A.N: This chapter is in third person and is different than other chapters, the perspective change may feel weird but soon all my books will be in third person. I wanted to get an update out while I continue to edit, so that I can keep my audience happy, so enjoy loves!
Chapter 13: Deadly Bus Ride
Chapter Song: A Little Too Much by Shawn Mendes
"Though everyone said that she was so strong. What they didn't know is that she could barely carry on. But she knew that she would be okay, so she didn't let it get in her way."
~
The image of Isabella's father falling to his death wouldn't leave her mind as she continued to shut and open her eyes wearily with her head on Scott's shoulder, her energy was slowly fading with each blink of her eyes. When she first saw him fall to his death she refused to believe that he had died even though his lifeless body told her otherwise. In her mind, there was no possible way. The more she stared at his unmoving body last night as she laid flat on the edge of the broken floor of the abandoned mall crying hysterically, the more she came to realize that he really was gone. He had faded away right in front of her.
Isabella couldn't feel him anymore, she couldn't connect to him even if she tried and that scared her the most. She had never felt any of his pain, she didn't feel anything except the numbness in her heart. It was like she had lost a piece of it. She hadn't spoken a word since she had gotten onto the bus for the Cross-Country meet that morning, despite Stiles' and Scott's best efforts to talk to her. She just couldn't do it. The only thing keeping her together was the fact that she had Scott to lean on and was sat right between him and Stiles, off in her own little world.
The worst part of all this was that Scott was hurt, badly, which consequently meant Isabella had taken the same injury and was just as hurt as he was. She just couldn't catch a break and the injury was much worse than she or Scott would let Stiles believe. Scott had made her promise not let Stiles know how bad it was, he didn't need him to worry. He had somehow convinced her that the wound would heal, she disagreed but she was much to fragile to argue with him so she just let it be and kept her promise to him, despite all the pain she felt.
The injury was a huge gash than ran across both of their left torso, courtesy of Aiden. Isabella had known it would take longer to heal because Aiden was an Alpha, but she definitely thought that it should have been healing at least a little bit. The wound felt worse than it did the previous night when it had first showed up on her skin. It was getting pretty ridiculous and she wondered just how wrong Scott had been about it being able to heal, she didn't think it ever would.
Isabella's voiceless attitude did not start on the bus ride, in fact, it started the second she saw Derek die in front of her. The last thing that left her mouth was a scream of horror as she tried to reach for him. Unfortunately, she was a second too late and was unable to fully grasp his large hand that barely brushed hers as he fell down. If she had not been showing off while fighting the barefooted bitch wolf, Kali, she could have saved him. If only she had been a second earlier.
Isabella was suddenly knocked out of her thoughts and daze as Coach's whistle blasted through the bus and her ears annoyingly. Isabella winced in pain as her body moved the wrong way out of shock of hearing the whistle sound that brought her back to reality. From next to her she could see Scott was still out of it even after the whistle blew as he looked out the window with his eyes glazed over. Isabella sighed sadly in sympathy for Scott and rubbed her hand down his arm soothingly.
Her touch did little to nothing to snap Scott out of his daze. Isabella bit her lip harshly, trying to hold back unwanted tears that threatened to spill out at the sight of seeing Scott in that kind of state. It wasn't like him. She hated to see the boy she loved like that. The two had never really spoken about being back together but deep inside Isabella knew that she had forgiven him the night that she and Isaac had shown up at his house. In her mind, he had won her back and she was now his again, especially after the kiss they had shared.
It made her want to cry to see him like that, like her. They had both been taking Derek's death really hard, Isabella felt like she was to blame because she couldn't reach him in time to save him and Scott felt to blame because he was the one who had bumped into Derek and Ennis while they were fighting. Isabella didn't blame Scott at all though, she blamed no one for the death of her father besides the asshole Alphas. If they had never shown up in Beacon Hills and started a war with them then he wouldn't have died, Erica wouldn't have died. She wanted to kill every last one of them, luckily for them they were in a public place. If they were all alone on this bus, Isabella would have already sprung out of her seat and killed the one sitting only five seats ahead of her. The way Ethan kept looking back at them every ten minutes made her want to snap his neck on the spot.
Isabella stared down the back of Ethan's head as she began to let the anger in her overshadow the pain she had been feeling only about five minutes ago. Isabella growled under her breath as the anger continued to rise and she suddenly began rising out of her seat, not thinking rationally at all. Before Isabella could even move past Stiles, he grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her back down into the seat making her hiss in pain as the gash in her side continued to rip open more.
Stiles looked at Isabella sternly as she hissed out in pain, " Do not, its not worth it."
Isabella glared at him intensely before turning away from Stiles angrily and staring at the maroon bus seat in front of her with a glare. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted like a child while Stiles tried to get the attention of a still vacant Scott.
Stiles leaned over Isabella's pouting body and snapped his fingers in Scott's face, "Hey, yo, Scotty? Still with me?"
" Uh, yeah sorry." Scott said as he shot his head up and away from the window while rubbing his eye, " What's the next word?"
Stiles and Scott had been studying words for the SAT and had even tried to involve Isabella several times but each time they asked her she just stared at them blankly and shrugged her shoulders, acting like she didn't know. It was so far from the truth though, she knew every word. Lydia and herself had already started studying for the SAT months ago, it paid to be friends with a genius.
Stiles pulled his silver tablet up and closed his lips tightly before saying clearly, "Anachronism"
Scott sat up straighter with a small wince before sighing out as his own gash tore a bit, " Something that exists out of its normal time."
Stiles nodded his head with an impressed look, " Nice."
Stiles then swiped to the next word and read it out, " Incongruous."
Scott squinted his eyes in what Isabella could tell again was pain but he still spoke to Stiles nonetheless, " Can you use it in a sentence?"
Before Stiles could answer, Isabella finally spoke for the first time since the previous night, she had thought that it was finally time seeing as this word perfectly fit their current situation, " Yeah, I can. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on freaking bus right now on our way to a shitty cross-country meet after what happened last night- incongruous."
Stiles and Scott both looked down at Isabella in shock, not expecting to hear her voice. It was like she had just come back to life and was able to speak again. Isabella rolled her eyes at the shock on their faces and simply shrugged her shoulders as she once again sunk into her seat, going silent.
Scott looked down at Isabella sadly, he wished she would just talk to them and not go mute again but it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon. He wasn't going to push her though because she had every right to act like that, he would if it were his mother. He was taking Derek's death hard, he couldn't even imagine what dark thoughts were running through her mind.
Scott gave her one last look that she ignored as she grabbed his fingers and began to play with them gently before he nodded at Stiles, " Out of place, ridiculous, absurd."
Stiles held up his thumb to Scott and nodded his head, " Perfect."
" Okay, next word."
Isabella kept her eyes down on Scott's hand and continued to play with his fingers as Stiles swiped again on his tablet finding yet another word.
Isabella heard Stiles sigh heavily before he spoke again, " Uh-Darach. Darach. It's a noun."
Scott and Isabella's heads both snapped towards Stiles and she ceased her movements of Scott hand to give him a look that said: are you kidding? Right then was not the time in Isabella's opinion, she knew it was a big problem for them but she didn't really have the patience to talk about it. Not when her dad had just died hours earlier, she didn't need that stress.
Upon looking at the faces of his friends, Stiles groaned and slammed his tablet down on his legs in a exasperated manner, "Oh come on you guys, we have to talk about it sometime, okay? And we're going to be stuck in this thing for the next like, the next few hours, so why not?"
Isabella simply shook her head and turned away from Stiles, she did not want to deal with him or this situation right then. Scott too went silent from next to Isabella and put his head back on the glass, his eyes threatening to close. Isabella followed his lead and laid her head on shoulder, closing her eyes tightly. They were both in physical and emotional pain and neither of them seemed to want to deal with Stiles' ranting.
Stiles huffed from next to them, clearly annoyed with them and their lack motivation to discuss their problems before speaking again, " Okay then, what about the word, 'intransigent'"
Isabella spoke again, finding it the perfect moment to do so, " Stubborn, obstinate. Like you Stiles."
Just as Isabella finished speaking the bus flew over a road bump causing Isabella and Scott to grunt in pain as their bodies rattled with the bus, their wounds splitting more and more. Isabella immediately grabbed Scott's hand to help ease the pain she was feeling and squeezed it tightly as Scott let out his own groan of pain.
" You guys okay?" Stiles asked with worry leaking profoundly from his mouth.
Isabella didn't answer, she didn't have the strength to. Instead she continued to squeeze Scott's hand tighter as another wave of his replicated pain ran through her body. Scott's face contorted into a wince as he too ignored Stiles question, the pain was slowly becoming a problem that neither of them were going to admit to.
" We shouldn't have come, I knew it we shouldn't have come." Stiles said dramatically as he pointed his finger up in the air and closed his lips tightly together as he shook his head.
Scott shrugged his shoulders and interrupted Stiles' nervous freak out over their injuries, " We had to. There's safety in numbers."
" Yeah, well there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre." Stiles said loudly almost directly in Isabella's ear as he leaned over to sass Scott.
Isabella shot her hand up to her ear and gave Stiles a sideways glare. He gave her an apologetic smile before he went back to his tablet and huffed angrily under his breath at Scott. Stiles waved his hand and chuckled sarcastically as he looked at his tablet, "Or bloodbath, or carnage, slaughter, butchery, wow that's..."
Scott let out another groan of pain as he grasped his side gently making Stiles place the tablet down and shake his head in disbelief. He looked down to Isabella worriedly to see that sweat was dripping down her forehead and she looked drained of all energy, he couldn't let Scott's stubbornness hurt her anymore. She looked worse than him, like it was affecting her more... and it was, she was feeling twice the pain.
Stiles looked up from her in a panic and began to rise from his seat as he shook his head, " Alright, I'm telling Coach that-"
Scott shot his head up and shook it rapidly as he said in a raspy tone and interrupted Stiles, " No, No, No, No, I'm alright."
Stiles paused and looked at Scott before sighing and sitting back down in the seat," Well, you don't look all right! Neither does Izzy. Would you just let me see it?"
Stiles tried to reach over to Scott and pull his shirt up but Scott flinched away and shook his head in panic, " I'm okay."
"Just let me see it, okay?" Stiles said in annoyance, he just wanted to care for his best friend. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Scott, or even Izzy who seemed to be doing worse with each second. She hadn't opened her eyes in awhile and was silent as she rested against Scott's arm.
Scott sighed heavily before nodding his head and saying in a low whisper, " Okay.."
Scott slowly placed Isabella off his body and let her lay her head back on the seat before he slowly pulled his shirt hem up his torso, letting Stiles see the still fresh wound on his side.
Stiles gasped quietly in horror as he eyes began to water at the sight of the dark red and bleeding claw marks running across Scott's left side, " Oh dude..."
Scott slowly let his shirt fall back down as he leaned forward and grasped the seat in front of him, "I know it's bad, but it's because they're from an Alpha-- it'll take longer to heal. "
Stiles shook his head in disbelief and motioned towards the seats at the front of the bus where Body and Isaac were sitting together, " How come Boyd and Isaac are fine, then?"
Scott was silent and sighed heavily as he once again leaned his head against the cold window numbly, " I cant believe he's dead...I can't believe Derek's dead. "
Stiles rolled his eyes and huffed in annoyance at Scott's miserable behavior and turned Isabella who was still laying against the back of the seat with her eyes closed and her head rolled back. He hit her shoulder softly and sighed, " Izzy, can you tell him to stop? He is not fine and he needs to start worrying about his own health."
Isabella didn't answer, she didn't even do so much as groan at him. Stiles looked down at her in confusion and began to softly nudge her with his shoulder, " Izzy?"
Again she didn't answer, she just laid there silently. Stiles eyes widened in worry and panic as he grabbed her shoulders and began shaking her body softly, " Izzy, hey! Wake up."
When Isabella didn't wake up, open her eyes, or speak for the third time. Stiles slowly let go of her, placing her back down gently before he began to frantically hit Scott in the shoulder.
At first Scott did not react, he had been off in his own world thinking about Derek and the blame he put on himself for the death but after many hits in the shoulder from Stiles that got more aggressive each time, he snapped out of it and looked at him in question.
Stiles' eyes were wide as he stared at a now present Scott and he shook his head as tears threatened to slip out of his eyes. He gulped deeply and looked down to Isabella's seemingly lifeless body as he whispered to Scott, " Scott, we have a problem....Izzy won't wake up."