𝟎𝟓. 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙　꒰ 𝕤𝕠 𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙 𝕤𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝 ꒱　.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

✧･ﾟ✧･ﾟ✧

꒰𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢 | 𝟏.𝟎𝟔 ꒱

Lucy sat in the back of her class, going over the notes she had missed with Allison. The Argent girl had immediately said yes when Lucy had asked her to help her catch up on what she missed. Thankfully, the girls shared a free period and were able to get through all of yesterday's content in a short amount of time.

Yesterday had also been conference night, which hadn't bothered Lucy since her grades were fine. While she had copied down the notes, Allison filled her in on the mountain lion attack. Turns out, this time it was an actual mountain lion, which they only knew because Allison's dad had shot it. Lucy had been asleep when Melissa came home from Scott's conference, so her mother hadn't said anything about it.

Despite hearing about the dead animal, Lucy couldn't shake the feeling that the thing that attacked her and Jackson was something more sinister.

"Are you okay though? I know you said you didn't get a concussion, but that still must've been scary." Allison asked, pulling Lucy away from her thoughts.

"Yeah." She smiled. "Yeah, I'm good. I didn't actually see it; it went after Jackson, and I was stuck under his arm and the shelf, so..." She trailed off, not sure if she should confide in her friend about her suspicions.

"That's good- I mean not really, but everyone is okay, and the mountain lion is dead."

There were those words again, mountain lion. Whatever was in the store sounded much bigger than a mountain lion. It felt bigger than a mountain lion when it crawled across the shelf towards them.

"You'll have to thank your dad for me. I think I'll sleep better knowing it's dead." Lucy forced a tight smile, deciding her delusions about the creature were probably just that, delusions.

Allison nodded. "Yeah, of course. I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too." Lucy handed her friend's notebook back. While Allison put it back in her bag, Lucy glanced over her shoulder at her brother. She pursed her lips, watching his best friend give him the cold shoulder. "Hey, what happened between them?"

Allison looked up, her lips parting. "The sheriff got hurt last night, maybe Stiles is just worried?"

"No, he wouldn't ignore Scott because of that." Lucy looked back to Allison. "Did they seem fine yesterday?"

The older girl froze, her eyes flying to her boyfriend. "Well, actually, Scott and I skipped school yesterday." She admitted, playing with her fingers.

"Wait what? The two of you-" Lucy pointed to Scott and Allison, "-skipped school? Where did you guys go?"

"The woods." she replied, "But we didn't do anything. Yesterday was my birthday and Scott just wanted to go do something fun-"

"It was your birthday? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well-" Allison stuttered, "I had to skip a grade because of all the moving around, so I'm seventeen." She whispered the last part, looking down when she said it.

"Huh. That makes sense." Lucy nodded. "Well, happy belated birthday. What can I get you?"

Allison laughed. "Nothing! But thank you for understanding. Most people just, freak out."

"Yeah, I get it. But I'm seriously getting you something. You can either give me some ideas or I can just get you something terrible and hope you like it."

"Oh okay, I'll think of something and get back to you."

Lucy grinned, her fears from the attack long forgotten. "You better."

"The what of who?" Lydia asked, eating her salad as the girls took their lunch break in the library. Lucy took a sip of water, interested in hearing more from the book Allison was reading.

"The beast of Gevaudan. Listen. 'A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south Dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bete killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that King Louie the 15th sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it.' Huh, what do you think?"

"Boring." Lydia deadpanned, twirling her fork in her salad. Lucy put down her own fork, shaking her head at Lydia.

"I think it's interesting, Allison. I don't usually like history, but that would make a really cool movie."

"Exactly!" Allison smiled brightly. "Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan."

"Still boring."

Allison kept going. "And cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of a hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid."

"What's a mesonychid?" Lucy asked, taking a bite of her own salad.

"I have no idea." Allison shrugged her shoulders. "But it sounds so cool!"

Lucy smiled softly, happy to see her friend so excited.

"Others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape-shift into a man-eating monster." Allison explained.

"Is this an urban legend? Or just misinformation about something that actually existed?" Lucy leaned over, skimming the book's pages.

"It's real. I know it was."

"Does any of this actually have anything to do with your family?" Lydia asked, leaning forward on the table. Lucy leaned back, taking another bite of her lunch.

"This. 'It is believed that La Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature.' His name was Argent." Allison whispered, peering over the edge of the book. Lucy raised her eyebrows, dropping her fork into her empty bowl.

"Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?" Lydia sassed.

"Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like to you?" When she turned the book around, Lucy froze at the sight on the page. She may not have seen the creature from the store, but she had heard it. She had imagined what it might've looked like, but she never expected to see an illustration of it in a library book. It was the size of a bear, with gleaming red eyes and sharp teeth.

Lucy forced herself to look away and turned to Lydia, who had actually seen the creature that night. They hadn't talked about it; Lydia had been avoiding the conversation.

"Lydia?" Lucy whispered, reaching to touch her friend's hand. Lydia pulled her hand back and blinked, snapping out of her trance.

"It looks... like a big wolf. See you in History." She stood up abruptly, walking at a brisk pace out of the library.

"What was that?" Allison asked, closing her book. She gasped when Lucy turned back to face her, tears pooling in her eyes.

"I don't know- I- I should go too." Lucy stood up and Allison grasped her arm, holding her still as she stood up as well.

"Luce, what is it?"

After a quick scan of the room, Lucy made sure no one was listening when she lowered her voice. Making solid eye contact with Allison, she whispered, "It wasn't a mountain lion that attacked us. I don't know what it was, but it looked exactly like the thing in your book."

At the end of the day, Lucy was beyond ready to go home. She practically raced through the halls, the stress from everything wearing down on her. When she finally made it through the doors, she walked past a crowd, eager to get to her car.

When the sound of fighting reached her ears, she turned and stopped. A group of boys were beating a guy on the ground. She couldn't see who it was, but she did see the long scratch on the truck next to them. When her eyes landed on the truck, they also landed on Stiles.

Her eyebrows furrowed. Where was Scott?

As if something had heard her thoughts, a teacher burst through the crowd. The boys took off and ran, leaving a bruised Scott on the ground. 

Her lips parted as she watched Stiles help Scott up. Her brother and his friend saw her and both offered a wave. As if everything was fine and Scott hadn't just gotten beat up because he keyed a guy's truck.

Still, Lucy waved back slowly, the gears turning in her head. Those two boys had been different ever since the night they went into the woods.

They were disappearing, getting into more trouble, and Scott was never home anymore. 

In that moment, as she watched the teacher drag them inside, Lucy decided that she was going to figure out what was going on. It wasn't just, 'boys being boys.' No, this was something else. Scott and Stiles were weird, that was true, but they were not this weird.

No matter what it took, she was going to solve this mystery.

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙　꒰ 𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 ꒱　.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

✧･ﾟ✧･ﾟ✧꒰ 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟷𝟷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟻꒱

✧･ﾟ✧･ﾟ✧

𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦: I'm really excited for the next chapter! And I can't believe I'm almost halfway through the first season already! don't be a silent reader! comment, let me know your thoughts, and always remember to vote!

✧･ﾟ✧･ﾟ✧

𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝕤𝕠 𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙 𝕤𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝 | 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐤𝐢