The Carcajou

Chapter Two: Stabilized

Luke sat in a chair in the hospital room where Tara was sleeping.

The night before, he had dragged her into the room, screaming, "Help her! Someone help! She's been stabbed!" The doctors then took her and wheeled her into a room. Tara had screamed, "Claws! He has claws!" before she was put under to operate. Outside the room, Luke answered the doctors' questions the best he could, saying her name was Tara Carpenter and that she had been attacked by someone in a mask and cloak.

During the operation, Luke used the motorcycle he had borrowed to ride to his cave to grab a new shirt and his backpack before returning.

Now, with his backpack next to him, Luke looked at Tara's sleeping form. He had been let in when she had stabilized, and Luke had asked that they call any family or friends she had.

As Luke sat, he stared at the picture in his hand, before glancing at the backpack. Inside was something his friends had made him, but after... that night, he swore to himself he'd never use it. He then looked down at his knuckle. He hadn't used them in so long, he forgot how painful they were.

"Does it hurt?" a weak voice in front of him asked, snapping out of his trance. Luke looked up and saw Tara awake.

"Hey," he said as he stood up to walk over to her side. "You're awake. I'll let your friends know."

"Thanks," Tara said weakly as he used her phone to text people named Amber, Mindy, Chad, and Wes before looking back at her.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked.

"I'm fine," Tara answered. "They gave me drugs for the pain, so that's always good." The two shared a quiet laugh as Luke sat back down in awkward silence.

"Thank you," Tara finally said. "For saving me. You're like a hero."

"I'm no hero," Luke answered. Tara's eyes looked down to his knuckles.

"Does it hurt?" she asked again. "When those... claws come out, does it hurt?" Luke looked at his knuckles with a sigh before answering.

"Every time. I mean, the more it happens, the less it hurts. But from one degree to another, it always hurts."

———

A little while later, all of Tara's friends arrived and saw Luke playing cards with her.

Luke looked up and saw them.

Chad Meeks-Martin was an average jock. Letterman jacket, muscles, curly hair, perfect teeth. It made Luke sick to see a guy so perfect.

Mindy was Chad's twin sister. Movie nerd, afro, all the works.

When Amber, an Asian-American chick that Tara considered her best friend, entered, Luke could've sworn he smelled something familiar.

Finally, it was Wes. A shy son of the police chief who had platinum blonde hair.

Just then, Sam, Tara's older sister, had come in with some guy as she knelt at Tara's side.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked.

"You came," Tara said softly, dropping the cards in her non-bandaged hand.

"Of course, I came," Sam said before turning to the guy she came with. "This is my boyfriend, Richie."

"It's so nice to meet you," Richie said to Tara. "I'm so sorry if I'm intruding."

"Nice to meet you, too," Tara said.

Sam hugged all of Tara's friends before introducing them to Richie. "These are Chad and Mindy, the twins. And Wes. I used to babysit them all." Her eyes then fell on Luke, who tried to shrink away.