Stiles's Arc

Chapter 9 of 20

Morning came too fast. Stiles dragged himself through the front doors of school with Scott and Lydia, the new board still half-built in his head. Six victims. One wrong creature. Something else still out there. He hadn't slept. Mr. Yukimura's classroom was quiet and warm. He stood by the globe at the front, one hand resting lightly on its painted surface, spinning it slow. "Today," he said, "we look at the trade routes of the ancient world." His voice was calm, careful. Stiles heard maybe four words of it. Lydia sat one row over, pen still, notebook open to a page she wasn't writing on. Scott stared at his desk. Stiles watched the globe turn under Mr. Yukimura's fingers and thought about wound patterns. About what kind of thing leaves marks like that. About who would be next. Mr. Yukimura stopped the globe. He looked at the three of them. He didn't call them out. He didn't raise his voice. He just held the silence until they felt it. "Some lessons," he said, "wait. Others do not." Then he turned back to the board and kept teaching. Stiles felt his face burn. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper. Not for notes. He wrote three columns: VICTIMS. WOUNDS. WHAT WE KNOW NOW. Under the last column he wrote: not the Anubite. Something older. Lydia glanced over. She slid her notebook closer so he could see her own list forming. Scott leaned in. The bell rang. Mr. Yukimura watched them go without a word. In the hall, Stiles folded the paper and put it in his pocket. "Tonight," he said. "My house. New board. All of it." Scott nodded. Lydia said, "I'll bring the photos." The class hadn't reached them. But something had started anyway.