Morningstar

45

Luci walked through the halls, keeping an eye on Scott's pack, and noticed Lydia had stopped in front of locker 1075, like she was awaiting someone. She touched the locker and frowned. After a moment, she made her way to class.

Luci followed Lydia entered Mrs. Fleming's class. Malia had gotten a 'D-'.

"I'm impressed," Mrs. Fleming said. "With most of you. It really speaks to your study habits and your commitment to your education. Everyone else, see me for extra help."

Lydia raised her hand. "Mrs. Fleming, um..."

Mrs. Fleming shook her head. "I already told you, Lydia. I don't give extra credit for alternate equations based on your own theoretical findings."

Malia's claws were out and Lydia whispered, "Malia. Claws. Claws, Malia." She glanced at them and retracted them.

Malia noticed the distant look in Lydia's eyes. "What's going on with your face? Are you okay?"

Lydia frowned. "I'm trying to remember."

"Remember what?" Luci asked.

The strawberry blonde huffed. "If I knew, I'd let you know."

"Relax. It was just a question."

After class, Luci was checking on the others when got a text from Malia. She met the werecoyote in the basement. "Malia?"

"Over here," Malia called.

Luci followed Malia's voice and found her chained to a wall. Lydia was standing nearby. Malia looked at them. "I've got a problem. I'm growling at people in class. I'm clawing at my desk. I tried turning the floor of my bedroom into a coyote den. Do these look familiar to you?" She held up the chains.

The brunette took them and frowned. "No, they don't. Do you think these would actually keep you safe?"

She shrugged. "They used to. Before the lake house, this is where I'd come for the full moon. But you weren't down here with me. Scott wasn't down here with me."

Lydia frowned. "If Scott wasn't..."

"Who was?"

"I don't know, but there's no way you could have done it alone."

---

That night, Luci made her way to the woods to see Scott, Malia and Lydia.

Scott spoke. "I went to bed at home and woke up in the woods." He gave everyone a flashlight. "About a mile out. I think there's a reason why this has happened. I've been out here before. It was the beginning of sophomore year... the night before tryouts for first line. I remember because it was all I could think about."

"What were you doing?" Malia wondered.

"I was looking for a dead body."

Lydia scoffed, disgusted. "That's morbid."

Scott glanced at Lydia. "So then, what was I doing out here?"

Lydia shrugged. "I wish I could help you, but I didn't know you then."

"I was a coyote so I might've tried you eat it," Malia said.

Luci shook her head. "I was in Los Angeles."

Scott took a moment to think. "Deaton said that my subconscious is trying to tell me something. But I need you guys to help me figure out what it's saying."

Lydia looked at Scott. "Maybe you were just a curious teenager who heard there was a body."

"But how? I never watched the news. And I didn't have a police scanner."

"Your mom works at the hospital," Malia said. "Maybe she got called in and you overheard her?"

"My mom wasn't home that night. I live five miles away from here. How did I get here?"

"You drove."

Scott shook his head. "I didn't have a car."

"You ran?" Lydia guessed.

Scott met her eyes. "I couldn't have. I had asthma. I was hiding, but they knew that I was here."

"Maybe you made a ton of noise with your asthmatic breathing," Malia replied.

Scott frowned. "How would they know that it was me? Why would the sheriff even think that I would be out here?"

"Because like most deaths in this town, it was related to the supernatural," Lydia answered.

"I wasn't supernatural, okay? This was the night I was bitten. I wasn't a werewolf yet. And I wasn't out here alone. I know it sounds crazy. But I think I had a best friend. And I think he was out here with me that night."

"It doesn't sound crazy," Malia told him. "I know that someone chained me up and I think they wanted me to stay human."

Lydia glanced at the ground and back up. "I came to school this morning, sure I was going to meet someone. But I couldn't remember who I was meeting. I've been looking for them all day. Whoever it was, I think I loved him."

"What if we're all missing the same person?" Luci asked as Scott pulled a picture from his pocket.

Scott held the picture up so everyone could see. "I think that he was in this picture."

Luci pointed to a smiling Lydia. "I think he was sitting right next to you, Lydia."

They made their way to Deaton's to see if he was able to help.

Deaton hung a shard of glass from a car on a string in front of Lydia. He lit it from below. Malia narrowed her eyes. "Now she just magically writes down all the answers?"

Deaton shook his head. "It's not quite that simple. It never is. In automatic writing, the hand moves outside of any conscious awareness. But hopefully the silence, the darkness, and the light will allow you to find a more comfortable, relaxed, trance-like state. Lydia, I want you to stare into the light and let go of all thoughts."

Lydia stared at the light and picked up the pen. She drowned out the world around her and focused on the sound of pen scratching paper.

The light was turned off moments later and Scott looked at her. "Are you okay?"

Malia picked up the paper and frowned. "What does "mischief" mean?"

Scott shook his head. "That's not what she wrote." He turned the paper, revealing a name.

Lydia and Luci frowned. "What the hell is a Stiles?"