CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO:
THIS IS JUST A DREAM

    "HERE'S WHERE WE FOUND THE den." Stiles pointed on a map as he explained to Allison what it was that they had discovered the night prior. "It's right in the middle of the hiking trails."

     "Well that could narrow it down." Allison nodded. "Coyote's travel in fixed trails. But I think you're right about her not going back to the den. Coyote's don't like wolves. And they're really smart. If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."

     "Why do you know so much about coyote's?" Elaine cocked an eyebrow at the Argent female and Allison just shrugged. 

     "Coyote's tip-toe?" Stiles frowned.

     "They tip-toe." Allison rolled her eyes as she nodded. That's when the bell rang. "I got to go, but send me the pinned location."

     "Okay." Stiles responded before watching the girl walk away. Elaine walked to her seat, pulling her books out and freezing when she saw the black veins that covered her arms. She froze, staring at them with fear, before a hand was placed on her shoulder causing her to jump and drop her book loudly causing the class to look at her. She mumbled an apology before picking it up and placing it on her desk.

     "Hey, you alright?" Stiles whispered from behind her. Elaine looked at him before forcing a small smile as she nodded her head before turning back to the front and looking down at the veins to find that they were no longer there.

     "Alright, everyone, let's get started." Mr. Yukimura called. "We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail. Who would like to come up and read aloud for us?" His eyes scanned the room before landing on Stiles. "Mr. Stilinski, how about you?"

     "Oh, maybe someone else could." Stiles tried, practically begged.

     "Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski." The man denied.

     "Okay." Stiles mumbled before getting up out of his seat. He walked over to the podium and looked down at the text. Elaine watched the boy and felt her chest swell with worry when she watched him clench the sides of the podium. He looked up at the class, and Elaine saw this look in his eyes that she knew too well.

     "Stiles?" Elaine carefully stood up and Scott wasn't too far behind her as tehy looked at their friend with worry.

     "Stiles? You okay?" Scott carefully asked. When the boy almost fell, having caught his balance on the podium, the duo were quick to rush up to him. Scott looked up at their teacher before quickly saying, "We should take him to the nurse's office." Mr. Yukimura nodded and Elaine and Scott both grabbed onto one arm of the boy before leading him out of the class and down the hallway until Stiles managed to lose grip of the two, running into the boys bathroom.

     "Stiles, look at me man, is this a panic attack?" Scott quickly asked. Stiles was spinning in circles as if he had no clue where he was. Stiles made it over to the sink, grabbing onto the sink as if trying to keep his balance.

      "Stiles, hey, look at me." Elaine called for him, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

     "It's a dream, it's a dream. This is just a dream." Stiles repeated to himself.

     "No it's not." Scott shook his head. "This is real. You're here. You're here with me and El." But the boy kept panicking. "Okay, what do you do? I mean, like, how do you tell if you're awake or dreaming?"

     "Your fingers. . . you count your fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams."

     "Then look at my hand." Elaine quickly told him, holding up her hand. "Look at my hand Stiles. Stiles!" She shouted at the boy, trying herself not to panic. "Babe, look at my fingers. How many fingers am I holding up?"

     "Look at El, come on." Scott begged. "How many fingers is she holding up?"

     Stiles slowly turned towards Elaine. "One-one." The boy stuttered.

     "Good." Elaine nodded. She held up another finger and he kept counting, breathing heavily as he did so, until she was holding up all ten of her fingers. "Ten." Elaine softly whispered. "Ten fingers." She watched as the boy started to calm down until his back fell against the wall and he slide down to the floor. Elaine and Scott quickly joined his side.

     Stiles shook his head. "What the hell is happening to me?"

     "We'll figure it out." Scott assured. "You're going to be okay."

     "Am I?" Elaine felt tears fill her eyes. "Are you? Scott, you can't transform. Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt. And I'm straight up losing my mind. We can't do this. We can't. . . We can't help Malia. We can't help anyone." Elaine closed her eyes as a tear trickled down her cheek.

     "We can try." Scott responded, sitting down on the floor. "We can always try."

     "You can't give up." Elaine whispered, shaking her head. "The Stiles I know would never give up. So, we're going to fight this thing, and we're going to close that door, and everyone's going to be okay. I mean. . . you have to be." Elaine looked at between her boyfriend and her brother before Stiles held out his arm and Elaine crawled over to him and held onto him. She couldn't stand to see everyone she loved falling apart. But there was nothing she could do about it. Not when she herself was falling apart.

It wasn't until later that day that Elaine and Stiles were walking down the hall with Stiles' dad. Word of a coyote being seen was quick to spread around the school, and the trio had a feeling that it could've been Malia. Animal control was walking all throughout the building, trying to find the animal but to no avail.

     "A couple of students said they saw it running across the field and back into the woods." Noah told the two. "Thank God, nobody got hurt."

     "What happens if she does hurt someone?" Stiles quizzed.

     "Most likely they'll have to put her down."

     "What?" Elaine's eyes widened.

     "Put her down?" Stiles exclaimed. "Dad, try not to forget there's a girl in there, one that you'll be killing. Come on, you aren't back to not believing, are you?"

     Noah quickly stopped and turned towards his son. "You know what, I believe there are a lot of things that I don't understand yet. But that doesn't mean that everything and anything imaginable is suddenly possible. Now, are you one-hundred percent sure that this is a girl and not an animal?"

     "Yes." Stiles spoke with not hesitation. "Because Scott's sure." That's when they turned their heads to look down the hallway where Scott was standing. Stiles faced away from Scott and turned like he was talking to Elaine. "Scott, you been listening?" Elaine glanced over Stiles' shoulder and watched as her brother gave one nod. Stiles then turned towards his father.

     "Alright, let's get this figured out." Noah sighed. "Come on."

     "See you later." Elaine softly told Stiles who nodded before the two exchanged a quick peck and Elaine walked towards Scott who was quick to tell her everything. Elaine could only smirk as the two kneeled on the locker room floor beside of their bags that Kira had tried to bring back to them. "So, you do like her."

     "Shut up." Scott muttered. "I'm trying to listen." Elaine chuckled and bit her bottom lip as she shook her head, glad that her brother was moving on from Allison.

     "She's trying to be our friend." Scott informed his sibling.

     "She seems nice enough." Elaine hummed. "Though I'm gonna have to be that sister and give her a full look over before you two even decide to look at each other as more than friends."

     "You enjoy making things awkward for me, don't you?"

     Elaine smiled in satisfaction as she nodded. "Yes. Yes I do."

     That's when Stiles appeared in front of the two once again. "Scott, El. I think I know what she was looking for." The duo stood up and watched as Stiles opened his bag to reveal the baby doll from the car crash.

     The two siblings gave the boy an exasperated look before saying in unison, "You took the doll from the car?"

     Stiles looked between the two weirdly before saying, "Sometimes I can't help but think that you two are twins. Anyways, yeah, I thought you could use it, you know, for like her scent."

     "Where did you get that?" The sound of Mr. Tate's voice called the three to snap their head towards the older man. "Where did you find this?" He snatched the doll from Stiles hand and Elaine felt herself become defensive, but Stiles was quick to grab her hand to stop her from doing anything. The man looked at the doll before saying, "It belonged to my daughter."

     Noah was quick to step in. "Mr. Tate, I don't know how you heard about this. If you got your own police scanner or what. . . but you can't be here." Noah carefully pushed the man towards the door only for Mr. Tate to wince and move away from the man. Noah looked at him for a moment before carefully pulling back Mr. Tate's jacket to reveal a gun.

     "I have a permit." The man quickly defended.

     "California schools are gun free zones, permit or not permit." Noah informed. "You need to leave, Mr. Tate. Now." The man started to stuttering in outrage, forcing his arm away from the other cop that tried to escort him out.

     He looked at Noah. "You find that animal. You find that thing." And then he walked away. Elaine, Scott, and Stiles all exchanged looks with one another and Stiles wrapped an arm around Elaine's shoulder as sigh fell from her lips.