AN: Okay, so I decided that the hiatus isn't going to happen NOW, but it may or may not happen soon, depending. I found myself unable to make you guys wait because ya'll are so sweet and awesome. So here I am. Updating as usual. (:
Disclaimer: Don't own TW. Only my OC: Zarina.
"Boo," I said as I slammed the door to Stiles' car after getting inside. He jumped up and hit his head on the roof of the car with a yell.
"Jesus Christ! Zarina," he groaned, rubbing his head. I laughed and kissed his cheek, apologetic.
"My bad."
He rolled his eyes and started driving towards the school, the streetlights along the sidewalks illuminating the road.
Mischief Night had finally come. It was our favorite day/night because we could prank anyone without any remorse. But it was also Coach's birthday, which meant we could and would mess with him.
Stiles parked the jeep in the back lot and we hurried up to the double doors. I easily picked the lock with a bobby pin, the door swinging open freely afterwards.
Stiles and I locked hands as we sprinted through the halls quietly, heading for Finstock's office. As we entered the locker room, Stiles called Scott, putting the phone on speaker.
"Get your ass down here now," Stiles demanded immediately. "We have a job to do."
"Dude, I'm already in bed," Scott complained. "And aren't we getting a little old for this?"
"Of course not!" I hissed out.
"We do this for coach," Stiles added.
"I thought we did this to coach," Scott laughed.
"Whatever, oaky? You know he needs this," Stiles insisted as we shined out flashlights in the empty room. "He lives for this stuff. He loves it."
"But it's the middle of the night," Scott groaned. I huffed and helped Stiles take out the bag he'd set up with his equipment during the school day.
"Twelve fifteen, actually. Which means it's after midnight and officially Mischief Night/Day," Stiles handed me a drill and I stared at it wide eyed. He shrugged. "And, by perfectly awesome coincidence, it also happens to be coach's birthday."
He continued pulling out tools and I set the drill down gently, either horrified or amused by how hard my boyfriend was working for this.
"So if you are not down here in five seconds, I will destroy you. Okay? And I mean five, four, three, two-" We both whirled around to face Scott, who was standing behind us. His eyes were bright red and he looked like an actual Alpha. I yelped and Stiles fell back into his locker.
"One," Scott finished, grinning as his eyes returned to normal.
"I hate you," Stiles whimpered as I rubbed my forehead. Scott helped Stiles up sheepishly and I smacked his arm weakly.
"You're horrible," I said, pouting mockingly and he just chuckled. "Seriously. You suck."
"Yeah, sure. Let's just do this, yeah?" Scott brushed me off, heading towards Finstock's office with Stiles. I grinned lightly and followed them, completely ready to give coach the prank of a lifetime.
The next morning, I hopped out of my brother's car and began walking to school when I saw Scott and Stiles standing in front of the twins. I raised an eyebrow as I approached them.
"-that's kind of a change of pace for you guys. Usually, you're just hurting, maiming, and killing," Stiles was saying and I narrowed my eyes at the twins.
"We need a pack," Ethan told him.
"We need an Alpha," Aiden clarified.
"Yeah…." My voice rose in pitch as I trailed off. "Absolutely not. But that's hilarious."
"Seriously, you two should join a comedy club," Stiles pitched in from next to me.
"You came to us for help. We helped," Ethan reminded us.
"You beat his face into a bloody pulp," Stiles mused. "That's not helping. That's like the completely opposite of helping."
"More like counter-productive," I drawled out.
"Why would I say yes?" Scott asked.
"We'd give you strength. We'd make you more powerful," Aiden explained. "There's not reason to say no."
"I can think of one," Isaac's voice overlapped him as he walked up to us. I sighed internally. This wasn't going to end well. He looked down at the twins, arms crossed over his chest. "Like the two of you holding Derek's claws while Kali impaled Boyd. In fact, I don't know why we're not impaling them right now."
"You want to try?" Ethan growled, eyes flashing dangerously. Isaac was about to follow his lead, but Scott caught him by the wrist.
"Sorry, but they don't trust you. And neither do I," Scott admitted.
I sent the twins a smug smirk, waving my fingers teasingly at them as I grabbed Stiles' hand and led the boys away from them. As we walked towards the double doors, I stopped abruptly when the image of a man hiding inside coach's office, clutching a stapler, flashed behind my eyes. Stiles bumped into my back and steadied himself.
"What's up?" he asked as Scott walked up next to us, the two of them eyeing me curiously. "Zarina?"
"Oh!" I snapped out of my thoughts. "It's nothing. Just worried about getting pranked."
I laughed nervously, hoping to throw them off. Naturally, it didn't work, but they played along as we continued into the hallways together.
As soon as we opened the two doors, a toilet paper roll shot at us, causing us all to move out of the way.
"Hey- that's my face!" Stiles called out, rolling his eyes, but walked alongside Scott and I, patting our friend's shoulder with his free hand. "Good decision, buddy. Good Alpha decision."
"I hope so," Scott replied.
"Oh, you know so," I shot back, grinning.
Stiles narrowly avoided something on the floor with a small 'oh' and released my hand to unlock his locker. Scott and I leaned on separate sides of his locker, waiting.
Stiles and I both noticed Scott staring at someone, so we turned our heads toward them, doing a double take when we realized it was Kira.
"What are you looking at?" I questioned slowly.
"Me?" Scott asked innocently.
"You."
"You looking at her?" Stiles continued, jerking his head in Kira's direction.
"Her?" Scott played dumb as Stiles looked around the hallway cautiously before stuffing eggs in his locker. "Who, her?"
"Her her. Kira. You like her?"
"No. I mean, yeah, yeah, she's okay. She's new."
"So, ask her out," I prodded encouragingly.
"No."
"Yes. Now." Stiles slammed his fist on his locker to shut it firmly and the three of us started to walk again.
"Right now?" Scott sounded unsure, looking at me.
"Right now, Scott," Stiles intervened. "I don't think you get it yet. You're an Alpha, okay? You are the apex predator. Everyone wants you, y'know? You're like the hot girl that everyone wants."
Stiles and I rounded on him so we stood in front of him as he looked at the two of us incredulously. Isaac walked up next to me just as Scott spoke.
"The hot girl?"
"You are the hottest girl," the two of us said together, pointing at him as we walked away towards class. I gave Scott a small grin over my shoulder as we left and I vaguely heard what he said.
"I'm the hot girl," he nodded with a smile.
"Yes, you are," Isaac agreed and the two of them laughed together.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Coach's frustrated yell came from his office.
I didn't bother to hide my proud smile as Scott and Stiles did the same. I poked Stiles' back and he looked over at me. We fist-bumped as Finstock walked into the classroom.
"You think it's funny that every Halloween, my house gets egged?" Finstock ranted, fists slamming on Scott's desk. Stiles threw his fist in the air and I found my leg bouncing up and down in excitement. "A man's house is supposed to be his castle. Mine's a freakin' omelet."
He turned to his desk and found a present on top. Finstock slowly approached it. "Oh, this? We're gonna do this again? I don't think so."
The coach then proceeded to smash the present onto the ground, stomping on it until the sound of breaking class sounded. His brow furrowed in confusion and he glanced at the class before crouching and picking up a broken piece of a mug.
"Happy Birthday. Love, Greenburg," he read from the card.
Somewhere behind me, I heard Greenburg himself let his head fall onto his desk with a slam. I felt bad for the guy. Coach's somewhat obsessive hatred for him was unfair.
Scott and I walked through the halls side by side, Stiles leaving us alone after promising to be back.
"That was extremely gratifying," I bemused as we walked, happily adjusting my backpack on my shoulder.
"Definitely," Scott agreed. "Are we ever going to stop loving this so much?"
I pretended to think before shaking my head. "Nope. Never."
We both chuckled, but he stopped, turning serious. "What'd you see earlier this morning?"
"What do you mean?" I questioned, feigning ignorance.
"Don't lie. You know you can't lie to me," he countered.
"Because you're my best friend or because your werewolf abilities give me away anyways?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Both," Scott answered nonchalantly. I sighed, about to tell him, when I saw Stiles running up to us from his place by his father. Obviously, something was up.
"Everything okay?" I inquired.
"It's a long story," he said quickly. "But I need your help."
I glanced at Scott, who nodded in understanding. I bit my lip and Stiles reached for my hand as he led me towards the east stairwell. Lydia, Allison, and Isaac were waiting for us there and the five of us immediately descended the staircase.
"The shrapnel bomber, the one that killed all those kids, Barrow. He's somewhere nearby," Stiles exaplined. "He told Melissa at the hospital that he blew up the bus because the kids' eyes were glowing."
"Wait, Barrow went after kids with glowing eyes?" Isaac questioned. "Are you positive that's what he said?"
"Yeah, no one knows how he woke up from anesthesia. Just that when they opened him up, the found a tumor full of live flies," Stiles confirmed. "Which, by any other circumstance would be any kinds of awesome-"
"Actually, in no circumstance would that be awesome at all," I cut him off, pursing my lips.
"Wait, did you say flies?" Lydia questioned from behind us, frozen in her spot. We all turned to her and she looked anxious.
"Lydia?" Allison stepped closer to her.
"All day, I've been hearing this sound. It's like this- this buzzing," she informed us.
"Like the sound of flies," Allison finished. Lydia nodded, a deep sigh leaving her mouth. We all started to approach her cautiously.
"Exactly like the sound of flies."
Then, a bright flash interrupted my vision and I saw a man hidden in the chemistry closet, holding what appeared to be multiple tools that could be used to make a bomb. Barrow.
I took a sharp intake of breath as I returned to reality, noticing that everyone was staring at me. I blinked rapidly, trying to refocus. Once I did, I glanced at all of them worriedly.
"We need to tell the cops. Now."
"Dad! Dad!" Stiles shouted as the two of us followed the sheriff down the stairs.
"Yeah?" he asked, facing us.
"You can't leave yet," Stiles said through his harsh breathing.
"We've got an eyewitness that puts Barrow by the train station."
"Let's go, Stilinski," Agent McCall called out.
"Whoa, whoa," Stiles held up his hands to stop him.
"Look, Mr. Stilinski, Lydia and I know he's here," I pleaded. "I saw him."
"In person?" he questioned and I pursed my lips.
"Well, not in person but-"
"They had a feeling. A supernatural feeling," Stiles cut in. "And whenever Zarina predicts this stuff, it's never wrong."
"Wait, Lydia wasn't on the chessboard," the sheriff commented.
"She is now," Stiles informed him.
"Kanima?"
"Um, Banshee," he corrected nervously.
"Oh, god," the sheriff sighed.
"I know, I know how it sounds. But basically it means that she can sense when someone's close to death," Stiles clarified.
"Can she sense that I'm about to kill you?" he looked pointedly at hius son.
"I don't know," his eyebrows furrowed as the two of us looked over at Lydia by the doorway. She waggled her fingers at us nonchalantly, a polite smile on her face. The sheriff waved back and looked at us.
"Alright, look. I'm not saying I don't believe, but right now, I'm going with eyewitness over Banshee," he admitted, stepping backwards. "We're leaving a few deputies here. The school's on lockdown till three. Nobody comes in, nobody comes out. Kids, that's the best I've got right now. That's the best I can give you two."
"You're leaving us here? Your son and your practically daughter-in-law? That is not- that is the worst-" But his father had already gone off with McCall. I groaned loudly and tilted my head to him, frowning deeply.
"We're screwed," I huffed out. "Majorly screwed. If I die at school, I'm going to haunt the shit out of this place."
"We aren't going to die," Stiles deadpanned. "Calm down. I already have another plan in mind."
The two of us went up to Lydia, who had an expectant look on her face as she glanced at me. I shook my head lightly as Stiles talked.
"We're going to have to find him on our own."
Our little trio met Allison in a classroom and after a few minutes of rushed explanation, she was breaking out of the school to get hom.
"The bestiary is literally a thousand pages. If I'm going to find anything about flies coming out of people's bodies, it could take me all night," she warned, one leg out the window.
"Remember, the word in archaic Latin for fly is musca," Lydia told her.
"Got it," Allison muttered and then dropped down the window.
"Where do we start?" the redhead turned to Stiles and I.
"Upstairs," I instructed and Stiles' eyes looked up at the clock. We had less than forty-five minutes to do this.
"We gotta go," Stiles grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs to the second floor, Lydia close behind.
The art room was completely barren when we stepped inside, some easels set up around the area haphazardly.
"Scott and Isaac are in the basement, right?" Lydia inquired.
"Yeah, with Ethan and Aiden," Stiles nodded. "The plan is, we meet in the middle in the boiler room."
I looked at a drawing someone had made of a large smoke cloud. Boiler room. Explosions. Glowing eyes. It connected.
"All of the wolves," I muttered, pulling on Stiles' hand to stop him from moving further. "All of the wolves, who have glowing eyes, are in the boiler room."
"Oh my god," he realized. "An engineer could us a boiler room to blow up the whole school."
"We have to get them out of there," Lydia said softly.
"We have to get the entire student body out of here," I suggested urgently.
"How do we do that?" Lydia questioned.
Stiles' face had that knowing look on it that I so often hated before he pulled me along with him to the main floor. We skidded to a stop in front of the fire alarm.
"You sure you want to do this?" I bit my lip.
"If you're positive he's still in here, then I'm going to do anything to keep people safe," he shrugged and pulled the alarm. The loud bell rang in our ears as people rushed out of the halls and to the quad.
The two of us looked a Lydia, whose smile fell off her face as she looked over our shoulders. I slowly turned my head to my left and saw Finstock glowering at Stiles.
"Wow," Stiles flinched.
Coach grabbed his ear and dragged him down the hall so harshly, our hands lost connection. Lydia and I followed the two out the door.
"Pulling a fire alarm on Mischief Night is one thing. Doing it when there's a mass murderer spotted nearby is insane!" I heard Finstock yell from Lydia and I's place by the doorway. "If I was four years younger, I'd punch you."
"What? Coach, that doesn't even make sense," Stiles intervened.
"Oh, well, it does to me!" he finished before stomping off into the building. Lydia and I went up to Stiles, who was rubbing his ear gingerly.
"There," Stiles gestured to the werewolves a small distance away and I took Stiles' wrist in my hand as we ran over to them.
"We didn't find anything," Aiden revealed.
"Not even a scent," Scott admitted.
"It's three o'clock, so school's over," Stiles pointed out. "It there was a bomb, wouldn't he have set it off by now?"
"Does that mean everyone's safe?"
The boys looked at Lydia and I expectantly. We just shared a frustrated look. Barrow was still in there somewhere. We knew it, but couldn't prove it. Not anymore.
"We don't…we don't know," I sighed out, looking down at my feet in shame.
My feet were kicked up behind me as I laid on my stomach on Stiles' bed. He had nailed pictures to his wall with yarn attached to them, much like an investigation board in a police station. Even with everything going so horribly wrong, he was still doing his best to figure something out.
"So, what do these colors mean?" I spoke softly.
"You know what they mean," he raised an eyebrow at me. "We spent like two days learning this stuff together."
I giggled, remembering the long hours we spent reading police codes out of his father's handbook. "Yeah, but I forgot about the yarn part. It didn't seem relevant at the time, so I blanked out while you were teaching it to me."
He rolled his eyes playfully. "They're the different stages of investigations. Green is solved, yellow is to be determined, and blue is just…pretty."
"And the red one?" I looked down at the ball of yarn nearby.
"Unsolved."
I glanced around the room slowly, "Um, you only have red on the board."
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you," he said, turning his head to me.
I grinned slightly and started wrapping the red yarn around my finger as I thought.
"Did you get in trouble for pulling the fire alarm?" I looked at him from behind my eyelashes.
"Detention everyday for the rest of the week. But I don't care. We were on to something," he nodded slowly as his eyes maneuvered around his board.
"I was the one who said I saw him in the building. I told everyone he was still inside. For all I know, he could've just been in another closet in some other place," I pursed my lips guiltily. "I'm so stupid. I shouldn't have said anything."
Stiles knelt in front of me. "Stop that. You're not stupid. Zarina, you saw something and Lydia heard something. He was there. Even if you were wrong about everything you've ever said, I'd believe you each time," Stiles said softly, unwrapping the yarn from my finger and kissing my hand. "Hell, if you wanted me to, I'd go over there and search the entire school till the sun came up."
I smiled timidly at him and he returned it, not showing any signs of doubt or uncertainty. My eyes shifted slightly to the sharpie in his hand and his followed it. The thought occurred to us at once.
"We have to go back to the school," he told me and I nodded, swinging my legs off the bed and following him into his jeep.
We rushed into the chemistry lab, me in front as we stumbled up the stairs. Once we entered the lab, Stiles and I immediately went to the storage closet and opened it. Too easily.
"Um, that was supposed to be locked," Lydia pointed out.
"Yeah, I know," Stiles agreed.
"It smells like chemicals," Lydia commented.
"This is where I saw him," I realized, seeing the blood splattered on the floor and the familiar set up. "In my vision. He was standing right here. I was right."
"That's probably why they couldn't smell him," Stiles deducted. "The chemicals were blocking his scent."
"Why don't I feel good about this?" Lydia asked and we turned to meet her nervous gaze.
"Probably because he was here to kill somebody," Stiles reasoned.
"But who?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," I licked my lips and left the closet, looking around the classroom.
"There has to be something in here," Stiles mused to himself as we separated to inspect the classroom.
I walked up to the chalkboard and looked at the numbers closely.
"Hey, Lydia, are these atomic numbers?" I called out to her. She and Stiles went up to me as she nodded.
"Is it a formula?" Stiles questioned.
"Not really," Lydia answered, taking chalk between her fingers. "Nineteen's potassium."
"Fifty-three is iodine," I recognized the familiar numbers.
"And eighty-eight is radium," she completed. "The first two make potassium iodide." She wrote a K next to the number.
"Potassium is K?" Stiles piped up.
"From Kalium, the scientific neo-Latin name," she explained as she marked the next number with an I and the final number with an R-A.
"Kira," I muttered, reading the coded message. Someone had told Barrow to target Kira. I just hoped Scott would be able to protect her.
"Scott," I slapped his cheek as he lay on the street, unconscious. "Scott!" After one more slap, Scott sat up, gasping. A small cut was on his forehead.
"Barrow, he- he took Kira!"
I sat up and nodded slowly. "Yeah, we know. He was after her the whole time. It's a long story."
Scott got to his feet and dialed Isaac's number. His voice was frantic as he talked, but Isaac didn't seem to know anything.
"Alright, thanks," Scott said finally, hanging up as he walked back over to the three of us. "We have to think of something; he's gonna kill her."
"I knew he was there," Lydia mentioned softly. "We did. But, how did I know that? Zarina saw it, but how did I know?"
"Well, you heard the flies," Stiles reminded her.
"Do you hear anything now?" I inquired softly. She looked away.
"Nothing," she answered. "I feel like I can do this. But I don't know what to do. It's like it's on the tip of my tongue, but I don't know how to trigger it. I just- I swear to god, it literally makes me want to scream." She walked away from us a few steps.
"Okay, then scream. Lydia, scream," Stiles commanded after a moment of silence.
She took a deep breath and all of a sudden, my hands were clapping themselves over my ears to block out her high-pitched wail. It took a few seconds for her to stop, and when she did, a loud ringing sounded in my eardrums. I shared a look with my two best friends as Lydia looked up at the streetlight.
"It's not flies," Lydia understood finally, whirling around to face us. "It's electricity."
"Wait a second, Barrow was an electrical engineer," Stiles waved his hand in the air. "He worked at a power substation."
"What substation?" Scott prodded desperately.
"The only one in town," I replied knowingly. "It's on the other side of town, but we can make it."
Scott hopped onto his bike while the three of us scurried into Stiles' jeep. He sped down the street, weaving through the streets so fast I might've gotten whiplash. I called Stiles' dad while I was at it, telling him where he had to meet us.
Soon, we pulled into the substation and I got out with Stiles, tossing him his bat as we did so. Lydia stuck her head out of the passenger's side window.
"Stay here and wait for the cops," Stiles commanded.
"What? Why?"
"I only have one bat," he responded, holding up the weapon.
Then, we rushed into the station. Stiles soon got too far away from me for me to see him, so I just followed in his general direction, turning corners and weaving through pipes. Moonlight poured in from the large windows to my right and suddenly, the warehouse burst into sparks.
I tripped as the ground shook and I saw a wire swing towards me. I rolled to the side, but the sparks grazed my leg, sending a shockwave up and down my spine. I convulsed in pain, pressing my forehead to the concrete floor as my jaw clenched.
Then, blackness.
When I came to, someone was shaking me and calling out my name. I felt the cool air blow past my body and I guessed I had been taken outside.
"-rina!" Stiles' voice registered in my head. "Wake up! C'mon!"
I groaned as my eyes fluttered open slowly, blurry as I tried to make out his face. My head was in his lap and he was grasping my arms tightly.
"Oh thank god," he whispered, pressing his lips to mine before pulling away.
"What happened?" I croaked, lifting my head. He helped me sit up and I saw the sheriff along with Scott, Kira, and Lydia standing a few feet away.
"We'll explain later," Stiles told me softly. "But Barrow's dead and Scott's dad wants to ask us some questions."
"Seriously?" I swallowed thickly. "Okay, just give me a second."
They all nodded in understanding and I rubbed my leg cautiously, wincing as I brushed past the part that the sparks had touched. It wasn't burned very badly. First degree at most, thankfully.
I then rolled my neck around to crack it and breathed in before trying to stand. Stiles grasped my waist as a support system and I was able to get onto my feet, albeit shakily.
"You alright?" Scott asked as I slowly walked over to them.
"I will be, it's just sore," I replied, though the pain was somewhat worse than I let on. It still felt like the shock was present as my body shook, but I knew it wasn't really there.
"If you need to go to a hospital, you tell me, alright? Supernatural being or not, getting electrocuted is serious," the sheriff brandished a finger at me warningly and I smiled lightly, nodding, though I was confused.
My Oracle abilities didn't include healing, but the electrocution hadn't killed me or even fatally injured me. I shrugged it off, accepting the fact that the shock just wasn't as bad as it could've been. But then the voice spoke and it felt like the world collapsed from under me.
Your time is ticking, Oracle. You should hope that your little boyfriend isn't as weak as he looks. The longer you keep me out, the more he suffers. Remember that.
AN: So like I said, no hiatus YET, and maybe not ever but you never know. School sucks, majorly. So bad. SOSOSOSO bad.
Ya'll should check out my tumblr, too btw. It's: sstuhlinski
Thank you all for the massive support and love you've been giving me. It warms my heart and it's partially the reason why I decided against the hiatus, so yeah. Keep that up.
Feelings about the chapter?
xx.