DANGEROUS LIAISONS ◦ STILINSKI [2]

ii.

ii. TAKEN

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IT HAD BEEN the next school day after Heather's birthday party that everything went to complete shit.

    There was an ever-growing concern that whatever shape was bruised on Lydia and Allison's wrist hadn't been some random marking, but something that could be a pattern. A pattern that could lead them to where Erica and Boyd were.

    The only person that didn't believe the whole thing was Derek - naturally. He stood in front of the small group of teenagers, arms crossed sternly across his broad chest. Carter stood between Derek and Scott, while Lydia and Allison held out their wrists.

    Derek glanced down at the two girls' wrists, "I don't see anything."

    "Look again," Scott insisted, trying to get Derek to consider hearing them out. Boyd and Erica were still missing and that symbol could be their key to finding them.

    "How is a bruise going to tell me where Boyd and Erica are?" Derek asked, his voice hardening.

    Carter leaned forward slightly, "It's the same on both sides, Derek. Exactly, the same."

    "It's nothing."

    Lydia smacked her lips, looking up at Derek. "Pareidolia. Seeing patterns that aren't there." When no one spoke, utterly confused as to how Lydia knew that, she sighed. "It's a subset of apophenia."

    Scott looked back toward Derek, "They're trying to help."

    "These two? This one-" Derek pointed at Lydia, "who used me to resurrect mine and Carter's psychotic uncle. Thank you." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. "And this one-" he pointed at Allison, "who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

    Carter stood silently between her brother and Scott, feeling extremely uncomfortable at the mentioning of those two nights.

    When Lydia brought Peter back to the land of the living, she had poison the majority of the student body with wolfsbane punch. A frenzy erupted that involved a hallucination Carter never wanted to talk or think about.

    Allison had gone rogue and homicidal after her mother died, placing Carter in the crossfire by almost shooting her in the head with an arrow. Even now, four months later, Carter found it difficult not to think about it whenever she was in Allison's presence.

    "Okay, all right, now, come on," Stiles interrupted the stare-down, trying to relieve the tension between Allison and Derek. "No one died, all right. Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay, a little mangling, but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."

    "My mother died," Allison whispered, and Stiles' face fell.

    "Your family's little honor code killed your mother," Derek deadpanned, knowing what Victoria did to Carter and Scott that night. "Not me."

    "That girl was looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you." Allison spat back.

    "You wanna help? Find something real."