From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

School made everything more difficult.
Considering Maddie had never gotten the opportunity to be what she was and a student at the same time before that year, it felt like splitting her brain in two nearly every day. One side was devoted solely to her mission, which she was becoming largely confused on as days past; the other half kind of payed attention in school. She couldn't see anyone really caring, but part of her was starting to - especially math. She used to be so good at math.
She grumbled to herself as she walked out of Calculus with a stapled together stack of paper. The number 68 was written in red and circled, constantly drawing Maddie's defeated stare back to it. She hardly even remembered the day she took the test, much less the unit she was told to study. Could be worse. Could be failing! Marie's flighty voice rang in her head with a scoffing laugh like it was a joke and she grimaced.
It wasn't much longer until she spotted the familiar black-haired boy standing at the other end of the hall and focused on his phone. It was odd to see him alone; in fact, Maddie couldn't remember a time when she'd seen Scott without Stiles in toe or Allison a few yards away in a poor attempt at trying to ignore each other. She tucked her deplorable test in the top book she was carrying (which wasn't even her math book, at that) and strode quickly over to Scott. "How are they?"
He seemed a bit startled when he looked up from his phone but nodded a hello. "Uh...good. I think."
This was their friendship - if she could call it that. No 'hey'. No 'what's up'. In fact, she couldn't think of a time that they had ever even had an amiable conversation. She wasn't sure what an amiable conversation with Scott would be. "Hey! How's the werewolf thing going?" or "Patrol party! You bring the claws, I bring the stakes!". No, the only thing she could usually think of was "stop being an idiot". Clearly, she still had quite a way to go. Even so, they began walking side by side in silence as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Scott pocketed his phone and his eyes shot over to her, all wide and dark and worried. "Hey, have you seen...um..."
Allison, she thought, almost in amusement. She knew he couldn't say it out loud, for fear that someone might over hear him but it was the only subject that seemed to come up with Scott. Sure, there was nothing wrong with that. It was good that he cared so much. As the weeks had worn on, she found herself wondering if she would ever care about people as much as Scott McCall. Maddie nodded but kept her gaze forward. "Yeah. Drove me here. She, uh...was acting a little weird today."
"Weird, how?" Scott asked, panic jumping into his voice.
Maddie shrugged, searching for a way to explain it. "...I don't know, like...like she kept looking at me on the way here. Not normal looks. Weird ones, like..." She thought back to the drive to school, being watched. She would turned just a bit toward the passenger window and Allison jumped. She hadn't even spoken a word to the girl the whole way. Instead, as soon as Allison locked the doors, she had fast-walked to the school entrance. Maddie knew the reaction all too well. She hadn't expected it now, though. Not from Allison, at least. Her shoulders slumped low and her brows furrowed. "...She was afraid. She's never been afraid of me, not even when she first found out about everything."
"But then why would she be afraid of you now?" As Scott spoke, Maddie had prepared herself for an accusatory tone, but it never came. It was a genuine, concerned question, like he hadn't even stopped to think that Maddie had done something to make Allison afraid. Like he knew better than that, even when he had no reason to. She didn't question it - regardless of how grateful she felt - but instead moved on as they entered their English classroom and he chimed in again. "Unless...it's not you she's afraid of."
That made Maddie turn to the boy, confusion in her gaze. "Then who?"
The question went unanswered as they both spotted Allison sitting by the window. The two took the last remaining seats, Scott's in the center of the room just diagonal of Allison and Maddie's in the back corner, far from both.
Once she set her bag and books down, she caught only a bit of Allison attempting to get Scott's attention. There was something much more attention grabbing walking through the door, though. The click of beige heels on the linoleum became more like the tolling of a bell, a warning of something terrible. Maddie found herself staring, wide eyed for only a second before her anger and shock flooded her gaze. The woman she was glaring at was speaking in the same calm, smooth, and menacing tone as was typical of Victoria Argent.
There was a faint buzzing that slowly grew in Maddie's ears, blocking out the voice as piercing blue eyes traveled from Scott to her. There is was - that same look she'd been receiving every day for months. The look suspicion, disgust. The look of rage. She knew that look the most, because it was the very one that reflected her own and not even Victoria Argent couldn't scare it away anymore. Instead, the raw anger swelled in her thoughts, even more so when Allison caught up with her after school with the only two words she had been dreading all day.
"They know."
"No, they can't," Stiles had protested, catching his breath after both girls managed to sneak up on him. "I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue."
"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know."
That had been less than five minutes earlier, Maddie recalled, gripping the metal bench she sat on in the back of the van tightly as the vehicle tumbled over rocks and dirt hills, causing it to shake wildly. She looked down at her phone momentarily to avoid eye contact with the fuming boy across from her. Sure, it had merely been a bad judgment call due to the lack of seats in the front, but she could've ran. Back in October, she probably would've. This wasn't necessarily her fight, she might have reminded them. Instead, she allowed herself to be locked up in the back of a police van and glared at in the name of protecting a bunch of people with poorer planning skills than her.
"You know, it not all that surprising."
Maddie's stare snapped up to Jackson's, shocked. Either he had developed mind reading capabilities or her expression had been far too obvious.
"Finding you here. With them," he continued, his tone acidic as he spat out the words and they began to eat away at her. "Going along with their little game."
Vaguely, Maddie recalled the last time she'd been stuck alone with Jackson Whittemore. It made her a little sick at the thought of exactly how good it felt to punch something that could crumble so easily. It was blind, bitter rage. Rage not even aimed at the blue eyed boy across from her. What made it worse was wanting to do it again. She swallowed her annoyance at his words and mustered up her most exaggerated eye roll. "Shut up."
"Or what?" he taunted, his icy stare narrowing. "You'll hit me? Add assault and battery to kidnapping?"
Her dark eyes bored into his, glowering. She stayed silent, attempting to focus on other things, on more important things - even though she was gritting her teeth and struggling not to clench her fists.
"I don't think you'd do it. Not to them." He turned to his left, to the wall of metal, with a thoughtful look, as if he could see through it. He turned back to her, a smirk slithering onto his face. How appropriate. "Especially not to Stilinski."
She felt her whole body twitch slightly at the comment, like she had experienced some glitch in reality. No, not reality - not really. Maybe just her reality. It was involuntary, like an alarm clock went off in her head and she was jolted awake. She had shifted a little, uncomfortably, and looked at the same metal wall. It was only a moment though and she calmly settled back her thoughts of punching Jackson in the face repeatedly. Her stare, dark and menacing, went back to his as he continued to smirk. She rolled her wrist. "I think you'd be surprised at what I'm willing to do."
His eyes narrowed at her before the van came to such an abrupt halt that they both were nearly thrown against the metal wall. It seemed to throw both of them off for a long moment as they shot a look to each other, their shock and annoyance shifting to the driver of the vehicle in silent agreement.
Maddie scrambled to her feet and pounded on the door of the van, as she heard shuffling from outside of it. The double doors swung open to reveal not only Stiles and Allison, but also a concerned Scott. The slayer hopped out of the van, leaves crunching under her boots. All four exchanged looked for a few seconds before directed their stares at Jackson, who was looking more and more angry as time passed. In one awkward, swift moment, the boys closed the doors on him as he shouted angry, muffled words.
They could still hear him even as they walked a safe distance away to the rocky cliff that appeared to overlook the whole town. Before Maddie could allow herself to admire the view, her thoughts had already veered back to their problematic situation.
"To be fair, things are going better than we expected so far," Scott mumbled, although his voice didn't match the sentiment.
Next came a frustrated sigh from Allison, followed by Stiles' panicked tone. "Dude, don't jinx it."
In the distance, Jackson's rage could still be heard at a decibel that the petite brunette didn't think was possible through those walls. Maddie rubbed her temples, fending off what she could only identify as the beginnings of a stress headache, and shook her head. This was going to be one hell of a night.
The sun had begun to set behind the trees and the sky became a violent mixture of red, orange, and violet. Not the way it did in Scotland. Sun was a rarity and Maddie had grown to expect the rain and the wind and the clouds. The moors had their own beauty that she could appreciate. It certainly reminded her more of growing up in Illinois, only cooler in the summer time. Then again, there wasn't much she remembered about Illinois, so maybe her mind had just made that up. There was no way to tell anymore; Scotland still seemed more real to her. It was almost home.
The sunset wasn't quite like the one in San Francisco either. It was quieter here. Calmer. The sunset was hard and sharp in the city. Once the sun sank into the ocean, everything fell into blackness for only seconds before the artificial light made the city brighter than in the day time. Suddenly, she was illuminated in a different way, a way she wasn't sure if she liked. Nothing slowed, nothing quieted. Just a different sort of daytime for a different sort of people.
Every sunset in Beacon Hills was soft and solemn. Even though Maddie knew what the night often brought, she felt eased into it, like there was a moment in between the busy chatter and the deafening sound of the thoughts keeping her awake before bed. There was silence and painted skies. There were trees that grasped at the dyling light as it poked through branches. There was a sort of peace that she never knew about before.
She sank low into her seat, half leaning against the rolled up window as she watched the rays of sunlight fade behind the thick rows of forest. The jeep made a faint grumbling noise, as it was prone to do, when they turned a corner, away from the woods. Scott had agreed to take the night shift to watch Jackson and Allison decided to join him, much to Maddie's concern. It wouldn't hurt to give them the benefit of the doubt, Mads, she thought.
No, that hadn't been a thought. Stiles had only said that a few minutes ago. For someone who didn't really trust anyone - a sentiment she respected and shared - Stiles certainly seemed to trust Scott implicitly. Not that that was all that surprising; it was probably easy to someone he's known for so long.
She blinked, startling herself when she realized she had fixed her stare on the boy's faint reflection in the window as she thought. Not just him, though; she had been watching his hands as they tapped to a beat she didn't recognize, trying to decipher it. If anything, she knew that sounded even worse. She squinted, wanting to see past him to the trees, something she couldn't focus on necessarily. Of course, that was always the issue with Stiles. He always seemed to be right in front of her, being suspicious or worried or cracking a joke. Before she knew it, she was agreeing regularly to rides to and from the Argents', to the point that he would begin showing up before she even called. It wasn't exactly easy to see past a person who was constantly put in front of her.
"You okay?" she heard beside her.
It was especially difficult when they cared.
She didn't turn but happened to watch him look over at her in the reflection. There was a long, quiet breath that filled the momentary silence as Maddie thought. The question bounced around her head, floating through the week's events and even the day so far. No, it was certainly fair to say she was not okay in the slightest. She figured that would be obvious to someone like Stiles but the fact that he would ask regardless might've been just a courtesy. Or maybe it was more like 'on top of everything I know that you're dealing with, is there something else?'. Yeah. That seemed more accurate. She shifted as the groaning in her stomach matched the unpleasant sound of the car. "I dunno. Hungry, I guess."
She didn't even notice at first that her head had turned and she side-eyed him for a second, examining his reaction. There was a second or two of nothing, like he needed a little bit to process what she was saying. Then, without missing another beat, he nodded slowly. Maybe he had expected something else. "...Okay. Did you want to stop and get something?"
She shook her head. "Nope."
"Are you sure? There's, like, a million places between here and Lydia's. I could just-"
"Stiles," she cut him off, stressing his name slightly to make her point. "I'm okay. Don't worry about me so much much." She frowned a bit at her own words, as if she had implied something that had only been a silent understanding. As if on instinct alone, she forced out in an almost irritated tone, "It's annoying."
Stiles rolled his eyes dramatically and when he spoke, his voice was approaching rattled. "Yeah, well, you know what else is annoying?"
"What is?" Maddie bit back, scowling at him and narrowing her gaze. Of course, she knew the answer; she could already hear it. She felt almost sure that it had been the reaction she wanted. Annoyed was better than worried.
Stiles had shot his stare over to hers, his expression fuming for about half a second as he opened his mouth, most likely to retort. The look waned rapidly as his light brown eyes watched hers for what seemed like a far too long, insufferably quiet moment. His mouth hesitantly closed again. Maddie shifted again, her eyes shooting away from his in sheer panic. That second (or two or three) was too long, too uncomfortable. Too personal. Again, she felt as if she couldn't look past him, especially now, when she had no place to go - so clearly the only option was to look at something else.
Her eyes move to the windshield, widening in horror. A red light approached quickly and they were nearly right under it when Maddie found herself shouting, "Stop the car!"
Out of her peripheral, she saw the boy's head twist instantly back to the windshield as well before she was jerked forward as the car came to a sudden, jerking stop. In the blink of an eye, a bright yellow sports car sped by, only feet in front of the jeep. Her breathing was ragged and her heart was beating hard enough to fell like it was about to burst from beneath her ribcage. Sure, that was a natural reaction to nearly dying from a car wreck, but she would've been lying to herself if she didn't admit that a (very) small percentage of that was because he had been distracted - by her. Regardless of why - although her thoughts went back and forth at rapidfire speed on wanting to know the answer to that - she had been the reason that they nearly died.
She whipped around to face him, although the seatbelt managed to keep her back, and punched in the arm. Sure, she held back; she wasn't trying to break his arm, no matter how mad she was. And, boy, was she.
"What the hell?!" Stiles yelped, rubbing his arm.
"We nearly got killed!" Maddie yelled back, gesturing to where the sports car had just passed. "What were you thinking?!"
He stared at her, wide eyed, forming only the beginnings of words like he was choking on a sentence. There was a brief paused before animatedly gesturing to both of them. "We're fine! We're alive, aren't we? We survived. I just got distracted."
Maddie's eyebrows raised slightly, remembering the moment before their near-death experience rather well. Because he had been staring. At her.
Before she could reply, Stiles began stumbling over his words again. "By our conversation. The one th- that we were having. Obviously."
This seemed easier when he would argue with her. Now, he seemed panicked just by looking at her. No, not panicked. It was something close, but different - something less familiar. Nervous. He's nervous. Around me. There was a bit of curiosity that came with the thought as it connected in her head with him staring at her in the first place. It almost didn't make any sense. There was no reason for him to be nervous - not the type of nervousness he was giving off at least. This wasn't afraid-nervous, the one that Maddie was most familiar with, the one Allison had been giving off all day. His eyes darted to the windshield again and the jeep rolled into drive once more.
"Sorry," he muttered, his voice thick and almost pained - something she'd never heard before. Something that made her want to apologize for snapping as a small bit of guilt snaked its way into her head. She tried to shake the feeling out of her head with no luck. What was worse was only a few minutes later, as he parked the car just outside of Lydia's house, he turned to her again. This seemed to catch her off guard and she found herself glued to her spot for a moment. His eyes had grown larger and darker, maybe even softer. "You sure you're okay?"
It was such an earnest question, and perhaps a little too genuine. He wasn't moving from his spot, as if her confirmation that would make this uncomfortable moment go away. What was more irritating was that she couldn't move either, like the look he was giving her held her in place and made it difficult to give a clear answer. It terrified her to her core, shaking something that had be laying lifeless inside her for what felt like forever. She gave silent, shaky nod and tried at a smile.
He must've noticed because a slow, nervous grin tugged at his mouth — something that did not go unnoticed. In fact, it was kind of... cute. Instantly, the thought even made her stiffen up for a second as if a shot of electricity jolted up her spine. She tore her gaze away from his and quickly got out of the car. Stiles followed in suit as they silently walked to the front steps of the large, elegant house.
Maddie cleared her throat as she reached the door, hearing Stiles mumble about bad ideas before she raised her hand to knock on the door.
Suddenly, the door swung open, revealing an impatient Lydia Martin, eyeing both Maddie and Stiles. "It's about time." She closed the door behind her and shrugged through the two shocked teenagers with an exasperated look. "You can't just say monsters exist and expect me to take that at face value."
Maddie furrowed her eyebrows as she shot Stiles a worried look, which he returned before they both looked back at Lydia. Maddie finally got her voice back and replied with a lame, "Wait, what?"
"You want me to believe," Lydia began, folding her around and giving Maddie a look that could pierce through flesh, "then show me proof."
Both Maddie's and Stiles'mouths were half hanging open when they exchanged another horrified look.
"So, how is this better than lying?" he shot back at Maddie quietly.
Her horror turned into a glower before she turned back to Lydia and her anxiety rose in her chest, fearing where else her stupid decisions may lead.