Chapter 5 – Séance

"Hey! Come on in." Rowan greeted as she opened the door and saw Allison.

"Hey…" Her voice trailed off as she looked to the baby in her friends arms.

"I'm just getting ready to lay her down for the night." Rowan explained as she nodded for Allison to shut the door.

"She's gorgeous…" Allison said, as she smiled at the sleepy infant.

"Thanks… she's almost 5 months." She said, as she turned and started up the stairs in the large house.

Allison sat her overnight bag down by the couch in the living room and followed her up the stairs, she kept opening her mouth and then closing it. She wanted to ask if the baby was Rowan's but she wasn't sure of a polite way to word the question.

After Rowan got her daughter situated in the crib she leaned down giving her a kiss on her cheek and told her goodnight.

"So… is she… yours?" Allison finally asked.

Before Rowan could answer Lydia poked her head in the nursery and said, "Yeah, it's like an episode of Teen Mom around here."

"It is not!" Rowan said with a sigh causing Lydia to laugh.

"I'm just kidding. Plus, you know how much I love Lynnox." She said then a little louder she said, "Night Lynn!"

"Shh." Rowan shushed her as she pushed both girls out of the room and pulled the door almost shut.

"Lynnox? That's a really pretty name." Allison said smiling.

"Thanks." She replied, with a smile. Thankful to see her friend wasn't looking at her any different than she had before she knew she was a single, teenage mother.

~(Later that night)~

"Are you guys sure we should be doing this? I mean… what if something happens?" Rowan asked nervously as she moved the pizza box off the table and gathered up their empty soda cans.

"You're being haunted, of course we should be doing this." Lydia responded with an eye roll, laced with her classic jolt of attitude present in all of her movements.

Then paused as she thought of how even though she hadn't been seeing the things that Rowan had, she'd been experiencing cold spots and several other unexplained things.

"I'm excited! This is going to be fun." Allison cheerfully added in, as she took the Ouija board from it's box and sat it down on the table. She looked between her two friends with a smile as she really hoped her family would stay in Beacon Hills. She'd never made friends as quickly and as easily as she had here.

"Fun isn't exactly the word I'd use." Rowan said quietly as she watched her two friends light candles and placed them around the dining room.

She had a sick feeling in her stomach, but she was trying her best to ignore it.

Ever since she'd gotten pregnant she hadn't had too many friends. Her best friend stopped talking to her and she hadn't had to get close to anyone else. But now she had her cousin and Allison who were both wanting to hang around her, even if it was to do some creepy séance.

Taking a seat the at the table she let out the breath she'd been holding and tried to let go some of the fear she had.

"Who's asking the questions?" Allison asked as she placed the plastic eyelet with it's clear center on the board.

Reaching out her hands Lydia placed a couple fingers on it to and said, "Well, Rowan obviously. She is the one being haunted"

"Fine." Rowan sighed as she placed her fingers on the eyelet and closed her eyes trying to concentrate.

"Is anyone here with us?" She asked, her words jumbled together from nerves.

She slowly opened her eyes and saw both Lydia and Allison staring at the board, eagerly waiting on a response.

She bit down on her tongue and held in an inappropriate laugh at the situation. They both fully believed some ghost was going to answer them, and even with what Rowan had seen she wasn't sure if she believed herself.

"Ask again." Allison urged in a whisper.

Clearing her throat and trying to hold in her laugh still, Rowan started to repeat the question but her eyes moved to a purple candle at the end of the table –it's flame was dancing wildly on the wick.

There wasn't any air flowing through the room, the ceiling fan was off.

Gasping and letting go of the plastic piece, she said "I don't want to do this anymore."

Allison and Lydia both stared down to where candle flame was growing higher and higher for no reason.

"Come on." Lydia said nodding for Rowan to help them with the board.

As Rowan put her fingers back on the eyelet, it slid across the board until 'yes' was visible through the center.

"Did you move it?" Allison questioned.

"No… I swear to god it wasn't me." Rowan said, feeling tears burning her eyes from fear. It was bad enough to be seeing the terrifying images she had, but now whatever was happening the things horror movies were made of.

Lydia shook her head back and forth, she hadn't moved it either.

Growing impatient when Rowan stayed quiet Lydia asked, "Are you the one who's been appearing to Rowan?"

The eyelet shifted a little, but stayed on the same word.

"What's your name?" Allison asked, not able to contain her excitement.

As the plastic piece moved across the board, Lydia read the letters out loud L…A…U…R…A

"Laura? Your name is Laura?" Allison asked to the room.

But before she even got the question all the way out, the eyelet shot up to yes.

"What do you want?" Rowan finally spoke up, her voice shaky.

The girls watched closely and after piecing the letters together and Lydia said, "Warning…"

"A warning for who?" Rowan gasped.

But the plastic piece didn't move.

The trio exchanged looks, none of them sure where to go from there.

"How did you die?" Lydia asked.

When Allison and Rowan both shot her a disapproving look she shrugged and said, "What? I'm curious…"

"Uncle?" Allison read the response and frowned as she looked to her friends.

"Her uncle killed her?" Lydia guessed shaking her head back and forth.

Rowan watched as the eyelet jerked a little, and she stared at Allison wide eyed.

"Sorry, my finger twitched." Allison apologized.

"Oh my god! That was great… you really got me." Rowan exclaimed laughing as she let go of the eyelet and sat back in her chair with a sigh of relief.

"Really Allison!" Lydia sighed as she let go of the eyelet too and smoothed her hair out.

"It wasn't me! I wasn't answering the questions!" She defended, a little hurt they didn't believe her.

"Whatever, let's just box this back up and toss it back in the basement." Rowan said.

"I didn't move it!" Allison said louder than she'd meant to as she let go of the plastic piece.

"This was stupid anyways. Ghosts aren't real and this whole thing was just stupid, we should have rented The Notebook or something." Lydia said as she turned the light on to the room and leaned down to blow out a candle.

Right as she leaned down the eyelet flew off the board and collided with the wall right by where she was standing.

Lydia screamed and jumped to the side, her breathing labored.

"I told you it wasn't me!" Allison yelled, half terrified and half excited that.

"We're sorry. We didn't mean to offend you." Rowan breathed out, as she looked around the room.

When nothing else happened, Lydia said "Let's just box this up and go to bed. I'm really tired."

Quickly Allison picked the eyelet up from the floor and dropped it on top of the Ouija board in the box. Rowan opened the door to basement and tossed the entire box in.

"You're coming to my room too, right?" Lydia asked as she stood in the hallway with a blanket over her short, campaign colored baby doll nightgown.

Looking down to black boy shorts and lacey pink sleeping shirt, Rowan declined "I don't feel comfortable leaving Lynn alone after what just happened. I'm just gonna sleep on the floor in the nursery."

Allison walked out in the hallway from Lydia's room and shivered as she said, "Your room is freezing."

She paused and looked at their sleeping clothes, and then down to her blue plaid shorts and long sleeve gray shirt, thinking she should have worn something a little fancier.

Lydia followed her back into her room and her eyes widened as she felt the bitter cold heaviness in her normally comfortable bedroom.

Not wanting to appear as scared as she was she grabbed her pillows and blankets off the bed, "Rowan's right. We really shouldn't leave Lynnox alone."

Allison nodded and pulled the bedroom door shut behind after her. The three girls headed into the nursery and spread the pillows and blankets out on the new soft carpet a few feet away from where Lynnox was sleeping soundly.

~(At school on Monday)~

"So you're going to give him another chance?" Rowan asked as she opened her locker.

Allison paused as she was entering the combination to her locker and smiled to herself as she thought about Scott.

"Yeah… I really like him." She answered as she finished her own combination and opened the door.

Both girls hadn't mentioned the séance they'd tried to hold, or using the Ouija board since it had happened. None of them wanted to think about it.

All three of them were pretty sure the night had scarred them for life.

Allison pulled the jacket out of her locker that she'd been wearing the night of the party, as her face scrunched with confusion.

"Did you put this in here?" she asked.

Looking over Rowan shook her head back and forth, "Isn't that the one you wore at the party?"

"Yeah… I thought I'd lost it, but it just showed up in my locker." Allison explained.

"Weird…" Rowan agreed at the same time Scott came up to them and asked, "Where'd you get that?"

"Uhh…" Allison started to say, but then looked at him confused. It was her jacket after all.

"Maybe Lydia brought it back after the party." Rowan offered, not understanding what happened to make Scott so upset.

"Did Lydia say she brought it back, or did someone give her the jacket?" Scott asked, his voice gruffer than he'd meant it to be.

"Like who?" Allison asked confused.

Rowan started to walk away and leave the couple to argue, but stopped when Scott said, "Like Derek!"

"Your friend?" Allison asked him, as Rowan stopped to continue watching them.

She'd been wondering all weekend how to get a hold of Derek, she knew she needed to tell him about their daughter.

"He's not my friend! How much did you talk to him when he drove you home?" Scott snapped.

"Not much at all… Rowan was there too, we all pretty much kept silent." Allison explained looking over to her friend.

"What did you say?" Scott asked, keeping his gaze heavy on Allison.

Not liking his tone or the way he was giving her the 3rd degree, Allison pointed behind her and said "I gotta get to class."

"Allison!" Scott yelled after her, but she didn't stop.

"She really didn't say more than like three words to Derek." Rowan explained, wondering what had gotten the teenager so bent out of shape.

"Three words too many." He mumbled.

Rowan's face twisted with a look of confusion, Derek had told her and Allison that he was a friend of Scotts –yet the teenager was acting like Derek was the last person on earth he wanted around Allison.

"Why do you have such a problem with Derek?" She finally asked, pushing for an answer even if it didn't seem like her place to ask the question.

"He's… dangerous." Scott vaguely answered.

Rowan felt her heart drop. The father of her baby was dangerous? Yeah, he might not have been the friendliest person she'd ever met but there was a big jump from being standoffish to being dangerous.

"Dangerous how?" Her tone pleaded for an answer, but the bell rang and Scott turned around and stormed off –still enraged that the older wolf had tried to use Allison to get to him.

~(Later that night)~

"You're sure you don't mind watching Lynn?" Rowan asked as she zipped up her jacket and picked up her car keys.

"No, not at all." Allison answered as she looked up from her chemistry homework.

"She's already asleep anyways." Lydia pointed out as she waved her pen to the video baby monitor sitting between them on the table.

"That's so much, I shouldn't be gone long. Just gotta grab a few things from the store." She explained, before thanking them again and leaving.

~()~

"No, no, no! Why do I keep coming this way?" Rowan complained as she carefully maneuvered her car off the side of the road just as it died.

She looked over to the woods and swallowed hard as she saw a white, blurry figure disappear into the tree line. No matter what she did, she always ended up passing the woods in the same place that she'd found the half of the corpse at.

"I'm so gonna regret this." She continued to talk out loud to herself as she grabbed the flashlight from her glove compartment and jogged towards the woods.

An icy gust of cold wind blew past her, but none of the leaves on the trees moved.

There standing in front of her was the same ghost she'd been seeing.

The woman silently turned and walked farther into the woods, towards the charred remains of the Hale house.

Rowan followed several steps behind her wondering what she was trying to show her now. As scared as she was, she also felt a pull to follow the ghost –like she couldn't stop and run the other way even if she'd wanted; which she did.

As she neared the house she saw Scott and Stiles talking amongst themselves standing next to a large hole in the ground. But she kept her attention on the ghost who walked over to the hole and then dissipated into thin air.

The boys were so absorbed in the conversation that they didn't even notice Rowan walking up to the open grave, until she looked down and screamed.

Both boys jumped and Stiles let out a startled yell.

"Where did you come from?" He asked, breathing heavily.

"Stiles!" Scott yelled as he motioned down to show him that the wolf they'd unburied had now taken the form of a female.

"The other half of the body." Stiles breathed out, as he looked down to the rope and wolfsbane flower in his hand.

A look of sadness fell over her face, but Rowan also breathed out a small sigh of relief at thinking it was over. She recognized the corpse in the open earth as the same woman who'd been haunting her –maybe this was all the woman's spirt had wanted. Was just to be found and not scattered through the woods, hopefully her spirit would have peace now and her haunting would be over.

"Call the cops before he comes home." Scott instructed his friend as he grabbed onto his arm to make sure he had his attention.

"Who?" She asked, finally listening to them again and able to form words.

"Derek Hale." Stiles admitted as he pulled his cellphone out.

"Wait, what…" She breathed out her heart starting to race.

"Derek is the one who killed her." Scott explained, watching her with a slightly confused look as he could hear her hastened heartbeat echoing in his head.

Rowan took a stumbling step backwards as she gasped, "Derek… he's a murderer?"

"Well yeah." Stiles agreed, as he looked back down to the half a body in the makeshift grave.

Neither boy was aware of the impact their words had on her; she was the only person who knew Derek was Lynn's father –and if what they were saying was true, then it had to stay that way. No one could ever know the secret, especially not Derek

"Derek is the one who killed her." Scott explained.

Rowan took a stumbling step backwards as she gasped, "Derek… he's a murderer?"

"Well yeah." Stiles agreed, as he looked back down to the half a body in the makeshift grave.

"Are you positive?" She gasped, tears burning her eyes.

"Yeah, I am now." Scott nodded, looking back down to the lifeless open eyes of the female corpse.

Rowan pinned her eyes shut as she took in what they were telling her. Not only had she reckless had a one night stand with a killer, but she'd almost let the killer knew he had a daughter.

What if he'd came after her or Lynnox? A million thoughts rushed through her head as her heart raced inside her chest.

"Rowan?" Stiles asked as he lowered his cell phone and observed how pale her skin looked in the moonlight.

"I… uh…" Her voice trailed off as she looked around and saw she was in a house she didn't recognize.

"Stiles… Scott?" She yelled, wondering how she got there and where the two teenage boys were.

Hearing screams of and smelling gasoline she looked around to see she was in a basement with a large group of people, a family.

"What's going on? How did I get here?" She asked trying to grab a woman's arm, but her hand went right through her.

Rowan looked down to her hands in shock. Why couldn't anyone see her?

From the corner of her eye she saw a bright burst of orange and red as the entire half of the room was engulfed in large flames, melting and violently destroying everything in their path.

The family screamed in terror and agony as they tried desperately to find a way out the basement that was quickly being swallowed up in the flames.

Even though Rowan tried to tell herself that it was just a nightmare, she franticly beat on the walls and screamed for help as the flames got closer to her.

Her hair stung her face upon impact as she moved her head at a rapid rate, looking around her heart broke as she saw not only adults, but crying children.

Not able to take the sights around her anymore she closed her eyes and tried to drown out their screams, but she was soon alarmed by a searing pain on her left leg.

Looking down she saw her jeans were on fire. All of her reasoning had been thrown out the window, if it was a dream how could it hurt her?

If this was all in her imagination why could she feel the pain from the fire and choke on the thick smoke.

Dropping to the floor she tried desperately to put the fire on her jeans out, but she couldn't take in breath without choking on the smoke.

The more panicked she became the more she tried desperately to take a breath, but her lungs betrayed her with every coughing fit.

Weak from the smoke inhalation and crying from pain she collapsed on the floor, the room was completely filled with flames and burning beams fell from the ceiling.

With the last of her energy she tried to dig her fingers into the exposed dirt floor and pull herself away from the now singed bodies and the stomach churning stench of burning flesh.

But with one last loud cough, her head dropped to the floor and she stopped moving.

~()~

"What happening?" Scott asked as he knelt down beside Stiles, next to where Rowan had collapsed on the ground.

"I… I don't know." Stiles answered honestly as he reached out to gently shake her arm but then breathed out, "She's burning up."

Scott looked around confused, one minute they were all standing there talking and the next the teenage girl had passed out with no explanation whatsoever

"Okay, well… whatever is going on we need to get her and ourselves out of here before Derek comes back." Scott said as he started to pick her limp body up, but stopped when he realized something frightening.

"S-Stiles…" He yelled in a trembling voice, as he laid her back down on the ground and yelled, "She's not… she, uh… she's not breathing!"

A/N- To anyone who is still reading this story, I'm deeply sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter up. I had it mostly finished for a while and even though all of my reviewers have been so great –I sort of lost interest in this story. I have so many ideas of where I want the story to do, but it's not always as easy as it seems to get from point A to point B. Don't worry, there will be more Derek/Rowan interaction soon.

But now that I'm all caught up with The Blue Moon Series (which I highly recommend, we have so many chapters done we're pretty much updating daily and we're in season 4!) I'm taking some of my older, unfinished stories off of the back burner. So please bear with me here, I have not abandoned Rowan's story.

I will be working on getting this story updated along with some of the other Teen Wolf stories. (My newest one is called, 'It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight' –it's a Derek/OC written in first person, which is really fun and new to work with considering I've mostly written in third person.) It might be a week or so in between updates for my different stories, but I've already started on chapter 6 for this one!

The link to my Tumblr is up on my page and I don't know about you guys, but I'm really excited to get rid of the *on hold* tag from this story. ^_^

Thank you for reading, you're all amazing and I appreciate the support more than you know!