True North

34

Liam tossed and turned in his bed, seeing blurry figures he couldn't make out. He heard a voice. "Do you see him? Where am I? What is this place?"

He shot up, breathing heavily. The voice sounded oddly familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was.

The young beta walked through the halls as though he was in a trance and stopped in front of locker 1113, like he was awaiting someone. He touched the locker and frowned. After a moment, he made his way to class.

Meanwhile, Lydia entered Mrs. Fleming's class and got her test back. 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.

In his class, Liam heard the voice again. "Will you forget me?"

Hayden turned to Liam and asked, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

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

"Remember what?"

"I'll let you know if I figure it out."

After class, Liam was at his locker exchanging books and got a text from Malia. He frowned at the text and met her in the basement. "Malia?"

"Over here," Malia called.

Liam got her scent and found her chained to a wall. Malia looked at him. "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 beta took them and frowned. "No. Do you think these would 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."

Liam's brow furrowed. "If Scott wasn't..."

"Who was?"

"I don't know. But I don't think you were alone."

Liam made his way back home after school and started doing homework to try to ease his mind of all the confusion.

His phone buzzed multiple times with multiple messages to meet his alpha and older friends in the woods.

Liam made his 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."

Liam nodded. "Yeah, definitely."

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.

Liam shrugged and glanced between them. "I was at Devenford Prep."

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. I think I had another friend a couple years younger that I felt the need to watch out for."

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

Lydia nodded slowly. "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. I got my test back and went to show them. Whoever it was, I think I loved him. And I think she was like a little sister to me."

Liam glanced up and a small smile crossed his face. "All day I've been feeling this blank space by me and I've been weirdly missing Supernatural references. I watched an episode last night and it made me even sadder; but not because of stuff that happens to Sam and Dean. I just felt someone should've been there with me. Whoever it was, I think I might be falling in love with her. Or maybe I love her already."

"What if we're all missing the same people?" Scott asked, pulling a picture from his pocket. He held it up so everyone could see. "I think that they were in this picture."

Lydia pointed to a couple blank spots. "They were sitting right there."

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 Liam and Lydia. He lit it from below. Malia narrowed her eyes. "Now they just magically write 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, Liam, I want you both to stare into the light and let go of all thoughts."

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

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

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

Scott shook his head. "That's not what they wrote." He turned the papers, revealing two names.

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

Liam's brow furrowed. "Who is Lena?"

As he spoke the mysterious girl's name, an oddly happy feeling settled deep inside. Clearly, whoever this Lena was, she was clearly important to him.