Call Wolf

Chapter Six

ScarreD

The car had been running for a while. It quaked and trembled with each minor rock rolling in underneath its wheels; on the seemingly random path Charles had chosen there were a lot. Maria felt a little sick but kept quiet. She didn't mention the branches scratching the windows, nor the bushes folding beneath the license plate. Charles supposedly stayed on track to Vinnar, despite the entire forest seeming to tell him there wasn't one.
Maria sat still, threw the occasional glance his way but didn't conjur much of a reaction. Her body was drained from the prior onslaught of pain but she didn't feel like falling asleep after what had transpired in the past five hours.
"We're a sad pair," she said a little too loudly. The silence had become too unbearable. Charles was thrown out of what ever thoughts he'd been entertaining. His eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm completely fine," he responded with a shrug. "Maybe you feel sad."
"You just killed two people, allegedly."
"In self defense."
"Still."
He hummed. And that was that.
"Aren't you the least bit curious?" Maria insisted, turning to face him. He seemed to dislike that and focused on maneuvering around a particularly large birch.
"As I've told you, we both have things to answer for. But not here."
"Like how you got rid of Buck and Neal so fast... How did you even do that?"
"Later," he said, this time effectively ending the conversation.
"Stop the car."
Charles gripped the wheel tighter, made an effort not to raise his voice. "I cannot."
"I'm serious, stop the car now."
He finally looked at her, expecting to see an angry face, but was met with a bundle of cloth and hair. She had curled up on the seat, hugging herself tightly. Her harsh breaths filled the car along with a faint yet definitive odor: smoke.
"What's happening?"
"Stop the car!"
Charles indelicately pressed down on the brakes, making the car squeal for a moment until hitching and then stopping completely. By then Maria was nothing short of rolling out the door, landing on her side. A thousand knives burrowed into her cranium, each one hurting a different way. She hurriedly waved away Charles' reaching hands as he'd rounded the car.
Maria somehow managed to get a few meters away from the truck using the surrounding trees as support before she fell into a heap on the forest floor, this time too hurt to get up.
"Stay away," she hissed, her voice much shriller than prior.
"What are you doing?"
"I know you didn't want to know about me yet," her body jumped, "but you might have to."
Then her skin lit up.
Charles took a few unstable steps backwards and watched, horrified, as Maria's body pulsated with light. It was just beneath her skin, surging past in a violent pace as if it was the blood itself that had begun glowing. She was screaming. Her hair was too weak to be able to contain the heat and it escaped in the form of flames, licking each strand.
And then it was over. As quickly as it had come, the heat went.
Maria was left sobbing in the middle of an imperfect circle of burnt moss. On her naked skin Charles noticed scars, old enough to have healed but so deep the scarred tissue was still an angry pink. Other than that the fire hadn't left any visible marks.
"Maria..."
"Water," she croaked. "I saw two bottles in the car."
He didn't waste any time following her orders, still shaken. Whilst digging for the bottles he found an old coat. It smelled disgusting, but the chewy leather would cover her properly. He hurried to her, kneeled by her back and reached forward one of the bottles.
She shook her head, winced, and then glanced back at him. Her eyes were red and swollen.
"Pour it."
"But--"
"Please."
"Maria." He reached for her shoulder but then pulled back just as quick. He looked at his palm. Blisters had begun forming.

Charles slowly stood back up. He undid the lid and tipped the bottle. The first water to hit her skin instantly dissipated, rose back up in the form of mist, but the second bottle seemed to work better. Maria stretched out her limbs as the water ran down her skin and once it'd been emptied, she began getting to her feet.
Charles put the coat on her shoulders and she gripped it tightly on her way back to the car, not even looking at him.
"Are you sure you should get in?"
"It should be okay. The next episode won't be for at least another twelve hours."
Charles helped her get in her seat. Then he looked back at the circle of dead moss.
"I don't know."
"What?" he asked, looking back to her.
"What I am. I don't know, alright? You were going to ask, I could tell."
"How long have you been doing... that?"
Maria sniveled, cleared her throat and murmured, "Since forever. This might be a lot to take in but there are some things in this world you don't know about - supernatural things. And I'm one of them."
Charles quieted for a second. He watched her slumping shoulders and felt the self-hatred come off her in overthrowing waves. For better or worse, he reached forward a hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Just watch."
Under their gazes the hand transformed. The skin sprouted thick, black hair whilst the nails grew at such an impossible rate the cuticles cracked in the attempts to restrain them. Charles let out a brief groan as the bones cracked and repositioned, making the hand crooked and sharp. Beastly.
Maria stared.
"There are two souls within me. One is human and the other much more... animalistic." He allowed his hand to return to its former, less disturbing state. "Supernatural enough for you?"
"I don't understand."
"Some things aren't to be understood. They just are. Like me - and you, I'm guessing."
Maria didn't say anything for a while. Then she lowered her head.
"Is it hereditary?" Charles asked, careful not to overstep boundaries which positions he had been much more certain of a few hours ago.
"I don't know."
"What do you know?"
"Cages." Her eyes darkened considerably. "You might be fine with not understanding but my village.. they were obsessed. Thought I was a demon since birth but never really learnt anything more than the fact that I destroy things. They didn't want to. Imagine this little lighting show in the middle of squares and city halls for all to see." She spat on the ground. "No, cages is all I've ever known."
Charles didn't respond.
"My scars, you must have seen them," she continued. Her voice was a tamed mixture of broken glass and shame.
"Not if you don't want me to."
"I don't."
"Then I didn't."
She leant her head against the seat. Closed her eyes.
"Can we go now?"

A/n
A little more insight this chapter, huh?
Let me know if you like it!

Til next time