Beacon ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [1] EDITING

twenty eight

After finding out that the kanima sought a master, Allison and I pushed Lydia to translate as much as we could find in the bestiary about the scaled creature. We kept having to deflect her confusion as to why we were so interested in the supernatural but, fortunately, she seemed to enjoy showing off her skills enough that she didn't ask too many questions.  

With the translation typed onto a tablet by the next day, my sister and I ducked behind the tall bookcases of the school library - where we were safely hidden from most security cameras - and pretended to peruse the historical fiction section while Scott and Stiles spoke to us through the shelving from the other aisle.

Beside me, Allison whispered through the gaps left behind where books had once been stocked. "If Jackson doesn't know what he's doing, then he probably doesn't know that someone's controlling him."

I saw Scott nod, pretending to examine a book and picking it out from the collection on his end; freeing a larger space for us to speak through.

"Or he doesn't remember."

"What if it's the same kind of thing that happened to Lydia when she took off from the hospital," I suggested. "A fugue state?"

My sister weighed this option but hesitated to agree. "Are you sure Jackson still has no clue about any of this?"

"He still thinks he's becoming a werewolf and that being with Lydia somehow delayed the whole thing," Stiles leaned his shoulder against the bookshelf and shook his head.   

"So do we try to convince him he's not?"

"If it helps us find out who's controlling him."

"Will he even talk to us after what we did? I doubt he's excited about being around us or starting up a conversation after we locked him in a prison van."

"Yeah, completely the opposite of excited actually," Stiles mumbled, running his thumb across the end of an open page. I noticed the muscles at the back of his jaw tense."In fact, we've got two restraining orders filed against us that prevent us from doing just that."

Tilting my head back, I commended the situation sarcastically. "Great."

"His Dad, who happens to be a lawyer, handed them out for both Stiles and I," Scott explained, shifting his eyes sideways to make sure there was no one around us. "And I'm in deep trouble with my mom. I'm being forced to make up my missed Chemistry test later today."

Stiles raised his eyebrows. "Yeah and I'm not exactly winning the award for 'Son of the Year' either."

"So we've hit a dead end with Jackson, but at least we did manage to get some more from the bestiary," Allison extracted the computer tablet from her bag with the screenshots from the ancient records and their noted English translations. She carefully sent it through the bookshelf as if she was filing a novel away, only for it to be grabbed from the other side by her boyfriend. "That's everything Lydia can translate. Trust me, she was very confused."

"What did you tell her?"

"That we were part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures," I blushed at my excuse, noticing both Scott and Allison crack a grin.

However, Stiles was looking at me seriously. "I am a part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures."

At that, I let out an involuntary snort of laughter, causing the librarian making her organizational rounds through the aisles to shush me violently. I immediately jumped and apologized.

"What?" Stiles looked between the three of us.

"Nothing," I smiled. "Good for you."

"Okay, does it say how to find out who's controlling him?" Scott asked, scrolling through the pages while Stiles bounced on his heels nervously and read the screen over his friend's shoulder.