Arms Of A Stranger , Stiles Stilinski ³ ✓

[ prologue ! ]

PROLOGUE

ASPEN had decided she was a Bellator. She wanted to claim the name that was tainted is blood-stained hands and guilty souls, and take it for her own, reinvent it, give it a brand new meaning.

Which meant she was leaving the Carter name behind. And with that— her old life.

But there was still something holding her back from letting it all go. The lies, the deception, the made-up fantasy that was her childhood. She wanted to rid herself of any trace of the girl she once was.

Aspen Carter had died a long time ago, somewhere along the way— Aspen Bellator took her place.

The last thing tying her to her old life? The four walls of brick and cement that she used to be naive enough to call home.

Weeks had passed since Aspen and Stiles' mutual decision to break up. And while Aspen was taking this time to herself, trying to heal, Stiles wasn't doing the same, so it seemed.

It had been weeks since the nogitsune nightmare had come to it's demise. Aspen would be lying if she said she couldn't feel it— the darkness looming around her heart and soul. Agnes Epeler was right when she said it may affect her personality, her behaviour. While Aspen was once a dreamer, a beaming light of hope— she was now a realist. She used to see the good in people, she now focussed on the bad. She saw things how they were, she saw people for who they really were.

So while the old Aspen— Aspen Carter— would see her ex-lover moving on as something respectable, she would've seen it as fair, something she'd understand— the new Aspen simply snarled at it. She hated that Stiles was already jumping into something new with someone else. She despised that his lips were kissing a pair that weren't her own. And she hated more than anything— that his mind was now occupied by another girl. Not her.

Or at least— that's what she thought.

At night, she'd lie in her bed all by her lonesome, while he'd lie beside Malia Tate.

It made Aspen feel... replaceable, dispensable. Like she was just some fling that barely made it a year. It made her feel like an idiot— and instead of moping around about it, she simply got angry. Angry at him for hardly waiting a month before getting together with the girl who had attacked her for simply showing kindness. Angry at him for making her think she was the only one she'd ever want to be with. Furious at him for dangling another girl in front of him with no remorse for her feelings.

When Aspen stepped into his room that day with the intent of breaking up with him for both of their own good, she didn't think that meant he'd see other people. She didn't think that meant he'd jump into another relationship. She didn't think anything of the sort.

But then again, they never defined the specifics of it. They weren't together anymore— technically, he had all the right to date someone else. But it still hurt. Making her feel so replaceable like that.

Anyway, as Aspen finally pulled up at the old, abandoned home which hadn't seen life for nearly a year now, she took in a deep breath and she dug into her pocket and pulled out the lighter.

She hopped off the bike, and headed for the front door with no hesitation, ready to get this over with. She wasn't sure how this was going to work legally, the cops certainly wouldn't make sense of how an abandoned home could randomly burst into flames. Maybe she could just blame it on a faulty pipe or something. Being arrested for Arson wasn't exactly on her bucket list.

She opened the door with ease, it had been left unlocked for months as there had been no residents. Immediately she felt herself cover in chills at the awfully familiar cream walls and wooden floorboards. Everything still looked the same. She remembered all the times she'd return home from school as nothing as an innocent kid, being left in the dark about everything around her.

That was the person she had come here to bury. She was no longer the naive kid living in the dark. That poor kid was about to go up in flames along with the rest of this house of lies.

She took a stroll through the deserted living room, that once held so many family-memories, which were now just tainted by the fact none of it was real. The whole family was fake. An illusion. The only thing real about it was Ace.

God, she missed her brother so much. If possible, she missed him more now than when she thought he was dead. Because of the fear of the unknown— not knowing what he was going through or how he was holding up. She regretted not fighting him harder on it, she regretted not admitting herself into the mental institution. She regretted every day that she let him walk out that door. She felt she'd failed him as a sister.

On the counter, she caught a glimpse of a framed photo. With a humourless laugh escaping her lips, she picked it up, her eyes landing on the picture of deceit.

Her adoptive parents— the two that were forced into taking her in and pretending to love her, threatened into raising her and giving her a normal childhood— stood on either end of the photo, while a very young Aspen and a very young Ace stood between them, smiles on both of their faces. A part of Aspen envied her younger self— envied how innocent she was, how little she knew. But the majority of her felt pity. Now that she knew the entire thing was just a lie— she was happy to have it all behind her.

Aspen rolled her eyes as she set the picture back down, scoffing a little at it. She didn't want to waste time reminiscing on fantasies. So without any further procrastination, she looked down at the lighter in her hand, and approached the curtains. It was the most flammable place of the house.

Finally letting go of her old life, her old home, her old fantasy of a childhood, the fantasy of her living a normal life— she flicked the lighter on and held it to the dark blue curtain. The corner of her lips even creeped into a smile as she watched the fabric burst up into flames. She was finally rid of Maggie and James Carter— the strangers she used to call her mom and dad, she was finally rid of the lies they fed her, she was finally rid of the Carter name.

As the flames started to spread, she put the lighter back in her pocket, not wanting to leave a trace of herself being here, and walked over to the door she had kept open. She walked out onto the porch and strolled down the stairs, hearing the faint noise of the fire behind her.

She didn't even look back as her old life went up in flames, along with the girl she once was.

She didn't have Stiles anymore, she didn't have her brother anymore— and now, she didn't even have herself. Everything was new. New name, new address, new relationship-status.

It was time for a new beginning. But with that— came a new problem. A new threat on its way to Beacon Hills. A threat that would Aspen would either take by the reins and tackle to the ground, or a threat that would be the cause of her demise.

It was the price that came with being a Bellator. She'd soon see that.

//

Bellator is a sexy name, wanna know what else is sexy? Thomas Doherty...