From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Eight Years Ago
"God, stop crying!" a girl with a shadowed face shouted, shoving Maddie into the wall with some force.
Madeline's wails grew louder as her head and back hit the stone behind her. Her head throbbed as she shielded her face with her forearms and slid down the wall to the ground.
Eight. She was only eight when everything fell apart. Alone in a foreign country, far away from her brother and her parents, Maddie did nothing but cry.
By the third day in Scotland, one girl already targeted her, and a group of them swarmed her daily. Not all of them were attacking her, though. No, only a handful we're okay with beating her down.
The rest? Well, they simply watched.
They could probably tell. No matter where she was or what she was, she wore her weakness likes an open wound, and they would always come for her.
A girl with a hard face and wild, blonde hair separated herself from the shadowed faces and glinting eyes. Brighter than them, somehow, like the girls at school with the nice backpacks and newer clothes. Bright and harsh, like a spotlight.
The blonde sneered as she approached. She stopped to examine Maddie, and gave a sharp kick to her shin.
"All week, we've had to listen to your stupid cryin' and whinin'." She roughly grabbed the little girl's forearm and pried it from the girl's face to look her dead in the eye. "You're a slayer just like the rest of us. You don't get special treatment just cause everyone feels bad for you."
Another girl slapped the side of her head and Maddie choked out a loud sob as she absorbed the blinding pain.
"I..." she began as her voice quivered. "I just..."
Another sob racked her chest as tears continued to stream down her cheeks.
"I wanna go home."
It was more a blubbering mumble, unintelligible.
The blonde girl heard it, though. She must've. The grip on her arm tightened and she felt the pressure done to the bone. The girl gave her a mocking pout.
"You wanna go home?" She drew out the question with a high pitched tone, pouting her thin lips. When Maddie nodded, the grip got tighter and the girl laughed - but it was something vicious and bitter laugh. When she spoke, it was sugary sweet venom. "You're never going home. Never."
"What the hell is going on here?!"
All of the girls but the smallest in the center froze, wide eyed - especially the one holding onto Maddie. There was a shudder in the blonde's grip as it loosened.
Two new, larger shadows pushed through the crowd of girls. Maddie tried to look up from the girl to the strangers above her head but found everything was still too blurry from the tears still leaking from her eyes.
Maddie could only make out one shadow's shining blonde hair as they grabbed the girl in front of her and pulled her up to her feet. "Marie? What are you doing?"
Everyone in the room could feel the chill in the woman's voice. Maddie rubbed her bruising forearm, trying her best to will her tears to stop.
"Miss Summers! I...Well, we were..." Marie's voice was quaking. "She...I..."
"Don't think you're gonna get much outta her, B," the other woman said and Maddie felt a wave of confusion when she didn't recognize it.
The blonde woman let Marie go and folded her arms. "Drills. Until dinner. Before you eat, I expect full, coherent sentences on what happened."
The woman's face was getting clearer, green eyes distant and her whole face holding in a quiet anger. It was like she was just realizing there were still more people in the room when she spun around to the rest of the girls, those who had helped and those who only stood there. "That goes for all of you."
One of the girls in the back looks aghast as she gaped and shouted, "But we didn't do anything!"
"Exactly," the blonde woman replied, her voice cold.
A wave of complaints rose up before the other woman clapped once and started shouting. "C'mon, girlies! To the field!"
As the crowd hesitantly dispersed, the blonde woman - who had become much clearer up close - leaned down and gave Maddie a worried, pitying gaze. "Madeline...it's okay. It's just me."
Maddie wiped her eyes and looked up at the woman with big, watery eyes. She sniffled and flinched when the woman touched her arm, reaching for a name that still had no place in her head. "Miss Summers?"
"Buffy, remember? You can call me Buffy," she said with a warm smile that almost reached her tired eyes. "...Are you okay?"
The question alone made any semblance of calm Maddie built up in her chest crumble and she fell apart all over again. Silent, choking sobs heaved in her chest as she tried to speak.
"They were...they said...a-and I...I wanna go home." It's all she knew. All she thought about. It was the only thing that still made sense. She breathed in a deep, strangled breath and new tears streaked her face. "I just wanna go home!"
Buffy's smile fell slightly, her stare guilt-ridden. Her mouth remained slightly agape, words unable to pass from it. She breathed in and closed her mouth, folding Maddie in a hug. Maddie continued to cry as Buffy held onto her, as if it was the only way to keep her from tumbling into this new, strange abyss.
They stayed that way until Maddie fell asleep, hearing the words "I'm sorry" every so often as soft as a lullaby.
"Okay, from the top," Stiles began, pressing the 'speaker' button on his phone and dropping it on his desk. He sat down in the computer chair and clicked on the minimized browser window. "New girl ends up at the school at night, claiming she was on a walk and heard a noise."
"Okay, a little weird."
"Right. Then, new girl stays behind and faces ginormous, psychotic Alpha werewolf and lives to tell the tale," he continued, typing into the search bar.
"And you're sure you saw her stay behind...?"
Stiles hit enter a little harder than he meant to, still reeling from the past few days.
"Dude, I was scared, not blind. She definitely stopped and turned around. Alright..." His eyes skimmed over the links as he continued. "And she was hurt that night. You said you smelled blood?"
"A lot of it. When she passed me in the cafeteria, it was...strong."
"But she was totally fine by school on Monday." Stiles clicked on a link and hesitated for a moment. "I mean, as far as we know."
"...I guess. I don't know, I was kind of distracted."
Stiles leaned back in his chair, his thoughts muddling through the unpleasant memories of Monday. "Okay, then she shows up out of nowhere during your full moon rampage while you're fighting Derek, complete with a crossbow."
"And punches Derek."
"My favorite part," Stiles muttered.
"Stiles, focus!"
"I'm focused! Totally focused." He leaned forward again and read through the page, still grinning at the idea of Derek in pain. "And while she's busy finding out your secret identity, someone drops this girl's bag on my doorstep with only three things in it."
"But we don't know who did it."
"Or if those things were planted in the bag - which is pretty unlikely seeing as she showed up with another weapon."
He clicked on another link, more reacting out of habit while his mind raced.
"Which leads to the fact that someone knew something about her already, and wanted us to know." He scanned through the first paragraph but grasped no words as a thought struck him. "Or..."
"Or?" There was a pause. "Or what? Stiles!"
"...Or maybe someone wanted to distract us from the big picture." His mouth went dry as the thought took up more and more space in his head andhe spun around to look at the bag. "Someone who could get into the school and grab the bag without being noticed. Someone who might have faced off with her and wants her out of the way..."
He swallowed and got up, moving over to the bed and looking at the weapons as fear tightened in his chest. "Or, you know, something. Just off the top of my head, something maybe big and hairy and completely unhinged. Something that I'm, uh...now realizing knows where I live."
The silence in the room almost made it seem as if the line went dead. Suddenly, Scott spoke up again. "...Something that knows she's after it."
Madeline cracked her neck idly as she leaned against the lockers, beside Allison and Lydia more like she was the guard she came here to be. She only missed the next day of classes after her insane Monday night and, even after her ribs healed, it still took Friday forever to get there. Headquarters asked her to report in to them but she avoided the call for some time. All Xander could get out of her was that she had a run in with the Betas that did not end well for her.
She thought about telling them all - both HQ and the Argents - about Scott and whoever he was with but her own curiosity had gotten the better of her. She didn't want to relay only half of the information until she had it all - until she knew who the wolf her attacked her was. Besides, she didn't really like the Argents aside from Allison.
Then there was Scott; she wasn't sure what she wanted to do about him. He broke up the fight and quite possibly saved her life for all she knew. It partially made her feel uncomfortable; she didn't have a great track record when it came to being saved - or, rather, the one trying to save her didn't.
The bitter familiarity of Scott being the one to stop the other wolf made her annoyed all over again. As a slayer, she had to be self-sufficient to some extent. There wouldn't always be someone there to help her and the knowledge of that burned as she realized her fingers were tracing the scar on her stomach through her shirt. She stuffed her hand in her sweat jacket.
Either way she looked at the situation, eventually she was going to have to confront Scott. He was one of the Betas and hopefully had information she needed, information that was crucial to her mission. The mission came first, no matter what.
She stayed quiet, only giving short answers to make sure Allison thought she was listening. When she did, she at least attempted to sound more like the people she heard everyday in the halls: casual and excited for insignificant things.
A few minutes later, she found herself sitting at a crowded table with the two and the addition of Jackson, who appeared distant and preoccupied - like there was something more important in his life besides, well, everything around him. He had so much, a bigger share than others, and he was focused on something else, something more. Of course, this wasn't of any surprise to her; he was that way since the first day she met him. A strange, sharp-edged detachment that made cruelty fountain from his mouth daily.
When Maddie began wondering what had his attention, she followed his stare to find none other than Scott talking with Stiles. She saw them only a few times in classes that day but didn't get the chance to approach Scott yet. She was about to excuse herself when her hearing picked up something - more specifically Jackson, who was whispering to himself.
"You can, can't you?"
Her eyebrows furrowed and she tilted her head to the side slightly, glancing between Jackson and Scott.
"Are you trying to pretend not to hear me?"
Jackson got up from the table and no one seemed to notice, much less care. Maddie watched him walk off and then turned to Scott and Stiles who seemed to be thoroughly shaken.
"Maddie?" Allison said, snapping her fingers. Madeline turned to her, her head so full of questions that she blanked when brought back to reality, and Allison sent her a concerned expression. "You okay?"
"Yeah! Just...thinking." Maddie nodded quickly and offered a tight smile. She paused for a moment, searching for a scrap of their conversation to cling to but her memory gave her nothing. "Sorry, what were you saying before?"
"Lydia and I were going shopping before the game tonight," Allison replied, pointing to the girl next to her reapplying her lip gloss.
Maddie raised her eyebrows in surprise as her interest piqued. The game. Lacrosse. Scott McCall plays lacrosse. "...There's a game tonight?"
Allison's smile faltered. "Yeah, but...I probably shouldn't go."
"Which is ridiculous," Lydia added suddenly. "Scott's presence should not affect where you go or what you do. You're giving him the power."
Allison gave Lydia an incredulous stare as if she were about to say something, but instead she turned back to Madeline. "Anyway, I'm still joining in on the shopping. You should, too. It'll be fun!"
Maddie arched an eyebrow and felt the word 'no' on the tip of her tongue. She swallowed, forcing the answer back down. She'd been so preoccupied with the situation with Scott - and apparently now with Jackson from the looks of it - that she didn't even think about her duty to the Argents all that much. Not to mention, shopping was a better excuse than getting caught in the bushes spying on people.
And yet, fighting a werewolf sounded so much more tempting.
She smiled again, trying to keep it a bit more natural this time. "Sure, I don't see why not."
"And to be clear," Lydia said, "this is a test run. I don't typically invite anyone with little to no fashion sense, but lucky for you Allison wants you there."
Maddie looked down at her clothes, simple and comfortable as always. Her smile fell slightly and she nodded, conceding that it was a fair assessment. "Lucky for me."
Allison gave an apologetic expression before a loud crack sounded from the center of the room.
Everyone turned and all eyes were on Scott, whose lunch tray was in two pieces. His eyes were dark as they sent a dangerous glare to the far corner of the room.
Maddie looked over to find a smirking Jackson staring back, eating his apple. Before she knew what was happening, Scott left his broken tray behind and stormed out of the cafeteria followed in suit by a panicked Stiles.
In a flash, Maddie stood up and grabbed her bag. Hesitating, she looked over at bewildered stares of the rest of her table, including Allison and Lydia. Eyes wide as she took a second to think, she finally found her voice again. "I just remembered! Stiles is letting me borrow some notes...for...Econ..."
It came out sounding more like a question and she was quiet for a moment, trying not to focus on any of the expectant faces.
"I need to go get those. Right now."
Without waiting for a response, she roughly pushed in her chair and bolted out of the room.
Allison turned her confused stare to Lydia, whose only reply was, "You're the one who wanted her to sit here."
Maddie's heavy footfalls echoed in the scarcely populated hallway, her eyes searching for Scott and Stiles. Spotting them several yards ahead and heading in the direction of the nearest exit, she was about to follow when she heard something.
There was a whimper, a slam, and a cry that followed.
Her head snapped over in the direction of the sound, finding a few very large boys in sports sweatshirts huddled around something. Someone, was the unpleasant thought that entered her head. She frowned and looked back over to Scott and Stiles, who were half way out the door. Her gaze shifted between the two places, a scale teetering from side to side.
It was then she noted something; there were two people standing around idly chatting some distance away. Every few seconds, they would uncomfortably glance over to the boys and whoever they were surrounding.
There was another whimper. No one moved.
Maddie gritted her teeth and turned around, striding over to the unknown boys and their prey.
She roughly grabbed one of their shoulders - the biggest of the three - and spun him around like it was nothing. The boy looked more irritated than anything else as Madeline arched an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
He sneered. "None of your business."
Maddie's eyes narrowed on him before she glanced over to the vacant space he stood. In the ground against the lockers was a pale, blonde girl with wide, frightened eyes. She was shaking slightly as she looked around and then directly at Maddie.
Maddie's stare darkened as it returned to the boy. "You should stop before you get yourselves hurt."
He laughed, then all three of them were laughing and it was clear why. Maddie was no more than a hair above five foot two and rather average sized. In shape from so much training but there was nothing overtly muscular or at all threatening about her as far as they could tell. The one she was holding onto tried to regain his composure. "Wait, was that a threat?"
Another one of the smaller boys - the blond, thin one - circled around her, his lean form resting against the lockers as he ran his eyes up and down her body. Maddie felt more than a bit exposed and disgusted, something that was so common, hiding her rage from it was an everyday task.
Still, she fought back the urge to take them all out right there, to grind their faces into the linoleum tile.
The blond boy smirked and folded his arms. "And what do we get if we do?"
Maddie's stomach lurched at the idea he implied in his greasy tone. She looked around at the boys slowly surrounding her, noting the maroon hooded sweatshirts with the team logo on the front.
Her gaze met the blond boy's again and she tilted her head with a smile that was more Marie's than hers, her grip leaving the larger one's shoulder finally. "You boys play lacrosse, right?"
They all turned to each other, confused but didn't have time to answer before she she pointed at each one of them, checking them off in her head.
"You can leave now, and go to your game tonight like this never happened or..." Her smile dropped instantly. "You can stay, and I can snap that arm off and club you with it before you realize what's happening."
Their smiles fell and the largest of them, out of offense and quite possibly rage, moved forward and tried to grab Madeline.
Maddie side stepped the large hand and grabbed his wrist and forearm tightly, yanking him down to knee him in the stomach.
Out of her peripheral, she noticed the other two coming in quickly. As the largest of the three remained out of breath and in pain, Maddie used his already clenched fist, forcing it into the ribs of the blond boy and then forcing the elbow behind them and into the last boy's jaw.
Finally, she twisted the arm, forcing the largest boy's to spin around to face the lockers which she then slammed him into.
She kept a firm hold on the boy's arm, causing him to yelp in pain. His two friends were on their knees, gasping for breath and holding onto their respective bruised body parts. Maddie leaned in close, power surging through her veins and an odd bit of delight at the ease of it.
"If I see another bruise on this girl, it'll be my personal mission to make sure none of you ever play another sport again." She paused and took a deep, calming breath as she twist the arm and heard a muffled cry. "Am I making myself clear?"
The large high school student weakly nodded and Madeline instantly let go of him. He turned around, huffed a few times as if he would finally do something. Hit her, maybe. His fist was balled and shaking when he looked at her and then at his friends who were struggling to stand upright and walk away. His eyes shifted to the few people who witnessed the scene. Without another word, he stomped off with his friends in tow.
"Have a good game!" Maddie called after them, without a drop of sincerity. She spun around to the two onlookers, her stare still icy. "The same goes for you. Get out of here, or we're going to have a problem."
The two girls, looking almost scandalized, looked at each other then back to Madeline. The short, skittish looking one spoke up first. "What?! But we didn't do anything!"
Maddie stopped for a second, the words slicing through her. She swallowed, her brain full of half there memories. "...Exactly."
The girls looked down at the helpless girl on the floor, perhaps ashamed of themselves. A bit frightened, they glanced back at Maddie once before rushing off.
As if snapping back to reality, she found herself eyeing the doors she saw Scott and Stiles went through minutes before. A tired, heavy sigh escaped her lips and she looked down at the girl, holding out a hand. The girl shook her head and struggled to stand on her own.
"No, it's okay. I, um...I got it," she said. She rolled up the sleeves of her over-sized sweat shirt and tried to smooth down her frizzy, blonde hair. She looked over in the direction the boys had gone and frowned. "How do you know they won't tell a teacher or something?"
A short, bitter laugh left Maddie as she folded her arms and looked in the same direction. "Because they'd have to admit they were beat up by a girl. Apparently, that's still embarrassing."
Maddie looked over at the girl again, this time much closer. There were bags under her light brown eyes, which were still a bit red. She was pale, thin and frail-looking, like she was about to break into a million pieces if someone touched her - both physically and emotionally.
"Let me know if they hurt you again, alright?" Maddie said.
The girl shook her head again. "It's fine! You don't have to do that..."
"Let me know, okay?" Maddie repeated much more firmly this time. The blonde girl opened her mouth but nothing came out. Instead, she simply nodded. Maddie gave her a small, sympathetic smile before turning and heading toward the door she had intended to follow the Beta and his friend through.
"Hey," the girl called out weakly. Madeline stopped and turned to the blonde who continued. "...What's your name?"
She hesitated for a second or two and finally answered. "Maddie."
The girl gave her own small, appreciative smile.
"Erica," she said, gesturing to herself. There was a short pause, almost as if she had to will herself to speak again. "...thanks, Maddie."
Maddie nodded to Erica and pushed through the exit.