I walk silently onto the field and watch as the players endlessly bash into each other. I cringe and stop momentarily to watch the boys on the field hurt themselves further. I notice one body on the field is particularly larger than the rest--there is no way that guy is a teenager.
"Abigail!" I look to bench to see Stiles waving me over and I quietly maneuver behind couch and sit next to him. "Where have you been?"
I move my eyes back to the field and watch as another of our players gets taken down by the jolly green giant from the other team. I let out a wince as our player yells out in pain, "Oh, I just had to run home and get my jacket."
He sends me an unsure look, but I just smile back at him before my eyes catch something behind him. I notice Allison on the bleachers sitting next to Gerard. I also take notice of his jacket around her and her hand in the pocket. I smile even brighter now, realizing what she did.
That sly girl.
I grab Stiles's jersey and yank him up from the bench, making sure Gerard's eyes are still trained on the field. We walk silently past the bleachers and as we pass Allison, she lets to the keys slide from her fingers into mine.
I turn to walk towards the building, but a shoulder meeting mine stops me. I quickly hide the keys in my own pocket, and turn to give whoever the hell just bumped into me, a nasty comment.
"Oh, hey," I stare at the kid in front of me for a long second, trying to make a name to his face, but I can't remember it.
Mike, maybe?
I notice the camera in his hands and realize that he most likely rarely doesn't have one. He sends me an uneasy smile, "You probably don't remember me, but we met the other day. I'm Matt."
I feel my face express my realization at his words, "Matt! Yes, I remember, you were standing by locker the other day."
I look to Stiles and see him staring at Matt with an unsure look on his face.
Yeah, Stiles, I feel the same way.
Matt's eyes don't leave me as he ignores Stiles behind me. "So, I was wondering-"
I nervously move the keys around in my pocket as he begins to talk, but Stiles quickly cuts him off, "Listen, we have to go, but I'm sure Abby would love to catch up with you later."
I send Matt an apologetic look as Stiles grabs my hand and we start off to the school in front of us. I turn back one last time when a glimpse of light catches my eyes, only to see Matt starring down at his camera.
"So, that was weird." Stiles's words come out breathlessly as we continue to half jog, half run to the school.
I nod along with him agreeing, "Yeah, I've literally met the kid once. He always gives me this weird vibe," I notice Stiles stopped running and his eyes are trained on a car nearby. A very familiar car, oh god.
I notice his eyes race between the school and the car in front of us multiple times before landing on the car, "Stiles, wait,"
"Lydia, what's wrong?" I let a gust of air as he walks over to the open window. I peer over to see Lydia crying in the drivers seat of her car, but I look back to the school with stress.
"Stiles!" I whisper yell his name, but he ignores me for the strawberry blonde.
I shake my head once more before heading to the school by myself. I need to get this book, if not with Stiles then alone. It's too important.
I race down the empty hallways until I see Gerard's office door in front of me. I hurry and use the key to unlock it before pushing through the door. I look around and see everything is fairly organized.
Bookshelf or desk?
Bookshelf is too easy, desk first. I get through about 3 drawers in the desk before the office door is thrown open. I hold in a scream of surprise when Stiles stumbles in. "God! Are you trying to kill me?!"
He immediately starts looking with me and shakes his head, "Lydia-"
"I know, its okay." He sends me a small smile before we continue to look in silence. I sigh aggravated, and slam the last drawer shut. "There's nothing in here. It's not here."
He sighs and takes out his phone before typing out a message. I look around last time before the sound of Stiles dropping something makes me jump. I jump again when I notice a certain blonde standing in the doorway. "Hello, Stiles. Abby."
"Seriously?" I let out an annoyed sigh and shake my head. This just never gets old. I follow the two as barbie girl pulls Stiles along with her. I notice her grip get a little too tight as we enter another room and I grip Stiles's shirt in my hand before yanking him away from her. "Watch it."
"Stiles. Abigail." I turn to see Derek pacing in front of the giant pool with a basketball in his hands. I roll my eyes at the dramatics. Can't people just talk anymore? Without all the cynical, dark meetings?
Stiles attempts to deepen his voice slightly, "Derek."
I roll my eyes at the two before sending Derek a bright smile, "Hi, long time no see."
I watch as Derek's eyes stay trained on me before he turns serious and looks back to Stiles, "What did you see at the mechanics garage?"
Stiles shrugs nonchalantly before giving his best Stiles answers, "Uh, several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting," Derek smiles sarcastically before he uses his claws to deflate the basketball in his hands, "Holy God."
"Let's try that again." I watch Derek silently, until I see the nervousness on Stiles's face.
I shrug and move forward slightly, "You know, I was there. I could tell you what happened. Why don't you ask me?"
I feel an hand rest on my arm and it pulls me back. I turn to Stiles and see him shaking his head, "All right, the thing was pretty slick looking. Um, skin was dark. Kind of patterned. Uh, I think I actually saw scales. Is that enough? Okay, because I've somebody I really need to talk to," I sigh as Derek gives him a blank look and Stiles lets out a groan, "All right, fine, eyes. Eyes are, um, yellowish. And slitted. Um, has a lot of teeth."
I nod along with his description and slap his arm lightly, "Hey, don't forget the tail. It had a tail."
Stiles sends me a look and I shrug in response. That's when I notice Derek and Erica's eyes trained on something behind us. "Are we good? What? Wait, have you seen it? You have this look on your faces like you know exactly what we're talking about."
I slowly turn my head to look behind me and let out a gasp when I see the creature climbing on a railing above us. I begin to back away, but arms wrap around my waist and pull me back quicker than I could have moved myself, "Run!"
I watch as the creature throws Erica's body against the wall and she falls unconscious. I step out of Derek's arms and he shoves Stiles out of harms way. I look to the back of Derek's neck and notice a newly cut thin scratch there . I move forward and touch the back of his neck, "Derek, your neck. It scratched you."
I let my hand fall to the back of my neck where my scratch once was before. Suddenly Derek's body becomes slack and his entire weight is resting on me. "Stiles, help me!" He races over and helps me hold up Derek's unresponsive body. "Jesus, Derek! Sometimes being muscular isn't very helpful!"
We start to carry him to other side of the pool. I look around the best I can to try and find the creature, but it's no where to be seen. "Where is it? Can you see it?"
Derek's voice cuts through ours as we continue to move away, "I can smell it. Call Scott!"
Stiles lets go of Derek's body to reach for his phone as it falls to the floor, but due to my lack of body weight compared to Derek's, I lose my balance and we both fall into the cold water next to me. In the last seconds of being above water, I inhale as deeply as I can before being completely submerged into the water.
I open my eyes and ignore the stinging from the chlorine. I notice Derek's body sinking further down and I race down to him. I feel my lungs already fighting for a fresh breath of air, but I ignore it as I grip Derek's bicep and try to pull him to the surface.
I start to feel panic as I can't seem to bring him back up alone. He watches me silently but I see the look in his eyes.
He wants me to leave him here.
I shake my head defiantly and begin to yank him up even harder. I begin to lose all hope when suddenly Stiles swims up beside us and gets a grip on Derek's arm. We start to swim up and, thankfully, Derek comes up with us. I inhale deeply as we hit the surface, but continue to make sure I keep my grip on Derek.
Stiles inhales sharply and we both continue to look around the room, "Where did it go? Do you see it?"
I shake my head as I don't see anything around the room besides a still unconscious Erica. Derek looks around as best as he can while paralyzed, "No."
Stiles lets out a sigh of relief, "Okay, maybe it took off."
I let out a annoyed gasp as a hear a certain hiss from around us, "Yeah, maybe not."
I feel my arms starting to strain as I hold up Derek's body and my legs start to whine from kicking in the water for so long. Derek spits water from his mouth as his chin is barely just above water, "Can you get me out of here before I drown?"
I roll my eyes at his tone as Stiles sarcastically replies, "You're worried about drowning? Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?"
Derek grumbles angrily while I continue to swim next to him, "Did you notice I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?"
"Can we stop?!" I let out a puff of air as my lungs begin to grow more tired, "We are all in a really shitty situation right now, okay? Derek I won't let you drown so shut the hell up and Stiles you are not helping by pointing out the obvious," They both look at me silently and I let out a breath of relief, "Thank you. Now, how the hell are we getting out of here?"
Stiles looks around he room once again from out spot in the pool, "Okay. I don't see it." We take this as our time to start paddling closer to the edge of the pool and I start to feel hopeful and excited to finally rest my legs. I freeze when Derek's voice shouts out, "Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop."
I groan when I see the creature stalking along the other side of pool like some type of prey just waiting for us to get out, "What's it waiting for?"
That's when I notice it place its clawed hand into the water before backing away quickly, "Hey, whoa, did you guys see that? It's waiting for us to get out, I don't think it can swim."
I watch as it continues to stalk around the pool, watching us contently. I keep my tiredness hidden as I continue to hold Derek up while trying to hold myself afloat as well. For a second I feel my legs give out and my head goes under the water briefly. I pull myself back up and inhale sharply.
"Abigail-" I cut Derek off with a short nod, "I'm fine. Really. I just needed a second."
I'm gonna need a lot longer than a second soon.
"Okay. Okay, I don't think I can do this much longer." I notice Stiles look at his phone laying on the pool edge. Roughly fifteen feet away from us.
Oh, god.
Derek notices Stiles's destination too, "No, no, no. Don't even think about it."
Stiles sighs heavily as he continues to fight to keep his head above water, "Would you just trust me this once?"
"No." I sigh at the lack of hesitance in Derek's voice. I don't want Stiles to leave us here either because I know that I won't be able to keep us afloat and I don't think I can even manage to swim all the way to the phone at this point.
"I'm the one of the people keeping you alive, okay, have you noticed that?" Stiles spits water out as he talks to Derek, and I notice his glances at the phone grow more.
"Yeah. And when the paralysis wears off, who is gonna be able to fight that thing, you or me? You don't trust me, I don't trust you. You need me to survive, which is why you are not letting me go,"
I feel myself slip once again and my head submerges under water. I pull myself up again and inhale deeply before suddenly Stiles lets go of Derek and begins racing to the phone. I grab Derek's waist and pull his head above water briefly, "Take a deep breathe!"
I inhale sharply before the water completely covers my head and I start to slowly sink to the bottom of the pool. I try to kick my legs, but the weight of my own body it too much. I loosen my grip on Derek and float around to face the front of his body. I lay my hands along his cheeks and stare into his green eyes.
I hold in a sigh of relief when I once again see Stiles dive down into the water and he regains his grip on Derek's arm. I force myself to use the last of my strength and push myself up to the surface. I inhale and make sure to hold my head above the water, "Did you call him? Is he coming?!"
Stiles's eyes meet mine and I let out a broken sigh. I feel hopelessness settle in my chest, "Guys, I hate to be that person, but I'm not sure how much longer I can do this. My legs are killing me."
Derek's eyes meet mine and I let out short breathes as breathing becomes slightly harder, "I'm sorry. I thought was stronger than this."
"It's okay." I let my eyes close, but they don't remain that way as I jump when Stiles starts paddling over to a pole attached to one on the diving boards by the water. I start to kick even harder, if we can grab that I would at least have a second to actually breath. I watch as Stiles reaches out for the pole, but is fingers just lightly skim it before slipping off. This causes a chain reaction and before I know it the three of us are completely submerged again.
I hold my breathe as I fall to the bottom of the pool quickly. I let my eyes slide shut as the pain in my chest increases before suddenly I'm ripped out of the water and tossed onto the pavement. I let out a loud cough and wince as water comes up with it. I quickly sit up and start inhaling deeply before noticing who is in front of me.
I see Scott, completely wolfed out, growling loudly at the creature across the room. I ignore the commotion from them, before crawling over to Derek and Stiles. Thankfully, Stiles sits up and lets out a few coughs here and there.
I grab Derek's face in my hands again and let out a sigh of relief when his eyes snap open. He sits up and breathes irractly as we both look over to where glass just shattered.
I watch as the creature breaks through a sky light above us. I let out one last breath of relief before falling back into Derek.