Howl
Disclaimer: Wow....do I have to spell it out? I'm writing on a Fan Ficiton website, therefore, I am a fan fiction writer. Oh, the amazement. And because I'm a fan fiction writer, isn't it obvious that I haven't been able to buy any of the DVD's because I'm POOR, resulting from not owning Wolf's Rain. Ah...DUH!
Rating: R. I can't make it any clearer.
Chapter 2 - Running
Sou sprinted so fast her legs were a blur. She felt on top of the world for the first time in years...perhaps, the first time ever. Six months ago she had escaped a life of death, pain, tragedy. A hell. Racing away from the enraged vendor who had been stupid enough to look away while she browsed, she skidded to a stop and dove headfirst into an alley. Sou dashed behind a dumpster, carefully stashed her stolen goods, then abandoned her human guise and lay down on top of the food as a black wolf with gray markings and green eyes.
The vendor sped into the alleyway, only to stop and stare when he saw nothing there but a large dog laying by a dumpster, looking at him with little interest. The alley was a dead end. The girl who had stolen his food couldn't have escaped. Yet there was no life to be seen except that dog.
That dog.
Somehow it looked slightly familiar, the same way someone whom you know but haven't seen in a long time looks when you are reacquainted with him or her, or the way you instinctively know who is behind a Halloween mask. The look on the canine's face struck a cord somewhere deep in his mind, ringing a bell furiously, trying to get him to know what his subconscious knew, but couldn't tell. The vendor shook his head and went back to his stand before all his food was stolen.
A veil crept back up the wolf's persona, making her appear human in the eyes of such. The look on the vendor's face had worried her as he stared into her eyes. It seemed almost as if he could sense she wasn't what she seemed. Calloused, strong hands lifted the stolen food to her mouth, and she chomped down on it happily. Other wolves may not enjoy human food, but she liked it well enough. Besides, there was nothing else to eat here. Might as well make do with what she had.
Sou bit into an apple as she thought back to her previous life. She would never have been able to live like this before she escaped. Before those wolves gave her the strength to fight. To get out of his grasp.
Smack.
Sou lay on the ground where Mashin had thrown her. Blood trickled down her cheekbone to her jaw, then trailed down her neck to the ground. She lay on her side, not moving, as Mashin struck her again and again, kicking and hitting, inflicting damage to her as she tried to cradle her stomach, tried to protect her unborn child. Mashin dragged her up and pushed her back into the wall, laughing when her breath was driven out of her by the brick surface. Stepping back, he surveyed his damage. Bruises littered her skin, the black and blue masses hard to distinguish from her own tan skin. A knife cut dragged down her arm, and a cut on her cheekbone was just starting to bleed in earnest.
Her courage and endurance astounded him. But didn't stop him. Picking up a baseball bat from the floor, he gripped it and relished the look of horror on her face. The drugs he had laced into her drink had slowed her, had inhibited her from fighting back, but they wouldn't stop her from remembering. They wouldn't stop her from feeling the pain and knowing she could do nothing to stop him. To save her child. Nothing at all.
A wicked laugh escaped his throat, which she had managed to claw before the drug had begun to take effect. The cut hurt, but the pain made it all the more real to him. It motivated him to hurt her more. To make her pay. It would be inflicted upon her a thousand fold. She would pay.
Her child would suffer. Die. Never see the light of day, which hardly penetrated the dark of the city where they lived.
Mashin looked straight into Sou's eyes as he swung the bat and felt it make impact with her lower stomach. Looked straight into her eyes as she fell to her knees and coughed blood. Looked straight into her eyes as gleaming tears fell and wet the fabric stretched across her large stomach. Looked straight into her eyes, as she knew what he had done.
He had killed the child. Her child. Their child.
Understanding, cruel and unforgiving understanding filled her eyes and Mashin felt a twinge of fear spread throughout his body. He tried to shake it off. It grew, a prickling that broadened from his spine to the parts of his body that he had just used to abuse and kill a child. The extent of his actions hit him fully and the pure rage in her eyes made him take a step back. Such anger, such potent energy, filled her eyes, and then they dimmed and she fell forward, cracking her cranium sharply against the floor, and she toppled over until she once again rested on her side, a troubled sleep overtaking her.
Sou's now cold hands shook as she lay back against the brick wall and closed her eyes. Memories, unbidden, rose from within and hit her full force.
Sou awoke later, after the beating and was immediately struck by the pain of the aftermath of such abuse. She rose to her knees and then supported herself with both hands, as she vomited the rest of the drug from her system and crawled to the bathroom. Something sticky was coating her inside thighs. Looking down, she saw blood...so much blood. Blood seeping from a cut on her arm, blood from her nose and head, blood from between her legs, where a now dead life was draining itself from her body. Tears welled up again and she continued dragging herself to the bathroom, and then into the tub. Exhausted and unable to cope with such intense pain, both physical and mental, she slipped into unconsciousness.
Rising from her station by the garbage, she slowly walked out of the alley and onto the street. Her stomach was full and now, it felt as if she would once again vomit out its contents because of distress and pain. Sou shook it off and started down the street. Her former feeling of elation was now gone, and she felt so depressed and sad, she thought she would die all over again. Her stride increased, and she started jogging, and then running, away from the alley. People, vendors, buildings, cars, everything blurred and slipped away from reality as she flew down the street and out the city gates, into the forest bordering on the north side of the city.
Sou dropped her human façade again and dashed through the forest to a lake. Leaping in, she swam with ease to the middle of it, then turned around and paddled back to shore. Exhaustion hit her like a blow to the stomach, but she shook it off, trying to do the same with the memories boiling up inside of her like a bad smell. Throwing her head back, the midnight black wolf howled. She howled until her throat was puffy and the dawn of the new day was creeping up the face of the lake. She howled until all her sorrow and sadness and grief were gone, until she could no longer feel anything, until she finally allowed the exhaustion win and she fell over, briefly remembering to put up a guise to fool humans who wandered by. It flickered before solidifying and protecting her from wandering eyes.