Chapter thirty✓
Olivia's fingernails were next to nothing by the time Stiles pulled into her driveway.
With all of the nervous energy running about in her, she had to put it somewhere or else she might just go insane. A silent debate was occurring in her head, a debate about pouring out her feelings to him or keeping it to herself. It's not something that Olivia is good at for starters. Typically her true feelings come out in jokes or in one continuous word vomit.
Should she tell Stiles....everything? She's watched enough TV shows and movies to know and understand that lying gets you absolutely nowhere, so why not come clean?
But it would hurt them. She was keeping them safe by not doing or saying anything that would put her friends in any real danger.
That was the debate. For some reason, it felt too easy to tell one of her friends about what she was experiencing, like she was falling right into the palms of the creature that was haunting her.
The jeep came to a stop, pulling Olivia out of her thoughts. Being home alone while Scott was somewhere else, that Olivia had no clue about his whereabouts, was not ideal. She was scared. And Olivia does not scare easily.
Her emotions are always locked away in the back of her mind until nighttime where they break through and eat her alive, preventing her from gaining any sleep. So, being home alone, again, not the best idea at the moment.
Olivia is not the type of girl to open up in any way. She puts off her feelings until they end up consuming her because she doesn't like to feel exposed. Being curled up in her own little ball of pity in the corner of a dark room is where you'll find her.
Stiles turned to face her and looked at her with sad eyes. He could tell she was deteriorating inside. In the time that he's known her, she has never broken down like this before and it was completely out of character. There wasn't a side of her that he hadn't seen yet...well, that was until earlier.
Now, he was just worried.
"Thanks for the ride." She spoke quietly, still staring at her shaking hands.
Stiles' face dropped. A part of him was hoping she would have decided to tell him about the thing that was bothering her, but she wasn't going to. "Yeah, no problem." Stiles said, still hanging onto hope.
Instead of immediately getting out of the car, Olivia stayed still. She didn't move or say anything, just sat in the seat next to him. Something wasn't letting her move. If she were to get out of the car, it seemed to her that she would lose an opportunity.
Meanwhile Stiles was just looking at her oddly. As in 'why are you still in my car?'.
"Do you-"
"I'm ready to-"
Both of them ended up speaking over the other.
☾☾☾
One minute they were in Stiles' car and the next, sitting on Olivia's bed awkwardly.
Olivia didn't like being easily read or determined, so this was hard for her, this being to express her emotions that were going to be taken seriously.
"This all started when you all went down a couple of weeks ago." she started from the beginning, the beginning of when everything started to go to absolute shit.
Breaking the suffocating silence that was about to drive Stiles borderline insane, he looked up at her and his focus was all on her words and nothing else.
"I know you tried to ask me about what had happened, but I never answered you...and then we got into that car crash, so it did end up slipping my mind for a while" she heard Stiles laugh shortly. A momentary pause as she attempted to collect her thoughts. "The moment you all were completely submerged I was pulled into some sort of reality."
"Reality?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Yes. It felt completely real. I could feel, touch, hear — it was as if I was actually there..."
There. "Where were you?" Stiles asked cautiously, not sure if he wanted an answer or not.
Olivia sighed. "Home."
They both knew the home she was referring to was not the one they were both currently in.
"I woke up in my old bed, my old house. And when I went down the stairs...my mom, dad, brother, they were all there. Sitting in the kitchen like they weren't six feet under."
Stiles understood that the scene could baffle her and rip off old wounds that never fully healed, but she made it sound like that wasn't the entire story. Before he could ask, she continued right as the words hung from his lips.
"But then they disappeared." She ended up fidgeting with her fingers that were once still as she talked and opened up about the horrifying event that has occupied her mind for the last couple of weeks. "They were ripped away right in front of me once again, but this time it was something else. Something was inside the house. I don't know how else to describe it other than it looking like a mummy."
Stiles' brow quirked. "A, uh, mummy?" he asked, unsure if he was allowed to laugh or if she was being serious.
She rolled her eyes. "Like I said, difficult to describe. It was a...figure wrapped in cloth, I think, that was slowly unraveling. But it could talk, walk — well, more like a limp."
"Did it speak to you?"
"Yes, it said nothing kind if that's what you were hoping for. It spewed awful things...and it made the house flood with blood somehow. I don't know where I was or how this thing infiltrated my mind, but it's been haunting me ever since then. Never leaving my side." she finished, her sentencing trailing off.
Stiles had no clue what she meant by a 'mummified creature', but it worried him considering the supernatural was the supernatural. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if vampires existed.
Stiles watched her eyes drift off to the corner of the room and he looked back only to see nothing, but clearly she saw someone he couldn't. "Olivia." Stiles started which startled Olivia slightly. "Is it here now?" He asked calmly as her eyes landed back on her hands.
She nodded her head.
He froze. "Shit."
"I've told it to leave me alone, but that hardly ever works. The things it does and says-" Olivia paused to catch her breath.
"What does it say?" Stiles asked, still slightly freaked out that there was something else in the room with them at the moment.
He was not a fan of paranormal activity despite the fact that the supernatural was a part of their everyday life.
Olivia chuckled under her breath. "Anything and everything to freak me out and, and for some reason it keeps wanting me to let it in? I don't even know what that means! I swear to god and beyond, whatever this thing is, it's fucking annoying and I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."
Stiles grew paranoid, but for some reason, everything she was saying struck him with a sense of familiarity. He couldn't tell what part, but when she said let me in, alarm shot through his system and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck shoot up. He was beginning to grow agitated with the feeling crawling up his back, but chose to ignore it and listen to the girl in front of him. "Why didn't you tell us when it first started?"
"Nightmares aren't new to me, but that's what I thought they were: nightmares. But as time passed, it happened during the day too and I couldn't walk down the hallway without spotting that wretched creature in the corner. It started to make me hallucinate horrible things. You asked what it said? It said it would kill all of you and it is extremely capable of doing so." Flashes of her friends being impaled by black swords, tormented through black caves moved throughout her mind.
"We survived this far, we won't die that easily." Stiles tried to lighten the mood but failed miserably because Olivia just shot daggers at him.
"Stiles," she started. "I know you've been having dreams about the Nemeton. I knew before you told Scott today. I was there because it showed me." Olivia didn't know if she should reveal to him how she was treated, unsure how he would react.
Stiles became rather confused. "You knew? I don't understand, Olivia. You say you were inside my dream but I never saw you?" he recalled her entire dream and didn't remember seeing her at all and he would have remembered if he did.
Olivia felt herself become restless with the questions, but he deserved an answer. Sucking in a breath, "I already told you in the car — I yelled for you but you never came. It was like you couldn't even hear me, Stiles." she didn't even want to think about how helpless she was during that time. "I really wished you had heard me..."
Everything Olivia was speaking of was some sort of cryptic message that Stiles felt like he had to solve. It was all confusing, all over the place, and he couldn't help but get lost.
"What could I have done for you if I had heard you? It was just a dream, we all wake up eventually." It was rather ironic that him of all people was talking. The only way he, himself, could wake up was by screaming.
Olivia thought long and hard, her nonexistent nails becoming even more nonexistent if it was even possible at this point.
He did have a point. What would have changed if he had somehow heard her cries for help? It's not like they both could escape the grasp of the mummified demon that haunts her every non-waking and waking moment.
"I'm not sure, maybe you could have helped me and I could have helped you?" she sighed, agitation becoming more evident. "I don't like being dragged by my foot and tied to a chair in my free time."
Stiles choked. "You were what?"
"I would prefer not to repeat myself. That's what I had hoped to avoid if you had heard me. At least I wouldn't have been alone." She mumbled the last part. It was true. Being alone made the entire thing one hundred times scarier. And if it were him by her side...
Nevermind.
Guilt plagued Stiles's mind and words. "I-I'm sorry, Olivia. I really had no idea..." he was struggling with his own personal torment during that time.
That guilt transfered over to Olivia instantly after seeing the hurt flash across his face, not meaning whatsoever that he should have done something. "You shouldn't apologize, that's not what I wanted at all. It's not your fault, it's not mine," is it? "It's that thing's fault. I didn't mean to place blame on you." she said, her eyes staring directly into his so he knew she truly meant it.
But, part of Stiles couldn't help but blame himself. Even if he couldn't do anything about it, he still put that pressure on himself.
A silence fell over them. Olivia went back to picking at her nails while Stiles just stared at her comforter.
"What do we do now?" Stiles asked, eyes still on the bed.
Olivia didn't look up either. "I wish I knew. It seems like we're all pretty screwed aren't we?"
Stiles huffed. "Yeah, we are." and he truly meant it. He finally looked up. "Do you wanna tell Scott about this? He's pretty worried about you." he asked, a solemn tone lacing his voice, a bunch of questions racing about in his mind.
She took a deep breath. Thinking about how confused Scott must be made her sadness deepen. He's been there for her countless times throughout the last couple of weeks and she couldn't be more thankful for him. Everytime she woke up screaming, he was there. Everytine she was getting caught up in the creature's grasp, he unintentionally brought her out of it by asking her about homework.
She didn't want to worry him anymore. It was like that was all she did to him.
"No," Olivia finalized. "I don't want to cause him any more stress. Maybe I'll just get exercised and that'll solve all my problems." she shrugged even though she knew it ran deeper than a simple ghost tormenting her.
Stiles clearly didn't like the idea since his eyes hardened and brows were firm. "Olivia, you can't keep it all to yourself. What's happening to you — it's bad, and I don't even know the full story. Earlier today, you were completely terrified and now you're acting like it doesn't matter or it's something that is less compared to what's happening with us? It's not. If anything, it's worse. I think we need help with this, if we tell Scott and the others-"
Fear struck in her body. "No." she swallowed hard. It was already a big risk telling Stiles, but the others? It would be extremely risky and it still felt like she was playing right into its hands. Not only would it put her friends in danger, but also put herself in jeopardy. Flashes of her friends being struck with a sword occupied her mind — but as she saw them, she found that Stiles had never been on the other end of the sword...
Stiles became even more confused than he was earlier. "What do you mean no? You already told me so what's it if we tell others?"
Olivia didn't understand why she ended up telling him when it was equally as dangerous for him as for the others. Maybe it was because of the dream and they were connected somehow? It felt strangely easier. "I don't know why I told you — starting to regret it now because now you're in danger and so will they." She tried to emphasize the bigger risk.
The conversation was going nowhere. She thought that talking about what she was going through could help her in some way but it ended up backfiring. She just added more stress to herself and to Stiles.
"I'm sorry. I don't think this was a good idea..." she rubbed her hands over her face in exhaustion.
She thought that Stiles would agree with her seeing as he was getting frustrated with the conversation as well, but that wasn't the case.
"No. I'm glad you opened up to me." he said, his tone softer this time. "Now you're not alone. In the future if something ever happens and you feel like you can't take it, you have someone who understands. If you don't want to tell Scott, that's your decision, but at least you'll have me. You'll always have me."
"Yeah," she said, eyes watering. "I guess I always will."
She was pulled forward unexpectedly, suddenly in his hold. To Stiles, it felt like it was the right thing to do. Just to hold her, so something felt solid and unmoving to her. Olivia was caught off guard, just sitting frozen while he held her. She was still processing what the actual hell was happening, but her body clung to the heat in front of her, loving every second of it. It loosened whatever pent up feelings were tied in a tight knot inside of her, the pressure of his hands on the back of her neck and in her hair caused her to tear up. It seemed her mind hadn't caught up to her actions since she was already hugging back. Her tears clouded her vision so she couldn't see the horrible creature in the corner just watching them. All she could feel was him.
Olivia sniffled into the crook of his neck, breathing in the smell of him which invaded her senses. Comforting.
The warm embrace made her feel at ease. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders by talking to someone who ( hopefully ) didn't think she sounded crazy.
Things like this, as in Olivia's situation, wasn't abnormal considering the life Stiles was living currently. They now had to deal with the supernatural and bear life and death on their shoulders while trying to live what life they can. But, would it ever stop? It was a question that didn't look to have a definite answer.
Stiles hugged her tighter as she continued to cry quietly into the crook of his neck, his mind running a mile a minute. Even if Olivia didn't want to tell Scott, the entire thing that was happening to her was extremely worrisome and would remain in the back of his head, always. A new case he would stop at nothing to solve for her sake. What did it mean? When will it stop? How can he help? It all swarmed in his head amounting to no solution.
Anyone would think by now that Olivia had built a tough skin around her considering all the fucked shit she had been through — as well for the others, but she hadn't. It was something she was working on, but needed time to at least get back on her feet.
Even that was taken from her.
It had pushed her off the edge, though, the edge of a deep long hollow, empty cliff of void. It was about everything that had happened to her leading up to this. Just how unfortunate does a person have to be to have to live her life?
Did she screw someone over in her past life? It seemed to be the only thing that could explain how royally fucked her life continued to be.
This thing was feeding off every bit and piece that Olivia was giving off. Anger, sadness, guilt — it wanted it all. She had so much pent up pain and raw emotion, it was like a never ending buffet for the creature. Causing her more pain, well, that was just a bonus.
☾☾☾
After Olivia had calmed down some more, Stiles had gone downstairs to make her some coffee to try and do something for her, anything to help.
Olivia sat on her bed. "What could you want from me?" she asked the lean figure in the corner of her room that didn't go unnoticed by her.
"Let's just say, I have some big plans for us." and then the moment Olivia's eyes fell shut and opened again, it was gone.
—
rewritten✓
i wonder why she felt so open to share shit with stiles specifically...hm. I mean I know, but u guys don't...yet.