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His phone buzzed on his bedside locker, jarring him from his restless sleep, and immediately he knew something was wrong. He could count on both hands the number of people who had his number and none of them would be ringing him in the middle of the night unless something had happened. He quickly reached for his phone, his breath catching in his throat as he registered the name flashing across his screen.
“Stiles?” the name tumbled out of his mouth in a rush as he sat up in bed, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“Derek?” came the reply and the relief was palpable in Stiles’ voice. “Oh thank god you know who I am! Everyone’s forgetting everything Derek and I don’t know what to do and I think I’m next and-“
“Stiles!” Derek cut across his frantic babbling, frowning as he listened to his rapid breathing on the other end of the line. “Take a deep breath and explain. What’s going on?”
He heard Stiles suck in a deep breath on the other side and exhale shakily. “Right, you’re right, sorry. There are these guys on horses, we think they’re called the wild hunt-“
Derek froze, gripping his phone tightly. “Did you say the wild hunt?” he interrupted quickly.
“Yeah, you’ve heard of them?”
“I’ve heard stories about them,” he responded, “But I always thought they were more of a myth than anything else.”
“No, nope, definitely not a myth. They’ve been taking people, erasing them from existence.” Derek could hear the fear in his voice as he spoke again, “And I think they’re coming for me.”
Derek’s stomach lurched and for a moment he forgot how to breath. “You?” He managed to choke out, clenching his left hand to his chest in an effort to stop it from shaking. “Are you sure?”
“Liam, Hayden, Mason, Scott, they’ve all forgotten who I am.” Derek felt his heart sink as Stiles spoke. “Even…..” Derek heard him barely contain a sob on the other end, “Even my dad doesn’t recognise me Derek.”
Derek thought of Stiles’ mother and her dementia, of her not recognising her own son. He closed his eyes and swallowed painfully.
“Stay where you are,” he demanded, opening his eyes and grabbing his pile of clothes from yesterday off of the floor. “I’m coming to get you.”
“Coming to get me?” Stiles repeated, sounding slightly hysterical. “Don’t tell me you’ve just been hiding out in the loft for the past six months.”
He smiled slightly. “Unfortunately no. But I’m…..I’m close by,” he lied.
He threw on his clothes and grabbed his keys off his dresser. “Where are you now? Are you somewhere safe?”
Stiles sighed. “I don’t think there is anywhere that’s safe from them.”
“I’m in a classroom in the school,” he continued as Derek started the car, the engine roaring to life. He eased the car out of the driveway and focused on Stiles’ voice in his ear.
Stiles was silent for a moment and suddenly Derek was unsure of what to say. He thought of the hasty note he left for Scott, explaining why he had to leave. He’d never even said anything to Stiles.
“I’m sorry,” Stiles blurted out, surprising Derek. “I should never have rang. I know you left to get away from all of this.”
“Stiles, no,” he responded, a little more forcefully than he meant to. “You can always ring if there’s a problem. Any of the pack can. I’ll always come back to help.”
“Ya, well I know that now,” he responded drily and Derek rolled his eyes even as a smile tugged at his lips.
They were silent again and Derek concentrated on the road, glancing at the current speed he was travelling at and the number of hours it was going to take him.
“When you left,” Stiles started again, sounding hesitant, “Were you thinking of coming back? Or is it-is it for good?”
Derek took a moment to reply, listening to Stiles’ nervous breathing in his ear.
“I’m not sure,” he responded carefully. “Scott seems to be doing a good enough job leading the pack now.”
Stiles sighed, “That’s not-“ there was a sudden silence and Derek took his eyes off the road for a moment just to check if he had accidently hung up.
“Stiles?” A sudden sound, like leaves blowing, filled his ears. He frowned, “I thought you said you were inside?”
“They’re here,” Stiles whispered and Derek felt his insides go cold.
“Get out of there Stiles!” he responded quickly, voice rising with each word. He heard the thud of Stiles’ footsteps, matching his own frantically beating heart. He pressed down firmly on the accelerator, willing the car to go faster.
He heard Stiles come to a sudden halt, panting loudly into the phone. “Why have you stopped!?” Derek yelled, gripping the steering wheel so tightly he feared he might crush it.
“Derek,” Stiles said softly and his heart sank at the resolution in Stiles’ voice.
“Stiles no!” he shouted, ignoring the blatant fear in his voice.
“They’re surrounding me and everyone has forgotten who I am.”
“I haven’t!”
“But you will,” Stiles whispered sadly.
He felt a cold sweat break out across his brow as his breathing quickened. “Stiles, please, listen to me. We’ll figure something out ok? We always figure it out.”
“Derek,” Stiles said, and he could hear the tears in Stiles’ voice. “I’m glad you were the last person I got to talk to.”
He heard Stiles’ phone clatter to the ground and the sound of footfalls was instantly muffled. He could also hear yelling and it wasn’t until there was silence on the other side of the line that he dimly registered it was him.
Pulling sharply onto the side of the road, he came to a halt, his breath coming in sharp gasps. He remained still for a moment before throwing back his head and howling, the agonising sound reverberating around him.
Afterwards, he set off driving again in the direction of Beacon Hills and began to formulate a plan. He went through the logistics, researching the wild hunt, rounding up the pack and convincing them that Stiles exists. But, mostly he thought about Stiles, terrified that at any moment, he would forget about him too. He thought about everything that made up Stiles, his sarcasm, his moles, his willingness to do anything to save the pack, and tried not to dwell on the meaning behind him being the only one to still remember Stiles.
He pulled into Beacon Hills just as the sun began to rise, the sky blue and the birds chirping, as if nothing terrible had just happened a couple of hours previously. He headed straight for Scott’s and pounded on the door, ignoring the strange look he got from the neighbour leaving her house.
A tired looking Scott wearing only pyjama bottoms yanked open the door, a look of surprise crossing his face at the sight of Derek, “What are you doing back?”
He opened his mouth to explain but paused, frowning. Annoyed, he glanced around, thinking, only to settle back on Scott’s expectant face. He couldn’t remember.