&& wasteland,

[Akkii]

Pushing the door open, Mikie entered the house. She walked to the coat rack while calling, ”Dad, I’m home!” even though he didn’t actually care whether she was home or not. Taking off her coat, she put her back to the hallway, where, at the end of the hallway was her dad’s room. She hung up her jacket, which she’d had tied around her waist, and as she turned heard a loud boom. Not even a second later, pain exploded in her leg. Before she could collapse, another boom sounded, and the next area she felt pain in was her shoulder.
Mikie crashed to the floor, a shriek escaping her mouth.
Another boom sounded, but this time it missed her completely. She heard the sound of footsteps coming near her. She would have curled into a ball, but it hurt to move. She could feel warm liquid spread over her arm and neck in one spot, and felt her leg get soaked in another area. She heard whoever had attacked her try to pull the trigger of a gun. The metal of the gun was against her chest.
But there was no boom. There was no pain this time. The gun was out of bullets. Mikie forced her eyes open, though she didn’t want to confirm her suspicions.
Her father stood over, just as she assumed.

She was breathing unevenly, mainly out of pain, but also out of fear. She gave her father a pleading look, but he just looked disgusted. And drunk. Extremely drunk.
The air escaped her lungs as he threw the gun hard at her stomach. She figured he’d been trying to throw it at her head, but he was so disoriented that he’d missed completely. She saw his hand reach down, and she squeezed her eyes shut. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, which was now stained with blood. Mikie’s gasp of pain was on the verge of a scream. Her dad didn’t seem to notice. Instead he shoved her against the wall. This time she let out a loud screech as her injured shoulder and leg made contact with the wall. She felt his hand move from the collar of her shirt to her neck. He held her tightly against the wall, closing off her windpipe completely.
He pulled back his free hand, and she squeezed her eyes shut just it connected with her nose. She heard a terrible cracking sound, and at the same time felt the pain in her nose as blood gushed. She ended up biting hard into her lip and the inside of her right cheek, and she got a salty, coppery taste in her mouth.
Stop, she mouthed after getting punched a second, and then a third time.
Her dad stopped hitting her and let go of her neck, letting her collapse to the floor. Ha, how exactly was she supposed to stay standing in this kind of condition?
At first, Mikie thought he’d paid attention, and had decided to stop.
But when he kneeled down beside her, she saw through the blood clouding her eyes, and noticed the feral look in his own gaze.

She started to attempt at getting away, but only ended up hurting herself. Mikie shut her eyes and felt him stripping her.
The next thing he did was too horrible to describe, and as kept her eyes squeezed shut, she drowned herself in her screams.
Mikie wasn’t sure of how long this had gone on, but as she suddenly felt a blow connect with her head, she went unconscious.

---

She woke up crying hysterically, and even with tears blurring her eyes she was blinded by the lights overhead. While sobbing, she tried to work through her thoughts, and recollect what had happened. Why was she here in the hospital?
DadgunshoothitbloodRAPE!
That was how her thoughts came, all blurred and mixed together. She didn’t realize she’d said the same words allowed, the last word near the volume of a scream. Nor was she aware that she had a visitor as she covered her eyes and sobbed even harder.

[C R I S I S]

How long had he been sitting here? Seconds had bled into minutes, and minutes had bled into hours. He hadn’t allowed himself to look at the clock though, instead, he had forced himself to wait in the emergency room. Surrounded by bright white, seemingly sterile toys, if it had been anyone else at all, Schatten would have left; bolted for the door and never look back. He hated hospitals even more than he had when he was younger now. He could smell the pain, the fear, and the overpowering smell of death here. Ghosts were everywhere, and although he couldn’t see them, he could feel their cold brushes against his skin, feel them running their hands through his hair. It was hard not to react to that, but for once, Schatten didn’t even spare them a shiver; there were too many things on his mind for him to worry about anything else.
Mikkie had been hurt. Not just hurt, horribly hurt. He had been skipping today, just meandering the town really, when the ambulance had come roaring by, nearly hitting him; if he hadn’t rolled to the side of the street it would have. The scent that came from the back of the ambulance though was enough to make Schatten forget about any anger or annoyance he felt.

He had followed the ambulance here, not caring who saw him keeping up with the speeding vehicle, panic growing in him with every step. That scent…it was from who had hurt her. Storing it in his mind, Schatten growled to himself; whoever had done this would be lucky to get away with their life when he was done with them. And if Mikkie died…they would only wish to die. Just because he did not practice the form of torment, it did not mean he wasn’t skilled in it. Having arrived at the hospital, they had sent him to the waiting room while Mikkie was being operated on.
And here he was. And imagine that, he was still waiting. Gabriel had appeared earlier, but after Schatten had nearly killed him outside, had left, though he would be back later. Right now though, the coward wasn’t ready to face Schatten.
Feeling a snarl want to flicker across his features, Schatten clenched his hands into fists; hard enough to draw some blood, and took a deep breath. It was always the worst part of anything, the waiting. The wondering of what was next, of what was going to happen.
The wondering if she was going to live or die; he couldn’t lose her so quickly!

The nurse, her nametag told him her name was Karen though he could care less about that, finally came out to inform him that he could see Mikkie. Usually only the family of the inured could see them when they were in ICU, but it had been VERY hard to argue with Schatten. His wolf had been livid at that point, still was Schatten was just more in control, and the personnel had paled when he had told them he was going to see her as soon as possible, no matter what. Maybe they wouldn’t have done so if he had been human, but Schatten had always been determined, and if he said something was going to be done, it was going to be done. Rising from his seat silently, Schatten followed Karen, feeling the horror rise in him as he passed rooms, drawing in their scents by pure accident and seeing how much suffering they were in.
Oh he hated hospitals.
Finally, finally, they came to Mikkie’s room. Thanking the nurse and making it clear Schatten had not needed her help, he had gone and sat upon the chair beside the bed, just watching, silent so not to disturb her, though from the thrashing, he was willing to bet that they weren’t pleasant dreams.

More hours had passed with him just sitting there, watching. Outside, it was getting dark—perfect. Head resting on his hands, Schatten’s endless patience came in handy. Mikkie was starting to come through it seemed.
DadgunshoothitbloodRAPE!
Matched with the fact she was crying hysterically made Schatten sit up, dead still, his mind clicking through all of this.
This time, he could not hold back the feral snarl; it came low and deep, full of pure anger. Someone who Schatten’s wolf deemed pack had been hurt. The one who had hurt her needed to pay, and pay horribly. Taking a deep breath, Schatten flipped the lights down to a dimmer switch, and gently took Mikkie’s flailing hand, holding it with two of his own, just as she had done with him.
”Mikkie, sshh.” Schatten said softly, repeating this several times, trying to get her calm enough to listen to him; he probably wouldn’t be able to speak to her once he did what he had to do.
”You’re safe now. Nobody will hurt you here.” Schatten said, still speaking quietly. Removing one hand, he gently brushed her hair out of her face, fingers light, hoping that he wasn’t scaring her further. Rape was a scary thing—one that he could say he knew about, but this wasn’t the time for that.

As she gradually calmed down, Schatten stood up. His face was emotionless, but that was a very bad sign. A VERY bad one.
Looking down at her, Schatten freed his hands.
”Mikkie, listen closely to me, to my voice. You know who I am, and that you shouldn’t fear me. I understand if you do…if you will, after what I do. All I ask, is that you remember me as how I was, not for what I am about to become.” Head bowing slightly, Schatten steeled himself, and quickly leaned forward; brushing his lips against her forehead. Stepping away, he offered a small, though empty smile.
”I won’t kill him.” He whispered, before back up, out of the door, and turning away, though it took all of his strength. He had to protect her though, this couldn’t be allowed. Passing by Gabriel on the way out, Schatten ignored his brother completely, the cat calls, the taunts, and simply walked out. He didn’t know how much his face was showing, he needed to get out of there quickly.

It was full dark now, and Schatten had reached the scene of the incident, he could smell what had happened. The faint stench of gunpowder, the blood…and something that shouldn’t be named, something that shouldn’t have happened. Snarling, Schatten noted that the b@sterd wasn’t home yet either; good.
Moments later, the truck pulled up. He was still obviously drunk; staggering, and it made Schatten grin a smile that was not nice, and he felt his wolf come out to play. In one smooth movement, he stepped in front of the man.
”Geh aut auf the vay.” The drunken man said, words slurring together as he spoke.
And that was when he saw Schatten’s gaze.
Normally gold, this time, it was a murky red color, gold flecks here and there. There was something sinister about that gaze, causing the drunk to take a step backwards. And suddenly, the teenager was behind him, something that caused him to whirl, and nearly fall.
”You want money? I have money—I can get it for you!” Being frightened had sobered him up quite a bit it seemed.
”What do I want, you ask?” Pretending to ponder the fact, Schatten slowly took off his shoes and shirt, saving the pants for after he was done talking.
”I want your daughter to have her innocence back. I want her to forget about what you did to her. Oh but wait—you can’t do that, can you?” Making a tsch tsch sound, Schatten shook his head.
”Well well. Looks like I’ll have to make you pay. But not with money; come on. You can beat up a girl, but can you beat up someone your own size?”
And with that, Schatten tore off his pants and shifted; the fastest shift he had ever done.

Uttering a high pitched scream at the werewolf, jet black with shimmering red streaks that looked like blood on his pelt, he turned to run.
With a savage growl, Schatten jumped onto the man, knocking him down, and began to tear into the other man, blood flying up and splattering him. This was no nightmare, this was reality. This man had to pay for what had happened, but he couldn’t be killed.
The battle went on for a while, though it really couldn’t be called that. By the time the police sirens were casting their glare on him, Schatten had already changed back, and was in his own clothes, covered in blood. The man at his feet wasn’t dead, yet, but living in a world of agony, on the verge of passing out, but feeling every single broken bone, every single laceration that his claws and teeth had made. Sitting on the rubble, Schatten only looked up as the police officers came, and slowly turned around, allowing him to be cuffed and sent to jail.

He had done what he had needed to do, he had no worries about going to jail.

---

Karen walked into the room, her gaze worried. Beside Mikkie, sat not the young man who had been so persistent earlier, but a new one with auburn hair and a golden gaze like the other man—maybe they were brothers? Looking at Mikkie, she frowned deeply, her remorse on her face.
”I’m so sorry Mikkie, but your dad has been viciously attacked by something. He’ll make it, but he won’t be able to see you until his many lacerations and a few of his broken bones heal.” Head bowing, she exited, but not before looking over her should and adding;
”It looked as though some animal did it. I don’t know how the teenager they have in custody did it, I could have sworn it was a wolf attack.” And with that, Karen left.

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