XIII. | anywhere

                  I WOKE UP to Stiles softly slapping my cheek. "Hey," he whispered, "We're still alive."

The groan that fell from my mouth was so raw that I felt it in my bones. I allowed Stiles to help me up, then looked around to see that I was still on the pool deck. I must have passed out after seeing Scott's entrance. Speaking of ...

"Where's Scott?" I asked, eyes scanning the pool deck. He was nowhere in sight, but neither were Derek or Erica. "What happened?"

The time between me passing out and me waking up must have been eventful, because a nearby mirror was shattered on the floor and a skylight above one of the pools was broken, stray pieces of glass floating in the crystal blue water. A chill fell through the air, and I wrapped my arms around my exposed skin, staring glumly into the pool where I could see my shoes and jacket sunken below.

"Uh," Stiles followed where I was looking, then shrugged off his soaked red track jacket. "Here."

"Oh, I can't," I said, holding up my hand when he offered it to me.

"Oh, but you should," Stiles said back. I stared at him quizzically until he motioned to my shirt. I looked down to see that the white tee shirt fabric had become nearly transparent from the pool water, leaving my not-so-sexy bra on display. I accepted the jacket and wrapped myself as quickly as I could, noticing how much Stiles tried to not look at me.

I let the remark I had about his straying gaze die in my throat and instead asked once again, "What happened?"

"Superhero Scott saved the day," Stiles said, walking over to the exit before looking back so I could follow him. We stepped over the broken mirror pieces as he continued. "He got thrown into the mirror and almost used a shard to protect himself against the monster, but it saw its reflection and jumped out of the skylight - super weird. He's getting the bestiary now. It wasn't in Argent's office, but on his keychain."

"USB drive," I said, catching on, "Of course."

"Yeah," Stiles agreed. "Should have seen it coming."

We made our way out to the parking lot where Scott was already waiting by a black, beaten up sedan. I guessed it was his own, but then I saw a hospital ID hanging from the rearview mirror, complete with the smile of a woman who looked similarly to Scott. Something made me happy knowing his mother worked at the hospital, but I didn't get the chance to explain why, because he was handing Stiles his backpack and rushing him to retrieve a laptop.

The two wasted no time in opening the files on the USB drive from Argent's key chain. I looked over their shoulders to get a view of the documents opened, squinting when the words looked too small to read. It didn't take long for me to realize that the bestiary was in a different language - something Scott, Stiles, and I had never seen before.

"Is that even a language?" Stiles asked wryly, rubbing his arms with his hands to keep warm. He'd had a black tee underneath his jacket, but the chill that fell over Beacon Hills was severe and surprising for California weather.

Scott was sighing, flipping through the document on Stiles's laptop at a quick rate. "How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?" He all but growled under his breath, obviously peeved that the lizard-like monster from the pool was still roaming free. I wouldn't say anything, but I was peeved too. Standing in the school parking lot in the middle of the night, soaked to the bone, I'd never been so peeved.

Before I could open my mouth and try to calm Scott down, footsteps echoed off of the asphalt beneath our feet. The three of us tore our gazes away from the computer and to our left, where Derek and Erica made their way closer to us. I hadn't even thought about asking where they'd disappeared to, but now I didn't need to, because Derek was beginning to say something, and by the serious steeliness in his eyes, I could tell that it was important.

"It's called a kanima," he said, coming to a stop about three feet away from us.

"You knew the whole time," Stiles responded after collecting himself from the surprise of seeing Derek up and about.

Derek didn't seem to care that Stiles accused him. "No," he said, "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

"Because it's ugly?" I asked under my breath.

Scott shook his head. I'd forgotten about his heightened hearing again, and turned my head in embarrassment when he said, "Because it doesn't know what it is."

"Or who," Derek finished.

Stiles didn't seem to like where the conversation was going. "What else do you know?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders as if he wasn't surprised for Derek's next answer.

"Only stories." Derek sighed, "Rumors."

"So, what, it's like us?" Scott assumed.

"Shapeshifter, yes, but it's not right. It's like uh ... " Derek struggled to find the right words to explain the monster.

Stiles was able to finish for him. "An abomination," he said.

Derek nodded gloomily. He and Erica turned on their heels to make their exit, but Scott called out for them to stop. "We need help," he said, "We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents."

"You trust them?" Derek turned to get a better look at Scott.

I could see the tension in Scott's shoulders as he responded. "Nobody trusts anyone," he said angrily, "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!"

"Well I know one thing," Derek seethed, turning around and walking away, "When I find it," he paused before glancing back at us, "I'm gonna kill it."

-

Stiles was silent as we climbed into his car, obviously thinking things through. I sat in a chilled silence, teeth chattering as his wet jacket did nothing to keep me warm. Scott had made a hasty exit after Derek and Erica left, telling us that he was due at the hospital to pick his mother up from work. We'd bid him our goodbyes, then made our way to the Jeep. Now, nothing.

"What happened at the mechanic's last night?" I asked as we cruised out of the school parking lot. I could remember Derek saying something about it earlier.

"That thing - the kanima - was there." He pulled to a stop at a red light and looked over at me. "It killed the mechanic."

My mouth went dry. A mere twenty four hours ago I'd been avoiding the mechanic's straying gaze while walking out to Presley, and now he was dead. Gone. Nothing more than another murder in Beacon Hills. A shaky breath fell out of my mouth unsteadily. For a few seconds, the world turned, and I looked at my position from an outside perspective. It was like I was stuck on a rollercoaster, speeding through a Hollywood action movie.

I felt the car move before I was able to pull myself back to the present, and when I did, my knees started shaking and my eyes grew glassy. Stiles didn't notice, easily taking the turns to get back to my house. We were two streets away when my throat opened up.

"Stop," I said, looking over at Stiles. "Stop the car."

Unsurely, Stiles brought the Jeep to a stop in the middle of the empty road. I was breathing heavily, the death of the mechanic fresh on my mind and the fact that I wouldn't have a good enough explanation for my absence once I got home. No matter how I spun it, coming home in the middle of the night with soaked clothes, no shoes or jacket, and a broken phone sounded bad. Mom wasn't in the mood for bad excuses after my act with Dad the other night, and I knew that I was on thin ice with Presley.

"I can't go home," I finally said quietly.

Stiles was confused. "What? Why?"

A sigh rippled through my throat. "Pres and I are in a fight - I can't go home until I find a good enough excuse for tonight."

"That doesn't make any sense," Stiles prodded, squinting his eyes in thought. "You have a fight with your brother and now you can't go home? Must have been one hell of an argument."

I gritted my teeth. "It was more than a fight. He was telling me that I shouldn't be hanging out with you or Scott - which, by the way, I'm starting to agree with." He watched me closely as I cringed. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just that we just spent two hours in a swimming pool because a homicidal lizard was trying to kill us."

"So that's why you can't go home? Because you think he's right?"

"No!" I said, lowering my voice when I realized how loud I was being. "I used my dad as an excuse for how weird I've been acting." I looked around to see that the road was still empty, then sunk in my seat to continue. "Listen, you don't know too much about me, but me wanting to talk to my dad is really serious. He basically disowned us when he and my mom divorced. We haven't seen him since I was eleven."

The car was silent as I explained myself, and when I was finished, remained that way. I was worried that I sounded too trivial - that a simple family fight was nothing but normal.

When Stiles spoke again, he didn't sound confused anymore. "If I'm not taking you home, where am I taking you?"

I shrugged. "Anywhere."