War isn't over • LM / SS

Chapter 34 - please leave your message after the beep

"lacy, oh lacy,
it's like you're out to get me,
you poison every little thing that i do."

word count: 8.9k

Jade's chest heaved up and down as she desperately gulped in shallow breaths of air and pressed the heel of her hands into her temple. She slumped against a grimy wall in the underground tunnels and scoured her surroundings.

She had been running through the tunnels for a solid ten minutes and was yet to bump into either Stiles or Theo. Her eyes kept flickering from emerald to violet and she could feel her humanity battling to return.

Splitting up was probably the worst thing they could have done. They were covering more ground but how the hell were they meant to find each other when the tunnels were full of crossroads? Theo could be on the other side of fucking town for all she knew.

Panic was bubbling in her chest and she clamped her eyes closed tightly, digging her palms into the shards of broken rock lodged into the wall. Now was not the time for a nervous breakdown. If she wanted to save Lydia from dying, she couldn't fall to pieces, she had to keep trudging through until the end. There would be a time for losing control later on, but for now, she needed to keep moving and find the boys.

The pain in her head was unrelenting but she forced her legs to carry on, pausing when she came closer to another crossroad. God, she hated making decisions. If she turned right, there was a chance that Theo and Stiles would be left or vice versa. Flipping a coin would probably be her best bet.

"Found you."

Some of the tension in her shoulders vanished at the sound of Stiles Stilinski jogging towards her and she turned to look over her shoulder at him. Despite the hatred she had for him as of late, she had never been so glad to see the skinny boy in her entire seventeen years of living. "Find her?" she questioned, not even bothering with formalities. He shook his head and she huffed out a sigh, crossing her arms over her black t-shirt and leather jacket. "Yeah, me either."

"I got nothing, too," Theo scuffed their sneakers into the puddles as they headed towards the pair, cutting into the conversation. Stiles commented on how they were all as useless as each other and they narrowed their eyes. "I am trying to help save her life."

"Would you drop the altruistic crap? You want Lydia because she gets you to Parrish and you want Parrish 'cause he gets you to the beast," Stiles scoffed and he rolled his eyes when Theo shrugged and said that the whole town wanted the beast dead. "After you take its power, right? We know why you have the talons and we know that you're looking for Deucalion."

"Why didn't I know that?" Jade said sharply, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder as she faced Stiles accusingly. He waved her off dismissively and a pang of hurt burst through her chest.

God, she felt like an idiot for thinking that any one of them had changed. It was just a repeat of last year—- what if they were buttering her up to use her as some weapon? Once the blood was on her hands and not theirs, would they turn on her again? It was clear they didn't trust her if they were withholding chunks of information but she couldn't entirely blame them.

Nevertheless, trust went both ways and how was she supposed to trust them when they kept building up a rapport and then breaking it again? Shit —— she was starting to feel too many emotions; anger, fear, even a sliver of joy, embarrassment.

Something was telling her that her humanity would not be staying off for much longer and that terrified her.

Theo and Stiles were far too busy arguing with each other again to notice that she was upset that nobody had told her. She rolled her eyes at their childishness and slowly started to bang her head against the wall. In all honesty, they displayed a striking resemblance to two toddlers fighting over who got to be the dog in the family game.