5

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Closing the door behind me, I walked up behind him. "Stiles, do you even know what you're looking for."

He nodded, pointing to the far wall. "Something to do with that."
I followed the line from his finger, to see the kanji for self carved into the wall. Had Lydia been right when she had said Stiles was here?

He may not have been here in person, but I know that when Void has spoken to me, I've gone to different places. Maybe this was where he took Stiles.

"Stiles, what's going on?" I asked quietly.
As far as he knew, I didn't know that he was on the verge of being possessed. After all, I had been locked in here for days.

His face was solemn, the darkness of the basement shadowing his emotions.
"You might not love me anymore if you knew the truth."

I thought I'd feel something at his words, but there was nothing.
"Stiles, I nearly killed eighty people in that hospital. There's nothing you could say that would change how I see you."

As we searched the basement, he began to tell me everything I had missed. First, Void had shot Coach with an arrow, almost killing the man. Then, he blew up part of the Sheriff's station, definitely kill some people. And finally, he had almost killed Scott at Doctor Deaton's clinic.

This was where they had managed to inject him with something to keep the fox at bay. So how was I going to let him loose?

We had taken a seat on an old couch so that we could sift through some papers we had found.
"Well, at least you can't be worse than the people who used to work here," I told him, holding up some papers with diagrams on them. "Some of these procedures are insane. Trepanation? Seriously."

"That's what Oliver was talking about earlier," he told me. "It's when they drill into your head."

"Fun," I mumbled. I watched him as he read the papers on the table in front of him. Looking at his neck, I saw hand shaped bruises. So it was Stiles who I had choked, not Void. "Sorry about that," I told him, running a finger along part of the bruise.

Regular Riley would've apologised, so that's what I did. Void said to gain his trust, and I was going to do just that.

He hesitated, before making eye contact with me. "What happened out there?"

Dropping my hand, I looked in my lap. "Ever since the Nemeton, something has felt wrong inside of me. Then I got committed here and it was like that 'wrong' manifested into something. Something that looked like you. So when I saw you standing behind me, I panicked."

This wasn't technically a lie, so it was going to seem believable to him. When he didn't say anything, I apologised again.

"You should've told me," he said softly. "The Nemeton was so long ago. You should have told me."

"I know. I'm sorry."

His knee was going up and down and he was biting his nails. Something was wrong. "Could you do me a favour?" He turned, lifting the back of his shirt. "Could you check the lines on my back. Just tell me if they're fading."

I assisted him in lifting it higher so I could search for them. There were lines, but they were faint, which is exactly what I told him. Did this mean that the medication was wearing off, or did the lines have to be more visible? When Stiles didn't answer, I knew.
"That's not what you wanted to hear, was it?"

He shook his head, pulling his shirt back down. "I've missed you so much," he said quietly, not looking at me. "These past few days without you have been hell.

His words shocked me. It sounded like what Void had said in my dream.
"Well, you are the one who sent me here."

His breath hitched in his throat, "That. . . that wasn't me. I swear. I-"

I put a finger on his lips, smiling, "I know, Stiles. I know."

Pushing forward on the couch, I pressed my lips to his. He seemed surprised at first, but didn't reject me. I was worried for a moment that he would.

He leaned towards me, helping me to lay on the couch as he kissed me back. His free hand ran up my body, as my fingers found his hair. Lacing then beaten the strands, I found myself bringing us as close as possible. He felt irresistible.

When he moved his lips to my neck, my eyes opened for a moment. That moment was long enough to see Void standing nearby. "Come on, little sylph. We have work to do."

I sighed internally, frustrated since I had been enjoying my self. But, as usual, Void was right. We didn't have time to waste. Getting Stiles to stop, I pretended that I had heard something.

He stopped kissing me, looking around. I crawled out from beneath him, walking over to the kanji scratched harshly into the wall. I called Malia's name so that she would come in also.

Tapping the wall, we all listened as an echo sounded. Stiles picked up a pipe and began to break the wall, figuring it to be hollow.

Malia was rightly confused, so while Stiles did so, I explained the situation to her as quickly as possible. By the time Stiles got the wall down, she still had questions, but we didn't have the time to go into detail.

Looking side the wall, we saw a body. They had on a jacket, and we couldn't see their skull because they were wrapped in bandages.

"Is that him?" Malia asked. "The Nogitsune?"

Stiles nodded silently, staring into the hole. I reached over and into the pocket of the dead man, pulling out a photo and looking at it, before handing it to Stiles. One of the people in the photo looked strikingly similar to someone we knew.

"Look who it is," I told him as he looked at it. His eyes widened, immediately spotting what I had noticed.

"We have to get this to Scott," Stiles said, staring at the photo.

There was a sudden crackling sound and Stiles yelled, collapsing to the ground. Malia and I turned to see Oliver holding a taser.

The boy looked down at Stiles, still holding up the taser. "You took Brunski's keys. I took his stun gun."

Oliver was quick to hit Malia and I with the stun gun also. It was a weird sensation, the electricity flowing through me, stopping all motor functions.

I managed to turn my head to see Oliver pull out a needle. "I also go his Haldol."

He proceeded to jam the needle into Malia's leg, knocking her out. "Like I was saying, Stiles," the boy said. "I heard they used to do trepanation here."

"Oliver. . ." Stiles called weakly, trying his best to stand up. "What are you doing?"

Oliver had walked over to the other side of the basement and picked up a tool which doctors had used to drill the holes. He held it up, looking down at Stiles. "I'm going to let the evil spirits out."

He was going to drill a hole in Stiles' head? This wasn't a part of the plan. I searched the basement for Void, but couldn't see him anywhere.

Oliver approached us, before smacking the tool across the side of Stiles' head, knocking him out.

"He played his part well, don't you think?" Void asked.

I scoffed. "You could have told me. And he didn't have to use that thing on me, either."

He shrugged, "It had to look believable."

"Whatever," I grumbled. "Let's just get you that body already."

I saw Void smirking as I got Oliver to assist me. We lifted Malia into a wheelchair on the other side of the room and strapped her down, before returning to Stiles. We just sat him in a chair and found some restraints for his wrists and ankles.

I went and sat in a chair near Stiles, preparing to play my part.

When Stiles finally came to, his eyes were wide. He had no idea what was going on.

"I borrowed a few pointers from the five-point restraint."

Stiles pulled against the restraints, trying to get up. "Oliver, stop this."

Oliver began coughing like he was going to cough up a lung. When he pulled his hand away there was blood and something else, which he immediately wiped away.

"Oliver, listen to me. Stop! Oliver!"

He was walking over to me, the trepanation tool whirring, inching towards my skull. I stared at it directly, not afraid.
I had spent my whole life being afraid but now, thanks to Void, I didn't feel that anymore.

"Oliver, stop! Okay. Please, don't touch her! Do whatever you want to me, just don't touch her!" Stiles yelled.

I tried to hold it back, but I couldn't. A laugh escaped me as I stood up. Stiles was thoroughly confused, eyes wide and staring at me.
"Always wanting to be the hero," I groaned. "Batman instead of Robin blah, blah, blah."

Oliver turned off the tool and handed it to me, just like we had planned.

"Get out of here, or you'll be the one I use this on," I warned the boy.

He blinked a few times, the fear in his eyes evident. He then proceeded to nod, before scurrying out of the room.

Stiles stuttered a few times, searching for what to say. "Riley? What-"

"Shut up."
Walking over to Malia, I turned the drill on.

"Stop. Don't waste time with her," Void told me. "There's someone more. . . convincing."

Understanding what he meant immediately, I went back over to stand in front of Stiles.

"You did this," the boy said, staring at something over my shoulder. My eyes followed, to see Void standing in the corner. "You got into her head."

I wondered whether Stiles saw the bandaged man, or himself.

"Every Dracula needs a Renfield," Void explained.

"I'm way better then Renfield," I scoffed, dragging the chair I had previously been sitting in until it was in front of Stiles. Taking a seat I turned the drill on.

Stiles was shaking - he was scared. "Let her go. Malia too."

"Let me in."

As Stiles began to struggle against the restraints, I lifted the drill towards my own head. "Do you ever wonder, just how fast our healing works? I always wondered. Before, I was too afraid to test it. But now? Well. . . let's see."

"Stop it!" He yelled as I inched the drill towards my temple.

"Do you want her to leave here alive, Stiles?" Void asked, moving closer. "Do you want us to leave? We can walk out of this place. I even plan to let you bring her."

"Just let her got. Stop what you're doing, and let her go," he sobbed.

Leaning forward in the chair, I narrowed my eyes. "Did you ever stop to consider that this was my decision, Stiles? And it was the right one. Listen to him, he wants to help."

"Riley, I don't know what happened to you in here, but I'm going to fix it," Stiles insisted.

"The only thing that is going to need fixing, is my head if you don't let him in."
I brought the drill close enough to draw blood, but not enough to cause any major damage.

"Let me in."

The boy screamed as I closed my eyes and pushed the drill half an inch further, struggling against his restraints to try to help me. I could hear the drill as it began to twist its way into my skull, blood running down the side of my face.

"Let me in, Stiles! Let me in!"

"Stop her! Please!"

"Let me in, Stiles! Let me in. Let me in and I'll let her live. Let me in."

There was a moment of silence, before I felt a hand grab my wrist and yank the drill away. Opening my eyes, I saw that Stiles was somehow free of his restraints.

He tightened his grip until I dropped the drill, pulling me up to his feet. He was staring at me, and then he began to smirk in that way that I had only seen a few times before.

"It worked," I said in a low voice. "And Stiles is still there?"

"Would I lie to you?"
He pulled me towards him, and lifted me off the ground so that my legs were around his hips. "We're going to get up to some real mischief, little sylph."

Smiling, I ran my fingers through his hair and brought my lips to his. I had never felt so care free. "We'd better get started then."

He frowned as I climbed off of him, his eyes looking over me as he bit his lip. "You definitely know how to cause pain."

"You have no idea."

A groan from the corner of the room caught the attention of us both. Malia was awake.
"Stiles? Riley?"

Neither of us bothered to answer. Void grabbed my hand walking me out the door.
"I'm glad you said yes. This would have been much less fun without you.

"Well, you know me well. So, what's our first stop."

"The high school."