After being interrogated and treated, Stiles sent me home.
The next day, kinda seemed like a breeze.
I sat on the bleachers waiting for Stiles to finish his rock climbing.
The gym students crowded around the rock wall, staring up and laughing at a frizzy blonde clinging to it in fear.
Coach was trying to persuade her to come down, which she finally did. The girl was Erica Reyes, and she tried to smile the situation off as the rest of her class laughed at her. She tightly wrapped her arms around herself, and walked past me. I watched her go and sighed. I felt bad for her.
Turns out Erica had a seizure while trying to climb the rock wall alone. Scott had saved her, feeling a connection towards her and now she was in the hospital.
I was on the way to my next class when I saw Jackson having a heated conversation with Lydia, who was back at school. The red head looked terrified, and Jackson looked beyond pissed.
"You ruin everything!", Jackson screamed to the flinching girl. He turned on his heel and stormed away from her in my direction. He almost bumped into me and his eyes narrowed on me.
"Both of you! Nothing happened to both of you! It's like your immunity was past onto everybody! You all ruined this!", he yelled and stormed away.
Fucking prick.
I shook my head and moved over to Lydia. Despite not liking her, I hated how Jackson treated her. "You okay?", I asked. Lydia looked at me with tears welling in her green eyes. She hastily walked away without another word. I clenched my jaw.
What the fuck was up with them…
Just as quick as that interaction happened, lunch came by and Stiles dragged me off with him into the lunchroom, meeting up with some guy named Boyd.
I've never seen him around before. Made sense if he was always by himself and kept his head down. We walked up to his table and Stiles took a seat across from Boyd.
"Boyd, do you have the keys?", Stiles asked. Boyd lifted his hand, reaching over to give Stiles a set of keys. But when Stiles reached to grab them, Boyd snatched them back.
"This isn't a favor, it's a transaction.", Boyd said.
"Right, yeah, well…" Stiles searched his pocket and slapped a twenty dollar pill on the table.
"I said fifty.", Boyd gruffed, glaring at Stiles.
"I remember twenty. I have a very good verbal memory and I remember twenty. I remember that distinctive 'twah' sound. Twenty.", Stiles tried to get out of his deal.
"I said fifty. The 'fuh' sound. Hear the difference? If you can't, I can demonstrate some other words with the 'fuh' sound."
"Oh, no, I think I'm recalling it now. Maybe I got it confused with a…forty." Stiles slapped another twenty on the table. Boyd stared at him, popping a Dorito into his mouth and chewing slowly. I rolled my eyes.
"Come on man, do you see the piece of crap Jeep I drive?", Stiles whined.
"Do you see the piece of crap bus I take?", Boyd countered. I sighed, rolling my eyes and pulled out a ten, slamming it onto the table. "We done?", I ask.
Boyd looked at it, then to Stiles, then at me and smiled, finally letting Stiles have the keys.
"You're welcome. Let's go." I yanked Stiles up by his wrist and led him to Scott.
"Got them. So after work meet me at the rin—", Stiles sat down across from Scott. Scott and Stiles' eyes followed a beautiful, busty blonde walking into the cafeteria.
She wore a white tank top, black leather jacket, and a short, tight leather skirt. She walked with a purpose in her leopard print pumps. Her lips were plastered with bright red lipstick.
She strutted over to a table of boys, bending down and taking a bite of one of the kid's apples. She smirked at them and turned to us. She eyed and smiled at us suspiciously. This girl was Erica Reyes. The girl who only yesterday was being made fun of, now eye candy of the entire cafeteria.
She was just a shivering, nervous mess yesterday. The hell happened?
"What in the holy hell is that?" Lydia slammed her hands down on our table.
"Derek.", Scott growled.
"Definitely Derek.", I repeated with a sigh. Erica walked out of the lunchroom, leaving all the boys with their mouths agape. I stood up, following after Erica first, the boys quickly trailing behind me.
We ran out of the school and through the door to the front courtyard to see Erica getting into a shiny black Camaro. The front window pulled down as he, in blacked out sunglasses, flashed the three of us a smile and sped off.
"Fucking hard-headed hypocrite…", I sneered. I shook my head, walking to my mom's car, getting in and following his car to his new home. An abandoned train car.
"Derek!", I called, walking down the stairs. He emerged out of one of the train carts. Erica trailed close behind and so did Isaac Lahey.
"You turned her? Did we not just have this conversation about turning defenseless, emotionally unstable teenagers into ravage beasts?", I stormed up to him.
"Hey.", Erica yelled in warning.
"Shut it.", I warned, pointing at her.
"Fine." He huffed. "I'll make it up by helping out with Scott." I gaped at him. "That's not what I asked or am asking for. Plus, Scott's busy.", I say.
He raised an eyebrow. "With?"
"Why's it matter? You have your little crew over here and now you're bothered by what he'll be doing?", I asked. His eyebrows furrowed and I rolled my eyes. "We're going to the ice skating rink. Are we not allowed to have fun? You look like you've been having fun these past few days, so why can't we?", I asked, walking away and leaving the train.
Later that night, I met Scott, Stiles, Allison and Lydia at the ice rink. I honestly shouldn't have come. I wasn't a part of a couple. Although Stiles and Lydia were here as friends, at least I hoped. Stiles didn't need to be heartbroken over someone that wasn't even paying attention to him.
I balanced myself around the rink while Lydia gracefully twirled around the ice. Lydia stopped her fun and skated over to an area, suddenly crouching down to the cold floor.
"Lydia?", I called, but she didn't answer. Instead, I skated over to where she was crouched.
"Lydia, what's wrong?", I asked. There was a purple flower sticking up out of the ice. Ice shavings were piled at its base.
I bent down and touched it, quickly retracting my hand as it burned it. "The hell…?"
Lydia wiped away the crushed up ice around the area around the flower and it revealed a man. His eyes were wide open and I felt my world crumble as I saw who it was. It was Peter Hale. Lydia and I let out a scream, catching the attention of the other three.
Stiles came rushing over to us, aiding Lydia by holding her back. She was still screaming and blubbering as Stiles held here. I started hyperventilating at the sight of Peter's face. I was sure he was charred. He was! They burned him…
Scott ran over to me, holding my face away from the area.
"Sam, what happened? What? What's going on?" My eyes couldn't pry away from Peter's shocked face.
"Sam?", Scott shook me and I whimpered, finally looking at him. "Peter."
The next day came quickly, much to my relief. Yesterday had to have been a dream.
It didn't feel like it as Scott, Stiles, and Allison were so confused. They asked me so many more questions, I wasn't sure how to even answer any of them.
I walked into the lunch room to see Scott sitting by himself. In front of Scott, was an empty table.
Actually…wasn't Boyd supposed to be here too? It was his table.
If Boyd was here every day, sitting at that exact table…
I shook my head, hoping he was gone for a good reason.
"You see it too.", Scott suddenly said, nodding over at the table. My shoulders dropped as I sighed.
Derek….
Scott and I came up with the plan that we would go to the ice rink after school while Stiles would go to Boyd's house.
Right after school, we arrived at the ice rink. Rushing inside, we heard a machine going. A Zamboni was going around the ice and Boyd was the driver.
Scott rushed onto the ice, only a few feet from Boyd, while I stepped into the rink but stayed by the wall.
"Boyd, I just want to talk. Come on Boyd, please. Did Derek tell you everything? And I don't mean going out of control on the full moon, I mean everything!"
Boyd shut off the Zamboni and sighed.
"He told me about the hunters.", Boyd replied.
Really Derek…? He had a bad habit of giving bits and pieces instead of the whole thing.
"And that wasn't enough to say no? Whatever you want, there's better ways to get it.", Scott suggested.
"I just don't want to eat lunch alone everyday.", Boyd said, making me frown.
I didn't know he didn't wanna be lonely. Speaking from experience, I got used to being alone once I moved to California. That was until I met Stiles. His bubbly personality changed my world.
"You could do a lot better than Derek.", Scott countered.
"Scott, really? We're throwing shade?", I asked, crossing my arms.
"I agree. That really hurt, Scott." Derek's voice echoed around the rink.
I looked around to see Derek, Erica, and Isaac standing there.
"If you're going to review me, at least take a consensus. Erica, how's life been for you since we met?", he asked the blonde.
"In a word," she thought for a minute, "transformative." She roared for emphasis. I rolled my eyes.
"Isaac?", Derek asked.
"Well, I'm a little bummed about being a fugitive but other than that I'm great.", Isaac smirked.
"This isn't exactly a fair fight.", Scott said suddenly.
"Then go home, Scott.", Derek smiled smugly. Derek looked at his two Betas, and they went for Scott.
He punched the ice, cracking it. He transformed into his wolf form, glaring at Derek.
"I meant fair for them.", he roared.
The three betas started fighting Scott while Boyd watched above from his Zamboni. Derek proudly watched his Betas fight Scott, I got into the ice rink, steadying myself on the icy floor before making my way over to Derek with a glare.
"Boyd, really?"
"Yeah, why not.", he shrugged.
"Oh, I don't know, Derek. I can think of many reasons, but we'd probably be here all night.", I exclaimed.
I sighed harshly at the sound of hear mixtures of growls, roars, and bodies being thrown down. Claws were scratching against the ice. Scott tackled Isaac to the ground and I could swear I heard something crack.
"Don't you get it? He's not doing this for you. He's just adding to his own power. It's all about him! He's making you feel like he's giving you some kind of gift, but all he's done is turn you into a bunch of guard dogs!", Scott yelled, forcefully sliding Isaac to Derek and Erica to Derek's feet.
Derek smiled. "It's true. It is about power.", Derek admitted. He took a step over Isaac's unconscious body and began slowly walking towards Scott. He let his claws out, threateningly as he stalked over to Scott.
"Derek, stop!", I yelled after him, but of course that didn't sway him.
After twitching his head, he roared and stormed up to Scott, head butting him. He punched and slashed Scott in the stomach with his claws. I could hear his fist come in contact with Scott's face several times.
And then it came in contact with his stomach once more. Scott screamed, finally punching him back. Derek went for Scott again and all I could hear was Scott's painful yells and see their blurred motion.
I heard a familiar voice whisper in my left ear. "Don't you wanna join them? A little chaos won't hurt.", I flinched, looking to my left to see no one there.
I watched Derek practically pummel Scott.
"Just a little chaos and everything will be fine. They're having fun. Don't you see?", the feminine voice says.
I covered my ears and squeezed my eyes closed. This can't be happening.
I wasn't going insane…
I couldn't be.
"They're having so much fun without you, Samantha… you can't let it go to waste."
My eyes widened as I trembled. I felt angry all of a sudden. Scared, even. And maybe excited…? I don't know. It was a mixture of feelings, I didn't know what to do.
I tried taking deep breaths, but the more I did, the more I started to sweat and feel dizzy.
I could barely hear the beatings on Scott's body. I could barely hear the fighting going on anymore.
I wanted it to stop. I wanted everything to just stop.
"Then make it stop, Samantha. Make him stop."
Everything moved like a blur. Once I noticed Scott on the ground, trying to catch his breath, I moved.
Derek slid across the icy floor, landing in a pouncing stance as he glared at me.
His red eyes widened as I glared at him back, holding a broken Scott in my arms. "I'm not gonna let you kill him.", I declared through my teeth.
Derek let out a snarl but stopped suddenly as he stared at me.
"Sam…", I hear Scott's weakened, yet shocked voice. I looked down at him as he stared back up at me with wide eyes.
"Your eyes…", he muttered. I went to pull out my phone, but noticed my nails had gotten longer and my fingers looked like I dipped them in soot.
I pulled out my phone, switching to the camera and saw my face.
My irises were yellow but the outside was black. They also looked like I wore heavily eyeliner that streaked down to the apples of my cheeks. I had marks on my face that also contoured my cheeks.
I turned back to Derek with a hardened face. "The hell are you trying to do? Be a new Peter? You don't think this is going too far? You have your betas, but you better learn how to take care of them all by yourself."
I helped Scott up, grimacing at his whimpering. I glared at Derek over my shoulder. "We're talking about this later, Hale.", I say before leaving with Scott.
"Shhh, it's okay.", I comforted Scott as I got him into my mom's car. He wasn't bleeding as much, thank God.
I still kept pressure as he slowly healed, though. "I'm so sorry, Scott…", I say, sadly. He looked at me, slowly going back to his natural form. "You… what was that?", he asked.
I looked in the rearview mirror. My face was back to normal. I sighed in relief and turned back to him. I felt okay again. At least, I didn't feel heavy or tense anymore.
"I don't know. I don't know how to explain it.", I say.
We sat in silence until he fully healed and I dropped him off.
I headed over to Derek's new place and parked outside.
I got out of the car and looked around. His car was here. He has to be here.
I quickly entered the abandoned station, walked down the stairs, and looked around. The station was silent and no one was around.
"Derek, I'm not gonna spend all night looking for you. Where are you?", I exclaimed, my voice echoing.
I sighed and turned around, jumping at the sight of Derek leaning on a pillar behind me. "Shh. You're gonna wake up the kids.", he said, smirking.
"Are you done?", I huffed. I shook my head. He thinks this is a game. Just like Peter. I guess that runs in the family.
"You gonna explain what that was about?", he asked, pushing himself off the pillar and began circling me as if he was sizing me up.
"Not just anyone has the power to practically tackle an alpha.", he says. I rolled my eyes. "Well, it's obvious I haven't turned. You can smell it on me, can't you?"
He frowned. "If you haven't turned, then what the hell was that?"
"I don't know!", I exclaimed.
I sighed. "I've been hearing voices in my head, but they're, like, a woman's voice. At least I'm sure it's been two women. One sounded like… this big boss lady and I'm sure her voice is linked up to the woman that was in my dreams the other day and then the voice I just heard sounded psychotic. Like she wanted me to lose control. I don't know…"
He looked at me, unsure.
"All I know is that I'm having this huge headache and I'm getting dizzy and then next thing I know, you're skidding across the ice and I've changed. I don't know how, but I changed.", I say, tiredly.
He didn't say anything for a while until he finally spoke up. "You didn't look like you turned… I can't put my finger on it though. You definitely didn't look like a wolf."
I looked at him in confusion. "I'm supposed to look like you guys if I had turned? You guys look like confused, angry puppies. I don't wanna look like that."
He looked offended.
I sighed, dismissing his offense. "Tell me the truth, are you adding anyone else to the pack?"
"No. Not right now.", he says. I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms.
"I'm telling the truth.", he said. "Yeah, but you also said you'd stop. You're letting this power thing get to your head and it's getting ridiculous. Deaton warned me about this and I was having faith that you wouldn't. You're really destroying that faith right now.", I say and felt my phone buzzing.
I pulled out my phone to see I had gotten a text from Stiles.
'911, meet me at Armor Tire & Service Center'.
"What?", Derek asked, curious.
"Stiles, he said there was an emergency at some mechanic place.", I say, pocketing my phone away. "Go.", Derek directed.
"Yes, sir.", I sarcastically saluted and left.
Pulling into the service center, my eyebrows furrowed. There were at least two dozen cop cars along with a few ambulances. Red and blue police lights were flashing everywhere.
Where was Stiles? Was he okay? What happened to him?
I felt relieved when I saw Sheriff Stilinski and Stiles sitting on the edge of an ambulance. I parked and got out of my mom's car, rushing over to them.
"Stiles?", I called, running up to him. His head snapped up from looking down at his shaking hands.
His face wet from the pelting rain contorted into sadness. Sheriff Stilinski got up from the ambulance, walking over to his fellow officers.
"Stiles, what happened?", I asked. I looked at the ambulances and could see a group of officers had led a gurney with a bloody sheet on top towards an ambulance farther away. A killing?
"Remember when Scott said that there was something else out there?", Stiles suddenly asked. I nodded. "I saw it.", Stiles said.
I led Stiles to my mom's car and we got in.
"My car got impounded as evidence,", Stiles complained with a groan, "but Scott was right. It wasn't like him."
"Well, what was it?", I ask. Scott mentioned he had seen the creature on the night of the full moon in Isaac's house while with Allison.
"I don't know. Its eyes were almost, like, reptilian. There was just something about it.", Stiles muttered.
"Something about it? Stiles, I need more than that.", I pressed.
"You know like when you see a friend in a Halloween mask but all you can actually see is their eyes? And you feel like you know them but you just can't figure out who it is?", he asked.
"Kinda… do you know who it is?", I asked.
He shook his head. "No, but I think it knew me."
During my free period, I spent time with Allison as we were studying outside on the courtyard at one of the benches.
Stiles had come up to us asking if Allison's grandfather had a Bestiary. I blinked in disbelief. "Dude, what?"
"I think you mean Bes—" Allison chuckled.
"No, I mean Bestiary! And the two of you- I don't want to know what's going on in your heads.", Stiles corrected.
"Well, what's it look like?", I asked.
"It's probably like a book. Old, worn…"
"Like bound in leather?", Allison finished. Stiles ran off, not even bothering to confirm.
Apparently, Allison saw Gerard with a book like that last night. Then ten minutes later, Stiles came sprinting over to our table again, completely out of breath. "Where does he keep it?", Stiles asked between breaths.
"Office. It's got to be there.", Allison thought. Stiles ran off again.
"You know, you could just call Scott and tell him this.", Allison said. I smile. "I know. Stiles just has a funny run.", I say, chuckling.
Stiles came back several minutes later with Scott's inhaler pressed to his lips.
"You know drug dealers have been using disposable cell phones for years.", Stiles suggested, trying to catch his breath. Allison listed every reason possible why she couldn't do that.
"Can you get the book?
"Not without his keys.", Allison shook her head.
"What if we got the keys somehow?", I asked her.
"How do you think we'll do that without getting Gerard to ask thousands of questions?", Stiles looked at me in disbelief.
"We don't. We take them from him. You said something about him going to the game tonight, right?", I asked Allison. She nodded her head.
"Well, he has to, now that he's the new principal.", she says.
"Then this should work.", I say, smirking.
Stiles' news about the creature was big, and it was definitely a big lead for Scott and Derek. We were so close to trying to figure out whatever and whoever the creature was.
I had arrived at Derek's, ready to tell him everything. I walked into the place, and stopped in the doorway, seeing Erica latched on top of a standing Derek, her lips plastered on his.
I looked at them, feeling off. I wanted to back away as soon as I saw what was going on. I felt weird. My chest and stomach hurt looking at them. Derek pushed Erica to the ground.
"That's the last time you do that.", he growled, wiping his lips.
"Why? You seem to be lenient with that human girl. You don't like girls with power now?", Erica asked, smugly.
"Are we done?", Isaac cut in, lying on the floor. "Because I've got a good 100 bones that need a few hours to heal."
Derek walked over to Isaac sympathetically and crouched down, taking his arm.
"Here?", Derek asked. Isaac nodded but instead of healing it, Derek snapped his arm back and Isaac screamed out in tormenting pain. He ended up lying on the floor with Derek grasping his arm.
"One hundred and one.", Derek paused. "You think I'm teaching you how to fight? Huh? Look at me! I'm teaching you how to survive!", Derek yelled, throwing Isaac's arm down and standing up straight.
Isaac and him bickered back and forth as Derek talked about showing them his ways. I frowned. He was never gonna change.
Everything he said sounded like things Peter would say and it bothered me. It bothered me bad.
Derek's words trailed off as he realized his betas weren't even looking at him, but behind him.
Derek turned around, almost flinching at the sight of me. "Shit…", he muttered, looking away.
Erica looked almost nervous, but still tried to keep up a smile.
Derek looked at me and opened his mouth to speak.
"Don't even.", I grounded out in disappointment. I don't know what I was so angry about. Derek was a grown ass man. Just let him do what he wants.
Something bothered me on the inside, though. Why should he go around biting people just because he's an alpha now? What right did he have to change people's lives just because…?
I hear him following me. "Sam.", he called. I felt him closing in on me and I looked at him over my shoulder. "You touch me and I might have to break your hand.", I threatened, glaring at him. He sighed harshly, stopping.
I walked to my mom's car and got out of there.
Mom was sleep, thank god. I didn't want her to see the mess I had on my face. I didn't want her to bother asking anything I couldn't come up with.
I readied up, asking Stiles for a ride.
A loud knock on my front door caught my attention. That was fast.
Opening the door, I thought I'd see Stiles' goofy face, but I was wrong. It was Derek.
"Can we talk?", he asked, almost sheepishly.
"What's there to talk about? You're a grown man, you do what you want at this point.", I say, ready to close the door.
He sighed. "Look-"
"What do you want from me, Derek? You got almost everything you want right now. What could I possibly give you?", I asked, fed up.
"A chance to talk."
"Again, what's there to talk about?"
"How much did you see?", he asked. I raised an eyebrow. "Why does it matter? Looks like you were enjoying yourself."
He rolled his eyes, frustrated. "It's not like that."
I shrugged. "I never asked. Though, it seems like that's your type anyways. Blondes.", I say, giving him a sarcastic smile.
I shook my head. "I was stupid for letting myself trust you. You were just gonna go behind my back anyway because you want power.", I say. "Stiles was right.", I frown.
"No. Stiles isn't right because he doesn't have any of the answers.", he barked.
I pushed him out of the house. "He may not have the answers, but neither do you. Or have you forgotten you panicked seeing me and Jackson fighting the bite? I didn't forget that little detail."
Stiles pulled up alongside my driveway and honked.
"I need to go.", I sighed.
"Sam.", Derek called.
"Whatever, Derek. Do what you want. I obviously can't stop you, super alpha.", I say and walked off to Stiles' car and hopped in.
"What's Derek doing here?", Stiles asked.
"Drive, please.", I said, not bothering to spare Derek another look.
The plan was set. Allison had just put on her grandfather's jacket and I had slyly walked past her, taking the keys in my hand and walking off. I promised Stiles to meet him behind the bleachers, and that's exactly where I was headed.
I met up with Stiles. "Ready for this?", I asked him. He nodded and we were off to the parking lot as the game went underway. We were doing so good until we heard a familiar voice. Lydia Martin. She was crying in her car and of course Stiles perked to attention.
"Lydia?", Stiles called. The second the strawberry blonde saw him; she began to roll up her window in hurry.
I rolled my eyes as Stiles went to go comfort her. We were on a time crunch and I had no time for Lydia's meltdowns.
I went into the school myself and broke into Gerard's office with his keys. After searching through a bookshelf, I shot a quick text to Stiles to hurry.
"Book, book, book.", I whispered to myself, looking around. There wasn't anything valuable in here besides simple office supply stuff.
"You know, breaking and entering is considered illegal." My head snapped up at the sound of a woman's voice. Erica was standing in the doorway, holding Stiles by his ear.
I rolled my eyes. "Fucking Stiles…", I shook my head.
She smiled and dragged Stiles out by his ear with me quickly behind them.
Erica led us through the double doors into the pool, where we found Derek standing with a basketball grasped in his hands.
Stiles was complaining till Erica let him go and went to stand beside Derek.
"What are you doing here?", I asked Derek. He ignored me and turned his attention to Stiles.
"Stiles."
"Derek.", Stiles rolled his eyes.
"What'd you see in the mechanics garage?"
"Uhhh, several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting.", Stiles plainly said.
Displeased with his answer, Derek sunk his claws into the basketball, deflating it.
"Holy God.", Stiles gasped watching as the basketball dropped to the floor with a loud thump. He turned to me. "You tolerate this?"
I frowned, glaring at Stiles. "Not anymore."
"Let's try that again.", Derek threatened. I stepped in front of Stiles. "Your threats don't work on me. Stiles, just answer the damn question."
"Alright the thing was pretty slick looking. Its skin was dark, kind of pattern; I think I actually saw scales. Is that enough? Because I have somebody I really need to talk to.", Stiles rushed.
Derek looked at him, an eyebrow raised. Stiles groaned. "Alright, eyes. Eyes are yellowish and slitted. It has a lot of teeth, oh, and it has a tail too."
Derek's eyes suddenly trailed up towards the ceiling. So did Erica's and she looked scared. I frowned and turned my head. My heart dropped.
"Are we good? Wait, have you seen it? Because you've got these looks on your faces like you know exactly what I'm talking about.", Stiles said, ignorantly.
I backed away. "Stiles.", I whispered.
Stiles turned around and all of our eyes fell on the lizard shape-shifter thing.
We gasped and we stepped back as it let out a terrifying raptor-like scream. It jumped down to the floor and immediately, Derek pushed me and Stiles behind him and crouched protectively, giving a roar.
The creature slashed at Erica, throwing her against a wall and she immediately passed out on the floor.
Good riddance.
"Run!", Derek ordered Stiles and I. The creature swiped at Derek. He stayed standing, but spun around, confused. Then I noticed a cut on his neck.
"Derek, your neck.", I gasped. He reached his hand back and touched his neck. Before he could even react, he began to fall until I caught him and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
"Stiles, give me a hand!", I yelled. Derek was dead weight now. Stiles got on his other side and took Derek's arm over his shoulder. We began slowly walking, almost limping, around the pool.
"Call Scott.", Derek demanded Stiles. Stiles reached into his pocket and took out his phone, only for it to drop on the ground. He bent down to pick it up and Derek's arm slipped off his shoulder, dragging me with him.
"Stiles, sonuva—" Derek fell into the pool with a loud splash. Derek was paralyzed, meaning he'd drown in there. As he sunk, I went under, bringing him back up to the surface.
We gasped, looking around and at Stiles. "Stiles, you jackass!", I yelled.
Despite me being heavier than Derek, it was harder to hold him up. Kicking the water could only do so much, thanks to the water's resistance.
Stiles jumped in, leaving the phone on the ground and helped support Derek with me.
"Where'd it go?", Stiles asked, his head twisting to see. "Do you see it?"
"No.", Derek grumbled.
"Okay, maybe it took off.", Stiles suggested. There was a loud screech.
"Maybe not.", Derek mumbled. "Can you get me out of here before I drown?"
"You're worried about drowning? Do you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?", Stiles asked.
"Did you notice that I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?", Derek shouted.
"Okay, fine. I don't see it.", Stiles said. We began paddling over to the side of the pool.
"Wait, wait, wait, stop!" I cried, spotting the lizard thing. It hissed at us.
"What's he waiting for?", Stiles asked.
He was just slowly stalking around the perimeters of the pool, waiting for us to come out. Then it finally tried to come into the pool. The creature stuck its claw in and jumped back as it had been burned.
My eyes widened in realization. "It's afraid of water.", I mutter.
"I don't think it can swim.", Stiles said.
Wading in the pool went on for what felt like hours. We kept scanning the pool area for a hint or scale of the thing but couldn't see it and holding Derek was starting to get tiring.
"I don't think I can do this much longer.", Stiles breathed heavily.
"It's either we die drowning or at the hands of…that.", I say, irritated. Stiles' grip on Derek loosened when he began staring at his phone. My eyes widened as I sped up my kicking. Derek caught on to my panicking.
"No, no, no! Don't even think about it!", Derek yelled at him.
"Stiles, don't you fucking dare!", I huffed, trying not to swallow to chlorine water.
"Would you just trust me this once?", Stiles fussed.
"No, sir! Absolutely not!"
"I'm the one keeping you alive, did you notice that?", Stiles motioned tilted his head to the bottom of the pool.
"Yeah and when the paralysis wears off, who's going to be able to fight that thing? Me, Sam, or you?", Derek asked. I snapped my head to him in disbelief for even picking me as a candidate.
"So that's why we've been holding you up the past two hours? So you could fight it?", Stiles accused.
"You don't trust me, I don't trust you. You both need me to survive and that's exactly why you're not letting me go. If you do, both of us go down.", Derek said.
Stiles glanced from Derek, to me, to Derek again and in one swift motion he pushed Derek down.
"Stile—", Derek and I yelled but my cry finished with chlorine water burning in the back of my throat. I was sinking down with Derek.
I wanted to cough, to scream at Stiles, but my lungs burned as I tried to swim back up with Derek. The further we went, the more he and I got heavier.
Stiles came down and helped me pull him back up. I felt weak; we had to have been wading for two and a half hours. My muscles felt like jelly. Derek and I began gasping for air once we hit the surface.
"I'm gonna kill you, Stillinski!", I threatened Stiles. He looked like he gave up.
"We're gonna drown if we stay like this. We need something to hold onto.", I say and I dragged the other two to a starting block. I grasped my hand onto one of the metal handles. But my hand kept slipping as I felt myself being held under the water.
After reaching for it, it finally slipped and all three of us were sent under the water, unable to move anymore from exhaustion.
I let out what little breath I had, exhausted.
I saw Derek glancing at me with the same look he gave me when we were in that chamber under his house.
My eyes started fluttering from the lack of air and suddenly the three of us were grabbed, each lifted out of the pool, and thrown onto the deck.
"-ke up! Sam!"
My eyes opened to see a panicked Derek standing over me. I gasped for air, but as soon as I did that, I felt the water I swallowed lurch up in my throat.
I pushed him away, coughing up all the water that entered my body. After catching my breath, I shivered as I looked up tiredly to see Scott was there, looking at me with worry.
When we finally gained enough energy, Scott, Stiles and I walked outside while Derek tried to wake up an unconscious Erica. I rolled my eyes. How did he expect her to do anything if she couldn't wake up from being knocked out?
Scott had given me his jacket, which I draped over my shivering body while I leaned on Stiles' car.
"Is that even a language?" Stiles complained, the two were looking at a computer, which had the word Bestiary on it. The boys found it in a jump drive attached to Gerard's keys.
"How are we supposed to figure out what that thing is?", Scott mumbled, confused.
"It's called a Kanima.", Derek said, walking up to the car with Erica by his side.
"You knew this whole time?", I asked.
"No, only when it was confused by its own reflection.", Derek shook his head.
"It doesn't know what it is.", Scott said.
"Or who.", Derek corrected.
"Well, what else do you know?", Stiles asked, annoyed.
"Just stories. Rumors."
"But it's like us?", Scott asked.
"A shape shifter, yes. But it's- it's not right. It's like a—"
"An abomination.", Stiles finished. Derek nodded. I sighed and walked to Stiles' passenger side. Derek and Erica turned away to go walk to his car, but Scott stopped them.
"Derek, we need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents.", Scott suggested.
"You can't trust them.", I said, shaking my head.
"Nobody trusts anyone! That's the problem!", Scott exclaimed, frustrated.
"You still trust them Scott? You can't! That Gerard fuck isn't just someone we can underestimate. You don't understand. He's up to something and he knows too much.", I exclaimed.
"You wanna start this right now? Not trusting the only people that could help kill this thing? While we're here arguing who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of us, and it's killing people! And we still don't know anything about it!", Scott yelled.
"I know one thing. When I find it, I'm going to kill it.", Derek said finally and turned away, Erica right on his heels.
I sighed and left with Stiles. No one could trust anyone because we couldn't come to a single enemy. How can you trust the same people who's sworn purpose was to hunt and kill you…?