Appetite for Destruction

Started Running But There's Nowhere To Run To

I never got used to that, even though I remembered the building destroyed more than I remembered it whole.

I didn't know why I'd come here. Scott and Stiles' houses had both been empty and silent and my cell was in Derek's car, so I'd just gone with the long-repressed instinct to go home... Except this wasn't home. Home was wherever Derek was, whether that was the Hale house, the depot, the loft, or the apartment in New York. Now I was... homeless.

I sat down on the charred remains of the porch as the storm grew worse around me. I didn't know what to do, but I sure as hell wasn't about to let Peter drive me hundreds of miles away while everyone here remained in danger. 

I frowned, tilting my head and trying to listen for something that was pitched just right for my hearing. The wind and the rain made it difficult to pinpoint, but when another crack of thunder ceased I could hear it. A high note ringing in the air; thin, distant, but distinguishable even amidst the storm.

I turned my head in the direction it was coming from. There was something familiar about it, something important I was missing...

I remembered the sound. I'd heard it the night Boyd and I were running wild through the preserve after being locked in the vault; everything from that night was still fuzzy and vague, but something I did know was that Chris had used the same sound to corral us into the school.

It was a huge leap of faith to assume Chris was using the sound as a beacon right now - hell, I didn't even know if Chris was still alive - but I got up and followed the sound anyway. Trees shot up in all directions, old bark slippery with rain as dead and decaying leaves slipped under my boots as I walked, making every step difficult. I had to stop every few minutes to make sure I was going in the right direction.

It was during one of these stops that I heard the sound of tires skidding against slippery asphalt, followed immediately by a sickening crash.

I was running through the trees in that direction without a second thought, the high note momentarily forgotten as I headed towards the new sound. Fog was starting to creep in now, but when I cleared the trees and came out onto the road I could see the outline of a vehicle that had crashed into a large tree.

The car horn was blaring out into the night like a guiding beacon, dying off as I approached in a pathetic series of ear splitting squeals, and once I was close enough to make out what vehicle it was I froze, and then ran towards it in a dead sprint.

"Stiles!" I shouted, hitting the jeep with force as I scrambled to look in through the passenger side window of the blue jeep. Stiles was slumped against the driver's side door, blood running down from his hairline. "Stiles!"

I tried to listen for a heartbeat but all I could hear was the incessant splattering sounds the rain made as it hit the metal of the jeep. I grabbed the slick door handle and tugged on it with all my strength, and it didn't budge. 

That... wasn't right. I should have been able to rip the door right off the -

The eclipse.

"No, no, no, not now!" I begged, desperately pulling at the handle. It took me a minute but I finally got inside, crawled over the seat, and grabbed Stiles' shoulder. "Stiles, can you hear me? Wake up!"

There was nothing. I reached out with a shaking hand and felt for a pulse, letting out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding when I felt the steady thrumming of life underneath his skin. 

Actually extracting Stiles from the wreckage was tiring, but eventually I managed to pull him out of the jeep and onto the ground so I could kneel down and cup his face with my hands. "Stiles?" The blood on his face appeared to be his only injury, but I had no way of knowing for sure. "Stiles, come on!"