Monstrous ➙ Theo Raeken

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Clarissa could feel the adrenaline begin to wear off as she moved through the dreary halls of Eichen House. Every step she took reminded her of the hole that was drilled into her head and the burn marks that were slowly but surely healing from the assault that Parrish had inflicted to her body when he was thrown into her and Corey.

It felt like she was being weighed down by the burden that she had put upon her shoulders. Her friends and family were her first priority but she had no idea how she would be able to keep them safe from the world that was slowly crumbling around them.

Delcan and Corey were her responsibility, even though she now had Evie to help take care of them, she had two little brothers to shield from the fallout of a supernatural super wolf attacking their town. She now had Josh to look after too. The teenage chimera had a family but they had no idea what their son had become, how he had died and lived through literal hell for days.

The thought of hell brought the painful reminder that Allison Argent was dead and gone beneath the Earth. She had sobbed at her funeral, had lived months without the girl but once her eyes locked against Allison's and she felt the warm flesh that covered her bones, it had brought back all the painful memories that the girl had associated with the huntress. She missed Allison more than words could describe. She missed the one girl who would have stuck by her side though all of her bad choices.

Bad choices that Clarissa felt like she was destined to keep making.

She knew that she and her family were standing on crumbling ground. They were nowhere near the information that they needed to gather to stay alive with the threat that loomed over their town like a shadow. They were alienated from the McCall pack because of the darkness that surrounded their hearts from dying and coming back.

It felt like it was engulfing and poisoning everything that made sense to her. The darkness felt like an arrow through the side, blood flowing through cracked lips, and the air coming through her lungs unsteadily because of the feeling of claws slithering around her neck.

Clarissa felt like she was teetering on the line between the real world and the afterlife once again. She didn't want to die again but the light that surrounded her hope felt like it was being filmed by the darkness that surrounded her.

She felt lost, hopeless, and even though she had strong feelings for Theo, she was beginning to lose hope in him too. Clarissa knew that she was falling. She understood that the feelings that she had for the chimera could kill her if she let them but she didn't seem to care if she hit the ground at the end of the fall.

It was Theo.

Her Theo that she would follow blindly to the end of the Earth if he wanted her to. It was a dangerous game that they were playing and she had a desperation to stomp out the feeling that felt like they would lose. She couldn't help but sometimes feel as if she was being naive when it came to her fellow chimera.

Clarissa knew Theo but she also felt like she was a marionette doll that he was moving around to where he needed her. It felt like he was beginning to hide things from her, things that would become detrimental to the survival of herself and her family which included Theo. She knew what her feelings were but she was beginning to doubt his feelings for her were completely innocent from lies and schemes.

It was like the small switch in her brain only had control over a few of her feelings. She knew that the brain could process multiple feelings at one time but she also knew that people can only feel one emotion at a time. The switch kept flicking between anger, doubt, and love for her family and she was getting frustrated with the doubt that was growing in her head.

The auburn haired teenager shook her head, cleansing it from the thoughts that shouldn't matter to her in the middle of a lockdown. She needed to find Lydia and the others. She needed to finally figure out everything that was going on in Beacon Hills whether Theo wanted her to or not.