Disclaimer: I don't owe anything except the characters that I've created.
A/N: IMPORTANT! When written in bold – it's thoughts!
Voices
Chapter 1
"How's your sleeping pattern nowadays, Olivia?" Doctor Lewis questioned without raising her head from her notebook. She continuously tapped her pen onto the open page and that sound was annoying Olivia greatly. The doctor was in her forties, with dyed short brown hair and she had recently cut her bangs. She regretted that decision of hers right after it she had done it, and Oliva had to listen to her complaining about it in her head for a week straight. That made their sessions really difficult.
Doctor Lewis' parents were from Japan, she had two sisters – one of them was older than her – and Lewis wasn't her real last name, but Olivia never heard her true surname. She was the first of her family to go to college and to get a degree – not just any degree, but a psychiatric doctor's degree. The doctor was chasing her dream, but unfortunately it had landed her in the Eichen House, treating the non-psychotic patients. Doctor Lewis recently started thinking a lot about her sisters' lives. She was jealous of her older sister who was raising two kids and had seemingly a perfect family. While her younger sister was moving in with her new girlfriend – Lewis wanted to be as brave as the youngster, since the two women had been dating only two months. The doctor was also suffering in her long-time relationship and there were several reasons for that. First, her partner was not adventurous when it came to sex. Second, she had been expecting him to propose for the last year, but it didn't look like he was going to do that anytime soon. And then there was the fact that she was infertile, and he didn't know about it.
All of that was only a small part of the things that Olivia had heard in the past two week she had been in the Eichen House. She was being treated for insomnia, which she had since she was little, but nothing to the extent that she was suffering from now – seeing your father having his brains blown out wasn't the nicest experience, especially when you continuously dreamed it – and the fact that she apparently was closing off and not allowing herself to grieve. Which was stupid because Olivia was fine, she wasn't one of those people who cried by the graves or fell apart. Her mother knew it, she understood, but her father's relatives – who came to the Beacon Hills after her dad's death – they were convinced that there was something seriously wrong with her. Finally, they had managed to nag Olivia's mom so much that she agreed to bring her daughter to the psychologist. That was around the time when Olivia was near her breaking point. And once she met up with the psychologist, her sleeping problem arose and then she was brought to Eichen House when it had become even worse.
"Olivia?" Doctor Lewis urged when her patient had failed to answer her question and finally raised her eyes from her notepad. She eyed the girl laying on the couch closely, noting that her features started looking better. Her skin no longer was like ash and looking healthie. Previously thinning long dark brown hair started to look glossier and stronger with every passing day, the bags under her warm caramel eyes were smaller compared to the day they'd first met, and her eyes weren't bloodshot anymore. The young girl in front of her was getting better, but they weren't in the clear yet. Having only three days left to work with Olivia before the girl was discharged, doctor Lewis wanted to secure everything and then set up the appointments with one of her colleagues that would help Olivia once out of the mental institution.
Turning her head to the side Olivia met the doctor's eyes and offered a small smile. "I'm better." She admitted and continued when the doctor nodded. "I've managed four hours of sleep last night."
"Very good." Doctor Lewis noted the progress in her notebook. "Were there any nightmares?" When Olivia shook her head, the doctor nodded. "Then why did you wake up?"
"I heard a scream down the hall." Olivia mumbled, turning to stare at the ceiling once again. "Oliver was screaming and then Brunski went there and there was even more shouting. And you know how bad the echo is in this place."
Doctor Lewis watched her patient closely, hoping to get some sort of sign of her discomfort while talking about the situation that took place last night, but she only saw slight distress. Sighing deeply, she pulled out a small paper from her pocket and wrote down a reminder to talk to Brunski about his violent behaviour towards the patients.
While the doctor was concentrated on writing down the notes, Olivia started questioning the doctor's thoughts. She knew that considering the place she was in and her insomnia, she knew that using her powers was crazy. That once she lowered the walls protecting her mind from others she might not be able to build them up again, but she just wanted to know what was happening in her doctor's head considering what she had just said.
In the end her curiosity had won.
"Brunski really needs someone to remind him that this is a mental facility where we are supposed to help people and not hurt them. But once again, it is Brunski. He doesn't listen to anyone and Eichen House is more than corrupted. I wonder if that relates to the dangerous ward. How come no one talks about it or how wrong it is that nobody knows how the patients are treated there? Maybe I should ask doctor Fenris? No, he'll probably ignore me again."
Olivia closed her eyes shut trying to push the doctor's voice from her head, but it didn't seem to be working. For the rest of the session Olivia was squeezing her hands into fists, trying to concentrate on the words that were spoken and not heard mentally. It was distracting and made Olivia even more irritated. Every question the doctor voiced was met with a short and snappy answer and after a while doctor Lewis noticed that Olivia was getting rather tired. She noted it as a sign of her still lingering insomnia, while Olivia knew that it was due to her tries of blocking the thoughts that weren't hers.
When the doctor finally ended their session, Olivia didn't waste any time on getting out from the office. She rushed out of it so quickly, that she managed to run straight into someone in the hall and the impact was so strong that she almost fell, but someone grabbed her upper arms to steady her. The problem was that she was wearing short sleeves and skin on skin contact forced the person's memories into Olivia's head. It happened mainly because she was tired and distracted and she had no energy to fight it.
It might have only lasted a few seconds, but Olivia had seen another person's life running through her head. Their memories and thoughts pushing forward in flashes. It was extremely painful for her normally, but that time it wasn't just painful. It was also odd, because she wasn't hearing one person's thoughts and seeing their memory. No, there was more than one, most likely two people. But how was it possible?
First came the memories of a boy sitting by his mother's bed and then it instantly changed into a funeral scene. Then there was the same boy playing with another one, then him a little older. The childhood memories flashed quickly until Olivia recognized the person. It was Stiles Stilinski, the Sheriff's son. They were from the same school, but never really hung out in the same circle of friends. From her previous accidental and sometimes not so much listenings she knew about his involvement with the supernatural in the Beacon Hills, but she had never said anything. She also knew about all the things that he and his friends had faced in the past couple of years. She knew about Scott turning into a werewolf, Allison being a huntress, she knew about Kanima Jackson and all the other crazy things. Olivia herself was familiar with the supernatural, but she never took any part in it, there was never any need or wish, but looking at Stiles' memories, she suddenly felt guilty for not warning them when she knew about the problems waiting for them.
When the childhood memories passed, Olivia saw him figuring out about the werewolves, she saw him and Scott meeting the Hales and dealing with the alpha. Next came the kanima and Allison's family and then the alpha pack. The last memory before darkness was Stiles, Allison and Scott doing some ritual that involved ice water and baths and then seeing a huge tree stump.
Next memories were completely different because they weren't Stiles'. It seemed like the visions weren't important, but the emotions. There was darkness and cold, fear was gripping Olivia and she felt like screaming. A total chaos around, and piercing pain.
And then a voice.
"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?"
"A shadow." Olivia whispered and then snapped out from her trance like state, taking a step away from frowning Stiles, forcing him to release his hols on her. She took a deep breath, looking away from the boy who was watching her closely, and concentrated on the nurse near them. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." She quickly apologized, daring a look at Stiles and then behind him she saw his dad, also watching her.
"It's ok." Stiles mumbled, still watching her like he knew what she had seen, and it was making her uncomfortable.
Olivia was ready to walk away and forget everything that had just happened, but the Sheriff spoke, and in his voice she could heard how tired he was. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here, Miss Boyer?" Apparently, she was out of luck to disappear without another word.
"Seeing your father's brains being blown out does give killer nightmares." Olivia shrugged making the nurse sigh deeply and shake her head, and Olivia looked over to her with amusement. "At least appreciate that I'm looking at it in humorous way instead of balling my eyes out while rocking in the corner." Olivia motioned to the corner where a guy sat – luckily not one of the Jesuses – rocking and mumbling something underneath his breath. Looking back to the Sheriff and his son, Olivia found them both frowning at her and it was her who sighed then. "I have insomnia. Have been here for two weeks. They are letting me go after another three days." She explained, and the Sheriff nodded.
"It was my fault that we haven't found her father's killer. God, how she must feel, living with the knowledge that her dad's killer is still free. Especially when that whole experience has put her into this place. Poor girl, that family has suffered enough. I can't believe that I didn't find the killer. I'm going to start looking in to that case once this mess is over. Who knows maybe some sort of supernatural creature has been involved."
The Sheriff's thoughts were a bit overwhelming to Olivia, so she tried once again to push it away and allow it, like every other sound in her head, to dull in the background. Other people's guilt was something that Olivia struggled to deal with and when it came to this particular scenario – her dad dying and the Sheriff feeling responsible for not finding the killer – Olivia felt like it was useless guilt. She didn't blame the Sheriff for anything, she wasn't angry with him. There was literally nothing that he could've done differently.
And did he think about the supernatural? The last time she had heard his thoughts he was oblivious to that world.
"Once again, I'm sorry for your loss and-" the Sheriff began, but she cut him off.
"You don't need to apologize for not finding the person who shot him. I wasn't exactly helpful in that situation and I was the only witness." Olivia told him, trying to comfort him, but the guilt was still clear in the Sheriff's eyes. It was true, Olivia was there when her father was murdered, but something in her prevented her from remembering how the killer looked like. She couldn't even tell if it was a woman or a man. She was sure that she had seen their face right before her dad was killed, but whenever she tried to remember it, it was just a blank spot.
Feeling the need to break the awkwardness that had settled, Olivia looked back to Stiles and found him still watching her with a questioning gaze. She pretended that it wasn't bothering her and straightened her posture, forcing a smile on her face that she hoped looked sincere. "And how about you? What brings you to this wonderful establishment?" Olivia asked and shot a quick look to the nurse, who simply rolled her eyes.
"Amm…" Stiles trailed off, looking down to his hands before meeting her eyes again. "Sleep problems. I'm signing myself in for 72 hours." He explained, but that didn't sound as the whole truth.
"Something is off. Something is really off. Something happened when I touched her. There is something wrong. What if there is more to her than I thought before? She whispered something, something that sounded like 'Shadow'. That means nothing good. What if she knows about the Nogitsune? What if she knows something?"
Forcing her face to stay neutral, Olivia nodded her head and crossed her hands on her chest – a sign of defence. "Well then, congrats on getting in the sane hall. It's the best that you can get here." She mumbled and then looked around. "I better go." She pointed over to the hall that led to the library and, without waiting for another word, walked away. She felt two pairs of eyes following her all the way until she entered the library and there was the usual crowd of crazy and sane people.
Olivia made her way over to the shelves, looking for any book that could keep her interested in for at least a while and maybe that way pushing away the voices and the rising questions about what Stiles had thought about. What the hell was a Nogitsune? What did it have to do with him? What was actually wrong with Stiles?
The voices became louder and Olivia wished that she would've had her usual means of distraction. In the outside world she would've used music whenever the thoughts became too overwhelming, but once she entered the Eichen House, they took away her phone and earphones. So, it left books to become her new distraction. In the past two weeks Olivia had managed to read fifteen books, or maybe even more. She wasn't sure due to some of the sleepless nights in the beginning. Unfortunately, none of the books were that interesting because the stories couldn't have upset the patients in that place. But the last shelf in the library was for the patients that didn't suffer from anything horrible. It was for those who had insomnia – like her for example – or just had a trouble finding themselves in the society. Like Malia, a girl that had been admitted before Olivia. Olivia had had a few talks with her and found that there was something seriously odd with the girl. Even her thoughts were a jumbling mess. She wasn't thinking like any teenager or even adult in there. It was more like she was concentrated on survival, like every thought that she had was about it. She also lacked basic knowledge that she should've had at her age. She was also a werecoyote, but it wasn't surprising since she was from Beacon Hills and apparently everyone was fucked up there. Olivia included.
Walking down that isle, Olivia eyed the book covers, reading the author names and looking for something interesting there. Unfortunately, none of the books had managed to capture her attention until she reached the end of the isle and found several scattered books. Looking over them Olivia found herself being drawn to one book that had three people on the cover, but before she had a chance to pick it up and examine it closely, she heard someone approaching.
Looking over to the approaching person, Oliva found a familiar face and turned fully to face the new companion. Malia looked a bit distressed, her eyes were darting all around and she seemed more than determined to get to Olivia. The said girl was considering listening in to Malia's thoughts, but she wasn't sure if she would manage to silence the voices once again.
"Olivia." Malia stated when she was in front of the other girl. Olivia nodded to her to continue and watched how Malia looked around once again. "Help me." She demanded, but when she found Olivia pursing her lips in wariness, she frowned. "What?!" She exclaimed.
"Shh. It's a library, Malia. You have to keep your voice low." Olivia explained, and the other girl nodded slowly. "And don't you remember when we've talked? When you need help, you ask for it. That is the way society works and if you ever want to get out of here, you need to learn that."
Malia seemed to think over Olivia's words and she took in a deep breath, her body tense. It always happened when Malia tried to understand the basic human norms. Olivia didn't fully understand her struggle because she never learned – from Malia or her thoughts – why it was so difficult for Malia to be human, but she decided that it wasn't really her business. If Olivia was able to help Malia get back to the outside world and deal with normal human concepts like asking and thinking before acting, she was going to help her.
"Ok." Malia finally said and met Olivia's eyes again. "Olivia, can you help me?" Malia looked at Olivia, her eyes hoping for approval, for confirmation that she did right, and Olivia nodded.
"Yes, I can. What help do you need?" Olivia questioned, and Malia instantly reached for Olivia's hand, but she managed to take a step back. It seemed to confuse Malia and Olivia dreaded the upcoming questions.
"Did I do something wrong?" Malia asked and the confusion on her face instantly made Olivia feel guilty, but she couldn't just blur out to the girl that she didn't want to have to go through her whole life story, like she had done just moments ago with Stiles and whatever else there was.
"No, Malia." Olivia shook her head and took a step forward, trying to show the other girl that she wasn't scared of her. "I'm just a bit jumpy today." She lied, but when Malia didn't seem to buy her lie Olivia raised one eyebrow encouragingly. Of course, Malia didn't know that that action was meant to be encouraging and continued staring at Olivia. "What's wrong?"
"You're lying. I can smell it on you." Malia stated bluntly, and Olivia sighed deeply.
"I'm not lying, I'm just keeping things to myself." Olivia explained and then walked towards the main area of the library, Malia following her. "And don't tell people that you can smell that they are lying or are scared." Olivia remembered the instance when that had happened, and Malia had bluntly pointed out that Oliver reeked of fear.
"Why not?"
"Because humans can't smell emotions." Olivia stressed out, keeping her voice low.
"I can." Malia stated, and Olivia forced herself to keep her voice calm when answering.
"You aren't only human." Looking at Malia's reaction Olivia saw that she understood something from what she had said and nodded. Olivia offered Malia a smile and they walked out of the library together into the hall and turned towards the stairs, that were next to the hall where Malia's room was "Once again, what kind of help do you need?" Olivia asked, looking forward and seeing Stiles following a nurse upstairs.
"Morrell wants me to-" Malia began, but then came shouts from ahead of them and Olivia saw Stiles rushing upstairs, shouting for someone to stop.
Olivia quickened her steps, moving forward to see what the whole commotion was about, but so were a lot of people, bumping into her and causing skin on skin contact that continuously weakened her restrains and then a voice reached her mind.
"I'm part of the bird that's not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean yet still remain dry. What am I?"
Olivia finally reached the centre of the group, pushing past people and looked up to where Stiles was rushing. It took a second for her to understand what she was seeing and that second was all that it took for the patient to jump. A gasp ran through the crowd and the riddle once more ran through her mind.
"I'm part of the bird that's not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean yet still remain dry. What am I?"
"Its shadow." Olivia once again mumbled the answer, looking at the hanging body and feeling the general panic creep up on her too. Looking to the side where Stiles was, she found him looking down and it seemed that he was looking to the edge of the crowd. Following his stare, but before that noting how scared he looked, Olivia found the space empty. Looking back over to him she wondered that maybe she was wrong, and he was looking at someone, but there was barely any time to dwell on that.
Nurses and supervisors started rushing patients back to the rooms, but when one came to Olivia, she quickly explained that she would walk herself and that they didn't need to pull her there. Making her way towards the stairs, she tried ignoring the almost deafening sound of thoughts, trying to pretend that she was fine, but every time she was close to someone, their thoughts seemed to be screamed at her. It was a jumbled mess, where words mixed and created noise and not sentences. Nothing made sense and it was making her jumpy.
Olivia was being led right after Stiles, climbing the stairs quickly and hoping to reach the solitude of her room and bask in silence. Unfortunate the closer she got to Stiles, the louder his thoughts were. But once she listened in, she understood that it wasn't Stiles' thoughts she was hearing, and they were coming from everywhere around and not just from him.
The voice was the same that voiced the first riddle and it seemed to echo in her head, but it wasn't directed to her and from the way Stiles' shoulders were tensed, she knew that he heard it too.
"Let me in, Stiles."
A/N: Ok, I haven't updated "Running Shadows" yet, but I had this idea in my head for quite a while and decided – what the hell? So here is "Voices", it begins on season 3 episode 20. This is going to be a lot different than "Running Shadows".
I'll repeat what I had said in the beginning – the bold text is someone's thoughts.
Another thing – I'm going to be playing with how Malia's character will develop because honestly it was too sudden in the show. It's going to be a long journey for her, just like for every other character. And I have to admit that I'm not a fan of Stalia, so it won't happen here, and just like in the "Running Shadows" the ocxStiles relationship will be a slow burn.
English also isn't my native tongue, so forgive me my mistakes.
I hope you liked it and can't wait to hear what you've thought!
