The Rising Sun (A Stiles Stilinski/Teen Wolf Fanfiction) [2]

Chapter 22 - Tangled

**Disclaimer** I do not own Teen Wolf and I am literally out of witty things to add here. Don't sue me.

 "I just got off the phone with Stiles," I said to my brother. He was pulling a jug of orange juice out of the fridge. I grabbed a glass for myself and sat it on the island next to his. I continued talking as I popped a bagel into the toaster. "He said that they found Matt's body in the creek just down the road from the station. Supposedly drowned,"

 "Supposedly?" Eric asked, cocking an eyebrow as he poured my glass of orange juice and passed it over to me.

 I picked the glass up with both hands and took a sip. "Well the story is he fell into the water and drowned himself, but I know that there's no way it could have been just an accident."

 Eric nodded solemnly and slumped over in his bar stool. As I watched his posture change I remembered that he had been on the 2006 swim team, the team that Matt set out to kill. Scott said Matt told him what happened that made him so bitter, but I still have yet to hear the story.

 "Eric, you know that all of Matt's victims were part of the 2006 swim team, right?" I asked. "The team you were on your sophomore year,"

 He gave a heavy sigh. "Yeah, yeah I know,"

 "So what happened? Why would he want to kill all of those people?"

 Eric looked at me with deep eyes and I ignored my bagel as I heard it pop out of the toaster. I just need to know. I need a reason for why my brother would have potentially been on Matt's kanima-hit list.  

 "We were having a party to celebrate winning this big meet," he started. He fingered the rim of his glass of orange juice as he spoke. "The only reason they let me go as an underclassman was cause I always supplied the booze. I knew Lahey shouldn't have let us all drink, I just didn't think it would get that out of hand. A couple of guys chucked Matt in the water as a joke...they didn't know he couldn't swim. I was the one who pulled him out,"

 "He drowned," I said quietly. My brother still heard me and nodded. That's why the kanima was afraid of water, because Matt was. 

 I can't even imagine what that must have been like, fighting to hold on, to not let the water in. Your head literally feels like it's going to explode. Eventually, your body stops fighting and you let in that first breath of water. It's a reflex, uncontrollable. What an awful way to die.

 But I couldn't feel bad for him. I don't have that capacity. He killed numerous people. He orphaned a child. Just because they 'killed him first' doesn't give him the right to have their bodies torn to shreds by supernatural means. I died, yet you don't see me going around killing people. I have more control than that.

 "You can't blame yourself, Eric," I said, noticing my brother's solemn expression.

 He shook his head. "It was my fault they were drinking. If I had known I never would have - "

 "But you couldn't have known." I said, breaking him off. 

 It happens to all of us. We look back on some little decision we made and realize all the things that happened because of it, and we think to ourselves "if only I'd known", but, of course, we couldn't have known. Who could have predicted that bringing booze to a party would result in a homicidal lizard raining down terror five years later?

 "Being this way was Matt's choice. He did this to himself. He isn't your responsibility," I said. I sighed as my brother continued to hang his head. I checked the time on my phone and realized I needed to leave if I didn't want to be late for school. I grabbed my bagel out of the toaster, not even bothering to put anything on it. "I'll see you later, okay?"