Vigilante (Under Construction! Please Excuse the Dust!)

Chapter 12: monstrous.

Vivika:

        Danger, fear, light, anger, stay alive, run, run, run...

        I was stuck somewhere between beast and human, my head filled with thoughts from both.

        Psychopath, help, get away...

        Words were tearing from my throat and it burned as I sucked in the dark air. My second of humanity is lost and the words I had yelled had no meaning to me. Four legs now; no longer two.

        Pain, run, hide...

        Her voice is loud, too loud in my ears. She said words I didn't understand and stalked me. I shifted back and forth, understanding the random shuffle of noise that was her words one second and not the next.

        "Don't run from..," the beginning of a sentence morphed into only a babble of strange sounds.        

        Run, run, run, run, run, lost, fear...

        She is standing over me, light burning my eyes and sounds stabbing my sensitive ears. The air hurt to breathe, my body ached from the rapid changing, bile rose in my throat. I trembled, shoulders ripping away fur and replacing it with skin.

        Hopeless, going to die...

        Something hit her and knocked her off her feet. I scrambled away, beast and human instincts both telling me to get away from there before she got back up. The woman is screaming, struggling with what had taken her down.

        Terrified, I was frozen. The woman shoved the thing off of her. It was another person, shaking and choking. They had saved me. Why?

        My body shivered again and the beast pushed the question out of my mind, knowing she was coming for me. I skittered away, claws clattering against unfamiliar pavement.

        Then, she was screaming again. Not at me. I paused, looking back to see she was wrapped in something dark. It held her and covered her face, her screaming muffled as she thrashed against the thing.

        Stuck in between again. Words in the air from a voice I didn't know. Someone small running through the fog. My human mind made a connection. Heroes come for the woman, stopping her insanity. The small person moved to the one who saved me, touching them.

        My beast mind took over, rushing to protect the person who had gotten hurt helping me. My humanity fought to speak with them and my beast wanted to tear them apart.

        My words were forced and felt odd in my mouth. Speaking tore my throat and lungs, heaving in the air that just made them ache more.

        "Get away from 'em," I growled. The Hero looked at me, something covering his face. "I woulda' died if not for that person there. Leave 'em alone."

        I was a mix-up of beast and human. I stood on two legs, but had claws as if I had four. I struggled not to loose myself to the animal who tried to swallow me whole. My teeth ground against each other, canines too large for my mouth.

        "Who are you?" the person asked, his voice muffled by the thing on his face. I recognized it as a gas mask. I looked for an answer, finding a name I recognized. I must have been mine.

        Behind the man, the small person moved the one who saved me.

        "No!" I screamed, crouching to leap at the small person. I felt terribly angry and desperate, wanting so badly to help them but being unable to. Before I could pounce, the man stepped in front of me, blocking my view. I snarled at him, curling my claws into the ground and baring my teeth in warning. If he made any move, I would tear his throat out.

        "We aren't going to hurt them. They were hurt very badly by the Socket. We're trying to help," he said, raising his hands in surrender. Over his shoulder, he yelled, "Please hurry, Sunny."

        I didn't trust him, but, looking back to the crazy woman wrapped up in the dark stuff, he had stopped her from finding me again. I stood from my crouched position, watching him closely.

        "My name is Charm," the man said. "What's yours?"

        "V-Vivika," I told him the name I had remembered before. It sounded sharp and angry as I said it.

        "Vivika," he repeated. "My friend and I can help you. Will you come with us?"

        Looking at the person who saved me, I felt a gratitude I couldn't explain. I had to go wherever they went. To thank them and help them, too.

        "Are you... take them?" my vocabulary failed me, beast overtaking a little bit more of me each second. The man nodded. "I go with them. Person who... help me."

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Giliana:

        I was sitting at a table, my hands shaking uncontrollably. There were people all around me, talking so loud I couldn't hear myself think. They obstructed my field of vision and when I tried to look directly at them, their faces disappeared, foggy and unclear. Nerves gripped my stomach, making it impossible to sit still. The noise was overwhelming, pushing every other thought I had out of my head. I squeezed my eyes closed tight, laying my head down on the table.

         I pressed my hands to my ears, but the roar didn't stop. In fact, it only got louder and louder the harder I tried to keep it out. It wasn't until I heard something aside from the noise that I realized it was inside my head.

        "Giliana," someone had said from the crowd that was actually silent. The voice was eerily familiar. The noise inside my head fell silent and I shot out of my chair, looking for the face to match the voice.

        "Mi bella," another voice said, just as strikingly familiar to me as the first. I recognized the words. My grandparents called me that all the time. They said it more often than my actual name.

        I spun around to the direction the voice came from and, suddenly, the people and the table were gone. I was alone in a gray place where I couldn't see anything around me.

         "Giliana," the first voice said again. In a blink, a woman stood before me. My heart ached at the sight of her.

        "Mom," I breathed. She smiled softly, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she did. I ran to her, crying and shivering. Mom enveloped me in a warm embrace, laughing gently and combing her fingers through my hair. I sobbed into her shoulder, now as tall as she was.

        Another pair of arms wrapped around me and Mom. My head snapped up.

        "Mamá."

        I broke down, falling to my knees and clutching my parents to me. They held me tight as I did them, sliding to the ground with me.

        "I miss you," I sobbed, hiding my face in their clothes that smelled like them. "I miss you so much."

        "Everything is okay, honey," Mom said, rubbing my back. "Don't worry. We're alright."

        "Don't leave me," I whispered, holding onto them, afraid they would disappear. Mamá pressed a kiss to my forehead.

        "We're always there, mi bella," she said. I could hear a smile in her voice. "But, you have to wake up."

        I sniffed, my nose running, and looked at them. They were see-through; the color of them being leeched away by some unseen force.

        "What? No!" I yelled, gripping onto them desperately. My heart clenched in my chest, the noise inside my head roaring all over again. I winced at the sudden sound, my grip loosening on their clothes for a half-second. "Don't go! Please, don't leave me here!"

        "We love you, Giliana."

        I woke up.

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Author's Note: Heyyy, a bonus chapter! Enjoy! -Silvered