Hello, friends. Thank you to every one who reads this story and a special thank you to all who review and have put my story on their favorite list( although, I am still trying to figure out why). I do appreciate editing, so if you have some suggestions I'm open. Do keep in mind though that I am fully aware of how I am butchering history. Nothing about the speech patterns and linguistics is accurate and I've only really studied social structure and clothing styles, so bear with me.
A note about the future of this story, there will be explicit chapters in the future and I will give you a fair warning in case you want to skip over them. Also, this story and its chapters are turning out to be longer then I had originally expected. I'm beginning to feel a little bit like the Wal-Mart of fanfics….
I do not own the characters or story they belong to Kelly Armstrong.
I must have dozed off after the Dr. left, because I woke up sometime in the evening to the sound of a lot of commotion in the hallway. There is a buzzing in my head and my entire body feels sluggish. My vision is blurry but I manage to spot another bandage on my arm from where I must have been injected with a sedative.
The noise in the hallway is getting closer and its beginning to sound familiar. It's the kind of rowdiness that only inflicts people who have had too much alcohol. I close my eyes thinking that I might be able to feign sleep, but the urge to drift off is too strong. As I'm clenching and unclenching my fists to stay alert, two men enter the room. From what I could see using the moonlight from the window, they were both dressed in shabby street clothes.
"She's awake" one said with delighted surprise. Suddenly feeling very lucid, I attempted to sit up only to realize I was still tethered to the bed. The motion only suited to delight the men more as they started removing their over coats. "S-stop!" I called "I'll scream" I added in a shrill voice.
"Oh, is that so? Do you know where you are little missy? There is a lot of screaming that goes on in a place like this". As he was speaking the other man walked around to the other side of me. I turned my head and saw the glint of a knife in his hand. I began screaming and struggling violently against my restraints. The mat sunk with the weight of one of the men. As, he is straddling me, his hips make an effort to grind into mine, so that I can feel his excitement. He reached out his hand to take the knife from the other man and points it between my eyes. Breathing heavy, he leans in close to my face and whispers "Now little missy, you had better play nice, or I might miss and cut your beautiful skin". "I'll tell…They'll put you away" I managed to breath.
His knife dribbled down to the collar of my dress as he said "No one is going to believe the crazy girl who sees things. Hell, maybe I'm not even real!" he laughs. Just then his knife catches on a piece of lace and begins tearing. "Don't have too much fun" the other man calls "I'm next." I close my eyes tight and pray that I'll go under again, but my heart is beating so fast that I'm shaking. Within a second, the weight which pinned me to the mat is gone and there is a large crash on the other side of the room. I open my eyes to see my assailant crumpled on the floor. The other man is looking towards the dark corner of the room with fear. A large figure steps from the shadow and I realize that it is a shape I know.
"Derek!" I call out, but he isn't looking at me. Instead he's got a death glare on the man standing next to me. "We weren't trying to do nothing", the man proclaims hysterically. "She was having a fit, we were just trying to restrain her". Something like a growl crawls from Derek's lips and it's enough to send the guy scrambling behind a desk. Derek grabs the unconscious man by the back of his jacket and practically tosses him at the other man. "Get out and take him with you. Consider your services here unneeded". The man stutters that he didn't have the authority to fire him, but one look from Derek and he was dragging his friend hastily from the room.
There is a moment of silence which is only filled by my shuddering breaths. I realize that I'm crying and that Derek is being very still and quiet. "Are you okay" he says almost inaudibly. I mean to make some kind of joke to lighten the air but all I get out is a croak before I completely break down and start sobbing. Derek begins undoing the buckles around my wrist, when I look up to meet his eyes. I don't know if it's the moon or how distorted my vision is, but his eyes seem to glow like an animals with the light of the fire on them. I was dumbstruck with how beautiful they were, but was brought back to reality when I heard a scraping sound in the hallway. I immediately imagined that the men were coming back for revenge and dragging some type of hook against the floor as a warning. Leaning over me to unfasten my other wrist, Derek comments under his breath that we should take care of that soon. "Take care of what? What's going on, why are you here?", I asked with increasing excitement. Meanwhile I can hear staggered breaths and scraping noises coming closer from down the hallway.
"I'm here" he said " because I work here". "I'm here specifically right now, because I followed the trail of dead animals". He says all of this while having a tone that suggested he was using a great amount of patience. "It would probably be for the best if you send them back now", he said while undoing the last of my tethers. I sit up on the mat and shoot him a look as if he's the crazy one. I can't see him very well in the dark but he seems comfortable enough to locate the lanterns and light them. It's then that I notice that the thing I have been hearing in the hallway is actually an opossum which seems to be suffering a major bullet wound. I stand in awe of what amazing pain it must be in, before I hear a crash at the window. At first I see a white branch scratching at the glass, but upon further inspection I realize that it's actually what is left of a bat wing. Its small maggot eaten face meets mine for a split second before I let out a squeal and stumble backwards over the mat. I begin scrambling towards the door, but Derek catches me by the waist and pulls me back to my feet.
"Stop wasting time and release them!", he says impatiently. Of course, the way he says it makes this whole situation seem perfectly rational. My response however, is slightly less so. I start screaming louder and fighting to get away from his grasp. I flail until finally I make nail to face contact. He curses, but doesn't drop me. Instead, he pins both of my hands behind my back and clasps a firm hand over my mouth. "Okay, you are going to calm down now", he says slowly with with a strained voice. Considering there aren't many options for me at this point ( outside of peeing on him or attempting to nip at his hand ), I decide some deep breaths couldn't hurt. I close my eyes and feel my chest rise and fall. In the silence I also notice that there is now more then just two animals making their way towards me. Shivers run up my body as I feel what I guess to be a dogs tongue lick at my feet. "Focus", he urges. I'm not at all sure what I am supposed to do about any of this, but I try anyway. Squeezing my eyes shut, I imagine all of the animals falling still. I pretend that I have the power to release their souls to the after life and imagine their spirits flying away. Derek's body relaxes behind me, so I open my eyes.
There are at least ten animals scattered through out the room and hallway representing nearly every stage of decay. I turn around to look at Derek, who seems relieved. He shoots me a near half smile before his eyes dart down and he looks away quickly. It's at this point that I notice how much of my night gown was ripped by my attacker. I Imagine how I must have looked with my breasts out for display like some market produce and flush bright red. Derek fidgets awkwardly as I try to hold the pieces of my night gown together. "Pardon me", he says pointing in the general direction of my nudity with one hand and fumbling in his coat pocket with another. I have to admit that I actually get a great amount of pleasure from having made him uncomfortable, so I decide to hold my night gown a tad less modestly.
Still fumbling with his coat, an envelope falls from his pocket onto the floor. A golden chain follows Derek's hand from his pocket and I realize that what he's holding is my necklace. Forgetting modesty I snatch it desperately from his hands. "You stole it! Do you have any idea how worried I was that I had lost it?". Something like a glimmer of guilt flutters across Derek's face and he tells me that he found it in his papers and knew that it was a magical device. "I was having a hard time telling what it was, but it all made sense when you told your story this afternoon. I'm sorry I couldn't get it back to you sooner".
It's strange, he almost seemed civil…This was like a completely different person then the man I bumped into a few days ago. All of that seemed so long ago. I sigh and say "it's okay, Sir Souza". In the grand scheme of things it seemed so trivial compared to everything else that had happened recently.
Seeing my mood shift, he turns away and starts going through some of the drawers. Pulling out a lady's night gown, he remarks that it is actually Dr. Souza, but that I can call him Derek. There is something a little smug and playful about the way he says it and I smile. I notice the opened letter which fell from his pocket and bend to get it. I read the top and realize that it is addressed to my home and has come from the village where my father is staying. I go to pull the letter out of the envelope, but Derek grabs it from me before I can. "I'll give it to you in the morning" he assures. "It's too late for this sort of thing and you'll need your rest for tomorrow". He refuses to let me argue and I end up accepting some water and the grand privilege of going back to bed. "Sir…I mean Derek, will you be around?". Picking up the last of the animal corpse he said that, he would be sleeping in the office down the hall and that he would be assisting Dr. Davidoff tomorrow with my final assessment.
I felt incredibly relieved as I relaxed onto the mat. I would get to read my fathers update and would probably even be released from the hospital tomorow. Despite all of this, the image of crawling dead animals and the word necromancer rang through my mind. Hopefully I would be able to ask Derek about it tomorrow, since he seemed to know something about it. I took one more look at my pendant and noticed that the color looked fainter then normal.