Insidious ✖ Theo Raeken

e i g h t

I watched as dad crossed out Tracy's photo with a red marker. 

"Chimeras..." He mused with a hint of loathing in his voice.

"Two dead Chimeras..." I added, clenching my fists out of intensity.

"And eight new ones." Stiles reminded, as if everything wasn't concerning already.

Couple of nights ago, someone dug up eight new holes in the stadium. That means eight new Chimeras...

"So, that's ten in all..." I mused, looking around the room worriedly.

"I'm thinking maybe eleven." Dad spoke as he pinned the photo of Donovan on his board, much to my horror that sent uneasy shivers down my spine.

My face sank down as my heart got stuck in my mouth. I looked away eventually, not being able to look at those psychotic eyes any longer.

"Our station tech guys confirmed something for me." Dad continued. "They said both the holding cell lock and cameras could have malfunctioned because of something electromagnetic." He then looked to his desk and picked up the book. "You said that, uh, these guys—"

"Dread Doctors?" Stiles interrupted while I still had my eyes down on the floor, slowly walking away from my family.

"Are we really calling them that?" Dad squinted at my brother, not wanting to give any acknowledgement to these masked men.

"So they broke Donovan out?"

"It's how they got to Eichen, isn't it?"

About Eichen House... While the pack was there to see Dr. Valack, they were paid a visit by the Dread Doctors. Kira, being a Kitsune, disrupted the building's defenses with her inner electrical power. Eichen House is built on a convergence of telluric currents and she seemed to have caused some malfunction, resulting in masked men's appearance and her passing out. 

There was hell of a fight after my friends managed to get some information about the book. Valack implied that it's not simply a book, it's a tool – a tool to remember, seeing that it triggers the brain's memory center.

"Donovan's a Chimera." Stiles nodded curtly and walked over to the photo, ready to cross it out.

"Yeah." Dad breathed out. "But is he a failure like Lucas and Tracy?"

I turned away and stepped towards the door before stopping and clenching my knuckles at the sides. The images of the encounter flashed back, making me flinch and close my eyes shut.

"If he is, he's probably dead."

I slightly turned my head back and saw how dad gripped Stiles' wrist, preventing him from crossing the photo. "Not until I've seen the body."

I turned back, realizing that they won't really get to see the body, because it's simply vanished. I wonder if I will ever get the strength to confess about killing him.

"Silvie?" Dad called with a concerned voice, making me cope all my strength and turn back to them.

"Sorry, uh, I'm just trying to think about it." I shook my head curtly before approaching dad and Stiles. "Uh, these were all teenagers, right? So, now shouldn't we be trying to figure out why these teenagers ? If the Dread Doctors, if they went through all that... burying them, killing them, breaking one of them out of jail –"

"They couldn't have been chosen at random." Dad interrupted me, catching the hook.

"They had to have something in common." Stiles did the same.

"Something that made them right for this experiment." Dad gazed into oblivion while we all let the information sink in.

"Something that made them special." I breathed out as I eyed the photo of Donovan Donati.