Torment (Teen Wolf__Missing Family Book Two)

Chapter 18__Riddled

Scott's voice yelling from his room woke both me and Isaac from our sleep a few days later.

"Isaac! Natalie, get up! I need your help! Guys!"

Both Isaac and I ran into Scott's room, Isaac opening the door.

Scott was at his dresser, the top drawer open as he searched for something to wear, obviously picking the first things he could find as Isaac asked, "Why? What's wrong?"

"It's Stiles," Scott answered. "Get dressed."

What? My tired mind was way too tired to understand the cryptic explanation. "What's wrong with Stiles?"

Scott stopped going through the drawer, looking toward me and Isaac. "I don't know."

£

Scott, Isaac and I ran downstairs, toward the door when Scott stopped to answer his phone. "Hey, Stiles."

"Did you call him?" Stiles asked. "Did you call my dad?"

"No. Just Isaac and Natalie. We're coming to find you. Can you figure out where you are? Try to find something and tell us where to look."

"It's a basement. I think--I think I'm in some kind of basement."

"In a house?"

"No. It looks bigger. Like industrial. I think there's a furnace. But it's cold. It's freezing down here. I gotta turn the--I gotta turn the phone off. It's going to die."

"Wait, wait, wait. What else is there? What do you see?"

"The phone's dying. I can't talk. I have to go. Please . . . "

"Stiles, why are you whispering?"

"Because I think there's someone in here with me."

The line disconnected.

Where was Stiles? Who was with him?

And was he in serious trouble?

£

When Scott, Isaac and I each walked into Stiles' room, Lydia and Aiden were already there.

"How did you know?" Scott asked. "Did he call you too?"

"I heard it," Lydia answered.

I opened my mouth in confusion, and Aiden cut me off by saying, "Don't ask. It gets more confusing when you ask."

"Okay," I whispered.

I looked around the walls, each covered in dozens of pictures, and each had a red piece of string trailing to a pair of scissors, tied on each handle, the sharp edges wedged into his bed.

"Not as confusing as this," Lydia said, following my gaze across the room. "He uses red for unsolved cases."

"Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case," Aiden said.

"Or is an unsolved case," Isaac said.

"Hold on," Lydia said, turning to face us. "Is he still out there? You don't know where he is?"

"He said he was in an industrial basement somewhere," Scott said.

"We came here to get a better scent," I explained.

"What else did he say?" Lydia asked.

"Something's wrong with his leg," Scott answered. "It's bleeding."

"And he's freezing," Isaac added.

"Tonight's the coldest night of the year," Aiden said. "It's gonna drop into the 20s."