all of the harry potter people will understand my grins.

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

CHAPTER FORTY;

MISCHIEF MANAGED

There are many things that happen in Beacon Hills most would call an annual sort of event. For instance, every single year, there was a winter formal that always proved to be the bane of teenagers' existences. There was also the annual bonfire that would happen during lacrosse season where everyone practically lingered around a large flame in hopes not to burn like kerosene due to the overwhelmingly concerning amounts of alcohol in their system. There was also Mischief Day, or rather night. It was something to be celebrated by everyone in the town, even adults found themselves participating in childish antics for the single twenty-four hours before Halloween. It was one of the most cherished days in Beacon Hills, but some people would also vow to say that it was the worst due to all of the grotesque masks and faltering identities.

Sage Connelly happened to fit in appropriately well with that group of people. The whole idea of Halloween irritated her to no end, whether it be the fact that everyone was too happy and excited for her even physically try to smile or because it was always the one holiday that she and her older brother spent together. This had been the one night dedicated for the two of them and only the two of them. Despite the six year age difference between herself and her brother, Luke never ceased to impress her when she was younger with his ways around a costume. Countless times had she laughed until she cried over the simplicity of his costume, knowing very well that he put all of the embarrassing stuff on his body just to make her laugh; he was oblivious to anything but her happiness, barely acknowledging any of the people he knew at school and focused one-hundred percent on getting her to every house possible.

Now, the entire holiday just seemed meaningless. She tried, though, to be as happy as she possibly could but it was difficult. Everything was an aching struggle due to all of the events that have been happening recently. While all of her friends seemed to be improving from their hearts of darkness, she was only worsening. It was getting to the point where she had black periods in her time, where she could barely remember where she had been two hours ago and what she had done.

Now, she had to return back to school for Mischief Day, plenty aware of how much irritation she is going to have before the end of the day is up. More than she already has after waking up this morning to find that Derek Hale was comfortably occupying his bed all while Peter lounged on the couch as if the two of them hadn't been missing for weeks.

Sage hadn't spoken a word to them, barely looked either man in the eye as she grabbed her backpack and made her way silently out the door. She didn't have words to say to them, not after everything she had been through without them, without Derek. All of her symptoms of her charcoal heart had taken full effect while he was gone, and she had nothing to say to him. He just wasn't there. No one was. So, as she got out of the black Camaro she claimed as her own, she felt everything crash around her as she noticed teenagers laughing and smiling all around her, no matter the time of day it was. Had her life not been so royally screwed up, and had Luke still been alive, maybe she would have been in that group of laughing teenagers.

Instead, she faced with a different fate. Her eyes narrowed in on the figures of four boys that didn't seem at all civil, knowing very well that if she didn't move her feet then a third world war would break out between the good and the bad. The closer she got to them the more audible the conversation became, and Sage was frowning deeply from just a few feet away.

"You came to us for help. We helped," Ethan protested, no doubt going off something that Stiles had said in previous relation to the topic.

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "You beat his face into a bloody pulp and Sage couldn't walk for three hours. That's not helping. In my opinion, that's actually the counterproductive."

"Why would I say yes?" Scott asked, brow quirked as he gave the two twins the benefit of the doubt to explain themselves before he completely denies any relation to them what-so-ever.

"We'd add strength," Aiden explained, giving his brother a look as the two of them seemed to gleam in confidence. "We'd make you more powerful. There's no reason to say no."

Sage was about a second away from making her entrance to the topic when someone beat her to it, Isaac's large and lean body coming up from the other side of the parking lot and frowning at the two twins. If anyone were to have the most grudge upon Aiden and Ethan, it was him and Sage. Derek as well, but the beta wasn't anywhere in the conversation right now. Isaac just had to fend for his own explanation. "I can think of one, like, the two of you holding Derek's claws while Kali impaled Boyd. In fact, I don't know why we're not impaling them right now."

"You want to try?" Aiden snarled, his eyes hanging low as they transitioned from their normal shade of brown to a fluorescent blue, canines bared in the direction of Isaac Lahey to tempt him into trying something.

Sage's hesitation hit its peak and the blonde was going forward, shoulders bumping into Scott by accident as she moved until she was a barrier between the two boys. Isaac let out a small growl from behind her but the blonde stepped on his shoe to keep him from making this situation worse than what was already being created. The blonde stared at Aiden with cold eyes, still standing with her back to Isaac's chest to try and keep the distance. "I'm the only thing keeping them from killing you right now, so I highly suggest you find someone else to go cry wolf to. They don't trust you, I don't trust you, and you've given us no reason to."

Her words sliced through the silence, the three boys that had been by her side since the beginning all giving her a surprised look. Stiles, who had been the most affected by the abrupt entrance of his ex-girlfriend, understood that, no matter what may have been a potential part of who Sage and Aiden were, that isn't who they are now. Now, they just hate each other.

Aiden's jaws clenched, canines disappearing as he gave the blonde a dark frown. There wasn't a single hint of hesitation in her eyes, and he knew that it was because of what he did to Scott. He knew that the small chance of redemption he once had before had washed away, that there wasn't much left for him. Sage raised her eyebrows once at him, waiting to get a reaction out of him before she caught on that it wasn't going to happen, and the present line on her lips stuck as she moved to get to school. Her path happened to be directly in between the two twins, and she had barely flinched when her shoulder came and hit Aiden in the arm.

The sound of footsteps following after her only made her quicken her pace, not feeling up to speaking to either boy at the moment. It was just too uncomfortable with Stiles, Scott cared too much for her to react, and Isaac was the only one capable of seeing past all of her shit — the last thing she needed was a scolding from Isaac Lahey about how she was living her life.

"Hey, Sage! Wait up!" the incessant sound of Isaac's voice broke her line of concentration on the ground, and the blonde let out a sigh as she knew there was no way to get out of this. "I could have handled him."

Sage rolled her eyes and turned to look at him. "In front of the whole student body? That would have been great, Lahey. Just because it's Mischief Day doesn't mean you can wolf out."

"Nah," Isaac denied. "Everyone here is too stupid to think anything about it."

"Jackson found out about us," Sage began. "Allison was suspicious after a while, nearly found out. Lydia thought something was going on, and I'm pretty sure that Danny knows something too. Don't underestimate people in this town, Isaac. Everyone surprises you."

Isaac snorted, glancing back to see that Scott and Stiles were a way behind them. "Speaking from experience?"

"More like speaking from my entire life," Sage huffed out, grabbing a hold of the door on the right while Isaac pulled the left open. "Hey, look, I'm sorry about the whole thing in the woods, by the way. I was just out of it after the accident."

"All good, Connelly," he nodded, giving her a grin the second he noticed the annoyance flash on her face when she caught sight of the catastrophe happening in the hallway. "Not a big fan of Mischief Day?"

Sage turned to look at him with a glower. "I'm going to end up killing someone."

"Ah, you're too nice," Isaac protested, throwing his arm around the girl while they walked through the hallway. On their way, however, they ended up passing the new girl, Kira, and Isaac cringed a bit. "Occasionally."

Sage noticed that the brunette was scrambling to pick up her books and other supplies which was when the blonde let out a snort before moving to open up her locker. "It's not that I don't like her, she's just new. I don't know anything about her or who she is."

"No one knew anything about you when you came back," Isaac opted, leaning against the locker as he waited for her to gather her books for the next class.

"That's not true and you know it," Sage denied, stopping what she was doing to give him a look. "Everyone in this town knew everything about me. They knew my past, they knew my family, they knew my personality. I grew up with all of you. We don't even know if she's a threat to us, Isaac. After what happened with Jennifer..."

"You don't want to take the chance," Isaac finished, nodding as he let out a sigh while watching the new girl scurry off to her next class.

Sage shut her locker, giving him a sad smile. "I can't take the chance."

The two of them turned back towards the hallway, forced to shove their way through idiots giving each other piggy-back rides and others throwing toilet paper in people's faces. Only when the small blonde and overly grown werewolf got past the crowd did they catch sight of Scott and Stiles, Sage immediately moving to turn in the opposite direction of her first class.

"Hey, hey, hey," Isaac said, grabbing her shoulders. "You have to talk to him sometime."

Sage pushed on Isaac's arm. "Sometime isn't implying today. Sometime implies a numerous amount of possible dates that I refuse to let be today. Let me go, Lahey, or I'm going to start talking to you about the Guy Code and how you shouldn't date your friend's ex-girlfriend."

"We're not—"

"Right," Sage scoffed, her hands moving to her shoulders to pull his hands away. "Keep telling yourself that. I'm leaving, so have fun with testosterone. I'll see you in third, code breaker."

The blonde rerouted herself after that, missing out on the conversation declaring that Scott was now officially a hot girl and the boys she surrounded herself with were complete idiots. She chose her side, though, and chose to protect them instead of letting her past take away something that had already begun eating at the corners. Her first stop of the day was Econ, which was ironically the one class that she was excited for. Not because of the actual education she should be getting from it, but for the fact that it was Coach's birthday today and there was always a present left for him by someone from the lacrosse team. Knowing the two boys, it was probably Scott and Stiles that initiated the reason Bobby Finstock was an avid drinker.

"Son of a bitch!"

Sage and Lydia both jumped, startled at the random outburst that came from the wall behind the classroom they were stationed in. The blonde and the strawberry-blonde gave each other a look while the rest of the class erupted into laughter, the two main culprits — like Sage had predicted — giving each other praising looks for their work. While Lydia returned back to her phone, Sage's attention was focused on the raging figure of Coach Finstock, the man coming out of the door in his office to give the classroom a crazed look. It was the same reaction as last year, the same reaction every year, and she knew that the same speech would fall from his mouth in just a few short seconds.

"Mischief Night! Devil's Night! I don't care what you call it. You little punks are evil. You think it's funny, every Halloween, my house gets egged? A man's house is supposed to be his castle," Coach snapped to the class, throwing a book down on Scott's desk. "It's a freaking omelette!"

Sage couldn't help but let a smile fall on her lips at the reaction of the man, remembering back to when it wasn't Scott and Stiles that were bringing hell to Coach's life but her brother. Despite the fact that he spent Halloween with her, Mischief Night was fully dedicated to making sure Coach Finstock knew how much they appreciated his coaching. It just involved things a little more extreme. Coach's attention fell on a box that was situation on his desk, his scowl only growing more defined. "We're going to do this again?"

The man didn't waste another second before throwing the box on the ground, proceeding to step on it more than enough times for good measures. That was when Sage realized that it had relevance to what Stiles and Scott had to have done, Scott's head turning to glance back at her with raised eyebrows, almost asking if she were the one to place the box there. Sage shook her head, only beginning to put the pieces together that Stiles and Scott had to have chosen the idea that she came up with abruptly during a conversation at lunch. The group of them were talking when Stiles ended up asking about what to do for Mischief Night and Coach's birthday, which was when Sage commented about the box with nuts and bolts attached to string. She didn't think they would actually do it.

When a shattering sound broke through the room, Coach quickly bends down to the ground to try and see what he had just destroyed, hands wrapping around a mug that said '#1 Coach' on it. Immediately, everyone cringed a bit, knowing that the man practically ruined someone's birthday gift due to his issues with anger.

"Happy Birthday," Coach reads, pulling out the card just before sighing. "Love, Greenberg."

Sage didn't bother turning around to see Greenberg's reaction, more concerned about the girl next to her that was swatting away at nothing. Lydia didn't seem too affected by it until the sound got too much and she looked up from her phone to see that the blonde in the seat next to her was staring with raised eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" the blonde asks, confused at her best friend's actions.

Lydia purses her lips. "There's a fly."

Sage only became more confused, glancing around for a few moments to see that there wasn't a single trace of a fly, nor anything that could be remotely making a sound like one aside from the lights that were flickering above the two girls. Even then, Lydia still continued to glance around as if the fly was going to randomly appear in front of her. There hadn't been a fly.

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

Beacon Hills High has had their fair share of murderers. However, they hadn't expected for it to be someone having entered the building rather than attending it. The day that was already going horribly went to shit the second that people began to realize that there was a murderer somewhere in the same place as them, calm and happy emotions more frantic to get to classrooms all while others had no idea what was going on. Sage really wished she was one of the few that had no idea what was going on. Police had swarmed the hallways by now, and Sage was positive that she had seen the Sheriff and Agent McCall one too many times before she ended up crossing paths with Stiles. This was one of those moments where she realized she was never going to be a normal teenage girl because she was forced to talk to her ex-boyfriend about the fact that William Barrow was currently in their school.

One of the more alarming topics in that conversation consisted of the fact that William Barrow stated that the reason he was even on that school bus full of children in the first place was due to the fact that they had glowing eyes; and Sage was pretty sure she could make a list of people that fit that description.

"Barrow said kids with glowing eyes?" Isaac questions Stiles, walking alongside Allison, Lydia, and Sage as the five of them make their way on the first floor of the school. "He said those exact words?"

Stiles nodded as they all trample down the stairs. "Yeah. No one knows how he woke up from anesthesia. It's just that when they opened him up, they found a tumor full of live flies. Which, in any other circumstance, that would be all kinds of awesome."

Sage quickly grabs a hold of Lydia's arm, the two of them stopping to look at each other when they realized that all of the relevance towards the flies back in Econ now made sense. Lydia just wished that it didn't, staring ahead for a few seconds while the others continued. Finally, she interrupted. "Did you say flies?"

"Lydia," Allison calls wearily, wondering where exactly the girl is going with her question.

"All day I have been hearing this sound," Lydia explains, to which Sage frowns and crosses her arms over her chest. "It's, like, this... buzzing."

The brunette frowned deeply, taking small strides over to her two best friends. "Like the sound of flies?"

"Exactly like the sound of flies," Lydia confirmed, her eyes growing heavy as her heart began to accelerate in her chest, not enjoying the thought of having some sort of connection with Barrow.

Stiles took a deep breath, his face conflicted as he understood that they were now faced with the issue of Barrow being confirmed in their school all due to Lydia's new-found banshee powers. He was faced with the issue of not knowing what he was supposed to do because Scott wasn't standing by his side and Sage wasn't in her right mind to be confirming plans.

"Okay," Stiles began, exhaling deeply. "Lydia, Sage, and I are going to try and find Scott. The two of you see if you can find anything else out from the officers, or any of the students. Someone is bound to have seen something, right?"

Isaac gave him an overly unconfident look before glancing at Allison and nodding once, the two of them leaving after sending small, half-hearted smiles to their friends. Stiles was left alone in the hallway with the two girls, one of which had been his dedication for half of his life and the other the girl he dedicated all of his life to afterwords. That wasn't what their biggest concern was, though.

"I'll go back on the other side of the school," Lydia decided, glancing back to the stairway that they just climbed down. "That way we'll be on either side and find him easier."

Sage nodded, moving to go with the girl. "I'll go with you."

Lydia nodded just like the blonde and Sage turned around to give Stiles a sad smile before grabbing a hold of her best friend's arm and moving so that they were at a rushed pace up the stairs. When she gave a single glance back, Stiles was already running down the hall and up the stairs, more eager to get to Scott than he had ever been. It didn't take as long as expected for them to find Scott, but it had consisted of shoving through teenagers and trying not to trip over haphazard things that were sprawled all along the floor from this morning's pranks on other classmen. The two girls also had a delay once they noticed that the police officers were exiting the building, calling off the search as if the murderer wasn't in the school.

Even with the fast pace that Sage and Lydia kept up, Stiles beat them to it and was skidding to his best friend's side in seconds. "Hey, dude! Where in the hell have you been?"

"Guys," Sage called, chest heaving as she stopped next to Scott with Lydia to her left. "The police are leaving."

Lydia gripped tightly onto the strap of her purse. "Why are they leaving?"

"The police?" Scott asked, oblivious to the whole thing considering he was too busy standing outside of classrooms rather than discovering bigger matters than having a crush on the new girl. Again.

Stiles' eyes lit in realization. "They must have cleared the building and grounds, which means he's not here."

"Who?" Scott asked, his eyebrows furring in confusion. "What are you guys—"

Lydia shook her head, refusing to believe that she was wrong for once. "He has to be here. That sound, the buzzing I've been hearing, it's getting louder."

Sage swallowed hard, realizing the issue that they were in. Something supernatural was creating the connection between Lydia and Barrow, which meant it was nearly impossible to actually explain just why it was critical that the police stayed in the school rather than leave. It was nearly impossible to go by Lydia's word, but they did. After all they've been through, they did.

"How loud?"

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

There was a very unlikely chance of Stiles being able to stop his father from leaving the school. Sage and Lydia were aware of this, especially since they knew that involving themselves in the conversation was only going to confuse the man even more than he probably was, which is why they decided to stand by the door and wait for Stiles. Sage was picking at the door that her body held open, only stopping when Lydia's voice broke the silence between them. "Do you think that this is going to work?"

"I think Stiles always figures out a way," Sage answered, turning to look over at the girl with a weak smile. "I think that you need to have a little more faith in yourself. If you say that Barrow is still in the building, we're going to believe you. Don't start doubting yourself, Lydia."

Lydia sent her friend a thankful, yet weary, smile. "Thanks. How are you, by the way? Allison told me that all of the hallucinations and nightmares stopped for her, Scott, and Stiles. Are they gone for you?"

"Ah, yeah," Sage lied, grinding her teeth slightly as she gave Lydia nod.

The two girls seemed to stop the short conversation after that, it being comforted whenever Sheriff Stilinski and Stiles turned their heads to look over at the two girls, both of them raising their hand to give a small wave. There was no doubt that they were talking about Lydia, neither of the Stilinski men being good at the word subtle.

"He misses you, you know?" Lydia muttered, eyes never turning away as she watched Stiles and the Sheriff slowly progress into small bickering.

Sage began picking at the door again. "I know."

"Do you miss him?" she asked, and that question had Sage glancing up at the strawberry blonde. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just hard to know you anymore, Sage. Allison and I didn't find out from you that you broke up with Stiles, we found out from Scott and Isaac. It wasn't a great feeling to find out that our best friend was hurting and we couldn't do anything to stop it."

Sage shrugged, trying to ignore the lump forming in her throat as she noticed Stiles stand there for a few seconds, watching his father's departing figure. It was obvious that the plan hadn't gone accordingly, and the teenage boy turned around with a defeated look on his face. The blonde knew that her next words would solidify the fact that she still cared about Stiles, much more than she would ever admit to anyone if they asked, and that it was bound to create a world full of hurt the more she threw herself in situations that had her posing the idea that she was completely over him.

"He made my heart ache, but in the best way possible. He always will."

That was all she needed to say for Lydia to get her answer.

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

ne.

just two things that i want to address really quickly, the first one being the fact that i know you guys are curious about what is going to happen in the upcoming chapters but i don't want to give anything away because that wouldn't be fair to the people that want to stay oblivious until all the secrets are revealed. secondly, i've been getting some comments recently talking about sage's mental distress and how sad she is lately. not only does it affect me as a writer, but it also makes me upset as a person considering sage is literally me. all of the emotions that she has been feeling reflect who i am as a person. in so many ways, my personality has shifted which means that sage's is going to as well.

so, if you don't like the fact that im trying to express myself in the only way i know possible, you can go read a story with a bubblehead girl that just follows behind the characters. im not being rude or offensive, im telling you that im going to write my character how i want them to be defined and you're comments won't change that.

now, in other notes, Still hit 300K and I've never been more grateful to have all of you guys supporting me through everything. the comments on the last chapter honestly uplifted my spirit and gave me more of an inspiration to write this story with more depth. so, endless love and endless gratitude for everything you all have done for me and my writing. love you. x