He walked down the rows of the church with his head tilted to the side, an odd, birdlike gesture that immediately made Derek uncomfortable, though he couldn't pinpoint just why, not with the stabbing feeling in his arm. Through the almost blinding pain, he couldn't make out the details of Stiles' face, but it didn't matter, he knew every feature. Every freckle.
And something was wrong. So, so wrong.
Derek didn't miss the way Stiles ran his thin, spider-like fingertips along the mahogany pews that lined the aisle. He didn't miss the way Stiles walked, a smooth, light step, so unlike his usual awkward shuffle. His shoulders weren't rounded forwards anymore, and the cloak of self consciousness had disappeared. It unsettled him, because it was so inherently wrong.
But the thing that unsettled Derek most of all, the thing that made him suddenly swallow down the fear in his throat, the fear that almost made him retch, was the wide grin on Stiles' face. A grin that was all teeth and sharp cheekbones, skin stretched tight across a pale face. And as Stiles drew nearer, still trailing his fingertips in an almost merry way, dancing them along the wooden pews, still walking with that quick, lithe gait, he realised that something was horribly wrong.
His skin, already burning from the poison in his leg, began to crawl. His burning flesh was making him shudder as he tried to scramble backwards, realising far too late that whoever was in front of him was not Stiles. "No, no….no…" His rough, hoarse whispers trailed off as it approached, only feet away now.
As his hands frantically reached behind him, clutching at the velvet carpet with desperate, yet weak hands, he dragged himself backward until he hit the wooden panel that covered the walls of the church. His arms shook from the effort, his already uneven breathing drew worse as fear set in, yet he slammed his back up against the wall, desperately trying to heave himself up, his short, heavy breaths letting the creature know just how weak he was. He managed to lift his torso slightly before his arms collapsed under him, and he lay back against the wall, his shredded legs laid out before him, his strength gone.
It came to a stop just inches from him.
Derek strained his neck up, trying to look into it's face, but he was truly weak now, and his head fell down, resting on his bloody chest while he struggled to breathe. He let his eyes flutter close, too weak to keep them open.
It didn't matter. The creature crouched down before him, resting its elbows on denim clad knees before grasping Derek's chin and forcing his face upwards. The fear that had abated due to the pain and exhaustion came flooding back, his terror spiking as he felt the creatures flesh touch his. Stiles, or whatever possessed him, was freezing cold, his hands like ice. It pierced through him.
And suddenly his eyes were open, only inches away from the demons, whose own eyes were all black. It was like looking into the abyss, so empty and devoid of light. The blackness had swallowed his eyes whole and left nothing there, no hint of the amber brown irises that had previously been there. Something deep inside Derek ached at that, the loss of those warm eyes.
But there was no time for thoughts like that, not when he was dying. Not like this. So painful was it, that it felt as though his very flesh was on fire, but still not as painful as Stiles' death. That burned inside him too, and he was trying so hard not to let him think of that, focussing on the physical pain. Anything to keep that away.
His hands bunched into fists at his sides, weak though they were, and he managed to spit the words out.
"What…are….you?" It hurt him to talk, and the effort made his throat feel as though he had swallowed a dozen razors, the rough pain making him bite down on his lip. It didn't matter though, he could struggle through this nightmarish haze all he wanted, he was still dying. And if the wounds the other Alphas had inflicted on him didn't kill him, he was pretty sure the creature would.
He always knew that somehow Stiles would be the death of him.