DOLL PARTS ━━ Stiles Stilinsk...

C.H.⠀014⠀✷⠀Jackass Knows

❝ I'm gonna destroy any chance you have with her. ❞

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"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Is she getting close?" Brietta shouts, her eyes locked on the road ahead, praying that Kate Argent's SUV wasn't as close as she thought.

⠀⠀"She's literally right behind us!" Scott informs her urgently from the passenger seat, "You need to go faster!"

⠀⠀"Much faster!" Stiles echoes from the back seat, leaning forward into the charged atmosphere between Brietta and Scott.

⠀⠀Brietta emits a strangled, frustrated sound, yet she presses her foot down harder on the gas pedal, unleashing a surge of power. Her right hand deftly shifts gears, and she navigates the wheel with a sharp turn to the left, the car's tires protesting against the asphalt as they glide between looming buildings. She effortlessly shifts gears once more, propelling them forward into the night.

⠀⠀"I still don't get why Derek let the one person who doesn't know how to drive, drive," Scott comments anxiously, leaning toward Brietta to steal a glimpse at the Camaro's speedometer.

⠀⠀"I don't know, Scott! Now, stop distracting me!" She snaps, her eyes fixated on the road as she maneuvers through an area near a desolate train depot.

⠀⠀"Brelly, I really don't think you're grasping the concept of a car chase here!" Stiles critiques from the backseat, reaching forward to graze the leather on the right side of the driver's seat.

⠀⠀"If I go any faster, I'm going to crash and kill us!" She protests, but her foot descends with a bit more pressure on the gas pedal, pushing their speed up by another increment.

⠀⠀"Well, if you don't go faster, they're going to kill us!" Stiles shouts, nudging her shoulder with his hand.

⠀⠀Her foot settles onto the gas pedal with a daunting pressure, and she shifts gears again, a sharp inhale escaping her as the car's engine roars, propelling them forward.

⠀⠀"They're gone," Stiles announces suddenly.

⠀⠀"What?" Brietta's eyes finally flicker over to her side mirror, and her body tenses at the absence of headlights in the reflection. "Where did they go?" she asks in confusion, letting up on the gas and down-shifting between gears, allowing the car to slow incrementally.

⠀⠀Stiles clicks on his walkie-talkie from the backseat, and Sheriff Stilinski's voice crackles through the radio. "All units. Suspect is on foot, heading into the Iron Works."

⠀⠀"Shit. The hunters know," Brietta cringes, sharing a worried look with Scott and Stiles.

⠀⠀She takes a hard right, guiding the car toward the old Iron Works building, speeding past abandoned warehouses before executing one more sharp turn. A large open doorway appears on the side of the building, a relic from its delivery days. Brietta turns the wheel sharply, tires squealing in harmony with the urgency of their escape.

⠀⠀"Stop, stop, stop!" Scott yells suddenly, unbuckling his seatbelt and climbing over into the back to sit with Stiles.

⠀⠀Brietta slams on the brakes as she, too, spots Derek squatting down behind a large piece of equipment. The tires squeal in protest once more, and Stiles reaches across and into the front seat to swing the passenger door open for Derek.

⠀⠀"Get in! Get in!" Brietta yells, her heart pounding as she watches Derek race to the vehicle through a spray of bullets.

⠀⠀As soon as he is inside the car, she shifts gears and slams her foot down on the gas pedal again, taking off while a hunter, whom Brietta can't see, shoots at the moving vehicle rapidly with an automatic weapon.

⠀⠀"What part of 'laying low' don't you understand!" Scott yells at Derek as they speed back out of the building. Brietta takes them in the opposite direction. "Dammit! I had him!" Derek yells angrily, slamming his hand down on the dashboard.

⠀⠀"Who? The Alpha?" Stiles pipes up frantically from the backseat.

⠀⠀"Yes!" Derek snaps, "He was right in front of me, and the fucking police showed up!"

⠀⠀"Woah, hey-. They're just doing their jobs," Stiles defends immediately. Brietta turns her head just in time to catch Derek fixing Stiles with a sharp glare before she refocuses her eyes on the road.

⠀⠀"Yeah." Derek snaps in annoyance, and Brietta feels eyes burning into the side of her face, "Thanks to someone who decided to make me the most wanted fugitive in the entire state."

⠀⠀Brietta tightens her hands around the steering wheel. "Can we move past that? I thought you forgave me when you let me drive your car," seeing that he is still glaring at her, she huffs out a breath, "Look, I'm sorry, but, in my defense, we had to have a scapegoat, and when someone gets impaled with claws in their chest and throws up black blood, they usually don't survive!"

⠀⠀"Well, I did!" Derek scoffs, "It takes a while to heal from Alpha-inflicted wounds, you know."

⠀⠀Brietta snaps her head to Derek, disregarding the fact that she needs to have her eyes trained on the road. "No, I didn't know. Did you know that you are very cagey and that you keep a lot of information from us? Information that, if you had told us, wouldn't even have us in this situation!"

⠀⠀"Alright! Alright-." Stiles interjects before turning his attention to Derek, "How did you find him?"

⠀⠀Derek doesn't respond, and Scott huffs from the backseat. "Can you try to trust us for like, half a second?" Scott snaps, leaning forward from the backseat.

⠀⠀"Yeah!" Stiles agrees, leaning forward in his own seat to stick his face between Brietta and Derek. "All of us."

⠀⠀Derek shoots him another dark look, and Stiles retreats into the backseat again. "Or just them," he concedes. "I'll be back here."

⠀⠀Derek sighs, turning his head in Brietta's direction as he speaks. "Look, the last time I talked to my sister, she was close to figuring something out. She found two things. The first was a guy named Harris."

⠀⠀"Harris? Like, Adrian Harris?" Brietta repeats in confusion.

⠀⠀Stiles throws himself forward in his seat again to peer around Scott and look at Derek. "Our Chemistry teacher?"

⠀⠀"Why him?" Scott asks.

⠀⠀"I-I don't know yet," Derek tells them.

⠀⠀After a few seconds of silence, Brietta's eyes flick over to Derek again. "Okay. So, what was the second thing she found?"

⠀⠀"It's some kind of symbol." He pulls a folded-up piece of paper out of the pocket of his jacket and opens it to show it to Scott and Stiles.

⠀⠀"What? What's the symbol?" Brietta asks her friends immediately, straining to keep her eyes on the road with brimming curiosity.

⠀⠀"Uh," Stiles says quietly, he and Scott remaining silent for a tense moment.

⠀⠀"What?" Derek asks them sharply. "You know what this is?"

⠀⠀"What is it?" Brietta repeats frantically, not enjoying being left out.

⠀⠀"I've seen it on a necklace," Scott announces as he leans back in his seat. "Allison's necklace."

⠀⠀"Of course it is," Brietta mutters in annoyed disbelief as she lowers her foot down on the gas.

⠀⠀All roads seem to lead back to the Argents.

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"This is gonna be impossible, you know," Scott announces to his best friends as he pulls open the main doors to the school on Wednesday morning.

⠀⠀"We'll figure something out," Brietta assures him with resolution as they enter the building.

⠀⠀"Yeah," Stiles agrees before turning to her with excited eyes, "Wait. Why don't you just ask to borrow it? Girls share clothes, and jewelry, and stuff, right?"

⠀⠀"Not family heirlooms," she says, shaking her head while tugging at the straps of her backpack. If anyone were to ask her for her Yang charm, she would contemplate punching them in the throat for asking.

⠀⠀As a thought crosses her mind, Brietta pauses and huffs out a small breath, "We could steal it."

⠀⠀"What if she, like, only takes it off in the shower or something?" Scott brings up, and Brietta lets out a small sound of frustration.

⠀⠀"We'll workshop this, alright?" Stiles nods, putting a hand on Scott's shoulder and shaking him slightly, "We'll get the necklace so that you can get cured. Got it?"

⠀⠀"Got it," Scott nods.

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As Brietta walks through the small courtyard on her way to her second period, she's grabbed by the arm and dragged into the main building. "Hey-!" She cries out until she notices that it's Scott, "You can't just sneak up on people like that, Scott."

⠀⠀From the corner of her eye, she watches Stiles jog up to the two of them, having been a few yards away.

⠀⠀"Jackson knows I'm a werewolf," Scott tells them quickly, already walking down the hallway again.

⠀⠀"W-Wait, what?" Brietta asks, running to catch up with him.

⠀⠀"How the hell did he find out?" Stiles asks, falling into step beside her.

⠀⠀Scott looks at them with wild eyes, "I have no idea."

⠀⠀"Are you sure he knows?" Brietta questions.

⠀⠀"Yeah, I-Did he say it out loud?" Stiles asks, "The word?"

⠀⠀Scott looks at Stiles in confusion, "What word?"

⠀⠀"Werewolf," Stiles hisses in annoyance as they walk, "Did he say 'I know you're a werewolf'?"

⠀⠀"No, but he implied it pretty freaking clearly," Scott tells them worriedly, looking around them to check that no one is listening in on their conversation.

⠀⠀"Okay," Brietta says quickly, "Okay. We can control this, right?" She looks over at Stiles, who nods with conviction. "He doesn't have any proof, right?" Stiles brings up, making Scott look back at him with wide eyes, "And, if he wanted to tell someone, who's gonna believe him, anyway?"

⠀⠀"How about Allison's father?" Scott snaps quietly, holding his arms out in exasperation.

⠀⠀Brietta lets out a small, panicked noise and glances nervously between her friends, anxiously gnawing on her lower lip. While dealing with Allison is one thing, the thought of the entire Argent family truly terrifies her. Something in Brietta is telling her that they'll be one of their biggest problems.

⠀⠀"Okay, it's bad." Stiles reaches up a comforting hand to smooth down the hair at the back of Brietta's head before settling his fingers between her shoulder blades.

⠀⠀"Guys, I need a cure," Scott tells them, "Right now."

⠀⠀"Does Jackson know about Allison's dad? The fact that he's a Hunter?" Brietta asks.

⠀⠀Scott shakes his head, "I don't know."

⠀⠀"Okay, where's Derek?" Stiles asks after a moment, looking between Brietta and Scott.

⠀⠀"Hiding, like we told him to. Why?" Scott says vaguely, having only found out the older werewolf's location that morning.

⠀⠀"I have another idea," Stiles sighs, and Brietta lets out a slight cringe, not entirely on board with all of Stiles' plans, "It's gonna take a little time and finesse, though."

⠀⠀"We have the game tonight," Scott reminds him, "It's quarterfinals, and it's your first game."

⠀⠀Stiles throws his head back in exasperation, dropping his hand from her back to pull the strap of his backpack more firmly onto his shoulder. "I know, I know," Stiles sighs. He peeks over Brietta's shoulder at Scott and changes the subject, "Do we have a plan for Allison yet?"

⠀⠀"I can try talking to her," Brietta concedes, shrugging as she moves her loose hair away from her face, "I'm not sure how well it'll go, but I can say that I tried, at least."

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"It didn't go well," Brietta huffs as she plops down onto the bench in front of Scott in the school cafeteria.

⠀⠀At her words, Scott hangs his head, picking up the largest chicken tender from his plate and tossing it onto the top of his salad sadly. Brietta frowns at his actions and reaches over, rubbing his shoulder, "I wish it went well. I really do."

⠀⠀He sighs heavily and looks over at her, brushing his knee against hers in silent gratitude, "Thanks for trying."

⠀⠀Stiles appears behind them only a few moments later, patting Scott on the shoulder before sitting down beside him and across from Brietta. "So, did you get the necklace?" Stiles asks unknowingly as he sets his tray down, his eyes trained on Brietta.

⠀⠀"Not exactly," Scott admits with a frown as Brietta drops her hand, pulling it back towards her.

⠀⠀Stiles sighs, "What happened?"

⠀⠀"I blew it," Brietta tells Stiles, stabbing her fork into her salad and stuffing a bite into her mouth. At the surprised look on Stiles' face, she continues, "I asked her to borrow the necklace for a date," She scrunches her face and shakes her head, not noticing the slight panicked looks on Scott and Stiles' faces, "anyway, before she could give me the necklace, she told me that I look like Eli and started to tear up, then she ran away."

⠀⠀Stiles speaks around a mouthful of his own chicken, "So she's not giving you the neckl-."

⠀⠀"She's not giving her the necklace," Scott interrupts, fixing Stiles with a glare.

⠀⠀"Well, did you find anything else out?" Stiles questions as he eats.

⠀⠀Scott leans back in his chair, "Just that I know nothing about girls, and that they're totally psychotic."

⠀⠀Brietta stabs aggressively into her salad and narrows her eyes at Scott. "Hey."

⠀⠀Stiles leans over the table, interrupting the glare that Brietta has directed on Scott, "Okay, okay-." He interjects, "I came up with a plan 'B' in case something like this happened."

⠀⠀"Good," Brietta smiles, turning her attention back to her plate, "So, what's plan 'B'?"

⠀⠀"Just steal the stupid thing," Stiles tells them obviously.

⠀⠀"Did you forget the part where we said that she probably only takes it off to get in the shower?" Brietta questions, pursing her lips at Stiles.

⠀⠀He waves her off noncommittally, and when she looks down at her plate, he gives Scott a look of solidarity and mouths the words at him again silently, "Steal it."

⠀⠀"Couldn't we at least try getting to Harris?" Scott asks his friends.

⠀⠀Stiles shakes his head, "My dad put him on a twenty-four-hour protective detail, okay? The necklace is all we got." He tells them before directing his attention solely on Scott. "Steal it. Thank you."

⠀⠀Scott huffs out a small laugh and glances around the cafeteria before spotting Jackson sitting at a table with Lydia and Allison. Scott sits up straighter at the fact that Jackson is staring intently at him, and he nudges Stiles. "Guys," Scott whispers, "He's watching us."

⠀⠀"Who, Jackson?" Brietta asks back quietly, unsubtly peering over her shoulder to look for Jackson.

⠀⠀Stiles nudges Brietta under the table to get her to face forward just as Jackson bites into an apple. Because of Scott's intense focus on Jackson, the sound is startlingly loud to his ears, and he flinches at the crunch when Jackson's teeth rip into the fruit.

⠀⠀"Scott. Can you hear me?" Jackson asks quietly, his voice sounding as if he has his mouth hovering directly beside Scott's ear. "You can. Can't you?"

⠀⠀"What's wrong?" Stiles whispers across the table, his own body stiff at Scott's reaction.

⠀⠀"Jackson's talking to me. He knows I can hear him," Scott tells his friends, looking between them frantically. "Brie, look at me." He hisses, nudging her with his elbow when she looks back across the room toward Jackson. "One of you talk to me. Just-Act normal. Pretend that nothing's happening."

⠀⠀"Are you trying to pretend not to hear me?" Jackson mutters on the other side of the room, a smirk playing on his lips.

⠀⠀"Say something! Talk to me-." Scott hisses at his friend.

⠀⠀Brietta flinches and drops her fork as she turns in her seat to face him fully. "I-um. I-." Scott looks at her with wide eyes, and she shakes her head anxiously. "I can't think under pressure! My mind's blank-."

⠀⠀"Your mind's blank?" Scott repeats incredulously. "You can't think of anything to say?"

⠀⠀"I don't-," She panics, flailing her hands around, "Um, okay. I'm talking to you about the, um, about the-."

⠀⠀"Weather!" Stiles supplies helpfully from across the table. "Sports! Current events-." He says, seemingly just listing news segments as they pop into his head.

⠀⠀Brietta's eyes flick over to where Jackson had been sitting, and she sags in relief. "He's gone. He's not even sitting there anymore."

⠀⠀Scott's head snaps up to look around the lunchroom, trying to find Jackson. "Where the hell is he?" He whispers.

⠀⠀"Looking for me, McCall?" Jackson's voice pipes in. "I'm right here."

⠀⠀Scott averts his gaze quickly down to the tabletop. "So, what else can you do? Huh? Can you see better? Are you stronger? More powerful?" Jackson prods. "Y'know, I knew there was no way you suddenly got that good at lacrosse. Which means...you're actually a cheater. Aren't you? I mean, can you even play lacrosse?"

⠀⠀"Yes," Scott whispers petulantly in response, though Jackson can't hear it.

⠀⠀Brietta nudges him softly with her hand again in question, but Scott ignores her, focusing intently on the table as he listens to Jackson continue.

⠀⠀"I'll bet my new co-captain is gonna score a bunch of shots tonight, aren't you?" Jackson needles. "And while you're pretending you're not a lying cheat, I'm gonna ruin your life, if you don't give me exactly what I want." He threatens with a quiet laugh. "And you know what I'm gonna start with? Her."

⠀⠀Scott's attention snaps up to see Jackson standing beside the vending machines, nodding his head in Brietta's direction across the room. Scott's hand tightens into a fist around his bottle of water at the thought of Jackson doing something to Brietta.

⠀⠀"I'm gonna destroy any chance you have with her," Jackson chuckles darkly, "And, when I'm done with that, I'm gonna get her all alone, and I'm gonna get my hands all over that tight little body."

⠀⠀Scott's hands tremble with rage, and he sets down his water bottle to grip the edges of his lunch tray, white-knuckled.

⠀⠀"Scott, come on, you can't let him do this," Stiles speaks quietly, leaning across the table, "You can't let him have this kind of power over you. Okay?"

⠀⠀Brietta reaches her hand over to rest on Scott's forearm, "Scott, just breathe, okay?"

⠀⠀"I'm gonna do everything you and Stilinski just wish you could do. And, Scott?" Scott holds his breath as he can practically hear the smile in Jackson's words, "She's gonna beg for more. I mean, look at her right now. Imagine what it'll be like when she's got those hands all over me."

⠀⠀"Scott, just take a breath," Brietta whispers softly, worry in her voice, "Okay? Just look at me."

⠀⠀Scott tightens his hold on the plastic of the tray and struggles to follow her advice, his mind hazy through his rage. He huffs a sharp breath in and out through his nose.

⠀⠀"I bet she likes to get loud. Maybe she's even a screamer," Jackson antagonizes, "How are you gonna feel, Scott? When I make her feel so good that she's screaming my name?"

⠀⠀Scott's lunch tray snaps in half, and Brietta and Stiles both flinch at the loud crack of the plastic. The entire lunchroom looks over at their table, and Scott pulls in a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm his anger.

⠀⠀When he meets Jackson's eye across the room, the boy is grinning at him like he knows exactly how close Scott is to completely losing control.

⠀⠀"Jesus. What did he even say?" Brietta asks quietly, her eyes darting from Scott to Jackson, who sends her a look that makes her shiver.

⠀⠀"Dude, was it that bad?" Stiles asks him.

⠀⠀"Yeah." Scott exhales another angry breath through his nose, "Yeah, it was that bad."

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"It wasn't that bad!" Stiles scoffs as he turns into his driveway and parks.

⠀⠀"It was a little bad," Brietta shrugs, unbuckling herself from the passenger seat, "I don't know, it was just a little too much like Power Rangers Time Force."

⠀⠀Stiles pauses in the middle of unbuckling his seatbelt, looking up at her in surprise, "Power Rangers Time Force?" He repeats. She nods, and he speaks again, his left twitching, "Did you just compare The Phantom Menace to Power Rangers Time Force?"

⠀⠀Brietta rolls her eyes with a small smile as she climbs out of the Jeep, beelining to his front door, "Yes, Stiles. They were both techie movies, but Phantom Menace was too confusing. All the Power Rangers movies are straight to the point. Also, might I add that Circuit is cuter than that weird, tall robot."

⠀⠀"Wha-," Stiles scoffs as he stumbles out his car, sprinting over to meet Brietta by his front door, "C-3PO saved the Rebels and Circuit short-circuited after they crashed in the second episode. No wonder none of the shows got a second season."

⠀⠀Brietta snaps her head toward Stiles as he inserts his key into the door knob with a smug look. "They didn't need a second season," Brietta scoffs, though she's still upset that none of the shows got a second season, "Besides, Circuit saved them when it count. There's a reason everyone likes R2-D2 better than C-3PO."

⠀⠀Stiles gapes at Brietta, and she shrugs innocently as she pushes the front door open, stepping into Stiles' house. "Anyways, I'm not saying that Star Wars is bad," she tells him as they climb up the stairs to the second floor, "but it isn't the greatest thing to ever be invented. That would go to Twilight."

⠀⠀Brietta makes her statement with a tad of humor, but Stiles doesn't seem to notice it. He pauses outside of his bedroom and scrunches his face up in frustration in a way that suggests he has too many things that he wants to say all at once. He lifts his finger accusingly at her and narrows his eyes before turning sharply, opening his bedroom door and making a beeline for the laptop on his desk without a word.

⠀⠀She giggles lightly, trailing in after him and tossing her satchel on his bed just as Stilinski calls out down the hallway, "Hey, Stiles!"

⠀⠀He spins in his chair and looks in Brietta's direction, "Yo, Da-Derek..." He stutters, eyes wide.

⠀⠀Brietta's eyebrows furrow in confusion, and she turns her head, letting out a yelp of surprise at the sight of Derek standing right behind her. She yelps and flinches, running into Stiles' dresser beside her.

⠀⠀Stiles dashes toward his bedroom door and grabs it, closing it around himself and blocking the rest of the room off with his body as he greets his dad in the hallway.

⠀⠀"What'd you say?" Stilinski asks in confusion.

⠀⠀"I said, 'Yo D-Dad,'" Stiles tells him slowly.

⠀⠀"Is Brietta alright?" His dad follows up, "It sounded like she ran into something."

⠀⠀She rushes to the door and squeezes underneath where Stiles' forearm is resting against the doorframe, "I'm good," she says quickly, gripping onto Stiles' shirt for balance in the narrow space, "Just clumsy. You know me, always...running into things," she finishes awkwardly, cringing at her squeaky voice.

⠀⠀Stilinski narrows his eyes suspiciously and looks between them, "Right..." He says slowly before focusing on Stiles, "Listen, I've got something I've gotta take care of. But, uh, I'm gonna be there tonight. I mean...your first game." The man grins excitedly at his son.

⠀⠀"My first game," Stiles repeats with a nod, "Uh, it's great. Awesome. Uh, good."

⠀⠀"I'm very happy for you," his father tells him earnestly, "And I'm really proud of you."

⠀⠀Stiles huffs a nervous laugh, "Thanks. Me too. I'm happy and proud...of myself."

⠀⠀"We're all very proud of Stiles," Brietta repeats with a small smile, rubbing her waist that's sore from hitting the dresser.

⠀⠀Stilinski grins at his son, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket, "So, they're really gonna let you play, right?"

⠀⠀"Yeah, Dad," Stiles confirms, his arm dropping slightly on the doorframe to rest more firmly across Brietta's shoulders, "I'm first line. Believe that?"

⠀⠀"It's amazing," Brietta agrees, patting her left hand on Stiles' chest, rubbing slightly, "Finally getting a chance to play and show us what he's got."

⠀⠀Stilinski looks between them again as Stiles makes a small noise, making Brietta lower her hand awkwardly. "I uh-I'm very proud." Stilinski repeats, stepping forward to rest a hand on his son's shoulder and giving it a loving squeeze. He runs his hand over the short cut of Stiles' hair before smiling again and turning to leave. "See you both there," Stilinski tells them.

⠀⠀"Right," Brietta hums, sending him a small salute that makes her want to bury herself into the ground. "Take it easy," Stiles calls out.

⠀⠀His dad slowly descends the stairs, looking between the two of them suspiciously again and shaking his head before disappearing out of sight.

⠀⠀"That was so awkward," Brietta whispers miserably. She ducks back from beneath his arm and tugs on Stiles' shirt to pull him into the room, beginning to mumble under her breath, "So, so awkward."

⠀⠀The door swings shut with a bang, and Brietta is pushed to the side when Derek shoves Stiles up against the wood of the door with a hand fisted into the boy's shirt.

⠀⠀"If you say one word..." Derek threatens quietly, baring his teeth at Stiles as his grip on his shirt tightens.

⠀⠀Stiles glares at Derek, "What, like 'Hey Dad, Derek Hale's in my room. Bring your gun.'?"

⠀⠀"Let him go, Derek," Brietta hisses, stepping forward and gripping Derek's fingers, forcing him to let go of the fabric of Stiles' shirt, "We're the only ones who don't want to see you in Beacon Hills Correctional Facility at the moment."

⠀⠀Derek takes a small step back at Brietta's insistence, and Stiles continues to glare at the older boy, "That's right. At this second, I'm harboring your fugitive ass. It's my house, my rules, buddy." Stiles slaps Derek's shoulder in emphasis, and Derek's eyes drop down to the point of contact before slowly moving back to Stiles with a dark look.

⠀⠀Brietta pulls Derek back another step, and Stiles grins at him smugly. When Stiles moves to head back over to his desk, Derek jerks forward threateningly, and the boy yelps in fear.

⠀⠀"Ho-Oh my god," Stiles flinches and scrambles to get away from the werewolf, stumbling as he falls into his desk chair. Brietta moves to stand behind Stiles and puts a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, shaking her head at the two of them.

⠀⠀"Scott didn't get the necklace?" Derek asks them after a moment, looming in the corner of the room.

⠀⠀"No," Stiles starts.

⠀⠀"He's working on it," Brietta defends before slapping her hand down softly onto Stiles' shoulder, "But there's something else Stiles thinks we can try. He's the man with a plan." She boasts softly.

⠀⠀Derek raises his eyebrows and looks at Stiles expectantly.

⠀⠀"The night we were trapped at the school, Eli got a text from Brie asking him to meet her there. That's the whole reason everyone else was there," Stiles explains.

⠀⠀Derek shrugs, "So?"

⠀⠀Brietta says, "So, it wasn't me."

⠀⠀"Well, can you find out who sent it?" Derek asks Stiles.

⠀⠀"No, not us," Stiles tells him, spinning his chair to face his open laptop, "But I think we know somebody who can."

⠀⠀Twenty minutes later, Danny Māhealani arrives at the Stilinski household and looks at Stiles in annoyed disbelief.

⠀⠀"You want me to do what?" Danny asks him, gaze cutting across the room to where Brietta is laying on her stomach on the bed with a textbook in front of her. She smiles at him awkwardly and lifts her shoulders in a shrug.

⠀⠀"Trace a text," Stiles repeats simply.

⠀⠀"I came here to do lab work-that's what lab partners do," Danny complains, gripping his backpack strap tighter as if preparing to leave.

⠀⠀"And we will!" Stiles promises before motioning to his laptop, "Once you trace the text."

⠀⠀Danny narrows his eyes at Stiles, "And what makes you think I know how?"

⠀⠀"I..." Stiles stutters nervously, looking over to Brietta for help, but she shrugs, not knowing what to say. Stiles sighs, looking back at Danny, "I looked up your arrest report, so..."

⠀⠀Danny's face flushes a few shades lighter than his skin tone, "I-I was thirteen. They dropped the charges."

⠀⠀"Whatever." Stiles shrugs noncommittally.

⠀⠀Danny stares at Stiles for a long moment before shaking his head, "No, we're doing lab work." He grabs a stool from beside Stiles' table and moves it beside Stiles, sitting down and looking at the computer screen with an air of finality. "Oh, my..." Stiles grunts out, balling his hand into a fist in the air, getting a small giggle out of Brietta-a giggle that blends into a cough when Stiles shoots her a sharp look over his shoulder.

⠀⠀Brietta catches Danny curiously glancing at Derek-who's sitting in a chair beside Stiles' bed-before he subtly gestures at him with his thumb, whispering to Stiles, "Who's he again?"

⠀⠀"Um, my cousin..." Stiles looks back at Derek, squinting for a moment before blurting out, "Miguel."

⠀⠀Brietta slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle a laugh as Derek slowly glances up to glare daggers at Stiles through his eyelashes. Stiles' eyes widen before he puts his eyes back onto his laptop.

⠀⠀"...Is that blood on his shirt?" Danny whispers, although everyone in the bedroom hears him. Brietta looks over her shoulder to see a few dark droplets on his shirt. "He gets bad nosebleeds," Brietta blurts out, softening her tense words with a curt laugh, "The California weather gets to him sometimes."

⠀⠀Stiles nods quickly, akin to a bobblehead. He turns to face Derek, "Hey, Miguel... I thought I told you you could borrow one of my shirts?" Stiles tilts his head in the direction of his dresser.

⠀⠀Derek closes the book in his lap in one swift motion, never taking his glare off Stiles. With another motion he sends it onto the bed, a few inches away from Brietta's legs, as he stands up jerkily and walks over to the dresser, pulling his shirt off his head aggressively.

⠀⠀"So, anyway," Stiles mutters, turning to Danny, " I mean, we both know you have the skills to trace that text, so we should probably-."

⠀⠀"Uh, Stiles...?" Derek interrupts Stiles, holding up a navy green shirt, "This..." Derek stretches the shirt multiple times for emphasis, "no fit."

⠀⠀Stiles just glares at Derek. "Then try something else on," He grits out before turning back to Danny, only to see him looking at Derek with a watered down version of how he looks at Brietta. Stiles squints at Danny, like he's something under a microscope before turning back to Derek, seeing him with a new shirt in his hands.

⠀⠀"Hey, that one looks pretty good, huh?" Stiles compliments while Brietta's cheeks turn pink at the sight of Derek wearing an ugly brown and blue shirt, the material clinging to him like a second layer of skin.

⠀⠀Stiles nods, slapping Danny's shoulder, "What do you think, Danny?" Danny diverts his eyes from Derek and squirms in the stool, "Huh?"

⠀⠀"The shirt." Stiles points at an angry Derek. Brietta's cheeks go from pink to red as she watches Derek stand with the same attitude as a child forced to take a photo on the first day back to school.

⠀⠀Danny looks at Derek and hesitates before saying, " It's...it's not really his color..."

⠀⠀Derek scowls before he pulls the shirt over his head again, rifling through Stiles' dresser for a better shirt.

⠀⠀Stiles stares at Danny before giving him a smug look. "You swing for a different team, but you still play ball, don't you, Danny-boy?" Stiles teases, his voice low as they turn back to face Stiles' MacBook.

⠀⠀"You're a horrible person," Danny scoffs, looking at Stiles with disbelief.

⠀⠀Stiles nods, his face showing a sense of victory, "I know. It keeps me awake at night. Anyway, about that text..."

⠀⠀Danny stares at Stiles before sighing, "I'll need the ISP, the phone number, and the exact time of the text.

⠀⠀After a long ten minutes of Danny working his tech-magic, Stiles' laptop screen loads to reveal the sender of the text. Derek and Brietta, who'd stood up to watch a few minutes before, lean in closer.

⠀⠀"There," Danny points at the screen, "The text was sent from a computer. This one."

⠀⠀"Registered to that account name?" Derek confirms, and Danny nods.

⠀⠀Brietta and Stiles stare at each other in bewilderment before shaking their heads. "No, no, no, no. That can't be right," Stiles murmurs, staring at the name that the account was registered to.

⠀⠀It's registered to Melissa McCall's hospital computer.

⋅ ─── ･ ｡ﾟ⟡ ⚔ ⟡ ˚｡ ･ ─── ⋅

Brietta stares at the photo of the indecipherable letter on her phone. She'd taken a photo of the letter back when she first was researching it, but now she's looking at it with a new lens. As per Dominic Greenberg, the letter is composed of different types of runic symbols, and, as per Derek's back tattoo of three intertwined swirls, it has something to do with him.

⠀⠀Brietta's gaze draws up to the hospital that Stiles' jeep was pulling into. The last time she was here, she was visiting Derek's uncle, Peter. The same visit where she learned her mother used to visit Peter Hale before her death. The same visit where she swore Peter had moved.

⠀⠀After, though, Brietta had Googled that comatose patients can exhibit reflex movements due to brain activity. Something Peter's nurse had told her, but she didn't entirely believe. Even now, she's not sure she entirely believes that's what happened.

⠀⠀Comatose patients don't just move if they want to.

⠀⠀However, who else would know about the three swirls? Brietta rolls her eyes and has to stop an incredulous laugh from escaping her. Derek isn't the only one to know about three silly swirls, and a person who hasn't moved in years can't just deliver a package.

⠀⠀Why would he, even if he could?

⠀⠀Brietta breaks out of her ridiculous train of thought as her phone vibrates in her hands, showing Scott calling. She clears her throat and picks up the phone, putting him on speakerphone. "Did you guys get the picture?" Scott asks immediately, and Brietta frowns.

⠀⠀"Why yes, Scott," Brietta starts sarcastically, "I'm doing great, how about you?"

⠀⠀Stiles sighs, grabbing the phone from Brietta, "Yeah, we did, and it looks just like the drawing."

⠀⠀Derek grabs Stiles' arm, pulling the phone toward him, "Is there something on the back of it? There's gotta be something─an inscription, an opening, something..."

⠀⠀Stiles winces at Derek's hold on him as Scott replies, "No, no, the thing's flat. And, no, it doesn't open. There's nothing in it, on it, around it, nothing," Scott sighs exasperatedly, "And where are you guys? You're supposed to be here. You're first line, Stiles."

⠀⠀Scott suddenly grunts over the phone and Coach's voice rings out in the car, "Where the hell is Bilinski? Huh?"

⠀⠀Stiles rolls his eyes and switches off speakerphone, putting Brietta's phone to his ear, "I know. Look, if you see my dad, can you tell him...tell him I'll be there, I'll just be a little bit late, okay? All right, thanks." He ends the call and gives Brietta back her cellphone.

⠀⠀Derek stares at Stiles, deadpanning, "You're not gonna make it."

⠀⠀"I know," Stiles sighs, making Brietta frown. The first ever lacrosse game where Stiles would be front line, he'd have to miss. For a second, Brietta wonders what life would be like if they hadn't gone to the woods. Werewolves would still exist, but they wouldn't know about them. Their ignorance would be their bliss.

⠀⠀"And you two didn't tell him about his mom either," Derek brings up, and Brietta clicks off her phone, shoving it in her front pocket. "And we're not going to until we find out the truth. Let's go inside."

⠀⠀"One more thing..." Derek utters. Before Brietta or Stiles could react, Derek grabs the back of Stiles' head and slams it into the wheel. Stiles lets out a cry and Brietta gasps loudly, shoving Derek despite her better judgment. "What the hell, Derek?"

⠀⠀Derek rolls his eyes, "You know what that was for." He points at Stiles and Brietta before pointing to the hospital, "Go." When they just stare at him with wide eyes, he grunts, "Go!"

⠀⠀Brietta whispers a few profanities under her breath as she and Stiles climb out of the Jeep. As soon as they're out, she grabs Stiles' face for any bruising or bleeding. Nothing─except that Stiles' cheeks were turning pink at being close to Brietta.

⠀⠀"C'mon," Brietta sighs, oblivious to Stiles' blushing.

⠀⠀They walk around the empty halls of Beacon Hills hospital, trying to find Melissa to confront her.

⠀⠀As they walk about for a few minutes, Stiles calls Derek, puts him on speakerphone and sighs, "We can't find her."

⠀⠀"Look, ask for Jennifer. She's been looking after my uncle," Derek instructs them just as they come up on the room where Peter stays in. Brietta glances inside the room and her face pales. "Peter isn't here, either," Brietta squeaks, staring at the empty wheelchair Peter would sit in.

⠀⠀"What?" Derek huffs, his voice rough.

⠀⠀"He's not here. He's gone, Derek," Stiles affirms, staring at the empty room.

⠀⠀Brietta's face prickles with the sensation of being watched. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him. Before she can say anything, Derek is yelling at them over the phone, "Get out of there right now! It's him! He's the Alpha! Get out!"

⠀⠀Stiles staggers back before he notices Brietta's stiff posture. He gasps lightly at Peter standing at the end of the hall, staring at them─but more specifically, Brietta.

⠀⠀"Brietta," Peter mutters, making the girl tense and stagger back into Stiles' front, "It's been incredibly sweet of you to visit me," He glances over at the horrified boy behind her, "And you must be Stiles."

⠀⠀Stiles slips his hand into Brietta, and forces her behind him before pulling her to run. They stop in their tracks, though, when they see a nurse in their way, a vicious look on her face.

⠀⠀"What are you doing here?" Her voice mocking, "Visiting hours are over."

⠀⠀Stiles' face falls, "You..." He points at the nurse, "and him....You're the one who...oh my...and he's..." Stiles' eyes dart between Nurse Jennifer and Peter, "Oh my god, we're gonna die. We're gonna die."

⠀⠀With the timing of a saint, Derek appears, smacking the nurse with his elbow. She drops to the ground, and Peter doesn't even flinch. "That's not nice," Peter sighs, feigning offense, "She's my nurse."

⠀⠀"She's a psychotic bitch helping you kill people," Derek growls. He nods his head at the teenagers, "Get out of the way."

⠀⠀"Absolutely," Brietta mutters, pulling Stiles down to the ground with her and pulling him down the thin hall.

⠀⠀"You think I killed Laura on purpose?" Peter frowns, walking toward Derek, "One of my own family?"

⠀⠀Derek's eyes flash an electric blue as a guttural growl escapes his throat. He launches himself at the wall, using it as a springboard to gain momentum. But Peter anticipates the move. With lightning-fast reflexes, he intercepts Derek mid-air, slamming the younger wolf against the opposite wall. The impact is devastating, causing the structure to crumble and shower the teenagers in a cloud of plaster and debris.

⠀⠀As the dust settles, Stiles' survival instincts kick in. He grabs Brietta's arm, urgently pulling her down the hallway. The teenagers stumble away from the supernatural brawl, their hearts pounding in their ears as the sounds of snarls ring out behind them.

⠀⠀Stiles keeps pulling Brietta until they're out of the hospital, but Brietta drives her heels into the pavement, stopping them from moving. "What about Derek?" Brietta argues, digging her heels harder into the ground to resist Stiles pulling her.

⠀⠀"Derek has super-healing and Peter would snap us like a glow stick─he can handle himself," Stiles reasons, and Brietta frowns before allowing him to pull her to his jeep, hoping that Derek would be safe.

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The blinking cursor mocks Brietta as she stares at the empty document. Her eyes dart to the corner of her laptop screen, revealing it's 10:46 P.M. She huffs, realizing she has only an hour and thirteen minutes to start and finish her essay-an essay for which she hasn't even formulated a topic.

⠀⠀Her Psychology teacher's voice, Mrs. Bressler, rings out in her head, "Make a project about a life-altering event that has happened to you. Something that you still think about or something that you've suppressed."

⠀⠀Brietta purses her lips as she contemplates all the life-altering events that she's experienced in her life; her mom died six years ago, she went missing when she was eleven for a day and has no memory of it, her best friend was bitten by a werewolf and became a werewolf, an Alpha tried to kill her and her friends multiple times, and someone left her package with a letter of undecipherable but familiar symbols.

⠀⠀At the thought of that, her eyes trail up towards her closet across the room. She shuffles off the bed and heads to her closet, opening it to see the package on the ground where she'd left it earlier. She takes the letter out of the box and settles back onto her bed, staring at it.

⠀⠀"It looks like the runic alphabet, but variants of it," Dominic shrugs, handing the paper back to Brietta, "To find out what it says, you'd have to try every version of Runes, but that'll take you forever."

⠀⠀Brietta's eyebrows furrow for a second, "Why?"

⠀⠀"Because," Dominic sighs, "all six versions of the Runic alphabet are on that paper."

⠀⠀Brietta snaps out of her thoughts as her bedroom door opens and Ellington walks into her room, Milo a few paws behind. She puts the paper down on her bed, looking up at Ellington, "What's up, Eli?"

⠀⠀"I've, uh," Ellington pauses, looking a bit conflicted as he sits on the edge of Brietta's bed, "I've been thinking about what you told me that night with the magic bullet or whatever, and what happened last week at the school...I think I'm ready for the SparkNotes."

⠀⠀Brietta lets out a small, strangled laugh before shrugging, "Well, everything started the night of my birthday. Stiles convinced Scott and I to go body-hunting." At the sight of Ellington's bulging eyes, Brietta shakes her head, frowning a bit, "Long, stupid 온라인카지노게임. Point is, we end up in the woods and a Werewolf attacked Scott, biting him and turning him."

⠀⠀Ellington's mouth opens and closes, similar to a fish-Brietta would laugh if the conversation weren't so serious. "Wait, you've known about Werewolves for a month and I just found out two weeks ago?"

⠀⠀Before Brietta could answer and tell him that it wasn't her event to tell, Ellington continues, "Scott's a Werewolf? You mean the kid who couldn't catch a remote when tossed at him from a few feet?" Brietta nods and Ellington lets out a loud sigh, running his hands through his hair, "Is that why he's better at lacrosse now? Isaac talks about Scott outdoing all of them at practice."

⠀⠀"Yep," Brietta nods, realizing that everything that's happened recently has only happened in one month-it's felt like a year.

⠀⠀Milo hops up on Brietta's bed, cozying himself on her lap before pawing at the indecipherable paper. Ellington's eyes trail down to the paper and he frowns at it, "Something Werewolf related?"

⠀⠀Brietta opens her mouth to respond, but she doesn't know the answer. She hasn't actually thought about that, "I'm trying to figure that out. If you want to take a shot at figuring out what it means, by all means." She motions for Ellington to take the paper, and he does.

⠀⠀He stares at it for a moment, eyes squinting as he takes in everything. "Well, there's 26 symbols. These look like Runes."

⠀⠀Brietta nods, "Apparently, they are, but they're all six versions of the Runic alphabet, so it's pretty much impossible."

⠀⠀Ellington shakes his head, "Not really."

⠀⠀Brietta's face lightens slightly at the possibility of being able to decipher the paper. Ellington leans in and drags his finger along the paper, "See these small gaps?" Ellington's finger traces a small gap between two symbols, like a space between words, "They're separating the words, so that'd make it easier to decipher it."

⠀⠀Brietta internally curses herself for not looking closer at the letter to see the small gaps sooner. Ellington, oblivious to her self-directed anger, continues, his finger tracing underneath the symbols, "There are 7 words, I think. 3, 4, 2, 8, 3, 3, and 3. So 26 symbols making a sentence that has 7 words."

⠀⠀Brietta stares at her older brother in awe for a moment before squealing and pulling him in for a hug, "Oh my God, you're a life saver."

⠀⠀Ellington laughs before shrugging, "I'm just the one who got the intelligence gene."

⠀⠀"Oh, shut up," Brietta scoffs, pushing him away, but it falls flat with her smile. "Okay, so it's a sentence and the first word has 3 letters."

⠀⠀Ellington nods, pausing for a moment as he thinks, "Well, most sentences start with the, you, are, and all."

⠀⠀Brietta smiles, prepared to stay up all night trying to decipher it until she remembers her laptop next to her. Is a grade really worth more than a cryptic note?

⠀⠀Ellington notices her staring at her laptop and looks over, seeing it blank. "If you have something to do, I'll try to translate this tonight and at work tomorrow."

⠀⠀"Really?" Brietta asks, her eyes sparkling.

⠀⠀Ellington rolls his eyes with a smile as he gets up from her bed, "Yes, but I expect a slideshow presentation of everything you know about Werewolves and everything that's happened in the last month in full detail."

⠀⠀"Deal," Brietta smiles, scratching the top of Milo's head as Ellington leaves her room.

⠀⠀She inhales deeply, bringing her laptop closer to her. She stares at the empty document for a moment before bringing her hands to the keyboard and typing the header:

⠀⠀Time Slip: Where was I on January 25, 2006?

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𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

so i'm back...

i feel like all of my favorite wattpad writers who leave and come back two years later with one chapter then leave again (which won't happen with me because the second chapter is almost finished and my obsession is back)

i truly think i was just annoyed with rewatching season 1 multiple times. i have the dialogue memorized-i needed distance from the fic & we all know i got that.

anywho, i hope this is good, i haven't written in a while 🤍

▍PUBLISHED . . 02/9/25 - ♡︎ ୫
© POETICLULLS, 2025