Forget about me

Safe

Chapter 2

Hug me!

I never saw it coming, one minute I had been walking on my way towards work, the second I got grabbed and slammed against the wall.

My head rang, and pain exploded.

“s**t” I tried to throw myself to the side just until my eyes cleared a bit, but whoever it was held on to me with a band of steel. I kicked out, but I only caught air when I got a fist in my stomach.

“Don´t worry little girl, we´ll make this quick” A voice whispered in my ear.

I managed to take in a small breath, “What do you want?” (I was pretty sure I already knew what they wanted but stalling was my only option at the moment).

He just gave me a creepy smile. If he only could let me go for a moment or focus on something else I could try to go shadow.

“What every other man wants little one” (what IS it with people and calling me small).

Now when I looked closer at him I saw he had extra sharp teeth, Fur instead of eyebrows and fur on his arms, his hand gripping me had claws.

I realised I was bleeding where he gripped me, the smell of blood really tempting predators I remembered. Gulping, “my what big teeth you have there grandma” I whispered.

His smile widened and started to box me into the wall. Panik and anger flared, Man am I going to let this uglyass thing r**e me? no way in hell!

I threw my other hand to claw against his face at the same time as I aimed a knee into his groin.

He grabbed on my other hand with his other hand but missed the knee.

“Ouff” He bent a little bit, “b***h!” He screamed and smacked me on the side of my face. DAMN that hurt!

I wrenched out of his grasp finally, rolled away from him, getting a kick to my side.

“Why don´t you make this a chase instead you coward? Or are you too slow to chase LITTLE me down!” I said while turning to run. I staggered but managed to recover and tried to run as fast as I could trying for all my worth to calm down enough to use my power.

I heard a menacing growl behind me but kept going. The pain in my side and face getting worse, I guess the worst of the shock is wearing off. I managed a corner and almost rounded the second when I heard him right behind me. I tried to shadow myself again but I was just too panicked.

I got grabbed around my stomach, losing my breath. A fist in my face finally made me black out.

Coming to I felt myself being dragged, something wet from my nose and lips.. oh nosebleed, I couldn't open my left eye.. (oh that's right, grandma wolf wants his wicked way with me), I tried to take a deep breath, damn my side hurts like a b***h! Movemovemove my thoughts went but it was just too hard… Suddenly I heard a big roar. The ground shook underneath me when whatever it was came thundered towards us.

The wolfman dropped me and growled.

For me it was mostly sounds of animals ( BIG man sized animals) , sounds of pain, grunting, thuds and growls. I managed to lift one eye and turn my head slowly to the noise. It looked like a big friggin bear.. no a GIANT bear was fighting the wolfman.

Blood was splattered around both of their mouths and wolfman's clothes was in tatters.

I closed my eye again and drifted away in my misery until a wet nose on my neck made me aware again. I heard someone saying something then felt myself get lifted the accompaning pain sent me back into darkness.

I heard a comforting voice whispering in my ear right before I drifted off

 “I´ve got you, you´re safe”.

I woke up with pain throughout my whole body, mostly my head.

“ooough…” I groaned. I moved my right arm up to my face and realised I had something cold and wet there. Probably a frozen bag of some sort.

I let the events slowly come back to me while trying to breathe in my surroundings.

Nothing moving around me so I'm probably not outside on the ground, not at a hospital. I would smell the disinfectant and hospitals were NOT quiet.

“you're at my place,” a rumbling familiar voice said.

I was quiet for a bit “.. so you´re a bear huh? Did not see that coming.” Maybe I should call him honey bear instead of mountain man or steroid boy.

He lifted the bag of peas, I tried to open my swollen eye but it was swollen shut.

But my healthy eye opened well enough to see that it indeed was David.

He met my eyes (eye?) and grimaged.

“Well hello to you too and enjoy your moment of looking prettier than me for once” I countered.

He smiled again. “Nice to know that i***t didn't manage to ruin that spirit of yours”.

“You wish,” I said in a grumpy tone. “So why am I here and is he alive still?”

“You´re at my place because my boss wants to talk to you and no … he is not”.

I looked at him. “We have the same boss”

“No we don´t, I was only keeping an eye on you, but we´ll talk more about that later, how are you feeling? What hurts?”

“How about everything” (yea I was on the self pity train, but I had earned a ticket to that ride).

I tried to sit up but my side made it´s protests.

“A little help here poobear”. He gave me a smile and put an arm around my shoulders and helped me up. “you don't have any lasting wounds, I had our pack doctor look you over quickly while you were out, he left just a little while ago actually”.

“Serious bruising on the side, swollen eye, bruised cheek, claw marks, a giant bump to your head but nothing broken as far as we can tell. you should stay in bed today though. Stretch a little bit and a few steps to the living room but otherwise just take it easy”.

“I´ll go get you something to eat then you can take some painkillers, it works better with some nourishment in your body”.

Such a caring bear i´ve got myself. But I was way too tired to argue, I looked around me and the bed I was sitting on.

Dark blue walls in a rather large room, the bed was on the smaller side (not that many lovers brought here huh) placed against the wall with a tiny lamp on a nightstand to the left. The door is easy to see right in front of the bed as well as the window to the left. A basket and a tiny table in front of the armchair was on the right side but otherwise it was a big room with plenty of more space. Somehow it was rather restful, not many distractions and made me feel safe. not a lot of things to hide behind if somebody wanted to (yea I was feeling a bit paranoid, so sue me).

I slowly went to stand, on shaky legs it worked. I took a few steps toward the window then back to the bed, stretching my back. Well I can handle this, but the head… feels like something is trying to bang its way out of there!

David came in through the door holding a plate with a sandwich, a cup of juice and a cup of coffee.

“You got fired by the way” he said while dropping things off on the little table in the room.

“.. did you explain what happened?” “Yea I called and told him, he said, not his problem, and hung up” he was pretty pissed I left when you didn't show up in time”.

“That little fracking worm” money is all he cares about. I stepped carefully over to the armchair and lowered myself down on it. Already feeling a little less stiff.

“Can you tell me what happened? I don't understand why you didn't use your power, I know you´ve got one”. So I told him what happened, “I guess I just panicked, and that blow to the head when I smacked into the wall made me not able to think clearly which was probably his intent”.

“Although I'm pretty fast on my feet, I do jog every day (mostly) but still he caught up with me very quickly”.

“Not surprising, he was not normal and jacked up on adrenaline, he had definitely gone crazy. I didn't have time to take a proper sniff, the smell of your blood and pain was very strong”.

“Eww doesn't sound like the nose is the best sense to be extra powerful to be honest”. I made a face then a grimage at the pain that flared on the side of my face.

He laughed out loud. “I´ll go get some of your stuff packed, I think you´ll borrow my bed for a while, don't worry I won't be joining you until you ask me to of course”. He winked and left.

I just stared at him in shock, why on earth would I be staying here for that long?!

And really in his dreams would I ask him into bed with me, I´m not completely mental (well that probably requires some more pondering).

But I was way too tired to argue, I'll save that for when I´ve rested a little bit more.

I finished the juice and sandwich and took the painkillers, walked back to the bed and crawled back into it with the frozen peas back on the side of my face, it might not do anything anymore but it felt good at the throbbing pain. Within minutes I was asleep again.

“You're going to do WHAT?!” I screamed. He stood in front of me with his arms across his chest, “I'm going to train you”.

“What on earth for?”

“Well you´re going to be in danger, and we would like for you to survive the next couple of days so we can make you a job offer, one that might save lives. But for that you need to be in better shape”.

“I'm in pretty good shape, I jog every day and I can carry the heavy trays at work you know” I said petulantly.

“Well you need to learn a little bit more reflexes and build up your strength to protect yourself, not that kicking peoples balls is´t effective”. He gave me a pointed look.

I did blush a bit. Well it's always worked for me, I mumbled.

“Well ofc I want to kick ass and everything but why me?”

“I´ll let my boss explain that to you, but when you´re ready, your swollen eye has already started to heal so you might as well start with endurance to get that blood flowing”. He grinned.

Ugh back to his annoying self huh, I steeled myself, well I better get something good out of all this and I should take the opportunity to learn to protect myself better.

And so started some of my most grueling days in my life!

We started out jogging, although he made sure I pushed myself to my very limits by jogging backwards in front of me pestering me until I used every ounce of energy I had.

Afterwards he made me stretch for an hour (for the record proper stretching is way more painful than the jog), everytime he helped me bend more than I thought I could go, tears filled my eyes but we kept this up TWO times a day.

After about two weeks all I had left of my ordeal was some yellow bruising where I was swollen before. Then the REAL training started.

We first started to jog uphill in the middle of our jog, then every second day instead of jogging we did strength, and started with some boxing, jumping rope and learning to kick (that was tons of fun, hard work learning to kick but very satisfying).

Apparently to learn to have proper balance and change the balance up on your feet you learn that the quickest way by jumping rope, it forces you to constantly be on the go.

He slept in his guest room across the hall from where I was (why he didn't make me sleep there i had no idea but I really liked his room so i never mentioned it). He had a tiny kitchen that was part of the living room with a bit sofa and tv that we watched shows on while eating.

Two weeks more passed and I started to get worried about my apartment, I actually liked training, I did feel myself getting stronger and more confident (although in that department I was pretty good to go). David was quite a good trainer, focused, let me try things out but never letting me relax.

“I do need to get back to my apartment to check it's still there soon”. I said during the stretching after our morning jog. “I have plenty of savings to make sure I can keep it for quite a while more but eventually I need to get a job you know”. I discreetly looked at his muscular back trying not to drool, like every other morning (my morning mental check i guess).

“One more month of training and then i`ll take you to my boss and we´ll get that fixed”.

“You might not get rich but we´ll make sure you have enough to live on ok?”

I had no idea why I just let myself get pushed like this but ever since I got here i just felt myself being relaxed and enjoyed a simpler life, training and being challenged for something more than I was.

But I certainly hoped I would´t get forced to do something I did´t want to do.

But deep down I knew this peace would´t last.

Part 2

Keep going.

A while after that he got a call and he gave me a serious look.

“My boss is ready to meet you”. He said.

“Lets go poobear, no time to dillydally” I said and walked to “my” room to change, maybe I can make a difference in people's lives after all, I thought to myself, really hoping.

He laughed and went to “his” room (maybe at some point I should give him back his room?)

We walked through a path in the woods, after 15minutes or so we came to the outskirts of a town, a town looking mostly abandoned because of the half broken down houses but at the corner  of one of the houses closest to us there was a half broken bar sign, next to it was a diner that seemed busy even though it sat in the middle of nowhere.

We went inside the bar and he waved to people by the counter, we continued through a door in the back that led to a well lit room with a giant desk, sofas against the wall and two people in it who's heads turned to us as soon as we came in.

The guy behind the desk was the one catching my attention immediately, he had an air that said ALPHA, BOSS, I AM THE DECISION MAKER (yea I scoffed inside).

“So you´re the Safier kid, I was hoping to meet you soon.” His Yellow shining eyes mesmerized me. “I heard you´re not as anti mutants as the rest of your family”.

I bristled. “Well ..eh I guess, I mostly feel that judging someone for their actions and not how they're born is important”.

He nodded like it was a good answer. “Well your parents have worked with politicians against mutants for some time now  so it would be really good to have you on our side helping us to blend into society again. Too many people fear us and that makes them judge young kids in trouble way too harshly, old women and infants being shunned and starved because they are born with different coloured eyes or just able to grow some fur on an arm”.

He paused.

“We are trying to change that, I'm letting you know this, not because it's a secret anymore, we have been working hard on gathering and we´re ready to let people know, all around the world people like us have started to gather and we need people from inside big societies to know about us and maybe even get the real story before people start to twist truth into something else.”

“We want to be part of society, we need laws to not be hunted and we need corruption that is taking place to stop.The next generation should grow up with a different set of rules that helps us all instead of only a few. And you my dear Is the important key in this!”

I looked at him, then let my eyes wander to David. He looked at me a moment then nodded.

“Well I thank you very much for letting David help me when I most needed him to, i guess you´re the one who let him have enough free time to spend with me and my training also as nice company.”

He smiled brightly with nice shiny teeth (wonder what he can do, It gotta be deadly whatever it is). “We have plenty of practice of what a person with trauma needs to not have many lingering effects of the ordeal”.

“.. I guess so” I  answered tentatively. “Well get to the point, what do you need from me, NOT that i'm agreeing to join you! But i will help if i think it's the right thing to do… also I don't have any useful powers for your information”.

“Miss Safier!” He said with a laugh “You don't think we didn't notice you not being on anyone's radar, you have a knack of being discreet, average everything and not a single newspaper mention you even though you´re part of a family with lots of connections, a lawyer as a sister, policeman as a father and a company chief as a brother, all of them very successful. But YOU, not a single mention, not anything on you, not even a speeding ticket”.

He looked knowingly at me.

“Well what can I say, I´m boring AND law abiding” I answered dryly while feeling a little pull on my pride.

“Oh it's a very good thing, you will be perfect for helping out, and not joining us is even more perfect. You will not be able to stop yourself from helping my people out and at the same time you´re considered to be one of them. You will also not make too much of a fuzz because of your… ways to be discreet.

Yes, you will do nicely!

To be continued ..