#and its kind of full circle because she calls him her granddad sometimes and the original show was about the doctor and his granddaughter

[newspecies]

ROSE TYLER *SHAKING YOU*

[hey-i-wrote-a-story]

Chapter 16 Four Years Ago

           Aadesh paced back and forth in the cramped room, making it twice as uncomfortable for Erin and Freddie. “Where the hell is she??”

           “You keep asking that as if somehow we’d know”, Erin observed.

           “Y’know, we handled that very badly”, Freddie said. “Those people…we should have called the cops before we tried driving over there. They could’ve stopped it, I bet. They might all still be alive if Kaitlyn had said something—“

           “Not helping, Freddie”, Erin said.

           “Should we go back out there?”, Aadesh wondered. “Try again until we find her?”

           “The downpour is why we had to give it up and come back, Aadesh”, Erin said, trying to sound sympathetic. “The truck could barely stay on the road. It’s not like we could see anything with it coming down in sheets.”

           “Why did she run off?”, Aadesh continued his open questioning. “We need to find her!”

           “Maybe we couldn’t find her because she doesn’t want to be found”, Erin offered.

           Freddie picked up on that thought. “After what she saw, from what you guys told me, she may not want a lot of company right now.”

           “We should go back out there”, Aadesh said again, not listening to what his friends were telling him. Flashes of lightning lit the sky beyond the window.

           “We will”, Erin assured him. “After the rain lets up, we’ll all go back out there and we won’t stop looking until—“

           A massive clap of thunder shook the room and caused the lights to go out. A sharp buzzing sizzled overhead as the electricity seemed to hover within the wiring. The bulb in the ceiling blinked a couple times, then returned to life, once again illuminating the room. Freddie jumped as he saw a figure appear in the doorway. Erin and Aadesh turned to see what had startled him. The figure stepped from the shadowy doorway into the light. Soaking wet, dripping, looking haggard and shocked, she peered into the room. It was Kaitlyn.

           Everyone stared for a moment, not sure what to do or say, feeling relief at seeing her alive but uncertain about her state of mind. It was Kaitlyn who spoke first.

           “There was a body…in the woods.”

             It was much later that night, or very early the next morning depending on how you look at the clock, when the four friends sat down together to collect themselves. Kaitlyn had taken a shower and had something to eat. She was looking better, although her eyes still held a haunted expression.

           “Feel any better?”, Freddie asked her. She nodded yes.

           “Where have you been?”, Aadesh asked. “Where were you? I was afraid…we were afraid we’d lost you.”

           “I saw something”, Kaitlyn said. “You are not going to believe what I saw.”

           “You said something about a body in the woods”, Erin said.

           “Is that what you saw when you ran away?”, Freddie asked. “Was there somebody else who’d been shot? What was—“ Aadesh waved his questions away. Easy, fella.

           “It wasn’t here”, Kaitlyn explained. “It was somewhere else. There was a body in the woods in Beacon Hills.”

           “Where the hell is Beacon Hills?”, Freddie asked, incredulous.

           Aadesh realized what she was saying. “Another vision.” Kaitlyn nodded. “No”, he said firmly. “Oh no, we’re done—you’re done! No more following these visions. They only lead to trouble. We’ve had enough death and chaos to last us the rest of our lives. We’re not chasing after some body in the woods--!”

           “We don’t have to”, Kaitlyn said calmly. “Somebody else already did.”

           Erin eyed her friend suspiciously. “What are you not telling us, Kate?”

           “I did something. I…forced my visions. I called to them, I’m not sure how to describe it.”

           “And this is what you saw? This dead body?”

           “Oh, I saw a lot more than that.”  There was something different about Kaitlyn’s tone that they’d never heard before. There was a confidence and a clarity that had been previously absent. Like she was going to share an amazing story that only she knew the details to. Everyone leaned in close.

Aadesh nodded for her to go on. “We’re listening.”

And Kaitlyn spoke. She told them of an awkward, asthmatic high school boy on the outskirts of the teenage social circle. She told about his spastic, nervous energy-charged best friend with the buzz cut, the smart mouth, and the knack for getting into trouble. She told about their outing into the woods at night to catch a glimpse of a dead body. And most importantly, she told them of a dark and terrifying figure, some kind of unnatural beast that burst from the shadows to bite that awkward boy and infect him with its curse. She told them the tale of the Werewolf of Beacon Hills, or the start of it, anyway.

Aadesh, Erin, and Freddie stared at Kaitlyn wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

“Do you believe me?”, Kaitlyn asked. Aadesh looked back at the girl he loved. Her story was unbelievable. The sensible thing to do would be to dismiss it as a stress-induced hallucination. But after all they’d done, all they’d seen, it made a lot less sense not to believe it.

“It’s the truth”, Kaitlyn insisted. “I can feel it.”

Aadesh cradled her face in his hand and said sincerely, “I think we all can.”

 The following morning, after what little sleep the four friends could manage, Kaitlyn continued her story. She’d never had a vision—visions—with this much depth or detail. As she talked, morning became noon which shifted to afternoon which bled into dusk. By then, everyone was bristling with excitement over her revelations.

“Okay, so back up a second”, Erin said. “This Hale guy, the big, grumpy, anger-issues werewolf. Is he supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy?

“I have no clue. I’m not sure he does, either”, Kaitlyn answered. “Sometimes I think he wants to mentor Scott, other times I think he just wants to corrupt him. Or eat him or something.”

Freddie was the first to notice Aadesh had arrived. “Dude”, he said to his best friend, “There’s more.” Then without missing a beat, he turned back to the conversation. “You know who I love is this Smiles kid.”

“Stiles”, Kaitlyn corrected.

“Yeah! Stiles. He’s like the perfect best friend. Everybody should have a Stiles. I want a Stiles.”

“Freddie, I don’t think he plays for your team”, Erin remarked.

“Um, hello?” Freddie began to recap some of the story Kaitlyn had told them. “Gee, Scott, do you want to try making out just to see if we like it?”

“Out of everything she’s told us, that’s the part you focus on?”

“Give us the next part to focus on”, Aadesh said, settling in beside his friends for the next thrilling chapter of Kaitlyn’s story.

“Yeah!”, Freddie encouraged her. “I wanna know what happens.”

Kaitlyn looked to her boyfriend hopefully. “So you do believe what I’ve been telling you?”

Aadesh met her gaze with kind eyes. “I think we covered that last night. Besides, there are two things to consider here: One is that every vision you’ve had up till now has been true. I can’t think of any reason why this should be different, just because you got them in some kind of…I dunno, cascade or something, and they last longer.”

“And the other reason?”, Erin asked.

Aadesh looked at Kaitlyn. “No offense, hon, but I don’t think you’ve got an active enough imagination to come up with all this on your own.”

“Hey!” Kaitlyn swatted Aadesh with a nearby pillow. “Thanks a lot.”

“Ssooooo…”, Freddie prompted, “when last we left our heroes…”

“Okay”, Kaitlyn smiled. “Where did we leave off?”

“I have a feeling this is going to take a while”, Erin commented. “We’re gonna need snacks.”

The ongoing narrative did take a while longer…a considerable while. The friends got stiff necks and backs and cramped legs from sitting there for hours. And nobody minded.

  “Oh my God, for real??”, Freddie said, mouth half-full of chicken salad sandwich. “This giant wolf-thing bursts through the video store window and then it gets UP and walks on two feet?!”

“It gets up and walks on two feet”, Kaitlyn confirmed.

“This just gets better and better”, Freddie said.

“So is this huge werewolf Derek, then?”, Erin asked.

“That’s just it! We don’t know yet. I mean, I haven’t seen that far yet.”

Aadesh watched his girlfriend looking more alive and hopeful than he’d seen her in weeks. Whatever it was she had tapped into, it was reviving her in ways he couldn’t have anticipated. Then he observed his other friends, and saw the same revitalized life and energy in them. He could feel it too. It was a feeling he liked and wanted to continue.

 *    *    *

 So it went as weeks became months. The quartet found new zest, new interest, and new enthusiasm in the stories uncovered by Kaitlyn’s visions.

Freddie lay on his back on the floor, feet crossed at the ankles, resting on the wall as he scarfed a bag of popcorn. “So the mom asks the dad to kill her rather than get super powers? What a spiteful witch! Why doesn’t she just use the powers to go toe to toe with Scott on his terms? Like the super-villain to his superhero!”

“Pfft!”, Erin scoffed, devouring a package of dried apricots. “Like that’s ever gonna happen.”

“Forget the mom and dad for minute”, Aadesh interjected. “What about the granddad? With the stabbing and the drowning and the overall creepiness? Who has the cheese puffs?”

Freddie nodded in agreement. “I hope when that gravelly-voiced old goat meets his inevitable end, it is really slow and excruciatingly painful.”

“We ate all the puffs”, Kaitlyn said. “There’s mesquite chips around here somewhere. And you’re not kidding”, she continued her narrative, “after Gerard kidnaps and beats Stiles—“

Freddie fell backwards onto the floor. “He beats Stiles??!”

“Oh. We haven’t gotten that far yet”, she realized. “Whoopsie. What was the last thing I told you about?”

Erin sat up suddenly, very attentive. “You know what, you guys? We should be writing this stuff down.”

                                                        *    *    *

           Erin tapped away at her laptop as Freddie leaned over her shoulder, a dollar store sketchbook tucked under his arm. Freddie read Erin’s work as she transcribed Kaitlyn’s stories about Scott’s and his pack. It had already been decided not to simply jot everything down in a notebook that could be found lying around during a bed check or the like.

           “You can stop breathing in my ear”, Erin said. “You already know all of this.”

           “I just want to make sure you don’t miss any details. How exactly are you writing Stiles’ physical description? ‘Cause I have a few ideas about that—“

           “I am going to smack you if you don’t get out of my face, Fred.” Then, recognizing that he was just as excited as she was, she changed her tone. “Look, we’ll compare notes when we’re both done, okay?”

           Aadesh waved Freddie over to him. “Let me see what you’ve got, Fred.”

           A bit hesitantly, Freddie handed the sketchbook over to his best friend. On the first page was a rough drawing of two young men, about their age, walking along a school hallway, posed as if in the middle of an animated conversation.

           “Is that Scott and Stiles?”, Aadesh asked.

           “Well, as close as I could get to how I imagined they look, yeah.”

           “Freddie, this is really good!”

           “You think so??”

           Kaitlyn sat down beside the two of them and admired the rough drawing. Then she said, “Who do you think of when you imagine Lydia?”

           Erin interrupted, saying, “I’m starting to catch up to where we last left off. What comes after that, Kate?” Looking forlorn, Kaitlyn shrugged. “Nothing new?”

           “No new visions in days. Almost a week and a half, really.”

           “I hope that’s not the end of it”, Freddie said. “Like, if their adventures are over?”

           “I think it’s more like a break in the chaos”, Kaitlyn suggested. “Still, waiting for the next chapter…for lack of a better word…kind of sucks.”

           Freddie’s phone pinged, and he checked a text message. He frowned.

           “What?”, Aadesh asked.

           “Uh, nothing. Just that guy Gordy. He’s going on about a big score and how it’s a sure thing but he needs some more people, and well…”  

           Freddie’s hesitation hung heavy in the air. The others could feel it too.

           Aadesh cleared his throat and looked to Freddie. “I kind of suspect you’re thinking what I’m thinking. What we all are.”

“Yeah”, Freddie agreed. “Is this something Scott McCall would do?”

The four friends looked at one another and shared a silent exchange. Freddie shut off his phone and put it away. He picked up his pencil and returned to his drawing.

           All four of them felt something change right then. A seismic shift in the way they looked at the world, and themselves. They considered Scott, whose adventures had helped them come alive and come together in ways they never could have anticipated. This fantastic and impossible boy cursed with the mark of the beast had shown them that dealing with bad circumstances and bad situations doesn’t mean you have to become a bad person.

           “I am interested in seeing how you envision Gerard”, Kaitlyn told Freddie.

           “I’ll need to sharpen my pencil to get in all the frown lines”, he grinned.

           Aadesh pulled out his phone and started tapping away furiously. Freddie and Kaitlyn stared at him until he looked up. “Oh, just getting down some ideas so I don’t lose them.” They stared hard at him. Well?  “Like”, Aadesh began, “what if a werewolf Gerard had hunted and thought he’d killed wasn’t really dead and came back to confront him? Y’know, making the hunter the hunted.”

           Freddie’s eyes lit up and his expression blossomed into a huge smile. “Dude, that’s awesome.”

“Oh, man”, Erin said. “That gives me one hell of an idea.”

Freddie flipped to the next page. Erin saved what she had been writing and opened a new document. Pencil danced across paper and fingers danced across the keyboard. Aadesh and Kaitlyn shared a knowing glance and smiled as they basked in the newfound energy they all shared. More than just stories of Scott McCall had come to life in that room.

                                                       *    *    *

             From then on, things were markedly different for Kaitlyn, Aadesh, Erin, and Freddie. The stories the friends created featuring their newfound heroes began to equal and even surpass the amount of actual tales related to them by way of Kaitlyn’s visions. Each one of them took up writing their own tales. Freddie threw himself into his drawings, which he saved to a flash drive at the local bargain print shop. Erin even tried her hand at creating artwork, some of it being pretty good.

           The former delinquents discovered a new sense of responsibility which they found somehow appealing. They took advantage of some of the work day programs offered at the halfway house, and joined in on one or two philanthropic projects for the community. The changes did not go unnoticed by the staff (many of whom at first thought it was some elaborate new ploy to get away with something sinister). Before long, a rather odious and self-aggrandizing administrator cited the four friends whom he’d never laid eyes on as examples of the fine rehabilitating programs offered in his juvenile facilities. As he’d never had much interest in said facilities beyond lining his pockets with money being funneled in for every new inmate, he never bothered to meet the four friends in person. But they did provide him with some good chest-thumping material.

           Aadesh, Kaitlyn, Freddie, and Erin couldn’t have cared less. They were never referred to as anything more than “a quartet of promising youngsters”, which suited them just fine. Their altered behavior provided them with a freer rein to come and go at the house and less need to sneak out. Ironically, now that they had that freedom, they spent more and more time inside, working on and sharing their stories. One evening recently, the room was bristling with particularly high energy after having heard the story of Scott’s narrow escape from becoming a skull-wearing enchanted warrior drone by his new Beta.

           “What was it he said again, Kaitlyn?”, Aadesh asked for the third time in twice as many minutes. “The Rookie, the thing that snapped The Champion out of it?”

           Kaitlyn quoted, “You’re not a monster, you’re a werewolf. Like me.”

           Aadesh threw his hands in the air and fell back onto an old beanbag chair. “Wow! Damn, I want that on a T-shirt or a poster. Seriously.”

           “It is a class line”, Erin agreed. “Especially considering he’s saying it back to the one who said it to him.”

           “And when The Champion rips that skull off, all RRrrrrRRAAHRR!!”, Freddie gushed. “There was a burst of light, wasn’t there? You said there was a burst of light?”

           “There was a burst of light when he broke the spell, yes”, Kaitlyn confirmed.

           Freddie grabbed up his sketchbook. “I’m gonna draw that.” He began scribbling away with abandon, then paused and flipped the page. “But first…I am going to draw when he punches The Psychopath clear across the room. BAM!”

Kaitlyn looked at her friends, engaged and excited. Each caught up in the act of creating and sharing. This was by far the best version of themselves they’d ever been. And they owed it all to Scott McCall—whoops, The Champion—and his pack. It was seeing her friends like this that sparked an entirely new idea for Kaitlyn. It was nothing short of an epiphany.

“Say…”, she said, “What if we could do more than just imagine their adventures? What if we could do…a lot more?”