CHAPTER SIX
MOTEL CALIFORNIA
"spreadin myself thin
became my priority"
˚✧₊⁎*⁎⁺˳✧༚

     WHEN the yellow school bus packed with teenagers finally parked in front of the seedy motel, Shivani felt nothing short of sweet relief.

     After what had been an excruciatingly long ride trapped in a bus that stunk of sweat and Jared's nasty vomit, she was happy to get out. She didn't mind terribly that the hotel they were staying at looked as if it was stolen off of the set of a horror movie. Anything but that damned bus was good enough at this point. Isaac probably didn't mind either— what with his vast experience living in a freezer, nothing could possibly be worse.

     Lydia and Allison had decided to tag along to the motel, leaving the car at the previous stop. It was both because the car ran out of gas and because Allison wanted to keep an extra eye on the McCall boy. Shivani was beyond relieved that the two girls were there. Not that she didn't like Isaac, Scott and the others, but being stuck at motel with no one else to speak to but the boys didn't exactly sound like her cup of tea. As well as the lingering awkwardness between herself and Stiles. She desperately needed to pull Allison aside and ask her for advice, again. The Caddel girl was in need of a girl talk— and quick.

     Shivani let her eyes scan their surroundings the second her sneaker cladded feet hit the crunchy. The sole of her shoe crushed the gravel splayed on top of the other wise asphalt parking lot. Motel Glen Capri was written on a bold, bright sign at the very front of the motel. The blue and red lights flickered hauntingly, a chill running down Shivani's spine. Her lips pressed into a thin line as her imagination conjured up what the inside could look like. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thoughts. Whatever she was making up in her head was probably a whole lot worse than reality. At least that's what she kept telling herself, but there was just no denying the goosebumps left on her skin by the eerie vibe wafting off the place.

Shivani had exactly zero intentions of sharing a room with anyone but Allison and Lydia. However, those plans were derailed when Coach dangled the room keys in front of them, letting them know they'd have to pair up because there were only two beds per room. It wasn't like she had expected for either one of the girls to choose her, but there was no denying the pang that erupted in her chest when she watched the two grab a pair of keys and saunter off. Shivani never was a social kid, therefore she never had to experience the horrible feeling of being left out. She always took herself out of the equation. For the first time in her life, she got to know what the last choice was.

It was a bad feeling.

Stiles merely spared a glance in her direction before Scott and him wandered off to their own room. Shivani chewed at the inside of her cheek anxiously, her eyes fanning through the crowd of teenagers to see if there was another single girl in need of a roommate. There wasn't. Shivani was the odd one out, ironically enough not because of the fact that she was a mermaid, but because she didn't really have friends.

Then, like a saviour, his fingers circled around her wrist, wordlessly tugging her in the direction of the motel. Shivani went to protest, but the words died on the tip of her tongue when the gratitude blossomed in her chest. It overflowed in her bloodstreams, rushing to her cheeks. The pink dusted colour made her look down, allowing him to pull her towards the motel room. Right now, Shivani didn't bother questioning why he had chosen her and not Boyd. She simply glowed with appreciation, happy that someone for once had chosen her.

Isaac Lahey rescues her, just like she had rescued him.

Silence fell upon them as he unlocked the door to the motel room, letting her inside first. He carried her bag over his shoulder, putting it on the bed she chose for herself. Shivani always struggled with showcasing her emotions. As much as she wanted to express her gratitude towards him, she felt odd doing so. She could only hope the look on her face was enough.

The room was as seedy and nasty as Shivani had anticipated. The smell of mildew lingered, the carpeted floors making her fear for the amount of germs that without a doubt lived there. Isaac located at the bed closest to the door after she plopped down on the other one. For some reason the tension in the room was hung thick. It wasn't like the two hadn't shared a room before— they'd been doing so the last few days. But something about tonight felt different. Whether it was because of the circumstances or simple because the motel was creepy, was uncertain.

"Eh, you could take the shower first if you want." Isaac offered, breaking the silence. Shivani nodded, eager to shower of the stench of vomit. The sleeves of her sweater were stained black from Scott's blood still.

The mermaid entered the bathroom with the intention of taking a shower. But when her eyes graced the shower and the stained towels on the rack, she turned on her heels, shaking her head vigorously. "Nope. Not happening. That's disgusting. The towels literally reek" She shuddered, flopping back down on the bed. "You go right ahead."

Isaac disappeared into the bathroom, but unlike Shivani he didn't come running back out. She hummed in amusement when she heard the shower switch on. Shrugging her shoulders, she slipped her shoes back on. Her stomach rumbles loudly in discontent, leading her on a hunt for a vending machine. They hadn't stopped all day for a bite to eat, and between everything that was going on with Scott she had completely forgotten to even feel hungry. But now that things had calmed down, she could feel the familiar hunger biting at her, allowing her mindlessly wander on the quest for food. She figured she'd buy something for Isaac as well, as a thanks.

Shivani skidded to a halt next to Boyd who was already standing at the vending machine. She shot him a lopsided smile, feeling uncomfortable in his presence. Not because she didn't like him, but because she always felt off in the presences of someone she didn't really know. He didn't return the smile, instead staring blankly ahead at the vending machine. It didn't take long for two to become three. The person Shivani would have loved to avoid for the rest of the trip arrived next to her, toying around with the money in his hand.

¨Yo.¨ Stiles greeted playfully, his bad mood from earlier on now gone. Shivani gave him a curt nod, Boyd still remaining quiet. Stiles arched his brow, but refrained from commenting. Instead he watched as Boyd tapped the keypad for the machine. ¨Hey, that's the same thing I was gonna get.¨ Stiles grinned, looking at the dark skinned werewolf. Still no answer.

Shivani shifted on her feet as she found the deafening silence unsettling. They watched intently as the machine moved to unravel the candy bar, freezing at the last second. ¨Oh, hang on. You know what?¨ Stiles began digging through the pocket of his pants. ¨I got a patented method for this. Don't worry.¨

Before he could proudly flaunt his method, Boyd took them both by surprise when he punched the glass, watching the shards rain down as it shattered. Shivani squealed in surprise, wide eyes watching as Boyd grabbed his candy bar before retreating to his room. Stiles and Shivani shared a mutual look of concern.

¨What the hell was that?¨

¨I have no clue.¨

By the time Shivani had returned back to her shared motel room carrying all the candy bars she physically could manage, Isaac was nowhere to be seen. She dumped them all on her bed, proud of her works even though Boyd had stood for ninety percent of it. Okay, one hundred percent. Either way, she was ready to show it off to Isaac. She peered into the bathroom for him, but he wasn't there either. Shivani shrugged her shoulders, munching on a bar of chocolate as she fully entered the bathroom. Much to her luck, Isaac had supplied them with fresh towels, ones that didn't stink of cigarettes. She decided to push her every concern about the nasty looking bathroom to the back of her mind, stripping down to get into the shower. Despite the surroundings, there was no denying the undying relief that captured her as the warm water slipped down her body. She sighed in content, letting the steam consume her as she got lost in thought.

So much so that she didn't even hear the door to the bathroom creak open. Not until the faucet to the sink switched on did she turn off the shower. A shriek escaped her lips when she peered out from behind the shower curtain, immediately using it to cover herself up when she spotted Isaac at the sink. ¨Isaac what the hell.¨ Her heart thumped harshly against her ribs in her chest. ¨What are you doing? Why do you have my clothes? Hello?¨ She dragged out the vowels on the last words, Isaac flat out ignoring her the same way Boyd had Stiles. Isaac held her clothes under water, staring blankly ahead as she hugged the curtain tighter to her body.

Suddenly he turned around, slowly moving towards her. Her breath hitched in her throat when he halted directly in front of her, her eyes instinctively measuring the distance between their lips. His deep blue eyes connected to hers, a mischievous glint to them as his breath fanned over her lips. She matched his height perfectly as she stood in the shower, a slight nudge the only thing necessary for their lips to connect.

Just as fast as he had appeared, he disappeared, leaving her by her lonesome in the steamed bathroom. Confusion clouded her mind as she tried to understand what had just happened. That's when she realised something else; she was soaked in water head to toe and had yet to grow a tail.

Her hand tapped on her glistening skin, panic settling. Her mind had been so damn clouded with that damned spastic boy that she hadn't even noticed that her tail was absent. Shit, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd taken a shower without fishing out completely. It felt as if a vital part of her was missing, and she couldn't help but to panic.

She held her hand out to wring her clothes dry with her powers, but nothing happen. It was af if all of a sudden every magical part of her had slipped down the drain, leaving her as not but a mere ordinary girl.

Shivani stood still, staring blankly ahead, processing. She stood like that for what felt like an eternity, not snapping out of it before someone else burst into the bathroom.

¨Woah-- I am so sorry.¨ Stiles immediately covered his eyes up, but not before peeping through his fingers. ¨Hold on. How are you showering? What happened to the, you know, tail?!¨ He observed out loud, Lydia stepping inside behind him.

¨Can one of you just please get me some clothes? Isaac completely freaked out on me and soaked all of my clothes.¨ Shivani said, accepting the towel Lydia was holding out for her. She wrapped it around her body as Stiles dug through Isaac's bag for spare clothes. He returned a few moments later, handing her the clothes.

¨It took me a while to find something considering his closet contains seventy percent cardigans and twenty three percent scarves, but here you go.¨ Stiles kept his eyes shut as he handed her the clothes, waiting for her to step out.

¨What the hell is going on?¨ Shivani queried as she stepped out in the oversized clothes.

Stiles let his eyes fan over her body, fighting the urge to appreciate how cute she looked in the much too big clothes. Some part of him itched with annoyance over the clothes belonging to Isaac, silently wishing it was his clothes instead. ¨No time to explain. Something is messing with the werewolves, and we need to find Isaac. We already handled Boyd and Ethan, now we just need to help Scott and Isaac.¨

A soft whimper led the three of them to the bed closest to the door. Stiles glanced back at the two girls as he slowly moved towards the bed, steadily crouching down and lifting the comforter hanging over the side. The light from the room flooded underneath the bed, revealing an Isaac Lahey hugging his legs to his chests tightly.

¨Flare.¨ Stiles demanded, holding his hand out. Shivani opened her mouth in surprise when Lydia handed him the burning flare, watching as he reached it under the bed. ¨Hey, Isaac. Got something here for you.¨ Shivani turned away as a yelp of pain erupted from underneath the bed, Isaac crawling out soon enough.

"I can't find Scott anywhere."

     Dressed in clothes too big, Shivani struggled to tie the waistband of the sweatpants around her hips as she jogged down the flight of stairs behind Stiles and Scott. After filling her in on everything that had gone down while she was busy showering and snacking, they knew they needed to find Scott. Allison had tipped them off that the McCall boy had acted off earlier on, and he had vanished from his motel room. Shivani could feel the stress of the situation getting to her as she towed behind the others.

     According to Lydia, this hotel was known for one rather morbid fact; it had the most suicides. When the Martin girl had ventured into the lobby looking for a fresh pair of towels her curiosity had gotten the best of her. She had queried the receptionist about the numbers displayed on the wall above her. The receptionist had oh so graciously explained that the number, three digit number mind you, stood for the number of suicides that had taken place there. Understandably so, Lydia had freaked the heck out at that. Even more so when she returned with Allison to explain it all to her only to find that the number had risen from 198 to 201. Shivani was sure she could never have a normal motel experience after this one.

     To make matters even worse, Stiles had been the one to connect the dots. Three suicidal equaled three sacrifices. So far there had been at least three virgins, maybe the next were three werewolves. Okay, so maybe that was a reach. How could whoever was doing this even know that all four of the boys were supernatural? Shivani didn't stop to question Stiles' theory. He had worked himself crazy over the last couple of days trying to figure out what the hell was going on. One thing was for certain; whatever was taking place had some sort of connection to the supernatural world. They knew the what, where and the when, just not the how, why or who. In this instance, priority number one was finding Scott and stopping him from killing himself.

     "It's happening to him too, isn't it?" The fear was evident as he spoke. Shivani wanted to reach out to him, tell him everything was going to be alright. Stiles was scared for his best friend, and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

     "It has to be. Didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia asked.

     Stiles nodded. "Yeah. I'll get it."

     "I'll come with." Shivani proposed, following after him before he could object. They jumped down the last couple of steps, Shivani running directly into Stiles' back when he suddenly paused.

There he stood, soaked from head to toe, hair dripping wet with his fingers curled around the torched flare. The smell of gasoline hit Shivani's nostrils, letting her and everyone else know that if Scott were to let go of the flare, there would be no turning back.

"Scott. . . Scott." Allison spoke softly, afraid at any sudden movements would trigger him.

Scott slowly began turning to them. "There's no hope." The red light from the flare illuminated his face. His facial expression held more hurt than Shivani ever thought possible, her heart aching at the mere sight.

"What do you mean, Scott? There's always hope." The empty can of gasoline rested in the ground between them.

"Not for me. Not for Derek." His voice broke at the mention of the Hale man.

"Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault." Shivani stated firmly, hoping that they somehow would get through to him.

"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed." Scott continued.

Stiles took a small step closer. "Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay? Now—"

Scott cut in. "What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else? It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that?" Scott looked at his best friend. "You and me, we were. . . we were—we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one." Shivani bit down on her lower lip harsh enough to draw blood. "Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all." Tears threatened to spill from Stiles' eyes.

In spite of his best efforts, they slipped down his cheeks. "Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay?" One step. "You're someone, you're. . . Scott, you're my best friend. Okay?" Another step. "And I need you. Scott, you're my brother. All right, so. . ." One final step. "So if you're gonna do this, then. . ." His fingers curled around the flare, his feet standing in the puddle of gasoline. "I think you're just gonna have to take me with you. All right?"

The tears spilled down Shivani's cheeks as Stiles grabbed a hold of the flare, pulling it from Scott's hand. Scott crumbled before him as he threw the flare across the parking lot, wrapping Scott into a warm embrace. Watching the two wrapped in each other's arms allowed Shivani to finally relax.

All until Lydia let out an earsplitting shriek. "No!"

The wind howled as it blew the flare in the direction of the puddle of gasoline. On instinct, Shivani held her hand up, using every sliver of power in her body to keep the gasoline from the flare. Her powers were weakened, but her determination won over. She wrung every bit of power out of her body as she bought the others time, not giving in before the others managed to get out of the way.

The entire parking lot erupted into flames as they jumped out of the way, all five teenagers splayed on the pavement. The only sounds filling the empty atmosphere remained their heaving breaths and the crackling flames.

     Shivani got to her feet only for her knees to buckle below her. Stiles barely managed to catch her when he shot out, his arms saving her from the ground. A thin trickle of blood trailed from her nose, eyes droopy.

     "I just need a moment." She sighed, trying to stabilise herself. The others shared a look of worry. Something was definitely up— and not just with the werewolves.

It was safe to say that none of them returned to their motel rooms after that. Shivani woke up with her head securely resting on Stiles' shoulder the next morning on the bus, the hoodie had borrowed her tightly wrapped around her. They had stayed up later than the others, sitting next to one another without sharing a single word. Unlike the other times, this was tension free and not awkward. Like both of them knew what the only thing they needed was to stay in each other's company. Like, just for that night, it was enough.

"I don't want to know. I really don't want to know, but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!"

Shivani was awoken to the sound of everyone else streaming into the bus. She shuffled away from Stiles, leaning forward curiously when Ethan took a seat next to Scott.

"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life." He began.

Stiles stuck his head between them. "Actually, I saved your life, but not that it matters that much. It's just.— it's minor detail." Shivani rolled her eyes, pulling him back by his t shirt.

"So I'm gonna give you something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive." Shivani's head snapped in his direction at the piece of information. "But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack. . ." He trailed off at the end.

"And kills his own." Scott realised.

Ethan nodded. "Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works."

Stiles scowled. "You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just F.Y.I."

Ethan pushed himself up from the seat, walking to the back of the bus to plop down next to Danny. Coach began walking in direction of the two when Lydia suddenly got up from her seat. "Coach, can I see your whistle for a second?"

Coach didn't have time to process before the strawberry blonde had pulled the whistle off of his neck. "I'm gonna need that back."

Lydia sat down in the seat next to Scott, climbing her hands over the whistle as she blew it. "You know you just indirectly kissed Coach, right?" Shivani said, eyebrows scrunched in disgust.

Lydia shot her a blank look, opening her palms. The inside of her hands was decorated with a purple shaded dust. "Wolfsbane." She realised.

"So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Isaac, Boyd—"

"And Ethan."

Scott nodded along. "We all inhaled it. That must've been what weakened your powers too, Shi."

"You were all poisoned by it." Allison finished.

Stiles scratched the back of his neck. "So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it." The thought of it weakening Shivani alongside poisoning the rest of them was enough to make him pop the window, ignoring Coach's protests as he threw the whistle out the window.

Shivani was relieved to know the whistle was gotten rid of. She shot Stiles a small smile as he slumped back down next to her.

Last night had been one of the worst nights of their lives, yet today felt like a victory. Derek was still alive and well, and they were one step closer to finding out who was behind all of it.

Shivani let her head fall on Stiles' shoulder once again, preparing for the long trip ahead. Maybe— just maybe, things were finally starting to look up for the Scooby gang of Beacon Hills.

word count; 4029
a/n

as much as i want to be a person who makes a schedule and sticks to it, my inspiration to write is way to sporadic for that shit. so far i have only missed one deadline for an update, and for that i do apologise for yet again. trying my best to juggle the three books i'm currently working on, as well as school, work and my horse. life sucks, but i swear i will prioritise updates for you guys! thank you for holding out with me, see you in the next chapter !

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