This is actually the longest chapter I've written for any of my stories ever because I love this episode. I also have a lot of Starlet moments in it, some of them are subtle little things like holding hands and hugging, but others are pretty intense.


We'd only been on the bus for about ten minutes when we pulled up in front of a seedy looking motel. Scott was almost completely healed now and I knew that I needed to thank Allison. She was the reason he thought that he was getting better so he did. Yeah, that's really confusing, but I still found Allison.

As we filed out of the bus, I grabbed her arm. "Thank you for saving Scott. I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you, I just get really protective over him when he's hurt. It's not an attractive trait to have, but I can't help it."

She hugged me from the side and said, "It's okay, Scarlet. I understand why you were like that, I'm the same way whenever someone hurts the people I care about."

I turned back around and followed Stiles, drumming my hands on his back as we went. I was anxious to get off of this bus again, I hated being on them. I finally got out and took in a deep breath of fresh air that didn't smell like the puke dust that was spread all over.

"Oh, wow, this is seriously one of the shittiest motels I've ever seen in my life," I said, leaning against Scott.

"I don't know, I've seen worse places," he laughed, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and hugging me close to him. "It's only for one night."

"Where the hell have you seen worse places?!" Stiles asked in surprise. "It's like you can smell all the pornos that have been made here."

"Or all the hookers who've turned more than a couple tricks," I added, giggling.

"The meet has been postponed until tomorrow and this motel was the only one with enough vacant rooms and a lack of judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates," Coach Finstock said. "You're staying two to a room and I warn you, don't do any sexual perversions in these rooms, you little deviants."

I giggled under my breath when he glanced over at Scott, Stiles, and I. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to room with them regardless of what Coach said. I wasn't going to let Scott out of my sight tonight because this motel made goosebumps pop up on my arms. There was something off about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.


I was laying on my back on Stiles' bed beside him as Scott did the same on his bed. We were debating who we thought was behind all of the human sacrifices.

"I have a list of ten people who could possibly be behind it, well nine I guess because two of them are Derek," Stiles said, holding up his hand and ticking off the choices:

"First there's Mr. Harris, I mean, just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead. Plus that guy has something seriously wrong with him."

"Then there's Cora Hale, Derek's little sister. No one really knows anything about her and she's Derek sister, there's something messed up about that family. Peter and Derek both have anger issues and I'm sure Cora's the same."

"Deaton, I don't really like the Obi Wan thing he's got going on. It freaks me out. Plus he ignored your calls all day today which is a little bit sketchy."

"Who's that?" Scott asked, making me laugh and close my eyes because I knew Stiles was about to teach him a thing or two. "I swear, if we make it home I'll finally watch Star Wars with you, okay?"

Stiles rolled his eyes in exasperation and continued on with his list, "As much as I hate to say it, there's a possibility that it's Lydia. She was totally controlled by Peter and had no idea, it could be like history repeating itself or something."

"Or it could be someone at school," I said, kicking my feet up into the air and stretching my arms up to touch my toes. "Matt was the Kanima Master and killed a ton of people last year without us figuring it out for a while."

"Actually, I said he was responsible for all the killings way before we actually found out. You all just ignore me," Stiles scoffed, pushing my arm with his hand and almost making me fall into the floor.

Scott rolled off of the bed and made his way into the bathroom, leaving Stiles and I alone in the room. I rolled over onto my side and face him, seeing that he'd done the same thing. I had my bottom lip between my teeth as we just stared about each other. Something between us changed in that moment, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"You're really beautiful, Scarlet," he whispered, reaching out and tracing my cheekbone with his finger. "And your jaw's even which is something to celebrate."

I laughed and pushed myself up into a sitting position. "Shut up, Scott's jaw isn't that uneven!"

He laughed and pushed himself up to his feet. "I'm going to go grab something from the vending machine. Do you want anything?"

"Yeah, I want some Skittles, please!" I said, batting my eyelashes at him teasingly.

He winked at me before heading out of the room. I decided that I was going to go find something that didn't smell like smoke to wash off with. I smelled like sweat, blood, and puke dust which was not an appealing scent for anyone.

"Hey Scott, I'm going to go find some more towels!" I shouted before making my way out to the motel clerk.

I met up with Lydia who was also on the hunt for towels so we walked together. We walked inside and I saw that it was just as cheery as the rest of the establishment.

"We need new towels because you're supposedly 'smoke free' rooms reek of nicotine," Lydia said, trying her best to get the woman behind the counter's attention.

She turned around and I saw that she had a tube in her neck from smoking. I looked anywhere but the woman and my eyes landed on the number 198 that was framed and hanging on the office wall.

"Why is that number framed back there?" I asked, interrupting Lydia's rant about the smell of smoke surrounding the motel.

The woman looked at me and smiled a creepy little smile that sent a shiver down my spine. "It's sort of an inside joke for the Glenn Capri and all of its workers. In the 40 years that it's been in business, the most suicide have occurred in the motel's walls. We're up to 198 and still counting."

After I was back in the room with Lydia and Allison, Lydia started going over statistics. "Over the span of 40 years, that breaks down to an average of 4.95 suicides a year which isn't completely unexpected."

"It's not unexpected, but it's still super weird that they have the number freakin' framed in their front office! I mean, who does that?" I asked in disbelief before grabbing Allison's deodorant and perfume to try and cover my stench since we didn't find any clean towels. "That's weird, even for our lives."

"With all of those suicides, there's more than a few methods. Hanging, throat cutting, pill popping, both barrels of a shotgun in the mouth," Lydia said, ticking them off of her fingers.

She cuts off quickly and her attention turns to the air vent over the bed. I look at Allison and see that she's just as confused by Lydia's actions as I am. The only thing I see is the silver streamer showing that there's air flowing through it. Suddenly they stop and Lydia gasps loudly.

"Lydia, what's wrong? I'm sure the air's on a timer or something and it'll kick back on in a minute," I said, walking up to her and seeing the pure fear on her face.

"You all didn't hear that? You didn't hear them talking and the gunshots?" she said in a wet whisper like she was trying to keep back tears.

She then runs out of the room with me and Allison on her heels. She pushed the door open and we all see that the room is filled with construction equipment and nothing else. Especially no dead people or guns. Lydia's eyes dart over to the wood paneling on the walls and her face contorts into a mask of horror.

"We need to leave this motel right now!" she exclaims, forcing herself to turn around and look at Allison and me instead of whatever's on the wall. "It's not safe here."

"Wait a second, let's calm down and look at this rationally, okay?" Allison said, taking Lydia's shoulders in her hands. "The deaths were suicides, not murders, and it's not like this place is haunted, right?"

"Maybe it is, maybe the couple killed themselves in this room and now it's under construction to scrap the brain matter off of the paneling!" Lydia shrieked, her eyes filling up with hysterical tears.

"Let's not freak out too badly, Lydia, okay? Let's go talk to the desk clerk about the couple," I said, taking her hand in mine and walking out of the room. "She's bound to have the answers that we need."

We all went down to the office only to find a sign on the door that said it'd be back open at 6AM. I slammed my hand against the glass with a groan before looking inside. There was enough light for me to see the walls and the framed number by the desk. The number wasn't 198 anymore, it had bumped itself up to 201.

"Hey you guys, the number on the weird suicide population sign has changed. It was 198 earlier and now it says 201," I said, trying to get both of their attention. "See, look!"

"How has it gone up by three in less than an hour? There's no way," Lydia said slowly.

"Unless the deaths haven't happened yet…" Allison trailed off as she realized what she was implying.

"I'm going to go check on Scott and Stiles. I'll meet up with you guys in a bit," I said, running back up to the room that all three of us were sharing and praying that they were both alright.

I was about to burst into the room when arms wrapped around my back. I was about to scream when I recognized the red of his sweater. I pulled out of Stiles' grip and turned so I could hug him.

"I have to tell you and Scott something, but I want to tell both of you so let's go inside," I said, taking is hand in mine and opening up the door.

Scott's eyes are wild when he looks up at both of us, almost like he's seen something terrible happen. I let go of Stiles' hand and make my way over to him. His head is shaking back and forth as he looks back out at the parking lot.

"Scotty, what's wrong?" I asked breathlessly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just thought I saw something outside, but I didn't," he said, but I could still hear the scared edge of his voice. He must've seen my skepticism because he said, "I promise there's nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

I nodded slowly and pulled my phone out of my hoodie pocket when it vibrated. Lydia texted me and said Bring Stiles up to our room, just Stiles, not Scott. Don't tell him what's going on just yet.

I grabbed Stiles' hand and turned to Scott, "Why don't you figure out what's up with you while we go do something? I have my phone if you need me, okay? Please don't do anything stupid and reckless."


"So this motel has a tally of people that've killed themselves?" Stiles asked in disbelief. "Do you think that's why all the werewolves are acting so weird? Like, Scott is straight up staring off into space, Boyd slammed his hand through a vending machine, and god only knows where Isaac and Ethan are right now."

"I don't know, but I want to leave," Lydia said, walking towards the door. Then she pulled open the nightstand and said, "Either that or I want to do an exorcism of something to keep us safe from the psycho werewolves."

"Maybe we were drawn to this motel on purpose… I mean the number in the office went up my three and that's the number of sacrifices that the Darach takes," Stiles stated.

Then he moved over to Lydia and took the bible from her. For a second I thought he was literally going to start praying or blessing the room, but instead he pulled a piece of paper out of the bible. There ended up being three newspaper clippings inside all about the suicides that happened in that room.

"Maybe every room has the clippings of all the suicides in their bibles," I said slowly. "Sort of like a catalog or something."

"That's great, most motels have mints on the pillows this one has a catalog of dead people," Stiles snarked, tossing the bible onto the bed. "This is a real classy establishment they've got here."

"If that's true, I want to go see what's in the bible in room 217," Lydia said, leaving before any of us could respond to her.

The door ended up being locked even though it wasn't an hour earlier. I heard something buzzing inside and realized that it sounded a whole lot like a saw. Then I remembered that there was a ton of construction tools inside and something told me that we had to get inside that room right now.

"We have to get inside! That sounds like a SKILSAW," Allison said quickly.

Stiles used his strength and slammed into the door and it actually opened. Not that Stiles wasn't strong, I just didn't think he had the brute strength the knock a locked door open. I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and tried to calm myself down from how much it turned me on. Oh Lord Jesus, I needed to reign myself in before I embarrassed myself.

"Scarlet, we could use your help!" Lydia shouted, making me run inside and see that Stiles was fighting with Ethan.

I found the plug and followed it to the wall. I ran over to the plugin and yanked it out just as it was about to cut Stiles into two pieces. I heard him let out a thankful breath before relaxing against the floor.

"Nope, we've still got a problem!" Allison shouted, running over to Ethan as he tried to tear himself apart with his own claws. "A little help here, guys!"

Lydia grabbed his other arm and they struggled to stop him from ripping himself apart. He hit his hand against the heater during the struggle and the sudden burn seemed to knock him out of his trance. He pulled himself out of Lydia and Allison's grip and ran a nervous hand through his hair.

"I don't know what I was doing before you all ask," was all he said before he tore out of the room faster than possible.

We all followed him and stopped in the middle of the cement walkway outside of the rooms. I grabbed Stiles' hand just in case Ethan decided to attack one of us with his claws this time.

"I wasn't lying when I said I had no clue how I ended up in there like that. The last thing I remember was being with Danny in our room," Ethan said, leaving out any incriminating details.

"You know, you could be a little bit nicer considering we all just saved your life," I said sassily before I could stop myself. "Just saying."

"You probably shouldn't have," Ethan snapped before heading back to his room.


Allison and Lydia left to go find Scott which left me and Stiles alone in our room again. He was still trying his best to convince me that Lydia was behind all of this stuff, but I was skeptical. I also fought that she wasn't possessed by Peter and all that other shit, but that's beside the point. I was pretty sure she wasn't behind the sacrifices.

"Aren't you, like, in love with her? Why do you want her to be behind all of this so badly?" I finally asked, sitting up and crossing my legs.

"I'm not in love with her anymore, I don't think I have been for a while. I mean, I still care about her a lot, but I think it's becoming more of a friendship thing," he said, running a hand through his hair.

I wanted to hug him tightly to me and kiss him, but I held myself tight. "Oh, that's an interesting turn of events. I'll keep that in mind."

As soon as that left my mouth, our eyes locked and something passed between us. It was the same feeling that happened earlier when we were laying with each other. It was unfamiliar but it made my entire body feel like it was charged with electricity and I kind of like it.

He brought his hand up and cupped my jaw, leaning his body into mine and making the electric feeling intensify. We were less than an inch away from each other when the door flung open and sent us springing away from each other.

"I hear a baby crying and I think someone's trying to drown it in Boyd and Isaac's room," Lydia shouted, not noticing how close we were to each other in her hysterics. "I don't know how I know, but I know something's about to happen that we have to stop!"

I jump up and run to their room, partly because I'm afraid for them and partly because I'm scared of what just happened between Stiles and I. The room was dark so I flipped the switch on and ran into the bathroom where I heard water running. Lydia and Stiles were behind me when I screamed.

Boyd was in the water with a safe on his chest holding him under the water. I saw Stiles trying to pull the stopper out of the tub, but Boyd had wedged something inside that he couldn't pull free. He ended up losing his balance and falling back into the wall heater and I heard him hiss when he touched it.

"The burning jars them out of their trances!" he shouted, making me jump and look up at him instead of at Boyd. "What can burn underwater?"

"Nothing can burn underwater, it would extinguish itself," I said, freaking out and trying to move the safe even though I knew it was impossible.

"A road flare can burn in the water and the bus should have a set of them on it," Lydia said, and Stiles took off running to grab them.

While we were waiting, I heard someone whimpering from under one of the beds. I left Lydia with Boyd while I went to check it out. I took a deep breath and dropped to my knees before looking underneath the hanging comforter to find the source of the noise. Isaac was cowering underneath it and slid back into the shadows whenever the light hit him. Even if I was a little pissed at him, I hated seeing him so afraid. I wanted to crawl under there with him, but I figured being in a small space with him again wasn't such a good idea considering what happened the last time…

Stiles quickly came back into the room and reached underneath the water to burn Boyd. I heard him roar and saw Stiles walk back in with the flare still in his hands. I crawled under the bed reluctantly and reached the flare out towards Isaac. He shied away from it at first, and I apologized before pressing it to his arm.

While they were recovering, the rest of us went to find Allison and Scott. We found Allison and started looking around the motel for my brother. I was the first to find him and I didn't like what I saw when I did. He was standing in the middle of something wet with a flare clutched in his hands that was burning brightly.

"Scott?" I asked, walking up to him and the stench of gasoline burned my nose. "Are you standing in gas?"

"There's no hope," he says. "There's no hope for me or for Derek."

"Scott, Derek's not your fault!" Allison pleaded with him, tears obvious in her voice as she, Lydia, and Stiles caught up to me.

"No matter what I do, people always end up getting hurt and dying. Killing myself is the best thing that I could do for everyone," he said in a voice that was the embodiment of sadness.

"Scott, that's no true! I can't live without you in my life!" I cried, tears coursing down my cheeks. "Please don't do this!"

"You're wrong, Scarlet. Everyone's life was better before I got the bite, it was better when I wasn't anyone special. Whenever I sucked at lacrosse, and wasn't popular or special in anyway. It's better to be no one," he said. "No one at all."

I didn't realize that I was clutching Stiles' hand for dear life until he moved forward and I went with him. "You are someone, you're my best friend and you're our brother."

He let go of me and stepped forward into the puddle of gas with me close on his heels. I swallowed thickly and took Stiles' hand back in mine and locked our fingers, "If you're going, you're going to take both of us with you."

Stiles reached out and pried the flare out of his hand and threw it to the side before we both pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Suddenly someone slammed into us and knocked us out of the gasoline puddle just as it ignited behind us. I hear Scott hiss and know that he ended up getting burned and it jarred him out of his trance.

Stiles stood up and pulled Lydia and I to our feet before helping Scott up as well. I let them talk privately for a second before hugging a sobbing Allison and a barely held together Lydia. The other's arms wrap around both of us and we ended up having a group hug in the middle of the flaming parking lot.

Isaac and Boyd joined us and we all decided that there was no way in hell we were all going to sleep in that hotel. We all got onto the bus and I forced Stiles into a seat before laying back against his chest and falling asleep within a few minutes. I was wrecked after all the stuff that had happened today.


I woke up to the sound of people filing up onto the bus and Finstock blowing his whistle. I groaned and sat up, well sort of, I was mostly leaning back onto Stiles and still curled up into a ball. I noticed that Stiles had draped his hoodie over me and was watching me sleep.

I felt my cheeks turning pink as I remembered what happened between us last night. I sat up straight but stayed as close to him as I could, leaving his jacket draped over both of us. What? He was still cute.

"I don't even want to know," Coach said when he saw all of us sleeping on the bus. "The meet's been cancelled so we're all heading home, this trip was a bust."

"Thank you for saving my life," Ethan told Scott, making me turn to see what was going on.

"You know, I was the one who almost had my face ripped off by a power saw," Stiles said, but I placed a hand on his stomach and made him be quiet. "Never mind, go ahead and thank Scott for it."

"Because you saved me, I'm going to tell you something. Derek's still alive, but because he killed Ennis he has to either join the alpha pack or they'll hunt him down and kill him," he finished like Stiles hadn't even spoke.

"Coach, can I see you whistle for a second?" Lydia asked, making me squint at the sudden change of subject.

He raised a brow but looked too tired to question it. He handed the whistle to Lydia before flopping down in a seat with a tired sigh.

Lydia cupped the whistle and blew a big breath into it before pulling her hand back. She opened it up and showed us that it had purple dust inside it. Scott coughed a bit and I realized what it was.

"The whistle is filled with wolfsbane?" I asked. "That must be how the Darach caused the werewolves hallucinations."

"If that's the case," Stiles took the whistle from Lydia and tossed it out the window. I heard the wheels drive over it and effectively crush it. "I think that's the best option."

"You owe me a new whistle, Stilinski!"


This is my favorite chapter that I've written! I hope you guys think so, too.