North Starr

37

3B

Stiles woke up panting and Melanie asked, "Are you okay? Stiles?"

He exhaled. "Yeah, I was just dreaming. It was weird. It was like a dream within a dream."

"A nightmare?" She rubbed his shoulder tenderly.

He sighed. "Yeah. Wait a second, Melanie. What are you doing here?" The door creaked open. "Hang on." He stood.

"Stiles, where are you going?"

"I'm just gonna close the door."

"Just go back to sleep."

"No, no, I should close it."

"Don't worry about it."

"What if someone comes in?"

"Like who? Go back to sleep, Stiles." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "No."

"But what if they get in?"

"What if who gets in? Stiles, just leave it. Please, Stiles. Stiles, come back to bed. Stiles. Please. Don't, Stiles." Stiles slowly reached for the doorknob. "Don't! Don't go in there, please, don't. Please, Stiles, don't!" Stiles entered the dark room.

A heartbeat sounded and wind whooshed.

Stiles attempted to reassure it. "It's a dream. This is just a dream. It's just a dream, get it out of your head, Stiles. You're dreaming. All right? So, wake up, Stiles. Wake up, Stiles. Wake up!"

Sheriff Stilinski ran into his son's room and held him tightly. He brushed Stiles' hair back. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. It's okay. You're okay."

The next morning, there was a knock on the door and the sheriff appeared. "Hey. You all right? You ready for school?"

Stiles looked up at his dad. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Dad, seriously, I'm fine. It was just a nightmare. What's that?"

He laughed and said, "That's just, uh, files from the office."

Stiles frowned at his dad's words. "It says "Sheriff's station, do not remove"."

The sheriff nodded slowly. "Well, yeah, unless you're the sheriff."

"Oh," Stiles replied.

"Now get your butt to school."

Stiles drove himself to school.

As soon as he arrived, Stiles looked at his friend worriedly and tried to calm him down. "Hey. Hey, you all right? You don't look all right, Scott."

He nodded. "I'm okay."

Melanie shook her head. "No you're not. You're seeing things."

Scott turned to her and frowned. "How did you know that?"

"You look worried."

Melanie glanced at Stiles as Lydia said, "Because it's happening to all three of you. Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one."

Allison frowned at Lydia. "We're not crazy."

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine," she said.

"We did die and come back to life. That's gotta have some side effects, right?" Scott replied.

The bell rang and Stiles turned to them. "We keep an eye out for each other. Okay? And Lydia, stop enjoying this so much."

Melanie shot Lydia a look and the latter smiled innocently before asking, "What?"

Melanie made her way to history class and the teacher walked in moments later. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter."