Chapter One

I woke up abruptly, breathing deeply as water overlapped my mouth. Wait why was I in water? My breathing sped up as I realised I was in some sort of tank, the water levels were rising quickly and so I stood up, only just realising that my hands were chained together and so were my feet. It was difficult to keep my balance as the two chains were also attached.

I narrowed my eyes to peer through the muggy glass of the tank I was in. Why was I in a tank? I began to panic, the water was now at my knees and rising steadily.

"Let me out!" I shouted, leaning forwards unsteadily to try and open the front of the tank. It didn't budge and now I started to panic. "Let me out!" I screamed, banging my fists on the tank walls, thrashing in my chains and splashing water everywhere.

I tried pulling on my chains to get them to come undone but all I managed was to make my wrists sore. "Fuck!" I cursed, banging my fists on the walls again. Even though the walls were made of glass it was still quite difficult to see through them. The water was now at the middle of my thighs.

I was going to die, I realised. I'd always heard drowning was one of the worst ways to die, but I could swim so the fear was never there. The fear was definitely present now, my feet were chained to the bottom of the floor and I was only five foot four. That meant I was going to go under soon and the only thing that was going to keep me alive was how long I could hold my breath. But that would run out quickly.

The panic had fully set in now, I struggled against the chains, threw myself against the sides of the tank and even tried to pick the lock of my chain but to no avail.

I was screwed.

Someone knocked on the door causing me to scream, I had been trying to undo the chains around my ankles knowing that if I was free I would be able to float to the top of the tank and remain alive for a few more minutes.

"You should never trust a fox." The person who knocked on the tank spoke softly but loud enough to hear over the sound of water running. My hair was sopping wet against my face causing it to be difficult to see out of my eyes.

"Who is that?" I questioned angrily. "Let me out!"

He chuckled, the sound frightening me to my very core. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

I breathed heavily. "And why the hell not!" I shouted, pulling at my chains once more.

"Because I need this." He admitted, putting one of his hands up against the tank. "Your heart is beating so fast, the panic I can hear running through your veins, your struggling. I need it all."

I laughed frantically. "So you're some kind of freak?" I banged the glass where his hand was still resting. "Who the hell are you?" I pulled at the chains again making a racket as I continued to get free.

"Struggle all you like, it won't break." He came closer, close enough that I could see his face and I gaped at the person on the other side.

"Stiles?" I stepped backwards into the stream of water and started spitting the water out of my mouth, blinking the water out of my eyes I moved forwards again to stop from downing again. "Why? What?"

He tilted his head, nothing about him seemed to be the boy I knew. I was never close to Stiles and after this I never would be but this was nothing like him. His dad was a police officer for christ's sake! "No one ever suspects Stiles." He said calmly, moving his hand over the glass.

At this point the water was up to my hips. "Why are you talking in third person?" I half laughed, half sobbed. "Let me out Stiles!" I banged on the glass again feebly, my hands becoming sore. "Let me out." I sobbed fully, resting my forehead on the glass.

"I'm not letting you out." I jumped when his face pressed against the glass where mine was.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, my voice cracking. I made a fist and feebly banged on the glass once more. "Why me?"

He peered up at me from underneath his eyelashes and smirked demonically. "Because you were there."

Flashback

We'd been told that if any of us saw Stiles Stilinski that we were to report it to one of the teachers or police officers who would be walking around the school periodically.

I wasn't very close to Stiles, I think he may have lent me a pen once in Math class but other than that our relationship was strictly peers. I hadn't thought anything of Stiles being missing, this was a boy well known for having ADHD and panic attacks so he may have just scampered into the woods like he'd done the last time.

I twirled my pencil around my fingers and sighed, blowing my bangs out of my eyes as I stared out of the window. It was a lovely sunny day and I hated the fact that I was stuck inside for it. Good days were hard to come by in Beacon Hills.

"Shannon, can you tell me the answer?" My head snapped to the front of the classroom and I knew that I had been caught, the redness was already streaming to my cheeks as I felt them heat up.

"Um…" I hesitated, trying to peek at the question on the board. None of my friends were sat close enough to help me and I could see Jessica wincing on my behalf.

"Out!" Mr Harris snapped. "This is the fourth time today you've spaced off in my lesson and I won't have it. Go and see the principle!" I gaped at him, feeling completely victimised.

"What? Are you serious?"

He smiled nastily at me. "As a heart attack."

I harrumphed and muttered under my breath as I started packing up my stuff. "That is so old." I jumped up quickly and hurried out the door knowing from past experience he would give me a detention if I didn't leave fast enough. That man hated me.

The principle and I had done this dance before however, I would be sent out of the classroom and he would ask me why I never paid attention. No one could really do anything because I wasn't disrupting the class and I still scored high marks on any and all tests.

I frowned as I walked down the hallway seeing a shadow past one of the doors. I peeked behind me to see if there were any teachers or policemen close enough that I could tell but there weren't. I fretted with my thoughts of going to check out what it was but for some reason I just felt as though I was supposed to go and see what it was, stupid as that sounds.

And then it was like my body was out of control, I saw my hand reach for the door handle and twist, I felt my body move as my feet walked forwards and I walked down the stairs and into a dark room. I shivered as the temperature dropped and there was a noise behind me. Before I could turn around and check out what it was, something collided with the back of my head and I fell to the floor.

The last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness was two converse clad feet walk out of the shadows and closer to me.

Present

Once the memory passed I cried out. I slammed the glass in front of me and started screaming uncontrollable. "Let me out Stiles! Let me out!"

He grinned maliciously and started walking backwards, away from me to better see the water levels rising. At this point it was up to my neck. I was going to go under at any second and I still couldn't get the chains off. "Stiles! Please!"

"Stiles isn't listening." He said quietly to himself, watching me happily. I began crying in earnest now, feeling the water rise to my chin. It felt as though it was rising quicker than it had been before.

"Please don't kill me." Was the last thing I could say before the water covered my mouth, soon it would cover my nose and I wouldn't be able to breathe.

I took in one last breath of air and then the water came over my head. I banged against the glass again, determined to crack it but it was just no use. I could feel my lungs begin to contract, desperately wanting air and I pulled at my chains one last time. My eyes started drifting shut and I passed out.

When I woke up again it was to the strange sight of Scott McCall's face which was extremely too close to my face for my liking. I tried to let out a scream but started spluttering water everywhere, lungs burning as I expelled it everywhere. This startled him enough to drop my head, which had been resting on his lap onto the floor causing me to groan in pain and immediately try to sit up.

"Shannon no wait, you're going to hurt yourself." I rolled my eyes at him, wincing at the pain in my head and still struggled to sit up. I heard a sigh before hands were under my arms and lifting me into a sitting position with ease.

"Scott?" I questioned, blinking once or twice to make sure he was really there. I looked around the room to find that there was smashed glass and water all over the floor, it became apparent that someone had smashed the tank where I was kept and saved my life. "Did you get me out of there?" I asked.

Scott looked into my eyes and nodded. "Are you okay?"

I let out a breath shakily and looked down at myself, patting everywhere I could to ensure that nothing was broken or in pain. "Yeah I think so. But…" I paused, thinking my words through carefully. "What's wrong with Stiles?"

His eyes widened in panic. "What do you mean?" He looked over my shoulder and I turned around as well, immediately scooting backwards to try and make more space between us.

I started to panic, my breathing was becoming heavy and painful. "Shannon?" Stiles walked towards me and stared at me sadly. "What's wrong?"

I stared at him in confusion. Why was he acting as though he hadn't just tried to kill me? "You were- you-"

Scott glanced between Stiles and I. "What?"

I gulped and stared into Stiles' hazel eyes not seeing any of the darkness that I had earlier. "I don't know." I was so confused however I knew what I'd seen, the tank had definitely happened so that meant that my mind wasn't making things up. I gathered my courage and spoke. "It was him." I told Scott, who glanced at his best friend in confusion.

"Stiles is the one who called for help. The ambulance is on their way." He told me, taking his eyes off his friend and staring at me with worry. "He's been with me for the past hour."

I felt my heart plummet when I heard this, he didn't believe me and that made my throat swell up. I looked at Stiles again and saw nothing to suggest that he was the one who'd tried to kill me. I remembered only bits and pieces of the conversation that we'd had as I pleaded to be let out of the tank but it was definitely him.

I jumped when Stiles moved closer, raising his hands to show he wasn't going to hurt me but he didn't stop. I stared at him fearfully and tried to move backwards again but there was nowhere left to go, I was against the wall.

It was at this point that I realised that I was soaking wet and freezing cold. As soon as this thought occurred to me I erupted in goosebumps and shivered uncontrollably. My teeth started chattering and it didn't help me that Stiles came even closer and took off his hoodie.

"What are you doing?" I asked harshly, which was difficult considering how much my teeth were clacking against one another.

He stopped and exchanged a look with Scott, he smiled sadly at me and presented me with his jacket. "You're cold. This will help." I didn't trust him at all, but with the way I was shivering I was finding it hard to even think straight so I took the jacket and slipped it on, sighing in relief at the instant warmth it provided me. Stiles stared at me as I did so. "You know I read somewhere that to prevent hyperthermia you should share body heat, apparently it works better without any, you know, materials in the way."

Scott shot Stiles a glare and leaned over to rub my shoulder, trying to comfort me. "The ambulance will be here soon, in fact," he paused, "I think they're here."

I furrowed my eyebrows and dug deeper into the jacket, trying to stop myself from shivering. Scott was right, there were two paramedics who came rushing through the door and straight to my side. "Miss, we're going to take your basics and get you warm is that alright?" I nodded and let them do their jobs.

I was soon loaded onto an ambulance and taken to the hospital. The male paramedic who was trying to keep me warm asked the boys if they wanted to come with me but with one look from me they declined.

I could see the worry of Scott's face and it just made me feel worse, not knowing if he was worried for me or worried that I would rat on Stiles. I didn't want to think about any of this anymore so tried to fall asleep.

"Miss, we're going to have to ask you to try and stay awake. You're core body temperature is too low for us to guarantee you'll wake up again."

Oh Jesus Christ. I sighed and lay there as I was then rolled into the hospital and put onto a bed. Things were hooked up to me and a greater effort was put into making my temperature rise. I was told that it would take a while as if my temperature rose too quickly I'd go into shock. So I was stuck shivering and chattering for the time being.

Fabulous.