A Son of Wolves
Short chapter here guys, hope you enjoy.
Chapter 18: Back to Stage One
Leo was carted back into Jasper town in the back of a police car, but that didn't stop his attempts to try and get out. He kicked away at the bars in the back of the car and at the windows to try and break free. It was hard with tight handcuffs. He knew he wasn't going to get out, and that they were going to try and "cure" him of something they believed was wrong with him, but he was going to make sure to make it as hard as possible for them to do it. He was going to fight them all the way, be the worst child they've ever had, that was wherever it was they were taking him. He knew the place they were going to take him, that place for mentally ill children they were going to before.
He looked back after calming down a little and giving the officer who drove the car a break from his screams and kicks. Al was right behind him with Caitlyn, Rick and Ciara, all talking to one another and giving saddened looks back at him. Behind them was another police car as were there in front of the car Leo was in. Flashing lights made him look forward, but he wished he didn't. He watched them go by as he read on the side of the four large vans "animal control" and one of which saying "Jasper Zoo". A tear streaked down his face as they drove passed. He watched them until they were out of sight.
They pulled into a car park, outside a large building with giant writing above the entrance saying "Children Psychiatric Ward". Once more he started kicking and shouting to be let go. Four police officers came around, opened the door, to which he shuffled as far back to the other side of the car as he could. Only it was a set up. Al opened the door he was against and pulled him out with the help of another officer. The others came around to help after Leo managed to elbow one in the face, causing his nose to bleed. Rick and Ciara came running out the car, but were then held back. Leo was being dragged inside when he reminded them that they had to find Sahara, that she was hurt. They knew what he was on about, and when Al asked them, they only replied they didn't know what he as on about and they couldn't hear him.
He was dragged down corridors and around corners, they didn't want to take him to the reception for fear he'd hurt someone or himself. He was moved, still refusing to co-operate and make their task hell all the way passed other children who laughed hysterically or moved out his way in fear. All these children had some sort of mental illness, Leo didn't! He was shoved into a room and the door locked behind him with his handcuffs still on. It was a bare room, with only a bed, that was all. He shoulder barged the door, but only bringing pain to himself. He stepped back and threw back his head to howl. A howl of help, hoping that he would get it, but he knew he wouldn't, but for some reason it felt the right thing to do. But after stopping, he then realised that it only probably made him look all the more insane.
Kate awoke in a dark, confined space, shaking violently side to side and up and down. Was she reliving that memory when she and Humphrey were taken to Idaho? All around her she seemed to hear voices, cries and pleas from the others that she recognised to be the pack. She called out for her mate, but with the other voices going on around her, she couldn't hear him, and it was unlikely he couldn't hear her. So she tried for her family, but still getting nothing. But what she did hear was a feeble cry of a pup's call for its mother. There was a small beam of light that came from under a gap in this cage and she moved towards it, but to find that the cage was bars, not wood and was covered with some cover. She was able to lift the cover and see through to the pup that cried with others in the cage beside her. She tried to lift the cover off the other side, but she couldn't, only this side. She cooed and calmed the pups that when they saw her moved closer to her cage for comfort and protection. She was able to squeeze her paw through for physical soothing. Their cage was much like hers; they couldn't see any other side but this one.
She comforted them the entire way, saying how when she was last like this, they were let go and what they must do is run and don't stop. She told them about her and Humphrey's adventure which seemed to have settled them some, but she told them a number of times that when they let them out, they MUST run and stay together. When it came to that moment, they were lifted out, the pups were still placed beside her and she soothed them through the rough movement. The humans saw how bonded they seemed, so they guessed she was the mother for the four pups, so they let them go first and together. Their doors were lifted open and she and the pups ran for the first thing they saw and didn't look back. She stayed in pace with them as not to leave them behind.
They saw a forest, so they ran into it while the humans cheered behind them for some reason. They ran far into the forest and waited there, soon to be joined by members of the pack five at a time until the entire pack was back together. Kate was reunited with Humphrey who instantly tried to lighten things by saying if this reminded her of anything. She laughed a little, but only because it showed he was still ok. She took the pups back to their real parents and then regrouped with the rest of their family. They were in a state of panic, they didn't know what to do, so all eyes were on Winston and Eve. He ordered the pack remain here while he and the Alpha's he selected scouted the area. So that's what happened, he, Eve, Kate and Garth went in one group to the east, while two more groups of five went to the north and west. They saw what was in the south, so they weren't going back that way. Thirty minutes later, they all came back with the same findings.
They were locked in, see through walls were all around them, but to the east was a forest on the other side. All around them was filled with grassy areas, small ponds, all of it inside seven hundred square metres of fenced off area. The south was something much worse. The humans looked through the fencing, but that gave them a small sense of security, the fact that this territory which hadn't been claimed didn't allow anything in, but it didn't let them out either. The humans had their pups and elders as they peered through the fences at the wonderful creatures.
In the human language and knowledge, they were in a zoo, Jasper Zoo to be more precise. They were now famous in the state for their captive wolves, but wolves that were once very hostile and had even killed humans once before. The wolves never went close to the fence, but they did step out into the large space between the trees and the fence. They were in the back of the zoo the only part with a forest that they could fence off and have as their enclosure. In a way they felt safe that nothing could get in, but really, it was a nightmare that they couldn't leave. Their wasn't any prey, what were they going to eat?
Leo had his handcuffs removed an hour later, but on the way to a talk. He was dragged kicking and screaming again to another room, passing patients on the way and locked in. It was one large room, but with glass across the middle of it. He was on one side with nothing but a window, and on the other sat Caitlyn, Al and his old psychiatrist. He ran fall force into the glass in an attempt to shatter it, but it seemed they thought about it. It wouldn't no matter how hard he tried. Instead he was forced to listen to what they had to say.
It started of with Al apologising that they had to do this, Leo tried to block out what they were saying and turned his back to them to face the corner of the room. The doctor made notes as to his behaviour and compared the ones he made many years ago. He could see without having to look back that his old animal like behaviour was shining through, that they were going to have to start all the way back from where they started. He sighed, knowing and remembering how had it was to get Leo to the normal child they managed to get him to be, but now he was back to how he was before.
Leo at one point looked back at them, and could make out his reflection in the glass. Well, I say reflection, it was that wolf again. He screamed again when he saw it and ran to the other side of the room to the other corner and faced away from them. They tried to get him to talk, but they saw he still needed to adjust to it here and that they weren't going to get anything out of him like this. So he was escorted back to his room, his doctor suggested drugs that he takes to calm him and try to bring the real Leo back. They helped before to bring his humanity back, so they'll try it again.
He didn't sleep that night; he refused to in case they did something to him, but also because he was worried, for his family, for his pack.
The next morning, one of the facilities doctors walked in for a "chat" as they would have put it. Only, they didn't find Leo, he wasn't in the cell. But before he had a chance to run out, he dropped from the ceiling. He managed to climb and grab a hold of the light that could hold his weight and wedge himself between the light and the wall to ambush the first person that came in. He attacked the doctor, but didn't get a chance to do anything before security came running in and put him in a straight jacket and taking him to their version of a quiet room. A small room with softened walls and a light high up. The buckles to his jacket were undone upon him being thrown inside, but before he could run back to get out, the heavy door was sealed shut. He roared in anger, but it soon turned into a blood curdling howl which to the other children in the cells beside him, was a genuine wolf.
The morning the pack awoke after their capture, Kate was devastated and distraught, as was Humphrey. They lost their pup again. They were two of many that didn't sleep that first night. All the Alpha's were awake to keep watch while the pack slept, but most took it in shifts after struggling to stay awake. Humphrey was up all night with his mate, wanting to keep her company as well as he wanting hers in this dark time. Her eyes were bloodshot from tiredness and devastation from the last day and this morning. The pack was tired and hungry, but the hunger was one part they didn't have to worry about much longer. Not long after the pack awoke, they were drawn by their hunger to the south of their enclosure by the smell of meat. They found the humans throwing over large chucks of meat into their territory. For once, they weren't cautious about going nearer the fence and grabbing the meat before someone else did, but there was enough to go around and share equally. Kate decided to get the last piece along with her family, they had to put their pack before themselves, Humphrey and Lily agreed, so they waited as well.
They ate there and then, being watched by more humans as they came to snicker at them. It was torture to be here and laughed at by the humans, the ones that brought them here and put them all in this situation. They patrolled their new territory and made scent markings to show it was theirs. But why? They saw it was all fenced in, nothing as getting in or out. So why scent mark? By the end of that day, they knew every part of their new territory. Every tree, pool and pond, every bush, clearing and open space. They even found a part of the fence that opened and closed to allow the humans in. But every time one tried to get in, Winston set the Alphas on them and chased them back out. They had to get out of here.
So they tried climbing the fences, but they were too high. They tried digging, but the fence just went down and further down under ground. They couldn't go over or under, nor was there a way to go around. They were trapped.
The pack was informed about this part and panic started to set in that the humans could get them while they slept. But soon they were calmed and some what happy to hear that nothing could get in, so the pups were safe from predators. There wasn't anything in the territory that could hurt them other then the humans, but they were going to make sure they weren't going to get in. They had food, water and they could make shelter or rough it out and sleep outside.
Kate and Humphrey exiled themselves from the pack that day, unable to believe they had lost their pup again and didn't know where he was. They didn't even know where they were, so how was Leo going to find them again. He was supposed to be the one to save them from the humans, but he was defeated by his own species. How was he going to protect them if he couldn't protect himself? But they couldn't give up on hope. Hope that Leo would return to them and save them again.
But as the days moved on, it never happened, Leo never came back, nor did their sanity as it started to dwindle. They were in foreign territory, they were being fed unnaturally, they were caged in, the humans stared at them every day, it wasn't natural, nothing about this god ridden place was natural! Wolves lived by the natural surroundings provided by nature and its bounty. This was against everything wolves stood for, nothing that happened or they did here was right. The only thing that kept them going was the fact they still had each other and the pack. They had to stay to live and maintain their sanity.
But in the end, all humans were humans, they couldn't tell the difference between them anymore. They all looked the same. Kate suffered the worst, as did her mate. She loved her son, but now she started to believe he wasn't going to come back. It had been a week and he wasn't here to help them. She looked down at her reflection and her mates as he sat beside her doing to same in a pool of water. The humans stood on the other side of the fence behind them. She feared if Leo ever came, she wouldn't be able to tell him apart from the others, that she might hurt him. Humphrey feared just as much, he didn't want to forget his only son.
The pack began to throw up, but they could only guess it was from the meat they were fed or that everything was so different so quickly. Not all did, but around forty percent of the wolves did, including Kate. Humphrey didn't, so all he could do was help her through it. They never made new dens; they had enough shelter from the wind and rains here anyway. The pack was sick and delusional, but this was their life now.
Leo was allowed out of his cell to eat and for a small walk if accompanied, so he ignored whoever followed him around. The food hall was large with long tables running down the room, but with security and doctors lining the walls. Leo found the patients here were all children, suffering from mental illnesses like he was believed to have, a mental disease or because they were too out of control to be moved into a normal care home. Some of the children here were even sent from their families to get serious help. It was a care home for mentally ill children, an asylum for kids. Families and carers brought slothes for the child in their care, so Leo was stocked up for clothes. Leo was most likely the only sane one here. But no-one saw it that way, due the fact he howled constantly and yelled at his reflection to leave him alone. It was already on his file that he suffered from Clinical Lycanthropy, but it was also said he was at the early stage of Schizophrenia, that he had a reflection he was talking to and believed haunted him. That part he was starting to believe, and he was willing to let them stop that, but he still insisted that nothing was wrong with him other then that.
So he took medication for it, and slowly the visions of that wolf faded away and never bothered him much after that. But he refused to take anything else. He made a phone call everyday to Rick and Ciara who were grieved to hear him again, but somewhat relieved to hear his voice again. Only Al and Caitlyn came in to see him as long as a doctor was with them, but he ignored everything about Al, even his presence in the room, he only spoke to Caitlyn and refused to listen to anything he said. They had visiting hours where the child could speak to friends, carers and family from behind glass for both their safety. That's where he spoke to them from, but Al never allowed Rick or Ciara to come and see him, not until there was a sign he was improving. So that could be in a few days, or months, but at least they were allowed to talk to him via a phone. Leo's sanity didn't fair any better towards the end of his first week here, and he could see himself being here for longer.
He was lying in his cell when his doctor opened the door saying his had a visit. So he went to the visiting room expecting the regulars, but no. "Guys?" He gasped when seeing them in the other side of the glass. He jumped into the chair and put his hands on the glass; Ciara let a tear fall down her face and put her hand on his from the other side. "What are you doing here?"
"Al doesn't know, so keep it down." Rick seethed. Leo looked back and around, no-one was listening, they had the decency here to do that.
"What are you doing here?" Leo asked again and bringing his hand down.
"What? Can't we see our best friend?" Ciara laughed lightly, just so happy to see him again.
"How's Sahara? Is she ok?" He asked. They looked at one another.
"That wolf who was shot?" Rick questioned.
"You did go and find her right?" Leo asked now a little panicky.
"We couldn't hear what you said." Leo slammed his hands against the table in anger and let out a snarl which only made everyone look at the three. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
"You need to find her."
"How? Al won't let us out because he thinks we'll come here; Caitlyn had to cover for us."
"Do it again, you have to find her and see if she's still alive. She was shot and it's been a week, she could be dead. If anyone was killed I need to know."
"They're all fine." Ciara whispered to bring his loud voice down a little more. "They were moved to the zoo that night."
"The zoo?" Leo questioned. "They'd hate it there."
"We know, the keepers can't go into the enclosure without being chased out again." Rick chuckled a little.
"At least their fine." Leo sighed. "But you need to find Sahara, the Northern Pack could have killed her if she didn't die, please be careful."
"Northern Pack?" Ciara asked.
"We were chased out by another pack, that's why we ran into the site. Please find her; I can't lose anyone again, especially her!"
Intense chapter, what's going to happen next? Is Sahara alive? Will Leo ever get out, Will Kate and Humphrey be reunited with their pup again? Only time will tell. Read and review guys. On another note, i have a question to ask. You may have read that i had an idea for another mini Starnik story which i'm eager to do. So i'm stuck. Do i finish this story? Or do i put it on temporary hold so i can get this other one done and up and then come back to it? Let me know please. I want to know if i'll lose you amazing readers if i do. Please let me know. Until next time. :)