Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. Just the plot. Again.
Present Day - End of November
Her captor remained silent in his threat and breathed heavily against her ear. His breath reeked of decomposing fish and his tattered clothing smelled like animal urine. His grip was vice-like and his overgrown nails dug into the flesh of her cheek.
Hazel screamed futilely under the stifling grasp of the stranger, trying to wriggle free from him. Her feet were flailing above the ground because the man was much taller than she was and he had no issues with hoisting her small frame up against his broad chest. He carried her around a bend in the alley until he came to a dead end where it was blocked off by a rustic chain-link fence.
On seeing the fence, Hazel figured that they had reached the point at which he was going to assault her, so she prepared to fight and run the moment he slackened his grip. While she was waiting for him to change his hold on her to break away, the man tightened one arm around her and lunged off the ground jolting her stomach. His feet hit the wall, then the fence and next they were somersaulting over the wall of wire until his feet hit the ground on the other side, sending a mighty shock through Hazel's rib and core.
Hazel was so stunned by the sudden motion that she huddled over clutching her chest and did not notice that he had finally released her.
"Such a fragile thing," the man stated, shoving his clawed fingers into her face as if he were about to caress her face. "Beauty should never belong to a beast," he stated mockingly.
Repulsed by the action, Hazel recoiled from him violently. "Don't touch me, you pig!" She shouted, feeling further terrified by his cloaked appearance.
His face was shielded by a dark, overhanging hood, which was severely gnawed at the edges, matching the rest of his robe. She saw bits of his pale arms peeking through the many holes in his sleeves and she could see that they were bound by soiled bandages.
"Hazel, please do not look at me like that. You have seen worse than this in your line of work," he told her, eyeing the shirt peeking through her jacket.
The woman froze when she heard her name. "How did you know my name?" She demanded, slowly backing away from the man.
He laughed, saying, "By pure chance, really." He began walking towards her, and for the first time she saw what appeared to be a small, dark animal perched on his shoulder. It sat up on its hind legs and focused two beady eyes on the nurse, curling its tail in the air curiously.
'A rat,' Hazel noted with disgust.
"A friend of mine revealed your name to me by accident," he continued to explain. "You see, he has this unfortunate habit of focusing on his sons whenever he feels like his mind is slipping away. They represent hope for him. A hope for new things; peace, happiness and more interestingly, love. Stuff the average person dreams about. He was thinking about them when his mind slipped on to one of his sons in particular. This one, it seemed, had found romantic interests on the surface world."
It didn't take any amount time for the young McIntyre to figure out who the odd stranger was referring to so she tried to conceal her surprise and other emotions wailing around in her head. 'Who was this man and what did he want from her?'
He stepped forward and bowed down to bring his eyes to her level, turning his deformed mouth up into a nefarious grin. "It was in that moment I learned about you, Hazel… you and your delightful aroma. Did you know that the rat smelled faint traces of you on his son whenever he returned to the lair after seeing you?"
Swallowing back her pride and the urge to slap the man for what she believed he was insinuating, she calmly replied, "Sorry, I think you're mistaken. I don't know what the hell you are talking about. Please, just let me go."
The man threw his head back and laughed. "No, no mistake. It took me quite a while to find you, Dear Lady. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone in this city by their scent alone? " He threw his arms wide open, causing his hood to fall back and expose his bandaged face.
Under the sparse lighting Hazel saw how extensively marred his skin was and it multiplied the fear she already held for him. Scar tissue formed a crisscrossed network over the naked parts of his face and it was enhanced by his rage-filled eyes.
"I have my brethren to thank for finally locating you," he said, reaching for the rodent on his shoulder. A small squeak escaped the delighted creature as the disfigured man stroked its head. "It's like having eyes – er - noses everywhere," he chuckled boastfully. "They have yet to fail me."
"What do you want from me?" She asked, completely confused by what the man was trying to explain. She did not care about how he had found her, but she definitely wanted to know if he would set her free, and most importantly, alive.
"Nothing, to be truthful" he answered. "However, you can do us both a favor and contact your mutant friends. I'm absolutely sure they'd love to introduce us formally." He smiled broadly, showing off his rows of long, pointed, yellow teeth.
...
A/N: To be continued...
No serious Grammar Tips tonight. Sorry.
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