tw; mentions of suicide
—
Austin laid back flat on the bed, Ryder sleeping soundly on his chest.
Despite the girl he loved not having enough confidence to express the love she had for him, he was in a pretty content mood.
Having already taken a long enough nap on the bus, Austin had suggested that Ryder get as much sleep as her body would let her before they had to leave again. She was reluctant at first, but the soft whispering of his voice letting out whatever came to mind was enough to lull her to sleep.
Not having anyone to talk to, he spent his time rearrange the jewelry on her hands and tracing the tattoos on her arms.
It had only been about fifteen minutes before his body jumped at the sound of someone banging on the door. He didn't want to move, but he knew that if they continued to knock then they wound wake Ryder up. So, with a low grunt, he gently maneuvered Ryder off his chest, making sure the pillow was covered before he laid her head on it.
Opening the door, he was shocked to see Allison, Lydia and Stiles staring at him with scared expressions on their faces.
"Where's Ryder?"
"Asleep, why?" He stepped back as Lydia brushed past him to get into the room.
"She hasn't left your side since earlier?" Stiles asked, closing the door behind him.
"No." He frowned, "What's going on?"
"This hotel has a framed number of 198 suicides." Allison bluntly responded, opening her bag to pull out a few papers.
"What?"
"We went in there earlier and it was 202." Lydia swallowed nervously, eyes darting around the room.
"Meaning what?" Austin questioned, sitting down next to Ryder, gently rubbing at her side to ease her awake.
"Meaning our werewolf friends are going to try and kill themselves if we don't stop them.
•••
Now awake, much to her dismay, Ryder walked slowly behind Allison, Stiles and Lydia, Austin holding her hand tightly.
"I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?"
"It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on."
Stiles' eyes grew wide as they stopped in front of a door, "Handsaw?"
The Stilinski shoved his shoulder against the door, grunting at the impact he made every time his body hit the door.
Austin had let go of Ryder's hand, moving to Stiles' other side to help him, successfully managing to force the door open. The sight in front to him sent his heart racing.
"Hey, no, Ethan, don't!"
Stiles fought back and forth with the Steiner twin for a few seconds before Austin took it upon himself to simply unplugged the machine, the whirring sound stopping before Stiles lost grip and accidentally sent Ethan flying into a heater.
His skin making a hissing sound as soon as his arm made contact with the item.
"What just happened?" Ethan asked, blinking dumbly at the people in front of him.
No one gave him an answer, not really knowing what to say. Even if they did, he didn't give them enough time to form a response before he was running out of the room.
"Ethan!"
"Hey! Where's Ryder?"
•••
Her eyes were filled with tears as she stared at the man in front of her.
Her hair waved around messily as the wind smacked her in the face.
"I'll keep it simple." Peter started, "Do it."
"What?"
"Jump."
Ryder looked away from the ground below her, "Why?"
"You're my daughter, Ryder. I feel like that's enough of a reason for you to kill yourself." Peter chuckled, "But sure, I'll bite, no pun intended."
She squinted her eyes at him, not finding his joke funny.
"Shouldn't you be grieving your nephew?"
"I should. But I came to let you know that had you been there, he wouldn't be dead."
"Derek's death isn't my fault."
She knew it wasn't. No one could dare blame her for that.
"It is. It's your fault just as much as it is Scott's. Who would have thought that my beta and my daughter would be the reason behind losing my only nephew."
"His death isn't Scott's fault either."
She didn't know why she was seeing him, but he was being more annoying than he was convincing. Ryder didn't understand why Peter wanted her to kill herself, or why a part of her wanted to listen to him, but she truly didn't like it.
Peter stepped forward, tugging harshly at her arm, she wouldn't have noticed if he didn't drag her towards the edge of the building.
"Do it."
"No."
He flashed his eyes at her, "Do it."
"No!" Her head turned at the sound of Austin's voice. "Ry, please."
Looking closer, she could see Scott and the others also behind him, keeping a safe distance, not wanting to scare her.
"I wasn't going to." She spoke softly, the words doing little to reassure him.
Austin took a small step forward, putting his hand out for her to grab, "Can you come down, please?"
"No." She shook her head, "Peter won't let me."
Scott and Lydia shared a glance at the name, their hearts pounding at the man that single handedly ruined both their lives.
"He doesn't love you."
She looked away from him, Austin noticed this immediately.
"You think he loves you? His speech was bullshit, Ryder. Spoiler alert: your mom did the same thing to me." Peter told her through clenched teeth, tightening his grip on her arm. "You're a Hale. My daughter, you think you're not gonna end up like me?"
"Ryder." She could hear Lydia call out to her.
"A killer? You can turn into a full wolf and you're only sixteen, you think you won't turn into the beast that I was? Give it a couple years."
"What is he saying to her?" Austin nearly shouted as he watched the tears stream down her face, shaking breaths leaving her lips.
"Better to end it now then to go through the pain of losing them one by one."
Soft mumbles left her lips as she cried.
"What's she saying?" Stiles whispered, his question being directed at Scott.
"None of them care about you!"
"No."
"Scott, wait." Allison tried to grab at his arm when he began to walk forward.
"Ryder."
Her teary eyes darted to him, "It's not worth it. Don't let him get in your head."
The closer he got, the further she stepped back.
"Ryder, please."
Her vision was blurry by the time she looked back at Austin. "We're all here for you. I'm here for you."
A sharp gasp left her lips as she felt a stinging pain in her arm, stepping back in panic, her body soon flying forward as Austin wasted no time in pulling her from the edge, her body crashing into his.
She watched as Peter faded away before her eyes. Looking down, she watched the bruising from the road flare fade away.
"What the hell was that?"
•••
Ryder and Scott stayed awake all night.
The others sleeping soundly as they all collectively decided that they wouldn't be sleeping in the hotel.
Neither of them spoke a word.
Scott had heard her whispers of how she didn't want to turn out like Peter. He knew better than to ask her about that, and he wouldn't dare tell the others of how she felt.
"I don't want to know. I really don't want to know, but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!"
Austin grumbled as he woke up from the sound of Coach's voice. Sighing softly as he nestled into Ryder's arms, refusing to depart from her.
"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life."
Stiles perked up, "Actually, Austin and I saved your life, but not that it matters that much. It's just... it's minor detail."
"So I'm gonna give you something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive." Ryder glanced up at Ethan's words, "But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack..."
"And kills his own."
"Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works."
"You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just F.Y.I." Stiles said.
"Hey, Ethan, I wanted to—"
Lydia stops Bobby from speaking, reaching for the whistle hanging from his neck, "Coach, can I see your whistle for a second?"
"What's that?"
"Hey, Eth—I'm gonna need that back. Ethan..."
Lydia blew into the whistle, pulling her hand back to reveal purple dust.
"Wolfsbane."
"So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Ryder, Isaac, Boyd—"
"—and Ethan."
"We all inhaled it."
"You were all poisoned by it."
"That's so lame." Ryder spoke for the first time since the night before,"I was convinced I got possessed."
"So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it."
"He could be a she." Austin mumbled, closing his eyes as Stiles tossed Coach's whistle out the window.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Stilinski!"
Ryder snorted, rolling her eyes a bit when Stiles winked in her direction.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket, moving slowly as to not disturb the sleeping George teen on her shoulder. Pulling up Josie's contact, she began to type a message.
'Dude, craziest thing just happened. Promise not to tell mom?'
—
A/N: this season is going by a lot faster than expected...