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CHAPTER FIFTEEN;

WELCOME TO MOTEL CALIFORNIA

"No. Absolutely not. No way in hell."

"I've seen worse."

Sage, who was standing in between Stiles and Danny, turned to look at the werewolf that had dared to try and make things better. They were standing in front of their death sentence; literally, their death was about to hit them head on the second that they entered Motel Glen Capri. Sage was just imagining all of the STD's and cigarette buds that she's going to be sleeping on. The thought alone almost made her throw up just like Jared had.

Stiles whipped his head around to stare at Scott in exasperation. "Where have you seen worse?"

"I'm not going in," Sage decided, shaking her head. "I'd rather take my chances of someone killing me on the bus than sleep in this place. Seriously, guys, it looks like a shitty slasher film was shot here or something. That, or one is about to be shot and we're the idiotic assholes that decided it would be a fantastic idea to go in and die."

Danny snickered from beside the girl. "Blondes bite it first, Sage. Might as well just give you up first."

"I will castrate you, Mahealani," Sage snapped, glaring at the boy. Once again, she found herself repeating the word, "No," as she stared at the motel. It was unnerving, and she didn't like the feeling that settled in her stomach when she inspected the place. Everything about it was off, from the way the lights flickered rapidly to the way the vending machines rumbled from so far away. Below her feet, she could feel everything telling her to turn around and run far, far away from this place before they get sucked into the allusion that it's not dangerous.

Because, to her, it didn't seem like the case.

Sage barely had a chance to complain even more about the possibility of being slaughtered by a psychotic escapee from Eichen House because Coach was incessantly blowing on the whistle of hell again, giving everyone around a constant reminder of why Coach Finstock will continue to be the most annoying man to ever exist.

"Listen up and stop complaining, Connelly. The meet's been pushed to tomorrow, and this is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves."

Sage's eyebrows furred as she stared at Coach. "Ever considered they don't have many vacancies because they kill everyone that spends the night?"

"That's the spirit!" Coach shouted, raising his index finger towards Sage in appreciation. Sage scoffed and felt Stiles' hand fall on her back. "Now, you'll be pairing up so choose wisely; and I'll have no sexual perversions perpretrated by you little deviants. Got that, Stilinski? So keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little self."

Stiles' hand fell tighter on her clothes. "I hate him."

"Yeah, well, maybe someone will kill him before the night's over," Sage muttered before turning towards her small group of friends. Allison and Lydia were standing near the back, trying to stay undetected by Coach. Honestly, Sage suspected he knew and just didn't give a shit. "Are we splitting boys and girls?"

"That's fine," Scott agreed, nodding his head.

Sage was pleased about how quickly that decision was made, but she wasn't pleased about what the decision was being made about. Despite holding on to the idea of sleeping on the bus, she knew that her friends wouldn't stay out with her; no, they have to be convinced that this motel is bad news before they believe the blonde. She didn't want this time to end up like all of the others where a casualty was lost in the battle.

She didn't want any of the others to end up like Derek.

Stiles glanced over at her after Scott grabbed a hold of a room key, impatient to get to his room and sleep after the long day. She sent him a small smile in return, seeing the concern wash in his eyes as he grew hesitant to leave. Even though she was out cold the whole way to the motel, and Scott was now healing amazingly, she knew he was still worried about the possibility of her randomly falling to the ground and dying. Which, she wasn't exactly surprised about. It definitely wasn't going to be leaving the possibility section.

"Come by our room after you've gotten everything together," Stiles said, pursing his lips tightly as he moved closer to her so he could squeeze her upper arms. "And I'll kill you if you do anything stupid tonight."

"Right," Sage said, sarcasm in her voice as she rolled her eyes at the boy. "I'll text you in half an hour, alright?"

Stiles nodded, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Alright, love you."

"Love you too, Stilinski."

Sage's eyes followed his dispersing figure, watching as he gripped his bag, jogging to catch up with Scott. She turned around once they were out of sight, noticing that Lydia hadn't moved since they got off the bus, rooted in the same position. Allison seemed to catch on as well, glancing back towards their strawberry blonde friend in confusion. "Lydia?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't like this place."

"See," Sage stated, gesturing towards Lydia. "I'm not the only one that thinks this place is creepy as hell, Allison. Now that Lydia agrees with me, can we grab Stiles and Scott and book it?"

Allison rolled her eyes at the persistent blonde. "We're not leaving, guys. Besides, I don't think the people that own this place like this place. It's just for a night."

Lydia and Sage still seemed hesitant, and although Allison was too far away to hear anything anymore, the blonde managed to catch what her friend muttered out. It was enough to make Sage's blood run cold, as if something inside of her was warning her not to go in and Lydia had the same feeling. Clearly, it wasn't a good idea to go inside if more than one person was experiencing the same thing. Lydia Martin, especially.

"A lot can happen in one night."

Sage swallowed hard before walking over to Lydia, grabbing a hold of her hand. The strawberry blonde looked up warily, and gave Sage a face of doubt. Sage didn't say anything, just squeezed her best friend's hand and together, the two walked up the stairs and to their room.

Everyone else on the team was already stumbling into their own rooms, and Sage couldn't help but snort slightly when she saw two sophomores groping each other and pushing their way through the door. Coach Finstock didn't have to worry about her boyfriend, it was every other couple that was aboard cross country team.

"I hate love," Lydia huffed out, her eyes moving from the couple back to Sage.

The blonde glanced over at her best friend and couldn't help but agree. She may love Stiles unconditionally, but love did suck. There were moments when she thought she couldn't do it, that she couldn't possibly continuing loving Stiles due to the overwhelming and crushing fear of hurting him. She didn't fear what he would do to her, she only worried that she was going to break his heart one day and he'll never forgive her. It was an every day thought, one that sometimes kept her awake at night.

But despite that, she would still love him. Love is her biggest weakness, as it is for everyone. Derek always told her that she cared for people too easily, and it was going to come back and bite her in the ass. It was probably true. Today was a prime example of that. After losing Derek, she completely gave up on trying to find a way to help Scott heal. It was an instinct at this point, to give up after losing someone she loves. She did it seven years ago and the only person that brought her back to reality was him. She's doing it now, and he's not here to bring her back.

"Sage? Are you going to stand there?"

Sage blinked, realizing she had been standing in the doorway of the opened room for nearly too long. Allison and Lydia were both watching her with raised eyebrows, the two of them both looking just as concerned as Stiles had a few minutes ago. Pity stares. She'd been getting them for the past fourteen hours, and she definitely didn't need them now. She just wanted to sleep off the pain and pray that it wouldn't hurt as much tomorrow.

"No," she shook her head, clearing her throat. "Sorry."

"You've got to stop this, Sage. You've got to stop acting like your life is over because he's dead. It's not, okay? You've still got me, you still have Allison, you still have Stiles. You have people that care about you, and don't want to see you like this. You're being selfish," Lydia commented, her eyes going heavy as she watched the blonde.

Sage stared at Lydia in surprise. She should have expected this, she was actually just waiting for someone to yell at her about it, but she definitely had not suspected Lydia to be the one that actually voiced it. Lydia Martin and her might not have started on the best terms, but she happens to be the only one that refuses to lie to Sage. She's the only one that knows what it feels like to have the truth hidden, and for that, Lydia is the only person that could get through to Sage.

"Lydia—" Allison started.

Sage shook her head. "No, Allison. She's right. There's no point in avoiding it anymore. Yes, I am selfish, and yes, Lydia, I am acting like my life is over; because it is. When I came back to this town, I knew that I wasn't getting out. I knew that there wasn't any hope left for me, and the only thing that kept me from falling apart was Derek. He was the only person that didn't judge me for my mistakes, the only one that didn't look at me like I was some broken little girl."

"You're not broken, Sage," Lydia said, her voice falling faint as she stared across from the blonde. The two were looking at each other with tears forming in their eyes, and Sage couldn't help but bite back the feeling; that's all she's been doing for the past day. Crying. Over and over. "You might have lost your best friend, but we can't lose ours."

"Then just give me time, Lydia," Sage begged, voice cracking under the pressure.

Lydia watched her, eyes flickering and inspecting Sage's face. She truly failed to see it until now, what Stiles had been speaking about on the bus. The look in her eyes was absolute exhaustion,and anyone could tell that she was trying to keep fighting while she felt like dying. It was one of the worst things about being normal, being nothing but a body of water and words. Lydia, as she looked at her, saw all of this in the green eyes of Sage Connelly.

"Okay," Lydia broke out, nodding slightly as she moved towards the bathroom. "But I'm not sharing a bed with either of you. Allison, you kick in your sleep and Sage just tosses and turns all night. One of you can always take the floor."

Both the brunette and the blonde glanced down at the floor, thankful that Lydia had dropped the heavy conversation to talk about their sleeping arrangements. The floor looked horrid, a stained red color that looked like someone had died on this very floor. Lydia was absolutely insane if she thought either girl was going to actually put anything but their feet on the floor.

Allison scoffed slightly. "Not it."

"I'm not sleeping on the floor like a dog, Lydia," Sage scolded.

The strawberry blonde sighed before turning around to face her two best friends. Honestly, the only reason she was putting up a fight was because any conversation would distract her from the feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. She knew something was wrong, she knew the second that she stepped off of the school bus that tonight wasn't just going to be one night. It's going to be a thousand years wrapped into a few hours. They were going to, quite literally, live a year in a night.

"Then go sleep with your boyfriend," Lydia announced, pursing her lips slightly. "Seriously, Sage. You still look like shit and I'm not going to have you pass out on my watch, plus Stiles was freaking out about you the whole way here. He thought you were going to die today."

Sage shook her head, denying the thought. "He knows I can't die from someone else's wound."

"Doesn't mean he doesn't worry," Allison spoke up, turning to stare at Sage with a knowing look.

She knew that Sage was just trying to avoid the inevitable conversation that she was going to be having with Stiles about how she was. Just like Lydia had said, they refused to lose Sage. Physically, at least. She's already missing the part of her that makes her her. It seems right now the only thing holding Sage together was Stiles, and that was why Lydia and Allison were so adamant on getting their best friend back to him.

"Fine," Sage muttered, frowning darkly as she turned to walk out of the room she barely stepped foot in. "But I'm coming back."

Lydia grinned slightly. "Sadly."

Sage didn't turn around, and the two girls were half expecting for the blonde to throw a middle finger up or something, but she didn't. They just watched blonde tendrils disappear down the hallway, stopping at Stiles' and Scott's room.

She meant to go in, she really did. The only thing that stopped her was a voice on the other side of the door that kept her rooted in her place, refusing to move as Stiles spoke. She knew it was him, and that the only other person she could possibly be talking to was Scott. It wasn't that they were conversing, it was what they were conversing about.

"Who's the fifth one?" Scott asked, voice muffled through the door.

The small shuffling of feet stopped, and she heard Stiles let out a large sigh. "Sage."

"You think she could be the one sacrificing people?"

"I don't know, Scott. I just know that every time something bad happens in Beacon Hills, something bad happens to her. When she found Kyle, she started coughing up blood, the same thing happened in Harris' class room. And do you remember the first day of school when she got the nose bleed? Those birds came just a few minutes later."

"Yeah, but she was with you when most of the sacrifices happened—"

"Look, I'm not saying that it's her. I don't want it to be her; but she's a druid, Scott. She's still a druid, and Deaton wasn't telling us everything when he explained Darach's. I mean, do we actually know enough about this to not be cautious? We didn't think it was Jackson either."

Scott's voice fell lower. "She doesn't need this right now. She just lost Derek."

"And I don't want to lose her."

Sage heard enough after that, her eyes squeezed shut for the entirety of the conversation. This wasn't something she needed to be hearing, not right now. She just wanted to go home; she wanted to go home and see Derek there, alive and healthy. She wanted to go home to see her mom cooking dinner and her dad discussing his patients' conditions. She wanted to go home to see Luke boasting about the last lacrosse game his team won.

But they were all dead.

And her boyfriend thinks she's a murderer.

Turning away from the room, Sage ignored the stinging feeling in her heart as she rushed to carry her body down the stairs. She was surprised she didn't trip with how fast she was trying to escape. She needed to leave, she needed to get out of this place and get away from these people. They think she's a killer. They think she killed Heather, they think that she killed Emily, and Kyle. They think that she's responsible.

They think she's the Darach.

It all makes sense, though, doesn't it? How ironic that she happened to be a druid, and that her mother and brother happened to be druids. How ironic that her mother happened to lose her mind right before the fire, and how incredibly ironic that she felt as though there was nothing left in her chest now that she's lost everyone that saw her as innocent.

How long would it be before Lydia and Allison believed she was insane? That she was dark and monstrous, and completely soulless enough to murder innocent people and simply act as if she had done nothing. How long before the Alpha Pack realized she was more of a threat than Scott McCall because she's the one that did this?

A serpent will rain blood on this town.

Sage's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as she crashed into a body, the disembodied voice in her mind falling to rest at the interaction. When she glanced up, she was horrified to see that it was Ashley, Kyle's girlfriend. The other blonde was staring at her in concern, the same look that was burned into Sage's brain at this point. They haven't spoken to each other since the day in the girls' bathroom, and now, knowing that she could have created the pain, Sage couldn't meet Ashley's eyes.

"Sage? Are you okay?" Ashley asked, moving forward to place a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Sage immediately bounced back, her eyes going wide in horror. "Don't touch me."

"What? What's going on? Are you alright?"

Sage only continued to move backwards from Ashley, bile rising in her throat as she quickly whipped her head around to get away. She did this. She killed Ashley's boyfriend, she killed Stiles' friend. She killed all of those people, it had to be her. No one else would be raised as such a monster, a liar just like her mother.

And somehow, as Sage stumbled through the corridors of Glen Capri, she couldn't help but feel as if she was everything people expected her to become. This had to be it, this had to be the very reason her brother protected her from this life, the very reason she grew up hidden to the fact that she was an Altor Druid. Is it possible, that this whole time, her family died knowing she was going to grow up to be a killer?

It only took a simple lie for her whole world to come crashing down. The same lie that has cursed her ever since Deaton told it to her last year; was she to have the same fate as her mother? Washed up along the sides of a mental hospital, pretending that life was not a simple atrocity to live in? Would she lie and say she was spending her days in Florida while she admitted herself to Eichen House?

No, no, surely she wasn't losing her mind.

Surely, so sure, she was becoming the person that Derek Hale hid away for seven years.

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"What do you mean she wasn't in Florida?"

Sage stepped away from Deaton after that, genuinely questioning what the vet was raving on about. She hadn't thought much of the random vacation her mother decided to take on her own, she just suspected it had something to do with the fight she had with Sage's father a few nights before. It never crossed her mind that there was more to the conversation.

"Your mother truly never told you where she was?" Deaton asked, surprise written across his face as he looked towards Sage. Her hair had fallen in her face, and she was still trying to keep herself together after the wound from Scott. It was healing, but that didn't mean it doesn't hurt. "I'm surprised. She told Luke, but not you."

"Deaton," Sage said, her voice raising. "I don't have time to talk about who my mom's favorite kid was. What do you mean she wasn't in Florida?" She found herself repeating the words with more emphasis, already on edge after finding out what she was after so long.

"Your mother was ill, Sage. The effects of an Altor are not uncommon, and although hers were slightly more diverse, it still applied. You have only gotten a taste of how much pain someone like your kind take in their lifetime. It doesn't disappear, and it catches up to you as quickly as old age."

Sage's eyebrows raised. "So, I'm a sponge for pain."

"Essentially, yes. The only difference is that you can not take away that pain, Sage. It will consume you, just as it had your mother if you do not find ways to warn your pack of the danger they are in. That suffering will eat away at your mind and soul until you're nothing more than a body with a heartbeat."

"So," Sage began, swallowing hard. "This happened to Mom?"

"She admitted herself into Eichen House when she realized she was getting worse. Your father tried to find ways to help her but he couldn't do much. She stayed there until she found herself fit to leave."

Sage gaped at Deaton. "Fit to leave? She was gone for a month!"

"She was getting better."

Sage stared at Deaon, trying to ignore the anger bubbling up inside of her. She was livid; livid at her mom and dad, livid at Luke, livid at everyone for saying nothing about her mother's mental state. Did they not think to consider the genetic part of this? That she might actually need to know this in case it happened to her? No, of course not, because just like before, they refused to tell her anything.

Venom in her words, she spat out, "And yet she's still dead."

When she turned away, she didn't look back and didn't think about Eichen House; not about her family of liars, and not about her mentally unstable mother. She didn't think about the possibility of becoming her mother, of the pain consuming her. She didn't think about anything besides the overwhelming sense of dread in her heart.

Once again, it was breaking all over again.

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kind of edited.

so, if you all don't really understand the ending of this chapter, i would go back to sage and reread the ending of chapter 24, because that's where the conversation gets split in half. so, basically, Mallory Connelly had gone insane after the pain of the Hale family took too much of her and she got sent to Eichen for that month. This is one of the biggest things that I have kept about the Connelly family, and it's something that will continue to shine through onto who Sage is.

Now, Sage isn't just randomly deciding to lose her mind. She's having to deal with losing Derek, as well as the effects Glen Capri is putting her under. Her body is literally being infected from the inside out like Isaac, Scott, and Boyd's are. This chapter might be a bit confusing, but yeah. So there is a possibility of Sage being the one that sacrifices the people because she's a druid.

who knows.

tell me what you think about the revelation of Mallory Connelly, and what you think about Sage. do you think she did it or do you think she's innocent? also, very, very excited for the rest of season three. i have many plot twists prepared all the way through to 3b.