CHASING PHANTOMS // TEEN WOLF [bxb]

WANDERING NIGHTS

       "He should've recognized it with all the time we've spent down there," Jake shook his head. Supernatural creatures must have a thing for basements honestly.

       He couldn't explain it but the school didn't feel right and for once he was trusting his instincts because he wasn't about to risk Stiles's life by possibly wasting time. There was also the possibility that he was there and then they might be endangering it by waiting. For that reason, Jake came up with a solution.

       "You two search the school and call Derek," Jake suggested. "I'll get ahold of the Sheriff and maybe try the hospital basement," he decided. He was relieved that Scott didn't mention Stiles's request for them to leave him out of this because they both knew they wouldn't. He was missing, bleeding, and possibly with someone dangerous so he didn't care about those wishes, the Sheriff needed to know.

       "Okay. We'll meet somewhere in the middle. Be safe," Scott agreed quickly and nodded when Jake returned the sentiment, pocketing his phone and revving the engine of his bike to start it.

       "Let's go," he said to Isaac and held the bike steady while he slung a leg over to get on the back. Scott planned on calling Derek, and even Lydia and Allison, once they got there, he just needed to start searching before he lost his mind.

       If they didn't find him fast, Stiles could die.

***

       Telling the Sheriff that his son was missing had to take its place as being tied for the worst news Jake had ever delivered, right alongside telling his two best friends that his father dropped off the face of the earth.

       He had decided to inform the Sheriff in person instead of over the phone, which led to his attendance when one of the deputies pinpointed Stiles's jeep to the hospital parking lot. It also confirmed that Jake had been on the right track. The search party started in full swing after that, with Sheriff directing every cop on shift to fan out and find his son by all means necessary.

      Scott and Isaac's search of the school had come up empty until Lydia called them to meet at the Stilinski house where they discovered all the red string Stiles owed pinned in different parts along the adjacent walls and then tied around the end of a pair of large metal scissors stabbed into the middle of the bed.

       Since Lydia had found it based on a feeling, she and Aiden stayed behind in hopes of finding a clue while Scott and Isaac left to the hospital to meet Derek there as well.

       Derek glanced over his shoulder on the roof of the hospital when the door swung open and Scott, Isaac, and Jake filed in. His loft was closer than where they'd been so he was the fastest to get there. "He's not in the building, but he was here," he told them while focusing on the scent.

       "I'll go tell Stilinski," Isaac sighed and also promised Scott to find out where Allison was since she wasn't answering his phone, rushing through the exit just as quickly as he'd entered it.

       "Notice how strong the scent is up here? His chemo signals are all over the place," Derek said with a pointed glance at Scott since he was the one that could tell.

       "What was he doing up here?" Jake asked more so just in general than to anyone specific because he couldn't wrap his head around how severe his sleepwalking had been to lead him to the roof the hospital. Stiles was lucky he hadn't fallen off but he also wasn't sure where he ended up was all that better.

       "There was definitely some kind of struggle," Derek answered in the best way he could. There was so much anxiety and stress was all over the roof he could practically feel it.