Voices at Oak Creek

-----♡-----

I couldn't stop pacing.

Melissa checked my vitals like she was trying to find something wrong, something physical, but I could've told her hours ago. That's not where the damage is.

"Well... medically, you seem okay. You're definitely a real person..."

I gave her a weak smile. "Okay, so I'm real, but am I the real me?"

That shut everyone up. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to.

Cassie should've been the one to answer. She always called me out when I started spiraling like this. But she wasn't here.

My stomach twisted. Cass wasn't here and we didn't know where she was. I remembered everything the Nogitsune had put her through. I had heard the voices, the lies he whispered. I saw her breaking, and god it hurt me. But right now, we had to make sure I was really me.

"Is she here?" I asked.

Scott nodded.

I forced a breath into my lungs. "Okay. Let's do this."

The words tasted like ash. Everyone else looked horrified as the Oni materialized. "Guys, we have to do this." I said, keeping my voice calm.

Noshiko's eyes locked on mine like she was trying to see through me.

"Do you recognize me?" she asked.

Before Kira could react, I raised a hand.

"It's okay. I'm the one who asked her to come."

Kira whipped toward me. "You're the one who's going to get stabbed with swords!"

"Yeah. Starting to feel that," I muttered.

"Mom, don't do this to him."

"It's already done."

Her voice was final.

She reached forward and pulled my collar aside. Fingers grazed behind my ear, and I flinched as if her touch could reopen the wound I didn't know I still had.

"Look behind his ear."

Scott leaned closer, breath held.

"It worked."

I let out a breath I'd been holding for hours.

"So I'm actually me?" I asked, because I didn't believe it, not really.

"More you than the Nogitsune."

That didn't feel like a comfort. Not when Cassie was still missing.

"Can the Oni find him?" I asked.

"Tomorrow night. It's too close to dawn now."

"Can they kill him?"

"Depends on how strong he is."

That meant maybe. That meant not soon enough.

Scott asked the question I was afraid to.

"What about Cassie? Why would he take her?"

Noshiko's expression didn't change. But her eyes darkened.

"He would only take her for an advantage."

"You mean her power?" Scott asked.

She nodded. "The power of a Guardian."

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation. All I could hear was her voice. I could still feel it in my chest.

-----♡-----

The station looked too quiet. Empty coffee cups, paperwork half-sorted, the quiet hum of computers in sleep mode.

Parrish offered my dad a coffee, and I could hear the exhaustion in both their voices. The helplessness.

I leaned against the doorway, not quite ready to walk in.

He was doing the thing he always did when he was overwhelmed—fidgeting, digging in his pockets, muttering about losing his keys.

I smiled despite everything. "In your coffee cup." He jumped. "You always drop them in your empty cup..."

He turned fast. "Oh!"

"Hey, Dad."

His eyes scanned me, like he wasn't sure if I was real. Like he was still waiting for another trick. I didn't blame him.

"Is it over?" he asked.

Scott stepped forward. "Not yet."

We explained what had happened. I saw his face tighten as we got to Cassie being missing. But, he schooled his features and just nodded.

Dad sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "We'll get an APB out on Cassie's car, get every unit on the road is looking for her."

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Scott asked.

"At this hour? No, not really."

I clenched my fists. The guilt was boiling in my blood.

"He took her for a reason, Dad. Look, if we can figure out the why, then we'll figure out the where."

My dad turned toward me slowly. "Okay... What would a Nogitsune need with a Guardian?"

I hesitated. "It's something more to do with her and me than just her as a Guardian."

That truth had been sitting in my chest for days. He didn't take her because of her powers, sure that was part of it, but not the real reason.

He took her because of me. Because I was her weakness. Because she was mine.

"Scott, you know more about this than all of us—"

"Me?" Scott looked startled.

"You said you heard the whole story from Noshiko?" my dad asked.

"Yeah, but that happened during World War II, like seventy years ago."

I froze.

"Wait—what did you say?"

"Noshiko told me about the internment camp—"

"No, before that. You said 'the whole story'..."

He nodded, confused. "Yeah... What is it?"

And then it hit me. Meredith, on the phone at Eichen House. "I should tell them... They're going to want to know the story—the whole story."

"There's a girl at Eichen House. Her name's Meredith."

I looked between Scott and my dad.

"I think she might be able to help."

-----♡-----

Someone was calling my name through a fog.

A hand on my shoulder. A voice I knew.

"Hey!"

I blinked. The ceiling above me was unfamiliar for a second. White. Faintly cracked. Melissa's house. Scott's voice.

"You okay?"

I turned my head. Scott stood over me, eyebrows drawn tight with worry.

"What happened?" My voice came out dry, cracked. "How long was I out?"

"Just a couple hours," he said. "You should sit down."

I was already sitting, kind of. I pushed myself up straighter on the couch and let the blanket slide off my shoulders. My skin buzzed. Cold. Numb in places, sore in others. Like something had been pulled out of me and hadn't quite been replaced.

"Where's my dad?"

"Eichen House." Scott lowered himself into the chair across from me. "He's questioning everyone, looking for Meredith. I promised him I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

I nodded slowly. That tracked.

"What about the others?"

"Allison, Isaac, the twins... they're all looking for Cassie."

I swallowed hard.

The ache in my chest flared again. Cassie.

My voice was quiet. "It's starting to feel like we're waiting for a ransom call..."

Scott didn't deny it. He just said, "We'll find her." Soft. Certain. He always sounded certain. It didn't make it easier.

He looked at me again, brow furrowed. "You all right?"

"Yeah." I lied.

But I didn't feel all right. Not even close.

"I don't know why..." I mumbled. "I just can't seem to get warm."

Scott stood and walked back toward the kitchen. "Maybe you should sit down, take it easy."

"Already sitting, buddy," I muttered, teeth starting to chatter.

He walked back in with a glass of water but stopped short. "...You're in pain."

"It's not that bad—" I started, but he gave me a look. That alpha look. The don't-you-lie-to-me-right-now look.

I sighed. "Just more like a dull ache."

"Where?"

I hesitated. "Sort of... everywhere."

Scott dropped the glass on the table and crouched in front of me, eyes scanning my face like he was searching for something specific.

Then he reached out and touched my arm.

His face changed instantly.

"Dude, you're freezing."

I shrugged, because what else was I supposed to do?

"Tell me the truth—how much does it really hurt?" I opened my mouth to answer when his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. "It's Kira."

-----☾-----

The darkness here had weight.

It pressed down on my chest like a hand, squeezing until every breath rattled in my ribs. I didn't know how long I'd been underground. The air was damp and sharp with rot, thick with whispers that weren't mine. Figures dancing at the edge of my vision, never close enough to see.

They'd started soft. Now, they were screaming. It was like I could feel the supernatural pulsing through me, my eyes rimmed in silver, everything slightly distorted by the visions.

He's gone. You weren't enough. You couldn't even save yourself.

I pressed my palms to the cold stone floor, fingers trembling, trying to drown the voices out.

But then he stepped into view. He smiled like he had all the time in the world.

"Can you hear them? See them?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

"Worse than usual, isn't it?" he continued, pacing in a slow circle. "Well, that's because a lot of bad things happened down here. Fear leaves echoes, you know. Screams leave residue."

He crouched beside me, voice dropping to a whisper.

"What are they telling you?"

My throat clenched.

"Are they saying that Stiles is dying?"

He tilted his head. "He is, you know..." he sing-songed. "He's dying."

My stomach flipped. For a second, the whispering stopped, and everything was just silence.

Then I laughed. It wasn't pretty. It hurt. But I did it anyway.

"Then what do you need me for?" I snapped. "You think I can give you something? Is that it?" I was scared. I was scared for Stiles, for my friends, but for myself. I wasn't sure if this was something I could come back from anymore.

He grinned wider. "Oh, I know you can."

"I'm not giving you anything!"

"You won't have a choice" he leaned close, breath cool against my cheek, "its in your nature."

I jerked away, heart slamming against my ribs. "Fuck you." I hissed.

"I myself was kind of wondering what they're doing right now... What useless lead they're chasing?"

He glanced down at me. "I wonder if maybe some of them have bigger problems to deal with? Are they really spending every minute looking for you?"

I grit my teeth. "Or... are they waiting for nightfall? Focused on some hopeless gesture to pass the time?"

"What do you want?" I said, ignoring his rambling.

His smile was slow and sharp. "More."

"More what? Haven't you taken enough from us?"

He crouched again, fingers tapping my cheek in a condescending way. "The trickster stories are all about food, Cassandra—the Coyote, the Raven, the Fox... They're all hungry."

His eyes flashed dark. "I'm the same. I just crave something a little different." He leaned in.

"I eat what you feel." His voice dropped to a whisper. "And I am insatiable."

He turned to me, slower now, gaze crawling across my face like he was memorizing every flaw. "You want to know why I took you?" he said.

I stayed silent. Part of me didn't want to know. But more of me knew I needed to.

"You want to know why you were worth the risk? Why I left myself vulnerable for a girl who bleeds too easily and loves too loudly? Why I kept messing with your head, hurting you, and in turn, your friends?"

I clenched my fists. "I don't care."

He smiled, like I'd just stepped right into the trap. "I don't need to break you, Cassandra. I need you to feel."

He took a step closer. My pulse quickened.

"Guardians are rare. Beautiful things. You're not just protectors, you're empaths wired into the emotional pulse of everyone you love. You don't just feel your own pain... You absorb theirs. Multiply it. Amplify it."

He crouched beside me, voice low and gleaming.

"You taste like guilt and grief and longing, layered with centuries of instinct telling you to save people who don't want to be saved."

He inhaled, deep. Eyes fluttered like he was drunk on it. "I've gorged on wolves. I've devoured rage. Fed on fear. But you... you're something new. Something unfiltered."

"You love him. That alone is a banquet. But the shame? The helplessness? The guilt you carry because you couldn't stop me?" His grin widened, split lip curling up. "It's exquisite."

I jerked away. "You can't have it."

"Too late. I already do. Every second you blame yourself, every time you're friends worry about you, every time you worry about them, every time you breathe and he's not standing in front of you" He touched his chest. "I feast."

"And soon, you'll break."

He stood, eyes gleaming now with something else, certainty.

"You think you're helping them. Guiding them. But that bond of yours? That deep emotional tether to everyone around you?" He leaned forward. "It makes you a conduit."

My breath hitched. "What hurts you... will ruin them."

He let the words hang. "Your grief will drown Scott. Your guilt will crush Allison. Your fear will tear Lydia apart. And Stiles?"

He smirked. "He'll feel you slipping, and he'll let go. Because he'll think you're already gone."

My body trembled, but I refused to cry. I refused to give him that.

He cocked his head. "You're going to ruin them. And all you have to do is keep caring."

He turned his back like the conversation was over. But he wasn't done, his voice came through again.

"You know the worst part? You're still hoping they'll save you. That he'll come back for you."

He glanced over his shoulder one last time. "But you already know how this story ends. The trickster always wins."

-----♡-----

The hum of the tires on asphalt used to be soothing. Now it just filled the silence with a kind of static that made my skin crawl.

I stared out the window, watching pine trees blur past under the moonlight, wishing I could stop thinking. Just for a second. But the thoughts wouldn't let up. Memories of Cassie in the passenger seat of the jeep. Kissing her on the hood. Singing along to rock songs. But then it got worse.

Cassie sobbing in the woods, the nogitsune's words echoing in my head and hers. Everything he said, I said, breaking her bit by bit. The look in her eyes the last time I saw her, panicked, scared.

Because the worst part isn't the memory of what I did while he was inside my head. It's the fact that I remember it all.

"Hey," I said, voice rough. "You okay?" Scott's hands were tight on the wheel. He didn't look at me.

"Yeah. Yeah, you don't have to worry about me."

I didn't answer, just nodded. I knew he was worried about Cassie too. She might be my girlfriend, but she was like his sister. God, she had touched so many people here. The thought sent a wave of nausea down my body.

Part of me was hoping he'd say something, anything, that made me feel like I was still human. Like I hadn't already ruined everything.

From the backseat, Isaac leaned forward. "All right, I'm gonna say it. You look like you're dying."

I almost laughed. Almost.

"You're pale, thin, and you look like you're getting worse." He wasn't wrong. "And we're all sitting here thinking it. When we find the other you... is he gonna look like he's getting better?"

Scott sent him a look, but I could feel it, none of us knew the answer.

Isaac hesitated. Then asked the question I'd been avoiding since we got back in the car. "What happens if he gets hurt? Like... if he dies—do you die?"

I leaned back, letting my head thump softly against the cold window.

"I don't care," I muttered. "Just so long as no one else dies because of me."

Because someone already did. Cassie didn't die, but he might as well have killed her. Because I remember what she looked like when I grabbed her. The terror in her eyes, the brokenness. I don't know if our Cassie was ever coming back.

"I remember everything I did, Scott. I remember pushing that sword into you. I remember twisting it."

The car was silent. "It wasn't you," he said finally.

I shook my head. "Yeah, but I remember it."

And I remember Cassie, curled up on the floor of her bedroom, sobbing so hard her body shook, and I couldn't hold her.

Because I wasn't there.

Because I was too busy being the monster who broke her.

"You guys gotta promise me." I said, quieter now, barely above a whisper. "You can't let anyone else get hurt because of me."

The words they knew I meant didn't need to be said.

Because I'll never be able to live with it. Not if we lose her.

The silence stretched again, heavy and hollow. None of them knew what to say.

And honestly?

There wasn't anything left to say.

-----♡-----

We stepped out of the cars and onto the gravel, moonlight casting the camp in long shadows. Cold air pressed against my skin, and I felt every inch of it.

This place was wrong.

Empty buildings. Rotten wood. Echoes in places where there shouldn't be sound.

But she was here. I could feel her, like a lifeline tugging me towards her.

Scott looked around. "We've done this before, guys. A couple of weeks ago, we were standing around just like this... and we saved Malia. Remember?"

He turned to Allison. "That was a total stranger. This is Cass."

Allison raised her crossbow. "I'm here to save my best friend."

Scott nodded. "I came to save my sister."

Behind us, Isaac shifted awkwardly. "...I just didn't feel like doing any homework." Scott glared. Isaac sighed. "Fine. I came to save one of the first people who ever believed in me."

I almost smiled.

Cassie had a habit of doing that. Making people feel like they mattered. Even when they didn't believe it themselves.

From the tree line, Noshiko appeared like a shadow made real. "Kira, turn around and go home. Take your friends with you."

Kira stepped forward without hesitation. "I can't." Her voice was calm. Fierce. "When I looked at the game, I realized who I was actually playing."

She looked her mother in the eye.

"You."

Scott suddenly stilled, eyes narrowing toward a building. "She's here," he said. "This way." My heart jumped as we left the sound of fighting behind, praying our friends could hold them off long enough

-----☾-----

My heart stopped. I didn't need to hear their voices. I felt them. Like sunlight suddenly cutting through the suffocating dark, like a wire snapping in my chest.

They were here.

I turned to him, and he was smiling, grinning like this was a game. "You will ruin them" He tilted his head like he was proud of me. And then it hit me.

Not physically. Not like before.

This time it slammed into my mind—a wave of heat, ice, and terror all at once.

The vision. The one I'd seen over and over.

The Oni. The sword. Someone dying.

But this time, the blur cleared. No more fog. No more shadows.

The face was Allison's.

Eyes wide. A breath caught mid-scream. A sword through her chest.

I stumbled back, choking on air, clawing at my skull like I could rip the image out of my head.Void was gone, but that image was still there.

"No... no, no, no, no—"

"Cass?" Scott's voice. Real. So close. Too close.

"Cass, are you all right?" I turned to them, Scott and Stiles. Oh god it was really Stiles. Everything froze for a second as I took him in. Exhausted, pale, sick, but hope in his eyes.

Then it hit me again. They shouldn't have been here.

"No!" I shouted. "Why are you here?!"

"Cass, we're here for you-" Stiles stepped forward, his eyes searching mine, desperate.

"You weren't supposed to be here!" I cut him off.

"Cass, what's happening?" Scott asked.

I scanned the building frantically. "Who else is here?" I whispered.

No answer.

"Who else came with you? WHO ELSE IS HERE?!" I pleaded with everyone god that Allison was home with her dad. That she wasn't here.

My legs moved before my brain caught up.

I was running, screaming inside, please, please, please let me be wrong.

And then I saw her.

She was crumpling. The sword was already through her.

Like the vision.

Like every second I'd relived in nightmares. The scream tore from my throat, but it felt like it came from my soul.

I froze, five feet away.

Scott knelt beside her, holding her body. Her blood stained his hands.

"Allison!" he sobbed.

She looked up at him, her voice fragile but steady. "Did you find her? Is she okay? Is Cass safe?"

Scott's voice cracked. "She's okay... yeah..."

I wanted to say something. To say yes, I'm okay. To move so she could see me, to hold her hand one last time.

But I couldn't speak. My mouth wouldn't move. Neither would my feet.

"I can't... I can't take your pain..." Scott whispered.

She smiled faintly. "It's because it doesn't hurt."

"No..."

"It's okay—"

"Allison..."

She cupped his cheek. "It's okay. It's okay. It's perfect. I'm in the arms of my first love... The first person I ever loved... The person I'll always love..."

My chest shattered. I couldn't breathe.

"I love you... Scott... Scott McCall..."

He was sobbing now. Hands shaking. Cradling her like he could stop it if he just held tight enough. "Don't! Please, don't. Allison, don't, please..."

Her eyes were glassy. Still smiling.

"You have to tell my dad. You have to tell my dad. Tell him—"

"No!" Scott begged.

But it was already over.

I stared at her body, still, cradled in Scott's arms.

The world around me was chaos, Scott sobbing, Isaac shouting, Stiles pulling at me, trying to get me to say something. I couldn't even be happy that Stiles was in front of me.

But everything was quiet in my head.

A dead, echoing quiet. I had seen it. The exact moment. And I still let it happen.

"It's my fault," I whispered.

Stiles jerked toward me. "What? No, Cassie—"

"I saw it. I saw her die before it happened, and I did nothing. All year, I've seen that play out over and over again."

"Cass, no"

"I should've screamed louder. I should've stopped you from coming. I should've warned her. God I should have known."

I turned, body trembling so hard I could barely keep upright. Stiles grabbed me, forcing me to look him in the eye.

"You didn't listen, and I didn't fight hard enough. And now she's dead." I said, not letting him speak.

Scott was still holding Allison's body like she might just open her eyes.

"I'm a Guardian," I choked out. "I'm supposed to protect people. That's the whole damn point. And I didn't protect her."

"Cassie, there was nothing you could've done" Stiles voice was soft.

"Don't." I snapped, my voice raw and breaking. "Don't you dare tell me this wasn't my fault."

The tears came fast, burning as they fell. My whole body was shaking.

"I'm the reason you all came. He knew I'd lead you straight here. I was the bait, and I didn't even see it."

I turned away, clenching my fists so tightly my nails dug into my skin. That was my sister. Just like Lydia. "She trusted me."

And I failed her.