𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒚-𝒔𝒊𝒙 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘈 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥

CHARLOTTE LISTENS TO COACH CONTINUOUSLY blow his whistle to the student seated beside her. She glances to Scott, each of them just as concerned as the other as Stiles remains in a dazed state of mind, staring blankly into space. "Stilinski!"

"Uh huh?"

"I asked you a question!"

"Uh... Sorry, Coach," he apologises. "What was it?"

"It was, 'Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?'" Coach tells him with a small, sarcastic smile.

"Oh. Well, I am now," Stiles answers hesitantly, placing his pen up to his lips.

Finstock huffs a sigh and points a finger at the boy. "Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink..." He lowers his voice to a mutter as he adds, "Every night."

Normally Charlotte would have laughed at Coach, but her eyes stay trained on Stiles. Feeling a burning stare on the sides of his head, he turns to find both of his best friends looking at him in concern. "I'm okay, I just fell asleep for a second."

Scott and Charlotte share another look and the latter points to his notebook. "You weren't asleep." Stiles hesitantly looks down and his eyes widen as he stares at the open pages. What's most concerning is that all over the paper is 'wake up' written in different sizes and fonts.

As soon as the class finishes, Scott makes the decision to call a pack meeting during their lunch hour. The group sit around the wooden table, half of them eating and the other half with no appetite at all. Charlotte rests her chin on her hands as she squints her eyes in thought. "So, what happens to a person who has a near death experience and comes out of it seeing things?"

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles adds.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" When Charlotte places a hand on her knee under the table, Allison sends her a brief smile.

"They're all locked up because they're insane," Isaac comments. The blonde-haired girl rolls her eyes and turns to the boy to give him a pointed look, silently telling him to shut up.

Stiles turns his eyes onto the werewolf. "Ha," he replies dryly. "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?"

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

Sensing what his best friend is about to rebut, Scott's head drops down to his arms on the table in disappointment. Stiles raises his eyebrows, purposefully ignoring the warning nudge Charlotte jabs at his ribs. "Hey, dude, are you still milking that?"

Isaac nods at him. "Yeah, maybe I am still milking that."

Charlotte sighs. "Okay, let's leave the making fun of people's trauma alone for today. Sound good?"

Before Stiles can respond to her, a new voice speaks up. "Hi, sorry..." All the attention moves to the new girl from history who has appeared at the end of their table. Kira awkwardly smiles. "I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about..." Everyone shares a look. "And I think I actually might know what you're talking about."

As she waits for one of the six to respond, Charlotte gives her a warm smile and gestures for her to continue. "We're all ears."

Kira gratefully smiles her. "There's a Tibetan word for it- it's called 'Bardo.' It literally means 'in-between state.'"

Charlotte's eyes widen as she recognises the word from a book she had read a few years ago. "The state between life and death," she says quietly.

"And what do they call you?" Lydia calls out curiously.

"Kira," both Charlotte and Scott answer. The group looks at them with raised brows and the banshee laughs when Scott bashfully looks away. "She's in our history class," he adds. When her foot reaches underneath the table to playfully kick Scott's leg, he discreetly raises his middle finger to her.

"So, are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia questions.

Kira shrugs and takes the empty seat at the end of the table, glancing over to Lydia as she answers, "Either I guess. But all the stuff you guys were just saying. 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."

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac repeats with wide eyes. "What the hell are those?"

With a bright smile on her face, Kira says, "Like, demons."

Charlotte nods to herself. "At this point we might as well face the fucking Devil," she mumbles.

Allison removes her gaze off her girlfriend and over to Kira. "Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?"

Keeping her eyes on the brunette, Kira answers with another smile, "Death, you die." Her reply is delivered in far too much of an unbothered tone, and she clearly doesn't understand the gravity her words have on the group.

Charlotte blows out a breath of air and lays her head on Allison's shoulder. "Of course we do."

Once Kira leaves and the rest of the group begin to depart for their next classes, Scott and Stiles make the decision to go to the animal clinic and visit the one person that might be able to help them with their current dilemmas.

Pulling her eyes off her best friends, Charlotte turns back to Allison who stands in front of her. "Hey, are you okay if I go with them to Deaton?" she questions. "We're gonna do a weekly debrief on what Kira just told us. I have a feeling Bardo is more important than we think."

Allison immediately nods. "Yeah, of course," she responds with a small smile. "You don't need to ask me."

"Are you sure? 'Cause if you want me to stay, I can s-"

"I'm fine," she cuts her off with a soft laugh. "Promise. If something happens, I'll call you."

Charlotte's eyes flick across the girl's face as she gives a hesitant nod. "Okay, but promise if you feel anything-"

"I know. I'll call you."

The breath that is released is shaky, and she scoffs to herself. "God, why am I so worried? You'll be fine. Absolutely fine-" Charlotte's eyes slightly as her ramble is interrupted by Allison cupping her cheeks and pulling her closer so she can join their lips. After a second, Charlotte melts into the embrace and her hands move to settle on the back of Allison's neck.

"I fucking knew it!" The girls abruptly pull apart from the kiss and their heads snap over to where Scott and Stiles are. Charlotte tenses in worry but breathes a sigh of relief once she sees Stiles grinning from ear to ear. "I knew something was going on with you guys," he declares proudly. "Fucking knew it."

The couple quietly laugh at his reaction, then they look to Scott. The boy remains staring at them with a blank expression, his brain trying to process exactly what he had just seen. Charlotte sucks in a deep breath. "Scotty?" she calls out. "Are... Are you okay?"

His eyes snap over to meet hers. He glances briefly to Allison whose hand remains entwined in his best friend's. "You guys are..."

Allison nods. "Yeah."

"And you're..."

"I love her," Charlotte speaks up.

Scott looks to Allison. "Me too," she says softly.

After a few tension filled moments, a smile finally beams onto Scott's face. The girls sigh in relief. "Oh, thank God," the banshee mutters.

"As long as you guys are happy, that's all I care about," he reassures them.

Stiles cheers and wraps his arms around both Charlotte and Scott's shoulders. "Great, epic love story has been revealed. Now, let's go figure out what the hell is wrong with us." The blonde hums in agreement and pushes his arm off her to return to Allison. Stiles begins to protest, but it quickly turns into an "Aw" as she kisses her girlfriend goodbye.

"I'll see you later," she whispers against the girl's lips.

Allison smiles. "Love you."

»»———-　　———-««

As soon as they arrive, the first few minutes are spent talking through the side effects that Scott, Stiles, and Allison had been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. But the most pressing topic is what Stiles had revealed he was hallucinating earlier in Coach's economics class. The boy explained that he had walked into a class, only to find all the students and Coach Finstock staring at him whilst signing him certain words in sign language. With a thoughtful frown on his face, Deaton walks over to the front door and turns the entry sign over to 'closed.' "It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate to you."

As the three follow the adult through to the examination room, Stiles' eyebrows furrow. "Well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?"

"Do you remember what the sign language looked like?"

Charlotte at Deaton and adds, "Yeah, like, the placement or the movements?"

Scott's eyes flick between them in surprise. "Wait, both of you know sign language?" he questions.

The girl's lips lift. "A little."

Deaton nods at her then turns to Stiles. "Let us give it a shot."

Stiles purses his lips together as he holds a single finger up in the air. "The first one was like this..." He circles the finger with his other hand.

"That's 'when,'" Charlotte says, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Then there was this, twice." He places his hands up in the air, then pulls one backwards.

"That's 'door,'" Deaton states.

"And this was in between them."

After watching the boy sign the final word, Deaton and Charlotte share a look. "That's it?" the man asks. 

Stiles nods. "Yeah," he answers.

After receiving a go ahead from Deaton, the blonde-haired girl reveals to them what she had translated. "When is a door not a door?"

Stiles blinks multiple times at a fast pace, then repeats the riddle. "When is a door not a door?" He quickly looks to Deaton. "Is she right?"

Charlotte quietly scoffs. "Of course I'm right." She nervously meets the veterinarian's eyes. "Am I right?"

With a small smile, Deaton nods at her. "No, she's right," he confirms.

Scott's voice is quiet as he comes to the realisation. "When it's ajar."

"You're kidding me," Stiles deadpans. He almost scoffs. "A riddle? My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?"

Charlotte shrugs. "Maybe it's in a joking mood?" she suggests.

"Not necessarily a riddle," Deaton begins. When the three turn to him in question, he elaborates. "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."

The girl blinks quickly, her eyes remaining wide in shock. "Woah," she whispers.

Scott glances to her and shares the same level of confusion as she and Stiles do, if not more. "What does it mean? The door's still... open?"

"Ajar," Deaton corrects.

"A door... into our minds?" Stiles slowly reiterates, unable to comprehend just how lucky they've gotten.

"I did tell you it was risky."

Charlotte nods and pushes off the bench she was leaning on. "Okay, so what the fuck do we do? And don't say close it," she tells Deaton in annoyance. "Because there is no way in hell that it can be that simple."

He grimaces. "It's difficult to answer..."

"Oh, no," Stiles interjects. "Wait a second, I know that look- that's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix it' look!"

"One thing I do know, is that having an opening like that into your mind..." Deaton shakes his head grimly. "It's not good. Each of you need to close that door," he adds, giving Charlotte a pointed look. She promptly shuts her mouth. "And you need to do it as soon as possible."

With the veterinarian's words running through each of their heads, the trio walk out of the animal clinic, Charlotte giggling at something Stiles says about how he loves Deaton but that he's just barely helpful at the best of times. Scott doesn't have a chance to defend his boss as a familiar vehicle pulls up hastily beside the blue Jeep. They watch in confusion as the driver's door opens, none of them understanding why Sheriff Stilinski has decided to visit them. "Dad, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here because I could use some help. Actually..." He gestures to Scott and sighs. "Your help. 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."

"I remember that," Charlotte says, a frown on her face. "We had playdates together when we were little."

Stilinski gives her a look filled with sympathy and he sighs again. "There's enough evidence to have me thinking that a... werewolf could have caused the accident and dragged her body away. If you could somehow get a lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clue."

"But what if it was a werewolf?"

The Sheriff nods at his son. "Well, there's somebody out there who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught."

»»———-　　———-««

Scott didn't need to think much about whether he was going to help find Malia or not. Hearing Noah Stilinski talk about the case so passionately meant that this was important to him. Which meant the werewolf and his best friends would do everything they could to help track down the missing girl. Part of that 'everything' included travelling to the Tate's property and breaking into the house without alerting Henry Tate that they're trespassing. The goal is to find something personal of Malia's to be able to track her scent with. It's mid-Thursday morning and Charlotte, Stiles, and Scott are cautiously sneaking their way up the veranda. With the Sheriff already inside talking to Henry Tate, he provides the three the perfect distraction to get inside and up to Malia's old bedroom.

But when Stiles trips over one of the porch chairs, his best friends winces at the loud screech it makes. He sheepishly looks back to them. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Shut up!" Scott hisses back. When neither adult inside makes any movement toward them, Scott gives his best friends a quick nod. Taking a deep breath, Stiles twists the brass doorknob and opens the glass door.

It only gets worse from there.

The door makes a loud squeal and Stiles freezes. He purses his lips together and attempts to open it a little further. The creaking loudens in volume.

Scott covers his face with his hands.

Charlotte rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Oh my God, go, just go!" she loudly whispers. Agreeing with her advice, the door quickly swings open enough for each of the three to squeeze through.

Scrunching his face up, Stiles quickly opens the door wide enough so they can slip in, thankfully without making too much more noise. Finally inside the bedroom, Charlotte and Stiles make quick work of their limited time and begin handing Scott various stuffed animals and pillows off the bed. After a few minutes of silence, the werewolf sighs. "All I'm getting is some animal smell."

Charlotte glances over to him and throws him a cushion. "What kind of animal?"

Almost instantly after her question, they suddenly still at the sound of a growl. "Dog," Scott whispers.

Stiles swallows nervously and moves the figurine in his hands into the pocket of his jacket so the dog can no longer see it. "Hi, puppy..."

Charlotte places the stuffed animal back on the bed and coos at the Rottweiler standing defensively in the doorframe. "Aw, look! He's so cute!"

"Cute?" Stiles repeats. "Cute? Scott, get rid of it," he hisses, trying to remain as calm as he can.

"Me?" Scott questions.

"Yes, you! Glow your eyes at it, something, be the Alpha!"

The dog continues to snarl at the teenagers intruding in his house. "I can't," Scott responds through gritted teeth. "I don't have control."

"Okay, buddy, you're going to have to try something. Wait, Charles! What are you doing? It's going to bite you!"

Charlotte rolls her eyes at Stiles' protests and pushes past them. She holds her hands up, keeping her eyes locked on the dog. "Easy, puppy, I'm not gonna hurt you." When the Rottweiler only responds with a rumbling growl, she takes a deep breath and crouches down to make herself smaller so she that doesn't seem intimidating. "There we go," she whispers.

The dog tilts its head to the side in question, then slowly takes a step towards her out of curiosity. After a minute, Charlotte has the dog in her arms and scratching behind his ears.

"What the actual fuck?" Stiles just about screeches. With the dog happily cuddling with the girl, Stiles hands Scott a notebook. "Here, try this."

"Anything?"

Scott sighs defeatedly. "All I'm getting is the dog."

When he falls silent, the pair standing behind him follow his line of sight to a pink picture frame. Inside is a photograph of two young girls, one in a red coat that is holding a baby doll and the other in a blue puffer jacket. One of them is Malia and the other must be her deceased sister. Taking his phone out, Stiles snaps a photo of the frame.

Realising it's time to leave, Charlotte reluctantly gives the dog one last pat. "Okay, bud, go," she instructs quietly. Blinking at her, Apollo spins around and trots down the hallway out of sight.

"Wouldn't be surprised if you were somehow some secret werewolf," Stiles tells her in amusement.

"Maybe I'm just a better dog whisperer than Scott."

"Hey!"

Ten minutes later, and after driving the Jeep out of sight from the Tate residence, the trio meet up with Stilinski. Spotting Noah with a rather solemn expression, Charlotte gathers that his talk with Malia's father might not have gone so well. Which is going to make it that much harder to tell him that their search hadn't resulted in anything.

"I'm so sorry," Scott glumly apologises. "I tried as hard as I could. If it wasn't so long ago, I might have been able to do it."

The adult gives them a small, tight-lipped smile. "It's okay. It was a long shot."

Charlotte sighs. "Maybe it was just an accident," she tries.

"This whole thing was a terrible idea. I think I just ripped a wound open in that poor man... I never should have brought you guys here. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for trying, all right?" He pats Scott's shoulder and slightly smiles at the other two. "See you at home," he tells Stiles.

As they watch the vehicle drive off, Scott turns to Stiles with the hopes to try and reassure him. "Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved?"

Charlotte nods. "Yeah, surely there are heaps of boxes filled with cold cases at the station."

Stiles shifts his weight and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Yeah, I just think this is one he felt like he could've figured out right now," he says.

Her eyebrows furrow. "Why is it so important now?" she questions.

He continues staring off where his dad's car has finally disappeared. "Well, he wants to be able to solve one more while he's still Sheriff." It takes a few seconds for his words to sink in.

Both Scott and Charlotte share a glance filled with confusion. "Hold on," the former states. "What do you mean 'still Sheriff'?"

Stiles closes his eyes for a second then looks back to Scott. "You're going to want to talk to your dad."

»»———-　　———-««

Lying in her bed, Charlotte stares at her ceiling, unable to fall asleep. She looks over to her alarm clock and heavily sighs at the time displayed. Eleven-forty-seven. She can't stop thinking about whatever is happening to her friends and how there's nothing she can do to help them. Suddenly, she hears her window shift. She lurches up in her bed and quickly grabs the dagger hidden under her pillow. After a few further seconds, the window is forcefully pulled open and she sighs at the sight of Stiles and Scott crouched outside on her roof. "What the fuck?"

As the boys scramble into her room, Scott's eyes fall onto the weapon in her hands. "What are you doing with that?"

"I thought someone had broken in!" she exclaims quietly.

Stiles looks at her incredulously. "You thought we were burglars?"

"It's the middle of the night!" Charlotte responds irritably. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

Scott beams as his light flicks on, illuminating his face hauntingly. "We're gonna go out and find a body."

A mischievous smile appears on Stiles' face as he adds, "A dead body."

She falls back onto her mattress and sighs. "Of course we are," she mumbles.

"Well, do you wanna come?"

»»———-　　———-«

"You know, if my dad's right, that means there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet," Stiles points out with a sigh. Their shoes crunch under dead leaves as they follow the map on Scott's phone that would lead them to the car crash from Malia's accident.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Charlotte calls out to the boys up ahead as she jumps over a fallen log.

Scott looks up from his phone and nods slightly. "I know."

"If it turns out to be something, like, triplets that form into, like, a three-headed hound of hell, I'm seriously not up for that," Stiles says with a grimace.

"Especially if I can't even control my own transformation anymore," Scott adds as he studies the map.

"It literally can't get any worse than what we just went through," Charlotte reassures them. As soon as her mouth shuts, a coyote howls. She tenses at the sound and her head snaps sideways as her eyes dart around to find the animal. Then she slaps a hand over her mouth once she sees Stiles gripping onto Scott's in terror, the werewolf sporting a very irritated glare. She follows their line of sight and stifles her giggle at Scott's phone submerged underwater in a puddle below.

"Sorry, buddy," Stiles mumbles. "I hate coyotes so much... They always sound like they're mauling some tiny, helpless little animal." Scott rolls his eyes and jumps down the ledge to pick up his phone, leaving the pair up the top to share a look. "You go first."

Charlotte raises her brows and shrugs. "Okay."

After making her way down, she watches Stiles' confident expression fade as he loses his footing and slips down the entire way. He places his hands on his hips and tries to brush it off like nothing had happened, casually nodding his head when he spots her entertained smile. When she giggles, he scowls.

"Still works," Scott voices, holding up his phone.

Charlotte chuckles. "Somehow."

"Let me see the flashlight," Stiles says. Taking the flashlight off Scott, he holds it up to shine into the darkness. Pointing the light into the bushes, he walks forward a little to get a better look. The two behind him share a look before following, neither having any idea of what he is trying to see. "I think we found it," the boy comments a few seconds later.

Hidden amongst shrubs and piles of rocks is the upturned car wreck they've been looking for. "What the hell," Charlotte mutters.

"Uh, why wouldn't they move it?" Scott questions as they approach the rusted vehicle. "Isn't it evidence?"

Charlotte briefly nods to him as she inspects the car. "Probably too hard to move it," she replies. Whilst Stiles slowly moves the light across the vehicle, she rubs her arms as a shiver runs down her spine. "Why does it feel like something bad is gonna happen?"

At her mutter, Scott spins to her and shakes his head. "Don't say that. When people say that stuff always happens."

Stiles stops moving the flashlight so it points directly at the door closest to them. "Look at this," he calls out.

The two turn back to their best friend and move up to join him as he gets onto his knees. "Holy shit," Charlotte whispers. Scraped across the dented door are four claw marks, prompting Scott to move forward and lightly trace his fingers alongside them. His fit inside the grooves perfectly, which leads Stiles to assume that the cause would be from something supernatural instead of a regular coyote. "Animal claws would be closer together, right?" she quietly asks.

"A lot closer," Stiles adds.

"Then it was a werewolf."

"So my dad was right."

After another minute of searching the car, Charlotte's eyes squint and she points into the vehicle. "What's that?" Stiles shines the light to follow her pointed finger and crouches down to reach inside to grab onto whatever she has seen. He backs up to show an old baby doll coated in dirt. The three teens stare at the doll in his hands. "No, absolutely not," Charlotte firmly states.

"I'm hungry."

The electronic voice that the doll produces is enough to make each teenager flinch and react on various levels to one another. A loud, girlish scream leaves Stiles' mouth as he drops the doll, then falls to the ground himself. Scott jumps in surprise and grabs onto Charlotte's arm. And Charlotte glares heated daggers at the toy staring up at them from the floor. "I think I just had a minor heart attack," Stiles gets out between pants.

Charlotte breathes deeply and nods. "I don't like it," she concludes. "Can we burn it or something?"

"Hey, guys...?" Both Charlotte and Stiles turn their attention to Scott who is staring off into the distance. Their eyes narrow as they follow the werewolf's line of sight, then they widen once spotting a pair of blue eyes staring back. "Please tell me you see that," Scott mumbles.

The girl thickly swallows and nods. "Oh yeah."

Stiles pushes himself off the ground. "I see it," he replies nervously.

The coyote's threatening snarls begin to dissipate, before her radiant eyes fade into the darkness engulfing her body. Scott doesn't hesitate to take off after her. "Wait, Scott!" Charlotte yells. "Scott- oh, for fuck's sake." The pair share a look filled with annoyance and race off in the direction Scott had disappeared in.

»»———-　　———-««

Aimlessly running through the woods on a Thursday night isn't something that Charlotte had planned for today. She had been expecting a dead body. Not doing the most cardio she's done in months.

"Have you seen him?"

She rolls her eyes at Stiles question. "No!" she exclaims. "I've been seeing the same fucking tree for the last ten minutes!" Suddenly, someone runs straight into her. Loud screams from all three of them fill the still air, and Charlotte slaps them on the face.

"Ow!"

Once realising it's Scott and not a stranger coming to murder her, she giggles. "Oh... Sorry, dude."

Stiles stifles a laugh and takes a deep breath as he recovers from the shock. "We think we found something," he informs the werewolf.

Scott nods. "So did I."

Leading Scott up the way they had been a few minutes ago, Charlotte and Stiles show him what they had stumbled upon throughout their never-ending search for him. Crouching under boulders that are the entrance, Charlotte shines the flashlight around the small space as the boys enter after her. "It's a coyote den," she says.

Scott scans the area. "Werecoyote," he corrects.

"What else is there? Weremonkeys? What about a werejaguar?"

The two flashlights illuminate the inside of the den, revealing multiple items that belong to the coyote. "See this?" Stiles picks up the blue puffer jacket folded up. "This is Malia's. It's the same one she was wearing in the photo."

As Scott and Stiles continue to examine different toys and items strewn around the place, Charlotte stands up to pace. "We need to leave," she declares. When they turn around to her in confusion, she sighs. "This is her home; we're breaking and entering into her home. Actually, this is the second home of hers we've broken into in the last twenty-four hours."

Scott sighs in agreement. "Yeah, she's not coming back now."

"Nope," the girl says bluntly. "It's Stiles, Scott, and Charlotte perfume city in here."

Stiles doesn't seem to get the importance of leaving. "If she's not going to come back here, where's she going to go?"

"I don't know," Scott answers him.

Charlotte finally stops her anxious pacing and turns to Scott. "Can you track her?" she questions. "I mean, this place has her scent all over it."

"Maybe," he replies with a slow nod. "But I'm better at this when I'm a full wolf. And I'm still worried that if I do it, I won't be able to turn back."

Stiles sighs. "The door's still open."

She looks between her two best friends with concern. "We're gonna fix it, guys, okay? Don't sound so hopeless."

Scott gives her a small smile. "If I can't get to Derek, we're gonna have to find someone else to help. This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss' league..."

"And more in my dad's," Stiles comes to the realisation.

After waiting a good fifteen to twenty minutes, the Sheriff's department arrives in the Beacon Hills Preserve. The three teenagers discuss the details of how Scott's pursuit of Malia had turned out whilst they wait for Noah Stilinski and his deputies to finish scouring the den. The man emerges with a purple blanket in his hand and heads straight over to the kids who had called him. "You're sure it was her?"

Scott nods. "I looked her right in the eyes, and they glowed just like mine."

"It makes sense, Dad."

Stilinski looks to the girl and raises his eyebrows. "What do you think?"

"Sheriff, it has to be."

"But it wasn't a girl," he counters. "It was a four-legged coyote, right?"

At his question, Charlotte grimaces. "Yeah..."

Stiles' lips purse. "Well, okay. But yeah, see, that's the part we don't exactly have figured out yet."

"Okay, but if it was a full moon, and she did change in the car while her mom was driving, then anything could've happened."

Charlotte and Stiles both nod at Scott. "Exactly!" she exclaims. "Horrible things could have happened!"

"Yep, ripping, shredding, tearing things-"

"Which is probably what caused the accident!" Scott finishes off.

"Think about it, Dad, all right. They're driving, Malia starts to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes, and everybody dies..."

"Everybody except Malia," Charlotte adds with a nod.

"She blames herself, all right?" Stiles continues. "Goes off running into the woods, and eventually... becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote."

Stilinski slowly nods and the three share a small smile. "That makes sense..."

"See!" Charlotte says excitedly.

"In a Chinese folktale!" Each of their smiles promptly fall at his words. Noah shakes his head incredulously as he glances between them. "Guys, this is... This is insane. I need this kept quiet," he instructs sternly. "The three of you? Not a single word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr Tate hearing about this." Charlotte and Stiles both share a sigh and hesitantly nod. But as Scott stares off into the distance, she gently taps his arm. "Scott. Scott!"

The werewolf quickly turns back and apologises. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Flashing lights and a siren brings all their attention to a cruiser pulling up. "Oh, hell," Stilinski mutters.

Charlotte throws her head back and groans when Rafael McCall and Henry Tate both get out of the vehicle and begin walking over. "Come on," she mutters. As much as she used to like Malia's father, she definitely doesn't like Scott's. Hate isn't even a strong enough word to use to describe her feelings for him.

"Mr Tate," Noah greets politely. However, his eyes are locked onto the blanket in the Sheriff's hands. The three teens share a look when he takes hold of it, staring at the item in disbelief.

"Mr Tate?"

He continues to stare at the blanket as he says, "It's hers."

Agent McCall nods. "All right, wait here," he instructs.

"Dad-"

"I'll talk to you in a minute," Scott's father replies curtly. "I wouldn't mind hearing how your mom's okay with you running around in the woods this late."

Charlotte gives her best friend a sympathetic smile and sighs. "I better get going too," she tells them.

The boys both nod and return the smile. "Thanks for coming, Lottie," Stiles says.

She nods. "Anytime." As she heads back to her car parked at the entrance of the Preserve, she can't help but feel that someone is watching her. So Charlotte stops walking and scans the area, squinting her eyes until they get used to the dark. Then she sees two glowing sapphires. "Mal?" she quietly calls out. Paws pad forward and her lips uplift when the coyote steps out of the shadows. Keeping her eyes locked with Malia's, she crouches down. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm Charlotte. We used to go to day-care together." In response, the coyote only walks closer until eventually she rubs her head on Charlotte's leg. With a large grin, the girl slowly reaches her hand out to scratch behind the coyote's ears. "It's good to see you," she whispers.

𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘴 ☹️