Whatever they were doing, it hurt.

Eli was laid on his stomach, faced down as his eyes were forced to stare at the dark floor, the shoes of the Dread Doctors that took him. He got use to it over time, but every now and then it would cause a sharp pain to shoot down his back. The doctors were doing something to his shoulder blades, poking and tearing away. Eli had been laying there for a while now, hoping somehow Scott could catch his scent, considering he knew now he was no longer human, and save him.

When Eli felt them finally back off, he gently lifted his head with a minor whimper. It hurt to move, he wished he'd have paid closer attention to the times he'd seen Malia heal after getting hurt. The Dread Doctors pulled him up, the shot of pain running all through his body as they moved him away.

The tunnels he was seeing in his dreams was here, he'd been here before and it was clear that he was recalling it in his dreams. The entire place was terribly creepy, almost haunting like, easily somewhere Eli did not want to be. He was held still a second, at least glad they didn't make him walk. The echo of the voice came behind him. "His condition worsens."

Eli was thrown to the floor moments later, behind one of the large tubes. He gave a moan of pain, laying there, not wanting to move. A voice rung. "Eli."

He opened his eyes, looking over. "Hayden?"

She scooted his way slowly, placing her hand on his face. Eli looked up at her, it hurt to breath. "They got you?"

"Liam ran back for you when we got to the car." she spoke through her own pain, looking just as bad as he did except she had a shirt, he hadn't. "They got me when he was gone."

Eli groaned, holding her arms. "They hurt you?"

Hayden rose her shirt, showing the horrible gash of black blood across her side. She winced it pain when accidentally grazing it. "Roll over, it'll hurt less."

She helped him roll over slightly, the both of them giving their own sounds of pain but Eli managed to get off his back. Hayden put her hand on his tail bone. "It's your shoulders. There's two marks."

"It's bad?" Eli looked back, trying to breath normal. Hayden didn't answer and he knew it had to be pretty bad. "Why are they doing this to us?"

"I don't know." she whimpered, grasping his hand as he squeezed tightly.

"I didn't mean it." he whimpered after a second, breathing in sharply. "In the locker room. I'm glad we tried to help you."

"Stop." Hayden squeezed his hand. "I know what you meant."

Eli shut his eyes in pain as Hayden tried not to move. "You saved Liam."

Eli opened his eyes again. "Not you though."

She opened her too, looking down at him with a squeeze. "Did you know? In the hallway?"

"No." Eli shook his head, but it hurt. "It just happened. But it makes sense. I couldn't remember something, like I was saying. It's because they took me. I just couldn't remember."

"I know." Hayden nodded. "Me too."

Eli pushed his palms into the ground, trying to sit up. Hayden tried to help, but she was in pain too. Eli managed though, slowly, but sitting infront of her. His eyes flickered upwards, the Dread Doctor walking their way. "Hayden! Hayden!"

The doctor grabbed her, and when Eli tried to help it was too late, piercing her neck with a large needle. He gave a yell of pain when his arms were grabbed, being yanked back. The sudden motion hurt so bad that he barley felt the needle press until his neck, being held a second before pushed away.

Eli woke up, a new room, a darker room. His eyes adjusted, thinking maybe they had been rescued but the smell lingered in here as well. He looked to the side, Hayden next to him. The boy winced as he reached to touch her. "Hayden. Hayden. Wake up. Please. Wake up."

She woke with a small jolt, whimpering suddenly as her hand came to her side. "Where are we?"

Eli looked around, the fence the only source of light he saw. "I don't know. I don't know. Somewhere close."

A giggle went from behind them, scaring both of them as they turned. The boy in the corner looked at them. "Sorry. We're not close to anything."

Eli looked at him. "Who are you?"

"My names Zach." He said back with an exhale. "But I think the better question is, what am I?"

"You're gonna hurt us?" Eli gave a panicked look, holding Hayden's hand tightly.

"No. It's okay. I'm just like you two." he reassured them quickly to ease Eli's sad, scared look. "One of the experiments. Hey, maybe you can help me with something. The guys in the mask. They took something off my back. I don't know what it was but I can feel part of it still there."

He scooted out of the dark corner, into the only light they had. Eli looked at Hayden. "I can look for you."

"Is that okay?" he asked, getting a nod. Zach turned around, lifting his shirt. Eli and Hayden both gave a small gasp, jolting back slightly at the clear chopped off wings that were fluttering around his shoulders.

"Eli, don't." Hayden spoke up, Eli winced as the fence shocked the finger he pressed to it. "He told us."

Zach laughed again. "We're not getting out of here."

"Then why the hell haven't they just killed us yet?" Eli asked in annoyance, not wanting to sit back down after it took so long to manage to get up. His body was cold, wishing they'd at least given him his sweater vest back.

"You could be a little optimistic." Hayden looked toward Zach before she found Eli's eyes. "Liam will find us. You know that."

"It's kinda hard when you've watched three people get dragged out of here screaming." Zach said to Hayden's words, Eli sat back down because he didn't know how long he'd actually be here.

"They were killed?" Eli asked Zach.

"They were failures." he said back with a small sigh, looking down slightly. "That's all they said. First, you forget. You don't know who you are or what you're doing. Then you get violent. I watched two of them almost kill each other."

Hayden and Eli looked at each other, both secretly hoping that wouldn't be them. He held her hand tightly. Zach looked forward again. "And one of them had a nasty looking cut just like that."

Hayden lowered her shirt again. Zach shook his head. "Don't worry. Black is okay. It's only really over when you start bleeding other stuff. When it starts turning silver. That's when they know you're really a failure."

Hayden looked at Eli's back, meeting his eye. "Still black."

"How many more failures are there suppose to be?" the Foxx boy looked to Zach, rubbing his arms to apply some form of warmth.

"Who knows? But doesn't it make you wonder what the success is going to look like?" he looked between the clueless pair. "I mean, what are we turning into? Something with claws and fangs?"

"Wings." Eli pointed out.

"Something worse." Hayden mumbled, looking Zach's way.

Eli sat there a second, messing with his shoe laces. "Malia would say something like 'Hey, just accept that you're a failure. That's what i'd do.' And then everyone would look at her like she's insane."

Hayden looked his way. "You two are close?"

"We're good together." Eli gave a minor smile. "I just hope she'll be okay when I die."

"You're not gonna die." Hayden said sternly. "You can't think that way."

"Do you really think i'm gonna be the successful one? I've never done a single thing right." Eli looked at Hayden with sadness in his eyes. "It's gonna be me next. You're gonna have to take care of Liam."

"No, i'm not." she grabbed his hand tightly. "You are. We're getting out of here."

"They're coming." Zach spoke up with wide, panicked eyes. Eli looked to Hayden in worry, she just shook her head at him. "Oh, god."

Looking over, they saw Zach's nose bleeding silver. The Dread Doctors yanked the fence open. Zach began to panic. "No! No!"

"Wait." Eli begged, trying to get up, the pain already bad enough.

"Stop it!" Hayden yelled when the Dread Doctor began to pull Zach away.

"Help me!" Zach begged, bleeding badly from the nose. By the time Eli managed to stand, the fence was shut again and the innocent boy was taken away.

Night fall fell, the light gone. Hayden and Eli didn't talk much after Zach was taken, laying in wait in who would be next. The buzzing noise echoed slightly, Eli looked over. "I think they're coming back."

Hayden stood up with a whimper of pain, holding his hand as she helped him stand. They pressed against the wall together. The voice ringing took them by surprise. "Eli? Hayden?"

Theo.

"Theo, wait!" Eli yelled when he got too close to the fence, being too late as he was shocked terribly, throwing back and hitting the ground. He was laid still a second. "Theo! Hey, Theo. Are you okay? Theo."

"Yeah." Theo groaned slightly, Eli walked toward the fence as he stood. "I'm fine. Are you?"

"No." Eli looked at him in worry. "Is anyone hurt?"

"No." Theo shook his head, checking on Hayden behind him. "What happened to you?"

Eli turned around to show him his back. "I don't know what it is. There was a guy with wings, it might be that."

"The marks are too big to be wings." Theo shook his head as Eli turned back around. "Okay, step back. I'm gonna get you guys got of here."

Eli backed up with Hayden again, the two pressing as close to the wall as they could. Theo braced himself before latching onto the fence again. He growled in pain, giving a final yank as the fence pulled open. Eli gapped at Theo, standing with his teeth bared. "Hey, dude. That was the coolest."

"Come on. Malias gonna kill me if I don't get you out of here." Theo rushed them out, wrapping his arm around the both of them to get them out of the room and back to his truck as pain free and quick as possible.

Neither of them were healing like they should.

Eli woke up when he felt a hand in his. He wasn't in as much pain as he was before, far from it. He barley remembered Theo getting him insides Scott's house, putting him on the couch. Eli's eyes fluttered, looking at Malia looking down at him. "Guess what?"

Malia let his hand go, taking his pain. She shook her head, clearly had just finished crying. "What?"

"I'm like you now." Eli gave a sore grin up at her.

Malia gave a small laugh, she started to cry again as she leaned down and wrapped him in a hug. Eli held her back, holding her shoulders tightly and started to cry himself. Out of relief, out of anything really. Liam walked away from Hayden's sleeping figure, coming to Eli's side. "You saved me back there."

"Felt good to do it for once." the Foxx boy said back, sitting up as Malia let him go. Liam hugged him tightly as they stilled a second. "I saved Hayden too, by the way."

Liam laughed. "Just had to get that out there, didn't you?"

"Totally." Eli nodded, pulling back. He looked at Malia again, seeing Scott talking to Theo in the hall. Mason fell on the couch and hugged him again. "Is my face on a milk carton yet?"

"No." Mason hugged him tightly. "You're a werewolf now."

"Sorta." Eli nodded, pulling back. He looked at Malia again as she grabbed his hand tightly. "There's something else. On my back."

"Eli." Scott was walking over quickly. "Could you stand up for me?"

Eli nodded his head, Malia helping him to his feet. Scott held his face a second as he nodded. "Let me see on your back."

Eli turned, pulling his shirt upwards as Scott held it up for him. He looked over his back. "It healed."

"What?" Eli looked back at him oddly.

"There's something there. But it's healed." Scott said back, touching his shoulder blade. "Two circled are spinning under your skin. They're black."

"I'm healing?" Eli asked with a blink.

Malia look, reaching forward to touch his back. Indeed, there was something under his skin, twisting slowly, like metal plates around his shoulder blades. Theo focused on his heart, making sure he didn't give off any signs of what he did to Eli after he passed out in the truck, in order to save him from being a failure.

•

kylie speaks

;)