Stiles watched as Parrish began making his way down the hall, growling at the Chimeras and Dr Valack who were stood staring. Theo rushed into Harper's room and came back out with her, his nails digging into her neck. Harper gasped slightly, feeling the blood start to trickle down her skin.
The Stilinski boy tensed, anger pooling in his stomach. His jaw clenched. Parrish had little to no connection with Harper, so Theo holding her 'hostage' wouldn't stop him from attacking them. Theo should know that.
"Take him," Theo ordered his pack, his face scrunched up furiously.
"The guy's on fire!" Corey disclaimed nervously.
"Do it," he ordered.
Stiles didn't watch as Tracy and Josh ran up to Parrish. They stood no chance when he was in his Hellhound form.
Stiles' eyes were concentrated on Harper in Theo's grip, and he found himself standing up. Maybe he was crazy, but he wasn't going to sit around and watch Harper get hurt.
"Theo, this isn't working!" Josh yelled, just as Valack crawled over to the Theo, drilling a hole into his leg.
Theo released Harper, screaming in pain. The brunette girl fell forward, landing on her hands and knees as she breathed heavily. Valack climbed up to slam the tool against Theo's face, knocking him out.
"Sorry, Theo," Valack sneered, "but I'm not done with my daughter just yet."
Valack grabbed Harper by the arms, hauling her off of the floor. She winced in pain, her head aching as she was whirled around. Her father's face dropped when he came face to face with Stiles.
"Sti," she whispered, her voice breaking.
Her boyfriend reached for her just as Parrish chucked Corey. The Chimera went flying like a ball of fire, but Valack ducked out of the way just in time, Harper tucked under his arms. Harper watched helplessly as Stiles crashed to the ground, struggling to push Corey off.
Valack picked her up like she was still a child, rushing past Stiles who was thrashing on the ground. She mouthed his name, but all of the yelling was making her head sting. Her father stormed through a door, slamming it just as Stiles arrived.
Looking past his shoulder, Harper saw the outline of Stiles' hand as it frantically smacked against the gap of glass.
"Harper!" Stiles screamed desperately, banging his entire body against the door over and over again. "No, Harper! Hey! Harper!" The door rattled but didn't budge. "Harper!"
"Stiles," she sobbed, her hand reaching out towards the door as if she could do something.
She was already way too far away.
His screams made her heart shatter in her chest and she felt the bile rise in her throat. The banging on the door didn't stop, at least, not until she was long gone.
...
He'd left her alone in a room with nothing.
Maybe that's why she felt like she was going insane, or maybe it was because he had drilled a freaking hole in her head. Harper held said body part, tears streaming down her face as she cried. It felt like it weighed a ton, so she slipped to the floor, scrunching her eyes shut.
The sensation was excruciating.
It was like every Empathic feeling she had ever had in the past two years rolled into one. Everything hurt.
Everything.
Valack told her that he would be back with some equipment to speed the process up. Harper still wasn't entirely sure what he was after, but she did know that everything lead back to the Dread Doctors and his interest in Empaths.
"She doesn't have much time," she heard Meredith say. "She's being consumed by her own power. Doctor Valack thinks it's worth it if she can save him."
Harper slowly raised her head from the ground, slitted eyes looking for the girl.
"Save him from what?" Scott. Oh god had she missed Scott.
His voice echoed and she realised they weren't nearby. Somehow she could still hear them though.
"The Dread Doctors," Meredith replied, "they despise him. Valack had children with women with the intent of creating more Empaths because they're the only creature Dread Doctors can't create. They don't just misunderstand them- they're scared of them."
"So what? He wants to become one?"
"No. He's figuring out how to make a Chimera part Empath for them. He's using her as a sacrifice for his own safety."
"So how do I get past the Mountain Ash? How can I save her?"
"You can't. But Lydia can. They're connected when they dream. Find the other Banshee, she'll find the Empath."
A searing pain shot through her head, so bad that she started to heave. Her body lurched, her stomach muscles contracting as she placed her hand on the wall, trying to climb up.
Suddenly, her entire body cramped up and she fell backwards, releasing a scream that would make a banshee jealous.
She just hoped one of her friends had heard her.
...
The brunette came to when she felt wet cotton being dabbed against the hole on the side of her head. Harper winced, moving her head from where it had been lolled back uncomfortably. She realised that she was raised off of the ground in a chair, her wrists and ankles strapped down. It wasn't like she could try and escape anyway- she was in too much pain.
"Just hang on a little longer, Harper," a familiar English accent cooed, "I think I'm finally starting to make a breakthrough."
Harper whimpered as her dad came into focus, taking away the cotton wool to write something down in his notepad. He grabbed something off of the messy desk to his side. He held up another needle, making her shake her head and release a dry sob.
"No more," she begged. "Please, no more."
He moved over to the wound in her head, placing the needle there. She gasped in sickening pain as she felt him take something away from her. When he pulled back, her blood was silver.
Mercury.
A grin broke through on his face, "I did it."
She had never in her entire seventeen years of living seen her dad so happy.
"I did it!" Valack cried again, "I did it!"
Harper began to cry. She felt so unloved and violated by her own father, and she felt like she was dying. Despite all of the torture she had been through, Harper wasn't ready to go yet. She still had a life to live with Stiles and the rest of the pack.
However, she knew she was dying as the mercury substance continued to drip down the side of her head, hitting the chair she was strapped to. It was inevitable.
"Don't look at me like that," the older man ordered, "I'm finally going to get the Dread Doctors off of my back. Twenty-five years, Harper. It failed with your mother, it failed with Harry, but I knew it would work with you the minute you were born. And it did. Everybody thought I was insane."
"You are," Harper managed to spit weakly. "If the Dread Doctors don't end up killing you, my friends will."
Valack just chuckled and shook his head. He turned around and picked something up off of the floor. It was a Dread Doctor's mask, one eye cracked. Harper shuddered at the sight, pushing herself as far as she could back into her seat.
"I just need to extract it from you now," he spoke, not missing the way her eyes flashed with cold fear. "Oh, you're going to die anyway. Your blood is changing and your human side won't be able to handle it for much longer."
Harper whimpered as he began to attach wires to the side of her head.
"You need to relax," her father instructed.
Suddenly, a bang came from the other side of the door, making her heart skip a beat. The monitor that was tracking her heartbeat from beside her began to pick up dramatically, her eyes widening in shock. She thought that was it.
"Harper!" She heard Stiles yell, a sob of relief escaping her parted lips. "Harper! Connect to me! Connect to me, okay? Just do it!"
Harper didn't question him, she obeyed. It took all of the force that she could muster, and she felt extremely weak as soon as she felt her system shift to match Stiles'.
"I'm sorry, Harper," Valack spoke quickly, lifting up the mask. "Time's up."
Suddenly, the door burst down and somebody screamed. Harper knew that it was Lydia as soon as she heard it- or rather felt it. The pain in her head intensified by about a hundred, and as soon as the scream stopped, she was left with a rattling in her ears.
She couldn't hold onto her connection with Stiles any longer- it dropped. She realised why he had told her to do so, too.
As the mask fell from Valack's hand, Harper was left staring at what was left of her father's head. It had been blown in half, most likely due to the intensity of Lydia's scream. If Harper hadn't of connected to her boyfriend in time, she guessed that would have been her too.
A horrified cry fell from her lips as she watched the man she had grown up loving drop to the ground, his body landing with a sickening thump. She fell back against the seat, her ears streaming with blood- or, well, mercury.
Her brown eyes were frozen on the crumpled skull of her dad, completely and utterly disgusted. Harper felt a mixture of things— relief, grief for the man she used to know, physical pain, exhaustion....
"Harper, oh my god," Lydia was crying next to her within seconds.
The door burst back once Stiles dictated it safe for him not to get his own head blown off, his hands throwing himself off of the walls as he ran faster than he ever had before to his girlfriend.
Harper lifted her eyes from the dead body of her last family member, barely open as she watched him, the trace of a smile on her lips.
He cupped her cheeks with his large hands, trying to ignore the fact that they were trembling like crazy. She swallowed, coughing when she felt mercury slide up her throat and stain her paled lips. Stiles' heartbeat quickened at the sight.
"We're getting you out of here, okay?" He promised, "oh god, Harper."
Lydia detached the straps around her wrists, so Harper reached up, her fingers touching Stiles' lips.
"You're real," she confirmed to herself, her eyes almost closing. "I love you."
"I love you too," he rushed in a panic, "but Harper, you can't close your eyes, all right? We need to get you to Deaton."
Harper nodded, straining to keep her eyes open as Lydia finally released her ankles. Stiles picked her up bridal style within seconds, her hands weakly clinging onto his plaid shirt as he carried her out of the room, running as fast as his legs would take him.
They met up with Scott, Isaac, Liam and Parrish, all of whom looked relieved to see Harper. She smiled the best she could at the Alpha but immediately winced when she felt the wound in her head grow worse. She was going to die just like her mother did- she could feel it.
"God, Harper," Scott frowned, moving forward and brushing some of her wet hair off of her forehead.
"We don't have much time," Isaac stated the obvious, blue eyes glancing between Harper's nearly lifeless form and Scott and Stiles.
"This way," Liam panted, running off.
"Liam, slow down!" Scott cried as they chased after him.
Of course, the beta ignored them until he reached a gate. Sparks flew up his hands as soon as he touched it, however, the young teenager ignored the pain and grunted as he pulled them apart. He smiled proudly as he looked back at the group of friends.
"Told you!" He bragged before running off.
They made it to the end of a tunnel where a ladder lead upwards. Isaac helped Stiles get Harper safely up. They made it onto the road, right outside Eichen House. Harper nestled her head into Stiles' chest, a shaky breath falling past her lips as she felt everybody's relief fill her.
Normally, Stiles' hands would be running through her locks, but due to the hole in her head, they remained tight around her body. She had an arm over his shoulder as he caressed circles against her cold, pale skin.
Suddenly, the jeep pulled up right in front of them, making Scott quickly jump out of the road and onto the pavement. Malia and Kira immediately climbed out, moving around to greet them. The werecoyote looked down at Harper, frowning in concern.
"Is Harper okay?" Malia stressed.
"No," Scott breathed, "we need to go. Give me the keys. We gotta get her to the clinic."
...
Scott drove, trying his best in the jeep that he definitely was not familiar with. Stiles felt strange sat in the backseat, but it wasn't really on his mind as Harper curled up into his side, gritting her teeth in pain and practically crushing his hand with the amount she was squeezing it.
He didn't care about that though.
"Scott?" Stiles called worriedly to the front when he felt the jeep churn beneath them.
"It's fine," Scott replied quickly.
Harper whimpered loudly, her hand moving up to the side of her head. When she pulled it back, her fingers were coated with mercury.
She gasped, and before she knew it, she couldn't stop. Her body was straining for air, panic swelling in her chest. The silver substance stuck to her skin, sliding slowly down and staining her wrists.
"Harper?" Stiles' tone was filled with dread when he realised that she was having a panic attack, his hand gently pulling her closer. "Harper, baby, it's okay. We're going to get you to Deaton and he's gonna know what to do, all right?"
The Empath was wailing in pain- a noise that sent shivers down not only Stiles' spine but Scott's too. He glanced at them from the mirror, biting down on his lip. He did not have a good feeling about this. Harper had never gotten this bad before.
"Look at me," Stiles gently pulled her face to look him in the eye. "You're gonna get through this, okay?"
He couldn't imagine what she had endured for the past week. Not only was the hole in her head and the bruises covering her skin concerning, but the fact that they had been inflicted by her own father had to make it ten times worse. Stiles didn't know what he would do if he ever had a father like Harper's. He'd never felt so happy to have Sheriff Stilinski as his dad.
Scott heard a whimper escape her lips and with that, he slammed his foot down on the accelerator— speeding to the animal clinic.
...
"Put her on the table!" Deaton yelled, scrambling to get the right medicines as Stiles and Scott helped Harper onto the metal slab.
Groans escaped her lips, her eyes scrunched shut as sweat clung to her skin. Her body arched up from the table, whimpers coming from her lips. She came close to falling off the edge, but Stiles grabbed her, holding her in place. Scott went around the other side and did the same thing.
"Doc, you gotta do something," Stiles pleaded, heart going a hundred miles a minute.
"I will," Deaton grunted from where he was squeezing something into something else to make a concoction. "But first you need to keep her still."
Scott grunted as black veins travelled up his arms, coming from Harper. He realised that she must be in agony, both Stiles and Scott sharing a panicked look as they looked up from her pain-ridden body.
Deaton came over with one of the biggest needles that the three of them had ever seen.
"What's that?" Scott gaped.
"No!" Harper struggled against the boys further. "No more needles. No, please!"
Stiles' eyes softened at the plead, his heart aching for the girl who had been mercilessly experimented on like an animal.
"Harper, this is going to help you," Deaton told her calmly, although his facial expression didn't match his tone.
"What the hell is that?" Stiles repeated Scott's words from before, but with a lot more aggression.
"Mistletoe."
"Mistletoe?" Stiles scoffed. "She's got a freaking hole in her head and she's bleeding mercury-"
"Stiles, help," Scott cut him off, holding Harper's face so that she stopped moving.
Stiles obeyed, flinching as Deaton pressed the needle into the wound and began to inject the mistletoe. His heart lurched when he saw how Harper's face scrunched up, her mouth open as if she was about to scream before—
Nothing.
He breathed heavily as he watched her face go slack, her head lolling to the side to face him. Their eyes met before hers started to close. Scott took a step back, his hand going to his mouth as he watched.
"No," Stiles felt the bile rise in his throat. "No, Harper, please, baby, please." He cupped her face in his hands, tears streaming down his own cheeks. "No, no, no, no, no. Come on, Harps, wake up. You can't do this to me. How many times have I told you that-"
Deaton and Scott watched sympathetically as a sob racked through Stiles' body, making him pause for a moment.
"You can't leave me like this. You can't- I- Harper, please. Open your eyes. Open those beautiful, brown eyes. Remember when I told you that yours were my favourite, yeah? I wanna see them," he pleaded, sniffling. "H-Harper, please."
There was dead silence, no response from the teenage girl.
"Harper!" Stiles suddenly yelled, grabbing the baggy shirt she had been forced into and scrunching it up. "Harper Harper Harper Harper."
He spoke her name as if it was a prayer and he was religious. He spoke her name as if it would bring her back. Stiles screamed Harper because it was the only thing he knew.
Deaton turned away while Scott swallowed thickly, his hand reaching to hold Harper's cold one. He watched as Stiles pressed his head against Harper's stomach, sobs escaping his lips.
Suddenly, a gasp came from the back of Harper's throat and her eyes snapped open. The Stilinski boy jumped away from her, his heart in his throat as he gasped loudly. Relief flooded through Stiles like a tidal wave, an overwhelmed cry escaping him again.
Harper was alive.
"Oh, thank god," he leaned down, pressing his forehead against hers gently and closing his eyes. He pulled apart, his hand gripping hers as if his life depended on it. "Are you okay?"
She nodded her head, but she looked like she would cry at any moment.
"Are you sure?" Stiles pestered, exhaling shakily as he studied her intently.
"Yes," Harper croaked.
"You wanna sit up?"
She nodded again.
Both her best friends placed their hands on her back, guiding her up so that she was in a sitting position. Stiles didn't leave her side though, instead, he wrapped his arms around her body, her head resting on his chest as she blinked away her tears.
"You saved me, Stiles," she whispered, making his eyes turn even glossier.
It reminded him of the night they almost kissed for the first time. When Scott had run onto the bus and Stiles was being stupidly upset over the fact that he wasn't a hero like Scott. But Harper had told him that he was her hero. He'd never really believed it—not until now.
"Because I love you," he murmured back, pressing his lips against her head. "And I'll never stop loving you."
Scott's eyes shone with unshed tears, thinking back to the first girl he had fallen in love with— the girl who still owned his heart, even if she was no longer with them. He recalled how she had died in his arms, how he had never got to tell her that he loved her back when she used her last dying breath to announce it to him. How 'because I love you' was always their thing.
If Scott couldn't have his happily ever after with Allison, he was sure glad that his two best friends got to have theirs. It seemed that Stiles and Harper could survive anything the world threw at them— supernatural or not.
Harper found herself smiling for the first time in a week. It made Stiles and Scott smile too, the three all exchanging teary glances. She reached her arm out, grabbing Scott's arm and forcing him into the hug. God, they hadn't had a group hug since Stiles' MRI scan.
"Happy two years, by the way," Stiles murmured, making Harper's eyes widen.
"That's today?" She asked, her voice still cracking a little from all the screaming she had done.
"Yesterday," he shrugged with a small smile. "But I guess I'll forgive you this one time."
Harper just held onto both boys tighter. If only they could stay like that forever.
...
im doing my gcse's and i had english lit 1 today and the romeo and juliet chosen theme was LOVE ! CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING THANK YOU AQA YOU SAVED MY ASS
Hope you enjoyed this chapter ! i think there's 1 or 2 more left :)