Chapter 9

Thomas sat on hospital bed, curling up in a ball and slightly shivering. He had warm cover wrapped around his shoulders. For the moment, he was all alone as Stiles had gone back to check up on Scott and the nurse, who he learned was Scott's mother, Melissa had taken some blood sample from Thomas for analysis. He couldn't close his eyes, because as he did, all he saw was Nemeton and Nogitsune, sneering at him. He was scared – this surely was to give nightmares for weeks if not longer.

His phone vibrated on counter beside the bed. He reached to it and saw the caller ID: Jonathan. Crap! I forgot I was supposed to go to his place tonight.

- 'Hello?' Thomas spoke as he hit 'answer' on touch screen. He flinched at the sound of his voice. It sounded so bleak and weak.

- 'Hey! Where are you? I thought you wanted to come over with Math homework tonight.' Thomas gave a sigh. How was he to explain this to Jonathan? Hey sorry, a werewolf I know got wolfsbane in his wound and I had to help him. Oh, and I had hallucinations of this evil spirit.

- 'Oh, I am in hospital. There was an accident.' Thomas said, trying to pull his voice together.

- 'Are you okay?' Jonathan asked, clearly worried.

- 'Oh, I am great!' What a lie. 'I just helped out, that's all.' Thomas tried to sound casual. Keyword - 'tried'

- 'Well, see you tomorrow at school?'

- 'Yeah, bye.' Thomas ended the call and tossed the phone lightly on bed. If Jonathan saw through his lies, he certainly didn't show it throughout the short conversation. Would it even matter to him? That was question worth one million. Well, for Thomas it was.

Someone firmly knocked on doors. Thomas raised his head.

- 'Come in.' He said, forgetting about composure of his voice. It was easier to give in than to pull it all together. After all – he was surrounded by people who knew, who understood this whole weird supernatural thing better and knew it was real.

- 'Hey.' It was Stiles. Thomas gave weak smile and dropped it in an instant. He felt exhausted but yet was afraid to sleep.

- 'How's Scott?' Thomas asked in an instant.

- 'Oh he is healing. Melissa knows about the whole werewolf thing so she managed to get the whole wolfsbane thing under wraps.' Stiles said. Thomas nodded. It helped a lot when your own personal nurse knows about these kind of things so she could help him in an extra emergency.

- 'That's great.' Thomas said. In fact, that's all he could say.

- 'Oh, and Scott told me to say thank you for saving him.' Stiles said. Thomas was taken aback and slightly blushed. Month ago he still hated McCall. Now, he received a 'thank-you' from a werewolf for saving him. Go figure.

- 'I still need to talk to him.' Thomas muttered.

- 'About?' Stiles frowned slightly.

- 'I want to apologize for how acted towards him.' Thomas gave a sigh. Stiles laughed. Thomas laughed too. Don't go all sentimental for crying out loud!

- 'Well, it's safe to say apology accepted, on my part.' Stiles said. Thomas appreciated that. He did feel guilty. Watching from afar was… excruciating. And he was part of this as much as everyone else was. He was marked since that day back in San Francisco when someone or something wrote with blood on his ceiling.

There was another knock on door and Melissa entered this time. She was bringing a sheet of paper with her.

- 'So, I got your toxicology report.' She said. Thomas frowned.

- 'Toxicology? I thought you needed to check my blood?' Thomas asked. Stiles was silent but listening.

- 'Well, yes, we did but we found something in your blood aside from blood cells so it had to be brought through toxicology analysis.' Melissa said. Stiles was silent but it was evidently obvious he was calculating or putting things together.

- 'What did you find?' Thomas was slightly afraid to ask but it had to be asked.

- 'We found traces of wolfsbane in your blood.' Melissa said. Thomas swallowed, yet his throat was dry. He looked at Stiles who was as confused as Thomas was.

As Stiles was driving Thomas back home, he promised him two things: 1. Someone would bring his bike from sheriff's station tomorrow. 2. He would look into theories about how wolfsbane got in Thomas. He was avoiding the main suspicion Thomas had; if wolfsbane was in his blood, could it have affected him to see the hallucinations and if so; knowing that wolfsbane affects only supernatural creatures, what does it make Thomas? Was he supernatural?

When Thomas gave him directions to where he lives Stiles frowned. It sounded vaguely familiar.

- 'Isn't that where-' Stiles looked at Thomas and he just nodded. Stiles didn't say anything else but drove Thomas home.

When Thomas stepped inside he saw his mother was waiting for him. He hoped he would be able to avoid her for tonight as he probably was to face exhausting night of nightmares if his own theory about wolfsbane was correct. He just hoped he wouldn't be screaming.

- 'Where on earth have you been?! I was worried sick! I asked you to bring groceries and you disappear for hours!' She began. Thomas so wanted to ignore her and longed for sleep. His homework didn't matter also for the moment as he already had made mental note at the back of his mind to wake up extra early in morning to do it.

- 'There was an accident and I had to help bring someone in hospital.' Thomas repeated the feeble excuse he had made to Jonathan over phone. He forgot he was dealing with his own mother, who could see through partial truths.

- 'You're not telling me everything and you yourself look like you've been through an accident.' His mother said. Thomas rolled his eyes. Thank God for Melissa who had offered to lend him one of Scott's shirts as his own was to be thrown away with all that Scott's blood on it. She had excused herself for an hour to get home and bring a shirt. But there were still traces of horror on Thomas' face, mainly from his own 'dream'.

- 'Just drop it, okay? Mom, I really want to go to sleep.' Thomas said.

- 'No, I will certainly not! You are my son and you must tell me the truth! You were gone! I thought you were-' but she stopped in mid-sentence, sensing as if she had told something she was not supposed to. Even in his condition Thomas was able to catch on.

- 'You thought what? That I was dead, somewhere in a ditch? That whatever was after me had caught up?' Thomas said, annoyed. Cassandra had opened her mouth to object but clearly Thomas raised his hand in protest. 'Save it mom. Who are you, to ask me tell the truth when you and father have been keeping things from me?' He watched as his mother's face slowly drained of all color. 'That's it mom. Exactly. When did you suppose to have the right time to tell me about family tradition of hunting supernatural creatures? When did you suppose to tell me you were part in this whole mess with Argents running around and killing off werewolves and other creatures? When were you going to tell me that something is out there, wanting to kill me?' Thomas' anger rose as he was speaking. Who was she to demand the truth when she herself was keeping secrets?

- 'You have no right to j-' she began, her voice trembling.

- 'OH FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T PRETEND TO BE OFFENDED! YOU CLEARLY SAW HOW CRUSHED I WAS BY ALLISON'S DEATH AND YOU NEVER ASSUMED THAT I KNEW ABOUT HER? OF COURSE I KNEW ABOUT HER! SHE TOLD ME! AND DO YOU KNOW WHO TOLD ME TRUTH ABOUT MY OWN PARENTS? CHRIS! CHRIS TOLD ME YOU WERE GANKING WEREWOLVES. CHRIS TOLD ME SOMEONE WANTS TO KILL ME! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOU!' Thomas let it all out.

- 'Thomas, I-' she began but Thomas rose his hand in protest again.

- 'Save your pathetic excuses. Just leave me alone and welcome to my world, mother. Now you know how it is when someone close keeps secrets from you.' Thomas panted, slowly returning to his normal self. He stalked upstairs to fall in his bed and passing out in just matter of seconds.