Valack and Nurse Cross are walking down the wet sewer tunnels to a room in the basement, where he leads her through a set of metal double doors and into a room in the basement. Inside the room is a cabinet, which Valack opens to reveal what appears to be a Dread Doctor mask. He grabs it and pulls it out, and Nurse Cross looks morbidly curious at the sight of it.
"Have you ever actually put that thing on someone?"
"Not in years. Close the doors, would you?"
Nurse Crosswalks back to close the doors as she's asked, mistakenly turning her back to him as she continues to talk
"How do you know it still works?"
"I don't"
Valack smirks as he walks toward Nurse Cross while she works on locking the doors.
"I suppose we should give it a try-"
Before she can react, Valack shoves the Dread Doctor mask over her head, and a mechanical clacking sound makes it appear as though it is forcefully tightening itself around her head as she screams in agony. Her fingers claw at the mask in a futile attempt to wrench it off, but she ultimately collapses onto the floor and goes limp after several moments.
"Shame" Valack hums. "But I'm guessing a regent witch will be able to withstand more"
Stiles walks through the halls of Eichen House, leaving Scott and Liam to try and break through the mountain ash barrier, using the keycard to get through a second gate that leads into another hallway as he nervously looks around to make sure he isn't being followed by guards or other Eichen employees.
He peeks into the various rooms until he finally finds Faline's and opens the door to slip inside. However, when he sees the very weak and pale Faline laying silently on the bed, her wrists and ankles strapped to the bed frame and Valack's bloody drill laying on the table next to her, he stops right in his tracks and stares in horror, especially when he sees the bloody wound on the left side of her head above her ear. When Faline sees him, she looks both relieved and terrified.
"Stiles...?" Faline whispers.
The sound of Faline's voice spurs Stiles into action, and he finally rushes toward the bed, where he examines her wound more closely. Faline, however, only becomes more panicked as she weakly pleads with him.
"You can't be here," Faline says.
Stiles' eyes glance from Faline's trephination wound and her bloody, sweat-soaked pillow to the leather straps binding her wrists to the bed as Faline uses all her strength to slightly lifting her head, her eyes widening in fear.
"You'll die if you stay. All of you" Faline whispers.
Stiles is frantically trying to undo Faline's restraints so he can get her out of there, but Faline is begging Stiles to leave her and run away, not wanting to see him hurt.
"Stiles, he's coming-" Faline says.
"Faline, I'm not leaving you here!"
"You have to!" Faline says.
A beeping noise indicates that someone has just entered the closed unit, and Faline's eyes are wild with fear as she stares at Stiles intensely.
"Stiles, go! Please!" Faline begs.
Stiles, hating what is happening, reluctantly does as Faline has instructed and leaves, hiding around a corner leading to an adjacent hall just as Valack heads into Faline's room from the opposite direction. He looks at Faline-- who looks back at him with a blank expression-- and does not seem to sense that Stiles was just in the room. Outside one of the gates to the closed unit, Stiles is ducked behind the corner so he can listen to what Valack has to say in hopes that it can help their escape plan.
Valack is sitting at Faline's bedside, where he has grabbed a cotton ball and uses it to blot at the bleeding trephination wound on Faline's head. The contact makes Faline wince and flinches away from him, but Valack continues to speak with her in a soothing voice.
"Stay focused, Faline"
"What did you do to me?" Faline asks.
"I've amplified your abilities-- something that might just save the lives of your friends. You see a witch's abilities are limited by one thing, their mind"
Out in the ADJACENT HALLWAY, Stiles is still hiding around the corner, and he scowls mutinously as he listens to Valack talk to Faline after what he's done to her.
"Theo and Hayden... They found it. They were looking for Noah, but they found a symbol. A circle inside of another circle, carved into a wall... the symbol of Scott's pack"
Valack seems intrigued and slightly nervous about this information, as does Stiles, who moves closer to the gate so he can hear better.
"It was more than a symbol, wasn't it? It was a promise to reunite them" Valack says.
"Yes"
"But has Scott done it yet? Will he be coming for you?"
Faline, who is staring at the ceiling as if in a daze, replies in a quiet, raspy voice.
"Someone's coming"
The buzzer to the far gate to the closed unit buzzes loudly, indicating to Valack and Stiles that someone is heading toward Faline's room.
"But it's not Scott"
The gate to the closed unit on the opposite end of the hall from where Stiles is hiding opens, just as Theo, Tracy, Josh, and Corey walk through it and head toward Faline's room.
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