Never Be The Same // Liam Dunbar

Chapter 42 ~ Skin Walkers

After the exhausting rodeo, Luna lay with Liam in his bed, his arm firm around her waist and cheek resting over hers. He was fast asleep by her side, Luna wide awake. She had been trying to fall asleep for hours now, but for some reason, was unable to. Something was keeping her awake, and she didn't know what it was. Every time she closed her eyes, they would snap back open. Her anxiety level seemed to be down, so just the fact that this was happening was worrisome.

When she heard a man yelling and twigs cracking just outside of Liam's bedroom window, she sprang up, her eyes wide. Liam grumbled, waking up from her movement. He rubbed his tired eyes, sitting up next to her. "What's wrong?" As Luna tried to answer, she heard the yell again, and she fell back into Liam's bare chest. Liam gulped, also having heard the yell. "What the hell is that?" Luna shrugged. "Well, let's go find out." He stood, Luna standing as well.

"This is why white people die in movies!" she whisper-yelled. Liam turned back to her. "We shouldn't just go checking it out if we don't know what it is."

"If we check it out, we'll know what it is," Liam replied. He slid on his sneakers, turning back to Luna. "Now, are you coming or not?" Luna rolled her eyes. She grabbed Liam's red hoodie, sighing sharply and following him down the stairs and out through the back door. He began shining the light of his flashlight around the back yard. "Hello? Is someone there?" Nothing. He cleared his throat. "Hello?" He looked at Luna, furrowing his eyebrows, shaking his head and turning back to the woods. "Is anyone there?"

"I don't like this," Luna whispered, referring to the silence. The woods weren't silent like this unless the birds sensed a threat. Luna stood behind Liam, her hand gripping onto his bicep. "It's way too quiet."

Liam nodded, looking around at the dark woods. "Yeah, it is." He turned back to Luna, his back now to whatever was in the woods. "Maybe there's just a coyote or something. Let's go back inside." While he talked, Luna looked over his shoulder, seeing a man with a goat head. Luna's eyes widened, and she gulped.

"B-behind you," she whispered. Liam furrowed his eyebrows. Slowly, he turned, startling slightly when he saw the figure. The goat-man tilted its head, watching the two carefully, soon beginning to stalk towards them. Luna and Liam both took a step back. Liam's eyes began glowing yellow, and he growled, beginning to turn into a werewolf. The creature hesitantly ran back into the woods. Liam turned back to Luna.

"What the hell was that?"

~~

"Skin-walker," Stiles announced, setting down a large book about mythical creatures. Luna coughed as dust flew around the room. "They're part of the Navajo culture. According to the Navajo's, they are a harmful witch that posses the ability to be able to turn into any animal they want. They're used for harm. There isn't a specific legend about them because of resistance to talk to others about it, since those people could be witches. They're not commonly talked about."

"Well how come this one was a man with a goat head?" Luna asked, crossing her arms over her chest and furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"They can be whoever they want to be," Damian defended. "That's like telling someone they can't be who they want to be." Luna rolled his eyes at his commentary. She looked back at her older brother, who was clearly happy to hold a position of the smart one in the group. His eyes shifted over to his younger sister.

Stiles shrugged. "Well, like I said, they can turn into any animal they want." Liam and Luna exchanged a glance. "If you guys really did see this skin-walker, there might be more. This also means that along with all of the supernatural creatures we already have, there are witches. Those witches are either after you or Liam."

"Great," Luna mumbled, sighing and shaking her head. "So, along with Rachel and Alex after us, there's now at least one witch after us?" Stiles nodded.

"Precisely," he said. "The one way to find out who it's after is for you and Liam to split up for a night." Luna and Liam opened their mouths to protest, but Stiles raised his hand, silencing them. "I know you're going to argue, but it's only for one night. We just need to find out who it's after."

~~

Nothing had happened to Luna throughout the night. She met back up with the pack in the living room of Derek's loft in the morning, dragging herself down the swirly stairs, still in her pajamas. Liam smiled when he saw, walking over, pecking her lips before they turned to the others. Stiles glanced between them. "So. . . Who'd it go after?"

"I didn't hear as much as a scratch," Luna stated.

"Well, I heard more than just a scratch," Liam said, lifting his shirt up to his stomach to reveal cuts from the middle of his stomach to the top of his v-line. He put his shirt back down. "I heard yelling and when I went to check it out, that happened."

"Why aren't they healed?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, they should have healed by now," Luna added.

Liam shrugged. "I don't know."

Scott sighed. "We have to get this figured out."