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Aires pov...
Darkness enveloped me as I mindlessly strolled further into the eerie woods, further into the danger of the other side. In the distance, a blonde in a red dress swung on a wooden swing that hung from a tree. Slowly, I walked towards the girl with curious eyes, faintly I could hear singing with the voice of an angel.
"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..."
She was singing a song, one that I had memorised like the back of my hand. She was singing a song from my childhood, and I couldn't understand why. But the closer I got, the more the lyrics started to make sense.
"I'll cry until the candles burn down this place. I'll cry until my pity party's in flames. I'm laughing, I'm crying. It feels like I'm dying. I'm laughing, I'm crying. It feels like I'm dying. I'm laughing, I'm crying. It feels like I'm dying. I'm dying, I'm dying."
Everyone moved on, everyone moved on with their lives whilst I remained stuck, stuck on the day that everything changed, the day I made the mistake of walking through the wrong door. And I was now stuck throwing my own pity party.
I squinted my eyes, wanting to see who she was, because I recognised her. She was so eerily familiar. A chill raced down my spine as I placed my hand on her shoulder. And slowly, she turned to look up at me.
It was me.
The same person who made me kill my family in my subconscious, the same girl who made Stiles torture me.
In seconds, I was running, running through the woods, running away from her. But as I glanced over my shoulder, my feet came to a suddenly stop. My surroundings had changed once again. I was no longer in the woods but instead in the white hallway that was in my subconscious.
"Aires." A cool voice taunted.
I watched in horror as the violet door down the corridor creaked on its hinges. It was open, I had left it open.
My soul jumped back into my body, making me spring awake with a gasp as I pulled my bed sheets closer to my body.
"Hey. What's wrong baby?" Aiden cooed before planting a sloppy kiss on my neck.
"Nothing." I shot back in a low mumble.
I tried to force a smile onto my lips, tried to comb through my hair with my fingers and pretend everything was fine, but I couldn't shake the fear from my body.
It was open.
I had left the door open.
"What's the time?" Aiden grumbled, bringing out of my thoughts and forcing my attention onto the clock.
"Oh no." I whispered before springing out of bed and making a beeline for my closet. "No, no, no, no, no."
Quickly, and ignoring the nausea that crawled up my throat, I ripped off my clothes and quickly slipped on a pair of low rise jeans and threw an off the shoulder top over my head. My mind swayed as I stumbled over my room, desperately searching for my shoes. The effects of last night's partying was still messing with my mind.
"Aiden, get up." I hissed whilst dragging my fingers through my hair in a half assed attempt to get knots and tangles out. "Get up, we have to go to school."
I had to begin to make an effort with the place, I had too many eyes on me to fuck up.
"School?" He echoed back cluelessly.
"Yes, the thing we have barely shown up to for the past month, the thing I promised both Allison and Chris I would start attending."
"I'm staying here." He grumbled back before pulling the covers over his head.
I didn't have time for his crap, didn't have time to drag him out of bed and force him to a place neither of us wanted to be. I didn't have the time, or the energy.
"Don't touch Chris' alcohol and don't leave my room." I snapped before storming out of my room whilst muttering a string of curse words under my breath.
I was pacing about in the elevator. The dream, the girl who wouldn't leave me alone- I was up to my neck in problems. And to make matters worse, I had a chance of running into my old friends. I rarely attended school, but they all did. And the chance of me seeing them was higher than ever.
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Aires pov...
"Derek, I haven't got time, i'm late." I mumbled into the phone.
"I know, but we still need to discuss Christmas, and thanksgiving. Are you coming to see us or should we come to see you?"
Snorting into the phone, I rolled my eyes. "Since when do we do Christmas and thanksgiving?"
"Since I started living a normal life."
It must have been nice.
"Look Der, call me back later, we'll discuss Christmas and whatever then."
"Okay, go to school and don't fuck around, dumbass."
With a scowl, I ended the call before scrolling through the hundreds of text messages Allison had left me. 'Where are you?', 'are you okay?', 'I'm sorry for staying at Lydia's, are you okay?', 'call me right now'.
It was barely eleven am when I made into school, meaning I had already missed two of my classes. And I was low on pills, so not only was it going to be a long day- it was also going to be an awful one.
"Aires." Allison shrieked from across the hallway, making me lightly wince at the sound of her voice. "Where have you been? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I shot back with a light shrug, trying to play as casual as I could. "I'm fine, I woke up late. I was having a nightmare so I slept over my alarm. I'm okay, I promise."
"No you're not, Aires!" She suddenly snapped, taking me back at her sudden outburst. "Why won't you admit that? You're not okay. You are not okay. When you don't pick up the phone or answer my calls, I panic. I think the absolute worst. Where are you? Are you dead? Are you hurt?"
I knew I wasn't a good person, I knew that when I started picking drugs over my old friends, over spending time with them. But seeing Allison break down because of me tore at something inside of me. The one thing I always made sure of was to never put them above Allison, though it seemed in doing that I was slowly starting to push her away.
"I'm sorry, Alli." I whispered.
"What's going on?" She demanded, and for a second, I thought about telling her everything. "You can tell me."
I wanted to, but I just couldn't.
Saving me from putting salt in the wound, Lydia suddenly popped up at our side with a panicked look. "We need to go." She mumbled before latching onto Allison's arm and tugging on her- completely ignoring me.
It was as if I wasn't even there.
But before I had a chance to call after the two, my surroundings suddenly changed once again. I was transported back into the white hallway that haunted my dreams.
"No." I whispered whilst frantically shaking my head as I watched the violet door slowly creak open. "No, please leave me alone. Just leave me alone."
I was panicking- hyperventilating.
I was shuffling back hysterically whilst shaking my head in horror. A sob climbed up my throat as I watched the door open wider and wider. And then my screams filled the air as a sudden force shoved me towards it.
"I can't keep doing this. STOP! PLEASE! JUST KILL ME! JUST FUCKING KILL ME, I CANT DO IT ANYMORE!"
Every time I was shoved back towards the violet door in my nightmares, I was met with the identical version of myself, only this one had violet lifeless eyes and made me do things. 'Tests' the variant called it. It was why I was taking drugs more often, if I was high then the chances of ,e slipping back into a different world were lower.
And I just wanted a fucking break.
I was at my breaking point.
"Aires!"
My eyes flew back open, and suddenly, I wasn't in the white hallway. I was in the school hallway, cocooned in Lydia and Allison's arms.
"It's okay." Lydia whispered. "It's okay Ree, you're safe, you're in my arms."
"Lyds?"
"Yeah, it's me. You're okay."
I wasn't.
I was so fucking far from it.
"I'm sorry." I muttered when I noticed her shaking. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay, it's not your fault. We're gonna find a way to help you, okay? I'm gonna let you go and then we're gonna go get help, okay?"
I didn't know what I did to scare them so much, but by their reactions and expressions I knew I didn't just 'zone out'.
"Ree, how long has this been happening?" Allison suddenly demanded.
"What do you mean?"
"You weren't here." She snapped with wild, teary eyes. "You disappeared somewhere, you started having a panic attack and whispering for someone to leave you alone. You sounded terrified and so tired. What happened?"
I was carrying all of it.
Carrying all of the weight of what I had done, of what had happened. It was driving me insane, it was so fucking suffocating that I had to let it out.
"It's fine, really. It's no different to my nightmares, only these happen when I'm awake. I transport into a different world, it happens when I blink, turn too fast. I can't control it."
"Hold my hand, we're gonna go find someone, okay?" As Lydia slipped out of the embrace, her eyes did a scan over me, and I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest. "Have you been sleeping? Eating?"
I knew I carried dark bags under my eyes, darker than usual, and that all the colour in my face had been drained. I just didn't think anyone would actually notice.
"It's okay, just come with us." Allison quickly muttered before ushering me down the hallway.
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"You two arent the only ones losing your minds."
At the sound of Lydia's voice, Stiles and Scott's heads both turned, only for their eyes to immediately latch onto the shaking Hale wrapped around Allison's arms. She wasn't wearing her usual signature cherry red lip gloss or her jewellery. And just the lack of those things was enough to send Stiles into panic mode.
"Ree?" He whispered cautiously whilst nervously eyeing the girl.
"Well, well, well. It's happening to all of you. Look who's no longer the crazy one." Lydia hummed, earning a murderous death glare from Aires.
"We are not crazy." Allison hissed in the fours defence.
"Hallucinations? Sleep paralysis? Flitting between different worlds whilst both conscious and in your sleep? Yeah, you guys are fine."
"Well, we did die and then come back to life. That's gotta have some side effects right?" Scott contributed with a shrug.
But whilst everyone else spoke, Stiles' eyes remained locked on Aires, taking in her every mannerism, her every reaction. Guilt smacked him as he watched her flinch at the school bell. She was doing worse than he thought.
The longer he stared at her the more regret began to fill his chest, he pushed her away for his own selfish reasons, and in doing so she isolated herself from the pack, leaving herself alone to fight the war in her head.
Only she wasn't fighting it, she was drowning in it.
Panic prickled at his chest as he watched the girl's eyes grow wide, swimming in fear and fixated on a spot in the corner of the classroom. "Ree Ree?" He whispered just as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her body slipped from Allison's hold.
Quickly, his wrapped around the girl, catching her before her body hit the ground. He pulled her to his chest, brushing the hair from her face as he checked the pulse on the side of her neck.
"She's okay." He breathed out with a sigh. "She's alive, she just passed out."
"What happened? Is she okay? How slow is her breathing? Is she shaking? Do I need to call an ambulance? Do I call my Dad? Let's take her to the hospital. Wait! I need to grab her medication, maybe she forgot to take it-"
"Hey, hey, hey." Scott whispered whilst placing his hands on a frantic Allison. "She just passed out, okay?"
"But why?" She choked out in a demand. "Why? Why is this happening?"
"I'm gonna take her home, grab her medication, okay?" Stiles mumbled before walking out of the classroom with the girl in his hands whilst Allison, Scott and Lydia followed closely behind.
"I'm supposed to have an exam in a few minutes but I'm gonna call my Dad and-"
"No, go to your exam, Ree wouldn't want you to miss it."
"But Stiles-"
"It's okay. I got her."
The Argent paced about with her hands on her hips, contemplating what she should do. Finally, she let out a sigh of defeat as her eyes flickered down to the peacefully asleep Hale. "Please make sure she eats something."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's okay."
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Aires pov...
"Ree Ree." Stiles whispered, whilst giving me a light shake, pulling me out of unconsciousness and making my eyes flutter open.
A string of swear words fell from my lips as I stirred awake. "Did I pass out again?" I grumbled whilst rubbing at my sore eyes.
"Again?" He questioned with a frown. "How often does this happen?"
"Do you want the truth or should I sugar coat it for you?"
"Aires-"
"What?" I snapped, way harsher than I intended to, however, it was too late to take it back. "You ignored me for a month and now you're all interested again? No, Stiles. If you wanted to know how my month has been you would've been a part of it. Clearly you didn't care before so why do you do now?"
"I do care, I have always cared-"
"Bullshit!" I hissed whilst angrily crossing my arms over my chest as I swirled my body in the passenger seat to face him. "Why have you been ignoring me?"
I watched as he quickly shook his head, his eyes dropped down to the floor as he fidgeted with his hands on the steering wheel. He wasn't telling me the truth. He wasn't telling me anything.
"You know what? It doesn't matter."
"Ree, let me explain-"
"No." I dismissed with a roll of my eyes. "It's fine. Nothing you say will change anything so don't bother-"
"Here." He interrupted before shoving a paper bag into my hands. "You needed to eat."
Cautiously, I peered into the bag to see my favourite pancakes from the diner sat in the bottom of it. However, the usual smile that came at the sight of them didn't. I felt nothing.
"Thank you." I mumbled whilst closing the bag and leaving it on my lap.
I couldn't eat it, couldn't stomach the idea of putting food anywhere near my mouth.
"Let's get you home now-"
"No." I suddenly snapped with a shake of my head. "I need to go back to school."
"No, Ree. Allison told me to take you home because-"
"Alli would tell you to take me to the hospital over a paper cut. I'm fine, seriously. I've already taken my meds this morning so there's no reason to take me home."
It was all bullshit, though he wouldn't know.
He also wouldn't know about the reason I passed out, about the fact that I was so malnourished and sleep deprived that my own body had begun to give up on me.
"But Ree-"
"Stiles, either you take me back to the school or I'll knock you out, move your body in the back of the jeep and drive myself."
I wasn't backing down.
"Okay, okay, okay." He mumbled with a roll of his eyes. "No need to be so aggressive."
"I was not being aggressive." I hissed through clenched teeth.
"You so were."
"You're such a little shit-"
The sound of his phone ringing broke us from what would have been a bickering fest. With a shake of his head, Stiles glanced at his phone before forcing his eyes back onto the road. He was ignoring the call, and it sparked curiosity in me.
Whilst it continued to ring, I reached across the console and stuck my hand into his front pocket, causing a gasp to fall from his lips. Rolling my eyes, my fingers wrapped around the phone and pulled it out, and without a glance at the caller ID, I picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Aires?"
"Alex?"
Alex who hadn't made an appearance in weeks was calling Stiles. I could feel his eyes on me, watching me, studying me. I schooled my expression to be blank, pretended as if I didn't care- pretended as if I wasn't curious at all.
"Oh uhm, tell Stiles I'll call him back later." She hummed before hanging up the phone.
"Who was that?" He asked as if he didn't hear me say her name.
"Alex."
"Why was she calling?"
"Shouldn't you know that?"
He was silent, refusing to meet my eyes, refusing to acknowledge that he had something going on with her. I didn't care about it, whatever was between them, I could have cared less. I was just curios to know why he was lying about it.
"I'll just call her back later." He muttered with a shrug. "How's Aiden?" He suddenly questioned, changing the topic onto me, little did he know I could see through his guiltiness so easily.
He didn't know the truth about mine and Aiden's relationship. Nobody did. It came together when we were both in terrible states of mind. We liked each other, we were each other's comforts. Both of our packs had pushed us away, shoving us into each other's arms. I could feel myself slowly starting to love him, I already knew I would do anything for him, I would die for him in a heartbeat.
But I would never let myself fall in love with him.
So me and Aiden were complicated to say the least.
"Hes okay." I muttered carefully.
"And you? You happy with him? All happy and in love?"
I didn't miss the way he said love, the way his face slightly scrunched up as the word left his lips. He was jealous and he had absolutely no fucking right to be.
"I promised myself I wouldn't fall in love again, remember?" I forced out in the most even breath I could muster.
"What does that mean?"
"There's a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone."
And I promised myself I wouldn't ever be in love with anyone ever again.
Stiles knew this, so the fact that he was bringing it up unnerved me.
"Do you think that you will fall in love with Aiden? You don't have to admit it to him, you might even push it away, but do you think it could happen?"
"Honestly? I have no fucking clue."
"Why him, Ree?" He suddenly demanded, sending a chill down my spine. "After everything, why him?"
All I could do was give him a light shrug. "We want what we want."
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THIS TROPE BREAKS MY HEART. RIGHT PERSON WRONG TIME :(
Anyways, I can't wait for the next few chapters, chapter twenty eight and nine is something A LOT OF YOU have been waiting for, any guesses? (It's not stiles related)
XOXO