38. Anchors

"Love, you know as much as I love you screaming my name and showing everyone you're mine, you're father and brother are in the house and they can hear us." 

Isaac said. I chuckled, "It's 2 in the morning. They both are out like a log." 

These few days have been perfect. Our lives were finally going back on track. Allison and I have again started training with Mr. Argent and now I was also officially a hunter. And for Isaac and me, well things are as better as they can be. Clothing as become completely optional whenever we're together. Lydia and Allison had told me million times, how amazing you feel for the first time, but what they failed to tell was that after first time you get addicted to it, and that was what was happening to me. In the immortal words of the famous 'Edward Cullen', Isaac was now like my own personal brand of heroin. 

"That was amazing. You're amazing." 

Isaac said as we both finished. 

"You say that every time." I said as I got up to clean myself, but he forced me back on the bed and brought a wet towel and started cleaning me up, 

"Because it's the truth." 

He said and I blushed, "Why do you even like me, I'm such a mess and everything around me is also mess." I asked. Isaac looked in my eyes, as a smile appeared on his lips, 

"Because I love to clean." 

He said and a tear fell from my eye. 

"Hey, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?" 

Isaac got concerned and asked while pulling me into him. "No. It's just, I have never experienced this before. The way you treat me and sometimes I just get scared that in the future you'll realize just like others, that I don't deserve the way you love me." Isaac cupped my face and kissed my forehead, 

"I'm ready to tell you this until you engrave it in your mind, I love you and you can do nothing to change that. It's not your fault that you have only been with assholes before who didn't know what they have. You deserve so much more than what I give you and even if you decide to breakup with me, I will always try to be a person you deserve. Rue, the possibility of you is better than reality of others to me. Don't forget that. And I mean every single word I said to you that day, and I'm going to repeat this until you believe me." 

"I love you too, and you're perfect." I said as hid my face in his chest. Then as we were cuddling we suddenly heard Stiles screaming on top of his lungs. We quickly got up and ran towards Stiles room and saw Dad also coming. We opened the door and saw Stiles sitting on his bed frantically moving and screaming. Dad sat on his bed and tried to restrain him so that he would realize that he is awake and stop screaming, but then he started to move even more and scream even louder, so I sat next to Dad and grabbed Stiles hand, while Isaac grabbed his feet and Dad I kept repeating that he was okay and we were there. Finally he stopped screaming and realized he was awake but then he started crying. Isaac, left to give us some privacy. Stiles then hugged Dad and me and continued crying and saying that he didn't know if this was real or not. I quickly grabbed a book beside Stiles bed and held it in front of him, "Sty, look at this book. Can you read it?" He looked at the book and nodded and I reminded him that he only once told me that if you want to make sure if you're in dream or not then grab anything and try to read because you can't read in your dreams and then he finally stopped crying. Dad and I then decided to spend rest of the night in Stiles room, as we knew he was scared to be alone. 

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"Honey, are you sure you're alright?" I asked Stiles as he was packing his bag for school and before he could reply me, Dad came and asked the same question. Stiles reassured us that he was fine as it was just a nightmare so we both nodded and Stiles and I left for school. 

As I approached my locker, I saw Isaac waiting for me at my locker, but today he looked kind of a mess. As I greeted him with a kiss he asked me if Stiles was now alright and I nodded, and then I asked why did he looked like a mess and he sighed and said, 

"Well, you know ever since everyone knows we're dating, I felt like Scott was sort of angry with me, so today I gathered some courage and went to ask him if he was mad at me. He said that he was okay, as long as you're okay. Then I asked him if he hated me and he laughed and refused, but then he said that it's not like we have slept together and I didn't say anything, so he understood and threw me on the wall, and if Melissa hadn't intervened, I would have looked a lot worse." 

I couldn't help but laugh at this, "Scotty is really cute." I said but Isaac gave me looks, so I told him that I would talk to Scott and then left to look for Scott and Stiles. 

As I was looking for Scott I bumped into Stiles so we started to look for Scott together and suddenly we saw him running while looking behind and panting,

"Hey, hey. Man are you alright?" 

Stiles asked, Scott nodded. "You don't look alright Scotty." Scott again shook his head, "No you're not. It's happening to you too." Then Stiles sighed and asked, 

"You're seeing things too, aren't you?" 

Scott asked us how did we knew, and before we could answer we saw Lydia and Allison approaching us, "Because it's happening to all three of you." 

                                                                                 ---------------

"Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one."

Lydia said as we went inside the school. "Lily, they are not crazy." I said. Then Lydia turned towards me and said, 

"Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, these guys are fine."

I gave her a pointed look and she just shrugged. 

"We did die and come back to life. That's got to have side effects right?" 

Scott asked as the bell rang Stiles looked at all of us and said, 

"We have to keep an eye on each other, okay? And Lydia, stop enjoying this so much." 

After that Scott, Stiles and I moved to our History class. I was behind Scott and Stiles and as I was about to enter the class, a girl bumped into me and all of my books fell. 

"Oh my god! I am so sorry. It's my first day, I am just super nervous." 

The girl said as she helped me in picking up my books. "Hey, don't stress it, I know how it feels like. I am Ruth Stilinski." I said smiling at her, she nervously smiled back at me and shook my hand, 

"Hi, I am Kira." 

Then I heard Stiles calling me so I quickly looked back at Kira and said, "Well don't be nervous, you'll do great. And all the best." After that I went inside and sat behind Stiles. 

"Good morning everyone, my name is Mr. Yukimura. I'll be taking over for your previous history teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago, and 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 home a friend for that matter."

As our teacher talked we suddenly heard a thud and when we all turned we saw Kira banging her head on her seat and then to make matters more worse Mr. Yukimura pointed at her. She nervously smiled and I waved at her which she returned then I turned back as Mr. Yukimura started the lesson but then noticed Scott staring at her like he stared at Allison when she came in first day, I smirked at him and when he noticed me he embarrassingly turned back. 

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After the class as I walking to my locker I noticed Stiles and Scott talking so I went and stood next to them but then I noticed Scott's eyes were red, "Dude, what are you doing? Stop it." Scott didn't understand so Stiles showed him that his eyes were red in color. Then as we told Scott to stop that he told us that he couldn't control that, so Stiles and I bent him and covered his eyes and took him to the nearest empty classroom. As we got there Scott took off his jacket and yelled at Stiles and me to stay away from him as he didn't know what was happening with him.

Soon he started to change, his teeth and claws came out. To control himself Scott made a fist and pressed his claws into his palm that blood started to come out. Soon he became normal and sat down on the floor panting. Stiles and I also sat down near him. I took Scott's hand in mine to look at injury while Scott explained us that the reason he did that was because pain made them human. 

"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 these dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake, Ruth you saw that yesterday. And sometimes I'm not sure if I'm ever actually waking up." 

"Sty, what do you mean?" I asked and he explained, 

"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams. More and more the last 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."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked while Scott asked if he was having trouble reading right now as well. Stiles stood up and looked at the black board and said that he couldn't read a damn thing. Scott and I both stood up as well and I hugged them both as I felt them crying, "I promise I am going to find a way to fix all this." 

                                                                                -----------

After school ended Lydia and I decided to take Allison to the woods for shooting so that she could get over her fear. She hasn't picked up her bow since that day at nemeton, not even we when we practice. 

"Do you guys really think this is going to help?"

Allison asked, "Well, we know that if you think it's not going to help, it definitely won't."  I said as Lydia and I fixed the target on a far away tree. Allison picked up her bow and aimed but she missed the first time. Then she tried the second time but missed as well. 

"Maybe... hold the string a different way. Rue you suggest something, you have more knowledge than me."

Lydia said. "You can try the Mongolian draw." I said. Allison sighed and once again picked an arrow and aimed but she missed that as well. 

"It's okay. Take a second to close your eyes."

Lydia said and I continued, "Imagine the arrow going into the target." She closed her eyes to take a deep breath but when she opened her eyes she was confused and shortly she asked us if we saw someone running through the woods, Lydia and I both shook our heads. Then she picked up her arrows and told us to wait there. "I think we're way past this point in our relationship." I said and then we told Lydia to wait there and went in the woods

As we were walking my laces opened so I bent down to tie them up and when I stood back up after seconds I saw Allison was gone. "Allison! Where are you?" I started yelling in order to find her. Then I returned to Lydia, "I lost Allison." I told her, then as we were planning to go again to find her, we saw her coming towards us but, then she suddenly took an aim at Lydia and I pushed her away and as I was about to get shot, I closed my eyes, but when I didn't feel anything I opened them and saw Isaac standing there with arrow in his hand just inches away from my face.

"Oh my god. Oh my god, Ruth. I am so so sorry." 

Allison said dropping her bow. "Oh god, it's okay." I said then Isaac dropped the arrow and I hugged him. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I don't know, I just got a bad feeling so I came to check on you guys and thank god I did." 

He said pulling me further into him. "It's okay Isaac, I am alright now. Nothing happened." I reminded him and he loosen his grip. 

"I think you have done enough practice today, we should call it a day."

Isaac said and we all nodded, then he asked Lydia and Allison if they needed a ride, they shook their heads so I said my goodbyes and went with Isaac.

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"Are you sure you're okay?"

Isaac asked for the hundredth time. "Yes, Isaac. If you want I'll get a tattoo on my arm to prove it." I said and Isaac laughed, after that I went inside and Isaac returned to Scott. 

 After that Stiles and I went out to get flowers for mom's grave as we do every week. 

"You know, the last time we brought one of these to her grave, it was stolen the same day. Hundred bucks down the drain." 

Stiles said as I placed the vase in Dad's office but as he was sitting on the floor behind his desk, I leaned in a little so that he could see me and asked, "Hey Dad, what are you doing down there?" He said he was working and that if someone wants the flowers that badly, they could have them, as it's the gesture what was more important. Then Stiles and I came in front of him and saw the place covered with many boxes of case files. "Dad what is all this?" I asked. He said that he had been looking over at some old cases from a more illuminated perspective. Then Stiles picked up a file and started reading, 

"Strange sighting of bipedal lizard man sprinting across freeway."

Then Dad taped at a pile of files and told Stiles to drop the file there as it was the Kanima pile. "Dad, you're not going back through all your old cases seeing if any of them had anything to do with the supernatural, are you?" I asked as Stiles and I sat across him. 

"I admit the recent opening of my eyes to the greater mysteries of the universe has got me...reassessing. There are at least 100 cases here where I look at the details and I can ask myself, If I knew then what I know now..." 

Before Dad could complete Stiles interjected and asked him if he was sure he wanted to go down that path. Dad sighed and asked us if he had a choice. Then he told us that there was one particular case he couldn't get out of his head, eight years ago when he was elected Sheriff of the County, his first official duty was to tell a man that not only had his wife and two kids died in car accident, but as best they could tell, the body of his nine year old daughter had been dragged from the wreck by coyotes. Then he handed us the file and we started looking through it. "You mean dragged and eaten?" I asked and he told us that they didn't find the car until three days after the crash. Then he told us that the mother had driven off the road into pretty deep ravine, tow bodies were still in the car, and were covered in bites and slashes. 

"So you're thinking bites and claw marks probably a werewolf attack?" 

Stiles asked and Dad nodded, "Coyotes are scavenge, so couldn't they have just left the bites and the slashes?" I asked and he said that they could but this incident occurred on full moon night. Then we looked at the boxes and Stiles asked where they were going and Dad sighed and said that it was something we needed to talk about and then I noticed Agent McCall written on the boxes. 

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The next day as Stiles, Scott and I walked in our economics class, Stiles seemed distracted, but nevertheless we sat in our usual seats and I started taking out my books. Soon Coach walked in and started teaching and when I looked over at Stiles he had his head down. Then he started writing in notebook and he looked like he was in an trance, Scott and I tried walking him up but it wasn't working, then Coach spotted us and blew his whistle until Stiles came in his conscious, then Coach yelled at Stiles to stop reminding him why he drank every night. After that Scott and I both looked at Stiles and he reassured us that he was fine, that he just fell asleep for a second, Then Scott and I looked at Stiles with teary eyes and worried face and I informed him, "Sty, you weren't asleep." Then he looked at his notebook and 'Wake Up' was written all over it.

After the class ended I texted Isaac about the incident with Stiles and he suggested that since it was our free period we all sit outside and discuss the solutions.  

                                                                                                 -----------

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?"

Scott asked and Stiles added, 

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" 

Then Allison further added, 

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" 

"They're all locked up because they're insane." 

Isaac said and I punched him in the arm and he gave me apologetic looks, 

"Ha. Can you at least try to be helpful, please?"

Stiles said annoyed, 

"For half of my childhood, I was locked in a freezer. So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me." 

Isaac said then Stiles asked him if he was still milking that and Isaac said he was, then they both dragged me into their arguments and instead of taking anyone's side I banged my head on the table. But Their argument soon stopped when I heard a female voice. I looked up and it was Kira so I smiled towards her which she returned. 

"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. 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." 

She said and I was very impressed by her knowledge then Lydia sighed and asked what did they called her and Scott and I together said, "Kira." Everyone gave us looks so I clarified, "She's in our history class."

"So, are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" 

Lydia asked, Kira took a seat next to Stiles and said that it could be either. Then she told us that  all the stuff we were saying, happens in Bardo, there are different progressive states where one can have hallucinations, some just see, some just hear, and one can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities. Then Isaac asked what were wrathful deities and she said she meant demons. "Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" I asked and she said death. That the person dies. After hearing that my breath hitched in my throat but then I felt Isaac's hand on my thigh, and I took a deep breath.

After the school ended Isaac suggested that we take Stiles to Deaton since he's the one who has knowledge about this stuff, so Stiles, Scott and I went to the clinic. 

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"Sounds like your subconscious is trying to communicate with you. " 

Deaton said after hearing Stiles problem. Then Stiles asked Deaton how should he tell his subconscious to use a language he knows. Then Deaton asked if he remembered what the sign language looked like and Stiles nodded and showed Deaton the signs. After seeing it Deaton said that it meant, 'when is a door not a door?' "When it's ajar." I said. 

"You're kidding me, a riddle? My subconscious wants to tell me a riddle?" 

Stiles asked angrily, 

"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to kind of super consciousness, you essentially opened a door in your minds."

Deaton explained. "So what does that mean? The door is still open?" I asked and he said it was Ajar. "What do we do about it?" I asked and Deaton said it was difficult to answer.

"Wait a second, I know that tone. That's the 'we know exactly what's wrong with you and we have no idea how to fix it' tone. " 

Stiles said and Deaton said that one thing he did know was that having an opening like that into their mind was not good and they needed to close that door as soon as possible. 

After that as we walked out of the clinic Dad's car was there and soon he approached us. "Dad, what are you doing here?" I asked and he said he needed Scott's help. When Scott asked why is help, Dad explained about the incident of almost a whole family dying in the car accident which we were discussing yesterday. Dad then explained Scott how one of the girl Malia, her body was not found and a  werewolf could have something to do with this. Then he asked Scott if he could lock her sent somehow and help him find the body.

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Next day as it was our holiday we went with Dad to the Tate house. Dad was talking to Mr. Tate while the three of us broke in the house from the back and went into Malia's room. Scott sniffed a bear and told us that he was smelling some kind of animal and when we asked what kind of animal he said dog and turned us. We saw a Pitbull standing in front of us. "Hi puppy." I said then Stiles and I together told Scott to get rid of it. "Glow your eyes at him or something. Be the Alpha." I said as the dog continued to snarl at us. Scott said that he couldn't as he didn't had control. Then Scott tried approaching the dog but he started barking at us. Mr. Tate yelled at him and he walked out of there. After that Scott still was getting dog scent but as Stiles and I still were looking for something, we saw a photo of Malia and her younger sister sitting in a garden with a doll, Stiles took his phone out and clicked a photo of the picture and we walked out. 

Soon Dad also came and Scott told Dad that he couldn't lock a scent. Dad told him it was okay and then apologized for bringing us here. Then we sat in his car and drove away.

"Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved?" 

Scott asked and before I could say anything Stiles held my hand and said, 

"Yeah, we just think this is one he felt like he could've figured out right now." 

Then Scott asked why was this important now, and as I tried to speak Stiles shook his head and told me to shut up. I sighed angrily and moved away from them remembering last night's conversation with Dad. Scott didn't give up and continued asking, but when Stiles didn't say anything Scott grabbed my shoulder and turned me towards him, 

"Ruth, what is it? What are you guys hiding?" 

I sighed and said, "Well, he wants to be able to solve one more while he's still Sheriff." Then Scott asked what did I mean by 'still Sheriff.' "Your father is conducting a case for impeachment against Dad, as he had a lot of unsolved cases." Scott then looked at Stiles and he too had tears in his eyes. 

"I promise you two, I would do anything I have to stop him from getting your Dad fired." 

                                                                                            ---------

After reaching home I decided to stay with Stiles, in case he have nightmares again, so I picked up my typewriter and placed it on his table and started writing. 

"You know 1970s called, they want you back." 

Stiles said, I laughed but continued to do my work. 

"Are you ever gonna let us read what you write?" 

Stiles asked, I turned towards him smiled and said, "Yes, as soon as I publish it." He smiled back and suddenly his door opened and Scott walked in. 

"You both and me, we're going to find the body. A dead body" 

He said and soon we left for the woods.  

                                                                                                      ----------

"You know, if Dad's right that means there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet." 

Stiles said as we were walking deeper in the woods to find the location of the car. "If it turns out to be something like triplets that form into, like a three-headed hound of hell, I'm seriously not up for that." I said, they both laughed and said they weren't either. As we were walking we heard Coyote howl and Stiles jumped on Scott because of which his phone fell down in a pool of water. Scott and I both glared at Stiles while he apologized. Then we got down and Scott picked up his phone. Then as we started walking again we found the car in a little distance.

As we were looking at the car we found Claw marks on the door and Scott confirmed it was a werewolf. Then as we looked inside the car we found a doll just like in the picture earlier. Stiles took it out and we started looking at it but it suddenly spoke, "I'm hungry." All of us screamed and Stiles threw it away. "I think I just had a minor heart attack." I said and Stiles patted on my head. Then he heard growling and as we looked we saw two blue eyes looking at us and Scott started to run behind it, but he couldn't keep up with it, so after coming back, he decided to contact Derek.