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Chapter seventeen✓
Olivia sat on her bed, stillness rooting her to the sheets. Processing all the things that Deucalion had said to her; she was almost braindead. She was never completely done grieving her family's death, who would be? There would always be a constant reminder of an absent hole in her soul. But, she put on a strong suit for everyone else.
If she broke, there would be no turning back.
When you lose the most important people in your life, you never deal with it or get over it. It might seem like Olivia had barely noticed the lack of her own blood family, but in reality, her restless nights haunt her with never ending nightmares of finding her family's bodies all over again. Holding her little brother's lifeless body, while she uncontrollably wept in her arms as she remembered swearing to herself that she would always protect him. The nights where she would silently cry into her pillow trying not to wake any super hearing werewolves. Her greatest fear was losing the people she loved, being utterly alone.
That fear had come true. And the man who made it so, was just in her room, just having a conversation, just breathing the same air as her.
She was a happy person typically, even before the catastrophe of what left her traumatized. She socialized with whatever friends she had...which was usually her brother's best friend. Her family was a treasure to her, a stilt that helped her walk.
She tried to act strong, not to show how deeply she had been affected. The others kept an eye on her even if she didn't know it. They had expected her to break at a point where it was all just too unbearable, yet she never did.
They wanted to be there for her but she never opened up to any of them besides Allison. Allison who would listen to her worries, wipe her tears, and hold her close while whispering in her ear: "It's all okay, you're here and everything will be alright. You have us."
Scott would wake up in the middle of the night hearing the front door open and close. A signal to him that Olivia had gone to Allison's apartment. He wouldn't worry because a text would normally come in five or ten minutes later from Allision saying that she was with her.
Everything in that exact moment came crashing down on her. How was she able to continue breathing when everything was too much for her to handle? In no time, her breaths became rapid and heavy. Tears glossed her eyes to the point of blurring her vision. But, she wasn't crying because of the weight of her situation, she was crying out of frustration at the world for making her life so empty and complicated.
Pulling her knees to her chest hugging herself, her phone started to ring again.
She knew for a fact that in her current state, her ability to speak would be compromised. The debate prolonged in her head, and came to a solid conclusion of answering it. Even if she didn't and just shut her phone off, he would just call again and eventually show up at her door.
Incoming call: Stiles
In one short moment, her tears were gone, hands were still shaking but not to the point of dropping her phone, and the ability to speak tumbled back. "What." she sniffled.
"You need — wait, are you crying, Liv?" he spoke softly through the phone.
Fuck. She hated this boy and his stupid detective skills.
"Would you believe me if I said no?" As much as she wanted to sound normal, her voice deceived her as the shakiness passed through the line.
"No, not one bit." a pause. "Did something happen...?"
A flash of events scurried throughout her mind. The temptation to say 'no, everything's fine!' wanted to crawl up and out of her throat, but she was just so tired of it all.
"Deucalion broke into the house and just fucked me up a little." Olivia wasn't lying. In fact, she was fucked up in the head at the moment, she just decided to leave out the topic of conversation, deciding it was too much to talk about.
"He did what?!" she then heard mumbling: "S-sorry, uh, I'll keep it down..."
Was he being yelled at? The thought almost made her laugh.
Even if she couldn't see it, she suspected he wore a frown upon his face, morphed with anger.
"Do you want to talk about it? I'm always here for you, Liv. You know that." His voice was soft and Olivia practically melted at the sound. So soft and alluring, she could listen to it all day.
Her face turned a little red, "I'm not sure. Maybe another day."
"Oh, uh, I'm coming to pick you up actually." he said. "I'll drive us to the Animal Clinic where we're going to try to find out where Deaton is. I'll be at your house in five?" There was a hint of hesitation in voice, asking if he was pushing her limits.
The sudden direction had her stunned momentarily. Did she really want to see people in this state? "I — sure." What else was she supposed to do? Say no and lock every window and door in the house?
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Olivia didn't bother looking in the mirror, if anything, doing that might cause her to break down once more and that would do no one good. Even she could tell without sneaking a peak that she looked wrecked.
Skipping the mirror at all costs, she slugged around the room, picking up a sweat shirt and then trudged down the stairs with no motivation whatsoever. It was quiet, unfortunately. No matter how much she hated the quiet, she was alone with it until Stiles would arrive.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted the living room couch. Exhausted, she decided to flop onto it, feeling more tired than she was earlier. The heaviness weighed on her eyelids, threatening to shut the blinds to the outside world. As much as she wanted to nap all day and just not wake up, there was stuff to do, people to find and save. She wondered if she would ever get a break. A break from not just the supernatural, but the world itself. No work to do, no responsibilities, no burdens such as everyday life.
Thinking like this leads her to spiral. Fortunately, before she could even close her eyes, the door was knocked on. She could easily identify the knocks that were Stiles, the sporadic and messy rasp of his knuckles on the wooden door.
The minute she opened the door, barely a crack open, it was forced open wide. She couldn't process anything until she was being held. The feeling of his warmth transferring directly to her, his smell invading her senses, she was being held.
Hesitancy made her reluctant to hug back, just oddly standing in his grasp. But, she found herself wanting to hug back, to just stay in his arms forever until the sun set. His arms were wrapped around her waist and on her head, hands in her hair. She liked that feeling.
The hesitancy was washed away and replaced with the want to hug back.
Placing her arms around his middle back and resting her chin in the crease of his shoulder, she felt comfortable.
So, they stood. They stood obscounced in one another's arms until Stiles pulled away and locked eyes with her. At that moment, a silent conversation was passed between them. One that would be with them forever.
As long as you're okay, I won't ask.
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"Okay, so what does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?" Cora said as they skimmed across the stack of papers that were Danny's re-search about Geomagnetic fields.
Did Olivia know what those were? Not really. She just stood and nodded when a question was asked, still feeling utterly drained.
They were all gathered around the metal table at Animal Clinic trying to find a clue or anything to help Scott's boss. Olivia was always so curious about the man. He seemed to have been the one to help her back on that dreadful night, but she also remembered how surprised he was when that met once more. It gave her a subtle hunch that he might know what she was.
"Because it's not just homework, okay?" Stiles looked down at the several papers he was holding. "It's a project on Geomagnetic fields. They flow through the earth. They can even be affected by lunar phases alright?"
Everyone looked along the multiple loose sheeted papers sprawled out across the table. "Now look at this." He pointed towards a certain sheet.
"This is a note from Harris on Danny's proposal." Every pair of eyes landed upon the red hand-written words on the piece of printer paper.
"I strongly advise that you choose another subject. The idea, while innovative and thoughtful, borders pseudoscience. Not suitable for class." Lydia read aloud from the note.
"Harris wasn't just a sacrifice." Scott started.
Finally, Olivia could make a comment and act like she was following, "He knew something."
She felt accomplished.
Stiles then pulled out another paper. "Now, check this out." pointing to a map that took up the whole metal table.
"Allison's dad wasn't the only one who had a map alright? Danny had one too." He smoothed the map across the table and several marks were revealed.
Scott then put his blue maps over Danny's map and started to place them. "Danny marked all the Telluric currents, okay?" Stiles said, "Now the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it's actually a Beacon." Everyone was silent, intently listening to him talk.
"Wait seriously?" The comment slipped from her mouth.
Stiles looked over at her, "Yes, seriously." He retorted. "You wouldn't believe how much energy flowing through the earth is around this town." He picked up different maps and sheets, the sound of paper echoing around the room that was silent. Scott started to shove around the two different maps together, coming to a realization, evident upon his face.
"Stiles, look they match." Scott said. Stiles looked down and his eye's searched the papers.
"Alright, there's three places where they were kidnapped right?" Scott started to circle different places on the maps, several Olivia had to count. "And then the place where their bodies were found." Scott circled another area
"Look, that's right on a Telluric current."
"So, maybe where he was sacrificed is somewhere in between." Scott prompted.
"But where? That's a lot of ground to cover and we have limited time." Olivia said, her eyes darting around the group of teens.
Stiles quickly grabbed the pen from Scott's hand and started to make more marks on the map. His hands erratic and quick. "You said there's six more bodies to be found. Deatons one of them" Stiles said, focusing harder than he's had too in his life. Not even for a test had he focused this hard.
Last time he checked, no one was about to die if he got a bad grade.
Well, if you count him out when his dad finds out.
"Got to be somewhere in between right." A hand grabbed his and moved it across the map. Cora's hand.
"He's in the same vault." The statement rang around the room, going through every teens head as they thought and processed that simple fact. The first person to move was Scott, scrambling to gather all papers and informational clues. Sincere was moving, everyone else began to help, until Lydia spoke: "Guy's hold on."
"Lydia, we don't have time." Scott was already halfway out of the building.
Olivia's eyes darted over to the brunette who was staring at her phone shakily. "It's Boyd, the plan didn't work. They cut the power."
Now, Olivia had been briefed slightly about the situation. She didn't really understand what she meant by that, but could understand enough that it wasn't good.
Everyone stood in silence, they had two choices and they needed to make one fast. Scott was the first one to break the nerving silence. "Just like he said." Olivia had a creeping suspicion that the 'he' was Decaullion. "Go, I can save Deaton myself," he announced.
"Are you sure?" Olivia hesitantly asked. He nodded but Stiles was still hesitant in letting him go.
"What — Scott, what about us?" He looked at him waiting for an answer that seemed to feel like a million years.
"Cora can't get there fast enough without you, go, we can save them both."
He then darted out and into the night leaving the four teens to rush into Stiles's old small jeep that could barely fit three people.
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They all slid into the loft going straight into the power room and there were a bunch of levers and buttons — enough to overwhelm you when you're in a life or death situation. Olivia had a horrible feeling about this place. This was the second time she was in Derek's loft and this time she's fully conscious and not delirious. It looked the exact way she remembered it: gray.
"Now what do we do?" Cora asked, gawking at the number of levers that seemed to go on forever.
Something that Olivia always hated was wasting time. Before anyone could make a decision Olivia took the matter into her own hands.
"Pull all of them." she said.
Receiving odd looks from everyone around her, she insisted once more, already her patients running low. "Now!"
And they did. In a moment, the power was on and they were bolting up to the loft where horrors only awaited them.
The boy known as Boyd was laying on the watered ground, lifeless. Olivia hadn't known him, but it was still a sight to turn any stomach upset. Derek was weeping, his cries filling the empty area. They weren't tears of sadness, no, but tears of frustration. She knew them all too well, the frustration of not being able to protect someone you care about. Feeling guilty.
The scene gave Olivia a perfect representation of what she looked like with her little brother, so she turned away, hiding them from her sight.
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rewritten✓
A/N- and I quote from my previous author note: "I wanted to show a part of Olivia that was sad and depressed because well her whole family is dead, who wouldn't be. You'll be seeing more of her unfortunately..." I'm so sorry for laughing.
this chapter definitely holds a special place in my heart.