AN: Here you guys go! A nice long chapter to make up for the previous filler. Hope you enjoy. Thank you so much for the reviews!

Izi: I really enjoy making Erica a bitch to her former friend :)


I marched into the school, fuming with anger. There was no fucking way Erica was ditching me without payback. I heard Stiles' blabbering muffled, coming from the pool. Were they together right now? What was I really going to walk into? When I opened the door, Erica and Derek were standing facing me, Stiles jumping at the sound of the door slamming against the wall. All three of them turned their eyes towards me before looking directly above me. I strode forward, ready to push Erica into the pool, but stopped just ahead of her when I heard a hissing sound from above us. I turned to see what had made the noise. I was not expecting to see a giant lizard hanging from the bars in front of the bleachers. It was huge and a dark green, yellow eyes turned towards us, with a long tail that flicked about lazily.

"What the fuck?" Were the only words I was able to get out of my mouth, the door slamming shut behind me as we all stood in silence for a long minute, anticipating what was going to happen. I could hear everyone's breathing for a moment as adrenaline kicked in, mostly terrified at what was about to occur. Erica suddenly shoved me forward, trying to provide a distraction for herself to get away. I fell onto my knees, staring with wide eyes at the creature that was no doubt going to kill me.

And then, as if my day couldn't get any worse, the lizard lunged at me. I squeaked and shot out to my left, my elbows slamming into the concrete floor. I wasted no time in jumping back to my feet, turning to see what the fuck was happening. The lizard lost its interest in me for the moment and instead faced Erica, who was looking between me and Derek. While she was looking though, the lizard easily jumped towards her and threw her across the room, slamming her into a wall. A yelp escaped my throat, drawing it's attention back to me as Derek and Stiles ran in the opposite direction. My eyes desperately searched around me for anything to defend myself, but nothing seemed to be near me that could offer any aid.

Instead, I shoved a stray chair towards the monster, my heart nearly jumping in my throat as I sprinted the opposite direction of Stiles. There was an emergency fire escape on the other side of the pool, and maybe, just maybe, this thing wasn't smart enough to follow me outside. Unfortunately, I was still shit out of luck. The monster jumped right over me, landing with ease just a few feet ahead of me, it's skin rippling with lithe muscles.

The only word repeated through my head was a constant stream of fuck fuck fuck as I backed away, my hands brought up defensively. The monster, however, didn't seem to understand surrender as it raised an arm at me, his claws dripping with what almost looked like corn syrup. It's hand suddenly was brought down to my side, smacking me easily to the side, and straight into the wall near Erica. My side exploded with pain, a grunt escaping me as I slid down. I opened my eyes to see Erica, who was twitching in front of me, her eyes looking around frantically. When I reached out to her, the giant monster grabbed me from the wall and threw me again. For a second, all I felt was weightlessness, and I refused to open my eyes to see where I was landing.

I found out when half my body landed in water, the other half smacking hard into the cement side of the pool. Black enveloped my vision as there was a ringing in my ears, and I couldn't even feel how cold the water was as I slid all the way into the pool, a hand stretched back towards the surface.

You know that feeling you get when you're waking up in the morning, when you haven't quite realized you're awake yet? Where you're just conscious of being there, not really existing? Maybe reenacting the good part of a dream or a memory, but not at all concerned with reality.

Waking up underwater was a bit like that. Except, the time it took me to realize I was underwater and the time it took me to realize that my lungs were aching for air was much, much shorter. I felt the concrete of the bottom of the pool against my back, and I instantly wound up like a spring and pushed with my legs, my arms reaching towards the surface as though I could pull it down closer to me. When I burst through the surface, I gulped in deep breaths, suddenly remembering that this was not normal. When I looked around frantically, still gasping, I remembered exactly where I was and exactly what had happened.

I spun in all directions, eventually picking the wall nearest the emergency exit to swim towards.

"Erica?" I heard Stiles call out from the other pool, where we were separated by several feet of concrete. The pool room had two separate pools, one for swimming and one for diving, the one for diving being significantly smaller. I managed to be swimming about in the smaller one, which was across the room from the exit.

"Stiles!" I gasped out, unsure if I should join him or make a mad dash for the exit.

"Claire?" He called out in disbelief, and my resolve to save my friend won out. "You should be dead!" He called out, and confusion rang through me. "Not that I'm not happy you're not, I'd rather you be living-"

"Shut up." I heard someone say from next to Stiles. "I'd rather drown than listen to you stammer." I had almost made it to the edge of the pool when I heard a low growl. Instantly, I backed away, treading water while I thought of a plan.

"Well right now, maybe I can make that happen!" I heard Stiles threaten.

"Do that and you're dead." I realized now that it was Derek talking, and I threw my head back in the water.

"How long was I under?" I asked, recalling that I had definitely hit some very hard surfaces. However, the adrenaline rushing through me allowed me the pleasure to not feel anything but the icy water against my skin.

"At least a half hour, if not more." Derek called out. I stopped treading for a moment in confusion before continuing my actions. An half hour underwater? Is that even possible? I stared at the half foot of concrete I'd need to hoist myself onto for my escape, suddenly feeling a lot heavier. "You really shouldn't be alive, Clara." Derek called out, leaving me to once again ponder why I was alive.

"I told you Clara's a fighter." Stiles called out proudly. "Too stubborn to die." I snorted at this, momentarily forgetting that I really should be dead. And if I wanted to continue to survive this night, I'd need to fight even harder. Who was even going to save us?

"Stiles?" I called out, needing to at least hear that he was with me in this fucked up ordeal.

"Yeah?" He yelled back. I waited a moment before answering, the adrenaline wavering.

"If I get out of this alive you better tell me what the fuck is going on." I finally threatened.

"If we get out of this alive I will pledge my whole life to you!" He yelled back at me. A grin crossed my face, and I bit back a laugh.

"Just the truth is fine!" I joked back, earning a mock gasp from Stiles. I wanted to be able to see him, not just call out to each other every few seconds.

"Do you. . ." I called out, spinning to look at the exit door as a plan formed in my head. "Do you think it can understand what we're saying?" I asked Stiles and Derek.

"I don't think so." Derek called out for me.

I breathed out a sigh. I don't think so was going to have to cut it for now. "I'm closer to the door now." I called out. "I'm going to make a run for it, and then I'm going to get help." I edged closer to the pools ledge, waiting for the telltale sound of the lizard growling, but for the moment I heard nothing.

"No, that is a bad plan!" Stiles instantly yelled back. I scoffed at him, kicking my shoes off underwater so I wouldn't have to worry about them weighing me down. I also slid off my jacket, leaving me in just my black crop top, my skinny jeans, and my socks. Probably not the best attire for running away from a murderous lizard, but I'd make do.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Stiles. Do you have a better plan?" I yelled at him, wishing that he did.

"His plan drowned a few minutes before you came back up." Derek called out. I heard some grumbling from the other pool, but I paid no attention to it as I tentatively swam closer to the edge. Even when I reached it, I hadn't even heard a sound apart from water lapping against the edges of the pool.

The lizard was nowhere in sight as I placed my hands firmly against the concrete, pushing up and pulling my knees up. I stood up wearily, feeling a hundred pounds heavier as I was back on dry land. With no sign of the lizard yet, I stepped backwards, surveying the entire room. Erica was still leaning against a wall, her eyes closed but her stomach moving up and down visibly as she breathed. Stiles was supporting Derek in the water, who didn't seem to be doing any of the kicking. Both of them watched me with wide eyes as I pressed my back against the wall and edged closer to the door, every step giving me just a little more hope.

"CLAIRE WATCH OUT!" Stiles suddenly yelled. I leapt backwards as the lizard suddenly dropped from the rafters, crawling towards me on all fours. I stumbled back, hands grasping beside me as I looked for anything to defend myself. The lizard stalked me, taking a step forward as I scooted myself back. My head bumped a wall, and the lizard thing suddenly reached out for my leg, his claws grabbing just below my knee and raking down, tearing my jeans and scratching my skin. I screamed and kicked out, one foot colliding with it's shoulder, giving me a split second to pull my leg back from it and push myself onto my feet. I pushed against the wall I had been cornered against, running the opposite direction of the door, towards where Erica remained unconscious. Just as I felt I was getting ahead, the lizard grasped onto my leg again, making me fall onto the concrete. It forced me to flip over so that I was looking towards the ceiling. I felt it crawl along me, stopping once it's face reached my own. I felt my panicked breaths stop for a minute, terrified. It stared at me with it's glowing yellow eyes, one hand poised above it's head. It suddenly opened it's mouth and roared, the jagged teeth reminding me of a shark. I reached an arm out, desperately looking for anything to bash it's head in, when my hand closed around what felt like a thin piece of glass. I grabbed it and aimed for the rib cage, my own hand stinging as I gripped it as hard as I could. It roared up towards the ceiling, and I took this as my chance to dive away. Knowing now that I definitely wouldn't be able to outrun it, I instead took a hint from Stiles and barreled towards the water, barely sliding in as the monster reached out to grab me again.

I kicked my way up to the surface, finding myself face to face with Stiles and Derek.

"Fancy seeing you guys here." I quipped, a sarcastic grin making its way onto my face. Stiles and Derek both shot me an "are you fucking kidding me" looks, and I fought hard to keep my grin on.

"Are you feeling okay?" Derek asked, his eyebrows scrunching at me.

I looked down at my legs under water, the area immediately surrounding me already turning pink with blood. "You know I'm not having the best day, but thanks for asking." I shot at him, determined to stay in a good mood.

"No, what he means is do you still feel your body? Nothings going numb? Not about to sink to your not-death again?" Stiles asked, sounding more out of breath than before.

I looked down at the water again, flexing my fingers and toes. "I feel fine." I told them, and apart from my legs burning with pain from the scratches, and various parts of my body aching, I wasn't feeling numb.

"What are you?" Derek growled, and I snapped my head to look in his eyes.

"Very fucking tired." I replied steadily, keeping our eye contact until the monster growled again.

"There's a paralytic in Lizard man's juice, you should start going numb by now." Stiles finally replied. I did my best of a shrug, getting tired of treading water. Stiles, on the other hand, looked exhausted holding Derek up.

"And Derek and Erica were hit with it, weren't they?" I asked, looking back over my shoulder at Erica's body.

"Yeah." Derek replied. "So why aren't you going down?" I rolled my eyes.

"That's another problem for another day." I finally answered before I swam closer to Stiles. "Here, let me take him." Stiles wasted no time in passing Derek off to me, and I held Derek's body close to mine, feeling only slightly awkward. I had only met this guy like twice before. His bodyweight pulled me down even more, forcing me to double my kicks to keep us afloat. Stiles relaxed for a moment, allowing himself to float. Derek, however angry he was at the situation, only growled low under his breath when I readjusted my grip so I would stop kicking our legs together.

"How are we getting out of this?" I asked after a few moments of silence. Nobody answered me, and I felt fear grow in my throat. "Nothing?" I asked. Again, no one answered me. "So we're just going to tread water all night long until the janitor decides to make an appearance?"

"Well our plan was Scott, but he decided to hang up before I got any juicy details out." Derek groaned at the mention of Scott, but I grew more confused.

"Why would Scott be of any help?" I asked. Stiles stopped floating and instead looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"He'd be able to call my dad. Duh." Stiles took Derek from me, and I was grateful for the chance to relax. The loss of adrenaline was starting to make me woozy, and in the silence that followed the awkward conversation, I retreated to my thoughts.

I should have been dead. I knew the body couldn't last for long without oxygen. So how was I still alive after spending a half hour underwater? I recalled Erica throwing me to the lizard. I really should have been dead. More so, I wanted to kill Erica. If there was any proof now that me and her were no longer friends, this was it. There would never be any recovering from this. Stiles was growing tired, and I felt exhaustion kicking in. I leaned back in the water, letting myself float in an effort to get my heart to slow down. Instead, I opened my eyes to look at the sky light. It was practically black outside. How long had we been here for? The lizard monster was watching us from the ceiling, circling from above. My cut had done nothing but piss him off.

"We could trick it." I said as yet another disastrous plan formed in my head.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked, spitting water out as Stiles accidentally dipped him under the water again. I swam closer to them, relieving Stiles of carrying him again.

"It can't go after all of us at the same time." Stiles gasped in relief and began floating, obviously already exhausted.

"That sounds like a horrible plan." He let out, inhaling deeply as I kicked as hard as I could to keep us floating. "It will just eat all of us if we try anything."

"We'll just drown if we don't try anything!" I shot back, anger replacing my fear.

"Stiles is right, it's a terrible idea." Derek told me.

"I'm the one holding you right now, Derek!" I hissed in his ear. "I wouldn't mind letting go of you for a few minutes!" I felt Derek growl and he attempted to twist, but all he was able to do was twitch around a bit.

"Drop me and I'll come after you next." He attempted to threaten, but I just dipped his head below the surface a bit. Stiles started coming closer, ready to break up a fight.I had the upper hand here, and if it meant sacrificing one person to save the lives of two, I'd do it. The instant the thought ran through my head, I felt guilty. Derek, as much a creep as he was, still had a life.

"Tensions are running high!" Stiles grabbed Derek out of my arms, letting me swim away a few feet.

"Sorry." I grumbled. Looking up at the monster again. It hadn't moved from it's position, instead just staring us down with the bright yellow eyes. "But I do think one of us should try running again."

"I'm not going to make it out of the door." Stiles answered me, the exhaustion growing in his voice. I saw Stiles slip below the surface again, and I swam back over to relieve him of holding Derek up.

"Are you starting to get feeling back?" I asked Derek, my legs growing tired.

"I think I can wiggle my fingers." He told me, and I felt him twitch them against my stomach.

"I need something to hold myself up." Stiles told me, his head dipping below the surface. He bobbed back up a second later, but began an exhausted stroke to the diving boards. I followed with Derek, struggling to keep both of our heads above the water. The growling from the lizard grew louder with every push we made. I was exhausted. Stiles was exhausted. Derek was offering no help. I felt I had no choice but to follow Stiles, who was trying to push himself up to grab at the board. I kicked harder as he missed, sinking under. I made it to the ledge with Derek just after Stiles went under, and I dropped Derek without thinking about it as I dove after Stiles. I felt claws grab at my shoulder, and I panicked when it pulled me up, Stiles being pulled up at the same time. We were tossed over the edge of the pool, smacking onto the cement. I sucked in air and looked up, prepared to see the giant lizard towering over us. Instead, Scott stood between us and the lizard. He glanced halfway over his shoulder at me. But it wasn't normal. His cheekbones and eyebrows were accentuated, and hair was growing along his jawline. I froze, my elbows locking into place as I stared at his back. What the fuck? Scott suddenly roared at the giant lizard, and it backed up for a second before jumping through the skylight, glass shattering into the pool. I kept gulping down air as Scott turned to face us, his features rapidly turning back to normal in front of my eyes.

"Am I dead?" I asked, trying to think of a reason any of this would make sense. Oxygen deprivation? One of the blows to my head maybe knocked a few screws loose? Maybe I never even made it inside. Maybe I fell off the bleachers and got a concussion and I'm dreaming. Maybe the fries had some sort of hallucinogen baked in. Scott knelt down beside Stiles and I, ignoring my question but checking us over. He looked at my leg, and the cuts didn't seem to be too deep. Derek was regaining his control, leaning up for himself against one of the diving boards. Stiles had propped himself on a chair beside me, breathing hard and watching me.

"You know you just have great timing." Stiles spat out. "Would have been better an hour ago, but I guess you wanted your grand entrance."

"I got the bestiary!" Scott held up a tiny flashdrive. A bestiary? Little puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. They'd need a bestiary to find out what we'd been facing. But why them? Weren't there people to take care of problems like this.

"Oh, goodie." Stiles commented sarcastically. "At least now we'll know what's trying to kill us." Another chorus of what the fuck rang through my head, but I found myself frozen.

"I think we need to talk." Scott told me while putting an arm under mine to help me into a seat.

"Can it wait?" I found myself asking. My brain was already melting from loads of new information. Mostly, the thought of the giant lizard coming after me was consuming my thoughts.

Scott and Stiles exchanged a look, having a silent conversation with only head nods and shrugs.

"Fine but we need to talk soon, okay?" Scott asked, standing up. "We need to see what's on this USB." Scott tried to help us all up, Derek finally able to stand again.

Scott, Stiles, and Derek made their way outside, ushering me to follow them. I declined, staying behind with Erica. They seemed reluctant to leave me with her, but I insisted we'd be fine.

"Wakey wakey." I shook her shoulder, eliciting a groan. She seemed almost peaceful in her sleep, and I had the sudden thought that maybe I was giving up on a friend that was calling out for help. However, she'd pretty much sacrificed me. It was a miracle I was alive with only a few scratches on my body. Some fluke of nature. When she didn't immediately wake up, I walked to the edge of the pool, dipping my hands in the water to cup some. I threw it on to her face, and was pleased when she sat up in shock of the cold water.

"What the fuck?" She yelled, scrambling up. When she realized it was just me and her, she pouted her lip out. "Claraaaaaa." She drug out. I narrowed my eyes at her act. If I couldn't make sense of everything that happened here tonight, I could make sense of the lack of friendship Erica and I had sunk into.

"So are you going to offer an explanation?" I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms, my decision already made.

She sputtered for a moment, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she scrambled to make an explanation. "I-I'm sorry!" She finally got out. "I panicked." She tried to reach out to me, but I smacked her arms away.

"I kept thinking she's just going through something, it'll go back to normal in a while. Oh, this is just her way of coping, I need to try and understand what she's been through." I raised my arms in a mocking way. "And every time, you have disappointed me." I scoffed and crossed my arms again. "We'd been best friends for what, three, four years?" I asked, not expecting an answer. "And look at how it's gone to waste." I gestured between the two of us, trying to show how broken we are. Only this was beyond broken, it wasn't something we could just fix. Nor did I have any desire to fix this.

"Oh please." Erica spat out, catching me by surprise. "We haven't been the same since you made varsity soccer and started acting better than me." I rolled my eyes.

"I have never thought of myself being better than you!" I shouted, throwing my hands out beside me. "You were always the one putting me on this pedestal made of sunshine and rainbows. You were the one always tearing yourself down." I felt my eyes burning with tears I refused to shed. Erica stood in front of me, anger coursing through her. "But now I know." I spat out much quieter. "I am, and will always be, better than you." I turned on my heel, ready to leave. "Because I don't throw my friends around and only play with them when I need them." I began making my way out of the pool room, my clothes still dripping. The tile was cold under my socks, and I felt goosebumps spread across my skin as I opened the door leading outside. Scott, Stiles, and Derek turned to look at me from next to Scott's car. I made my way across the now empty parking lot, not even glancing behind me when I heard the doors open with Erica behind me.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" She yelled out. "One day you'll realize we're not so different." Erica continued. I ignored it, keeping my stride as I came to stand beside Stiles.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked, linking an arm around his.

"Go where?" He asked, looking down at me with a puzzled glance.

"Our date." I answered simply. Derek had left their side when Erica came back outside, leaving Scott to grin at Stiles, who instantly began stuttering.

"I-I mean, I just thought that-that this would call for another r-rain check, you know?" He looked between me and Scott with wide eyes, and I pouted for a second. My normal emotions were taking a back seat as I let my need to show off take over.

"You want to cancel tonight?" I asked with my best puppy dog eyes.

"Uh, no. Definitely not. Sorry Scott, I'm leaving you to it." I grinned at Stiles and began walking backwards, throwing Scott a half-assed salute as Stiles stumbled to keep up with me.