Panic Room • Stiles Stilinski [1]

[31] Battlefield

"I'll find strength in pain."

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"You know, when you're drowning, you don't actually inhale until right before you black out." Stiles speaks, re-tying the knots on his lacrosse net. "It's called "voluntary apnea." It's, like, no matter how much you're freaking out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won't open your mouth until you feel like your head's exploding. But then, when you finally do let it in that's when it stops hurting. It's not scary anymore. It's-it's actually kind of peaceful." Stiles explains to Ms. Morell.

She looks at him closely. "Are you saying you hope Matt felt some peace in his last moments?" She asks, softly.

"I don't feel sorry for him." Stiles sighs.

"Can you feel sorry for the nine-year-old Matt who drowned?" Miss. Morell further pushes.

"Just because a couple of dumbasses dragged him into a pool when he couldn't swim, doesn't really give him the right to go off killing them one by one." Stiles scoffs. "And, by the way, my dad told me that they found a bunch of pictures of Isabel on Matt's computer. And not just of her, though. I mean, he photoshopped himself into these pictures - stuff like them holding hands, and kissing...You know, like, he had built this whole fake relationship. So, yeah, maybe drowning when he was nine years old was what sent him off the rails, but the dude was definitely riding the crazy train."

Miss. Morell gives a small smile at the sound of Isabel's name. "How is Miss. Martin?" She asks, leaning forward on her desk.

Stiles' heart races at her name. "She's- she's in the hospital still. Blood loss and a bruised larynx from when he tried to finish her off." He monotonously says, trying to dissociate from what happened to the girl. He pauses for a second to swallow hard. "She's being released tomorrow." Stiles shakes his head, fiddling with his hands as he relieved the moment of watching as Matt almost killed her.

All he could do was watch.

"One positive thing came out of this, though...Right?" She changes the subject.

"Yeah. Yeah..." Stiles nods, remembering his dad got his badge back. "But I still feel like there's something wrong between us. I don't know. It's just, like, tension when we talk. Same thing with Scott."

"Have you talked to him since that night?"

"No, not really... I mean, he's got his own problems to deal with, though..." Stiles trails off, knowing Scott was trying to deal with his mom finding out he was a werewolf. Melissa would lock herself in rooms so she didn't have to see him.

"I don't think he's talked to Allison, either... But that might be more her choice, you know?" Stiles shrugs. "Her mom dying hit her pretty hard, but, I guess it brought her and her dad closer."