Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young.
How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from?
I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it,
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one


Chapter 27: Resurfacing


Scott was tense, worried. Sherry hated that look, not because of what it meant, but because of the stress it had to have on Scott. He was the sweetest kid she knew, and it hurt her to know that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He didn't deserve that kind of pain.

"Where's Kira?" Scott asked, alarm flashing in his brown eyes.

"Still at the library," Malia answered. Sherry tried to think back, not remembering seeing the girl during her brief pit stop. Did Kira know the library was about to close?

Continuing, Malia said, "Stiles and Lydia are at the hospital."

"Doing what?"

"Lydia's trying to figure out what happened to her during the surgery," she explained. She and the boys strode to the front double doors, and Sherry almost had to jog to keep up with their long legs.

"How long are they gonna be there?" Scott questioned.

"They said they're just waiting for the power to go back on." Malia's eyes flicked to Scott in concern, asking silently what was wrong. He just stared stonily ahead, his jaw tight with anticipation.

The four of them made it to the hospital in five minutes, with Sherry on Scott's motorcycle and Malia on Theo's. As they burst in through the hospital doors, the lobby felt as suffocating and swarming as always.

"You guys try to find Stiles and Lydia," Scott ordered, stepping into a dented elevator. He pushed a button, the doors sliding in front of him. "I'm gonna find my mom."

Malia nodded, stalking down the hall. "I'll get the lower floors," she called, although Sherry had the idea she was talking mostly to Theo. "You go up."

Theo headed off in the opposite direction, and Sherry, unsure what to do, stood in place for a moment, indecisively turning in half-circles.

The power shut off. Sherry jumped, panicked. If a chimera were responsible... she tried to think of movie and TV scenarios, wracking her brain for the most obvious place to look. Where would people not notice a wild chimera?

It clicked. Spinning, she raced to the stairs, knowing that the elevator would not work if it had no electricity to run on. She barely realized where she was headed until she realized that muscle memory had lead her to the far end of the hall, where a pair of rusty white doors hid the stairs from view. She pushed them open, not pausing to help the door gently close, like she usually did. They slammed closed behind her as she took the steps two at a time, rounding the corners innumerable times until finally, thighs aching, she stepped out onto the roof.

The sky was bright with light pollution, the moon waxing to an almost circle. The floor was concrete and grimy, reflecting an almost green sheen between the spatters of bird droppings. A big box was in the center of the roof, surrounded by a torn metal cage. The box's back doors were ripped off the hinges, and the mess of wires inside were mauled and sparking.

She noticed Stiles, standing as if in a trance in the middle of the roof. His face was blank, or maybe horrified; Sherry couldn't quite tell. He was muttering something too, something that sounded like "Mom." But his mother was dead, and there was no one else on the roof.

Except there was. A dark shape, previously hidden in the shadows, leapt out at Sherry. She almost screamed.

He had furious yellow irises, monstrous fanged teeth. His face contorted with energy, looking nothing short of deranged. She scrabbled for the stairs, her feet going nowhere on the slippery concrete.

She fell. Her knees banged hard on the floor, her hands sliding on the rough cement. Turning around to kick at her attacker, her vision blurred, and she now stared at the face of an angry woman, black perm framing her aging skin.

Mrs. Wang, the after-school program owner. A face Sherry had almost forgotten in the space of seven years.

"Are you," Mrs. Wang bit out, her voice shrill and condescending, "Going to apologize?"

Sherry shrank back. She was small, a skinny child, and she couldn't find the voice within her to speak up. Her eyes watered.

"Xue Li," Mrs. Wang chastised, using Sherry's Chinese name. She continued in Mandarin. "Didn't your mother teach you manners? Or have Americans failed at that as well?"

"I'm sorry," Sherry choked out in Chinese, surprised she remembered her pronunciation. "I'm never going to do it again."

The woman's eyes flashed yellow, even if only for a second. Sherry's bottom lip trembled. She looked down at the ground, but her eyes caught on Mrs. Wang's fingers. She had claws that tapered to a point, the color of smoke-stained walls, or maybe yellowed bones.

When Mrs. Wang caught her staring, she cackled. "Or I could make sure." She raised her claws into the air, as if about to strike Sherry. She sliced down, and Sherry threw her arms up in defense, clenching her eyes shut.

"Stop!" The voice of her savior, in clear, plain English.

Sherry spun around, almost relieved to see her enraged mother standing at the door. Her blonde hair billowed around her face like a frame of a comic.

"I said you could teach her a lesson, not physically hurt her!"

"She stole from me. She's been stealing from me for weeks!" Mrs. Wang's veins popped. Sherry almost thought she saw fangs in the woman's mouth.

"I work for Araya Calaveras," Linda Ming threatened. Mrs. Wang narrowed her eyes. "If you don't want to be her next target, I suggest you leave my daughter alone."

"I will do what I want!" Mrs. Wang roared, and the blow came like a burst of pain to Sherry's cheek. Then there was another blow, and another, but now Sherry's vision blurred again, her nightmare replaced by her real-life chimera attacker.

Suddenly the weight was lifted from on top of her. Sherry was bruised, bleeding, and being lifted from the ground.

Theo looked down at her, his face a perfect mask of worry. "Are you okay?"

Her skin was screaming. It took all of her strength to blink the tears from her eyes. She hacked a cough. "I'm okay."

He set her down inside the stairwell and said, "I'll be right back, alright? Run!"

Then he set off to fight the chimera again, shutting the metal door behind him. It clanged shut, enshrouding Sherry in darkness and silence.

She groaned, unwilling to run back down the stairs while her body was still shrieking. She reached for the door handle, pulling it down with her scant strength, and stuck her foot in the opening. Through the small crack, she watched the rest of the action.

Theo threw the creature off of Stiles, who seemed to be suffering from a flashback of his own. Finally aware, Stiles scrambled to the side, watching as the chimera rammed into Theo.

Theo slashed out, raking his claws against the chimera's flank. He stumbled backwards, then growled, his werewolf face contorted and furious. He slammed his fist into the chimera, battering him until he fell onto the concrete. Theo stomped on the chimera's hand, slicing some more.

The chimera rolled to his feet, slashing at Theo. Then Theo sank his claws into the chimera's throat.

Blood spurted everywhere, coating Theo's hand. It shone in the moonlight, a sickly sort of glow.

Sherry's gulped, clapping a hand over her mouth.

Stiles stared, his eyes wide and terrified.

Theo stood still, unfazed. "Stiles," he said, "You can't say anything." His yellow eyes faded. "Please. Don't say anything."

Stiles breathed, in and out. "Why not?"

There was a pause, and Sherry was almost certain she wasn't meant to be seeing or hearing this.

"Because I never said anything about Donovan."

The look of shock on Stiles' face was priceless.

"I know what happened to Donovan," Theo said. "I know everything"

Stiles shook his head and barreled at Theo, slamming the werewolf into the metal cage. "You don't know anything!"

"I was there," Theo roared, slipping from the hold and slamming Stiles into the cage instead. "I was at the library! Malia found the book," he growled. She was texting us to see where you were. She said she left you at the library." His voice softened, and he let go of Stiles. "I told her I was close. When I got there, I heard the scaffolding come down."

"You saw him?"

"Just the body. I watched you come out. I was gonna say something, but then I saw the cop car. And the body was gone. I don't know who took him. I only saw what you saw, and I didn't say anything because you didn't."

Out in the distance, a siren wailed, shaking the boys from their reverie and Sherry from her frozen shock.

"That's not an ambulance, is it?" Theo griped.

"We should get out of here."

"We can't just leave him."

"Fine."

"All right," Theo nodded, rubbing his hands together. He probably meant to warm his hands, but in light of the events, the action looked sinister to Sherry's eyes. "Let's take him. Someone's stealing the bodies anyway, right? Here's our chance to find out who."

Stiles shook his head, his eyes pained and his expression uncertain.

"Stiles, come on. We gotta do something."

"You killed him."

"In self-defense," Theo tried. "He was going to kill you and me. If we stay, we're either going to have to tell the truth or we're going to need a pretty convincing story." His head tilted to one side, his hair still characteristically unruffled. "It's your choice. I'm not going to ask you to lie to your dad."

"Don't worry," Stiles sighed. "I've had plenty of practice."

He kneeled down to grab the dead chimera and Theo went to help.

Sherry pulled herself away from the door, straining as she closed it gently, extra careful not to make a sound. Then she scooted to a corner, leaning into it to pretend she'd fallen asleep. It didn't take much effort, and she nearly believed it herself. Everything hurt, and she thought that if she didn't get antiseptic on her scratches soon, she might get infected.

The door swung open, the hinges squealing. The light bathed the room, bringing Sherry into view.

"Sherry?" Stiles jumped, his face raw with panic.

She blinked slowly. "What happened?" She let her eyes drift, until they landed on the body between the two boys. "Is he dead?"

Theo's lips had a ghost of a smile. "We were fighting and he started spouting mercury. He was just a time bomb waiting to go off. I guess the Dread Doctors knew, because they got to him right after."

A lie.

She pretended to believe it. "Oh. Where are you taking him?"

"Deaton's," Theo said. "Can you stand?"

"It hurts," she said truthfully. "I wanted to make sure you guys would be okay."

"Well, we're fine," Stiles retorted. "Can you go check on Lydia?"

Sherry nodded, and waited until they left to ease herself slowly to her feet. Her mind was swimming. Stiles had killed Donovan? She wasn't sure of all the facts, but Theo made it out to sound terrible. And if it was pure self-defense... why had they kept the two deaths a secret? Something was going on, and Sherry just hoped it wasn't as bad as she thought. Until further notice, she decided, she would give them the benefit of the doubt, which was that they both just felt guilty, even though they had no reason to be.


By the time she made it down to the lobby, it seemed that everything had been wrapped up, so she washed her scratches up in the bathroom and trudged outside for the long walk to the school. There, she unlocked her bike and finally went home.

She dozed off not long after she stuck band-aids all over herself and bundled up in her bed.

The next day, a Saturday, she buckled down and got to exercising. For several hours, she ran through the trails of Beacon Hills Preserve, and had a solitary picnic under the cover of redwood sentinels. She didn't get wrapped up in any crises until after she went to a movie with Mason, when her phone buzzed with a text.

"Meet me at the school."

She saw the text from Scott the moment the movie ended and groaned. She had excused herself from Mason, about to leave, when the boy suddenly called out her name.

She turned around, blinking. "Huh?"

"I have a question," Mason said, wincing at how awkward he sounded. "This might sound weird, but are you and Liam a thing?"

She almost choked. "Why are you asking?"

He pulled at the hem of his t-shirt. "It's really complicated, um—"

"Does Liam think we are?"

"I... I don't think so, but, look, I think he—"

"Then we're not," Sherry said, feeling like she was drowning a bit. She wasn't bitter, or angry, or any kind of upset, even. She was more resigned, given in to the idea that Liam would never feel the same. It was unavoidable.

Mason pressed his lips together like he wanted to say something else. Then he just nodded, though he looked miserable. "Alright."


At home, she changed into a warm hoodie that would be soft against her not-yet-healed skin, and descended the stairs. That was when she heard a sound come from the garage. Parrish was there, stuffing tools and weird box things into his trunk. Lydia stood by him, adjusting the spikes that stuck out from the tops of the boxes.

"What are you doing?" Sherry said, her voice soft and tired. She had a feeling Lydia'd been here a while.

"Going to the school," Lydia replied. "We're going to trap the Dread Doctors."

"Oh." Sherry shoved her feet into a pair of Vans and let herself into the back of Parrish's car. "I'm coming too."

Parrish shrugged. "Let's go, then."

Lydia's lips parted in surprise. She must have been expecting Parrish to spout some excuse about safety, or homework, or bedtime. Her face hidden in the shadows of the car, Sherry half-smiled to herself.


At the high school, Malia joined them to distribute the boxes — cell phone jammers, apparently — to places around the campus. "We're betting our lives on these?" she asked, unimpressed.

Lydia frowned, taking a box. "I think we're betting Hayden's life on them."

"Yeah, well," Parrish sighed, "I'm glad I brought my gun."

Sherry fidgeted. "Can someone explain to me what's going on?"

"Scott will tell you inside," Malia said, then shook her head. "Nevermind. Come with me." She grabbed Sherry's arm, not even waiting for her to move, and dragged the girl off to the side.

"Listen," Malia said seriously. Sherry thought she detected a hint of concern, which was odd, considering how little interaction the two of them had had. Sometimes, Sherry wondered if Malia even knew her name. "Before you go inside... I wanna make sure you're ready."

That was strange. "What could I possibly not be ready for?"

Her eyes flicking to the school anxiously, Malia said, "You'll know when you get there."

Sherry stared at her. And she'd thought her days of being kept in the dark were over.

"You reek of emotions."

"What?"

"You shouldn't go inside," Malia decided abruptly.

"You want me to stand guard outside the whole night?" Sherry crossed her arms. "I still don't know what's going on."

"You should just go home."

"Scott told me to come."

This seemed to catch. Malia growled. "Hayden is a chimera," she exclaimed in irritation. "And the Dread Doctors want to kill her, so we're keeping her inside the school."

Hayden? But she was never involved! "I want to talk to her," Sherry pleaded.

"That's not a good idea."

Sherry's eyes widened. "Is she in the murderous phase?"

"Well, no—"

"Then why can't I?"

Malia was strained, glancing around like someone else could come and relieve her apparent burden. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Hurt?"

"You're already smelling mopey. I don't want the stench to be worse."

"Oh." Although, she still had no idea what that meant. "So I can go see Hayden?"

"Hayden," Malia muttered, "and Liam."


A/N: Some people have been asking for more Malia/Sherry time, so here you have Malia worrying over her smol friend. What are your thoughts on the flashback? Unnecessary or an insightful look at Sherry's past? (Honestly, I thought Stiles' flashback was kind of useless.) Let me know what you think :)