TWO.

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ILLA HAS never told anyone what she sees when she looks at a person's face, and she doesn't plan to. But they still insist on trying when she has a session with Miss Morrell once a month.

Illa hates these sessions. She hates how Miss Morrell knows exactly what to say to dig under her skin, to bring the images back into her mind like a slideshow of horror. She hates how calm and impassive she appears yet her voice is like the edge of a blade. She hates it. The sessions make her skin itch until she wants to tear it off.

"Illa," Miss Morrell says in her sickeningly sweet voice. Her glossy hair slides over one shoulder as she leans forward, her elbows resting on the table between them. "Look at the guard by the door and tell me what you see."

Illa has her eyes shut again and does not plan on opening them anytime soon. Her sessions usually last for about forty-five minutes in a nondescript room that is locked from the outside. Sometimes, on very bad days, she wonders if she can knock both the guard and her counselor unconscious without anyone on the other side knowing.

"I can't," she whispers faintly.

"Illa," Miss Morrell says again, making the girl grind her teeth to the point of pain in her molars. She hates that the psychologist says her name like she's a child being chastised. "It's important for your mental health."

"I'm already going insane," the teenager replies with a sarcastic chuckle. She is, and she knows it. "What's the point?"

"The point is that we think you might feel better if someone knew what you were seeing."

"No." Illa shakes her head. "No. I can't tell anyone. I can't mess with fate. And if I tell someone, they'll want to do something, but you have to let it run its course–"

"Illa–"

"No!" Illa finally snaps and rockets to her feet so quickly that her chair slides back on the tile floor. She slams her fists on the table between them and tries her hardest not to cry. Her tearful eyes bore into Miss Morrell's. The snippets attack her again, forcing their way into her retinas, and yet she does not blink. "No! I won't do what you say– I can't! Why don't you understand that? Why?"

The guard at the door seizes her around the waist and starts carrying out of the room, having already pressed the button on the wall to notify the people outside that it's time to let them out. Illa thrashes and kicks in his burly arms. She wants to scream and scream at Miss Morrell until she finally understands how it feels to hold all the secrets in the world but never be able to say them.

If only she had powers like Lydia's.

Illa usually never wants to harm others, but lately, it's getting hard to suppress the urge. Nobody understands her. Nobody knows what it's like to be plagued with a curse like this at such a young age. Nobody knows what it's like to see so much death. 

"Be quiet," the guard hisses at her when she continues her screaming fit even when she's outside. "Your next session is starting."

Next session? Illa's only appointments are with Miss Morrell. Her mother and siblings stopped coming to visit when she'd turned twelve. Who can it possibly be?

She's forced into a room that's identical to the last, only the person sitting in the chair is not Miss Morrell. It's someone she'd never wished to encounter in her lifespan.

Dr. Gabriel Valack.

As soon as Illa's eyes accidentally lock on his face, she releases an ear-splitting scream from deep within her and thrashes even more wildly in the guard's grip. She's seen what his experiments will do to him– how he'll bring about his own downfall.

Illa is terrified of him. So terrified that she refuses to sit across from him, staying back against the wall by the door. And there are no guards with them this time, instead a glass window inserted so they can detect any danger.

The door locks and it feels like the last nail in her coffin.

"You know who I am," Dr. Valack observes in his calm British accent. The first thing Illa notices is that he no longer has the cloth tied around his forehead to obscure his third eye from view. Instead, there's just smooth, normal skin. That must have been what the Dread Doctors had done when they'd arrived weeks ago, making him look... normal. If she hadn't known about the monster within, she wouldn't have expected anything out of the ordinary about this forty-something-year-old man with his neatly-trimmed brown hair and crisp tie. 

"Of course I do." Illa forces herself not to blink. If she doesn't, it isn't that bad to look at him. Because his life is ending so soon, the snippets have already ceased, and she doesn't want her eyes to leave his face in fear they'll come back.

Her heart thuds against her ribcage with such force that it almost hurts. Every nerve in her body is aware of the threat this man imposes, and they don't hesitate to be on high alert. She just has to keep her eyes open, even if they're starting to itch.

"I heard about your abilities–"

"Stop." She shakes her head,  involuntarily squeezing her burning eyes shut, and flinches when she returns them to his face. "No. I won't be a part of it. No."

He appears mildly surprised that she knows about his plans, but doesn't argue. "Tell me, Illa, do the visions ever change?"

"Sometimes," she blurts out without thinking, then blames it on the accent. It's so calm and so inviting that it makes her want to answer. This is more progress than she's ever had with Miss Morrell in two years.

"So you know what I'm going to do," Valack muses, to which Illa nods hesitantly at. His head tilts in interest. "And you're not going to try and stop me?"

"You can't mess with fate," she repeats what she'd said to her counselor. "And I'm no superhero."

Dr. Valack folds his hands on the table and is silent for a moment. Illa blinks. Flinches again.

"I'm not here to amplify your abilities, if that's what you're thinking," he informs in that strangely impassive voice of his. "I think yours are already amplified enough as it is. I'm here to help you control them."

She squints in suspicion. "Why? So I really won't be able to tell anyone what you're up to?"

He doesn't reply directly to her accusation and instead elaborates further. "I was in a similar state as you, once. I didn't know how to tell anyone what I was seeing. So, I didn't tell anyone. I wrote it down, changed the names, and published it in hope that one day it would save lives."

"You want me to write a book," Illa deadpans. She sees no point in trying to hide her utter hatred for this man.

"No." Valack shakes his head. "I want you to learn control. It could be your ticket out of here."

She feels the urge to laugh at him. He doesn't have the time left to teach her anything. In a matter of days perhaps, Lydia's scream will split his skull.

"There isn't time," she tells him honestly, swallowing down every sense of hers that's telling her it's wrong to say this. "Something big is coming. Something so big that I doubt even you will see it before it's here."

--

Two days later, Illa is back to drawing on her wall when everything starts to go downhill. It begins with a voice.

"Do you know who I am?"

She freezes. The voice isn't any of her doctors', and it sounds way too young to be anyone working at Eichen. After feeling her muscles go tense as she braces herself for who she might see when she looks, she stands and walks to the window in her door.

There stands a boy about Lydia's age. She has never seen him before. He's all sharp angles and broad shoulders, radiating confidence but also a distinct twinge of evil in his green eyes. His brunette hair is fluffed upward and his malicious gaze locks on hers the instant she sees him. She finds herself unable to move. It's like someone has glued her shoes to the floor.

In two seconds, she knows practically everything about him. A violent shudder shakes her to the core as her heart speeds up wildly, flushing her cheeks as adrenaline makes her limbs go heavy. Her throat dries and she finds it difficult to swallow. It takes everything in her not to let out an ear-piercing scream, her lungs threatening to burst from the effort. Short pants escape her nostrils instead. 

Illa has come across evil people in her life. She supposes nobody is nearly as bad as Theo Raeken.

"Yes," she manages to squeak out, fighting away the tears gathering in her eyes. There's no doubt in her mind that he can smell her fear and hear her racing heart through the metal door. She swallows. "Why are you here?"

Theo's lip curls into a smirk before he takes in a breath and speaks. "I heard about you, Illa Wen. I heard about what you see. What you can do. I just didn't know you actually existed."

He knows her name. Illa isn't sure how– she'd thought she'd disappeared six years ago, her family doing their best to make the rest of Beacon Hills forget about her. She's supposed to die here with nobody to remember her. 

She's had enough of people parading her around like a puppet today. Illa's voice is surprisingly hard when she repeats, "Why are you here?"

"I need you, Illa," he responds. Like Valack, he has the type of voice that makes you feel inclined to do as he says. That's why she needs to be careful. "You're very powerful. With you, I can make sure everything goes my way. And...I could help you get out of this place. All you have to do is tell me what you see."

The girl closes her eyes and re-opens them, her entire body going rigid once she sees the rest of his life. The end of it. What his decisions will lead to. Theo Raeken is a serial killer, a person who ends life for his own benefit and manipulates people like they're pieces on a chessboard. And that's what he's trying to do to her.

"How does it feel, Illa?" he questions softly as he takes a step closer. Illa goes completely rigid as not to flinch; she's safe in her cell. "How does it feel to have your mind hit with so much pain? So much death? How does it feel to not be able to tell anyone? To be so young and vulnerable? Well, let me tell you something." Another step closer until their faces are separated only by the single pane of glass. "If you work with me, you won't have to tell me anything– you'll just have to guide my decisions. You'd finally be using your abilities for something. How does that sound?"

"Go to hell, Theo," she spits, shaking not from rage but fear as his eyes burn into her own. Suddenly her cell doesn't feel so safe anymore with how his gaze is shredding her soul. "Don't forget I can see your future. You'll kill me when you're done just to get more power, but let me tell you something." His head tilts to the side in interest. "You are your own downfall. No matter what decisions you make, you'll never end up with the upper hand."

Theo's hand slams against the door, making Illa take a reflexive step back and whimper. Her heart is struck with the fear that he'll be able to pull her door open and force her out. But he doesn't. 

"You'll regret this," he hisses, his lip curling in a sneer before he turns and stalks away.

It takes her a moment to remember how to breathe again. 

As Illa watches him go, she realizes that tonight is the night that all of the impending dangers she's seen will come together. And she doesn't think she's ready.

_______

old a/n:

lmao theo nobody has time for ur bullshit

the next chapter is when the action starts to unfold!! woooo!!

–kristyn