Monstrous ➙ Theo Raeken

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Five days. Five days of waiting for them to come take her away from her family and friends. Five days of mental hell that Clarissa Bane had to endure. She was never good at sitting and waiting, the kind of waiting that had the faint smell of death surrounding it. She knew that she was going to die by the Dread Doctors hands and the knowing is what had killed her before they could even get near her.

She couldn't tell her brother of the mental anguish that she was enduring, not wanting to worry him. She had taken to watching him in those five days, memorizing every last detail of the little brother that she loved more than life itself. He had begun to notice something was wrong but she placated him with halfhearted smiles and pats on the back of the head. He could see the way that her eyes had dark circles around them, anyone could tell that the fiery auburn haired girl had not been getting her normal amount of sleep. She sat up most nights watching her brother as they lay quietly in the Stilinski household, Stiles or Theo joining her so that she was not trapped alone in her thoughts. She was thankful for their company, not speaking while they sat with her but just being there for her. 

She wanted to hate the world, scream and cry that it wasn't fair that they had just lost their parents and now her brother would be alone. She felt herself deteriorating on the inside and she supposed she always had been, the coolness to her skin and the false weakness had been her body's way of fighting for her to live. But she knew, she would not make it past the month, lucky to last the week as she got the affairs in order for her brother and Corey. Her search for Corey's cousin had given her a name which she had written in a note for the sheriff for him to hunt down.

Evelyn Danvers nee Bryant had been a tough person to find but she lucked out on the third day of silence unexpectedly. The twenty-four year old woman lived in New Orleans and she prayed that she could take care of Corey when she was gone, getting him away from the parents that she despised. Clarissa had gotten the family money put into an account for her brother after making the sheriff swear to her that he would take care of her brother. Stiles sat with her that night after she talked with his father and she could tell he knew that she was close to giving up.

"You can't leave us Clary."  That was the only thing that he had said to her after hours of silence and he didn't need to elaborate on it. She knew he had meant don't give up on living, for her brother, for Corey, for him and his father, and the pack. She had so many people she needed to keep fighting for but after the fourth day of nothing, it got harder for her to keep the thought in her mind. It had gotten harder for her to breathe, to sit in class and pretend that if she sliced open her skin that mercury wouldn't fall from it. In all honestly, she was shocked that she hadn't seen the Dread Doctors yet. There hadn't been the faintest clicking sound that had entered Clarissa's eardrums in five days and for that she was relieved.

She didn't understand why she had been dragged there on day five, she should have been spending time with her brother. Anywhere would have better than watching the alpha werewolf twirl his inhaler around at the animal clinic. She hadn't apologized to him for attacking him in his home but I don't thing either of them expected her to. She was thankful for the time spent with Theo though, their moments together pushing her forward as the days felt longer than ever. They watched silently from their place leaning against the wall, her head leaned gently against the taller teenager's shoulder. She observed Scott in that moment, watching the withdrawn look in his eyes and she couldn't help but feel a twang if pity in her heart for him.

"My asthma is back. I'm not sure how, but it came back." Clarissa was shocked at his voice, not expecting the werewolf the speak suddenly after minutes of not speaking. She watched as he twisted his inhaler, not looking up at the couple who stood watching his every movement. "Just as bad as it used to be. So now, I keep my inhaler on me all of the time. Just like I used to. And it's been five days. We haven't seen any new Chimeras, and we haven't seen the Dread Doctors. We all go to school, pretending like nothing's happened."