Argentine | Stiles Stilinski (Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Four: Silverfinger

Stiles and I led Scott into the chemistry classroom, 'So the she starts talking about phosphors and the key having chemicals on it, right? And so that made me think of the chemistry closet and the fact that someone had to let Barrow in...'

He trailed off, staring at the board in confusion and shock. 'It's gone. It doesn't matter, I've still got the key.' he rushed over to the closet, frowning when he couldn't find the key. 'What the hell?' he frantically searched for it, but it was gone. 'I had it... I had it here. I had it here this morning, I swear to God, I had it this morning.'

Scott nodded, 'The key you were talking about last night?'

'Yeah, I showed it to you, right? Didn't I show it to you?'

'No, you just told me about it. I never actually saw it.'

Stiles turned to me, 'You saw it. Right, Ari?'

'I don't know, I think I was already kinda drunk when you got to the party.'

'You saw it. I showed it to you!'

I shrugged dismissively, 'I guess.'

He frowned and I noticed his breathing quicken, 'I was here a couple of hours ago with Ari. And the message left to Barrow, spelling Kira's name, was right there on the board in my handwriting and I had the key to the chemistry closet.'

'So you unlocked the chemistry closet so Barrow could hide in it from the cops and then you wrote him a message to kill Kira?' Scott asked, trying to get his head around it all.

'I know how it sounds... but look at this,' he took a piece of paper out of his pocket, 'This is the news report that came out about Barrow when they caught him, okay? About the shrapnel bomb that he used. See this? See what he did? He put nuts, bolts and screws, and then he hid the bomb and the detonator in a box that he wrapped as a birthday present. What does that sound like to you?'

Scott's eyes widened, 'Coach. The joke we played on coach.'

Stiles nodded, 'You remember? That was my idea, that's no coincidence. It can't be.'

Scott sighed, 'I don't want to sound like I'm trying to tell you that you're wrong, but I don't think you're trying to kill people either.'

'It was here, it was all here.'

'Dude, are you feeling okay? You're looking really tired.'

He paused, 'Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping really...'

I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, 'Why don't you go home? Take a sick day or something. I'm sure this'll seem much less important once you wake up.'

——————

From Allie:
Did Scott tell you about the creatures?

To Allie:
No...

From Allie:
After you and Stiles left, these things appeared. They looked like ninjas or somethings, they disappeared before sunrise but we think they're targeting supernatural creatures

To Allie:
Thanks for letting me know

From Allie:
Are you gonna be at Scott's tonight?

To Allie:
I think I'll stay with Stiles. I'll be fine. Besides, he needs some support at the moment

From Allie:
Stay safe

——————

As I made my way into the hospital, I bumped into someone familiar. 'Scott, hey! What are you doing here?'

'I came to check on Stiles. Did anyone tell you what happened?'

'No. What happened?'

He paused, 'The creatures attacked our house. My dad got hurt.'

'Oh my God, is he okay?'

'Yeah, he'll make it. Look, they're targeting a dark kitsune, a fox spirit... thing, we think that it's possessing someone.'

I nodded slowly, 'Oh. I'll look out for anything weird then, I guess. Well, weirder than normal.'

We continued down the hospital corridor, opening one of the doors. Stiles was stood with his back to us, completely still. 'Stiles, you okay?' Scott asked, cautiously taking a step towards him.

He turned around with his usual cheeky grin, 'Yeah, fine. What's been going on?'

I followed them out of the room, looking back to see a firefly on the ground. It flickered for a moment before its light went dim, turning into a small cloud of smoke