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Chapter 16

Sheriff Stilinski slammed on his brakes right in front of the emergency room doors of the hospital. Running around the front of the car, he opened the passenger door and caught the top of Melanie's body as she fell out of the car limply. She whimpered, staring up at the blue sky as he picked her up in his arms. The pressure on the gashes had her wriggling from the strong discomfort. Surges of sharp pains scaled over her backside. She gasped for air. Her lungs swelled, making her choke.

"Help! We need help!" Sheriff Stilisnki yelled, rushing through the automatic sliding doors.

Melissa was finishing paperwork at the front desk as he burst into the clean institution. She dropped the pen and hurried to his side. She tucked a few stray curls that dangled in eyesight behind her ear, grabbing Melanie's hand. Her pulse was weak, slow like that of a sad song.

"Get a doctor," she yelled.

She pulled out a small flashlight from her front pocket and shined it in Melanie's eyes. Neither pupil gave off a response. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head from a mixture of the fluorescent lights and the increasingly agonizing surges throughout her whole body.

"What happened?" Melissa asked.

"I don't know. She collapsed at my front door," the sheriff replied.

"What?" Melissa said, confused.

"It was like she was drowning," he said, laying her on a gurney that two other nurses brought up next to them. "I performed CPR then drove here. She coughed up some water..."

Melanie bolted upright suddenly, screaming. Streaks of red tainted the white sheets of the bed underneath her. Everybody jumped back, all of the staff going silent. Her wounds trickled down her back. There was no telling how much blood she'd lost. Other wounds like the one on her forehead and palm throbbed painfully.

"Oh my god," Melissa breathed, covering her mouth. She should be dead, she thought, looking at Melanie crying out with her back arched and her arms stretched out helplessly in disturbing angles. Melissa's heart raced in her chest, terrified. Victims didn't come into the E.R. like this unless they'd been hurt by something abnormal. Something like a werewolf. She recognized the signs by now.

The screaming stopped quickly, and Melanie moved to get off of the gurney. Her movements were robotic as if she was on autopilot. Her body was the only thing responding and her consciousness was taking the backseat like she wasn't in there.

"Mel, no. You have to stay." The sheriff said, gently pushing her back down on the gurney.

"They'll get me. I can't—I ca-" Melanie tried to swat his hand away, missing it by several inches. Looking around, she swayed. Everything blended together in a blurry fashion. Her whole body gave way, and she fell sideways onto the pillow of the gurney.

"We need to treat her now," Melissa said, pushing the girl down the hallway. "Call Scott and Stiles."

She yelled for the doctor again. A woman in a white coat rushed past the sheriff. Melanie disappeared behind double doors into the O.R. He ignored the glances directed at him from orderlies and other staff who slowly got back to their work. His arms and shirt was smeared with blood. He closed his eyes feeling more confused than before. There was still nothing. What happened last night?

He pulled out his phone quickly and started dialing. This time he was getting answers.

Scott felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Ms. Blake's eyebrows rose as she eyed him, having heard it. He let out a quiet, nervous laugh and ignored it. It started vibrating again seconds later. Scott looked over at Stiles who mouthed 'answer it'. It buzzed two more times before Ms. Blake spoke,

"Please answer it Scott. It doesn't seem like your caller is going to stop."

Her voice was terse and her polite smile had vanished. She set down the book in her hands and waited.

"Okay," he said.

He slid from his seat and left the classroom. Allison's face scrunched together curiously. He just shook his head, ignoring the other stares. The caller ID read the sheriff.

"Hello?" Scott leaned against the lockers.

"Scott? Why haven't you picked up," sheriff Stilinski demanded.

"Because I'm in class. I do go to school, you know," Scott hissed.

The line was quiet. Scott glanced up and down the hallway. He wasn't trying to sound rude. He rubbed his tired eyes. The sheriff's voice dropped.

"Melanie is in the hospital."

"What?! That's—" Scott couldn't find the right words. He could barely even breathe. She was alive. The crushing tightness in his chest released. The number of friends he'd lost just kept growing. He and Melanie weren't close, but he was glad she wasn't dead. "We're on our way."

He hung up and dashed into back class to grab his bookbag.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ms. Blake asked.

"That was," he paused awkwardly, "my mom, yeah. She said she really needs me. There's an emergency. My dog was hit by a person—person in a car."

Stiles, Allison, and Lydia looked him with combined confusion and stupidity. Scott shoved his notebook into his bag and zipped it.

"Stiles, she asked if you would come with. You have a faster car to, uhh, get there since I don't own a car," Scott stuttered. "Please, my dog."

Stiles was up and following him out of class before he finished his sentence. A part of him hoped that something had been uncovered about the murders. Maybe Melissa found something that could be helpful. The urgency in his best friend's voice made him excited, yet nervous. Ms. Blake stuttered as she attempted to stop them.

"Please sit back down," she said, her tone growing terse.

The boys kept walking towards the door with no intention to do so. Stiles stayed close on Scott's heels and ran into his back when Ms. Blake spoke shrilly.

"Sit down or you both get detention!" she exclaimed, making the other students jump from high pitch in her voice.

Scott's hand was on the doorframe. He looked down at his shoes. He couldn't just sit here while Melanie was in the hospital. Who knows how long she had. The whole class looked at them as if hanging by a thread, wondering what their next move would be. Detention was nothing new. He and Stiles had been there more times than they could count on both hands. They'd probably been to detention more times then they'd been to class. The threat wasn't enough to keep them. Scott glanced at his best friend. There was that look on his face. The one that reassured him that Stiles had his back. There was a slight thrill in the expression too that made Scott smirk.

"That's it, detention for both of you," Ms. Blake called after them.

They still didn't come back into the room. It was silent for several moments. Her eyebrows were knitted together angrily. Student's sunk in their seats and grabbed the edge of their desk, knowing that the rest of class was going to twice as dreadful now that she was in a mood.

"You know, Scott looks really shaken up. We should make sure that Scott is okay," Allison said to Lydia with an obvious nod to follow them. She turned to the side and slid from her desk cautiously, not wanting to get struck by the cobra.

"Why do I have to go?" Lydia uttered sharply.

"Let's go," Allison gritted through her teeth, giving her a look.

"What? No!" Ms. Blake hissed. "Stay in your seats."

They rushed out into the hall, also ignoring her. Ms. Blake's voice echoed with detentions for them as well. Scott and Stiles hadn't left yet. They were only a few feet ahead. Her Dad wasn't going to be happy about detention, but he'd be proud of her for doing the right thing.

Getting back to the right side wasn't easy. The code; what hunters lived by, compromised her entire life and the lives of those she cared about most. There was still a large guilt spot from what she did to Isaac, having stabbed him in the back, literally. Almost killing your friends based on what your estranged grandfather tells you about your dead mother would probably always leave a dark spot within. She didn't deserve someone as sweet and caring as Isaac. Going down that road again was not an option. That's why a new code was made. She'd help those who could not help themselves.

"Melanie's alive. Your Dad and my Mom are at the hospital with her now," she heard Scott tell Stiles.

By the time the four of them got to the hospital, the sheriff had already talked to the doctor. There was no internal bleeding and all of the water in Melanie's lungs had been drained, but she was in a coma. Whatever she had been through shut her body down. Any chance of waking up was up to her, but the more she remained in a coma the less likely it'd be that she'd wake up.

"What happened last night, and no dancing around the answer this time. That girl was in hysterics before she went unconscious," sheriff Stilinski said, pointing at both boys sternly.

Scott and Stiles shared their stories of last night. Each of them struggled in telling him. Stiles ended up stuttering through his and couldn't finish having been there the whole time.

"She'll be okay right?"

The voice was faint and filled with struggle, but broke through the conversation. The sheriff looked past Scott and Stiles at Isaac. Danny stood a few feet away from him, leaning against the wall. He still looked angry and wouldn't look at any of them.

Allison and Lydia sat near the corner, across from Melanie's room. Two police officers stood outside the door like robots, completely expressionless.

"We heard you guys trying to whisper out in the hall, so we followed you," Danny said, seething.

"Where's Derek?" Scott asked, glaring at Stiles. If he hadn't been talking so loud the whole school could hear, they wouldn't have had followers.

"I don't know. He didn't answer his phone," sheriff Stilinski replied.

"Can we see her?" Scott's voice went back to being quiet and sensitive.

"Family only for the time being."

"She doesn't exactly have family unless you count Derek, and he's not here," Scott replied. "Please."

The sheriff let out a long breath. They would sit here all day until they would be allowed to see her. That's how it was when Lydia had been attacked last year after the dance.

"Let them in," the sheriff told the officers. They nodded. The one on the left opened the door for them. Allison watched as Isaac went in first, not paying any attention to the others or caring that they watched him closely. Allison bit the corner of her lip with the realization that he was attracted her. He looked at Melanie stricken at the sight of her laying there in the bed. The torn look hurt more than it made Allison angry. He'd never looked at her that way, like he was afraid of losing her. He didn't even know Melanie for that long.

Allison and Lydia went in last. Allison watched Isaac lay Melanie's glasses on the small stand by the door. Stiles perched himself at the end of her bed. Allison sat in the chair against the wall in the corner.

"I'm going to go talk to Derek," Scott said.

He thought that seeing her would bring some sort of relief, but his heart fell as he looked at her. Her right hand was in a brace as were two fingers on that hand. She bore a cut on her cheek and a black eye just like Allison, though hers was mostly covered with make-up. A small cut laid up in the corner of her forehead near the hair line.

As a hum of whispers surrounded her, she still didn't wake. He gripped the bed frame that he leaned against tightly. Stiles looked down, his eyebrows scrunching together giving away his troubled thoughts. After letting go, Scott's grip remained in the frame with the metal indented. He walked out of the room, listening to Melanie's slow and steady heartbeat.

Isaac sat down beside his roommate. She looked like Sleeping Beauty, well, Sleeping Beauty who joined Fight Club. She looked glowingly beautiful, yet badass with all of her injuries. He didn't know how every girl he'd known did it. Erica, Allison, Melanie, Cora, even Lydia; they all had this attitude. The world could go suck it because they didn't care—that's the attitude. The one that gave them the courage to take beatings like this. It wasn't pride driven either. It was survival.

"I'm here," he whispered to her. It's pointless to speak, he thought. She probably can't even hear me.

Allison's lips puckered, hearing it. Stiles wasn't paying any attention. He mumbled to himself, but nobody could catch what he was saying. It sounded full of guilt and sorrow. He'd glance up at her, but look away quickly.

"I bet she's going to want some of her stuff when she wakes up." Stiles said finally, looking at Isaac. "Can I borrow your house keys?"

Isaac tossed him the keys without a single thought. He didn't look away from the Sleeping Beauty. He clasped his hands together as he hunched forward and leaned on his knees, watching her like she'd wake any second. All any of them could do was wait.

"I'll go with," Danny said. "The tension in here is awkward."

Isaac still didn't seem to hear them. Allison kept quiet and watched, feeling that if she disturbed him he'd retaliate in some way that would further this unfamiliarity that was taking him over.

"Do uh, do you guys want anything? I'm kind of hungry," Lydia said, her voice squeaking nervously.

"Coffee would be great," Allison mumbled.

"Isaac?" Lydia asked.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"I'll go ask the sheriff if he wants anything." Lydia stood and exited. The sound of her heels pierced the silence in the room.

Allison looked from Isaac to Melanie. She didn't understand. What made him so intrigued in her? All she's done is nearly die twice. Their friends nearly died because of her. This sudden attentiveness towards her was dangerous.

A part of Allison, the part that hadn't hesitated to try to kill her friends, hoped that Melanie would just stop breathing. If she just stopped breathing a part of this horrible nightmare would end. A sudden thought occurred like a vision. Her toes curled and her jaw tightened.

She pictured jumping on top of the comatose girl, straddling her and ripping the oxygen tube that was plugged to her nose out and wrapping it around her tender looking neck. The heart monitor beeped faster and faster as she pulled the tubing tighter and tighter. Isaac ripped her off of the unmoving Melanie. She landed on her butt. That didn't hold her off for long. He was acting so taken and concerned with her, rubbing his thumbs over her neck to make sure she was okay. He'd never acted this tender with her. He didn't even call to make sure she was okay after she'd made it home last night.

Shoving him aside, she tightened the oxygen tube around Melanie's throat again. The heart rate monitor beeped faster and faster. Allison pulled the tube tighter. It sunk into her skin turning her throat purple and she didn't fight it. Isaac's attempt to stop her failed, and the heart monitors fast paced beeps stopped and was just a loud tone of her death. Death: 10:34am.

"Allison…Allison?"

Allison blinked, jumping in her seat a little at Lydia saying her name. She blinked rapidly. Lydia held a steaming cup of black coffee in front of her nose. The strong, bitter smell was mouthwatering.

"Here," Lydia said. She sat back down in her seat.

Allison turned her head away from the bored redhead. Her lips quivered. She was losing him. She didn't know how, but it was happening. Unknowingly, tears streaked down her cheeks quietly. A curse and strength of being a hunter was the ability to be silent.

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