I've recently completely reworked this fic. No major plot points have changed so you don't need to reread if you're already up to date but I have just made a few tweaks to make things make more sense for new readers. I hope you like the new chapters and I'll try to upload Chapter 27 soon.
It all started with a change in the air and a scent that Scott just couldn't place. He inhaled deeply and noted the scent was slightly sour. Fear, maybe or anxiety? All Scott knew was that it had been lingering in Beacon Hills almost three days and now there was the dream.
He'd noticed a change in the woods of Beacon Hills too but hadn't known what it meant until tonight. It had been too quiet but as he retracted his fangs and pushed himself to his feet he thought he heard the faint sound of frantic scurrying.
Scott's eyes glowed scarlet as he scanned the tree line for any sign of danger but he saw nothing. Nothing was rare. There was always something; a deer, a rabbit, something.
The sound of Lydia breaking twigs underfoot cracked in Scott's ears and he spun around to find her shivering in the darkness, clutching her cardigan around her shoulders.
"There's nothing here, Scott. I told you it was just a dream," she said tightly. She pressed her lips together to stop her teeth from chattering.
The air was still dry from the heat of the day but the sun had set over five hours ago and the night air was biting. They were both still in their pajamas.
"Come on. It'll be warmer in the car," Scott appeased as her lips began to tinge purple.
Scott surveyed the trees once more before nodding to himself and walking back towards Lydia. They turned towards the path and fell into step with each other.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Lydia asked hesitantly.
She was using the light from her phone to guide her through the darkness. She faltered as her foot hit a rock she hadn't seen in the dirt.
Scott huffed and held out an arm to steady her.
"It came out of the Nemeton. Out of like a smoke. And I just had this feeling like it was sucking the life out of everything around it and I was…" he trailed off, fighting against the terror the nightmare instilled in him.
"You were what, Scott?" Lydia encouraged as they stepped out onto the track back to the car.
"I was dying, Lydia. It felt like I was dying."
Lydia's eyes widened and she fumbled around in her pocket for her car keys. The way Scott had spoken sent a chill down her spine.
They didn't speak again until they had both bundled back into her car. She turned the heat up high and held her hands out in front of the fan.
"It felt so real, like I was really there," Scott muttered almost to himself.
Lydia eyed him worriedly. She knew better than anyone that realistic dreams weren't always just made of nonsense.
"Have you ever heard of lucid dreaming? That could explain why it felt so real," she reasoned.
She desperately wanted to reassure him but she couldn't deny that she'd had an itch in her throat that she couldn't scratch for almost a week.
"That's when you're awake in the dream?"
Lydia found the ignition with her fingers in the dark and worked the key in. She waited for the engine to purr before pulling away from the woods.
"In a sense. It's a dream where you're fully conscious and able to make decisions. It usually happens during the REM stage of sleep when your brain is hyperactive and your body is paralyzed. It can make even the craziest dreams seem real."
Scott looked over at Lydia skeptically although he hadn't understood most of what she had said. Lydia joined the main road and yawned.
"Okay, run me through it again," she said to Scott, eyes settled on the highway.
Scott opened his eyes to find cold, hard earth beneath him. He pushed himself up onto his feet. He felt weak and the movement seemed to require more effort than usual. It was too dark to see but he knew he must be in the woods. 'Maybe I'm sleep walking again,' he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and attempted to shift them to Alpha red but when he opened them again the forest was still dark around him. Scott looked down at his hands and struggled to extend his claws but to no avail. Concluding that he must be dreaming, he dug around in his pocket for his phone. He turned on the torch and used the beam of light to familiarize himself with his surroundings.
He had been right. He was in the woods on the preserve. Scott began to walk in the direction that he knew would take him to the road but he didn't travel far before he found himself standing before something different entirely.
The Nemeton, as it often did, seemed to materialize from the air before him. It was different than he had seen it before. The tree stump seemed almost larger than usual, which already seemed impossible, but it also seemed to be pulsating with emerald light. The last time Scott had heard of the Nemeton doing anything like this it had unleashed the Durack and the Oni on them.
Scott could feel his breath beginning to quicken and without realizing what he was doing, he reached for his inhaler. Of course, he didn't have one. His heart began to race and his breath was becoming more ragged by the second. He tried desperately to force more air into his lungs but it felt like he was being strangled. Before long, he felt his consciousness slipping away.
"You have to stay awake," he gasped to himself. With every shred of willpower he had left he dragged himself towards the nearest tree and collapsed against it. He pressed his back into the rough bark to keep himself upright.
The Nemeton was glowing like green fire had erupted from beneath it and Scott had to squint just to look at it.
And that was when he saw it. At first it looked like a pair of glowing purple eyes. Then it became the outline of a man. Before Scott could focus his eyes on what he was seeing the outline dissolved into a cloud of smoke before forming back into the shape of a solid body again.
Scott couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and he felt himself slipping away. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was green fire and violet eyes.
Lydia pressed her tongue to her top lip. Scott recognized this as one of her nervous gestures.
"Well, that doesn't sound terrifying at all," said Lydia confidently but they both knew she was lying.
Scott relived the dream repeatedly in his head. He needed to remember every detail. The parts of the nightmare that scared him the most were the parts he couldn't remember.
"Lydia, I don't remember going to sleep and between passing out and calling you, I don't remember waking up, not at home anyway."
Lydia's eyes didn't leave the road as she pulled up outside Scott's house but Scott could hear her pulse quicken. She sat in silence with her hands still gripped tightly on the steering wheel. Scott caught her scent in the air. She was afraid, terrified in fact. There was something else too, something rich and flowery. He knew what that scent was and in turn he knew what she was thinking about, or rather, who. Stiles. The Nogitsune.
"Scott," Lydia said suddenly, "how many fingers do you have?"
Scott held up his hand for them both to see. They counted his fingers together.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
"Lydia, I don't think it was a dream."