Bleed Your Heart Out

Run

A/N Warning: This chapter contains STRONG topics including depression, suicidal ideation, implications of suicide attempts, and mental health issues. It is a bit of a heavy chapter in terms of these these, so please read with caution. As always, take care of yourselves <3

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Storming out of the safety of Scott's house was stupid, Liam knew that. It was even more stupid to run through Beacon Hills due to his lack of a car.

It didn't matter. Liam needed to get away. He needed to separate himself from the pack–from everyone. He needed to clear his head.

Liam didn't have a plan of action, or a destination–he was just running. Running from the pack, from his friends, from his problems. It felt like he was constantly running away from things, lately. Away from school, away from Monroe, away from Gabe and Nolan... away from Theo.

Liam had always been good at running. He was fast–so fast that he always felt like if he never stopped, nothing could ever catch up to him. And nothing ever did–until Theo.

The thing was, most people either let Liam run or weren't fast enough to stop him. Theo stopped him. Grabbed onto Liam's arm tight right as Liam was preparing to push away and run, his voice unusually soft–unusually kind–as he asked, "what's going on with you?" The Chimera even doubled down when Liam flashed his golden eyes, asking "What is it?" instead letting go–instead of retreating like everyone else did.

Liam's anger was always a good deterrent for people. It kept them away, kept them from getting too close. It... scared them. Made them afraid of him. And while Liam hated how exceptionally angry he got, he had to admit that it always allowed him to get away from people. Allowed him to run.

It... didn't work on Theo.

Theo wasn't afraid of him.

Before Liam knew what was happening, he found himself standing at the edge of the abandoned zoo, a little ways off from the entrance.

There, in full view, was Theo's Toyota Tundra pickup truck.

Hesitantly, Liam made his way over to the truck. Running his hand across the blue metal, Liam circled the pickup.

Liam had worked out the whole truck damage story on their way to the zoo. Had worked out the reason for the missing windows–the missing front windshield. Had worked out the origin of the small holes ingrained into the truck's exterior, some creating actual holes in the metal. Had worked out the lingering smell of blood and fear.

Theo had done his best to hide the evidence–to erase what happened, but there was only so much one could do to hide an attempted murder. There wasn't any broken glass, there weren't any blood stains, but still–it was impossible to miss: the hunters had found Theo all alone in his truck, and they attacked. They shot him. ... They incapacitated him enough to drag him out and away.

Liam didn't know for sure how long Theo had been missing, that time. Theo wouldn't answer any questions about it–just shrugged off the whole thing with a, "it's over now, what does it even matter?" The worst part was that Theo seemed to actually mean that–that it didn't matter. He didn't seem to care that he had been captured, or tortured–not when he had eventually made it out the other side.

Theo didn't seem to care about a lot of things.

... Theo didn't seem to care about himself, more than anything.

Liam could still hear Theo's voice in the back of his head, quiet but sure, as he said, "no one's going to care about me."

Liam wasn't saying that he cared about Theo–because he didn't–but... thinking about that now made Liam's heart ache. Theo had said those words with such authority, it felt like there was no way that the Chimera could've possibly been wrong. Theo didn't just believe it, he thought it was a cold hard fact: no one cared about Theo Raeken. The end.