I slept but it was filled with nightmares of a dark, shadowy, foreboding creature attacking the car. The company car then rolling the over, sliding down the steep ditch. The drivers' dead body was hang there staring back at me and after looking around outside through the cracked windows, I knew something was lurking outside the car, making me not want to get out. Trying to hide my whimpers of fear while quivering inside the turned over car I sat in anticipation and terror. Finally, when I found the courage to kick open the wedged car door to peer out, something grabbed me and yanked me out. My voice was still gone due to the seatbelt and I couldn't scream as the shadowy figure dragged me into the darkness of the mysterious forest surrounding Beacon Hills.
I awoke with a start, I look over to my window and saw the moon still out. I ran a shaky hand through my hair and let out a sigh of relief that it was just a dream. I rolled over and tried to sleep again, I couldn't shake the nightmare from my mind and therefore had a restless sleep.
I finally awoke in the morning feeling extremely tired but my stomach was growling and I could smell bacon. Nothing got in between me and bacon, not nightmares, and not getting enough sleep was never a good enough excuse. I groaned, my body sore as I slowly stretched and rolled out of bed. I walked into the bathroom and got a good look at myself since the accident. My face was free of scrapes and bruises except for the ones under my eyelids from lack of sleeping. My neck had a dark blue and brown line of bruises slashed diagonally across it from the edge of the seatbelt cutting into my neck after restraining me from probably flying through the windshield. My arms were fine, aside from the light colored, lace up air cast for my sprained wrist. My legs below my knee were a different story. Around my ankles and midway up my shins were scrapes, gashes, and bruises starting to form. I was also still dirty and my hair made me look deranged sticking up in a weird fashion due to it drying against my pillow from the rain. I decided that taking a shower would be a good idea before my father saw me in good lighting, which would result in him only freaking out more.
I stepped into the hot shower that felt so cleansing as it washed away the rain, the mud, the dried blood, and memory of last night. I stepped out feeling refreshed and more awake, ready for bacon which I could still smell. I put my dad's old tee shirt back on and found some blue jean shorts from last summer and tucked the huge shirt into it. My clothes I wore last night still dirty and damp, I really needed my suitcase. I left my long hair down to air dry and then went down stairs to receive my long-awaited meat-prize… bacon.
I entered the kitchen with a smile on my face when I saw the plate of pancakes and bacon waiting for me on the kitchen island waiting for me. I began to make a bee-line for the food when I felt two arm wrap around my waist and hug me. I giggled like a little girl when I felt my dad's beard rub on my face as he kissed my cheek, "kiss for the cook" he said. I said good morning kissing his cheek and made my way to the bar stool in front of the plate. I began to devour the food as I listened to the comfortable soft sounds of my dad mumbling to himself or humming an unrecognizable tune. When I was done I walked over to the sink to rinse off the syrup when I could feel my dad's over protective eyes on me. I sighed and placed my dishes in the sink then turned to face him
"Its fine dad, I'm fine okay?" I said crossing my arms and leaning against the counter.
I saw his shoulders sink and he threw me a playful parenting glare "I'm allowed to worry, okay?" I rolled my eyes but smiled and walked over and hugged him, I really did miss him. I only see him during the summers, on holidays/birthdays, or the seldom long weekend. My time here this summer was to see if I wanted to spend the rest of my high school career going to Beacon Hills High and live with my dad.
"This just wasn't what I imagined your welcoming party to be like…" he said into my hair. I pulled away and looked up at him "well… at least it wasn't boring?" I say trying to lighten the mood. He gave me a stern look but smiled reluctantly at me anyway trying to lighten the mood himself.
With his hands still on my shoulders from our embrace he gave me a fatherly once over and took in the bruising on my neck; which I had tried to hide with my hair to no avail; my air cast on my wrist, and the numerous scratches on my ankles. He crouched down to get a better look at my scratches around my ankles and shins.
"I just wanted everything to be perfect for you… so that making your decision would be that much harder on who to live with for your junior year." I scoffed a disbelieving chuckle at my dad. He glanced up at me then back down to my minor injuries. "I know that's selfish of me but can I help it that I want my daughter to go to school where I did and become my legacy of awesome?!" I laughed at him as he stood up from his inspection and finally looked at me. His saddend eyes meeting my laughing ones. I raised my eyebrows in confusion did he really think that one car accident was going to change my mind about living with my dad? I mean, yeah, it was semi-traumatic but nothing I couldn't handle, I was already feeling better. Did he really not understand that I came here with the intent to not just "get a feel of the town for the summer" but to LIVE here? I came here with my mind already made up, I needed a change of scenery. Before I could relay that thought process to him he interrupted me
"I don't like the looks of those cuts- I know they cleaned them at the hospital but I wanna look at them myself- I'm a worried parent and I can't let you get hurt- I'm gonna go get the first aid kit- wait here."
He picked me up with ease and set me on the kitchen counter I had just eaten at and walked away. He just had a full conversation and argument with himself in his head. I thought it was funny and just so… Dad-like. I wanted to protest that my cuts were cleaned at the hospital and they were fine, but after the sad look in his eyes and my previous thought process I couldn't do it. I would let him worry and hover over me for a bit longer, I missed him and from what I can tell he missed me.
I waited on the counter until my dad came back with the first aid kit we kept in the bathroom. He sat on one of the stools in front of the counter that I had previously sat at to eat my amazingly-made-by-dad breakfast. I sighed as he took my foot and out stretched my leg so he could see all, if not most, of the damage.
"I know you think it's unnecessary Chloe, but it's important to clean your cuts every day so they don't get infected". It's like he read my mind.
I just rolled my eyes and smiled as he proceeded to pull out the rubbing alcohol, Neosporin, and bandages. I rolled my eyes again at his over kill of first aid. I rested my head on my hand as my elbow rested on the knee that was not currently being dabbed at my rubbing alcohol. After my small cuts and scrapes were cleaned, my dad put Neosporin on the one deeper cut above my ankle followed by an oblong bandage. When it was time to start on my other leg the phone rang, my dad looked at me with a sorrowful look.
We both knew it was most likely work and I would lose him for a few hours. I smiled reassuringly, already used to this behavior from both of my parents. He gave me small smile then proceeded to answer his phone. He disappeared into his office towards the back of the house and shut the door. I sighed and then continued to clean my cuts on my right leg and put bandages on the few deeper cuts I had that I was sure dad would appreciate. I was packing up the first aid kit when the house phone began to ring. I looked to my dad's office and didn't see him coming to answer it anytime soon so I decided to pick it up.
"Hello?"
"This is the Beacon Hills Sheriff Department, is this Michael or Trishelle Turner?"
"Um… no this is their daughter Chloe Turner, is something wrong?"
"Oh no, nothings' wrong Chloe, we just wanted to let you know that we have your suitcase here at the station and you can come and pick it up whenever you're ready." I smiled in relief that nothing was wrong and that I could get my clothes back. I nodded my head and replied
"Thank you, I'll be in sometime today once my dad is done with work." The female officer on the other end of the line was silent for a moment that asked a question
"Doesn't your father, Mr. Turner, live next door to Sheriff Stilinski?" I blinked in surprise at her forwardness, and how much she randomly already seemed to know about me.
"… um, yes?" I answered, I had kind of forgotten that detail.
"The only reason I know this is because Mr. Turner and the Sheriff are friends, he visits the station a lot" The young officer corrected herself. I smiled thinking about all the times my dad used to take me to the Sheriff station to see his friend and I would hang out with his son Stiles.
"The Sheriff hasn't come in yet, I can give him a call and tell him to give you a ride to the station?" I thanked her in response and hung up the phone. I went and knocked on the door to my dad's office, I slowly stuck my head in and waited till he turned to look at me still on the phone
"My suitcase is at the sheriff station ready to be picked up, Uncle John is gonna give me a ride to get it". He smiled and nodded to me then returned to his work conversation.
I closed the door behind me and went upstairs to brush my hair and teeth. I put some cover up on under my eyes to hide the dark circles and mascara, that's all I ever did with makeup. I decided to leave my hair down to hide the bruises on my neck as best I could, plus the rejuvenating shower had given a special bounce and life to my hair… must be something in the water. I put socks and my still slightly damp converse on, since they were the only shoes I had here without my suitcase. I put on my long necklace with the locket from my deceased great-grandma which was an heirloom passed down from my mom on my sixteenth birthday. I looked in the mirror at myself to make sure I was presentable; I shook my head at the thought. Everyone at the Sheriff station already knows what happened, if I looked like crap they would understand. I knew deep down who I was hoping to see but I rolled my eyes and left my room to go wait for the sheriff down stairs. I didn't wait long, soon after I turned on the news I heard a knock on the door and then it opened to hear a
"Hey Turners!" I smiled and turned off the television then bounded into the front hall/ stairway landing and replied
"Hey Stilinski!" he smiled at me and opened his arms for a hug which I gladly reciprocated. I've known Mr. John Stilinski since I was born, I went to the funeral when his wife died but only really got to know him in the past few years when my dad moved back here and I would visit in the summers. He pulled back from our hug and he gave me a fatherly once over
"You sure are growing up kid, I hardly recognized you Chloe, and you've gotten so beautiful just like your mom" I blushed and shoved his shoulder. We then headed out the door and walked over to his drive way across the small lawn to his police cruiser. We drove to the station with him asking me mundane questions about school and life. I told him about the arrangement of me possibly living here for the rest of high school.
"…to fulfill his legacy of awesome?" the Sheriff jokingly quoted my dad. I nodded and we laughed lightly as we pulled into the parking lot of the station. Once inside the Sheriff directed me to sit outside his office and to wait till I got called back, turns out they had some follow up questions, which I didn't mind answering, I knew I wasn't in trouble. Eventually, a familiar female voice called me to follow her into one of the interrogation rooms. I recognized her voice as the one who called my house earlier and she welcomed me with a warm smile. She showed me into the small room that had a window that looked out into the station, and I sat down compliantly waiting to be questioned so I could leave with my suitcase.
I ended up waiting for quite a while, two hours according to my phone. I huffed and tried to re-situate myself in the uncomfortable chair. With no Wi-Fi or service in the brick building I was left alone with my thoughts. I began to think about why I was here, the crash, the pain, the dead driver, the sliding mud, the fear, and the dark figure in the road… What was that thing? It looked pretty big from the few moments I saw it. My heart rate began to raise as I remembered my dream of it pulling me out of the car and my silent screams. I reached up to my neck and felt the bruises. I was beginning to feel really uncomfortable now remembering last night. I finally decided to get up and turn the blinds open so I could see out into the station. It looked like a tornado hit, everyone was in a flurry answering phones and working furiously at their desks or just running around the room. Something happened, with my already semi panicking I opened the door and stuck my head out.
"Can somebody tell me what's going on and if I can go home?" I asked, I thought my call had fallen on deaf ears when the Sheriff himself came out of his office followed by a tall, skinny boy waving his hands about speaking furiously at the Sheriff. The Sheriff looked done with this kid. Then I got a better look at him and recognized him…Stiles, my heart fluttered a bit. I would've blushed but I really was done with this little room that made me think about last night. The Sheriff looked at me, ignoring whatever Stiles was saying to him, and said
"Oh Chloe, I'm so sorry, I'll be there is just a second then I'll take you home." He sent me a warm smile and I stood in the door way unsurely but nodded. I then made brief eye contact with Stiles who at first looked confused at me then returned to speaking to his dad in exaggerated hushed tones. The Sheriff turned to face him and said something I couldn't hear then turned back to me and walked over with a file in his hands. I caught a glimpse of Stiles face that looked drained of color in fear and worry. The Sheriff met me at the door and escorted me back into the tiny room of dark thoughts. We sat down and he opened the file quickly glancing through it, reading over the report, then looked back up at me with a sympathetic smile.
"Sheriff, why am I still here? I already gave my statement and the other officers already told me that it was ruled as an animal crossing accident. There is really nothing more you could need from me?" I looked at him, I really wanted to forget the whole thing and leave this room. He nodded and said
"I know sitting in here sucks Chloe but there is just one question I wanted to ask you, then you're free to go." I sighed and nodded for him to continue, I could handle one question I guess. But seriously, ONE question? He couldn't have asked me over the phone or when we were in the car?!
"Did you… happen to see, anything- any distinguishing feature, or recognizable characteristic, of what kind of animal was in the road last night that caused your accident?" I didn't like this question but I pushed my stomach back down out of my throat and took a calming breath.
"I only saw it for a moment honestly" I told him "I didn't even know what was happening until the driver started swearing up a storm in the front seat. I only caught a glimpse, and all I saw was tall black mass standing in the middle of the road for two seconds before we began to swerve." The Sheriff nodded and offered a half smile as he got a look of worry and stress on his face. He nodded and then jotted down a few notes in the file then closed it.
"Well, we are all set here, I'll let an officer take you to your suitcase and I'll take you back home." I smiled at him and he let me out of the stuffy, little room. I entered the hectic station once again and looked around, it sure was busy, was the Sheriff gonna be able to leave? I looked over at the stressed older man next to me looking out at the chaos of the sheriff station and sigh. We gave each other reassuring smiles then went our separate ways for the moment.
I went back over to the female officer who called me, and directed me to the room earlier. She smiled up at me and I asked if I could get my suitcase now. She smiled politely and led the way to a back room where my suitcase was waiting with other miscellaneous items. I grabbed my suitcase and smaller shoulder bag and wheeled it behind me as I made my way back to the Sheriff's office.
I saw he was busy so I waited outside for a few minutes just watching the chaos around me. I kept hearing tid-bits of conversations about break-ins at abandoned factories, most were written off as school kids being punks. I then herd the Sheriffs' office door open and he walks out and looks over at me with soft smile.
"Hey Chloe, as you can tell it's super busy here, I can't give you a ride home but my ever so helpful son-" he said the last part louder as I heard movement from inside his office "-will take you home, because that's where he is going anyway." I watched Stiles sheepishly emerge from his Dad's office and offer a weak smile. I smiled back
"Hi Stiles, long time no see" I said weakly, he smiled
"Hey Chloe." The Sheriff gave us both a look then proceeded back into his office. After a beat, I stood up and grabbed my bags and looked back to Stiles who was looking at me.
"Lead the way Captain" I joked. He blinked and smiled then offered to carry the bigger of my two bags. I let him carry it as I followed him out to the parking lot. He stopped at a powder blue jeep and opened up the door.
"Wait… this is your car?" I asked him looking at him with my eyebrows raised. He glanced back at me
"…yeah?" I chuckled remembering last summer while he was on his car-hunt.
"After the search you went through last Summer I was honestly expecting a super impractical, outdated sports car or something Stilinski." I looked at him still with a smile on my face he smiled too, obviously remembering our adventures of walking though used car lots where we would spend hours pretending to know things about cars. That was after we both had spent the first half of the summer learning how to drive and actually getting our licenses, much to our parents' surprise.
"Yeah, I remember that, but… she speaks to me" he said petting the metal door. I laughed and he smiled back at me, he then moved the seat forward and set my suitcase in the back. He held his hand out for my other bag and I handed it to him graciously. "Why? Do you not like her?" he asked in a joking matter but I could hear a bit of nervousness in his voice as he didn't look at me as he set the passenger seat up right again. I shrugged then looked over the jeep with false scrutiny. He finally turned around to notice my stare and paused, waiting for my answer.
"No… I love her" I replied and chuckled at him as he placed his hand over his heart in sarcasm.
"Jesus Chloe, you almost broke my fricken' heart there." I smiled and let him step aside so I could climb in
"I like to keep you on your toes, you're too chill all the time" I told him with a teasing glance and smile. He sarcastically rolled his eyes, obviously knowing I was poking fun at his jittery nature and ADD. He quickly jogged over to his side of the car and hopped in closing the door behind him. I put my seatbelt on, a quick flash of last night went through my mind as I clicked the safety belt in place. I was quiet for a moment and Stiles looked over at me with a sympathetic look
"My dad told me what happened last night…." I didn't look at him "I'm so sorry that happened Chloe, if you don't want to talk about it that's cool, I won't make you but I just wanna let you know that I am so glad your safe and ok." I met his gaze with my own and gave him a smile, he always knew what to say to me to get a reaction, intentional or not.
"It wasn't even that big of a deal, everyone keeps giving me sympathy and looking at me like I lived through a one of the worst tragedies… I was in a car accident because a deer got caught in the headlights…" he nodded then started the car. Couldn't help but watch him throw his arm over the back of the seat and twist his body to look behind us as he backed us out of our spot. He definitely had been working out since last summer, for lacrosse no doubt.
"How's lacrosse been? Still on the bench?" I offered as a new topic of conversation.
"Better…" he said keeping his eyes on the road. "Been practicing with Scott a lot, not gonna be on the bench this year" he said with a look of determination on his face.
"How is Scott?" I asked smiling at my successful diversion from the previous topic. I had only met Scott a handful of times growing up but I knew Stiles and Scott were best friends… besides me of course.
"Still on first string" he said trying to sound happy for his friend but an edge of jealousy slipped in.
"Maybe I'll have to come and watch one of your games sometime" I said. Stiles whipped his head to look at me in surprise.
"You would drive all the way back down here for that?" he asked incredulously. I just smiled and looked out the window. I let the breeze blow through my hair and I closed my eyes at the relaxing feeling. I heard a throat clear then Stiles
"Chloe… how'd you get those bruises on your neck?" I opened my eyes and looked down at my lap letting my long hair fall forward trying to hide it. I didn't wanna talk about the car accident anymore, I am fine! Everyone needs to stop worrying about me. I didn't say anything to him and felt the car pull over to the side of the road and stop. I looked up and saw we were surrounded by the downtown area of Beacon Hills parked by the curb. I finally looked over at Stiles about to ask why we were pulled over when I saw a serious look on his face. I closed my mouth for a moment before I asked
"What?" He gave me a worried, and angry? Look in response.
"Chloe, be honest with me, how did you get those bruises on your neck?" I looked at him incredulously. Seriously? I blinked and told him it was from the seatbelt during the car crash, I even demonstrated with the seatbelt in his car to match up the lines. Stiles suddenly let out a huge sigh and got a look of relief on his face.
"Why was it so important? And why are you so relieved I was hurt in an accident?" I asked accusatorily. He immediately shot his hands up and turned in his seat to face me
"No, no, no, no, no, I'm not happy you were hurt in your car crash!" I turned towards him in my seat but looked down at the already worn leather.
"You see… I was worried that… like, what if you had those bruises before the accident like… what if you had a boyfriend do that, to you… and I was gonna have to kill him." He stuttered out nervously.
I look up at him and let out a nervous, odd laugh of "HA!" then looked anywhere but at him. "No Stiles, I don't have an abusive boyfriend"
I saw him look over jerkily and blink at me a few times before recovering and nodding nervously to open and close his mouth a few times "-but you do have a boyfriend then?" he asked. I blushed uncontrollably and tried hard to hide my smile "-because you should probably call him and let him know what happened."
"No, no boyfriends" I said softly.
"Good" I heard him say. It was my turn to whip my head around to look at him. "- Cause no guy is good enough to date my best friend." He then looked out at the road and gripped the steering wheel at ten and two, but not actually driving off yet.
I will admit the 'friend' word kind of made my heart sink a little, but I knew he liked this other girl he went to school with, Lydia. Or at least that's what he told me last summer when we were swimming in the small pond behind our houses. I leaned over and placed my head on his shoulder, I still appreciated his protectiveness. It wasn't the over bearing kind like my parents' were, it was just enough to not smother me but show he cared for our 'friendship'. He glanced down at me and smiled as he threw the jeep back into drive and then put an arm around my shoulders to keep me leaning on him. I will admit the seatbelt cutting into my side wasn't the most comfortable thing but I could lay in stiles' arms forever. Which I will never admit aloud!