monitoring you, like machines do,
you've still got it, I'm just keeping an eye

[frenemy: season 2, episode 6]
⊱ ───ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ─── ⊰

"God, I wish Kenna was here," Tara whispered to herself. "Her car is so much better for a high speed chase than this piece of junk." Scott, Stiles, and Tara were currently chasing down Jackson, or the kanima actually, trying to see wherever the hell it went. In Tara's mind, it went to go commit another murder but Scott and Stiles really wanted to follow him, and Tara physically had no choice to join their stupid car crash.

        "Hey!" Stiles snapped from the driver's seat of the car. "I graciously let you sit in this car with us, don't make me regret it!" he warned her.

         Tara raised her eyebrow, forcing her face in between the driver's and the passenger's seat. "Graciously let me sit?" she asked sharply. "Oh, I didn't know that was what he called kidnapping nowadays! Because I remember you two dragging me into the backseat. You know, I could probably charge you with kidnapping, Stilinski, kidnapping!"

        Stiles rolled his eyes, directing his vision back to the road. "One, my dad's the sheriff and two, he wouldn't believe you," he stated.

        "Oh, so you randomly shove girls into the back of your Jeep," Tara shot back at him, craning her neck to look at Stiles. "That's good to know, Stilinski, I'll be sure to avoid you!"

        "Oi, I never said that shit!" Stiles snapped. "Don't twist my words!"

        Tara scoffed, "I'm not twisting your words," she insisted. "I'm just extrapolating their meaning!"

        Stiles turned his head to look at her, "That is the definition of twisting my words!"

        "No, no, it's not," Tara said definitively.

        "Guys! Shut up!" Scott said quickly. "Stiles, pay attention to the road," he continued, gesturing his hands at a line of spikes that was a few hundred yards ahead of them.

        Tara retracted her head back to the back seat. "Oh, shit," she said, grabbing onto one of the handles that were on the ceiling of the jeep. "Stiles, brake, now!" The jeep came to screeching halt as Tara was thrust forward in her seat from the velocity. "Jesus fucking christ," she whispered to herself, taking a moment to catch her breath.

        Stiles looked at the road, "What do we do now?" he asked, turning to the seat where Scott used to be, but now all that was there was an empty carseat and an open door.

        Tara looked from Stiles to the now empty seat, "Should I?" she asked.

        "Go after him?" Stiles finished for her. "YES!" he said, gesturing to the large chainlink fence that Scott had just hopped.

        "Alright, alright, I'm going," Tara said defensively, rushing out of the backseat of the jeep, desperately trying to follow the sound of Scott's footsteps. She looked at the large fence that he had just scaled and took a deep breath before using all her momentum to jump onto it, landing about fifteen feet above the concrete. She paused for another second, unsure of what to do, but she continued to climb the metal lattice, trying to go as fast as she could but she really had no idea if that was happening. Tara reached the top of the fence in no time. Tara looked down, ignoring the looming sense that she could land wrong and break a bone and jumped, landing perfecting on her two feet. "Damn, okay, that went surprisingly well," she whispered to herself.

        Tara shrugged and began to run in the direction where she saw Scott disappear. Her chase had lead her to a small abandoned road under a large bridge. In the distance she could hear hissing and the clashing of different claws. 'Derek?' she thought to herself, recognizing the scent filled her nose. 'Why would the kanima attack Jackson. I mean, Derek probably deserved it but still,' she figured. Tara took a few steps closer, trying to find Scott under a dark bridge proved to be a difficult task. She took a few steps forward, trying to make out whatever was in front of her. But all she could see were two creatures fighting, which was mostly likely Derek and the kanima.

        But she spotted something out of the corner of her eye, another figure barreling towards the other two. It wasn't Scott, she was sure of that, it didn't sound like him. But if it wasn't Scott or Stiles who else could it be? The only was she would be able to tell is if she got a little bit closer.

        "Shh, shh!" Scott said, pulling her behind a pillar as he gently placed a finger over her mouth. "Quiet," he warned, placing his finger back at his side.

        Tara tried to stop her hastened breathing as she watched the other man, who she now recognized as Chris Argent, lunge toward the kanima, pulling a gun out of his coat pocket, firing about four rounds into the creature. The girl felt herself flinch as she heard the shots go off, but she refused to let her body react. At least the bullets werent directed at her, and hopefully they never will be. Tara could feel the silence in the air as she peaked out from around the corner. She couldn't see much but she did make out a figure laying on the ground and a taller man looming over it. The girl quickly retracted her head back behind the pillar as a bright light obstructed her vision. Tara frowned hearing the stalling of a car engine at the end of the bridge clearing, she could only assume it belong to one of the other hunters as the jeep wouldn't be able to make it over there in so little time.

        Tara and Scott both exchanged confused looks, puzzled by the long stretch of silence. Slowly both of them peaked around the pillar they were hiding behind once again. Tara's neutral expression twisted into a small frown as her eyes landed on the two figures illuminated by this cars headlights. One was quite clearly the kanima but the other was a little bit harder to make out, but whoever it was the kanima seemed to be bowing to it.

        "Gerard?" Tara heard Scott whisper. That must've been the other figure in the headlights.

        "What the-" Tara started, intrigued by the interaction between Gerard and the kanima. The two just stared at eachother, but something about it was eerie. Tara couldn't quite place her finger on what was wrong. Scott had obviously picked up on the odd vibe as he ran forward, straight toward Gerard and the kanima, causing the scaly monster to run up the side of the bridge, out of sight from everyone. Scott stared at Gerard for a second, echoing the same confused look Tara had on her face. "Shit, Scott," Tara yelled out, rushing after him. As soon as Scott heard Tara's words, something clicked for him.

        "Tara," he said quickly, shaking his head as he stared at her.

        Tara looked between Gerard and Chris Argent, realizing exactly what she had just done. He didn't think about she next move, she just ran in the opposite direction, making sure Argent didn't get the opportunity to shoot at her like he did to Jackson.

        Tara ran back to where she knew the jeep was, trying to get as much distance between her and the hunters. There was no why they didn't know that she was a werewolf by now, especially given that she ran away from them at the speed that she did. Tara looked back once more and stopped for a split second, listening to see if she heard any footsteps rushing after her, which luckily for her, she didn't. "God fucking dammit," she whispered to herself. "If you had just stayed quiet and let Scott be fucking stupid than this wouldn't have happened." The girl shook her head, trying to erase the impending doom she felt in her stomach as she looking at the jeep. There was no way in hell she was gonna continue whatever manhunt Scott and Stiles wanted to do for Jackson, not when the Argents knew who she was. What she was.

        "Wait, Tara, no! What are you doing?" Stiles asked her quickly as she walked past his jeep.

        Tara looked back, shooting a pointed glare in his direction. "I'm going home!" she decided.

        "What about the Kanima?" Stiles continued.

        "What about it?" Tara retorted, stopping in her tracks.

        Tara sighed, "Well considering the fact that the Argents now know I'm a werewolf which was the only upper hand I had in this fight, I would rather spend the rest of the night in the safety of my house than out here where I could get shot!" she decided.

        "So you're saving your own skin?" Stiles asked her.

        The girl scoffed, tearing her eyes away from him. "I'm protecting myself because I don't want to fucking die," Tara insisted. "I saw them fire half a clip into the kanima-" she paused. "Jackson- whatever the fuck you want to call him, I don't care. I just don't want that to happen to me! I'll see you tomorrow at school," she finished, walking away continuing to distance herself from Stiles.

        "I'm your ride home!" Stiles shouted back at her.

        "I'll walk then!" Tara yelled, flipping him off as she continued down the abandoned road.

⊱ ───ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ─── ⊰

        Tara didn't sleep for most of the night as she spent most of her night reading up on whatever she could about the Argents. Obviously she knew what Scott had filled her in on, which wasn't much, but she was determined to learn more. Not because she thought it was interesting, but it was because she now needed to know who exactly she was dealing with. Tara had been so preoccupied with the kanima shit that she didn't realize how dangerous the Argents really were, not until tonight at least.

        The easiest route to go would be to get information from Allison, but Tara suspected that the girl probably didn't trust her. Which goes both ways because Tara didn't trust Allison either. Instead, she spent a lot of the night googling, and pretending that she couldn't hear the ringing in her ears from the shots fired earlier in the night. The only thing that sparked her interest was an article released earlier that year about Kate Argent. Tara had recognized the name, but she wasn't entirely sure where she had heard it before. But she knew someone who would.

        Tara picked up her phone and pressed the first contact that came up.

        'Hey!' Kenna said picking up the phone immediately.

        "Hey Ken," Tara said as she laid down in the middle of her bed. "Quick question, does the name Kate Argent mean anything to you?" she asked the girl quickly.

        Tara heard Kenna laugh on the other side of the phone, before pausing for a second. 'Wait- you're being serious?' she asked, the laugh still evident in her question.

        Tara furrowed her brows, "Yeah, why else would I be asking?"

        'Well basically everyone in the school knows what happened,' Kenna answered quickly. 'First of all, she's Allison's aunt but that's not the interesting part. Apparently, she went fucking psycho and burned down the Hale House eight years ago and nobody knew about it until a few weeks ago,' she explained.

        Tara's eyes widened, "Oh shit, she's the one that burnt down the Hale House?" she asked, a little bit surprised by the answer.

        'Yeah, how did you not hear about that?' Kenna questioned.

        The girl sighed, "Well, I've been a little preoccupied the last few weeks so maybe I just wasn't listening," she reasoned. Tara stared up at her ceiling, thinking for a second. "Do you think that's why my mom was always so tense about the Hale House?" she asked quickly.

        'Well did your mom know Kate Argent?' Tara heard Kenna ask.

        Tara shook her head slowly, "I don't think so," she answered, although she wasn't sure if that was true or not. "But it is my mom, so who really knows what, or who, she actually knows at this point," she said honestly.

        Kenna stayed silent for a second, 'Well,' she started, an interesting tone in her voice. 'We could always just poke around and try and find out?' she suggested.

        Tara frowned, "Poke around my house? Yeah, I don't think that'll do us any good," she said quickly.

        'No, no, no, no,' Kenna said swiftly. 'Not your house, the Hale House.'

        "I'm supposed to stay away from the Hale House, remember?" Tara reminded Kenna. "And as much as I think that rule is stupid, it's been drilled into my fucking brain for years and my mom would kill me if she found out."

        Tara could practically hear Kenna roll her eyes on the other line. 'Okay and the rule was in place before all of this werewolf shenanigans or whatever. Just hear me out of a second. We go snooping around the Hale House tomorrow and maybe we could find out some more things about Kate Argent, since you seem to care about that. And better yet, maybe we could figure out why you were told to stay away for all these years?'

        Tara thought this over for a second. Kenna did have a point and Tara did want to find out more about the Argents. So it could be helpful to at least check out the house. Plus it was an old burnt down house, it couldn't be that scary, right? "Okay, fine, we'll check it out tomorrow, but if something goes wrong I'm leaving, immediately," she said quickly.

        And that's exactly what the two girls did, instead of having Ronan dropped them off at school with him, which is what he usually did, Kenna convinced him to drive them up the road ever so slightly to the Old Hale House. "And why exactly are you skipping school to hang out at the Hale House?" Ronan asked the two of them as he pulled the car in park.

        "That is none of your business dear brother," Kenna said as she placed her hand on the door handle. "See you later," she said as she hopped out of the car.

        "Yeah, thanks Ronan," Tara said, giving the man a nod before she followed her friend out.

        Ronan returned her nod before starting the car back up and driving away, leaving the two girls to stand in front of the house. Tara wasn't sure if she had actually ever got a good look at the house before, and if she did she didn't remember it. Most of the house was covered in old char from when the fire was set. There were three levels to the house, though most of them didn't look like they were very structurally sound. So if they were to go inside they would probably only be able to stand on the foundation level. Most of the windows on the outside of the house were either crusted over with dirt or shattered. Tara had an uneasy feeling as she stared at the building in front of her. It wasn't familiar in any sense, it was just... strange.

        "You ready?" Kenna asked, sending Tara a quick lopsided glance.

        Tara shrugged, "I guess, although I don't really know what we're really looking for," she answered honestly.

        "Just information I guess," Kenna answered. "If we put our heads together we could probably figure it out. Plus you wanted more information on the Argents, so-"

        Tara nodded, "Right, yes, the Argents. Hunters- um," she said, her voice trailing off as she stared at the house. "Lets- let's go," she decided, giving herself a small nod. Tara and Kenna slowly had their way up the rickety old staircase to the entrance to the house. Tara was frankly surprised that her foot didn't fall right through the rotting wood. Or that the old door didn't fall off of it's hinges when both Kenna swung it open, allowing the two girls to step into the building.

        The eerie feeling that Tara had as she stood outside the house do not go away as she looked around the interior. Every surface was either covered in dirt, soot, or ash. Most of the corners of the room were draped with cobwebs or dust, though the rest of the entryway was surprisingly void of any dust or dirt particles. 'Someone could've been here recently.' Tara thought to herself as she took a good long took around the small room. "Looks abandoned," Kenna said slowly.

        "Yeah well notably Derek isn't hiding out here," Tara responded simply. "It's uh- it's not important let's just keep looking around."

        Tara took a few more steps into the home, taking note of every undistributed patch of dust on the floor. The smell of mold grew stronger as she continued to wander through the entryway. It must have been from the old rotting wood, there was no other explanation for this. It still made the girl uncomfortable, covering her nose as she continued. "It smells rank in here," she stated, shaking her head as she tired to blink the scent away.

        "Maybe try not to focus on that?" Kenna suggested.

        Tara swallowed, "That's kinda hard given the whole, wolf scent thing," she explained through muffled whispers.

        "Oh right," Kenna said peaking into one of the rooms off to their right. "Still haven't gotten used to that," she admitted.

        "Yeah, you're not the only one," Tara responded, following Kenna into the empty room. There was another room off to the side but neither of them was distinguishable in any manner. They were both covered in the same soot from the entryway, though these two rooms had notably less dust in them. Tara wasn't sure if that was because of the broken window on the east wall or because someone had been there. But surely she would see, or sense, some kind of disturbance if this was true, but she didn't see anything.

        Buzz.

        Tara frowned, removing her hand from her nose and looking around. No bugs, at least none that she had noticed.

        Buzz. Buzz.

        "Hang on," Tara said, knowing exactly what was making that noise. She shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "Fuck, it's Stiles. I told him to only use my number in case of emergencies," she explained, running her hands through her hair quickly.

        Kenna shrugged, "Just answer it," she said slowly. "I can't be that bad."

        Tara rolled her eyes, "It's Stiles. Of course it can be that bad," she hissed, still staring down at her phone. "You really think I should answer it?" she asked, looking over at Kenna, who was nodding her head vigorously. Tara groaned, "Fine," she said, pressing the green answer button as she placed the phone up to her ear. "Is this an emergency?" she asked Stiles. "Because I explicitly told you to only call me if it's an emergency."

        Stiles ignored the latter part of her statement. 'You and Kenna aren't at school,' he stated.

        "Hmmm, observant," Tara hummed.

        'Well what are you doing, are you sick?' Stiles pressed.

        "No, actually, I'm busy saving my own skin," Tara whispered, tapping her foot impatiently.

        'I'm sorry, okay, Tara, is that what you wanted to hear?' Stiles asked her.

        "Well that's a fucking start," Tara continued, waving a cobweb out of her face as she turned a corner in the old Hale House. "Now, do you actually mean that or did Scott tell you to apologize?" she questioned.

        Stiles paused for a second, leaving Tara to listen to the ambient ringing of the phone line. 'Does it really matter, I'm apologizing, right?' he responded slowly.

        Tara scoffed, "You're a real piece of work, Stilinski!" she snapped. "I'm hanging up," she decided, pulling the phone away from her ear.

        'Wait, wait, wait,' Stiles said, causing Tara to put the phone back up to her ear. 'I called you because I need your help and Scott is busy at school and told me to call you,' he explained.

        Tara stopped walking, resting under one of the archways in the hallway. "What on earth could you need help with?" she asked impatiently.

        The line went silent for the second time before Stiles began to speak. 'Well, Scott and I picked up Jackson after a very, very long night of doing kanima activities at the club and now I'm keeping an eye on him.'

        "So you kidnapped Jackson," Tara deadpanned. "First you kidnap me last night, and then Jackson. What the hell is wrong with you?"

        'It wasn't kidnapping, not really," Stiles responded quickly. 'I just, I need you to help me talk to him. You and Kenna.'

        "No! We're not aiding and abetting in your crimes," Tara hissed, holding the phone close to her face. "Why the fuck do you think we would help you torture Jackson?"

        Tara heard Stiles sigh on the other side of the line. 'Wha- it's not torture, it's- nevermind. Will you pass the phone to Kenna, please?' The girl rolled her eyes as she obeyed Stiles' wishes.

        "He wants to talk to you," Tara told Kenna, giving her the cellphone.

        Kenna groaned as she took the phone from her friend's hand. Before Stiles could even utter a word of his request, Kenna's was already responding to what she had heard earlier. "She said we're not aiding and abetting your crimes, Stiles," Kenna said, raising her voice slightly. "Bye!" Kenna looked back at Tara, placing the phone back in her friends hand. "Happy?" she asked.

        "Extremely," Tara said, shoving the phone back into her pocket. "I don't want to deal with the Jackson bullshit," she answered.

        "Yeah, what's up with Jackson?" Kenna asked. "I didn't really catch any of that while you were talking to Stiles."

        Tara shrugged, "He's the kanima, I think, it's confusing," she said dismissively.

        Kenna furrowed her brows. "Oh, that's uh- that's good," she said, her voice trailing off at the end of her sentence.

        Tara tilted her head, "It explains why he knows what he knows now so I guess that's the one upside," she said nonchalantly. She looked around the empty room once more. Again, this one seemed indisguishable from the last one they were in. The girl frowned, "The only reason I can think of why my mom wouldn't want me to be here is because of the mold spores," she reasoned. "I mean seriously, it could take out someone with the best immune system."

        "It's definitely some sort of biohazard," Kenna said. "But other than that, it seems empty. And I guess any evidence of Kate, or any Argent, being here is probably brunt or discomposed by now. But hey, at least you got to see the inside of the Hale House after so many years," she said, sending Tara a small smile.

        The girl didn't return it. "Somehow that doesn't seem like an accomplishment," she muttered. Tara stepped forward, fully intending to walk into the next room, but something caught her attention. A small creak from behind the two girls. Tara turned around almost instantly but she was just met with a confused Kenna.

        "What's going on?" Kenna asked, a look of concern washing over her face.

        "You didn't hear that?" Tara asked, glancing around the room to try and find the source of the noise.

        Kenna shook her head. "No? What did you hear?" she asked.

        Tara sighed, "I dont know," she said slowly. "Um, stay here, I just have to check on something real quick," she explained.

        "Wha-" Kenna started, blinking as she stepped to the side, letting Tara make her way back through the two rooms they were just standing in and into the entryway. Her eyes immediately darted to the front door which was now open. Tara frowned as she felt a slight breeze on her face. 'We closed that door didn't we?' she thought to herself. 'We must've closed that doo-'

        Tara wasn't able to finish her thought as her body was thrust against the banister on the staircase, hitting the wood with a dull thud. The girl looked up and was met with a pair of bright red eyes. Unfortunately, she knew exactly who those belonged to.

        "Derek. L-let me go" Tara said, although her words didn't come out that coherent as Derek's hand was wrapped around the girl's neck, severely limiting her ability to speak.

        "Why are you here-" he started but stopped talking as some large object made contact with the back of his head. The man blinked but nothing else had an effect on him. Ow," Derek said, calmly turning around to look at Kenna, who was currently holding a broken wooden plank in her hands.

        "Sorry, sorry," Kenna said quickly, dropping the wood onto the ground. "She did say to let her go, so I was trying to help with that," she explained. "I didn't realize it wouldn't work."

        Tara looked from Kenna to Derek, "So you wanna let me down now?" she asked expectantly, tilting her head at Derek. The older man scoffed as he removed his arm from her neck. "See? That wasn't that hard now was it?" she said, her words laced with sarcasm.

        Derek frowned, "Your friend hit me," he stated.

        Kenna rolled her eyes, "Okay, first of all, it's Kenna," she said sassily. "And second of all, you deserved it," she decided, crossing her arms over her chest.

        "No, I didn't, seeing as I'm trying to stop Tara from doing something stupid," Derek asserted, flicking his thumb back at the girl who was rubbing the side of her neck. "Why are you poking around this house, you know that the hunters know who you are now, and you're putting yourself in danger by being here."

        Tara furrowed her brows at him. "You mean what," she corrected him. "They know what I am."

        "I meant exactly what I said," Derek said sharply.

        "You sure you aren't getting your who, what, and where's mixed up?" Kenna asked him, trying not to laugh at her own incinuation.

        Derek looked back at the other girl, "I'm sure," he repeated. "Look if you guys want to talk we should really go somewhere else," he suggested.

        Tara scoffed, "What your abandoned train station?" she asked sarcastically.

        "Yes, my abandoned train station," Derek said seriously.

        Kenna blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

        "Yeah, he lives in a train station," Tara answered quickly. "It's- it's weird," she stated.

        "It's not weir-" Derek started. "Ugh, whatever, just- we can talk there, it's safer, for everyone involved."

        Tara and Kenna exchanged quick looks, both agreeing on their answer. "Fine, bring us to your weird train station," Tara decided.

⊱ ───ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ─── ⊰

        "Woah!" Erica said, immediately shooting up from the ground as soon as Derek, Tara, and Kenna walked into the train station. "What the hell are they doing here?" she asked, pointing at the two girls behind Derek.

        Derek glanced at Erica, who was the most bothered out of herself, Isaac, and Boyd. "Unimportant," he said dismissively. "You," he said, switching his gaze directly to Kenna. "Stay out here. Tara let's talk in there," he said, pointing to the train cart about thirty feet ahead of them.

        "What, why do I have to stay out here?" Kenna protested.

        "Because I need to talk to Tara. You can stay out here and talk to them," he said, nodding at the rest of his pack.

        Kenna groaned but accepted her fate, defeatedly walking over to one of the pillars. 'Sorry,' Tara mouthed to her friend as she followed Derek into the traincart. Derek turned to face the younger girl. "What were you doing at my house?" he asked seriously.

        Tara shrugged, "Why does it matter?" she shot back.

        "Because that place has been crawling with hunters ever since Gerard came into town," Derek explained. "So it's dangerous for you and your friend to be poking around there. I could've communicated that with you but you've been very hesitant to accept my help."

        Tara scoffed, "What help? In case you haven't noticed my life has turned to shit ever since I came into contact with you!" she asserted. "And then you have the nerve to drop some weird cryptic message when I see you? That doesn't really sound like help to me but maybe we have different definitions of the word." The girl shook her head. "How did you even know Kenna and I were there? Do you have some weird security system set up in your old house?"

        "No, I just knew," Derek responded.

        Tara narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her. "Oh, I see what's going on here, you're stalking me," she asserted.

        "I'm not stalking you," Derek clarified. "I'm keeping an eye on you."

        Tara rolled her eyes, "Without my consent, which is the definition of stalking," she reminded him. "Can't you just leave me alone?" she asked.

        Derek sighed, "Your mother would kill me if anything happened to you," he said slowly.

        Tara shook her head, "No, no, my mother specifically told you to stay away from me. Or do you just remember that conversation differently than I do?" she shot back at him.

        "Well then, consider it me trying to keep an earlier promise," Derek continued, not giving up on whatever he was trying to do.

        Tara raised an eyebrow at the older man. "How early are we talking?" she asked.

        "About ten years give or take," Derek said, as if that answer was completely normal.

        "A decade?!??" Tara said, her voice getting louder with every word she spoke. "Ten years? That shits fucking expired by now!" she insisted. Tara sighed, trying to level her head a bit to continue to speak to Derek. "Let me get this straight, ten years ago you made a promise to my mom to keep an eye on me?" she asked slowly. "And how old were you then?"

        "Not important," Derek said dismissively. "But yes I did make that promise," he confirmed.

        "Why'd she ask you to do that?" Tara asked almost immediately.

        Derek paused for a second, "Ask your mother," he said.

        Tara rolled her eyes once more, "Right cause that's gonna go over so well," she said sarcastically. "Why can't you just tell me?" she asked.

        "Because your mother wouldn't want me to, plus, you're not ready," Derek said slowly. Tara couldn't tell if he was telling her the truth or trying to make up something that would get her off of his back.

        "Not ready?" Tara responded almost instantly, confused by his wording. "What do you mean not ready?"

        "I mean, you're not ready," Derek repeated sternly. "It's not the right time because she doesn't know about yo-" he paused, realizing his mistake as Tara's eyes widened.

        "Who doesn't know about me?" Tara asked, taking a step closer to him. "Kate Argent?" she asked. "She's the one who burned down your house, right? Do the Argents have anything to do with the promise you made? What do you know about them?"

        Derek shook his head, refusing to tell her anything else. "You're asking too many questions," he decided, walking past her to the entrance to the train cart.

        "No, bullshit, you fucked up, and now you have to tell me what you mean!" Tara insisted, stepping in front of the exit so he couldn't leave.

        Derek scoffed, "Like hell I do," he said sharply. Tara folded her arms over her chest, trying to stare him down, but her attempts proved pointless. "I already told you more than you need to know," he said simply.

        "No, you haven't," Tara said through gritted teeth. "Who the hell are you talking about?" she asked, her voice louder than it was the last time she asked. Derek didn't say anything, he just looked at the girl in front of him. The girl let out a frustrated sigh. "What, you're just gonna drop that bomb and not fucking say anything? This is about me, my life Derek, and if you know something you have an obligation to tell me!" she insisted. "So fucking tell me!"

        "No," Derek said, maintaining his calm composure.

        Tara's nostrils flared. "You know what, fuck you, Derek. You're entirely fucking useless and I hope Chris Argent shoots you," she spat, taking one final look at Derek behind turning her back on him and storming out into the middle of the train station. When she did, she was met with two pairs of eyes, belonging to Isaac and Erica, while Kenna and Boyd were busy talking in the corner. For some reason, the former pair was extremely interested in the conversation that she was having. "And what the fuck are you two looking at!" Tara snapped, yelling at the two teens that were staring at her. Isaac looked away quickly but Erica continued to stare at her.

        "Nothing, nothing," Isaac mumbled to himself.

        Tara scoffed, "Whatever," she said as she stormed out of the abandoned train station.

        Kenna looked at the spot where her friend just was. She clicked her tongue as she turned back to Erica, Isaac, and Boyd. "Guess I'm leaving too," she said slowly. "You guys- uh, you guys have fun, I guess," she said, her voice trailing off as she sped off to where Tara had gone.

        Erica smiled as she glanced over at Isaac, "You know, I didn't get it before, but now I definitely do," she said.

        Isaac furrowed his eyebrows, "Get what?" he asked slowly.

        "Why you thought she was hot," Erica answered with a small shrug. "I didn't see it before but now I totally see it."

        "I don't- I don't think that," Isaac answered quickly, shaking his head. "You're way off base with that, so, yeah," he finished slowly, looking down at his hands.

        Boyd laughed, "Yeah, whatever, dude," he said sarcastically.

hey, tell me what you want me to say, you know I'm stupid for you <3

Grace talks ig: guys I promise if I had the motivation I would've written a conversation between Kenna and the rest of the Hale Pack while Tara and Derek had their conversation but this chapter is already longer than I thought it was gonna be so I didn't. Maybe one day I'll release the draft be it would've been peak. TRUST ME. Also a lot of this chapter is description-heavy and I am really bad at writing description so if this is bad I'm sorry???? But I had small bits of lore I needed to drop and I didn't want to write the Jackson plot line because I  simply don't care!!!!! Okay I might go now because I don't really have anything else to say accept for vote and comment if you want and I'll update soon. BYE BYE!!!