"Maybe you both just need a little more time to get back to normal." Madison suggested as her and Scott stood next to Stiles as he opened his locker. Both of them were hallucinating, and it was starting to get weird.
"Yeah, but I think that you're forgetting that we set off a supernatural reset button for a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures." Stiles sighed, struggling to open his locker. "I think there's a fairly good chance that things will never get back to normal."
Stiles looked frustrated as he kept on trying to open it, but continued to fail. He stared down at it for a while. Madison furrowed her eyebrows. "Stiles, let me get it."
Stiles sighed before nodding. "5, 23, 47." He recited his combination, stepping away from the locker. Madison quickly spun the lock, opening it.
Madison heard Scott breathing heavily, and glanced over at him. Her eyes widened. "Scott, your eyes. You're going full alpha mode on us."
"You mean right now?" He asked her.
"Yes, right now!" Stiles nodded frantically. "Stop!"
"I- I can't." He stammered out, placing his hand over his eyes. "I can't control it."
"Alright." Stiles sighed. "Just keep your head down. Look down." Stiles guided Scott into an empty classroom, and Madison followed behind them, closing the door.
Madison watched as Scott stripped himself of his jacket, fumbling to the ground. Madison stepped closer to help, but he lifted his hand. "No, get back!" Stiles placed his hand in front of her, knowing she would go against his wishes.
"Scott, it's okay." She stepped forward, getting away from Stiles's hand. She felt his hand grip onto hers. She looked back and sighed.
"I don't know what's going to happen." Scott looked back at them, and his eyes were red and his fangs were out and ready to play. "Get back!"
Scott dug his claws into his palms, trying to make himself feel pain. Scott growled from the pain, falling to the ground. Madison watched as his hands turned back to normal, and he began breathing heavily. He fell back against the desk. "Pain makes you human." He explained to them, showing the claw marks in his hands.
"Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real." Stiles stated, moving closer to him. Madison kneeled in front of Scott, placing her hand, comfortingly, on his leg. "And it's starting to get bad for me too. I'm not just having nightmares. I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake, and sometimes I'm not sure if I'm even actually waking up."
"What do you mean?" Scott furrowed his eyebrows.
"Do you know how you can tell if your dreaming?" Madison shrugged, answering Stiles. "You can't read in dreams. And these last couple of days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words; I can't put the letters in order."
"Can you read right now?" Madison asked her best friend. He stood up, examining the room.
"I can't read a thing."
*
Madison sat in economy class, right behind Stiles, and she noticed that he started to stop responding to coach. Coach noticed this, too. "Stilinski?" Coach asked, but Stiles didn't say a word. Coach blew his whistle for a long time, until Stiles snapped out of his daze. "Stilinski!"
"Uhuh?"
"Stilinski, I asked you a question." Coach glared at Stiles.
"Uh, sorry, coach." Stiles sighed, leaning his head against his arm. "What was it?"
"Oh, it was Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?" Coach snapped at him.
"Oh." Stiles widened his eyes. "Well, I am now."
"Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink every night." Coach sighed. "Does anyone else want to answer the question on the board?"
Stiles glanced between Madison and Scott, who were both giving him concerned looks. "I'm okay." He nodded. "I just fell asleep for a second."
"Dude, you weren't asleep." Scott shook his head. Madison gestured to the notebook sitting in front of Stiles. It had 'wake up' written all over it.
*
"Okay, so what happens to someone who has a near death experience, and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked his lunch table. Scott, Stiles, Madison, Isaac, Lydia, and Allison were all sitting outside for lunch that day.
"And is unable to tell what's real or not." Stiles added.
"And is being haunted by demonic visions of her dead relatives." Allison had apparently started seeing her Aunt Kate, but it's was an evil version of her.
"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac answered them all, smirking. Madison let out a snort, knowing that comment would not sit well with Stiles.
"Ha." Stiles groaned, sarcastically. "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?"
"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing to me." Isaac sassed him, and Stiles rolled his eyes.
"Okay, are you still milking that?"
"Yeah, we are still milking that-" Isaac nodded.
"Hi." The girl from earlier, Kira Yukimura interrupted them. "I couldn't help but overhear what you guys where talking about." Madison widened her eyes as she shared a glance with Lydia. Madison quickly looked down at her lunch. "And I think I might know what you're talking about." Kira sent the group an awkward smile. "There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called Bardo. It literally means in between states; the states being life and death."
"And what do they call you?" Lydia asked with a rude tone. Madison stamped her foot down on Lydia's, and the strawberry blonde let out a yelp.
"Kira." Scott answered for her. Everyone glanced over at him, cocking their eyebrows, especially Allison. "She's in our history class."
"So, are you talking Bardo as in Tibetan Buddhism, or Indian?" Lydia asked, running a finger through her curls.
"Either, I guess." Kira stated, taking a seat next to Madison. Madison awkwardly shifted, not liking the sudden contact. "But all that stuff you guys were saying, all that happens in Bardo. They're are different progressive states in which you have hallucinations; some you see, and some you just hear. And, you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."
"Wrathful deities?" Madison sighed. "Can you explain to me what that is, exactly?"
"Like demons." She sent her a smile.
"Demons." Stiles sighed. "Why not?"
"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison questioned the girl.
"Death." Kira simply answered. "You die."
*
"It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you." Deaton explained to Scott, Stiles, and Madison as they all stood in the animal clinic.
"Well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?" Stiles sighed, scratching his forehead.
"Do you remember what the sign language looked like?" Deaton asked him. "The placement and the movement of the hands?"
"Woah, you know sign language?" Madison smiled. "This guy just keeps getting cooler and cooler."
"I know a little." Deaton nodded before turning back to Stiles. "Let me give it a shot."
"Okay, so the first move was like this." Stiles stated before doing the first thing of sign language.
"That's when." Deaton told him.
"Then there's this." Stiles performed another one. "Twice."
"That's door."
"And then this." Stiles did the last move.
"That's it?" Deaton asked him, and Stiles nodded. "When is a door not a door?" Deaton stated.
"When is a door not a door?" Madison and Stiles snapped at the same time, not understanding the point of the riddle.
"When it's ajar." Scott mumbled.
"You're kidding me. A riddle?" Stiles rolled his eyes. "My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle."
"Not exactly." Deaton shook his head. "When the three of you went under water, when you passed from consciousness to a kind of superconsciousness, you essentially opened a door in your minds."
"Okay, so then what does that mean?" Scott asked his boss, raising his eyebrows. "The door is still open?"
"Ajar." Deaton corrected him.
"A door into our minds." Stiles sighed.
"I did tell you it was risky."
"Then what do we do about it?" Scott questioned.
"That's difficult." Deaton sighed.
"Wait a second." Madison sighed, narrowing her eyes at Deaton. "I know that look. That's THE look. It's the look that says we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we don't know how to fix it look."
"Well, here's one thing I do know." Deaton stated. "Having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good." The three teenagers exchanged looks. "You each need to close that door, and you need to do it as soon as possible."
They walked outside the clinic, and a car pulled into the driveway. "Dad, what are you doing here?" Stiles asked his father, as the sheriff stepped out of his van.
"I'm here because I need some help." The sheriff explained to them. "Actually, you're help." Stilinski pointed to Scott.
"Why me?" Scott raised his eyebrows.
"Because eight years ago almost an entire family died in a car accident." Stiles's dad stated. "One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me think that a werewolf caused the accident, and then dragged her body away." The sheriff sighed. "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."
"And what if it was a werewolf?" Madison asked him, cocking an eyebrow.
"Then, there is someone out there who murdered an innocent family." The sheriff concluded. "Someone who still needs to be caught."
Word Count - 1657
Author's Note -
The new chapter is up! I really have to nothing to say in this authors note...
Thank you guys for reading this story.
Please comment what you want to see in future chapters, and don't forget to vote!
Have a nice day, lovelies 💞