𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑─𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐝𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐫

03.

The next morning as I made my way down to the kitchen, a yawn escaped my lips. That, paired with the dark bags under my eyes openly displayed the fact that I was exhausted, due to lack of sleep from the night before, from obvious reasons.

"Morning" I grumbled as I walked passed Scott, making my way toward the cupboard.

"Hey." He replied a yawn escaping his own mouth, clearly he hadn't gotten much sleep either.

I grabbed a cereal bar and looked over at him, trying to figure out how I wanted to approach the situation. Finally, I worked up the courage to say something, "Can I ask you something" I asked hesitantly.

Scott looked up at me, his tired eyes meeting mine, "Syd, if this is about Liam, I really don't-"

I cut him off, not respecting his decision not to talk about it "-Why did you bite him?" I questioned, asking the question that had been bothering me all night.

My older brother sighed, running his hands over his face, "Syd, you don't understand."

I shook my head, pulling up a chair so I could sit beside him, "No, Scott, I guess I don't" I snapped, "He's only 15, he's innocent and-"

It was Scott's turn to cut me off, "-I did it to save his life, Sydney!" he snapped, causing me to shrink back slightly. .

I glared at him, shaking my head, "Save his life? Scott, he was in a hospital with a broken ankle, not a punctured lung. What possibly could have gone so wrong that you needed to bite him to save his life?"

Scott stood up, his chair scraping across the floor in the process, "Something happened." He explained, moving the place his dishes in the sink. When I looked at him, awaiting further explanation, he continued, "You know that triple homicide Stiles was talking about at lunch yesterday?"

I slowly nodded, remembering the rant Stiles had gone on about us needing to figure out what was going on, as clearly it was supernatural. I had ignored most of what he was saying, too focused on the sandwich I had packed for lunch that day.

Scott leaned against the island so he was facing me, "The kid, who's parents were murdered, his name's Sean. But he wasn't just a kid...he wasn't human."

I stared back at my brother, trying to figure out where this was going, "He's like you?" I questioned.

Scott shook his head, a conflicting look on his face, "No. No, he was different." he answered, looking down to his feet for a moment, seemingly recalling the events from last night, "He was what they call a Wendigo."

Confusion covered my face, "What is that?" The supernatural world was still new to me, meaning I lacked knowledge on many aspects of it.

My brother nodded, understanding my confusion, "It's like a cannibal"

I felt myself shiver at the thought of it. "That's...creepy," I concluded, "But what does that have to do with Liam?"

"The Wendigo craves human flesh," Scott explained, running through the events of last night, "He killed the deputy, and went after mom-"

I felt my heart drop, "-He went after mom?"

"She's okay," Scott promised, trying to ease my worry as he continued recalling the events, "He took Liam up to the roof-"

"-To kill him," I concluded, my mind running to what would have happened if Sean managed to kill Liam. How would we have explained that one, not to mention the guilt Scott would have felt.

Scott nodded sombrely, "Liam almost fell over the ledge. The only way I could save him was by biting him, I had no choice"

I sighed, already feeling guilty for how I had accused Scott. I knew in my heart that he would have only done it if he had no choice. But it was still hard knowing one of my fellow classmates was now my brother's beta.