( XLVI. WEIGHT OF THE WORLD )
NOW, Amelie wanted to listen to Isaac.
She really did, she knew the drugs were harmful and that she was following her father's condemned footsteps, but the withdrawal was harder than anything she's went through. So, after a few hours, when the voices crept into her head again, she took a pill. And then another and another and another.
It had been five days since Karly died. Amelie was surprised that everyone was moving on with their lives so normally. She hadn't heard anything from Scott, and this time she had checked her messages to make sure. No calls, no texts.
The sun was setting when she received a text from Stiles telling her to meet him at the animal clinic. He said it was important. She hadn't left her house yet, but maybe Isaac was right, she had to get out of this funk.
With a heavy heart, she started to get dressed into a pair of jeans with a hoodie and vest on top. It was supposed to rain tonight too and she didn't want to take any chances of catching a cold, despite her feeling hot most of the time.
By the time she got into her car and started driving, the raining had already begun, she could barely see through the storm but the roads were thankfully empty. When she arrived at the animal clinic, she spotted Scott's motorcycle, and Scott was standing there, watching her.
She didn't want to talk to him. She knew deep down Scott wasn't at fault, but it was easier to blame someone for everything.
"Scott," She acknowledged him when she got out of the car, placing her hoodie over her head, "Where's Stiles?"
Before he could respond, Stiles' jeep approached them. Slamming the door, he yelled out, "Hey, sorry... I had trouble starting the Jeep again—that thing's barely hanging on. Ams, hey, sorry I'm late."
She smiled at him softly and walked up to him to grab his hand, but his eyes remained on Scott. "Scott? Where did you get that?"
Turning around, she found Scott holding a large metal wrench. She recognized it from Stiles' box, but the blood on it made her stomach churn.
"This is yours?" Scott asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was going to..."
"Tell him what?" Amelie furrowed her brows.
"No, but why didn't you tell me when it happened?" Scott asked nodding to Amelie, "Why didn't you tell her?"
"I couldn't," Stiles shook his head, turning to Amelie pleadingly. She was more confused than ever.
"You killed him? You killed Donovan?"
Amelie froze. This is what he was hiding. This is what made him so anxious and fidgety. She dropped his hand.
"Well, he was going to kill my dad. Huh?" Stiles panted. "Was I supposed to just let him?"
"You weren't supposed to do this," Scott yelled. "None of us are!"
"You think I had a choice?" Stiles yelled back.
"There's always a choice."
"Yeah, well, I can't do what you can, Scott," Stiles shouted, water dripping down his forehead. "I know you wouldn't have done it. You probably would have just figured something out, right?"
"I'd try."
"Yeah, because you're Scott McCall! You're the True Alpha! Guess what? All of us can't be True Alphas!" Stiles was fuming. "Some of us have to make mistakes. Some of us have to get our hands a little bloody sometimes. Some of us are human!"
There it was. The elephant in the room, the one thing Stiles held inside of him for so long had finally been set free.
"So you had to kill him?"
"Scott," Amelie scoffed in disbelief. He was not getting the message, was he?
"Scott, he was going to kill my dad!" Stiles begged.
"But the way that it happened... There's a point when it's... It's not self-defense anymore!"
If it was anything Amelie knew about Stiles, it was that he would never kill anyone in cold blood, and the fact that Scott didn't believe that meant he didn't know his best friend... at all.
"What are you even talking about?" Stiles retorted. "I didn't have a choice, Scott!"
But, Scott didn't answer, he just watched his best friend with a mix of emotions. Anger, hurt, sadness. Disappointment.
"You don't even believe him, do you?" Amelie narrowed her eyes.
"I want to."
"Clearly," Amelie muttered under her breath.
"Okay. All right, so... So, believe me, then," Stiles stuttered. "Scott, say you believe me. Say it. Say you believe me."
"Stiles, we can't kill people that we're trying to save," Scott shook his head.
"Say you believe me!" Stiles shouted, walking to Scott, who flinched and stepped away. Amelie was shocked.
"We can't kill people. Do you believe that?" Scott said quietly.
"Well, what do I do about this?" Stiles nodded. "What do you want me to do? Okay, just be... Scott, just tell me how to fix this, all right? Please, just tell me— what do you want me to do?"
It was quiet for a while before Scott finally said, "Don't worry about Malia or Lydia. We'll find them. Maybe... Maybe you should talk to your dad," Scott glanced at Amelie for a second before he walked away into the animal clinic.
With all the emotions Amelie was feeling, anger was on top of the list. After everything Scott and Stiles had been through, Scott thought so low of Stiles, it made her blood boil. She gave one last glance at Stiles, who was staring at her, begging her to believe him. She gave him a nod, placing her hand on his cheek for a second before she followed Scott into the animal clinic.
"You son of a bitch," Amelie said through gritted teeth, glancing at Theo who was leaning on the wall with a smirk. Why was he here? "After everything you've been through together, this is how you treat your best friend? Your best friend who has been with you since you were nothing. All for what? For self-defense, for protecting himself and his dad? You choose to believe whatever lie has been put into your head over Stiles?"
"It's not a lie," Theo interrupted.
"I wasn't talking to you," Amelie snarled, eyes flashing lilac for a moment, before turning to Scott again, who was staring at the floor, "You know, I get it, Scott, you have the weight of the fucking world on your shoulders. You want to save everyone. But, you can't do that without Stiles. You lost me, you lost Malia, not to mention Kira, who no one is talking about by the way, and now you lost Stiles. I hope you're happy with your newest member, because he is all you have left."
With one last glare at Theo, she walked out of the animal clinic to find Stiles gone. She wasn't going to let this affect them. She believed him, and it didn't take a genius to know it was self-defense. She just had to tell him that.