The Hunter McCall

Chapter 40: Eichen House

I wake up slowly, the white lights in the room blinding me for a minute. I recognize the room as a room at the hospital and sit up quickly, wide awake. 

"Whoa there, don't want to rip your stitches." Bobby says, running over to me and helping me sit up slowly. 

"What happened? Is Stiles ok? What about Scott? And-and Kira?" I start to ask questions and Bobby sighs.

"If you would shut up for a second, maybe I would tell you." He says pointedly. I immediately grow quiet. "Scott and Kira are fine. Deaton, that emissary, used a rare plant to poison the nogitsune. So, the demon isn't controlling your friend for now." He pauses and looks down guiltily.

"What? What happened?" I ask, wide-eyed.

"Stiles admitted himself into Eichen house." Bobby says slowly. "He doesn't want to hurt anyone else, so don't you do something stupid to get him out." Bobby orders me. 

"Bu--"

"No buts!" Bobby looks at me pointedly before sitting down. "You got a sword to the gut. You need to heal."

I groan in frustration before I realize something. "Bobby, he knew." I say slowly.

"Who knew what?"

"The nogitsune. It-it knew about everything." I whisper. "He knew about Azazel and Jo..." 

"Well, it is a demon and we both know how they love to talk." Bobby nods. "Get some rest kid." He pats my leg before walking out of the room. 

I rip the I.V out of my arm before swinging my legs off the side of the bed. There is only one thing for me to do: make sure Stiles is safe. 

That means goodbye hospital, hello Eichen House.

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"It's always nice to see young students take interest in working here." The nurse says as she leads me through the institution. I was lucky enough to get an internship with Eichen so I can help Stiles for the three days he is stuck in here. 

"Malia?" I hear Stiles ask cautiously as we walk out to the patio. "Hey. It's Stiles. Do you remember me? I'm friends with Scott." We get closer and I see Stiles in sweatpants talking to Malia. "Remember. We were the ones who helped you out with-" She stops his rant by punching him square in the jaw. 

The couple starts to tumble around and the staff jerks into action. A nurse, Brunski, pins Malia to the ground before taking her away. Another nurse pins a struggling Stiles to the ground. 

"Enough!" A stern voice yells. "Enough!!" Marin Morrell barrels through the crowd, coming next to me. 

The man on Stiles gets up as Morrell and I kneel beside a panting Stiles. "You saw something, didn't you?" Morrell asks. 

"That basement," Stiles whispers. "I've been there before." He looks up and his eyes widen. "Lizzie?"

"Lets get you up." Morrell and I grab his arms and prop him up. His eyes stay on me and I can feel the guilt radiating off of him. 

"Would you be willing to sit in on a group session? Seeing as you are a new intern?" Morrell asks.

"I would love to." We lead a confused Stiles into a bigger room with others already there. Malia, looking annoyed, sits opposite Stiles. Stiles glances at her occasionally but is met with a glare. 

Morrell starts the session with me taking 'notes' sitting next to her. "I want to go back to the topic of guilt today. It might surprise you to hear me say that guilt is a good thing. It's a rather mature emotion. Malia, you said something about guilt the other day. You said it came with a visceral reaction. "