Half asleep, Nolan sat in his economics class. He had Daan to his left and Cody to his right, both seemingly just as tired as he was. It was the final lesson of the day, and all of them were ready to go home and chill out in front of a TV show. They’d been given a group activity by Coach, but unsurprisingly, none of them felt engaged by it.
“Nolan!” Coach yelled, “Get to work, you can sleep when you’re dead, and that will be very soon if you keep ignoring my instructions.”
“Yes Coach” Nolan half-heartedly replied.
“I swear free periods make you more tired than actual lessons” Cody observantly noticed. Nolan didn’t disagree – even if he wasn’t the biggest lover of school, he found himself excessively bored in free periods. Annoyingly, all three of them had gained a few extra frees that week due to Miss Padhi’s absence.
“I never thought I’d actually miss math” Daan added.
“Do you think she’s OK?” Nolan pondered, referring to Miss Padhi, “She’s not been here since we told her about everything. I hope she’s not passed it on to anyone.”
“Why would she have done that? It makes no sense. She’s probably just processing it, it’s a lot to take in” Cody sensibly suggested.
“Do you think we should pay her a visit?” Nolan continued.
“Wouldn’t it be weird? Visiting a teacher’s house and all that” Daan responded, wanting to avoid such a situation.
“It’s just out of concern, we’re not stopping for a cup of tea” Nolan replied, insistent. Daan shrugged, giving in, and Cody nodded along too.
Having regrouped at Scott’s house, each of the group now had a Bible to scour through. Five of them sat around the room, armed with a book that had a total of 1,200 pages.
“Where the heck do we start?” Maddie sighed, flicking through it.
“We can’t possibly read all of this” Liam added, “What if we find nothing?”
“If anyone has any better solutions, I’d love to hear them” Scott firmly but calmly responded.
“Y’all have a read, see if you can find any details that might be helpful. I’ll do a google search, in case we’re on the wrong track. Then we’ve got all bases covered” Stiles suggested. Scott nodded, and they got to work. The next ten minutes were met with silence, other than the sound of Stiles’ keyboard or the thin Bible pages being turned. None of them found it a particularly enthralling task, but nevertheless, they kept on reading and researching.
Surely it wouldn’t be difficult to spot a hairy man holding a watch? Liam kept telling himself. More time passed without a single result. Lydia yawned, staring intensely at the pages and trying to avoid losing concentration. The silence was interrupted by the familiar sound of Scott’s doorbell. Keen to take a break from the tiresome reading of a holy book he didn’t believe in, Scott leapt up to answer it. As soon as the door was opened, Malia and Isaac rushed in, with Argent sheepishly following.
“We got a problem” Malia began. Scott was all-ears, concerned about what else he might have on his plate.
Meanwhile, still at Argent’s, Casey and Archie had cuddled up on the sofa. Isaac’s behaviour was on both of their minds, for different reasons. Archie knew nothing about the supernatural world, and assumed it was a medical condition.
Or something like that, he thought. Casey, however, knew better. He knew what Isaac had seen wasn’t human, and it scared him. He’d asked Malia to text him any updates, so he was anxiously checking his phone every few seconds. The sight of “no new notifications” was beginning to grind his gears.
“What’s up?” Archie questioned, wondering why Casey was glued to his phone.
“Isaac’s not normally like that, I’m worried” Casey confessed, still keeping his cards close to his chest.
“So what’s up with him? I mean, it’s hardly normal behaviour. Where did Malia take him anyway?” Archie was noticing the abnormalities. Casey felt shifty. He knew Archie had picked up on how strange everything had seemed since he arrived, and the lies would only get tougher to uphold. After all, neither of them were stupid, or even close. Casey could read people like a book, a great tool for helping his friends when they were down, but it could work against him just as well. The problem was that he’d finally met his match – Archie was just as intelligent and skilled. They were both at Stanford University studying psychology, and it was far from a walk in the park, but both were more than capable.
“Err” Casey slurred, considering his response, “She took him to see a friend of ours. He’s good at this sorta thing.” Archie, frowned confused.
“A friend who’s good when people have major freak-outs? Blimey, I need one of them” Archie commented, jokingly. He wasn’t sure how else to react. He knew Casey wasn’t telling him everything, but didn’t want to interrogate. Casey was fully aware of how flakey he was being, but he was determined to keep Archie away from anything remotely supernatural. The conversation ended there, and they resumed their cuddling. Both shared the same sense of comfort and admiration for each other, and Casey was relieved that his car crash of a love life had finally been saved from the wreckage.
“Please Ms. Martin, we need her address, we’re just concerned” Daan pleaded. He, Nolan and Cody were stood in front of Natalie’s desk. They were determined to get hold of her address to visit her, but Natalie was frustratingly stubborn.
“No, how many times? Beacon Hills High School is a werewolf-free zone. When you’re in the building, you do your school work” Natalie recited, as if it were from a script, “Besides, I couldn’t hand out a staff member’s personal details anyway. Now go, back to class.” Defeated, the trio retreated out of her office. However, with a stroke of luck, Nolan spotted a fire alarm to the right of Natalie’s office door.
“I’ve got an idea” Nolan smiled.
Just seconds later, the high school was frantic. Everyone was evacuating, with the ear-piercing sound of the fire alarm blaring across the entire site. After a couple of minutes had passed, Nolan peeped his head out of the boys’ toilets.
“Coast is clear” he announced. The boys shuffled out into the now empty corridor, and into Coach’s office.
“There is no way this will work” Cody was pessimistic.
“Coach never logs off, this is fool proof” Nolan responded. He moved the mouse and the computer woke up. All it took was a little bit of typing and navigation to find Krishna’s address on the system.
“Take a picture” Nolan commanded. Daan took his phone out of his pocket and snapped the address.
“Done” he announced.
“Alright, now for the tricky part” Nolan said, making his way back out of the office door. Daan and Cody followed, forgetting to keep a look out for anyone who might find them.
“Going somewhere?” a soul-crushing voice interrogated from behind them. Nolan sighed. He recognised that voice clearly – it was Ms. Martin. She continue, “Detention, one hour tonight.”
“So you saw him too? I assumed it was just a banshee thing” Lydia mentioned. Isaac had just explained all about the vision he had. He was still visibly shaken, slightly concerned about what it might have meant.
“No disrespect Lydia, but the fact you saw him too doesn’t fill me with much confidence. Your banshee premonitions never lead anywhere good” Isaac complained.
“None taken” Lydia sarcastically replied.
“You think he’s a biblical figure?” Argent added, noticing several Bibles dotted around Scott’s front room.
“It’s the best lead we’ve got” Scott explained.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that” Stiles jumped in, gesturing for the others to join him at the computer, “I think we’re looking at this guy.” Loaded up onto the screen was an information website.
“Father Time” Malia read the title, “Who the heck is that?”
“If you read on, you’ll find out” Stiles impatiently responded.
“A mythological anthropomorphised perception of time” Lydia read.
“In English?” Maddie was confused by the long words.
“It’s time represented as a human. He’s said to have a sand timer for you, and when the time runs out, it’s time to die” Lydia explained.
“Father Time is represented in many pieces of work over the years, I’m familiar with a few” Argent continued, pointing to the screen, “That painting of Queen Elizabeth there, that was painted shortly after her death. It shows her tired and weary, and Father Time is included to signify that she was at the end of her life.”
“Alright, but why is this bloke appearing in visions? He’s not even real?” Liam queried, baffled.
“All myths and legends come from somewhere. Quite often, it’s the supernatural, but nobody’s ever had scientific proof of that” Argent detailed.
“What does he want?” Scott wondered.
“If you’re seeing him, it generally means one thing” Argent began explaining, but didn’t want to continue so explicitly.
“Death” Isaac sounded horrified as he realised what Argent meant. The entire group fell silent, beyond concerned.
Minutes felt like hours as Nolan, Daan and Cody sat in the school library for their detention. Natalie was perched at the desk, typing away on the computer. The boys were bored, and Nolan was beginning to get frustrated. Daan had his head on the desk, on the verge of falling asleep, but couldn’t drift off with such a loud scratching sound. Confused as to what it was, Daan looked up, and saw Nolan’s claws dug into the wooden desk.
“Nolan” Daan whispered harshly, “Control yourself.”
“I can’t” Nolan growled back, the wolf taking over. He had almost fully shifted. His teeth became fangs, and his speech was way deeper than usual. By this point, Cody was looking at Nolan too.
“What’s up?” Cody asked, trying to calmly get to the bottom of Nolan’s anger.
“We need to find Miss Padhi, we’ve got no time for stupid detentions” he said, flinging a chunk of wood from the table across the room. Natalie was oblivious to the situation, barely paying attention.
“We’ve got to get him out of here” Cody said directly to Daan. Both were beyond worried, not having seen Nolan like this before.
Isaac was losing his balance. The world around him seemed to be spinning, and he couldn’t focus on anything.
“Isaac?” he could hear Malia calling his name, but his mind couldn’t form a sentence to reply, no matter how hard he tried.
“Isaac” Scott repeated, more firmly. Still no joy. All of a sudden, Isaac heard the ear-piercing roar of his alpha. It was unmistakable, and he’d be able to hear it from miles away.
“Isaac!” Scott growled as he roared. Isaac’s eyes glowed yellow and his teeth morphed into fangs, causing him to break free of his freak-out. In the moment, Isaac roared back instinctively, responding to the call. Immediately after, he was restored to his usual self. His eyes were no longer glowing and his claws and fangs had hidden themselves. He sat down on the sofa, exhausted.
“I’m scared” he confessed, shedding a tear.
“What can we do?” Malia immediately asked, knowing she had to help out.
“If he’s supernatural, he shouldn’t be able to pass mountain ash” Argent suggested.
“This house has mountain ash all around it, we just need to block the doorway” Scott added.
“No time like the present” Stiles remarked, lifting up a jar of mountain ash positioned on the cabinet next to the front door, in case of emergencies. He took a handful of the unassumingly powerful black dust out of the jar and threw it at the doorway. Immediately, it formed a barrier around the entire house.
“Are you sure this will work?” Isaac pessimistically asked.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that barrier’s been broken” Lydia noted.
“It’ll work. I’m sure” Scott remained optimistic.
Still failing to regain control, Nolan was getting angrier and angrier. The wooden desks now had incredibly deep scratch marks embedded in them, and Daan and Cody felt helpless. Neither of them had much experience of the supernatural world, so were unsure of what to do. Natalie still hadn’t noticed a thing, and whilst she was in-the-know when it came to supernatural creatures, they didn’t feel like confiding in her was the best option. All of a sudden, the fire alarm sounded. Daan and Cody wasted no time in helping Nolan up and taking him out of the fire exit at the back of the room, without as much as a whisper to Natalie. She stood there watching in confusion, baffled as to why they didn’t wait for her instructions.
Just outside the door, Becky and Theo were stood waiting. Becky had spotted the group in the library. Nolan’s eyes jumped out at her, and instinctively, she whacked the fire alarm. She and Theo waited by the fire exit for the boys, so they could make a quick getaway. The fire door opened, and as expected, the trio dashed out as quickly as possible.
“What are you doing here?” Cody asked them.
“You’ll thank us later” Theo replied, before they made their escape from school.
Time passed slowly for the pack at Scott’s house. They were sitting ducks, with absolutely no indicator of when or if Father Time would actually show up. Most of them were trapped there anyway, the mountain ash barrier ensured they wouldn’t be leaving. Every second felt like an hour, and there was still no sign of anything. A long half hour passed, and they were getting restless.
“Is there nothing more productive we could be doing?” Liam complained.
“He’s got a point” Stiles added, “I mean, we’re just kinda sat here. There must be something we can do to help.” Scott pondered. Both of them were right. All of them being sat there felt pointless, particularly with no idea of whether Father Time was coming or not.
“Only three of us can get out” Lydia noted.
“And you’re the key to this whole thing” Maddie responded directly to Lydia, “We need you here.”
“Looks like it’s you and me then buddy” Stiles grinned, putting his arm around Argent.
“My taser’s getting dusty, don’t tempt me to use it on you” Argent responded, pushing Stiles away, “What do you need us to do?”
“We tried the library before, but we were looking in the wrong place. Any extra information on Father Time would be helpful. Books on myths and legends, that sorta thing” Scott suggested.
“The bestiary could help” Argent added. Scott nodded, signalling his approval.
Bored of sitting at home, Casey knew he had to help, regardless of whether it revealed his secret to Archie or not. As someone who always put his friends first, it was unlike him to stay away from the action when one of his friends had been in danger.
“I’ve got to go and check on Isaac” Casey decided.
“Is there news? I could come too” Archie suggested innocently.
“No” Casey responded far too quickly, before correcting himself, “I mean, you can if you want, but it’s not all that exciting.”
“I want to come and help” Archie defiantly responded, hoping this was his chance to find out what Casey had been hiding since he arrived back. Casey didn’t argue – Isaac was his first priority.
“This is the place” Daan announced, as Theo’s tatty little car pulled up outside a regular looking house not far away from the school. Daan, Cody and Nolan were squashed into the back seat, and climbing out of the tiny vehicle was a struggle.
“I ought to start charging for lifts” Theo muttered, as the trio left him and Becky in the car without a word in response. Becky whacked his arm from the passenger seat. It was meant half-jokingly, but Theo knew that it translated as “be nice”.
Just across the way, Nolan led the way towards the front door. Sheepishly, he pressed the buzzer to the right of the front door, and anxiously waited for an answer. Using his wolf hearing, he listened for any giveaway sounds inside. He heard the sound of footsteps plodding down the stairs. Their breathing was heavy as the sound of the door lock clicked open. Slowly, the door nudged open, and Krishna peeped through.
“Nolan” she identified in surprise.
“Hi Miss, mind if we come in?” Nolan smiled a friendly smile, not wanting to come across as creepy. He was well aware that turning up on a teacher’s doorstep was far from normal, after all.
Anxiously waiting, Scott and Maddie sat together on the sofa.
“You OK?” Maddie asked, trying to conjure up a conversation.
“Yeah” Scott unconvincingly replied.
“What’s up?” Maddie probed, seeing through his flippant response.
“I can’t help thinking” Scott began, “How long has this been going on?”
“What do you mean? You think Father Time isn’t a recent development” Maddie queried.
“Yeah, I mean we saw him in the portrait with Elizabeth II, but I’m thinking more recent history. Like Allison…did she see him? You know, when…” Scott trailed off. He always struggled to recall Allison’s death. He’d spoken to Maddie in great detail about Allison, but had never really opened up about her death – particularly his own feelings on the matter.
“Don’t worry” Maddie placed a comforting hand on Scott’s knee, “I’m sure she didn’t. This is the first we’ve heard about it, right? Let’s not think too much about the past.” Scott brushed her hand off his knee.
“You want me to forget about Allison?” he was taken aback, misinterpreting what Maddie had said.
“No, not at all” Maddie defended herself, before pausing, “You know what, you’re obviously not over Allison. If all I am is a low rent Allison, you can shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
“Hey” a chirpy voice interrupted the solemn mood. They both looked up, and saw Casey in the doorway. He couldn’t enter the house, due to the barrier, much to Archie’s confusion.
“Sorry, mountain ash” Scott explained, “Long story.”
“Why are we stood out here?” Archie impatiently asked from behind Casey. He made his way to the doorway, to enter the house.
“No!” Scott yelled, noticing Archie’s foot getting nearer and nearer to the barrier. It was too late though. Archie stepped right on top of it, and the seal was now broken. Casey followed him inside, no longer being blocked.
“What did you do that for?” Scott yelled, tempers running high.
“What did I do?” Archie was genuinely confused.
“He’s coming” Lydia announced from across the room, staring blankly ahead. She spoke in a ghostly tone, as if something else was speaking through her.
“Quick, fix the barrier” Malia screamed, panicked.
“How? We can’t touch it” Casey shouted back. However, he knew there was a way. He turned round to Archie, “I need you to do me a favour, and it won’t make any sense to you but you gotta trust me.” Archie nodded.
“Can you fix the grains of rock by the door? It’s important, please” Casey pleaded.
“Alright” Archie calmly responded, utterly baffled by what a few grains of weird dark rock would mean to Casey. Nevertheless, he knelt down ready to sweep it back into position. However, a gust of wind soared into Scott’s house. It destroyed what was left of the barrier, scattering it across the carpet, leaving the pack exposed.
Sipping the hot cup of tea that had been made for him, Nolan was taking in the sights around him. He liked Krishna’s front room. It was very modern and comfy. The walls were a light beige, with family photos hanging lovingly on them. The floor was laminate, with soft fluffy rugs for comfort. The sofa was big enough to comfortably fit Nolan, Daan and Cody, while Krishna positioned herself in an armchair opposite.
“What brings you boys here?” Krishna asked, knowing full well why they had turned up.
“We were worried about you” Nolan responded, taking the lead, “After everything that happened, you know.”
“Yeah” Krishna knew exactly what Nolan meant, “It’s all I’ve been thinking about. I can’t get my head around it all.”
“You’re allowed to be shocked. Scared, even” Cody intelligently replied, “But it’s real. It’s part of our world and always has been. Nothing’s changed, you’re now just in-the-know.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself” Daan laughed.
“We don’t want you to be scared of us. Most werewolves, in Beacon Hills anyway, are harmless” Nolan detailed. Krishna looked deep in thought. She listened intently to their words, but coming back to work and into society again was a difficult decision still.
“What do we do? I’ve gotta hide. I can’t be here” Isaac was flustered.
“Calm down, we don’t know that he’s coming here specifically, right?” Malia tried her best to be optimistic, a trait she was not used to.
“He’s coming right here” Lydia answered. She looked possessed, like something had overtaken her. Meanwhile, the draught at the door was continuing. Archie struggled to look forward as the strong winds slapped him in the face. The gusts of wind kept going until they hit the living room, where they began to circulate in the centre. Spinning round and round, faster and faster, the winds covered the middle of Scott’s room from floor to ceiling. Appearing in the centre was the man they were all dreading. Father Time was appearing, right in front of their eyes. Isaac cowered in the corner, trying to shield himself from his seemingly inevitable fate. Malia rushed over to save him, but Father Time blasted her away with one quick hand gesture. Malia’s back slammed against the opposite wall, collapsing with a crash. Father Time approached Isaac, and placed his hand on top of his head. Isaac’s eyes widened, and he looked like he was having an allergic reaction. In a second, his body slumped to the floor, motionless. The winds picked back up, and even faster than he arrived, Father Time was gone. As soon as the winds finished, Malia picked herself up and raced towards Isaac. She felt around for a pulse, but had no luck.
“It must be somewhere, why can’t I feel it?” she grew frustrated. Scott calmly approached and held Malia’s hand.
“I’m sorry, he’s gone” Scott regretfully said, giving Malia the confirmation she didn’t want, but certainly needed. Nobody spoke a word, but everyone felt the same as they looked on. Malia’s tears spoke for them all, as an immense tidal wave of sadness took over their minds.
“Thanks for coming boys” Krishna smiled, “but don’t be breaking school protocols to find out my personal details ever again.” She stood in the doorway, showing the boys out of her house.
“See you tomorrow, Miss” Daan grinned. However, he couldn’t help noticing, in the corner of his eye, an elderly man holding a fob watch…