▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ━︎━︎ 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 him, but still he hadn't picked up. She'd sent multiple texts but still he didn't reply. The worry began to eat her alive as she pushed herself faster. She arrived at the house and when she saw Stiles' Jeep was nowhere to be found she let out a curse before deciding to check the house anyways. She threw open the door. "Stiles? Stiles!" She searched the entire house before running up the stairs and checking every room in the house but he was nowhere to be found. "Shit. Shit!" She stood in his room, trying his phone again. "Pick up, pick up, pick up. Damnit, Stiles." She tossed the phone on the bed, placing her hands in her hair.

     She didn't notice when a car pulled in the driveway, her thoughts were racing too loud. She was pacing back and forth but came to a standstill when she saw Stiles standing in the doorway. A breath of relief fell from her lips. "Oh, thank God." She ran to him pulling him into a hug. "I thought something had happened." She pulled away, noticing the look on his face. "Stiles? Hey, are you okay?" She looked at his hands and her face fell. "Stiles. . . what is. . . is that blood?" She examined the rest of him but saw no wounds. She swallowed thickly before grabbing his arm and leading him to the bathroom.

She grabbed a cloth, wetting it before she began to clean the blood from his hands. When she was done, she turned and he quickly stood before walking out of the room. Elaine frowned, standing in the doorway of the bathroom and watching him. He grabbed a white marker, standing in front of his board as he took heavy breaths, his hands violently shaking as he wrote down a sentence. "Donovan not dead walked out."

He walked away from the board, staring at it for a moment before walking back to it and writing more words. "Donovan dead." He roughly underlined the word dead and Elaine moved further into the room. "Someone took the body" was the next sentence her wrote.

     "Stiles," Elaine calmly said. She saw the panic, the fear, and the tears on his face. He grabbed the eraser and began to aggressively erase the words from the board before he chucked the eraser and let out a yell. She quickly moved to stand in front of him. "Hey, hey, Stiles." She placed her hands on either side of his face. "Stiles, talk to me. What's going on? Talk to me."

     "I―︎" He struggled to breathe, tripping over his words.

     "Okay, hey, it's okay. You're okay." She moved him away from the board, turning his back to face it. "Look at me. Hey, look at me." He finally met her eyes. "Breathe, baby. Just breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth." She demonstrated and he copied her. "There you go. Just breathe, baby." She let a breath leave her lips and once again he copied her and she nodded her head. "Good. That's good."

     She walked over to the bed, bringing him with her and making him sit down. She sat beside him, grabbing his hands. "Stiles, what happened?"

     "I can't―︎"

     "It's okay." Elaine softly said, running a hand through his hair. "You can tell me."

     Stiles stared at her for a long moment. "Laney, I. . ." He swallowed his tears. "I killed someone."

     Elaine didn't allow her face to reveal anything. "Who?"

      "Donovan." His voice cracked.

     "What happened, Stiles?"

     "He attacked me. I was at the school. I didn't―︎I wasn't trying―︎"

     "Okay. Okay, it's alright."

     "Alright?" Stiles asked. "How is it alright? Elaine, I just killed someone."

     "Was he trying to hurt you?" Elaine asked.

     "Well, yeah, but―︎"

     "Did he attack you first?"

     "Yes, but―︎"

     "Then it was self defense." Elaine cut him off. "But, you wrote on the board that the body was taken, right? So there is no murder. I'm not saying it didn't happen. But Stiles, you can't tell anyone else, okay? Especially not your dad."

     Stiles shook his head. "H-how are you so calm about this?"

     She gave him a sad smile. "Because I know exactly what you're feeling. I've been in your shoes." She reached forwards, wiping away a tear that had slipped down his cheek. She ducked her head slightly, forcing him to meet her eyes. "Hey, you're not alone in this, okay? I'm right here. I've got you." She pulled him into a hug and he clung to her like his life depended on it.

     Elaine pulled away. "But you're right, Stiles." He frowned. "Someone is taking the bodies."

     "What?"

     "Donovan's body was taken. Scott is at the animal clinic right now and Tracy's body has also been taken. Mom said Lucas went missing from the morgue. Someone is orchestrating this, Stiles."

     "W-what? Who?"

     Elaine shook her head. "I don't know. But we'll worry about that later. Right now, I'm worried about you." She softly sighed. "You're not going to be okay for a while. I'm just going to be upfront and honest with you. Something like this stays with you forever. Even if it was self defense. But I believe you, okay? And I want you to talk to me. I don't want you to think I'm going to see you any differently or that I'm going to blame you or anything like that, alright." She gave his hand a small squeeze. "I'm right here."

     Stiles nodded. "Okay."

     "I think we should take school off. Let you have a second to cope."

     "Laney, you've already missed a day from being in the hospital." Stiles argued.

     "Well, right now, I don't care about school. I care about you. I'll make it up." After a moment, he nodded. "We should try and get some sleep." She crawled under the covers and he joined her. She watched him as he stared up at the ceiling, knowing he probably wasn't going to be able to rest. "I can put you under a sleeping spell," Elaine softly said. "I'll have to be the one to wake you up, but it'll keep the dreams away for the night. But only if you want me to."

     Stiles looked at Elaine, mulling over her words before nodding. "Okay."

     "Just close your eyes." She softly whispered. "Relax and just breathe." He did as she said and felt his arm tighten around her waist. She laid her head on his chest, listening to his breathing pattern and waiting for his heart to calm. She stayed awake, waiting for him to grow closer and closer to falling asleep. Finally she let her eyes glow purple and she kept her voice soft as she whispered the spell. When she was sure he was asleep, she finally allowed herself to close her eyes, nightmares of her own plaguing her mind.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

━︎━︎━︎━︎"𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐒." Elaine read. She had her laptop in front of her while Stiles was sitting at his desk, researching the author. "They want us to read this?"

     Stiles nodded. "Yeah. Scott and Kira are printing copies out for us at school, they'll probably get Malia to bring them by later." Stiles sighed. "There's nothing on this guy."

     "Great." Elaine muttered. Her phone rang and she blindly answered it. "What's up?"

     "Are you with Stiles?" It was Lydia.

     Elaine glanced at her boyfriend before rolling her eyes. "Where else would I be?"

     "Well, you could've been doing something productive."

     "Haha."

     "Anyways, I'm heading over there."

     Elaine rose a brow, clicking on a website about the book. "Why?"

     "Because I just read the acknowledgements at the back of the book."

     Elaine waited for her to continued but when she didn't she said, "And. . . ?"

     "You'll see." Lydia answered before hanging up. Not a few minutes later, Lydia showed up. She made her way into Stiles' room, immediately handing the book to Elaine. Elaine opened the book, flipping to the back and to the acknowledgements.

     Elaine read it out loud. "For providing scientific perspective and invaluable insight this book is dedicated to Dr. Gabriel Valack." Elaine furrowed her brows, closing the book as her eyes darted back and forth. "Why do I know that name?"

     Stiles stood. "Because, he was at Eichen House."

     Elaine stood from the bed. "You're going there." Lydia nodded. "Alright, let me just put my shoes on." She pushed her feet into her shoes, tightening the laces before standing up and grabbing her jacket, placing it on her arms. She turned to Stiles. "You don't have to come."

     "Yeah, we'll be fine." Lydia agreed.

     He snatched his jacket. "I'm coming with you."

     Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you said you were sick."

     "I'm slightly under the weather." Stiles nodded.

      "Laine's right, you don't have to come. Malia's not going either."

     "Malia's not going because she knows that that place is a nightmare asylum of insanity and death, okay?" Stiles shot back. "Let's go." He winced as he put his jacket on and Elaine frowned. He was hurt, and he didn't tell her.

     "What was that?" Lydia asked, glancing at Elaine, quickly gathering she didn't know about it either.

     Stiles straightened out his jacket before looking at her. "What was what?"

     "You winced."

     Stiles lied, "I have a bad elbow."

     "It was your shoulder." Lydia countered.

     "Pain radiates." He zipped up his jacket. "It does that." He made for the door and Lydia slid in his path. Stiles let out a sigh. "You're not going without me. You remember what happened to Deaton when he talked to Valack?"

     "Scott and Kira are going to be there." Lydia said.

     "Okay, I'm not letting you go to a place where one of the orderlies almost killed you."

     "He almost killed you too." Lydia urged. "And Elaine!"

     "And we're all still alive. See? Teamwork." He walked past her and out the door. Lydia turned to Elaine in disbelief and Elaine just sighed as she followed after him.