Beacon Hills 1983

Chapter 12: Suspicion

(Teen wolf)

The night is breezy, and the car slow. I bet Taylan and I would've been home by now if we left Natalie's by ourselves.

Deputy Harrison has been very quiet. He keeps his eyes focused on the dark road ahead, and avoids us in the back seat.
What is he hiding?
A disturbing thought comes to mind.
Is he a part of this?
I glare at his kind, friendly face in the mirror.
No. No way. He's too soft to even kill a bug. I wonder how he even became a deputy.

The road just seems to drag, like an endless tunnel of void. There's no sign of life, or movement in the woods surrounding us.
Taylan shifts beside me, clearly being released from the grasp of cruel paralysis.
He winces as he reaches for the back of his neck, where he says he was "scratched".
Obviously, the scratch mark is gone now because of his super-healing, but he's probably trying to remember what happened.
It always amazes me how completely oblivious Taylan can be sometimes. I mean, he never remembers anything.

Taylan suddenly looks at me alarmingly. I shrug my shoulders to indicate my confusion. He juts his head toward Harrison.
Slowly, with my odd suspicion returning, I glance at the deputy.

"What?" I whisper, puzzled, when I notice the deputy is just driving, quietly, as he has been this whole time.
"Scent." Taylan whispers back urgently.
With realisation, I nod and take in the warm, soft scent of the driving deputy. Buried beneath the blanket of his actual scent, I feel the slight touch of someone familiar.
A small gasp escapes.

Taylan looks at me through the dark with glossy eyes.
"Mom." I mouth.
He nods slowly.
Deputy Harrison has our mother's scent on him. He's met her- recently. They've had some kind of physical contact, which is why her scent is on him.
I stare at the man in the driver's seat, suddenly feeling more tense as ever. My jaw tightens; fists clench.
Does he know her? And if so, does he know us?

We turn into the road that goes though the Preserve. Home is just a few minutes away.
I clear my throat to speak. "You can stop here."
"Right in the middle of the Preserve? No way. My job was to drop you off at your house. You say its just on the outskirts of the woods, right?"
"Yes, but we weren't even allowed to go to this party so-"
"It's quite peculiar isn't it? The location of your house." Harrison fascinates, completely ignoring me.
So now he wants to talk?

Taylan and I exchange nervous glances. Can we trust Deputy Harrison?
"Um..." Taylan speaks. "It was one of the first houses in Beacon Hills."
His telling the truth indicates he thinks we should trust Harrison. Acknowledging this, I add on, "Our family refused to let it go when they turned this into a preserve."
"Why did they build their house in the middle of the woods in the first place?" Harrison presses.
"No idea." I answer.
The porch light shines brightly though the trees ahead.
Deputy Harrison finally stops the car- and luckily, at a good distance from the Hale house.
We thank him for the drive, although, still weary of our suspicions, and head home.

The two of us sneak in through Taylan's bedroom window, and sigh with relief, thinking we got away with it- and then snap! The light goes on.

Talia stands firmly with her arms folded, and her usual smile ironed out into a straight, angry line.
"I told you not to go to that party."
We stare at her furious expression, stunned. Niether of us have ever seen Talia look so pissed.
Overtaken by surprise, we fumble for words.
"We...we just..."
"Save it." she puts her hand up to stop us. Her expression remains hard, but slightly less than before. "I'm very disappointed in both of you. I trusted you not to go. Do you have any idea how-" She stops mid sentence, shakes her head, and turns to leave.

"Wait." I stop her in the doorway.
"Something's wrong. You aren't being yourself."
Seeing this as the perfect time to clear his own suspicions, Taylan adds "Yeah... I know you would've let us go to that party if there wasn't something up..."
"Where's Mom?" I snap.
Talia stares at us differently; now more gentle apologetic.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know!" I shout, involuntarily.
We hear the other Hale's footsteps patter on the wooden floor, as they gather around Taylan's room.
"What's going on?" Atticus yawns.

Talia looks completely soft now. Her eyes start to water and she speaks calmly, turning to the others. "They were supposed to be back by last night."
Panick seems to spread through the room like a ripple effect. The thump of our heartbeats knock against our chests, fighting to escape.
Our alpha is missing.

"What... What are we gonna do?" Peter asks tearfully.
"We have to wait. And stay together as a pack. A family. Our alpha is gone, but that doesn't mean our pack strength is weakened. We're just... More at risk."
"Do you think it has something to do with... The omega?" Taylan asks shakily.
"Maybe." Talia considers.

My brother looks at me, trying to tell me something with his eyes.
"There was an attack at the party." I blurt out, understanding him.
All eyes focus on the two of us.
"Was it the omega?" Atticus asks.
"We think so. But it wasn't a werewolf. And we didn't see it." I reply.
Atticus looks confused.
"We didn't see or smell it, but it was there. It was so..." Taylan gets lost in his thoughts. "So fast." He continues, snapping out of it. "I was attacked from behind, with a scratch, and my body just went... Limp. Then it weaved through the crowd, taking them all out, one by one... But not killing any..."
Now the rest look just as baffled as Atticus.

"Look, whatever it was, it definitely wasn't like us." I say, regaining everyone's attention. "It was stronger, faster, and it paralyzed Taylan and he couldn't heal."
Silence lingers in the room for a short while.
"If that thing is responsible for whatever happened to aunt Bev and Cordelia," Atticus begins, "we have to find it."
His dark, messy hair falls in his grey eyes; just as everyone turns to leave, he mentions one more thing,
"And kill it."