"You know, it is a gross misconception that druids only sacrifice virgins and philosophers and healers and whatnot," Jennifer's voice blared in their ears, it had sounded like it came from everywhere in the room, "Everyone is fair game after the first essential ones,"
As soon as her sentence had ended, the silence that had dominated the space since they'd infiltrated the place, was broken by the very first gunshot fired by Stilinski after he'd caught sight of a longtail. And all hell broke loose after that.
The creatures seemed to be materializing out of thin air, even if they weren't really doing so. The remaining deputies and agents fired as fast as they could, as accurately as they could afford to; they did their best to keep their enemies at a good distance away from them, but most unfortunately, their numbers were in rapid decline.
Having heightened senses, Parrish was able to react quicker. He'd managed to save the lives of multiple colleagues in the process of keeping his own out of harm's way. Without a pause, he took a few steps back and only stopped when he thought he was close enough to Stilinski, "How many of those bullets do you still have?" he asked loud enough for the sheriff to hear.
"Not enough to get rid of all of them in time," Stilinski admitted as he kept on firing.
"Yeah, I don't think we'll hold the fort forever like this either,"
"Where is she?" Fisher had asked. Parrish hadn't noticed that she was standing beside Stilinski before then.
"I don't know, I can't see her," he said, "I'd like to try something, but it's pretty risky. If I fail, we'll all be toast,"
"At this point, I'd say I'm willing to give anything a try. What's your plan?" said Noah.
"I'm gonna need you to call everyone for a retreat,"
"To retreat? I thought we couldn't do that?" Fisher seemed more confused than worried as she asked.
"Alright, I trust you," said Stilinski.
"You got it," Rafael added.
Both Stilinski and Rafael had agreed to give Parrish's plan a chance, and thus they called for all of their units to retreat into one spot. Parrish wasn't joking, they truly were an easy target, the way they were all hurdled together, their enemy had already surrounded them, and without Parrish's intervention, it would have been a matter of minutes before they'd all been dead.
"Whatever you want to do, just do it fast! Things aren't looking so good for us right now," yelled Stilinski.
Parrish did not respond to that. Instead, he closed his eyes in an attempt to focus, which was a delicate thing to do, considering his circumstances. Nevertheless, he did his best to clear his mind in order to connect with his other half, the spirit he was graciously sharing his body with, not that he'd had a choice there. Deep within himself, he looked for his fire, that which burned his foes but spared his friends. He needed to control his hellfire, enough to make a safe zone that his flames could not reach.
Slowly but undoubtably, a ring of flames began to appear around Parrish and his friends, as his eyes gained the hue of the element his was projecting. If it could have been compared to any phenomena, what he'd created around them very closely resembled a raging storm. One that was as hot as the sun, even his friends were able to sense its sizzling, considering the way they were inching away from it.
As perfect as the barrier it was, it only helped shield them from the longtails that were closing in on them. The creatures appeared reluctant to attempt to brave through Parrish's fire, but all the same, they weren't retiring from the fight.
"Now what? Pretty sure we can't hide behind your flames eternally," said Rafael.
"Now, comes the best part. Be ready to attack," said Parrish with a small smile on his lips.
In a fast movement, he closed his stretched out arms together in an echoing clap. And just like that, the fire he'd kept on rotating around himself and his friends, broke out of its path and blasted every longtail standing close by, incapacitating them in the process. That was the perfect opportunity for Parrish and the others to gun down and eliminate as many monsters as they could, while these were busy flailing about, trying to extinguish the fire on their skin.
"That was impressive!" Everyone was able to hear Jennifer's hand claps before her voice had reached their ears. She continued her speech after emerging from behind one of the large wooden pillars in the room, "Wanna see something even more impressive?" she asked as her features drew a devilish smile across her face.
She didn't move an inch from her place, yet somehow, she forced the Sheriff Stilinski to drop to his knees. Everyone watched as he brought both of his hands to his throat. He desperately clawed at it, in order to remove something that was clearly blocking his airways. Something, that remained invisible to everyone's eyes.
Parrish's entire body lit up before he leaped out of his place and thrusted towards Jennifer. It only took him the fraction of a second to reach the place where she stood. Although, she was no longer standing there. He flipped around himself, looking for her figure.
"She's there!" said Fisher, she fired her gun and ran headfirst in a specific direction.
"No! Fisher, wait!" screamed Parrish after her. He only had a brief moment to turn back towards the sheriff to see that he'd thankfully regained his ability to breathe, but the longtails were attacking the group again.
"Go! Just go after her! You need to stop Jennifer! We'll be fine!" yelled Rafael between gunshots.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Parrish finally moved. He ran in the direction that Fisher had previously taken. He zigzagged between the pillars and strayed further and further from the gunshot sounds behind him. He kept on going until he reached an Area where there were no wooden poles, and that was where he decided to stop and take a look around himself.
Wherever he laid eyes, all they'd captured was an extension of nothingness in the dark. He could neither hear, nor see anything, "Fisher? Where are you?" he screamed, hoping he'd get an answer.
"Here!"
He darted towards her voice without a second thought. As he ran, his insides ached all of the sudden, he did not stop for that much, but a strong sense of déja vue hit him. For a moment, he thought he was running in a loop as the memories of what had taken place in Eichen house a few nights prior, pushed through to the surface of his mind. That was when he realized that the same thing was happening to him all over again; he was following Fisher's voice in the dark, hopelessly trying to reach her.
"Fisher?" he stopped and called for her again, only, in response, he received complete and utter silence. There still was nothing around him. He tried to discern if anyone was near with his supernatural eyes, but even then, he failed to find the slightest clue of where he was.
"You're fast, I'll give you that,"
He jumped around to see that Jennifer had been standing a few feet away behind him, "Yeah, apparently not fast enough," he said before launching towards her the way he did before. Unlike the previous time however, he didn't reach where she stood, he simply couldn't. Midway through, he was stopped dead in his tracks. He appeared to no longer be the master of his own body as he just froze there, struggling to regain control over his muscles and failing miserably at the task.
Upon looking back at Jennifer, he was a tad surprised to be greeted by furrowed eyebrows from her. Even though, he still wasn't free to express any of his feelings on his own face, due to lack of control. Although, he quickly understood that the look of discreet shock from her, was because his fate was no longer in her hands.
"Thank you, my dear Jennifer. You've done perfect," a deep masculine voice came out of nowhere to compliment Jennifer's doings.
"I guess my work here is done, then," she said with a feeble smile.
"So, it appears," the same voice as before addressed her again.
At that point, Parrish still hadn't laid eyes on the new speaker. It was a voice he couldn't recognize for all he tried; he simply had never heard it before. The tone of who Jordan thought was a man, was very calm. If he could just forget where he was for a second, he could've thought that the voice belonged to a kindhearted man. But if even Jennifer didn't resort to her usual snark with him, then there were no mistakes, he wasn't one to be trifled with.
Parrish was so absorbed by his curiosity, in addition to his physical condition, that he hadn't even noticed that Jennifer was no longer there.
"Parrish, isn't it? I am honored to finally meet you, face to face," said the man.
Parrish thought it was rich of him to speak of honor, considering he'd incapacitated him before making his presence known.
"Oh! Pardon. Silly me, I forgot you couldn't speak. Let me... Fix that for you," he said in what Parrish believed to be the fakest amicable tone the man could muster. Objectively however, he thought his tone did not sound fake at all, it did not feel forced.
But with the snap of a finger, at least that was what Parrish thought it was, since he still couldn't see him, Jordan felt his blood rush towards his lips again, "Who are you?" that was all Parrish had finally managed to squeeze out.
"Really? Are you saying that you've got no idea of who I can be?"
Had Jordan answered that question with a yes, it would have been a total lie. He did have an idea about the identity of the mysterious man. If there was one man that Jennifer would obey without slacking, it had to be him... The apprentice.
"You're here to kill me," stated Parrish through gritted teeth, still attempting to win control over the rest of his body back.
"No, no, no, no... See? when I have the intension to kill someone with my own hands, I tend to prefer a simpler approach. I would always opt for a good old traditional duel. I just think it is more fun that way. You understand me?" As the apprentice spoke, Parrish could hear a single set of footsteps moving all around him, "I am not here to kill you but... You will die right here, right now, regardless,"
Jordan thought he already knew what the apprentice was going to do to him. But hearing the confirmation of it from his own mouth, filled him with a new sense of dread, "How are you going to kill me then?" he tried to sound collected.
"As I said before, I will not kill you with my own hands but... Rest assured, I sought, and hand selected the perfect candidate for this task myself. It won't be my fight but, I am only here to assist them," he said.
He kept the same tone all the way to the end, from the moment he made his appearance. He did not speak fast, nor did he talk slow either. And if Parrish thought he'd kept an ounce of confidence in him, it instantly vanished when he laid eyes on the person that was supposed to take his life...
There she stood facing him, a place he could've sworn was empty a few seconds before, but she was there all along. She had a diminishing grin on her. She looked every bit as familiar as she looked foreign to him. It was her but... It also could not have been her...
"Fisher?" he muttered with a week voice.
"No hard feelings partner, it's not personal," she said as the barrel of her gun almost rested on his forehead.
There was a void in time where his brain refused to function... And then, everything came crashing on him all at once. All of his thoughts, feelings... Everything. He even felt the ground crumble beneath him; he hoped it would swallow him whole so that he didn't have to deal with the reality of that moment. He wished he had the ability to turn back time just like he had the ability to review all of his memories of Fisher ever since she came to Beacon Hills. But the time wasn't for wishes... In fact, there was no time for him to do anything...