☾☾☾☾
☾☾☾☾
Chapter forty✓
(wc: 4705)
A frigid breeze blew across Olivia's sleeping figure causing her to stir, her eyes instantly flying open. She could tell she wasn't in her bed, or even in her house just by the feel of the hard, cold cement flooring beneath her. The air was icy and cut through the thin shirt and sweatpants she had on.
She pushed herself up from her uncomfortable position on the hard floor, her neck aching from the discomfort. How did she get here? She went to bed in her own room and last time she checked she didn't sleep walk. Fear pumped through her veins as another round of chills raced up her spine and coated her body.
Looking around in the dark, she could tell it was a basement of some sort. All the walls seemed to be cement — it looked like an industrial place of work that hadn't been finished, or the building was just very old. The smell of dust made her lungs seize in her chest for each inhale. Her eyes shifted around the room while thoughts raced through her head: could she find an exit?
As her head hesitantly turned, a feeling of looming misfortune hung above her.
She froze in place — there was something in here with her.
From all around her, a shuffling sound bounced off the walls echoing the room. A shuffling she had heard many times, enough times to be familiarized with it to the point of her nerves becoming jolted with terror just by the sound alone.
It didn't seem like a dream or night terror to her — normally those would be drained of color, but this was very, very real. If anything, it felt as if she was awake. The cold air nipped at her nose and any exposed skin and turned her blue, she could feel that perfectly fine.
The shuffling struck up again from her left and her head snapped to the side. She could see the faint outline of a figure lurching in the shadows. Her breathing shallowed as her throat closed.
"Who's there?"
Olivia's eyes widened. She hadn't said anything, so who did? The words were hanging in the air, lingering in the room as the question went unanswered.
She knew that voice, didn't she? It was one she heard everyday, but this one sounded terrified, in pain, scarily different from the one she listened to everyday. That familiar voice rang through her ears as she listened intently to hear anything else, anything from another question to a quiet sniffle.
"Hello?" the voice asked again.
Olivia knew it was him now. In the direction his voice came from, a small light was cutting through the dark. Someone was flashing a flashlight in her direction.
"Stiles?" Olivia whispered loudly, inching toward the light to try and see the shadowed figure behind the light. She attempted to get up, but as she crawled even a foot away from her previous position, a searing pain shot through her leg causing her to scream. It shot up her leg and numbed her ankle to the point where Olivia didn't know if it was even attached to her body anymore.
From the other side of the room, Stiles's head, quicker than ever, whipped around towards the agonizing scream he had just heard. Every nerve inside of him was shocked.
"Olivia!" He yelled from the floor while holding the flashlight in his free hand. He searched the room until his light landed on something in the small distance. A small figure was on the ground, back against the wall, crying while holding its leg. It was definitely Olivia: her dark brown hair swayed as she held her leg.
Olivia cried as she looked down at her leg to find it covered in her own blood and ensnared in a bear trap. The sight was so extremely grisly she had to close her eyes and lean her head back from sudden nausea, the room spinning from the sudden shock. She didn't even hear Stiles call out for her, her attention more on the mess of her leg.
"Are you there, Olivia?!" Stiles yelled again, wondering if his mind was playing yet again another trick on him.
Olivia's eyes were screwed shut, but his voice forced her to open them. She squinted as the light shined directly in her eyes. "Stiles?!" she said in between heaving breaths of pain. "Why are you — you can't be here, Stiles." The shock turned into fear almost instantly. The fact that they were still not alone coming back to haunt her.
He didn't know why she didn't want him here, it's not like he had a choice in the matter. Stiles desperately wanted to go help her, but his foot was pierced through in a bear trap as well, impairing his movement. He twisted around on the floor, trying to break free, but it was useless. The more he moved, the more blood pooled on the ground.
Olivia knew it was around here somewhere. This was all it's doing. She wanted to face it's clothed face, but she needed to draw the attention to her instead of Stiles. That's all that mattered in this one moment to her.
Finding whatever courage she had left in her, she clenched her hands into fists and the sharp pain of her nails cutting into skin brought her back to the present.
"I know you're out there." Olivia turned her head in search of the mummified creature. Her voice was hoarse from the frigid air and from her previous cries of agony. "Just come out, you coward!" Olivia screamed, her voice breaking.
Stiles heard everything she was yelling into the empty room...or so he thought. He was terribly confused why she was yelling at four cement walls, unless she had already lost it, which was entirely possible.
Her breathing was cut short as she closed her eyes, preparing herself to direct all attention to her. It was like everything stopped before she spoke, fear made her eyesight blur, but she powered through it. "You're not fooling anyone. Ju-just come out and get to the fucking point!"
A beat passed. No one moved, breathed, spoke, nothing. A pin dropped could be heard.
Then, the faint shuffling came about once more, this time Stiles taking notice.
The figure appeared out of the shadows and limped forward toward the girl. She held her breath and didn't let go as it loomed closer. The anxiety settling on her chest was like an elephant sitting on her, blocking her from breathing. The proximity was terrifying. It just came closer and closer and each time she thought it would stop, it didn't, not until it was right in front of her, looking down.
"I wonder, have you taken up on my offer yet? You sure are a stubborn one." The creature said in a lilting tone.
It was now close enough to her that she could feel its disgusting, cold breath on her face.
"Don't touch her!" Stiles yelled as he watched the whole thing unfold, the limping figure moving even closer to Olivia whose back was plastered to the wall.
Olivia cursed in her head, wondering why Stiles had to open his mouth. Now the dreadful creature was focused on him, not her. It walked away from her and made its way over to Stiles while Olivia couldn't do a thing to stop it.
Right to the side of Stiles who was laying on the floor with his phone, it stopped, turning its head to him. "Do you know what's been happening to your little friend over there? What I've been doing and what I plan to do?" it asked,
Stiles didn't answer.
"I know she has opened up to you about my...visitings shall we call them? Yes, I like that word." it snickered. "I was there as she told you of all the things that had been going wrong in her life because of me...and you didn't even know. Standing in the corner of the room just watching..." It stopped and lifted its head to the ceiling. As a moment passed, its head rolled on its shoulders to look at Stiles' firm face. "Well, how do I look? Anything like you've imagined? Maybe I was a few feet taller?"
In half of a second, Stiles's features were paled, painted with one horrifying realization. This was it. It didn't connect in his mind until now. That's why Olivia was yelling randomly, because she knew. She knew it was hidden somewhere in these walls, listening to their pained screams, feeding off of them. His eyes trailed hesitantly down and up the creature's clothed wrapped body. It truly was a horrifying sight. And Olivia had been dealing with it for weeks. Dread filled him from head to toe.
The mummified figure stood as the realization washed over him. "Didn't take you too long, surprisingly."
Olivia opened her mouth. "Why am I here?" She asked out into the room hoping her voice was loud enough, which it was.
Its mummy-like head turned towards her and away from Stiles.
"You only meet me when you want something, so what is it? I doubt you're doing this for no reason or else you've really lost y-your touch." she shivered, her lips definitely tinging blue.
Stiles studied Olivia and saw how she was trying to ignore the trap on her ankle, her eyes void and blank. No surprise showed in her actions, only that she was shaking and stray tears were still rolling down her face.
"Good question. No, I have not lost my touch, I find that rather offensive. Can't I just meet with my host's-"
"No."
Quiet.
The creature's teeth grinded together.
"I am not your host, you cannot do this whenever you like, and he has nothing to do with you and I so let him go and we can work something out." she spat, her arms practically shaking.
"That's no fun."
Olivia clenched her fist together as she prayed for her negotiation to work out somehow in her favor.
Instead of amusing Olivia any further, it surprisingly turned away from her. "Do you know any riddles, Stiles?" It rasped with a slight lisp through its metallic sharp teeth.
Stiles's eyes flickered over to Liv who watched them carefully, eyes widening in the slightest, alarmed with the change in behavior.
"I know Olivia knows all of mine," It continued.
"A few." Stiles's voice was quiet, mostly distracted by the earlier conversation. His eyes were stuck on Olivia.
The nogitsune walked around tauntingly as he thought of his riddles, sauntering past Olivia and Stiles causing them to hold their breath each time.
"What gets bigger the more you take away?"
"Stiles, don't answer him." Olivia said firmly while trying to keep her back against the wall. She was losing a lot of strength quickly, dizziness threatening to overtake her thoughts.
In the split second after she spoke, the creature dropped the chalk it found on the ground and flashed across the room to appear right in front of her. Before she had any time to process it, she was grabbed by her throat and slid up the wall.
"I'm trying to have a conversation, Olivia. It was rude to interrupt." The words hissed through its rusty teeth.
The girl thrashed in its grasp, eyes watering to the point of tears. The grip didn't loosen, only maintaining strength.
Stiles lurched forward until his ankle prevented him from any further. He couldn't feel the pain of the trap, but felt tormented by the sight in front of him. "Stop! Stop it!" Stiles yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
"Answer me, Stiles. You're running out of time." It gestured with its free hand to Olivia, who was slowly losing consciousness in its grip, fighting becoming weaker.
Stiles felt tears trailing down his cheeks and let out a harsh sob as he thought to himself. His thoughts were jumbled and he couldn't think straight. All he could hear were Olivia's gasps that were slowly becoming quieter.
"A hole, a hole!" He cried out.
He watched helplessly as it kept his grip on her neck for a couple seconds. When it finally released Olivia, Stiles let out a breath in relief as he saw her land on the ground.
Olivia coughed roughly, trying to catch her breath while holding her sore neck.
"What gets wetter the more it dries?"
"A towel." Stiles whispered.
"When is a door not a door?"
Olivia perked up at that and so did Stiles. They each caught each other's gaze.
"...when it's ajar." Stiles said through the tears as more memories came rushing back to him. Everything had begun to make some sort of sense to him. Every action that Olivia had done in the last week or so that used to confuse him, didn't anymore. He couldn't believe how blind he had been.
Olivia couldn't bear to hear any of this anymore. She didn't want to be here anymore. Her head was pounding at the same frantic pace as her heart. Looking at her surroundings, from what she could tell they were being kept in a basement with a bunch of pipes and old dusty shelves with an odd couch that seemed out of place. There was no exit in sight but a thin light from grates above them that shed some moonlight on the floor.
"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it." It was now facing a wall with a backwards five on it, its hand gliding over the symbol. "What is it?"
Stiles racked his mind looking for an answer to the question, "I don't-"
Olivia's attention turned back to the conversation, noticing Stiles's stammering.
"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it." It repeated.
All Olivia could do was sit and watch. She was weak compared to the creature — any move she made, it would effortlessly counteract it.
"What is it, Stiles?" it asked again, slowly making its way to the boy who was still chained to the floor by his ankle.
"I don't know." Stiles said quietly, shivering. He was scared — no — terrified as it continued to creep towards him. His mind scattered as he searched for anything to answer with besides a 'I don't know'.
It fastened its pace with anger and limped unnaturally quickly, spitting out phrases in a foreign language as it got closer.
Stiles muttered another 'I don't know' in defeat and its stature changed from its anger.
Olivia watched as it yelled in his face. Stiles was backed up against the wall trying to get away from the face close to his. The yelling made her ears ring and stirred up her restlessness. Her fingers traveled across the cement floor until they came across the bear traps chain. She didn't know what she was going to do until her hands and arms were already moving. She yanked at her chains that pulled at her ankle. With each pull, pain flooded her nerves, but she didn't dare let out any screams.
Something snapped in Olivia when she heard Stiles yell out. She violently kicked her leg with the bear trap against the wall, breaking it in half and releasing her ankle. Pain radiated through her body and she screamed, not being able to conceal the amount of pain coursing through her.
The sound caught the demon's attention, its head snapping in her direction. It said something, but it was muffled to Olivia.
She attempted to wobble onto her feet, but her ankle was still too weak to handle the pressure of her body's weight.
The creature growled at her and suddenly lunged, grabbing the chain from Stiles's ankle and using it to drag him across the floor. Fear and pure terror raced through him at the sudden motion. He was being pulled backwards, his ankle forward. He could only hear Olivia's struggling.
"No! No, wait! Olivia!" He screamed, clawing at the floor, trying to grab anything to anchor himself. Tears poured out of his eyes as he was dragged mercilessly across the ground.
"Stiles!" Olivia cried out. She scrambled to her feet, leaning against the wall for support even though she felt as if she were weightless.
The last thing Stiles saw was Olivia sobbing and the clothed creature lumbering towards her before everything went dark.
☾☾☾
"Stiles! Stiles, you're okay!"
Melissa McCall wound her arms around the screaming teenager in the middle of the deep forest while Agent McCall stood to the side, completely bewildered by the scene that shook him down to his bones. Stiles Stilinski was sobbing hysterically, his limbs kicking out in an effort to push her off. After a few seconds, her words finally reached him and he slowly leaned into her warm embrace.
"Hey, you're alright." She said calmly, stroking his hair.
As Stiles came to his senses, he fervently started to look around the area he was in. His eyes traveled from left to right, searching for something his mind was telling him to look for. The feeling of forgetting something, something so important to him that it was agonizing.
Trees, bushes, grass, a dark sky — that wasn't what he needed.
He continued to frantically look around him, eyes tracing every bit of the clearing he could see but all that surrounded him were trees and shrubbery. She wasn't here.
"W-where is she?" Stiles asked between heavy breaths, his voice breaking with the realization that Olivia Flynn wasn't beside him.
Melissa and Agent McCall looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Turning her face back to Stiles, who was still waiting for an answer, she asked, "Where's who, Stiles?"
His mind was racing, vividly remembering everything that had happened while he was in there. The last thing he remembered was him being dragged across the floor and then Olivia...Stiles's eyes widened in panic. She was still in there — with it.
"Olivia?" he managed to ask in a shaky voice. If she was really still alone with whatever was in there... he needed to get to her fast.
Both McCalls glanced at each other wondering how he could have possibly known that she was missing. Still holding Stiles in her arms, she looked back at him and sighed, "We're still looking for her, but don't worry we will find her," she said resolutely.
Stiles couldn't stop the shaking that overcame him. "W-what? She's missing too?" he didn't know what that meant.
Melissa held some sort of pained expression while pausing. "You and Olivia, you both went missing in the middle of the night...we only got a phone call from you...not Olivia." She knew how hard the group was looking for them both, but it was even harder to find Olivia since there wasn't a single trace of her to be found. With Stiles there was a phone call. With Olivia there was only an unlocked door.
☾☾☾
When Stiles arrived at the hospital, all of his friends were waiting to catch a glimpse of him. He was put in a hospital room and told to get some rest, but that was laughable. How could he while Olivia was still missing? What would happen if he went to bed and then went there again? So, he stared at the white ceiling above him. The sounds of rhythmic beeping from the machines he was hooked up to kept him sane. He memorized each and every indent, mark, curve on the ceiling, wondering how they ended up on such a high place.
His dad had come in a few times telling him to rest throughout the day, but he never did and instead spent the time with his eyes fixated on the white plaster ceiling deep in thought. He involuntarily kept on replaying the scene of Olivia's small figure being overcome by a large shadow sauntering towards her. It weighed on his eyelids.
Clenching his eyes shut, he forced himself to think of a plan until his friends got back. That's what he was good at, making plans. And that's what he needs to do now. But he was tired, exhausted, frightened, his mind was in no state to be making plans.
An hour or so later, Scott came into his room with a serious air surrounding him. When Stiles saw his face he couldn't help but imagine the worst.
Stiles pushed himself up in his hospital bed and watched as Scott walked closer to him.
The boy took a deep breath and shut his eyes briefly before starting. "We found Olivia."
Stiles's eyes widened in shock. Instantly, relief flooded his body and the previously oppressive fear drifted away. "I-Is she okay? Where did you find her?" he asked.
Scott swallowed, "My mom found her when she was going back home. She was passed out on our front porch like she was trying to get in and had hypothermia-" Scott noticed Stiles's change in expression and quickly added, "She's okay now though! She's been placed in the room down the hall and is being treated."
Stiles took short breaths, steadying his shaky hands. Could he see her? Would they let him? He needed to discuss somehow what had happened back there. It was like an itch he could scratch unless he talked to her.
Plus what had happened after he mysteriously disappeared.
☾☾☾
The first thing Olivia registered as she slowly blinked back into consciousness were the blinding lights. She squinted in pain as her eyes adjusted. From the hanging white lights, she could tell she was in a hospital room.
She hated hospitals and the pressing feeling of confusion that always came with randomly waking up in them. The last thing she could recall was waking up on the grassy floor of a forest and then wandering around until she miraculously found herself on a familiar road. On pure instinct she walked until she reached the McCalls' front porch and passed out.
Now she ended up here. It's been a hot minute since her last hospital visit.
After Stiles had suddenly vanished, it was all a blur for her. She couldn't recall much after he left, just words, half finished sentences, and overpowering fear.
Sitting up, she could see people outside her room from the tiny window in the door. Olivia had to squint again to make out any faces, but she could faintly see Scott sitting outside, his face marred in worry.
Scott looked up and caught her gaze. A smile made his way onto his lips and Olivia felt her mouth curve up in return as he walked in.
"Hey, you're awake," he said while closing the door behind him carefully.
"It seems so." She said softly almost like she was reassuring herself and not him. Olivia shifted on the hospital bed, uncomfortable even though she was supposedly safe. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was rising. "How long have I been missing for?" she asked.
She instantly saw the twitch in Scotts expression, surprised that she knew about the situation. "A little over six hours." he answered solemnly. He took a seat next to her bed, an even more solemn atmosphere falling on them.
Scott was the one to speak first, his voice soft. "What happened during those six hours, Liv? You and Stiles both went missing at the same time, only Stiles was found, sleeping, in the forest while you were missing for an extra two hours." He sighed, rubbing his hands over his forehead to ease a never leaving ache. "Just — I know something has been going on with you for these past few weeks. Your nightmares have been more frequent and worse than usual, you've become more secretive and you won't open up about any of it."
Olivia didn't deny any of his words, simply taking the questions head on.
"You need to tell me, or at least someone what's been going on because now it seems to be an issue bigger than just you. Those shadow figures? They're called the Oni that have come to find an evil spirit that's supposedly hiding in plain sight. They won't stop until they've found it. Everything seems to connect to one another." his tone and voice was becoming more concerned and fervent.
Olivia's head perked up at the name Oni. Their reason for living only scared her more. An evil spirit is exactly what she would call the demon in her head. Her mouth was dry as she swallowed. It felt like sand traveling down her throat.
"I did tell someone." Olivia found herself mumbling.
Scott turned to her. "Who?" Then after she didn't answer, he leaned back. "Stiles. It was him, wasn't it? Is that the reason you two went missing tonight? That has to be the relation." he stated.
Olivia's nerves spiked at that specific name. "Wait, is Stiles here? Did you find him? Is he okay?" Olivia swallowed around the feeling of cotton lining her throat as she remembered some of the events that had occurred.
"Down the hall, room 203. He's fine." Scott answered her. He found the similarities between the two interesting, both asking about each other before anything. Interesting wasn't maybe the right word for those two, but warming.
"Scott, I'm not going to apologize for keeping things from you just because I thought you would be safer." she stated.
Silence.
"I'll come back a little later, try to get some rest. Mom will come in later to check on you, she's been worried sick." and then he was gone.
Olivia watched him leave and not look back.
A few minutes past of pure silence and Oliva contemplating her major life decisions before the door opened up again and another person came in.
Melissa walked in and over to her side. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
Olivia smiled, not wanting to show the utter despair she felt. "Better. Warmer."
Melissa let a smile take over her, eyes softening. "Considering you had hyperthermia, that's good." After a moment, the woman started to look at her machines, pulse, temperature, not standing still. Olivia watched her with amusement, listening to Melissa mumble under her breath if the machines were doing their job correctly.
Olivia waited until Melissa was semi-still again. "Just wondering, are you my nurse by chance?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
Melissa halted. "No." Then she went back to fluffing her sheets and checking her forehead. "Due to family relations I'm not allowed to be...I-I'm just worried, that's all." she sat down, seemingly exhausted.
"I'm really sorry for putting you through this, Melissa."
The woman's head snapped in her direction. "No, no, don't you apologize. I'm just happy that you're safe and well for the time being. Both you and Stiles gave us a scare this morning, that's for sure." she said, shaking her head.
Olivia couldn't help but feel that she was burdening her. Melissa has been nothing but kind and open to her from letting her stay in her house and to taking care of her like she was her own. Seeing someone typically energized and optimistic so tired and pale was saddening and she couldn't help but think it was her fault. "I don't think I've said this enough, but thank you — for everything. I truly mean it." Everytime Olivia has said 'thank you' to Melissa over the course of months she's been under her care was definitely over a hundred. But, she felt it still wasn't enough to express her undying gratitude.
The woman's facial expression softened. "If I had to do it all over again, I would still take you in, Liv. A thousand times over."
That simple sentence made the invisible guilt increase ten fold on Olivia's shoulders. Her chest couldn't rise, her lungs couldn't take any oxygen in. She felt utterly in despair. This kind woman whom she has grown to love and care for, was suffering continuously because of her actions. Olivia's eyes traced Melissa's evident worry lines from afar.
She mustered up the energy to smile, grabbing her hand in hers. Right as Melissa was about to leave, saying she needed rest, Olivia grabbed her hand. "Could you do me a favor...?" her eyes pleaded with all of the sincerity she had within her. The worry lines creased and Melissa's walked back over instantly.
"Yeah, anything."
Olivia just hoped that she wouldn't regret saying that later.
—
whoop whoop. fun times, fun times.
this episode is seriously one of my favorites in the entire teen wolf season 3b like dylans acting was peak, the nogitsune was terrifying as hell, and the writing was so good.
This chapter is probably one of my favorites because of how fun and horrifying it was to write...hope you guys enjoyed!!