Patience of a Gordon

Chapter One

This story has nothing to do with Kendall and Snowflake, but you may see them. This story is Cayne's.

Chapter One

The static noise that surrounded me was blissfully white, contrasting with the black slate I'd willed in front of me. The nearby heat protected me from harm, yet I'd never felt so cold in my life.

The smell itself was worse than the swift jabs of cold rushing towards me. It was the worst smell I'd ever experienced and sure to be the worst in my lifespan. I knew I would never be able to claw or scratch it from my mind, no matter how hard I dug.

The air was thick with the smell of smoldering smoke that escaped from the mixture of relentless fires and burning buildings, sinking itself into my pores. But it was the putrid smell of seared, burnt flesh that ate away at my senses, no matter how hard I buried my nose against the nearby arm or how little I breathed. It was consistent, sneaking through like a silent thief and invading my body.

It was truly cruel how fast the village could go from protecting its laughing, joyful people to burning up in flames that had been produced by crazed eyes and sick grins.

They repeatedly told my kind we were disgusting for our betrayal, that we were where the root of evil lay. Yet, this village had lived in peace, harming none, only to deserve a darkened fate delivered personally by humans themselves.

The tortured, raw screams had stopped some time ago, but they still tauntingly echoed around and through me. Each one haunted me, envious of the blood that still ran through me and of the heart that still pumped. But at this point, I wanted to join the bodies on the ground, free from what was likely to happen to me.

"What about these two?"

The voice was closer than I liked, much too close. It shattered the white noise abruptly and I flinched, wishing I could sink into an endless sleep. No one ever prepared you for this, for losing everything that you'd ever known. But they shouldn't have to.

The body that protected me vibrated with a thick growl in response to the voice. The sound was familiar and reminded me that I wasn't alone, that there was someone experiencing the same pain and fear I was.

"The male's probably too much ta' handle. We should go 'head and kill the cat. He can join the rest of his kind in whatever hell they have."

The venom put into his words made a chill run along my spine and I shivered, willing to give whatever it took for this to be over already. Things as cruel as this weren't meant to happen.

"Look at her. She'd be tortured within the first day by someone who hates her type more than we do. We'll keep him so she, at least, has some sort of chance and it looks like we tried."

They both stopped their talking, which I was grateful for. It made the whole thing seem less real without someone openly acknowledging it. I could pretend I would wake up and everything would be fine, in fact, more than fine.

I felt the arms around me tighten lightly in a comforting manner, as the distant roar of a polluting engine barreled towards the area we sat in, whining to a stop when it neared us and the surrounding humans.

The car's roar descended into a soft growl as the metallic door clicked open. A pair of loud shoes hit the dirt, shoving against it as they moved closer to me, but stopped at the sound of an authentic growl.

"Put 'em in the electric crates. Drug him if ya' have to, then see if the girl cooperates. If not, do the same," a gruff voice ordered, the car clicking once again as the back flew up, whistling in the air.