Intertwined

Chapter 1: Pilot

Ashley’s POV

Beacon Hills. 

To be honest I never thought I’d step foot back in this town. It had been 5 years since I’d last been here. Too many memories, and not enough of them good.

Pushing open the door to my motel room, I flicked on the light taking a quick look around before tossing my bag on the bed. The door swung shut behind me with a soft click. A double bed and bathroom were on one side, small sofa and tv in the living area with a kitchen off to the side on the other. Not the shabbiest place I’d stayed at but I really hoped I wouldn’t have to be shacked up here for long.

Pulling my phone from my pocket I checked my messages from Laura one more time to see if she’d yet to respond. She hadn’t. Typical. She’d always do this. Send a text saying it’s urgent, you’d text back asking what she’s going on about but you wouldn’t hear from her till you saw her face to face cause she’d been so wrapped up trying to get all the info.

Laura Hale had been my best friend since childhood. She was a few years older than me but that had never mattered. We were as close as you could get without actually being related. She was the only person from my past that I had kept in contact with. If she needed me that’s all that mattered, just tell me where and when. But I have to admit, the why would have been helpful.

She was being more cagey than usual this time.

I checked the time and decided to take a quick shower before heading out to our designated meeting place. I’d just spent the past 4 hours stuck in coach next to someone who smelled like feet so needless to say, I needed that shower.

After showering, I grabbed my jacket and shrugged into it then laced up my boots. Making sure I had the key to my room I scooped up the keys to my rental car and headed out.

Taking the backroads, I pulled over the car and hopped out. Don’t need anyone seeing where I was headed. 

I had about a 20 minute hike through the woods before I’d reach the Hale house. The woods were quiet, I’d almost forgotten how quiet they could be. Living in the city would do that to you.

Suddenly my werewolf hearing picked up the sounds of people walking through the woods. They obviously weren’t making an effort not to be followed by all the sound they were making. They were too far away for me to actually make out what they were saying so I got closer.

Another pair of footsteps approached them.

“What are you doing here?” a guy says.

Derek? I stopped walking. Well I guess it makes sense he’d be here. After all it is his family’s property we’re on. It was so weird to hear his voice after all this time.

Derek Hale was Laura’s younger brother. We were actually the same age, practically born on the same day although I beat him out of the womb making my birthday the day before his. I always lorded the fact over him that I was older and it never failed to bug him. We had an interesting relationship to say the least.

“Huh?” he asks again when he gets no response. “This is private property.”

I continued moving closer, taking extra care not to be noticed. Just ahead of me I could make out two teenage boys and what I assumed was Derek’s back.

“Ah, sorry man we didn’t know,” the awkward looking one finally responded. He looks at his friend.

“Yeah, we were just looking for something,” his friend says, slightly nervous. “But, um...forget it.” He tries to brush it off.

Derek tosses something to him and he catches it. An inhaler.

Derek gives them one last look before he turns around and starts heading in my direction.

I’m leaning up against a tree with my arms across my chest when he walks by. “Scaring the neighborhood kids, Derek? Haven’t you outgrown that?” I get the satisfaction of seeing him stop dead in his tracks at the sound of my voice. He stands there for a moment before he turns around and looks at me.

I feel a brief flicker of shock cross my face before I remember to mask it. My eyes raked up his body, taking him all in. He’d changed quite a bit since the last time I had seen him. He looked like a man now. That thought surprised me more than it should have. Of course he’d look like a man now, it’d been five years. I’m sure I looked different to him too.

“Ashley?” He looks confused. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s good to see you too,” I reply. “I’m great, thanks for asking.” He just continues looking at me. I sigh and push off the tree walking toward him. “If you must know, I’m meeting Laura.” His eyes bore into mine, he looks like he’s thinking about saying something. I wait a moment before saying, “So, do you know if she’s already at the house?”

Silence. I roll my eyes. “Fine be that way,” I say, making my way past him. “Here I thought after all these years that maybe we could act mature and civil towards one and other but obviously I was wrong. So if you’ll just excuse me, I think I’ll just wait for Laura at the house.” As I’m walking past him he reaches out and grabs my arm. I glare at his hand on my arm before I shift it to his face.

He lets go. He opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. He shuts it, swallowing. When he goes to speak again he can’t meet my gaze. “Laura’s gone.” I just look at him confused. He opens his mouth again, “Laura’s dead.” He looks into my eyes.

My mouth drops open, words wanting to come out but not knowing how. I look into his green eyes but then quickly look away, not focusing on any one thing. Finally I manage to get out, “What do you mean Laura’s dead? If this is some kind of joke, Derek, it’s not funny.”

“It’s not a joke,” he says flatly. “The cops found half of her body yesterday, I found the other half last night.”

“Half?” I spit out. “What do you mean half?”

“Someone cut her in half.” 

One moment I was standing and the next I was sagging in Derek’s arms. Tears flooded my eyes as I gasped in air.

My best friend was dead. Laura, who I thought of like a sister, was no longer alive. Someone had killed her. Not only that, some sick bastard had cut her in half. That could only mean one thing, she had been purposely slaughtered.

I felt Derek’s arms hesitently wrap around me. Normally I wouldn’t do this but I rested my head against his shoulder, thankful for the support. “Who could do something like that?” I whispered, reaching up with one hand to wipe the tears out of my eyes.

“I have an idea,” Derek muttered next to my ear, his voice tinged with fury.

I wanted to pull away and ask him what he meant but I couldn’t find the strength. And to be honest I really didn’t want him to let go of me. This was a weird moment for both of us. We couldn’t stand each other when we were growing up but here he was offering some kind of comfort and I was letting him. Never in a million years did I ever see this happening, it was inconcievable. If Laura could see this...

That though brought me back. I pulled away from Derek and stood up walking a few steps away. I wiped my eyes with my sleeves getting rid of my tears and tucked my runaway hair back behind my ears. I had to be strong. I had to find out who’d killed Laura. Turing back around I said to Derek, “Tell me everything you know.”

(A/N: So what do you guys think so far? I purposefully hinted at certain things but did not discuss them in detail cause I want to deal with them gradually and give me more material for when I evenutally have my mind blank on what to write. Oh and I was thinking of alternating between Ashley's POV and Derek's, that is if I can do Derek well enough...we will see)

I do not own anything in the story but Ashley and some parts of the plot. Everything else belongs to the creators of Teen Wolf.