motel california

Fairvale. A place that Noelle had only ever heard about in her father's stories, when talking to her mother they were referred to as fairytales, but the reality was a little secret shared between the blonde and her father. He knew she had always loved the thrill of a scary story, even before bed. She wasn't like most children who were scared of monsters hiding in their closets, lurking in the darkness or under their bed, her older brother being one of those children. Even as a child Noelle knew that monsters weren't some mythical creatures made up to scare children like her into behaving, they were people who walked around pretending to be normal people. The girl never thought she would see the place in person, it had no appeal. Greenery ran dry here, roads were bare and winding, on one of those bends, surrounded by nothing but tumbleweeds was Motel Glen Capri. A place that nobody aimed to go to, yet everyone who passed through Fairvale found themselves staying in one of the rooms. Whether it was a flat tire that had pulled them in, a desperate need for some shut-eye before getting back on the road, or a postponed high school cross-country meet leaving a couple dozen teenagers needing a place to stay for the night. 

The teenagers had put up with another three tedious hours on the bus, dealing with an unkind heat that left them all wishing that Jared would throw up again, just so they could get out of the steel can that was being called a bus. In those three hours of sitting in unbearable traffic, Coach had announced the postponing of the cross-country meet, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere, desperate for a nearby motel that would house so many minors in one night. It was proved almost impossible until Coach had managed to find one place crazy enough to take him up on the offer, he liked to believe it was his persuasiveness that scored them a place to stay, he had no idea the past of Glen Capri. Scott's wound had begun to heal thanks to the help of Nellie and Allison, but they were lucky that the meet had been postponed, he was in no condition to compete, he needed rest, a lot of it, all of them did after the two days they'd had. After a cat nap, Noelle had felt refreshed and revitalized, prepared for anything ahead of her, right until she had stepped off of the bus and onto the parking lot of Glen Capri. Then she felt as though every inch of light and energy had been stripped from her youthful body, shriveled up into nothing as she stared at the building in its thriller-movie glory. 

Her eyes locked on the flickering neon lights, narrowing on it as she tried to think where she'd heard of this place, she assumed from one of her father's scary bedtime stories, it seemed like the kind of setting for a scary story, but she didn't understand why her father would know about a place like this. He'd always been a homebody, never straying far from Beacon Hills, the place he had grown up, unlike her mother, yet he knew of Glen Capri, more than any of them knew. 

Noelle jumped out of her skin as a hand landed on her shoulder, a sharp gasp escaping her as she turned to look to her left, Stiles stood tall beside her, his gaze on the same flickering lights that had caught her attention. "Remember those scary stories your dad used to tell?" The boy asked, reminiscing on the odd occasions where the Sheriff would host sleepovers for him, Nell, Cole, and Scott while Camila was out for the night. When it was time for lights out, he'd sit them all down in a circle in the pillow fort they had built, pulling out his torch as he told them a tale of monstrous beings, people who lurked in the shadows. Nellie nodded with a smile on her face, glad that she wasn't the only one who remembered those nights with her father, the ones she wished they could still share, no matter how old she was. "He'd love this place. Gives me the creeps, just like his stories did." He added with slight humor to his voice before a chill ran down his spine. He couldn't decipher if it was the motel or the thought of those scary stories. 

"I've seen worse." Scott shrugged as he stood beside Stiles, startling both him and the blonde. 

As soon as the fright that they had given him wore off a second later the two turned to look at him with identical knitted brows. "Where the hell have you seen worse?" Even the three who hadn't been involved in their conversation had heard Scott's assumption that he had seen a place worse than the one in front of them, none of them thought that was possible. 

Coach blew his whistle capturing the attention of the six teenagers and everyone else on the cross-country team who stood around them. "Listen up. The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves." The man announced, shifting his gaze to the biggest degenerates he knew of in this group, Scott, Stiles, and now Isaac after the little outburst at the rest stop. "You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely." He continued, holding out the keys for the students to take. 

As people began taking their keys and heading to their rooms the six teenagers looked at each other, wondering how they would work it out when there was an equal amount of boys to girls. Leaving them with the question of who was going to bunk with who. Nellie didn't particularly want to bunk with her brother, she could remember from when they were children that he was the noisiest sleeper she had ever known. And she was sure nobody else was going to be willing to share a room with her big brother, certainly not Lydia and Allison, and certainly not the two boys who were sure to remember just how bad Cole was to sleep in a room with. 

Stiles was the first to chirp up, bagsying to share a room with Scott as he began pulling the wolf towards Coach, solidifying his bagsy as he grabbed the key for their room. He hadn't wasted a single moment, he did in fact remember what it was like having sleepovers with Cole when they were kids. How he talked in his sleep, sleepwalked, sometimes even sing in his sleep. It didn't matter what the boy was doing, he was never quiet, and tonight they needed undisturbed rest. The question of who was bunking who hadn't even been asked, but it was clear all of them had been thinking about from the second Coach mentioned pairing up. And for the four of them who still stood outside the motel, it was still a question that needed answering. 

Then Nellie had the perfect idea. Maybe not, perfect per se, but better than any of them having to share a room with the older boy. "Well... Looks like you get a room to yourself tonight, big bro. We're staying together." She decided for the three of them as she patted her brother's shoulder. Neither Cole nor the two girls she claimed as her roommates for the night were opposed to the idea, he didn't even wait to hear the reasoning behind everyone being so against sharing a room with him. He'd already stepped forward to take his key from Coach. Sharing a room with one of the girls, especially his messy little sister wasn't ideal, maybe more ideal than bunking with the other two boys who were incapable of laying properly in a bed, they'd always sprawl out across the room, but still not ideal. "That okay with you two?" Nellie asked as she turned to Allison and Lydia, both of them nodding rapidly, thankful that she had made a decision for them. 

They would have much-rathered cramping into a room made for two people rather than share a room with the Priestley boy, neither of them even knew him well enough. Not even Allison who he'd followed here in the first place, giving both the blonde and the redhead an incline that she and Cole were closer than what they'd been lead to believe.

"If there are separate beds I'm sharing with Nell." Lydia deadpanned as she looked between the two of them. "Sorry, Alli, but you kick in your sleep. And you hog the covers." 

Allison shrugged in admittance, she knew of her own sleeping habits, apparently, they all had some less than desirable habits. "I hope you brought earplugs, Nell, she's a snorer." Allison laughed as she began walking to Coach to take the last key from him. The man looked at her with a furrowed brow for a second, questioning whether she was supposed to be here before shaking off the thought as he began shouting again, as usual.

"And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!" Coach yelled to the few students that were still dawdling their way to their rooms, none of which were listening to him. Even the three girls who still stood at the bus weren't particularly listening to him. At least not Lydia and Noelle, both of them had fallen silent as they stared up at the moral in front of them, both with an uneasy feeling. Though their reasons for feeling so uncomfortable about the place they were staying tonight differed, it was an identical bad feeling inside of them. Coach groaned, shrugging off his own disgust from the motel before heading to his room leaving the three teenage girls behind.

Allison began walking towards the motel behind Coach, only when she felt that she was alone did she turn around to see that neither of her friends was moving, they weren't even looking at her, only the building that was behind her. 

"Guys?"

"I don't like this place." Lydia insisted, wearing looking at the illuminated sign.

Noelle shook her head, agreeing that she didn't like it either. She still couldn't quite think why her father would have mentioned this place, it was the only real place he had ever mentioned in his stories, the rest were made-up towns that he had thought of in the spur of the moment. But Fairvale and even this motel were real, she couldn't help but wonder whether his stories about this place weren't just stories, but the truth. He'd always end those stories in the same way, with the same sentence, one that felt very fitting. A lot can happen in one night.

·❥·

Choking down the uncomfortable feeling the three girls made the way to their room. A shared groan of disgust between them as they swung open the room to the door, the only positive that it carried was the two double beds, meaning that even with three people in a two-person room, they would somewhat have their own space tonight. Lydia had surprisingly been the first to step into the bathroom, she headed straight to the bathroom to inspect whether the shower was up to her standards, and although it wasn't as disgusting as she expected and didn't have roaches swarming it, she was still cleaner than it after a sweaty car and bus ride here. Three of which had been spent in a bus that a vomit smell lingered in. So it didn't say much for the standards of the motel. Noelle threw her sports bag onto the bed, a puff of dust rising in the air, both she and the brunette had seen it, both curling their lip at it but neither mentioned it to Lydia, they knew she would have them relocated to every other free room this motel had to offer until she was even a little bit satisfied, both of them were too exhausted for that. 

Lydia walked out of the bathroom, shuddering after her personal inspection of the bathroom as she headed straight towards the bag that Noelle had thrown on the bed ready to find a change of clothes. Nellie hadn't even tried to stop her, the least she could do was give the redhead some clothes after all of the things she had done for her since her return. Loaning her a fresh outfit was the bare minimum of what she could do to make it up for her. 

In a room on the opposite side of the motel, Scott and Stiles were already settled in, both of them sprawled across the bed as they stared up at the ceiling. They hadn't even thought to inspect their room for dust and bugs, to the two of them, there were more urgent matters at hand, at least in the words of Stiles who immediately started up the conversation of the Darach again from the moment there were a few feet between them and the rest of the group. He chose to blame Lydia for his undying need to talk about the Darach, she had fueled his insanity with her detailed knowledge on ancient sacrifices that included the likes of virgins. Scott knew there wasn't much hope for him delaying the conversation any longer, he had already put it off for the entire journey here, it was only so long before Stiles would combust. 

So against his best interests, he indulged in the topic of the sacrifices that were slowly killing off the population of their hometown. 

Stiles sighed loudly. "All right, so I have five."

"Five?" Scott repeated, turning to the side to look at his best friend. "You have five suspects?"

The boy nodded. Originally it was eleven, well, ten, if you didn't count the fact that Derek Hale was on the list twice, no matter how long he had known the Alpha he always suspected that there was something else going on with him. He had no shame in suspecting him. Or any other Hale for that matter, he still wasn't able to wrap his head around them, the way they all acted, how all of them seemed to have a hint of insanity behind their eyes. 

"So who's number one? Harris?" Scott assumed, he knew his best friend well enough to know where his sometimes frantic and overwhelmed mind led. 

"Just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead. We have a short blonde across the motel who is living proof of that." Stiles shrugged, knowing that Scott couldn't fault that part of his logic, Nellie was that kind of proof, she was missing, then one night, she was back. In his eyes, there was nothing stopping Harris from doing the same, just on different terms. 

Scott nodded, processing his words little by little. "So if he's not in fact dead, our chemistry teacher is out secretly committing human sacrifices?" He reiterated, it wasn't the most absurd thing he had ever heard, but it was certainly out there. 

"Yeah, I guess it sounded way better in my head."

"Well, what if it's somebody else from school? Like, you remember Matt? We didn't know that he was killing people." Scott pointed out, instantly offending his best friend who sat upright in his bed just to emphasize how he was offended by that comment.

"Excuse me? I'm sorry, what?" Stiles asked, going as far as to then stand up ready to largely emphasize just how right he had been to accuse Matt of being the one killing people in town. "Yes, we did. I called that from day one, actually."

"Yeah, but we never really seriously thought that it was Matt." Scott tried to argue as he sat slightly upright to look at Stiles, using his elbows to prop himself up.

"I was serious. I was quite serious, actually. Deadly seriously. No one listened to me."

"Who were the other four?"

Stiles cracked his knuckles preparing to get back into his explanation again, the other four were the ones he saw as more likely now that Harris had been written off as a bit of a reach. Now that Scott had practically ruled out all of his other suspects, Cora Hale was next on his list. And Stiles was more than ready to begin listing off why exactly he thought she deserved to have her name on his list. Nobody knew anything about her, Derek barely knew anything about her, and he was her brother, that was just another reason for her to be on the list, the only person who actually seemed to know anything about Cora was Nellie, who didn't particularly like sharing details. 

Then came Deaton, in Stiles's words, he was on the list for being too Obi-wan-like, and for that it freaked him out, as much as he respected the man and all the help he had given them, the man never failed to give him the creeps. Unfortunately, his Star Wars reference wasn't one that Scott understood, even after all of their years of friendship he had failed to watch the franchise, but he promised that if he was alive for long enough, he would watch it when they got home. Once the boy had gotten over the betrayal that he felt from Scott not watching his favorite movies Stiles proceeded with his listing. And it was then that it began growing difficult for him to spit out the names. Lydia. Scott's face had dropped, Stiles had sat back down, both of them knew that even for a girl they now considered their friend, it wasn't that far of a reach. There was a time when she had been completely controlled by Peter and didn't even know it, so it was possible that whoever was committing these murders was in her head, and that she didn't even know. Which was why she had taken such a high ranking on the list. 

The two fell back with an exasperated sigh, exhausted just from talking about the list, let alone what they were going to have to do to widdle it down. Scott stared at the ceiling, pondering who Stiles's last suspect could be, and somehow, he felt as though his best friend didn't need to speak a word for him to know where this list was going. With every suspect, it became more and more personal, until the last one, who could be extremely personal for both of them, someone so close to them that it hurt to admit it, more so than it did admit it to Lydia. 

"You think it could be Nell, don't you?" Scott asked with dread in his tone.

With a hesitant nod, Stiles agreed. "Yeah, I mean, we found her in the vault but what if she was in there for a reason? What if it's because she's some dark druid who commits human sacrifices and she was just a weapon that Deucalion was using to his advantage, or still is? She won't tell any of us what she actually is, and any time it comes up she tried to brush off the subject. I mean I don't want to believe it's her, or Lydia but we can't deny what's in front of us."

"But it's possible, I know." Scott agreed with another sigh.

He contemplated mentioning what he had seen at the mall, questioning whether he should step over that line and betray Nellie's trust, he really was considering it, knowing it might just defend her honor, proving that she may be as innocent as he hoped she was. He even opened his mouth to say the words, but he couldn't do it. There was still that part of him, the part that had existed before he had become a werewolf that lied and died with Noelle Priestley, that part could never betray her. He knew how it felt to have a secret to keep, especially when it came to what they were, the chance of sharing that secret on his own terms had been taken from him, he couldn't do that to her too, not even by sharing it with a trusted friend of hers like Stiles. Once Stiles's list was over they chose to stop there, unable to talk about it anymore. 

Back in the room belonging to the three girls, two of the people on Stiles's list, Allison decided she was brave enough to use the shower, even after it had failed Lydia's hygiene inspection. But when they had found the towels in the wardrobe along with the spare bedding, they'd all been hit with the pungent stench of nicotine causing all three of them to heave as they covered their nostrils, but even that couldn't block out the smell, it felt as though the three of them together had been the ones to smoke all of the cigarettes that had been smoked in here, despite the card on the dresser that stated it was a non-smoking room. Noelle scoffed as she turned it on its face, it clearly lacked its purpose, whoever had stayed here before they did had to be chain smokers.

"Whoever owns this hell hole is going to feel my wrath." Lydia spat out as she stormed towards the door with the stack of "fresh" towels in hand, as her two friends questioned what she was going to do the only answer they received was a door slammed in their face. But as two girls who didn't want to be part of the people feeling the redhead's wrath, they shook it off, knowing that when she came back would be the time to ask her what had happened. They could only imagine all of the possibilities as to what that phrase meant. A terrifying thought.

As they waited for the return of the redhead, hopefully with some fresher towels accompanying her, Allison decided she couldn't wait any longer to wash off the sweat and the dried on stench of vomit, she needed a shower and she needed it now while waiting for Lydia she could stand in a nice hot shower, washing away all of the fear she had felt a few hours ago, giving her time to be alone, at one with her thoughts. Meanwhile, Noelle decided that she wasn't brave enough to step in the shower, let alone wrap one of those towels around herself after it, instead, she chose to take Lydia's approach to the situation and change into a fresh set of clothes. Luckily her habit of overpacking meant that she had enough clothes for both of them. She couldn't bear to stand around in jeans for a moment longer, she wanted the feeling of soft pajamas on her skin. Nellie had barely pulled her shirt over her head before she heard the door open once again, of course, she had presumed that it was Lydia, back already. 

"Jesus, Lyds, that was-" Noelle was cut off as she pulled her shirt over her head, her words being paused by the sight of Scott standing in front of her, staring at her as she stood taken by surprise. The blonde quickly pulled her shirt over her bra, concealing herself, barely. "Scott, what are you doing here?" Without saying a word the wolf stepped forward, closer to the uneasy blonde who couldn't move further back without tripping over the bed that her calves were already pressed against. He reached out his hand, brushing against her bare arm as every hair on her body stood tall, a chill crawling up her spine pairing with the gentle flutter in her stomach. Nellie cleared her throat as she watched the hand caressing her arm. "What are you doing?" She repeated softly.

"Looking for you."

Her words were caught in her throat as she looked into his eyes, but it wasn't like the ones she had seen on the bus here. Not even the ones she had seen at the mall when she could've sworn they had turned red for a moment, she knew that she was technically looking into the eyes of Scott, but it wasn't him behind them. "Well, you found me," Nellie mumbled nervously. "In the middle of getting dressed too, if you hadn't noticed."

"I don't mind." Scott mumbled, the corners of his mouth turning into a smile as he raised his soft gaze from the hand on her arm to the hazel eyes that stared widely at him. 

Noelle stuttered for words as she tried to contain herself, but she had never seen him like this, and especially not with her, Scott may have changed over the past two years, but he didn't seem like this type of person to barge in on a girl while she was changing, standing so close to her as his skin touched hers leaving it hot to the touch. Noelle tried to push past the growing nerves in her stomach as she warned the wolf that any minute now her redhead friend would be back and she wouldn't be able to explain whatever was going on right now, even when she tried to think of an explanation in her head she was left without words. She tried to reason with him, telling him that when she was dressed and he, well, didn't have a look of insanity in his eyes that they could talk, like normal people. Surely even them of all people could have a normal conversation. Scott didn't listen to the girls suggestion as he continued to step closer to her lessening the gap between them as Noelle tried to move further away from him, only to find that her calves were already pushed against the frame of the bed, trapping her. She wasn't sure what had happened to him, he had never acted like this with her, there was no valid explanation. He had been fine the entire bus ride here, even while in his dying state, he'd been his usual optimistic self, and yet now, he was person she didn't even recognise. He wasn't acting like the boy she had known for most of her life. It wasn't the wolf who had taken not only her but Isaac off of the streets when they had nowhere else to go. This wasn't Scott.

Scott's hand traveled from her arm to the nap of the girls neck, his face inching closer to hers, breaking the few inches of height difference between them. Once again the girl found herself stammering for something to say to him, her lips moving, but nothing come out of them, she couldn't even find it in her just to mutter his name, hoping it might snap him out of it. But all that sat in her throat was a lump of nerves.

"Nell!" Allison's voice shouted from the both of them, Nellie finally found herself able to move as she whipped her head towards the bathroom door, her heart beating loudly in her ears. "Has Lydia come back yet, I'm turning into a prune in here!" 

"Uh... no. No, not yet." Her voice cracked with the nerves that filled her as she shouted back to the huntress in the bathroom, Scott's ex-girlfriend, who was sure to have many questions as to why the boy was in her room, standing so close to her while she stood topless.

As Noelle turned back to look at Scott, his hand still rested on the nape of her neck as he looked around in confusion, brushing off whatever had come over him. He turned back to the blonde who looked at him with the same confused expression, her hazel eyes narrowing on him. From her eyes his gaze lowered to the limited space between their chests, the only thing acting as a barrier between them was the grey shirt that Noelle had been wearing today. He wasn't sure how they'd got in this situation, or how he had even gotten in here. Last thing he remembered he was stood in his own room looking at his own reflection while he talked to Stiles through the open bathroom about what snacks he wanted. Once he realised just what he was doing, or at least almost understood it Scott quickly took a step back from the blonde, multiple actually, until his back had hit the door.

He couldn't apologise enough as he felt behind him for the handle, in a hurry to get out of any confrontation as to what had just happened, he wasn't even sure what had happened, whether he had made a move on the blonde for her to end up without a shirt on. All he knew was that he couldn't get out of the room quick enough as he ran straight into Lydia and her stack of fresh towels for Allison. She too had been left confused as she watched the boy jog back to his room, with a flustered look on his face. 

"Well that was weird." Lydia mumbled with a slight scoff as she walked in the room, shutting the door behind her. She walked straight past the stunned blonde and to the bathroom, handing the brunette her towel as she began talking about her strange experience with the woman manning the front desk. 

Allison walked out of the bathroom in a fresh change of clothes, drying her hair with the nicotine -free towel, she looked at Noelle standing at the end of the bed topless with her shirt in her hand but chose not to comment on the matter, she assumed that maybe the girl had gotten too hot with the lack of air conditioning in the room. It was like sitting in a sauna. Rather than asking the blonde why she was stood the way she was, she focused on her other friend who continued to ramble like a mad woman as she paced around the room. 

"198?" Allison repeated the number that Lydia had just referred to as the number of suicides that Glen Capri had witnesses since it's opening, the highest number in the whole of California. 

"Yes." Lydia nodded frantically. "And we're talking 40 years. On average, that's 4.95 a year, which is actually expected. But who commemorates that with a framed number? Who does that? Who?" She repeatedly asked as she watched Allison apply her lip balm as though those figures she had just given her was nothing to be concerned about, even though the girl was a hunter she had to believe that 198 deaths in one place was something to worry about, even in a place like this dirty Californian motel.

"All suicides?" She reiterated.

Lydia nodded again, but she didn't leave it at those two simple words, instead she carried on in all of the gory and horrific detail that she believed was needed to get Allison to see just how high that figure was considering she had practically shrugged it off. "Hanging, throat-cutting, pill-popping, both-barrels-of-a-shotgun-in-the-mouth suicides." Lydia continued to explain, making her point to the girl who stood with her balm inches from her mouth, lost for words as her eyes grew to the size of UFO's. "Nell, are you even hearing this?" The redhead asked as she turned to the blonde, nudging her in her side until she was snapped out of her stare. 

"Huh? Yeah, yeah." The blonde nodded, pulling her shirt back over her head. "I'm gonna go and take a walk, I feel a little nauseous. Don't wait up for me, okay?" Noelle muttered as she walked towards the door, not even turning back to her two friends as she spoke. 

The two girls watched as the door closed behind the blonde, their stares lingering on it for a moment before they turned to look at one another. 

"Is she okay?" Allison asked with a furrowed brow, assuming that since the redhead had known her longer she might know what strange behavior from Noelle might look like, but even she was just as confused as she shrugged her shoulders, unsure as to what was going on with Nellie and her strange, usually quiet behavior. Part of her assumed it had something to do with the way Scott had rushed out of the door when she had gotten back, but it didn't seem like the kind of thing appropriate to mention to her as the wolf's ex-girlfriend, that, and she had no idea what had even happened in the room, the last thing she needed was to relight the flame of hatred that used to stand between her and Noelle.

·❥·

Noelle stopped to take a breath as she felt the door to her motel room close behind her, for a place that had felt like a sauna since the moment they'd crossed into it, the air was crisp, a refreshing breeze brushing against her skin. She fell against the railing that lined the terrace, using it to balance her as she took a deep and shaky breath, trying to collect the mass amount of thoughts that had entered her mind in just the past ten minutes. A wave of nausea passed over the blonde as she looked out over Glen Capri, she still couldn't quite understand why her father had told her about this place, but since then so many more questions had raised, most revolving around Scott and the behavior she never even knew he was capable of.  He obviously had a side that wasn't so golden-retriever-like like she remembered him being, the Scott that used to heave at the mention of having a girlfriend, often referring to them as cooties, if that were the case, he and Allison wouldn't have happened. He'd matured by then, and rightly so, she just hadn't quite managed to wrap her head around it yet. She knew that time wouldn't stop for everyone else when it felt like it had stopped for her, people would grow, change, move on, it was an agonizing thought that pained her unlike anything else. Knowing that not just Scott but her brother and Stiles were out there living a life without her, becoming people that she wouldn't even recognize and they had, some parts were still there of them all, but for the most part, they'd been changed too, similarly to her, their change had stemmed from pain, some of which caused by her. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the howling of the wind in her ears, but it wasn't just like the normal sound of the wind that a normal person would hear, a human, which she sure as hell didn't have the luxury of being. She couldn't enjoy the simplicity of wind interrupting what was otherwise a quiet night, what she came with complications as she saw them. So even something as simple as the wind wasn't just the wind, it was nature communicating with her, talking to her in a language that only she and the rest of the Elemental Druids in the world could hear, at least the ones who shared her talents, which she suspected her brother didn't. Not to her extent. This howl of the wind was no different, she didn't just hear air brushing through her ears, but a voice.

One that she couldn't help but follow.  

She didn't have to travel far for the voice to get louder, in fact, it was just the room next door, room 216. The wind told her to open the door, that it would let her in, and it did, as she pressed down the door handle the door slowly creaked open for her, allowing her immediate access into the deep dark room. The voice drew her in, guiding the blonde through the darkness with the assistance of her glowing eyes, their bright glowing orange, her strongest element, her natural one, the one that had started it all. Noelle moved straight through what appeared to be a room in the progress of renovation, her eyes remained on the path the voice told her to follow, she couldn't possibly distract herself by taking even a second to look around the room. As the voice told her, she needed to follow them, listen to them. 

When all instructions had been followed Noelle found herself standing in the poorly lit bathroom of room 216, staring at her own reflection in a mirror covered in smears and dust. For a moment, she had been alone in it, until the voice that was once only in her head was now coming from the person who had joined her in the mirror's reflection, a smile across their face. One that she had missed seeing for years on end.

"Daddy?" Noelle mumbled as she turned to face her smiling father, her inner child coming out, the child she had been when she had last been able to see his face. 

"Hey, pumpkin." Jack greeted his daughter with open arms. The two relished in the father-daughter love that they had been starved of for eight years, one that both of them deserved to have more of before it was snatched away from them. For a few minutes, and only a few, Nellie got to live out her dream of seeing her father again, maintaining the image she had always had of him. And then, just like he'd been snatched away from her, so had that perfect image. "What happened to you, Noelle? What have you become?" The man asked as he separated from her.

Noelle looked at her father with wide glossy eyes. "What?" Her voice muttered. 

"Look at you. You've become a monster." He said plainly, a hint of disgust in her tone. One that she only ever heard from her father when he talked about pineapple on pizza, certainly not when he was talking about his precious daughter. "You remember what happened to the monsters in our stories, right, pumpkin?" Jack asked with a questioning look.

The blonde nodded at the man in front of her. "They die." 

"That's right." Jack agreed with a proud smile. "So you know what you have to do." 

"I have to die." 

Jack nodded again, opening his clenched fist to reveal an orange pill bottle. He watched as his daughter looked at it, with no hesitation in her eyes. If there was anyone she would listen to, anyone who she would trust every single word of no matter what, it was her father. To her, he had the most trustable instincts, he had never wronged her, that was the mindset a young and still naive sixteen-year-old who missed her deceased father still had. Noelle took the bottle out of her father's hands, twisting the cap as she poured the pills into her hand, before placing them to her mouth, following her final instructions she looked at her father again. 

"I'm sorry, Daddy." Noelle's voice cracked. "I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

Jack placed both of his hands on his daughter's shoulders as she smiled through his words, glazing how hostile they truly were. "You'll always be my little girl, Nellie belly. But you're a monster too. Monsters deserve to die, and after what you did, you're a monster."

"I deserve it." Noelle nodded in agreement. Her final words before she followed her orders. 

After overhearing a concerning conversation through the vents Lydia jumped up, rushing out of the door that Noelle had passed through as little as ten minutes ago. Allison right behind her. The brunette wasn't sure what was going on with her friends tonight, but there was no denying that something definitely was happening with them. First, it was Nellie acting strange. Now Lydia who was convinced she had heard a couple next door confirming to kill one another, even going as far to believe she'd heard the gunshot itself. But Allison herself had heard nothing. Not any talking, not a gunshot, nothing. Other than Lydia's heavy breathing the room had been silent and there had only been as little as a few inches between them, even though Allison was profoundly confused she hadn't hesitated to follow Lydia out of their room, watching as the redhead walked across the balcony with her hands tracing against the wall.

That was when the brunette had noticed that their room wasn't connected to another, at least not on the side where Lydia's ear had been pressed against the vent. There was a large gap between the wall Lydia had been pressed against and the wall of the room before theirs. But the redhead continued to walk to room 216 with a tear falling down her cheek, she'd managed to open the door. It wasn't locked. Allison quickly jogged to catch up with Lydia, both of them had stopped in the doorway as they looked into the room that was in complete darkness. Allison's heart was in her stomach, right now she could have really used Nellie for a third opinion to make sure the two of them weren't going insane. Or to go in the room with Lydia, because she was absolutely petrified of the thought of following her best friend into the dark room.

"Hello?" Lydia spoke.

Her hand reached into the room, scouring the wall for a light switch which she quickly found but as she flicked it on and off the room remained in complete darkness. Lydia was about to step in until Allison grabbed a hold of her arm, pulling her back onto the balcony.

"Lydia. Over there." She whispered carefully.

Across the room a faint light emitted, two small orange lights, quickly fading into the darkness as Allison had mentioned it, the two girls squinted their eyes as they waited for it to reappear again, waiting to see what or where it had come from, it seemed to have been the only source of light left in the room, but there was nothing but darkness and an eery feeling in the room. There was no sign of where the small light had been coming from, that was just another mysterious thing about this room. 

Lydia looked at the brunette beside her, their hearts feeling as if it had stopped in their chests. But even as her fear overcame her worry for the couple she had just heard, she stepped into the room. Blindly, she moved through the room continuing to mumble a soft hello? as she felt out for things in the room, using whatever she was laying her hands on to guide her through the motel room while Allison remained at the door. The redhead had gotten far enough into the room that she was near the window, a faint light cracking through the nicotine stained curtains that the redheads body had nudged allowing her to see an actual source of light within the room. She quickly placed both hands on the construction light searching for the switch before a bright line was illuminating the room allowing both of them clear vision.

"Oh, my God," Allison shouted as she ran through the motel room, if it could even be called that, it was better referred to as a construction site with all of the building materials. But that wasn't what had caused her sharp gasp.

An unconscious Noelle was in the doorway of what used to be the motel room's bathroom, sat upright against its frame. Both girls rushed to the aid of their friend, Allison immediately moving Nellie so her back was resting on her chest, tapping her face to wake the girl while Lydia looked around the motel room and the bathroom.

"Lydia. Lydia, she's not waking up. Why isn't she waking up?" Allison began to panic as her hand continued tapping Noelle's face, slightly adding pressure until she had stopped to press her ear against the blonde's mouth.

As Allison listened carefully, hoping for a breath to come from the blonde, even if it was faint, Lydia had seen a spec of orange in the corner of her eye, she'd turned to see a pill bottle a few inches away from Noelle's limp hand on the floor. It was about the right distance for it to have rolled out of her hand whenever she fell unconscious. It was empty. Lydia grabbed the bottle, searching for a label, a drug she had never heard before written across it, which surprised her considering how broad her knowledge of medicine was. It gave her the incline was probably as old as the motel itself, left here by one of its former guests, a medicine now eradicated.

Lydia didn't answer, instead, she squeezed the cheeks of the blonde creating a small opening in her mouth to see that it was empty, if she had taken any of the pills they were in her system now, and the clicking tock had begun.

"What do we do? Oh, my God. What do we do?" The brunette panicked more. "We haven't done training on this. What the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Get her in the tub." Lydia deadpanned. Allison didn't ask questions. There was no time. Both girls lifted Nellie, shoving her in the tub. "Sit behind her," Lydia instructed, once again Allison did as she was told without questions.

The redhead reached over for the valve of the shower, she turned it to the coldest setting before turning it on allowing the cold water to pour over the two sat in the bathtub. Though the cold water had shocked Allison as soon as it had touched her it hadn't affected the unconscious blonde, that wasn't the reaction Lydia had hoped for. She would have hoped it would have startled the blonde awake, proving that she hadn't overdosed and that maybe she had just crashed asleep in this room while exploring it. That maybe the empty pill bottle was simply a coincidence, but Nellie's lack of reaction now suggested otherwise.

Lydia removed her denim jacket quickly, throwing it to the ground as she prepared for the back up plan, clearing Nellie's system of the pills. At least the cold running water of the shower would clean off the blonde and Allison.

"Come on, Nellie." She mumbled hopefully before taking a deep and shaky breath. Allison watched as Lydia extended her hand, cupping Nellie's chin while her other hand began reaching inside of her mouth. When she realized what was coming Allison quickly refrained from seeing it happen.

Both Lydia and Allison closed their eyes, not wanting to see if the redhead was successful, the retching sound of the blonde was enough to tell them that she had been.

This was the kind of thing that was supposed to happen when one of them had drunk too much at one of Lydia's infamous birthday parties, or the party that she had begun planning for Nellie's upcoming birthday.

Not when they were stranded at a motel and because Nellie had shoved some unknown pills down her throat, they didn't even know how many. It could have been one, it could have been thirty, neither wanted to inspect the girls vomit to see a specific number. The fact she was awake was enough for them right now.

"What happened? What's going on?" Nellie asked hoarsely as she looked around her. From Lydia who had tears streaming from her eyes to Allison who sat behind her, drenched, shaking slightly from the cold water Lydia had pouring over them, her eyes also stinging with tears.

From Allison, her eyes traveled to the bathroom floor where the empty pill bottle lay. "Was- Was that me?" She asked as she looked back to Allison who nodded before getting both of them out of the tub.

In the split second that the two had turned their backs on Lydia to rinse themselves off the redhead had disappeared, a running theme with the pack tonight. The two wearily stepped back into the motel room that Nellie hadn't even remembered coming through where they had found Lydia staring at the wood paneling on one of the walls, back onto her focus of what she swore she had heard, the entire reason they were able to find Nellie in the first place.

"It had to be right here." Lydia insisted as her best friends looked around the room. "It was a guy and a girl, and they sounded younger, but... They were here."

"I believe you." Allison nodded, stepping closer to the redhead. "After everything we've been through, I believe you." She reassured her, Nellie nodding in agreement.

Even though she hadn't quite been sure what had happened she had no doubt that whatever Lydia had seen, heard, or thought, she believed. Like on the bus, Lydia's instincts were the ones she trusted the most, more than even her own instincts.

And as Allison said, they had been through a lot. Even in the short amount of time that Nellie had been back, they had all been through more than what the average teenager should have been through in a lifetime.

She trusted them with her life. They'd already saved it multiple times, and she was sure that it wouldn't be the last, and if she could, she would return the favor. The three girls returned to their own room. Only one thing on the redhead and blonde's minds. Getting the hell out of here. Noelle and Allison had been changing their clothes after being soddened by the events of room 216 and Nellie's almost successful suicide while Lydia rushed around the room packing all of their belongings. 

Unlike the other two, Allison didn't see the need to leave as urgently as they did. Yes, she hated this place and the experience she had just had was nerve-racking and frankly, traumatizing.

But there was nothing to say that it was Glen Capri that had caused the change in Nellie. Or the voices Lydia heard. Neither Nellie nor Lydia were willing to sit still and talk about that. The redhead was too busy packing, unlike her usual style of packing nothing was organized, things were hanging out of the zippers of her handbag as well as the bags that the other two girls had packed. She was sure she had even packed things that didn't belong to them because the TV remote that had been on the bed when they had just stormed in was gone. But she didn't care, anything that was in, on, or hanging out of the bags was theirs now.

Her and Nellie's plans were clear. Pack. Get the rest of their group. Leave. They didn't care if it meant walking all the way back to the rest stop with Stiles complaining he was hungry, or anything that the rest of the boys found to complain about during the long walk. If it meant that there was a large distance between them and Glen Capri, it was good enough for them.

"There's something seriously wrong with this place." Lydia reiterated again as she was almost jogging across their motel room, brushing past Allison who was stood in the middle of the room in a fresh set of clothes while Nellie jumped around the room trying to pull on the shorts that Lydia packed for her. "Hey, Allison, come on. We need to leave."

"But they were suicides, not murders, and it's not like this place is haunted, right?"

Lydia stopped in her tracks, turning round to the brunette in shock. Even Nellie had paused with her shorts halfway up her legs as they questioned if she was being serious.

"Allison. Nellie almost just killed herself and she didn't even know she was doing it. I am here VOICES in my head. Yes, I think this place is severely haunted. Voices, Allison, voices." Lydia emphasized largely but the brunette didn't seem convinced still.

Right now she was the most insane between all three of them.

"You know, I bet that couple that Lydia heard made their suicide pact in that very room," Nellie suggested with the redhead nodding in agreement. While they had been on their way back to the room to pack Lydia had given her a quick run-through of what she had heard, and if what had already happened before hearing that hadn't been enough for her to run for the hills, Lydia's story had confirmed her desperation to get out of here.

"Maybe that's why they're renovating." Lydia continued the theory. "Maybe they've been scraping brain matter off of the wood paneling."

"Maybe we should find out," Allison suggested.

That had been all the two neurotic girls needed to hear. Lydia dropped her things ready to march back down to the woman at the front desk and Nellie had properly pulled on her shorts followed by her converse and a jacket. The woman manning the front desk that Lydia had described to them was bound to be the most normal thing about this deadly motel. After Scott acted like a freak, Nellie trying to kill herself with no recollection of doing it, and Lydia heard two people making a suicide pact the three weren't sure there was anything else that could scare them tonight. They had practically lived through the plot of every horror movie existing in an hour and a half.

In the midst of all the drama, Nellie hadn't even told her two best friends about her run-in with Scott earlier, but right now it didn't seem important. Lydia had practically ran down the stairs towards the reception at full speed, no height of hell was going to stop her from getting the answers that she wanted from the woman who owned this hell hole. Nellie and Allison were barely able to keep up even in their flat shoes but once they had all three had barged into the reception almost taking the bell hanging above the door off of the wall.

On the small screen that stood between their side of the desk and the woman's was a sign reading back at 6:00 a.m., which was longer than either of the blonde or redhead were willing to wait, they could have been either on the way home in Allison and Cole's cars or at least near the rest stop depending on how much moaning Stiles did during the long walk back there.

"Well." Lydia sighed. "There goes that."

"Lydia..." Nellie mumbled as she stared through the small screen to the number hanging on the wall.

"Didn't you say the sign said 198?" Allison asked, continuing the point Nellie was about to make.

With furrowed brows, Lydia turned to the sign that once read 198. But that was gone now. It now read 201. Three more than it had before. Three more suicides. Her face dropped as her jaw gaped slightly, turning back to her two best friends with wide eyes.

"It was 198. I swear to God it was 198."

"Okay. What does that mean, that there's been three more suicides?"

"Or three more about to happen."

Lydia and Allison turned to Nellie.

"And I was supposed to be one of them."

Now the brunette was beginning to see why her two best friends were so desperate to get out of this place and why it was so urgent. The three had run, actually ran, back to their rooms, almost tripping over their own feet as they rushed to get to the room. Lydia had texted Stiles on their way back up to the room after all three had confirmed each other's suspicions that whatever was going on tonight was aimed towards the supernatural beings. That had been obvious from Nellie. There was no other explanation as to why she would have been that way, almost like she were in a trance, too. And if their suspicions were right they needed as many non-supernaturals to focus on this as possible, hence why it was so important for Stiles to get to them as soon as possible. And alone, as Lydia had stated in her text to the boy.

Within minutes of Lydia sending the text a heavy knock had sounded at the door, thankfully, it was Stiles and not Scott coming for a second round of weird exchanges with Nellie who realized that her run-in with the wolf was definitely something to mention. As soon as Stiles had stepped in the room she began explaining what had happened when the wolf had come into the room, which for Allison and Lydia had explained why the blonde had been staring at the cigarette burn in the middle of the floor for a prolonged amount of time.

They would have been equally as disorientated if their friend had hit on them in the way that Scott had, even Allison was sure she would feel the same and she'd dated the wolf.

After hearing Nellie's explanation Allison remembered the last time Scott had acted like this. During his first full moon, when that had been brought up it began to click in Lydia and Stiles's head too as they remembered how strange he'd acted. But even then hearing about Scott wasn't the weirdest interaction for him tonight, Boyd was. He'd watched the wolf put his fist through the vending machine downstairs, which was strange even coming from the boy who toppled over a vending machine while Lydia was in the hospital after receiving Peter's bite.

"See it is the motel," Lydia reiterated again, but now she was more sure than ever. "Either we need to get out of here right now or someone needs to learn how to do an exercise ASAP before the werewolves and the Priestley's go crazy and kill us." The redhead insisted as she began filing through the draws searching for the bible that she had seen upon her first inspection of the motel room, when she had found it she held it up to the three teenagers, shaking it to emphasize just how adamant she was that this place needed the exorcism.

"Okay, just hold on, all right? We don't know that it's affecting anyone other than the wolves." Stiles suggested as he looked between the three girls. That had been one thing that they'd failed to mention to him. "Wait. Do we? Did something else happen?" He asked as he looked at Nellie.

"You don't want the details." Nellie shook her head. "But yes, this is more than just the wolves."

"Okay. Then what if it isn't just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?"

"You mean like three sacrifices?" Allison asked.

"What if this time it's three supernaturals?"

"Scott, Nellie, and Boyd," Allison mumbled.

"Maybe we were meant to come here."

That wouldn't have been the weirdest explanation for tonight's occurrences. In fact, sacrifices were probably the best reasoning that they had come up with. "But if it was supposed to be three more sacrifices and mine didn't work, what now? Does it pass onto someone else? Will it happen again? What about Cole? Or Isaac? What if it happens to them next? What if it just keeps trying to take down every supernatural in this place until they get their three sacrifices?" Nellie ranted, with every question she settled fear into her friends even more. It was questions that they hadn't considered, but now they had to.

For all they knew there were a lot more supernaturals here than they thought.

"We don't know which is all the more reason as to why we should get the hell out of here right now," Lydia shouted again, still shaking the red bible in her hand. "Please." She begged.

"Wait, hang on. Let me see this." Stiles avoided the question as he took the bible from Lydia.

He flicked open the bible to the page where he'd seen a piece of paper hanging out of the edge, moving over to the bed where he threw the bible while he opened the folded up piece of paper. The three girls gathered around him, peering over his shoulder to look at the news article in his hand.

28-YEAR-OLD MAN HANGS HIMSELF AT THE INFAMOUS GLEN CAPRI.

Stiles threw the article on the bed after noticing it wasn't the only piece of paper hanging out of the bible, while he began searching for all the other papers stashed in between its holy pages Nellie and Allison picked up the article on the bed to investigate it further.

Eventually, Stiles resorted to shaking the bible above the bed allowing article after article to sprinkle down onto the dusty sheets, each grabbing one to read out. All suicides. All here in Glen Capri. And to make matters worse, all of them took place in this very room. 217.

"What if every room has a bible?" Allison asked.

"And what if every bible has news articles about the suicides that happened in that room?" Nellie added. Both very much possible theories.

A stifled laugh came from the boy in the room as he joked about the articles being left in the room rather than the conventional mint or chocolate under the pillow. Just another thing to prove that something was extremely wrong with this place. But unlike usual, the three girls weren't in the mood for humor. How could they be? Three of them had just been involved in an attempted suicide and now apparently they would be involved in another three.

Lydia looked down at the old article in her hand once again, reading over the number 217 thinking about the theory that Allison and Nellie had come up with. "What if the room next door has the one about the couple?" She questioned as she looked between the three of them.

It took a matter of seconds for the redhead's question to sink in before Nellie and Stiles were racing towards the door ready to test that theory with the other two girls rushing behind them. The two stopped at the door of room 216, jimmying the handle to try and pry the door open again. Unlike when a suicidal Nellie had gotten in and when Allison and Lydia had found their way to the room it was locked. It wasn't possible. If Nellie could open in when she was in some kind of trance there had to be a way of opening it, she pulls push doors when not in a trance, let alone while in one.

Allison had suggested leaving the articles and focusing on getting the other supernaturals out of here before it was too late, but she hadn't just given them a simple "the werewolves and Cole" she had listed the people here that they had to worry about. And it had been noted by the other three that a particular blonde boy had topped her list. Despite their desperation to test whether every room had the bibles and articles, they all agreed to follow Allison's suggestion. Stiles had begun rushing across the balcony to his room that he was sharing with Scott but within two steps his feet had been stalled by the sound of a whirring machine coming from room 216 where Nellie, Allison, and Lydia still stood with their eyes widened enough they resembled UFOs.

"I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?" Lydia mumbled.

"It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on." Allison followed.

"Handsaw?" Stiles yelled in disbelief as she rushed to stand back beside them. The fact that this room contained a handsaw was a detail that the three girls had failed to mention.

"We need to get in there now."

"Move back," Nellie warned. As the only supernatural between the three of them she volunteered herself to be the one who broke the door down, she was least likely to hurt herself by kicking it down, especially when Stiles was in this equation. Neither of the three humans had objections as they did as they were told, giving the blonde space.

Within seconds her foot was colliding with the door, swinging it open to reveal Ethan in the middle of the room, shirtless, holding the whirring handsaw high ready to tear himself to shreds. Even a werewolf wouldn't survive that injury. Stiles had been the first to rush into the room as he yelled at the wolf to stop. He lunged towards him, ending up playing tug of war with the wolf, the machinery acting as their rope. Both boys strained as they tried to pull it in their direction.

Lydia's eyes followed the wire from the handsaw in their hands to the wall beside the door, pulling out the plug from its socket just as Ethan let go of the machinery causing Stiles to fall with it in his hand. Nellie had lunged forward grabbing Stiles's jacket to pull him up before his face had ended up on the handsaw as it continued to wire before stopping completely. The redhead's grip on his jacket had pulled them both to the floor while Ethan stood tall still.

The Alpha extended his claws placing both of them across his waist as he prepared to tear himself open. Stiles jumped up from the floor, grabbing one arm while Allison took the other, both pulling Ethan's arms towards them hoping to get his claws away from him. All three of them struggled as the Alpha tried to fling them off, and once he had he'd lost his balance, he fell forward causing himself to land on the heater. As his skin sizzled the wolf fell to the ground, his painful scream echoing through the room as Nellie and Lydia dropped down to check on him.

And just like that. He snapped out of it.

"What just happened?" Ethan asked as he jumped up from the floor looking at the four of them.

None had quite been able to gather the words in time before the Alpha rushed out of the room, even after Stiles had called his name ready to explain as best as he could the Alpha continued to run straight into his room, not prepared to talk about what had just happened. Which the likes of the three girls who'd already witnessed a near-suicide before his understood, after tonight they never wanted to mention Nellies again. It would be a thing of the past. Like it never happened.

"What now?" Lydia asked as they all stood outside.

"I'll find Cole. Nellie, Scott. You guys grab Isaac and Boyd. The best thing we can do is get everyone out of this place before it's too late."

·❥·

Nellie had searched everywhere. Scott and Stiles's room. The bathroom. The vending machine. The ice machine. The reception. Everywhere that a possibly could possibly be found in this motel, but he was nowhere. Gone. After failing to find him the blonde assumed it would be better to have more than one set of eyes looking for Scott, she just hoped that Allison had had more luck in finding Cole than she had in finding the werewolf.

She hadn't been too surprised to find the brunette stood in Cole's room with the boy himself sitting on his bed listening intently to Allison's explanation of the night so far. Considering the somewhat calm expression on her brother's face she assumed that the girl hadn't quite reached the point of explaining that his little sister had tried killing herself a little over an hour ago. Just as Nellie leaned against the doorframe without Allison had reached the part in the Glen Capri fairytale that she had been wondering about.

"She what?" Cole asked in a yell as he jumped up from the bed.

"Calm down, Clark Kent, I'm fine," Nellie spoke up, making herself known.

"Did you find Scott?" The brunette questioned as she turned to the blonde at the door. Considering he wasn't beside her she assumed not, it wasn't often Scott let the blonde stray too far, she'd noticed that since they had found her in the vault.

"No, I've looked everywhere."

"Okay. We'll look for Scott. You go and find Stiles and Lydia, meet back at the bus."

When the blonde had gotten to Isaac and Boyd's room the door was wide open allowing her to see straight through it and to the bathroom where she could see her redhead best friend kneeling beside the tub. Nellie rushed straight to Lydia, coming to a sharp stop as she reached the doorway to see Boyd lay in the bathtub beneath the water, a safe on top of him to keep him there. She felt as her heart sank to her stomach, a pained whimper escaping from her mouth as she clutched her stomach, covering her own mouth as she looked at him in shock.

The good thing about her own attempt was that she'd been unconscious, unable to remember what had happened before feeling Lydia's fingers down her throat. Now, with Boyd, she had to see it all in its horrifying glory, she had to watch as one of her closest friends suffered.

She mumbled a series of "Oh, my God's" as she dropped down to the side of the tub, wrapping her arms around the heavy safe in the hopes that she would be able to lift it. Even Lydia tried again after already attempting to lift it with Stiles, but she was unaware of the blonde's full capabilities, so she too had hope that they would be able to lift it.

"Where the hell is Stiles?" A straining blonde asked, taking a large huff as she paused her attempts at lifting the safe. Her strength was no match for a human Boyd, and especially not a werewolf Boyd. This was the kind of job for Scott, who of course, was nowhere to be found.

"He's getting a road flare from the bus. Heat snaps them out of it."

"Heat?" Nellie repeated. An idea blooming.

"Yes. Heat. Fire. Heat. Like the heater with Ethan."

Her idea was confirmed with that clarification. Unlike at the mall, she wasn't going to hesitate, this time she could save someone's life like she hadn't been able to with Derek. This time she wasn't going to let the chance pass. Especially not with Boyd. It was sooner than she had hoped to show anyone her capabilities, but it was for a good reason, and it was in front of Lydia who she knew would keep the secret if she chose to ask her to.

"Lydia, I need you to trust me and I need you to move out of the way." Nellie insisted.

"What?"

"Move." She repeated again.

This time the redhead listened, she jumped up from the floor and backed up until she was in the bathroom doorway with an uneasy feeling growing in her stomach as she watched Nellie stand up beside the tub. She wanted to ask what Nellie was going to do, but frankly, she was too terrified to know, as long as it would get Boyd out of the water than she was willing to stay quiet.

Nellie removed her jacket quickly, throwing it behind her into Boyd and Isaac's room. She stretched out her hands in front of her taking a deep, long breath as she shut her eyes tightly. With growing fear Lydia tried to push herself further back against the open door, there was always the choice of running for the hills, ducking for cover to protect herself from whatever her best friend was going to unleash. But with that option came leaving her best friend in a time of need, and missing out on seeing just what Nellie had been hiding for all these years.

She knew Nellie enough to know that this was about releasing what she'd spent all this time concealing from the world, she'd been pushed to the point where she couldn't hide it any longer, risking exposing herself was something she was willing to do if it meant saving someone she loved. Because that was one thing that would never change about the blonde. Not even after what she'd been through these past two years.

As the girl concentrated every little bit of power within herself she could feel as it began rising to the surface bringing back that riveting feeling that she hadn't felt for a long time. Lydia's eyes widened as a fiery ball began to form in the palms of her best friends, growing in size with the more she concentrated.

There it was. The thing she had been hiding. Well, one of them.

Nellie opened her eyes, a slightly relieved laugh coming from her as she looked at it in her hands, then to Lydia whose eyes widened even more. Rather than the usual soft green eyes of the girl she'd known for years, she was met with fiery orange eyes, the same color as the dancing flame in her palms, the same orange as what she and Allison had seen across room 216. That had been the moment Lydia realized what Nellie was doing now was the extent of her abilities, she was much more than someone able to ignite fire from her bare palms.

Nellie stepped closer to the tub where Boyd lay as she prayed it wasn't too later. She could hear Stiles running up the metal staircase that lead to the motel room, his hands slapping against the door frame as he rushed into the room. Lydia had managed to stretch out her arm against the frame to stop him from stepping any further just as Nellie placed her fiery hands into the water, allowing Stiles a slight glimpse of her power before it had been forced into the water. With the flame inches away from his face Boyd's eyes opened wide, the heat radiating on his face even though the water had snapped him out of it, just like Lydia and Stiles had hoped to do with the road flare. At the sight of the golden yellow eyes, Nellie sharply pulled her hand out of the water as Stiles pulled her back by her shirt.

All three of them were pressed against the bathroom door as Stiles held his arms across both of the girls as a shield, watching as Boyd threw the safe off of himself causing the metal to scrape against the floor. As soon as the weight had been lifted she sprung up out of the water with a loud roar escaping his mouth.

He took a moment to catch his breath again before looking to the three by the door who was breathing large sighs of relief, thankful that Stiles's theory of heat snapping them out of it had actually worked. It hadn't quite settled in for any of the four yet what Nellie had just done. But it would. And that was three more people than Nellie had been expecting to show it too.

Still, there was no doubt in her mind she'd do it again to save someone she loved.

"Nellie." Lydia spoke up, breaking the silence. She didn't say anything else, but her eyes guided the blonde towards one of the beds in the room behind them.

It was as if something told Nellie that her friend was beneath there

She kneeled down on the floor, lifting up the sheet that hung over the bed to see her large gentle wolf friend Isaac cowering beneath it, curled up into a ball. Nellie reached her hand out to Isaac wearily, waiting patiently for him to grab it, it had taken him a few seconds to trust her but when he had finally intertwined his hand with hers she closed her eyes once again.

The blonde focused her power once again as she had with Boyd, heating up her hand until Isaac snatched his hand away, snapping out of it as he quickly pulled himself from under the bed.

He stood up blowing onto his hand that now had a burning, tingling sensation as he looked around at the four in his room who stared at him. Just like the others, he hadn't quite understood what had happened to him. He didn't remember anything that had happened since walking into the motel room. The only thing he could remember, was, of course, seeing two bright orange eyes a matter of seconds ago.

"Well, that wasn't what I was expecting." Isaac deadpanned as he looked at the girl.

"Yeah, I had my money on something, well, less terrifying." Stiles agreed.

"Can we postpone this for like, I don't know until we've made sure that everyone isn't dead?" Nellie asked as she looked around the room, nobody seemed to disagree as they held up their hands in defense. "Issac. Boyd. Get packing. As soon as we find Scott we're getting out of here."

"You didn't find Scott?" Lydia asked.

"No. Cole and Allison are looking for him."

"Are they going to be able to stop him on their own, if he, you know, tries to..." Stiles tilted his head, implying what they already knew he meant.

"I don't know. Which is why we need to go. Now."

In agreement, the three-headed back out the door leaving Isaac and Boyd to pack as they raced towards Scott's room once again, but the door was wide open and the room was empty. After that first stop, the three began running around the motel checking all of the places that Nellie had checked earlier in case he had reappeared in one of them. Lydia suggested checking the room that seemed to be hosting most of tonight's events causing the three to race back up to 216 where they had found Allison and Cole, Scottless. Clearly, they had had the same thought to return to the room that had been the site for almost two suicides, tonight at least.

"You haven't found him yet?" Lydia asked as he barged into the room, scaring the two.

"No. Have you?" Cole asked.

"No." The group of three answered in unison.

Scott really had become a magician. The five of them rushed out of the room again, running towards the parking lot hoping to get a better view of Glen Capri, maybe the fresh air would be able to let all five of them think clearly at where Scott McCall would hide if he were planning to unwillingly be part of a suicidal sacrifice. Nellie had been at the front of the group, rushing down the metal stairs that rumbled beneath the weight of all five of them, it clearly wasn't made to have so many people on it at once. And this motel wasn't ever supposed to have this many guests at a time. It was unnatural. Maybe that had been the explanation for the strange night.

"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles asked as he rushed behind Nellie.

"It has to be." Lydia followed.

"Am I the only one it hasn't happened to yet?" Cole asked from the back of the group.

"Let's not jinx ourselves, shall we?" Nellie shouted back to him.

"Maybe you were right, Nellie. Maybe it will just keep passing on until they get their three sacrifices. What if once we save Scott it happens to Cole and then what if it happens to Cole it happens to someone else who we don't even know is supernatural? We can't stop it if we don't see it coming." Allison began to ramble, growing more flustered as she thought of the possibilities.

"We'll figure that out if we get to that point. Let's just focus on finding Scott."

The wolf's name had barely left her mouth before she had stopped abruptly causing the string of other teenagers to collide with one another as they all stopped. Across the parking lot, a few feet from the bus they'd rode here on stood Scott. His back was facing them, but they could see a low flame beside him from one of the road flares, the one that Stiles had left on the bus. At his feet was a puddle, but everywhere else was dry. For once it hadn't been raining in California.

All five of them slowly approached the wolf, walking around the mysterious puddle until they were facing Scott who stood with his head bowed, his hair dripping. It was when they'd reached him they were able to see the canister of gasoline at the edge of the puddle, confirming that it wasn't just some mysterious puddle of water, it was Scott's route of escape.

"Scott," Nellie mumbled, a crack in her voice.

After all of the things she had seen tonight, she thought that when they would find Scott she wouldn't be affected because she knew that they would be able to break him out of it. But seeing it was much worse than thinking about it. This was the reality. His hair dripping with the gasoline he'd poured over himself, the flare he had lit in hand, a puddle at his feet ready to be set alight. And the worst part was she knew she couldn't help him like she'd helped Boyd. It was as if he knew that, like that had been the very reason his subconscious had chosen this method because he knew Nellie wouldn't be able to save him like she'd want to.

Tears had filled their eyes, even Scott's, he was aware of what he was doing, but he couldn't stop it. That voice in his head continued to tell him that this was the right thing to do. Nellie knew that feeling, even before tonight.

He finally looked up at them. The flare held just a few inches away from his body as it sparked causing the five watching him to flinch, scared that it would happen before they'd even had a chance to try and stop the wolf.

"There's no hope." Scott finally spoken.

"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison asked as she shook her head.

She couldn't believe that she stood at the edge of a gasoline puddle that her first love stood in the middle of. Even though they had all known for a while now that this would happen tonight, like Nellie, it wasn't really until now. It wasn't real until they had seen how hard it was going to be to get him out of this. It wasn't as simple as Nellie holding hands with him to snap him out of it, or putting her fiery hand in the water to snap him out of it. It wasn't as simple as sticking someone's fingers down his throat to make sure he threw up however many pills he had taken. This was an impossible situation.

"There's always hope." She tried to comfort him, trying to believe her own words.

"Not for me." Scott disagreed, shaking his head. "Not for Derek." His voice croaked.

"Derek wasn't your fault," Nellie insisted, a point she had made earlier today but now it meant more than it had on the bus. That wasn't a life or death situation, this was very much that. And Scott needed to know he was innocent in this. "You know Derek wasn't your fault."

"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep dying."

"Scott, listen to me, okay?" Stiles pleaded as he stepped forward, closer to the gasoline. "This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay? Now..."

"What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" Scott asked them as he began to sob, making his breaths shaky. "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You and me. We were... We were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again." Scott continued. Nellie watched as his every word hit Stiles deeper and deeper, with every "we" it brought back some form of memory of their old life. Before Lydia paid any attention to them. When Cole couldn't bear to look at them. When they thought Nellie was dead. When they didn't know Allison even existed. "No one at all." He said, moving the flare, preparing to drop it, preparing to end it all.

"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay, you're someone, you're... Scott, you're my best friend. Okay? And I need you." Stiles said tearfully as he stepped closer and closer to the wolf, stepping straight into the gasoline pool, but he didn't care. He didn't need someone to be inside of his head to know that if his best friend died tonight it wouldn't be alone. "Scott, you're my brother. All right, so... So if you're gonna do this, then I think you're just going to have to take me with you." He insisted as he placed his hand on the flare as he looked straight at the wolf.

Nellie and Lydia looked at one another, Cole and Allison, seemingly the person that they trusted the most, the person they placed all of their confidence in during these crucial moments. Each of them questioned what they were supposed to do.

Did they step into the gasoline with them? Did they hope that Stiles had more of a plan than to sacrifice himself with Scott? Did Nellie try to figure out a way to use her powers to help this?

Stiles placed his other hand on the flare, slowly peeling it away from Scott as the four on the edge. As he threw the flare away from them their breaths stopped as it flung through the air landing out of the pool of gasoline. Away from Scott. Away from Stiles. Nellie had breathed the slightest breath of relief before she felt a gush of wind brush past the bare skin of her arm. Her eyes darted straight to the flare on the ground as it began to move. Blowing straight back towards the gasoline where the two boys still stood. Lydia had noticed it too. And it was now a race against time. Time had been one of their worst enemies tonight.

"No!" Nellie screamed at the top of her lungs, rushing towards the two boys.

All of them had. Stiles had wrapped his arms around Scott, before being tackled to the ground by Lydia. Cole had quickly reached out for Allison, pulling her on top of him as he hit the ground. All five shielded one another as they felt the blast of heat from the fire hit their skin. Lydia, who was on top of the pile of human bodies raised her head, looking straight towards the fire. She looked at those around her. She counted. Four.

As she looked back at the large fire a scream escaped her lungs, almost a shriek, her voice cracking as her eyes filled with tears. At the sound of that piercing noise, the other four lifted themselves from the ground, shielding their eyes from the bright light of the fire that continued to soar just a few feet away from them. Engulfing all of the gasoline that Scott had tipped out. Then they noticed too. There was only one redhead with them. Where was Nellie?

"No, no, no, no. No." Cole began to mumble, pulling himself off of the ground as the blast from the roaring fire tried to stop him. But when it came to his little sister he was stronger than that. He'd barely stood to his feet when the flames began to die down out of nowhere.

As if it was being controlled the large flames began to shrink, still dancing as they began to shape themselves, almost as if it was centering around something. It didn't look like the uncontrollable blast of a gasoline spillage anymore. It had a purpose. The way it moved was with purpose. Shaping itself into a ball as it grew smaller, lighter, calmer. As the blast softened the other teenagers were able to pull themselves from the ground, looking straight into those orange flames that dissipated. Each of them in awe. A figure began emerging in the center of the flames, wrapping around it elegantly until the figure was clear. Two bright orange eyes right in its core, the very being that had been controlling it with all of her might.

The secret was out. At least, part of it.