chapter nine, QUESTION?

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Noah Hall

I pull up to school and grab my bag. I quickly walk inside and see Scott, Malia, Stiles and Kira standing in line. I go towards them and nod. "Hey is everything okay with your mom?" Scott asks immediately.

I nod and rub my eyes "I got home and she was asleep, so for whatever reason her name was the key to the rest of the list. It hasn't come yet" I explain.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Kira asks. I shake my head. "I stayed up watching her all night long." I state.

Malia looks around and bites her nails. "Where's Lydia?" Kira asks. "She took the SAT freshman year" Scott answers.

Malia snaps her head to Stiles and growls. "Does that mean I could've taken it another time?"
   Scott looks at her and smiles "Malia, you studied harder than any of us. If anyone's passing it's you."
   Stiles grabs her shoulder and she looks up at him "Scott's right, you've got this."

"We'll all get through this. While we're trying not to die, we also have to live." Scott explains.
I turn to Scott and laugh "I loved that Yoda like quotes" I says. Scott smiles and nods "the green guy?" He asks. I shake my head and look away.

    I nod in agreement "if I survive the next year I'm getting into to college than moving on with my life. So I've got to do good. And we will do good!" I reassure her.

Malia nods and faces forward.

"It's only three hours guys, we can survive three hours" Kira mumbles. We all turn to her and shake our heads. "Only" Malia laughs.

The door to the classroom opens and we all start to walk in. One by one everyone stamps their fingers and places it on their papers, we all place our phones in a bag with our test numbers on it and take our seats.

I sit down and grip the side of the desk.

The instructor stands in the front of the room and looks out at us. "This test is only two hours and ten minutes, there are two twenty five minute reading sections, two twenty five minutes math sections and an essay portion that will take thirty minutes" he explains.

I wipe a beat of sweat off my forehead and slump in my chair. Math I'm fine with, math is a breeze, reading sure, why not? But essays. I physically can't write them.

God I'll be lucky if I even make it to the math sections before I die of a heart attack.

Lydia's mom grabs her phone after whispering to the instructor and leaves the room

She comes back in quickly and the instructor starts the timer. "You may now open you tests and begin" he states.

I start the test and go through the first few questions, they weren't as hard as I thought but they're getting harder.

  I tilt my neck and pull my jacket off. Jeez it's fucking hot in here. As I fill in the bubbles on the sheet a hear a plop behind me.

Everyone turns and see Sydney on the ground. Mrs. Martin run towards her helps her up. "Sydney, are you alright?" She asks he.

Sydney nods and stands up "yea I'm okay, just got a little dizzy" she explains. Mrs. Martin grabs onto to Sydney's wrist and looks down at it.
"How long have you had this?" She asks her. Sydney looks down at her wrist and then back at Mrs. Martin "I don't know." She says.

"Mrs. Martin do I need to stop the test?" The instructor asks. "Uhh no" She says.
Sydney sits back down and we go back to our tests.

Mrs. Martin goes to the front of the room and looks at all of us, "everyone stay in your seats. I'll be just a minute" she says. She turns to the man and looks down at him "no one leaves the room." She states and quickly leaves.

I look over at Scott and Stiles and they shrug.

After awhile of silence I jump in my seat when I hear Mrs. Martin yelling from the hall. Everyone gets up and we all walk out of the classroom and see her running towards the front door to lock it.

Everyone looks at her and she sighs. "Everyone back to your seats, now. Please" She says desperately. We all go back inside and take our seats again.

I listen closely to the hall and hear her phone start to dial. "Can I have the number to the CDC, yes the center of disease control" She says. My eyes widen and I snap my head to Scott who was also listening.

I turn to Stiles and he nods for me to tell him what we heard. "She's calling the CDC" I whisper.

After a about ten minutes, Mrs. Martin comes back in and takes our tests from us. We wait and when we hear a loud bang come from the hall making us all get up again.

I watch from inside the classroom as people dressed in hazmat suits walk down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

"Mrs. Martin, what's going on?" I ask. "Something's very wrong Noah, very wrong" she answers.

By the time our three hours is up for our test the school is fully covered in tarps and covers shielding us from the outside.

"Ok, this is crazy, what the hell is going on?" I wonder. "I over heard Coach is really sick" Scott states. I look around and see Mrs. Martin talking to one of the many doctors here.

I walk over to her and the others follow. "Mrs. Martin?" I ask. "What's happening?".

"I'm not sure, there's a lot of sick people here with some weird infection on the skin. So we're going to isolate the sick and keep us inside until we figure out what's happening" She explains.

I nod and so do the others.

"If I'm wrong and there really is nothing wrong, then we'll be out of here soon" She adds.

We walk back into the classroom and walk towards Malia and Kira.

"I heard one of the doctors say it might be smallpox" Stiles tells us.

"Not likely" The man who was instructing our tests says from his desk. We all turn to him and wait for an explanation.

"Small pox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. We've only a managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was rinderpest. It killed cows..." he says the last bit softly.

I furrow my brows and slowly nod. I turn back to the others and shake my head at his weird behavior.

"So we should be comforted by that right?" Stiles asks. "Unless it's something far worse." The man states with a small grin.

"Whatever it is there taking it pretty seriously," Malia whispers. "There's a lot of cars and trucks out there. You're dads here too Stiles" She adds.

My arm starts to feel itchy so I scratch it. I look down at my fingers and see blood. I didn't even scratch that hard. My eyes widen and I see my claws are out.

I quickly put my jacket back on and cover my hands with the extra length of the sleeve.

"What's wrong?" Scott asks. "I don't know" I whisper.

I slowly get up and stumble out of the classroom.
   "Noah?" Scott says from behind me. "I just need a moment" I say and enter the girls bathroom.

I stumble towards the sinks and look at myself in the mirror. I see sweat falling from my hairline and my fangs are out.

I slowly breath in and out and grips the sink.
   I wince in pain as my head starts to hurt.
I look at my eyes as they start to glow yellow and freeze when I see them purple for the slightest moment.

I blink a few times and my eyes stop glowing. Whatever is happening is messing with my head.

I fall to the ground and I hear someone enter the room. "Noah!" I hear. I feel my body being pulled over and I look up and see Kira.

"I don't feel well" I groan.

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I slowly open my eyes and look around me. I see stone walls, and shelves filled with unknown items.
  I look next to me and see Stiles holding Malia.

"Where am I?" I groan and sit up.

  "The vault, you passed out" Stiles explains.
"There looking for us" Scott states. "Someone needs to get up there" He adds.

"I'll do it, you guys can't" Stiles says and slowly lifts Malia off him. Stiles stands up and walks over to Scott.

As they talk to each other Kira sits next to Malia and I. I clear my throat and put my elbow over my mouth. I pull my arm back at see a black substance on my skin.

My eyes widen and I touch my lips. I feel the substance and look up at Scott. "Scott!" I call out. I see him holding his hand out in front of him and the same black stuff is coming out of his nails.

Stiles walks back to Malia and places his jacket over her. He runs back to the door of the vault that goes into the basement hallway and he leaves.

I squint my eyes as the door becomes slightly blurry. I squeeze my eyes shut and open them up again.

I look over at Scott and he slowly slides down the vault door. He looks over at me and his mouth falls open.

Malia shifts in her spot and Scott sits up. I look over and see her pull a white paper from Stiles jacket pocket. My eyes widen and I sit up.

She opens the paper and looks down at it "Malia..." Scott warns.

Malia looks up and shock and looks around. "Guys...I can't see" She cries.

I blink my eyes as the black liquid starts to pour from it and I realize my vision has gone too.
  "I can't either" I breath out and hold my face.

I try to squint as much as possible but everything is blurry. "Oh my god, I really can't see" I cry.

I hear a crash next to me and jump. I slide to the floor and pull my legs into my chest. "I can't see anything" Kira yells.

I sway side to side as the pain worsen and my vision completely leaves me.

All I feel is the wet drip of the water above me, and the stone of the floor under me.

I hear a loud bang coming from the door and the loud echo from it hurts my ears. I cover my ears and shut my eyes tightly.

"Scott!" I hear Stiles yell. I drop my hands and slowly crawl towards Scott. "It's in the vault. The antidote. It's mushrooms!" Stiles yells.

"I- I can't see" Scott yells to him.

"It's in a jar on one of the shelves" Stiles adds.

   I hear Scott shuffle around and grab onto one of the shelves. I hear Scott fall onto the ground and I take a deep breath in.

I see a bright illuminating light in front of me, but because of my vision can't make out what it is. Without reason I hold my hand in the air and sit up tall.

The bright light becomes more visible and I see the color is purple. I take a deep breath in and without reason I hold my hand in the air and sit up tall.

"I can't get it" Scott yells. "I just can't"

In a matter of seconds I feel something rush into my hand and I grip it tightly. "I've got it!" I yell. I stand up and smash it onto the ground and breathe in what was in the jar.

I hear them breathe in as well my my vision starts to come back to me. I look down at my hands and furrow my brows. I have no explanation for what just happened or why it did, but I got the jar, without moving an inch.

Scott sits up and he looks at the shelf then turns back to me.

Scott goes to open the vault door and Stiles stands behind it. Stiles brings him into a hug and they walk back in the vault. Scott goes to help Kira and Stiles goes towards Malia.

I stand up and look down at the floor. The shattered glass, and the shelf are the only things I can look at.
  Was it me? Did I do that? Why? How?

My head starts to hurt with my questions going a million miles per second so I turn away.

I see Malia push past Stiles and walk out. She drops the dead pool on the floor and leaves. I turn to Stiles and his eyes are filled with tears.

I slowly stumble in my spot as I regain strength so I lean against the wall.

Stiles stands up and takes a deep breath in. He walks towards me and puts his arm around my waist. "You okay?" He asks worriedly and I nod. "You?" He nods as well.

He walks us out of the vault and Kira and Scott follow.

I don't know if I should tell them what happened, I do know one thing though...whatever that was, whatever I did, was not normal.