"Sorry, Lahey, but I'm more of a cat person."
Vera Pérez is no stranger to the supernatural. Growing up alongside the Hale family has kept her fairly well-informed about the creatures that lurk in the darkness. However, she didn't become one of thos...
┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐ chapter ten! THE FALL └─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘
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( frayed, pt. i )
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
TWO DAYS LATER, Vera returns to Derek's loft to retrieve the rest of her belongings. She'd come here yesterday as well to grab Isaac's things first. Derek and Cora had been notably absent when she'd arrived, so she'd packed Isaac's possessions in silence, wondering if the loft had always felt as dark and cold as it had during those thirty minutes she'd spent here.
Now, sunlight streams through the gigantic window against the far wall, disrupted by the wide frames that cast tiger stripe shadows over the floor. She finds Derek moodily staring out the window once again. His arms are crossed when she walks in, shoulders tense through his black t-shirt.
It's been two days. Two days since he'd kicked them out, and he hasn't bothered to apologize or offer any type of explanation. He hasn't been answering any of Vera's calls or texts. She hates this feeling of being on the outside looking in. Ever since they were little and had snuck out to eavesdrop on Talia's pack meetings, they've always included one another in their plans. He'd confided in her on who he was planning on giving the bite to once he became an Alpha. Now it's like she's trapped behind a deadbolted door with a tiny window that's too high for her to reach, only capable of seeing what he allows her to.
Vera slides the heavy door shut with more force than necessary so the bang of it hitting the wall echoes throughout the loft. Derek still doesn't move. Nothing in his body language changes, though he'd certainly heard her arrive and likely seen her car pull into the lot, so the only explanation can be that he's ignoring her.
She almost scoffs. How childish. What is he, back in his angsty middle school years?
Then he speaks so abruptly that Vera almost misses it. "I thought I told you to leave."
She shakes her head in disbelief. Leave it to him to get straight to the point and be even more difficult than before.
"Well, some of my stuff's still here, isn't it? You didn't exactly give me time to pack it. I'm surprised you didn't notice that all of Isaac's things are gone." She pauses, waiting for him to say something – anything – and when the silence stretches on, proof that he's not going to reply, she forges on with an edge to her voice. "Are you even going to apologize to him?"
"What I did was wrong–"
"Then tell him that!"
"–but it got you out, and that was what I needed."
"You needed. That's what you needed." Vera's lip curls with anger. "Why does it always seem to be about you these days, Derek? You needed me to come here, so I did. Then you needed me to leave, so you threw me out without any reasoning." She laughs sarcastically, tilting her head up toward the ceiling for a moment. "And, what do you know? Deucalion was there when I got home, waiting for me. So can you cut the fucking bullshit and tell me why it was like he knew I was coming back?"
