It Hurts Because It's Real

The sound of her phone vibrating on her bedside table woke Bella from her sleep. Her eyes slowly opened as she reached out for her phone; seeing that the person calling her was Stiles, she answered.

"Stiles?" Bella asked and looked at her alarm clock, 2:36AM, she sighed. "Oh, god. Are you okay?" She asked and sat up in her bed. Stiles had been having bad dreams for the past few weeks and Bella knew it had something to do with the sacrifice he had made to save his father.

"Uh, not really, no." Stiles replied and Bella felt her heart sink. "I woke up screaming, again. Dad had to come and shake me out of it." It was evident from his voice how tired he was.

"I'm sorry, Stiles." Bella replied and she really was. "Do you want me to come over?"

"No, no. You don't have to do that. It's okay." Stiles told her and exhaled heavily. "Could you just.. stay on the phone with me for a while?"

Bella blinked and glanced at her clock again. "Sure, of course." She laid back down in her bed and set her phone down next to her. "I might fall asleep, though."

"Yeah, no, that's okay. I understand." Stiles told her. "Thanks, Bella."

"Mhm." Bella mumbled back, her eyes closed.

Stiles paused for a moment. "You, uh, you still there?"

"Yeah." She replied tiredly. "Just talk. I'm listening."

-

"Hey," Isaac said when Scott opened his bedroom door the next morning. He had been waiting for Scott to come out so that he could talk to him.

"Oh, hey." Scott replied slightly taken aback.

"Are you going to school?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, me too."

"Good."

"Yeah. Can I ask you a question?"

"Okay?"

"Are you angry at me?" Isaac stuttered quickly.

"For what?" Scott frowned. "For the whole.. connection thing with Allison? No."

"You're not?"

"No, I know you still like my sister." He told him slowly, like it was obvious.

"Oh.. okay. Right." Isaac swallowed and nodded. "Are you mad at me.. about that?"

"No, as long as she's cool with it." Scott replied dismissively; he just wanted to end the conversation.

"Right. Do you wanna hit me?"

"Why would I wanna hit you?" Scott asked incredulously and then looked at Isaac sternly. "You didn't do anything did you?"

"No.. no, uh, what do you mean?"

"I mean, like, you haven't kissed her or anything, right?" Scott asked lowly, his tone showed how serious he was. "Because both Stiles and I will kill you."

"No, no, absolutely not. No."

"Do you want to?"

"Oh, yeah, totally."

Bella stepped out of the bathroom, toothbrush in cheek, when she heard the huge thump against the wall. She looked down the hall to see Isaac on the floor against the wall opposite Scott's bedroom; the painting that was hanging had fallen to the floor beside him. He seemed to be grimacing in pain.

"Um.." Bella mumbled and took her toothbrush out of her mouth. "You.. okay?"

"He's good." Scott answered for the boy as he walked out of his room. He kissed his sister's forehead as he walked past her. "See you at school." He said and Bella just shook her head before walking back into the bathroom.

-

"You couldn't wake up?" Bella asked Stiles as they walked down the school steps. He was telling her about the dream that he had experienced that morning, after he eventually had fallen asleep again. As Bella understood, he had fallen asleep whilst talking to her because when she woke up the phone call hadn't been disconnected.

"No, and it was beyond terrifying." Stiles told her and she looked up at him. "You ever hear of sleep paralysis?"

"Um, maybe. Is that where you wake up and you can't move or speak?"

"Yeah. Sometimes your mind can wake up before your body does." Stiles explained but it just scared Bella even more. "So for a split second you're actually aware that your body's paralyzed. You can feel like you're falling, like you're being strangled ––– or in my case like you're at the center of a grove with magical trees where human sacrifices take place. "

Bella stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. "Stiles, this isn't okay."

Stiles avoided her eyes and shifted on his feet. "Yeah, I know, but what am I supposed to do–––" He stopped himself when something caught his eye; Bella followed his gaze. The two of them started moving towards the steps that Scott was tripping down; it looked like he was trying to get away from something, but nothing was there.

"Hey!" Stiles called and put his hands on the werewolf's shoulders when they reached him. "You alright?" He asked; Scott stepped back and tried to catch his breath. He nodded in reply and both Stiles and Bella frowned at him. "Well, you don't look alright, Scott."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not." Bella responded and took a step forward, as if to get a closer look at her brother. "It's happening to you, too, isn't it? You're seeing things, aren't you?"

Scott blinked at his sister and looked in-between her and Stiles. "How'd you know?"

Bella and Stiles turned around when they heard a familiar click of heels on the pavement. Lydia and Allison had approached them with somber expressions.

"Because it's happening to all three of you."

-

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked as he, Stiles, Bella, Isaac, Allison and Lydia were all huddled around a table at school.

"And is unable to tell what is real or not."

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives."

"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac answered and Bella kicked him under the table. He glared at her and she over-exaggerated a smile back.

Stiles faked a laugh as he scowled across the table at the werewolf. "Could 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." Isaac replied bitterly. Bella wanted to roll her eyes but she couldn't deny that what Isaac had just described made her upset.

"Okay, are we still milking that?" Stiles replied tiredly as he glared.

"Yeah, we are still milking that."

"Hi, sorry," A sweet voice interrupted them and they all looked to see where it game from. A girl who Bella hadn't seen before was standing at the end of their table. "I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might know what you're.. talking about." She told them and the other teenagers just stared up at her. "There's 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 asked the girl.

"Kira." Scott answered and everyone looked to him. "She's in our history class."

"Anyway, all that stuff you guys were saying ––– all that happens in bardo." Kira explained with an unusually excited expression. "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 deities." Isaac repeated. "And, uh, what are those?"

"Demons." Kira replied with a grin that made Bella want to get up and run away.

"Demons." Stiles nodded and looked around the table. "Why not?"

"Wait a second," Bella spoke for the first time, "if there are different progressive states.. what's the last one?"

"Death. You die."

-

"That doesn't make any sense, Dad! Who are you helping?!" Scott's voice yelled out from inside the house. Bella frowned at her mother who just sighed and shook her head. Bella then turned to see Isaac's reaction; he just tried to comfort her with a smile as they walked up the steps to their house. "Just get out!"

"Scott–––!"

"What?! I can't believe you would do this to my best friend!" Scott yelled at his father as his mother, sister and Isaac walked into the house. "And Bella's boyfriend!" He added as he pointed at his sister.

"I'm not doing anything to–––" Their father began but stopped himself. He looked to his daughter who had a confused and anxious look on her face. "Boyfriend?" He asked and shifted on his feet. "I thought he was your boyfriend." He said and pointed to Isaac; the boy's jaw dropped. Scott frowned but Bella wasn't phased.

"You thought I would let her boyfriend move in with us at seventeen?" Melissa asked with raised eyebrows.

"How am I supposed to know?" He replied and held out his arms. "With all the time he spent with you at the hospital, you can't blame me."

"Isaac's just a friend." Bella replied dismissively; she wasn't even sure if she believed that. Isaac's eyes fell to the floor but Bella had to ignore him. "What are you doing to Stiles?"

"Like I was saying, I'm not doing anything to Stiles. I'm doing my job." Their father reasoned.

"Your job sucks." Scott snapped.

"Some days I can't argue that."

"Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Melissa pleaded.

"He's trying to get Stiles' Dad fired." Scott said, breathless from the anger that was seeping out of him.

"What are you doing?" Bella growled and stepped forward, she felt like she was on fire.

Her father sighed. "Conducting a case for impeachment."

"That sounds a lot like getting him fired." Melissa replied.

Her parents continued to bicker but Bella blocked it out as she stared at the floor. She couldn't let this happen; Stiles and his father had been through too much ––– were going through too much. Something in her woke up.

"You cannot do this to them." Bella lifted her head slowly and spoke through gritted teeth.

"It's nothing personal, Isabella." Her father sighed.

"Really? Because it seems totally personal to me." She replied fiercely and stepped forward. "What is it that you have against Stiles' Dad?"

"Nothing!" Mr. McCall protested. "It is not my fault that he has failed to do his job properly for past year."

"And it's not his fault that supernatural creat–––!"

"Bella!" Both Scott and Isaac yelled at the same time. The girl closed her mouth and shook her head. She looked up at her father who was frowning at her.

"Just know that if you do this, I will never speak to you again." Bella said lowly and pushed past him to leave the room. She turned back around. "Oh, and by the way, my new car has been completely wrecked for like three weeks." She tilted her head mockingly. "Isn't that unfortunate?" Bella asked before spinning on her heels and storming out of the room.

There was silence for a few moments before Scott spoke up. "She means it, by the way."

"Yeah, trust me, I know." Isaac added. Everyone in the room looked to him and he just looked to the floor. "I'll go talk to her." He said, assuming someone would stop him - when they didn't he moved forward in the direction that the girl had just taken. When he reached her room, he stood at her open doorway. Bella was pacing back and forth, running her shaking hands through her hair. She hadn't noticed Isaac until he said her name.

"What do you want?" Bella turned to him with the fiery eyes that he knew too well. Isaac leaned against the door frame, folded his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows at her. Bella sighed heavily. "Sorry, it's not your fault."

Isaac paused for a moment before speaking again. That was probably the first time she had ever apologized to him. "You know, you're probably the angriest person I've ever met."

Bella looked away from him and scoffed. She moved over to her bed and collapsed onto it. "That makes me feel so much better, Isaac, thank you." She spat out sarcastically, staring at the ceiling.

Isaac chuckled briefly and stepped into her room. He walked over to her bed and motioned for Bella to sit up so that he could sit down next to her; she did so and Isaac hesitantly took a seat next to the girl. Isaac turned to her and felt his heart sink to see her staring at the ground solemnly. "It's a good thing." He said and smiled when Bella looked up at him. His smiled faded when he looked into her sad eyes.

"How is it a good thing?"

"It means you care." Isaac replied and Bella blinked at him before looking back to the floor.

"Maybe I just care too much." She said brokenly and Isaac wanted to take away all of her pain. He actually considered doing so, but decided against it. She needed to feel.

"Doesn't make you a bad person, Bella." He told her and exhaled when she continued to stare at the ground. "I wish I had someone like you in my life when my father was abusing me." Isaac said honestly and looked forward. Bella lifted her head to look up at him. "Would've been nice to have someone care as much as you do." He added and then looked back to the girl who had tears forming in her eyes. "Stiles is really lucky to have you. I hope he knows that." Bella just frowned at him and opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't form any words. Isaac carefully raised his hand to touch the girl's face; he stared at her for a moment before pulling his hand away and standing up. He slowly walked to the entrance of the room as Bella watched him in confusion. When he reached the door way, Isaac turned back to the girl. "I know you're angry, Bella. But he's your Dad." He said and sighed quietly, searching for the right words. "Just make sure you don't do anything you're gonna regret." Isaac finished. Bella paused for a moment before nodding. Isaac turned to walk out of the room.

"Isaac." Bella called out to him and pushed herself to stand as Isaac watched her. "Thank you." She almost whispered.

Isaac just stared at her, not sure if she had really said the words or not. "Anytime." He replied and smiled sadly at her before leaving the room.