赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“Ashleigh…” Penelope whispered, quickly wiping her eyes. She got to her feet as best she could, but the injury to her leg was still tender.

“What did you do, Penelope?” Ashleigh growled, moving closer.

Penelope's breath caught in her throat, she tried to swallow down the nerves and respond, but her voice was gone.

Ashleigh closed the distance between them and rushed the other woman to the wall, pushing the remaining air out of her chest.

Penelope gasped for air.

“What did you do!” Ashleigh snarled angrily, her eyes glowing brightly.

“Nothing!” Penelope shouted back. “I did nothing!”

Ashleigh growled, unsatisfied with the answer.

“He was all alone!” Penelope continued, tears streaming down her face in a torrent of fear and anguish. “I should have kept a better eye on the field, I should have been looking up instead of looking at him!”

She sobbed uncontrollably.

“I worked so hard to keep myself focused! I should have seen the attack, I should have felt the weakness in the branch!” she cried out, her heart beating painfully in her chest. “But my eyes… they just kept falling back to him…. So I didn't see the attack. By the time I realized… I couldn't help him… instead, I just made it worse for him.”

Ashleigh felt the angry tide in her heart pulling away, the light that shone blinding bright began to fade. She let go of Penelope, who slumped down to the ground and hugged her knees.

“Help who?” Ashleigh asked.

Penelope sniffled and pressed her forehead to her knees as the pain in her chest only grew heavier.

“Mateas,” she whispered.

Ashleigh looked down at the young girl and suddenly understood her mistake. She took a deep breath and pushed it out slowly before sitting down beside her.

“Hey…” Ashleigh whispered.

Penelope glanced at her but didn't lift her head.

“I'm sorry,” Ashleigh smiled. “I didn't mean to scare you…. I just… misunderstood.”

Penelope nodded and turned away.

“What did you mean?” Ashleigh asked. “When you said, ‘this wasn't supposed to happen'? What wasn't supposed to happen.”

Penelope lifted her head, resting her chin on her knees. She sniffled and then took a deep breath.

“Caring about people,” she replied quietly. “I wasn't supposed to develop feelings for anyone. Just do my job and prove myself. That's it. No useless attachments.”

She sighed.

“Sounds lonely,” Ashleigh smiled, nudging Penelope.

“But safe.”

“What do you mean?” Ashleigh asked.

Penelope looked away.

“I'm fully aware of all that my brother did,” she said. “To you, to your family…. To those other packs.”

Ashleigh looked down, unsure what she could say in this moment.

“He was a monster, he did horrible, terrible things. And in the end, he didn't even feel any remorse about it. All because he became obsessed with his attachment to one person,” Penelope said.

“What does that have to do with you, Penny?” Ashleigh asked.

“He wasn't always like that, Ashleigh.”

“I know,” Ashleigh replied. “There's a reason it was so hard for me to realize that something inside of him had changed.”

“It wasn't just you he fooled,” Penelope replied.

Ashleigh looked at Penelope.

“He tricked us all,” she sighed. “He made us all believe we were either wrong or crazy for doubting him. So, every glimpse of the monster became a doubt in our own minds.”

Ashleigh swallowed and nodded. She knew others felt betrayed by Granger, but she hadn't realized they would also carry the guilt of not recognizing the danger he had become.

She shook her head, trying to push back the memories of him that made their way forward.

“What does this have to do with you not growing attached to people?” Ashleigh asked.

“Because if I don't grow attached, if I don't care about anyone beyond being packmates, I won't hurt them.”

Ashleigh furrowed her brow and looked carefully at Penelope.

“Do you think you will end up like Granger?” Ashleigh asked.

Penelope hid her eyes, but she nodded.

“Penny…” Ashleigh sighed in disbelief. “You are nothing like him….”

“Yea, but we both already admitted he wasn't always a monster!” Penelope replied with a soft sob.

“That's true,” Ashleigh replied. “But, Pen, he didn't become a monster because he loved me…there was something dark inside of him. Something twisted and broken. The mate bond may have been the thing that made him understand it, but it was his choice to embrace that darkness and hurt the people that cared about him.”

Ashleigh reached her hand out to Penelope's chin and pulled her gently to look back at her.

“That's not you,” she smiled. “Even by trying not to care in order to protect others, you prove that.”

“I made it worse,” Penelope sighed. “I tried not to care about them, but now they are all missing, all alone, and I didn't do anything to help them. I just made it worse.”

Ashleigh put her arm around Penelope's shoulder and pulled her close.

“I'm sure they will be fine,” Ashleigh said quietly.

There was a sound that drew her attention to the hallway. Shouting and running feet. She saw three people running by toward the exit down the hall.

“Bring a gurney! Quick!”

“Call emergency services! We'll need them ready!”

Penelope sat up, and Ashleigh got to her feet, hurrying to the door.

She looked down the hall, two nurses were waiting at the door for the third who wheeled a gurney toward them. A fourth was running by, but Ashleigh grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“What's happening?” she asked.

“There's been an emergency!” he said, pulling away, he added. “All we know is that there are severe injuries, and at least one dead body!”

Had there been an attack? Were there more injured to come? No, an attack would have set off the alarms, the cold warriors would have been called to action. This was something else.

She looked back at Penelope.

Could it be the scouts? Had they returned?

Ashleigh felt the weight in her chest growing and spreading into her stomach. The air around her grew thin and her heart thumped loudly in her ears.

“A dead body…” she whispered.