AUTHOR'S NOTE: Um, prepare for the feels? I've never written anything super emotional or traumatizing so this is a first for me. We find out Avery's secret so.. be prepared.

Motel California

Once everyone is settled back on the bus, Avery keeps her seat behind Boyd and Isaac seeing as Allison and Lydia ditched their car, and are now sitting with Scott and Stiles. From her seat behind the two wolves, she can see Lydia and Stiles with their heads together and talking. She briefly wonders what they're talking about but since she's exhausted and needs her rest for the meet, she texts them to see what's going on.

Apparently, they've come to the conclusion that a dark druid, a Darach, is behind the sacrifices/murders and then Lydia eagerly supplies her knowledge about how some ancient cultures sacrifice people in preparation for battle. Stiles then comes to the conclusion that the dark druid is also working against and not with the alpha werewolves so things are inevitability about to get very real- very soon.

A war was on the horizon.

..

..

Night quickly falls upon them and Avery knows something is wrong. They should have been at their meet long ago and not coming to a stop at a sketchy looking motel called the Glen Capri. Coach Finstock practically flies off the bus, heading towards the main office of the place.

Avery follows Isaac and Boyd off the bus, coming to a stop right outside the vehicle where Lydia and Allison stand huddled together- all of them frowning up at the place that they are most likely about to sleep in.

Scott and Stiles soon exit the bus, Scott looking up at the place in false interest. "Uh, I've seen worse." He supplies in hopes of easing his friend's worries.

Both Avery and Stiles snort. "Where have you seen worse?"

Coach then appears and blows his whistle, cutting off whatever answer Scott was about to come up with. "Listen up! The meet has been pushed to tomorrow." He tells them, numerous room keys hanging from his hand. "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." Avery chuckles, hiding her amusement behind Isaac when Coach narrows his eyes at her. "You'll be pairing up so choose wisely." He holds out the keys to them as a few eager beavers snatch up some keys. "And since there's an odd number of you, one room will have three people in it."

"I call it!" Avery suddenly shouts, moving forward and daring anyone to fight her on it. "I'll bunk with two other people." She tells Coach as her eyes slide over to Allison and Lydia- letting him know that she already had a group in mind.

"Alright, well, you can bunk with your brother and his friend." Coach nods. Avery slumps at being denied the chance to room with her girl friends as Coach calls out to the rest of the students. "And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"

Everyone is grabbing up the remaining room keys from him and when Stiles moves to grab one, Avery catches him by the hood of his thin jacket. "But Coach," Avery says sweetly making Finstock suspiciously narrow his eyes at her. "-do you really want the Stilinski twins rooming together. Who knows what kind of mayhem we're going to cause." And simultaneously, Avery and Stiles grin innocently up at him, their grins growing into something far more creepier than innocent.

Coach visibly pales, his eyes darting over their shoulders. "Alright. Fine. Fine! You can room with whoever." He waves her off. "Just don't set the room on fire or anything."

Avery beams. "Thanks, Coach! And don't worry, if I set anything on fire, I'm eighty percent sure I know how to use a fire extinguisher."

Coach balks at that but Avery is already skipping towards Allison who's openly laughing and Lydia who's staring up shakily at the motel. "Lydia?"

"I don't like this place." Their friend says, eyes darting over the motel.

Allison turns to take another look at it. "I don't think the people who own this place like this place." She chuckles. "It's just for a night."

"A lot can happen in one night." Lydia murmurs.

Avery gulps, her arms breaking out with goosebumps at Lydia's matter-of-fact tone.

..

..

Walking into the room, the three girls drop their bags on the red carpeted floor.

"I can't believe we're actually sleeping here." Lydia groans.

"You only have yourselves to blame." Avery sing-songs as she takes in Allison and Lydia's look of disgust for the room. "If you wouldn't have stalked Scooby and his gang-"

"Then Scott wouldn't have been healed." Allison cuts her friend off.

"True." Avery shrugs. "But still. Your faults. Don't complain." She chuckles. "So who am I bunking with? Just an FYI, I'm a clinger when I sleep."

"You're with Allison." Lydia dead-pans. "I only cuddle after sex."

Avery snorts at Lydia's bluntness, moving towards the bed that Allison pointed to and drops on her back. "I don't even have a comeback for that."

Allison laughs as she bends down to dig through her bag for clothes. "I'm going to take a shower so you two play nice."

"Always." Avery yawns.

As Allison heads for the bathroom, Lydia scowls as she walks around the room, checking her bed to make sure it's decent enough for her. Moments later, Allison comes back out from the restroom.

"Can one of you go see if the lady at the desk has other towels? These in here smell funny."

"Sure. Why not." Lydia sighs. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Avery watches as Lydia gathers up their towels, sniffing them before pulling back and grimacing. "Oh, I'm definitely changing these out." As she makes her way to their room door, she looks back at Avery. "Coming?"

"Yeah. I'll be down in a bit."

Lydia nods, walking out their room to most likely raise hell if she doesn't get any new towels. Avery relaxes on the bed, closing her eyes for a bit before dragging herself up and heading out of the room to make sure Lydia doesn't cause anyone too much grief. By the time she steps out of her room, Boyd brushes passed her, gaze set forward and almost as if he's walking in a trance.

"Hey, Boyd? You alright?" Boyd doesn't answer- walking up to his room and entering without a word. "I'll take that as a maybe." She mumbles to no-one in particular.

Walking down the set of stairs to ground level, Avery catches her brother sneaking snacks out of a vending machine with a broken glass front. "Ooh, see-"

"Ahh!" Stiles yelps.

"-if they have any corn-nuts." She muses. "I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear your girl-ish scream." She grins as Stiles clutches at his chest, sunflower seeds and peanut butter crackers pressed between his torso and arms.

"Y-yeah. You do that." He gulps and starts to walk to the stairs.

Stiles glares at her as he keeps glancing over his shoulder, treats pressed to his chest as Avery laughs at him. Once he disappears into his room, Avery shakes her head in amusement and continues on towards the main office.

Stepping into the room, there's an elderly plump lady behind a desk and window , laughing manically with a stoic Lydia. "H-hey, is everything okay?"

Lydia turns slowly, eyes wide with disbelief. "Mhm." She licks her lips nervously. "This nice lady was just sharing a morbid fact with me about this place."

"Really? Like what?" Avery skips forward into the room, eyes darting down to a breathing tube that's stuck in the lady's throat, and offering her a smile.

"Oh just that this place has the highest number of guest suicides." Lydia blurts and Avery's smile completely falls. "Yeah, they keep track." She says. "It's up in the triple digits right now. In fact, that's how many there are. One hundred and ninety-eight." Lydia's eye twitches as she points above the clerk's head to a board with red numbers.

"And counting." The lady teases in an off-like manner.

Avery's gaze snaps down to the woman, her eyes slightly widening before she blindly reaches out for Lydia's hand. "Wow." She gulps and plasters on a fake smile. "That's, uh, neat? But, uh, I think we're fine with these towels. Come on, Lydia." Avery urges her friend as they collect their towels and nearly run out of the main office.

Once out of earshot and the lady's vision, Avery drops Lydia's hand. "What the fuck was that?!"

"I told you I didn't like this place." Lydia grimaces, eyes darting all around. "This place feels wrong."

"Yeah, well, there's nothing we can do about it now. We're stuck here." Avery starts walking towards the stairs. "Let's just deal."

..

..

The girls get back to their room, both of them rushing inside after what just went down. Lydia hurriedly locks their door while Avery settles on the bed when the bathroom door opens and both girls shriek in fright.

"Jesus." Allison laughs as she towel-dries her hair. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?!" Avery yelps. "What's wrong is that the lady in charge of this dump just so kindly informed us that this place has nearly two hundred suicides! She seemed proud of it- that's what's wrong!"

Allison's eyes drift over to Lydia in shock for confirmation and Lydia slowly nods. "One hundred and ninety-eight."

"A hundred and ninety-eight!" Allison repeats.

"Yes." Lydia sighs. "And we're talking forty years. On average that's four point nine five a year which is.. actually expected." She shrugs. Allison puts on a shirt, walking over to her bag while Lydia keeps on going. "But who commemorates that with a framed number? Who does that? Who?!"

Allison turns to face her friend. "All suicides?"

"Yes." Lydia answers. "Hanging. Throat-cutting. Pill popping. Both barrels of a shotgun in the mouth suicides. I don't know about you.. but me, I-" She trails off, tilting her head to the side as she licks her lips and blinks repeatedly. "Did you guys hear that?"

Avery perks up, eyes darting around the room. "Hear what?"

Lydia remains quiet, eyes darting from side-to-side as if she's intently listening to something. Slowly but surely, she turns her head, and peers over her shoulder at an air vent towards the ceiling of their room. She stands, tilting her head curiously to the side and steps up on the bed, shoes and all.

Allison and Avery look at each other, eyes wide as both girls start to chew nervously on their bottom lips, wondering what the hell is going on.

Lydia walks forward on the bed, face tilting up towards the air vent before shakily gasping out an, "Oh my god."

"Lydia?" Allison slowly moves forward now.

The room remains quiet, Lydia silently freaking out until she suddenly jumps as if startled, walking backward as her hand flies up to her mouth. "What is it, Lydia? What happened?" Avery moves to console her friend.

"Didn't you two hear that?!"

"Hear what?" Allison shakes her head.

Lydia gasps, face horrified. "The two people in the other room. They shot each other." She says as she hurriedly runs to the door, leaving behind a confused Allison and Avery in her wake.

Moments later, Allison and Avery follow. "Lydia." Avery calls out, watching her friend come to a stop at the door next to their room.

Lydia pushes the door open, revealing a darkened room and calls out a shaky, "Hello?" With no answer, she reaches inside and finds a light switch, flicking it up and down but there's no power. She shakily pants, slowly creeping into the room.

"Lydia?" Allison whispers after her friend. "What are you doing?"

Lydia gets further into the room as she blindly reaches around her. "Hello?" She tries again. And once again, there's no answer but the redhead does find a light source and clicks it on.

The walls of the room are covered in plastic, the floor having a cloth-like canvas covering it while paint buckets are scattered about. A small ladders sits off to the side with a whole bunch of construction materials strewn around the room.

"It had to be right here." Lydia states. "It was a guy and a girl, and.. they sounded younger but they were here." She says matter-of-factly.

Allison nods and steps toward their friend. "I believe you. After everything we've been through, I believe you."

Lydia's eyes then travel to Avery who grins at her. "I've seen weirder. If you say you heard it, you heard it." Avery assures her.

Lydia sighs, eyes flickering around the room. She tiredly turns around, her gaze catching something on the back wall and steps towards it. While Allison's looking around the room, Avery is carefully watching Lydia who's now nearly nose to nose with the wall. Whatever her friend is seeing, it isn't good.

"C-come on." Avery reaches out to Lydia, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Let's get back to our room."

Lydia numbly nods and lets her friends lead her away. The second they step out of the creepily vacant room, they hear a clatter in the parking lot, and all three of their heads whirl in it's direction. They see Boyd stumbling back, an ice bucket at his feet as he turns tail and runs for the stairs.

"Boyd?" Avery calls out but the dark-skinned beta doesn't hear a word and keeps on running. "Boyd!" She tries again but he's already at his room and locking himself inside. "Huh." She huffs. "He's been acting weird since earlier. I wonder what happened?"

Lydia scoffs after watching Boyd pull his disappearing act and stomps towards their room, throwing their door open and waiting for her friends to follow. "You know, there's something seriously wrong with this place." She says as she starts picking up little items that she had unpacked earlier. "Okay, guys, we need to leave."

"But they were suicides, not murders. And it's not like this place is haunted, right?" Allison tries to reason with Lydia.

"Maybe it is." Lydia sighs. "You know, I bet that couple made their suicide pact in that very same room. Maybe that's why they're renovating! Maybe they've been scraping brain matter off the wood paneling."

"Oh man, that's kind of sick." Avery groans. "I mean I've seen worse, sure, but making people sleep in the same room that someone's taken their life in? That's pretty fucked up."

Allison agrees. "Maybe we should find out."

"Oh yes and with what wi-fi?" Lydia huffs as she crosses her arms. "I doubt google can help us right now."

Allison looks crestfallen and at the same moment, Avery perks up. "Aha! I'm on it. Shh." She holds up a finger to signify they remain quiet as she digs out her phone, speed-dialing before clicking over to speaker mode. "Don't talk unless I give permission."

Normally, Lydia would have come back with a smartass comment but the second that the dialing rings fill the silence of their room, she hurriedly takes a seat next to her friend while Allison kneels in front of them.

"This better be important, love. I was in the middle of a snack." A dazzling British voice answers and Avery has to hold back a grin at Allison's subtle widening of her eyes.

"Okay, so I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but long story short, my life is still clouded by supernatural forces and I need your research skills." Avery quickly blurts, biting her lower lip as Allison and Lydia quirk amused eyebrows at her.

"What?" And boy, he did not sound happy.

"See, Nik?" Avery whines. "This is why I don't tell you things like I tell 'lijah. You get pissy way too fast but if it helps any, being surrounded by supernatural beings is completely not my fault. You see, my sweet innocent brother-" Lydia and Allison both snort and Avery glared at them because she just knows he heard them. "-seems to be a beacon for all things supernatural."

"Of course he is." Nik drawls.

"Well his best friend is a werewolf." Avery says at the same time she holds up a finger to her lips to silence the girls. The last thing she needed was for Nik to find out just how many werewolves were really around. "But anyway, that's not what I need your help with. Scooby is perfectly fine and easily handled during a full moon."

Nik sighs on the line. "You named your brother's best friend?"

"Don't say it like that." Avery grins. "You make it sound like I named a dog."

"Well technically-"

"Shove it, Nik. Will you help me or not?"

"Sure. What do you need?" He chuckles.

"Okay, well, I'm currently staying over night in a motel because I have a track meet tomorrow but there's something wrong with this motel." Avery tells him. "My friend, who has an affinity for the weird, has been hearing things."

"When you say an affinity-"

"I'm not a physic, if that's what you're implying." Lydia snaps. "I just know when something's not right."

"Ooh, feisty."

"You have no idea." Avery mumbles with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the name of the motel we're staying in is called the Glen Capri. Just look for anything weird that has happened in this place that would attract the paranormal."

"Define weird, love."

After a beat of silence, she answers with, "Suicides. I think Lydia is hearing their echoes. Just call me back if you find any suicides that have taken place here. Especially if you run across one that involves two- possibly teenagers- pulling a Romeo and Juliet in room 217."

Nik sighs on over the phone. "Only you would move to have a better life only to end up right back in the middle of it all."

"Yes, well, I'm a Stilinski. It runs in the blood. Trust me."

"Always have, love. Talk to you soon. Goodbye, girls."

"Bye!" All three of them sound and Avery hangs up before Nik can question who the third person is.

"Well, now I guess all we have to is wa-" A blood curling scream cuts Avery off, Allison and Lydia jumping at the suddenness of the outburst. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She groans.

Allison quickly scrambles for the door, throwing it open and stepping outside- Avery and Lydia not far behind. By the time they're outside though, the scream has completely gone silent.

"That's it." Lydia huffs angrily. "We are talking to management to see what the hell is going on."

Her friends don't stop her, both of them silently marching behind Lydia, both of them knowing they can't stop her once she's on a mission. They make their way to ground level- all three of them marching to the office lobby. Once inside, all three groan. The creepy lady is nowhere to be found.

"Well there goes that." Lydia rolls her eyes.

Avery sighs along with her friend but Allison is staring behind the desk. "Didn't you say the sign said one ninety-eight?" She asks, face pale.

Lydia and Avery both turn to the sign, the three digits now reading two hundred and one.

"It was one ninety-eight." Avery mumbles and Lydia nods along in agreement. "I swear to God it was one ninety-eight."

"Okay. W-what does that mean? That there's been three more suicides?"

"Or three more about to happen." Lydia gulps.

Avery swears. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" Allison and Lydia look expectantly at her. "W-well don't look at me! Stiles is the brains between the two of us."

"Well then we tell Stiles." Lydia states determinedly. "Come on, let's go."

As the girls hurry back to their room, Lydia texts Stiles to meet them in their room. They only have to wait a few minutes before Stiles knocks and swiftly enters, taking in everyone's freaked expressions. Lydia tells him of the voices she'd been hearing and then Avery explains how Boyd was acting odd- like he was physically present but not mentally. Stiles then agreed with her, saying that he had witnessed Boyd put his fist through the glass of the vending machine and Allison shares how Scott was acting off as well.

Lydia blames the motel as she digs through a nightstand, pulling out a bible and proclaiming that if they didn't leave soon then someone needed to perform an exorcism on the motel before the werewolves went crazy and killed them all. Stiles gets her to calm down for a bit, looking to them with a grim expression and telling them that if the number in the office went up by three that maybe the three sacrifices this time were meant to be werewolves.

Allison comes up with the names of Scott, Isaac, and Boyd- and Avery's stomach drops. Stiles thinks they were meant to be there all along and Lydia freaks, saying that's exactly why they needed to leave.. and now. Stiles looks at her, his gaze falling to the bible she's still holding. When he snatches it from her and opens it up while shaking it, pieces of articles fall from within the pages.

Articles of all the suicides that had taken place within the very same room they're standing in.

Avery and Allison then realize that if every room had a bible then every bible would have articles in them if someone committed suicide in that very room. Especially the room where Lydia had heard the echoes of the teenagers taking their lives.

Stiles suddenly lunges for the door, everyone following and running next door to the room they had been in early but when Stiles attempts to enter, the door is locked. Avery and Lydia claim the door hadn't been locked before and when Stiles turns to run and get the key for the room, the sound of some machinery comes to life from within the room.

"I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?" Lydia squeaks.

Avery tilts her head to the side as she tries to make out what the sound is. "It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on."

"Handsaw?!" Stiles reappears behind the girls, looking at the door and pushing the girls aside as he uses his shoulder to break the door in- all of them falling in behind him.

Ethan stands in the middle of the room, shirt wide open as he holds the handsaw above his head in a dazed state before bringing it down towards his stomach.

"Hey. No, Ethan, don't!" Stiles shouts.

Avery clenches her eyes shut, not wanting to see the alpha mutilate himself and misses when Stiles throws himself at the alpha to wrestle the handsaw away from him. Lydia quickly finds the plug, unplugging the machinery and when the blade slows it's spinning, Avery finally looks up.

Allison moves to help Stiles stand from where he had fallen and watches as Ethan flicks his claws out, a dazed yet terrified expression taking over his features. He crosses his arms over his bare stomach and attempts to claw himself.

This time Avery, Allison, and Stiles all launch themselves at the alpha- Allison and Avery taking one of Ethan's arms as Stiles takes the other- all three of them stopping the werewolf from harming himself. Ethan screams and groans as he struggles, all four of them stumbling back and forth before Ethan gets shoved forward, his hands colliding with the top metal plate of a space heater.

Ethan screams in agony as his hands quickly heal and looks up at the four humans in the room with a shocked expression. "What just happened?"

When no-one answers, Ethan books it from the room with Stiles hot on his trail. As they all follow Ethan back to ground level, they all learn that the alpha had no idea what he was doing. He had no recollection of getting into that room and when Ethan doesn't offer up anything else before disappearing into his room, Allison makes plans to go grab Scott while the other three grab Isaac and Boyd.

Avery then learns that the Beacon Hills gang had been through something similar before when Stiles keeps curiously staring at Lydia. The fiery red-head snaps, asking what Stiles' problem is and he reminds her of the time she was under Peter's control, and poisoned them all with wolfsbane.

Lydia had no recollection of said memory so Stiles fills them both in about the party and everyone hallucinating while Lydia kept making sure to refill everyone's cup numerous of times before disappearing. That then led Lydia to accuse Stiles of accusing her for being behind tonight's events but Stiles replies with that he wasn't saying it was her- it was just that the circumstances were similar.

"Lydia, I'm sorry, okay? Look, I didn't mean that you're trying to kill people, okay?" Stiles pleads as he and Avery trail behind their angry friend. "I jus- I just meant that maybe- maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know? Which now that I say that out loud, it just sounds really terrible so I'm just gonna stop talking."

"Stiles." Lydia calls out as she stops suddenly, head tilting to the side as if listening to something. "Do you hear that?"

"Again?" Avery whimpers as she hugs herself. "We're not even in a room!"

"What?" Stiles glances around the empty parking lot as Lydia continues staring forward at nothing in particular.

Avery wraps her arms around herself tighter, praying that the night would hurry up and end. Vampires and werewolves were one thing but echoes that were strong enough to control a werewolf.. so not her thing. This was actually kind of scary especially after Ethan just attempted to gut himself and then had no recollection of it.

Lydia looks down, Stiles and Avery following her gaze to a metal grate over what was probably the sewer. Slowly falling to her knees, Lydia places her hands on the ground and leans down with her ear practically touching the grate.

"Lydia, what do you hear?"

"A baby crying." She answers Stiles. "I hear.. I hear water running." Avery looks around, trying to hear what her friend is hearing but she has no such luck. "Oh- oh my god." Lydia suddenly cries. "She's drowning the baby!" Avery and Stiles' eyes both widen as Lydia shoots up to her feet. "Someone's drowning!"

"W-what? Who?!"

"Stiles!" Avery suddenly grasps his arm. "Allison went for Scott which only leaves Boyd and Isaac. They're both in the same room."

Without second guessing it, the three teens run for the stairs that would take them to the second level of the motel. They quickly run up them, Stiles leading the way as he opens the door and nearly falls into Boyd and Isaac's room. The room is empty but the opened bathroom door catches their attention so they head in their.

Sure enough, Boyd is submerged beneath the water in the tub, a safe sitting atop his chest to hold him under. Or to make sure that no-one removed it seeing as he is more than likely capable of lifting it off of himself.

Stiles lunges into the room, Avery and Lydia on his tail, as Stiles immediately tries to remove the drain plug from the tub.

"He blocked it. He blocked the drain." Stiles panics when he realizes they aren't going to be able to drain the tub of water.

Lydia gasps. "What do we do?"

"Here. Help me." Stiles says as he attempts to lift the safe from Boyd's chest.

Avery and Lydia quickly join in, all of them fitting their fingers beneath the safe to lift it.

It doesn't even budge.

"Come on!" Avery screams. "Boyd. Boyd, don't do this!"

They all struggle- Stiles and Lydia glancing worriedly at Avery when she keeps muttering pleas for Boyd to snap out of it.

"Is he dead? How long can werewolves stay under water?"

"You think I know that?!" Stiles groans as they struggle to move the safe.

"N-no more than seven minutes." Avery squeaks. "Fuck!" She then screams when her fingers slip and she tumbles backwards, falling on her ass.

"It's too heavy!" Stiles finally admits defeat, standing up and walking backwards. "Ow!" He shouts when his bare forearm collides with the heater in the bathroom wall. Stiles looks at the heater before letting his gaze drift back to Boyd. "Wait a second. The heater." He realizes. "Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."

"What?" Avery sighs in frustration.

"It's heat. Heat! Fire." Stiles tells them. "Heat does it, alright? We need something-"

"He's under water!" Lydia grits out.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that."

"W-w-wait. Wait. The bus." Lydia looks up Stiles. "On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares. T-they have their own oxidizers. They can burn under water."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Go!" Lydia screams at him.

Stiles flees from the room as Lydia tries one more time to heave the safe off by herself but it doesn't work. Avery, not being able to continue to watch Boyd peacefully drown, backs out of the bathroom. Lydia follows, both girls not being able to do anything else for the werewolf. As Avery worries her bottom lip, her eyes finally flit around the room.

The impeccably clean and untouched room.

While there were two gym bags by the room door, both beds are made but they only found Boyd. Suddenly realizing they had a missing werewolf, not to mention a werewolf who she's quite fond of, Avery starts darting around the room- looking for clues to Isaac's whereabouts.

"Avery, what are you-" A soft whimper cuts Lydia off, both girls freezing as their gazes drop to one of the beds when they hear someone sniffle.

The girls both share a look, Avery taking the lead as she slowly gets down on her knees and shakily reaches a hand out to lift the hanging sheet on the bed. Once up, she leans down and peers beneath the bed where a frightened Isaac is curled up and shivering. Isaac's head suddenly snaps up, eyes wide with fright when he sees Avery there.

Without saying a word, he reaches out and latches onto Avery's arm, pulling her to fall flat against the floor before yanking her beneath the bed with him.

"Avery?!" Lydia yelps.

"I-I'm fine." Avery stammers out. "It's just Isaac. He's scared. I think he's hallucinating. Just wait for Stiles."

"Sshh." Isaac murmurs. "H-he's going to hear you. Can't l-let him find y-you."

"Definitely hallucinating." Avery calls out.

When Stiles footsteps pound into the room, Isaac pulls her tighter to him, her head tucked beneath his chin with one of his hands pressed against her back to keep her close. Avery lets him hold her, not wanting to upset the werewolf and risk him lashing out. She listens as Lydia tells her brother how to light the flare and a few seconds later, she hears a loud crash followed by a furious roar.

At least Boyd was still alive.

Moments later, she hears footsteps get closer to her so she's pretty sure Lydia pointed out their location and sure enough, when light filters in beneath the bed, she hears her brother say, "Hey, Isaac. I got something here for ya."

The light beneath the bed suddenly turns red and Avery tenses. Isaac growls in pain, gripping her tighter before he snaps out of, breathing heavily. "W-what happened?"

"Long story." Avery mumbles into his chest. "We'll explain later."

Isaac nods, letting her go as Stiles starts to tug her out. When they're both standing, Isaac and Boyd both share confused glaces at each other before the humans lead them out of the room. That's where they find Allison who says she still can't find Scott and yeah, that isn't good.

As Avery, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia start to walk downstairs- Isaac and Boyd stay on the second level, leaning against the railing to clear their heads.

"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles suddenly blurts. Him meaning Scott.

"It has to be." Lydia answers. "Wait, didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?"

"Yeah. I'll get it."

The foursome's feet finally meet pavement, Stiles halting the group in their steps. They just found Scott. Scott who is holding an active flare in one hand while his entire body, hair included, drips with water. But when the group looks around, they realize it isn't water at all.

An empty gas can sits only a few feet from where Scott stands.

"Scott?" Allison softly calls out as she creeps closer. "Scott?" She tries again when she gets no response.

All four of them move around so that they are now in front of Scott's vision. He looks lost and defeated, and Avery's terrified that he's going to drop the flare at any second now. Tears immediately swim in all their eyes as they watch their friend contemplate ending it all right before their eyes.

Allison, Avery, Stiles, and Lydia all glance worriedly at one another- Avery catching sight of Isaac and Boyd who finally spots them in the parking lot. She sees Isaac immediately perk up, he and Boyd curiously zoning in on them when they suddenly start running for the stairs. Avery catches Isaac's eyes the second they hit ground level and shakes her head at him, trying to mutely tell him to not get closer.

Isaac catches on to the seriousness of the situation, grabbing Boyd by the shoulder to pull him back.

"There's no hope." Scott suddenly croaks.

"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison tries to offer him a comforting smile though Avery could hear the shakiness of her voice. "There's always hope."

"Not for me." Scott frowns. "Not for Derek."

"D-Derek wasn't your fault, remember?" Avery slowly takes a step forward and stands next to Allison. "It was none of our faults. You told me that."

"Every time I try to fight back it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt." Scott goes on as if he didn't hear a word Avery said.

"S-Scott. Scooby." Avery's voice cracks. "Come on, man, look at me." She waits until Scott meets her gaze, the tears in her eyes falling from where they had gathered on her bottom lashes. "Don't do this. Just like Allison said, there's always hope." She pleads and Scott starts to shake his head back and forth as if denying it but Avery stops him. "Take me, for example." Her bottom lip trembles, the tears gathering more quickly now. "I-I wanted to die, too, okay? During that night in the alley." She tells him, willing him to remember as Scott's brows furrow in confusion and Avery takes another step forward. "I know you and Derek smelled it that night I told you all about how I met Elijah and Nik. I know you smelt how frightened I was when Stiles wanted the whole story. How you must have caught the scent of disgust I felt with myself when I recalled the memory of that stranger ripping my clothes off of me before I masked it with fear." Avery hears sharp intakes of breath behind her and she doesn't even want to see Isaac or Boyd's reaction because Scott is her main priority right now. "I know what it feels like to want to end it all but it's not worth it. It really isn't. And if you leave, who's to say that everything will stop? If anything, everyone else will just become an easy target without you here."

"But people will keep getting killed either way." Scott whimpers- his hand that's holding the flare trembling.

Avery tries to protest but a hand falling down on her shoulder keeps her from speaking. Peering over her shoulder, she finds Stiles staring sadly at her, tears swimming in his eyes before he focuses on Scott. "Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you." He tells his friend. "Alright, this is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay, now-"

"What if it isn't?" Scott sniffles. "What if it's just me?" Allison covers her mouth to keep from crying out while Lydia pulls Avery further back behind Stiles and in between her and Allison. "What if doing this is actually the best thing that I can do for everyone else? It all started that night. The night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that?" He asks Stiles and Stiles nods. "You and me? We were- we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important." Avery cries at his defeated tone as Allison's hand reaches out to hers to grip in comfort. "We were no-one. M-maybe I should just be no-one again. No-one at all." He turns the flare a bit and Stiles steps forward.

"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no-one. Okay, you're someone. Scott, you're my best friend." Tears slide down Stiles' cheeks. "Okay, and I need you. Scott.. you're my brother. Alright, so," Stiles looks down, glancing briefly back up before looking down again and taking a giant step forward so he's standing in the gasoline puddle along with Scott. "-so if you're gonna do this then-" Stiles reaches out, his hand gripping the flare above Scott's hand. "-then you're just gonna have to take me with you."

Avery chokes on her cry, attempting to move forward but Allison holds her back. They're all crying by now and Stiles is able to tear the flare from Scott's grip. The second he has it and is sure Scott's not going to lunge for it, he throws it behind him and the girls watch with horror as the flare lands right outside the gas puddle.

Avery breathes a sigh of relief but then a gust of wind blows and causes the flare to roll right into the puddle of gas- igniting it. Avery and Allison both freeze in shock the second the puddle catches fire but Lydia's pained scream of "Noo!", breaks them out of their state.

Lydia tackles both Stiles and Scott out of the way, Allison pulling Avery down with her as an explosion of fire erupts behind them. Avery hits the ground hard, both she and Allison covering their heads. Moments later, someone's moving her hands away and when she looks up, she finds Isaac checking her for any injuries. As he helps her and Allison up, Avery looks over and finds Boyd helping up a very shaken Lydia and the guys.

The seven of them watch in shock as the fire burns itself out before everyone takes a look around at themselves. When Scott somewhat snaps out of it, he catches Avery's gaze and frowns at her- her story coming back to the forefront of his mind. Avery had been right when she said that he had smelt her fear masking the whiff of disgust she had felt in that moment and he had a feeling that something had happened, but he didn't want to press or even believe that something like that had happened to her.

"Well, that went swell." Avery dead-pans and deflects Scott's line of thinking. "All in favor of showering and then sleeping on the bus say aye."

"AYE!" Everyone mumbles in unison.

The group of friends start to make their way towards the motel again but Boyd lingers back. "I'll, uh, I'll just wait for you guys on the bus. I pretty much bathed already." He shrugs.

Stiles, Avery, and Lydia understand what he means by that so they each lead someone else up to the rooms while Boyd stays behind. Allison and Lydia go to theirs, Scott and Stiles to theirs, and Avery follows a freaked out Isaac to his room after grabbing her bag from the girl's room.

After everyone quickly showers, which ends been the fastest any of them have ever showered, and changed into more comfortable clothing- they all meet out on the balcony of the second level before marching down to the bus as a group, taking all their belongings with them. Isaac practically plasters himself to Avery's back, whimpering every now and then as he peers around the parking lot.

Once on the bus, Scott plops down on one of the available seats towards the front with Stiles taking the seat behind him. Allison and Lydia sit in the same seat together across from Stiles, and when Isaac reaches over Avery's shoulder to point at the back of the bus near Boyd, Avery figures he wants to sit with her. She nods, picks up her blanket and pillow that she had left on the bus and goes to the very last seat.

Setting the pillow against the window of the bus, Avery kicks off her running sneakers that she had put on to walk across the parking lot and sits with her back pressed against the pillow, curling in her left leg while her right foot planted firmly on the floor. She tosses her blanket to Boyd who rolls it up and uses it as a pillow of his own while getting as comfortable as he can.

Isaac suddenly looks hesitant to sit until Avery holds her hand out to him with an impish grin. He takes it, letting Avery pull him down so that his back presses against her chest. She maneuvers his head so that it lays on her shoulder while she moves all her hair to the opposite side. His long legs are curled and pressed tightly against the seat in front of him but he manages to get comfortable and relaxes against Avery.

The second Avery lets herself relax, the shrill ringing of her phone has everyone jumping on edge. She quickly reaches down towards the bag at her feet with her free arm, looking up to see the yellow glow of Boyd's eyes slowly diminishing. Looking at everyone else, they're all curiously watching her.

"Dammit." Avery grunts as she searches for her phone in her bag. "Shutup." She grumbles as her fingers close around it, Nik's name and dimpled grin taking up the screen. "Talk about perfect timing."

Avery accepts the call and puts it on speaker for the humans to hear but before she can speak, Nik speaks out. "You were right. That motel is the number one ranked place for suicides."

"Yeah, Nik. We figured that out hours ago." Avery sighs tiredly.

"Yes, well, did you know a woman drowned herself and her baby?!"

"Mhm." Avery yawns. "Listen, Nik. It's all taken care of. We're all fine so I'll call you tomorrow to tell you how everything goes, yeah?"

"Only if you're sure."

"Positive."

"Okay. Goodbye. Stay out of trouble."

"No promises. Bye."

The second Avery lets her phone fall into her bag, she leans her head back and lets one arm sneak behind Isaac's back and between the back of their seat while her other hand rests on her knee- only to have Isaac reach out and start playing with her fingers. Isaac squirms a bit, trying to get comfortable again and the second he turns his face and shoves it in the crook of Avery's neck, he stills. He breathes in deeply, his whole body relaxing, and soon enough- darkness consumes everyone.

"I don't want to know." A voice startles Avery awake. When she turns towards it's source, she realizes that the sun's up and finds Coach Finstock staring at all their slowly waking forms. "I really don't want to know but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's canceled so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!" He yells in Ethan's face.

Avery yawns, attempting to wake herself up more when she feels Isaac move. Afraid that she had woken him up, Avery freezes. She can feel the warmth of Isaac's breath on her neck and when she looks across from their seat, Boyd is blinking himself awake as he stares at her, his face slowly breaking out into a smug grin. Avery glares at him, her cheeks heating up when Isaac starts to nuzzle her neck. Boyd then starts to shake with suppressed laughter at Avery's widened eyes and when Isaac's tongue peeks out to lick a trail from the side of her neck up to the lobe of her ear, she squeaks.

Isaac bolts up, eyes wide as his gaze darts back and forth from Avery and Boyd. "What- I didn't- I-"

"Scent marking." Boyd smugly states. "I've never actually seen it happen so, uh, thanks for that." He chuckles at Isaac.

Isaac groans in embarrassment, blue eyes bleary as he stares over at Avery. "It-it's fine." She shakily grins. "At least you didn't pee on me?"

Avery's attempt at lightening the mood works as Isaac and Boyd laugh. Seconds into their laughter, Boyd and Isaac froze, their gaze moving towards the front of the bus. Avery follows their gaze and finds Ethan sitting with Scott before getting up and moving back to sit with Danny.

"Derek's alive." Isaac murmurs the answer to Avery's unasked question. "But Ennis died so Kali's out for blood." Isaac stares down at Avery in shock. "He said that either Derek kills his pack and joins theirs or Kali's going to kill him."

Avery gasps, quickly standing and edging her way out to the middle aisle and scurrying further up to the front to plop down in the seat that Lydia just vacated to see what was going on. Lydia's studying the whistle she had just ripped away from their Coach's neck and everyone watches on curiously as she covers the top of the whistle with her palm and blows. When her hand comes away, she sighs and shows them all her palm where a purplish-white powder is now visible.

"Wolfsbane." She tells them with a bewildered expression.

"So every time the Coach blew the whistle on the bus- Scott, Isaac, Boyd-"

"And Ethan." Lydia throws in.

"We all inhaled it." Scott sums up.

"You were all poisoned by it." Allison makes him see the bigger picture.

"So that's how the Darach got into their heads." Avery mumbles. "That's how he did it."

Stiles' gaze darts back and forth between the wolfsbane on Lydia's palm and the whistle in her other hand. Quick as lightning- Stiles snatches up the whistle, gathers it up one hand before reaching over Scott and lowering their window.

"Hey, hey, hey-" Coach calls out as he sees Stiles panicking with his whistle in hand before flinging said whistle out the window. "Stilinski!" Coach yells at having his whistle manhandled and now lost as the bus starts to move.

They all breath a sigh of relief after that, Avery chuckling as her twin gets berated before standing to give Lydia her seat back. When she gets back to her seat, Isaac has taken her place against the window. His eyes are closed so she figures he had fallen back asleep but when his arms suddenly open as an invite for her to cuddle, she chuckles and quickly sits, snuggling up to the warm werewolf and going back to sleep.

As stated in the first AN of this story, I did say I was going the cliché route and adding in the scent marking and warmth of werewolves that everyone usually adds in their fic. It was just too cute to pass up. Sorry if it wasn't your cup of tea.

So, uh, yeah. That happened. I'm not sure I like the outcome of this chapter but I needed to post something.