Pure × Isaac Lahey

53.

"If El can't find him, we're going to the station," Lydia said in finality. "His dad needs to know."

El spread out a map of Beacon county, a candle burning in front of her as she worked. Her body moved effortlessly, hand movement both unknown and graceful.

The room grew quiet, attention on Elora alone.

Elora's open palm cut itself in a clean line down the center, blood dripping onto the creased, glossy paper. Her skin sealed with no help, the witch closing her eyes as the flame of the candle grew higher.

"She's not about to burn down the house, is she?" Aiden quietly questioned with mild concern.

Isaac barely reacted, watching the flames. "Just shut up and let her work."

Elora suddenly fell back onto her palms as if she'd been pushed, the fire going out in a flash. The witch swore strongly as she steadied herself, left with no trace of a map.

"What happened?" Lydia quickly asked. "Where is he?"

She shook her head as she stood, "I can't find him."

"Try again -"

"No, Lydia, I can't find him because there's no where in this realm for me to get to him," Elora hastily countered. "He's trapped in his own mind. I can't find him if his consciousness isn't in this plane of existence."

"So he is sleepwalking?" questioned Scott.

"And he could be anywhere."

Lydia shook her head, "I'm calling Sheriff."

"You don't need to," Scott interjected. "We'll go there now."

Lydia put out a hand to Aiden, "We'll catch up."

"What?" Scott, having nearly gotten out of the room with Isaac and El, came back in. "Why?"

"There is something here," the strawberry blonde said.

"Yeah," replied Isaac, "evidence of total insanity."

Elora's eyes flickered with guilt. More like total chaos.

Exactly what the nogitsune wanted.

x x x

"Who's there?"

The sounds of the enclosed room reflected back to Stiles Stilinski. Pain radiated through his entire body, tears sketching down his cheeks. His breath was heavy as he sniffled, using the light of his readily dying phone to seek out the culprit of the constant scraping that had been lingering around him.

"I know you're there," Stiles said bravely as he tried to ignore the pain. "I can hear you."

However, with no response, the daunting scrapes continued.

Stiles' breath was unsteady as he slowly turned his light. He couldn't recognize the room, it unfamiliar to him. A gasp left the teen's mouth, catching a burst of movement in the distance.

He could make out a figure.

His heart pounded in his chest, keeping the light facing out. "Who are you?"

A bandaged hand dropped a piece of chalk, it slowly rolling toward Stiles.

Cautious, he quicky looked back up, only to find the person missing and a sketch left behind.

Stiles' heart thrummed beneath his ribs, hastily moving the light of his phone to find the other. Until, however, he realized what had been etched on the wall.

A Japanese kanji.

And when a nonexistent wind rattle the leaves on the ground, it blew away the backwards five completely.

x x x

"Sheriff!" Scott bolted into the station with his bike helmet in hand and panic in his voice. "Sheriff, we've got a problem."

A concerned deputy looked up, his desk directly across from his boss' office.

Before the newest addition to the police force could get a word out, Sheriff Stilinski surfaced from his office.

Isaac and Elora skidded into the open floor of deputy desks, having apparated in just outisde the station.

"What's wrong?" Stilinski asked, a bad feeling soon rising in his gut.

"It's Stiles," Scott quickly said. "I-he's...he's missing."

Elora opened her lips to speak, only to stop dead as her eyes fell onto the alarmingly confused deputy.

"What do you mean missing?" Stilinski countered, his heartbeat picking up.

"We think he's sleepwalking," added Isaac, completely unaware of Elora's frozen state or the deputy near by. "He might be hurt."

"How would you know this? I-"

"He called me," Scott began, soon explaining it all to Stilinski. And when he reached the end, he finally said, "We don't know how far he could've gotten. The Jeep was missing from the house."

Sheriff Stilinski was shaken to his core, a severe pain in his heart. He shut his eyes tightly, gathering himself. "If, if his Jeep is gone, that's where we start." He turned to the deputy, "Parrish, let's get an APB out on a blue 1980 CJ-5 Jeep Wrangler." His eyes went up to another deputy that had fallen into the issue. "Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that he could've gotten into while sleepwalking." He suddenly addressed the whole room, "It's the coldest night of the year so far. So if he's out there barefoot in just a t-shirt, he could already be hypothermic. Let's move fast. Let's think fast."

The room bustled with noise as the deputies were dismissed, moving with haste to get their job done.

"You three," Stilinski said as he motioned to El, Scott and Isaac, "come with me - Elora?"

Elora's focus was on Parrish, eyes as if she'd seen a ghost, feet practically glued in place. "I-" she slowly turned her head to the others, utter confusion in her features, "-you don't..."

"Don't what?" questioned Isaac, arms absently folded across his chest.

This alarmed Elora most of all, "You don't recognize him?"

Deputy Parrish glanced up, his face growing confused as a finger was being pointed at him.

"He's new, Elora, of course they wouldn't recognize him," Stilinski said. "We don't have time for this. Come with me."

The three followed Stilinski into his office, El rifting in confusion. She constantly glanced back to Parrish, only receiving a confused response from him.

Elora jumped, Stilinski shutting the door between her gaze on Parrish.

Stilinski ignored Elora's strange behavior, "Is there anything you need to tell me that I can't tell everybody out there?"

"Lydia knew he was missing," Scott quickly said.

"Can she find him?"

"She's working on it," Isaac replied.

Stilinski nodded, "Anything else?"

"I called Derek and Allison for help," assured Scott.

The Sheriff motioned to Elora, "Can you do some sort of spell to find him?"

"I already tried, "El told him. "He's too deep in his own mind for me to track him."

Stilinski let go of an unsteady breath, looking to the boys. "Can you find him by scent-"

A knock on the door sounded, Parrish poking his head in.

"We got it, sir. We found the Jeep."