Bleed Your Heart Out

Bleeding Hearts

A/N Warning: Contains pain, physical and psychological torture, blood, gore, hallucinations, mental health issues, and death. Please, please, please read with caution. As always, take care. <3

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Theo had his head lulled to the back of his chair, eyes lightly shut. His body still hurt, still burned, but the fuzzing in his brain was starting to take over–starting to make him more tired than anything else. It was a weird sickness type of feeling–his insides were on fire, but he felt... cold. His body had a slight tremble, like he couldn't stop shaking from the cold. Even still, his hands were clammy–his palms wet and moist.

He could hardly think straight, every thought slipping through his fingers almost as quickly as it came. It was like... It was...

He could hear voices nearby. Maybe Gerard's. Maybe Tara's. He couldn't really make them out. They were too... Too...

God, Theo was tired. His whole body ached for the release of sleep. Just a little rest. Just a little... Just...

Theo could feel himself start to slip in and out of consciousness. Slowly but surely, sleep was overtaking him. Slowly, but surely–

Suddenly, a splash of freezing cold water exploded down onto him, immediate and overwhelming. His eyes launched open, his head rushing up as ice-cold panic seized his being. His tiredness was wiped, replaced with adrenaline and cold shock. His breaths came out in gasps, his heart pounding against his chest.

Looking up, Theo could just barely make out the glint of metal on the ceiling. A sprinkler system, maybe? It didn't necessarily feel like a regular sprinkler system–water was pouring down, hard and fast, the pressure enough to hurt his supernatural skin.

"Sorry about that!" Gerard's voice came, though he sounded anything but sorry. "But we wouldn't want you to fall asleep and miss all the fun, would we? I think it's better if you just try and stay awake."

"You absolute psychopathic–!" Theo raged, but was cut off as the speakers began to blast music so loudly that he could feel the vibrations. It was aggressive, a type of screamo music with instrumentals so loud he couldn't even hear himself think.

There was something else there, under the music, something that sparked in his ears so loud and so harsh that it practically hurt.

Theo gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as the sound began to bore into him. It was a frequency, he realized: something designed to overwhelm his supernatural senses. He moved his head down, hoping in vain that he might be flexible enough to cover his ears with his hands.

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt!

"Okay! Okay, I think I'm awake, you loon! You can stop now!"

Gerard didn't give him the satisfaction of reacting. Instead, the music and the water just continued, and continued, and continued, ice cold water soaking into his clothes and weighing him down just as the music bore into his head, hurting his ears and mind. He couldn't think, he couldn't even really breathe.

"Stop!" Theo shouted. "Stop it!"

But it didn't stop. It wasn't going to stop. It was never going to stop. Liam wasn't coming. He had no reason to try and save him–especially not after all he's done. Liam was never going to come, it was clear. Why Gerard thought Liam would, Theo didn't know. All he knew was that he was going to be stuck here forever–or long enough for Gerard to get bored enough to actually kill him.

This, this was going to be his end.

He hated that this was what done him in: an old man, screamo music, and the supernatural equivalent of drunkenness.

Pathetic.

... But at least Liam was safe. If nothing else, at least Liam was safe.

Theo took a deep, shaky breath, and tried to mentally prepare himself for what was to come. Then, he opened his eyes and sat up straight in his chair, forcing up as best he could the mental wall in his mind he had spent years building and mastering while dealing with the Dread Doctors.

As he looked ahead, he was shocked to see a little bit of light creeping in through a crack from a door. Then, suddenly, the door was being pushed open frantically and quickly, slamming against the wall in its haste.

Liam stood there in the doorway, illuminated by light. His chest was heaving, and his eyes were wide and manic as he looked at Theo. He stood there for a moment, or two, practically frozen in time, before he rushed forward. "Theo!" He yelled, falling to his knees in front of the Chimera in order to be close to eye level.

"Liam?" Theo frowned. His mind fuzzed as he tried to process the man in front of him. "What are you–why are you..?"

Liam shook his head, moving his hand and using it to cup Theo's cheek. "You're okay," he whispered, his voice breaking. "You're... you're alive." He hesitated, rubbing his thumb against Theo's cheek. "You're okay."

"You shouldn't be here." Theo said softly. "You shouldn't... I... They're going to hurt you. You shouldn't be here!"

"I couldn't just let them hurt you. I–" Liam stopped, swallowing down a sob. He squeezed his eyes shut, for a moment or two, before looking back up at Theo. "I'm getting you out of here, okay?"

"... Okay," Theo breathed.

Liam turned his attention to the wires holding Theo down, fiddling with the one holding down his right hand. Theo watched as the wire slowly grew looser and looser, so close to coming off. So close to–

Liam's hands stopped. One gripped onto the wires tightly. A broken out gasp escaped Liam's lips.

Theo looked up to see Liam's eyes wide, staring but with a vacant, pained look. Slowly, so slowly, Liam fell forward, his body crashing against Theo's lap limply.

Behind where Liam was, Tara stood. Her hand was raised, cradling a human heart, a sinister smile plastered against her lips. "Whoops."

"... No." Theo looked back down at Liam. There was a hole in his back, blood seeping out and soaking into Liam's shirt. "No. No, no, no." Theo tried to move–to rip his hands from the wires so he could actually move to Liam–but he was too weak. "No. No, please. Please, no. Please. Liam!" Tears started to roll down his cheeks as he stared down at the beta's lifeless body.

"Why are you so surprised?" Tara asked, "you and I both know that wherever you go, death follows."

"Why?" Theo's voice broke as he looked up at Tara. "Why would you do that?"

Tara's smile widened. "Because you love him."

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A/N: ... I'm sorry. Please don't hate me.  I promise I'll have another chapter out tomorrow, so you won't be too stuck on this.