Rachel Hale wasn't particularly fond of her life.

For starters, there wasn't exactly much to draw pleasure from. Being a daughter of the famous Talia Hale, she grew up surrounded by the supernatural; most often, surrounded by her werewolf siblings. This wouldn't have been a problem, had she been blessed with their curse. But due to what everyone she'd ever met could only manage to describe as a "glitch" in the supernatural, Rachel never became a werewolf like her family members.

Some children of wolves were born human; some, twins, were born with just a hint of supernatural. But not Rachel— not the walking glitch, the enigma no one could ever seem to decode. To everyone's shock, despite her lack of canine traits, the young Hale still attained some remarkable abilities. Abilities that were, albeit astonishing, not particularly easy to manage. Especially when Rachel could barely stand the thought of them anymore without her family by her side.

To those who don't know— which is absolutely no one, in the town of Beacon Hills, Rachel's family died. No, scratch that. They were murdered. Killed in cold blood for a crime they did not commit, a crime Rachel's mother spent her entire life teaching her never to commit. Their family home was set ablaze, whilst Derek, Laura & Rachel were at school, leaving the three to find the horrendous remains upon returning later than initially anticipate.

The trio of survivors had left shortly after, without so much as giving a statement to the police on the tragedy they returned home to. Rachel vowed never to return, while Laura, the oldest of the group, was pulled back by clue regarding the fire. Rachel didn't care— she knew who committed the fire, all the surviving Hale family members knew, and only Laura cared enough to continue seeking justice. Yet, despite not wanting anything to do with her hometown, Rachel found herself following Derek along when he'd insisted they needed to check up on Laura— who'd been in Beacon Hills for more than a week & hadn't contacted them once. Rachel was less than pleased, to say the least.

She wanted to get as far away from the Hell that is Beacon, as possible. Rachel loved Laura, she was her older sister— but returning to Beacon Hills was a death sentence. The minute Laura crossed the town border she wordlessly begged the hunters to set her ablaze with the rest of her family. Rachel didn't want a reminder, she didn't want to be in the same state that her family had died in, let alone the same town. She didn't want to be on the North American continent. Hell, she didn't even want to be on Earth— Rachel would have moved to Mars if it were an option. No distance was too far to travel from the skeletons of her past.

But Derek was adamant.

They had to go to Beacon Hills, and they had to find Laura. He was so sure something was wrong, and to Rachel's dismay, he couldn't have been more right. Both Derek & Rachel had identified the dead body found by police as their sister Laura, neither sibling able to shed tears. They just stared blankly, answering questions when asked & only speaking to each other when absolutely necessary. They were both deeply saddened by the loss, but neither could bring themselves to show it. Derek, for obvious reasons, and Rachel, because she'd sealed out all emotion after discovering the charred remains of the only people who ever loved her.

Now, two days & a whole boat load of idiocy from the useless police department later, in her current haze of "I'm completely fucking done with everything" and intense annoyance, Rachel was searching the woods with Derek in hopes of finding the other half of Laura's body.

Yes, the other half.

The killer had taken the liberty of chopping her in half - actually, quite violently, ripping - and scattering the two pieces. What twisted psychopath had thought of the idea, she didn't know, but Rachel could only hope they decided to take a midnight stroll through the woods unarmed, because she'd have a bloody field day. She & her brother had set out on a mission to find the other half of Laura before the police so they could perform a proper burial beneath a spiral of wolfsbane, but Rachel wouldn't mind setting that task on the back burner if she encountered the monster responsible for this heinous crime. She had already prepared the grave, to save her brother the struggle of handling wolfsbane; Derek could look for the body on his own if she got sidetracked. As if Derek would actually let her go off on her own.

The siblings walked in silence, keeping up a good pace to ensure they'd be done before sunrise. Nothing had been spoken between them since they left Derek's Camaro, and even then, the conversation inside consisted of the older Hale asking his younger sister if she was okay— to which she did not respond. She wasn't okay, she wasn't going to be okay for a very long time, but she was going to fake it until she made it.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Derek questioned, looking over at Rachel as he slowed to a halt. "I smell blood, but it isn't hers."

"This is where I heard the screams. Someone saw something significantly terrifying, Derek." She deadpanned, as if it were something he should already know. He was a werewolf after all, with superhuman hearing— meaning he heard the screams just as clear as she did. If not, clearer. "Half a dead body is significantly terrifying."

A few pieces of dark hair fell over her eyes, only to be pushed back a second later. Rachel let out another long breath, a cloud of fog appearing in the air in front of her, soon disappearing as she continued walking. Derek had no more to say on the matter, if he did, he was going to have to say it to her back because standing around wasn't going to find Laura's body. Distracted by her brother's ignorance, Rachel slowly began to turn as she walked, easing away from her preset path & onto a new one. The brunette hadn't a clue what she was doing until she walked directly into a tree, smacking her forehead off a low branch. A grunt of pain escaped her lips as she stumbled back, falling onto a pile of leaves.

Rachel, you idiot. She though to herself, reaching out in front of her to stand up. As her hands pushed on the leaves, something abnormally sharp dug into her left palm, gaining yet another pain-oriented sound. She may have been a Hale, but she definitely did not have her brother's coordination or sense of direction— even if she was her own variation of supernatural.

"Rachel?" Derek questioned from behind her, having curiously followed. "What are you doing?"

"Just taking a nap." She scoffed, wrapping her hand around the object underneath it as she stood back up, brushing off her black jeans. "I fell."

Rachel held up the object to the moonlight, squinting her eyes to get a clearer view of it. An inhaler. The young Hale had no clue what an inhaler would be doing out in the middle of the woods, but she assumed it'd been from a misguided jogger. Wandering off the trails was easy, especially in the woods near the Hale house. Curiosity turned to instinct, and before they knew it, they'd be standing on the charred porch of Rachel's childhood home. If anyone dared to do that while she wasn't in Beacon Hills, the outcome would be far different now— there would be no police kindly escorting them off the private property, there would be Rachel chasing them from the property with a crispy piece of broken floorboard.

Absentmindedly, Rachel scratched at an annoying itch on her neck, quickly pulling her hand back at the damp feeling. Please be water. Please be water. As much as she hoped, she knew as soon as she looked down at her hand she wouldn't see a clear shine. Optimism wasn't her strong suit, and all hopes quickly died as she glanced down to see the crimson tint glistening in the moonlight. Blood. Blood that, judging by the scent, wasn't her sister's.

"Derek." Rachel muttered quietly, a hint of worry in her tone. Had whoever killed Laura returned to claim the life of another? Rachel & Derek were well beyond sure that Laura's death had been at the hands of a werewolf— one that was now an alpha. But with that fact, there also came the theory that whoever it was could be building a pack. That would certainly rank in the top five of Rachel's current problems.

"It's not enough blood to be fatal." Derek assured her, hearing the hint of worry in her tone. As tough as Rachel acted, she was far beyond tired of the death & disaster surrounding her, and to stumble upon yet another body after the loss of her sister days earlier.. It was an unavoidable aspect of being what she was, but that didn't stop her from hating every second of it.

"So you were right." Rachel pursed her lips, glancing around them. "He's making a pack."

-

EDITED September 21st, 2016.

I'M DETERMINED TO KEEP THIS IN 3RD PERSON. DETERMINED. (Hello friends, Aly from the future here— I did it!)

Okay so, instead of an extended disclaimer, I opted for a cute lil prologue. Rachel is sixteen as of now, she's Cora's twin sister [fraternal twin]. Once again, the face claim for Rachel is Emily Rudd because in my opinion, she actually looks a lot like Adelaide Kane.

I couldn't stop myself from posting this, and even though I need to pre-write a few chapters first, I just had to post this. I promised myself if I got 30 reads tonight I would, and I did. So here it is. The prologue. This will be my main focus as of now, due to my writer's block on Ever After. No, I am not abandoning that story, I'm working on it periodically. I'm actually hoping that taking a step back & working on this instead, will help to resolve my writer's block. (Aly from the future again: Ever After is dead).

I'm so beyond excited to write the sarcastic & sass-filled life of Rachel, and yes, she's going to be a lot like Cora - but not a werewolf. All I can say, is that she's certainly something.

Published: Friday, January 9th, 2015.