Street Kids

Sheena is paying no attention to Caroline and May at all anymore. It is Miyako and Hood outside that she is worried about, them that she is watching with growing alarm. Miyako is gone...but had she really called the police? They would come here and see the destroyed building, all the people missing, and Hood...they had to get out, and they had to get out NOW.


Abruptly she begins to struggle to make her way to the front of the van, somewhat roughly jostling May and Caroline in her attempt to scramble to the front seat without bothering to apologize. Starting up the van again, she yells out the window, "Hood, if you're coming, get in the car NOW!!!"


Turning to face Lewis, she glares, her tone still very hostile, and leaving no room for argument as she states, "There is no room for you in this car. Get out. Now. You might be able to get a head start or hide before the police come, you might not. But whatever ends up happening to you out there, I promise you'll like it better than whatever would happen if you come with us."


The look on Lewis's face told her he believed her. Opening the passenger door immediately, he hesitated, taking one last look at Caroline as he stepped out of the van.


"Sweetheart...I love you so much, I'm so sorry. I hope you'll understand one day...maybe one day, when you're older, we can-" he started, but Sheena, unable to take any more from him, nearly screamed, "GET OUT OF THE VAN AND DON'T TALK TO HER AGAIN!"


Lewis wastes no time in obeying, backing as far from Hood and the van as possible, but even as he backs away he is still staring towards Caroline's placement in the car with tears in his eyes.


Caroline is not sobbing quite as out of control as she had been before with May talking to her, and she attempts to listen to her, snuffling, though tears are still heavy and seem not about to stop any time soon. She shakes her head, trying to reason out her thoughts even as she's still crying.


"No...no, I'm...he made me Caroline...I can't...I can't be anyone else. It's my name...I can't...I don't know how to be anyone else. I don't want...I just want....I don't know. I want a new life...but that's...that's my name."


She knows she is making little sense speaking of it, but in her mind, she can follow this reasoning. She does not want to assign herself a new identity; Caroline and the name has become a large piece of who she is. She wants a new life, a new way of living, but she cannot erase her past or how she sees herself...now, she is Caroline. She is not born Caroline...but she has been made Caroline, and there is no going back to Maddie or Madeline. There is no going back to the way her life had been, either with her birth parents or with Lewis...she could only change her life in a new way, make it something else entirely.


She can change the details of her life, but somehow, she cannot change her name. It is too late for that.


"I don't know what to do...where am I supposed to go? I can't go home, I can't...I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be with him," she whispers, burying her face in May's shoulder. "I wanted to be with him."


Sheena is still not listening to any of the conversation as she yells out the window to Hood with increasing urgency. "GET IN THE CAR, we have to go NOW!"
 
May listens silently as Caroline seems to calm her crying, subconsciously stroking her hair lightly as her mum used to do to her when she cried.


She doesn't quite understand the reasoning of the name, but comes to the conclusion that Caroline obviously still wants to be called Caroline, but that she wants a new life.


May nods, listening as the girl carries on about not knowing where to go. She offers the only solution she can think of, the only one that makes sense, her voice is still light and soft. "You can stay with us if you want Caroline, I know we're not exactly the best bunch of people to be around, and we're obviously not normal either. But we have a house, and we have each-other." She glances to Sheena as she speaks of having each-other, a small smile on her lips before she looks back to Caroline.


([MENTION=1530]Mr. Grin[/MENTION])
 
Jason looked a little skeptically at Devin's "scratch," only to be shocked as the Lycan's skin crawled and covered the incision. The new patch of flesh looked almost completely unmarred. Scratching his head, Jason looked up at Devin's smirk; "Well... Regeneration," he grinned. "That's new." The boy added it to his metal list of freaky supernatural powers he never knew existed, leaning on the brick wall by the storefront.


His attention was directed to Rhys, when he gave a faltering response to the boy's earlier inquiry. "I... Disappeared?" Before Jason could ask more, however, the bombshell was dropped. Jason unconsciously stepped back, as if the news was a physical blow; "What? What- Kira's dead?" His eyes darted, looking to Devin as if for confirmation. How could that happen so abruptly?


"The demon killed her"....



Jason knew the chance of survival on the streets was precariously low, but it was high enough that it seemed like it was always someone else who suffered that fate. Kira hadn't even been a normal outcast; she'd been a bounty hunter and a shifter... did that higher her chances? Decrease them? Whichever the case, it was almost unfathomable to think of. They were supernatural! They were almost immortal, compared to Jason's standing. They couldn't be killed....


"But..." he protested, not knowing what his argument was. Jason didn't know what to think, and stared, instead.
 
Rhys looked at the ground, not sure what to say right now. He didn't know Kira as well as the other two, Jason having known her the longest out of the three of them. He couldn't understand how Jason was feeling right now, but he knew it had to be hard for him. It was hard for Rhys as well. Just thinking about it made Rhys feel confused. He kept hoping Kira would just walk up to them and tell them it was not real. That she was fine and alive. But no.... She was gone and they were all going to have to accept it.


Still Rhys didn't say anything or do anything. Jason was younger and like before, knew Kira the most. How must he feel to know she is dead?



"I'm glad you're okay," Rhys said quietly, knowing he had said that before, but he really was happy for it. Kira was gone and he disappeared. It was relieving to know he didn't die either.



 
Sheena does not return May's smile, and in fact does not notice her looking towards her. She is focused on Hood outside the window, impatient and increasingly anxious that he has not yet joined him. IS he going to join him? What is he doing? What if he is so angry he cannot contain himself? What if he delays them until the police come, and then attacks them?


This could only get worse if they didn't leave soon.


"Hood, come ON!" she bellows, "LET'S GO!"


Caroline sniffles, looking up at May, her brow creasing as she considers her words. Staying with them...becoming part of them...for now? For good? It's the only thing that makes sense now...it's the only thing she can think of that sounds anywhere approaching the realm of okay. Slowly she nods, then leans back against her seat, closing her eyes as her slow tears continue to trickle down her cheeks.


"Okay."
 
Just as the creature began to swipe downward toward the female, Sheena's voice split the air, explaining why he couldn't kill her, couldn't touch her. Though he withdrew his clawed hand, the words only caused more rage to churn in his mind. Talons twisting into fists, he stood silent while Lewis spoke to his 'daughter', telling her the truth.


The creature turned away as she began to sob, overwhelmed by the various emotions. He felt SORRY for Caroline, all the while feeling the need to tear her father apart before her. The same fury pulsed through him, willing him to ignore Sheena's words and consume Miyako bit by bit, then Christian as he came after them.


Hood twisted his form back again, feeling eyes on his back. Miyako's look of curiosity disgusted him, but not nearly as much as the words that followed. 'What you do to survive?' he thought, no words coming though. He feared that if he opened his mouth, more anger would spill forth and start the whole cycle again.


When she vanished and spoke of police, Hood was shocked. He stood, taking in all the things around him, claws pulling back to form hands once again. He hardly registered Lewis speaking, but his eyes never left the male, watching him, ready to act. However, when Sheena yelled at him for the third or fourth time, he snapped up against the van and snarled. 'If you give me one more order, I'll flay the skin from your bones, Lycanthrope...' he whispered in his own mind, making sure to contain the words.


Backing up with a look of shock - mostly at his own behavior - he shook his head, finally speaking. "Go. Leave without me. I can... I can find you again. I'll be watching," he said, voice shaking as he tried to remain calm; tried to stifle the thoughts that bored their way into the very reaches of his mind. Turning away, he nodded and took off running, black form soon becoming nothing more than a blur.
 
For perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, Sheena stares after Hood, shocked by his command. Go...leave him alone? Drive off without him? Why would he ask that of her? Why would he not want to come?


But then he is running off, and the sound of approaching police sirens, still far off enough that she can manage to evade them, are entering Sheena's ears, and she slams her foot down on the gas pedal, zooming out of the parking lot. Until she is miles away, and can no longer hear sirens, she does not slow down. Her fingers are white around the steering wheel, her shoulders drawn up nearly to her ears, her eyes fixated to the road ahead of her, and her heartbeat slowly lessens as she tries to relax her tensed muscles.


What Hood had requested still bothers her. Why would he not want to go with them? Was he afraid he was so angry he would hurt them? WOULD he have? Was he planning to hurt the cops, or go after Miyako without her there to stop him? What if he did go after Miyako? What if he did kill the cops and other innocent people? What if he had completely lost control?


She finds herself chewing her lower lip, her hair falling partly in front of her eyes with her worry. Only then does she think to glance back at Caroline and May. Caroline is still crying, though not without very much noise. She seems to be doing so out of weary continued misery more than sharp distress, mostly tears and occasional snuffling, not the uncontrolled sobbing she had shown earlier. She quickly shifts her eyes from her, uneasy and somewhat helpless in the face of the girl's deep unhappiness, and instead locks eyes with May, immensely grateful to her that May can withstand Caroline and her pain, that she is being there for her. Sheena is not sure she would have been able to be, in her shoes.


"Are you okay?" she asks the girls collectively. "I guess...we should head back to your house, May...do you want to call them?"


God, and they'd head back to the chaos there...to Kira missing. Somehow Sheena knew it wouldn't feel real, her death, until they were there and she was gone.


"Car- I mean...are you okay?" she asks Caroline directly, unsure of how to address her now. "I'm...sorry. That it turned out like that."


Caroline doesn't answer yes or no. Instead, she just mumbles down to her chest, sniffling, "Is he...will Hood hurt him? My da- my...Lewis...is he going to kill him now?"


Sheena met eyes with May again in the rearview mirror, not about to answer that one. Because honestly she'd wondered that herself.
 
May, as the car bolts forward, is thrown back slightly, holding Caroline protectively so that only she receives the force of the car moving too suddenly and too fast.


When the car begins to steady, and Caroline's sobs seem to die down, May finds herself looking up at Sheena only to lock eyes with her and offer her a small tentative smile, they did it. They may have gotten unexpected results, but they did it together, and they both faced Jail again. She had comforted Sheena, made her shift back even, without a stupid alpha command or control over Sheena, she had done it.


Take that and shove it up your ass Christian.


May nods, "Yeah, I'll call them. We should head back and check they've found Jason." She thinks before adding afterwards, "I'm sure Hood will be fine, he's exceedingly good at finding us." She thinks of when he had left when his Lycanthrope form was dying, and also just how he found them and had been 'following' them in the first place.


She moves to grab the phone, managing to pick it up and about to punch in the number when Caroline speaks up, asking if Hood is going to kill Lewis. She sighs, once again her eyes connected with Sheena's before she spoke, "We're not sure Caroline. Hood's a bit unpredictable."


She then, before the girl can ask any more questions she can't answer, punches in the number of home, letting it ring.


-----------


The atmosphere was tense and Devin watched Jason, wondering how he would react. He hadn't known Kira barely at all himself - only having shown up a few days before Rhys did - but the impact of her death had hit him hard. So he could barely imagine what Jason was feeling right now.


"Jason..." He began to speak, but was cut off by the phone ringing from somewhere on Rhys's person. He remembered they had grabbed the cordless phone the house had just in case when they left. "Uh, you might wanna get that." He comments, hoping May was okay.
 
Rhys looked at Jason, a little more concerned about him, then anything else right now. How he must be feeling? Rhys hoped he would be okay. This must not be easy for the boy. To recieve this power and then lose Kira all in the same day. He could only imagine what might have happened if Rhys had drowned, but no....Kira had saved him.


Rhys clenched a fist. This was not fair. It wasn't suppose to be like this. He finally allowed himself friends and he looses one so soon.



He jumped a little at the phone ringing, forgetting he had it on him. For a moment, he imagined Devin taking it from his pocket, coming closer to him than necessary or something and he coughed a little.



"Um...hello?"
 
May doesn't realise she has let out a sigh of relief as the phone was picked up. "You're okay?" She breathes the words into the phone before noticing how stupid that sounds and she takes a moment before speaking again. "It's May. We finished what we needed to do." She glances to Caroline, thinking it best to keep the phone conversation short and simple and then tell the guys the full facts later, probably when Caroline isn't there to be upset by re-hearing what shouldn't have even happened in the first place, "It seems it's just me, Sheena and Caroline coming back to the house for now. But Hood's fine, he should turn up later." Hopefully. She adds in her head. "He just needed some time to himself."


She looks to Sheena in the mirror, speaking once more into the phone, her voice quieter, "Are you both alright? Did you...did you find Jason? Is he ok?"


She is thinking of Kira as she speaks, her voice wobbling slightly. If Jason were to be dead too, or injured beyond repair, she wouldn't know what they would do. They may have formed this odd, small group quickly and without warning. But they had bonded exceptionally fast. And she loved each and every one of their group, even newbies Caroline and Rhys. She locked eyes with Sheena now, okay, maybe she loved one a bit more than the rest. But that was allowed right? They were dating afterall.
 
Meeting May's eyes in the mirror, Sheena smiled back at her briefly. She sort of wished that she wasn't driving, that she could sit back in the backseat with May and just cuddle up close to her, that she could forget everything that had just happened, everything they had just watched. Christian and his gang and their pursuit of her, the twenty felonies they'd just committed, the dead people in the prison, Caroline and Lewis and the fate he had been left to...Hood...it was all too much, and it left Sheena on edge, a little irritable, and deeply tired. She knew she would not be able to drive all the way back home without stopping over night, or at least letting May drive.


Caroline seemed to be listening to the phone conversation between May and Rhys, and Sheena listened closely too, her brow furrowing in concern. She might not pay Jason much attention most of the time, but she did care about him, in her own way. And with Kira...what with Kira...and now, Hood gone for an indefinite period of time, she didn't want to have Jason missing too.


"May, we're probably gonna have to stop somewhere over night," she said to her softly, catching her eyes again in the mirror. "Unless you want to drive part way, but we're looking at eight hours and it's getting late."


(Joboz, they have been driving all day and it took hours to get to the prison, will take hours to get home. They would logically stop somewhere to sleep. Do you want a scene to occur between May and Sheena, a conversation, or do you want me to summarize it and then get them back to the others?)
 
(I don't really mind. Maybe a conversation between them would be good, they should talk about what they are going to do when they go see Christian - and if Sheena wants to still go see him)





May is waiting for a response from Rhys as Sheena speaks to her, she pulls the phone away from her ear as she speaks, putting her hand over it so that Rhys won't hear her and get confused that she may be speaking to him. "I think stopping somewhere would be best, we've still got some of that money left over, we should try to find a local motel to stop in." She then pauses, and adds as an after thought, "We don't have to worry about police coming after us, Miyako made sure we had no witnesses. Plus, I think we've all had a heck of a day." She murmured the last part, thinking of just how long today had really been. Kira had died today. And of course poor Caroline had just discovered the last 5 or 6 years of her life had been fake. Made up by a sick man.


She then puts the phone back to her ear, speaking once again, "Rhys? Is Jason ok?"
 
Rhys was surprised to hear May's voice. It was Sheena last time, but when he thought about it, he only expected May or Sheena to be on the other end. He looked at his two friends and then nodded.


"We're fine. All three of us," Rhys told her. He was happy to be able to tell her that. "Jason is fine, if a little confused. I guess we all are. But no. Everyone is fine over on this end. And okay. That sounds good. We'll be waiting."



Rhys wondered why Hood was not with them, but he didn't know the guy that well, so who knew what he was doing. May didn't seem that worried, so he must be fine. He wondered how it went though, but he didn't ask. He could ask when they got back. He looked back at Jason and Devin. So he was going to be alone with them for now. Lovely.
 
It appeared from what Sheena was able to hear from the other end of the conversation that things were about as well as could be expected on their companions' end. She could tell from May's expression as well that there was no bad news to be shared, and she smiled again, relieved, even catching Caroline's solemn eyes in the rearview mirror to smile at her too.


"Jason's back? And okay?" she said aloud just to confirm, then let out a sigh of relief. "Good."


It was better to think of that, of who was okay, of who they did have to return to, then who they didn't. It was better to think of Jason and Rhys, and hell, even Devin, than to think of Kira.


Thinking of Devin made Sheena realize, as her smile suddenly turned into a privately satisfied smirk that she quickly tried to straighten into a neutral expression, that he would of course not yet know about her and May and the progression of their relationship to each other. Back at May's house, Devin would still be hoping he could win May over, still hoping to get ahead of Sheena in the semi-battle for May's heart. Well Sheena had some new and rather interesting information to share with him on that front...it would be sweet to say nothing about it, to simply walk in the door holding hands with May, letting him wonder. Then to sit with her arm around her...and at just the right moment, "casually" kiss May on the lips, preferably at a distance of a foot or so from Devin. Oh, would that be sweet.


Or maybe she could let the moment slip, let May take her hand first, let May initiate the first kiss...whichever way it happened, it would be entirely entertaining and amusing for Sheena. For the first time since she had encountered Devin, she actually couldn't wait to see him. Because whether or not May was aware, there HAD been a silent battle of sorts for her, and for the first time Sheena could recall in her life, she had won.


Yeah, she really wanted to see old Devin about now.


(ooc: hehe, oh Sheena :P )


**


Sheena drove for several hours, until all the roads were beginning to look the same to her and she was no longer entirely sure she was going the right way. She tried to recruit Caroline to help her look for road signs and turn offs, but the younger girl was listless and not much help, not paying enough attention to be genuinely searching for her. Because Sheena had been trying to involve her mostly to distract her rather than because she actually thought she could rely on her to help, it didn't matter to her all that much. Still, she continued to feel somewhat helpless in the face of Caroline's barely diminished strong emotion, and she was glad when the girl finally drifted into sleep, curling up on the seat with her head in May's lap. She had met May's eyes in the mirror then, silently conveying her thoughts.


Well, at least May seemed okay with the girl and her neediness; she was much more patient and instinctively good at this kind of thing than Sheena was. It stuck Sheena as she drove that in a sense, if they were taking Caroline in as part of the family, they would become her parents by default, though they were only about five years apart in age. Though she was apparently only a year younger than Jason, the difference at times seemed much more.


Sheena drove until her eyes began to blur, and that was when she knew it was time to pull off somewhere, before they ended up in one more occurrence they didn't need- namely, a car wreck. She turned into the first motel she saw up ahead, a seedy-looking number with a large neon sign missing half its lit letters reading "Rainbow Inn." Suppressing her thoughts at the irony of this name given that a female couple was about to check in, and deciding to ask no questions about the moniker inside, Sheena looked at May, handing her fifty dollars in cash.


"We shouldn't need more than that...can you shift into an adult form? I might not look old enough for them not to ask questions, and if we come in toting Caro we definitely don't."


Caroline sat up, rubbing her eyes, and looked around in confusion as Sheena explained to her. "We're staying here for the night, okay?"


Caroline nodded and made no comment, but Sheena thought her eyes looked suddenly wet. It occurred to her then that motels had undoubtedly been a stable of existence for years of Caroline's life, living on the run with Lewis.


When May returned they followed her into the room they'd been assigned, carrying the supplies and changes of clothing they had brought in with them. The room had two double beds, an old-looking TV, one wooden chair that had graffiti carved into it, and a bathroom that upon inspection,was tiny, not exactly sparkling clean,and had a door that didn't lock. It was a luxury compared to a lot of what Sheena was used to, though, and she regarded the two beds, wondering about sleeping arrangements. Caroline solved that by flopping onto one bed and sprawling out without undressing or brushing her teeth, so Sheena set her few belongings by the other bed before going to the bathroom to change. She would let May be the one to pick whether she wanted to move Caro aside or sleep with Sheena.


From the bathroom she could hear Caroline beginning to cry again and hoped May was comforting her; she sort of felt guilty, sticking her with that duty every time, but she also feared that any attempts she herself might make would only make things worse. Comforting May was somehow just different and more natural than comforting Caroline or anyone else, and Sheena just knew she'd screw it up.


Within twenty minute's time though Sheena couldn't hear her anymore, and when she stepped out of the bathroom, having showered for the second time that day and actually attempted to finger-comb through her hair, she saw that Caroline was asleep. Sitting on her bed, she looked at May and sighed.


"This...has been one long day."
 
"I'm okay," said Jason softly in response to Devin's voice, his uncertain tone contradicting his words.


Some part of Jason was continuing to tell him to just take his mind off of it; but when something devastating hit, it was hard to ignore. Sure, he could concentrate on other things, but the matter would still be sitting nearby- a whale of a thought too large to dismiss.


Jason shivered slightly, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Kira was dead. The talking cat? The wounded girl? The regretful bounty hunter? Somehow, the thought of such a life being snuffed out on an instant was hard to understand. You could layer years and years of experience over each other, but death could spear through all of that at once; it was more like balancing on top of a pole, where added memories only harshened the eventual fall. It was ridiculous.


Unbidden, a thought jumped to his mind- he himself had taken a life, pulled a trigger and killed a man. It had been nothing more than reflex, but that one movement had toppled someone else; another person that might have been like Kira, or maybe the complete opposite- but that didn't matter! And now Kira had fallen too and taken all her kindness with her, and she was gone. Just like that.


Jason shook his head and looked up from the sidewalk, hearing Rhys' conversation with the rest of the group over the phone. He wiped at the corner of his eye, hoping a little that neither of the others had noticed the tear; but it wasn't wrong to cry, was it? Had Devin and Rhys cried when it happened? No, no, it didn't matter. Kira was dead.


The boy kept remembering her standing in the alley, calling up to the hawks that were so eager to do her bidding. He couldn't remember her ever looking happier....
 
Rhys put the phone down and ended the call. He looked from Devin to Jason, not sure what to say or do next.


"So we should head back to the house," Rhys had lamely. He wasn't sure what else they could do right now. He tried not to look at Jason. He thought he might have seen a tear, but he could not be sure. Still if it was Rhys, he wouldn't want people staring at him.



"So...let's go."
 
May smiled lightly in relief, "Okay, thank you for the update, get back to the house ok? We are not sure when we will be back, probably some time tomorrow." She then heard Rhys hang up and took that as a yes.


She nodded in response to Sheena, "I know, I'm so glad he's okay. I mean, if he had...." She let that sentence finish itself, not wanting to think of how they would all handle Jason being dead aswell as Kira. It hadn't really sunk in yet, it probably wouldn't until they reached the house, and actually saw for themselves that Kira was no longer around.


She thought how odd it was, that it was probably only this small group of street kids who would mourn the loss of the shifter, how no-one else in the world would care even if they did know, their lives would go on as normal, maybe right now someone was laughing, joking, having the best day of their lives when Kira had just had the last day of hers.


It was scary.


May continued to sit with Caroline, letting the girl rest on her as they drove steadily through the night. Keeping all thoughts of death and Kira out of her mind, she simply thought of the next day, even of Christian and would might happen if they were to go to his pack. She had a good idea he wouldn't let Sheena go so easily if they did go to him.


**


May found herself almost falling asleep a few times during the car ride, but she still managed to keep awake. Each time her eyes would close slightly she would get an image of Kira laying on the ground covered in blood. That was plenty enough encouragement to keep her from closing them anymore.


When Caroline fell asleep, May found herself glancing up to lock eyes with Sheena in the mirror, she gave her a soft smile, feeling strong empathy for Caroline. She stroked the girl's hair lightly as she slept, watching her with concern. She then after a while let her eyes drift up to the window to see a motel up ahead. She was about to suggest that maybe they stop there, but Sheena already seemed to have that covered because she quickly pulled into the place.


May nodded and took the cash, "Yeah sure." She was about to try and gently push Caroline off from her lap, but the girl sat up anyway and May closed her eyes, beginning to shift into a thirty-something woman with blonde locks of hair that fell to her shoulders and blue eyes that could be seen as similar to Sheena's.


She walked up to the counter and smiled pleasantly at fifty year old lady behind the counter, she couldn't help but notice the streaks of purple and pink in the woman's grey hair and the way that her hazel eyes seemed to be staring right through May until she spoke. "Hello, I'd like to book a room for me and my two daughters." The lady looked up distractedly and then smiled, hopping up so fast May was afraid she twist her ankle and go back down again, "Why yes of course, there's a lovely little room with two double beds, a beautiful view and even a TV!" May smiled politely at the lady, "Well then, we'll take that one please." She handed the lady the 50 dollars and told her to keep the change. Receiving the key for the room and going outside to let her 'daughters' know she had managed to book a room. Not like she couldn't have anyway, the place was practically empty.


May looked around the room when they entered, noticing how the lady had made it sound a lot better than it actually was - taking a peek out the window she discovered the 'view' was nothing more than miles of road. "She must have meant the view from thirty years ago." She muttered to herself before pulling the curtains shut, heading over to sit on the bed that Caroline hadn't taken up. She hoped Sheena wouldn't mind her sharing a bed with her, if she didn't want to then she could share with Caroline, so she guessed it didn't matter too much.


Then Caroline started crying again, saying something about Lewis and motels and why did he lie to her. So May moved over to sit beside her and hugged her again, whispering to her as she semi-rocked the girl - not even noticing she was doing it. She carried on comforting Caroline for a good fifteen or twenty minutes, just answering any questions she threw at her. Eventually, she managed to get Caroline to actually get underneath the covers and sleep - though it had been more of a cry herself to sleep type of thing.


She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair as it turned back to a dark brown again and grew longer, she barely even heard the shower stop, and she sat herself down on Sheena's bed just as the girl walked back into the room. She jumped lightly when Sheena spoke, having been lost in her thoughts and looked to see she was sitting beside her. "Yeah.." Her voice was much quieter than she would have hoped and she gave her a weak smile, "It has been such a long day that I can't even remember how it started." She looked down at the dirty floor, thoughts again going back to Christian. She looked up to Sheena, "Uh, do you still want to go visit Christian?" She had to double check, since Sheena's answer may have changed because of recent events - Kira's death mainly.
 
Sheena sighed, looking past May to Caroline in her bed. The girl was fast asleep, her eyes twitching beneath their lids, and with only her head showing on the pillow, her body barely seemed to make a shape beneath the sheet. Sheena watched her, thinking of herself and how she might have reacted, in Caroline's situation, at twelve. She would have fought, she would have screamed, she would have died rather than show Lewis that she cared or hurt from what he'd done to her...but back in her room, back away from his eyes, she would have cried until she felt numb inside. Looking at Caroline, she feels a surprising tenderness towards her for the first time.


She turns her head back towards May and briefly bites her lip, shifting a little closer to her until their legs touch. She twists her hands in her lap, her voice quiet. "I don't know. I...I don't WANT to. But...if it's the safest thing...if it makes me safer to be with...I have to. I know you can calm me down, but what if you can't when it's most important, you know? Or what if you can't fast enough? I don't want to hurt anyone. What...what happened with the prison today...I know we have to do that stuff, and I can and will. If we have to. But I hate it, May. I don't want to hurt people who haven't done ANYTHING to me...and now if I don't go they'll get hurt even if I don't hurt them. Christian will come for me. And he won't care who else is there....I think...I have to."
 
May listens silently as Sheena speaks, gently reaching out to place her own hand ontop of Sheena's once she is done speaking. She nods and looks at her, trying to make eye contact as she replies softly.


"I get it, if you need to do it, to make sure others are safe, then we will go." She smiles lightly at her, "I just want to make sure it is what you want to do, not what he is making you do." She falls silent then, thinking of Christian's advantage over Sheena, how he can make her do ANYTHING, literally ANYTHING he wants her to do.


And that sickens May. To think that he can, that he could and that he would.


She speaks lightly now, looking at their overlapped hands, "If Christian..if he makes you do anything. Anything that you do not want to do. If he makes you..." She looks back up, eyes meeting Sheena's as she finishes the sentence with her eyes, "You know...." She looks back down again, speaking quietly but determinedly, "I will kill him."


She shakes her head, "It is not fair that he can do that, that he can make you do anything. It's not right."
 
As May covers Sheena's hand with hers, Sheena entwines their fingers, squeezing lightly. She shifts herself an inch or two closer, so they are sitting hip to hip, knee to knee, shoulder to shoulder, and again shakes her hair back from her face, behind her shoulders. For several moments she is silent, trying not to dwell on what May is saying, but failing.


Christian was everywhere, seemingly. If not his own body, then the eyes and gadgets of his pack. No matter where she went or what she did, who she tried to get to protect her, he would find her. He was obsessed...he would not hesitate to harm anyone who tried to shield her, and Sheena would not risk them in that way.


And he could make her do anything. If Christian asked, Sheena would steal, maim, kill, run circles biting her own tail...if Christian asked, Sheena would go to bed with him, and be wholly unable to fight back or stop herself from reacting. He could break her in so many ways more than physically, and thinking of this made a shudder run through her, her hand tightening in May's. She did not want to be in this position. She did not want to be at his mercy....and yet, wasn't that precisely what she was?


At May's solemn words, Sheena's eyes grew wet, and she blinked, giving her a tight little smile as her heart twisted with an odd gratitude. She knew that May was sincere....and in some ways, it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever promised her, morbid as it seemed.


"I know you will."


She paused, then, meeting May's eyes, leaned forward and kissed her slowly, softly, one hand moving to touch her face. When she pulled back, she had to look away, her words almost shy.


"Thank you."
 
May willingly let Sheena move closer and entwine their hands, watching her carefully for her response. She hoped her words didn't upset the girl. She knew how much she didn't want that - to be under Christian's control.


But then Sheena was giving her a small smile, her eyes were even coated in liquid, and she was telling her she knew she would. She smiled back lightly, so glad that she didn't burst into tears, then, Sheena was leaning forward, and then her lips were on May's.


This was the first time they had kissed like this since asking each other out. The first time May could enjoy it without worrying about others seeing, or Sheena pulling away, or even when she pulled away. She liked it. A lot.


She kissed her back just as passionately, her lips moving in rhythm with Sheena's and loving the warmth that rose to her cheek as Sheena lay her hand on it. When Sheena pulled away, looking down with an uncertain - no shy - tone, thanking her, May smiled widely.


"I have no idea what you're thanking me for, but if you are going to kiss me every time you do it, I won't ask any questions." She smiled at her before clambering under the covers, inviting Sheena to join her. After a little while, May found herself drifting to sleep, snuggled up beside Sheena.


**


May woke up to a squeal and the sound of cloth dropping. She shot up in bed after gently pushing Sheena's arm off of her, wide eyed, to see the motel lady standing in their doorway, bath towels at her feet. The lady blinked at her and May realized she was in her own form right now, brown hair and all. The lady stammered, "Um, what are you doing in here? Miss. Marlow only checked in for her and her two daughters." May smiled pleasantly at the lady, "Two daughters? Oh no, there's three of us. You must have misheard her." She lied smoothly through her teeth, eyes locked onto the lady as she radiated confidence and dominance. "But, she only walked in with those two, who are you? Where is Miss Marlow?" May sighed but kept eyes on the lady as she sat up properly, "Mum's having a bath right now. It's a sort of therapy for her, she doesn't like to be disturbed." She spoke the last words as a thinly veiled threat, but it seemed to work because the lady nodded. "And who are you?" May smiled, glancing to Sheena, "I'm technically the oldest sister." She looked back up, nodding to Sheena, "Me and her are nonidentical twins, I'M six minutes older." She says this proudly, in the usual fashion of the 'older twin' The lady nodded, her suspicious look vanishing as quickly as it had came for this explains why the two girls are so close, one was even hugging the other as she walked in, and why the mother wasn't in the room.


"Well okay then." She smiles at the girls, "I just brought some extra towels up here for you ladies, I did knock but no-one answered, so I assumed you were asleep." May smiled at her, "Thank you, yeah, we're all pretty heavy sleepers. Mum always says we'd probably sleep through a tornado if one were to happen." The lady let out a laugh of amusement before placing the towels on the end of the bed, "Well now, you sound just like my daughter, she's exactly the same, gosh, when she was a younging I'd have to go and chuck a bucket of water over her head just to get her up in the mornings for school." May grinned as the lady chatted comfortably about her family, even letting out a fake yet oh so realistic sounding laugh in return, "Oh, Mum threatened that once with me, thank goodness I had the sense to wake up before she came back with the bucket."





The lady gave May a very warm smile before nodding to the two other girls, "I best be tending to the others then, sorry for the misunderstanding." She then left and after the door had been shut and after she heard the woman turn the corridor May let out a relieved breath, flopping back down onto the bed as she glanced at Sheena, "Well, that was close." She however had a grin on her face, thrilled she was able to trick the woman into believing her - even getting her to laugh.


(Oh, just to let you all know for future purposes, when May is knocked out - or just goes to sleep - her form is dropped and she turns into herself. So if Christian were to knock her out while she was in another form - like a child or an older lady - she would turn into herself while passed out.)
 
Sheena had been certain she would have nightmares. How could she not, after all the horrors of the day? How could she not see the prison exploding, hear the gunshots in the cafeteria, watch Hood transform into something truly monstrous, his voice echoing with rage...how could she not picture Kira's face, still in death, feel herself trapped and helpless in her own body, unable to do anything but obey Christian's every command?


And yet when she lay down with May, the anxiety and fear of the day seemed to fade as she pressed herself into her arms. And as she felt her body slowly relax against her, it seemed no time at all before she woke up, more rested than she had encountered in what had probably been years.


When May pulled away from her sharply, scrambling out of bed, it took Sheena several moments to become awake enough to even open her eyes, let alone piece together why. Sitting up squinting in her bed, she stared, uncomprehending, then alarmed at the middle aged woman in the maid's outfit standing in the room. As her heart began to beat faster, barely coherent panicked thoughts beginning to swirl through her mind, May quickly deescalates the situation, and in fact is soon chatting with the woman in an easy, lighthearted manner that Sheena is almost in awe of. She finds it difficult to make small talk even in the best of times, let alone thirty seconds after waking.


When the woman finally leaves, she looks across the room to where Caroline too is sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes and staring at them blankly, as though silently asking what's going on. She smiles at May, knocking her shoulder against hers appreciatively.


"Nice...how do you think that fast with things like that? I'd probably still be staring at her."


Looking to Caroline, she says, "You need the bathroom, Caro? Go ahead....feeling any better today?"


Caroline shrugged, looking as though she truly didn't know the answer to the question as she got up and shuffled towards the bathroom. As she closed the door behind her, Sheena smiled at May again, her thoughts going back to the night before. The way May had kissed her...the way they had gone to sleep so close...it was something she hadn't experienced in years, not since Maddy...and somehow, it was even more. It was a little thing, just a kiss, just sleep, and yet somehow to her it seems everything.


"I thought I'd have nightmares, but I didn't," she said. "Maybe you're like a dreamcatcher...guess I better keep you around."


(can skip ahead if you'd like but I'm trying to work in one thing from her, I think I can regardless)
 
Jason looked up, first at Devon and then Rhys, and then down the sidewalk that the others had come from; "Right," he said, his voice dull. They had turned onto the street from an intersection down the way. Jason found he also knew that they'd turned right before that, and then almost immediately left.


He stared down the road a little more. He knew that how, exactly? The information was just there in his head, suddenly, like an observation he would make with any of his senses. It felt normal, but it's presence was strange. Like how he'd talked aside the thugs earlier.


This day was just wrong. Kira was dead.


Jason decided to just try not to think about it, starting down the sidewalk instead. But was that the right thing to do? When a friend died you weren't supposed to try to forget about them- but he couldn't just sit there thinking about her! Was distracting himself wrong? Kira wouldn't have wanted him to dwell on it. But heck, she was dead! She was- she was-


He just kept walking, his hands stuck in his pockets. He really couldn't think about it more- so he turned and said, aloud, "So, what happened? How'd I end up in a library?" After a second, he added, "Did you kill the witch?" Jason was glad his voice was somewhat normal. Maybe. Sort of.
 
May smiled at Sheena as she complimented her fast thinking and she shrugs, "I guess I learnt how to think fast when I was at Calius's..." Her voice trailed off and grew a bit quieter as she realized where that sentence was headed.


Calius. He was still alive. He was still out there, doing to other innocent girls what he did to her. She needed to stop him. Soon. She needed to erase any memories of Siran, and he was a big one. She needed to stop him before he could break more innocent girls.


She told herself to slow down, to calm down, after Sheena was done with Christian, then she'd go find Calius. She would understand if Sheena didn't want to come. She certaintly wouldn't want to put anyone through meeting a monster like him. Only problem was that he knew about her power, he didn't know just how she could use it, just how dangerous she could be, but she wouldn't be able to shock him like she shocked her Father.


She smiled back at Sheena, shoving her thoughts away she spoke of keeping her around, comparing her to a dreamcatcher. She laughed lightly as she stood up, running her hands through her long hair and placing her hands on her hip as her hair fell back to it's parting and covered her face in the slightest, smirking at Sheena. "I wouldn't let you get rid of me even if you wanted to, which you never would of course" She dropped down to open the backpack that the clothes they had brought had been stored in, glancing up at Sheena with a grin, "What with my fast-thinking and my amazing taste in clothes." She held up a blue summer dress she had brought for herself to demonstrate her point, still grinning at Sheena.


(I'm fine with not skipping, what'cha trying to work in? ^,^)





Devin nodded at Rhys's words, "Yeah, let's get back before the girls do" He tried to make a soft joke, considering the girls were hours away and he was implying at this rate they'd take longer than the girls to get home. But it fell short and he fell silent as they walked, the news of Kira's death seeming to weigh down the atmosphere until Devin almost felt he was suffocating in it.


Then Jason spoke with the awkward opening of 'So' And Devin looked up, glad the air seemed to get a bit more breathable. He frowned and glanced to Rhys as Jason asked how he ended up in the library, then he looked back to Jason, "Uh, we were hoping you'd be able to tell us that. One minute you were on the sofa, and the next you just...vanished. Like, literally evaporated into thin air."





Then, as the boy asked if they killed the witch he looked to Rhys again, nodding, "Yeah, Rhys did." He didn't want to think of how Rhys had gone into the water, and then how Kira, Kira herself had pulled him out and given him mouth to mouth. She had saved Rhys, but Devin was too slow to save her.


He was too slow.
 
Sheena's smile widened, and she laughed out loud, taking the dress from May and holding it up to herself. She spun playfully, her long hair flying out in a fan around her, as she mocked May good naturedly, making her usually deep voice higher than normal.


"Ooooh look at me, I'm May-belline! I like flowers and pretty dresses, and twirling my hair and painting my nails...and I'm just so goshdarn all the boys AND all the girls chase after me, far and wide! They just can't resist when I bat my mascara-covered eyelashes, and my CLOTHES, like, ohmigod, they are....GOOD CLOTHES!!"


Sheena's imitation stuttered towards the end as she found herself drawing a blank, and she laughed, tossing the dress back at May and looping an affectionate arm around her waist. Still looking at her playfully, she poked one finger on the end of her nose.


"Nah, I wouldn't send you off, you're too entertaining, and you know how to keep the little one out of my hair...you're my heart, May, you know?"


But as soon as the words leave her lips, Sheena freezes, her body tensing. She had not meant to say as much, the words that were equal in Sheena-speak to "I love you." She had not said those words to any in her life but Maddy...she had once thought that she never would again.


And she had said them to May. She had known May for not even a week yet...and already, she was giving her Maddy's words.


She pulled away then, her eyes shifting quickly towards the bathroom as she tried to change the subject. "You want first shower after Caro gets done?"
 

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