WHERE'S MY MIND?

When a knock came from the door about an hour later, Harper rushed towards it, ready to tell whoever it was that they were busy. Only as the door glided open and the man standing there looked up, Harper saw someone who she thought would never side with them. It was Peter Hale.

Raising her eyebrows, she let out a dry chuckle, "what are you doing here?"

"Well, sweetheart, I'm here to lend a helping hand, since the big, bad alpha doesn't seem capable doing it himself," Peter smirked back, his words as slow and patronising as always.

Scott appeared right behind Harper before she could spit back a witty remark, his hand on the doorframe above her head. He looked relieved to see the former alpha, much to Harper's surprise. She didn't know what they needed him for, but she was honestly more than willing for him to come inside it meant saving Stiles.

Peter sent her an over the top smile as she moved out of the way before he began to head towards the living room, taking his precious time. Harper closed the door and turned to face Scott, her face scrunched up in confusion.

"What do we need Peter Hale for?" The teenage girl asked, "are you forgetting what he did to me, you, Lydia, Stiles, Allison, Derek, Laura Hale, almost your mum-"

"Okay, I get it, he's done a lot of bad things," Scott placed his hand on her shoulder, cutting her off from her long list of people Peter had hurt or at least set out to, "but right now I think he might be our only hope. Derek's not picking up and we need to change Stiles' body in order to get rid of the Nogitsune."

Harper's eyes widened in realisation.

"You're gonna bite him?" She breathed, "you're gonna turn Stiles into a werewolf?"

Scott swallowed nervously but nodded, "it's the only way, Harper..."

She forced a nod, "yeah, yeah, I understand," she paused before taking a deep breath, "come on, we better go see what Peter Hale has to say."

...

Peter began to walk around behind the couch, looking down at Stiles' body with judgemental eyes. Harper almost felt defensive as she folded her arms across her chest, waiting for what he had to say. His blue eyes stopped on Stiles' face, his eyebrows raised.

"He doesn't look like he could survive a slap to the face," Peter scoffed incredulously, "much less the bite of a werewolf."

Void looked back up at him as the older man came to stand in front, a smirk evident on his face and an unknown glint in his eyes. If Harper could, she would've tried to figure out what it was, except she couldn't feel anything a demon felt.

Scott frowned, "you don't think it would work?"

"This is more of a war with the mind than the body," he replied, not breaking eye contact with Void, "there are better methods for winning this battle."

Deaton looked up, curious, "what kind of methods?"

The former alpha said nothing but flicked his claws out, the sound of the small blades slicing through the air filling everybody's ears. Void Stiles cocked his head to the side as he stared at them, clearly amused.

"We're gonna get into his head."

"What's the plan?" Harper asked Peter hesitantly, pressing down on her fingertips- a technique to control her anxiety she had learned back in her early counselling days.

"Scott is going to try and dig through pale and sickly Evil Stiles' mind to unearth pale and sickly Real Stiles," the blue-eyed man began to explain, "then guide him back from the depths of his own subconscious. But he's not gonna do it alone."

Scott's brows tugged together.

"What do you mean?" The Hispanic boy frowned.

Peter smirked over at Harper, "someone's gotta go in with you. And who better than pale and sickly Stiles' girlfriend?"

The smirk on Void's face only widened as he tilted his head backwards, his hazel eyes meeting Harper's again. She stared back at him, her own eyes wider than usual from shock. Great.

Peter went over the plan in more detail, Harper and Scott listening intently to every word that left his lips. Scott and Harper were worried about messing up, or it not working and losing more hope, but they didn't need to communicate their feelings to know they both felt the exact same way.

Whilst Harper took her place on the couch next to Void, Peter took Scott's hand and aligned his claws up in the right position on the back of Stiles' neck.

"What do we do if we find him?" The alpha asked nervously.

"You're gonna have to guide him out somehow," Peter replied with a small shrug, "try to give him back control to his mind, his body."

He grabbed Scott's other hand and gently placed it on the back of Harper's neck this time. She felt his nails slightly dig into her cold skin, causing her to shudder a little.

Lydia folded her arms across her chest from where she was stood watching anxiously beside Melissa and Deaton.

"Could you explain to them what you mean by 'somehow'?" She scoffed, "it's all feeling not very specific at the moment."

"Improvise," Peter suggested.

"Thanks for the pep talk," Scott muttered sarcastically.

Harper scoffed, "bloody inspiring. Besides, how do we know that this isn't just some kind of trick?"

Peter rolled his eyes, "when are you people going to start trusting me?"

The dark-eyed boy sighed from behind Harper, "she meant Void."

"Oh."

Deaton suddenly cut in, "Scott, we're running out of time," he warned.

Nodding, Harper listened as he began to breathe deeply, his grip on the back of her neck growing tighter as he prepared himself. She braced for the feeling of his nails going through her skin, and when it finally came a second later, the stinging sensation caused not only her but Void to gasp out loud.

When she opened her eyes again, Harper was in an all too familiar place. Her heart began to pound when she realised that she was strapped down to one of the beds in Eichen House, the place she never wanted to return to again.

Grunts came from beside her as Scott started to struggle against his own restraints, not being able to escape with even his werewolf strength. Harper tried too, trying to ignore the anxiety building up in her chest as she whimpered and pulled against the leather restraints.

"S-Scott," she choked, "w-why are we in Eichen House?"

Scott tilted his head against the pillow it laid beneath, his brown eyes softening when he saw how much his best friend was freaking out. He had promised her that she would never end up here again, and while she physically wasn't there, everything still felt as real as it would if they were.

The fear in her eyes was enough for Scott to break free, the leather cuffs snapping away from the bed with ease. As soon as he had nothing holding him back, he rushed over to the brunette had begun to help her out.

"This isn't real, we're just in Stiles' head, remember?" He tried to calm her, placing his hand on her back.

She nodded, swallowing thickly and taking a deep breath, "right."

"We'll be okay, just stick with me," Scott promised, opening the door that lead them out of the room.

As soon as the dark-haired boy slipped out the door, it slammed shut behind him, the noise bouncing off of the walls around her. She jiggled the door handle, but it didn't open. Pounding on the door, Harper began to call for Scott to come before quickly realising he wasn't going to.

She turned around, freezing when she found that the room hand transformed. Harper was no longer in Eichen House but in the Sheriff's station- the old one before they had it rebuilt. Looking down, Harper saw blood seeping from her dress and her shoulder, staining her pale skin and her fingertips.

Memories of that day came back to her quickly, making her jaw clench.

This is all in Stiles' head, this is all in Stiles' head.

Footsteps running past her caused the brunette to whirl around, her long hair whipping her face. She stumbled back a little when she noticed the dead body by her feet, blood spilling from slashes in their chest.

Gunshots ran out in the room over, Harper's heart pounding harder. She continued to move backwards, tripping over another dead police officer. Her eyes widened as she fell, more and more bodies surrounding her.

"Scott?" She called desperately, "Scott!"

Climbing back up to her feet, she paused as she realised the gunshots had stopped. Everything was silent before she heard one loud bang and then the cries of Scott, followed by... herself?

Harper rushed out of the hallway and into the reception room, finding another version of herself hunched over beside another version of Scott, who was also bleeding. She looked up, teary-eyed, however Matt did not stand there with his gun like before, it was the Nogitsune.

He was wrapped up in bandages, a brown leather jacket with badges stitched on the arms over his body. His mouth was like something out of a horror film- a gaping black hole with rows and rows for teeth sharper than glass.

Using the blood of one of the dead bodies, the Nogitsune traced out the symbol for self over the glass window with the tip of his finger before looking back at Harper.

He began to advance towards her, shoving people out of his way that had appeared so suddenly out of nowhere. Frozen in her spot, she felt as she couldn't move until a voice, just like Peter's belted her name.

"Harper!"

She snapped out of it and took off running back down the hallway, ignoring all of the dead bodies littering the floor this time. The sound of him running after her didn't stop, but she managed to get to the exit doors just in time, pushing them open and stumbling into the brightest room Harper had ever been in.

Everything was white. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, the lights. It seemed as if the place stretched on for miles and miles with not a thing in sight.

That was until Scott burst through a pair of doors, his dark eyes wide as he panted, looking completely freaked out.

"Scott!" She called, rushing over to him.

"Harper," he breathed out, relieved to see her.

The duo looked behind them, falling silent at what they saw a few hundred metres away. Sat on the Nemeton was the Nogitsune and Stiles, real Stiles, playing what looked to be chess.

Without saying a word, Scott and Harper took off in a run towards him, pushing their legs as hard as they would go as quick as they could. However, no matter what they did, it appeared that Stiles always ended up the same distance away from them. Like some kind of trick.

"Stiles!" Harper cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled as loud as she possibly could.

"Stiles!" Scott copied her actions.

They tried running again, only to end up in the exact same spot, no closer to their target. The two bent over, hands on their knees as they panted.

"This isn't working," Harper shook her head sourly, "we need to try something else."

Scott looked over at her, his face scrunched up in what looked like defeat.

"Like what?" He breathed.

Stiles groaned, "the wolf. The bite in the woods. I started doing all this reading," he spoke quickly, "Do you even know why a wolf howls?"

"Should I?" Scott asked at the same time as Harper replied, "isn't it to signal its location to the rest of its pack?"

Stiles nodded quickly, "Yes!" He replied, "so if you heard a wolf howling, that means other could have been nearby. Maybe even a whole pack of them."

The memory passed as quickly as it came, Harper's wide eyes snapping up to the alpha.

"What? What is it?" He asked frantically.

"Howl!" She exclaimed, "remember, wolves howl to signal their location to the rest of the pack and Stiles is in yours!"

The Nogitsune's head turned to them at this, so Harper realised she must be onto something.

Scott nodded quickly, his entire face shifting into werewolf mode. His eyes shone bright red, his fangs bares and his claws out as he howled louder than Harper had ever heard him before.

Stiles' face slowly turned away from the board, his hazel eyes catching them from in the distance.

"Stiles!" He heard the muffled yell of his girlfriend.

The Stilinski boy looked back up at the Nogitsune before his arms stretched out, wiping out all of the counters off of the board so they went flying across the room. The Nogitsune roared in Stiles' face and then suddenly—

Gasping for air, Harper and Scott lurched from their positions, Harper's hand going to the back of her neck which ached immensely. She was faintly aware of the blood dripping from her nose but she only paid attention to Stiles who was still unconscious.

"Did it work?" Scott panted, rushing around to inspect his friend.

Harper did the same, a frown on her face when he didn't wake up like she had expected. Where was her Stiles? What was going on?

"Why didn't it work?" Lydia snapped at Peter.

The older werewolf growled, "because it's not science, it's supernatural, Lydia. I did my part, now give me the name."

"What name?" Scott glanced back at them, however Harper didn't care for their drama.

Her hands were on top of Stiles' as everyone around her began to bicker, her eyes soft. Picking up one of his large hands, she placed a kiss to his knuckles, jumping when Stiles suddenly lurched forwards, gasping for air.

Everybody watched as he began to panic, his arms flailing before he ripped the tape off of his mouth and started to pull out bandages. He coughed, spluttered and retched- gagging for air as the bandages kept on piling up on the floor. His eyes watered, some tears even streaming down his face.

Harper was horrified as she looked at the Stilinski boy who was bent over on his hands and knees, gasping for a breath. Everybody gathered together on one side of the room, however Harper was stuck alone by the couch, watching in fear as a body began to emerge from the wrappings.

It was the Nogitsune.

Or at least that's what Harper thought at first, until she felt the immense fear and pain coming from the body. Peter and Scott grabbed him, pushing him back onto the couch and pinning him down as Stiles tried to rip the bandages off of his head.

However, before the brunette could yell at them to let him go, the boy who had been watching it happen from the floor next to her reached and grabbed her hand, tugging her into his chest and smirking down at her.

"I think it's time we join alliances, little dove," Void whispered before they were gone.

"Wait, stop, stop!" Scott yelled at Peter when he heard the familiar whimpers under the bandages.

Everything was silent as he reached forwards, shakily peeling them off to reveal a pale, sweaty Stiles. He looked frightened and confused as he stared up at his best friend.

"Scott?" He whispered shakily.

Scott nodded before another voice called out his name from behind him. Deaton stepped out out of his view, revealing the open front door.

"Where are they?" He panicked, his breathing picking up, "Harper! Harper!"

He ran out of the door, leaving Stiles sat on the couch, not entirely sure of what had happened but having a pretty good idea. Tears filled his eyes and his heart practically shattered.

It was all his fault.

-
this book is almost over :(

i got my prom dress on saturday though and i love it soo much ah