YOUTH || Liam Dunbar [1]

TWENTY NINE

Katherine stared blankly at Liam's back, curled up in a ball under her blankets.

Her eyes were blotchy and red, and she was still sniffling. Liam had helped her under the covers so she would hopefully stop shaking, and she had.

He leaned over to turn off the light, and hesitated. Katherine didn't say anything. Instead, she let out a shaky breath and curled further into the blankets. Her cheek was pressed into the pillow Liam had put between the both of them, and her legs were pulled up to her chest.

Moments later Liam sat up and looked around the room nervously. "Is everything okay?" Katherine asked hoarsely, her voice raspy and quiet.

"Yeah," Liam nodded after a minute. He laid back down and reached over for the switch on his lamp. The light flickered off and he immediately covered himself up to his neck with the blanket.

Katherine heard his breathing quicken, and her brows furrowed. She forced her eyes open and stared at his back again, debating on whether or not she should say something. His body was trembling and he was now breathing rapidly.

"You're not there," she heard Liam say. His voice was weak and he sounded panicked. "You're. Not. There."

Katherine rolled over and looked around in confusion. There was no one in the room other than themselves.

Moments later Liam let out a gasp and the lamp flickered on. He bolted upwards so he was sitting. Katherine slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I'm pretty sure you're not okay, Liam," she mumbled.

He didn't answer her, just stared blankly at the opposite wall. Katherine frowned and moved the pillow out of her way, then wormed her way under his right arm and wrapped her arms around his middle. She laid her head on his shoulder and let out a small sigh.

"I keep seeing them," Liam choked out after a long few minutes of silence. "Those bone things."

"The Berserkers?" Katherine asked quietly. Liam nodded as he wrapped his arms around her, absentmindedly playing with strands of her hair. "That's okay," she murmured.

"But none of you guys seem to be having any problems with this," Liam protested.

"We do," Katherine shook her head. She pulled herself away from him and shuffled back, crossing her legs — criss-cross applesauce, like they teach kids in kindergarten — and set her hands in her lap. "Back when this stuff first started happening to us, Scott was failing, like, half his classes, Stiles was pretty much living off of Adderall, and Lydia was pretending to be stupid because of her asshole of a boyfriend who didn't deserve her."

"Really?" He seemed surprised.

"Yeah." Katherine inhaled sharply and played with the charms on her Tinkerbell bracelet. "Did I ever tell you how Derek's uncle went on a murder spree as a blood thirsty werewolf?"

"No..."

She smiled weakly. "Well, he did. And there was one night where me, Lydia, her asshole of a boyfriend Jackson, Scott, Stiles and—" her breath caught in her throat as she tried to say Allison. But she found she couldn't. So she did her best to continue on. "And someone you never were able to meet got stuck in the school for most of the night with him. After that happened, Stiles and I started having panic attacks pretty frequently and I—" she inhaled sharply. "I was also on sleeping pills for a year."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Katherine breathed. "I started taking them again a little while back—" the thought of the Nogitsune sent chill throughout her body as her hand reached around and hovered over the scars on the back of her neck "—but for now, I'm all good."