Rising Moon: Scavenge | Teen Wolf ( 4 )

On the Edge of Darkness

'This is Dr Alan Deaton. Please leave a message after the beep.'

The voicemail message caused me to groan out loud in frustration as I pinched my bridge of my nose and I took a deep breath to control my emotions as there was a beep in my ear. "Hey, Alan, it's Sophie. Listen, something weird happened to me tonight. We came across another Chimera and I felt this strange connection with him. Something like has only happened once before, with Tracy. It was like I had to protect them. Like it wasn't a conscious decision. I absolutely had to, like a compulsion to keep them safe. Anyway, call me back. I'm kind of freaking out here. Bye."

I threw the cell phone down on the bed next to me as I covered my face with both hands and muffled a scream as I squeezed my eyes closed in aggravation. I had been on edge since I had dropped Liam and Mason off at the formers house after the commotion at the club. I'd kept it together when I was in their presence, not wanting to freak them out any more than what they already were but the events of the night were eating away at me.

It wasn't the violence that I had seen (because that was now a common occurrence), or the death that I had witnessed (because I had seen enough to last a lifetime), or the existence of the masked men (because it was Beacon Hills and there would always be someone trying to disturb the fragile peace), but my reaction to the presence of a Chimera.

I had been distracted when we confronted Tracy but I still felt the urge to protect her from harm, thinking that it was the normal hero complex everyone in the pack suffered from. It was multiplied tenfold when I was in the same vicinity of Lucas, becoming a compulsion to keep him safe no matter the consequences to my own wellbeing. There was so much going on that I didn't take the time to catalogue my feelings on the matter, so many conflicting emotions and sensations that I couldn't comprehend what was happening.

Now that everything had slowed down and I had time to repay the events of the past few days over in my head, my thought went into hyper-drive trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon.

Pacing around the living area of Derek's loft helped me organise my thoughts, to prioritise and itemise everything that happened.

The loft was the first place I thought to come when I wanted to be alone. It had become my safe haven from the moment Derek moved in and that had only increased when we started dating, but now that it was abandoned it had become a sanctuary away from everyone else. There was no one here who wanted me to do anything for them, no one to ask me questions or demand answers, nothing to burden me except for my own thoughts. The fact that Derek's scent still lingered in the air was a pleasurable bonus that gave it even more of a safe haven vibe and calmed my nerves more than I could imagine.

I tossed my phone down on the couch before throwing myself down next to it with a huff escaping me and I bent my knees up to my chest as I wrapped my arms around my shins, crossing my feet at the ankle. 'Paramore' played softly in the background as I rested my forehead on my knees and tried not to get lost in my thoughts, tried not to get trapped inside my mind so deep that I couldn't get out. That was a fear of mine, that I wouldn't be able to fight off the demons that lived inside my mind and they would entangle me in doubt until I was stuck there forever with no chance of escape.

It was a secret fear I kept to myself out of apprehension that someone would take advantage of the weakness. The last thing I wanted was to end up locked in a padded cell at Eichen House, muttering to people who weren't there and whispering to the demons that called my mind their home.

Sometimes I wished I could look my demons in the eye and bare my soul to them, hoping for compassion or empathy where there was none. I'd tell them to do their best: destroy me, hurt me, drive me insane because I've been to hell and back so many times that they kind of bore me. I could make it through whatever they threw at me, whatever they thought would cause me to break. I was stronger than their desire to overtake my mind.