Tether ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [2]

twenty-four

After I had finished heaving and promptly shoving my now ruined bag off to the side, I was left a broken heap of a person on the floor.

My head still pounded from being slammed against the filing cabinets, and my heart was beating so hard it felt like it held the power to crack a rib. And even after being properly sick, every part of me was still nauseated. His hands, his disturbingly cold, heartless hands had left their mark all over my body. All while looking at me through the face of the only boy I had ever truly loved. The only boy I had ever let touch me like that in the first place.

I wanted to throw up again, but refrained, scrambling to come up with anything to get me out. By this point, the Nogitsune would surely have already found Scott. And I couldn't bear to think of what he had planned, what he was trying to accomplish tonight.

I needed to break free from where I was tied, I needed to call Scott. To call Allison. To call Lydia. I cursed the fact that the vacant guidance counsellor's office no longer had a landline phone.

Tears rolled off of my cheeks and onto the carpeting.

"HELP!" I called out for what felt like the hundredth time. "PLEASE! HELP!"

How had a student not heard me by now? My throat felt raw with the strain. I should have never left class, I should have never strayed so far from the populated areas, I should have never walked into a purposefully dark and deserted corner of the school.

This wasn't my fault. It wouldn't have been a problem to be in here if it wasn't for him. For it. But that didn't stop the guilt and fear eating me away from the inside.

"HELLO!" I tried yet again, losing the second syllable to a broken sob.

How the hell was I supposed to get out of here if I couldn't call anyone to come to get me or if I had nobody around to hear?

And then it hit me. And I suddenly felt extremely stupid all over again. I did have someone who could hear me, I had only joked about it in art class before I left but it was beginning to look like my only remaining option.

I had no idea how Lydia and I could hear each other in our heads. I didn't know if it actually counted as telepathy or if it would even work unprompted when the one meant to hear my voice wasn't focused on listening at the moment I called, but I had to try.

Screwing up my face in concentration, I attempted to clear my head out. This would've been challenging on a good day, and was particularly difficult right now with the way the Nogitsune's soulless eyes had seared into my mind.

Come on, Eleanor. I pushed a breath out shakily, a salty tear trickling across my lips. I was still tremoring in place.

Come on, Eleanor, think like a fighter. Remember your training. You can't fall apart. Compartmentalize. Compose yourself. Keep moving.

I dug the crescents of my nails into my palms and gritted my teeth.

This time, when I let out a scream, I didn't just sound off like a siren. I wailed out a name.

"LYDIA!" My voice screeched with all of the power remaining in my lungs.

Please, hear me, I grasped desperately through the noise. Lydia, follow my voice. Lydia, please.

When the air in my chest ran out and there was no more sound in my throat to offer, I slumped backwards.

I had no reason to believe it had worked. As I waited, I battled with my head and my heart on whether or not it had been enough, if it had been a helpful use of energy or a waste.