𝕁𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕒 𝕡𝕖𝕖𝕜

23. A "clairvoyant" discovery

I felt myself disconnect,
every nerve in my body lit up,
every part inside of me was racing, picking up speed.
The pressure inside of me built until I was sure I was going to be crushed by it and thought that everyone around me would witness it, made everything 10 times worse.

Theo. Theo.
He did this.
All of it.
Everything it was all his fault.
I wanted to kill him.
I cared about him so much, Was it all a lie?
Was he just using me?

The touch at my waist was gentle enough that it didn't register at first, but steady enough to turn me towards the door— strong enough to keep me upright when my knees began to buckle.

Outside of the shrinking waiting room the hallway was at least 10° cooler. Quiet and dark enough that my skin didn't feel like it was bubbling up at the touch of fire in my veins.

I only went a few steps down the hall just enough to be out of line of sight from the door to the waiting room, before I was carefully lowered down and manoeuvred so my head was between my knees.

familiar hands lifted my hair away from my face.
"You're okay," stiles's voice was saying, something cool touched the back of my neck, a water bottle.
"Just take a deep breath."

"I- I can't." I said between shallow gasps.

"Of course you can," he said calmly.

"I have to—" I brought my hands up, clawing at whatever invisible cord was wrapped around my throat.
Stiles took my hands in one of his own, holding them flat against his chest as he took deep breaths.

"You don't have to do anything right now," he whispered softly. "Everything is okay."

It's not, you have no idea, I wanted to say. A sharp ache pierced my skull pounding harder and harder with each passing second.

Touching him did help, I myself to match my breathing with the rise and fall of his chest, still sitting on the cold floor with him.

The cool air worked slowly to untangle the mess of thoughts knotting into a headache at the front of my skull.
The pressure eased its grip enough for me to straighten and lean back against the wall but I still had his hand griped tight to keep me grounded.

Stiles moved so he was now crouched in front of me, brown eyes still searching my face.
The wrinkles in his brows smoothed out as he released a small breath of his own.
"Better?"

I nodded, taking a sip of cold water bottle.

"What happened?" He asked, his worry not bothering to hide. "Are you okay?"

"I just..." I couldn't tell him.
The same invisible hands held the words in my throat.

"Has this been happening a lot, the panic attacks?" Stiles's body softened as he sat cross-legged in front of me, crouching must have started to hurt.

I nodded.

"I guess you turning must have made things worse-"

"I didn't. I didn't turn." I pulled the hoodie off of me—and reluctantly, I showed him my arm.
The black mark hadn't got any worse, but it hadn't got any better either.
"It's where Scott bit me."

He cautiously ran his thumb over the blackened skin as he held my arm for him to inspect before helping me up and heading back into the waiting room.

"you can't go alone. Does anyone even know how to find him?" Melissa asked the group, her back facing us as we entered.

"We don't have to find him— he'll come to me." Scott replied.

"That's great but we've got something else to deal with right now." Stiles interrupted, raising my injured arm to show the group.

Melissa, Scott and Parrish stared at me for a moment.
Melissa and Parrish shared the same look of shock, but Scott was drenched in guilt.

"Remember when Peter bit Lydia, how she didn't turn?" Stiles asked, not waiting for answers before he started talking again.
"Well, Thea here had a vision of Corey dying, then you dying in the library, that's why she was there that night."

"What are you saying?" Parrish asked, looking around at the group to see if they were also as confused as he and I were.

"Thea's a banshee."