A/N: So I decided that I am going to just write the story, or at least know for sure where I am going with it, before publishing. From now on. This is a struggle, and I apologize for that. Since it has been so long since my last update, going back to read through the story once more might be for the best. Again, so sorry for the slow updating. Life is so hectic. Love ya'll!
Here is a recap just in case. If you don't need it, skip this paragraph. So far Kate Argent has returned because she was attacked by a strange creature much bigger than a werewolf. She kidnapped Stiles as a way to make a deal with Scott for the pack's help. The thing has killed only a few people, but every night it does, Stiles has a dream where he sees it happening but he didn't tell anyone except Scott after he was kidnapped. Stiles figures he is somehow connected to or controlling this beast because of his dreams and because where these people have been killed are places that are special to him. Before this chapter, Stiles had a dream where he was the thing and killed a woman on his mother's grave. In the last chapter Lydia dreamt that she saw it kill the same woman on the same grave, and then she saw Stiles turn into it before waking up near the cemetery. She went to that same grave and found the dead woman, which means at least part of her dream was real. And here we are. Hope enjoy this chapter despite my flaws, thanks!
Brace yourselves
-Kenxi
Although it was still far too early to be awake, the boys had stayed up talking anyway. Through an unspoken agreement they had both decided that neither could sleep with everything going on, and that it was safer if they weren't so susceptible to nightmares.
They were just revisiting the time Stiles had convinced Scott to steal Coach's whistle when there was a sharp knock at the door.
Stiles swiped a hand over his face. It had been about an hour since Lydia had called, him telling her to talk with them later. Honestly, though, he was partially surprised it had taken Lydia this long to get here.
After a shared glance at one another, the boys made their way downstairs to the door. Mama Stilinski had already gone back to bed, so they tried to be as quiet as possible. Stiles swung the door open.
Before he could even greet her, Lydia launched herself into his arms, nearly causing him to fall over. Stiles grabbed the wall behind him to steady himself with one hand and wrapped his other arm around her, surprised at the dampness of her long hair. "Sheesh, Lydia. It's nice to see you, but it's not like you haven't seen me in the last twenty-four hours."
When her laugh came out harsh, forced, and half sobbing, that's when he knew something awful had happened. Stiles pulled her away from him slowly to look at her.
Big green eyes greeted him, glossy with tears. They were rimmed with red, so he knew she had been crying for some time. Grass dotted her hair and clothes…was she wearing a nightgown? A tan jacket way too big for her was probably all that kept her from freezing. His father's sheriff jacket. She had spoken with his dad? And she was shivering, but for some reason, Stiles sensed it was not just from the cold.
He brought his head up to see Scott watching her with the same expression Stiles himself felt across his face. The same question of what had happened.
"It was a dream," she whispered, hands grasping Stiles' arms tightly as if he would disappear. "Or, I thought it was." Well that didn't exactly explain the grass or his dad's jacket, but it did explain the phone call some.
Another shared look with Scott, who then asked, "What happened?"
Stiles gently pulled her toward the living room. She looked so scared that he was afraid she might break. Lydia may have been a Banshee with sharp wit and bravery, but there was something about her that always made him want to protect her.
She slowly lowered herself down onto the couch, still holding onto Stiles like her life depended on it. Or his did. "A girl was chased by that monster who is killing people, and he killed her." She gripped his wrists tighter. "You were the beast, Stiles. I can't remember everything exactly, but I watched you transform into it, and when you did I felt our connection break. It felt like when Allison died. I just knew that you didn't exist anymore. I still can't feel you."
Scott was sitting in the chair beside them, his dark eyes huge. "But it was just a dream, Lydia." Stiles shot an alarmed look his way at that.
Dude!
Scott spread his hands out like, What?
"I woke up from the dream," Lydia continued, her voice sounding far away, "to find myself near the cemetery where I had seen the woman killed. After I called you, I went right to where I had seen her body in the dream, right by your mother's grave." Stiles felt his jaw tighten as she suddenly brought her head up to look at him. Tears began falling from her cheeks.
"Her head smashing into the stone of her grave was what killed that girl. And when I walked over there, I saw her. Lying in blood on the grass just as she was in my dream. Stiles, my dream was real. It happened." She ducked her head. "I called the police after that. I told your dad my dream, but not the part about you."
Stiles sucked in a breath and pulled his hands away from her. "Good."
"Stiles," Scott warned. "
"No, no it is good. Because I'm not the monster, Lydia. I was here, with Scott, this whole time. But, you want to know what is interesting? I had the same dream as you, right before you called me. Not exactly the same, though. No, of course not. Because instead of watching her get killed, I killed her myself. I had claws and everything. So no, I am not that thing, but I do believe I am controlling it. People are dying because of me—again. No surprise there, right? Of course not. Because—"
"Stiles," came out a low growl from Scott's voice. Stiles saw his eyes flash red for a moment. Voice back to normal, Scott said, "You're freaking out. Just calm down."
Standing abruptly from the couch, Stiles threw his hands in the air. "This is calm. Some sort of animal is running around, killing people when I tell it too. Of course I'm calm."
"Why would you say that?" Lydia asked in disbelief. Clearly she was still in shock.
Stiles resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Scott was right. He was freaking out. Lydia had just given him proof that Stiles was at fault for these deaths. How could he not freak out? "Where these people have died are all connected to me somehow. Important places to me. And then I've also been having dreams about every person who has died, approximately the time they have been killed." He offered a fake smile and ran his hands through his hair to keep them from shaking.
"Now you tell me that you feel as if I have died and see me in a Banshee dream that I am the monster. I think this should be cause for concern, don't you think?"
There was a moment of silence where both Lydia and Scott just stared at the ground. Stiles just paced the floor, feeling awfully jittery. Finally Lydia wiped her eyes and stood up. Surprisingly, her stance was strong and the spark of her regular self returned in her eyes. "You have dreams about people dying, and you're just telling me now?"
Stiles stopped pacing. "Yeah, about that—"
A hard pounding on the door stopped him in his tracks. He made a move towards it, but Lydia grabbed his hand to hold him back. "Wait," she said tersely. Fear laced the word.
Scott was just about to open the door himself when it was suddenly thrown open. Malia allowed herself in and turned immediately to Scott. "It's here."
"We know," Stiles responded. "It just killed someone about an hour ago."
Malia shook her head fiercely, and her eyes washed over him for a second, pain/anger flashing in them at Stiles' hand still in Lydia's. Stiles would worry about her feelings later though. She focused on Scott once more. "No. It's here now, at the hospital. It's like a warzone over there. We need to hurry—everyone else is on their way or there already."
They all stood frozen.
"Now!" Malia barked at their blank faces. Everyone was so exhausted, and the repeated shocks of the night were not helping anyone. What was going on?
They took separate cars, thank goodness. Scott, the saint he was, offered to drive Malia while Stiles would take Lydia. It made him wonder if Lydia had walked all the way over here from the cemetery after talking to his dad.
Crap. His dad.
Hysteria almost made him laugh out loud at the idea of telling his dad what was going on here. Stiles himself hardly knew. The creature was only attacking people in places that were important to Stiles, only when he was asleep. So Stiles had to be controlling it somehow, right? But it didn't make sense because he didn't want anyone dead. He didn't even know what was going on, but it was clear something was. He just needed to figure out how and why.
A hand on his shoulder brought him from his thoughts. "Slow down, Stiles. Don't kill us on the way to our deaths." Lydia smiled at him, even though it was weak. Both of them were pretty weak, now that he thought about it, to be going towards the evil killing machine. Lydia may not have been exactly human, but she was just as vulnerable as he was. It wasn't like she could scream everyone's brains out as a weapon. And Stiles didn't even have his baseball bat anymore.
Yet they still always managed to make their way towards danger anyway.
While Stiles did ease his foot on the gas of his beloved Jeep, he didn't focus any less on getting to the hospital as fast as possible. What they humans would do when they got there, he had no clue.
They did arrive. In one piece, too. Nurses, doctors, and even patients were running out of the hospital screaming. Why did the monsters always attack the hospital anyway? Or the school, for that matter? The woods would be a better place to kill someone. Honestly.
The thoughts felt strange in his head. Why was he even thinking about that?
"Stiles," Lydia reached out and took his hand again. Third time tonight. It made Stiles wonder what it must have been like to see what she had seen that scared her so much.
The two were standing outside of Stiles' poorly parked Jeep in front of the hospital. Thinking once more about how human both of them were, he hesitated going inside. The rest of the pack was probably there. Fighting. How useful would the brains of the group be against a giant wolf-like animal?
He thought about all the times they had saved everyone else's lives though, and, with a smile, he raced inside the hospital, pulling Lydia Martin alongside him.
00000
It really was a warzone.
Damage ran along the walls as if some places had been hit with a sledgehammer. Wounded people lay on the ground, and others tried to help or ran outside to save themselves. The beast had already been through here.
Why would it come here anyway? Stiles was awake, too. It didn't make sense. He didn't really have a connection to the hospital other than—
His heart thudded against his chest. "Stay here," he spoke hoarsely to Lydia. "I-I think I know why it's here."
"What?" she folded her arms across her chest. She still wore her nightgown which made her look more like a patient at the hospital than a savior of it. "You are not going without me."
He shook his head. "I have to do this. I swear I know what I'm doing." He didn't. "But I have to go alone. You need to help these people. Get them to safety." Something in his tone must have stopped her.
"I can't lose you, Stiles. Not after what I just saw. What I felt."
Stiles looked away, knowing that her big green eyes would stop him from leaving if he made contact with them. "You won't lose me. Really. I'll be right back."
She finally let out a breath, a sign that she had caved. "It's still here, Stiles. Be. Careful."
"Please. I'm the Master of Careful."
A smile danced on the corners of her mouth. He turned away, but as he did he heard her say, "More like the Master of Dangerous Situations." Okay, maybe.
He stepped through the hospital quickly enough, but it all felt too slow. The elevators weren't working, so he walked up flights of stairs. The ripped walls and trashed utilities were everywhere he went. A few times he stopped to help someone in need. No one had died that he'd seen which was a relief because it would be his fault.
Finally he made his way into her room. His mother's room. The one she had died in. It was so long ago, but he still remembered the room she had been in. He still remembered watching her die, among other things. Few moments of clarity had remained with her those last months. It still haunted him.
Looking around he immediately decided the monster wasn't here. Had it already gone upstairs from this floor? That must have been where his friends were since he hadn't seen them on his way up. He'd only passed floors of chaos. Few were left on this floor.
Then Stiles heard a small cough. It sounded as if it came from his mother's old room. Was someone still in here? He walked farther inside to see.
A small head appeared from behind the edge of the hospital bed. "Don't hurt me," came a voice. Very young and definitely a girl.
"I won't hurt you. It's okay, you can come out." Stiles kept his voice soft and reassuring. It worked.
The girl stood up. Her eyes were huge and frightened. "You'll help me?"
"Of course. Let's get out of here." He needed to get back to Lydia. Find their friends.
"Oh good." Stiles froze. Her words were suddenly confident without a sign of fear in them. It caused him to draw back slightly.
"No, don't worry. We can help each other, Stiles." The little girl walked towards him from across the room. She was grinning in such a malicious way, it didn't seem possible for such a young girl. Something was definitely wrong here. His blood felt electric with how aware he was now.
Stiles slowly backed up towards the door. He cautiously asked, "How do you know my name?"
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I know your name. You and I have been working together for a while. Couple weeks now, isn't it? I'm the supernatural creature you've been looking for, obviously."
Crap. The thing was a shapeshifter? A little girl?
He certainly hadn't expected that.
He turned to run out the door, but it suddenly flew shut, trapping them both inside the room where his mother died. Did she do that? How…?
"Yes, a shapeshifter," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Stiles glanced around for any sort of weapon. Wait, had she just answered his own thoughts?
She was about three feet away from him now. With her height, she came up to about his hip. "For someone so smart, you really are quite dumb, Stiles. You came up here alone to, what, save another victim?"
"Honestly? I hadn't really thought that far ahead." He was stalling. His confusion and fear slowed his mind, and he couldn't think clearly enough to figure out what he was going to do. Things were looking pretty bad right now.
"Please. I'm not going to kill you." Creepy, hearing a child say that. "Why would I ruin such a perfect working relationship?"
Seeing there was no way out, Stiles finally stopped fidgeting enough to ask, "Who are you?"
She laughed. A high pitched, shrill laugh that would probably haunt the rest of his already haunted dreams. "I think the better question is 'what am I?'"
Okay. So a human who turned into a monster at will. A were-something? Were-bearwolf?
"Not quite what you're thinking, dear. I am not a monster." The face of her suddenly appeared to melt, before morphing into a different one. Her body grew until she was about his height. Dark, shoulder length hair. Eyes that were the same as his own. Stiles stopped breathing. It was his mother.
"Mom?" It came out in a gasp. He could barely breathe.
"Don't worry, Stiles dear. You're mother has not come back from the grave." She was now right in front of him, smiling so tenderly it made him remember all those times she read to him. Back when she was healthy. Alive.
"Okay," Stiles shakily replied. "What are you?" He had pushed back so hard against the wall, he wondered if he might actually break through it. Part of him longed to stay with this vision of his mom, and the other part yelled at him for being so utterly weak.
His mother was glowing with happiness. She touched his face gently, her hands soft and warm. Stiles closed his eyes, recalling all so many times where she had done this very thing. He felt a tear streak down his face. When he finally did open his eyes, his mother was gone. Another person had replaced her.
Long brown hair. Dark eyes. Slim, strong body.
Malia.
"I'm anyone or anything I choose to be," Malia said haughtily. She pressed a hand on his shoulder and another against the wall behind him. She leaned forward and forced her lips against his own. Stiles was too shocked to do anything other than let it happen. His thoughts were so jumbled, he wondered if he could even tell up from down anymore. It wasn't real. This wasn't Malia, right? There was no way Malia was the beast. What was going on?
She pulled away, and tilted her head to the side, staring into his eyes. "Or would you rather someone else?" Once more her face shifted, her height shortened. Brown hair turned strawberry-blonde. Eyes turned green. Lydia.
"I know this one has only kissed you once, but it was good, wasn't it?" Lydia's face asked. Lips pressed against his again, this time as Lydia's. She felt so real that it was all Stiles could do not to react to the kiss, to her. Gathering his nerve, he reached up and pushed her back.
"What are you doing?" Stiles breathed out. Lydia was rarely this close to him, even if it wasn't really her. It felt wrong. Even her clothes had changed into ones he'd seen her wear before.
The fake Lydia curled her lips into such a strange and unlike Lydia smile, it was all Stiles could do not to gawk at her. She brought one hand down so that both hands were on his shoulders, near his neck. "Whatever I want," came the hiss, and her lips came crashing into his once more.
A/N: Yep. Getting weird now! I was really thrown off when they brought something actually called The Beast in season five. Looking a lot like I pictured it. There is no relation though, as this takes place after season four, before season five. Please review! What do you think this supernatural thing is? What does it have to do with Stiles, and why is it even in Beacon Hills? These questions will be answered in the next chapter. Please review! And I will hopefully update much sooner. Thanks!
-Kenxi