i.
The first time it ever happens, no one knows about it. No one knows just how broken this boy is after the night his former lacrosse captain is killed in front of him.
It tears everything in the young beta to know Brett was gone. Dead. Never coming back. To hear his last heartbeat, the haunting silence that followed. The sun. The moon. The truth. It wouldn't help him in this situation. Nothing would anchor him down. Nothing could.
What most people never knew, was that Brett was Liam's first anchor. Not the mantra. Not himself. Not pain. It was Brett.
His anchor was dead.
It was his fault.
And that's what lead Liam to fully break down in his room. Hot tears spilling out of his eyes. Punching the wall, over and over. The hole around his fist growing larger with each sob. Claws digging into his skin.
The hot sensation of blood dripping down his arm is what pulls him to stop. His blood mixing with the blues of his wall, the white of the sheetrock that was once a wall. Maybe. Somehow. Someday. Punching and breaking things would bring back everyone Liam every lost. Brett. His dad. Lori. Everyone. Everything. Hell. Even himself. The boy he was before the bite. The one with the bright future. The one who didn't have to run into danger at every turn.
Liam slowly walked to his bathroom. Thankful his parents were out of town for all of this. A trip to Hawaii for their honeymoon kept them out of Beacon Hills for the war. That was the safest place to be. Away from this, away from him.
That's when he noticed the Chimera in his room. "I thought you were going to leave this town and never look back." Liam said.
Theo nodded. "And then I heard a roar and everyone talked about a boy with bright yellow eyes coming out of a storm well."
Liam looked down at his hands, the wounds healed. The blood going down the drain of his sink. "Oh." Was all he could say. What else could he say. He would break down any other way.
Theo slowly stood from the mattress he sat on. The small squeak echoed in the crippling silence of Liam's room. The chimera slowly wrapped an arm around Liam when he saw how classy the beta's eyes were. "Who died?"
Liam lost it at that. Eyes closed tight as more hot tears ran down his already tearstained cheeks. His knees went weak.
And Theo quickly held onto the boy. Slowly reaching down and putting his free arm behind his knees and picking him up. He carried the beta to his bed. Sobs still erupting from him.
Blankets were put over the small boy's body. Tears wiped away. whispers of how things look bad now but will get better in the future were said.
Then, when Liam fell asleep, Theo climbed out the window. Started his truck and realized, this is why he stayed.