Into The Twilight Zone

Chapter 1

With every ring she grew more and more anxious. There was always the thought of 'what if?'

What if he didn't pick up?
What if none of them picked up?

She couldn't do it on her own. She'd tried. Those rituals weren't powerful enough. She wasn't powerful enough. Even she had her limits. It had taken two failures before she realized the flaws in her plans. When she found the new rituals. They were more dangerous, but came with a higher success rate.

Finally the ringing stopped.

"Lydia?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked. They sounded relieved. She knew that would not last long. As soon as she spoke, any relief that he felt would flee like a thief in the night.

She glanced out the front window - eyes fleeting upwards to the night sky. "I'm almost ready. I'll need everyone here in an hour." Her tone was cool, nonchalant. It was a facade.

"Lydia, how many more times are you going to do this? Maybe we can't. If we could, don't you think it would have worked by now?"

Her voice changed, betraying the collected demeanor that she had been trying to portray. Lydia's tone turned one of warning as she breathed his name into the phone. "Stiles."

"Jesus, you barely made it la-"

Lydia cut him off "An hour." was all that she said before she ended the phone call, depositing the cellphone into her purse. He would come, she told herself. He would always. So would the others.

As she pulled her eyes away from the night sky she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. It wasn't her face as a whole, just her eyes. You could tell a lot by looking at someone's eyes. Or the skin around them, in her case. Her initial reaction was to reach for the makeup bag that she had in her purse. The makeup she'd put on prior to stepping onto a plane for a fourteen hour flight had since worn off. She looked tired, older. Pretty, but older. When was the last time that she'd gotten any sleep? She couldn't remember. While she was out of the country, virtually never. When she was home...it was hard. Some nights she had dreams. Dreams where she had been there when Allison had died. Dreams that she had been the one to run her through with a sword. It was silly, of course. Stiles had said that some part of her must have still felt guilty, as if she had a hand in Allison's death. Maybe that was it.

But soon, it wouldn't matter. Soon she would bring Allison back.

xxx

The jeep came to a stop beside Lydia's car. The only other one in the abandoned lot. Which meant he would get a few minutes alone with her. That was good. The phone call from earlier had been the first time he'd talked to her in two weeks. Text messages to reassure him that she was still alive didn't count. She hadn't even asked him to go with her. She'd stopped asking that a long time ago.

Maybe he could talk her out of it. Change her mind at the last minute. It was a stupid thought, he knew it. Every time he thought about that. What if he could convince her to leave it. They all missed Allison, they all wanted her back. They'd tried, but it hadn't worked. People kept getting hurt. Lydia herself had gotten up close and personal with death one too many times. With each new ritual, the more power involved, it was like they lost a part of her. Slowly time and magic was chipping away at the brave, strong woman he knew. If she noticed it she hid it well. It was always just one more.

One more contact.
One more ancient text.
One more flight.
One more ritual.
One more near death experience.

She was so stubborn, dangerously so. He'd always liked it about her, but now...now it worked against him. He grabbed the duffel bag off of the passengers seat. The longer he waited, the less time he would have.