return • theo raeken [2]

thirteen. memory found

"I'm fine.  Just thought I was somewhere else for a second."

"Where?"

"In a bad dream."

Luna looks up at him at this, but doesn't question him about it.  All of a sudden, thunder cracks and the three teenagers stare out the hospital doors that are swinging back and forth.

"You said you knew where to hide," Theo says to Liam.

"Yeah, but Luna's not gonna like it.  Follow me."

Liam takes off running and Theo follows right behind him with Luna on his tail.  She already knew where he was leading them.  The morgue.  When they reached the place, it was weirder for Luna to be there and not trying to break out of one of the freezers.  The doors swing shut behind the three and Liam barricades the doors with a rolling, operation table.

"This is your brilliant idea?  To barricade ourselves in the morgue?" Theo questions.

Liam replies, "The Ghost Riders go after the living.  So we hide with the dead."

"Besides," Luna says, "I don't see you coming up with any ideas besides running away."

Theo glares down at the blue haired girl.  Liam opens up one of the freezers, and all they see is a dead person's foot peaking out of the darkness within.

"Well, I'm not getting in one of those," Theo states, Luna nods to agree with him.

Liam says, "Me neither."

Luna walks over to one of the other tables and hops up on top of it to sit.  Theo walks in the other direction towards the doors.

Theo tells the two, "You should've left me in the holding cell."

"I should've left you in the ground."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Really."

"Luna, do you think so?  Actually, what do you think I was doing down there?  Just hanging out with my dead sister?  Having a good time catching up on childhood memories?"

"I think you were rotting down there."

"Liam finally gets one thing right."

"I also think whatever happened to you, you deserved it."

"Is that right?"

"For what you did to Luna, alone, you deserved whatever happened to down there.  When the Ghost Riders find us, I'm not gonna do anything for you.  I'm not gonna help you.  I'm not gonna save you.  I'm gonna do exactly what you would do to me.  I'm gonna use you as bait."

"What did Tara do to you?"  Luna interrupts whatever Theo might've said.  "The night Malia was beating the shit out of you, about to kill you actually, you said 'you don't have to stop.'  I said the same thing in my nightmares before you came back.  My nightmares about Tara ripping my heart out.  About me fighting my way out of those freezers just for her to kill me over and over again.  Is that what happened to you?"

Theo nods as he stares in Luna's direction.

"That's exactly what happened to me.  How long were the nightmares going on?"

"Until you came back."

If Theo was going to say anything else, he's not able to because something interrupts his train of thought.

"You still hear the ambulance?" Theo asks both of them.  "The siren.  Can you still hear it?"

Luna jumps off the table and comes to stand next to Theo to stare out the door once she realizes the sirens have stopped.  Liam takes a deep breath as Theo comes to a conclusion.