SPELLBOUND
〈chapter thirty-nine〉
Of course, Ivy was late to physics. Of course, she was the last one to arrive. She knew the second she agreed to help Stiles out, she was going to be late. But she hadn't really thought about what the consequence would be with her arriving late.
Luckily for her, Mr. Douglas had let it slide, for now. As long as she wasn't late again, which she stated she wouldn't. She took a seat next to Liam, who had saved her a seat.
Mr. Douglas continued on with the class once Ivy was seated, and she was thankful for that. Because everyone went back to paying attention to him instead of her.
Ivy pulled out her water bottle from her backpack and immediately drank the whole thing. Doing the spell for Stiles had drained so much of her energy, especially since the spell she did for him wasn't exactly easy, at least for someone like her, who was still untrained in many aspects of magic.
Liam stared at his girlfriend and noticed Ivy's energy drain. Over the past couple of months, he had gotten good at noticing whenever Ivy was drained after a spell, she hadn't exactly mastered yet.
Liam intertwined his hand with hers and met Ivy's glaze. "Take some," he whispered to her. And Ivy immediately knew what he was referring to.
"Liam, no," Ivy wasn't the biggest fan of taking energy from people. She had only ever really done it to two people and one of them was by complete accident. Josh, and Scott.
Liam nodded, "It's okay," he reassured her.
Ivy sighed and noticed that Mr. Douglas was currently busy drawing a cat on the board. She closed her eyes and took a little bit of energy from Liam. She quickly released her hand from Liam's once she was done.
Ivy took this moment to look around the classroom and noticed how just about everyone, except for Liam and Mason, was paying extra attention to Mr. Douglas. She was shocked to see her best friend, Hayden, and even Corey paying a little extra attention.
"Ah, I can see I impressed you all with my artistic abilities," Mr. Douglas stated as he put the chalk down. Ivy watched as Hayden chuckled at his statement, and this caused her to share a look with both Liam and Mason.
She was surprised to find herself not in the same state of attention as Hayden and the others. Sure, the guy might be a little good looking, compared to all their other teachers. But there was something odd about Mr. Douglas that Ivy just couldn't really put her finger to.
He seemed familiar to her. Which was strange, because she couldn't possibly remember where she might have seen him. But something was definitely odd about her physics teacher.
"Schrodinger put his cat in a box with poisonous food. Now, until he opens that box, the cat is, in theory, both alive and dead. But when he opens it, it's either, 'Hello, Mittens' or 'Goodbye, Socks.' Putting aside the potential animal abuse here, what does it have to do with physics?"
Ivy watched as the entire class, except for Liam, Mason, and herself, put their hands up.
"Yes, Hayden."
"It illustrates the concept of quantum superposition. Light is both a particle and wave until it's observed," Hayden answered causing Ivy to look at her best friend with confusion in her eyes.
'How did she know that?' Ivy thought, but then again Hayden was a lot better in science than she was.
Mr. Douglas chuckled, "Yes, excellent answer, very impressive. Does observing something change its behavior? Or alter its outcome? That's the question of today's lab on page 117. Seeing as we have an odd number, break into groups of four and we'll have a group of five."
Without any doubt, Ivy and her friends were the group of five.
"Have any of you guys noticed that phones can't geolocate today?" Mason told the group. And Ivy watched Corey pull his phone out of his pocket, while Liam leaned over the table a bit to look at Mason's phone.
"Looks like it works," Liam pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's not North. That is," Mason stated as he pointed behind him.
"Mine is doing it too," Corey answered.
"Yeah, my phone's the same," Ivy stated, showing her friends her phone.
"That's weird," Hayden commented.
Ivy chuckled, as she noticed that Mason had just come up with an idea.
"Mr. Douglas has a compass," Mason stated, hinting towards a cabinet nearby. Corey turned to look at the cabinet behind him before giving Mason a small smile. Mason nodded.
Ivy smiled, as the group watched Corey place his hand on Ivy's textbook before turning invisible. They watched as the cabinet slowly opened itself up, before closing once more.
Corey becomes visible once more and the group noticed Mr. Douglas's compass on the table. Liam was a bit impressed. Mason grabbed the compass and opened it.
"What are you gonna do with it?" Hayden asked.
"Yeah, I'll like to know the answer to that as well," Ivy added.
"Follow it," Mason simply stated.
"Why am I not surprised?" Ivy chuckled, while Hayden stated, "Seriously?"
"Where do you think it goes?" Corey asked Mason.
"I have no idea. But we won't find out till we open the box."
Both Corey and Ivy shared a look of confusion. Neither of them understood what Mason meant.
Hayden noticed their confused faces, "Schrodinger's cat?"
Corey and Ivy look once more at each other, still confused. They looked over to Liam, for help, but he seemed just as lost as they were.
"I... I still don't get it," Corey stated. "Neither do I," Ivy mentioned.
Mason chuckled, "I'll explain it further to the both of you later."
"Hmmm."
✯☾✯
Ivy couldn't believe that she allowed herself to get dragged by both Mason and Liam to go following the compass. Sure the thought and curiosity of where the compass might lead to crossed her mind. But actually going through with it, didn't.
"I can't believe you two dragged me out here to follow some possibly messed up compass," Ivy commented, as the trio walked.
"Ivy, we both know you're curious as well," Mason mentioned.
"Shut up," Ivy stated, as the trio pulled up to a house. Ivy was now extremely confused. Why would some compress bring them to a house? Especially one that looks extremely abandoned.
The trio enters the house, still following the compass. They jump in shock as they ran into Scott.
"What, what are you doing here?" Liam asked his alpha.
"This is Alex's house. What are you doing here?"
Ivy was surprised. This was Alex's house. But it was completely abandoned, no furniture, nothing in sight. There was no physical evidence of humans living in this place, whatsoever.
"This is where the compass led us," Liam answered.
"What compass?"
"That compass," Ivy stated, pointing to the compass in Mason's hand. They all watched as the compass needle began to wildly spin.
Ivy shivered as a strange feeling coursed through her veins.
"Why is it doing that?" Scott asked.
"I have no idea," Mason replied, as Liam pulled out his phone and showed it to Scott. "They're all doing it."
Ivy couldn't shake the strange feeling. Something was off, completely off. She didn't like it. Not one bit.
The compass shatters and the strange feeling grows more intense throughout Ivy.
"Scott, is Stiles here too?" She asked as Scott nodded.
"Something's off about this place. We need to find him, now!" Just as Ivy finished her sentence, they heard a noise from upstairs. They all rushed upstairs.
"What? What happened?" Scott asked his best friend.
"Are you okay?" Ivy asked Stiles, who was getting up from off the floor.
"He was here. He shot at me. It was one of the guys you saw in Alex's memory."
"The guy who took his parents?" Mason asked.
"No, no, no. They weren't just taken. They were, they were made to disappear. That's why there's no furniture, that's why they weren't in any of the photos... They were erased."
"Like erased from existence? How is that even possible?" Ivy questioned as Stiles opened the door behind him. They entered the room, only to find it completely empty.
"Why do I have a feeling that this room wasn't empty before?" Ivy commented.
✯☾✯
Both Hayden and Liam had practices for both of their sports, so Mason and Ivy taken the opportunity to try and fix up Mr. Douglas's compass.
Ivy had tried convincing Mason to let her use magic to fix Mr. Douglas's compass, but he claimed that using magic would take up all the fun, that came by doing it by hand.
So Ivy had let it go, and the two of them were now on their way to find both Hayden and Liam, to show them the compass, they had so mundanely fixed.
"Hey, guy. Wait up," Mason called out for Liam and Hayden, who were walking the hallway. "We fixed it," he showed them the glued up compass.
"Uh, perfect! Looks brand new," Liam commented.
Hayden chuckled, "He's going to notice. Why don't you let Ivy use her magic to fix it, completely."
Ivy sighed, "I already tried that, Hayden. Mason over here claims that my magic takes away all the fun."
"Nah, he'll never notice. Also, I believe Ivy had a bit of fun, helping me glue this back together, so she can't complain," Mason stated.
"Shut up!" Ivy playfully shoveled Mason on the shoulder.
"We'll just put the compass back and figure out a way to help Scott," Mason told them.
"Or just put the compass back," Hayden suggested.
"We can't leave it all to Scott," Liam commented.
"Why not? He's the Alpha," Hayden replied.
Ivy sighed. "Hayden, my brothers were willingly to put their lives on the line to help Scott out. Heck, one of them gave their life to help Scott out. They did it because they believed it was the right thing to do it. They did it because they wanted to set an example for me, to right the wrongs from their past. If they were willingly to do all that, then so am I. I'm gonna help Scott till the very end."
Liam sent his girlfriend a small smile as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer to him.
Mason sent Ivy a weak smile. He tended to forget that Hayden wasn't always here. That she didn't necessarily know all that had happened, because Ivy wasn't always keen on bringing up past memories.
Mason also tended to forget that Liam didn't know Aiden either. He forgot that he was the only one in their friend group to have met Aiden. To really know that both of her brothers have always tried to do right by Ivy. To be better versions of themselves for her.
Mason knew that Ivy would always honor everything the two of them had taught her. And helping Scott was always going to be a way for Ivy to live up to what they showed her. To do what is right.
"Not for long," Liam stated, causing Mason to break out of his thoughts. He noticed that Ivy seemed a little relieved by Liam pulling the conversation away from what she had stated.
"Who's gonna take his place?" Hayden questioned, sensing that Ivy was gratefully for her boyfriend's leading the conversation away from what she had just mentioned.
"You don't think I could be the Alpha?" Liam stated, sounding a bit offended.
"No, no, I wasn't saying that. It's just, magnetic anomalies and guys on horseback stealing people? Ivy help me out here."
"We can't just stay out of it," Both Ivy and Liam stated at the same time, causing the couple to laugh at their sentence.
"What's gonna happen when Scott graduates? When there's no one here to figure things out?" Hayden wondered.
"We'll still be here, Hayden. We could be the ones to figure things out," Ivy stated.
"I can be the... Um... I can be the..." Liam tried talking but kept stuttering causing both Ivy and Hayden to look at him with raised eyebrows.
"He can be the Alpha," Mason declared.
Ivy turned to Mason and gave him a look, "What, you don't think I can be the alpha?"
Mason's eyes widened, "I didn't..."
Hayden chuckled, "I think Ivy could make a great Alpha."
"Why thank you, Hayden. At least someone here agrees..." Ivy trailed off a bit as the scent of blood crossed her nose. Both Liam and Hayden also picked up on the smell.
"What is it?" Mason asked, not knowing what caused his werewolf friends to become confused.
"It's blood."
✯☾✯
"I can't find the source," Liam told his friends and girlfriend as the group reunited. They had split up trying to locate the source of the blood, but they had no such luck on their own.
"It's coming from every possible direction," Ivy stated.
"How is that possible?" Mason asked.
"I don't know," Hayden replied.
"Maybe it's coming from more than one place," Liam suggested.
"In more than one piece," Hayden mentioned.
"Definitely more than one piece," Ivy clarified.
"If it's in the air, could it be coming out of the vents?" Mason questioned.
"Possibly," Ivy answered, as the group looked up to the vents on top of them.
✯☾✯
The four of them quickly made their way towards the boiler room.
"Stand back," Liam told them as he prepared to break the boiler room's door.
Ivy and Hayden watched as Mason opened the door and Liam had gone in yelling. Clattering heard as Liam crashed.
Ivy just stood there, trying to progress that this indeed was her boyfriend.
"It's open," Mason told the girls.
"Yup," Ivy commented.
Hayden turned to Ivy, "That's your boyfriend."
"I know..." Ivy headed into the room as Hayden and Mason followed.
Mason turned on the flashlight on his phone to help them see as they made their way through the boiler room, trying to find the source of the blood.
They found themselves in front of another door. A door in which held a strong scent of blood. Liam looked back to his friends looking uneasy about opening the door.
"Just open it already!" Ivy quietly shouted, as she grew tired of the suspense her boyfriend was creating, by taking his sweet time to open the door.
Liam opened the door and inside was a man's body. A dead man's body. The back of his head was caved in.
"Oh god."
"At this rate, I'm going to have to put the sheriff's number on speed dial," Ivy commented as she dialed Sheriff Stilinski's number for the second time this week.
✯☾✯
Scott and Stiles arrive at the station and immediately make their way over to the holding cells knowing that's where Alex had been all day.
"Where's the kid? What happened to him?" Stiles asked Deputy Clark.
"What kid?" She asked.
"Alex, the kid from the car wreck? The kid whose parents went missing last night?" Stiles explained.
"Who's Alex?" Clark asked, clearly showing that she has forgotten Alex, already.
"Clark, listen to me. He was here, okay? You met him. Your sister's best friend found him?"
"Where's the Sheriff?" Scott question.
"He got called to the high school. They found a body. No one's been in lock-up all day." Clark passed Stiles the log sheet. "Look for yourself." And with that Clark walked away.
Stiles searched all the log sheets, and they were all empty. "He's not on here... They took him."
"I shouldn't have left him alone."
"He knew they were coming for him."
"What if they're coming back for everyone who was on that road?" Scott raised the question.
"Then we already know who's next," Stiles mentioned.
"Liam and Ivy."
✯☾✯
At the thought of his milkshake buddy being taken by the Ghost Riders, Stiles and Scott raced to the school. Knowing that where Liam and Ivy both were. Seeing as Stiles had gotten a text message from Ivy, telling him that they had found a body in the boiler room.
"I'll check the Quad. Let me know if you find them. And see if your dad knows anything?"
"Yeah, okay. Hey, Scott, wait. Um, I, I just, uh... I wanted to say, um..."
"Tell me later."
"Yeah, alright."
They both went in their separate directions in search of Liam and Ivy.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ms. Martin stated as Stiles almost crashed into her. "Sorry," he said.
"Slow it down."
"Sorry, Ms. Martin, sorry. Hey, have you seen, uh, Liam and Ivy? Actually, forget that. Have you seen my dad?"
"Who?" Ms. Martin asked.
"My dad. He's here because of the body?"
"How do you know about the body?"
"Because my dad's the Sheriff. Ms. Martin, are you okay?"
"Uh, just wait here." And with that Ms. Martin walked away and Stiles continued on with his search of Liam and Ivy.
✯☾✯
"Mason, Mason, hey, where's Liam and Ivy?" Stiles asked the second he turned into another hallway and noticed Mason.
To Stiles' luck, both Liam and Ivy were right behind him, along with Hayden.
"Liam? Ivy? Okay, there you two are. Liam, Ivy, perfect. You two, you two have to listen to me right now. Alex is gone, just like his parents, okay? The Ghost Riders took him, so you guys can't be alone. You got to stick with Scott or with me because I can see them. Why the hell are you lookin' at me like that?"
"Do we even know him," Hayden whispered to Ivy, which Liam overhead.
"I don't even know if he goes here," Liam whispered to the girls.
"He looks really familiar though," Ivy whispered back.
"Do you go to this school?" Mason asked the boy in front of them.
"What's your name?" asked Liam.
But Stiles never answered him as he rushed off further down the hallway, heading towards his dad.
Ivy couldn't help but feel something strange about the boy who had been standing in front of them. She couldn't shake the feeling that she possibly knew him. He looked extremely familiar but Ivy couldn't even pinpoint where she had seen him before, well until now.
"Ivy, are you alright?" Liam asked, noticing that his girlfriend seemed out of it.
"I don't know," Ivy claimed. Something about the boy in the flannel. Something about the boy in the flannel. Something about the boy in the flannel. Something about style.
Style. Stiles. STILES.
Ivy's eyes widened as she rushed out of the school.
"Ivy, where are you going?" Liam yelled, but Ivy ignored him and continued running out of the hallway.
Ivy made it to the outside of the school. And was immediately hit with a loud breeze. Ivy focused and let her magic run through her veins as she focused on the idea of Stiles as she let her eyes zoom through the exterior of Beacon Hills High School. Eventually she located Stiles. And didn't waste a second before heading in that direction.
"STILES" Ivy yelled as she watched him get pulled out of his Jeep by an invisible force, which she guessed to be the Ghost Riders, seeing as she couldn't see them.
"NO!" She yelled as she raced towards.
"Ivy," Stiles said softly as he sent her a smile before the ghost riders rode further and further away from Ivy.
With the blink of an eye, and a shredded tear, all and every memory of Stiles Stilinski was simply gone.