Later that day, I circled back round to Harris' classroom, hoping to get my phone back. He was such a miserable bastard for confiscating it but regardless, I had made it through the afternoon phoneless and I was more than ready to be reunited.
As I approached the lab, my stomach dropped. I could see Harris' closed door from down the hall.
Buggery.
I strode over to his classroom anyway, my boots echoing loudly in the empty corridor. I pushed against the door and was disappointed but not surprised that it didn't budge. Harris was such a rat bastard. The bell for the end of the day had rung three minutes ago.
I didn't have time for this. I had a meeting with Councilwoman Maggs tonight.
I needed that phone.
I spied the lock on the chemistry lab door and my mood instantly lifted. It was a small lock and as I knelt down to peer through it, I realised that I could absolutely still make my meeting.
I turned back and headed towards the car park. As I joined the last few stragglers on their way out, I caught sight of Scott in the crowds.
"Scott!" I called, launched up on my tiptoes to see above the sea of heads.
Scott turned at the sound of his name and after a few seconds of searching, found me in the hordes. I continued to go with the flow of students spilling out into the car park, whilst Scott fought his way over to me.
"What's up?" he asked casually, as we finally came together in the late afternoon sun. He was eyeing my nervously, as if he was waiting for me to tell him to shove off again.
"I'm going to have answers for you soon," I told him confidently. His face broke out into a hesitant grin.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," I answered with a grin of my own. "I have a meeting set with the head of the council tonight."
"That's amazing!" Scott exclaimed, his smile reaching his eyes. "Do you want us to be there? What time are you meeting?"
"Why, the witching hour of course," I said with a wink.
Scott rolled his eyes playfully.
"That reminds me," I said, ever so casually. "Can you get into the school after dark?"
Scott's eyebrows quirked in response. "Why? What do you have planned?"
"Absolutely nothing," I assured him- lying through my teeth. He didn't look convinced. "Can you or can't you?"
Scott side-eyed me wearily, as if he was foreseeing this conversation being played back to him in court.
"You can if you have a crowbar."
"Terrific, thanks Scott!"
I waved him off and we split at the edge of the school grounds. Once we had some distance between us, I glanced back over my shoulder at him and caught him doing the same thing.
Gran was getting on my last nerve.
My excuse for this evening's jaunt out of my own personal prison, was that I was studying for a group project with my new friend Allison. I figured that would leave me enough time to grab my phone and muck around in the dying sun for a bit, before she got suspicious. Any chance for a slice of freedom.
Well, apparently my excuses were starting to sound suspect to Gran. Whether it was the idea that I could make a friend in two days or the suggestion that I would ever willingly sit down to study that wasn't sitting well with her, I didn't know. Just short of providing Gran with Allison's social security number, I had been subject to the most brutal grilling since Guantanamo Bay, before I was eventually allowed to leave.
As I walked in the direction of the high school, I fantasised about the idea of asking Scott to eat my Gran. It was a gruesome daydream but one which kept me happily occupied until the school was in sight.
By now, the sky was dark, and the air had a soft chill to it. I pulled my jacket tighter around me and decided to cut through the car park to get to the front steps. I was a little cautious about security cameras, something I had never needed to contend with at my old school, due to spicy budget cuts. I would just have to hope that the small-town mindset would carry over into trust.
I spotted two cars still in the lot, parked right out the front of the school actually, and felt my heartbeat quicken. I continued forward, figuring that it would be better to walk with purpose than hide.
"Derek?" I called, relieved when I caught sight of the tall werewolf, emerging from behind the smaller car. He turned at the sound of my voice and fixed me with a steely stare.
"Are you just drawn to trouble?"
"That's actually my middle name," I said, drawing level with him. I leant in conspiratorially. "Well, it's actually danger-zone but don't tell anyone."
He made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort, and I couldn't help but feel secretly pleased. We might be ice queens in arms, yet.
"Wait-" I said, his sentence only just fully registering in my brain. "What do you mean trouble? What trouble?"
Derek's brow knotted together. "That's not why you're here?"
I shook my head. "No, I came to do a little breaking and entering for my own selfish purposes. What trouble Derek?"
He hesitated. "We've had some… developments. I'm pretty sure that I've caught the Alpha."
I blinked at him slowly, trying to take in the train wreck of a statement. So many things to unpack…
"Caught the Alpha?" I repeated in disbelief, looking around us. "Where- in a big butterfly net?"
"No," Derek said, rolling his eyes- as if I were the dim one. "In here."
Before my very eyes, this man walked over to the boot of his car and unlocked it.
"Fucking hell, don't tell me you-"
The words died on my lips as he opened the boot, and I was met with the terrified eyes of a bound and gagged man.
"Derek!" I gasped, lurching forward. "You can't just kidnap people!"
Derek moved like lightning and stood in my path, blocking the poor man from view with his massive body. He gripped my arm.
"Don't you dare untie him," he growled. "I've finally got him!"
"Get your hands off me," I hissed furiously, wrenching my arm from his grasp. He backed off a little, his face mildly apologetic.
I eyed the man in the boot. "Who is he?"
"Scott's boss," Derek replied stoically, crossing his arms over his chest. "The veterinarian."
"Are you mental? You're going to get Scott sacked!"
Derek pulled a face at me. "If he really is the Alpha, then I think Scott has way bigger issues than earning an allowance."
I exhaled in frustration and raked a trembling hand through my hair. I just wanted my fucking phone. Of course, I had managed to stumble into more werewolf shenanigans.
I caught the eye of the man in the boot again, and my heart skipped a beat as I held his gaze. He was silently pleading with me.
"Alright," I said finally. "Say he is the Alpha, where's your proof?"
Derek seemed caught off guard. "What?"
I fixed him with a hard stare. "Your proof Derek. You know- evidence? The thing which is going to support your absolutely cracked decision to kidnap the local vet?" It was like no one had ever tried to challenge his authority before- dare to question his all-knowing highness.
"Oh, uh, the proof. Well, my proof is that I find him very suspicious."
If I didn't think it would steal away any credibility I currently had, I would have facepalmed myself into oblivion.
"Okay, brilliant, you've kidnapped a man and locked him in the boot of your car because you found him suspicious," I rambled, trying not to feel panicked. I was busy attempting the mental gymnastics needed to talk us both out of life in prison.
I stopped suddenly, certain things falling into place. Stiles' jeep parked right in front of me, being one of them.
"Why are you at the school?"
A torrent of emotions flitted across Derek's face- guilt, defensiveness, embarrassment, until he fixed his marble features back into his usual casual disinterest.
He was truly awful at hiding things. No wonder he was so aggressive, when you were such a bad liar, you would have to rely on a bit of violence to enforce your actions.
"SCOTT!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, causing Derek to twitch in surprise and then dramatically cover his ears.
"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.
"SCOTT GET OUT HERE!" I yelled, feeling my throat strain as I got louder. "YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS BEFORE I BURN THE FUCKING SCHOOL DOWN!"
I was breathing heavily, my chest rising and falling dramatically with the exertion. I counted four seconds and my blood pressure began to skyrocket as Scott didn't immediately appear before me. He was a bloody werewolf with supernatural hearing and speed, I knew he had heard me-
A howl ripped through the school, amplified by the speaker system. The slightly echo-y quality didn't in any way diminish the power of the howl, and it moved over Derek, and I like an invisible tsunami. The trees shook around us. The force of it, almost knocked me off my feet and I stumbled back into Derek.
He held my shoulders tightly, to support and ground us both. I had no idea what the call was like for him, but it was wreaking absolute mayhem on my magic. I knew instantly it was Scott- without a thought of any of the other factors, something deep inside was telling me that it was him.
Energy flushed through my body, I felt it flood through me from head to toe. The ever-present humming grew to an almost unbearable level, until I had no idea who I was or what I was doing. All I knew was Scott.
He was reaching out for us- calling us all home.
The entire thing was over in a matter of seconds, so fast that you could hardly quantify it. But the euphoria didn't leave, I was dazed and grappling with the world's strongest head rush. There wasn't time to break down the idea that a boy I had met 48 hours ago suddenly felt more like home than anything else had in the last two years. There was no place for rationale, all that was left, was magic.
I felt completely electric. Powerful.
Derek's hands left my shoulders and I turned to face him. He looked as awestruck as I felt, a little dazed even. But there was no glint in his eye, no giveaway that he had just felt the same rush of strength or the call home. In fact, I watched him rearrange his features back into his familiar mask, whilst I was still positively giddy.
I sensed Scott before I heard him, my heart doing a merry little skip as I recognised his magical presence. I turned to him, a massive grin on my face.
"Scott, that was insane!" I gushed, feeling too euphoric to even pretend to be disgusted at how ecstatic I sounded.
He looked just as excited, his magic thrumming happily along with him. Stiles, who was right behind him, looked both pleased to see me and generally pleased at his friend's performance.
"I'm going to kill both of you!" Derek said, his disapproval turning our elation sour. Mine at least. "What the hell was that? What are you trying to do, attract the entire state to the school?"
"Quick question," I butted in, much to Derek's displeasure. "Firstly, congratulations on the big boy howl- very exciting." Scott's grin threatened to break his face in two. "Secondly, what exactly were you trying to do? I'm a little caught up on what's going on and surely when you're holding a man hostage in your mid-life crisis car, the last thing you want is to attract attention?"
"He was trying to call the Alpha," Stiles explained. "To prove to Derek that said hostage is a poor, innocent man who needs to be released immediately."
Derek huffed beside me.
"At least I'm trying to be proactive," he said defensively. "What are the three of you doing to stop him, homework?"
"For your information," I said snippily. "I have a meeting tonight with the head of my coven's council. To help fix this bloody Alpha problem. That's why I'm here actually, I need to steal my phone back from Harris."
"Wait, what did you do with him?" Scott asked, his face growing serious.
I looked at Derek. "I didn't do anything with Harris? Why does everyone always assume I'm up to something nefarious?"
With matching confused expressions, we all followed Scott's eyeline and turned to look at Derek's now empty car. The boot was open, and the vet was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh shit," Stiles muttered, as we all individually went through the five stages of grief.
The soft humming in the pit of my stomach, suddenly with no warning at all, became a painful drumming, as if someone had turned up the volume full blast on a speaker. I cried out in pain and surprise and clutched my stomach. Scott's face swam before me.
It was all encompassing, as if the magic around us had just been dialled up to 1000.
Stiles' worried eyes met mine just as Derek spluttered beside me. It was as if the entire scene was in slow motion. Something dark- maybe red, hit the floor violently in front of us, just as Scott and Stiles' faces turned to those of abject horror. Something sharp and covered in blood, ripped through Derek and emerged in my eyeline, causing me to let out the kind of scream reserved for final girls.
Without hesitating, Stiles lurched forward and wrapped his hand around my wrist. He pulled me almost clean off my feet in his frantic attempt to move me out of danger's path. I stumbled numbly towards him; my legs and brain frozen in fear.
"RUN!" he screamed and that was enough to break through the fog a little. The slow motion lifted like a spell, and we were running. Sprinting, to the front doors, my legs were moving of their own accord, whilst my brain struggled to catch up.
Stiles still had my wrist in a death grip, and I pulled out of his grasp as we ran, only to grab his hand and lock my fingers into his anyway. With my anchor secured, I dared to cast a glance over my shoulder, to see what we were running from.
I knew though, deep down I knew.
It was la bête du Gévaudan, torn straight from the page of Allison's book. It was horrifying to see in the flesh; it's mouth a deadly cavern of sharp teeth and its claws dripping with Derek's blood. I lost my next breath completely as I met the beast's eyes.
I knew in that moment that I would remember those red eyes until the day I died.
The three of us reached the steps and threw ourselves up them. As we arrived at the top, there was a sickening thud behind us and I faltered, my eyes betraying me by welling with tears. Stiles' hand tightened around mine and he pulled me up the last step and into the school.
He finally let go as we crossed the threshold and with Scott, slammed the front doors closed behind us. I watched the Alpha disappear behind the door, along with the night sky and Derek.
"Lock it! Lock it!" Scott shouted, hanging onto the push bar for dear life.
"Do I look like I have a key?" Stiles responded snarkily, mirroring his frantic actions.
Stiles looked over his shoulder at me, breathing hard.
"Winona? Winona!"
I snapped back to reality, the gravity of our situation coming into focus properly. I could not afford to be a scared, dazed little girl right now. I was a powerful fucking witch and I needed to get us out of here.
"Yes," I said quickly. "What can I do?"
"Find us something to block the doors!" Scott said.
I thought for a second, running through a list of possibilities. Could I use magic to hold the door? No, that would only hold for as long as I was here and focussing on it. My breath quickened, as I tried to stave off the panic. Then it hit me.
"The bolt cutters!" I exclaimed, launching forward. There had been a pair of bolt cutters, undoubtedly belonging to the boys, on the steps up to the school. I had run past them.
"No way," Scott refused instantly. "You're not going out there."
"Seconded," Stiles said, his mouth set in a hard line.
"I don't have to," I answered, breathless as I pushed between them. "Open the door."
I felt them looking at each other over my head and I exhaled loudly, the familiar snark settling my stress a little.
"Have a little faith and open the fucking door."
They did as I asked, and reluctantly pulled the doors open. The night air felt oddly brisk as it hit my face, especially for California but I didn't have time to question it. I was probably in some sort of shock, anyway. I glanced at the two cars out front, combing the scene for a place for the beast to hide.
When I was met with nothing but an eery stillness, I edged forward and over the threshold. I reluctantly fixed my stare on the aforementioned bolt cutters and raised my hands up from my sides. With a deep breath, I curled my fingers into a fist and extended it out in front of me, only to yank it back sharply. I thought about the cold breeze and whipped it up into a harsh wind.
The bolt cutters mimicked my action and moved with my hand, flying across the ground towards me.
"Winona!" Scott yelled from behind me.
I looked up for a split second, to see the Alpha barrelling towards me from out of nowhere. His red eyes sliced through the dark and into my very soul. But I was determined- I also didn't fancy getting a bolt cutter to the eye.
I grabbed the bolt cutters before they hit my chest and launched myself back inside as the doors closed behind me, thrusting them at Stiles who jammed them between the two bars.
With my heart in my mouth and blood pounding in my ears, I got to my feet and rushed to peer out the little windows with the boys.
"Where is it?" Stiles panted, as we looked left and right for the bloody thing.
"Shut up a minute," I said, closing my eyes and trying to breathe evenly. The pounding in my stomach had abated somewhat, meaning that it was no longer directly outside, at least.
"I can't feel it anymore," I said, frowning.
We moved away from the doors to assess the situation. The incredibly grim, we were all probably going to die, situation.
"That's not going to hold for long, is it?" Scott said, eyeing the bolt cutters.
"Probably not," Stiles replied glibly.
I had to hand it to him, Stiles had actually been remarkably calm through all of this so far. Out of the witch, the werewolf and the human, I had certainly not expected the human to be so well adjusted in such a high stress situation.
I glanced down the seemingly endless, dark hallway and knew it was just a matter of time before it got in. With Derek out of action, or worse- dead, we were quickly running out of places to hide and people to protect us. I felt my heart pang for Derek, which not only surprised me but irritated me. I really couldn't afford to fall apart right now.
I thought back to the awful splutter he had made as the Alpha skewered him on his deadly claws. To the way the blood had hit the concrete and pooled at our feet. If I closed my eyes, I could smell white jasmine…
"Winona!"
Stiles was staring at me, much like the Alpha had, through me and right into my soul. I met his eyes with as much strength as I could muster.
I could do this.
A howl jarred us all out of our momentary silence and Stiles' eyes finally shifted from me. The call echoed through the corridor and rang in our ears, the threat of his promise hanging over us like a shroud. The Alpha was coming, and he wanted us to know.
A panicked look passed between the three of us and then we were off again, running like mad men through the halls of Beacon Hills High. Scott led us into a classroom and Stiles slammed the door behind us. It felt like a pathetic attempt to keep him out- as if a piece of wood could stop him.
The beam from Stiles' torch bounced off the walls eerily, making what I realised was actually my English classroom, look like anything other than a safe haven.
I followed Scott's lead and got behind the heavy, teacher's desk with him and began pushing it in front of the door. Stiles grabbed the other end and it screeched painfully as we dragged it along the floor.
"Shh!" Stiles hissed, coming to a sudden stop and holding his hands up. "Stop, it's too loud!" He looked at the door and then back to me and Scott. "The door isn't going to keep it out."
"Do you have a better idea?" I countered just as Scott agreed with him. I huffed and slammed my hands down on the desk. "What now, then?"
"It's your boss," Stiles said to Scott, who pulled a face.
"What?"
"Deaton," Stiles replied snippily. "The Alpha. Your boss!"
"No," Scott dismissed.
"Yes!" Stiles answered back. "Murdering, psycho werewolf."
"That can't be!" Scott protested.
Stiles scrunched up his face in disbelief. "Oh, come on! He disappears and that thing shows up ten seconds later to toss Derek twenty feet through the air? That's not convenient timing?"
"Guys!" I hissed, doing my best attempt at whisper-shouting as possible. "This might be a controversial opinion but whether or not the Alpha went to vet school actually makes zero fucking difference right now. Stop bloody bickering and help me figure out how we're going to get the hell out of here. Because I don't know about you, but I don't really fancy following in Derek's footsteps and being tossed against the wall like fresh spaghetti."
"Good point," Stiles said breathlessly, pointing at me in agreement.
"So, what do we do?" Scott asked, sounding just as small and young as I felt.
Just thinking about what that thing did to Derek made my body break out in goosebumps. We had absolutely no chance of winning if we had to come up against it in a fight. Our only option was to get out of the school.
Stiles considered for a moment, panting heavily after his argument with Scott.
"We get to my Jeep; we get out of here, and Scott seriously thinks about quitting his job. Good?"
I nodded in agreement before Scott could answer. "Sounds like a plan to me."
Stiles and I rushed over to the windows, with Scott stumbling behind us. I scrabbled at the bottom of the window, trying to open it but to no avail.
"They don't open, the school is climate-controlled," Stiles told me.
I couldn't help it. Despite the situation, I scoffed.
"You posh wankers," I muttered. "Neither of you have a gun but we've got climate-controlled windows, fantastic."
"Then we'll just break it," Scott said behind us. He pushed through and rolled his sleeves up.
"Which will make a lot of noise," Stiles rebutted.
I threw my hands up in frustration. "I'm hearing an awful lot of problems and not a lot of solutions, Stilinski!"
"Then we're going to have to just run really fast," Scott said.
"I'm sorry," I said, stricken at this idea. "There's going to be more running?"
"Would you rather stroll away from the big, scary werewolf?" Stiles interjected.
"Some of us are in bloody combat boots and skinny jeans," I snapped. "Also, hello- boobs? I didn't exactly pack a sports bra, on the off chance that I could nip in a quick marathon on my way home."
Stiles' cheeks coloured and then so did mine as I realised that I had just asked a pair of sixteen-year-old boys to please consider my boobs when planning our next move.
"Stiles, what's wrong with the hood of your Jeep?" Scott interrupted.
Stiles' head snapped to attention, and he pushed past me to get a better view out the window.
"It's bent," Scott murmured.
"What, like dented?" Stiles demanded, sounding more panicked at that thought than he had in the past thirty minutes.
God, had it only been thirty minutes?
"No, I meant bent," Scott reiterated.
Stiles cursed under his breath and moved to get a closer look.
Glass suddenly shattered above Stiles' head, and I felt something whiz perilously close to my head. Instinctively I ducked, as the boys hit the ground, and I felt panic shoot through my chest. Scott pulled me to the floor, and we scrambled into sitting positions under the window, desperate to stay out of sight.
As I sat on the floor of my English classroom, looking at what I could only assume was Stiles' engine, nestled comfortably on a bed of broken glass, it was hard not to bawl my eyes out. My nerves were shot to pieces and the Alpha had trapped us for a second time.
"That's my battery!" Stiles cried, trying to get to his feet. Scott and I both manhandled him back to the ground.
"Don't move!" I reprimanded. "That car is not worth your life."
"Although it pains me to say it," Stiles hissed back. "I'm not actually all that concerned about the car and rather the murderous werewolf right outside the window!"
"Just let me take a look," Scott pleaded. "I'll see if it's safe."
Feeling like I could absolutely vomit up the entire contents of my stomach, I nodded, and Scott got to his knees. He slowly straightened and peered through the window. I met Stiles' eyes as we waited. Without saying a word, he reached behind Scott and grabbed my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, whilst looking anything but. I tried for a weak smile but felt it come out as more of a grimace.
"Anything?"
"All clear," Scott replied hesitantly.
"Let's go," Stiles said, pulling me to my feet.
We were out in the hallway in seconds, Stiles' torch doing little to stave off the encroaching darkness.
"Where now?" I asked.
"Somewhere without windows," Stiles answered.
"Brilliant," I retorted. "Would you like to head down into the bunker first or shall I?"
"Okay, somewhere with less windows!"
"The locker room," Scott said, and Stiles and I nodded our assent.
Stiles led the way with his torch, and I realised that I had somehow been shoehorned into the middle, with Scott bringing up the rear. I wanted to play the obstinate feminist, outraged at these boys who were obviously trying to protect me, but I was too scared to care. I was too scared to be embarrassed at needing to be protected. I was just downright scared.
We slipped into the boy's locker room and the stench of stale sweat hit me like a wave. I scrunched up my nose in disgust and focused on following Stiles round the warren of lockers.
"Call your dad," Scott said from behind me.
Even though Stiles kept walking, I saw how his shoulders stiffened at the mention of his dad.
"And tell him what?"
"I don't know," Scott replied desperately. "That's there's a gas-leak, a fire, anything!"
We came to a stop, and I used it as an opportunity to catch my breath. I wasn't a lacrosse player like these two, I was a habitual smoker, who had never done any exercise in her life. I was a medical marvel- the girl with a convenient period every P.E lesson.
Scott fixed Stiles with a strained look. "If this thing sees the parking lot full of cop cars, it'll take off."
"And if it doesn't?" I panted. "And mauls them all to prove a point?"
"Yeah, my dad included?" Stiles added.
Scott looked at us in disbelief. "They have guns!"
"Have you never seen a werewolf movie?" I asked Scott. "Unless it's silver, wood, magic, or Wolfsbane, all it's going to do is tickle him."
"Well can someone come up with something because I can't just sit in here until it finds us!" Scott whisper shouted. I rubbed a hand over my face.
"Is there anything near the school?" I asked.
Stiles shook his head grimly. "Nothing for like a mile."
I swore. "Okay, so we're not making a run for it." Then I snapped my fingers. "Derek's car! Derek has a car!"
"That could work," Stiles said, his face brightening. "We sneak out of the school; grab the keys off his body and we're away!"
"And him," Scott and I said in unison.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Fine and him."
For the thousandth time that night, we set off once again, with Stiles in front.
Just before we reached the locker room door, Scott froze.
"I think I heard something," he whispered.
Stiles' torch light caught the window in the door and through the condensation, I noticed marks. Highly suspicious, non-human marks. I grabbed his torch and turned into his body, in an attempt to snuff out the light.
There was a rattling behind the door and before I could so much as blink, Stiles had bolted from my side and shoved himself into one of the lockers. Scott grabbed my arm, as if to bundle me in too and I pushed him off.
"Don't you dare!" I snarled.
I might have been just a little bit, incredibly claustrophobic. The idea of stuffing myself into a locker actually terrified me more than the Alpha did.
The handle on the door began to turn and in a blind panic, I pushed Scott into a locker and hid behind them, my back up against the metal. I knew it wasn't clever, but I couldn't help it, I closed my eyes. Squeezed them shut as hard as possible and tried to temper my breathing. I felt like I hadn't been able to catch my breath all night.
The door slowly and painstakingly squeaked open, and I felt a solitary tear roll down my cheek. I held a hand over my mouth to make sure that no matter what I heard, I wouldn't scream. I couldn't give away Scott and Stiles.
The seconds felt like they dragged on for hours as something lumbered slowly into the room. I felt like I would be given away for sure, with my heart racing so loudly half of California could probably hear it.
It lodged itself in my throat when I heard the thing come to a stop just short of the lockers. I saw my Gran's face in my mind, a mental snapshot from years ago, back when she still smiled. With nothing more than a silent sorry and a prayer, I launched myself out from behind the lockers.
"Alright, you-"
My war cry died in my throat as I was met with a man in overalls and not the terrifying beast that I had been expecting. The janitor and I both screamed as we came face to face with each other. Mine might have been with sheer relief, it was hard to say, I wasn't quite capable of cognitive processes yet.
My life had quite literally just flashed before my eyes.
"Are you trying to kill me!" the janitor bellowed at me, not knowing just how angelic his voice sounded to me in that moment. I could have kissed him.
Scott and Stiles with their bloody telepathic mind link, tumbled out of their lockers at the same time, and the janitor screamed again.
"Really sorry about that," I apologised, once he had caught his breath. "But you need to be quiet!"
I was very aware that just because that hadn't been the Alpha, it didn't mean he wasn't skulking around somewhere.
"Quiet my ass," the janitor retorted, his voice still way too loud for comfort. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"A friendly game of hide and seek," I snapped, and Stiles caught me by the shoulders.
"So not the time," he muttered in a sing-song voice. "Sir, please, you don't understand, we're-"
"We're getting out of here and going home!" the janitor reprimanded, steering us out of the locker room.
"Look, just listen to us-" Scott tried but the janitor cut him off.
"Shut up and go home, okay?"
I opened my mouth to argue back but before I could, the janitor was launched back into the locker room. He let out this terrible scream and the three of us grabbed each other, just to have something to hold onto. The door slammed shut behind him and he continued to scream.
Something growled from the other side of the door and then the outline of the janitor pressed up against the window. With a final shriek and the awful sound of ripping, blood spattered across the glass.
Scott jolted forward but Stiles held him back.
"We have to go!" he pleaded, grabbing one of Scott's arms and one of mine, and dragging us away from the locker room.
We sprinted down yet another hallway, not one of us daring to even glance over our shoulder to see if the beast was hot on our heels. We came to a pair of double doors and without stopping, Scott and Stiles barrelled into them. They rebounded with painful thuds and the doors didn't budge.
"Are they locked?" I cried, losing any cool I had managed to accumulate in the last few minutes.
Scott forced himself against them again, to no avail.
"No, there's something in the way."
That was what did it. The idea that the Alpha had us trapped like rats was enough to make the world spin perilously. I slumped against the wall of lockers.
"Winona, stay with us!" Scott barked, hauling a frantic Stiles off the double doors. He grabbed us both and we set off in another direction, my head still spinning.
"I don't know how much longer I can run around in circles for," I panted, trying to keep up with Scott and Stiles. They had such bloody long legs.
"I'm not dying at school," Stiles moaned, the torch falling limp at his side. It made no difference anyway, we were fucked in the light, or the dark.
"What does he want?" Stiles persisted, causing Scott to whirl around and face him.
"Me," he said hollowly. "Derek says it's stronger with a pack."
"Fantastic," I replied, ready with a sarcastic comment.
Scott stopped suddenly and we bumped into him, domino style. He seemed fixated on something out of the window and against my better judgement, I edged past him to have a better look.
Red glowing eyes on the roof opposite, stopped me dead in my tracks, however. My breath hitched in my throat, and I grabbed Stiles' arm for support.
I blinked and the eyes were suddenly closer, and it took me a few precious seconds to realise that the beast was bounding towards us. I screamed again, my hoarse throat feeling as if it were being sliced into by knives and stumbled backwards.
We did an almost comical slip and slide, as we bashed into each other in a bid to get away from the fucking window. It took Scott finally being able to turn up the hallway as opposed to just playing bumper cars with Stiles and I, until we set off running. Again.
The Alpha burst through the window, sending glass and shrapnel flying in his wake. We skid down the hallway, this time very fucking aware that the great bloody thing was right behind us. Scott burst through a door and took us down a surprise flight of stairs, which I almost skid down in my shock at the sudden uneven ground.
My chest was on fire, and I knew that my face was blood red. Up until now I had been doing that quiet sort of pant where you're out of breath, but you don't want anyone to know. Skidding down the stairs to God knew where, had me full out sucking in lungsful of air like a deflating balloon.
We crashed noisily into what looked like the basement and rounded the corner, coming to a stop beside some old lockers. We flattened our backs against the metal, and I watched Scott close his eyes briefly. I wondered if he was saying a prayer too. I wondered if God could even hear us down here.
The Alpha's low growls haunted us round the room, that and the sound of his claws scraping along the cement. The humming was once again transformed into a full-on bass due to our proximity, making it almost impossible to concentrate on what Scott was saying.
I followed him, anyway, letting Stiles lead us round the lockers and out into the open.
"We have to do something," Stiles whispered.
"Like what?"
"I don't know, hurt it, kill it, inflict mental anguish on it… something!"
Glass shattered somewhere behind us, and I felt my soul leave my body. I listened carefully and heard what sounded like keys jangling. It only took me a second to realise it was Stiles.
"Are you mental-" I whispered but Stiles just shushed me.
He pulled them slowly out of his pocket and Scott bit down on his entire lip, looking as if he were staving off a panic attack. We watched with bated breath as Stiles gave the set of keys one final shake and then tossed them into a little room to the side of us.
The Alpha came screaming round the corner and Stiles put his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet. Any other time and I would have protested but it did in fact help me bite back my silent scream as the Alpha thundered past us and into the little room.
Without hesitating, Stiles slammed the door shut behind him and threw himself against it.
"The desk! Grab the desk!" he shouted between grunts, as the Alpha wrestled from the other side.
Scott and I got on either side of an old desk and hauled it in front of the door. When planted lengthways, it lodged itself neatly in between a row of lockers and the door, refusing to budge. The Alpha threw himself at the door and to our complete disbelief, it barely moved.
I actually laughed aloud in relief. "It's not moving!"
Scott gingerly climbed across the desk to join Stiles and I on the other side, all of us with big, stupid grins on our faces. Maybe we weren't going to die after all.
"Let's go," I said, and Scott made to follow me. Stiles didn't move. "Stiles, come on!"
"I just want to get a look," he muttered, moving to peer through the window.
"Are you insane?" Scott berated.
"It's trapped," Stiles said, playing our concern off. "It's not gonna get out."
"Oh God," I mumbled desolately, my hands in my hair. "We're going to die again because Stiles had to see the fucking werewolf."
Stiles ignored me, and the low growling coming from the little room, and climbed on top of the desk to get a better look. He shined the torch through the window.
"Yeah, that's right. We got you…" he muttered, and I looked to Scott pleadingly.
"Scott, make him stop. Stiles, please-"
"I'm not scared of this thing," Stiles declared, his nose inches from the glass.
As if to punish him, the Alpha growled loudly and launched himself at the door, sending Stiles scrambling backwards.
"I'm not scared of you," Stiles maintained, although there was a bead of sweat on his temple.
"You Americans and your sodding showboating," I moaned. "Can we please go?"
Stiles ignored me. "Right, because you're in there and we're out here. And you're not going anywhere…"
He trailed off as there was an almighty crash from the little room and we watched debris from the ceiling, rain down. With our hearts in our throats, we slowly gazed up at the ceiling and tracked the beast's heavy footsteps until they were right above us. Stiles shone his torch upwards, and we watched a lone ceiling tile crash to the ground.
"I'm going to fucking kill you, Stilinski!" I screamed as we turned and ran for our lives.
A/N: Hello! Apologies that this chapter is a little canon heavy with dialogue etc but it was a necessary evil. I promise this won't be a regular thing. The next chapter, aka the rest of this episode is almost done, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the next one! Thanks to all who are still reading and who have reviewed so far, they completely make my day.