Chapter 20 - Where is He?
With a small groan Avery reached for her phone on the bedside table, she squinted at the screen and saw it was Scott calling her.
She sighed, it figures, the one day she decided to try and go to bed early someone would call and wake her up.
"Hello…" She groggily answered, intending to tell him she couldn't talk that she was trying to sleep. But what he told her woke her up quicker than a shot of caffeine; Stiles was missing. He'd called Scott, terrified and cold –having no idea where he was and his phone was almost dead.
Scott said that Isaac had already called Teagan and they all needed to meet at Stiles' house.
Throwing the blankets off of her she leapt for her dresser almost knocking her lamp off as she tried to turn it on for some light, opening a drawer she pulled out a pair of black pajama pants with skull and crossbones print on over her underwear. Pulling open another drawer she pulled on a thin dark gray long sleeve jacket over the black silky tank top she'd been sleeping in.
Grabbing a pair of mix matched socks she put them on as she stumbled over to her closet and put on her old pair of converse shoes, before grabbing her phone and keys and racing down the stairs and out of the front door.
She pulled up at the house at the same time Allison had, as both girls rushed out of the cars Avery asked, "Did Scott call you too?"
"No, Lydia did." Allison said as she opened the door to the house and Avery rushed in ahead of her.
As the pair walked into Stiles' room they saw Scott facing Lydia and Aiden, and Teagan standing to the side with Isaac's arm around her, holding her close.
Lydia explained that she'd heard Stiles' begging for help through a radio speaker, and Scott filled everyone in on what his best friend had told him during the phone call.
"What the hell is this…" Avery breathed as she walked closer to the bed seeing a large pair scissors stabbed into the mattress with red strings going from the handles up to the newspaper clippings pasted on the walls.
"He uses red for unsolved cases…" Lydia explained stepping closer to her friend, and noticing Avery was in pajamas, which she never left the house in.
"Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case." Aiden suggested with a shrug.
"Or he is an unsolved case…" Isaac reasoned, causing Teagan to nudge him and shoot him a disapproving look. She was terrified for Stiles' wellbeing.
"Tonight's the coldest night of the year, it's going to drop in the 20s." Aiden pointed out what everyone already knew.
With an eye roll, Avery sighed, "What is it with you and pointing out the obvious! We need help finding him, genius, not a weather forecast!"
Turning his head and shooting her a look he said, "I save your life and you still hate me?"
"You didn't save my life, I saved yours." She smugly responded.
Crossing his arms over his chest he turned with an amused expression and reminded her, "I saved you from two of the ninjas."
Avery's eyebrows raised and she started to snap at him, but Lydia cut her off, "Oh my god, A… just stop it."
Sighing she dropped her arms in frustration as she walked over and stood next to Teagan mumbling about how she'd saved Aiden from the Oni.
"What did his dad say?" Teagan spoke up, trying to keep everyone focused on what the most pressing issue of the night was.
"We didn't tell him yet." Scott admitted, glancing down to the carpet floor.
"Stiles is bleeding and freezing, and you didn't call his dad?" Lydia gasped.
"He made me promise not to. We can find him by scent. If he was sleep walking he couldn't have gotten far, right?" Scott argued, feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"So we what, spread out and cover the immediate area?" Avery questioned.
Looking over at her Aiden pointed out, "I guess you didn't notice his jeep is gone?"
As he saw her expression fall he smugly said, "How's that for helpful?"
Taking out her phone Allison said, "We need to tell his dad, I'm calling him."
"We can call Derek get some more help…" Scott started to say but Avery cut him off.
"Scott, remember in elementary school when our teachers told us that sometimes when a friend asks you to keep a secret for them, but sometimes keeping that secret can actually be hurting your friend? This is one of those times." Avery said nodding.
When Scott started to protest farther, Aiden said, "You do realize Lydia only gets these feelings when someone is about to die, right?"
"Don't call him, we can't give news like this over the phone." Teagan pointed out as she leaned in against Isaac's side farther.
"The station is like five minutes away… we'll just go there." Isaac agreed with his girlfriend.
Avery and Scott looked at each other and nodded, both silently agreeing to the plan.
"We'll catch up." Lydia said as she looked around, "there is something here, I can feel it…"
"Yeah, evidence of total insanity."
Everyone looked at Isaac as he spoke and Scott quietly added, "We can figure out what's wrong with him, after we find a way to keep him from freezing to death."
"I'll stay with you." Allison said as she reached down and gave Lydia's hand a squeeze.
~()~
Scott glanced over to Avery from the passenger seat of her car as she sped around a car in the lane just in front of them.
His eyes fell to the side mirror where he saw Teagan's car also whipping around the side of the other vehicle Avery had just blew past.
Barely stopping for any lights and breezing past every single stop sign, Avery and Scott managed to make it to the police station first.
"Avery!" Scott yelled jumping out of her car and racing after her as she was already going into the station.
Her eyes scanned the room where she saw a very concerned looking Deputy Parrish stand up and start to ask her what was wrong.
"Where's the sheriff?" She asked cutting him off.
"In his office, are you okay?" Parrish asked her as he saw Scott run into the building and grab Avery's arm as he tried to tell her they needed to wait for the others.
Just as he started over towards the teen, he looked up to see Avery's friend Teagan jerk the door open to the station, hitting Isaac right in the face with it.
"Isaac!" She squealed as he stepped back groaning in pain, her voice echoed through the nearly empty station as she began spilling one apology after the next.
Shaking his head and knowing she didn't mean to hurt him, she was just rushing to catch up with Avery, rubbed his head and said, "It's okay, just go…"
Hearing all of the commotion the sheriff came out of his office to see what was happening, Scott explained the phone call from Stiles.
The teens watched as tears welled up in his eyes for a few moments before he managed to pull himself together, he needed to remain professional and calm for his son.
Turning his attention to the young deputy who'd stood by and listened to the entire thing the sheriff said, "Parrish, let's get an APB out on a blue 1980 CJ-5 Jeep."
"On it, sir." Parrish responded as he quickly made his way back over to the desk.
As the sheriff instructed another officer to gather a list of industrial basements in the town, Teagan looked over and saw Deputy Parrish hurriedly typing on a keyboard to a desktop computer. Then her dark brown eyes landed on her best friend as Avery watched him for a few moments before turning her attention back to the sheriff.
Since Scott was the one who'd gotten the phone call from his son, Sheriff Stilinski took Scott into his office to get the entire phone conversation word for word, he knew even the smallest detail could mean the difference between life and death for Stiles.
"If he's out there, between us and all of the cops… we're gonna find him." Isaac said, wrapping an arm around Teagan and offering Avery a smile. He could feel their anxiety in the air around him.
"I know." Teagan nodded, but when she looked to Avery she saw her watching Parrish again as he looked up from his desk to the blonde teen.
Turning her attention away from his green eyes, Avery asked, "So when we get the list of basements, we'll all split up right?"
"Actually…" Teagan said, as she glanced around and said, "I think one of us should stay here, keep everyone else updated. It's not like the cops are gonna call and give updates to a group of teenagers."
"Good idea." Isaac nodded.
Avery also nodded, "Alright."
"Great." Teagan smiled, as she looked over to where Parrish was watching them and whispered, "You stay here."
Avery looked over to Parrish and then snapped her gaze back to Teagan as she said, "No way, I'm not staying here."
"Avery…" Teagan argued as she nodded her head sideways towards Parrish and said, "Stay here with him, and call us when you hear something."
Isaac looked between the girls as they whisper-yelled at each other.
Realizing exactly why her best friend wanted her to stay behind Avery pointed at the deputy who was still watching them as she quietly whispered, "I'm not staying him, you stay here with him."
Teagan also pointed at him as she quietly said, "I don't want to stay here with him."
The young officer looked at the teen trio with a confused expression as the girls pointed at him and appeared to be arguing about something.
Looking between the friends and then back over to Parrish, Isaac spoke a bit too loudly as he announced, "Well, I don't want to stay with him either."
Hearing what he'd said Parrish's forehead lined with confusion as he stood up from his seat and asked, "Wait… what?"
"Great!" Avery exclaimed as she dramatically threw her arms and dropped them to her sides at realizing he'd been watching them.
But before they could say anything else, the sheriff and Scott came out of his office with paper copies of Scott's statement and started to distribute them to the rest of the station.
As the sheriff walked back up to his son's friends, Teagan said, "We were thinking maybe someone should stay here… to keep us updated."
He thought for a moment as he said, "Stiles might try to call the station for me."
"So then someone definitely needs to stay." Scott agreed as he looked between his friends.
Avery nodded, but then crossed her arms over her chest when she saw everyone was looking at her.
"No." she asserted as she shook her head back and forth, glancing out of the corner of her eye to where Deputy Parrish was watching them. Not only did she need to be out there trying to find Stiles, but after the incident at the park earlier that night she didn't want to be around him; she realized he'd have to think she was crazy.
Motioning between himself and Isaac, Scott quietly said, "We can't stay… we need to try and pick up his scent."
"Name one good reason why I should have to stay, and not Teagan." She continued to argue with them, then pointed a finger at Isaac and said, "And the fact that she's your girlfriend doesn't count."
Teagan looked over to the young deputy who was watching them as she opened her mouth and started to stumble over an excuse for Avery to have to stay there, but Isaac spoke up, "Well, you guys dated… so he'd probably respond to you the best."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Parrish raise his eyebrows at the newly learned news, then closed her eyes and breathed out an irritation laced breath and said, "That has nothing to do with this."
"Actually…" The sheriff said looking at the blonde teenager, "He has a point… if Stiles does call here for me, if you talk to him he's going to respond to you better than any of my officers."
Realizing this entire situation was bigger than her, and that the last thing on her mind that night should be worrying about someone thinking she's crazy, she nodded, "Fine."
As everyone met up outside of the building, the sheriff distributed parts of the list of basements to his officers, hoping if everyone split up that they could find his son faster. Once they were gone, he handed another part of the list to Teagan and Isaac, before motioning for Scott to come with him.
Avery watched them leave before taking out her phone and texting Lydia and Allison, letting them know everyone was splitting up and that she'd update them all as soon as she knew anything.
Taking her hair out of the high, messy bun she'd been sleeping in she rubbed her scalp and tried to think of an excuse for her behavior at the park earlier.
"Here."
She raised her head and looked over to see he'd pulled a chair up to his desk for her to sit in.
With a cautious look at him still being so nice to her even after seeing her freaking out in the park earlier that day she slowly walked over and breathed, "Thanks…"
He nodded giving her a smile as he said he needed to take some papers to another officer, as he grabbed a folder off the desk and left the room.
Once he was gone she moved over into his chair and looked at the computer, glancing behind her to make sure no one was watching she quickly started to look for a way to search for filed police reports or disturbances.
She opened folder after folder but couldn't find a way to access the police database, but then her eyes went over to something lit up under a few sheets of paper. Moving the paper she saw it was her iPod that she'd dropped at the park earlier, she let out a small laugh as she realized he'd been snooping through it.
Wirth raised eyebrows she laid her iPod back down and glanced around the desk, opening drawers and snooping through folders until she opened the bottom drawer of the desk and saw a silver lunch box and a dark green jacket.
"Hmm…" she breathed pulling the jack from the drawer and pulling a set of keys from one pocket and a pack of gum from the other. Opening up the pack of gum, she popped a piece in her mouth and laid his jacket up on the desk as she moved onto the lunch box.
Just as she started to unzip it she heard someone clear their throat, looking up she saw Parrish standing across the desk from her with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows raised.
Flashing him a smile she opened the drawer back up and put the lunchbox back before putting the contents of his pockets back in the green jacket and laying it back in the drawer too then moving back to the chair he'd brought her.
"What were you doing?" He finally asked as he walked over and sat down in his chair.
"Looking through your stuff." She admitted, like it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah, I saw that..." He said, his voice trailing off as he saw several open programs on the computer.
He opened his mouth to ask her what she was looking for but her phone went off and without even looking at the screen she held up a finger and said, "Hold that thought." As she scrambled from her chair and out into the hallway to take the call. It was Lydia saying that they'd checked the Eichen house basement because she was sure he was there, but that she'd been wrong.
After a few minutes of Avery trying to calm her down and tell her it wasn't her fault, Lydia said she needed to go, they had a few more places to check.
~()~
"Well that was a bust." Teagan mumbled, as she and Isaac walked out of the abandoned building. This was the tenth building they had searched, checking the basement and every floor just in case,but so far no Stiles, and the list the Sheriff have given them was getting shorter and shorter with each search.
She let out a sigh, as she flipped through her keys, trying to find the car key, but her hands were shaking so badly the keys slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground. She let out an annoyed groan, stomping her foot on the asphalt, feeling extremely annoyed by everything.
Before she could leaned down to pick up the keys, Isaac scooped them up, then stood in front of her to place the keys back in her hand. "Hey.." He softly said, getting her attention. When she lifted her head up to look at him, he laid a hand on the side of her face, cupping her cheek. "We're going to find him." He added, knowing she was worried about Stiles.
He was out there, somewhere, and he mentioned to Scott that he didn't think he was alone. What if they couldn't find him in time, what if they couldn't save him?
Teagan leaned against his hand, gaining strength from him, as she said, "I just feel like we're running out of time. Where is he? Where could he be that we haven't already checked. He said basement and we've checked just about every freaking basement in town."
"Shh.. It's okay." Isaac said, as he stroked her cheek, trying to calm her down. "He's got to be in one of these buildings." He added, as he nodded his head toward the list in his other hand.
Teagan took a step back from him, turning around to run a hand through her hair, as she let out a sigh, then said, "Someone should have been watching him. Someone should have been there for him." She turned back around to look at Isaac, as she continued, "The last time I talked to him, he was not okay. Something is happening to him too, and I've been so wrapped up in my own stuff, I haven't... I should have been a better friend. To him, to Avery, to everyone. One way or another, we are all being haunted by something, and I couldn't get my shit together long enough to help anyone."
"Hey, come here." Isaac said, as he reached out to wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her toward him. As she buried her face in his shirt, he kissed the top of her head, as he said,"It's not your fault, babe. Your mom is not making it easy for you, but you're still trying your best."
"Yeah, well, my best isn't cutting it anymore." She said, as she wrapped her arms around his middle. "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on." She quietly said. It was getting harder and harder to hold on to herself. She knew she shouldn't do it, but giving in to her mother was starting to sound better each day. She honestly wasn't sure how much longer she could ignore her pleas and do all the nightmarish things she wanted her to.
"Just stay with me, Teagan." He whispered, as he kissed the side of her head and pulled her closer to him. "I just need you to keep holding on and stay with me."
He continued to hold her until they heard her cell phone beep. She pulled back for a moment, to dig her phone out of her pocket, then lowered her eyebrows in confusion when she saw she had several missed calls from a 'unknown number', as well as several voice mail messages.
"What is it?" Isaac asked, seeing the look on her face.
"I have missed calls, but my phone never went off. Did you hear my phone ring?" Teagan questioned as she looked up at him. Wonder if maybe she just couldn't hear it while in her pocket, but knew with his hearing he would have heard it.
As he shook his head, she called to listen to her voice mails, putting it on speaker so he could listen with her. They were even more confused when the first few messages were just recording in Japanese.
"What does it mean?" Isaac questioned.
"I don't know. I know a little bit of Japanese, but not enough to translate." Teagan said, as the two continued to listen to the messages.
When they got to the last message, Teagan gasped and dropped her phone when she heard who it was, luckily Isaac caught it in time before it hit the asphalt. He looked up, seeing Teagan freeze up as her mother began to talk through the phone.
"Why do you keep fighting me, Teagan? Why are you wasting your time trying to save someone who can't be saved? You can't save anyone!" Her mother's voice said over the phone. "Stiles is a lost cause, but I can help you. Just give in already. Tuer ou être tué, Teagan."
"No." Teagan whimpered out.
"Stop fighting me, Teagan. I will win, in the end I will win, you're too weak, too worthless, to stop me. I'm-"
Isaac quickly ended the call before the message could finish. In his opinion, they didn't need to hear anything else from her. Nothing she said was the truth. He slipped the phone into his pocket, then reached out for his girlfriend, seeing she was seconds away from breaking down.
"No, no, don't say it. I know what you're going to say, but don't say it." Teagan said, as she pushed his hand away and took a few steps from him. "You're going to say she's wrong, that I'm this amazing person, but we both know that is bull shit! You have to say that! You have to." She called out. "But she's right! I'm worthless." She continued, as she threw her arms out. She looked down at the ground, before softly added,"I'm worst than worthless."
"Hey.." Isaac said, as he took a step toward her. He laid his hands on her sides, then lowered his head to look at her, as he said,"You are not worthless, Teagan. You are far from worthless. You are one of the most caring people I have met. You go above and beyond for everyone, and let's not forget all the times you have saved me."
Teagan scoffed at this comment, as she said,"You're the big, strong, werewolf. You're the one out there making a difference and saving people, and I'm the one who's losing their mind." Tears filled her eyes, as she softly said,"She's right. I can't save Stiles. I can't save anyone. Not even myself."
Isaac shook his head, as he wiped the tears from her cheeks, then a laid his hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him. "Hey, listen to me, no matter what your mother tells you, it's not the truth. She needs you to believe you are weak so she can take over, but you're not, Teagan, you are one of the strongest people I know. You have to ignore her, you have to keep fighting her." He pulled her toward him, giving her a sweet kiss, before mumbling against her lips,"And trust me, you have saved someone. You saved me. You gave me a reason to get up every day, and for someone who has had a lot of dark days in the past, that is a big deal. You are my reason for living, Teagan."
"Then we are both screwed." Teagan quietly said back.
"I don't believe that." Isaac said, as he shook his head. "But I do believe in me and you. I believe we are going to overcome anything. I'm not losing you, Teagan." He kissed her on the forehead, then pulled her back toward him, holding her tight. "Anytime you feel like you can't go on, just hold on to me, cause I swear I will be right here, and I'll be strong enough for the both of us, okay? Just hold on to me, Teagan."
"Okay." Teagan whispered, as she wrapped her arms around his middle. She closed her eyes, trying to block out her mother's voice, and just concentrate on Isaac. On his words, his strength and his love.
He kissed the top of her head one more time, then pulled away when they heard her phone beep again. She grabbed on to his shirt for support, as she sighed and said,"If that's my mom again, please just ignore it."
"It's Avery." Isaac stated. He reached over the text message, then looked over at Teagan with a smile, as he said, "They found Stiles. He's at the hospital now, being checked over, but he's okay."
"Thank, God." Teagan breathed out. She let out a small chuckle, as Isaac pulled her toward him, giving her a quick kiss on the side of her head. "Your mom was wrong. They did save Stiles and we're going to save you too." He said, before pressing his lips against hers for a sweet kiss. "I'm going to save you, babe, somehow I will save you." He mumbled against her lips.
Teagan softly smiled, then wrapped her arms around his neck, as the two began to kiss again. Her mother was still taunting her in his head, telling her she would win, but at least for now, they were winning.
~()~
"Any news?" Parrish questioned looking up from the computer screen.
Sitting down in her seat she shook her head back and forth, growing more concerned by the second for Stiles.
Staring down to her phone she racked her brain trying to think of where her friend could possibly be at, she was so focused that she hadn't heard him talking to her until he touched her arm and asked, "Avery?"
"Huh?" she gasped, shaken from her thoughts as she turned to face him with wide eyes.
He opened his mouth to repeat his question but no words came out as his eyes traced over her make-up free face as he smiled thinking she didn't need any of the make up she wore on a daily basis.
"What?" She asked, looking at him confused.
"N-nothing." He said as he turned his attention back to the computer and began typing.
"You know…" she said clearing her throat, "I'm not crazy."
Looking over at her he said, "I never thought you were."
"it's just… I know how things must have seemed in the park earlier today, but…" she started to say, but stopped drawing a blank on a reasonable excuse.
"What did you see?" He questioned, turning his full attention on her with a concerned expression.
"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice barely over a whisper as she stared at him.
"During the nightmare… or hallucination, whatever you want to call it…" He paused for a moment, his voice soft and comforting as he spoke to her, "Obviously whatever you saw terrified you."
"It's not important." She breathed, thinking if she told him the truth, he'd probably never talk to her again, and she couldn't blame him. Even she was starting to question her own sanity.
He watched as she looked away from him and wrapped her arms around herself, both physically and emotionally shutting off from him and her problems. His forehead lined with concern and confusion, not only was he getting increasingly worried about her but he was also finding it more and more difficult to get her off of his mind, and he hated the feeling he got when she shut down and wouldn't talk to him.
Not able to take the silence anymore he finally questioned, "What were you looking on the computer for."
"I was trying to get a list of calls to the police, reports or whatever for a certain night." She admitted to him.
"What's the date?" He questioned, happy to have her at least speaking to him again.
"Can you really just look into cases like that?" she raised her eyebrows as she looked at him.
Nodding behind them to the empty room he replied, "Well, I don't see anyone else here."
Smiling she told him the date she was wondering about as she scooted her chair closer to his to get a look at the screen, her arm brushed against his and they both looked at each for a few moments before he cleared his throat and looked back to the screen.
"Uh, it looks like there were quite a few calls to 911 that night." He said scrolling through the list, "Some burglaries…" He continued to read down the list, "A few car wrecks…"
With raised brows he said, "Looks like the hospital called in a victim of attempted murder…" Just as he started to click the label to open up details of the case, her heart jumped into her throat as she quickly said, "No, not that one!"
Making a fist and releasing it a few times she thought of how Kate had broken her fingers in attempt to get her to tell her who the alpha was, the attempted murder that night was on her. And the last thing she wanted was him learning anything else like that about her.
"What is you're looking for specifically?" He questioned, surprised by her reaction.
"Uh…" she stuttered, as she remembered Deucalion bringing up how she'd drawn power that night to keep herself alive, "Birds…"
"Birds?" He asked, with an expression like she was joking. But he quickly saw this wasn't a joke as she swallowed hard and gave a weak shrug as she added, "Or any mass animal deaths, really."
Slowly he turned his attention back towards the computer and scrolled down until he breathed, "Huh, what do you know…"
"What?" she asked, her eyes moving back and forth rapidly searching his face as he looked over at her.
"There were several calls that night about birds not only just dropping from the sky, but flying right into car windows and against a building." He said as he skimmed the details of the case.
"Parrish…" She breathed, looking at him with a pale face as she mustered the courage to ask, "What building?"
Reading back over a few of the reports he answered, "It seems the unusual activity was all reported around… Beacon Memorial Hospital."
She quickly looked away from him, feeling like someone had just punched her in the gut.
"Avery?" He softly asked seeing her reaction.
But she pinned her eyes shut and refused to look over at him, afraid that if he looked at her for too long he'd be able to see she'd just been born with something broken in her, that she was being swallowed up in a darkness that was all consuming.
~()~
After taking a few moments alone to compose herself after the news that she had in fact, tapped into the darkness for energy on her own the night she'd almost died she splashed some water on her face and slowly raised her head to look up in the mirror.
But she was greeted by the badly burnt and scared face of her mother.
"You can't save him." Aleine taunted from the cold glass of the mirror.
Avery closed her eyes and tried to count to ten, hoping like usual when she opened her eyes she wouldn't be there anymore, but her mom didn't give her the chance to reach five before she started in again.
"Stiles is going to die, and there's nothing you can do."
"That's not true… stop it." Avery breathed, keeping her eyes pinned shut.
"What do you think is going to happen when all of your friends see the real you? When they realize how dark and mangled you are inside? The ones who don't end up dead are going to leave you and you will be all alone."
"Stop…" Avery whimpered, her eyes opening as she saw it wasn't her mom's face in the mirror anymore it was her own reflection, but the relief soon faded when she realized her reflection wasn't matching up with her own movements.
"Look at you… so pathetic."
Avery watched with tears in her eyes as her mirror image continued to taunt her.
"You're turning into her, that woman –no, that monster who was going to kill your friends parents, you're turning into her. You should just end it, end it now before someone you love dies." her voice echoed throughout the small tiled room, bouncing off the walls and filling her ears.
Her chin quivered as she lowered head and breathed, "I'm as bad as my mom…"
A fit of menacing laughter filled the room as Avery picked up a bottle of pills from the sink, confused as she read the label and quickly saw it was her dad's sleeping pills. The same ones she'd tried to kill herself with a couple years back.
"No… no… no." She whimpered, as she took the lid off and saw the bottle was full.
"You're worse than her. At least she had a reason behind what she did, but you? You're just bad, all you do is screw up people's lives. You break everything you touch."
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she shook some of the pills out in her hand and tearfully mumbled, "I break everything I touch…"
"Nobody wants you, … and you know why…"
"No, shut up!" She shouted clutching the handful of pills into a fist as she looked back up to see her reflection was now staring at her with black eyes.
Making a noise like the air had been knocked out of her she dropped the bottle of pills in her other hand to the sink as she gripped onto it, and gasped. Thinking how hideous she looked with eyes like that, but more tears ran down her face at the realization that those dead, dark eyes matched who she was on the inside. A terrible, horrible, ugly person that no one could love.
"You're dirty… tainted…"
"Stop!" she whimpered dropping the pills into the sink as she grabbed onto the sides of her head trying to force everything back down, but she couldn't, memories flooded her mind and she knew what the mirror was saying was right, every single word of it.
"Avery, are you okay? You've been in there a while…" Deputy Parrish called out as he lightly tapped on the door.
"I –I'm fine…" She yelled.
"You think he'd want anything to do with you if he knew? If he really knew you… no, he'd flee town to get away from you. Derek left the country to get away from you."
More tears ran down her face as she feared the nightmare would never end, and for the moment it felt like there was only one way out; a thought weighing heavily on her mind as she started to gather each white pill from the sink, a pile of them growing in her hand.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Parrish questioned again, growing more concerned by the second.
Just as quickly as it had hit her, the hallucination was over. Her mirror image was back to normal, the voices had stopped and there wasn't a single pill in the bathroom with her.
Swallowing hard she took a deep breath, thankful she'd only been crying in her nightmare and not in real life. It would be easier to pretend she was okay without red rimmed eyes and tear stained cheeks.
"Avery!" He yelled louder when she didn't respond.
Pulling the door open she flashed him a wide, flirty smile as she accused, "Couldn't spend five minutes without me, huh, Deputy Parrish?"
But this time he didn't return an ounce of her flirty behavior as he pointed out, "Five minutes? Avery… you were in there for almost a half an hour."
"What…" she breathed coming to a stop near the desk they'd been sitting at.
Sitting back down in his chair he asked, "Are you losing time?"
Her eyes met his and she tried to quickly think of a comeback, something to say to not reveal how much struggle it was trying to hold on and get through the days anymore. But her mind was blank another side effect of everything that was happening. It was getting harder and harder to hide what was happening.
"Where is everyone?" Agent McCall questioned as he walked into the room from a side door, not noticing Avery. Before the young deputy had a chance to respond he continued, "We get a lead on our sword-wielding maniac?" With the end of his question he glanced down to where his arm was still in a sling from the encounter he'd had with the Oni.
"Nope, but we've got posters up all over town for your guy." Parrish responded, with an amused expression as he glanced from the 'wanted' poster on the wall behind him before looking back at his computer.
Seeing the expression on the deputy's face, McCall said, "Not exactly how I described him to the sketch artist."
Avery held back a laugh as Parrish said, "Well, you're not exactly the highest priority of the night, Agent McCall."
"What does that mean? What's the high priority?" he asked.
"The sheriff's son." Deputy Parrish spoke to him in a tone clearly showing he didn't have time to have this conversation.
"Stiles?"
Rolling her eyes Avery made her presence known as she said, "He's missing, everyone is out searching the town to try and find him."
McCall looked over at the blonde still wearing her pajamas and asked, "Missing…" then looked back to Parrish as he questioned, "What details do we have? Any leads?"
"We have a transcript of a phone call, from what Stiles said, we have reason to believe he's in an industrial basement somewhere." Parrish explained as he sorted through a few papers and handed one over to the FBI agent.
Avery walked over and sat back down in the chair next to Parrish as she watched Scott's dad read it, seeing his eyebrows raise she asked, "What?"
"These words: Stiles said, 'something smells terrible, my eyes are watering' those are his exact words?" He pushed looking at Parrish who gave a small shrug, those words hadn't made sense or seemed to matter to anyone.
"Well, that's what Scott said, he's your son… don't you believe him?" Avery asked with a jolt of attitude, that the agent chose to ignore as he re-read the paper and then turned to leave.
But Scott's mom Melissa walked into the room and said her shift was over and she wanted to help. Her ex-husband explained that he might have an idea of where Stiles was, but that he wasn't sure so they shouldn't get anyone else involved.
After promising Avery she'd call the minute they found something out, Melissa left with Raf.
The minutes seemed like hours as Avery stared at her phone waiting for news on whether they'd found Stiles or not, until finally her phone rang, she answered it and then breathed out a huge sigh of relief as she hung up.
"Did they find him?" Deputy Parrish asked, reading her expression. But before she could answer the phone on the desk started to ring as Scott's dad phoned the station to say they'd found Stiles.
Sending out a mass text to her friends, letting them know Stiles had been found in the coyote den in the woods, cold and shaken up –but alive.
~ A Teen Wolf fanfiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn.~
A/N- Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave us a review if you read and enjoyed the chapter. ^_^