"I've seen worse" Scott said as we all stepped off the bus.

My brother and I both spoke in unison. "Where have you seen worse?"

Stiles glanced at me and gave me a hi-five.

Coach blew his whistle. "Listen up. The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely" Coach held out some room keys in his hand.

"We'll just go in a three" Allison said to Lydia and I.

"And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!" Coach yelled out to everyone as I grabbed a room key.

"Lydia?" Allison asked, watching Lydia as she nervously eyed the motel.

"I don't like this place" Lydia said.

"I don't even think the people who own this place like this place" I laughed.

"It's just for a night" Allison shrugged.

Lydia turned around to look at us. "A lot can happen in one night"

~

"Excuse me?" Lydia called out as we stood by the front desk.

An old woman with a crooked smile appeared.

"The card on the dresser says we have a non-smoking room, but somehow all of our towels reek of nicotine" Lydia said.

"Sorry about that, sweetheart"

A number on the wall caught my eye. 198.

"What's that?" I asked. "That number?"

"It's a kind of inside thing for the motel. My husband insists on keeping it up" The woman replied with a creepy smile.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"It's a little bit morbid, to be honest.
You sure you want to know?"

"Tell us" Lydia said.

The woman sighed. "We're not gonna make the top of anyone's list when it comes to customer satisfaction"

"Obviously" I muttered.

"But we are number one in California when it comes to one disturbing little detail" she smirked. "Since opening, more than any other motel in California, we have the most guest suicides"

"198?" Lydia said, her voice hardly audible.

The woman laughed menacingly. "And counting"

Lydia and I both exchanged looks.

"Uh thanks for the towels" I said, grabbing them from the side and then taking Lydia's hand, leading her out of the office.

I didn't want to spend another second with that woman.

"Did you get the towels?" Allison shouted as we came back into the room.

"Yeah" Lydia said as she took them into the bathroom.

I sat down on one of the beds with a sigh.

"So you'll never guess what we found out" Lydia said as Allison emerged from the bathroom.

"What?" Allison asked, drying her wet hair with a towel.

"Suicides. This hotel keeps a record of the number of suicides they've had" Lydia informed.

"Suicides?" Allison frowned.

"Yeah. 198 of them" I said.

"198?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yes, and we're talking 40 years. On average, that's 4.95 a year, which is actually expected. But who commemorates that with a framed number? Who does that?" Lydia said, looking disgusted.

"All suicides?" Allison asked again.

"Yes. Hanging, throat-cutting, pill-popping, both-barrels-of-a-shotgun- in-the-mouth suicides. I don't know about you, but me, I-" Lydia cut off.
"Did you hear that?"

Allison and I looked at each other.

"Hear what?" I asked.

Lydia stepped onto the bed and closer to a vent on the wall.

"Lydia?" Allison frowned.

"Oh, my God, oh, my God" Lydia repeated. "Oh, my God"

She gasped, stumbling backwards.

"What is it, Lydia? What happened?" I asked worriedly.

"Didn't you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Allison questioned.

"The two people in the other room. They shot each other" she started heading to the door.

"Lydia" I cautioned as she ran past rooms, eventually stopping at one to push open the door.

"Hello?" She called out, trying to flick on the light switch.

"Lydia, what are you doing?" Allison asked as she stepped inside.

"Hello?" Lydia repeated. After receiving no answer, she switched on a desk lamp. The three of us looked around to see the room was being redecorated. "It had to be right here. It was a guy and a girl, and, I mean, they sounded younger, but they were here" She said, her hands shaking.

"I believe you" Allison said. "After everything we've been through, I believe you"

Lydia looked at me.

"I believe you too"

Lydia sighed and turned around to look at the wall. She then stepped closer, transfixed on something.

"Come on let's get out of here" Allison said, touching Lydia's arm.

Lydia turned back around, still looking in shock, and followed us out and back into the room.

"You know, there is something seriously wrong with this place" She said when we stepped back inside our room. Lydia then went over to the shelves and started grabbing her stuff. "We need to leave" She said.

"But they were suicides, not murders, and it's not like this place is haunted, right?" Allison argued.

"Maybe it is. You know, I bet that couple made their suicide pact in that very room" she said. "Maybe that's why they're renovating. Maybe they've been scraping brain matter off the wood paneling" Lydia exclaimed in a shrill voice.

I looked at the two girls. "Maybe we should find out"

~

Lydia sighed when she noticed there was nobody at the desk.

"Well there goes that"

"Did you say the sign said 198?" Allison asked.

I turned around to check it.

It now said 201.

"It was 198" Lydia said. "I swear to god it was 198" she turned to me. "It was 198, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah it definitely said 198"

"Okay so what does that mean? That there's been three more suicides?" Allison questioned.

I bit my lip. "Or three more about to happen"

~

"Last time I saw Scott act like that was during the full moon" Allison said.

"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" Stiles said.

"See, it is the motel. Either we need to get out of here right now, or someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism asap, before the werewolves go crazy and kill us" Lydia exclaimed, pulling a bible out of the draw for effect.

"Okay, just hold on, all right? What if it's not just the motel? The number in the office went up by three, right?" I said.

"You mean like three sacrifices?" Allison said.

"What if this time it's three werewolves?" I asked.

"Scott, Isaac, and Boyd" Allison whispered.

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

"Exactly! So can we get the hell out of here now? Please?" Lydia begged.

"Wait, hang on. Let me see this" Stiles said, opening the bible up to see a newspaper clipping.

"What is that?" I asked.

"28 year old man hangs himself at the infamous Glen Capri" he read out. He then shook the bible and a ton of clippings came out flying out.

"Oh, no. Look at these two. They both mention the room 217. These are probably all the suicides that happened in this room" Lydia said.

"So if every room has a Bible-" I started.

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

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

"What if the room next door has the one about the couple?" Lydia asked.

Stiles glanced at us before rushing out of the door and trying the door handle to the other room.

"No, that was not locked before" Lydia said, her voice shaking.

"Forget it. We need to get Scott, Isaac, and Boyd out of here" I said.

I suddenly heard the sound of a handsaw being turned on in the other room.

Lydia frowned. "I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?"

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

Stiles rushed back over to us. "Handsaw?"

The four of us scrambled over to the door and we kicked it open and all piled inside.

When I looked over, I noticed Ethan bringing the handsaw to his stomach.

"Hey, no, Ethan, don't!" Stiles yelled, launching himself over to him and wrestling the handsaw out of his hand.

He went to pick it back up again and I pushed him away just as Lydia unplugged it.

The four of us sighed in relief until Ethan's claws came out and he started digging them into his stomach.

"No!" Stiles and I yelled simultaneously as we rushed over. With the help of Allison, we managed to pull his arms apart.

"Aah!" Ethan yelled as he hit the heater. "What just happened?" He asked, standing up.

The five of us looked at eachother and then Ethan rushed out of the room.

"Hey! Ethan!" Stiles yelled as we ran after him.

"Didn't you just hear what I said? I have no idea what I was doing or how I got there" Ethan said as he rushed down the stairs.

"Okay, you could be a little bit more helpful, you know? We did just save your life" I said.

"And you probably shouldn't have" he snapped.

"What now?" Lydia asked as Ethan disappeared.

"I'll find Scott" Allison said. "You guys grab Isaac and Boyd. The best thing we can do is get them out of this place"

We nodded and Allison set off up the stairs. Lydia was about to follow but she paused and sighed.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked Stiles.

"Oh, no, I w-"

"Stiles" She snapped.

"All right. Lydia, I didn't want to say anything but this everything, what we're going through, we've kind of been through something like this before, a lot like this" he said.

"What do you mean? When?" She asked.

Stiles sighed. "Your birthday party, the night you poisoned everyone with wolfsbane"

Lydia scoffed and stormed off.

"Nice one, Stiles" I rolled my eyes and headed off after Lydia.

"I didn't mean-" My brother yelled after me.

Lydia stopped and I headed over to her.

"You okay?" I asked. She didn't reply.

"Lydia, I'm sorry, okay? Look, I didn't mean that you're trying to kill people, okay? I just I just meant that maybe maybe you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know? Which now that I say that out loud, it just sounds really terrible, so I'm just going to stop talking" Stiles rambled.

"Yeah, you probably should" I said, shooting him a glare.

"Do you hear that?" Lydia asked.

"What?" Stiles said.

"Lydia, what do you hear?" I questioned.

"A baby crying" she answered, kneeling on the floor. "I hear-I hear water running" she said, her voice shaking. "Oh, my God"

Stiles and I exchanged a look.

"She's drowning the baby!" Lydia yelled. "Someone's drowning!"

~

The three of us burst into a room and I saw Boyd in the bath with the the safe from the office on top of him.

"He blocked it. He blocked the drain with something. I can't get to it" Stiles said, trying to pull out the plug.

"What do we do?" Lydia asked.

"Here, help me" I said, trying to lift the safe off of him. Stiles and Lydia joined me but we couldn't pull it off.

"Is he dead? How long can a werewolf stay underwater?" Lydia asked.

"You think I know that?" I exclaimed.

"Ow!" Stiles yelled, falling against the heater.

The heater.

"Wait a sec, the heater. Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater" I said.

"What?" Lydia asked.

"It's heat. Heat, electricity, fire. Heat does it, all right? We need something. We need fire" I said frantically.

"He's underwater" Lydia pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that!" I yelled.

"Wait, wait. The bus. On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares.
They have their own oxidisers. They can burn underwater" Lydia informed.

"Are you serious?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, go!" Lydia yelled.

Stiles left the room as the two of us continued to try and pull the safe off of Boyd.

Lydia suddenly stood up and rushed over to the bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked, still trying to pull the safe.

I heard her gasp and I turned around just as Stiles grabbed Lydia's arm.

"I got them! What do I do?" He asked, showing the two flares in his hand. "How do I do this?"

"The cap, it's like a match" I said, still desperately trying to lift the safe up.

"The cap's a match" Lydia confirmed. He started to try and light it. "Stiles!" She yelled.

"Yeah, I'm trying" The flare suddenly lit up. His eyes widened. "Ooh"

I grabbed it out of Stiles' hand and threw it in the water.

Boyd immediately sat up, throwing the safe off of him and across the room.

The three of us stepped back as we watched Boyd transform into a werewolf and then back to a human.

"Boyd?" Stiles asked, still out of breath.

He looked at us confused for a moment before dashing out of the room.

"Boyd!" Lydia called after him.

I turned to face Stiles and Lydia, about to ask what we do now, when I remembered someone. "Hey, where's Isaac?" I asked.

Just as I said it, I heard shivering.

"He's uh, he's under the bed" Lydia said.

I looked at her weirdly. "What?"

Stiles rolled his eyes and took the flare.

He knelt down and tilted his head against the carpet.

"Hey, Isaac"

~

The three of us walked down the steps and outside where Allison was stood in front of Scott. Who was holding one of the flares.

"There's no hope" Scott said, the remaining flare in his hand.

"What do you mean, Scott? There's always hope" Allison said, sounding like she was about to cry

"Not for me. Not for Derek"

"Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault" Allison said firmly as she walked over to him.

"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt.
People keep getting killed"

"Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay? Now-" I stepped forwards.

"What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" Scott said.

"Scott-" I started, my voice cracking.

"It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You, Stiles and I, 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" Scott said to Stiles and I.

I felt hot tears welling up in my eyes and I had to choke back a sob.

"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay? You're someone, you're- Scott, you're my best friend.
Okay? And I need you. Scott, you're my brother. All right, so-" Stiles stepped into the gasoline. "So if you're gonna do this, then I think you're just gonna have to take me with you. All right?" Stiles started to pull the flare from Scott's shaking hands.

I put my hand over my mouth as I desperately tried not to cry.

Stiles then chucked the flare behind him and I watched as it rolled to the side.

Scott panted, staring at his best friend.

I sighed in relief and grabbed both Allison's and Lydia's hands supportively.

But then the flare rolled back again.

I opened my mouth to yell but no sound came out.

As I threw myself towards the boys, I heard Lydia scream "No!"

The two of us crashed into the boys, knocking us all to the ground.

The flare rolled into the gasoline and there was a loud explosion.

I sighed in relief, still lay on the ground next to Lydia.

Scott and Stiles pulled away from a long hug and helped us up.

I took Scott's hand and engulfed him into a hug.

"I thought you were going to-" I started.

"It's okay" he whispered, still holding me close.

I took a deep shaky breath, pulling away from the hug.

"I'm glad you're okay" My eyes met his but I didn't hold the gaze.

He looked down at the floor. "Yeah, me too"

I sighed as I watched him walk off.

I was so worried. So worried that he'd actually kill himself like that.

I know he's my best friend but what I felt just then.

What I've been feeling for a while.

I've started to realise that they aren't feelings for just a friend.

~

The sound of many footsteps could be heard and the bus doors opened.

"I don't want to know. I really don't want to know" Coach said, shaking his head at us.

I yawned and stretched out.

Stiles pushed me away from him.

"But in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home" Everybody behind coach cheered. "Pack it in. Pack it in!"

I sat up, trying to brush through my messy hair when I noticed Ethan sit next to Scott, in front of us.

"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life" Ethan said.

"Actually, I saved your life" Stiles butted in. "But not that it matters that much. It's just minor detail"

"Well I'm gonna give you something" Ethan said. "We're pretty sure Derek's still alive. But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack" Ethan explained.

"And kills his own" Scott cut in.

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

"You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just FYI" Stiles interrupted as Ethan stood up and went to sit by Danny.

"Hey, Ethan, I wanted to-" Coach started.

"Coach, can I see your whistle for a second?" Lydia asked.

"Hey, Eth-" Lydia took the whistle from around Coach's neck. "I'm gonna need that back"

"Ethan-" I heard Coach say.

She blew the whistle into her hand and a purple powder came out.

"Wolfsbane" She said.

"So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Isaac, Boyd" Stiles started.

"And Ethan-" Lydia interrupted.

"We all inhaled it" Scott finished, realisation setting in.

"You were all poisoned by it" Allison said.

"So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it" Stiles said.

He then glanced at the whistle and took it out of Lydia's hand. Scott bent down as Stiles frantically tried undo the window and eventually, he chucked the whistle out.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Stilinski!" Coach yelled.

I laughed and sat back in my seat.

It's moments like these that I cherish.

We don't get them often.