OOC: Warning possible scary lines will be said, if you get squeamish I don't recommend you reading this.


The nighttime air blew harshly outside of the Xavier Institute, a storm brewing loudly outside of it’s hallowed halls. The trees would rap upon many of the student’s windows, making some of their slumber uneasy and restless. Most students didn’t have many problems with this, though those who were light sleepers merely woke up their roommates and decided to stay up late. Most of the mansion was in good spirits for such a dark and stormy night. With the exception of one certain student who seemed to be having trouble sleeping this fair night, but it wasn’t the sounds or the storm outside keeping her awake it was the sounds and sights within her own mind.

It had been a long time since Emerald slept in her own room at the mansion, most of the time she had been working around this time of night. But the boss had become worried about how exhausted the she-wolf looked lately and was worried that not only would she start to fall asleep on the job but also her well being. Emerald had become like family to the burly male and he really didn’t want to see her in any sort of bad condition so he forced her to go home and get some sleep.

This was easier said than done though, Emerald hadn’t been sleeping well for a long time now, only on occasion would she get a full nights sleep without any sort of complications. Now was not one of those occasions, for throughout this entire night the wolf girl found herself in a constant fitful state of slumber. She was able to take naps during the day and those were fine but asking for a full nights sleep after the various events that happened to her seemed to be too much.

Emerald laid in her bed tossing and turning, grumbling incoherently underneath her breath. Perhaps grumbling was not a good word for what she was doing, she was growling, growling loudly. She was attempting something in her slumber, though god knows what. The she-wolf would suddenly jerk awake, a gasp escaping her throat. Dark blue eyes would study her room, looking at every inch of it before she sighed in relief. The wolf girl then felt something warm trickling down her left arm and glanced over at it, only to let out a grumble of irritation. 5 long lines went down her lower forearm, blood flowing freely from it. She would take this chance to glance over at her right hand and notice the considerable length her fingernails had grown while she was sleeping.

“Damn it…” Emerald cursed, rising up for the bed.

After peeling the covers back Emerald noticed the long rips in the sheets and she let out another curse. She would make her way to her bathroom, feeling the warm blood flow down her arm. Taking a quick glance at the mirror Emerald would notice the dark circles under her eyes and her sweat soaked tanktop. With a low groan Emerald would remove the accursed tank top and put on a longer sleeved blue striped shirt. It was still a pajama top but where she was going she was going to need it. In a sloppy manner, Emerald would treat the long scratches on her arm, just bandaging them up temporarily so she wouldn’t bleed too much.

“I need to go hit something…” Emerald began, leaving the bathroom it it’s haphazard mess that she had made.

The mansion hallways were always dark a foreboding at night, even with the happy sounds of some of the students enjoying themselves on this restless night. The wolf girl was glad that they were in such a good mood, knowing that she would be in a better mood as soon as she let some of this anger out.

At least it felt like anger.

Out into the storm the she-wolf ventured, not really carrying that the wind was whipping at her face or that there was lightning resounding in the distance. Normally the cold weather would have heightened any sense of anxiety she may have had, but at the moment she felt nothing but one emotion. Even if someone called after Emerald at that very moment she wouldn’t be able to hear them, it was like all of her actions were automated, without any emotion but the one that overwhelmed her the one that kept the snarling looking on her face. The wolf would go into the shed where the mansion kept their old equipment from the danger room, none of the dangerous equipment but some of the old test dummies, props, things that don’t worry anymore now that the danger room was so high tech now.

Dragging out a poor defenseless dummy the she wolf would set it up accordingly, mounting it to it’s black post that kept it erect. The wind began to blow wildly, threatening to knock the faceless dummy down, making it lean and rotate about as if it was alive, but it stayed it it’s place somehow, just before the assault of blows began.

One hit, two hits, all being punches assaulted the dummy, first at it’s head, then at it’s chest. A different routine would occur involving kicks, all of which being relatively calm ones. They looked well practiced and with each repeating of the routine they would look even better. Emerald was a well practiced fighter and enjoyed working out or testing various punches on sparing partners or testing dummys. Witht hat said though as time went on and her moves got more intricate, Emerald herself began hearing some very interesting things, causing her formerly demorphed right hand to twitch.

“Keep struggling, the more blood you shed the more I have to play with.”

Emeralds second kick would suddenly strike the dummy hard, causing it to bob about in a frantic way. The she-wolf had broken her form in a training session, that had never happened before. Continuing her kicks and then beginning with the punches she would increase her speed slightly aiming to make short, less forceful punches to make the dummy bob a little back but no knock it over.

“You think your punches actually hurt me? How about you stop hitting me and I’ll make you feel better.”

Emerald would slam her fist into the dummy so hard it would knock itself into the ground before righting itself back up, thankful it being on one of those bobbing back up. The she wolf let out a harsh breath, panting, and her blue eyes would dart around for a brief moment, trying to see if anyone was there. When she didn’t see anyone she would start trying to punch the dummy in the way she intended to, sticking to a very skilled routine as usual.

“Puppy smells good, wonder if puppy will taste any better with more pain. Puppy is so cute when she screams.”

Emerald would let out a harsh bark at the dummy, her blue eyes narrowing at it and though it didn’t respond she began wailing on the thing, slamming into it again and again. She was trying to stay in a pattern but with how her punches and kicks were landing a pattern seemed to be farthest from her mind.

“Tasty girl. Now let out a scream just for me, so I can see how much you are enjoying this..”

A howl of rage echoed across the mansions ground as the wolf girl's her right hand full morphed into her third forms hand. Jumping at the dummy the massive clawed thing would swipe down at the dummy slicing it’s head clean off it’s non animated shoulders. The wolf girl would let out a harsh snarl, her entire body shaking as she began cutting into the now headless dummys torso letting out barks as she did so. But those barks turned into to human yells, of something…besides anger.

“I’ll find you again and we will play some more, puppy.”


The body of the once in tact dummy was torn apart and now Emerald sat their beside it, shaking like a not yet fallen autumn leaf. So many thoughts went through the Alpha female’s head as she stared down at the ground. Hating herself in that moment, she was glad that no one had seen that, a moment of weakness, the mighty wolf girl being afraid of something. More like someone. She hated herself for it, for having emotions, for not being able to detach her from everything and for not being able to escape that fateful day several months ago.

“What’s wrong with me?” Emerald asked herself, rain beginning to fall from the sky. It soaked her tanktop and her sweatpants but she didn’t really care. Her hand was still partially morphed but at least the rain was calming her down. At the moment Emerald needed this rain more than anyone possibly knew.

Agnes was doing so well. Ever since her parents had been thrown into jail, Agnes no longer had the dreams. She no longer feared the close her eyes because she knew that her parents were not going to be there when she woke up. But Agnes had lived through a traumatic experience. Her parents, upon finding out she was a mutant, attempted to exorcise the “demon” they thought was in here. The Hoseman of Pestilence, they called it. So they did their holy duty to extract it from their daughter’s frail body.

She barely survived. Something like that was not going to be easily gotten over.

Wrapped in her blankets as the storm outside howled and screamed, Agnes sniffled as her fingers tightened around the sheets. Her knuckles grew white as she tugged, whimpered and tried to vanquish the thoughts that had managed to penetrate her dreamland. In her sleep she bit her lip, to keep from crying out as sweat began to dot the entirety of her forehead.

Over and over all she could do was shake her head and muttered a sheepish and pleading “No, No, No…” as she twisted herself more in the sheets that trapped her.

Her mind was in turmoil.

She could see them, her parents, standing behind the fiery brazier that churned with flames as the metal brand that lay within it grew white hot. She could feel the straps that held her in place, the tiny cuts that bled out throughout her body and pooled beneath her form. A cry choked in her throat as the spider web of pain shot throughout her back and made her sniffle all the more. She didn’t want to see this! She didn’t want to have to look at all this again.

Step…Step…Step…

They were coming. She could fear them, muttering their prayers and begging for the salvation of their only daughter’s soul. With them, through her tears, Agnes could see the brand of a cross looming closer and closer. She shook her head, she struggled weakly but none of it was to avail. She was so tired, so weak, and so scared.

”In the name of God…” she heard her mother say. ”We shall purify you…”

She could already feel the humming brand grow closer to her skin before suddenly…Siiiizzzzzzzle….

Agnes gasped and shot up in bed, fighting with her blankets. Breathing heavily, she looked around the room with wild eyes. Everything was still exactly where it was, Gina was still sleeping soundly, and there was no sign of her parents.

Still shaking she stood up staggered as she paced back and forth, her eyes closed in an attempt to shake the memory of that dream from her head. It had been such a long time since she dreamed about that day that this once completely took her by surprise. Placing her hand at the back of her neck, she groaned as she tried to rub the tension she could feel balled up. She then turned to the window to see if maybe just watched the rain to could ease her mind, but as she looked out, she saw the swiftly moving form of a very familiar redhead.

“Emerald?” she muttered.

Reaching over to a small chair that sat next to her bed, Agnes plucked up her dark blue “Xavier’s Institute” sweater and pulled it onto her body. Still in her black and white stripped sweatpants she stepped into her fluffy ladybug slippers (a gift from Gina) and stepped out into the hall. She continued on to make her way down to the bottom level and outside into the cold storm to see if Emerald was okay. After all, they were friends (and pack member’s apparently) so it was only right that she make sure that she was okay.

Stepping out onto the grass, she tilted her head as she watched Emerald fight…with a dummy? Eyebrow up, she stuffed her hands in her pocket as she walked over, wincing when the rain began to fall. Emerald looked to be in bad shape…

>> “What’s wrong with me?”

Agnes blinked. Though she had only known the she-wolf a little while now, she really had never seen her display much of this type of emotion. She rarely ever seemed scared or anxious and yet here she was.

Gentle the runaway cleared her throat to get Emerald’s attention.

“Emerald,” she asked meekly. “Are you okay, honey?”

Emerald sat there for a while, staring downwards at her hands, trying her best to calm down. The massive werewolf hand was still formed but it was demorphing slowly, it just hurt like a son of a gun. That’s what happened when your hand grew about 4 times it’s normal size and became covered in coarse black fur. It was good that her whole arm didn’t transform because then it would have been less likely she would have been able to demorph which meant that Xaviers would have had a massive werewolf running around as opposed to a normal wolf girl or slightly large sized wolf.

The wolf girl’s pointed non fur covered ears twitched a little when she heard a voice. She recognized it almost immediately and her dark blue eyes looked up at the other mutant, not trace of the self lothing in her eyes that there was before. An attempted light look was in those eyes and though it wasn’t that good of a fake look at least it was something other than the crushing feelings she had before.

“I’m alright, just gotta little bit carried away on the testing dummy that’s all. I guess it’s cause the full moon next week,” Emerald said, waving that massive wolf hand/paw. Her eyes narrowed a little at Agnes, noticing that she was out in the rain along with Emerald. “What the hell are you doing out here? You’re going to get sick. Wolves don’t get colds so I’m just fine.”

It was an attempt to change the subject, it was an attempt for anything to be brought up about the incident to go away. Alpha’s weren’t supposed to show weakness in front of their pack mates, they weren’t supposed to look scared or show their dark deep secrets, they were supposed to stand strong no matter what. The fact that Agnes may have seen that outburst scared her, it honestly did, she didn’t want to show weakness in front of anyone. Whenever she did, it seems that they left and she would be left alone again and that was something she didn’t want.

“Come on, lets go inside,” Emerald suggested walking up to Agnes with a forced smile, though it was hard to tell that it was forced. “Besides, I’m hungry.”

With that last statement, the werewolf suddenly winced, audiable cracking resounded from her right hand. It would seemed that her hand had finally speed up the demorphing process. It cracked and the bones moved beneath it, shrinking back into her normal hand. The whole processes sounded very painful and judging by the grimace on Emerald’s face it was very pain. When the pain stopped she glanced down at her now unusable right hand. She also took a chance to notice her left arm’s scratches had reopened again and had begun soaking through the bandages.

“Damn it…hey Agnes do you know how to redress bandages? My Right hand is sort of unusable at the moment and my left arm may or may not be bleeding a lot. I just don’t wanna wake up Doc.” Emerald explained.

In spite of the pain she was in, at least now there was something distracting from the subject of why Emerald was beating up the dummy.

The rain began to soak through her sweater and her hair, but Agnes didn’t care. Living on the streets there were many times that she got completely soaked due to the rain. It was not a rare occurrence for her, nor was it something that really bothered her anymore. She was used to it, though if the option presented itself to be dry, she would rather do that. But despite that, Agnes was not about to leave her friend out here in the pouring rain, being soaked to the bone either. On top of that, she could definitely tell that something was wrong with her, even if the Alpha didn’t want to admit that.

>> “I’m alright, just gotta little bit carried away on the testing dummy that’s all. I guess it’s cause the full moon next week…What the hell are you doing out here? You’re going to get sick. Wolves don’t get colds so I’m just fine.”[/color]

For a second there, Agnes felt like a child being admonished. She felt like maybe she had overstepped her boundaries and that she was bothering the she-wolf. Meekly she looked down to the wet grass, feeling the water attempt to seep in through her fuzzy red ladybug slippers. She was going to have to put those in the dryer now. But shaking that thought away, she looked up and twisted her lips into a small frown.

She didn’t want to upset Emerald. She just wanted to help her…that was all…

“I-I’m sorry,” she mutely said as she watched her. Her crystal blue eyes peered at her closely as if trying to really see that she was fine. Obviously it wasn’t true.

>> “Come on, let’s go inside…Besides, I’m hungry.” [/color]

Agnes smiled a bit and nodded. Emerald was probably still irritated with her, especially since she was supposed to be her protector and all. Doesn’t help when the protectee is putting themselves in danger on purpose. But nonetheless she accepted Emerald’s invitation to return to the mansion. She was thankful for that. She was starting to get cold.

But as she turned to follow her, she spied the large, wolfish hand that Emerald sported. The sight of it was a little disturbing but she didn’t let that fact be known. Instead she watched it in awe as it slowly shifted back into that of a human hand. The problem was that once that was finished, Agnes blinked in surprise as she watched blood begin to flow down from a bandage that Emerald had wrapped around her arm.

Concern flashed across her face as soon as they got back into the mansion doors.

>> “Damn it…hey Agnes do you know how to redress bandages? My Right hand is sort of unusable at the moment and my left arm may or may not be bleeding a lot. I just don’t wanna wake up Doc.”[/color]

“Oh my god, what happened?” she asked as she stepped inside the mansion and leaned closer to look at the wounds. Not completely grievous but they were bleeding nonetheless. She shook her head as she looked up at Emerald’s face. “I think I can re-bandage it. Come on,” she said and led the way to the kitchen which had the nearest first aid kit.

Once she made it inside of the kitchen, Agnes knelt down to open the cabinet beneath the sink and pulled out a blue, nylon bag that had a “First Aid” symbol on it. Her ladybug slippers squished with each step as she turned and laid the kit on the counter and beckon Emerald to take a seat.

“Come on, you,” she said a little sternlyas she unzipped the bag and began to pull out q-tips, hydrogen peroxide, and bandages. It was only when Emerald was seated that Agnes grabbed a chair and pulled up close to her. Leaning down she slowly began to undo the soaked bandaged and winched. Shaking her head, she set the bloodied bandage aside. “Now, don’t wince, okay? Stay still…” she said as she readied the peroxide. This part always stung…

Sometimes Emerald forgot about the whole, “People didn’t understand when she was joking thing” so when Agnes looked down at the ground to answer her the girl would grimace a little, but didn’t address it. She figured she would make it clear she wasn’t mad at Agnes as much as she was scared of the fact that she had been seen by another. Letting out her true emotions of anger, of fear, it was a scary thought that anyone should see her like that. While it had happened before it didn’t mean that she felt any more comfortable with revealing anything about herself or past events.

She also didn’t say anything when Agnes asked what happened, not because she didn’t want to say what happened but because of that look Agnes gave her. She was concerned about Emerald’s wellbeing which made the she-wolf smile a little. While the Alpha in her didn’t want to be taken care of by anyone in a way, a weird way, it was nice to be the one that was finally being taken care of.

The wolf girl would walk inside the mansion with Agnes, trying to think of ways she could talk to her newfound friend without letting too much on. It would probably better for her to just not saying anything to Agnes about the whole incident with Bloodfang. She didn’t want to to burden the girl with her problems let alone an encounter she had with a psychopath who had been hunting her down for years at a time.

After following the girl all the way to the kitchen Emerald sat down on one of the taller chairs that went up to the counter, careful not to sit on her tail that was drooping a little between her legs. Sometimes she forgot that her tail tended to show emotion than she ever did. It was the problem with being a wolf mutant with a tail, the wolf in her tail was that it tended to show emotion than she ever did

Emerald would glance up at Agnes as she sat down next to her with the first aide kit. She then winced a little when she undid the bandage, feeling the cheap cloth bandage stick to her cuts in her arm. The way that the scratch looked, looked to be awfully similar spacing to the massive claw that Agnes saw before. It wouldn’t take much to put two and two together. The claw marks were deep and sticky with blood and ran straight down her arm, blood still trickling from them.

“ I won’t wince, but only because you asked me nicely,” Emerald would say, a coy grin on her face. She would say this just as the peroxide was poured on. She didn’t wince and while it did burn like a son of a gun, she didn’t made any motion that she was in pain. The cut hissed angrily bubbling up with white foam. " Ow, that kind of burns. Oh right,I clawed myself with my werewolf claw in my sleep, I sometimes sleep morph and I ended up doing that to myself .. Kind of a restless sleeper I guess and I'm sorry if I sounded snappy before I didn't mean to.”

Emerald’s dark blue eyes looked up at her friend with an apologetic look, her tail wagged a little, trying to diffuse the fact she had a big gash on her arm and that sounded a little bit like a jerk thing from before. She still didn't let out anything about why she was having a restless sleep and she wasn't planing to for the rest of the night.

>> “ I won’t wince, but only because you asked me nicely,”

Agnes smirked in response. Emerald could indeed be silly when she wanted to and not always the scary wolf-girl on campus that the majority of the student body already feared. It was those moments that actually made her like Emerald. If she was all scary wolf, all the time, Agnes would have simply chalked it up to the girl just having an extremely bad state of mind. If she had allowed that to rule her heart, there was a distinct possibility that Agnes simply would have wanted to have nothing to do with her.

But it was the tiny moments that made the runaway like her. It was those briefest of seconds of Emerald showing levity, compassion, even fear, that made Agnes want to stick around her. She was a sweet girl when she wanted to be. Agnes felt a little special that she was one of the few who ever got to see it.

Holding Emerald’s arm up a little bit, she continued to clean the wound, trying to wipe away dirt in order to give it a good chance to heal. It was when she inspected the claws closely that she noted the distinct claw markings that had dripped down the woman’s flesh. They almost reminded her of the claws that Agnes had seen on Emerald’s half-shifted hand. It was certainly a nasty looking wound but there may not be a total need for stitches. Still though, she’d rather DocProf take a looking at it.

But seeing as how the Alpha didn’t want to wake the man, Agnes doubted that she should disobey her. She already irritated her once by stumbling across her when she was not wanted. So she grabbed a cloth and held it under Emerald’s cuts before she reached up and began to poor the peroxide over the gashes. Immediately the liquid bubbled and foamed as it ran across the wounds.

Emerald was a trooper. She didn’t wince.

>> " Ow, that kind of burns. Oh right,I clawed myself with my werewolf claw in my sleep, I sometimes sleep morph and I ended up doing that to myself .. Kind of a restless sleeper I guess and I'm sorry if I sounded snappy before I didn't mean to.”

Agnes shook her head as he leaned close and gently pursed her lips, blowing onto the sizzling liquid. Sometimes a cool breath tended to make the burning occur less. She then dabbed at the scratches with the cotton ball before she poured a little more just for good measure.

“Don’t worry about, I shouldn’t have just barged in on you,” Agnes said with a small smile before while she worked. Then Emerald’s comment about her “restless” sleeping inched into her mind. She began to feel the exact same way. Maybe not as much now, but she knew the feeling all too well. She smiled sympathetically at Emerald as she reached into the kit for the bandages and began to gently and careful wrap up Emerald’s arm. “Rough time sleeping?” Agnes asked. She didn’t want to pry but she wanted her to know that she understood. “I know that feeling. That’s why I’m not in bed, actually.”

The wound was being cleaned very well and it was better than Emerald could have done in her current state of mind. She would feel her arm being lifted up to get at the wounds better and she would grumbled a little in pain. The scratches were a little deep after all and it wasn't a surprise really that they hurt her the way the did. Of course, Emerald wouldn't show it openly but she would let out a pained grumble, similarly to a wounded animal.

The she-wolf found herself lost in thought for a little while doing this, thinking about this situation she had found herself in. She really hadn't expected Agnes to be up and awake at this time of night, or at least not enough to see her wandering. The older girl couldn't help but wonder if maybe Agnes was up for the same reason she was. A painful memory that never did quite fade.

Hell, Emerald's attack had been over a year ago and she was still having nightmares about it among other things. Perhaps Agnes was going through the same thing, after all, at their last meeting Agnes had told Emerald about her incident with how her parents were not the best of people. They were in jail now but it was possible that Agnes could have still been thinking about it.

Emerald hated the thought of anyone treating her friend that way, The soft spoken bug lady was far too nice to have anything like that happened to her. It was a good thing the wolf girl was a little bit more in control of herself because if she wasn't she probably would have started growling again and had to go out an punch something again.

Once Agnes started re wrapping her bandages the wolf girl would smile a bit in relief for that and the fact that she hadn't offended the younger girl. Then the rough time sleeping thing was mentioned which made Emerald's human skinned yet pointed ears twitch a little from beneath her hair, she didn't know they did that when she heard something of interest.

"I was wondering you were awake, I guess tonight not the best night for dreaming," Emerald nodded a little,blue eyes gazing at the other girl knowingly. As much as she didn't want to talk about things, she did want to comfort the girl if she had a nightmare, especially if it was as traumatizing as she assumed. "How bad was it? Cause if ya ever need someone to talk to you can talk to me.

Agnes was not exactly a field medic but she knew how to dress a wound if she needed to. Not long after she ran off to live in the streets of New York, she quickly learned how dangerous something as simple as a cut could be. She had cut herself rather bad in fleeing from some men without good intentions, and a few days later found herself extremely ill. If it wasn’t for a nurse who was a good Samaritan, Agnes was sure that she would have died. Thankfully this woman had proved to be trustworthy and though she could not make go with her, she did teach her a minor thing or two about how to care for herself it need be.

So, even though it was not pretty, not was it probably her best work, it would do to make sure that Emerald would not get an infection. At least not until DocProf had a close look at her. She was going to demand that Emerald go to him first thing in the morning.

She sighed as she began to put stuff away. She asked her question, and Emerald did not immediately answer. That could only mean that she really must have had a bad dream of sorts. The concept was odd to Agnes, especially considering the type of person that Emerald was. She never thought she could be scared of anything. Then again, this young woman continued to surprise her time and time again…

As she replaced the last of the materials in the first aid kid, Emerald, though, turned the tables on her…

>> "I was wondering you were awake, I guess tonight not the best night for dreaming…How bad was it? Cause if ya ever need someone to talk to you can talk to me.”

Agnes paused.

Was she really that transparent that Emerald would pick up on the fact that she too had a bad dream and that was why she was up? She wouldn’t be surprised. After all not many people are up this late, just wandering around unless there was good reason. She averted her eyes from Emerald as she turned to replace the first aid kit back into its spot in the cabinet.

But as much as she wanted to avoid the issue, she knew that part of the process of healing was to stop holding the memories in. Sometimes they need to be expressed, talked about, or at least made mention of outside of one’s own head in order to get them sorted out. In order to face them and move on. So far Agnes was doing extremely well. Tonight was just a small setback in the process. She should it would not last long…

She smiled a little sadly and meekly shrugged her shoulders as she rejoined Emerald at the table with a heavy sigh.

“It…was bad,” she said with a small shrug. “I…dreamed…I dreamed…about that night again. The night my parents…hurt me. Been, you know, awhile since I dreamed about it. But…sometimes…it’s just so real…” she said with a heavy sigh and inadvertently clutched her stomach. She could still feel the cross that was branded into her stomach there. She would always feel it there. But especially on nights like this…

Emerald moved her arm around a little bit once it was fully bandaged, grinning a little. She was glad she was all bandaged up, but it still did hurt her a little. She would just have to take the whole working out thing easier for a little while until that healed up. After all, she should be able to work out her legs instead of her arms...then again it may be in her better interest to just stay put for a little while.

Emerald adjusted herself in her seat, tail nearly getting caught in the chair in the process again. She really did have to watch that thing when she was doing things like this. She watched as Agnes put away everything, dark blue eyes seeming to watch her wherever she went. It was a strange thing Emerald had seemed to have adopted since her strange power flux. The wolf girl ended up developing quite a gaze, similar to that of a normal wolf, studying their prey or perhaps observing others silently. She tended to do that when she was observing her friends or other “two legged” associates. It wasn’t like she was doing it on purpose, or trying to look intimidating it was just a thoughtful gaze to her.

Listening to Agnes, the Alpha would wince a little, beginning to wonder if she should have even brought it up, judging by how Agnes reacted. She wanted to apologize but she didn’t want it to seem too forced. Emerald would notice Agnes clutching on her stomach a little and her bandaged arm would move to her own stomach as well. The wolf girl’s own scar there still marred her muscular form, a long brutal looking scar from what Bloodfang had done to her.

“Just a quick slice puppy…ahh there we go right down that belly of yours…delicious.”

Almost immediately, Emerald tensed letting out a low growl with a wince. Briefly, Emerald could have sworn she felt something on her neck but quickly snapped out of it. She counted backwards from ten to herself and managed to snap herself out of it before she did anything stupid or rash but there was no doubt that Agnes heard that. She would shrug a little sheepishly, tyring to force her tail to wag back and forth a little.

“Believe it or not I know the feeling. Had some bad stuff happen to me a while back, kinda hard to get over when it keeps playing in your mind,” Emerald would say, trying her best to return to that strong demeanor she usually puts out. She refused to look weak when she was around someone she was supposed to protect.

Agnes was still fidgety. She didn’t want to be like this whenever she thought about her parents and what they did to her because it made her feel like she was not moving on. It made her feel…weak, like she was letting them do such a horrendous act to her all over again and that was something that she simply could not stand for. It was not right, nor was it fair that they would have the right to do this to her especially after so long. She wanted to move on but Agnes simply was not sure if she would ever be able to.

At least that was how she felt now. Normally she did fine and she managed to deal with it. Feeling like this, though, did come in rare spurts.

She really hoped it would not be like this the rest of her life.

She sighed as she kept her eyes avoiding Emerald’s gaze. The woman was so strong that even though she had had a nightmare, she still exuded this strength that Agnes only wished she could possess. She was proud to be Emerald’s friend and hoped that one day she could be strong too.

Fingers idly tapping on the table, she blinked as she looked up to listen to Emerald explain her own circumstances…

>> “Believe it or not I know the feeling. Had some bad stuff happen to me a while back, kinda hard to get over when it keeps playing in your mind,” [/color]

Agnes nodded mutely. So Emerald did fully understand something similar to what she had gone through. From the sound in her voice, the way she talked about it…the runaway knew the feelings all too well.

The thought made her sniffle as she tried to figure out what to do next. She really didn’t want to talk about it but she had ignored it for far too long. People like her sister Gina and the counselor Gemma knew of her scars and the stories behind them but that was only because they found out by mistake or that had made Agnes angry enough to simply shout it. But she had never calmly faced and talked about it.

Eyeing Emerald, Agnes stood up from the table and wandered over to the refrigerator where she pulled out a bottle of milk and then proceeded to pulled down cocoa powder from one of the cupboards. She didn’t bother to ask Emerald if she wanted a chocolate milk. She was just going to make it. By making something good, it may counteract her talking about something bad.

She carried the two glasses, milk and cocoa back the table and began to make the both of them her mansion famous class of chocolate milk as she talked.

“My parents…they tried to exorcise me,” she said with a heavy sigh. She poured the cool glass of milk into the glasses. “They thought my mutation was a sign that I was possessed…” Her hand fell back to her stomach before she quickly went back to making the chocolate milk. “So…they ‘hurt’ me…to save my soul. Sometimes I dream about that over and over again…”

Emerald would watch as her friend went over to fix herself the chocolate milk, the she wolf wondered if she had upset the girl any worse. Thoughts and guilt began to plague the young werewolf but she quickly pushed them aside. She would only watch for a while as Agnes fixed the rest of the milk at the table, eyes studying her curiously. She had a feeling that Agnes wanted to say more, but had not yet, so she would stay quiet and wait for Agnes to speak once again.

They tried to Exorcise their own daughter?! Emerald would snarl in her mind, her body tensening. It was people like this that drove her to take action beyond the limits of the law. It was the thing that drove her to do things that she would normally never think of doing otherwise. But this, this blind hatred for something they didn’t understand made her just growl. Her own problems were briefly forgotten and the wolf girl wrapped her now recovered right arm around Agnes’ shoulder. It was rare for Emerald to innate any sort of affectionate action, but this time it seemed to be an exception.

“I won’t…let you get hurt like that ever again okay?” Emerald promised, her voice filled with strength. “Now that you are in my pack you are under my protection and I’ll be dammed If I let them get near you again.”

Being a friend of Emerald was a good thing and a bad thing, the good the was that she would protect you no matter what. The bad thing is that she may or may not go overkill while doing it, she honestly felt as an alpha she had to protect those who she had marked as her pack. Hell, most people would be creeped out by how adamant she seemed about this, but Emerald didn’t intend it as such, she intended to try her best to make her packmates feel protected and that they would be able to talk to her if they needed her.

Her arm would slip from around Agnes’ shoulder, letting out a deep sigh. The other girl had been so honest with her and yet she hadn’t even mentioned what her dream was about. The wolf girl shook her head shamefully at herself, placing a strand of crimson hair behind her ear. The blue eyed werewolf would place her hand on the cool countertop letting out a soft yawn. It would seem waking up like this in the middle of the night was catching up to her a little.

“Ya know, It’s funny here I am acting like an Alpha and yet you’re here telling me this stuff, being far more honest with me than I have been with you,” Emerald shook her head, peeling away some of the wet red hair from her face. “I guess it’s because…eh it’s real stupid but, I’m a bit afraid that if I tell you about my nightmare I’ll be left alone again.Not a lot of people can deal with the monsters that I fight in the darkness.”

Emerald tried to give a disengaging smile, tried to make it seem like it was really not a big deal and tried to make it seem like she wasn’t as scared as she really was. Agnes was able to speak freely about her own trauma and yet Emerald was too scared to even mention it at times. The wolf girl’s entire body language had changed now, she had went from being a confident alpha to being a lone wolf again, her tail drooping in between her legs. Despite how she was trying to act, those blue eyes of hers were filled with a mixture of self loathing and a primal fear of once again being alone with the inner wolf once again.

Agnes said her piece. She really didn’t know why. It was a private thing, after all. But Emerald was proving to be more and more a friend. Besides Agnes knew that something was bothering her and if it anything like she went through, then venting would be more than helpful. A good healthy vent did everyone a lot of good, in her opinion. Sometimes the bad thoughts and feelings just built up to such a level that a person needed to let it out unless they wanted to risk exploding. Agnes didn’t want to explode. And she didn’t want to see Emerald explode either.

So she shared…and she hoped that it would all turn out okay.

Watching Emerald though, the runaway could see the intensity that filled her eyes at what she had said. For a second she thought that maybe it was a bad idea. That maybe she just should have kept her thoughts and her feelings to herself. But as she leaned closer to her, Agnes could see the welling meaning behind her eyes and the protectiveness in the growl of her voice.

>> “I won’t…let you get hurt like that ever again okay? Now that you are in my pack you are under my protection and I’ll be dammed If I let them get near you again.”[/i]

The tears began to well up in her eyes. For a moment she wished that she had had a friend like Emerald back when she was living on the streets. It might have made a lot of things so much easier. But she was thankful to have her help right now. She was glad that there was yet another person she could turn to, another person she felt safe around. Not that Agnes could not take care of herself; she managed to live quite fine by her lonesome. But having friends who cared was certainly going to help in the long run.

She nodded as she smiled a little meekly back at Emerald. “Thank you,” she said in a whisper. Quickly she wiped the tears away that threatened to fall and proceeded making the chocolate milk. When it done to perfection, she slid a glass across the table to Emerald…

…who then began to relate…

>> “Ya know, It’s funny here I am acting like an Alpha and yet you’re here telling me this stuff, being far more honest with me than I have been with you…I guess it’s because…eh it’s real stupid but, I’m a bit afraid that if I tell you about my nightmare I’ll be left alone again. Not a lot of people can deal with the monsters that I fight in the darkness.”[/color]

Agnes paused and took a breath. She understood that sentiment all too well. She hated telling people about what happened to her. She kept it a deep-seated secret because she did not want anyone to judge her or how she could let her parents do something like that her. But she was slowly growing to accept that it she needed to face her past. And just deal with it.

She looked at Emerald encouragingly as she reached over the table and carefully patted her hand in a most caring gesture.

“Emerald, you don’t have to tell me if it really makes you feel uncomfortable, okay?” she said with nod. “Trust me, I understand. But…just know that I’m not going to run away because of your past. You didn’t run from mine, so I will show you that same respect.”

Emerald was glad that Agnes felt comforted by her, even if it was for that brief moment. Even though she couldn’t protect the younger girl in her dreams, at least she would be able to when she woke up and found the horrors that the real world could bring. The ability to be there no matter what happened was all that really mattered to the alpha.

Agnes said her piece and had patted Emerald’s hand in such a reassuring way that Emerald could have sworn she was at home. She didn’t shudder away from the touch this time; she just allowed it to happen, a small grateful smile on her face. Emerald had promised herself that she wouldn’t just tell people what happened to her if it wasn’t for a good reason.

She didn’t want to burden others with her own issues or give them the images that she had to deal with. She had told Twyla about it, but Twyla left a long time ago. Gawain was MIA and he knew about it, too. With everyone gone, the alpha wolf was having a harder time dealing with it on her own. Sure, her parents knew, but she couldn’t stand how guilty her mother had looked when she told her about it. It was that look of a mother that felt as if she had failed her daughter, and Emerald hated making her feel that way. The thought, however, of someone who wasn’t planning on leaving her after she told them this was almost nearly too good to be true.

Well, she would have to start trusting people some time.

With a big exhale of breath, Emerald would shake her head at Agnes. “It makes me feel uncomfortable, but if you have enough courage to tell me the hell that you went through, I can tell you the hell I went through.” Emerald’s eyes were filled with a certain amount of determination and fear. “I’ve fought a hell of a lot of people, and I got the battle scars to prove it, but nothing really shook me up as bad as he did. I’ve fought him off before - barely got out alive - and he still scares the hell out of me.
“Last time, though, he managed to find me after almost 3 years, the damn psychopath. That’s what I was dreaming about. He tried to…” Emerald would clench her teeth, screwing her eyes shut as she felt the brunt of the memories hit her.

Pain, overwhelming pain, the feeling of defamation, loss of pride, loss of other things. It took her a while, but she snapped out of the memories, only to find that she had been letting out pained growls and clinging on the table as if it were the only thing holding her grounded to this world. “I think…you can guess what he tried to do to me and after about 5 hours I was saved,” Emerald said that last part bitterly, “But they more or less had to put me back together…most the scars never healed and now I have frequent nightmares about the one person… The one person I can’t beat.”

Agnes had hoped that her words rang true with her new friend. She didn’t want her to think that she was either not being genuine or that she was just toying around with Emerald in order to find out more information about her. Far from it! In actuality Agnes really did mean everything she said. She never believed that she could be as strong a person as Emerald was. But she could pay back her kindness by being an excellent listener. At least in her eyes she could be.

So when Emerald back to talk again, Agnes quietly leaned forward and said nothing while Emerald related her tale…

>> “It makes me feel uncomfortable, but if you have enough courage to tell me the hell that you went through, I can tell you the hell I went through….I’ve fought a hell of a lot of people, and I got the battle scars to prove it, but nothing really shook me up as bad as he did. I’ve fought him off before - barely got out alive - and he still scares the hell out of me…Last time, though, he managed to find me after almost 3 years, the damn psychopath. That’s what I was dreaming about. He tried to…”

Agnes’ breath caught in her throat as she watched and listened. How could she respond to that? In a way, she knew exactly where Emerald was coming from. She too was harmed most horridly but it took a lot to bounce back from something of that magnitude. But still, her harm seemed to be dwarfed in comparison to Emerald’s.

She paused as she listened more intently.

>> “I think…you can guess what he tried to do to me and after about 5 hours I was saved…But they more or less had to put me back together…most the scars never healed and now I have frequent nightmares about the one person… The one person I can’t beat.”

Five…hours?

Agnes sat there, mouth open as she just watched Emerald. No wonder the woman was scarred and a little worried of letting such knowledge get out. She paused as she just sat there, soaking in everything that Emerald had said but in no way judging or making her feel bad. Instead Agnes felt bad because that was no experience that the young redhead should have had.

Standing up from the table, Agnes carefully moved around to be at Emerald’s side. She wasn’t sure if she should be doing this or not, especially since she wasn’t sure how the woman would react, but leaning down, Agnes slowly and comfortable wrapped her arms around Emerald’s shoulders and squeezed her into a small hug. Not in a condescending way, but in a way that truly let her know how she felt about her and what she had gone through.

Agnes sighed.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m so, so sorry…”

After she had finished her story Emerald had found herself briefly lost in her own memories, memories she didn’t particularly want to be lost in. She would tuck a piece of her normally unruly hair behind her right ear, which had it’s tip missing from the day of the attack. The doctor had mentioned that she was able to repair things that had been broke but couldn’t repair things that she didn’t have the piece for and since the madman had eaten the tip of Emeralds pointed ear she obviously wasn’t getting it back any time soon.

Suddenly, the wolf girl found herself in an interesting predicament, one she expected but hadn’t fully prepared herself for. Emerald felt Agnes give her a small hug and at first the she-wolf would briefly tense up. For when she became lost in her own memories she began thinking of things she would rather not think about for a little while.

It would take Emerald a moment but she would then wrap strong firm arms around Agnes in a similar way, but with something different involved. The she-wolf would loosen up, letting out a deep sigh in order to relieve the tension in her belly from retelling the story. However, the hug that she gave was filled with a tentative trust that she tried her best not to give to just anyone. The bug manipulator was willing to open herself up to Emerald and the older wolf girl only felt it to be right for her to return what she had done. Still Emerald allowed herself to be comforted, not shedding any tears but breathing deeply in and out. In a way, Emerald realized that her and Agnes weren’t so different after all this, both had scars they would rather keep secret and pasts they would rather not talk about. In a way the girls were kindred spirits.

After some time, Emerald would release Agnes from her firm grip, trying her best to keep herself relaxed and calm. She didn’t want to accidentally get mad thinking about bloodfang and end up changing her hand again.

“Thanks…for listening. I’m sorry if it freaks you out or anything,” Emerald would tell her friend, “Just so ya know you promised not to run away from my problems so now you are stuck with me.”

Emerald would say this in an attempted light way, but something in her stance said otherwise. Inner fear perhaps? An old primal fear seemed in that moment to have awakened in the Alpha and the thought of being left alone in that moment after she had told this girl of her one of her greatest failures as an Alpha was almost too much. Em had a feeling Agnes wasn’t the type to leave but something made her worry about these sort of things.