title pun, i giggle.

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TWENTY TWO;

STAGES OF TRUTH

A single motor bike, a shitty jeep, and a black Camaro all pulled up to the school at the same time. Not a single vehicle actually bothered to park appropriately, the Camaro nearly hitting the bike while the jeep got a bit too close to the Camaro's side mirror. That didn't matter though, especially when the drivers of each vehicle were at the high school on a distress call made by one of their best friends. Everyone seemed to stumble out of their cars, all incredibly disoriented with how late it was. Sage had only just managed to pull herself from her car, hitting her head on the roof with a small whine caught in her throat, when Stiles Stilinski's voice broke her of her mental complaint about why she was at school in the middle of the night.

"Where is she?" Stiles called to Scott, who had been pulling his helmet off of his head when Sage stumbled next to him.

The sound of footsteps clacking made all three teenagers turn around to see the culprit of their panicked personalities. Lydia and Allison were walking towards them, looking just as messily put together as the others.

Allison frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "She's right here."

Sage ran her hand over her face before nodding once of encouragement for herself, walking towards Lydia with determination in her step. Stiles was just a few seconds behind her, Scott falling slightly slower as he had to turn off his bike and set down his helmet.

The blonde reached out to grip Lydia's shoulder. "Lydia, what happened?"

"It's the same thing," Lydia explained, rushing her words out to her friends. "The same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, ending up here; and, you told me to call you if there is a dead body."

Stiles' eyebrows shot up. "Wh— you found a dead body?"

"Not yet."

Stiles stared at Lydia, confused. "Not yet? What do you mean 'not yet.' You're supposed to call us after you find the dead body."

"Oh, no," Lydia denied. "I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."

Sage's eyes moved away from the bickering of the two teenagers, narrowing in around the school. She wasn't expecting to find anything, she wasn't Lydia, but to her dismay, her green eyes picked up on something that definitely wasn't there on daily occasions. Instinctively, her hand reached out to grab a hold of the first person she could find, tugging hard on their clothing so that they would turn around and look. Whoever she had been tugging eventually got the message that she wanted them to pay attention and glanced over.

That was when she heard the deep inhale of Scott McCall. "Guys, we found the dead body."

Sage's hand tightened on Scott's jacket, her inability to see any more carnage getting the best of her as she glanced away. There was the same upsetting feeling in her stomach, a warning of some sort, that she had whenever she was out on her walk with Aiden. The same upsetting feeling she got when she saw Kyle's body on the cross country trail.

"Sage? Hey, are y—"

Scott's attempt to ask what was wrong had been cut short when Sage's grip on his jacket ceased and she was crumpling to her knees, once again feeling all of the contents in her stomach come up. Her hair was up in a bun this time, which meant it hadn't needed to be held, but that didn't stop her friends from coming closer to assist the blonde. Stiles was the first one to see the blood and mistletoe. He had come to the conclusion that this obviously wasn't just some random weekly bug that she got at the most arbitrary moments, but something more that connected her to all of the sacrifices.

When the blonde slowly pulled herself away from the mess of bile, thanks to Scott's helpful grasp on her upper arm and waist, she leaned against the wall as she struggled to get her breath back. This wasn't how she wanted them to find out about this, she didn't need them knowing this early on that she was literally being torn apart from the inside out. Her three friends seemed hesitant to ask, but not Stiles. "Sage, what the hell is going on?"

Sage lifted herself up enough to meet eyes with her friends, refraining from moving to much in fear that more mistletoe would make another appearance. She noticed the confusion laced on everyone's faces, and figured that now was as good a time as any to reveal the truth to them. They were already pissed at her for leaving so abruptly a few days ago after Boyd's death, might as well add another to the list of reasons why she was a shitty person all-together.

"Do you remember when I found Kyle's body on the cross country trails and threw up blood?" Sage muttered, wiping her hands on her jeans to try and control her nerves. She had to explain everything before the police came to get the body.

Scott frowned at her. "You weren't throwing up mistloetoe then. You told me that you didn't know anything about what happened to Danny."

"I didn't want you guys to worry about me," Sage said, looking at four of her closest friends. "When I was in Harris' classroom the day he got taken, I started to choke up blood all over again. That time, though, there was mistletoe in it. I thought that maybe it was just me losing my mind but then it happened again, and again."

Stiles nostrils flared. "And you didn't bother telling us?"

Sage stared at him, trying to control her emotions as she felt her heart literally begin to break. Lydia and Allison were silent from behind Stiles, closer together as they watched their friend with concerned eyes. She didn't know what she could say apart from the truth, it being the only possible thing that could soften the whole thing up before it got too out of hand.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to know that I'm dying," Sage whispered, her voice hoarse as she kept her eyes on Stiles and Stiles alone. "I figured that the only person who would want me dead is the Darach, and then I remembered my mom telling me that mistletoe was a herb druids used. Didn't take long to put the pieces together."

It was deadly silent, not a comforting silence either.

All five teenagers, all five best friends, stared at one another without saying anything. There is a certain feeling of dread when someone you love tells you that they're dying, but this feeling was much worse. This hurt so much more knowing that she had been keeping this secret from them ever since Harris' disappearance, looking at them in the eye and pretending to be okay.

Stiles seemed to take the news the hardest, his face contorting every so often in disbelief. He couldn't think about the fact that she was dying, or that this Darach was the one killing her. There was no way that she was dying. He had seen her close to death before, he knew that sense of defeat and this wasn't it.

This... this feeling? This hurt so much more.

No one was able to ask anymore questions, the silence between them being blared out by the incessant sounds of police sirens. Sage wasn't able to look her friends in the eye after that, blinking away her feelings as she hung her head low and pushed herself off the wall.

No taking her words back now.

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There is a shitty feeling that a teenager gets when they step into the building of their high school. It's even shittier when you haven't been to school in a while and now you have to face the reality of having to graduate while being involved in such ultimate shit that the shittier feeling you had before just went to the shittiest.

Sage felt like shit.

She didn't want to go back to school. She just wanted to drop out and completely dismiss the idea of growing up and having a life outside of this town. At the rate her body was treating her, she wasn't going to last much longer. Plus, she wasn't too sure any of the people she once called her friends wanted to see her face.

Which led her to the conclusion that she hated life.

"You look like someone just shot your dog," a voice commented from behind her, stopping her daily dosage of 'I hate my life, leave me alone to die.'

The blonde huffed out, turning around to see the literal poster-child for happiness directly in front of her and couldn't help but hate herself even more due to the boy's smile. "I heard you almost died."

"I heard you found a dead body last night," Danny reiterated, raising his eyebrows at her as the two began to walk down the hallway.

She wasn't necessarily sure where he was planning on going, especially since his locker was literally on the other side of life, but still continued to follow after the teenager nonetheless. He was the only one that didn't want to stab her eye sockets out for lying, and the other portion of people that didn't want to stab her eye sockets out where the people she wanted to stab.

There obviously wasn't much of a choice today.

"Hypothetically speaking, sure," Sage hummed, crossing her arms over her chest. Then, she turned to look over at the boy with a frown. "Are you sure you should be back in school so soon? I mean, you literally almost died, Danny. Shouldn't you be racking up all the free days right now?"

Danny shrugged, shaking his head once. "I'd rather be in school; it takes away the thought of the whole thing happening. Besides, the recital is tonight. I needed to be here to practice so it's all good."

"Right," Sage muttered. "The recital."

She knew about the recital only from Lydia, who had gone on a full-out rant about why it was inconsiderate for them to make a recital for the dead kids in this school because it only made all of the incidents an even bigger deal. The whole thing didn't appeal to Sage, it never has and it never will.

At least, it didn't until Danny came into her life.

"You're coming, right?" Danny asked, glancing over at her. "You've never seen me play before."

Sage opened her mouth to protest. "Now, that's a lie. I saw you play back in fourth grade."

"Fourth grade. As in eight years ago."

Sage pursed her lips at him. "Same thing. I'm busy tonight anyways."

Danny snorted, raising his brows at her. "Doing what? If you give me a legitimate reason then I won't make you come."

"My dog died," Sage immediately answered, spluttering out the first thing that came into her mind, resorting back to what Danny opened the conversation with. "Yeah, he got shot by some asshole hunter. That's why I haven't been in school; you know, the whole coping mechanisms and such."

"Okay, one," Danny began. "Your excuse sucks ass, Sage, and two, you're coming to the recital tonight."

Sage huffed out before nodding once in defeat. She figured it was best to just agree than come up with another excuse that was even worse than the first one. It might not even be that bad, being stuck in a room with literally every single person that she hates, or hates her, apart from Danny.

Sounds like a party.

"Sage!"

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Sage cursed under her breath, wondering when in the hell she's actually going to get a break from people trying to talk to her.

Just when she whipped her head around to see who was calling out to her, a blur had hastily grabbed a hold of her hand and tugged her into the closest room that wasn't full of students or teachers. Sadly, that place happened to be the mens' bathroom. Which, if you have ever had an experience in that place, wasn't pretty.

Sage, still in fear she was just given whiplash, turned to see who had kidnapped her from school. She thought about the possibility of it being one of the twins, especially since it wouldn't be the first time either has taken her into a confined and empty room, but to her dismay it was just the literal opposite of the twins.

It was Stiles.

"What the hell are you doing, Stiles?" she hissed, stepping a few feet away from him so that they weren't so close to one another. He looked pissed, most likely still holding in all of the rage from last night.

Stiles' jaw clenched and he scowled at her. "When were you going to tell me?"

"I wasn't," Sage replied whole-heartedly, not wasting a second to think about her decision to tell him her train of thought. "I was going to keep it to myself until I either randomly went out in a blazing fire or it was completely necessary to tell you."

"And you didn't think it was necessary to tell me you're dying?"

Stiles' body language was all over the place, the boy trying to figure out what to do with his arms as they continued to fly back and forth. Sage, however, was completely still as she watched him react to the situation. He was the one she was most worried about, the others weren't on her top list of people that would panic when finding out the Darach was poisoning her.

"Not at the moment, no," Sage answered, her lips tugging into a frown.

"I, at the very least, deserved to know that my—"

Sage noticed how Stiles paused in the middle of his sentence, all of the anger fueled in his words shedding when he realized he didn't know what to call her. He didn't know what they were anymore, didn't know if he could even label her his girlfriend when they haven't been a couple in weeks.

She was still pissed at him, still holding a grudge for what he said back at the motel. Those weren't words she was ever going to just forget, much less accept an apology for. She did miss Stiles, she missed being with him and she missed just knowing that he loved her, but after what he said, that blanket of comfort he wrapped around her when she was near him got ripped away.

He had exposed her to everything she feared most.

"We need to get to class, Stiles," Sage said, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared at him.

He wore an expression of pure pain as he stared back. "You might be ready and willing to lose yourself, but I'm not. I've been here for you through everything, Sage. I was there when you almost died in the high school a year ago, I was there with you the night of formal when you and Lydia got ripped apart by Peter. What makes you think this time would be any different?"

"I'm not doing this here," Sage dismissed, making a move towards the bathroom door so that she could get to class before she was late or some random kid walked in on their heated argument.

Stiles grabbed a hold of her upper arm to stop her. "Why not? Why won't you just tell me the truth, Sage?"

"Because you won't like it!" Sage cried out, whipping her head around to face him. The anger that bubbled up in her stomach ceased when she saw his face, and her whole exterior fell flat. "Because if I tell you the truth then I lose you forever."

Stiles' eyes softened. "You're never going to lose me."

"Then why do I feel like I already have?" Sage asked, her voice cracking at the end.

She couldn't be in a room with him any longer, her ability to keep a straight face around him failing when she realized she couldn't do it. Her words had, not only scarred Stiles, but they scarred herself when she realized that it was true. She felt like she was losing everyone that she cared about, and she hated that feeling more than anything in the world.

Grabbing a hold of the door, Sage opened it just in time to flee the scene.

She had made a half-hearted attempt to reach English class before the bell rung, her body sluggishly moving as her converse squeaked against the floor. The last thing she needed to be doing was school work, much less reading a book about a man with a heart of darkness. It all seemed to cliche to her, to be reading about a book that she already knew the ending to.

She felt like it described her whole life if she were being honest.

The minute that she walked into Blake's English class, she refrained from paying attention to all of her peers' stares. It was expected for them to look at her, not only because of her recent absence but because of the fact that she was late— however, it might also have something to do with the fact that Stiles came rushing in only a few seconds after she herself did.

When some ignorant asshole in the back of the class let out a cat call, Sage found herself wanting find the deepest hole possible and shove him as well as his fucking cat call down it. There was some sense of nostalgia back to a year ago, before herself and Stiles had ever began dating, when the same boy did something similar, his exact words being "Get some, Stilinski."

Now, it seemed like the only thing either would be getting is a broken heart.

"Sage, Stiles, if you two would please find your seat," Jennifer said, gesturing towards their seats. "I do hope that this is a one time thing, however, and I don't have to give you two detention for being late again."

The blonde's hands clenched at her sides, nails digging deep into her skin. "Of course not."

Sage and Stiles split up, careful not to touch each other as they moved down the same aisle to get to their seats. She hated the fact that she sat behind Stiles, Lydia to the right while Scott resided diagonal to her; normally, she wouldn't be too distressed about her best friends being next to her, but considering no one could look her properly in the eye, it hadn't been one of the most ruling times in her life.

"Hopefully, we can begin now that all intrusions are ceased," Blake chimed, her heels echoing through the, now, silent classroom as she headed through the rows. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes. All tools the writer uses to tell their story."

Sage picked at her black nail polish, trying to keep herself occupied so that she doesn't lose her mind drowning in thoughts. She could see Stiles' shaking body, the boy's ADD creating a ripple effect as his knee refused to steady. Neither one of them could control themselves, trying their hardest to avoid the close vicinity of each other as well as shy away from their emotions.

Lydia was silent to the right of Sage, spending her time drawing into the notebook that had become filled with the same picture, only in various sizes and directions. Her infatuation with trees was beginning to frighten Sage, more so because of the gut-wrenching feeling of familiarity she felt when she saw all of them.

"Lydia," Blake calls, stopping directly beside Sage and the strawberry blonde. "I didn't know you had so many hidden talents."

Despite the fact that she had been around Jennifer Blake more times than she was pleased to admit, something gave her goosebumps when she felt the woman's skin so close to her own. The unpleasant feeling was enough for Sage's hand to reach up and grip the back of Stiles' seat, hoping that he would, at least, understand her discomfort.

Lydia, however, didn't seem discouraged in the slightest. "You and every guy I've ever dated."

Jennifer's eyebrows shot up, and her cheeks began to flush out of embarrassment. Sage's hand only tightened on the desk seat, jaw tightly clenched. She only found a resolution when Stiles leaned slightly so that his back was now pressed up against her fingers, not hard enough for her to jerk away but enough for her to know that he was aware something was wrong.

"Oh, well. That was an idiom, by the way," Jennifer announced, letting out a nervous laugh. "Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture. They are phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Like say, 'jump the gun' is only meaningful if you know about the starting gun in a race; or, a phrase like 'seeing the whole board'—"

Sage's lip quirked slightly, her mouth involuntarily moving. "Chess."

"That's right, Sage," Blake confirms, nodding once as she sent the blonde a smile. "Do you play?"

Immediately, she felt horrible again realizing how she knew what that phrase meant. She had only answered so quickly because of how much time she had been with the Stilinski's, spending late nights just watching Sheriff and his son mess around with a chess board; it was the closest thing she got to family game nights.

"No," Sage denied, her hand moving from Stiles' desk. "I just know someone who does."

"Now, when does an idiom become a cliche?" Blake continued, moving away from where Sage's desk was; it was comforting, almost like a weight had been lifted off her shoulder knowing that the older woman was out of her bubble.

Sage wasn't surprised in the slightest when Scott immediately turned to his best friend the second Blake was far enough away not to hear them. The werewolf sent a small glance towards Sage, his brows furring for a split second just before he moved back to Stiles.

"I think I can get to Ethan," Scott whispered to over Stiles, the mention of the single twin making Sage's interest spark a second later. "I'm pretty sure that I can make him talk."

Stiles pursed his lips at Scott. "What do you want to do that for?"

"The druids are emissaries, right? So, what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?" Scott questioned, to which Sage's hands tightened on her pen.

She hated anything that mentioned the Darach, emissaries, or druids. She hated hearing those words in the same sentence because she knew well enough about each of them to know that they never mixed well. Sage hated even being considered a druid herself, disliked knowing that she had even the slightest bit of similarity to the Darach.

Stiles huffed out, shaking his head. "Okay, let me just say that I can not believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like, "What if the Darach is an emissary to the Alphas?" actually makes sense, and second of all, we're going to have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?" Scott asked, dumbfounded.

Stiles shifted uncomfortably in his seat, aware that Sage was listening. "Aiden. Ever since he's been back at school, they haven't been separated. How are we going to get him alone?"

Scott's ears perked up and he glanced back at Sage, who had been intently gnawing on her pen. Stiles turned around to see who his best friend was looking at and soon glowered at the thought of sending his blonde anywhere near the egotistic, raging, murderous alpha.

"What?" Sage asked, blinking as she stared in between the two boys. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Stiles quickly whipped his head back at Scott. "No. No way."

"He won't hurt her," Scott decided, shaking his head.

Stiles' eyes widened. "He wo— Scott, he did try to hurt her!"

"Uh, hello," Sage interrupted, leaning forward a bit after having been excluded from the conversation. She was just happy that they were actually talking to her and not avoiding her like the plague. "Do you mind telling me who and what exactly we're talking about?"

Stiles glared at Scott, his hands tightening on his pencil before turning around to face Sage. She stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain what the hell was so important they needed her to be the one to do it.

"We need you to distract Aiden."

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ne

Okay, so this is me going into a long ass authors note that no one is going to bother reading.

Alright, so I know that a good majority of you are okay with saiden happening, but I do have some people hesitant towards the whole idea. I just wanted to clear up to everyone that this is, in no way, a love triangle. Take away all of the flashbacks and Sage hates Aiden's guts for what he did to her and how he thinks he can control her just by batting his eyelashes. That is what makes this nothing like a love triangle. Besides, I wouldn't make Sage out to be that person who goes off and kisses another guy while she has a //kind of// boyfriend.

Also, I know that many people are wondering about how the past few chapters haven't involved much Stiles lately, and wanted to just inform you guys that there will be times where that happens again. I made Sage Connelly up to have her own back story, her own past, and her own personal problems that blend in with the show's outline. There are going to be chapters where Sage is alone with her thoughts, or talking about her past with Derek. I have plans for Sage that don't involve Stiles.

Now, on a lighter perspective, I just wanted to say thank you guys for all the support you've given me. I haven't been writing Sage for nearly as long as it feels, but to know that I've officially been on this site for a year is just astounding. It's crazy to know that I, and Sage, have come such a long way since the beginning of everything. Big love to all of you who have stuck by my side since the first book. x