I RARELY EVER SLEPT WITH MY PHONE ON LOUD, so when the shrill ring echoed through the dark room I jumped awake. The pillow under my head fell to the floor as I rolled on to my back in disorientation, waiting for my heavy eyes to adjust to the dark. I propped myself up on my elbow and reached for my phone quickly, trying not to wake Stiles up but I doubted he'd still be asleep now.

In my attempt to grab my phone, forcing one eye to stay open so I could follow the light it emitted to locate it, I knocked something off the nightstand and swore as it hit the ground with a thud.

Stiles would definitely be awake now.

The bright screen hurt my eyes and I closed them as I accepted the call — collapsing on to my back as I sighed, "Hello?"

"A-Alex?"

The voice forced the hairs on the back of my neck to raise in fear. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as I sat up quickly and hit the side of the bed besides me frantically. To my horror it was empty. Reality set in quickly, my ears weren't deceiving me.

"Stiles?" I hurried to say, "Stiles where are you?"

Over the phone I heard him breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating as the sounds came out harshly.

"I don't-I don't know where I am. I don't know how I got here. I think was sleepwalking." He said to me quietly.

Sleepwalking? What the hell? How did he manage to get out of bed and leave the house without even waking me up. Surely something as vigours as that would've woke me up.

My brows furrowed deeply as I clasped my hand around the back of my neck and began to pace across his floor, "Sleepwalking?" I echoed, "Stiles where are you?"

"I don't know." He stuttered tearfully as he took a deep breath.

I screwed my eyes together while my mind raced, "Okay, um, can you see anything? Just tell me what you see."

"Ah, it's dark. It's hard to see." He responded before he was silent for a minute. I thought something had happened for a minute until he spoke again, "I think there's something wrong with my—"

"Stiles?" I said as my phone beeped, "Stiles!"

I pulled my phone away from my ear to see the call had disconnected and quickly I pressed his contact again and paced as it rang.

"Hey—"

I sighed in relief, "Oh, thank god—"

"—This is Stiles and you missed me. Leave a message."

Voicemail.

I hurried to call him a second time as I gripped to my phone, "Come on, come on, come on." I muttered but this time it went straight to voicemail.

"Shit." I swore desperately, my palms beginning to sweat as my heart pulsated erratically in my chest. This was terrifying knowing he was missing somewhere in the dark and alone. I didn't even know where to start. I needed to call Scott but I had to know Stiles wasn't in immediate danger first. I needed him to pick up the damn phone.

I couldn't take it and I tore his bedroom door open and dashed across the landing to the Sheriffs room and opened the door quickly, "Sheriff—"

To my horror the room was empty, the bed still pristinely made and I dropped my head back upon realising the Sheriff was on night duty.

My phone started to ring again and knowing it couldn't be anyone else but Stiles I hurried to answer it, "Stiles?"

"Alex I don't think I can get out of here. I can't move." He was crying now.

"Where are you?" I said desperately, "Stiles you're scaring me."

"I don't know, Alex, I don't know, It's too dark." He sobbed, "I can't see much and something's wrong with my leg. It's stuck on something. And it's.. I think it's bleeding."

"God." I sobbed tearlessly as I dug my nails into the back of my neck, "How bad?" He was silent for a while and tears pierced my eyes in fear. I sniffled as I walked back to his room and shoved my feet into the first pair of trainers I could find in the dark, "Stiles, how bad is it?"

He still didn't reply and I put my phone on loud as I grabbed his lacrosse hoodie and pulled it over my head, "Stiles, are you there? Can you hear me?"

Finally he replied and it calmed my erratic heart somewhat, "Ah, there's some kind of smell down here. Something smells terrible. It's brutal. My eyes are watering."

I took a deep breath to try and calm myself and my nerves but I couldn't regain my composure, "Okay, Stiles, listen. I need to call your dad."

"No, Alex. No, no, no, don't." He pleaded me desperately.

"It's your dad, Stiles. I don't know who else to call."

"Don't." He asked of me again, "Just .. please don't call him. Promise you won't. He already worries about me too much." He said, "Find Scott instead, Alex, please."

My glossed vision made it impossible for me to see as I scrambled for Stiles' keys but I couldn't find them anywhere. I choked on my words, "But what if I can't find you Stiles?" I cried as I voiced the worst. "I can't make a promise like that. Your dad needs to know."

"No, no, no, just please—" He sniffled before he took a deep breath, "Please, don't call him. Come find me. You can do it. He doesn't have to know. Alex, you can find me .. you and Scott. I know you can."

I grasped a set of keys in my hand that appeared to be mine after shining my screen on his computer desk and noticed as I held them that my fingers were shaking erratically. My whole body was trembling as dread circulated in my blood. My knees were weak and I was terrified.

I had to stop and I rested my forehead against the door, "I don't know if I can do this." I cried to him, "Stiles I'm scared, too."

However the response wasn't one I wanted to hear, instead I heard something beeping followed by his voice, "Oh, I gotta call you back. I have to turn the phone off."

Panic hit me at full speed and my eyes widened, "What? No, hey, wait—"

"I'm gonna call you back." He reassured me.

I shook my head to myself as I reopened the bedroom door and ran across the landing to the stairs, "Hold on, Stiles wait, please—"

The line went dead and I pulled my phone away from my ear to look at my home screen in panic. I locked the front door behind me and when I turned I realised the situation had just escalated from ten to one hundred in seconds. The Jeep was gone. It took me a minute to overcome my dread and shock and when I did I unlocked my old car, getting into the drivers seat and turning it on. The engine roared to life and I shifted it into reverse and pulled out the driveway.

My driving was anything but safe as I hurried to get to the McCall household. I blinked furiously to clear my eyes of the tears that continued to build as a result of fear and panic. Scott only lived four short minutes away from Stiles by car — I'd timed it one random day out of pure boredom — but right now I felt like I'd been driving for hours. My nerves were shot and I couldn't cope.

Finally when the dark McCall household came into view I pulled up on to the sidewalk and pulled the hand break on — forcing the car to stop moving while putting it into neutral. I scrambled to get out of the door and I slammed it loudly before running up the McCall driveway.

Scott's bike was parked up but Melissa's car was nowhere to be seen but it didn't stop me from banging ferociously on the door, pounding on it so hard that it shook. I shouted Scott's name, Isaac's name, without even thinking of others who lived on this street.

In the midst of my frenzy I remembered the spare key on the top of Scott's door and I grabbed it in my trembling hands while I tried so hard to insert it into the lock. It took me minutes to get inside and once I had the door open I flicked the light on while shouting for Scott again.

Both him and Isaac stumbled to the landing of the stairs — their eyes squinting from the sudden change of darkness to light — and they looked down at me incredulously.

"You better have a good explanation for this, Alex, it's the middle of—"

"Stiles is missing!" I blurted — silencing Isaac immediately.

His judgemental glare dropped from his face as his cheeks grew red, guilt etched into his irises, "Oh."

Scott's back was pin-straight as he descended down the stairs and walked towards me, "What do you mean missing?"

"I mean missing." I panicked, "He called me in hysterics saying he'd been sleep walking and had no idea where he was. He's hurt, Scott, and he said I had to find him. He won't let me call his dad."

He put his hands on to my shoulders as his face softened, "Why haven't you called him back?"

"I tried but it keeps going to answer phone." By now my speech was almost inaudible. I was inconsolable, plagued with the idea that Stiles was dead. It had been over ten minutes since he'd hung up on me and now all we were doing was wasting time. If he was bleeding like he said he was, we didn't have long to find him, "Scott—"

"It's okay." My friend tried to reassure me, "It's okay. We're going to find him."

I nodded while pressing my lips together. Scott looked at me hesitantly before he dashed back up the stairs quickly, Isaac in tow and I heard their conversation as they hurried to get changed. I couldn't physically concentrate enough to understand their words but I heard them talking. I heard my name, I heard Stiles' name and I heard the one thing I'd been asking myself ever since Stiles called me.

How did he manage to leave the house when I was lying in bed next to him?

No sooner, they both hurried down the stairs. Scott had his bike helmet in his hands as he and Isaac stood in front of me. I hadn't moved an inch and slowly Scott took my hand and pried my keys out of my trembling fingers. He passed the keys to Isaac and murmured something but it sounded like he was underwater. Or maybe I was the one who was underwater.

Isaac wrapped his arm around my shoulders and he guided me outside. Scott locked his front door behind us while Isaac led me over to the passenger seat of the car and helped me in while promising to meet Scott at Stiles' house. He left first while Isaac started the car and as he drove off I heard his voice but all it sounded like was a foreign language. I stared at the dash and didn't move until a painfully shrill ringtone echoed through my ears, stabbing my eardrums.

I realised it was my phone and I scrambled to get my hand into my pocket to fish for it. When I saw Stiles' display name I answered the call and pressed the phone to my ear tightly.

"Stiles? Stiles, please, tell me you're okay?"

However he didn't, "Did you call him? Did you call my dad?"

I noticed Isaac glance at me fleetingly before he returned his attention to the road. He turned the radio off to listen better.

"No." I shook my head, "Just Scott and Isaac. We're going to find you, I promise. Just—" I paused and took a deep breath, "Can you figure out where you are? Try to find something and tell us where to look.

His strained voice hurt. It wasn't a physical pain but hearing he was in distress and knowing he was in danger caused me so much emotional pain, "It's a basement. I think-I think I'm in some kind of basement."

Again, even though he couldn't see me, I nodded my head, "In a house?"

"No. It looks bigger." He said to me, "Like industrial. I think there's a furnace .. but it's cold. It's freezing down here."

I looked to the dash to read the outside temperature and pressed my lips together to fight a sob when I saw it was bordering on thirty degrees. Tonight was supposedly going to be the coldest night of the year with the temperature to drop further into the twenties. Stiles was out there in his pyjamas. If he didn't bleed to death he'd die of hypothermia surely.

I heard his phone beep then and it followed by his shaking voice, "I gotta turn the I gotta turn the phone off. It's going to die—"

"Stiles, wait! Don't, please .. just, uh, just tell me what else is there? What do you see? Anything, Stiles, we can't do this without your help."

"The phone's dying, Alex, I can't talk." He said to me before he paused. I thought he'd hung up until he spoke so quietly I almost didn't hear it, "I have to go."

My brows furrowed, "Stiles, why are you whispering?"

He hesitated again before he said, "Because I think there's someone in here with me."

Fear crippled me again to the point of paralysis and as my phone beeped three times signalling he'd hung up, I dropped my cell where it landed on the floor with a small thud. Isaac rounded the corner back into Sties' street where I saw Scott parking up his bike and taking his helmet off.

"It's going to be okay, Alex." Isaac attempted to reassure me, "We'll find him."

He parked my car haphazardly and turned the engine off. He grabbed my phone from the floor, exited the vehicle and shut the door while I continued to stare ahead until I noticed that Stiles' bedroom light was on. I knew that I hadn't turned a light on in my mad panic and as my brows furrowed the possibility that Stiles was back inside the house sprang to mind.

Like a woman running for her life I dashed out of the car and barged passed Isaac accidentally while pelting into the house and taking the steps two at a time. I grabbed the banister and used it for traction as I swung round to get to Stiles bedroom, the door slightly ajar and I burst in .. though Stiles was nowhere to be seen.

With my mouth agape I looked at Lydia and Aiden, "What..?

When Scott and Isaac appeared behind me, Scott looked to our strawberry blonde friend, "How did you know? Did he call you too?"

With her eyes wide, Lydia shook her head, "I heard it."

"Don't ask. It gets more confusing when you ask." Aiden quipped.

Aiden and Lydia had been together?

"Not as confusing as this." Lydia responded as she turned to his bed — our bed. When she had stepped out of the way I saw what she'd been looking at — a pair of scissors jammed deeply into Stiles' side of the mattress with hundreds of single threads of red string tied from it and pinned to the wall above. How an earth had I not noticed that? How hadn't I of felt him moving around.

"Where were you?" Lydia said then as she looked at me.

"I was here." I mumbled whilst looking at the scissors.

"And this didn't wake you up?"

Speechless, I stepped forwards, deeply disturbed as my body shook. I walked by Lydia as I headed to my side of the bed. Stiles slept against the wall where the scissors were and I slept on the outer side of the bed. The duvet was still at the bottom of the bed, hanging partially on the floor from when I'd thrown it to get out and my pillows were a mess but something caught my eye underneath it. I lifted my pillow slowly to find a small pill bottle there — half empty and I picked it up curiously.

It had Stiles' name on, his date of birth, hospital number, address and most importantly the date of issue: 11/01

Yesterday.

I furrowed my brows as I turned the bottle over and read the name.

Alprazolam.

"What's that?" Isaac asked me.

"Alprazolam." I responded, "Half a bottle, prescribed yesterday for Stiles."

"Xanax?" Lydia muttered, "Let me see."

I handed the bottle over to her whilst I continued looking around for anything else until I saw the glass of water I'd brought to bed with me on the cabinet.

"He can't of taken half the bottle." Lydia mumbled, "He'd be dead."

I noticed water had spilled on to the cabinet and when I picked the half empty glass up I saw a dissolved powder swimming around in the bottom of the glass.

"He didn't." I muttered in sheer confusion, "He put it in my water."

"Well I guess that explains why you didn't wake up when he was having a breakdown." Isaac responded.

I shot him a glare as I put the glass back on the table and looked to the chaos of string branching from the bed. I had no idea why Stiles had poured half a bottle of Xanax into my water but we didn't have time to figure it out. Right now, we had to focus on finding him.

"This is crazy." Aiden said aloud.

I wrapped my hands around the back of my neck in thought, "He uses red for unsolved cases."

"Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case?" Aiden suggested.

"Or is an unsolved case." Isaac said.

"Hold on." Lydia said to us then as she looked up from the bottle of Xanax, "Is he still out there? You don't know where he is?" She turned to me then.

I shook my head, "He said he was in an industrial basement somewhere."

Isaac came to my aid, "We came here to get a better scent."

"What else did he say?"

"Something's wrong with his leg. It's bleeding.. and he's freezing."

"Tonight's the coldest night of the year. It's going to drop into the 20s." Aiden said.

"That's why we need to find him." I said strongly.

Lydia glanced between Scott, Isaac and I, "What did his dad say?"

With Scott and Isaac unsure, they too looked at me. I was left to shake my head again as I looked at the floor, "I haven't told him."

"Stiles is bleeding and freezing and you didn't call his dad?" She asked me incredulously.

"Don't make me feel guilty." I responded, "He made me promise not to."

Scott intervened, "We can find him by scent. If he was sleepwalking he couldn't have gotten far, right?"

"You didn't notice his Jeep is gone, did you?" Aiden responded.

"I did, I just—I didn't have time to think about it."

"You promised you wouldn't call his dad. I didn't." Lydia told us as she grabbed her phone.

"Lydia, don't." I said to her, "Please, I promised him. You know how much a promise is between us .. especially after everything that's happened between us."

"I can get more help." Scott came to my aid, "I can call Derek, Allison—"

"Everyone except for the cops." She said incredulously, "Great idea."

"You guys remember she gets these feelings when someone's about to die, right?" Aiden quipped.

"Shut up." I said to him then while meeting his gaze, "Don't say that he's about to die alright? Think it. Just don't say it in front of me."

I knew this was absurd. I was attempting to keep a promise that needed to be broken. Stiles didn't see it that way. He didn't want to burden his dad at this moment. The Sheriff was stressed enough but Stiles was in serious danger and we were on a massive time crunch. We needed every bit of help we could muster.

"You don't have to call his dad." Scott said to her then, "It's five minutes to the station."

I pressed my lips together and nodded, heading to the door when Lydia spoke up, "We'll catch up."

Scott, Isaac and I haltered in the doorway, "What? Why?"

"There's something here."

"Yeah." Isaac agreed, "Evidence of total insanity."

I hit him forcefully but he didn't say anything. He just held his arm quietly.

"We can figure out what's wrong with him after we find a way to keep him from freezing to death." Scott said to her.

"Go." Lydia reassured us, "We'll be right behind you."

I glanced at Scott fleetingly and he met my gaze before he nodded at Lydia. The three of us rushed down the stairs again, exiting the Stilinski household where Scott made a beeline for his bike and Isaac drove me and my car to the station, ready to tell the Sheriff.

__________________

The disparity on the Sheriffs face was exactly the reason Stiles didn't want his father to know he was missing, I realised. I felt incredibly guilty that we'd put this on the Sheriff and that after everything we'd been through and overcome his son was now missing after we assumed he'd gotten better .. and I felt guilty that we'd told the Sheriff when I specifically promised Stiles I wouldn't.

It didn't matter that Scott had explained the situation, I'd allowed him to do it though I knew we'd reached a point know where we needed all the help we could muster. I'd explained to Stiles earlier what he'd required of me was a hard promise to keep and I really did try but it was a promise destined to be broken from the start.

Stiles' dad sighed heavily, his breath shaking while his fingers trembled. His face twisted as he tried so hard to keep his composure but I knew on the inside he was crumbling. He struggled to breathe — as if it physically hurt him to inhale — and we watched with baited breath to hear what he had to say.

The silence was eating every one of us alive as the Sheriffs officers watched him tentatively. No one knew what he was going to say or do but we all expected him to panic.

He didn't though.

He remained composed, as hard as it was for him, and he turned to one of his younger deputies who sat behind the desk he'd leaned against to steady himself.

He took a deep breath before he began, "If his Jeep is gone, that's where we start. Parrish, let's get an APB out on a blue 1980 CJ-5 Jeep." He ordered first.

He turned to a man older than Parrish next, "Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that he could've gotten into while sleepwalking." He said before he turned to everyone else within the station, "It's the coldest night of the year so far. So If he's out their barefoot in just a T-shirt, he could already be hypothermic. Let's move fast. Let's think fast. The three of you, come with me." He finished by saying, looking at Scott, Isaac and myself.

I swallowed hesitantly before following the Sheriff into his office. He closed the door after the three of us and turned around, his eyes homing in on me while he asked, "Okay. Is there anything you need to tell me that I can't tell anyone out there?"

I knew precisely what he was thinking, how did Stiles manage to leave the house while I was sleeping next to him?

Silently I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bottle of Xanax and handed it to the Sheriff. He took the pill bottle hesitantly before he read the inscription through squinted eyes. Confusion clouded his irises as he looked up at me again.

"There's half missing out of a bottle that was prescribed yesterday." I told him, "They were in my water on the nightstand."

The Sheriff knitted his brows together tightly, "You think he did this to you on purpose?"

"If it was for himself he'd probably be dead and he knows that." I replied, "I don't understand why it was in my water but they'd dissolved in the bottom of the glass."

He rubbed his forehead while sighing, "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Lydia knew he was missing." Scott answered.

The Sheriff nodded, "Can she help find him?"

"She's working on it." Issac responded.

"Anything else?"

"I called Derek and Allison for help." Scott said.

The Sheriff sighed, "Can you find him by scent?"

I took a breath to respond but before I had the chance to vocalise my words someone knocked on the glass door of the office. Not a second later it opened and Deputy Parrish appeared in the the doorway, "We got it, Sir. We found the Jeep."

I couldn't help myself and so I blurted my words like a child, "Where?"

"The hospital." Parrish responded.

Immediately I looked at Scott and he met my gaze with a confused frown. We were both perplexed but it didn't stop us from rushing outside to follow the long chain of police cars to the hospital. Isaac did a good job at keeping up with them and he broke harshly when we reached the parking lot of the hospital. He hadn't even turned the engine off before I'd climbed out the car and began running towards the familiar blue Jeep with black panelling.

The Sheriff reached the Jeep first and he opened the door and twisted the key in the ignition, "It's dead." He sighed, "He must've left the lights on."

"Why would he come out here?" Scott vocalised his confusion.

I looked around, scouring where the light didn't reach but I didn't see anything. There was no trace of Stiles — all physical evidence began and ended here but as a strong gust of wind flew by us, an overpowering scent filtered through my nostrils. Stiles' natural scent was indescribably strong and immediately it made my stomach flip.

I didn't say anything as I bolted towards the inside of the hospital. I ran as fast as I possibly could, dodging people within the corridors of the hospital — hearing Scott and Isaac's heavy footsteps as they followed me — but I never stopped. I vaguely saw Melissa as I dodged her and when I reached the stairwell I tore the door open with such force it ricocheted into the wall, consequently creating a huge bang in the process.

I took the steps two at a time all the way to the top floor where I pushed on the bar for the fire exit. The final floor to the roof of the hospital seemed to be the longest stairwell of my life as Stiles' scent grew stronger and stronger. I forced the door open with my shoulder, running out on to the roof breathlessly while I looked around for Stiles. I was positive he was here but I couldn't see him anywhere.

I only saw Derek.

"He's not here." His voice travelled to our ears, "Not anymore."

I sighed in disdain while hooking my hands behind my neck.

"You mean the whole building?" Scott asked him.

"Gone." He confirmed.

I shook my head to myself before kicking a small rock on the roof in frustration, "Come on, Stiles." I muttered to myself before I walked closer to the edge.

For a minute I was reminded of that fateful night in the motel and how close I'd been to jumping .. all because I'd been poisoned. Stiles came to my aid that night — he saved my life and now it was my turn to repay that favour. I had to find him .. before it was too late.

"I'll go tell Stilinski." Issac said then.

"And see if you can find Allison." Scott said to him in response, "She's not answering her phone."

A few short seconds later the fire door banged again, indicating that Isaac had left. I didn't know what to do, I felt lost.

"Notice how strong the scent is up here?" Derek said to both Scott and I.

I inhaled deeply. He was right, the scent was strong but it wasn't Stiles'. It was here, but it was overpowered by an array of negative emotions.

"Ever hear of chemo signals?" Derek turned to Scott. He'd already taught me about chemo signals though it was only because I'd caught a rare scent of sorrow emitting from Peter one day after I'd just transitioned into a werewolf. Derek gave me the lesson and Peter explained he was thinking of my mother before proceeding to show me a photograph he'd found of the three of us together. I was six. My entire arm was potted in a red cast and I had my other arm wrapped around Peters neck as he carried me. I was in between him and my mom and our smiling faces didn't cause sorrow to fill me like it did Peter, it made me happy.

"They're chemical signals that communicate emotion." I mumbled then, glancing back to Scott and Derek.

My cousin nodded, "And just our sweat can give off anger, fear or disgust. Take a deep breath and tell me what you feel." He instructed Scott.

I heard him inhale deeply and exhale shortly before he said, "Stress."

"And anxiety." Derek added.

"What was he doing up here?" My friend muttered, voicing the question everyone wanted the answer to.

"I don't know .. but there was definitely some kind of struggle."

"With who?"

I exhaled deeply while turning to them both before unwillingly answering Scott's question because it filled me with fear and confusion.

"Himself."

Scott met my gaze then with a hint of familiarity swirling in his irises. An internal struggle could warrant a thousand different explanations but not this one. Too many pieces of the puzzle fit for this to be anything like a midlife crisis. Stiles had been fighting internal battles since they'd sacrificed themselves to the Nemeton. First it was the reading, then the hallucinations, the nightmares and the terrors, the waking up screaming. Then came the insomnia and then it settled .. or so we thought. He was brilliant at hiding things because none of us knew he was struggling again.

"But what is he fighting?" Scott asked us both.

Derek glanced to me and I saw his eyes narrow in thought. In response, I averted my gaze and looked away though he still continued to look at me when he said, "That's what we need to find out."

And he was right. We needed to get to the bottom of this before something irreversible occurred because even now we were treading on thin ice.

• • •

We thought we'd made some form of progress when Lydia said she knew where to find Stiles. She guided us to a mental hospital on the outskirts of town called Eichen House with the knowledge that Stiles was in the basement though when we arrived there and located our way to said destination there was nothing there. There wasn't even a scent. The place was empty much to her — and our — dismay. Lydia had been convinced that Stiles was there but he wasn't and I'd felt even further away from square one.

That was until Melissa McCall informed us ten minutes ago that she and Agent McCall had found him in the preserve by Malia Tate's coyote den. They were going to fetch him to the hospital and at that point I regretted leaving the hospital in the first place. I wanted to be there for Stiles when they fetched him in. I had to know that he was okay — even though Melissa said he appeared to be fine with no signs of bleeding or physical injury — I needed to see it with my own eyes. Both the Sheriff and I did and that's why it was silent between the two of us as he drove to the hospital with his sirens blaring and his lights flashing.

It wasn't an emergency but it was urgent and important to us. The sooner we arrived at the hospital the better and after an agonising fifteen minute drive back the parking lot eventually came into sight. The second the car entered I had my seatbelt off and my hand on the door handle, ready to jump out as soon as the Sheriff had parked.

He abandoned the car by the front entrance and the both of us got out, running into the hospital knowing Scott and Lydia would be right behind us. Melissa had directed us to the third floor via text message and we waited for the elevator impatiently. I tapped my foot the entire ride until we reached the third floor and exited to see Melissa and Agent McCall standing in the hallway a few feet away from us.

We both jogged towards the former couple and stopped before them expectantly, waiting for Melissa to say something .. anything.

And when she did I felt as if I could finally breathe again, "He's absolutely fine." She reassured us, "Slightly confused and shaken but it's understandable. He's been asking for you both."

"He's sleeping now." Agent McCall said.

I swallowed deeply before I turned my head to look through the small window in the door. Stiles was a face in an array of blankets and he appeared to be sound asleep .. peaceful, however I wondered if he was truly at peace or if he was stuck in the midst of a night terror behind those closed eyes.

I could hear his breaths were regular and light however and I pressed my lips together, "No he's not."

I felt Agent McCalls eyes on my person but I didn't respond in any way. Stiles was a heavy breather when he slept, he didn't snore, but he wasn't the quietest either. His breaths were always fast and swallow when he slept and looking through the window they were the opposite.

Knowing he was awake, I opened the door quietly and tiptoed into the room. He mightn't of been sleeping but he was trying to relax. If he was shaken like Melissa said he was loud noises would scare him — make him jump — and I didn't want to do that.

He opened his eyes before I had the chance to sit down and I was thankful for that. I perched on the edge of his bed, just holding eye contact with him until he sat himself up and hugged me tightly. Silently, I welcomed his embrace and I rested my cheek on his shoulder.

In the corridor I could hear Agent McCall and Melissa conversing, somewhere in the hospital I could hear Lydia and Scott trying to find Stiles' room. I could hear the clock ticking, the sirens wailing downstairs and I could hear Stiles' heart beating but I shut all of that out and instead focused on the silence.

The blissful silence.

Behind us I heard the Sheriff sigh in relief, "Ah, Stiles." He murmured and while I knew he wanted to comment on how worried he had been but he didn't. He kept it to himself to spare his sons feelings because he knew how Stiles felt like a burden to him.

I moved off the edge of the bed to let the Sheriff in and I stepped back while he embraced his son tightly. I watched them and watched Stiles as he stared at the blanket covering his legs — I could see the fear in his eyes .. fear that he didn't want his dad to see.

I pressed my lips together and Stiles met my gaze again, "Where's my Jeep? Melissa said I drove it."

"You left it in the parking lot here." I responded quietly, "Derek's working on re-starting the battery."

"Did it work?"

"Uh." My face dropped in thought, "I don't know."

This was a strange topic of conversation considering Stiles had disappeared and I didn't quite understand it.

Stiles' head dipped while looking at me, "Will you check?"

My brows furrowed ever so slightly and I glanced at the Sheriff fleetingly. He seemed just as confused as I felt and I nodded my head slowly.

"Okay." I said, "I, uh, I'll be right back."

They both nodded at me and with furrowed brows I turned around and exited the room while closing the door behind me. I headed down the hallway to the stairwell and began the decent down the three flights of stairs while checking for the time on my phone. It was well passed two in the morning and I released a deep breath.

Exhaustion was starting to set in again but like Stiles I wasn't keen on going to sleep. I didn't want to wake up to the same panic I had done hours ago when I realised Stiles was gone.

I headed out of the main entrance, the cold chill biting my face and I pulled my coat tighter against my body as I scoured the parking lot. It was mainly empty so I had no trouble locating Stiles' blue Jeep and Derek's newer black Jeep. I did note my cousin wasn't alone though and to my surprise he was receiving help from none other than Aiden.

I walked closer to the two of them when their conversation became my main focus as I heard Stiles name being spoke.

"He thinks he was the one who wrote that message in the Chemistry room." Aiden said and immediately I slowed my steps. As far as I was aware, neither of them knew I was approaching, "The message telling Barrow to kill Kira."

Derek scoffed in amusement, "You think Stiles, skinny, defenseless, Stiles is the Nogitsune? A powerful, dark spirit?"

I probably would've been somewhat offended if the conversation wasn't so serious.

"I'm not the only one thinking it. I'm just the only one saying it." Aiden defended.

Derek squared up to Aiden fully, "This thing wants to possess someone and chooses Stiles? Why wouldn't it take someone bigger, stronger? Someone with a little more .." Derek's face dropped, the once amused expression gone and he seemed to have been hit with realisation as he mumbled, "Power."

"What?" I muttered, staring at them both with shocked, wide eyes.

Stiles .. the Nogitsune?

No, he couldn't be.

Could he?

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