c h a p t e r t h i r t y t w o
kanima

Harper and Stiles both winced as a lacrosse player from the opposite team ran straight into number nine, sending him flying through the air only to land on the hard ground with a thump.

Gasps were heard all around the bleachers and Coach threw his hands up in the air, "come on!" He yelled. "Is that thing even a teenager? I wanna see a birth certificate?"

He pointed towards the guy from the opposite team, who in all fairness, did look like he was in his late twenties. His build was so much bigger than the other players- nobody else even stood  a chance up against him.

Coach sat back down next to Harper and Stiles. "Who or what is that genetic experiment gone wrong?" Coach Finstock muttered, not even bothering to tell Harper to go back up to the stands.

She had been to every single lacrosse game and pratice since freshman year, so Coach had said that it was only fitting that she was allowed to sit down on the bench with the team. He had a small soft spot for Harper, since it was basically impossible to hate her.

"Eddie Obomowitz, Coach." Stiles replied, rubbing his arms through his Adidas tracksuit as they sat in the cold. "They call him 'The Abomination'."

Coach rolled his eyes, "oh, that's cute." He muttered, turning away from them.

Harper glanced over at her boyfriend and away from the field, taking a few moments to admire him. She loved what he was wearing- while she thought loads of people looked douchey wearing Adidas tracksuits, she had decided that her boyfriend was a definite exception. In fact, this was probably one of her favourite looks on him.

Stiles noticed her staring and turned to face her, blushing slightly. "What?" He asked quietly.

Harper grinned, "I'm just so lucky to have you, Stilinski."

Stiles laughed happily, taking her hands and squeezing them gently, being careful of her broken finger.

"Likewise," he replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to try and warm the both of them up. He turned his head, noticing Allison waving at them. "C'mon."

Harper stood up, walking towards where Allison was sat at the end of the bleachers. As they walked past, Harper reached up and casually took the keys that Allison was holding out for her. They began to run to through the car park and towards Gerard's office.

The empath stopped when she felt an overwhelming sadness hit her, causing Stiles to stop too. He turned around, running a hand through his buzz cut as he stared at her in confusion.

"Harper, we have to go-"

"Lydia's upset," Harper tossed him the keys. "You go on, I'm gonna see what's wrong."

Harper turned to walk towards a parked car and Stiles grumbled something under his breath before following her. No way was he leaving her alone with that thing on the loose.

Harper knocked on the window and Lydia sobbed, "go away, Harper."

The brunette frowned, "Lydia."

"I said go away, Harps. I don't need anybody seeing me cry." Tears ran down Lydia's face as she tried to hide herself from Stiles and Harper.

Harper rolled her eyes. "Lydia, how many times have you seen me cry?"

Lydia sniffled, looking up at her. "I don't know, maybe about ten, fifteen times?"

The empath chuckled, "yeah, because I trust you, Lyds. And you should trust me enough to tell me what's wrong with you, too."

Lydia took a deep breath as the tears stopped falling. Harper felt Stiles tug on her arm, probably as a reminder that they had more important places to be. She ignored him.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy." Lydia whimpered.

"Trust me," Harper sighed. "There is not anything you could say that I would think was crazy. Not after these past few months."

"Literally nothing." Stiles added from behind her. "Can you give us five minutes?"

Harper turned to look at her boyfriend, sending him a glare. Lydia did the same thing, looking at Harper as if to tell her to make her boyfriend shut up.

"Stiles, you can go by yourself." Harper looked at him pleadingly, "you have my number, okay? Call me if something bad happens."

Lydia glared at the two of them, "why would anything bad happen?" She demanded to know.

"No reason." Stiles replied quickly, before turning to Harper, "please?"

Lydia groaned, "oh my God, Stiles. Get a hint- go!"

Stiles saw the glare hardened on her face and scrambled away from her car, raising his hands up in defence.

"Okay, okay." He licked his lips nervously before looking across at his girlfriend, his eyes softening, "text me every few minutes, okay?"

Harper nodded, "Okay."

...

Harper had only needed to spend another couple of minutes with Lydia before she was okay again. The strawberry blonde had practically kicked her out of her car, claiming she wanted to go and watch Jackson on the field, just to rub it in his face that she was still perfectly fine after their break up.

The brunette had reluctantly let her go, but Lydia had been persistent, and Lydia always got her way.

As Harper walked into the school, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and began to text Stiles.

To Stiles: I'm here. Heading to the office rn

She had no reply, but she didn't think anything of it. 

Once she had reached Gerard's office, she found the door wide open, the keys in the lock, but no Stiles in sight. Harper frowned deeply, pulling out her phone to text him again.

She was halfway through a message when something whizzed past her at a high speed, making her heart skip a beat. The thing was suddenly behind her, and she could feel as it began to stand up onto its feet, it's figure towering over her tiny frame. 

Then she could feel it breathing down her neck, quick and hard. It's breath was cold, and she knew it wasn't human. She couldn't feel a single emotion coming from it.

Reluctantly, the brunette turned around, her phone dropping to the floor and her eyes widening when she saw the six foot lizard behind her.

Before she could scream out for Stiles, it reached forwards, swinging it's arm down her arm. She cried out as it cut her, blood staining her shirt. 

Her knees buckled at the sight and she watched as the lizard rushed away, in the direction of the sport department.

"Stiles!" She cried out, followed by a whimper.

She couldn't finish her sentence to warn him, wherever he was, because she passed out.

...

Hands shook her awake, and she felt water drip onto her face. Blinking quickly, Harper looked up at her boyfriend hanging above her, Scott right behind him. They both looked worried.

Harper noticed that Stiles was completely soaked, causing her to frown.

"What happened to you?" She questioned.

"The lizard thing kept Derek and I hostage in the freaking pool for two and a half hours." He explained, "what happened to you?! You're arm is bleeding."

"It is?" I turned my head to the side, seeing it clearly stained red, "I can't feel it."

"Yeah, because you're paralysed from the neck down." Stiles pointed out the obvious, "Scott, help Harps up. I can't feel my arms still."

Scott nodded, before swooping Harper up into his arms and holding her bridal style. The trio began to walk to the car park, ready to go home.

...

"How are we supposed to figure out what that thing was?" Harper groaned as they looked through the beastiary that Scott had discovered was on the USB stick connected to Gerard's keys.

It annoyed Stiles that it had literally been in his hands and they still ended up wasting an entire three hours of their lives.

Harper's paralysis has worn off a few minutes ago, and Stiles had wrapped a bandage around her arm, though it thankfully wasn't still bleeding.

Scott's laptop rested on his mum's car as they scrolled through it, only it turned out to be in another language- Harper guessed probably Latin. Just as Stiles was about to say something, Derek and Erica strolled over.

"It's called the Kanima." Derek told them.

"You knew the whole time." Stiles glared at him, clearly pissed off.

"No." Derek explained. "Only when it was confused by it's own reflection."

Scott frowned, "it doesn't know what it is."

"Or who." The alpha added.

"What else do you know?" Harper asked.

"Just stories. Rumours."

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

Derek nodded, "it's a shape shifter, yes. But it's- it's not right. It's like a..." He thought for the word.

"An abomination." Stiles finished for him.

Derek just nodded, silence filling the air. He and Erica turned to leave when Scott called out his name, stopping them in their tracks.

"We need to work together on this." Scott almost pleaded with him. "Maybe even tell the Argents."

"You trust them?" Derek glared, his voice raising.

"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!" Scott yelled. "And we still don't even know anything about it!"

Derek just stared, not affected by Scott's yelling. "I know one thing." His voice was monotone. "When I find it... I'm gonna kill it."

And with that, he was gone.

...

sorry I haven't uploaded in soooo long
thank you for over 10k reads though!
and also sorry this chapter is so boring and short. it's literally my least favourite chapter in this whole book i think.

anyways, happy holidays! I hope that what ever you celebrate, if you do, is amazing!

xxx