"ouroboros"

WHEN CASSIE WOKE UP AGAIN, the girl didn't think that she would be in any more pain than she already had being tortured by the dread doctors, having been cut open over and over again, and injected with serums in which she had no idea what they would do to her, but she couldn't have been more wrong as she woke up from a gentle nudge from the boy she loved. She ached all over, and when she opened up her eyes for the first time after having been out cold for god knows how long, they burnt like acid had been dropped into them, and the girl had never experienced pain like it before. Cassie felt like she was on fire, like her skin was crawling with literal lava and was melting, and the girl could feel the sweat dripping down her forehead as she finally opened her eyes, the first thing she saw being Liam looking down at her with a look of concern, one that she had never seen him wear before, at least, not this extreme. It made her wonder how awful she must really look; if she looked as bad as she felt, then she knew that she looked like she had died.

The girl didn't say anything to the boy as he nudged her awake, instead, she let out a pained groan, feeling an immense burning on the side of her hip, like the pain she had felt when she had been shot a while back, but this was even worse, like a million needles were being prodded into her hip bone over and over again, and the skin around her shoulder blades felt like they were stretching apart. All the girl could think of in this moment was pain, and nothing else. Cassie whimpered, slowly moving her hand down to her hip and gently lifting up the shirt so she could see what was causing her so much pain — although, she wished she hadn't, as there was a large wound from where the dread doctors had cut her open and injected something in her, causing a black gooey substance to begin to leak out, Cassie tried her hardest not to gag at the sight, but couldn't hide the cringe at the sight of her. Her skin was covered in the gooey substance, and whatever part wasn't covered, was covered with dried blood instead. She looked awful.

Unable to look at herself much longer, Cassie looked up at Liam, whom had quickly averted his eyes from her hip up to her eyes, trying to plant a fake look of reassurance on his face that Cassie could see right through. She wasn't looking good, they both knew that, but what she didn't like, was Liam lying to her face about how bad her condition really was, like she couldn't see it for herself. She was dying, and they both knew it, no matter how much they tried to push the thought to the back of their minds. "Liam?" Cassie questioned, accepting the boys help to sit up, the pain evident on the girls face as she moved her body, "Do you know where we are?" She asked, looking around at their surroundings in pure confusion, since she didn't recognise the place at all, but then again, she didn't recognise the last place, either. It was like these doctors had a secret hideout where they worked on poor innocent teenagers and create a monster — Cassie was terrified, her heart beating ten times the normal speed, causing Liam to instantly reach out his hand and grab hers, trying to bring her some comfort in this scary time.

"I don't." Liam told her truthfully, rubbing circles on the back of Cassie's hand as her heart rate slowly began to decline back to normal, well, as normal as it could be for a girl in her position. When they both looked around at their surroundings, they instantly saw that there was no way out, there was a large gate in front of them, and they knew there was no way out of here. The girl watched Liam stand up and head towards it to have a look out, anxiously waiting to see if he could open it — but when he pressed his hand against the metal gate, the boy gasped, an electric current blasting through him and sending him flying backwards.

Cassie instantly reached out to see if Liam was okay, but as she was about to ask if he was okay, a giggling from behind them broke them out of their bubble, both teenagers spinning round as they hadn't realised someone was in the small cage with them. Liam reached out his arm and shuffled in front of Cassie protectively, as the boy spoke up, "Sorry, I probably should've warned you." He told Liam, knowing that he sat back and watched as Liam touched the door.

"Who are you?" Liam asked.

"My name's Zach." Zach informed them, not moving from his place in the dark corner of the room, "And I think the better question is.. What am I?" He continued, clearly knowing more than Cassie and Liam did combined. Cassie felt like this was last year all over again, when no one would tell her what was going on with Liam and the supernatural; because the pack had neglected to tell Cassie and Liam about the dread doctors and let them read the book, then they would know about what was going on and where they were — needless to say, the two teenagers were fed up with being kept in the dark. "It's okay, I'm just like you." Zach continued, noticing the looks on their faces, "One of the experiments.. Hey! Maybe you could help me with something. The guys in the masks, they took something off my back. I don't know what it was, but I can feel part of it still there." He spoke up, crawling towards the two teenagers.

Cassie looked towards Liam with unease, before looking back at the kid and knowing that he was just scared, and needed reassuring. "You want us to look for you?" She asked softly, the boy looking like he had been through absolute hell and back. Liam glanced at Cassie with his eyebrows furrowed, but he knew that Zach couldn't hurt her, he could barely move without being in pain,

"Would you mind?" Zach asked, glad that he finally had someone to check on his back, he was in so much pain that he needed to find out what they did to him.

Cassie and Liam exchanged a look, asking each other the silent questions of if they should trust this boy, but after looking back at Zach and seeing that he was just as scared as they was, granted, even more so. The girl nodded, edging backwards into Liam as they watched Zach painfully lift up the back of his hoodie, and neither of them knew what to say when they saw something they didn't even know how to explain. With Cassie, the dread doctors had simply cut holes in her shoulder blades, but with Zach, he had actual wings forming, and the sight made Cassie sick to her stomach, and by the looks of it, Liam, too, as he couldn't keep his eyes off of the boys back, disgust written all over his face. When they moved, it just made it look even worse, and neither of them really knew what to say to him. What were they supposed to say? The boy had wings.
When Zach turned back around to see what they had seen on his back, Cassie and Liam simply shrugged, not wanting to tell him what was actually on his back. Cassie knew that she would rather be kept in the dark about that, rather than be told that she had literal wings coming out of her back..

The girl watched as Zach moved against the wall again, resting his head against it as he winced in pain from the wings on his back, which was just as Liam stood back up and peered past the eclectic gate, trying to see if he could find any way out from here, or if the fence would turn off at any point in time, but after a few minutes of watching absolutely nothing, he knew that there wasn't a way out through here.. Liam was shocked again when he touched the gate, causing Zach to chuckle yet again at their attempts to get out of here, since he knew there was absolutely no way out. "We're not getting out of here." He told Liam, shaking his head in amusement.

Cassie sighed as Liam took a seat next to her again, "You know, you could be a little more optimistic. With that attitude, you're never getting out." She snapped, not liking how he was being so rude. There was no way she would begin to act like him, because if she did, she would loose hope on getting out of here; she didn't get to say goodbye to her family, her dad and brother, and she could die down here, leaving them behind..

"It's kinda hard when you watch three people get dragged out of here screaming." Zach informed the girl, having no hope anymore on getting out of here, he had already tried, and failed, many times.

"Three people?" Cassie asked, looking at Liam with a worried look on her face — she had a feeling that she was going to die, and she couldn't shake it off. If three people had been unable to get out, what difference would it make for them?

"What happened to them?" Liam asked, not knowing if he actually wanted to know the answer to that.

"They were failures." Zach said sadly. "That's all they said." He added. Cassie wondered why none of the doctors had told her that she was a failure, she had been told over and over again that her condition was worsening, but never had she been told that she was a failure. The girl was wondering what was different about her than the rest of their 'subjects', or were they going to come and drag her away and call her a failure like the others?
"First, you forget. You don't know who you are or what you're doing. Then you get violent, I watched two of them almost kill each other. One of them had a nasty looking cut, just like that." Zach explained, motioning to Cassie's open wound on her hip that he had seen earlier when they first woke up. The girl hugged herself, pressing her hand against the wound, when Zach shook his head, "Don't worry. Black is okay. It's only really over when you start bleeding other stuff, when it starts turning silver.." He explained further.

At least Cassie knew one thing, if she started bleeding silver, she was dead, and right now, she was okay, it was still black, and she had nothing to worry about. "Mercury." Liam stated, knowing that a few teenagers had bled silver before the dread doctors had killed them in the end, claiming they were failures.

"That's when they know you're really a failure." Zach said, causing a shiver to go down Cassie's spine. Was she a failure?

"How many failures is there? What are they even trying to create?" Cassie asked, mostly just pushing a question into the open, trying to make sense of this all herself. They were clearly trying to create something, and everyone they had experimented on were just failures along the way to their success, it made her wonder who the true success was, as it clearly want her. Although they said that she continued to be different, they had never said she was a success, and that made her worry, the success could be right under their noses and they would have no idea.

"Who knows? But doesn't it make you wonder what the success is going to look like?" Zach asked Liam and Cassie, the thoughts that the girl was just wondering herself. "I mean, what are we turning into?" He continued, knowing that the people he met before Liam and Cassie were something else entirely, not like himself.

"I don't think I want to know."

——

With what felt like forever had passed, and Cassie was dozing off on Liam's shoulder, the pairs hands intwined as they waited for anything to happen — after talking with Zach, Cassie could barely keep her eyes open; she had been prodded and cut for so many hours, her body felt like it was shutting down. The girl just needed a hot bath and a good nights sleep, and to never think about the dread doctors ever again, because if she did, it would be way too soon. She felt bad for Zach, he had been alone down here for god knows how long, watching people come and go from the dread doctors taking them away, she didn't even want to think about herself being taken out. She couldn't go through what she had again, it was all too much. The girl gripped tighter onto Liam's hand when the thoughts went through her mind, the thoughts were scaring her, and no matter how hard she tried to rid them, she just couldn't, and she was terrified.
"It'll be okay, Cass. We'll get out of here, okay?" Liam told Cassie softly, noticing the girl beginning to shake in his hold, and her heart rate quickening from fear.

"What if we don't? I'll just be another failure." Cassie told Liam, slowly looking up at him as he frowned, not wanting to think about that happening to the girl he loved.

"I won't let that happen." Liam tried to convince her, but the girl didn't seem to want to listen to him.

"We didn't think we would've been taken the other night at the school, but look what happened. Scott promised, and look where we are. He lied, they all lied." Cassie rambled, mostly to herself. She thought that the lies with the pack had ended when she realised their lie and the fact that the supernatural existed, but when the dread doctors came into the picture, they lied to her again, and she hated them for it. Scott used her as bait, and Stiles let him, she was going to die because of it..

Liam didn't even know what to say to her, he knew she was right, they did lie, Scott promised that he would protect Cassie, but he didn't, he used her as bait for the dread doctors and to catch them, and they had failed at both. They failed them. But before he could say anything, they heard a clinging in the distance, the exact sound that indicated the dread doctors were near, the lights flickering on and off, and all three teenagers eyes widened at the sight and sound, knowing what was coming. "They're coming." Zach said, as Cassie saw a silver substance coming from his nose, dripping out. He was a failure..

Cassie flinched and cowered into Liam's side when she saw a dread doctor by the door, unable to move as it began to walk in towards Zach, the boy screaming no over and over again. "Leave him alone!" Cassie yelled, as Liam tried climbing up and stopping them, but falling down to the floor again in pain, realising he was in no condition to help Zach.

"Help me!" Zach shouted, pleading with Cassie and Liam, the pair looking at the boy in sympathy, knowing that they couldn't do anything. When Liam tried standing up again, Cassie pulled him back down — she didn't want him getting hurt because he was too weak to protect himself. She couldn't loose him.

The girl sobbed out when Zach disappeared from sight, "We're gonna die down here." She cried, tears streaming down her face as she finally realised that they weren't going to get out of here, at least, not alive. What's to stop Cassie from bleeding silver like Zach had just done? Nothing.

"No we're not. We're getting out of here, no matter what." Liam stated, pulling himself up with Cassie with him, the girl using him for life support, leaning her whole body weight on him. He was worried for her, she looked terrible, and the girl looked like she was on the verge of passing out at any moment now.

"Liam? Cassie?" They heard from the other side of the door, the two teenagers perking up at the sound, glad that it was anyone other than the dread doctors. When they saw it was Theo, the teenagers sighed in relief, hoping that maybe they would actually make it out of here alive.

"Theo, wait!" Cassie and Liam shouted, holding their hands out in warning, but it wasn't quick enough, since the boy had already placed both hands on the electric gate, getting shocked and flying backwards.

Cassie stayed where she was as Liam moved forwards to look and see if Theo was okay, calling his name out a few times before he eventually opened up his eyes, grunting in pain from the sudden shock. Now, Cassie wasn't all that keen on Theo, she had barely spoken to the boy, and she knew that Stiles didn't like him, but he was here, and no one else was, it had to mean something. "You think you can get help?" Liam asked him, knowing that surely Theo couldn't get this door off by himself.

"I am the help." Theo stated, as Cassie sighed, knowing that the others couldn't possibly be looking for them. No, they were probably looking for the dread doctors ..
Liam rushed back to Cassie as Theo stood forwards again to open up the door, gripping her hand and pushing her behind him. They were finally getting out of there,
 
 
 
 
It was hard for Cassie to get to the car, as well as Liam, so Theo had to carry her the whole way, the girl falling in and out of consciousness the whole time, grunting in pain whenever she moved due to the gaping hole in her side. The girl was breathing heavily as she squeezed Liam's hand, the boy looking at her in concern as she felt the wound slowly heal, the wound stinging as it worked itself out, "It still hurts?" Liam asked, a softness to his voice that Cassie rarely heard, the boy was so concerned about her that he barely realised they were nearly at Cassie's house.

"I hurt everywhere." Cassie told him in a small voice, the boys heart breaking at the sound of her. "I'm healing, but slowly, and it really hurts." She admitted, looking back up at him. "If I'm not healing as I should, it means I'm a failure, right?" She asked, her eyes watering as she tried not to cry again.
Liam respond, instead, leaning forwards and pressing his lips against hers, the girl instantly responding and meeting him halfway, but what she didn't realise, was that he was taking her pain away, the girls pain slowly fading from her body and relaxing in an instant. When they slowly pulled away, the girl smiled, "The pain's gone." She said, knowing that he had succeeded in taking it away, "Thankyou." She whispered, raising her hand to rest on the side of his face, the boy having not known that he had taken her pain until she mentioned it.

Cassie leaned in again, as did Liam, and Theo watched with a slight smile on his face when he realised just how much the two teenagers loved each other; wishing that he had something like that himself.

And later on that night, the others walked into Cassie cuddled up on Liam's lap, the two clinging onto each other even being fast asleep. Knowing that they were safe and back home was enough to send them straight to sleep. When Stiles and Noah finally came home, they were ecstatic to see that Cassie was okay, as well as Liam — Stiles hadn't told their dad about Cassie at first, since the man was guarding the bodies to find out who was taking them, but when Scott had rang him up and informed him that they couldn't find Liam and Cassie, they both headed home straight away to set up a search party, but already walking in to see their daughter safe and sound.
Noah didn't waste any time in pulling Theo in for a hug, thanking the boy over and over again for saving his little girl, and even if Stiles had his differences about the boy, he thanked him none the less, and knew, that he wasn't going to let anything like this happen ever again.