|noncanon, rewritten, edited|

The breeze was cool, gliding over her skin, gently through the thin fabric of her clothes as she looked forward. A deep, vibrating hum shaking through the air. Quiet, like it wasn't there unless you had been listening for a long, long time. And that she had been. Hands gently brushing over the soft grass in the meadow she found herself sitting in. She felt calm. Relaxed without words. So much so that she hardly had the thought to wonder what brought her here.

"I love you." The words were soft as they came from behind her. She stilled, unable to turn around as she felt the warmth of his face against her back, arms creeping into her vision as they wrapped around her, an embrace. A familiar one. One she couldn't accept. "I love you a lot, Izz."

The humming felt louder, more solidified as she felt unable to move. Unable to turn around to look at the face she always found so comforting and safe. Someone she thought would always be beside her no matter what she did. No matter what she saw him do. No matter what they said.

The tears that welled up in her eyes felt hot. Burning almost as they rolled down her face and onto the hands gently clasped over her stomach, she watched them flinch as each drop fell onto the scarred skin there, holding tighter at each burning hit as she sobbed. Her tears burned hot and painfully, she could see it. The sound breaking from her throat as the arms around her trembled. They were terrified, weren't they?

"M-Maddox." Her voice broke as she tried to get an answer. A way to make him let go so she can see him as the hum seemed to shake her unmoving. Her skin like static as she tried to move, to do anything to see those wisps of blond hair and the sad eyes she needed to look into. To ask why. To ask how.

But her tears still fell, burning him as he held on tighter. Terrified of what might happen if he really let go.

The hum shook them both. The ground trembling beneath them as the sky quaked into a more hazy grey. "Please." They both begged.

"Don't leave me."

The hospital light was dimmer than the brightness one would expect from what they showed on TV. The linoleum floors ugly grey to match the unfamiliar and unwelcoming air that one could only describe as medical. The deep hum of the ventilator as it paced itself and worked diligently the only things keeping the two awake.

Sawyer could barely look at her. He's seen her before this all had happened. What the other fake jocks observed to be a member of one of the two biggest outcasts in school. Besides their own groups of course. The only conversation he remembers having with her running through his head at every glance he caught of her face. He had only tried to get Maddox closer to whatever Elias had intended then. Something... Less drastic than what it was now. Maybe even, less lethal.

"You better leave him the fuck out of whatever you have planned. You can't mess around with someone like him-" She found him trying to catch up to the blond boy as he obliviously wandered the halls. But she was there too, not someone he noticed at first since she was behind Sawyer, definitely making herself known only as she spun him around to look at her. The girl that had the scent of flowery perfume to mask the vodka cloaking her furious small frame.

"Look I just want to say-"

"What? That you want to be friends? That he's suddenly someone you and your crew want to hang out with? Do you think this is our first time dealing with dicks like you?"

Maddox had paused a few feet forward. Listening, but not looking at either of them.

"I don't want to do any of that-"

"Then leave him alone. We're fine, just us, pretty boy."

He managed to talk to the blond a bit more after that, conversations that were just as burned into his memory as that one. They weren't fine. They never were. Nothing from either of them could ever convince him of that, especially as he looked at her now. How stupid he was to wait. To listen to either of them.

"It's him. We know now." Sawyer flinched as Elias walked back into the room, bag slung over his shoulder with metal clinking inside.

If they were found anywhere near each other outside of that stupid fucking school, the southern boy would be strung up without much hesitation... he hoped that there would be a moment's pause. A second they would give him to at least explain himself. He didn't think he could even look at them with the intent to hurt them. But this meant a lot of things, mainly betraying everyone he knew for it. He wasn't used to this. To him. Or what they might have to do because of this one chance he didn't know why he took. But he felt...

He had to. To follow him. Even with what it meant. For what it did.

"Doubt?" Sawyer asked hopefully. Blue eyes nervous as they met those dark brown ones, filling with a strange type of sorrow as he found none. It was their last resort now. Nothing left to do but the worst option they had.

"Let's go, before anyone else finds out." He already turned on his heel. Not wanting to look back at the sadness that overcame the other boy's face. Leaving him standing in the dull room, the machines blinking and humming as they worked.

"I-I..." He didn't need to say it. As he walked over to where she lay. Motionless and closer to death than he'd ever seen another person go through this quietly. He knew he didn't need to, but the tears welled up anyways as he did.

"I'm sorry, Isadora... I'm so sorry."

•••

"Sleep quickly. My arm's tired." She whispered as she continued to stroke his head, her lap warm where his face was buried. The comfort of her hand nearly making him doze as he finally stopped his sobbing after so long, his throat tight from his screaming, raspy if he had it in him to say a word. He would have slept if he could, they would have forced him if they couldn't. If that hand was there. Petting him how he liked. Maybe then he would have actually slept soundly.

She never had red hair. But for some reason, he had always imagined her with it. Red like fire. Bright and saturated, nothing like the blond hair he shared with her. He should have realized it earlier when he saw her first. Jackie... was her name? Wasn't it? That's why she gave it to him. That and to laugh. Both of them named after the same bottle of liquor they hated so much.

If he lifted his head, he wasn't sure if he'd see her face again, or the cold wall he must be resting on. He wanted to ask why she stayed. Why she kept doing this to him after everything she did to get away from here, from him. Why she came back just to do more than she's ever done for him when she was really here, and worse. But the last time he tried, she just looked like someone else until he begged her to stop.

After so many years, the last thing he would have thought was this... that he would end up here again, his mother stroking his hair as she told him again how he should have died with her here. The same room. The same blank walls. The same blue eyes that looked down on him with disappointment and hatred. He never did change. Nothing did. Nothing that mattered anyway.

"Is she okay?" His voice cracked, his vocal cords strained and hoarse to the point he could barely make the words come out, the pain of trying quickly following after. This wasn't the first time he asked, he had been screaming for a reason after all. But he has yet to get an answer. From anyone. Cawley, Jackie, the nurse he ripped at. No one.

She hummed. A happy sound he didn't want to hear. Pushing the hair back behind his ear before pulling it. Forcing him up as he winced, another broken sob falling passed his lips as he tried to close his eyes. It wasn't her face anymore. And it wasn't one he wanted something else to wear like this.

"Why don't you ask her yourself, since you're so adamant about it." She whispered.

"Stop. S-Stop. J-just tell me-" It was surprising how he could still manage more tears as they streamed down his face, maybe the last he could make, few and burning as they fell.

"Ask her. Ask her, Maddox."

His scream raised a chorus as it traveled through the empty halls. The tormented and damaged writhing in their shared pain as it spread like liquid fire. Nurses would have rushed to the anguish if any were around. But the ones that had resisted, along with those pesky security guards lay motionless in their own blood. Puddled around their mouths as the few left continued to cower in the corners. The sound making a shiver run up Grayson's spine. Looking between the two in front of him as he pushed the woman to the side with his foot. Not wanting to trip later. 

"I don't like this, or you."

He was so glad to hear Will say it first as he dropped the last guard. He didn't do it gently, he was always quite brusque these days, and this didn't seem to fall on his rarely appearing softer side. 

The male pushed his hair back into place, wiping his messied hand onto the woman's scrubs before picking himself back up. More concerned with putting himself back together from his disarray than whether either of his temporary goons liked him or not. He shook his foot to try and get rid of the other red sticking to the soles of his red bottoms.

"Then maybe, neither of you should have sold yourselves to the cause. Complain all you like." He turned to them with a humorless smile. "You're my bitches until we're done here."

Callum walked forward. Disgust and boredom the only distinguishable expressions on his face as he looked at the few that listened to him when he first walked in. 

"Be good now. The rest of you. You can either be red jam like your co-workers or keep taking care of your crazies." He hummed. The two reluctantly following behind him as they tread through the screeching halls.

They stuck close together, the dim florescent lights set to encourage sleep casting long shadows as they swung overhead. Nothing was there to shake them. Not a wisp of breeze, nor a tremble in the ground. But they shook with the screams that bounced through the hall. He was a lot stronger now than he should be, but given the circumstances, it looked like he's already gone through more than he should have before he was collected. His father would be proud.

A gentle knock as they found themselves in front of the door. The world going silent as the metal thud echoed around them. The boys behind him exchanged glances before the door creaked open.

"Done torturing yourself, Blondie?"

Grayson didn't know what he had expected as the door swung forward to let in the oblong light, but he couldn't help the lump in his throat as he looked at him. Face blank and tired, eyes bleary and black, rimmed red as they regarded the three with a blink.

"Where did she go?" His voice was barely there, almost completely gone with how much he used it, he didn't know who he was asking for, but it didn't even occur to him that Callum or the other two might know the answer to it either way.

"Uhm, Intensive care?" The Flagg boy tilted his head as he took a wild guess. Watching something shatter infront of him with an interested smile. 

He extended his hand as Maddox looked forward at it like it would bite him. A spare moment of silence spreading thin as he raised his own hand, just about to take it until different screams began to reach their ears. Gray and Will unable to stop themselves from flinching as someone loud and panicked yelled for everyone who could, to get out. Callum couldn't help the annoyance that crept into a scowl.

He nodded. Watching the other two run off as he felt the hand he left outstretched, not only get accepted, but harshly pulled forward. Callum was pinned to the wall faster than he could blink, arm pinned overhead, and hand wrapped around his throat. Eyes wide as he looked at the blond who towered over him face pressed against the side of his.

"Take me to her." His throat scratched his words so quietly he could barely hear them. It made him roll his eyes to see how adamant he was about this. Then again, focus led to this power in the first place, the mindless strength that they wanted.

"She's useless right now. Half dead is hardly how anyone wants things." He said simply, surprised as he felt him press harder against him, hips pinned as he couldn't move. His 'free' hand pressed behind his back. Immobilized completely.

"Take me." 

"We have to go somewhere-" He gasped as he felt his throat tighten, "-else." He swallowed hard. Not exactly sure how he felt being pinned by the antichrist. If he were to think completely with his dick at the moment, he might say he was enjoying it. But clearly, that wasn't what he needed to hear. 

He brought in a nervous breath. It wasn't like he could kill him, but something terrible seeped off of him, trickling and spreading, moving far under his skin in a way he didn't like.

"We could give her to you if she were dead, I know who can fix her that way... But she isn't yet." His mind went to those little dead kids that came along with the Rosedale failure. They were obedient little things he almost wanted one of. Right now, she was far too much of a hassle to take much of anywhere, he'd like to avoid it if he could. But that clearly wasn't what he wanted to hear.

He was raised, further up as he could barely touch the ground, eye-level now to the blond in front of him. His heavy breath fanning across his face as he could barely bring any of his own in. His hands, now free, clung to his arm as he leaned in close. "P-Please..."

When he couldn't answer, he dropped him down, both of them collapsing to their knees as he buried his face in his hands. He couldn't take much more of this. Callum could see it as his will quickly withered. This wouldn't do either.

He crept closer, gasping for breath as he took his face into his hands. Brushing the blond hair from his tear-streaked face, smiling, ignoring the bruises he gave him as he seemed to find exactly what he wanted. Looking back into those dark pained eyes, with exactly what he desired.

"Let me fix her for you. Then, you can stay together."

•••

Grayson recognized these voices as they rushed past the rekindled screaming of the patients here. He didn't want to. Fuck he didn't want to, but he did. Will ran forward. Nearly slipping on blood as he found the source back in the carnage they made of the lobby. Eyes blowing wide as he felt whatever words he had to say die in his throat.

"Elias wait-" But the man who that name belonged to had already disappeared behind a corner. Instead, it was just the two now, friends from long past staring at each other as the shuttered world around them seemed to crack. 

"S-Sawyer?" 

He was working against them, he didn't want to believe it as he looked at the knife in his hands, and the panic in those bright blue eyes of a boy caught in the middle of a mistake. But he was there, very real and very afraid. It was Sawyer without doubt.

As Grayson caught up, they were already yelling. He was about to move closer. But his foot met something slick as he tripped, his head slamming hard on the ground as he felt pain bloom in his skull. Stunned for a moment as their voices carried faster than he could react. His vision doubling as he tried to get a grip.

"How could you fucking do this? We were so close! We almost have everything done!" Will didn't even care that Sawyer had that nasty looking knife as he moved closer. The pure rage bubbling over, along with something else... sorrow. "Did you want us to be the ones to hurt you?!" 

"What the fuck do you think they're actually going to do, Will? Let us go?" His grip was tight on the handle as he flinched when he walked forward. Even if they did let them go, what would be left up here for them to deal with? What life did they have left if they didn't fight for this one? "T-They'll just put us back... F-Forever this time..." He couldn't be alone again. Not like before. Not without what he had.

Will didn't know what plan he had when he tackled him, but his anger took over, and the truth in Sawyer's word only stung more. It felt stupid to be hopeful. It felt stupid that he let him make him realize it like this. The last of their world. The last of Rosedale was them, and this seemed to be where it all split.

Maybe he was right, but that didn't stop them from what they had to do. The image of who he fell under, the torment he's suffered for years, It hung over his head like a noose, and even now he knew how easy it was for things to turn to him. He was lucky. Doing this he hasn't hurt anymore...

But there was still so much more that could happen if he didn't.

Maybe that's why he so blindly jumped at him, maybe that's why he cared so little about how they fell as they hit the ground. Maybe that's why so easily the knife cut through him as he looked at those gleaming blue eyes again, tears welled up there as he looked at him with pure horror at what he just made him do. They stilled, both of their struggling coming to an abrupt halt as Will looked over him. tears he didn't know he had to shed slipping out and onto Sawyer's scared face.

"M-Maybe they would have put us together... this time..." He said quietly. Hands shakily trying to find where the handle held, where the blade disappeared inside of his flesh, Sawyers's fingers still tightly clutched around it as red dripped over them. That hurt a lot more than he thought it would, and it was clear as the surprise marked his face. "I-It could have been... different..."

"But what if it isn't?" Sawyer's voice cracked as he looked down. A string of soft ohno's falling past his lips as Will pulled back. Groaning as he slipped off the blade. Trying to sit back up only for him to fall over. A lot more blood pooling out than they expected. 

"Will? Will?!" Grayson managed to bring himself back enough, blurred and tilted vision still skewed to see his friend gasping for air as he hit the ground, he tried to stand, falling again as he tried to go him. Sawyer scrambling as he threw the knife away.

"Run. Please." Will said quietly. Clutching at the hole in his stomach before wincing. The faint touch taking the air out of his lungs. Coughing now as it welled in his throat. A laugh. That's what that sound was. "Run."

Sawyer looked blankly before Grayson finally managed to rush to his side. Calling out to Will as he brought himself back to the reality of the situation. Tears rolling down his face as he did what he asked, skittering passed them and what he'd done. To find Elias. The only thing he truly had left.

"Will, will, buddy-" Grayson scrambled to his side. Looking down at the mess before holding his head, his eyes already rolling back, panic seizing him as he tried to shake him, tapping his face as a sob wracked through his chest. "Will, Will wait please, w-we can fix this just stay awake-"

"Gray..." He smiled red, barely able to focus as he heard him, things already felt so distant. "I'm glad..." He wheezed heavily now, barely able to bring in another breath. "W-we met again..."

It was cold, like he always imagined, as Grayson pulled him forward, holding him close as he felt what was left finally ease away. "P-please leave me h-here..."

"I didn't really want to live forever..."

Sawyer's feet pushed him forward as he huffed, no idea knowing where he was headed until he followed the tracks of Elias's red footprints. His head light and full of fuzz as he numbed himself to what blood he had stained on his hands. Nearly skittering past the open door as his heart sank. Looking at who sat there. Head in his hands as he muttered string after string of broken curses.

Elias didn't have to look up at him for Sawyer to feel the defeat. They lost.