Chapter 25
Back in the loft, the mood was sombre. When Melissa had come out a few hours earlier and told them that Stiles was alive it was as if a weight had been lifted off of all of their shoulders. They had been trying and failing to reconcile with the fact that Stiles was dead, but now they didn't have to, because he was alive. There had been smiles and tears of joy and a lot of hugging. Stiles was still unconscious, but at least his condition was stable. Malia and the others had stayed for as long as they were allowed to stay. They hadn't said very much, just listened to the steady sound of Stiles' heartbeat monitor.
Melissa finally had come and told them that they needed to leave, but she promised to keep a close eye on him and alert them to any changes. They had all reluctantly filed out of the hospital and headed to the loft.
Once they all settled into Derek's loft a heavy silence fell upon them. After the shock of the earlier events had started to wear off they all began to realized that they were no closer to helping to save Stiles. Their one and only plan had backfired horribly and now they were all at a loss for what to do.
"Eh" Derek said suddenly, clearing his throat. Malia and a few others jumped at the sudden noise. Malia watched as Derek nervously rubbed his hands together. An anxious gesture that reminded her so much of Stiles it almost brought tears to her eyes. "So I'm going to ask the question that I'm sure is on everyone's mind. What the hell happened in there?" His gaze shifted to Malia and Scott. Malia grabbed Scott's hand for support, she wasn't ready to relive the horrors they had seen, yet she knew they had to fill everyone in.
"Okay, well first we started by going through a series of memories. They went in order, starting when Stiles was a kid to right before he was kidnapped. We saw them play out like scenes in front of us and none of the people in the scene seemed to notice us." Scott started off
"What were some of these memories?" Deaton questioned
"Scott and Stiles on the swings making up fantasy worlds, Stiles playing catch with his dad and his mom watching, Stiles bringing home good grades, Stiles helping his dad with a case, Me and Stiles watching..." Malia trailed off, thinking of the memory of her and Stiles snuggling on the couch watching the Titanic. Malia had cried and Stiles had comforted her as he hid his own sniffles. It had been a perfectly simple night.
"The weird thing about all of this is that every single one of the memories were happy. Not a single sour moment in Stiles' life was included in the numerous memories we saw."
"That is curious, what else happened?" Deaton prodded, knowing that there was more to tell. Scott and Malia exchanged a look. This was the hardest part to describe.
"When we caught up to right before he was kidnapped we were led to the Stilinski house. But this time was different. This time we knew it wasn't a memory." Scott hesitated on the next part, glancing at the Sheriff who had his head in his hands. Malia wasn't sure how much he was listening.
"How'd you know it wasn't a memory?" Braeden asked.
"Because this time Stiles interacted with us... and Stiles was his current age, but...his mom was still alive." At Scott's words the Sheriffs head snapped up and he looked between the two of them with shock on his face.
"Claudia?"
"Yes" Malia nodded "Stiles was in the kitchen with her while she made dinner. They talked about their days like it was something they did every day. Mrs. Stilinski
invited the two of us to dinner when our presence was noticed."
"It seemed like everything else was the same. Stiles knew about werewolves, he and Malia were still dating. Everything else seemed to match up, except he had never been kidnapped and his mother had never died." Scott added
"Interesting, it looks like the bad memories of the kidnapping and torture were too much for Stiles to handle so he created a false reality where that had never happened and included his mother in it as a comforting presence in his tormented mind." Deaton said in a calculating tone that made Malia irrationally angry. She wanted to scream that this was Stiles he was talking about, not some random nameless patient. Would it kill him to show a little emotion?
"So you had dinner?" Kira nudged Scott, clearly sensing the tension in the room that had arisen from Deaton's words.
"Yeah, it was nice. We ate and talked and played our roles until we could get Stiles alone. After dinner we went up to his room, and that's where things got out of hand."
"We tried to see if anything felt wrong to him. I figured that this reality he constructed couldn't be perfect. Stiles is too smart, he had to have noticed something that didn't fit together perfectly." Malia added
"And I think he did. When we started questioning him, he looked unsure and then he got really agitated and even mad. But it seemed like a defensive type of mad, almost like he would do or say anything to deny reality and stay in his little world."
"So he got angry at you and pushed you out of his mind?" Derek guessed
"There was a little bit more to it than that..." Malia said, shuddering at the memory. Lydia moved to sit next to her. She put her arm around Malia and said gently,
"Tell us what happened." Malia was thankful for the comforting touch. Malia normally would have turned to Stiles when she needed a reassuring gesture. She hadn't realized how much she had come to count on them. Stiles always was there with a steadying hand on her shoulder, a guiding hand on her back, a reassuring squeeze of her hand, or an loving embrace. He had an uncanny ability of sensing when she needed his touch and when she would rather stand strongly on her own. Although Lydia's gesture did little to quell the ache in her gut, it did help to steady her and give her strength. Taking a deep breath, she began talking,
"Stiles got angry, scary angry. In a way that the Stiles we know and love would never get. Then the room started shaking and the sky grew dark. Then this figure appeared out of nowhere holding a knife. He said something to Stiles about using his favorite knife on him. I think it was one of his torturers, but Stiles acted like he had never met him before. I could tell that he still terrified Stiles though. I punched the guy and he disappeared. Scott and I tried to talk Stiles down but he wouldn't listen. The room just kept shaking harder and harder. We couldn't get Stiles to listen..." Malia trailed off, unable to keep talking about the horrid memory.
"It was like something had broken inside of him. It didn't even really seem like he was able to connect who we were. It was almost like objectively he knew who were but there was no emotions attached. We weren't Scott and Malia, best friend and girlfriend. We were Scott and Malia, the phonies who were trying to shatter his perfect world. Eventually he screamed at us to get out and next thing I knew where were on the hospital floor." When Scott finished talking no one said anything for a while. Malia tried to ignore the feeling of hopelessness that washed over her. They had only had that one idea and it hadn't worked, what the hell were they supposed to do now.
"This is worse than I had imagined" Deaton finally spoke up "I thought Stiles was not waking up because he was pushing back the memories of his torture, but it is a lot more than that. Stiles is not just running away from the events of the past few weeks, he is running away from his life entirely. He's created his perfect world and he will hold onto it at all costs."
"So what can we do?" Liam asked, shifting anxiously in his seat.
"Can we try the same plan again? Now that we have more information we can come up with a plan to break Stiles out of his reality in the most gentle way possible." Dawson spoke up for the first time.
"We don't really have any other options. Going inside of Stiles' head was the only plan we could come up with." Braeden reminded them
"I don't know...it's risky. Stiles' mind will be more delicate now that we rocked the boat. If something goes wrong a second time I fear that he will not be able to come back from it." Deaton said slowly, worry etched in his face.
"Then I'll go in this time." The Sheriff spoke up. Malia turned to look at him in shock. He was sitting up straight and looking around at them with a determined expression. "It seems like the root of Stiles' fantasy world is Claudia. Stiles and I got through losing her once, I think it has to be me to help him through losing her again. I am the only one who truly understands 100% what Stiles is going through." Malia found herself nodding as the Sheriff talked.
"He's right. He is Stiles' dad, he is his best chance at breaking him out of reality without setting him off." Malia said
"Are you sure you can handle it? Claudia will be there inside of Stiles' fantasy and as tempting as it will be you will have to resist it." Chris spoke up. His voice had a slight sadness to it and Malia was wondering if he was thinking of his own wife or child. Thinking about what it would be like to see them one more time.
"I understand, it will be hard and hurt like hell, but for Stiles, I can do it. And having Scott by my side will help. Just like when Claudia died." The Sheriff caught Scott's eye and Malia heard the boy's breath hitch just a bit. She didn't need to look to see the tears in Scott's eyes.
"I'm still not sure if going back inside his mind is the best course of action. He is extremely vulnerable right now." Deaton objected quietly.
"Stiles isn't going to be able to pull himself out, this fantasy is something that he has been yearning for for years. We had to do something to get him out." Scott argued back. Before Deaton could address more concerns the Sheriff's phone rang. The Sheriff looked alarmed when he pulled it out and saw who was calling.
"It's Melissa." He told them "Hello?" The edge in his voice made Malia cringe. "Oh my God..." The Sheriff jumped up suddenly. Malia strained to hear what Melissa was saying on the other end.
"...Alright now. The doctors got him stable...not sure how long...need to do something...fast." Malia heard bits and pieces, her whirling mind was making it extremely hard to concentrate.
"Thank you for telling me...yeah keep me posted. Goodbye." The Sheriff hung up the phone and sat back down. His shoulders hunched and he glanced tiredly around. "Stiles' heart stopped again. The doctors were able to start it back up again but Melissa fears he's taken a turn for the worse. She isn't sure how much longer he has. We had to do something and we have to do it quick. Scott and me going into Stiles' head is the best plan we got." The Sheriff turned to look at Deaton, an almost pleading expression on his face.
"Very well, it seems like we are out of options. We'll head back to the hospital first thing tomorrow." With that said, Deaton stood up and began to put on his coat.
"I suggest everyone get as much sleep as they can" Derek said. Malia leaned heavily into Lydia and resisted rolling her eyes. As if any of them were going to be able to sleep that night.
*****
Stiles woke up in a cold sweat. He could tell that he had a nightmare but when he tried to remember what it was it was all a blur. Attempting to shake it off he hopped out of bed and headed to take a hot shower, it didn't work and by the end of the shower he was still shivering. He knew in his gut that something was wrong, he just couldn't figure out what it was. Deciding that he would figure it out later he grabbed his backpack and headed downstairs. His mom greeted him with a kiss on the forehead and a plate of pancakes. His dad greeted him with a grunt as he sipped his coffee and looked at the paper.
"Did you have a good time last night sweetie?" His mom asked him
"Huh?" Stiles was confused as to what she was talking about.
"It was nice of Scott and Malia to come over wasn't it? They should stop by for dinner more often, they liven the place up..." His mom's voice faded away as Stiles suddenly got a flash of Scott and Malia in his room, telling him awful things about his mom and his life. Stiles shook his head to clear it. That must've been what the dream was about, because Scott and Malia would never say those things in real life.
"Stiles?" He was brought back to the present when his mom said his name.
"What?"
"I just said that you should invite your friends over on Friday, I'll make my lasagna that everyone likes."
"That sounds great mom." Stiles murmured, not really concentrating. He was still bothered by the dream and the bad feeling in his stomach. He quickly shovelled the rest of his pancakes into his mouth. He wanted to get to school as soon as possible, he wanted to talk to Scott and see if anything was wrong. He grabbed his backpack and ran out the door, yelling goodbye to his parents over his shoulder.
He was driving to school when he was hit by another flash of memory of the dream. It was of Scott telling him that he was in a coma right now and that nothing was real. Stiles quickly pulled over as panic hit him. He closed his eyes and tried to push away the images, but it was no use.
It was just a dream wasn't it? But it felt so real, he felt like the flashes of Scott and Malia were memories and not just a dream. But if it was real why didn't he remember it happening? And why were they saying that he was in a coma? Nothing made sense.
Stiles' ears were filled with a loud high pitched noise. He saw a series of flashes that made no sense. A younger version of him crying at the hospital, him stabbing Scott with a sword, and him crying out in pain as a laughing woman sliced a knife across his skin. Where were these coming from? It was not like anything of them had really happened, yet every vision felt so real.
Stiles wasn't sure how long he stayed like that, but eventually the visions faded away. The high pitched noise in his head was replaced by a series of double beeps and then the noises faded away also. Stiles took a couple deep breaths to calm himself down.
"What is happening to me?" He whispered quietly, terrified at what he had just experienced.
- N x
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