Human ▹ Stiles Stilinski [2] [SU]

4 ▹ Topsy-Turvy

"Taryn?"

The brunette looked away from her wrung fingers and to the woman behind the desk. Because of the incident that took place last night, Melissa had called the school and requested for an extra session this week with Taryn and the school counselor. Unfortunately for Taryn, the school scheduled it for that morning, meaning the girl was forced to wake up early with Scott. So while the boys went to lacrosse practice, Taryn went to her school counselor.

"We've been sitting here for about ten minutes, are you ready to talk about what happened?"

Taryn squeezed her fingers tighter together as she reminded herself about the mauled man. Apparently Kate Argent was the cause of the accident, but it wasn't like Taryn could talk about that. Anyway, she knew what Mrs. Crag was wanting to hear from her.

"What's there to really talk about?" Taryn questioned, wincing at the memory of the mauled man shifting to Taryn's parents and brother. "That man was ripped apart by something. And yeah, sure, it put me back to when my brother and parents were murdered, but it's nothing I can't handle."

The blonde woman gave her an incredulous look and Taryn had to shift her attention back to her burning hands.

"I mean, the blood...the guts...the way the body was ripped into pieces..." Taryn paused to catch her breathing. "It looked so much like how they looked."

"Are you afraid that the possessed creature might have caused this man's death?" Mrs. Crag questioned. Taryn looked away again, this time in annoyance. She knew the woman received her records from Eichen House that explained about her 'hallucinations', about her talking about her experience with the Nogitsune, about her issues at Eichen.

Taryn stiffly shook her head. She knew the Nogitsune was locked away forever and she knew Kate Argent was the one who murdered the gas station worker. "Of course not. I know it was some animal or some insane murderer. Can we talk about something else?"

The woman hummed in agreement and Taryn sighed in relief. "You said last week you were feeling guilty. Why was that?"

Taryn was reminded of her therapy session with Mrs. Morrell back in Eichen when Stiles had first arrived. They were talking about guilt and at the time, Taryn was still feeling immense guilt for what she did to her biological family and now she was feeling a similar guilt for her new family. She loosened her hold on her hands and glanced at Mrs. Crag. "Melissa is struggling with money right now and I feel like it's my fault. She works so much just to pay my Eichen House bills—which are outrageous, buy the way, and she doesn't know I've looked at them, so don't tell her. I know Scott is feeling the same way, but it's different when a large portion of the money problem is caused by me."

"Have you talked to her about this?"

Taryn raised a brow at the blonde woman. "No, and neither has Scott. I'm not sure if I should say anything, because there isn't much I can do. I'm not able to get a job right now and school is a struggle enough as it is."

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Taryn was trapped in her thoughts after her session with her counselor, so she didn't even think about what her first dreadful class would be until Malia stopped her. The werecoyote put her hands on Taryn's shoulders and looked her in the eyes—they read fear and desperation.

"It's math, let's go."

Taryn nodded in agreement and allowed Malia to turn her around and lead her the way to the bathrooms. However, they were stopped when Stiles rounded the corner and gave the two girls a disappointed look. He shook his head and turned the two girls around and pushed them lightly back to the math room.