From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski [#𝟏]

𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 [ monsters. ]

A/N: I've been dreaming of this part since the end of Act One. This, the climax of From Ashes, is here. 

Song Recommendations ["Jumpsuit (cover)" - Terabrite

"The Chain (cover)" - Welshly Arms

"Here We Stand" - Hidden Citizens feat. Svrcina ]

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

☽ † ☾

"Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"

- Buffy Summers, Chosen

☽ † ☾

Vaguely, Maddie wondered how she got here.

Throat dry and neck aching, the world spinning violently around her. A face, smiling and terrified, right above her. For a second, she thought it was the woman from before - which turned the expression into more of a 'see? I told you so!' - but the face above her was rounder, pale, and framed in black hair. She knew even more when the voice that came from the person was British. "You're alive."

Alive.

I'm alive.

Her heart was racing, pulsing in her ears. She held onto something warm but brittle, crushing it in her grasp like she hung from a high up branch, feet dangling above an endless chasm. It was like nothing she ever felt, because she felt everything all at once waking up. All five senses flaring to life and something else, something old and full of light and pain and darkness. Something feral that she remembered from so long ago coming alive in her bones.

Alive.

I'm alive.

"Oh my god, you're alive!" the girl above her shouted as her face began contorting into a wince. "And crushing my hand."

Maddie didn't let go, not immediately, until a pained wail came from somewhere close. She finally released Max's hand as something came into view just behind the woman's head. A hand smoking and sizzling, the meat beginning to show. Without another thought and not remembering to be gentle, Maddie shoved Max away.

Like instinct, she placed her hands in the grass on either side of her head and used them like springs, pushing from the ground so hard and feeling the kinetic energy from her feet to her stomach as she sprang up. She only wavered for a second but the ground felt solid beneath her in a way she missed.

Maddie was standing, muscles taut and back straight. She was standing and allowing her head to swivel to the mass of smoke and the shadowed, gnarled creature it came from. Her blood was still on his mouth and the thought tore through her as her hand went to her neck, sticky and only half dried.

Vaguely, more like an after-thought, she heard Max say in a weak voice, "...It's a miracle!"

How much blood did she lose? Enough that the world seemed to be a tunnel, the edges dark and blurry. Enough that she could still not make it.

How much poison did he take? Enough. Enough that even enraged, he seemed unfocused. Enough that she was standing.

The creature in the alley was burned into her brain, its grip so tight and its claws burying deeper and deeper into Maddie's arm.

Her blood was pumping furiously and tunnel vision narrowed her gaze to the vampire ahead of her. The Father, looking disheveled and manic. Looking like death would come for him soon, like the horsemen beckoning the end times.