Oblivion » Stiles Stilinski |Book One

Intruder

Valerie's P.O.V.

I spent the entire next day thinking about two things: The Tate case and what Deaton had said, something about a Nemeton, whatever that was.  Al of a sudden, my life had become, well, so not-normal.  It had changed so quickly that I literally had no time to catch up with my normal life.

Every day, around noon, I would find myself at Stiles'.  Today was one of those days. 

We both had a commitment, and it was solving the case that was throwing both of our fathers for a loop. 

"Your dad sajd there were marks on the car?" I asked as I ran my fingers along the red yarn on Stiles' bulletin board.

"Mm, yep."  He strung another red string on the board, above Malia's photo. 

"What do the different colored strings mean?"

"Uh, green is solved, yellow is working on it, and red is... unsolved."

I pressed my lips together in a tight smile and wrapped a string tightly around my finger, the skin fading into white as the blood rushed to my fingertips.  "You only have red on the board..."

He turned and nodded. "Yes, I'm aware.  Thanks," he said sarcastically.

I sighed and loosened the string's grip around my fingers.  "Stiles, we need to go out there."

"Where?"

"The woods.  We're so close, we have enough clues."  He grinned and handed me his phone. 

"Call Scott for me.  We're headed to the Preserve."

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My boots crunched against the wet leaves as we explored Beacon Hills Preserve. We hadn't found much. Stiles was trying to find the car, but we had had no luck yet. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket. It was from my father. Great.

*I will be home late, dealing with a special case here. Dinner is in the fridge.

I relaxed and sent him a text back and turned back to Stiles, but not before my foot was caught on a branch, sending me tumbling down into a ravine. I feel my body make contact with the ground and I sit up, my back aching.

"Are you okay?" Stiles ran down to me and helped me up.

"Yeah...I'm okay." Stiles' eyes suddenly darted to the side and widened.

"What is it?" He spoke not a word as he slowly rose up from the ground. He stood in front of what appeared to be a cave of some sort.

"Stiles! I don't think you should go in there," Scott warned. Stiles reached inside and pulled out something. It was a baby doll, covered in filth.

"Why was that in..." I began, but I was interrupted by the creepy voice of the doll.

"I'm hungry!" The three of us screamed and Stiles dropped the toy to the ground. He stepped back and panted, his hands resting on his knees.

"I think I just had a minor heart attack," he stated between breaths.

"Okay, back to the main focus here," I said, "why the hell is there a baby doll in that cave?" I didn't wait for an answer, I stepped inside myself to see what could he hiding in the darkness. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flash. I moved it around the walls of the cave. We ended up finding more toys, a blanket, and a pink and blue scarf. Items that looked like they belonged to a little girl.

"Something is definiftely going on here..." I whispered. "Something just isn't right."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it isn't normal for there to be dolls in an animal den." Scott said.

"Did you say animal den?" I asked suddenly.

"Yeah. I can smell... coyote." I stepped back carefully until my back was pressed against the stone wall.

"I don't think we should be in here," I whispered, "We're intruding." I stepped out of the cave and paced the entrance. My head snapped up when I felt an eery presence in the mass of trees in front of me. My eyes focused on the dark shape before I realized what it was. An animal stood before me, one with dark gray fur. A coyote. But there was something else. It looked up at me, it's eyes glowing blue. I could feel something rumble inside of me, a sign that told me to run. But my feet stayed glued to the ground as I realized what was going on. The pieces of the puzzle all fit together at this very moment.

"Malia?" The animal turned away and ran off into the trees, leaving me with an old scarf and a million questions.