Chapter Twenty-Four ✧Tunnel Vision✧

"What is he doing?" 

It was Theo who had spoken up, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room since Scott had embedded his claws into the back of Corey's neck. 

"Tapping into Corey's memories," Lydia answered. "It's usually something only alpha's do." 

I had seen the task done only a handful of times. The first -and most frightening- occasion had been when Peter had done it to Isaac in order to get my brother to remember where Erica and Boyd had been taken. While that felt like ages ago, I realized it really wasn't. It was barely over a year ago. 

Theo, who had been standing behind me, moved to get around me. My attention was mostly on Scott, but I still noticed the way Theo moved around Scott to get a better look at what he was doing. 

It was hard not to want to see exactly what was happening between both Corey and Scott, but I decided I was perfectly fine remaining where I stood between Mason and Stiles. I could still vividly remember the way Isaac's face had contorted in tortured confusion as his own mind had been invaded by an outsider, I didn't need to see Corey do a reenactment of the moment. 

"Is it as dangerous as it looks?" Theo questioned. 

"Actually, it's significantly more dangerous then it looks," I answered. I recalled what Isaac told me when he had decided to let Peter do it him, that the process could either paralyze him or kill him. Understandably, I had been beyond petrified for my older brother. 

Scott himself had only performed the ritual one other time, and it was on Stiles and Lydia when we were putting in a last ditch effort to defeat the nogitsune. That time, it had very nearly ended horribly, as far as I could remember. The fact that he was doing this now, well, that meant that he thought this was our last chance at finding Liam. The thought only seemed to double the dangers of all of this. 

"Does anyone know if it's working?" Mason asked. When I looked over to my friend, his expression held a mixture of awe and worry. I had expected nothing less from him. 

This time, nobody had an answer. Not Stiles, not Lydia, and definitely not me. No matter how many times we saw this mind meld occur, there never seemed to be any tells to see if it was actually working, or if it was killing both parties involved. 

Suddenly, Scott jerked backwards. For a terrifying moment, I thought Corey's mind was rejecting Scott because something had gone horribly wrong. Then, I realized that Scott had pulled himself away. The alpha stumbled backwards, his breathe labored. Stiles and Theo rushed forward to steady him. 

Corey was also once again conscious. He lurched away from where he had been sitting on Scott's bed, probably because he had no idea what was happening. He was also wobbly and disoriented, so Mason and I got on either side of Corey until he could steady himself. 

Tentatively, Corey touched the back of his neck, wincing ever so slightly. "What the hell did you do to me?" Corey demanded. 

"You'll be okay," Scott murmured over his shoulder. 

Without meaning to, I looked over at Scott. The lack of empathy in his voice in that moment... it was a tone I'd never heard Scott McCall heard. It was honestly frightening to hear from him. 

Corey brought his hand to the front of his face, and looked at it in horror. "There's blood!" He exclaimed. 

This time, Scott didn't even spare him a glance. "You'll heal."

Watching this entire exchange, I felt like I wasn't really there, like it was some surreal dream. I felt disconnected from the moment, from the people I considered my closest friends and, worst of all, I felt disconnected from Scott. My mind thought back to just the night before, to Scott who hadn't told Liam and I about using Hayden as bait. 

Now Liam and Hayden were missing and the rest of us were desperate. And on top of that, now when I looked at Scott I felt like I was looking at someone I didn't know. With horror, I realized the same might've gone for him. 

The recent events had put a strain on everything and everyone. Maybe feeling like I was just someone invisible who was invading on this moment wasn't so far from the truth. 

"Scott..." Stiles spoke softly. His face held concern as he looked at his best friend. 

"He'll be fine!" Scott shouted, but he wasn't looking at Stiles. He was looking down, trying almost desperately to draw something. 

The concern on Stiles' face only got deeper. 

"Listen, I think it worked," Scott explained. His voice was quieter then before, but he was still taking deep, gasping breathes. He wasn't letting himself bounce back from what he had just experienced with Corey, and it was only making everyone more tense. "I saw something," He continued. "There were tunnels, pipes around the walls. There were these two huge blue pipes around the entrance. Two on both sides." 

As Scott spoke, I felt hairs stand up all of my body. While I wasn't the one who had just had their memories shuffled around, I suddenly was reliving one. One from years ago, before the supernatural world entered my life. It was a memory when Isaac had been young and desperate and above all else, absolutely terrified. 

"I know that place," I whispered. The others all looked up at me in confusion. How could I know where the dread doctors secret hide out was? 

Slowly, I moved over to Scott. He gingerly lowered the drawing he'd made so I could get a better look at it. As soon as I processed what he had drawn I felt like I was being teleported back in time. 

Suddenly I was years younger and about twenty times more terrified. I could practically feel Isaac's hand clasped around mine, dragging me along as we ran. 

I looked up and noticed everyone was staring at me expectantly. I shouldn't have expected anything less, I had given no further explanation of what the vision Scott had seen was, but I still needed to gather my thoughts. Finding the right words to explain what these tunnels were seemed more important then ever. 

"Isaac and I... went there," I began. My eyes dropped to look back at the drawing because it was so much easier to talk when I could avoid looking people in the eyes. "It was maybe five years ago, I guess. Camden had left for the army and dad was pissed. I mean, he was always pissed but this was different and Isaac and I both knew it. So we ran away, or at least tried to. Isaac and I found those tunnels and they were abandoned so we thought it would be the perfect place to hide." 

I paused for a moment. I didn't even realize I had taken the journal away from Scott until I was holding it in my hands. My fingers absently traced the outline he'd drawn. If I closed my eyes I could even imagine myself being there again. 

"We thought we we're going to live there forever." I let out a short breath that was something akin to a bitter laugh. I glanced over at Stiles as I continued, "Your dad ended up finding us in the tunnels after one night. My dad could be charismatic when he wanted to be and convinced everyone that we had ran off to find our big brother." I handed the drawing back to Scott. "We found out later the place we had been hiding in was the water treatment plant." 

"That's where they are," Scott declared. "That's where we'll find Liam and Hayden." 

✧✧

Scott quickly made a plan to find Liam and Hayden. Quickly enough that both Mason and I managed to wedge ourselves into it, as if it were a possibility that we wouldn't want to come. 

Then, as quickly, as the plan had been made, Scott was rushing to put it into action. He hurried downstairs, ready to race off to the water treatment plant, and the rest of us hurried to keep up with him. 

"Scott. Scott," Stiles called out. He hurried down the staircase to catch up to Scott. "Slow down. Just think for a second, okay? It's dangerous. Mason and Charlotte shouldn't be going." 

"I've been there. I know how to get in," I reminded Stiles. "This is Liam we're talking about."

"Yeah, and he's my best friend," Mason added. He stood next to me with his arms crossed.  "We're going." 

"Oh, and did you suddenly get super wolf powers? I wasn't aware of that development." Stiles countered. His question was pointed at Mason because, well he didn't need to verbalize why he didn't want me to go. He wanted to protect me, which I tried to appreciate, but expecting me to sit this one out was far from fair. 

"Stiles, Charlotte has a good point," Scott agreed. "And if you're not going, I could use the help." 

"No, I'm coming," Stiles assured him. "Just as soon as I talk to my dad. They're moving the body and he wants to make sure that this time, nobody steal it." 

"How's he going to do that?" Malia questioned. 

Stiles shook his head. "I don't know, but whoever took the last one was strong enough to flip my jeep." 

There was tension rising in the air as we all were reminded that we were going up against multiple opponents that seemed impossibly strong. But I refused to be scared by this reminder. Plus, Stiles didn't exactly have any powers and he was always in the middle of the most dangerous parts of our lives. It was time that I proved I could be too. 

Malia looked around at everyone's concerned face. "We can bring Theo," She suggested. 

I looked over at Theo, who looked surprised at Malia's idea. He then looked over to Scott, who was waiting for Theo to speak up to the idea. 

"Maybe I should stay here," Theo offered. It wasn't exactly the response I'd been expecting from him, but then again I still didn't know what to expect from him at all. Theo added, "You know, in case the doctors try to make a house call for Corey." 

Unsurprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of things that hadn't been included in the plan. And I knew it was foolish, but I didn't really care. I wanted to go. I wanted to find Liam and Hayden.

"Scott, Stiles is right," Lydia decided. "We need to slow down and think."

"I am thinking," Scott assured the banshee. "I'm thinking about how Liam and Hayden could already be dead." 

I felt Mason look over at me when Scott spoke. I knew exactly what he was feeling, because I felt it took. My gaze fell, not being able to meet his. I didn't really want to acknowledge what Scott had said at all, mostly because I refused to believe. They couldn't be dead. Not yet. Not before we had a chance to even save them. 

"You could've hurt him, Scott! Really hurt him," Lydia reasoned. She was rightfully referring to Corey now. 

Scott looked over to Corey, and for a moment I saw a wave of guilt crash over him. 

"I have to find Liam," Scott said lowly. 

Slowly, Scott backed up. It was clear he was waiting for someone to point out a new flaw in his plan, but the others remained silent. When nobody tried to stop him, Scott turned to the door to race out. Mason and Malia hurried after him, but before I could do the same Stiles grabbed my arm. 

"Wait, Charlotte," He pleaded. His eyes held an all to familiar look of concern. "I know nothing I say is going to make you want to stay behind so just please be careful, okay? If you need something, let me know." 

I conjured up the best smile I could muster at the moment. "I will, don't worry." 

"Don't worry," Stiles scoffed. Suddenly, his tone sounded a little more like the regular sarcastic Stiles. "Like I'm ever going to stop worrying about you." 

A small smile fell over my lips as Stiles let go of my arm. I wanted to assure him that he didn't need to worry about me, but I knew that was a lost battle already. So instead, I turned to follow after my friends so our search for Liam could begin. 

✧✧

Scott slowed the car down in front of a large industrial building. Just as I had remembered, it was uninviting and mostly concrete. The only sign of color were the blue pipes by the entrance. 

"This is it?" Scott asked. He looked in the rearview mirror to make eye contact with me.

I nodded. "Yeah, this is it." 

With that, Scott put the car in park. All at the same time, Malia, Mason, Scott, and I got out of the car. No time was wasted exchanging words, we all just headed straight for the entrance, which was easy to get to. No wonder it had been so easy for Isaac and I to sneak in all of those years ago. 

After the entrance, there were metal stairs going down. It was another thing I vaguely remembered. We followed the stairs that wove downwards past dozens of pipes until we finally reached the bottom floor of the water treatment plant. My memories, while admittedly hazy, seemed to agree with the darkness we were now looking at. While our time living here had been much shorter then we'd intended, it still felt awfully familiar. 

"What exactly do you remember about this place?" Malia asked me. 

"Mostly that it was somehow both cold and humid," I answered honestly. "I know that's probably not helpful though." 

"Doesn't mean it's not still true," Mason assured me. Sweat was already starting to form on his forehead, and I could feel myself too start sweating even though I was also pretty sure I was shivering. What ever awful things 

"I also remember... being confused. We didn't realize how many directions these tunnels went in and we got lost almost immediately," I recalled. "We have to be careful or we'll all get lost." 

Scott nodded at me. "We can do that." 

"What about you guys? Can you catch a scent?" Mason asked. He looked back and forth between Malia and Scott, who both looked like they were trying to concentrate. 

"There's too many chemicals," Scott finally declared. 

Mason frowned. "Than this might take a while." He looked over his shoulder at me, like he was hoping I would have something a little more useful to say, but unfortunately my knowledge of the water treatment plant wasn't all that vast. 

The four of us started heading deeper into the plant. Like I had said earlier, there were what felt like a million different directions of tunnels for us to go in. Every time we made a choice to go in a direction, I wondered if we were actually going the right way. Unfortunately, there was no better way to make our decisions other then to guess. So we were stuck make guesses until we found Liam, which felt less and less likely to happen with every passing moment. 

I tried to remain optimistic, I really did. I wanted to believe that we could get to both Liam and Hayden before it was too late. If we didn't... well I couldn't even bring myself to think about what I would do. 

Eventually, we made the decision to split up. Scott hated making the call, and even asked if I wanted to stay with him, but right now I knew we needed to divide if we wanted to increase our chances at finding the others. Anyways, I had a feeling that I might be okay if I came across anything less then friendly. 

I took turns calling out Liam and Hayden's names. But I didn't get any responses, just my own voice echoing desperately through the tunnels. I lightly jogged through the tunnels, but I felt like I was just circling the same space over and over again. 

I turned a corner and was just about to call out Liam's name again when Mason and I collided. Both of us stumbled backwards, taking a moment to steady ourselves while also muttering apologies. When my eyes met Mason's, I could tell he was feeling the same levels of dread as I was. 

I heard two new voices, and noticed Malia and Scott entering the same tunnel that we were in. Maybe we all had been running in circles. I honestly don't know any more. 

"Okay, we need to make sure we're not all covering the same area's," Scott decided. As he and Malia walked closer to us, I realized how labored his breathing was. It sounded exactly like it had when the dread doctor's book had triggered an asthma attack. 

"Scott, do you need your inhaler?" I questioned. 

Scott took another deep breathe, which didn't really make him sound any better. His entire suddenly went rigid as he looked down one of the tunnels quizzically. After knowing him for as long as I had, I knew his werewolf sense had caught on to something. 

"I think I hear something," Scott explained. 

"It's just the light's isn't it?" Malia asked. Apparently she was able to hone in on whatever it was Scott was hearing. 

Scott panted. His expression told me he wasn't sure what he was hearing, but he swiftly began walking in the direction that had grabbed his attention. "Come on, this way," He instructed the rest of us. Nobody complained because obviously splitting up hadn't helped us, so we all followed after the true alpha. 

We all picked up the pace and jogged through the tunnels. What ever Scott thought he heard had seemed to go away and we were once again running aimlessly. It was starting to feel a little bit like torture. 

Mason was the first one to stop running. He slowed to a halt and doubled over trying to catch his breathe. I was soon mimicking his actions as I realized my lungs were also burning. 

"I think we've been here before," I practically wheezed. All the hallways may have seemed similar, but there was still something that made me feel like we had definitely been in this one before. Or maybe it was the hopelessness of the situation that made me feel that way. 

"Yeah," Mason agreed between pants. "This feel familiar." 

"What the hell are we doing?" Scott groaned. I realized he too was struggling to catch his breathe. My suspicions from early began to resurface. "We're running up and down this place. Running up and down tunnels. There's no way-" 

Scott was cut off by his own labored breathing. He leaned up against the walls and tried to catch his breathe, but it was clear it wasn't working. 

"Scott, you need your inhaler," Malia told him softly. 

"No," Scott breathed out. Despite his refusal to use his inhaler, he clutched at his chest as he tried to suck in more air. It was painful to watch. 

"Scott, use it." Malia's voice became more firm. "Use your inhaler." 

Scott wheezed, as he slowly fell to his knees. It was a sight I'd never seen before, and I was more then thankful when Scott finally reached into his pocket. As he continued to wheeze painfully, Scott shook his inhaler quickly before using it. Slowly, he seemed to become in control of his breathing again. 

"This is all my fault," Scott said so quietly, I almost didn't hear him. He looked up and gave me an apologetic look. "We're never going to find them and it's my fault." 

I knew he was looking at me because he felt guilty for not telling Liam and I about his plan to catch the dread doctors, but him apologizing while being on his knees didn't make me feel any better about anything. And the hopelessness in his eyes, well it didn't exactly instill confidence in our situation.

 I needed him to say we were going to keep trying. I needed the Scott McCall that wouldn't give up back. 

"Scott," I said quietly. There were a million things that I wanted to say right now, but there was no way for me to actually say them. So instead, I held out a hand to him, hoping he would take it and stand back up. 

Scott looked at me for a few seconds, and I wondered what chemosignals he was getting from me. I honestly didn't even know how I felt, mostly because I was pretty sure there were at least a dozen emotions rushing through me at the moment. I was pretty sure Scott knew exactly how that felt, though. 

Finally, Scott accepted my hand and I helped pull him to his feet. He gave my hand a short but tight squeeze before he let go. 

"We should keep looking," Scott declared. 

"We should keep trying," Mason agreed. 

Scott looked over to Malia, who nodded her head. We were all tired, confused, and desperate, but none of us were giving up anytime soon. 

It was Scott who chose a new direction for us and started walking again. I was about to follow when I saw Malia pause. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, revealing a lit screen with a new incoming message on it. I for one was amazed we even got service in this part of the tunnels. 

"It's Theo," Malia announced. She looked up at us with a relieved look on her face. "Corey apparently remembered something and Theo was able to find Liam and Hayden. They're okay." 

Mason let out a relieved laugh, and I felt tears of joy well up in my eyes. We both turned to each other, wrapping each other in a tight hug as a quick celebration that our worst fears had not  been confirmed. 

As I pulled away from Mason, I glanced over at Scott. His expression wasn't anywhere near looking joyful, but it was also a far cry from the look of hopelessness it'd had moments before. 

Malia sighed, and I looked over at her. "So, now all we need is to find our way out of here." 

✧✧

While it had taken a while for us to get out of the tunnels, it hadn't taken nearly as long as I'd thought it would've. The trip back home to see Hayden and Liam however, that felt like forever. But when we finally, got there, I all but sprinted inside. 

In the living room was Theo, Lydia, Liam, and Hayden. It was clear that Lydia and Theo had been watching over the latter two. Hayden herself was curled up on one end of the couch with a blanket draped over her body as she slept. Liam, well, he looked like he was fighting of sleep too but when he heard us come in, he forced himself to stand up. 

Even though I knew he was safe, I didn't feel fully relieved until his eyes met mine. As soon as I was close enough, I pulled him into the tightest hug I could muster. Liam let out a weary sigh as he hugged me back, his head falling to my shoulder and I almost felt like I was holding him up. 

"I was so worried," I murmured into the hug. At my words, Liam's hug tightened ever so slightly. 

"I figured you would be," Liam murmured back. I tired laughed slipped from my lips, and I could feel his chest rumble as he quietly laughed too. 

"You know you can stay the night tonight, if you want," I found myself whispering to Liam. I knew we were surrounded by werewolves with supernatural hearing but for the moment I didn't care. 

Liam's face nuzzled a little bit further into my hair. "Good, because I think I could pass out any time now."

I didn't know how long I'd been holding on to Liam, but I figured I couldn't hold on to him forever, no matter how badly I wanted to. Eventually, I made myself pull away and as soon as Liam was out of my arms, Mason was tackling him. I was almost certain the pair would collapse and the fact that they didn't was actually quite impressive. 

After deciding the Liam really was safe, I allowed myself to look over at the others. Malia was sitting on the arm of the chair Lydia was in, and Lydia was giving me a soft smile. Scott was standing across the room, hugging Theo out of gratitude. When they pulled away, Theo looked over at me as if he could sense my gaze. He was a werewolf after all so maybe he could. 

I knew the voices in my head had told me not to trust Theo not too long ago, and while I didn't know if I trusted the voices either, I did take what they say seriously. And against my better judgement, I mouthed a 'thank you' in Theo's direction. 

an ; ok this chapter is super choppy and this episode along with the next few are my least favorite one sin season five (maybe my least favorites in the series whoops) so please just bare with me!! it'll be worth it I promise. 

question - I know I've lost a majority of my audience but if I still asked questions at the end of chapters would you guys answer? that was always something I thought was fun with these stories you know?