DANGEROUS LIAISONS ◦ STILINSKI [2]

thirty; flooded lungs

FLOODED LUNGS

​Carter felt absolutely horrible that next morning. She hadn't slept – well, actually, she hadn't slept at all; her chest burned and her head ached. Her room was shrinking, becoming an enclosed cage around her that she couldn't help but appreciate. As she lied there, she had a feeling that more time had gone by than she realized. She honestly couldn't remember how long it had been – if an entire week had gone by, she wouldn't have known or even cared. But, the sunlight shining through the window beside her bed was irritating; at first it started as just a dim glow reflecting off her still scorched walls. As time passed it grew brighter and brighter, illuminating the large space with its yellow fire.
​
Three words had been breaking through the barriers in her mind, repeating on a constant loop: Stiles was missing. He was missing, and she just couldn't continue to struggle with the same hell of completely abandoning everything in her life until she found him. The first time they had found Stiles; the Nogitsune had killed a handful of people and sent Isaac into the Intensive Care Unit with severe electrical burns. The second time, the Nogitsune had plunged an arrow directly into Coach Finstock's diaphragm, and placed a bomb in the Sheriff's station managing to kill several deputies. And in the same night, the Nogitsune twisted an Oni's sword into her and Scott, while also trying to shove its way into the Were-Pheanix's mind; craving her power and agony filled blood. The disappearance of Stiles and the reappearance of the Nogitsune would not come without a devastating cost.
​
Carter knew that she would eventually have to move from her bed, whether it was to pick up Derek from the Sheriff's station or to just perform mundane functions, like eating. However, no matter how much motivation she had to get up, she just couldn't bring herself to move. After Sheriff Stilinski had arrived at Eichen House, barking harsh words at Morrell about the lack of responsibility they had by not contacting him, he had successfully gotten Carter out of the institution. It wouldn't have made a difference anyway, the teenage girl honestly questioned from the moment she woke up and began ripping off the leather restraints that Eichen House might have been the best place for someone like her.
​
Waking up in the basement had been the worst part. It hadn't been the intolerable fear that immediately hollowed out her chest, or her fried nerve endings, but the fact that there had only been two bodies left in the dark and cold room. Stiles was gone; and, he wasn't just gone from her life or gone from the general facility. His ability to think, his ability to justify the actions that his body was taking, all of it had been taken away along with his will to fight against the Nogitsune. Carter, suddenly crippled with deprivation of words, had been the one to tell Sheriff Stilinski what had happened to his son.
​
Just as the bright green seven on her digital morphed into an eight, the tarnished door to her bedroom had opened. Carter didn't even flinch. Scott had already taken up the task of frequently checking up on her – much to her dismay – not liking the intense wave of guilt that surged through her whenever she looked at him. Lydia had sent her a mass of text messages and calls that interfered with the silence until she was shutting off her phone all together. She had failed to entertain either of them with conversation, knowing that the air was already heavy and she knew that talking would only bring it down further. Her dark eyes did travel to see who was walking in. The person that walked through the door happened to be someone Carter knew would undoubtedly shatter the fugue state she was in.

​"Here I was, beginning to wonder if you had died in here."
​
Allison didn't bother saying anything else as she moved toward Carter's bed, pulling the brunette's sheet of protection back and placing herself beneath it as well. She didn't comment on the fact that her best friend looked awful; there was no acknowledgement of the deep shade of purple bruising beneath her eyes, no doubt from the lack of sleep. A deep frown formed on Allison's porcelain face before she grabbed a hold of the arm that Carter had slung over her eyes, removing it from her face and turned to lay on her side to face the Pheanix. The former huntress pulled the covers back up and lied silently beside the girl.
​
It was when the eight on the clock had turned into a twelve – after four minutes of silence – did Carter finally decide that she wanted to know why Allison had stayed, and why she hadn't gotten the memo like everyone else that the last thing she wanted was someone hovering over her. "Allison, what are you doing?"