Howling to the Heart || Isaac Lahey

66.

   "I-I don't understand how this is happening. My head feels so fuzzy and something stinks," Neriah wheezed, her stomach almost healed but not enough as Allison kept a firm hold of her arm and Lydia held the other, the both of them helping her walk.

The three of them had explained to Neriah what happened with Isaac, Boyd, Ethan...and her. She had no memory of getting up to the roof or trying to kill herself and it hasn't stopped messing with her head. The last thing she did remember was getting changed in the bathroom, and then it was nothing. Just blackness.

"We'll figure it out soon, okay?" Stiles was ahead of them, often glancing back at her stomach that was covered in blood with small, slow trails soaking into the waist band of her trackies.

"I still can't find Scott anywhere," Allison said, wincing with Neriah as they started to go down the stairs.

"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles questioned, shrugging his red jacket off.

"It has to be," Neriah said with a groan, clenching her teeth together from the piercing pain in her body. "If it's affecting all of us werewolves, then it would definitely be affecting him."

Lydia tightened her grip of Neriah's arm while taking Stiles' jacket that he held out toward the hybrid. "Didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" she asked Stiles.

"Yeah," Stiles said when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "I'll get it."

But the four of them turned toward the bus, only to stop. Neriah's face fell as she realized the weird smell was gasoline that Scott was currently covered in with a puddle under him and a lit flare raised in his hand.

Allison slowly let go of Neriah, walking toward him. "Scott," she said softly, and Stiles threw Neriah's arm over his shoulder, helping her with Lydia to follow Allison. "Scott..."

The four of them came to a stop in front of Scott, his face void of emotion and his heart rate unsettlingly calm.

Tears filled Neriah's eyes as Scott slowly looked up at them. "There's no hope," he said with a raw voice.

"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison asked him with a sad smile. "There's always hope."

"Not for me." Scott shook his head. "Not for Derek."

"Derek wasn't your fault," Neriah said firmly, stepping out of Stiles and Lydia's hold while pressing a hand to her wound and holding back a groan. "You know Derek wasn't your fault. The last thing he would want is you thinking this, okay? Trust me, Scott, he wouldn't want this."

"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt," Scott said, his breathing taking a sharper turn. "People keep getting killed."

"None of this is your fault, Scott," Neriah tried again, allowing the tears to fall down her face without wiping them away. "Right now, you aren't you. Something is happening here and what you're experiencing just happened to Isaac, Boyd, Ethan, and I. But look, I'm right here, okay? They stopped me, they saved me. Now let us save you, please?"

"What if I don't want to be saved? What if this is what I want?" he asked, looking down at the puddle of gasoline.

"Scott, listen to me, okay?" Stiles stepped up to Neriah's side with his eyes shining with unshed tears. "This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay? Now—"

"What if it isn't?" Scott cut him off as tears started to fall down his face, mixing with the gasoline. "What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?"