Nightmares

28

Tabitha stared at a guy tied to a tree and stared blankly, almost in shock.

Stiles immediately ran over to her. "Tabitha? Hey, Tabi. Are you hurt? Are you okay?"

Tabitha nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm okay. That guy over there, not so much. Call your dad and maybe my mom."

Stiles took her hand and called his dad. Tabitha didn't pull away, as she relished in the comfort.

A girl ran up to the boy and started screaming hysterically. Tabitha smiled at her apologetically.

The sheriff and Robin appeared and the former said, "Hey, get out of the way. Get back. Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence. Tabitha, Stiles says you were worrying him. Are you okay?"

Tabitha nodded. "Um, yeah, I'm okay."

He turned to Coach. "Get these kids out of here!" He turned to his son. "Do me a favor. Go back to school, make sure your friend is okay. Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

Coach nodded and said to the other students, "You heard the man. Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless tweaker."

"Coach," Scott said. "The guy was a senior."

Tabitha frowned, studying the guy, trying to see if she recognized him, but she didn't.

Isaac walked up to them and asked, "You see the way the twins looked at him?"

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" Stiles replied.

Isaac shook his head. "No, no, they knew."

Stiles and Tabitha shared a look and he frowned. "The kid was strangled with a garrote, all right? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of "werewolfitude" in these murders?"

Isaac scoffed. "Oh, you think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?"

"Well, no, but I still don't think it's them. Tabi?"

"No, I'm pretty sure something else is going on," Tabitha said. "Scott?"

"How 'bout you?" Isaac added.

He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I don't know."

"You don't know yet?" Stiles asked hopefully.

Scott glanced to Isaac. "Well, he's got a point. Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"

Stiles shot him a look. "Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, and if Tabitha or I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"

Scott sighed. "That's a good point too."

Isaac narrowed his eyes. "I don't care. They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me. I'm gonna kill them too."

Tabitha shot him a look. "No killing, Isaac. We need to figure out who's behind this, or we'll end up killing the wrong person."

He glared at her. "Whoever this is has killed three people. We need to stop them before they kill us."

"Okay, genius. Tell me who it is."

"I... don't know."

"Exactly. Which is why we should wait and figure it out before we go in guns blazing."

Isaac rolled his eyes and Tabitha narrowed her eyes.

Stiles pulled Tabitha away from Isaac. "Enough, you two."