Opening my eyes after my arm is shaken softly, I lift my head off of Stiles' shoulder noticing his soft smile before I sheepishly look out the window I used him as a human pillow for who knows how long
I take in the darkness of the night outside of the windows and the bus pulling off the road into the parking lot of one of those Motels.
The Motel Glen Capri sounds like an alright name but it definitely gives off the this is where you go to clean up after a murder type of vibe.
The bus comes to a stop and after getting a head count Coach heads for the door and mutters over his shoulder "Stay here while I get the rooms sorted."
We all stand from our seats and stretch before grabbing our bags to wait for him to come back.
Zoning out the window across the aisle to our right towards the motel, I feel a jab in my side "You okay?"
I shake my head and look to my left, connecting my eyes with Stiles' as I whisper "I don't like this place."
Understanding crosses his face before he grimaces as he also looks out the window "It is pretty creepy."
Before I can say it's more a feeling of complete dread versus just how the place looks, Coach comes back towards the bus and waves his arm for us to unload outside.
We wait for everyone towards the front half of the bus to deboard before we make our way to the front, down the steps, and through the group waiting outside.
Taking in the full scene of the rundown building, the feeling that overwhelms my entire body is what I imagine death to feel like. I feel cold and immense sadness something terrible happened here
Scott comes to a stop next to me and I see him shrug out of the corner of my eye "I've seen worse" true I'm sure the Bates Motel was worse
Stiles stops on my other side and leans forward to talk across me towards him "Where have you seen worse?"
Coach blows his godforsaken whistle again making me jump and the dread feeling slowly fades "Listen up– the meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up– choose wisely."
He holds out the handful of room keys, shaking them once before everyone starts grabbing a key as he continues "And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"
I chuckle towards him as I grab a key and take a few steps away to wait for Allison and Lydia.
Stiles grabs a key from Coach and walks over with Scott, showing me their 213 key before leaning closer to me "Drop your bag and come to our room alone please, I need to talk to you guys" he looks between Scott and I.
I offer a smirk "Thinking about your suspects for who the Darach is while I was asleep, Sherlock?"
He scoffs, setting his hands on his hips "Of course, Watson."
Scott and I share a chuckle before I offer him a nod "Give me five minutes and I'll be there."
Scott looks back towards Allison and Lydia who are making their way closer to us. He smiles softly, setting his hand on my shoulder and offers a reassuring squeeze before following Stiles to their room.
I turn on my heel and hold up the room key "You guys can take the beds, I have a feeling I won't be able to sleep here" I state, earning a chuckle from Allison as she shakes her head softly "We can share a bed" still won't be able to sleep
She moves her eyes over her shoulder and turns around "Lydia?"
I follow her eyes and step closer to Lyds as she shakes her head and moves her eyes every which way around the building in front of us "I don't like this place..."
I cross my arms and look between them, not wanting to look behind me at the building again just yet "I don't either– I can't shake this feeling like something bad happened here" or is going to happen here
Allison tries to lighten the mood "Come on guys– I mean I don't think even the people who own this place like this place," she looks between us and sets her hands on each of our arms "Okay? It's only for a night."
A feel an involuntary shiver run down my spine at her words, finally looking over my shoulder and muttering quietly into the space around us "A lot can happen in one night, Ally."
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We find our room 217 and I slide the key into the lock, opening the door to a pungent stale cigarette smell that hits us right in the face smells like a Casino
Deeming the table a safe enough surface we set our bags on it and find the light switch, which does nothing for making the room look better.
Allison sighs and sets the 'non-smoking room' sign down on the dresser hard enforced rule obviously and moves to check out the bathroom, coming out a second later "Well that isn't absolutely terrifying so I'm going to take a shower unless either of you want one first?"
I shake my head as Lydia goes to see for herself, turning on her heel and making a hmpf noise "It's passable but the towels smell just as bad as the room– I'll go get new ones," and she's out the door before we can argue plus they'll all be the same more than likely
Allison shares a chuckle with me before setting her hand on my crossed arms, breaking my staring contest with the door "We'll be out of here before you know it okay?"
I smile and nod slightly "Ah-yeah– umm Stiles said he needed to fill me in on something so I'll head over there if you're sure you're okay to be alone."
She nods and steps back towards the bathroom "I've been showering on my own for years– besides Lydia will be right back."
"Right– okay then, I'll get snacks on my way back" I grab some money out of my bag for the vending machine and head out the door, down the hall towards room 213 that Stiles and Scott are waiting in.
I hear "Come in" as soon as I knock and once I open the door and close it behind me, I notice Scott and Stiles laying on the end of each of the beds with their feet resting on the ground two peas in a pod
I grab a chair from the desk and set it in between both sets of feet, sitting down with my legs crossed on the seat.
I hear Stiles let out a sigh, holding up his hand as he states "All right, so I have four."
"Four?" Scott and I question before Scott elaborates "You have four suspects?"
Stiles bounces his knees as he answers "Yeah, it was originally ten. Well, nine technically, I guess– I had Derek on there twice."
I chuckle and see Scott raise a hand off his stomach "So who's number one– Harris?"
"Just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead," Stiles argues before Scott offers a scoff towards the ceiling "So if he's not dead, our chemistry teacher is out secretly committing human sacrifices."
"Yeah, I guess that just sounded way better in my head" he concedes before I offer "Well, what if it is actually somebody else from school?"
Stiles moves his head to look at me, opening his mouth however he is cut off by Scott "Yea– I mean you guys remember Matt? We didn't know that he was killing people?" the fuck we didn't
I make a noise of disagreement as Stiles sits up with his betrayal shocked face "Excuse me? I'm sorry, what?" He stands up completely and never wavers his eyes from Scott "I– yes, we did. I called that from day one, actually."
I nod when Scott sits up, moving to lean back on his elbows as he connects his eyes with mine before looking back to Stiles and elaborates "Well– yeah, but we never really seriously thought that it was Matt."
Stiles makes a noise before scoffing "I was serious. I was quite serious, actually. Deadly serious– Addy was the only one who listened to me and that's because she also saw him as the murderer he was!" true story
Stiles moves his eyes to me and I offer a nod of agreement before Scott ignores it all and inquires "Who were the other three?"
Looking like he wants to argue more, Stiles pauses a moment before he lets it go and continues with his list "Derek's sister, Cora. No one knows anything about her, and she's Derek's sister– next, your boss."
I raise my brows with the accusation as he points towards Scott, earning him to sit up with his confusion "My boss?"
"Yeah, your boss. I don't really like the whole Obi-Wan thing he's got going on, you know. It freaks me out."
I laugh and set my elbow on my knee to rest my chin in my hand as Scott looks between us, completely lost.
Stiles notices the look and makes a face, lifting his hand out to my poor sheltered brother "Oh– my– god. Have you still not seen Star Wars?"
I shake my head and set my hands in my lap "Seen it, he still has not."
Stiles offers his breathy chuckle pointing towards me as Scott rolls his eyes with a smirk "I swear, if we make it back alive, I will watch the movie."
"Just makes me fucking crazy," Stiles grumbles to his feet before I clear my throat and look at him "Who was the last one?"
Stiles connects his eyes with mine and looks like he doesn't want to say, earning me to raise my brows in question for the long silence before he sighs and moves to sit back down again "Lydia."
Ready to argue with him, he notices and lifts his hands up in surrender "Adds, she was totally controlled by Peter, and she had no idea, so–"
I scrunch my brows together and drag out "Sooo by that logic I should be a suspect on your list as well, because I have no idea how I found those bodies either, Sty."
I shrug making a bring it face at him, earning him to jerk his head back and make a noise. He quickly looks over to Scott for help, however he just receives a head shake and hand surrender to leave him out of it twin solidarity thank you
I never waver my eyes from Stiles, earning a sigh from him before he offers "Addy we know you're not killing people in some ancient sacrifice ritual."
"And I know Lydia isn't either," I counter earning a groan of frustration from him "Okay– but we can't deny the Peter situ–"
I stand up interrupting him "Peter said and I quote 'I couldn't get in your head, but that doesn't mean I was wrong' okay? Peter knows what we are– which has to be the same thing or really fucking similar based on our experiences lately. He used Lydia to be resurrected from the fucking grave because he couldn't get in my head for whatever reason– what would he have to gain from sacrificing virgins and warriors?"
"Addy–"
"No, okay just no. Someone else is doing this Stiles– I know it. I'd believe Matt came back from the fucking dead and is messing with us again, before I'd ever believe Lydia or one of the Hale's was doing this."
"Okay–" he swallows thickly, taking a second before offering a nod through a contemplative frown "Then it's Harris."
Scott and I chuckle at his attempt at lightening the mood and I shove my hands in my sweatshirt pockets "Harris went missing after the first round of sacrifices– I mean we did get a couple of new teachers before the sacrifices started, we should start there"
They nod before letting out sighs and falling back on the beds in perfect synchronization I'd say they were the twins if I didn't know any better
I chuckle and head towards the door "I'm heading for the vending machine– either of you want anything?"
Scott sits up on his elbows again and shakes his head "I'm going to grab a shower and head to bed I think."
Stiles stands up and checks his pocket for his wallet, walking towards me "I'll come with you"
I offer a small smile and reach for the door handle, he sets his hand on the edge of the door above my head to keep the door open as we walk out and I call over my shoulder "Night, Scotty."
Scott smiles with a little wave as he walks over to his duffle bag before the door closes the view into their room.
Stiles and I walk down the steps leading us to the ground floor, taking a left next to the staircase where the vending machine is once we get to the bottom.
We see Boyd standing in front of the glass, trying to decide what to get and Stiles makes a noise before his greeting of "Yo."
Boyd doesn't acknowledge us, instead he looks pretty zoned out as he lifts an arm to punch in "201" on the keypad with his finger.
Stiles shares a look with me before smiling at Boyd's choice "Ha– hey that was the same thing I was gonna get."
I smile at the peanut butter crackers choice before the metal ring keeping the items in place moves slightly but then ultimately gets stuck without dropping the food.
Stiles makes a noise "Oh, hang on. You know what? I got a patented method for this..."
He hands me his money, sets his hands on my shoulders and has me take a few steps back before he looks to Boyd again "Don't worry..."
He positions his feet on the ground better and raises his arms up to rest on the top of the vending machine, however, before he can re-enact his hospital hulk smash party trick– Boyd punches his hand forward, lightning quick, and breaks the front glass panel of the machine.
Shock crosses my features and my eyebrows say hello to my hairline with the action that's one way to do it
Stiles slowly lowers his arms and takes a step back towards me as Boyd still a zoned out mute reaches inside and takes some food items before he just walks away.
Stiles turns around and shares the same shocked look I'm sure I'm sporting before he looks around us and nods towards the machine "Well, since he made it easy..."
We grab a few items and I run a couple of dollars into the machine to make up for it before I grab another Reeses bar.
Stiles smiles and raises his arm out to me as I shrug and walk over to him "What?" I question, earning him to shake his head and set his hand on my back as we move towards the stairs "You're too good for this world, Addy McCall."
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Stiles opens his door, however, just waits by it as I make my way past him and a few doors down towards mine.
I open my door and smile down towards him watching as he offers a little wave before we each walk in our rooms.
I close the door and see Lydia packing up her bag and Allison standing by one of the beds. I set the snacks on the table and walk over to Ally, furrowing my brows with Lydia's quick actions "What's going on?"
Lydia makes a noise and walks over to us "This motel has had one hundred and ninety eight suicides"
"Jesus that's a lot" I look between them and Lydia just makes a face as she crosses her arms "I just heard a couple shoot themselves next door."
"What?!" I exclaim and Allison holds up her hands "Okay okay, but it wasn't in real time."
"Real time?" I question earning a shake of the head from Lydia "That doesn't matter! You know, there is something seriously wrong with this place– get your stuff Addy, we need to leave."
Allison tries again to calm the situation "But they were suicides, not murders, and it's not like this place is haunted, right?"
I look to Lydia, seeing her shrug "Maybe it is. You know, I bet that couple made their suicide pact in that very room. Maybe that's why they're renovating. Maybe they've been scraping brain matter off the wood paneling." Holy brain matter, what did I miss
"What the fuck is happening?" I cross my arms and Lydia looks to me "Did you get any weird feelings when you walked past the room next door?"
I chuckle humorlessly "Lyds, the feeling like we just walked into a graveyard hasn't left since we got off the bus."
Allison rubs her hands through her hair and nods "Okay well maybe we should find out about the room next door."
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We walk into the office, however instead of the lady Lydia told us about we see a sign stating 'Be back at 6am'.
Lydia sighs and points to the sign "Well, there goes that."
Noticing numbers on the wall I point to it "What's that?" Lydia flicks her eyes over before looking back to me "Their framed commemoration of all the suicides that have occurred in their time of business I told you about"
I make a face at that "Weirdos– but didn't you say the sign said 198 earlier?"
Lydia flicks her head to me and back towards the sign "It was 198. I swear to God it was 198."
I set my hand on her shoulder "Hey, we believe you."
Allison shakes her head slightly "Okay, what does that mean, that there's been three more suicides?" Threes
I make a noise gaining their attention "Or three more are about to happen."
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I text Stiles that we need just him to meet us in our room, he gets there in no time and Allison starts pacing "Scott came in here when I was in the shower and there was this weird, vacant look in his eyes and he was just off. I mean the last time I saw Scott act like that was during the full moon."
Stiles nods "Yeah, I know. He was definitely a little off with me too, but actually, it was Boyd who was really off. Addy and I watched him put his fist through the vending machine."
I nod when Allison swings her gaze to me as Lydia scoffs "See, it is the motel. Either we need to get out of here right now, or–" she turns around and opens the nightstand drawer, grabbing the book inside and lifts it up as she continues "Someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism asap, before the werewolves go crazy and kill us." Werewolves– threes– holy shit sacrifices
Stiles lifts his hands up to diffuse her worry "Okay, just hold on, all right? What if it's not just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?" he looks to me and I nod at his question before offering my same thought process he's on, adding softly "Sacrifices."
He sighs and lifts a hand up towards me as he nods "What if this time it's three werewolves?"
"Scott, Isaac, and Boyd." I mutter softly connecting my eyes with his as he nods again and steps closer to me "Maybe we were meant to come here."
Lydia takes a few steps towards us with her urgency "Exactly! So can we get the hell out of here now? Please?"
Stiles reaches forward and grabs the book out of her hands "Wait, hang on. Let me see this."
He opens the book and pulls out the paper that was hanging out of the pages, Allison steps closer to him as well inquiring "What is that?"
I look over his shoulder as he runs his finger over the article title and reads softly aloud "Twenty eight year old man hangs himself at the infamous Glen Capri."
He sets the article on the bed and notices another paper sticking out of the pages of the book.
He quickly turns the book over and shakes it, causing other article clippings to fall out and on the bed as well.
We reach forward and turn them all facing the right way as we read the articles.
Lydia grabs two and point towards them "Oh, no. Look at these two– they both mention the room 217."
I stand up from my lean over the bed and digress "These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room."
Allison stands up from her lean as well and connects her eyes with mine "So if every room has a Bible–"
"There could be articles in all the rooms" I finish for her and Stiles makes a face "That's a beautiful thing. Most places leave a mint under the pillow. This one leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred."
He sighs as Lydia turns to me "What if the room next door has the one about the couple?"
Stiles shares a look with us before he turns and runs towards the door, opening it and moving down the hall towards room 216.
We follow after him, coming to a stop just beside him at the door. He tries the handle but it's locked and Lydia shakes her head pointing towards the door as she comes to stand next to me "No, that was not locked before."
Allison shakes her head "Forget it. We need to get Scott, Isaac, and Boyd out of here."
Stiles raises his hands out to his side before he takes a few steps towards the direction of his room, however, an electric whirring noise coming from the locked room stops all our steps.
I share a look with Lydia who mutters "I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?"
Shaking my head I elaborate "It sounds like someone turned a handsaw on."
Stiles rushes up behind me exclaiming over my shoulder "Hand saw?"
We try the door again and this time succeed in getting it open, seeing a construction site all over the room.
However our eyes are immediately drawn to Ethan with the same zoned out look in his eyes as he lifts the hand saw up and is slowly lowering it to his stomach "Hey, no, Ethan, don't!" Stiles shouts and rushes into the room to wrestle the machine out of his hands.
They both grunt as they fight for control of where it's going to go, moving all around the room with their efforts before Stiles succeeds in throwing it out of Ethans hands.
The momentum of his pull also throws him towards the machine that has its blade still whirring away.
I run forward as Lydia reaches down below the window and unplugs the handsaw from the wall outlet.
Stiles lands with his hands on either side of the machine and his face way too close for comfort to the blades.
I grab under his arms and twist him around to land with me on the ground in between my legs with his back against my chest.
We're all breathing heavy as next we see Ethan, still zoned out, flick his claws out of his fingers and cross his hands over each other towards his stomach again.
I push Stiles' back to help him stand as we rush off the ground and each grab one of Ethan's hands to keep them away from his stomach as he shouts through our efforts to stop him.
He pushes forward and out of our grip, resulting in him crashing into a space heater and we hear the sizzle of his skin connecting with the heater before he falls to the ground.
Like a fog was lifted he looks over towards Stiles and I catching our breaths before looking to Lydia and Allison by the door. He stands up from the ground exclaiming through his pants "What just happened?"
We all share a look with him at a loss for words before he rushes out the door.
Stiles gently grabs my arm and leads us to follow after him, Allison and Lydia right behind us into the outside hallway "Wai– Ethan!"
Ethan crosses his arms and rushes down the steps "Didn't you hear what I just said? I don't know how I got there or what I was doing."
We come to a stop next to the stairs as Stiles scoffs "Okay, you could be a little bit more helpful, you know? We did just save your life."
Ethan stops his steps and turns back towards us quickly "And you probably shouldn't have" he clips out before he keeps walking near the bottom floor of rooms back towards his room probably
Lydia raises her arm out towards his retreating back and turns back to us "What now?"
Allison takes a few steps heading back up the stairwell before turning back to us "I'll find Scott. You guys grab Isaac and Boyd. The best thing we can do is get them out of this place."
Lydia moves to follow her, however immediately stops and looks back at Stiles and I "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
I turn my head towards him as well and he widens his eyes, looking between us "Oh, no, I wa..." he stutters, causing me to cross my arms and offer a glare towards him as Lydia flicks her eyes between us "What is it guys?"
Stiles sighs "All right, Lydia. I didn't want to say anything, but this... everything we're going through... we've kind of been through something like this before, a lot like this."
Lydia crosses her arms over her chest and looks around "What do you mean? When?" don't say it
Stiles ignores me and licks his lips quickly before he admits "Your birthday party, the night you poisoned everyone with wolfsbane." why does he never listen?
She drops her mouth open slightly with her shock before she connects her sad eyes with mine.
I offer her a look as I step forward "We however don't think you're doing this– it's just similar with the zoned out state they're in tonight"
I throw the last bit over my shoulder towards Stiles who sighs in return and looks to the ground quickly before throwing an arm out to his side "Lydia, I'm sorry, okay? Look, I didn't mean that you're trying to kill people, okay? I just... I just meant that maybe... maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know? Which now that I say that out loud, it just sounds really terrible, so I'm just going to stop talking" shouldn't have said anything to begin with but here we are
She sighs and rolls her eyes before coming down the last few steps to stand on the other side of me.
Water so loud it's like I'm standing under a waterfall, sounds all around my head and I jump backwards on a gasp with the noise around me, gaining both of their attentions.
They share a worried look before Stiles steps closer and sets his hand on my arm "Adds? What is it?"
I lift my hands up to set on the sides of my head and close my eyes, gritting out "Water"
"You're thirsty?" he questions causing me to open my eyes and shake my head at him.
Lydia steps closer and fills him in "She's not thirsty– she's... she's hearingwater."
Stiles looks between us and licks his lips before shrugging "Okay– okay what is the water supposed to tell us?"
The noise around me gets even louder, causing me to fall to my knees with Stiles and Lydia following after to kneel on the ground with me.
Stiles sets his hands on mine and squeezes once, his voice breaking through the noise to mutter "Breathe Adds, you can do this."
I slam my eyes shut, the overwhelming need to scream is bubbling in my stomach making its way into my throat– however before I feel like I can't hold it in any longer the answer becomes clear as day.
I gasp like I myself am coming out of the water and drop forward, setting my hands on Stiles' shoulders as his move to land on my sides to catch my fall "Boyd's drowning!"
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Luckily Boyd and Isaac were in the room next to Scott and Stiles, so we knew exactly where to go as soon as we rushed up the stairs and down the hallway.
Opening their door we see the bathroom door open and Boyd's legs hanging out over the edge of the tub.
Stiles pushes up the sleeves on his sweater as we rush into the bathroom, seeing that Boyd somehow got a fucking safe and set it on his chest to keep him under the water.
Stiles drops to a kneel as he moves closer towards the top end of the tub and reaches into the water before he shakes his head "He blocked it. He blocked the drain with something. I can't get to it."
I look between him and the safe breathing out "What do we do?"
"Here, help me" Stiles mutters and indicates towards the safe. I kneel down as well and set my hands on the safe, attempting to push it off of Boyd as we hear Lydia behind us "I'm going to find Isaac maybe he can help move the safe."
I nod over my shoulder at her as she rushes out of the room, looking back into the water I notice Boyd's eyes still open and gasp softly "Is he dead? How long can a werewolf stay underwater?"
Stiles grunts and connects his eyes with mine over the safe "You think I know that?"
We move the safe just a fraction of the space before Stiles lets go as he stands up muttering "It's too heavy"
He steps away from the tub and backs up farther before his arm lands on the wall heater. I grimace with the skin sizzle as he jerks his arm back with a hiss "Ow!"
He looks at the traitorous heater, back to me and Boyd before his eyes widen slightly just missing the lightbulb above his head "Wait a sec, the heater. Heater– Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."
I furrow my brows "Wait– wha–"
Stiles shakes his hands out to his side as he interrupts to finish his frantic thought "It's heat, heat, fire. Heat does it, all right? We need something– we need fire."
"He's underwater" I stress just as frantically
"Yeah, I'm aware of that." he snaps and I let out a gasp as I stand up with my own lightbulb above my head "Wait, wait. The bus. On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares– they have their own oxidizers. They can burn underwater." I rush out and he looks to me and the water "Are you serious?"
"Yes, here I'll go–" I offer with a step towards the door but Stiles raises his hands up to stop me "No I got it, you stay with him" and he's out the door.
I step out of the bathroom and set my hands on my hips as I pace back and forth in front of the beds please let the shitty bus have the proper emergency kit it should have
Lydia opening the door causes me to jump before I see it's her and her shaking head "I couldn't find him."
I sigh and close my eyes, though they open almost immediately when we hear sniffling and crying. We share a look confirming it's neither of us nor Boyd before Lydia flicks her eyes to the ground, followed by her kneeling and pulling the bed skirt up.
She jumps back and stands up at the same time as I feel hands on my shoulders causing us to jump the other way, both of us letting out screams.
I turn around and Stiles lifts his hands up "I'm sorry– here I got 'em. What do I do? How do I do this?"
I swallow my adrenaline from being scared and point towards one end "The cap, it's like a match– the cap's a match."
Stiles listens and takes the cap off turning the end back around and flicking them together trying to ignite the chemical reaction.
Lydia looks between his hands with the flare and back towards the tub exclaiming "Stiles!" super helpful in a stressful situation I might add
"Yeah, I'm trying," he rushes out and I reign in my freak out to calmly add "You can do this, hold the flare steady and only move the cap to strike it like a match."
He nods and moves his eyes from me and down to the flare, taking a deep breath he only moves his arm that's holding the cap and it finally ignites.
He lifts it up and away from us muttering "Ooh" and immediately rushes into the bathroom, leaning over the side of the tub and sticking the flare into the water.
Boyd throws the safe to the other side of the bathroom as Stiles takes a few steps back away from the tub.
I reach forward to grab his arms, pulling him back to crash his back against my front and moving him out of harm's way until my back hits the wall.
Stiles moves his arm behind him to rest his hand against my waist as Boyd sits up from the water on a growl.
He moves to stand up out of the water and looks over to us as the fog clears from his face and he transforms back into his human features.
Lydia walks into the doorway and nods her head back towards the bed "How many flares were there because Isaac needs one too."
Stiles squeezes my side before he swallows through catching his breath and nods into the room "There's one more over there and one still on the bus."
She nods and we move out of the bathroom for Stiles to grab the other flare, igniting it like a pro before kneeling down and moving it under the bed to the other zoned out werewolf in the room "Hey, Isaac. Got something here for you."
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After we make sure Boyd and Isaac are not in the hypnotized state anymore we walk outside and meet up with Allison, heading down the steps "I can't find Scott anywhere."
"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles looks to her as we take the second set of steps towards the ground floor.
I set my hand on the railing and lift out the other one "It has to be. You said there was another flare on the bus right?"
Stiles looks over his shoulder at me and nods "Yeah. I'll get it."
Coming off the last of the steps we turn to head towards the bus, however I feel like the wind was knocked out of my lungs at the scene before us that has all of us halting our steps no
Scott is standing with his back to us, drenched in gasoline and he's holding an ignited flare in his hand with I'm sure a vacant look adorning his face
Allison gasps and slowly moves forward, shakily asking "Scott– Scott?"
Stiles and I follow after her, slowly walking around so we're all standing in front of him.
I lift a hand to cover my mouth as tears rush to pool in my eyes, making the whole scene blurry yet I see it crystal clear
Scott's broken voice fills the otherwise silent night air around us "There's no hope."
Allison lets out a soft breathy chuckle and shakes her head "What do you mean, Scott? There's always hope."
His voice cracks as he states "Not for me– not for Derek."
Stiles reaches over and sets his hand on my back as the tears fall down my cheeks with no hope of them stopping any time soon.
Allison strongly states "Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault."
Scott ignores her and presses on "Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed."
I shake my head at his words as Stiles sets his hands on my arms to step past Allison and me.
Once he's past my side he drops his hands to cautiously come closer to my teetering on the edge brother "Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you, alright? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this–"
I take in a few quivering gasps of breath through my tears before I step up beside Stiles who reaches his right arm across his chest to rest his hand on my upper arm.
I stop my steps and Scott flicks his eyes to me "Scott– please don't do this. That's not fair to you to put the burden of everyone dying onto your shoulders. You have always done your best to protect everyone, we are all doing our best to save whoever we can. We need you– mom needs you– I need you, Scotty."
My voice cracks on his name and I feel Stiles squeeze my arm softly as tears continue to fall down my cheeks while Scott shakes his head ever so slightly and states "What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" he barely gets out through the tears of his own that are threatening to fall.
More tears run down my cheeks, however; I'm rooted in the spot as he moves his eyes to Stiles and continues "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? Addy, you and me– we were– we were– we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all" he finishes his words by slowly moving his hand closer towards the big ass puddle of gasoline.
Still feeling the crushing weight on my chest like I can't breathe, I let out a soft gasp with his action and Stiles immediately drops his hand from my arm to step closer to him.
I drop open my mouth to stop his steps but the words die in my throat when he begins talking "Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay? You're someone, you're– Scott, you're my best friend," Stiles' voice cracks and I reach up to cover my mouth again to hide my quivering chin as he continues "Okay? Addy– you're her other half, she needs you– and I need you. Scott, you're my brother."
I can't help the hiccup of a shaky breath I make with trying to keep my crying silent the feeling of impending death is so strong my knees are shaking and I can barely breathe
Allison sets her hands on my arms before we hear Stiles let out a sigh and look to the ground "All right, so– so if you're gonna do this–" he steps forward, putting both of his feet in the puddle around Scott.
I widen my eyes and move to step forward but Allison tightens her hands and stops me as Stiles reaches out to grab hold of the flare and continues with his words "Then– I think you're just gonna have to take me with you, all right?"
Scott has his brows drawn in, shaking with his crying as he looks at his best friend standing in front of him willing to die with him I can't handle this– I can't lose either of them
Allison and I aren't even trying to hide our sobbing noises we're making as we see Stiles bring his other hand slowly over to wrap around Scott's wrist. He breaks the flare free from Scott's grip and tosses it away from them.
As soon as the flare lands on the ground, air rushes through my lungs and I feel like I can finally take the breath I've needed to for the last ten minutes.
Scott keeps his eyes connected with Stiles' as he pants out through his own sobs, I drop my eyes to the flare and notice non existent wind roll it over towards the puddle of gasoline near them.
Letting out a shocked unbelievable breath towards the flare moving, I scream out "No!" as I break from Allison's arms to turn and run towards them.
I slam my hands into Stiles' back who wraps his arms around Scott, taking quick steps for a few feet before we all crash onto the ground as the explosion sounds behind us.
Allison and Lydia who ran after me land next to Scott who lands next to Stiles who somehow turned to land on his back and wrapped his arms around me to catch me against his chest.
He moves his eyes around my face silently asking if I'm ok, as I do the same to him, earning a small nod as his grip around me tightens slightly.
I drop my forehand against his chest before I push up a little to look over my shoulder as the flame wall grows and we see a hooded figure with a disfigured slashed up face standing in the middle of the flames just looking right at us.
There's no question, as the figure never wavers its stare at us, that what we're looking at is the Darach.
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After hugging Scott eight times, we decided to sleep on the bus and nowhere near the suicide filled rooms of the motel for the few hours we could get in before sunrise.
"I don't want to know." Coach's voice is interesting to hear when you first wake up.
I open my eyes, moving my head to the side and almost bump noses with Stiles who was turning his head towards me as well.
Feeling my cheeks burn brightly I clear my throat and look to my left across the aisle out the window, squinting my eyes at the bright light as Coach continues "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!"
Stiles moves his sweatshirt from behind his head and stretches his neck out before Ethan comes to sit by Scott in the seat in front of us, turning towards him "I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life."
Stiles leans forward in between their shoulders pointing between us "Actually, we saved your life, but not that it matters that much. It's just– it's a minor detail"
I snort at look Ethan throws us before he continues towards Scott like he wasn't interrupted "So I'm gonna give you something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive."
Scott looks back to us with his wide eyes before Ethan digresses "But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen– either he joins our pack–"
"And kills his own," Scott fills in and Ethan nods "Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works."
Ethan pulls himself up and moves past us towards the back of the bus. Stiles leans back against the window and follows him with his eyes as he mutters "You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just F.Y.I."
Stiles reaches across the seat to set his hand on Scott's shoulder squeezing once to celebrate Derek being alive as Coach walks back towards us.
He's wearing a white shirt so the light purple dusting on his shirt stands out and my eyes widen before hearing him mutter "Hey, Ethan, I wanted to–"
I stand up and interrupt him "Coach, can I see your whistle for a second?" I don't wait for an answer as I reach forward to lift his whistle off from around his neck.
Coach stutters and looks between where he was going and his whistle in my hands as he points to it "Hey, Eth– I'm gonna need that back Addy," and continues down the aisle "Ethan–"
I sit down next to Stiles again who moves closer with his brows drawn together towards the whistle.
I bring it up to my mouth and cover my hand over the opening as I blow into it.
Turning my palm towards me, I widen my eyes at being right and turn my palm around towards Stiles and Scott, who turned to lean over the seat, as I whisper "Wolfsbane."
Stiles looks between Scott and I before muttering thoughtfully "So every time Coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Isaac, Boyd–"
"And Ethan" Lydia offers across the aisle from us before Scott finishes Stiles' thought "We all inhaled it."
Allison leans forward setting her arms on the seat in front of her and Lydia to chime in "You were all poisoned by it."
We all share a worried look as Stiles nods and continues "So that's how the Darach got in their heads– that's how he did it."
I turn my palm back around as Stiles quickly reaches forward to grab the whistle out of my other hand. He stands up and opens the window, throwing the whistle outside earning a bellow from Coach "Hey, hey, hey, hey! Stilinski!"
Coach starts to move towards the door just as the bus starts to pull out of the parking lot and onto the road at least we won't have to hear the shrill noise on the way home