Chapter 1: Winchester Mystery House of Doom
I was attempting to pry my best friend Sarah's nails out of my arm when I was suddenly and briefly blinded by a bright light.
"Did you hear that?" Sarah hissed in my ear, voice quaking with terror.
I didn't respond, instead simply reached out with my free hand to try and strangle her or claw out an eye despite the spots in front mine making everything more pitch black than it already was. Taking her and my other best friend Jasmine on the Midnight Flashlight Tour at the Winchester Mystery House was beginning to become the biggest regret of my life, and it wasn't even halfway over yet.
In all honesty, I felt like I was partly to blame for our predicament. I'd had to pee like a Russian race horse (as my mother would say) and we'd separated from the tour group to find a bathroom. Upon exiting, we could no longer find our tour group. We wandered and called out, but no one showed or called back. The entire place was eerily silent, and we were all uneasy. It didn't help that we were hopelessly lost.
"There's nothing there," Jasmine said in a hushed tone. She was trying to be reassuring, but the fact that I could hear threads tearing from her grip on the sleeve of my T-shirt betrayed her true feelings.
"Do you guys even recognize where we are? Because I sure don't," I grumbled as I stared at what I could see in the 3 darting beams of our flashlights.
"I'm trying not to think about that. Unless you want me to burst into tears," Sarah said, her fingers digging in slightly harder, causing me to hiss in pain.
"Ease your grip, I think I smell blood!"
"Guys, we're at a dead end," Jasmine said hopelessly. "There's no door except the one we came in." I tried not to freak out myself as I scanned the room with my flashlight. There were no windows, or much of anything else except musty old bookshelves and orange and brown carpet that might have looked new a millennium ago.
"Wait, no, we have stairs," I said eventually, my flashlight aimed at the steps to our left. From what I could see in my flashlight, they were short, made of dark wood, and ascended into a black abyss. Not promising, but also our best option at the moment.
I will admit, part of me—the dark part of me—was tempted to ditch them and run for my life. But I never listened to the Dark Side of me, so instead I gently nudged them towards the stairs. They creaked and groaned ominously as we climbed them, a funny feeling in the air. It wasn't particularly bad, just...weird. I could feel it down to my bones. It was possibly just my imagination, because neither Sarah nor Jasmine mentioned anything about it. Our flashlights only illuminated more and more steps until finally we came to the most innocuous-looking door. Even in the pitch black, lit only by our dim flashlights, there was nothing scary about the door. I didn't even think twice about opening it and walking through it.
I should have. I really, really should have.
Upon walking through the door, we were greeted by a blinding bright light that had us hissing and shielding our eyes. After an eternity of our eyes adjusting, my burning eyeballs were met with a most unusual sight: a high school hallway. I ignored the little voice in my head telling me that I knew this hallway and simply turned around to go back through the door. Only the door way did not lead into darkness, like it should have, but into an empty and clearly unused classroom. In a moment of panicked insight, I closed the door, counted to five, and opened it again. Still the classroom.
"Guys, we're fucked," I promptly announced.
"Do you guys realize that we've seen this hallway before?" Jasmine said with a note of panic to her voice. My skin prickled, because I did realize that, I just didn't want to admit it because this was impossible.
"Shut up," I muttered uneasily.
"Oh my god, this is the hallway from—"
"Shut up!" I hissed, slapping Sarah's hand away from my arm, rubbing at the stinging welts her nails had left in my skin.
"Shouldn't you three be in class?"
The said three of us yelped and clutched our flashlights to our chests, spinning to face the speaker who'd snuck up behind us. It took all of my willpower not to scream and bolt at the sight of Coach Finstock, an entirely fictional character from the TV show "Teen Wolf". Or at least he should be fictional, and not looming over us in a hallway that should also be fictional and not a place for us to be standing in.
"We don't go here," Jasmine blurted nervously, nearly tearing my sleeve off as she attempted to cower behind me. It was just as well, because I was attempting to cower behind Sarah. None of us were particularly good fighters, but when it came down to it, Sarah was the scrappiest and therefore the best at protecting us. Though you wouldn't be able to tell by the way she was staring at Coach, her eyes wide and mouth agape. She slowly reached out with her free hand and poked his chest.
"What the hell are you doing?" Coach and I blurted at the same time.
"Guys, he's real," Sarah squeaked. Coach stared at her as if he was trying to figure out what drugs she was on.
"Knock it off, and get your butts to class," he said before either Jasmine or I could reply. When we didn't immediately start heading off, he snapped, "NOW!"
Us three girls yelped and raced down the hall in terror, darting into a random classroom just to avoid having Coach yell at us again. The teacher of the class gave us a look as we slid into three empty seats towards the back. It was not a look of bewilderment at seeing strange girls enter his class, but more of annoyance.
"So glad you three could finally join us," he sneered, prompting a round of quiet chuckles about the room. I could only make a grunt in reply as the girls and I slid into empty desks towards the back. Why was he acting like he knew us? Why was everyone acting like they knew us? We'd never been here before, that I knew of. It was either mass hallucinations of us girls or-crazy thought-there was some omnipotent beings who were changing the universe to fit us in it. I don't even know where the thought came from, and it deeply unsettled me.
"Do we know you?" hissed a voice from my right. Finally, someone who wasn't affected by whatever this was!
I turned to answer them, and once again fought back the urge to scream and run away when I found myself facing the expectant faces of Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall. "No, and it's going to stay that way," I said as I turned back forward, gripping my flashlight as if it was my last lifeline. It certainly felt like it was; it was the only thing I had to prove that no, I was not from this universe, I was from somewhere else.
I wanted very desperately to get up, grab my girls, and flee, but something was very wrong. My legs felt like giant tubes of jello and I was fairly certain if I tried to stand up, I would just wind up falling flat on my face. Not something I wanted to explain to a room full of strangers. I cast a quick glance at Sarah and Jasmine and saw that they looked as trapped as I felt. At least I wasn't alone.
I didn't know what class I was in, and I had no intention of ever finding out. I genuinely hated school. And since this was an alternate universe and therefore not somewhere I was going to be stuck in permanently, I had decided that I was not going to tolerate this. The universe might make me go, but it sure as hell wasn't going to make me participate. As subtly as I could manage to avoid anyone realizing what I was doing, I aimed a middle finger skyward towards whatever deities that had dumped us here.
Apparently they did not appreciate it as, almost immediately, my legs fell completely asleep. I contemplated sending up an apology, but both they and I would know that I didn't mean it, and there is little more insulting than an insincere apology.
"What's with the flashlight?" I glanced over at Stiles, who was the one who had spoken. He was staring at it as if trying to figure out all of its secrets. I was half-tempted to kick his chair out from under him.
"You're not very good at listening, are you?" I said, narrowing my eyes.
He didn't seem phased. "Not particularly," he said with a shrug.
"Well let me repeat myself until you do hear: I do not want to know you," I said as I aimed my flashlight at him threateningly. I didn't know how long the three of us girls would be stuck in this universe, but I would certainly do my damnedest to keep Stiles or anyone else native to here from getting me or my girls caught up in their shit. Their shit generally involved people getting hurt or getting dead.
"Are you always this hostile?" he asked me curiously, arching an eyebrow. I tightened my grip on my flashlight, if only to stifle the reflex of bashing him over the head with it.
"Only to assholes with selective hearing," I snapped. He was clearly in danger of being bludgeoned, he should be cowering in fear and leaving me the fuck alone. At the very least he should back off due to not wanting to deal with my hostility, but I saw no fear in his face, which irked me. I was further irked when he reached over and simply pushed my flashlight away from his face. I wanted to shout out a war cry and whack him, but I settled for glaring and flicking him in the forehead.
"Ow!" he yelped, jerking back.
"What is going on back there?!" the teacher exclaimed irritably as he spun away from the chalkboard (what kind of school still uses chalkboards?) to glare at me and Stiles.
"Nothing," we both chimed, I grumbling and Stiles rubbing his forehead.
Thankfully I was saved from further harassment by the bell ringing shortly after, everyone getting up and filing out of class. My legs woke up suddenly, though I was stuck with serious pins and needles—I guess the deities were still pissy over my "fuck you". I was merely grateful that it wasn't bad enough to prevent me from standing up and walking out of the room with the girls without tripping or stumbling. We had barely made it out into the hall when I was suddenly stopped by a hand on my arm.
"Seriously, who are you?" I guess I wasn't safe from further harassment, because there he stood beside Scott, with his hand on my arm. I turned to face him to give him another vicious tongue-lashing (and maybe back-hand him a little), but Sarah carefully inserted herself between me and Stiles.
"I'm Sarah, this is Jasmine, and this is Caitlyn," she said politely, gesturing to each of us in turn. I wanted to insert myself in turn and drag them away to keep them from getting involved with these stupid boys, but they were old enough and fully capable of making their own decisions.
I scarcely heard a thing when Stiles introduced himself and Scott, because as angry as I was, I was not too angry to notice that Jasmine and Scott were making moon-eyes at each other. Complete with dopey, shy smiles on their faces. My anger vanished upon seeing that, and I nudged her with my elbow, waggling my eyebrows at her once I had her attention. She stuck her tongue out at me in response.
"Honestly I was expecting your name to be more demonic," Stiles quipped to me, pulling me out of my teasing-Jasmine haze. A small part of my irritation returned.
"I make up for it in personality," I said dryly, propping my elbow on Sarah's shoulder. I noticed from the corner of my eye that Jasmine and Scott had returned to making dopey expressions at each other.
"Clearly," he said, pointing to the mark I'd left on his forehead. I admired it proudly.
Sarah shot me a disapproving glare, which I completely ignored. I was not ashamed. "Don't mind her, she's always like that at first. She's just-"
"An asshole," I finished for her helpfully. She swatted me-she and Jasmine always hated it when I said that about myself, no matter how true it was.
"Wow, I'm shocked, I had no idea," Stiles said, sarcasm practically oozing from his mouth like ectoplasm. I happily showed him my middle finger.
Sarah shoved my hand back down to my side. "She's much nicer once she warms up to you," she said, patting my arm.
Stiles looked dubious. "Seriously?"
Sarah hesitated. "Well, in her own way," she shrugged sheepishly. I shook my head "no" where Sarah couldn't see just to freak him out and be an asshole. It worked because he narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, earning a rather wicked grin from me. I would have cackled for full effect, but that would have tipped Sarah off to what I was doing, and I didn't feel like being hit again.
"That's...comforting," Stiles said as if it was the complete opposite.
"Do you guys want to sit with us at lunch?" Scott blurted out randomly, his cheeks flushing slightly in embarrassment, oblivious to Stiles staring at him as if he'd lost his ever-loving mind. Jasmine flushed a little herself, though I doubted it was because of embarrassment. They were so cute I wanted to barf, and they hadn't even spoken to each other yet.
Before I could reply with a "Thanks, but fuck no", Sarah and Jasmine chimed in with a, "Sure!" Now it was my turn to look at someone-namely them-as if they had lost their ever-loving mind. I waved my arms to get them to turn their attention to my expression, but Sarah simply patted my cheek, said good bye to the boys, and dragged us off to I guess our next class. I went to glare at Stiles over my shoulder and caught Jasmine and Scott giving each other longing looks as they walked away from each other.
"You are hopeless," I said to her, nudging her again. This time she flushed with embarrassment.
"Shut up," she grumbled, flicking my arm. Jasmine was not the type to hit people; not hard at least. Sarah and I were the more violent ones. Sarah you only had to worry about when she was pissed. I was low-key violent all the time. Though it was only low-key because I suppressed a lot of my more violent urges in order to avoid physical confrontations (violent I was, a good fighter I was not) or incarceration.
I had to physically restrain myself from breaking into my happy dance when we walked into our next class and saw that Stiles was nowhere to be seen. There was definitely a spring in my step as we went and claimed three seats in the back yet again. The teacher began droning on about what I guessed was some kind of History class because Sarah visibly perked up, but I instantly tuned him out. I began spacing out, daydreaming of me committing various acts of violence upon Stiles. It was very cathartic.
This class went by much quicker than the previous one due to more daydreaming and less shitheels. This time I wasn't even prepared when the bell suddenly rang. We got up and wandered out of the room, waiting for our legs to magically take us of their own accord to where the beings wanted us to go. We didn't wait too long, because the next thing we knew, we were in the cafeteria. My good mood vanished as our legs took us to where Scott, Stiles, and everyone else in their group were sitting. I grumpily tuned out the introductions since I already knew who they all were anyway-Stiles, Scott, Kira, Malia, Lydia, Mason, Liam, fuckhead Theo, and-Wait...Isaac? Boyd? Erica? Allison? Jackson? What the fuck? I double-checked to make sure I was seeing it correctly, and I was. Three of those latter people I mentioned were dead, and the other two had been in Europe. There was no way all of these people had been on the show at the same time. Either the beings had accidentally fucked up the timeline royally, or else they had to make up it's own timeline, making this an AU of a show brought to life in an alternate dimension. Jesus, just thinking about it made my brain hurt.
Sarah and Jasmine happily conversed with everyone, but I focused my attention on the top of the table, tracing little designs on it with my fingernail. They may want to get involved, but I did not. I would get involved as little as possible and only on their behalf. We weren't going to stay here forever, so there was no point risking our lives for whatever bullshit they had gotten themselves into. Or at least that's how I felt. Sarah and Jasmine clearly felt no such things.
"You don't seem too happy to be here."
I glanced up from the table and recoiled when I saw Theo smirking at me. Since he was sitting here, the others clearly had no idea what an absolute fuckwad he was. But I had watched the season 5A finale. I knew, and I fucking hated him. It didn't help that he was making my skin crawl by looking at me like Sarah and Boyd, and Jasmine and Scott were looking at each other, only...darker. I knew what he was thinking (not literally), and I wanted no part of it.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" I said, my tone dry and unfriendly. Maybe he would catch a hint and leave me alone.
Theo chuckled and shrugged. "Lucky guess." ...Orrr he could be as thick-headed and stubborn as Stiles. Perfect.
"Well you are correct. I don't want to be here, and I especially don't want to talk to you," I said vehemently, promptly ignoring him in favor of staring at my best friends. They looked at me briefly as if I was insane, but it was better than interacting with yet another asshole.
The bell rang not much later after that, so everyone headed off to their respective classes. I don't know what class it was, but we shared it with Kira, Allison, Lydia, and Boyd. I mentally celebrated because it was all people who would most likely leave me alone. We all claimed our seats, which wound up being relatively near each other, and I immediately buried myself in my daydreams.
"So are you hungry? You didn't have anything at lunch," I heard Boyd say quietly. I looked up to glare at him, only to find he wasn't actually talking to me; his eyes were focused on Sarah, who immediately looked sheepish.
"Yeah," she said with a nod, fidgeting with her pencil.
"If you like, I could take you out to eat later, after school," he offered shyly, and I swear I could hear his heart pounding from here.
Sarah immediately blushed. "You don't have to," she said, for which I wanted to kick her.
"I want to," Boyd assured her with a smile.
Sarah turned a deeper shade of red and smiled back shyly. "Okay. After school it is."
As much as I knew what a bad idea this would be, I couldn't help wanting to cheer for her. It was only her first day, and already she had a hot guy smitten with her and asking her out. I wondered if it would take Scott much longer to work up the balls to ask Jasmine out. Unless he was currently dating Kira or Allison... I'd have to check on that some point, make sure he knows exactly where he stands, which would be dead if he hurt Jas or lead her on.
"I know that look on your face, and you need to wipe it off right now," Sarah hissed in my ear, distracting me from my thoughts of how exactly I would threaten Scott with violence.
"I don't know what look you mean."
"Caitlyn, get that Murder Face off right now."