The morning sun rose over Beacon Hills, but it brought none of its usual warmth. Weak, pale grey streaks of sunlight filtered through the dusty windows of the McCall household, illuminating the heavy, suffocating silence that had settled over the home during the night.
After taking a shower, Sean returned to his room. The space was in a state of utter chaos and suffocating disarray. Last night, in a violent fit of rage, he had torn everything apart; broken pieces of furniture and scattered memories lay everywhere. Yet, in a strange way, this acts of destruction had made him feel better. As the morning sun hit his face, a light, content smile played on his lips. It felt as if he had completely left the previous heavy, gloomy atmosphere behind. Well... of course, that is if you chose to ignore the deep, bottomless emptiness lingering in his eyes.
After getting ready quickly for school, he stepped out of his room. As he walked into the hallway, he ran straight into Scott. When Scott and his mother had returned home last night, Sean had heard every single word of Scott getting scolded downstairs from his room. With a sarcastic yet genuine smile on his face, he spoke in a mocking tone:
"Hey Scott. What's this? I hear you got suspended because of the little snake."
Scott let out a deep sigh and merely smiled in a tired manner. Sean chuckled, lightly patting his brother's shoulder. Toward the end, his voice shed its playful mockery and took on a serious tone:
"Don't upset our mom, Scott. Lately, both you and I have slipped way out of our daily routines. You know she does everything for us."
Just as Scott was about to nod at the weight of those words, a loud, impatient honk cut through the silence of the house like a blade.
Immediately after, Stiles' impatient yelling echoed from outside:
"Come on already, let's go! We're late! What are you doing in there, you homebodies?!"
Sean and Scott looked at each other and smiled faintly. Scott slung his backpack over one shoulder and headed down the stairs, while Sean stepped out into the cool morning air, walking toward the chaotic day that awaited them.
Once the trio arrived at school, they attended their classes. As the ordinary noise of the day began to fade into the background, they finally gathered in the dim corner of the library, just as they had previously agreed with Allison.
While Scott flipped through the thick mythology books spread across the library table, Sean let out a deep sigh and leaned back.
"Can't we just kill Jackson and solve the problem? Why are we trying so hard?" he asked in a cold, detached voice.
Stiles immediately raised his hands. "I suggested that exact same thing earlier, so I exercise my right to remain silent."
Scott looked at his brother in absolute horror. "What are you guys talking about? He helped us defeat the Alpha. We can't just discard him like that."
As the three of them whispered and argued, Allison finally appeared at the library entrance. She approached the bookshelves with quick steps, holding a tablet and a few books, completely out of breath. She slid the tablet toward Scott.
"This is as much as Lydia could translate. Believe me, she was extremely confused too."
Scott took the tablet, staring at the complex symbols on the screen as he asked, "What did you tell her anyway? Didn't she ask why you were researching this?"
Allison smiled faintly. "I just told her we're part of an online gaming community fighting mythological creatures."
Stiles puffed his chest out proudly. "And I am a loyal member of that community."
Sean chimed in, a mocking expression on his face: "Me too..."
A sudden, dead silence fell over the library table. Allison blinked in surprise, then slowly nodded her head. "Great."
Sean fell silent for a moment, thinking. He fixed his gaze on the ancient drawings on the table. "Can we find the person controlling this Kanima? Is there anything about that in the book?"
"No," Allison said sadly. "But Stiles was right. In mythology, the Kanima is also referred to as an 'instrument of vengeance'."
Sean's eyes narrowed. "So, everyone who has died so far... was actually someone's revenge."
"I think so, too," Allison confirmed. "But there's also this: until the bond between them is fully forged, the Kanima can commit random murders. So, the targets might not just be those on the vengeance list."
Scott's jaw clenched. "That is unacceptable. We can't let innocent people get hurt."
Allison added, "Also, the Kanima is actually supposed to be a werewolf. However, it can't turn into a real werewolf until its master's desire is completely fulfilled; it remains stuck in this reptilian form."
While the four of them tried to unravel the monster's secrets in the library, an entirely different kind of movement was happening back at the McCall house.
Melissa McCall had just woken up. Before heading to her shift at the hospital, carrying the heavy weight of last night, she went upstairs to find out what on earth her children were up to, hoping to quiet the gnawing doubts inside her.
First, she headed to Scott's room. As she opened the door and stepped inside, her eyes scanned the room. Before long, she was confronted with clear evidence showing just how far Scott and Allison had gone, revealing exactly what had happened between them. The traces of young love, passion, and a dangerous intimacy were right there in the room. As a mother, Melissa took a deep breath and shook her head. She could see exactly how deep of a trouble Scott was getting himself into.
However, the real shock awaited her right next door, the moment she stepped into Sean's room.
The second Melissa opened the door to Sean's room, her breath hitched in her throat. The inside was like a literal warzone. Everything was in complete ruins. The headboard of the bed was violently shattered, splinters of wood scattered all over the floor. On the ground lay torn, clawed childhood photographs of them. With trembling hands, Melissa turned toward the drawers. As she rifled through them, a folded piece of paper slipped out and fell to the floor. The ink on the paper looked remarkably fresh; it had clearly been written very recently.
Melissa bent down, picked up the paper, and read the first sentence:
"To my dear mother and father..."
Right at that exact moment, the loud ringtone of her phone ripped through the silence of the room, echoing loudly.
Startled, Melissa snapped her attention away from the paper. Looking at the screen, she saw it was the hospital calling. She was already late for work. With her heart pounding in fear, she hastily put the paper back where she had found it, took one last terrified look around the room, and quickly rushed out of the house. The rest of the letter Sean had written remained a mystery, hidden away in the drawer of that dark room.
Having left the library, the trio slowly dispersed. Scott and Stiles walked away down the corridor, debating the Jackson situation amongst themselves. Stiles split off to follow Lydia, hoping to learn a few more details from her.
Sean, on the other hand, had stayed behind in the library. He picked up a thick fantasy novel resting on the table and began flipping through its pages. But as he read the lines, a sudden, indescribable, ice-cold sensation washed over him. As that familiar ache in his chest lightly made itself known again, Sean placed the book back on the table and stood up.
Guided by the ominous feeling inside him, he moved down the hallway with slow, silent steps. His stride pulled him toward the locker room of the school gymnasium. As he approached the door, he heard tense, whispered voices coming from inside. Allison and Jackson were in there.
Allison was backed into a corner. Jackson had his strong arm pressed against the wall, completely blocking her escape.
"I need to get to class," Allison said, trying to hide the tremor in her voice as she attempted to pull away.
But Jackson stopped her aggressively. "No, no... you're not going anywhere. Your grades are perfect; missing a single class won't kill you."
Jackson leaned in close to Allison's face, his eyes roaming over her. "Are you okay? Your heart is beating like crazy..."
When Allison, gripped by fear, pulled back and tried to run, Jackson grabbed her wrist tightly. "I thought you wanted to talk."
Allison's voice came out louder and sharper this time "I don't want to anymore! I changed my mind!"
Jackson chuckled wickedly and took another step toward Allison, pinning her completely between the wall and his body. "What are you going to do when your idiot boyfriend turns his back on you, Allison? They killed your aunt, they almost killed Lydia. Who do you think is next?"
Allison was breathing heavily, her fear shining brightly in the dim light of the locker room.
Right at that moment, an unfamiliar yet incredibly familiar, ice-cold voice from the side froze the entire atmosphere of the room:
"Bla bla bla... You talk way too much, you snake-skinned freak."
Sean glided in from the threshold of the door. His posture was unyielding, his steps incredibly calm. The moment Allison saw Sean, a light of salvation appeared in her eyes; in that instant, she seemed to have completely forgotten her past fears of his terrifying nature.
As Allison tried to slip away from Jackson's grasp, Jackson reached out to grab her again. But at that exact second, pitch-black, shadow-like vines suddenly erupted from Allison's shadow on the ground, wrapping around Jackson's arm. With unbelievable force, the vines threw Jackson backward, slamming him hard against the concrete wall.
The only sound left in the locker room was the heavy echo of Sean's approaching footsteps. Each thudding step spread a wave of both hope and inevitable despair through the room. Allison seized the opportunity, quickly slipping past the two of them and running out.
Sean leaned down over Jackson, who had hit the wall and fallen to the floor. Reaching out, he grabbed Jackson's hair and pulled his head back.
"Do you want to be next, you snake-skinned freak?" he whispered.
As Sean's eyes began to glow a vibrant golden yellow, blood-red lines began to clash in the depths of his pupils, fighting as if to unleash the feral power locked within him.
Jackson glared at him with an expression filled with hatred and pain. Sean, with a dark, sadistic smile, continued:
"You wanted to be a werewolf, didn't you? But what a stroke of luck, you turned into a reptile, huh? I know, don't worry... you feel it too, don't you? Growing stronger every single day... how does that pleasure feel?"
Sean let go of his hair and suddenly seized Jackson by the throat, lifting him effortlessly into the air as if he were as light as a feather.
Watching them from the side, Allison was left in absolute shock. She was seeing the transition in Sean's eyes from the closest distance possible. Those red lines were constantly expanding over the golden yellow, as if trying to break down a locked, savage door inside.
As Jackson stared into Sean's eyes, he felt a lethal terror rising within him for the very first time. Yet, he still tried to maintain his twisted, arrogant smirk. "What do you know? You're just a monster! You can't deny it, can you? That day... I wish that pretty girl hadn't saved you, and you had just died right there."
Sean suddenly burst into laughter. It was a mocking, bone-chilling, and ruthless laugh that echoed off all the walls of the locker room.
Sean brought his face extremely close to Jackson's. "I can smell the jealousy so clearly, Jackson. But no matter how hard you struggle, you can never be as strong as me. Do you know why?" His voice was deeply mocking, dripping with amusement.
Jackson stared into his eyes as if silently asking,"Why?"
Sean caught the look. In that moment, the golden-yellow color in his eyes vanished completely, replaced by a bottomless, infinite darkness. As his hair slowly began to grow longer, a suffocating aura of pure bloodlust flooded the room. The strands of his hair slowly turned pure white, starting from the roots to the tips.
"Because I was a monster even before I became a werewolf!"
The strength in Sean's hand multiplied exponentially. As Jackson looked into those entirely pitch-black eyes, he found himself plunged into a massive, bottomless void of darkness. His mind was dragged into a shadow-covered hell. In the center of that darkness, a colossal eye stared directly into his soul, looking straight at his deepest fears.
Jackson's consciousness convulsed with agony, and foam began to escape from the corners of his mouth. He was only seconds away from losing his mind completely...
At that exact moment, Sean dropped him to the ground. As Jackson collapsed, gasping for air, Scott and Stiles burst through the door. Erica immediately knelt down beside Jackson to hold him. Right behind them, walking with furious steps, Mr. Adrian Harris entered the room.
Harris, looking at the scene on the floor and then at Sean's already fully human appearance, screamed:
"Sean, I cannot believe you, I really can't! No, actually, I can't believe any of you! The school administration literally had a meeting about your situation today, and you start a fight before the day is even over! All of you... detention until three o'clock!"
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THANKS FOR READING!!
Yes, we've reached the end of the p. I hope it met your expectations. Episodes will start coming regularly now. This waiting was a bit like a mid-season break, right? (: