DEAD MAN!
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.
big trouble.

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STILES AND ADRIAN HAD SKIPPED SCHOOL TO TALK TO JACKSON, WHO WAS CURRENTLY LOCKED UP IN THE BACK OF A PRISON TRANSPORT VAN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS. He had his hands chained so he couldn't attack or escape, the teens entering the van after he had done his screaming and shouting.

So here they were, sitting on the metal seating across from him. Stiles bent down to go through the bag he had brought for him. "Okay, I bought you some food-"

"Let me out now!" Jackson yelled at the pair through gritted teeth, reaching out his restrained hands.

Stiles wasn't fazed by the action. "You know, I put those pants on you, all right, buddy? One leg at a time. Being all up-close and personal with your junk wasn't exactly a highlight of my day. So don't think this is fun for me either."

Jackson rolls his eyes. "I bet you would rather it be Lydia you got up-close and personal with." He scoffed, looking away from them.

Stiles cocked his head. "What did you just say?"

"Oh, please, Stilinski." The rich boy rolls his eyes yet again, looking over at the teen with a glare. "Everyone knows you have a creepy obsession with my ex-girlfriend."

Stiles didn't miss a beat, speaking before he could think it through. "Well, unless your ex-girlfriend is Adrian, I don't know what you mean."

The Martin boy's eyes widened beside him, looking at his boyfriend in shock. He knew Jackson could get on Stiles' nerves and that makes him speak too quick for his brain sometimes, but he never thought he'd say that!

Jackson was silent for a few moments, taking the information in. He gave the boy across from him a look. "You're telling me Adrian Martin is gay?"

Stiles pursed his lips. "Unless I look like a female to you."

It was silent between the three in the van for awhile, Jackson- for the first time ever- at loss for words. Adrian was first to speak, clearing his throat awkwardly as he changed the subject. "We're actually doing you a favour here, Jax."

The anger from that comment was enough to distract Jackson from Stiles' earlier statement. "This is doing me a favour?" He gestured down towards his chained wrists.

"Yes." The Stilinski boy groaned next to the redhead, looking back to the chained boy. "You're- you're killing people. To death. Yeah. And until we figure out how to stop you, you're staying in here. I'm sorry. Now . . ." He picked up the bag and held up two plastic wrapped sandwiches. "Do you want the ham and cheese, or the turkey club?"

When Jackson didn't answer and just glared at them, Adrian shrugged and took the ham and cheese sandwich for himself. He unwrapped and bit into it as Jackson continued. "You actually think my parents won't be looking for me?"

Stiles threw the sandwich at the boy as he pulled out Jackson's phone to display the text messages the boy with the buzzcut had been sending to the Whittemore family. "Not if they don't think anything's wrong."

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"Scales? Like a fish?" Jackson summarised after the two boys began telling him of his Kanima side, not looking too impressed or convinced.

"No, more like a reptile." Stiles explained, his feet up against the metal seating Jackson was on. "Um, and, uh, your claws have this liquid that paralyses people, and you have a tail."

"I have a tail?" It was clear Jackson wasn't believing a word coming out of their mouths. Adrian didn't blame him. A few months ago, he didn't even believe in werewolves.

"Yep. Congrats, buddy." Adrian hummed, leaning tiredly against the van. Due to everything that had happened, the redhead hadn't been able to catch up with his sleeping schedule. And with his current pattern of weird dreams . . . he wasn't so sure he wanted to fall asleep.

"Mm. Does it do anything?" Jackson asked, probably just wanting to see how far the conversation could go at this point. When Stiles shook his head, the boy lurched forwards only to be held back by his chains. "Can I use it to strangle you?"

Stiles remained unfazed, shaking his head. "God, you still don't believe me. All right. The night of the semi-final game, what did you do right after?"

"I went home." He glared at the boy.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, you idiot. What the hell else would I do?" Jackson hissed, the chains being the only thing stopping him from attacking the boy at this point.

The hazel eyed boy rolled his eyes at the comment. "You attacked me and Derek at the school, and you trapped us in the pool. You also killed a mechanic- right in front of Adrian and I, by the way. That was lovely. And one of Argent's hunters. Oh, and last night, you tried to kill Danny."

"Why would I want to kill my best friend?" Jackson lifted his shoulders slightly, keen to prove the boy was wrong with his Kanima theory.

"Well, that's what Scott is out trying to figure out right now." Stiles answered for him.

"Hmm. Well maybe what he should be trying to figure out is how he's going to pay for a lawyer when I prosecute your asses all the way to jail!" Jackson yelled with a fury, clenching his fists.

Stiles remained calm. "All right, well, tell me this. On the night of the first full moon, what happened?"

Jackson paused, proving they might've hit something. "Nothing. Nothing happened." He muttered.

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"You're awfully quiet." Stiles told his boyfriend as they leaned against the hood of the prison van, the buzzcut teen typing messages out to Jackson's parents. When he received no reply, he turned to face the boy. "What's up, Tiger?"

Adrian rolls his eyes. "Like you don't already know, Stilinski." His voice had a bitter tone to it, surprising Stiles.

"No, I don't. What's going on?"

The boy released a groan of frustration, stuffing his hands in his hair. "Back there! What you said to Jackson!"

"All I told him was that he had a tail!"

"Not that, idiot! Before that!" Adrian shouted, looking at the boy with wide eyes. "When you basically told Jackson we were dating!"

"Wha- that's what you're mad about?!" Stiles leaned off the van, lowering the phone. "It slipped out, I didn't think it would matter!"

"Why would you not think a thing like that mattered?!" Adrian waved his hands around like mad, not believing the Stilinski boy right now.

"Because who cares if he knows?" Stiles shrugged carelessly, not getting the boy's point which only seemed to anger him more.

"I care, Stiles!" The Martin boy shouted, gesturing to himself.

"Why? Why do you care?"

"Why?" The boy repeated, squinting his eyes in disbelief. "Because we agreed to keep our relationship secret!"

"Well what if I don't want to keep our relationship secret?" Stiles' shout made the boy across from him go quiet out of shock, the woods filling with silence.

Before Adrian could pick up again, Allison appeared out of nowhere. Stiles let out a small jump as he turned round to face the girl, noticing her panting. "They know." She breathed out anxiously.

"What?" Stiles confusedly asked.

"They know Jackson's missing." Allison repeating it only made her panic more, shocking the two boys.

Stiles was quick to shake his head. "No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue." He showed her the phone.

"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police." The Argent told them, the couple's eyes widening. "They know."

"What did you text them?" Adrian muttered, grabbing Stiles' arm so he could read the sent texts. When he did, he glared at the boy. "You texted Jackson's parents 'I love you'? You idiot!"

"What?"

"Jackson has never said those words, Stiles." Adrian told him, shaking his head. "Not even to Lydia."

Stiles slowly peeled the phone away from him with two fingers, letting out an inhuman noise. He tossed the phone to the Allison before opening the car door of the van to pull out the police radio.

"All available units proceed to Beacon Hills preserve as instructed." A deputy spoke over the line, alerting the three teens. "Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Repeat. Proceed with caution."

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"Where are we going?" Allison sighed as she sat in the passenger seat, Adrian in the middle of her and Stiles.

The Stilinski boy quickly dialled Jackson's dad's phone number before chucking the device out the van window. "Somewhere very far from this."

"We're in big trouble." Adrian sighed as the engine started and took them off, driving to meet Scott.

They met up at a new location in the woods a few hours later and parked the van away from the cliff edge. The four teens walked away from it, Scott scratching the back of his neck with a sigh. "If Jackson doesn't remember being the Kanima, he's definitely not going to remember stealing Danny's tablet."

While Adrian and Stiles had been on Jackson duty, the young werewolf had gone to the hospital and found out that Danny was actually doing Jackson a favour- meaning there was no motive to kill him.

Danny had been fixing a video tape that Jackson recorded due to some missing footage. Scott suspected that whatever was on the missing footage, was obviously something the Kanima didn't want out.

"Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Stiles let out a frustrated mumble, eyes adverting to his boyfriend who was still yet to look or speak to him.

"What if someone else took it?" Allison offered, hands on her hips.

The boy with the buzzcut sighed in response. "Then somebody else knows what he is."

Scott's eyes went wide. "Which could mean that someone is protecting him." He quickly followed up with.

"Like the beastiary says, 'the Kanima seeks a friend', right?" Allison added, looking at the three boys.

"Okay, hold on. So, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima, and then he just erases part of it so he wouldn't know?" Stiles questioned, trying to make sense of it all. "I mean, who would do that?"

"The so called 'friend'." Adrian rolls his eyes, finally speaking up. "Whoever- or whatever- this friend is, they might still be protecting him."

"There's something else." Scott chimes in. "You said the only thing you found online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if it's true?"

Adrian let out a tiny laugh. "Nice one, Scott. I don't know about you, but I don't think any of us have murdered someone."

"But I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us." The werewolf shook his head, looking towards his girlfriend. "Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?"

Allison nodded in agreement. "You're right, it just ran off."

"And it didn't kill you two in the mechanic's garage." He turned to the two boys again.

"Well, yeah, but it tried to kill Derek and I in the pool." Stiles reminded his friend.

"Did it?" Scott raised an eyebrow.

"It would've." The boy snapped back in return.

"What if it was trying to keep you in?"

Both teen's mouth fell open. "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?" The Stilinski boy winced.

"Because there's something else going on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him." The Latino boy replied, probably the person with the most knowledge about this now.

"'Know thy enemy'." Allison quoted, everyone looking at her now. She looked up. "Just something my grandfather said."

"All right. I got it." Stiles butt in. "Kill Jackson. Problem solved."

"We're not killing, Jackson." The Necromancer groaned. "I don't care how much of an asshole he is, we're not doing it. Especially not after he risked his life for us. With Peter! Remember?"

"Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny." Was all Stiles replies with.

"That doesn't mean he's not worth saving." Scott told his friend, keen on not wanting anyone killed.

"It's always something with him, though."

"It's not like he can control it." Adrian mumbled, crossing his arms. "Besides, when Jackson's the Kanima, he most likely has no idea what he's doing."

"So what?" The boy groaned.

"So, I didn't either." Scott annoyingly replied, seeming to relate to Jackson almost. He turned to Allison again. "You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson? I had someone to stop me. He has nobody."

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"I'm beginning to grow a strong dislike towards the woods." Adrian was first to speak between him and Stiles as the two sat in front of the police van, Scott and Allison cuddled up together in the her car.

"Why's that?" Stiles turned to him, biting his lip. The boy couldn't help but think of their earlier argument and how maybe if it hadn't of happened . . . they would be close together like Scott and Alison currently were.

The Martin looked around the wooded area. "I don't know. I feel weird in the woods now. It's like- I can feel every person who's ever died in these wood's soul."

"You can feel souls?" The Stilinski boy asked in disbelief.

"It's a difficult feeling to explain." The boy shook his head with a sigh. "I don't really know how to explain it anymore."

"Well, let's not talk about it then." Stiles softly spoke as he reached down to hold Adrian's hand, the two boys turning to look at each other. "I'm sorry about the whole Jackson thing."

"No, it's fine. I overreacted." The redhead gave in, closing his eyes as he let out a breath through his nostrils. "I see your point."

Stiles paused. "So . . . you want to tell our parents about us?" He asked hopefully, drawing circles with his thumbs on Adrian's hand.

"I-I don't know." The boy mumbled, feeling conflicted. He wanted to do it for his boyfriend, but a part of him also wanted to not do it for himself. "I mean- how would we tell them? What would we say?"

"I don't know." The Stilinski boy gave in to that, sighing. It was a few seconds before he peeked up again. "I have an idea, we can play it out now. I'll be my dad and you'll be you, okay?"

"Stiles, I'm not sure-" the hazel eyed boy shot him a puppy dog look, immediately making the boy crumple like paper. "Alright. Fine."

Stiles clears his throat to prepare, lowering his voice with a frown to mimic his dad. "So why should I let you date my son?"

". . . Because I can't get him pregnant?"

Stiles' body slumped, looking at the boy in disbelief. "Adrian!" He softly hit him on the shoulder, trying to hide his blushing face.

"I panicked!" The Martin defended himself, feeling his own cheeks heat up at his words.

Stiles sighed. "We'll figure something out." He promised, kissing the redhead's forehead tenderly.

All of a sudden, the van rattled with a loud bang. The couple sat up alert, running to the back only to find the doors had been ripped clean off with no Jackson in sight. This definitely wasn't good.

Knocking on Allison's car window, Adrian cringed when he saw the hunter shirtless and curled into the werewolf's bare chest. He quickly adverted his eyes before he saw something he wished he didn't. "Umm, guys. You might want to hurry up and take a look at this."

Now fully clothed, Scott and Allison ran over to where the other couple was. They got a good look at the empty van, mouths gaping in disbelief. "I have to tell my father." The Argent whispered in panic.

The werewolf of the four took a few steps away to gather his thoughts, probably thinking of their next move.

"Scott." Allison interrupted his train of thought. "He's going to kill someone."

Scott took a long pause, debating the options before nodding. "Okay, tell him." The look on his face told Adrian he was unsure, but the boy knew he would do anything if it meant saving a life. "Tell him everything."

"Scott, I gotta tell mine too." Stiles added sadly.

This seemed to make Scott all the more saddened by the situation. "This is all my fault." He muttered.

"It's not." Allison was quick to assure him, not wanting him to feel guilty. If anything, they were all to blame. "But we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this."

"How are we going to make your dad believe in the supernatural?" Adrian wondered to his boyfriend. "He doesn't even believe you're gay."

"I don't know." The boy murmured in response, looking nervous.

When Scott turned to them, the two boy's eyes widened at his now glowing yellow irises. "He'll believe me."

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"Can you buzz us in? I gotta see my dad." Stiles asked a deputy at the front desk, Scott and Adrian by his side. This was it. They were finally going to confess the truth.

The officer nodded, pushing a button that caused the door to buzz before unlocking. The three of them entered the Sheriff's office . . . only to be met with a familiar face other than Stiles' dad.

Jackson wore a smug look as he was wrapped in a deputy's coat. Adrian quickly recognised Mr Whittemore right next to him, making him gulp. They were definitely in deep trouble now.

"Scott, Stiles, Adrian. Perfect timing." Sheriff greeted them, despite there being nothing welcoming about it. "Have you met Jackson's father, Mr David Whittemore? Esquire."

Jackson leans forwards with a look of victory on his face. "That means lawyer."

Adrian gulped. Jackson wasn't joking when he made all those threats towards them . . . and now they were paying for all of it.

A U T H O R. N O T E
you ever just create an oc and become so obsessed with them you forget that they're not real and get surprised when they're not in the actual show/movie you created them from? just me?

hope you enjoyed this chapter. i got inspo from a few sterek posts i saw on pinterest because i'm obsessed. i am also happy to announce that it's actually stiles' birthday today which is why i am updating! happy birthday, you adorable little goof!

GIF MADE BY ME !
━ R O S C O E O B R I E N