☾ 𝐵𝒶𝓈𝑒𝒷𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝐵𝒶𝓉𝓈 & 𝒟𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝐵𝑜𝒹𝒾𝑒𝓈 ☽

I chew on the cap of my pen as I mindlessly draw on one of my notebooks I just finished setting up for the first day back to school tomorrow. I hate going back after a long break. Everything seems so distant and different even though we were only out for a couple weeks. And school has been so boring this year.

I shift on my side when suddenly my door bursts open and my twin brother trips over himself as he rushes in.

"Ah!" I yell, throwing my sharpie at him. "Stiles, what the hell!"

He stares at the pen in confusion before shaking his head. "We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go!" He says hurriedly, and out of breath, as he falls to the ground before bouncing right back up. "Kai, come on!" He looks at me annoyed that I'm in the same position. He literally gave me point three seconds.

I clutch my chest "Give me a second FOR MY HEART TO START BACK UP!"

"We don't have time for your jokes." He huffs. "Here." He throws my converse at me.

I dodge the one that aims at my face while the other hits my arm. I stare back at him. Did he have too much sugar or forget to take his meds???

"At least tell me what's going on first so I know where we're going to die." I roll my eyes, shoving on my shoes. I have no problem going along with my brothers' crazy plans, I just like when I'm involved in making them, you know, add my own flair and smarts. It's much better when I make the plans though.

He scoffs. "We're not gonna die... probably." He purses his lips, taking a moment of thought. "Okay, lets go." He walks over and yanks me off the bed causing me to tumble forward and knock him down.

"Stiles!" I yelp.

He huffs once again, looking at me like that was my fault.

I take a deep breath, glaring at him. "I'm gonna kick you."

"Do that later." He quickly stands. I grumble, quickly swiping one of my hoodies to put over my tank top and follow as he makes a b-line out the door as if the house was on fire.

"Can I at least drive?" I ask hopeful.

"No!"

I pout. "You're no fun."

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We stop at Scott's to bring him with us on our mystery adventure. He hasn't been answering our text messages. I bet he's trying to get to bed early to rest up for their lacrosse practice tomorrow.

"Let's scare him." Stiles whispers.

I smirk, nodding eagerly. Scott scares so easily.

We snicker quietly as Stiles somehow manages to position himself above the porch and I hide behind the bush. I hear the front door open- then Scott and Stiles start screaming.

"What the hell guys?" I pop up, my brows quickly furrow as I find Stiles hanging upside down and Scott holding a bat... where did he get that?

"AH!" Scott jumps, turning to me. I jolt back. "Stiles, Kai, what the hell are you two doing here?" Scott shouts at us.

"You weren't answering your phone." Stiles says like it's obvious.

"Yeah, and we all know not to ignore Stiles." I turn to Scott shaking my head causing him to chuckle. "And definitely don't ignore me."

"Why do you have a bat?" Stiles asks, very confused.

"I was also wondering that." I raise my hand, looking at him oddly.

"I thought you guys were a predator." He tells us very seriously.

Stiles and I turn to each other, although he's still upside down, and burst out laughing.

"A pre- what?" Stiles doesn't even bother. "Look, I know it's late, but you gotta hear this."

"Yes, hurry up and spit it out!" I throw my arms up irritatedly because he refused to tell me on the way here.

"I saw our dad leave twenty minutes ago. Dispatch called."

"What!" I yell. He was holding that good of information from me?! Damn my radio being broken that I stole from dad!

Stiles shoots me a glare for interrupting before getting back to it. "They're bringing in every officer from the Beacon Department, and even state police." He finishes enthusiastically.

Ooo, then this has to be huge.

"For what?" Scott asks, much less enthused.

"Two joggers found a body in the woods."

I gasp. That would be so freaky and cool!

Stiles finally hops down, falling to the ground of course.

"A dead body?!" Scott exclaims.

I look at him stupidly as Stiles beats me to the punch. "No, a body of water. Yes, dumbass, a dead body."

"Duh." I whack Scott in the arm.

Stile gets up and climbs over the porch railing.

"You mean like murdered?" Scott gapes. I look to Stiles, waiting for a response as he catches his breath.

"Nobody knows yet." He says. "Just that it was a girl, probably in her twenty's."

"Could've been a bear." I shrug, that's far less cool, but still.

"Hold on, if they found the body, then what are they look for?" Scott asks.

"Ooh, good question Scott!" I pat him on the back, making up for the arm whack. I didn't even think of that! I would be so much more on my game if I had heard the call, stupid Stiles. He broke my radio a couple of weeks ago and I swear it was on purpose even though he says it was to kill a spider...

"That's the best part." He leans forward. "They only found half." His voice cracks on the last word. Half?! Half?! There's half a body missing in the woods and we're here wasting our time talking right now??

Scott looks at Stiles in shock as Stiles smiles determinedly.

"We're going." He concludes.

"Hell yeah!" I cheer and take off towards the Jeep.

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We screech to a stop at the edge of the woods, headlights shining on a warped wooden sign that reads 'Beacon Hills Preserve' and a smaller that has 'NO ENTRY AFTER DARK' below it.

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up." I tap on the head rest, rushing the boys out because they made me sit in the back, jerks. I always get stuck back here when Scott rides with us even though IT'S MY JEEP TOO!!

I huff as the cold air nips at my neck and puffs of my breath float up into the air. I look down at my fuzzy pajama pants and pull my jacket closed further. In my defense, I had no idea this is where we were gonna end up...

"We're seriously doing this?" Scott whines to us, slipping his hood on.

"You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town." Stiles defends, handing me my flashlight as he turns his on. I flick it on before banging it against my hand a few times, great it's dead. Wait a minute- I just put new batteries in this! I narrow my eyes at the back of Stiles head. I'm gonna kill him one of these days, I swear.

"Nuh-uh, that was Kai!" Scott rushes out, pointing at me.

"Wha-uh- you agreed with me!" I rush out.

Stiles pats Scott's shoulder as he nudges my arm to follow and we take off, ducking under the chain holding up the sign. Who blocks off the woods?

"You took the batteries to my flashlight?" I snap at him.

"Mine was dead!" Stiles quips with a 'duh' tone.

"I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow." Scott says, catching up.

"Called it." I sing out.

"Right, cause sitting on the bench is such a grueling effort." My brother retorts.

"Hey, you guys make it look hard like hard work." I tease.

I do feel bad for them that they never get any playing time because they practice hard and take it harder, especially Scott. And lacrosse is the sport of this town. I love watching their practices and games and I haven't missed a single one. Even when I was sick last year, and fell asleep on the ground half way through, I still came! I'm practically the manager at this point and I think almost all of the guys think I am because they always give me their water bottles to fill up and half of them give me their jersey's after games or practices to wash.

Plus, Coach loves me and I love it because he mostly hates everyone. Okay, he does hate everyone. Expect his star players.

"No, because I'm playing this year." Scott concludes, breaking me out of my thoughts. "In fact, I'm making first line."

"You what?" I chuckle, wanting to make sure I heard that right.

"Hey, that's the spirit." Stiles dismisses, not believing him at all. "Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one." Scott shakes his head.

I roll my eyes. "Stiles, be nice. If Scott wants to make first line, he should try." I nod Scott's way. "Even if he fails."

"Uh, thanks, Kai?" Scott says slowly. "So, just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?" I can't believe I haven't thought to ask that yet! Scott's on a roll tonight.

I look to Stiles expectingly.

There's a pause in his step. "Huh! I didn't even think about that." He chuckles nervously.

Scott looks quite humored. "And, uh, what if whoever killed the body is still out here?" He continues. Shit, I didn't think about that either.

"Ooo, then we get to meet the killer!" I say excitedly. "Oh, then we'd get to meet the killer..."

"Also something I didn't think about." Stiles says.

"What did you think about, Stiles?" I fire at him.

We approach a small hill and begin to climb, not missing a beat.

"It's comforting to know you've planned this out with your usual attention to detail." Scott says, straining to make it up.

I brush myself off once I make it to the top, Stiles right behind me.

"I know." He inhales sharply.

"This is why I always make the plans." I huff.

"Maybe the severe asthmatic should be the one holding the flashlight, huh?" Scott begins to wheeze. Hmm, good point.

"Stiles!" I whisper-shout, having no time to reply to Scott as my brother quickly picks up the pace before diving to the ground, yanking me down with him. "Give him the-" I'm cut off by his hand flailing over my mouth and I look up to see a multiple flashlights shining across from us. He turns his off. Scott then lands next to me, joining us in the pile of crunchy leaves I already feel are falling down into my sleeve, ugh.

Stiles and I look at each other, eyes gleaming with excitement before he jumps back up. "Come on!" He grabs my elbow.

"Stiles! Kai!" Scott calls after us. "Wait up! Stiles! Kai!"

Adrenaline courses through my body as Stiles and I jump from foot to foot, hurrying along the dark path.

"Stiles! Kai!" Scott's voice rings out, gaining our attention. Has he been yelling long?

We both glance over our shoulders, pausing when we realize he's not right behind us.

I go to yell at him to catch up when suddenly a dog lets out a vicious bark and Stiles pumps the breaks causing me to crash into his back and we fall to the ground.

"Hold it right there!" A man yells out as we scramble apart, stumbling to our feet.

"Hang on, hang on." An all too familiar voice shouts next. Oh crap.

"These little delinquents belong to me." Our dad says, glancing at us disappointedly.

I squint as Stiles moves his head side to side to avoid the brightness of the flashlight. "Dad how're you doing?" He nods.

"Hey dad, how's it going?" I ask casually, as if we ran into him at the grocery store and not the woods.

"So, uh, do you two listen in to all of my phone calls?" He asks us.

"No." Stiles shakes his head at the same time I say, "Yes."

Stiles sighs. "Well, not the boring ones."

"Only the ones I don't miss." I mumble with a 'please don't kill us' smile. At least don't kill me, he can have Stiles.

"Now, where's your usual partner in crime?" He moves along, not even the least bit phased at our answers.

"Who, Scott?" Stiles acts completely shocked by the question. Oh boy.

"No shit." I whisper out of the corner of my mouth.

He elbows me lightly. "Scott's home."

"Yep. He told us he wanted to get a good night's sleep for our first day back tomorrow." I nod, not even having to give covering for Scott a second thought.

"It's just us. In the woods. By ourselves..." Stiles trails off. I smile nervously, Stiles really needs to work on his poker face and line delivery.

"Scott, you out there?" Dad shines his flashlight out behind us. Thunder rumbles in the distance as it begins to rain. I rock on my feet. Dad sighs. "Well, young man, young lady, I'm gonna walk you back to your car." He grabs our necks, pulling us along with him, ow! We both grunt in pain. "And the three of us are gonna have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy."

"We don't know what that means." I chuckle with out even thinking. Oh- oops. Stiles look over at me and I clamp my mouth shut, looking up at Dad.

He turns to me. "Oh, I know. Hints the conversation that I'm sure will go in your ears and out the other." I sigh.

I try to look over Dad's arm for any sign of Scott. I feel awful we're leaving him out here in the middle of the woods... while it's raining... by himself. An uneasy feeling creeps up my spine.

Pleaseee make it home safely, Scott.

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Author's Note: Omg, heyyy!! I finally had the motivation start rewriting this book, yay!!!

I can't believe I published the old version of this book over 3 years ago, what!!! I came up with the original idea for this book March of 2020 (the covid month, gasp) and actually published it the following month of April.... Boy has this idea been through SO many changes since then hahaha.

Hope y'all enjoyed kick off of this book, you'll get to meet Grayson in the next chapter ;)

Don't be afraid to comment your thoughts or questions, they give me so much joy and motivation!! <3333