Empathy ⌯ Stiles Stilinski

[02] the new girl

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎
the new girl

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( wolf moon; pt.ii )

AS she takes a bite of her toast, Maddie's sleep—deprived taste buds could swear that it's never tasted so good. She's still half asleep, having only woken up less than half an hour ago and functioning off of an average of four hours sleep——she spent at least an hour staying up, hoping for a text from Scott, any text that could signal that he hadn't been the killer's next victim. She also hoped that maybe there was a chance he had found her keys. It was a miracle that her aunt always leaves a key hidden in the plant pot that hangs beside the door, otherwise she would have had to sleep outside considering she had also left her phone in her room when she went to meet Stiles outside.

Then again, Stiles has a key to almost every building in Beacon Hills, his friends' houses included, so even if the key wasn't there, she probably wouldn't have had to sleep outside.

Her alarm had been the devil when she woke up though, especially because every time she would fall asleep, she'd end up waking up about an hour later with her mind deciding to bombard her with thoughts of Scott and him being dead in the woods, his body being the next to be found— God, would his body also be cut in half? What kind of lunatic cuts bodies in half? Do you know the amount of strength and effort that takes?

It certainly doesn't help that Scott hasn't texted her back. I mean, is it really that difficult to do? How much effort really goes into sending a small text that says I'm fine or even just a smiley face or a thumbs up would do, anything for her to know that he isn't dead in a ditch somewhere.

"Lyn, you okay?"

Maddie snaps out of her thoughts with a questioning hum as she looks up at her cousin. Harrison stands over by coffee pot, leaning back against the counter as he sips the hot liquid, his hands swallowing the porcelain whole to absorb the heat. Maddie never understood the hype around coffee, to her it either tasted like dirt or didn't have a taste at all. And yet in all his glory, her cousin stands sipping it like it's his lifeline. He raises a brow in expectance. "I asked if you were okay?"

The girl offers him a pursed lip smile and a nod of her head. Harrison scoffs, rolling his eyes with a faint disbelieving smile on his face. He could see through his cousin's lie. But he knows not to push, if she had an issue, she would come to him as long as he didn't put his nose where it didn't belong——he believed that. The two of them are less than a year apart and have known each other for their whole lives, they're more like siblings than cousins. Most days, they can read each other like an open book and sometimes they know the other more than they know themselves.

Harrison pushes off the counter and heads over to Maddie, making her repeat oh, God in her head a couple thousand times. He sits down in the chair opposite and places the mug down in front of him as his fingers rap against the porcelain. "So what late night adventures did you get up to yesterday?"

Maddie's heart instantly jumps out of place, leaving a numbing pain for a few moments. She knows he wouldn't have told Mark, otherwise breakfast would not have been as normal as it was, but she does feel bad. Was he up until she came back? Did she make him worry about her safety? Or worse, did he just not care and go back to sleep? She swallows the questions down, hating that that she instantly goes to the worst—case scenario sometimes. Taking a small bite of the half—eaten toast in her hand, she looks at him with her brows furrowed, hoping to avoid the situation by acting oblivious. His answer doesn't leave her with that choice.