So, the meet was pushed to tomorrow and here they were at this crappy motel in the middle of nowhere that looked like it was straight out of a 1970s horror film. Due to the uneven number of people, Stella was lucky enough to end up with her own room which is was incredibly grateful for. Maybe this night wouldn't be so bad.
Knock on wood.
Stella sets her bag down on the bed, looking around her dingy room and letting out a long sigh as she falls onto her back on the bed. It smelled like dust and she could only imagine what kind of germs she was laying in right now but her head was pounding so much and her body was so tired that she didn't really care. She just wanted to lay here in complete silence and be left alone-
Knock knock
Her eyes fall shut as she fights back a groan. Hopefully, this was someone who didn't need much from her because she was not up to do anything right now. She looks out the little peephole and her heart does a little leap when she sees Stiles standing on the other side, playing nervously with his fingers. Stella runs her fingers through her hair and swings the door open, catching him a little off guard with her swiftness, "Hey." She smiles softly at him.
"Uh Hi." He clears his throat, "Can I..Can I come in?" He stutters.
"Sure, yeah." She steps to the side and allows Stiles to step into her hotel room, closing the door behind him, "What's up? You seem kinda nervous." She chuckles a little bit.
"Do you feel weird about this place?" Stiles asks, "Like not just normal weird that you feel about dirty motels, but like something is going on?"
"Something goes on everywhere we go, your best friend is a werewolf." She says like it's obvious.
"No but-I just ran into Boyd downstairs and he was acting completely weird." Stiles explains, sitting down on her bed, "He smashed the vending machine. Just randomly smashed his fist through the glass." He waves his hands around.
"What?" Stella frowns at him, "I mean I know Boyd has been acting weird but that's...weird even for him." She takes a seat next to Stiles. "But now that you mention it I have felt a little off ever since we got here, but I thought it was just a headache or something."
"Oh yeah," Stiles turns to her, "How's the eye?" He leans forward a little bit to get a better look at her face.
"Still hurts." She whispers, "Isaac has tried to apologize but I'm gonna make him sweat it out for a little while longer." She chuckles softly to herself.
"And how much longer are you going to make me sweat it out?" Stiles asks her.
Stella's head shoots up and she stares at him, "What do you mean?' She asks him, "You're the one who's been avoiding my calls."
"I know,' Stiles sighs, "But I was going to try and talk to you about it in person and you've been so short with me."
"Because you've been avoiding my calls." Stella throws her hands up, "And, I don't know if you know this Stiles but a girl doesn't really take it well when you kiss her and then run out of her house like you're avoiding the plague." She stands up from the bed and looks down at him.
"I know I know," He holds his hands up, "I just didn't know what I had done, okay? I wasn't sure if you'd freak out or if I had just completely ruined the friendship we'd started." He shakes his head out, "I mean, you're the only person who really listens to me, Stella, I don't want to lose that." Stella's eyes go soft as she looks at him, "But after everything you've been through in the past year I just didn't want it to seem like I was taking advantage of you."
Stella shakes her head, "I know you would never do that." She breathes, "Stiles after everything that's happened to me in the past year I think having you as a constant in my life would be the thing that could help me the most."
"It's too bad I can't be that for you." Stiles looks down at his hands and Stella's head tilts to the side as she watches him, her eyebrows furrowing a little bit.
"What do you mean, of course, you can." She kneels down in front of him and holds both of his hands in hers, "You can be that and so much more." She kisses his fingers gently. It was a sweet moment and she was almost finding it hard to believe that it was happening. That is until Stiles starts laughing almost an evil laugh and she looks up at him, her breath picking up, "Are you...laughing?"
His eyes narrow down at her, "It's just so funny." Stella gasps as his hands grasp her wrists tightly and he yanks her to her feet, "That you could ever THINK for a SECOND that somebody could love you." Her heart rate picks up as Stiles shoves her back against the wall, knocking the wind out of her.
"Stiles...Stiles what are you doing?' she gasps out, trying to stand back up.
"I'm reminding you," The voice is different and Stella's eyes dart up. It was no longer Stiles standing in front of her but Erica. Erica is standing there, looking like a walking corpse with her skin a dark blue shade and her eyes lifeless and cold, "Reminding you that you will never be worthy of love." Erica picks up the lamp by the bed and chucks it at Stella, making her duck as it barely misses her head. "You really think, that someone as pathetic as you could ever be loved?" Stella is shaking on the ground, her arms covered in little cuts from the broken pieces of the lamp. "A killer like you will never be happy in life."
"Stop it." Stella squeezes her eyes shut, tears spilling over, "You're not real."
"Aren't I?" The voice changes again and her eyes snap open to see Carter kneeling down right in front of her, dried blood coming from his mouth, blood soaking through his shirt just as it had the night he died, "I'm right here Peanut." He growls, "I'll always be right here."
"Stop," She sobs, "Please, stop it."
"Awww, what's the matter, Stel?" Carter pouts, "Can't face the problems you've caused?" He taunts her, "I'm dead, because of you." His hand snaps up to clench around her neck, "Erica is dead, because of you." He growls, his grip tightening as she gasps for air, "Mom is dead, because of you." She clawed at his fingers, trying to pry them off of her throat so she can breathe, "You're the one who should be dead." He yells in her face, making her sob harder. "YOU DESERVE TO BE DEAD."
"STOP IT!" She screams at the top of her lungs, kicking and screaming until she can finally breathe again, the fingers released from her throat. She gasps for air, barely holding herself up from the floor as she coughs. She looks around the room frantically, noticing that the lamp Erica had thrown was still in its original spot on the nightstand, unbroken. She looks down at her hands, noticing that there were slight bruises starting to form around her wrists. She starts to panic, scrambling to her feet and running into the bathroom to look at her neck. Sure enough, there was a large bruise around her throat like someone had tried to strangle her.
What in the actual fuck was going on here?
"Stella!" Stiles is pounding on her door with Lydia and Allison behind him.
"Why isn't she answering?" Lydia panics as Stiles continues to knock.
"Maybe she went to sleep." Allison offers, but the pounding that Stiles is doing would surely wake her up.
"It shouldn't be affecting her too, should it?" Lydia asks, not really to anyone in particular.
"I don't know if you've noticed this Lydia but Stella seems to be a little bit of an enigma." Stiles is still yanking on the doorknob and pounding on the door itself, "Stella!" He yells again.
"Stiles?" Her voice finally comes through the muffled door, it's almost too quiet for them to hear. "Is that really you?"
Stiles shares a look with Lydia and Allison, "Stel, of course it's me, who else would it be?" He presses his ear against the door and he can hear her sniffle like she's been crying.
"You came earlier. Or, I thought you came earlier and you-" Her voice breaks off in a whimper. "It's all my fault."
"What's your fault, Stella?" Allison steps forward.
"Everything. Everything bad that happens to me it's all my fault."
"Stella that's not true." Stiles insists, "Please open the door." He pleads with her. It's silent for a minute, a minute that kills Stiles. He needed to see her, he needed to make sure she was okay, that she was safe.
Finally, the door opens and Stella stands there, looking weak and tired. The bruise around her neck was still there and the three teenagers outside of her hotel room are in complete shock at the sight of her. "Oh my god." Stiles steps inside quickly, "What the hell happened?" He grabs her shoulders and looks her over.
"I don't know," Scared tears are falling down her red cheeks, "One second you were here," She points at Stiles, "and then the next second it was Erica and then it was Carter." She sniffs, "And he tried to kill me and it was so real." she feels the bruise on her neck.
"So it's happening to her too," Lydia says slowly.
"But that doesn't make any sense." Allison shakes her head in thought.
"What?" Stella looks between all of them, "What's happening to me too?"
"All the werewolves," Stiles starts, "there's something about this hotel that's making them hallucinate and do crazy stuff," He says, "like try and kill themselves."
Stella looks down, letting it all absorb, "But...I'm not a werewolf." She frowns, looking back up at Stiles.
"I know." He nods, "and yours seems a little more real."
"Wait so," Stella clears her throat, "If all the werewolves that we know on this trip are trying to hurt themselves then we need to get them out of here." She says.
"Yeah that's what we're trying to do we just had to find you first," Stiles says.
"I'm going to go find Scott, you guys find Boyd and Isaac and we'll get them the hell out of here." Allison says, hurrying out of Stella's room.
Stiles looks between the two girls in the room, particularly at Lydia, "What?" Lydia demands. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Oh, no I-I was-" Lydia cuts him off.
"Stiles."
"Alright, Lydia, I didn't want to say anything." He starts and now even Stella's interest is peaked. "But this, everything we're going through, we've kind of been through something like this before."
Lydia crosses her arms over her chest as she thinks, "What do you mean?" She asks, "When?"
"Your birthday party." It starts to fall into place what Stiles is insinuating and Stella's jaw drops a little it because Lydia was not about to take this well. Not that Stella blamed her if Stiles would accuse her of being the cause of all of this she would be furious. "The night you poisoned everyone with wolfsbane." Lydia's eyes get wide and then she turns on her heel, storming out of the room.
"Wait, Lydia!" Stella calls, running after their friend with Stiles right behind her. The petite strawberry blonde is making her way through the parking lot of the motel when they catch up with her.
"Lydia I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean that you're trying to kill people, okay?" Stiles is frantic to make up for the hole he just dug himself. "I just-I just meant that maybe-maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know?'
"Stiles I know that probably sounded better in your head but out loud it did not help at all," Stella tells him.
"Guys," Lydia stops moving, her head tilted slightly like she hears something, and thats when Stella hears something odd too. "Do you hear that?" Lydia asks
"What?" Stiles frowns at her, not noticing Stella slowly moving back towards the hotel. "Lydia what, what do you hear?" Lydia crouches down next to the drain and Stella steps closer to the motel.
"A baby crying," Lydia whispers, pressing her ear closer to the drain
"Running water," Stella whispers, which makes Stiles turn and look at her and he realizes he's surrounded by crazy people.
"Oh, my god," Lydia cries, "She's drowning the baby!"
Stella closes her eyes, letting the weird sense take over every inch of her body. She wasn't sure how or what was allowing her to hear this strange running water, but if she closed her eyes and focused enough, she could almost pinpoint where it was coming from. Her eyes snap open and she gasps, "It's Boyd," Stella turns back to Stiles and Lydia, "Boyds drowning!" She yells, taking off toward the direction of Isaac's and Boyd's room.
Stiles goes in first, busting the door in and it's like everything is moving in slow motion from the minute they see Boyd in the bathtub with the large metal safe resting on top of his chest. "He blocked the drain with something, I can't get to it." Stiles grunts.
"What do we do?" Lydia panics
"Here, help me." Stiles is trying to lift the safe off of Boyd and Lydia leaps to help him but it's too heavy.
"Is he dead?" Lydia panics when she notices that Boyd looks very still. "How long can a werewolf stay underwater?" She turns to Stiles.
"You think I know that?" Stiles asks in annoyance. After struggling with the safe for a second longer, Stiles stands up to get a moment to think and he ends up running into the heater that's built into the wall, "Ow!" He shouts when his arm burns against it. As the pain fades, though, a thought strikes him, "Wait a second, the heater." Lydia seems to be catching on to what he's saying but Stella is clueless. "Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater." Obviously, Stella missed that but she wasn't really focused on the heater, her eyes were stuck on Boyd in the water. He wasn't breathing, she knew that. They had to think of something fast. "Heat-heat does it we need something-fire!"
"He's underwater!" Lydia shouts at Stiles and Stella closes her eyes. Focusing.
"Yeah I'm aware of that." Stella makes her way over to the tub as Stiles and Lydia argue.
"Wait, wait, the bus." She kneels down beside the tub, "On the bus they'll have emergency road flares. They have their own oxidizers. They can burn underwater."
"Are you serious?'
"Yes! Go!" Like an obedient puppy, Stiles goes running out of the hotel room. Lydia tries to lift the safe for another second, "Stella help." She grunts.
"It's not going to work," Stella says flatly
"Well, we have to try something!" Lydia screams at her and Stella closes her eyes again.
"I. AM." Stella clenches her jaw and holds her hand over the water. She wasn't really sure what she was doing but something was telling her that this is what she had to do. Lydia looks at her friend and starts to panic, getting up from the bathroom floor and walking backward as she wrings her hands together nervously. Stella continues to keep her hands above the water, visualizing it starting to go around the drain, "Come on, come on." She whispers to herself. She peeks her eyes open and much to her surprise, the water is starting to drain out, just enough that Boyd's nose is now free but he's still not breathing, "Come on, Boyd." She whispers.
"Stella move!" Stiles darts around her, dropping the road flare into the water, causing Boyd to leap out of the tub, sending the safe flying across the bathroom floor.
"Jesus, what the hell was that?!" Lydia yells at Stella.
"I...I don't know." Stella swallows, "I just...did it. I didn't really think about it." She shrugs.
"Didn't think about the fact that you could control water?" Stiles stares at her.
"No, Stiles, it wasn't on my list of things to consider today." She snaps at him. She stands up from the bathroom floor, her jeans now soaked with water as Stiles helps Boyd out of the bathtub. "Wait," Stella looks around, "Where's Isaac?"
Lydia sighs, "He's under the bed." She says softly
Stella goes to move toward the bed and Stiles stops her, "I got it." He holds the flare that's still burning, kneeling down next to the bed and lifting the covers up, "Hey, Isaac." He coos, "I got something for ya." Stella can hear Isaac sniffling under the bed as Stiles rolls the flare toward him. She's waiting on the other side as Isaac rolls out from under the bed, panting and covered in a layer of sweat.
"Hey, hey." Stella whispers, kneeling down to comfort him, "You're okay." She helps him sit up.
"What the hell happened?' He breathes, Stella helping him move onto the bed, "I don't remember anything." He looks up at his best friend.
"We're getting out of here." She tells him, "Something is seriously fucked up with this place." She looks over at Boyd, "You two pack up your things and meet us down at the bus, we're gonna go make sure Scott is okay." Stella cups Isaac's face in her small hands, "Are you okay?"
He nods slowly, still catching his breath, "Yeah, yeah I'm okay." He looks up at her, "I'm sorry about your eye."
Stella smiles softly, "All is forgiven." She kisses his forehead, "Get packed up."
Stella rushes out of Boyd and Isaac's room with Lydia and Stiles just as Allison is coming towards them, "I can't find Scott anywhere." She says and they all start to rush down the steps to follow her.
"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles asks her.
"It has to be." Lydia says and she has a good damn point, "Wait, didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" She asks Stiles.
"Yeah, I'll go get it." They all reach the bottom of the staircase, standing in the parking lot now and Stiles freezes just as he's about to move toward the bus.
Standing right in front of the bus, holding the last flare and covered in gasoline, is Scott McCall. It's almost unbelievable, the sight in front of them. Scott looked so defeated, so lost and depressed. Stella had never seen him look like this before and it scared her. One wrong move and he drops the flare, taking his own life. "Scott...' Allison is the first one to speak up as they start to circle around to the front of Scott. "Scott." Allison stands directly in front of him, her eyes moving from the can of gasoline to the flame in his hands.
"There's no hope." Scott finally speaks up after what felt like years of silence.
"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison whispers, trying to fight back tears, "There's always hope." She tells him
"Not for me." Scott shoots her down, his voice is weak and sad. "Not for Derek." His voice cracks a little bit.
"Derek wasn't your fault." Allison reminds him, "You know Derek wasn't your fault." Her voice is also getting weaker. She was scared. Scared of losing him. Scared of losing her first love.
"Every time I try and fight back it just keeps getting worse. People keep getting hurt." Scott isn't looking at them, he's looking to the side and down, like it doesn't even matter what they say, "People keep getting killed."
"Scott listen to me, alright?" Stella's heart drops into her stomach as Stiles takes a step towards Scott, "This isn't you. This is someone inside your head telling you to do this, okay? Now if you'll just-"
"But what if it isn't?" Scott interrupts his best friend. "What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing I can do for everyone else?" Allison's hand goes to her mouth as he speaks because no one can even fathom the words that he's saying, they were so far from the truth. "It all started that night, the night I got bitten." He explains, looking up at Stiles, "You remember the way it was before that?" He asks him, "You and me, we were nothing." He whispers. Tears start to build in Stella's eyes and she knows that they are in Stiles' too. No one in this situation was quite sure what to do. One sudden move and it could all end. "We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important." Her eyes flick between Scott and Stiles because Stiles keeps inching closer to his best friend and it's making her heartbreak more and more. "we were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again."
Scott moves the flame down a little bit more and a tearful Stiles takes one large step towards him, "Scott, listen to me. You're not no one." He says, "You're someone you're-" He swallows, inching closer still, "Scott, you're my best friend okay? And I need you." He looks down at where the ring of gasoline starts to soak the pavement, "Scott you're my brother." Her breath hitches in her throat because she knows what he is about to do, "So if you're gonna do this..." He steps into the gasoline, "You're just gonna have to take me with you then."
Stella opens her mouth to say no but she can't form any words. Tears leak down her cheeks as she watches Stiles grab a hold of the flare and toss it safely away from the gasoline. And it seems like it's all over, like they saved the day. But as Stella watches the flare on the ground and feels a strange gust of wind, she watches it slowly roll back toward the gasoline, igniting it. "NO!" She screams, throwing herself towards the two boys, grabbing hold of Stiles who in turn grabs Scott and she forces them on the ground to safety, Lydia and Allison following them too. The eruption of flames behind them is something that Stella would hear in her nightmares for weeks. She almost just lost two more important people in her life. She couldn't let that happen again. Never again.
"Are you okay?" Stella asks frantically, climbing off of Stiles after the flames have subsided.
"Yeah, I'm fine I'm fine." He sits up and Stella looks him over, not able to help more tears from falling, "Hey, Stel, it's okay." He whispers, "You just saved our lives."
She sniffs, shaking her head and cupping his face, "Never make me have to do it again, Stilinski or I swear to God I'll kill you myself." She sobs and Stiles smiles at her softly, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tightly, "You too." She reaches over and hits Scott in the arm and then hugs Stiles back, relaxing into his embrace.