From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski [#𝟏]

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐱 [ warning. ]

A/N: A month! I am so sorry, guys! It's been a trying time, but here's chapter 26! Shit is going down. This is def the most important chapter yet, though! So, without further adeiu...

Song Recommendation ["Paint It Black (cover)" - VersaEmerge]
NOTE: For the full experience, I do personally suggest seeking out each song rec.

☽ † ☾

When did they become yours?

☽ † ☾

Back and forth they went, for the rest of the free period, while Maddie vaguely realized something peculiar. For the first since she set foot in that god forsaken town, she didn't completely hate having to talk to Stiles – in fact, it was strangely...nice. She shook her head violently; nice was not a word she wanted to associate with, of all headaches, Stiles Stilinski. It was weird enough referring to Allison and Lydia as her friends; she couldn't quite imagine adding more names to that list. Or even the possibility of accepting that people like Stiles and Scott had already reached friend status without her permission. It was absolutely infuriating.

Even when they decided how to split up during the game that night, she had opted to team up with Stiles. Opted to. Of her own free will.

"Wha- Really?" Stiles cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. "I mean why?"

Certainly, there was a great, completely straightforward, and undeniably logical answer for this. She just couldn't think of it. Especially when Allison, Scott, and Stiles had all been giving her such expectant looks.

"Because you're a magnet for trouble."

Yeah, that was why. Exactly.

Now, Maddie found herself kicking the grass behind the bleachers and keeping out of sight from Gerard. She could still hear him though as he used that deceiving, kindly old man tone. She had done her best to keep away from him at all costs since he came to town; she even locked her door at night. Well, she did when she was awake to do so.

That was when she thought back to the night prior and how little she remembered of it. She recalled her confrontation with Erica and the incident at the Auto Shop. She even vaguely remembered Scott picking her and Stiles up – but that's where it ended. Allison and Stiles carried her in last night and she didn't wake up at all? Exactly how tired had she been?

That was an easy question to answer though. She'd been exhausted from the moment Peter Hale was killed. That's when she started having trouble sleeping. Guilt she had buried down deep from another time had surfaced the moment she saw Lydia lying there in the grass, motionless. Of course, it only got worse from there when Gerard got to town and killed that omega. Then Derek turning Isaac, Erica, and Boyd? It was too much; there were already too many lives that had been given a death sentence.