Anchors

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Stiles is asleep in his room, squirming restlessly with a nightmare. He whimpers and repeats, "No no no, don't let them in." Bars of light start to shine across his face, and he wakes up suddenly trapped inside a locker. It's difficult to tell if he thinks he's lying down or standing up. He beats the door open and stumbles out into the boys locker room at school. As he wanders the halls, he's drawn to an open classroom. The nemeton is growing through the floor of the room, and the light outside cartwheels. Stiles slowly reaches for the nemeton, and as his hand gets close, tendrils of wood snake out and wrap around his arm.

He gasps awake.

"You okay?" Lydia asks, in bed next to him. He looks down at his arm and then sighs. He tells her he was just dreaming. He says it was weird, like a dream within a dream. He grasps her hand for comfort as she rubs his shoulder, and then he realizes that something is wrong. "Wait a sec, Lydia, what are you doing here?" Before she can say anything, the door to his room opens on its own, and Stiles is pulled to investigate it. Lydia asks him not to go, but he says he's just going to close the door. She tries to stop him from getting out of bed to close it, but he insists. He worries about someone coming in.

Lydia's pleas get more desperate as he grabs the door knob and pulls the door open. He walks through and out into the woods with the nemeton. Stadium lights turn on, illuminating everything, and a high wind blows. "This is just a dream," Stiles tells himself. "Wake up, Stiles. Wake up!" He clutches his head and pulls at his hair.

Stiles wakes up peacefully to the sound of birds chirping. Sheriff Stilinski opens his door and tells him it's time to get up for school. Stiles sighs.

Scott and Stiles are talking at school. Stiles tells Scott that he couldn't wake up and it was beyond terrifying. "You ever hear of sleep paraylsis?" He explains that this happens during REM sleep because your body is basically paralyzed (muscle atonia) so you don't start running for real because you're running in the dream. But sometimes your mind can wake up before your body does, so you're aware that your body is paralyzed. "And that's the terrifying part," Scott concludes. Stiles agrees that it turns dreams into nightmares.

Stiles asks Scott if making themselves into sacrifices is still affecting them. Scott asks if he means PTSD.

They get to class, and Stiles says, "You want to know what scares me the most? I'm not ever sure this is real."

He bolts upright in bed screaming. His father comes running into the room and practically tackles Stiles into a hug. The Sheriff pulls Stiles into his arms and holds him while he screams. "Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, you're okay," he says, as Stiles clutches at his arms, crying.

Scott gathers his books for school, and when he turns to leave, he notices his shadow cast against his bedroom door. His human hand is casting a shadow with werewolf claws. Scott checks his hand to confirm that he hasn't shifted, but the shadow remains. Scott closes his hand, and when he opens it again, the shadow is normal.

He opens the door and finds Isaac just about to knock. Isaac asks if Scott is going to school, and when Scott says yes, Isaac tells him that he's also going. He seems anxious. Isaac asks Scott if he's angry at him, and Scott says he isn't. "Are you sure?" "No." Scott confesses that he's not really sure how he's feeling. Isaac asks if he hates him, but Scott says no. He asks if Scott wants to hit him, and Scott denies that as well, but Isaac suggests he hit him anyway. Scott doesn't want to. "You didn't do anything, did you?" Isaac asks Scott for clarification, and Scott asks him if he kissed Allison. Isaac didn't, so Scott asks if he wanted to. "Oh, yeah, totally."

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