CONTROL ➳ D. HALE [2]

21 ; date night

21 ➳ DATE NIGHT

"Seriously?" Derek frowned upon seeing Elise's Halloween costume. The brunette was donning a simple pair of jeans and a sweater- nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the bright red cape that rested upon her shoulders. "Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Oh, come on, it's hilarious!" Elise laughed upon viewing his expression. Derek's frown turned into a slight smirk as the brunette stepped out onto the McCall's porch and closed the door behind her. The sky was just beginning to darken as the sun set behind the hills that lined the town. She pressed her lips lightly against his in greeting before locking the door to her home.

"Alright," Elise grinned as the pair walked to Derek's car and climbed inside. The pair were planning on spending Halloween night at the loft, watching horror movies and eating an unhealthy amount of candy (the latter being Elise's suggestion). Derek started the car and Elise began rummaging through her bag as she spoke, "I've got every single Scream and Insidious movie. I also grabbed Nightmare on Elm Street. I avoided grabbing anything with witches or werewolves in it for obvious reasons."

➳

Elise hummed along to the music as Derek pulled into the parking lot of his complex. The car slowed to a smooth stop as he pulled into one of the parking spaces and turned the vehicle off. The brunette flashed him a smile as she jumped from the car and made her way to the driver's side of the car, where Derek was reaching into the back seat to collect a few things.

Shuffling footsteps reached her ears, and she spun on her heel. Her heartbeat grew rapid as she turned, expecting to see the faceless woman. She loosed a breath was she found that the footsteps belonged only to a small group of children, all dressed in various costumes. She flashed the children a smile as they all chimed, "Trick-or-treat!"Derek flashed the children a slightly confused look, clearly not expecting to have trick-or-treaters due to his lack of neighbors. Nonetheless, he reached back into his car and produces a bag of candy.

Elise paused, straightening her posture as a new shuffling noise reached her ears. She heard the sound of Derek ripping open a bag of candies to give to the trick or treaters, but it sounded far away. Elise furrowed her brows, looking around for the source of the noise. Slowly, she moved away from Derek and the trick-or-treaters, making her way to the other side of Derek's car.

That was when she saw it.

This time, the faceless woman was the culprit. She stood a few yards away near the entrance to the alley on the side of the complex. The woman lifted a single bony finger, beckoning the brunette. Elise took a deep breath, squared her jaw, and began walking toward the woman.

As Elise neared, the faceless entity shuffled further into the alley, her finger motioning for the girl to follow. "Who are you? What do you want with me?" Elise hissed, though she didn't really expect an answer. After all of her experiences with the woman, Elise had learned that she didn't talk- though, now that she thought about it, she should have known from the beginning that she wouldn't have gotten answers. After all, the woman didn't have a mouth to speak with.

Elise often wondered if the woman was even real. Maybe I'm losing my mind, she'd thought on multiple occasions. After all, no one else had ever seen the woman and Derek hadn't even been able to sense her when she was in the apartment. 

The woman paused, half submerged in the shadows. Elise slowed to a stop near the woman. She didn't reach out to touch the faceless woman, either; she'd learned that lesson the last time they'd met. The woman, though, didn't seem concerned that physical interaction would leave Elise heaving for breath, as she reached out, latching onto Elise's throat before the brunette could move.

Crying. Someone was crying. Broken stone crumbled beneath her feet. Blood soaked into the dirt. Growl slicing through the air. A labored breath. Gunfire echoing off of the eroding brick. Screams. Anger. Grief. Sadness. Pain. So much pain.

"Don't go."

Elise gasped for breath, stumbling backward and swatting her hands in front of her to knock the woman away. Her efforts weren't needed, however, as when Elise returned to reality, the faceless woman was already gone.

"Don't go," Elise repeated breathlessly, her hands trailing up to graze the skin where the woman had grabbed her. Her throat felt hot to the touch, almost as if she'd been burned. In her vision, the voice had sounded muffled and distorted, almost as if the words had been traveling through water.

A pained shout cut through the air, ripping Elise from her thoughts.

"Derek?!" Elise called, rushing toward the source of the cry. She skidded to a halt near the end of the alleyway as several shadowed figured stepped into her path. Elise almost thought that they had appeared from out of the air itself, but she quickly discarded the idea. When peering through the space between two of the figures, her eyes caught the silhouette of someone laying on the ground. Her eyes flitted between the figures, finding that each one was clad in a mask that glinted eerily in the moonlight.

"What did you do to him?" Elise hissed, trying to mask the nerves that snaked their way through her veins. She felt her fingers twitch by her sides as the masked figures remained silent, each one taking a step toward her instead of answering her question.

Instinctively, Elise took a step backward. She caught a flash of movement in the corner of her vision and spun on her heel, finding several more masked figures behind her. When the brunette turned back around, she was nearly face-to-face with the figures she'd originally seen. Fear wove it's web through her nerves as a painful cold swept over her.

Then everything went black.

➳

Over an hour had passed before Elise was shaken awake by careful hands on her shoulders. Her hazel eyes shot open and she gasped for breath as she shot upward into a sitting position. She hadn't anticipated Derek's face hovering above her when she'd jerked into consciousness, and their foreheads collided with a thump.

"Ow!" Elise hissed, rubbing her head before looking up at Derek with wide eyes. "Sorry," she said as he mirrored her actions. "Are you okay?"

He parted his lips to speak but froze as his eyes trailed away from Elise's face and to the base of her throat. "Your neck," he muttered, the concern in his eyes growing even more intense. "Elise, what happened?" 

Elise cocked a brow, pulling her phone from where it resided in her pocket and looked at herself in the reflection provided by the screen. At the base of her throat, exactly where the woman had grabbed her, held red welts that formed a vague handprint shape. It looked as if a hot iron had been pressed against her skin. Another mark that the woman had left. 

"Are those hand prints" Derek questioned. 

Elise's eyes widened, but for a reason that Derek hadn't expected. "You can see them?"

➳

Does anyone wanna guess what that vision means?? I tried to make it kind of obvious but I didn't want to make it so that Elise knew what would happen. I'll tell you that it's something that happens in S4 but I don't think that it's what you guys expect it to be (at least, I hope it isn't because it took me over a year to come up with how I'm writing Elise's plot and I don't want it to be predictable). Also, next chapter, you'll get some insight on who the faceless woman is... or at least, who they THINK she is! I'm really sorry that this chapter is so short, but I had a lot of difficulties trying to write it bc I've had wicked writer's block lately.
Words: 1352

Feedback is most appreciated <3