"lacy, oh lacy,
it's like you're out to get me,
you poison every little thing that i do."
word count: 8.9k
Jade's chest heaved up and down as she desperately gulped in shallow breaths of air and pressed the heel of her hands into her temple. She slumped against a grimy wall in the underground tunnels and scoured her surroundings.
She had been running through the tunnels for a solid ten minutes and was yet to bump into either Stiles or Theo. Her eyes kept flickering from emerald to violet and she could feel her humanity battling to return.
Splitting up was probably the worst thing they could have done. They were covering more ground but how the hell were they meant to find each other when the tunnels were full of crossroads? Theo could be on the other side of fucking town for all she knew.
Panic was bubbling in her chest and she clamped her eyes closed tightly, digging her palms into the shards of broken rock lodged into the wall. Now was not the time for a nervous breakdown. If she wanted to save Lydia from dying, she couldn't fall to pieces, she had to keep trudging through until the end. There would be a time for losing control later on, but for now, she needed to keep moving and find the boys.
The pain in her head was unrelenting but she forced her legs to carry on, pausing when she came closer to another crossroad. God, she hated making decisions. If she turned right, there was a chance that Theo and Stiles would be left or vice versa. Flipping a coin would probably be her best bet.
"Found you."
Some of the tension in her shoulders vanished at the sound of Stiles Stilinski jogging towards her and she turned to look over her shoulder at him. Despite the hatred she had for him as of late, she had never been so glad to see the skinny boy in her entire seventeen years of living. "Find her?" she questioned, not even bothering with formalities. He shook his head and she huffed out a sigh, crossing her arms over her black t-shirt and leather jacket. "Yeah, me either."
"I got nothing, too," Theo scuffed their sneakers into the puddles as they headed towards the pair, cutting into the conversation. Stiles commented on how they were all as useless as each other and they narrowed their eyes. "I am trying to help save her life."
"Would you drop the altruistic crap? You want Lydia because she gets you to Parrish and you want Parrish 'cause he gets you to the beast," Stiles scoffed and he rolled his eyes when Theo shrugged and said that the whole town wanted the beast dead. "After you take its power, right? We know why you have the talons and we know that you're looking for Deucalion."
"Why didn't I know that?" Jade said sharply, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder as she faced Stiles accusingly. He waved her off dismissively and a pang of hurt burst through her chest.
God, she felt like an idiot for thinking that any one of them had changed. It was just a repeat of last year—- what if they were buttering her up to use her as some weapon? Once the blood was on her hands and not theirs, would they turn on her again? It was clear they didn't trust her if they were withholding chunks of information but she couldn't entirely blame them.
Nevertheless, trust went both ways and how was she supposed to trust them when they kept building up a rapport and then breaking it again? Shit —— she was starting to feel too many emotions; anger, fear, even a sliver of joy, embarrassment.
Something was telling her that her humanity would not be staying off for much longer and that terrified her.
Theo and Stiles were far too busy arguing with each other again to notice that she was upset that nobody had told her. She rolled her eyes at their childishness and slowly started to bang her head against the wall. In all honesty, they displayed a striking resemblance to two toddlers fighting over who got to be the dog in the family game.
"I found Deucalion," Theo corrected smugly, proving Stiles' suspicion that they were only helping for their own selfish gain. Tonguing the inside of their cheek and folding their arms over their chest, their muscles protruded through the material of their shirt. "Youre right. I'm gonna help Parrish stop the beast, then I'm gonna take its power and break its neck. Maybe I'm not the good guy in your eyes but I might just end up being the guy who saves your asses."
Jade stopped banging her head against the wall— no matter how annoying these two were, she could cope with it better without a migraine. Pushing herself off the grimy wall and praying that her favourite leather jacket hadn't been damaged, she paused and raised a sharp brow at Stiles.
She had seen that look in his eyes often enough; he was thinking of a plan that would land them in deep shit with the law (and his father) or he was about to solve all of their problems.
There was no middle ground, there rarely was when he had an all-or-nothing mindset. His eyes twinkled mischievously and she had a feeling that he had, for once, come up with a plan that would work.
"Break it," he waved a hand tiredly at the pipe on the wall and clenched his jaw when the two of them just stared at him blankly. He grew frustrated that they'd not understood and fought the urge to roll his eyes to the sky. "Sound travels through the pipe, so you'll be able to hear better, dumbass," his voice dripped with sarcasm.
Theo's mouth formed an 'o' shape as they grabbed a hold of one of the pipes, snapping it into three parts with their bare hands. Steam hissed loudly out of the tube and they hesitated but moved closer when they heard combat boots tapping impatiently against the muddy ground.
Jade mustered up every ounce of selfcontrol she had in her body, trying not to snap at either of them. The dim lights from the ceiling of the tunnels flickered at the same time as she flapped her hands anxiously. It wouldn't be wise to lose their only guiding lights and she started to guiltily pace again.
Elizabeth had used the same distraction technique as a way to keep both her and her daughter from losing their cool. Jade liked to pace or make jigsaw puzzles while her mother preferred humming. Jade thought that those were some of her favourite memories with her mom.
No matter how old they got, if she or Max were going through a day where everything was overwhelming, Elizabeth would pull the twins into her lap, swaying in the rocking chair and softly singing lullabies. It was simple but effective.
She continued pacing and started humming 'you are my sunshine' under her breath, rubbing the crook of her neck soothingly. Looking silly or making a fool of herself was at the bottom of her priority list. If this was how she kept herself calm, so be it.
Gravel crunched underneath her black boots and the water from puddles sloshed into her socks. It felt like she had been waiting and watching and listening for a decade. Just as she was beginning to lose hope and render the whole thing pointless, silence was broken.
"He wants Lydia to be his eyes. To see who the beast is," Theo spoke gravely, refusing to meet her intense stare. They thought it was in everyone's best interest not to tell the girl that Valack was using her name to play on Lydia's emotions.
Valack had told Lydia that she could save Jade if she did as he asked. He was manipulating her into doing what he wanted —— and if Lydia's guard dog found out, it would help nobody. They were running out of time.
Taking long strides, they started leading the way and explaining at the same time. "I'm pretty sure she's in some kind of a basement, I have her scent. Dr Valack said that the dread doctors are trying to get the beast to remember who he was and once that happens, the teenager inside is gone," they informed them with an anxious twitch of their lips.
Stiles cursed obscenely at the revelation and rubbed the back of his neck nervously while Jade instructed the chimera to lead the way.
He tripped over his feet in a bid to keep up with the others as Theo sprinted, leading them down bends in the tunnels. It reeked of mildew and grey, threadlike cobwebs got caught on his face when the trio dashed around another corner.
Theo was murmuring about genetic chimeras as they followed Valack's voice. It was clear that the chimera was repeating the deranged doctors' words in a bid to stay connected to him and not lose the scent.
Jade skidded around another corner, head pounding as she grabbed a pipe on the wall to steady herself. It took a second for her to catch her breath—— she was admittedly not as active as she used to be——and her legs kicked into action, afraid that if she stopped, she wouldn't go again. She stumbled into a solid figure, a small hiss of pain tumbling from her lips. Just as she was about to scold Stiles for standing in her way, she caught sight of what he was looking at.
Lydia was hidden behind two double doors made of steel iron. It was bolted shut and although Theo had not said it aloud, it was clear that they had found the missing banshee.
Without missing a beat, both Stiles and Jade rushed forward, screaming out for Lydia. He bashed his fists against the door and he had a feeling that they would be raw from the friction. Theo braced themselves for impact, slamming their shoulder into the iron door.
Jade could feel the magic in her veins. It was sizzling and burnt away every nerve ending in her body until she felt like she would burst at the seams. She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and a strangled noise got caught in her throat. The pain in her head wasn't describable. It was unlike anything she had ever felt in her entire life.
Maybe it was because her humanity was on the verge of killing her if she didn't let it back in.
She could just barely hear Theo and Stiles bickering over the excruciating pain. Their voices were muffled and her knees buckled as she grabbed onto the pipes for support. "Confractus," she whispered, trying to use magic to break down the double doors.
The second it had spilt from her lips, she knew it had been a mistake.
She was in absolute agony as her legs caved in on her and she fell to the floor. Tears blurred her vision and the air was knocked out of her lungs as she heaved in deep gasps. It felt as if someone impaled her through the spine with a knife while cracking her in the skull with a plate at the same time.
A gut-wrenching scream tore from her throat as she clutched her head with both hands, tears streaming down her face. She would never dare to admit it out loud, but the tiniest part of her just wished it would kill her already.
Both Stiles and Theo froze on the spot, looking down at the sobbing girl on her knees. Despite her threats, Theo stumbled forward to try and get her on her feet and Stiles hammered his fists harder against the iron doors—- his life wouldn't be worth living if she found out that Lydia slipped through their fingertips.
An ear-splitting wail ricocheted off the walls without so much as a warning, causing both boys to fall onto their knees as they rushed to cover their ears in time. Lydia had been desperately grasping onto a thread of sanity with the hopes that someone would rescue her before Valack had the chance to put the mask on her. It was simply bad luck that hearing Jade in pain had toppled her over the edge. The only comfort she had was hoping that Jade's screams weren't due to being captured by Eichen staff.
It felt like hours had passed before the scream came to a stop. Cautiously, the three of them lowered their hands, ears still ringing from the power of her wails.
Theo was first to recover, crawling to the blonde and helping her stand on her unstable legs. "Your nose is bleeding," Theo mumbled, brows furrowing together anxiously. Using the back of her hand to wipe away the scarlet blood, she swayed on her feet, the world spinning around her. They placed a hand between her shoulder blades, temporarily stabilizing her until she decided to stumble forward.
Her brain was working on autopilot as she moved to the door, breaking it off its hinges with a flick of her wrist. Her head was pounding and every bone in her body wanted to cave in, but she forced her legs to go through the fallen door, ignoring the way her calves burned.
Dr. Valack's lifeless body was on the ground, a metal mask in his hands. She passed by him without an inch of remorse—— in her mind, there was no other way this could have played out. When she glanced at his dead body, she noticed that half of his head was blown off, an eye dangling from its socket, presumably from the force of the banshee's scream.
She didn't spare him a second thought as she walked towards Lydia, who was visibly exhausted, red blood still leaking from the wound in her skull. "You came back," she whispered hoarsely, the corner of her lips quirking into a small smile. She sat back in the metal chair, unable to hold herself up any longer.
"You didn't think I'd leave you in this insane asylum, did you?" Jade joked nervously, gently taking off the wires attached to her head, taking extra care with the cables near her injury. She made a start on the thick leather restraints next, point blank ignoring Lydia's protests about how dangerous it was. "Lyds," she cut the strawberry blonde off abruptly and softly cupped her pale cheek in her hand. "Please, please, just shut up and let me save your life, yeah?"
Lydia let out a reluctant sigh, a weak smile tugging at her lips as she managed a small nod. "Stiles, c'mere," Jade beckoned him forward with a tilt of her head as she unfastened the final restraint. "Keep hold of her lower back," she instructed and Stiles complied. She swivelled Lydia's body around so that her legs were dangling above the floor. "Right, we'll help you stand in a second. You're not gonna fall Lyds, just trust me, yeah? On three."
Between her and Stiles, they helped Lydia stand and distributed her weight evenly between the pair. With the banshee's arms wrapped around their shoulders, they hobbled out of the room and into the sewers as fast as they could, leaving Theo behind.
"You're bleeding," Lydia pointed out, clutching onto the two of them desperately. Wincing, she tightened her grip on them, struggling to stay on her feet. "You need to distract me or something. It's— it's too loud, I can't," she hissed through gritted teeth, eyes closed so tightly that she feared they would never open again.
"Okay, you're fine, love, I promise. Uh, did you know that sugar makes cuts heal faster?" she blurted out in a haste, readjusting her hold on her girlfriend's arm. While she wanted to move as quickly as possible, she didn't want Lydia to be uncomfortable, not when she was already in tons of pain.
She didn't know where the fact had come from—— it must have been something she subconsciously heard Max say. He was constantly spewing out useless, odd facts and she just so happened to have a horrendous case of word vomit when under pressure. The others shot her bizarre looks as they kept hobbling through the tunnels, ever so slightly weighed down by Lydia, who was deadweight and couldn't get her limbs to coordinate with her.
"Bet you didn't know that one, huh, Lyds?" she said, prompting the banshee to chuckle lightly, regretting it when the screams became unbearably loud. She clamped her eyes shut again, trying to focus on her girlfriend's voice.
"Cass, how does that work?" Stiles unexpectedly cut in, leading them down another corner of the sewers. She glanced at him in confusion and he simply tilted his head, silently telling her that she was helping.
"Well, uh, you have to put a little bit of sugar on top of the wound and put a bandage around it," she said, biting on her lip to stop herself from crying out. She was wrecking her head for more information and the pulsating was back, making it harder to think. It was only when Lydia dug her sharp nails into the back of Jade's shoulder in a bid to keep the screams at bay that she pushed through her own pain, refusing to be caught in her thoughts.
This wasn't about her, it was about Lydia. "Are you listening to me, Lyds? Listen to my voice, yeah, we're nearly there," she lied, allowing Stiles to guide them down another dark and dim-lit part of the sewers. In all honesty, she didn't know where they were— Theo had been navigating the underground tunnels and it wasn't exactly like her location spells would work. At this point, she was just hoping that they would get to a place where they recognized. "The granules absorb the moisture that the bacteria thrive on."
Stiles weaved through the tunnels while she kept on talking and trying to distract Lydia from the screams and voices. He chipped in every so often to bring up a new topic that she could delve into."The plan didnt work too well, so we're gonna need your help, Lyds," he kept his voice gentle, having to almost pick her off the ground when her legs gave in.
Just as they burst through a door and were deciding whether to turn left or right, she started to groan out in pain, becoming weaker and weaker the more they moved. "You had a plan?" she quipped—— she hadn't lost her sarcastic wit, even with deafening screaming in her ears.
"Good on paper, not so much in reality."
Lydia slipped through their grasp and it was as if the clock had slowed down and sped up all at once. Jade looked back over her shoulder, her heart rate spiking to a thousand.
She had collapsed into a heap, strands of strawberry blonde hair stuck to her forehead from the extreme effort it was taking to keep herself from prying open her mouth and wailing. Beads of sweat trickled down the exposed skin on her neck and her fingers gripped onto her temples. "I can't hold it!" she cried, begging and pleading with herself not to let it out.
It was too much for a singular person to handle— the screams were becoming high-pitched, chiming in her eardrums like echoing claps of thunder. She blinked back the fresh tears that lined her lashes, using what little strength she had left to shake her head at Jade's advancing figure. "No. No! Run!"
There were no thoughts in Jade's head as she grabbed Stiles' shoulder and threw him into a nearby hallway that would hopefully shield him. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Lydia, almost like she was giving her a bear hug, just as she opened her mouth and screamed for all she was worth.
"I love you," she whispered into the banshee's hair, a wobble in her voice as she closed her eyes, accepting that they would probably be the last words out of her mouth. She didnt doubt that what she was doing was stupid, but love made you crazy and all that.
She felt at peace with it, in a way—— she hadn't felt a single thing for months, and despite it being her own decision, it still killed something inside of her. There was nothing left for her; everyone she loved died or got hurt because of her and she didn't want to be the one to carry that burden anymore.
The only person she didn't want to leave behind was her brother, but she knew that he would get through it. Melissa, Scott and Derek would rally around him as if their lives depended on it and, eventually, it'd be a distant memory for him.
It felt like everything she done, she screwed up. In all honesty, she wanted things to go back to how it used to be. When her friends and family didn't hate her or when she didn't constantly have a target on her back. Everything was so messed up. If she was going to go out, she could at least do something good in her final moments.
She didn't know exactly what was happening but she could feel the magic surge through her body, a flame that lit the rest of her on fire.
For the first time in her life, her magic enveloped her in warmth. It was inviting—-captivating and alluring but also gentle and tender, like it knew what she was and would be and what she was going through. It flooded through her body like a tidal wave and violet magic poured from her hands, consuming her whole.
Her magic was acting as a shield, protecting her and everyone around her from the banshee's wails. It was somehow taking Lydia's screams and wrapping them up tightly, hiding them away in the darkest depths of the witch. The banshee continued wailing until every last drop of fight was squeezed from her weak body.
A familiar voice made Jade's eyes snap open quickly. It was impossible, but there she was, in all her glory, standing in front of her. Lydia's screams had caused some of the bricks to loosen and crumble to dust and Jade coughed, eyes squinting to adjust to the tunnel light.
Yet the woman stayed put, a sad smile tugging at the corners of her pink lips as she moved forward, ebony curls tumbling over her shoulders. Jade watched in a mixture of horror and relief as the woman kneeled in front of her, trying to take her hands in her own. The woman's ghostly hands slipped through Jade's and it brought back the harsh realization that she was dead and Jade was alive.
The woman chuckled and Jade was sure that it thawed out her ice-cold heart. The ghost looked up at her and brandished her hands through the witch's body, leaving a shiver in its wake. Someone might as well have just thrown a bucket of water over her and she shuddered, refusing to break eye contact, afraid that she would disappear. Whatever the woman had done, it relieved the heavy pressure of taking Lydia's screams. She looked down at her hands and back up at the woman——- only the woman was gone and the screams along with her.
"Are you okay?"
She blinked dumbly at her brother and Scott, who at some point had knelt beside her. They both mirrored identical worried expressions and she nearly laughed at the inconvenience of not being killed.
Her emerald eyes flickered back to the spot where the woman had been rooted to the ground only three seconds prior. "Yeah. I'm ok," she was still dazed and tripped over her words. "Where do we go now?" she mumbled, hastily standing to her feet. She cradled a barely conscious Lydia in her arms.
"This way," Max whispered, kicking a brick into the wall so that she wouldn't fall over it. He kept an eye on his twin sister, knowing that there was something she wasn't telling them but deciding that he could always pry later on.
Scott, Stiles and Parrish were jogging with the witch, keeping an eye on how Lydia was doing while Liam, Liberty and the seer led the way, running through the sewers.
He had seen the exit to the tunnels in visions, which gave him a rough idea of where to go. He was mostly just going off of a gut feeling, relying on his senses to get them out of there. He was trying not to overthink it—— his premonitions and feelings would lead them to freedom (hopefully).
They threaded their way through the tunnels with a lot more ease now that they had Lydia. It didn't take long for the banshee to stir and start mumbling. She winced and whined, gritting her teeth in an attempt to keep herself from screaming, and they doubled the pace.
Scott and Jade had been bringing up the rear of their group and by the time they caught up, Liam stood in front of a broken gate, glancing at them with a proud smile on his face. "I told you Mason and Nathan had a plan!" he exclaimed in an 'i-told-you-so' tone as he hurried past them, climbing up a rusty metal ladder.
It was almost pitch-black outside, which didn't do a lot regarding visibility. Jade held Lydia tightly to her chest and whispered reassuring words to her as the others filed up the ladder. Scott was the only one left in the sewers with her, and he kept an eye on the ladder, making sure it wouldn't collapse.
She sat on a step of the ladder, using her knees as a support beam for Lydia's weight. Reaching up for a higher bar, she hauled the pair of them up the ladder and onto the gravel outside. Liberty offered a helping hand, so to speak, and dragged her off the ground as Liam made sure she wouldn't lose her balance.
Just as Scott appeared from the hole in the ground, a bright blue jeep pulled up to the steps of Eichen. Lily jumped out of the car before it had even stopped and Malia and Kira were close to follow. All three of them looked worse for wear and it was obvious that they'd run into some issues, too. "You look like hell," Lilith commented, crinkling their eyebrows at the group.
"We need to go, give me the keys, we gotta get her to the animal clinic," Scott chewed his bottom lip in an anxious state while Malia poked around in her jacket pocket for the car keys. Before any of them had made a dent in the plan, Jade slumped against the hood of the jeep, her hands slamming out to save the fall. His eyes widened as he glanced up, only to find that they had, once again, been stopped.
Lydia was in the same position as she had been only an hour ago, except this time every muscle inside of her body ached and throbbed. One of Tracy Stewart's clawed hands was wrapped around her throat and it was starting to feel like she was a piece of meat being fought over.
"Sorry, she's coming with me," Tracy snarled, double checking that the unpredictable witch was still in her line of sight; Theo had warned their pack about what she could do. "I'm taking her, none of you are gonna do a thing to——"
Before Tracy had a chance to finish her sentence, she started uncontrollably shaking, almost convulsing as she dropped Lydia right into Jade's arms. The were-kanima collapsed to the ground, revealing Ms Martin standing behind her, an electrical taser in her hands. "Could somebody please get my daughter out of this hell hole?" she let out an exasperated sigh, shoulders slumping as the group worked together to cram their friend and some of the others into the jeep.
Scott clambered into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life. Both of the twins were crammed into the backseat and Lydia was draped across their laps, her head resting in her girlfriends lap and her legs on Maxs knees. Stiles slid into the passenger seat and Scott instantly slammed his foot to the pedal, racing through the empty roads like some kind of race car driver.
"You're doing great, love, alright? Just a little longer, Lyds and then we'll be there and everything'll be fine again, yeah?" Jade whispered, unsticking strands of strawberry blonde hair from the banshee's forehead.
Lydia's eyes were clamped shut as tightly as possible as she tried to focus on her girlfriend's voice. Blindly feeling around the back seat, she grabbed onto Jades hand, squeezing until she thought she could hear the bones snap.
Do you know when you're on a plane? How the first ten minutes you're in the air, you can get a headache because of the difference in air pressure? That's what it felt like, the only difference being that the pressure was inside of her head.
It was as if the screams could tell that she was being worn down, because they continued to get louder, to the point where she couldn't hear Jade any more. In fact, she couldnt hear anything but the ringing in her ears and the screams. Her lips parted and she wailed out, the twins having to hold her still in the back.
The scream hardly came close in comparison to the one that killed Valack, but it was still intense enough to crack the wing mirror. Glass shards splintered on to the road and Scott sped up significantly, declaring into the back that they were only a few minutes away
"Hey, no, don't close your eyes," Jade warned lightly, squeezing Lydias hand until she complied, her glassy eyes blinking up at her. "We're nearly there love. You wanna know what I was thinking? I was thinking we could get away soon——- during the christmas break. We could have three weeks away somewhere, just us two. I know you've always wanted to go to Hawaii. It would be really pretty at Christmas, huh Lyds? D'you reckon you'd be up for that?"
She chuckled weakly, a small smile creeping its way onto her ghostly pale face. "Only if I get the window seat," she joked in between shallow breaths, eyelids fluttering closed until she remembered what she had been told. "We can— we—- we can probably smuggle Fern and Prada in our handbags," she snickered, the voices coming back full force, causing her to tighten her hold on Jade's hand, grinding her teeth together.
"They're small enough to fit," Max chimed in, gently rubbing soothing circles on the back of Lydia's other hand. He was trying to take a fraction of her pain but it was debilitating and he couldn't afford to be pulled into a near-death experience himself. So he opted for providing comfort instead, something he was well-equipped for.
The animal clinic came into view, a shadow that they could assume was Deaton standing outside the open double doors. Porch lights shed a bit of brightness as the jeep pulled to an abrupt stop, Scott throwing the car into park and jumping onto the pavement.
Both boys pushed their chairs forward and Jade was able to cradle Lydia in her arms, manoeuvring them out of the jeep without hitting either of their heads off the low roof.
He rushed to his sisters' side, assisting in supporting Lydia's weight as Deaton and the boys held the doors open for them to pass through. "Get her on the table, now," Deaton ordered urgently. There was a bunch of vet supplies on the table and Max swiped them off onto the floor.
Jade lay her on the metal table as he had instructed, chancing a glance over her shoulder at Deaton, who was mixing up something inside of a container. Scott and Stiles rushed over to help, holding down Lydia's legs when she began to writhe about. The twins held onto her arms and between the four of them, they'd essentially strapped her to the table.
Jade kept whispering under her breath, wiping bead after bead of sweat off Lydia's face as she told her to hang on for another minute. "You're doing so good!" she exclaimed in a whisper, having to clamp her lips closed when Lydia squeezed her hand so hard that it would leave scratch marks.
"Lydia, I love you, so you have to hold on, just a few more minutes, I know that you can do it. You're so unbelievably strong, Lyds," she whispered, swinging her hair out of her face so that she could think better
Another scream ripped from the banshee's throat as the walls in the building shook from the sheer force, not built to withstand that amount of pressure. "Doc, I think you gotta do something," Stiles warned. This was more than a close call—— her next scream could very well be the one to kill them all.
Deaton finished transferring the contents from a jar into a syringe and quickly made his way to the group with the hope that this would save the young girl. He used one hand to stabilize her neck and Jade kept on anxiously glancing at him. "What is that?" she asked. "Mistletoe," he replied calmly as if that was the most normal thing in the world.
"Mistletoe?" Stiles repeated, eyes bulging out of his head. "She's got a fucking hole in her head!"
Deaton ignored his protests, carefully picking up the syringe gun and holding it to Lydia's head. Just as he pressed the needle into her skull wound and injected the paste into her head, she shot upwards, breaking free from her restraints with an ear-bleeding scream. It was by far her most powerful scream... well, ever.
Overhead windows exploded and the tiny shards of glass flew through the room. The lightbulbs blew and the strength of the scream had thrown everyone into the walls. Jade had practically fired herself at Lydia, using her body as a human shield to protect her from the flying glass. She could feel the fragments sticking into her back and blood running from her ears, but it didn't deter her, even when she feared that the wails would kill her.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the dust settled and Lydia collapsed back onto the table, silent as her eyes flickered shut. Jade tentatively peeked out from underneath her leather jacket and once she was sure that the ceiling would not cave in, she jumped off the exam table and shakily stood on her feet.
The brunt of the falling glass had been stuck into her back and shoulders, but it had also saved Lydia from being sliced open. A small price to pay when she'd be easily able to heal herself. Small fragments of broken glass had managed to get caught in Lydia's hair from a blind spot Jade had missed, and she carefully used her fingers to pluck them from the girl's locks.
She gently placed a hand on Lydia's shoulders, trying to wake her up. It wasnt unusual for her to be utterly exhausted——her experience in Eichen with not only Dr Valack but also the staff of the institution, would leave anyone drained. Having a hole in her head was simply the icing on top of the cake.
Yet something felt different. It made her feel uneasy. Call it witch intuition or a sixth sense, whatever—— a deep pit formed in her stomach nonetheless. "Lydia" she whispered, swallowing the lump in her throat by forcing herself to speak again. "Lydia?"
"Lydia." Her voice cracked in her throat. She became more insistent, more desperate and her hands began to violently shake. Yet Lydia stayed as stiff as a board and did not move a muscle. Her eyes did not flicker underneath her lids.
Goosebumps travelled up her arms as she shook her head, refusing to believe it. Panic started to pump in her veins as she cradled Lydia's face in her hands. It looked like she was a china doll—— one wrong move and she would shatter into a million pieces. "Lydia," she whispered quietly, more harshly this time. There was no answer and her bottom lip started to tremble. "You don't get to do this," she scoffed in horror.
Max watched on apprehensively, devastated by who they had lost and anxious for what might occur if his sister lost control. She was unpredictable and that is what scared him the most. Her voice was low as she whispered and it was almost as if she was losing her mind. It would've been better if she just screamed or cried; at least then he'd know what he was working with.
"You do not get to do this, Lydia Martin. Do you hear me? Youre not doing this to me," she hopelessly kept brushing strands of her girlfriend's hair back. "Wake up. You don't get to die. Wake up." Someone gently lay a hand on her shoulder but she brushed them off harshly.
She knew what that meant. It was her brother saying that she had to let go, that it was too late. She would not accept that— she couldn't.
Pushing her brother away, she shook out her hands and climbed onto the exam table. Straddling Lydia's waist, she swung her legs either side of the banshee's thighs and ignored the way her vision tilted. "What are you doing?" Max asked softly, sympathy evident in his eyes.
He might as well have been talking to a brick wall—it was no use trying to talk common sense into her. She interlocked her fingers together and blinked back the tears in her eyes. Positioning her hands above Lydias chest, she pressed down with all her strength and counted. "One," she sniffed, recalling the songs she had learnt at a CPR class. Singing the tune to Dancing Queen in her head, she counted out loud and kept pushing down. "—— five..."
"Cass..." Scott had to hold back his tears and he wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve. "Cass, you have to let go."
Max's eyesight was starting to blur and he couldn't let it go on any longer. It was just torturing his sister when there was nothing they could do. "Jade," he lay a hand on her bicep and she practically ripped his head off.
"Just fucking shut up, all of you!" she screamed, her magic sending some of the shelving units across the room. "Don't you dare die on me, Lyds." None of the boys moved and neither did Deaton, even if they did want to intervene.
Tears started to freely roll down her cheeks and she kept performing CPR. "I love you," she whispered. It was barely loud enough for herself to hear, let alone the others, although she had a feeling that Scott had heard. "Please," she broke, a sob racking through her body as she almost collapsed onto Lydia. "Please!"
Max couldn't stand to watch it anymore. He stood by the exam table and grabbed his sister by the arm. He had to lift her off the exam table and she collapsed in to his arms. She didn't put up a fight. He didn't think she had any fight left. She scrambled away from him and was about to bolt out the backdoor when a sharp gasp had them all looking for the source.
Lydias eyes snapped open as she tried to get a grip on her surroundings. Jade let out a sigh of relief and she still couldn't stop crying as she ran towards Lydia. It took everything in her not to jump at the girl but she stopped herself and held her hand instead. "Are you okay?" she sobbed and Lydia nodded, sitting up with her help. "You're okay," she cried and Lydia wrapped her arms around the girl's neck, tightly pulling her in for a hug as Jade sobbed into her shoulder.
"We're okay."
⌜ ° + ° ⌝
Jade closed her bedroom door, slipping off her boots and leaving them by the balcony. Natalie Martin had shown up to whisk her daughter home but not before giving Jade a hug and thanking her. To say she gave the woman an odd look would be an understatement but in her defence, she hadn't been expecting it.
Max was still bunking in her apartment because she wasn't entirely sure if he would start drinking on his own again. He had it easily anyway—— he was in the bed while she slept on the floor, although at least he had offered to swap.
It had taken ten minutes for her to stop crying and it still felt like her chest was going to cave in. Creeping onto the balcony, she slid the door closed behind her in hopes not to wake her brother. Sitting on a plastic chair, she pulled her knees up to her chest, watching as cars drove by.
Fishing a packet of cigarettes and a lighter out of her pyjama sweatpants, she cupped her hand around the orange flame so that the wind wouldn't catch it. Her eyes kept flickering to her phone, which was right on the table beside her. She kept dragging in smoke and puffing it out, hoping that it might stop her.
Stubbing the end of the cigarette into an ashtray, she heaved a sigh and snatched her phone up. Typing in her passcode, she scrolled through her contact list. A feeling that she couldn't quite describe gnawed away at her insides. Somewhere deep in her heart, she had an inkling that it was her humanity telling her that it was ok to ask for help. To admit that she was wrong.
Her thumb hovered over the call button, pressing it quickly before her 'inhumanity' side had a chance to talk her out of it. Pressing the phone up to her ear, it dialled as she chewed on the inside of her cheek.
The person that you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave your message after the beep.
BEEP.
Rolling her eyes slightly, she stayed quiet on her end of the line. She debated whether to hang up or not. It couldn't hurt to leave a voicemail.
"Hey. It's me. I uh... sorry for avoiding your calls. It's just... hectic down here lately. Um——— I don't really know why I'm calling, honestly," she chuckled darkly and it died in her throat. "That's a lie. I do know why Im calling," she sighed heavily, taking her bottom lip between her teeth. "I guess, it's just been hard lately; harder than normal. I don't think I'm making sense. I just——"
The words got caught in her throat and she let out a sob. Balancing the phone between her shoulder and ear, she covered her mouth with her hands. Once she had composed herself to speak again, she sniffed and cleared her throat. She hesitated but decided to keep it a secret, that she had seen her mother inside of the tunnels today.
"Sorry. I think I'm starting to feel things again. Like, gratitude and fear and grief. Um.. I think turning off my humanity might've been a big mistake but I don't know how to turn it back on. Like, I do know how to but I... can't? Christ, I don't know. I think I'm scared to 'cause then I have to face it all. I don't wanna face it on my own. I don't... I don't want to be on my own anymore. I think I need to feel things again or else I might do something stupid."
"I don't want to hurt people anymore. I don't want to hurt anymore," she sobbed into her hands, trying to cover it up with a cough. "I think I'm trying to ask for help. I don't want to live like this. I want to turn it on but I think I need help to do that."
"Sorry. You're probably asleep and now you're gonna have a voicemail of me crying down the phone," she laughed, sniffing into the line again. Guilt and shame began to settle in her stomach and she hit her temple with the palms of her hands. "Sorry for calling. I'm... I'm fine, really, I, uh, I'm okay."
The noise of someone rapping their knuckles on her wooden front door snapped her out of the one-sided conversation. "There's someone at my door, I've got to go. Love you."
Slipping back inside of her apartment, she locked the balcony door behind her and ran her hands over her face. Another knock bounced through the apartment and she cursed under her breath. If that was Lily with another rom-com movie at this time, she would sadly have to slam her head into the wall. "Alright, alright" she hissed under her breath, bare feet padding along the kitchen tiles.
Undoing the chain on her door, she squeezed it open a fraction, wary that she might be the next victim of a serial killer (or one of her supernatural enemies—- both were death sentences, so there wasn't much of a difference between the two). Brows shooting up into her hairline, her lips parted and she couldn't help the ghost of a smile creeping its way onto her lips. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"You're not gonna invite me in, then?" Derek joked, a small smile playing on his face. He noticed that she raised a brow, clearly noticing the avoided question. "Max rang me yesterday because of his relapse. He's worried about you. And so am I," he added, pushing his way into the apartment and setting a grocery bag on the island.
She closed the door and he fixed her with a look that said she better tell the truth. "What's going on? You have been MIA, avoiding my calls and I've just got a voicemail from you, like, seconds ago. I know you're struggling and I know you won't admit that. I know you havent been talking to me or Max, but im asking you now, face to face, to tell me what's going on in that head of yours."
She shuffled on the spot, defiantly folding her arms across her chest. "Nothing's going on!" she hissed out and pursed her lips to stop them from wobbling. She hated that her brothers were able to easily tell when something was bothering her. "I'm fine, Der. I'm just tired," she brushed him off, refusing to break under his stare.
"Fine, I guess I'll just have to listen to that voicemail then," he threatened, shuffling around in his leather jacket pocket to find his phone. It might have been a tad cruel, but if she wouldn't willingly open up, he'd have to bring out the big guns. She used her magic to snatch his phone from his open hands and he glared at her, wondering what was on that voicemail—- and then it hit him. "Your humanity's flickering, isn't it?"
She scowled at him, narrowing her eyes as the lamps in the corner wobbled on the table. "I haven't got any idea what you're talking about," she scoffed icily and tightened her hands into fists by her side. Obviously, she was lying; she knew exactly what he was talking about. "Why would my humanity be flickering when I was the one who turned it off?"
She paced the floor, finally settling on a stool on the far side of the island. She clasped her hands together and bit down hard on her tongue.
"That's where I think you might be wrong," he sighed and ran a hand through his tousled dark hair. Fixing her with a pitiful look, it was nearly as though he was able to see the conflict in her eyes. "Your humanity is wanting to return. Your dark side isn't holding on to you—— you're holding onto her," he shot her a tight-lipped smile, knowing that it would be a tough pill to swallow.
"That doesn't make any sense," she frowned and her voice was laced with curiosity—- in some ways, it did make sense, she supposed, but admitting that would mean feeling everything again, including the grief. It was impossible to pick and choose what emotion she felt. "Why would I be holding onto her?" she mused, furrowing her brows.
"Do you remember when Paige died?" he wondered aloud, tracing the lines on the palms of his hand. She nodded silently and he sucked in a deep breath. "You all came to visit a few days after it happened. I didn't usually mind playing with you guys— hell, I probably enjoyed it more than you all did," he snickered, smile falling. "We were playing basketball on the court and Peter was watching. He started talking about her and then you and Max bombarded me with questions; if she was nice, if she was pretty, if we were going out."
"And I snapped. I screamed at you both and attacked Peter and our moms had to drag me into the house. I barricaded myself in my room for the rest of the four weeks and when I did come out, I was defensive and angry.
"I pushed everyone away because that's what we do when we're afraid or grieving. We build defences in order to protect ourselves. That's why you hit rock bottom when Allison died," he took extra care to stay gentle and understanding. He didn't want her to feel like she was being attacked. "It's why your humanity switched off. When your relationship was outed and when Max went missing, that was the trigger of a lot of built-up and suppressed feelings. It was a breaking point and your brain turned it off to protect you. So, we need to figure out what she's protecting you from now."
She kept her eyes trained on the marble island, silver rings sliding up and down her fingers as she fidgeted with them. Hesitating, she cleared her throat, wiping her eyes with her hands. "What if I don't want to find out what she's protecting me from? I don't think I can survive that. You don't understand," she chuckled bitterly and slammed her hands on the island. "I feel like I'm dying when I think about her and I won't survive it. I feel everything so deeply and it's going to kill me," her voice shook. "I don't wanna live like this anymore, it's killing me!"
Derek jumped to his feet, his stool scraping along the kitchen tiles. She had never been a person who loved physical contact but right now, she crumbled into his arms like dust. He gently tugged her to the floor and she sobbed loudly into his chest, fingernails dragging down the back of his hazel shirt as she tried to gain a solid grip on something. "I can't do it anymore. Just make it stop, please make it stop," she sobbed.
"I know," he whispered, running a hand through her damp strands of blonde hair. Tears stung at his eyes from the sheer pain she must've been in. It was hard to watch. A door creaked open and he lifted his head slightly, rubbing soothing circles on her back. Giving his brother a sharp nod and a tightlipped smile, Max dragged his feet, still half-asleep as he made his way towards his sister.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor beside them, he had wrapped his arms around her before she had time to notice that he was there. "It's okay," he whispered in her hair, hugging her back and shoulders as she kept shaking with sobs. "You're not alone in this, Cass."
"I don't wanna be like this anymore," she cried, eyes shut as the tears rolled out. "I don't want to keep on hurting people," she sobbed, coiling in on herself. "I don't know how to not do that."
"With help," Max answered quietly, stroking her hair back, just as their mother used to do. "You're a good person, Jade. I know you think it's impossible to turn it back on, but you can—— all you need is some help, and that's not something to be ashamed of. We're all here to help," he whispered.
Four padded paws came hopping into the kitchen in a bid to see what was going on and the golden puppy nudged Jade's arm with her nose. Once she found a gap in her owner's arms, she climbed into her lap and for just a second, Jade felt a little bit lighter. She still cried, but she had to laugh when Fern licked her face and almost knocked her backwards.
The trio sat in silence on the kitchen tiles as she tried to calm down from the outburst, chest heaving at the hiccups she got from crying. Threading her fingers in the dog's golden fur, she couldn't deny that it felt easy now that she had let it out. "Okay," she sighed, chest wobbling from the gasps of air she taking in.
"I want help—— I want to turn it back on."
A/N:
hi lovelies! hope you're well!!
so... a lot happened this chapter (aka our gal suffering for a solid 9k words)
jade and lydia have my whole entire heart idec and i promise there'll be a lot more them content now that lyds is out of eichen
i felt like this was a solid, needed chapter to show how jades humanity effects her. i think her realizing that turning off her humanity is not a healthy way of coping was a huge step for her. now, she won't snap her fingers and *oh!* she's back, everything's fine again, it only took a day yada yada yada. it's gonna be a bit of a trek but she'll get there <3
i wanted to bring back derek this way cause i think family / friends will play a huge part in jades humanity storyline. (i also rlly missed him). derek cares abt the twins so much and her brothers will defo be her rocks during it all!
elizabeth in the tunnels will be explained more <3
thank u for reading (and bearing w me for how long this took), don't forget to vote / comment <3