THE DEVIL WITHIN, stiles stilinski

xx. memory of the forgotten

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺: 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯

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𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬

One Week Later

     I IGNORE THE ALL too familiar stench of my brother and walk into the kitchen. He has been here a week and has already caused so much misery. It isn't just his presence that has given the Pack bad feelings, but the stench of fresh blood that lingers on him. To make it worse, it smells like my blood, and that sends Derek and Isaac into growling fits whenever Aleksandr comes near me - just like right now.

     "Mieczyslaw, can we talk?" Aleksandr asks, his longish white hair covering his face. "I know I've done some horrid things to you, but we've hated each other for long enough."

     I slam my hand on the bench and spin around, my eyes blazing. "That's the thing, Alek. I never hated you! Yet you thought I did. For over a century you let that belief take over and look what happened! My little brother turned on his own flesh and blood!"

     "I am so sorry, Genim. I wasn't myself. My Vampire side was in control. I was screaming for him to let me go."

     "Are you trying to fool the one who raised you? It's not working, Menim. I know what it's like to lose control over the deadly parts of you, and I know what it looks and feels like to be sorry. You aren't sorry. You are lying through your teeth."

     "I'll prove it to you." He grabs my hand and my claws shoot out at the contact. "Find the memory, brother. Let my memories be the proof."

     "How do I know you haven't tampered with them? How do I know that they're not a lie?"

     "It was too long ago for me to be able to tamper with them. Even if I could, I wouldn't. They're a part of who I am, and they caused me to be like this."

     I narrow my eyes slightly but jam my claws into the back of his neck, ignoring the hiss of pain that escapes him. His memories flood through me, but I ignore them and search for the ones I want. I see millennia's full of suffering and pain, but only his, and they haven't been tampered with. He has struggled against his Class A Vampire side since his eighteenth birthday, and all along I thought he had full control.

     I find the memories and I feel my real body go rigid, but I ignore it and push forward, going into the memory. I find myself in Aleksandr's body, and I am watching myself scream in pain, blood pouring out of the gashes in my arms. I ignore it and spread my consciousness throughout my brother's body, making his actions seem to be mine. I find my real brother just as he said.

     He is screaming for his Vampire side to stop, pain and tears covering his face. I wrap my arms around him and, surprisingly, he looks up at me. His eyes widen in shock, but I smile and hold him tightly. He starts to cry and wraps his own arms around me, sobbing and repeating that he is sorry for what he is doing.

     "Aleksandr," I say, stroking his head. "It's alright. I don't hate you now, or in twenty millennia's time. You are my brother and I could never hate you."

     He looks up at me. "Look at what I'm doing. How can you not hate me?"

     "I lose control every ten centuries. It's worse than this."

     "Is it because of me?"

     "No. I make a Pack of Kitsune, and the Fae slaughter them. I kill every last one of them, and I get cursed. I can't die, so they make me a killer. None of this is on you."

     "Do we ever make it up?"

     "We do. You will find me in New Orleans in the twenty first century. You will prove it to me there. We will be fine, Aleksandr Menim Stilinski."

     "Are you leaving me now?"

     I nod. "I have to return to my body. We'll see each other soon. I promise."

     I feel myself being sucked backwards. I exit my brother's body and fly past all his memories. Every blurs together until I am thrown back into my own body. My claws retract and I stumble backwards, hitting the bench. My brother collapses to the marbled ground and coughs, blood still trickling out of his neck. I help him up and he leans against the bench next to me.

     "Are you alright?" I ask, looking my brother once over. "I didn't hurt you did I?"

     Aleksandr shakes his head. "No, I'm fine. You're not though. Are you?"

     "All this time, I thought it was me who caused you to turn out like you did. It wasn't. Now I realise that. All these millennia you have been suffering with your Class A Vampire side, and I've been blind to it. I thought it was you."

     "It wasn't, and it never will be. I'm not that person, Genim."

     "Are you going to keep calling me my middle name or my first name? It's been a while since that's all anyone called me. It has been 'brother' or 'Stiles' or some other ridiculous name I decided to call myself for the past millennia."

     "If you keep calling me by my first name or middle name, I'll keep calling you by them as well."

     "What do you want to be called then?"

     "Just call me Alek. I'll call you Stiles. We'll all be happy then."

     "I suppose we all will be."

     "Your Pack aren't. Look."

     I look from my brother to the doorway and my eyes widen slightly. They are congregated in the doorway, their eyes varying shades of gold, blue, red, purple, and green, and they are growling lowly. I project what I just saw in my brother's mind into theirs and watch as they go deadly still, their eyes wider than saucers.

     "Are you all caught up now?" I ask, raising my eyebrow and staring them down until they look away. "No one is going to try to kill Alek?"

     Derek snorts. "I still don't like him, Sti."

     "You don't like anyone, sourwolf. Anyone else?"

     They all shake their heads, excluding Theo, Kol, and Kai. They just stare at me with raised eyebrows.

     "Good. Then get on with whatever you were doing. Nobody likes a spy."