Eichen House

The hallway was cold. It always was in here. Maybe it was the way the walls were painted—dull beige with the lightest tinge of green, like they were trying to make you think you weren't in a mental hospital.

Didn't work.

Every breath I took echoed back at me. My footsteps sounded wrong. And in the silence, I kept thinking I heard her voice.

Cassie.

God, I missed her.

The way she used to flick her pen against her notebook when she was thinking. The way she said my name when she was mad, tight and clipped, like it took effort not to scream it. The way she looked at me like I was still worth saving, even when I didn't believe it.

Especially now.

She would've made fun of this place. Called it Haunted House Lite. She would've been scared anyway, so would I, but it would've been ours, you know? Something shared. Not this... isolation.

Now she was probably worried sick, pacing holes in the floor, thinking I was gone. And I kind of was.

-----♡-----

"Why didn't you tell me?" Scott had asked.

Because if I had, he would've looked at me with that face again. The one where he's already mourning you but trying not to show it. That face is the reason I checked myself in. That, and the fear of what I'd do next.

I told him the truth: I can't hurt you if I'm in here.

But there was more I didn't say.

I can't hurt Cassie.

Because she's the one the Nogitsune talks about when no one's listening. The one he whispers about when it's dark, when I'm just on the edge of sleep.

"Do you remember the look on her face? When she started to wonder if you weren't really Stiles anymore?"

"She's afraid of you. You're losing her."

-----♡-----

The nurse talked at me like I wasn't even there. Something about shoes and laces. No pillow, no phone, no visitors.

My dad freaked out over forgetting my pillow.

I almost laughed.

"I haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks," I told him.

What I didn't say was: I haven't had a quiet moment in my head since Cassie kissed me and said everything was going to be okay. Since the second I knew it wasn't.

-----♡-----

Inside, everything was worse. Voices in the walls. Screams that came from nowhere. Suicide echoes. People staring at things that weren't there. Or maybe they were and I just couldn't see them yet.

I tried the phone. Dead.

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" I asked Oliver.

He just shrugged. "Why didn't you ask?"

-----♡-----

Every time I blinked, I saw her.

Cassie. Sitting on my bed. Headphones in, one ear popped out just for me. Her foot tapping the air. Her smile. I used to think that smile was the strongest force in the universe. Now it felt like a knife in my chest.

Group therapy was a joke. We talked about guilt. Like it was an abstract concept.

I didn't tell them I could taste mine.

I didn't tell them it smelled like her shampoo, citrus and vanilla. Or that it felt like her hands slipping out of mine when I dream about her walking away, and I can't move to stop her.

Morrell asked me how guilt made me feel.

I almost said like dying. Instead, I said, "Nervous."

Understatement of the century.

-----♡-----

Later, I tried to find a way into the basement. Because that's where the pieces were. I knew it. I felt it.

I struck a deal with Malia. She punched me. Fair.

I deserved worse.

We found the keys. Kind of. Brunski wasn't about to make it easy.

And then, of course, they dragged me to the quiet room. Drugged me.

I fought. Screamed.

"I have to stay awake. You don't understand..."

But they didn't listen.

-----♡-----

And then I was there.

In my head.

Locked in. With him.

The Nogitsune.

"Let me in."

"No."

"Do you want Cassie to die?"

That made me stop.

"What?"

"I can feel her. She's unraveling. You're the thread, Stiles. You break, and she goes with you."

"Stop."

"She dreams of you as me now. Did you know that?"

"Shut up."

"You'll hurt her. You already are. She isn't allowed to be alone. She falls into traces, ends up in streets, the woods. She hears my voice."

He smiled, slow and venomous.

"Let me in, and I'll leave her alone. Let me in, and I'll walk away from her, forever. Isn't that what you want? For her to be safe?"

I didn't answer.

I couldn't. Because part of me did want that. For her to be safe. Even if it meant giving him everything.

-----♡-----

I woke up screaming.

Malia was there. She dragged me to my feet. Strong and solid. Like an anchor.

But she wasn't who I wanted.

She wasn't Cassie.

-----♡-----

In the basement, everything clicked.

The map. The clues. The writing.

And just when it felt like we were close to something real— Oliver turned.

He strapped me down.

He muttered about trephination.

I begged. I thrashed.

And then I heard it.

"Start with her."

Cassie's scream, not real, but real enough.

"You did this," I growled. "You got into his head."

"Do you want her to leave here alive? Let me in, and I'll let her live."

His voice was in my bones. In my blood.

"Let me in, Stiles..."

"Let me in, and she walks away. Just say yes."

I screamed.

-----♡-----

Cassie, I'm sorry. I'm trying. I swear.

I just don't know how much longer I can fight this.