I had been going on daily walks for years now. It was a nice and healthy way to get out of the house and calm down, all while enjoying the fresh air. Even in the mids of the crazy things going on lately, I had made sure to never break my habit of going on walks daily, though, one element about them had changed about them.
I had made sure to never listen to music before. I wanted that time to be alone with my thoughts and just think. But now there was so much I didn't wanna think about. Now it was way too scary to be alone with my thoughts. So I had started listening to music in order to drown them out.
I was midway through that day's walk – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' "Bad Reputation" blasting through my headphones – when I passed the forest. Usually, I would walk through it, but after almost getting eaten by a rabid coyote just yesterday, it didn't seem like such an appealing thought.
But perhaps it would've been smarter to walk into the forest that night. Maybe then things would've been different. In the dark of the woods, I would've probably lost him. But I didn't. And as a result, just one minute after I passed the forest, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, I fell down onto the ground, and everything went black.
★
Stiles
"No, nothing," Isaac's voice rang through the phone. "Just stuff about flies and the dead. Nothing else."
I tried my best not to sigh out of frustration. That Isaac and Allison had been unsuccessful in finding anything in the bestiary about flies, it meant we had no leads to help us save Valerie and Kira.
"Alright," I said, adding, "thanks," afterward, hoping that it would neutralize my aggressive tone. I hung up and turned back to Scott and Lydia. "We have to think of something quick or he's going to kill them."
