Closed RP Hold My Hand (It’s A Long Way Down)

This RP is currently closed.
Katpride

Katpride

Story Collector


Adelyn had been forced to wait for the sun to set. There was simply no way she would have been able to sneak through the streets of Pittsburgh in broad daylight without her gloves and boots, even without her foot being injured. It was too risky.

She had taken the time during her long wait to tear some fabric from her shirt and bandage her paw as best she could. It was a good thing she didn’t mind blood; there sure was a lot of it, even after she stopped actively bleeding. She just had to distance herself from the fact that it was her blood, and once she figured that out her hands were a lot steadier. Even so, the longer she waited the more the ache seemed to radiate, growing less and less ignorable until it was like a second heartbeat, flaring with every minute shift and making her dizzy.

So, even though the sun had only barely passed the horizon, here she was, lowering herself out of her tree-perch as carefully as she could. This wasn’t her first tree, of course, and nowhere near the clearing where she was shot; she had relocated as close to the treeline as she dared to go many hours ago. Still, it seemed to take twice as long to negotiate a way down as it had to scale the tree earlier.

She kept having to pause and regain her bearings, even when she didn’t put any weight on her foot. Getting home was going to be a nightmare. But she couldn’t afford to think too far ahead. She got to the ground, somehow, and started walking. It was just one step and then another, using the surrounding trees for support.

All too soon, she reached for the next tree and found nothing. She had reached the edge of the park. There was a small stretch of grass between her and the sidewalk, and a lot of sidewalk between her and her grandparents. Breathing out a carefully controlled breath, she considered the grass for a long moment. Then, she carefully levered her foot out in front of her, and tried to take a step.

Her knee buckled, her claws and fingernails scoring short gouges in the tree as she caught herself, pulling her leg back. The noise that left her throat was somewhere between a scream and a hiss, rough and quickly cut off.

There were tears in her eyes, and she let them fall as she pulled herself behind the tree, resting her back against it. She was at least out of sight from the road, if no one was looking too closely. She could take a minute, or a few minutes, and think a little more about her next move. If only she could think clearly, for just a moment, without being in so much pain.

The Shift seemed to sit uneasily under her skin, responding to her distress with a wave of itchiness that felt almost as though it was trying to offer her a new form, but she pushed it aside. There weren’t any animals that didn’t feel pain, she was fairly sure, and it would be a waste to throw away her new form so soon. Especially if she ended up in something over-specialized again. She didn’t want to go back to anything cold-blooded, not for the rest of the winter at the very least.

She just had to figure it out. She would figure it out, and she would get home, and everything would be fine. Growling to herself, she put her head in her hands and tried to think.

 

“Addy?”

Sam wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand quickly, trying to disguise her tear stained and flushed face as best as she could. She shuddered a bit as she leaned forward from where she was sitting leaning against a tree. There has been a strange cry, and then soft growling, but she was fairly confident the shape she had just seen trying to leave the trees a few yards away was none other than Adelyn.

Pushing herself up and walking over that direction, Sam called out again. “Addy?”

She used the sleeve of her dress to quickly wipe away any residual signs of tears from her face as she tried to put a smile on. Why Adelyn was out this late in the park in the beginning of January, especially with her current reptilian shift, she had no idea. Maybe she had come out for groceries and was taking a cut through the park? She rounded the last tree between them, and sure enough, Adelyn was sitting there, leaning against a tree.

It took Sam a full second before her smile faded, and she closed the distance between them. “Adelyn! What happened to you?”

The girl was missing her gloves and shoes, and wrapped around one foot was a makeshift bandage that was soaked in blood. Sam felt her pulse in her head, felt her heartbeat radiate painfully as she crouched down next to her. She froze for just a millisecond, then she started to kick into planning. She was going to have to figure out how to get Adelyn to her car three blocks down the street. Unseen. Carrying her would be no issue for Sam, but the fastest route was the sidewalk, and there were still cars and people out.

Sam had left the house in nothing but her dress and boots, and something told her that her size six shoes weren’t going to fit Adelyn no matter how hard they tried. She had nothing to cover her with. All the tension and anxiety snapped back into place, redirected toward the current situation. Todd being missing for a week wasn’t forgotten, but it was quickly placed on a shelf to address later. She needed to figure this out, and quick. Adelyn needed first aid. She wouldn’t know how bad it was until she got those bandages off.​
 


Her head was pounding, and even with her back against the tree she felt like the world was tilting under her, but stubbornly Adelyn clung on. She had gotten herself into this mess, getting too complacent and taking off her leathers in daylight, and she would get herself out of it. Heaven help anyone who tried to come between her and home, she thought, more than a little angry. With herself, and with the world, and with the way things were.

So wrapped up in herself, she had stopped paying attention to the sounds around her. When a woman’s voice - half-familiar, too close, too close, how didn’t she notice? - startled her, she jumped, sending a new shock of pain through her injured foot. Half out of her mind from the stress of the day, she couldn’t contain the instincts, still too sharp and not yet worn-in, that took over her.

The sound that left her throat was more of a hiss than she thought she should be capable of, but it was still missing the rumbling growl that some part of her thought should be there. Eyes squinted almost shut and still blurry with tears, she lashed out blindly, her claws already bared and covered in dried blood not her own. She was too close to the street to scream, some still-rational part of her mind insisted, and so instead she bared her teeth, her breath coming too quickly through the gaps.

Some part of her was shocked by the violence of her own body, of how easily it came to her, but that part was small and too easily drowned. Survival would always speak louder. She would protect herself. She would protect her family. She would brook no alternative.

It was all she knew, all she could hold in her mind. She would get back to her family.

 
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The sound that came from Adelyn’s lips was one that Sam had never heard before. A clawed hand swiped out at her, catching the sleeve of her dress and shredding it. Thankfully, she pulled her arm back with just enough time to avoid a deep scratch down her arm. It gave her pause, and she fully knelt on her knees, making herself smaller than the younger girl. She made herself as unthreatening as she possibly could, curling her shoulders forward and in so that her body was as small as she could make it. She smiled softly, keeping her teeth covered by her lips, and slowly lifted a hand and extended it, almost like one might with a scared dog or cat. Because that’s what she was right now. A scared animal.

“Adelyn, it’s me. It’s Samantha Walsh. I’m your friend, remember? You’re safe now.”

The girl’s heartbeat was racing through Sam’s veins now, and her own responded in kind, picking up despite her attempts to keep it even and slow. She took a deep breath to try and suppress the energy that wanted to race through her. It wouldn’t do Addy any good if she lost her head right now. The girl needed someone she could trust, someone she could relax in front of. Sam was no Todd– she felt a blade stab her through the stomach at the mere thought of him– and she didn’t have that connection to Adelyn that he did. But she was still her friend. She was still like a younger sister to Sam.

Surely that would be enough.

At least, she hoped it would be enough.

She swallowed softly and opened her hand wide, all her motions slow and smooth. She searched Adelyn’s scared face, searched through the animal fear to try and find the girl who she knew was in there. Sam hummed softly, letting her words take on an almost musical tone as she spoke again, “Come on, Adelyn. Breathe and relax. You’re safe here. I won’t hurt you.”​
 


Something catches on her claws, and Adelyn tears through it without hesitation, still snarling. Not skin, she registers distantly. Too thin for that, no new scent of blood in the air. She thinks. It’s hard to tell, when the nose on her face doesn’t match the nose that the dominant part of her mind thinks she should have.

For a stomach-jolting moment her nose itches terribly, the Shift stirring in response to her thoughts. She takes a sharp breath, air stinging cold against the roof of her mouth and down her throat, and huddles in on herself, pressing hand and paw close to her chest.

“No, no, no, no,” she mutters, desperate, tears stinging her eyes as something in her howls a refusal to the suggestion. Blood rushes in her ears, drowning out everything in a tinny whine and distant pulse until it’s just her, and the suggestion, and her staunch refusal. After a tense moment the Shift settles back without changing her any further, and she sags against the tree, exhausted.

And… unharmed, she realizes after a long moment. Even after her moment of distraction, the person in front of her hadn’t struck back. Cautiously, she blinks her eyes open, scrubbing at her face with her sleeve in a weak attempt to focus her blurry vision. Slowly, the orange and brown blob resolves into a familiar face. One that isn’t even pinging her danger senses a little bit.

Sitting in front of her, like an unseasonable autumn leaf in her orange and brown dress, was Sam. She had swiped at Sam.

Adelyn feels the blood rush from her face, leaving her pale and dizzy again. She feels like she could cry. She blinks back the tears with the last of her control, leaving her voice in tatters when she speaks. “Sam?”

It was her, right? It was her friend. She wasn’t seeing things, was she? Carefully, shakily, she put her hand - her human hand, always her human hand, she couldn’t shake her habits - out, touching her cold fingertips delicately to Sam’s palm. Almost instinctively, she started to move forward, to put her paw in front of her, but the sharp pang of pain from her foot made her hiss and sag against the tree again. Right. Right, she was hurt. Was Sam hurt? Her eyes scanned her friend, worry carving thick furrows between her eyebrows. “Are… you okay?”

 

A smile crossed Sam’s face as Adelyn reached out and touched her hand. Even as the girl tried and failed to move toward her, Sam was moving just as quickly toward her. She wrapped her arms around the taller girl’s shoulders and pulled her in. A sob almost broke through when Adelyn asked if she was alright. Instead of answering right away, she buried her face into Adelyn’s shoulder, tears streaming down her face.

When she pulled back, she quickly wiped at her face, trying to disguise the deep and unsettling disquiet within her. Another smile, this time with her teeth. “I’m okay. Are you okay? What happened to you? Why are you out here without your gloves or shoes? And why have you changed again?”

She brushed a hand through Adelyn’s hair and pushed it back from the girl’s face. They might not have been blood, but Sam considered her family of some kind. Not quite a daughter. More like a sister, maybe, but one who she felt very defensive of. And right then, she needed the distraction of defensiveness. She let it stoke her fire, let the heat inside her climb with anger at whoever had done this to her friend. Her inner temperature slowly rose above the bitter chill that had claimed her for the last few days, that had almost ruined her back in her apartment.​
 


Adelyn doesn’t hesitate to return the embrace, wrapping her arms around Sam’s ribs and pressing her hand into the space between her shoulder blades. Her paw hovers at an angle where the claws won’t scratch her friend, and though she takes a moment to coax her claws back into their sheathed state she doesn’t dare to place it where it might be a danger.

It’s an awkward lean, with her back still mostly pressed against the tree, but Adelyn doesn’t even think about pulling away or adjusting, only staying where she is and mutely staring at her paw while Sam gathers herself. Her mind is… quiet, strangely so, like a seemingly calm river with a deceptively strong current just waiting to tug her back under.

Funny, how easy it is to put her pain aside when she isn’t the only one in distress. She still feels exhausted, run ragged from the events of the day, but when she summons up a smile to mirror Sam’s it’s only mostly shaky. It drops too quickly, though, and she flinches back when Sam reaches for her face. “I-”

She draws further back, curling her paw behind herself as though that would be enough to hide it from the world. Silly. She’s already seen it. Stupid, stupid girl. Why couldn’t you just listen to your parents? She feels her eyes start to tear up again, and she turns her face away, biting at the inside of her cheek and blinking rapidly in an effort to keep them at bay.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she says, voice quiet and strained. She doesn’t dare to look back at Sam, so she stares at a bit of half-frozen leaf litter on the ground, curling her long limbs into herself as best she can. She never should’ve taken off her boots. She shouldn’t have taken off her gloves, either, but especially not her boots. No one walked around without shoes, in the city. She knew that. She had been so dumb, and she was paying the price several times over.

“I just want to go home,” she mumbles, equally quiet, crumpling the fabric of her shirt in her fist where it’s balled over her heart. “Can you take me home, please, Sam?”

 

Something horrible had happened, that much was clear. She could see it in the way Adelyn refused to meet her eyes, and in the way she pulled away and hid the sleek black paw she now had. She pulled her hand away from Adeyln’s face, and for a brief moment, the grief and anger spiraled up and almost consumed her. She wanted to rage. She wanted to explode in a ball of heat. She wanted to break something. And most of all, she wanted to cry. She wanted to cry long and hard and let it all out, all of the volatility that resided inside her chest.

Instead, she choked it back and shakily smiled at Adelyn. The sun was gradually setting behind them, and it was almost dark enough that she felt safe carrying the girl to her car. She looked behind them, and saw that the streetlights had started to kick on. She turned back and nodded her head. “Okay. I’ll take you home to your grandparents. My car is up the street. Will you let me carry you? You shouldn’t walk on that. Not until I have a chance to rebandage it and clean it. We’ll swing by my apartment, and I’ll grab the kit I keep before we head to your grandparents’ house, okay?”

She sat back on her heels, smiling reassuringly as she spoke, her voice remaining soft despite the roiling unsteadiness inside her. Adelyn needed her. Adelyn needed her. She had to do this. She had to pull herself together. She wiped her face one more time, wiping away the tear stains and fixing a comforting look on her face.

She couldn’t do anything about Todd. Not right then. She couldn’t go running around looking for him. No one had contacted her yet, about him being missing. No one was looking for him yet. Only her. But it would wait, it could wait, until tomorrow. For now, she pushed herself up and started straightening out her skirt so she could lean over and pick the girl up. This was important. This was something she could focus on now. Here.

She could help Adelyn.​
 


Adelyn considers the offer for a long moment before slowly nodding. Yes, she’ll let Sam carry her. She trusts Sam, and her feet hurt too much to walk on, besides, both of them tired and sore even without considering the pain still radiating from her injury. Ordinarily she might be a bit more stubborn, but it’s been a long day and her pride is already in tatters.

Just like her clothes, she thinks wearily, tugging briefly at the ragged hem of her shirt before releasing it again with a quiet, exhausted sigh. It had been a necessary sacrifice, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy about it. She’d liked this shirt, before she had to shred it. Her insulated leggings had survived her new Shift, at least, stretching to accommodate for the volume of her fur without too much trouble, but they’re going to need several runs through the wash before she even considers wearing them again. They’re covered in dirt and blood in a way that she’s trying not to think about too hard. And failing, a bit. She’s used to getting a bit dirty, staying outside all day like she does, but this is a lot even for her.

She tries not to feel too bad about transferring some of the mess to Sam, when the woman picks her up in her surprisingly strong arms, and faces only marginal success.

“Sorry,” she says, quietly, eyes downcast as she focuses on pulling her sleeve down over her paw and hiding it under her normal one as best she can. She can’t do much about her feet, but she tucks them as close to Sam’s skirt as she can, hoping that the fabric will hide them at least a little bit.

She feels more like a child than she has in years. How long has it been, since her dad last carried her around like this? She can’t remember. She lays her head on Sam’s shoulder, fluffs her hair around her ears in a vague effort to hide them, too, and closes her eyes, trying to let her mind go blank so that she can focus around the sudden ache in her chest.

Her parents are going to be so worried. She misses them so much. She wants them to be here, wants to call them and beg for them to visit her, or let her visit them, even if she knows she’ll only get in the way. She doesn’t know how she’s going to tell them, how she would even start to explain how badly she messed things up in the city, but she wants to try. Maybe they’ll let her come stay in the cabin a little early, even if it isn’t all the way finished yet. She’d gladly go back to hiding from the world, if it meant everyone she cared about was safer for it.

She can’t do anything right now, though. She doesn’t have her phone. The phone that Sam gave her, she realizes, eyes cracking open slightly to watch the world move around them. “I lost the phone you gave me,” she tells Sam, unable to summon any energy into her voice even though her mind thrums with a sudden need to impart the information. “I’m sorry.”

 

Adelyn was not a child. There had been a time, months ago, when she thought of her almost as a child, as a kid she wanted to care for. She knew better now. Adelyn was not a child, even cradled in Sam’s arms like a toddler, as the woman walked quickly through the setting sun, straying away from people and keeping to the treeline when possible. Then it was a quick sprint to the car, and as she started to really move, Adelyn’s voice piped up, soft and tired.

She laughed lightly and shifted Adelyn closer, leaning her head against the girl’s. “It’s okay. I’ll get you a new one. We’ll put everyone’s numbers back in it. I’m just glad that you’re here. It doesn’t matter if you lose a million phones, okay? Just keep walking away and everything will be okay.”

God, she was so bad at pep talks. That barely made sense at all. She just hoped that Adelyn would get the gist of what she was trying to say. Her mind was running a mile a minute as she tried not to think about how Todd would have done a better job. Todd would have been able to track down whoever had done this to her. He would have been able to calm and reassure her so much better than Sam could. No, she wasn’t thinking about that. She wasn’t thinking about Todd. She was thinking about Adelyn.

It would all be okay. She made it to the Beetle, parked on the sidewalk, just after the sun had fully gone down. She shifted all of Adelyn’s weight to one arm, holding her as she shuffled through her pockets for her keys. With them in hand, she unlocked the old thing and carefully placed Adelyn in the passenger seat. As soon as the girl was tucked in and secure, she closed the door and looked around. No one had stopped driving or come over to check on them. A few people were looking her way, but she simply nodded her head as she walked around the front of the car to the other door. They looked away the moment they saw she had seen them staring.

The driver side door opened and closed behind her as she slipped into the familiar leather seat. She turned the car on, and almost immediately was hit by music.

But I finally think I can say
That the vicious cycle was over
The moment you smiled at me
And just like the rain
You cast the dust into nothing
And wash out the salt from my hands

She flipped the CD player off, cutting the music. It took her too long to react, too long to stop it. Too long as Todd was thrusted to the front of her mind again. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at the steering wheel. She had to pull it together. She had to drive. She– She–

She pressed her face into her hands. No, not right now. Not right now. Not in front of Adelyn. Please, God, at least let her make it through this without sobbing. She caught her breath just as it started to shake and pushed all of the emotions down, the same way she had for years before meeting them. Everything would be okay. She straightened out and put the keys in the ignition, twisting them. The car started with an easy purr, Todd’s handiwork.

“Let’s get that foot taken care of, okay?”​
 
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