Of Men and Angels

“I need your help.”

These four words right away during a stressful school day coming out of your best friend’s mouth will either have you questioning what’s wrong or running in the opposite direction. But after years of friendship you learn to hear and understand the different tones in their voice when asking these questions. But even though Cassidy heard the later type of tone in the statement that was directed towards her she reluctantly turned towards the taller boy that started walking down the hall next to her.

“Shoot.” Cassidy took a sip from her to-go coffee cup she had been drinking from during her morning classes.

Isaac ran a hand through his curls and sighed. “When did you know you wanted to be with Stiles?”

The girl’s eyebrows ruffled in confusion. “What? Isaac, what does this have to do with helping you?”

“Cause, I just need to know.” He stopped with her as they made it to her locker.

“I mean, I don’t know. I guess really when he danced with me at the winter formal last year. Hold this.” She pushed her almost empty coffee cup in his hands so she could open her locker. “I still don’t get why you need to know this.” Cassidy switched the books from her bag to her locker. She looked up at Isaac once she heard no response from him. His eyes were not on her but passed her, down the hallway. She followed his eyes to land on the brown haired girl who was talking Lydia.

“Isaac!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

He jumped slightly, almost dropping the cup in his hand. “Sorry.”

She snatched the cup from him. “Does this help you speak of have anything to do with a certain brown haired, archer?”

“Argent? Who said anything about Allison?” He rambled out.

Cassidy smirked at her best friend. “I said archer, dear.”

His eyes went wide and finally just gave up on his act. “I like Allison.”

“No shit.” She laughed and closed her locker.

“This isn’t funny, Cassi. I need your help.”

“With what? Clearly you figured out you’re crushing on the person who, need I remind you, stabbed you a couple times with knives.” She took the last gulp of her coffee and placed it on the shelf of her locker.

Isaac groaned. “We are passed that.”

“Fine. You’re passed that.” She rolled her eyes, but stopped once she saw the glare Isaac was sending down to her. “Sorry, so what are you going to do?”

“Well I told Scott-“

“Wait! You told Scott before me? Best friends my ass!” She slammed her locker shut, getting the attention from a few teens around them.

“Well I don’t have to worry about the fact that I’m living with my crush’s ex-boyfriend with you.” He pulled his backpack up on his shoulder.

“True.” She wrapped her arm through his and started walking towards class. “So what did he say?”

“Well he didn’t do much talking…more of throwing me into a wall.”

“WHAT!”

“Twice.” Isaac shrugged, as if this should be normal.

Cassidy groaned at Isaac’s normal tone. She hated that he still thought people hurting him was a normal thing. She knew Scott wouldn’t have done it out of hatred or actually trying to hurt Isaac, but she was still very protective of him. It was something that would never go away.

“Don’t fight him, Cassi.” He looked down at her as they stopped in front of her classroom. “Promise me?”

She rolled her eyes and nodded. “I promise I won’t fight the Alpha.”

“Oh my god, you hang out with Stiles too much.” He commented on her sarcasm.

“Love you!” She smiled and entered the classroom with a skip in her step. She walked past the desks and down the row that held Stiles and Scott on either side.

“Look who decided to show up.” Scott smiled up at her as she stopped by them.

She smiled down at him, but the smile quickly turned into a glare and she flicked his ear. She promised Isaac no fighting, so technically flicking was totally fine.

“Ow! Jesus, Cassidy, what was that for?” He rubbed his ear.

“You know what that was for.” She pointed at him and then turned on her heel to look down at Stiles.

“Morning, handsome.” She smiled, leaning down to place a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Morning, babe.” He gave her a lazy smile.

She couldn’t help but notice the redness and the bags hanging under his eyes. Her thumb brushed his check sweetly.

“I’m okay.” He took her hand and kissed her palm. Always able to know how she is feeling just by watching the emotions crawl over her face.

She gave him a closed smile and nodded, her hand running across his shoulder as she sat in the empty seat behind him.

“Alright, you little delinquents, get your books out.” Coach Finstock entered the room, sounding like he was already done with this day.

Which quite honestly, so was Cassidy. She pulled her book and notebook out of her bag and opened them on her desk, but that didn’t mean she could really pay attention. There was just too many things that were going on with her friends at the moment that school just no longer became important. It all had started a few weeks prior when Stiles, Scott, and Allison become sacrifices for their parents. Yes, it worked and everyone made it out of that night, but what they did also brought out more than they expected. Scott wasn’t able to control his new found Alpha power, Allison was having hallucinations of her dead Aunt Kate everywhere, and Stiles was dealing with a serious case of sleep paralysis. All Lydia, Isaac, and herself could do for them at the moment was watch over them and help them as much as possible.

She continued to take notes on what the Coach was talking about, but was more so paying attention to Stiles. His body was leaning over his desk, head faced down, and from her point of view it looked like he was scribbling notes down in his notebook.

“Alright so, if you all did the reading last night you should know this answer!” Finstock leaned against the front desk. “Can someone tell me what the difference is between GDP and GNP?”

The room stayed quiet as he looked around the room, finding someone he could torment.

“How ‘bout you, Stilinski?”

Stiles continued to write whatever it was he was writing down.

“Are you even paying attention back there?”

Still nothing. Not even the slightest movement of acknowledgment. Scott and Cassidy shot each other worried glances, not understanding what was going on.

“For the love of-!” Coach brought the whistle to his mouth and made the worse, high pitched squeal they had ever heard. It proceeded on for a good 10 seconds before Stiles jumped up in his seat, arms flying to his side to steady himself.

“Stilinski!” Coach finally able to get his attention.

“Uh-huh.” Stiles stumbled through trying to understand what was going on around him.

“I asked you a question.”

“Ugh…sorry, Coach. What was it?” His voice was more gravely than usual.

“Oh it was, ‘Stilinski, are you even paying attention back there’.”

“Oh.” He twirled the pen in his hand, trying to think of an answer. “Well, I am now.”

“Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink every night. Does anyone else want to answer the question on the board?”

Stiles looked over at Scott, seeing concern and worry all over his face. “I’m okay. I just fell asleep for a sec.”

Scott and Cassidy once again looked at each other than back to him.

“Dude,” Scott shook his head, “you weren’t asleep.” His eyes shifted down to the paper on his best friend’s desk that had writing all over it.

Stiles looked down, and before either of the two could read it, he flipped it over. Cassidy let her right hand rub up his back and squeeze his shoulder in reassurance.

Everything was changing.

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Thanking everything holy out there for the free period in her schedule, Cassidy closed her locker and started her walk outside. She found Allison and Lydia at one of the picnic tables on the side of the school.

“Ladies.” Cassidy set her book bag down on the table and sat on the bench across from the two girls.

The two greeted her with light voices. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

“You mean besides the fact that I almost got an arrow to the face last night?” Lydia wrote something down in her notebook.

“Wait, what?” Cassidy stopped pulling her homework out and gave a confused look towards both of them.

“Lyd, I said I was sorry. I already feel so bad.” Allison ran her fingers through her hair, looking like she was ready to pull it out.

“Can someone explain this to me?” Cassidy dropped her bag to her feet, opening her books in front of her.

Lydia sighed. “I went to help her yesterday to see if I could help her with feeling confident enough to shoot her bow and all of sudden there was an arrow coming towards my face.”

“I thought she was Kate.” Allison pulled her short hair behind her ears. “It was like I was transferred into a complete different universe.”

“If Isaac wouldn’t have showed up-”

“Wait!” Cassidy stopped them. “Isaac, was there?”

Lydia nodded. “Thank god. He grabbed it only a few inches from my face.”

“God, Lydia, I just can’t apologize enough.” The huntress’ looked towards her best friend with pure guilt all over her face.

“It’s okay. I just know now to never go training with you again.” The fiery strawberry blonde smiled.

The girls giggled lightly as the three boys sat down around them; Isaac next to Allison, Scott and Stiles on either side of Cassidy.

“Alright, so anyone got any ideas about what’s going on?” Scott questioned. The three boys also pulled their own homework out.

“Well, what we know is that you guys died for a few hours.” Lydia stated. “So basically you were over that threshold into the other side.”

“Meaning what?” Stiles sighed, dropping his hand on his girlfriend’s thigh.

Cassidy dropped her own hand on top of his, their fingers intertwining. “Meaning you guys had a near-death experience. Technically, you were even passed the whole ‘Seeing the white light’ thing.”

Scott dropped his head. “Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near death experience and comes out of it seeing things?”

“And is unable to tell what’s real or not?” Stiles’ leg shook frantically.

“And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?” Allison added her own problems in.

“They’re all locked up cause they’re insane.” Isaac added in, looking up from his own work.

Stiles gave a fake laugh. “Can you at least try to be helpful? Please?”

“For half of my childhood I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me.”

“Okay-really-are you still milking that?”

“Yeah, we are still milking that.”

“Boys.” Cassidy glared back in forth from her best friend and her boyfriend, wanting them to both cut it out.

“Hi.” An unknown voice came at the end of the table, making all six heads turn towards a pretty, Korean girl around their age. “Hi, sorry, I couldn’t help over hearing what you guys were talking about.”

The six stared at each other in shock and worry. Really they should have known at some point someone would start listening into their conversations.

The shy girl continued. “And I think I actually might know what you were talking about. There is a Tibetan word for it, it’s called Bardo. It literally means ‘in between state’. The state between life and death.”

“And what do they call you?” Lydia’s inner queen bitch found surface.

“Kira.” Scott said, having his friends turn to look at him in question. “She’s in our history class.”

Lydia rolled her eyes and looked back to the new girl “So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?”

“Either I guess.” Kira sat down on the other side of Stiles, having the three squish together to allow room for the new girl. “But all the stuff you guys were just saying all that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities.”

“Wrathful that is, and um-what are those?” Isaac questioned.

“Like demons.” The girl almost sounded happy talking about it.

“Demons,” Stiles sat up in his seat, completely getting his attention. “why not.” His palm growing clammy in Cassidy’s hand.

“Hold on.” Allison’s mind flickering all around what Kira was telling them. “If there were different progress states then what’s the last one?”

“Death.” Kira shrugged. “You die.”

The six just stared at her, letting everything settle.

“Awesome.” Cassidy let her eyes focus on each of her friends, lastly on the boy holding her tightly.

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The stereo on full, twinkle lights lighting up the four walls, and Cassidy was sitting on the floor with her back against the bed. Her textbooks and notebooks were scattered around her in piles. This was the only atmosphere that she could actually get work done in, and with the amount of work her teachers have been pouring on them as of lately she needed to keep ahead in it all. That was if her mind would stop flipping to everything else possible. She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her hands and rubbed her eyes, silently thanking herself for washing the makeup she was wearing off when she got home from school.

A light knock came from her door.

“I’m studying! I told you guys I wanted to be alone!” She said over her music. She told her family that she just wanted to be alone for the night and even though she loved her little brother and sister to death, she was far to stressed to play any type of game.

Instead of another knock or leaving her alone all together, the door cracked open. She glared over at the door till she realized who it was.

“Can I come in?” Stiles let half of his body appear from behind the door.

“S-Stiles ye-yeah, come in.” She stuttered out and brought her body to a standing position. She hopped over her homework and went to her stereo to turn it down.

Stiles closed the door behind him and threw his back bag to the corner before turning back to her, stuffing his hands deep in his jean pockets. He just stood there for a few seconds looking around at everything as if this was his first time every stepping foot in the room.

“I love this song.” Stiles stepped towards Cassidy and turned the song back up slightly.

“I know.” She smiled up at him slightly as The Rocket Summer song surrounded the two of them. She watched him stand there; his jaw clenching every few seconds as his fingers tapped out the beat of the song against his leg. Something that stood out more than anything was his eyes that wouldn’t stay in one place for too long. He was thinking; overthinking. “What’s up?”

“I um…I wasn’t ready to go home yet.” He shrugged. “Is it cool if I hang here for a while?”

“Of course, babe.” She ran her hands up his arms and back down till her fingers interlocked with his. “You’re always welcome here.”

Stiles sighed and squeezed her hands. “Scott and I went to see Deaton.”

“And? What did he say?”

“Well, a lot of jumble with riddles and doors being open in our mind. Basically, I have to find a way to close this door.”

“What is this door open to?”

“I guess the supernatural.” The boy shrugged, looking absolutely exhausted.

Cassidy nodded her head. “Okay. Okay, we’re gonna figure this out. You, Scott, Allison, you are all gonna get past this. Okay?”

Stiles nodded his head and let it fall forward till their foreheads lay against each other. “I’m so tired, Cas.”

She leaned up and pressed her lips against his. “Come take a nap.” She mumbled against his lips.

“No, I can’t.” He pulled away slightly, shaking his head back and forth.

“Yes. Yes you can. I’m the one with the sleeping problem, remember?” She started walking, pulling him by both hands, towards the bed. “I’m not allowing you to get back behind the wheel of your jeep until.” She sat down against the pillows and watched as he shrugged off his flannel while he kicked off his sneakers. The both of them settled down into the bed, facing one another. “See, was that so hard?” She gave him another small kiss, hoping to calm him.

“No, the hard part is trying to wake up without having your whole family run into the room cause I’m screaming myself awake.”

“What can I do to help that?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t slept together since that night.” He rested a hand on her hip. “But…there is something I haven’t told you about my dreams.”

She propped her head up on her hand to stare down at him. “Okay…what is it?”

“Um…during them I-I never dream about you.” He watched her face turn into confusion. “It’s always like you are right out of my reach and I can never find you.”

“Well that’s good right? That means if you see me you’ll know you’re awake, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just so weird cause I used to dream about you all the time. Like I can still remember some of them-like you felt so real-”

“I get it, Stiles.” Cassidy cut off her dirty minded boyfriend. Some things would never change.

“I just don’t want to get confused between dreams and reality with you. I’m scared if I wake up to you that I’m going to freak you out.”

Her hand settled onto his cheek. “It’s going be okay, Stiles. It’s just dreams, they can’t hurt you.”

His eyes began to water and he shook his head, grounding his face into her pillow. She bit her lip trying not to cry herself. It hurt her more knowing he was hurting. It was like she could feel his pain inside of her. She pulled his head into her neck, wrapping her arms around him. He wrapped his own arms around her body and their legs interlocked, leaving no space between them.

“I told you before and I’ll keeping tell you, I’m not going anywhere.” She whispered, letting her fingers rake through his hair letting him settle into her. If this was his problem, than it was automatically hers. That’s the way their relationship worked.