Chapter thirty-three✓
Turns out, getting a goodnight sleep without waking up screaming or having nightmares actually feels good. Olivia walked into the school, feeling the best she'd felt in a long time. It was an odd feeling to say the least. She wasn't jumpy, her eyelids weren't as heavy as a rock — it was really nice.
Whatever Deaton had given her, worked and she wasn't sure if she should be grateful or suspicious. She had tried every drug store medicine there was known to man: melatonin, advil, tylenol, literally everything to sleep, but nothing had worked. But the supernatural veterinarian-know-it-all's concoction, had. It slipped her mind to even ask Deaton what was in the pills before taking them.
Olivia paid close attention for the first time in a while, she could hear perfectly and wasn't being pestered by the mister under her bed. It was definitely strange to not feel it's lurking presence stuck to her like her own shadow. She would have to save the questioning for later because she needed this, needed this time to get back on her feet.
"Stiles?"
Mr.Yukimura called from across the front of the room. Since Olivia was actually paying attention for once and being very attentive, she wondered why her friend wasn't getting up and going up to...read
"You can't read in dreams. More and more the last few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words, I can't put the letters in order."
Her pencil fell out of her hand and onto her notes. Surely Stiles could just ask not to participate, right? Mr.Yukimura wouldn't force him to read...right?
She was wrong.
Stiles politely declined at first but Mr.Yukimura insisted.
"I can do it." Olivia suggested, pleading to avoid this creeping situation that could go south at any moment.
The teacher's eyes moved off of Stiles and onto her. "Everyone participates in my class, Mrs.Flynn." he said. She wasn't even given a chance to protest.
She could see Stiles gulp nervously as he now stood at the front of the class. His hands were gripping to the podium like it was his only sense of balance. Olivia was sitting on the edge of her seat, finding herself ready to bolt up and catch him before he hit the floor if it were to happen — and the possibility of it coming true was increasing by the second.
Subjected to the rising tension, the brunette watched as he began to subtly shake and turn frighteningly pale in a matter of just a few seconds, breathing heavily. Olivia quickly turned to meet Scott's face, both matching with a nervous expression.They shared a very quick conversation with just a single look. Without necessarily wasting time, they both stood up at the exact same time and walked up to Stiles's side.
"We should take him to the nurses office." Scott said, trying to keep the boy upright while Olivia held his shoulder.
Mr.Yukimura crooked a brow, but didn't hesitate and nodded with an odd gleam in his eyes.
Saving Stiles from the burning gaze of the other students who were obviously confused and curious as to why they all ran out, the three headed out of the classroom calmly, but the moment they exited, their speed picked up and into the nearest room which ended up being the boys bathroom. Stiles practically fell through the door, looking hilariously around the room. Olivia looked back up to Scott who was just as terrified as her. All they could do was watch as he stumbled about the empty bathroom.
Stiles grabbed onto the sink and muttered to himself, "It's just a dream, It's just a dream." over and over again deliriously.
"No, it's not. You're real. You're here with us." Scott said. His steps were cautious as if he were to frighten the boy. "This is real, Stiles."
Meanwhile, Olivia was racking her brain for a solution. This didn't seem to be a panic attack, so her experience in that field couldn't help. There had to be something he did. How else would he keep himself sane? Or preserve what sanity he had left?
"What do you do when this happens? How do you calm yourself down?" Olivia asked loudly, trying to get him to hear her voice over his deep, ragged breaths.
Luckily, it seemed he was able to hear. He gasped for breath, "I-I c-count my fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams."
Olivia looked back over to Scott, "Okay, so count with us, Stiles." They both held up their hands in front of him, beginning to count from one.
"One..." Scott stuck one finger up after another, ordering Stiles to say the numbers out loud. After each number, Stiles's breathing evened more and more, eventually coming to a normal pace. Stiles slid down the bathroom wall in between two sinks, sweat beading his forehead, exhaustion overcoming him.
"What the hell is happening to me?" He asked, but it sounded more of a plea for an answer rather than a question.
"We'll figure it out. You're going to be okay." Scott responded with no hesitation, squatting down to his level in front of him.
Stiles looked up to them. "Am I?"
Scott and Olivia knew better than to respond to him because they both were well versed in not to make any promises they couldn't keep.
"Scott, you can't even transform. Allisons being haunted by her dead aunt and-" Stiles looked over at Olivia carefully, knowing he was going to be treading on thin ice by saying this. "-that thing's been haunting you for god knows how long." Stiles admitted without looking at the girl in question.
Olivia let out a deep breath knowing it was coming and being Scotts inevitable confusion. Scott looked confused for a split second over to Liv who didn't even meet his eye."-and I'm straight up losing my mind. We can't do this — we can't...We can't help Malia. We can't help anyone."
Stiles's words were airing out the undeniable doubts in their current situation. They were all distressed, hurting, and very confused with the strange occurrences that had been happening to them. Optimism wasn't easy to come by these days and they all knew it.
Scott sat down on the ground along with Olivia and took a deep breath, processing his words before speaking. "We can try. We can always try." he said without fail, dismissing the doubts that lurked in every part of their plans.
"Don't worry." Liv said, "We'll lose our minds with you. I'm already on my way, so why not?" Her smile was sincere and so were her words.
☾☾☾
A coyote had been spotted in the high school. A wild coyote — and by spotted meaning almost killing a fellow student in the locker rooms, but luckily Scott was there to intervene before things got awfully messy. Olivia didn't try too hard to think about how on god's green earth it managed to get into a high school of all places and why it would do such a thing, it would only hurt her brain.
"A couple of the students saw it running right across the field and into the woods. Thank god no one got hurt." The Sheriff explained to Stiles and Olivia who had to keep a fast pace to keep up with the man.
"Well, what if someone did get hurt?" Stiles asked.
"Most likely they'll have to put it down."
"Put her down." Stile corrected. Olivia had been filled in about Malia, the werecoyote that Scott and Stiles were trying to help and how to help her so she wasn't extremely lost in the conversation, even though the topic was very strang to begin with. "Try not to forget that there's a girl in there, one that you'll be killing." He continued.
"I would not want that on my conscience if I were you." Olivia added to try and help with the persuasion.
The Sheriff stopped and looked at them for a moment. His sense of logic fighting with his belief. As a cop he has to abide and work with the law, so having a child who does nothing but break the law must be screwing with his mind as he turns over the same leaf over and over.
Stiles groaned, knowing immediately what his father was thinking before he said anything. "Come on, you aren't back to not believing, are you?" Stiles prodded further.
"You know what, I believe there are a lot of things I don't understand yet." He looked over at Olivia for a second then back at her son, striking Olivia with confusion. "-but that doesn't mean everything and anything imaginable is suddenly possible." The Sheriff paused and regained his composure. "Are you one-hundred percent sure that this is a girl and not an animal?" He asked, not sure if he wanted the answer or not.
"Yes." They both answered.
"Because Scott's sure." Stiles added and nodded over at the end of the hall.
And there stood the one and only Scott McCall listening to their conversation.
"Scott, you've been listening?" At the far end of the hallway he slowly nodded his head, that's all it took for Stilinski to give in a bit. "Alright, let's get this figured out. Come on." He showed the pair to the scene.
Olivia walked into the locker room and immediately found Scott sitting on one of the benches. Hesitancy slowed her steps. He had definitely heard what Stiles had said about her earlier and she didn't know if she wanted to talk to him about it or not or if he even remembered that little bit of information. Surely he would be upset that she confided in Stiles rather than him, but then the conversation would take a dark turn about how she kept it from him for his safety and that it would only concern him further while he was dealing with his own iss-
"Scott, I think I know what she was looking for."
Stiles walked up to them with his backpack and un-zipped it, pulling out a beat up doll.
"Is that a doll...?" Olivia's eyes widened and then she whacked Stiles on the back of his head. "Don't tell me that's Malia's doll. Where did you get that from?"
Stiles thought for a moment which just kept Olivia's mouth hanging. "From her house...?" his voice ended up leveling up an octave as Olivia's glare hardened on him. "Well, I thought Scott could use it, you know, for her scent." He responded hesitantly like it was going to help his losing case.
"That doesn't mean you can take someone's prized possession of their dead loved one?! Stiles, what the hell?" Her jaw was on the floor at their behavior. "Oh, and it didn't occur to you that she wouldn't want it back? I would think you guys would think things through a little bit more considering what we do everyday..."
Stiles looked dumb founded and a bit stupid, "At the time it was a sound plan."
"At the time my ass." she scoffed, the two boys cowering at her scolding. "Don't you think the owner is going to notice its absence?"
"It's just one doll and-"
"Where did you get that? Where did you find this?"
A booming voice entered the small locker room, grabbing the three's attention.
The man was standing in the entrance of the locker room with a pained expression, studying the doll that Stile's was holding. Instantly, Olivia could tell the very disturbed man was the owner. "Fucking hell..." she muttered under her breath as he came closer to them.
"It belonged to my daughter." His voice sounded hurt as looked over the baby doll with sad eyes that could be seen as grief.
Olivia had to hold back the urge to smack the two people besides her.
"Mr.Tate," The Sheriff made his way forward seeing the commotion. "I don't know how you heard about this. If you got your own police scanner or what, but you can't be here." Sheriff Stilinski went to escort the man back out, but when his hand touched the man's side, he calmly looked back up at him, eyes unwavering from his. From the people surrounding them, they would just think he lost his train of thought, but for the people closer they could see something was terribly wrong.
Sheriff Stilinski took his hand and slid it into the side and lifted up the man's coat revealing a black metal gun.
Olivia's breath hitched in her throat sharply at the sight, subconsciously, she found herself sliding behind Stiles, her hands becoming uncontrollably clammy. Stiles peered down at her with furrowed brows, but allowed her to hide behind him regardless of her sketchy behavior.
Olivia couldn't see anything else but the gun that casually sat on the man's hip, ready for quick use.
Liv watched intently as the gun made a full appearance, "I have a permit." Mr.Tate stated like it would solve the problem of bringing an automated weapon onto school grounds.
Sheriff looked sternly at the guy before responding, "California schools are gun free zones, permit or no permit. You need to leave, Mr.Tate. Now."
The man ended up leaving, but Olivia's eyes never left him before he left her sight.
"You find that animal. You find that thing." Were the last things he said before leaving the area, Olivia, relieved that the man was gone, stepped out from behind Stiles and relaxed more.
"You okay?" Stiles questioned her as she watched the empty door like Mr.Tate was going to waltz back in.
She turned her head and nodded, "Oh, um, yeah. I just get nervous around guns." She responded simply, ready to drop the conversation.
☾☾☾
"Anyone else think we might be doing more harm than good?" Lydia asked the group as they stood circled around in the woods.
"We're trying to keep a father from killing his own daughter. " Scott stepped up in front of the teens trying to help the mood lift. But of course Isaac, Debbie Downer, challenged that.
"Actually, we're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote, who is actually his daughter, who we don't know how to change from a coyote back to his daughter." He said matter of factly.
"And again with the not helping." Stiles groaned.
Scott nodded over to Allison. "Did you bring it?"
Allison went to the back of her car and pulled out a long sniper that was the length of Olivia herself.
Suddenly, just as Allison was checking her gear, a gunshot echoed throughout the forest causing Olivia to mildly flinch and Scott to bounce onto his bike, Isaac bolt off, and Allison and Lydia running, leaving everyone to go their own way.
"Hey, hey, hey, wait!" Stiles yelled after them leaving the two of them alone in the woods, Olivia just observing as each person ran off. Clearly she didn't get the message that it was every man for themself.
"Were we supposed to run somewhere?" She asked after a moment of confusion.
Stiles looked over at her. "No, but it seems they had other ideas," he said bitterly. "We never end up sticking to the plan."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
"Good question." Stiles was about to make something up before his phone went off. Quickly, he put it to his ear and turned away from her. Since they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, Olivia just started to walk around the area, letting her thoughts roam as well as her feet.
When Stiles was done, his mood hadn't lightened as she hoped it would. "It took the doll again? The hell is so important about this doll?" He muttered angrily.
A moment passed of just Olivia staring at Stiles who seemed to be going to lose his head at any moment.
"It's the doll?" he said, puzzled at his own words.
"Stiles, are you okay?"
"Yeah, no fine, perfectly, fine — the doll? Why would it go all the way to the school and then all the way back to the house for a doll? One that was in the car wreck in the first place. We didn't find it in the coyote den."
Olivia decided he was starting to lose his shit. He was rubbing the back of his neck, running his hands through his hair that started to stick upright — the image was concerning to say the least.
He stopped abruptly, his hand still in his hair. "A photo, I have a photo."
"A photo of what?" Olivia was still in the dark, just observing Stiles lose the last of his remaining sanity.
He ran over to her, phone in hand and practically shoved it in her face. She jerked back at the sudden action while he muttered an apology. Her eyes focused and studied every inch of the photo. Without a doubt it was Malia and her sister...but which little girl was Malia?
"Which one is Malia?" she asked, expecting him to know.
He glanced back at the photo. "The one to the...oh." his voice trailed off as his face contorted to an epiphany.
Olivia stares at him. "She's not holding the doll is she?" It was a suspicion she had as her eyes met the screen.
Stiles had to keep his jaw from falling onto the ground as well as keeping his eyes in his sockets and not on his phone. "It's not her doll, it's her sisters."
"It's like a keepsake of hers. Something to remember her by..."
Olivia didn't have any keepsakes of her family's.
Stiles broke through her depressive realization. "I know where she's going." he perked up, pulling his own thoughts together. Fueled by his own findings, Stiles pulled out his phone and walked a few feet away from the girl who was still stuck on the fact that she only had her memories to remember her family by.
A photo, an object — Olivia had nothing. In the heat of the moment where she had found the house in shambles as well as the people inside, she ran for her life and was unable to take anything with her. It didn't occur to her before this that she only had her memories to remember her old life by, to remember her family by. Could she remember what her mother's face looked like? What did her brother's voice sound like? Why couldn't she remember it?
Her mind was completely in ruins at this gut-wrenching comprehension that she had absolutely nothing to keep her family alive in her memories. She was entirely occupied so that she couldn't see the ground beneath her, couldn't see the large bear trap she was about to step on. The moment her foot touched the surface, a deathly click! made its way to her ears. That once sound was able to tear through her thoughts. She cautiously looked down and took a sharp breath, her eyes staring straight at a metal death trap that her foot was currently on.
Olivia didn't move an inch. She knew she would lose a foot if she did.
"Stiles." She said as calmly as a person could be in this situation.
The boy still talked into the phone, not hearing her.
"Stiles." Olivia tried once more but still did not earn a response from her one only solution.
So fed up with not getting a reaction, she ended up using a wild card. "Mieczyslaw Stilinski!"
The boy turned around right away, his face mixed with confusion and 'who the hell said my full name?' plastered upon him. His eyes found her and he put the phone down, mouthing 'what?!'
His gaze searched her head to toe, wondering why she wasn't moving and why she yelled at him. Until his gaze fell on her foot that was on a bear trap, the one his dad just had told him to beware of.
He was about to curse so many profanities in a single moment.
"Olivia, do not move." Stiles instructed.
"I really wasn't planning on it!" She yelled, earning a serious glare from Stiles.
He quickly, but carefully made his way over, calculating each and every step he took before kneeling next to her in a safe spot. He looked up at her and just as they connected, he tore himself away and focused intensely on the scene in front of him.
"Do you by chance have any previous experience on how to get away with both feet intact from a bear trap from your hunting past?"
"No."
"Worth a shot." he sighed, wiping sweat that had formed on his hairline.
Olivia racked her brain for one single solution to her deathly predicament, scouring her mind for any knowledge she had of the contraptions. A thought hit her. "Look for a warning label." She said, looking down slightly, but barely.
Stiles cocked his head at her. "A warning label?"
"Instructions on how to disarm it. You know, a label?" Her foot's future was not looking too bright at this rate.
"Liv, why the hell would they put instructions on the bottom of a trap?" He asked.
"Well, do animals know how to read?" She prompted, knowing damn well she won. They finally made stable eye contact and the first thing she noticed was the raw fear in his brown eyes.
He was scared and that was more terrifying that the trap under her foot.
Stiles looked over the trap, brushing away leaves that were on it. His eye then landed on a thin label.
"Olivia, we have a problem." Stiles said wearily.
Pure terror raced through her veins at those words, nothing else could go wrong she thought, but she was wrong.
"I can't read either."
Olivia pursed her lips together in a straight line, not showing any emotion to scare him even more even though she was utterly terrified. She swallowed even though her throat was numb. "Right, right. That's fine — we're fine. You, Stiles Stilinski, do not need any instructions. You can figure it out. You always figure it out, so, figure this out." She paused. "If you cut off my foot you're paying the medical bill." She said, very much serious about him paying for the amputation bills.
Sweat dripped off him as he studied the trap, trying to figure it out. He did not want to hurt her, never in his lifetime would he imagine hurting her. The fear that he could accidentally set it off and Olivia bleed out in the middle of the woods was becoming increasingly possible as his hands shook intensely just at the thought.
It was not an ideal situation for either of them at the moment.
Olivia steadied her breathing and peered down at Stiles, hoping she would get out of this with a foot.
"Here we go. Ready?" He licked his lips, hands shaking profusely.
Olivia's eyes widened and held her breath. "You can read?"
"We'll find out."
She didn't even have time to freak out.
Stiles turned the little wheel quickly and Olivia immediately jumped off the trap and into a pair of arms that hugged her tight, pulling her far away from the trap. The realization that she actually made it out and with both of her feet still attached to her body was astounding. The contraption closed right as she had leaped off. It was pure luck.
"Do you have both feet?" Olivia, who was staring at the metal clamp on the ground, turned to face Stiles whose face was extremely close to hers.
"I, uh, I think." She looked down and saw not a single drop of blood on the ground.
"Good, because I seriously don't have the money to pay for your medical bill." His tone was light but had a hint of seriousness laced within. While his arms made their way to the back of her head pulling her in closely, "On a brighter note, I guess I can read now." he said.
"I would have killed you if you couldn't."
"I would have ran away because you would be at a disadvantage with only one foot."
"There is no way you just said that."
☾☾☾
Scott had successfully transformed Malia back into her human self ( how? Olivia had no idea, she was just happy things worked out in the end ) and was now dropping her off at her house where a very happy father daughter reunion flourished.
Olivia was now sitting in the back of Sheriff Stilinski's cop car. He had shown up about twenty minutes ago, worried about the bear traps that he had found out about. Olivia didn't make eye contact with the man as he scolded Stiles for being too reckless, going on about how someone could have gotten seriously injured.
She just nodded.
So, as she sat with both of her feet intact, her eyes couldn't help but focus on the reunion she and Stiles had a front row seat to. The man who had shown up to the school with a loaded gun, was sobbing and hugging the girl who was Malia.
Olivia didn't notice her eyes watering, aching with...bitterness? For some reason, it seemed like everyone else was getting some sort of happy ending, even if they had the worst stories to begin with recently. So why was it that she didn't get one? Why was it that she was being haunted by some version of a demon? Who had it out for her? It simply made her think there was no happy ending in sight for her — or no ending at all.
"I can read now."
Stiles's voice broke through her spiraling thoughts, drawing her attention to him instead of the scene outside.
"I gathered that from my foot still being intact. Either you could read or I just have insane luck and we both know I do not have any luck whatsoever. Just the 'get out of jail' card for outsmarting death every once and a while." Her words felt heavy on her tongue. It seemed the only luck she did have was escaping death.
Stiles shifted in his seat and looked back at her. "It's better than dying."
"I guess." A beat passed before the silence broke. "Good for you, though. Now you can complete your homework without using some weird forged doctor's note to be your excuse."
Stiles studied her from head to toe. She sounded solemn and her voice was mostly monotone. She wasn't looking at him, but at her feet. "That's the only pro of this whole thing." he said, eyes still boring into hers, attempting to figure out what was off.
Then, a curious thought made its way to the front of his mind. "Are they gone for you?" He asked, waiting for an answer.
Olivia's head snapped up and over to Stiles, no longer looking at her feet. She thought about answering honestly, but she didn't want to bother him anymore. So, she lied — lied straight through her teeth.
"Yeah." She forced a smile, sounding as convincing as possible.
Stiles didn't say anything. He just stared at her with a calculating gaze, one that made Olivia nervous for her own lie.
—
rewritten✓
girl. get it together.