Hello ! So glad you could stop by! As many who have been following "The Silver Lining" know, the fic was recently placed on INDEFINITE HIATUS. Well...
APRIL FOOLS!
No, not really. The truth is that I kept trying to work on an alternate ending for another fic. To learn how the whole thing went down, head over to my profile. For those of you too lazy to do so, "the long story made short-esque" is that I couldn't do that, so I began on this. Read-N'-Review!
Chapter 2 – Realizations
Morning.
The young feline lay on her back, yellow eyes wide, locking the ceiling with their intense stare.
There was thinking going on behind those eyes.
Her mind was tired.
Her body was tired.
But still she thought.
About yesterday morning.
About last night.
Night.
The sliding door remained open, just a crack, and Viper slid inside, trying not to make a sound.
Her feline friend sat on the cot in the corner, and her eyes glowed fiercely.
Viper doubted that there was anything fierce left behind those eyes tonight.
All I see is regret.
She thought that Tigress had some idea of what she had done, but Viper saw something else in those eyes that made her think otherwise: uncertainty.
They had all argued over who should tell Tigress (Crane included), and had decided that Viper be the messenger. The bearer of bad news.
Or good news, if you wanted to look at it that way.
After all, it could have been worse.
Yes, she supposed, it could always be worse, but looking into those glowing cat's eyes made her - once again - think otherwise.
"I hurt someone again, didn't I?"
The words sent a chill down the reptile's spine. They were hollow, almost childish, and not so much a question as a statement.
Viper was the messenger because she was the "doctor" of the bunch, and could "explain everything way better" than any of the others could. She would have pointed out that any dummy could "explain" Crane's injuries, but the truth was that Crane's injuries were not the worst part.
Viper swallowed, an audible "gulp" that made her wince.
Then, she began.
Morning.
Tigress wished for relief from her thoughts, wished for sleep, but the cot she lay on could bring no such thing.
Last night's realizations led to only one conclusion: the rages were back.
Maybe not forever, you know-
Yes, maybe, but even if it was a single outburst, it was one too much, and Tigress was scared.
Tigress was terrified.
When Viper was in her room last night, Tigress had wished
(hell, more like prayed)
for the courage to tell of the rages, but such courage did not come.
Like sleep.
And there's nothing I can do about that.
The story which had escaped her last night had kept bouncing back and forth through her mind, everywhere at once, blocking all other thought. It was the story of the rages.
It was the story of her childhood.
It was the story of a child, hated and feared by all, a child with no family, no future.
A child in an orphanage that felt more and more like a prison
(hell, more like Hell)
every time another person screamed at the monster, cried at the monster, turned away at the monster.
She was a monster, and whether the rages came before or after didn't matter because they were there, helping her to cope with the monstrosity of her being.
They helped her to cope, helped her to embrace her anger and become the thing everyone thought she was.
Or, perhaps, had always been.
Then Shifu came, and everything changed.
At least, for a while.
And now the rages were back.
And the voice, the voice that had always helped her to cope, helped her to embrace, was back, and
(hell, I'm here to stay)
.
..
…
Well, there it is. Something not too long but nonetheless satisfying. The idea of the "rages" actually came from the Stephen King novel "Rose Madder", which I just finished.
Keepin' it short 'cause I have to go!
C'ya!