Olivia's POV:

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asks us as we sat in a lunch table like it was the easiest thing to answer.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles adds, resting his head on his hand.

"And is being haunted by a shadow that's making them lose control of their powers." I add, leaning my head to rest on Allison's shoulder.

"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac sarcastically remarks beside me, looking away from his homework.

"Ha. Can you at least try to be helpful, please?" Stiles retorted but I kick his shin to shut him up.

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?" He rolls his eyes in annoyance.

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that."

"Uh...hi." I look up to see Kira shyly holding a couple of notebooks in her hand.

"Oh hey," I greet with a smile. "how are you doing?"

"I'm good. My dad was surprised when I talked about you." She laughs and I feel Allison tightly grip on my hand. "Anyway, I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. I think I actually might know what you're talking about."

I look over at everyone else and see they were hesitant about listening to what she had to say. Or that she could be suspicious about what did she exactly hear.

"There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called 'Bardo.' It literally means 'in-between state.' The state between life and death." She explains, shyly tucking strands of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry, what do they call you?" Lydia rudely asked and I give her a pointed look.

"Kira." Scott easily responded, never taking his eyes away from her. I could've sworn his expression formed heart eyes.

"I sit next to her in our history class," I add and Kira gives a small smile.

"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia asks and Kira sits beside Stiles.

"Either, I guess. But all the stuff you guys were just saying?" She says and glances at Scott. "All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities." She excitedly explains.

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac questions. "And what are those?"

"Demons."

"Demons," Stiles repeats as he nodded his head slowly. "why not?"

"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison asks as she scooted closer to me.

"Death." Kira shrugs. "You die."

I awkwardly clear my throat. "Got it."

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"It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you," Deaton explains to Stiles, Scott, and I as we followed him to the back room of the clinic.

"How do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?" Stiles inquired.

"Do you remember what the sign language looked like? The placement and the movement of the hands?"

My eyes narrow. "You know sign language?" I ask and he shrugs.

"I know a little." He responds then looks to Stiles. "Let me give it a shot."

"Okay, the first move was like this." He raises his hands, holding a single finger before using his other hand to circle around it.

"That's when."

"Then they did this, twice." He tapped his hands side by side.

"That's door."

"Then there's this in-between there." Stiles used his thumb to flick under his chin.

Deaton furrows his eyebrows. "That's it?" Stiles nods in response. "When is a door, not a door?"

"When is a door not a door?" Stiles repeats in annoyance and I hold back a snicker but he takes notice and sends a glare towards me.

"When it's ajar," Scott answers but I could see Stiles wasn't having it.

"You're kidding me, a riddle? My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?"

"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of super consciousness, you essentially opened a door in your minds." Deaton explains and I felt my palms begin to sweat.

"Okay, so what does that mean? The door's still open?" Scott asks.

"Ajar." He corrects.

"A door...into our minds." Stiles trails and Deaton nods.

"I did tell you it was risky."

"What do we do about it?" Scott asks his boss.

"It's...difficult to answer." He says with the hesitation on his face being very visible.

"No, wait a sec. I know that look." Stiles jumps in with concern. "That's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we don't know how to fix it' look."

"What if we had opened it wider?" I hesitantly ask, hoping nothing too bad would happen.

"Having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good. You each need to close that door, and you need to do it as soon as possible." He explains and I nod slowly.

After our 'talk' with Deaton, we exited the clinic so we could head home. I was about to get into my car when headlights from a car blind me briefly before they shut off.

The figure gets out of the car and we see it was Sheriff Stilinski walking up to the three of us.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Stiles asks once he stops in front of us.

"I'm here because...I could use some help," He says but then glances to Scott. "Actually, your help."

Scott tilts his head in confusion. "Why me?"

"Because eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident. One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found." He explains.

I furrow my eyebrows. "You think a werewolf could have done this?"

"There's enough evidence to make me believe they caused the accident and dragged her body away." He says and turns to Scott again. "If you could even somehow get a lock on her scent if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clue."

"What if it actually was a werewolf?" Stiles asks.

"They're also someone who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught." He says and I clap my hands together.

"This isn't exactly my expertise," I say and unlock the car door. "but I haven't been home all day and my mom needs the car tonight so good luck with that." I slide inside and shut the door.

"At least text us when you get home safe," Scott says, crossing his arms with a stern expression.

I snort. "Okay, Dad." I emphasize which makes him roll his eyes.

Once I slow down my car in front of my house, I notice that an unfamiliar car in the spot I usually park the car in.

See, this would never happen to my mom and I since we share the car but yet, someone taking my spot is a huge pet peeve.

I park beside the curb and grab my backpack from the backseat before getting out of the car and walking to the front door.

Before I could unlock the door with my keys, the faint shouts from inside stop me from moving. I knew one of them was my mom's but I didn't recognize the other.

I quickly unlock the door and slam it open, feeling my legs start to shake as soon as I see who was arguing with my mom.

"Liv, I thought you were staying at Allison's." My mom cleared her throat, taking a step back from the person.

"No, I was with the boys." I glare at the man, never breaking eye contact from him as I shut the door behind me. "Why the hell is he here?"

"Olivia—"

He cuts my mom off immediately. "You were out this late with boys?" He crossed his arms. "With people still getting kidnapped, you're not at least a bit afraid?"

"Why do you care? Mom and I were perfectly fine until you showed up." I cross my arms.

"I'm your father so I still care about you, Olive."

I rolled my eyes. "Twelve years late, Thomas. It's Olivia." I remark, feeling a bit of pain at the nickname. "Now what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm looking around the job offers here and...I wanted to come see you." He pointed to me but I shook my head in disbelief. "I want to be involved in your life again."

"I don't recall saying I wanted you to be a part of my life in the first place." I scoffed. "The last thing I remembered, you're the one who walked out."

"And I regret it every single day. I'm here to fix things between us."

"Andrea and I tried to find you in the summer but we ended up finding out that you had a new kid and a wife." I retorted, earning a small gasp from my mom while he stayed quiet. "Don't bullshit with me. What, were mom and I not good enough for you?"

"Olivia, please. It's the truth. Trust me it was hard to leave but--"

He reaches to grab my arm but I harshly throw his hand off. "But you still left! Back then I always thought it was my fault, and it sucks to know that I was right. You left us because you were afraid! Not for just being a father, but you were afraid of me!" I yell, not even caring if my hands started to heat up.

"Olivia, we can talk about this—"

"No, mom! I've been wanting to say this for a long time now and I'm not wasting another second." I interrupt her before facing him.

"You didn't even want to try to be there for me! Do you know how alone I was when I saw all of my classmates with their fathers? Having to hear how great their dad was at buying them things, taking them to places they never been to before, and just...being there for them. I never had that and god I wanted to know the feeling so bad when I was a little kid. You didn't even say goodbye and it broke me." I ranted and his eyes widen in shock. "But I can't completely hate you because something good came out of it and I learned a couple of things. Because if you, I learned that I can't always expect the best from anyone and if you actually stayed with us, we wouldn't have moved here. I learned how to fight for myself but the times where I stumble," I point to my mom who had her mouth covered with her hand. "I have a badass mother and the most amazing friends I've made here who are always right there to pick me back up. They were the ones who had my back and made me who I am today." I say, tears spilling from my eyes as I let out everything I've wanted to say to his face.

I grab my bag from the ground and place the keys on the hook since my mom had a late shift tonight.

"Olivia, wait." My dad calls out but I keep walking away until I reached the other side of the street. "Please, let me explain myself. It's dangerous out there so don't go—"

I abruptly turn around. "You and I both know what that sentence is gonna end with so I'll help settle your worries." I tightly clutch on the straps to my bag. "I'm not going to my guy friends' houses. I'm going to my girlfriend's apartment."

His eyes widen once more. "You're..."

"Yeah. Mom thought it was obvious since she knew me so well. If you had stayed...well, you know. You probably would've guessed too." I shrug innocently before I kept walking down the street without another word.

Once I was far away from my house, I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Allison's number.

It rang a couple of times before the line finally picked up. "Olivia?" She tiredly rasped out.

"Hey." My voice cracked and I cringed at how horrible it sounded. "I know it's late but...you think you could pick me up?"

There was some shuffling in the background until she spoke up. "At the clinic? I thought you brought your car?"

"No, I did get home but uh—some things happened tonight and I-I-I just..." I trailed off, feeling my emotions start to build up again which caused my voice to waver. "I'll tell you later but I couldn't stay at home so I walked. I'm nearby the liquor store and a bus stop by my house." I answered and took a seat on the bench for the bus.

"That's fine. I'll get to you as fast as I can." She says before she hangs up the phone.

Within ten minutes of just playing random games I had on my phone, the familiar headlights of Allison's car send a sense of relief in me as she parked her car in front of me.

I shove my phone in my bag and quickly open the car door to see my girlfriend's worried expression, taking notice of my baggy sweatshirt and pajama shorts she was wearing.

She must have just rolled out of bed.

"I'm sorry for forcing you out of bed." I sighed, placing my backpack on the ground. "I didn't want anyone else to know."

"Anything for—wait." She suddenly puts the car in park before turning to face me. "Your eyes..." She softly says as she lifted her hand to cup my cheek, using her thumb to wipe the tear that fell. "what happened?"

"Before, I would've just gone straight to bed," I shakily breathe out, leaning my head against her hand. "but I needed to see you after I saw who was at the house."

"It's okay." She lowered her hand but still interlaced our hands together. "Who was it?"

From there on, I let everything out by becoming a rambling mess as I told her my emotions that I was feeling while she comfortingly rubbed circles around my back as I practically cried my eyes out.

I hated him but then that small fraction I had was sadness from just seeing him in person after all these years.

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A/N:

Hi guys! Sorry for a somewhat delayed update so here's a longer chapter than the usual ones!

~Cimbello