agreement, then watched as her grams seemed reluctant to leave her, but she ultimately stood and followed her husband out the room. Maeve slumped back into her pillows and pressed her hands against her eyes. Her breaths came out slow as she tried to calm her heart rate and then she rolled to her side.

Trying to think about her nightmare wasn't working for her, it didn't do anything except send the ice-water feeling of fear through her veins. So she laid there, staring blankly at the wall to her right and hoped that she could sleep a few more hours.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

A rough night of sleep didn't bode well for Maeve's day because it led to an even rougher morning. She was late to her first class and of course it was with Hendricks, who happened to be the one teacher in BHHS that didn't like her.

She thought lunch was supposed to be better and it was...until she felt the splash of someone's drink splash all over her shoes, someone had run into her. She held in a sigh of disappointment as she gazed upon the soaked suede, brand new heels down the drain.

"Oh my God, I-I'm so sorry," the voice of her culprit came out panicked. She looked up to meet the gaze of an underclassman. He was a little shorter than her in her heels and she could see the jittery nerves that came off of him like sparks.

"I can pay for them! Let me get you a new pair, how much were they?"

The ridiculousness of his offer got a laugh out of her, she hadn't even had a chance to respond to his apology. This kid was something else, most people would have just apologized and moved on. "No um, it's fine...", she trailed off and looked at him expectantly.

"Oh, um, Liam, Liam Dunbar!"

"Nice to meet you Liam Dunbar, I'm Maeve."

His nervous energy dissipated as she smiled at him and he practically turned into goo. Let it be known, this was the Maeve effect. Though she had the general idea of what people thought about her, she didn't get the full vision of what her kind nature and smile had. It got respect from adults, an array of messy emotions from her classmates, and something similar to worship from underclassmen like Liam Dunbar.

He thrusted his open hand in her direction, "Nice to meet me, too. I-I mean, nice to meet you."

She shook his hand and agreed to his new offer to buy her a juice since she wouldn't let him pay for her shoes. Together, they walked to the lunch line and continued talking.

"Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I started this semester. I'm a transfer from Devenford Prep."

"Cool. Their lacrosse team is pretty good, have you ever seen them play?" Maeve noticed the way he seemed to avoid eye contact after handing her their now-paid drinks.

It took him a second to answer as they left the lunch line and his tone was a bit off as he spoke, "Yeah, I was actually on the lacrosse team before coming here."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, stopping and turning to face him fully, "I recognize you now." She didn't notice the way he seemed to tense for a second before she continued, "You were at tryouts yesterday, the kid who got slammed by Stilinski and McCall."

Liam's small sigh of relief was unheard, he was thankful she hadn't said something else. "Right, that's right, that was me."

"I thought so. Are you okay? You took a pretty hard hit, I thought you wouldn't even be here today after that."

"Right, well, it turned out not to be so bad. My dad's a doctor, he's the one that said it was all good to come today."

Maeve hummed and nodded her head, "That's good, I'm glad to hear that! I'll see you around, Liam." She gave him another smile and moved to go sit with the rest of her squad. As she started to walk away, he called her name.

"Do you want to go to a party tonight?"

She paused, "A party?"

Looking at Liam, he seemed just as surprised as she was that he even offered. But he mustered up a very small amount of courage and nodded, "Yes! A party, there's a party tonight and I was invited and now I'm inviting you, if you want to come I mean."

"Who's going?"

"Uh, everyone I think."

"Everyone?" Maeve didn't mean to sound outright skeptical, but that wasn't the greatest response to get from a random high school boy inviting you somewhere.

The boy in question winced, "I know, it sounds sketchy. It's kind of weird but I was invited by an upperclassman and I don't really know a lot of people here. So I think it would be nice if you'd be there too. So I know someone else at least."

She interrupted his nervous rambles, "Okay, a party with everyone. Do you have an address?" He nodded quickly and scribbled on a piece of paper from his bag. "Cool, I'll think about it and maybe I'll see you there."

This time, she waved and was able to sit with her squad a few tables away, Liam blew out a breath of air and turned to meet Mason and their other friends where they were seated.

When Maeve sat down, she noticed her squad members looking at her, "What?".

"What was that about? Entering your cougar stage, Maeve?"

"I think your mom wouldn't appreciate the competition, Pris," Jacoby's comment sent the entire group into a laughing fit and Maeve rolled her eyes at their antics.

"Hilarious, guys. It was nothing, just a new kid trying to make friends," she tried to shrug off her interaction with Liam.

"He was cute, did you get his number?" This time it was one of their JV squad, "If so, could I have it?" Marney was one of their younger members, Maeve thought she was sweet, if not for her ongoing, borderline obsession with boys.

She took a sip of the drink she grabbed with Liam, "I actually didn't, but he invited me to a party if you wanna go. Maybe you can get his number yourself, Mar." Maeve handed the scrap of paper Liam had given her, she hadn't even looked at it when he passed it along, unsure if she was even going.

"Oh my God, this is Lydia Martin's lake house," Marney squealed.

"Wait, what? How would you even know that, you're a sophomore."

"She threw a party there during the summer a while back, my brother was invited and I snuck in. I got to stay for thirty minutes before he dragged me out, which was good because I heard the cops showed up after we left."

"She throws the best parties in Beacon Hills, we gotta go!"

Everyone seemed to be in agreement and started chattering about what to wear and when to go, but Maeve was hesitant. It was only their second week back from the break and while normally, she would have no issue, something made her uneasy.

Marney noticed how quiet her captain was though, "Oh please Maeve, come with us! These guys don't wanna let me go, but if you're there, how much trouble could we get into with our captain watching?"

"Uh–I don't know guys, it's been a rough day–".

"Please, please, please," Maeve was cut off by Marney's insistence, which was more along the lines of begging-like-a-five-year-old.

She blew out a sigh, "If I say yes, will you stop?" and as Marney nodded rapidly, she reluctantly went along with it. The rest of the team let out a collective cheer and the bell rang just before their youngest member began her own squealing.

They all stood from their table and as they gathered their things, Marney spoke up, "I can drive us tonight, I just got my learner's!"

Pris shut it down as soon as the offer came, "Girl, no. No offense Mar, but I think it might be better if someone else drives. Jacoby?" The boy in question shrugged and agreed to pick them up around seven o'clock.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Sitting at her vanity, Maeve fixed the curl in her hair and then looked in the mirror. Did she even want to go to this party, really? Her phone dinged and drew her attention away from her internal questioning, she picked it up and saw all of the notifications from the last hour.

A majority of them came from Marney, photos and complaints about not being able to decide on what to wear. She smiled a bit as she read through them, she remembered her first high school party and how nervous she was; hating everything that came from her closet, just like Marney.

Another ding and it was Jacoby, saying he'd be there soon. She sent a thumbs up into the groupchat and walked back to her mirror.

Looking at herself, she sighed. She felt weird about going to the party, there was a feeling she had about tonight. It reminded her of anxiety, the tingle and hum that vibrated under her skin and had her slightly on edge. She grabbed the lipgloss and started to apply it, she resigned with the fact that she agreed to go.

A horn honked from down below, she snatched her bag from where it hung on her chair, and made her way down the stairs. Her grandmother was in the kitchen and looked up when she heard Maeve. "Hey sweet girl, where are you off to?"

Maeve stopped at the doorway of the kitchen, "A party at Lydia Martin's lake house, Marney pushed us to take her so some of the cheer squad is going." She looked around the area before her grandmother spoke up, "Your keys are by the fruit bowl."

"Thanks, Grams," they were indeed sitting by the apples, "I'll be back later, don't wait up for me?" She leaned and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Your grandfather wants to have breakfast tomorrow morning, by the way."

Another horn honk came from outside and Maeve started walking away from the kitchen. "Yeah, that sounds good! I don't have anything going on tomorrow anyways, so breakfast works for me."

"Alright dear, I'll let him know. And be careful, it's a full moon tonight, you know what they say about those."

"Watch out for werewolves?" She joked.

Her grandmother gave a laugh, "Something like that. Now off you go, before your friends come beating down the door."

"Okay. Love you!" She called back and after hearing it back, she closed the front door to head to where Jacoby was parked. He was at the edge of their driveway and she piled into the back of his Jetta with the others.

Marney let out a squeal at seeing her, "You look so cute!"

"She better considering how long she took," Jacoby said before he peeled away from the Walton residence. Maeve thanked Marney before reaching forward to smack Jacoby on the arm.

As their group arrived, she spotted the many cars that surrounded the lake house and based on the blasting music, it seemed as if a famous Lydia Martin party was in store.

The living room was full when they walked in and she could see Lydia's pretty strawberry blonde hair as she whisked herself into the kitchen. Their group went their way towards a table that didn't have many people around it, Maeve grabbed Marney's hand to keep her close. "Listen!" She shouted over the music, "Do not take a drink from anyone, do you understand? You want one, grab it yourself, get one from us, or make sure it's closed."

Marney bobbed her head to the music, seemingly not paying attention. Maeve snapped the fingers of her free hand in front of her face to grab her attention. "Marney, pay attention!"

"Relax, I heard you!" Despite the shouting between the two of them, Marney's words weren't filled with any attitude.

Maeve reached for a wine cooler that was sitting in an ice bucket on the table, she handed it to Marney, but didn't let go of her grip when the younger girl tried to take it. "You can do what you want, Mar. But you need to be safe and do not leave without any of us. We came together, we are leaving together. Got it?"

Marney flashed her a bright smile, "Yes, captain!"

She let go of the tight hold she had and nodded her head, "Alright, go on and have some fun!" She didn't have to tell her twice; in a second, Marney was on her way to the center and scouting for a dance partner.

"So sweet, baby's first party!" Pris cooed sarcastically. Jacoby extended his hand to Maeve for a dance, she accepted, and the rest of them made their way to the middle.

The last thing she could remember was looking towards the window, seeing the bright glow of the full moon.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Scott and Kira were stuck on babysitting duty and Scott couldn't stop watching Liam where he sat, chained up to a post.

"He'll be okay, y'know." Kira's voice came from behind him, she had been sitting rather quietly, unsure of what to say the entire time.

"I wanna think so, but how can we know? What if I ruined his life?"

Scott didn't think that he was a pessimist, he tried to stay positive when it was possible but this was a new territory for him. He had been an alpha for not even a year, and here he was with his first beta. A beta which extreme anger issues...

"Don't say that, Scott. You did what you had to do and here you are, trying to help him. Maybe he doesn't understand right now, but you're doing what no one did for you right?"

He gave a small smile, it was on the edge of being wry, but it was a smile none the less. Kira came to stand next to him, to look at Liam's unconscious form as well. She wasn't wrong, he didn't have much help in the beginning. Derek was intimidating, Peter was dangerous, but he had himself and he had Stiles. Liam would have more, if he would just let them help.

He just nodded his head and then closed his eyes. The sound of the electronic music from the house was loud in his ears.

With a subtle change in topic that wasn't so subtle, he spoke again, "I can hear the music from the house."

"What are they playing?"

"Electronic."

Kira indulged this new conversation, "I wish they still played slow songs at parties. At my old school, we used to at least have a few."

"Why do you like the slow ones?"

"I was always better at slow dancing."

"What other music do you like?"

"A little bit of everything, I guess. If it's got a good beat then it's okay for my playlist," She shrugged her shoulders, "What about you?"

"Uh, I think I'm the same way? When my parents were married, I remember they used to play Spanish music in the kitchen when making breakfast. Can't tell you what they were singing though," he joked.

She gave a tiny smile before looking at the moon in thought, "So, how are you so good at staying in control on a full moon?" She looked back at Liam, thought of Malia's struggles too.

"A lot of it is making sure that my pulse doesn't get too fast, and my heart rate doesn't go up."

"So you've mastered it."

"More or less. You should've seen me in the beginning, it was a lot harder than it is now-", a splash sounded from behind them and effectively cut Scott off.

"What was that?"

"I think something's in the water. Maybe it was a frog?"

Even as he said it, it didn't feel right. There was a vibration coming from under his skin, reacting to the faint sound of humming that his ears picked up. It sounded beautiful...mesmerizing. He didn't realize that his feet moved him towards the edge of the dock, that his eyes had begun to glow red. The sound of the hum got louder, but Kira wasn't reacting the same way. She only watched the way Scott walked away, staring at his back in confusion and wondering if she needed to say something.

A growl behind her had her snapping her head back, Liam was awake it seemed. "Uh, Scott?" Liam started to tug on his chains, the way he growled again is what pulled him out of the haze and he moved away from the edge.

"Are those chains going to hold him?" She wasn't trying to be nervous but Liam's behavior was unpredictable, she wasn't ready to almost die again.

"Uh, yeah, I think... Definitely. He can't be that strong."

A choice of words the alpha and the kitsune soon regretted as Liam snapped his chains and charged forward. The two of them jumped away from the window as Liam went through it, shattering the glass and taking off towards the woods.

They looked at one another before Kira gave a motion with her hands and Scott took off after his young beta. Neither one of them noticed the peering eyes that came above the water, the bright blue that had seen the entire thing.

PUBLISHED : september 2023
A/N : happy labor day i guess? i was supposed to post this in august but that month was super busy for me, i went to a wedding out of the country and then spent a week celebrating my 21st birthday and then school started. anyways here you go, pls enjoy and i'll try to post another one this month too okay cool thumbs up