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

chapter nine---LIES OF OMISSION

It had been five days.

We had not seen any new chimeras, and we had not seen the dread doctors.

The pack was drifting apart.

We all went to school, pretending like nothing was happening. 

But everyone seemed to know. You just walked down the halls, and no one was smiling. No one was laughing. You got the feeling that everyone could sense that something was coming. They just did not know what it was, or how bad it was going to be. 

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't think anyone did.

Maybe that was why no one was really talking to each other. Sometimes we didn't even notice each other. But I thought some of us were okay with that, because not talking made it easier to keep secrets.

Scott had his asthma back because of the book and the dread doctors.

Malia was keeping secrets from Stiles, and they were both becoming estranged.

I did not want to lie, but every time that I wanted to tell Scott, or Stiles, or my dad the truth, another one just came out. I could not tell them the truth about what I did because I couldn't even handle what I had done. I needed to get a handle over it before I could ever tell them what happened.

Maybe the worst lie was to Dad. Because no one had told him about Parrish yet. 

Then again, no one had told Parrish either. He didn't seem to remember taking the bodies. And we thought that he was only really dangerous if we tried to get in his way. 

If Dad knew the truth, he'd definitely get in his way.

So Lydia and Stiles were trying to find the bodies, which meant finding the nemeton. They were driving around, searching all of the woods. 

But the last time that we had found this thing, Allison, Stiles and Scott had almost drowned in ice water, and they only didn't because they mentally linked themselves to me like a spell, and it made me their physical anchor. When one of them got hurt, I felt it, and if the injury was bad enough, it actually started to happen to me. When Allison died, it felt like a piece of me had died. And back then, when I had been their anchor, if I had died, then they would've died, too. 

That was why all of the assassins had tried to kill me to kill them when they had the dead pool. That was why I had wanted Derek to train me so I could defend myself and stay alive, more than just what normal weapons could do.

That only changed when Kate had drowned me in Mexico, which led to Stiles and Scott dying, and Braedan had brought me back to life, which led to Stiles and Scott coming back to life, which broke the bond between us. 

But we weren't the only ones looking for chimeras. Dad had everyone looking for the next target. Questioning anyone who was a genetic chimera. Anyone who had two sets of DNA. 

No one really knew what they were looking for. Some thought it was a serial killer. Some probably knew it was worse. 

The two chimeras that we knew about, Hayden and Cory, they were both doing okay. Actually, better than okay. They were healing faster and getting stronger. They didn't need our help. And I didn't think they'd want it, anyway.

Kira had left town because the fox inside of her was taking control, and she and her family had went to see what was going on with her, hoping that they could fix it and save her. No one had heard from her since she had left. 

And Deaton had left weeks ago, and he still wasn't back. He hadn't contacted any of us. We were getting more and more worried about him.

We knew something was coming.