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Author's Note: [smashes a bunch of prompts together into a sad little pile]

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts 2.0 (T05); RAVEN (2025); MC4A (Wi-Yr7)
Individual Challenges: Binger; Cinematic; Delilah; Bucket Listing; Outer Limit; Feather Head; Rainbow Connection; Spark Plug
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: Term 05 - Assignment 04
Subject [Task (Prompt)] : Circus Performance [Task#3 (underground)]
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Library [Insurgent](Truth); Frenzy [DC#2](Cave); Center [37 - Ducky](iridescent); Pokemon [95 - Onix](ash gray); Feb House [7 - St. Patrick](Charcoal);
RAVEN Challenges: A [39](Investigating); Traits [80](Sorrow); Colors [15](Charcoal); Items [31](Flashlight); Settings [92](Underground)
Other MC4A Challenges: Chim [Morwin]("Shadow" - Livingston; Autistic); Fire [Relief]; Garden [Pot Garden (Cold); Herbs (Dry); Fall Fires (Parent & Child)]; Hang [Phrase#01](n/a)
Representation(s): Mieczysław "Stiles" Stilinski; Stilinski Family Feels; Hale Family Feels; Grief/Mourning; Kid Fic
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: n/a
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: n/a
Space Address (Prompt): WiB 4E (Fireplace/Hearth); Vocab 5E (Duty)
Word Count: 1186 words

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What the Basement Hid
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There had been rumors of catacombs under Beacon Hills for years, whispered about in that way that urban legends tended to be. The rumors spoke of a labyrinth of tunnels and hidden rooms that lay beneath the seemingly quiet town. As these kinds of stories go, the labyrinth was filled with mysterious treasures and secrets waiting to be discovered. Stiles could remember how his mother had always laughed when his father had always followed up with a grim prediction that their son would become a troll.

Many summers had been filled with exploring the preserve as a family. Dad would have the whole day off for once. Mama would pack a picnic into the old hiking backpack that she had used during her college years. Then off they would wander like the explorers in the adventure books that Stiles had devoured as a kid almost as much as he had the mystery books. Those days were some of the best days.

Then Claudia had gotten sick.

Like the way the preserve would fade with the oncoming winter, all of the happiness and life in the Stilinski family had withered away until only the bones remained.

It wasn't as dramatic as it had been for the neighboring Hale family. While the Stilinskis had still been reeling from Claudia's sharp decline and death, the large house the Hales all lived in near the edge of the preserve had burned to the ground. According to all the paperwork, it had been nothing more than an electrical fire. But what electrical fire burned hot enough to destroy bodies that quickly? And why would the family head to the basement rather than out the doors or windows?

Nine people died in an impossible fire and another one ends up with third degree burns on an alarming percentage of his body. The fact that Peter Hale seemed to be in a weird cross between a coma and catatonia wasn't nearly as surprising as the fact he survived at all. Add in how the hospital had called in a veterinarian to consult on the case, and things really didn't make sense.

The search for the real truth led Stiles to exploring the ruins of the Hale house.

His father would have denied Stiles the chance to explore the place at all. Two years and a half years after the fire, it was surprising that the blacken remains was still mostly standing. The whole place probably would have been condemned if it had been closer to town. It was definitely not safe to be wandering around on his own like he was.

But Noah Stilinski had buried himself after his wife's death, first in a bottle and then in work. So he wasn't aware enough of his son to be aware of where the ten-year-old was going. And maybe Stiles would be hurt by that, if he let himself. But most of the time, his father ignoring his parental duty for the most part just meant that Stiles could do what he felt necessary without too much interference.

Like wandering around a should-be-condemned building looking for clues to a possible mass murder.

The Hale house had a kind of shattered glory even as a burnt out shell. The first floor was mostly intact as were the wooden stairs to the second floor. Given how Stiles could see into the second floor from the first floor and sometimes even the sky, he opted not to risk attempting to explore there anyway. When he found the stone stairs into the basement, he immediately head down.

The railing on the stairs was nothing but a twisted chunk of charcoal metal barely clinging to the wall. It was a vivid reminder that the final body count of the Hale family was made by subtracting the survivors. Something in the pit of his stomach twisted at the thought. Stiles could understand why the two members who hadn't been present when the fire had burned had fled like they had. If leaving everything behind had been an option after his mother's death, Stiles would have fled, too, and that was the loss of just one family member. Losing so many at once was incomprehensible.

The basement was shockingly normal looking. Well, if one didn't pay much attention to the large oily stain near one of the casement windows. Stiles knew that outside that very window was where they had found Peter Hale, burned but still attempting to pull the bars out of the way of his family. Seeing it from this side was even more depressing than picturing it while reading the reports.

Stiles moved his flashlight around the rest of the basement. When the weak light touched the back wall, something shimmered along the floor. Cautiously, Stiles moved closer. There was a dark iridescent powder in a solid line. When Stiles touched it with his fingertips, a small burst of energy went up his arm like a spark of super strong static electricity.

Stiles frowned at the dust coating his fingers now. Then he frowned up at the wall of ash gray cinder blocks beyond the line of powder. There was something about the wall that pinged his instincts as weird. He almost missed the little triskele carved in between two rows of blocks. With his normal tactile curiosity, he pressed two fingers to the symbol.

It compressed like a button and the whole section of wall around it swung away from the basement. The revealed hallway stretched beyond the beam of his flashlight.

Stiles looked around himself. Everyone knew about the catacombs under the town. If the Hale house had an entrance to them, it was hard to believe that the Hales wouldn't have known that. Especially since the Hales had run down to the basement, where said entrance was. So why had they gathered at the window rather than escaping into the tunnels?

Taking a deep breath, Stiles stepped over the strange line of ash into the corridor beyond the basement. As he walked along the hallway, his light flowed over the blocks that made up the walls. They were solid stone, not cinder block like the basement had been. Some of the blocks were the ash gray granite that was all over the county. Occasionally, there would be a block of rarer granite that was charcoal black or even a bluish gray. Cold radiated from the stone in a way that spoke of how thoroughly underground the hallway was.

Eventually he reached a section where the hallway widened. He swung his light around the space that smelled strongly of damp rock and moss. The walls here were different, no longer made up of blocks. Pointing the beam straight up, Stiles realized that he was in some kind of natural cave. There was three major branches across from the man-made hallway he had entered through.

Stiles took a moment to exam the annex chamber. Then he decided to head back the way he came. He needed to be better prepared if he was going to be doing any potential spelunking.

He could come back.

And he would.