Into The Twilight Zone

Chapter 2

"You can't stay with her 24/7 and you can't leave her here alone. An alarm system wont cut it. Who knows what's going to come after her. She's vulnerable."

McCall's words rang in his ears. That conversation had happened weeks ago, but he remembered it like it had been yesterday. He'd thought about that conversation every night since it had happened. That was the night he'd agreed to be a bodyguard of sorts to Lydia Martin.

Lydia, was in the bed beside him. Hooked up to an array of IV's and monitors. She wasn't sick though, in fact they were to keep her healthy as she was. Lydia was perfectly fine with the exception of one minor detail. She was in a coma.

He hadn't been able to wake her. No one had. Shadow walking, astral projection. Whatever you wanted to call it, Lydia was doing it. Her body was there physically but her mind, her spirit. Her very essence was gone. There was nothing but an empty shell now. That meant there was no brain activity, hence the machines. No one really knew what had gone wrong. There were theories, someone or something had intervened with the ritual or Lydia had underestimated herself and did not possess the power to cross back over again. Though to Peter, it didn't matter. Whatever caused it the result was still the same.

He had always been able to call her back before. Even if it took a little longer, she would come back. This time had been different. He could barely even feel her by the time he had called her back. It was like the ritual had drained her very life-force. Stiles hadn't even ordered him to do it, Peter had rushed to Lydia, grabbing her face in her hands. He'd expected her to wake up. Her eyes would snap open and she'd tell him to back off, or comment on his breath. There hadn't been anything though.

By morning they had taken her to the hospital. The problems were ones that medicine and science could not fix. She was in the hospital for a month before she had been 'checked out'. While the others had been looking for ways to wake her, her parents were talking about other things. What if she didn't wake up? There weren't signs of brain activity, after all. There was nothing. They didn't want their baby girl to waste away in a hospital. Stiles, Scott, and their little army convinced them otherwise. To give her more time. Miracles happened and all of that crap.

Eventually ( and reluctantly ) they moved Lydia To the Stilinski household. It was closer to the hospital, there was plenty of extra room. Her parents had been reluctant but eventually agreed after Stiles had worn them down, touching on the last nerves they possessed. In the end it seemed better to have Lydia somewhere familiar, at least it was a comfort to them. That was all that mattered at that point.

A few weeks after the ritual failed, bad things started happening. Worse than usual. Beacon Hills had always been a mecca for the supernatural but Lydia had amplified it. The emissary explained that when she opened the rift to shadow walk, it worked both ways. Of course they knew that, how many times had they had to fight back something that slipped through the cracks? That's why the whole group was involved. Since Lydia had never come back, she was still on the other side...the rift was still open. If they closed it, they would lose her.

Every night they patrolled the woods, the alleys, he'd lost count of how many things they'd sent back into the other planes. To make matters worse, a lot of these things seemed interested in their little banshee. There had been an incidence at the hospital which had prompted both her move into the Stilinski household, and his position as round-the-clock babysitter. Something had gotten into the ward, past all the security and into her locked room.

When a nurse came to do rounds they reported seeing a shadowy figure bending over Lydia. When they opened the door the figure seemed to 'vanish'. When they checked on Lydia, they noticed an array of cuts on her arm, and even stranger, burns. Injuries which hadn't been there before. People began reporting 'shadow figures' in and around the hospital. Deaton had said it was spirits, things from the other side and their own realm that were curious; or possible had more malicious intentions.