Beta of Beacon Hills

Chapter 3

I was on the ground leaning against my bedroom door. No thoughts came to me as I was simply staring at the darkening sky, feeling my motivation to stay in that house for another minute lessen with every ray of sunshine that hid itself behind the woods outside.

Turned out that assisting your uncle in coaching your high school's lacrosse team wasn't good enough of a job for Gladys Weller's standards. She had told me to get a proper job as she locked me in the room they called mine, or else she would start taking half of my payment as a way to teach me to not use any connections to gain favors at my apparent workplace.

I couldn't even find it in myself to be upset over it. I should have seen it coming.

I eyed the lock on my window with a scoff. Do they really think that low of me? It's so simple a three legged puppy could open it.

Gladys had taken the bobby pins I had kept in my hair, not knowing that I had hidden them all over the house and I always had extra few on me at all times.

I took the one hiding in my bra, it was one of the safest places to hide something that small, and easily opened the padlock on my window and quietly opened it. I grabbed my go bag from under the bed, noticing the pile of broken wood pieces wrapped in a bedsheet. I silently bid goodbye to it, not knowing when or if I would see it again.

Climbing out of the window I stepped onto the roof and dropped to the ground, stumbling a little. From there I walked into a familiar forest.

As it got even darker, the mist was starting to gather around. Most would find it eerie and stay at home, but for me, this was home.

People were always afraid of the monsters lurking in the dark, but I knew where the real monsters hid and it had nothing to do with the amount of light our eyes received. Darkness was like a fluffy cape for me, just wanting to pull it closer and closer until I completely disappeared in it.

I took a path going through the preserve, taking my time and enjoying the fresh and foggy forest air.

I was walking down a path I have taken hundreds of times before when something at the corner of my eye caught my attention. I instinctively glued myself to the nearest tree and looked from behind it.

My eyes zoomed in on the only thing moving in my field of vision - a half naked McCall boy running through the forest, looking scared out of his mind.

I swear, if that's Jackson and his goons pulling pranks on his new teammates, I'm gonna make him do suicide-runs 'till he throws up a lunch from a week ago.

I rolled my eyes and turned to leave when I didn't see anyone else, but before I could, there was some rustling heard. I stopped and looked around. Upon not finding anything noteworthy, I went on my merry way.

I was as quiet as the forest when I moved between the trees, towards a familiar charred building that was coming into my line of sight.

That abandoned house had been my safe haven since the very first time I had stumbled upon it about five years ago. It seemed horrible to make a hideout out of a place where a whole family had tragically died, but it was in the middle of the forest and people mostly kept away from it, which was exactly what I wanted.

I hadn't noticed a guy in a leather jacket crouching near the house beside a fresh patch of dirt until he stood up and turned to look at me.

I froze for a second, trying to assess the situation and decide how to proceed. My flight or fight instincts were all confused.

I kinda wanted to run away screaming, 'cause that dude looked scary as hell. I also sorta wanted to fight over staying here, because this was my safe place. The mean looking guy was wearing muddy gloves, it looked like had just planted a pretty purple flower there and despite the cold glare he had, his eyes were slightly red.

There was a smudge of dirt on his cheek and a dried tear stain was visible when the moonlight hit his face right.

He just buried someone. Someone important to him.

"This is a private property. Leave." He glared.

"Sorry, I um... " I wasn't sure what to say. My legs were rooted to their place. I didn't want to leave, but I felt like it was imposing to go further. I have to figure out a middle road.

"I just- um, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I will just grab some of my stuff from the house and get out of your hair."

3rd POV

Derek narrowed his eyes at the girl that had her head tilted down in wait of his permission to enter his old burned down home. Unknown to her, he had seen the old green sleeping bag and the cluster of books he didn't recognise set up in the blackened living room.

Though he hadn't recognised the smell on them, Derek figured that his older sister had used something to mask her scent and had stayed at the only place she had sworn to never return. Now, however, he connected the smell of this foolish teenager to the things set up in The Hale House.

"Get your things and go home." He gestured to the house with his head.

"Well, see," Ray hesitantly started with her finger pointed up, "that's kinda contradictory since my things are there because it's my home. Not legally, of course! It's just- you know, the place where I go to and stay at. A- And I thought it had been abandoned since the horrible fire that happened here." She rambled with her hands trying to animate her words.

Derek's glare worsened as his annoyance with the teenager grew. He just wanted to be left alone. He had promised himself to only mourn his late sister until he properly buried her and this short brunette had interrupted that. He had to figure out the mess that had gotten Laura killed, he had no time to hold a pity party for some whiny runaway.

Upon seeing the look Ray got from the grumpy guy, she tucked her head down even further and scurried into the old house through the front door.

Derek looked at the monkshood he had just carefully 'planted' and let out a sight. Even after losing all of his family, he still had Laura. He had grown up in a big pack. He always had people surrounding him, even after the fire that took almost everything from him, he still had his sister.

But now he was alone.

For the first time in his life, he truly had no-one to turn to for support nor offer the same in return. He might have been a grown werewolf, but the world will always be scarier if you had to face it all alone.

The two strangers truly had no idea yet, just how similar their lives were despite all the differences they had.