𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧
"𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢'𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥."
𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

The brunette tossed and turned in her sheets, slowly becoming knotted up in them as she tried to get comfortable, a task easier said than done in the past few weeks. Every night was the same since completing the sacrifice, sleepless nights, all ending up with her jolting upright in her bed barely able to catch her breath. It didn't matter whose bed she slept in or who slept beside her, the nightmares were persistent, and she had tried. Whether it was Allison or Lydia in the space beside her, sometimes even both of them, the nightmares prevailed. All of her attempts to block them out failed, the nightmares had too much fun tormenting her, playing on her deepest fears, which apparently, she had more of than she thought.

Usually, she found herself reliving what had happened to her in the sixteen hours she had been classified as dead. She woke up in the same bedroom, scanning over the same photo of her and Peter, walking down the same narrow halls of the Hale house as she looked at the pictures on the wall and even her conversation with Talia. All of the details were the same, not a single piece of it was missing, it was as if she was there again, a strong sense of deja vu. And just like she had in her sacrifice, she ended up in the car beside her aunt on that late night of January 9th when she moved to this town.

There was only one difference Kinsey had found between the reality and the dreams she had been having. In her dreams she had been with Talia for just a second longer, giving the woman just enough time to say one more thing. Kinsey still didn't know what her aunt meant by it, but in every dream, she gave her the same parting message before she ended up in the car with her aunt again. Talia would place a hand on her arm, looking her straight in the eye as she said the words. Chaos will come again. But she didn't get to experience that dream every night, when she didn't find herself back in the Hale house her mother would often make an appearance in her nightmares, but to Kinsey, that was considered normal. Ever since Kate's death, she had played a lead role in her daughter's dreams. Occasionally, she found herself looking in her reflection only to see her own eyes had been replaced with those of a werewolf like she had seen at Glen Capri. Those were the kind of nightmares she could handle, the ones that only slightly terrified her, all she had to do was learn to wake up without having to hold in a horrified scream.

Slowly giving up on the idea of a peaceful sleep Kinsey sat up in bed with a mumble.

"Stiles?" Her voice muttered hoarsely. The boy was already sitting up beside her, clearly, he was having as much of a sleepless night as she was. Her head rested on his shoulder as she gently rubbed his forearm, trying to comfort him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just dreaming." He nodded slightly, placing his hand on top of hers. "It was weird. It was like a dream within a dream." The boy continued to explain in a low mumble, careful not to speak too loud and wake up his father in the next room.

"A nightmare?" Kinsey asked as she raised her head, she was familiar with them lately.

Stiles agreed with a sigh as he tried to process his latest nightmare under the comfort of Kinsey who rubbed his shoulder, waiting for when he was ready to talk about it. And then he realized something, he turned to look at the brunette in bed beside him, she looked at him with a smile as though everything was normal as if her being in bed with him was a normal occurrence as if she often found herself sharing a bed with him while she slept in nothing but one of his t-shirts. At first, he thought it was normal too, he hadn't thought anything of it, he was too busy relishing in the comfort that her touch provided him after a bad dream, but now that that had surpassed, he was able to realize what the problem with this situation truly was.

"Wait a sec," Stiles mumbled, removing his hand from hers. "Kinsey, what are you doing here?"

The girl furrowed her brows as she looked around the room, suddenly, that realization had sunk in for her too, she didn't know why she was here either, she didn't remember getting here, or why she would find herself sleeping in Stiles's bed, at least with him still in it. But before either of them could try and come up with a reason the door across the room creaked open, turning both of their heads as it stopped, leaving itself ajar.

Stiles was about to get out of bed to investigate, or at least shut his bedroom door again before a breeze could enter his room, but Kinsey quickly pulled him back by his arm. "Stiles, where are you going?" Kinsey asked as she looked at him with worried eyes.

"I should close the door." He insisted, he didn't even turn to look at the brunette who'd latched onto him with fear. He couldn't take his eyes off of the door, it was drawing him in, begging him to walk towards it, he had never been one to avert temptation.

"Just go back to sleep." Kinsey pleaded, trying to get him to lie down again.

"No, no. I should close it."

"Don't worry about it." Kinsey insisted.

"What if someone comes in?" Stiles asked as he stood up from the bed, leaving her alone to watch as he approached the door slowly, beads of sweat lining his forehead as he tried to build up the courage, something he realized he should have done before he had gotten out of the bed, but now was better than never.

As he walked Kinsey continued to plead for him to come back to bed, every plead of hers was ignored. He couldn't listen to her, not when there was the chance of someone getting in through that door that had been left ajar. Kinsey began getting closer to the edge of the bed, prepared to follow him if she needed to, but even she couldn't quite build up the courage to step out of it as he had done. Even she wasn't brave enough for that. Stiles's hand lingered towards the door.

"Stiles... Stiles, please. Just leave it. Please." Kinsey begged, watching as the boy refused to turn and look at her, refusing to listen to her. "Stiles, please, just come back to bed. Stiles." With every repetition of the boy's name, her voice turned into a cry of warning, one that he still couldn't find it within himself to listen to as he placed his hand on the door handle, pulling the door open further as he dared to walk through it. "Don't! Stiles, don't! Don't go in there, please! Stiles!"

Kinsey shot up in her bed with a large gasp, trying to steady her breathing as she placed her hand on her chest, trying to comprehend how she had ended up in that kind of dream. That was the first time she had ever had a nightmare like that, she'd never found herself in anyone else's room but her own, or at least her own in some kind of alternate universe called the afterlife, and never had one of her nightmares involved Stiles. It didn't even feel like her own nightmare, it felt as though she was just a supporting character in his like she was watching one of Stiles's bad dreams unravel in front of her eyes, and she couldn't do anything but act as a witness to it all.

Once she'd caught her breath again Kinsey turned to look at her bedroom door, seeing that like Stiles's it had opened, leaving itself ajar, allowing her to see the darkness that sat behind it. She jumped out of bed faster than she ever had before, harshly shutting the door allowing nothing to chance as she rested her body against it, taking another deep breath. She'd become used to the other terrifying dreams she had experienced over the past few weeks, but she wasn't so sure that that nightmare was one she would ever become used to. What confused her the most was how something so unnatural could feel so natural, laying in a bed, sleeping next to Stiles, it felt normal, as if she shouldn't have had to question it.

The brunette threw herself back in bed, staring up at the ceiling until she managed to fall back asleep, hoping for a more peaceful sleep than the one she had just awoken from.

·❥·

"Uncle Chris, I've got to go! I'm going to be late!" Kinsey shouted through the apartment as she ran through it, grabbing her bag as she rushed towards the front door. Allison had already left half an hour prior, meeting Lydia for a morning coffee while the younger brunette struggled to pull herself out of bed after another series of bad dreams. Since completing the sacrifice, every night had been a somewhat sleepless one, each of them ending up with her jolting upright in bed barely able to catch her breath.

But last night had been different. Her nightmare wasn't her own, and she had her abilities to thank for that. She remembered how dream-walking had been on the list, apparently, that had included nightmares too, just another horrifying talent of hers that she would have to deal with.

Kinsey tried to shake off all of her nightmares, whether they seemed to be her own or not as she walked into the elevator, she tried to focus on better things, the positives that life seemed to have at the moment. Bar those sleepless nights, life was good. Jennifer was gone and Deucalion too, all of the Alpha pack that remained were Ethan and Aiden, who were trying just as hard to be normal teenagers like the rest of them. That didn't change the fact she held a grudge against them both, particularly Aiden, but for the sake of Lydia and Danny, she was willing to contain her disapproval of the two of them and the relationships they had formed.

She had herself and Stiles to focus on, continuing to figure out what was going on with them, if the two of them were capable of being more than friends with hidden feelings for one another. As the elevator traveled down the three floors from their apartment to the ground floor Kinsey felt a coldness spread over her body, more than just a chill that crawled up one's spine, this was as though she had been transported to the arctic in the few seconds that she'd been stood in the elevator. Every breath from her mouth was visible, creating a small puff of fog in front of her. She looked down at the outfit she'd chosen to wear, a navy long-sleeved dress that she'd paired with her infamous brown boots, her jacket still draped over her arms, prepared for when she reached the McCall house to pick up Isaac like she had promised she would. Now he would be late too.

Kinsey knew as she looked down at her outfit that it probably wasn't weather-appropriate, her bare legs able to feel every draft of wind, but she was already too late. The brunette considered heading back up to the apartment to quickly change her clothes until the elevator dinged, then she decided that she'd just have to deal with the consequences of a cold morning.

When the girl raised her head she wasn't met with the luxurious foyer of her apartment building that she was used to seeing when she walked out of the elevator. It had been replaced by a dark and empty hallway of the hospital basement where abandoned gurneys lay and everything had been thrown to the ground, whether it was medical equipment, papers for patients, the entire hospital had been abandoned, seemingly struck by disaster. Despite it all, Kinsey stepped out of the elevator and into the darkness of the hallway only lit by the occasional flicker of lights. She walked down the hall, looking around her for a clue of what had happened, why it had all been abandoned and so abruptly, but there was nothing.

Kinsey continued to walk until one of the double doors creaked open, drawing her in as she peered through the iced-over window, as soon as she had looked through it she recognized the room she had been drawn to, the morgue. It hadn't been so long ago that she was stood in one with Scott and Stiles discussing human sacrifices, a seemingly absurd thought, now a reality.

The brunette stood in the middle of the room, frozen as she looked at her surroundings. Water dripped from the ceiling onto every surface as the entire room began to defrost, how a last flicker of light brushed over her face before she was left in complete darkness, and how the door locked behind her while nobody was there, leaving her alone, abandoned. Another creak filled the girls' ear as she was turned towards one of the corpse drawers, hesitantly, she edged closer to it, her breaths slow and shallow as she took careful steps towards it. Kinsey's eyes glared at the small label stuck onto the drawer, her eyes widening as she read the name.

"𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐍𝐎. 𝟏𝟏𝟑/𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐃: 𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓/ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 (𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘): 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒/𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍: 𝐃𝐫. 𝐑. 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡"

Something about reading her mother's name triggered something inside of her, a series of memories began to flashback in her mind, from the time when she was just a child, running up to her mother with excitement and a child-like smile, to when she had come back to Beacon Hills for Allison's birthday this past January, and everything that she did in her time here. When she had captured Derek, tortured him, tried to kill Scott, almost turned Allison against them, pulling her into the lifestyle of a hunter. And then... the image she was most used to seeing. Her father's claws dug into her mother's throat, prepared to kill her while their daughter stood with tears in her eyes, begging Kate to make ammends for what she had done to the Hales. And when she'd deemed herself incapable, she was killed. She could still see it as though it was happening all over again, how her mother's body had dropped to the floor in front of her, dead. How her blood had splattered against the windows of the Hale house.

Everything that had brought her to where she stood now. A motherless child who somehow found some comfort in the man who killed her mother, only she didn't see him like that so much anymore over someone attempting to be a good father and make up for all the time that had been lost. She never thought she would believe that Peter Hale was capable of change, that in that cold exterior, somewhere deep lay a heart, a fatherly one at that. She never thought it'd be possible for Peter Hale to be a better parent than her mother, even if that didn't seem like a hard task thanks to the woman's lack of maternal instincts.

A sense of confidence stemmed from a feeling of hatred the brunette felt after reliving all of the things her mother had done, her hand lingered towards the corpse drawer, pulling it open with a creak. She was prepared to see the corpse of her mother, maybe she would find some peace in it and finally be able to move on. She would finally be rid of guilt and grief, neither of which Kate deserved, maybe seeing her corpse would make it real for her daughter, just the first step in her accepting what had happened. That Kate died because she was a woman who deserved it. She was a murderer of many people, people who she knew were the family of her only child, taking away any chance of happiness and the joy of having a large, happy, and loving family from her.

But when she peered into the drawer, it was empty, stretching back endlessly. Kinsey looked further into the drawer, narrowing her eyes as she tried to find the end. Another creaking of metal sounded in the brunette's ears, heralding the arrival of a dirty and screaming Kate Argent, crawling spider-like, up the narrow conduit towards her horrified daughter.

A scream escaped Kinsey's mouth as she slammed the drawer shut, running towards the morgue door with her heart in her chest. Only when she pushed it open she didn't end up in the basement hallway once again, she ended up at school, staring down a busy hallway of students preparing to head to class. Kinsey's eyes darted around frantically as she tried to figure out if it was real or if this was just another kind of trick her mind was tormenting her with.

Then the two familiar faces of her best friend and cousin appeared in front of her, both looking at the brunette with knitted brows, trying to figure out why she looked so frantic, and why she was here without Isaac when she had said just this morning that she was supposed to be picking him up to drive him to school.

"Kins?" Lydia muttered softly. "You okay?"

With wide eyes Kinsey nodded, lying. She knew she couldn't tell them about it, they would think she was insane, especially when they already were aware of the nightmares she had in her sleep, what would they think if those nightmares weren't just limited to when she was asleep anymore but also when she was casually walking around, trying to do normal things like go to school.

"Then where's Isaac?" Allison asked with a raised brow.

"And why are you shaking?" Lydia added. Neither of them was going to let her get away with what was ever so clearly a lie, even if the brunette usually had a talent for lying, she seemed to be having an off day. She didn't even try to smile through her lie like they had noticed she usually did. She was too distracted to even think of doing that, distracted enough to forget picking up her own boyfriend for school. "Another nightmare?" The redhead assumed.

The young huntress nodded, swelling the lump in her throat. "I guess you could say that."

Lydia sighed loudly as she grabbed the wrists of both her brunette best friends, dragging both of them towards the school pavilion, when they asked her where she was taking them her words had been simple. She couldn't live watching the girl be plagued by her own mind any longer than she already had, they needed to find out what was happening to her, and she had a feeling that whatever was going on with Kinsey, was happening to two other people. The other two sacrifices. It hadn't gone unnoticed that what had been going on with Kinsey had started shortly after they acted as surrogate sacrifices. Neither of the brunettes tried to fight against her orders, they knew they would end up following her no matter what.

When the redhead leading the two huntresses had finally found Scott and Stiles standing outside under the pavilion she finally released Kinsey and Allison from her tight grip, allowing them to walk towards the boys freely, interrupting their conversation which couldn't have been more fitting. Scott had that same look as Kinsey, shaken by his own thoughts, unsure how to make out the difference between dream and reality.

As the three girls approached Scott and Stiles they were able to catch a snippet of their words, that had been all they needed. "It's happening to you too. You're seeing things, aren't you?" Stiles asked the wolf, his words came from a place of familiarity. He recognized the beads of sweat across Scott's head, the look across his face, the nervousness that laced his words. Only because since the sacrifice, he had experienced them all for himself.

Scott narrowed his eyes at his best friend. "How'd you know?"

"Because it's happening to all three of you." Lydia butted into their conversation, startling Stiles as he quickly moved to stand beside Scott where he could see Kinsey sheepishly standing beside Lydia and Allison, a look of guilt across her face as she met eyes with the human boy. And not just because she felt guilty that someone was experiencing what she was, she remembered what had happened in that locker room, even if the two of them were acting like it never happened.

The five began walking back towards the school as they shared their experiences, each of the three sacrifices taking their turns in explaining what had happened to them since that night. All of their hallucinations, sleep paralysis, and for Kinsey, sharing how she had somehow been in the same dream as Stiles, one that he recalled he'd had last night. The one she'd been inside of. He refrained from mentioning that he had seen her in the dream, acting as though her seeing what had happened in his dream from last night was completely shocking news to him. With admitting that Kinsey had been in almost all of his nightmares would come questions, questions as to why it was her inside of them. Which only had one answer, one that he couldn't admit now that she was with Isaac, he couldn't bring up the fact he loved her while she was with somebody else, or that the two of them had shared a moment in the locker room, at least that was how he felt about it. He wasn't sure how Kinsey felt about that kiss, neither of them had spoken a word about it, and now that she was with him, he didn't see that changing anytime soon.

"Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one," Lydia said with a sigh of relief as she walked in front of the rest of them. Relishing in the feeling of being the normal one of the group for what was quite possibly the first time ever.

"We're not crazy." Kinsey shook her head. She couldn't even believe her own words. Not only was she now considered one of the crazy ones, but she had never truly shed that title after all of the occurrences during sophomore year. Having a murderer for a mother, having panic attacks in the middle of the halls because of being attacked by an Alpha in a video store, crying in class. She'd never not been the crazy one. That was what happened when she was attached to Lydia.

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Dream walking? Yeah, you guys are fine." Lydia sarcastically followed with a nod, she had no shame in the fact she was slightly enjoying this. She could no longer be seen as the town wacko, compared to the three of them, she was as normal as it got.

Scott shrugged as he looked between his fellow sacrifices. "We did die and come back to life. That's gotta have some side effects, right?"

As the school bell rang in their ears it was clear that the five of them would have to postpone their conversation here, finding another time in their school day to discuss the side effects of dying and coming back to life after being dead for sixteen hours. With that ring, a hand was placed on Kinsey's shoulder, causing her to jump in her skin at the touch, she wasn't quite ready for surprises, her dreams had been providing her plenty of them. She felt a sense of relief as she turned to look at the hand that had been placed on her shoulder, it was just Isaac. And just like that, the relief had stopped when she realized she hadn't picked him up for school, nor had she called him to explain. Then the panic returned, as did the lump in her throat.

Isaac's presence was what Stiles had taken as his cue to leave, he could never stand to be near the wolf for too long, it brewed up anger inside of him, he knew that Isaac liked Kinsey, he had a final word to the group before he left. "We keep an eye on each other, okay?" Stiles suggested as the other four nodded in agreement. "And, Lydia, stop enjoying this so much." He added before he and Scott began walking to their history class leaving the three girls in the hallway.

"Why are you all keeping an eye on each other? Where were you this morning? " Isaac asked as he looked between the three teenage girls, none quite knowing whether to bring it up. Kinsey was hesitant to tell them because she knew they would be scared for her, which meant that the reaction of her already very protective werewolf friend was bound to be the same if not worse than their own reactions. Which was why Lydia and Allison had both left that up to Kinsey to answer his questions while they quickly dismissed themselves, choosing to wait down the hall for Kinsey before the three of them headed to art class. Even if Isaac shared the class with them they assumed that his late arrival to school would equal his late arrival to class too. "Did I miss something? What's going on?" He asked with a look of confusion on his face, turning away from watching the two girls rush away from them down the hall, back to the clearly on edge girl that stood beside him, a nervous smile across her face.

"Nothing's going on. Don't worry about it." Kinsey tried to reassure him. "And I'm sorry for this morning. I completely spaced. But I'll see you in class, okay?" She brushed off the conversation with a fake smile before rushing off to catch up with her best friend and cousin, leaving him no chance to ask further questions.

Isaac watched as Kinsey practically ran through the halls, whispering with Lydia and Allison to keep it between them as they disappeared down into the crowd. He knew something was going on with her, he hadn't quite figured out what it was yet, but he would, by the end of the day if he got his own way. He knew that the huntress had an act for secrets, frankly, it was a trait that was beginning to rub off on him after he had decided to her own glowing eyes away from her, but he couldn't be the one to tell her that her worst nightmare might just be a reality. He doubted that the secret she and the other two girls were keeping from him was for his own safety, if he knew anything about Kinsey, she was keeping it quiet so that he didn't worry about her. As though he didn't do that constantly anyway.

An easel sat in front of the brunette who held up her paintbrush dipped in a candy apple red paint, in the ten minutes she had been sitting in front of the easel she was yet to place the brush on the paper, she couldn't make it that far. Not only could she think of anything to paint because all creativity of her brain had been saved for nightmares and hallucinations, but she was already struggling to hold the paintbrush in her hand. Lydia and Allison tried not to say anything as they sat on either side of her, occasionally sharing a perturbed look with one another as they stared past the girl who sat in between them. For a while, the two of them chose to act as though her shaky hands were normal, that it was just the build-up of stress that she'd had over the past few weeks, not the reality, which was her mind was getting the better of her, overwhelming her until even the simplest of tasks, like painting, which used to come so easily to her, was almost impossible.

Kinsey hadn't told the two of them that this wasn't her first time experiencing this, the first time she had noticed it was when she had tried to draw, hoping it would act as a stress-reliever and a distraction like it had over the summer, only to find that she could barely grip a pencil because of her trembling hands. And it had only worsened since then.

Eventually, the pain of watching her struggle was too much, so was the pain of sitting in silence, it wasn't Lydia's forte, she had somewhat of incapability of keeping her mouth closed when it came to stating the obvious, especially when it came to the brunette beside her. "Not the steadiest hand for a superb marksman," Lydia mumbled under her breath while Allison gave her a sharp stare, she thought they'd a mutual, silent, but a mutual agreement not to bring it up.

Kinsey nodded in agreement. "It's been happening for a few weeks. Since that night." She added in a low whisper, hoping that it was quiet enough to keep it away from the werewolf who sat on the other side of the room. In a huff of frustration, Kinsey threw the paintbrush back down onto the pallet, splatting the red paint onto the paper in front of her. Another flashback of her mother's death returned to her mind, now, her hallucination from this morning contributed to it. Kinsey stared at the mark made on her canvas, noticing how identical it looked to Kate's blood that had stained both the windows and floors of the Hale house.

The blood or paint-stained paper, she couldn't quite decipher which it was anymore, tore in front of her as Lydia ripped it off of the easel, starting a fresh page for her, she hoped that it was both literal and metaphorical.

"Start over." Allison insisted. She was speaking both literally and metaphorically too. Her so-called death was a turning point for them, a new start to life, a new relationship for her, a new code for them and Chris, it was time to start over. Live the life that they deserved to live, only with the added adjustment of the supernatural around them, it was time that the past stayed in the past. "After school, we're going somewhere, okay?' Allison asked the girl who nodded, if it was something that would act as either a distraction or would help her to gather control over her trembling hands, she was never going to disagree with any suggestions either of them would come up with. She needed all the help she could get, even more so if she was going to keep it away from an already worried enough Isaac.

Out on the preserve after school stood the three girls around a duffel bag filled with all of Allison's crossbow equipment, every different arrowhead she had to offer sat in front of them, she was prepared to use them all if it meant helping her cousin move past whatever was going on with her and her lack of stability. Both she and Lydia had agreed that to help Kinsey they had to get the brunette back to basics, the basics for a huntress that is, she'd proven that when she wasn't so caught up in her mind she was actually able to paint as she had in art class, she just needed that extra push, but that wasn't proof enough for the two of them. The only proof that the two would deem satisfactory is Kinsey being able to do what she did best; being a huntress. Allison had opted for her arrows rather than her cousin's usual weapon of choice, her daggers, she knew that the crossbow took more precision, more concentration, which was exactly what they needed to test Kinsey, she used to have a flawless technique when it came to the crossbow, now it was time for them to see if she was still capable of it.

Kinsey stood around watching as Allison and Lydia prepared their little test for her. The redhead walked a few feet away from them, sticking a target on the tree that Allison suggested while she herself began setting a crossbow for Kinsey, she had a feeling it would take her more than the average time to set it up herself if those trembling hands came back.

"Do you really think that this is going to help?" Kinsey asked the two of them as she stood with folded arms. Though she was prepared to try anything to help her move past that newfound characteristic of hers that was the inability to complete simple tasks, she wasn't sure that giving her a sharp arrowhead was the smartest idea that the two of them could have come up with. It would only take the slightest of a misaim for her to hit the wrong thing and possibly hurt them.

"I know that if you think it's not going to help, it definitely won't." Lydia deadpanned as she walked back to the two of them. Allison stood up from the ground, placing the arrow in Kinsey's hand. "So get your head into it. Shoot a few and see what happens." She tried to sound positive, but the truth was that she was beginning to grow just as concerned about giving the brunette a sharp arrowhead when she could barely hold a paintbrush this morning, she couldn't put her complete faith into Kinsey like she wanted to be able to.

"And remember to aim," Allison added with a reassuring smile, as though that wasn't the entire purpose of them being out here, to see if she was still capable of something that came as simple to her as aiming an arrow. Unlike the other two, she had complete faith in Kinsey, she'd always had perfect aim when it came to things like this, that wasn't something she could just lose, not even after sacrificing herself and opening herself up to a lifetime of darkness around her heart. At least that was the positive outlook that she tried to have.

With a deep breath, Kinsey nodded as she drew the crossbow, as soon as her arms had raised and her hands rested on the crossbow they began to tremble again like they had this morning. She tried to concentrate on Lydia's words, that she had to believe she could do it if she wanted it to work, she tried to ignore the stare she could feel on her from the two stood on her left, acting as if she wasn't under an immense amount of pressure to hit the target flawlessly. Kinsey shot her first arrow, all three of them watching as it whistled through the air in the direction of Lydia's target, a sense of hope growing inside of them all. Until it landed beside the tree. In the ground.

Besides a small oh from Lydia, the three of them remained quiet, choosing not to dwell on her failure, it was only her first try, there were many chances for her to get better, especially with all of the equipment Allison had brought from the apartment, they had enough to be here for days if they had to. Kinsey picked up another arrow, drawing it again, this time her hand wasn't as shaky, but it still wasn't perfect, as she shot the second arrow it landed in front of the tree, closer than the first, yet still nowhere near the target she had tried to aim for.

Lydia and Allison looked at one each other, both slowly losing hope, they thought that Kinsey would somehow master the target, proving that it was just all in her head, that she was simply overwhelming herself and that if she tried hard enough, she could push it to the back of her mind. But clearly, it wasn't going to be so simple. Despite that, neither were willing to give up.

"Maybe... hold the string a different way," Lydia mumbled, trying to think.

"Try the Mongolian draw," Allison suggested.

Kinsey complied as she turned the crossbow sideways across her chest, drawing it back before she fired her arrow, this attempt worse than the previous two as the arrow clattered to the floor, easily the worst attempt she had ever made, worse than ever when she was a child learning how to shoot an arrow. Never had her coordination and aim been so misguided. Lydia realized that their technique so far needed some adjustment, their current one was clearly doing nothing for Kinsey, they needed a new approach. She placed her hand on the girl's shoulder as she told her to visualize the arrow going into the target. Kinsey nodded as she closed her eyes, trying to find that image in her head, she didn't think it would be so difficult, she'd hit plenty of targets in her training, yet she struggled to imagine it this time. Eventually, when she felt as though she had a clear image of what she wanted, Kinsey opened her eyes once again. But rather than focusing on the target a few feet away, she found herself watching as a woman ran through the woods. Not just any woman, but her mother. It was clear. The blonde hair, the height, it was her mother. Her breath got caught in her throat at the sight, watching as her mother disappeared behind all of the trees. Kinsey's eyes darted around, trying to find the woman again, but she was gone.

"Did you see that?" Kinsey asked the two stood beside her with a shaky voice.

"See what?" Allison and Lydia questioned with raised brows, looking around them for whatever Kinsey had seen, but to them, the preserve was empty apart from them. Nothing but a stretch of trees to be seen for miles.

Kinsey picked up the bag of arrows from the floor. "Wait here." She insisted to the other two who were too confused and worried to even ask what she had seen, more so focusing on the fact she had told the two of them to wait, defenseless, while she chased something or someone she had just seen, especially when she already had an act for being delusional lately.

"Are you serious?" Allison shouted at the girl who was already walking away from them.

"I'll be right back," Kinsey reassured them.

An aggravated and terrified Lydia clenched her fists as she watched the brunette walk away with the bow and arrows that she couldn't even shoot properly, she turned to the older brunette beside her, one who had done this to them once before, back in sophomore year. She had left her and Kinsey here on the preserve while she went to investigate something. Lydia made sure to tell the older Argent that this was one of their least desirable traits, that the two of them had to stop leaving her alone like this. She couldn't handle being left alone.

Kinsey began walking further away from the two girls as she tightly clutched onto Allison's crossbow, prepared to use it against her mother if she was anything like the woman she had seen crawling towards her through the corpse drawer this morning, a sight that she'd never be able to forget. The wind blew in her hair as she walked further into the preserve, looking around her for a glimpse of the blonde woman until her voice echoed in her ears, calling her name. The brunette turned around, following the voice, only to find that Allison and Lydia were no longer standing where she had left them. She called for the two of them, but there was no answer, both of them were gone, disobeying her request from them to stay where they were. Her mother's voice echoed through her ears once again, calling her over as she tormented the young girl who desperately looked around for her.

"Over here, Kinsey." Kate's voice whispered in her ears. "Over here."

"Lydia! Allison!" The brunette frantically shouted as she looked for the two of them, her heart beating heavily in her chest, desperate to escape her own mind and another hallucination that she couldn't handle. Kinsey was on the verge of tears as she frantically looked around hoping the two of them would appear again, that they would be where she had left them and she would be free of yet another terrifying trick that her mind enjoyed playing on her.

Kinsey turned her head again looking everywhere she could for either the redhead or her cousin, only with this turn she hadn't seen the bright preserve she had been stood on only a moment ago shooting arrows, now, though she found herself on the same preserve, it was night, too dark for her to see clearly as she rushed to place an arrow in the bow, drawing it back as she prepared herself to see her mother once again. This time she wouldn't hesitate when she saw the woman. Kate's screeching sounded in her ears, she turned her head towards the sound, watching as her mother ran towards her full tilt, her neck still slashed from when Peter had clawed her to death. Kinsey drew her arrow back, her breath heavy as she aimed towards the woman running at her, the specter, the fake image of her dead mother that her hallucinations used against her. For the first time since stepping onto the preserve, her grip was stable, her aim back to its flawless self as she shot the arrow, watching as it whistled through the air towards her mother.

Suddenly, she found herself back in bright sunshine, that same arrow she had shot at her dead mother now in Isaac's hand, inches away from Lydia's face, just seconds away from striking her in the head if the werewolf hadn't been there to jump in and grab it, using the fast reflects that the two girls Kinsey had aimed towards didn't have. Lydia was left breathless as she stared at the arrowhead inches from her eyes, her mouth gaped, much like Allison's the two of them had seen firsthand as Kinsey's head got the best of her, watching as she spun around on the preserve with the arrow in hand, shouting their names, and though they answered, it was clear she wasn't able to see them. Soon the two realized that she was stuck in a hallucination.

A mortified Isaac turned to look at the brunette with wide eyes, watching as she quickly dropped the crossbow and held her hands up. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Kinsey apologized frantically, tears in her eyes. "Lydia, I'm sorry." The girl broke down as she dropped to the floor, burying her head in her hands as she sobbed.

While Allison tried to comfort a shaken Lydia, Isaac approached the brunette, wrapping her in his arms, allowing her to sob in his arms as he looked at the older Argent and Lydia. They could see it in his eyes that he was concerned for her, and rightly so after what he had just witnessed, the two could tell the question that he was asking them, what the hell had happened to Kinsey. Both of the girls shook their heads, telling him all he needed to know right now, something was deeply wrong with Kinsey, something she couldn't control, none of them could.

·❥·

Kinsey stood at her locker, throwing her books into it as she tried to convince her the werewolf that hadn't left her side since yesterday afternoon that she was fine and completely capable of making it through the school day without shooting someone in the head with an arrow like she nearly did yesterday, something that Lydia had completely forgiven her for, especially after the brunette had turned up on her doorstep last night with a bouquet of flowers and a sincere apology to go with the dozens of phone calls and text messages from the brunette apologizing for almost killing her. Since then, Kinsey had stopped trying to hide what was going on with her, it was obvious that that wasn't helping her, and with that, came confessing to Isaac about what had happened. Hence why he had become her personal bodyguard, much to Stiles's dismay.

Not only how she had come to almost killing her best friend, but how she had seen her mother again, twice in the same day through her hallucinations. And of course, the latest thing that had concerned her. Living inside of Stiles's nightmares. Isaac wasn't thrilled about that, he still liked the brunette, hearing her talk about Stiles wasn't thrilling. He knew that she liked Stiles, but it didn't change the fact he no longer liked the idea of letting her out of his sight, so until she found out how to stop her nightmares she was under constant supervision. Whether it be from him, or her two best friends, maybe even Stiles. They were all willing to do whatever it took to stop her from letting her mind get the best of her, even giving up sleep of their own every night.

"I told you, Isaac, I'm fine. I didn't even have a nightmare last night." Kinsey reassured him as she shut her locker door, giving him a reassuring smile that no longer satisfied him. "No dead moms, no afterlife, nothing." She said proudly, to her, it progressed not to have a nightmare, it was the first time in weeks she hadn't had a night of interrupted sleep, even if it had taken some of Lydia's sleeping tablets and Isaac sleeping beside her, she called it progress.

"No Stiles nightmares?" Isaac asked with a raised brow as he peeled himself off of the lockers.

"Nothing." She insisted. "I told you, I'm fine."

"One nightmare-less night doesn't declare you as fine, Kins." Isaac disagreed as she began walking the girl towards her class, another thing she wasn't allowed to do on her own, as he, Lydia, and Allison had explained, they couldn't trust that she wouldn't skip classes and go and kill someone else with a crossbow or any other weapon that was kept at home. "I don't think you understand just how insane you looked yesterday."

Kinsey stopped in the hallway, looking at the boy with piercing eyes as she folded her arms. "Did you really just call me insane?" She asked, watching as the boy stammered for words. "God, you almost kill your best friend once, and all of a sudden you're insane." The brunette shook her head in disbelief as she carried on walking towards the class with him. "You know who wouldn't think I was insane?" Kinsey asked as she looked at the tall wolf.

"Cora?" He guessed.

"Exactly." She agreed with a strong nod. "I mean, I get why she went back to South America and everything, but I miss having her around already," Kinsey mumbled under her breath. She never thought that when she finally had the chance of meeting Cora she would only get to spend a few weeks with the girl before she went back to North America to get away from the craziness that was Beacon Hills, of course, Cora had given her an open invitation to come and visit when she had wished her and Derek farewell at the loft, but both of them knew that that wouldn't happen anytime soon, Kinsey's life was too hectic for quick vacations to visit her cousin. "Do you think Chris would let me transfer to whatever school she's in?"

"I don't know what part of that sentence was more stupid. You thinking that Cora's in school or you believe that your uncle would let you move when all of this is going on." Isaac laughed. "Unless... you and Allison haven't told him, have you?"

Before Kinsey could agree, the bell rang in their ears commencing the first class of the day, her perfect escape route as they reached her Econ class, she had never been so glad to hear it ring, she knew Isaac would tell her that she needed to tell her Uncle to incase she went insane at home, but telling her uncle important things just wasn't her forté. If anything proved that it was their relationship, the one her uncle Chris still knew nothing about. The brunette skipped into class with a smile across her face, knowing that she had only averted the conversation until the next time she saw him today, but she hoped by then that something else would have happened to take his mind off of it allowing her a complete escape from the subject.

With her timely entrance to class, one that she had never been on time to before, she had the pick of any seat she wanted, usually, she would have to just choose the last seat that was free, or one that had been saved for her, but this time, she had free rein. She looked around the room until her eyes landed on Scott and Stiles, a free seat beside Stiles, the brunette hesitated, she knew that it maybe wasn't her smartest idea to sit next to him when she had that vivid dream about him, one that he claimed to not have seen her in, not to mention the kiss that neither of them had discussed since, but they agreed to look out for each other. That couldn't be done if she completely avoided them, that had never worked well for them before, it wouldn't work well now either. So the girl smiled as she took the seat beside him hoping that he didn't mind her sitting beside him after all that had happened.

During class Kinsey had turned to her side at the sound of a pen rapidly scribbling across paper, her eyes immediately landed on Stiles who was repeatedly writing the same words on his page, his hand cramping around the pen, but he continued to scribble as sweat lined his forehead. The brunette looked straight past him and to Scott who had noticed the same concerning scribbling of his best friend.

Though Stiles hadn't told her, she knew that he was starting to struggle with the side effects of the sacrifice, not only the sleep paralysis, but he couldn't read anymore, words and letters were jumbled until he couldn't make them out. If it wasn't for Scott, she would be left entirely in the dark about it all, he was the only one Stiles had told about what he had been through. The wolf hadn't had it easy either, he kept seeing his own shadow as the shadow of a werewolf, claws, ears, canines, all of it, not only that, but he could no longer control his eyes from glowing their luminescent red while out in public. All three of them were falling apart, fast.

Soon after the two of them had noticed Stiles, so had Coach. He blew his whistle loudly before shouting the boy's name, turning everyone's attention towards either the man at the front of the class or Stiles who looked completely lost as he jumped up in his seat, acting as though he was fine, that he hadn't been zoned out for the past ten minutes.

"I asked you a question." Coach deadpanned.

"Uh...Sorry, Coach. What was it?" Stiles asked.

"Oh, it was, "Stilinski are you paying attention back there?"." The man followed, it was clear that the boy hadn't been paying attention, he had been too busy scribbling the same words onto his notebook to even think of listening to the man standing at the front of the class teaching them.

"Oh." Stiles mumbled. "Well, I am now."

Coach sighed with a shake of the head. "Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink every night."

The man turned his back to the class, asking if anyone else could answer his question instead of Stiles who had begun biting nervously on his pencil, trying to keep himself awake this time. He knew that if there was a teacher's class who you should never fall asleep, it was Coach's class. The man didn't take it softly, especially if it happened multiple times. His focus had been taken from staying awake when he had felt two stares on him, he looked to both sides of him, noticing how Scott and Kinsey both shared the same worried look for him.

"I'm okay." He reassured them. "I just fell asleep for a sec." He nodded as he turned to the board.

"Stiles," Kinsey muttered softly, turning his attention back to her. "You weren't asleep."

The brunette nodded towards his notebook, watching the boys eyes widen as he read what he had been scribbling on his page, all over it the words wake up filled very free space, while he felt as though he was in another nightmare, he was here, in class, scribbling. Just how she'd been yesterday, feeling as though she was somewhere else, suffering from a hallucination while everyone else saw what she was really doing. Now she knew how terrifying it must have been for Lydia, Allison, and Isaac to watch her yesterday afternoon. Watching some lose their mind.

At lunch, the six teenagers sat around a table, an array of books spread out in front of them as they all tried to distract themselves from the elephant in the room; whatever the hell was going on for the three of them who had sacrificed themselves. They didn't want to have to talk about it every time the six of them were sat with one another, or even just the conversations that they had alone, they would have liked to talk about normal teenage things, like the latest gossip, or how they were finding classes so far this year, or about the new girl in school; Kira. Who the three girls and Isaac still hadn't heard about, or seen, it wasn't as if Scott and Stiles had had the chance to talk about her and how her father was their new history teacher that replaced one of the sacrifices, Mr. Westover, that would be considered a somewhat normal conversation. Lately, their conversations stemmed around the side effects of a technical death, nothing else.

Despite how hard they tried, the distraction didn't last long. They all wanted answers as to what was going on, even those who weren't suffering from hallucinations and sleep paralysis wanted some information on it all, after all, they were the three who found themselves looking out for the three sacrifices, they were still playing the part of emotional tethers, they always would be.

Scott was first to bring up the subject once again. "Okay, so what happens to a person who had a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" He asked, looking around the table.

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

Kinsey looked up from her book, adding from her own experience. "And is being haunted by demonic visions of their dead mother?" She asked, becoming irritated just at the thought. She was sick of the hallucinations, sick of nightmares, of everything that had happened to them just because they chose to sacrifice themselves to save their loved ones.

"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac deadpanned from beside her. Unlike this morning she could no longer argue against that label, she was insane, there was no denying it anymore. How was she supposed to act like she or the two boys weren't insane when she was seeing her mother more so now she was dead than when the woman was alive, or when Stiles couldn't tell if he was asleep or not, or when Scott couldn't distinguish his own shadow from that of a werewolf shaped shadow? Nothing about those things wasn't completely insane.

Though Kinsey couldn't help but shrug at the comment, agreeing that he might have just been right, that wasn't the case for everyone who sat around the table with them. Especially the person who couldn't help but disagree with him at all times. "Ha. Can you at least try and be helpful, please?" Stiles sarcastically asked him, his irritation with the werewolf clear in his tone.

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing to me." Isaac began arguing with the boy, an argument they had all heard many times before.

It was impossible for the two of them to not bicker when in each other's presence, they were simply incapable, both would have the intention of not talking to one another, or even looking at the other, but they always did, and it always ended this way. Everyone around the table knew why, well, almost everyone. Everyone but the one person who probably should have seen it the most. There was only one common interest that the two of them shared, and that interest was the very reason that the two were at each other's necks all of the time. It was also the same reason they were willing to be around one another at all. Kinsey. Neither of them could not be around her, which meant they had to put up with each other, both of them meant a lot to her and neither was willing to give that up. Instead, they would deal with each other, argue with one another every second they were together and spite each other in every possible way imaginable.

As the two bickered Scott placed his head on the table with a groan while the three girls shook their heads at each other, allowing the two of them to get on with their bickering, it would end eventually, maybe in an hour or two if they were talking from experience. Or until stepped in to break it up, which was also an experience of theirs. This time, it wasn't her that interrupted their bickering but another brunette who approached the table.

"Hi. Hi, sorry." The girl mumbled nervously as the six heads turned towards her. An immediate pressure washed over her as four out of six people glared at her, the four she hadn't yet met. She had only ever seen the four of them around, usually together too, but they always seemed to be in too much of a rush or consumed in conversation to introduce herself to them. "I couldn't help but overhear what you guys were talking about." The nervous brunette continued as the three girls all shared a concerned look with one another, hoping that she was referring to Isaac's trauma, not the part where they had died and come back to life, they hoped that they hadn't been talking about it that loudly. "And I think I might actually know what you're talking about. There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called "Bardo". It literally means "in-between state". The state between life and death." She continued with a faint smile, as she spoke most of her words were directed to the three girls sitting in white clothes, whether it was a coincidence or not that the three dressed similarly, or not, she couldn't help but feel intimidated by them.

"And what do they call you?" Lydia asked in a slightly unwelcoming tone.

"Kira," Scott answered for the brunette at the end of the table. Immediately the four on the opposite side of the table turned to look at him, all sharing a knitted brow, wondering how he knew that, and if he knew there was a new girl, why he hadn't told them about her. "She's in our history class," Scott explained, giving them the answer to part of their explanation.

Kinsey shook it off, turning back towards the shy girl standing by their table. "So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" She asked, since all this had been happening to her she had done some "light" reading and therefore stumbling upon the subject of Bardo, but by the time she had gotten to that, she had become severely bored of searching for answers all night as a distraction from sleeping.

Kira took a seat in the space on Scott and Stiles's side of the table. "Either I guess. But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo." Kira explained, capturing the interest of the three girls who were suddenly more willing for her presence around them, it was only natural for the three of them to be concerned when a complete stranger approaches them with the claims that she knew what was happening with them. The only other time people came up to them was to mock all of the strange things that followed them, which between the two girls who shared a murderous woman for an aunt and mother, and the former town wacko, it didn't run sparse. "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 repeated, it sounded like something to be feared. Something like his girlfriend's dead arsonist of her mother. "And what are those?"

"Like... Demons." Kira shrugged.

"Demons," Stiles repeated, turning to look around the table. "Why not?"

They weren't particularly surprised that Demons could get in their heads and infect their lives, and for the girl who had been seeing her deceased mother, it seemed fitting, it wasn't as though the woman was an Angel, well, not an activated one at least. The title of Demon seemed much more fitting for the likes of Kate Argent the arsonist. She had to be the kind of Demon that Kira was referring to, if not, their nightmares and hallucinations were about to get much worse than they already were. And that was the scary thought for the six of them.

While everyone else seemed prepared to leave the conversation at Demons and move on to a lighter topic, like getting to know the brunette who had an alarming amount of knowledge on Bardo, Allison had other ideas. Kira's words were just the pinnacle of bad news, and somehow she needed to hear more, she needed to know the extent of what was happening to her cousin as well as the other two sacrifices.

"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?"

"Death. You die." Kira blurted out, not knowing the effect that that single word would have for them, just how much it would change everything. A chill came over the six of them as they all looked at one another, unsure of what to say, what to even do now that Kira had just said that once the hallucinations and nightmares had passed, their fate had been decided.

·❥·

Heavy breaths were shared between the two as they tugged at every article of clothing on each other's bodies, desperate to get closer to one another's burning hot skin, heated by desire. Their touch was intoxicating, addictive, and they weren't prepared to let go of the drug that was each other quite yet. He planted kisses against the nape of her neck, his land laces in her brown locks as each kiss traveled down her body, leading to her exposed shoulder as he pulled the loose t-shirt over it, his loose t-shirt. Even if it was the first time, they felt as though they were familiar with each other's bodies, it was a night both of them had thought about, many times.

He was gentle, filled with nerves, exploring what was completely new territory for the two of them. All the built-up angst that the two had felt for each other from the night that the two of them had met, and every moment since, they still carried with them now.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Kinsey mumbled through her moan, becoming breathless. Both of them knew it was wrong. It wasn't the time. She was losing her mind, she had to concentrate on getting better, not messing around in the sheets with him. But she couldn't stop herself, nor did she want to. "We should be doing something." She added through another low moan as Isaac continued to plant kisses down her body, raising her shirt.

"We are doing something. We're distracting ourselves." Isaac followed, she could hear his smirk.

"Isaac," Kinsey mumbled, trying to be serious, but when talking through a soft moan, it wasn't an easy task. Every word of hers sounded teasing, especially when she said his name, which only made him want to ignore the problem at hand more and concentrate on her.

"Yeah?" He asked in a raspy voice, his faces inches from hers as his gaze traveled in between her lustful eyes and her pouted lips.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." She shook her head with a smile, pulling him in for more.

Isaac pulled apart from the brunette, towering over her as he removed his shirt. She watched him in awe as her hand caressed his burning hot skin, leading from his abs to his chest, a wide smile across her face as she took it all in, that sight was something that definitely would never grow old. It was just as addicting as everything that came with it. But the girl's smile quickly faded into a look of confusion as she noticed a small thing string around Isaac's neck, he hadn't seemed to notice until she pointed it out, he was focused on other things, better things like the girl underneath him. When Kinsey had questioned what was around his neck Isaac placed his hand to it, feeling the wire around it that she was talking about, his brows furrowed, unsure how it had gotten there or what it was. Suddenly, the werewolf took a gasp for air as it tightened around his neck, almost cutting off his airways.

"Let's do him, Kins," Kate whispered as she appeared from behind Isaac, tightening the garrote around his neck as she looked at her freaked-out daughter. "Let's do him together," Kate repeated, pulling the garrote even tighter around the boy's neck. Kinsey's hand placed down either side of her, about to push herself up in the bed, rather than her touch landing on a soft mattress her touch was met with cold metal. She clutched her hand around it, raising it up to see one of her Chinese ring daggers in her hand.

Kinsey woke up with another sharp gasp, she was no longer in the dark of her room with Isaac on top of her shirtless, nor was her mother there, she was in Allison's dimly lit room, buried in a bed of books with Lydia and Allison asleep beside her. Much like the two of them she had dozed off during the study session that was supposed to distract her, not innate her hallucinations.

"That was new." The brunette mumbled as she lay back down only to feel something poking her back, with a furrowed brow Kinsey reached underneath, pulling out the thing that was making her so uncomfortable, only to see the same Chinese ring dagger in her hand that she had seen in her hallucination. The same dagger that she almost killed Isaac with if it wasn't for her waking up, the one she could've killed Allison or Lydia with if she hadn't woken up too.

If this continued for much longer, she was going to kill someone.