c h a p t e r t h i r t y o n e
six foot lizard man

"Hey, hey!" Stiles yelled as he approached the mechanic working on his jeep.

After Erica had taken parts out that definitely shouldn't be out, Stiles had no choice but to go and get it looked at professionally. This was nothing some duct tape and hope could fix.

Harper followed behind him, watching as the mechanic drilled something into the bottom of Stiles' car. He had offered to ask his dad to drop her off home, but Harper had wanted to stay with Stiles for as long as she could. She didn't really feel like being alone, especially after what Scott and Allison had saw the other night.

Apparently, while Harper, Stiles, and Derek were breaking Isaac out of his cell, Allison and Scott had come face to face with a human-sized reptile with razor sharp teeth and claws longer than werewolf ones. The thought of yet another supernatural creature being introduced to Beacon Hills scared the life out of Harper.

"Wha-what do you think you're doing?" The Stilinski boy snapped. "All I needed was a starter."

Harper didn't see a problem with whatever the mechanic was doing, but then again, she didn't have a clue about cars- she didn't even have her own driving licence.

The mechanic replied without even looking at them, "yeah, but it looks like your whole exhaust system has gotta be replaced too."

Stiles didn't look pleased. "Why do I get the feeling you're slightly overestimating the damage?"

"Probably gonna run you around, like, twelve hundred parts and labour."

Stiles' face contorted into a look of disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" He cried. "This thing doesn't even have a catalyctic converter. And, yes, I know what a catalyctic converter is."

The mechanic finally stopped drilling to turn around and face them. "You know what a limited slip differential is?"

Stiles stuttered before admitting, "no."

Smug, the mechanic turned back around and continued drilling. "Yeah, could run you more like fifteen hundred."

Stiles sighed loudly, "okay, just finish. I'll be back here-" he then added quieter for only Harper to hear, "seething with impotent rage."

Harper giggled as she walked along side him, reaching the door that lead out of the workshop and into the waiting rooms. Stiles clasped the door handle, pulling his hand back when a wierd substance came off of it.

The empath almost gagged, "ew, what is that?"

Stiles just cringed, "nice." He muttered sarcastically. "Real sanitary. Quality establishment you're running here." He yelled back for the mechanic to hear.

He opened the door, closing it behind Harper and then wiping the strange substance onto his marroon jacket. Harper sat down on the seats situtated next to the door, leaning her head back to rest. Stiles, however, remained stood up as he pulled out his phone, muttering something under his breath.

The sound of something dropping caused Harper to look up quickly, confusion filling her. It came from both herself and Stiles as she saw he had dropped his phone, his hands shaking. He grunted, staring down at his hands as if he couldn't move them. Harper quickly stood up, concerned.

"Stiles?" Harper worried. "What's going on?"

Stiles quickly looked up at her, his eyes wide. "Don't connect yourself to me." His voice came out strained, his eyes showing nothing but struggle and desperation.

Harper looked at him frantically, "I don't know how to disconnect from anyone! I'm connected to everyone around me!"

Stiles grunted again, and Harper could feel her hands start to tingle. Something caught his eye passed her, and looking through the glass window and into the workshop, he saw the human sized lizard that Allison and Scott had told them about.

"H-Hey!" He grunted, trying to yell. "Hey!"

The mechanic didn't hear him, only tearing away from his job when the lizard raised a claw to the back of his neck, making a straight cut across the back. Harper felt her own neck start to trickle with blood and her eyes widened as she collapsed, just like the worker.

Stiles collapsed right down beside her, his body unable to stand any longer. While Harper couldn't move at all, Stiles managed to wriggle towards his phone, using everything he had inside him to get there. He could see the mechanic through the glass door as the lizard pressed a button, the apporators with the jeep on slowly starting to come down on top of him.

Stiles let out a strangled grunt. "Harper!" He cried, feeling tears pool his eyes, his hand still trying to get to his phone. "Disconnect yourself right now!"

Harper let out a dry sob, only able to move her head, everything else paralysed downwards. She didn't know how to disconnect, she had only ever read about it online. The teenage girl struggled, her face going red as she battled with her own mind.

Stiles mangaed to type in '91', his heart pounding out of his chest. He had to save the mechanic, even if he didn't know him- it was the human thing to do. But he also didn't know if Harper would die too, since she was connected to him. Stiles couldn't risk it, he couldn't risk his girlfriend dying.

"Harper! You're- you're gonna die."

The empath barely heard his words, too consumed in trying to remember everything she had ever read on empaths. Harper took a deep breath, swallowing thickly as she closed her eyes.

"Come on, Harper." She mumbled to herself, tears streaming down her face along with sweat from her forehead. "You can do it."

She didn't know what happened, but it felt like something inside her just snapped. The brunette let out a whimper, feeling everything come back to her, the anxiety of everybody else leaving, taking a massive weight off of her shoulders. Harper moved quickly, scrambling up to her feet.

The brunette didn't know what to do, looking between the mechanic and the door handle and the six foot lizard crawling around inside. Stiles was panting on the floor, trying to say something to her, but she couldn't listen, she just knew that she needed to help. Harper couldn't watch this man die.

She quickly wrapped her hand around her knitted jumper, opening the door, ignoring Stiles' strangled screams of protest. Before Harper could even take a step further, the six foot lizard came out of nowhere, hissing at her. She fell backwards, scrambling as she tried to back away, her hands shaking as it moved just in time for her to see the mechanic get crushed.

...

Police cars and ambulances had turned up at the garage ten minutes ago, including Rose and and obviously Sheriff Stilinski. While Noah spoke to Stiles in the back of an abumlance, Rose had pulled Harper into the back of another one to talk to her.

"Harper." Rose called the distant girl's name, snapping her bony fingers in front of her face.

The brunette's head snapped up in Rose's direction, and her brown eyes softened. "I saw a man get killed, grandma." She whispered, running a shaking hand along her cheek, getting rid of the fallen tears.

Rose's face fell and she sighed, "oh, sweet pea." She croaked.

Rose wrapped her granddaughter into a tight hug, and Harper accepted it, not even mad at her grandma anymore. Today made her realise that anybody could go at any minute, so there was no point in her being upset with her grandma for long. They wrapped their arms around each other, Harper sniffling a little.

"I don't know what to say." Her grandma admitted as the pulled away.

Harper grabbed her grandma's hand, pursing her lips. "Can you tell me the truth?" She questioned.

Rose knew exactly what her granddaughter was talking about and she sighed. "Darling, maybe not today..." It was Rose's turn to look distant, her green eyes darting everywhere but Harper's face.

"Then when?" Harper asked, eyes longing. "How can we be a loving family if there's no trust? How can I tell you how I feel if you won't even tell me what's going on in your life?"

The lump in Rose's throat grew bigger. "I don't know how to tell you." She whispered, looking down. "I don't want you to hate me or be upset."

Harper could feel her heartbeat quicken with every word that left her grandmother's thin lips, her palms sweaty as she grabbed her grandma's hand, feeling herself becoming more anxious. She bit down on her bottom lip, trying not to throw up from nerves.

"Don't sugar coat it, grandma." Harper pleaded. "Just tell me. I can handle it."

"I don't think you can." Her grandma shook her head, taking a deep breath, choking a little. "I don't know how to tell you this. I've been replaying in my head since I found out, but none of the words sound right. So... I'm just going to say it, okay? And we'll take it from there. You can ask your questions, be mad at me, whatever else."

"What is it?" Harper sounded completely desperate, but she didn't care.

"I have stage four lung cancer."

And then came this unavoidable feeling of dread. It was possibly the worst sensation that Harper had ever felt, that feeling of hopelessness and sadness. Her throat felt like it had closed up, tears immediately pooling in her eyes. Her stomach was doing flips, and her hands felt numb in her grandmother's. She began to tremble, unable to think properly.

Rose Verum was Harper's grandma, and more importantly the only family she had left that actually loved her. The only family she had left to look out for her, the woman who had raised her through her teenage years, wiped her tears and whispered words of comfort when Harper couldn't sleep. She was all Harper had left.

And she was dying.

The kindest woman that Harper knew was dying or the most cruellest, heartless condition to ever exist. It had taken her granddad, and now it was taking her grandma, too. Everyone she loved was dying, and she didn't know what to do, or how to react.

Her grandma teared up, wrapping Harper into a hug. Harper inhaled the scent of her perfume, feeling her body shake as she sobbed into Rose's cardigan. She scrunched the material up in her fists, her sobs loud and heavy. Harper didn't care who heard, she was too upset. Harper was destroyed.

"Grandma," she cried, unable to contain herself.

She was a mess and she couldn't stop shaking. Rose knew it was a bad idea telling her in public, but Harper had insisted, and they promised on no more lies or secrets. The old woman sighed as she ran a trembling hand through Harper's knotted hair, looking across the car park to see Stiles and Noah staring at them worriedly.

She shook her head at them, warning them not to come over.

Harper pulled away after a couple of minutes, wiping her nose as she sniffled. Her mascara had made dark circles around her eyes and half of her makeup had washed away from her tears and the amount of times she had rubbed her face.

"How long have you known?" Harper whimpered, holding her grandma's hand. "Have you been getting treatment like granddad did?"

Rose frowned sadly at her, "I've known for a while. First they diagnosed me with bronchitis, but it didn't go away for a long time, so they tested me again, and they gave me an inhaler- said I had asthma. But then you took me in to the doctors, and they signed me over to the hospital- which is why you saw me there. They diagnosed me with stage four lung cancer."

Harper looked like a kicked puppy, her bottom lip trembling as she cried silently, her shaking hands wrapping around her grandma's for some sort of comfort.

"A-and the treatment?"

Rose shook her head. "I have two months to live, maximum."

Harper didn't know what to say. She wanted to be angry at her grandma for not telling her, for smoking when she knew something was already wrong with her lungs- but she couldn't be mad. All she could feel was sadness, coming from the both of them. She was quickly wrapped into another hug, and the tears fell again.

...

School had finished less than a minute ago, but Stiles was already in his powder blue jeep, speeding out of the high school car park with one destination in his mind- Harper's house. The petite brunette hadn't been at school all day and she had texted him in the morning telling him not to pick her up.

He assumed Allison or Lydia was giving her a ride, but they said they hadn't heard from her all day either. So, with a six foot killing lizard on the loose, Stiles decided that it was perfectly reasonable for him to be worried about his own girlfriend. Plus, he needed to talk to her about last night.

Once the police had turned up they had been torn apart from each other and they hadn't spoken since. He had seen her crying, no, sobbing, in her grandma's arms last night, and he needed to know if she was okay. It had been killing him all night and all day that he hadn't spoken to her since the incident and the mechanics.

Not only was he worried, but he needed help.

Stiles had done some researching and figured out that everything they needed to know about supernatural creatures would be in a beastiary- a book about the supernatural, and they needed it to figure out what the creature was in order to put a stop to it. He had spoken to both Allison and Scott about it, and Allison said that she had seen her grandfather with a leather book the night before.

They had whipped up a plan, but Stiles wanted Harper to be involved. He knew she didn't like it when she was out of the loop, so he was going to tell her about it.

The Stilinski boy practically fell out of his jeep as he rushed up the porch steps, knocking on the front door. When nobody answered after two minutes, he took it upon himself to open the door. He dug his keys out of his pocket, finding the one that was colour coded for Harper's house.

Stiles had a copy made for every key he thought would be important- his own house and jeep of course, Scott's house, Harper's house, and he had secretly had a key made for the sheriff's station.

He entered quietly, shutting the door behind him in case her grandma was home. Stiles stumbled into the living room, surprised when he saw Harper and Rose curled up on the sofa, asleep in each other's arms with the TV playing in the background. He couldn't help but smile, letting out a small 'awe'.

Harper's eyes suddenly flickered open and Stiles freaked out, quickly dropping to the ground as if it would hide him. Rose woke up from the sudden noise, the two Verum's staring at him in utter confusion as he rolled off of his back and back up onto his knees, smiling sheepishly at them both.

"Stiles?" Harper yawned, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing in my living room?"

Stiles chuckled nervously, "you weren't answering your phone. I got worried."

Rose grinned at the two of them tiredly. "Aw, young love." She sighed, stretching out her hands as she sat up. "You two have your moment, I'm going to light a -"

"Nope." Harper grabbed her grandma's arm, pulling her back a little. "No more cigarettes, grandma. You promised."

Rose sighed, "oh, yes, yes. I forgot, I'm sorry, dear."

Harper just pursed her lips and nodded as her grandma said something about making tea before leaving the room. Stiles was confused but shook it off as he stood up, sitting down on the coach next to his girlfriend. He wrapped an arm around Harper, pulling her into him.

She held his hand which was a little awkward from the medical tape wrapped around her broken finger. Their hands remained on their laps and she watched them, glad that Stiles was there with her. It was a relief after the emotional day she had had with her grandma, talking about what she had found out yesterday.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly after a while, his deep voice sending shivers down Harper's spine.

Harper nodded, "just some family problems."

Stiles knew that from the shortness of her answer that she didn't want to talk about it anymore and nodded, respecting her decision. He might ask her another day, but for now he was there until she needed him.

"Okay," he moved to tuck some hair out of her face. "I have a mission for you, if you're feeling up to it."

Harper smiled at him, "oh, I'd love a distraction right now."

Stiles grinned before telling her his plan.

I hate this book lol