nepenthe | d. hale

t w o

Cora was a prominent though for Regina on the multiple long bus rides back to California. They had been best friends since daycare. Both of them were always a little strange, but the other didn't mind. Looking back with hindsight, it makes sense. They were both special.

In the first letter from Cora, she had explained what really happened with the Hale fire. Regina couldn't help her heart from speeding up when she thought about it. It brought her back to that day when she was 11.

Her and Cora were sitting outside the Hale home playing with a cootie catcher Lydia had made at school. While Cora started counting as she moving the paper contraption back and forth, Regina looked up to the house and froze.

Flames rose high into the air as it filled with screams. Screams of terror and agony. Regina pushed back on the ground, crawling backwards till she hit a tree.

In an instant, Cora was in front of her, holding her face in her hands.

"Gina! What is it!" Her eyes flooding with concern as a couple people filed out of the house. Regina felt the tears cold on her face and the strangled screams dying in her throat. She house was standing. There was no fire. No screams. Everyone was fine.

"I... I saw your house... the fire... and the screaming..." Regina shook her head slightly, feeling the weight sink in her chest. The same weight she had felt when she was 5.

"Gina, darling, is everything okay?" The Hale family were the only ones to call her Gina. But Cora insisted when they were in first grade that she needed a nickname. Regina had an idea that she practically forced Mrs. Talia to call her it too. But it grew on her. Nothing felt more relaxing that Mrs. Talia calling her Gina. It was so... maternal.

Mrs. Talia approached, crouching in front of the girl. Regina's eyes, still round as saucers, shot between the two Hale women. In the past, Regina had told Cora about her feelings. About the things she saw sometimes. Cora had never called her a liar. She had never called her crazy.

"I saw your house. It was... it was on fire. People were inside. I don't think they could get out. They were screaming... for help." Regina's voice was hoarse. Behind the two girls stood Cora's older brother, Derek. He was an underclass man in high school and Regina never saw him much lately. But because of how close she was with Cora, she had somewhat watched him grow up. He let out a scoff, but his eyes weren't fully unconvinced.

Mrs. Talia looked at Cora with eyes that held meaning that Regina couldn't decider. "Cora, why don't you take Gina home? She could use some rest."

And so Cora did. She walked her home, and didn't ask another question about it. And Regina didn't bring it up. As Cora walked back down the street, that was the last time Regina ever saw her friend. Like clockwork, when Regina woke up on the third morning after her vision, her mother was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting to break the news. But Regina knew it was coming. After the third night, when she work up, the weight on her chest had moved off. That was the pattern.

Have a vision. Gain that dark, heavy feeling in her chest. Wait three nights. The weight would be gone. And so would someone's life.

Her mother had called it denial when Regina swore up and down that Cora wasn't dead. She hadn't seen Cora's death. When she thought back on the vision, while she couldn't see any faces, she could feel certain presences. Mrs. Talia's, Regina could feel. With what Regina knows now, maybe it's because she was such a powerful alpha. But Regina knew that if her best friend was dead from something she had foreseen, she wound know.

And Regina was right. Cora had survived. Along with her brother and her uncle.

Apparently Cora was left on the defense after Regina's vision and the days leading up to the fire. That suspicion had given her a head start. She managed to flee from the home and escape with her life. According to Cora's letter, Talia had always known something was different about her daughter's best friend. She just didn't have enough faith to make it out of the fire.

Regina was pulled from her thoughts as she reached her final stop. She was at the Beacon Hills bus station. She grabbed her large duffel bag and made her way down the isle. She didn't have much, since most of clothes for the past three years have been school uniforms.

She held her breath as she stepped off of the bus. She had called Lydia a few days earlier to tell her she was coming home. She told her she knew everything. Regina didn't want things between her and her twin to change. They had always been close, even after she was moved half way across the country.

"Regina!" Regina whipped around at the high squeal just in time to see the redhead throwing her arms around her sister's neck.

"Lydia!" Regina wrapped her arms tightly around her sisters waist. The two girls stood with different figures. Lydia was shorter with curvier hips while Regina was more elongated and wasn't blessed with her sisters feminine curves. But it didn't matter. With their green eyes, red hair, and bright smiles behind their full lips, nobody would ever doubt their relation.

"Oh god, I don't even know what to say." Lydia said breathlessly as she pulled back from her sister, still keeping her hands on her shoulders. "Hi. I missed you. And I'm sorry." Lydia said as if there was a checklist in her mind of what she should say first.

"Hi. I missed you, too. And don't be. Now, how have you been?" Regina said, giving a tense exhale.

"I've been better. But that doesn't matter now that you're here." Lydia smiled warmly as she took Regina's hand in hers and started walking towards the car. Lydia didn't say anything else as the car started. Regina noticed how tight her sister's smile was.

"Okay, give it up. What's on your mind? Come on, you can tell me. I'm back now." Regina said, keeping her tone light. But the air was sucked out of the car when her sister turned to her with tears in her eyes.

"I didn't believe you. When we were kids, I just listened to mom when she said they you needed to get help. And now, after everything that's happened, all I can think about is the years you spent away from here. From this town, from your friends, from me. I should have–" Lydia let it all pour from her before Regina cut her off.

"Lydia. If the roles were reversed, I doubt I would have blindly believed you either. And it wasn't so bad. I bet with all my fancy private school learning I'm even smarter than you now." Regina said, meaning the first half of her statement and just saying the later half just to lighten the mood.

Her sister clenched her jaw once to center herself before quickly wiping away the tears that has escaped. She let a stranger laugh out, "Please, not very likely. I'm a genius."

Lydia filled her in on the drive home, giving her details that were left out of Cora's letters. She also detailed recent... incidents.

"So Allison, the hunter best friend, is seeing her dead aunt? The one that Cora's uncle killed? And she almost killed you with an arrow today?" Lydia nodded her head.

"And Scott, Allison's ex and now Alpha werewolf, can't control his changes?" Lydia gave another nod. Just before she went to Olive Oak, Nurse McCall gave Regina a mental evaluation. She had always been nice.

"And Stiles, Scott's best friend and pretty much the only normal one, can't tell if he's living in dreams or reality?" Lydia gave a third nod.

"God, you guys really do need me back." Regina sighed with a raise of her eyebrows.

Lydia shut off the car. "Yeah, to say the least. And it's not like any of us can get ahold of Derek for any help. But, those are issues for tomorrow. Right now, worry about getting some sleep. Big first day back at school tomorrow." Lydia said with a wink as she got out of the car.

First day of school. In October. A something-like-a-banshee back at school just as three teenagers have come back from the dead with a newfound darkness in their souls. Yeah, this sound be no problem.

— — —

Hope you enjoyed! Next
chapter is when the story
will actually start up,
these past two have just
been to get the ball rolling.
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