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CHAPTER TEN; 10

"What do you want me to do? She's unconscious!"

Stiles hissed over at Jackson, making sure to keep his voice at a whisper. The whole group, Lydia, Jackson, Allison, Scott, Sage, and himself, met up in the lobby just a few minutes ago only to have their parade rained on when Sage fell to the floor right after Jackson walked in. Everyone seemed to throw themselves towards her body, even Lydia, in an attempt to catch her.

Shockingly, Jackson was the one to grab a hold of her, slowly placing her down on the floor with his knee supporting her head. That was when panic set that one of their friends was bleeding to death and, now, unconscious with no way for them to get out of this place.

Lydia and Allison were in hysterics, Scott was speechless, Jackson was being a jackass trying to pick a fight with Stiles, and Sage was just lying there motionless. Stiles knew that it was only a matter of time before the alpha decided to appear, and he didn't know how he would be able to explain that to the others.

Looking away from Sage, Stiles met eyes with Scott.

"We need to move," Scott explained to the others, glancing back at his best friend, knowing exactly what the look he was giving was for.

Lydia looked up from Sage's body with a horrified expression. "She needs to go to a hospital. Her heart is slowing down."

Stiles went to reply but the ceiling tiles began to crack, much like they had done in the boiler room. Everyone seemed to divert their attention to the sound. When he realized that the ceiling was going to come crashing down on them at any second and the alpha would be appearing from the rubble, he wasted no time bending down and picking up Sage.

Although he definitely wasn't as strong as Scott or Jackson, he was able to hold her tightly in his arms due to the pure determination to take her to safety.

Scott got the memo that they needed to haul ass, grabbing a hold of Allison's hand and uttering out a single word. "Run!"

All of them immediately obeyed, following Scott's instructions and running as fast as they possibly could. Stiles felt Sage's body slip from his arms a few times because of the amount of blood on her wet skin, but aside from that, he was able to coordinate as well as any person could holding an unconscious, hundred and something pound girl in their arms.

Everyone seemed to agree that following Scott was the way to go, and when he crashed into the cafeteria, they all trailed behind without a second thought.

While Scott locked the doors, Stiles carefully placed Sage on the table. Her blonde hair was no longer blonde at the ends, rather stained such a dark hue Stiles wndered if she would be able to get it out. He looked away from her with a lump in his throat, not being able to stare any longer. What did grab his attention was the wall of windows that resided in the cafeteria, even worse than them being in the classroom before.

"Grab some chairs," Scott ordered, running over the the plastic, blue chairs. They all picked up two at a time, beginning their work, completely ignoring any and all things Stiles shouted their way.

"Scott, wait. Not here," Stiles tried to protest, continuing to stare at the windows with wide eyes, gnawing on his lips as he took a few more steps towards the group.

Allison spoke up from beside Sage's side. "What was that? Scott, what was that?"

"It came through the ceiling!" Lydia cried out.

"Would you just help?" Scott barked while he moved a table with the help of Jackson. "The chairs, stack the chairs."

"Guys, would you just wait a secon—" Stiles was cut off by the screeching of metal chairs. "Would you just—Scott! Will you please just wait a second! Guys, Stiles talking. Can we hang on one second, please? Gu—hello!" they all turned around, eyes wide. "Okay, nice work. Really beautiful job everyone. Now, what should we do about the twenty foot wall of windows?"

They stared in horror when they realized he was right, having just completely barricaded themselves into a room that could easily just become the Alpha's entrance through the array of glass.

"Okay, can somebody please explain to me what's going on because I'm freaking out here. Sage is— Sage— what's going on, Scott?" Allison begged, clinging onto his arm in hopes that he would just answer her, not even capable of stuttering out what was going on with her blonde friend lying helpless on the table.

Scott didn't though, instead he just pushed her off of him and went to stand by Sage's body. All of the others were completely baffled at the werewolf's reaction, especially since it seemed like he was the only one with plausible answers. Scott looked towards Stiles in panic, trying to get his best friend to save him.

Stiles sighed, looking at Sage before talking. "Alright, somebody killed the janitor."

"What?" Lydia asked, eyes wide as she choked out the word.

"Yeah. The janitor's dead and we think Sage got attacked by the same person."

Allison stared in disbelief before letting out an exasperated exhale, turning to look at her boyfriend. "What is he talking about? Is this a joke?"

"What? Who attacked her? Who killed him?" Jackson spluttered, all of them having too many questions that just blurred together; no one wanted to admit that the only thing on there mind was how in the hell they were going to get Sage out of here as well as how in the hell they were going to get themselves out.

Lydia swallowed hard, tears blurring her vision. "No. No. No. This was supposed to be over. The mountain lion—"

"Don't you get it? There wasn't a mountain lion," Jackson hissed over at Lydia, the girl's inability to see the truth making him want to claw out his eyes.

"Who was it?" Allison yelled, directing it towards Scott who was avoiding the whole conversation in general, knowing if he opened his mouth he would be saying too much. "What does it want? God, what's happening? Scott!"

Scott finally had the nerve to turn around and face her. "I—I don't know! I just... it's just if we go out there he's going to kill us!"

"Us?" Lydia screeched. "He's going to kill us? He already tore Sage apart!"

"Who? Who's he? Who is it?"

There was an unpleasant pause, Stiles looking over at Scott for any help what-so-ever. They couldn't just say that there was an alpha werewolf chasing them around the school who killed the janitor, killed Derek, and by accident, mutilated Sage's whole backside because she has a weird, freaky ability that makes her a target to remotely anything dangerous that the people in this room do.

Yes. Stiles can see that ending well. Like hell, he'd sooner be put in Eichen House.

"It was Derek. Derek Hale," Scott finally revealed, feeling nausea sweep over him as he realized he just handed a dead guy over to the police for another convicted crime he hadn't done.

Jackson shook his head. "Why would Derek kill the janitor? More importantly, why would he want to hurt Sage? Aren't they, like, related?"

"Are you sure?" Allison inquired, weary at the idea of the man being capable of doing any of this.

She honestly didn't believe that Derek would deliberately hurt Sage, having seen small interactions between the pair; it wasn't much, but it was definitely enough for her to know that the man could never lay a hand on her, much less stab her in the back.

Literally.

"I saw him," Scott continued on with the lie.

Allison frowned, still trying to put the pieces together. "But I thought it was a mountain lion—"

"No! Derek killed them!"

"All of them?" Allison snapped, her voice cracking as she listening to Scott rave on about a lie that she could easily tell was not the truth.

"Yes. Starting with his own sister."

"And the bus driver—"

"And the guy in the video store. It's been Derek the whole time. He's in here with us. He hurt Sage. He tried to kill her. And if we don't get out now, he's going to try to kill us too."

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When the alpha finally caught up to them in the cafeteria, they were forced to relocate up on a higher floor. Scott had grabbed Sage this time, having to carry her up two flights of stairs in fear that he would drop her. He also took note of her wounds opening up, feeling the wet liquid coating over the already dried on his arms and it just brought a sickening feeling to his stomach.

The teen wolf was already feeling terrible for outing Derek just a few minutes ago, lying and saying he was the one that attacked Sage. If this girl ended up dying in his arms, there was no way he would be able to live with himself knowing that he had gotten her into this mess by wanting to attract the Alpha's attention.

The group ended up finding an open classroom, flinging the door open and propping a chair on the handle as if it would do any good. Scott put Sage on one of the tables in the front of the classroom, and the rest turned silent, trying to catch their breaths from running up so many flights. Scott looked over at Stiles, jerking his head down to signal that he needed to get his ass over to Sage.

Stiles walked over, making sure he picked his feet up so his shoes wouldn't squeak. When he reached the blonde's body, his teeth ground together when he realized what Scott needed to show him. He didn't think twice about taking off his plaid shirt, handing it over to Scott to rip up. Everyone else turned when they heard the shredding of cloth.

Allison rushed over, grabbing a hold of Sage's hand despite the blood that would get on her. Everyone seemed even more stunned when Lydia took the bandages from Scott's hands, swallowing hard as her own fingers began to nimbly shake.

"We need to get the other bandages off," Lydia whispered, looking towards the group of boys.

Jackson nodded and began the search while Lydia went back to Sage's back. She slowly pulled up her tank top, and almost threw up with how much blood Sage was losing, even more when she saw what her back looked like. Lydia grabbed one of the ripped cloths, wrapping it tightly around the wound before lapping another three to secure it.

"Here, take my jacket," Allison muttered, giving it to Lydia.

Lydia quickly grabbed it, and carefully put it on Sage's body, wincing when she, much like everyone else already had, touched blood. Stiles looked at Sage's body and felt his heart drop in his stomach. He hadn't really taken into consideration that she might actually die. He thought they would find a way to get out, but right now they were trapped in a classroom and Sage's life was ticking down by the minutes.

When he saw a hand grasping Sage's, not Allison, something fueled inside of him that he was trying to avoid all day. How terrible was it that he was pissed off Jackson was holding her hand and she was literally on her death bed?

He pressed down on his lips, trying to ignore the feeling as best as possible. All he could think about though is how he almost kissed Sage earlier that day and now he may never get the chance to now, never even got a moment to tell her goodbye.

"Jackson, how many people can fit in your car?"

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The air was tense after Scott left to retrieve the keys from the janitor's body.

Allison's goodbye kiss definitely created drama, and Jackson's obvious flirting towards the girl didn't help either. Sage was still unconscious, and Stiles would check her pulse what seemed like every second just to assure himself he hadn't lost her.

It was still there, and it wasn't getting weaker any time soon, but Stiles wasn't exactly sure if that was a good thing. Something happened to her abilities; she told him that she couldn't be physically effected by someone else yet she was bleeding out on Harris' desk while everyone seemed hesitant to let out a breath in fear it would hurt her.

"Jackson, you handed me the sulfuric acid, right?" Lydia asked, beginning to doubt her boyfriend the more she saw him with Allison. Jackson turned to her and raised his eyebrows. He clearly wasn't happy that his girlfriend was apprehensive. "It has to be sulfuric acid, it won't ignite if it's not."

"Okay, I gave you exactly what you asked for, didn't I?" he snapped.

Lydia almost stumbled back, seeing straight through the lie. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you did."

Stiles frowned, and continued to stare at the variety of chemicals sitting on the table. He knew well enough that Jackson hated Scott to the point of letting him die. He just didn't know if Jackson believed Derek was the murderer or if he was suspicious about it being more. The teenage boy also wasn't ready to tell Sage that Scott basically outed her best friend as a psychopath who tried to kill her.

No, he definitely wasn't ready for that.

It seemed like Scott had been gone a millennium, and everyone was growing more impatient as they started running through all the possible scenarios happening outside. Just as Stiles went to check on Sage again, a loud roar rang through the whole building, causing a tremor that was five times louder than Scott's ever was.

A gasp was caught in the mixes of the alpha's howl, and everyone turned their heads to see that Sage was now sitting up, eyes roaming the area until they caught sight of one person: Jackson. When they connected eyes, it was like something kicked in, and they both started to scream in sync with each other, Sage managing to fall off the table completely, landing hard on her side as she clawed at the back of her neck.

"Sage!" Stiles screamed, diving towards the ground, grabbing a hold of her face, pushing the loose strands of her ponytail out of her face. "Sage! Sage, what's going on!"

"Jackson, are you okay?" Allison asked, pulling him up to a standing position. Lydia had abandoned her boyfriend, falling down next to Sage and propping the blonde's head on her lap to try and level her out. "What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing. I'm okay. How is—" Jackson cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck. "How is she?"

Sage wasn't screaming anymore but she was still flinching any time Stiles or Lydia tried to touch her. Stiles was more concerned about her having another seizure like she did when she acquired Derek's wounds in his bedroom. He was one hundred percent positive that Sage's abilities must have kicked in with Jackson and that made her start screaming bloody murder.

He just didn't know why.

"Sage, can you sit up? You're still losing blood," Lydia tried to explain, reaching to pull her up.

Sage followed along, and grimaced when she felt something tear in her back, but she also noticed that she wasn't in as much pain as she was when she passed out. Whatever the hell that meant, something was helping her stay alive and she didn't know what.

"What happened? Where are we? Where's Scott?" Sage croaked out, looking around the group until she focused in on Stiles. He had already been looking at her for quite some time, and she leaned forward, grabbing a hold of his arm. "Stiles, what happened?"

"Your lunatic best friend is trying to kill us, just like he tried to kill you, and Scott decided to play hero by going to fetch the keys off the janitor's dead body," Jackson explained, relieved that the attention was now off of him and he could ignore everyone's questions.

Sage looked over at the lacrosse player in confusion. "Derek? Derek didn't try to k—"

"Sage."

Sage looked over at Stiles, wondering why he called her name. The look on his face said all that needed to be said, and she felt her heart break a little bit. Someone had told the others Derek was the one chasing them, not the alpha. Tears began to well up in her eyes, not because of them lying about it, but because it was so easily believed. She remembered when Derek couldn't even have been considered as a killer because of how good he used to be. He used to be like Scott.

And, now, he is in such a degree of lunacy because of Laura's death that people think he's a homicidal manic.

"So, are you dying? Is she dying?" Jackson asked, looking to Lydia for conformation. Sage clenched her jaw. He could have at least been more subtle about asking instead of just shooting it out.

"I—I don't know. She needs to get to a hospital, though," Lydia spoke, running her hands through her hair as she tried to keep her pulse calm. For once in her life, all of those medical books had come in handy.

She gave up on the 'too-pretty-to-be-smart' charade after she saw Sage covered in crimson and stumbling to keep stable. The two girls weren't friends, they haven't talked since she's been back, but Lydia wasn't going to just let her die. Maybe one day, Sage would return to favor.

The hazy blonde gathered that they were in Harris' room. Someone must have carried her from the lobby after she passed out. Scott was the only one not present in the room, and Sage was beginning to grow weary when she questioned whether or not the what Jackson had said about finding the keys was true.

Allison went to ask Sage a question when there was a clicking sound coming from the door. Everyone turned to see that a shadow was looming through the blurred window out of the classroom. Allison was the first to react. "Scott? Scott! No, no. Scott! Scott!"

"Wait. Stop!" Lydia screeched over to Allison. "Do you hear that? Listen."

Everyone leaned in to try and figure out what Lydia was talking about. Sage's mouth opened and she turned to Stiles, who looked on the verge of a panic attack. Police sirens were blaring, and Sage bet if she were in the right condition to look out the window, she would find Stiles' dad parked outside. That meant one of three things: she wasn't going to die, she was going to die and the alpha would kill her before she left, or the alpha would just kill everyone.

Including the Sheriff.

"You're going to be okay," Stiles muttered, not bothering to join the group by the windows. He fully collapsed down beside her, and gave a small laugh, pressing his lips to her head. "You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay."

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"You. Home. Now."

Sheriff Stilinski grabbed a hold of his son's wrist, starting to pull him towards the cruiser. They had showed up at the school about thirty minutes ago, no sign of Derek Hale or the alpha. Sage was immediately driven to the hospital while Scott and Stiles were forced to fill Sheriff in on what happened. Meaning lie about Derek being the one that chased them through the school and attempted to chew them to pieces.