St. Clair || Stilinski [2]

Forty-Two || Jump

"You saw? That's it?" Liam asked. "How could you not tell me that you're alive?"

"Maybe because you left me for dead."

Liam gave a slight head shake in confusion. "You were dead."

"Liam," Hayden's voice was tight, "you need to go."

Distantly, the same painful voice arose from below. "Here...S-still here."

A burst pipe.

A roar.

Hayden and Liam turned toward the power station, the sound unlike their own.

Coming up from the darkness, a large creature appeared, glowing blue eyes staring from a height triple their own stature. Dark fog seeped off of it, blurring it's full form.

The metal fence separating the wolves from whatever was on the other side began to crinkle like paper, soon launched in their direction and clattering to the ground just shy of the patrol car.

"What the hell is that?" Hayden shouted.

"Run!" Liam yelled in reply, taking her hand before bolting from the massive creature.

The sophomores took off into the forest, hearts pounding.

"Hayden, run!" Valerie screamed in the distance. "Run!"

"What is that thing?" Hayden asked Liam, calm only on the fact that she knew her sister was alive. "Liam, what is it?"

Heavy footfall followed them, the rhythm of all four paws taunting undertone.

"I don't know! Just run!"

The two skidded to the edge of a cliff, grabbing onto one another as their pulses thrummed in their ears.

"Jump."

Thundering feet behind them.

"Are you kidding?" Liam retorted.

"We can make it," she confidently said, grabbing Liam's hand. "Come on."

The pair backed up, getting a running start before launching themselves across the expansive gap between mirroring cliffsides.

Hayden landed on her hands and knees. "See," she said with a soft pant, as she worked her way up to a standing position. "I told you."

But when she looked over her shoulder, Liam was hanging onto the edge for dear life.

Hayden's eyes bulged, clawing at Liam's back to pull him up.

The thing following them, however, landed farther in than the wolves, turning in their direction.

Still hanging onto the edge, Liam met Hayden's eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"What?" she sharply asked. "No."

Liam, however, grabbed her arm as he let go of the cliffside, the two falling deep into the basin.

And although Hayden dutifully landed on her hands and knees, Liam was less fortunate.

Hayden dusted herself off, cracked bones mending quickly as she stood. Spotting Liam not too far off laid out on his back on a massive rock, she walked over to him. Looming over him as his eyes stayed closed, her own narrowed. She mumbled to herself, slapping his cheek. "Liam," she hummed, winding up before laying her hand out across his face.

Liam jolted back into himself, sucking in a deep breath. "What are you doing?"

"I had to make sure you were still alive."

"Oh, god, I can't move my legs," he winced. "I think my back's broken."

"Will it heal?" she asked, nerves tingling.

"Eventually, I think."

"Good," Hayden replied, turning on her heel.

"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?"

"To find my sister and make sure she's okay," she casually replied.

Liam's brows furrowed. "You're going to just leave me here?"

"You pulled me off a cliff," she countered. "I'm lucky I healed."

"I saved your life."

"This time." Hayden turned, heading away.

"Who saved it last time?"

Stopping in her tracks, Hayden paused, unable to look over her shoulder.

"I did, teen wolf."

Liam, barely able to turn his head to spot the face, recognized Theo's voice immediately.

Toting one shoe as he appeared through soft fog, Theo moved his shoulders oddly. Blood had seeped through his jeans at both knees, but he walked without falter. He stopped just shy of the rock that had broken Liam's fall, slipping on his shoe.

"What are you doing down here?"

"No questions," Theo told Hayden, joining up next to her as he looked to Liam. "How's life being an omega?" He put an arm around Hayden, turning away. "By the way, enjoy the view. It'll be a while before you'll be able to move."

"How's life with your zombie pack?"

Still drawing Hayden forward, away from Liam, Theo tensed. "Don't listen to him," he told her lightly. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"And you don't know what he did, Hayden," Liam called out, footsteps receding from him. "What he's still doing."

"Easy, Dunbar, or you'll never get up from that rock."

And without a pack and seemingly without girlfriend, he was tempted to ask for it.

||

"Hey, you've reached Jacy Parrish. Sorry I can't answer the phone right now. Who knows what I'm up to. If it's important, give me a reason to call you back after the beep."

Stiles' eyes shut tightly as the aforementioned beep sounded, ending the call instead of leaving her a reason to call him back.

He'd already left eight in the span of an hour.

"She said it would happen. I just didn't believe it, that it would be so soon."

Stiles, awoken two hours before by two texts from Olivia asking if he'd seen Jacy, had since asked everyone to try and contact her.

No one had had any luck.

"It won't be like last time, right?" asked Allison, the crew of four gathered in Stiles' living room as the mid morning sun beat through the windows. "She won't pop up in our houses and cars playing tricks, right? She knew what she was doing then. She sounded clear that when whatever this new thing is happens, she'll be completely engulfed."

"Does it mean mentally or physically?" Isaac questioned. He gestured slightly to Stiles. "Are we talking void, or Peter's Alpha."

And as if knowingly, all phones but Isaac's dinged with an incoming message from their missing girl's older brother.

"Is this security footage?" Scott asked, opening the message with furrowed brows.

Isaac leaned over Scott's shoulder, eyes narrowed. "From last night. That's over at the telecom near the edge of the Preserve."

As they all clicked play together, silent but horrified looks were earned.

It was a clip of only a few seconds, but it held a thousand words.

Allison rubbed her temples, discouraged beyond belief. "It looks like Peter on crack."

The phones chimed again, another text coming into the group chat.

Aloud, Stiles read, "I don't suppose any of you have seen Jacy today?"

And to Isaac, the clock had started.