Tether ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [2]

twenty-two

The next day I surprised myself by actually making it to class. Dad was in and out of the apartment, and when he was in he was completely shut away in his office. Occasionally, I heard him speaking on the phone. He was clearly working on something, forming a plan about the Oni and Nogitsune, but he hadn't come out long enough to tell us the details.

So instead of turning the voicemails into him, Allison and I brought them directly to school. But whereas she kept bringing up various theories about where the message had come from, my mind was on something else entirely.

I had been following Scott most of the day, catching him between classes, making sure he hadn't just forgotten to text me at some point about the latest update on Stiles. I wanted information about his well-being the second it came in. Fortunately, Scott understood my paranoia and purposefully came to find me in the early afternoon with news.

"He's awake," Scott said.

I stood up straighter. "Finally! Thanks for letting me know. Is he still okay? How is he?"

"My mom says he doesn't remember most of it, like it was all a dream. But at least he's coherent now."

I nodded quickly, tightening my grip around my backpack strap. "What now? Will they let us see him?"

"They're gonna be running different tests on him all afternoon," Scott explained. "But I was gonna skip last period anyway and go visit him now. Do you want to come with me? I'm sure he'd be relieved to see you there."

"Yes. Absolutely," I replied eagerly, ready to sprint out the door of the high school and run to the hospital myself. "I'll text Allison and Isaac to go on and ask for the translations without me. They can keep us updated later. And we need to tell Lydia too, she's probably been worried all day."

Scott nodded, pulling out his phone. "I'll tell her now."

I had been practically buzzing with anticipation all day. I hadn't been able to stomach my breakfast or lunch at the thought of Stiles' condition in limbo. At the same time, I didn't want to come bursting into his hospital room unannounced after what he had gone through. Especially after not speaking with him since he left me at the party. I vowed to calm myself down as much as possible before entering the building.

As Scott and I made our way out of the high school, another loud clanking noise made me flinch and whip my head around to try to find the source.

"What? What is it?" Scott eyed me carefully. "Did you hear something?"

My chest heaved in short, quick breaths as I darted my eyes around the bustling hallway. I landed on the sight of students closing their lockers, the metal doors slamming shut.

"It's fine," I shook my head, attempting to blink away the disruption. It was like the gate at Eichen House. It could be explained and I didn't need to worry Scott about it. "I've just been on edge all day, that's all."

Understanding flashed across Scott's features. "Yeah, me too. I keep thinking about the last time I spoke to him. When he called me from wherever he was. I know he was actually just sleepwalking in the woods, but the panic in his voice... I've never heard him like that before. It's been getting really bad these past couple of days."

I decided to try my hand at asking Scott about the last time I had gotten the chance to talk to Stiles. If anyone had any clue about why the boy had left me so abruptly, it would be his best friend. "I was meaning to ask you, a couple of nights ago at the party at Derek's loft - before the Oni got there - Stiles just went running off out of nowhere. We were talking about Barrow. He had this key on his keychain that I thought might've gotten contaminated from the chemicals from the closet in the chemistry room. You know, when Stiles had gone in there to take photos of Barrow's physical evidence. But when I brought it up suddenly he had somewhere he needed to be. He told me he just needed to check something. But then he didn't talk to me for a whole day. The next time I heard his voice was him reaching out through my phone telling me to find him."