CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE:
NO LONGER THE CRAZY ONE

IT ALL CAME IN FLASHES. The blood, the screams, her mother's voice whispering to her that it was okay. She didn't understand it. But it repeated in her head, in her dreams, over and over until it stopped and she was standing in the mirror. Her eyes were pitch black, black veins crawling up her neck and face and she had a wicked smile placed on her lips, her hands cherry red from the blood of the person she murdered. That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that she didn't feel and ounce of remorse, and instead felt satisfaction.

She could see the bodies within the reflection of the mirror, and just as she was about to turn around to look at their faces, her eyes abruptly snapped open and she shot up in the bed, breathing heavily in and out with her heart going a thousand miles per hour.

And not even a second later Stiles was waking up screaming causing Elaine to turn towards the boy, quickly grabbing hold of him as Noah ran into the room. "Stiles!" Elaine called the boys name, moving so that Noah was holding onto him and she was sitting in front of him, trying to grab onto his face. "Stiles! Stiles, look at me!" But he wouldn't stop screaming so the girl clenched her jaw before her eyes glowed and she yelled out, "Tardus pulsatio!" Immediately the boy started to calm down, gripping onto his father like his life depended on it.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay." Noah calmly said whilst Elaine ran a hand through her hair, sighing. She looked at her boyfriend and felt tears fill her eyes, wishing that she could help him and just take it all away. She looked towards Noah who shared the same worried look as she did. Once they knew that the boy was calm, Noah reluctantly left him with Elaine, who held onto him for the rest of the night.

"Babe, are you sure you're alright?" Elaine asked, sitting on the bed with her legs crossed as she watched Stiles get ready for school. "You really don't have to go for today if you just want a day to yourself. Everyone will understand."

"I'm fine, alright?" Stiles looked towards her, watching as she shrunk into herself at his tone of voice. She looked down to the ground and started messing with her fingers, immediately causing the boy to stride over to her, kneeling in front of her and placing his hands on the side of the girl's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that."

"No, I know." Elaine nodded, her voice soft.

"Laney, look at me." She did as he asked, her blue eyes meeting his brown ones. "I'm sorry, I really am. Get in the jeep if you want, go make yourself some breakfast, and I'll be down in a sec."

She put a small smile on her face as she nodded her head. "Okay." He puckered his lips and she chuckled before leaning forward and giving him a kiss before watching as he stood up, pulling her from the bed before pulling the girl in for another kiss.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He gave her another quick peck before watching as she walked out of his room before turning to grab one of his books for school, stopping when he realized that he couldn't read a single thing that it said on the cover.

When the couple arrived at the school, they couldn't help but notice that it looked like Scott was running away from his shadow. Stiles and Elaine were quick to walk up to him with Stiles grabbing onto the boy, causing Scott to gasp as he turned towards the two.

"Whoa. Scotty, you alright?" Elaine frowned as she looked at her brother who just nodded his head.

"Well you don't look alright, Scott." Stiles told the boy.

"I'm okay." Scott assured.

"No, you're not." Elaine shook her head.

"It's happening to you too." Stiles realized. "You're seeing things, aren't you?"

Scott frowned. "How'd you know?"

That's when Lydia and Allison appeared behind of them with Lydia being the one to speak up. "Because it's happening to all three of you." Elaine almost corrected the girl, but she remembered that they didn't know that she had connected herself with Stiles when she went under, so instead, she kept quiet and turned on her heel in order to walk towards the school.

They entered through the doors of the school with Lydia in front of them whilst saying, "Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one."

"We're not crazy." Allison defended.

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine." Lydia waved off.

"We did die and come back to life." Scott pointed out. "That's gotta have some side effects, right?"

"Well, so did I and you don't see crazy shit like that happening to me." Elaine raised her hand and Lydia pointed to the girl, silently agreeing with her. That's when the school bell rang.

"We keep and eye on each other, okay?" Stiles told them. "And Lydia stop enjoying this so much." He walked by and grabbed Elaine's hand in the process. She offered the group a quick wave before turning and walking down the halls with Stiles. They made it to their history class with Scott joining them and sitting in his seat behind of Stiles.

Their history teacher was new, but he seemed nice and Elaine had a feeling she might actually like the guy. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought home a friend for that matter." That's when the sound of a person slamming their head on the desk could be heard.

The class all turned to watch just a female sat up and placed a shy smile on her face along with a small wave. She was really pretty, Elaine couldn't help but note. Kira's eyes met Elaine's and she couldn't help but give the new girl a gentle smile before turning in her seat. Elaine glanced towards her brother and couldn't help but smirk slightly when she noticed him staring at the girl before turning back in his seat. Elaine rose an eyebrow towards him and he immediately snapped his attention away from her, causing the girl to laugh under her breath.

When class was over, Elaine stood up from her seat only to fall back in it again as a gasp fell from her lips. This immediately grabbed Stiles and Scott's attention. They stood at the girl's desk with Scott carefully asking, "El, you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah." The girl nodded. She carefully stood back up, and by the time she had Stiles had made his way to the other side of the aisle so that he could carefully hold out a hand to make sure she didn't fall down again. "I just got up too fast. I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'll meet you out there in a second." The duo nodded before Stiles allowed her to walk past him, watching her quickly walk out of the room.

She ran to the bathroom, moving towards the sink and catching her balance just as she felt another dizzy spell come on. She let out a squeak of pain as the feeling of something burning could be felt on her side. She let out a gasp, removing one hand from the sink to pull her shirt up. Her eyes widened in horror as she looked down at the black veins that started to crawl up her side. Her breathing became heavy as the veins continued to grow up her body before she looked towards the mirror and let out a shriek of surprise when her eyes were black. She shot her hands out and stumbled backwards, watching the mirror shatter as she landed on the bathroom floor.

She let out scared breaths, looking at the glass that now covered the floors. Her eyes were still wide and she forced herself to lift her shirt up again only to see that the veins were gone. She leaned against one of the stalls and closed her eyes, wishing she knew what the hell it was that was truly happening to her.