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sirens, sirens
( teen wolf. s3A )

chapter nine.
drowning in your hidden sorrows

TRIGGER WARNING:
mentions of suicide, depressing thoughts, drowning, etc. if anybody needs to talk, my dms are always open <33 please read with caution.

     THE first thing they had done when they got back into their room was get in contact with Stiles. They each knew that if anyone would have any answers for them, it would be the Stilinski boy. Alani knew he was always full of answers or predictions or possible suggestions━━she just hoped he would have one now.

     Taking their time to fully explain the situation the trio of girls had unfortunately found themselves in, Stiles stood in his spot, nervously biting his thumb nail and foot napping rhythmically against the floor. Alani had decided to stay quiet during the explanations, knowing she wouldn't be able to attempt it even if she tried. Every now and then, she'd take notice of how Stiles would look back at the blonde, but she couldn't figure out why.

     Allison was standing up front, pacing back and forth as she continued her explanation. She seemed to be using her hands a lot; gesturing about the place and smacking them against one another. Alani hadn't seen her do that before, and she wondered if maybe it was out of nerves. "Last time I saw Scott act like that was during the full moon."

     Stiles nodded in thought. "Yeah, I know━━he was definitely a little off with me, too. But, actually, it was Boyd who was really off. I watched him put his fist through the vending machine."

     Cocking a brow and tilting her head, Alani's eyes widened a little at the idea of Boyd punching through a vending machine. Boyd was the type of person Alani Mordor wouldn't want to mess with━━and that was even if she didn't know he was a werewolf. That aspect only made her point stand out more.

     "See!" Lydia's voice cut through Alani's thoughts, her tone a little frantic. "It is the motel. Even Alani's visions have been acting weird ever since we got here!"

     Alani perked up at the sound of her name, and it was too late to realise what her friend had said until Stiles' body immediately turned to her. She glared towards Lydia, realising how she probably should've mentioned to the girls that she didn't want other people to know what was happening to her━━especially when she didn't know! Alani knew Stiles would want to know about whatever was happening with her━━he was too curious for his own good. Lydia only shrugged, shaking her head.

     Slowly turning, Alani found Stiles looking down at her expectantly, and sent the boy a fake smile, despite knowing it wouldn't change whatever was going through his mind in that moment. "Al," he spoke, pointedly, "you're visions are acting up?"

     Knowing she wasn't going to get away with lying to the boy now, she sighed, closing her eyes. "Well, yeah, sort of..." She sighed when she noticed he was still looking at her, most likely waiting for her to continue. Alani rolled her eyes. "I've had two since we came here and I haven't slept for a single second. I'll just be walking, and the next thing I know, I'm in it, I'm there, I'm watching teenagers shoot each other's faces off!" By the end of her explanation, her voice was completely frantic and panicked, because now she was talking about it properly rather than only thinking about it to herself.

     She sighed, trying to calm her breathing, closing her eyes in thought. Alani tried to think of happy things, but came up short when her mind only replayed the images of two dead teens, the gunshot ringing throughout the expanse of her empty mind.

     When she opened her eyes again, she only saw three sympathetic smiles sent in her direction. Alani hated feeling this way━━she didn't want pity; she had been experiencing this her entire life. Although, she supposed this was different, wasn't it? Because Alani couldn't exactly say she'd experienced this before. Yet, when she thought about, Alani would take looks of pity any day over looks of suspicion.

     It was Lydia who decided to break the atmosphere with her voice, quiet and soft, but still rushed. "Look, either we need to get out of here right now, or," she turned, opening a draw and pulling out a book, "someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism asap before the werewolves go crazy and kill us."

     Stiles held his hands out in an attempt to calm Lydia's rambling. "Okay, just hold on, all right? What if it's not just the motel?" His words had everyone thinking, looking around one another. Stiles motioned to Allison. "The number in the office went up by three, right?"

     "You mean like three sacrifices?" Allison questioned, linking back to their problems back home.

     He tilted his head when he spoke next, an expression on his face that showed he didn't want to admit what he was thinking. "What if this time it's three werewolves?"

     "Scott, Isaac and Boyd." Allison whispered, terror behind her voice.

     Stiles shrugged. "Maybe we were meant to come here..."

     Closing her eyes in defeat, Alani brought a hand up to her eyes, rubbing harshly to try and get rid of the headache banging throughout her mind. "Oh, this is just brilliant."

     It seemed Alani speaking caused something to click within Lydia's mind, for she suddenly spoke up, looking at the blonde in slight concern. "Wait, what about Alani? I mean, she's not a werewolf."

     Shrugging, Allison tried to think of a possible suggestion, looking back to the strawberry blonde. Meanwhile, Alani's head whipped from one person to another as they continued on. "Maybe what's affecting them is also affecting her."

     "No," Stiles denied, shaking his head, "that doesn't make sense━━she's not exactly full supernatural, is she?"

     Alani's head was only filling up with more thoughts the longer they continued to converse, until she suddenly exploded. "Right here, you know?" Her voice cut through the trio, who all turned to her, watching her expectantly. She exhaled, overwhelmed. "Besides, how can you even be full supernatural? I literally have visions of other people doing weird shit, sometimes before it even happens━━hell, I had one today that that happened God knows when. If that's not full supernatural, then I don't know what is."

     "She's right," Lydia spoke, looking to the other two, eyes full of knowing, "so can we get the hell out of here now? Please?"

     It seemed Stiles wasn't even paying full attention to what Lydia was desperately trying to say, because his eyes fell down to the book in her hand. "Wait, hang on. Let me see this." Alani groaned, watching as Stiles flicked through the pages, before coming across a loose piece of paper embedded within. Immediately, the other three girls surrounded him out of curiosity, a headline standing out to them that read '28 Year-Old Man Hangs Self At The Infamous Glen Capri.' For a moment, no one said as they looked at the paper lay discarded on the bed. Then, Stiles shook the book, watching as many others fell out of their place, too. All of them similar.

     All four of them read briefly over each one, trying to understand what really happens in such a motel. Lydia grabbed two, placing them next to one another. "No, look at these two. They both mention the room 217. These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room."

     Alani looked around herself, feeling the sudden urge to throw up again. This room had however many people inside committing all kinds of suicides. If that didn't make everyone want to leave afterwards, Alani was going to hit them up the side of the head━━no sane person would want to sleep there after that.

     Continuing to look intently at each one, Allison whispered, "So, if every room has a Bible..."

     "There could be articles in all the rooms." Lydia finished.

     Alani groaned out in displeasure, walking backwards. "Oh, God."

     "That's a beautiful thing," Stiles replied sarcastically, shrugging nonchalantly. "Most places leave a mint under the pillow. This one leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred."

     Leaning forwards to look at Stiles, she quipped, "Yeah, that's 'cause this place is full is freaking psychos!"

     They could all tell Alani was panicking, it being clear on her face and the way she was acting. Alani hadn't yet experienced something like this within the group before, whereas they had. The rest of them had (unfortunately) been numb to the idea of things like this happening, despite them wishing they wouldn't. Alani just had a lot to learn.

     Looking up, Lydia looked at Alani, nodding towards her. "What if the room next door has the one about the couple?"

     Alani wasn't even given time to respond to her friend, for Stiles was instantly rushing to the door, and out to the next room. Reluctantly, the other three followed behind him. The blonde girl doubted that they would find anything, especially if the room was in the process of being renovated━━surely, things like a Bible with a lot of information about the room would've been taken out.

     Coming out the room, they watched as Stiles fumbled with the door knob, him having no luck whatsoever in opening the door. Alani furrowed her brows, pointing at the door, before looking over at the girls. "We could get in there before, right?"

     Allison sighed, now fidgeting about as she began to grow increasingly anxious. "Forget it━━we need to get Scott, Isaac and Boyd out of here."

     Turning around, all four of them left to leave, until suddenly a noise resounded from inside the room. Each of them paused in their steps, shocked expression plastered across the faces, continuing to stare in slight disbelief at the door. The sound was mechanical, a whirring noise that sent pain through Alani's eardrums.

     "I'm not the only one hearing that, am I?" Lydia questioned tensely, hoping she wasn't hearing things again.

     Alani shook her head, standing in between the girls as she looked confused. "No, definitely not." She realised afterwards that her comment probably wouldn't have meant anything any way, considering it was herself and Lydia before who were experiencing weird things.

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

     Instantly, Stiles was back next to them, pressed against Alani's back from rushing towards them. "Handsaw?" His voice was loud, frantic as he looked at each of them. Trying again, this time, Stiles was able to open the door without any struggle, which confused Alani. But, that confusion was soon overrun by complete terror at what she saw inside. Ethan━━a handsaw within his grasp, aiming it towards his own stomach. "Hey, no, Ethan, don't!" Stiles yelled, running up to the werewolf in an attempt to stop the boy from harming himself.

     Alani stood back next to the two other girls, knowing each of them would be useless trying to intervene, especially when going up against a werewolf. She tense as she watched both Stiles and Ethan struggle against one another, each of them fighting for control over the handsaw. There was one point where the tool got way too close to Stiles than she would've liked, knowing he didn't have the ability to heal like Ethan did.

     The werewolf won the struggle, shoving Stiles off himself with the use of the handsaw. Alani watched, frozen, as Stiles fell to the ground, face just millimetres away from being sawed off from the whirring blade situated on the floor. Before his face could get any closer, Lydia had bent down, pulling the plug from the socket, stopping the tools from working.

     Sighing out in relief, Alani believed it to be over, but that seemed to be far from the truth. Next thing she knew, Ethan had ripped he claws out, showing them off and preparing to tear himself apart. Upon realising this, both Allison and Stiles rushed to the werewolf, using all their strength to force Ethan's hands away from his stomach. Both Alani and Lydia stayed back, watching the scene unfold, desperate to find a way to get Ethan's mind out of whatever reverie he was stuck in.

     The struggle continued again, but this time, Ethan broke free. He fell forward, landing on something, and burning himself in the process. As he lay on the floor, he clasped his burnt wrist to his chest, looking around himself in confusion. He wasn't trying to harm himself any more, and Alani took that as a good sign.

     He stood up, looking frenzied and distressed. "What just happened?" None of them said anything, each one trying to catch their fallen breath back into their lungs. When he didn't get a reply, he stormed out the room, all of them hot on his tail. They rushed down the steps, listening as Ethan spoke. "I don't know how I go there, or what I was doing."

     Stiles flung his hands in the air, watching the werewolf go. "Okay, Ethan, you could be a little bit more helpful, you know? We did just save your life."

     Ethan turned back, his footsteps continuing to guide him backwards in a desperate attempt to leave. "And, you probably shouldn't have." That was the last thing he said, before he eventually left, closing the door to his room behind himself.

     "What now?" Lydia suspired.

     Still standing on the stairs, Allison created some sentiment of a plan. "I'll find Scott. You guys decide who looks for Isaac and Boyd." The trio left looked between one another. "The best thing we can do is get them out of this place." She turned to leave, then, anguish on her features.

     Clasping her hands together, Lydia looked at the two of them, then taking note of the expression on Stiles' face, watching as his eyes continuously went from herself and Alani. "What?" Lydia sharply questioned, bringing the boy out of wherever his mind had taken him. "Why are you looking at us like that?"

     The boy shook his head, attempting to seem like he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. "Oh, no, I━━"

      "Stiles." Lydia cut off, watching the apprehensive look on Alani's fac━━she could sense the bad feeling, too.

     Looking around, possibly checking no one else was near, Stiles gave up. "All right, I didn't want to say anything, but this," he gestured around them, "everything we're going through, we've kind of been through something like this before, a lot like this."

     Alani's brows furrowed, trying to think back to a time when one of them might've mentioned something. "You have?"

     When she spoke, Stiles looked down at her, eyes full of sympathy and regret; something Alani couldn't understand. The boy knew at some point he was going to have to come clean to the girl, but he was hoping he'd never have to.

     "Stiles?" Lydia questioned, waiting.

     He paused. "Your birthday party━━the night you poisoned everyone with Wolfsbane." Immediately, Alani stood up straighter, eyes shooting to her friend, wondering what had really happened during such a time. Alani couldn't imagine someone like Lydia Martin poisoning everyone out of spite, and by the looks of her face, it was something she hadn't meant to do━━she was completely terrified at the prospect that this could all be her again, and Alani pondered the truth. Still, she wouldn't say anything, because it was none of her business. Besides, it seemed like it was something that could've possibly traumatised the girl, meaning she definitely wouldn't want to talk about it. Alani could understand that.

     Pursing her lips together, Lydia starting nodding slowly, and for a moment, Alani thought the girl might explode on the boy. Instead, when she spoke, her voice came out soft, like she was vulnerable. "Yeah." Alani looked from her friend to Stiles, watching both their reactions in case anything was to happen so suddenly. Lydia sucked in a deep breath, beginning to turn back around and head up the steps. "I'm gonna go find Isaac or Boyd, you two should, as well."

     Stiles doesn't say anything as they both watch the strawberry blonde walk away. Alani found herself feeling awkward, feeling like she's overstaying her welcome, considering she has no idea what happened with Lydia at her birthday party.

     She didn't want to ask about that, so instead, she found herself asking something else. "Why do you think it's me?"

     He looked down at her then, brows creased, not understanding what she was insinuating. "What do you mean?"

     Alani breathed out, looking back to where Lydia was standing before of the stairs. "Before, Lydia said why are you looking at us like that?" She paused, watching as realisation dawned upon his features. "So, that means you must think it's me, too."

     "Alani━━"

     "I'm not mad," the blonde chuckled nervously, "I just want to know why."

     Stiles seemed to be at a cross roads with himself. On one hand, he wanted to tell her, because she deserved to know. What she didn't deserved was to be on his list, but there was still a small, minuscule part of him that was suspicious of the girl. But, as each day passed, and the more she got involved with him and their group, Stiles believed she could leave that list.

     He sighed, running a hand through his hair, looking a little awkward, too. "I just... you came from nowhere." Alani furrowed her brows. "You joined us, and when you did, things started happening. I thought it was too... much... to be a coincidence." Alani's eyes were distance, nodding solemnly, but understanding. Stiles placed his arms in front of himself, gesturing. "But, I don't think that anymore... at least, not that much."

     Alani took a moment to herself, thinking over his words. He was right━━it was too much to be just a coincidence, and from an outsider's perspective, it made sense why anyone would think that way. What made her feel better was the words be added on at the end━━that meant she was improving in his books, in all their books, if only slightly. Slight improvement was better than no improvement, and Alani guessed the more she stayed around, the more accepted she would become.

     "Thank you," she whispered, and Stiles had to lean a little closer to hear her. "Thank you for telling me. I get it━━I do. I'm the new girl who seems to have too much up her sleeve."

     Stiles shook his head. "No, Alani━━"

     "It's fine. Honestly." She nodded, before blowing out a breath, looking around them. "Now, let's go get━━"

     But she's stopped mid-sentence when something suddenly imagines itself in her mind. It's only a split second, an imagine barely forming, before it disappears. Alani's eyes move frantically, trying to discern if she had just imagined that, or whether something had just happened within the confines of her crazy mind.

     "Alani..." Stiles started, looking at her weirdly, "you good?"

     Looking back at the boy, she's completely puzzled as she tried to work out what she had seen, and understand why it had only been for a split second. "No, I just..." she trailed off, not knowing exactly what to say.

     However, it seemed as though Stiles already had an idea as to what just happened. "Oh, is this one of your freaky little vision things?"

     Immediately, Alani turned sharply around, staring at him from the way he had just described her ability. She stuttered on her words. "What? I don't━━they're not freaky!" Stiles made a motion, shrugging matter-of-factly. "I just... I think it was." Alani watched as Stiles' face scrunched up in confusion, continuing on to elaborate. "I only saw it for a split second, like it couldn't form properly, like it couldn't..."

     Slowly turning her head, Alani's eyes settled on a drain in the distance. She didn't understand why she was looking over there, or why something in the back of her mind was telling her to go towards it, but she did so, anyway. She didn't care if Stiles was following her or not; the need to understand what was happening over-powered any of her other wants and needs in that moment.

     Kneeling down, Alani pressed herself to the floor, looking down deeply into the drain. Nothing happened, not in reality, or in the fantasy realm of her mind. For a moment, Alani was confused, the sound of footsteps appearing behind her. Upon closer inspection, Alani carefully moved her hand towards the drain, and when she touched the cool metal, it appeared in her mind again.

     This time, she was able to make out what she was seeing━━it was a bathroom, the sound of running water echoing off the tiled walls. The bath was occupied, and it took a while to understand who she was looking at due to the safe weighing them down.

     As she burst back into reality, she stood up suddenly, swiftly turning round to face Stiles. Terror washed over her features when she spoke. "Boyd━━Boyd's drowning."

     Stiles didn't even bother confirming whether Alani was sure that it was Boyd who she saw, or if she saw anything correctly. Instead, he began running as quick as he could in the direction of the room he knew said boy and Isaac were staying in.

     The pair of them were moving as fast as were humanly possible, shoving the door open, and noting that someone else was already there━━Lydia. She was stood in front of the bathtub, looking down, not knowing what she should do. When Stiles and Alani came firing in, she jumped in her spot, looking frantically from everyone present. "I don't know how I knew, I just heard these voices━━"

     Alani immediately went up to the girl as Stiles knelt down, comforting her. "It's okay. I saw him." Lydia's expression softened just slightly at the prospect that she hadn't been the only one to see or hear something impossible. She was glad she couldn't be considered the only crazy one, even if Alani was the one who knew what she was going through a little, out of the two of them.

     Attempting to free Boyd from the experience of drowning, his hand continued to search desperately for the plug hole, only to sigh in exasperation. "He blocked it━━he blocked the drain with something."

     "Well, can't you get it out?" Alani stressed.

     Stiles turned to her, glaring. "If I could, I would've done it by now, Alani!"

     "Okay, so what do we do?" Lydia frantically questioned, all three minds trying to think of something, pleading with themselves.

     Standing up properly again, Stiles gestured to the safe placed against Boyd's chest. "Here, help me." All the three of them got a tight grip on the metal, before heaving with all their might, but it was no use━━the safe wasn't going to move for them, no matter how long they tried.

     Running a stressed hand through her hair, Lydia looked back at Boyd, catching her breath. "Is he dead? How long can a werewolf stay underwater?"

     Alani looked at Lydia stupidly, wondering why she would think herself and Stiles would know the answer to such a question, of all people. Stiles strained. "You think we know that?"

     "God, I only just got thrown into this world." Alani grunted, continuing to heave with the other two.

     Eventually, they came to the conclusion none of them were able to do this, let alone altogether. Stiles stood back up, panicking. "It's too heavy." Alani lay slumped against the wall, breathing deeply. She watched as Stiles began to slowly back up, before burning himself against the heater. Realisation seemed to dwindle on Stiles when he yelled out in pain━━it was the same as it was with Ethan. "Wait a sec━━the heater. Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."

     "What?" Lydia questioned.

     "It's the heat," Stiles gestured, "fire. Heat does it, all right? We need something..."

     Alani stood back up now, understanding what he meant but not knowing how to solve their predicament. "How are we gonna burn him━━he's underwater?"

     "Thank you, Alani," Stiles pointed out at her, sarcastically.

     Silence wrapped around them as each one attempted to think up a plan. Eventually, it was Lydia with the idea. "The bus."

     Looking over at the strawberry blonde, Alani titled her head. "What?"

     "On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares. They━━they have their own oxidisers. They can burn underwater."

     Stiles stuttered, but didn't move. "Are━━are you serious?"

     "No," Alani yelled sarcastically, "she thought it would be a good time to joke around━━of course, she's serious. Go!" Stiles didn't bother saying anything else, or attempting to look at Alani funnily, he just sprinted to the bus.

     Alani sighed, watching as Lydia continued to strain against the weight of the safe, desperately trying to lift it off the werewolf. Watching her friend struggle, the blonde kneeled down beside her, joining in, despite knowing their attempts were futile. "God," Alani grunted, "I'm gonna kill my mom for making me move here." 

     Giving up once more, they both slumped down,  catching their breath. Alani ran a hand through her hair, exasperated, whereas Lydia suddenly looked confused. "Can you..." she started hesitantly, standing up gently.

     "Lydia?" Alani questioned.

     "Can you hear that?" The strawberry blonde looked back at the girl on the floor, who strained her ears, but shook her head in response when she came up with nothing. She was stood in the doorway now, facing the bed within the other room. "It sounds like..." Lydia didn't finish whatever she was going to reveal to Alani, instead only continuing to move towards the furniture.

     Alani stood up, standing in the doorway of the bathroom to keep an eye on both Boyd and Lydia. She watched, completely confused, as the strawberry blonde bent down, before lifting the cover up and looking under the bed. Lydia jumped, standing up again, and as Alani went to ask what she saw, Stiles came bursting back in, flares in hand. "I got 'em. Um," he fumbled them about in his hands, "what━━what do I do with this?"

     "The cap," Lydia emphasised, Alani looking back at Boyd to see if anything had changed, "it's like a match. The cap's a match."

     Trying multiple times, Stiles continued to fail at lighting the flare. Panic seemed all around them, and none of them knew how much time Boyd had left. Lydia yelled Stiles' name, hoping it would make him move quicker, but it only seemed to make him stumble more. With one last try, it finally lit.

     Exasperating in relief, Alani immediately moved back into the bathroom, allowing the other two to rush back in to help the werewolf. Wasting no time, Stiles forced the flare into the water, touching Boyd's skin. Instantly, the werewolf shot up, shoving the safe off himself, the flare cascading to the floor, having used it for what they needed it for. The loud clang of metal banging against the ground caused the three of them to jump back, and Alani felt an arm wrap around her own. She looked right, and saw it was Lydia.

     The strawberry blonde was tugging on her arm, trying to grasp her attention. When she had it fully, Lydia then pointed to the bed, and Alani thought about what Lydia might've seen. So, she gently hit Stiles on the arm, before pointing to the bed, too. It seemed the boy thankfully understand what they were both trying to say, for he grasped the other flare he had gotten from the bus on his hand, lighting it up, before shoving it under the bed, leaving a hurt Isaac to yell out in pain.

     Deciding to leave the two werewolves together in their room, knowing they weren't going to attempt to hurt themselves again now that they were brought out of it, they left the room, instantly bumping into Allison. Making their way downstairs, the brunette began to explain what she had been up to. "I can't find Scott anywhere."

     "It's happening to him, too, isn't it?" Stiles frantically questioned.

     Alani shrugged, walking down alongside Lydia. "He's werewolf━━it has to be."

     "Didn't got say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia questioned to Stiles, hoping they could grab that so they would be ready when they eventually found Scott.

     "Yeah," Stiles responded, "I'll get it..." However, as they rounded the corner from the stairs, each of them paused in their steps when their eyes landed on what was in front of them: Scott was stood there, silently, a lit flare in hand and drenched in something they couldn't tell.

     Allison was the first to move forward, her steps hesitant and her voice shaky. "Scott." Her voice didn't seem to change anything in Scott's expression. So, the four of them slowly walked closer, before finally coming in front of him. "Scott." Allison repeated.

     A light gasp tore from Lydia's throat, Alani following her friend's line of sight, when she found a discarded bottle of gasoline. Scott was covered in it, drenched.

     He was going to set himself on fire.

     They all watched painfully as Scott continued to stay frozen in place, the flare still gripped tightly within his fingers. "There's no hope," he spoke, a crack sounding at the end of his voice.

     Alani couldn't believe what she was hearing, what she was seeing. This was Scott McCall━━someone she knew the entire pack relied on, because he was always there for them, always there when they needed optimism, when they needed hope. This wasn't the Scott McCall they all knew, even Alani could tell the difference.

     Her heart broke when she watched Allison chuckle sadly, tears already cascading down her face. Alani's own eyes started to well up, too, staying close to Lydia's side. "What do you mean, Scott? There's always hope."

     "Not for me. Not for Derek." He was continuing to blame himself for what happened to Derek, despite all of them knowing there was nothing the werewolf could've done.

     Shaking her head, Allison stepped forward once, the others deciding to stay back. "Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault."

     It seemed like his ex-girlfriend's words were barely registering within his mind. "Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse━━people keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed."

     "Scott," Stiles' voice was heard now, breaking through the sad atmosphere, stepping forward to stand alongside Allison. Alani and Lydia continued to stay behind, knowing they had no part of this, despite deeply caring about the werewolf in front of them. "Listen to me, okay? This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay, now━━"

     "What if it isn't?" Scott questioned, defeated. "What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" No one knew what to say, their sorrowful surroundings filling up each of their senses. Scott shook his head. "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that━━you and me?" Alani could see the tears in Stiles' eyes now. "We were... we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one... maybe I should just be no one again. No one, at all."

     Alani's heart broke more each time Scott spoke, and a sob wracked in the back of her throat. She brought a hand up to stifle the sound as best as she could, quickly trying to wipe the tears from her stained her cheeks.

     She watched then, as Stiles moved ever closer to Scott, and became a little more on edge. "Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay━━you're someone, you're... Scott, you're my best friend. And, I need you. Scott, you're my brother." He paused looking down, and the three girls watched as Stiles gently reached out an arm towards Scott, stepping into the puddle of gasoline. "All right, so... if you're gonna do this, then I think you're just gonna have to take me with you."

     Everyone was on edge as they watched, tense as to what may possibly happen next. Scott had tears running completely down his face now, Stiles taking hold of the flare himself. Lydia grasped hold of Alani's hand, squeezing tightly. Then, after taking complete control of the flare, Stiles discarded it, throwing it away without caring where it landed. They each seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

     It wasn't until Lydia screamed, did the others take notice of the flare evidently rolling back to the puddle of gasoline. Immediately, Lydia, Allison and Alani rushed to the boys, using all their might to push them as far away as possible.

     Each of them landed down harshly upon the ground, Alani lying haphazardly next to Stiles. She gasped when she hit her head, in pain, but became numb to the sensation when she saw Lydia's look of pure terror on her face. Alani looked over at the flames, where Lydia was continuing to gaze, but saw nothing.

     Nothing but flames.

♡

     "I don't wanna know." A voice awoke Alani from her deep slumber. "I really don't wanna know. But, in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!"

     Something moved from on top of Alani's head, and she lifted her own from wherever it was resting, tilting it from one side to the other, hearing the cracks reverberate in her ears. Cracking her eyes open, blinded a little by the sudden light, Alani noticed what it was she had been sleeping on━━or, rather, who. Stiles was slumped on the seat next to her, both of them leaning against the other. When they suddenly realised the position they were in, they shot away, cheeks reddening profusely and stuttering over unnecessary apologies. The night before had been so chaotic, they clearly didn't care where they ended up sleeping, so long as they knew they were going to get some rest.

     Looking around herself, watching as more students filed inside, Alani took notice of Scott sat in front of them both, with Lydia and Allison in the next row, and Isaac and Boyd in the back row.

     Attempting to blink some life back in to her eyes, Alani heard the seat in front of her move, and saw Ethan sit down knowingly next to Scott. The rest of them were immediately tense, watching the interaction unfold, knowing there was some unresolved business there, considering Ethan had practically helped kill Derek. "I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life."

     "Actually," Stiles cut in, poking his head between the two werewolves, "I saved your life, but not that it matters that much━━it's a minor detail━━"

     Ethan just cut Stiles off, not bothering to acknowledge the boy. Alani sent a teasing smile to him. "So, I'm gonna give you something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive." Those words caught the attention of the entire group, perking up straighter and wondering what had changed since they last saw the man, or at least heard of him. Derek was dead, Scott and Allison saw it, so what happened? "But, he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen━━either he joins our pack..."

     "And, he kills his own." Scott finished for him.

     "Or," Ethan tainted, "Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works."

     Stiles scoffed, and Alani tensed, wondering if he was only going to make the situation worse. "You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just FYI."

     They watched as he walked away, not seeming to care about Stiles' comment. Alani shook her head at him, the boy then looking down at the blonde, confused. "Do you purposely try to make every situation worse, or...?"

     He chuckled, sarcastically. "No, actually, I try to make it more fun. And, you know, in the end, it's always━━"

     "Coach," Lydia's rushed voice cut through their conversation, standing up to grab the teacher's whistle, "can I see your whistle for a second?" The girl barely gave the man any time to contemplate her question, instead just allowing the girl to unwrap the object from around his neck, stumbling on his words for her to eventually give it back to him. Blowing into the whistle, Lydia looked knowingly down to the palm of her hand, disgruntled. Turning it around for the others to see, a purple dust-like substance was mirrored there━━"Wolfsbane."

     Stiles looked at Scott, unbelieving. "So, every time the Coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Isaac, Boyd..."

     "...And, Ethan." Lydia added.

     "We all inhaled it," Scott seemed dazed.

     Allison shook her head. "You were all poisoned by it."

     Looking around, then back down at the Wolfsbane still littered on Lydia's palm, Stiles sighed. "So, that's how the Darach got in their heads."

     Alani continued to stay silent, looking down at her palms, the same one she had felt a stinging sensation upon the night before. Her mind whizzed and whirred, thinking back to how her abilities could've suddenly changed, or rather, increased tenfold.

     It seemed Allison either had the same idea, or noticed where her friend's eyes were trained, for when she spoke up, she spoke Alani's thoughts. "But, what about Alani? Her visions were going a mile a minute━━it didn't matter whether she was asleep or not."

     Scott then looked back at Alani, almost in confirmation. None of them had bothered to tell the wolves━━Scott more so━━about what happened when they were all delirious and in another state-of-mind, and that included Alani's new expanse of her abilities. They didn't know if it was there to stay, or if it was just happening because of the place they were staying in.

     The werewolf sighed when Alani nodded to him. He shrugged, unsure. "The Wolfsbane must've affected you, too, just not to the point where you wanted to kill yourself."

     Alani scoffed. "Yeah, thank God."

     "No," Lydia spoke up, a look that was almost proud aimed in the blonde's direction, "but it helped her to find you all." She noticed then the they were all looking at her, feeling small but appreciated at the same time.

     Seeming to blink back into reality, Stiles then snatched the whistle out of Lydia's hands, before throwing it out the window, none of them ever seeing it again. "Hey, hey, hey!" Coach yelled, as the bus began to drive away, leaving that damned whistle behind. "Stilinski!"

     Alani didn't bother watching the motel leave her eyesight as they left the premises; she was just glad knowing she'd never be in such a place again, because even without the idea of the Darach attempting to kill them inadvertently, that place simply shouldn't have been a motel for unknowing guests.

     The blonde knew she wouldn't be able to leave all those thoughts behind, because the problem was still happening back at home. And, despite wanting to leave the confusion and nervousness of her new abilities behind, too, she knew she wouldn't be able to. Not if Stiles Stilinski had anything to say about it, and not if they continued to follow him, too.

NOTE.
wow. this entire episode is so powerful. i love these characters so much 🥺🥺
they're always going through so much, and adding in someone like alani only makes it hurt more. basically, she's screwed, and i like to think she finally realises it during this chapter.