The Cat and the Fox: City of Shadows

1: A Guilty Conscience

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body... and guilt just creates a whole lot of pain..."

He remembered it every minute throughout the day, every thought, every emotion, every sensation that it felt while it controlled him. The faces of those he had hurt, or even killed, flashed through his mind during the middle of the night while he slept. Often enough he would wake up screaming in terror because he was afraid of what it had done. It didn't matter how many days passed, the terror stayed with him.

Stiles Stilinski felt a hand touch him as he jerked awake in the middle of class to find that Lydia Martin was staring at him with a worried expression plastered all over her face. He could feel the cold sweat running down his forehead, and regretted having come to school today.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, softly while avoiding eye contact with him. That was the one thing he hated more than anything, how everyone avoided making eye contact with him. It wasn't his fault, how could he be to blame for what happened.

"Huh?" Stiles responded groggily, as he wiped his forehead. Lydia frowned, noticing how tired Stiles looked.

"Are you okay? You were making noises in your sleep." she informed him as Stiles gulped, hoping she hadn't heard what he had been saying. Allison... I'm sorry. He didn't have to guess, it was what he remembered saying in his dream.

"Uh, yeah... I'm f-fine." Stiles noticed the bell was about to ring so he quickly gathered his things and got to his feet just as the bell rang. He couldn't deal with this today, not with them. Stiles lowered his head as he walked out, pushing his way past some of his classmates. Lydia raised an eyebrow, as she quickly followed him out of the classroom.

"Stiles!" she called out, as he moved faster, turning the corner and running downstairs. He dove past a teacher and entered the bathroom, and locked himself inside of a stall. Setting his things down, Stiles put his face in his hands, breathing heavily.

She's only gone because of me... The images of the sword going through Allison flashed through his mind as he heard the footsteps from students in the hallways. Stiles stayed in there far longer than he probably should have, as by the time he finally looked up there was nobody in the halls, and Stiles knew he was far too late to go to class without being sent to the principal's office.

Checking his phone he could see multiple messages from Lydia and Scott, to which Stiles just sighed before putting his phone away and walked outside, having decided school was not where he needed to be right now.

He hopped into his jeep and drove home as stress just continued to build up. Beacon Hills was causing him nothing but stress now.

Barely able to think about anything other than his own nightmares, Stiles would enter his room and lock himself in there, hoping nobody would come looking for him considering his sudden absence from school.  Knowing his father, Stiles would most likely be visited by him sooner rather than later.  What was he supposed to say?

Stiles could hear two knocks on the door, and they were gentle.  He knew it was Lydia based on how gentle it was, and made no attempt to move from where he was in his room.  "Stiles, I know you're in there, come open the door, please." she called from the hallway, and while Stiles wanted to, he opted to stay where he was and stayed silent.  "What's going on?  You can talk to me, you know that.  Is this about Allison?  It's not your fault, Stiles."

Funny, you say that yet nobody can look me in the eye.  You weren't the one possessed by a dark kitsune and remember controlling that Oni that killed Allison.