Slightly Consequential (Slightly Awkward Series / Book Five / Teen Wolf)

CHAPTER SIX--Required Reading

There was cross country practice tonight.

The team was running through the woods.

We all came to a stop nearby the trail, stopping in shock.

A girl behind me rammed right into my shoulder that Donovan had bit with his hand, making me groan in pain. "Sorry."

I held my shoulder in pain.

Everyone looked at the eight empty graves in the ground ahead of us.

      °    

The next day, Stiles, Dad and I were talking in Dad's office at the Sheriff's Station.

Dad crossed out Tracy's picture. "Chimeras."

"Two dead chimeras," I told them. "Eight new ones."

"So, that's ten in all," Stiles told us.

"I'm thinking maybe 11," Dad told us, putting a picture of Donovan up on the board. I looked down. "Our station tech guys confirmed something for me. They said, both the holding cell lock and cameras could have malfunctioned because of something electromagnetic." He picked up the dread doctors book. "You said that, uh, these guys..."

"Dread doctors," Stiles told him.

"Are we really calling them that?" Dad asked.

"So they broke Donovan out?" Stiles asked.

"It's how they got into Eichen, isn't it?" Dad asked.

"Donovan's a chimera," Stiles told us, walking closer.

"Yeah, but..." Dad trailed off. "Is he a failure like Lucas and Tracy?" 

I turned away, breathing unevenly guiltily.

"If he is, he's probably dead," Stiles told us, going to put an X over Donovan's picture.

Dad grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Not until I've seen a body." They looked at me. "You're uncharacteristically quiet."

I turned to them. "Yeah. Sorry, I'm, uh... I'm just trying to think about it. Uh..." I walked closer. "These are all teenagers, right? So, shouldn't we be trying to figure out why these teenagers? If the dread doctors, if they went through all that, burying them, killing them, breaking one of them out of jail..."

"They couldn't have been chosen at random," Dad finished.

"They had to have something in common," Stiles told us. "Something that made them right for this experiment."

I nodded. "Something that made them special."

      °    

After dark, everyone was at Scott's house, looking at the dread doctor copies of the book on the table in front of us.

"My mom's book club usually has more wine," Lydia told us.

"Well, they also probably didn't read books that cause violent hallucinations," Stiles told us.

"That's why Malia's here," Stiles told us.

"So none of us go running into traffic?" Kira asked.

Scott nodded. "Or worse."

"Like what happened to Judy," Malia told us. We looked at her in confusion. "Chapter 14."

Lydia picked up one of the copies. "Maybe I should have my mother read it. She might remember a girl with a tail leaping of the ceiling and attacking everyone."