Departure ↠ Argent [3]

12. Diminishing

"Corey!" I hear John shout, causing me to look over my shoulder. Lydia and Allison look back at him as well as the the rest of the cop cars pull up in front of Eichen, just as ready as us to get inside and find Stiles.

When I turned to look at John, it was the first time I realized how hard this must be for him right now too. The past few hours have been filled with me trying to cope with Stiles' absence, but I didn't stop to think about everyone else. About his own father.

His eyes lock with mine for a moment, speaking more words than he could imagine, before he looks over at Lydia. "I hate to ask, but are you sure-"

"He's here," Lydia nods sternly, her hand brushing over my own. "We know he's here."

John looks at me again for a nod of approval, but he already knew my answer. He looks over his shoulder then and tells the others to go inside, so they did. They opened the gate and ran as fast as they could to the doors, spreading out to look for Stiles. The rest of us followed close behind John, Allison at my side and Lydia as well.

The moment we stepped inside, something felt utterly wrong in my gut. A part of me screamed that Stiles was in fact here, but another part told me that we weren't going to find him. I couldn't figure out which was right, but we had to look. My visions were never wrong.

"I need access to all basement rooms in this facility," John says to a man at the front desk, his eyes wide from seeing all of the police officers. He quickly hands over key cards before he points in the direction of the closest one, which caused all of us to take off running.

Time felt like it was ticking away.

John leads the way as he looks at every passing door, looking to see if it was one that would work with any of the keycards. Lydia and I run beside one another as we scan each door as well; making sure we didn't get some type of feeling from one of them. We ran for about two minutes before I came to a halt, seeing the same sign I had seen in my vision on one of the doors.

Everyone stops and looks back at me. "Here. It's right here."

John quickly runs over and opens the door, causing me to dart out in front first before anyone else can go. My heart pounds in my chest, trying to prepare myself on what I was about to see. "Stiles! Stiles, we're here!"

A flashlight's beam bobs around the room as I dart around, looking in every possible area for where Stiles could be. Lydia looks around with me, along with the others, but he wasn't here. He wasn't here.

"He was right here!" I scream as I point at a spot on the floor, remembering the blood and the fear in his eyes. "Stiles was right here, I swear it. It's the same exact place!"

Anger fills me then. After screaming that last part, I clenched my fists and turned and kicked the closest object to me. I wanted to beat on something, to scream, to cry; but just before I could unleash whatever Hell I wanted to, Allison was wrapping herself around me, calming me down before I could do any real damage.

Lydia looks around, panic in her eyes as well. "I don't get it. This has to be it."

"Then where is he, huh? Where is he!" John screams, turning and looking at Lydia. Seeing the look on her face after hearing that only made me more mad, because this wasn't Lydia's fault. It was mine, if anyone's. "I...I'm sorry."

"I-I don't understand," I breathe, Allison rubbing her hand over mine. "It feels like he should be here. I saw him here..."

"Well he's not here now," John shakes his head, not meaning for it to come off rude.

Aiden grabs Lydia's shoulders then, leading her back to the stairs. "Come on."

I stand there for a moment with Allison as they all file back up the stairs, giving up already. I lick my lips slowly as I look around one last time, knowing that Lydia and I weren't wrong. Something wasn't right at all. We had to be right.