f o r t y t w o
m e m o r i e s
"WELL, IF WE'RE NOT GOING TO KILL HIM, WHY AREN'T WE AT LEAST TYING HIM DOWN WITH REALLY BIG CHAINS?" Questioned Aiden as he made a step forward.
They were staring at the unconscious Stiles, or whatever he was, while he was healing on the couch.
Amelia started biting her nails before nodding. "I'll bring the chains we used on Scott in full moons."
But Deaton stopped her. "I might have something more effective," he mentioned before opening his case, making Amelia raise an eyebrow.
More effective than the chains Stiles used in Scott several times?
But the irony...
Deaton pulled out an orange jar, making Amelia frown.
The two werewolves approached Stiles and Aiden opened his mouth while Deaton released the liquid from the jar in his mouth, making Stiles open his eyes widely.
Amelia gasped when she saw Stiles grabbing Aiden's throat like she had done with him once, lifting him on the air as Aiden tried to breathe.
"Get him off me!" Yelled Aiden while Stiles chuckled. "Get him off me!" He kept screaming, but Stiles himself let him go, staring at his trembling hands, confused before groaning in pain.
He rested his head on the couch. "Kanima venom," he told Deaton. "Nice touch," he panted before getting paralyzed.
Aiden proceeded to growl at him, but he, well obviously, didn't move.
"You know how they say that twins get a feeling when the other one's in pain?" Asked him Void, unbothered by the fact he can't move. "You didn't lose that talent, too, did you?" Amelia looked towards Aiden. "Oh, I hope not. You're gonna need it."
They all looked at Aiden, fearing the worst.
"Okay, I'll give a little hint..." he whispered. "Ethan's at the school."
Amelia stared at him. "Go!" She yelled, and as Aiden left, Void simply started chuckling, making Amelia look at him.
"You should have stayed with Isaac last night, butterfly." Amelia raised her eyebrows. "If he had picked up a bow and arrows instead of whatever he got in Allison's house... this would be a different story, wouldn't it?" She started biting her nails. "Oh, Stiles would like you to stop doing that... honestly, me too. Kinda annoying."
He started laughing before looking towards the door, making Amelia step back a bit.
"Oh, I hope he gets there in time," he joked, laughing. "I like the twins." He looked back again at Amelia and Scott. "Short tempers. Homicidal compulsions. They're a lot more fun than you bakemono trying to save the world everyday."
Melissa spoke. "Doc, you brought something to paralyze his body. You got anything for his mouth?"
They all looked towards Stiles before Deaton opened his case again. "Yes, I do."
He ripped out a stripe of duct tape before approaching Stiles, covering his mouth.
Void let out a muffled yell, and it only made Amelia step back even more.
They all walked towards the kitchen before Scott was the one that asked the question.
"How much longer do you think we have?"
Amelia looked towards the clock on top of the fridge before looking towards Deaton.
"I wish I knew," answered the doctor. "But if we don't figure out something soon, we're going to need to find a better place to keep him. I think we're grossly underestimating the danger here."
"I can still look upstairs for the chains..."
"He might be paralyzed," continued talking Deaton, "but it still feels like he's got us right in the palm of his hand."
They all turned around to look at Stiles on the couch, and how he was staring at them. Just... staring.
• • •
Amelia was filling two glasses with apple juice, approaching her as she was bandaging Stiles's stomach.
"Here you go," Amelia told the woman and she smiled at her. The girl looked up towards that creature that looked like her boyfriend. "You want some?" But he didn't reply because of the tape. "What? I can't hear you. What's that?"
"Amelia," stopped her Melissa and she just scoffed before shaking her head, walking away towards the kitchen.
When she heard a sobbing.
Amelia stopped in her tracks, turning her head around slowly when she heard Melissa's soft voice, calling for Stiles.
The girl looked towards the woman, noticing how she was removing the duct tape from Stiles's mouth, making Amelia open her eyes widely.
"Melissa! No!"
But it was already out.
Void was looking at her with that expression that made Amelia terrified, that made Amelia realize that her boyfriend wasn't the one she was looking at.
"Really, Melissa?" He asked her and Amelia sighed. "I shed one tear? That's all it takes? Come on. You can't crumble that easily. How are you going to hold up when Scott knows the truth?"
Amelia stepped forward. He knew... he knew...
"What?" Melissa questioned.
"When he finds out why his dad really left?" Amelia closed her eyes before looking at the ground. "You know he overheard it, right? Stiles and Amelia." Melissa looked towards Amelia, the girl simply staring at the floor. "You had no idea," he whispered. "You called Stilinski right after it happened. You didn't tell Scott, but you told the Sheriff. Hmm... But Stiles heard it like he hears everything. And Amelia just happened to be there... and she heard everything too."
"Shut up!" Amelia yelled at Void, but he kept going.
"Amelia couldn't look at Scott in the face, so she stopped being friends with him. But you want to know why Stiles never told Scott? Because he knew that Scott would never forgive you. He knew how much he would hate you."
"This isn't you, Stiles," Melissa whispered.
"It is now..."
Amelia stepped forward. "Melissa, let me talk to him." The woman looked up. "Please..."
She stood up from the floor, walking away from the living room and letting Amelia sit down in front of her boyfriend.
"What are you gonna do Amelia—"
But before he continued to mock her, Amelia slapped him across the face, making the guy start growling before looking at her.
"Worth the shot," she whispered.
"Oh, Amelia... you seriously don't know with who you are messing with."
"An dark fox that wants to destroy the world, yeah, I got the memo..."
He chuckled. "Oh, but I also know Stiles's deepest secrets... like what he did with Malia in the basement at Eichen House."
Amelia slowly stood back, looking at him quietly as he started chuckling, mockingly.
"If you don't believe me... you should ask little Dahlia. She knows... she heard them... and she didn't do anything..." She was about to cry, but she held it back. "I can tell you all the details if you want, butterfly... about how he placed his hands on her—"
But she slapped him again, this time with more strength, making Void chuckle again.
"That one was for Stiles," she whispered before grabbing the duct tape, placing it on top of his mouth again before standing up, leaving the room.
• • •
"But the scroll said to change his body," recalled Lizzie as she was walking across the kitchen.
"That's if I translated it correctly," argued Deaton, making Amelia exhaled as she saw the man turn around. "We're looking for a cure in something that might actually be nothing more than a proverb or a metaphor."
"And what if he doesn't want it?" Scott asked to Amelia. "He's never asked to be a werewolf."
Amelia scoffed. "I couldn't care less of what Stiles wants right now. The point is... what if it saves his life?"
"What if it kills him?" Snapped back Scott. "I've never done this before." Amelia sighed. "I mean, what if I bite him and accidentally hit an artery or something?"
"The venom is not going to last long," reminded them Deaton. "Something needs to be done sooner than later."
Amelia looked towards Stiles again, closing her eyes. "I can try calling Derek again."
"Maybe we should call someone else," offered Lydia, making them turn around to look at her.
Amelia frowned before sighing.
"No... not him..."
But after a few minutes, Peter was already on the door.
He walked through the living room, staring at Stiles in silence while the rest was staring at him.
"He doesn't look like he would survive a slap across the face." Stiles raised his eyebrows towards Amelia as she simply rolled her eyes. "Much less the bite of a werewolf," he said before leaning in to look at Stiles.
"You don't think it would work?" Questioned Scott to Peter.
"This is more a war of the mind than the body," he started explaining, looking at Stiles directly to his tired dark eyes. He slowly stood up straight again. "There are better methods of winning this battle."
Amelia stepped forward. "What kind of methods?"
Peter pulled out her claws, making Amelia open her eyes widely before looking towards Stiles, who was staring at Peter's hands, unbothered.
"We're going to get into his head."
• • •
Amelia kept staring at Stiles, and he was looking right back at her.
She was trying to figure out if he was lying, trying to figure out if he really had... if he really did it with Malia.
She walked towards Peter and Lydia, who were talking next to the staircase, ready to do something to know the truth.
"Lydia, could you wait in the living room?" The girl nodded slowly before walking away.
Peter scoffed. "What is it now? Are you gonna kill me right before I try to help your little boyfriend?"
"You're going to get in his mind, right?" Peter nodded slowly. "I need you to do something for me."
"Scott is using the claws. And besides, why would I do something for you? You've threatened to kill me several times and you freak me out, by the way."
Amelia sighed. "Because... Sealgairs are also known for their favors." Peter raised his eyebrows.
"A favor from a Sealgair is like help from the darkest angel," quoted out loud Peter before looking at her. "You've saved Derek's life for favors before the link." She nodded. "Okay, what do you want?"
"I need you... to help Scott look for a memory in Stiles's mind..." He frowned. "At Eichen House... with a girl... called Malia."
Peter blinked a few times. "You want to know if he cheated on you," he summarized, mockingly, and Amelia stared at him angrily. "Okay, okay... I'll do it... but, you'll owe me a favor. And you'll have to do it."
"Yeah, sure whatever, just go..."
Peter and Amelia both walked towards the leaving room, Deaton talking as soon as they stepped out.
"So, do we have a plan?"
"Scott is going to try and dig through pale and sickly Evil Stiles's mind to unearth pale and sickly Real Stiles. Then guide him back from the depths of his own subconscious. But he's not going to do it alone," he explained.
"What do you mean?" Scott asked and Peter looked towards Amelia before looking at the rest.
"Somebody needs to go in with him," he said, looking at Amelia with a big smile.
• • •
Amelia sat down next to Stiles, and she could feel his stare, she could feel it.
She was just doing this to get the memory out, and of course to help Stiles.
But she only wanted to know if it was true.
"So what do we do if we find him?" Asked Scott, who was standing behind the couch with his claws out.
"You're going to have to guide him somehow," talked Peter as he positioned Scott's claws. "Try to give him back control of his mind, of his body."
"Could you elaborate on the 'somehow'?" Amelia asked sarcastically, looking towards Lizzie as she felt the tip of Scott's claws on the back of her neck. "It's not feeling very specific at the moment."
"Improvise," was the thing Peter said.
Amelia rolled her eyes. She was waiting for that answer, really.
"What if this is just another trick?" Asked Scott
Peter exhaled, tiredly. "When are you people going to start trusting me?"
"God, you're such a narcissist," whispered Amelia before pointing towards Stiles. "He meant him."
"Oh," let out Peter, mockingly, making Amelia sigh. The werewolf leaned in towards her ear. "Think about what you want to find... and you will," he whispered before stepping back.
"Scott," called him Deaton. "We're running out of time."
She heard Scott's heartbeat raising up a bit, and heard him breathing heavily.
They were going to get Stiles out. They were going to get him out and free him.
She knew it.
She felt the claws stick again her neck and it made her gasp for air before everything went dark.
• • •
Amelia opened her eyes and she was tied on a bed, looking around as she panted.
It was like... a room, a cold, filled with shadows room that terrified her.
She looked to her left, noticing that Scott was in the same position she was, making her open her eyes widely as both started to escape, both straining, yelling, trying to get out.
Amelia got tired, letting her head fall back against the pillow before looking towards Scott, who was in the same position she was.
"Do you actually need me to remind you that you're a werewolf?" She asked him, sarcastically, noticing how her voice was echoing around the room.
"We're in Stiles's head," he replied, like if it meant something.
"And you're a supernatural creature with supernatural strength," she snapped back, making him stare at her. "Break free."
She saw as Scott started to slowly stand up, breaking the handcuffs around his wrists before continuing to break the rest of the belts.
"Do you actually need me to remind you that you also have supernatural strength?" She shook her head. "What?"
"Not in Stiles's mind," she whispered. "She doesn't see me as your protector or all the things I am... here... I am Amelia Sealgair, human..."
Scott proceeded to stand up and start ripping off the belts and handcuffs that remained her tied to the bed before she stood up, looking at him smiling.
"What now?" He asked her and she looked towards the door.
"I don't know," she admitted before looking at him. "This is my first time in someone else's head."
Scott chuckled before stepping forward. "Just stay behind me."
She nodded as she saw him step out of the room, the door slamming close behind him and making her run towards it.
"Scott!" She yelled. "Scott! Scott!"
She tried forcing the lock, but she couldn't. She didn't have her strength, she didn't have anything to help her.
She turned around to look at how the beds had disappeared, how the room had totally change to be a gigantic cube that scared the hell out of her.
She slowly stepped forward, looking around just to see a ballon falling out of the ceiling, followed my thousands of other balloons that made her confused.
Amelia slowly closed her eyes before opening them again, touching her hair and noticing that, instead of being in a ponytail like she had it before, now it was free, curly, and she had a tiara on.
She looked to her clothes seeing how they had been replaced with a gold and black dress, like the one in her scrapbook. Like the one she cut from that magazine in third grade.
She turned around, seeing the school's hallways of lockers filled with red and blue balloons.
"Stiles!" She yelled. "Stiles!"
She looked up from the floor, hearing as Madonna's Material Girl started playing, freaking the hell out of her.
"Stiles?" She asked, whispering, looking around and trying to run across the balloons, but she had heels and no supernatural strength. "Stiles?"
"Don't you forget... that I'm taking you to prom." Amelia jumped when she heard Stiles's voice. "The scrapbook doesn't lie, Ames, remember... I'm taking you to your prom, and I'll get to see you in that dress you cut from a Vogue Magazine when you were eight... Don't forget that, okay?"
"Stiles?" She asked again before she turned around slowly as she heard someone writing on the board.
She looked over to the inside of the classroom to see a man covered in bandages, writing a five inverted.
Amelia standing panting before she turned around at the sound of a locker closing, making her jump.
It was the same man, closing the aisle of lockers as he tried to reach her, making Amelia quickly start walking backwards, trying to get out of him.
"Amelia?"
She looked around before looking at the creature that was following her again.
"Amelia, can you hear me? Amelia, you're stronger than this."
"Peter?"
"Okay, you need to concentrate."
Amelia wasn't concentrating, and if she was, it was only on the creature trying to kill her.
"Amelia!"
The scream was so loud that made her cover her ears.
She felt like she was waking up from a dream.
She felt the bow in her hand and the bag of arrows in her back before she opened her eyes again, starting to shoot arrows at the creature as fast as she could.
But nothing.
So, she took out the Jimmy Choo high heals that she had ripped out from a magazine once so many years ago and started running away, making the balloons lift from the ground.
Keep running, Amelia, keep running.
She reached the doors to the school and quickly opening them, feeling her vans against in her feet, the shirt and jeans she was wearing against her body and her hair on a ponytail once more.
And she saw it.
The memory.
It hit her head like a gunshot and she had to stop running to process it.
It was true.
She opened her eyes again, panting, before looking around the white parking lot she was in.
Where was she?
"Amy!" She quickly turned around to see Scott running towards her, making the girl chuckle a bit before running towards him and jumping into Scott's arms, panting. "God, you will not believe what just happened. I was with Allison in a closet and—"
"Scott," she whispered as she looked up from the floor, the guy slowly placing her on the ground before the two turned around to look at the same thing.
It was Stiles and the nogitsune playing a game on top of the cut Nemeton.
The two started running towards him, but every time they approached him, they will get more and more far away.
"Stiles!" She shouted.
"Stiles!" Yelled Scott too as the girl started panting.
"Stiles! Stiles, over here!" Started screaming Amelia. "Stiles!"
But he wasn't listening.
They kept running and running, but he would only get further away.
Until Amelia had an idea.
"Stiles is part of your pack," she whispered, panting.
"What? What do you mean?" He asked her before she looked over to him.
"He's human. But he's still part of our pack, right?" She assumed as Scott looked towards him again.
"Yeah," he affirmed, standing up straight and her following. "Yeah, of course."
"So how do wolves signal their location to the rest of the pack?" She questioned, making Scott glance over at her, smirking.
Amelia smiled as she saw Scott turning into a werewolf before replying. "They howl."
Amelia covered her ears as Scott started howling loudly, looking towards Stiles, hoping he was able to hear it.
And he was... he was.
The guy looked over at them, recognizing the two before looking at the nogitsune again, flipping over the board game.
Amelia opened her eyes and she was in the living room again, panting for air as she placed her hand on the back of her neck.
"Did it work?" Asked Scott in panic as they both looked towards Stiles. "Did it work?" He repeated, panting.
"What happened?" She questioned, looking at Stiles. "Why didn't it work?"
Peter dragged Lydia away, and told her something that Scott could hear as he slowly turned around to look at them.
"What name?" He asked, making Amelia look towards Scott before looking at Peter.
"What? What name?" But he had grabbed Peter and Lizzie by the arms, dragging them away. "Peter!? What are you talking about!? Where are you taking my sister!?"
But there was no reply because a few seconds later, Stiles woke up, making them turn around.
The guy started pulling out something from his mouth, like a bandage, like a dirty bandage.
They were all staring at him as he was gagging out all of that, making Amelia slowly stand back, hitting her back with Scott's chest as they both stared at Stiles, throwing up that fabric with a dark cloud coming out of it also.
As he finished, Stiles quickly crawled back towards the couch, watching a hand get out of the pile of bandage, followed by with the full arm and making Amelia gasp.
When it got out, he stepped towards the pack and Peter and Scott were quick to hold him down, tossing him again the chair as the creature was trying to break free.
But Amelia smelled it.
And she recognized it.
"Wait!" Yelled Amelia, stepping forward and tossing Peter away. "Hold on!"
"What?" Scott asked and she dry swallowed.
"His smell..." she whispered before starting to remove the bandages around the creatures face, taking them out quickly and revealing who was underneath.
Stiles.
Amelia gasped a bit before smiling as Stiles kept staring at her.
"Ames?" He asked before looking towards his best friend. "Scott?"
"Scott," called him Deaton and they all turned around to see that the door was opened.
And Void wasn't in the living room anymore.
And neither was Lydia or Lizzie.