Sacrilege (Theo Raeken) [2]

arrival

There was something evil about Canaan — we had gathered that much.

I mean, I would consider myself a fan of our resident quirky sidekick, but my appreciation of him was rapidly declining.

After shaking Scott from his own hallucination — which included his mother from what I had gathered, Lydia makes a firm declaration that things in Canaan really are messing with our minds.

"The energy here—it's causing hallucinations," she says. "We can't stay here."

"We can't leave," Scott replies. "Not before we find out why Stiles sent us here."

"And who are we going to ask?" I say, throwing my hands up in frustration. "There's no one here."

"We can ask him," Malia pipes up suddenly, and points.

I follow the direction of her finger and, there, standing in front of one out of the hundreds of derelict houses here, stands a little boy.

I'd never been a big fan of horror movies, but from the ones I'd seen, I'd seen enough to know that a weird little boy plus a creepy house equals a very bad ending.

"Hey!" Scott hollers at him.

The little boy takes a quick look in our direction before jolting up the street. "What do we do?" Lydia urges.

"Go after him!" Scott replies.

And we do maybe the stupidest thing we can: we go after him. Not surprisingly, our small lapse of concentration costs us, and soon after we lose him. We wander the streets slowly, looking for any sign of the weird little weasel that was staring at the house.

A small brushing sound attracts our attention. I turn around only to see a curtain ruffle in a window. Scott looks at us for an answer, before wordlessly beginning up the path to the house.

Scott pushes open the door and I feel my blood go cold for no particular reason other than the sheer fact that something felt off. The house itself was typical of a house decorated in the 1980s.

Lydia knocks on the open door. "Hello?" she calls. As we venture a bit further into the house, she says, "Anyone here?"

There's a momentary silence, and when I hear a lady's voice I jump. "Visitors!" she says excitedly. "I can't believe we have visitors."

Kai nudges me. "I'm beginning to think I should've stayed in Beacon Hills," he mutters. I nod absentmindedly as the woman charges happily towards us. She's a middle aged woman with a wide, almost creepy smile.

"Caleb would be so happy to see you!" she grins. "It's been so long since he had anyone to play with!"

Not creepy at all. Again.

"Oh, you must be thirsty," she continues. "Come in and sit down while I get you something to drink."

"Seriously, what is with her?" Malia whispers.

Lydia draws a breath in, her posture tense. "She's the one I saw in the mirror," she breathes back.

We sit down hesitantly and I clasp my hands together in front of me. When she leaves, I raise my eyebrows at the others. "What are we still doing in the creepy lady's house?" I whisper-yell.

Lydia clears her throat. "Arden, we need to get Stiles back," she says levelly.

The lady comes back in shortly after, holding a tray of tall glasses filled with cloudy yellow liquid. "This is my mother's lemonade recipe," she announces. "We always served this when we had friends over for a visit." When she sets down a glass in front of me, I can see specks of dirt through the murky liquid. Malia, being Malia, chugs the drink down.