Carnival of Rust
Prologue
Fanfiction by Rain1701
For all of his life, Stiles knew that the things that went bump in the night were real.
His mom had been very open with him when it came to this fact, bringing him along to weekly meetings with Talia Hale, the resident werewolf pack's Alpha, when he was old enough to understand. She said that it was important for them to keep in contact with fellow wolves. Stiles always laughed and told her that they weren't wolves, they just had wolves in their house. Claudia would only smile in return and agree with him wistfully.
Maria and Damon had been with Claudia since Stiles could remember. They were her constant companions, following her everywhere she went. John did not seem to mind, since they did the same whenever he was home from work. Maria had red-brown fur and blue eyes, while Damon had coal black fur and green eyes. Stiles loved them both,
The meetings with Talia were fun as well. Her children were slow to trust him, oftentimes not talking to Stiles. He eventually figured out to play by himself when the youngest, a girl around his age named Cora, warmed up to him. They would rough house normally, and Stiles more often than not lost when they did, but the two still had fun.
Claudia did not talk much about what she and Talia would be meeting about, just saying that it was two friends catching up on the past week and getting to be away from the children for a while.
When word that the fire happened, leaving the two eldest of the Hale children and their uncle alive, Stiles had only been ten. Maria and Damon curled around him before Claudia said the news that no one else survived the fire. Stiles immediately insisted on seeing Laura and Derek. He might not have been close to them, but he was still familiar. And he also had some of Cora's clothes from when she had slept over the last time.
Claudia let him go to the funeral. Stiles made sure to keep Cora's clothes in a zip-lock baggie, and waited in the back while the proceedings went on. Once the funeral was done, Stiles weaved through the crowds until he reached the grieving siblings. "Laura?" he asked, knowing that she liked him a little better than Derek did. The female Hale glanced over, her eyes flashing red before she realized that it was Stiles. She sighed before rushing over to him.
"Stiles, thank you for coming," she said, kneeling down to draw him into a hug. Stiles gladly returned it. When they separated, he held out the baggie.
"I made sure to not wash them," he said by way of explanation. "Should still smell somewhat like family." Laura's face crumpled, a bright smile crossing her face.
"Oh Stiles, you shouldn't have," she whispered, reverently taking the baggie from him. "Derek, it's Cora's clothes."
The fifteen year old moved closer upon hearing that. "Cora?" he asked in a slightly broken voice. Stiles nodded.
"She would sometimes sleep over with me and Scott. Don't worry, Scott doesn't know." He knew to not inform his best friend of his life about the Hale family secret. It just was not right. Laura smiled again, hugging the baggie to her chest. Derek closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. Both of them nodded.
Stiles said his good byes to the Hales before heading to Claudia's car, a light blue jeep that he hoped to one-day inherit. He wanted to get back to Maria and Damon; Maria had just given birth to a small litter of puppies a week ago, and Stiles had been smitten with them from day one.
It was when he saw a black SUV next to the jeep that Stiles knew something was wrong. A woman with red hair was standing by the driver's side door of the jeep, casually checking her nails for specks of dirt. Stiles recognized her from a few of the weekly meetings: Kate Argent, Derek's ex-girlfriend. He tried backing away in an attempt to reach Laura and Derek, but Kate saw him faster than he could move. "Ah, young Genim, how nice of you to join us," she said with a venomous smile on her face. She sauntered closer when Stiles froze. "Now then, if you want to see your mom whole again, you'll be coming with me, quietly, okay?"
Stiles really had no say in the matter, considering he was grabbed by the shoulder and pushed along to the SUV. He could have sworn he heard Derek yelling for him when the door slammed shut, but considering he was then injected with some form of tranquilizer it could have been his imagination.
He did not know how long he was unconscious, only that once he came to he was shackled facedown on a rough wooden table. All he could see was a ratty staircase to his left and dirty cement brick walls. A draft passed him by, bringing a shiver along his bared upper torso. When his shirt had been lost, Stiles didn't know. He could feel something sticky rolling down his sides, and knew it was blood. The sickly sweet scent filled his lungs, and beneath it all he got the distinct scent of recently burnt wood.
Then a fog lifted from his senses. Pain lanced down his back, curling around his shoulders, bringing a weak whimper from his throat. A familiar voice shushed him, and a kind hand petted his hair. A sigh slipped from his lips, recognizing the feel of the hand in his short, thick hair. "Genim, quiet, momma's here," he heard his mother whisper, felt her lips against his right ear and her breath pushing against his skin. Another whimper escaped him. Her lips pressed against his temple. "You have to stay quiet, Genim, they don't know I broke my chains, don't know I called for your father. I'm right here, honey."
Footsteps resounded down the staircase. Stiles' eyes jerked there as he saw Kate storm downstairs, a bloody hunting knife in her right hand. With a snarl she marched over, yanking Claudia away even as she clutched weakly to the table Stiles was chained to. Two more sets of footsteps followed, and he watched in horror as Derek was pushed into the basement. Kate barely spared him a glance as her partner chained him up, not bothering to remove the gag that Derek was baring his teeth around, before returning her attention to Claudia. "Resurrect them," was all she said, pushing Claudia away before laying the tip of her knife on Stiles' back.
Stiles watched as every muscle in Derek's body froze when he spotted the boy's back. Hazel eyes widened, not looking away from what had to be a bloody mess all along his back.
Claudia only said, "I cannot."
Kate snarled and began pressing into Stiles' back. A whine caught in his throat, the pain dulling to a muted roar.
That was when they heard it: the first whimper of a pup.
Stiles opened eyes he did not remember squeezing shut, watching as a wolf puppy toddled out of a side passageway he had not seen. A good number followed behind the first, all of them whimpering and whining.
Kate began chuckling. "Oh, you cannot, you say?" The knife lifted from his skin and trailed down his side as she walked towards the passageway. A choked sob left his throat as she did; a small cut started forming where the sharp tip dragged against his skin.
That was when hell broke loose.
As one, the puppies charged at Kate, nipping at her ankles. One managed to get a good grip on her calf and was not letting go. Using the distraction brought by the puppies, Derek broke out of the chains and knocked the other man out. Claudia stood as well, stumbling over to Stiles and fumbling with the shackles.
From there, things started blending together. Stiles remembered seeing Derek chasing Kate out through a passageway, getting out of the shackles, feeling rough tongues lapping at his skin, and then the sirens. Then, he passed out from blood loss.
Waking up in the hospital was something that Stiles hoped he never had to do again. Bandages padded his back, which only dully burned instead of burnt white hot. His dad was sitting beside his bed, looking worn even in sleep. The antiseptic scent burned his nasal passages with each breath.
Nurse McCall entered the room he was in, a kind smile on her face. "How're you doing Stiles?"
He nodded, throat too dry to speak.
"Good. Scott's been taking excellent notes in class, and has been picking up your work for the past few days. Once you feel up to it, I'll bring him here to help you out on that." Nurse McCall quickly checked the machines that Stiles was hooked up to. "Now then, you have healed up nicely from those nasty injuries on your back, but we could not stich them up. You're going to have to be careful even after you get discharged in a day or two. Don't do anything too strenuous, and make sure to get your dad to help you change the bandages daily." Stiles nodded as she continued, "I know you want information on your mom as well, so here is what I know: she had been taken to the emergency room, came in with a major stab wound around the same time you did. The doctor's did everything they could, but…" Her face fell, and Stiles didn't need to know anything more. "According to the witness the police had, she got in the way of you and the knife."
Stiles felt like he had been punched in the gut. Knowing that your mother bled out on an operating table because of a wound she got protecting you hurt more than knowing that she was no longer around.
Nurse McCall placed a gentle hand on Stiles', her face pinched. "I'm sorry, Stiles. I'll come check up on you in a little while, when Scott gets out, okay?" He mutely nodded, eyes staring to the blanket covering his legs.
When she left, his dad woke up and moved to curl up around Stiles. They did not say anything. They didn't need to.
Stiles soon grew past the initial feeling of guilt, but never truly let it go. The night he was discharged, both Maria and Damon passed on, their connection to his mother too strong. They were buried in their favorite part of the Preserve, a clearing that was difficult to get to on foot. Stiles took up the care of their two pups, a pure black one he named Garrett and a pure white one named Snow. They were little menaces, but helped keep Stiles from going over the deep end. He was grounded by them, which meant that whenever he was not around one or both he was a wild card, always twitchy and not concentrating very well.
The Hales had left shortly afterwards as well. Laura had visited before they left, though, giving Stiles a necklace that had her pack's symbol carved onto the pendant. It was a simple silver circle hanging from a black cord. She said that it would bring him protection from other packs, and from Hunters like Kate. The next day the two Hale children were gone, as if they had never been there to begin with.
He kept the necklace, finding two more with similar designs on them in the ruins of the Hale house on the pup's third full moon for his father and Scott. The other boy was practically family to him, staying every other night at the Stilinski household because of that father of his. It was his only safe haven from the man. Soon enough, Scott fell in love with Snow, and Snow with Scott. All the time, Snow would be plastered to the boy's side, chatting excitedly in Stiles' head much like Maria and Damon did. Garrett was much more subdued, luckily, and managed to keep Snow's antics somewhat controlled when Stiles could not.
Because of the twitchiness, Stiles was soon diagnosed with ADHD. The first time he tried to enter his basement, looking for a book his mother had down there, he was overwhelmed with his first panic attack. Garrett stuck by his hip for weeks afterwards, walking Stiles to and from school everyday. Snow followed, only because they would meet up with Scott and he would get bored at home without Garrett. They helped more than the Adderall and the anxiety medication ever did.
The scars never really faded, over the six years that slowly passed. Stiles learned a long time before to keep up a mask around others, never wearing no-sleeve shirts or going swimming without a shirt on. But not only that, he kept how steady he really was from others as well, since it was public knowledge that he had ADHD and was never right in his head at times. Running with Garrett and Snow more than once a month in the woods kept him in shape, and wrestling with them helped keep his strength up whenever the impromptu sparring sessions with his dad had a lull in them, or were just no longer a challenge for him. Around others, he remained twitchy Stiles, who would sit on the bench during lacrosse games and always tripped down the same flight of stairs everyday.
It just meant that he had an advantage over everyone else, when the Hales finally returned to Beacon Hills.