Foresight

Chapter 69: 5-2

Lydia whimpered and begun to shake seeing the trepanation tool. Allison who was seated next to Scott was getting up to hurry to her side but was beaten to it. Stiles was beside her in a flash, arms wrapped securely around her shaking form. Lydia buried her face into his chest and sobbed silently. Stiles rubbed her back reassuringly, "it won't happen to you" he murmured, "I wouldn't let that sick doctor come near you" he said. Lydia said nothing but pushed herself closer to him, taking in his warmth that promised safety. The two were like that for a while before Lydia began to calm down. She did not remove herself from Stiles but gave indications that she would be fine. Stiles nodded to the others, still rubbing her back and the episode was resumed.

Natalie Martin is counseling a student named Tracy at Beacon Hills High School. Tracy Stewart is distracted by visions of a crow pecking against a window and a skylight banging in the rain.

Mason would have commented on that but then remembered the crows pouring out of that monsters body last episode and remained quiet. It could not have been a coincidence.

Ms. Martin asks if the girl is getting enough sleep and she admits that she's not. The teacher explains that circadian rhythms are different for young people in that the teenage body produces a natural sleep chemical called melatonin late into the morning. Meaning a student's brain is still sleeping long after classes begin.

"What's cicadan rhythms?" Liam asked. "Circadian rhythms is basically a 24-hour internal clock that is running in the background of your brain and cycles between sleepiness and alertness at regular intervals" Melissa explained. Liam nodded even though he didn't fully grasp the concept.

Tracy explains that she gets night terrors which Martin describes as Parasomnia. Tracy says she usually doesn't remember what causes her fear but relays a story of one particularly stormy night when she woke to find a crow pecking against the skylight over her bed. Tracy has a silver leaf-shaped necklace hanging on her nightstand. The crow is gone and as Tracy settles into sleep again, she sees a masked figure outside her window.

"Who wants to bet that it wasn't a nightmare" Hayden mumbled. "I think it was but more of a recollection in a different way" Liam told her. Hayden who was surprised at Liam talking so nicely to her and more surprised at the fact that he had said something smart just nodded at him.

She bolts awake and scrambles to turn on the bedside lamp. When she turns back the figure is gone. She makes her way to the window and checks to make sure it is locked. She turns off the lamp and tries to go back to sleep but is quickly woken by a breeze blowing in from the now open skylight. The lamp next to her bed no longer works. In the darkness, she climbs up on a chair and attempts to reach the latch for the skylight. Straining, she manages to get it closed and locks the skylight. At that moment, a black-gloved figure grabs the chair leg and yanks it out from under her and she falls. Back at school, Tracy explains that her father found her on the floor and that the skylight was sealed shut a couple years back for weatherproofing.

"Okay you're right. That was a nightmare and a recollection at the same time" Mason mumbled to Liam who looked grim.

Martin takes this to mean that much of what she experienced was just a dream. She explains a theory that one of the biological functions of dreaming is to present the brain with threatening events as a way to rehearse for real-world situations. She diagnoses Tracy with normal anxiety of a form common to seniors in high school. As Tracy stands to leave, she begins to cough. Eventually, she throws up a torrent of viscous black liquid and black feathers. She asks Ms. Martin if this is part of common anxiety.