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For 10 whole minutes, Carmen and Piers stood in their old kitchen, holding each other close. Their clothes were soaked from each other's tears and their sobs remained echoing throughout the room.
When they finally pulled apart, Piers grabbed her by her trembling hands and sat next to her at the table, examining her face just as she was to him. It all made sense now- The reason he looked so tired was because he'd been going through the torture and pain she'd faced over the past few hours- But for months now.
"Piers, why are you here?" She breathed out, not able to take her eyes off of him.
Piers gave her a dumbfounded look, "I think we both know why I'm here. Why are you here? What did you do?"
Carmen bit down harshly on her bottom lip, "Isaac's father escaped and dragged him down here. I met a witch who helped me make a breach so I could come in and find him. The pack doesn't know I'm here, but I've only been here for a few minutes. They shouldn't even have noticed-"
He sighed deeply and interrupts her, "Carmen, that's not how things work. Time is distorted here- A few minutes here could be hours, maybe even days in real life."
"Then I need to get back as soon as possible." She quipped quickly, perking up in her seat and gulping down the lump in her throat.
"Do you have any idea where he might be?" Piers asked. When Carmen shook her head sadly, he continued, "Well, what was he most afraid of?"
She bites her lip and shrugs, "His dad, I guess?"
"So we need to find a way to hop into his fears and find the real Isaac," Piers states with an assertive tone, "Much easier said than done, but.."
"..Is it possible to hop into someone else's fears?"
He suddenly goes rigid, face falling in sadness. "Yeah. I've done it before. You just have to-"
"With who?" She leaned forward, cutting his words short.
"Huh?"
"Who's fears did you go in?"
"Nina's."
Her eyes roll to the back of her head and she runs a hand through her tangled hair, "Of course, I should have guessed. Why wouldn't she be here?"
"I've only seen her once," He sighs deeply, folding his arms over his chest, "It wasn't pretty. She killed me, but unlucky for me, you can't die in a place full of dead. You just come right back and you're forced to relive it all over again."
"That's why i came back to life when the fake Isaac killed me.." Her throat went dry. "I'm not going to let you go through this again. I'm bringing you and Isaac back with me, so let's go-"
"Wait, wait, Carmen?" Piers grabs her arm as she begins to stand, standing with her. She gives him a curious, rushed look. "I-I just.. How long was I gone?"
She gave him a sad smile, "A few months."
"Jeez, so you're almost ready to graduate?" He runs his hands over his face in frustration, "Time flies by so fast. Are you alright?"
"Huh?"
"Are you alright." He repeats, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Losing your entire family, having to move into a new home, then losing the person you love- I know that can't be easy."
Carmen cast her eyes down and bit her lip, "Of course I'm not okay. But I have you again, and together, we can find Isaac. Things still won't be perfect, but it'll be a start."
Piers nods, sliding his hand off her shoulder. Suddenly a bumping from upstairs catches their attention, causing them to freeze in their tracks. They exchange panicked looks and listen intently as more clattering from upstairs occurs.
"I'll go," Carmen whispers, "It's probably just some other trick.."
"I'm not leaving your side." Piers insists sternly, basically attaching himself to her hip. She nods reluctantly and grabs hold of his hand, dragging him quietly up the stairs. It didn't take long to conclude that the noise was coming from Carmen's room, worrying her. Her heart began to beat faster and faster as they approached the white door, her hand reaching out to twist the handle.
"Just do it," Piers whispered harshly.
Carmen deadpanned, "Last time you told me that, I killed three innocent people in a gas station."
Piers rolled his eyes and motioned towards the door once again. She took a deep breath, readying herself before she did as he told her. The door creaked slightly open.
Carmen's belongings were scattered lazily out across the floor, along with the occasional article of clothing. The items on the ground were from her desk- The same desk that Isaac and Allison inhabited at that moment.
She was sat on the desk with Isaac in between her legs, both of their lower halves the only things covered in their affair. Their lips moved steadily and hurriedly as they clung to each other, fully aware of what they were doing.
Carmen's eyes began to well with tears. She knew this wasn't real, of course, but the fact that it had been real multiple times before in real life shattered her heart.
"Carmen, let's go." Piers growled, tugging on her arm. "This is sick."
But she was plastered to the ground. Isaac's calloused hands roamed down Allison's curved figure and landed on her butt as he began to trail down her neck. She couldn't look away, but that was the point, right?
"This isn't real, Carmen," Piers urged her, trying to pull her away once again. "We need to go find the real Isaac, let's go."
She shut her eyes and closed the door, trying to keep herself calm. It was fake, but deep down, she knew that it was real.
She turned to Piers and sighed deeply, "How exactly do we get into someone else's fears?"
"All I did to find Nina was imagine her fears- Put myself in her situation." Piers shrugged, "I have no idea how or why that worked, but nothing here really makes sense, does it?"
Carmen pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head. "No. So let's do this. We can try just imagining his old house first?"
Piers nodded and took Carmen's hand, squeezing them gently. Not wanting to waste any more time, the both of them shut their eyes, imagining Isaac's old house in the greatest detail that they could.
Over the course of the next minute they stood there together, the disturbing panting and moans from the other room slowly turned into the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves. Carmen's lips curved into a smile before she opened her eyes, assuming that it had worked, but instead when she opened them, she was met with something much worse.
The pack, plus Piers now, all stood on the grass in the Beacon Hills Cemetery. Everyone was dressed in black from head to toe, just as they had been for Carmen's funeral. They held roses in their hands, staring at the coffin before them. When Carmen looked down at her own outfit, she was surprised to see a short black dress, a rose in her hand, and a purse slung around her shoulder as well. Piers also wore a button up suit, his hair slicked back.
Her friends were in shambles. Tears streamed from their eyes and snot dripped from their noses- She had never seen such a mess. She was curious as to who they were so heartbroken over, but the coffin blocked the headstone in front of them.
Piers leans over to her awkwardly, "What the hell were you thinking of? This is not Isaac's house."
"I'm just as confused as you are," She seethed, glaring around. "This isn't one of my memories. Seriena is here, and she just became a pack member. We haven't had a funeral for anyone."
"Who the hell is Seriena?"
She hushed him as the coffin finally began to lower into the grave. To pay their respects, everyone began tossing their roses in the hole. Once they were done, they would turn on their heels and walk away, wiping away at their tears. Piers and Carmen exchanged strange looks.
She couldn't help but notice how very real this felt. Of course, everything before had too, but there was something about this one that made her bones chill. She and Piers were the only ones left with roses left in their hands.
Carmen went first, carelessly tossing hers in. Piers was next.
When the final rose hit the black coffin, the box had finally lowered enough to see the headstone.
Casey Sund
November 30 1993 - May 18 2016
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"Carmen, wait!" Piers called as she ran towards the parking lot, rummaging through her newfound purse for car keys that she wasn't even sure she had. Her face went hard as stone as soon as she saw the name on the headstone, and hadn't turned back yet. She finally hit metal in the purse and pulled out the keys, clicking them to find the car they belonged to.
One from across the lot flashed its lights in response and she ran over to it, getting in as quickly as she could. Piers was hot on her trail, climbing into the passengers seat.
She locked the doors of the black vehicle, but didn't put the key in the ignition. She sat with her hands in her lap and her glazed over eyes trained to the steering wheel with her voice caught in her throat.
"Carmen," He called hesitantly, leaning forward to look at her sad face.
"The witch warned me about this." She muttered, her eyes falling even further down to look at her lap. "He warned me that Casey would be used against me."
"Why would Casey be used against you..?" Piers squinted suspiciously, "You didn't have a thing for him, did you?"
"God, no." She shook her head rapidly, wiping away a small tear that had slipped from her left eye, "But he thinks that he might have. This is just hell's way of torturing me."
"We can't think about things like this right now!" Piers raises his voice, frightening her a bit. "We have to find Isaac and get out, this is all fake, it doesn't matter-"
"Is it possible for hell to tell the future?"
Piers went silent.
When she asked the question she dreaded, her voice remained stern and low, no matter how shaken she was from his assertive tone.
Piers didn't know how to answer that question. Of course, from the months he'd spent here, he'd had his suspicions. There was one scenario in particular that he'd relived multiple times, one that he had no recollection of. The more he saw the scene play out before him, the more it began to feel like something more than a vision.
"Carmen."
The only response he received from her a pathetic sniff. He took it as leverage to say what he was going to next.
"Since I've been here, I've been seeing this one specific vision, but it takes place after I'm dead. I need you to tell me something, and then you might have an answer to your question."
She nodded lightly.
"..Did you get stabbed to death in the battle of the Oni?"
As soon as he finished his sentence, she placed her hands over her face and screamed into them, bending over so her forehead hit the wheel. She let out an ugly sob and nodded, confirming his words. Hell told Piers that she was going to die before it happened, meaning that this situation probably wasn't any different.
Casey was going to die, and they both knew it. No more words needed to be spoken.
When she came back up, hot tears flooded her face. She put the keys in the ignition and started the car, speeding off towards the only place she knew to go.
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The drive to Isaac's house from the cemetery was dead silent with the exception of her occasional sniffing. She kicked down his front door and they barged into the house, their mission to escape hell with Isaac now even more urgent now because of what just happened.
"ISAAC?" Carmen called out hopefully into the dark house. Piers tapped her and nodded the other way as to tell her that he was gonna search the rest of the house. She nodded and they split up.
Carmen took the liberty of turning the light on so she could see where she was going. Strolling into the living room, the first thing she noticed was the lot of empty beer bottles littering the floor; Surely not from Isaac. The torn up couch was abandoned and the T.V. screen on the left wall played white static. He was nowhere to be seen, so she kept walking.
She got the same result in the kitchen; Empty bottles, broken glass, and no Isaac.
"ISAAC!" She called again, but to no avail.
The light overhead began to flicker, making the situation all the more creepy. The room then went completely black, enveloping her in pitch darkness. She was scared out of her mind as she backed up towards the kitchen sink, gripping the edge tightly. For a solid minute or so, no sounds echoed through the house. Not even Piers yelled anything to make sure she was alright, making her fear that something had happened to him.
It was as if she was paralyzed. She had no idea what obstacles hell would throw at her in the darkness she was exposed to, and she wasn't willing to throw herself into them. She merely stayed plastered to the counter, hoping that eventually, the light would come back on.
Instead, a set of red, beady eyes opens among the darkness, seemingly a few feet in front of her. Upon seeing this, she squints suspiciously back at them, trying to figure out what they could belong to. Red eyes belonged to true alphas, but these were different- They were solid red, and, they were suddenly coming straight for Carmen.
As she screams and goes to shield herself, her prayers are answered when the lights finally flicker back on to their normal states.
"CARMEN!"
Piers' shriek echoed up the stairs from the basement, giving her goosebumps. She immediately took off towards the basement stairs, closed the door behind her, and ran through the small, cluttered basement until she ran into Piers. Literally.
The wind was knocked out of her as she fell to the ground, groaning. He quickly helped her up and pointed to a refrigerator, gulping down the lump in his throat. Carmen wasted no time running to it, looking at what made him scream.
The lid of the fridge was open, and on the inside of the door, claw marks and punctured holes were littered all around.
In the bottom part of fridge, Isaac laid there, shivering with frosty tears streaming down his face.
"C-Carmen," He muttered, his chattering teeth making it hard for him to speak, "Is that really you?"
She says nothing, just stares down at him with an agape mouth. Glowing, purple chains were wrapped around his body. His hair was matted to his sweaty forehead, his eyes watery and his nose red. She noticed the amount of red scratch marks around his body, making her wonder how they got there.
She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a large cracking noise. Piers and Carmen whip around to look behind them, where the ground was cracking before them. The floor began to cave in on itself, creating a breach from the inside of hell. Carmen's face suddenly lit up, a mile-wide smile spreading across her face.
"It's a breach," She huffed out, turning to Piers, "Yes! They must have opened it from the outside! Come on, we have to get Isaac out of here!"
She turns to the fridge again and reaches down into it, motioning for him to sit up in it. He complies, looking up to her helplessly. She gives him a sad smile and her and Piers' hands go to remove the chains from around his body. Piers groans as he pulls up on the chains, but they don't budge.
Carmen pulls back on two parts of the chain, trying to break them in half. Sweat beads down her forehead and she clenches her teeth, pulling as hard as she could, but nothing worked.
"Fuck," She mumbles, sniffing away a tear threatening to spill down her cheek. "H-Hold on, Isaac, we'll get you out, okay?"
She grounds herself and tries again, but no matter what she did, they wouldn't break.
"What the fuck!" She screamed in frustration. "Why the hell isn't this working? What kind of chains are these?!"
Piers stops tugging at her words and turns to her slowly, getting her attention. "Carmen- The purple around them.. These are wolfsbane."
"FUCK!" She yells, kicking at the ground. "FUCK, FUCK!"
As if on queue, a loud banging sounds on the basement door, making all of them freeze. Below them, Isaac's breathing gets heavier and heavier, his eyes wide and his body paralyzed. The banging doesn't stop- In fact, it only seemed to be going faster.
"Isaac," Carmen whispered, shifting her eyes over to him. "What is that.."
"They're here," He whispers, still not moving, "We have to get out of here, we have to go now!"
"O-Okay, I'm gonna pick you up, okay?" Piers informs him, leaning down into the fridge and scooping him in his arms. The banging gets more violent as he attempts to pull him out, but a single long chain still connects Isaac to the fridge.
Carmen begins to panic. She had no idea what was threatening to barge through that door, but it didn't sound good, and Isaac was bound to the fridge with something that she couldn't break.
But she had to keep trying.
She growled and grabbed hold of the chain again, pulling to get them apart. In Piers' arms, Isaac reached down to touch Carmen's face, making her look up at him.
"Carmen, baby," He whispered, "They're coming, there's no time-"
"SHUT UP!" She raged, continuing to pull against his wishes.
"CARMEN!" He screamed at her, startling her. She jumped and met his gaze, a single tear sliding down his face as he spoke. "I'm not going to make it, okay? I'm not going to let you get stuck down here with me, just go!"
An ugly sob erupted from her throat and she shook her head violently, "NO! I'm not losing you again, just give me a few seconds-"
The door flies open and a series of clicking noises erupts from behind them. Carmen keeps her back to the noise, but judging from the looks on Piers and Isaac's faces, whatever it was wasn't good.
"What the-"
Before Piers can finish his sentence, a black wisp with familiar red beady eyes flies through the group, causing Piers to stumble back and drop Isaac. Carmen ducks with a gasp and watches as many more of the demon-like things fly around, threatening to come for them again. They continue to let out clicking hisses as one goes straight for Carmen, swiping her across her neck, leaving three large gash marks there.
She cries out but can't focus on herself for too long- One was going for Isaac, and that's all she cared about at that moment. She jumps in front of him and takes the fall for him, causing her to get three more on the right side of her torso. She hisses and falls onto Isaac, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"What the fuck are these?!" She shrieks, turning around just as one came their way. She kicks it just in time and it goes the other direction.
"Carmen, you need to go!" Isaac screams again, even though he knew that she wouldn't listen.
Piers screamed as one came for him, but Carmen, determined to save everyone, got up and sprinted towards him. When she approached him, she did the only thing she could think to do.
She kicked Piers in the stomach and sent him stumbling down into the breach, back to earth.
With that done, she turned back to Isaac, ready to run back, but another demon flew past her face, making her stumble back. Isaac shot forward and grabbed her hand, keeping her from falling into the breach.
"Carmen," Isaac spoke softly, just as he did the first time he left her. "I can't let you get stuck here with me. I'll be fine, just go-"
"No, no, no," She cried pathetically, clinging to his hand. "I can't let you go again, I'm gonna find a way to get you out-"
"There's no time," He whispered, one of the wisps flying past and scratching his face. He winced harshly but quickly regained himself, "Go back, tell everyone that I love them. They need you more than me, you're their protector-"
"I'm your protector, Isaac!" She screamed in a loud sob, "Don't you get it?! I am what I am to protect you! That's my purpose! I have to get you out-"
The gravity of the breach began to pull at her, inching her further away from him. She brought another hand up to grab at the concrete, grounding herself.
"Carmen," Isaac mutters, giving her a sad smile. "I'll never stop thinking about you, I can't escape here, we both know it. Just remember.. Remember I love you."
Carmen screams as he lets go of her hand, making her slide further down into the hole. She tries to hold herself up, but the gravity is too strong.
"ISAAC!"
The last thing Carmen sees before she's pulled back to earth is Isaac's eyes, drooping with guilt as they threatened to close.
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Multiple pairs of arms help pull her from the hole, voices and yells coming from above her. She kept her eyes squeezed shut as the excessive noise only broadened her headache.
She heard the familiar voices of her pack, plus a few others. When she was completely out of the hole, her head was placed on someone's lap and she moaned out, lolling her head to the side.
The room went silent at the sound of her voice, all with the exception of a few grunts coming from who she assumed was Piers.
Her eyes finally fluttered open and she was immediately met with Seriena's face staring down at her. Seriena's hands were bloody from Carmen's wounds as she gently brought a hand down to her face, stroking it gently to help her calm down. Her pack, Casey, and Eva kneeled to the sides while Derek dragged Piers off to aid him. It was then that she noticed that she was still in Harrison's mansion.
"She's bleeding," Scott exclaimed in a panic, "Guys, she's bleeding out, call Deaton! NOW!"
The pack began to scatter, but Casey and Seriena stayed by her side. Casey looked down at her and bit his lip as he grabbed her hand, his eyes tearing up.
"Stay with me, you're okay, you're okay." He sniffed, shaking his head at her. "God, why did you do this?"
She lolls her head to the right and winces as the gashes move, causing her intense pain that she shouldn't be feeling. All of the sensations and emotions running through her sent a wave of pain to her head again. She shut her eyes and whimpered, trying to keep as still as possible so that she wouldn't hurt her side as well.
"I-I'm sorry," She sobbed out, biting her lip hard enough to puncture it. "I'm so stupid, I'm sorry-"
"No, no, you're not stupid." Seriena insists, smiling down at her. "You were trying to protect the person you love. I think that only makes you stronger."
She sniffs and feels a sudden wave of tiredness wash over her. Her eyes began to droop and her breathing shallowed, sending off alarms in Seriena and Casey's minds.
"No no no, Carmen, please stay awake." Casey urged, squeezing her hand.
"Don't worry about me," She muttered, shutting her eyes tiredly. "Make sure my brother is okay for me, please? I'll be alright, just.."
Her words trailed off and she went silent, a soft snore leaving her mouth afterwards.
Seriena exhaled deeply and looked over to Casey expectantly.
"What now?"