Scott McCall's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Scott pinned the last photo to the giant stump in his backyard. Gold flakes drifted off the wood as he stepped back. The stump was his map now. Every claw mark, every blurry shape, every hurt friend — all of it tacked to the bark. He had promised himself he would stop this thing without killing it. He just needed to know what it was first. Stiles came around the side of the house with shadows under his eyes. He didn't say hello. "My best friend is being hunted," he said. "I know you already know. I'm saying it anyway." Scott handed him a black coin. A jackal stared up from one side. A doorway sat stamped on the other. "Found it where it stood over him last night," Scott said. "It left this." Stiles turned the coin slowly. His jaw tightened. "I've seen this stamp before. In a book at school. Locked case, second floor." He looked up at the brick high school sitting heavy on the hill past the trees. "It has a name, Scott. The thing hunting him has a name." Scott closed his fist around the coin. The cold metal pressed into his palm. For weeks the predator had been a shape with no edges. Now it had a shape. Now it had a word waiting in a locked book. "Then we go get the name," Scott said. He grabbed his jacket off the porch rail and started walking toward the school.