𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒏 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘮

AS THEY FINALLY REACH THE lobby of the high school, Charlotte, Scott, and Stiles are there just in time to see Allison run in as well. Scott runs forward to her in concern as he begins to frantically question her. "Why did you come? What are you doing here?"

Her eyes flick to his friends standing behind, then she focuses back to the boy in front of her. "Because you asked me to?"

Scott's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "I asked you to?"

Charlotte's eyes squint. "He asked you to?" What the hell is going on?

Allison quickly opens her phone to show them the message. Sure enough, there is a text from Scott: Meet me at the school, urgent. It's not Scott for obvious reasons. Firstly, the message has proper punctuation. Secondly, his friends had been with him all evening. Not to mention he didn't even have his phone on him. Stiles and Charlotte mirror each other's look of shock. Allison takes in their confusion and her face falls. "Why do I get the feeling you didn't send this message?" she assumes worriedly.

"Because I didn't," Scott tells her.

Taking steps toward the couple, Charlotte nervously asks, "Allison, did you drive here?"

"Jackson did," the girl replies hesitantly.

"Jackson's here?" Scott exclaims.

Charlotte shakes her head in disbelief. She drags a hand down her cheek in frustration. "Fabulous," she mutters to herself. "My day just got a shit load better."

"And Lydia, too!"

The blonde's head snaps towards Allison. The boys' eyes fill with further concern at the newfound knowledge. A girlfriend being wrapped up into their drama is one thing. But a sibling? Charlotte's lip wobbles. "Lydia's here?" she asks, voice trembling slightly.

Allison nods, her brows still pinched together at the strange reactions. "What's going on? Who sent me this text?" Her phone suddenly rings, and she answers it within a heartbeat. "Where are you?" The conversation continues for a further few second, then behind them, doors open. In walks the other Martin sister and Jackson.

Charlotte blows out a small breath of relief. She races forward and grabs her sister into a tight hug. "Oh, thank God you're alive," she whispers gratefully.

Alarm flashes over Lydia's face at the statement. "Why wouldn't I be alive?" The strawberry blonde looks over to Allison. "Can we go now?" But even when she receives a nod, Charlotte grips onto her sister's hand, refusing to let go. Lydia turns to face her in worry and takes note of the fiddling with the hair tie, her irregular breathing, and tapping of her foot. The girl is on the verge of a panic attack, and she has no idea why.

However, the group's plan to leave is cut short by the sounds of dull thudding in the ceiling again. All six look upward as the panels rattle under heavy weight. Charlotte's hold on her sister's hand tightens, and Lydia squeezes it. Another second passes before Scott exclaims, "Run!"

Just as they make it halfway up the stairs, the ceiling finally collapses and the Alpha drops to the floor, making quick work of gaining the distance between it and its prey. Snarls and growls follow behind them as the teenagers sprint through the corridor. Charlotte glances behind her once and instantly regrets doing so.

Making it into an unlocked cafeteria, Scott gestures everyone inside then swiftly bolts the doors shut. "Help me get this in front of the door," he tells Jackson urgently, both boys heading to the nearby box refrigerator.

Charlotte turns around and just about groans. "Scott, wait, not here," she manages to get out between her heavy breathing. To no surprise, there's no reply. She tries to focus on Lydia's hand still clasped with her. Stiles comes to stand beside them, and he and his best friend share a look. They're both thinking the same thing: this is hopeless.

"What was that?" Allison hysterically questions. "Scott, what was that?"

"What came out of the ceiling?" Lydia's voice shakes just like the brunette's.

Scott's too focused on trying to form a barricade against the door. "Will you just help me?" he yells. "The chairs, stack the chairs!"

Lowering her voice to a whisper amongst the chaos, Charlotte says, "This isn't going to work." She grits her teeth together when Lydia breaks away to go help the others.

Stiles nods in agreement, "Guys? Can we just wait a second?" The pair watch the rest of the group start to move stacks of chairs up against the wall of windows. "You guys, listen to me... Can we just wait a second? Guys! Stiles talking here. Can we hang on a second, please?"

A wolf whistle cuts through the racket. There's no point worrying about being too loud at this point. By how much noise Scott and Jackson had made moving whatever was already against the door, the Alpha knows exactly where they are. "Everyone stop fucking moving!" Charlotte shouts. The room almost immediately falls silent.

Smiling in approval, Stiles gives the girl a brief round of applause. "Thank you, Charlie. Now. What's the plan about the twenty foot wall of windows?" They both dramatically wave their hands beside them.

Scott shuts his eyes in frustration. How had he not noticed it? Allison appears to be on the verge of tears and finally breaks through the stifling silence. "Would someone please explain what's going on?" Stiles and Charlotte glance to Scott as she continues. "Because I am freaking out over here! And I'd like to know why! Scott?"

They all watch the boy, who still hasn't said a word, walk over to a desk and put his head in his hands. Jackson opens his arms as if saying, Well? Stiles takes a deep breath. "Somebody killed the janitor." Charlotte whacks the back of his head and he winces in pain. "Okay, deserved," he murmurs.

"What?" Lydia cries out.

"Yep. Janitor's dead." Stiles nervously shuffles his body weight as he tries to ignore the blonde-haired girl's sharp glare.

Allison's watery eyes flick between Stiles and Charlotte in disbelief, then they finally settle on her boyfriend. "What's he talking about Scott? Is this some big fucking joke?"

Jackson seems to be getting a little annoyed by the lack of responses from Scott as he speaks up for the first time. "Who killed him?"

"No, no, no," Lydia rambles anxiously. She spins around to her sister with tears in her eyes. "No, this was supposed to be over!" she exclaims. Charlotte's heart breaks at the despair in her voice. Lydia's even more terrified than she is. "The mountain lion killed-"

"No, Lydia," Jackson snaps impatiently. "Don't you get it? There wasn't a mountain lion," he says, getting up in the girl's face. Charlotte's jaw clenches and she steps forward to shove the boy away from her twin with a glare.

"Who was it? What does he want?" A tear finally drops down Allison's cheeks, flushed from the physical exertion. "What's happening? Scott!"

Stiles and Charlotte glance to one another once again as they watch Scott who still remains separated from them. "I-I don't know... I-I just... If we go out there, he's going to kill us."

Lydia swallows and her hand finds her sister's again. "Us?" she repeats in horror. "He's going to kill us?" Charlotte watches the tear slide down her cheek and she leads the girl away from the others, the goal being to calm both of their crushing anxiety down even just a slight by being in their own little bubble.

"Who? Who is it?" Allison presses.

Stiles and Charlotte fall silent, lost for words on how they could possibly respond. Scott hesitates before replying, "Derek. It's Derek Hale." Charlotte's eyes widen so far that they might separate from their sockets. She hadn't seen this coming at all. Stiles' lips part.

"Derek killed the janitor?" Jackson asks in confusion.

"Are-are you sure?" Allison runs a hand through her hair and looks at Scott again for confirmation.

"I saw him," Scott states firmly. Jackson continues to look at him sceptically.

"But the mountain lion-"

"No!" he interrupts Lydia. "Derek killed them," Scott says confidently.

Allison's mouth gapes open and closed. "All of them?"

Scott continues lying straight through his teeth. "Yeah. Starting with his own sister."

Charlotte gawks at him. What the fuck is he thinking? If there's a chance that Derek's still alive, even if that might be a small chance, the guy is literally going to murder her best friend in the most violent way possible the second he gets the chance to.

"And the bus driver?"

"And the guy in the video store. It's been Derek the whole time. He's in here with us. And if we don't get out right now, he's going to kill us, too."

As his words finally sink in, Jackson turns to face Stiles expectantly. "Call the cops," he instructs.

"No," Stiles and Charlotte reply simultaneously. Everyone turns to look at them.

Jackson blinks rapidly. "Wh-what do you mean 'No'?" he stutters out incredulously.

"I mean, no," Stiles repeats simply. "You wanna hear it in Spanish?" Charlotte would've burst out laughing if their situation was any different. Her best friend tries a Spanish accent as he adds, "No!" The pair telepathically decide to go along with Scott's ridiculously stupid story. "Derek killed three people, okay? We don't know what he's armed with."

"Your dad is armed with an entire Sheriff's department. Call him."

Charlotte Martin realises she's incredibly close to punching Jackson Whittemore right now.

Lydia pulls out her phone and makes the decision for the both of them. "I'm calling."

"Wait, Lydia, hang on-"

"Yes, we're at Beacon Hills High School. We're trapped and we need you to- But..." Lydia's hand drops to her side. "She hung up on me," she says in disbelief.

Charlotte rolls her eyes. "It's that same dispatch bitch, I bet you," she whispers to Stiles. He purses his lips and nods.

"The police hung up on you?"

Lydia slowly nods. "She said they got a tip warning them that there are gonna be prank calls about a break in at the high school. She said if I called again that they're going to trace it and have me arrested."

Charlotte scoffs in bewilderment. "I told you it was smart," she murmurs.

"Okay! Then call again," Allison insists.

"No, they won't trace a cell," Stiles explains. "And they'll send a car to your house before they send anyone here."

Allison places a hand on her forehead. "What the- what is this? Why does Derek wanna kill us? Why is he killing anyone?"

"The same reason anyone kills anyone," Charlotte answers bluntly. The room turns to stare at her. She shrugs. "What?"

Then, they turn back to Scott. His friends subtly jerking their heads towards the three who remain unaware of what's actually going on. As stubborn as Stiles and Charlotte are, they've decided that because it's their best friend that got them into this Derek debacle, it's also his responsibility to get them out of it. "Why's everyone looking at me?"

"Is he the one that sent her the text?"

"No. I mean, I don't know."

"Is he the one that called the police?"

"I don't know!" Scott yells. Allison looks startled at his outburst and turns her back as she walks away for space.

Charlotte sighs. "Okay, everyone. Why don't we ease back here, yeah?" After reluctantly leaving Lydia with Jackson and Allison, she walks over to Stiles and Scott who have their own space to hold a private conversation. "Scott!" she hisses at him. He winces. "Throwing Derek under the bus? Great fucking job. He's definitely scowling at you from up there," she points up to the sky.

"I didn't know what to say!" he defends himself. "All right, I had to say something! And if he's dead, it doesn't matter, right?" Scott pauses. Realisation falls across his face. "Except if he's not..." His eyes widen as he looks over at a distressed Allison. "Oh, God, I totally just bit her head off."

Charlotte rolls her eyes at his last sentence. "That's what you're worried about right now? Allison will get over it."

Stiles nods. "She will. Now can we please direct our concern on how the fuck to get out of here?"

"And hopefully alive?"

"But Charles, right now we are alive," Scott points out quietly. "It could've killed us... It's like it's cornering us or something."

Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to brainstorm why the Alpha could possibly have left them alone after so pursuing them so furiously earlier. "Maybe it's waiting for dinner time?" she suggests. "You know, big, bad wolf?"

Stiles high fives her and grins. "That was brilliant." She reciprocates the smile appreciatively.

"No. Derek said it wants revenge."

"Against who?" Stiles asks raising his eyebrows.

"Allison's family?" Scott answers his question with a question.

"Maybe that's what the text was about." Charlotte pauses in thought. "I mean someone had to send it, right? Maybe it wants to kill Allison."

"Okay, assheads!" Jackson interrupts impatiently. "New plan," he states. "Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to send someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?"

Charlotte lurches forward to the boy, but Scott pulls her back. "Oh, I'll shoot you, you piece of-"

"He's right," Scott admits, locking eyes with Stiles. "Tell him the truth if you have to. Just... just call him."

Her eyes widen at his insensitivity. "Hey," Charlotte begins lowly. "Not happening."

Stiles nods at her and whispers, "Scott, I'm not watching my dad get eaten alive."

Jackson rolls his eyes. "All right, give me the phone," he demands. He walks over to Stiles, however, unfortunately for him, Charlotte's anger finally reaches its boiling point.

She turns around, locks her wrist, and sends a right hook straight to the centre of his face. She shakes her hand out at the sudden slight pain, and chuckles. "Oh, that felt so fucking good."

Allison runs over to Jackson as he stumbles over, clutching his now bleeding nose. "Jackson! Are you okay? Hey are you okay?"

Stiles and Scott turn to their best friend and she casually shrugs at their stunned expressions. "What?" Lydia stares at her and rolls her eyes. Charlotte reluctantly asks her, "You aren't pissed?"

The girl snorts. "It was going to happen at some point."

As Allison looks back at her new friend in shock, Stiles takes his phone out of his jacket pocket. Charlotte touches his arm. "Hey, are you sure you wanna do this?"

He shuts his eyes and nods as he dials his father. "Dad, hey, it's me. And it's your voicemail... Look, I really need you to call me back. Now. Like, right now. We're at the school. Dad, we're at the school."

Once again back with Lydia, Charlotte feels her sister grab her hand with a bone crushing grip as the sudden loud bang on the door echoes throughout the room. The door begins to rattle, and the younger Martin twin hides her face into Charlotte's shoulder as she starts hyperventilating. "Breathe, Lyds. Try to breathe for me, okay?" She takes in a dramatic breath. "Just listen to my breathing, okay?" She feels Lydia nod her head and tries to maintain a steady pattern as the doors continue to shake.

"The kitchen, the door out of the kitchen leads to the stairwell," Stiles blurts out.

"Which only goes up," the blonde points out grimly.

"Up is better than here." Stiles hurriedly ushers everyone through another doorway within the room, leaving Charlotte just enough time to see the Alpha break through and enter.

They race up a set of stairs, finally reaching the second level of the school. Finding another room that is thankfully unlocked, Charlotte motions for everyone to get in. Lydia clasps a hand over her mouth and her sister sucks in a deep breath as they watch a shadow pass by the door. The Alpha can obviously hear heartbeats. If he knows they're in here, why walk past?

"Jackson, how many people can fit in your car?" Scott suddenly asks.

Jackson looks around the group and whispers, "Five. If someone squeezes on someone's lap." He points to Charlotte, still glowering at her. "Definitely can't fit her in." She scowls and moves toward him again but stops as Lydia clutches onto her.

"Doesn't matter, there's no getting out without drawing any attention," Stiles states.

Scott spots something and points over to it. "What about this?" Charlotte wraps her arms around her sister, focusing on continuing to breath steadily for her. The door has a sign reading, 'ROOFTOP ACCESS.' She watches Stiles and Scott have a quiet conversation and the former makes eye contact with her throughout.

Scott turns around, confidently saying, "I'm getting the key."

Charlotte looks at him as she loudly whispers, "Have you lost your fucking mind, Scott?"

Stiles gestures to her dramatically. "See! I told you she'd say no!"

"Are you serious?" Allison questions quietly.

"Well, it's the best plan. Someone has to get it if we want to get out of this place."

"You can't go out there unarmed!" the brunette counters. Charlotte almost smiles. If only they knew.

Scott grabs a nearby pointer stick belonging to a teacher and holds it up. At their exasperated expression, he exclaims, "Well, it's better than nothing!"

"Scott, there has to be something else. Anything else," Charlotte says, her eyes narrowing.

Lydia pulls away from her sister. "There is." The group turn to her and she nods over at a locked cabinet standing in the corner of the room.

Now Charlotte smiles. "Lydia, you brilliant little thing," she mutters.

Stiles looks between the sisters with confusion. "What? Are we gonna throw acid on him?"

The blonde chuckles. "No. We-" she gestures to herself and her sister, "-are going to make something that goes kaboom!" She receives blank looks.

Lydia bites her lip as she tries to hide her own growing smile at her twin's enthusiasm. "That cabinet has everything we need to make a self-igniting Molotov cocktail."

Stiles looks at them completely dumfound. "Self... Igniting..."

"Molotov cocktail!" Charlotte finishes with a grin.

"What?" When Jackson looks at her, Lydia adds, "I read it somewhere..." Charlotte frowns at her words. She didn't 'read it somewhere.' She'd known of her sister's tactic to appear dumber to her boyfriend for a while now. She didn't approve of it at all.

"Well, we currently don't have a key to..." Stiles' points at the cabinet. "... that either."

Charlotte's smile widens and she lurches forward to grab Jackson's phone that is lying on a nearby table. She chucks it into the glass windows of the cabinet. Jackson Whittemore's face resembles a thundercloud. "Oh, you bitch-"

When he's standing half a metre before her, she lays hand on his chest. "No, no, no. Do you want to punch me?" Her brows raise. "Or do you want to not die, Whittewhore?"

His eyes are flaming with rage as he seethes, "I want to punch you."

Charlotte grimaces at the response, and thankfully, Lydia diffuses the situation before it can get violent again. "Jackson, can you pass the beaker over?"

Stiles comes to stand by his best friend. He completely supports her decision to destroy the phone. "Nice one, dude," he mumbles.

"Thank you!" She moves beside to Lydia, and each girl grabs various chemicals to mix them into a single beaker.

"Pass me the salt?" Lydia questions. Her sister nods and reaches over the benchtop to retrieve the ingredient as Lydia pours another powder into the glass beaker.

"Can someone get the sulphuric acid?" Too focused on the task at hand, Charlotte swirls the liquid around without looking up as she asks the question. Once Jackson hands a vial to her, narrows her eyes at it. "Jackson, are you sure this is sulphuric acid?"

He scoffs. "I can read."

"I sure hope you can. 'Cause if there isn't sulphuric acid in this, it won't do what a Molotov cocktail is meant to do." Charlotte gestures over to Scott. "Then he is royally fucked."

"It is!"

She nods sceptically but measures the liquid into a funnel that pours into the beaker. She swirls the chemicals together once again, then places the cork on top to seal the concoction inside. Charlotte passes it to Scott, and the boy nods thankfully.

Allison speaks up, still looking very distressed by what is about to happen. "No. This-this is insane! You cannot go out there," she pleads to Scott.

Charlotte spots the fallen tears glistening on her cheeks, and she glances to Stiles who looks to be just as anxious as she was feeling. Sure, Scott is going off to find his Alpha. But it could go one of two ways. He could successfully get the door's key off the janitor's body, while also successfully avoiding said homicidal Alpha. Or the more likely option is that he will get said keys, but also get slaughtered in the process by the giant supernatural dog.

"Allison, we can't just sit here waiting for Stiles' dad to check his voicemail," Scott tells her.

"You could die. Don't you get that? He's killed three people!"

Eyes softening as she studies the girl, Charlotte adds, "Alli, we could die." Allison tearfully meets her gaze and holds back a sob.

"If I don't try to do something... If someone doesn't try to do something, all of us," Scott motions around the group, "are next."

The tears continue to stream down Allison's cheeks like waterfalls. "Scott just stop. Do you remember when you told me you knew whether or not I was lying? That I had a tell? Well, so do you. You're a horrible liar-"

"She's not wrong," Charlotte whispers in agreement.

"-and you've been lying all night. Just-just please, please don't go. Please don't leave us. Please."

The girl desperately tries to stop Scott from opening the door but he gently pushes her aside and sighs, looking directly at his best friends as he says, "Lock it behind me."

Charlotte watches Allison pull him back to kiss him goodbye. "Do you think he'll be okay?" she mutters.

Stiles looks to her and sighs. "I honestly don't know."

»»———-　　———-««

The four remaining teenagers crowd around a desk, whilst Charlotte paces around the room anxiously. Allison begins to ramble. "I don't get this! I don't get why he's out there and why he left us, and I can't-I can't stop my hands from shaking..." The blonde-haired girl couldn't even begin to image how she would be reacting in their situation without having the knowledge that not only is Scott a werewolf, but that it is also a werewolf murdering people, not Derek Hale.

Her pacing comes to a halt beside Lydia when Jackson grabs onto Allison's hands. "It's okay." Lydia visibly tenses at the contact between her boyfriend and new best friend. Charlotte glares daggers at the back of Jackson's head. She tries to calm herself as she remembers how satisfying it was to punch that smug smirk clean off his face. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay," he continues whispering.

Allison nods and smiles slightly through her tears. "Yeah, all right."

Charlotte's eyes fall to where the Molotov cocktail was created, and she stares at the vials and jars of chemicals sitting on the bench. Lydia follows her eyesight and they seem to have the same thoughts. "Jackson, you gave Charlotte the sulphuric acid, right? It has the be sulphuric acid," she reiterates. "It won't ignite if it's not."

Jackson looks up to her and firmly states to both sisters, "Look, I gave you exactly what you asked for, okay?"

Charlotte grits her teeth and Lydia flinches at his harsh tone. She leads her sister over to another corner of the room and Stiles sends her a small smile for comfort. "How are you holding up, Lyds?"

Lydia's hand shakes. "I don't know. I just..." Her eyes screw shut to avoid the tears from falling again. "What we saw, it wasn't Derek. It was... We saw something! And I just feel like everyone's telling me I was imagining it."

"I know." Charlotte sighs as she watches a tear fall unwillingly fall. "I thought it was over, too." She's trying incredibly hard not to lie to her sister. But at the same time, she's also trying to not tell the whole truth. As selfish as it sounds, that isn't her job. It isn't her secret to tell. It's Scott's. Lydia tightly embraces her again, and Charlotte squeezes her back just as tight. "Just ignore Jackson, okay? And if you need it, I'm more than happy to punch him again."

Lydia lets out a small laugh at her eagerness. "Thanks, Lottie."

"I love you so, so much, yeah?"

Her sister nods into her shoulder. "I love you, too."

Stiles tilts his head to Charlotte in question once they lock eyes. With a small smile, she mouths, She's okay. He mouths back to her, But are you? Charlotte forces a smile, and she nods. However, inside, she is far from okay. She's utterly petrified that Scott won't be coming back to them, but she won't admit that part out loud.

All heads snap up at the sound of a very loud roar. They all watch Jackson clutch the back of his neck, stagger, then collapse onto the floor groaning. Charlotte's forehead creases in confusion as he begins to scream as if he's in agony. She and Stiles glance up to each other in alarm when they see the puncture marks on the back of his neck that trail down underneath his shirt. It almost looks like someone had dug their claws into his neck. Lydia and Allison run to help him but he turns to them with a hand up. "No, I'm fine," he dismisses. "Seriously, I'm okay."

Stiles frowns and voices Charlotte's question. "Dude, what's on the back of your neck?"

Jackson slaps Stiles' hand away from him and glares. "I said I'm fucking fine!" He huffs and puts his hand back on his neck.

"Oh, it's been there for days," Lydia answers, keeping her eyes locked with her boyfriend's. "He just won't tell me what happened."

"As if you actually care!" Jackson snaps back.

"Don't you dare talk to her like-" Charlotte lunges forward at his accusation to her sister but is pulled back by her best friend who is holding onto her arms.

Stiles nods. "Okay! Let's just all take a deep breath and try not to argue for a little bit."

Allison puts a hand to her head and starts to pace again. "Where's Scott? He should be back by now..."

"He'll be back, Alli." The brunette looks over to her new friend. Charlotte nods firmly, trying to convince herself just as much as her. "He's fine. I'm sure he's on his way right now." Allison hesitantly nods to her words. Lydia tightly squeezes onto her sister's hand and Charlotte sends her a comforting smile. "Almost over, Dee," she whispers.

A click is heard at the door, like a lock had been turned. All five instantly turn their attention to where the noise had come from. They see a silhouette outside of the frosted glass window in the door and Allison hurries over. "Scott?" she calls out hopefully. "Scott!" Her attempts to turn the handle fail.

Charlotte's eyes widen, Scott's locked in from the outside. She feels her sister freeze and her head turns to her questioningly. "Stop!" Lydia shouts. The room falls silent and all eyes are on her. "Do you hear that?" They all rush to the window and sure enough, multiple cop cars are pulling up to the front of the school.

"Sirens."

»»———-　　———-««

Charlotte looks at her sister and squeezes her hand a final time. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?" She receives a smile and nod just their mother runs up the stairs and to them. Charlotte grimaces and holds a finger up at her. "Two seconds, Mom." She doesn't hear the woman scoff in disbelief. The moment she lays eyes on Scott, she sighs in relief. "Oh, thank fuck you're alive."

He chuckles. "'Course I'm alive."

Noah Stilinski clears his throat from beside them. "So you're sure it was Derek Hale?" he questions the teens.

"Yes," Scott replies assuredly.

"Yep, saw him, too," Stiles adds in.

The Sheriff turns and raises his brows at her expectantly. Charlotte's fist clenches before she says, "Uh, yep. Sure. He was definitely there." Noah sighs. Apparently her words weren't as convincing as she thought they might be.

"What about the janitor?"

"We're still looking."

"Did you check under the bleachers? Under them?"

Charlotte tilts her head in confusion at Scott's adamant questioning. Stiles nudges her while quietly saying, "He saw the body in the gym."

"Oh."

They reach a set of stairs and walk down them as Stilinski continues to talk. "Scott, we looked. We pulled them out, just like you asked me to." He shakes his head at the boy. "There wasn't anything there. Nothing."

Scott's eyes widen. "I'm not making this up!" he protests defensively.

"I know, Scott. I believe you, I do."

The werewolf stands directly in front of the Sheriff and gestures his hands to accentuate his next words. "No. You don't. You're looking at me with sympathy. Like you feel bad for me. You want to believe me, but I know you don't." Charlotte and Stiles share a look together before casting their eyes back to the two talking.

"We're going to search this whole school for him. Scott, I promise."

"Sheriff!"

The man glances between the kids again and points at each of them individually. "Stay here," he instructs. "All of you."

Once he's out of earshot, Charlotte spins back around to Scott buzzing with curiosity. "What the fuck happened in there?"

Scott shakes his head. "I found the body," he reveals. "Then it found me."

Stiles frowns and pats their shoulders, a small smile dancing on his lips. "Well. We survived!"

"Yeah. We're still alive," Charlotte agrees. She'll take the small wins.

Stiles fist bumps her, but their smiles drop when Scott adds, "When we were in the chemistry room, it walked right outside. You don't think that it heard us? You don't think it knew exactly where we were?"

Her eyes widen. "I thought that was just me!" Her lips dip into a frown. "But if it knew where we were the whole time, why are we still standing here?"

It's quiet for half a minute before Scott answers, "It wants me in its pack..."

"Still self-centred I see," she mutters.

Stiles cracks a grin. "And she's back to normal."

Scott ignores their side conversation, too focused on his Alpha. "But I think it wants me to get rid of my old one," he tells them grimly.

Charlotte's eyebrows pinch together. "Scott, what do you mean? Have you joined a cult without us knowing?" Stiles stifles a laugh at her genuine question, but then he remembers how serious the conversation is. Well, how serious it's meant to be.

"What?" the boy exclaims in bewilderment. Scott forcefully shakes his head. "Dude, no! I mean my pack. You guys. Allison, Jackson, Lydia..."

She scoffs at one of the names. "Okay, why the fuck is Whittewhore in it?"

"I think the pack means who Scott was with just now," Stiles points out to try and soften the blow. Scott nods.

"So, the reason the murderous dog didn't kill us is...?"

A lightbulb goes off inside Stiles' brain as he quietly answers in shock, "It wants you to do it for him."

Charlotte's jaw falls to the floor. "Wait, what the- no!" she states heatedly. "I don't want to die! And I certainly don't want Scott to kill me. There are much better ways to go out."

Scott sighs, his expression turning glum. "That's not even the worst part."

"Someone's Mr Glass-Half-Empty today. What could possibly be worse than you being tasked kill us?"

Stiles doubletakes and looks back at her. "How the fuck is that not the worst part?"

"When he roared at me, he made me shift. I wanted to do it at that point. I wanted to kill you. I wanted to kill all of you." The trio share the same concerned look.

Although her concern quickly disappears as she spots a nearby ambulance. "Scott! Deats is alive!" she exclaims with excitement. As the boys follow her finger, sure enough, the boss of the animal clinic is very much alive. Scott stares in surprise and the remaining two watch him rush over.

"Charlie?"

"Mhm?" There's no reply. She turns to see Stiles staring at a brick wall. "What's up?"

He frowns. "Bad news."

"Sure. What could you possibly tell me that beats McCall?"

Stiles briefly glances at her. "Derek's not there," he says.

"What do you-" Charlotte cuts herself off as she properly studies where Stiles is still pointing. "Oh, shit. So, angry Yoda's alive?"

"Either that or someone's moved his body."

"Man... This guy really doesn't want to die, hey?" On her way back to find her mom and Lydia, Charlotte stumbles across a tearful Allison. She runs over and places her hands on both of the girl's trembling arms. "Hey, hey, Alli, what's up?"

Allison lifts her head and meets her concerned eyes, cheeks stained with mascara and tears. "I-I, Scott and I..."

She bursts into sobs and Charlotte grabs her into a hug. "Do you want to talk about it?" she gently asks. She feels Allison shake her head. "Do you want to come home with Lyds and I?"

"I-Is th-that okay?" the brunette stutters out uncertainly.

Charlotte softly smiles. "Of course it is. Mom will understand. Do you want her to call yours?"

"Yes please," Allison mumbles.

"Right now, I think all three of us need to order litres of Ben and Jerry's and watch hundreds of rom coms. Fuck boys, yeah? Not literally though..." Allison lets out a quiet laugh and pulls back from the embrace with a smile. Charlotte wipes her friend's tears away with her thumb and grabs the girl's hand as they walk over to the rest of the waiting Martins.

"Charlie?" Said girl hums in response. "I was silently cheering for you when you punched Jackson."

Charlotte widely grins. "Oh, dear Allison. I've been waiting to do that for years. Best moment of my entire fucking life." Allison giggles, and the rest of the night is indeed filled with ice cream and movies.

𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘖𝘊𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘈𝘓𝘞𝘈𝘠𝘚 𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵.