ILLUSION, ELI HALE

fifteen | lycanthropy

In the midst of the woman reaching behind her back to get another arrow to shoot, they all made a run for it. Scott led the way into the parking lot, past where smoke was still billowing through the pale night sky from the bombing of the two cars at the front door. His truck was still running in the middle of the lot and they raced to get there before the hunter did.

Right now, Nadia was having a million questions run through her mind at a time. She was grateful that Scott had come when he did, but how did he know they were going to be there? And how did he know that Allison was going to be there?

Allison.

Throughout the self-preservation instinct, as they ran through the parking lot, Nadia finally got time to think. The name was coming back to her now. Just hours ago, Scott, Malia, and Lydia were in the woods, they went to the Nemeton to have a memorial for their friend that had passed. They said their friend's name used to be Allison.

Last time she checked, the biggest part about having a memorial for a person technically meant that they needed to be dead. And this woman was most definitely not dead.

Nadia's heart dropped. She didn't know what this meant, she didn't know what was going on, she knew nothing. But what her brain was telling her was something that couldn't be fathomed. They couldn't have brought that woman back alive. No practice in medical history could bring a person who's been dead for a decade back to life. It just wasn't possible.

Just as they reached the front door of Scott's bright red truck, an arrow flew into the tire on the driver's side. Scott didn't let that stop them. He turned their direction to the open lot; the parking lot filled with rows and rows of cars Derek and his team were working on.

"Come on, let's go!"

Here this thirty-year-old man was attempting to corral two teenagers behind him. He was damn near dragging Eli through the lot as they ran since the boy could hardly walk, and Nadia was clutching her still-bleeding arm in her hand. The blood had soaked through her cardigan at this point, creating an honestly terrifying look. Just looking at it was making her lightheaded.

The sounds of arrows just narrowly missing her head were also not helping.

As they ran through the lots of cars, splashing in puddles of water mixed with mud, Scott shouted to the woman with the arrows behind them. "I know you don't remember everything, but if you stop trying to kill us for half a second, I could help you remember!"

"I don't think your talking it out strategy is working, Scott!" Nadia shouted over the rain. She followed in the man's footsteps as they got far enough into the big parking lot that they could be shielded from the arrows sent by Allison. Eli and Scott had their backs to the Stilinski's old jeep as she laid her head back on a vintage Mercedes trying to catch her breath. "Worst day ever."

"How are we going to get past her?" Eli asked Scott. "She took out your tires."

"Not to mention, you can barely run." Nadia groaned as she moved her injured arm. Quite hypocritical since she was the one literally bleeding out.

"And you need to be stitched up." Scott had been eyeing the girl's wound. "We're going to need to run. Eli, I need you to heal."  

Eli was blunt in his response. A flat-out no to that odd request that Scott was making. "I can't."

"You can't, I get it. Derek and Malia told me that you've been struggling. I've been there, too when I was your age. But if I can help get you to heal, then—,"

"Scott, I can't."

And it was at that moment that whatever Scott was referencing—whatever was going on with Eli, he was refusing because Nadia was there. It didn't take much to notice the hesitation and the pure look of terror on Eli's face as Scott spoke to the boy. He hadn't looked like that when they were trapped in the garage with Allison about to shoot them, but it was the fact that Nadia was finally going to uncover the truth, the big secret he'd been working so hard to hide ever since he befriended her that night in this same parking lot. This was his worst fear coming true.