Ghost

Chapter ten

/School\\

This was a bad idea.

That was the conclusion I had come to as I sunk lower in to my seat, everyone was staring and whispering like I couldn't hear them or that I didn't know what they were talking about, and I wish I didn't.

Of course they knew, it was all in the papers last week after they died 'two teens murdered in high school, one survivor nonlife threatening injuries' it wasn't a far leap to figure out that I was the survivor with all these bruises and a bandaged up arm.

It wouldn't have been so bad if Scott and Stiles hadn't froze upon entering the room shocked to see me sitting in my desk, well slouching in my seat, either way their reaction made it clear to everyone that had noticed that they were right.

Lowering my gaze to the top of my desk I tried to fight back the urge to run from the room that had me seated in front of Stiles and beside Scott who was in front of Allison, and tried to pay attention to the teacher.

Henderson was talking about a writing assignment that would be due by the end of this week, an assignment that I had all intentions of drowning myself in to keep my mind occupied. Time seemed to be at a standstill, with the sound of pencils on paper being louder than the clock itself.

The light brush of something falling just in front of my shoulder had me damn near jumping out of my chair as I stared wide eyed at the folded piece of paper that now sat on top of my desk. Glancing over my shoulder I met Stiles worried gaze, before biting my lip and turning back to the paper.

Slowly I reached forward and unfolded the paper, the words 'Are you ok?' were scrawled in Stiles messy handwriting, my shoulders slumped as my eyes flickered over towards Scott than quickly back to the paper as my heart started to race and pound behind my ears.

No. I thought as my vision started to blur, I was so far from okay and was so completely confused with everything that had happened that night.

Biting on my lower lip I kept it from trembling and glanced over my shoulder, catching and holding Stiles worried gaze I shook my head no twice before turning back to the words glaring up at me.

I could feel my entire face start to scrunch up in what Emma used to call my 'over think'n it face' yeah not very original but it got the point across, my nose would wrinkle as my eyebrows pulled downwards and I chewed on my lower lip. Normally this face was used to debate on what I would wear on an important date or hell even when I got ready for school some mornings.

I only hesitated for a moment longer before writing 'can we talk?' on the paper before bawling it up and reaching behind me to drop it on his desk. It would be the first time I talked to Stiles, besides the funeral run in with Lydia and Allison I'd been avoiding my phone like the plague and the fact that there were a few still unopened texts and voicemails on there hadn't been forgotten.

The note was dropped back onto my desk, reading over the words 'now' were scratched out and replaced with 'lunch' which had also a line through it the words 'after class?' were the only ones not crossed out.

Glancing over my shoulder I met his gaze as his shoulder stiffened and gave him a nod.

Time slowly ticked by after that, but as everything must come to an end so did English class as the bell rang to single the start of the ten minutes you had to get to your next class. "You coming?" a voice pulled my from my thoughts as I glanced up to see a stiff looking Allison.

It was easy to see how she felt being back here, her body language was stiff and uninviting to any outsiders. I imagine I look the same, only more torn...heartbroken...pathetic. "Sorry," I paused taking in how everyone moved to the door except Scott and Stiles who were quietly whispering a few feet away looking directing in our direction.

"I told Stiles I'd talk to him after class." I stated quietly as I stood and my shoulders fell, Allison firmed her jaw as she debating on something before nodding once.

"Okay, we'll talk later." She stated calmly, almost in a clipped tone before she turned and walked off.

"Allison! Hey Allison wait a sec," Scott called after her as he jogged towards the door that she continued out of without so much as glancing back at him.

Pulling my eyebrows together I realized for the first time that they were having trouble in paradise, "hey, you ready?" Stiles asked walking up to me with a hesitant look on his face, forcing a small smile I nodded before we walked out of the class room.

"So..." Stiles started breaking our silence that had kept up since we left the class room behind a few minutes ago, "what was it you wanted to talk about?" He asked as he wrapped one hand around the strap of his back pack.

Licking at my bottom lip I glanced around the mostly empty hallway before deciding that it couldn't get much more private then in was considering everyone was in class. "I wanted you to tell me I'm insane." I stated trying to be firm, before letting everything out.

"Wha-" Stiles tried to interrupt before I put up my hand to stop him.

"Tell me I have PTSD, that what I think I saw didn't happen. That my mind is making up all of these things that don't make sense..." the words continued to pour out with nothing to hold them back as I watched Stiles face become paler and paler.

/Third persons prow\\

Stiles couldn't find any words to say as his throat felt dryer then it had when she first walked in homeroom, he has known she had been shaken being nearly killed did that to people losing someone you loved did that to you.

When he first seen her walk through that door he could see her vulnerability it was obvious in the way she dressed in the way her shoulders slumped and the look on her face that said 'I don't know how to be anymore'

But that wasn't what he was seeing now. Now he had a front row exclusive seats to how terrified that night had left her, how what she had seen had affected her.

That was the going question on Scott's mind lately, well that and if Allison would ever talk to him again. But the only important thing to Stiles was her, everyone else that had made it out were ok well accept for Scott's relationship.

"What you see?" Stiles managed to chook out as he stared wide eyed at the girl whose face was slowly starting to heat up from embarrassment or emotional overload, he couldn't tell which.

"Does it matter?" She whispered looking up at him through her eyelashes, biting back the words that would describe what haunted her dreams.

Stiles paused trying to find the right words to say to keep her from finding out the truth, assuming she didn't already know it. "Sometimes it helps, even if you didn't really see what you think you did. Hearing it out loud might help, no matter how insane."

Isabel dropped her shoulders in defeat, insane...that was exactly how she was starting to feel. Logically what she thought she saw couldn't have been real, but then again that dream she had about wolves killing a guy on a bus to find out that a mountain lion had done just that while she was dreaming...well this year was starting to become a little insane.

"Insane." Isabel mused out loud feeling everything drain from her, before she nodded her head and bounced slowly on her heels. "You're right, this is completely insane. Thank you, I...I need to go." She stated side stepping him as she started down the hall.

"Isabel wait," Stiles called as he spun realizing she must have thought he was calling her insane, "I didn't mean-"

"No," she interrupted turning as she continued to walk backwards, "It's ok," she stated plastering on a fake smile. "I asked you to tell me that I was insane, literally so we're good. You should get to class." She stated building up a wall to keep her disappointment hidden from him.

"We have history," Stiles stated as he stayed in place watching her slowly walk away from him, leaving an undesired feeling in its wake.

"Yeah, it's been a tough morning." Isabel stated biting her lip as she made her decision, "I think I'm just going to head home."

"Oh, uh...ok." Stiles sputtered as he watched her turn and go down a different hall heading to her locker, he assumed.

Ten minutes later Isabel was climbing in to Keith's truck completely drained, Keith clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times before starting up the truck and pulling away from the high school. His eyes flickering over to the girl who curled up in the passenger seat, every few seconds.

Obviously it hadn't been a good idea to let her go to school, he realized as he decided to break the silence. "You can always talk to me Isabel, you know that I would never judge you." He stated as he eyed her crumbled form, "Even if it sounds crazy and you just want to hear it aloud, I'm here." He tried again to urge her to talk to him, repeating words eerily similar to the ones Stiles had spoken.

"It doesn't make any sense..." she stated as her voice cracked and she hid her face from his line of sight, watched as the school faded away in the rear view mirror.

"That's a little vague, even for me." He stated pursing his lips as he stared out the windshield, "What doesn't?" Keith asked trying to keep his tone gentle to encourage her opening up to him.

"The attack at the high school. It...it just doesn't make any sense." She repeated as her shoulders slumped and she pried her eyes off of the mirror to downcast them into her lap.

"Most tragedies don't," He continued "I heard Derek Hale is the one responsible. They will find him Isabel." His eyes flickered over to the girl to read her response and was surprised to see it harden.

"It wasn't Derek." She stated firmly causing his eyebrows to raise, meeting his gaze she continued "I knew Derek, besides I'm fairly sure Derek is dead." Keith's jaw ticked, this was the first he had heard anything like this.

"Dead? What makes you say that?" Sighing Izzy shifted in her seat as they finally left the town and started down the back roads.

"He was shot at, I haven't seen him since." Her confession felt off even to her own ears, she hadn't told anyone what happened that night, but somehow Stiles had found out did that mean Derek was still alive?

Surely she had thought if he was he would have checked in with her to make sure she wasn't hurt. If he was alive, than she was wrong which meant he didn't care about her well being but even she couldn't begin to believe that Derek was what happened at the high school last week.

"You don't think it was Derek?" Keith asked surprising her, most parents would have freaked out asking how she knew he was shot at, but then again he wasn't her parent she supposed. Either way the question fell on deaf ears as the girl remained silent for the rest of the drive.

"What's up kiddo?" He asked turning away from the stove as Isabel walked in, something cooking inside of it.

"I wanted to know, you said I could talk to you, I just..." She trailed off beginning to lose her nerve that she had spent the past few hours building up.

"Of course." The man nodded towards the tiny kitchen table before sitting down beside her.

"I wanted to talk about that night...I mean it sounds crazy, but I can't focus on anything else." Keith nodded watching the girl shift in her seat "so should I just start?" she asked feeling unsure of herself.

"Just tell it like it's a story, it's easier that way." Keith stated as his face softened

"It was like I was side lined, watching a horror film..." Izzy explained fidgeting with her hands, "at first I had thought a grizzly was in the school, but grizzles don't do what it did, he knocked me in to the lockers and when I came to..."

"it's alright," He spoke up watching as her body shook with the overwhelming emotions that the memory brought on, "you can skip that part." He stated placing his hand reassuringly on her shoulder, fairly sure he know what 'that part' was and that he didn't really want to hear that part anyway.

"I was moving down the halls, using the walls for support..." She continued taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes, losing herself in the memory of that night.

"I was by the gym, the doors were wide open. I was crossing over them and then I heard the sound of glass breaking...I looked over, a boy around my age was in there he was panicking it wasn't until that thing had him pinned to the ground that I could see his face."

She hesitated knowing that what she was about to say would probably make her look insane, like Stiles probably that she was. "It was Scott McCall." She stated licking her bottom lip, "I left him there, I...I thought that thing would kill him and if he saw me I'd be next...he had already killed Conner...and...and Emma."

Keith nodded squeezing her shoulder for good measure, as his stormy eyes met her's "It's ok Isabel, you didn't do anything wrong." he reassured her, "You're a child." Shaking her head she continued, this wasn't about her guilt this was about the creature that now haunted her not only in her nightmares but every second of the day.

"The beast was black," She continued "and it had the strangest red eyes...like blood..." she spoke chancing a glance at Keith to judge his reaction which was unreadable, so she continued "its teeth were inches from Scott's face...I rounded back, and hid behind the open door. It wasn't long after until Scott came stumbling out, I was going to reach for him...I really was, but he started sniffing the air, he...he glanced down at me, with these strange glowing eyes but it was like he couldn't see me...he...he kept walking." Izzy explained closing her eyes briefly with a sigh feeling the weight lighten slightly.

She couldn't look at Keith now that the words were out there, "Today, he was there in class and I know he knows I was at the school too." She scoffed "Everyone knows. But it was like he didn't remember me being there. I don't understand want happened...how could he not remember seeing me? Why didn't that thing kill him...why were his eyes glowing? Was it all in my head?" Isabel rambled as she fought back the tears, she couldn't cry again today she had already broken down so many times she desperately needed to regain some control over her life.

And getting answers, or at least working through what was haunting her seemed like the best start.

Keith wanted to give her that, to tell her everything he knew but even he could see that in her current state it would be too much. She was having trouble processing what happened at the school, maybe telling her would help or maybe it would make it harder on her.

It just wasn't a risk he was willing to take. Not tonight anyway.

So sorry to leave you here, but I've made you wait soo long that I decided to post what I had while I fought with my next scene. Damn thing doesn't want to cooperate with me. Anyway I'm really sorry about the obnoxiously long wait!