Can This Be Love? [Stiles-Stilinski] COMPLETED

Nightmares Made Real

Chapter 12

Meagan

A week has passed since the painful experience of the Moon. I rode the tides of the week floating on the new budding romance between Stiles and I. Yet as with all good things and times, they must come to an end. 

On Saturday morning, Stiles and I went out for a run and we stumbled across an odd sight, a deer carcass. We found it before the major symptoms of decay were visible but that wasn't the odd part...the odd part was the way we found it. The carcass was strung up in a tree similar to the way a criminal would've been hung in the wild west. The body swung in a brutally grotesque way by its neck and from the bottom of it's jaw to its tail was a large gash still red with dried blood. 

The stench hit my nose like a ton of rotting fruit as we got closer so Stiles could cut the poor creature down but not before he took a picture with his phone. "Why on God's green earth would you want a picture of that??" I asked with tension in my voice as I suppressed the urge to gag. He turned to me with a look of serious confusion on his face as if to say, Why wouldn't I?

He motioned and we took off again simply to get away from the stench that filled our noses by the corpse. When we made it back to his Jeep we hopped in and began in a direction that wasn't familiar to me. "Where are we going?" I asked him and he turned to me and wiggled his phone in the air and said, "We have someone to see, about that deer." 

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Stiles put the Jeep in park, in the lot of a building that I personally had never been to but Stiles seemed to know where he was going. A wave of confusion swept over me as we approached the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic. 

The sign on the door read "Sorry we are Closed" but this didn't seem to dissuade Stiles as he pushed the door open and shook the signal bell. When we crossed the threshold a thousand different scents hit my nose all at once. They were so strong that I couldn't help but cough. Stiles on the other hand immediately stiffened as if he smelled a distant danger that I did not. 

From the back room a voice called out, "I'm sorry but we are closed for the day." A stout man, that seemed to be the veterinarian, stuck his head around the corner and his eyes filled with surprise as he looked over Stiles and I. "Deacon." Stiles said tensely as a greeting before gesturing towards me and saying, "This is my new beta, Meagan." 

Rounding the corner, we saw the man, Deacon,  in an apron covered in splashes of crimson blood and I looked past him at his table to see not an animal but a person. A young man looking about the age of 22-24 lay sprawled across the table covered in a fine layer of sweat. As my eyes swept over his well defined physique I heard, no felt a low growl radiate from Stiles. I look over my shoulder at him and see not the sweet face of my Stiles but a hard expression instead on his face. 

"Ivan" Stiles says tersely as he locks eyes with the man on the table. The man, Ivan, keeps his eyes on Stiles' longer than normal when I realize that it is a male display, each trying to assert dominance over the other.  "Stiles." Ivan said though it sounded more like a grunt of pain than an actual word. 

After about one minute of the staring contest Stiles flashed his blood red eyes as Ivan's eyes turned the same color as mine, an icy cobalt blue. When the two locked eyes again it was only a matter of seconds before Ivan lowered his eyes and I felt Stiles relax, slightly. He moved closer to me and placed an arm around my shoulders in an overly possessive gesture that was out of place for him. Suddenly I felt extremely awkward as Ivan's eyes landed on my face and lingered a bit too long before falling on Stiles' arm. 

Oh I see what's going on... 

If only to comfort Stiles, I slid into the now familiar crevice left for me under Stiles' arm and in turn wrapped my arm around his lower back, and hooked my finger in his belt loop. I immediately saw Ivan's eyes fall from Stiles and I, and turn back to the ceiling. 

Breaking the three of us out of our own minds, Deacon spoke up asking what he could do to help Stiles and I. "We found something in the woods today and wanted to know if you knew anything about it." Stiles said handing Deacon his phone already opened to the picture of the odd deer carcass. Deacon studied the picture a minute before speaking again. "Did you find anything else near the body or did you simply see the deer like this?" he asked us. "No we only found the deer like that." I said speaking up for the first time since arriving. Deacon studied the screen again before handing the phone back to Stiles and saying, " Let me finish this procedure then we can speak more on this subject." 

Deacon ushered Stiles and I from the room as he turned back to Ivan. As I turned from the room I felt Ivan's eyes burning holes in my back.

Twenty minutes later, Deacon emerged from the room leaving a sleeping Ivan on the table. 

"So? What are we dealing with here Deacon?" Stiles asked as Deacon approached us. 

"Honestly," he said, "I have no  idea." 

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Stiles

I'm running through the woods, though I know I'm not running from something but instead I'm running towards someone. A shot of panic bubbles up through me as I hear an agonized scream in the distance. That screams radiates down through my bones deep into my soul, I know that scream. I speed up as I hear the scream again but this time it is joined by  another lower deeply terrified and agonized plea for help. All of a sudden though I can't  their faces but I know the screams are coming from my Dad and worst of all... from Meagan.

I run even faster and I keep running until my legs and lungs burn from the exertion. I run and run pushing myself past the trees and tapping into my Alpha speed and strength to go even faster. I reach a break in the trees and look around at the small clearing that forms a perfect ring. In the center of the ring stands the dilapidated remnant of a tree trunk that easily reaches ten feet in diameter. 

Standing a top that trunk is a figured clad  with what looks to be shadows. Just in front of the figure, on their knees is Dad and Meagan. They whip their heads up from the ground and look in my direction. I take a glance at my dad's  face and after seeing that he looks as normal as he can I let my gaze fall fast and hard into Meagan's face. 

Her forehead is etched with lines of worry and fear, as she lifts her eyes to mine and I see in them  unfiltered terror at the situation. She opens her mouth to tell me something but I hear no sound. I take a step closer to her thinking that if I just get closer I will be able to hear her and help her. She says something again with what seems to be a yell as I get closer. I keep my eyes trained on her face as I proceed even closer still, not looking at the shadowy figure behind her on the tree trunk. When I am about six feet from the trunk Meagan yells at me once more and again I hear no sound. Just as I am about to leap for her to free her, the figure materializes behind her with a blade in his hand. I freeze in place but I know deep in my bones I am too late. 

With a flick of it's wrist the figure drags the blade across Meagan's throat and I watch helplessly as her body goes limp and falls as the life drains out of the woman I love. 

My body courses with pure rage as the only thought I have breaks free with a guttural and animal-like roar. "NOOOOOOOOO" 

I shake awake with a cry and I sit up in my bed. 

Oh thank God. 

It was just a dream... 

"No,"  I think, "It was a hellish nightmare." 

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I pull myself out of my bed and stretch. I throw on some jeans and a grey t-shirt with my black converse for school. I head down stairs to have some breakfast and say good morning to my dad, but he isn't downstairs.  I check his bedroom and the garage before I use my Alpha senses to sniff around for his scent (a slightly musky smell mixed with the peppermint of his toothpaste). I find light traces of it all over the house along with the sweet lavender and honey scents that combine to be Meagan's heavenly scent, but no new strong traces of my dad. 

I grab my phone to call Meagan and ask if she has seen him, but I see I have a missed call from Dad, and that he left a voicemail. I push the button to listen to it but I drop my phone before he finishes his thoughts... I heard the tremble in his voice and the only words I hear him say are, "Stiles help us."