Stiles becomes partially aware of his surroundings, but doesn't quite know what is going on. He is in his room, but instead of going back to sleep he gets out of bed and starts rearranging his "murder wall". He left most of the pictures up, but then rearranged it so there was almost no wall space left. All the colored strings he pulled down and replaced them with the red yarn; the yarn he had told Lydia was for the unsolved cases. Finally, he tied all the strings to the handles of a pair of scissors and in a feat of strength he didn't know he had, jammed them into his bed. From there, the world got dark again. When Stiles would wake up, he wouldn't remember any of this.
He managed to leave his house, and get in his jeep. He drove away, but he didn't know it. He didn't make it too far either.
Stiles became aware of a hard floor beneath him. It was dark, but when he opened his eyes it was darker still. He can feel his phone is in his pocket, and his first instinct is to call Scott. If someone could help him it would be Scott. Pulling his phone out, he pressed the speed dial he had set for Scott so long ago. It doesn't take long before the phone is answered. Scott spoke quickly, saying Stiles' name over and over again. Finally Stiles managed to answer. He wanted to sound strong for Scott, but he could only speak in a whisper. There is static, making it even harder for either end to hear the other. Eventually, Stiles manages to get out that he doesn't know where he is or even how he managed to get there. He couldn't remember anything. He can hear Scott asking him about what was around him, if there was anything he could say that would help. All Stiles could say was that it was dark, just so dark. He was just getting more frightened as time passed. The connection gets even worse, before it breaks. Stiles can feel his phone vibrate twice, but he is focused on something else. When it vibrates the third time, Stiles manages to pick up. Before Scott can get a word out, Stiles shares his panic. He tells Scott that he can't move, that it's like his foot is stuck on something and that it's serious. It's dark so he can't see if it's true, but he still believes that there must be blood pooling underneath him. Stiles manages to calm down a bit and starts rambling to Scott about a smell "down here" where ever "down here" is. With a little inquiry Stiles manages to tell Scott that the smell was terrible, bad enough to make his eyes water. Scott wanted to call Stiles' dad, but that couldn't happen. His father worried enough about him as it was, he doesn't want to worry him even more. He manages to convince Scott to try to find him without involving his father. Scott finally agreed and Stiles hung up. All he could do now was sit in the dark and hope help found him. He tried glancing around, seeing if he could find anything else that would help Scott, if he could ever get the cell reception again. The time passes slowly, it couldn't have been more than an hour, but it felt like at least 5. He remembered his phone and used its back light to look around the darkness. A quick glance told him at least some information, so he called Scott back. Scott answered almost immediately. Scott started asking questions, but Stiles stopped him, making sure he hadn't called his father. Scott reassures him that he hasn't and so Stiles starts to describe where he is. Quietly he describes a room that must have been an industrial basement that had a furnace, but it must not be on because it was freezing. He mentions that now he is going to have to turn off his phone though, because it is about to die. Just before he hangs up, Scott asks him why he was whispering. If he was stuck in this room he shouldn't have to. Stiles had felt that his voice he calmed down, but now it went back to barely audible and quivering. He finally managed to get out that he had to whisper "because I think there's someone in here with me." Fear fills Stiles, and he can practically feel it radiating from Scott through the phone. Then the line goes dead. Scott is gone, and Stiles is without friends again.
Stiles, not knowing what to do, used his phone to look around some more. He really didn't want to look at his foot, but he knew he had to. He felt it was still bleeding, and he'd need a lot of help. And soon. He manages to gather the courage to look down. Moving the light down his leg, he could see his pajama bottoms that he usually wore to bed, but moving further he found his left foot appeared to be caught in between the jaws of a steel hunting trap. He could see the blood pooling out from his calf where the sharp edges of the trap had embedded themselves under his skin. Seeing the wound brought the pain signals to the front of his brain and he cried out. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed the pain before. He could hear someone moving around in the dark, but they did not answer when Stiles called out. He uses some of the last light his phone can give to look around. He discovers the metal beams on the ceiling, and then a large industrial boiler. This new information doesn't really gather his interest though, it is what's behind it that does. Stiles can see a man in a leather bomber jacket almost sitting on the floor facing the wall behind the boiler. He calls out again, but still receives no answer besides a scraping noise. The man, using heavily bandaged fingers, drops a piece of chalk. It rolled down the concrete floor towards Stiles. He followed its progress with the little light he had, and once it stops he aims the light back to the wall. The main is gone, but in his place is a chalk-drawn backwards number 5. The symbol that had been put behind the ear of most of the werewolves at the rave. He remembers what Allison and Isaac shared after meeting Silverfinger. It was a Japanese Kanji, meaning "self". Stiles manages to say "self", but once he says it a breeze blows through the room, rustling the things on the floor, and blowing the Kanji off the wall, in a cloud of chalk dust, leaving nothing behind to remind Stiles it was ever actually there.
Stiles spent a while working on the trap, trying to get his leg out from between the steel jaws. He could only do so much though and eventually had to stop and let it continue to keep its grasp on his left calf. He lays still on the floor, too cold to move anymore. But when a shadow moves past his field of vision, he can't help but look. He is so tired of it all that he yells at the shadow, practically screaming "who are you". For the first time the figure speaks, first in Japanese, but switching to English because Stiles does not understand. It is the same man as before Stiles notices. It has the brown bomber jacket, though now Stiles can see military patches on the sleeves, and just like the hands were covered in bandages, so was its entire head. In English the man finally replies to Stiles' question with a "Not 'who are you' Stiles, but who are we." Stiles doesn't know how to answer and the man continues talking. Stiles listen to him ramble about how cold it is in here, and how cold it is outside, before the man points out that Stiles has even stopped shivering by this time. Stiles knows what that means, back in 5th grade he wrote a science report on hypothermia. He knows that his body is slowly shutting down so it can conserve energy. The shadow man hadn't stopped talking and he hadn't stopped using the pronoun 'we' when referring to them. Stiles wants him to stop, but he won't. He just repeats that "we're trying to keep you from freezing to death. We're trying to help you get out Stiles." Finally the bandaged man had turned and faced Stiles for long enough that he could see that the bandages had a set of sharp, metallic teeth. Stiles tells the shadow man that he can't get out as his leg is stuck in a trap. The man claims that there is in fact no trap, and besides the trap had been on Stiles' left leg, not his right. Hearing this, the trap does switch to the right leg, leaving his leg free and unharmed. Again the man repeats "we're trying to save your life."
Stiles has been lying on the cold basement floor for what must have been hours at this point. His condition is starting to worsen quicker and quicker. He isn't shivering anymore, but instead convulsing as shakes rattle his whole body and he can barely keep his eyes open. He just wants to go to sleep. When his eyes manage to open for just a few seconds he sees the man drawing another Kanji on the wall. The man starts pacing and eventually faces Stiles again, telling him that he doesn't understand. The Kanji isn't just a symbol, but instead a riddle. He wonders if Stiles knows any riddles, as this is no harder than most. The man starts asking Stiles riddles.
"What gets bigger the more you take away?" Through his convulsions, Stiles finally manages to get out the answer; A hole. The bandaged man continues relentlessly. "What gets wetter the more it dries?"; A towel. "When is a door not a door?"; When it's ajar. As quick as the others, the man continues asking his questions. "Everyone has it but no one can lose it, what is it?". Stiles has gotten so cold that talking is almost out of the question, but the man just keeps repeating the riddle. Stiles finally manages to get out that he doesn't know the answer, but it just makes the man mad until it has gotten in Stiles face and starts screaming the riddle. The man moves behind him and grabs the chain that is attached to the trap on Stiles' right leg and starts to drag him across the floor by it. Stiles screams until he can't breathe, closing his eyes without realizing it. When his eyes snap open he is still screaming, but he is being held by Scott's mom just outside the cave that Malia had lived in while she was a coyote. He was still cold and scared, but at least now he knew he was safe from the bandaged man. At least for now.
Stiles wakes up in a hospital bed, but doesn't quite open his eyes when he hears his dad and Scott's mom talking. He couldn't hear much, but he did hear something about his mother, similar symptoms, and his dad sighed and said that they were going to have to do some tests.
When Scott arrives at the hospital, the doctors are prepping Stiles for an MRI. Stiles is sitting on the end of the table, listening to the doctor explain how the MRI will make a lot of noise while taking the pictures of his brain. He explains that the noise is just the electrical pulses that are running through the metal coils surrounding him and actually allowing the machine to actually get the images it needs. Scott is standing next to him while the doctor explains,and as soon as the doctor heads back to the little computer room, Stiles looks at Scott. Without Scott even asking, Stiles knows what he wants to know, so he tells him, he tells him that they are doing tests to look for frontotemporal dementia, the same thing that killed his mother. Scott is confused because he didn't know and his mom said Stiles didn't either. All Stiles could do was shrug, and tell Scott that the look on his dad's face said it all. It was the same face he had when looking at his wife while she was in the same situation. If it is there, he knows he won't be able to do anything about it and will suffer and eventually die, as there is no cure for it. He can see the hurt on Scott's face as he explains, but he had to tell him. This wasn't the kind of thing he could ever keep from his best friend. Scott wants to help, offering to use his alpha abilities to try to cure him. Stiles says no. He has basically accepted the fact that he will be going the same way as his mother did. With this thought he could feel the tears in his eyes, finally start running down his face. At the site of Stiles crying; funny, sarcastic, happy Stiles, Scott breaks down as well. He pulls Stiles into a hug and they stay there for as long as they can. They are so focuses on each other that they don't notice the looks on their parents faces in the other room. Finally, the doctor tells Stiles he has to lie down though, and actually let the test run its course. Scott's mom makes Scott wait in the hall, unsure of how he would take these results. Just before he was moved into the machine, Stiles watched Scott walk out of the room, and when looking the other way saw his dad almost crying, even before the test started.
Stiles enters the machine and lies there trying not to move. He can't tell what is going on, all he can do is lie still and worry about what his dad was seeing on the screen and whether it was his brain shrinking or not. Slowly, the noise gets louder, blocking out almost all thoughts. All of a sudden, the buzzing of the machine disappears and he is standing outside the machine. Everything is out of focus, except for the bandaged man standing in front of him asking him the same riddle as before. Trying to get an answer from Stiles he says that maybe he will spare his family and friends; if not, they kill slowly kill everyone who ever meant anything to him. Faced with this decision Stiles finally manages to choke out an answer; A shadow. The bandaged man removes his bandages and Stiles finding himself staring at himself. The bandaged man is his shadow; worrying Stiles because he knows he won't be able to escape it ever. His copy disappears though and Stiles wakes up in the MRI, but he isn't the old Stiles. The new Stiles has taken his place, and the one everyone knows and loves is now trapped in his head, like the other was before. Stiles doesn't know what the other man is doing now that he has a sense of control, but it worries Stiles. Eventually though, the darkness settles into his mind and he falls asleep, completely unaware of the true havoc occurring just outside his eyes.