Malefica; Stiles Stilinski [3]

Chapter 28

Cassie woke up in a hospital room. She looked around her surroundings and saw Stiles sitting beside her with his head down, assumingly asleep.

She chuckled lightly at the sight. She reached out her hand and started to gently stroke his hair. He started to stir awake, and she quickly took her hand off. She had forgotten he was a light sleeper.

He lifted his head up, looking at her with tired eyes. He smiled and grabbed her hand.

"You okay? You almost died. Again," he said.

She smiled, slightly laughing at his comment. "Yeah, I do almost die a lot, don't I?"

He widened his eyes. "A lot is definitely an understatement," he replied, making her laugh again. "But seriously, are you okay?"

She nodded, her smile softening. "Yeah. I probably have another scar though, so I'm not excited about that."

"You almost bled out and died, and you're worrying about scars?"

"I have a lot of scars, okay!" she replied. He began to laugh at the worry in her tone. "Seriously! There's the scar on my stomach Peter gave me. Then there's a scar on my back from a berserker. Then another scar on my leg from another berserker. Then there's the scar on my side from Malia. I also have a scar of my throat. Stop laughing! I'm actually worried about this!"

"Okay, okay!" he said, trying to stop his laughter. "I'm just saying, scars should be the least of your worries right now. Especially since you keep almost dying and already died."

"Twice on the already died part," she added. He looked at her in surprise. "San Francisco. It's a-"

"Long story. Yeah, you told me that already," he said, smiling. "Seriously, what happened while you were there? You've never told me about it."

She shrugged. "I didn't think it was that serious."

"You died for a second time and then came back to life. I'd say it's serious," he deadpanned.

She sighed, trying to think of a place to start. "Remember when I told you I thought I was going through something similar to what you were going through when you were possessed by the nogitsune?" He nodded. "It was kind of like that, but... I did it by choice."

He furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"Well... my mom and I got into this argument about me getting into a fight with some girl-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. A fight?"

She sighed again. "Yeah, um, I was pretty stupid when I was over there," she replied. "Anyway, I guess I was just tired from it all. Trying to constantly save Beacon Hills, dealing with her secrets, not knowing what the hell was happening to me. I don't exactly know what was going on through my mind, but for a second, I just thought that if I let myself go, maybe it'd be easier and I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore," she explained, a guilty look in my eyes. "It sounds selfish, I know-"

"No, it doesn't," Stiles replied, cutting her off. "For me, it was similar. I liked the power. I liked the control. And because of that, a part of me didn't really mind when Void took over. But as soon as he started to hurt Scott, to hurt you, I regretted it instantly."

Cassie's eyes softened when she heard him talk about his own experience. He never really talked about becoming Void ever since it all went down. Not with her. Not with anyone. She was glad that he finally trusted her enough to talk to her about it.

"Cass, what you did was completely reasonable. Was it a mistake? Yes. But you had perfectly fine reasons to do it. And you know, you should really follow the advice you give to everyone. 'Putting yourself first isn't always a bad thing'."