A couple more steps. Just a couple more. Lacy held her breath and looked through the peephole. She sighed with relief but also grew confused when she saw who was on the other side of the door. "Lydia?"
Lydia Martin's finger was in mid air, near the doorbell, when she opened the door. "Gosh, I thought you'd never answer," she exhaled and dropped her hand. Seeing the large kitchen knife in her hand, her eyes went wide. "Whoa."
"Lydia, what are you doing here?" Lacy questioned. She looked outside. "How did you get here?"
"Allison dropped me off."
"Allis–" she shook her head. "Never mind." Lacy stepped aside, allowing her to come inside. She quickly locked the door back. "Why are you here? It's late."
"I just. . ." Lydia began to say, standing there in awkwardness. "I needed someone to talk to."
"I thought you were studying at Scott's–"
"Yeah, that ended early." Her large green eyes trailed downward. "I'm sorry but can you, uh, possibly put the knife away?"
Lacy remembered the knife. "Sorry," she muttered and walked towards the kitchen. "My dad's at work and this is, uh, my first time sleeping alone." She explained and put the knife back into the drawer.
Lydia frowned. She placed her hands on the kitchen counter and eyed her wet hair, thinking she'd just gotten out of the shower.
"Do you, uh, want anything?" 
"No, I'm fine." She denied. Lydia slowly smiled. "Do you remember that one night when I slept over and the two of us snuck down here to eat the rest of that chocolate cake your dad had made?"
Lacy remembered and smiled. "Yeah, I do. Triple chocolate."
"Your favorite."
"He was so mad because he strictly said that he wanted the last piece."
The girls laughed. Lacy stared at the girl that used to come over to her house every day after school. The girl she'd have sleepovers with with Kayla and Daphne. The girl who had been avoiding her since she came back to school. "Why are you here, Lydia?" She asked again but softer:
Lydia's frown returned and she cheeked the inside of her cheek. Shuffling her feet on the hardwood floor, she sat down on the island. "Something happened tonight and it's, um. . .it's really freaking me out," she admitted.
"What happened?" Lacy sat down and leaned her arms again the counter.
"Have you noticed at all that Jackson's been acting kind of. . .off?"
"Just recently?" She asked, smiling a little.
Lydia rolled her eyes and tried not to smile. "Funny. But have you?"
Jackson Whittmore is the last person Lacy chooses to pay attention to, but she thinks about the conversation she overheard between him, Scott, and Stiles during Finstock's class. "Off? No, but, I remember him saying something about. . ." What was the word? "A, uh, I think he said kanima?"
Lydia's brows furrowed. "A what?"
"I-I-I don't know. I heard him talking about it with Scott and Stiles. They were acting weird today," she explained. Lacy's face twisted in the slightest. "What was up with everybody today in chemistry, anyway? It was like there was a full moon or something."
"Honestly? I have no idea either. None of them will tell me anything." Lydia huffed. She tapped her nails against the marble counter top. She gulped. "But tonight was even weirder. Jackson, he was acting like a crazy person. He started accusing me of all these things—"
"Accusing you?"
"—saying that I broke into his house and deleted a part of his video off his camera, so I gave him back his stupid house key and told him that I hate him. And then we started kissing—"
Lacy jerked her head back. "What?"
"But then somebody tried breaking into Scott's house so I hid. And then I come out to see that Jackson was gone, Derek had shown up with Boyd, Isaac, and Erica, and Allison took me home but I decided that I can't talk to anyone else besides you because—" Lydia cut herself off to catch her breath and they met eyes. "—because I've always been able to talk to you, Lacy, and I've been acting like too much if a bitch to realize it."
Lacy's eyes softened. "Lydia—"
"I'm sorry," Lydia's eyes watered. "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I should've been there for you this whole time. You don't deserve to be treated that way after everything you've been through."
"I know," she said quietly. Lacy's eyes flickered to the counter. "But it's okay. I'm not mad at you. . .I just miss the way things were before."
She flinched when Lydia hugged her. Her arms circled her neck tightly, almost giving her whiplash. Her body automatically recoiled at the contact.
"I've missed you so much, Lacy." Lydia cried.
When she closes her eyes, Lacy sees two girls in a bedroom covered in posters and magazine cutouts and different colored nail polish bottles scattered on a bed. Lip glosses, eyeshadows, clothes, perfumes — she sees herself braiding a waterfall of strawberry blonde hair and two girls pretending to be runway models in a sea of new clothes. Innocent girls in a world of their own, the world not set out to destroy them yet. Or maybe it did and they were too busy in their own world to realize it.
Lacy eyes Lydia's tear streaked face when she pulls away. "Lydia. . .why didn't you tell me that you went missing?" She asked the question that had plagued her mind.
Lydia's lips form a deep frown. She sat back down and wiped her face. "It's not the easiest thing to bring up." She mumbled.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
A sigh passed by her lips. "It was during homecoming. I was looking for Jackson, and I went to the lacrosse field. Then—" a look glazed in her eyes as she remembered. "–this maniac bit me and suddenly I wake up in the middle of the woods, completely naked."
Lacy's eyes widened. "Bit you? Like, a dog bite?"
Lydia shook her head. "No. It was like. . .I don't even know how to describe it, but, I woke up bleeding. I don't remember anything. I came back to school and everyone thinks I'm crazy."
Lacy's fallen fell. "You're not crazy," she spoke quietly. "People look at me, too. I wish they wouldn't. They don't know anything about what happened, only what the news says."
There was a sudden silence. Lydia blinked. "What did happen?"
Her stomach twisted painfully, so hard that she flinched. Lacy looked down at her hands, the skin around her fingers peeled.
Lydia understood. "Can I spend the night?"
Her head quickly shot up. Lacy saw a light smile. "Yeah," she answered in shock. "Yeah, of course you can."
They sat there for a while longer. The chains around her neck and wrists are gone. She's safe in her own home. But the on edge anxiety would never go away, at least not for now, and while Lydia wasn't looking, Lacy took back the knife and hid it underneath the bed, just in case.