"So who killed them? Who killed Jackson?"
That question caused Allison to freeze up as she was hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with explaining the complications of Jackson's death this early to Lydia.
"Listen Lydia, it's a bit more complicated than what you probably think it is." She tried making sure that Lydia won't jump to conclusions after learning how Jackson died but this was one of the things she hated that Malia didn't have her back on.
"Tristan killed Jackson."
The response from Malia stunned Lydia while Allison's eyes widened scandalously, short of words at how tactless Malia was being.
Allison looked at Lydia and saw the shock slowly receding a bit for Lydia to stutter out a simple question. "W-why?"
Allison wanted to take this chance to try and patch up the fractured atmosphere but Malia held her shoulders and shook her head at her before focusing on Lydia whose eyes were already turning red at its edges.
Malia thought it would be better if she explained it to Lydia but someone beat her to it at that moment.
"It's because I had to. At least it was the only way I could think of." They all turned around to see Tristan, still in his lacrosse gear, walking into the lab they were in.
"All the people that died to 'animal' attacks after Kate Argent's funeral were all Jackson's doing, though not directly." He was now close to them and standing beside Malia while Allison stood in the middle of them and Lydia.
"A kanima – that's what he was. A creature of the night that exists only to carry out his master's death vengeance."
"Master?" Right now she was just going with the flow while her brain suppressed most of the shock she's been receiving.
"Yeah, turns out Daehler from lacrosse was the one controlling him."
"… Then why?"
"Jackson's nature as a kanima is to serve as a killing weapon and if I had killed only Matt, he would just have bonded with someone else and restart another killing spree." Tristan explained in an even tone as if what he was saying was common knowledge. "Maybe there was a way to stop him from killing but I have no idea what it is so I settled for the only solution I had to stop him from killing more people."
Thud.
Her legs could no longer support her so it guided her to the ground. Her tears fell down but she didn't let out a sob and just stared blankly in Tristan's direction.
Her subconscious wanted to deny what Tristan said as false, a lie he was telling.
"I have no reason to bother lying to you. The reason simply being that I have nothing to gain from you believing a lie or me being apprehensive of you trying to avenge him by killing me."
Unfortunately he's been finding himself speaking more and more these days and while he didn't see it as anything bad, it also meant that he couldn't just leave it with him killing Jackson and walking away.
"Just watch her in case she tries doing something ridiculous." Tristan said and walked away, leaving the three girls in the lab, to the boy's locker room to switch out of his gear.
"Where did you disappear to?" Boyd asked when he saw Tristan coming back to the locker room still in his training gear.
"Had to quickly take care of something." Tristan replied.
"Anything important?"
"No, just some minor issue." He waved his hand in dismissal to show how unimportant the matter was. Boyd shrugged and forgot that topic.
"Anyway, are you free after school?" Boyd asked.
Tristan tapped his chin and thought of if he had any idle pleasure he could give up. "Yeah, I'm not that busy after school. Anything?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking of hitting the worker shop for supplies. Want to come along with?"
Since he already had something he could give up for time with Boyd, he agreed as they both walked out of the locker room.
"Where's Lydia?" Tristan asked after he met Allison and Lydia in class.
"I took her to the infirmary to cool down and waited for her to fall asleep." Allison said while massaging her forehead. "It just had to become complicated huh?"
"Welcome to our world."
…..
As Tristan and Boyd walked back from where Boyd went to get some supplies for a few repairs he was working on, they engaged in short conversations that flowed according to the pace they were comfortable with.
"Is something wrong with Lydia?"
"Probably, why?"
"I don't know. Just thought it was a bit weird for her to spend the rest of the day on sick leave."
Boyd didn't have much problem with Lydia. Hell, he didn't have problems with anyone and being one of the few people he could talk to, it went without saying that he noticed Lydia's odd behavior.
But unlike him, Tristan wasn't much concerned. "Hope she can sleep it off." He said.
Boyd regarded him with a raised brow. "I mean, I can get Malia not getting along with Lydia but do you have a reason why you are very dismissive of her?"
Tristan however shook his head and answered him. "I'm not being dismissive but rather just not being interested in her and her troubles. The same way I am with most people." His reply earned him Boyd's deadpan.
"In this context, that's the same thing." He said dryly.
Tristan paused and reviewed his actions and attitude and how they probably were portrayed to Lydia.
He didn't mean anything in particular concerning his lack of interest in associating with the girl. He didn't hate her or anything.
He only started associating with other teenagers a few months ago and have only gotten close with Boyd and Allison, expecting him to be the same with everyone else like Lydia, McCall, Isaac and his fellow teammates was a very high bar to cross.
"Maybe I'll warm up to her, who knows." He said and that became the end of another discussion until either of them brought up a new one.
They stopped before a red traffic light and waited for it to turn green along with the other pedestrians there.
"Can you boys help this old man cross?" Someone called out to them from behind which prompted them to turn around and see who was speaking to them.
They saw a blind man that looked to be in his late 40s with a cane in his left hand.
"Oh, yeah sure." Boyd quickly said.
"Thank you." He said and extended his right hand forward and Tristan who was closer to it held it.
"You don't have someone to help you walk around town?" Tristan asked curiously as he led the man across the road after the light cleared.
"I do but they are currently busy. I don't have a problem traversing the area since I'm familiar with it but I need help crossing the lights every now and then." The blind man chuckled and thanked them once more before they left.
"Such good youngsters."
…..
With Gerard's burial just around the corner, the atmosphere in the Argent's were strained but Allison tried her best not to let it get to her.
Her father ramped up her training by a few levels; survival, combating stronger opponents, wide array of weapons, instincts, rational decision making in stressful situations – he made sure Allison started picking up her slack in all of them while making sure not to overwhelm her that she couldn't master them to an acceptable level.
Her weekends were spent training with her father and even during weekdays her father could wake her up any time from 12:00am to 6:00am for a drill or to have her complete an assignment.
While she sometimes complained about the intensity of the workload heaped on her, she never once said anything to her father about taking a break.
She knew how much she needed this if she wanted to fight werewolves. As she was, she would die if she were to fight Malia or Tristan, much more quickly for the latter, which meant she had no chance against werewolves stronger than them, like the Alphas.
To be honest, the fight against werewolves was very unfair to them as they were just normal humans, albeit with specialized training, but that didn't close the gap between them, only obscuring it and giving the Hunters, dare she say, a false sense of security and confidence when facing werewolves.
'It's no surprise that more Hunters die than werewolves.'
People like Gerard, her father, Kate and her mother were very rare within the Hunter circle. They were the elite of elites. The pinnacle of what a Hunter could be, but meant nothing when faced against a werewolf if they lost their weapons. A beta would kill them with ease in such a scenario.
Right now she was browsing the weapons gallery to see if she could get a recurve bow to use for practice and weighing the options she picked out to check for their balance and grip.
"This one." She chose a black-purple tipped bow after checking the texture and draw of the bow.
"An arrow? Not a weapon you usually see a girl with." An amused voice broke her from her own little world and she identified a tall woman in tight leather pants and jacket. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to distract you. Mind if I ask you why a bow?"
"Don't worry, it's nothing. Archery is just something I grew up with. It kinda runs in my family and you can't blame a frail girl for picking up something that puts her away from a fight, right?" Allison easily spun a lie and with the other party being a woman made her a bit receptive that she even cracked a joke.
A part of her mind entertained the thought of this being another of her father's tests but she didn't think much of it.
The tall woman with smokey lipstick laughed at her joke. "Of course. But I don't think anyone will call you frail if you can use a bow like that. It doesn't exactly say 'frail' or 'hobby you know."
Allison playfully winked at her while smiling. "A girl gotta have secrets right? What about you?"
"Little me? I'm more of a hands on type of gal." The woman said. "Shopping for a new sand bag."
"Kali, let's go." Someone called her which put an end to the two girl's talk. "Annnd that's my boyfriend. Name's Kali by the way." She pointed at a bald jacked guy looking in their direction and introduced herself.
"Allison."
"Well, hope to see you around, Allison. And try not to scare the boys away with that." Kali said as she sauntered over to her boyfriend with a wave.
Allison looked down on the bow in her hands and a chuckle left her mouth. "I doubt bows will scare him all that much." She muttered to herself.
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