REAPING INNOCENCE ◦ STILINSKI [3]

xxxv.

xxxv. EXHAUSTION

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THE COLD METAL TABLE had been replaced by the hard stone floor beneath her. Finally free of her restraints, Carter struggled to sit up and a pair of hands were quick to assist. She pulled away from the sudden physical contact but relaxed when she recognized Logan staring down at her.

    Carter tried to give him a reassuring smile but she knew it looked more like a grimace. Glancing around, she found that they were in a small stone room with a chainlink fence keeping them in.

    "Where are we?"

    "I have no idea," Logan answered, sinking to the ground next to her.

    She looked around the dark room once more and saw Liam sitting next to Hayden, both of them leaning against a stone pillar. Hayden quietly whimpered in pain and Carter could see the black liquid seeping through the side of her shirt.

    Carter leaned forward. "Are you all okay?"

    Logan couldn't help but chuckle under his breath. "We just listened to you being tortured and you're more worried about us?"

    As if she had forgotten the past several hours, Carter immediately fumbled with the buttons on her shirt—revealing the long, red incision between her breasts. It wasn't healing but it wasn't infected either—it looked like a normal fresh wound would on a human.

    "What is that?" Logan asked. "What did they do? Did they take something out of you?"

    Carter breathed out a shaky sigh, closing the buttons on her shirt. "Or add something."

    "Does that mean you're a Chimera now?"

    The thought sent a sick feeling through her stomach but the sound of approaching footsteps momentarily pulled her from her thoughts.

    "I think they're coming back."

    At the announcement, all four of them were getting to their feet. Hayden and Carter struggled more than the Dunbar brothers. Her legs felt like they would give out from under her at any second—she just wanted to lie down, wanting this nightmare to end.

    "Liam? Hayden?" Theo's voice sounds before she can see him. "Carter?"

    Relaxation flooded her body at the sight of Theo but she instantly went rigid again when Liam shouted.

    "Theo, don't!"

    His warning had come too late—Theo grabbed the fence and was immediately electrocuted, flying back onto the ground.

    "Theo?" Logan called out. "You okay?"

    Theo groaned, wiping the dust off his hands as he stood. "Yeah, I'm fine."

    "You think you can get help?"

    "I am the help," he replied flatly.

    Theo approached the gate again—wrapped his hands on either side and pulled. His eyes flashed their brilliant gold and he used all his strength to try and pry the gate apart. Sparks of electricity flew and Carter used her arms to cover her face to avoid being burned. Within a few moments, the electricity had stopped and the gate flew open.

    Liam started to guide Hayden out of the room while Theo rushed to help Logan with Carter. She wanted swat their hands away, tell them that she didn't need to be coddled but the wobbling in her knees and nausea swirling in her stomach, told her otherwise.

    "You look like hell," Theo commented.

    "You surely know how to make a girl feel great about herself."

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"How is she?" Stiles asked.

    Melissa's gloved hands were cold on Carter's hot skin. The unnatural warmth still felt foreign to her—having gone so long being cold. Her eyes didn't leave the incision on her chest and she searched her memory of the past events but found no answers as to what the Doctors had done to her or what would happen to her after.

    "She's still healing," Melissa replied, eyes examining all of her wounds. "And she's still processing this black liquid out of her system."

    "Is she gonna be alright?" Stiles pressed Melissa, squeezing Carter's hand.

    Carter rolled her eyes, the effort made her head swim. "She is sitting right here."

    Stiles gave her an exasperated look that made Melissa chuckle under her breath. A few more minutes of silence passed as Melissa finished up with Carter's wounds. After she packed up her med-kit, she excused herself from the room, leaving Carter and Stiles alone.

    He gave Carter's hand another squeeze as she sat up in his bed. "I was afraid we weren't going to find you...find any of you."

    "So was I..." Carter admitted.

    She had started to think they would never be found and the torture by the Dread Doctors would never stop. She still hadn't worked out how Theo—of all people—had managed to find them, but she didn't have it in her to overthink it. The only thing that mattered was that they all made it out alive. Scott had made sure that Logan, Liam, and Hayden were taken care of—but they were all concerned about Hayden, she began to show signs of becoming another failure.

    Stiles free hand cupped the side of her face and he pressed a firm kiss to her temple. At the contact, Carter felt a strangled sob build up in her throat but she fought to push it down. Stiles' touch calmed the fire raging in her belly—a comforting warmth purling through her. She couldn't remember what they did to her but she knew that the Pheanix inside her was exhausted...drained.

    Stiles pulled back from her to look at her face and she instantly missed the touch of his skin.

    "Did they...?"

    Carter swallowed thickly. "I-I'm not entirely sure."

    Confusion flashed across Stiles' face and silently urged her to continue.

    "I don't remember all of it...not after they took me away from the others," she continued and she felt Stiles' grip on her hand tighten. "It was mostly senseless torture really...said they wanted to test my healing. They kept talking about my mother—that's when they pumped me full of that black liquid and I don't remember anything after that."

    Stiles wrapped his arms around Carter and pulled her into his chest, running his fingers through her hair. "We're gonna get through this."

    But Carter wasn't so sure.

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not edited

i might actually get my shit together and finish this 🤞🏻