Chapter 9
Stiles woke to more water. This time his head was throbbing but he knew what was happening. He looked around the small room he was in, trying to look for any clues as to where he was, but the plain concrete walls gave nothing away.
“They’re not going to find you.” The same man as before sneered at him. So far Stiles had only seen him, but he knew there had to be more.
“They will find me, and when they do, you’ll be sorry.”
“Ah but I don’t have to fear for my life now do I? Incorruptible Scott McCall doesn’t kill people, and I’ll bet he has trained his pack to do the same.” Stiles didn’t respond to that, knowing that the man was baiting him and not wanting to give away any information. Instead he asked a question of his own.
“If you know all about us then why do you need me?”
“Well you see, Gerard only had bits and pieces of the information, and what he did have came from outside sources. I need to know the inner workings of the pack, its strengths and weaknesses, interpack dynamics, what each and every member is like. You see we didn’t do well enough last time. We didn’t realize that the pack was so split that half the betas would abandon it and their Alpha and run. It’s so unnatural for a wolf to want to leave its pack, and to do so while it is under attack is something that never occurred to us. We can’t afford to make the mistakes this time. No, this time we will do it right, with your help Stiles we will take down the entire pack.
“Oh just shut up please. I was prepared for torture, but this is just agony.” Stiles lashed out, masking how terrified he was. If the man kept talking about hurting his friends he was going to lose it.
“If its torture you want, I can give you torture.” Stiles watched in horror as the man turned around and picked up a lighter and a metal rod. “We’ll start with something simple” the man said as he flicked on the lighter and held it below the end of the rod. “Jordan Parrish, Gerard knew he was supernatural but had no idea what he was. So what is he?”
“We don’t know” Stiles said giving the truthful answer. But apparently the man didn’t believe him because he stepped closer to Stiles. He brought the rod close to Stiles’ neck. He tried to pull away but the man grabbed his hair. Stiles could feel the heat coming off of the metal.
“What is he?”
“Okay, wait, stop, we really don’t know, I’m telling the truth, we don’t know.” Stiles bite his lip to keep from crying out as the rod connected to the tender skin on his neck. His body convulsed and twisted, trying to get away from the searing pain. Finally the man stepped back, the pain lessened slightly as the rod was taken away.
“Want to try that again?” His captor sneered, flicking on the lighter again.
“Look I’m telling you the truth. We don’t know what he is, he doesn’t know what he is, all we know is that he was on the dead pool.” Stiles was sweating now, the sweat trickled down his neck onto his burn, making it sting more than it already did.
“I think you know more than you are saying.” The man stepped forward again, this time he pressed the rod against Stiles’ cut on his forearm. Stiles gasped in pain, he closed his eyes waiting for it to end. He felt a stinging pain against his cheek as the man slapped him. That made his still aching head hurt even more. He opened his eyes and looked down to see that the rod had been taken off his arm. It didn’t feel like it though, his arm still burned like it was still there. “Tell me what you know Stiles.” The man said. Stiles couldn’t help but flinch as he flicked on the lighter.
“I don’t know anything.” He said weakly, then the rod was against his thigh, he watched in horror as his jeans caught on fire. He frantically waved his leg, trying to put it out. The man watched in amusement for a few seconds before throwing some water on it. Stiles sank into the chair, he felt each burn painfully throbbing.
“You have so much more skin and I’m a patient man. What is Jordan Parrish?”
“Don’t know” The man gave him a sadistic smile as he flicked on the lighter again.
*****
“Why would they take Stiles?” Kira asked back in the loft.
“Well he probably knows more about the pack then anybody and besides Lydia he’s the weakest, plus he’s more important to Scott than Lydia is.” They all turned to glare at Isaac.
“If Stiles was here he would tell you that you are not helping.” Lydia bit back angrily.
“I know, I know, I’m just stating facts…I’m sorry” Malia saw surprise on Lydia’s face and assumed apologizing was something Isaac rarely did. She felt anger and panic coming from the boy. She could tell that behind his façade of indifference he really did care.
“I texted Argent and Derek updating them on the situation. I’m hoping that it is now drastic enough to bring them back, but we’ll see.” Scott said quietly. Malia looked around at the hopeless faces of the pack, none of them seemed to know where to start. Times like this was usually when Stiles said something either really stupid to break the tension or really clever to get the creative juices flowing. She was incapable of doing either of those things.
“What do we do?” She said, “We have to find him, we have to do something.” Angry at their lack of response she punched a wall, breaking the wall and her hand. She shook it out and walked onto the balcony, needing some fresh air. She was surprised to see that Liam had followed her.
“We will find him Malia, we always do.”
“Yeah but how soon?” She said turning to look at him “You know what they are going to do to him right? They aren’t just going to lock him in a cell and wait to be found. They took him for a reason. Like Isaac said he knows a lot about the pack. What if they torture him for information?” She saw Liam flinch lightly at her words. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She had to remember that she wasn’t the only one who cared about Stiles.
“There was this one time where Stiles confronted Peter about you. It was after you had found out that he was your father. Stiles went to Peter to warn him against trying any funny business with you.” Malia looked at Liam in surprise as he started talking; she had never known Stiles had done that. “He would have gone alone except Scott figured out what he was doing. He sent me because he was tied up with something else. Stiles didn’t want me there, but I can be pretty persistent when I want to be.” Liam gave her a cocky smile and she shook her head, wondering why he was telling her this.
“Stiles was incredible, I was in awe of him. I mean here he was, standing up against a big scary werewolf, not a trace of fear. It was a little frightening watching him because he egged Peter on slightly recklessly.”
“Slightly?” Malia said raising her eyebrow.
“Alright, maybe more than slightly. But my point is that he didn’t back down. Even when Peter pinned him against a wall he still kept threatening to bring him down if he hurt you. Seriously that man has a way with words.”
“If your point is that Stiles has a death wish, I already knew that.” She said thinking back to all of the times that Stiles had foolishly run straight into the path of danger with nothing more than a bat to protect him.
“No my point is that he is strong, maybe not physically, but he is strong-willed. He won’t back down and he won’t give in. If they are torturing him they won’t be able to break him. He will be able to hold on until we find him. And we will find him.” Liam put his hand over hers where it was resting on the wall of the balcony. She was thankful for the comfort he was offering her. She knew he was right. Stiles is strong, he had faced countless dangers, including a dark spirit that had used his mind as a battleground, and had come out on top.
The only thing was she knew what would happen when he refused to answer their questions. His stubbornness and sarcasm was going to lead to him getting hurt. They had to find him, and soon.
*****
“Okay, okay” Stiles gasped, leaning as far away from the hot metal next to his cheek as possible. His body burned in more places than he could count. “All we know about Parrish is that another deputy tried to burn him alive and he somehow survived.” He flinched as the metal moved slightly closer. “That’s all we know! I promise!” He said frantically. To his relief the man smiled and moved away.
“See, was that really so hard?” Stiles gave him a look but refrained from making any remark. “Get some rest Stiles, I’ll have more questions for you tomorrow.” The man said as he put the tools down and walked to the door. He flipped the light off so all that Stiles could see was his outline against the hallway light. “And tomorrow I’m going to be a bit less patient.” With that he shut the door, leaving Stiles in the pitch blackness.
Stiles knew he needed to get some sleep, he needed to be as alert as possible for tomorrow. If he let his guard down even a little he could let another secret slip. If they figured out what Parrish was and he got hurt because of it, Stiles would never forgive himself.
He tried to get as comfortable as one could be tied to a chair, but between his aching body and racing mind he knew he would not be able to fall.
- N x
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