New - Ryan
1628 Words
A/N: Oooh, here we go!
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May 12th
Someone was shaking my shoulder, making my dream fade much faster than I was willing for it to. "Ugh, go away!" I knew it was probably Blake, trying to get a rise out of me. Whoever it was stopped, and I sighed, trying to settle in for another few precious minutes of sleep.
I hadn't gotten much the past couple of days. After Dr. Bellami's relentless interrogation, my voice had picked up on my weakness, driving into my skull again and again and again. I needed to hurt, I needed to bleed, I needed to feel the pain and watch red slide down my arms, my legs, my body.
And I'd given in- just to make him shut up!
I'm still here.
SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!
I started screaming into my head, drowning him out. A sudden jostle on the bed had me shooting up and screaming for a minute until Blaire pressed a hand to my mouth, looking at me like I was crazy.
Which- I was.
My bandages pulled and puckered on my arms, but I calmed down quickly seeing it was just Blaire. "You scared me!" I whispered, my eyes already adjusted to the dark. Giving me her best "well duh" face, she rolled her eyes and pushed me away from the wall I was curled against. I sighed, moving over and making room for her. In the small amount of moonlight, I could see the bloody shine of her necklace and pulled the blanket over her. "Bad night?" I whispered, and her hair rustled against the pillow as she nodded.
"Wanna talk about it?" I snorted quietly, and she scrunched up her face like the words were toxic. I looked at my alarm clock, seeing that it was already 5:30. I'd only been asleep for an hour, too busy trying to distract myself, but sat up against the wall to give her some room. Her hands started moving, telling the story of her latest nightmare- always centered around one of two events, how she got her necklace or the boy who used her silence to r**e her in a playground.
I nodded along, watching the story unfold, a new one. How her brother had been the one to put her in here after she tried to kill herself from the r**e, but with a darker twist that we both knew wasn't true. In her head he'd abandoned her, leaving her in here for the rest of her life. We couldn't get out, our "psychiatric evaluations" always showed that she and I were "too dangerous to ourselves and society" to be released. What they really were was a pop quiz over how well you could act and lie and smile like everything was okay.
I just hadn't quite gotten it right yet. Neither had she.
I nodded off a couple of times, but she didn't notice. I knew that she preferred to talk about it with me before the day started before she could be questioned over how she slept and what she dreamed about by the doctors. She finally fell asleep at 7, and I slid to the floor, sitting against the wall to sleep so she could have the bed. Half-sleeping, I made sure to wake up ten minutes before all of the alarms would go off and wake-ups began.
Shaking her awake, I helped her stand until she was steady enough to sneak back to her room in the girls' hallway. I had no idea how she always managed to get past the nurses and orderlies without being seen. It must have been a gift.
Wavering on my own feet, I made the bed and leaned against the wall, waiting for either Blake or Nurse Caitlin to come get me for breakfast. My alarm went off and I silenced it immediately, trying desperately to grab the last few minutes of sleep I could before I had to act normal and healthy. 20 minutes went by, and I decided to get back under my blanket- the pajamas they gave us fresh every night were never warm enough, not even now.
I woke up again at 9:30, shocked no one had come knocking yet. Rolling over, I counted my blessings and went back to my dreamless sleep.
By 10:30, I was almost certain that I had missed something. Getting up, I walked to the door and opened it, only to come face to face with a guy I'd never seen before, wearing the most amazing cologne. Taking several steps backward, I wrapped my arms around myself and tucked my hands into the long sleeves. His gaze burned through the top of my head as I looked at my feet, bare and dirty already.
"Oh, f**k no. Not today." I jumped when his voice raked shivers down my spine, taking a large step back. "I'm sorry." I murmured, used to having to apologize. He took a step into the room, leaving the door open behind him. I swallowed the hoarseness in my throat and stepped back again, my heels pressing into the side table. Biting on my cheek, I stood as still as possible as he continued to stare at me.
I tried to take smaller breaths, tried to get the smell of him out of my head, but it just got worse. My body began to shake, and I couldn't stop the lump from coming back. "Hey, I'm sorry. You... you just took me by surprise, that's all." His voice was soft now, though it still raced across my collarbones, sending shocks into my heart. I gathered the courage to look at him, and saw an unnatural glow coming from his eyes- eyes that felt more like home than my Mom's embrace ever did. A teal that caught the sun and reflected it back into my bod, warming my blood and even he paused.
Him.
What?
Him.
I shoved him into the smallest corner of my mind pulling my focus back to the boy in front of me, who held my eyes without fear, though his hands shook as though he were scared of me.
He is. But not because of me.
What do you mean? Please stop speaking in tongues.
He's ours.
I let out a dry sob of confusion, and like lightning his arms were around me, cradling me in his protection. "Hey, hey, it's okay, what's wrong?" I was choked by his scent- the oddest combination of fire, aluminum, and whiskey- but in the best way. It soothed my ragged lungs, feeling like the purest air after I'd been drowning. "I don't understand. What's going on?" "WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!" A louder voice drowned out mine, storming footsteps matched with a quaking growl.
The boy turned his gaze, now a scorching silver, on Blake who stood in the door. When he saw the boy's face, he took a step back, looking like the boy had stopped his heart with a single look. Keeping his arms around me, he blocked Blake with his body and stared him down. "Nothing is happening here. Leave. Now." Blake backed away, clearly terrified of the boy before he slammed the door shut and locked us inside.
Breaking out of his arms, I ran to the door, pounding on the cool metal until I felt my freshest cuts tear open and begin to bleed. The boy, who had been crouched against the wall, sprung up, pulling me back the moment I smelled the blood. "Hey, hey, don't fight me. Hey, it'll be okay." He held my wrists in his hands, and my chest was heaving from having to restrain throwing him off to scratch my cuts.
Gently, he pulled me to the bed, sitting me down. He kept his grip tight around my wrists, but not bruising like the orderlies. "Can I look?" he asked gently, and I shook again as his voice took on that calming quality that slowed my heart and stilled my brain. Nodding, I watched as he set one of my hands down on his leg, shooting more shivers through my nerves, and turned my other arm over.
"Can you listen to me while I look at these? My name's Zach, but it's short for the stupidest name ever- Zachariah. Who the Hell names their kid Zachariah, other than my parents, anyway. But, hey, don't look yet, I'm talking to a friend of mine," Zach paused, tapping his temple slowly, once, twice, "And they're going to try and help us. Okay? Wouldn't that be nice, to be out of here? But I need you to, hey look at me." I looked at him, certain that even my organs were shaking inside of me- the more he touched me the worse the shaking got- and his eyes were back to that odd teal color that went so perfectly well with his light brown hair.
"I know you're not what they say you are, okay. I know it, and I know that you know it. You don't belong here." He ran his fingers over my cuts, only they weren't cuts anymore, just normal scars- collected with the hundreds of other white slashes on my arms, but they no longer stood out. Not even a hint of pink. "See that? That's how I know. That and," he paused again, appearing to steel himself with a breath. Slowly, he ran a single finger down the center of my scarred up arm, causing my muscles to visibly jump and tense, a fire of shivering racing from my scalp to my soles.
"That. That proves this to me. Because wolves like me, wolves in general, don't find their Mates in Mortals. You- Ryan- you're different."
"And you're mine."
- Writer
