𝕀𝕟𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖 || 𝕊𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕤/𝕍𝕠𝕚𝕕 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣

Chapter 11

I hid behind a wall and quickly peeked at Kira's parents. Why were they here this late at night? Why were they here at all?

"The Oni are hunting, and, thanks to Carol, they are stronger than usual," I heard Kira's mum say.

"Hopefully they'll catch it soon," was my mother's reply.

There was so much to unpack in those two sentences alone and I already felt my head spinning. The Oni? What the hell are they? Were they people? An organisation, maybe? And why were they hunting? More importantly, what were they hunting? They'd said 'it'. Did that mean whatever they were trying to catch wasn't a person? Was it an animal? And how did my mother help the Oni things become stronger than usual? Was she- was there a chance she was like me?

There were too many questions and not enough answers. I peeked out from behind the wall again, but this time my mother noticed me.

Crap.

I turned around and ran upstairs, taking care not to make much noise, and into my room, closing the door behind me. I cursed myself for getting caught and slumped on my bed. I cursed myself some more when I heard the front door open and close, probably the Yukimura's leaving, and footsteps walking up the stairs.

There was a knock at my door, and after hearing my meek 'come in', my mother walked in. I averted my gaze to my hands and my mother sat down on my bed next to me, not saying a word.

It was silent for a while as I fidgeted with my hands nervously. When I couldn't take it anymore, I finally brought my gaze up to my mother and broke the silence.

"Why were the Yukimura's here?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

My mother sighed.

"We had some business to attend to," she answered vaguely.

At least she answered.

"How do you know Kira's mum?" I said, asking another question.

"We used to work together," she responded evenly.

They used to work together? When? And why didn't she tell me this earlier? Before I could ask my mother another question, she asked me one.

"Where were you?" she asked me.

"A party," I said quietly.

My mother smiled and asked, "was it with Stiles?"

Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I nodded my head embarrassedly.

My mother grinned, telling me to go to bed, and got up. She was about to leave the room when she looked back at me.

"One last thing," she said. "Has anything... strange been happening to you lately? With fire, maybe?"

She knew. She knew what was happening to me. That question had been so direct she might as well had asked me if I was immune to fire. But how did she know? And why didn't she tell me what was going on instead of pretending like nothing happened?

I felt a foreign sense of distrust as I looked up at my mother. I'd never been suspicious or distrusting of my mother, but since we moved to Beacon Hills she's been acting so strange and I couldn't help but doubt she was telling me everything.

That was why when I answered, I made sure it was her who was being lied to, not me.

"No," I said simply, and my mother shut the door.

. . .

The next day, I walked the halls of the school before class, trying to find Stiles. He wasn't at his locker or Scott's, and I was curious as to what he had to do last night. I was also wondering whether or not to tell Stiles about my whole 'situation', but that was still undecided.