Y/n lays asleep in her bed, hair splayed across her pillow and lips slightly parted as slow and steady breaths move her chest. Her sleep is peaceful until a distant howl is heard. Her brows furrow and her breathing picks up a bit as she starts to shift in her sleep. Her hands clench and her legs move, her sheets quickly becoming wrapped around them as her head moves to the side. Another howl rips through the air. Her skin is coated with a thin layer of sweat as she starts to pant, her face conveying the fear from her dream.

Screams.

The color yellow.

Bloody claws.

Red eyes.

She sits bolt upright with a gasp, her eyes wide and glowing their violet hue, hands grasping at her chest. She looks down and holds her hands in front of her face. When she sees they're clean she sighs in relief. She rakes a hand through her hair as she takes deep breathes to calm herself. In through the nose, out through the mouth. As she calms down her irises dim to their normal e/c hue. The details from her dream instantly start slipping from her mind and she can't remember anything that happened. All she remembers is the fear when she saw them. The red eyes. They were angry, power hungry, a fire of rage flickering within their depths. She had a feeling she wouldn't be getting back to sleep tonight so she grabbed a blanket and went to the living room to watch TV until it was time for her to get ready for school.

...

"So you killed her?" Stiles asks as he opens the school door, letting Y/n and Scott through before following himself. Scott had been telling them about his nightmare where he wolfed out and killed Allison on a school bus.

"I don't know." Scott shrugged. "I just woke up. And I was sweating like crazy, and I couldn't breathe. I've never had a dream where I woke up like that before."

"Really? I have. Usually ends a little differently."

"TMI, Stiles." Y/n gave him a slightly disgusted look but still chuckled at his blunt delivery.

"A) I meant I've never had a dream that felt that real, and B) never give me that much detail about you in bed again." Scott continued.

"Noted." Stiles nodded. "Let me take a guess here."

"No, I know, you think it has something to do with me going out with Allison tomorrow, like I'm gonna lose control and rip her throat out."

"No, of course not." Scott looked at Stiles for a moment before he caved. "Yeah, that's totally it. Hey, come on, it's gonna be fine, all right?"

"You know, dreams have a way of showing us our own stresses and desires. We process things through our dreams. That particular one could be your own worries and fears about hurting her." Y/n shared.

"Personally I think you're handeling this pretty freakin' amazingly." Stiles complimented. "You know, it's not like there's a Lycanthropy for Beginners class you can take."

"Yeah, not a class, but maybe a teacher." Scott hinted.

"Who, Derek?" Stiles smacks the back of Scott's head and Y/n promptly returned the gesture to Stiles. He looked at her in offence rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't hit him. He has a point." She scolded.

"You forgetting the part where we got him tossed in jail?"

"Yeah, I know, but chasing her, dragging her to the back of the bus, it felt so real." Scott said.

"How real?" Y/n asked.

"Like it actually happened." The boys open each door and Y/n trails behind Stiles as they walk out only to take a few steps and pause at the sight of a bloody and damaged school bus.

"I think it did." Scott looked at Stiles shocked.

"She's fine, Scott." Y/n assured as she and Stiles followed the now panicked boy.

"She's not answering my texts, Y/n." He fretted.

"It could just be a coincidence, all right?" Stiles tried to reassure.

"A seriously amazing coincidence. Just help me find her, okay?" Scott frantically looked front and back for any sign of Allison. "Do you see her?"

"No."

Y/n could hear his rapidly increasing heartbeat. "Scott, you need to calm down. Allison is just fine." Her words fell on deaf ears as he anxiously raked a hand through his hair and turned a corner. Y/n and Stiles fell back when he leaned against a locker. He gripped it as he breathed harshly before yelling out and punching the locker so hard the door dented and swung crookedly on one hinge. Stiles went to go to him but Y/n stopped him. "Just wait. I've got a good feeling."

"How can you have a good feeling about that?" He flailed an arm loosely in Scott's direction.

She turned to look him. "Just trust me." He looked between her eyes, his own showing hesitation, before he nodded. They watched as Scott backed away from the locker and into the adjecent hall where he bumped right into Allison, accidentaly making her drop her books. Allison smiled and said something they couldn't hear and Y/n could practically see the relief on Scott when he realized it was her. "See? I told you." Y/n smiled at Stiles in triumph and he just huffed a laugh at her. Everyone's attention was then drawn to the PA system as an announcment was made.

"Attention, students, this is your principal. I know you're all wondering about the incident that occurred last night to one of our buses. While the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as scheduled."

There's a collective groan from the students and Y/n chuckles at their reactions. "Come on, let's get to class." Y/n grabbed Stiles hand and led them down the hall.

In Chemistry, Mr. Harris writes on the chalk board. Y/n sits in the farthest back corner away from the teacher due to the fact that she wasn't a big fan of him and sitting there, there was less chance of her being called, him being a douche, and her responding in kind resulting in detention. No matter how much she tried to hold her tongue something in her blood made her snark back at him.

"Maybe it was my blood on the door." Y/n's writing pauses as she hears Scott lowly talk to Stiles who was sitting right behind him.

"Could have been animal blood. You know, maybe you caught a rabbit or something." Stiles speculated.

"And did what?"

"Ate it."

"Raw?"

"No, you stopped to bake it in a little werewolf oven. I don't know, you're the one who can't remember anything."

"Mr. Stilinski, if that's your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while." Mr. Harris said snidely. Y/n had to clench her teeth and close her eyes at the ass of a teacher. "I think you and Mr. McCall would benifit from a little distance, yes?"

"No." Stiles denied but his mind was set. Mr. Harris gestured to different seats farther apart and the boys obliged.

"Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much." Stiles scoffs a laugh and settles in the empty space next to Y/n.

"You guys need to learn how to whisper better." Y/n actually whispered with a teasing smile. Stiles nugded her with a small smile and she quietly snickered until a gasp rang through the room.

"Hey, I think they found something." A girl jumped from her seat and everyone followed her to the window to see a group of EMT's wheeling an injured man on a gurney to an ambulance.

"That's not a rabbit." Scott pointed out. The man sat up and screamed making everyone in the class jump back and scream. Scott backed up more than others in shock.

"Hey, this is good, right?" Y/n asked when she noticed Scott and followed him, Stiles coming a moment later.

"Yeah," he agreed, "this is good. He got up, he's not dead. Dead guys can't do that."

"Guys..." Scott called. "I did that."

...

The trio grabs their lunch in the cafeteria and goes to an empty table. "But dreams aren't memories." Stiles said.

"Some people dream about their memories." Y/n poined out.

"Then it wasn't a dream." Scott reasoned as they sat down. "Something happened last night. And I can't remember what."

"What makes you so sure that Derek even has all the answers." Stiles asked.

"Because during the full moon he wasn't changed. Ask Y/n, she saw him." Stiles looked at the girl who shrugged and nodded. "He was in total control while I was running around in the middle of the night attacking some totally innocent guy."

"You don't know that." Y/n denied.

"I don't not know it. I can't go out with Allison. I have to cancel."

"No, you're not cancelling, all right?"

"You can't just cancel your entire life." Stiles agreed. "We'll figure it out."

"Figure what out?" Lydia's voice appeared with her sitting her tray down next to Scott and across from Y/n.

Stiles practically choked on a laugh and Scott was caught off guard at the sudden appearance so Y/n rolled her eyes and spoke up. "Just homework." Y/n smiled at her friend.

"Yeah." Stiles agreed and then whispered to his friends. "Why is she sitting with us?" Scott gave him a look that said he didn't know while Danny sat next to Y/n, Allison sat next to Scott, and another boy and girl took the empty spots on either end of the table.

"Hey, Danny boy."

"Hi, Y/n." He smiled in greeting. While Y/n didn't get along with Jackson, his friend Danny wasn't so bad.

"Get up." Jackson ordered the boy sitting at the end next to Lydia and Danny.

"How come you never ask Danny to get up?" The boy compained.

"Because I don't stare at his girlfriend's coin slot." Danny sassed back. Jackson practically shoved the boy off the chair and sat down himself. Y/n grimaced at the new addition to the table. "So I hear they're saying it's some type of animal attack. Probably a cougar."

"I heard mountain lion." Jackson said.

"A cougar is a mountain lion." Lydia smartly corrected. Jackson gave her a weird look and she smoothly backpedaled into an unsure look. "Isn't it?" Y/n raised her brow at Lydia's act but shook her head with a small huffed laugh.

"Who cares? The guy's probably some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway."

"Literally no one asked for your thoughts on that, Jack-ass." Y/n glared at Jackson who returned the gesture but before he could retort Stiles piped up.

"Actually, I just found out who it is. Check it out." He held out his phone so everyone could see the news report being played.

"The Sheriff's department won't speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Garrison Meyers, did survive the attack. Meyers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical conditon."

"I know this guy." Scott realized.

"You do?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, when I used to take the bus, back when I lived with my dad. He was the driver." Scott, Stiles and Y/n were slightly stunned by this revelation but it didn't really mean much to anyone else.

"Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please?" Lydia asked. "Like, oh, where are we going tomorrow night?" Allison looked at Lydia, chewing her food in a surprised manner. "You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right?"

Scott looked at Allison and she swallowed. "Um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do."

"Well, I am not sitting at home again watching lacrosse videos, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun. Y/n, are you coming?"

The h/c raised her brows at Lydia. "Uh, no, I'm not. There'll be enough estrogen with you, Allison, and Jackson there so I'm good." Lydia playfully glared at her while Jackson rolled his eyes.

"Hanging out?" Scott questioned and Allison looked like a fish out of water. "Like, the four of us?" Stiles put a hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut to block out the horror going on. Scott looked at Allison again. "Do you wanna hang out, like us and them?"

"Yeah, I guess. Sounds fun." Y/n watched this exchange in utter amusement, sipping on her drink to hide her grin.

"You know what else sounds fun?" Jackson asked and picked up a fork. "Stabbing myself in the face with this fork." Stiles rolled his eyes as he drank some of his water.

"That does sound fun! Let me do the honors for you." Y/n brandished her own fork with a sickly sweet smile. Lydia reached over and snatched both of their utensils.

Then she gasped. "How 'bout bowling? You love to bowl." Lydia looked at Jackson. Stiles munched on a fry and desparately tried to signal to Scott with his eyes to get out of this situation.

"Yeah, with actual competition."

"How do you know we're not actual competiton?" Allison challenged. "You can bowl, right?" She asked Scott.

"Sort of." He replied not-so convincingly.

"Is it sort of, or yes?" Jackson dogged down Scott.

"Yes." This time Scott sounded more sure. "In fact, I'm a great bowler."

"You're a terrible bowler." Y/n laughed as she and Stiles followed Scott through the halls.

"I know! I'm such an idiot."

"God, it was like watching a car wreck." Stiles observed. "I mean, first it turned into the whole group date thing. And then out of nowhere comes that phrase." Stiles gripped his head in remorse at the dreaded phrase.

"Hang out."

"You don't hang out with hot girls, okay? it's like death."

"You guys hang out with me. Am I not as pretty as Allison?"

"No." She raised a brow at Stiles like you really just and he backpedaled. "That- that's not what I mean. It's different with you."

"How?"

"It just is." She scoffed and rolled her eyes, picking up her pace because now she has to go to the Clinic with Scott today because Stiles kept her from it the other day.

Stiles turned back to Scott. "But once it's hanging out, you might as well be her gay best friend. You and Danny can start hanging out."

"How is this happening? I either killed a guy or I didn't."

"I don't think Danny likes me very much." The two boys now having very different conversations.

"I ask Allison on a date, and now we're hanging out."

"Am I not attractive to gay guys?"

"I make first line, and the Team Captain wants to destroy me, and now-" Scott looks at the time on his phone, "now I'm gonna be late for work." Scott caught up with Y/n as they left the school.

"Wait, Scott, you didn't- am I attractive to gay guy-" he tried yelling out but stopped himself, "you didn't answer my question." He muttered and walked the other way.

...

"Don't worry, Scott. It's just a couple minutes." Y/n assured as she and Scott dismounted their bikes outside the Animal Clinic. Scott rushed in while Y/n went at a normal pace.

"Sorry. Sorry." She heard Scott say once he got to the back room.

"You're all of two minutes late." Alan said.

"Told you." Y/n smiled once she also got into the back room.

"I just don't want you to think I'm slacking." Scott explained.

"Scott, I guarantee you, you're one of the least slacking kids in this town." Scott smiled.

"I hope I'm one of the others?" Y/n looked to Alan.

"Of course. When you actually make it in, that is." He joked.

"I said I was sorry for the other day! I can't help Stiles dragging me this way and that." Y/n helped move a box around and Scott smiled at the exchange but it faded when he saw the Sheriff at the door. He became anxious until the door opened and he saw one of the K-9 police dogs with him. Y/n looked over at the noise and instantly went into doggy voice mode. "Hi there, buddy. Are you ready to get your stitches out? Huh?" She kneeled down to the German Shepard and petted his fur. "Hiya, Sheriff." Her voice was normal when talking to the humans.

"Hi, Y/n. Hey there, Scott. You staying out of trouble?"

"Yeah." Scott said simply. Alan helped Y/n lift the dog onto the exam table. He whimpers as his bandaged front leg is moved but settles down onto the metal surface.

"Oh, you're such a trooper." Y/n cooed and stroked the dogs fur to calm him more.

"Hey, listen, while I'm here, you mind taking a look at those pictures I was telling you about? Sacramento still can't determine an animal." Noah handed an evidence envelope to Alan.

"I'm not exactly an expert." Alan pulled out the photos and looked at them. "This is the guy who was attacked in the bus?" Scott's head picked up at this and Y/n glanced at him.

"Yeah. And we found wolf hairs on Laura Hale's body."

"A wolf?" Scott asked. "I mean, I think I read somewhere that wolves haven't been in California for, like, 60 years."

"True enough, but wolves are highly migratory. They could have wandered in from another state driven by impulse or strong enough memory."

"Wolves have memories?"

"Long-term ones, yeah." Y/n informed.

"If associated with a primal drive." Alan added. "See this one here?" Alan showed a picture to Noah.

"Yeah."

"Those are claw marks. A wolf would have gone for the throat or the spinal cord with it's teeth." He curled his fingers in front of his neck for demonstration.

"So what do you think, it's a mountain lion?"

"I don't know. A wolf could chase down it's prey, hobbling it by tearing at the ankles. And then the throat."

...

In the evening it was only Y/n and Alan left in the Clinic. They had finished closing up and they now stood in the back room, Y/n had just told Alan about Scott's 'dream'. "And the weirdest part is I had a dream too. I can't remember what it was but I remember red eyes. And I think I heard howling but I'm not sure."

"You think it was the Alpha that attacked that man?" Alan asked.

"Yes. Scott isn't like that, he wouldn't attack someone like that. But the Alpha... I feel like he definitely would. And the eyes... It's not a coincidence."

"He must have at least been there to have a dream or memory like that."

"He can't remember. If I wasn't hiding I could try and help him remember but..." Her brows furrow and she frowns.

"It's okay. You're not ready to share who you are and that's perfectly understandable considering your past."

Before she can respond she gets a message from Stiles saying that he was picking her up with Scott. "Looks like I'm going out." She sighs as she puts her phone away and gathers her things.

"I know you're cabable, but just be careful, all right?"

She gave him a smile. "Always." She gives him a hug before they part ways, him going home and her waiting for Stiles. Once they arrive she hops in the back and they fill her in on where they're going. Derek had told Scott to go back to the bus and let his senses remember for him.

Stiles pulls up near the closed fence of the school. The three get out, Y/n leaning against the front of the Jeep while the boys walk off. "Hey, no, just me." Scott said to Stiles. "Someone needs to keep watch."

"Y/n's doing that."

"Stiles."

"How come I'm always the guy keeping watch?"

"Because there's only three of us and the more eyes watching out, the better."

"Okay, why's it starting to feel like you're Batman and I'm Robin? I don't want to be Robin all the time."

"Nobody's Batman and Robin any of the time."

"Not even some of the time?"

"Just stay here."

"Oh, my God!" Stiles groaned and trudged back to the Jeep. He gets into the drivers side and she gets back into the back.

"What's wrong, Stilinski? You don't like keeping an eye out with me?"

"No, I just don't want to be on the side lines." He pouted.

"You're not. This is just... This is something he needs to do alone. He needs to be absolutely focused on his senses so he can remember." They lapse into silence for a while, watching Scott's figure inside the bus as a light rain started. She looks over at Stiles after a minute and noticed he was still pouting. "Don't pout." She chucked him under the chin. "You're too cute to pout." She smiled and winked. His eyes slightly widened at her actions but lights caught their attention, drawing their eyes away from each other and towards the bus. "Crap." She reached over and started honking to get Scott's attention.

Scott scrambled out of the bus and clambered on top of a red car, somersaulting over the fence. "Come on, come on." Stiles urged as Scott hurried into the Jeep.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" He yelled and Stiles peeled away from the school.

"Did it work? Did you remember?" Stiles asked frantically.

"Yeah, I was there last night. And the blood- a lot of it was mine."

"So you did attack him?"

"No. I saw glowing eyes in the bus, but they weren't mine. It was Derek."

Y/n perked up at this. "What color were the eyes?"

"Why does that matter?"

"What about the driver?" Stiles cut in.

"I think I was actually trying to protect him."

"Why would Derek help you remember that he attacked the driver?" Y/n tried to reason.

Scott sighed. "That's what I don't get."

"It's got to be a pack thing." Stiles theorized.

"What do you mean?"

"Like an initiation. You do the kill together."

"Because ripping someone's throat out is a real bonding experience?"

"Could be, who knows? But the point is you didn't do it, which means you're not a killer!" Y/n gave him a smile.

"And it also means that-" Scott cut Stiles off.

"I can go out with Allison." Scott smiles with relief.

"I was gonna say it means you won't kill us." Stiles gestured to himself and Y/n.

"Oh, yeah. That too."

...

Y/n sits in the corner of her room, the corner she has dedicated purely to art. Not many people would guess but Y/n loves to paint. Granted she doesn't do it that often but when she does it's either because she had muse to or because she just needs to get her thoughts and feelings out and a great way to do that is through art. When she's in these moods it usually takes a lot to drag her away from her easel.

With everything going on lately she definitely needed a night to use her favorite outlet. She set up a large-ish canvas, about 18" by 26", on her easel and set her paints on a black card table, speckled with paint from previous works. She has a tall Mason jar filled with water and paper towels to dry and clean her brushes. She ties her hair up, rolls up her sleeves, turns up her music, and gets to work. She goes into a type of trance, the kind where you're so focused on what you're doing the outside world is faded and you don't even really notice what you're doing either. She lays a foundation of black, scarring the inky surface with angry reds and blazing oranges. She pours everything she's been feeling lately into this piece. Her frustrations, her fears, her worries, her nightmares. Everything.

She finally takes a break after a while when her phone started to ring. She glanced at it and saw it was Lydia. She sighs and puts the brush into the cloudy water, turning down the music before answering. "Hey, Lydie."

"Hey, N/n."

"What's up?" She sat on her bed.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just with Allison getting ready to go out. Are you sure you don't want to come? It'll be fuuun." She added in a sing-song voice.

"I'm sure it will, but as much as I love being a pain in Jackson's ass, I don't really feel like being the fifth wheel tonight."

"Aw, boo." Y/n could practically see Lydia's playful pout now and smiled. "Alright, well if I can't convince you I'll let you go to do whatever weird things you like to do."

"Why, how gracious of you!"

Lydia sighed. "I know. You're so lucky to have me as a friend."

The two laughed. "I sure am. Bye, Lydia. Say hi to Allison for me."

"Will do. Toodles." Y/n laughed to herself again as she hung up with the red head. She set her phone aside and turned her music back up to finish her painting. It would be another few hours before she decided she was done. She put the brush in the jar and stepped back to really see what she had painted.

A black sky was dotted with glowing embers that rose from a raging fire that was taller than a man. A pile of wood was set ablaze and in the middle a woman was tied to a stake. Face titled to the sky, hair flying upwards from the heat of the flames, slightly obscuring her features. Her eyes are specks of amythest in the ruby inferno. Her flowing white dress is billowing and charred at the ends. Behind the fire, barely hidden by the flames, are a pair of red eyes, glinting sinisterly in the firelight. The edges of everything were a bit blurred, giving the whole picture a dreamy haze.

She jumped slightly when her phone went off, but this time it was a text from Stiles.

The bus driver succumbed to his injuries.

She frowned at the news and glanced back at the painting, the scarlet orbs holding an extra layer of blood in their depths.

~~~
Published: 12/2/20
Edited: 4/12/22

Double update for late Happy Thanksgiving 🥰