Using a more of my supernatural speed than I should be using in public, I burst out of the door of the hospital before Derek or even Scott. I got a head start on them. Everything has changed drastically since I looked down from the roof. The electrical wire is still waving around the place. A water pipe is spewing water all of the place from a car driving in to it. An ambulance drove partially on the grass from steering out of the parking lot. There's a paramedic lying on the ground. Water is flooding the entire parking lot.
Kira is standing off to the side, fear sketched out on her face. I race forward, rounding around the ambulance, seeing the entire scene in front of me. Allison is standing by her car, eyes locked on Isaac, who is unconscious on the ground of water. A car door opens and a girl climbs out her car. As soon as her shoe touches the water, electricity runs through her body. A white car drives through the water, the man behind the wheel distracted. He nearly hits Kira until she jumps on the car, walks to the end of it, and flips off of the trunk.
"No!" I scream, running closer. The thought of being electrocuted doesn't even cross my mind as I run closer to the water. All I can think of is that Kira is about to land in the water and get electrocuted.
Kira lands on her feet. The electricity doesn't bother her. In fact, she isn't affected by it at all.
I keep running towards her anyways. I don't want my best friend in the middle of water when everyone else is being electrocuted. I'll risk my life for hers. That's what friends do. I've lost one best friend before. I don't need to lose another. Before I am even an inch from the water, one arm snakes around my waist and another goes around my shoulders, yanking me backwards. I fall backwards on a hard chest, while they drag me away from the water.
"Hey!" I grab on to the person's arms. The black leather jacket captures my attention and I instantly realize that Derek is the one that pulled me away. He stands by Scott, his hold on me not loosening at all.
The wire moves around in the air, slowly moving towards Kira. One of her hands snatches out to grab the wire. With her other hand, she covers the end of the wire that is sending sparks everywhere. I wiggle around in Derek's arm, which only makes his hold tighten. My back is pressed up against his chest. I settle down when I see that Kira is absorbing the power. The lights everywhere flicker before going off.
Kira's eyes glow gold when she opens them. She stares at the three of us for a few seconds. She blinks once and her eyes are back to normal. I relax a little in Derek's arms. She controlled it. People rush out of the hospital. Kira drops the wire to the ground, breathing heavily.
Derek's arms retract away from me as he races towards Isaac. I stand by Scott, amazed by Kira. She stopped all of this.
"Scott! He's not breathing!" Derek yells with two fingers on Isaac's neck.
I sit at the kitchen counter, scrolling through my text messages from everyone. Dad found out that I snuck out the other night, but when he learned everything that happened at the hospital, he waved it off. He wasn't mad. Honestly, I think he understood me acting like this because Stiles is missing. I sigh escapes my mouth as I stare down at my untouched cereal. After the crazy accident at the hospital, we found out that Stiles went missing again.
Dad shuffles in the room, dressed for work and his keys dangling off of his finger. He shoots me a small smile. "Are you doing okay?"
"Yeah." I lie.
"I'm sure Sheriff Stilinski will find him." Dad pats my shoulder.
My lips press in a thin line. "It's been forty eight hours."
"He'll be okay."
I stand up, tossing my cereal in the trash. "Let's go to school." I set my bowl in the sink and head outside to his car.
Dad doesn't say anything on our way to school. Maybe because he doesn't know what to talk about or he doesn't know exactly what kind of mood I am in. Honestly, I don't even know what mood I am in. Stiles is missing and I know it has to do with the Nogistune. What's its plan? Isaac is still in the hospital, healing so slowly from being electrocuted.
I was supposed to be in my second period class right now, but my mind is too preoccupied with everything. It's only art class, so I'm not too worried about it. I didn't stray too far from my classroom. I walked down a quieter hallway and sat down on the floor. I took out my phone and started texting Kira about everything. She believes that something really, really offended the Nogistune to make it act like this.
One of the doors in the hallway bursts open. I look up to see the twins and Scott walk out of it. I sit up a little straighter.
"Do you hear that?" Scott asks me.
"Hear what?" I push up against the wall to stand up. "What is it?"
"It's coming from the basement."
"What is?" I ask, curiously.
They start walking down the hall to the door that leads to the basement. I trail behind the three of them. The twins are the last ones to step off of the stairs. All of them freeze when they see something at the end of the basement. I push Aiden to the side, recognizing the person as Stiles- the Nogistune. He's holding some kind of emitter in his hand with a light pulsing on the top.
Stiles holds up his free hand. "Okay, I know what you guys are thinking, but it's me. I swear to God, it's me."
He looks like Stiles, sounds like him, but Nogistunes are tricksters. They are like kitsunes. We trick people. I just want to rush forward and hug me. Yet, part of me is forcing myself to stand back. The twins must have had a similiar idea because they both growl at Stiles. They run forward, both of them grabbing Stiles by his throat.
"No, stop!" I run and grab the their arms, hoping to make them let go.
"Wait, stop!" Scott grabs them by the back of their shirts. "I said, stop!" One of them flies into an old set of lockers while the other growls at Scott.
Stiles falls to the floor, helplessly. I rush to his side, helping him sit up a little better while he gasps for air. Scott snarls back and they both back down. I loop an arm around the back of Stiles and help him to his feet.
"It's me, Scott. I swear it's me." Stiles tells his best friend. "I don't know where I've been the last two days or what I've been doing, but this is me. I promise."
I stand next to him. "You know what happened at the hospital?"
"I know more than that." Stiles walks over to a bag on the ground. He pulls out a blueprint. "You see this? It's a blueprint of the hospital's electrical wiring." He opens it. "You see all these markings in red? That's my handwriting. I know I did this. I caused the accident."
All of us crouch down around the blueprint.
Stiles folds the blueprint back up. "And everything in this bag, it's all stuff that could be part of something bigger."
Aiden picks up some kind of tool. "What the hell have you been up to?"
"I think something worse, a lot worse." Stiles admits.
Scott picks up the bag and sets it on a wooden table. I reach inside of it, pulling out chains. The Nogistune is up to something. I put the chains down on the table. Everyone pulls out something different. We set everything out on the table. I look over my shoulder to see Stiles pacing. I step away from the table.
"You okay?" I whisper to him.
He stops pacing and stands in front of me. "I have no idea. I'm going out of my freaking mind."
Not knowing what else to do, I wrap my arms around his neck. "We're going to help you."
Stiles freezes. He relaxes and wraps his arms around my waist. His head rests on my shoulder. His arms tighten and I hear him exhale in my ear. I rub his back.
"What the hell were you doing? Building a terminator?" Aiden questions.
Stiles releases me, steps back, and runs a hand through his hair. "Thank you for that."
Scott unfolds a piece of paper. "Guys, this is a map."
I return back to the table. A think black line is on the map. "Isn't that the cross country trail?"
Scott runs his finger along the line. His finger stops at a circle on the map. "That's the Tate car, where Malia Tate's family died."
"You mean that's where her father put the steel-jawed traps." Stiles corrects him.
Steel jawed traps?
"My dad is out there." I stare at all of them, worried. "Are those traps still out there?"
No one says a word, confirming my thoughts.
I push past all of them, headed for the stairs. "What the hell are we still doing here then?"
The jeep doesn't even come to a full stop and I am jumping out of it. "Dad!" I shout when I see the back of his body. I run over to him just as he turns around. "Oh, thank God you're okay."
"Arden?" Dad pushes off of the rock he was leaning up against.
"Coach!" Stiles follows behind me along with everyone else.
"Arden? Stilinski?" Dad snaps his head between the two of us.
"Dad, listen to him." I order. I look back at the twins and Scott. "Go!"
They take off running down the trail. They need to catch everyone before they get hurt.
"Coach, there's a bunch of steel jawed traps along this trail." Stiles rushes to say. "We-" He stops before it looks like he is remembering something. He takes off running.
I chase after him.
"Scott!" Stiles shouts.
We reach Scott and Kira. The rest of the students runs up to us, still unaware of everything.
Stiles holds up his hands. "Stop, stop, stop! Everyone, stop!"
Everyone stops running. Stiles steps back. He bends down, brushing dead leaves away. He pulls up a chain, slowly. The chain is hidden under the leaves as he keeps picking it up. The end of the chain is pulled up to the ground with nothing on the end. I breathe out in relief.
Dad sarcastically claps, walking to the side a little. "Congratulations, Stilinski. You found a length of chain. Can somebody now please tell me what the hell's going on?"
I look down at the leaves to see a trip wire that dad hits. "Dad!"
"Hey, Coach!" Scott yells the same time I do.
Out of nowhere, an arrow soars through the air straight into my dad's stomach. I scream, loudly. My hands fly to my mouth. Oh my god.
Dad stares down at the arrow. "Oh crap."
I rush to his side when he falls to the ground on his back. "Dad, oh my God. Are you okay? Please be okay!" I hold my hands near the arrow in his stomach, unsure of what to do with them. Blood seeps through his athletic jacket. Tears prick my eyes. "Dad?"
Scott drops to his knees next to me. Everyone forms a circle around us.
Dad raises his head and arms off of the ground, screaming. "Get it out of me! Get it out of me! Get it out of me! Oh, my God, I'm gonna die."
I press my hands around the arrow, hoping to stop the blood a little. Tears stream down my face. "Dad, calm down!"
"Get it out of me! I'm gonna die!"
"Coach, you're not going to die." Stiles says from my left side.
"I'm gonna die!"
"Dad, it will hurt less if you stop moving." I remind him, putting more pressure on the wound. His blood is all over my hands. It's so hard to be strong at a time like this. There's an arrow in his stomach. I know he will be okay, but- his blood is on my hands.
"Get that thing out of me!"
"Stay still, Coach!" Aiden says, grasping on to my dad's shoulders. "An ambulance is coming."
"Get it out! I'm gonna die!"
Aiden waves his hands at the students around us. "Get back! Get back! Give him some room! Get back!"
Everyone moves back with the help of Kira and Ethan. Stiles places his own hands over mine to increase the pressure even more. That seemed to have captured my dad's attention because he stops his crazy yelling.
"Stilinski! Get your hands off of my daughter's!" Dad yells.
Stiles doesn't remove his hands. Scott tightly holds on to my dad's hand to take the pain away. He gasps in pain as his veins in his hand turn black. Dad's head falls to the side, his eyes shut.
"I think he just passed out." Aiden announces.
Stiles' hands move off of mine, covered in my dad's blood. His hands shake as he stares at them. "I could have killed him. I could have killed him, right? What if it was his head or his throat?"
I shake my head. "D-Don't think like that. I can't hear that."
"But it wasn't." Scott reassures him. "And he's going to be alright."
Sirens wail in the distance. Oh thank goodness.
"I think I just heard an ambulance coming." Aiden says.
"And my dad." Stiles comments.
Once the ambulance arrives, Scott and Aiden both have to pull me back away from my dad. My hands shake as I watch them examine his wound. One of the paramedics hands me a towel to wipe my hands on. I wipe my dad's blood off of my hands. They pick him up and set him down on the gurney. Off to the side, I see Mr. Stilinski reunite with his son. He looks over at me and walks over.
"Arden, I know you want to be with your father right now, and I will personally take you there myself, but would you mind coming to the station real quick to answer some questions?" Mr. Stilinski points to his car.
"Uh, yeah, o-okay." I nod, glancing at the paramedics, who are climbing in the ambulance.
"It will only take a few minutes."
I nervously mess with the bloody towel. "It's actually best if I don't go to the hospital. I don't do well when I have someone in there and I'd probably just have a panic attack. He'll be okay. I'll visit him when I'm a little calmer."
One of the deputies actually ended up bringing me to the station. My tears had stopped on the way over. I answered all the questions about what they needed to know about what happened with my dad. The deputy offered to take me to the hospital, but I just can't go. I know I'm being selfish. I should be at the hospital with my dad. I just can't. There's so many bad memories from hospitals that being in them makes me freak out. I don't want to be there when my dad is. I'll assume the worst.
I've been sitting at one of the deputies' desk for the last ten minutes. I should be on the way to the hospital. By now, dad is probably checked in, and is in the middle of surgery. Even if I did go, I couldn't see him. I turned my phone off, afraid mom would hear the news and call me. The last thing I want to do is talk about it.
"Arden?"
I look up when I hear my name. Off to the side, along a wall of windows to Sheriff Stilinski's office, Derek and some other guy are sitting on a bench. I stand up and walk over to them. They each have one hand handcuffed to the bench.
"What are you doing here?" I stand in front of them.
"Stiles set us up." Derek motions to the guy next to him.
"Oh." I mutter. "Stiles shot my dad in the stomach with an arrow."
The other guy raises an eyebrow. "Why are you here then? Shouldn't you be at the hospital."
I clench my jaw. "Personal reasons." I glance over my shoulder to see the deputy in his seat now. Not knowing where else to sit, I sit on the bench between the two of them. My arm brushes against Derek's.
Derek jingles the handcuff. "I could easily get out of these, you know."
"So could I." They other guys states. "But, I'm not interested in being a fugitive from the law."
"Well, I'm not interested in being a victim to a seventeen year-old possessed by a psychotic fox." Derek snips.
"Just give me a few more minutes." The guy leans forward to see around me.
Derek ignores him.
"Derek!" They guy hisses.
Derek sighs. "Okay, fine. If something happens, don't expect me to risk my life trying to save yours."
Phones start ringing off of the hook all at once. Officers run around the station with frantic looks. I nervously shift on the bench. What's going on? Why do they all look worried? An officer races over to us, quickly unlocking the guy's cuff.
"What's happening?" He demands.
I direct my attention to Derek. "What's happening?"
He turns his head towards the office behind us. Derek snaps his head back to the two of us. "Get down!"
The other guy covers his head with his thick jacket without questioning it. Derek covers my body with his just as an explosion goes off in the room behind us. I scream in surprise. Glass and chips of wood fly around us. Derek's arms are wrapped tightly around me, shielding me from all of it.
"Get me an ambulance here, at the sheriff's station. We've got an explosion. We got multiple officers down. Multiple officers down." Sheriff Stilinski yells from somewhere in the room.
Derek pulls away from me. I lift my head up, scared. The entire station is destroyed. Glass and pieces of woods are all over the place. Officers are bleeding, some on the ground, others walking. The three of us stand up. Derek stumbles and I grab on to him, making sure he doesn't fall over.
"Derek?!" I keep him from falling over.
The other guy helps me keep him up. Light reflects from off of Derek's back, where hundreds of tiny glass is stabbing his back.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." He breathes.
"No, you're not." I winces at his back. "That was going to be me. You saved my life. Thank you."
Derek breathes, heavily. "You're welcome."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I really loved this chapter! There was Derek and then Stiles and then more Derek. I thought you should enjoy a little of both. I think you guys are split in the middle of who you ship her with.
Coach was shot by an arrow. He's going to be okay. And don't think that Arden is rude for not being with her dad at the hospital. She's had a hard past.
I like her with Stiles, yet I really like her with Derek. I still haven't fully decided yet. Or maybe I have and I just like playing with your emotions.
Question: What was your favorite part of this chapter?
So, yeah!