CHASING PHANTOMS // TEEN WOLF [bxb]

WANDERING NIGHTS

***

       The next couple days were spent in relative calm as they tried to figure out what to do about the Oni until the Nogitsune was found. So far nothing tragic had happened, which was both a good thing and unsettling because a dark spirit was confirmed to be lurking around and yet there were no new signs of it.

       Jake had spent each night at the Stilinski house like he promised, this time staying up longer than before and waking up even earlier now that he knew Stiles woke up sporadically. This way he could make sure he actually got some rest, even if it meant keeping ungodly hours for himself. Unfortunately, that caught up to him today when he laid down on his couch at home after school and promptly fell asleep.

       A mistake he would soon come to regret.

       Startled awake by an obnoxiously loud ringing, Jake lifted his head in confusion until he realized he must've fallen asleep judging by the dark living room from a lack of sunlight outside. "Oh shit," he swore and leaned over to grab his phone off the coffee table, aggressively rubbing the blurriness out of his eyes as he answered the call.

       "I'm so sorry, I fell asleep-" he started, not even realizing it wasn't Stiles until he heard Scott's voice interrupt him and he stopped talking.

       "I added you to the call, Stiles is freaking out," Scott explained quickly and the small whimper in the background from the third number had Jake sitting up quickly on high alert.

       Stiles hadn't asked him to, but Scott had added Jake as soon as the call cut out the first time.

       "What? What's wrong?" Jake asked worriedly as he swung his legs off the couch and immediately searched for his shoes. Spotting his sneakers toward the end of the couch where he'd discarded them, he threw them on while keeping the phone pressed between his ear and shoulder.

       Scott didn't have an answer to that as he anxiously paced his room because the only thing he'd been able to get out of Stiles so far was that he'd been presumably sleepwalking and he couldn't tell where he was. "Stiles?" he prompted when they were just met with ragged breathing.

       "I can't move," Stiles croaked, unable to see through the complete darkness he was submerged in. "It's too dark, I can't see anything," a strangled sound left his throat that sounded like the beginnings of a sob. "I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here," he whispered.

       Jake froze halfway to the front door with his hand paused mid-air as it hovered over his keys on the table. Stiles's last sentence rang through his body like something familiar, a chill settling deep in his bones at the words.

       Where had he heard that before? Where had- oh god, he realized as dread sunk in. It resurfaced like a deeply stored memory, those same words spoken in that same voice had come to him during two different visions. The second instance had led him to believe that Stiles's panic attack was the cause when in fact, it was this.

       What good was a power that warned you without revealing any of the circumstances to prevent it? What good was this gift, and he mentally said the word with resentment, if it just told him in advance when his loved ones were going to die without letting him do anything about it?

       "Why can't you move? Are you hurt?" Scott took over in Jake's silence, desperate to leave his house to search and yet not knowing where to start.

       "My leg- I think it's stuck on something. It feels like it's bleeding," Stiles made a noise that could be interpreted either as pain or emotional distress or even both. "There's also this awful smell. It's brutal, my eyes are watering," he scrunched his face in disgust and momentarily closed his eyes to let them have a break.