Stiles lay in bed mumbling, "No, no, no, no, no. Don't let them in. Don't let them in. No, don't let them in." As he's mumbling, he slowly starts getting more worked up, gasping, panting, and moving around.
Someone sleeps soundly next to him, waking up due to his movements. "You Okay? Stiles?" Scarlett asks sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
Stiles exhales, looking at the brunette beside him, "Yeah, I was just dreaming. It was weird, like a dream within a dream."
"Like a nightmare?"
Stiles sighs, "Yeah. Wait a second, Scar. What are you doing here?" Before Scarlett could reply, Stiles bedroom door creaks open, "Hang on."
"Stiles, where are you going?"
"I'm just gonna close the door."
"Just go back to sleep."
"No, no. I should close it."
"Don't worry about it."
"What if someone comes in?"
"Like who? Just go back to sleep, Stiles."
Whispers can be heard from the other side of the door, "No. But what it they get in?"
Scarlett sounds a little more panicked now when she replies, "What if who gets in? Stiles, just leave it. Please, Stiles. Stiles, come back to bed. Stiles, please. Don't, Stiles. Don't! Don't go in there, please, don't. Please, Stiles, don't!"
Stiles heartbeats fast, the wind whooshing past the window. "It's a dream. This is just a dream." He starts saying to himself, "Get it out of your head, Stiles. You're dreaming. All right? So, wake up, Stiles. Wake up, Stiles. Wake up!"
After another dream within a dream, Stiles wakes up in his bed screaming. His dad runs in, rushing to his side to help calm him down. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. It's okay. You're okay."
*_*_*_*_*_*
Scarlett's in her room getting ready for school when she overhears Scott and Isaac talking, "Hey." Isaac greets, standing in front of Scott's door.
"Oh. Hey." Scott answers back, just as awkwardly.
"Um, are you going to school?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, me too."
"Good."
Scarlett shakes her head as she listens on to the awkward conversation. "Can you both stop being so weird? You're literally making me want to off myself." Scarlett pipes in, sticking her head out into the hall.
"No one is telling you to listen in." Scott scolds.
"Yeah, well." She gestures to herself, "Werewolf. Plus you're a door down from me. It's kind of hard not to overhear." Scott rolls his eyes.
"Can I ask you a question?" Isaac asks Scott, breaking up the argument between the McCall siblings. Scott nods so Isaac continues, "Are you angry with me?"
"No." Scott says.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
Scarlett's eyebrows knit together in confusion to his answer as Isaac asks another question, "What's that mean?"
"I guess I'm not really sure how I'm feeling."
"Okay. Do you hate me?"
"No, of course not." Scott reassures.
"Do you want to hit me?"
"No."
"I think you should hit me."
"You're seriously asking him to hit you?" Scar asks in disbelief.
"You're seriously still eavesdropping?" Scott replies, then turns back to Isaac, "I don't want to hit you."
"I don't consider this eavesdropping. If I was eavesdropping I'd be hiding the fact that I'm listening to your conversation."
"Are you sure you don't want to hit me?" Isaac asks again.
"Why would I want to hit you? You didn't do anything, did you?" Scott questions.
"No. I mean, um. What do you mean?"
"I mean like you didn't kiss her or anything, right?"
"No! Absolutely not. No."
"Did you want to?"
"Oh, yeah. Totally." This causes Scarlett to smirk. Though the smirk quickly wipes off her face as Scott throws Isaac into the wall.
"Hey!" Melissa yells from downstairs, "You two supernatural teenage boys. Don't test my entirely un-supernatural level of patience."
"Feel better?" Isaac asks from the ground.
*_*_*_*_*_*
Finally at school, Lydia and Scarlett stand by their lockers talking. "It's just weird. I feel like after everything that happened with Jennifer, Scott's been acting different."
"Different how?" Lydia asks.
"I don't know. He's... I don't know." Scarlett shakes her head. Unable to describe how he's been different. "Maybe it's just a twin thing and I'm being paranoid."
"You? Paranoid? That's likely." Lydia rolls her eyes.
"I could be!"
"Yeah right. You're intuitive. You understand the people you're close to better than you understand yourself. If you think something is wrong with him. Something is probably wrong."
As soon as the first bell rings, Allison bursts through the school doors, panting. "Allison, are you okay?" Lydia asks.
"Not really. I've been seeing Kate." Allison replies.
"Hey. Hey, you all right? You don't look all right, Scott." Stiles says to his best friend.
"I'm okay."
"Bullshit." Scarlett snaps. Both of their heads turn towards the three girls. "I know something has been going on with you."
"You're seeing things, aren't you?" Stiles questions.
"How'd you know?" Scott asks.
"Because it's happening to all three of you." Lydia says. "Well, well, look who'd no longer the crazy one."
"We're not crazy." Allison replies.
"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine."
"We did die and come back to life. That's got to have some side effects, right?" Scott pipes in.
"Deaton said it would. Not just to you guys though, but to the whole town." Scarlett replies.
The second school bell rings. "We keep an eye on each other. Okay? And Lydia, stop enjoying this so much." Scott scolds his sisters best friend.
"What?" She asks, breaking away from the group to get to class.
*_*_*_*_*_*
Scarlett sits next to Scott and Stiles in History. "Good morning, everyone." The teacher begins. "My name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous History teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter."
A pretty girl in the back tries to hide herself from the students around her. "Either way, there she is." Her dad continues, acting like he wasn't embarrassing her. "Now, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century."
Class ends quickly, they gather their belongings and head out of the classroom. "Maybe we need a little more time to get back to normal." Scott says.
"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures. There's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal." Stiles replies.
"Yeah."
"What?" Scott is clearly listening in to something, just as Scarlett is about to try and figure out what he's hearing Stiles speaks once more, "Oh, dude, your eyes."
"What about them?" Scott asks.
"They're starting to glow." Stiles answers.
"They're glowing." Scarlett says at the same time.
"You mean like right now?" Scott asks.
"No, five minutes ago." Scar deadpans.
Scott glares as Stiles speaks, "Yes, right now. Scott, stop."
Scott starts panting, "I can't control it."
Stiles and Scarlett exchange a panicked look. "All right, just keep your head down." Stiles and Scar walk Scott towards an empty classroom. Once inside they shut the door.
Scott starts growling, "Get back. Get away from me."
Scarlett steps in between the two boys and gets her claws out just incase she needs to protect Stiles. "Scott, it's okay." Stiles tries to reassure.
"I don't know what's going to happen. Get back." Scott turns away from them, panting hard. Finally, he sighs. "Pain makes you human." He says, showing them his bloody palms.
"Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real. And it's starting to get bad for me too. I'm not just having nightmares. I'm having dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm actually ever waking up."
"What do you mean?" Scott questions his best friend.
"Yeah, curious about that too." Scarlett adds.
"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in your dreams. More and more, the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters in order."
"You can't read right now?" Scarlett asks.
Stiles turns towards the board, looking at the words written, "I can't read a thing."
*_*_*_*_*_*
Scarlett walks into Chemistry, spotting Cora sitting in the back. She walks up to the werewolf and takes a seat beside her, "Hey. I didn't realize you'd be starting school with us."
Cora nods, "Derek tried to convince me to leave town again, stay out of all the drama that happens here. But I couldn't leave him when we just got reunited."
"Can't say I blame you. If it was Scott, there's no way in hell I'd leave."
"Exactly, so now I'm here. Have to be somewhat of a normal teenager according to Derek." She rolls her eyes.
Scarlett cracks a smile but doesn't reply as the teacher starts talking. "Hello, my name is Mr. Reed. I'm your new Chemistry teacher since your last one left. Let's have a good year and please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you may have."
"God, we go through teachers faster than the seasons change." Scarlett mumbles. "At least he's hot though." Cora looks at Scarlett with her eyebrows knitted together, but a small smile cracks through.
"He is pretty hot." Cora agrees. Both girls exchanging smiles. Mr. Reed walks through the aisle, handing out worksheets. Once he gets closer both girls smiles fall. Mr. Reed doesn't realize as he moves onto the next table and walks back towards the front.
The two teenagers heads snap towards each other, sharing looks of bewilderment, "He's a werewolf?" Scarlett mouths, not wanting to speak out loud. Cora just nods.
*_*_*_*_*_*
After school, Scarlett sits in her room doing homework, or at least trying to. She was more concerned about what is happening with Scott, Stiles, and Allison and was trying to brainstorm ways to help them, but getting nowhere. She was also concerned about the new teacher being a werewolf. He may seem okay right now, but after Jennifer and the Alpha pact she's not going to just trust any random new supernatural to appear.
Trapped in her thoughts, a knock at her door makes her jump. "Hey, didn't mean to scare you." Isaac says.
"No, your fine. What's up?" Scar asks.
"I need to talk with you and Scott." Scarlett nods, standing up and walking towards Scott's room. Once in the room, Isaac proceeds to them the twins about how Allison almost shot Lydia with one of her arrows.
"Right at her head?" Scott asks for clarification.
"Almost right through it. And she keeps saying the same thing, that she keeps seeing her aunt. Whatever's happening to you guys is getting worse. If I hadn't been there, then Lydia would be dead."
"I actually have a question about that." Scarlett says, slightly raising her hand, "Why were you there?"
"Ah." Isaac hesitates.
Next thing she knows, Scott tosses Isaac into the wall once more, causing Scarlett to cringe at the impact, "Forget I asked." She mumbles.
"Oh, you guys, come on. This house does not have a supernatural ability to heal! So, stop it!" Melissa yells from downstairs.
Isaac groans from the floor in the hallway, "Oh by the way, the new chemistry teacher is a werewolf." Scarlett says, figuring they should probably know and getting the topic changed from Isaac and Allison.
*_*_*_*_*_*
The next day in class, Scarlett sits once more beside the boys. Though this time they are in Coach's class. Coach is trying to get Stiles' attention but it's not working. So, Coach blows his whistle then calls out, "Stilinski!"
"Uh-huh?" Stiles asks with wide eyes.
"I asked you a question."
"Uh, sorry, Coach. What was it?"
"It was, 'Stilinski, are you paying attention back there?'"
"Oh. Well, I am now." Scarlett hides her smile behind her hand.
"Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink. Every night. Does anybody else want to try the question on the board?"
Scott and Scarlett turn towards Stiles to check on him. "I'm okay." He whispers. "I just fell asleep for a second."
Scarlett's eyes narrow as Scott answers Stiles, "Dude, you weren't asleep."
*_*_*_*_*_*
At lunch, the whole group sits together to try and figure out how to deal with this issue. "Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asks the group.
"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles adds.
"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" Allison pipes in.
"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac answers, causing Scarlett to lightly smack his shoulder and Cora to crack a smile.
"Can you at least try to be helpful?" Stiles asks.
"For half my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."
"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?"
"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that."
"Hi." A new voice interrupts. "Hi, sorry. I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might know what you're talking about. There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called 'Bardo'. It literally means 'in-between state'. The state between life and death."
"And what do they call you?" Lydia asks.
"Kira. She's in our History class." Scott answers for her.
"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?"
"Either, I guess." Kira shrugs, "But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."
"Wrathful deities? And what are those?" Isaac asks.
"She means demons." Scarlett answers, popping a grape into her mouth. Kira nods in agreement.
"Demons. Why not?" Stiles sighs.
"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison questions Kira.
"Death. You die." Kira bluntly replies, causing Scarlett to almost choke on her grape.
"Scar?" Stiles calls out in concern.
"Sorry. I'm good. I'm all good." Scarlett replies, still coughing.
"Did you just apologize for choking?" Cora questions.
"I did. And if any of you almost die, I expect an apology as well."
Isaac smiles, "Sure, Scar."
*_*_*_*_*_*
When school ends, Scott, Stiles, and Scarlett go to Deaton to ask about what's been happening. Stiles explains about his 'dream' in Coach's class, once he finishes, Deaton speaks, "It sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you."
"Well, how do I tell my subconscious to use a language that I actually know?" Stiles questions.
"Do you remember what the sign language looked like? The placement and movement of the hands?"
"You know sign language?" Scott asks.
"I know a little. Let me give it a shot." Deaton replies.
"Okay, the first one was like this." Stiles says, bringing his hands up. His index fingers touch, then one moving in a rotation around it.
"That's when" Deaton answers.
"Then there was this, twice." Stiles holds his palms flat facing Deaton, then moves one to the side and back.
"That's door." Deaton and Scarlett answer together.
The boys all turn towards Scar so she shrugs, "I know some sign language too. Really just some random words."
Stiles shakes his head but continues, "And this in between it." Stiles puts his thumb under his chin moving it forward.
"That's it?" Deaton questions.
"Yeah."
"When is a door not a door?"
"When it's ajar." Scarlett instantly answers. "His mind is telling him riddles?" She knits her eyebrows together in confusion.
"A riddle?" Stiles asks, exasperated.
"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of super-consciousness, you essentially opened a door in your minds."
"So what does that mean? The door's still open?" Scott asks.
"Ajar."
"A door into our minds?" Stiles questions.
"I did tell you it was risky."
"What do we do about it?" Scott asks another question.
"Well, that's difficult to answer."
"Oh, no, wait a second, I know that look. The 'we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix it' look." Stiles says, shaking his head.
"One thing I do know is that having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good. You each need to close that door. And you need to do it as soon as possible." Deaton says.
*_*_*_*_*_*
Sheriff Stilinski has asked for help from Scott and Scarlett. While the Sheriff distracts Mr. Tate, a man who's whole family died in a car crash, Scott, Stiles, and Scarlett sneak around back. "All I'm getting is some animal smell." Scott whispers.
"It's dog." Scarlett replies.
"How do you know that?" Stiles asks.
"A couple of reasons." She shrugs. "One, it kinda smells like me in my wolf form. Two," She gestures to the Rottweiler staring at them.
Both boys heads snap to the side, hearing the growling dog. "Hi, puppy." Stiles whispers. "Get rid of it."
"Me?" Scott questions.
"Yes, you. Glow your eyes at it, something, be the Alpha."
"I can't. I don't have control." Scarlett shakes her head and before either boy could say more, she glows her eyes to make the dog stop. The dog tilts his head in confusion then walks away.
"Nice." Stiles says, then throws a stuffed animal at Scott, "Here. Try that. Anything?"
"All I'm getting is that dog." Scott replies. Back outside, they meet back up with the Sheriff. "I'm sorry. We both tried as hard as we could. If it wasn't so long ago, we might have been able to do it.
"It's okay." Sheriff sighs, "It was a long shot. In fact, it was a pretty terrible idea. I think I just ripped a wound open in that poor man. I never should have brought you guys here. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for trying, all right?"
"You're just trying to help, Mr. Stilinski. Don't be too upset." Scarlett gently smiles.
He smiles back, "Aren't I the one that's supposed to be wise?"
"You are!" Scarlett exclaims.
Sheriff squeezes her shoulder then turns towards Stiles, "See you at home."
When he walks away Scott turns towards Stiles, "Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved?"
"Yeah, I just think this one he felt like he could've figured out right now." Stiles answers.
"Why is it so important right now?"
"He wants to be able to solve one more while he's still Sheriff."
"Still Sheriff? What does that mean?" Scarlett questions. Stiles looks down and begins to explain to the twins about how their dad is trying to get Sheriff Stilinski fired.
*_*_*_*_*_*
Back at home Scott and Scarlett begin to argue with their father. "I'm trying to help." Rafael says.
"That doesn't make any sense, dad. Who are you helping? Just get out." Scott says.
"Seriously, all this seems to be helping is yourself." Scarlett spits out in disgust.
"Kids." Rafael sighs.
"What? I can't believe you'd do this to my best friend." Scott says.
"I'm not doing anything to your friend. I'm doing my job."
"Your job sucks." Scott and Scarlett say together.
"Some days I can't argue that."
"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Melissa asks as she walks through the door.
"He's trying to get Stiles' dad fired." Scott explains.
"No. That's not true." Rafael tries to deny.
Scarlett scoffs before her mom replies, "What are you doing?"
"Conducting a case for impeachment."
"That sounds a lot like getting him fired."
"The lack of resolution and ability to close cases is what's going to get him fired. My job is just to collect the information. And it's the job my superiors have given me."
"Your job sucks."
"Honestly, it's a lot better when your not around." Scar glares.
"Scarlett," Rafael tries to say.
"No. Sheriff Stilinski is amazing at his job. And I much rather have him around than you! Scott's right, just leave." Scarlett marches out the door before anyone can say anything else. Breathing in the fresh air, Scarlett makes her way to the forest. She finds a spot to hide her clothes, then transitions into her wolf form. As soon as all four of her paws hit the ground, she runs.