Departure ↠ Argent [3]

13. Glass Hearts

I couldn't sleep after my nightmare.

After Allison had calmed me down, I wanted to tell her about it, but I couldn't. I didn't want to keep her up the rest of the night like I knew I was going to be, so I kept my mouth shut. When she asked me what it was about, I just told her that it was about Stiles being gone still. She held my hand and stayed close to me before falling asleep again, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

My shirt had been stained with tears before I came to realize that I couldn't tell Allison. I knew what I saw had to be real...it wasn't just a nightmare. Jennifer had taken that power away from me to see into the future, but I knew what that feeling exactly felt like, and that was it. Somehow I overcame whatever Jennifer did to me and saw the unimaginable.

Not only could I not stomach being able to tell her, but I literally couldn't. I was warned last time to never tell anyone what the future held or else I would pay. The universe would always restore balance. That "balance" of mine being Boyd's death and my suffering before Jennifer had died at Jade's hand.

So I kept it locked away inside of my mind; behind a barrier of swirled thoughts and broken memories. For those few hours of sitting there remembering what I saw and how it all happened, I came to terms with something of my own.

I wasn't going to let Allison die.

I didn't care whether or not I messed up the future, just as long as Allison would live to see another day. If I had to pay for my actions, so be it. Even if that meant losing my life in the process.

I knew I wasn't supposed too...I was supposed to let the universe take the path that it was already set on. Why does this have to be so unfair? Allison doesn't deserve to die. Neither did Boyd.

While all of this was on my mind, I almost didn't believe what John was telling me now as I stood there in the hospital hallway, standing outside of Stiles' room.

"What do you mean he might have frontotemporal dementia?" I breathe, not being able to take all of this bad news at one time.

John stares at the floor, pulling out a notepad of his before handing it to me. I flip it open then to see a bunch of notes scribbled down onto the page; words such as hallucinations and insomnia. "I've been writing down his symptoms for the past few weeks. I just didn't want to admit that it might be true."

My finger traces over the word nightmares, Stiles' scream echoing in my mind. "T-This just doesn't make any sense-"

"His mother had it, Corey," John says, finally looking up at me, a darkness behind his eyes that I couldn't explain. I remembered Stiles barely mentioning how his mother died once, but I never thought that this would be the cause...and now Stiles might have it.

I hand him back the notepad, tears starting to brim my eyes. "There's a cure though, right? It's treatable?"

He slowly folds the notepad up before sticking it into his back pocket, licking his lips as if he didn't want to say what came next. "Not exactly..."

"So you're telling me that Stiles might have this disease and there's no cure?" I breathe, none of it sounding right on my lips. The words Stiles and disease weren't something that fit together in my mind. Let alone the words no cure.

John tries to not think how I was. "Corey, this could all be a false alarm. He may not even have it."

"What if he does?" I shake my head, placing my arms on top of my head as I pace back and forth. "What then?"

He takes a moment to think as he watches me pace, careful about his answer. "We're not going to think that way, okay? I have faith, and you should too. Stiles is and will be okay, you hear me?"