I'M BACK BITCHES!

Well, I've gotten a ton of requests for this sequel so I figured I'd try to write it. I'm getting ready to get off for summer break so I'm going to have time. I hope it holds up to your expectations :)

There are links on my profile as usual, babes.

"I literally don't understand this in the slightest bit!" I said, throwing the movie case to the ground. "I don't get why they think that they can just love each other when he wants to kill her."

"That's the only thing that strikes you as odd about this movie? Their entire family misses every time it's sunny out and no one questions it. To me that says shady beyond belief," Lily laughed from her spot beside me on my bed.

"I guess anything can be overlooked when you're as attractive as all of them are," I finally said. "Do you want to continue the marathon? We've still got three movies left."

I had made it a point to hang out with Lily more since the Darach thing was over. She and Stiles were literally the biggest parts of my life right after Scott and mom. I couldn't believe that it'd only been a little over three weeks since it all happened.

I kept waiting for things to get weird with Scott, Allison, and Stiles after the almost death thing. Deaton did say that there was going to be an effect on all of them, a darkness inside of them. None of us really knew what that meant, I guess we were all sort of waiting until something happened to find out.

"Stop thinking about the darkness that may or may not be around their hearts. This is the first night I've got to be with you without your twitchy boyfriend. I want to keep it that way," Lily said, hitting me with a pillow.

"I'm sorry! I'm trying as hard as I can to stay here in the moment with you, I swear!" I told her before rolling out of bed and putting in the next movie. "Let's let their drama overpower ours, okay?"

…

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my phone ringing by my head. It wasn't the sound of my alarm so I was a little bit freaked out. Who called me at seven in the morning?

"Baby, what's wrong? It's really early," I yawned rolling out of bed and heading towards the bathroom.

"Nothing, I just had a rough night and wanted to hear your voice. I'll tell you and Scott about it at school," he told me after he let out a relieved sigh. "I just had a weird dream and you were part of it, but you're safe and fine."

"I'll see you at school, baby. I love you," I said and hung up after he said it back.

"You guys are literally disgusting," Scott groaned as he walked into the bathroom and started peeing while I brushed my teeth. "It's too early for you guys to be this sickeningly sweet."

I shrugged my shoulders and finished my teeth before responding. "That's big talk coming from the guy who used to have "no you hang up first" fights with his girlfriend."

He flinched and covered his heart, "Ouch! That was harsh."

"Stiles said that he has to talk to us when we get to school. Apparently something is bothering him and he needs our help," I said before going back to my room to wake up Lily.

"Get up, we have school!" I told her as I dug around for an outfit. "We stayed up late watching sparkling vampires, but we still have classes."

"You just want to go so you can see your boy toy," she muttered under her breath before rolling over onto her stomach. "I want to sleep."

I heard something slam against the wall outside and heard picture frames hit the ground. I ran out of my room and saw Isaac leaning against the wall and Scott standing against his door frame. I knew that it had something to do with Allison and his growing affection for her.

Before I could say anything, mom started screaming up the stairs. "Hey! You two supernatural teenage boys, don't test my entirely un-supernatural level of patience this morning!"

"Are you okay, loser?" I asked after he and Scott apologized to mom. "You hit that wall pretty hard."

I knew that sometimes he had flashbacks of his father when he got hurt and I wanted to make sure he wasn't doing that now. He was safe here and I tried my best to make him remember that often.

"I'm okay, I told him to do it. Thank you," he said, nodding at me before disappearing back inside Scott's room.

I walked back into my room and picked out my outfit for the day. Lily was slowly coming to life and started getting ready with me.

…

By the time we got to school, I was anxious. Apparently Scott was having hallucinations of something about changing into an alpha when he really wasn't. I couldn't help but wonder if that had something to do with the darkness. I'm sure Allison was feeling something too.

I saw Stiles walking up the stairs and jogged to catch up to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind and hugged him tightly. I felt his entire body tense up and his hands wrap around my wrists. Then I saw his head glance down before his body relaxed under my touch.

"You scared me, Scarlet," he said, tugging me around and hugging me to his front. "I've had a rough night and I'm a little bit wild right now."

"I'm sorry, baby. I'll stay with you tonight and help you feel safe," I said, running my thumb over the wayward hairs in his eyebrow.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't know how violent I get or what I'll do when I wake up," he said quickly, I could feel his heart racing from where I was standing. "I don't want to hurt you, Scar."

I wanted to push the subject more, but something had already caught his attention. I looked where he was looking and saw that it was Scott. He looked like he was tweaking out and I knew that he'd had one of his hallucinations again.

"Hey! Hey, are you alright? You don't look alright, Scott," Stiles said, grabbing Scott's shoulder and holding him upright.

"I'm okay," Scott said breathlessly.

"No, you're not. It's happening to you, too. You're seeing things, aren't you?" Stiles asked quietly.

"How'd you know?" Scott asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Because it's happening to all three of you. Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one," Lydia announced as we all walked into school together.

"We're not crazy," Allison argued, but I could tell that she wasn't sure what she was saying was true.

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis?" she questioned with raised brows. When she saw their looks, she said, "Oh yeah, you guys are fine."

"They did all die and then come back to life. Deaton said that there would be some side effects, right?" I asked, clutching Stiles' hand in mine.

The bell signaling class was about to start rang. That meant that we all had to go to our classes and part ways with each other. That made my blood go a little bit cold. I hated being separated from all of them when something was going on.

"We have to keep an eye on each other. Okay?" Stiles said after the bell stopped ringing. "And, Lydia, stop enjoying this so much."

"What?" she asked with a sly smile on her perfectly glossed lips.

…

Classes had switched and I now had history first period with Stiles and Scott. I sat in the middle seat with Stiles on one side and Scott on the other. Since our last history teacher was a sacrifice, we have a new one this semester named Mr. Yukimura.

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Mr. Yukimura; I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought home a friend for that matter," he said.

I could only imagine the embarrassment that was coursing through the girl sitting in the very back seat. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have your dad as a teacher, must less to have him embarrass you in front of everyone.

"Either way, there she is. Now, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century," he said, finishing up his lecture.

I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was looking towards the back of the room. I turned my body to follow his eyes and saw that he was having a moment with Kira. I knew that look, he was thinking about how pretty she was. It was the look he gave Allison when she first moved here last year.

After class was over, I walked with Stiles over to his locker. I was digging through my bag for my homework for next class when I hear him swear under his breath. I looked up and saw that he was struggling with getting his locker opened.

I put my hands over his and stilled their jerky movements. "Hey, maybe you guys just need a little bit more time to get back to normal after everything."

"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures. There's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal," he argued before going back to staring at the lock on his locker.

I saw the horror cross Stiles' face, but before I could comment on it Scott stopped next to us. I glanced up at him and saw that this eyes were glowing red. I followed his eyes to see that he was watching Kira and her father.

"Are you guys okay? You're really worrying me," I said, looking back and forth between them.

"Dude, your eyes!" Stiles said when he looked up at Scott instead of his locker.

"What about them?" he asked, but I thought he could tell when he was starting to shift.

"Okay, we have to get out of the hallway before you shift in front of everyone. Come on," I said, grabbing his hand and running towards an empty classroom.

"Make sure you keep your eyes down," Stiles added and I heard him chasing after us. "The last thing we need is for someone to see them and start asking questions."

"You need to stop shifting!" I shrieked when I saw that his eyes were still red.

"Get back! Get away from me!" he shouted, pushing me back into Stiles.

"Hey, it's okay. You're not going to hurt us, we know that," I said slowly, walking up to him with my hands held out in surrender.

"Scarlet, stop! I don't know what's going to happen this time! Get back!" he shouted and I stepped back to stand beside Stiles.

Stiles tried to push me behind his back, but I held strong. I wasn't weak and I wasn't scared of my brother; he would never hurt me. Stiles realized that I wasn't going to back down so he settled for taking my hand in his and intertwining our fingers.

I grimaced when I saw the blood dripping from Scott's palm onto the floor. I knew he'd sank his claws into his palm, he did that when he wanted to fight a shift.

"Pain makes you human," he grunted out.

"Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real and it's starting to get bad for me too. I'm not just having nightmares, I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm actually ever awake," Stiles said shakily.

"What do you mean?" Scott asked, still trying to catch his breath for his attack earlier.

"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams," Stiles told him, still holding onto my hand like a lifeline. "More and more, the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters into the right order."

"Like, even right now?" Scott asked.

I looked up Stiles' face and saw the pure fear on his face. He was literally scared to death right now and there was nothing I could do to help him.

"I can't read a thing."

…

Apparently Allison was having hallucinations as well. I spoke to her and Lydia during lunch and we all made plans to go to the Preserve after school. Lydia had this plan to try and help Allison focus, but I had my doubts about it.

Like right now, Lydia was pinning a target to one of the trees. I was standing back beside Allison who was getting her bow ready.

"Do you really think that this is going to help me?" Allison asked, holding her bow to her chest.

"I know that if you think it's not going to help, it definitely won't," Lydia told her, forever being the smartest person in a group.

I loved that she wasn't afraid to be smart anymore. She used her intelligence to help people, and Allison used her skills to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. It was amazing how much they'd both grown since sophomore year. We were all becoming adults, whether it was because we chose to or not. I could only hope that I was doing the same.

I watched Allison take a couple of calming breaths before pulling back and launching an arrow. It missed the target completely. She shot another one and it missed even more than the one before. I could feel Allison's frustration bubbling up inside of her.

"Maybe if you hold the string a different way. Try the Mongolian Draw," she told her. When she saw mine and Allison's confusion, "What? I read. Try it."

"The Mongolian Draw is when you pull the string back with only your thumb," Allison explained to me. "It's supposed to change your thoughts and make you hit your target easier. It was used a lot my Mongolian hunters and soldiers during combat."

I nodded, happy that she'd brought me up to speed. She tried to do that method, but the arrow just hit the ground without being launched.

"Okay, uhm, why don't you take a second and breathe? Then close your eyes and imagine the arrow going into the target," I suggested as I saw a fight brewing in the future.

Suddenly Allison asked, "Did you guys see that?"

"See what? What are you talking about?" Lydia asked, walking over to Allison and me. "There's nothing out there, it's just us in the woods."

Allison started moving towards the thick grove of trees. "You guys wait here, I'll be right back."

"Are you serious right now? That's what the dumb girls always say in horror movies before they die," Lydia cried, but Allison was already gone.

Allison made her way back over to Lydia and me. I was about to talk to her when she pulled her bow and drew back an arrow. She let it fly and closed my eyes quickly as it came straight towards my face. I expected it to slide right through my face and kill me, but I never felt it.

I forced my eyes open and saw that Isaac had caught it less than four inches in front of my face. I felt something dripping down my cheek and reached up to touch it. Apparently the arrow got a little close before he caught it because I was bleeding.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Scarlet!" Allison shrieked, running over to me and seeing if I was okay. "I didn't know it was you! I thought it was someone else! I saw something and it freaked me out and I got disoriented. I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

…

"Okay, slow down. Tell me what you're thinking without your usual spaz attacks," I told Stiles over the phone as I made dinner. "Who's Malia?"

"One of my dad's first cases was the death of a mom and her two kids in a car crash. He said that he thinks that it might have had a supernatural component," he told me. "They thought, at the time, that the family was killed by coyotes and the other kid, Malia Tate, was dragged away and eaten by them. Now dad thinks that something else might be the blame because it happened on the night of a full moon."

"So Malia and her family might have been attacked by a werewolf?" I asked, stirring the spaghetti in the pot. "A werewolf that then took Malia into the woods and killed her?"

"That's what I was thinking, and I think that's what dad thinks too," he told me through a yawn.

"Do you want me to come over and stay with you tonight?" I asked even though I knew what his answer would be. "I can keep you safe and comfy."

"I've already told you that I don't want you to be here when I'm like that. The last thing in the world that I ever want to do is hurt you," he told me and I could hear the frustration that he was trying to keep at bay.

"Okay, I don't want to fight with you. I'll see you tomorrow," I told him. "I love you, Stiles."

"Love you too," he told me before the line went dead.

…

We were sitting in Econ the next morning and Stiles looked like hell. He only said a couple of words to me that morning and kissed my head before leaving Scott and me alone. I wanted to follow him and see what was wrong, but I knew that would just annoy him more.

"Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?" Coach Finstock asked suddenly.

I looked over at Stiles and saw that he was staring off into space. At first I thought he'd fallen asleep, but then I remembered him talking about never knowing if he was awake or not. What if he had sleep paralysis right now?

Coach Finstock moved closer to Stiles and started blowing his whistle at him. I could only imagine what it was doing to Scott because I felt like my ears were bleeding. Stiles suddenly snapped back to reality and focused in on the Coach.

"Stilinski!" he shouted.

"Uh-huh?" Stiles asked, running a hand over his face and trying to look alive.

"I asked you a question."

"Uh, sorry Coach, what was it?"

"It was 'Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?' and I think you just answered it," the Coach said in frustration.

"Oh, well, I am now," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I would love it if you'd stop reminding me why I drink…every night. Does anybody else want to answer the question on the board that was paying attention?" he asked as he moved away from Stiles.

I looked over at him with raised brows and waited for him to explain what was happening with him. I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was looking at him with an almost identical expression.

"It's so weird when you guys do that. It's like I'm dating both of you and it gets weird," Stiles said, trying to lighten up the situation. "I'm okay, I just fell asleep for a second."

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and looked at him in confusion. I felt ice licking its way up my body when I realized that he was telling the truth. He really thought that he was asleep when Coach started screaming at him.

"Dude, you weren't asleep," Scott finally told him before pointing down at his notebook.

I gasped quietly when I saw that he'd scribbled "wake up" all over to page. It was written in different ways and patterns, but it was most definitely written all over the paper. Stiles was awake somewhere inside, but he couldn't make himself move. The very thought made me grab his hand and hold it tightly mine until we were released to go to lunch.

We all sat outside like usual, joining up with Allison, Isaac, and Lydia. I wasn't very hungry because I was so worried about everyone, but Stiles kept forcing me to eat his fries. I tried to stop him, but eventually I gave in and ate the rest of them.

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked, drawing all of our attention to the problem at hand.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" Allison finished off the three sacrifices.

"They're all locked up in the bin because they're all insane," Isaac said, making me throw one of the fries at him and roll my eyes.

"Haha, can you at least try to be helpful, please?" Stiles asked sarcastically.

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me," Isaac remarked within a couple of seconds.

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?" Stiles asked after he recovered, making me slap his arm.

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that," he sneered.

"Uhm, hi. Hi, sorry. I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might know what you're talking about," Kira said after walking up to our table. "There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called "Bardo," it literally means "in-between state." The state between life and death."

Instantly, territorial-Lydia reared its ugly head. "And what do they call you?"

"Kira," Scott said before the girl could speak. "She's in our history class."

I saw the way Allison looked at Scott when he said that. She had heartbreak written clearly on her face, and I couldn't say that I blamed her. She and Scott were both trying their best to get over each other, but it wasn't as easy as they'd hoped it would be. To be honest, I still thought that they were going to end up together.

"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia asked, her intelligence showing.

"Either, I guess. But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo," Kira said. Her face started to glow as she spoke, "There are different progressive states where you have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities? And what are those?" Isaac asked in confusion.

"Like demons," Kira answered.

"Demons," Stiles said flippantly. "Why the hell not?"

"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison asked the question that seemed to be on everyone's mind.

"Death," Kira answered excitedly. Then she saw the horror on all of our faces and quickly sobered, "You die."

…

After class ended, I ended up tagging along with Scott and Stiles to go talk to Deaton. I road with Stiles, sitting close to him and resting my hand on his leg. Whether he told me or not, I could tell that he was really afraid.

"You're not doing this alone, you know? You've got all of us behind you," I whispered to him. "I'm not going to leave when things get hard. I'm just going to hold on even tighter."

He parked in the lot and turned around to face me. He held my face in his hands and leaned forward to press our lips together. Kissing Stiles was something that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. There something electric about the way his lips feel against mine that I can't get enough of.

There was a harsh knock on the door and I looked over Stiles' shoulder to see Scott standing outside. He was staring at us in exasperation. Well, at least we waited until we weren't around everyone to make out.

"Can you guys come inside before I become an uncle while we're all going completely insane," Scott said after Stiles opened up his door.

I felt my face getting hot and I hid it away from them as we went inside. I let Scott and Stiles explain what was happening to them and Allison since the night of the sacrifices. I was still insanely embarrassed about Scott catching us making out.

"It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you," Deaton finally said after he'd heard all the details.

"Well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?" Stiles asked, scrubbing his hands up and down his face in frustration.

"Do you remember what the sign language looked like? The placement and movement of the hands?" Deaton asked, trying to make sense out of Stiles' dream.

"You know sign language?" Scott asked Deaton in surprise.

"I know a little. Let me give it a shot," Deaton answered, smiling at Scott's surprise.

Stiles nodded his head and started signing, "The first one is like this"

""That's when," Deaton supplied, watching Stiles' hand movements.

Stiles signed the rest of his dream out and Deaton translated it all out, "When is a door not a door?"

"When it's ajar," I answered suddenly, making them all jump.

"You've got to be freakin' kidding me right now! My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?" Stiles shrieked, tossing his hands up in the air.

"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of super-consciousness, you essentially opened a door into your minds," Deaton explained to them, putting all the puzzle pieces together like always.

"So what does that mean? Are the doors in our minds still open?" Scott asked, looking at Deaton with his eyebrows knitted together.

"No, they're all still ajar," I answered like it was the easiest thing in the world. "The doors in your minds are still ajar and things can get inside."

"The doors in our minds are still ajar?" Stiles shouted.

"I did tell you that it was risky before you all did it," Deaton told him.

"You know what's wrong with me, I can tell by that look! It's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix you,' look," Stiles said.

"One thing I do know is that having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good. You each need to close that door and you need to do it as soon as you can," Deaton instructed.

We were on our way out of the clinic when we ran into Sheriff Stilinski. He was looking for Scott to get help solving the Tate case that Stiles told me about earlier.

"Why me?" he asked like he wasn't used to being the good guy in every situation.

"Because eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident. One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me thinking that a werewolf could have caused the accident, and then dragged her body away. If you could somehow lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find the body, it might provide the missing clue," Sheriff Stilinski explained.

"But what if it was a werewolf?" Stiles asked,

"Well, there's somebody out there who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught," the Sheriff reasoned.

…

"How dare you treat me like I'm a child, Stiles Stilinski?! I can handle myself just fine at this house, I've been through a hell of a lot worse. Or did you forget the time Lydia and I were alone with the Darach in Derek's loft?" I shouted at him after he told me that he was taking me home.

"You're going to be mad no matter what I say so I'm just going to stay quiet. You're going home and that's it," he answered as he drove.

I slammed myself against his door and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't say a word to him then entire ride and as soon as we pulled up in front of my house, I got out and didn't look back. If he wanted to act like my dad, I would act like an ungrateful child.

"Hey, where's the fire? You're slamming in like you're throwing a tantrum," Isaac said as I slammed the front door. "What'd Stilinski do?"

"He's still treating me like I'm a damn child! I'm older than he is!" I shouted, throwing my backpack onto the couch. "I'm just as capable as he is to do things, and I don't have fucking nightmares that I don't know if I'm sleeping for."

"He's just trying to keep you safe, Scarlet. He's afraid that if you go somewhere that you might not come back," Allison told me, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

"Uhm, Allison can we go talk where Isaac can't hear us? I asked, not even trying to be polite. "And before you say no, it wasn't really a question."

She just nodded and grabbed her things before going out to her car. I would just text Scott and have him pick me up before he came home. I needed to get to the end of whatever was going on between her and Isaac.

Once we were in the car, I started in on my interrogation. "Whatever you say in this car, stays in this car. What's going on with you and Isaac?"

"What do you mean?" she asked me. Then she saw the look on my face and quickly recanted, "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I didn't start having feelings for him on purpose, they just sort of happened. It's not like anything has happened between us or anything…"

"But if he made a move you'd let him?" I added in after she trailed off. "I'm not telling you that you can't move on after Scott, because you can it's only fair, but do you have to do it with the guy who lives with us?"

"There's just something about Isaac that draws me to him," she said. "I don't want Scott to hate me, god, I don't want that. I just want to be able to be around him and not want to kiss him.

"Do you want to know why I think you're into Isaac?" I asked. When she nodded, I said, "I think it's because he's this little hurt puppy and you feel like you have to protect him. You have this 'great protector' thing going on."

"I guess you're right, but I really don't know. I don't know anything about anything going on," she said after she parked in her lot. "Well, that's not necessarily true. I know that I'm still in love with Scott, but I really like Isaac and it's confusing the hell out of me."

"Oh wow, you're really in deep aren't you?" I asked after she laid all that out. "What does Lydia have to say about this? I'm sure you've talked "to her already."

"Not really, I don't think she'd really understand what I'm going through right now," she said. "I haven't told anyone, but I figured, why not tell you?"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, my boyfriend treats me like I'm a child. Either that or like I'm the weakest thing in the world and I hate it," I told her, squeezing her arm.

"He doesn't think you're weak, it's the opposite. You should see how he talks about you when you're not around. He's so in love with you and your strength, and your stubbornness," she said. "Don't ever think that he doesn't believe in you."

…

Mom ended up picking me up on her way home from work. It seemed like it was a lot easier than calling Scott and having to ride on the back of his dirt bike in my dress. I hated doing that, I felt like I flashed everything that I had.

"I'm trying to help!" I heard my dad shout as soon as I walked into the house.

"That doesn't make any sense! Who are you helping, dad? Just get out," Scott shouted at him in return.

"Scott," my dad warned, but Scott was already too far gone to stop now.

"What? I can't believe you'd do this to my best friend or his dad!" he screamed and I saw his eyes flash red.

"I'm not doing anything to your friend; I'm just doing my job," dad tried to reason, but I knew Scott wasn't going to hear a word that he said.

"Well, your job sucks!"

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?" mom asked after she walked in mid-argument.

"He's trying to get Stiles' dad fired!" I said, moving to stand with Scott so he knew that no one was on his side right now.

"No, that's not true," he tried to reason.

"What are you doing then?"

"Conducting a case for impeachment."

"That sounds a whole hell of a lot like trying to get him fired," I told him, placing my hands on my hips and staring him down.

"The lack of resolution and ability to close cases is what's going to get him fired. My job is just to collect the information and it's the job my superiors have given me," dad said.

"Well, your job sucks," mom told him.

I glanced over at Scott and saw that he was trying his best to not shift, but he wasn't doing too good of a job at it. I grabbed his and mom's hands and drug them into the hall away from dad.

"Scott, you have to calm down. Come with us and breathe," I said. As soon as we were out of his hearing range, I said, "Let it go; shift and then come back."

"I'm trying," he forced out through gritted teeth.

"You told me that you, Stiles, and Scarlet figured out a way to control this. You find an anchor, right? Find your anchor," mom instructed, rubbing his back.

"My anchor was Allison and I don't have her anymore," Scott said miserably.

"Be your own anchor, Scott. I believe in you, you can do this," I said, holding his hands in mine.

Scott was panting and groaning as his shift kept coming on strong. He was still too in love with Allison to ever think about finding a new anchor. His love for her was going to get us all killed if he didn't figure it out.

"Sweetheart, let me tell you something that no teenager ever believes, but I swear to you, both of you, that it's the absolute truth. You fall in love more than once; it'll happen again for you, Scott. And it'll be just as amazing and extraordinary as the first time," mom told him. "And maybe just as painful, but it will happen again, I promise. Until then, be your own anchor."

I saw Scott struggling with himself for a couple of tense seconds before his breathing evened out. He let go of my hands and pulled me and mom in for a hug. It seemed like he'd became his own anchor.

…

I'd only been asleep for little over an hour when Scott burst into my room. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans with a flashlight in his hands. I had a weird flashback of that fateful day back in the beginning of our sophomore year before I spoke.

"What the hell are you doing in my room at one in the morning with a flashlight?"

"We're going to look for a body, duh! This is my 'dead body hunting outfit,' don't you have one?" he said, smiling like he used to before all of this happened.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I do actually have one. This is weird," I said before getting up and digging around for my clothes. "Why do we always hunt for dead bodies? This is a weird extra-curricular activity to have. I can't even put it on college applications. I mean, what would I say? 'Oh, I find dead things, or half of dead things, or sometimes werewolves. It just depends on the day or the moon'?"

"You have officially been spending way too much time with Stiles."

I waited outside on Scott's dirt bike while he went to get Stiles. I was still aggravated at him for earlier, I wasn't going to ride with him in his jeep right now. I would wait until it got colder tonight to cross that bridge.

"What are we doing out in the freezing cold?" Stiles groaned as he and Scott walked back to me together.

"We're going to find a body," Scott said. "Together."

…

"This is almost scary how much it's just like last year," I whispered as we walked through the darkened woods together.

"Yes, but we've got a few things in our favor this time. I brought a flashlight and so did Stiles, and I have a nose that can help us get to our destination better than any GPS," Scott said, tapping his nose jokingly.

"You know, if my dad's right, that means there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet," Stiles said.

"I know."

"If it turns out to be something like triplets that form into, like, a three-headed hound from hell, I'm seriously not up for that," Stiles said, holding up his hands to Scott.

"I don't think Scar and I are either," Scott agreed. "Especially if I can't control my transformations anymore."

A loud howl ripped around us and made us freeze in our tracks. It sounded lonely and vaguely scary, but I wasn't as easily scared as I was a year ago. If I was, this weird sense of déjà vu would be crippling me. It startled Stiles so badly that he threw his flashlight and made me snicker.

He thought he was the brave one, as if.

"I'm sorry, buddy, but I hate coyotes so much. They always sound like they're mauling some tiny, helpless animal," Stiles said after the howling stopped.

"We all know how you love to protect things that you think are helpless. Maybe we should lock all the little animals in their houses," I sneered, stomping away from Stiles.

"It still works, thank god," I said as I picked up his flashlight and flicked it back on. "Plus, I think we found it."

"Uhm, wouldn't they have moved it? Isn't it evidence?" Scott asked as we all moved closer to it slowly.

"It was probably too much of a pain in the ass to tow out," Stiles said. Then he pointed to the scratch marks on the side, "See those? Animal claws would be closer together, right? A lot closer."

"Then it was a werewolf," I whispered as Scott held his fingers over the claws and saw that they almost perfectly aligned.

"So my dad was right!" Stiles said in victory.

"Do you remember those pictures that we saw at the Tate's house earlier, Stiles? Isn't that the same doll?" Scott asked, pointing to a dirty doll sitting in the wreckage.

Scott picked it up and all of a sudden it said, "I'm hungry!"

I screamed and jumped behind Stiles, clutching him as adrenaline coursed through my body. I was proud to say that I was the only one who screamed nor was I the shrillest. I wasn't proud to say, however, that my boyfriend was the loudest and the shrillest.

"I think I just had a minor heart attack!" Stiles exclaimed after we'd started breathing normally again.

I heard growling over in the bushes and turned to see that there was a pair of glowing eyes inside of it. They weren't the eyes of any animal, they were the eyes of a werewolf.

"Hey, guys, please tell me you see that," Scott said.

"We both see it," Stiles reassured him. "Wait, hey, Scott! Scott, wait!"

It was no use, Scott ran off after the glowing eyes from the bush. I knew better than to chase after him so I stayed put with Stiles. I could tell by the look on his face he was going to question me on my icy attitude towards him so I beat him to the punch.

"Don't treat me like I'm breakable just because I'm your girlfriend now or I won't be anymore," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I love you so much, Scarlet, and it terrifies me that you're so reckless sometimes. I love that you're independent and you fight just as hard as everyone else, but I'm scared that you're going to be hurt or worse. I can't lose you," Stiles said, walking up to me and trying to hold me, but I wouldn't let him.

"I'm the same girl I was before everything changed, don't treat me any different. I love you, but this had to stop," I said, allowing him to touch me. "Okay?"

He sighed and nodded before holding my waist and pressing a kiss to my forehead. "Fine."

Reviews tell me if I'm supposed to keep going or leave it :)