t w e n t y e i g h t
c o y o t e
AMELIA COULD THINK OF MANY OTHER WAYS TO SPEND HER NIGHT RATHER THAN THIS.
The three were walking through the woods, holding flashlights in their hands. Stiles and Amelia were following Scott, who was upfront.
She trembled a bit, making Stiles worried. "What?"
"I don't know. Lately I've been feeling this tiny electric shocks. No big deal. I'm fine."
"Scott told me you cried." Amelia looked at him abruptly.
"Why would he tell you that? Is me crying like... national matter or something?"
"Why did you cry?" Stiles asked and she exhaled.
"Isaac was worried he would lose control while Scott and his dad were fighting. It reminded him of his dad," Amelia started explaining. "So, I tried to talk to him out of it. And one thing led to another and I started talking to him about my mom..."
Stiles glanced over at her. "You've never talked about your mom with me," he defended and she nodded.
"I usually don't talk about her to anyone," she admitted. "He just... needed something to calm down, he asked and I just told him."
"And he calmed down?"
"Yeah, he told me he found an anchor." Stiles scoffed. "What?"
"Nothing, just... Isaac and his methods to get to you... he can't get over you."
Amelia looked at him. "You sound jealous."
"I'm not jealous," Stiles whispered, panting as they walked through the woods. "And you did date him, so I have a right to be."
Amelia rolled her eyes. "Just because I used to date him doesn't mean I'm gonna go back to him."
"You dumped him for me," he argued, making her look at him.
"I'm not getting back together with Isaac. I'm over him. It was only for a few weeks."
"Of course... besides, you never went to dates, you only kissed some times." Amelia looked towards the Scott, opening her mouth a bit. "Right?" She remained silent. "Right!?"
"You know," Amelia talked to Scott, "if Stiles's dad is right, then there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet." The girl approached the Alpha quickly.
"I know," said Scott.
"If it turns out to be something like triplets that form into, like, a three-headed hound of hell, I'm seriously not up for that," Amelia mentioned.
"Yeah, me either," mumbled Scott. "Especially since I can't even control my own transformation anymore."
They kept walking when they heard a howling, making Stiles hold on to Amelia quickly, making her lose balance and hit Scott, who let go of his phone.
Which fell in the water.
They both looked at Stiles, who had his mouth opened.
"Sorry, buddy," he said. "I hate coyotes so much. They always sound like they're mailing some tiny, helpless little animal."
Scott jumped down and Amelia followed him, Stiles trying to reach them.
Scott pulled his phone out of the water, looking at it. "It still works."
"Let me see the flashlight," asked Stiles as he took Amelia's flashlight, pointing the light towards something. "I think we found it," he said, stepping forward, Amelia and Scott following him.
Stiles pointed the light towards the car that was upside down.
"Why wouldn't they move it?" Asked Scott. "Isn't it evidence?"
"Probably too much of a pain in the ass to tow out," answered Stiles, looking at it before giving a step forward. "Look at this." He pointed the flashlight to the door of the car, that had something that appeared like scratches. "See those?"
"Yeah... so?" But Scott proceeded to answer that question for her when he placed his hands of top of the marks.
"Animal claws would be closer together, right?" Stiles asked. "A lot closer."
Scott touch the car, following the marks with his fingers. "Then it was a werewolf."
"So my dad was right," whispered Stiles before looking inside the car.
"What is that?" Asked Amelia, pointing at something on the dashboard.
Stiles took it out and the three stood up, looking at it. It was a doll. A baby doll.
"I'm hungry," said the doll when he squeezed it, making the three scream at the same time as Stiles dropped the doll on the floor.
"Shit!" Exclaimed the girl. "Oh my God..." She whispered before realizing Stiles was holding on to her, terrified.
"I think I just had a minor heart attack," announced Stiles as he kept hugging his girlfriend, almost climbing her up like a tree.
Scott looked up. "Hey, guys..." he called them before Stiles and Amelia look towards the trees, noticing a pair of bright eyes. "Please tell me you see that."
"I see it," whispered Stiles as Amelia heard growling, making her dry swallow.
They saw the creature running away, and Scott following it.
"Scott!" She yelled, but he was too far to even hear her. "Crap."
Stiles and her remained in silence before Stiles talked. "So you and Isaac..."
"Oh my God..."
• • •
Amelia and Stiles got out from the place they had found when they heard running, and later footsteps, and Amelia took her dagger out of her boot.
"Stay behind me."
"You don't have to tell me twice."
She heard the footsteps approaching, running. She heard them perfectly clear.
Werewolf.
Stiles followed her as she walked slowly. As soon as she heard them close to her, the girl jumped, taking down the werewolf and lifting her dagger, only to recognize the person underneath her.
"It's me! It's me! It's me!" Yelled Scott and she put away her dagger. "Jesus Christ. Were you gonna kill me!?"
"I don't know, don't surprise me like that again."
She helped Scott stand up before they both looked towards Stiles, who was pointing his flashlight towards them.
"We found something," Stiles said.
"So did I," Scott told them too.
They followed Stiles to where him and Amelia had been just a few minutes ago.
"It's a coyote den," explained Stiles as Scott looked at it.
"Werecoyote," corrected Scott, making Amelia look at him as Stiles grabbed a jacket on the floor.
"You see this? This is Malia's," he told him. "Remember, it's the same one she was wearing in the photo."
Scott picked up a teddy bear before Amelia talked.
"We shouldn't be in here." The two turned around to look at her.
"What do you mean?" Stiles asked.
"She's not going to come back now," Amelia told them. "We just invaded her home. We left out scent everywhere. And coyotes do not like wolves. I get that; not everyone can live with dog smell," whispered Amelia as she looked around while Stiles stared at her.
"If she's not going to come back here, where's she going to go?" He asked before looking at Scott.
The werewolf shrugged. "I don't know," admitted Scott.
"Do you know any other words?" Amelia asked and he just rolled his eyes. "Can you track her now? You think you got her scent?"
Scott nodded slowly. "Maybe," he said. "But I'm better at this when I'm a full wolf. And I'm still worried that if I do it, I won't be able to turn back."
Stiles sighed. "The door's still open." Stiles looked at his girlfriend. "What about you?"
"I don't how to track werewolves by smell, less coyotes that I've never seen. I do it by hearing rather than smelling. I won't be much help than Scott. "
"If I can't get to Derek, we're gonna have to find someone else to help," told Scott to the two before he looked at Stiles. "This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss's league."
"And more in my dad's," finished Stiles.
• • •
The Sheriff got out of the den and walked towards Stiles, Scott and Amelia with Malia's jacket in hand.
"You're sure it was her?" He asked.
"I looked her right in the eyes," said Scott making the sheriff look at him. "And they glowed just like mine."
"It makes sense, dad," Stiles told him.
"But it wasn't a girl. It was a four-legged coyote, right?"
Stiles started to stammer. "Well, okay. But yeah, see, that's the point that we don't exactly have figured out yet."
Amelia placed a hand on Stiles's shoulder before talking. "But if it was a full moon and she did change while her mom was driving, then anything could've happened."
"Horrible things could've happened," added Stiles. "Ripping, shredding, tearing things."
"Which is probably what cause the accident," interrupted him Scott.
"We think," clarified Amelia.
"Think about it, dad, alright. They're driving, Malia starts to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes and everybody dies—"
"Except for Malia," finished Scott and the other two nodded.
"She blames herself, right," kept talking Stiles, "goes off running into the woods and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote."
Amelia raised her eyebrows. "We think..."
The sheriff sighed. "That makes sense..." The three looked at each other, smirking. "In a Chinese folktale!" Stiles stammered as Amelia exhaled. "Guys, this is... this is insane." The remained in silence for a moment before he whispered. "I need this kept quiet. The three of you, not a word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tare hearing about this."
Amelia looked towards Scott, who was staring somewhere. "Scott? Scott!"
The guy looked at Amelia before looking at the sheriff. "Sorry. What did you say?"
But a car pulled up, making the four look towards the road.
"Oh, hell," muttered the sheriff as they saw Scott's dad getting out of the car with Mr. Tate, Malia's father. "Mr. Tate..."
The man grabbed the blanket the Sheriff was holding, looking at it.
"It's hers."
"Alright, wait here," whispered McCall to Mr. Tate.
"Dad," Scott called him and Amelia looked away. She did not want to see that conversation.
"I'll talk to you in a minute," McCall told his son. "I wouldn't mind hearing how your mom's okay with you running around in the woods this late."
They saw as the Sheriff and McCall left. God, this sucked.
• • •
They were showing Allison where they found the den on the map on Stiles's tablet.
"Here's where we found the den," pointed Amelia to Allison. "It's right in the middle of the hiking trails."
"Well, that could narrow it down. Coyotes travel in fixed trails. And you're right about her not going back to the den. Coyotes do hate wolves."
"Told you," whispered Amelia.
"And they're really smart," continued Allison. "If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."
Stiles frowned. "Coyotes tip-toe?"
"They tip-toe," affirmed Allison.
"What?" Mouthed Stiles before looking at Scott with his eyebrows raised.
The bell rang, interrupting their conversation.
"I gotta go, but send me the pinned location," Allison told the three before walking away.
Amelia and Scott approached their next to each other seats when Kira stood up in front of Scott.
"Hey. I'm Kira. You knew that," she said nervously. Amelia looked at them before hiding her laughter, sitting next to Scott's seat. "I knew you knew that. I don't know why I just told you that again." Amelia looked up to see Scott smiling. "Anyway, I have something for you."
"For me?" Asked Scott as Kira opened her backpack.
"Yeah, well the two of you," she said and Amelia waved at her, smiling. "About the bardo. My explanation was sort of all over the place, so I did some research and I printed it out for you." Amelia looked up again, glancing towards Scott while he scratched his neck, nervously.
"Ah," he chuckled, "you didn't have to do that."
"It only took a couple of hours." Amelia raised her eyebrows before mouthing a 'Wow'. The girl liked Scott.
"Wow," Scott said, "then you really didn't have to do that."
"I swear I printed it out."
"Kira," called her Mr. Yukimura, making Amelia look up. "You forgot all the research you did for that boy you like," he told her before giving her the papers.
Amelia opened her mouth widely before looking up towards Scott, who had the same expression she had. They saw as Kira slowly turned around, giving it to him while Scott couldn't hide his smile.
Kira walked away towards her seat while Scott sat next to Amelia, still smiling.
"If you say a word, I'm gonna punch you, I don't care that you can kill me," he whispered to her while Amelia raised her hands, innocently.
"Doggie and Kira, seating on a tree," she started singing lowly, making Scott look at her angrily. "What?"
"Alright everyone," started Yukimura while Amelia kept giving Scott a mocking smile. "Let's get started."
"Shut up," he mouthed to her, but she simply looked to the board.
"Sealgair, McCall, something to share?"
Amelia looked at Scott, who begged her to stop with his eyes yet, she didn't. "Just here commenting about how beautiful it is to be in love, Mr. Yukimura."
"Amelia," mumbled Scott as the girl smiled mockingly. "Please ignore her, Mr. Yukimura."
"Okay..." he whispered before continuing. "We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war," started the teacher and Amelia proceeded to play with her pen. "There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail..."
Amelia glanced towards Scott as he was reading the pages Kira had printed out.
"Doggie's in love," whispered Amelia and Scott looked up to her abruptly, the girl hiding her face with her arms.
"Who would like to come up and read aloud for us?" Questioned Yukimura. "Mr. Stilinski," called the teacher, making Amelia look up, "how about you?"
"Oh, maybe someone else could," whispered Stiles.
Yukimura talked again. "Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski."
Stiles sighed before standing up, walking towards the front of the class and staring down at the book.
She saw how her boyfriend started panting, and the girl pat Scott's arm a few times, nodding her head towards Stiles.
Was he having a panic attack?"
Amelia slowly stood up, looking at her boyfriend. "Stiles? You okay?"
She saw as he started breathing heavily and she approached him quickly, holding him before he passed out.
"I should take him to the nurse's office," Amelia told Yukimura and he nodded, Amelia dragging her boyfriend away from the classroom, worried.
• • •
They entered the locker room and Stiles stepped in abruptly, looking around quickly.
"Stiles, look at me, baby. You are having a panic attack," she told him but he shook his head, placing his arms on the sink as he looked at himself in the mirror.
"It's a dream, it's a dream. This is just a dream," he repeated, Amelia looking at him confused.
"No, it's not." Amelia told him as she saw him breathing heavily. "This is real. You're here. You're here with me, Stiles."
But he was still breathing heavily, panting. She felt another of those electric shocks she had been feeling lately before looking at Stiles.
"Okay, uhm... what do you do? I mean, like, how do you tell if you're awake or dreaming?" She asked him.
"Your fingers..." he replied. "You count your fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams."
The girl looked at her hands before showing them to him. "How many do I have?" But he didn't turn around. "Stiles! Hey! How many fingers do I have? Look at me. Come on, Stiles. Look at my hands and count with me."
She showed him her index finger as he turned around.
"One." She lifted another. "Two." She did it again, but he didn't reply.
"Keep going," she said, showing him her hand again.
"Three," he replied as she lifted another finger. "Four." She lifted another finger again.
"Five," she said for him before showing him the other hand. "Six..."
"Seven," he said and she nodded.
"Eight..."
"Nine." She lifted the last finger as he panted. "Ten." She continued to show him her hands.
"Ten," she repeated. "Ten..."
She saw as Stiles kept staring at her hands, slowly controlling his breathing before he hit his back against the wall, sliding down to the floor.
Amelia approached him slowly before kneeling down in front of him.
"What the hell is happening to me?" He asked as she placed her hand on his cheek, seeing how he was slowly gaining control again.
"We'll figure it out," the girl told him, softly. "You're going to be okay."
"Am I?" He asked her, looking up. "Scott can't transform. Allison's being hunted by her dead aunt. And I'm straight up losing my mind." Amelia slowly put her hand away, staring at him, with no idea what to say. "We can't do this. We can't... We can't help Malia. We can't help anyone," he whispered.
Amelia sat down correctly, crossing her legs before looking at him. "We can try. We can always try."