ACT THREE, CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
An Airhorn

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

     ANDI DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE SHE HAD BEEN UP ALL NIGHT UNTIL HER ALARM WENT OFF. She checked the time and cursed under her breath as she put the book down and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. She spent the entire night reading through all of her grandmother's books to see if any of them had any information or even just little clues about what to do about the situation her friends were having. Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything about sleep paralysis and hallucinations after having a near death experience. Books and notes were spread all over her bed and about two of the books had fallen onto the floor as she got up to go take a shower. She didn't even bother to put the books away after she finished getting ready and just grabbed her bag after carelessly throwing her notebook and textbooks inside.

     "You look like you slept in a graveyard," her grandmother said while drinking a cup of tea at the table and Andi scoffed as she put a pop tart in the toaster.

     "I didn't sleep at all. I was up all night trying to figure out how to help my friends and came up with nada," she replied as she leaned against the counter, waiting for the toaster to pop.

     "When your grandfather and I were young, I had to do a spell where I had to sacrifice someone I loved and your grandfather was the only one I had. I didn't want to lose him too so I used a loophole. He was dead for a few minutes but I brought him back and after that, he experienced hallucinations of his dead sister but he didn't experience sleep paralysis. It took a while before we realized that him dying opened some kind of door and the only way he could close it was by letting go of his sister and moving on," her grandmother explained.

     "So, what you're saying is that Scott, Stiles and Allison being nearly dead opened a door in their minds and they need to close it and to do that they might have to deal with some unresolved issues?" Andi asked.

     "It's possible," her grandmother answered as the toaster popped and Andi grabbed a paper towel so she wouldn't burn herself.

     "I gotta go. Me and Isaac are supposed to see if we can find anything we might have missed, maybe a clue to help them close that door in their minds," she said and her grandmother chuckled.

     "You and Isaac. You know historically speaking, witches and werewolves had more of a neutral to negative relationship. The only thing we had in common was that we were both hunted for being anything other than human. But seeing you, Isaac and Scott being such good friends gives me hope that the cycle will be broken one day," she said with a small smile.

     "I'll see you later, Grams," Andi said before leaving the house and grabbing her bike.

     She finished her pop tart before she arrived at school and locked her bike and went inside. She saw Isaac walking down the hallway and grabbed his arm while pulling him along.

     "Good morning to you too," he chuckled.

     "Good morning, we got business, let's go and see if there's anything to help the others," Andi said quickly as they walked to the library and she put her notebook down on the nearest table.

     Isaac watched as Andi flipped through the pages that had many things messily written in blue ink while she quietly rambled on about what her grandmother told her and what she found in her books that could possibly help if they figured out how to use it. He noticed that circles under her eyes and that they were a little bloodshot.

     "Did you sleep last night?" he asked and Andi laughed.

     "Sleep? Who even sleeps anymore? I can't exactly sleep when our friends need help," she replied. "I just rambled on for fifteen minutes and we have class in five so we need to go and hope that no one has any issues until we can talk about this some more at lunch."

     "If I find out you fell asleep in class, I'm coming over there and waking you up with an airhorn," Isaac said as they left the library.

     "Thanks. I will see you around," Andi replied.

     When Andi sat down, she was nervously tapping the end of her pen against her desk and her knee wouldn't stop bouncing. It was no secret that something was putting her on edge but everyone just sat down and looked to the front of the room. While the teacher had their back turned as they wrote something on the blackboard, she heard someone tapping the edge of her desk and she looked beside her to see a fair skinned girl with dark hair and almond shaped brown eyes looking at her with kindness and concern.

     "Are you okay?" she whispered.

     "Yeah. I'm fine," Andi replied as she tried to smile but the girl could tell it was fake.

     "You're fidgeting and you look pretty tired. Do you wanna talk about it after class?" the girl asked.

     Andi sighed. There was still a bit of time until lunch and she still had another class to sit through. She couldn't give this girl the details about what was going on with her friends but maybe just telling her the simple version would take some weight off her shoulders.

     "That would be great," Andi answered and the girl beside her nodded as they turned back to the front just as their teacher turned around to continue the lesson.

     By the time the class was over, Andi was practically at the edge of her seat and once she was out of the room, the girl was already waiting for her beside the door. The suddenness of her voice made Andi jump as she choked back a scream and sighed in relief when she realized who it was.

     "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," the girl said and Andi shook her head.

     "It's fine. What's your name?" she asked.

     "Kira. I'm new here," the girl answered with a shy smile while Andi smiled back.

     "I'm Andi. I was new here a few months ago myself so I know what that's like," she replied.

     "Is your dad also a teacher here?" Kira asked.

     "No, my dad is on the other side of the country," Andi answered.

     "Your mom?"

     "With my dad."

     "So, who do you live here with?" Kira asked as they stopped at Andi's locker.

     "I live with my grandmother. She's helped me a lot these last few months and I don't know where I would be without her," Andi said and smiled faintly at the thought of her grandmother and how much she had done for her since she was sent to Beacon Hills.

     She had become one of the first people Andi would trust with anything and had taught her so much about herself that had been hidden from her since the day she was born. She wondered if things would've turned out different if her grandmother was more active in her life growing up. Maybe she would've learned about her family and her power from the day she could speak and it wouldn't have spent years building up inside her gradually forming chaos. Maybe she wouldn't have grown up feeling like she wasn't enough of that she didn't belong and maybe she would've spent her whole life being proud of what she was.

     "Your grandmother sounds pretty cool. Anyway, what's got you on edge?" Kira asked and Andi sighed.

     "Three of my friends are currently going through something and I don't know how to help them. I didn't sleep at all last night because I was trying to figure out what was going on with them so I could figure out how to help them," she briefly explained and Kira nodded as she listened.

     "What's going on with them?" she questioned.

     "Last month, they had the exact same near-death experience and now they're hallucinating and having sleep paralysis," Andi sighed. "And I have no idea what to do."

     "I think I might have an idea about what's happening to your friends," Kira said and Andi couldn't help but sigh with relief when she said those words.

     "Please, do tell because I'm driving myself mad," she groaned.

     "They might be in the state between life and death. There's a Tibetan word for it called 'Bardo' which literally means the 'in-between state' and these sound like different stages of that," Kira said.

     Andi checked the time and realized that they had to get to class and looked at Kira. "Can you meet me and my friends at lunch? You can explain it to them too so we can help them fix it," Andi said and Kira nodded.

     "Sure. I guess I'll see you then?" Kira asked.

     "Yeah. Thank you so much, Kira," Andi said before rushing to her next class knowing that they were one step closer to fixing this mess.

━━━━

     Andi looked for her friends at the tables outside when it was lunch and sat down between Isaac and Scott and Isaac noticed that she was less jittery than she was when she arrived but she still looked tired and needed to sleep. She listened to everyone talk about what has ben going on since that night until she saw Kira looking around and stood up.

     "Kira! Over here!" she said loudly and her friends looked at her as Kira walked over to their table.

     "What are you doing?" Kendall asked.

     "She knows something that might be able to help us. and don't worry, I didn't tell her all the details and how exactly we ended up here," Andi said just as Kira arrived at their table and smiled shyly as everyone looked at her. "Guys, this is Kira, Kira, this is Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Lydia, Allison and Kendall."

     As soon as she was done introducing her to everyone, Scott spoke up. "She's in our history class," he said and Kira cleared her throat.

     "Anyway, I briefly explained this to Andi earlier but the Tibetan word 'Bardo' means the 'in-between state' which is the state between life and death," Kira said.

     "Are we talking Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia asked.

     "Either, I guess. But from what Andi told me about the hallucinations and everything, all of that happens in Bardo. There are progressive states where you can have hallucinations, some you see and some you hear. You can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities like demons," Kira said and Stiles nodded.

     "Why the hell not?" he questioned sarcastically.

     "Hold on. If there are different progressive states, what's the final state?" Allison asked.

     "Death. You die," Kira answered simple.

     As she left, everyone looked at each other and then looked at Andi. "Well, that was enlightening and terrifying," Kendall said.

     "Also, we're inviting random people into this mess now?" Stiles asked and Andi scoffed and rolled her eyes.

     "I spent all night reading books thicker than my arm and found nothing. She was able to tell us what we're dealing with in one minute. If I knew she would have the answer, I would've gotten some sleep last night. I also spoke to Grams this morning and she told me a story about her and my grandfather where he also had a near-death experience when they were younger and he hallucinated his dead sister. Dying and coming back to life opened some kind of door in his mind and she thinks that's what's happening to you guys," she said. "Maybe try talking to Deaton about it and see if he comes to the same conclusion."

     "He probably will. They've been friends for a long time and know pretty much everything about magic, balance, order and the rules of the supernatural world," Isaac said as he shrugged his shoulders.

     "You know, after Deucalion left, my family decided to lay low with the whole magic stuff and I was hoping it would stay that way for a long time," Kendall sighed.

     "I apologise our issues from sacrificing ourselves to save our parents is such an inconvenience," Stiles said sarcastically.

     "You wanted a break from the supernatural too. Don't even try to lie because we all did," Andi said with a crooked smile as she grabbed her bag.

     Now that they knew what was happening, they just needed to figure out how to fix it.