King Elk Forest drive my heart into the night

it definitely did! i didn't expect it but i love it! i love when characters write themselves. ;D

 

The seconds as he waited, they ticked by slow, achingly slow like blood beneath a bruise. Was he staring at The Officer's replacement? Or was he staring at one who held the potential but would not reach out to seize the chain? He could not read her — he was not adapt at it except for reading movements of wolves he was fighting, the movements of his prey. He was a beast whose future would always rely on someone else: for he could not live wild. He fared about as well as a pet dog because, essentially, that was what he was. Simply bigger and stronger. The asset wraith's muzzle rose as she stared at him. Calm. He felt the anticipation in the air, felt it in the marrow of his bones. His body hummed with it until he felt like he might combust from the wait.

And then it came. The command. It hit him and relief followed. Precious relief. He felt like he'd been wound so tight and she'd granted him the release he'd needed. His whole body appeared to sigh with his relief. “I will not hurt you.” He repeated, but it was not simply mimicry. It was a promise, his vow: that he was ready to comply to her commands, that he would not harm her. That so long as he drew breath none would. He had killed The Officer but a vow had never been taken. The Officer had “raised” him and believed that there would never be a slip of conscious, that he would never turn against the hand that had fed him. He'd been wrong. But Ghost did not believe that she (he realized he had nothing to call her) would send him to destroy innocent and pure lives. Children did not need to know cruelity. Thus far, she seemed like everything The Officer hadn't been. Ghost didn't know her — but he didn't need to. He hadn't known anything about The Officer. Not even his real name.

She relaxed, reclining upon her haunches, a picture of elegance and grace; and released from a wild and supposed freedom that he did not understand Ghost lowered himself into a sphinx like position before her, docile. Complacent. “I am the Ghost.” He responded to her eagerly enough, falling too easily into the role of subjugate because The Officer had broken a boy who never had the proper chance to develop and it was all he'd ever known; but he wasn't lost anymore. He had a purpose. Her and whatever she commanded of him.