Bend The Rules , Stiles Stilinski ² ✓

[ 12 ] the ledge

He didn't want to startle her by shouting her name, scaring someone that close to a ledge would not be a smart idea. So he slowly tried to walk over to the other side of the rooftop, hoping his soft steps would be enough to make her realise he was here, but not enough to scare her into losing her balance.

Unbeknownst to the boy, Aspen sensed he was here long before he actually got to the rooftop, she heard the sounds of his sprinting steps ascending the stairwell, and she wished he hadn't bothered—

It would just make this harder.

It's why she saved this until the middle of the night— so nobody would be there to talk her out of it.

"Asp..." Stiles' voice said softly, cautiously, and quietly, as he now stood a couple meters behind her, lower—since she was up on the ledge.

"You shouldn't have come, Stiles..." Aspen sniffled, her voice evidently giving it away that she had been sobbing.

"Asp, please—just, just come down from the ledge..." Stiles said with desperation, not knowing the right words to say to someone this close to taking their life.

His heart had never felt more shattered than it did in this moment.

"I don't want to." She said back weakly, shaking her head weakly.

Stiles tried to think practically—telling himself this was the wolfsbane, that all he needed to do was apply heat, just like he had with Isaac, Boyd and Ethan.

She wasn't doused in gasoline like Scott was, so it should work.

"Asp listen to me—" he said, his voice laced with broken desperation, "It's happening to you too, okay? It's the wolfsbane— okay? It's not you."

Aspen almost wanted to laugh, she would've if she wasn't sobbing so much.

Stiles just needed her off of that ledge, he needed her in his arms and safe. He took another step forward, trying to figure out how to get her off of the ledge so that he could use the lighter to snap her out of this.

"Please... just let me help." He begged out a whisper, caysing her to actually turn around and look at him, exposing her visibly red, swollen cheeks that he could see even in the darkness of the night.

The neon lights that spelled out 'Glen Capri' were the only source of light, shining out onto the rooftop, tainting her fair skin with hues of magenta and indigo.

To his surprise and relieif, Aspen jumped down from the ledge, to stand just a meter in front of him, her tear-filled eyes staring into his, her lips pursed as more and more tears streamed down her skin.

Stiles wanted to hug her, and he would be able to any second—he just had to get her skin in contact with the shock of the heat, and she would be okay.

Stiles quickly lit the heat stick, and before Aspen even got to react, he had held out the small flame to her skin, making her wince as he jaw fell open, looking down at the burn on her arm.

"You're okay, baby..." he whispered, dropping the heatstick and waited for her to snap out of it, just like Isaac, Boyd and Ethan did.

He waited for her to inspect her surroundings, with her eyes filled with confusion and discombobulation—

but she didn't.

If Stiles thought his heart was shattered before, then what she did next must have completely obliterated the smashed remains of it.

She got back on the ledge.

"Asp..." Stiles said in heartbroken shock, as the soul-crushing revelation washed over him.