Unbroken ▹ Teen Wolf [02]

42; last chance

Poisoned, but not dead.

That was the state Rachel was told the nogitsune was in when she woke. Deaton had arrived just in time to inject the fox with wolf lichen, he explained to them how it poisoned it and how long the effects would allow Stiles to regain control for, but Rachel wasn't listening. The only thing she could hear were the same five words, repeating in her mind over and over again. So much, that they didn't even sound like words to her anymore.

Find me where you belong.

Where did she belong?

In a pile of ash. In a box six feet underground, surrounded by the cold earth. In a hospital bed, comatose, instead of Isaac. There were a lot of places Rachel believed she belonged, but they didn't seem to be places the nogitsune would willingly go.

The way she understood it, he was now the one trapped in the backseat of Stiles' head, able to do nothing but watch as Stiles maintained full control. He could taunt and torment him each time he shut his eyes, but he could no longer play the role of a puppeteer. There was no possible way he could force Stiles to go to whatever it is that he believed Rachel belonged.

Unless.

He knew something they didn't. He knew everything that went on in Stiles' head. Every thought, every scheme, every intricate little plan that he so much as considered. Not a single thought was Stiles' own anymore, and the nogitsune used that to his advantage. He knew Stiles was going to lock himself up, somewhere he wouldn't be able to get out when the demon in his mind regained control. Somewhere only his friends could get to him, should they decide to entertain him with another of their plans.

He knew Stiles was going to commit himself to Eichen House, and he knew the building's history all too well— he knew about the closed unit, the real closed unit, for everything that lurks in the darkness of Beacon Hills. Once he got her in the building, she would expose her supernatural side all on her own, and before she knew it, she'd be where she truly belonged. Somewhere her friends couldn't get to her, ever again.

She wanted to be out of the game, and he was going to take her out of it.

It wasn't because she wouldn't play like Scott and the others, though. Her pain was entertaining, and he could have just as much fun bringing Isaac back only to take him away again for good. It was because Rachel was different. She was something he'd never seen before, something he wasn't sure even was supernatural, and he didn't like different. She couldn't kill him, that was for sure, but being unaware of her capabilities made her a liability when it came to his game.

She was a wildcard, and there were no wildcards allowed in his game— what did people do when there were unnecessary wildcards in the deck? They took them out, and put them back in the box they belonged in. Rachel Hale belonged in a box where she couldn't disrupt any more of the trickster's tricks.