Ch. 37 Neurasthenia

——— Wednesday Morning:

When Myrddin left the stump's clearing he found himself in the part of the Preserve that is relatively close to his house.

It was early morning by the time he got inside his room. He didn't bother trying to get sleep and took a long shower as he tried to move past what he had just done. And he isn't even sure the women would have been able to be healed with how little mana he had and how little he knew about his new spell.

But should he have at least tried harder?

How much could he have healed them? Their bodies were so damaged that one of the women was basically a pile of flesh, barely kept alive to be used as an incubator.

Would they even want to live after what they went through?

He barely had enough mana to end their suffering and set the cave ablaze. He also would have had to wait for the goblins they were carrying in their wombs to be born and he would have to kill them as well.

The hot water runs over his face as his mind races. He doesn't regret his actions, but he keeps wondering all the 'what if?' scenarios.

The only good thing that came out of the whole endeavor is the knowledge he gained. He now has a spell and an incantation to heal someone. He learned some more information about the restrictions 'Punctum' has. His new way of seeing the world with 'Ventus Aspectu'. There's also the fact that 'Transmutare' is very effective. It had a long duration, at leas longer than he thought.

Another thing he's interested in is the voice. It hasn't spoken in anything but Latin. Yet, it's still just as random as ever. But it did give a bit of useful information. It basically said it responded to his desire. Like when he wanted to heal the girls. And it also showed that it had some form of sentience or personality of some sort. But it's not like it responds to him when he tries to talk with it.

He turns the water completely off. Getting out he dries off and goes to his room to get dressed.

——————

Myrddin makes his way to his car when:

"Arf! Arf!"

He turns around and sees the fluff ball that could haunt your nightmares if you hold it certain ways. Crouching down onto one knee he expressionlessly puts his hand on its head as it jumps and puts its front paws on his knee and jumps around.

"What the hell Prada?!" A certain strawberry blond comes running down the sidewalk in a skirt and tshirt.

She stops her slow run in heels when she sees her dog has yet again ran to Myrddin Wyllt. "If I didn't know any better I'd say Prada wants you more than me"

"It's a good thing you know better then" Myrddin grabs the dog and picks it up while walking over to Lydia. He tries to act normal, or as close to it as he currently can.

"What's gotten into you?" Lydia looks at Myrddin and he seems… off.

He holds the dog out. Prada is facing Lydia, but it turns its head around and looks straight at Myrddin with its tongue slightly out. "Just had a rough night"

Lydia takes her dog. "I've had rough, ridiculously rough, nights before. You look…"

"I think I would appreciate it if you didn't finish that" Myrddin rubs his eyes with his right hand. "So your mom left the gate open again?"

Lydia holds her little fluffy companion in her left arm while her right hand rests on her hip. "It certainly seems that way. At this point I think it might just be broken or something"

Myrddin takes his car keys from his pocket. "That's unfortunate… I'll see you later Lydia"

As Myrddin goes to get in his car he feels her pull on his sleeve. "Do you think you can actually give me a ride this morning? I'd rather not have to ride with my mom to school"

"What about Jackson?" Myrddin knows the guy's shoulder is injured but he should still be able to drive.

Lydia lets his sleeve go. She spins some of her hair around her index finger. "His mom is driving him. She doesn't want her 'baby boy' to risk hurting himself again before the first game of the season. I think she just wants this as an excuse to spend some more time with him"

"Does she know how serious this injury is? If she's as protective as you're making her sound then I doubt she would even let him risk playing in the game Saturday" Myrddin looks over his shoulder at the girl.

Lydia shrugs. "I don't know that much. I only know what Jackson has told me"

Myrddin shakes his head. He doesn't know why he asked, he really is out of it. "Sure, I'll be waiting outside your house"

He gets in his car and rests his head back against the headrest. He looks over when he hears the passenger door open and sees Lydia getting in the passenger seat. He just looks at her and she smiles at him.

"What? You were going to make me walk all the way back to my house in heels?" Lydia questions.

"Haaah. I would never make a lady walk" Myrddin rolls his eyes as he starts his car and backs out of the driveway. It's not like she just ran after her dog in heels or anything.

Nothing is said as they drive the relatively short distance down the long street. The few minutes walk is shortened greatly by driving.

Lydia smiles at Myrddin as she gets out in front of her house. "I'll only be a few minutes~"

Myrddin watches as she sashays back to her house. Her skirt being teasingly short. He closes his eyes for a brief moment as he tries to get rid of the mutilated bodies he had seen the night before.

Not being able to sit still and be left alone with his thoughts he steps out of his car and makes his way over to the gate connecting Lydia's back yard and front yard.

It's your typical gate. And nothing seems to be wrong with it. He checks for any 4-toed footprints and doesn't see any. He doubts the goblins would have bothered playing pranks. And while unlikely, they might have been able to find a way to open the gate. The latch is at least 5 feet off the ground. And the secondary is at least 6 feet off the ground. So it probably wasn't the goblins spending months bothering Lydia.

Pushing on the gate it barely budges, not even hinting at accidentally opening. It's not some fancy automatic or electrical gate that might be opened by a button or remote. He looks in Lydia's backyard, the flowers near the house specifically.

Wolfsbane.

Tucked in the center of a bunch of bright flowers. It's short compared to the other flowers trying to hide it, but it's very distinct to Myrddin now after he saw it the previous night.

"What do you think you're doing? This is- Myrddin?"

He turns around and sees Ms. Martin standing with her hands on her hips. "Ms. Martin?" He knew she was still home but wasn't expecting her to catch him here. He didn't even notice her being so close.

"Don't act all surprised. I live here, now why are you here? Did Lydia ask you to drive her to school?" She guesses, knowing her daughter would rather be caught dead than caught showing up to school with her mom.

"She did" Myrddin nods.

Natalie, Lydia's mother's first name, looks at Myrddin's face. "You don't look so good. Are you coming down with something?"

"I don't think so. Just a rough night" Myrddin turns towards the gate. "Lydia tells me that you keep leaving the gate open, or she's starting to think it's opening on its own…"

"This again?" Natalie shakes her head. "I told her I use the garage door to get inside. I hardly use the front or back door to get into the house. I even had the second latch added on like a month ago. I thought the second latch fixed the problem…"

"I'm not too sure…" Myrddin looks at the gate but doesn't see anything obviously wrong with it.

"Maybe I'll have to put a camera over here too…" Natalie mutters to herself.

Myrddin faces the student counselor. "You have cameras already?"

Natalie gives a small smile. "Not really. They're old and most of the time they don't even work"

He doesn't respond as he slowly starts to get this ominous feeling.

"Well, thanks for driving Lydia. And for being friends with her. She can be a bit much, but she means well. If you need to talk to someone, I am a counselor and I am forced to keep what you tell me confidential" Ms. Martin waves. "And try not to make it a habit of snooping around peoples backyards"

Myrddin slightly slumps his shoulders. "I won't….."

——————

He sits in his car for 15 minutes after Ms. Martin left as he waits for Lydia. With nothing better to do, he does some research about goblins, in the private tab of his phone.

There isn't much that helps him. Just tons of random and generic information. But nothing that helps him. And even if some of it is actually helpful, how would he know?

The goblin is just a piece of fiction to everyone else.

The passenger door opens and a scent of citrus wafts through his car as Lydia gets in.

"Ready~?" Lydia asks while she sets her bag on her lap.

Myrddin starts his car and puts his phone in the cup holder. "Have been since I dropped you off"

"What we're you doing in here on your phone? You know it's a crime to take photos of someone without their permission while they're on their own property?" Lydia decides to tease him slightly.

"I don't need to take photos of you Lydia, what purpose would that serve?" Myrddin begins the drive towards school.

Lydia half-shrugs. "Oh I don't know. You are a teenager as well, so I might have a few ideas… Unless you have the 3 girls' phone numbers and get sent some better pictures?"

Myrddin sighs heavily. "And so what if I do? Is that magically going to make you stop trying to tease me?"

Lydia raises her brow. "Mmmm~, noooo~"

"Exactly" Myrddin focuses on driving. His right hand on the steering wheel while his left hand is on his forehead with the elbow on the open window.

It's quiet for about a minute before Lydia opens her mouth again. It's longer than Myrddin expected.

"Did you know they implemented a curfew yesterday?" Lydia says with some annoyance.

"They did?" Myrddin really doesn't like that.

"Yep! 9:30pm, townwide" Lydia says in her usual fake tone.

"Great~" Myrddin groans. Now his limited time is even more limited, and this time by law.

"Oh!" Lydia suddenly says and looks at Myrddin's bright green eyes as she narrows her darker green eyes. "Why didn't you want to tag along after the game Saturday?"

"Are you seriously asking why I don't want to 5th wheel on the double date?" Myrddin doesn't look away from the road but he can imagine Lydia's expression.

"You wouldn't be 5th wheeling alone, for some reason Allison invited Scott's shadow along as well" Lydia audibly rolls her eyes.

"That shadow has a name you know" Myrddin can't tell if Lydia really doesn't know Stiles or not. It wouldn't surprise him either way.

"I know. It would be weird for a person to not have a name. And I saw him at the hospital yesterday I think. But I don't really remember" Lydia takes out a hand mirror while apolitical g some lipstick.

"You were at the hospital?" Myrddin offhandedly says while he is reminded of Scott, the werewolf corpse sniffer.

"Yeah, Jackson got a shot. I was his 'emotional support' yesterday" Lydia emphasizes the support.

"Right. Emotional" Myrddin takes a left and can practically see the school. Not really, but he wishes he could. If only to end the conversation.

"I can take care of him emotionally. Don't all men like it when-" Lydia gets cut off by Myrddin.

"Yes. If you were going to say what I think you were going to say. Yes. But Lydia, I am still a guy. And I don't particularly like talking about this kind of thing with other guys. So why would I like talking about this type of thing with a beautiful girl like you? And remember the part where I'm not feeling all that great?" Myrddin hopes to distract her from this topic with a compliment and an excuse.

After what he saw last night he really doesn't want to think about anything sex related.

Lydia grins. "If you aren't feeling good then it's all the more reason for me to-"

"Friends. That's all we are, if you could even call it that. There are no benefits. I don't gain anything but a headache when you put this fake act on Lydia. I can tolerate it normally but when you make comments like this…" Myrddin rubs his forehead as he rolls to a stop at the light before his school.

"So we're friends?" Lydia drops most of her pretentious act.

"If you could even call it that" Myrddin repeats himself.

Lydia taps her fingers on her bag. "I might be able to call our relationship a lot of things. Friends being among them"

Myrddin takes a slow and deep breath in. "Then how about we both start acting like it. Look, this is basically the longest I've stayed in one place. I expected to have moved during the summer or something. But it looks like I'll be staying here for the near future. I don't dislike you, but the way you lower yourself down to others' level was, is, annoying. I know I'm not perfect either so I'll agree to disagree with your choice there"

Lydia definitely was not expecting something like this. When the car starts moving again a few seconds later she responds. "Sure…. and since you brought up my fault. I'll bring up yours, friend. You shouldn't act distant or like you are smarter than everyone. Or that you know something nobody else knows. Nobody likes that type of person, why do you think I act the way I do?" She takes a breath and looks at the school while Myrddin pulls into a parking spot. "Why do you want to be friends so suddenly?"

"Because… Believe it or not, it something happened to you… I would… be upset…" He can only imagine if it was someone he actually knew in that cave instead of someone random.

"Where do you usually eat lunch?" Lydia abruptly asks.

Myrddin parks and rubs his eyes again. An even worse image in his mind. And the thought of other creatures and monsters being out there causing a massive headache. "Somewhere private"

"Come eat lunch with us once in a while. I'm sure Allison and Danny will like having someone else to talk to for a change. Just ignore the glare that Jackson will give you" Lydia offers the invitation. "And you should come Saturday, it might be fun"

"I'll think about it" Myrddin says before he feels something small land on his lap. He looks down and sees a single Tylenol packet on his lap. Looking over at Lydia he sees her get out and lean down to look at him.

"I get headaches very often. See you at lunch?" Lydia asks.

"Sure…" Myrddin grabs the packet and takes the pill. But he doubts it will help if his healing isn't able to fix it. But who knows, maybe the placebo will help.

Lydia brightly smiles. "Great~! I'll save you a seat, friend" She closes the door and goes off towards the school.

"Ughhhhhh~" Myrddin groans. He has to think. If he joins the Hunters he will learn a lot and be able to protect his family better. But if they really are trying to hunt any supernatural…. would they hunt him if they find out he can use magic?

If werewolves are basically humans turned into a monster… what other types of human monsters are out there? Vampires? Mermaids? Are they all bad because they're something different than humans?

They're all dangerous, but do they all mean harm?

Scott is a werewolf but he's too nice of a guy…. But he did hurt Jackson. What if he ends up killing someone's on a full moon? Is he too dangerous to be left alive?

Can the alpha force Scott to do things against his will?

There are too many things for him to think about right now. He gets out of his car and grabs his backpack.

He just wants to get through school and lacrosse. And find a way to move past this fast enough before something bad happens while he tries to cope with what he did.