Everyone Has Demons [Teen Wolf]

40

APOV

I slammed my locker close and gasped when I realized Stiles was standing right next to me. "Jesus, Stiles, can you not sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry," he said, laughing. "You've got statistics first too, right?" He asked. I nodded. He steered me in the direction of class. "What'd you say you wanted to do at Berkeley?"

"English, their department is among the top five in the world. Right behind Cambridge, Oxford, and two Ivy Leagues. I have a lot of degrees, but in this life I think I want to follow in my mother's footsteps."

"Cambridge and Oxford are closer to home," Stiles noted.

"Please, I'm Irish, that's offensive," I said. "Anyway, I wouldn't leave you guys. You know that."

He smiled, but it looked a little sad. Then something over my shoulder caught his attention. I turned to see Theo behind us. "Don't look!"

"What is your deal with him?" I asked.

"There's something off with him, I just don't know what," Stiles said. "I ran a background check, but all I found was a speeding ticket."

"You're sounding paranoid, Stiles."

"I am, you should know that by now."

I gave him a small push into the classroom. "The bell is about to ring. We can deal with your stalking later."

OoOoO

During my free period I found Lydia sitting outside with a girl from my French class. "Hi," I said, sitting down next to them. "I'm Ava, I'm not sure we've met."

"You sat behind me in French last year too," she said quietly. "We worked together on a project."

"Oh," I said. I looked between her and Lydia. "What's going on?"

"Tracy was just telling me about her night terrors," Lydia told me. Tracy gave her a look. "Don't worry, Ava's had experience in this department."

Tracy nodded hesitantly. "Last night my skylight was open and I had to get up to shut it. While I was standing on a chair to reach it, someone or something pulled it out from under me. My dad found me on the floor this morning, by the chair."

"So someone was in your house?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know what was a dream and what was real. The skylight was sealed shut years ago, so some of it had to be a dream! And all day I've been seeing this person, in a mask following me. I know it's not real, but I can't shake it."

"Has she died recently?" Brooke asked. I knew she wasn't putting forth the energy to be seen; she looked smudgy. I still glared at her though.

I was reminded of Stiles, and how he'd been so sleep deprived he hadn't known if he was asleep or awake. "You could try counting your fingers," I suggested. "In dreams you always have a weird number. If you count your fingers and you have ten, you'll know you're awake."

She nodded. "That's not all, I went to see Ms. Martin this morning, and I threw up in her office. But it was black tar, and there were feathers in it."

I looked at Lydia. "That's unusual," she said.

"You didn't want to go home?" I asked her. "Or see a doctor."

"It's the first day of senior year," she said. "I couldn't miss that."

"Let's go talk to my mom," Lydia said. "This doesn't sound like normal parasomnia to me."