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Rip. Rip. Rip.
Over and over again until Theo’s head is spinning and he feels like he’s floating. Over and over again she rips her heart from his chest with her cold dead hands, leaving a painfully large, gaping hole behind.
Rip. Rip. Rip.
A few more times can’t hurt. She’s already taken it back three, four times. What’s a hundred more?
Rip. Rip. Rip.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to stop.”
Rip.
His words fall on deaf ears as his sister shoves him to the ground once again and takes her heart back. Another hole is left in his chest, another time she leaves him to bleed out on the cold, soulless hospital floors. The white and blue tiles seem to mock him as his head lolls to the side, the life quickly draining out of him again.
The morgue container surrounds him, the metal gleaming in the tiny amount of light let in from the slightly ajar door in front of him. The same container he’s woken up in a thousand times over.
Sighing, Theo shoulders the door open and wiggles his body out until his head is hanging outside into the frigid air, taking in the painstakingly familiar gloomy walls and shiny metal tables.
Her voice sings out his name from a distance, a bleak call for his death.
Theo shoves out of the tiny container and he falls to the ground with a heavy thud, letting the even colder floor swallow him whole before she has the chance too.
A small noise is heard from somewhere above him and before Theo can be bothered to care about it something falls from above and hits him in the forehead as he lays in waiting. Theo cracks his tired eyes open in confusion, knowing this isn’t part of the game they play.
Theo wakes up, runs, she catches him and rips his heart out, Theo dies.
It’s simple.
Another piece of something above him hits him again, this time on his chest, and Theo’s good and truly confused now because this is definitely not supposed to be happening.
Focusing on where the falling debris is coming from, to his sheer surprise Theo sees a small crack in the white ceiling above him. Brown dirt is visible above the plaster, and another piece of it falls onto Theo once more, on the middle of his nose this time.
Curious, Theo pushes himself onto his feet and reaches up, finding that for the first time since he woke up down here he can touch the ceiling without jumping. It’s dipping down towards him underneath something heavy, but why?
Tara’s sickly voice calls out for him again, this time closer. Always getting closer.
Wincing, he focuses back onto the still-cracking ceiling. The opening is big enough for a small animal to fit through, reminding Theo of the hole about to be in his chest, heart long gone and in the hands of its rightful owner.
The crack is rapidly growing into a decent sized crater, and Theo’s pretty sure he can see the familiar line of pipes running through his favorite tunnels. A shiver runs down his spine as he realizes this is just a new part in the game, that now she’s added in another piece of torture to try and kill him before he reaches twenty five. If he’ll even reach that high, he’s just trying to make it to next year.
She calls out for him once more, spurring him into action. The hollow opening is big enough for him to fit his body through, and what’s waiting for him up there is better than the horrors that are down here. Pain and torture he’s used to, but having his sister continuously rip his heart out over and over again is something entirely new and much worse.
Pushing up onto his tip toes, Theo reaches both of his hands up until they wrap around something and he pulls himself up, praying that it holds him. Thankfully it does, and Theo pulls his body weight up to be able to break the last weak layer of dirt above him with his head.
One last call of his name has Theo throwing himself up through the dirt and into beautiful new air, not stale like the air down in the hospital. It’s not clean, but it’s better than what he had. Rolling onto his side, Theo quickly scrambles to his feet and opens up his chemosignals, looking for the scent of metal, rust, and pain.
Theo startles as he hears a familiar quick-beating heartbeat and panics, knowing this is one of Tara’s tricks, that he would never come and save him, he couldn’t save him when Theo was dragged down there, couldn’t save him when–
“Hey sweetheart, miss me?”
Liam’s sweet, sweet voice sends tremors through Theo’s body, and he has to fight with every inch of his well-measured control to stay rooting in his spot. This is a trick. This is a trick. This is a trick.
“Theo?”
Tears spring to his eyes and Theo’s pretty sure he’s shaking.
Just like after she takes her heart back.
This is a trick this is a trick thisisatrick
He would rather Tara rip his heart out for the rest of eternity then have to go through this .
Footsteps start towards him and Theo throws out his arms in front of him, doesn’t know if he can resist throwing himself into his warm embrace if Liam so much as touches him.
“Stop, please. You can take it back, just–” Theo starts to hyperventilate and the footsteps start up quicker, fueling his panic even more.
Theo backs himself up until he runs into something solid, hands flitting around against the wall behind him for some kind of weapon to defend himself from Tara’s sick way of finally killing him, because Theo’s not sure he’ll be able to keep going if Liam takes her heart back too.
“Theo, calm down. It’s just me, Liam.”
“No, no.” Theo stammers out. “It’s her, she sent you.”
He can imagine the furrow in Liam’s brow, how he’s tilting his head like a confused puppy, but Theo doesn’t dare look up at him, too terrified what he’ll find. He’s scared of the twisted version Tara’s Liam will only hurt him worse.
“No, baby. Nobody sent me, I came to find you myself. I came for you, just like I said I would.”
A whine rips itself out of his throat– rip. rip. rip –and Theo presses himself even farther back into what he assumes is a wall. Knowing the tunnels, it probably is, or at least some pipes.
Liam’s scent tanks, and Theo wants to cry knowing that it was him that made Liam smell like that, even if it’s Tara’s Liam that’s in front of him.
“Theo, look at me.”
A quick shake of his head has Liam’s scent going even more sour, and to save himself from even more torture Theo raises his head and finally opens his tired eyes.
Bright blue eyes bore into him, and Theo lets out a choked out sob as he realizes that they’re just as blue as he remembers them.
“There you go, Theo. Good. Now, do you know where you are?”
Captivated by Liam, Theo lets himself shake his head again, finally accepting whatever this twisted trick is. If he’s going to die, then let it be by her version of Liam, not herself.
“You’re in the tunnels. The ones you lived in when you were with the Dread Doctors.” Liam’s voice washes over him like a wake-up call, and Theo blinks at him, mind solidifying on the fact that this is a trick from Tara. This is the next best place for her to torment him, the place that’s heard his screams and had his blood soak its floors. His Liam would never take him here.
Liam’s face morphs into confusion. “Why don’t you believe me?”
Theo lets himself answer, closing his eyes to wait for the killing blow to finally put him out of his misery. “Because she made you up, you’re here to kill me.”
A warm hand comes to gingerly rest against his cheek, and Theo almost sinks into it–desperately wanting to–but warning bells are still ringing in his mind. Theo flinches hard from the contact , eyes shooting open to lock with Liam’s. A hurt look flashes briefly across Liam’s face before horribly-concealed concern replaces it.
“What do I have to do to convince you that it’s me?” Liam whispers, his face close enough to Theo’s that all he’d have to do to press their lips together is lean forward a few inches. Theo wants to lean back, for his own sanity at this point, but he can’t go any farther backwards with the wall pressing into him, and forwards means Liam and that’s what he’s trying to avoid, so he stays put, bracing himself for what’s to come.
Liam takes his silence as enough of an answer, because he starts talking. “You’re Theo Raeken. You hate sweet tea because it burns your throat, but you love lavender tea because it reminds you of your mother. You take your coffee black and you prefer salty over sweet. You always sleep with your back to a wall, and you would rather eat hot coals than kiss me before I’ve brushed my teeth. You’re my boyfriend and you love me, and I love you, so please believe me when I say that I’m here to save you.” Liam finishes, chest heaving as he takes in the breaths he lost, and Theo melts. Only his Liam knows that, he’s the only person Theo let close enough to even have an inkling at any of that. This isn’t a trick from Tara, Liam’s really here to save him.
“Liam?”
“ Baby. ”
The next thing Theo knows his face is in Liam’s neck and he’s crying, because Liam saved him. He found him and saved him, just like he said he would. This is his Liam, not a twisted version of him.
Theo inhales his familiar scent and sighs, finding comfort in his anchor. He missed Liam. Missed the way he laughs, the way he smells, the way his eyes flutter shut when Theo kisses him, everything about him.
“Shush, I got you sweetheart, I found you.” Liam comforts, his voice soothing Theo in ways he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again.
“Liam, I-I,” Theo stutters, and Liam moves one his hands from where it was rubbing up and down his back to hold lightly at the nape of his neck, encouraging him.
“Go on, sweetheart. I’m listening.”
“You’re real. ”
Liam chuckles against his neck, his exhale hot against him, and Theo lets himself put every thought of his sister and the hell Scott and his pack sent him too and sinks into the strong, comforting embrace of his anchor.
“Yeah, sweetheart, I’m real.” Liam presses a kiss to the side of his head, and for the first time in a while Theo feels safe.
The sound of a haunting voice calling out his name is long gone, and the comforting mummer of Theo replaces it, and Theo closes his eyes, Tara finally gone.
“Let go, I’ve got you.”
And Theo does.