For Good | Hale- TO/TW [8]

32 | Boxes of Memories

Gif from hellishrpt on Tumblr

Lexi rummages through the basement. Boxes and boxes and boxes of materials are staked all over the floor. Some are labeled, some are not. With every movement, dust floats into the air.

As she finishes searching the box she holds, Lexi lets to a shout of frustration, throwing it to the side. She grunts as she reaches over to grab her seventh bottle of whiskey. Without hesitation, she drinks the bottle dry.

It shatters on the ground as she reaches for her eighth bottle.

She tears at her hair as her eyes catch a box in the corner of the room. The old chest causes Lexi's heart to ache. The grooves on the edges indicate that someone has tried to open it. She knows no one can other than her own blood.

She kneels down to the chest, her mind filling with memories. The box opens without difficulty.

The images inside make a tear run down Lexi's face. Her chest aches with grief as she reaches inside. Her fingers curl around the shimmering material of a picture.

Lexi takes out the picture. A memory floats to the top of her mind.

"Talia, stop it!" Lexi holds her hands before her face. Before her, Talia is trying to snap a picture, but Lexi refuses. She does not want to be commemorated in paper—she wants to live and never be confined to one image.

"Oh, come on!" Talia groans. She lets her hands drop, the Polaroid held tight. "I want to remember you when you leave me to my family."

Lexi's hands drop.

Her eyes are wide. No laughter is left in her expression. Only horror. "I would never leave you," she says, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

Talia blinks, realizing the words that spilled from her mouth. "That's not what I meant," she says, holding her hands out. "I just want a picture."

"You think I'm going to leave?" Lexi asks. Her throat feels tight and her lungs are constricted. "Just like that? After all these years?"

Talia is starting to panic. "Lexi, come on. I didn't mean it like—"

Lexi shoots forward, grabbing the polaroid from Talia's grasp. Talia's eyes widen as Lexi smirks at her friend. "You little—" Talia breaks into a grin as Lexi snaps a picture.

"Gotcha!" Lexi exclaims victoriously.

Talia flashes her eyes red. "You're gonna regret that."

Weeks after Lexi took the picture in her hand, she still thought about what Talia said. In the end, she did leave the Hales to rot in Beacon Hills. And that's what got them killed.

Lexi places the picture on the floor beside her, Talia's face smiling at the ceiling. She reaches back into the chest. Her fingers brush against a jar she never possessed. The rowan wood makes her fingers tingle. The same wood of the Nematon.

Warning: Mention of Mikeal--if you want to skip it, go to the end of the italicized part

As Lexi steps up to the Nemeton, her whole body fights against her mind. Every step is an anchor sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Scott and Derek march ahead of her. She can hear the creatures trapped in the old root cellar calling for help.

She pauses at the tree line, watching as Scott and Derek open the cellar doors. "Took you long enough!" She can hear Stiles say.

Scott laughs and shakes his head. As he begins to help, Derek turns back. It is almost instinct at this point for him to try to find Lexi.