Right Beside You | Stiles Stilinski | Two

37 - Filling in the Blanks

The morose mood in Beacon Hills didn't change over the next two weeks. Everything around me seemed tinged with grey, as though the world was just as tired of all the shit going on as rest of us were.

The town should have been relieved that the police had caught the person responsible for all the recent murders, but the news was tainted with horror at the idea that the murderer had been someone from the community, someone who was just a kid. The shock was doubled when the story of Matt's motives had gotten out. Scott had told the sheriff all about Matt's story, drowning in the pool and the cover up led by Mr. Lahey. It was horrible, but it made the pill go down easier, in a way. Everyone had already found out that Isaac's dad had abused him. What was one more ruined childhood to tack on?

It was a weird position to be in, knowing the whole truth. I wasn't sure if Matt deserved the sympathy some people were giving him. I didn't want to hear anyone justifying his actions, but at the same time, it was Kate all over again. Matt had been a human, no matter how profoundly fucked up he was. What did anyone truly deserve after hurting people like that?

Whenever I got caught thinking about that, I tried to focus on what Stiles had told me on our first day back at school. The police had searched the Daehler home to look for any other evidence pertaining to the case. What they'd found on Matt's computer was enough to make me glad he was dead and buried.

I'd thought Matt was delusional for thinking I was out to sabotage his relationship with Allison. As it turned out, I wasn't far off the mark. His laptop had been something straight out of Criminal Minds, filled with photoshopped pictures of him and Allison and their sweet, happy life together. Some of the pictures I assume he took, but he also had pictures that were older, childhood pictures of Allison that no one knew how he'd acquired. They all showed the two of them smiling, holding hands, kissing, the works. Thankfully, that tidbit of information hadn't been released to the public.

I wanted to talk to Allison about it. The police had to have told her family, and as far as I knew, Allison had never told them what was going on. I wanted to ask if she was alright, but I knew she wasn't. She hadn't come back to school, and I hadn't seen Gerard walking around the halls either. Whether that was because they were out hunting Derek or he was biding his time in his office, I wasn't sure, but it did send a clear message: the Argents hadn't changed their stance on Derek. The war was not over.

Allison wasn't the only person missing from school. Isaac, Erica, and Boyd had all disappeared again, no doubt in hiding with Derek. I'd tried calling to check in on them, but everyone was ignoring my calls. People whispered in the hallways and stared at the empty desks they'd once occupied. It was strange, the amount of attention they were getting. A few months ago, no one would have noticed their absence. The bite had given them a sort of notoriety, and now their disappearance seemed to draw even more attention than the murders. All anyone could guess was that they'd run away. I heard more than one person suggest they had the right idea.

More concerning than anything else was Jackson. He was also conspicuously missing from his classes. I'd tried talking to Danny about it, but he was still a little salty about the fact that I'd coerced him into coming to a birthday party that got crashed by the cops. He'd just managed to escape, but it was his second brush with the law in a month, and he was not pleased.

"Do you know how dead I would be if my parents found out I went out drinking again? My mom would not hesitate to pull a Daehler."

"Can you not say that?" I begged, leaning on the locker next to him. "Everything's bad enough without turning it into a joke."

"Hey, we all cope differently. If you want to be deadly serious, that's fine, but joking is the only thing that keeps me sane."

"Right, because you were a regular comedian that night you get drugged at the club."