Unbroken ▹ Teen Wolf [02]

28; the reflector

The truth won't set you free, it will bury you.

The memories hit her as though she were a deer on the highway & they were an oncoming bus. There was nothing slow about the way they flooded her mind, consuming every other thought she had prior to their arrival & holding her attention captive. She barely had time to process one revelation before another was being forced into her mind, leaving her in a constant state of panic.

Rachel was no longer semi-blinded & beneath the bright light. She was playing tag with her sister in the preserve. It was dusk, the sun had almost completely set. She strained her eyes to see in the dim lighting of the forest, her human abilities nothing in comparison to her werewolf sister's sight; Cora insisted they play at dusk specifically for this reason. She had the advantage of being able to see in the dark, while Rachel was left playing a one sided game of marco polo.

She was happy in the memory, from what she could tell. She was hiding behind a tree, trying not to breathe heavily as she rested for a moment— Cora was searching for her. Rachel couldn't outrun her sister, so her only option was to hide. She was good at hiding from her sister. Rachel liked this memory, the feeling she felt being back as an innocent child rather than her scarred future self. She liked not feeling as though death was right around the corner; even though it quickly became clear to her that was precisely the case.

Rachel noticed a tall figure, standing out in the forest. At first she mistook it for Peter, her vision blurred by the dim lighting, but realized it couldn't have been him after waving her small hand vigorously. He always waved back. Rachel felt her happiness slowly turn to fear, and began to worry what would come next— she couldn't control her own movements. She couldn't do anything. She could only follow the guide of her younger self & relive the past just as it had played out 14 years ago.

Rachel moved towards the figure. As hard as she fought not to, she couldn't break from the prewritten script; she was a puppet & this was the play. She could do nothing but play her role & hope the four year old version of herself was able to make the choices that she would now. Rachel despised the way her vision was blurry, cloudy in a way that almost made her wonder if at one point she had been in need of glasses.

Even squinting, she couldn't make out any distinctive features on the person off in the distance, tempting her curiosity to drag her closer. Knowing no better, she did as it wanted & began to walk towards the figure. She paused for a moment, rubbing her eyes as the figure almost seemed to glitch— stupid mosquitoes always hit her in the eyes.

She wandered closer, oblivious to the danger that awaited her. She was innocent. The only evil she knew were hunters, the people with guns & bows; the person standing alone in the forest had no weapon that she could see. Rachel held her breath as she watched through her younger self's eyes, nervously waiting to see what would happen but found no answer as her vision blurred to blackness.

Peter was supposed to be giving her back all her memories, not leaving out the ones she needed most— then again, did he even know how to do that? Would he? No. He wouldn't half-ass something like this. He was Peter Hale, if he was going to piss off Derek then he was going to go full throttle. These memories hadn't been taken by her mother, or locked away by another alpha.

Before Rachel could think further into it she was thrown into another memory.

This time, it was in her mother's perspective, as far as she could tell; she was staring down at a girl no older than four, laying unconscious on a table in the veterinary clinic. It didn't look all that different, aside from the counters being cleaner & the equipment more dated. The little girl was covered in a mix of dirt & a silvery substance— mercury.