The Runaway of Beacon Hills •• Derek Hale ••

Haunted Thoughts

I closed my eyes and tried to relax my nerves as the hot water cascaded down my body. After my adventures this morning I asked Derek to take me to my hotel room so I could shower and try and calm myself down for at least a little while. The guilt was still gnawing at me as I leaned my head against the shower wall. I was right there, I thought to myself, I could've said something... anything.

But I ran away from my problems like I always do. Nothing ever gets solved because I'm too afraid to face any difficult situation. The only solution in my mind is to run, run as far away from the problem as possible, until it eventually goes away.

I took a deep breath and turned off the shower and got out. I dried myself off and put on some leggings and one of Derek's old sweatshirts that I stole a long time ago and never gave back.

I stepped out of the bathroom, a cloud of steam following me as I exited. I walked over to the bed to see Derek sitting on it flipping through the channels on the TV, I flopped down on the bed face first and groaned as I buried my face into the flat uncomfortable pillow.

"Are you going to tell me what happened this morning?" Derek asked as I felt the bed shift as he moved to look at me.

"No" I said, my voice coming out muffled as I shoved my face further into the pillow.

"Aria" Derek said in a soft voice. I sighed and moved my face so only half of it was peaking out from the pillow.

"Was it the nightmares again?" He asked softly. I flipped over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. Derek knew about my never ending nightmares, he's been helping me with them since I turned.

"Yes" I whispered, "the same one too." I closed my eyes, the images of the bodies on the hospital floor haunting my thoughts.

"After I woke up I knew there was no way I was going to get any more sleep, so I decided to go for a run to take my mind off of it." I explained as I continued to stare unblinkingly at the ceiling. "I didn't have any particular place in mind where I wanted to run to, I just wanted to forget. I don't know how but I-I went back there....... I went back home," I explained, "I wasn't even thinking about it, I just looked up and there I was, staring at the front door thinking of the things I would say if I had the courage to knock. Or what they would say. Then I heard my brother, and all the guilt came flooding back at once and the next thing I know I'm running away because I'm afraid he'll see me, he'll know I'm back and I don't know if he hates me, if my father hates me." I sniffled as a tear ran down my cheek. "A now I'm crying again, god why am I such a mess."I said as I wiped my tears.

"You're not a mess" Derek said. I looked over at him and squinted my eyes. "Okay maybe you are. But that's not the point, look Aria they don't hate you, I'm pretty sure if you talked to them they'd understand."

"So I'll just knock on the door and explain that the reason that I left was because I'm a werewolf and I'm afraid I'll hurt them" I said sarcastically. "Real smart Derek."

He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant. Tell them the other reason why you left. That after your mom died you couldn't handle the pain of loosing her so you thought the best idea was to leave."

"That makes me sound like a jackass" I said as I looked back over at him.

"Well you are." Derek said. I laughed sarcastically and punched his arm without malice.

"Can we just not talk about this for a while, I'd rather do what I do best and ignore the situation until it goes away." I said getting up and put my shoes on.
"Let's just focus on finding the alpha and the new beta." as I said that something clicked in my mind.

I ran to my bag that was on the floor by the side of the bed. "What are you doing?" Derek asked as he watched my dig through my bag.

"I found this the night we found Laura's body." I said as I unzipped one of the side pockets and found what I was looking for. "Catch" I said as I threw the inhaler at Derek. He caught it and looked it over.

"What does this have to do with the Alpha?" He asked has the raised a brow and continued to look at it.

"Not the Alpha the Beta. I'm betting that that inhaler belongs to him. And you and me were gonna find him." I said as I grabbed the inhaler and put it in my pocket.

******************

I was a few feet behind Derek when I heard voices. "I could've sworn this was it. I found the body, the deer came running by and I dropped my inhaler." A young males voice said.

"Maybe the killer moved the body." another voice said. But I recognized this one, it was the same one I heard this morning.

"Shit." I said as I pulled my hood up over my head to hide my face the best I could.

"What?" Derek asked as he looked back at me. "My brother.... he's here. With the Beta." I said as I looked down and pulled the hood over my face even more.

"I'll handle it." Derek said as he walked over to where the boys were, I followed a bit behind making sure to keep my distance. Sure enough there was my brother, with the beta searching for something. Two times in one day I've seen him, it's becoming a little overwhelming.

"If he did I hope he left my inhaler, those things are like eighty bucks." the other male said as he searched through the dead leaves that had fallen onto the ground. Stiles noticed me and Derek and patted his friends shoulder. They both stood up as Derek walked closer to them.

"What are you doing here?" Derek asked as he continued to walk towards them. "Huh? This is private property."

I pulled my hood down even more over my face just to be certain that Stiles couldn't see me.

"Uh sorry man we didn't know" Stiles said as he looked at his friend.

"Yeah we were just looking for something but forget it" Stiles friend said and I suddenly remembered the inhaler in my pocket. I grabbed it and threw it at the kid who caught it with ease.

Derek turned around and started walking back towards the Hale house. I turned around and started walking well, I looked back and took another look at my brother and the new Beta. I continued to listen in on their conversation as I followed Derek.

"Dude that was Derek Hale"  Stiles said "you remember right? He's only like a few years older than us"

"Remember what?" His friend asked.

"His family. They all burned to death in a fire like ten years ago. I think him and Aria knew each other." Stiles explained. When I heard him mention my name my heart dropped into my stomach.

"I wonder what he's doing back?" The beta asked.

I sighed as I pulled the hood off of my head. Wonderful. Just fan freaking tastic, the one person who I wanted to keep all of this werewolf drama away from was now being sucked into it.

I have to protect him. No matter what.