Chapter three: Malia

I crouched down in front of the car. It was lying upside down, totally wrecked in the middle of the woods. Plants were already growing in and around it. On the cardoor were clawmarks, but the individual marks were too far apart to have been from an animal.

"So it was a werewolf then," Stiles said as he crouched down next to me, using the torch to light up the inside of the car. There was nothing in there, must've all been taken out by the sheriff's department. Except for… a tiny hand sticking out from underneath (which was now on top of the bottom of) a chair.

"What's that?" Scott asked, pointing at it. Stiles put the torch's light on it.

"Is that a… doll?" I reached out and pulled at the little plastic hand. Coming with it was, indeed, a doll. One eye was missing, its clothes were brown with filth and the head was in a very unnatural angle, but it was definitely a doll.

"I'm hungry!"

Behind me, Scott and Stiles jumped back, Stiles letting out a scream at the sudden voice coming from the doll. I chuckled and smirked at them. "Scared?" My own hard was beating like mad, but they didn't need to know that.

"I think I just had a minor heart attack," Stiles put one hand over his heart as he caught his breath.

Scott's head shot up and his eyes widened. "Lora…" he pointed at a spot between two trees, where two small lights hung in the air. As soon as I spotted it, I could also hear a soft growling. "Please tell me you can see that."

I nodded. "Yeah, I can see it… maybe we should-"

Scott sprinted after the animal. If it even was an animal. I quickly took off my vest and tossed it to Stiles as I flew after Scott and the animal.

"Hey Sco- Lora, wait! Wait!" Stiles yelled as he watched the two of us go. Scott on the ground, me above it. I had trouble keeping up with the pace the animal was running at, but after it jumped over a cliff, it halted. I flew down, landing behind what I now saw was a coyote as Scott landed in front of it, having jumped over the cliff as well.

The coyote growled at us, backing off. Scott crouched down, his eyes glowing red. He looked the coyote in the eyes, which glowed a bright but icy blue. Scott frowned and tilted his head. "Malia?"

The coyote sprinted off.

~o~

The next day, Stiles, Scott, and I met up with Allison just before our history lesson to tell her about what had happened the night before. After Scott and I found Stiles, Scott mentioned he'd picked up the coyote's smell, and we'd found a den.

"Here's where we found it," Stiles pointed at the blue dot on the map he'd saved on his Ipad, "It's in the middle of these hiking trails."

"Well that could narrow it down," Allison traced the paths with her finger, "Coyotes travel in fixed trails. But Lora's right, she wouldn't go back to her den."

Scott frowned. "Why not?"

"Coyotes hate wolves." I said. "They're also not dumb enough to go back to a den when they realise someone's been there." Allison nodded at that.

"They're really smart. If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."

Stiles raised an eyebrow. "Coyotes tiptoe?" Allison nodded, and he let out a breath. "Wow…"

The bell rang and everyone got to their seats, Allison hurrying out of the room to get to her own class. I got to my own seat and sat down with a sigh, putting my books on the table. From the corner of my eye, I could see Kira and Scott having a short conversation, which Kira's father (which so happened to be our history teacher) interrupted. He handed Kira some papers, who gave them to a very baffled Scott, who then sat down with an awed smile on his face as the teacher got back to the front of the class.

"Alright," he spoke, "Let's get back to our topic of internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our book that I'd like to go over, which explains it in more detail." He walked to the lectern in front of the class and placed the book on it. "Who would like to go first?"

Of course, everyone was silent. The teacher's eyes wandered around the class and eventually landed on Stiles. Before I even had a chance to react… "Mister Stillinski, how about you?"

"Oh, err… maybe… maybe someone else could?"

I put my hand up. "I could-"

"Thank you, miss Hield, but everyone participates in my classes, including mister Stillinski." He gave Stiles a pointed look.

"Okay…" Stiles sighed as he stood up and walked towards the lectern. Placing a hand on either side of it, he bowed his head down and opened his mouth. Though… no words came out, and there was a growing frown of concentration on his face.

When he clenched his fists around the lectern and started breathing heavily, I immediately stood up. "Sir, I should take him to the nurse's office."

The teacher frowned a bit. "Well-" I'm not sure if he ever finished that sentence, I was a bit distracted by Stiles suddenly stumbling and nearly falling over. I leaped forward to catch him and pulled him up.

"I'm just gonna go now," I said as I pulled Stiles along, out of the classroom. As soon as we were out, he ran for the guys' bathroom. Oh don't be like that, of course I followed him in.

"Stiles, Stiles, look at me." I said as I closed the door behind me.

Stiles shook his head as he stared at himself in the mirror, holding on tight to the sink. "This is just a dream, just a dream."

I shook my head. "Stiles, this isn't a dream, okay?" I put my hand over his. "Come on, let go and we'll count." I tried to pry his hands off the sink, but he wouldn't move an inch. "Stiles?" I wasn't even sure if he could hear me. "Okay Stiles, we'll count mine, okay?" I held up my hands, relieved when he looked over. "One…"

Stiles winced as he tried to look at my hands. "Two."

"Three."

Stiles took a deep breath. "Four."

"Five." His breathing was getting slower, but he still wasn't quite there yet. "Six…"

"Seven." Stiles nodded.

"Eight."

"Nine."

I put up my last finger. "Ten." I help up my hands as he kept staring at them, until he sighed and staggered back until he hit the wall, which he slid down against until he was sitting on the floor, panting.

"What the hell's happening to me?" he asked, tears in his eyes.

"I don't know, but I'm working on it. We'll figure it out." I sat down in front of him.

"Will we though? Lora, I'm-" he shook his head, "Scott can't shift, Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt and I'm just… I'm straight up losing my mind, okay?"

Tears started welling up in my eyes. I bit my lip, trying to push them back but… failing miserably. "Allison clearly didn't get closure with her aunt's death. Losing control now that he's an Alpha is one of his biggest fears." I looked at Stiles. "Why this whole dream and reality thing?"

Stiles shook his head. "I don't know."

"Then maybe you are losing your mind…" my stomach twisted as realisation dawned on me. "You said 'don't let them get in.'"

Stiles frowned. "What?"

"When you had a nightmare, you said 'don't let them get in.' I thought it was just a nightmare." I slapped myself in the face. "Stupid! Never ignore dreams, they're the closest to the subconsciousness you can get! You opened a door into your mind, Stiles, your subconsciousness."

All colour drained from Stiles' face. "So if my subconsciousness said 'don't let them get in'..."

I nodded. "Someone was trying to get in through that door." I sniffed and wiped my eyes before standing up. "I- I don't know what to do…" I admitted. "I'm sorry, I just-" I took a deep breath. "I don't know if I can help you."

"You can't always help everyone, Lora." Stiles pushed himself off the floor. "Alright? Sometimes… we can't even help ourselves."

Behind Stiles, the door opened and Scott stepped in. "We can always try."

I frowned at him. "Were you eavesdropping on us?" Scott's eyes widened for a second, realising he'd got caught. "Well, mister sunshine, what's your plan for this one? Politely ask whatever has gotten into Stiles' head to come out?" I snapped, making Scott frown a little, hurt. "Sorry," I said with a sigh. "I just-" I frowned. "Did you also just hear growling?"

Scott's ears perked up at that. He looked around for a bit until he froze. "Malia's in the boys' locker room with Kira."

Stiles and I watched in bewilderment as he sprinted off, before looking at each other. "I think Scott can handle a coyote," I said, taking out my phone. "I'll call your dad before a deputy decides to put Malia down."

~o~

The locker room was a mess. More than usually so, anyway. In an attempt to scare off Malia, Scott had thrown over a row of lockers. Stiles and I made it there just before the sheriff did.

"I think I might know why Malia went after Kira…" Stiles held pulled the creepy doll from the night before out of his bag.

"You took the d- Stiles…"

"I thought Scott might be able to use it!" Stiles defended, "You know, scent!"

"Where did you get that?" A man shoved me aside and grabbed the doll from Stiles. It was mister Tate."This was my daughter's…" He looked at Stiles with fire in his eyes. I was about to speak up when the sheriff stepped between them.

"Mister Tate, I don't know how you've heard about this, if you've got your own police scanner, but you need to leave." When Tate didn't move, the sheriff wanted to push him back… only to discover that Tate had a gun underneath his jacket.

"I've got a permit."

"California schools are a gun-free zone. Permit, or no permit."

"Oops," I whispered to Stiles, who bit his lip to hide his smile. The sheriff had let me off with a warning multiple times for carrying a gun at school. Ever since I came back, I didn't anymore… as far as everyone else was concerned, that is.

"You find that animal," Tate said, his voice laced with hatred, "You find that… that thing." And with that, he walked off. As soon as he was out, Scott, Stiles and I stared at each other. We all knew perfectly well that if we didn't find Malia soon… he would.

And then she would be dead.

A/N: I just want to say thank you to the people who are still reading this story, the fact that you've stuck with it all this time... really means a lot to me. More than I'd like to admit. So thank you :)