UNHOLY.

judging others by their looks is hard to avoid in a school like this   ——    on some level,     they’re all alike,     even through gang wars and the like.     but toni never lets that impression last for long,     always preferring to truly get to know someone before collecting her thoughts.     to her,    mikayla looks like someone who might overpower everyone at riverdale high yet suffer in a school like this,     but there’s something about her that toni sees beyond,     that this girl is a lot stronger than she looks   (   and she hopes to find out.   )      either way,    she’s already feeling like she needs to protect her,    even if it’s clear that she can protect herself.     she doesn’t want her to get involved in the wrong crowd   —-   certainly not the one opposing her own.      if she can set her on the right path early on,     things could be better for her.     of course,    she’s bias,     assuming the southside serpents is the safer place to be    (   compared to the much darker gang,    maybe that’s true.   )       she scoffs,    a laugh to follow.      ❝  even if they were,     it wouldn’t be worth what comes attached to them,    trust me.   ❞        she had her own limits,     even if she’s a southside serpent   —  it’s more about protection and having some sort of family than it is about the crimes that are often committed.     ❝  but you won’t find a lot of that around here anyway.  ❞       if she settles,   maybe,    but toni’s already sure that mikayla could do a lot better than her options here.     head tilts to the side,    a devious smile painting her lips.     ❝   oh,    please,    share.     maybe we have something in common,  ❞       she taunts,     smile widening as she shrugs her shoulders.      ❝   —-   southside serpents,  ❞       she says,    nodding in that direction.     ❝   you want to stay sane in this school?    that’s where you should be.    ❞

years ago,    everything about this school would have likely intimidated her,     despite having grown up with violence,    becoming far more familiar with fists than embraces;    but she’s not like that anymore,    not after becoming more comfortable with herself    (    when it comes to just about everything but her love life    )     and,   even better,    learning how to defend herself,    to never let herself appear weak at the hands of another again.    humans are hardly her biggest thread anymore anyway,    regardless of how dangerous they come off as.     “     you’re kidding.    there has to be cute boys somewhere in this school.    ”     even if there were,    she wouldn’t really care.    she just won’t let herself really look at any one else,    even if they’re standing right in front of her.

she offers a small roll of her eyes,    not at mikayla,    but at the situation at hand.    the serpents and the ghoulies sharing a roof had never been simple for either party,     even those who weren’t affiliated at all.     gang wars were clear as day,    even as toni showed the other around the school   —-   the shared looks they gave,    even the looks AVOIDED made it obvious there was no peace here.      ❝   should go without saying,     but i’d stay away from that crowd,  ❞       she advised   —-   mostly because she was more interested in mikayla keeping her distance.     once she gave into the other side,     she may never see any hope for her.    and selfishly,    she preferred her to herself.      ❝    everyone dresses like what they can afford.    if you’re looking for high fashion,    you’ve got the wrong school   ——    but i like to think the people here are more tolerable.      don’t sweat it,   ❞      she noted,    eyes glancing down her body to assess for herself.      ❝    looks like you’re just going to make an impression.      maybe you already have.  ❞  

❝   the ghoulies sit over there.   rival  gang,    drug dealers,   street racers,   rumors of cannibalism   —   don’t ask.   ❞ 

❝    ME  ?   stop     …    i  picked  them  for  someone  else  not  me  !    ❞

you think it might be love,   but you’re not sure.   you’ve never been a good daughter of aphrodite.

for someone who’s felt the lips of others against your skin,   her touch lights you up in a way no one else ever has.  the simple interlocking of fingers is way more intimate than anything else ever has been.   your own skin warms up,   smile bright on your lips but curls upward in a teasing way.   you’re not blushing,  but you can see she is and you swear your heartbeat races so fast you’re worried it’ll burst right through your chest.   god,  she’s so beautiful.  she’s angelic.   almost like a goddess.

❛❛   ——  destroy,  huh?   ❜❜    you’d make anyone who dared make a comment regret it,   you don’t care whether it’d mean you’d reveal your monstrous side or not.   no one gets to look at her and think anything negative,   no one gets to look at the two of you together and not see something beautiful let alone have the audacity to open up their stupid fucking mouths to make a comment.   

❛❛   i think i can manage that.   ❜❜    you squeeze her hand softly,  tugging her closer.  but not too close,   never too close.   not while people can see.   you don’t want to make her uncomfortable,  you’d never want that.   you care too much about her  (   not that you’d probably admit that.   ).  though,  if she’d let you,   you’d kiss her here in front of everyone.   you’d love to show everyone who gets to kiss her,   who gets to make her smile.

❛❛   i’m still paying for this not date.  just so you know.   ❜❜

“    destroy.   ”    your  voice  is  far  too  light  for  someone  that’s  talking  about  violence,     tone  sweet  even  when  your  words  are  sour.   you’ve  always  been  a  mix  of  both,   anyway;    you  carry  the  same  elegance  as  your  mother   (   you  assume,   at  least;    you’ve  never  met  her   )     and  the  brutality  your  father,    the  very  same  cruelty  that  drove  you  away  from  him  so  many  years  ago.    the  reason  you’re  afraid  to  call  this  anything  more  than  friendship.     “    they’d  deserve  it.    it’s  okay.    nobody  would  miss  them.   ”

you’re  glad  she  can’t  hear  the  way  your  heart  pounds  in  your  chest,    a  reaction  far  different  than  anything  you  experience  around  boys,    even  if  it’s  them  you  pretend  to  be  interested  in.    it’s  always  her  that  you’re  thinking  about  when  you’re  with  anyone  else;     it’s  her  lips  that  you’re  imagining  whenever  you  begrudgingly  let  one  of  the  boys  at  camp  drag  their  mouth  across  your  neck.   with  them,   you  don’t  feel  anything.   with  her,   you  feel  everything.   and  you  hate  that  you  won’t  let  yourself  do  anything  about  it.

it doesn’t sting as much as you think it should.   every time she looks at you,  she looks like she wants to kiss you and that’s enough.   maybe eventually she’ll admit she likes you.   maybe eventually you’ll admit you like her.  but for now it’s not dating while you pretend you don’t want to rip the throat out of every single guy who looks her up and down while you’re together,  which for now just  …  has to be enough.    ❛❛   yeah,  okay.  it’s not a date.   ❜❜  you wish your voice didn’t sound so soft but something about her softens you in a way no one else has ever managed.

a pause,  eyes flickering down to mikayla’s fingers.   ❛❛   can i still hold your hand?  ——  as a friend?   ❜❜    you’re trying not to push your luck.

it’s  not  a  date,   but  a  part  of  you  wishes  that  she’d  argue  otherwise,    that  she’d  call  you  out  and  see  what  you’ve  spent  your  entire  life  trying  to  ignore.   you’d  skewer  anyone  else  that  questioned  you,    but  even  if  violence  is  in  your  veins,   you  can’t  imagine  harming  her.    (    she  could  take  care  of  herself,   anyway;    you  know  there’s  something  dangerous  about  her,    just  like  there’s  something  dangerous  about  you,   hidden  beneath  all  your  beauty.   )    

there is nobody on their way to save you.   there is nobody waiting for you to come home.  you have tasted being alone and let it swallow you whole rather than swallowing down the lonliness.  this is who you are now.  the lone wolf with a pack left behind,  the boy who lost an almost love and ran until you couldn’t hear the sound of her heart stopping  (  it didn’t work.  you still hear it when you try to sleep.  you don’t sleep so much anymore.  well,  you haven’t for a while.  no monsters can crawl into your dreams if you never have them.  ).

you’re ready to run again,   ready to leave the good samaritan behind with no explanation but you don’t.  something tells you to stay,  to heal then go.  maybe you can convince him he saw nothing,  maybe you can lie your way out of this.   but then you hear that.

❛❛   take my pain?   ❜❜    supernatural knowledge suddenly brought to the front of your mind,   nose sniffing the air trying to find any trace of wolf but his scent is nothing like yours,  nothing like scott’s.   maybe he knows how to hide it?  can someone do that?  you don’t ask,  a single brow raised.  he’s clearly something,  something not normal,  something not human.  you just hope he’s more scott and less peter,  though,   he’s already offered to help,   almost exposed himself trying to help someone he doesn’t know.   sounds pretty true alpha like to him.

 ❛❛   what are you?   ❜❜  

you don’t sound scared,   nothing really scares you anymore  (  except everything.   which is incredibly contradictory but somehow you manage to be stupidly fearless,  running into danger while also being scared of everything,  paranoid of every person you meet.  ).   you’re in agony,  but you’re used to that.  the pain doesn’t hurt any less but you’re better at hiding,   years of abuse has made you a good actor,  your mask stronger than anyone ever realises.

❛❛   i’m fine,  dude.  you  …   you really don’t have to help,  trust me.   ❜❜   you almost laugh at the idea of him thinking you’d tell anyone.   who do you have left to tell?     ❛❛   i’ll heal in a second.   ❜❜ 

he’s  not  nearly  as  surprised  or  put  off  as  you’d  expected,    but  that  doesn’t  come  as  a  shock  to  you,    either.     you  understand  that  there’s  more  out  there,    and  while  your  coven  claims  to  be  prepared  for  anything,   thinking  themselves  to  be  above  all  others,    you’re  not  as  confident.    there’s  only  one  thing  you’re  sure  of,   and  it’s  that  witches  are  far  from  the  only  supernatural  species  to  walk  the  earth.    magic  is  capable  of  creating  so  much  more.

you’re  calm  for  someone  that  could  be  killed  by  his  own  family  for  even  speaking  to  the  other,    composure  collected,    corner  of  your  mouth  twitching  upward  in  a  half  smile.    it’s  meant  to  comfort  him,   you  think,    but  you’re  not  sure  if  you  have  that  effect  on  people.    you  want  to,    but  there’s  darkness  in  your  veins,    an  impurity  that’s  lived  within  you  since  birth.    but  unlike  your  siblings,   you  don’t  give  into  it,    even  if  that’s  what  your  parents  expect  of  you.    you  want  to  be  better  than  that.     you  want  to  be  better  than  them.

“    not  human.   ”    

there’s  no  more  of  an  explanation,    nothing  specific.   by  the  way  he’s  not  freaking  out  about  any  of  this,    you  suspect  he  might  be  trustworthy,    that  he  won’t  claim  you  deserve  to  be  burned  at  the  stake,    or  whatever  it  is  humans  would  want  to  do  with  you.   you’re  told  not  to  trust  anyone,   but  it  doesn’t  stop  you  now.

“   i  want  to  help.   it’s  no  big  deal.   ”    brows  furrow  in  confusion  at  his  next  words,   lips  pressed  together,   holding  back  the  same  inquiry  he’d  asked  you:   what  are  you?    if  he  can  heal  in  a  second,    there’s  no  need  to  risk  being  caught,    but  until  it  heals,   his  wound  likely  hurts.    you  can  save  him  from  those  next  few  moments  of  agony,   and  so  you  do.

oceanic  gaze  flickers  up  to  meet  his,   movements  slow,   trying  to  ensure  him  that  you’re  not  going  to  hurt  him  as  you  reach  for  his  arm.    your  touch  is  feather - light,    only  enough  to  make  a  physical  connection;    you  don’t  add  pressure,    afraid  to  worsen  the  ache,    even  if  you’re  about  to  take  it.    eyes  flutter  to  a  close,    archaic  words  mumbled  under  your  breath,    drawing  the  magic  from  the  earth,    feeling  it  move  around  you,    around  him.    there’s  a  warm  glow  that  resonates  between  your  skin  and  his,   but  you’re  used  to  it  by  now.   you  only  hope  that  he  won’t  be  too  fazed,   either.    

❝   innocent people won’t get hurt,   ❞       she tells him,     her voice serious as she looks over.      the goal isn’t to give into desperation,     to sacrifice their own just to achieve what they’ve aspired.      it’s never been just about winning some battle for her.      it’s more than that.      her goal is to protect the people of beacon hills,     and she can’t do that if her own men are falling too.      she knows that that’s where she and gerard differ;      they may have the same goal,    but the way they get there isn’t the same.      this is about protecting people,     and the only way she seems fit is that she eliminates all threat.      her hatred of the supernatural isn’t just because of who they are,    but what they’ve done to DESTROY this town.        ❝    people won’t get hurt,   ❞        she corrects.    because that’s the way she sees it  —-   the supernatural creatures they’re facing,     even the ones disguised as teenagers,    AREN’T HUMAN.         ❝     that’s where you and i are going to have to work together.     we can’t let him send anyone into anything they’re not fully prepared to handle,     especially on their own.      i want everyone trained,     and everyone capable.       we can handle that,    yes?    ❞