Shifted

5 - Lacrosse Captain

A couple of days went by and Stiles' symptoms never went away, they just became... commonplace. So much that he barely thought about them anymore. He continued to excel in lacrosse practice and Coach Finstock kept insisting that he would be a shoo-in for first line. That the eliminations would just be a formality. Jackson would seethe and turn an adorable shade of red every time Coach did so and it was the only reason Stiles never tried to actively stop Coach's 'encouragement'.

Until she visited his dream.

She was beautiful. Long dark hair floated around her as she smiled at him. Her eyes were as green as the trees around her seemingly glowing in the dim light and Stiles could have sworn she was an angel. Her hands were soft in his as she guided him into the thick woods behind her.

He hesitated. He didn't want to go in there. Not the woods. It wasn't... it wasn't safe.

"You're okay." She said, "I've got you."

Her words were soothing but he still didn't want to go. He just knew he should stay out!

"Trust me. Just focus on me. On my voice. Everything will be just fine."

OoOoO

Stiles woke up in the middle of the woods with no idea how he got there. The last thing he remembered was the angel in the woods.

"I've got you."

He got up to find that he was sitting on top of a big tree stump surrounded by a circle of tall trees. Had he sleepwalked? He knew he did that in the past but he thought he got over it. Shaking his head, he started to make the long walk back home – or at least the walk out of the woods.

Then he saw something in the distance. A large hulking figure in the mist walking on hands and feet. He walked forward and the thing followed him. He suddenly got the same primal urge to flee that he got when he saw the red eyes. This time, he didn't waste any time before running as fast as he could away from the beast that continued to chase him. He didn't care where he was going, away from the big angry animal was all the direction he needed.

Fear and desperation fuelled his legs and he ran faster than he ever had his entire life. Soon he was able to outrun the beast and make it to the edge of the woods. He jumped over a fence straight into a body of water. He swam to the surface and looked around frantically for any sign of the beast but all he saw was a man in a striped shirt watering some plants.

He was in someone's pool?

"Morning," He smiled, trying to act as casually as possible in the situation.

How in the hell did he end up in someone's backyard?

OoOoO

Settling back into life in Beacon Hills was...surreal.

The few times Derek came out to town, people kept staring at him. Some did so as discreetly as possible while the bold ones didn't even bother hiding the fact that they were talking about him. Not that it mattered, whether or not they were discreet he could still hear what they were saying about him and smell the hint of fear and pity they felt around him.

"Who's that?"

"It's Derek Hale. Remember that horrible fire years ago? Everyone in his family died that night."

"What's he doing back?"

He tuned them out after hearing the first part of their conversation. It took him a while but when he finally learned to turn off his enhanced hearing at will, it became his favorite lesson. For six years he used it to block out the chaos of New York City, now he used it to block out the gossiping population of Beacon Hills.