Allison was close to tailing the bus. "Am I getting too close? I'm getting too close, aren't I?"
Lydia glanced up from her book and shrugged. "That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point."
"You're gonna make them suspicious," Maggie stated bluntly.
Allison nodded. "Yeah, I should back off."
Lydia sighed. "Well, that also depends. Oh, do you mean the bus, the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking, or Maggie's not-boyfriend?"
Maggie huffed. "Stop calling him that. Does that mean Caleb is your not-boyfriend?"
"Oh, sure. You're just friends, but constantly worry about each other, he's head over heels for you and you're pretending you don't feel the same, but you're just friends. No, Caleb isn't that to me."
"Lydia, shut up. You tell him that, you'll break his heart."
"Will I?"
Maggie shot her a dirty look and rolled her eyes.
Allison snuck a glance at Lydia in the rearview mirror. "Well, after it happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight, and I know Maggie is worried about him as well."
"Hm," Lydia hummed.
"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."
"For what?" Lydia wondered.
No one answered, and Maggie leaned forward, closer to Allison. "Are you going to keep following that bus? You're taking the "not letting them out of your sight" literally."
"Why?" Allison questioned.
"You're gonna run out of gas," Maggie told her bluntly.
Allison groaned. "Ugh."
Lydia glanced at Maggie and nodded. "Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that bus hold a lot more gas than this Toyota."
Allison glanced to Lydia a second time. "What if we stop?"
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."
Maggie frowned. "Um, leaving Stiles alone equals something stupid happening."
Allison nodded. "You didn't see what happened."
"I know who started it," Lydia said.
Maggie glanced at her with a light smirk. "Is that what Aiden told you?"
"Aiden?" Lydia asked in an innocent tone. She glared at Allison. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me."
"So there's nothing between you two?" Allison asked.
Lydia pursed her lips. "I'm appalled by the insinuation."
"Nothing?" Maggie pressed in a teasing tone.
Lydia shot her a look. "Nothing."
Traffic stopped and Maggie let out a light groan.
Lydia's phone started ringing and she answered. "Hey, Stiles. Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, uh, you know, the popcorn and..."
"I know you're following us."
"Okay."
She put her phone on speaker and Stiles' voice resounded. "Okay, look, Scott's still hurt."
Allison frowned. "What do you mean still? He's not healing?"
"No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black color."
"What's wrong with him?" Maggie wondered. "He was injured hours ago. He should be healing, if not healed."
Lydia nodded and Stiles said, "I don't... do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"
"Stiles, cut it out."
Allison sighed and thought for a moment. "We need to get him off the bus."
"And take him where? A hospital?" Stiles shot back sarcastically.
Allison let out another sigh. "If he's dying, yeah. Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."
Stiles scoffed. "Yeah, I've been trying."
"Well, reason with him," Allison said.
"Reason? Have you met this guy?"
Maggie nodded. "We all have. You have try something."
Stiles sighed. "Yeah, okay."
---
In the bus, Stiles sat next to Jared, who was looking nauseous and smiled deviously. "Hi, Jared. How you doing?"
Soon, the bus was filled with the disgusting smell of vomit.
---
The bus stopped and Stiles got Scott out.
Scott's friends got him to the bathroom. Maggie lifted up his shirt to reveal a wound surrounded with black goo. Stiles grabbed her hand. "Oh, my God."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Allison questioned.
"Sorry," Scott mumbled.
Allison smiled softly. "Okay. Just give us a second, okay?"
The four of them moved to the side, leaving Scott in his place against the wall. Allison frowned. "This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this."
Stiles thought for a moment. "Okay, what do we do then? Do we just call an ambulance?"
"And if they get here too late? Or what if they don't know how to help?"
"We gotta do something."
"You know, it could be psychological," Lydia suggested.
Stiles turned to her. "What do you mean, like psychosomatic?"
"Somatoformic," Lydia corrected.
Maggie noticed Stiles' expression and said, "It's a physical illness from a psychogenic cause."
"Yes, it's all in his head," Lydia added.
"All in his head?" Stiles wondered. He thought for a moment. "Because of Derek. He's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died."
"So what do we do?" Allison wondered.
Maggie shrugged. "Stitch him up." Allison shot her a look. "I'm serious. If he's somatoformic, stitching him up may let him believe he's healing."
Allison gave her a nod before walking over to Scott. "He's going to need another shirt. Where's his bag?"
"Um, I'm going to get out," Stiles said. "I hate needles anyway, so... uh, do you know what you're doing?"
Allison nodded. "Yeah, my father taught me."
Stiles glanced between them. "I mean, how fast are you gonna... I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave."
Maggie turned to Stiles. "Then we have make sure it doesn't. I'm going with Stiles."
"Yeah, I'm good."
Stiles and Maggie left to get the shirt for Scott. He glanced to her. "Scott's gonna be okay, right?"
"I hope so." Her phone chimed with a message. "Caleb is on his way. He's worried about something, but won't say what."
They returned to the bathroom and Stiles handed Scott the shirt. "Can you stand?" Scott nodded. "Okay. Put this on."
"Whoa," Scott groaned with a wobble. Maggie assisted Allison in holding Scott's other side as they walked out of the bathroom.
They got outside and Lydia joined them. "Is he okay? Are you okay?"
Scott nodded. "Yeah. Stiles. Where's Stiles?"
"Trying to stall Coach," Lydia answered. She turned to Maggie and Allison. "We still don't have gas."
Allison shook her head. "I'm not leaving him."
"Then our only option is to leave the car," Maggie stated sarcastically.
Allison nodded. "Sounds good."
Lydia frowned. "She was being sarcastic. That wasn't an actual suggestion. Allison, wait. Ah. Screw it. Come on, Maggie."
Maggie ran towards Stiles and saw Isaac beating up Ethan. Everyone was watching around. He continued beating him and only stopped when Scott yelled, "Isaac!"
They piled back into the bus. Lydia was in a seat by herself, Maggie sat with Stiles, and Scott was sitting with Allison. Stiles, Lydia and Maggie began discussing the recent murders. "All right. Let's go over this one more time. So it's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark druid of some kind."
"Or actually is a dark druid," Lydia said.
"You mean a Darach," Maggie corrected.
Lydia shot her a small frown. "You know... Some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle."
Stiles nodded. "So we got Alpha werewolves against a dark druid."
"Yeah," Lydia replied.
"Wonderful," Maggie mumbled, pulling out her phone to text her brother. 'Meet us at the motel. We need to talk face to face.'