A hundred... Two hundred... No, it was a number of heartbeats far above those ones that Parrish had discerned, as he stood fifty feet away from the manor, in front of a not so obvious entrance to a tunnel, Stilinski and Rafael by his side.

"What is it?" Noah, whose eyes were on Parrish's face, could very clearly tell that something was bugging the hellhound.

Parrish struggled to pick the words that would lay his thoughts out. Although, he eventually settled for a few, "It's odd. I can hear heartbeats, many heartbeats but...,"

"But?" asked Rafael.

"Something's off. I can't catch any scent and that's not all," said Jordan.

"Could it be the distance? We are pretty far from the mansion," suggested Fisher, who'd been standing behind Rafael.

"No, I should've still been able to get a scent from here,"

"What else is the issue? You said that it wasn't all," Noah seemed rightfully hung up on Parrish's previous words, unwilling to let any detail slide. Surely, he was feeling responsible for the lives of his deputies.

"The heartbeats... There's something wrong with them. It's like everyone in there has the same heartrate, it's disturbing," Parrish explained.

"It definitely seems like we are walking into a trap. I believe I heard you mentioning that some of these creatures were able to perform powerful, wide range illusions, is that correct?" asked Rafael.

"That's right. They have a druid, a nogitsuné and a powerful banshee,"

"I wasn't aware that banshees could create illusions," Fisher commented, right as she began to follow in Stilinski's steps.

Parrish was first in line, him being the only supernatural on the team counted for that. Right behind him, Stilinski walked close to him, followed by a group of deputies, all on high alert, weapons ready. Rafael, opted to keep an eye out at the end of the line, and thus he was the last to engulf himself into the tunnel.

It was not the longest of distances by any means, but it still felt endless. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes like hours. For many reasons, Parrish had the sensation of walking through the insides of a serpent. Unsure as to why, but he considered their prior conversation about it being a trap and them walking right into it, to be a strong clue.

Those thoughts kept on poking his nerves, until his flashlight illuminated something other than shoveled dirt. A door, a metallic looking one stood in their way. After a first try, Parrish found the door to be locked, but oddly enough, it didn't take him as much effort as he thought it would to break the lock and pry it open. In fact, he didn't even need any assistance to do so.

After that first obstacle, he was met by... More darkness. Not that he truly needed any light to see in front of himself, but he still made an effort to make it as easier as possible for the rest of the group behind him. For a while, they all silently carried on, following wherever their only way led them towards. Everything remained unchanged, up until a fairly strong stream of wind hit them face first. Everyone's primary reaction was to freeze in their spots and shield their eyes, but that moment didn't last very long.

"What the hell is that... Smell?" said Stilinski in the lowest tone he was able to speak in.

"It's blood... So much blood...," By the time he gave that answer, Parrish's hands had already dropped, exposing the mixture of horror and defeat on his face.

The rest of the group slowly copied after him, as they gradually came to the realization that what they were smelling was, indeed, blood.

"That doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't you have been able to smell it way before now?" asked Fisher.

"At this point, I am fairly sure that the only explanation for this, is that we are all victims of a strong illusion," said Rafael.

"I can't really disagree with that," said Stilinski.

"Then shouldn't we head back while we still can? This is clearly a trap,"

"Fisher... While I think you're right about this being a trap, I think you're wrong about us still having the option to fold back,"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Fisher's eyes stuck to Stilinski after his answer, "Why? Why can't we go back out? This is clearly a bad idea, and I don't think we'll stand a chance if we keep going,"

"I think I have an idea as to why," Parrish stood in place and pointed at a distance ahead of them.

If the stench of blood had previously rooted everyone to their spots, the sight that their eyes were directed towards, didn't do their terrors and anxieties any good. Because right there and all of the sudden, they were able to see light that didn't originate from their flashlights.

It looked like a wide-open door to a room that was lit by moonlight and nothing else. It was close enough for them to have that impression but far enough for them to remain in the dark about the details. Parrish was again the first to advance, the rest followed close behind him. Things did not get better after that. The moment they stepped inside that room, it was very easy to deduce that their hearts had simultaneously dropped to their heels.

As the vast space kept extending beyond their vision, they spotted high, wooden, cylindrical polls that reached the ceiling, perched all across the place. But that was not extraordinary, not as insane as what those polls supported. Each pillar was decorated by a body that was tied to it by its throat. Some bodies had their eyes closed, but others... Wide open, still held the dread of the last thing they'd seen before their expiration.

Their blood had already somewhat dried up on their clothes, but not so much on the floor, where pools of the crimson fluid had ended its journey. Parrish did his best not to walk in it, getting as close as possible to inspect the bodies.

"I guess we know now what Jennifer meant by Fuel to her fire, when she took those kids from the school bus," Stilinski ended his sentence with a sigh that dragged the despair out of him.

"These were all... Sacrifices," Parrish muttered, his eyes stuck on the body of a kid that couldn't possibly have been older than fifteen.

"You know, it is a gross misconception that druids only sacrifice virgins and philosophers and healers and whatnot," Jennifer's voice blared in their ears, and it had sounded like it came from everywhere in the room, "Everyone is fair game after the first essential ones,"

As soon as her sentence had ended, the silence that had dominated the space since they'd infiltrated the place, was brutishly broken by the first gunshot from Stilinski, that thundered their surroundings the second he caught sight of a longtail. That quickly escalated further when more longtails showed up, and all hell broke loose.

*****

"Okey, so, let me get this straight! You're saying that you are not getting any scent whatsoever coming from this... Literal castle of a manor," said Stiles, his expression scattered somewhere between confusion and frustration.

"Yes, that is exactly what we are saying," stated Rosalie as a matter of fact, completely ignoring the aim behind Stiles' words.

"Guys, we're literally inside the place, you are supposed to be getting something, aside from the heartbeats," he added with a lot less confusion and a lot more frustration.

"Let's all just take a second and calm down. We are inside, yes, but we need to keep our cool for now," Scott attempted to calm Stiles' nerves.

"Exactly, we are inside and with every second that goes by, we are realizing that this entire thing might be a trap. And no offense, but there's only three of us here; one alpha, a chimera that doesn't heel and me with a gun and some magical bullets," Stiles laid his thoughts out, before any of them could add anything.

Just like Liam and Hayden had done before them, Scott, Stiles and Rosalie entered the mansion through one of the windows at the ground level, just a different window. They landed in a similar vast and luxurious room as well. Stiles and Rosalie kept on bickering at a very low volume, knowing full well, that their plan wasn't going anywhere near the way they had concocted it earlier that day. Just like Liam had found the corridors empty, they did as well, but unlike their friends, it took them much longer to come across any enemies at all.

When they'd finally found people or creatures on their way, they'd opted to avoid confrontation, while trying to their best abilities to reach the room that Kali had indicated before, as the one where Euriella spent most of her time.

"What are these?" asked Stiles. He referred to the people they saw walking around. They did not look like longtails, or Berserkers, they did not look like anybody that the members of the pack would personally recognize. From the outside, they looked like regular people.

"Chimeras," Scott had answered.

"More like lab rats," said Rosalie, "They're just like me. Some of them have all the powers of a supernatural, but others only have a select few of them,"

"Yeah, I am getting different features from them. Not all of them are werewolf chimeras," added Scott. He then flashed his eyes red for a moment, before allowing them to get back to normal, "Some of them are kitsuné!" he said flabbergasted.

"What?"

"I thought Maylee told you that he made other creatures than the obvious ones," said Rosalie.

"I was already at a loss of words when I heard he made banshees but now... I don't know what to say. How is that even possible? Actually, never mind any of that, but shouldn't they be able to hear us talk now? Why aren't they doing anything?" asked Stiles.

"Maybe, none of these chimeras have super hearing abilities. Tell you what, if we survive here tonight, I'll explain his process. Although, I don't know every detail about them," said Rosalie.

"Yeah, not a chance! What are the odds of that? We've encountered how many of them already? What? Like seventeen?"

Stiles was raising valid points. By then, none of them had remaining hopes that they were coming out of there unscathed. Nothing was going exceptionally bad for them, but nothing was going exceptionally well either. It was too quiet when it shouldn't have been. Going back on their tracks, however, was out of the question... They were well aware that the enemy had already spotted them, and there was no running from it.