Vitality ➳ Stiles Stilinski [1]

II ➳ Dreams

[Chapter 2]

The dead leaves crunch beneath her feet. The full moon lightens the forest path.  She steps closer to the crimson eyes.  With her voice calm and curious, she asks, "What is it you want with me?"

"I want you," a deep voice growls from the darkness, "to remember.  ...Why don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Everything."

Juliet's eyes snap open.  She sits straight up, coughing into her hand.  Finding it harder to breathe as the coughing continues, she pats the surface of her side table desperately.  It's where her emergency inhaler would be sitting for cases like this — the inhaler that Scott McCall borrowed.  Half-coughing and barely breathing, the teenage girl jumps from her bed and searches for the one item she cannot live without.  After searching a few bags, she finally finds it hidden away in one of her pockets.  Not waiting a second longer, she breathes in the inhaler, allowing her breathing to steady and her coughs to stop.  Looking at the hand she was coughing into, Juliet sighs at the blood adorning her light skin.

Juliet Lupus is a severe asthmatic.  For the last few years, her breathing was worsening with the need for an inhaler more and more until she started coughing up blood.  The doctors didn't understand what was happening — they still don't.  For some reason, her body decided to degrade.  Everyday she gets sicker, and everyday she's fighting to stay optimistic.  The doctors said she should last a few more months at most and to try to enjoy what she loves most while she can.  And so, Juliet decided a move back to the place she grew up would be perfect.  It took a lot of convincing to her mom, but it was worth it.  If she only has a few months left, Juliet wants to spend all of it with her best friends — Scott, Stiles, Lydia, and Jackson.

Juliet groans, allowing her body to fall to gravity on the bed as she remembers it's the first day back at school.  So, yes, Juliet Lupus is a severe asthmatic with a unique killing disease.  But she's also just a teenage girl who wants to live out the rest of her days in her hometown, relaxing with friends and attempting to forget that she has to die so soon.

➳

"Are you sure he's okay?" Juliet asks for about the millionth time as she paces back and forth, sipping her thermos every few seconds. They were supposed to meet Scott in front of the school entrance, but he has yet to show. "He was supposed to be here by now! What if he's been mauled by something?"

"Like what?" Stiles asks out of amusement, raising an eyebrow with a smirk.  She sighs, dramatically throwing a hand in the air, "I don't know! Something! Like a bear — or a coyote — or, you know, a mountain lion is quite common in these parts."

"Relax, Jules, he's fine," Stiles reassures. "He texted me earlier and said he's meeting us here." While the brunette girl sips her coffee — anxiety kicking in — Stiles whips his head around. "Look, there he is." Sure enough, Scott's in the middle of locking up his bike next to Jackson's Porsche.  "He's fine.  ...Well, mostly fine."