Vitality (a Teen Wolf/Stiles fanfiction)

The Darkness

When Cassidy awoke she was surrounded by darkness. She wondered if she had died and was stuck in a state of purgatory, but her chest rose and fell as she took deep breaths. Pain shot through every inch of her body. She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as another wave of discomfort surged through her. The clenching of her fist was such a small gesture that she forgot that she had been previously paralyzed. She wiggled her toes just to make sure that everything was functioning. She lifted her arms only to hit a barrier above her and to her sides. Claustrophobia clawed at her brain, her heart rate picking up at the realization that she was confined. She kicked her legs and thrashed her body around, hoping to get some sort of idea of where she was.

"Help! Somebody help me, I'm trapped!" She screamed without knowing if anyone would ever hear her, but it was worth a shot. "Please, anybody! Help!"

She heard footsteps approaching, holding her breath so she could listen better. The footsteps seemed to stop right next to her. She heard the sound of a zipper being undone above her, light flooding through a crack and blinding her. Her hands shot to cover her eyes, the light searing a bright white space behind her eyelids. An arm snaked under her knees and another around her shoulders, picking her up out of the bag and onto the floor. She removed her hands from her eyes and squinted, slowly adjusting to the light. Some part of her hoped that he rescuer was Stiles, but the smarter part of her knew better. She couldn't forget what had just happened or the information she had just learned. Everything had changed. Her father was alive, werewolves existed, and she was deeply scarred; physically and emotionally. She tried to focus on the figure in front of her, opening her eyes more and more. Eventually, her eyes opened fully and she was able to look at the figure entirely.

"Hello, Cassidy. Nice to see you're awake." Declan smiled down at her, his previously endearing smile now terrifyingly haunting.

Cassidy frantically searched the room with her eyes, seeing nothing but an ordinary apartment. She looked down at herself for the first time, appalled to see that she was covered in nothing but bruises and open wounds. She curled into a ball trying to conceal as much of her bare body as possible, looking up at Declan through her tear soaked eyes to find that he was still staring at her. "What did you do to me?"

"Besides almost ripping out your throat, slashing your arm, and paralyzing you? Only what you deserved, Cass." He winked at her and she felt like she was going to be sick.

"Don't call me that." Cassidy spat, her voice shaking. "Only the people I care about call me that."

"Whatever you say, Cass. Now, you might want to get some clothes on. We're going to see your daddy."

•••

"So you're telling me that Cassidy's body was stolen last night." Sheriff Stilinski sat behind his desk across from Stiles and Scott.

"That's the only possible explanation other than she magically woke up and walked away and failed to tell anyone she's alive." Stiles almost laughed at the thought.

"What would anyone want with her dead body?"

"Dad, stop saying dead body. She could be alive, she has to be." Stiles was still hopeful, it's all he could do to keep from falling apart.

"We'll find her, Stiles. I put out an alert for a missing person, there's a search party looking all over Beacon Hills. If anyone can find her, it'd be you guys. Scott, can't you do some werewolf trick and lock onto her scent?" The Sheriff was still new to the whole supernatural world, half of the things he said he didn't understand.

"We're working on it, we're gonna go to Cassidy's house after this." Scott wondered what they were going to tell her mother.

"What about Mr. Hunt? Do you have people looking for him too?" Stiles wanted nothing more than to see the man behind bars or even dead for that matter.