𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚-𝒔𝒊𝒙 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘐 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘈 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭, 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘐𝘵

LOOKING BACK TO ALLISON WHO sends her a small smile and a reassuring nod, Charlotte leaves her friend with Matt as they awkwardly make conversation with one another. She casts another glances back, this time just focusing on the boy. Her eyes narrow as she studies him but she jumps back when someone bumps into her. "Sorry!" the guy yells out without looking back. Charlotte rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath as she remembers Danny's words from a few minutes prior.

So she nervously makes her way over to Erica still with Isaac. Ignoring her phone buzzing in her pocket, she brushes her sweaty palms on her denim shorts and swallows the lump in her throat. It's just Erica. "Kiki, hey!"

The werewolf spins around at her voice and instantly smiles, but Erica's eyes widen when she properly looks at her. "Wow," she says slowly. "You look amazing."

Isaac rolls his eyes at the interaction, sending a knowing smile to Charlotte as he walks away. But she barely notices it as she continues to stare into Erica's eyes. "So do you," she replies softly. With the music thumping loudly against her ear drums, she smiles as her hand is grabbed and she's pulled further into the crowd. Goosebumps erupt across every inch of her body when Erica wraps her arms around her neck.

A dark blush stains her pale cheeks and she thanks the dim lighting that the girl before her can't see. Erica leans forward and her lips graze the shell of Charlotte's ear as she whispers, "Why are you so nervous?"

Blowing out a breath of air, Charlotte quickly shakes her head. "Me? No, I'm not nervous," she retorts.

"You forget I can hear your heartbeat." Erica innocently brings her bottom lip in between her teeth and refrains her smile as she watches her friend focus on the action. She clicks her tongue to help emphasise her point. "There it is again. Racing."

All of a sudden the music overhead becomes distant, fading away into the background. As Erica's lips ghost her neck, Charlotte softly gasps at the new sensation. Her hands absentmindedly move to grip Erica's hips, and her eyes flutter closed as she tilts her head further to the side. Extremely aware of the lips now trailing down her neck and collarbones, all of her senses blur as she entirely focuses on the girl in front of her. Erica pulls away and smiles, drawing her impossibly closer.

Stuck in a moment she never thought she would be caught up in, Charlotte sighs in content and runs a hand through her sweaty blonde hair. Her heart thuds in her chest, not so much with anxiety anymore, but the adrenaline of being in the heat of the moment. She lets her body move on its own accord to the music, and smiles as she feels Erica's grip on her hips tighten. Gazes now locked on one another as if they are the only two people in the room full of hundreds, Charlotte gets lost in her brown eyes, hypnotised by the array of coloured lights dancing within her irises.

Both girls breathing heavily, they subconsciously move closer to one another. Erica's lips uptick. "Still nervous?"

"Not anymore," Charlotte whispers back. Her eyes flick down to the lips now inches away from her own and she swallows.

"I feel absolutely terrible for interrupting this right now 'cause it's insanely hot..."

Growling quietly, Erica's eyes flash golden as she looks to Stiles standing awkwardly next to them. "Then don't," she snaps irritably.

The boy grimaces. "But we've got Jackson."

Weaving through the dense crowds, the girls follow after a visibly stressed Stiles until they reach a storage room toward the back of the warehouse. The space is a little more private, with only a few teenagers lingering around to get away from the noise. Charlotte studies the boy slumped in the metal chair and she hums in satisfaction. "Well he looks comfy," she observes in a monotone voice.

"It definitely worked," Isaac says proudly.

Stiles frowns and turns to the curly-haired boy. "Is he okay?"

Charlotte rolls her eyes. "I hope not," she mutters.

Isaac snorts. "Let's find out." He walks toward Jackson who is cuffed to the chair, seemingly unconscious from the heavy anaesthetic. The werewolf flicks his claws out and moves to swipe against his chest, however, Charlotte's eyes widen in alarm when Jackson grabs onto Isaac's wrist, causing him to groan out in pain. It takes him a second, but Isaac finally rips his arm out of the boy's firm grasp and glowers at him as he takes steps back. "Son of a bitch..."

Stiles shakes his head vigorously. "No one does anything like that again, okay?" When none of the three reply, his voice reaches a higher pitch. "Okay?"

"Copy that," Charlotte confirms nervously. Part of the anxiety disappears when she feels Erica grab onto her hand and lace their fingers together. She glances to the werewolf and matches her small smile.

Isaac rubs his wrist and turns to the two humans in confusion. "I thought the ketamine was supposed to put him out?"

Stiles grimaces as his eyes trail back over to Jackson. "It was meant to," he says.

Charlotte nods. "Yeah. This is the best we're gonna get right now. So let's just hope that whoever's controlling him just decided to show up tonight."

"I'm here. I'm right here with you."

They all jump at the distorted voice that suddenly leaves Jackson's mouth, his head tilted to the side with his eyes wide open. Charlotte's hold on Erica's hand tightens. "I don't like this," she concludes. "I really don't like this."

Stiles takes a step toward him but Isaac's hand darts out in front, stopping him from moving any further. "Didn't you just say not to do anything?" he protests.

The Stilinski glances at the three and sighs. "That was before Ted Bundy decided to join us." With the rest of the group closely watching his every move, Stiles crouches before the teenager in the chair and swallows. "Jackson, is that you?"

"Us," he corrects in that same robotic like voice. "We're all here."

Stiles looks over his shoulder to Erica, Charlotte, and Isaac, all of them sharing the same concerned look, before he turns back to Jackson. "Are you the one killing people?" he asks.

"We are the ones killing murderers."

"So everyone you've killed so far..."

"Deserved it," Jackson cuts him off. His jaw clenches tightly as his eyes bore into the boy.

Stiles nods and glances back to Charlotte. "Yeah, see we got a little rule book that says you only go after murderers..."

"Anything can break if enough pressure's applied."

Charlotte frowns as she stares at Jackson. She's certain he hasn't blinked once throughout the entire conversation. "All the people you're killing," she speaks up. "They're all murderers?"

"All. Each. Every one."

"Well, who did they murder?" Stiles questions.

After a beat, Jackson answers, "Me."

Charlotte's eyebrows shoot up in amusement as she quietly chuckles. "Sorry, it just sounded like you said were murdered."

Jackson's eyes flick onto her and her smile drops off her face at how serious he is. "They murdered me," he repeats angrily. Stiles looks back to the three behind him, but his heart races faster as he watches the girls tense and Isaac stand up from the box he was seated on. The boy slowly turns his head back to Jackson and he swallows at how his eyes are now those belonging to the Kanima. Jackson's neck cracks as his head moves to face the group in a robotic like motion. "They murdered me."

Charlotte's attention is caught onto the scales now spreading over Jackson's arms, but what worries her the most is the large claws that replace his fingernails. "Someone give him ketamine," she says in a slightly high pitched voice.

"Yep," Stiles agrees firmly. "The man needs more ketamine!"

"We don't have any more."

Charlotte purses her lips at Isaac's words and narrows her eyes at him. He grimaces and holds up the small bottle that once housed the liquid. "Did you just say we don't have anymore ketamine?" He hesitantly nods and she loudly groans in frustration. "You used it all up?" she questions incredulously. But when something clatters to the floor, she takes her eyes off Isaac and looks to Jackson. "Oh, shit," she mutters.

The cuffs that once bound him to the chair now lay on the ground, split in half. Standing up and staring straight at the four, Jackson suddenly bares his teeth and screeches at them, Stiles jumping back and frantically pointing at the door. "Go, go, go!"

Jackson's head begins to turn in unnatural angles at a rapid speed, and that's all it takes for Charlotte to barge past her friends and race out the room. When all four of the teens are successfully out of the storage room without any injuries, apart from Isaac's bruised wrist, they slam the door closed and press their bodies up against it. "Someone find something to move in front of the door!" Stiles exclaims.

However, before any of them can move a muscle, another deafening shriek reaches their ears. Not even half a metre away from them, one of the walls to the room caves in and the fully transformed Kanima darts out on all fours and towards the rave.

Charlotte exhales shakily. "Well that was... terrifying."

Stiles turns to her. "We need to find Scott," he states quickly.

Hastily nodding in agreement, she follows after Stiles and the two werewolves, before she stops in her tracks, her eyes trained on a woman across the room. Erica's brows furrow in confusion as she pulls on the girl's arm, her eyes flicking around before she follows her friend's line of sight. "Do you know her?"

Isaac glances back to them. "Guys, we need to go!"

The dark-haired woman looks around feeling eyes on her, and her own lock onto Charlotte's. They both stare at each other for a few seconds and Charlotte shakes her head, unsure why the stranger seems so familiar to her. "No, I... I don't know," she replies uncertainly. "Just, something feels wrong, that's all..."

Erica nods. "It feels wrong because Jackson's about to go kill someone, and we need to find him."

Charlotte finally tears her eyes off the woman and the three break off into a run to follow Stiles ahead of them. As soon as she pushes open the door to exit the warehouse, she stops once more, staring at the person beside her best friend Stiles. "Derek? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Right now, it doesn't matter," Stiles dismisses. She scoffs. "So um, we kind of lost Jackson inside but it's-" He cuts himself off and his eyes widen with excitement and pure joy as he stares at something behind Charlotte. "Oh, my God!" he yells. "It's working! It's fucking working!"

Frowning, the Martin turns around to find Erica and Isaac standing by the door, the latter crouching down to stare at something on the ground. "What are you guys doing?" she questions in confusion. "Get down here."

Erica swallows. "We can't," she says.

Stiles grins as he bounces on the balls of his feet. "I did something!"

Sure enough, mountain ash has been poured in a line that continues down the road out of sight. Charlotte holds her fist up for him to bump it. "You did it!"

"I did it!"

Then she realises that Erica and Isaac are trapped inside the proximity with a murderous, vengeful supernatural creature that appears it would do just about anything to slaughter the target inside. "Oh shit," she whispers. A few minutes later, she sits on the hood of the Jeep, anxiously tapping her fingers against the blue metal. "Where the fuck is Scott?"

"Scott."

With a roll of her eyes she looks to Derek. "Yes, I said Scott."

"No..." The man drops his head to look at the mountain ash then nods at Stiles. "Break it," he demands.

"What?" he says in disbelief. "No way!"

"Scott's dying!" Derek yells, gesturing a hand to the warehouse.

"Okay, what?" Stiles questions, glancing over to Charlotte's whose expression has become serious. "How do you know that?"

"Oh, my God, Stiles, I just know! Break it!"

Gritting his teeth together, Stiles throws his hands up in defeat and quickly moves his foot to the ash, but pauses in confusion when spotting the already large gap. Derek and Stiles look at Charlotte who has her arms crossed with a smile. "I broke it," she says proudly. Derek immediately breaks off into a run towards the building and she sighs. "Seriously?" she asks Stiles. "You had to ask, 'How do you know that'?"

"Yeah! He could have been lying," he protests.

Erica and Isaac chuckle and Charlotte rolls her eyes. "Why would he lie?"

"I do-" Stiles purses his lips together. "I don't know..."

An agonising few minutes later, the door bursts open and an extremely pale Derek drags Scott out. "Holy shit!" Charlotte races over to her best friend and her hands hover over his body, the breathes leaving his mouth shallow. "Oh my God, is he alive?"

Derek curtly nods, a sheen of sweat coating his face. "Barely. I need to get him to Deaton."

»»———-　　———-««

After leaving Derek to look after Scott, Charlotte and Erica leave the rest of the group to go home. Pulling up outside of the werewolf's house, Charlotte turns to face the girl in her passenger seat. She can't help but smile. "So... Despite everything else that happened, I had a pretty good time tonight," she confesses quietly.

Erica arches a brow. "Only pretty good?"

"Okay, it was really good."

Her heart rate spikes when Erica leans forward and tucks a loose curl of hair behind her ear. "You're nervous again," Erica points out with a smile.

Charlotte nods. "Obviously."

Erica huffs a laugh. "It's just me," she speaks softly. "You don't need to be nervous."

She takes a deep breath. "That's exactly why I'm nervous." Her ocean eyes leave the girl's face, and she becomes incredibly aware when Erica's fingers lift her chin up.

"C-can I try something?" Their eyes meet again and Erica clears her throat, a faint shade of red painting her cheeks. Her voice drops to a whisper. "Can I kiss you?"

Suddenly, she can't find the words to answer. So Charlotte only nods. She holds her breath as the girl leans further toward her and their noses knock against each other before Erica's lips tentatively brush over her own. It's short, but just enough to steal the air out of her lungs. As they pull apart, she quietly admits, "I've never kissed anyone before."

Erica bites onto her lip. "Was it okay?"

"I think I might need to try it again to make sure."

This time, both of them are more confident. Their lips crash against one another as Charlotte's hands cup Erica's cheeks, the werewolf's arms wrapping around her neck. Their mouths slowly move in sync for a few further seconds before they both smile into the kiss. When she finally pulls away, Erica's voice is hoarse. She runs her thumb over Charlotte's lip and smiles. "I've gotta get inside, but I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

She nods and widely smiles. "Yeah, see you." When the car door shuts behind Erica, she raises her hand to trace over her lips and quietly squeals. "Oh, my God! Holy shit!" Unbeknownst to her, Erica looks over her shoulder at the sound and grins as she watches the girl have a moment.

»»———-　　———-««

Over a week had passed since the rave, Charlotte's kiss with Erica, and Jackson's escape as the Kanima. Finally, spring break had arrived and Charlotte couldn't be more relieved to not have to go to school. With everything going on at the moment, it was the last thing she wanted to do. "Prada! Come on! God, this damn animal," she mutters in annoyance. The side gate creaks open and she squints her eyes in the dark. Her dog yaps and races back into the yard. "What's up, girl?" Prada runs behind her owner's legs, continuing to bark at whatever is on the other side of the fence. When she hears the bushes rustle and footsteps on the brick path, she firmly instructs, "Inside. Prada, inside." The dog huffs and her collar jingles as she trots back up to the house.

Charlotte cautiously walks over to close the gate that is swinging in the breeze, an occasional creak ringing through the air from the movement. As she reaches out to close it, her eyes widen and her lips part to release a shrill scream when a hand suddenly wraps around her wrist. The same teenage boy that Lydia had gone to see the other day is in front of her. The boy she had seen in class, and the boy she had seen outside the counsellor's office. And right now, Charlotte realises that her gut feeling about him had been right all along.

He gives her an innocent smile. "Hi," he whispers. Keeping his firm grasp on her arm, he places his other hand over her mouth to prevent another scream.

"Honey, everything okay?" Natalie calls out from the backdoor.

Charlotte locks eyes with the boy and a shudder runs through her body at the coldness within them. "Y-yeah, Mom!" she yells back. "Saw a spider." The door closes and she tries desperately to wrench her wrist out of his hand. When she looks back up to the boy, a gasp of shock leaves her lips and her attempts to leave him grow even more desperate.

No longer standing before her is a teenager, but the very man that haunts her dreams and life. Peter Hale chuckles and he leads her around the corner of the garage to be out of sight from anyone that could be looking out to the yard from the house. Her eyes flick down to his clothes and notice the edges of the fabrics are charred, however, his skin doesn't look like it has been harmed at all. And Charlotte remembers when Scott and Stiles had told her that they killed the Alpha by throwing a Molotov cocktail on him. His cause of death. In any other situation, she'd laugh at the irony.

Tears prick her eyes and she shivers as he brings up a hand to softly trail down her cheek. "Hello, Charlotte. Wonderful seeing you again."

"Wake up, just a nightmare. It's not real," she whispers to herself.

Quiet laughter fills the air and she opens her eyes to find Peter staring at her. "Oh, I'm so sorry. This isn't a dream. Everything must be so terribly confusing for you right now." He frowns. "But you should know that you aren't insane. Neither is your sister. Well, you're not completely crazy." Almost like she is paralysed, her body stays frozen at his contact against her skin and she stares, unable to utter a word. "I had a plan, you know? It was a good plan. But if there's one thing that I've learned throughout life, it's to always have a backup. Luckily for me, I had two. You were one of my backups, Charlotte."

Her eyes screw shut as he brushes back a strand of hair behind her ear, just like Erica had done. Bile rises up in her throat. "What?" she says, her voice wavering in fear.

"Both of your immunity makes you a perfect plan B for me!" Peter explains with a smile. "You wouldn't turn from the bite, you wouldn't die... But you would be able to do one important thing for me. Do you know what that is, Charlotte?

Almost as if her memories are being edited in real time, all of the recent interactions with that strange teenage boy disappear. More like, he himself was erased from all her memories. Instead of seeing him outside Morrell's office, she was talking to herself. The days she had seen him in class, there is now an empty seat. He hadn't been real. None of it was real.

She watches Peter's mouth open to say something once more, but her attention snaps over to the side where the gate swings open again and Stiles runs in with wide eyes. "Woah, are you okay?" he asks his best friend in concern.

But she ignores him for a second, the only thought running through her mind being where the hell had he gone? She spins around as she frantically looks for Peter Hale, however, the backyard is completely empty aside from herself and Stiles. "Where is he?" she says, her voice raising in panic. "Where did he go?"

Stiles' eyebrows draw together as he takes a step toward her. "Where did who go?"

Tears prick her eyes as her lip wobbles. "He was here!" she exclaims, finally meeting Stiles' eyes. "I saw him!"

He places his hands on her shoulders, quickly removing them when she flinches at the contact. "Hey, Lottie, who did you see?" he asks worriedly.

"Peter! He was right here! He was in front of me-" Charlotte trails off once she sees the sympathy on his face. "You don't believe me," she realises.

His heart fractures at how her voice cracks. "No, I believe you," Stiles quickly attempts to reassure her. Charlotte frowns at the hesitation in his voice. "It's just, the last time we saw him, he was burning alive. He's dead. Peter's dead."

Deciding not to delve further, she switches the conversation around. "What are you doing here? It's eight o'clock at night."

Stiles frowns at how she quickly plasters on a smile. However, based on how distraught she had been a few seconds ago, he figures she no longer wants to talk about it. "Right! I was just wondering if you wanted to come round to watch a movie?"

"Star Wars?"

"What else would we be watching?"

Charlotte brushes her tear away, hoping he hadn't seen it, and nods. "Yeah, sounds good," she agrees. "Mom's out tonight anyways."

"She won't care?"

"Nah, she literally said she's given up on parenting me."

»»———-　　———-««

As she opens the movie on her laptop, Charlotte jumps back onto Stiles' bed and leans back into the pillows just as he walks in with a large bowl of popcorn. Popping a few inside his mouth, the boy quickly shuts the computer. She looks up to him in disbelief. "Um, what did you just do?"

"I got something better than a movie."

She shakes her head at the simple reply then rolls her eyes at the book he drops before her. "A yearbook?" she questions in disappointment. "Why are we looking at a yearbook?"

Stiles sits beside her and shoves another handful of popcorn into his mouth. "The other day, Dad and I connected all the murders," he reveals, his voice muffled by the food.

She blinks. "Okay?"

"All the victims were in a class together. And they all graduated the same year from Beacon Hills. Charlie, all of them were twenty-four."

Charlotte frowns. "What class?"

"That's the thing. They were all in Harris'."

She snorts. "Seriously? This guy is everywhere!"

Stiles chuckles. "I know," he agrees. "But that's not all of it." He pauses and waits for her to connect the dots on her own.

Charlotte's eyes widen in realisation. "Lahey," she whispers.

"Exactly. But that's not the only thing that doesn't add up. The latest victim, the girl that was killed at the rave?" Stiles points to a girl on the page he's opened up to. "Kara Simmons. Her name isn't on the list like the others."

And her heart plummets to the ground. She stares at the photo of the female on the page of the yearbook wearing a wide smile. It's the same woman she had locked eyes with as she left the warehouse. Her gut instincts keep proving her right over and over again as of lately. "How did we miss a murder?" she murmurs, her fingers tracing over the photograph of Kara.

"Must've happened after we left," Stiles reasons. His brows furrow at her distant expression. "Hey, you okay?"

Charlotte frowns. "I saw her as we were leaving," she says quietly. "And I..." She shakes her head and clears her throat. "I don't know. Something felt off and... maybe if I stayed back, I could've stopped it."

"Hey, woah, you can't blame yourself for this," Stiles tells her firmly. He places a hand on her shoulder. "Charles, look at me. This is not your fault, okay? Whoever's controlling Jackson is to blame, not you. And even if you did stay back, you can't know for sure that you would've been able to stop him."

She gives him a weak smile. "Thanks," she says. She looks back down to the yearbook. "So this is why you really got me over here... To go through books." Charlotte follows him as he moves over to his desk and grabs her own book off the large stack. "What am I looking for?"

"I guess any other class that has all the victims together... And let's hope Isaac's father is somehow tied to it."

Noah Stilinski walks past the open bedroom door but stops once he sees the pair inside. "Hey, watcha doing?"

Without looking up, Stiles replies, "Homework." Satisfied, his father nods and walks out the room.

Charlotte rolls her eyes as she whacks the boy's shoulder. "We're on break!" she hisses.

Stopping mid motion to turn the page, Stiles' jaw drops. "Shit."

"Hang on... It's spring break." Noah enters back into the room and his eyes are immediately drawn to the pile of paper on the desk. "What do you think you're doing?"

Charlotte smiles. "Preparing for when school goes back?" The Sheriff sighs and reaches over to take the book out of her hands. Her eyes widen. "Wh- I -we-"

"We're just satisfying our curiosity, okay, Dad?"

"We brought Harris in this morning for questioning," he tells the kids. He pauses to correct himself. "They brought him in." Stiles had mentioned that his dad had been suspended. Turns out when your son steals government property and kidnaps the child of one of the most well known attorneys in Beacon Hills, it doesn't do well for your career as the Sheriff.

The boy raises a brow. "And?"

"And they're working on a warrant to arrest him for the murders."

Charlotte's eyes widen. "For all of them?"

"Enough of them," the man answers.

Stiles shakes his head slightly. "With what proof?" he asks.

"Remember the couple that was killed at the trailer?"

The blonde-haired girl nods as she points to the photos printed out of the victims on Stiles' desk. "The wife was smothered in hospital the day after the husband died, right?"

"Yeah," he confirms. "Tire tracks nearby match Harris' car."

"Wha- That's not enough!" Stiles continues to quickly flick through the pages, only for his dad to close it.

Noah sighs. "The same car was also seen outside the hospital where the pregnant wife was killed." Charlotte shakes her head in disgust. What kind of person would kill a pregnant woman? "It's got some bumper sticker on it, a-a quote from Einstein- "

"Wait, what quote?" Stiles suddenly interrupts.

"Something about imagination and knowledge..."

The boy sighs. "Imagination is more important than knowledge, yeah."

Both his father and Charlotte furrow their brows in confusion. "How do you know that?" the latter asks.

"I saw the same car parked outside the rave," Stiles says.

"That means you're a witness. You're gonna have to make a statement." Noah turns his attention onto the girl. "Did you see it, too?"

"No, I was inside the whole time," she answers.

"Okay, what about the concert promoter, Kara?" Stiles brings up. "She wasn't in Harris' class, right?"

Charlotte slowly nods. "And what about Lahey?" she adds.

Stilinski looks at her, then back to his son. He sighs in defeat. "Of course you shared confidential police information with your best friend. Look, kids, it doesn't matter. The tire tracks put Harris at the site of three murders. That's damning evidence."

"No. It's not enough," Stiles protests, resuming his search through the yearbooks.

"I thought you hated this guy? I thought you-" Noah looks at Charlotte with his brows raised. "-hated this guy more than anything in the whole world?"

She hums. "Oh, I definitely do."

Stiles rolls his eyes. "I don't hate him, all right? He hates me."

His best friend nods. "A lot. Like, you have no idea how much..." She stops when noticing him glaring at her.

"Dad, if he killed all of them, sure, lock the psycho up. But something's missing... There's gotta be something missing..."

"You guys don't have to-" Stilinski trails off when he stares at the page Stiles has paused on.

"Dad?"

"Look at the swim team."

Leaning over, Charlotte narrows her eyes as she reads the group of names listed below the black and white photograph. "Holy shit- hell." She grimaces. "Sorry." She points a finger to the bottom of the page and her eyes widen. "Look at the coach."

Stiles stares at the picture of the deceased man. "It's Isaac's dad."

After bidding her best friend goodbye and making sure he clearly understands the rules for tomorrow's events, Charlotte calls Alan Deaton. Seated in her car parked in the driveway to her home, she dials the number. After a few rings, the line is answered. "Hello, this is the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic, how many I help you?"

"Hey, Deaton, it's Charlotte. Sorry I didn't get a chance to call you. Everything's been crazy, after the whole rave thing, and Jackson killing someone else an-"

The man chuckles and cuts off her rambling. "Don't worry," he reassures her gently. "How does popping in tomorrow sound?"

She leans the side of her head against the window and sighs. "It's Lydia's and my birthday, she's hosting a party for us. Uh, how about Thursday?"

"No problem. I'm free pretty much all afternoon. Can I ask if anything else has happened since I last saw you?"

She frowns and contemplates whether to tell him about the incident a few hours earlier. Then she reminds herself that if it's going to be anyone, Deaton would be the last person to judge her. Hopefully. "I had another hallucination of Peter this afternoon," she tells him hesitantly. "And it turns out this boy Lydia and I had been seeing wasn't real and was actually him the entire time..." Her own eyes widen at how insane the story sounds.

"Are you sure you can't come in tomorrow?"

Charlotte sighs at the urgency in his tone. Obviously this is a lot more serious than she had thought. "I'm sure. Lydia would literally kill me, I'm not exaggerating. It's just hallucinations though."

"In my experience with Peter, almost everything he does is for a reason. However, if he's reaching out to you, he wants something."

"Yeah, okay. I'll be there on Thursday."

»»———-　　———-««

Charlotte groans when her bedroom door opens, a sliver of light from the hallway reaching her eyes. The bed dips beside her and she pulls her pillow over her face. "Go away," she grumbles.

"Charlotte."

Her muscles freeze at the voice and she screws her eyes shut tighter. It's not real. Slowly pulling the pillow away, she forces herself to meet eyes with her nightmare. "What do you want from me?" she whispers to him brokenly.

Peter smiles and lifts up the wrapped box in his hands, a ruby red bow adorning the gift. "It's your birthday!" he exclaims joyfully.

"Are you real?" she asks quietly. She's almost terrified of the answer he could give. "Are you here?"

"Interestingly, that question can be answered as not yet. But I do promise that everything's going to be back to normal soon enough."

Her eyes fall shut once more as she tries her best to block him out. It's just a figure of her imagination. He's not real. "Go away," she pleads.

"That can also be answered as not yet. Open your eyes, Charlotte." The girl vigorously shakes her head and a tear rolls down her cheek. He places a hand on her arm and she jumps, a quiet sob leaving her lips. "All you need to do is open your eyes."

She gathers up the courage to hiss, "Fuck off."

Peter chuckles. "I can't do that. Open your eyes." When she refuses to comply, he sighs and undoes the bow, carefully unwrapping the box with a clawed finger. The sound of paper tearing fills the room. "All right then." The room is engulfed into silence and Charlotte's heart beats rapidly within her chest. A blood-curdling scream leaves her mouth when something cold and slimy touches her. Throwing the covers off her body in horror, her eyes widen at the worms crawling over her feet. Peter rests a hand on her cheek and smiles as he turns her head back toward him. "All you have to do is-"

"Charlotte! Hey, are you okay?"

Her head snaps to the side to find Lydia's worried face before her. Charlotte quickly looks back down to the bed and realises that the worms are gone. It was all a hallucination. She harshly wipes the tears off her cheeks and she forces herself to nod. "Yep, yeah. I'm okay," she responds.

Lydia slowly nods, although it's clear that she's unconvinced. She sits beside her sister and grabs onto her hand, squeezing it comfortingly with a soft smile. "It's our birthday today."

"Yeah. Seventeen."

"And we're going to throw the best fucking party Beacon Hills has ever seen."

𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘍𝘜𝘕. 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵- 𝘐 𝘊𝘈𝘕𝘛. 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪'𝘮 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵