Old Scars, Future Hearts

28

Marika saw a guy tied to a tree and stared blankly, almost in shock.

Dmitri walked up to her and waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Marika. Hey, you okay?"

Stiles immediately ran over to them. "Marika? Are you hurt? Are you okay?"

Marika nodded slowly. "I'm okay. That guy over there isn't. Call your dad."

Stiles took her hand and called his dad.

A girl ran up to the boy and started screaming hysterically. Marika gave her an apologetic smile.

The sheriff appeared and said, "Hey, get out of the way. Get back. Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence. Marika, Stiles says you were worrying him. Are you okay?"

Marika nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."

He turned to Coach. "Get these kids out of here!" He turned to his son. "Do me a favor. Go back to school, make sure your friends are okay. Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

Coach nodded and said to the other students, "You heard the man. Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless tweaker."

"Coach," Scott said. "The guy was a senior."

Marika frowned, studying the guy, trying to see if she recognized him, but she didn't.

Dmitri shrugged. "Don't know who he is either."

Isaac walked up to them and asked, "You see the way the twins looked at him?"

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" Stiles replied.

Isaac shook his head. "No, no, they knew."

Stiles, Marika and Dmitri shared a look and the former frowned. "The kid was strangled with a garrote, all right? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of "werewolfitude" in these murders?"

Isaac scoffed. "Oh, you think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?"

"Well, no, but I still don't think it's them. Marika? Dmitri?"

"No, Dima and I think something else is going on," Marika said. "Scott?"

"How 'bout you?" Isaac added.

He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I don't know."

"You don't know yet?" Stiles asked hopefully.

Scott glanced to Isaac. "Well, he's got a point. Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"

Stiles shot him a look. "Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, and if Marika, Dmitri or I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"

Scott sighed. "That's a good point too."

Isaac narrowed his eyes. "I don't care. They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me. I'm gonna kill them too."

Dmitri shot him a look. "No killing. We need to figure out who's behind this, or we're gonna end up killing the wrong person."

He glared at him. "Whoever this is has killed three people. We need to stop them before they kill us."

"Okay, genius. Who is it?"

"I... don't know."

"My point exactly. Which is why we should wait and figure it out before we go in claws slashing."

Marika looked between them. "I need to go to my locker. No killing innocent people! Dima, watch them."

Marika walked into the school to her locker and saw Lydia flirting with one of the Alpha twins.