Stiles fell back against the couch, stunned. He dialed Derek's number. Derek picked up after the second ring.
"Stiles, what's up?" Derek asked. Stiles just breathed hard. "Stiles. Tell me what's wrong." Derek demanded.
"Peter is dead. I don't know whether to laugh or cry." Stiles whispered.
"Why would you cry?" Derek asked.
"Because if he's dead, that must mean the Hunters are here in Beacons Hills. You guys can't leave the protection rings. I'll have to do all of the shopping for you guys so that you don't have to leave. I gotta tell Scott. I gotta... I gotta..." Stiles trailed off.
"Stiles. Are you okay? Stiles brea-."
"What if they kill me because I hang out with you guys? What if they kill my dad or Scott's mom? I don't know. I don't know... I don-."
"Stiles!" Derek roared. Stiles didn't seem to hear Derek at all, because he dropped his phone onto the wood floor and started shaking.
Columbine quickly reached into her belt for something. She pulled out a pinch of a purple powder and threw it into Stiles' open mouth. He gasped and the powder went down his throat into his lungs. Columbine picked up the dropped phone.
"Derek, it's Columbine. Stiles going to be fine. I gave him some amethyst powder and it's working through his system right now." Derek thanked her and she handed the phone back to Stiles.
"Are you okay?" Derek asked once he heard Stiles' hard breathing.
"Yeah," Stiles weakly said, his voice raspy.
"That's good. Call Scott and have him be more careful. Okay, Stiles? Can you do that for me?"
"Yeah, yeah. I can," Stiles said, his voice coming back. "Bye, Derek."
"Good-bye, Stiles. Keep safe," Derek said, before hanging up.
Stiles heard the beep of the phone cut off. His fingers stumbled over themselves as he pulled up Scott's number. Scott picked up right before the voicemail message.
"What, Stiles? You woke me up."
"Um, just wanted to tell you. Peter's dead and the Hunters are in town and you should stay in the protection circle and if you have to go out, be careful. Us humans will probably do all the shopping so that we don't find out that you're dead with a bag of groceries in your hands. I mean, how sad is that? You're walking out of the store, and then BAM! You're dead."
"Don't you think you're being over-dramatic, Stiles?"
"No, I don't think so. I'm being the right amount of dramatic for a person in my situation, Scott."
"Oh my God, fine. I'll be careful," Scott said in exasperation. "Talk to you later."
"Bye."
Columbine was chilling on the floor in front of the couch, absent-mindedly rubbing the floor with her hands when Stiles came back. Stiles lightly placed a controller onto her lap and put the disc into the console. He rushed back to the couch and unceremoniously dumped his butt onto the couch.
Once they started playing, Columbine realized that she wasn't anywhere close to being as good as Stiles. She was always getting lost and falling behind. She could only kill two or three zombies in each level. She was always the one getting attacked by the special infected, and she had to use more first aid kits than Stiles. At the end of the first campaign, Columbine was stuck in the middle of a horde while Stiles raced to the safety of the helicopter. Columbine's character was left to die as the helicopter flew away.
