Ripper screamed as he was thrown violently across the floor doing his best to protect his head with his weak, battered arms. His long, pale legs snapped to his chest and he tried his hardest not to react to the immense pain following the impact. He failed, letting out a loud screech of agony. Blood leaked from his forehead, torso, legs, arms, everywhere, really. Sobbing, he rolled over, still curled into a ball, so that his back faced upwards. Bad move. A thick metal baseball bat was brought down upon his back. He shrieked, forced to sprawl himself flat out helplessly, hugging the ground with his arms spread wide. Enough, he thought to himself, PLEASE just let me go...
His prayers were answered. A voice spoke up as a door was threw open. Not a loud, threatening voice, but voice that frightened Ripper nonetheless to squeeze his eyes tightly shut. "MOM!" the voice shouted accusingly, "GET OFF OF HIM!"
A drunk woman, who smelled rancidly of alcohol, cigarettes, and pot stumbled over to the visitor, a boy around twelve with a hard glare. She smirked. "H-hey," she burped, "Hey Vlaaad, I'm like..." She laughed drunkly, stumbling backwards and holding her head. "Woah. Do you see that, like, puppy? It's freaking floating, man..." She giggled, swaying slightly.
The boy gritted his teeth, closing his teeth before grabbing this woman's arm and dragging her by her wrist into another room in the trashy, rundown apartment. He hated this woman. His mother, they would call her, when Vlad knew that he was most definitely not related to this... this, beast. He slammed the door shut behind her, locking it. She wouldn't need to get out, anyway, she would most likely be knocked out any minute in a heap of booze.
Ripped whimpered and slowly opened one of his eyes. He wanted to say something, but all he could manage was a cough, hacking up, suprise surpsise, even more blood. He groaned quietly in pain.
Vlad turned his attention to the other boy, lying on the floor, barely alive. He gulped, noticing two crooked, cut up gray wings shooting out half-way from his back. What was a boy to do now? He was so confused. This kid was his age, twelve, and one of his step-brothers. He had two, now, Ripper and Reaper, who their step-dad dumped on their mom before running off into Vegas with their old neighbor. He didn't see them much, most of the time he was happily nestled away with his biological father. He knew that he was a twin with his other brother. He knew that they were stuck with his mother. That was pretty much literally all he knew, though.
He bit down on his lip before kneeling by him, slowly extending a hand. "Uh... are you... okay?" he whispered nervously, furrowing his brow in awkwardness. Of course he wasn't okay. He was so mishapen and out of it, it was as if he were not a human being. He sure wasn't being treated like one, anyway.
Ripper, who was seeing black spots fade at the corners of his eyes, nodded in the slightest motion. He said nothing, his ashy-gray eyes flickering with extreme levels of pain. His breaths were ragged and short, and he hurt... he hurt everywhere.
Vlad looked at him impatiently. "Don't bother lying to me, kid. I know you're not okay..." He crossed his arms stubbornly, gently tugging Ripper to his feet. Ripper still said nothing, however, now he was cringing in his left eye, the other was swollen shut in a nasty bruise by now. Obviously in pain.
He slowly helped him towards the bathroom, sitting him down on the closed toliet seat. He sighed, scavenging around for their old first aid kit, pulling out the first bandaid and stripping it of its wrapper, fingering on a bit of antibiotic, and gently applying it to his cut. As he continued to press on more and more bandaid as pressure packs, he stared into Ripper's eyes. "In exchange for this... I expect you to tell me about... you." He didn't understand exactly why, but he was intrested in this strange boy. Maybe it was the mystery, maybe it was pity, but he was going to get more out of this guy.
He wanted to know everything. And maybe, just maybe, he could help him.