Their plan had gone horribly wrong -- so wrong in every possible way.
"I have to make sure he's okay," The Hale girl cried out as she resisted against Stiles' grip, but it was no use. "I have to make sure he's okay."
Pulling Gracie with them, Scott and Stiles led her back into the school they had just broken into moments earlier. Everything was happening too quickly for the Hale girl to process. Scott's and Stiles' voices drifted off as she stood there, completely frozen.
"Lock it, lock it!" Scott shouted frantically, his heart racing.
"Do I look like I have a key?" Stiles spat at him, his voice shaking.
"Grab something!"
"What?" Stiles asked harshly; there was nothing around that could lock the double doors.
"Anything!"
Stiles inhaled sharply and paused, thinking about the bolt cutters he brought with them. He rose to his feet, locating them a few feet away, laying on the sidewalk.
"No," Scott objected when he realized what his friend was thinking.
"Yes," Stiles hummed.
"Stiles, no, don't!"
The teen wolf's voice snapped Gracie from her trance, seeing Scott was standing in front the door.
"What is he doing ?" Gracie asked, stepping forward after Stiles quietly opened the door and slipped out, looking around for the alpha.
When he didn't see the ugly monster, Stiles stealthily made his way down the concrete steps and sidewalk where the bolt cutters laid.
"Scott..." Gracie breathed out, pointing as the two watched with their faces pressed up against the door window.
Meanwhile, Stiles crouched down to pick up the bolt cutters when Scott and Gracie started banging on the door behind him. Stiles looked up and was horrified to see that the alpha was hanging around by his Jeep.
"Run!" Gracie and Scott shouted at him.
The alpha lunged forward and Stiles reared back, running back into the school. Slamming the door shut behind him, he threw the bolt cutters into place, locking the doors as best as they could. Resting back against the door, Stiles panted, his racing heart starting to calm down.
"Where is it?" Scott breathed. "Where did it go?"
No one answered as the three of them just watched the parking lot for any sign of the alpha. They slowly backed away from the doors and looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
"That won't hold, will it?" Scott said.
"Probably not," Stiles answered quietly.
A distant howling caught their attention and they scrambled, sprinting toward the nearest classroom. When the nearest room was locked, they kept running down the hallway until they found an unlocked door.
"The desk!" Stiles pointed out. Trying to use it as a blockade, the trio started to push it to the door and cringed when the metal of the desk started screeching against the linoleum flooring.
"Stop, stop!" Stiles hissed. Even if they pushed a desk or cabinet in front of it, the alpha would still be strong enough to get through. "The door's not gonna keep it out."
"I know," Scott agreed.
"It's your boss," Stiles told Scott.
"What?"
"Deaton, the alpha? Your boss," Stiles declared.
Scott shook his head. "No."
"Yes, murder psycho werewolf," Stiles kept insisting.
"That can't be."
"Oh, come on," Stiles snapped. "He disappears, and that thing shows up ten seconds later to toss Derek 20 feet through the air? That's not convenient timing?"
"It's not him," Scott argued, still looking at Stiles.
"He killed Derek."
"No, Derek's not dead," Scott shook his head, not wanting to believe it. "He can't be dead."
"Blood spurted out of his mouth, okay?" Stiles asked, trying to be realistic. "That doesn't exactly qualify as a minor injury. He's dead, and we're next."
"Shut us!" Gracie hissed, not wanting to believe it was true. "Just shut the hell up!"
As the two boys stared at her, the angry look on the Hale girl's face disappeared as she slid down the door with her head buried in her knees, sobbing quietly.
"Okay, just-what do we do?" Scott asked quietly as the two boys watched Gracie sadly.
"We get to my jeep, we get out of here, you seriously think about quitting your job, good?"
"What about the windows?" Scott asked, walking over to open one.
Stiles shook his head. "No, they don't open. The school's climate-controlled."
"Then we break it."
"Which will make a lot of noise."
"Then, uh..." Scott gulped, looking through the glass to see how far Stiles' Jeep is. "...then we run really fast. Really fast."
Gracie let out a heavy breath, standing up as she leaned against a window, a few feet down from Scott. Her brows furrowed at the worn-down Jeep, seeing the hood was warped. Had it always been like that?
"Stiles, what's wrong with the hood of your jeep?" She asked, sniffling as she ignored the tears rolling down her cheeks.
"What do you mean?" He asked. "Nothing's wrong."
"It's bent," she pointed out.
"What, like, dented?" Stiles looked towards his Jeep, trying to spot what Gracie was talking about.
"No, I mean bent," Gracie repeated.
Stiles' eyes narrowed. "What the fuck--?"
He was interrupted as something heavy flew through the window. Shards of class flung everywhere as the window shattered. They ducked, falling to the floor. Almost like a natural instinct, Stiles covered Gracie's head to protect her as glass rained down over them.
"Are you okay?" He asked. When she nodded, he turned back to the heavy object and sighed, scrambling to his knees. "That's my battery."
"Don't," Scott tried stopping him.
"We have to move," Stiles told them.
"He could be right outside."
"He is right outside."
They both looked back at the Jeep battery, it's wires completely ripped out.
"Just let me take a look," Scott told Stiles.
Stiles nodded and Scott slowly got to his feet, peeking his head slightly over the window. He looked around, trying to find the alpha.
"Anything?" Gracie asked.
"No," Scott answered, shaking his head.
"Move now?" Stiles suggested.
"Move now," they agreed.
They rose to their feet and stood at full height. When they crept out of the classroom, they ended up in the hallway.
"This way," Scott pointed to the right.
Stiles shook his head. "No, no, no, no."
"What?"
"Somewhere without windows."
"Every single room in this building has windows!" Scott hissed.
"Or somewhere with less windows," Stiles corrected himself.
"The locker room," Gracie suggested after a minute.
"Yeah," Stiles nodded. "Okay."
They took off running down the hall, turning into two different hallways until they reached the locker rooms. Gracie followed them into the locker room as they headed towards the back of the room.
"You should call your dad," Gracie told Stiles.
"And tell him what?" He retorted.
"I don't know, anything," Scott pressed as Gracie nodded in agreement. "Gas leak, a fire, whatever. If that thing sees the parking lot filled with cop cars, it'll take off."
"What if it doesn't?" Stiles asked, irritated. "What if it goes completely Terminator and kills every cop in sight, including my dad?"
"They have guns."
"Yeah, and Derek had to be shot with a wolfsbane-laced bullet to even slow him down, you remember that?"
"Then, we-we have to..." Scott shook his head, trying to find a solution to their problem. "We have to find a way out and just run for it."
"There's nothing near the school for at least a mile," Stiles said realistically.
"Guys--" Gracie tried to edge a word in, but they kept talking over her.
"--What about Derek's car?" Scott suggested.
"That could work. We go outside, we get the keys off his body, and then we take his car," Stiles planned.
"And his body," Gracie added.
"Fine," Stiles nodded.
Happy with their plan, they started to walk out of the locker room. Stiles and Gracie stopped in their tracks when Scott raised a hand for them to stop, his face turning serious.
"What?" Gracie whispered.
"I think I heard something," Scott said.
"Like what?"
"Shh! Quiet," He hissed. Standing there quietly, Scott listened intently before pushing both Gracie and Stiles towards the middle of the room. "Hide."
Gracie looked around before opening one of the lockers and slipping inside as Stiles followed suit, getting in one of the lockers beside her.
"No, no, guys. No," Scott objected. While Gracie and Stiles were squished into the narrow lockers, Scott hesitated before jumping in a locker across them, too. They stood there for minutes as they listened to what sounded like footsteps approaching them. The noise only got louder as a man walked into the locker room, which Scott saw as he looked through the three metal slits of the lockers.
Ducking her head down, Gracie's grip on her mouth tightened as she smothered the sound of breathing, closing her eyes.
"Son of a bitch!"
Her eyes flickered open as she watched the man, who they learned was the janitor, shout as he yanked open the door of the locker Scott was hiding in.
"Quiet!" Stiles shushed him as he and Gracie jumped out as their locker doors flung open too.
"Quiet my ass," the janitor snapped. "...what the hell are you trying to do, kill me? All three of you get out."
"Will you just listen for half a second, okay?" Stiles pleaded. If the alpha couldn't hear them before, he definitely could now.
"Not okay," the janitor shook his head as he pushed the trio towards the door. "Get the hell out of here right now."
"God, just one second to explain," Stiles said as the man shoved them out of the locker room.
"Just shut up and go!"
As he pushed them into the hallway, the janitor shouted as he was forcefully dragged back into the locker room. The three of them listened in horror to his screams for help as he was shoved up against the door. His blood spurted across the frosted-glass window as the alpha attacked him.
"Go!" Stiles urged. Go!"