Author's Note: Just a quick note that this is a collab story in which I (my personal account name is IrisCandy) write Stiles' perspective. Lydia's perspective is written by misfitwolves. I hope you enjoy!

"Can someone remind me again why this is even in the school curriculum?" Stiles asked.

They were standing in the mouth of a cave, breathing heavy from their climb up the small mountain. They stared into its dark depths with various expressions of dread and disgust, watching as their classmates made their way inside cheerfully.

"It's not. It was Ms. Blake's idea," Allison replied, standing next to Scott with twitchy fingers. Stiles knew it was taking her every shred of willpower she had not to grab his hand, and he wanted to roll his eyes at the sight. Why they didn't just start dating again was beyond him.

"What a treat," Isaac said, moving ahead. He was significantly more irritable and sardonic ever since Boyd's death and Stiles felt a pang of sympathy for him. He was quite familiar with the tactic of glazing over painful emotions with sarcasm.

"You know, I'm still trying to digest the fact that she and Derek have a thing," Stiles said, melding his fingers together as if to represent the thing in question.

"No, I can see it," Lydia piped up from beside him. Everybody turned their heads toward her with skeptical looks.

"What?" she asked defensively, crossing her arms. "She's bland and boring - judging by her wardrobe and career choice - and Derek has no personality whatsoever. They're perfect for each other."

Maybe she had a point. But Stiles was a little too caught up with her feet to really consider it.

"Lydia, why are you wearing heels?" Stiles asked, but Lydia just raised an eyebrow, confused.

Stiles sighed dramatically, splaying his hands out in case she didn't notice the huge cave opening in front of them. "We're going caving. It's going to be dark. And wet. And slippery. Not to mention disgusting-"

"Yes, Stiles, I know what I'm doing. Thank you for your concern, but I'd rather drop dead than get caught wearing flats," Lydia said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and making her way into the cave behind Isaac.

Stiles followed them grudgingly. He, Allison and Scott were already too far away from the rest of their class - not that they cared.

They entered the vast cave and were immediately surrounded by the smell of petrichor and an uncomfortable humidity. Stiles craned his neck to look up, and saw only a boring cave ceiling with a few icicle-like rocks hanging above them. Rockcicles.

He smiled at his pun but his face fell when he grazed his hand along the cave wall, and saw how easily the rocks and dirt gave way beneath his touch. If there were an earthquake right now, those rocky knives on the ceiling would come crashing down and impale them all.

Funny how death was a constant thought in his mind since the night his best friend had been bitten.

They hung back from their classmates and heard the tour guide's muffled voice a few meters ahead. Stiles and his friends basically sighed and huffed their way through the cave for a full fifteen minutes before he saw it - a gleam in the darkness of the rocks.

His curiosity propelled him toward the cave wall where he saw a crevice large enough to shove his arm through right up to the elbow. There was something in there, sitting dormant deep inside the crack, and Stiles couldn't help his natural tendency to touch things he shouldn't.

"Stiles, what are you doing?" Lydia asked as Stiles kneeled down and reached into the crevice, his tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

"There's something-" he grunted, and now Allison, Scott and Isaac were all making their way toward him, standing around with crossed arms.

"It could bite you," Scott said flippantly.

"Good, maybe I'll become a werewolf too. Or some kind of reptile cave-dweller," Stiles said, reaching further and scrunching his face up with the effort.

Before anyone could respond to that, Stiles spoke up again. "I think..." he grunted and tried to shove his shoulder through the opening, his fingers grazing the object. Finally, he latched on to it and pulled himself out, leaning against the cave wall. "I got it."

"Was it worth it?" Lydia asked flatly when Stiles massaged his shoulder with a grimace.

"I'm not sure yet. Look at this thing," Stiles said, furrowing his brow as he examined it.

It was a rock sphere, about 4 inches in diameter. At first, Stiles was almost disappointed that maybe what he'd found was just an incredibly symmetrical rock, but he swore he saw it gleaming. That was what caught his eye, after all. At a certain amount of pressure from his fingers, Stiles was almost startled when the top half of the sphere moved, like there was a break in the middle that connected the halves together.

"What the hell?" Stiles asked, twisting the top half around and around when suddenly, engravings made themselves visible on the bottom half.

"Those were not there before," Allison said.

"What does it say?" Isaac asked, moving closer.

"It's in another language," Stiles said as he got up from the cave floor. The letters were crammed together, filling the entire bottom half with writing that seemed to be glowing. The glow was a dim green color, like it was only a trick of the light on the rock's surface.

"Give it to me," Lydia said, gesturing impatiently for the rock, but Stiles hugged it to himself indignantly.

"Are you the one who stuck your arm in the dark and creepy hole to get this thing? No, I don't think so," Stiles said.

"Are you the one who knows twelve languages?" Lydia said in a dangerously low voice.

Stiles eyebrows shot up, and he looked around at the others to see if they were as shocked as he was. "Twelve- twelve languages? Lydia-"

"Would you just give it to me?" she snapped, holding out her hand again. Stiles reluctantly obliged, but the moment it left his hands, the engravings disappeared.

Everybody paused, looking at the rock with wary confusion.

"What the..." Isaac said slowly.

"Look, maybe we shouldn't be playing with it," Allison suggested.

"What if it's like..." Stiles flailed his hands wildly, trying to find the word. "Bewitched, or something."

"Bewitched," Lydia said flatly.

"Yes! Like the cursed object that everyone's always after in stories and fairytales," Stiles said.

"Or maybe some kid dropped their toy last time they came on one of these pathetic tours," Lydia said, and she slapped the sphere back in Stiles' hands.

"You've dated a lizard and are standing right next to two werewolves and you won't believe that just maybe this thing is-"

"Stiles," Scott interrupted him. There was awe in his tone.

Stiles looked over at him and saw that he, Isaac and Allison were all staring down at the rock in Stiles' hands with wide eyes.

The engravings had reappeared the moment it touched his flesh.

"Okay, seriously-" Stiles said, and he put the sphere on the ground in front of him where the engravings disappeared the moment it touched the ground. "Oh my God."

"So what, does it have some kind of connection to you?" Allison asked.

"No! No, don't say that. Bad things happen when you say things like that," Stiles said.

"Maybe it's only doing that because you touched it first," Scott suggested.

"What if it's latched on to me or something-"

"Stiles, calm down. It's a rock. Now could you please hold it up so I can see it?" Lydia said, and Stiles picked up the rock again with a bit of a grimace on his face.

Lydia narrowed her eyes in concentration as she scrutinized the sphere; a look that Stiles had always thought was extremely adorable on her.

"It's ancient Greek," Lydia commented.

"Well, how are we supposed to read ancient Greek?" Stiles asked.

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him before looking back at the rock and all Stiles could think was no way.

But yes, of course Lydia Martin could read ancient Greek. She spoke slowly as she translated. "We are but the children of darkness and evil, we make people do the most regrettable deal. Let us introduce ourselves to you...so you'll know who is who."

There was a pregnant pause amongst them as they all let that sink in.

"Well that sounds substantially creepy," Stiles said.

"That's not all," Lydia said, but Isaac stopped her before she could speak again.

"We can't. Not here. Ms Blake is starting to freak out over missing kids," Isaac said, tuning into his werewolf hearing.

"Let's go," Scott said, tugging at Stiles' backpack. Stiles twisted the top of the rock again and the engravings disappeared. He shoved it in his bag and they began running deeper into the cave before someone did something drastic like ask the class to buddy up and call the police.

Stiles had a sinking feeling in his stomach. It's a rock, Lydia had said. But Stiles knew that for once in her life, Lydia was wrong. He knew it wasn't just a rock, and that had nothing to do with his heightened sense of paranoia. This was supernatural and they all knew it. He wanted to forget what Allison had said about his connection with it, because she was probably right about that and what did that even mean? Just because he touched the stupid thing didn't mean it was going to latch on to his soul forever and ever.

Or worse.