Void of Life [Steo]

Chapter 6: Touching The Void

Stiles woke up, the food tray still on the floor where Theo had knocked it. Stiles slowly remembered what had happened. The drunken kiss. Theo storming out. He remembered not having the energy to resist and he remembered almost not caring. Almost. The kiss had managed to wake something up, give him some form of consciousness.

Stiles soon realised that he was not alone in the room. Someone was standing just out of his view, waiting, watching. It made Stiles uncomfortable. "Theo...?" At first the figure made no movement to come forward from the shadows. Then he stepped forward, slowly, almost excruciatingly slowly. Stiles just stared. He stared at himself. Well, it obviously was not him. Someone else. Something else.

"No, Stiles. Don't you recognise your old friend." Stiles' weak mind struggled to understand what the other him was saying. He continued to stare, taking in the pale face and dark bags under the other him's eyes, wondering if that was how he looked now. He wished he could turn around and look in the mirror behind him. "We had so much fun together! There was Eichen House and the'I am a thousand years old'  thing. Remember?" His voice formed words with relish and there was a hint of sickly sweet malice in his tone.

The Nogitsune... Stiles was looking at the Nogitsune. A cold like he hadn't felt for a long time filled him. It chilled him to the core to the point it was almost painful. The fear was almost painful. Any more and it would have cripple him, petrified him. "How... how are you here?"

The Nogitsune took a step closer to him and smiled a cheshire cat smile. Stiles had never wanted to run away more. He just wanted to curl up in to a ball and shut it all out. he had never been more resentful of the fact he was tied to a chair. "Oh Stiles. I'm not here. How can I be? I'm in your head." The Nogitsune tapped his temple almost condescendingly. "I've always been there, ever since you 'defeated' me. I told you I couldn't die. I told you but you did not listen."

"We stopped you..." The Nogitsune laughed maniacally and loudly, making Stiles wince instinctively. It was the laughter in his head, the laughter that haunted his nightmares. But until now it had always been a sound of the shadows, well away from the front of his mind.

"No. You can't stop me. It is not possible. I've been waiting. Waiting for a time your mind was weak. Now is that time and I am coming Stiles." The Nogitsune rushed forward grabbing Stiles' shoulders, the cold of The Nogitsune's fingers seeping through the fabric of his clothing and looked him in the eye. Pale brown eye to pale brown eye. "I AM COMING! I AM COMING! I AM COM-"

Stiles jolted awake to an empty room. No Nogitsune. It was just a dream. Or more like a nightmare. Stiles didn't have good dreams anymore. But the Nogitsune really was coming back. Stiles could feel it, clawing its way up through his soul, tearing it to shreds in the process once again. The Nogitsune was coming and he was weak. He had no choice; he had to be strong...