･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ 𝑴 𝑬 𝑹 𝑪 𝒀 ▎
CHAPTER FOUR ━━ a novel approach

A gasp was heard in Ophelia Mikaelson's bedroom. She sat up grasping her throat, heaving for air to fill her lungs. The Original furrowed her brows to the side of her bed, seeing her phone light up. With a sigh the doe eyed beauty grabbed her cell phone, reading texts from the true Alpha, asking for her to meet him at the animal clinic.

Ophelia groaned shoving her face back into her pillow. Seeing her phone light up again she cursed, and sat up from her bed. She sluggishly walked over to her closet throwing on her over-sized sweatshirt over her shorts, alongside her white converse. She entered her car in a huff, and began driving down the empty streets of Beacon Hills towards the clinic to meet Scott.

Glancing down at her phone she read her notifications which consisted of; 8 missed calls from Stiles and 17 missed texts. Ophelia furrowed her brows and dialled his number waiting for the boy to pick up, after two rings his familiar voice rang through the speaker of her phone.

"O?" His broken voice echoed over the phone.

"Stiles? What happened? Are you okay? I'm heading to the clinic there was a break in or something, think Scott's-" Ophelia rambled, driving down the deserted road.

"O, I-I need you to come over. P-Please it's an emergency, don't tell Scott." He stammered over the line as it went dead.

"Has everyone lost their bloody minds, it's 2am on a school night, and everyone is awake." Ophelia muttered to herself. Coming to a halt, she turned her car around and made her way down to the Stilinski residence. She sent Scott a quick message, she gnawed on her lip coming up with an excuse to the puppy eyed alpha.

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OPHELIA arrived to the house, she exited her car and rushed up to the front door. Holding her hand up to knock, only for the door to be yanked open revealing a puffy-red-eyed Stiles Stilinski. Ophelia rushed inside past the boy, she made her way into his bedroom. Engulfing the human into a hug, she rubbed his back gently as he quietly sobbed and shook beneath her hands.

"What the hell happened?" The Original pulled away looking up in his hazel eyes.

"I-I um-I-" He stammered pacing back and forth. Ophelia grabbed him gently by his forearm settling him down on his bed. Hoping it would calm the frightened boy down.

"Breathe. In and out." Ophelia breathed with him, soothing the boy. He tried to slow his erratic heart beat down and nodded to the red head. "Now, what happened? And why can I smell blood?" Ophelia asked, she glanced down to his hands to see them stained pink she narrowed her eyes reaching for them. Stiles stood up in a panic and began pacing once again, running his hands through his disheveled hair.

"I-I killed Donovan." Stiles blurted out. His frightened eyes met Ophelia's soft ones.

Ophelia parted her lips in disbelief, "You what?"

"I swear O, it was self defence, h-he came after me, my jeep- it-it wasn't starting and then he-uh, he grabbed m-me and he had these teeth, c-coming out of his hands and I-" Stiles explained through his sniffling. Ophelia stood up, wrapping her arms around his waist. He wrapped his arms around her smaller body tightly, his body vibrated from his sobs.

"Shh, listen to me. Okay? There was nothing else you could have done, okay?" She reassured him, rubbing his back gently.

"He-he followed me into the library, he tried t-to kill me, then his body was taken-" Stiles rambled.

"Taken? How was it taken?" She pulled away looking up with furrowed brows, to her best friend. "Like disappeared?" She tilted her head in confusion. He shook his head vigorously; his hands shaking, his palms and forehead sweaty.

Ophelia gently pulled him back to his bed and sat him down again. "Scott, will understand. Believe me, he's the most understanding out of the pack." She smiled to the scared boy who weakly nodded his head. "He would never think of you as a murderer. Hell he knows what I've done and still took me in. You all did, that's what makes you guys a pack. You all think of everyone else, not yourselves, you always come up with a plan to save everyone, Scott knows that, we all do." She soothed the boy.

Ophelia gnawed on her lip, "Remember when Allison died? I thought I couldn't handle it. With losing Erica, my brother Finn, Enzo, and Stefan. You saw how I was." She frowned. "I wanted to shut it off, I wanted it to end. But you, you were there for me. So was Scott, and Lydia. You three helped me. You guys never gave up on me, not once." Ophelia blinked away her tears, glancing to her wrist she looked Stiles in the eyes.

"I won't let anything happen to you. You have my word Stiles. Not to Lydia, not Scott, Kira, Liam, none of you guys, because I love you guys so much. And I couldn't bare to lose anymore of you." Ophelia looked down, letting her tears finally fall. Stiles reached up wiping them away with the pads of his thumbs. "My point is, Scott and the pack will know it was self defence. You're still innocent, he attacked you, you had to defend yourself." She concluded.

He nodded, sniffling. His hands still shook every so often. "I'm scared. God, I don't know what to do."

The hybrid shook her head at him rubbing his back gently. "It'll be okay. I promise you. We'll find out who took-" She was interrupted by Stiles' phone ringing. He looked down seeing 'Scott' Ophelia nodded her head towards it reassuring him, it'd be okay and to answer.

He answered his phone, putting it on speaker. "Scott?" He hesitated before speaking.

"Stiles, someone's taking the bodies." Scott rushed out over the phone. Stiles looked wide eyed to the red head who bit her lip and nodded to the phone for him to answer. "Stiles? You there?"

"Yea-uh, yeah. Where? What are you talking about?" He stammered, Ophelia held his hand listening to Scott.

"I'm at the Animal Clinic with Kira. Tracy's body is gone. The lock on the door was broken from the outside. And my mom told me Lucas' body is missing from the morgue. They're searching the whole hospital for it. Someone's stealing the bodies."

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"THE dread doctors by T.R McCammon." Lydia read the front cover of the book Malia had handed to her.

"Sounds like a horror book you'd read as a kid." Ophelia piped up, as the trio walked down the hall. Lydia looked to the cover in confusion.

"What?" Malia questioned the banshee.

"I don't know. There's something about it. Has anyone actually read it yet?" Lydia tilted her head at the book, then to her best friends.

Ophelia nodded her head, as Malia spoke up behind the two. "Just me and Ophelia. And we didn't understand any of it."

"We should probably all read it." Lydia concurred.

"Kira's already one step ahead of you." Ophelia spoke up, grabbing the book from her hands. Flipping through the pages aimlessly.

"Stiles says he can't find anything on the author." Malia explained to the two girls, rummaging through her backpack.

"Maybe it's a code name or something. A lot of author's do it, at least the ones I've met. My brother Elijah had a thing with books and what not, guess thats why I'm obsessed with literature as well." Ophelia rambled, flipping through the pages.

"That's what Stiles said, except he said pen name or something." Malia affirmed.

"Hm. 'In a small New England town, teenagers are taken in the night and buried alive. Days later, they emerge transformed, wreaking havoc and spreading terror, commanded by an ancient order of parascientists known only as, the Dread Doctors.' Totally not a coincidence." Ophelia sarcastically mumbled.

"How does it end?" Lydia questioned.

The two girls looked to one another then to Lydia. "It doesn't. This is supposed to be volume one." Malia explained.

"Let me guess... There is no volume two?" Lydia raised a brow in annoyance.

"I think we're living volume two." Malia shrugged to the banshee.

"Excellent, why couldn't the book; with food that rains from the sky be our volume two. Not some psychos in masks running around taking my food supply." Both girls looked to the Original with raised brows. "Kidding... Sort of." Ophelia mumbled sheepishy.

"The real question is, is this a novel or someone's prediction?"

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OPHELIA walked through the halls of Beacon high. Kira had given the pack copies of the book. Scott suggested they give one to Theo as well, seeing maybe he knew something about the book or could help the pack in some way. Stiles said to let the boy fend for himself receiving himself two glares from Scott and Ophelia. Theo had helped them with Tracy, which she appreciated. She knew Scott was slowly letting the boy in to the pack, even if it irritated Stiles. She didn't see any harm with the blue eyed wolf, unless he were to turn around and harm anyone in the pack then he'd have bigger issues then a book.

Ophelia came to a stop, eyeing the boy who rummaged through his locker. With a deep breath she strutted over leaning against the locker. "Hey, uh Theo?" The hybrid smiled to him kindly.

Returning the gesture he smiled, his blue eyes twinkling meeting her doe ones. "Yeah, Lia?"

"Uh, can I talk to you? It won't take long." She nodded her head to the boys locker room at the end of the hall. With a nod of his head, he slammed his locker shut. Nearly tripping over his bag. Ophelia stifled a giggle, as he picked up his bag with a shy smile and lead the way down the hall.

Ophelia handed Theo the photocopies of the Dread Doctor book. "What's this?" He questioned looking through the sheets.

"Um, Scott thinks we should read it. It's similar to whats going on right now. Have you heard of them? I have never, which is strange." She mumbled looking down at the pages in his hands.

"Sorry, no. I never even knew what a kanima was until a few days ago." Theo explained with a frown.

Ophelia bit her lip, disappointment evident on her face. "Well, we were all going to get together at Scott's and read it. If you're interested."

"You guys do this a lot, huh?" He looked down at the shorter girl.

"Do what?" She scrunched up her nose in confusion.

"Get involved." He explained, with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess. We just wanna help." She looked down sheepishly.

"A vampire wanting to help?" He asked in amusement, raising a brow to the Original.

"Hybrid." She sassily corrected. "And yes, just cause I'm half vampire doesn't excuse the fact I want to help innocent kids not be mauled to death and turned into science experiments like lab rats. Werewolves and vampires aren't very different especially if they are hybrids, we can be good to." She defended herself, thinking of what Brett had said and what his pack thinks of her kind.

Theo held his hands up in surrender, "I know. In fact, I think you helping them, is-it's great." He smiled to the girl.

"Really?" Ophelia asked in shock, he wasn't judging her.

"Yeah. And you're right we aren't so different... You've had to do things to stay alive, keep your family safe. I-I uh, heard about your family-" Theo explained to the hybrid with a sad smile. Ophelia frowned knowing already where the topic was heading. "Don't frown angel. What I meant was, I understand what you had to do. Your parents... Turning you into something you and your siblings didn't want to be. The pain and suffering you had to endure throughout the centuries. How your father treated you and your brother like dirt for being different, I get it. And I-I uh, think you're pretty extraordinary." He smiled genuinely to the red head.

Ophelia flushed scarlet at the compliment. No one has spoken to her that way since Erica. Of course her friends have spoken kindly to the Original, especially Brett. But not like this. He genuinely understood what she had gone through throughout the centuries, being looked at as a monster or an abomination for being herself. He never met someone who had it worse then him and could still smile.

"Anyways," Theo cleared his throat. "Um, what about the author? If he knew all about these guys, shouldn't we be talking to him?" Theo suggested, remembering why he was there.

Ophelia nodded her head frowning, "We thought about that, but it's pretty much a dead end unfortunately."

Theo bit his lip and flipped through the pages, "What about this guy?" He asked, showing her a name on the page. Ophelia furrowed her brows, "..this book is dedicated to Dr.Gabriel Valack." Theo read out loud. Ophelia widened her eyes, as she looked down at the papers in his hands. "Do you know him?" He questioned.

"Yeah. Yeah I do. And I know exactly where he is." She affirmed. Theo nodded at the hybrid, he parted his lips wanting to say something but chose not to. He simply smiled at the red head, guilt slowly filling his body; another unknown feeling the Original was giving him.

▬▬

THE pack arrived to Eichen house. Lydia had been by the gate way, pressing the buzzer on the panel repeatedly, only receiving silence on the other end. Scott stood by his best friends jeep conversing to him about the murders and missing bodies. Ophelia could smell the anxiety dripping from the hazel eyed boy, resulting in her giving reassuring smiles to the boy to ease some of his worry. Ophelia pulled on the sleeves of her tan dress, sighing as Lydia continued to buzz in for the eleventh time that night.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Lydia called out, annoyance dripping from her tone.

A moment of silence went by. Ophelia gently moved Lydia aside by her forearm, and pressed the button once again. "If someone doesn't unlock this bloody door, I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow it down. Then I'll make a snack out of the first person I see." She threatened through the buzzer. Anyone would have laughed seeing a ordinary 5'2 red headed girl, yelling threats through a buzzer. Only she was anything but ordinary. "Hello?" She asked again in agitation.

"Maybe we should-" Kira was cut off by the door finally opening.

Ophelia fist bumped the air, "Yes! Finally. Never thought I'd be this happy for the doors to a mental institution to open." The two girls giggled at the Original. With a glance she looked over to Stiles who had a distraught look upon his features. The hybrid frowned at him, he shook his head at the girl reassuring her, he was fine.

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"PLEASE, empty your pockets into the container." The man spoke to the pack blankly.

"We're here to see-" Kira began.

"Please empty your pockets into the container." He repeated. Ophelia narrowed her eyes at the man behind the window. Found my snack, she thought to herself. Everyone took out their phones, keys etc. Ophelia stood there stubbornly with her arms crossed against her chest, like a child. Kol always did call her a baby, when she didn't get her way. He narrowed his eyes at the Original, as everyone glanced to the red head. Ophelia rolled her eyes and sighed out. Mumbling a 'fine' she handed over her cell phone, a handful of some caramel sweets and blue jolly ranchers, and her car keys.

He then looked to Kira, then down to her belt. "Please remove your belt."

"I kind of need the belt. I mean, it's crucial to the outfit." She nervously spoke. Ophelia nodded to the man who kept his narrowed eyes on the kitsune.

"Please remove your belt; which patients will attempt to take from you and use to strangle either themselves or others." He spoke monotonously to Kira.

"Right. Got it." She nodded nervously and removed her belt.

The pack walked through the doors, "I'll remind you that I'm only doing this as a favour to Deaton. And I'm doing it against my better judgement." Dr.Fenris explained to the pack of teenagers, walking down the stairs of Eichen.

"How sweet of you." Ophelia mumbled sarcastically. Kira nudged her ribs receiving a shrug in return.

"Hey, what's the etiquette for talking to this guy? I mean, do you ever look at the other eye?" Stiles questioned.

"I wouldn't. In fact, while you're down here, try not to make eye contact with anyone or anything." Conrad explained to the human.

"Fantastic." Ophelia clapped her hands together.

AN 🦋✨🧚🏼‍♀️

so I wanted a stelia moment and I figured who'd understand what Stiles did more then Ophelia herself. Also some Theo and Ophelia moments, I want them to get closer so I may include filler scenes nothing major just quick ones. Of not only him but her family as well.

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭, 𝟐𝟗𝟒𝟓