Underneath it All [Teen Wolf] | Erica Reyes

Don't Believe the Myth

"So what happened after I left? Were you able to get a chance to show off your skills?" Erica's question seemed to overtake all sound in Melanie's room due to her putting her phone on speaker. She didn't want to keep her head tilted while she practiced her stick handling and end up with a crick in her neck. Coach was looking for any excuse to make sure she wasn't on the team. Not that he needed to do that by himself, Jackson seemed to have the same plan in mind.

"Not really," Melanie replied, twisting her stick in her grip as she paced. "Coach kept Scott in goal for the most part and Jackson wouldn't let anyone else take him on until he got a shot in. By the time that happened we only had fifteen minutes left which were reserved for conditioning." Her lungs still ached from the sprints they were ordered to do. The hot bath she took once she got home felt like heaven on her overworked muscles.

"Aww, that sucks. But you have another practice tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah. We figure out if we're first string or not. If we don't make it we're benched for the rest of the season and don't play." Melanie sighed. "I have to make the team, Eri, I just have to. If I don't I'll die."

Erica's laugh filled the air. "Didn't you say the same thing about seeing Simple Plan in concert?"

"And look who's still alive," Melanie pointed out, causing the two girls to burst into laughter. Once it subsided, Melanie dropped her stick onto her bed and sat down in her computer chair. Pulling her phone closer to her laptop, she began clicking around on the open tabs. "Can you believe how amazing Scott was today?"

"He did so well. It's strange, he wasn't this good last year," Erica commented.

"Yeah. What in the world made him better in one day? D'you think he was bitten by some radioactive spider?"

"Well, we haven't seen giant spider webs in town so I think that can be ruled out." The phone crackled as she sighed. "Maybe he just improved."

"Overnight?" Melanie's eyebrow lifted to reflect the incredulous tone attached to her words. "While Stiles is still hopeless?"

"Well, you're asking the wrong girl. I don't know much about sports."

"Fair point. Hey, did you hear anything else about that dead body in the woods?"

"No, I haven't heard a thing. I don't think I want to either."

Melanie ignored her statement as she continued speaking. "So I was trying to figure out what it could be that would have attacked and killed that person. I mean, it was split in half. And what kind of animal out here would do that?"

"Melanie," Erica started.

"I looked some stuff up and then I realized-duh!-it's freaking obvious what it was!"

"Mel."

"It was a wendigo! It had to be a wendigo. Do you knwo what that is? See, a wendigo is a demonic half-beast that can possess characteristics of a human or a monster that had transformed from a person. And you want to know what they're known for? Cannibalism. Yeah! Cannibalism! Can you believe that? It has this emaciated frame, thin skin, and no lips because, supposedly, they eat them. They eat their own lips! Sick, huh? Anyway, I was thinking-"

"Melanie!" Erica shouted, successfully stopping her friend's stream of information. "For one thing, that's disgusting and I think you've been reading too many mythology books. For another, I don't think that a...windigo?...is an actual thing, let alone something that attacked someone in the woods. And for another, did you ever talk to Stiles?"