The Alpha's Keeper

The Truth Comes Out

Matt led me and Scott to the office area. At least nine desks laid out in rows filled the room. "There." He said, letting me and Scott rest against one of the desks. "You know, I... I feel sorry for you, McCall, cause right now, you're thinking, 'how are we gonna explain this when it heals?' and the sad part is, you don't even realize how incredible it is that you actually are healing. Cause you know what happens to everyone else when they get shot? They die." Matt told us. God, he was talking like this was a casual conversation between friends, taking place over a cup of coffee. "Is that what happened to you?" Scott asked, his voice surprisingly calm. But I shook my head. "You drowned, didn't you?" I asked him, remembering how he couldn't swim. How he was afraid of the water. "He shouldn't have let them drink." Matt replied, tears welling up in his distant eyes. "What – who – Matt, what do you mean?" Scott asked, trying to get to the bottom of this mystery. "Lahey! He shouldn't have let them drink." Matt shouted, anger clear on his face and in his voice.

"What, who was drinking?" Scott asked him. "The swim team, you idiot!" Matt growled. "I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know they had just won state, and Lahey, he's letting his favorites come over to have a couple drinks to celebrate. Who cares if they're 17, right?" Matt snapped as he started getting into his villain sob story. "Were you at Isaac's?" Scott asked him. "He had this first dition Spider-Man, or was it Batman?" Matt asked himself before continuing. "And we were gonna make a trade. But then I'm over there and I head music. And everyone's having a good time, and I see Sean. He throws Jessica in the pool. And then... and then Bennett goes in and..." Matt stopped, trailing off as she shook his head. "Bennett? The hunter?" I asked him in confusion. I remembered the kanima killing one of the Argents' hunters. "And them Camden. Isaac's jarhead brother, he grabs me. He thinks it's funny." Matt continued as if I hadn't spoken. "They threw you in." Scott said, nodding sadly. Was he really sympathizing with the bad guy? Well, I mean, I kind of felt bad for Matt too but what happened to him didn't mean he had to kill them all.

"I... I yelled that I can't swim, but nobody listens. I go under and I swallow water, and no one cares. And I see these bodies underwater. I... I see Jessica's got her hands down Sean's board shorts. Tucker's grabbing Kara. And I'm drowning. I'm dying, and they're laughing. All of a sudden, I was just... I'm lying by the pool. And Lahey is right there, right above me, and he says..." Matt trailed off, real pain in his eyes. "He says, 'you tell no one! This is all your fault! You don't know how to swim? What little bastard doesn't know how to swim? You say nothing! You tell no one! No one!'" Matt snapped, gesturing wildly with the gun towards me and Scott. "And I didn't." Matt continued, his wild gestures stopping. "I didn't tell anyone. And I would see them at school, and they wouldn't even look at me. I'd wake up in the middle of the night. I'd gasp for breath. And my parents, they thought I was an asthmatic. They-they-they even gave me an inhaler. They didn't know that every time I closed my eyes, I... I was drowning. You know about that little white light that they talk about, you see when you die? well, I didn't see anything. Just darkness. Everything was dark. But then... then came the Argent's funeral, and everything changed." He continued, his eyes distant as he spoke, his voice haunting.

"I was taking some photos, and then, purely by accident, Lahey gets in one of the photos. I look down at the screen on my camera, and I just had this unbelievable rage that fills up inside of me, and I just... I look at him, and I... I wanna see him dead. And the next day, he actually was. You know, Einstein was right. Imagination is more important than knowledge. It was like something out of Greek mythology. Like... like the furies coming down to punish Orestes." Matt said before he noticed the confused look on our faces. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" he asked us. "Was... was he the guy who stabbed out his eyes?" Scott asked while I simply shook my head. "God, that's Oedipus, you dumbass! The furies are deities of vengeance. Their tears ran of blood, and they had snakes for hair. If there was a crime that had gone unpunished, the furies would do the punishing. Jackson is my fury." Matt explained. "You know, when I saw him the next night, it was like this bond had been cemented between the two of us. I knew he had killed Lahey for me, and I knew he would do it again. So I went to Tucker's garage. I even paid for an oil change. And guess what? He didn't even recognize me. So when he wasn't looking, I took a shot of him from my camera. And in a few hours, he was dead." Matt finished with a small, triumphant smile.