Dark Side of the World // S.S. [Book Two]

Chapter 5

In the sheriff's station, we explain to Sheriff what had been discovered. "It's a deadpool." Scott says. "A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded."

"Who found this list?" Sheriff Stilinski asks.

"Lydia." I say.

"How?"

"She wrote it. Well, transcribed it without realizing."

"Banshee?" Sheriff asks.

"Banshee." Stiles confirms.

The sheriff sighs. "Beautiful. Alright, what are these numbers next to the names?"

"We're getting to that. First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key."

"Wait. You mean, like a...Like a keyword?"

"A name, actually." I say.

"Allison." Scott answers.

I grip Stiles' hand with my right hand and take Scott's with my left. "Her name broke a third of the list." Stiles explains.

"And we're guessing there's two more cipher keys." I tell him.

Sheriff nods slowly at my words. "Which will give us the rest of the names. Okay. So how do we get the cipher keys?"

"Same way we got the code." Stiles states.

I tuck my hair behind my ear. "Lydia has been at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two keys."

Sheriff frowns. "You didn't know about Demarco or Carrie?" We shake our heads. "Hmm. And what about these other two names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher and Elias Town. They were werewolves too?"

Scott shakes his head. "I don't know. But Deaton said that the Nemeton would draw supernatural creatures here."

"Here in Beacon Hills? Or Beacon County? The population of Beacon Hills is just under 30,000."

"And dropping like flies." I mutter.

Sheriff narrows his eyes in thought. "But if we're talking Beacon County, then you're looking at close to 500,000. Look, how many werewolves, Banshees, kitsunes, demigods, and whatever the hell else is out there are we talking about? And what if the next cipher key uncovers not 12 names, but 100?"

Stiles shakes his head. "We don't think there would be that many. There's a limit."

"Because of the numbers. We think that once we decode the names, the numbers will add up to 117." Scott says.

"117 what?" Sheriff asks.

"Million." I answer.

"117 million dollars, Dad. Stolen from the Hale vault and is being used by someone to finance all these murders."

I scoff softly. "Well, someone clearly wants every supernatural in Beacon Hills dead."

"So the coded list goes out." Sheriff says, trying to understand. "And somehow these professional assassins get that list."

"And a cipher key." Stiles says.

"And then they go after the names on the list. They being killers with no mouths, tomahawks, thermo-cut wires that can take your head off."

Stiles sighs and looks at the list. "Let me see. Carrie was also stabbed. What's this mark?"

Sheriff Stilinski shakes his head. "We're not sure yet. We're still waiting on the ME's report. There's one other thing I don't get. How did this new assassin know that Demarco was going to be at the lake house?"