From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Monsters waited at the edge of the woods and Maddie knew how the night would end, so she ran.
Her lungs burned in a way she would miss as she sprinted away from everything she knew, from the power that once coursed through her veins and how often it scared her the past nine years. She left the girls just like her, all three thousand of them with the same fears and fate, somewhere far behind her.
Into every generation...
No one could say how far she was from the school or how close she was to the edge of Beacon Hills Preserve. She had no idea how long she was running but treasured the solid sound of her boots hitting the packed dirt path, every step an ellipsis on a sentence she wouldn't finish.
Her axe jostled around her messenger bag, tugging at her shoulder and neck. Her side ached as if it would tear open again and her other shoulder blazed in white hot agony every time she moved her arm too much. The phantom itch of the scar on her stomach nagged at her, now more than ever. The wounds of a soldier in an endless war.
The Chosen are born.
The trees cast blurred shadows on her skin and her legs begged her to stop. Twigs and leaves crunched under her, a speeding percussion in her ears and a clock counting down too quickly as her breathing became more ragged.
Maddie tripped, stumbling and only barely catching herself on a tree trunk. There were only a few more feet before she reached the field. She sucked in a breath and coughed.
Girls bestowed with the strength and skill to hunt vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness.
The stillness brought everything back. The breeze hit her skin and she wrapped her jacket tighter around her. The chill reminded her of everything that she was leaving, the shadows of a life she never wanted and the stars that she couldn't reach.
She dug her phone out from a pocket on her bag as the light blinded her. She dialed a number she never called and shouldn't have known by heart.
One ring.
Maddie still gasped for air, pain shooting through her lungs and her healing wounds.
Two rings.
The silence and the static was a door closing - the very last way out. This was better. This way, she didn't need to explain more than she wanted.
Three rings and nothing.
Her stomach coiled and she gripped the phone so tightly, it was moments from smashing to pieces in her hand but still the only thing that would keep her hand steady. The only thing stopping her from crumbling in a violent show of weakness.
The fourth ring sounded and she held her breath, the sounds of leaves rustling blending seamlessly with the white noise.
"Hey! I'm not here right now! Leave a message and I'll get back to you ASAP!"
The words leadened and her heart dropped into her gut when she heard the voice. Despite it being recorded, the familiarity stung and swelled. The levity in it came from another lifetime, a gentler one, light-years from her now. It reminded her of a kind woman comforting a weeping child, her voice soft and heavy with something an eight year old couldn't yet grasp as she apologized over and over again.
It reminded her more of her cheek stinging in a moment of horror but she tried to focus on something else, something better.
The cross hanging from the thin silver chain around her neck weighed heavier against her chest than before. A monotone beep droned on the other line and she swallowed.
To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers.
"Buffy."
The name felt foreign on Maddie's tongue and fizzled out on her lips, taking her courage with it. She became a child suddenly, lost and too far from home. Worse, a shadow; like she was already a memory. Dark strands of hair stuck to her face and she didn't bother tucking them back as her eyes scanned the shadows, knowing what was waiting in them.
There were ghosts there, she knew it. Ghosts and other horrors.
A sob caught in her dry, gummed up throat, making it easy to hold it down.
"Something's...happened. Something's wrong."
Moonlight spread across the field ahead and the shadows of the trees reached across the grass like skeletal hands crawling out of the dark.
"I didn't call for back up. I, um- I think it's too late for that. I just wanted..." Her stomach knotted. Just wanted what? Forgiveness? To apologize? To tell you how much I screwed up? No, not quite any of that. She needed the truth from the only person who could possibly make it matter. The only person who could know what she was facing. "I know what's coming and I-...I can't stop it. I guess I just needed some advice."
She gripped the bark of the tree with her free hand, trying to settle her nerves. Trying to think of anything but what she was leaving behind.
"I mean, you'd know what..." She pushed the choking sob in her chest down again. Now wasn't the time to break. There was so little time left that every moment felt larger and more important, but scarce. Time had a way of betraying you like that. Her voice escaped again, this time much quieter. "...what it feels like. Maybe then I won't be so afraid when it happens."
They are Vampire Slayers.
She clenched her fists as tightly as she could without breaking anything, to stop the scream that was threatening to tear through her. "...I think I'm about to die."
And this is the beginning of the end of the world.
☽ † ☾
Seven Months Before
His pace didn't slow when he entered the living room until he came to a complete halt at the side table where the phone was set. One of two landline phones left in the house, mostly for emergency and hardly used otherwise. He roughly picked up the receiver and was about to hit the first number when his wife entered the room, horror in her intense blue gaze. "Chris, what do you think you're doing?"
"Using our last resort." Tonight was too close of a call and if anything had happened to Allison, he'd only blame himself for not taking the extra precaution earlier.
Victoria shook her head furiously. "No. No, you can't mean...!"
"What choice do we have?!" He looked up from the phone to his wife, his own stare burning intently into hers. "There are two betas on the loose out there and an out of control Alpha. If those betas join its pack, we won't have the strength to stop them. You know that."
"But you can't rely on help from them. Yes, the council kept them in line once upon a time but they are gone!" There was a pain in her voice Chris hadn't heard in years and let out a frustrated sigh as he looked away, almost ashamed. The redheaded woman clenched her jaw before speaking again. "They're just as dangerous as the wolves now. Maybe more."
His resolve returning at full force, he looked back at her with a hardened stare."I'm sorry. If you can think of another way, fine - but it's been ten years now. If we can't trust a god damn vampire slayer, who can we trust?"