• ECHO HOUSE •

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"Remind me what a Vixen is?" Isaac asked.

Hours after Deaton had injected the Letharia Vulpina into Stiles's neck, he had come around and was back to normal. He went home with this dad where is was decided that Stiles spend time at Eichen House until they found a cure for him and Marley. She wasn't as bad. She wasn't putting anyone in danger, so she could stay away from Eichen House. That was the first thing she had been glad about for a while. Isaac had been let out of the hospital, now with only minimal burns to his face and slightly worse ones on his arm. He was adamant that he was fine. Now him, Marley and Scott sat in the vets, listening to Deaton explain everything.

"A vixen is a female fox," Deaton replied. "Like the Nogistune is, strictly speaking, male. He is a fox. And every fox has a vixen."

"So what does that mean for me?" Marley asked. She sat close to Isaac, keeping her back pressed against his chest. He hadn't been near her in a while, and she needed that sense of love urgently.

"It means that when the Nogistune decided to posses Stiles, he needed to attach a part of him onto someone else close to his possessor," Deaton explained. "The Nogistune always had a Vixen as almost a second in command. A plan B."

"So if the Nogistune was unable to posses Stiles, it would posses Marley instead?" Scott asked.

"Precisely," Deaton said. Marley inhaled deeply. She hated that this thing was tormenting her and Stiles. She was glad that it hadn't completely possessed her, but again guilty because she didn't want Stiles to go through it as well.

"This spirit, why did it latch onto Marley?" Isaac asked, rubbing his girlfriend's hand with his thumb comfortingly.

"It could be a number of reasons. It could be that Marley and Stiles share a unique bond. Or that Marley was simply the closet to Stiles when he first encountered the Nogistune," Deaton said.

"I went to Stiles first after the ice bath," Marley said, her voice quiet and hoarse. "And- and I was in the hospital, when Scott asked me to go look for him, and I think that was the first time he was Void. I could feel it."

"Can you describe this feeling?" Deaton asked. Marley's eyes glazed over a little, and she did her best to blink the water away.

"It's like... it's cold when I get near Stiles, or when something is going to happen. I feel watched, constantly," Marley said. "And it feels like I'm drawn to him."

"That's the connection between you two," Deaton said. "I think the Nogistune is so strong because of the bond you have with Stiles."

"And she was the first to be near him after the ice bath, and the first Void incident," Scott said. "That's why it's so strong. Because of all of the factors."

"What else has been happening to you? Have you been seeing or hearing anything?" Deaton asked. Marley bit her lips and frowned back tears. Isaac's grip of her hand got tighter.

"I think the first thing was... it was when Stiles saw the sign language in his dreams. The night before, I had been writing for my homework and I blanked out. I looked down and saw that I wrote that riddle," Marley explained. "It was the same as what Stiles said."

"When is a door not a door," Scott said.

"Um, and I was when I was taking a test and I struggled to read it. I started sleepwalking. I hear this sound all the time," Marley chocked out. She held her hand up to her ear. "At first I thought it was fireflies, but it sounds more like electricity."

"Have some things been unexplainable to you? For instance, have you not remembered doing something that caused harm?" Deaton asked, looking intensely at Marley.

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