Wow I just love hurting my characters, don't I?

::

Slowly, my eyes open, pupils shrinking in fear at the sight before me, waking me up the rest of the way rather quickly. No, no please. Please. Not here. Not again.

The stark white wall stands tall behind and in front of me, the walls to my sides being made of clear, reinforced glass. Tears gather in my tired eyes as I realize something. It's the same cell. The same exact cell I spent most of my confined life in. That bloodstain by my feet is mine. Not for the first time recently, anxiety overcomes me, clawing at my lungs and making my breaths come out in short, panicked intervals. I look around wildly, gaze landing on the body in the cell to my right almost immediately.

No. Please. Anything but this. Anyone but him. Not here, please don't let him be here.

"Remington?" I call out cautiously, hoping with everything in me that my gut instinct... no, our bond, was wrong.

Crawling over on all fours to the clear wall of the cell, I can see into the oddly occupied space beside me. Its him. Its Remington, and he's here in this place with me. They took him too. I was hoping, desperately, that they would leave him and take only me. Did they get Emerson and Sebastian too? I still can't feel Andy... What have they done to my family?

Harsh, ragged breaths and painful wheezing leaves his motionless form. His neck is still covered in blood, and his shirt still torn with two holes by his heart. Our link is filled with pain, as waning as the bond seems to be, and though I'm concerned and only want to be with him, at least I know he's alive. I call his name through our connection again in hopes of getting some sort of reaction, palms placed firmly on the glass wall as I lean on it.

Creaking fills the small room as the large metal door that takes you the entirety of the wall swings open on its hinges, and I jerk in both surprise and fear, shuffling back on my bottom towards the wall, my shackles restricting most of my movement. I've cornered myself, as close to Remington as I can possibly get.

Not him. Please. Not him.

"Patient thirteen, good to see you again. Your vampire friends make you awfully hard to recapture. They move far too much." The doctor sneers, walking forward.

"What did you do to him?" My voice is quiet, fearful, as I look over to Remington.

His breathing is still labored, veins glowing a toxic purple that makes me sick to see.

"Thirteen, has your vacation ruined your manners already? I thought we taught you better than to speak out of turn." Doctor smirks suddenly, and a boot shoots out to kick me across the jaw.

My head jerks to the side as pain immediately blooms along my jawline and mouth. The force slams me into the glass beside me. Something wet drips down my chin. Blood from a newly split lip. After so long of being treated with nothing but utmost kindness by my vampires and demon, the harshness of the action shocks me momentarily.

The doctor holds a strange remote in hand, fiddling with the small black button on the top as he stares me down with cruel, beady eyes. I've never seen that remote before.

"Now, let's get down to business. We need you to extract more souls from a few... volunteers."

"No, no, no." I murmur, voice but a whisper as I try to sink further into myself, my magic reacting to my emotions and trying to hide me further.

I scream, quick to cut it off as my head slams into the wall behind me. Electricity crackles around me, making the hairs on my arms and legs stand on end. My lichtenberg scars ache, throat burning like its on fire as I writhe, hands trying to pull at the metal collar wrapped tightly, too tightly, around my neck.

"Do you like the new collars? We made them after you left. Couldn't exactly let you escape the same way as before. Oh, and what a neat little trick that was. One you'll not be doing again." The doctor pauses to smile my way, joy dancing in his irises as he takes in my gasping, twitching form, "I do think you'll remember we can be very persuasive." He sticks the remote back in his pocket, moving a few paces back to knock on the cell door.

I twitch, struggling to breathe, lungs gasping for precious, precious air that just won't fill them no matter how hard I try. My hands shake uncontrollably, crooked fingers struggling futilely to pull at the collar around my neck. Tears slip down my cheeks with no sign of stopping and I keep my gaze on Remington, refusing to look at the doctor. I watch his shallow breathing, the slow, slow rise and fall a lifeline for my sanity. I want to go home, but I don't think I'll make it out of here a second time.

Two assistants enter my cell, each with rubber gloves and gas masks, donning the standard white scrubs. They approach me without hesitance as I snarl and move to bite them as my whole body quivers, undoing my chains and leaving the shackles themselves on my wrists. One holds onto me as the other does this, making sure I don't try anything. As soon as one of my legs are free, I bring it up to kick the orderly in the face, struggling to get the coordination right as I ignore how my bare foots aches at the contact. They let go of my other leg immediately, a gloved hand reaching up to cradle their quickly bruising jaw before their hands are on me once more. The shackles remain tight enough to bruise as they drag me out of the room, electricity buzzing through my body again. I whimper, gritting my teeth to shut down the sound as the metal around my wrist burns the skin underneath from the electricity. I can't make a sound in here. They'll punish me.

I flail and attempt to bite them again as the Doctor follows closely behind us, out of range of my feet. I want to go back to Remington. Hallway after hallway pass us by, and eventually I stop struggling, still tired from the sleeping gas they infused with the nightshade and the tranquilizer they shot into my neck. I'm drug off to a familiar room, padded walls and floor so white it almost hurts to look at.

No. No! I'm going to be alone again.

This time it's occupied by a boy with deep brown hair to match his chocolatey hazel eyes, maybe my age, possibly younger.

"Patient Twenty-Two, we have a surprise for you." The Doctor addresses the boy almost kindly, a sing-song lilt to his voice, "You get to leave this place. You'll be free."

The hesitant hope slowly melting into his hazel eyes hurts like none other. He only wants to be free.

"Number Thirteen, take his soul."

"No!" I refuse, staring at him defiantly, a frown pulling at my chapped lips, though from the corner of my eye I watch as twenty two's head slowly lowers in resignation.

My gaze wanders to the boy across from me, finding him staring at me as well. His gaze is sad but resilient, with surprise etched into his facial features. I'm not taking his soul. He deserves to live, he wants to live.

A sharp sting on my cheek forces my head to the side. I spit out the blood that had gathered in my mouth, turning my head back to glare at the Doctor.

"Is pain all you have to give?"I taunt, knowing exactly what will happen, anger beginning to hum under my skin.

I wouldn't have dared to be this bold before my escape.

"Take his soul." His eyes harden, voice stern and menacing.

"No." The taste of blood lingers in my mouth as hatred spews from my lips.

He gazes at me with those malicious blue eyes of his, a smirk blossoming on his face. "Take her to Room Three."

My eyes widen, the anger dying out quickly and being replaced by fear, and I stare helplessly at the boy as I'm dragged back out of the Isolation Room. Relief is like a tiny little light in me, as brief and miniscule as it is. I won't be stuck in that room alone again. Inky black licks at my crooked fingers as I jerk, biting my already busted lip to keep from screaming at the shocks tearing through my body.

My form spasms as electricity courses through my veins in waves and I scream loudly like before, cutting it off as quickly as possible. My lip gushes blood from the effort. The shocks that course through me when I use magic are worse than the ones when I disobey, I note dazedly. It seems they have a few new tricks up their sleeves.

I can only watch limply, as my body twitches from left over electricity, as the door closes, my last sight of the boy with brown hair being his wide, frightened brown eyes.

::

Gritting my teeth, my lips sealed shut, I struggle not to breathe in any of the water, lungs burning from lack of oxygen. My nightmare from only nights ago lingers at the forefront of my mind. This feels the same way, yet worse somehow. Perhaps because it's actually happening, and not just a memory. My eyes open as I'm lifted back up, the water leaking down my face as I'm no longer submerged. Deep breaths of dirty air fill my lungs as the Doctor stands before me. The sheer terror and panic running through what is accessible of Remington and I's bond is nearly overwhelming. He can feel what's happening to me and I'd never wished for our bond to not exist more. He doesn't deserve to feel any of this. He doesn't deserve to be here. I'm so sorry Remington. I'm so sorry. I wish he hadn't awoken when the waterboarding started.

Who's to say that his anxiety and fear was only his own? No, it's mine as well. I'm terrified. Terrified of the water I had just almost drowned in. Terrified of what I know these people can do to me, have done to me.

"Are you willing to cooperate now?" The Doctor speaks.

"Fuck off." I spit at him, my saliva landing at his feet as I shove down my fright.

His face scrunches in disgust as he takes a step back, nose stuck in the air as he gazes down at me. "Put her back under. Her time away has absolutely ruined whatever sense we'd beaten into her."

I struggle in the orderlies' grips as they try and force me back into the water. No more. No more. No more.

Panicking at the sight of the murky blue liquid moving ever closer to my face, my magic reacts by trying to shadow travel away, only to be electrified once again, except this time they manage to force me under at that exact moment. Just my fucking luck.

The water and the electricity coursing through my body don't work well together and triple the pain I'm in. I scream, the water flooding my lungs. Immediately, burning pain spreads through my body like wildfire, my lungs taking the brunt of the excruciating pain.

As I'm pulled out of the water again, I cough continuously, the orderlies letting go as my muscles spasm, lungs constricting painfully both due to the drowning and the electricity, their rubber gloves blocking them from getting electrocuted. Deep, wheezing hacks spill from my lips along with the water occupying my lungs. It hurts to suck in air but I so desperately need it.

"Give her the serum. It seems her time away has caused the drug to leave her system entirely. I was wondering why her lip hadn't healed already." Doctor orders, and an orderly immediately comes forward to roughly inject me with something.

They used to do this all the time, before, and until now, I'd never thought anything of it. My... my lip should have healed already, like my injuries did here and while I was freshly escaped. Does- Is that serum why I healed so fast? Did they force my body to heal faster than it should've just so they could torture me more? The thought makes me sick.

My vision blurs, the world draining of color, some sounds becoming louder, my body humming with painful spasms as the electrification works through its symptoms. I barely register the door busting open as a guard makes their way in. "Sir, we have an emergency. Patient X is out of control. He's already killed three guards."

"Take Thirteen to the Isolation Room and bring Twenty-Two back to his cell. I'll deal with Patient X."

As I'm taken down another hallway, feet dragging limply along the linoleum flooring, I can faintly hear a commotion back in the direction of the cells. My slowing heartbeat thumps in my ears as the anger and fear I feel from Remington heightens, my soaked body still convulsing with shocks of pain and electricity. The world fades to black as I make eye contact with Patient Twenty-Two as he is being guided down the hallway in the opposite direction.

::

Number Twenty-Two, Austin to those who remembered him from his time before this awful place, didn't know what to do when the woman who looked to be around his age was told to take his soul. He was terrified that she was actually going to do it. So very scared that after two years, his struggle to stay alive would mean nothing, but imagine his surprise when she outright refused the Doctor. No one refuses the Doctor without suffering dire consequences. Watching her get electrified by the magic-blocking shackles was horrifying to witness. Austin himself had experienced it first hand and knew how painful it was. The young man was recently moved to this cell block from his dirty little cage that gets called home alongside others trapped here like him. He'd never had the displeasure of seeing someone else getting electrified, only ever dragged off and never being seen again. She didn't even let herself scream out her pain properly.

To watch her get carted to the Isolation Room in place of himself, dripping wet with water from where they had tried to use drowning her as a means of forcing cooperation and seeing small sparks fizzle around in random spots on her body as her muscles twitched, was only slightly relieving as he didn't have to be trapped in that room anymore. He felt horrible for being relieved in the first place. As Austin was placed back in his cell, the commotion the cell over was loud and unignorable. There was a man there who looked to be about his age, but Austin knew that you could never be sure. Only supernaturals were in this facility. The black haired man was noticeably angry, his irises red and the sclera pitch black. Horns flickered on his head, sometimes visible but mostly not, sharp fangs bared in fury. Austin could barely see random patches of scales along his cheekbones that rippled liked water.

"I'll kill you for what you've done. Bring her to me and stop hurting her! Give Elizabeth back!" The man is desperate, despair and rage and terror all trapped in one body at once, voice raspy with his slowly healing injury.

He shakes with it, banging at the door to his cell so hard the metal creaks and groans under each heavy hit. Outside, more guards come up to secure the door, trying to keep the man inside as they drag away the body of one of their own. Blood travels slowly over the white linoleum floors, brain matter and body parts intermixed as the bodies of previous guards adds up. He's already killed three in his tantrum, easily and with what was clearly nary a thought.

A laugh bubbles from his throat, strained, the sound maniacal, bloodthirsty, black veins slowly beginning to travel up from his cheeks and temples towards his eyes.

A guard enters his cell, a taser wand in hand, and Austin could only watch in fear as the guard immediately begins to convulse. His leg breaks, the sound easily heard from this far away with his enhanced hearing, the limb giving out on him as he crashes to the floor with a shout. Blood leaks out of his eyes and mouth before he just... explodes; blood, organs and bones flying everywhere and covering his cell.

Lightning tears through the supernatural's body as his magic use registers immediately, but he forces himself to stand, legs and shoulders tense from the pain. Tears slip down his cheeks as he cries, so much fear in them its palpable.

Austin watches him grimace, and as that grim expression slowly falls into practiced apathy, his tears never slowing, the mans' head snaps up as smoke fills the room. He falls, finally, harsh coughs leaving his lips as his eyes turn back to what is likely their original color. The horns on his head disappear entirely, the scales and claws retreating as though they were never there.

The brunette watches as the Doctor pushes the black button on the remote, knowing full well that it causes a mixture of ingredients that harm supernaturals, made primarily of nightshade and strong sleeping gas, to dilute the deadly flower, to come out of the vents in the form of purple smoke. The aforementioned smoke dissipates, leaving the black haired man crumpled on the floor.

Austin watches in awe as he rises on shaky legs. "W-her-re is s-she?" His voice is weak, wisps of purple smoke still escaping his rose colored lips as he hacks and coughs, hand clutching the bullet wound in his neck that slowly oozes blood.

He's never seen anyone still conscious after that. This supernatural must be powerful to stay awake for so long. Either that, or determined. Probably both by the look of him.

"WHERE IS SHE?" He yells, his voice echoing throughout the hallway, harsh and grating as he shoves through the pain the action clearly brings him.

Austin is forced to cover his ears as the sound reverberates in his head, sensitive ears easily picking up the shout.

"My, my, what a protective streak for number thirteen. Her time in your care must have caused you to grow closer. How sweet. Its no matter, she's here with us now, and soon you'll be dead." The doctor sneers, "Oh, and maybe you should be quiet. Didn't thirteen tell you what happens when you make a racket here?"

With that, the doctor leaves, a self satisfied smirk on his face.

"Get back here! I'll fucking kill you if you hurt her anymore! I'll fucking kill you!" He continues to yell between coughs as the guards and orderlies walk away.

The lights all shut off except for a singular dim bulb in the center of the ceiling. There's silence, and then the odd man lets out a strangled sob, falling back to the floor. "Who is it you're looking for?" Austin decides to question him, leaning against the back wall of his cell.

The other man remains silent, his cries continuing. Coming to the conclusion that the other guy wasn't going to say anything, he decides to make up for the silence himself. He hasn't ever had company in here.

"There was a girl they'd brought into the Isolation Room. You'll probably end up there soon, only took me a couple days. She could apparently take people's so-" At this, the man's head shoots up and he crawls as fast as he can to the cell wall nearest to Austin, too hurt to do much else but lean against it, still taking in short gasps and exhaling to rid his lungs of as much of the smoke as possible.

"What did she look like? Were her eyes different colors? Blonde hair? Dark clothes? Did she have a small scar above the left side of her lip?" His words are rushed, frantic, chocolate eyes desperate and panicked.

"Yeah, uh, the Doctor addressed her as Patient Thirteen-"

"That's her! Was she okay? They hurt her, I felt it, but was she okay?" There was a hope in his gaze that Austin hated to snuff out, but this man needed to know what he'd seen.

"Last I'd seen her they were carting her off to the Isolation Room. The Doctor had her in Room Three, where they waterboard you. She had been... electrocuted, probably tried to use her magic or something." Austin recalls with a frown.

"No, no... my sweetness..." His voice is but a whisper, though it gets louder so the werewolf knew he was addressing him, "Thank you for telling me... my name is Remington Leith, vampire-witch hybrid at your service." The man now known as Remington attempts a smile but it falls short, slipping off his face quickly.

"You're a hybrid? I thought those were not only forbidden, but nearly impossible!"

"Well, I guess my brothers and I fall in that 'nearly' category." He muses dryly, eyes downcast.

"Three hybrids? Holy shit! Are you all the same age?"

"No, we're all two years apart in terms of human birth but we all died the same year. Well, I guess we're the same age in vampire years. Our bastard father kept coming back to our mother for a new ring until finally, he just killed her in a fit of rage." Remington explains, before pain flashes across his features.

His head slams back as his entire body jerks. "Shit!" He hisses, anger and pain ablaze in his eyes.

Austin watches, confused at Remington's actions, unable to look away as tremors wrack his body. Remington stares ahead of himself, unseeing, eyes glazed with a golden sheen. "She's not even awake and yet still in pain. Still trembling from the shocks." He murmurs, clearly not talking to anyone but himself. "I'm going to rip that doctor to shreds."

"Go the fuck to sleep you stupid pieces of shit!" Their collars crackle, a shock tearing through them for only a few seconds, but it was still far too long, as a slam sounds on Austin's door.

(Revised to here***)

Remington sneers, forcefully jostled out of his head, and it's an expression Austin feels is out of place on the other man's visage. A mark peeks out from his collarbone and hidden also by the collar, black and red and vibrant. Is that...?

"She's your soulmate isn't she?" Even as Austin whispers those words, he knows Remington heard them clearly.

There's a moment of silence, Remington refusing to meet his gaze. Eventually he gives a single nod, turning away to hide his mark.

The boy knows then that he was right. He's not sure how he knew their connection, but the vampires words, how he felt number thirteens pain, the devastation in his gaze... he was sure they were soulmates. If that vampire-witch hybrid and his brothers could exist, then so could a vampire with a soulmate. "You'll see her again. I'm sure of it. I'm Austin Taylor, werewolf."

"I said shut the fuck up, stupid monsters!"

They truly fall silent then. Remington plagued with thoughts of his love and Austin just happy to be alive another day, grateful for the small woman who refused the Doctor to spare his life.