Liam shifted his weight back on his legs, he left his seat and made his way to the front of the bus, he walked by Alec who was still very much captivated by whatever was on his screen, Scott and Malia contemplating the dark sky in each other's arms, Stiles resting next to Lydia, together holding hands.
He stopped and stood next to the driver's seat, he glanced at Derek for a moment then turned his attention back to the empty road in front of him,"How far are we?"
" Not very, we are really close actually," responded Derek. After a few seconds of silence he added, "How is everyone doing back there ?"
"As fine as everyone can do ... in hindsight,"
Derek seemed to regret that last question a bit, then again, how "fine" can they really be in... hindsight? Considering well... Everything.
Both men decided that they didn't have anything left to say or share after that.
Liam just stood there awkwardly, far from it being an unbearably uncomfortable situation, it was still unpleasant nonetheless and for some reason the idea of simply returning to his seat felt even more awkward to him.
And so he kept staring at the road, well ... as much of it as the headlights could illuminate at least, everything else around was gobbled up by darkness, he hoped for something or someone to come up with a good enough excuse to disrupt that quietude.
He didn't have to hope for very long, as that reason came right away, a sign on the side of the road entered the radius of the headlight's gleam, It was a green metal traffic sign printed in white with the number "115".
How did he make out its color in that dimness? One might wonder. Simply put, the highway "115" was known as the only way back into Beacon Hills!
No... This wasn't the only reason that sign was so memorable to Liam, a key event took place there, the occurrence that altered the entire course of all their lives. A bitter taste built up in the back of his mouth at the thought of that... That was where everything went downhill.
He looked over his shoulder and caught sight of Scott, he watched as the true alpha's face slightly but gradually contorted from relatively peaceful to plainly sad when he laid eyes on the sign, because after all, whatever it ment to all of them wasn't even close to what it ment to their leader.
Scott's mind flashed back to the senior scribe night, the eve of his first day as a senior at Beacon Hills high. He rode his motorcycle on highway 115 to pick his then girlfriend Kira YUKIMURA up, who was coming back from New York with her parents, their car was stuck in traffic, an accident caused a pile-up ahead of them.
The young wolf was beating himself up at the thought that, had he gotten to her before the dread doctor got their hands on her, none of them would be in the situation they were in that day. Kira being a thunder Kitsune was a major part of those abomination's plan from the get go, all they had to do was tamper with her fox and with that, all the dominos alligned.
They botched the pack's visit to eichen, stole dr. Valack's third eye which allowed them to carry their experiment to success, yielding a lot of victims in the process.
But... that wasn't all, oh no! that was but the beginning, they also botched their second visit to eichen during the mission to save lydia, causing Odin's hunt which was already in Beacon Hills to be stuck there, the pack therefore had to push against the wild hunt through their second semester of senior year.
That resulted yet again in another catastrophy, since they allowed an ancestral monster "anuk-ité" to escape the hunt and cause mayhem by kickstarting a worldwide war lead by one of the serviving victims of the beast of gevaudan.
If only and only if ... He'd gotten to her first, she would probably still be with them today, with her friends and family, instead, she was roaming the deserts with skinwalkers under the sun... in the dust.
Liam could only imagine the guilt his alpha must feel, he hated the fact that there was nothing he could do or say to make it better, telling him that there was noway he could've known would surely not amount to anything and...
" Here we are,"
A bit startled, Liam turned towards Derek, he'd almost forgotten that he was still standing next to him, he conveyed his attention forward, another sign lied ahead, this time however it was fashioned from wood and the letters carved on it said:
-WELCOME TO BEACON HILLS.-
He faintly beamed at the sight of it, emotions that he thought he'd never feel again sudenly flooded him, he'd already anticipated the reunion with his family and best friend when he learned that they had to go back home, except then, it felt real, it was really happening.
His contentment was swiftly cut short, and his heart fell in the pit of his stomach when a humanoid silhouette erupted from the darkness, still and stiff as a board in the middle of the road, right infront of the bus. Derek reacted quickly, he stepped on the breaks faster than Liam could say, "HOLY SHI... !!!"
The rest of the passengers were alerted, they didn't exactly know what the problem was, but they knew enough to understand that something was about to happen. They soon realized it was nothing good when they felt the bus abruptly halting, well trying to halt judging by the screaming wheels scraping against the tar, plus their bodies being thrown forward so hard they each had to find something stable enough to grip a hold of.
Stopping a speedy vehicle dead in its tracks at a short notice wasn't going to be without repercussion. Indeed, with such mass, at such velocity the bus had too much momentum, so much so that its rear-end left the ground and thrusted forward, while the front seemed glued to the floor and it basically flipped upside down on itself.
The bus glided and grinded on its top-end against the road for the next ten feet that came ahead, until, it finaly sat still, and everything went dead quiet...