Two days. Two days, Stiles had been missing. The Sheriff had arranged that I now had an appointment with guidance counsellor Morell, so I had no choice but to go to school. As soon as I came in, I could see and hear people whispering whenever I came into view.
"Ignore them," Allison said as she came up to walk next to me. "They don't have anything better to do but gossip."
"Easier said than done," I mumbled as I stopped at my locker. "Did you find any useful information?"
Allison sighed. "Not something you don't know, I think. The nogitsune is an evil spirit, a trickster, who thrives off of chaos, strife and pain. There are some things that can slow it down, but I haven't found anything that could kill it." I nodded along as she spoke, I had found the same thing. She put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. We'll find him."
"Thanks. Have you seen Lydia, by the way? Haven't gotten the chance to thank her for the heads up yesterday."
She shook her head. "But I can think of where she might be…" she smiled conspiratorially, "or who she might be with, rather."
"Spill."
"I've seen her with Aiden a few times now…"
"Aiden?" I said in surprise, "What is it with people wanting to bang werewolves? Am I missing out on something here?"
Allison laughed. "I don't know what to tell you."
"Is the weird facial hair a turn-on? Or is it the fangs?"
She gently shoved me. "Stop it." Her smile fell. "Are you sure you're going to be okay today?"
"I'm being held together by anger and the need to kill this thing." I took some textbooks out of my locker and shoved them into my bag. "Without killing Stiles." I hesitated for a second. "Allison?"
She frowned. "Yes?"
"If I… If this thing starts messing with the balance of life and death too much, I don't know how much control I will have." I closed my locker and looked her directly in the eyes. "If I try to kill him, I need you to stop me."
She stepped back at that. "You mean…"
I nodded. "Whatever it takes."
~o~
After my lunch session with Morell, it was time for cross-country practice. The only subject that I was not only passing, but excelling in. If you ignored the paranormal creatures participating. Speaking of which, that day Scott and the twins hadn't joined our practice.
"Have you seen Scott?" I asked Kira, who was stretching next to me. She looked around and frowned.
"I saw him this morning."
Behind us, Coach blew his ever-deafening whistle, and we started running. I had no trouble keeping up with Danny, but then Kira zoomed past us with inhuman speed. Of course. I started putting in extra effort and passed Danny so I could hopefully catch up with Kira and tell her to keep a low profile. I could just about keep her in sight, when Scott appeared out of nowhere and sweeped her up, stopping her in her tracks.
Within a few seconds, I joined them.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, just as Aiden, Stiles and Coach came running at us from the other side.
"Stop!" Stiles yelled, waving his arms. Behind me, the rest of the group appraoched and came to a halt.
"Stiles?" I asked. His tone had sounded genuinely panicked, but he ignored me as he pulled a metal chain out of the layer of fall leaves on the ground. Slowly, he started pulling up more of the chain, until it ended in a bigger ring. He stared at it in disbelief.
"Congratulations Stillinski," Coach said, "You've found a length of chain. Can somebody now please tell me what the hell is going on?"
Ringing boomed up in my ears as he started taking a step forward. Instinctively, I jumped forward in an attempt to tackle him to the ground, just as I heard Scott yell out "Hey Coach!"
The pain from the fall registered earlier than the pain from the arrow sticking from my shoulder. I had landed half on top of coach Finstock, but when I tried to push myself off I couldn't put any force on my right arm.
"Can someone please help me up?" I asked, my request half-muted as I was talking into the leaves. I felt two arms wrap around my waist and was pulled up and turned so I could sit. I nodded at Scott. "Thanks." I blinked as I felt my head get woozy. "What's in my shoulder?"
"An arrow," Scott said.
"Oh my god," Coach's voice came from beside me. "Gonzalez, call an ambulance!" Danny nodded and walked away from the group. Half the people were staring at me in terror, the rest was mumbling and whispering to each other.
Stiles crouched down next to me, hands moving from one direction to the other without ever doing anything. "Lora, I- I'm so sorry."
I smiled weakly. "Not your fault." I coughed, quickly raising my left hand to cover up my mouth. When I pulled it back, there were specks of blood on it. "Oh great. I think I might have a punctured lung."
"The ambulance is on its way!" Danny yelled.
Coach Finstock crouched down in front of me. "Hield, look at me. You're going to be fine."
Stiles got up and moved to sit behind me. I felt a pressure on my back, paired with pain shooting through my shoulder. "Ow!"
"Sorry, sorry…" he said, "Just need to stop the bleeding."
"Just-" I winced as a burning sensation started spreading through my arm. "Don't move the arrow or pull it out." I coughed again, which of course made the arrow move. "I think the adrenaline is wearing off…"
Scott grabbed my hand. "Stop talking, it will only make it worse." I felt him drawing out the pain from my body, making it easier to breathe. This would be so much easier if I could just shift, then this stupid wound would heal in no time. Alas, about twenty people were staring at me, including Coach.
"Coach, can you maybe give me some space?" I asked, my voice growing weak. I slowly nodded over his shoulder, at the class all staring at me. Coach nodded, eyes a bit wild as he stood up and turned around.
"Alright, get back, all of you, back!" He started waving and herding the group away, and with it himself.
"I could've killed you…" Stiles whispered from behind me. "If that had hit your heart, or your throat."
"But you didn't," Scott said, "She's going to be alright. Right, Lora?" I nodded in response, slowly feeling myself slipping away. I wasn't sure if I could muster the energy to speak.
"I think I hear an ambulance coming," Aiden said, somewhere to my left.
"And my dad…" Stiles said. "They're coming, okay Lora? Just a little bit longer."
I didn't actually see them coming, as I had started to spend my energy on not blacking out and was therefore staring down at the leaves the next minute or two.
"What's her name?" an unknown female voice asked.
"Lorraine Hield," Coach said.
"Okay Lorraine," the voice sounded closer now, "we're going to put you on a stretcher, but to do that we need to take out the arrow first."
"'S fine," I slurred, "Not m'first arrow."
"She's joking," Stiles said quickly. I felt the pressure on my back being released, followed by the sensation of something warm dripping down my back.
A jolt of pain. "On the count of three, okay?" the female medic said. "One, two…"
On the count of three, I passed out.
~o~
Next time something threatens Coach's life, I'm not saving him. Whilst I was being brought to the hospital and operated on, there was a false alarm for a bomb threat at the school, followed by an actual bomb at the Sheriff's office. Meanwhile, Lydia and Allison found out that Malia was actually Peter's daughter. Oh! And Derek and Allison's father are in jail for murdering a member of the yakuza!
"Is that all?" I asked once Lydia was done with her recap.
She hesitated. "Stiles wasn't Stiles today. He basically tortured Scott until Deaton managed to poison him. " Lydia said, and upon seeing my panic, added: "The fox spirit, not Stiles himself. He's fine, he should be here any minute."
"Fucking knew it," I said, "Not even he is that bad at applying pressure to a wou-" the words died on my lips as Stiles walked in. "Hey."
Lydia eyed the two of us and stood up. "I'll just give the two of you some space," she said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
Stiles didn't look at me as he went to sit down on the chair Lydia had been sitting on, next to my bed. "I can't recall exactly what happened, but Scott helped me fill in the gaps." He looked up at me, tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault, you weren't in control," I said, "Besides, once I get out of here I'll just shift for a minute or two and this should heal right up. Better me than Coach."
"Yeah but still, I could've killed you," he said, his voice shaking. It disturbed me how he didn't sound any different from that afternoon, even though that had not been him at all. He fell silent for a bit. "I'm making my dad sing me into Eichen House."
"The mental hospital?" I said, "We can't help you when you're in there!"
"And I can't hurt you," he said, "It's just for 72 hours. The poison Deacon used won't last much longer than a day."
It wasn't the worst idea. Still, I hated it. "That place is weird, Stiles… when you went missing the first time, Lydia was convinced you were there, in the basement. We found that kanji symbol on the wall the rest of us were marked with."
That stopped him for a second, but then he shook his head. "No, no I can't risk hurting you again. Or anyone else." He said it with such finality, such certainty that I knew I had no chance of changing his mind.
I sighed. "When are you leaving?"
"I have to be there in an hour. My stuff is already in the car."
I sighed. "How long do we have?"
"About thirty minutes."
I picked up a set of playing cards Lydia had brought and put on the table next to my bed. "Then for thirty minutes, can we pretend like none of this is happening?"
And so we played cards and chatted about anything that wasn't supernatural-related (which weren't many things, as it turned out). When we had about five minutes left, I caved and got out of the bed.
Stiles jumped up and put his arms on my shoulders, gently. "Woah! You can't move around too much yet." I ignored him and wrapped my one good arm around him, the other being stuck in a shoulder sling.
"I love you," I whispered. He slowly but softly put his arms around me, careful not to hold me too tightly.
"I love you too."
