Foresight

Chapter 49: 3-20

Stiles and Sheriff Stilinski ride in silence. Both seem tempted to speak but don't.

"I wonder where we are going" Stiles mumbled.

They pull up outside Eichen House and without a word get out of the vehicle and stare up at the imposing metal gate and the edifice beyond.

"You're moving into the nut house?" Scott asked in shock. Stiles shrugged, "guess it's to protect others from the demon fox till Deaton finds a permanent cure" he mumbled. Al of the present people could understand what he meant but not everyone liked it.

Scott arrives on his dirt bike, upset that no one told him that Stiles was moving into Eichen House for 72 hours. He's worried because William Barrow and his fly-filled tumor came from this place. The Sheriff explains that Stiles' MRI results looked exactly like those of his wife, Claudia Stilinski, and he is terrified. He is going to LA "tomorrow" to talk to a specialist and Stiles has requested that he be locked away in the mental health facility so that he doesn't hurt anyone. Scott tries to talk him out of the plan saying that "Deaton's got some ideas and Argent is calling people" to try to find something to help him rid himself of the Nogitsune. Stiles says if they don't find something then Scott must make sure he never gets out.

"Why me?" Scott asked. Stiles smiled, "because I trust you and know that you'll do the right thing". Scott smiled half-heartedly at that.

The Eichen House attendant explains the rules. There are no phone calls, emails or visitors allowed in the first 72 hours. As she lays out the process, a physical, meeting with a psychologist, and group therapy, Sheriff Stilinski becomes more and more agitated. The sounds of door buzzers and cell doors slamming fill his ears. The attendant takes Stiles shoes and gives him brown slippers because "no laces allowed" and then makes him empty his pockets of keys and other items. Suddenly the Sheriff declares that they forgot Stiles' pillow and that they both must leave to go and get it. He manically explains that every time they've stayed in a hotel, the first thing they pack is Stiles' pillow. It is irrational, but he clings to this as an excuse to get his son away and home because "I'm not checking you in here if you're not going to get one decent night's sleep."

"He still has the pillow?" Claudia asked her husband in a hushed voice. "Yeah" he replied in a whisper and hugs her when she buries herself into him.

Stiles explains that he hasn't slept well in weeks and hugs his father tightly. Then Stiles is gone, off down the hall with the attendant, leaving his father standing alone and helpless.

Noah sighed at the scene, never having thought that he would be stripped of his only family alive like that.

As they ascend the stairs, Stiles sees someone he thinks he recognizes down one of the hallways. The attendant urges him on and when he looks back she is gone. On one of the landings above, a man is knotting a sheet and talking to himself, quoting a riddle. "I'm part of the bird that's not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean yet still remain dry." He then loops the knotted sheet around his neck in a noose and leaps from the landing hanging himself. In the crowd of onlookers gathered in the stairwell below, Stiles sees the Nogitsune.

"It's shadow" Peter mumbled. "What?" Stiles looked at the tied down maniac. "The answer to the riddle. Its shadow" he answered. Stiles nodded his head and resumed watching.

Chris Argent is talking to Dr. Deaton on the payphone at the Sheriff's Station. It was apparently Chris who helped Deaton infiltrate the Yakuza Ikeda's house in Letharia Vulpina to get the Wolf Lichen to poison the Nogitsune. At the Animal Clinic, Allison and Scott are listening as Deaton explains to Chris that they have two problems. First – the lichen is not a cure and will wear off in a matter of days. Chris says while the poison is working the Oni will not go after Stiles. And Deaton adds that Eichen House has an interesting history and that the Oni might not be safe there.