Chapter 5:
Pain
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The soft hummering flowed into her ears causing her to release a gasp. Her blue eyes drank in the sights around her, not recognizing her surroundings. The scents were foreign to her as well. She stood up, her heart hammering in her chest as she tried to recall the last thing she could remember.
Her boyfriend had looked at her like a stranger. Then she was whisked away by the ghost riders.
Imogen glanced around at the people sitting around her. Her eyes flickered to a moving figure. It was Stiles, she realized. Soon the people started to get up and make their way over in the direction that Stiles was headed. It was a tunnel that had a sign 'To Trains' on top.
She faltered in her steps when she saw the ghost riders ride coming and watched as people who had been lingering by the tunnel quickly rushed back to the benches.
She stepped back to hide behind a pillar as she watched the ghost riders dropping people on the ground. The ropes that had been used to tie them disappearing in a cloud of green smoke. Her eyes flickered to Stiles who seemed to remain unmoving in his spot.
She gasped when she saw that one of the ghost riders was hitting the people who were standing around and saw that Stiles was going to get hit. She raised her hand to use magic to move him away but nothing happened.
She looked at her hand horrified that she couldn't do magic and looked back at Stiles who was suddenly out of her view. She tried looking for him but was being blocked by the people moving past her. They all started to sit down with blank expressions as if they hadn't seen the ghost riders just a moment ago.
They had already forgotten. She repressed a sigh and focused back on finding Stiles. Hopefully between the two of them they could come up with a plan to get back to their friends. She started walking around in hopes of finding the only person she knew.
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Once he finished telling his story, he glanced around his surroundings before looking back at the human boy. "How long have I been here?"
"The lockdown was three months ago."
He looked at him in disbelief, "I've been missing for three months and no one came for me?" He couldn't hide the hurt from his voice that even his own nephew didn't come looking for him. He also felt like he was missing something. Parts of his memory were fuzzy.
Stiles sighed, "That's what the Ghost Riders do, they erase you." He couldn't help but think of his friends and Lydia and his dad.
"Ghost Riders?" Peter looked at him wide eyed, "Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt?"
"Yeah, you know what I'm talking about?'
He scoffed, sitting down on the bench across from him. "Of course, I know what you're talking about. They ride the lightning. They are an unstoppable force of nature. But, I promise you, they don't make pit-stops in train stations." His gaze landed on an elderly woman sitting next to Stiles who caught his gaze and gave him a flirty smile. He grimaced in return, avoiding her gaze as he looked at the board on the wall. "I've escaped one prison only to land in another one. And this looks like the underground lair of a depressed bureaucrat."
"Come on, there's gotta be a way out of this place, right?" Stiles said optimistically, "Have you tried looking around? Have you talked to anyone who knows anything?"
"If this is the Wild Hunt, there is no escape. You and I are doomed to ride the storm forever."
Stiles refused to believe they were trapped, "Yeah, we're not in the storm, we're in a train station. But we can get out of a train station."
"We can't get out of here, Stiles. Because this place isn't real."
He gave him a puzzled look, "What are you talking about?"
Peter exhaled, "Beacon Hills doesn't have a train station."
He scratched his head, started to feel anxious. If there was no train station then why were they here? He refused to believe that he would never get a chance to go back to the people he cared about.
"Stiles?" His head snapped at the familiar voice. His breath caught when he saw her. Her own expression mirroring his own with relief. He got up.
"Oh, thank god! Imogen!" He cried out with happiness as he wrapped her in a hug. She was someone who knew him and someone whom he could trust. He pulled back, looking at her and saw her expression falter. He quickly remembered who had been with him. "Uh..." He let her go, watching with an awkward expression as the father-daughter duo stared at each other.
The moment Peter had seen her, he was hit with every memory he had of her. From the moment he learned he had a daughter to the last moment they shared at Eichen House before she left. "Imogen..." He whispered gently, realizing that she still saw him as someone who tried to kill her boyfriend.
As for Imogen, she was suddenly hit with a strong feeling of anguish as she stared at the man who betrayed her trust. She avoided his gaze as she looked at Stiles who seemed to just be awkwardly standing off to the side. "How long have you been here?"
"A few hours at most, I think?" He said before gesturing to Peter. "He's been here since we broke Lydia out of Eichen."
"But it only felt like hours." Peter interjected, feeling the need to add his own input and hopefully get his daughter to talk to him so he could tell her the truth.
She pursed her lips, "I guess that means that time works differently here." She frowned. "Who knows how many days or weeks have passed."
Stiles choked back his gasp, "We have to get out here. Can't you use magic to transport us out of here or something?"
Imogen grimaced, "I tried to use magic earlier but it didn't work."
He blinked, "What?"
"I don't have access to my magic."
"Okay." It wasn't good but they could find another way out. "There has to be a way to get out." He immediately rushed over to the doors as Imogen and Peter followed behind him.
Peter exhaled, "What are you doing?"
"Little help, please?" Peter merely rolled his eyes at him and he looked at Imogen with a pleading look. "Imogen?"
She grabbed the chains on the door and yanked hard. "At least I can still use my werewolf side." She muttered, though she felt angry with herself that she couldn't use magic.
Stiles walked through the doors and came out through the doors on the other side of the station. Imogen watched him keep walking through the doors starting to feel hopeless.
"No, no, no, keep going." Peter muttered as Stiles was about to go through the doors for the third time.
"I don't see you comin' up with anything." Stiles hissed back.
The former alpha was unperturbed by his tone, "Left shoulder, against the pillar. Don't look." He scowled as his daughter and Stiles both looked. "I said don't look."
"Yeah."
"He's watching us." He muttered.
Imogen glanced back at the guy warily. It was strange that he was the only one watching them.
"Yeah, so?" Stiles questioned.
Peter sighed, "So... every person in this station is either comatose or catatonic. He seems very interested in keeping an eye on us."
He was instantly suspicious and began heading towards the guy. "Hey!" The guy went around the pillar and Stiles went the other way, only to stop abruptly to keep himself from bumping into Imogen and Peter. The two who were standing side by side looking intimidating. He flinched back by how similar they looked. "Oh, my god!"
"Why are you watching us?" Imogen asked him, feeling cautious that he might wind up hurting them.
"You tried the doors." He chuckled, his eyes abit crazed. "Nobody ever tries the doors."
Peter instinctively placed himself a bit in front of Imogen who didn't notice. "Sounds like you have."
"The ones that I could open. I've tried everything else."
"Not everything. You're still here."
"Yeah, it seems like you got some kind of a plan. So why don't you tell us about it?"
"I can tell you. Doesn't mean you can do it."
Stiles scoffed, trying to look confident, "Oh, we, we can do it. He can, he can..."
The guy smirked, "Well, it's right in front of your face." They followed his gaze and looked at the tunnel where the ghost riders had rode in from, "You didn't see it, did you?"
"I saw it." Stiles said defensively.
"Then why'd you waste so much time running through the doors? I'll tell you why. Because it's all part of the illusion. You're afraid. And they want you to be afraid."
"I'm not afraid." Peter hissed.
As they started to walk towards the tunnel, Imogen felt a sharp pain in her chest and gasped. The three males looked at her surprised. She grabbed her chest and stumbled. Peter nudged Stiles out of the way as he caught her and sat her on the bench. "What happened?" Stiles asked worriedly.
"I'm okay." She mumbled, looking at them. "We should go." She started to stand up but Peter sat her down.
"You're staying here. Rest for a moment." He said sternly, still wondering why she seemed to be in pain when just earlier she seemed perfectly fine.
"He's right." Stiles said, knowing she would argue. "We'll check it out and come back. For all we know, this guy might just be lying. Rest and we'll come back." He assured her.
Imogen reluctantly nodded and watched them head over to the tunnel. Hopefully they would find a way to go back.