Something was wrong.
Harper knew it as soon as she woke up. Beacon Hills was still cloaked in darkness, the moonlight shining through her open window and casting shadows across her bedroom. She had woken up abruptly, a tight feeling in her chest and one name repeating itself over and over in her head: Stiles.
Automatically her hand snapped out to grab her phone off of the bedside table, freezing when she heard hushed whispers outside of her door. She couldn't make them out properly, only realising that it was Scott and Isaac a few seconds later.
"It feels wrong keeping it from Harper, he's her boyfriend."
"I know, but he made me promise not to tell Harper or his dad. He says they already worry enough."
Harper had heard enough. She ripped the covers off of her pyjama clad body and darted for the door, twisting the handle and yanking it open just in time for the werewolves to get caught. They both stared down at her with wide eyes, Isaac looking particularly guilty while Scott turned to glare at him slightly.
"What's going on?" She demanded to know, "I woke up with this feeling... and then I heard you and Scott whispering outside my door!"
Scott looked at her sympathetically, "nothing, Harper. Just go back to sleep, okay?"
Harper's face scrunched up, "don't tell me to go back to sleep. If something is wrong with Stiles then I need to know. It's not fair."
Isaac scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Stiles has slept walked somewhere and he called Scott crying because he has no idea where he is and his leg hurts, he thinks it's bleeding."
Harper's heart dropped, her face falling with it. She reached out and grabbed her best friends' shirt, bunching it up in a fist and backing him into a wall. Scott didn't protest back. He had never seen Harper so angry before.
"You were gonna keep this from me?" She yelled furiously, "what the hell, Scott?"
Scott placed his hands over her fists, gently pushing them down, "Stiles didn't want you to get involved," he protested, "he told me not to tell you."
Harry's bedroom door opened, revealing a messy haired boy rubbing his eyes. He looked shocked when he saw his younger sister practically pinning Scott up against the wall, her face red with anger and her eyes shining with fear.
"What's going on?" His voice was deep from just waking.
Harper sighed sharply, releasing Scott and running a hand through her hair, "I'm coming with you," she muttered, "don't even try it with me tonight, Scott."
This time Scott didn't argue back as Harper went into her room, slamming the door and changing into something other than her Hello Kitty pyjamas.
...
Scott, Harper, Isaac, and Harry were down the stairs when the werewolf's phone began to buzz, causing all four to stop abruptly. Scott dug into his pocket, producing his phone and immediately hitting 'answer'.
"Scott," Stiles whimpered, Harper's heart shattering consequently, "Did you tell them? Did you tell my dad and Harper?"
"Harper knew," The McCall boy told him hesitantly, "she woke up because she felt it."
There was a heavy silence on the other end, "is she there?" He whispered, "Harper?"
"Yeah, yeah, here," Scott passed the phone over to Harper who quickly pressed it against her ear, tears filling up her eyes.
"Stiles? Oh god, Stiles. Do you know where you are? Is there anything around you that could be a clue?" She pressed, trying to stay calm for him.
"It's a basement," Stiles' voice was shaking as if he was about to cry, "I don't know, some kind of basement."
"In a house?"
"No, it looks bigger. Like industrial," Stiles explained, his words coming out a little jumbled, "I think there's a furnace, but it's cold. It's freezing down here."
Harper swallowed thickly, "Sti, try to calm down a little bit, o-okay?"
"I gotta turn the- I gotta turn the phone off, Harper, it's gonna die," he rushed out.
Harper panicked, "no, wait, wait, wait. What else is there? Can you see anything else?"
Stiles practically cried out, "the phone's dying. I can't talk," he then calmed down, his voice barely above a whisper as he begged, "I have to go. Please."
"Stiles, why are you whispering?" Scott questioned, picking up on something Harper hadn't even really taken notice of.
She had just assumed he was being so quiet because he was terrified, but when she thought about it, Stiles always grew louder and more impatient when he was scared.
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Harper's heart faced a hundred miles a minute, desperately waiting for Stiles' response. Her bottom lip was being tugged between her teeth.
"Because I think there's someone in here with me," he whispered, his voice shaking worse than leaves did from trees in Autumn.
Chills ran down Harper's spine as beeping came from Scott's phone, indicating the end of the conversation.
"The mist!" Harper suddenly exclaimed, turning to face Harry and grabbing his arm, "I can find him with the mist."
Harry nodded quickly, "you're right. I'll try and find him too."
Both teenagers went quiet as they tried to concentrate on getting a link on Stiles. Harper gently closed her eyes, thinking about her boyfriend in as much detail as possible. She remembered the night she was bitten at the school, how Stiles had taken her to his house and looked after her all night and day. She remembered the way he smelled as he held her to his chest while the slept, and how supportive he was of her all of the time.
When Harper's eyes snapped open she found all three boys staring at her intently. She looked at the floor where the mist should have been.
Nothing.
"I can't see anything," she panicked, "it's not working."
"It's not working for me, either," Harry sighed.
"But you said we could find anyone we knew," Harper cried, "are we not concentrating enough?"
"I think you were," Isaac pointed down at Harper's palms where crescent marks were dented into her soft flesh.
She hadn't realised she had been digging her nails into her hands, or that she had done it hard enough for them to bleed slightly.
"Then why isn't it working?" Harper pressed, ignoring the concerned look from Scott.
Harry bit his lip, "I don't know," he admitted, "we need to try something else."
"We can try scent," Scott suggested, "lets go to Stiles' house, see if Isaac and I can get a lock on his smell."
Harper nodded wearily, although she couldn't stop wondering why she couldn't find Stiles.
...
The ride to Stiles' house couldn't have been any longer as Scott drove his mum's car so Isaac, Harper and Harry could come with him. No music played on the radio and nobody spoke a word to each other as there was nothing to say. Harper's leg bounced up and down the entire ten minutes, her thoughts running crazy.
Upon discovering no Sheriff's car in the driveway, Harper just let them all in. Luckily the door was unlocked. They raced to the top of the stairs where Scott pushed the door open, frowning when he saw Lydia and Aiden stood inside.
"How did you know?" Scott questioned, "did he call you too?"
Harper would be a little hurt if Stiles decided to call Scott and Lydia but not her when he thought he was in trouble. Sure, he didn't want her to worry, but still.
"I heard it," Lydia blurted.
"Don't ask," Aiden cut in, "it gets more confusing when you ask."
The Empath just assumed Lydia had had another banshee feeling that had lead her to Stiles' room. She had no idea how they had got in until she remembered the key Stiles always left under the flower pot by the front door. Not very smart.
"Not as confusing as this," Lydia moved out of the way so they could see Stiles' room.
Harper gasped audibly when she saw the state that it was in. Metal scissors had been stabbed through the centre of mattress, red string tied to the handles and stretching out to all of the posters around his room.
"It's all red," Harper gulped.
Harry frowned, "so?"
She glanced at her half brother, "Stiles only uses red for unsolved cases."
"Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case," the older Empath suggested.
"Or is an unsolved case," Isaac added.
"Is he still out there? You don't know here he is?" Lydia turned to face them all, shocked.
Harper bit on her lip and nodded, "We came here so Isaac and Scott could get a better scent, since my Empath mist thingies aren't working. He said he thinks he's in some industrial basement or something."
"What do you mean they're not working?" Lydia asked, "I thought you said you could find anyone that you knew."
Harper nodded again, "I know, but... whenever I try and find Stiles, it's like... it's like I don't know him."
"Stiles is Stiles, and you know him better than anyone else on this earth!" The strawberry blonde insisted, "what else did he say?"
"Something's wrong with his leg, he's bleeding," Scott recalled.
"And it's freezing," Isaac added.
Aiden's eyebrows raised, "tonight's the coldest night of the year, it's gonna drop into the twenties."
Harper's heart clenched at the news, "we need to tell his dad," her voice shook, "I know he said not to, but he could die, Scott. I can't lose him too."
Scott's eyes softened as he glanced down at Harper, who appeared pretty much defeated. She looked so lost and scared, it was heartbreaking.
"He made me promise," Scott reminded her, "we can find him by scent. If he was sleepwalking, he couldn't have gone far, right?"
"You guys didn't notice his Jeep is gone, did you?" Aiden winced.
"Oh god," Harper dragged her hand across her face, "I think-" she paused, trying to calm down the racing of her heart as her breathing increased, "I think I'm having a panic attack."
Everybody looked at her worriedly, Scott and Harry both moving to grab her. Harry got there first and gently guided her out of the room, into the bathroom. She sat on the edge of the tub, tears leaking from her brown eyes as she finally let out all of the fear clogging her mind.
Harry gripped her hands and tried breathing exercises with her, but all Harper could think about was how whenever she had had a panic attack before, it had always been Stiles to help her. He would always grab her hand and press it against his chest, so she could feel the beating of his heart. Kind of like a reminder that he was there with her.
But this time he wasn't there with her. What if he was dead? What if he was dying? He could be crying right now. Or maybe the person in the room with him is torturing him. Is the bleeding causing him a lot of pain? Is he scared? Oh god, what if—
"Harper!" Harry cut her off from the dangerous thoughts, "calm down, calm down. You're no help to Stiles when you're like this."
Harper looked up at him, "I can't," she panted, "help it."
"Breathe," he reminded, "in. Out. In. Out."
Although Harper felt like doing anything but listening to Harry's stupid breathing advice, she did as she was told. Surprisingly after a while her calm breathing had tricked her mind into believing she was okay, and she dissolved into just tears and sniffling.
"See? You're okay."
"I know," she swallowed, "but Stiles isn't. Come on."
She grabbed his hand and lead him back into Stiles' bedroom, slightly surprised to find only Lydia and Aiden inside. They looked up as soon as they came in the room.
"Scott and Isaac went to tell Stilinski," Lydia explained, her eyes softening when she saw her best friend's tear stained cheeks, "You okay?"
"I will be as soon as we find Stiles," Harper insisted strongly, wiping her face with the back of her hand and taking a step forward, "What do we do?"
"I don't know," Lydia stressed, "I just feel something in this room. A feeling like... like I should be able to figure something out. I just don't know what."
Harper's eyes trailed away from the redhead and over to Aiden who was snooping around Stiles' things on his desk. She glared at him slightly.
"What are you doing?" She frowned defensively, walking over.
He was looking at a bunch of pictures Stiles had in his room. Most had been taken before all of the supernatural drama. There was one Harper had taken of Scott and Stiles sat on the bench in their lacrosse gear from freshman year, another Stiles had taken of Harper and Scott sat across from him in some restaurant and so on. About twenty more lay scattered across his desk.
"Why would he have been looking at those?" Harry asked, making Harper jump from where he had appeared so abruptly beside her.
"Maybe he knew something," Aiden suggested, "and he wanted to remember."
Harper thought about it for a second, but Aiden was talking again before she could process for it too long.
"Who are you, by the way?" He looked at Harry.
"Harry," the dark haired boy answered, "Harper's brother."
"Aiden," the werewolf replied.
Harper's phone buzzed from the back pocket of her mom jeans. She pulled it out and quickly read the text message from Scott to the others.
"Scott said, 'nothing at hospital. Derek headed to high school. Isaac going to find Allison. I'm with Stiles' dad.'"
"And we're standing in a bedroom staring at walls," Aiden deadpanned, causing Lydia to glare at him.
She began to walk over to the red strings while Harper looked back down at the photographs, dwelling far too much on Aiden's words. Surely he was right- surely they could be helping out in other ways.
Harry absentmindedly pinged one of the red strings, a deep vibrating noise echoing around the room. Lydia snapped her neck in the direction, eyes slightly wide.
"What did you just do?" She muttered, "did you just touch one of the strings?"
"Um, yeah?" Harry's eyes were a little wide, as if he was scared Lydia was going to tell him off for it.
Hesitantly, Lydia reached out and pinched one of the pieces of red fabric between her fingers, pulling it back slightly before releasing it. Harper straightened up when she saw the horrified look on Lydia's face, wondering if they were finally getting somewhere.
"What did that sound like to you?" The strawberry blonde gulped.
"Like a string being pulled," Aiden raised his eyebrows at her.
"Do you hear voices again, Lydia?" Harper asked, moving closer to her.
Lydia nodded quickly, "voices whispering. Do you feeling anything? Like how you felt that couple back in Glen Capri?"
Harry looked confused at the reference as Harper shook her head sadly, "no. Is it Stiles whispering to you? Is he telling you something?"
"I- I don't think it's Stiles," Lydia's voice was shaky as she looked at her friends, "they're saying something about a house, though."
"What house?" Harry asked.
Lydia pinged another string, everybody waiting patiently for her response. She stood up straight after a few seconds, pointing at a picture on Stiles' detective board.
"That one."
Harper and Harry's faces fell at what they saw, although Aiden just looked confused.
"What's 'Eichen House'?" Aiden read.
The worst place on earth, Harper wanted to say. It was where her mum had been killed, where her dad had hidden after faking his own death, where her brother had been kidnapped and experimented on for years. It was somewhere Harper had feared for the past six years of her life.
"A mental centre," Lydia answered when Harper and Harry didn't reply, too stunned to speak, "it's where William Barrow, the shrapnel bomber, was committed."
"Is that it?"
"It's where he is," Lydia replied surely, "it's where Stiles is."
Harper's heart dropped. They were going back to Eichen.
—
hopefully some of you caught on that harper couldn't find stiles because stiles is being taken over by void, therefore he's not the stiles she knows