Not So Sweet Home

Chapter 6- The Defeat

                                                    Chapter 6- The Defeat

Stiles was once again dreaming. He was back in the old warehouse surrounded by the bodies of his friends. He could see the Nogitsune this time, edging closer. His sharp teeth were covered in black, and his face was wrapped in the old bandages from a distant past. The body he was drawn into, broken and burned, was his from that moment on.

"Yourr back," he hissed. "Ready for another riddle?"

Stiles took a step back out of instinct.

"I am something people love or hate. I change peoples appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of themselves I will go up even higher. To some people I will fool them. To others I am a mystery. Some people might want to try and hide me but I will show. No matter how hard people try I will Never go down. What am I?"

As the Nogitsune drew closer, Stiles continued to draw back. His fear overtaking and blocking out reason. He knew this wasn't real. He knew his mind was playing tricks on him, but the pain he caused ruled over reason.

"What am I Stiless?"

"I don't know."

"What am I?"
"Wake up," he began to tell himself again, but Scotts words echoed in his mind. You can because you're strong. But I'm not strong, he thought. I'm not strong enough to beat this. To beat him.

His best friend's voice broke through his thoughts, through his dream.

"Fight him, Stiles. Fight back. You are strong enough. You are stronger."

"Stilesss. What am I? What am I?!"

"You are where you don't belong," Stiles answered, halting his backward movement and standing up taller.

"Wrong. I always belong here."

"You don't. You thrive off fear and chaos, but you can't scare me anymore. You may be free again, but trust me, we will find you and we will catch you and we won't let you slip past our fingers a second time."

"I control you."

"You have no control over me. You have caused me and my friends enough pain and I won't let you cause any more. Now get out of my head, and if you had any sense of what's good for you you'd stay out."

                                                                     ***

Stiles sat straight up in his bed, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, I'm great. You can go home now. He's gone."
"Are you sure?"

"Well he's not gone, he is still out there, but he's also out of my head and it's going to stay that way."

"Told you, you are strong enough."

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, Scott."

"I have no idea what I would do without you."

"Die?" Stiles jokingly questioned.

"Probably," Scott laughed. "See you tomorrow?"

"I have to actually make it seem like I'm trying to do my job so if you need me I'll be at the station."

"Okay man, bye."

"Bye," Stiles replied as Scott walked out the door.

Stiles glanced at the time on his alarm clock. 2:00, he thought. Three more hours to sleep. Now that he could, Stiles was going to savor all the sleep he could get. He needed to be well rested if he was going to hide all this mess from his team.

                                                                       ***

"Ahem," Stiles announced, rapping his knuckles on the door frame to the small conference room his team was stationed in.

"You look better," Hotch observed. "Are you ready to work?"
"Yeah," Stiles promised. "I'm all good now."

"Sit."

Stiles moved through the doorway and into the seat next to JJ.

"You do look better. Did you sleep?" she asked, in a whisper.

"Yeah. I just needed to see some people."

"So we have two bodies," Rossi began, "and an interesting MO. Is that it?"

"Pretty much," Garcia responded over video call.

"Well, we know the body was found here," Morgan added, getting up and pointing to a small area deep in the forest.

"What's in that area Garcia?" Emily asked.

"Nothing really, there is one building, but it's been abandoned for years. It looks like there was a fire there."

"The Hale House," Stiles cut in.

"As in Derek Hale, the fugitive wanted by the FBI for mass murder?" Garcia asked.

"Uh, yeah. Years ago there was a fire that trapped his whole family in the basement. They all died, well all of them except Derek's uncle Peter. Derek and his sister were at school at the time."

"What caused the fire?" Morgan asked.

"Kate Argent. She set the place on fire."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Stilinski cut in, "but another body has been found."

The whole team turned their attention to Hotch, waiting for his direction.

"Stiles, you and Reid go to the scene. Morgan, Emily and Rossi go to the morgue to see the first victim. JJ, you and I will wait here to talk to family. Garcia, keep digging into the victim's history. Oh and, Sheriff, who found the body this time?"

"Lydia Martin,' the Sheriff answered hesitantly.

"Garcia," Hotch called before she hung up, and after Stilinski left the room. "See what you can pull up on Lydia Martin."