From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski [#𝟏]

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 [ dissonance. ]

A/N: And here we are in the new year! Sorry for the terribly long wait, my depression hasn't been kind lately and I've just gotten out of my writer's block slump. To make up for it, here's a SUPER LONG chapter! Enjoy!

Song Recommendation ["Mother" - Florence + The Machine]

NOTE: For the full experience, I do personally suggest seeking out each song rec.

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Our ghosts always find us in the end.

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May 2003

There weren't many things thirteen year old Jack Hayes did not enjoy. Like, seriously, the list of things he loved would've taken him the rest of the school year - given that was only a few days - to write down. Things like girls, his amateur wrestling team, Monday night football, and making his sister watch him play video games. In fact, there was a good chance he would've blathered on about all of those things to his sister. She'd sock him in the arm at the 'video games' thing, probably because he never wanted to play fighting games that was all she was good at. He was older so there was very little he got away with and their parents babied her anyway, so he didn't feel too bad about playing GTA: Vice City a million times.

Oh, but not today. Not after what he heard.

He walked in the door and Mom was crying like he had never heard in his life, worse than before Maddie was around. Dad's voice was thunderous. He ran upstairs without being noticed and Maddie, his baby sister, was huddled in the corner of the room they shared, on the furthest and darkest edge of the bottom bunk. Little eight year old Madeline, still dirty and her knuckles a little red, sobbing and hyperventilating as she hugged her knees.

This...this was something Jack did not enjoy. He loathed it. It made him seethe with rage - at just about everyone and everything. At the bully who spat hateful, venomous words at her and threw her around like a ragdoll. At the principal that didn't believe her for months and now had the gall to expel her for defending herself. At their parents for blaming a freaking eight year old for this mess. At the school district for making middle-schoolers get out of class way later than the elementary school kids. At himself for not being there to protect her in the first place.

Sure, Jack was good at school and stuff. For instance, he liked World History class and the reading part of English but he didn't have a mind for logical things like math and science. Maddie, though, was so good at those things. She was so smart and liked learning in a way he couldn't understand. She deserved to be in school.

"Elizabeth, she put a girl in the god damn ICU! This is not what we signed up for!"

The whole shitty situation made him want to scream. Instead, he hugged his little sister and held her tight as she choked out another sob, tears spilling onto his gray and white hoodie.

All of this seemed to go on forever and longer, but it was only another two weeks. A whole two weeks of Dad avoiding her and of Mom pretending everything was okay. Two weeks of hearing them fight. Two weeks of Maddie accidentally breaking things and crumbling into wails. Two weeks of her being afraid because their parents were afraid of her. Two weeks of her crying herself to sleep.

That's when they came. Two women, a blonde and a redhead.

There was a commotion outside when the sun went down, the sounds of a fight just beyond their window.

Dad slammed their door shut as if it would somehow shield them. As if Jack didn't know where they lived and how they lived.

That was when Maddie and Jack hid in their room and clung to each other for dear life. That was when Mom cried harder; it sounded like she couldn't do anything else, not even breathe. Jack wanted to listen, but Maddie was so afraid and he was her big brother. He promised his parents that he'd protect her, for all that was worth. More importantly, he promised her. He'd never leave her. He'd never hurt her. He'd always come running when she called.