Small Little Pup; Hunter Love Story

Chapter Eight

Waking up, Alice stretched her arms above her head and yawned. She had somehow gotten out of the Hunter's grip while she slept and the Witch was in the corner sleeping. The Smoker was out and about, refilling supplies so the Hunter wouldn't have too later. She hopped off the bed and got her toys. She began playing tea party with them quietly. One of them had the ghost of her babysitter in it, Technatheguardian, who would joke around about everything, though Alice wanted to know what happened to her, mostly how she 'put her voice in Alice's favourite teddy.'

She hummed and kept playing with her toys, being quiet. She was there until the Smoker returned, to which she looked up at him and waved, smiling. He waved back and put the supplies away. He then sat and watched her. She kept mumbling pretty much random things to the toys and giggled every so often, the Smoker found it odd. He kept his distance though.

When the Hunter woke, he paniced a little until he found Alice playing by herself with the Smoker sitting and watching. He got up and sat next to Alice, to which she only smiled at him, but then went back to playing by herself. She kept putting the toys into silly positions and giggling at them, imagining what they were doing and what they were saying. The Hunter was amused, seeing his pup playing made him calm. He looked up to the Witch waking up, and leaving while crying. She was going hunting.

Alice soon out her toys away and then got on the bed and pulled out a book they found that had pictures, and tried to read it. It was the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar. She mostly just looked at the pictures and showed them to the Hunter. She tried reading it too, only messing up one or two words. She then got food, today she just seemed to be in a mood to be mostly left to her own devices.

She ate and then curled up with the Hunter, who had also just eaten something and was licking his claws clean. When she curled up on his lap, he looked at her surprised and smiled before continuing to clean his claws as the Witch returned, covered in blood but eating. She then crawled into her closet and hide in there for the rest of the day. Alice ended up falling back asleep in the Hunter's lap.

Although, she had a nightmare. Her parents used to fight, a lot. That is what she is having a nightmare about.

"No Tom! We are taking her to the orphanage tonight!"

"Marie she our daughter, we are not-"

"That thing is not my daughter!"

"If you take her to the orphanage then I am leaving! You were so excited to have her when you found out you were pregnant! So what the fuck changed!"

"Nothing! I am still the same woman you loved! Why the fuck would you chose that little bitch over me!?"

"Because you aren't the same woman I fell in love with! You aren't the same woman who was excited to have my child! You aren't the same woman who sat beside me as my mother died!"

"Wha- How dare you! I am-"

"No, how dare you! If you threaten this one more time then I am leaving with my daughter, you wench!" That was the first time Alice remembers her father calling her just his, and not both her mother's and his, that was the turning point in their relationship. That night she heard glass breaking and was unable to sleep. She heard her mother yelling and her father throwing things. When she left her room after her alarm clock went off the place was a mess, she remembers seeing how many dents were in the walls from her father's fists and mother's head. The fights they had from that night on always escalated to violence.

She then is taken from the ground and back to her room before being placed, seemingly asleep in bed when she woke up to her mother being thrown into her door, only for screaming to ensue.

"You fucker!"

"I'm not the one who came at the person they claim to love with a knife on a night where everything was fine! It has been a week since we had any fights, what the fuck?!?" She heard her father yelling in a voice she never knew he had. She doesn't remember what her mother replied with but soon enough she was above Alice, holding the knife to Alice before breaking down and dropping it, only for her father to then pick her up and throw her out of the room, and throwing her into the bed room, where she didn't know what happened. At that point she just remembers one thing.

She remembers picking up the knife.

She remembers carving the one thing she knows what it meant that she was called all the time.

'Fuck-up'

She carved it into her side, and being at an age where her parents don't bathe her anymore so they never found it. Now she just has that nasty scar. But she remembers it. Her parents fighting caused her, a seven or eight year to carve something into her side.

She remembers it, remembers each letter and how painful it. She remembers the way her skin split while she did it. She remembers to blood. She remember how it hurt, but how the pain made her feel better inside. She remembers the good feeling she got from doing it. She remembers throwing the knife away, she knew her father would anyway. She cried herself to sleep that night. Slowly, a light filled her dark room, a deep purring pulling her towards the light.

Alice opened her eyes to all of the infected in the room looking at her worriedly, and tears slowly build up in her eyes before she started crying, holding on to the Hunter while he purred, and the Smoker got her a water bottle, he remembered something about it helping, and the Witch offering her some sugar, which was rare as she loved it.

But in the end, she just cried herself back to sleep.