hold me closer

34

Later into the night, Mason and I departed. Since he didn't have a ride, I drove him home. After, I met the others at the McCall house. There, Scott, Stiles, Kira, Malia, and Liam were gathered around the kitchen table. I walked over, placing a reassuring hand on Stiles's shoulder.

I looked down at the contents on the table. A blueprint of Eichen House was spread out on the table with photos of the exterior of the building.

We were all in agreement together with just one look. Scott turned to Liam as he laid a file on the table that read: EICHEN SECURITY LOG. Stiles held up one of the key cards he must have snatched earlier after visiting Lydia and laid it on the table.

Scott smiled with a determined look in his eyes before saying, "Now we get Lydia."

:::

Scott and Stiles, after following the police on their animal chase, met me and Deaton at the animal clinic. Deaton had been taken by the Desert Wolf, which was why we hadn't heard of him in a long time. Fortunately, Malia and Braeden had found him.

"What I'm about to show you isn't supposed to exist," Deaton said.

He opened the manila envelope and pulled out a large stack of Polaroid photographs. He put the photos on the table as he said, "This is the only surviving evidence of Dr. Valack's time as Chief Medical Officer of Eichen House."

I stared at each one in horror. They were all supernatural creatures. I couldn't tell which kind, but I knew that they were. Many had deformed faces. Most, if not all, had holes drilled into their heads and all seemed either dead or in excruciating pain.

"To call it human experimentation would be... charitable."

Scott moved the lamp and picked up one of the photos. I looked at it. It was a woman with a hole drilled into her forehead, clutching her ears, her mouth open as if screaming.

"A banshee," Deaton said, noticing him. "She died screaming."

"So he drilled holes into their heads?" Stiles asked. "All of them?"

"That was the experimentation part," Deaton explained. "He did it to werewolves, banshees, wendigos. Any creature he could get his hands on. And Valack found that trephination would initially heighten their powers, but to levels that couldn't be contained."

"So, he wants to make Lydia more powerful," I figured, sighing.

"Yeah, except she's going to end up like them," Stiles said, gesturing to the photos.

"Worse, actually," Deaton told us. I looked at him. "Lydia's abilities were already pretty exceptional to begin with. Putting a hole in her head... will be like causing a leak in a nuclear reactor. She'll hear everything - every death, every dying scream, all at once."

"That's going to kill her," Scott stated, seeing the seriousness of it.

"Not only that," Deaton said. "Her own dying scream could be so powerful that it might kill everyone around her as well. And Lucy? If that happens, you won't only feel your friends' death, but everyone else that Lydia affects."

"Well, not unless I die before them," I said, glancing at Scott and Stiles. "I'm going. She's my best friend and I'm not backing down. Ever."

:::

"There's four steps," Stiles said. "We get into Eichen, we get into the Closed Unit, we get Lydia, we get out."

"And we have to do it all while getting past orderlies, guards, electric door locks, and a mountain ash barrier," Scott added.