☾

After Scott dropped me off at home last night, I had collapsed onto my bed, exhausted, but I woke up from a vivid nightmare soon after. I can't remember it now, but I can remember feeling blind terror. So I've been awake since then, not allowing myself to fall asleep in class no matter how much I want to. I even had trouble riding my old bike to school this morning!

I haven't really seen Scott and Stiles today, only in chemistry but it was rather brief. I guess they're doing something that I don't think I wanna know about. But right now I'm turning the corner to walk down the stairs when I see my boyfriend and his best friend sitting at the bottom of the stairs. As I walk down the steps, I catch what Stiles is saying to Scott and it is pretty weird.

"I'm so sorry about the other day. I'm trying. We'll get through this. Uh, I know, because I love you. I love you more than - oh, my God. I can't - you and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate."

"Come on, you're the only one that we can trust, besides your girlfriend, and it'll be weird for her to say that stuff," Scott objects. "Is she coming to the game tonight?"

"Yes," I answer, catching their attention as I sit on the step above them, right between them but closer to Stiles. Allison told me when we were at our lockers this morning that she was gonna go to the game tonight, so I already knew.

"Okay, message complete," Stiles says, giving me a fleeting side-smile. "Now, tell me about your boss?"

"He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of, uh, records of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book."

"He probably means a bestiary," Stiles says.

"What?" Scott asks.

"A bestiary," I repeat.

A goofy smile spreads across the other werewolf's face, quietly chuckling, "I think you mean bestiality."

My eyebrows furrow as I stare at him, confused. What the hell is going on in his mind to get him to think of that paraphilia? I mean, I know what a bestiary is and it isn't close to bestiality. How the hell does he know what it is?

"Nope, pretty sure I don't," Stiles says flatly. "It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures."

"How am I the only one who doesn't know anything about this stuff," Scott says.

"Okay, you're my best friend, you're a creature of the night, like my girlfriend, it's kind of like a priority of mine."

"Okay, if we can find it, and it can tell us what this thing is-" Scott says and Stiles cuts in, "And who."

"We need that book," all three of us say in unison.

☾

Stiles dragged me outside to talk to Allison about the bestiary, literally taking my hand and pulled me with him.

"I think you mean," Allison says smiling.

"No, we mean bestiary," Stiles insists. "And the two of you, I don't wanna know what's going on in your heads."

"Okay, um. Can you describe this thing?" Allison asks.

"Uh, it's probably like a book," I answer with Stiles adding something.

"Old, worn."

"Like, bound in leather?" Allison asks, continuing when I nod. "I've seen my grandfather with a book like that." As soon as she answered, Stiles turns and runs off, leaving us. I roll my eyes and move to sit across from the brunette. "If you don't mind me asking, but what exactly are you? I mean, I know that you're not human, but I don't know what exactly."

I lace my fingers together and place them in front of me, shrugging. "I was born a hybrid. Half-werewolf, half-something else that I'm trying to figure out. It started the night the bus driver was attacked, with enhanced senses. But now I'm a full-fledged hybrid ever since I was bitten."

Our conversation is cut short when my boyfriend nearly falls over the table, him panting out, "Where. Does he. Keep it?"

"His office," Allison answers, brows furrowed. Before I could tell Stiles to slow down with the running, he takes off again. She turns her head to me with a small smile, "You're boyfriend is quite odd, isn't he?"

"Eh," I say noncommittally. "Great kisser, though. It's amazing how he's never had a girlfriend before."

"Have you guys... You know?" Allison wiggles her eyebrows with a playful smirk.

My cheeks flare up and I suck in my bottom lip briefly, "No, but we've had a couple heated make-out sessions. The last one we were shirtless, and now I'm thinking about sex even more. I mean, I'm still a virgin and I want to wait a bit until we do it, but I still can't help but feel sexually attracted to him."

"So you're both virgins," Allison states. "And you want to jump him. What's the problem with sex? I mean, yeah, it may be awkward at first but it'll be great."

"Because it's bad to confuse infatuation, love, and lust. I'm well past infatuation, now in the love situation where lust is taking over," I sigh, dropping my head for a second. "Teenagers experience many hormones that involve sex and I have a slightly hard time to decide if it's good or bad right now. Besides, it's kind of hard to get any alone time with what's happening. Maybe after everything is over."

"There's something else, isn't there?"

"I'm only fifteen and that seems like a very young age to lose my virginity."

Again, Stiles runs up to us (thankfully he didn't hear what I said), taking a puff of Scott's old inhaler before informing Allison, "You know, drug dealers have been using disposable cellphones pretty successfully for years."

"My parents check every call, email and text message I send. Trust me, they'd find it," Allison says.

"All right, can you get the book?" Stiles asks.

"Not without his keys."

☾

We made a plan that'll be enacted during the game: Allison will somehow get the keys, give it to Stiles and me, and the two of us go into Gerard's office and find the book. I'm sitting next to Stiles on the bench, who is wearing a burgundy Adidas thing instead of his lacrosse gear since he isn't playing.

Number nine flies through the air and lands on his back, the opposing team's, the Beavers, one player standing above him. Number forty-two. That cannot be a teenager unless he was a science experiment gone wrong. No teenager can be that big!

Coach blows his whistle, "Come on, is that thing even a teenager? I wanna see a birth certificate." He moves to sit on the other side of Stiles while asking him a question, "Who or what is that genetic experiment gone wrong?"

"Eddie Abramovitz, Coach," Stiles answers. "They call him The Abomination."

"Oh, that's cute," Coach sighs.

I look over to where Allison and Gerard are sitting, seeing her wearing his coat. Step one: get the keys, accomplished. I nudge Stiles and jerk my head over to him, taking his hand and pulling him up with me as we walk over inconspicuously. As we pass by the two Argent's Stiles discreetly holds out the keys which Stiles takes, and he smiles at me. "Step one complete," he whispers.

We start to walk quickly across the parking lot and towards the school when a familiar car catches my eye, and the strawberry blonde inside. Her cries are audible to my ears, the scent of it rolling off of her in waves. I plant myself to the spot to stop Stiles who gives me a questioning look. "Lydia," I say vaguely, letting go of his hand to walk over to the driver's door. "Hey, Lydia, what's wrong?" She raises the window without looking at me and I knock on the window. "Lydia, come on -"

"Just go away," Lydia pleads, eyes shining with tears and a tissue in her hand.

"What's wrong?" I insist. I hate seeing her in such a state of distress, and I just want to comfort her.

"Look, I don't need anyone seeing me cry."

I turn my head a bit to see Stiles next to me, concern in his eyes but I look back at my best friend, practically my twin. "Ah, come on, Lydia," I sigh, leaning my arm against the top of the car while bending my back a bit. "Look, you shouldn't care if people see you cry, all right? Especially you."

"Why?" She says, voice quiet and confused, cheeks wet and slightly puffy.

"Because I think you look really beautiful when you cry," I say honestly. Lydia is a very beautiful girl, and like I said before, I had a brief crush on her when I was around eleven.

She looks ahead and the window is rolled down, folding my arms on the door and waiting for her to open up. I know we need to find the book, but right now Lydia is more important to me. She's my family and I've been avoiding her, which I need to stop.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy," Lydia chokes out.

"Lydia, if you trust me on anything, you can trust me on this," I insist. "There's nothing that you can say to me that'll make you sound crazy. Literally, nothing!" Cheering from the field catches my attention, realizing we're running out of time. I look up at Stiles and mouth, "Go." He looks reluctant but he nods and jogs off to the school. "And besides, if you're crazy, then I'm crazy."

She huffs out a mirthless laugh, making me smile a little as I move to the other side of the car and open the door to climb in, shutting the door behind me. "Tell, me what's going on. You know I'm a good listener."

A sigh leaves her lips, her eyes squeezed shut before she looks at me with glassy eyes. "I've been having nightmares, and I've been seeing things that aren't there," she admits tentatively. "This morning I woke up with a bloody hand. Turns out I punched my mirror while I was sleeping."

I smile sympathetically at her, taking her arm and squeezing gently. "PTSD can make you see things that aren't there," I say, knowing that I'm lying to her. It probably isn't PTSD, since it involves the supernatural and we were both screaming our heads off at the same time. There's nothing normal about that. "And with the punching the mirror thing, I've done it before. It's not uncommon." I give her a small, encouraging nod. "To get through this you just have to talk to someone about this, not hold it in because it'll make it worse and it isn't healthy for your mental state."

"But you and Allison have been avoiding me," she whispers, voice cracking. "There's no one else to talk to about this."

A pang of guilt hits me and I try not to show it, instead sucking in my bottom lip for a second. "I'm just going through some stuff," I lie. "My parents' death is really getting to me right now, since a young girl needs her parents and I don't have them. Stiles is helping me--"

The sound of my phone beeping catches my attention, biting my lip as I dig into my pocket and reluctantly check the message.

From: Stud Muffin
Found it. Get in here now.

I look up at Lydia with a sad look. "Stiles needs me," I say quietly. "I don't wanna leave you but..."

She waves me off, chuckling humorlessly while wiping her cheeks with her tissue. "Just go. We can talk later."

I don't want to leave, but it is important. So with a heavy heart, I slowly get out the car and shut the door, throwing Lydia one last glance before taking off to the school. The halls are dark as I run through them and towards Gerard's office, stopping short when I see a familiar blonde holding my boyfriend's ear.

A growl instantly leaves my lips and I can feel my claws sliding out involuntarily, snapping my jaw at the bitch. "Let go of him," I snarl, my voice low and dangerous. It's unfamiliar, something I've never felt before. "I swear to the Gods I won't hesitate to cut your hands off if you don't let him go! Don't you know not to mess with a werewolf's mate?" Okay, now that came out of my mouth completely against my will. There was that word again: mate. What the hell does that mean?

She smirks, putting her other hand on her hip. "I'm afraid I can't do that," she says with false remorse. "But unless you want your boyfriend to have only one ear, you'll follow us."

My eyes meet Stiles, his eyes telling me to back down as his face contorts in pain but also holding some surprise. With great reluctance, my claws slide back into nails and I follow them stiffly as she walks towards the pools. Stiles is still groaning in pain when Derek comes into view, holding a basketball and my hands go to Stiles' waist when Erica lets him go to stand next to her Alpha.

"Stiles, Mary Anne," Derek greets.

"Derek," we say in unison, my surprise no longer there at the fact we talk in unison a lot.

"What did you see at the mechanics garage?" He asks, smirking slightly.

"Uh, several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting," I instantly snark, bunching my hand in the back of his jacket and his own hand goes to the small of my back. Maintaining physical contact may keep me calm enough not to attack them.

Derek chuckles shortly before using his claws to deflate the ball, making my eyes widen. Okay, I may be able to fight Erica but not Derek.

"Holy God," Stiles breathes out.

"Let's try that again," Derek says with a slightly sour look and he drops the flat ball. Fuck you, Sourwolf.

"All right, the thing was pretty slick looking. Um, skin was dark. Kind of patterned. Uh, I think I actually saw scales," I describe. "Is that enough? Okay, because I have somebody I really need to talk to -" Derek gives me a look, making me snap my jaw shut and Stiles continues the description of the creature.

"All right, fine, eyes. Eyes are, um, yellowish. And slitted. Um, has a lot of teeth. Oh, and it's got a tail, too. Are we good?" He lists the other details of the creature's appearance. The two other werewolves faces show some kind of emotions, eyes up and looking above us. "What? Wait, have you seen it? You have this look on your faces like you know exactly what I'm talking about."

I turn around and my heart stops for a split second, seeing the creature on the railing above us, a screech leaving its mouth. Stiles and I jerk back towards Derek, his fear potent and invading my nose. It jumps and crouches in front of us, Derek doing the same and growling at it. Then, the lizard knocks Erica into a wall, rendering her unconscious as her head hits the wall harshly. Karma's a bitch, mutt.

"Run!" Derek orders loudly, pushing Stiles' chest and we stumble back as stumbles into me. But the thing swipes its claws across Derek's neck.

"Derek, your neck!" Stiles yells just as he begins to fall. We lunge at him and Stiles catches him, draping one arm across his shoulders and I do the same with his other arm, holding him up as we try to quickly move between the two pools. Thank the Gods for my added strength. "Hey, come on. Where is it? Can you see it?"

"I can smell it," Derek says, voice muffled. "Please hurry. Call Scott!" He grabs his phone but it slips out of his hand, bending down to get it but it sends Derek into the pool, taking me with him.

"Stiles!" I yell, my voice becoming muffled as I hit the surface.

Water surrounds me as I'm submerged in it, my arm still around Derek's waist as he sinks to the bottom. I try to push us up, but he's too heavy. My eyes burn from the chlorine, lungs burning as my body quickly loses oxygen and I try my hardest to use my legs and free arm to swim to the surface, but I can. Stiles dives in and takes Derek's other side, pulling both of us up. I spit out water, having a coughing fit for a moment, and use my other arm and legs to keep myself afloat, water splashing slightly.

"Where did it go? Do you see it?" Stiles asks.

"No," Derek pants out.

"Okay, maybe it took off," I suggest with deep breaths, spitting out water. But then screeches echo through the pools, answering my question.

"Maybe not," Derek says, giving me a side-glance. "You two get me out of here before I drown."

I glare at him while Stiles says, "You're worried about drowning? Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth?"

"Did you notice I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?" Derek counters.

"We could just let you drown," I suggest. "Wouldn't be that hard and it seems like a pretty tempting option right now."

"Okay," Stiles interrupts my threat. "I don't see it." He starts to swim slowly towards the edge of the pool, with me helping him, when Derek speaks up.

"Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop."

My eyes fall on the thing walking along one edge of the pool, hissing.

"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asks, getting no response from the Alpha so I suggest a plausible answer.

"Probably keeping us in, waiting for us to drown."

It's silence then, my legs starting to burn from trying to hold myself and Derek up. Even with the werewolf strength, I don't think I can hold him up for a long period of time, and we don't know how long the paralysis lasts for. The thing gets closer to the edge and dips it's claws in the water, quickly retracting it. It's afraid of the water, it can't swim.

"Wait, did you see that? I don't think it can swim," Stiles voices my thoughts.

"It may be a weakness," I suggest, keeping my eyes on the lizard... Snake thing. "Can be useful sometime in the future."

The thing keeps on circling us, keeping us in for some reason. What is it doing? Why is it going after us? What is it?

"Okay. Okay, I don't think I can do this much longer," Stiles pants out, his muscles are probably tired from holding up the nearly 200 pounds of flesh and firm muscles for maybe an hour or two. I can't tell, I've lost track of time after maybe thirty minutes.

"No, no, no. Don't even think about it," Derek says quickly.

"Would you just trust me this once?" Stiles asks.

"No!" Derek yells.

"We're the ones keeping you alive, okay, have you noticed that?" Stiles asks, a tad bit annoyed.

"Yeah," Derek answers. "And when the paralysis wears off, who is gonna be able to fight that thing, you or me? And Mary Anne is too inexperienced to fight. You don't trust me, I don't trust you. You need me to survive, which is why you are not letting me go." They stare at each other for a long time before Stiles lets go, Derek yelling his name as he sinks again.

I suck in a deep breath before I went under, the chlorine stinging my eyes once more. I move my arm and legs in a vain attempt to push our bodies to the surface, but it's futile. His body weight prevents me from doing so and I berate myself in my head. I have werewolf in me, I have the strength to support both of us and yet I can't. I can't. My lungs start to burn for oxygen, throat beginning to tighten slowly.

Through the haziness of the water, I see Stiles dive back in and towards us, grabbing Derek's waist and my arm, pulling us up and letting go of me to help support Derek. I choke and cough out water, gasping for air until my lungs ache from the force of my breathing.

"Tell me you got him," Derek struggles to get out, voice strained. We receive no answer, at least not a verbal answer. The thing screeches again, making me flinch slightly. My ears are sensitive and yet I couldn't hold Derek up, which is utter bullshit.

"I can't stay up any longer, I need something to hold onto," Stiles says. I turn my head and meet his gaze, following it to the diving board. With no looks or words, we both begin to flail our free arms, pushing ourselves through the water to get to it. His hand reaches for the bar but they slip, making all of us go under. For once, my eyes close as we go under. Fear overcomes me. Dear that I'm gonna drown in the school swimming pool with Stiles. Not even five seconds later, I feel a jerk on the hood of my shirt and I'm being yanked out the water, my back hitting the concrete. I cough out water, breathing labored as a very loud roar comes from Scott, who is crouching on the diving board.

I can't keep my eyes open, my head falling back onto the ground but they snap open at the sounds of more roars, screeches, and glass being shattered. I pick up my head to see Scott holding a piece of glass from the mirror, and when the thing looks at his reflection, it jumps on the wall next to Scott and does some tricks to jump out the window high above us. It's like it was scared of its own reflection...

Scott drops the glass and his head, my own head falling back onto the ground, dull pain flaring through my skull at the impact. Gods, this thing is gonna give us hell... Actually, it already is!

My thoughts are interrupted when two arms wrap around my waist, lifting me up into a sitting position, my soaked front being pressed against an equally wet chest. Stiles kisses the top of my wet hair, hand on the back of my head to hold me close to him. "I'm so sorry," he whispers softly. I don't need to ask him to clarify, already knowing what he's apologizing for. He's apologizing for letting me nearly drown two or three times tonight. I wrap my own arms around his back and squeeze softly.

☾

Turns out the bestiary is on the USB drive on the key ring, which is so convenient. There's only one problem: it's in a different language.

Scott, Stiles and I are huddled around the back of a car with a laptop open on it, Stiles sliding through the pages. "Is that even a language?" He asks.

"Yeah," I answer, recognizing some of the words. "It's Archaic Latin."

Both boys meet my eyes with a confused but impressed look, Scott asking, "You know it?"

I shake my head, smiling sadly, "I only studied it for a couple weeks when I got bored with it and moved onto Classical Latin."

Stiles furrows his eyebrows but doesn't ask. Then Scott says, "How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?"

"It's called a Kanima."

Our heads snap to Derek and Erica quickly approaching us, throwing a glare at them. The name seems familiar, like I've seen or heard about it before... Ah, great, another hazy memory. Awesome.

"You knew the whole time," Stiles states, just as furious as I am with the Alpha. He's fucking unbelievable.

"No," Derek corrects him. "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

"It doesn't know what it is," Scott and I realize at the same time.

"Or who," Derek adds.

"What else do you know?" Stiles asks, beyond ticked off.

"Just stories, rumors," Derek says, not telling us everything. I know it, my inner lie detector is going off.

"But it's like us?" Scott asks.

"A shapeshifter, yes, but it's-it's not right. It's like a-" Derek says struggling for the right words and Stiles answers for him.

"An abomination."

Derek nods and the two other werewolves start to turn, ready to leave when Scott stops them by saying, "Derek? We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents." I roll my eyes, but I don't say anything. I'm starting to love Scott like a brother, but sometimes he can be infuriatingly optimistic and delusional.

"You trust them?" Derek accuses, enraged.

"Nobody trusts anyone!" Scott explodes. "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 even know anything about it."

"I know one thing, when I find it?" Derek turns and I catch what he says as he and Erica leave. "I'm gonna kill it!"

☾

So if any of you love this ship like I do, here are some pictures I made this week of them you can save but don't use without my permission or giving me credit for the creation:

And

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and this chapter!

Void_Stiles_is_Life xx