human // teen wolf

45. old box

Riley took Derek and Scott to the vet clinic so Dr. Deaton could look after them. She didn't wait around; she was in the midst of piecing things together and she couldn't stop now. She arrived home around 3 in the morning, forgetting that her parents were actually home and in their bed. She trudged into the house loudly and slammed the door shut and locked it, before kicking off her shoes and talking to herself as she walked up the stairs.

"I still need to find out who it is, then I'll be complete. My life will actually have some kind of purpose after that, right?"

She continued up the stairs in a clatter, but then stopped dead silent at the top of the stairs where she saw a pair of her mum's shoes outside her parents' room. She remembered that they were home. She really prayed that she didn't wake them up. By the sounds of it, they gratefully didn't. Maybe they did, but she guessed they just went back to sleep. As quietly as she could, she tippy toed to her room and shut the door carefully, then quickly went over to her stacked books and pulled out the ones with pink tags in them.

For the next ten minutes, Riley spent her time flipping through the books and trying to see if any of the faces that were staring blankly back at her reminded her of anything. So far, she had no success.

Her eyes wandered over to the metal box that was apparently no longer on her desk. Who moved it? She got up and looked around for it, but she had no luck. Maybe it found itself back in the attic? Maybe her parents put it back... Why would they move it back? If it was them in the first place...

Maybe there wasn't even a box in the first place. She was tired, so Riley opted to go to sleep then and look for it in the morning. That is if it was actually real.

**

Riley woke up to the sound of laughter and the bright sun shining in through her window. She stretched out and pondered on whether going back to sleep, but when she saw on her alarm clock that it was almost 12, she decided to get up. She rubbed her eyes lazily and got up, wrapping her dressing gown around her as she passed her door and climbed down the stairs. Her parents were sat at the dining table, her dad with the newspaper in his hands while her mother had a cup of coffee in hers. They were both laughing about something until they spotted Riley.

"Riley! You're finally up, sleepyhead. How was the party?" Her mum asked, and Riley groggily smiled at them.

"It was okay." She mumbled, as she shuffled over to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

"Don't eat anything Riley, I've got lunch in the oven." She heard her dad call. Riley frowned to herself as she looked over at the oven. Sure enough, it was cooking something. Her dad never cooked; she didn't think he had cooked before in his life. She walked back into the dining room and sat down opposite to her dad.

"You're cooking? Now I'm definitely going to starve." She poked fun, and he chuckled.

"I've been doing some reading on it. Now that we have all of this free time, I could do whatever I want to!" He exclaimed, and picked up a cooking magazine from the table and slid it over to her. Riley picked it up and flicked through, nodding approvingly at the mouth-watering dishes inside the pages.

"These are nice. Hopefully they turn out just as good looking." She replied, as she looked at her mother.

"Darrel, I think you should go check on it. It's been twenty minutes." She said, and her dad widened his eyes.

"It has?" He asked, and leaped from his seat and ran to the kitchen in a hurry. Riley rolled her eyes playfully as she sat back in her chair. Riley's mum's eyes followed him out of the room before setting them sternly on Riley as she leaned towards her.

"Riley, what was that metal box doing in your room?" She asked, and Riley expressioned realization.

"I knew it was real! I was looking for--" She cut herself off, not knowing what to say. "We're doing this family project thing at school and I need pictures of our ancestors for it."

She didn't want to lie to her, but she really had no choice. Her mum's face curled into a concerned expression, but then she sighed.

"Did you find the key?" She asked, and Riley shook her head.

"No, I found this other key in the library though. I don't know what that's for." She replied. She looked suspiciously at her mum; why does she care? It was just some old metal box that she found in the attic, what was the big deal?

"And where is that key?" She asked again, and Riley shrugged.

"I don't know. It was on top of the box where I left it." She said, and her mum pursed her lips. "Why?"

"No reason. I'm just wondering what you want to do with some old box." She said, and Riley frowned.

"I want to see what's inside of it, obviously." She said in a joking manner, but she was not joking. This sudden interest of her mum's in the box has made her even more curious to find out what's inside of it.