chapter sixty four
mieczyslaw

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"YOU'RE GONNA do what to who?"

Odessa Stone couldn't believe what she was hearing. Not only were more and more people being taken by the Ghost Riders as time ticked away, the pack came up with a solution to get Stiles back without consulting with her first.

She was currently at the Sheriff's Station, regrouping with Scott, Lydia, Malia, Liam and Peter, who was very reluctant to be a part of such a meeting. Theo was currently in another part of the station behind bars where he belonged. Odessa was very pleased to know that.

After tossing Sheriff Stilinski Stiles' jersey, Odessa left the man to his own thoughts and to let himself remember his son on his own terms and time. It was something he had to do on his own, she just gave him the push he needed to do it.

While Odessa was busy with the Sheriff, her friends discovered something that changed a lot moving forward when it came to the Ghost Riders. Somehow, by sheer and utter luck, the pack managed to trap a Ghost Rider in a cage for questioning. The Ghost Rider told them what they all knew already: no one escapes the Wild Hunt. But that, of course, not wasn't completely true because someone had escaped it, Peter Hale.

The questioning soon turned to chaos when the Ghost Rider was successful in turning Parrish against them, making him a weapon for the enemy to use. Once Parrish was turned into his Hellhound stage, he tried to free the Ghost Rider but Scott and Liam were able to overpower him. However, during all of that, Mr. Douglas, a new teacher at Beacon Hills High Odessa was very glad to not have, completely ambushed them, stole the Ghost Rider's whip, killed the Ghost Rider with it, and escaped with Parrish as his loyal supernatural servant.

Odessa's head kept on spinning and spinning after being brought up to speed with what went on without her. How could something so simple as a questioning with the Ghost Rider trapped in a cage go horribly wrong in a blink of an eye? Just their luck, it seemed.

And now, Scott offered his brilliant idea to get Stiles back after all that went wrong. Odessa's head continued to spin.

"Odie..."

"You're going to bite Stiles," the blonde raised a brow at the dumbest idea she had ever heard, "you better be joking."

Scott only stared at her solemnly, not liking the plan himself, "to get him through the rift," he sighed, walking to one of the deputy desks in the room, "it's the only way."

Odessa shook her head to herself, her arms crossing over her chest as she reluctantly followed in his path. Her irritation only increased when someone decided to open their mouth on the other side of the room.

"Just to clarify," Peter started, pushing himself off of his windowsill he was leaning against, "are you planning on biting everyone in the train station?"

Without lifting his head from its position facing down, not looking at anyone, Scott explained, "with Stiles back, he'll be able to help us figure out a plan."

"He's good at that," Malia did her best to reason with her father, but he didn't seem convinced.

Peter almost huffed, "so the plan is to get Stiles to come up with a plan."

"You can shut up now."

"Malia, look around," the man scoffed, motioning around the empty station, "we're the only ones left in Beacon Hills. If they take us, Lydia will be the only one left to haunt the place."

"That's why I'm the only person that's going in," Scott glanced up and caught the hardened eyes of a certain blonde, who didn't give him any reaction to his words. He knew she wanted to go with him to get Stiles, but his first priority was to keep her safe. It was too risky to bring her along with him when anything could go wrong, "Liam and Hayden will stay here with Mason. As long as somebody is left in Beacon Hills, the Wild Hunt can't move on."

Peter started pacing in front of them, his usual Peter Hale tone increasingly prevalent, "I like your plan, Scott. I really do, especially the part about turning Stiles. But it can't work."

"How do you know," his daughter eyed him carefully and without an ounce of trust.

"Logic. Life experience," he blanched like it was obvious, "Liam, what are the odds that he'll get taken? What if Stiles isn't there? What if there's no Beacon Hills for you to come back to?"

Odessa huffed, her arms tightening against her chest in anger of his words. He was the biggest coward she had ever met, "you got a better idea?"

"Yeah. It's called, 'run like hell'. So, leave in five?"

Malia stepped up to the man that happened to be her father, lowering her voice, "you promised you'd help us. We still need to find this rift."

"I didn't promise I'd help you commit suicide," Peter countered, almost sounding apologetic in his refusal.

The McCall dropped his shoulders in annoyance, fed up with the man's opposition, "if you can't help, we can find it ourselves."

"Scott, I admit that you have a flair for beating the odds," the Hale nodded, sighing before starting his way toward the exit, "but, this? You don't walk away from. You run."

The teens watched him go with shakes of their heads, knowing deep down they would be better off without him and his pessimism, no matter how right he was at the end of the day. What they were planning to do was dangerous, almost as if they were playing with fire. But it was a fire they were willing to diminish if it meant everyone they loved were rescued from the Wild Hunt.

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Dry leaves and grass crunched beneath Odessa's Converse covered feet as she followed her friends through Beacon Hills Reserve. They figured if they weren't going to have Peter's help, the next best thing to do was to go back to where the man went through the rift that burnt him severely.

Though, Odessa had the strongest feeling that Peter was going to be no help, she couldn't help but feel for Malia. Her friend put up a strong front but the blonde could tell him backing out and giving up was taking a toll on her.

"When you were here before, how long until the Ghost Riders showed up," Scott asked Malia without turning to face her as they walked closer to the specific location.

"A couple minutes."

"That's reassuring."

Odessa sighed, pushing her slightly frizzy hair away from her hair, "what's a rift supposed to look like, anyway?"

"If it's a tear in the fabric of our world," Lydia started from behind her with a slight hum, "theoretically it could look like anything from a microscopic black hole to a free-floating Einstein-Rosen bridge."

The four teens reached the spot where Peter was found, all of them surrounding the slight dent in the grassy plain that Peter quite literally burned in the ground. Odessa looked around her, not seeing anything that stood out to her, but she didn't really know what exactly she was supposed to be looking for in the first place. Turning to her right, the blonde watched Lydia look up to the clear blue sky, prompting her and the others to do the same.

"I really hope it's not up there."

Sighing, Scott looked down to her feet, noticing just how dirty his own Converse were starting to become, "let's split up," starting to go their separate ways, it didn't take long for Scott to stop everyone in their tracks before they could go any further, "hey, look at this."

The three girls followed Scott to find a sort of drain, its steel gate connected to it appeared to be rusted and ruined to create an opening for anyone to climb through.

"The rift's not above us," the strawberry blonde observed as Scott crouched down to pick up a broken piece of the gate that fell on the ground floor.

"It's below."

One by one, they all crawled their way through the tunneled crate before going down a ladder that led to an underground bunker. A bunker that looked eerily similar to the tunnels connected to Eichen House. The teens lit up their flashlights connected to their phones and started their way aimlessly through the dark tunneled halls, trying to ignore the slight dampness the concrete floor below them held.

Coming into an intersection of some kind, while Odessa turned left with Scott and Lydia, Malia turned right, causing her to somehow be pushed to the ground with a gasp by some force.

"Found it!"

Odessa contained her amusement as she and Scott helped her to her feet, meeting Lydia where a now green light was floating uncontrollably in front of them. It almost looked like some kind of force field you would only see in movies.

"It's remarkably similar," Lydia recalled to herself, eyes not leaving what they could only assume was the rift they needed.

Odessa stared at the rift, full of wonder and astonishment, "to what?"

"To the Einstein-Rosen bridge."

And with that, the teens started thinking of ways to get through the rift. Odessa tried her best to think of something, anything, but her mind was drawing a blank, much to her annoyance. Before she knew it, Malia was picking up a thick steel rod and jamming it into the rift, trying to somehow sever it. The green light swirled faster than before as sparks ignited at the base of the rod. Grunting, Malia pushed away from the rift, making it disappear once again.

Lydia exhaled sharply, her thoughts trying to center around a solution, "there's gotta be another way. We just need to think."

"Think?"

"Yeah," the Alpha nodded, his tone leveling in sarcasm, "think about how to get through a supernatural rift that melts steel."

Odessa blew a small raspberry through her lips, staring at the invisible rift that seemed to start to mock her, "she didn't say it would be easy."

"But it doesn't have to be so hard."

The four teens whipped around at the new voice echoing through the tunnel, coming to face a smirking, almost smug looking Mr. Douglas. This was the first time Odessa had ever seen him and she hoped she never had the chance in the first place. It looked like her wish didn't come true.

Scott clenched his fists at his sides, taking a step forward, "he followed our scent."

"I followed your desperation," Mr. Douglas countered dryly, tightening his grip around the wrapped whip in his hand, "we're all in a tough spot. Desperate to get inside and save everyone, and hoping to find a way to stop this army of the dead. We all want the same thing."

"He has a point," Lydia trailed, eyes not leaving his figure, receiving a warning glance from Odessa, who was trying to keep her cool in the man's presence, not wanting him to think his words were getting to her.

Malia sent the strawberry blonde an incredulous look, "if he doesn't kill anyone."

"Else," Scott added instantly, eyes hardening at the rising smirk Mr. Douglas graced on his lips, "if he doesn't kill anyone else."

"All that matters right now is getting through the rift."

Odessa broke her silence around the man, giving him a sarcastic smile, tilting her head in feigned sympathy, "then you're out of luck. The rift burns anything that tries to pass through it."

"Perhaps not everything," Douglas hummed unaffected by the information, already hearing footsteps come up from behind him. A still turned Parrish made his presence known, growling at the teens, who faltered significantly at the entrance of someone they considered a friend, "if the Hellhound can open the rift, we all go together."

"You're the bad guy. I'm pretty sure helping you is a bad idea," the Tate pointed out like it was obvious.

The man only rolled his eyes at hearing something so juvenile, "good guy. Bad guy. When has anything ever been so black and white?"

"World War II," someone piped up suddenly, coming into view. Liam panted as he joined the group from the tunnel where the other four teens came from, "he's a Nazi. He wants the Hunt for himself. He wants his own supernatural army."

Odessa felt her anger skyrocket. While she wanted to get into the rift to save the love of her life and everyone else trapped in the Wild Hunt, Mr. Douglas wanted to get into the rift for his own selfish reasons. They didn't have time for this, and it seemed the man had the same idea.

The whip in Mr. Douglas' hand extended to the floor, almost as a warning, but the teens weren't fazed. If anything, they were even more determined to fight him off. Odessa eyed the whip on the floor with no fear, knowing there was no need for the feeling. She would fight him off the best she could and if she did get hit and taken, at least she would be closer to Stiles.

"We're not letting you through that rift."

Mr. Douglas raised a brow, swinging the whip around carelessly, "not letting me? I see. You still think you have a say in the matter," without warning, he tossed back the whip and snapped toward the teens with a grunt, causing them to jump back in efforts of not getting hit.

Letting her claws extend and eyes turn yellow, Odessa roared along with Scott and Malia as the man continued his attack. Liam and Lydia were the first to get out of the way, hiding behind a wall to avoid getting hit. As Mr. Douglas snapped the whip again, Malia took that opportunity to run to the wall as well. That left the two werewolves. The two, very angry and fed up, werewolves.

Odessa and Scott jumped back again and again to avoid getting hit as the attacks grew more frequent. Nodding to each other, the two took the split second it took for the man to regroup to their advantage and leap to the safety of the wall where everyone else was.

"Hollenhund," Douglas called to Parrish once the teens were out of his way, walking closer to the rift. Ignoring the protests and shouts from the teens he once called his friends, Parrish began to push against the rift, using his powers to burn through it, using the rift's own powers against itself, all the while Douglas kept the teens busy with trying to evade his whip to distract them from trying to stop Parrish.

Once the rift was opened, the teens waited for the perfect moment to go through it without the possibility of being whipped by Douglas. Odessa held her breath as she watched Parrish roar at them one more time before he and Douglas walked through the rift with ease. At the last second, the teens ran toward the rift, wanting at least one of them to make it through, but it closed before any of them could get there.

Suddenly, just their luck, two Ghost Riders decided to appear from the rift, causing the teens to back away from them slowly as they progressed toward them.

Not taking his eyes off of the Riders, Scott rapidly instructed, "Odie, you, Liam and Lydia get to the bunker."

Wide eyed, the Stone protested instantly as wind started to pick up around them, courtesy of the Riders in front of them, "what? No, I'm not leaving you!"

"And I'm not losing you. Go!"

Just as she was about to protest again, a hand clutched tightly to hers, telling her to leave it be. Odessa sighed in defeat, squeezing Lydia's hand but didn't make any attempts to let go as she started to run down the hallway where Douglas came from, not knowing her way through the maze that were the tunnels. The three stumbled along the halls, glancing behind them every chance they got to make sure they weren't being followed.

Odessa felt her heart racing, the heavy beat a bit too uncomfortable for her when she was trying to find a way out of there. She was trying not to think about her friends she left behind who were fighting essentially for their lives and the guilt that came with leaving them. She wanted nothing more than to go back and help them, but she knew she had to protect Liam and Lydia and get them and herself out of the tunnels as soon as possible.

Turning into yet another hallway, the three stopped as a Ghost Rider halted them in their tracks with a warning snarl, almost daring them to come any closer. Odessa and Lydia both pushed Liam behind them as they stared the Rider down, not showing any fear.

Odessa held her breath once again at the sight of the Rider raising his gun to aim it at them. Hearing the gun cock, she shut her brown eyes tightly, awaiting the impact of the bullet... but it never came. She hesitantly peaked through the open slit of her lids to see the Rider point the gun toward the ceiling.

Exhaling shakily, the blonde whispered, "what's happening?"

"I don't know," Lydia shook her head, keeping her arm in front of Liam, and starting to stretch it in front of Odessa as well as the gun pointed at the ceiling moved to point at the ground, almost as if it was the Rider's way of telling them they could leave, "but stay behind me and follow me."

Slowly, full of caution, the three teens passed the Rider, keeping their eyes on his every move, watching to see if the gun would raise toward them once they were near enough to shoot. The Rider snarled at them again, either telling them to hurry up and leave or in their own annoyance of not letting themselves shoot their target.

Once they were down the hallway and a good ways away from the Ghost Rider, who continued to only watch them as they left, Odessa furrowed her brow at her own observation, "it's afraid of you, Lyds."

"I'm afraid of me."

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"We're sorry. The number you have reached is not in service. Please check the number or try your call again. This is a recording."

Tears fell freely from Odessa's eyes and landed on the dining room table of her home. Arriving to an empty house hurt more than it usually did. Melissa was gone. Taken. Her mom was taken by the Wild Hunt.

Once the teens regrouped outside, relieved to see each other unharmed and all in one piece, they came back to the McCall residence where it was unusually quiet. It was around the time where Melissa would come home after a long shift but she was nowhere to be found. Scott called her work, which was pretty much empty due to everyone being taken, and she wasn't there. There was no record of her ever being there. And that led to him trying her cellphone, over and over again.

After the third try and hearing the same automated message, Odessa buried her head in her crossed arms on the table and cried to herself, the sound muffled in her cocooned position. She seemed to have snapped out of the denial that came with losing a loved one, but Scott was still hanging on, making it all the more painful for not only her, but everyone else in the room watching them.

"We're sorry. The number you have reached is not in service. Please check the number or try your call again. This is a recording."

"Scott," Malia called softly, leaning against the fridge, feeling her heart sink as she listened to Odessa's muffled cries. She walked over to them, placing a hand on Scott's shoulder, sitting next to him in an attempt to get through to him, "Scott, your mom is gone. But she's still alive."

Odessa lifted her tear stained face from the sanctuary of her arms, looking toward Scott, who was only staring blankly at his now turned off phone. Shakily, she reached for his hand and intertwined their fingers, relieved when she felt him squeeze her hand in acknowledgment. No matter how sad she was, she needed him to know she was there for him. It was just them now. They needed to be strong.

"What do we do now," Liam asked, watching the two people he looked up to the most solemnly.

"We can't hide from them."

The Dunbar pushed off where he was leaning against the counter to take a seat at the table, nodding his head toward the strawberry blonde, "what about Lydia? The Ghost Rider was afraid of her."

"It wasn't fear," she deflected as she took a seat at the dining room table with everyone else, "it's... almost like reverence."

"Doesn't matter. The rift is gone. We're the only ones left in Beacon Hills," Scott rasped as he kept his tears at bay, dropping his grip on Odessa's hand.

Odessa leaned back into her chair as a second round of tears started to well, shaking her head at their loss. The rift was gone and so was Stiles. She would never see him again.

A sudden knock on the side door of the house caught their attention, watching Sheriff Stilinski walk into the house. Odessa watched him walk to the front of the table with bated breath. She had almost forgotten about leaving him to remember due to everything that was happening around her.

"I have a son. His name is Mieczyslaw Stilinski. But we call him Stiles," the man's eyes moved to lock with Odessa's watery ones and nodded, "I remember. When Stiles was a little kid, he couldn't say his first name. Not sure why. It pretty much rolls off the tongue. But, uh, the closest he could get was 'mischief'. His mother called him that until," trailing off, Stilinski took a deep breath before continuing, "I remember when, uh... when Stiles first got his Jeep. It belonged to his mother. She wanted him to have it. The first time when he took a spin behind the wheel, he went straight into a ditch. I gave him his first roll of duct tape that day. He was always getting into trouble. But he always had a good heart. Always. We're here tonight because my goofball son decided to drag Scott, his greatest friend in the world, into the woods to see a dead body."

Everyone's eyes welled with tears at the man's words, wanting so desperately to have the same epiphany that he did. Odessa wanted nothing more than to remember everything about Stiles. She just wanted him back.

"How did you remember," Scott asked, the last of Stilinski's speech pertaining to him hitting close to the heart.

The Sheriff sighed, taking a step forward to place a soft hand on Odessa's shoulder, nodding down to her with a soft smile, "it started with Stiles' jersey. Then I found the red string for his crime board. Finally, his whole room came back and all the memories. And then the strangest thing happened."

Odessa sat up straighter in her seat, "what?"

"I thought I saw him," he recounted, causing her heart to drop to the floor, "it's like something opened right there in the middle of the room. Just for a moment. And then it was gone."

"A rift."

Everyone in the room looked toward Scott in confusion as his conclusion, thinking that wasn't possible. Malia voiced that very concern gently, knowing he was still a bit sensitive from the sudden loss of his mom, "I thought there was only one rift. We saw it disappear."

Ignoring their skepticism, the McCall pieced it together slowly, pointing to Stilinski, "you remembered Stiles and then a new rift was created."

"If the Sheriff can do it..."

"Maybe we can," Odessa muttered, tone hardening with determination, "we have to."

Liam furrowed his brow, "but that rift closed."

"Then we'll open it again."

"How?"

Scott leaned over the table, nodding in understanding as to what they had to do, "by remembering Stiles. We have to remember everything."

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so. much. dialogue. i can't stand it.
u guys already know what happens next chapter so get ready <3333 i have so much planned for it!!!
comment & vote my babes <3