Gather The Ashes || Stilinski || Book Three

Twenty-Five

TIME.

A construct that seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye or drag on with an irritable ticking of a clock.

Now, Mason wasn't wearing a watch nor could he see any type of clock from where Lydia and he were hiding. However, with a creature he didn't understand threatening to kill him, time wasn't passing quickly enough.

His back ached from being pressed against the wall, his thighs burned from squatting to stay out of sight. His ears were strained from listening too closely on the silence, and all in all, Mason was ready to call it a day.

Lydia felt eager to leave too, though her motives lied in saving her friends. She tried to get Mason to move, swearing the Berserker had to have left.

And even though he wanted to escape, Mason wasn't ready. "No, no, no," he shook his head. "There's only one way out on this side of the basement."

He didn't know what that...that thing was, and he didn't want to find out. He actually wanted to survive high school and live past fifteen.

"I know." Lydia understood his fear, probably better than anyone. Compared to her friends, she often felt helpless. She didn't have claws, fangs or the ability to quake someone into the wall. Voices swirled in her head, but unfortunately, they didn't help with self defense. Yet knowing her friends were mortal danger, made her swallow down her fear.

She turned to Mason, a determined sparkle in her green eyes. "If we don't get out of here, someone's going to die. We have to do something."

"Wait--" Mason only heard the first part, his mind spinning. "How do you know that?"

Lydia huffed, "I just do. And we have to at least see if he's blocking the exit."

Mason sighed, but slowly nodded his head to agree. Leaning slightly forward, he quickly scanned the dimly lit hallway to see if the Berserker still lurked around. But when the low growl entered his ears, he immediately shrunk back. Eyes closed, head shaking, Mason muttered, "Nope, no, no. He's still there. Yep, he's blockin' it."

Lydia impatiently tapped the pads of her fingers together, attempting to think of a plan. Her lips turned up when her eyes landed on two bats, one wooden and one aluminum. Of course, they weren't ideal. But it was better than going against the Berserker empty-handed.

Mason noticed her step forwards to them, his jaw dropping open in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"Very."

"A baseball bat?" Mason didn't understand.

At the beginning of the year, Mason heard rumors about Lydia. She held great fashion sense and threw crazy parties, but she was also practically a genius. She couldn't have been serious about using sports equipment against a freakish man-giant. "Against that guy? Or thing...or whatever it is."

Lydia withheld from snapping at him, but spoke sharply so he'd listen. "My friends are in trouble. And so is Liam, your best friend. They need me. I'm going for it." She turned away from him, starting to move towards the Berserker. Her hands nervously gripped the bat handle and she muttered, "And yes, with a baseball bat."

She often made fun of Stiles for his choice of weaponry. Fighting a Berserker with a bat proved her theory that not only are they completely useless, but that Stiles was in fact an idiot she really wanted to smack upside the head.

Mason, having gained some courage from hearing Lydia's words, ended up charging first. Crying out, he sprinted past her with the wooden bat.