CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE:
A PANIC ATTACK

ELAINE WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the woods. She couldn't go home, too worried about where exactly it was that her mother was. The girl didn't even know that her father was back in town, so that was going to be exciting. If there was one person in the entirety of the world that Elaine absolutely did not get along with, that would be Rafael McCall. Every time she would see that man, the two would fight like cats and dogs, and now that she had powers that seemed to be growing unstable with the fact that she was constantly around a dark creature―︎which is the opposite of what her mother told her to do―︎she was scared that she might actually explode and kill the man.

So, Elaine walked around in the woods and allowed the nature to calm her. Her phone started ringing, but she ignored it and continued through the woods. A gasp fell from her lips as her eyes started to glow before she clenched her jaw and tightly closed them, controlling the power that was only building and building. Rebekah was right. Her powers were sensitive. And she had been around Jennifer―︎a darach, a dark creature―︎ for more than she should have been and the darkness that simply radiated from the woman's body made her powers churn and grow with a deadly power.

From where she had died, her powers were originally tainted to begin with, like her heart was. You can't come back from death without consequences. And her consequence was the inability to even glance towards a dark object or creature without it affecting her. Her phone rang again and the teenager opened her eyes once more before grabbing her phone to see Stiles calling her. She softly sighed before answering it.

     "Hello?"

     "Hey, I went by your house to pick you up to go to Argents, but you weren't there so I went on without you. We have a plan, and Isaac, Allison, and Argent are―︎"

     "I can't help anyone right now, Stiles." Elaine softly whispered. "My anxiety is attacking me at the moment with not knowing where either of my family members are at. And my powers are―︎they're destructive right now and I don't want to hurt anyone."

     "Where are you?" Stiles gently questioned her.

     "In the woods somewhere." Elaine answered. "Don't worry, I'll come find you. I just. . . I just need a minute."

     "Alright. Listen, I'm going to Lydia's, meet me there?"

     "Yeah, yeah okay." Elaine nodded before hanging up. When she finally calmed herself down, she turned on her heel and made it back, walking home in order to get her car and drive to Lydia's. Her hands were shaking, but she clenched them tightly around the steering wheel and shook her head and clenched her jaw. She couldn't believe her brother. How could he go with the man who had threatened their mother. She pulled up at Lydia's house and entered, appearing just as Stiles finished explaining to Lydia what had happened.

     Lydia held a nasty bruise around her neck from where Jennifer and tried to strangle her, and that only made Elaine more angry. Her jaw clenched again before forcing herself to relax and taking a seat in the chair in front of Lydia that Stiles had been leaning on. Lydia shook her head, "I don't believe it. Scott really can't be with them. He can't be."

     "Oh, he is." Elaine answered with a sarcastic smile. "Bastard's done betrayed us all!" She let out a scoff at her own words and shook her head.

     "You didn't see the look on his face, though. It was. . ." Stiles told the strawberry blonde whilst placing a hand on Elaine's shoulder. He could feel how tense she was, and it made him glance down to his girlfriend in concern before looking back up at Lydia.

     "Then what can I do?" Lydia was quick to ask. "I mean, I get that I'm some kind of, like, human Geiger for death, but. . . I don't know how to turn it on and off yet. All I know is that she tried to kill me because of―︎"

     Lydia didn't finish, causing the duo to furrow their eyebrows. "Because of what?" The girl only frowned. "Hey, Lydia, what?"

     The girl looked back to the two, and something changed in her eyes. "When she called me a banshee, she was surprised by it. What if that's not why she tried to kill me?"

     "Then why did she?" Elaine frowned.

     "That's what we need to find out."

▁︎▁︎▁︎▁︎▁︎

     "Aiden's not texting me back." Lydia said as the trio made it down the steps inside of the school to get to the lower level. Elaine had her hands clutched tightly around her backpack, almost as if she was afraid that if her hands weren't holding onto something, magic would blast from them without her permission. Stiles stopped in the hallway, causing the two girls to turn towards him. "Okay, well, maybe we could just―︎we could go over there and―︎"

     That's when Stiles pulled his phone from his pocket after receiving a text. Elaine noticed the look on his face, one she knew all to well. She frowned deeply. "What?"

     "Oh, god." Lydia whispered, noticing the look on his face as well. "What is it now?"

     "It's from Isaac." He answered. "Jennifer, she t―︎she has Allison's father. She took him. She's got all three now."

     "There's still time." Lydia assured him whilst placing a hand on Elaine's shoulder, knowing that the girl was worrying on the inside as well. "We still have time, right?" But Stiles didn't answer. The two girl's watched as his breath started to become heavy, a gasp escaping from his lips as he tried desperately. "Stiles? Are you okay?"

     "Stiles?" Elaine called to him. He spun around in his circle, his breathing only growing heavier as he turned back towards the girl's, but he wasn't looking at them.

     "I think I'm having a panic attack."

     "Okay. Um." Lydia looked around. "Come on." Elaine grabbed Stiles' arm and followed Lydia who was quick to lead her into the locker room.

     "Come on." Elaine told her boyfriend, pulling him further into the locker room until he slammed against one of the cabinets and fell down to the floor. Elaine followed him down with worry and a deep frown in her eyes. "Stiles? Hey, hey, hey, look at me." Elaine cupped her hands on the sides of his face. "Stiles, I need you to breathe alright."

     "Just try and think about someone else, anything else." Lydia suggested.

     "Like what?" Stiles gasped.

     "Uh, happy things." Lydia quickly suggested. "Good things. Uh, friends, family." The two both snapped their heads towards the girl causing her to close her eyes. "Oh, I mean―︎not family."

     "Stiles, breathe." Elaine repeated it. Watching him having a panic attack was starting to give her one of her own. Lydia sat there for a moment, trying to thing, trying to help Stiles out before she looked towards Elaine.

     "Elaine, kiss him."

     "How the hell is that going to help!" Elaine snapped. Yeah, she was definitely starting to panic.

     "Just trust me!" Lydia snapped back and Elaine looked at her for a moment before turning back towards Stiles and quickly crashing her lips onto his. He immediately started to kiss back after taking a moment of surprise, having barely heard a word Lydia spoke. Elaine kissed him until she herself could no longer breathe before she pulled away and looked at him, his light brown eyes meeting her bright blue ones.

     "How'd you do that?"

     "I just listened to the genius." Elaine answered him, her hands stil cupped around his face.

     "I read once that holding your breath could stop a panic attack." Lydia swallowed. "So when Elaine kissed you, you held your breath."

     "I did?" HIs eyes flickered back to Elaine who only sent him a small smile as she nodded her head, rubbing a finger across his cheek bone.

     "Yeah, you did."

     He looked like he was close to crying as he looked towards Lydia. "Thanks." She only offered him nod before he turned back to Elaine who gave him another quick kiss before he leaned his head against her chest and she placed her chin on top of his head, running a hand through his hair as she closed her eyes and her shoulders relaxed.

     "That was really smart." Elaine spoke, opening her eyes to look at Lydia. She watched as the strawberry blonde sat on the floor.

     "I just read it somewhere." Lydia softly responded. "And if I was really smart, I would tell you to sign up for a few sessions with a guidance counselor." This was directed towards Stiles who removed his head from Elaine's chest, allowing the girl to sit down and interlace their fingers whilst Stiles looked at Lydia and scoffed, though his lip twitched upwards before it fell again.

     "Morrell." Stiles suddenly spoke. This caused the trio to exchange looks before quickly scrambling up from the floor and running down the hallway towards Ms. Morrell's office. They burst into the room only to see a student sitting in front of Ms. Morrell's desk.

     "Are you here for Ms. Morrell?" Stiles questioned her.

     "No, I thought this was gym class." The girl sarcastically responded.

     "Sweetheart, we're not in the mood for funny." Elaine quickly snapped at her, quickly looking away when she felt her eyes start to glow, causing her to quickly shut them. Stiles grabbed the girl's hand and gave it a small squeeze.

     "Do you know where she is?" Lydia quickly asked with the same attitude as Elaine.

     "If I did I wouldn't be waiting here for 20 minutes. So how about you three back out that door and wait your turn?"

     "We're not here for a session." Lydia sassily denied.

     "Well, I am." The girl responded. "And I've got some serious issues to work on."

     "Don't we all." Elaine muttered.

     "Hey, wait, wait. You're Danielle." Stiles suddenly said "You're Heather's best friend."

     "I was Heather's best friend." Danielle corrected. "We've been working on that issue three times a week."

     "Hold on. Did you say Ms. Morrell's 20 minutes late?" Lydia frowned.

     Danielle nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "And I don't know why either. She's always on time."

     "I was seeing her at the beginning of the semester." Lydia told the duo. "She was never late."

     "Then she's not late." Stiles whispered.

     "She's missing." Elaine finished. "This week just keeps getting more and more exciting!"

     "What if we're not the only ones who think she knows something?" Lydia asked.

     "Then I want to know what she knows." Stiles said before removing himself from Elaine and towards Morrell's desk.

     "What are you doing?" Danielle was quick to question the boy.

     "We're trying to find her." Stiles answered.

     "Those files are private."

     "Yeah, she's kind of right." Elaine stated with the nod of her head.

     "That one's yours." Stiles said, pulling Lydia's file from the drawer and handing it to the girl.

     "Let me see that." Lydia quickly snatched it from him. Elaine leaned over her best friend's shoulder, watching as she quickly searched through her file. Stiles looked up and noticed the drawing that Lydia had drawn once before.

     "Wait, Lydia, that's your drawing." Stiles spoke, by now Danielle was looking at the girl's file too.

     "Yeah, I know. It's a tree." Lydia shrugged.

     "Yeah, good too." Danielle complemented. 

     "Thank you."

     "No, but that's the same one, though." Stiles quickly stood up.

     "Same as what?"

     "The same one I always see you drawing in class."

     "It's a tree." Lydia simply stated. "I like drawing trees."

     "No, but it's the exact same one." Stiles emphasized. "Don't you see." Elaine quickly moved out of his way as he took the drawing from Lydia's hand before showing her the one underneath it. "Give me your bag." Lydia did so and allowed the boy to grab one of the notebooks out of it. He opened it to one of the drawings inside of it and put the two drawings side by side. "There, see?" Lydia examined it for a moment before Stiles flipped to other drawings of the tree in the girls notebook to see that they were all the same.

     "My god." Elaine whispered. "They're identical."

     "Okay, you can have my session." Danielle suddenly spoke up. "You got bigger issues." She was quick to leave but the three barely glanced at her.

     "What is this?" Lydia asked, fear in her voice.

     That's when Stiles paused on one of the drawings, his eyebrows furrowed. They watched as he picked up the notebook before turning it until the drawing was upside down. There was a pause before Stiles suddenly said, "I know where they are."