Finally I got this chapter done! It took me forever but I did it! This was one of my favorite episodes in the show so I really wanted to take the time to do it justice. I hope you guys enjoy!
WARNING: Suicide attempts
Well… this looked promising.
Glen Capri Motel.
Call her crazy, but Natalie could literally feel the eeriness that this place was giving off. The fact that it was already nighttime wasn't helping the situation either. In the back of her mind, Natalie was remembering the first few episodes of Bates Motel she had started watching. That made her feel uncomfortable too.
Why did she have a bad intuition that there was a lot more to this place than what meets the eye?
"I've seen worse," Scott said as soon as they got off the bus. Natalie snorted.
"Where have you seen worse?" Stiles asked, voicing his girlfriend's thoughts.
Coach blew his whistle. That better be last time of the night they hear it or else Natalie was going to tackle him herself.
"Listen up," his voice boomed at his team, "The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely."
One by one, the students took a key from Coach's hand and walked to their rooms.
"And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants," he called after his students, "Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"
"Just for that, Coach, I'm gonna make sure that Stiles and I are doing it so loud that not even your noise-cancelling headphones can save you," Natalie shouted back. Stiles laughed while Scott and Zach shuddered in disgust.
Coach let out a frustrated scream as he pointed at the redhead. "Henderson, you better stay with Little Henderson or I swear to god I'm leaving your ass here in the morning!"
After waving him off, Natalie and Zach went off to their room while Scott and Stiles went to theirs. The siblings were going to join their friends in a bit but first, Natalie just needed a few minutes to get herself situated. And by that, she meant take her chemo pill and make sure that she didn't look as grossly sick as she was feeling. She went into the bathroom and took off her beanie.
While there was still a lot of red velvet hair attached to her scalp, there were some bald spots that were making themselves known if Natalie parted her hair in certain ways. Even with her extensions in. She knew it wasn't going to be long until she started to have to wear wigs. But she didn't want to have to think about that right now and ruin her mood. However she was starting to get tired of wearing her beanie all the damn time. So Natalie threw her hair up in a messy bun.
"Hey, what do you think?" she asked Zach, who was lounging on his bed, "You can't tell that I'm balding, right?"
Her little brother tilted his head. "Well, it depends. Did you want people to notice the tracks from your extensions?"
"God damn it," Natalie groaned, trying to fix up her hair as much as possible.
"Don't you think it would save you all the trouble to just, I don't know, shave your head already?" Zach asked.
"Shh," Natalie whispered to her hair as she pet it, "He didn't mean that, don't listen to him."
Zach rolled his eyes. "You are going to have to shave it at some point."
"I know, but I'm not ready yet. And while Stiles may be an idiot, he's not stupid. He could tell if I'm wearing a wig."
"Then maybe you should just tell him already."
"Ha! You're such a jokester." Zach deadpanned at his sister. Natalie sighed. "I know I do. And I'll tell him. If we survive being at this creepy ass place."
"It's just a motel," Zach scoffed, "It's not like it's haunted or anything."
Clicking her tongue, Natalie shook her head in disappointment. "Oh, little brother. Have we taught you nothing?"
Once the siblings got their things settled in their room, they headed over to Scott and Stiles's room. The boys flopped down on their beds while Natalie sat next to her boyfriend with a notepad on her lap. Zach was sitting across from them in a rickety old chair that would most likely break if he moved. Stiles and Natalie were finally able to go over the whole Darach thing with Scott now that they had some downtime.
"Alright, so Stiles and I have four," Natalie told the teen wolf, tapping her notepad with her pen.
"Four?" Scott asked with a raised eyebrow, "You guys have four suspects?"
"Yeah, it was originally ten," Stiles said, "Well, nine technically, I guess. I had Derek on there twice."
Snorting, Zach mumbled, "Chump." Stiles threw his room key at him. "Ow."
"So who's number one?" Scott asked his friends, "Harris?"
"Just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead," Stiles pointed out.
"So if he's not dead, our chemistry teacher is out secretly committing human sacrifices."
Pursing his lips, Stiles thought about his accusation further. "Yeah, I guess that just sounded way better in my head."
"Crossing Harris off the list," Natalie mumbled, scribbling down on her notepad, "Alrighty, next suspect."
"Well, what if it's somebody else from school?" Scott wondered, "Like, you remember Matt? We didn't know that he was killing people."
Hearing this made Stiles sit straight up as he looked at his best friend like he grew an extra head. He could not be serious right now.
"Excuse me? I'm sorry, what?" He shook his head. "I- yes, we did. I called that from day one, actually."
"Okay, but did you seriously think that it was Matt?" Zach asked.
"I was serious" Stiles argued, "I was quite serious, actually. Deadly serious. No one listened to me." He flailed his arms at Zach, "You weren't even there!"
"Can we get back to the subject matter here, boys?" Natalie interjected before the two could go at each other.
"Who were the other three?" Scott asked her.
Natalie read off her list. "Up next is Derek's sister, Cora. Think about it. This girl has been missing for about six years and then she just turns up out of the blue. And no one even knows anything about her."
"And she's Derek's sister," Stiles added, pointing at his girlfriend. She shrugged her shoulders.
You can't argue with that.
"Next, your boss," the twitchy boy continued.
Now it was Scott's turn to sit up in disbelief. "My boss?"
"Yeah, your boss. I don't really like the whole Obi-Wan thing he's got going on, you know. It freaks me out." Stiles furrowed his eyebrows at his best friend's blank stare. "Oh my god. Have you still not seen Star Wars?"
"I swear, if we make it back alive, I will watch the movie."
"Told you we might night survive tonight," Natalie quipped at her little brother. Zach rolled his eyes.
"Just drives me crazy," Stiles grumbled.
Zach held his hand up. "I've never seen Star Wars either."
"Well, honestly, I just expect you to constantly disappoint me at this point," Stiles told him. Zach threw the key back at him and Stiles surprisingly caught it clean with one hand. "Ha!"
"Oh, that was actually kinda hot," Natalie purred, wiggling her eyebrows. Stiles winked at her.
"Ew," Zach shuddered.
"Who was the last one?" Scott asked.
Both Stiles and Natalie looked at each other. This part made the redhead not only hesitant but also bummed out. She didn't want to put this next person on the list. And Stiles felt bad for suggesting it because he knew it was going to upset his girlfriend. But when he started giving her the reasons why he thought this next person should be on the list, it was actually kind of hard for her to argue with him. Stiles made some very valid points. Points that Natalie just couldn't ignore. She still didn't like it though.
Natalie frowned. "Lydia."
"You honestly think it might be her?" Scott asked in shock.
"Well, think about it, Scott," Stiles said, sitting next to Natalie on the bed, "She was totally controlled by Peter, and she had no idea, so..."
The trio took in the information with heavy hearts. They flopped back down on their beds, letting out long sighs of despair. Reaching down, Stiles took Natalie's hand in his, squeezing it lightly to bring her some comfort.
"Seriously, what kind of teacher doesn't feed his students?" Natalie complained as she and Stiles walked down the hallways of the motel.
"It's Coach, what do you expect?" Stiles scoffed, "At least the guy had the decency to provide us with some beds for the night."
"Yeah, beds that I'm sure haven't been washed in weeks," Natalie said. She shivered in disgust.
They walked down the steps to the vending machine. Already standing in front it was Boyd. His eyes looked glazed over, like he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. He didn't even have a reaction when the couple hopped over next to him.
"Hello, good sir," Natalie greeted.
Again, no reaction from Boyd. He just mechanically pushed the buttons on the machine. 2-0-1.
"Hey," Stiles smiled when he saw that the beta chose the peanut butter crackers, "That was the same thing I was gonna get." He smiled up at Boyd. Suddenly the machine got stuck just before the peanut butter crackers could fall to the bottom. "Oh, hang on. You know what?" Stiles grabbed the top of the machine. "I got a patented method for this. Don't worry."
Boyd quickly proved that there was no need for Stiles's method. Instead he punched through the glass, taking the couple back. Stoically, Boyd reached in a grabbed the peanut butter crackers along with the spring that was attached to it and walked away.
"Or you could just... do that too," Natalie said awkwardly.
That was weird. Even for a werewolf. What was his deal? Stiles and Natalie glanced back and forth from each other to the direction Boyd walked. After making sure no one was around to watch them, the couple started taking as many snacks as they could from the machine. But they decided to just sit on the floor right there instead of going back to the room. With a grin, Stiles dropped down his loot in the middle of him and his girlfriend.
"Dinner is served," he said.
"Finally, some food," Natalie sighed in relief. She picked up a Kit Kat and held it up. "I've missed you so much, my love." She kissed the candy before tearing the package open.
"How come you're more affectionate towards a candy bar than you are with me?" Stiles joked.
"Oh, please, you know you're the love of my life," Natalie laughed, "Kit Kats come and go but my love for you always remains."
Stiles put his hand over his heart. "Aw, babe, that was oddly romantic. I want that printed on a t-shirt for Christmas."
Well, shit. Who was going to break it him that Natalie wouldn't even make it till then? Technically she should. And she will… soon. She promised! But right now, Natalie was just going to laugh uncomfortably and chomp into her Kit Kat.
Both of them ate in a comfortable silence. As Stiles bit into his peanut butter cracker, he would glance over at Natalie whenever she wasn't looking. She was wearing one of his hoodies that just seemed to swallow her body. She looked so small… freakishly small. And it was starting to scare Stiles. Then he thought back to the inhaler and the pills. Does he dare bring them up? If not, what kind of boyfriend would he be if he didn't express his concerns?
"Hey, Nat." Said girl looked up at Stiles mid bite. "Are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Natalie chirped a little too peppily, "I'm great! Awesome. Stupendous. Great…"
"Yeah, because that was so believable," Stiles said sarcastically. His girlfriend huffed and swallowed down her food. "But you do know that you can talk to me about anything, right?"
"What makes you think that I'm hiding something anyway?" Natalie asked.
"It's just… I've- I mean, I've noticed… ever since you came back from Arizona…" Stiles took a deep breath, bracing to be hit. "You've changed."
Natalie cocked up an eyebrow, trying to remain neutral. "The ability to kick your ass hasn't changed."
"No, I mean… you don't look well."
"Stiles, you are not helping your case here-"
"I'm worried about you, Natalie."
Stiles's outburst humbled the redhead. Of course he was worried. There was every reason for him to be worried.
"You've always been in the best shape but now, it's like you can't run for thirty seconds without needing to stop to use an inhaler, don't think I haven't noticed," he stated, "And you've lost so much weight that I'm afraid the wind's going to blow you over. I could go on and on about what I've seen. The bottom line is… you're not the same. And I'm starting to get very concerned. Is there something you're not telling me?"
The door was practically opened for Natalie to tell him the truth. And she knew she needed to. What was she supposed to say? Yeah, Stiles, she's going to be dead in a few months, sorry to spring that on you? Everyone around her kept pushing her to tell him that she was dying but they didn't understand how fucking difficult that really was. If it were easy, Natalie would have told Stiles about the tumor before she left for Arizona. She was such an asshole for prolonging this and she just needed to bite the bullet already.
But the longer she stared into those whiskey brown eyes that she loved, she just couldn't do it. It was a pussy move, but Natalie leaned over towards Stiles and kissed him, hoping he could forget about his worries about her and just… be in the present. While he couldn't forget and he knew that his girlfriend was trying to distract him, he could feel her shaking in his arms as he wrapped them around her. There clearly was something wrong. But Natalie wasn't ready to talk about it. It frustrated Stiles, but he figured that he was getting one step closer to knowing what was happening. So he just cupped her face in his hands and kissed her just as intensely to show her that he was here for her and that he loved her more than anything.
"Stilinski! Henderson!" The two jumped at the sudden loud and obnoxious voice of their coach. "Both of you, scram! Just because I told you no funny business in your rooms that doesn't mean you can do it in front of mine."
"You know, you can't fight the power of young love, Coach," Stiles quipped.
"Like I give a shit," Coach scoffed, "Now shoo!" He went back in his room and slammed the door shut.
Rolling her eyes, Natalie stood up and held out her hand to Stiles to help him up. But before he could walk back up the stairs, the redhead stopped him. Like he did earlier, she took his face in her hands, forcing him to look into her dark doe eyes.
"I promise I'll open up soon," Natalie said, "Just give me a little more time… please."
No matter how badly he wanted to press on, Stiles just nodded. "Okay."
They kissed each other one more time before going back up to Scott and Stiles's room. When they opened the door, they saw Scott standing by the window with his phone held up to his ear. Horror was glazed over his eyes like he had just seen a ghost. Hell, given the psychological thriller vibes this motel was giving off, it wouldn't be so crazy if he did.
"Hey, Scott, you okay?"
Said teen wolf turned around to see his best friends staring back at him, Stiles and Natalie standing at the door and Zach coming out of the bathroom. Scott didn't say anything, he just looked back out the window. Natalie felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. She pulled it out to see a vague text message from Lydia.
To: Natalie
From: Lydia
Need to talk. Just you, Stiles, and Zach. No Scott.
The redhead showed the text to Stiles and Zach, both of their eyebrows furrowed as well. When they looked back at their best friend, it didn't seem like he was going to snap back out of his stupor any time soon. As quietly as they could, Stiles, Natalie, and Zach back out of the room and went to go find Lydia.
Allison and Lydia had just finished explaining what the old lady at the front desk had told Lydia about the history of this motel. And yes, it is just as disturbing as you think. The Glen Capri Motel is known for having the most guest suicides. 198, to be exact. Which was a 198 too many, if you asked any of the teenagers. There was even a little sign hanging on the wall at the front desk that showed it off like it was something to be proud of.
Newsflash- it was definitely not something to be proud of!
It only gets weirder, because that was their lives now. Lydia said that she had heard a young couple in the room next to them shoot each other as if it were a suicide pact. But when Allison and Lydia went to check out the room, no one was in there. The room was actually looking to be in the process of renovating. So the girls had went back down to the front desk to as the receptionist about it. She wasn't there, but the number on the wall had jumped up from 198 to 201.
"Okay, seriously, can't we just go one place without being victims of a freakin' horror movie for once?!" Zach exclaimed.
But wait, there was more. Allison then told them how Scott crept up on her while she was in the shower and acting very strange, almost predatory.
"Last time I saw Scott act like that was during the full moon," she recalled.
"Yeah, he was being weird with us, too," Natalie said, "But Boyd was even weirder. Stiles and I actually watched the dude take out the vending machine like Muhammad Ali."
"See, it is the motel," Lydia said, "Either we need to get out of here right now, or..." she reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a Bible, "someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism ASAP, before the werewolves go crazy and kIll us."
Stiles held his hands up. "Okay, just hold on, all right? What if it's not just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?"
"You mean like three sacrifices?" Allison realized.
"What if this time it's three werewolves?" Stiles asked.
"Scott, Isaac, and Boyd."
"But what about Delilah and Ethan?" Zach pointed out, "That's five werewolves."
"Maybe two of them will be lucky enough to survive," Natalie said, "It's just a matter of who lives and who dies. Besides, Delilah's only half werewolf. Maybe she won't be affected."
"I don't think technicalities would really matter," Allison told her, "Delilah's still a werewolf, whether she's only half or fully."
The redhead nodded. "Yeah, that's a fair point."
"Maybe we were meant to come here," Stiles said.
"Exactly!" Lydia cried out, "So can we get the hell out of here now? Please?"
Taking the Bible out of her hands when he noticed something sticking out of it, Zach asked, "Can I see that for a second?" He opened it up and pulled out a few smaller pieces of paper. "Whoa, check this out."
"What is that?" Allison asked as the other teenagers surrounded Zach.
"'Twenty-eight year old man hangs himself at the infamous Glen Capri'," Natalie read.
Zach dumped out the rest of the articles from the Bible onto the bed. They all read through the terrifying stories.
"Oh, no. Look at these two," Lydia said as she put two of the articles next to each other, "They both mention the room 217. These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room."
"So if every room has a Bible…" Allison started to say.
"Then there could articles hidden in all of the rooms," Natalie finished.
Yeah, this just keeps getting better and better. Stiles nodded his head.
"That's a beautiful thing," he said sarcastically, "Most places leave a mint under the pillow. This one leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred."
"What if the room next door has the one about the couple?" Lydia asked.
After looking at each other with wide eyes, Stiles and Natalie ran out of the room, everyone else not too far behind them. When Stiles went over to the next room, he grabbed the door handle to open it but it wouldn't budge.
"No, that was not locked before," Lydia panicked.
Allison shook her head. "Forget it. We need to get Scott, Isaac, Delilah, and Boyd out of here."
"What about Ethan?" Zach asked.
But before Stiles could retort by saying something like 'screw the alpha', the sound of electric whirring filled their ears.
"I'm not the only one that heard that, am I?" Lydia asked.
"It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on," Allison confirmed.
"Handsaw?" Stiles exclaimed.
Okay, now it was time for Natalie to step up. Everyone backed up when she told them to and she kicked the door open with every bit of strength she had left. Her body will hate her for it later, but that didn't matter when they saw Ethan in the room, getting ready to cut into his body with the handsaw.
"Hey, no, Ethan, don't!" Stiles shouted, running over to the alpha.
Both of them fought over the handsaw, grunting like cavemen. Ethan had pushed Stiles down, dropped the handsaw as well. Luckily Lydia had already unplugged the cord and just when Stiles was just about to get his face sliced open like a Christmas ham, the machine stopped. Natalie pulled Stiles back and they breathed heavily. That was a close one.
But then Ethan flicked his claws out and tried to tear at his bare torso. Zach and Allison struggled to pull his claws away from himself. Ethan stumbled and fell on top of a heater, hissing at the blazing hot metal. It did seem to stop him from hurting himself though, which was a good thing… they guess.
He scrambled to stand up. "What just happened?" When he didn't get a response, he ran out of the room.
"Ethan!" Stiles called after him. He grabbed Natalie's hand. "Come on."
They along with the rest of the group followed him down the steps and began bombarding him with questions. Typical Stiles and Natalie fashion. And like usual, it quickly began to get on Ethan's nerves.
"Didn't you hear about what I just said?" he said as he covered his torso with his jacket, "I don't know how I got there or what I was doing."
"Okay, you could be a little bit more helpful, you know?" Stiles told him. "We did just save your life."
Ethan shook his head. "And you probably shouldn't have." Then he walked away, leaving the gang of humans dumbfounded.
"Yeah, he's right," Zach shrugged, "We probably should have just let him die."
Natalie flicked the back of his head. "Shut up. Alright, so now what do we do?"
"I'll find Scott," Allison told them, "You guys grab Isaac, Delilah, and Boyd. The best thing we can do is get them out of this place." She went back up the stairs, leaving her friends behind.
While Lydia looked after her best friend, the other there were going back and forth from looking at each other to the redhead. Their minds went back to the list of suspects Stiles and Natalie created. Neither of them wanted to think the worst, but everything was too familiar. It was hard for Natalie to admit it, but it was even harder to ignore. All of the signs were pointing to Lydia.
She felt their eyes on her back and sighed in exasperation. "What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
"What?" Natalie stumbled, "Oh, it's nothing-"
"Natalie."
It was the redhead's turn to sigh. "Lyds, I really didn't wanna have to say anything and I especially don't wanna make you mad… but… everything that's been happening tonight… we've kinda been through something like this before."
"A lot like this," Zach added.
"What do you mean?" Lydia asked, "When?"
"Your birthday party," Stiles clarified, "the night you poisoned everyone with wolfsbane."
The expressions on Lydia's went from confused to thoughtfulness and finally landing on anger. Which was the one expression that the three didn't want to see since she scared the fuck out of them for multiple reasons.
"You seriously think I'm the one behind the murders?" When no one said anything, Lydia shook her head. "Unbelievable."
She then walked away.
"Ah, fuck- Lydia!" Natalie groaned. "God, this chick gets mad so easily."
"Probably a redhead thing," Zach chimed in.
"Shut up, Zach!" his older sister yelled before running after her friend.
"Yeah, that's confirmation enough," Zach said.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Come on, dude." He grabbed his girlfriend's brother by his shirt and followed the girls.
"Lyds, come on!" Natalie begged Lydia, "We're sorry, okay? Look, we're not saying that you're the one actually committing the murders."
"We just meant that maybe…" Stiles added, "maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know?"
"Stiles!" Natalie smacked her boyfriend's chest hard.
"Which now that I say that out loud, it just sounds really terrible," Stiles winced, rubbing his chest, "so I'm just going to stop talking."
A loud cry suddenly caught Lydia's attention and made her pause her steps. It was so shrill and gut-wrenching. Was that a… baby? "You guys… do you hear that?"
"What?" Zach asked.
Instead of answering, Lydia knelt down next to a vent that was built into the ground. Her ear was turned towards it so she could listen to whatever it was that she heard better. The look on her face was horrified as the crying got louder. Then she heard a woman's voice, sounding exhausted and stressed out.
"Stop. Please, just stop. What do you want? I don't know what you want."
"Lydia, what do you hear?" Zach asked.
"A baby crying," she answered.
"Quiet!"
It then sounded like someone had turn on a faucet. "I hear... I hear water running."
"It's time to sleep," the voice echoed.
"Oh my god," Lydia gasped in horror. Tears pooled at the bottom of her eyes.
"We're both going to sleep now."
"She's drowning the baby!" Lydia cried. Stiles and Natalie looked at each other, confused and afraid. Lydia stood up. "Someone's drowning!"
"Like, actually drowning?" Natalie asked.
The strawberry blonde nodded. "It was real. It was definitely real."
"Alright, that means we gotta go find Isaac, Delilah, and Boyd," Stiles said. He grabbed Natalie's bony wrist and they all darted back up the steps.
Fortunately the door to their room was already unlocked so they all barged in. Someone was drowning in the bathtub, and that someone was Boyd. He had a safe that he must have stolen front the front desk set onto his stomach so he couldn't get up. Stiles was already rolling up his sleeves as he, Natalie, Zach, and Lydia ran over the bathtub. Kneeling down, Stiles reached into the water and felt around the drain.
He cursed to himself. "He blocked it. He blocked the drain with something. I can't get to it."
"So what do we do?" Natalie asked.
"Here, help me." Stiles grabbed at the safe.
Even with all four of them attempting to lift the safe off of Boyd, it wouldn't budge. Natalie's strongest wasn't enough anymore since her medication made her so damn weak. It was infuriating. None of them could move it.
"Is he dead?" Lydia asked, "How long can a werewolf stay underwater?"
"You think I know that?" Stiles asked sarcastically. After another few seconds of no success of moving the safe, he stood up and backed up towards the wall. His arm hit the heater, burning his skin. "Ow!"
That was when he was struck with a realization.
"Wait a sec, the heater. Heater- Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."
"What?" Lydia asked.
"It's heat, heat, fire. Heat does it, all right? We need something- We need fire."
"Dude, he's underwater!" Zach reminded him.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that, Zach!" Stiles shot back.
Suddenly Natalie had an idea. "Hold on a second, there are emergency road flares on the bus. Since they have their own oxidizers, they can burn underwater."
"How do you know that?" Zach asked his sister.
"Dad gave me a lesson on what to do for roadside emergencies," Natalie answered.
"Are you sure?" Stiles asked.
"Yes!"
"Okay, you and Stiles go grab the road flares," Lydia instructed, "Zach and I will keep trying to get the safe off of Boyd. Go!"
The couple ran out of the room and to the bus. Stiles pushed the bus door open, fumbling as he and Natalie searched for the emergency kit. She pulled a red box out of underneath the drivers seat. Inside was about four road flares. Perfect.
Natalie started pulling them out. "Here, we'll take three. Each for Boyd, Isaac, and Delilah."
She tossed one to Stiles, him catching it with one hand, and they dashed back to the room.
When they got back inside, Zach was sitting on the floor next to the bed like he had just fallen backwards. Lydia's eyes were wide, still scared out of her mind. Her mind was clearly distracted, which was why she jumped when Natalie touched her arm. Stiles held up the road flare in his hand.
"We got 'em," he told Lydia and Zach. He fiddled with the object as he turned to his girlfriend. "Babe, what do I do? How do I use this?"
"The cap's like a match," Natalie told him hurriedly, "You gotta strike it like a match." Stiles began to do so but it was taking too damn long. "Stiles!"
"Yeah, I'm trying," he said, continuing to strike.
Finally he got the road flare to ignite and a large flame shot out from one side. Acting quickly, he ran into the bathroom and stuck the burning end into the water just right above Boyd's head. That seemed to do the trick. The beta sat up from the bathtub, throwing the safe off of him in the process. A growl ripped out of his throat and he was halfway shifted. But his fangs and yellow eyes quickly disappeared as he came too.
Holy shit. They couldn't believe that actually worked. But then Lydia remembered.
"Isaac's underneath the bed."
So Natalie lit one of the road flares that she was holding and ran to the bed. She knelt next to it and lifted the blanket to find Isaac shaking and curled up into a ball.
"Hey, Isaac," Natalie said, "I got something for you."
After they broke Isaac out of whatever spell this damn motel had casted on all of the werewolves, Natalie gave him the third road flare so he could go find Delilah. Then she along with Stiles, Zach, and Lydia left the room to find Allison. Said huntress was just coming out of Scott and Stiles's room when she ran into her friends.
"I can't find Scott or Delilah anywhere," Allison told them as they hurried down the stairs.
"It's happening to them too, isn't it?" Stiles asked.
Zach nodded. "It has to be."
"Didn't you guys say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia asked the couple.
"Yeah, I'll go get it," Natalie said, pushing past her friends so she could get to the bus.
But it was too late.
Standing right next to the bus was Scott, holding an already lit road flare. He was drenched from head to toe.
"Scott…" Allison tried to get the teen wolf's attention, but he remained stoic. "Scott…"
A gasp slipped out of Natalie's mouth when she saw the empty gas container lying next to her best friend's feet. No… Scott had doused himself in gasoline. He was going to set himself on fire. How in the world were they going to get him out of this mess?
Could he even be saved?
"There's no hope," Scott finally said, voice cracking.
"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison asked her former lover. She shook her head. "There's always hope."
"Not for me," Scott retaliated, "Not for Derek… not for Anabelle… not for Isaac and Delilah's son…"
"They weren't your fault. You know they weren't your fault."
"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed."
Stiles and Natalie stepped up to their friend. "Scott, just listen to me, okay?" the redhead said, tearing up, "This isn't you."
"This is someone inside your head telling you to do this," Stiles added, "Okay? Now-"
"What if it isn't?" Scott said, "What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?"
Just hearing him cry finally made everyone else cry. It was getting to Natalie the most. Whether this was all in his head or not, she was not prepared to lose one of the most important people in her life. Maybe it was her being selfish, but none of these people were allowed to die. Not on her watch. Not before Natalie. She was the one who was supposed to go.
Gripping onto Stiles's hand, she shook her head. "You know that's not true, Scott."
"Think about it, Natalie," said boy told her, "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You've always had it all, Natalie. Even when you were sick… you were always so loved, even by the cooler kids. Stiles and I knew you would leave us at some point." He looked at Stiles, tears running down his face. "You and me, we were... we were... we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all." He prepared himself to drop the road flare into the puddle of gasoline.
Neither Stiles or Natalie could let him do this. So they decided to step up.
"Scott, just listen to us, okay?" Natalie cried, "You're not no one. Okay? You're someone, you're- Scott, you're our best friend. Okay? And we need you."
A tear rolled down her boyfriend's face. "Scott, you're my brother. Alright, so…" Stiles squeezed Natalie's hand before they stepped into the gasoline together. "So if you're gonna do this, then..." he grabbed Scott's hand, the one that was holding the road flare, "I think you're just gonna have to take us with you. Alright?"
Scott let Stiles gently pull the road flare out of his hand. He then tossed it to the side. Now the trio were staring at each other, sobbing. Neither of them could live without each other. There was so much love between the three best friends. Despite all of the rough times they've gone through, including Scott being a werewolf, Stiles losing his mother, and Natalie developing cancer, they still stood strong together in the end. Until the end of time, they all had each other's backs. Nothing could ever change that.
Because they were so focused on each other, none of them noticed the wind making the abandoned road flare roll into the puddle of gasoline. Zach eyes widened as it caught on fire.
"No!"
He, Allison, and Lydia ran towards the trio and pushed them away just in time before the fire exploded. Stiles and Natalie held onto each other, shielding their significant other from the roaring flame. If that didn't knock Scott back into reality, they didn't know what would.
Even Zach and Lydia were holding onto each other. Head buried in the boy's chest, Lydia couldn't help but look back at the fire. A shrill scream rang in her ears. Much to her horror, a hooded figure with torn skin and a disfigured face appeared and then quickly disappeared right before her eyes.
What in the hell…
After Isaac found Delilah after the explosion that night, they all decided to sleep on the bus and away from the evil motel. Scott, Zach, and Boyd were in their own seats while Stiles and Natalie, Allison and Lydia, and Isaac and Delilah were paired up. Stiles had his back against the side of the bus with his girlfriend between his legs and her back pressed against his chest. His arms were wrapped around her waist as hers rested on top of his. While not the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements, Natalie still felt safe and secure being in Stiles's arms.
That was how Coach and the rest of the students found them the next morning. He shook his head in disbelief. Stupid teenagers…
"I don't want to know," he bellowed, waking the troupe up, "I really don't want to know, but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!"
In a file line, the students boarded the bus. To the trio's surprise, Ethan took a seat next to Scott. He sighed.
"I don't know what happened last night," he said, "but I'm pretty sure you saved my life."
"Uh, just so you know," Natalie spoke up, gesturing to herself and Stiles, "we're the ones who saved your life. Just in case details were important to you-"
"So I'm gonna give you something," Ethan continued, ignoring the redhead, "We're pretty sure Derek and Anabelle are still alive."
Holy shit. The trio exchanged glances.
"But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack…"
"And kills his own," Scott recalled.
"Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him," Ethan finished, "That's the way it works."
"You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric," Stiles told him, "just FYI." But Ethan had already got up and walked to the back of the bus. Natalie patted her boyfriend's shoulder.
Coach started making his way back to the bus as well. As Lydia watched him, she noticed something strange on his shirt. Some sort of black powder left a stain whenever his whistle swayed side to side. Her eyes widened when she thought about what it could have been.
"Hey, Ethan, I wanted to-"
"Coach, can I see your whistle for a second?" Lydia asked, already pulling the whistle over his head when he walked by.
He stammered in confusion. "Hey, Eth-" he pointed to the strawberry blonde. "I'm gonna need that back. Ethan..."
Lydia sat back down in front of Allison, gaining her other friends' attention. She cupped her hands around the whistle and blew into it. When she looked down at her hand, more of that powder had spilled out of the whistle onto it.
"Wolfsbane," she confirmed.
"So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus," Zach said, "Scott, Isaac, Boyd, Delilah-"
"And Ethan," Lydia added.
"We all inhaled it," Scott realized.
"You were all poisoned by it," Allison said.
Stiles nodded his head. "So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it."
Reaching over to her Lydia, Natalie took the whistle. "Let me just see that really quick." She leaned over Stiles to push down the window. Using her pitching skills, Natalie threw the whistle out of the window. Coach was quick to yell at her.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Henderson!"
The whistle was already on the dirt and the bus drove away, finally getting these teenagers out of this god forsaken place.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you think! Also, please read and review the other two stories in the saga, Scars and No One Else. I will post regardless but reviews definitely motivate me to write faster! I'll be sure to update soon! Xoxo, Maddie