A/N: This is a one shot to make up for my lack of updating. There should be a new chapter of At Last I See the Light put up either today or over the weekend, but for now there is this, hope you enjoy!
For Isaac it had been a sharp pull, one he couldn't stop from happening. That last breath had felt like his own, only he didn't get death, he had to force himself to take the air in now, force his lungs to work when all he wanted to do was give up. Allison hadn't felt this pain, the only relief he found in the darkness was knowing that. She'd said it was peaceful, but he didn't know that meant he'd absorb the pain, that the tether they had forced her pain on him. It's why he had left, unable to handle the agonising ache in his chest Beacon Hills caused him. Their time together had been short, a whirlwind that he wished could keep spinning. Over time the pain was less prominent, but it was never lost, like a bruise on his heart.
For Scott it hadn't hurt, it had been peaceful almost. He always felt like Deaton was his tether out of necessity, causing their link to be weaker than the others. It had been a suggestion from the veterinarian himself to cut the tie, wanting to give the teenaged werewolf more time to focus on his growing power. Breaking the bond hadn't taken long and, for Scott at least, it felt like a small weight lifting from his already heavy shoulders. With the tether gone, he had one less thing to worry about and felt a semblance of peace, a feeling which grew with time.
For Lydia and Stiles it was an entirely different experience. Whilst the invisible tether twisted and came close to fraying, it never truly broke until much later in life. When Stiles had been possessed, the link to the banshee had been the one thing keeping the boy grounded. Everything the fox did seemed to be to sever the link but it never worked, the bond always just too strong.
It came close to breaking when he became close to another, Lydia's heart breaking when she saw them together. She made the difficult decision then to leave Beacon Hills, to study at Oxford. Even the oceans didn't stop the tether from working. She still found herself jolted from sleep, nightmares of the human boy fighting supernatural creatures plagueing her each night. It was a phenomenon she couldn't explain, no amount of research able to tell her why she was dreaming about the whiskey eyed boys every move. She'd never admit it, but she was always thankful for the reassurance of his safety.
Over the years, the bond continued to grow. The slowly weakening link, caused by distance and loss of contact, started to strengthen when Lydia returned home. It got stronger when the two revealed their feelings for eachother, reaching its peak the day he slid his mother's engagement ring onto the strawberry blondes finger. Stiles had never been happier than the day Lydia said I do, their bond stronger than he ever could imagine, barely noticeable anymore as anything more than necessity. Their souls were joined for what they thought was forever.
But forever could only last so long. It had come out of nowhere, one minute he was fine and the next he was taking his last breath. A bullet, a bullet had been the thing to bring him to his end. The sarcastic human doing what he'd always done, what had been his duty as a deputy, protecting the innocent.
It was that event that ripped Lydia apart from the inside out. There was no peace and unlike Isaac, she couldn't run from her pain. There was a cloud of darkness wrapping its way around her heart, warping her happiness for eternity.