chapter thirteen
a door to the mind

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AN EMBER.

Embers are special supernatural creatures; rare. Extremely rare. Some say they were only formed from the same bloodline. And if that bloodline dies, so does the legacy of the Embers.

Much like an Empath, Embers can sense certain emotions, and sometimes be in control of them. Embers are known to calm or relax anyone with their touch, but an Ember with experience can do much more than that.

Abilities of Embers include:

• Manipulation of emotions.
— by touch or voice projection.

• Calming anyone with touching any part of the body or no touching at all.
        — some calming could be tricky if Embers don't have permission to calm.

• Control over their veins.
— an Ember can release any toxins from their veins if concentrated enough.

• Produce personal connections with others that allow the Ember to know what they're feeling and where they are at all times.

Of course, given how rare Embers are, no one truly knows what one is capable of. The Calming Creature goes back centuries, and few people have witnessed an Ember in work. Nevertheless, they are real.

They are as real as ever before...

Odessa Stone snapped out of her reading by her phone ringing. She furrowed her brow, she knew how late it was, so why would anyone be calling her? Glancing at the clock, it showed 4:17 a.m. The girl took her phone off the charger, her screen showing an unexpected name.

Sheriff Stilinski.

"Sheriff," she answered, taken back by his call, "is everything okay?"

The man answered, sounding tired, "uh, no, not really. I was wondering if you could come over and help me."

When he didn't elaborate, she spoke again, getting out of bed, "it's happening again, isn't it?"

"Yeah... yeah, it is. Can you...?"

"I'll be right over, Sheriff."

Exchanging goodbyes, Odessa changed into a hoodie and sweatpants, seeing as it was chilly in the middle of the night, and packed her school bag with an extra pair of clothes for the day. She had a feeling she would be staying at the Stilinski's for a while until school, which started in only a few hours. The blonde went down to the kitchen and left a note for Scott, Isaac and Melissa, who was working the night shift, and went outside to her new bike.

Sure, it wasn't a Jeep or a motorcycle, but it was a way for her to travel on her own if she wasn't with the boys, Lydia or Allison.

Securing her bag on her back, she rode down the silent streets to the Stilinski residence. The ride was never long. In the three weeks since Ms. Blake's failed plans, Scott had truly become the True Alpha, and was using his skills to train Odessa in fighting, something she had been dying to learn ever since she first came to Beacon Hills. On top of learning how to put her wolf side to good use, she had been researching everything she could find on Embers, but seeing as they were so rare, a lot of the information had been the same.

Arriving at her friend's house, she dropped her bike on the front lawn and knocked on the door. When Stilinski opened his door, the blonde could see the bags under his eyes from where he stood.

"Thanks for coming," Stilinski breathed, "sorry if I woke you up."

"It's fine, Sheriff, I wasn't sleeping, anyway."

He gestured to the stairs, "you know where his room is."

Odessa nodded with a small smile before making her way up the stairscase. This wasn't the first time Odessa had been called to calm Stiles down. In the past three weeks, the blonde had been called two other times to calm him out of his nightmares. Odessa had a feeling it had something to do with the darkness he had retained from being sacrificed.

Her hand opened the door to his room slowly, not wanting to startle him. The room was dark, only the light of the moon shingling into his bedroom from his window. Stiles was sitting against the headboard of his bed, looking at his hands, which looked to be shaking. Odessa's steps were slow and quiet, knowing how jumpy he could get after his night terrors.

Taking a seat on his bed, she pursed her lips, "do you want to talk about it," she only received a shake of a head in return. Nodding, she spoke again, "that's okay," the girl reached out her hand, biting her lip at the flinch she received, "it's just me, Stiles, just like last time, okay," this time, she received a nod after a moment, a hand placing itself into hers.

The two teens watched white lines travel from Odessa's arm into his hand. As the lines dissolved, Stiles' shoulders dropped, the tenseness releasing almost instantly. A tear slowly rolled down the boy's face, making a soft hand wipe it away.

"Want me to sit here until you fall asleep?"

The Stilinski paused for a moment, seemingly pondering the girl's question, before slowly shaking his head. Odessa nodded, knowing he needed space and rest, and got up from her spot on the bed and went to the door. Before she could leave, however, Stiles' voice stopped her, "Odie?"

The brown eyed girl met with his tired hazel, "yes?"

"Thank you."

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The ride to school was as quiet as Odessa expected. The girl left her bike lying on the front yard as she rode in the passenger seat of Stiles' Jeep. Much like herself, she had observed, Stiles liked to make sure everyone else around him was okay before even thinking about focusing on himself. So asking him, again, if he was okay or if he wanted to talk about his sleepless nights was counterproductive, and would only end on a sour note for the two. Furthermore, they didn't mind the quiet. It was different from when they got out of the Jeep. The outside world around them was loud and fast paced.

As soon as Odessa got out of the Jeep, she was almost run down by a familiar figure. Her brows furrowed, "Scott?"

Stiles lifted his head at the sound of Odessa calling to his best friend before following the panicked boy, the blonde on his trail. He halted the Alpha's movements, playing both hands on his shoulders, "hey. Hey, you all right," the McCall only nodded slightly, breathing heavily, "you don't look all right, Scott."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," the hazel eyed boy countered, "it's happening to you too. You're seeing things, aren't you?"

Scott furrowed his brow, "how'd you know?"

Hearing footsteps, Odessa turned, only to face Lydia and Allison as the former spoke, "because it's happening to all three of you."

Getting closer to first period, the group started their way into the school. Even as they walked, the strawberry blonde didn't hesitate to use her voice, "well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one."

Odessa rolled her eyes at her friend's antics as Allison spoke from next to her, "we're not crazy."

The Martin turned around to face her friends with pursed lips at her friend's denial, "hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine."

"We did die and come back to life," Scott reminded, shrugging at the other two who were experiencing things, "that's gotta have some side effects, right?"

The others didn't have a chance to answer as the bell rang from above them.

Stiles sighed, "we keep an eye on each other. Okay," rubbing his hands together, he turned to the strawberry blonde, "and Lydia, stop enjoying this so much."

The five friends traveled down the hallway—their classes close to each other—as Lydia proclaimed one last thing, "you know, if anything happens, I'm sure Odie would be up to helping."

The Stone furrowed her brows at the conversation shifting to her, "I mean, always," she spoke, glancing at the others, "but why me specifically?"

Lydia spoke as if it was obvious, "you have the power to calm them. Use it."

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Quiet conversations were scattered around Odessa's first period class as she sat next to Stiles and diagonal to Scott. The blonde heard through the halls that there was a new teacher for History class, making the girl instantly wary at the thought. Her experience with teachers haven't been the best, you could say.

"Good morning, everyone," their new teacher started, "my name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous History teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter."

A thud could be heard from the back of the classroom, causing all the teens to turn around. The girl lifted her head slowly and awkwardly grinned at her fellow students, before straightening her posture.

"Either way, there she is."

Odessa couldn't help but smile at the new face in Beacon Hills High. The blonde also couldn't help but raise a brow at Scott, who was gazing at the new girl unapologetically. The McCall caught the mischievous brown eyes of Odessa, and scoffed in denial, before turning back to the front.

"Now, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century..."

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Even though her friends were the ones who were suffering the consequences of sacrificing themselves, Odessa couldn't help but feel different when walking through the halls herself. She managed to stay close to Stiles and Scott, or Allison all day, and so far she hadn't had the use for her powers. That was, until free period came around.

"Maybe we need a little more time to get back to normal," Scott tried to reason with Stiles, who was putting in his combination for his locker. Odessa watched his fingers fiddling with the lock from the other side of him.

"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures," the Stilinski countered, still trying to open his lock, "there's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal."

Odessa watched as the boy tried to unlock his lock, but with no luck. She furrowed her brows when he muttered to himself in confusion, "Stiles?"

The boy didn't answer, and it seemed whatever he saw went away. The two didn't have time to address it as they heard heavy breathing from next to them. Stiles straightened up as he spoke, "oh, dude, your eyes."

"What about them?"

Odessa stepped forward, somewhat blocking students' view of the Alpha, "they're starting to glow."

"You mean, like, right now?"

"Yes, right now," the blonde panicked, "make them stop!"

"Scott, stop. Stop it."

"I can't," Scott panted, a thin line of sweat beginning to appear on his forehead, "I can't control it."

Odessa and Stiles locked eyes in panic before the ladder's features hardened. After looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, he grabbed his best friend by his shoulders, "all right, just keep your head down. Look down, come on."

The Stone went ahead of the two boys and found an empty classroom. She held the door open for the stumbling boys before shutting the door, pressing her back against it. Odessa watched Scott strip off his jacket and backpack, growling to Stiles who advanced toward him, "get back away from me!"

"Scott, it's okay."

"I don't know what's going to happen," the almost completely transformed Alpha graveled, "get back!"

Odessa grabbed Stiles by the arm to bring him a few paces away from their friend, before slowly taking a step forward, keeping Stiles behind her, "Scott, let me calm you down..."

"Get back," the McCall exclaimed before holding his hands up. He let his claws dig into his palms, blood dripping into the floor, the pain sending him to his knees. Little by little, his fangs, claws and glowing red eyes faded, his body relaxing against a desk, "pain makes you human."

After a few seconds, the blonde knelt down to the floor, slowly reached for Scott's hand, and took his pain. One thing Odessa wanted to see if she could do was take pain and calm someone at the same time, but in her reading, she never saw anything depicting she could or could not. Once the black veins disappeared, the Alpha gave his friend a weak nod in thanks.

While the blonde took the boy's pain, Stiles knelt down beside the girl. He spoke in the silence of the classroom, "Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real," he paused, almost hesitating to share, "and it's starting to get bad for me, too. I'm not just having nightmares. I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake and Odessa has to come over and calm me down. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm actually ever waking up."

"What do you mean," the girl asked. This was the first time she had heard details of Stiles' trouble, despite having to go to his house in the middle of the night because of it.

"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming," the hazel eyed boy countered rhetorically, glancing continually at his hands, "you can't read in dreams. More and more, the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters in order."

Scott and Odessa locked eyes in worry as the former asked, "like even now?"

The two watched Stiles stand and gaze at the chalkboard in front of him. His eyes moving to the different posters around the room frantically, "I can't read a thing."

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Allison shot an arrow at Lydia's head. That was the first thing she was told when she woke up the next day. It seemed everything happening to Stiles, Scott and Allison was getting worse and worse by the day. After watching another hallucination episode happen to Stiles during Coach's class, Odessa and Scott thought it would be best for a pack meeting during lunch hour, though no one was in the mood to eat. Odessa looked down at her Math homework with a sigh between Scott and Stiles on a table outside the school. Oh, how she hated Math.

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?"

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

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?"

The Stone spoke after her friends, not looking up from her homework, "anyone else concerned about how causal you guys are speaking right now?"

"They are all locked up because they're insane," Isaac commented as Odessa was ignored, not that she was paying attention to care. She couldn't remember the quadratic formula to save her life.

From next to the blonde, Stiles narrowed his eyes at the remark, "ha. Can you at least try to be helpful? Please?"

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

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?"

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that."

"Less jabbering, more brainstorming," the Stone muttered, still eyeing the bane of her existence: Math homework.

"Hi," the group turned to see Kira standing in front of their table, her awkward, but cute, smile adorned on her features, "hi, sorry. I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might 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."

"And what do they call you," Lydia asked a little snidely, making her blonde friend kick her ankle from under the table, hissing at the sudden contact.

The Yukimura smiled lightly, either not picking up on the tone or ignoring it. She was about to answer, but someone else did that for her.

"Kira," Scott sounded from his seat, causing his friends to look at him in response. Seeing their expressions, he reasoned, "she's in our History class."

The strawberry blonde pursed her lips at the exchange before going back to business, "so are you talking about Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?"

"Either, I guess," the girl answered, taking a seat next to Stiles, causing the three already sitting to scoot over a space, "but all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

Isaac lifted his chin, almost in amusement at their current situation, "wrathful deities? And what are those?"

"Like demons."

"Demons," the Stilinski perked, "why not?"

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

"Death," Kira answered Allison with a smile, contradictory to what she was talking about, "you die."

Her words made Odessa finally lift her head from her homework. Death. In the words of Stiles: Why not?

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"It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you," Deaton concurred to Scott, Stiles and Odessa as he flipped the sign on his door to close.

After hearing Kira's words, they thought it would be best to confide in Scott's boss with the information they had obtained. Gaining the knowledge of the word Bardo and the origins from where it came from was a big step in figuring out what was going on and what they were potentially up against in the future.

The three teens started following Deaton further into the Clinic as Stiles asked, "well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?"

"Do you remember what the sign language looked like," Deaton leaned his back against the slab table, "the placement and movement of the hands?"

Scott raised his brows, "you know sign language?"

"I know a little," the man answered before turning back to the hazel eyed boy, "let me give it a shot."

"Okay, so the first one was like this," Stiles moved his hands to sign what he remembered, "then..."

"That's 'when'."

"Then there was this, twice."

"That's 'door'."

"And this was in between it."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

Deaton leaned back in understanding, "when is a door not a door?"

"When is a door not a door," Stiles repeated incredulously.

"When it's ajar."

"You're kidding me," the Stilinski deadpanned after his best friend answered the question, "a riddle? My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?"

The Doctor pursed his lips while shaking his head, "not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of superconsciousness... You essentially opened a door to your minds."

The three teens glanced at each other uneasily before the McCall asked, "so what does that mean? The door's still open?"

"Ajar."

"A door into our minds," Stiles almost whispered, seemingly not surprised but still unbelieving of their luck.

"I did tell you it was risky."

Odessa broke her silence, glancing at her two friends who she didn't know how to help, "what do we do about it?"

"Well, that's difficult to answer," Deaton, also his words were uncertain, had a face that revealed he did in fact had a clue as to what they were up against.

"Oh, no, wait a second," Stiles eyed the Doctor knowingly, "I know that look. That's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix it' look."

"One thing I do know is that having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good. You each need to close that door. And you need to do it as soon as possible."

Odessa knew it was gonna take more than her calming abilities to beat this.

With the words warily echoing through the teen's minds, the three left the Clinic, only to be stopped by Sheriff Stilinski.

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here because I could use some help," the man turned to Scott and Odessa specifically, "actually... Your help."

The two Werewolves glanced at each other before the boy asked, "why us?"

"Because eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident," Sheriff shared, "one of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me thinking that... That a Werewolf could have caused the accident, and then dragged her body away," he turned to Scott and Odessa, glancing between the two, "if you could somehow get a lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clues."

"But what if it was a Werewolf?"

Sheriff nodded to his son, "well, there's somebody out there who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught."

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The next day, Sheriff Stilinski and the three teens hatched a plan to collect a personal item of Malia's for Scott and Odessa to track her scent with. While Sheriff was in the living room of the Tate residence with Mr. Tate, the Alpha, the Ember and the human slowly walked through the back entrance of the house that led into Malia's bedroom.

Odessa carefully followed behind Scott, stepping over some sort of trap on the floor before entering the missing girl's room, not before cringing at the creaking of the door. Stiles immediately went to the bed where stuffed animals were laying, as if the girl in the room was still there to enjoy them. Scott sniffed every one before passing it to Odessa for her to do the same.

After the third one, Scott shrugged, "all I'm getting is some animal smell."

"What kind of animal?"

Growling was heard, making the three freeze and turn to the doorway, seeing a dog stare up at them. While the boys talked back and forth nervously, Odessa stepped forward, not afraid of the animal, with a gentle smile on her face, "hi, doggy," she whispered, not paying attention to anything else, including the boys behind her who were looking at her like she was insane. The blonde brought out her fisted hand and offered it to the animal, who sniffed it, before not doing anything in return. She took that as the go ahead to pet it. Disregarding the boy's whispering at her not to, she slowly brought her head down to the dog's head and pet it. Not knowing if it would work, she focused on calming energy surging into the dog, and for some reason, it worked. The dog took her gesture kindly and ran off into another room.

Odessa smiled to herself, satisfied by the outcome of her idea and turned around to face her friends, who just looked at her wide eyes and mouths. She blinked, "what?"

Out of the two boys, Stiles spoke, still blanching at what he just witnessed, "that... was... awesome."

"Why, thank you."

Getting back to business, Stiles continued to rummage through the desk at the side of the room. Picking up a children's book, he handed it to Scott, who could only pick up the scent of the dog. Passing it to Odessa, she tried to focus on another scent that wasn't the dog, and could smell a different but faint scent but couldn't identify what it was—a girl or an animal. She passed the book back with a shrug and shook her head. Stiles sighed, eyes still gazing around the different items of the desk, until his gaze stopped on a picture frame of two little girls, one holding a doll. The boy took out his phone and took a picture of the framed picture and sent it to his Dad before the three left the house.

They met Stiles' Dad a couple minutes away from the house to regroup about what happened.

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

Odessa nodded, stuffing her hands on the back of pockets of her jeans, "yeah, I got a faint scent but couldn't depict if it was a person or an animal."

"It's okay. It was a long shot," Sheriff shook his head, seemingly discouraged, "in fact, it was a terrible idea. I think I just ripped a wound open in that poor man. I never should have brought you guys here. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for trying."

Exchanging goodbyes, the three teens watched the Sheriff drive off, feeling bad for the man.

"Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved," Scott tried to reassure his best friend, who stared off at his Dad's car.

The hazel eyed boy shifted his weight, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets, "yeah, I just think this is one he felt like he could've figured out right now."

"Why is it so important now," Odessa asked with furrowed brows.

"He wants to be able to solve one more while he's still Sheriff."

Scott and Odessa glanced at each other in confusion as the former spoke, "what do you mean still Sheriff?"

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"I'm doing my job."

"Your job sucks!"

Odessa sighed as she tried not to listen to the argument that was occurring downstairs between Agent McCall and Scott. As soon as they got home, and Scott saw his Dad was there, he immediately started questioning his involvement in getting the Sheriff fired. Odessa knew this was a family matter, and even though this was about Stiles' Dad, she felt as though it went deeper than that, knowing some of the history between Agent McCall and his ex-wife and son. The blonde paced around her room, too distracted to do homework she knew she needed to get done. After a few more minutes of pacing, she made her way to her bed to try and complete her homework, only for her phone to buzz.

Can I call you?

The Stone furrowed her brow at who messaged her before giving a response.

Of course.

Only a few seconds later, her phone lit up with his name, and she accepted it instantly, "hey, are you okay?"

Stiles sighed from the other line, "yeah, I guess, uh, sorry to call you."

"Don't apologize," she smiled lightly at his nervousness, "is your Dad okay?"

"As good as he can be. When I got home he was in his office and hasn't come out. I just don't wanna bother him."

"I'm sure you could never bother him with anything. He's your Dad, and in the time I've known him, I've learned that he's a great man," there was a silence on the other line, depicting the boy was in too deep of thought to respond, "hey, Stiles, he's gonna be okay. And you are, too."

The Stilinski responded after a few moments, taking in her words, "yeah, no, yeah, I know. It's just one of those times where I don't know how to help him."

"I think you can help him," her words caught his attention, "we went to the Tate house but never to the scene of the accident. Maybe there's something there that could help your Dad's investigation."

Stiles stood from his bed, realizing her plan was exactly what he needed to hear, "Odessa, you are a genius," he praised, grabbing his keys, "I'll pick you and Scott up right now."

"I'm gonna sit this adventure out," the blonde chuckled at his enthusiasm, before glancing at the pile of work she had on her bed, "my homework is starting to look like a blanket on my bed."

Though bummed she wasn't coming, he still gave her a small chuckle back, "yeah, homework has never been our priority."

"You can copy in the morning," Odessa couldn't wipe the small on her face for one reason or another.

"Much appreciated," Stiles was the same way, "see you tomorrow."

"Night, Stiles."

And with that, their conversation ended. Both with unknown activities afterward. Odessa would find out what happened in the woods later that night, but Stiles wouldn't be finding out what Odessa was doing in the late hours of the night until much later. The Stone looked at her computer screen, it displaying:

AN EMBER
( RARE SUPERNATURAL CREATURE )

She needed to know more.

She needed to know everything.

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this is almost 5000 words...
finally we getting into some much needed ~fluff~ hope you guys enjoyed!
also! thank you guys so much for all the love you've given this book and my other works. i love writing and
seeing everyone enjoy my work is so great. don't be a silent reader <3