Time doesn't love you anymore
But I'm still knocking at your door
Honey, we can run forever, if forever's what's in store

Time, Mikky Ekko
__________________________

Screams of pain wake Stiles from his restless sleep. There is a soft cushion under his head. A bandage is around his head, soaked in blood from his split skin. The pounding in his head has not stopped, if anything it has worsened. His blurry and aching eyes find the source of the screaming. On the floor a few feet away from Stiles there is a strawberry blonde haired girl screaming as she grips Allison's hand. Lydia's rib is being tended to by Derek. Her shirt has disappeared, removed to make getting to her injury easier. The black lace of her bra is soaked in blood from a cut on her shoulder. Her knuckles are white from grasping Allison's fingers so tightly. Scott is helping by holding her hair away from her sweating face. Despite this when he sees Stiles has woken up he slowly stands up, muttering to Allison that he will be right back. She nods in response, much to caught up with Lydia to care.

When Stiles realizes that it's Lydia who is in pain he tries to get up from the couch to help her. With his body becoming so weak, he simply falls off the couch, injuring his head further. Scott slides his arms under his best friend, lifting him back onto the couch. "Lydia," Stiles mutters. Scott nods to the boy.

"Yes Lydia," Scott confirms,"Lydia is with Allison, she'll be okay, I promise." Stiles nods ever so slightly.

"I love her Scott," Stiles whimpers as he falls back into unconsciousness, "I love my firecracker." Scott thinks in his head, as if I didn't know that. Isaac watches from the big plush chair in the corner that just happens to be right next to the medical table Cora is laying asleep on. Turning his head he glances at Cora, who is now in stable condition, and holds back tears of anger. Why didn't you do something? He asks himself, you could have done something! Her face is pale, blood still staining the rim of her pink lips. The pain in Isaac's chest is nearly unbearable, driving him to insanity.

Like all other active assassins in the business, Isaac was taught that love is a weakness. There are even rules against love between two agents. If, for example, two assassins are to have an affair, they would be kicked out of the business. Therefore the assassins are taught to one, never show emotion, and two, never to fall in love. Both of these rules have been broken by six young adults in Derek's mansion.

Despite the awful rules against feelings, being an assassin does have perks. It pays extremely well. With Derek being a high ranking killer, his income is high, landing him a massive institute on the outskirts of the city. In the institute new assassins are trained, and some assassins just reside there. The institute includes a large training room full of weapons and its own cleaning crew considering how messy it gets. That room takes up the majority of the basement, leaving the other fragments  to be filled with a panic room and a small cellar. The first ground floor consists of a large kitchen that is attached to a large dining room that can hold up to fifty people. In the kitchen there is a fridge full of foods that people bring in, cabinets full of the same. There is the large stove and a giant window looking out at the back yard that is fenced in with iron gates. Next to the kitchen is a lounge room where there is a TV that mostly plays news. A few steps from there's the grand foyer that contains a tall stairway leading into the second floor. On this floor there is a large library with shelves so high a ladder is needed to reach the books at the top shelf. In the next room are computers and other electronics that could aid the assassins on their jobs. Down a long corridor are two bathrooms. Another staircase leads to the third floor. Here there are bedrooms for people who are in and out within a few days. And up yet another staircase are the rooms for new assassins being trained. Once years ago, sixteen year old Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Lydia, and Allison stayed in these rooms, tired and sore from hours of training every day. Praying to God that it might be over soon, they would wait until they were qualified for real work. On the floor above this are Cora and Derek's bedrooms, where the pair of them grew up. Despite the fact where assassins are ruthless killers they still have special possessions. Not many, but a few small items of true meaning. In Cora's room there is a queen sized bed, covered in a tan duvet and white sheets. Adoring her grey walls are hooks and pockets for weapons and a single poster with a picture of Jim Morrison on it. On the small nightstand next to her bed is a candle and a small picture frame. In the frame is a picture of herself and Derek as small children. Of course whenever someone of importance entered her room this frame would be quickly hidden in her dresser full of clothes. Also in her room as a tall and thin mirror, lined with carefully crafted wood.

As for Derek's room, the walls were bare and the only thing in the room besides weapons, furniture, and clothes was a small ring on a chain that laid untouched on his dresser. He wears it every once in a while, but holds back from wearing it all the time to avoid any connection to love. Even if the owner of the ring was already long gone, never to be seen again.

And lastly above this floor was the hardly touched loft. Dust firmly covered any flat space in the large room. Years before it was practically falling apart. It was actually unknown to everyone. Everyone except a curious Allison Argent who stumbled over a button hidden in the wall that opened a secret door in the drywall, leading into this attic space. The button has been revealed when she was angry at herself for not working hard enough that day in training. She had chucked a knife into the wall, nearly breaking the button and upon pressing it the door was revealed. For days, the sixteen year old tied back her hair and sweat as she cleaned and furnished the loft to make it a space for her and Lydia to hang out secretly, away from the drama of being an assassin. Typically, as weeks past she became close with Cora, then Scott and Stiles, and then Isaac. She revealed the secret room to them and it quickly became a place for them to all wind down.  They would meet up there and watch movies or make small snacks in the kitchenette Allison constructed. They fell in love with each other there. The room has been untouched since the group left the institute to begin their life as true assassins. Now as they have returned on bad circumstances, it waits for them quiet under its layer of accumulated dirt.