𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐄 • 𝐈𝐬𝐚𝐚𝐜 𝐋𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐲

𝟏𝟑.

"Oh, I've got two of them"
He pushes up, twisting his body to show a matching scar on the other side.

"It was surgery to correct misshapen cartilage I was born with. I had a metal bar put in when I was fourteen. It stayed there for two years to support my sternum so my lungs and heart wouldn't be crushed"
Ethan gently touches one of the scars.

"What if there was a way they could disappear?"

"I don't really want them to. I like them. They make me feel like a survivor."
Ethan nods, looking into his eyes with genuine affection.

"I hope you are."

Danny peers back at him quizzically. But then Ethan kisses him again, pulling him closer, hands moving up his back, turning him turn over on the bed.

As Danny's fingers wrap around his neck, the vertebrae in Ethan's back ripples up, splitting into two separate spines beneath the skin. Ethan pulls back, a gasp in this throat.
"What? What's wrong."

"Nothing."
He looks at his hands, fingers trembling. Danny watches him, confused, as he steps off the bed.

"Just give me a second."

Ethan shuts the door of the bathroom, locking it. Breathing hard, he turns to the mirror, twisting around to view his back when something presses against the skin of his chest.

Ethan sucks in a pained gasp, looking down at his rib cage which begins to distend impossibly. And then he sees something more horrifying the face of his brother, Aiden, pushing through the skin. His mouth opening as if screaming his way out of Ethan's body.

The bathroom door bursts open and Ethan rushes out with his arms around his torso. He quickly grabs his shirt and pulls it on, moving for the door. "Ethan? You okay?"

"Yeah, fine. I'll be right back." He slams through the door and out past the first floor rooms, Ethan hurries with his arms wrapped tightly around him. When he sees a group of students, he diverts past them to the stairs, heading up to the second floor.

-ʀᴏᴏᴍ 217-

Allison turns from the window to face Stiles and Lydia. "Last time I saw Scott act like that was on the full moon."

"He was definitely off with me too. But actually, Boyd was really off. I watched him put his fist through the vending machine"

"See? It's the motel. We either need to get out of here right now..." Yanking open the night table drawer, she pulls out the room's copy of the Bible. "Or someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism A-SAP before all the werewolves go crazy and kill us"

"Hold on. What if it's not just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?"

"You mean like three sacrifices?"

"What if this time it's three werewolves?"

"Scott, Isaac and Boyd."

"Maybe we were meant to come here."

"Exactly. So can we get the hell out of here now?"
Stiles doesn't respond, eyes caught by the Bible.
"Let me see that."

He takes the book from her hands. With Allison and Lydia watching, he carefully pulls a newspaper clipping out from between the pages.
"What is that?"

"28 Year-Old Man Hangs Self at Infamous Glen Capri." Stiles reads out loud. He turns a few pages in the Bible and finds another clipping. Then another. Pulling them out one-by-one, he discovers seven in all and places each on the room's small cafe table.