Howl
Disclaimer: God, what does it take with you people? Honestly, I don't see why I even have to write this shit. (Still in an uber bad mood.)
Rating: R. For "Review". Because that's what y'all have to do. Review, and PRONTO! (Er...please?)
Chapter 6 - City Fights
The face of the city loomed high over the countryside, dominating and retarding the growth of the forest surrounding it. The pack of wolves moved silently through the woods to the gates in the predawn light, carefully taking human form and cautiously entering.
It was like a graveyard, silent and full of hopelessness and death. Rats scurried along the sides of gray buildings, making painful high screeching noises as they felt their way to their hovels, hiding from the approaching dawn. Eyes, both human and animal, watched the group roam through the city in search of any kind of store. It seemed as though the silence was deadly, full of foreboding presence as they stopped in front of a supply depot. Lights, both electric and natural, started to make an appearance, dawning over the city as citizens awoke.
Tsume and the others made their way through the store, searching for a blanket to wrap Sou in and rope to secure her to his back with. Traveling in human form, he had followed the other wolves as he carried Sou in his arms, but it was clear the situation needed a remedy.
And so here he was, ready to buy supplies for the group and get the hell out of this city. The others trailed behind him, sometimes collecting bandages, sometimes picking up various items of interest. Toboe made Hige stop and describe the use of something while Tsume made his way to the counter. Kiba was walking next to him, looking with mild curiosity at the items in the store. Hige and Toboe returned, Hige with a backpack and Toboe with some dog biscuits. Blue produced a wad of bills and gave them to Tsume, who shifted Sou to Kiba while he approached the register.
"How much?" He didn't feel safe in this city, sensing an ominous presence that made the fine hairs on his arms and nape rise and crackle. Even Hige and Toboe were unusually morbid, silently following and not saying much.
The clerk, a muscular man with a gleam in his eye and a predatory smirk on his face, named an obscene price that made Hige choke and Tsume growl.
"Look, we might look like punks, but we aren't illiterate. I can read and I know that price is unfair. Try again." He just wanted to leave. But even so, he wouldn't let the man jip his pack. Anger started to rise, hot and boiling, but Tsume pushed it down. Get done and leave. Simple.
The confident salesman scoffed. "Kid, accept the price or leave. There ain't no other place to buy from, anyways, Bub." Then the man leaned over the counter and spit at their feet, making Toboe recoil and Blue glare. The clerk leered at Blue and then shifted his gaze to Sou, licking his lips.
Tsume saw red.
Hige looked at Tsume's face and grabbed Toboe's hand, dragging him outside. Kiba's soft voice was heard, saying, "Blue, get the stuff. Tsume and I will take care of this."
Tsume and Kiba were left standing in front of the store clerk, Kiba protectively holding Sou close to his chest. The man's eyes wandered over her again, taking in the lush curves and the scars, before Kiba growled and half turned away, making his eyes snap back to Kiba's, then he averted his gaze, finally coming back to Tsume and the cash held loosely in his grasp. "You gunna pay for that, kid?"
Just to piss him off and get back at him for calling him a kid, Tsume smirked and leaned closer. "What if I don't?"
"Then I'll just take the girl as payment. What's wrong with her, anyways?" Tsume stepped in front of Kiba, shielding both of them from the disgusting leer the man set upon the comatose girl.
"None of your fucking business." Tsume counted out the bills, leaving out the extra twenty percent the man had padded in. "There. Be happy I pay you anything after the way you tried to treat us." As the two dominant males turned to leave, a clicking sounded. Tsume looked over his shoulder at the clerk, only to encounter the barrel end of a gun. Well, that's original, Tsume thought sarcastically.
"Now, y'all just give me that there money and maybe I'll let you keep the sleeping one. But the one in the trench coat...She's mine. So, give me the money and send her in." Still with his back to the man, Tsume met Kiba's eyes. The alpha gave a barely evident nod, and then continued out of the store.
To a bystander, Tsume's movement would have been barely visible, he moved so fast. Whipping around, he grasped the man's outstretched hand and yanked on it, pulling him over the counter, and then twisted it backwards, chuckling coldly when he heard a sickening crack and the man's yell of pain.
Tsume's cold voice filled the air, echoing over the man's yells somehow. His yellow eyes were devilish looking, full of fury and destruction. "Think twice next time, human."
The pack said nothing as he returned, only waiting for him to pick up Sou and continue. Someone had wrapped her in blankets and he could see that Hige carried the rope, while the runt had a backpack with their supplies strapped to his back. Little red flags were waving in Tsume's mind, and he felt that feeling. The one that made his stomach churn and twist with dread, and his skin turn cold and clammy. Tsume's gut inverted upon itself, alive with warning and his muscles twitched. He could feel it; could tell that the others felt it too. There was something here, a presence that loomed ominously in Tsume's mind.
"I don't like it here. Can we just hurry up and get the fuck out of this shithole?" Blue snarled, on edge and high strung from the omnipresent aura of evil. Toboe nodded in agreement, drawing into himself, seemingly trying to make himself smaller, as if to avoid the danger. Tsume shifted Sou in his arms and growled.
Kiba, walking beside Tsume, said in a low voice, "Give Sou to Blue. Be ready." Tsume nodded in response and looked at Kiba's sea green eyes, seeing only calm and readiness, and the knowledge that there was no way to get around this object in their way, this intangible feeling that was clearly going to confront them.
"Take her," said Tsume to Blue in a low voice, adding, "Get ready," before he carefully handed his burden to the female.
The streets were silent in contrast to the fight that everyone knew was about to happen. People who saw them quickly averted their gazes, hurrying to pass them, getting out of the way as fast as possible. Toboe was looking around with innocent eyes, sticking close to Blue and Sou, his young face lined with worry and questions that he didn't dare ask.
Tsume's gaze was drawn to the gateway, as he noticed movement. Two teens were struggling to close the heavy metal doors, attempting to trap them in the city. Stragglers who hadn't gotten off of the streets as of yet went running, and suddenly it seemed the only thing in the world that could be done was to heed to yell from Kiba.
"Go!!"
Sou was being jostled, the darkness surrounding her closing in and then fading, revealing at intervals a city, and dark faces with intense expressions, yelling warnings that Sou couldn't hear as the person carrying her started sprinting towards a gate. Sou could sense people dodging bullets around her, figures human one moment and wolf the next.
A familiar gray wolf darted past her, then attacked someone trying to close the gate. A young boy with russet locks of hair dashed beside a stocky teen with an intense look on his face. Warmth was enveloping her, and her nerve endings registered fabric surrounding her, carrying her and keeping her safe. Thin arms held her as her savior ran towards the exit, and the pulsating darkness slowed, then stopped, letting her eyes view the scene clearly.
A woman whose image made her mind jolt with something was carrying her, delivering her to safety. The comfortable deafness that had previously cushioned her ears faded and Sou heard the noises around her. Screams echoed through the air, mingling with blasting gunshots, the blaring sounds making it seem as though a battle was raging around her.
Death hung heavy in the air, as humans were slashed at by huge canines, wolves who defended them and cleared the way to safety for them. There were three of them, one gray, one brown, one white. They tackled gangsters with guns, swiftly disarming them and efficiently killing the offenders.
And then they were in the woods, woods that seemed to appear out of nowhere and surround them, closing in on them. The three safeguards fell behind as Sou was carried away, eradicating humans that continued to follow and shoot at them. A man, this one unfamiliar, ran up beside them and pulled out a knife, making the woman gasp and stumble, and the prepubescent snarl and change into a wolf, causing Sou marvel at the swift change in the boy's physique.
The youth's brown hair was stiff and straight, protecting his nape as the wolf roared and leapt at the man, clamping onto his shoulder, biting down and drawing blood, ignoring the screams his action evoked. Fierce growling mingled with the yells of the human and they fought, dancing a deadly waltz for dominance.
Time seemed to stop, slowing down as Sou saw, with startling clarity, the pup whip around and bore down upon his opponent's arm, ripping flesh and mutating the limb. The man screamed as the wolf released his arm, using powerful legs to propel him up to grasp his throat. A sickening crunch was heard as the wolf clamped down harder, viciously whipping his head back and forth to further break the dying man's windpipe. Gasping for air, eyes open wide and unseeing, the man feel to the ground, a pool of blood forming beneath his expiring body. The burgundy liquid tainted the earth, turning the brown into reddish black, glistening sickly, testament to the death that had occurred.
Suddenly, Sou's ears were ringing in the abrupt silence, the wolf's breath harsh and loud in contrast. Blood dripped from his mouth, and then he was a boy, lifting a hand to wipe away the thick liquid sliding down his chin, young and frightened in the aftermath of his kill. A slash ran down on him, gliding from his collarbone, over his heart, and then flowing down his side to meet his hipbone. It was beautiful in a deadly way, the way a train crash can be horrifying yet orchestrated, and a rattlesnake's tail can make striking music.
"I...I..." The boy stuttered and looked down at the gash, unbelieving, and touched a hand to it. A pain-filled gasp erupted from him, again sounding loud in comparison to Sou's and the woman's silence. Sou could almost see the adrenaline leaving him, draining from his muscles and no longer energizing his young body. She watched in silence as he fell back against a tree behind him, as if he were hoping for it to support and guidance, and he breathed in deep shuddering breaths, trying to shake the disbelief that held him tight in it's grasp.
Another man, this one familiar and beating battle scars, arrived, breathing hard and wiping sweat from his brow. "Toboe! What the hell happened?" His yellow eyes swept over the scene, taking in with ease the dead man, the darkened earth beneath him, and the blood running out of the cut on the boy. There was still a vermilion streak across his cheek, betraying the blood that had seeped out of his mouth. The man said nothing as he studied the boy, running a hand through his short gray hair and observing the horror and lingering disbelief etched on his features. No one seemed to notice Sou; the woman had gently put her down on the ground and was now on her knees, retrieving bandages from the backpack that had fallen off the boy during the fight. Sou's green eyes flicked from person to person, silently taking in emotions and actions, an invisible spectator.
Two more wolves arrived, stopping dead in their tracks as they looked from the dead human to the boy. The stocky teen with messy tan hair stammered, a look of awe and incredulity on his face as he finally forced out, "Please tell me Tsume killed the human." He swallowed, emotions seemed to be choking him and constricting his throat. "Please."
The woman was swiftly bandaging the boy with worry, hurrying to staunch the blood flow that the youth seemed unaware of. Red blossomed on the fresh cloth, marking his as a candidate for death, for surely one so young could not lose so much blood and survive. Once again, the silence was tangible, painful, as the third male knelt by Sou, who was lying on the ground soundlessly, to check on her. Shock registered in his eyes as turquoise orbs met vibrant green ones, and still no one spoke. It seemed that speech was impossible, and no one wanted to acknowledge what had just happened, what this meant. Reality seemed a distant possibility, as attention was divided between Sou and the boy, but neither spoke. Their eyes met, hardened green and wounded brown, and she saw that he knew what he had done, that he knew of the loss of innocence and life. Devastation relayed itself to her through those eyes, tainting his youthfulness and forever marking him as one who was forced to grow up far too fast.
Toboe felt ill. Never before had he killed. The weight of what he had done that morning smothered him, and he felt adrenaline pumping again, instincts screaming at him to run. And so he left the others, silently making his way through the woods, searching for something. Finally, he came to a lake, clear and luminescent with moonlight reflecting off of it in iridescent waves, making it seem endless. Guilt washed over him again and he silently fell to his knees, stripping off his shirt and looking down at the knife wound.
It had all happened so fast. One minute, he and Blue had been running, carrying So to safety, and the next there had been a man, attacking them. He had acted with thinking, in self-defense, biting the attacker's shoulder and arm, and then going in for the kill, ripping out his throat.
Going in for the kill.
The moment before he had died, the man's eyes had held a glimpse of pure sadness. Sadness over having to reduce himself to attacking children, having to do something so emotionally killing for a living. To have to do such a degrading act every time he needed something extra to get by. The man's eyes had spoken volumes, telling him in a moment the evils of life, destroying his blissful ignorance that had blanketed him from the real world. Somehow, it had killed the inner child Toboe had been hoarding within himself, slaughtering his naïveté and shoving the knowledge of cruelty and pain, true pain, into his heart.
Tears slipped down unchecked, slithering down his cheeks and onto his chest, soaking into his bandages and stinging slightly in his wound. Emotions, unwanted, tightened their grip on him and choked him, closing up his throat and making his trembling lips part out of necessity and gasp for air. Without his mouth tightly closed, little noises started to escape out of him, and he put his head in his hands and sobbed.
When Sou had looked at him, so silent, so unyielding, her eyes had held the same knowledge that the man's had. They had registered pain and understanding, sympathy and regret, telling Toboe unconsciously of her life, of how she too knew of the awareness of the horrific world. By killing that man, Toboe could no longer pretend that the world was okay, that it would get better, because he knew it wouldn't, and he had to stop running from that reality. His own world no longer existed, and he was thrown into the harsh environments, full of people who hurt others and therein hurt themselves. He was now one of those people, knowing it was wrong but doing it anyways, for the good of his pack, defending Blue and Sou. Killing that man, because he had had no choice, because it was either him or Toboe, and Toboe had chosen to kill him before it cost him his life. It was a cruel world that they all lived in, and Toboe could no longer hide from it.
Cold stones bit into his back as Toboe lay on the ground, his face tear-streaked and hot, wishing that he could change the past.
Okay; nomally I avoid doing the whole post script thing, but I've got to say thanks to everyone for making it possible to get over the four review mark. Yes, I know some of you may be saying to yourselves, "this chick is wack", or something, but, I feel good. Four reviews! Woohoo!
NYV