
Pᴇʀɪsʜᴀʙʟᴇ

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"He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asks as he turns Parrish's hands over
Parrish nods as Lydia turns to Derek, "It's the hair and nails, isn't it? The parts of the body that are essentially dead."
"Well, they should be gone."
"I was set on fire." Parrish says, "All of me should be gone."
"Not if you're like us." Scott says
"Like you?"
"I don't think he's like us." Derek says
"Then what is he?" Luisa asks
"Sorry, but I have no idea."
"But you knew about Jackson and Kira." Scott says
"This is a little out of my experience. There might be something in the bestiary. Did you try Argent?" Derek asks
Scott sighs, "I don't know where he is."
"Okay, hold on. What's a bestiary?" Parrish says, "Actually, that's not even my first question. Just... Just tell me one thing. Are all of you like Lydia? Are you all psychic?"
"Psychic?" Ariane asks with raised brows
"Yeah. Not exactly." Scott says
"Okay. Then what are you?" Parrish asks as Scott turns to the others. Luisa shrugs before Scott turns back to Parrish and flashes his eyes.
•••
"What's a Kanima?" Parrish asks
Scott sits beside him, "We'll get back to that. Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the dead pool."
"But I don't even know what I am."
"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek says
"How many professional assassins are we talking about?"
"We're starting to lose count." Luisa admits
"But is it still just professionals?" Scott says
"I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance." Parrish says
"That means anyone with the dead pool could take a chance." Ariane says
"But if Haigh had it, then who else does?" Parrish asks, "How easy is it to get this thing now?"
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"Meredith was only at my grandmother's lakehouse once. But I think once was enough." Lydia says
"How did your grandmother know her?" Derek asks
"She didn't. She found her. Because of another woman named Maddy. The woman she loved." Lydia says, "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the lake house from all the regattas she'd won."
"How did she die?" Luisa asks softly
"How's not the story. It's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound... Like rain." Lydia explains, "But when she looked out the windows... All she saw was blue sky."
"But she kept hearing the rain?" Scott asks
"And it just kept getting louder. Rain and thunder cracking like gunshots in her head. So loud. She finally just screamed."
"Like a Banshee." Ariane says
"She called Maddy who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But Maddy said that the sun was shining there too. So Lorraine didn't say anything."
"There was an accident?" Parrish asks
"It took them four days to find Maddy's body. And then it took decades to figure out how Lorraine knew. She started with parapsychologists, like the PhD in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific theory they could find. None of it worked."
"So then she started going to more extreme occult. Things like mediums and psychics. All of them were failures. Until she found Meredith. They found her in Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study. And they almost killed her. She was hospitalized for over a year."
"She... never really recovered. My grandmother drove her insane and I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help. My grandmother created the code for the dead pool. They think she's the Banshee who put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code."
"But she didn't leave a cipher key, did she?" Scott says making Lydia shake her head
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Luisa pushes the door to the school open. Letting out a deep breath as she stepped outside. Her free period couldn't have come at a better time for her.
She takes slow steps toward the bleachers. As she looked up, she stopped. Her heart rate picking up as she stared at Anna. The redhead hadn't said anything since she laid her eyes on Luisa.
"Um, I'm sorry. I'll- leave." Luisa says. Anna stayed quiet as Luisa turned around. Luisa then stops, "No, actually- what's going on?"
Anna looks up as Luisa turns back around, "What?"
"You know what. You've been avoiding me for like a week now and I have no idea why." Luisa says, "I don't know what I did or said and I really wish you'd just tell me what I did wrong, so I can fix it."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do." Luisa snaps stepping up onto the bleachers, "Just tell me."
"I really don't want to deal with this right now, okay?" Anna scoffs
Luisa sighs shakily, "Anna, please. Just talk to me. That's all I want." Anna's eyes fall to her hands as Luisa continues, "If you just don't want to be my friend anymore, fine. That's fine. But I'd rather you tell me that than to just- ignore me."
Luisa's eyes stay on Anna as silence settles between them. Luisa speaks again before she can truly think, "I like you." Anna's flicker over to Luisa, "I like you, a lot and that's why this is bothering me so much. You don't have to feel the same. It's not about that. I just care about you and with everything that's going on, not talking to you is driving me crazy. Because before anything, you're my friend."
Anna's breath hitches as she watched Luisa's vulnerability pour out of her. Every fiber in her being screamed at her to say something. Anything.
"I won't keep trying. I won't bother you anymore." Luisa says as she blinked away tears. Anna's eyes followed her as she stepped down and away from the bleachers. Anna could hear her sniffles as she walked off before her footsteps faded out.
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