The sun blared harshly down on Bianca's back and she winced as sand made its way into her sandals. She was really starting to wonder why going to the beach was a good idea. Although she didn't get much of a choice in the matter since Lydia and Stiles insisted they all go. The pair had dressed up in beach appropriate clothing, a large umbrella was sticking out of Stiles' jeep, and large mischievous smiles were planted on their faces when they barged straight into the McCall house. It wasn't long before Allison was roped in as well and they started driving towards the coast.
"You look like you're having a great time." Isaac said sarcastically as he sat down next to Bianca, wrapping an arm around her. Since Isaac was a great deal larger than she was, he was blocking out most of the sun from hitting her.
"I don't like the beach." Bianca shrugged, a scowl stuck to her face.
"Who doesn't like the beach?" Stiles asked her incredulously from his spot near the ocean water.
"The girl who basically grew up in a boarding school in England where it rains all the time and they never let you off campus." Bianca deadpanned. "Besides, I can't tan anymore either."
"It's okay, I've never been able to tan." Lydia said from her spot underneath a very large umbrella. She examined her naturally pale skin, a shade lighter than usual because of all the sunscreen she'd slapped onto it.
"I used to be so tan." Bianca sighed and leaned into Isaac's side.
"What do you mean?" Allison asked, turning her head to look at her friend.
"Before I was turned, even though I lived in London most of my life, I was naturally tan." Bianca said, examining her pale skin. "Then I got bitten, and lost all color."
"I still think you're the most beautiful siren I've ever seen." Isaac said and kissed her forehead.
"I'm the only one you've ever met." Bianca deadpanned.
"And there's your cynical tongue." Isaac laughed and ran a finger over the shell of her ear. Eventually Isaac had run off to join the others, attacking each other with water and the occasional flick of sand. By then Bianca had crawled under Lydia's large umbrella and the two slapped on sunglasses, trying to cover as much of their pale skin in the shadows.
"So." Bianca started, watching Scott shove Isaac's head under the water with just a little too much satisfaction.
"What?" Lydia asked, tilting her head back.
Bianca looked at her blankly. "You are so naive if you think you're gonna get out of talking about you and Stiles."
"Don't use my words against me." Lydia hissed. "Besides, there's nothing to talk about."
"Oh please." Bianca scoffed, smacking Lydia's arm lightly and the other girl faltered. "Are we going to pretend that you and Stiles don't text on a daily basis, he just walks into your house and you walk into his, and even if you didn't tell me, Scott said he smelled you all over Stiles this morning."
"What are you getting at, Bianca?" Lydia said, pursing her lips.
"You're the genius, you tell me." Bianca retorted and crossed her arms, watching Scott pick up Allison, both pretending like they didn't blush a dark shade of red. Isaac and Stiles exchanged knowing looks before pushing them into the ocean.
"What do you want me to say?" Lydia demanded, although her tone wasn't harsh at all. "You know what, it doesn't even matter because the whole thing is a cliche."
"Well, they're cliche for a reason." Bianca pointed out. "All I'm saying is that he's liked you for forever, even when we were kids. I still remember the dreamy eyed look he always had when you flipped your hair, Lydia."
Lydia looked indifferent and pursued her lips, eyeing Stiles as his head popped up from the water and he was immediately tackled by Scott. "He's… well, he's Stiles."
"Very eloquent." Bianca giggled, then got closer to Lydia and hooked her arm through the strawberry blondes. "He likes you, Lydia. How long are you gonna keep denying you like him too?"
The rest of the day was spent entertaining themselves before entering reality again. They'd eventually started a stand castle war, boys versus girls, the boys nearly won, but some kid had run it over without remorse. Stiles complained the whole time about a rematch, but everyone brushed him off, he eventually gave up in favor of following Lydia around with an umbrella to stave off the harsh sun. Scott and Allison even seemed to lose the tension in their shoulders they usually carried with them, holding hands and walking along the beach. Isaac and Bianca were in a similar state of bliss, Isaac had settled with laying in the sun and twirling strands of Bianca's long dark hair as she read the bestiary beside him. A new hobby she'd picked up, claiming it was a supernatural town and they should be prepared.
It was a good day, one of the last the six teenagers truly had before the supernatural burden came crashing down again.
Bianca McCall shot up from her sleep, breathing heavily and holding a hand to her heart. She ran her fingers through her hair a few times before, leaning back against the wall. It wasn't an entirely unusual occurrence, it'd happened a lot back when she was first bitten, but it was starting again since she was back in Beacon Hills.
Isaac stirred from beside her, immediately figuring out she had a bad dream, and reached around aimlessly, finally finding her hand and clutching it. "Are you alright?"
Bianca smiled lightly and brushed his curls, he looked so much younger and boyish when he was asleep. "I'm fine, go back to sleep." Bianca whispered softly, kissing his lips lightly and brushing her finger over the place she'd just kissed. "I'm going to get some water."
She slipped out of the bed quietly, sneaking down the stairs and passed Scott's room, trying not to wake him up. Bianca usually slept in Isaac's room when her mother was working the night shift, but they were careful not to tell Scott, although he probably knew, he wouldn't be too happy about the situation. Both Isaac and Bianca thought it best not to directly address it unless he asked.
Bianca padded her way passed the kitchen and out to the front porch, dialing Lydia. One ring, two, answer. "You better have a good reason for waking me up, Stiles."
Bianca stifled a laugh, the banshee probably didn't check the collar id, and it was sweet that Stiles was her automatic thought. "Not Stiles, but I'm gonna need more information about that."
"Is everything okay?" Lydia asked, a slight embarrassed hitch in her tone when she realized it wasn't the awkward teenage boy who usually called her.
"I think something's wrong." Bianca answered vaguely.
"What do you mean by that?" Lydia asked, intrigued.
"I don't know." Bianca answered harshly, but not directed at Lydia. "Just something doesn't feel right, I can hear a humming in the back of my mind. I keep waking up from terrifying dreams."
Lydia went quiet on the other end, she could feel it too. Deaton had warned Allison, Scott, and Stiles that a darkness would settle in their hearts, but what he didn't tell them was what it would do to Lydia and Bianca. They were detectors for the supernatural and waking up the nemeton was putting them in an over paranoid state.
"It's Beacon Hills, something's always wrong." Lydia reasoned.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Bianca said solemnly from the other end.
Scott was packing books into his backpack, getting ready for the school day when he caught a glimpse of a shadow on his door. Looking closer, it was the outline of his hand, but what shocked him more was the wolf-like appearance.
He flexed his hand, looking at the obvious claws, before making a fist and slowly unraveling his fist to show his shadows go back to normal. Sighing harshly, Scott couldn't help but think back to Deaton and what he'd said about waking up the nemeton.
Before Scott could walk out his door, he saw Isaac on the other side, looking panicked and holding up his fist as if he was about to knock.
"Hey." Isaac said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Oh. Hey." Scott said awkwardly. Things between them were getting weird ever since Isaac and Bianca started dating. Scott was trying to differentiate when to treat Isaac like a friend or like the guy who was dating his little sister.
"Um, are you going to school?" Isaac asked, leaning back and forth on his feet.
"Yeah." Scott answered shortly.
"Okay, me too." Isaac answered.
"Good." Scott said. They looked at each other for a minute and then their eyes darted away.
"Okay." Isaac stammered, "um, well, Bianca's gonna kill me for this."
"No, no, no, no, we really don't need to discuss your guys' relationship." Scott cut Isaac off. He was shaking his head furiously and waving his hands.
"Oh, wait!" Isaac exclaimed. "It's not about, no, no, no. I wanted to talk to you, about Bianca."
"Is she in trouble?" Scott asked, concerning filling the awkward air between them.
"I'm not sure." Isaac responded and scratched his neck. "Well, I don't know if you can hear, but she's been waking up wracked with nightmares."
"I-I didn't know." Scott stammered out, looking ashamed that he'd miss something so important about his sister.
"I heard her on the phone with Lydia last night." Isaac also added.
"Are you asking me to talk to her about it?" Scott asked, confused.
"Well, uh, I don't think she wants you to know." Isaac stuttered. "I just thought you should. One time maybe, but she's been waking up every night almost."
"Is she talking to you about it?" Scott asked. Looking confused and concerned at the same time.
"No, she's not, usually she just shoots up and leaves for a while." Isaac responded and leaned on the doorframe. "I don't want to push her."
"Wait a second." Scott interrupted, thinking about what Isaac had just said. "What do you mean? Like she's already in your bed?"
"Oh, um, I, Scott…" Isaac trailed off, panicking. Scott could probably hear his heart racing already. Before he knew what was happening, Scott had thrown Isaac through the doorway and into the wall behind him. Isaac winced landing on his hands and knee, then jumped when the painting beside him fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Melissa McCall heard the noises, felt the house shake, and walked up the stairs to see Isaac sitting against the wall and her painting on the floor. "Hey! You two supernatural teenage boys. Don't test my entirely un-supernatural level of patience."
Lydia slammed her locker shut and jumped when Bianca's face appeared on the other side. "Jesus, Bianca."
"Sorry." The other girl muttered leaning her head on the door and closing her eyes. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"When was the last time you slept." Lydia asked, staring at the dark lines forming underneath Bianca's eyes.
"I don't know." Bianca answered. Lydia adjusted her books and looked worried. "That's not important right now, we need to talk."
"About the others?" Lydia asked automatically.
"They're all completely off." Bianca started, placing a hand on her hip.
"Well, they did die and come back to life. It's bound to have side effects." Lydia reasoned. Although she knew it wasn't just a side effect. She just didn't want to admit they had a new problem to deal with after the last one resulted in too many deaths.
"Tell me you don't feel that rising pressure in your chest, Lydia." Bianca deadpanned and Lydia looked away. "Something's wrong."
The two girls walked down the hallway arguing about what to think when they spotted Allison barge through the school doors. She looked completely disoriented and terrified, her eyes wide and her bag flung around.
As they approached her Bianca and Lydia exchanged confused looks and Lydia asked Allison, "are you okay?"
"What just happened." Allison muttered to herself. Bianca placed a hand on Allison's arms, rubbing it lightly.
"Ally, what happened?" Bianca asked. "You looked confused."
"I keep seeing things." Allison responded, still in shock. "I just saw my Aunt Kate. Like she was right there."
"I think we need to find the boys." Lydia said and grabbed both girls by their arms. Lydia twisted them around a corner and took them outside where they spotted Stiles and Scott having what looked like a heavy conversation.
"You're seeing things aren't you?" The three girls heard Stiles say, Scott looked shocked.
"How'd you know?" Scott responded.
"Because it's happening to all three of you." Lydia answered for Stiles, coming to stand behind him.
"Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one." Lydia said condescendingly, balso with a hit of amusement as they all walked back into the school.
"Amen, sister." Bianca giggled and bumped Lydia hip.
"We're not crazy." Allison argued, as her Stiles, and Scott trailed behind the harbingers of death.
"Hallucinating?" Lydia listed off.
"Sleep paralysis?" Bianca added, counting off her fingers.
"Yeah, you guys are fine." Lydia said sarcastically. Stiles, Scott, and Allison all looked at each other.
"Well, we did die and come back to life." Scott pointed out. "That's gotta have side effects right?"
"Side effects or not, it still isn't something we should ignore." Bianca retorted. Everyone went quiet for a moment and the school bell rang out, signaling the start of class.
"We keep an eye on each other, okay?" Stiles determined, looking at Scott and Allison pointedly. Then he turned and pointed at Lydia and Bianca. "You two, stop enjoying this so much."
"What?" They responded in unison.
"What's going on?" Isaac asked Bianca as soon as she, Allison, and Lydia walked into art class.
"Scott, Stiles, and Ally aren't doing so well after that night a few weeks ago." Bianca answered and greeted Isaac with a kiss on the cheek. He smiled softly and helped her set up a workstation.
They both turned to look at Allison and Lydia who were in front of them. Lydia already had half a butterfly on her canvas, while Allison held a shaky red covered paint brush over hers.
"Not the steadiest hand for a superb marksman." Lydia commented, also keeping her eyes trained on Allison's unsteady grip.
"It's been happening for the past few weeks. Since that night." Allison said, not in particular to Lydia. She dropped the paint brush and it hit her excess paint with a thud. Red paint splattered all over her canvas and Allison sat there, staring for a long moment.
Bianca got up from her chair and ripped the canvas, Lydia came to stand next to her. The two watched Allison break out of trance and blink repeatedly. "Start over." Lydia said softly.
For the rest of the class, Bianca, Isaac, and Lydia spent the period alternating looks at Allison. Watching for an indication that her condition was worsening. Lucky for them, no more incidents occurred, but that only meant the inevitable was being delayed.
"Maybe we need a little more time to get back to normal." Scott reasoned as he and Stiles walked to his locker.
"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures." Stiles pointed out, fiddling furiously with his lock. "There's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal."
"Yeah." Scott muttered hopelessly. Stiles didn't respond, just tugged on his lock harder.
Scott was about to reach for Stiles' lock when he heard a voice. The voice of the new girl in his class. "What?"
"I thought you said you wanted to make friends." Her father emphasized.
"Not like that." She argued and stomped her feet.
"You said you wanted to be noticed." He retorted.
"I could set myself on fire and be noticed." She said sarcastically.
"Well, then you'd be dead." Her father responded, looking indignant.
"Exactly." She said forcefully. Then she turned her head and made eye contact with Scott. For a moment their eyes locked and Scott felt his heart start racing.
Stiles gave up on his locker and turned at the sound of Scott's quickening breathing. "Oh, dude, your eyes."
"What about them?" Scott choked out.
"They're starting to glow." Stiles snapped, but not unkindly. He looked around frantically and made sure no one was looking.
"You mean like right now?" Scott said in a panicked tone.
"Yes, right now. Scott, stop. Stop it." Stiles hissed.
"I can't, I can't control it." Scott said in a breathy tone. "Stiles."
Stiles threw his arms around his best friend and turned him around."All right, just keep your head down. Look down, come on. Keep your head down."
Scott threw his bag down and growled. "Get back away from me."
"Scott, it's okay." Stiles called back.
"I don't know what's going to happen. Get back." Scott screamed and dug his claws into his hands till blood started pouring from the wounds. He felt his breathing slow and heart return to a slow pace. "Pain makes you human."
Stiles fell back defeated. "Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real. And it's starting to get bad for me too. I'm not just having nightmares. I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm actually ever waking up."
"What do you mean?" Scott asked, looking concerned for his friend.
"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams. More and more, the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters in order." Stiles explained.
"Like even now?" Scott whispered.
Stiles stood up and looked at the broad. "I can't read a thing."
"Do you really think this is going to help?" Allison called to Lydia, as the strawberry blond walked back to her and Bianca after sticking an angled target on a tree.
"I know that if you think it's not going to help it definitely won't." Lydia retorted.
"I also don't see a point in this." Bianca said and motioned her hand towards the target.
"Just get your head into it, shoot a few and see what happens." Lydia told Allison, ignoring Bianca's comment. The two girls stood back and watched Allison shoot an arrow, only for it to miss the target and land in the dirt. "Oh."
"Maybe hold the string a different way." Bianca suggested. Al
"Try the Mongolian draw." Lydia said, Allison and Bianca stared at her. Lydia turned her head offhandedly. "What? I read." Then she motioned towards Allison with pursed lips. "Try it."
"Okay, um." Bianca said after watching Allison fail to hit the target again. "Take a second to close your eyes and imagine the arrow going into the target."
Allison did as she asked, slowly letting her eyes fall shut and breathing slow down. She felt her senses tune together and when she opened her eyes, she caught a glimpse of a girl running through the woods."Did you see that?"
"See what?" Lydia asked, looking at Allison.
"Wait here." Allison commanded. She picked up her arrows and swung them around her shoulder, slowly walking towards the woods.
"Are you serious?" Bianca hissed. "Allison?"
"I'll be right back." Allison responded.
"You did not just say that." Lydia and Bianca said in unison. The pair watched Allison walk further and further into the tree, like she was in a trance.
"Should we follow her?" Bianca asked, turning to look at Lydia.
Lydia pursued her lips and placed her hands on her hips. "I don't know. Maybe."
Bianca nodded along, but an inkling of a pretty hum was starting to flood her mind. It was getting louder and louder that farther Allison walked into the woods. "Come one."
"Not you too!" Lydia exclaimed and started walking after her friends. They finally caught up to Allison and she was standing in the middle of a clearing, darting her head back and forth before training her eyes on Lydia and Bianca.
"Allison?" They called out. She didn't respond, instead she grabbed her bow and aimed an arrow at the two of them, letting it fly before either had a chance to stop her.
Bianca knew something was going to happen, she heard the music, she felt the chill. As soon as Allison let the arrow fly, Bianca tackled Lydia to the floor, both girls tumbling to the ground with a loud thud. Before they hit the ground, Bianca heard the arrow flying through the air before she felt it slice through her skin, she bit her lip and hissed.
"Oh, my God." Allison whispered, horrified. She immediately dropped the bow to the ground. "Oh, my God, Lydia. Bianca."
"Bianca?" A third voice rang out and all three girls turned their heads to see Isaac running towards them. "Are you alright?"
He knelt down and helped both girls off the floor. Bianca turned to him, "what're you doing here?"
"Figured I should follow you guys in case something happened." Isaac muttered, looking her over and stopped when she saw the blood pouring from her arm.
"Are you guys okay?" Allison asked frantically, she steadily walked towards them with her hands still in a surrender position. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, we're fine." Lydia responded. "Well, I am." She corrected, looking at Bianca's wound. "I think she might need stitches."
"She shot it at your head?" Stiles asked incredulously. The pair were walking down the aisles of the grocery store, looking for snacks and eventually picking out flowers for Stiles' mothers' grave.
"Almost right through it before Bianca tackled me to the ground." Lydia responded and threw a bag of chips into the basket.
"Is she okay?" Stiles asked, looking between two different bags of gummies.
"Isaac took her to get stitches, but she's alright." Lydia responded.
"We need to figure out a way to stop this hallucinating." Stiles hissed. "At some point Allison really might shoot someone or Scott's going to wolf out and hurt someone."
"They would never." Lydia muttered, mostly to herself. Stiles grabbed her hand and forced her to look at him.
"They would never intentionally." Stiles agreed. "But they wouldn't know what's real and what's not. I barely know what's real."
"Stiles…" Lydia trailed off, hearing the harsh tone on Stiles' voice. "We'll figure it out. We always do."
"I don't know this time, Lydia." Stiles said, walking out of the aisle.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lydia asked, sensing the hesitation in his tone.
"Look, we got thrown into this world of wolves, banshees, and sirens." Stiles started, and looked down at Lydia, unconsciously brushing a curl behind her ear. "We've tampered with the balance for way too long and maybe this is the consequence."
"I don't believe that." Lydia said automatically. "We've done good, we've helped people.
"And we lost Erica and Boyd. Derek and Cora are gone." Stiles pointed out. "We didn't help anyone, we got lucky."
Lydia looked at Stiles' heartbroken expression and ran her finger over the top of his hand. "Do you really believe that?"
"I don't know what to believe anymore." Stiles whispered.
Lydia and Stiles didn't really say anything more after that, instead the two of them walked around the store, landing on the flower section. Stiles was hopeless when picking out a nice flower arrangement for his mother's grave, so Lydia stepped in and picked out a nice pink set in a glass vase.
He drove her home and when she got out of his jeep, Lydia couldn't help but send him a hopeful look, trying to find that awkward teenage boy who was the only one that knew how smart she was. She was somehow relieved to see that she could still spot that part of him, but now, he was different. They all were, all clouded by darkness.