Void of Life [Steo]

Chapter 8: The Beginning of the End

The Nogitsune smiled at Theo, looking manic as he, or it, did so. Theo pressed the stop button on the tape recorder and Lydia's screaming ceased. There was only silence left in the room until Theo regained his composure and his voice. "How do I know you are the Nogitsune and not just Stiles pretending so I let him go?" asked Theo.

"Good point, but do you really think Stiles is that good at acting?" When the Nogitsune spoke, the words rolled off of its tongue, as if it was playing with them. Theo thought about it for a few seconds and decided that the Nogitsune was right, Stiles would never be able to fool Theo, not in a million years. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now."

"No, I made Stiles weak so you could come back. I don't care how old you are, in anyone's book, you owe me one." The Nogitsune made a manic laugh and Theo was unsure what to do with himself. Stiles was a lot easier to deal with than this.

"You think I'm going to do anything for you? You're just a mongrel, a science experiment! And I am more powerful than you can begin to imagine."

"I don't have to imagine. I've encountered one of you before. But this time it will be different, because you'll be on my side." The Nogitsune smiled almost condescendingly and it made Theo shiver.

"Alright. I'll broker a deal with you. I get to exact my revenge on Scott and his pack and I'll do whatever you want in return." Theo thought about it for a moment, before realising that taking down Scott's pack had been part of his plan anyway.

"Deal. But what do I call you? Nogitsune? Stiles?"

"Stiles will do just fine. Whatever those brats did to me made me a part of him and him a part of me. I'm his dark side if you will. Anyway, what is this plan?"

"We take down Scott's pack, like you said. I'll drop you and Lydia off at the school and infiltrate the group. They can't know its you. You have to weaken there defenses. Then, after the pack is in pieces, we take down the Dread Doctors."

"Oh yes, the Dread Doctors, your little chums. That should be an interesting battle. Silly name though, isn't it? May I ask you why you want them destroyed. They created you, didn't they?"

Theo's expression turned grim as it always did when he thought about the past. The past where he was just a normal boy who needed a heart transplant and not a monster. " Yes, you could say that. But they killed my father."

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Theo remembered being called in to the principal's office. They told him his mother had been killed. She had died in a car collision at the scene of the accident. He remembered crying and crying until his eyes burned from the saltiness of it. His grandmother drove him home. Home was the worst place he could have gone. Home was where his dad was and his dad was broken.

His grandmother had always been a superstitious woman and liked to involve herself with mysteries of the supernatural. Theo had liked going over to her house and reading all the old and dusty books she had on her shelves. They were about werewolves, banshees and evil fox demons.

Theo's grandmother told him that when his dad was in a mood, it wasn't him, it was the demon inside him taking over. Theo didn't know what she meant by that, not until his mother had died.

As they entered his family home, Theo noticed that everything had been torn to shreds and smashed to pieces. He looked to his grandmother, confused. She just held one finger to her lips to quiet him. He stayed silent. But it didn't matter, because his dad came up behind both of them and hit them on their heads with a blunt object. But Theo would soon learn it wasn't his dad who hit him; it was the Nogitsune inside him.