Impress Me

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Chapter 3 – A Scar

Darkness clouded her mind as painful memories were brought back. As peaceful as the night was, there could be no peace from the past. Yet in all the hurt, there was that crimson hand, trying to reach out to her once again.

Brooklyn found Haven getting Kale ready to go near the ledge of the castle, "We can't stay here, Kale."

"But why?" Kale needed some minor pulling and then some convincing to get him down the hall, "I…Kale, I don't feel like we'll be safe here. We'll find some other place, okay?"

"There's like a ba-jillion gargoyles and everything is all expensive. How can this place not be safe?" she knew she was losing this debate, "Well, it's not polite to overstay your welcome."

"But they said we can stay as long as we like." She sighed, "They say that but…"

"And we mean it. You're not staying?" Brooklyn noted her face was more cautious than before. "We appreciate what you're trying to do but we think it better to find other accommodations."

"You mean you think it better." She sighed as Kale pouted, "Come on, Kale." Brooklyn waved, "Take care of yourself."

Haven approached the ledge with Kale in her arms. Kale was unnerved by the height but Haven nearly froze. Brooklyn watched for them to leave but wondered why they took so long. Finally, Haven took a deep breath and went over the ledge but instead of gliding off like Brooklyn imagined she would, she was climbing down. Suddenly he remembered her injured wing and ran to check on them, "Do you need help?"

"We're fine." Haven was in considerably more pain with her hand than her wing but she was frozen quite a ways down. "I'm scared, I want to go back up. I don't like this."

Haven didn't realize her shaking was terrifying the boy. Brooklyn didn't know what was going on but he stayed at the ledge, "You sure, I could give you a lift."

Her thoughts were a jumble that she scarcely heard him. She forced herself to move as her pride wouldn't allow her to go back up. The bandage on her hand snagged on the stone she had her claw in rather tightly that when she pulled at it, it scrapped her wound and made Kale lose his grip, "AAHHH!"

Brooklyn leapt from the ledge with full speed to catch Kale before he could lose grip of her tail too. The boy clung tightly to him and burried his face in Brooklyn's shoulder. Climbing back up, he motioned for her to come with him but Haven still couldn't move so he quickly got Kale back up to the ledge then went back down for her, "Give me your hand."

"I…I can't…" Brooklyn went lower and reached out for her hand himself. It was shaking violently, in fact, so was the rest of her. He wrapped her hand around his neck forcing her to quickly swing her other hand over to cling to him. He climbed up to the ledge where Kale grabbed her waist and held tightly. He was still pretty shaken himself. Now that she felt firm stone under her feet, she felt horrible for putting him in such a dangerous position. The idea of going down the elevator and out the front door came to mind but the likely hood of not attraction attention was laughably low. Kale brought her back from her thoughts with a sob. "We…we'll stay for today. Then tomorrow…"

"I understand." Brooklyn picked up Kale since Haven felt too ashamed and took him to a place where he could sleep. He came back later and found Haven by the fountain but before he could speak, she asked him a question, "How can you live with humans?" She turned to face him. "I know what they can do, especially that human in particular. But Goliath and the rest of us believe we can live alongside them." he answered.

"That'll never happen." She looked back into the water. Brooklyn walked to her side, trying to meet with her eyes, "Not that it's any of my business, but how is Kale any less human?"

There was a pause. "Kale is different. I can't explain it, but he's…different."

"He's as much human as Xanatos. Why the prejudice?" Haven sighed heavily. "He…reminds me…of someone I know."

"Who?"

"The high priest in Costa Rica." Brooklyn tried to peer into her amber eyes through her reflection but she seemed to stare right through him as she recalled what went before. She sighed greatly again, "Back home, I have two brothers; one younger, one older. But I also had a little sister."

"Had?"

"Monja Ivelisse found us as eggs and raised us as hatchlings. She didn't see us as demons, only four baby creatures. Alonso – that's my eldest brother – protected the city when he was old enough while we waited in the abbey. My brothers were named Alonso and Jerico and mi hermana, my little sister was Eva." Brooklyn took a knee next to the water she seemed to be seeing this tale in, "And what was yours…your name, I mean?" Finally she looked up from the ripples, "It doesn't matter anymore, I've since discarded that name."

"Why?" Brooklyn stopped looking into the distorting ripples and at her. "It was the night we celebrated my Quince Año, the night I would come of age and help protect the city with Alonso. It was also the night of the Día de las Culturas festival and all the abbey was out giving cheer to the less fortunate. Padre Marco and Hermano Basilio came back for the wine in the cellar since the abbey had no use for them anyway. Few ever came down there.

To him we were forces made outside of nature, forces that should be purged. I was alone with the younglings while Alonso was out in the city getting Jerico new guitar strings. Padre Marco didn't hesitate to grab a hot poker from the fire to swing and jab into us. I shielded Jerico and Eva…and I received this."

She placed her hand near a fat, long bump on the back of her left shoulder. It looked like she was branded by the fire poker.

"We were chased out of the abbey and through the streets of San Jose by the people I would have protected." Haven dipped her claw into the water creating small waves that reverberated off it. "Like the ripples, or flame in an oil field, word of demons spread quickly throughout the city.

"The young ones could not yet fly and…I…couldn't do anything. My sweet Eva was caught in that mob. Alonso came to us…but too late. We lost mi hermanita and barely escaped with our own lives."

"I'm…I'm sorry, truly." Brooklyn hung his head, ashamed of making her bring up a painful subject. "Monja Ivelisse was trying to surprise us with silver crosses with our names engraved on them. We found them months later when we went back to find her. She had disappeared."

She sighed heavy, "I can't forgive them. I won't. I can't live your way and I won't ask you to understand."

"I do, though. We were also betrayed by the humans we protected; twice. We were even betrayed by one of our own, and…we lost so much of our family."

"Then why are you still here? What can possibly draw you to them?" Her voice was quiet and pained. "Because humanity is not totally lost. We have met humans like Kale and Xanatos who accepted us for who and what we are, even wanted us around. There's room for one more if you'll suffer us."

Haven looked at him at long last, then at the night sky. "Your Luna is beautiful, but Manhattan has no stars. Makes me miss home that much more." Brooklyn hung his head in disappointment. "But…" Brooklyn's head shot back up in hope. "I'll stay here…until I can find other arrangements. I'll stay until the stars shine in this sky."

"That could be a long wait with these lights. Welcome to Manhattan."

(A/N)I'm going to go back and upgrade old chapters as well, make them less sappy, more natural, and...just...not-so-cheasy. This one is HEAVILY updated; thought a giant bukake of uninterrupted exposition was too unnatural so I made it more like a conversation and gave the whole discussion more reason to be where it was by editing ch 2 and adding a situation that also put more weight on why they would stick around. Changed some names and feeling DAMN good about them. Now they don't sound generic or racist. Of course, I had to modify ch2 in order to do this. Will get back to you all on other chapters so until then.