Weight of the World

38

"Werecoyotes?" Dean muttered. "What the hell?"

---

During school the next day, Stiles showed Allison what they'd found. "Here's what we found in the den. It's right in the middle of the hiking trails."

Allison nodded slowly at his words. "Well, that could narrow it down. Coyotes travel in fixed trails. But I think you're right about her not going back to the den. Coyotes don't like wolves. And they're really smart. If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."

"Coyotes tiptoe?" Stiles wondered.

Allison nodded, glancing to Molly at Stiles' question. "They tiptoe."

The bell rang and Allison let out a sigh. "I got to go, but send me to the pinned location."

Stiles nodded. "Okay."

Molly made her way to history and saw Mr. Yukimura talking to his daughter. She chose to wait outside a moment.

When Molly walked in, Mr. Yukimura said, "Kira. You forgot all the research for that boy you like. All right, everyone. Let's get started. We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail. Who would like to come up and read aloud for us?" No one raised their hands. "Mr. Stilinski, how about you?"

Stiles glanced up. "Oh, maybe someone else could."

Mr. Yukimura smiled. "Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski."

Stiles nodded slowly as he walked up to the podium. "Okay."

Molly glanced Stiles to see him muttering something, but she couldn't determine out what it was. He glanced at her and she saw the panic in his eyes.

"Stiles?" Scott called. "You okay?"

Stiles suddenly started breathing heavily and Scott took his shoulders while Molly stood to follow. Scott told Mr. Yukimura, "We should take him to the nurse's office."

Since Molly had joined them, the boys passed the bathroom and walked into the locker room.

Scott said to his friend, "Stiles, look at me, man. Is this a panic attack?"

Still gasping for air, Stiles said, "It's a dream, it's a dream. This is just a dream."

Scott shook his head. "No, it's not. This is real. You're here. You're here with me and Molly. Okay, what do you do? I mean, like, how do you tell if you're awake or dreaming?"

"Your fingers. You count your fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams," he said, leaning against the sink.

Molly pushed her friend. "Move."

Scott did as she said and the blonde said to Stiles, "Stiles, I need you to hold up your fingers for me. We're gonna count your fingers, okay?"

"One. Two," he said as she pointed to the fingers.

"Good. Keep going."

"Three. Four."

"Five."

"Six. Seven."

"Eight."

"Nine. Ten."

"Ten," she said quietly. "Ten."

He relaxed a little, but was still panting. He slid down a wall and pulled Molly with him. Stiles sat her down in front of him and said to Scott, "What the hell is happening to me?"

Molly shook her head. "I don't know, but we'll figure it out. Winchesters are pretty good at that."

Stiles narrowed his eyes at her. "Am I? Is he? Scott can't transform, Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt. I'm straight up losing my mind. We can't do this. We can't... we can't help Malia. We can't help anyone."