CHAPTER FORTY:
YOU KIDNAPPED HIM

     "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" STILES asked, looking towards Allison who had pulled her phone out, her eyes glancing worriedly towards Elaine who's strength was quickly waning.

     "I think-I think I have to call my dad." Allison told the duo.

     "No, but if he finds you here, you and Scott―︎" Stiles quickly spoke and Allison nodded her head.

     "I know, but what are we supposed to do? They're not here to scare us, okay? They're here to kill Lydia." Allison sternly told the boy.

     "They won't―︎" Elaine said through a clenched jaw, shaking her head. "They won't hurt her. I won't let them."

     "El, you can't keep this up for much longer." Allison argued.

     "I can try." Elaine muttered. Blood started to drip from her nose.

     "I got an idea. Just shoot one of 'em." Stiles suggested, shrugging his shoulders making the girls frown.

     "Are you serious?" Allison questioned.

     "We told Scott we could protect ourselves, so let's do it! Or at least give it a shot, right?" Stiles shrugged his shoulders.

     "I'll have to bring the barrier down in order for the arrow to go through." Elaine informed him.

     "Good. It'll give you like a ten second rest." Stiles told the girl. The two looked at one another for a moment before Elaine swallowed and nodded her head, removing her hands from the door and allowing the barrier to drop. She let out a gasp, not realizing how much impact it actually had on her.

     Allison sighed before nodding her head. "Okay. I'll try."

     "Look, they don't think we're gonna fight, so if one of them gets hit, I guarantee they'll take off. So, just shoot one of 'em." Stiles insured the girl.

     "Which one?" Allison questioned, looking out the window.

     "Uh, Derek. Yeah, shoot him. Preferably in the head." Stiles answered, making Elaine give the boy a blank look.

     "If Scott was able to catch an arrow, Derek definitely can." Allison told the boy.

     "Okay, uh, just shoot one of the other three, then."

    "You mean two." Allison correct, making both Elaine and Stiles frown.

     "No, I mean three." Elaine and Stiles were quick to look out the window, noticing Erica and Boyd standing there, however Isaac was nowhere to be seen. Elaine cursed under her breath.

     "Damnit. Where the hell is Isaac?" Allison aimed  her bow at the wolves and before Elaine could react, she was roughly grabbed onto and was sent flying into another room, causing Stiles to yell out her name. Isaac grabbed onto Allison throwing her to the ground before he pushed Stiles to the ground, grabbing onto him and dragging him. Elaine groaned, clenching her eyes shut as she tried to regain her strength back. She felt so weak. But when she sat up and saw Stiles being grabbed by Isaac, something inside her morphed and she turned furious.

     "Get your hands off of him." Elaine snarled before shooting her hands out and sending Isaac flying into the other room. Allison had quickly scrambled up, going up the steps to check on Lydia, ending up finding Erica instead. Stiles watched Elaine, seeing the anger that swirled in her eyes. Never in his many years of knowing Elaine had he ever seen the girl so incredibly furious.

     "Stiles! Elaine! It's here!" Allison yelled out to them. Elaine focused on Isaac who had lunged at her, managing to nick her arm before the girl shoved him back again.

     "Lihednat Dolchitni." The girl spoke the words, and suddenly Isaac's airways were cut off. He struggled to breathe as she kept him against the wall. Stiles stood up, looking at the girl before Scott suddenly appeared, a roar falling from his lips.

     "Elaine!" Scott yelled her name. "Let him go. I got this." Elaine looked at her brother before letting Isaac go. Scott was quick to grab onto the wolf before throwing him out to Derek's feet with a paralyzed Erica following right after the wolf.

     "You alright?" Stiles questioned the girl.

     "I should be asking you that." She softly responded. Allison joined them before the four all walked outside, looking at Derek. Elaine grabbed Stiles' hand, interlacing their fingers and Stiles gave her hand a small reassuring squeeze.

     "I think I'm finally getting why you keep refusing me, Scott." Derek spoke up. "You're not an Omega―︎you're already an Alpha of your own pack. But, you know you can't beat me."

     "I can hold you off until the cops get here." Scott simply responded to the man. Derek took a moment and listened as the cops grew closer before his attention turned towards the roof. The four quickly ran out from under the porch just in time to see the Kanima crawling across it. The creature turned its head to look at them before letting out roar and quickly crawling away.

     Derek looked down at his two beta's laying on the ground before looking towards Boyd and saying, "Get them out of here." That's when Lydia walked out of the house, making everyone turn to look at her.

     "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" She snapped.

     "Lydia." Elaine breathed, before exchanging a look with her brother, a realization dawning on both of them.

     "It's Jackson."

━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎

After having used so much of her power, Stiles and Scott had both forced the girl to stay home and get some rest, and quite frankly she was glad they had done so because as soon as her head had hit the pillow, the girl had passed out from exhaustion and didn't wake up until the next morning. And of course, while she was asleep she missed a giant fight between Derek, the Kanima, and her brother. And then Stiles and Scott going to a gay bar where the Kanima attacked seven people including that of Danny. Stiles and Scott of course had been quick to explain why they were at the crime scene, claiming they had come for Danny's sake.

When she had in fact woken up, she had looked at her phone to see she had several missed calls from both Stiles and Scott. The girl furrowed her eyebrows, wondering why Scott didn't just come into her room and wake her up, but after she sat there for half an hour, listening to all the voicemails they had left behind, she was glad that he hadn't woken her up, because she would've hexed him for his stupidity.

Now, Elaine stood in the middle of the woods, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked between Stiles and Scott, a white Sheriff's van parked behind them with Jackson inside yelling at them.

     "So, you kidnapped him?" Elaine questioned.

     "Precisely."

     "Aright, what the actual hell is wrong with the both of you?" Elaine glanced between them. "And you want me to skip school, so that I can stay here and babysit the person you kidnapped?"

     "It's literally lunch time. You've missed half the day anyways." Stiles told the girl. "Speaking of, how are you feeling?"

     "Better, now that I'm rested and have my strength back." Elaine spoke. "Don't change the subject. Stiles, you're staying here with me."

     "Wh―︎"

     "No, that's probably a good idea." Scott agreed. "I don't want something to happen to you and no one be here."

     "How brotherly of you." Elaine rolled her eyes. "Go."

     "I'll be back." Stiles promised her before the two boys ran off. After a few minutes, Stiles had come back with food for Elaine, Jackson, and himself. He entered the van in order to give the boy the food. Elaine sat on the ground, her lips pursed as she looked around before getting bored and using her gift to lift up a fallen leave on the ground, letting it fly around in the air. Stiles poked his head out of the van before motioning for Elaine to come over.

     "Elaine?" Jackson spoke.

     "I swear to god this wasn't my idea, Jackson." Elaine quickly told the boy, taking the food from the boys hand. "I'm so sorry for this." She walked away and Stiles quickly closed the door, going back to talking to the boy who had no clue what he was. When Stiles finally came out, Elaine had just finished eating, she stood up and walked over to him, watching as he took Jackson's phone and started texting the boy's parents once again.

     "If I get in trouble because of this, I will literally murder both of you." Elaine muttered, leaning against the van with a huff.

     "See, your threats scare me, because I know you're actually capable of them." Stiles told the girl. That's when the boy jumped in surprise. "Oh my god."

     "They know." Allison appeared, glancing between the two.

     "What?" Stiles asked in disbelief.

     "They know Jackson's missing." Allison stated.

     "No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue." Stiles shook his head.

     "My grandfather told me his parents went to the police―︎they know." Allison sternly replied.

     "Oh. . ." The boy mumbled before running towards the passengers seat of the van and pulling the door open, turning on the radio just in time to hear one of the dispatchers say: "All available units, proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Proceed with caution."

     "Damnit." Elaine groaned. The three were quick to hop into the van.

     "Where are we going?" Allison quizzed.

     "Somewhere very far from this." He spoke, with Stiles dialing Jackson's mom's number, throwing the phone out of the window before quickly driving away. They made it to the edge of the Beacon Hills Preserve, Scott already standing there and waiting for them. The three got out and walked up to the boy.

  "If Jackson doesn't remember being the Kanima, he's definitely not gonna remember stealing Danny's tablet." Scott told them.

     "Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Stiles questioned.

     "What if someone else took it?" Allison suggested.

     "Then someone else knows who he is." Elaine mumbled, pursing her lips.

     "Which could mean someone's protecting him." Scott spoke.

     "Like the Bestiary says, 'The Kanima seeks a friend,' right?" Allison asked, nodding her head.

     "Okay, hold on―︎so, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima, and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know? I mean, who would do that?" Stiles asked with a frown.

     "Somebody who wanted to protect him?" Elaine suggested.

     "There's something else. You said the only thing you found online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?" Scott asked, looking towards Stiles.

     "No, it can't be. It tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you three, but I haven't murdered anybody lately."

     "But, I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us. Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?" He looked at Allison as he spoke.

     "You're right." Allison nodded. "It just ran off."

     "And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage." Scott pointed out towards Stiles.

     "Well, yeah, but it tried to kill me and Derek, and Elaine in the pool." Stiles pointed out.

     "Did it?" Scott asked.

     "It would've. It was was waiting for us to come out and had I not kept it in a barrier. . ." Elaine trailed off.

     "What if it was trying to keep you in?"

     "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?" Stiles asked with a groan.

     "Because there's something else going on on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him." Scott explained to the three.

     "'Know thy enemy'." Allison mumbled, making the three look at her. "Just something my grandfather said."

     "All right, I got it―︎kill Jackson! Problem solved." Stiles exclaimed.

     "Dude, we're not killing Jackson!" Elaine snapped, slapping the boy on the back of the head as she narrowed her eyes at him. He mumbled a small ow, rubbing the back of his head.

     "He risked his life for us, against Peter. You remember that?" Scott asked the boy.

     "Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us. It's funny."

     "Yeah. It doesn't mean he's not still worth saving." Scott told him.

     "It's always something with him, though." Stiles sighed.

     "He doesn't know what he's doing." Elaine sternly told the Stilinski boy

     "So what?" Stiles scoffed.

     "So, I didn't either. You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson?" Scott asked. "I had someone to stop me. He has nobody."

     "That's his own fault." Stiles dismissed.

     "That doesn't matter." Scott old his best friend. "If we can save him, we should try."

━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎

Just as Stiles and Elaine had come back from checking up on Lydia to make sure the girl was okay, they walked over to the van only to notice that the back doors were open and Jackson was no where to be found. Stiles was quick to grab Allison and Scott, bringing them over to the van.

     "I have to tell my father." Allison sternly told Scott. "Scott, he's going to kill someone."

     "Okay, tell him. Tell him everything." Scott nodded his head.

     "Scott, I gotta tell mine, too." Stiles told the boy.

     "This is all my fault." Scott spoke, making Allison turn towards him.

     "It's not." She sternly told him. "But, we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this."

     "You're right." Scott mumbled.

     "How are you gonna make your dad believe all this?" Elaine asked, turning towards Stiles with a small frown.

     "I don't know." Stiles sighed.

     Scott then turned to face the three of them, making his eyes glow as he looked at them. "He'll believe me."