True North

04

Lena noticed Stiles sneaking out and grabbed her helmet and bike, following after him.

She snuck in through Scott's window and saw the bathroom light on.

The young teen heard muffled voices and raised a fist, ready to punch whoever was after her cousin. The boy from earlier, Liam, looked at her with wide eyes.

Lena glared at them as she said, "Why is he in the tub? What'd you do?"

Scott turned to her. "Put the fist away. You're scaring him. I panicked."

"No one likes getting tied up."

"I wish I could. I-I bit him."

"You what? Dude, why'd you bite him?!"

Stiles nodded. "This is why I always come up with the plans. Your plans suck."

Scott let out a sigh. "I know. Which is why I called you. So what do we do?"

The boys took Liam from the tub and set him in a chair. Stiles said, "Liam, we're going to take the tape off your mouth. If you scream, it goes right back on. If you talk quietly, it stays off. Got it? Okay."

Liam let out a painful cry as the tape was pulled from his mouth.

Stiles continued. "Okay, Liam, now you've seen a lot of confusing things tonight. And more confusing things are going to happen because of the confusing things that happened tonight. Do you understand?"

Liam shook his head. "Not really."

"Good. That's good."

Scott frowned. "I don't understand either."

Stiles glanced to his friend. "Maybe you should tell him."

"Tell me what?" Liam asked in a frightened tone.

Scott turned back to him. "Liam... What happened to you, what I did to you, which I had to do in order to save you, it's going to change you."

"Unless it kills you," Stiles responded before noticing Liam's tears. "Shouldn't have said that."

"What?" Liam asked as his breath shook.

"Uh... Uh-oh. Oh. Oh... Is he crying?"

Lena rolled her eyes and glared at the boys before pushing them back and knelt in front of the bitten boy, swallowing aside her annoyance of the boy for the sake of helping him. "Liam, it's gonna be okay. You'll be just fine." His sobbing continued. "Don't listen to my cousin. You're not going to die."

"Probably not," Stiles added.

Lena glared at him. "Shut up."

Scott said at the same time, "Stop it."

"Okay, possibly not," Stiles replied, changing his answer.

Lena stepped behind the boy and said, "Liam, I'm gonna untie you. Please don't kill me." She did as she said and looked back at Liam. "You good?"

Stiles began apologizing. "We're sorry about that. We're really sorry."

He let out a grunt and Stiles asked, "Liam, what the hell is your..."

Liam jumped from his chair and as he did so, he knocked the chair over. In turn, the chair hit Lena's ankle and she let out a pained groan. Liam darted out of the room. "Ah! Get him!" Stiles exclaimed.

The two of them ran after him and Lena limped, following the older boys. Stiles fell to the ground. "Leg! I got him! I got him! I got him, I got him!"

Scott released a deep breath. "Your plan sucked, too."