"take away a man's memories and you take away all of him. chip away a memory at a time and you destroy him as surely as if you hammered nail after nail through his skull" mark lawrence
In which a school bus crashes outside Beacon Hills with no driv...
" evil comes when you call my name, the wicked shall rise "
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Chlorine and water filled my eyes, nose and mouth as I was completely submerged. I hit the bottom and rose to the surface, spluttering and gasping for air. I was hit in the face with a huge wave as Stiles dove in, resurfacing a few seconds later with Derek draped across his shoulder. I swam over to take some of the weight before desperately scanning the room for the monster. It was nowhere to be seen. "Do you see it?" Stiles asked. "No," "Maybe it took off," A resounding shriek echoed throughout the building. "Maybe not," Derek answered. "Look, can we just get out of here before I drown?" "Drowning? Have you noticed the thing out there with rows of razor sharp tee the?!" "Have you noticed that I'm paralysed in EIGHT FEET OF WATER?" "Can you stop fighting, please? Now, where is that thing?" Stiles said as we began to move closer to the edge. "Wait, wait, stopstopstopstopstopstop!" Derek shouted. A shadow moved across the wall, belonging to the snake-like creature prowling the perimeter of the pool. "What's it waiting for?" I muttered. It approached the edge of the pool and dipped a hand into the water, recoiling dramatically and hissing. "I don't think it can swim," "I don't think we can do this much longer," Stiles said, beginning to move away from us. "No!" Derek cried. "Could you just trust me this once?" Stiles said exasperatedly. "We're the ones keeping you alive, remember? Not to mention that it's your fault we're in this mess," "Yeah, and when we get out of here, who's going to be able to fight that thing? You or me?" Shit, I hated to admit it but Derek had a good point. "So that's why we've been holding you up for the past two hours?" Stiles asked disbelievingly. "You don't trust me, I don't trust you, but you need me to survive which is why you're not letting me go!" Stiles and I shared a look and he took off, swimming towards the edge at lightning speed.
I struggled to hold Derek up as Stiles went to reclaim the phone, slowly sinking deeper into the water. My legs tired out as I kicked furiously and Derek's head sunk further and further under the water. He was pulling me down with him, and as reluctant as I was to save him after what he did to Scott, I knew I had to.
Stiles grabbed the phone and swam away from the edge, desperately dialling Scott's number. My nose and mouth were submerged. I wrapped my arms around Derek's waist and hoisted him up, all of the muscles in my body on fire. We sunk deeper and deeper until my entire head was underwater. I furiously tried to kick my way to the surface while still holding on to Derek but it was no use. As I went under, I saw something else hit the water and hurtled towards to floor. It was much smaller than any of us, including the kanima.
I felt a pair of hands secure around my waist, pulling me and Derek back up. My head broke the surface and I gasped for air, as did Derek. "Tell me you got him," He breathed. Stiles gave us a sorry look with a very clear message. Scott wasn't coming.
•
"I can't stay up any longer," Stiles panted, his eyelids drooping from fatigue. "Me either. We need to find something to hold on to," Stiles looked around and spotted the starting platforms about ten metres away. We began to swim over as best we could with Derek still weighing us down. "Can't we just, like, put him down for a bit?" I moaned. My arms felt like they were about to fall off. "No way. If we put him in danger and Scott finds out, we'll never hear the end of it," "But what has Derek ever done for Scott?" "I'm still here!" He cried, spitting out water in between words. "A lot more than you know," Stiles said as we reached the platform. We were dangerously close to the creature as it stalked the perimeter of the pool, but if we wanted to survive this was our only chance. Stiles reached his hand out, only to find that it was too slippery to hold on. He tried and tried again but his fingers kept slipping. I tried too, but in the process we managed to drop Derek. "Shit," I muttered.
Suddenly, I felt a clawed hand grab onto my collar and throw me out of the water, onto the hard floor. When the initial shock wore off I was overcome with fear, but as my vision focused I looked up and saw who had saved us. It was Scott, transformed and roaring. Even though he hadn't even been aware that his friends were in danger, he still managed to come to our rescue once again.
He and the thing began to fight, clawing and punching at each other as they moved around the cavernous room. Stiles and I dragged Derek to safety, over to a corner by the door where Erica was still passed out. My heart was in my throat.
Scott was thrown against a mirror, causing it to shatter. He was fine, I knew it. Any damage would heal quickly. Scott grabbed a fragment of glass to use as a knife, the rough edge digging into his hand and drawing blood. As it faced the monster, something strange happened. It seemed to notice its reflection and cocked its head as if it was confused. Then it bailed completely, tearing up the wall and into the rafters before smashing through a skylight. Scott looked at us fearfully. It was the first time any of us, except Stiles, had gotten a good look at the creature; it was more dangerous than we had ever imagined. On the bright side, we had found its weakness, and I knew Scott would find a way to use it to his advantage.
•
After the ordeal was over and Derek and Erica were mobile again, we were waiting by Stiles' Jeep to meet them. My phone was destroyed but if it hadn't been I would have been checking it every ten seconds for a text from Nathan. In his eyes, I had bailed on our date once again and I doubted he would be so forgiving a second time.
"Is that even a language?" Stiles asked as they examined a pile of paper. "What is that?" I moved from my position against the hood of the car to where they were standing. "The Beastiary. It's what Deaton asked us to find," Scott answered "Whoa. Where did you get it?" "It was on a USB on the keychain in Gerard's office. I was printing it off when I heard that thing scream, which was how I found you," "But how are we supposed to read it?" Stiles said frustratedly. "How are we supposed to figure out what that thing is?" "It's called a kanima," Derek said as he and Erica sauntered over. "You knew the whole time," I said disbelievingly. "No. Only when it was confused by its own reflection," "It doesn't know what it is," Scott said as a look of realisation passed over his face. "Or who," "Well, what else do you know?" I almost demanded. "Just stories. Rumours," "But it's like us," Scott said. "A shapeshifter, yes, but it's not right. It's like an -" "An abomination," Stiles said solemnly. Derek nodded and began to walk away. "Derek," Scott called after him. "We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents," "You trust them?!" Derek demanded, shocked that Scott would even consider telling his family's arch enemies. "Nobody trusts anyone! That's the problem! While we're here arguing about 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 shook with frustration as he tried to knock some sense into Derek. "I know one thing," He replied darkly. "When I find it, I'm going to kill it," And with that, he and Erica walked away. Their final statement had been uttered and we were left to pray for our lives.
