"If we must part forever, give me but one kind word to think upon, and please myself with, while my heart's breaking."

♰ ♰ ♰

After the parent-teacher conference, chaos ensued. A mountain lion ran into the parking lot, causing mass panic. Stiles' father was knocked down by a reversing car, and Allison's father shot the mountain lion dead.

The next morning, Isabel had heard the news from Allison and immediately texted Stiles. After a few messages left with no response, she decided to get dressed and go round to his house.

She made sure to perform all the actions slowly and carefully as not to throw herself off-balance with her concussion. Isabel made a quick stop at the local store to get a box of chocolates for Sheriff Stilinski.

Isabel arrived at the Stilinski house, having acquired the address from Allison, who got it from Scott. Standing on the doorstep she quickly takes a breath, hoping Stiles wouldn't be annoyed that she came round uninvited.

She knocks on the door and waits a minute for an answer. She hears shuffling behind the door before it's pulled open by none other than Stiles himself who looks shocked as he sees who it is. Isabel gives a sheepish smile.

"What are you doing?!" He asks, "You should be on bed rest over the weekend." He continues, before gently grabbing her shoulders and ushering her in. She gives a thankful smile.

"I wanted to make sure your dad was ok, Allison called and told me what happened." Isabel answers and Stiles has an unreadable expression. "I sent a few messages but you didn't respond." She gives an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, my phone is upstairs. My dad's just in the room ahead if you want to say hi." Stiles explains, before leading her into the room.

Sheriff Stilinski sits on the sofa, in comfortable sweatpants watching a football game.

"Who was it at the door? Was it that damn salesman again? Hope you told them to-" Mr. Stilinski starts as he turns his head, seeing the redhead girl behind Stiles, and immediately shuts up. "Oh! Isabel, I apologise-" he begins but Isabel gives a laugh and shakes her head.

"No need to apologise, Mr. Stilinski." She responds and he gives her a smile in response. She pulls the box of chocolates out of her bag before moving towards him on the sofa. "I got you these, it's not much but chocolates always make me feel better- so I thought-" Mr. Stilinski shakes his head.

"Oh my, you didn't have to do that." He gives a smile, "It was only a knock, nothing serious. But thank you, I do love chocolates." He takes the present graciously, immediately opening the box and popping one into his mouth.

Stiles looks at the girl in awe, he found himself falling more for her every day.

"I hope you are feeling better though, Melissa told me you had a bad concussion."

"Yeah, the doctors gave me some pain medication and told me not to overdo it. But I should be fine with some rest." Isabel explains, Stiles gives a sad look, knowing this is all the Alpha's fault.

"That's good." Stiles' father responds, "That'll leave a hell of a scar." He points to the cut on her forehead, and Isabel laughs, gently touching the cut.

"It'll be a story to tell, that's for sure." The two laugh and Stiles smiles at his crush getting along with his father. What more could he want?

"Dad, I'm gonna take Isabel up so she can rest a bit, shout me if you need anything ok?" Stiles says, before grabbing Isabel's hand gently, leading her up the stairs as his father gives a nod and a thumbs up in response.

He guides her to his bedroom and makes sure she takes a seat on his bed before sitting next to her, scanning her face for any sign of pain. She gives a smile in response, while curiously looking around his room.

"How are you feeling?" He questions, moving a piece of hair that was stuck to the cut on her forehead.

"I'm ok, I was more worried about your father." She answers truthfully. Stiles gives a small laugh in response and shakes his head.

"What am I going to do with the both of you, huh?" He lightly chuckles, "Between the two of you, you're gonna give me a heart attack." Isabel gives a light laugh. The two are silent for a minute.

"I heard that Allison's father killed the mountain lion." Isabel quietly breaks the silence and Stiles tenses. "I just-" she starts, "I should feel relieved but a part of me-" Isabel pauses, and Stiles feels the worry seep in. "I don't think it was the mountain lion in the store." She finishes, looking into Stiles' eyes. Stiles gulps.

"You- you don't? What else could it have been?" He questions, trying to seem clueless. This wasn't good, Isabel didn't need to be involved in this.

"I-" Isabel pauses, "It had glowing red eyes, I felt them staring right at me." She relives the moment, before shaking her head. "It didn't look like a wild animal." Stiles hated this.

He wanted to tell her, to let her know the danger around her. But he couldn't. It was too dangerous either way. He places his hand in Isabel's slightly trembling one, holding it tightly.

He looks up into her eyes and realises how close they are, and thinks back to last night - their first kiss. Yes, she was completely out of it on pain medication but - they kissed. It counts right?

"It doesn't matter though, right? I mean, the mountain lion is dead and that's all that matters. Everything is fine now, right?" She questions, scared. Stiles' heart hurts at the question.

No, it's not all fine now.

"Yeah," he responds breathless, "Everything is fine now."

That was the first lie he ever had to tell Isabel Martin. She gives a beautiful smile in response and Stiles immediately feels guilty. He felt hopeless, he needed to protect her.

"By the way, I was wondering if you would help me with some research for my history paper." She changes the subject, her hand still in his. Stiles immediately nods.

"Of course! What's it about?" He asks, grateful for the change of subject and she grins.

"We have to write a paper about something in history related to our family, and I kinda have an idea on what to do." Isabel sounds unsure, Stiles looks at her interested. He was always intrigued to learn more about her.

"So, it's going to sound so dumb." She sighs.

"But my mom would always talk about the female bloodline on her side of the family was that of witches' descent." She explains and Stiles looks at her with an unreadable expression. She immediately burst out into laughter at his face. "I told you it was dumb." She says, embarrassed.

Stiles immediately shakes his head. If werewolves existed, who knew what else did? Stiles moves over to his desk and loads up his computer.

"I don't think it's dumb at all." He answers truthfully and Isabel feels relieved.

She moves over to follow him and watches him type in his username and password before the screen boots up.

"Do you know your mom's maiden name? We can try to search into the history of that?" He suggests, Isabel beams at him.

"Yeah," She agrees, "It's 'Chattox'" she answers, leaning over and typing the surname into the search bar for him.

Stiles hits the search button and the two intently read the first few hits and both stay still, shocked.

Chattox Witches of Suffolk

The Suffolk Witch Trial

Chattox Family History - Witchcraft?

"Well," Stiles interrupts the silence. "I don't think she was lying."

"Yeah," Isabel responds, breathless. She never thought her mother was telling the truth, her father told her that her mother was crazy. "Um, where do we start?" She asks. Stiles clicks the first link, bringing up an article.

"April 2nd, 1607; Maria Chattox, upon her examination, voluntarily confesseth, and sayth, that about fourteen or fifteen years ago, the devil in the shape of a man requested her to give him her soul: and in the end, she was contented to give him her said soul. She is then in her own house, in the Forest; whereupon the devil in the shape of a man, said to her: 'thou shall hold the power all shall fear.'" Stiles reads aloud for Isabel.

The rest of the article was in old English, making it hard to understand.

"So - one of your ancestors made a deal with the devil?" He questions, gaining no response from Isabel.

With Isabel's gesture of permission, he clicks back and onto the next link.

"The witch trials included the suffocation of accused witches before they were tied to a wooden stake and burnt. Suspected witches were also intimidated, banished, attacked, or killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished if found guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. The most known of trials in England was that of the killing of Maria Chattox, who apparently - to allow her family time to flee, was seen to use magic to distract her murderers." Isabel reads from the page.

Stiles turns to her, interested as she continues, "It was said that the Chattox family bloodline is that of witches and the practice of chaos magic is passed down generations through the Chattox women." Stiles gives a confused look.

"What on earth is 'chaos magic'?" He asks, and Isabel shrugs.

"How am I supposed to know? My mom never told me any of this, just that we were apparently 'witches'" she explains. "I didn't expect it to be true."

"So - can you do magic?" He questions her, looking at her expectantly. She laughs.

"No! I can't 'do' magic, Stiles." She hits him on the shoulder. He puts his hands up in response.

"Hey- hey! Just asking!" He looks back at the page, reading the last part of the article. "Witch-hunts, scapegoating, and the killing or shunning of suspected witches still occur in the modern era." He takes a breath. "Well, doesn't that sound fun." Isabel gives him another smack on the shoulder. "Ow!"

♰ ♰ ♰

"The what of who?" Lydia questions. Lydia, Isabel, and Allison sit at a lunch table as Allison explains her history project to the cousins.

"The beast of Gevaudan. Listen. "A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south Dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bete killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that the King Louie the 15th sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it." Allison explains, and Isabel hears the excitement hidden in her voice.

"Boring." Lydia responds, before looking down at her fingernails. Isabel rolls her eyes.

"Carry on, Allison. I'm listening." Isabel encourages. Allison gives her a thankful smile.

"Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan." Allison continues.

"Still boring." Lydia pipes up again, Isabel shakes her head.

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid." Allison reads, Isabel nods along, intrigued.

"'Slipping into a coma' bored. " Lydia responds monotonously. This time, Isabel and Allison ignore her.

"While others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shapeshift into a man-eating monster."

"Any of this have anything to do with your family?" Lydia questions. Allison nods.

"This. "It is believed that la Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature." His name was Argent." Allison recites, with a smile on her face.

"Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?" Lydia rolled her eyes. Isabel gave her a nudge.

"Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like to you?" Allison asks, before turning the book around. Lydia and Isabel freeze at the drawing. It was the monster. "Lydia? Isabel?" Allison calls, to get their attention.

"It looks - like a big - wolf. See you in History." Lydia responds before quickly leaving. Isabel stays sat, shell shocked. Allison places a hand on her friend's hand.

"You ok?" Allison asks, Isabel gives a slow nod.

"Yeah- just uh, a bit of pain is all, from the concussion." She lies.

Allison gives a slow nod before Scott catches her eye in the back. She meets Isabel's eyes and Isabel gives a nod of approval to let her go. Isabel watches her run off after Scott. Isabel stays sat, having a free period, and decided to do more research on her project.

She pulls her phone out and types in 'Chaos Magic' thousands of hits come up on the smartphone, mostly occult websites. She starts to scroll through slowly.

Chaos Magic is the name of rare magic so dark and powerful that it was thought to be non-existent. This magic can manipulate, warp, and reconstruct the fabric of existence and reality to the user's very whims, and bring about total destruction. Chaos is the force that has caused life to evolve out of dust. Chaos can extend its will and perception into the universe to accomplish magic.

Isabel uses her free period to complete her history project, finally having enough information from her and Stiles' research to finish the paper. She looks at the finished project proudly. She sends Stiles a text giving a thank you, before heading off to her next class.

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