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So, as promised, a special shout out to everybody who has reviewed; Orionastro, JustALonelySoul, xXbriannaXx, GeekaZoid420, . , orionastro (thanks twice!), Brook330, Brook330 (thanks twice as well!), aliciasellers75, Calliope's Scribe, Guest and Jay98.

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Anywho, on with the show, my lickle dolphins ;)

Hope you likey!

Disclaimer: Don't own the plot or characters. Well, as you know, the plots of the first five chapters are purely mine, and the characters that are mine and mine only are Steve, Camilla, Charlie and Max.

Chapter Six:

It was a beautiful night.

No clouds covered the stars in the night sky; no rain fell from the clouds above. The tree were silent - they danced ever so slightly in the slight breeze that blew all throughout town.

It was a beautiful night, but it was creepy.

Max paused her run to lean against a tree, breathing heavily, the joy of what exercise comes with. The forest was silent; save for the odd rustle of leaves here and there, but she knew that they were the leaves rustling in the wind and under her feet as she pounded against the track she usually ran.

She felt terribly guilty, but she ran better on uneven ground rather than concrete. Her mom would just have to deal with the fact that she liked running in the forest and running at night. Plus, she had her phone on her. It wasn't as if she had just stepped out without any form of communication.

She rubbed her hands against her leggings before starting to run again. The only reason she had ran so far was because of the crap she had eaten over the summer break - the amount of times she had movie nights with Stiles and Scott, scoffing toffee popcorn and Cheetos down quickly, she needed to.

Even if it was creepy and eerily silent.

After running for a few minutes, she rested again against a tree. She had asked Scott or Stiles to come with her for some company (and safety) but Scott wanted to get an early night for his Lacrosse tomorrow, and she couldn't get hold of Stiles when she called him.

I'll be fine, she thought to herself. I'll get home with all my limbs and I'll text Lydia for the French homework so I can do it for tomorrow. I'll be fine.

Contining that mantra, she carried on running through the forest, comfortable with knowing where she was going without light.

A while later, she noticed that a fog had suddenly settled around her, and as she ran around a bend and through a slight hill in the ground, she realised that she wasn't alone. There, nestled between two bushes, the branches jagged from leaf loss, were two red dots. The same ones that were there before, when she was running.

Stopping, Max pulled her headphone from her ear.

"Hello, is there anybody there?" She called, looking towards the tree.

A growl came from behind her, and as she whipped around to look at where the noise had come from, the red dots moved closer. Max backed away. Her breath was coming out in short pants, the clouds of carbon dioxide appearing before being disrupted by another. Her eyes were fluttering all about the place; to the sky, to the ground, all around her, searching, checking for anything that seemed to be out of place.

And there it was again.

It was closer this time; out from behind the bushes and in the moonlight. It was giant. And black. If she hadn't been looking for it, she wouldn't have noticed it standing there like a statue. It's black fur was matted with something that was dripping off it; it's blood red eyes were staring directly at her as it's white teeth glittered and glistened in the moonlight.

It was scary.

She back away silently, not wanting to be noticed by the thing.

Crack.

It's head snapped to her foot as she lifted it quickly from the twig she had just stepped on.

Shit.

Max panted out one last breath before turning and bolting away. She could hear the heavy foot falls of the animal behind her, and it drove her to run faster and faster, deeper and deeper, in the woods.

Spotting a group of bushes, she dived through them and went out through the other side, into a stream which came to about her knee. She rushed through that, not caring that she was soaked and that she was falling over in her haste to get away from the animal behind her.

She was cold.

And alone.

In the middle of the woods.

Shit.

It took her awhile before she actually got her breath back and reached a track - not the same one she ran on, but at least it was a track - and she decided to head in the direction she thought was home. Glancing around and rubbing her arms from the chill, Max was on edge. Her arm hairs were on end, as was the hair on the back of her neck. She knew something was wrong.

Not again.

Before she even really knew what was happening, she was screaming - and the something she had apparently walked into was screaming as well. She noticed the blue Jeep before she really registered that it was her friends in front of her and not that monster from the woods.

"Max!"

She looked up at Stiles, eyes wide and breath coming out fast. "Stiles?"

She realised that she was clutching his arms, and that he was clutching her cheeks, moving her face this way and that.

"Yeah, Max, it's me," Stiles replied, still turning her head up. "You've cut all your neck up and your face. What the hell happened?"

Max looked off into the distance. "I can't remember. All I really remember was th-that I w-was scared and there was t-this, t-this thing and-"

Before she knew it, she was sobbing into Stiles' jacket, wrapped up in something of Scott's.

"Sssh, it's okay," Stiles whispered comfortingly. "It's okay, sssh..."

A while later, she wiped her face and looked up at the handsome teenage. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Checking out this call Stiles' dad got!" Scott said, seeming impatient. "All I wanted to do was sleep, but Stiles here had to drag me along to check out a dead body that had turned up in the woods."

"What?" Max asked, wiping her eyes were Scott's hoodie sleeve.

"Yeah," Stiles said lamely, shuffling and rubbing his head in nervousness. "I overheard my dad on the phone. They are calling everybody on the Beacon Force and even State Police."

"For a dead body?" Max asked, her face scrunched up in confusion. "Why? I mean, they've found the damn thing-"

"The two joggers only found half," Stiles interrupted. "That's what me and Scotty are doing out here, looking for it, since he's the one bitching nothing happens in this town." He looked down at Max. "Wait, are you crying because you've seen it-"

Max shook her head. "No. I just got really freaked out because there was this thing with red eyes out there and it was chasing me, and I got lost."

Scott tried to look sympathetic, Max saw, before he started to laugh. "I think you were seeing things, Maxie, there's not a thing with red eyes out in the woods."

Max pushed him and he let out a breath as if he was winded. "There was something out there, genius. Something that was chasing me."

Max could see Stiles felt awkward, so he got in between them. "Anyway, that's over now, Maxie. You're two heroes are here to save you and keep you safe."

Max smiled at him, wiping the snot and tears off her face. "Oh, how I am so lucky."

"C'mon, lets go find this body so we can get out of here," Stiles said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You're freezing! Here, have my jacket as well."

So that was how they set off; Scott and Stiles hyped to go find a dead body, and her wrapped up in their warm jackets, eyes red and cheeks flushed with adrenaline.

"So, Scott, why did you want to get a early night sleep?" Max asked, after she heard her friend complain once again about how he'd be getting a late night now.

"I was trying to get a good night sleep before practice tomorrow," Scott replied, glaring at their friend who was storming in front of them, obviously impatient about not finding a body.

Stiles didn't even turn his head to answer. "Yeah, because sitting on the bench is such a trying effort."

Max reached forwards and slapped him. "Shut up, Stiles. I think that if Scott tried, he'd get on the team. It does not help that you drag him on little escapades like this late at night. Everybody has dreams."

"Some are even pathetically unrealistic," Stiles mumbled, walking faster so Max couldn't hit him.

"Don't listen to Mr Grumpy Pants in front, Scott. I think that if you tried, you could easily get on the team," Max said politely, smiling at her friend and linking her arm through his.

"Thank you, Max." Scott squeezed his arm tighter as they carried on walking after their friend.

It was silent for a moment - but Max wasn't nervous or scared. She had her two friends with her; at least she wasn't alone.

"So, which half of the body are we actually looking for?" Max asked, as they crossed over a little stream.

Stiles stopped for a moment, turning to her with an eyebrow raised. "I didn't think about that."

"What happens if the murderer is still out here somewhere?" Scott asked, coming to a stop also.

Stiles ran a hand over his head. "I didn't think of that, either."

"Oh, great," Maxie sighed. "I'm out here with you two, at night, with a murderer on the lose and part of a dead body that could be anywhere. Oh, this is groovy."

Stiles carried on walking. "Is 'groovy' even said these days?"

Max shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I like it. Groovy. Grooooovy."

Stiles brushed some of her hair out of her face for her, just as she reached up to do it. "You're weird, but I like it."

"Thanks," Max breathed, smiling and blushing at the same time.

"Stop flirting and get a move on," Scott complained. "I'm freezing my ass off here."

Suddenly, flashlight beams come through the gaps in the trees, and Max feels herself being pulled to the ground, along with Scott. She can hear the distant barking of dogs, and for a second, her heart stopped. Shit. Stiles never told her about that either.

Cops.

Max was suddenly forced up by Stiles, who had grabbed her hand with the idea of running on his mind. However, as Max looked back, she noticed that Scott was going slowly while puffing on his inhaler.

"Scott!" She whispered loudly, gasping as Stiles' warm hand was suddenly ripped out of her grip.

She glanced up and noticed an angry police officer holding the back of Stiles' collar, the dog barking madly at her and she screamed out of shock.

"Hold up," a gruff, familiar voice came from behind some trees. Sheriff Stilinski. Damn. "This little delinquent belongs to me."

"What about this one, Sheriff?" The officer who just realised Stiles asked, pointing the flashlight right into her eyes.

"Maxie?" The Sheriff asked. After he took in the sight of her, he muttered, "...I'm not even going to ask." before turning to his son to interrogate him.

"Do you listen into every one of my phone calls?" He asked, sighing, and his shoulders slumped as he questioned Stiles.

Stiles shook his head. "No." After a pointed look from both Max and his dad, he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Not the boring ones."

The Sheriff sighed again. "Where's your other partner in crime?"

"What, Scott? He's at home, getting an early night for school tomorrow. It was just me and Maxie, alone, in the forest...at night..."

"Stiles," she hissed, after getting a few wolf whistles from the force. "Stop. Talking. Now."

The sheriff shook his head. "SCOTT!"

It made Max jump because of how loud it was.

The Sheriff seemed satisfied when he got no answer because he grabbed both of their arms and dragged them towards Stiles' car. "You two are coming with me. And Stiles, we are going to have a long talk about invasion of privacy..."

Max tuned out as she turned her head to catch a glimpse of Scott's red t-shirt. Her poor friend.

When she got home, with Stiles with her as she didn't want to be left alone, her mom and dad had hugged her before questioning her about what happened.

"It's nothing to worry about," she lied, "but I fell down and tripped up into a stream. Decided to try a different trail. Stiles and Scott just happened to be on the same trail and rescued me."

Her mom turned her head this way and that way, the same way as Stiles had. "I'd better get the antiseptic for these cuts and bruises-"

"Stiles can do that, Mom," she replied. "Don't worry. Go back to bed."

"Is he staying the night?" Her mom asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes.

Max nodded. "Is that all right?"

"Fine. Goodnight."

"Night."

"Night, Mrs Black," Stiles called.

"It's Camilla, and night, Stiles," She called back, wandering up the stairs with her dad in tow.

They had gathered up the first aid kit before they travelled up the stairs to her bedroom. There, Stiles told her to lie down while he cleaned all the cuts on her arms, her neck, her face, and her legs. It stung, and she had swore and hit out at him, but as he settled to sleep next to her, he said it was okay.

He also kissed her cheek before turning around.

She blushed and didn't even get annoyed at his soft snoring.

Hope you liked! Until next time! :D