Nefarious ➛ Theo Raeken [2]

|21|

welcome back to the shit show. this one was difficult to get through, but here we are.

songs for this chapter (don't worry, you'll thank me or hate me later):
*part one: rescue| lauren daigle
*part two: you are a memory| message to bears
*part three: wolves| selena gomez
the other side| ruelle
*part four: just a girl| florence + the machine
in the air tonight| the protomen

•

The crisp leaves rustling in the distance sent her nerves on fire. Beacon Hills had become the ghost town that Beacon Preserve had succumbed to after the Hale fire. No one was around them, human or supernatural alike.

"I really am starting to hate this preserve." Clarissa grumbled underneath her breath as her shoe caught a branch that was hidden beneath the decaying grass and she stumbled into the back of Scott McCall. His hand wrapped around her wrist as he helped her catch her balance and Clarissa wished that she was back at the police station with Theo. She wished that she was with her brother or Evie, or Brett and Isaac, any member of her family so that she could keep them safe. "Thanks."

"When you were here before, how long until the Ghost Riders showed up?" Scott spoke softly after offering a gentle smile her way. They could all see that the oldest Bane sibling was slowly growing more concerned the longer that they spent in the woods.

"A couple minutes." Malia offered with a grim smile, eyes locked on Clarissa's tense form. Her eyes were squinting and her fingers were running over her thumb quickly.

"That's reassuring." Lydia's voice was behind her, something that gave her great relief because she trusted Lydia to have her back. Scott and Malia were far too shaky of allies to have, but Lydia was constant.

Her head was throbbing and she felt like it was suffocating to continue to move deeper in the woods. Something about the area, the aura that was tainting it, was making her fight or flight instincts go into overdrive. She knew they were getting closer to the rift because she wanted nothing more than to turn and run away from it. She couldn't run though, not when Corey and Lori were missing and it was her fault.

"What's a rift supposed to look like?" Malia questioned, a hint of suspicion in her voice the longer that Clarissa rubbed her fingers tensely over her thumb and squinted her eyes in pain. They had seen that nervous tick in the past, in a town so plagued by ghosts that it almost drove them mad.

"If it's a tear in the fabric of our world." Lydia hummed thoughtfully, elegantly stepping over tree branches and holes the further they moved into the woods. "Theoretically it could look like anything from a microscopic black hole to a free-floating Einstein-Rosen bridge."

"I think we're getting closer to it." Clarissa grit her teeth harshly on her lip, a thick drop of blood bubbling on her painted lips and drying up quickly. The feeling was far too familiar to her, that residual energy that lingered whenever they were near a Ghost Rider. The closer they got to the supposed rift, the more it felt like a super charged battery frying her insides. "This place feels like that creepy ass ghost town. I don't particularly like the feeling at all."

They all paused and stared at her, the girl who looked like she was pushing through the pain just to find the ones she lost. She kept going though, heart jolting slightly as she took a few more steps forward and stopped as the pain almost sent her to her knees. It was a blank space, but she could smell the char from Peter Hale's body in the area and the energy almost engulfed her completely.

"It's here." Clarissa didn't know how she became so connected to the energy that engulfed the area, but she could almost feel a calming presence lingering in the midst of the chaos. It felt like Corey and home, something that scared her greatly as she looked up into the open air above her and pointed.