Jackson
It's hard to focus. His mind will wander and when it returns he is somewhere else. Speaking to a different person, in a different room, wearing different clothes. He can feel himself slipping, losing control. The voice that hums in the back of his mind is there still, only it sounds different now. A deeper hum with an off kilter timbre.
The last thing he remembers is telling Danny to run the other way. At least Danny will be safe. That's more than he could ask. Danny is one of the few people who has ever gotten him, who never made him feel like the trash he knows he is.
Jackson blinks and he is on the field.
Blink.
They are losing the game.
Blink.
They are winning the game.
Blink.
The hum gets deafening in his ears, rolls around in his mind and blocks out other noise. It's saying a name, over and over and over again. Jackson knows that name, he hopes it's not Danny.
Blink.
The hum is all he hears. All he can hear. All he can think. Jackson thinks he might be moving only he isn't sure.
"Stiles!" A high pitched feminine voice breaks through the hum. He knows that voice, it's Lydia. Lydia is screaming in joy.
Jackson opens his eyes to find himself poised to attack, with his victim only a breath from him. He stares in horror at Stiles. Stupid talkative Stiles who once tried to comfort him as a child because she found out he was adopted. Stiles who was the only person who ever seemed to never underestimate Lydia. Stiles who he never really hated. She was just too perceptive she could see through him and he hated being exposed.
He glances down at the claws reaching towards her.
"Run."
The claws reverse direction as the lights go out. Jackson doesn't even feel their impact, the toxin has him out before he can even cry.
Sheriff
He doesn't mean to start screaming. But he does. It's the same phrase over and over and over again. Where is my daughter? Those words send shocks down his spine, because he has heard them before. Beacon Hills is just big enough to have had one or two missing children over the years and he remembers them both. Remembers the terrified parents clutching to him as they search. He remembers the choked sobs as they wait. And that one time he remembers the look of complete loss on the mother's face when they find what remained of her little girl.
He has always considered himself a level headed man, except when he came to his daughter. She is the giant chink in his armor that he has never minded. Only now that chink has cracked the whole suit.
There is simply no sign of her. Gone in the maybe minute it took for the lights to come back on. And where she was standing her team mate lies dead. What is he supposed to do with that information? How is he supposed to react to his daughter disappearing and the last person seen with her found dead?
He wants to panic and scream and demand that every living soul goes in search of his little girl. But he doesn't because he is the Sheriff and he has to keep it together when no one else can.
He only cries once he is back in the driveway. He can't lose her too. He can't.
Danny
He had thought the game was surreal. Sure it had been funny to watch Stiles flail around the field but still it had been a really weird game. Not that any of their games these days resembled any kind of standard.
Danny had actually had some fun tonight. He was still worried about Jackson, really worried. But that had gone away for a few minutes when the game finally found it's rhythm and he felt like things were evening out.
The clock counts down when he sees it. Jackson had told him to run if he started coming towards Danny. Only Jackson isn't coming towards Danny, he is stalking towards Stiles. Danny isn't sure who he is running for, but he is running at them before anything can happen.
Then something does happen. In the haze of the restarted lights Danny finds his best friend dead.
Jackson is dead. Even before Scott's mom runs over Danny knows it's true. His best friend is dead and he just stands there, because what else is he supposed to do.
It's only as they start taking Jackson's body away that Danny hears the shouts of the cops. Stiles is missing.
Danny throws up in the bushes for three minutes before he can breathe again. He feels numb and hallow and doesn't even blink when coach hugs him. Doesn't say anything when his parents wrap him up and drag him off to the car.
The weird thing is Scott. Something is wrong with the way Scott looks. It tugs at Danny's mind as he is ushered out of the locker room.
Scott
He wasn't watching. He didn't look. He had been staring at the damn scoreboard while the clock ran out. Scott has missed it. Hadn't seen Jackson approach. Hadn't seen the men coming towards Stiles in the crowd.
Scott has been so damn concerned about all of the people on the field every last one of them he hadn't really been able to focus on one person. He hadn't focused on Stiles for more than a second, and then she was gone.
He had known this was coming and he had done nothing. Nothing! Scott yanked at his hair and paced as they took Jackson's body. What had he really done tonight? Honestly? Nothing. He had barely kept Isaac alive but other than that he hadn't stopped Gerard, hadn't come up with a way to stop him nor had he figured out how to save his friends.
People were dropping like flies around him and it was his fault, his responsibility. His pawns.
He paced the field looking for any hint of her. Nothing. Her smell was there with a layer of joy and panic mixed in and the sharp bite of adrenaline. Scott gets worried the closer the scent trail leads to the parking lot. He will lose the scent in the car.
But he could smell them now. The stink of them and the tang of wolfsbane. Hunters had Stiles.
He wasn't relieved, but he was not as jittery as he could have been. They wouldn't hurt Stiles. The hunters worked for Allison now. Allison would never hurt Stiles.
Gerard would though. And that was the part that worried Scott. Gerard was in more control than Allison. And Scott knows something no one else does, knows why Gerard is more dangerous than any of them think.
Gerard is dying. And he will do anything to stop it.
What would Stiles do? Scott thinks. Find him and yell at him. But besides that she wouldn't panic. So he finds Isaac and explains. The other boy doesn't look so sure for a moment.
"This is Stiles we are talking about." Scott says. Isaac agrees.
Isaac
It was his choice to stay. The others had run but he had stayed behind. Because,
He isn't sure why. It's not because of Scott, at least not completely. It's not because of Stiles, although she has never been cruel to him. It's not because of Derek, but he feels like it might be.
Isaac stays because he is tired of running scared.
But is still running by the end of it. Crawling from Gerard and hoping Scott will come.
He is the most surprised out of everyone to find that Jackson turned his claws on himself. Isaac had never had any of the belief in Jackson and Lydia that Scott and Stiles seemed to old. He was sure they were both selfish assholes who deserved it, especially Jackson.
But Stiles doesn't deserve it. She has been nice to him, even when he didn't really deserve it. She helped bust him out of jail on the night of the full moon and he had almost ripped her head off in return. She had given him her notes after he had been on the run. So yeah, when Scott asks for help Isaac maybe thinks about it but not because he hesitates to help Stiles but because he thinks they should call Derek.
Derek
Dealing with Peter was the worst thing that had happened to him today.
Peter had always been a bit of drama queen but going crazy and dying had made it worse. The simple power of human love? Derek felt the need to vomit or at least crush things. And no he was not dense, or crippled emotionally. Derek was cautious. He had learned that he had to wait to trust others.
But at least Peter had an idea. None of the others had any ideas. So they go to the school and try to track down Isaac, Scott and Stiles.
The weird thing is Derek gets a good whiff of Stiles in the parking lot but he can't find it after that. On its own that information is nothing but her stupid death trap of a Jeep is still in the parking lot and he just saw about half of the police department leave the school. Peter hums in the back of his throat when Derek pauses to try and get a better smell but nothing comes to him.
He doesn't actually hear the words. Scott never says outright that Stiles is missing and possibly kidnapped. But he hears something like it. Its more of a rushing in his ears and a vauge ache in his chest. It feels like something he remembers and doesn't want to feel again. Derek hates Stiles for a minute in that breathe when his heart rockets. Because she is the reason he feels weak again and he promised himself he would never feel that way again.
Another part of him wants to cry.
Peter
"That's both a smart and a dumb choice." He mutters. The boys all turn to look at him. "Well you idiots are only a third as useful without her."
"Hey." Scott looks offended.
"But she is going to be pissed." Peter shakes his head. "She set me on fire the last time someone kidnapped her."
"You are the one that kidnapped her." Scott points out.
"Exactly." Peter says with a smile. The new wolf Isaac takes a step back. Derek looks like his brain is exploding. Peter is just happy to be back. Also he would love to see the world of hurt Stiles will bring down on Gerard Argent's head when she gets free.
He really should have bit her.
Hey if you like Stiles Diaries or any of my other stories I would love it if I could get your vote for the walk on role contest for Teen wolf. Vote here. RCCh8c