parasomnia

Being dragged through the Sheriff's department by her boyfriend, Kinsey listened as Stiles tried to talk to his father about the boy who'd returned to town last night, saving them from the beast of a werewolf who attacked Scott, asking to be a part of his pack too. He found it all suspicious, a little too suspicious, he saw no better way of finding out if something strange was going on than to ask his father, a man who wasn't interested in whatever insane theory his son had conjured in his sleep, he wanted his son to go to school, to actually attend his senior year. 

Something that Kinsey wouldn't have minded doing either. Already, she had heard plenty about Theo Raeken and how he didn't seem the same as when he left at the age of nine or ten. It was a name she hadn't heard before last night, he nor Scott had ever mentioned a Theo to her, but he was all that Stiles had talked about since. She hadn't argued with his theory that the boy might be different, he was usually right about these things, he was right about Matt Daehler being off, but could he expect Theo to be the same as he was when he was nine or ten? She knew that she wasn't the person she was at that age, she still lived with her mother back then, her mother was simply a mother back then, not an arsonist who was now on the run. A lot could change between the ages of nine and eighteen. She would know, in just a few months it would be her eighteenth birthday, it only felt like months since he had arrived in this town as a fresh sixteen-year-old.

Stiles recalled how Theo had left, his older sister had gotten into an accident when he was eight, a year or so before he left, he wasn't sure if that could be connected somehow, but it felt worthy of mentioning. Noah held up his hand, interrupting his son, begging him to go to school, looking at the dark-haired girl for some help in the matter. Kinsey tried to help, telling Stiles they would come back later, after school, after they had gotten through the first day of their senior year. The pleading of both his father and girlfriend fell on deaf ears, he had to do this now.

"Dad, this kid's a werewolf."

"Your best friend is a werewolf." Noah reminded him. "You are dating an Angel who is supposed to become a werewolf too one day. I got that right, right?" He asked as the brunette nodded, for once, he had. "And I still don't know what Kira's supposed to be. When the flying monkey's come soaring through this station, you will have my undivided attention. Until then, just go to school."

"What did you do?" Stiles asked as he pointed at his father who furrowed a brow, asking what he meant. "There's something different about you." He insisted as he began sniffing his father while Kinsey mumbled out how she was supposed to be the animal in this relationship. "What is that? Are you wearing aftershave? What did you do?" Stiles turned back to his girlfriend, now placing it on her, his father wouldn't just begin wearing aftershave, not unless someone suggested it, like a girl who was regularly around their house, someone his father would trust to help him with that kind of thing. Kinsey held her hands up, claiming to have nothing to do with it. 

"For the love of God, Stiles, just go to school."

"I will if you promise to do a full background check on the Raekens." Stiles tried to convince the man, but Noah didn't stand for it, he wasn't going to indulge his son's delusional behavior.

"No." He stated plainly. "You know what? Just because I'm the only law enforcement officer who knows anything about this, does not make it my responsibility to do something every time that you have a minor suspicion." Noah lectured his son, expecting that he would step down.

The corner of Stiles' mouth turned into a grin. His father wasn't the only one who knew about it anymore, thanks to the dead pool, another member of law enforcement was now in the loop, as though that wasn't good enough he had quite the close relationship with his girlfriend, meaning he would be willing to look into someone's background if she asked. He turned to the window, a deputy, an innocent, unsuspecting deputy sat flicking through his case files, he had no idea that Stiles intended to drag him into this, using both him and his own girlfriend to clear up his minor suspicion of Theo. The Argent girl turned back to the Sheriff, questioning if he would allow it, he sighed, nodding, allowing the brunette to go and fetch his deputy, perhaps to warn him of what he was about to get dragged into too. 

After grabbing Parrish, sending him into the office, Kinsey dismissed herself, reminding Stiles her sister would be waiting for her at the school, and she could be just as grumpy when people were late. Besides, if Stiles' suspicions were right, she didn't know how long he could be here, maybe long enough for him to miss his first day of the senior year, something she wasn't willing to do, it was a big deal, bigger than he seemed to realize. It was their last first day together, by the time it came to the next one, they would all be going to different, but close, colleges. 

Once Parrish had run the background check on the Raeken, Stiles had caught up with the sisters, calling their names as he rushed to fill them in on what he had found, with all his eagerness they had thought he had found something worthwhile, but nothing more than a speeding ticket from eight years ago signed by Theo's dad had come up, to both of the girls, that seemed like nothing. Stiles questioned who sped, neither knowing whether it was a rhetorical question, it was. People who were trying to get away from something, that was who.

Malia questioned how many tickets Stiles had. None, he answered confidently. Kinsey reworded it, asking how many he would have if his father didn't get him out of them. Seventeen, he said in a low voice, beginning to see their point as he jutted his lip, losing the argument. He hated when he had to argue with both of them, he never seemed to win. Malia could understand why he was worried, Theo was really hot, he had great hair and a perfect body. In case it wasn't obvious, she warned him that he should definitely feel threatened.

While Kinsey refrained from laughing, Stiles nodded, he did feel threatened, more than ever. He was already punching above his weight with his girlfriend, he had already fought off, in a sense, the competition, and now, here came another round with new competition. He wasn't sure how many werewolves he could go up against. Kinsey reassured him that he had no reason to worry, she hadn't even seen Theo for herself yet, though Malia had given her a very vivid description of him, she was sure that he wasn't as great as her sister made him out to be. 

In an attempt to make up for hurting his feelings, Malia offered to make it better in the only way she knew how, by offering to torture Theo for him, she was sure that she could take him. It was a tempting offer, Stiles had to admit, but he had a plan, there were steps to doing it right. They get the story. Verify the facts. Find the piece that doesn't fit, and boom, catch him in the act. He was almost about to claim himself as a bonified genius until something behind the two girls caught his attention, a frustrated sigh escaping him, turning the two girls' heads to the parking lot. 

A boy with admittedly great hair was getting out of a silver car, leaving Kinsey in anticipation for when he finally turned around, surely enough, the boy who turned around did meet Malia's very vivid description, but she chose not to admit that to an already neurotic Stiles who was already breathing heavily behind her as his blood began to boil. Noticing the three people watching him, Theo waved at them with a friendly smile, seemingly the least suspicious person to exist. He was far from someone who looked like a criminal mastermind. 

 "Why are you suspicious of this guy again?" Kinsey asked as she turned back to her boyfriend. 

"Because I remember Theo from fourth grade. Okay? That's not Theo."

Once again, she looked at the boy in question, perhaps she hadn't known who Theo was back in the fourth grade or even now, but she couldn't fathom how he could be bad. He walked with this big smile on his face and a spring in his step, looking like someone who was heading for them, to catch up with someone he thought was a friend from fourth grade perhaps. Kinsey sighed with a shake of her head, turning to her boyfriend as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Stiles, do you think it's possible you might be being a little paranoid? Because I know paranoid, and he's a very good friend of mine, and I think that he's getting to know you too." Before Stiles could argue that he wasn't being paranoid, the girl interrupted him with a kiss on the cheek. "See you during free period? Come on, Lia."

At the beginning of her free period, Kinsey walked to her locker, about to unload a heavy stack of books. Only one day into her senior year the huntress was beginning to feel the pressure sink in. This was it, her last first day. Her first last day without her best friend at her side. Without Allison. But she was doing this for both of them. She would be graduating and going to college, fulfilling all of her dreams for both of them. From now on, everything she did would do for Allison as well as herself. Even though she tried keeping that mindset, there was something about today. There was this feeling inside of her, like this was the beginning of the end. Perhaps that was how every senior felt, that soon enough it would be the end of high school and the end of an era. She chose to tell herself that that was all it was. The jitters that every senior has.

Kinsey opened her locker, and suddenly, everything turned silent. Dark. It felt as though she had lost her hearing. In a split second, she had gone from standing in the well-lit, busting school halls to being alone and in the dark, a strong feeling of confusion and fear washed over her as the girl tried to figure out what was going on, what was happening to her, and who's locker she'd found herself at if not her own. She knew it wasn't hers. The door lacked the faces of her friends in the photos she had stuck to her locker last year. She wasn't sure who it belonged to but knew it wasn't her.

As the brunette looked down the right side of the corridor, her eyes narrowed on a locker further down from her, watching as a black liquid oozed from it, pooling on the floor. Her breathing was growing heavier by the second as the fear began suffocating her from the inside out. She wasn't sure what was going on, and what concerned her more, was that it didn't feel like she was in her own body. She had known this before, living someone else's nightmare. She'd known then she was living inside of Stiles's head, someone she had a connection to, this wasn't quite like that, it was unclear whose the nightmare she was living, who she had such a connection with that they were able to drag her into their mind, allowing her to live in the horror movie they were experiencing. 

When the oozing of the liquid slowed to a stop, the locker unlatched itself slowly, the girl was in a state of shock, unable to move, unable to run as she watched something emerge from it. First, it was just a gloved hand, but with every passing second the figure crawled out further from the locker, a surgeon-like figure wearing a mask, the sound of clicking filling her ears. Kinsey hadn't seen anything like it before, and she never wanted to see anything like it again. It felt unnatural, and inhumane. 

It grew closer, crawling sideways along the lockers, defying gravity as Kinsey reassured herself it wasn't real. None of this was. There was nothing there. There was nothing there she repeated in the hopes that saying it enough would rid her mind of it. She closed her eyes tightly, muttering it to herself, holding tightly onto the locker, trying to ground herself. When she opened them again it was closer than ever, at arm's length as her eyes grew wider, her breaths shakier than ever, she still found herself frozen. Any words caught in her throat. There was no chance of calling for help with the lump that was lodged in her throat, nobody to hear her in this hellish scene.

"Hey, Kins, you all right?" Scott asked as he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, startling her as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. She looked at him with tears in her eyes, as if she'd seen a ghost, something that scared the life out of her. Before answering him, she looked around the hallway, a light, crowded hallway with teenagers clamoring on their first day. Not the hallway of horror that she had just experienced. "Kins, is something wrong?" 

She turned back to him, still silent for another minute, still unsure of where she was. Back at her own locker, with the faces of her smiling friends looking at her from the images on the door. She stammered as she tried to figure out what had happened to her, how to explain the feeling that it brought to her. "I think... It was like I was in... It was like I was having a bad dream. But it felt so real." She told him with a shake of her head. "It wasn't mine."

Scott furrowed a brow. "What do you mean?" He asked, unsure what that meant. "What wasn't yours? The nightmare?"

Kinsey nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes with a sniffle, taking a deep shaky breath. "I think it was more than a nightmare, Scott. It felt... It felt so real. I can't explain it."

The Alpha tried to help, using what he knew about the girl and her strange experiences of being in someone else's head. He asked whether she knew who it was, who's nightmare she was living. She had been through this before, with Stiles, when he was still being affected by the aftermath of their sacrifices. As he asked the questions and tried to familarise himself with it all, the Argent girl quickly crammed her belongings into her locker, wanting to be free from the sight of lockers before that image of a crawling, masked surgeon popped back into her head. She hoped that it would never return, but with the fear that it brought her, she was almost adamant that it would.

It was different to then, she mumbled, still trying to make sense of it herself. She had always had a strong connection to Stiles, it had made sense for her to be able to find herself inside his head, living through his dreams and nightmares, but he was with her in that nightmare, she knew that it belonged to him because he was there. This one, she was alone with that, thing, as she called it, she didn't know who the nightmare belonged to but after just a couple of minutes inside their head, she didn't evny them. She didn't know what kind of horror movies a person had to watch for such an image to be conjured up inside of their head.

Seeing that the girl was shaken up, Scott suggested a little fresh air, offering her a distraction, he had experienced a horror story of his own. Only his was set in AP biology. That fact alone was the most shocking part of his horror, and he had only just begun telling it, until now, she didn't know Scott even knew what AP stood for, let alone that he was taking an AP class. 

The two of them sat outside with his large stack of biology books as he relieved his morning in a class he wasn't so sure he belonged in anymore. He had done all of the studying, he had spent a long summer at his desk reading through the books in his arms, and yet, compared to the other people in the class, he didn't seem to know anything. Even his teacher Mrs. Finch didn't seem to think he belonged in there, offering him an out, giving him two weeks to drop out. 

"Hold on." Kinsey stopped him. "I must be confused. I thought I was talking to Scott McCall-" The girl said as the Alpha's brows furrowed, unsure if she had finally lost her mind, it had been a long time coming. "-Not someone who gives up on the first day because one person thought he was a little out of his league. You're an Alpha. The top dog. If anyone can make it work, Scott, it's you." She reassured him as she squeezed his hand with a large smile. 

Scott smiled back, relieved that someone had faith in him, even if she had seemed surprised by the fact he knew what AP stood for, but he hadn't broadcasted all of the studying he did over the summer while wondering what Kira was doing in New York. He shouldn't be surprised that they didn't know how much he'd improved in his studies. "What about you? Shouldn't you have been in that class? I thought you wanted to be in a doctor."

Kinsey scoffed. "Wanted." She emphasized. That dream was one she hadn't had for a long time, in fact, it wasn't until he mentioned it that she remembered it was ever a thing. When she came to Beacon Hills that was the goal, it was what she had told Stiles she wanted to do, it was why he helped her study, why he made sure to actually do the work whenever they were lab partners. It was a dream that was far into the past. "I'm already surrounded by death enough as it is. I can't make a living from it too." 

"So what do you want to do?" 

"I don't know," Kinsey admitted with a sigh. "But don't tell Stiles that. It would ruin his vision. He is already scared enough that he isn't going to get it, I can't be the one that destroys it." She said as she ran her hands through her hair. "I guess I never planned this far, I didn't think I needed to. I didn't exactly plan on making it to college."

"Hey." Scott placed a hand on the shoulder. "You're gonna make it to college and we'll find you a new dream. One that doesn't involve death. Sound good?" He asked, the brunette nodding with a faint smile. 

Soon enough, the serenity of two friends reassuring each other on a rough first day was broken by the sound of a familiar and frantic yelling. Footsteps rushed toward them, paired with a loud shouting of their name, it could only mean trouble was ahead. Their shoulders were gripped as Stiles appeared in between them, out of breath from the running, he took a break from being a frantic mess to greet his confused girlfriend properly, kissing her forehead before turning back to the problem at hand, or more so, the opportunity. They all had a free period, as did Theo. It was the perfect chance to complete step one of his plan. Getting the story.

Willing to indulge in his insanity, the two followed him, ending up in the locker room, trying not to appear like they wanted the boy dead, even if Stiles most definitely did. It was hard for him to act as though he didn't suspect something was up with Theo, though, he didn't try to hide it, he leaned against the locker with folded arms and narrowed eyes. Leaving the acting casual to the others, beginning with Kinsey finally introducing herself, but to no surprise, Theo already knew who she was. He had heard a lot about her, for obvious, supernatural reasons. 

His fountain of knowledge about her and her lack thereof opened up the perfect opportunity for Kinsey to ask how he came to be a werewolf, what his story was. It was a smooth approach Stiles had to admit, he was thinking more along the lines of ambushing Theo to ask how he'd become a werewolf. This was why she was the stealthy hunter heir and not him.

Theo didn't seem to mind recalling the time he was bitten, he didn't argue, he knew that to be a part of Scott's pack it was a story that would be asked, it was natural curiosity, a right of passage for werewolves. He was skateboarding in an empty swimming pool for hours on end, for so long he had lost track of time, he admitted that he wasn't the best skateboarder, so on his last try he went down, and he hit hard, really hard. He was sitting at the bottom of the pool, and he realized something. His skateboard never came down. When he looked up, a man with glowing red eyes and claws was standing at the lip of the pool holding the board. He explained that the Alpha had bitten him on his right side, almost in the exact same place that Scott was bitten. 

Stiles chimed in, asking why he wasn't part of this Alpha's pack. Why didn't he come back for his beta? Theo explained that by the time of his first full moon when he had finally figured out what was going on, the Alpha was dead. Kinsey gently asked how he knew that before Stiles was able to jump down his throat again, perhaps this wasn't an easy thing for him to talk about, perhaps it had been as rough for him as it had Scott, so she thought that gently was the best approach to the situation, once again, proving why she was the one with the training as a hunter. She knew it wasn't the time to be impulsive, as her uncle taught her, situations had to be handled clinically, unemotionally.

Theo had met another one of his betas a few weeks later, he told him that the Alpha who'd bitten him was killed by two of his own betas. Twins, nonetheless. Scott and Kinsey shared a look, they both wondered what the chances were of two sets of twins killing their Alpha, perhaps Theo was more connected to Beacon Hills than he thought. They turned to Stiles, seeing what he thought about Theo's story, whether he thought it was viable. His face spoke a million words as he rolled his eyes, for now, he chose not to comment. 

"Scott, listen to my pulse. I'm telling you the truth."

"Right," Stiles spoke up, his silence over in the blink of an eye. "Or you just know how to steady your own heart rate while you're lying your ass off." Kinsey tried to stop him with a warning look but Theo asked him why he would lie, giving Stiles all the more reason to continue his ambush. "Because maybe you're not who you say you are." He suggested as his girlfriend elbowed him in his side, a second warning for him to stop.

Theo tried to plead his case with the Alpha, reminding him of something from fourth grade. Both of the werewolves had an inhaler back then, when they both still needed it, one day, he recalled a bad asthma attack that sent him to the nurse's office, he was waiting there to be sent to the ER while Scott was waiting for the principal. Scott had told him what would happen when he got to the ER, how they would give him oxygen and an IV of prednisone. He had made it sound so easy. Like everything would be okay.

Throughout his story, Stiles rolled his eyes, unimpressed by yet another suck-up-to-Scott story, a story that both the Alpha and his girlfriend seemed to be buying. He didn't know why he thought it would be any different, both of them had a habit of seeing the best in people, Scott hoped that people weren't all bad and Kinsey, well, she liked to believe that people didn't lie, even if nearly everyone in her life had been lying to her at one point or another. She had been around Scott too much, she was becoming an optimist, and she couldn't have chosen a worse time. 

His guilt trip continued, telling those who were listening to him that he had been by himself this entire time, and they, as well as everyone else, knew that lone wolves don't make it alone. Both Scott and Kinsey nodded lowly, another roll of Stiles' eyes. Theo swore that he was still the same kid he was in fourth grade, and he was hoping that Scott was too.

Before Scott could agree or disagree that he was still that kid he was back then too, the bell rang in their ears, the beta assuming that was his cue to leave, he didn't want to be late for class, they weren't the only ones he was trying to make a good impression on, he told them, looking at the brunette girl who knew a lot about good impressions on first days. She smiled at him while Stiles narrowed his eyes at the wolf, his eye twitching slightly, he knew all of the right things to say. He couldn't help but find that suspicious too. 

The Argent and McCall picked up their bags to head to class too, both of them looking at Stiles, a slightly raised brow shared across them, almost an "I told you so" look, Theo had a story, a good one too. One that pulled on both of their heartstrings, one they could both relate to. "Don't give me that look." He pointed a finger between the two of them.

"We have to give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes." Scott shrugged.

"Not this time, all right?" Stiles disagreed. "I'm right. There's something about him. I can feel it."

Kinsey and Scott looked at one another, an eye roll of their own as they began walking away, the two of them against Stiles, something that didn't happen often. Not unless he was being stupid, like now. "I'm the psychic. Not you." Kinsey told him, the boy's face dropping as he stared at his girlfriend who walked away from him.

"You're not a psychic, you're an Angel! Okay?" There's a difference." He argued, neither of them answering him as they continued walking out of the locker room with a shake of their heads, it was best not to argue with him, and perhaps he was right, which they definitely couldn't admit. "Yeah. I told them." He nodded proudly, left alone in the locker room.

·❥·

In yet another free period, Kinsey, Scott, Kira, and Malia sat around a table in the library, a stack of books spread out across it as they each worked on their respective subjects, the areas they'd found themselves struggling with. They were all determined to be good seniors. To do better. It was their last chance, it was the big leagues. If they screwed up now, everything was at risk, the things they had spent hours, years even, working on would be gone in the blink of an eye. Their futures, and for some, that future was already so undetermined. 

While Kira helped Malia with her math, a subject that she still didn't understand, Scott stuck to a promise he had made only a few hours ago, the sooner they began working on it the better. They would find Kinsey a new dream. A new career goal. Something for her to strive toward when she finally graduated, something to distract her from the part of her future that was set in stone. The day that she still refused to believe was in the near future, still in complete denial that she would ever be faced with the decision of becoming a werewolf or dying. 

The two of them sat looking at a list of professions, waiting for inspiration to strike, but the Angel found herself more disgusted than inspired. She struggled to imagine herself doing anything the two of them read, nothing jumped out at her, nothing screamed Kinsey Argent. She had skills, an array of skills, but none that suited the real world. There were no jobs where she could use what she had been gifted as an Angel, or that allowed her to use the training she had as a hunter. Both of them were at a loss, staring down at the pages with their fingers tangled in their hair, the wolf had never expected it to be so hard to help her find a new dream. He wasn't sure how long they could keep it from Stiles, soon enough, he would be asking to help her apply to colleges. 

Scott's thought of his best friend conjured up the boy, he slammed two pieces of paper down on the table, startling them as Kinsey quickly shut the book in front of her before he was distracted from what he had brought to the table, choosing to focus on why she was looking at professions she could take up when he thought her dream was to be a doctor.

The boy claimed he finally had the proof he needed that Theo wasn't who he said he was. They all indulged in it again, looking down at the two pieces of paper as explained that he found two signatures. One was a speeding ticket from eight years ago, the other was on a transfer form to Beacon Hills High School from just a few days ago. Before focusing on the signatures, Kira asked a seemingly more important question, how had he gotten the transfer form in the first place? He didn't need to answer, Scott and Kinsey already knew it. He had broken into the administration office. He denied it at first, but all it took was a prying look from the group for him to confess to a crime that he would never have to pay for. But they were all missing the point, telling them they needed to focus on the signatures. They were different. Or so he said.

Malia agreed, partially, suggesting that there might be a slight difference, but Stiles disagreed, it was two completely different signatures. The garlands didn't match each other. The undulations of the sinuous stroke were totally off. All words that most of them had never heard of before. And not to mention the perfect example of a criminal tremor.

Kinsey held up her hand with another question for the boy, he nodded, accepting it. "So Theo is Theo, but his parents aren't his parents?" She questioned him, unable to keep up anymore. This was all absurd, even for her. A girl whose entire existence defied most supernatural rules.

Stiles insisted that someone wasn't someone, and when he figured out who that someone really was, that someone was in big trouble. His words confused even him as he furrowed a brow, that sentence repeating in his head a few times as he tried to make sense of it. Scott pointed out that nobody had actually done anything wrong, yet, as Stiles corrected him. 

"If Theo's parents are both psychotic killers we obviously shouldn't trust him, right?"

Malia and Kinsey both chimed in with their psychotic killer parents, the coyote pointing out that she was born to the desert wolf and Peter, and Kinsey to Peter and Kate. That seemed like a fair point to make as Stiles stared at them both at a slight loss for words, all four of them waiting for him to try and argue with it. But he couldn't.

"Okay..." He sighed, gathering up the papers. "It's fine. You know what? I'll just figure this all out myself, all right? I don't need you or you or you or you." He went around the table, pointing at all four of them with the two signed papers. "I don't need anyone!" He shouted, walking away from them, flailing as he always did.

Scott and Kinsey looked at one another, questioning whose turn it was to go after him this time, between them, they both knew the answer, they both kept track, dreading the next time either of them were dragged into Stiles' lastest obsessive thought. The brunette girl sighed, pushing all of the books that were sat in front of her into the middle of the table, it was her turn. "I've got it." She reassured the Alpha who looked at her with a hint of guilt, knowing she would be with Stiles while thinking about what she was going to do with her future, how she would handle it when it finally came to light that his vision was crumbling at the seams. First, it was his change of college and now it was Kinsey's possibility of not going to college at all, with the Theo thing too, it would be a disaster when he found out. "Dreams are stupid anyway." Kinsey shrugged, a girl with many experiences of dreams, good and bad, mostly bad. Dreams led to bad things- false hope, and for her, often death.

Just as the huntress stood up from her chair, her phone pinged, raising the head of Scott and the two girls who had turned back to their books, their brows furrowed as they waited to hear who'd text her, perhaps Stiles with an apology for overreacting. Unlikely. They watched as Kinsey's face washed over with confusion. The Alpha questioned it, scared that it was too similar to that look she'd had a few hours ago after experiencing someone else's night terror. Kinsey brushed it off, it was Lydia, she told him, Banshee/Angel stuff. She would check up on Stiles later. 

When Kinsey arrived at Tracy Stewart's house, Lydia and Parrish were already waiting outside for her, leaning against the cruiser as the redhead explained what was going on with Tracy, how she had been experiencing parasomnia, coughing up a black liquid and feathers. If they had learned anything about the supernatural it was that this wasn't just a sleep disorder, something else was going on here, and who better to figure it out than the two harbingers of death. The psychics, in a sense. They were made for these things.

With the three of them ready, they headed into Tracy's bedroom where she stood nervously, just being in her own bedroom seemed to terrify the girl. It hadn't been easy sleeping in here with all of the night terrors. While Parrish began checking over the bedroom for signs of forced entry, the redhead asked Tracy to explain to Kinsey what had happened this morning, the nightmare she'd had in the middle of the school hallway. Already, Kinsey's attention had been grabbed, already it sounded very familiar. Tracy narrated what had happened to her, her nightmare, but Kinsey was already more than familiar with it, considering she too had lived it this morning. It was Tracy. For some reason, she and Tracy were connected, enough for her to see into the girl's mind, dragging her into her night terrors. 

Throughout Tracy's explanation, Kinsey wandered around the room looking at all of the pictures on the wall that the girl had drawn over time. Blackbirds and dark objects filling the walls. It was just another thing that reminded Kinsey of herself, she once had a habit for drawing dark things, happening to predict the future with them, it was what made her give up the hobby. She looked over every individual drawing until one stood out to her, she moved closer to it, getting a better look at it as her eyes widened. She peered over her shoulder, Parrish was grabbing a chair to get a look out of the skylight, Lydia standing with Tracy, all three of them distracted. Kinsey grabbed the drawing from the wall, quietly shoving it in her bag before returning to the conversation.

Parrish questioned whether Tracy had told him that the window was sealed before, she nodded, for weatherproofing, she clarified. That was what he thought. But it wasn't. The window opened easily, there was nothing sealed nor weatherproof about it, scaring the girl more as she lowered her head, taking a shaky breath. Kinsey and Lydia watched Parrish peek onto the roof, unable to hide his reaction as his eyes grew wide at whatever was up there. As Kinsey questioned whether there was anything up there, he was quiet for a moment, giving them a strange look, he peered over at a frightened Tracy as she kept her head down, he had to be careful. No. Nothing. Parrish told them, neither of the harbingers convinced.

The three of them walked back out of Tracy's house, while Parrish couldn't do anything official, he could come back after his shift and watch the house for a couple of hours. "I could come and keep you company?" Kinsey suggested, the redhead approving of the idea with a nod, it would be best for there to be multiple eyes on Tracy. 

"I think I'll be okay." Parrish reassured them, but Kinsey was persistent, reminding him that the stakeout would be in his own time, and they had asked him to do it. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't think that something strange was going on. I also owe you both."

"For what?"

"Three weeks of digging through every old piece of literature and mythology trying to figure out the something strange going on with me." He said, but it wasn't a big deal for either of them, the mystery of what he was was just as intriguing to them as it was to him. But that wasn't all they'd done for him, they had done a lot, little things that added up, those three weeks of digging was an honorable mention, that, and what Kinsey had done for him. "And you reunited me with the brothers I never had." He added as the brunette shrugged, she didn't think that was big either, it was nice to see that his reunion with family was going better than hers and her father's. 

"I'll bring coffee." Kinsey proposed, it wasn't a negotiation, she was coming on the stakeout. She had to. She had to watch Tracy, she had to figure out what it was that connected them. But that was a detail she would keep to herself, for now at least. Parrish sighed, giving up, proving Kinsey his coffee order as she grinned smugly, she knew she would win. It was rare that she didn't. With Parrish especially, he had a soft spot for the crazy girl who jumped inside of his brain and found his birth family for him. As Parrish walked away, Lydia the nudged the grinning girl, drawing her attention back to Lydia who provided a smug look of her own. "What?" Kinsey asked defensively.

"Hanging out with the brother of the ex-boyfriend your not over?" Lydia raised a brow. "You are playing a dangerous game, Argent. I just hope you know what your doing."

When the time rolled around to midnight, Kinsey prepared herself to leave the Martin house for her stakeout with Parrish, Lydia had checked in on her just a few minutes ago before she headed to bed, double-checking that her best friend knew what she was doing, whether she thought the stakeout with Parrish was the best thing to do with the whole Isaac situation. A situation Kinsey denied existed. Isaac was back in France, they were friends, good friends, that's all it would be, it was all it would ever be. Of course, Lydia didn't believe her, and she wasn't so sure she did either when it came to her feelings with him. 

As the brunette walked toward her car, she dug through her bag, pulling out the image she stole from Tracy's wall, still so confused by it. Why would Tracy draw it? Why were they connected? It was all so strange. It felt like the answer should be right in front of her, on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't get to it. She would figure it out. Eventually. 

She made sure to check in with Stiles again on her way to Parrish, the boy on a stakeout too, he was still adamant on catching Theo in the act, and now, he had help. He didn't need anyone as she recalled, but somehow, he had ended up dragging Liam into his scheme, from what she had heard the beta wasn't being much help, he had told her himself that he'd fallen into a hole. They were certainly a pair, but she wasn't getting involved, he didn't want her to, as he'd told her for a second time, he didn't need anyone. But Liam. 

Parrish was stood outside of the house when she arrived, getting bored of sitting inside of his car without his coffee that she brought with her, as promised. The two of them stood keeping an eye on Tracy's house, he hadn't taken his eyes off of it. Nobody had gone in, or come out. As far as he could tell, the girl was completely safe, from everything but her mind playing tricks on her with a series of night terrors. Something that could be fixed with the right medication he was sure. The brunette girl should have been reassured by it, but she wasn't, there seemed to be something of a deeper meaning here, something wasn't right, she could feel it.

He didn't quite understand what she meant, assuming that this was just another part of being a harbinger of death that he hadn't yet seen in their year of knowing each other. She wasn't sure it was an Angel feeling, or just human dread and paranoia. The girl feel quiet as she stared back at Tracy's house, considering showing him the image, getting a second opinion on it, but she chose not to, instead, she apolgoised for wasting his time.

It wasn't a total waste, he told her with a smile, he enjoyed spending time with her, she was fun, and she knew a lot about Isaac, she was his main source of information on his brother. If he ever had any questions, he didn't have to wait for the boy in France to pick up and answer his calls or texts, he had a direct source right here in Beacon Hills, and she always seemed happy to talk all things Isaac. He had been asking about her, the deputy informed her, watching as surprise grew across her face, surprised to hear that, both the fact he had spoken to Isaac, and that whenever he had, her name had come up. 

The deputy stepped carefully as he asked his next question, he had always wondered it, but he'd never asked before. What had happened between them? Kinsey bowed her head, a lump grew in her throat as Parrish continued to talk, trying to backtrack, telling her that she and Stiles seemed like a great match, that the two of them seemed happy, but as a brother, he had to ask, curiosity had gotten the better of him. 

"I guess all good things come to an end."