A/N: Hey friends! Chapter 2 is here! I hope you enjoy!


That night we kept searching and searched well after the sun went down. I had lost Clark for a few minutes, after dark, but had remained calm. I found him again a little ways ahead. He had reunited with Chloe who had come up empty handed.

She took Missy's purse with her back to The Torch and Clark and I figured we were close enough to his house we could just walk from there. By the time we reached the farm I was exhausted. I've ran around all over Beacon Hills with Scott but there was usually driving to make up for a lot of it.

"Look who decided to show up for dinner." My Uncle Johnathan says playfully when we walk in the door. I give him a smile and make my way to the sink to wash my hands. The day had been long and I had been to too many places.

Before I could even get to the table my Aunt Martha had a plate of food waiting for me. Usually, back home, I'd grab something from the gas station or McDonald's. Sometimes I'd order Mexican food or Chinese if I was feeling a little wild. The food on the plate was a big roll with potatoes and chicken and noodles. Comfort food at its finest.

We sat around the table while Clark and I ate our dinner. Talked about the farm, talked about my mom, and talked about my dad's flight home in the morning. He wasn't too eager to leave, he admitted that pretty early on in the conversation, but the station is understaffed so they need him back as soon as possible.

I fell asleep quickly once I went to my room. I made the mistake of laying on my bed for just a moment before needing to change. Once I laid down, I didn't get up until my dad was gently shaking me. The time had come for me to take him to the airport. I dreadfully pulled myself from the bed, took a hot shower to wake up because heaven knows I needed it, and then made my way down stairs where I stole a cup of coffee and a muffin. "Breakfast of champions." I mutter and my dad smirks.

My aunt Martha is sitting out on the front porch waiting for us. She's riding with me to drop my dad at the air port, which is probably a good thing, so I don't get lost trying to get back to the farm. She smiles a genuine smile at us both and I can tell she's dreading the goodbye. She had just got him back after ten years for him to be leaving again. Maybe it was an older sister thing, that I couldn't say, but as a family thing...I understood.

The two of them talked about their father on the way to the airport. How it would have been nice to see him before my dad had to take off again. They talked about how the weather today was going to get rough in the evening so it was a good thing he was flying out this morning. My dad made sure to make Martha promise to keep me safe and out of trouble. That made me roll my eyes and protest that, "I'm always careful."

When it came time to say goodbye I hugged my dad close and he clung to me not wanting to let go. We stood like that for a few minutes when they announced his flight was boarding. Martha gave him a hug next and I told him I loved him. Watching him walk away was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

After his plane left, Martha nudged me in the arm, and asked if I wanted to grab breakfast. I told her I had a muffin and she rolled her eyes at me. "What?" I asked slightly appalled.

"You need more than a muffin." She says, "Besides that was two hours ago." I don't argue with her.

I walk beside her back to the jeep making small talk. She asks me about my friends, my dating life, my grades, if my dad has met anyone knew, and what I would typically do during my summer breaks in Beacon Hills. I told her about Scott and how he doesn't really seem to know what's going on most of the time. Told her how I've had a crush on Lydia Martin since the 3rd grade, but she still wouldn't give me her time of day, unless she had to. I confirmed that my dad was still holding onto my mom, and how I think finding someone new could be nice, but it would be kind weird too. Lastly, I told her I'd mainly hang out with Scott during the summer. He was my best friend after all.

"You guys, you and your friends, you've been through a lot." She says softly.

I look at her confused and she then looks at me. "Oh, yeah, I know about your best friend being a... werewolf is it? I didn't want to believe it at first, but your dad was pretty adamant about it. I think I truly believed him when he asked if you could come stay with us over the summer. That it was no longer safe back home."

"Man, he kept that secret for like four months." I let out a sigh and glance at my Aunt Martha. "I think he's worried about me because I got possessed by an evil fox spirit, a Nogitsune...yep it's a thing... and it nearly killed me. It did, however, kill one of my friends..." My voice fades as I think of Allison, "and all of us have been hurting since."

She's looking at me with genuine sadness and compassion. "I'm so sorry, Stiles." Her apology nearly tears a hole in my chest where the sorrow is still healing.

"It's ok." I lie and I feel bad. "It'll be ok." I correct.

"Your dad said that she was killed about 3 months ago. So it was all pretty recent?" She asks but I feel like the question is rhetorical. "You poor kids have been through so much. I hope we can help you heal some before you go back. I know I can't replace your mom, and I'd never dream to, but if you ever need me please don't hesitate to talk or call. I'll always be there." She smiles softly at the end and I can tell she truly means it.

I look over at her briefly and I let a light smile for at the edge of my mouth. "Of course."

We grab breakfast at a local a.m place. They close daily at noon so we still have plenty of time. I ask her what she suggested I order and she tells me that she never knows either. She orders something new off the menu each time she comes which is hardly ever.

After breakfast she guides me back to the farm. Johnathan is standing at the back of his truck working on something and I can see Clark off in the distance feeding the cows. Once we park, I say a quick hello to my Uncle, and then go see if Clark needs any help. Yesterday was successful and I'm sure today can be too.

"Hey!" I holler and he looks in my direction. I could have sworn he started struggling a bit more with the hay bale he was carrying but my imagination could be stirring too. "Need some help?"

"I can use an extra hand," he says and I grab a hay bale. I struggle to walk with it a far distance. I wouldn't call myself weak by any means but compared to Clark, I'm a pipsqueak, and I don't have to be told that to know it. Have you seen him? He's huge.

"Where am I taking this?" I tried to hide my struggles and panting as we walk a half a football field.

"Right here." He says throwing his bale over the fence and opening the gate. "That red thing out there." He points and about another 60 feet ahead of us is a steel trough like thing still holding some hay from yesterday.

As I break the hay down to throw it inside, a brown cow, approaches me. I can't help but stiffen and Clark chuckles at me. "Her name is Betsy and she won't hurt you." He sticks his hand out and rubs her forehead and nose.

Her slobbery tongue pulls in a bite of hay and she makes a slight moo noise, almost like saying thank you. I reach my hand out and pet her, too. I've not pet a cow since I was little but the sensation still feels the same.

We continue working together to wipe out the chores. Once finished, we make our way back up to the house, and help my Uncle Johnathan finish up the last bit of fencing he has to do. I should say that Clark mainly helped and I watched. It was a learning experience, ok?

We meet Chloe at the Torch around noon. She had been avidly searching the I.D we found and seeing if she could cross reference anything to try and understand the numbers. She hadn't had any luck so far, and suggested that we go back out there, and look around more. Clark and I agreed it couldn't hurt so we made our way to the clearing in the woods.

We drove separately this time, not that I minded riding with Chloe, but I preferred having my jeep. It brings me comfort and right now I needed it.

We split up again. This time I stayed nearish Clark and Chloe but went my own way. We hollered for Missy occasionally, but mostly were looking for clues that may guide us to finding her, even if that meant the worst case scenario. I hoped it didn't.

I was walking the edge of the lake when I thought I had saw a man lurking across the way in the trees. I quickly looked behind me to wave Clark and Chloe down but when I turned back around, he had vanished. I told them that I could've sworn that I had just saw a man over on the other side lurking, but I couldn't tell if Clark believed me or not, and Chloe seemed convinced I could be on to something.

"I mean, it would make sense." She said. "Creep hangs out in the woods and kidnaps an unsuspecting girl. Not an unusual thing to happen." She looks at me and Clark.

I nod in agreement. "It may be nothing, too." I counter, "but I know what I saw."

Clark is half squinting and half staring at the other side of the lake. I find it fairly intense and almost interrupt when he looks at Chloe and me. "I think we should call it for today. Technically, we haven't found anything more."

Disappointment clearly springs on Chloe's face and I feel it deep down. "Yeah, sure." I answer. "So what do we do in the meantime?"

"We wait..." Chloe says barely defeated, "I guess."

I follow Chloe back to the clearing and Clark follows behind me. I look back to find him looking behind us, almost checking to make sure nobody is following, and that strikes my suspicion further. Once we break through the clearing I notice that someone has slashed my driver's side tire in the front. "Oh, come on!" I'm frustrated and who wouldn't be. The pocket knife that was used is still sticking out of it. "Why me?" I ask and kick the tire.

"Better you then me." Chloe argues back innocently. I give her a slight glare and then let out a very deep sigh. Nothing can ever go right.

"Good thing I have a spare." I dig in the back of the jeep to find the tool bag my dad taught me to always have with me. I then get the spare tire off the back of the jeep and get to work. Those thirty minutes felt like an hour, but I got the tire changed, and I was calling it a win.

After we left, I asked Clark if he saw something back at the woods. He gave an immediate no that made be think he actually did. So I pressed a little more and I got the same answer. "You just really seemed like you were looking for someone is all." I say and he shakes his head. Must've been my imagination.

I followed Chloe to the The Talon where we decided to eat a late lunch. Clark got a coffee and Chloe did too. I didn't really see how they could handle coffee at the moment. My throat was parched and I really needed some water, and some fries, but mainly water. We all just kind of talked and hung out for the remainder of the late afternoon, early evening. Clark and I headed back to the farm before dark.

The next several days, nearly a week, and we didn't really find too much. We took what we had to the Smallville police station and went on our way. We gave it our best but everything just turned up empty. That was until today.

Chloe and I were hanging out at the rock quarry down past the old bridge that separated the river with a dam. We were just hanging out, talking about journalism, our favorite bands, you know...the basics, when something caught my eye. Back behind the shrubs and the trees was a dilapidated factory.

I called for Chloe and we both walked towards it. We went through the brush, ducked under limbs, and made our way to the front of it. The old doorway was partially fallen in and parts of the building had began to break down and crumble. I was uncertain how stable the foundation was so I approached the doorway with caution. "Should we enter?" I look over at Chloe who is inspecting as much as she can.

She pushes on the wall, hits it a few times, and kicks it for good measure. "I mean, I don't see why we couldn't." She answers but I'm still not convinced and she can tell. "These old buildings were built to last. I'm sure the foundation is fine."

I push against the building and give Chloe a look that says, "I'm not so sure about this," and then open the door.

The inside of the building is super dark so I'm forced to use the flashlight on my phone. It's not much but it works. Chloe must carry a spare flashlight in her bag because she pulled out a mini one. We're looking around at the disaster before us. It looked as if people abandoned the place in a hurry, "the meteor shower," I thought to myself. It would make the most sense and there was evidence that some meteors had hit here too.

We were both so focused on looking around, we hadn't noticed we had gotten separated. I called for her in a whisper and she didn't hear me. "Chloe!" I call again and I hear a rock or something turn over down the hall. I follow the noise, my anxiety growing, and I do the best I can to sneak along. "Chloe!" I call again and nearly jump out of my skin when a hand reaches out and grabs my shoulder.

Chloe bursts out in laughter and I am leaning over with my hands on my knees. "Gotcha!" She says and I give her a glare.

"What is wrong with you?" I ask annoyed and she must find it amusing.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" She was still giggling a little.

I let out a big breath, and sucked one back in, to level my breathing. "You're the worst, you know that?" I ask as I pick up my phone that I had dropped.

We continued exploring the huge space when I found a door that led downstairs. "I wasn't aware factories had basements." I glance at Chloe and I can see she is surprised too.

I led the way slowly down the staircase. The further we descended, the cooler it got, and sent a shiver up my spine. I noticed what looked like scratch marks on the wall and was creeped out by the thought of this being one of those old asylums. Once we were at the bottom, we had to choose a direction to pick, and we chose the left. The right side looked partially fallen in and we didn't want it to continue.

As we journeyed down the long dark hallway I started to pay attention to the doors and the numbers next to them. "Y'know," I say, "we could totally be walking into a trap right now and we'd never even know it. Kinda like a horror movie type situation and the killer is going to harvest our brains to eat for dinner."

"Ew, Stiles, that's disgusting." Chloe sticks out her tongue doing a yuck expression.

"You never know! You're the one who told me about the meteor people. How do you know there isn't one hiding out here who eats brains?"

She rolled her eyes, "Zombies eat brains, genius. There aren't any zombies down here."

"Maybe, maybe-" I hear a loud clang and stop talking. "Did you hear that?" I question and Chloe nods.

We follow the noise to room 517 and look at each other. My hands are trembling a bit, but I muster the courage to turn the door handle, and swing it wide open. I peek inside and am very surprised to see a girl tied to a metal chair that's been knocked over. Chloe sees her too and gasps. "Missy!" She says shocked and hurries up to her.

Missy looks awful. Her eyes are desperate for help and she has various cuts and bruises on her face and arms. I help Chloe sit her up and untie the knots in the rope. Chloe removes the tape from across her mouth slowly, being as gentle as she can be, and then removes the cloth shoved in her mouth.

"Who did this to you?" She asks worried and I'm trying to keep an eye on the door. The problem is that there are multiple doors and they each lead in the own direction.

"I don't know." She can barely croak it out.

"That's real helpful." The words blurt out of my mouth before I can stop them and this time Chloe sends a glare my way. "Uh, my bad." I say embarrassed.

I notice Chloe's eyebrows furrow before helping her up. "We need to get you out of here." Missy nods and I wrap one of her arms over my shoulder.

We try to go as quickly as possible, but Missy can only move so fast, and each stumble sets us back a little more. We're almost to the top of the staircase when a man steps in front of us. He's got a scowl across his face and he's huge. At least 6'3 and my stomach drops into my feet.

He lifts his leg, sticking his big booted foot up, and kicks me in the stomach. It hits my ribcage, and sends us toppling down the staircase, and landing slightly tangled in one another. We don't waste anytime to get up though. Luckily, he's slower, and is only half way down the staircase when we're up and moving back to where we came from. Missy is giving it her all and I can't really say I blame her. She had barely gotten the smallest taste of freedom when big ugly showed up.

The gap between us was staying consistent. If we kept at our pace we should be able to lose him in one of the other hallways. The only issue would be getting back out of the building and to our vehicles. "Chloe." I say slightly winded, "we need to find a way out. Maybe if we split up I can distract him and you can get Missy to safety."

"Absolutely not!" She protests. "We stick together."

I look ahead of us and the hallway is coming to an end. It splits off to the the right and left and there's a stairwell leading up on the right. "It's now or never, Chloe!" I say frustrated. "Either way, if we don't split up, he'll catch us just after the stairs. That's not going to help any of us."

"But Stiles!" She tries to argue but I won't let her.

"No buts!" I say. "Take Missy and you two run like hell up those stairs. I'll distract him for as long as I can but you have to go, now!" I let go of Missy's arm and open the door. The two of them hobble through and Chloe turns and looks at me.

"Be careful." She looks me in the eyes and I can tell she cares. I close the door behind them and latch it.

Missy's kidnapper is approaching and I begin to wonder why I do the things that I do sometimes. I look frantically around for something to defend myself with and find on old metal rod on the floor. I assume it used to be a pole of some sort. "Hey!" I say as threatening as possible, "stay back!"

The guy just kept coming towards me. I'm able to get a good look at his face, and it looks tattered, kind of like that of an old cloth in the winter. Shredded but together. It gives me the creeps. It was as if his face had been raked off and put back on in strips. I notice he's wearing overalls and a t-shirt that is just a tad too loose on him. His height wasn't so menacing now. It was his entire existence.

My threat clearly does nothing to make him falter because he's still coming towards me. He gets within five feet, and I take off to the left, running as fast as I can. I feel like he's somehow getting faster because every time I turn a new corner, by the time I get to the next one, he's turning the corner behind me. I do this four or five times and I have to take a breather. Typically, running isn't so bad for me where I play Lacrosse, but I'm now struggling.

I've barely caught my breath when he turns down the same hallway as me and is approaching me quickly. I turn left and realize I've made a big square. The staircase Chloe and Missy escaped through was to my right again and I wonder if they've had enough time to escape. Mr. Big and Ugly is closing the gap between us when I unlatch the door and begin running up the stairs. He's right behind me and I'm relieved when I get to the top that there's an exit door just ahead.

I begin sprinting towards it with everything in me. I put a gap in the distance between us which gives me a little relief. I burst through the door and quickly scan for the trail that leads out. I can see Chloe and Missy ahead, leaving the thicket, and getting to the quarry. I run and catch up with them hoping we can make it to our vehicles before he's trailing us again.

"Oh my god!" Chloe exhales, "I'm so glad you made it out!"

"You doubted me?" I half smirk through my panting. I wrap Missy's other arm back around my shoulder and we keep moving. We cross the quarry quickly and I help Missy in the passenger side of Chloe's car while she runs around to the driver's side digging for her keys. "I'll be right behind you." I tell her and she nods. I then close Missy's door and run to my jeep.

I fight it for a second to get it to start but she finally fires up just as big ugly comes into view. Chloe hits the gas and I follow suit. We drive like hell until we're on the main rode and until we reach the hospital. Chloe already has Missy's door open and is helping her out of the car when I get to them. I quickly step in and tell Chloe to go tell the front desk we found Missy and that I'm bringing her in. She quickly ran inside and within a minute staff was coming to take over. Chloe and I answer some questions and then are free to leave.

I follow her back to the Torch after sending a text to Clark to meet us there. Chloe and I waited for roughly fifteen minutes, it's dark now, for Clark to show up. We were excitedly talking about how lucky it was we randomly found Missy and that the guy who had kidnapped her was freakishly scary.

"Hey Clark!" I greet as he walks through the door of The Torch.

"You will not believe the day we had!" Chloe says next. She begins to ramble about how we were randomly down at the quarry when I saw an old factory building that we decided to go check out. How we wandered around the halls and even went down a suspicious staircase that led us to a room numbered 517. "We found Missy Adams!" She exclaims and Clark's eyes light up with surprise.

"Is she ok?" He asks concerned and I tell him just a few cuts and scrapes.

"Yeah, when we found her we're assuming she was trying to escape. We had heard a loud banging noise. We think that was her tipping her chair over."

"So she was kidnapped?" He asked concerned.

"By a very large and very ugly man." I cut in. "Kinda like that one killer from that online game you can play with friends. Dead by Daylight I think is what its called? Anyway, he kicked me down the stairs, my ribs are still sore, but otherwise no maiming."

His eyes widen again. "Wait, he was there?"

"Yeah, dude, but it's ok. We all managed to get out just fine." I reassure but his nostrils are flaring a bit and his face his turning slightly red.

"What is wrong with you?" He says to me flatly.

"Wh-" I pause slightly confused. "What do you mean, Clark?"

"Why would you go in there? What if someone would have gotten hurt? What if Chloe would have gotten hurt? Did you even consider the what ifs?" He's angry? Why is he so bent over us entering an empty building we didn't know held a kidnapping victim.

"Hey, Clark, it was my idea to go in." Chloe defends me. It must've been apparent he was upset with me. He ignored her though.

"Yeah, Clark, it's nothing to lose your cool over. Chloe is fine, Missy is being taken care of, heck even I'm mainly fine." I try to calm him down but that seemed to make him more mad at me.

"Chloe, can you give us a minute?" He asks giving her a brief glance and I can tell she's hesitant.

"What? Why?" I ask surprised. "Whatever you need to say to me you can say in front of your friend."

He looks at me for a moment. "You're right, she is my friend. She's my best friend. You may be ok with putting your friends in danger, or getting them killed, but I'm not ok with my friends being put in danger or maybe getting killed." He says it coldly and aggressively.

A silent breath hitches in my throat and makes it hard to swallow. For a second, I feel like I could collapse. Allison's death is rushing back into my head, as if it ever really leaves, and I feel like a I can't breath. For an instant, I'm weak, pathetic Stiles, whose best friend is trying to save him from the evil spirit, sucking away his life force.

"Clark." Chloe gasps and he looks away. "Clark, that's not-."

"It's fine." I say quietly, desperately holding back the forming tears. "I'm just...I'm going to go." I force my feet to move and I walk quickly out the door. I can hear Chloe defending me, or attempting to, but it doesn't matter. I now know why he was acting so weird with me when I first arrived and why it's felt awkward ever since. He thinks I got Allison killed, how he knew about what happened, I'm not sure. Like I said, though, it doesn't matter.

The tears begin to escape as I exit the school. I wipe them away and head for my jeep. I'm reaching for the door handle when a big thick hand wraps around the back of my neck and slams me face first into the fender. I fall to the ground, dazed, and warmth running down my face. I reach up, and grab my head, warm liquid meets my hand, and I realize I'm bleeding. I don't get a chance to defend myself before he's pulling me off the ground and hitting me in the stomach with his big meaty fist. It knocks the air right out of me, and even though I'm trying to yell for help, I can't get the words to form. The last thing I wonder, as his knee comes barreling towards my face, and before I'm falling unconscious to the ground, is if anyone will care that I'm missing...or alive.


A/N: So, what did you think? I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Next chapter should be the last but we will see how it goes. Don't forget to like, follow, yada yada, and review!

Much love-

Aimfire