~ DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters, I'm not trying to make money off of them, yada yada yada~
This is my first Fanfic, Reviews are very welcome
Flashbacks have * in front and behind them
If you have a weak stomach, I'd suggest you not read the first four paragraphs. Shelby's back to cutting herself, and I went into some detail.
"To thine own self be true." ~William Shakespear
Shelby laid her head on her arm before rolling over and pushing herself up.The cool material of Scott's flannel shirt only warmed her skin as she pulled it over her green tank top. She never told anyone that she had taken it out of his bag a few minutes before he left. It gave her a rush to feel something that belonged to him against her skin. 'My mom told me that a soulmate is a friend that holds the other part of you're soul.' She heard Scott's voice throughout her head. "If that's true, then you're the only soulmate I can ever hope to find." She walked out the door and headed straight to the wood shed. Once she pulled the top row away from the wall, she pulled a shiny object away from her cigarettes. To the common person, it would seem that she held a long lighter, but a lighter could only burn. What she held in her hand did so much more damage.
The knife glinted in the moonlight as Shelby brought it up to her arm. The first cut was deep. Slicing the tender skin that had been broken several times before. As blood flowed from the open wound, Shelby made a second cut followed by a third. Every time the knife hit the skin, she felt better and better. After a few more slices, Shelby pulled a crimson towel out from under her pajamma bottoms. She had rolled the towel up immediately after her shower. After wiping all the blood from her knife, she slid it back into her pack of cigarettes, and turned her attention to the wound.
Dabbing the wound with the towel, Shelby didn't even flinch. Every sting the air on her open wound assulted her already hyperactive senses, but she did not cry out. To cry out was to show weakness, and Shelby wasn't weak. She cleaned the wound and rolled down the sleeve of the flannel shirt to cover the gash. Watching her hands tremble slightly, Shelby pulled a few cigarettes out of her pack. Careful of scraping her already exposed flesh on the wood, Shelby pulled herself on top of the wood pile and lit her cigarette. Slowly her thoughts drifted to Scott, and before she knew it, her chest started hurting again.
Not wanting to go back to bed with the feelings of anger and resentment, Shelby pulled the silver knife out of her pack again. Without bothering to be gentle on herself, this time she scraped the strange blade over the delicate spot on her arm. The bleeding started quicker this time. Flowing uncontrolably down her arm and onto her bare feet. The pain felt good to Shelby. Simple. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of this before. Why did she run away from her home and friends, when she could have just sliced the problem away. She hadn't counted how long the cut was left open, and soon she began to get dizzy. Sliding the knife and the cigarettes back into the wood pile, Shelby sat down on the damp earth and wept for the lose of control she had felt over the long months.
After making sure Scott was asleep, Peter drove out to Horizon to check on everyone else. Upon getting out of the car, Peter knew something was wrong. He could hear Shelby before he actually saw her. She was slumped over on the ground holding her arm. Over the course of the past week, Peter looked up everything he could on the pasts of each of the Cliffhangers, and only one thing he found could come close to this. In Juliet's intake folder there had been a story about when one of her step-fathers came home from work and found her in the same position. Immediately Peter was at her side. Shelby didn't even open her eyes when his hand came in contact with her arm.
"Shell?" He asked her frantically. "Shell, answer me!" He scooped her up into his arms, and ran to the Infermery. He had been there with her twice in the course of three weeks. He knew that she was about to self-destruct, he just didn't know how far it would go. He laid her on the bed and picked up the phone. After placing a quick call into Dr. Madison, he called Sophie. She was waking Scott up and getting dressed even before they had gotten off the phone. Shelby twitched a little as he pulled off the bloodstained flannel shirt. She wasn't dead, at least he had that to be thankful for. "You'll be okay," he kept saying to the frail figure on the bed. "You'll be okay."
The next hour had been shear hell. Dr. Madison had arrived within minutes of Peter's call, and she had to physically push him out of the room. Then she took stock of Shelby's injuries, rolling her bottoms up to get a look at her thighs. What she saw only shocked her. Scars and bruises lined the tops of her thighs and the area around her stomach. They weren't recent, but someone else had had to have done them. She knew that Shelby wasn't that strong. There were also letters carved into Shelby's ankles where her socks would have covered. One distinct letter S and a faded W.
Sophie and Scott showed up some time around midnight, weilding cups of steaming coffee. Scott hadn't been told who he had been woken up for, but he was far too tired to ask questions. Peter handed him the keys to the lodge, and Scott spent the rest of the night on one of the faded leather couches. Sophie took Peter to the lodge and sat him down at one of the tables. She knew that he had to tell someone about what he had seen that night, and the kids hadn't been told yet.
"She was just so helpless, Soph." He kept repeating. He wasn't ready to see one of his kids like that. He would have been able to handle it if it had been a Ridgerunner, or even a Tracker, but it was a Cliffhanger. One of his own. Those kids were his life. "She didn't even try to save herself. It was almost as if she wanted to die." He stood and walked over to the main room. "She couldn't have wanted that. Could she?" Neither one knew the answer to that, nor would they ever. Shelby only did what she had to as far as drastic measures had been concerned. "We had put her under watch last time, and when we decided that she was better, we let her get back to Group. I never thought she would do it again. Never."
From where he sat, Scott could hear the cencerity in Peter's voice. He still had no clue who he was talking about. Shrugging it off as just another Ridgerunner gone psycho, Scott pulled the blanket around him tighter and laid back down on the couch. Soon finding himself in a dream full of shapes and colors.
"You had no idea that she was going try it again." Sophie attempted to shift the blame somewhere else. Anywhere would have sufficed, as long as Peter no longer blamed himself. "Shell knew her limits. She just kept the boundries bottled up. Like Jules always says, she just wanted an outlet for the pain."
"Jules? Juliet has never attempted to do what Shelby has done. Juliet has never repeatedly cut herself after being caught!" Peter couldn't help but to raise his voice. "How can you even compare the two?"
Sophie pulled him onto the floor next to her. "She's in good hands Peter. Just relax for a minute." Peter closed his eyes and soon he was asleep. Sophie shifted slightly so that Peter was laying on the floor. Then she stood quietly and walked across campus to the Infermery.
Dr. Madison jumped slightly when she heard the door open. "I thought I told you not to come back." She said pointedly, turning to face who she thought was Peter.
"Nope." Sophie only shrugged. "I haven't heard a thing from you for a while." She walked over to the bed and looked at the creature that Shelby had turned herself into. The pale shell of a girl that used to have so much life in her. "What's the verdict, Amy?"
Amy looked over the chart that Shelby's previous doctor had faxed over. "She knew what she was doing. There's no doubt about that. The lacerations on her arms showed that she was trying to break the skin, and the lack of bruising around the area proves that she was taking care of it." Ever so gently, Amy touched the tissue around the sliced area.
"She was healing herself only to hurt herself again?" There were flaws in that logic somewhere, Sophie just couldn't put her finger on them.
"It's not uncommon." Amy wrote down her observations as she eximed Shelby's body again. "It's a form of ancient torture actually. A king would have his prisoners mended and tended to before he would even consider to sentence them to death or have them beaten. Aparently it hurts more that way." Shelby's eyes fluttered when her hands found their way to the cuts on her feet. "And look at this Sophie." Sophie put down the chart and moved to look at what Amy was showing her. "I don't think this is even a new thing to her. I think she's been cutting herself in one way or another ever since her step-father started molesting her. See the W?"
"Walt." Sophie watched the doctors delicate hands dress the wounds. "That was her step-dad's name, Walt. Why didn't her mother tell us?"
"Perhaps Mrs. Blayne never knew." Sophie walked Amy back to her car. After shaking hands and promising to return to check on Shelby in the morning, Amy drove off into the night.
Sophie went back into Shelby's room and fell asleep in the chair by her side.
This is my first Fanfic, Reviews are very welcome
Flashbacks have * in front and behind them
If you have a weak stomach, I'd suggest you not read the first four paragraphs. Shelby's back to cutting herself, and I went into some detail.
"To thine own self be true." ~William Shakespear
Shelby laid her head on her arm before rolling over and pushing herself up.The cool material of Scott's flannel shirt only warmed her skin as she pulled it over her green tank top. She never told anyone that she had taken it out of his bag a few minutes before he left. It gave her a rush to feel something that belonged to him against her skin. 'My mom told me that a soulmate is a friend that holds the other part of you're soul.' She heard Scott's voice throughout her head. "If that's true, then you're the only soulmate I can ever hope to find." She walked out the door and headed straight to the wood shed. Once she pulled the top row away from the wall, she pulled a shiny object away from her cigarettes. To the common person, it would seem that she held a long lighter, but a lighter could only burn. What she held in her hand did so much more damage.
The knife glinted in the moonlight as Shelby brought it up to her arm. The first cut was deep. Slicing the tender skin that had been broken several times before. As blood flowed from the open wound, Shelby made a second cut followed by a third. Every time the knife hit the skin, she felt better and better. After a few more slices, Shelby pulled a crimson towel out from under her pajamma bottoms. She had rolled the towel up immediately after her shower. After wiping all the blood from her knife, she slid it back into her pack of cigarettes, and turned her attention to the wound.
Dabbing the wound with the towel, Shelby didn't even flinch. Every sting the air on her open wound assulted her already hyperactive senses, but she did not cry out. To cry out was to show weakness, and Shelby wasn't weak. She cleaned the wound and rolled down the sleeve of the flannel shirt to cover the gash. Watching her hands tremble slightly, Shelby pulled a few cigarettes out of her pack. Careful of scraping her already exposed flesh on the wood, Shelby pulled herself on top of the wood pile and lit her cigarette. Slowly her thoughts drifted to Scott, and before she knew it, her chest started hurting again.
Not wanting to go back to bed with the feelings of anger and resentment, Shelby pulled the silver knife out of her pack again. Without bothering to be gentle on herself, this time she scraped the strange blade over the delicate spot on her arm. The bleeding started quicker this time. Flowing uncontrolably down her arm and onto her bare feet. The pain felt good to Shelby. Simple. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of this before. Why did she run away from her home and friends, when she could have just sliced the problem away. She hadn't counted how long the cut was left open, and soon she began to get dizzy. Sliding the knife and the cigarettes back into the wood pile, Shelby sat down on the damp earth and wept for the lose of control she had felt over the long months.
After making sure Scott was asleep, Peter drove out to Horizon to check on everyone else. Upon getting out of the car, Peter knew something was wrong. He could hear Shelby before he actually saw her. She was slumped over on the ground holding her arm. Over the course of the past week, Peter looked up everything he could on the pasts of each of the Cliffhangers, and only one thing he found could come close to this. In Juliet's intake folder there had been a story about when one of her step-fathers came home from work and found her in the same position. Immediately Peter was at her side. Shelby didn't even open her eyes when his hand came in contact with her arm.
"Shell?" He asked her frantically. "Shell, answer me!" He scooped her up into his arms, and ran to the Infermery. He had been there with her twice in the course of three weeks. He knew that she was about to self-destruct, he just didn't know how far it would go. He laid her on the bed and picked up the phone. After placing a quick call into Dr. Madison, he called Sophie. She was waking Scott up and getting dressed even before they had gotten off the phone. Shelby twitched a little as he pulled off the bloodstained flannel shirt. She wasn't dead, at least he had that to be thankful for. "You'll be okay," he kept saying to the frail figure on the bed. "You'll be okay."
The next hour had been shear hell. Dr. Madison had arrived within minutes of Peter's call, and she had to physically push him out of the room. Then she took stock of Shelby's injuries, rolling her bottoms up to get a look at her thighs. What she saw only shocked her. Scars and bruises lined the tops of her thighs and the area around her stomach. They weren't recent, but someone else had had to have done them. She knew that Shelby wasn't that strong. There were also letters carved into Shelby's ankles where her socks would have covered. One distinct letter S and a faded W.
Sophie and Scott showed up some time around midnight, weilding cups of steaming coffee. Scott hadn't been told who he had been woken up for, but he was far too tired to ask questions. Peter handed him the keys to the lodge, and Scott spent the rest of the night on one of the faded leather couches. Sophie took Peter to the lodge and sat him down at one of the tables. She knew that he had to tell someone about what he had seen that night, and the kids hadn't been told yet.
"She was just so helpless, Soph." He kept repeating. He wasn't ready to see one of his kids like that. He would have been able to handle it if it had been a Ridgerunner, or even a Tracker, but it was a Cliffhanger. One of his own. Those kids were his life. "She didn't even try to save herself. It was almost as if she wanted to die." He stood and walked over to the main room. "She couldn't have wanted that. Could she?" Neither one knew the answer to that, nor would they ever. Shelby only did what she had to as far as drastic measures had been concerned. "We had put her under watch last time, and when we decided that she was better, we let her get back to Group. I never thought she would do it again. Never."
From where he sat, Scott could hear the cencerity in Peter's voice. He still had no clue who he was talking about. Shrugging it off as just another Ridgerunner gone psycho, Scott pulled the blanket around him tighter and laid back down on the couch. Soon finding himself in a dream full of shapes and colors.
"You had no idea that she was going try it again." Sophie attempted to shift the blame somewhere else. Anywhere would have sufficed, as long as Peter no longer blamed himself. "Shell knew her limits. She just kept the boundries bottled up. Like Jules always says, she just wanted an outlet for the pain."
"Jules? Juliet has never attempted to do what Shelby has done. Juliet has never repeatedly cut herself after being caught!" Peter couldn't help but to raise his voice. "How can you even compare the two?"
Sophie pulled him onto the floor next to her. "She's in good hands Peter. Just relax for a minute." Peter closed his eyes and soon he was asleep. Sophie shifted slightly so that Peter was laying on the floor. Then she stood quietly and walked across campus to the Infermery.
Dr. Madison jumped slightly when she heard the door open. "I thought I told you not to come back." She said pointedly, turning to face who she thought was Peter.
"Nope." Sophie only shrugged. "I haven't heard a thing from you for a while." She walked over to the bed and looked at the creature that Shelby had turned herself into. The pale shell of a girl that used to have so much life in her. "What's the verdict, Amy?"
Amy looked over the chart that Shelby's previous doctor had faxed over. "She knew what she was doing. There's no doubt about that. The lacerations on her arms showed that she was trying to break the skin, and the lack of bruising around the area proves that she was taking care of it." Ever so gently, Amy touched the tissue around the sliced area.
"She was healing herself only to hurt herself again?" There were flaws in that logic somewhere, Sophie just couldn't put her finger on them.
"It's not uncommon." Amy wrote down her observations as she eximed Shelby's body again. "It's a form of ancient torture actually. A king would have his prisoners mended and tended to before he would even consider to sentence them to death or have them beaten. Aparently it hurts more that way." Shelby's eyes fluttered when her hands found their way to the cuts on her feet. "And look at this Sophie." Sophie put down the chart and moved to look at what Amy was showing her. "I don't think this is even a new thing to her. I think she's been cutting herself in one way or another ever since her step-father started molesting her. See the W?"
"Walt." Sophie watched the doctors delicate hands dress the wounds. "That was her step-dad's name, Walt. Why didn't her mother tell us?"
"Perhaps Mrs. Blayne never knew." Sophie walked Amy back to her car. After shaking hands and promising to return to check on Shelby in the morning, Amy drove off into the night.
Sophie went back into Shelby's room and fell asleep in the chair by her side.