Still ▸ Teen Wolf [Book Two]

thirty one ; wicked this way

Stiles immediately moved to walk past Deaton and Lydia, ready and willing to find Sage only for the man to lay a hand on the boy's arm, stopping him. Scott's eyes narrowed when he realized that there was something else going on that didn't involve Sage's state of mind. He wasn't sure what was worse than the fact that one of his best friends is refusing to speak to them because of what she saw.

It couldn't have been that, right?

Scott's lips pulled down. "There's something else, isn't there?"

Isaac, who had been standing quietly behind Lydia, hesitantly spoke. "You guys were out a long time."

"How long is a long time?" Stiles spat, his anger fusing with his concern for Sage as he grew more agitated by the second that he couldn't be with his girlfriend; all he wanted to do was make sure she was okay.

"Sixteen hours," Deaton admitted.

Scott's eyes widened at the revelation. "We've been in the water for sixteen hours?"

"And the full moon rises in less than four," a voice called out from behind everyone, loud enough to hear but low enough to assure she didn't have to overwhelm herself by speaking.

Everyone whipped their head around to see that Sage was standing by the door frame, her jacket now discarded from her shoulders as she stared at the people in front of her. Stiles saw when he looked at her what Deaton had meant when he explained to them that she is different. Something inside of her eyes was broken, dark circles looming on her face as green orbs reflected to his brown ones.

This girl wasn't Sage.

The blonde slowly walked into the room, her arms wrapped protectively over her chest as though to keep herself out of distance from the others. Stiles and Lydia both edged towards her, wanting nothing more than to give her a hug, or something that would make this better, only to be shot down when Sage flinched away before they could even touch her.

"Sage," Deaton called, making the blonde shoot her head over to him. "How are you feeling?"

She looked at him with a blank stare, her eyes shadowed in confusion as she wondered whether or not he was truly concerned about her well-being. That, or she was just puzzled by the question in general.

"Alive."

She wasn't sure what else she could say about her health to console her friends. Hell, she could barely look them in the eye without feeling a wave of nausea slam into her like a ton of bricks. The only thing she distinguished when she stared them was each and every one of their figures burning to a crisp in Hale fire, and that triggered something so horrific inside of her that she wanted to claw the skin off her body to sanitize herself of the nightmare.

Now that she was alive, she just wished she could die because death didn't give her the fear of losing people. Death granted her darkness, and right now, she wished that she could see the poisonous black instead of the people in front of her.

Sage couldn't look at them the same way; she would never be able to hug Lydia again without remembering her in the window, she wouldn't be able to touch Stiles without wanting to drown herself thinking about him becoming ash.

She didn't know what to do.

Thankfully, Scott had interrupted her internal feud with the disfiguring thoughts to glance at the others with a frown. "I need to get back to Deucalion. I wasn't supposed to be gone this long."