The phone rang three times before it was answered, Claudia picked up and tried not to shudder at the voice on the other line:
"Within the next hour" a breath "do it."
And the line was closed.
Claudia clasped the phone back down and started pacing impatiently. Maybe there's logic behind this... sick joke they're trying to play. She thought to herself. That- thing cannot possibly be her son.
A sudden sound yanked her out of her thoughts, a baby's crying.
Did it need food? It probably did.
Claudia tip toed her way through the corridor and passed it, going straight for the bathroom where she turned the faucet and watched the water fill the bathtub. When it finally got to a satisfying level did she move to the next room.
Forty minutes.
The baby was still crying and she couldn't stand the voice anymore, it was loud and made her picture things. Hear things, want to see things.
Do it. She remembered.
"Come here, you."
she's not sure why she smiled, it wouldn't remember this, it wouldn't know. It would stop crying, that's why she did it.
Claudia carried the baby a little in her arms, paced with it as well, would there be a reason to live? They ruined her life and they will keep ruining it until she fails, and when she fails they'll kill her.
She won't allow that, so she hurried back to the bathroom where the floor was wet for water has flooded the place, she forgot to turn it off.
Twenty minutes, she wouldn't bother undress.
"Do you want me to sing you a song?" it kept watching her with those eyes. Watching. They were always watching "huh?"
Her legs were in and the water was hot, but they wouldn't burn.
Claudia hummed in its ear an indistinct melody then pulled him into her chest, they both sank deeper into the water that overwhelmed both their senses, when the instinct to pull back up kicked in, she knew she had to fight it...
._._._.
"What are the results so far?" Dr Starnell scratched his head and reported said results to his partner, who, he knew for sure, wouldn't be pleased, and neither would be the doctors:
"All of the candidates failed." his partner sighed, reading the paper again.
There were rushing footsteps coming their way but he couldn't think about them, not now at least, they said they had the time. They promised.
"Doctor Starnell!" a nurse hurried their way, holding a phone up, vibrating with victory, on face a smile of triumph "I have a success." She announced and the doctors' eyes widened along:
"Well that's some good news!" He exclaimed "who is it?" Curiosity taking over again.
._._._.
The pack showered Kira with arguments, they doubted it, told her they can't smell it, that his eyes didn't glow, he didn't show any signs in the past of that but she keeps insisting.
"It's impossible." The alpha tries to convince himself out loud, it should work but it isn't.
"Hey, but what if it's-" Scott knows what Liam's about to say before he says it:
"We've gone past that." He interrupts, it's Lydia who asks this time:
"Suppose you're right" she said "What are we gonna do with this information?"
"Help him." Scott said, almost instantly.
"Help him control it." Kira suggested and Lydia nodded along, voicing the general concern:
"he looked like he was having a really hard time staying calm"
"But you really didn't have to tell his dad." Malia remarked and Scott would've said it if she didn't.
"And he didn't have to..." Liam trailed off but Scott held onto it:
"He did that to you?" Liam held his gaze for a moment, and it was enough to confirm, but he still needed to hear it:
"Yes." He answered and Scott definitely wasn't prepared for it to hurt the way it did "after I told the sheriff, he... offered to give me a ride and..."
"and then he broke your leg." Scott finished, feeling his own heartbeat rising in anger
"Oh my god" several gasps accompanied the revealing.
"why didn't you tell me before?"
"I..." was scared, right? Stiles is going around scaring people, hurting Liam, hurting his own pack while he's sitting here doing nothing.
"Stiles asked me to lock him up before." He said "I should've listened to him."
"mountain ash can't trap him," Lydia reminded and he remained, thinking of something that would.
"How did he do it?" Kira broke the silence, addressing Liam, who averted his gaze elsewhere.
"he just, broke it."
"In the car?"
"No, he said he'd drive me home, and then he started acting weird,"
"weird?" Scott inquired.
"He made me wear the seatbelt" he gave the example and Scott definitely found that strange. Even Stiles didn't wear the seatbelt.
"And then?"
"We stopped at the school, and he changed."
"Changed into a what?"
"I have no clue." He answered "he knocked me out so fast." Scott had to fight not to groan.
._._._.
At the school, the following day, Stiles doesn't show up, Scott texts Theo but doesn't get any reply:
"I think he's still mad at me." Liam kept repeating whenever he saw him and Scott usually replied with:
"I hope it's nothing beyond that." Because if it is, they'd have bigger issues to deal with, they'd have to deal with a missing chimera who was out of control.
As the day progressed, Scott got more worried, especially when the sheriff called, saying his son didn't come home and asking if Scott was with him.
Is he missing? Kept ringing in his mind until the end of the school day when he's walking out with Kira and he gets a scent just behind the corner, to his left:
"Stiles?" They turn around the corner and are met with some... guy clawing at the trash can... with claws while bleeding the forsaken mercury.
"Hey..." Scott states calmly.
"Do you know Stiles?"
"Who's Stiles?"
"A guy you don't know, did he do something to you?" Scott felt like he had to ask, Stiles' scent being on strangers couldn't be good. Especially not when he was potentially missing.
"No one did anything to me!" His eyes started showing a supernatural glow.
"Okay, calm down." Kira tried "how about, you come with us and we help you?" The chimera, for some reason accepts without a fight.
"You found another one?" Liam joins them soon after that and inhales "He kind of smells like Stiles."
"Why do you keep bringing this guy up? I don't know him" he attempts to wipe off the silver substance off his face but fails, because his hands are covered in it, his clothes too.
"what about doctors, do you remember those?" He shakes his head in confusion.
"They'll be coming for you." Liam spoils and Scott shakes his head.
._._._.
They explain to the guy -Jim- his situation, they tell him that he's a chimera, and that the doctors are the threat he needs to escape from. But in the end, no one shows up to... collect Jim and they end up putting their guards down a little before midnight. Malia asks in confusion:
"Are they... late?"
"That's good news, right?" The chimera asks and hope is evident in his tone, Scott remembers the chimeras he didn't get to save and hopes this isn't going to be one of them.
"What does it mean if they don't come for him?" Kira wonders.
"He can't be a success." Lydia refers to the blood loss and the nosebleed he's been trying to stop since this afternoon.
"So I'm saved." He concludes, again with the hopeful tone.
"we don't know yet." Scott answers truthfully.
._._._.
But then they knew, somehow, around four in the morning, Scott's eyes shot open and he realized that they all fell asleep, even Jim.
Jim was there. They didn't come for him.
Scott leaned in to where Kira was apparently sleep talking, or muttering in her case, something she didn't usually do, he lightly shook her awake and she rose in panic:
"What happened? Did they come?!"
"No."
"Is he okay?" She glanced to where Jim was and Scott nodded.
"Kira, about what you told us yesterday, about Stiles."
"Scott, I felt it." she answered and after that, there was a sound coming from the front door, like a knock, but it was a faint. weak.
Scott turned to her: "did you hear that?" She nodded and they both made their way downstairs to check, they had to be ready, in case the dread doctors showed up. There was no more knocking, and if there was Scott couldn't hear it over the pounding rain outside, he took several steps towards the still door and waited a second.
Scott opened the door in one movement, the cold air hit him in the face and he frowned in confusion for a moment before looking down.
Scott let go of the handle and frowned even deeper at the familiar face: "Theo what are you doing here?!"
The chimera didn't move from where he was laying on the floor, he was soaked in rain water, and although there were no visible injuries, he looked like the blood was drained from his face.
"They're not coming." Theo breathed, then his eyelids shut down and so he did. Scott and Kira brought him in.
