Beacon Hills 1983

Chapter 11: Bodies

(Teen wolf)

"Why are you just lying there?" I ask Taylan, who is pathetically sprawled on the wooden floor, beside my unconscious friend.
"I'm paralysed. So are the others." He moves his eyes in their direction.
Excluding Taylan and Lucy, six other passed-out teenagers lie dead still on the polished floor.

"How..." I start, looking for words. "What happened?"
"I don't know. All I remember is feeling a scratch on the back of my neck. Then my body stopped moving, and I was... falling." Taylan says while frowning at the memory. "Just before I hit the ground, I saw something move fast through the crowd, knocking them all over like domino's..." He trails off before tuning out and completely changing the topic, "You know how annoying this is? I have an itch on my right arm."

I ignore him and shake my head, trying to figure out what happened.
A scratch? On the back of his neck? What kind of supernatural creature has a scratch that leaves you paralysed? It sounds so familiar yet so foreign. Talia must've briefly mentioned it... but I can't remember...

"Nes!" Taylan whispers loudly, and snaps me out of my thoughts. "What are you thinking about?"
"What we're gonna do with the bodies." I lie.
After realising that I've just called them bodies, a ghastly thought comes to mind.
"Wait, Taylan... they're not..."
"Dead? No, I don't think so."
I sigh in relief.
"And we're not doing anything about them, they're not our problem. Now, you should drag me out of here, so we can get home before Talia finds ou-"
"We have to do something about them!"
"No we don't, just grab me and-"
"You and I both know there's something too... supernatural about this situation."
He stares back at me with eyes that say they really wished I hadn't pointed that out.
"If whatever happened here does turn out to be supernatural... then this is our problem."

Taylan sighs and rolls his eyes. "Fine."
We try to spontaneously think of an idea on how to get all six of them out of this house.
And then, Taylan has a light bulb moment.
"Call the sheriff. Tell him you went to the bathroom and when you came back, everyone else was gone and you found them like this."
"Shouldn't we-"
"We don't have time to discuss this! Just do it, they'll know what to do! "
"Okay, okay, relax." I shush him.

Leaving the lifeless bodies in the living room, I explore the house for a phone.
And there I find it, hanging snug on the wall beside the guest room.
I dial the Sheriff's station and quietly wait for my call to be answered.
The longer I wait, the darker the house feels and the more my heart races.
What if it's still lurking around...?

A lady's voice speaks through the receiver, "Beacon Hills Sheriff county departm-"
"Hi, there's been some kind of- um- foul play on 26 Park Avenue, and- I'm not quite sure what happened-"

"No need to worry ma'am, we're already sending deputy's to the location, we received a call earlier on-"
"Okay, thank you." I say quickly, and hang up.
The cops were already on their way. Maybe one of the sober kids called them; or a neighbor.

While waiting for the deputy's, I drag Natalie all the way up the carpet steps, to her rich-girl room, and tuck her into a flowery pink, canopy bed.
She looks so pretty, fast asleep. Her strawberry-blond hair flows like a serene river, and freckles rest on her cheeks like gentle droplets.
It's almost impossible to believe someone like Natalie Blossom has so much insecurity.
I bend down and kiss her on the forehead.
"You're beautiful." I whisper, and then make my way downstairs to my useless brother.

"Nes! I think I just moved my foot!" Taylan exclaims, when he hears my footsteps.
His foot has about as much movement as a solid rock.
"Yeah. I see a lot of movement." I reply in a dull, sarcastic manner.
"But I don't get it!" He complains. "Why am I not healing?"
"I think we both would like to know." I sigh, while picking up Lucy and starting to drag her to the guest room, a few feet away.
"This is ridiculous. I didn't even catch a scent." Taylan speaks more to himself, than to me.

My nose itches with the mixture of smells I receive from Lucy. Alcohol, sweat, her usual honey-like scent... My brother.
I cringe at the last one. Who would've ever thought there'd be something going on between Lucy and Taylan? I'd almost laugh at the thought- if it wasn't so utterly my reality.

When I finally get back to the living room, I hear the engines of the deputy's cars, and soon enough they're pulling up in the driveway.

The first deputy enters slowly, gun raised, suspicious of the eery, dead party.
As I quietly creep towards the entrance, a sort of familiar scent wraps the air around me, I inch a little closer... until I see it- and suddenly, my mind blinks with recognition.
"Deputy Harrison?" I gasp, remembering the deputy who nearly busted Lucy and I at the Preserve. Luckily he didn't see us that night; he won't recognize me.

I step out into the light, coming in from the open door, Deputy Harrison turns around as fast as a lighting bolt and points his anxious gun at me.
Instantly, I raise my hands up in surrender.
"Woah." The only reason I say it is because that's what a normal person would say.
But guns don't scare me. (Unless they have silver or wolfsbane laced bullets, of course- clearly, Deputy Harrison's gun has neither; because he's not a hunter).

When Harrison realises I'm just a teenager, he lowers his gun. Another deputy enters the quiet house.
"I made the call." I say while I start towards the bodies; deputy's follow.
"Actually, the second call. Anyway, I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, they were like this," I gesture towards the bodies, "and everyone else left the party. I didn't know what to do so I called the Sheriff's station."
Deputy Harrison nods, he looks quite stressed actually. Sweat beads his creased forehead. His face is flushed with worry.
Has this happened before?

"Okay, kid," he begins, "You should go home. It's pretty late." He stares at me with kind, but desperate blue eyes. "But if you remember anything," he pauses, looking down at them before continuing, "anything at all that seemed... weird to you, please let us know."
I nod as I slip away and move towards my brother who's pretending to be unconscious like the rest of the victim's.

"This is my brother, I'll just-"
"You can't drag him home." The other deputy, an older man with a thick brown mustache, laughs, and looks at deputy Harrison.
The distressed man walks to my paralysed brother and lifts him up with some struggle, despite his huge, pulsing muscles.

Before I have time to react, Harrison is out of the house, and on his way to his car, expecting me to follow.
Under normal circumstances, I'd retaliate, but something about Harrison tells me to trust him.