187
ASPEN was the first to wake up the following morning. Her face immediately contorted with a mix of confusion and annoyance when her eyes fluttered open, scanning her surroundings— to find she'd fallen asleep in Stiles' bed.
She was only clad in her black lace underwear from yesterday, as she turned over and found a very much asleep Stiles laid beside her. She scoffed to herself, getting out of bed and rushing to put her clothes on. Her jeans and shirt, along with her leather jacket were all hurled up in a pile by the bedroom door. She rushed to put them on, sliding both legs through the denim trousers, before she was startled by a voice behind her.
"Leaving so soon?"
She heard Stiles chuckle in his morning tone, and when she turned around, he was sat against his headboard with his hands resting behind his head— sans a shirt.
"Yeah, actually, I am." Aspen replied, currently getting her shirt over her head.
"How do you plan on getting to school?" Stiles asked confidently, "Because if I remember correctly... your fancy new bike is still in the parking lot."
Aspen found herself opening her mouth to say something, until she came to the annoying conclusion that Stiles actually had a very valid point.
"I guess I'm gonna have to drive you..." Stiles sighed like the idea of it was such a chore, getting out of bed and casually walking over to his dresser in nothing but his boxers.
"Or I could walk." Aspen argued stubbornly.
"You'd rather walk across town than let me give you a lift?" Stiles narrowed his eyes at her while he opened his dresser.
Aspen paused for a moment, before rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh of her own, then tossing on her leather jacket that was so carefully discarded last night.
"Fine."
"That's what I thought." said Stiles, putting on the first pair of khakis he found, followed by a simple white t-shirt and a flannel.
Once dressed, he turned back around to Aspen who was irritably stood by the door with her arms folded over her chest. The pair of them weren't exactly awkward about the... activities... they did last night, they were both casual about it as if it was nothing.
"Come on," said Stiles as he walked towards the door, grabbing his phone on the way out, "as much as I'm sure you would love to stay here all day with me, school awaits."
"Tell yourself that, I think last night proved who's really in charge here."
...
When Scott pulled into the school parking lot the next morning, he removed his motorcycle helmet, clipping it to the bike. Beside his, as per usual, there were the two black bikes which belonged to both Ethan and Aiden.
Aspen's bike was there too— but the McCall boy didn't think much of it, merely assuming she had already arrived at school and was inside somewhere.
That was until he heard the farmilliar sound of the engine of Stiles' jeep, making him turn around his shoulder and see the blue vehicle parking into a space.
As Scott continued to focus on the car, his werewolf hearing allowed him to hear what was going on inside of it. He heard... bickering.
Between Stiles, and a voice he'd know anywhere.
And then Scott watched as Aspen pile dout of the car with an irritated look on her face, and Stiles got out of the drivers door. Scott's brows furrowed at their arrival together, and his head flicked between them, and Aspen's bike, multiple times, over and over again, until his eyes finally widened in realisation.
That Aspen spent the night at Stiles' house.
Scott scoffed under his breath at the pair, mainly at Stiles— as his views on the Carter girl had descended anyway since her return, what with the revelation of her having innocent blood on her hands and all.
And then he watched as Aspen turned and made her way to the school, without Stiles following.
The Stilisnki boy turned around after parking the jeep to walk over to Scott, but as he did, the two boys made eye contact, and Stiles could tell he hadn't been as subtle as he thought, and Scott knew his suspicions were now right.
Stiles rushed over to Scott, while Scott slowly took steps towards him, his eyes still widened and his jaw looking like it was about to hit the ground.
"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Scott exclaimed once Stiles approached him.
"Hey, buddy—" said Stiles, "I know what you're thinking—"
"Tell me you didn't hook up with her last night," Scott said pleadingly, "Please, for the love of God..."
"Well—" Stiles hesitated, "Uh—"
"Stiles!"
"You know, if I remember correctly," Stiles began to ramble, "you hooked up with Allison multiple times after she tried literally killing you! And Aspen hasn't even tried to kill me yet! So if you really think about it—"
"Are you kidding me?" Scott whined childishly, starting to walk over to the school with Stiles scurrying to follow closely behind.
"Look Scott— I'm sorry!" Stiles called out to the McCall boy, stopping in his tracks when Scott didn't stop.
"No— you know what?" Stiles shouted again, flailing his hands around the air in typical fashion,
"I'm not sorry! It was great sex, okay? Great, mind-blowing, incredible sex!"
...
"Stilinski!" Coach yelled in the classroom, blowing his whistle at the boy whose head was rested on the table, promptly waking him up.
"Uh-huh?" Stiles asked, disorientated by his surroundings for a moment.
"I asked you a question!" Coach said back in another yell.
Aspen and Scott were sat on both seats on either side of Stiles, and Scott even reluctantly looked at the girl he was currently pissed off with, because both of them had just spent the last couple moments watching the same thing, and even Aspen was concerned.
"Uh... Sorry, Coach." said Stiles, "What was it?"
"It was, 'Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?' " Coach said irritably.
"Oh." Stiles replied, "Well, I am now..."
Coach turned around back to the board, muttering some words under his breath, followed by asking the class another question.
But the trio were no longer paying attention to the E-con task.
Stiles could feel both pairs of worried eyes on him, first glancing at Scott, then turning to look at Aspen, confused as to what was so bad that even she looked worried.
"I'm okay." he tried to tell her, "I just fell asleep for a second."
"Stilinski, I hate to tell you this," Aspen said in a quiet tone,
"but you weren't asleep..."
Stiles furrowed his brows, as Aspen nodded her head towards his desk, telling him to look at what was on it. The hazel eyed boy looked down to his desk, finding what had clearly made Scott and Aspen so concerned.
Over and over again, in lettering big and small, Stiles had written 'WAKE UP'.
...
After the first few periods had passed, the pack (including Aspen) sat around a table for lunch, while all conversing about what the hell was going on with them.
"Okay, so—" Scott started, "what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?"
"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added, referring to himself.
"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" added Allison.
"And would rather stab their eyes out with this fork—" Aspen added sarcastically, holding her utensil in front of her face, "than be in this conversation right now?"
"Hey—" Isaac said to Aspen from beside her, "there will be no stabbing of eyes..." he added, putting his hand over her fist trying to lower the fork.
Out of annoyance, Aspen turned to the side to look at the Lahey boy, quickly flashing her icy blue eyes at him in a warning manner.
Isaac quickly raised both palms in the air in a surrendering motion, chuckling a bit though.
"Those blue eyes of yours give me nightmares, Carter..." Isaac said to Aspen, making the girl simply hum in satisfaction as she shrugged her shoulders coyly.
"And..." Isaac spoke up again, turning to talk to the whole group, "people like that are all locked up because they're insane."
"Ha." Stiles spoke sarcastically, "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?"
"For half my childhood, I was locked in a freezer..." said Isaac, "So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."
"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?"
"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that—"
Stiles and Isaac's arguing was cut short when a familliar looking brunette girl approached the group's table— books clutched in hand, looking a little nervous.
"Hi..." she said, causing everyone to look up at her, "Hi, sorry... I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about... And, I think I actually might know what you're talking about..."
Everyone at the table were still watching the girl awaitingly.
"There's a Tibetan word for it— it's called "Bardo." It literally means "in-between state." The state between life and death."
"And what do they call you?" the strawberry blonde asked, slightly condescendingly.
"Kira." Scott answered before the new girl got the chance to, "She's in our history class."
"He's whipped," Aspen whispered to the rest of the table, then looking back at Kira,
"So, are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" she added in question.
"Either, I guess..." Kira said eagerly, sliding in and taking the seat on the other side of Stiles, "But, all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear.
And you can be visited by peaceful or wrathful deities."
"Wrathful deities?" said Isaac, "And what are those?"
"Like... demons!"
The person at the table with the most reaction was the Carter girl. She let out a loud chuckle, causing everyone to turn their attention to her. She snickered into her hand, like she was purposely trying to dismiss what the Yukimora girl had just suggested.
"What?" she asked defensively to everyone looking at her suspiciously, "She just suggested that demons are real! You guys are really buying that?"
Everyone brushed off her reaction now, well— everyone except one person.
The one person who tended to find suspicions where most people wouldn't. The one person who had a harder time trusting than everyone else.
Stiles.
Stiles examined her reaction to the term 'demon' like it was a piece of literature to be analysed. While everyone else at the table barely moved a muscle, she created a whole scene to make sure everyone believed the idea was as ludicrous as she did.
Stiles was now more on edge of Aspen than ever before.
"Hold on—" Allison spoke, breaking the weird silence, "if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?"
Everyone's eyes were on Kira as she innocently answered the question, not thinking anything of it;
"Death. You die."
...
Later that evening, Scott and Stiles had stopped by the clinic to ask Deaton some questions. Aspen had disappeared at the end of the school day— of course they'd tried calling, but it also wasn't a surprise that she'd just go M.I.A without a care in the world. They were about to go looking for her yet again when Stiles' father stopped them outside the clinic.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Stiles asked him.
"I'm here because I could use some help." he replied, then turning to Scott specifically, "Actually... your help."
"Why me?" Scott asked with furrowed brows.
"Because eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident." Noah began to explain, "One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me thinking that a Werewolf could have caused the accident and dragged her body away. If you could somehow get a lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clue..."
"But what if it was a Werewolf?" Stiles asked.
"Well, there's somebody out there that murdered an entire family— someone who still needs to be caught."
...
"She still won't pick up," Stiles sighed in defeat as he and Scott waited outside the Tate household after failing to find anything of use.
"Well she probably thinks it's just a booty call..." Scott muttered under his breath, then turning to see the expression on Stiles' face indicated that he did in fact hear that.
"Sorry...." Scott added, "but can we really be surprised?" Scott said in annoyance, "Besides, she still needs our help, right? So it's not like she's gonna kill anyone."
Stiles was about to reply with something on the lines of 'wouldn't put it past her', but decided against vocalising the comment, keeping it in his head.
After what happened at the lunch table today, he was even more suspicious of the girl.
At first, he figured her new personality channge may have been similar with what happened to Ace— being ripped away from everything she loves, maybe learning not to care was easier.
That— as much as it hurt, he understood.
But then he really thought about it— Ace was gone for nearly seven years.
Aspen was gone for two months.
It didn't add up.
Aspen— as hurt and defeated as she was— would never give up that easily. Stiles knew that more than anything. Aspen Carter was a fighter, a warrior. There was no way she caved in to a callous lifestyle that easily. Especially after all that talk about not wanting to lose herself before she left.
So that left him with one haunting conspiracy— one that he refused to mention to anyone until given more reason to believe it may be true.
Sheriff Stilinski walked out of the Tate house a moment later, a defeated look of his own plastered all over his face as he looked at the two teenage boys.
"I'm sorry," Scott said, "I tried as hard as hard as I could. If it wasn't so long ago, I might have been able to do it."
"It's okay." said Stiles' dad, "It was a long shot. In fact, it was a pretty terrible idea. I think I just ripped a wound open in that poor man. I never should have brought you guys here. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for trying, all right?"
"Yeah..." Scott sighed.
"Uhm— by the way," Noah spoke up again, "Where's Aspen? Isn't she always with you two?"
Scott and Stiles exchanged a short glance before Stiles jumped to answer with a lie.
"She's with Allison tonight," he said quickly, "they're catching up or something— I guess."
"Oh," was all Noah said, not sussing out any lie, "I'll see you at home then."
Noah walked away towards his cop car, leaving the two boys stood alone outside the clinic.
"Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved?" Scott said to Stiles, not sure why this particualr case had his dad so worked up.
"Yeah," Stiles mumbled, "I just think this is one he felt like he could've figured out right now..."
"Why is it so important now?"
Stiles let out a sigh before answering, "He wants to be able to solve one more... while he's still Sheriff."
"What do you mean, still Sheriff?"
Just before Stiles could answer his question, the both of them heard a dispatch call come through to Stiles' dad from behind them, and they turned around to see Noah wasn't in the car yet, as he held the sheriff dispatch caller in his hands.
"Sheriff! We have a 187!"
Stiles knew all of the sheriff codes by heart— he always had since the mere age of seven years old.
187 was the first one he'd ever learnt.
Scott looked at Stiles— who looked like he was trying hard not to believe something that deep down he knew was true. His head was slightly shaking to himself like he was trying to stay in this denial for as long as he could.
When Stiles finally looked back at Scott, he could tell the McCall boy had no idea what that code meant.
He sighed defeatedly before telling Scott what he needed to know.
"A murder."
//
GUYS— I JUST REALISED IM LITERALLY STILL ON THE FIRST EPISODE OF 3B?!?!
WTF THIS BOOKS GONNA BE SO MUCH LONGER THAN I EXPECTED SKDJJEKS