SIRENS • STILES STILINSKI / BOYXBOY

5

ABANDONED AQUARIUM
Stiles Stilinski

I sit in my jeep with Derek as we watch the entrance of the Aquarium from a safe distance across the street, in a nearby parking lot. I take out my binoculars and look through them as I wait for either Peter or Theo to walk out of there. Derek sits next to me and looks the same way as me and we continue to wait.

"I can smell them both from here. They rot of anger and... fear?" Derek says and I look at him confused. The most sociopathic enemies we've ever had have finally teamed up in a duo with a mysterious creature, and they're scared?

"Do you smell anything else? Can you pick out who else or what else they might have?" I ask him and he sniffs. He closes his eyes and then looks away as he looks like he got a headache. "You alright?"

"Something is blocking my senses." He says trying to focus as he tightly closes his eyes once more. "I-I can't pick anything up." He hesitates and then gives up finally.

"That's weird, has it ever happened before?" I say as I've never heard of something happening like this before. This stuff hasn't happened to Scott or any of the other guys I've known. Why now?

"No..." Derek says lowly worrying for our safety but I'm eager to find out what is happening. "Look, they're leaving." He says and I quickly turn towards the view to see Theo and Peter walk out together. They both get into a car together and drive off to who knows where. We wait a little bit to be in the clear until their car is too far to notice us, or our scent.

"Let's go." I command Derek and we both jump out of my jeep together. We both carry a flashlight and we both run across the street. "So, you wanna make any bets to what's happening before we go in?" I say trying to lighten up this dark mood and Derek shakes his head not wanting to play along.

"I've seen too much things happen to even want to joke about them anymore." Derek says and I take note of it. Wherever he has been these last couple of years, it's changed him for sure. He's always been grumpy, but now he is, different.

"Alright." I respond, and we enter through the main entrance to find nothing but debris and mold. This place used to be popular when I was little but now it's just another dump in Beacon Hills. I stare at the tanks and they're filled with dark green water. so thick that you can't make out to see what's through the glass at all.

As I look around the place I find a door with a light glowing underneath it and I open it. Derek and I walk through it together entering a hallway that goes up to the feeding zone of the tanks and remember this being where they kept the sharks that would survive here. This aquarium was infamous for abusing the animals here and they attempted to keep sharks here, but the sharks found it difficult to live in the small tanks.

There were plans for renovating the Aquarium but the funding was cut due to the lack of publicity it was getting. Not only that but the protests to shut it down were making it worse to keep it open. I remember all the calls Dad got from home in those last months before it closed down and how he had to send himself along with his officers to go watch and make sure it was a peaceful protest.

As Derek and I walk up the stairs we both smell a disgusting strong stench of rotting bodies. "This can't be good." I say as I open the door and as I do, I see buckets covered in what looks like dismembered human body parts all together.

"No..." Derek says and points his flashlight up and as he looks up a drop of blood drops on to my shoulder. I get disgusted by it and look up to see half eaten bodies with their spines and skulls still attached. They hang by a hook on the ceiling and there isn't just one, but there is what looks like could be 20 other bodies.