A/N: So yeah, I actually posted this on every site but here because I thought I already did. Sorry! Luckily, I'm almost done with the next chapter!
Chapter Thirty Four: Warped
Madeline felt far too aware of the state of things at the moment.
One, as freaked out as Lydia was at the moment, she was astoundingly quick to catch onto things. She was sitting on Maddie's bed, flipping through the pages of an old book – one of the few the slayer had lugged with her. The Watcher's Diaries. Maddie didn't have an interest in any of those; she had never even cracked one open. She'd had enough of depressing stories about dead girls. Still, Lydia seemed to find herself engrossed.
Two, Stiles was gone. This was something she had been aware of for quite some time now, which bothered her immensely. Not the 'him being gone part' so much as her awareness of that. He had made a quiet exit after the house fell completely silent, rambling on about meeting up with Scott and Allison (all the while not giving any specific details), and rightfully so. After all, it was his turn to be guard Jackson. She would have offered to go as well, but Lydia did not show signs of leaving. In turn, she'd given her typical reply of 'call if there's an emergency', which he waved off. Gods, he was infuriating sometimes. All of the time. She withheld a frustrated grunt.
Three, the eye. That stupid eye that she had set on one of the blue plastic totes a few feet from her bed. It was a clear periwinkle blue, she noted, finding it staring at her again. Somehow it was always face her, which was even more perturbing when she was standing on the opposite side of the room and swore she set it down facing the other way. It was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. Of all things to find in the middle of the road, why did Lydia have to find an eye?
"Hmph," Lydia scoffed, "Could've come up with a better name."
"Huh?" Maddie found herself saying aloud. "Better name for what?"
Lydia rolled her eyes dramatically and looked over at the brunette. "Watcher. It makes them sound like creepers." She casually flipped a page. "It doesn't help that most of them are old men, considering these girls are, I'm sorry, how old?"
"Like, sixteen?" Maddie paused. "Sometimes fifteen." More words leapt into her throat, the sudden urge to explain overcoming her. She couldn't leave it at that. "It's not like that, though. It's more..."
Lydia arched an eyebrow, something that did not go unnoticed by Maddie.
Maddie sighed. "More...parental."
"Parental?"
"Yeah."
"It hath dawn'd upon myself that mine thoughts hast been consum'd with a deep longing f'r Vivienne, but the lady wilt nev'r see. Her calling is one beyond the triviality of human love." As Lydia read the line, she mimicked a British accent - badly. She gave Maddie a smug smile. "So parental."
The slayer on the other hand felt a bit sheepish - not only for being proven wrong so quickly, but for reading something so personal. Regardless of how old it was, it was still intrusive. The council could've had the decency to strike anything like that from the records. She frowned a bit. "...It was a different time?"
"Please tell me that isn't your excuse," Lydia replied with a grimace but shook it away almost as quickly.. She flipped a few more yellowed pages, her eyes scanning over old cursive handwriting on every page. "And while we're talking about people consumed with deep longing..."
Maddie groaned at the words immediately as the strawberry blonde trailed off. The brunette strode over to the blue plastic bin and picked up the eye. She wasn't sure if it was to rear the conversation in a more productive direction or just to distract Lydia from talking about any type of longing. "We're really not, though."
"So, you and Stiles?"
The tiny glass eye slipped from Maddie's fingers as she gawked at Lydia. The moment she heard the tiny click of it hitting the wooden floorboards, she was on the ground rushing to grab it again. Luckily it hadn't gone far and the slayer found herself standing and straightening her shirt as casually as possible.
"What?" Maddie asked, even though it didn't sound like a question. It sounded more like an accusation.
Lydia raised her eyebrows but her eyes didn't leave the book. "Stiles. You know, the person you're practically attached at the hip to."
"Ugh, not you, too," Maddie found herself mumbling. It wasn't the first time someone had made such outrageous presumptions about her and Stiles. Periodically, it seemed to keep happening. From several different people.
"Wow, so you really don't know how bad that sounds, do you?" Finally, Lydia glanced up at the girl, her stare flat. "Oh, come on. It's obvious. There's a reason people keep saying it."
She was right. It was obvious. In fact, she found it popping back into her thoughts all night. She'd have loved to pretend that she didn't notice how often he was looking at her. How he'd wait after school to give her a ride home. How he'd get that dopey grin and start fumbling over words whenever they would spend more than a couple of minutes alone. The Wonder Woman book was warning; nearly dying because he was distracted by looking at her was a god damned flashing neon sign. "I know, okay? I know. He's not really subtle."
"Um, hello. I know this better than anyone. Believe me." Lydia laughed slightly as if she was almost endeared by it but then cleared her throat, suddenly laser focused on Maddie. "But I'm not talking about him so much as you. You're obvious."
Maddie quirked an eyebrow as she sat the eye down, her plan having failed miserably. "I'm sorry, what?"
"You, Maddie, are completely obvious. You like him." She had put it so plainly that she made it sound like fact. There was no teasing tone like with Allison and no persistence like with Erica. Lydia must not have felt like she needed to. She was still wrong. Clearly.
The slayer crossed her arms and turned away, pacing toward the far wall lined with full cardboard boxes. She focused on the one that had a plastic tree branch poking out of it. She wondered for a second what Christmas was like at the Argents. She hadn't gotten the chance to celebrate."He's my friend. That requires a substantial bit of like."
"You know what I mean - and that wasn't a no."
"I think it was a pretty clear no." Maddie's voice was betraying her head; her annoyance was seeping through.
"Really? Then what's this?" Lydia asked. Maddie whirled around and her eyes grew wider as she stared at the woman fighting a dragon on the glossy book cover. "Because it looks like a comic book to me."
"Graphic novel." Why did she say that? Right. Xander. She hugged her midsection tighter. "Comics are thinner..."
"I don't care. Where did you get it from?" Regardless of her words, Lydia's tone wasn't mean, but more concerned. Maybe a little exasperated.
"Stiles," the name spilled from her mouth before she could catch it and reel it back in. Not that saying any other name wouldn't sound like a lie.
"Did you ask to borrow it?"
Maddie hesitated but begrudgingly spoke. "No."
"And do you read comics?"
"Kind of," Maddie lied. It sounded flimsy as she mumbled it and looked at the girl across the room from her giving her another disapproving look. The brunette kicked the floorboards lightly with the tip of her boot. "No, okay?"
"And what's this?" Lydia flipped through the pages until she reached some point in the middle, probably sometime after Diana took out Barry - she couldn't believe she remembered that - where there was a sliver of a piece of notebook paper.
"A bookmark. And that doesn't prove anything." The important part was not to reveal that it was the second time she was reading it through. "Look, can we not talk about this?"
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. Do the whole 'denial' thing. You're just hurting yourself."
There was an uncomfortable thickness in the air for a long while, even after Allison walked through the door a half hour later. There was a moment where the look on the girl's face was shocked as she saw Maddie and Lydia sitting there, almost bantering. Like it was natural. Like they'd always been this way. It brought in another type of tension that the slayer could not pinpoint but she did her best to ignore it. It was broken only when Allison conspicuously had Lydia translate some Archaic Latin and claimed it was for a video game. Maddie had never been so glad to have the subject successfully change, until the Lydia gave the translation.
The Kanima doesn't seek a friend. It seeks a master.
The next day felt like as much of a headache as the day before. Maddie had too much to think about, and everything seemed to keep stacking with no signs of slowing. She'd passed on lunch in the cafeteria and instead found herself sitting in front her locker, a half-eaten peanut butter protein bar in one hand and her phone in the other. She hadn't even realized until that morning that she needed to contact Xander and let him know exactly what was happening.
Xander『A wall? Like no vamps allowed unless invited type wall?』
『Maybe? I don't know. What could cause that for a whole town?』
Xander 『Nothing that I ever heard of. Thanks for the info, kid. We'll look into it, see what's going on. In the mean time, keep an eye on Killer Croc, alright? This Jackson guy might sound dangerous but whoever's holding his leash is the one you want.』
Maddie grimaced at the reference she didn't understand. It was probably from a comic book. Worse even, she wanted to know if it really was.『How am I supposed to find someone who might be controlling this thing?』
Xander 『From my experience? Keep an eye on any outcasty-types. And stay away from formal wear. Just saying.』
She huffed and put away her phone to finish the bland piece of food in her hand. Just as she lifted her vision, she saw a figure sitting against the lockers across from her, a phone in front of him, as if the boy had been reflecting her movements. She glared when she noticed who it was, his blue eyes meeting hers. He grinned.
"What are you doing?" Maddie asked, her voice almost a growl.
Isaac shrugged. "Sitting. Thought that was pretty obvious."
Maddie narrowed her stare on the boy. "Sit somewhere else."
"Hey, do you remember the day we met?" Isaac asked with a grin, ignoring her response entirely. The answer would have been no, right off the bat, and she was guessing that the boy already knew that. Time had passed so quickly and chaotically, that something as trivial as meeting a stranger in a cemetery wasn't something that had really stuck. She nearly felt guilty, but focused on her phone as she took a bite of her protein bar. Without missing a beat, Isaac continued with an almost bitter laugh. "You kept asking me these weird questions about open graves and missing bodies. The weird part wasn't even the question, though. It was how you asked it. Like it was...normal."
Maddie typed away furiously on her phone, not raising her head.
"Of course I told you not to worry about me. I mean, a cemetery is the safest place in the world. Everyone there's already dead." He leaned his head back against the lockers, which Maddie just barely caught out of the corner of her eye. His stare was focused on the ceiling, like he had found his words somewhere up there as he spoke again. "And do you know what you said?"
She didn't answer. This part, she knew; she had been told it a millions times over. It played on a loop in her head.
"'Safe' is a warped point of view. And it didn't really get me thinking until recently..." Isaac continued, his words slow as if he'd had them chosen for a while and had to pluck them out of his head. "So I asked Derek a few things. Like what a slayer is."
"Oh?" Maddie interjected, an air of annoyance in her tone as her eyes flickered back to the boy across the hall from her.
"Can't say I'm all that surprised after I heard about the dead guy in the club. But still...vampires." There was a pause just before he smirked. "I wonder if they're really our arch enemies. If I'll see one and want to tear its head off."
"Y'know, Isaac," Maddie drawled, a surge of irritation coursing through her. "Full moon's coming, right? Go find some and see. Get that aggression out. God knows we'll all be better for it." The shrill bell overhead rung in her ears and she clumsily got to her feet. She didn't turn back to him as she started walking off but kept speaking. She wasn't stupid. She knew he would follow - not for their enthralling conversation, but because he was probably tasked with gathering information. "In fact, bring your friends. Make my life easier."
"So, the whole loner thing not going too well? Been there." He was at her side, strolling along, with not an ounce of real concern in her tone. "I mean, if we could set aside our differences, you could have a whole pack on your side."
As students poured out from opposite ends of the hall, Maddie stopped in her tracks at the sentiment given to her. She faced the boy who had stopped rather abruptly as well. The look in his eyes couldn't even be masked. Maybe part of the boy concerned but he was too busy vying for someone else's approval. For a moment, she pitied him but didn't allow it to surface. "I'm not a wolf. I don't need a pack - especially when it's Derek's."
"Then what do you call Scott and Allison and Lydia?" asked the beta, his expression more curious than smug - but not void of either. Maddie felt her fist clench involuntarily and stretched out her fingers again, shaking the sensation away. She didn't call them anything half of the time; she didn't know what to call them. The term friend still felt like throwing salt into a fresh wound. She rolled her eyes at the question, spun on her heel, and strode away as Isaac stayed in his spot."What do you call Stiles?"
Her footfalls stopped, even though she attempted to will them to keep going. It was too late. Her stomach knotted and her flat expression became a frown as she turned back. "You want to help so bad? Take your little pack to the outskirts of town and work through some demons." She didn't allow him to reply and walked off without a second glance. "Let me know how it goes."
Maddie took a deep, calming breath but still felt tense. She was getting really sick of people asking her about Stiles.
She should have been heading to class after that - and she was - but the next thing that happened rerouted her completely.
One, there was a crash in the distance - something loud and boisterous. Glass breaking. Metal hitting metal.
Two, at the other end of the hall, she saw a bolt of dark hair and green. Hadn't Scott been wearing a green sweatshirt that morning?
He was running to something, and fast than usual. It could've realistically been for any reason but she could only think of one reason that Scott would be running toward something fast enough to be little more than a blur.
Allison.
Without a second thought, Madeline took off sprinting as well, trying to keep up with the boy with much effort and little luck. It typically didn't take so much to keep Scott's pace, but she allowed the thought to pass. She didn't even notice the people staring at the two running; there were more important things at hand.
Maddie rounded a corner just a second after Scott did, finding the boy gone and door to the boys' locker room swinging shut just ahead. The slayer barreled through the door as well, her eyes meeting with curious sight - of course, curious was certainly an understatement.
Allison was in the center of the room she had enters, her fists balled and her body poised in a defensive stance. She didn't even notice the two walk in at first - she was far too busy glowering at the wet and very nude boy on the ground. Around him were shards of mirror and ceramic, while just above him was exposed piping spouting out water and broken tile from the wall. The mirror just above that was shattered, as what remained spider-webbed out in cracks. Maddie's vision went back to the boy on the ground as he got up, his blue eyes shocked and frightened. It was Jackson. More importantly, he could barely push himself up.
Maddie swiveled back to Allison, who's hard, cold glare had softened and turned aghast. Her arms lowered and she turned to Scott and Maddie who looked on, utterly baffled. Before the girl could speak, Jackson was back on his feet, pulling his shorts on and charging at Allison, whose attention shot over to the kanima instantly. There wasn't even a beat.
Although, for Scott and Maddie, there definitely was. It took them a brief moment to bound in between the two. Scott threw Jackson out of the locker room altogether while Maddie grabbed Allison by the waist from behind. This didn't seem like a spectacular plan though, as Allison struggled to get out of the other girl's grip, resulting in a hard elbow cracking Maddie in the jaw. Maybe it was the massive amount of force or maybe it as the shock of it, but the blow caused Maddie to let go of the girl and stumbled back through the locker room door.
She gently touched her jaw, a sharp ache shot from it. It felt like it was going to swell, maybe even bruise. That's impossible.
The slayer looked up to see a stunned Allison staring at her and gaping, even as Erica and Stiles had rushed in between Jackson and Scott, even as Mister Harris strode up and started shouting at them.
Allison Argent did not have a remarkable amount of strength.
She could not send something like a kanima flying into a wall. She couldn't take it down without any weapons.
She couldn't hit a vampire slayer so hard that they would stumble back, that they would bruise.
Something felt off, like the universe shifted without giving Maddie notice.
Even worse, something felt wrong.
"There's only supposed to be one. Maybe that's why you and I can never get along. We're not supposed to exist together."
-Faith Lehane, End of Days, Buffy the Vampire Slayer