Everyone Has Demons [Teen Wolf]

25

I'd dozed off during our parole around town. My phone rang, jolting me awake. "Scott? Did you find him?"

"Yeah, well my parents did."

"Is he ok?"

Scott hesitated. "Yeah, I think so. At least as good as he can be under the circumstances."

"No locked room? No psychopathic kidnapper?"

"He was sleep walking."

I remembered the missed phone call. "He knew," I mumbled.

"What?"

"He knew he was sleeping, at least some part of him did. He's been calling me after his nightmares and tonight before he called you, he called me. Maybe if I had just been awake..."

"He's fine, don't beat yourself up about it. If I were you I'd be more worried about figuring out what was up with your eyes."

"Yeah, alright. Well, goodnight, try to get some rest."

"You too, Ava." I hung up and looked at my phone.

"I should've been there for him," I mumbled.

"You can't be there for everyone all the time," Derek said. "You have to look out for yourself sometimes."

"Stiles is in trouble."

"He's okay."

"He's okay tonight. What about tomorrow night? What about next week? Something is wrong with him and I don't know how to help. I know that shouldn't be my burden, but he's my friend. I don't want anything to happen to him."

Derek grabbed my hand. "We'll figure this out. I promise."

"We always do eventually," I mumbled. "But at what cost?"

We drove past the hospital on the way back to the loft and saw Aiden in the parking lot trying to start Stiles's car. We pulled off to help. "The idiot left the light on, it's dead."

"He was asleep, he clearly wasn't thinking," I said.

"I'll give it a jump," Derek said. Aiden reached in the back of the Jeep and pulled out jumper cables and hooked it up.

"You really think he was just sleep walking?" Aiden asked.

"No, I don't, but I also have no idea what's really going on," I said.

"I might."

"Really?"

"I overheard Stiles and Scott talking. Stiles was telling Scott that he thinks he's the one that wrote that message on the blackboard, the one that told that serial killer to go after Kira."

"You think Stiles is the nogitsune?" I asked.

"Makes sense."

"No, it doesn't. Why would a powerful evil spirit chose the human kid over a werewolf?"

"I don't know but why else would he be acting like this?" Aiden asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know."

OoOoO

The next morning I woke up with a killer headache. When I opened my eyes the pain got worse and I groaned. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and felt my stomach lurch. "What the hell?" I moaned. I walked downstairs at snail speed.

"You look awful," Derek said.

"I can guarantee you, I can't look any worse than I feel. But thank you, that really makes a girl feel great. Can you get me some water? In like one of those massive gas station cups above the microwave?" He nodded and returned with a Mighty Mug printed with the Quik Mart logo. I guzzled the water in a minute. "Is this what a hangover feels like?"