hold me closer

47

"You guys think Stiles sent us here to warn us?" asked Scott. "Maybe Beacon Hills is gonna be the next ghost town."

"If we don't stop it, yes," Malia responded. "We need to get then to leave. Now."

"We can't," Lydia said. "Not now."

"Why can't we get rid of them?" I asked.

"Because I saw what happens to the people they've taken when they leave," she answered.

"Do they all die?" Malia questioned.

"No. It's something worse than death," she said. "I felt it in Lenore's memory. It's like their souls hollowed out. They became something else. I think they became ghost riders. And then they were gone."

"Hey, Lu?" asked Scott after a moment of silence. "How did you get Caleb to stop?"

"I don't know," I replied, leaning against the window. "All he wanted was a friend. Not to be alone, neither he nor his mother wanted to be separated. I guess he just... "

"Related to you," Lydia finished. She turned around in her seat to look at me. "Lucy, if there's anything you need to tell us, we're here."

I sighed and sat up straighter. "Ever since I came to the school in sophomore year, I've had all of you, even though the start was not so great. I already lost my parents, but then we lost more of our friends. And you guys are my anchors, my support beams. And for some reason, we are always pulled into dangerous situations where I fear for myself. If you die, I don't know how I'm supposed to cope with it."

"We're gonna find a way to get through this," Malia assured. "Look, we have fought other dangerous creatures and always manage to come out on top unscathed - well, almost unscathed. Things will get easier."

Easier was not the right term. In fact, it was much more difficult. We had dropped Scott off at his house. All of us needed a quick break before I headed to Beacon Memorial to check on Argent's status.

I walked into the house to have a quick bathroom break. I paused, however, upon seeing a face. I was kind of surprised there was no smirk. I stared at him, then looked to Scott, Liam, and Hayden, then back to him. Theo.

"Hey, Lucy... you're still not mad about the whole shooting thing, are you?"

:::

"I don't want to work with him," I grumbled.

"Well, there's always the other guy," he responded. "Either the one who's a murderer... or the other murderer... "

"This is a great idea," I said sarcastically.

"It will work," Mason assured. "Trust me."

"You, I trust," I said. "Not... him."

Hayden smiled once she came in. "You did it!"

"Of course, we did it," Mason said proudly.

Liam took the chains off of Theo. He spared me a glance, then walked towards the machine on the other side of the building. He lifted the lever and the transformer made a whirring sound as it lit up.

"This thing can transmute the energy from a lightning bolt," he explained. "Even successive strikes."

"Mason, are you sure this is going to work?" Scott asked, a bit doubtful.

"Well, whatever's inside this cage is shielded from any outside electrical current," Mason replied. "So, the ghost rider won't be able to use lightning to escape."

"We put a lightning rod on the roof and connected it to that conduit cable, drawing the Ghost Rider to that spot," Corey added.

"We can't send him directly in because the cage neutralizes electromagnetism," Mason said. "Lightning will just bounce off of it. Which is the same reason it'll hold him in."