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Series 6 Episode 7
"Detective"
Watching on, feeling helpless, Drew’s urge to fight had never been stronger. Though he was backed into a corner, he still had a strong team of four by his side, and Josh was in trouble. He wasn’t going to let his fifth and final teammate down.
The scientist blocking their way had a vaccination syringe primed, but as far as weapons went, Drew was underwhelmed. A needle wasn’t going to break through the skin of a werewolf very easily, but Noah was at risk. He wasn’t fully transformed into the kanima. His body wasn’t strong enough. Though Drew did not feel threatened, he still had somebody at risk. Somebody he needed to protect.
“Now,” Drew gave the command. He and Allyn shoved forward, knocking the syringe clean out of its hand, pushing it to the floor, “Hold them.”
Monty and Noah helped secure the wriggling scientist in place as Drew leapt over to help Josh. Immediately, he flung the other scientist off him, the grip being released from around Josh’s neck.
“Drew!” Noah called out. The scientist had managed to grab the syringe again, and it was sticking out of Noah’s arm. It was too late. Whatever was inside was now in Noah’s bloodstream.
“Everybody out,” Drew ordered. This was the final straw. Freddie had had enough time.
The scientist blocking their way had a vaccination syringe primed, but as far as weapons went, Drew was underwhelmed. A needle wasn’t going to break through the skin of a werewolf very easily, but Noah was at risk. He wasn’t fully transformed into the kanima. His body wasn’t strong enough. Though Drew did not feel threatened, he still had somebody at risk. Somebody he needed to protect.
“Now,” Drew gave the command. He and Allyn shoved forward, knocking the syringe clean out of its hand, pushing it to the floor, “Hold them.”
Monty and Noah helped secure the wriggling scientist in place as Drew leapt over to help Josh. Immediately, he flung the other scientist off him, the grip being released from around Josh’s neck.
“Drew!” Noah called out. The scientist had managed to grab the syringe again, and it was sticking out of Noah’s arm. It was too late. Whatever was inside was now in Noah’s bloodstream.
“Everybody out,” Drew ordered. This was the final straw. Freddie had had enough time.
The school day had dragged, just like it always did, except even more so than usual for Dylan that week. He was too busy itching to continue researching, because school didn’t feel like the most productive place for him to be when there was a supernatural killer on the loose. Jono’s cousin was still at risk.
None of them had heard from the scientists or the Anpao in days now. On one hand, this gave them time to cross-reference missing people and reported deaths with the scientists’ log. On the other, they were surely gearing up to strike again, and the longer they waited, the more concerned Dylan was becoming.
“Hey, look at this,” Jono pointed out, showing one of Ed’s old unsolved murder cases. They had immediately headed to Ed’s office after the bell rang to continue what they had been working on for days. Dylan didn’t want to waste any time, “It’s from 2008.”
Dylan immediately flicked through the scientists’ log, glancing at Ed’s report as he did so.
“Eyes removed, they were never found,” he summarised, feeling a chill whirl down his spine. It certainly seemed to fit the scientists’ pattern.
“How has nobody noticed?” Jono wondered. It was a good question; Dylan couldn’t erase the pictures Freddie took of the severed eyes and ears, and there were so many of them. Even the extra reports weren’t making up the deficit.
“I guess nobody knew what they were looking for before,” Dylan pondered, “Do you ever wish we were more, you know…” he trailed off, unable to find a word to replace the one he really wanted to avoid.
“Normal?” Jono used that exact word.
“I guess,” Dylan caved in, “Like, if none of this werewolf shit had happened to us. We could just be teenagers, hating school, wishing our lives away.”
“All the time,” Jono confessed, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of us. We save people, and that’s super cool, but I miss normality. I wish it could be just the two of us, cuddled up on the sofa every night, binging through Netflix and settling on a crappy rom-com we’ve seen a hundred times before.”
“Then we spend the whole night kissing anyway,” Dylan smiled, thinking about what could be. Life would have been so much simpler, “I mean, we could still do that. What’s to stop us?”
“The pissing Anpao,” Jono chuckled.
“Right,” Dylan concurred, “But if we succeed, that’s our celebration, right?”
“Damn right,” Jono beamed, “Maybe a little more than kissing, though, yeah?”
“You can count on it,” Dylan cheeky grinned. It was certainly motivation to get through this mountain of paperwork even faster.
Ticking off another day, Lily was alarmed at just how quickly senior year was going. She had almost finished school, and college was calling. Her choice had been locked in, and she was pretty excited to get studying photography. That said, the end of school was scary. Back in freshman year, it felt like school would never end.
“Oh my god,” George exclaimed all of a sudden, staring in disbelief at his phone.
“What?” Lily was baffled. It was like he had just won a million dollars.
“I got a place, I got accepted,” he exclaimed. Lily was immediately filled with pride – George had desperately wanted that place at University of California studying architecture.
“Oh my god, that’s amazing,” Lily flung her arms around him. All of a sudden, reality hit her. George was going to a nearby college so he could live at home and support Freddie still. Lily, on the other hand, was looking at Washington University. They were going to be hours apart. She knew this moment would come, but it felt so far away.
“What’s the good news?” Brett yelled over, separating from the intimidating group of basketball teammates packed full of tall, laddish guys. If anybody needed proof of misogyny in the twenty-first century, Lily would happily have pointed in their direction.
“I got accepted into college,” George told Brett gleefully. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops.
“Dude, that’s awesome, congratulations,” Brett fist-bumped him. Lily was always impressed at George’s ability to get along with absolutely everyone. That said, Brett wasn’t the worst of his friendship group by any means.
“Hey, mind if I ask a favour?” Brett changed the subject, “Drew’s over there, he’s not said a word. I can’t get through to him. Has something happened?”
“I don’t think so,” Lily replied, concerned. Drew was easy to read. Something must have been up, but she had no idea what, “Let me go and speak to him.”
Lily knew she could squeeze anything out of Drew. She was the person he trusted the most within the pack, and if he was quiet, something had certainly happened.
“Tell me,” Lily simply requested, sitting next to him on their bench.
“Oh, hey Drew, how are you? Fine thanks Lily, and yourself?” Drew hit out.
“I’m not the enemy,” Lily bluntly stated. She knew he was upset, but she wasn’t going to take any rudeness, “Besides, you hate small talk.”
“True. Sorry,” Drew issued a rare apology.
“Go on then, tell me,” Lily urged. She wasn’t going to give up on him easily.
“The other day, at the hospital. The scientist fucker stabbed Noah with a syringe. It injected something into him,” Drew explained.
“Okay, so what happened?” Lily remained all ears.
“Nothing. That’s just it. He’s fine. I spoke to Allyn earlier and he’s the same as ever,” Drew continued.
“That’s great,” Lily wasn’t seeing the problem.
“Nothing never happens. There’s always something. There has to be, or what’s the point?” Drew reasoned. He was forever pessimistic, and not without good reason considering what he’d been through.
“Maybe we got lucky this time? They’re human, maybe it was a flu vaccine?” Lily tried to counter him with optimism.
“Somehow I doubt it,” Drew sighed, “I should have stopped it.”
“You did your best,” Lily reassured, “Hey, I might have a favour to ask from you. A little distraction could be good.”
“Yeah?” Drew was intrigued.
“My uncle. He had this hidden in his house,” Lily took the small crescent moon out of her pocket, “What does it mean?”
Somehow, a little peace and quiet had actually arrived in Crystalshaw. Yasmin was by no means stupid – she was well aware that things were far from over, but momentarily, she had her life back. Every time a new problem arose, it was like her real life paused. Nothing else mattered until the thread was eliminated.
Now, though, things were different. She didn’t know when things were going to get crazy again, but Yasmin saw little point in sitting around and waiting. Dylan had assured her that he and Jono had the research and cross-referencing under control. This meant she finally had some more time to spend with Josh, and she was planning a cute afternoon of cinema and dinner, and they were primed and ready to go in Yasmin’s car straight from school.
“Is it weird that I don’t feel scared for the first time in ages?” Josh thought aloud.
“Same,” Yasmin agreed, “But that’s making me worried. The fear we felt wasn’t real, so who turned it off?”
“Oh,” Josh seemed deflated, as if his good mood bubble had been burst.
“Okay, no more talking about anything supernatural,” Yasmin laid the ground rules, “This evening is about you and me only.”
Josh nodded in relief. They needed to make the most of this opportunity, because Yasmin didn’t know how long it would be until their next chance.
“Hey guys,” Freddie interrupted, clambering into the back seat.
“Dude, what are you doing?” Josh questioned, bemused. He glanced at Yasmin, sharing an anxious, worried look. Three was most definitely a crowd.
“I’ve got a theory,” Freddie began, ignoring all signals. Yasmin’s hopes of a romantic evening were getting further and further away, “I don’t know if you guys realised, but it’s like the scientists switched off whatever was causing the fear.”
“We definitely noticed,” Yasmin remarked.
“So that means it was like a transmission or signal, right?” Freddie theorised, “Which means it could be traced. It means we can find them before they find us.”
“Maybe go tell Dylan, he’ll be interested to hear,” Yasmin suggested.
“Or we can act now, he’s busy at the sheriff station,” Freddie annoyingly replied.
“Yay,” Yasmin groaned. She had almost all the time in the world for Freddie, but suddenly, her plans with Josh seemed to have evaporated.
Surprisingly, Jono found the hours of paperwork ticking by nice and quickly. Time always seemed to fly whenever he was with Dylan, but he hated that. He wished that time could stop, so they could spend as long as they wanted by each other’s side. Jono knew he would never want to leave.
Jono had been creating a timeline on Excel of every murder that was suspected to be at the hands of the scientists, while Dylan pinned every case onto Ed’s crime board. They were beginning to run out of room, and Jono wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On one hand, it meant they were successfully painting a bigger picture, but equally, it meant even more people had suffered and died. It was heart-breaking to see the faces of all the victims in one place.
“Special delivery,” Ed strolled into the office with Caroline and several McDonalds bags.
“Perfect, I’m starving,” Jono shifted the laptop sideways to make room for dinner.
“I meant us, but okay, focus on the food,” Ed teased, passing a paper bag to him and another to Dylan.
“Looks like you’ve both been busy,” Caroline commented, “I wish you put this level of effort into your homework, Dylan.”
“Mom, please don’t start,” Dylan raised an eyebrow.
“Makes me look like a crappy sheriff,” Ed mentioned.
“I mean, how many sheriffs know about freaky scientists experimenting on supernaturals anyway?” Jono chuckled. Of course, Crystalshaw seemed to be a hub for everything supernatural, and Ed coped pretty darn well all things considered.
“I don’t get it, though,” Caroline pondered, “They took all these body parts, but what for? Why do they need them? You said Sammi looked just the same, so it wasn’t for her.”
It was a good question, one Jono wished he would have thought of himself They had to serve some sort of purpose, surely?
“Oh my god,” Dylan seemed to have a realisation. His face turned pale and he paused eating for a moment, “Ed, how many missing person reports have you received recently?”
“A few more than usual, why?” Ed was confused.
“They’re building an army, creating supernaturals,” Dylan chillingly revealed. Jono wasn’t sure how, but it made sense, and it sure as hell terrified him.
Alarmed by a symbol he hadn’t seen in a very long time, Drew had taken Lily, as well as the entourage of Brett and George, to his bunker. It was time to dig out some remnants he had kept buried for a long time.
Drew was always sceptical of digging up the past because there was so much history that he had buried deep in Crystalshaw. History consisting of bad memories, and the destruction of everyone he cared for. The crescent moon was the symbol of that history, and it terrified him. It should still have been buried away in the depths of werewolf lore.
“Woah,” Brett exclaimed. He had never been inside the bunker before. Drew could have done without the unnecessary fanfare, not that Brett was all that good at self-control.
“Don’t touch anything,” Drew ordered.
“Not even with a duster?” Brett rudely commented as he examined some of the objects and books kept on the far shelving unit. Most of it was random stuff Drew had accumulated over the years, but some of it was useful and he couldn’t risk the damage.
“What have we come here for?” Lily enquired, “You recognised it, didn’t you?”
“Recognised what?” George was confused.
“This,” Lily held out the small metallic crescent moon again to show the others.
“It looks pretty,” George commented, as if he were looking at a wedding ring. The emotions Drew felt couldn’t have been more different.
“It’s not pretty,” Drew corrected, “It’s the symbol of something you should all be pleased you’ve never come across.”
“It was in my uncle’s house,” Lily looked concerned, “The house was empty, it hadn’t been lived in for months, if not years.”
“I think I know why,” Drew explained, picking up a scrapbook that he hadn’t seen in years. He wiped the thick layer of dust off before turning the first page, “This was my diary. I kept it when I was a kid. When the war between werewolves and hunters was ongoing. I wrote everything down.”
“There was a war?” Brett naivety shone through.
“You’d never have known. It was a war fought in the shadows, at night, in the corner of your eye,” Drew continued, “It wasn’t just werewolves against humans, though. It was werewolves against werewolves. Not every werewolf is like Dylan. Some are radical and extreme, and they believe their pack is the only one that matters.”
“What happened to them?” Lily listened intently, never losing her focus.
“Most of them died, the hunters saw to that. The last I heard was that the alpha left town some years ago, but they had no pack left. If you found that symbol, you found a warning. They’re still out there,” Drew warned.
“It’s my uncle,” Lily realised, the colour draining out of her cheeks like a sink.
“And he’s coming back for blood,” Drew added. He felt nervous; he wasn’t ready to confront these demons again.
Though it had become the setting for all of his nightmares, Freddie knew he needed to revisit the laboratory one more time. Whatever equipment they had created to transmit fear into every supernatural could be essential to tracking them down.
He wasn’t stupid – he knew he was interrupting Josh and Yasmin’s date, but some things were more important. If they didn’t act sooner rather than later, there would be no date to go on – they would all be dead. Freddie wasn’t risking his life, or theirs.
“Woah, what if they’re here?” Josh seemed reluctant as the elevator doors swiped open in their usual clunky manner.
“Allyn’s kept an eye on the CCTV of the lift. It’s been empty for days,” Freddie eased his concerns.
“Still gives me the creeps,” Josh remarked.
Freddie led the way down the now familiar corridor, lights flickering above, not helping his nerves. However, they were a different type of nerves. The artificial fear had stopped, but now his worries were real. Delving deep inside the basement felt like swimming against the tide.
Just as Freddie expected, the lab was empty. That alone was a massive relief. It looked like the lab had been cleared out from top to bottom, with drawers left open and surfaces cleared.
“Maybe they took it?” Josh theorised, looking around.
“Why would they take anything they didn’t need?” Yasmin pondered, “They would’ve had to get all of this out through the hospital without anybody raising an eyebrow, there’s no other way out.”
“I think I’ve found it,” Freddie spotted, reaching deep into one of the cabinets and pulling out a laptop, which still had its lid open. Typing away at the keyboard, the laptop unlocked, revealing a complex set of code.
“Is that even in English?” a bewildered Josh wondered.
“It’s code. Just my language,” Freddie smiled gleefully. This was his moment to shine.
Pulling up the missing person reports from the previous three weeks, Dylan was startled by how many there were. Reading a typical report both intrigued and terrified him – how could somebody just vanish without a trace?
However, this wasn’t the same as the small number of historical unsolved missing person cases. There were a huge fifteen of them, and Dylan had a fair idea of what had become of each of them. Of all the things he had seen in the world of the supernatural, and very little of it was pretty, nothing horrified him more than bodies being chopped up and mutilated to make supernaturals. It shouldn’t have been possible, but whatever the scientists were, they absolutely were not stupid. They wouldn’t waste time on something doomed to fail.
“Why these people?” Dylan found himself questioning.
“Not everything has an answer,” Caroline advised, just as brilliantly as she always did. However, for once, Dylan disagreed.
“They must have decided on these fifteen people for a reason, but they seem unrelated. Why did they not just grab a large group of friends or a family to cover the numbers?” Dylan theorised.
“You’re right,” Jono perked up, eager to find the pattern. It mattered to Dylan to know that he wasn’t just seeing things.
“Different ages, different backgrounds,” Jono thought aloud, examining the small amount of personal information they had on each one of them.
“We need more information,” Dylan sighed, feeling like he was stuck in quicksand.
“Morris,” Jono pondered, staring at one of the sheets, “I saw that surname earlier.” He glanced up at the assortment of casualties pasted on the crime board, scanning the names, “I knew it. There was another Morris who got killed. That’s gotta be a link, right?”
Dylan looked at the surname of another missing person and made a mental note – ‘Page.’ Sure enough, one of the corpses had the surname ‘Page.’
“The missing people are relatives of the dead,” Dylan figured.
“Stitching body parts of their dead relatives onto them,” Jono realised, a grim, disgusted tone quivering through his voice.
Dylan felt sick. The scientists had reached a new low, but this was far from over. Now he had to stop them.
Hitting panic mode, Lily was trying to make sense of her revelation. How could Uncle David be an alpha? How could she not have realised this before? Did Sammi know about werewolves the entire time? She had so many more questions than she expected to, when the point was supposed to be to find answers.
Drew flicked through his scrapbook with purpose, as if he knew what he was looking for. It was scruffy and packed full of sheets and polaroids stuffed loosely inside. It looked so disorganised, but Lily was sure Drew knew exactly what he was looking for.
Sure enough, he stopped on a page roughly halfway through the book. He picked up a polaroid photo and handed it over to Lily. She glanced at George nervously. Everything she thought she knew was being brought into question, like two worlds were colliding.
George squeezed her hand. As always, he was her perfect comfort blanket. How she would cope without him at college, she didn’t know. He pulled her back from the edge time and time again.
The photo was instantly recognisable. Most memories that she had of Uncle David were from years back when he lived in Crystalshaw, so this picture was perfectly in sync.
“That’s him,” Lily identified, staring anxiously at the details. His eyes were protruding through the low-resolution picture – the distinctive, horrible red colour. There was no denying it.
“Lily, if he’s back, we’re all in danger,” Drew warned. Lily was conflicted. She had no idea what to do, or how to feel.
“I don’t know if he is, but the house was cleared out, remember? Nobody had lived there for months, at least,” Lily reminded, “Why would he do that?”
“There’s only one person who knows the answer to that,” Drew mentioned.
“Sammi,” Lily realised. He was right – Sammi was the only one who potentially knew the truth. She could have known about her father and werewolves the entire time, and she could answer their questions.
“The psycho killer girl?” Brett rudely blurted out with his usual lack of self-control.
“She’s my cousin,” Lily defended, “And this has gone on long enough. Time to get Sammi back.”
None of them had heard from the scientists or the Anpao in days now. On one hand, this gave them time to cross-reference missing people and reported deaths with the scientists’ log. On the other, they were surely gearing up to strike again, and the longer they waited, the more concerned Dylan was becoming.
“Hey, look at this,” Jono pointed out, showing one of Ed’s old unsolved murder cases. They had immediately headed to Ed’s office after the bell rang to continue what they had been working on for days. Dylan didn’t want to waste any time, “It’s from 2008.”
Dylan immediately flicked through the scientists’ log, glancing at Ed’s report as he did so.
“Eyes removed, they were never found,” he summarised, feeling a chill whirl down his spine. It certainly seemed to fit the scientists’ pattern.
“How has nobody noticed?” Jono wondered. It was a good question; Dylan couldn’t erase the pictures Freddie took of the severed eyes and ears, and there were so many of them. Even the extra reports weren’t making up the deficit.
“I guess nobody knew what they were looking for before,” Dylan pondered, “Do you ever wish we were more, you know…” he trailed off, unable to find a word to replace the one he really wanted to avoid.
“Normal?” Jono used that exact word.
“I guess,” Dylan caved in, “Like, if none of this werewolf shit had happened to us. We could just be teenagers, hating school, wishing our lives away.”
“All the time,” Jono confessed, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of us. We save people, and that’s super cool, but I miss normality. I wish it could be just the two of us, cuddled up on the sofa every night, binging through Netflix and settling on a crappy rom-com we’ve seen a hundred times before.”
“Then we spend the whole night kissing anyway,” Dylan smiled, thinking about what could be. Life would have been so much simpler, “I mean, we could still do that. What’s to stop us?”
“The pissing Anpao,” Jono chuckled.
“Right,” Dylan concurred, “But if we succeed, that’s our celebration, right?”
“Damn right,” Jono beamed, “Maybe a little more than kissing, though, yeah?”
“You can count on it,” Dylan cheeky grinned. It was certainly motivation to get through this mountain of paperwork even faster.
Ticking off another day, Lily was alarmed at just how quickly senior year was going. She had almost finished school, and college was calling. Her choice had been locked in, and she was pretty excited to get studying photography. That said, the end of school was scary. Back in freshman year, it felt like school would never end.
“Oh my god,” George exclaimed all of a sudden, staring in disbelief at his phone.
“What?” Lily was baffled. It was like he had just won a million dollars.
“I got a place, I got accepted,” he exclaimed. Lily was immediately filled with pride – George had desperately wanted that place at University of California studying architecture.
“Oh my god, that’s amazing,” Lily flung her arms around him. All of a sudden, reality hit her. George was going to a nearby college so he could live at home and support Freddie still. Lily, on the other hand, was looking at Washington University. They were going to be hours apart. She knew this moment would come, but it felt so far away.
“What’s the good news?” Brett yelled over, separating from the intimidating group of basketball teammates packed full of tall, laddish guys. If anybody needed proof of misogyny in the twenty-first century, Lily would happily have pointed in their direction.
“I got accepted into college,” George told Brett gleefully. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops.
“Dude, that’s awesome, congratulations,” Brett fist-bumped him. Lily was always impressed at George’s ability to get along with absolutely everyone. That said, Brett wasn’t the worst of his friendship group by any means.
“Hey, mind if I ask a favour?” Brett changed the subject, “Drew’s over there, he’s not said a word. I can’t get through to him. Has something happened?”
“I don’t think so,” Lily replied, concerned. Drew was easy to read. Something must have been up, but she had no idea what, “Let me go and speak to him.”
Lily knew she could squeeze anything out of Drew. She was the person he trusted the most within the pack, and if he was quiet, something had certainly happened.
“Tell me,” Lily simply requested, sitting next to him on their bench.
“Oh, hey Drew, how are you? Fine thanks Lily, and yourself?” Drew hit out.
“I’m not the enemy,” Lily bluntly stated. She knew he was upset, but she wasn’t going to take any rudeness, “Besides, you hate small talk.”
“True. Sorry,” Drew issued a rare apology.
“Go on then, tell me,” Lily urged. She wasn’t going to give up on him easily.
“The other day, at the hospital. The scientist fucker stabbed Noah with a syringe. It injected something into him,” Drew explained.
“Okay, so what happened?” Lily remained all ears.
“Nothing. That’s just it. He’s fine. I spoke to Allyn earlier and he’s the same as ever,” Drew continued.
“That’s great,” Lily wasn’t seeing the problem.
“Nothing never happens. There’s always something. There has to be, or what’s the point?” Drew reasoned. He was forever pessimistic, and not without good reason considering what he’d been through.
“Maybe we got lucky this time? They’re human, maybe it was a flu vaccine?” Lily tried to counter him with optimism.
“Somehow I doubt it,” Drew sighed, “I should have stopped it.”
“You did your best,” Lily reassured, “Hey, I might have a favour to ask from you. A little distraction could be good.”
“Yeah?” Drew was intrigued.
“My uncle. He had this hidden in his house,” Lily took the small crescent moon out of her pocket, “What does it mean?”
Somehow, a little peace and quiet had actually arrived in Crystalshaw. Yasmin was by no means stupid – she was well aware that things were far from over, but momentarily, she had her life back. Every time a new problem arose, it was like her real life paused. Nothing else mattered until the thread was eliminated.
Now, though, things were different. She didn’t know when things were going to get crazy again, but Yasmin saw little point in sitting around and waiting. Dylan had assured her that he and Jono had the research and cross-referencing under control. This meant she finally had some more time to spend with Josh, and she was planning a cute afternoon of cinema and dinner, and they were primed and ready to go in Yasmin’s car straight from school.
“Is it weird that I don’t feel scared for the first time in ages?” Josh thought aloud.
“Same,” Yasmin agreed, “But that’s making me worried. The fear we felt wasn’t real, so who turned it off?”
“Oh,” Josh seemed deflated, as if his good mood bubble had been burst.
“Okay, no more talking about anything supernatural,” Yasmin laid the ground rules, “This evening is about you and me only.”
Josh nodded in relief. They needed to make the most of this opportunity, because Yasmin didn’t know how long it would be until their next chance.
“Hey guys,” Freddie interrupted, clambering into the back seat.
“Dude, what are you doing?” Josh questioned, bemused. He glanced at Yasmin, sharing an anxious, worried look. Three was most definitely a crowd.
“I’ve got a theory,” Freddie began, ignoring all signals. Yasmin’s hopes of a romantic evening were getting further and further away, “I don’t know if you guys realised, but it’s like the scientists switched off whatever was causing the fear.”
“We definitely noticed,” Yasmin remarked.
“So that means it was like a transmission or signal, right?” Freddie theorised, “Which means it could be traced. It means we can find them before they find us.”
“Maybe go tell Dylan, he’ll be interested to hear,” Yasmin suggested.
“Or we can act now, he’s busy at the sheriff station,” Freddie annoyingly replied.
“Yay,” Yasmin groaned. She had almost all the time in the world for Freddie, but suddenly, her plans with Josh seemed to have evaporated.
Surprisingly, Jono found the hours of paperwork ticking by nice and quickly. Time always seemed to fly whenever he was with Dylan, but he hated that. He wished that time could stop, so they could spend as long as they wanted by each other’s side. Jono knew he would never want to leave.
Jono had been creating a timeline on Excel of every murder that was suspected to be at the hands of the scientists, while Dylan pinned every case onto Ed’s crime board. They were beginning to run out of room, and Jono wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On one hand, it meant they were successfully painting a bigger picture, but equally, it meant even more people had suffered and died. It was heart-breaking to see the faces of all the victims in one place.
“Special delivery,” Ed strolled into the office with Caroline and several McDonalds bags.
“Perfect, I’m starving,” Jono shifted the laptop sideways to make room for dinner.
“I meant us, but okay, focus on the food,” Ed teased, passing a paper bag to him and another to Dylan.
“Looks like you’ve both been busy,” Caroline commented, “I wish you put this level of effort into your homework, Dylan.”
“Mom, please don’t start,” Dylan raised an eyebrow.
“Makes me look like a crappy sheriff,” Ed mentioned.
“I mean, how many sheriffs know about freaky scientists experimenting on supernaturals anyway?” Jono chuckled. Of course, Crystalshaw seemed to be a hub for everything supernatural, and Ed coped pretty darn well all things considered.
“I don’t get it, though,” Caroline pondered, “They took all these body parts, but what for? Why do they need them? You said Sammi looked just the same, so it wasn’t for her.”
It was a good question, one Jono wished he would have thought of himself They had to serve some sort of purpose, surely?
“Oh my god,” Dylan seemed to have a realisation. His face turned pale and he paused eating for a moment, “Ed, how many missing person reports have you received recently?”
“A few more than usual, why?” Ed was confused.
“They’re building an army, creating supernaturals,” Dylan chillingly revealed. Jono wasn’t sure how, but it made sense, and it sure as hell terrified him.
Alarmed by a symbol he hadn’t seen in a very long time, Drew had taken Lily, as well as the entourage of Brett and George, to his bunker. It was time to dig out some remnants he had kept buried for a long time.
Drew was always sceptical of digging up the past because there was so much history that he had buried deep in Crystalshaw. History consisting of bad memories, and the destruction of everyone he cared for. The crescent moon was the symbol of that history, and it terrified him. It should still have been buried away in the depths of werewolf lore.
“Woah,” Brett exclaimed. He had never been inside the bunker before. Drew could have done without the unnecessary fanfare, not that Brett was all that good at self-control.
“Don’t touch anything,” Drew ordered.
“Not even with a duster?” Brett rudely commented as he examined some of the objects and books kept on the far shelving unit. Most of it was random stuff Drew had accumulated over the years, but some of it was useful and he couldn’t risk the damage.
“What have we come here for?” Lily enquired, “You recognised it, didn’t you?”
“Recognised what?” George was confused.
“This,” Lily held out the small metallic crescent moon again to show the others.
“It looks pretty,” George commented, as if he were looking at a wedding ring. The emotions Drew felt couldn’t have been more different.
“It’s not pretty,” Drew corrected, “It’s the symbol of something you should all be pleased you’ve never come across.”
“It was in my uncle’s house,” Lily looked concerned, “The house was empty, it hadn’t been lived in for months, if not years.”
“I think I know why,” Drew explained, picking up a scrapbook that he hadn’t seen in years. He wiped the thick layer of dust off before turning the first page, “This was my diary. I kept it when I was a kid. When the war between werewolves and hunters was ongoing. I wrote everything down.”
“There was a war?” Brett naivety shone through.
“You’d never have known. It was a war fought in the shadows, at night, in the corner of your eye,” Drew continued, “It wasn’t just werewolves against humans, though. It was werewolves against werewolves. Not every werewolf is like Dylan. Some are radical and extreme, and they believe their pack is the only one that matters.”
“What happened to them?” Lily listened intently, never losing her focus.
“Most of them died, the hunters saw to that. The last I heard was that the alpha left town some years ago, but they had no pack left. If you found that symbol, you found a warning. They’re still out there,” Drew warned.
“It’s my uncle,” Lily realised, the colour draining out of her cheeks like a sink.
“And he’s coming back for blood,” Drew added. He felt nervous; he wasn’t ready to confront these demons again.
Though it had become the setting for all of his nightmares, Freddie knew he needed to revisit the laboratory one more time. Whatever equipment they had created to transmit fear into every supernatural could be essential to tracking them down.
He wasn’t stupid – he knew he was interrupting Josh and Yasmin’s date, but some things were more important. If they didn’t act sooner rather than later, there would be no date to go on – they would all be dead. Freddie wasn’t risking his life, or theirs.
“Woah, what if they’re here?” Josh seemed reluctant as the elevator doors swiped open in their usual clunky manner.
“Allyn’s kept an eye on the CCTV of the lift. It’s been empty for days,” Freddie eased his concerns.
“Still gives me the creeps,” Josh remarked.
Freddie led the way down the now familiar corridor, lights flickering above, not helping his nerves. However, they were a different type of nerves. The artificial fear had stopped, but now his worries were real. Delving deep inside the basement felt like swimming against the tide.
Just as Freddie expected, the lab was empty. That alone was a massive relief. It looked like the lab had been cleared out from top to bottom, with drawers left open and surfaces cleared.
“Maybe they took it?” Josh theorised, looking around.
“Why would they take anything they didn’t need?” Yasmin pondered, “They would’ve had to get all of this out through the hospital without anybody raising an eyebrow, there’s no other way out.”
“I think I’ve found it,” Freddie spotted, reaching deep into one of the cabinets and pulling out a laptop, which still had its lid open. Typing away at the keyboard, the laptop unlocked, revealing a complex set of code.
“Is that even in English?” a bewildered Josh wondered.
“It’s code. Just my language,” Freddie smiled gleefully. This was his moment to shine.
Pulling up the missing person reports from the previous three weeks, Dylan was startled by how many there were. Reading a typical report both intrigued and terrified him – how could somebody just vanish without a trace?
However, this wasn’t the same as the small number of historical unsolved missing person cases. There were a huge fifteen of them, and Dylan had a fair idea of what had become of each of them. Of all the things he had seen in the world of the supernatural, and very little of it was pretty, nothing horrified him more than bodies being chopped up and mutilated to make supernaturals. It shouldn’t have been possible, but whatever the scientists were, they absolutely were not stupid. They wouldn’t waste time on something doomed to fail.
“Why these people?” Dylan found himself questioning.
“Not everything has an answer,” Caroline advised, just as brilliantly as she always did. However, for once, Dylan disagreed.
“They must have decided on these fifteen people for a reason, but they seem unrelated. Why did they not just grab a large group of friends or a family to cover the numbers?” Dylan theorised.
“You’re right,” Jono perked up, eager to find the pattern. It mattered to Dylan to know that he wasn’t just seeing things.
“Different ages, different backgrounds,” Jono thought aloud, examining the small amount of personal information they had on each one of them.
“We need more information,” Dylan sighed, feeling like he was stuck in quicksand.
“Morris,” Jono pondered, staring at one of the sheets, “I saw that surname earlier.” He glanced up at the assortment of casualties pasted on the crime board, scanning the names, “I knew it. There was another Morris who got killed. That’s gotta be a link, right?”
Dylan looked at the surname of another missing person and made a mental note – ‘Page.’ Sure enough, one of the corpses had the surname ‘Page.’
“The missing people are relatives of the dead,” Dylan figured.
“Stitching body parts of their dead relatives onto them,” Jono realised, a grim, disgusted tone quivering through his voice.
Dylan felt sick. The scientists had reached a new low, but this was far from over. Now he had to stop them.
Hitting panic mode, Lily was trying to make sense of her revelation. How could Uncle David be an alpha? How could she not have realised this before? Did Sammi know about werewolves the entire time? She had so many more questions than she expected to, when the point was supposed to be to find answers.
Drew flicked through his scrapbook with purpose, as if he knew what he was looking for. It was scruffy and packed full of sheets and polaroids stuffed loosely inside. It looked so disorganised, but Lily was sure Drew knew exactly what he was looking for.
Sure enough, he stopped on a page roughly halfway through the book. He picked up a polaroid photo and handed it over to Lily. She glanced at George nervously. Everything she thought she knew was being brought into question, like two worlds were colliding.
George squeezed her hand. As always, he was her perfect comfort blanket. How she would cope without him at college, she didn’t know. He pulled her back from the edge time and time again.
The photo was instantly recognisable. Most memories that she had of Uncle David were from years back when he lived in Crystalshaw, so this picture was perfectly in sync.
“That’s him,” Lily identified, staring anxiously at the details. His eyes were protruding through the low-resolution picture – the distinctive, horrible red colour. There was no denying it.
“Lily, if he’s back, we’re all in danger,” Drew warned. Lily was conflicted. She had no idea what to do, or how to feel.
“I don’t know if he is, but the house was cleared out, remember? Nobody had lived there for months, at least,” Lily reminded, “Why would he do that?”
“There’s only one person who knows the answer to that,” Drew mentioned.
“Sammi,” Lily realised. He was right – Sammi was the only one who potentially knew the truth. She could have known about her father and werewolves the entire time, and she could answer their questions.
“The psycho killer girl?” Brett rudely blurted out with his usual lack of self-control.
“She’s my cousin,” Lily defended, “And this has gone on long enough. Time to get Sammi back.”
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