Chapter Text
“Severed the bones that bleach, the flesh that cleaves,
And let our sifted ashes drop like leaves.”
Anactoria by Algernon Charles Swinburne
The first time he sees her Stiles is jogging trough the woods (nothing like taking a run in the psycho infested woods surrounding your boyfriend’s childhood house), she is pale and beautiful, but his instincts go flying, she is too at ease in this woods where too much blood has been split. Stiles can recognize a predator anywhere.
He runs by her, following an invisible path he has run a thousand other times, not too close but just enough for him to see her, She looks up, smiles shyly at him an continues on walking, and Stiles just Knows.
When he gets to his house far enough so nothing supernatural can hear, he calls Scott ‘We have a problem.’ He says.
-
The second time he sees her, Stiles is sitting next to Lydia and behind Isaac. The three of them look towards the door in an eerily coordinated movement. Isaac can smell it, Lydia and Stiles can feel it. She is standing just inside the classroom talking to the teacher.
‘She smells like blood, a lot of it´ Isaac whispers eyes wide with that puppyish look of anguish all over him. Stiles humms ‘I told you we had a problem, she’s the girl I saw the other day in the woods’
‘Well she’s not only in need of a new perfume, she also feels like death.’ Lydia rolls her eyes, looks at her nails, and get’s her phone out to take a discrete picture of the girl. Stiles finishes a text and sends it to the whole pack. Lydia sends the pic just after.
‘How much death is she leaking?’ Stiles is not sure he wants to know the answer, they’ve been trough so much shit already you’ll think Psychos will give them a break, at least 2-3 months? No? he is going to complaint with the syndicate, say they’re over working their crazy or something. ‘Is she Human?’
‘yeah’ Isaac confirms . He is trying not to look at her and failing in that adorable way only Isaac can fail.
‘Lydia?’ She looks at him, and says ‘She feels like she eats death.’
They introduce the new girl as Abigail Hobbs, ‘just moved here’. Be nice to her, the teacher warns them. Like hell Stiles will be nice to the new crazy in town, he has a policy of zero tolerance to crazy this days, crazy tends to blow up in your face.
She sits in the other end of the classroom, near the door. Stiles doesn’t relax for the rest of the class, Lydia keeps twirling her hair and, Isaac looks from Abigail to the blackboard every three seconds.
‘I love that scarf, Hermes?’ Lydia approaches Abigail after class in full Queen B attitude, before either Isaac or Stiles can do anything.
-
The third time Stiles sees her, is more like the first time he can look at her and get the tiny details engraved so he can use them somehow. Besides Lydia’s best attempts Abigail does not take off the scarf to show it to Allison and her. Somehow they end up all sitting together for lunch, Scott directly in front of her in case she tries something, the twins and Isaac in strategic positions that will allow them to stop her if she tries anything funny.
They chat with an easy fake lightness, like they are just a bunch of teenagers. They surround her with that mockery of happiness, they make fools of themselves, Stiles stuffs his face with curly fries and chicken, and they must be getting good at handling the psychos because she buys it.
Abigail is vague enough, She is 17 like them and lives with her two fathers, both of them work in the fields of psychology. They moved here because her dad ‘wanted more space for the dogs’ and ‘My father likes the weather.’
They are vague as well, in Stiles head he can see the field they’re playing in, none giving ground.
By the end of it, the wolves have enough to follow her home, and the girls have their share of information. Christ Argent and well as his Dad have been informed, and are working on it. Derek is most probably lurking around or just waiting outside in the car.
-
The four time Stiles sees her is that night. It’s pack dinner tonight, apparently the parents decided to become super buddies, organize this things and bitch about their teenage kids over some beers, this evolved in ‘hey, let’s see if we can keep them out of danger for one hour’, they discovered that with enough amount of food it was possible, also Isaac makes a mean cake, and none quite beats Christ with the steaks, second best is Derek. The twins don’t have a family so they started first tentatively going and then well, they’re sort of there all the time.
Stiles and Derek are in grocery duty this week, they got caught making out two weeks ago in Allison’s closet of all places (there are pictures involved that Lydia will not delete) and are so being blackmailed to buy all the greens and raw they need.
Stiles turns a corner pushing their food car telling Derek the complete history of cornflakes with way too many flaying limbs, while his Boyfriend stares at the shopping list like it has insulted him somehow, it probably has, he knows for a fact Lydia wrote that list.
And there is Abigail, standing next to a man, putting the apples he passes her carefully in a bag. Their car is filled with a small quantity of carefully chosen fresh veggies, neatly arranged, for a second Stiles feels kind of embarrassed for the hapardazed state of their shopping car, where the veggies and the trash food seem to be at some kind of war. Before he can turn around and pretend he was not coming this way, she sees him and waves.
‘Hi Stiles!’ Abigail is charming, she smiles at him then gestures at the man next to her ‘Father this is Stiles, he has geography with me. He is one of the classmates I told you about. Stiles, this is my Father.’
He smiles to them even if the man makes him want to run in the oppose direction. Man, he really shouldn’t be this good recognizing crazy murderers. Derek itches closer to him, his protective lurkiness puts Stiles at ease ‘Sir’ he greets and salutes laughing. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you. Hey Abigail! What a coincidence!’
He can feel the man’s cold gaze assessing him, ‘How you liking the town? I’ve lived here my whole life and I still manage to get lost! But it’s real nice, all sorts of wild life around here! Oh my! I’m so rude! Sir, Abigail, this is my boyfriend Derek’ He palms Derek’s in the arm ‘Come and say Hi, Derek. Sorry, he is kind of scared to dead by strangers, is not a family thing.’ he says as Derek lets him drag him a little to the front. ‘family dinner’s today, and he keeps believing my dad will shoot him dead for stealing his baby not matter how much I’ve told him dad will more likely just disappear him’. Stiles laughs at the face he is sure Derek is pulling.
‘It’s a Pleasure to meet you.’ Derek pulls his best apology smile. Abigail nods, Her father is still assessing them, like trying to determinate if they are worth it or not. Stiles does know by now his Daughter and him are definitively worth of going to his list of “crazy Psychos I’ve meet.”
And that’s as much as Derek will say, Stiles knows it so he intervenes ‘I don’t believe I’ve caught your name sir? We kids tend to forget our parents names are not indeed mum and dad’
The man finally moves, he passes Abigail another perfect apple, looks directly at Stiles eyes and says ‘I’m Hannibal Lecter’ he shakes hands with Derek fist, possibly because Derek is closer but Stiles suspects is more a things of dangerous beings recognizing each other, that right there is an advantage, because none expects Stiles to also be a dangerous being. Then, Hannibal shakes hands with him, and Stiles feels his blood freeze. How do they even go around without common folk noticing the kind of nuts they are?
Stiles obliges himself to relax, and smiles. ‘So, how was your first day? Beacon Hills can be kind of overwhelming with his “nothing really happen here” and “Go, team, Go” really, the most exiting thing to happen this week was...’He looks at Derek like they’re about to share and inside joke, in reality they had to come with better codes for “I’m really scared of this one, let’s walk slowly in the opposite direction and freak out quietly”. ‘What? The cat I found in your living room?’ yes the code is cat, it comes handy in weird conversations ‘We still don’t know how it snuck in there.’
‘It’s pretty god, I mean, it’s a great break from the city. I though I will miss some things, but you guys have been so nice! Lydia told me something about going in a shopping trip someday soon?’ Abigail says after giggling about the cat. She is obviously exited, and that’s exactly why Stiles doesn’t completely trust she has falling so much for their act, more so because her father is dead serious picking pears now. And who the hell chooses food with so much intensity? Do they manage to attract crazy food people?
Seriously man, his life.
‘Ugh I wouldn’t know anything about it. The last time I willingly went shopping with Lydia she had me carrying dresses for her all afternoon, it was kind of very terrifying. The way she looked at me the time I passed her the lavender dress instead of the Lila! I had nightmares for days, I swear! She resorts to kidnapping now, but, we’ll, she really doesn’t tell us who she is going to kidnap so we don’t hide and stuff. But at lest you girls enjoy shopping, god knows why. Will you give me the heads up of when you guys are going so I can go cower beneath a desk or something? She’ll probably kidnap Isaac because he doesn’t complain much, or so I’m told but, anyway, Pretty please?’
Abigail and her father are staring at him, because he babbled all that really fast. ‘Ugh, sorry’ he plays embarrassed teenager really well, it has saved his life every time, people see him babble and think “This kid can’t keep his mouth shut, he is harmless. Ha.” It has worked like magic since nursery school. Babble on and distract the crazy murderer and his psycho daughter.
‘I should…we should go.’ Stiles cast his eyes to the floor, one, two , three…
Abigail laughs, it’s the kind of laugh all pretty girls have. The one that sort of illuminates the space around her, the kind that sound like bubbles, but if you listen well (and Stiles always does) it sounds more like broken glass.
‘That was impressive young man’ Hannibal says, he passes a pear to his daughter that she dutifully arranges next to their apples. ‘Do you always have this… way with language?’ He is terrifying, the man is so cold and calculated Stiles fears if he touches him again, he will freeze.
‘I do sir, I’m told it’s my most obnoxious quality’ Stiles smiles fox-like, and the man looks at him, like he is looking into his soul trying to find all those pieces Stiles has guarded deep beneath that clusterfuck-proof part in him. ‘Are you making salad? Those are some pretty good veggies right there.’ The man looks dawn at his shopping car, then up again at Stiles and smiles, just a little, a small innocent smile, just before he says:
‘You should come to dinner at our house soon. Abigail, make sure he comes with us sometime, is rare to find such agreeable company these days. Your parents and Derek are, of course, invited as well. I’m glad you’ve taken in Abigail in your group of friends. I’m sure you’ll be nice to her.’
It gives Stiles worst Goosebumps than Peter, Deucalion and Jennifer Blake full Darach together ever give him, but he manages to smiles radiantly and nods.
‘I’ll be pleased sir! It really looks like you know what you’re doing; I bet you’re a great cook! Maybe even a chef? And I promise I’ll look after Abigail, make sure she does well! Wouldn’t leave her alone a second until I’m sure she’s safe!’
Derek puts a hand in his arm, looks at him for a millisecond, with that micro expression of panic he does that makes him look like the grumpy cat. ‘Mr. Hannibal, I’m sorry, but is getting late.’ Derek is on the same mode he was in the police station, if you can’t growl at them smite them with a smile.
Hannibal nods ‘Of course, nice to meet you gentlemen. Thank you for looking after Abigail in school’
‘think nothing of it sir! It was a pleasure to meet you.’ Stiles shakes hands with the man again, and smiles at Abigail ‘See you tomorrow! Let me know about that shopping trip, okay? Have a nice dinner!’
After Derek bides them farewell, they scroll their car dawn the isle, checking the list once more and discussing if they should get honey mustard or regular mustard. They’ve learned the hard way to never talk in the proximities of psychopaths about said psychopaths.
--
They avoid the topic until they’re a block away from the market parking lot. Stiles babbles until they past half a block, then gets silent and dead serious. Derek’s grip in the steering well is a little too hard, and Stiles knows the only reason it has not broke yet is that Derek is tired of replacing stuff every two seconds. They drive in tense silence, and Stiles allows himself a brief second of sadness and panicking. He should have known that two months of peace equaled suffering.
‘They smell like blood’ they stop in the red light, suddenly Derek seems tired. And fuck it, god, fuck it so hard, this is supposed to be their family night, sacred, happy and safe.
‘It’s the same thing Isaac said this morning. Lydia said she feels like dead, and did you notice how that guy moves? Like he is calculating how fast can he kill you, like he is somewhat mocking you? I don’t know Derek, this is bad. Did you feel anything supernatural about them? The others said they didn’t but they aren’t, you know, you.’
Stiles holds Derek’s hand, he is scared, not cowering but… one thing is supernatural factors thrown into their town. It’s always some sort of revenge/hate crime, thrown into those equations, not all of those persons where always the monsters Stiles came to know (Except Gerald, he is pretty sure he was born that way, and Peter, he is not quite sure) but if these people are human, and still are murdering just because what, they think is funny? It gives them a trill, a rush of adrenaline? Why? He doesn’t like this at all.
‘I… no.’ He shakes his head, and intertwines his fingers with Stile’s, he looks pained. ‘They smell weird’
‘Weird how?’ They’re almost by the house now; Stiles can see the pack different vehicles in his drive way, Can see the boys moving towards the door to help with the groceries.
‘They smell like cooked meat’
Is not after he is organizing the leftovers in the freezer in the middle of the night, after everyone is gone, that Stiles realizes Derek by “meat” probably means cooked human flesh.
Stiles sits at the kitchen table and cries.