The Pack

Chapter 5: Reunions

Marco tries to bench press way too much weight with Boon as a spotter. He can't lift it. Boon hits the showers and, for just a moment, Marco's hearing is enhanced to supernatural levels. Eric shows up and takes Marco to a waiting Lockwood in the lair.

Lockwood wants to know what happened to Marco on the full moon. He says nothing happened and offers to rejoin the group. Lockwood doesn't believe him and blows some of the powder in his face. Marco is paralyzed and Lockwood tosses him out.

Wong forces Marco to retract his statement to the detective about the fight the night his father died. Without Marco's eyewitness testimony, the case against Wong is dismissed and he can return to school.

At school, Eli reports that his research on the familiar shows that it's some type of ghost from South America that goes after murderers. This does not fit with what they know of the creature. Marco's hearing is enhanced again and he overhears Eric and Wong talking about the familiar. They're talking about testing with the charm during chemistry class. Wong seems to really want to kill Maria but Eric says she might already be dead.

Coach Fins warns his accounting class about their impending mid-term, recommending that they form a study group to prepare. Marco tells Dakota and Eli the story of Lockwood's earlier capture of him so Wong could come back to school and the conversation he overheard in the hall. Eli says the familiar can't be Maria because he looked into its eyes and saw pure evil and when he looks into Maria's eyes he sees a much lower percentage of evil.

Also in acounting, Maria has another hallucination. She sees a girl at the chalkboard writing out equations in a spiral pattern. The girl then turns and walks toward her, cornering her at the back of the class. She then crushes the chalk and blows the dust into her face. When she comes to her senses she is at the blackboard where she has written "Someone Help Me" backwards several times. The weird guy who hit on her outside the counselor's office is sitting at the front of the class and laughs with the other students.

In chemistry class Dakota, Eli and RJ try to keep Eric and Wong away from Maria. Mr. Happy, who is filling in, quotes Albert Einstein about the universe and human stupidity both being infinite. He then decides that for the class assignment everyone will switch lab partners at each step. This leads to a game of musical chairs which allows Eric to flirt with Dakota (with his hand on her thigh), threaten RJ (with extended claws on his thigh).

Wong relates to Eli a story of Maria rejecting him when he asked her out during freshman year. He really wants to kill her. Wong makes it to Maria's lab table and the experiment is complete leaving the pair with a large rock candy crystal. Mr. Happy encourages them to eat it. Dakota and Eli can see the poison dripping from it just before Maria puts it in her mouth. Nothing happens to her suggesting that she is already dead and the familiar.

Dakota, RJ and Eli brainstorm on how to protect Maria from Lockwood who is waiting for her in the school parking lot. They settle on trying to convince him that she's not the creature but say they're prepared to fight if necessary.

In Ms. Normal's office, the counselor shows Maria a Rorschach inkblot test. In each image, Maria claims to see a butterfly even though she sees one as a downing girl.

Steph and Boon meet with Marco in the library and question him about who might have had access to his house on the full moon. They're trying to figure out who could have removed the two hours from his video. Boon says he could have because the kitchen door is often unlocked. Steph says she could have done the editing since it was her camera. She then suggests she and Boon could have done it together, which Boon picks up on as flirting. They then ask if anyone else could get into his house and he realizes Maria has a key, as Luca used to live there and he hadn't changed the locks.

RJ asks Ms. Normal to translate a page from the bestiary. She says the language is archaic and she is unsure of the words. "Like a spirit, its power is greatest at the moon's peak. Like the wolf, the familiar is a social creature but where the wolf seeks a pack the familiar seeks a friend."

Dakota goes looking for Lockwood but finds Dillan instead. Dakota says she doesn't want to fight which Dillan says is good because of their size difference. Dillan may be bigger but Dakota is faster and knocks the big kid on his ass. Lockwood appears and Dakota tries to convince him to leave Maria alone.

Lockwood implies that Wong and Eric are on the way to kill her. When Dakota tries to rush to her aid, Dillan knocks her on her ass. Lockwood believes that, because she was cursed by the ancient one and died, Maria has to be the familiar. He says the creature is like the werewolves because they are all shape shifters. He goes on to explain that very rarely do people survive such powerful magic but their souls might.

Dakota says Maria may be immune to the poison he used but Lockwood's not buying it. He says he's never seen it or heard of someone being immune to it but Dakota reminds him that she may just have a healing factor like they do. Dakota realizes that Lockwood bit Marco, hoping he would die but he lived instead. Dakota also realizes that Lockwood doesn't know why nothing happened to Maria for sure. Dakota believes Maria is immune and the familiar is someone else.

In the library, Boon is waiting for the newly restored video to render while Steph flips through pictures on her Tablet. Every picture of Dakota has a weird lens flare due to her eyes.

Eli, RJ and there study partner Katy rush to get Maria out of the School. They go to Dakota's house and lock themselves inside. Dakota is heading to meet them when Coach Fins stops her to talk about damage to Boon's basketball gear. As Co-Captain, it's apparently Dakota's responsibility to take care of Boon's equipment. When Dakota asks him about the damage, Boon reminds her that he didn't play in the last game and he'd lent the equipment to someone else. Steph snaps another picture of Dakota and once again gets the telltale supernatural eye lens flare.

RJ calls Dakota and tells her to get home because Lockwood, Eric, Dillan, and Wong are waiting outside.

In the Library, Marco's video has rendered up to 03:27:00. The girl, Katy, on the night of the full moon sit up in bed and turn to face the lens. Her eyes glow dully.

RJ considers calling his mother to help them but Eli talks him out of it. They decide to shoot Lockwood or one of his pack and realize Wong is missing.

In Dakota's bedroom, Katy asks Maria what is really going on and grills her about what happened last year that made her become so crazy. She pleads with Katy to just leave it alone, that it was all in her head to begin with. Then she breaks down and claims to hate her but she knows better. As they hug, Katy's shirt lifts slightly revealing a slight transparency.

Wong has come in through the back of the house. He attacks RJ and Eli. Maria hears a crash from the fight and leaves the bedroom to investigate. As she does, Katy falls to her knees as the familiar transformation takes her. In the hallway, Maria hears growls and RJ tells her that someone is trying to break in. He says Maria needs to go back in the bedroom with Katy. She returns to find Katy gone and the window open. Maria locks herself in the bathroom and calls the police.

RJ comes into Dakota's room and locks the door. He then notices a strange powder drifting from the window frame. Eric busts in and threatens to steal Dakota away from him. RJ then shoots him with a hand gun. Eric catches the bullet easily but RJ has treated it with nightshade and Eric is soon paralyzed.

Outside Dillan and Lockwood hear the noise from the fight and then Eric and Wong come flying out the door and land on the lawn. Wong is unconscious. Eric is still paralyzed. Dakota, Eli and RJ stand on the porch triumphant and Lockwood realizes that Dakota isn't as weak as he thought because she is already an Alpha of her own pack (meaning her human friends). They hear sirens in the distance and the familiar mumbles on the rooftop. They all look up and see the creature scamper off the roof and into the trees. Maria comes out of the house confused and Dakota realizes that the familiar is Katy.

On a deserted street a VW Jetta with a sticker that reads "Imagination is more important than Knowledge – Einstein" is parked, Katy familiar creeps up to the car and places her hand on the window, a gloved hand reaches out from within to touch the glass barrier between them. Then Katy scampers off into the woods and the car peels away.