CHAPTER 205

To say the atmosphere in the Argents house was tense was grossly understating it. It was toxic and combustible and all that remained for it to become a supernatural shootout was for one party to unknowingly spark a nonexistent fuse.

Deaton obviously noticed the tension and given that Allison had been the one he had administered the lichen to, as well as the sudden tension between the Argents and the young twin Alpha couple, he could more or less put together what had happened during his absence.

Chris, though with his own complicated thoughts towards the two, stood in front of Allison's room barring Tristan and Malia's entry.

The door to her room was wide open with Deaton and Victoria inside, attending to Allison who sat on her bed with a conflicted look on her face.

"Dad, mom, it's alright. They can come in." Allison said hesitantly and snuck a quick glance at Tristan to gauge his reaction but the boy was stoically staring at her stern-faced father.

"Sweety—" Her mom started with a disapproving frown but Allison interjected her.

"— it's alright, I promise. I doubt they'd have come civilly through the front door if they wanted to kill me." Her voice was soft, frail and uncertain even, a wild difference from the Allison they were all used to.

Chris looked pointedly at Allison who could only return a wry smile, before looking at his wife and nodding at both her and Deaton.

"Go on, but the door stays open." Chris ordered. Malia nodded while Tristan responded. "No problem."

Malia stepped inside the room but Tristan remained outside to ask Chris if they could talk, to which Chris grunted and led them to the other end of the hall, not putting his daughter's room door out of his sight.

"You wanted to talk. Talk." Chris said coldly, his tone telling that whatever familiarity he had with the boy in front of him was lost.

Tristan also didn't beat around the bush and told Chris what he wanted to tell him.

"I'm sorry for how I acted." He apologized, surprising Chris who never expected that someone with his character would apologize.

"You should understand that Malia is my warm blood, the very thought of her being in danger is enough to set me off and being forced to choose between her and anyone else… I'm sure you understand why my choice would never change."

Chris gave him a mild harsh stare, not caring much for the boy's thoughts or the situation he was put in, not for any other reason but for the sole fact that he understood just like Tristan said.

Just like Tristan couldn't sympathize with any other person because the woman he loved was in danger, so also could Chris not sympathize with him because his daughter was in danger.

"So what? You expect me to just conveniently forget that you threatened to kill both me and my wife, and Allison as well?"

"No, I don't. I just want to apologize is all – not for any reason or for any feelings of regret – I just wanted to apologize because I honestly don't see myself acting any other way if something like this happens again."

"Hmm." That was the only reply Chris gave before he turned around to leave, going back to hover near Allison's door.

…..

In Allison's room, after Chris and Tristan just left, both girls sat awkwardly on the far edges of the bed away from each other, neither knowing what to say or if they should wait for the other to say something first.

In the end, Allison's guilt and fear won over her so oppressively that it was all she could do to bow her head in apology and apologize to Malia with quivering lips.

The memories, the illusions, her irate mental stability – everything worked against her. It didn't matter whether she was possessed or not, at least to her, because she remembered everything very clearly. Even the sensations of cutting up Boyd was vividly fresh in her mind and flesh.

"I didn't mean to—"

"Fucking hell, it's alright Allison! I wasn't even mad at you at all, truth. I know it wasn't you, so just stop apologizing already." She said loudly, clearly very uncomfortable in the position Allison's apology was putting her, and muttered softly under her breath. "Makes it a bit hypocritical when I think about how I treated Scott when he was possessed."

Allison looked as if a huge load of worry was lifted from her when she heard what Malia said and jumped on the girl causing both of them to burst out in snickering fits and happy giggles.

They both cuddled under the blanket, narrating to the other what happened to them in soft whispers.

"What happened between the both of you when Tristan rescued you? His emotions have been a little upbeat since that day." Malia whispered curiously, staring at Allison in joking suspicion.

Allison recoiled startled and immediately tried to play it off as an exaggerated action but Malia had very acutely caught the spike in her panic and a very faint stench of dread that came and left as if it was never there.

"It was… a little— very harsh. I was. To him." To further throw Malia off, Allison then proceeded to tell her what happened in the illusion, taking care not to mention anything about the heart strings that were mercilessly pulled out and snapped.

"Okay, now I want to know what really happened. Don't look at me like that, you think I don't know that you are obviously skipping over something very important?" Malia laid straight on her side and narrowed her eyes at Allison.

Allison gulped nervously. While Tristan didn't give any sentiments to her feelings, that mattered little to Malia as the problem here, and the only one Malia would care about, was that she did HAVE feelings for Tristan.

"Allison, you're getting more nervous and it's making me feel very uncomfortable. Just what happened between you two when he was inside your head?" Malia was now very curious and though she knew she could just ask Tristan and he'd spill out everything she wanted to hear, she wanted to hear it from Allison. Sometimes perspective did matter.

Allison slowly shook her head with a wry smile. "How about I tell you tomorrow, or better yet when we get that fox out of me?"

"Hell no. It's something very important to both me and you if you're going this far to remain quiet, so naturally I want to know now."

"Malia, please! Just do me this favor and I promise I'll tell you everything without any lie. Give me a few more days at least." Allison pleaded. If it was any other time and she was confronted by Malia like this, she probably would have spilled, except that she couldn't right now when tensions between her family and her friends were sky high and the last thing she needed was Malia blowing a gasket.

"What?" Malia pushed down the blanket in annoyance and paused when she saw Tristan by the door. "Great, you're already here. Why's she being so tightlipped?"

Allison threw away the blanket in panic when she heard Tristan was in the room.

She looked between the two of them, eyes pleading when they met Tristan's.

"You still don't get it? Honestly it's not a big deal, so I don't get why you're reacting so loudly." Hearing Tristan say that so nonchalantly, Allison didn't know how to feel about it.

Thankful that he could convince Malia that it wasn't that big of a deal, or hurt by how nonchalantly he brushed aside her feelings – with complete disregard.

"Arghh! Can either of you be straightforward for once?" Malia grumbled in annoyance. She looked between the two of them, trying to figure out what it was that made Tristan make it sound so obvious.

"Malia, come on, seriously. Fine, I'll tell you tomorrow. There! Can you finally let it rest?" Allison spoke, sounding a little bit annoyed at Malia's forceful insistence.

"Probably better to let her know right now, right here, than let her figure it out when we leave. Or worse, makes me tell her."

Allison wanted to say something but held herself, her feelings for Tristan were very complicated right now which was why Tristan never entered her room and just stayed by the door.

Malia's eyes squinted at Allison's weird behavior at Tristan's words. Not to mention the murky mess that was her current emotions.

She could feel she was getting really close to the answer and had a feeling that she definitely wouldn't like it which was evident by the frown that was slowly covering her face.

She looked at Allison and was turning to look at Tristan when her head suddenly snapped back to Allison with her eyes widening like saucers before it started dimming like a low lamp, gradually losing all its light until all that remained was a dark glow in her eyes.

"How?.... Why?!" She asked, feeling so lost and confused.

Allison gave a deprecating wry smile to Malia's question. "What kind of answer do you expect me to give to such a question?"

The pair of best friends stared at each other, one looking confused while the other looked hurt.

For Malia, it came so abruptly and unexpectedly that it left her too stunned to express any other emotion.

For Allison… as if the illusion wasn't mocking enough, she was cornered to fess up in the presence of her best friend and the object of her feelings in a setting where neither of them could not – most definitely would not – share any positive sentiment regarding her feelings. She could very well lose both of her best friends in a single day — as if the nightmares weren't enough.

Glancing absentmindedly at Tristan, Allison briefly wondered how great it would have been if she could be as nonchalant as he was.