Phantom Hollow a slab in the morgue

He just sort of... sat there. She went off on a tirade (again), and Screech went over everything that had led him to this point (again). It wasn't exactly a good moment for the two of them to meet. He had all sorts of trauma to deal with while she seemed to have crawled so far up her own ass, had he known how to pronounce orobouros he would have started calling her that versus her real name. Not that he knew her real name.

But then she attached herself to the concept of hearing the truth (or at the very least, glean some kind of understanding and satiate whatever morbid curiosity had stopped her from high-tailing it out of there) and Screech would oblige her, if only because he needed to get it out in to the open. He needed someone to listen to him - or maybe not even that, maybe he just needed to know he wasn't absolutely alone and doomed to die here in the dark.

I already told you what happened, dipshit, he snapped right back at her, but the level of vehemence had evaporated somewhat. Screech sounded much more level-headed now but, it was more like his rage had reached a slow-burn sort of intensity; he was colder than ice as he explained the details, and staring straight ahead of himself, his golden eye fixed upon the ominous shapes of the trees.

You want details? Fine. Keep quiet and I'll tell you. he took a shuddering little breath, as if telling the whole tale would break him to pieces or something. He decided easily enough to omit some of the shit he'd gone through, because nobody needed his entire life story even if they were begging for it.

There was this other pack - not Moonspear - and the wolves there are fuckin' weird, okay? Its -- its not a nice place, the people are crazy, their kids are all freaks and... Just stay clear of the eastern forests and you'll be fine. But, he sighed and tried to cut to the point, purposefully avoiding the use of Blackfeather as he spoke about the place. I got kidnapped by this big guy, but after a while one of 'em took pity or something, and let me go. They did some shit to me there and -- well, who cares about that right? I got home, tried to be useful, be good... It had all gone wrong.

It always went wrong, somehow.

One day I was out for a run, mindin' my business, and I'm in the west where there are these big-ass mountains. Out of nowhere this girl comes at me like she's bein' chased or something, he hadn't really gotten a good look at her until she was down for the count, and in that moment of panic Screech hadn't really considered his options - he'd just bolted. Next thing I know she's passed the fuck out on the ground. I'm... I'm not sure what happened. But I got out of there as fast as I could.

Cut to... A few hours ago, maybe longer. There was no telling how long Screech had been knocked out in the Heartwood nor how long it took him to do his coward's dance in to this place. He glanced at the dark girl as he considered things, finally calming down enough to focus on her and not bite her head off. Turns out the kid died. Her sisters thought I'd done something to her - hurt her, killed her - I obviously had nothing to do with it but they tracked me down, That was almost the truth! Wow, progress. Lets ignore that he'd had a bad dream and, like some idiot child, gone running out in to the middle of nowhere when a war was about to break out.

He shrugged and fell silent then, letting the words sink in. Did he need to say more? His face showed the result of their meeting - he wasn't even sure if the girl would have listened to all of that shit,but it felt strangely liberating to get it out in to the open.