I tried my best to enjoy mischief day but my attention kept wandering over to Lydia. In Economics she swatted her hair around her head claiming that there was a fly - there wasn't. If this was anyone else I wouldn't be concerned but Lydia has a tendency to hear and see things no one else can, like a sixth sense.
She stood at her locker, resting her books on her arm as she swapped them with ones in her locker. I walked towards her, planning on casually interrogating her about this imaginary fly but someone beat me to it. Aiden leant on the locker next to hers, a cocky grin on his face. I watched them rush towards Coach's office, after the prank this morning I didn't think that'd be such a good idea. Stiles and Scott somehow caused everything in his office to collapse all at once, it's was a very impressive prank - coach didn't agree.
I shook my head, stopping myself from walking in on them and finding out the answers I wanted. I'm still on edge with everything that is going on with Scott, Stiles and Alison and I have a bad feeling about this. I slung my bag over my shoulder, resting the fallen strap onto my shoulder, I will have to be patient and ask her after our next lesson. The doors at the end of the hallway abruptly open and a swarm of officers flooded into the hallway - something that had recently become a common occurrence. My jaw tightened, a sickening feeling coming over me. Every time the police were at school something bad would follow and unlike my friends, I still wasn't used to it. Stiles was beside his dad as he stalked the halls, peering into every classroom. From behind them Scott's dad comes charging through with one of the teachers, now I know something bad is about to happen but I have no clue as to what. I glanced over to Stiles, he eyes met mine and he smiled back at me, his smile instantly calmed my nerves. He must've seen how anxious I felt, I'm sure the colour was drained from my face... it felt like that. However, when his face dropped I felt a wave of nausea surge throughout my body. With widened eyes, he rubbed the back of his neck before sprinting over to me.
"We need to find everyone. Now." He said, his voice laced with panic. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me down the hallway.
"Stiles what's going on?" I asked, stumbling behind him. "You're worrying me".
"I'll explain when we find the others".
"Lydia is in Coach's office... with Aiden".
Stiles suddenly stopped and I didn't realise until I bumped into him. His head fell as he shook it, muttering to himself. "This girl". He took an exasperated sigh, then carried on towards Coach's office. The door was opened and the office was empty, she must've went to the guidance counsellor office. Stiles had the same thought and he continued to drag me to the guidance counsellors office. He swung the door open and without a word he grabs Lydia's and pulls her out of the office.
"Stiles, what the hell?!" She pulled her arm away from his grip. She opened her mouth to shout at him some more but her eyes drifted behind him and at the officers. "What's happening?"
"Where's Allison, Isaac and Scott ?" He ignored her question.
"Allison and Isaac are probably in the library".
Stiles lessened his grip on my wrist and moved his downwards. His fingers brushed the palm of my hand, spreading tingles throughout my body. His fingers entwined with my mine as he lead me towards the library, Lydia walked alongside us. I can tell this wasn't the right moment to start thinking about my relationship with stiles but I couldn't help thinking about how he makes me feel. How his touch can send a spark of warmth zipping through my veins. How gentle his touch is even when he's dragging me down a hallway, he didn't even leave a red mark on my pale wrist which usually tends to mark up easily.
Allison and Isaac were walking towards us, Isaac must've heard the commotion with his supersonic hearing. "What's going on?"
"I'll tell you when we find Scott", stiles said.
"No Stiles, you will tell us now, the school is filled with police and I refuse to walk any further without knowing what the hell is going on". Lydia demanded.
Stiles chewed his lip. "Do you guys remember Barrow, that guy that killed a bunch of kids a few years ago?" Everyone nodded except for me.
"No", I replied, sometimes they forget I didn't grow up here.
"Basically this guy was a former electrical engineer and he one day decided to talk onto a school bus with a shrapnel bomb. Four students died and another lose their legs". My hand covered my mouth silencing a gasp. I was so used to the deaths here being supernatural related, I didn't think anything so awful and human could happen here... Well I say human but this guy is clearly a monster.
"It was awful". Lydia added quietly.
"Yeah and he was kept in a maximum prison but he went to Beacon hospital last night to have surgery. He somehow escaped during the surgery and now they think he's here, in the school. And before his surgery Scott's mom talked to him to prep him and he said... he said he killed those students because of their glowing eyes".
This time is was Allison who gasped, it took me a moment to understand what he meant. Glowing eyes... werewolves.
"Barrowman went after kids with glowing eyes?" Isaac repeated. "He said those exact words?"
"Yeah and no one knows how he work up from the anaesthesia. Just that when they opened him up, they found a tumour full of live flies..." He carried on but my thoughts drowned out his voice... flies.
Lydia heard a fly, as the dots connected in my head I looked over to Lydia, who had already figured it out. "Did you say flies? All day I've been hearing this sound, it's like this buzzing... like the sound of flies".
"Where the hell is Scott?" Stiles asked, his voice seeping with irritation. Scott usually knew what to do and that was something we could rely on to feel better. So we collectively agree to split up and look for Scott, I walked back towards the main hallway and looked into each classroom looking for Scott.
I didn't find him and neither did Lydia as she lightly ran over to me. "They're leaving". She motioned over to the officers walking out of the hallway.
"Why are they leaving?" My question fell upon the empty hallway as Lydia walked off. I looked over to see her standing with Scott and Stiles. I rolled my eyes and joined the group.
"Why are they leaving?" Lydia asked Stiles.
"The police? They must've cleared the building which means he's not here", Stiles replied.
"Who? What are you guys...", Scott asked, I peered into the classroom he stood outside and saw Kira sitting on one of the tables. That would explain why he hadn't heard the chaos.
Lydia cut him off. "He has to be here. That sound. The buzzing, it's getting louder".
Stiles sprinted down the hallway and out the doors after the police officers.
I filled Scott in on everything that Stiles had told us, Lydia held her hands over her ears trying to block out the sound but I don't think it worked as her face scrunched up. It seemed painful for her and I wished there was something I could do to quieten the sound.
Stiles talked to his dad and tried to convince him that Barrowman was here, somewhere. However, an eye witness saw him elsewhere so obviously the police were going with that lead. A few deputies were placed around the school and the school was out into a lockdown until 3:00pm. Nobody was allowed in or out... which mean we were stuck here, possibly with a psychotic serial killer. Scott's mum was somehow able to sneak in and hand him Barrowman's clothes so that he can sniff him out. He told Aiden and Ethan about what was going on as they could help finding him with their sense of smell. While Scott, Isaac, Aiden and Ethan went searching for Barrowman, Allison was sneaking out of the school. We needed to know what the flies meant and the only thing that could make sense of this was the bestiary, which was at Allison's apartment so she had to leave.
Stiles, Lydia and I were left to search for Barrowman. We looked in classrooms, offices, locker rooms and toilets, we couldn't find anything. The art room was dark, the light was somehow constantly dull which made it difficult to see the art you were creating. My paintings would always shock me when I take them home and realise how awful they are.
The dark room didn't help me feel any calmer about the fact we were trying to find a serial killer... a student serial killer.
"Scott and Isaac are in the basement, right?" Lydia asked. I looked into the back closet where the art supplies were kept, I used the flash from my phone to properly check the room. It was empty.
"Yeah, with Ethan and Aiden. The plan is we meet in the middle, in the boiler room". Stiles replied, looking under the tables.
"All of the wolves... all of the ones with the glowing eyes are in the basement at the boiler room?" She said slowly, suggesting something...
"Oh my god". The realisation hit me like a Boulder. "He was an engineer, he could use the boiler room to blow up the whole school".
"We have to get them out of there".
"We have to get everyone out", Stiles jumped in.
"How do we do that?"
Stiles, as he usually does, left the room without saying anything. When a thought pops into his head he just runs with it, Lydia and I exchanged annoyed glances and followed after him. He ran to the fire alarm and pulled it. A deafening ringing filled the corridor and sounded throughout the entire school. A stream of students headed outside, Stiles watched them, making sure they were leaving. He was smiling, clearly impressed with himself but with the Coach looming over him, his smile would soon fade. Coach dragged him out of the school by his ear, he hurled insults at him and cursed a few times as stiles whined at the pain. "Pulling a fire alarm on mischief night is one thing. Doing it when there's a mass murder spotted nearby is insane! If I was four years younger... I'd punch you".
"What? Coach, that doesn't make sense", stiles retorted.
"Oh, well, it does to me!" Coach shouted before storming inside the school.
"There they are", Lydia said holding onto my arm and pulling me over to Scott, Isaac, Aiden and Ethan. People love to pull me everywhere.
"We didn't find anything, not even a scent", Scott informed us.
Stiles took out his phone and looked at it. "It's 3:00pm, so school's over". He places it back in his pocket. "If there's a bomb, wouldn't he have set it off by now".
"Does that mean everybody's safe?" Ethan asked.
"I don't know". Everyone looked at Lydia, she was the one who had been hearing the buzzing. Was she still hearing it? "I don't know".
With nothing else we could do, we all went home. On the way home I could tell Stiles felt defeated. He anxiously tapped his steering wheel and only muttered a few words to me, he was still going through today's events, seeing if he missed anything. It's what he always did, it was the detective in him, a trait I wish I had more. I wanted to offer more to the group rather than be the girl who seems to always be in the way. I want to prove myself I didn't want to just go home and hope it solves itself. "How about I come over and we go through some theories. I'm sure we can figure it out if we just put our minds to it. We write down everything or put it up on your board". Stiles had never told me about the board he had recently put up in his room, the one with the strings attached to it but when your window looks directly into his room, you begin to noticed things. Like that he constantly has clothes slung over the back of his chair, or copious amount of school books on his desk that he never opens or how he would always walk over to the photo of him and his mum and looks at it. How he'd smile but his eyes would be filled with sadness, how he's struggle to put it down and go about his day. You notice things, things that make you wish you were there with him, comforting him.
"Yeah, that could work".
Sheriff Stilinski's car wasn't in the driveway, he was still out trying to catch Barrow. I kicked my shoes off when I entered Stiles' bedroom and jumped onto the bed. I looked over to the infamous board to see the pictures more clearly. On the board were pictures of Malia and her family, the doll, a coyote and the car wreck. The strings connected the photos were green, on the desk underneath it were different colour strings. Stiles was busy on printing some photos off his computer, I unravelled some blue string, using the scissors placed beside them to cut a suitable size. Then, I tied both ends of the string into a knot and sat back down on the bed, I intricately twisted the string around and between my fingers - playing cats cradle. The printer made a chugging noise, Stiles grabbed the paper from it and walked over to the board. He places a picture of Barrow up, keeping it in place by impaling it with pins on the corner and just underneath the photo he pinned a picture of the school. He unravels the red string and pins it to each photo connecting them.
"What does the different colour strings mean?" I ask, trying to undo my cradle that had now become a huge knot.
"Oh, just different stages of the investigation. So green is solved, yellow is to be determined, red is unsolved and blue's just pretty". He looks over his shoulder and his eyes fall to the blue string entwined with my fingers. Warmth rises to my cheeks.
"It's also hard to untangle". I say desperately trying to push the string off my fingers. There is an art to cats cradle, a talent I guess you could say... this isn't something I possess so I always end up with my hands tied together, yet that doesn't stop me from playing it.
Stiles let out a breathy laugh as he comes over to help me. He held a sharpie in his hand and instead of putting it on the bed, he put it in his mouth as his fingers gently tug at the string lifting some off my fingers and untangling it. His touch sent tingles down my fingers and throughout my hands. No matter how much Stiles pulled at the string it wouldn't budge and there was still a big knot, tying my hands together. Stiles released a sigh of defeat and got the scissors from the desk and cut the string.
"Sorry I was never good at those things".
He went to take the sharpie out of his mouth to reply to me but the lid fell out and the sharpie inked the corner of his mouth leaving a green stain. He spat the pen out and rubbed the mark off his mouth with his thumb. His nose twitched as his spread the stain towards his nostrils, he lifted the pen up off the floor and held it towards his nose. He inhaled the smell of the marker into his nose, his brows knitting together.
"What is it?" I shared the same expression as his but not for the same reasons.
"Get up, we are going to the school".
Stiles never was one to explain things so instead of wasting time asking him what was happening I followed him out of the house and into his jeep. "I think we should get Lydia if we are going back to the school, since she is the one hearing the buzzing sound", I suggested.
"You're right, call her and let her knowing we're going to pick her up".
I nodded my head and sent off a text to her.
'Coming to get you, we are going back to the school - don't ask.'
My phone buzzed almost immediately after I sent the text, Lydia has already replied.
'I never do.'
The school was dark, the dull streetlights lit the path up to the school but we used our torches once we were inside. Stiles had broken into this school many times, they really needed to up their security. Stiles lead up through the dim hallway to the chemistry classroom.
"What are we looking for?" Lydia asked when Stiles opened to door. The classroom looked undisturbed so I'm pretty sure Barrowman wasn't in here... that is until Stiles opens the back room door that should be locked.
"Why would that be unlocked?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I walked into the back room after Stiles, a strong chemical whiff hit me and I coughed at the stench. "That is strong".
"The dogs wouldn't have be able to catch his scent", Lydia said under her breath. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Stiles crouched down and used his flashlight to scan across the beakers, when he reached the bottom row of beakers, his light glistened over something on the floor. "Stiles, put your light on the floor".
He moved the light over the floor revealing blood covered staples surrounding by spots of blood. Lydia let out a gasp from behind me.
"He was here performing very minor surgery on himself, you were right". Stiles said to Lydia. I held her hand and squeezed it gently, the colour drained from her face.
"Then why don't I feel good about this?"
"Probably because he was here to kill somebody", Stiles answered her.
"But who?"
"That's what we've got to figure out".
"Okay then, let's start looking for answers". I say walking out of the room into the classroom. Like I said the room seemed undisturbed when you first look upon it but maybe if I pay closer attention I could find something... anything. I walked down the aisle and towards the chalk board, there were three number going down the board. "Lydia come here".
She comes up behind me. "Atomic numbers". Her breath was warm on my neck, I stepped to the side letting her go past me.
"What do they mean?"
"Well..." she picked up the chalk that laid at the bottom of the board. "19's potassium. 53's iodine and 88's radium. The first two make potassium iodide". She writes each symbol that matches the elements. I remember some of these from my periodic table I was quizzed on last year. She takes a step back from the board, the symbols she has written revealing a name.
KIRa
"Kira?" I say aloud.
"Scott is with her right now, we need to get to them", Stiles says rushing out of the classroom, Lydia and I chasing after him.
I didn't question how Stiles knew where Kira lived but I'm glad he did because when we arrived at her house, Scott was lying on the road. He had been hit over his head outside her house, after a few light slaps from Stiles he woke up and Stiles explained to him what was going on. Scott called Allison hoping that she would have some answers about the flies but there was nothing.
"We have to think of something. He's going to kill her". Scott twirled his phone in his hand nervously.
"I knew he was there. How did I know that?" Lydia shook her head, she knew we didn't have the answers.
However Stiles still replies, "Because you heard the flies".
"What do you hear now?" Scott asks.
"Nothing. I can feel like I can do this but I don't know what to do. It's like it's on the tip of my tongue, and I don't know how to trigger it. I just... I swear to god it literally makes me want to scream".
I move closer to her. "Then scream". So she did.
The scream was deafening, I felt my whole body shake. The sound became so much I had to cover my ears as my brain felt like it could explode at any second. I feel light headed and stumble backwards, I felt hands wrap around me as Stiles pulled me into him. He covered my head with his arm protecting me from the noise while taking the brunt of it. I clutched onto his top as I begged for the sound to stop. Even once Lydia stopped screaming my ears weren't free from the pain as a ringing sound filled them. Stiles still held onto me but his body relaxed and his moved his arm towards my shoulder.
"You okay?" He whispers into my hair. I nod and he lightly kissed my head. I look over at Lydia, her head was bent backwards as she looked up at the streetlight.
"It's not flies". She says turning around to face us. I feel Stiles body tense and his grip tighten on me when she does, he was apprehensive about her but u was amazed.
"Wait a second, Barrow was an electrical engineer. He worked at a power substation" Stiles informed us.
"What substation?" Scott asked, I couldn't see Stiles' face but I could tell his eyes was widened as she realised where Barrow was keeping Kira.
"Follow me".
Stiles drove, Lydia and I there while Scott followed closely behind. The journey was short and I don't know if that was due to the substation being close or Stiles' speeding but it didn't matter as long as were finally here. When the jeep came to a stop I unplugged my seatbelt and went to open the door but it was locked.
"Okay. Wait here you guys, just wait until the cops come". Stiles says.
"Why?" Lydia asks from the backseat.
"I've only got one bat". He lifted up the bat that he held in his hand before running towards the building - I hadn't even realised he grabbed it.
"You've got to be kidding me", I say as we watch the two boys disappear into the darkness. "Even after all the training I did with Allison and Mr Argent I still feel useless".
"What? You're not useless", Lydia unplugs her belt and hops into the drivers seat. "You've got to be kidding me right, you're not useless. Just because you're not there when the action happens doesn't make you useless, it's also what you do behind the scenes and you are an amazing friend you are always there for us. Caring about us even when we forget to care about ourselves, sometimes we get so focused in this world of werewolves, werecoyotes and banshees that we forget to relax and put ourselves first. You helped me, when everyone thought I was crazy you were there for me... without you I would've actually become crazy. You always want to be there for us to help us through the hard times and I know Stiles really appreciates you. And like you said you've been training so I'm sure if you were in there right now you'd be kicking ass".
I had been so focused on what Lydia was saying that I didn't realise I was crying. I didn't think of it that way, I always thought I had to be strong and had to fight to be useful but just being there for them in times of need. Everything happens so quickly that you don't have time to breath so everything get on top of you and I hadn't realised that my friends saw me as the person to help them with that and to make them feel more relax and less stressed.
All of a sudden a huge explosion came from the substation, Lydia and I ducked down shielding ourselves from it. When we lifted our heads up every streetlight was out, buildings and houses weren't lit anymore. I think the explosion caused a power outage.
It wasn't long after that, the police arrived, Scott's dad was first to the scene, followed by Sheriff Stilinski. Scott and Stiles came out of the building, they were both holding Kira up as she stumbled out of the building. She was alive, she looked drained but alive. We were all taken to the police station and questioned, we answered every question, leaving out the supernatural details.
Stiles dropped me home, I wanted to ask him about what happened in the substation but it was late and we had school tomorrow, plus his dad wanted to talk to him. I went asleep that night thinking about what Lydia had said to me, being weak isn't defined by physical strength and that's something I need to accept. Also, stiles appreciated me... A smile formed on my face and I closed my eyes and dozed off.