Born of Blood

Chapter 2

The storm continued for days.

The grass was swollen with water, mud lifting from the earth and gathering in large pools around the pack house. The trees had never seemed so vibrant in color, the green dimming the air around it, sucking in the color from the surrounding earth and focusing all attention on their thick leaves and healthy bark. The grass that had crunched under Scarlets feet all those day's ago had returned to their lush and vibrant colors, health developed in every cell that lived within their blades. The wildlife had retreated for the most part, the large predators that could smell the odd scent of werewolves hadn't appeared since the storm began, and the children of Townsend were sad every day they didn't get to encounter a mountain lion. She new they needed to remain dry, they needed to remain safe from the onslaught of the storm. It was difficult for Scarlet not to hear them.

Her favorite, her beautiful birds that normally sang within the tree line every day, hadn't made a peep in three whole days. The sun never peaked behind the heavy, black, clouds. The birds needed to stay hidden to remain dry, Scarlet knew this, yet every morning their music didn't greet her made the grey-black of the sky seem colorful compared to her days. She knew she should be thankful, she should be thankful for the torrential rain that worked its hardest to make her feel better, but she hadn't been allowed outside since it started, it tore Scarlets heart apart.

Work was strenuous for Scarlet, especially with the extent of her injuries. Washing dishes with crushed fingers, standing for extended periods of time on fractured limbs, seeing through one good eye due to a blown blood vessel, it was all very painful and very tiring. A weight pressed firmly on her shoulders and though it wasn't physical it felt more than real. It's fingers gripped her shoulders and pressed from the heavens, forcing her to hell. It slumped her torso further down, pressing into her rib cage. Breathing was a chore in its own and though Scarlet felt the most at peace in days covered with rain, she hadn't been allowed outside at all since her first breath of fresh air.

No calming wind filtering through her lungs, no pure sound of the wind chimes clinking through the air, no satisfaction in feeling the puddles- bulging with their excess water- wrapped around her feet, warm and fluid. Her blood yearned for it, her cells sang for the rain she so desperately coveted. It was so much a part of her she didn't know what she would do if she had to go one more day without feeling the satin drops across her skin.

She needed to breathe.

She needed air.

She was suffocating.

Bending over the counter, she slowly took deep breaths. Internalizing her focus, she let her body and mind go numb, her soul disappearing within her organs allowing her mind a chance to calm itself. Her mind span and her stomach flipped, anxiety crawling from the deep tresses of her spirit and wrapping its claws into the deep tissue of her throat. It captured her heart and squeezed it tight with its grip, burning her mind like a branding iron and catching her breath in her chest.

Breathe.

She couldn't.

Ignoring the burn from her spine, she allowed her forehead to cool itself against the freezing metal of the counter she had been so intent on cleaning. Wiping and scrubbing until her shoulders ached and her elbows locked, she had no room to care for her discomfort, her only direction had been to make it shine. Breaths stuttered their way out of her lungs, sputtering and wheezing she could feel a tremble over take her limbs. The 'whooshing' of blood in her ears made her trembling worse, she needed the rain.

She needed the rain.

Sobs raked her body.

Her lips parted in a silent scream, agony ripping through her chest.