Rebecca couldn't help but notice just how much larger Theo's house was compared to her own. It loomed over them, casting a deep shadow across the lawn. Despite how pristine and welcoming it looked, Rebecca was reluctant to walk up the driveway and into that shadow.

Theo held the front door open for her after unlocking it. She forced herself not to turn around and do a dive off of the porch railing to freedom.

She walked in and stepped to the side. Directly before her a long hallway stretched with several doors and a staircase branching from it. If she had to guess, the second door to the left lead to the cellar with all of the rotting bodies. She pulled at the zipper on her coat with shaky hands.

Theo closed the front door and joined her in the hallway. He offered to take her coat, and she gave him a small smile as he stepped behind her and tugged it off. She stared down the hall. All ridiculousness aside, she wondered what could be in those rooms. Did either of his parents have an off-limits office? Did Theo have a room just for his collection of hubcaps? Did he have a reading room?

Or a sex dungeon?

Rebecca was thankful the hallway was badly lit as all the colour seeped from her face. God, why did she have to do this to herself?

"If you go up the stairs, my room's the second on the right," Theo instructed, handing her the other files. She felt stupid, trying to awkwardly shift them into a more comfortable position in her arms, dropping a file in the process. She bowed her head. Colour was returning to her cheeks in the form of a violent blush.

He grabbed the loose papers before they reached the floor and scanned her expression while tucking them back into place. There was no way he couldn't smell her nerves.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," Rebecca said, biting her tongue to stop herself from blurting out something stupid.

"You know, I keep on forgetting," Theo finally said, a smile on his lips. "You're mom's a cop."

Rebecca let out a humorless laugh, but wondered if her mom had already given Theo the "paws off" speech that she gave to Kamilla, Ren, Connor, and even Gus. Most of her old non-supernatural friends were cowed simply by a well-timed glare.
The blush was back. God, why did her mom have to be so embarrassing?

"If you want to call her or something, I'm just going to go tell my mom that we're here," Theo said, his voice dwindling.

"Yeah, thanks," Rebecca replied. He nodded then took off down the hall. She waited a few moments before heading toward the stairs. They were carpeted and didn't make any noise when she ascended. Convenient if she wanted to make a swift escape.

Except he's a werewolf, stupid, Rebecca scolded herself. Just because you can't hear anything, doesn't mean he can't.

She followed his directions, passing framed paintings of small birds and artistically weeping angels. Right by his door, a small table had a tiny potted plant whose leaves tickled her when she extended her arm to grasp the handle of his door. She didn't know Theo was a potted plant kind of guy.

She swung the door open, peering in before stepping inside. His room was substantially larger than hers, but seemed the same size by the sheer amount of stuff that was in it.

She deemed his empty desk a good place to set down the files. Above it was a large map of the world, flattened with the countries labeled in red print. Across the room was a flat screen TV, connected to the wall so it hovered over a gaming system. A modern looking chair was pushed up against the wall near it, prepared to move when it was needed.

Rebecca did a quick 360. Huh, she thought to herself. Other than a few dust bunnies, the room was spotless.

In fact, if she hadn't known better, Rebecca would have suspected it wasn't inhabited at all. Maybe they had a maid of some sort, or Theo was some sort of crazed neat freak. If the latter was true, it would probably explain why Theo gave off so many bad vibes. Maybe he was planning on breaking into her house and cleaning it.

There was a large bookcase pressed up against the foot of Theo's bed, but it wasn't overflowing. In fact, it had hardly any books at all, other than his school text books.

She stood in the center of his room, trying not to touch anything. She cast her gaze to the ground. The sheer normality of it all was disturbing. She was half certain that if she touched one of the books on the bookshelf it would expose a trap door full of shanks and bloody knives.

Rebecca swallowed suddenly, hugging herself even tighter. She finally realized that the problem wasn't Theo's room, but that she was too busy comparing it to Travis DeClair's, everything looked wrong.

All she could think about was how she hadn't known anything about him as she lay beside him while he died. Was he in the middle of a book when the Dread Doctors took him? Was he about to tell Mieko something important?

And probably the most important: Was he scared - was he in unbearable pain? When he finally ...

Since her head was bowed, the tear that escaped her eye skipped sliding down her face and landed on Theo's hardwood floor with an inaudible splash.

What was Omar thinking when the Dread Doctors discarded him like a broken toy and left him in the middle of the street? He had probably been alone. Rebecca wondered if he had cried harder than she was at that moment. She wondered if Omar was thinking about his parents and the scholarship he was always talking about.

Rebecca covered her mouth before a gross sob could emerge. She thought about Connor's younger brother Callan, his older brother Lucas, and his mother. She wondered if they had been killed one by one, in front of each other. She could only imagine the horror on their faces, the screams that couldn't quite escape, the fear in their eyes when they accepted that they were next...

Rebecca's knee buckled and she sank to the ground, covering her face, feeling pathetic. Why couldn't she have been faster? Why had she been so slow to figure out how to save them? What was the point of being anything if she couldn't stop innocent people from being brutally murdered?

Rebecca brought her head to her knees and shook, silently crying in the middle of some guy's bedroom. The tears eventually blended together as she dug her palms deeper into her eyes to try and squeeze out the images of dead bodies and the broken souls they left behind.

Suddenly panicked, Rebecca grabbed the base of the backboard on Theo's bed and hefted herself up. Her vision blurred, but she still remembered where she saw a door to what she prayed was a bathroom.

Pushing open the white door that was slightly ajar, Rebecca stumbled into a dark room. Her hand spastically reached out, desperate to find a light switch. It was one of the semi flat ones that respond to a simple press. Rebecca hit it with an unreasonable amount of force. The bathroom lit up, and Rebecca blinked at the fluorescent light.

She kicked the door closed with her foot, then turned the locked with shaky fingers. Turning towards the sink and grabbing either side with an iron grip, Rebecca dry heaved, the action making her eyes water even more.

Her back arched and her head leaned forward until it touched the round mirror. Rebecca wanted to throw up until all the writhing guilt in her chest vanished down the drain, but nothing came out. She stared at the small black hole at the bottom of the sink, unable to muster the strength to straighten herself.

Rebecca felt the weight of death rest against her shoulders, and the thought of it multiplying made her squeeze her eyes shut. Her family, her friends, every single person in that town that was at risk ...

Her elbows bent and she thrust herself upright as she straightened them. She forced herself to look straight into the eyes of her reflection. The mess of a person that looked back at her was not someone who saved lives. That was someone who sat back and felt bad for herself while innocent people like Stacy McLennon suffered. Rebecca saw a person who shed tears when everything was said and done. The person who said a nice speeches at people's funerals.

Rebecca roughly dragged her fingers across her cheeks, removing most of the salty tears that sat there. Her jaw tightened as her eyes narrowed. That wasn't someone she ever wanted to be.

The next gathering Stacy McLennon would be invited to would not be her funeral, but a nice welcome home party, when she was home safe.

But first, Rebecca had to pull herself together and sift through the files until she finds a way to bring her home.

And then, she would find the Dread Doctors and make sure they never hurt anyone ever again.

Rebecca turned on the tap, and splashed some freezing cold water onto her face. Using a spare ponytail, she dragged back her unruly hair and looked at herself in the mirror one more time. She flattened her left hand while the other still held the sink tightly. Without breaking eye contact with herself, she lightly grazed her face with her still ridgid hand. The motion was ritualistic and familiar to her, though an onlooker would think her insane.

As her hand passed by her face, the redness disappeared. When her hand finally reached her chin, her face was void of any tears, water, and most importantly, any proof that she had broke down less than five minutes ago.

Her face was blank. She stayed that way for a few moments, before her phone buzzed in her pocket, earning her attention. She pulled it out and looked at it, her expression never changing.

Where are you? Her mother had texted her. This was the fifth text Rebecca had ignored. She bet her mom was getting worried.

I'm studying at Kamilla's. Might be late. Rebecca replied, placing her phone back into her pocket, turning it off as she did so. She knew her mother tried to steer clear of Kamilla's parents as much as she could. Maybe now she'd leave her alone.

Finally Rebecca let go of the sink, looking away from the mirror as she unlocked the door and opened it.

Theo was sifting through the files. He hardly reacted when she stepped out of the bathroom. There was a chance that he had heard Rebecca, but he didn't have any solid evidence. She knew from experience that she was a difficult specimen to smell and sense.

She wondered if Theo was curious as to why.

Theo dragged his eyes away from Omar's files for a second to looked at her as she made a move to stand beside him. He held out his arm and at first Rebecca thought he was barring her with his arm. She reeled backward before realizing he was just handing her some files. Rebecca stared at them for a second, then looked at Theo. He raised his eyebrows.

"Wanna get started?" Theo asked, his hand never wavering. Rebecca relented, too emotionally spent to stare him down.

Rebecca guided herself to the chair across the room and sat down, crossing her legs and opening it with a dramatic sigh.

"What do you think we're looking for?" Theo asked after she was comfortable.

"Anything, really," Rebecca said. "Similar zodiac signs, number of siblings, any allergies, even criminal records."

"So this is the hard part, right?" Theo asked, and Rebecca glanced up at him as he sat down on the chair at his desk. "I wonder if Sherlock and Watson ever had to figure out if their victims were Gemini's or Taurus'."

"Of course they did. Being a detective is so fun," Rebecca sighed, her upper lip inflating as she blew air into it. "But for the record, I'm Sherlock."

"Naturally," Theo agreed, flipping over a page. A pleased smile adorned Rebecca's lips as she snuggled down into the chair a bit more.

***

Somehow in an hour and a half, Theo and Rebecca ended up sprawled on the ground, resting their heads on their hands. They occasionally tapped their fingers on the ground impatiently while grabbing random pages to compare the files. Rest in peace Theo's clean room.

"Have you seen Omar's 2012 checkup anywhere?" Rebecca asked, releasing a page she thought was the one she was looking for. She scooched on her stomach a bit to reach another sheet she thought had 'Westland Health Clinic' in bold letters at the top.

Theo had found a possible lead through Connor and Stacey's medical files. As they were desperately trying to find the other forms, Rebecca thanked her mom for thinking of asking for them in the first place.

"I got it!" Theo said, victoriously passing her the correct sheet. Rebecca snatched it from his hand and placed it next to Travis', Stacey's, and Connor's. She sat up, her stomach and sore back muscles complaining at the sudden awkward movement.

Theo craned his neck to see Rebecca's finger pointing out what she was looking for.

"So you were right. They've all had surgery," Rebecca muttered, half to herself.

"So they're taking people who are prone to illness?" Theo asked, his tone flat. Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"They've all had skin grafts," Rebecca said, finality in her voice as she pointed at the words on the page. Welling excitement bubbled in her throat. "Stacey was apparently making supper six or so years ago when boiled water spilled all over her left arm, and she got a skin graft."

Theo reached out, tilting Omar's sheet so he could read it better. "Omar had a very small piece of skin cancer on his lower back and he got one too."

"Okay, so all of them got skin grafts," Rebecca said, the smile that threatened to break her focus creeping onto her lips. "Oh my god! I'm so stupid, why didn't I think of that? Connor had a skin graft after his dad … well, anyway. He got one too."

Theo nodded, but Rebecca narrowed her eyes slightly. When it came to Connor he didn't seem so certain. He didn't like using him as an example to compare the evidence, either.

"What's with you?" Rebecca demanded, struggling to keep her voice even. "I get it, Connor wasn't exactly a nice guy to you the other night, but he's not always like that. The Dread Doctors got to him. He wasn't-"

"Rebecca," Theo started, then sighed. He licked his lips as Rebecca leaned away from him. "We can't even be certain that the Dread Doctors got to him. I mean, did Travis and Connor act even remotely the same?"

She felt her mouth open in disbelief. "Are you serious? I didn't know there was some status quo people had to follow after being tortured."

Theo sighed. Rebecca hauled herself so she was sitting up fully, holding Connor's medical form carefully in both hands.

"You know what? Whatever. You didn't know him, you don't know anything," she said.

Theo was surprised at the scathing in her voice. She ead, then re-read the form. God knows she didn't want to, but Theo was staring and she didn't want to look at him either. It was a photocopy of the original form, so she focused on the smudges of ink at the bottom instead of the actual writing before she became even more hostile. This was one of the major pieces of evidence that put Connor's dad in jail. Her eyes scanned the document again, unable to help herself. Who would do that to their own kid?

"Do you honestly think that Connor was... taken, or whatever?" Theo asked to break the tense silence.

"I know he was," she replied curtly, not bothering to look at him.

"Okay, then I'll believe it too. You did know him better," Theo said, raising his hands in surrender.

Rebecca looked up at him. What a goddamn stupid cop-out of an argument that was, she thought. He must think she's too naïve to know when someone's buttering her up.

She burnt holes into his head with her eyes, but looked away after a few moments. Turning away while exhaling loudly, she tried to put herself back on track. Rebecca would have to tell her mom now, to find out who was a possible next target. The police could maybe send out a few people to help look for possible victims.

She started to think: Had Ren ever had a skin graft? Had her mother? Had Kamilla? Not that she knew of, but she didn't know everything.

Maybe they didn't know, Rebecca thought, and all of her movements stopped abruptly. Her breathing slowed as she stared at Travis DeClair's picture on his medical file. Maybe it was hidden, just like her memories of when the Dread Doctors had tried to kill her that night they murdered Travis. Fortunately, she knew a way to trigger them.

Rebecca looked up at Theo, who stared back, concerned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, shifting to listen more attentively.

"Have you ever seen the Dread Doctors before?" Rebecca asked, worrying her teeth on her bottom lip. He looked at her like she had grown another head.

"No, I think I'd remember if I had," he replied.

"But how can you know for certain?" Rebecca inquired, studying his face, preparing to defend herself if he tried to call the mental asylum. Though she should give him more credit, he was a werewolf, after all, and there was a lot of crazy in his life to begin with. In response to her words, however, he simply shrugged and looked uncomfortable. He thought she was accusing him.

"Not that I don't believe you, but what if there was a way that you could figure out whether or not you had seen them ... and then forgot about it?" Rebecca quirked her eyebrow.

"How?" Theo asked, looking at the files as if she had read the theory in invisible ink.

"I found this book called the Dread Doctors in Travis DeClair's bedroom," Rebecca picked up Travis' medical sheet. "And I read it. Then I had this strange dream or vision thing. It was about the day Travis got killed, just how I remembered, right up until a certain point.

"Then I started to remember the Dread Doctors pinning me down and trying to put some sort of needle in my neck. It was so real, but I couldn't remember it happening before that moment. But afterwards I just knew that it happened, you know?

"So I think it has something to do with the book. Reading it will trigger some memory inside your mind that was locked away." Theo watched her for a moment, thinking over what she said. The more he waited, the more nervous she became. "I probably sound crazy."

"So you think this book is some sort of key to finding out if the Doctors have gotten to anyone else?" Theo asked as Rebecca nervously fiddled with the paper in her hands.

"Yeah, I do," Rebecca said, relieved he was giving her a chance. She set down the papers, lacing her hands together then untangling them, becoming more excited by the second. "And maybe when we find Connor or Stacy they can read the book and tell us where the Dread Doctors are hiding out. Maybe we can figure out how they're doing what they're doing."

Rebecca grinned, and Theo smiled back. It looks like they finally had a serious lead.

"Oh my goodness this is going to be so great! We just gotta everyone, like Ren, his parents, Kamilla, Gus, my Mom! We have possible future targets and a way of figuring out more about the Doctors!" Rebecca pumped her fist in the air, grinning. She would save Stacey McLennon.

Theo shook his head and watched as Rebecca came down from her surge of giddiness and rubbed her face, then tried to stealthily stifle a yawn.

"Definitely," Theo said. He turned his head so Rebecca wouldn't see the strange expression creep onto his face. Oblivious, Rebecca put the pages down and scooted over to lean against his bed. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she watched him push himself into a sitting position as well. They sat in silence for a long moment, avoiding each other's eyes. Rebecca stared blankly at the ground, feeling her eyelids get heavy.

"Can I ask you something?" Theo asked. Rebecca nodded in affirmation, trying not to show how he startled her. "Did you have to fight off Travis like you fought off Connor?"

Rebecca's excitement wavered. A pang of guilt vibrated in her chest, but she cleared her throat and silenced it.

"Yeah, well, not really. Just enough to make him not kill me, you know?" Rebecca said. "I was trying to lure him out of the forest so I could get some help."

Theo nodded, watching as she looked at her now limp hands hanging over her knees. She swallowed again. He didn't need to rely on his abilities to see the guilt written on her face.

"I just ask because I saw how you kicked Connor's ass," Theo said, but Rebecca barely stirred at his words. "Those were some pretty awesome moves for someone who just happened to stumble upon all of this."

Rebecca sensed his suspicion, thinly veiled by praise. She looked up at him her eyes probing his expression, trying to silently gauge just how accusatory he was being.

"Yeah, well, when I was younger my mom enrolled me in some classes. And Gus taught me everything he knew," Rebecca shrugged, trying to sound detached from the subject.

"I could see your mom doing that," Theo said. He waited a second, studying her reaction. She rolled her shoulders back and closed her eyes. "I don't want to pry or anything, but what's with you and Gus? You seem so ... you know, and he just..."

"Shrugs me off? Yeah," Rebecca nodded, pressing her mouth into a thin line. She chose her words carefully, knowing full well this was turning into a gossip session. "Me and him used to be really close. When my mom first arrived in the country after her family emigrated from Lebanon, Gus totally took her under his wing and taught her a lot of important stuff. He's the reason she became a police officer in the first place."

Theo just sat quietly and watched Rebecca rub her eyes then look to the floor, but it was clear by hr tone that she wasn't really seeing it.

"Then when my mom met ... my father, they went away for a bit. Stuff happened, so my mom took me and ran back here to Gus. Gus taught me a lot about how to protect myself. And since my dad was gone, I had mainly my mom, but I could trust Gus too. Then earlier this year I ... really messed up." She cleared her throat, but the lump wouldn't go away. "Like, big time messed up, and he told me straight to my face he couldn't trust me anymore. It's like, my mom and Gus are trying to baby me now. And I just ..."

Rebecca stopped talking, checking her watch and forcing a yawn.

"Man, it's really late. You don't mind if I crash here tonight, do you?" Rebecca asked, smacking her lips and making her shoulder slump with feigned exhaustion.

"Sure," Theo said, looking away, but watching her from the corner of his eye as she stood up and practically ran to the bathroom. He started to clean up the papers and stack them on his desk. When he heard the bathroom door open after seven counted minutes, he made sure to keep his face hidden from her. He knew she had said too much, but this new information was intriguing. He hadn't known she was Lebanese, and that was the first time she had mentioned her father.

"You can sleep on the bed if you want," Theo said. Rebecca didn't try to argue. In fact, she didn't say anything else to him, didn't even look at him. He bit the inside of his cheek and re-straightened the stack of files, desperate not to show how her apathy stung.

After he heard her rustling cease, he turned and looked at her. Rebecca's entire body was buried under his covers, her eyes pressed shut. Her face was twisted, as if struggling to hide a strong emotion. He wondered if she had silently cried in his bathroom. Theo wondered if silently crying was a skill she had accumulated over the years. His stomach twisted.

For the first time in a long time, Theo was at a loss for words. He tried to think of something warm, something comforting, but came up blank. So he shook his head and walked to the door, opening it and staring out into the hallway.

His fingers squeezed the handle briefly, and he couldn't help but turn and look back at her. His other hand hesitantly reaching for the light switch.

Theo opened his mouth to say something, but he heard Rebecca's already sleep-riddled voice reach his ears, and he screwed his mouth shut.

"I'm not going to mess up again, I promise," Rebecca slurred. Theo wasn't sure if she was talking to him or if she had already started to dream, but he frowned slightly anyway. "I won't mess up again. I won't."

"I know," Theo responded to her quiet mutterings. He flicked off the light and shut the door. He meant it, too, which eased the bad taste in his mouth, but also worried him.

He crept down the stairs, grabbed his coat from the closet, opened his front door, and slipped out into the night. He walked right by his truck, knowing the noise would alert a barely conscious Rebecca, and he didn't need her following him.

After all he learned about her and how she was able to figure out the Dread Doctor's preferences, he knew it was time to go pay his old friends a visit. He quickened his stride and let the night swallow him.