I can't wait for next week's chapter to be honest. Hope you guys are enjoying x
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"I still can't believe you didn't come and get us," I told Allison. "We could've helped."
Allison, Lydia and I were all driving together, following Scott and Stiles. The only thing was, they were on the school bus and they didn't know that we were following them.
Now, this might seem like a gross invasion of privacy, but we had our reasons.
It had taken a bit of convincing for Lottie to allow me to go - considering I wasn't on the team - but I told her I wanted to be there to support Scott and Stiles. Since that wasn't technically a lie, and I would probably have done this before all the werewolf stuff, it was easy to use that as my excuse. Thankfully, she said I could go as long as I kept in contact.
So now we were following our friends, who didn't know we were following them. To be fair, they needed to be looked after at the moment.
Scott had recently discovered that Deucalion was living in the penthouse of the same building as the Argents and immediately became concerned. When he told Derek, the alpha was already plotting with his uncle, sister and Boyd to take Deucalion out.
Scott had managed to convince him to let him talk to Deucalion; or so he thought. When Scott went to discuss terms with the alpha pack's alpha - joined by Isaac - Derek had ambushed the meeting.
Deucalion's pack then revealed themselves and a fight had broken out. Just when Derek's side seemed to be losing, Allison had appeared out of no where and saved the day.
But not everyone got out unscathed. Derek and Ennis had both fallen multiple stories and Derek was believed to be dead.
It was a lot to take in when Allison first told us. Derek had almost died so many times, so it was kind of hard to believe that he was actually dead.
"What could you have done? I barely did anything anyway," she told me as her eyes remained on the road.
Allison was driving, Lydia was in the passenger seat looking at her phone, and I was in the back seat. Even driving with the girls I ended up in the back.
"Am I getting too close?" Allison pondered. "I'm getting way too close, aren't I?"
Lydia put her phone down and rested her elbow on the door, "That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?"
"Yeah, I should probably back off."
But Lydia wasn't done, "Well, that also depends. Oh, do you mean the bus or the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?"
I immediately leaned forward in my seat so that I was able to see Allison. She was going red, but she held her ground. "She has a point."
"Well, after what happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight," Allison informed us.
"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."
"I mean, you didn't have to answer if it was that big a deal," I pointed out.
Lydia nodded, before asking Allison why he was even there.
"He was just trying to warn me about the alphas and staying safe. Just being overprotective."
Sitting back in my seat, I looked at her in the rear view mirror, "You know he's only like that because he cares about you? Right?"
Allison didn't answer, just kept her eyes on the road. I pulled the book I was currently reading out of my back pack and Lydia grabbed her textbook and began highlighting.
It was still going to be a while until we reached the meet. The kids in the bus were the ones chosen to compete in cross country for our school. Most were on the lacrosse team, put there by Coach so they wouldn't get lazy during the off season.
Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Boyd, Danny, Ethan, and multiple other students made up the team. With four werewolves our school was bound to win. It could be considered cheating though, but we were willing to overlook that, apparently.
Lydia looked up from her textbook for a moment, "So is that whole 'not let them out of your sight' thing literal or more like a general rule?"
Lowering my book I listened in, trying to figure out what she was getting at.
"Why?" Allison asked.
"You're running on fumes."
We all looked to the fuel gauge to see that it was sitting on empty, which meant the car was bound to be completely empty soon. Allison cried out in frustration.
"Yeah," Lydia dragged. "And I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota."
"What if we stop?" Allison exclaimed.
Lydia almost scoffed, "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."
"She has a point," I agreed. "We'll just stop off at the next fuel stop and keep going. It's not like they'll change the venue or whatever."
"You guys didn't see what happened," Allison said quietly.
The strawberry blonde just stared down at her science textbook, speaking below her breath, "I know who started it."
"Is that what Aiden told you?"
This caught Lydia's attention. "Aiden? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing?" When Allison didn't answer, Lydia's hand dropped.
"Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me. What, are you watching Riley too?"
"Nope, I invited myself," I answered. "And, I mean, would you really blame her?"
"What are you implying?"
Allison's eyes drifted to Lydia for a moment, "So there's nothing going on between you two?"
Lydia began to wave the hand holding the highlighter, "I'm appalled by the insinuation."
She was using big words and avoiding a straight answer. Allison and I smiled knowingly. "Nothing?" Allison dug further.
"Nothing."
"Sure," I scoffed.
Suddenly, Allison slammed the brakes and the car came to a halt. All the traffic ahead of us had stopped. Cars were tooting, but nobody was moving.
Grabbing out my phone, I quickly checked the traffic reports. "Traffic's blocked up for the next few miles because of a jackknifed tractor," I groaned.
Allison kept an eye on her fuel, "I guess we're not going anywhere then."
♡♢♤♧
After about twenty minutes of just sitting and not talking about anything in particular, my phone began to ring. Picking it up off the seat beside me. Reading the screen, I saw Stiles' name.
"Shit, Stiles is calling me," I told the other girls.
"Answer it then," Lydia told me.
Pressing the accept button I lifted the phone to my ear. "Hey, Stiles, sorry I'm kinda busy right now-"
"Following us, I know," he cut me off. "Put me on speaker"
"Right," I answered as I dropped the phone and turned the speaker on, holding it between the two front seats.
"Okay, look, Scott's still hurt," Stiles told us.
Allison's concern peaked as she looked at my phone. "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 colour."
"What's wrong with him?" Lydia asked.
Stiles stuttered for a moment. "What's wrong with him? I don't- do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"
"Alright, she was only asking," I said quickly. "He needs to get off of the bus, Stiles."
"And take him where? The hospital?" Lydia asked rather sarcastically.
Allison ran a hand through her hair, "If he's dying, yeah. Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."
"Yeah, I've been trying," the boy told us.
"Well, reason with him."
"Reason?" Stiles scoffed. "Have you met this guy?"
"Just try something."
She leaned forward and rested her arms on the steering wheel as I pressed off speaker and returned the phone to my ear.
"You'll figure it out," I assured him. "You always do. I'll talk to you soon."
"Okay," he replied, before hanging up.
"He's going to be fine, Allison. He'll start healing soon, I'm sure."
And not ten minutes later I got a text from Stiles saying the bus would be stopping. I breathed a sigh of relief as I showed it to the girls. We followed the bus for the next mile and then pulled into the rest stop.
Getting out of the car, the three of us rushed over to the bus and waited for Scott and Stiles to exit. As soon as I saw Scott, I felt sick to my stomach. He looked awful.
Allison helped Stiles keep the werewolf standing as we walked towards the men's room. They helped him sit down on the tiles up against the walls under the sink, every movement causing him pain.
Slowly lifting up his shirt, Allison revealed that a werewolf had ripped its claws across his torso, leaving crevices in his skin dripping black blood.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Allison asked him quietly, the pace of her breathing picking up.
"Sorry," he replied, attempting to smile.
I covered my mouth as I looked away. Scott had been through some things, but he had never looked this close to death before.
"Okay. Give us a second, okay?" Allison basically mumbled, before standing up to talk to me, Lydia, and Stiles.
"This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this."
"Okay, what do we do then?" Stiles asked. "Do we just call an ambulance?"
"What if it's too late? What if they can't help?"
Looking from Scott to my friends, I had my phone out ready to dial if need be. "We have to do something. We can't just let him die."
Lydia's eyes were flickering in thought as we all spoke, her mind spinning. "You know, it could be psychological."
Stiles stopped and considered what she was saying, "What do you mean, like, psychosomatic?"
"Somatoformic," she corrected. "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause."
"Could you translate that into English for the rest of us, please?" I asked her.
Turning to me, Lydia nodded, "It's all in his head."
"All in his head," Stiles repeated. "Because of Derek. He's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died."
Nodding and putting away my phone, I asked the question we were most likely all thinking. "So how do we get him to heal?"
Lydia dug through her bag until she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a sewing kit, she shrugged, "Stitch him up."
When Allison looked like she might throw up, Lydia began to explain herself. "I'm serious. Maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing."
We all nodded in agreement. We needed to believe that the placebo affect was really a thing, and so did Scott. If he were to believe it was healing on its own, maybe he would allow his healing ability to kick in.
It was really our only option.
We all jumped to action, prepping Scott to be sewn up. Stiles laid out paper towel near Scott while Allison sterilised the needle with a lighter.
"He's gonna need another shirt," she pointed out.
"There'll be one in his bag back on the bus," I told her.
Stiles stood up and walked over to me, "I'll go and get it. I hate needles anyway, so-" He was about to leave, but stopped and turned back to Allison.
"Uh, do you know what you're doing?"
"Yeah, my father taught me," she told him as she continued to sterilise the needle.
"I mean, how fast are you gonna - I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave."
"Well, you just make sure it doesn't leave."
Lydia sighed and grabbed my arm, "We can help. Come one."
It was obvious Allison was going to need to concentrate, so clearing the room would probably be best for everyone right now.
Leaving the bathroom we headed straight to the bus where Lydia and I waited outside for Stiles to go and get the bag.
"This is going to work, right?" I asked Lydia, worried about Scott.
She gave me an uncertain look, but still managed to keep her composure steady. "I hope so," she answered honestly.
Stiles emerged from the bus holding Scott's sports bag in one hand. "Is she done yet?"
"I don't think so."
Running a hand through my hair, I felt my chest tighten. I couldn't help but feel that things were going to go wrong for us. I wasn't going to tell the others that though; no need to bring them down as well.
We stood by the bus waiting quietly to hear from Allison. Time passed by and they were almost done cleaning the bus after Stiles had made Jared throw up.
And then time was up.
"Let's go!" Coach shouted to everyone after blowing his whistle. "Back on the bus!"
We needed a distraction, like, now.
"Alright, Lydia, you go check on them. Find out how much longer they're going to be. Stiles, we need to keep coach from leaving."
Lydia nodded and walked off, and Stiles and I headed towards Coach.
"How are we supposed to stop the bus from leaving?" He asked me.
"I have no idea," I admitted.
Spotting Isaac and Boyd, Stiles pointed to them, "Maybe they can help."
I was unsure, but followed Stiles over anyway. The two werewolves were standing side by side talking quietly amongst themselves. When they noticed us approaching, they immediately stopped talking.
"We need your help," Stiles told them, not bothering with pleasantries.
Isaac looked at me, but spoke to Stiles, "With what?"
"Scott's not healing and we can't let Coach leave."
Both wolves turned to Stiles, eyes narrowed. "What do you mean he's not healing?" Boyd asked.
Stiles looked relieved that they were actually listening to him. "The cuts he got are still bleeding. The blood has gone black. But Allison is-"
"This is all their fault," Isaac growled as he glared past us. I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Ethan he was looking at.
Boyd nodded and they both walked off, as if communicating telepathically.
"Guys, wait!" I called to them, but they weren't paying attention.
Neither of them gave Ethan the opportunity to speak before Isaac began beating him up.
"Shit."
By the time we made our way over, there was already blood running down Ethan's face. The alpha was taking it, making himself out to be the victim.
"Isaac, stop!" I yelled, but he completely ignored me. He was too engrossed in beating the living hell out of the twin. "You need to stop!"
He continued punching the boy, causing blood to run from his mouth as well as his nose.
"Stiles, what's happening?" I heard someone ask. Scott.
I spun on my heel to see Allison and Lydia walking him over. He already had colour back in his face and didn't look like he was about to keel over.
"They went after him," Stiles explained. "We told 'em what was happening with you and they just went after him."
Scott jumped to the conclusion that it was Boyd who had gone after the alpha, but was incorrect. It was a fair assumption considering what we had heard had happened on the bus, though.
Coach had finally caught wind of what was going on and was yelling at the boy as Danny attempted to to pull Isaac off of Ethan.
Isaac grunted and pushed Danny off of him, before focusing back on the alpha twin.
Scott pushed his way through the crowd, planting his feet and using the most commanding voice I had ever heard from him, "Isaac!"
The crowd around the fight fell silent, even Coach was taken back by Scott's outburst.
But it had worked either way. Isaac held his fist back, looking over at his friend slowly. When Isaac realised that Scott was okay, I could see the relief flow into his face.
Danny took the first opportunity to get past Isaac and check on Ethan, who was coughing as he tried to catch his breath.
Maybe Scott wasn't the one we should've been keeping an eye on.
♡♢♤♧
The sun had set as we got back on the road and the moon had risen. It had been a long day and everyone was tired, so Coach said we would be stopping at a motel.
Allison, Lydia and I ended up on the bus with the rest of the students considering Allison's car wouldn't have enough petrol to get to our destination. And Allison was refusing to leave Scott since we didn't know if he was fully healed yet.
I had decided to sit with Isaac on the bus, just so I was able to watch out for him. Allison was sitting with Scott and Lydia with Stiles.
I wasn't worried about Lydia and Stiles sitting together. Stiles had made his feelings about Lydia clear, that they were non-existent. Plus, Lydia knew how I felt about Stiles and she was my friend.
"Are your knuckles healed yet?" I asked, grabbing his hand to examine them. After the fight I had taken him to the bathrooms to wash all the blood off, but it was still on the sleeves of his shirt.
He pulled his hand back lightly, placing it in his lap. "I'm fine. That's the least of what he deserved."
"You do anything and you're just as bad as them," I reminded him.
Isaac turned so fast I almost gasped, "How is me wanting revenge for Derek any different to you with your mum? Derek took me in and they killed him. Scott is my friend and they nearly killed him too."
I didn't know how to respond. He had a point; but maybe so did I.
"Well, maybe I'm wrong this time. Killing Ennis isn't going to bring my mum back, and killing the twins isn't going to bring Derek back. So maybe we need to find another way to deal with this."
The bus squeaked to a halt out the front of a very run-down motel. Glancing out the window we could see the whole layout of the 'Glen Capri'. It was a simple two story motel, and it definitely looked like where serial killers took their victims.
"We're not done here," I told Isaac.
He smirked, "I didn't think so."
I rolled my eyes as I picked up my bag and walked out of the bus to stand beside Scott and Stiles.
Scott looked better, thankfully. The werewolf scanned the building, "I've seen worse."
"Did they hit you across the head as well?" I asked.
Stiles nodded, "Where could you have possibly seen worse?"
Coach blew his whistle and we all gathered in front of him.
"Listen up. The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgement when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely. And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"
Stiles and Scott were already reaching for a key when they looked back at me. "Sorry, Ri," Scott said.
I crossed my arms in front of me, "Sure you are."
Walking over to Lydia and Allison, I sighed, "Any chance I can room with you guys?"
"Of course," Allison answered. "Coach, can we have three in a room? We-"
Coach held a hand up to stop her from talking, "I don't care."
"I'll take that as a yes."
As the bus drove off we went to go and find our room, when we noticed that Lydia hadn't moved. Her eyes were wide and I couldn't help but think she was scared.
"I don't like this place," the strawberry blonde mumbled.
Allison looked around before smiling, "I don't think the people who own this place like this place. It's just for a night."
"I'm gonna go and check in on Scott, I'll meet you guys at the room. We'll be fine for one night, Lydia."
Lydia still didn't move, eyes glazed as she stared at the building before us.
"A lot can happen in one night."