The Alexandra Chronicles ¤ Derek Hale

Chapter 9

"Cass, do we really need to watch this movie for the millionth time?" I complained as I browsed through the DVDs at the movie store. I had been on my way to Cassidy's for our girl night, but when I was about halfway there she called and asked me to stop here. Apparently she couldn't find her copy of The Last Song and was dying to watch it again. "Can't we watch something else?"
"You can get another movie, but we're watching mine first!" Cassie responded on the other end of the phone call. I shifted so that my phone was held between my shoulder and ear while I picked up a stack of DVDs and went through them. "What are you gonna get?"
"I don't know. I was thinking maybe The Call," I told her. "Or The Avengers." If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for action movies. I like horror movies, too, but for one: Cassie was a ball baby, and for two: since my life has practically started to turn into a horror movie, I didn't think watching one was necessary anymore. And I wasn't one of those girls who loved sappy romance movies, where the guy chases the girl out into the rain and kisses her after confessing his love, or something like that. It was really rare for me to find a romance movie I liked; I didn't like the corny stuff. It didn't have to be romantic- it just had to be real.
But I did like The Last Song, though. I think it was just because of Ronnie's relationship with her dad. Even though I'm still holding a grudge against mine, I guess the movie (well, I liked the book better) gave me hope that one day I'd be able to look past the divorce and the alcohol. That my dad and I would go back to being close again.
I used to be a daddy's girl, believe it or not. He used to get me ready for school because Mom always got stuck with third shift, which meant he actually did my hair and everything. I remember he used to put my hair up in a ponytail and added a bow with it; he used to say I was his baby doll. As I got older he started playing t-ball with me, which got me interested in softball. I quit after the divorce, though, because it just didn't feel the same anymore. Dad and I used to do a lot of things together, actually, until he started drowning himself in alcohol every night after work. Then it all started going downhill from there, and nothing has been the same since.
Sometimes, when I start missing him a whole lot, I pick up my phone and dial his number. But for some reason I can never work up the courage to press call. So I always end up putting the phone back down and acting as if I'd never picked it up in the first place.
"Can somebody help me find The Notebook?" A familiar voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I walked around one of the shelves to see Jackson standing there, looking utterly annoyed. "Hello? Is anybody working here?"
"There was a guy fixing the light a few seconds ago," I said, glancing over to the flickering light. "But I don't know where he went."
Jackson looked at me. "Well, can you show me where this stupid movie is?"
I laughed slightly. "It's Lydia's turn to pick, huh?"
He scowled. "Shut up." For once, I didn't mind Jackson's attitude and instead shrugged. I started to lead him back toward where the N movies were, but as I turned to walk down an aisle I tripped over something. My eyes opened as I heard Jackson gasp, and the first thing I saw was the slit throat of the man that had been fixing the light. Then I realized that I was lying on top of him – covered in his blood – and I screamed.
Jackson yanked me to my feet and we stumbled back, hitting the ladder. It fell and knocked the light out, which caused the rest of the lights to start flickering. "Forget the movie," Jackson grumbled. "We're getting the hell out of here." I nodded and started to follow him toward the door, but a sudden growling caused both of us to freeze. I turned around and my heart just about dropped through the floor when I saw the same red eyes and black fur from the woods that night... the alpha.
Jackson latched his hand onto mine and yanked me behind a movie shelf to hide. His grip was so tight, I probably couldn't pull away if I tried. But I wasn't complaining - even though Jackson was an ass most of the time, we were still somewhat friends, and I was just glad I wasn't going through this alone. "What the hell is that?" Jackson whispered. I just shook my head and pressed my finger to my lips, wanting him to be quiet, and peered around the shelf to look for the alpha. I saw a blur of black fur as it ran behind another shelf, and then suddenly they all started falling like dominoes. Jackson pushed me out of the way as the shelf behind us fell, but his legs got stuck beneath it.
"Jackson!" I exclaimed, dropping to my knees to try and push the shelf off of him. It was no use; I wasn't strong enough.
"Just go!" He grunted, swatting my hands away. "Get out of here!"
"Are you kidding me?! I'm not leaving you!" Even though I was terrified of the alpha slitting my throat like he'd done to the worker, there was no way I could leave Jackson trapped here. He knew there was no reasoning with me, since he knew how stubborn I was; so instead, he nodded as I tried to push the shelf off of him again.
"Lex," Jackson whispered suddenly, his eyes wide with fear. I paused and listened for a moment, and then my own eyes widened as I heard the growling behind me. It got closer and closer, and just as I started to turn around I caught a glimpse of the wolf before it swung its claws at me. Pain erupted throughout my arm as I fell backward. "Lex!" Jackson screamed my name, struggling to get out from under the shelf as the alpha hovered over me. I laid as still as I could, clutching my bleeding arm and staring up into the red eyes of the creature above me. "Alexandra," the thing hissed. My blood ran cold - it knew my name. The alpha snorted and leaned down, sniffing my neck. "Hale," it hissed to itself.
I was afraid the alpha was going to attack me, but all it did was sniff me one last time before moving over to Jackson. I watched as it ran its claws over Jackson's neck, causing some sort of wounds to glow a bright purple color. After a moment, it growled quietly and ran off, bursting through the video store's window.
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on the back of an ambulance next to Lydia as a paramedic finished bandaging up my arm. The claw marks hadn't went deep enough to need stitches, and I refused to go to the hospital, so the lady took care of it here. Lydia wasn't saying a word next to me, but she was holding my free hand almost as tightly as Jackson had been holding it earlier. Speaking of Jackson, he was complaining, as always. He wanted to go home, which was totally understandable, because I wanted to go home, too. But still, there was no need to be rude. Plus, he jumped all over me for not leaving him in the store like he'd asked. "If you wouldn't have been so god-damn stubborn, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!" He'd shouted at me. But I didn't care. Jackson was an asshole, but he wasn't entirely cruel; if I had been the one stuck under that shelf, he wouldn't have left me, either.
When Sheriff Stilinski pulled up and approached us, Jackson's gaze narrowed. "Why the hell can't I go home?" he demanded. "I'm fine."
"I hear ya," Sheriff sympathized, "but the EMT says you hit your head pretty hard. They just wanna make sure you don't have a concussion."
"What part of 'I'm fine' don't you understand?! Okay, I wanna go home!"
"And I understand that."
"No, you don't understand that," Jackson snapped as his voice began to rise. I scowled and hopped off of the ambulance's tailgate, ignoring the paramedic that asked me to be careful, and sauntered over there as Jackson continued. "Which kind of blows my mind, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum wage rent-a-cop like you! Okay, I wanna go home!"
"Jackson!" I yelled angrily, shoving him with my good arm. "That's enough!"
He clenched his jaw. "Stay out of this, Lex."
"No. Quit being so disrespectful!"
"Oh, whoa, is that a dead body?!" A familiar voice exclaimed. I glanced over to see Stiles next to his dad's squad car, pointing at something behind me. They were rolling out the worker's body on a gurney, but thankfully they'd put it in a body bag so I didn't have to see it again.
"Everybody, back up. Back up," Sheriff Stilinski murmured, leading me off to the side to make room for the paramedics.
After repeating what happened three different times, they finally let Jackson, Lydia and I leave. As soon as I got home, I went straight upstairs to the bathroom connected to my room and took a shower, washing all of the blood off of me - both mine and the worker's. It was hard work, considering I had to be careful not to get my bandage wet, but eventually I finished. For a moment, though, I just stood there under the water, thinking about what had happened tonight... and most importantly how the alpha knew my name. It freaked me out more than anything.
Then I remembered Cassie and hurried out of the bathroom, getting dressed as quick as I could. Too impatient to dig through my purse, I dumped it out on my desk and pulled my phone out of the pile. Sure enough, Cassie called and texted me a few times, wondering where I was at. I responded with a brief explanation of what happened at the video store, said I was fine but I wanted to sleep, and then turned off my phone. Knowing my best friend, she's blow me up worrying about me.
As I set my cell phone on my desk, Scott appeared in my bedroom doorway. "Al?" He asked, worry shining in his puppy brown eyes. "You okay?"
I sighed. "I'm assuming you know what happened."
Scott shrugged. "Yeah. Derek wanted to show me what the alpha does, what he's capable of," he explained. "He wants me to help him find out who it is... How's your arm? How are you feeling, are you alright? You need me to get you something?"
"No. Scott, no, I'm fine," I insisted. "I just... really need some rest right now. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
Scott hesitated for a moment but nodded. In three long strides, he was across the room an engulfing me into a hug. "Okay. Goodnight, sis." He pecked me on the forehead and smiled at me before leaving my bedroom, closing the door behind him quietly.
"Goodnight, little bro," I said softly.

+ + + + +

I could hardly sleep at all that night. I kept tossing and turning until around two in the morning, when I finally managed to fall asleep.

I'm running toward something. I have no idea what, but for some reason it seems very important to me. It's dark, and I'm outside somewhere... I can hardly see a thing, and the only sound echoing through the night is familiar vicious growling. I've heard it before - where have I heard it before?
My feet seem to move of their own accord and my lungs burn as I turn, running down an alley. A streetlight suddenly turns on, and I have to cover my eyes and squint until I get used to the sudden light change. A sticky wet substance on the pavement before me is illuminated, and when I look closer I realize it's a trail of blood. My heart pounds as I follow the trail, and once I find the person whom the blood belonged to, it's hard for me to breathe.
My little brother lies there on the cold hard pavement, mangled and torn up. Jagged claw marks cover his torso and there is blood everywhere. His eyes are closed. He's not breathing. "Scott!" I scream, dropping to my knees beside him and shaking his shoulders. "Scott! No, no, no - this can't be happening. Please! Scotty!"
All of a sudden, Scott's eyes shoot open and he stares me down. "Run," he whispers. "You need to run."
"I can't leave you!" I exclaimed, sobbing uncontrollably. "Scott, I won't leave you!"
"Alexandra," something hisses behind me.
Before I have the chance to look behind me, something pounces on my back and slams my head against the pavement next to my brother.

With a gasp, I shoot straight out of my sleep. My hand flies to my heart as I try to slow its rapid beating and I blink rapidly, examining my surroundings. When I realize I'm safe in my bedroom at home, I begin to calm down a bit... At least, until I see the dark figure standing near my window seat a few feet away from my bed. Just as I started to dive for my softball bat, which was under my bed, the figure hurried forward and grabbed my arm. In the brief moment he stepped under the streetlight shining through the window, I saw familiar green eyes and dark hair.Derek.
"Calm down, your heart's about to jump through your chest," he muttered.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" I whispered quietly. "Did you - did you climb through my window?"
"Yeah, you should probably lock it."
"Well, excuse me. Not many people can climb through a second-story window." I rolled my eyes and leaned over to turn my lamp on. "You didn't answer my first question."
Derek shrugged. "Just wanted to come and see if you were okay."
I frowned and glanced over at my alarm clock. "Derek, it's four in the morning," I pointed out.
"Whatever. How does it feel?" He gestured to my left arm.
I shrugged. "Fine," I lied. Truth was, it was throbbing like a bitch and my whole arm ached... but I wasn't about to tell him that.
Derek reached over and grabbed my hand in his, but before I could question his sudden movement I could see black veins spreading up his arms from where he was touching me. As this happened, the pain from my wound went away, and Derek's jaw clenched as if he was feeling it himself. Wait a minute - feeling it himself...
I yanked my hand away from his as the pain came rushing back. "How did you do that?" I demanded.
He sighed. "It's a werewolf thing. We can take away someone else's pain."
"But you have to feel it yourself," I said. Derek nodded and I frowned. "Don't do that again."
"I was only-"
"I know. But I'm not dying, Derek."
We sat in silence for a moment before he asked quietly, "What were you dreaming about? Your heartbeat was going wild."
I hesitated for a second as I stared down at my hands. "It was a nightmare. The alpha killed my brother and then attacked me." I sighed softly. "My worst fear is not being able to help my brother when he's hurt. I guess my dreams just wanted to remind me of that tonight." Derek didn't say anything, and after a beat I looked up at him. "There's something you should know. I didn't tell Scott because I didn't want him to worry but... the alpha knows my name," I murmured. Derek's head shot up to look me in the eye as his eyebrows furrowed.
"What do you mean the alpha knows your name?"
"When it attacked me, it said my name," I explained. "It - uh, it sniffed my neck, too. And then..."
"And then what?" Derek grabbed my shoulders and shook me slightly. "Alexandra, what?"
"It said your last name. Hale," I whispered. "And then it left me alone."
Derek stared at me for a long time without saying a word. Then he stood up, muttered something about having to go, and jumped out of my window. I hurried over to it and peered out into the night - or, in this case, early morning - but he was nowhere to be seen. Well, okay, then. Either Derek knows something I don't, or... actually, no, that was probably it.
Derek knows something that I don't - and he must not want to tell me, either.