Capítulo 7: Next Steps

When we pull up in front of the animal clinic and exit the car, Monica's head snaps towards the alleyway. She then tilts her head like she's trying to hear something. Her eyes flash a fiery red before going back to her normal color. I grabbed her hand asking.

"Monica, what did you hear?"

"I don't know... I thought I heard a woman's scream, but it was so faint that I'm not sure if I really heard anything."

Monica says, while squeezing my hand slightly. I then look at Satomi and her Bata asking them.

"Did either of you hear anything?"

Only to receive a shake of both their heads. I then look back at the alleyway as Satomi says.

"Let's go inside, it's getting late... And I'm positive Alan will be leaving soon."

Monica pulls me with her as we follow Satomi and the Beta. When we enter the building, we all hear Alan's voice in the back saying.

"I'll be with you in a moment."

Satomi and her Beta just wait patiently, while I pull Monica with me trying to open the gate of the front desk. Only for my hand to meet an invisible barrier. Which both disappoints me and gives me a sense of normalcy. Knowing that I am still considered a supernatural creature even with my fading abilities.

"Sorry for the wait, I was in the middle of something."

Alan says as he comes through the door to the back. Only to stop in his tracks when he sees Monica standing next to me, he turns to Satomi asking.

"I... I thought only Derek and Laura survived the fire... How? Why didn't you tell me?"

"The hunters have been watching you for a month... I couldn't risk the ones in my care until they stopped. I suspect they are leaving or have left by now."

Satomi says causing my free hand to ball into a fist before she sighs and continues.

"But yes there are five other survivors of the fire. As you see there is, Thomas and Monica... Then two younger children named Brett Talbot and Lorilee Rohr. According to Thomas, Cora also survived."

Alan opens the gate and hugs Monica while whispering.

"I'm happy you survived Monica, I lost everything that day... I'm glad I didn't lose you too."

Monica hugs him back tightly whispering.

"You almost did I... I'm not the same as before the fire. I'm not human anymore."

"What do you mean? What happened to you?"

Alan asks after breaking the hug and looking into Monica's eyes.

"I... I died in the fire. Thomas tried to save me, but we fell through the floor, and I..."

Monica tells him what happened to her both before and after the fire, along with what she is going through before she says.

"I was Possessed by a Hellhound. I don't want this Uncle Alan. help me please..."

When he hears what happened to his niece, Alan's face shows the anger he feels for only a moment. Before he nods and looks at me saying.

"I'll help you, Monica... What about you Thomas? Tell me everything that happened to you..."

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After telling Alan my perspective of what happened before and after the fire, he led us to the back of his clinic. Satomi is standing next to Alan as her Beta leans against the wall by the door to the front of the clinic. Both Monica and I are on the other side of the steel table in the middle of the room. Alan looks at all of us and says.

"What has happened to you two is rare... I can only speculate for the most part."

He then looks at Satomi who nods to him and Alan continues.

"Thomas, what do you know of your mother and sister's ability to shift into an actual wolf?"

"What do you mean? They found a balance between their wolf and human sides and in doing so they discovered the ability to fully shift into the form of a wolf. Instead of the partial transformation of most other Shifters or the beast form that we become when losing ourselves to rage or bloodlust."

He nods then goes to his office before bringing an old leather journal out and handing it to me while saying.

"Yes, they found balance. But in two different ways... Your sister Laura found balance as you described, coming to fully understand both sides of her. The human side is the side of civilized thought, humanity, and culture. It's the Individual over the pack, the physical over spiritual, orderly over wildness, thinking over feeling, peacefulness over violence."

I soak in what he said as he takes a breath. He then looks into my eyes and continues.

"And the Wolf side is the side of instinctual thought, of concepts associated with survival, of wildness and natural law. It's the pack over the individual, spiritual over the physical, wildness over orderly, feeling over thinking, violence over peace."

When he finishes he is holding a coin in front of my face. He shows me both sides and then the edge of the coin and tells me.

"What your sister did is one of the hardest things for a werewolf or any shifter to do. She mastered both her physical and spiritual self, amplifying the power of her abilities. Your Mother on the other hand went through a period where her spark was weakened... forcing her to lose her abilities... The journal I gave you was one of hers, it details her experience going through the loss of her power and what came next... My advice is to accept what happened and learn from what you are going through. Keep the journal. It begins from her time as a Beta to just after becoming the alpha of the Hale pack."

I look at the old-looking journal in my hands and begin thinking about what my mother would have written inside of it. While I am thinking about that, Alan looks at Monica asking her.

"What do you know about hellhounds Monica?"

"Only what Twilight told Thomas. That I am a Harbinger of death, a guardian and protector of the supernatural."

Alan sighs before saying.

"Yes and no. As of right now, you are only the host of a hellhound... It's like a parasitic relationship in how they come to the physical world. They will attach themselves to someone who has recently died, bringing the dead back to life. Only for those people to form split personalities. So to speak."

Monica's hand that I am holding begins to shake, just then Alan again uses the coin as a visual while telling Monica.

"There is you... Monica, the girl, druid, and human. Then there's the Hellhound, the Harbinger, guardian, and spirit."

While flipping the coin from the front to the back when he specified the two.

"Unless you find a way to bond or merge with the consciousness and spirit of the Hellhound, you will begin to lose time and have gaps in your memory. It won't kill you, but it can be used as a way for the hellhound to take over your body, to complete its goal or purpose that they're here for."

Monica asks.

"And what is its purpose? All Thomas said is that it wants to be free... Free from what? And why? Where do hellhounds even come from?"

His face contoured into a perplexed look before answering her.

"I don't know what that would mean. As far as I know, a hellhound will only appear or be reborn into the physical world with a purpose, a goal that they are driven to fulfill. But whatever it means by being free, it chose you because of your abilities and knowledge as a druid. As far as where they come from..."

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(Hours Later 3rd POV)

(Operating Theater)

In the middle of the room, an unconscious Jessica is restrained to an operating table with a bandage over her chest. Her head rolls to the right, exposing a hole in the back of her skull. Above her left ear, which has been filled with some kind of paste. Showing that Trephination was performed on her. A noise is heard to Jessica's right, waking her up and getting her to look towards the sound. Jessica groans while rapidly blinking her eyes, she then looks around seeing she is alone in the same room as before. Remembering her last seconds of consciousness, an image of the two masked men cutting into her sister flashes through her mind. Her head whips to the left seeing an empty operating table. Before the noise is heard again, this time Jessica can make out that it is a cane hitting the ground. She watches as the door to the room opens, and the three masked people enter. The female walks to a table away from Jessica. Then, with her back turned to Jessica, she begins removing her helmet showing the back of her head. Which is nearly bald and covered with sparse patches of white hair. When she turns around and begins walking towards Jessica, her face can be seen. Her skin was scarred and covered with age spots. Her eyelids, along with her lips, were like a burn victim. When she is next to the operating table, Jessica begins to beg.

"No, no, no... Please... Please don't do this..."

the woman slightly tilts her head to the side before grabbing Jessica by the jaw and then injecting a silver liquid into her neck. Jessica feels fear well up inside her, just as the world around her melts away.

(Enhanced Banshee Visions)

(EBV 1)

Jessica finds herself standing in the middle of an unknown room, with the lights blown out. Just then a child enters the room forcing Jessica to gasp seeing her little cousin Lydia Martin, and a voice is heard from behind Jessica.

"Lydia, No! I Told You To Stay In The Car!!!"

Turning around, Jessica sees her grandmother, Lorraine Martin, lying in a bathtub that is filled with water which is mixed with blood that is coming out of a hole in the side of Lorraine's head, right above the ear. An unknown man is kneeling in front of her wearing scrubs. Right next to him is Jessica's aunt-in-law, Natalie Martin yelling at Lydia. Just then Lorraine forced her right arm over the side of the tub with her head resting on the edge, while looking at Lydia she says.

"They're coming for us Lydia..."

She then looks at Jessica before continuing.

"They're coming for us all."

Just then Jessica is pulled into a different vision.

(EBV 2)

Jessica is standing in an alleyway, in the middle of the night, with dark clouds covering the sky. In front of her is another Jessica crying over a guy with brown hair. A year or two younger than herself. He has a wound going through his chest and is being held by a girl, with her black hair dyed a light brown. She is either Jessica's age or a year younger. When he closes his eyes the other Jessica screams a name in a piercing wailing cry.

"THOMAS!!!"

As the scream stops the world around Jessica fades.

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(3rd POV)

(Beacon Hills Preserve)

In a clearing of the preserve, as the moon reaches its peak, a mound of dirt is seen beginning to move. Just then a pair of hands come up through the dirt, followed by the strawberry-blonde hair of Jessica. As she pulls herself out of the ground, all the noise in the preserve falls deathly silent. With her head bowed, Jessica stands up, showing that the hole above her left ear has completely healed. When her head looks forward, her eyes glow a deep green before releasing a roar that shakes the surrounding trees.

"GRAAAR"