Coming Home Again

Title: Coming Home Again
Author: Sxymami0909
Pairing: Derek Hale
Rating: PG-13
Fictable Prompt: #30 Underneath
Word Count: 500
Summary: Derek makes his way back to Beacon Hills. Written for Beacon Hills Challenge #5

His grip tightened on the wheel as he steered the car slowly down the dirt path, his eyes taking in the familiar sight of the trees littering the forest surrounding him. Derek Hale had not been home in close to five years and even now as he drove through the outskirts of Beacon Hills, California, he didn’t feel like he was really home.

His jaw clenched as his childhood home came into view. He could feel the pain masquerading as anger that built inside of him, making the beast within stir to the surface. Derek bit back the anger as he pulled his car to a stop along the front of the torched house. He parked, turned off the car, and leaned back in his seat.
The trip back to Beacon Hills had been long, but necessary. His sister was dead, murdered by what he wasn’t sure. Hunter, werewolf, he didn’t have enough facts to go on yet, but he would soon enough. Derek wasn’t leaving Beacon Hills until he found out who did this and why.

He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths; pushing the painful memory of finding out his family had been burned alive and the feeling he got when his sister was killed out of his head. He had perfected this, the slow steady drumming of his heart and the lack of human emotion. You couldn’t be hurt if there was nothing left to hurt. His heart, his feelings, everything had been buried inside of him years ago, after his family burned and after Kate’s betrayal.

Derek had vowed never to let anything cut as deep again. But every now and then the façade that he had created, the tightly wound control he kept slipped and the emotions buried underneath the surface sprang free without his consent. At first it happened a lot, but now he was nearly an expert at hiding the truth. No one knew the real Derek Hale anymore and they never would.

Trust was not something he gave freely anymore, hell it wasn’t something he gave at all. It was a luxury that he didn’t have. A rustling in the woods beyond the ruins of his old house pulled him from his thoughts and he cocked his head to the side slightly, focusing on the noise so he could determine what was making it. A deer, not at all uncommon in the middle of the woods. Derek sighed and pulled the keys from the ignition before shoving the car door open and getting out.

He pushed it shut behind him, pocketing his keys and glancing up at the charred remains of his childhood home. “Welcome home, Derek,” he mumbled bitterly to himself as he slid his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and forced his feet to move forward. Derek made his way towards the front door as determination settled within him, he would find who killed his sister and he would make them pay or die trying.