Howl at Midnight// Teen Wolf// Stiles Stilinski

V

The wind was stronger here, blowing my hair past my shoulders as seagulls cawed in the distance. The air smelled like saltwater and if I stuck my tongue out I could almost taste it too. I was in Maryland, or well, I was dreaming of being in Maryland standing right in front of my childhood vacation home. Everything was the same as it had been the last time we'd come here as a family. The stairs were riddled with sand from Jackson and I running up and down them all day long, there were sticky fingerprints on the windows and laughter bellowing from inside.

Laughter

I quickly made my way to the window then peered inside, noticing how my feet felt like they barely touched the ground. Jackson and I were sitting on the living room floor pulling on the remote as we tried to decide who got to pick the television show first. I smirked at the sight, we couldn't ever be cordial. It must have been a memory, one of the one's I lost after taking the medicine.

"You pick the movie every night!" Younger me pulled the remote closer to her.

"Dumb girls don't get to pick." He pulled back and her eyes narrowed with anger.

"Mom!"

I flinched, I had forgotten that I used to call David and Marie, mom and dad. The words felt too foreign in my mouth now.

Jackson scowled at me, anger and mischief clouding his eyes. I hated his expression now as I was sure I hated it then. "There's no point in calling her," he spat out the word as if it made him sick. For such a little boy he had a lot of rage, "David and Marie don't like you anyways. She'll just side with me." I saw the hurt form in her eyes, the way her face dropped. She let go of the remote and he smiled victoriously, having gotten what he wanted. I put my hand on the window as if I could climb into the scene and spare young me from the hurt she was facing. From the hurt that would follow.

"Take it back," She whispered, "It's not true," Jacksons eyebrows pushed together.

"Yes it is. They say you're too complicated, too much work."

"Take it back." Her voice was louder, she looked up at him.

"No."

"Take. It. Back."

"No." Something charged the air, and I could feel it, even outside the house. My younger self and younger Jackson were staring at each other unflinchingly, as the stifling energy sturred around them. "You're unwanted." Whatever control she had been holding onto snapped and she stood suddenly. My heart started to race where I stood, something bad was about to happen. She started yelling at him over and over again for him to take it back without giving him the chance to speak. Her hands were balled up into fist as she stood glowering at him. Marie was suddenly running down the stairs, she looked between the hurt and irrationally angry young girl and Jackson before tentatively trying to approach the former. To my surprise, Marie didn't appear shocked. She inched toward the little girl with tentativeness.

"Clarissa, honey, you need to breathe." It didn't look as if she'd heard her. So Marie kept walking closer, my young self just towered over Jackson screaming at him to take it back as if the words would force him to. Her hair was raised off her shoulders, hovering in the air as if responding to some kind of electrical current. The windows in the house opened and closed as wind blew throughout the house. She never stopped screaming."You're going to lose it if you don't relax Clarissa." Marie put her hands on the screaming girl's shoulders and immediately collapsed. She stopped screaming when she heard Marie hit the ground and immediately spun around, but her appearance didn't change.

I knew what the memory was suddenly, and I didn't want to see anymore but I couldn't look away. Even as the realization that I didn't intentionally hurt my mom dawned on me, horror still rooted in my stomach.