ೃ⁀➷ ˗ˏˋ 'ˎ˗
sirens, sirens
( teen wolf. s3A )

chapter seven.
blood-soaked wounds

ALANI Mordor couldn't get any more involved than this.

Thanks to her completing track that previous day, it was compulsory for her to attend a meet; whether she would actually participate or not was a whole new debate. It was an overnight trip, and one Alani couldn't exactly say she was looking forward to, but, nevertheless, went anyway. It was safe to say her mother was happy that she was doing something like that━━Alani wouldn't tell Rose Mordor she wasn't thinking about actually participating, as she knew she would only be disappointed in her daughter, and cause the girl to feel guilty.

But, with her necessary bags in hand, Alani walked through the school corridors, noticing familiar faces around her, ones that she knew, too, would be turning up on the bus waiting outside for them.

More surprising than ever, Alani never made it to that bus. Unexpectedly, Lydia Martin and Allison Argent had cut her journey short, almost-too-happy expressions plastered across their faces as they asked her to come with them to follow the bus, rather than actually be in the vehicle. With confusion filtering her very veins, the blonde had explained that she was going to be in there anyway, but that only seemed to cause them to become more insistent. The other two girls had exchanged a knowing look between one another, clearly not bothering to try and be discreet about it. Alani knew that look was about her, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything further. Instead, she simply groaned in defeat and agreed.

     God help her if Coach Finstock actually cared whether everyone turned up in the bus or not, that morning.

     Alani was sat in the backseat, straight down the middle, with a perfect view of the bus in front━━Allison was driving, and she continued to fret over whether or not they were being obvious. "Am I getting too close?━━I'm getting way too close, aren't I?"

     "That depends," Lydia contemplated, almost sarcastically. She twirled a strand of her strawberry blonde hair between her fingers, tilting her head in mock thought. "Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?"

     Slumping in defeat, Allison looked in her rear-view mirror. "Yeah, I should back off."

     The blonde snickered in the back at the girl's interactions, shaking her head. She leaned forward in her seat a little, making her head poke through a tiny bit. "It's not exactly like you're gonna loose it. It's a big, yellow bus, surrounded by smaller, dull cars."

     At her comment, Lydia nodded, pursing her lips and pointing to Alani to accentuate her point further. Allison sighed, but Lydia clearly wasn't finished with her mini rant. "But, I suppose that also depends━━do you mean the bus or the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?"

     Alani looked over to Allison, wondering what type of reaction she was going to show across her features from Lydia's comment. It was a bold statement, to presume the brunette was only there to stalk her ex-boyfriend. But, after what happened, Alani couldn't say she blamed her for being so paranoid.

     The brunette smiled sarcastically. "Well, after it happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight." Alani knew what her friend was talking about━━there was a fight, between the Alpha pack and Derek's, including Scott. Said boy had gotten severely injured, and despite having the ability to heal, Allison was constantly fretting over him. Again, understandable.

     Lydia didn't seem as convinced. "Hmm," she hummed mockingly, looking over at her friend in suspicion. Clearly, the strawberry blonde imagined that to have just been an excuse.

     Alani couldn't see why, however, but maybe that was just her. She'd have happily believed that Allison was just worried over Scott's well-being, allowing her to be paranoid, even if it meant following their school bus with him inside. Even so, despite the differences, she didn't think she had enough authority just yet to get involved, regardless of willingly being invited along, and told she was apart of the team, now. Clearly, this was something that was going to take time and patience for Alani Mordor to finally accept the truth.

     "And, by the way," Allison commented abruptly, bringing Alani back out of her reverie, "this all started when he came knocking at my door."

     Silence hung in the air for a moment, and Alani wondered what her friend had meant by that. Lydia, too, seemed interested. Her expression was slightly blank as she thought the words over, before turning to her friend. "For what?"

     The brunette's mouth hung open at some form of prospect of revealing the truth behind her previous words. Her eyes scanning back and forth the road ahead of them, her head seeming to move in sharp movements. Allison's sudden change in demeanour only caused Alani and Lydia to perk up right in their seats out of curiosity and anticipation.

     At first she seemed reluctant to respond, before sighing in defeat when she turned and noticed two pairs of expectant eyes on her figure. "He found an arrow from the night they found Boyd and Cora; assumed it was mine━━"

     "━━I'm guessing it was yours?"

     Allison spluttered, turning to face Alani. "Well, yes, but that's beside the point━━he just assumed." Alani and Lydia exchanged knowing smirks, rolling their eyes and mouthing the word assumed, in a manner of how dare he! Whether Allison noticed their shared actions or not, she didn't acknowledge them. "I don't know," she sighed, running a free hand through her hair, almost in exasperation, "it was like he didn't want me to get involved, even though I'm already too involved━━we all are. Then, I guess, I sort of challenged him without even realising what I was doing, and the next thing I know, I'm pinned against the wall."

     With eyes wide, Lydia took a moment before commenting. "That's... intimate."

     Allison only shot her friend a warning glare in return.

     For a while nothing else was mentioned, and Alani didn't know what to do with herself. It was a long drive, to the meet, and if the blonde was in the bus━━like she was supposed to be!━━she'd have had her earphones playing whatever first came up in her playlist, drowning out every other noise around her and allowing her to somewhat relax. Although, when she thought more about it, maybe she wouldn't have been able to do that, considering Stiles was on that same bus, and God knows how much the boy can talk, especially when he's bored.

     Alani didn't want to be rude and drown out the two girls━━she was just starting to make friends, friends who understood her, and they had willingly invited her along with them. That meant they wanted her there, so, if she was going to be there, she needed to be there. Besides, Alani didn't exactly want to risk the possibility of the two of them talking about something important and missing it, only to come up confused later on down the line and having to have someone catch her up.

     She also didn't want to take a nap━━again, the risk of missing crucial information was there, but so was something else. Alani was scared to fall asleep. Her visions had been picking up more in frequency as of late, sure, but they were too similar to one another. One after the other, she was always in a forest. Things like that had never happened before, to the point where the young teen was worried about what they truly meant. She feared if she were to fall asleep, she'd only be stuck in that same forest again until someone woke her up or she was scared awake. Alani wanted neither possibility to happen.

     So, to pass the time, Alani simply hummed along to the music playing softly in the background. She didn't know what radio was on, because she didn't seem to recognise any of the songs playing so far, but it kept her mind busy and preoccupied, so she wasn't complaining. The girl made sure to keep her voice quite low, so as not to disturb the other two girls━━Allison was concentrating on driving at a normal pace, making sure to keep in eye-line of the bus, and Lydia was reading...

     Frowning, Alani sat up right, getting comfortable once more. She leaned forward, motioning for Lydia's attention. "What are you reading?"

     Lydia turned around, taking notice how Alani was talking to her, before flipping the book close and showcasing it to the blonde. "Thermodynamic━━Asymmetry in Time." She simply sent the girl a smile, before turning round and continuing.

     Alani had no idea what Lydia had just said to her, having only understood the words in time, and stayed dumbfounded for a moment. "Uh, huh..."

     Seemingly to be wanting a break in her reading, now that someone had broken the quietness of the car, Lydia aimed her next question to Allison, who was leaning against her window, bored. "So, is that whole not let them out of your sight thing literal or more like a general rule?"

"Why?" Allison questioned.

Lydia barely looked up from her book when she replied, knowingly, "You're running on fumes." Startled, both Alani and Allison looked towards the dashboard, noticing how their other friend was right. Allison groaned in annoyance, and Alani was trying to figure out how Lydia knew that without actually seeming to look in the dials direction. "Yeah and, I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota."

Looking around herself, it seemed Allison was attempting to find some sort of solution around then. "What if we stop?"

"Stop where?" Alani questioned the brunette, wondering where her logical thinking had gone━━that were in the middle of a deserted area, with nothing on the horizon for miles.

Lydia sighed, taking note of how Alani's comment only seemed to worry Allison all the more. "Look, is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."

That was true. Alani knew that Allison was worried for Scott's well-being, but weren't they all? She understood they knew each other for a lot longer than others, and that they had a special connection like no other, even with it now being on the rocks a little. But, if they did lose them, they'd eventually catch up with them, once they had enough fuel to get them there.

With glazed-over eyes, Allison shook her head, a little more tense then before, her voice a quiet whisper. "You didn't see what happened."

At the emotion clouded over her friend's voice, Alani wondered how bad it must've been. Two sides of a supernatural war, all claws and teeth and sharp arrows, raging against one another in order to win. She could imagine the gashes and the scars and the blood all around her, and she shuddered at the thought. Alani had seen dead bodies, but she hadn't seen the cause of their death. That night, both Derek and Ennis (one of the Alphas) had perished, and Alani wouldn't ever wish to witness something like that.

Allison must've been traumatised after seeing so much destruction. Not only were two werewolves dead, on either side, but her ex-boyfriend had gotten fiercely injured. Of course, she was going to be emotional. If Alani was in her shoes, she'd have probably broken down by now━━to see her friend still holding up was something she could say she beginning to feel proud, and envious, of.

On the other hand, Lydia didn't seem to notice her friend's wavering voice━━or care. "I know who started it."

It was hard to tell what Lydia meant by that. Technically speaking, Lydia Martin was the middle man━━she was practically apart of Scott's pack, being... something... supernatural, but also being involved with Aiden, one of the Alpha twins. Alani trusted her with her life, but there was a point where they would need to question the possibility of Aiden clouding their friend's beliefs.

Allison seemed to have the same thoughts. She tilted her head to the sound, and accusatory lilt to her voice. "Is that what Aiden told you?"

"Aiden?" Lydia finally looked up from her book to the brunette, and only found the same disapproving expression. "Oh!" she exclaimed as realisation dawned on her. Alani was typically a slow person sometimes, including now. She continued to stay hidden in the back of the car, as she let whatever was happening play out in front of her. "Hold on a second━━is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them, and us."

Lydia didn't seem to notice her mistake for a moment, as Allison sharply turned her head towards her, a warning expression mingling in through her features. It was only when Alani's head tilted sideways in contemplation that Lydia understood where she went wrong. Their eyes were slightly wide, wondering where the conversation would take a turn to.

"Um," Alani started, a little hesitant, "us?" She repeated Lydia's wording, confusion seeping through her, despite having an idea of what it truly meant.

Her. Allison was keeping on eye on them, Lydia and Alani, and Lydia seemed to know the blonde teen was involved in that, too, by the looks of it. Alani didn't want to overthink the situation, but the longer the silence wrapped around them, neither girl up front daring to admit to their mistake and come clean, Alani let the shame swallow her up.

They'd all been through a lot together so far, and each one of them trusted the other with their deepest, most darkest secrets. But, that didn't mean they didn't wanted more information on her, before they could say they'd die protecting her. On one hand, Alani understood that━━this was a whole different world they were living, and one tiny slip-up could mean someone's death, or the exposure of what they truly were. Yet, on the other hand, Alani felt almost heart broken. These people were those she could happily call friends, and proudly say that she did trust them with her life.

It seemed time and information would only tell before those feelings were reciprocated.

After a short while, both girls appeared to have been speaking somewhat telekinetically, as Allison was the one who ended up speaking first. "No one━━she just meant everyone as a collective." Her voice was quiet, soft, like it pained her to lie to her new friend, but it was something she felt needed to be done. The brunette's eyes were struggling to meet her own, but when they did, through the rear-view mirror, they were instantly turned away.

Allison's actions only made Alani feel more disappointed, but she made sure to act as though it hadn't affected her, as though she couldn't obviously see through their lies of deceit.

The tense atmosphere surrounding them like a cold blanket started to dissipate when Allison turned back to Lydia, clearing her throat and attempting to bring back some form of normalcy. Alani acted along with them. "So, there's nothing going on between you two?" she questioned, referring back to the relationship regarding both Lydia and Aiden.

"I'm appalled by the insinuation." Lydia was serious when she spoke.

Even with the seriousness in Lydia's features and voice, a knowing, teasing smirk made its way to Allison's lips. "Nothing?"

"Nothing." Lydia finalised. Both Allison and Alani shot her even more adamant looks, and upon noticing them, Lydia only shrugged.

Lydia went to further voice something else, but cut herself off when the car suddenly stopped. Looking up, all three girls took notice of the long line of traffic, something that seemed to be going on for miles and miles. This caused the brunette driving to groaned in annoyance, her worry overtaking her senses once more. Lydia went back to flicking through whatever her book was about, and Alani attempted listening to the unknown music station.

♡

Darkness. It was all that consumed her. For a while, Alani Mordor believed it to have been the momentary stasis before she woke up, but seconds dwindled by and nothing changed.

She knew she was experiencing this━━her hands moved to her stomach, feeling herself and confirming that this was real; or, as real as it could be, for a girl like Alani. In an attempt to distinguish something, Alani fixed her mind in place, trying to understand what was going on. The blonde knew what she was experiencing was a vision, but what sort of vision was one filled with nothing?━━no sounds, no sights, nothing was even coming to her mind.

Alani didn't know whether to panic or feel relieved that this wasn't the same forest she'd seen several times now. She didn't understand what to do━━would could she do, when there was nothing around her?

Chanting.

There it was again━━that same chanting from last time, ringing in her ears, repeating some sort of mantra, but there was something else, too. Alani struggled to understand what it was saying, its voice too mumble, too inaudible for her to place a word against it. As her heart began to pick up speed, so did the voice. The chanting increased, sounding more aggressive and Alani could tell it was getting louder in sound, but she still couldn't make it out. It was like there was some type of block against her mind, not allowing her to comprehend anything that was happening.

Louder and louder, it picked up speed, and Alani suddenly felt terrified. The agression in the voice was all she could think about━━the rage behind the tone of voice, like she had done something wrong, and she was going to pay the consequences. But, Alani didn't know this voice; didn't know where it was coming from and who it belonged to. All she knew, was that she wanted to leave.

With a startled gasp, emanating from the back of throat, she was brought about to reality. With wide eyes, she took notice of what had awakened her━━or, rather, who. Allison was still sat in the front driver's seat, her body turned around at an angle, her hand reaching out comfortingly, shaking her awake. Concern was completely smothered across her face, watching as her blonde friend took a second to compose herself.

     That vision━━it couldn't even be classed as one. Alani knew she had previously wished for her to see something different, needing a change of scenery to the same forest that repeated itself within her mind, but she didn't mean that. Nothing happened that Alani could discern in order to make a conclusion as to what it meant. As of lately, all of her visions had like that━━none of them had shown her anything that could possibly give her a heads-up as to what was to come. Just forests, dark figures, and a chanting voice.

     The blonde couldn't believe she had fallen asleep, despite her persistence and internal determination to stay awake whenever she found it necessary.

     Breathing in deeply, Alani attempted to sit up straighter in her seat, sending a nod to Allison, confirming that she was alright now. With a small, tentative smile thrown her way, Allison turned back, taking notice of Lydia's skeptical expression. The strawberry blonde was looking down at her phone.

     She shared a brief look between both girls, sighing, and pursing her lips, trying to put on some sort of facade. "Hey, Stiles. Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, you know, the popcorn, and━━" she nodded, almost in defeat, as Stiles said something, "━━yeah, okay."

     Pulling the phone away from her ear, she sighed again, and pressed the speaker button. Immediately, Stiles' voice was filtered through. With the vision causing Alani to feel nervous, hearing the boy's voice helped calm her down a little━━he was always a voice of reason, even with the bad news. "Okay, look━━Scott's still hurt."

     All three girls looked down to the phone still situated in Lydia's hand, confusion of each of their expressions. How could Scott still be hurt?━━the fight between them and the Alphas had happened the other night, which meant he should've healed by now.

     "What do you mean, still? He's not healing?" Allison questioned, the worry returning instantly to her voice━━although, Alani guessed it could've been there all along; never leaving.

     Stiles' words only seemed to alarm them more. "No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black colour."

     "Well, what's wrong with him?" Lydia spluttered out. Next to her, Allison started to fidget a little in her place, stressed over the bad news just told to them.

     "What's wrong with him?" Stiles repeated, in typical Stiles fashion. "I don't━━do I have a PhD in Lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"

     This time, Alani decided to put herself into the conversation. Her quip was quick, wanting to get her comment noticed by the boy on the other side of the phone. She shrugged, despite knowing that he couldn't see her. "Well, you seem to know everything most of the time."

     It was true━━but, Alani couldn't help but add in a little bit of menace to her voice, almost like she was wanting to rile the poor boy up.

     Stiles' voice came back through the phone, stuttering over his words as he processed Alani's voice. "Wait━━Alani? What are you doing with them? You didn't answer my call━━wait, why aren't you in the bus with me?" His questions just bounding to her, one after the other, all three girls struggled to understand what he was asking her.

     The brunette sighed, leaning down the phone. They could tell she didn't think this part of the conversation was necessary━━Scott was still currently injured, unable to heal, and that was the biggest priority on her mind. "She wanted to come."

     "I got dragged━━!"

     "No, you did not!" Lydia immediately shot down her accusation, a sharp, but almost playful expression on her face. Alani only slumped back in her seat, allowing the voices to dwindle on without her.

     On the other side, Stiles sighed, clearly also believing that part of the conversation was unnecessary. "Okay, well, when I call you next time, pick up." Alani only rolled eyes, not bothering to respond.

     The stress was clearly getting to Allison more so, now. Her left hand, leaning against the side of the door, was rubbing circles against her head, a possible mechanism in order to calm her aching mind and running thoughts down. "We need to get him off the bus."

     Lydia shook her head. "And, take him where━━a hospital?"

     "I don't think that'd be a good idea." Alani agreed.

     Allison turned to look at both of her friends, a seriousness to her face they hadn't seen before. "If he's dying━━yeah." No one said anything for a moment as they took in their reality. Scott simply wasn't healing, and Stiles claimed he was getting worse. It could potentially mean he was dying, and that was the last thing any of them needed. Scott McCall was their leader━━everyone seemed to rely on him for something, or turn to him on what to do next in situations. Without him, they were nothing. "Stiles," Allison caused, sitting up in her seat, determination set in her bones, "there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."

     "Yeah," Stiles stressed, "I've been trying."

     The brunette wasn't letting go of this fight. "Well, reason with him."

     "Reason? Have you met this guy?"

     Allison leaned closer to the phone, her ominous voice sending through to Stiles. "Just try something."

     Before Lydia could end the call to Stiles, Alani exclaimed a playful, "Use that big brain of yours!" There was no response, as by the time she had finished her sentence, the line went dead. Up front, both Lydia and Allison turned around to look at the girl with slight suspicion on their faces. Alani only shrugged in response.

♡

Alani had no idea what Stiles must've done in order to get Coach to pull the bus over, but whatever he came up with, it worked.

With the car skidding to a stop, all three girls swiftly exited the vehicle, with Alani halting her movements as she watched students clamber out. They were groaning in distaste, holding their hands up to their noses, making sure to leave the vehicle as soon as they possibly could.

Out of nowhere, Coach Finstock poked his head through one of the bus' windows, a spray can in hand. "Jared," he shouted, venom in his tone, as he singled one particular student out, "you suck!"

Walking slowly now, too nosy to catch up with the others, Alani's eyes gazed over to where a hunched over Jared stood, hands grasping tightly as his knees, seeming to be heaving.

She pointed over to him, taking notice of how Lydia was still trying to make sure the car looked safe enough to leave, rather than just automatically abandoning it like Allison did. "What━━?"

"C'mon," Lydia mumbled, taking hold of Alani's arm and forcing her to match her pace, following behind Stiles, Scott and Allison. That's when she noticed Scott's own slumped figure━━his arms were held securely over the shoulders of the other two, in need of support. That just showed how bad his condition must be getting, if he couldn't trust himself to walk on his own, causing Alani's heart to pick up a little at the prospect, worry beginning to seep into her pores.

All five teens sneakily made their way into the boy's bathroom. As gently as she could, Allison let Scott down against the bathroom floor, leaning uncomfortably against the tiled walls. A pained groan left his lips when Allison slowly lifted up his shirt.

Suddenly on display was one of the worst injuries Alani had ever seen━━and she'd seen two dead bodies! The injury was placed around his rib area, gashes slicing through his dark skin. Unnatural-looking blood was seeping through the wound, and darker veins began to protrude around his stomach. It was way worse than they had imagined.

Alani moaned in disgust at the sight of the poor boy's wound, bringing a hand up to her mouth, and attempting to look anywhere but the injury. "Oh, wow, that's a lot of blood."

She angled her body slightly to the side, giving herself the opportunity to keep her eyes trained somewhere else, when she noticed how Stiles was right behind her. It seemed he hadn't seen the injury just yet, for he looked down at her figure, snickering. "Oh, c'mon, you can't handle a little━━?" Stiles never finished his sentence, because suddenly, he was gagging in disgust.

"You were saying?"

Their short banter went unnoticed by Allison━━but, Lydia rolled her eyes at the duo's antics━━who sighed in defeat. "Oh, my God. Why didn't you tell us?" There was annoyance in her tone, too, that showed how annoyed she was at her ex-boyfriend for keeping the true seriousness of the situation a secret for too long. Maybe if he had told them all sooner, they wouldn't be in this situation, and they'd be fine. But, Scott McCall was a stubborn werewolf, and someone who never wanted to worry his friends. It was both a blessing and a curse.

"Sorry," was Scott's only reply. He seemed dazed, and he was smiling a little up to Allison. Despite the pain, he still managed to put on a brave face. Alani admired him for that.

There was a wobble in Allison's voice next, showing how she was struggling to keep her emotions contained. Everything was becoming too much for the girl to handle━━especially when someone she cared so deeply for was almost dying right in front of her. "Okay━━just give us a second, okay?" Standing back up, and seemingly getting her emotions back under control, the brunette motioned for the other three teens to huddle a short distance away. Whatever they were going to be talking about, Allison clearly didn't want Scott to hear. "This shouldn't be happening," she whispered softly, "I've seen him heal from worse than this."

"Okay━━what do we do, then? Do we just call an ambulance?" Stiles suggested, hands moving about the place out of nerves.

Moving her head slightly to the side, in order to miss the flail of Stiles' hands, she glared at him. In response, the boy mumbled a quiet apology, before slumping his hands back down to his sides. "I don't think that's a great idea, considering he's a werewolf." Each of them looked over at Alani when she spoke, and the blonde suddenly felt small. "I mean, I don't exactly know how it works, but what if he has different blood to humans, you know? That would confuse them... I don't know, okay? Can people stop looking at me now?"

Allison shook her head, looking down to the ground. She swallowed a lump in her throat. "What if... what if it's too late? What if we did call an ambulance and they can't help?"

Looking back over at his best friend, determination filled through Stiles' features. "Well, we gotta do something." Everyone followed his line of sight, and found Scott, looking to be in a worse condition than last time. Before, when Allison had set him down, his eyes were barely peeled open, attempting a comforting smile━━now, he looked unconscious; he looked... dead.

Stiles was right━━they had to do something. Who were they if they just continued to talk about things they could do, rather than actually doing them? They were his friends, his family, his pack. If there was one thing Alani learned about wolves from David Attenborough, it was that wolves never leave a member behind.

"You know," Lydia spoke hesitantly, "it could be psychological."

Both Allison and Alani looked at their friend, thinking about what she had just said, taking her theory into consideration. It was Stiles that spoke. "What do you mean━━like, psychosomatic?"

Lydia tilted her head to the boy. "Somatoformic." Now, Alani was confused. She knew what psychological meant, but the words after that were just a jumble in her mind. Looking over at Stiles, it seemed he was a little perplexed, too, narrowing his eyes at Lydia. "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause." Her voice were stated so obviously, Alani couldn't exactly believe what she was hearing━━she knew Lydia was smart, but she didn't know she was smart smart. Motioning that he was still confused, Stiles grunted. "Yes, it's all in his head."

Alani sighed, looking at the strawberry blonde. "Couldn't you have just said that in the beginning?"

"All in his head?" Stiles repeated, ignoring Alani's previous statement. It seemed recently, she was just full of sarcasm, that Stiles was getting used to her quips... maybe she had been hanging around the boy too much. She had been seen with him the most out of the others. Taking a moment to think it over, Stiles finally came to a conclusion, voicing it aloud. "Because of Derek━━he's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died."

Shaking her head, Alani grasped the attention of the others. "But, Derek's death wasn't Scott's fault... was it?"

Allison sighed, rubbing at her face out of stress. "No, but he's Scott━━he's gonna blame himself."

Everyone took a moment to think their new conclusion over. Scott blamed himself for Derek's death━━of course, he did, because that's just who Scott McCall was. He didn't believe he deserved to heal from such an injury when someone close to him was dead; someone who had trained him when he felt like he was the only one stuck in a loophole that was being a werewolf.

But, they wouldn't let him give up. They'd do whatever it took to make Scott believe none of it was his fault━━that, despite the tragedy, there was nothing they could do.

Rummaging could be heard next to her, and Alani looked up, taking note of Lydia searching through her bag. When she found what she was looking for, she displayed her hands out to everyone else, shrugging her shoulders. "Let's stitch him up." Looking around at one another, none of them quite understood what she was getting at. "I'm serious━━maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing."

Immediately, Allison got to work. The four teens believed the brunette would be the best one to carry out the action of stitching Scott back up. After all, she was the one who was a trained archer, which meant she had to have steady hands. Alani for sure was out of the question━━her hands were constantly shaking, and now, with the add-on of her nerves when it came to sleeping, thanks to the increase of nightmares and vision, they were only getting worse.

Scott continued to lie slumped against the cold, tiled wall, his shirt now discarded on the floor and his wound on full display. Allison was heating up the end of the needle with a lighter, and Stiles was messing about on the floor next to his friend, preparing everything. From behind, stood Alani and Lydia, the former fidgeting about in her place; her eyes were constantly continuing to fly back to Scott's wound, and Alani wished her curiosity wasn't so damn relentless.

"He's gonna need another shirt━━where's his bag?" Allison questioned the others.

"Um," Stiles began, standing back up, next to the girls. "I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway, so..." Going to turn around, he suddenly stopped in his place, pointing back at Allison. "Uh, do you know what you're doing?"

Allison had now began the process of working the thread through the needle, something Alani had never been able to do when she was younger, and she hadn't tried it since. "Yeah, my father taught me."

"I mean, how fast are you gonna━━I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave." Stiles enunciated.

"Okay," Allison turned around, stopping in her movements, "just make sure it doesn't leave."

Audibly sighing, Lydia motioned to the door. "I can help. C'mon."

Taking notice of the others leaving, Alani's eyes widened slightly, and her movements were sharp. "Oh, wait for me━━I'm not staying in there for a second longer." Upon realising the brutality of her words, she paused, looking back at Scott━━his eyes were almost downcast, but they were open, and she wondered if he had heard her. "No offense," she whispered, before the trio hurried outside.

When they made it out, Alani exhaled a deep breath of relief, finally realising how claustrophobic the bathroom had been for her. So much was happening all at once, and no one knew if their plan was actually going to work. It terrified her━━she had only just been introduced to this world, and now, someone she trusted, someone who helped her, was on his deathbed.

"Right," Lydia began, forcing the other two to a stop, "I'm gonna get Scott's bag, and then try and stop Coach from leaving us behind. You two..." she paused in her words, her eyes raking over both their figures, "breathe."

Watching their friend leave, Alani creased her brows in puzzlement. At the same time, both teens looked over at one another, taking note of their appearance. Stiles was pale━━well, paler than he normally was, anyway━━pupils darting everywhere possible, and his hands were continuing to clench and unclench. Alani wondered if that's how she looked in that moment, for Lydia to include the both of them collectively.

Nodding slowly, Alani attempted to compose herself, to keep her emotions at bay. There was no point in worrying, because this was what they did━━they were always getting themselves into terrifying situations, from what Alani had heard, and when everything look as though it was the end for them, they pulled themselves back up. That's how it constantly went with this group, and that's how it would go now.

Alani had to repeat that in her mind.

"So," Stiles started, a little hesitant in his words. Alani looked up at him, watching as he pursed his lips in thought, like he was testing the waters with a possible conversation starter. "Are you... taking everything okay?"

That was a question Alani Mordor hadn't bothered asking herself, because now that she looked back on it, it wasn't like she had time. Everything seemed to be moving so fast, there was no time to sit down and ponder whether she was actually okay. But, it was also a question she didn't really know the full answer to. How could she be okay with everything that had happened, in such a short span of time? The things she was now involved in, and experiencing for herself, alongside new friends who could do things similar to her; none of it should've been possible.

If anything, Alani was forcing her way through it all. She was thrown into this world at full speed, with absolutely no warning whatsoever.

The blonde exhaled deeply, puffing her cheeks out, her eyes casting downwards. She didn't know how to describe what she was feeling. "I don't know━━I guess I haven't really had time to think about it." She spoke the truth, trusting Stiles with her honest thoughts. "But, I suppose I'm leaning more towards the answer of yes." When she said that, Alani noticed Stiles' stance seemed to deflate a little, and a small smile appeared on his lips. "Everything's a lot, but, it's... good. I like knowing that I'm not the only one who can do the impossible, you know? So, I'd definitely say that I'm glad you forced me into this group."

A chuckle escaped through Stiles' throat, shaking his head in mock disbelief. "You weren't forced!"

Alani gasped dramatically. "I so was! You've been dragging me everywhere with you the past couple of days. I barely had a say in whatever we were doing."

"Okay," Stiles sighed, "first off, you weren't dragged. I simply guided you in the right direction." Alani only rolled her eyes. "And, second, you were involved the moment you started mumbling about the birds."

Groaning in embarrassment, Alani shook her head. "Ugh, don't remind me."

He laughed in response, placing his hands comfortably in his pockets. "It's not exactly a bad thing━━I mean, if you hadn't done that, we wouldn't have gotten to know you... the real you." Alani looked up at the boy, and noted a look of deep sincerity hidden behind his irises. Alani didn't know she needed this conversation, but she appreciated it, nevertheless.

Not much was said after that━━despite the flow of ease that was surrounding them just moments before, they were now enveloped with slight awkwardness. There hadn't really been a time where the two of them could just relax and talk normally━━everything previously had been death, or supernatural. They didn't exactly know how to act around one another, and where the boundaries were.

But, Stiles' mind was preoccupied for a different reason. Even now, he still didn't know what to make of Alani Mordor. She had come from nowhere, surprising them all with a new supernatural ability none of them could say they imagined possible. Maybe if she had joined the school at a different time, things would've been different. He was paranoid━━Stiles trusted the blonde, but at the same time, he didn't. So much was happening it regards to the murders and sacrifices, and Alani's appearance was just suspicious to him. He didn't want to believe that the blonde was capable of being the one to commit such ugly crimes, but he had to be careful━━he liked her, he trusted her, but where was the line of deceit?

"How did you manage to pull the bus over," Alani questioned. "I thought you said Coach was impossible to reason."

Coming back to his senses, Stiles put on a brave face, sniggering. "Oh, he is. Just wait━━a few more classes with him, and you'll know exactly what I mean." Alani smirked. "But, I, uh━━I got Jared to throw up."

Pausing, Alani sent the boy a bewildered expression. "You got him to throw up?"

"Yeah," he sighed, "just spoke to him about being sick, and whatever."

Alani rolled her eyes, but laughed along with him. "You're unbelievable."

"It worked, didn't it?"

For once, the two were comfortable around one another, joking about their situation, like Scott wasn't currently dying in the room behind them.

Stopping their laughter, however, Lydia suddenly came back, standing in front of the pair with a slight suspicious look in her eyes. "Right, Scott's got his bag, and everything's sorted━━"

But, then, at that exact moment, Coach Finstock stood by the bus doors, blowing his whistle loudly. "Let's go! Back on the bus!"

All three teens stood in anticipation, not knowing what to do. The bus couldn't leave without them━━if they were left behind, all they'd have would be the car, and that was still running of fumes! They'd never make it back, and then, they'd be stranded. That wasn't something Alani wanted to explain to her mother.

"I thought you said it was sorted?" Alani questioned her friend through gritted teeth. Behind the pair, Stiles was stressing out, hands tangled in his hair as he began to pace back and forth.

"I thought it was━━!"

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong." Stiles chimed in.

There was nothing the three of them could do━━Coach Finstock was going to leave unless they told him the truth, and that was out of the question, and they didn't want to go back in the bathroom for several reasons; one of them being that two of the three teens couldn't stand the sight of too much blood.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for them to spot Allison supporting Scott, as they exited the bathroom. Immediately, Lydia ran over to them, whilst the other pair continued to stay back. Stiles went over to Coach, giving them the most time he could to get Scott on the bus without anyone raising suspicion. That left Alani, who stood, fidgeting in her spot, watching the others interact. Everything was moving at such a fast pace, it made Alani feel nervous.

In the next moment, Stiles was her side again, looking around. "Okay, yeah, Coach has definitely had enough of me."

Turning her head in the boy's direction, Alani went to open her mouth in reply, but was cut short when she spotted something in the distance. In one second, Isaac had punched Ethan in the face, and in the next, he was on the ground, taking a beating.

Eyes wide, Alani hit Stiles in the arm, motioning for him to look in that direction. He moaned from her hit, but swivelled around, and immediately ran over, the blonde behind him. When they stopped, neither one of them tried to get even a little bit involved━━these were two werewolves, both angry at one another because a member had died in their pack. Alani and Stiles were only humans (or, as human as one could be, when you were Alani Mordor)━━they wouldn't stand a chance.

"Guys," a voice called, and they turned around to find Scott behind them, still leaning against Allison, "what's happening?"

It was Stiles who explained, his eyes staying trained forwards. "They went after him━━he must've known something wasn't right with you, and he just went after him."

Instantly, Scott was panicked. "Who━━Boyd?" He knew if one of the werewolves were attacking another, it wouldn't be too long until the surrounding group witnessed something they shouldn't. The exposure of the supernatural world wasn't something they thought they could deal with, alongside everything else packed tightly on their plates.

But, Scott's question didn't need an answer, when they turned and spotted said boy only standing as a witness, but not bothering to get involved. Isaac continued to throw punch after punch to the werewolf underneath him, his hand tightly gripping the other's shirt to make sure he stayed in his place as he took what Isaac must've believed to be his punishment.

The sounds of grunts, pained groans and bones snapping was all anyone could hear, until Coach pushed his way through the crowd. "Isaac━━Isaac!" His attempt at stopping his student was left futile. From behind, Danny Mahealani tried to pry Isaac off, but it was to no use. He didn't know he was going against a werewolf.

"Stop," Scott's voice broke through the atmosphere, continuing to cling against his ex-girlfriend for support. Behind them stood Stiles, Alani, and a recent Lydia, all rooted in shock as they watched the scene play out in front of them. Alani had never seen such brutal rage before, and it scared her. She was glad someone like Isaac Lahey was on their side, even if he didn't like her.

"Isaac!"

This time, Scott's voice completely tore through the atmosphere, and Isaac stopped in his movements, like his friend's voice had been the only one to get through to him, telling him that what he was doing was wrong, through just the simple sound of his name.

The werewolf slowly stood back up, looking downtrodden and slightly embarrassed over his actions, but Alani doubted he regretted them. Danny was crouched down on the floor, checking over Ethan, who had blood continuing to run down his chin in crimson waves. Everyone around them stood in shock, watching Isaac closely, not quite believing what they had just witnessed.

It was tense as everyone eventually filtered back onto the bus, with three newcomers joining them. No words were spoken, and if they were, people made sure they were hushed. The group were practical in picking their spots at the back of the bus, so they could openly speak about whatever they needed to, without the worry of someone listening in━━they probably wouldn't believe them anyway, and would just think they were crazy. Now that Alani thought about it, they were a strange group━━two boys who were once considered nerds (although, Alani didn't doubt that they still were), two popular girls, and the new kid.

Slumping down, almost in relief that she could relax now that Scott was okay, Alani took up the window seat, with Lydia comfortably next to her. Behind them was Scott and Allison, the former leaning against the window in thought, and Stiles took up the entire seat in front of them. His legs were enjoyably spread out, his back leaning against the side as he spoke to the two girls.

"All right━━let's go over this one more time." Stiles started, speaking to the girls. Alani sighed, whilst Lydia seemed defeated━━they'd had enough of talking so much; they just wanted to relax, but that was clearly something that was considered impossible around Stiles Stilinski. "So, it's the sacrifices, right?━━something we know for definite thanks to Al," at the praise, Alani sat up a little straighter, smiling towards the boy. But, she slumped back down in minute embarrassment when she spotted the teasing look Lydia was giving her. Stiles continued on. "Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark Druid of some kind."

"Or, she." Alani spoke up, shrugging her shoulders. "Girl power, you know?"

Stiles' eyes twitched as he looked at the girl, and his expression hardened into disbelief. "Girl power━━they're still committing sacrifices━━"

"I just don't think we should rule out the possibility of a female━━!"

"Anyway," pronounced Lydia sharply, grasping the attention of the two bickering teens once more. When she noticed they were both looking at her like she wanted, she spoke. "Or, they actually are a dark Druid."

Stiles pointed at her in agreement. "A Darach."

Silence settled amongst them as they all began to think━━Lydia was looking down at her hands, twiddling them mindlessly, and Alani wondered if that was a coping mechanism of some sort. She reminded herself to ask whether Lydia was okay, at some point. "You know," she said, hesitant, "some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle."

Alani looked over at her friend, before back at Stiles, only to find him nodding his head with pursed lips, like he was expecting such an answer. Alani certainly wasn't. "Well, that makes me feel comforted." Whining, the blonde brought her hand up to her chin to lean on, staring out at the passing scenery.

"I━━I don't think it's supposed to." Stiles replied, and Alani only sent him a knowing glare, to which he nodded in understanding defeat. He sighed, rubbing a hand along his features. "So, we got Alpha werewolves against a dark Druid." He summarised, and when explained like that, Alani simply couldn't believe what she was had managed to get herself into. Nothing made sense, and yet, at the same time, it did.

"Yeah." Lydia simply replied, eyes glazed over.

Alani scoffed. "How simple," she murmured into her hand, not bothering to check if anyone heard her comment.

There was nothing simple about what they were going through, and there was nothing simple about what was ahead of them.

NOTE.
a shorter chapter today, yay!
BUT next chapter is literally the best episode ever, fight me. that means it's gonna take me a little longer to write this one, as alani is involved a lot &&& it the episode will definitely be separated lmao. i'm so excited!!! <33