THE CAR RIDE TO THE HOSPITAL HAD BEEN A LITTLE AWKWARD, TO SAY THE LEAST. Harper and Isaac had been crammed into the back of the jeep beside Liam, while Scott and Stiles sat in the front as always. No music played as the car radio had been wrecked for a while now, leaving the five teenagers in dead silence. Well, dead silence apart from the whimpers that Liam made every now and then, a reminder of what Scott had done to him.
Harper didn't know if she trusted Liam yet or not. He seemed alright, but Stiles was right- this kid did seem too good to be true, just like how Harper had thought with Harry when she started receiving letters from him. If only she had gone with her gut instinct, then she wouldn't have been thrown into Eichen House or had her heart broken again. She also wouldn't know her dad was alive, and she couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or not. At least she knew the truth now.
As soon as the jeep pulled up in the hospital car park, the five teenagers got out of it as if it were on fire, none of them able to handle the awkwardness any longer. Isaac and Scott helped Liam out of the back, letting him put his arms around their shoulders so they could walk him in. Stiles and Harper opened all of the doors for them, up until they got to the main desk.
"Hey, we're gonna need to see a doctor. Our... friend, here, has hurt his ankle. Could be sprained, could be broken," Stiles told the woman behind the front desk, gesturing towards Liam who's face was currently screwed up in pure agony.
"Mom!" Harper heard the nervous chuckle of Scott, causing her head to turn.
Melissa had just come around the corner with a disappointed look on her face, huffing when she saw what her son had brought in. She just prayed that this had nothing to do with the supernatural as she went and got a wheelchair for the poor kid.
"If he was a werewolf he would have healed by now," Harper murmured quietly to Stiles as she watched Melissa come back with the required equipment.
"How do you know about my theory?" Stiles questioned, slightly shocked.
"Kira told me," the petite brunette shrugged, "and to be honest, I'm a little offended that you didn't think to tell me first. I mean, seriously, Kira? You didn't even trust her a few months ago."
"Well, Scott wasn't listening to me. And, listen, I wanted to tell you, I just..." Stiles scratched the back of his neck as he admitted, "I didn't want to put too much on your plate."
Harper's eyes softened, "what do you mean?"
"Well," he swallowed, "I know we haven't talked about what happened yet, but I don't want you to end up in that place again. Okay? Mentally and physically. With exams coming up, looking out for Malia, the whole Kate thing... I didn't want you to worry about something else."
Harper grabbed his hand and squeezed it, "Stiles, I can handle more than you probably think. I don't really want to talk about that night either, but... I feel better now."
"I'm glad," he whispered, leaning down and kissing the top of her head, "do you think you'll ever be ready to talk about it?"
"One day," Harper agreed quietly.
Isaac cleared his throat, ruining the moment. Harper and Stiles both looked up, Stiles rolling his whiskey eyes at the much taller werewolf.
"If you two are done reciting your little sonnet to each other in the corner," he mocked, "I have to go. I promised Malia I would help her study."
Stiles huffed, "bye."
"Bye, lover boy," she waved her hand as he began to walk down the hall, "tell Mrs Lahey I said hi."
Without turning around, Isaac raised his middle finger above his head, clearly directed at the Empath. She would tease him at school and at home, there was literally no escaping it. Harper chuckled, turning back around to her friends to see Scott looking more solemn than he probably should be looking.
"Scotty," she sighed, reaching out and squeezing his arm comfortingly, "Liam hurting his ankle isn't your fault. You didn't know that would happen. What's more important is that you wouldn't have even done it if you knew it would happen."
Scott shook his head, looking at the floor, "I don't know."
Stiles muttered, "Scott, if you had used any wolf power, that kid wouldn't be limping, he would be crawling back to the other half of his body."
"If I hadn't been so worried about being captain, he wouldn't be hurt either," Scott replied distastefully.
There was a small pause between the three best friends. Scott had nothing left to say while Harper and Stiles didn't know how to respond. Eventually, the Stilinski boy did.
"It's okay to want something for yourself every once in a while," he reassured him, "team captain, alpha werewolf. You're still only human."
...
SCOTT HAD LEFT TO CHECK UP ON LIAM ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO, LEAVING STILES AND HARPER TO THEIR OWN DEVICES. It had only taken a few minutes for the events of the day to catch up on the Stilinski boy, his tiredness overpowering him as he fell asleep on Harper's shoulder. She'd giggled a little as his mouth fell open, snores escaping his lips.
Harper lifted her phone, snapping a few pics of him so she could show him what he looked like later. He always claimed he never slept with his mouth open due to his fear of spiders crawling in, however now she had solid proof.
Just as she went to put her phone away, it began to buzz in her hands, making her jump. Stiles groaned from her shoulder, stirring. She looked at the screen quickly.
LYDIA is calling ...
"Shh," She hushed her boyfriend as if he were a baby, "I'm going to get some snacks, kay?"
"Mhm," Stiles murmured, moving so he was leaning on his own shoulder, "hurry back, you're comfy."
His words were barely coherent as Harper chuckled, shaking her head and walking away. She turned the corner and pressed accept, balancing her phone on her shoulder as she looked at the vending machine, simultaneously shuffling through her pockets for spare change.
"Alright governor?" She teased, putting on her most obnoxious accent as she looked down the rows of snacks in concentration, "hey, what is a governor?"
"Seriously?" Lydia retorted, sounding extremely frustrated, maybe at Harper's childishness, maybe not.
"What's up?" The brunette frowned, brows knitting together.
"Tha-that family that was murdered," she began, stammering over her words as she tried to get them out clearly.
"Lydia," Harper spoke with a warning tone, "calm down."
"The son- the son is the only one that survived," the girl on the other side explained, "he's at the hospital."
"Hey, that's where I am," Harper looked around, "what a coincidence."
"Are you high?" Lydia exclaimed, "I'm being serious, Harper! Go find him. Sean Walcott."
The line was cut dead, much to Harper's dismay. She had no clue why Lydia wanted her to go see this boy, she hasn't really heard much about the whole murder case. Nevertheless, she began walking toward the front desk.
"Hi, can you tell me where Sean Walcott is?" She asked the nurse.
"Are you family?"
"Yeah," she lied.
"Room 237, sweetie."
Harper thanked the woman before going down the hall, towards the room she needed. She counted each door number as she went past them under her breath, whispering a quick "bingo" under her breath when she got to Sean's room.
Knocking on the door, she listened out for a response but got nothing in return. Harper peeked through the small glass window on the side of the door, frowning when she realised that Sean wasn't in his bed and the lights were off.
Come to think of it... shouldn't there be a police officer outside his room?
Harper pushed open the door and called worriedly, "hello? Sean?"
She heard shuffling and what sounded like slurping from the other side of the bed, making her heart stop. Her first instinct was that Sean was hurt, which is what made her rush over so quick without hesitation. However, what she saw was probably going to haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.
A teenage boy, who Harper assumed was Sean Walcott, was kneeling over the body of an unfamiliar police officer, blood around his mouth as he held what looked to be an intestine in his hands. He had been eating it.
Harper's breath was caught in her throat and she was paralysed by fear, watching as the boy looked up at her, his eyes glazed over by a milky grey colour.
"I couldn't help it, I'm so hungry," he groaned before yelling in a demonic tone, "I'm just so hungry!"
He slowly began to stand up. Harper didn't know what to do, she only knew how to run.
"It got my family," he muttered, using his arm to wipe away some of the blood around his lips, "it got yours too."
Harper took a step back, stumbling over her words as she asked, "w-who?"
"The Mute. He got my family and he got yours too," he repeated.
Harper didn't have much time to think about what he meant, her mind too wrapped around on the fact that she had just walked in on him eating a human being using his razor-sharp teeth- which he still had out, by the way.
Everything that happened next happened quickly. The frantic brunette dashed for the exit, making it out into the hallway before being grabbed maliciously. Her body fell to the ground from the weight, knocking the air out of her lungs.
"No!" She cried, her hands trying to get a grip on the slippery floor as he began to pull her back inside the room by her legs.
Once she realised she wasn't going to be able to pull herself away from him, she quickly flipped onto her back and kicked out as hard as she could, kicking Sean directly in the foot with her black pumps. The cannibalistic teenager stumbled backwards, clutching his nose which had already begun to bleed, although it looked like nothing compared to the rest of the blood covering his face, dripping onto his white shirt.
Harper used the time he was distracted to scramble back up, only just getting up before his hands were back on her, shoving her straight back down like a doll.
"No! Leave me alone!" The brunette screamed, "get away from me!"
She prayed that somebody heard her, and she hoped that somebody was Scott. He was the only chance she had at getting away from this boy without somebody else getting hurt too.
The Empath got back up as he got near her, but he used his time to shove her against the wall. His frame loomed over her like a shadow she couldn't escape, his rows of teeth on display, and to make matters worse, dripping with crimson liquid.
Sean's hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling it up so it was by her hand. She struggled against him, trying to tug her body away so hard that it stung. Tears burned in her eyes as she kicked and thrashed but to no use.
It was a sensation that Harper had never experienced in her seventeen years of life before, and Harper had been bitten by an alpha werewolf before. The rows of sharp objects all clamping down on her wrist in one go, piercing her skin and staying there for a second. Her heart was caught in her throat as for a split second everything seemed to be in slow motion. She could only imagine what it was going to be like as he pulled away, ripping her flesh away with it. She was definitely going to bleed out and die.
But before he could finish the job, large hands wrapped around Sean's neck from behind, pulling him back. Thankfully, Sean's mouth gaped open in shock, releasing his grip on her wrist. Harper clutched her wound as she watched with horrified eyes at her best friend fight the boy who had just tried to kill her.
Scott and Sean began to tackle each other just as Melissa came running down the hallway, straight to Harper who was leaning against the wall, sweat beading on her forehead. She brushed the hair out of the teenager's face, her brown eyes full of motherly concern.
"Harper, breathe," she warned, noticing how Harper's chest was barely rising- probably from the shock.
A thump came from beside them and Harper left to see Scott get thrown against a wall and Sean take off around the corner. Scott paid no attention to him, looking back at his family.
"Harper, your arm," he panicked.
"Just teeth marks," she reassured him half-heartedly, "could have been a lot worse."
He moved towards her, his hand reaching out to take some of her pain. She shook her head firmly, pursing her lips to stop herself crying out.
"Just go," she breathed, "go and stop him before he really does kill someone else."
Scott hesitated for a second before nodding quickly and taking off in the direction the other teenage boy had gone in.
"Harper!" Stiles' voice echoed and suddenly he was by her side, "I heard you scream- Oh god, what happened?" He looked at Melissa, "what happened? Is she okay?"
Melissa nodded quickly, although she looked slightly panicked too, "she's going to be fine, but we need to clean it and check how deep the teeth marks are, for sure."
Stiles' arm was wrapped around her as they rushed to the next available hospital room, away from the bloody scene. Melissa was already alerting authorities on the phone behind them, but it was kind of blurred out to Harper. All she could think about was when he had his mouth clamped around her and when she thought that was it.
"Do you think Scott's gonna be okay?" She asked Stiles as she sat down on the hospital bed.
The Stilinski boy nodded in response as he dismissed her question, "Scott's the alpha, right? He's got this. I'm more worried about the bite mark on your arm right now."
"What was that thing?" Harper gaped at him breathlessly, "he had teeth like freaking Jaws and his eyes glowed."
Stiles chewed down on his bottom lip as Melissa entered the room, quickly going over to her medical supplies.
"I have no idea," he admitted, before looking down at her arm.
Teeth marks littered her tan skin, her blood smeared slightly. It didn't look too bad in the sense that she wasn't losing much blood, but the sight was something he had never seen before. Human bites and animal bites looked like nothing compared to this. There were about twenty different teeth marks top and bottom, and he hadn't even got the back of his mouth around her yet.
"Are you in pain?"
"It hurt at first, I think it's kinda numb from shock right now," she said quietly, running her finger over one of the marks, consequently picking blood up on the way, "you don't have to sit with me if you want. I know how much you hate blood."
Stiles scoffed, "oh, I am not leaving you. Not now."
Harper forced a pained smile up at him as Melissa began to clean her arm. Stiles returned it, squeezing her hands as he glanced nervously at the door. He could only pray that Scott had this all under control.
...
the chapter name is a bit of a pun because harper says it a lot haha
sorry i havent updated in like four days :// i wrote this chapter like four times because the first time it was wayy too dramatic, then it wasn't dramatic at all and the third time i mixed it up a little and put too much information about tHiNgS in that ive decided to leave for later chapters
i had my college interview yesterday and i got accepted so im really happy :) but i am in my last year of school and i have so much work to do (im already getting soo much homework) so im worry if updates start to come less regularly, however i will try my best