Somehow— on a Full Moon, the school day passed by with no brutal murders. No weird kisses between previous enemies, and no fights of any kind. Just…..weirdness.
And that weirdness leaked into the late evening, focusing around Lydia's home as if it had become a hub to the abnormal and unseen.
***
Unlike what went unseen, Lydia could see everything in her backyard. Bodies…. everywhere.
Blood splashed on the pavement and soaked into the grass as recently killed teens squirmed and whined while crawling to her. Their voices were her own. Every one them, speaking her words. She grabbed at her mouth to hold it shut, as if it would stop them.
"It won't…. It won't stop them." The mysterious boy that she'd been seeing every day for the past month said from behind her.
She squirmed away from him like the dead teens in the bloody grass.
Lydia tried to remember Deaton's teachings to help in moments of terror but a fog settled over her brain like clouds in a Seattle sky.
"Focus on me…" The boy said, his blue eyes almost had a glow to them as he walked over to her, splashing through the blood.
"What do you want..?" Lydia managed.
The boy— who looked oddly perfect despite the mess, answered, "I want to remind you, who will do this. Who HAS done this."
"W-what?"
He stepped to the side as the winds ruffled his rich brown hair and accentuated his sunken cheeks. Behind him, a pack of Monsters feasted on the dead. They dying teens weren't crawling to her, they were just running from them.
Four of them.
One of them was lighter skinned— the most human in appearance. Thin sections of dark brown fur covered his wiry muscled forearms, back and shoulders. His ears held sharp points, flickering and fluttering with the splashes of blood and sharp sounds. It reminded her of the National Geographic videos of animals hunting in the summer heat. Ears swatting at the bugs swarming their fresh kill.
So visceral.
It's hands held bunches of guts and entrails, growling whenever one of the others got too close. Her heart almost stopped in its tracks when she found the jeep car keys hanging from the pocket of the monsters torn pants.
"Stiles…"
The creature turned around, slouched over and still over six feet tall. She could see his face in its partial snout.
Beside him, a much more intense creature dined on the kills. Bigger in mass and bulk, but shorter. The creature had skin as grey as elephant skin. Probably the same texture too— save for the silky black fur that covered him. He looked like the creature that attacked Jackson at the video store. But somehow more terrifying.
"Scott…."
Another almost identical creature on its other side fought for the remains of a particularly overweight student.
"Derek."
And then there was the biggest. It made them all look like they were human sized in comparison. Streaks of gold lit up its dreaded mane. An ashen tattoo glowed and spit sparks of light like a campfire in midnight. It's skin was just as black. But it's eyes were the brightest. Maybe it was the contrast. Maybe it was the proximity after it lunged across the grass to pounce on a student right in front of Lydia. A spear punctured through the students throat and busted the tile floor in front of her.
Lydia tried to scream but the boy held her mouth shut in replacement of her dropped hands.
"Look at them Lydia! They're not the mountain lions the sherrifs department issued reports of— and you know I'm not talking about actual mountain lions. Lydia. They aren't WereWolves. They're a Pack of Beasts. They're Monsters….. and they won't stop until there's nothing left to hunt. Help me get rid of them!"
Lydia tried to scream, but her voice continued to spill from the dying students as the boy tapped her shoulder in the silence.
Wait. Why would he tap her should—
***
"Lydia? Lydia!?" Alison's asked as they stood by the pool.
Lydia blinked finally, her eyes felt dryer than a desert as she recollected herself. Her throat was dry but she hadn't spoken. Her heart raced but she hasn't moved.
"Are you alright?" Alison asked, "Maybe…. Maybe we should have a party with just the two of us, Lydia. My house is still being fixed, but we can go get something to eat?"
Lydia felt angered by Alison's introspective gaze. Like she was the only one in crisis.
"I don't feel like eating carb loaded city trash on MY birthday. We're doing this. I do this every year, and you need to get out of the house. Relax. We'll have fun."
"Lydia….nobody is here." Alison started.
Lydia blinked again and finally took in the area. It was as empty as it was an hour ago. And the rising moons light seemed to make the at fact only more apparent.
A lump formed in her throat.
Alison's phone beeped twice. She took it out of her pocket to find a text from two people.
Marco and Scott.
In their own ways they both told them to open the gate into the backyard.
Lydia and Alison rushed over for very different reasons. Once they opened the gate the whole pack stood at the entryway. Lydia almost screamed after seeing Marco, Scott and Stiles at the front.
Alison almost punched or hugged Marco before taking Scott's hand. "Come in."
Slowly the rest of them filtered in.
"If I don't get laid tonight, I'm mauling someone." Erica commented.
"If you don't shut up I'm mauling you." Marco replied as he settled in at the back corner of the area.
"Ahh relax, lion man, we're here to party!" Stiles said before beginning to dance despite the lack of music.
Marco found himself looking at Scott who looked back at him while holding Alison.
The two exchanged a nod before he began to let all of his focus fall on Lydia.
He could already tell. She was horrified, the question was— about what?
You know, other than the constant gory murders and monsters running around at night.
***
Marco and the others were the first of many to enter the party. Lydia played like she wasn't surprised— elated even, but he watched her. He could smell it on her. He also watched the people. Maybe the average student wasn't hunting down Warlocks and trying to avenge their family, but they too felt the danger of Beacon Hills at its height. And they felt what was coming.
They needed the party. They needed to let loose. As Americans could.
So, Stiles turned up the music and Erica put her backside on the front side of everything in sight. The smell of lust in the air was nauseating. Almost as nauseating as the smell of alcohol right in front of his face.
"Drink?" Lydia asked as she held a wine glass of pink fluid. It smelled like acid dissolving strawberries grown with hand sanitizer.
"I don't drink alcohol."
"You sure?" Lydia smiled faintly and blinked up at him.
Her actions felt weird- especially since when she wasn't partying she was mourning Jackson's disappearance.
"I said what I said. Go enjoy your night of liver destruction and dry humping." Marco replied.
Lydia's eyes came back to reality for a moment and she swallowed in fear.
"Please….."
The abrupt change fired off Marco's awareness alarms. This was what Scott was talking about.
"….Sure." Marco growled and took the glass.
She sighed and walked away, trying to add the sway in her hips to make it look less like she was walking a tight rope. Metaphorically of course.
Marco threw the glass over the backyard fence after she was gone. And when he looked back at the crowd, the upbeat nature of it all began to fade slightly.
Scott cried as he sat on his knees at the edge of the pool looking at his reflection, "I'm not a Monster…. I try my best not to kill anyone…. I just want to keep my friends safe…. Please. That's not me."
"What the hell…" Marco got himself up off the Backyard fence and began shoving his way through the crowd, sniffing and studying the people. Some seemed to be hallucinating, others were just drunk. Incredibly drunk.
Eventually he found Stiles under a pool table behind Scott.
He held himself in a tight ball, whimpering and flinching as if he was being beat. "S-Scott! Please it's me! DONT DO THIS!! ACK—"
Marco grabbed him and yanked him upright, throwing aside the pool table.
Stiles yelled and flinched at Marco, calling him Scott in between short breaths.
"Hey— Stiles!"
Stiles flailed and head butted him.
Marco stifled a growl only to find a black woman standing next to him.
"Man you are scary…"
"So I've heard." Marco replied.
"Trying to wake up a drunk friend?"
How was she ok?
"Yes… yes I am."
The lady nodded and held her hand out for Stiles.
"Uh… he's flailing."
"Man hand me the white boy, damn!" She said impatiently before crushing her coke can and tossing it aside.
Marco shoved him at her, the woman's bulk stopped Stiles from knocking her over.
With a little effort she shuffled him over to the pool and tossed him in.
Stiles sunk beneath the illuminate blue waves that reeked of chlorine. He flailed some more in a flurry of bubbles before rising back to the surface.
Slowly reason made its way to his eyes.
"Did you just toss me?"
The lady shrugged and pointed at Marco, "It was his idea."
Then she was off blending back into the crowd.
Marco rushed Stiles out of the pool and grabbed him, "What happened— what did you see?"
"S-Scott was attacking me on the Full Moon again. It felt so real…."
Marco let him go and began shoving the others into the pool.
It didn't take long for them all to recover with memories of traumatic moments.
Alison with her Mothers assumed death.
Isaac with his fathers murder and the encounter with the Blue Eyed Beast.
Neither did Boyd, but he looked like he was trying to save someone.
They all circled up at the thrown pool table, soaked and disoriented.
"So what did you see Marco?" Stiles finally asked after everyone else shared.
"Why even ask." Scott answered.
"Actually I didn't see anything."
"Ok." Stiles clapped his hands, "What did you do differently from us?"
Marco immediately remembered tossing the drink Lydia begged him to have.
He also realized something in their haste for recovery.
"Lydia spiked the drinks….. and she's missing."
Scott looked around at the drunken people, "So is Derek."