Distance [Derek Hale]

Chapter Sixteen

Jumping down onto his shoulders, the pair fell under the water although where you would usually pop back up they both chose to stay there for a few seconds. If they weren't underwater then laughter would be falling from them like bells and waterfalls and all things magical. Letting go of his body, she forced her hands through the water to keep moving forward. Everything was filled with such colour and beauty by the fish that surrounded her.

Her eyes were smiling.

She wouldn't dare smile underwater and allow the offending salty liquid to gush into her mouth. Feeling a hand on her ankle, she spun around in the water only to see him trying to trap her as she had him. He caught up to her his hands grabbing onto her shoulders and they began a battle of sorts.

Glaring at him through the water, she quickly tried to assert her own dominance although it wasn't exactly working due to the fact that she was inherently weaker than he was. She had always been average in terms of athletics, but he was a bear. There was nothing else to it.

Finally needing air, she kicked off the ground to swim to the top.

Breaking the surface of the water, she kept her grip on Derek in hopes of keeping him afloat whilst Stiles leapt into the pool to help the pair. Both of them sounded breathless and like they were struggling, she was struggling whilst he was panicking over the fact that two muscle-less and skinny people were meant to keep him alive.

"Where did it go?" Stiles asked the moment everyone had caught their bearings. They swam further into the middle of the pool hoping to get away from the snake-like creature, "do you see it?"

"No."

"Okay, maybe it took off?" Stiles asked as Margo used her new mobility to try and look around and see it. She couldn't see anything.

A loud shriek echoed through the room and subconsciously she tightened her grip on Derek, "I really don't think it did," she muttered out.

"You get me out of here before I drown," Derek then growled as he flickered his eyes to look over at Stiles who looked at him horrified.

"You're worried about drowning? Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth?" Stiles snapped and Margo tilted her head slightly as if to say 'fair enough'.

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

"I mean, we're shorter than you and also in eight feet of water," Margo reminded and Derek rolled his eyes turning to look at her with a glare.

"Okay, I don't see it," Stiles muttered before he urged Margo to swim closer to the edge and she did following his directions.

Derek, who was the only one who could see anything in front of them quickly caught sight of the kanima in front of them, "Wait, wait, wait! Stop! Stop!" He urged and the pair stopped looking around to find the sight of it. They soon caught it crawling around the edge of the pool.

"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asked.

The kanima crept around the pool before it finally chose to dip its claw in, but the second it did it reeled back with a hiss. "I don't think it can swim..." Margo uttered her brows furrowed as she watched it.

With each action, the two Stilinski siblings got weaker and more tired and they both knew this wasn't going to be sustainable for much longer. Every few seconds one of them would be tempted to drop the weight they were carrying and just lie back and float, but they never did. They wouldn't let Derek die like that.