𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚-𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘖𝘶𝘪𝘫𝘢 𝘉𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥

WITH HER EYES GLUED TO her phone, Charlotte walks inside the McCall home as she reads her most recent texts with Allison, a smile on her face. "Scott!" she yells. "I got your message about Danny, wanna tell me what the hell happened last night?" But as she finally pockets the device and looks up, the smile slips off her face in the speed of light.

Tyler clears his throat awkwardly. "Uh, hey, Charles."

Her eyes narrow as she watches him lean against the kitchen bench. "You're not Scott," she observes in a monotone voice.

The boy nods and takes a few steps toward her, but he sighs when she flinches and takes one away from him. "Can we talk?" he asks softly.

"You've been waiting for me in Scott's house?"

"No, I came here to talk to Scott," he corrects. He nods to the staircase visible from the doorway. "But he's still asleep upstairs with Isaac and Mel."

Charlotte sets her bag down on the countertop and hums. "Right. Well, I'm not here to talk to you." She waves her hand over to the front door. "You weren't invited, so leave."

For a second, she swears she see hurt flicker in his eyes, but he quickly regains his 'tough guy' composure. Tyler raises his eyebrows and he folds his arms across his chest. "Okay, but can't we talk while we're here?"

Her lips purses, and after a moment she curtly nods. "Yeah, you know what? We can talk." The boy swallows as he watches her face quickly fall blank. "Did you kill her?"

Once he understands what she's talking about and the realisation sets in, Tyler stares at his friend in shock. "Wait, you think I killed her?" he asks in disbelief.

"I don't know, you tell me. You're in Deucalion's pack, so there's only a limited number of assholes to guess from."

He shakes his head slightly. "You know?"

Her eyes roll at his whispered question; a failed attempt to swerve the topic of conversation. "It doesn't matter," she snaps. Screw the emotionless way to deal with this. She's beyond angry. "Did you, or did you not kill Erica?"

"No, I didn't," he immediately responds. His eyes close as he quietly adds, "I... Kali did."

Charlotte's heart sinks. Another piece of her dies. But it is somewhat comforting to know exactly who had caused Erica's death. Her eyes harden, her stare judgemental and cold at the boy across the room. One might think she's talking to Jackson Whittemore. "So, you knew. You knew the whole time and you let me meet Kali, fully aware that I was grieving after finding out my girlfriend had been murdered by her?" When his eyes flick down to the ground, she places a hand on her forehead and scoffs. She's incredibly close to killing him. "You need to leave Tyler, before Melissa kicks you out."

"She won't kick me out," he retorts.

"Oh, I will definitely kick you out. In fact, I'll drag you out the damn door myself."

At the eerily calm voice, Tyler slowly turns around to find his aunt glowering at him. The boy rubs the back of his neck. "Mel, hey..."

Charlotte stifles her laugh when Tyler blanches subtly as Scott and Isaac appear behind Melissa, their eyes glowing a deadly golden. She clicks her tongue and shrugs when the boy looks over to her. "I did warn you," she says.

"Look, can we all just talk?"

Melissa's eyes narrow further as she stops before her nephew. "I know all about your friends," she tells him, her words hitting him like they're laced with poison. "And I also know what you had to do to get those." She points to his eyes and he sighs. "So If I were you, I would think very carefully on what your next move is here, buddy."

Tyler glances to the two werewolves, then to Charlotte. His jaw clenches when he realises that he's really on his own. "Good, evil, whatever." A low growl rumbles in Isaac's throat. "When did everything become so black and white?"

"Since you came back with Deucalion," Scott answers firmly.

Somehow, Isaac's eyes glow even brighter as he takes a threatening step toward the Alpha, but stops when Scott sends him a look in warning. He appears to be holding himself back as much as Charlotte is. "If he doesn't leave, I'm going to kill him myself," Isaac seethes.

When the front door finally slams shut, Charlotte heaves a sigh and drags a hand down the side of her face. "Thank God you came down. I was about to strangle him."

Scott throws an arm around her shoulder and whispers, "Are you okay?"

She gives him a small smile. "I will be. You?"

"I will be," he repeats, squeezing her arm gently.

With a sigh, Melissa walks into the kitchen and opens the fridge. "I'm making pancakes," she declares, throwing a brief glance over her shoulder to the teenagers.

Scott's eyebrows raise and he tries to hide his smile. "Mom, you can't make pancakes," he reminds her.

"I never said I was good at them, I just said I was making pancakes." The pair of boys run back upstairs to get changed for school, and Melissa puts down the jug of orange juice onto the bench and smiles at the blonde. "I heard what you did to Scott."

Charlotte's cheeks quickly flush and she bashfully smiles at the woman. "Couldn't have done it without your help."

"Want to put your 'non official' training to work?" When she looks at her with wide eyes, Melissa chuckles. "The hospital is looking for interns due to the shortage of staff at the moment. You wouldn't get paid, but you'd get to shadow a doctor around, fill out documents, clean... It won't be fun but you'll get experience."

"I'm not in college though," she points out in confusion.

Melissa nods and starts to whisk the batter. "Honey, you've got more knowledge and understanding in this sort of stuff than most of the college students I come across. I know you're doing more than fine in school, so if you want it, just let me know."

A wide grin adorns Charlotte's face and she eagerly nods. Her dream is to become a doctor eventually. And helping Scott the other day made her realise just how badly she wants that dream to come true. "I want it," she confirms excitedly.

Melissa laughs at her enthusiasm and passes her a glass of juice. "Yeah, I thought you would."

Feet thunder down the stairs and Scott and Isaac burst into the room, both sighing in relief when they spot Melissa still in the kitchen. Charlotte looks at them with amusement. "Uh, what's up with you two?" she questions.

"Nothing," Scott dismisses with a shrug. "Just making sure she doesn't die."

Her eyes flick between the mother and son. "Wait, what?"

Shoving plates of half burnt pancakes into each other their hands, Melissa points to the front door. "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna be anyone's human sacrifice today, so all of you get your butts to school."

"Human sacrifice?"

»»———-　　———-««

Charlotte remains in a daze as she opens her locker to grab her books for the next class. After being told by Scott and Isaac that Danny had been poisoned by mistletoe last night, and that two of the hospital's doctors had been abducted, she's spent the last few hours trying to figure out why. Scott had mentioned that this round of sacrifices is classified under Healers, one of the categories Deaton had mentioned to herself, Lydia, and Stiles a few weeks ago. But why would Danny be targeted? Charlotte's thoughts are interrupted by a persistent buzz that suddenly reaches her ears. She quickly waves her hands around her face. "Fuck off," she mutters.

"What are you doing?"

At the unfamiliar voice, she briefly glances to the side and continues to swat at the air. "There's a fly," she answers. When the buzzing finally quietens, although it doesn't properly disappear, Charlotte sighs and turns to the student leaning against a locker beside her. "Do I know you?" she asks with a raised brow.

The girl with reddish-brown hair smiles, not being subtle as her eyes drag up and down Charlotte's body. "We haven't met yet. I'm Cora."

She nods. "Ah, right, Derek's not so dead sister. Charlotte."

Cora chuckles. "Glad to see I have a reputation. And I know who you are, I've heard a lot about you."

Charlotte returns the small smile as she shuts her locker. "And I've heard nothing about you since you broke out the vault. What, does Derek gossip about me in his spare time?"

Falling into step with the girl, Cora's smile falters. "Actually, Erica did," she says quietly.

"Oh," she whispers. Taking a deep breath, Charlotte plasters on another smile. "Well, I'm hoping you're going to be easier to become friends with than your brother."

Cora snorts. "What's he done now?"

"Tried to kill me." The younger Hale's eyes widen and Charlotte grimaces. "But then again, he did save my life on another occasion... So I guess I don't really have anything against him." The bell rings and she sighs. "See you later?" Cora nods and the girls share a brief smile before Charlotte walks off to her class.

By third period, she wanders where the hell everyone is. Stiles and Scott had skipped English, Lydia is who knows where, Boyd and Isaac are 'sick,' and Allison had informed her that she's at home. Maybe she should do the same as her friends and just leave too.

As Charlotte turns the corner, she jumps a few centimetres in the air out of surprise at the small group of people waiting for her. "Stiles, what the fuck? You know how much I hate you doing that." Then her eyes flick over to Lydia, and Cora who does not look happy at all being here with them. "Uh, what's going on?" she asks in confusion.

"Deaton's missing," Stiles tells her grimly. Charlotte's eyes widen in alarm. "We need your help."

Following them into an empty classroom, she leans over to her twin and whispers, "Do you know what we're doing?"

Lydia shakes her head. "No idea," she replies. "He practically kidnapped me."

"I'm tagging along," Cora adds.

Charlotte glances over to her and raises her brows. "Voluntarily?" Cora rolls her eyes and a grin pulls at her lips as they all sit around a desk.

When Stiles sets down a carboard box in front of Lydia, her head snaps up to him. "A ouija board?" she asks incredulously.

The blonde-haired girl rolls her eyes and leans her chin on the palm of her hand. "I second that. Seriously?"

No one knows what the hell the twins are or how to trigger their abilities. It's evident that they're both a little too good at finding dead bodies, however, this time they don't want to find a dead body. They want to prevent it from happening. "It's worth a shot," Stiles protests as he lifts the lid of the box and takes the board out.

"Shot in the dark," Lydia mutters.

"Hang on, if Deaton's missing, why aren't we doing the normal detective shit?" When Stiles raises his brows, Charlotte sighs. "I mean like finding clues, going through his office and stuff."

He purses his lips. "Ah, yeah, we've already done that. Here's a fun fact, your counsellor is Deaton's sister." Charlotte's eyes widen and her jaw drops, lost for words. He takes the planchette out and places it in the middle of the board, only for Lydia to roll her eyes and turn it around so it's in the correct position. "Could you just try it, please?" His voice is full of impatience, and at this point he's clearly open to try anything. "Okay, let's not forget who this is for. Scott's boss, the guy who has saved our collective asses on more than one occasion."

"Pretty much every occasion," Charlotte corrects.

"Oh, wait. Should we all do this?"

Stiles looks over to Cora and nods. "Yeah, yeah." Once everyone places their hands on the planchette set in the middle of the board, he nods. "Okay, ready?" After receiving a mix of impatient, unconvincing 'Yeah's and nods, Stiles takes a deep breath. "Where is Doctor Deaton?"

Moments of silence pass after Stiles' question and Charlotte shuts her eyes, beginning to count sheep. When realising that two out of the three are staring at her expectantly, Lydia's eyes widen. "What?" she asks.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Stiles glances between the sisters as if it's obvious.

Charlotte lazily opens her eyes to look at him. "Does it look like we know the fucking answer?"

"We definitely don't know the answer," Lydia adds quickly. "I thought we were asking some sort of spirit...?"

"Well, do either of you know any spirits?" Cora queries.

Charlotte's eyebrows raise and she giggles. "Funny. That's a good one." But when the Hale doesn't smile, her laughter trails off. "Oh, you're serious." Then an idea pops into her head.

Watching her stare at a part of the classroom, Stiles' eyes widen. "Charles?" he whispers. "Do you see something?"

She swallows and moves her eyes over to the window. "I-There's something over there," she says quietly.

"What?"

"It-It's a ghost."

When her best friend begins to properly panic, Charlotte slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. Cora bites onto her lip to stifle her smile, Lydia grins, and Stiles stares at her in exasperation. "I hate you," he states loudly. "I actually hate you."

She innocently smiles. "Stilinski, we're using a goddamn ouija board. When life throws you lemons, you either make the fuckin' lemonade or squeeze them into people's eyes. I made the lemonade."

Stiles rolls his eyes. "Fine, plan B." He takes out a keychain from his pocket, holding them up in the air for everyone to see.

Charlotte's eyes widen excitedly. "Wait, you're finally letting me drive?"

"No fucking way. Not after last time," he replies bluntly. She slumps in disappointment. "These are Deaton's keys for the clinic. Close your eyes, and I'm gonna put them in your hand, then we're just gonna try and see if you can feel out for his location. Then we'll try with Lydia. It's called psychometry."

"We aren't psychic," the siblings reply simultaneously.

Pursing his lips together in sheer frustration, Stiles sucks in a deep breath and tries to stop himself from yelling. "You're something! Okay, just, Charles, put your hand out." She sighs and follows his instructs, closing her eyes. When the keys are placed into her hand, she presses her lips together in concentration. "Anything?" Stiles whispers.

"Maybe she'll get something if you stop talking!" Cora hisses.

Charlotte opens one eye and shrugs. "All I can 'get' is the sound of the two of you bickering."

The boy sighs in exasperation and plucks the keys out of her hand, turning to the strawberry blonde. Tension fills the air as Lydia closes her eyes and Stiles slowly drops the keys into her hand. Almost instantly, the girl flinches. "Ooh."

"What?"

"They're cold," she states innocently with a shrug of her shoulders.

Stiles' eye twitches. "Lydia! Concentrate, please. Trying to save lives here, for the love of God..." When she closes her eyes again, Charlotte picks at her nails in boredom. This is hopeless. "Yeah, what is it? What do you see?" Stiles asks in excitement.

She takes a few seconds, but Lydia finally looks up to them and sighs. "Nothing."

Charlotte clears her throat. "Why are we doing this? I mean, like, why are we," she points to her sister, "doing this?"

"Well, you both pretty much predicted the suicides at the motel. You guys have something. Okay?" Stiles hesitates and heavily sighs. "And... Morrell might have hinted that we 'need to go to the two people who might have the ability to seek out the supernatural'..."

"Morrell knows about us?" Charlotte nods at her own question. "Of course she knows. Why wouldn't she know?"

Stiles grabs a nearby pen and holds it out for his best friend. "Plan C."

Charlotte stares at it and her face falls as she realises what he is implying. "No," she snaps.

"Lottie, come on, for Deaton?" Stiles pleads.

"No fucking way," she firmly replies. "I am not going to instigate my psychotic drawing shit. Not happening."

"Technically it's automatic writing..."

He trails off when she looks at him with something akin to disappointment. "I can't believe you would even ask me to do that."

Stiles' eyes widen when she stands up and grabs her bag. "Charles, wait-"

She spins around with narrowed eyes, sending the smallest smile to Lydia when her twin joins her side. "No, it's not happening," she repeats. "I don't know why you're bothering with us anyway, it's Danny who you should be talking to."

Stiles and Cora look at them in confusion. "Danny?" the former repeats slowly. "Why Danny?"

"Because..." The familiar voice causes their heads to snap over to the doorway, Scott standing in the frame as he looks between each of them. "Last night, he was a target... But he wasn't a sacrifice."

They quickly follow the werewolf out the room into the hallway, and Cora raises an important point. "But isn't Danny still in hospital?"

"Yeah," Stiles replies. Charlotte almost laughs at how Cora hasn't caught onto his plan. She should know by now that wherever Danny is located, it would never stop Stiles Stilinski from interrogating him. Ever. "And that's where we're going right now."

Charlotte's phone buzzes and she smiles at the contact name that lights up the screen. "I'll meet you there." She holds her phone out to the group.

Alli ➴♡
I think I found something
I reckon you're gonna want to see it

»»———-　　———-««

Knocking on the door to the Argent's apartment, Charlotte takes a deep breath. She doesn't know why, but she's nervous. She shouldn't be nervous. It's just Allison. She hears footsteps patter on the floorboards then the door flings open. Allison gives her a brief smile and ushers her in. "I need to show you something," she tells her urgently.

Charlotte allows the brunette to link their arms and drag through the home. She giggles at Allison's impatience. "Nice to see you too."

Allison rolls her eyes playfully and leads her into her bedroom. "So I was looking through one of his drawers and I found this." She grabs a small rectangular box, and Charlotte narrows her eyes at it with interest.

"What is it?" she questions.

But before Allison can reply, the elevator bell dings and both girls freeze. Her eyes widen in alarm. "Shit!" she exclaims. "He wasn't supposed to be back yet!"

Charlotte arches a brow. "Your dad?"

With a nod, Allison yanks open the door to her closet and pulls the girl inside. Chest to chest, Allison places a finger against Charlotte's lips. The blonde stares at her friend, watching her dark eyes dart around anxiously as she listens to her father move about the floor. She takes note of every small detail on Allison's face: the way her eyebrows crease with the worry of them being caught, how her hair falls into her eyes, or how she pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth.

Allison's eyes move back to the girl in front of her and an amused smile pulls at her lips upon finding her staring. "What?" she whispers softly.

A faint pink taints her cheeks, and she's thankful for the little to no light in the small space. "Nothing, was just thinking about how incredibly beautiful you are," Charlotte murmurs back. And how easily she could press the girl up against the closet wall and kiss her. But that would never happen. A wide smile lights up Allison's face. And as Charlotte realises the girl is suddenly doing exactly what she was doing a few seconds ago, she sucks in a sharp breath as she quickly becomes aware of how little space there is between them. Her eyes flick down to Allison's lips and just when she thinks that she went unnoticed, she watches her do the same.

But their moment is broken as a door opens and closes, signalling that Chris Argent is moving toward the entrance of the apartment. Both the girls sigh in relief and Allison opens the door to the closet, cautiously peeking out just in time to see the front door shut. She grabs onto Charlotte's hand and gently pulls her down the hall into her father's office. Upon entering the room, she points to the map spread across the desk. "See this? Last time we were in here talking, my dad  put a book over it. There was something about the way he did it..."

Charlotte's brows draw together as she studies the map. "Was he trying to hide something?" she asks.

Allison nods. "I think so."

"Okay... well, there's nothing to hide." The blonde-haired girl glances to her friend in confusion. "It's just a map of Beacon Hills."

"Yeah, until you use this." Allison turns on the box in her hands, revealing it to be a blacklight. As she holds it over the map, Charlotte's eyes widen as blue symbols begin to appear then disappear when not bathed under the light. "He's been tracking and marking everything. Cora and Boyd at the bank, the office in the penthouse above us, all the dead bodies. He has a symbol for where someone was taken and then a different mark for where the bodies are found."

"Okay, so he's keeping some kind of diary," Charlotte says, still not understanding what is so dire. "That's fine, right?"

Alison sighs. "No, it gets worse. There have been six sacrifices, right? There are twelve markings on the map."

As the girl scans the map over once more with the blacklight, emphasising the twelve crosses, Charlotte's jaw drops. "Oh, my God," she whispers in horror. "What the fuck is your dad doing in his spare time?"

"I don't think he's found any more bodies," Allison clarifies for her. "I think that he knows where the body is going to be found."

The blonde nods in understanding and takes the light from Allison, highlighting the symbols one last time. "You think one of the six marks is where Deaton is?"

"I think so," she confirms. "It doesn't tell us where he is right now, but it's close to figuring it out."

Charlotte huffs a sigh. Apparently this is all a lot more complicated than they thought. "Fucking hell. Right, I'm sending this to Scott. He needs to know." Allison watches as she takes out her phone and snaps a photograph, then forwarding the images to her group chat with Scott and Stiles.

Then the elevator bell dings once again, and the two girls look up in alarm. They glance to one another then sprint down the hallway into Allison's bedroom. Throwing themselves onto the bed, they both grab random textbooks that have been strewn on the floor and try to act as casual as they can. About half a minute later, Chris opens the door. "Hey, I didn't realise you guys were here."

Allison chews her piece of liquorice and both of them innocently smile at him. "Yeah, we were just doing some homework," the brunette replies.

"Yeah, big test coming up," Charlotte adds. "Really big test." Chris nods and smiles at them, looking slightly suspicious, before walking out the room and closing the door behind him. Letting out a loud sigh, Charlotte snaps the book closed and lies onto her back. "Do you reckon we sold it?"

Allison giggles."Doubt it, but it's the effort that counts."

»»———-　　———-««

On a joint call with Scott and Stiles, Charlotte turns her car down the road that leads to the animal clinic. "Deaton has to be at one of the locations," she says. "But the problem is that they're all over town."

Scott sighs. "There's no way we can get to all of them fast enough."

Stiles clears his throat, "Well, we might not have to... Danny was doing a project on something for Mr Harris' physics class, and I think it actually means something."

Charlotte's brows furrow. "What project?" she asks.

"Something on..." Stiles pauses for a second. "Telluric currents."

"Wait, wait," Scott speaks urgently. "Did you say 'currents'?"

She rolls her eyes. "Yes, Scott, he said currents. What's the problem?"

"It's too complicated to explain over the phone. Meet me at the clinic," he replies.

"Ahead of you there, I'm, like, two minutes away."

As they stand around the examination table with Scott, Stiles, Cora, and Lydia, Charlotte's nose scrunches up as she goes back to swatting the air around her. Cora smiles as she watches the girl manically wave her hands about for the second time that day. "Still hasn't gone away?" she questions.

The blonde grimaces as the buzzing in her ears only grows louder. She's getting a damn headache. "Nope." The boys and Lydia raise their brows and she sighs. "Fucking fly won't stop bothering me."

Her sister's eyes widen a fraction. "Did you say fly?"

Charlotte nods and smacks her arm. "Yeah," she confirms. "I've been hearing this damn buzzing all day."

Lydia gently grabs onto her arm and pulls her out into the waiting room, her expression of complete seriousness. "It's not a fly," she tells her softly. "If it is, I've had one on me all day, too."

Her eyes screw shut. "Oh, God, it's happening again," she mumbles in frustration.

"It could be like when you heard the water," Lydia suggests.

"But this time you're hearing it as well..." Charlotte's lips purse in thought. "If it's not a fly, then what the hell is it?"

The strawberry blonde shrugs and she sighs through her nose. "I don't know," she responds. "But let's just hope that someone doesn't die this time." They both share a look before returning to the group, catching the end of the ongoing conversation.

"So what does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?" Cora asks, her head slightly tilted to the side.

Stiles sighs and points to the small stack of papers in the centre of the table. "Because it's not just homework, okay? It's a project on geomagnetic fields. They flow through the earth. They can even be affected by lunar phases, all right?" He begins flipping through a few of the papers until he gets to the teacher's note in the top hand corner written in a bright red marker. "Look at this, it's a note from Harris on Danny's proposal."

"'I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas here, while innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudo-science. Not suitable for class,'" Lydia reads aloud.

"So glad he's dead," Charlotte whispers gratefully.

"Harris wasn't just a sacrifice," Scott says with wide eyes. "He knew something."

"That's why Danny was attacked," the blonde realises. "Both he and Harry were getting too close to what the Darach's been doing."

Unfolding another piece of paper from within the assignment, Stiles looks over to the werewolf as he says, "Allison's dad wasn't the only one with a map, all right? Danny had one, too." Stiles smooths out the map on the table, which just like he had said, has various coloured lines on it that represent the currents throughout Beacon Hills. "Danny marked all the telluric currents, okay? Now, the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it actually is a Beacon. You wouldn't believe how much energy flowing through the Earth is around this town."

Scott's eyes widen once more, and he quickly draws the attention back over to the map. "Look, they match!" He shuffles Argent's blue map around, using the markings on it to copy on to Danny's map by circling two points. "All right, there's three places, right? Where they're kidnapped, and then the place where their body was found."

"Wait, that's right on a telluric current," Charlotte points out, leaning over the table to point on the map where one of Scott's markings is.

Scott nods. "So, maybe where he was sacrificed is somewhere in between?"

"Lemme see that," Stiles murmurs, taking the pen out of Scott's hand. "You said there's six more bodies to be found." The boy places a cross in the middle of Scott's circle on the animal clinic. "Deaton's one of them. Gotta be somewhere in between, right?"

Suddenly, Cora's hand darts out to enclose around Stiles' fist, stopping him from moving any further along the paper. "Stop," she speaks quietly. The werewolf moves his hand, pen still in between his fingers, further down the map where two telluric currents meet: the orange and blue. She stops at Beacon Hills First National Bank. "He's in the vault. He's in the same vault."

Charlotte closes her eyes. "Shit." Scott grabs his helmet and runs over to the door, Stiles right behind him. But when she notices Cora lingering behind on her phone, the blonde gently touches her arm. "You okay?"

"Guys, hold on-" Lydia calls out after reading the message on the screen.

"Lydia, we don't have time-"

"It's Boyd," Cora calls out, her eyes lifting from her phone to glance around. "The plan didn't work. They cut the power."

Charlotte's brows furrow. "Wait, what plan?" she questions in confusion. No one's filled her in on this.

"I'll explain on the way there," Stiles reassures her quickly.

"It's just like he said..." Scott mumbles, his eyes wide with surprise as he is thinking about something no one else is aware of. Before anyone can question what he is talking about, he snaps out of his daze with a determination shining in his eyes. "Go. I can save Deaton myself."

"What about us?" Stiles gestures to himself and the girls.

"Cora can't get there fast enough without you. Go, we can save both of them."

»»———-　　———-««

The short car ride to Derek's loft is mostly filled with Cora explaining to the three about how her brother and his Betas had been preparing for the Alpha pack's incoming attack throughout the day. She had mentioned how Boyd told her that they were going to flood the loft with water, then set up electrical wires so that when Deucalion's Alphas would step foot in the liquid they would be electrified. Charlotte's genuinely shocked that Derek had come up with something this smart. Maybe it wasn't actually him, but Isaac or Boyd instead; that would make a hell of a lot more sense. From the new information that the power had been cut, they need to get to the loft as soon as possible, because based on Derek's track records with fights... he's probably not doing so well against a pack of Alphas.

As soon as the Jeep screeches to a stop, the group jump out the vehicle and race into the electrical room on the ground floor. All of their eyes widen at the giant switchboard. "What the fuck do we do now?" Stiles questions in a panic.

"Pull all of them," Charlotte orders. Stiles types out a message to Isaac, giving him a heads up that the electricity will be coming on in a second, whilst the three girls get to work on flipping every single lever. Suddenly, the room lights up and the blonde-haired girl grins. "We did it," she exclaims. However, her hand flies up to her ear, and she winces at the deafening buzz that appears near it.

"Lottie?" Lydia questions in concern.

She glances to her sister and then it dawns upon her. "It's not a fly," she whispers. "It's electricity." Charlotte wastes no time darting out the room and forcing herself to race up the many flights of stairs to Derek's loft, the trio right behind her. Gasping for breath and her heart beating wildly with anxiety, she barely notices Isaac and Jennifer Blake look up at her by the open barn door.

Charlotte's solely focused on Derek kneeled in the water beside a body in the centre of the floor. Her heart plummets to her feet in horror. The girl runs over and slides down next to Derek, ignoring the water soaking into her jeans. Her eyes burn with tears at the sight before her. Small punctures in Boyd's shirt leave her to believe them to be from claws, and as her eyes flick down to Derek's shaking hands painted in blood, the tears fall freely. He would never willingly kill one of his own.

A weak, tired smile pulls at Boyd's bloodied lips and his arm trembles as he reaches out to grab her hand. "Y-You're here," he croaks out.

She tightly clutches onto his hand and uses her spare to apply firm pressure to his wounds. She knows it's helpless or Derek would've done so himself. But she's in denial. Nothing's going to happen to him. "Of course I'm here," she says.

As his lips curl up into a genuine smile, Charlotte's shoulders begin to shake at the blood staining his teeth. "You're my p-pack," he whispers.

"So you can't leave," she begs hoarsely. "Don't you dare leave me." As his eyes flutter slightly, her vision is blinded by tears. "No-no, Boyd, just hang on a little-"

The werewolf chuckles, turning into coughs as hot scarlet liquid spills out from his lips. "Take care of th-them for me," he asks her, weakly squeezing onto her hand.

Charlotte furiously nods. "I will, I promise I will."

Vernon Boyd's eyes close and his body limply falls into the water as his chest finally stops rising and falling. Her hand flies to her mouth as uncontrollable sobs wrack through her body, and the next thing she knows, Derek's pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. They both clutch onto each other as they cry, each forced to realise that yet another one of their family has left the world for good. And this time, Charlotte Martin breaks into a million pieces.

𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘥'𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 🤧

𝘪'𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬, 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵.