Hope's P.O.V
Last night we fought the Oni's but not for a long time. We understood that they wouldn't hurt us. They just wanted to see if we were taken over by a dark spirit.

Next day

Scott's P.O.V
I get a call in the middle of the night from Stiles. At first the line is nothing but static. Then Stiles starts whispering, sounding on the verge of tears. He thinks he will says he can't move. There's something wrong with his leg. It's bleeding.

Stiles : There's some kind of smell down here. Something smells terrible. It's brutal; my eyes are watering.

Stiles begs me not to call his father, saying that he already worries too much. I can't make a promise like that when i doesn't know if i can find my best friend. Stiles hangs up once more and i call out to Isaac for help. Isaac bursts in, asking what's wrong.

Lydia's P.O.V

I'm sketching Aiden in the Art classroom. Aiden has a hard time keeping still and asks if they're allowed to be here this late. I assure him that, due to the number of homicides at the school, no sane person will ever take a night job here again.

Aiden gets Shirtless. He's more interested in nude modelling. I tell him that's usually done without the pants. He tosses his jeans at me. Before he can strip off anything else, i stand up abruptly. Instead of music playing through the radio, i can hear Stiles's tearful voice begging for someone to come find him.

Scott's P.O.V

Me and Isaac are rushing out of the house when Stiles calls again. He says he's in some kind of industrial basement. It's freezing down there. He has to turn the phone off so it doesn't go flat.

Scott : Stiles, why are you whispering?

Stiles : Because I think there's someone in here with me.

Me and Isaac find Lydia and Aiden in Stiles's room. Lydia tells us Stiles didn't call her but she did hear him. Red string from Stiles's murder board is tied around the handle of a pair of scissors that are plunged into the centre of Stiles's bed.

Lydia : He uses red for unsolved cases.

Aiden : Maybe he thinks he's part of an unsolved case.

Isaac : Or is an unsolved case.

Me and Isaac fill Lydia in on Stiles's phone calls, saying they're here to get a better scent. Aiden points out that it's the coldest night of the year and Stiles can't have just been sleepwalking, his Jeep is gone. Lydia is horrified that Stiles is somewhere bleeding and freezing and they haven't called his dad. Since she never promised to not call Sheriff, she pulls out her phone. I protest that we can bring in more werewolf reinforcements and even Alisson.

Lydia : Everyone except for the cops. Great idea.

Aiden : You guys remember she only gets these feelings when someone's about to die, right?

Scott : You don't have to call his dad. It's five minutes to the station.

Lydia tells them she'll catch up. She feels like there's something she needs to find in Stiles's room and it's not just evidence of total insanity.

Stiles's P.O.V

I use the light on my phone to see that my leg is caught in a bear trap. I scream in pain. There's a noise in the dark but the phone light isn't strong enough to show who's in the basement with me.

I catch a glimpse of someone lurking in the shadows, drawing on a wall with a piece of chalk. The person's hands and face are wrapped in bandages.

I see that the chalk drawing on the wall is the Japanese kanji for self-the backwards 5. The person has disappeared. The kanji symbol fades off the wall, billowing away in smoke.

Scott's P.O.V

Me and Isaac tell Stiles's dad that he's missing. Sheriff struggles to control his fear for a moment, and then launches into police mode. He tells Deputy Parrish to get an APB out on Stiles's Jeep. He tells another deputy to compile a list of any industrial basements or sublevels that Stiles could've gotten into while sleepwalking.

Noah: It's the coldest night of the year so far so if my son is out there barefoot and wearing only his pyjamas, he could already be hypothermic. We need to move fast.

Sheriff takes me and Isaac into his office and asks us if they have any other information he can't share with his deputies. I tell him that Lydia knew he was missing and she's working on finding him. I also called Derek and Allison for help. Sheriff asks if they can find Stiles by scent.

Deputy Parrish walks into Sheriff's office without knocking, saying that they've already found the Jeep.

The Jeep is parked at Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and the battery is dead. Stiles must've left the lights on. Inside the hospital, my mom already has security doing sweeps of every floor. She tells Sheriff to follow her down to the basement.

Derek is on the hospital roof when me and Isaac find him. He tells us that Stiles isn't in the building anymore.

Isaac runs off to tell Sheriff and find Allison, since she's not answering her phone.

Derek : He fought

Scott : With who?

Derek : Himself.

Lydia's P.O.V
Me and Aiden are still in Stiles's room. Aiden is leafing through Stiles's things. He finds a framed copy of one of Lydia's Nemeton sketches.

Aiden : He likes you a lot, doesn't he?

Lydia : Maybe he likes the drawing a lot.

Aiden leans over to inspect the red strings coming off the walls. When he lets it go, i hear whispering. I pull on one of the strings myself and hear the whispering again. Aiden can only hear the sound of a string being pulled. Frustrated, i lean over and keep tugging at the strings. The whispers are saying something about a house.

When i follow the string path back to the board, i see a picture of Eichen House, a mental health centre.

Stiles's P.O.V

Back in the basement, i give up on my phone and instead I try to pry open the bear trap around my leg. I scream in pain and the bandaged person returns. I yell out, asking who the person is. Judging by the voice, it's a guy. He's not speaking English, though. I can't understand him and the Bandaged Dude responds in English this time.

Bandaged Dude : Not 'who are you', Stiles. 'Who are we?' It's getting colder, Stiles. Did you notice that we stopped shivering? Do you know why that's a bad sign?

Stiles: It's because the body is trying to conserve energy. I learned it when doing a fifth grade science report on hypothermia.

Bandaged Dude notes that my speech is also starting to thicken. Then comes fatigue and confusion. We are going to die if we don't get out of here.

Stiles: Stop.. stop using 'we'.

Bandaged Dude : We're trying to keep you from freezing to death. You better get out, Stiles.

Stiles : How? There's a freaking steel-jaw trap on my leg!

Bandaged Dude : Is there?

Lydia's P.O.V

Sheriff meets me and Aiden at Eichen House.

Lydia: I swear that Stiles is in there.

Sheriff bursts into reception, demanding access to all basement rooms.

I run through the building, guiding Sheriff, Aiden, and Isaac to where i can sense Stiles. We emerge in a basement that looks like where Stiles has been but he's not there. The basement's empty. Sheriff turns on me, yelling at me for being wrong. I back away, on the verge of tears from frustration and worry. Sheriff apologises instantly.

Lydia : I don't understand.

Aiden takes my hand and leads me out of the basement. As they walk back up the stairs I stop and ask

Lydia:Have you asked Hope for help?

Scott :No

Lydia:Ask her

I turn and walk up the stairs

Hope's P.O.V
I was sleeping til my phone rang.

Hope :Hello?

Scott:Hope?

Hope:Scott?

Scott:I need your help. Stiles is missing and we are trying to find him. We need you to cast the same spell when we found Kira.

Hope :Do you have Stiles's blood?

Scott:No but we have his father's.

Hope:I'm on my way.

I arrive at the police station. I get in the sheriff's office with the map on my hands.

Noah :Can you really find him?

Hope:Yes. It's not the hardest spell I've ever casted.

Noah:How does it work?

Hope:Like this.

I take a knife and scratch his palm

Noah:Hey!

Hope:Keep it over the map.

I casted the spell and it showed us that he was somewhere in the woods. I give sheriff some of my blood and told him that he would heal faster if he drunk that. We called Scott's dad since we knew that he was driving near where Stiles was and told him to go find him.

Stiles's P.O.V

I am still in the basement, talking to the Nogitsune, who is back to drawing on the wall. He tells me this is all a riddle and starts asking me some basic riddles, including the one about when is a door not a door.

NOGITSUNE: Everyone has it but no one can lose it? What is it?

I am stumped by this and the Nogitsune keeps repeating the riddle, walking closer and closer to me as he speaks, until he's screaming in my face.

The Nogitsune grabs the steel trap attached to my leg and starts dragging me along the ground. I scream as I'm dragged through the basement and then across the ground of the woods.

I wake up screaming in Melissa's arms. I was in Malia Tate's coyote den and Agent McCall just pulled me out.

Derek's P.O.V

Me and Aiden are giving Stiles's Jeep a jump start. Aiden asks if i thinks there was more to Stiles's sleepwalking episode. I tell him that, in Beacon Hills, there's always something more.

Aiden admits that he listened in on Stiles telling Scott that he was the one who wrote the message to Barrow on the school blackboard.

Derek : You think Stiles-skinny defenceless Stiles is the Nogitsune? A powerful dark spirit? I think the Nogitsune would choose someone bigger and stronger with a little more power.

Hope's P.O.V

Lydia, Scott, me, Melissa and Agent McCall are waiting for an update. Sheriff emerges from Stiles's hospital room and tells us that he's sleeping and he's fine. He doesn't remember much-it's all like a dream to him. He thanks me for the help.

Melissa hugs Scott and sends us home, saying we've got school in less than six hours.

Lydia: I still don't know.. How I was so wrong.

Scott:It doesn't matter as long as Stiles is okay.

Melissa's P.O.V

At the hospital, Sheriff and me have changed out of our uniforms and into civilian clothes. Stiles is still asleep in his hospital bed. I tell the Sheriff about Stiles's hospital visit the other day. I can't bring myself to tell Sheriff that Stiles's symptoms matched his mum's. Sheriff already knows what I'm talking about. He pulls out a notebook where he's been writing down Stiles's symptoms for the past two weeks. He's already put two and two together and he wants to run some tests.

Hope's P.O.V
I am with Lydia and Scott in the school hallway.

Lydia is hypersensitive to loud sounds today, and every slamming locker is deafening for her. Scott tells Lydia that they're doing tests on Stiles in the hospital all afternoon. He's going to visit Stiles around 6pm and asks if Lydia and me if we want to come. Lydia says she should just go home but I accept. She walks away, cringing at every sound.

At the hospital, the doctor that William Barrow stabbed is apparently fully recovered and supervising Stiles's MRI. He's stumped by the spelling of Stiles's actual first name. Sheriff tells the doctor to just call him Stiles. Doctor talks to Stiles about how the MRI works, saying that it'll be super loud and offers him some earplugs. Stiles says he doesn't need anything.

As Doctor, Sheriff, and Melissa walk into the observation room, Stiles tells me and Scott that they're looking for frontotemporal dementia.

Stiles : Areas of your brain start to shrink. It's what my mother had. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers. And there's no cure.

Scott wipes away tears, saying that if Stiles has it then they'll do something. Scott pulls him into a hug and Stiles starts to cry.
I

wipe a tear of my face and get out of the examination room while I can still hear what is going on inside.

Stiles slides into the MRI and the doctor warns him this will take up to an hour and he can't move even a little bit. The MRI noise starts up. It's the same one that Lydia heard at the hospital last night.

In the waiting room, me, Scott and Derek have a conversation about their various Intro to Lycanthropy lessons and how they've each taught each other something. Derek tells Scott that he took Cora back to South America, which is where she spent most of her time after the Hale fire. He also left so he could talk to his dead mother. Talia Hale told Derek something that changed his perspective on a lot of things: the Hales didn't just live in Beacon Hills; they protected it.

Beacon Hills still needs protection from someone like Scott.

Scott : And someone like you to teach me a few trade secrets?

Scott stands up with the sudden realisation that Stiles was trying to protect them from himself the other night. Scott, me and Derek return to the hospital roof. Scott thinks Stiles wasn't just up there struggling with himself; he was struggling not to do something. They find a duffel bag of tools and, above them, a partially-cut electrical wire with sparks still flying from it.

Doctor explains Stiles's MRI to Sheriff and Melissa. There is indication that tissue is already showing signs of atrophy-deterioration. Sheriff looks broken.

Stiles's P.O.V

I am still in the MRI, struggling not to move. I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them, I'm standing outside the MRI. The room is dark and hazy and the Nogitsune is back, asking if i have figured out his riddle.

NOGITSUNE: If you answer correctly, we might consider letting them go.

Stiles : Letting who go?

NOGITSUNE: Your friends. Your family. Everyone who ever meant something to you. We're going to destroy all of them, Stiles. One by one.

Tears stream down my face as i asks why. The Nogitsune repeats his riddle: everyone can have it but no one can lose it. What is it?

The Nogitsune repeats the riddle again and again, tearing his bandages off. Stiles finally realises the answer.

Stiles:It's a shadow.

I turn around as the Nogitsune takes off the last of his facial bandages, revealing himself to be me

In the MRI, i wake up, looking evil. Looking like a Nogitsune. The light in the MRI and the observation room cut out. When the lights come back on, Sheriff sees that i was no longer in the MRI.

Hope 's P.O.V

Up on the roof, the electrical wire suddenly explodes, spraying sparks everywhere and arcing wildly towards the edge of the roof.
I cast a spell to control it but I fail.

Void Stiles' s P.O.V

I seem to have taken over Stiles's body now. I'm in a hospital room, pulling on my shoes. I walk out into the hallway and see Mrs Yukimura emerging from the elevator.

Mrs Yukimura asks me if i know who she is. I nod.

Mrs Yukimura: Then you remember that I won't be deterred by your choice of host, even if it's an innocent boy.

Void Stiles : Are you threatening us?

Two Oni materialise behind Mrs Yukimura.

Mrs Yukimura: Now I'm threatening you.

Void Stiles: I'm not afraid of your 'little fireflies'.

I start to walk away and Mrs Yukimura tells him that if the Oni can't defeat him then she knows someone who will. I smile slightly.

Hope's P.O.V

Outside, Kira watches as the severed electrical cable flies off the roof and straight at her face.

Hope:Watch out!