Chapter 36. Already Taken

"So what are you saying?" my mom asked my dad as we drove in his Range Rover to where he had the notion that Stiles was. He had said that what I had written gave him a solid lead and he wanted to follow through.

My dad sighed as he gripped the wheel with one hand, "I'm saying the real question might be, how do we know that he's not still asleep?"

"You mean he's been asleep the whole time?" she asked as she gave him a questioning look.

I nodded, "People who sleepwalk can do pretty bizarre things. I have personal experience."

"Yeah. One guy goes down to the kitchen and cooks an entire meal. Another guy is found mowing his lawn, naked." he added, supporting my point.

My mom glanced at the two of us, "Why does any of that matter?"

"Remember that townhouse apartment we lived in? There was that one night that I came home drunk-" I didn't miss the glance he threw my way as he said these words.

"Oh, one night?" my mom cut him off with a sarcastic glance. I knew I had gotten it from someone in the family.

My dad sighed, "Let me finish. So, I'm drunk. Passed out on the bed. I get up to go to the bathroom, then all of a sudden I hear you yelling, 'What the hell are you doing?' to me."

"Because you were in the closet peeing into the laundry basket." she said with a slight hint of humor in her tone.

I've never seen my parents get along this well since they got a divorce. It was unsettling and it was making me even more on edge, have they forgotten that I'm in the backseat on the verge of a panic attack because my boyfriend is missing?

"Yeah, I thought it was the bathroom." my dad argued.

My mom rubbed at the side of her head, "Oh no, you were drunk off your ass."

"Yeah, but I was convinced it was the bathroom." he stated.

I pushed myself closer to the gap in between their seats, "So the point of the story is that you think Stiles is convinced he's in some kind of basement, when he actually isn't?"

"Yes, exactly. I think he was still asleep when he called you, and I think he's still asleep now." my dad said as he flicked on the turn signal.

My mom sighed, "And where is Stiles, then?"

"I have an idea about that too. Kasey actually had the idea first." he answered her, he then turned into an all too familiar place. The Beacon Hills Reserve.

My eyes widened, "He is in the woods."

"When you said that, the idea stuck in my mind and then when you said his eyes were hurting... I thought about how we had just sprayed down that repellant by the coyote den." he said as he pulled the keys form the ignition.

I grabbed a flashlight out of the trunk and bolted out of the car, my mom and dad were behind me, yelling at me to slow down, but I knew exactly where I was going. I knew where he was and I was going to run my ass off until I found him. I told him that I would find him and I intend on keeping that promise.

I had slid down the hill that I had fallen down before, the first night we were here, my eyes taking in the beaten down car jut a few feet ahead of me. I was close. My parents were far enough in the distance to where their voices were a faint echo now.

"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it..." I halted in my tracks as that voice infiltrated my brain. I haven't heard it since the night that Stiles woke up from the sacrifice. The voice that was telling me to kiss him and connect myself to him. The voice that was telling me to make him regret leaving me, to cause him pain.

"What is it, Stiles?!" the voice shouted and I spun around, trying to find out where the damn thing was coming from. Where is Stiles? He's here. He has got to be here somewhere.

"I don't know... WAIT PLEASE! NO! WAIT!" Stiles voice echoed in the trees and I turned around once more, to be met with the sight of him laying on the forest floor. His face was contorted in pain and his fingers were digging into the dirt.

I fell to my knees and started shake him, he then began to scream and thrash around in my hold. His voice was cracking and breaking and it was breaking my heart to hear him sound so in pain and so scared.

"WAIT! NO WAIT!"

"STILES!" I screamed loudly over him. His body stopped thrashing around slowly as he started sucking in air. I wrapped my arms around him and let out a sigh as he pressed his face against my chest. "You found me," he breathed out, his voice raspy.

I nodded, "I told you I would. You're okay, you're okay now."

My eyes drifted up from my distraught and shattered boyfriend to my parents, who were standing a few feet in front of us with looks of horror painted across their face. My dad swallowed before pulling his phone out and dialing a number.

☾ ☾ ☽ ☽

Watching Stiles sleep in front of me was a huge relief. As long as I can physically see him, the weight in my chest that makes it hard to breathe is a lot lighter, and easier to manage. Last night was a nightmare. He could have died, and I was pretty much useless. If it hadn't been for my dad putting the connection together about the repellent and the coyote den, we wouldn't have found him in time.

Stiles was holding my hand tightly in his, he refused to let me go the entire drive to the hospital and the entire way to his room. He said it helps him know what's real and what's not real when he can hold my hand. As long as it helps him, I'm up for anything,

My mom and his dad were standing outside of his room, conversing about the connections that had been made the other day about the Dementia. I didn't need werewolf hearing to know that, the look on Sheriff Stilinski's face was enough.

I knew, from my research last night, that they were going to end up giving him an MRI. It was the only way to confirm if he was in fact suffering from the same disease that his mother fell victim to.

Stiles' grip on my hand tightened and his face scrunched up for a second before he sighed and his death grip disappeared, replaced by the comforting hold he and I usually share. I wish I could just take a peek into his mind so I knew what he was facing.

That voice, the one that I heard in the woods had been addressing him, saying his name as if they were acquainted. Which means that it hadn't just gotten in my head that night, but it had also gotten in Stiles' head. I haven't heard that voice since that night. The whispers I have heard lately have been different, they sounded different. The voice I heard in the woods was a person, it was alive and it had a personality. As weird as that sounds.

My mom walked into the room and she smiled faintly, "Kasey... we have to start some of his tests. You wanna come down to the cafeteria with me while they get him set up?"

"Yeah," I said quietly as I pulled my hand free from his grip, "yeah that's probably a good idea."

She draped her arm over my shoulder and led me out of the room. Sheriff Stilinski smiled as we walked past him. I didn't want to leave Stiles, but he needed to have these tests done in order to ensure his safety.

"I'm really proud of you," my mom said as we stepped into the elevator.

I blinked in confusion, "Why?"

"The way you handled everything last night... you didn't have an incident, you kept control. You found that anchor and used it." she stated.

A bitter chuckle bubbled up my throat, "I honestly think my mind was juggling so much, it didn't even think about having an anxiety attack."

"Well, that works too." she grinned and laughed lightly. I laughed too, because I needed to do something other than sulk. And laughing was good, it produced chemicals in the brain that made you happy.

And lord knows I need as many of those chemicals that I can get my hands on.

☾ ☾ ☽ ☽

"Stiles, just to warn you, you're going to hear a lot of noise during the MRI. It's due to pulses of electricity going through the metal coils inside the machine. Uh, if you want we can get you earplugs or headphones." the doctor said as we stood around Stiles and the MRI machine.

He was wearing a hospital down and his hair was pushed up messily, not in his usual way, his eyes were puffy and he just looked completely drained. Scott was standing on his left side while I was on his right, his father and our mother were beside the doctor.

"Oh, no, no, I don't need anything." Stiles mumbled as he scratched at the side of his face nervously.

"Hey, we're just on the other side of that window. Okay?" Sheriff Stilinski said, his face heavy with worry and concern.

Stiles nodded, "Okay."

Our parents left the room with the doctor, leaving the three of us in silence. Stiles spoke up first, "You know what they're looking for, right? It's called Frontotemperal Dementia. Areas of you brain start to shrink. It's what my mother had. It's the only form of Dementia that can hit teenagers. And there's no cure."

"Stiles... if you have it, we'll do something. I'll do something." Scott said quietly. Stiles nodded and then pulled him into an embrace. I swallowed thickly as I tried to push back the tears.

I'm not entertaining the idea that he is sick with a terminal illness. I can't do that. I won't do that.

Scott pulled away and rubbed at his eyes, "I'll... uh, give you two a minute." he mumbled before walking out of the room.

Stiles grabbed my hands and held them tightly, "How you feeling, Kasey?" he asked with a small smile.

"I should be asking you that," I pointed out, once again having to choke back the tears. I can feel them climbing up my throat, praying for release.

He sighed, "I'm scared, really scared. And I don't wanna die, but I also kind of want to... if that even makes sense?"

"I know what you mean," I assured him, "but Stiles you're going to be fine. I'm going to promise you that, okay?"

His arms wrapped around my waist as he pulled my body flush against his, pressing his chapped lips to mine. I wove my arms around the back of his neck, closing my eyes and letting myself go for a moment. He sighed into the kiss, a sigh of relief and content. I thanked my lucky stars that I could make him feel any sort of content in this situation.

He slowly pulled away and smiled faintly, "I love you."

"I love you," I said quietly, "and you're going to be okay."

Even though there was so much more that I wanted to say to him, I had to leave the room so they could start the MRI. I gave Stiles one last kiss before slowly walking back behind the glass that everyone else had been standing.

☾ ☾ ☽ ☽

"He's going to be in there for about an hour," the Doctor said as Stiles' body remained motionless in the machine.

I nodded to myself, "I'm going to get something to drink. I'll be back."

Without asking anyone else if they wanted something, I left the room and stalked down the hallway. My head was on the cusp of a migraine, and I don't know if it was form dehydration or if it was my ability starting to break at the wall in my head.

Either way, a walk and a drink could help me solve that problem.

Derek had shown up and wanted to talk to Scott about something they had discussed the night that Stiles went missing, I wouldn't have understood it so I decided not to go. Plus, I needed some time with myself to figure this stuff out.

I pushed the button for the elevator and folded my arms across my chest as I waited. The hallway was empty, which was odd-- shouldn't there be at least one person out here, besides me? I glanced over my shoulder to find the other half of the hallway was deserted as well. I decided to ignore the pang of uneasiness in my chest.

The doors slid open as the elevator dinged. There was a woman already standing in the elevator. She was dressed in all black, her hands were placed in her jacket pockets, and when her brown eyes landed on me a small smirk danced across her lips. I offered her a small smile and stepped into the elevator beside her. The doors slid closed, just as they did-- the lights went out.

"You have been causing quite the issue, young one." she said with a tsk to her tone. I couldn't see her, my heart was hammering in my chest as I felt needles digging into every square inch of my body. I let out a shriek of pain and stumbled towards the corner.

"I-I don't know who you are-" I tried to speak but my words were slurring, what the hell is happening to me? My tongue felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, swelling up in my mouth-- making it even harder to speak than before. I could barely swallow.

The woman sighed, "You are Oni now, Kasey. You have been for awhile, haven't you put it together yet?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, chanting to myself that this wasn't real. I'm not an Oni, I can't be. I'm not made of darkness with glowing yellow eyes. I'm a human. I had one inside me the other day but it left, Scott said that it had left. He sounded so damn sure of himself when he said that it was out of me. He wouldn't lie. Scott would never lie to me about something like that.

It couldn't still be inside me, could it?

"Don't you remember that night... when you slept walk into the woods, I had called you there... and the fireflies.... coming out of the nemeton... I know you remember, Kasey." her voice was making my skin crawl.

I do remember. I wish I could erase that night from my mind, but I can't. I know exactly what she's talking about, but I thought I had been dreaming. I didn't think that the person in the woods that night released the fireflies so they could get inside of me. I thought that was just my mind's sick way of waking me up.

"When you are around them... it tries to take over. It doesn't want to be inside of you, but you see, I had to take extreme measures to ensure everyone's safety." the woman said as she did, the lights flickered momentarily. She still had her hands in her pockets, watching me as if I were a lab rat.

I gripped onto the bar of the elevator, "What does that-- what does that even mean?"

"The only way to make sure that it will not take you, is for you to already be taken."

The lights continued to flash and before I knew what was happening, the elevator was spinning and I hit the floor with a thud. More whispers were seeping into my ears, I couldn't understand what they were saying, they were speaking Japanese. I pulled my hands up to my ears, squeezing to try and block out the noise.

It was futile-- you see, the voices were inside of my head. There was no escape. They were a part of me and I was stuck with them.

My body was convulsing as my insides felt as if they were being ripped apart. I wanted to scream. I wanted Scott and Derek to hear me so they could come and find me--save me even. But, I couldn't make a single sound. My voice was being held against it's will, locked away in the confines of my now taken over mind.

I started coughing violantly as I felt something crawling up the back of my throat. I had managed to get on my knees, my arms wrapped around my torso as I coughed up a crippled firefly. It hit the floor in a puddle of spit, a faint yellow light flickered before it died out.

She snapped her fingers and the pain in my body dissolved instantly. My eyes were watering, small drops of water dripped onto tile by the firefly. I glanced up at her fearfully, "What did you do to me?"

"I do not understand..." she said quietly, she then spun around, her hair flapping wildly around her face. I coughed as I pushed myself into a standing position. My fingers curled around the bar for support as I panted slightly.

My throat was burning but my voice came out on it's own accord, "She's slipping, Noshiko."

I don't know why I said that, or who Noshiko even is. I do know, that when I said the name, the woman's eyes widened. She took a step away from me, her head snapping to the side as her eyes caught movement in the hallway.

"You know me.." she said. I glanced up in confusion, I found her talking to someone who was walking down the hallway. As the light flashed, I recognized it to be Stiles. He was out of the MRI? How? I wanted to run to him and tell him to get away from this psychopath, but I couldn't move, nor could I speak.

Stiles nodded in response to her statement.

"Then you remember that I won't be deterred by your choice of host, even if it's an innocent boy," her eyes darted to me with a grimace on her face,"or an Admonere."

Stiles quirked an eyebrow, "Are you threatening us?"

My nightmares had prepared me for this moment. For this version of Stiles that sounded different than my Stiles. For the version that holds his jaw differently, narrows his eyes differently and all around composes his body differently.

Hissing and snarling echoed around the elevator as the lights flashed again. I jumped back when the two Oni appeared behind Noshiko. She smirked at Stiles, "Now I'm threatening you."

"We're not really afraid of your little fireflies." he said as he turned to walk away.

The woman cleared her throat, "If the Oni can't defeat you, I know someone who will."

Stiles turned his head and glanced at us, "Once I have her, you'll be out of moves."

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I love the last line so much.

Anyway, hope the story is shaping up well for you guys. We are getting into the climax here, and it's so exciting. I have so many more twists that you won't see coming (other than you Amanda, obviously) and I am pumped to share them.

Okay, remember to fan, vote, and comment! It makes me happy when you do! -Sasha xx