Tooth & Claw | Teen Wolf Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty: Works In Progress

Chapter Twenty: Works In Progress

[ Beacon Hills High School, Beacon Hills ]
[ Monday, April 15th ]
[ Third Person ]

     It was an ungodly hour of the morning on the first Friday back from the holidays but Stiles had found himself wide awake and sitting opposite Miss Morrell in the Guidance Office – not by her or the Sherriff’s request, but by his.

     “You know when you’re drowning, you don’t actually inhale until right before you black out.” Stiles began whilst restringing the mesh of his lacrosse stick. “It’s called voluntary apnea.” He added. “It’s like no matter how much you're freaking out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won't open your mouth until you feel like your head's exploding." he went on. "But then when you finally do let it in, that's when it stops hurting. It's not scary anymore. It's - it's actually kind of peaceful."

     "Are you saying you hope Matt felt some peace in his last moments?" Miss Morrell questioned him.

     "I don't feel sorry for him." Stiles told her reproachfully.

     "Can you feel sorry for the nine-year-old Matt who drowned?"

     "Just because a bunch of dumbasses dragged him into a pool when he couldn't swim doesn't really give him the right to go off killing them one by one." Stiles stated stubbornly. "And by the way, my dad told me that they found a bunch of pictures of Allison on Matt's computer. And not just of her though. I mean, he photo shopped himself into these pictures. Stuff like them holding hands and kissing. You know, like he had built this whole fake relationship." he mentioned. "So yeah, maybe drowning when he was nine years old was what sent him off the rails, but the dude was definitely riding the crazy train." he concluded.

     "One positive thing came out of this, though - right?" Miss Morrell asked, referring to his dad being reinstated as Sheriff.

     "Yeah." Stiles agreed. "Yeah, but I still feel like there's something wrong between us." he revealed causing Miss Morrell to elevate an eyebrow. "I don't know." he shrugged. "It's just like tension when we talk - Same thing with Scott."

     "Have you talked to him since that night?"

     "No, not really." Stiles confessed. "I mean, he's got his own problems to deal with though." he excused Scott, pitying the boy whose mother was currently rejecting him now she knew the truth. "I don't think he's talked to Allison either." he added. "But that might be more her choice, you know - her mom dying hit her pretty hard, but I guess it brought her and her dad closer." he theorised.

     "And Rebekah?"

     "Well,” Stiles sighed deeply. “I haven't really talked to her since the funeral and even then that was just the pleasantries, you know?" he responded. "She's sort have withdrawn herself from us, I don't think she's talked to anyone." he admitted. "She's moved house and got a new phone but no-one knows where she lives now or her phone number - at least none of us."

     "So she's moved back to her old crowd?"

     "I don’t know.” Stiles insisted, perhaps a bit too quickly. “I just….” He paused for a second as he glanced down to the ground with a frown evident on his face. “..I don’t know.” He repeated. “You know what? Lydia seems the most normal of us right now." He commented.

     "And what about you, Stiles? Feeling some anxiety about that championship game this Saturday?" she quizzed.

     "Why would you ask me that?" Stiles queried, still with one of the strings of the lacrosse net in his mouth – he had been constantly fiddling with it throughout the whole conversation. "Ah. Uh, no. I - I never actually play." he admitted. "But hey, since one of my teammates is dead and another one's missing, who knows, right?" he said with a shrug accompanied with a sad smile.