Stiles turns down another darkened road, slinging me against the door. My head hits the window and all I can hear is ringing. "Erin, sit back in your seat and don't move!" Stiles yells. My head feels groggy but I do as he says and center myself in my seat sitting all the way back. I look out my window to see if I can see how close the headlights are but the first thing that catches my eye is the dirt flying up and hitting the window and the mirror. I can't tell if everything around me is moving in slow motion or fast forward. I look over to Stiles and he's breathing heavily, and I watch as his chest rises and falls. He's afraid, as am I... but he's normally the one who keeps me grounded. But if he's this afraid, that must mean they're gaining on us. Actually chasing us, and that is not good news. I swivel my head back trying to get a look behind me but everything is so bright, like the light is trying to fight its way through. I squeeze my eyes shut and count the deep breaths I'm taking, trying to force myself into the moment. I can't leave, I have to be here now... I can't leave Stiles alone. I look down at my lap for my phone but it's not there. I frantically look around using my hands since it's so dark I can hardly see anything. Finally the tip of my toe hits it, it's at the front of my floorboard. I unbuckle my seatbelt and throw the top half of my body down until my fingers grasp onto it. I sit up and reach back for my seatbelt and the entire car is smacked to the side, causing my entire body to hit the side of the car. They're trying to either run us off the road or wreck us... but I can't help the yelp that ripped out of my throat, when I look over at Stiles I can't hear him. But I can see his wide eyes and his mouth moving up and down, and I already know what he's saying. I get back into the seat and clip the seatbelt in, and look down at my phone. I have one bar, trying to get my fingers to move as fast as they can to call Andrew when every part of my body stops moving. I receive a text from an unknown number that has a file attached to it, all the text says is, " I think this is who you've been looking for." My heart begins beating so fast, I know that this is definitely not healthy. If I make it out of this car alive, I promise myself to get it checked out.
I click on the file and wait for it to load, but with the shaky one bar that I have I know it's going to take awhile. At first all I can tell is that it's a picture, it still has the loading circle on it. "Stiles, I think I just got a picture of the girl... the girl sent to me." I say through shaky breaths. He slightly turns his head toward me. "What?" Is all he says — or all I can make out. The loading bar moves an inch more and a few of the details around the outer part of the picture focus. The picture was taken outside, there are yellow, red, and orange leaves around the top and side of the picture with a bright blue sky behind them. I can feel my heart beating in my throat and my tongue is the driest it's ever been. They bump us from Stiles' side again and both of us are thrown to the side, the jeep being pulled with us. Stiles gains control of the car and I look back down at the picture sitting in my lap. She's wearing a blue striped halter top that ties around her neck. Her midsection is bare and she's wearing light blue jean shorts, with grey hey dude's. The outfit seems so familiar, and I could swear I've seen it before. She could be someone I know, someone I went to school with. But if she was... how could I not know she was missing? How could I be so careless and not start looking for missing girls at school to begin with? I can finally look back without my life flashing in front of me and see that the car, which I can now tell is some type of black SUV, is just a few feet behind us. I squint my eyes trying to see who's in the driver's seat when the car starts to shake. I fling my head forward and realize we're back on the highway and hit the little indents on the side of the road. Which slows us down, and we're hit from behind again. Our car leeches forward, helping us create some distance between us and them. I pray for a passing car, but realize we didn't see a single one on the way here and our parents probably left a good fifteen to twenty minutes before we did. I'm sure if we're not home soon they might get worried, or they'd just assume we stopped somewhere. Surely when we don't answer our phones, they'll realize something is wrong and come looking for us. I look back down at the phone and her hair is now in focus. Her hair is light with dark highlights in bubble braids on either side of her head, like someone would wear french braids.
"Erin! Can you tell who it is? Who's in the picture?" Stiles yells over the sound of his engine. I try to control my shaking hands, "No — her face hasn't focused yet. I can just see her outfit and the background of the picture." I scream. "Let me see it!" He says while looking back and forth between me and the road. I look back and forth, this can't be safe and even if we do figure out who it is right this second, who will that help? Against my judgment I hold my phone out in front of me so he can see it. He turns his head toward the phone and his eyes grow big, he snaps his head back to the road and then back onto the screen. "Erin, that's —" The car hits us at an angle and the jeep is pushed back onto the bumps on the side of the road causing us to go sideways. The sounds around us cause every cell in my body to cringe. "Stiles! Who is it?" I yell out. As the words leave my mouth the car hits us again and our car is thrown into the air and begins to flip. It flipped over and over and I lost count after three... The only thing I could focus on was the brightness of their headlights from behind us. I squeeze my eyes shut the lights causing my eyes to burn, no matter what I try to do I can't get away from it. The light is overpowering me, and even Stiles. Stiles reaches over and squeezes my hands, his hands and face bloody. I focus as much as I can on those honey eyes... and I'm not scared anymore. Everything is going to be okay. Then all I can see is the circular lights, burning holes into my eyes. All I can hear is buzzing and even though I know my eyes are closed, I can still see the light.

***

I open my eyes again and the circle light is all I can see, but they've changed. They're bigger and hanging from the ceiling. Wait — the ceiling? I frantically look around and I'm in a hospital room, a hospital room filled with flowers, cards and balloons. What happened? How long have I been here? Stiles. I look around the room and notice for the first time the dark figure sitting in a chair, leaning the top half of their body onto my legs. "Stiles?" I croak out, my voice is hoarse. Just the one simple word makes my throat raw like shards of glass were poking every inch of it. I'm not even sure if I actually said his name or if it was just a groan of some sort. Instantly his body stiffens, and I see him take a deep breath before he sits up. He's still turned away from me, taking a few more deep breaths before he finally turns toward me. Stiles. His hair is shorter than it just was minutes ago, and he's not bloody or dirty. He doesn't have a single scratch or bruise anywhere on him from what I can see. I have to have been here for a long time if he's already healed completely, who knows what happened to me. Maybe I had to have surgery, or was in a coma or something. My eyes meet his and his entire face relaxes, and his body falls onto mine. He grips his arms around me, not letting go for who knows how long. I must have had him so worried, for me this was all just a few minutes ago... but who knows how long it's been for him. For everyone. A couple of seconds, minutes, or hours pass and the door opens. My father walks through the door and my entire body stiffens. He looks into my eyes and then down to Stiles, so he's sure I'm awake, then he starts running toward me. "No! No! Get away from me!" I yell and thrash my body, not wanting him to be close to me. Stiles stands and backs away from me with his hands up next to him, suddenly doctors swarm the room. There's at least ten of them in here and they force my father and Stiles out of the room.
"Stiles! I need – Stiles." The words barely come out before one of the doctors is pulling him back into the room. "You know you were supposed to let one of us know the second she woke up, so something like this didn't happen." Says a doctor wearing a bright white lab coat. He is older but not too old, probably grandpa aged. Stiles doesn't say anything, just nods his head and makes his way back to me. I scoot over as much as I can and he sits next to me on the bed, wrapping his arms around me tightly... like he's afraid to let go. Hours go by with multiple doctors poking and prodding at every inch of my body. I don't ask any questions and they don't offer any type of answers... or conversation. The only words exchanged are if I'm hungry, how I feel, does that hurt, etc. Stiles says nothing, it's beginning to worry me that he can no longer speak. When finally he does, "Okay I think you've got what you needed. Can you leave us alone for a while?" The head doctor — or who I'm assuming is the head doctor gives a small nod and everyone vacates the area in a matter of seconds. "I'll give you two some time, but her mother is asking to see her as well." He says and then he leaves the room too. I take a few sips of my water and without warning crash my lips to his. The last I knew we were about to potentially die, and this is all I've wanted to do since I laid eyes on him. He kisses me back for a few seconds before he pulls back with a confused look on his face. I give him the same confused look back to him, unsure of why he's acting so weird. He grabs my face, partially grabbing my neck along with it on both sides of my head and looks into my eyes, searching for something — but I don't know what. He gently brushes his lips against mine, and I can feel his warm breath across my lips and I suck them in as if they were my own. I pull away, "Stiles what happened after the crash?" He has a confused look on his face again. "Crash? What crash?" He asks, at first I think he's messing with me. Because he was there, of course he knows what crash I'm talking about. But he doesn't say anything, "What do you mean what crash? Why would I be in the hospital if we weren't in the crash? Are you messing with me? Because this isn't funny Stiles." I lean away from him so I can see his face, but there's no trace of laughter or even a smile. He isn't kidding, but if we weren't in the crash... then why would I be in the hospital? "Stiles — why am I here? What happened? How long have I been here?" The questions leave my mouth but I'm afraid I already know the answers. My entire body stiffens as he begins to speak, "Erin. You've been here for two months." No — that's impossible. "You were — Raken... he pushed you off the cliff."