From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Stiles sat on Scott's bed, rubbing the fresh bruise on his forearm gently as he glared at Madeline – who was glaring back, mind you. She leaned on the wall beside a poster of some band she's never heard of with her arms folded across her chest. Scott, on the other hand sat quietly in his computer chair, his dark eyes darting from his hands to Maddie back and forth in deep thought. In between flares of severe annoyance, Maddie silently went over the order of events since she had told them her secret.
Maddie repeated her confession. "I'm a vampire slayer."
Scott finally spoke. "A vampire..."
"...Slay-er. Yeah," she cut him off, emphasizing both syllables in 'slayer' as if she were speaking to a small child.
Stiles laughed - not just any laugh though; it was hysterical laughter...that continued for much longer than it should've. That was when she punched him in the arm, holding back quite a bit when she reminded herself he was human. Still, it started turning purple rather quickly when he checked it.
After several more minutes of "vampires don't exist", someone had walked into the locker room, shocked to find Maddie there. The unanimous vote was to leave and discuss this somewhere much more private. So, after a prolonged awkward silence between Maddie and Stiles in his jeep, Scott showed up fully dressed and they sped off.
That was twenty minutes ago. Since then, she allowed the two to process the information, not that it was going all that well.
"There's no proof," Stiles began, narrowing his eyes on Maddie.
"Not in this town, at least..." she mumbled. Off the boys' looks, she sighed and pushed herself off the wall. "Look, they're real. Vampires. Evil, blood sucking monsters. Pale. Sharp teeth. It's all true. Scott?"
Scott blinked, returning his stare to the girl. "Uh, yeah?"
Madeline walked over to him. "You're a werewolf right?"
"Is that a trick question?" Stiles asked, his tone mocking.
"You can hear my heart beat?" she asked Scott, ignoring Stiles. "Like, you can tell if I'm lying by listening for upticks, right?"
The werewolf unit was small and the only reason she remembered that was because of all the jokes Marie made about it, jokes that didn't seem all that funny after the night in the school and escaping the hospital.
"Listen to my heart beat." There was a moment of silence in which the only thing that was clear was just how uncomfortable Scott looked. "Vampires are real. They're very dangerous. I was chosen and trained to hunt them."
Scott looked as if he were searching for something as the silence went on. He heaved a sigh and slowly turned to Stiles. "I mean, she's not lying."
Stiles' shoulders slumped; still, he gestured to her again but with much less conviction. "Or maybe you believe your own hype. We don't really have a vampire here for you to slay."
Maddie stood and gave Stiles a pointed glare. She took a long step back and motioned to the computer. "Why don't you look it up?"
The boys exchanged confused glances before giving her two suspicious ones.
"Are you serious?" Scott replied carefully.
Maddie was mostly irritated and tired which won out over her nerves. "I am."
As Scott slowly scooted over to the desktop and jiggled the mouse, Stiles quickly stumbled over to look over his shoulder.
Maddie stood a fair distance from them, close enough to examine the screen as she hoped this would work. "Search new articles for neck lacerations, severe blood loss, and missing persons."
Again, the two gave each other cautious looks before Scott began typing. It was a few extra moment before the petite slayer turned to the screen and awaited a response.
"Madison, Wisconsin – two teenagers missing, one found dead. Two punctures in the neck. Cause of death according to coroner..." Scott's voice trailed off as his eyes widened.
Stiles exhaled loudly. "...severe blood loss."
"That was two days ago." Scott sounded distant as he continued. "Cleveland, Ohio – two women found dead in local night club 'Velvet Dog'. The CPD has not yet released any information but the witness on the scene who found the two early this morning has attested that there were in fact puncturing neck wounds on both girls, correlating with the recent string of serial murders..."
"Albany, Portland, New Orleans, San Francisco..." Stiles watched the screen as Scott scrolled. "This is just this month."
"Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not happening," Maddie said and they both turned to her but remained quiet, wearing equally unsettled and unsure stares. The brunette girl huffed loudly. "Look, I get that you don't believe me. I get it. It's big and scary and you're not ready – but there are more important things going on. There's a psychotic alpha werewolf that wants Scott on his side and already has one beta playing for his team. I came here to stop him, not explain myself to amateurs."
"But why you?" Stiles asked, glancing up at her in confusion. "I mean, why send a vampire slayer to stop a werewolf?"
"It's a title," she said, withholding a growl. "Slayers deal with any and all monsters. It's part of the deal."
"What deal? " The irritation in Stiles' tone overshadowed his curiosity as he stood again but kept his distance. The last thing he needed was another bruise – or worse, something broken.
"Now's not the time! Drop it!" She had taken a step closer as if she actually did intend to punch him again. Arms folded once again, she finally unclenched her fists.
That was when the door creaked open. "Scott, is everything okay in..."
The entire room went quiet again as the three teenagers found themselves looking at an older woman with curly, black hair looking positively worn in her pink and flower print scrubs. Although, now she looked every bit as uncomfortable as Maddie felt. Grasping at straws, the slayer took a breath and waved. "Hi, um...you must be Scott's mom!"
"Is it that obvious?" she said, her voice flat before she managed an amused smile. Maddie, though, took an extra moment realize she'd been joking and forced her own smile.
Scott stood up quickly as if he was preparing to be busted for something. "Hey, mom! This is my, um...new friend. Maddie."
"It's nice to meet you, Maddie." Scott's mother gave a slight wave andlooked between Maddie and Stiles. "Am I interrupting something?"
In that instant, out of her peripheral, Maddie noticed Stiles take a side step away from her.
"What?" She quickly glanced over, noticing that if it hadn't been for Stiles, they would still be stand precariously close together. Her eyes widened in horror for the second time that night as she looked back at the woman in the doorway. "No!"
Scott's mom raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly. "Well then, school night or not, it's getting late."
Both Maddie and Stiles seemed to get the hint moved towards the hallway. Scott gave an understanding nod. "Right. Tomorrow, you guys?"
They both stopped for a second and it took Stiles a moment to respond.
"Right! Yeah. Tomorrow." He turned to Maddie, giving her an overly expressive, expectant look. Silently, Maddie struggled to smile widely and nod. The two mumbled goodnights to both McCalls and promptly headed out.
As the front door shut behind them, they walked out into the dark driveway.
"That couldn't have looked worse if we tried," Stiles grumbled.
"Gods, I didn't know we were standing that close!" came Maddie's harsh whisper.
"Not that. I mean okay, yeah, that too. But-" He stopped himself and turned to her with a curious stare. "Did you just say 'gods'? As in plural?"
Maddie groaned and continued towards the jeep.
"Are there, like...multiple gods? Is that an actual thing?" He opened the driver side door of his car and hopped in. "Is being a slayer like some sort of religious thing?"
Maddie opened the passenger side door and heaved herself in, shutting it behind her. "Stiles, I just want to go home."
"Hey, remember when you punched me?" He closed his own door and revved the engine. "I think this is more than a fair trade. A ride home for a random monster-hunter-slayer-whatever fact. If anything, I'm getting shorted."
Her dark eyes narrowed on him. "Then I'll walk."
"You're already in the car, just accept the damn ride." He began backing out onto the street. "It won't kill you."
She continued to glare at him for a few seconds more before begrudgingly buckling her seat belt in acceptance.
As they drove down the street in silence once more, all Maddie could think of was how badly she messed up tonight. She only narrowly escaped the Alpha and now her identity was out – and that wasn't even counting the awful insinuations made by both Allison and Scott's mother. She was absolutely sure that there was no way any of this could possibly end well for any of them – and that was now on her.
"So about this whole polytheism thing..."
She groaned again.