Perpetual

Chapter 7

Stiles slammed into the locked door, yelling for his friends as Valack dragged them away. He slammed against the door again and again but it wouldn't budge.

"Lydia!" he screamed. "Tessa!"

There was no response. Stiles rushed back the way he had come, hoping there was some other way to follow them.

"Stiles," an annoyingly familiar voice called out. Stiles rolled his eyes.

"Look, I want her out of here, too. And he took Tessa. I've got their scent," Theo said.

"What do you want?" Stiles asked skeptically.

"I want Tessa to be safe. I don't know what Valack plans to do to her but I know it's not good."

Stiles squinted at the boy, a sickening realization coming over him.

"Oh my god. You actually care about her, don't you?"

Theo scoffed. "What does it matter anyway? I can find her. I can find them. You can't."

Stiles squinted at him. "Alright. But if I let you help, you gotta let Tessa go. She needs to come back to her family, to her pack."

Theo sighed. "Look, I wasn't the one who took her memories. I don't know how that happened. But if you can convince her to come back, I won't stop you."

Stiles stared at him, trying to detect a lie but for once, Theo seemed to be sincere.

Stiles finally nodded and Theo led the way. They burst into a steamy room where several men in towels immediately shied away from them. Theo looked around before approaching one of the men. He pushed him out of the way, staring at a grate below him.

"It leads to the tunnels, doesn't it?" Theo asked.

Stiles nodded. "There's miles of them. They could be anywhere by now."

~~~

Tessa woke up, tied to a metal pipe. Glancing around frantically, she saw Lydia sitting on the floor across from her, rocking back and forth, holding her head and screaming. The sound pierced Tessa's eardrums and she winced. A sticky substance ran from her ears. But she couldn't move to cover her ears, her arms were tied behind her back.

Panicking, Tessa began to pull at the restraints. When that didn't work, she tried to summon her powers to break herself out. She wheezed, the effort making her weaker than she already was.

"Oh, don't bother with that," a voice called out. "I've poisoned you with bloodroot. It will block your powers for a while now. It also weakens you, but not too much because you're no use to me dead."

Tessa weakly snarled at the man whose voice sounded distant despite he fact that he was right in front of her.

"What do you want?"

Valack smiled sadly, crouching in front of her. "The same thing you want. I want to defeat the Dread Doctors."

Tessa glanced at Lydia who was rocking back and forth on the floor. "What did you do to her?" she growled.

He glanced at the girl. "I simply tried to open her mind. She was resisting. I thought I'd give her a break and maybe some incentive," he smirked, pulling out a scalpel from behind him,

Lydia glanced at them, her eyes flashing in recognition when she saw Tessa.

"Just let her go," Tessa snarled. "I'll do whatever you want just let her go."

Valack chuckled. "That's very brave of you, Theresa."

Tessa growled at his use of her full name. No one called her that. Not since...well, not since something but she couldn't seem to remember.

"But you see, you can only give me part of what I want. The other part needs to come from her," he gestured to Lydia. "So, unfortunately, I still need both of you."

Tessa felt the man stick something to the side of her face and neck, long wires attaching to the cold metal.

"I just need you to relax. Your powers can sense where other beings are. You should be able to track the Beast but your mind is too busy, it won't let you focus. This should help."

He turned a knob on the machine attached to the wires and Tessa screamed as pain began to course through her entire body.

Valack shouted over her screams, "Focus, Tessa! See the Beast in your mind. Find it's location!"

Tessa screamed, the pain too strong for her to focus on anything he was saying. Flashes of images flew through her mind. The Beast. A pale man with long, dark hair. A boy with dark skin who looked all too familiar.

"Focus! Tessa, focus!"

She screamed, the high pitched sound mixing with Lydia's low moans. It echoed off the walls, the sound ricocheting through the expansive tunnels. She could only hope that someone would hear and come kill this miserable son of a bitch who called himself a doctor.

~~~

A loud scream echoed through the pipes. This time, it was a different scream. Not a banshee's scream but a girl screaming in pain. Theo felt his heartbeat rise, his fists clenching.

Stiles heard it too, his eyes widening. "That's not Lydia," he said.

Theo shook his head, fighting to keep from transforming in his anger. "No. It's Tessa."

"What is he doing to her?" Stiles asked.

"I don't know but we need to find them fast before he kills them both."