HLM flashin' her claws.
HLM
flashin' her claws.
Note: The only character that isn't mine is Klork. He's owned by Erica Branum, so talk to her if you want to use him.
HLM sits cross-legged on the floor of her room in the haven she and her friend toiled so hard to build. Her gaze rests on the young man asleep in her bed, the old box of belongings in front of her forgotten. His soft purr never fails to ease her often troubled mind. A gentle smile plays over her lips as he rolls onto his side, long, dark hair fanned over the pillows, handsome face innocent in sleep. Her life has changed so much over the past five years...
Her adoptive mother, Mariko, and she had been driven from their home in New York City those five years ago by anti-mutant and white-supremacist groups. Mariko was a native Japanese woman, and she, herself, was close enough to being a mutant, her unique past notwithstanding. They'd both nearly been killed in a bombing, so her mother decided to move them both to Tokyo.
Despite the changes that ravaged her body that year, the girl did well that last year of high school. Her grades were excellent and she actually went on a few dates. Both she and her mother thought their lives were finally beginning to look up. The end of that year, though, brought those hopes crashing violently down.
It was the last day of school for her, and they were both getting ready for their respective days ahead. They were just finishing breakfast when the earth heaved beneath them, and the building they were living in crumbled with a great roar. Dust filled her nose and throat as a massive weight crushed her to the buckling floor. She felt herself falling with her surroundings before crashing to a halt. Pain exploded in her head and the world went black.
An unknown period of time later, she awoke to darkness and pressure on her chest. She looked around frantically for her mom at hearing her soft groan.
"Mama?"!" She whispered, voice harsh from the dust grating at her throat. She coughed weakly and craned her neck, catching sight of her mother's bloodied body. "Mom!" she rasped, pulling her hand free to reach for her mom's. Their fingertips barely brushed, but almond eyes still slit open at the light sensation.
"Ellie..." she whispered.
Green on black eyes widened. "Mama...mama...hold on...I...I'll get us out of here..."
She bit her lip and braced herself, crying out in agony as she hauled the chunks of rubble off of her mother, muscles snapping in her back, arms and legs, the blood flowing down her body freely from her wounds. At last, she knelt by her mom and gathered her into her arms. The older woman leaned her head on her daughter's shoulder, knowing she's not going to make it, but not having the heart to tell the young woman holding her.
HLM stumbled out of the wreckage and into the streets among the rest of the stunned victims.
"Help!" She cried in Japanese, voice desperate. "Somebody! Please!" Her ravaged voice escalated into sobbing screams. "HELP MY MOTHER!! PLEASE!! ANYONE!!"
Her knees gave out and the pavement came up to meet her as she fell. Somehow, she managed to stay upright, kneeling on the pavement, face ravaged with pain and fear, tears falling from her eyes. She laid her mother's lower body down, cradling her upper body in her arms.
"Ellie," the lovely, bloodied Japanese woman whispered, weakly reaching up to touch the sobbing girl's cheek. She smiled gently, lovingly as those frightened green on black eyes met her pained, dying gaze.
"Mama...?" the girl half-sobbed.
"Sweetie, shhh..." The woman reached up to place a shaking finger on the girl's trembling lips. "I love you, but...you know I'm not going to survive this." She swallowed at her daughter's short sob, her own voice taking a tremble to it. "Just," she whispered, feeling her life start to bleed away faster, "You're bound for something great...you'll fulfill our dream..."
"M...mom..."
She shook her head weakly, finding it harder and harder to breath. "Just...don't give up hope..." She smiled weakly, HLM's panicked face fading into darkness as she whispered with her dying breath, "I'm proud of you, Ellie...I...love...you..."
Tears fell from the young woman's wide, freakish eyes as she whispered in a devastated voice, "Mama.....please...no..." She pulled the still warm body of her mother, the only family she'd ever known, close, curling around her as she burst into devastated tears, pleading for this all to be a bad dream.
It wasn't a dream, though. In the year following the death of her mother, she did all she could to earn enough money to move back to the States. She lived in homeless shelters and on the street, worked two jobs during the day, both in bars, one as a bouncer, one as a tender, and sold her body at night. She'd sold as many of the belongings that remained as she could, and put the rest in storage, using a PO box as her address. Of course, she was very careful; she made sure all of her johns used condoms, steered clear of the police, drugs and dangerous people as much as possible. The dangerous people she couldn't avoid were killed and robbed of their money. It tore her up inside. She knew they had families and lives, but she also knew she had to survive to fulfill her mother's and her dream. The police she actually helped when she could, since they were never able to find anything on her, and she was able to smooth-talk her way out of all their questions. She knew they had their suspicions, but no proof. She hated that life, and was deeply ashamed of it -- of herself for living it. As soon as she could, she left it all behind, hoping never to have to deal with any of those aspects ever again.
Before she moved to the states, she made sure to have two jobs and an apartment lined up for herself. She'd thought they were both going to be tending jobs, but one ended up being at a strip joint, and as soon as the owners of that place saw her exotic good looks and majestic black wings that had sprouted from her back during that last year in Japan, they made her into a dancer.
A few weeks into the job, she was back-stage, getting ready to tend the bar, since one of the regular tenders had gotten arrested for possession and the higher ups couldn't get a replacement until tomorrow. Since she was the only one with the right skills in that night, she got to tend the bar. She was just tugging her stiletto knee high boots on when one of her co-workers walked in, a stunning ebon-skinned woman with braids down to her hips, dressed to do a show.
"You don't start tending for another half hour, right, HLM?" she asked with her Texas accented voice.
The red and black haired woman straitened, arching a brow. "Uhm...that's right, Jewel. What up?"
"Good. Everyone's pitching in to get a few pizzas from Ricardo's down the street. You wanna go pick 'em up?"
She blinked a little. "Uhm...that's a family place, ain't it?" She asked, folding her wings against her back and trying to tug the black leather mini-skirt down a little more.
"Yeah, so? You're the only one free...and the most modest of us."
She smirked and drew her wings into her body, making Jewel shudder at the strange sight, and sound of bones grinding and popping. HLM herself shuddered at the feeling before grabbing her leather jacket, swinging it on and zipping it up. "Compared to you guys, maybe." She slides on her shades and turns to look at her companion. "I look human enough?"
The taller woman crossed her arms and grinned wickedly. "Yeah, but you'll still get stared at."
HLM snickered, sliding the money and slip of paper Jewel gave her into her jacket pocket. "Heh...the burdens of being beautiful," she commented sarcastically.
Jewel smirked and followed her out of the dressing room. "Take care of yerself, Tokyo. It's mean out there."
"Don't I know it, Huston. I'll be back in about forty-five minutes."
"Ait." They exchanged waves before HLM headed out of the bar. She walked briskly down the sidewalk and into the pizza place, uncomfortable under the looks of customers and staff alike. With a soft sigh, she went up to the counter and looked at the guy behind the counter, pulling out the piece of paper from her jacket pocket.
"Hi, uhm, I'd like to order two large pizzas, please."
The kid blinked owlishly at her and stammered, "O...ok, what...what toppings would you like?"
She grinned a little at him. "Heh...lessee,"" she read off the paper, "one's the meatlovers' one and the other's...anchovy and broccoli?" She wrinkled her nose and looked at the kid. "Heh...someone must be pregnant at work..."
He just nodded after putting in the order, still shocked at this leather clad woman in front of him. "Uh...yeah. Um...to go?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Twenty-five sixty."
She counted out the money and handed it over, taking the number he gave her in return.
"Thanks..."
"They'll be done in about twenty minutes."
"Ok, thanks again..."
He nodded and she turned to find a place to wait. She grinned a bit self-consciously at the people looking at her. She was just wishing she could sink down into the floorboards when she spotted the bar section of the place. With an internal sigh of relief, she headed over to the bar section, leaning against the back wall, farthest from the bar itself, trying to blend in.
Not far from where she was standing was the bouncer. He was a very handsome man, about six one and well muscled. She couldn't help eying him up out of the corner of her eye. He wore his long, dark hair in a tail that fell a little past his waist, and his intelligent blue eyes flickered measuring over her. She knew what her clothing broadcasted to everyone in the place, despite the black leather jacket covering the barely there top she wore underneath. She smiled a little to the cute bouncer, and did her best to counter that message by trying to blend into the shadows, bringing as little attention to herself as possible. This proved to be an act in futility when a massive, hulking figure lumbered its way over, stumbling slightly with drunkenness. Freakish eyes narrowed slightly behind sunglasses as she vaguely recognized the man as a regular from both of her jobs and from a few times on the street.
"Hey!" he hollered, nearly falling all over the smaller woman, his alcohol laden breath eye-tearing in its concentration. "I...I know you!"
She smiled calmly, innocently at him. "Uhm...I think you must be mistaken..."
He shook his bald head, sweat flying in all directions, before grabbing her arm. "No...no! Yer that chick who works at the strip joint down that street! Where're yer wings?"
"Sir, please...I don't know what you're talking about," she lied smoothly, trying to get the huge hand off of her arm without causing even more of a scene. "You're hurting me. Let go."
His eyes went dark with anger. "Make me!"
Before she could unsheathe the twin claws from the backs of her wrists, the hand of the bouncer she noticed before gripped the large one painfully gripping her arm, and twisted it away. Her attacker yelled in surprise and went down to his knees at the sudden pain, looking up at the dark haired man in shock.
She rubbed her arm a little and watched her savior as he said in a foreboding voice, "It's time for you to leave, friend. I don't take kindly to guys forcing themselves on ladies on my watch."
"She ain't no la..." his eyes widened with fear when he saw the bouncer's eyes spark with electricity. "O...ok..." When he's set free, he all but ran out of the bar and into the streets.
The young man shook his head and turned to HLM. "Are you alright, miss? He didn't hurt you, did he?"
She smiled in relief at him. "I'm fine; he didn't hurt me. Thank you for helping..."
He grinned back and seemed to puff up a little, making her repress a soft chuckle. "Just doin' my job." He arched a brow. "That guy did seem to recognize you, though."
She cringed a little and nodded. "Yeah...that's 'cause he's a regular at both my jobs..."
He nodded a little, brow still arched slightly. They both looked up when her number was called.
"Heh...well...that's me. Thanks again for the assist," she told him with another smile. "Have a good evening."
He nodded. "Take care." He smirked a little, "Steer clear of that jerk."
She chuckled. "I'll do my best. You, too!" He grinned and watched as she got her pizzas and left the restaurant.
That night went relatively smoothly, if a bit busily. There was the usual amount of drunken advances and such, but the big guy from Richardo's never showed up. Nonetheless, she was tired as she finally slipped her leather jacket on and slung her bag over her shoulder.
"Long night."
She looked up at the voice of her Texan, gold clad friend, and nodded.
"Nah shit...I dunno which is harder, dancing or tending."
Jewel smirked and nodded. "Yeah, looked like you were swamped."
HLM nodded and covered a yawn with her hand. "Ugh...yeah...I'm beat."
"You want a ride?"
"Nah...two blocks ain't far..."
"Y'sure? That bastard might still be out there, an' yer handsome bouncer in shining armor won't be there to save you if something happens to you."
"Yeah, I'm sure," the black clad woman answered as she holds the door open for her co-worker and slid her shades on. "Anyway, I can take care of myself. Thanks anyway..."
"Well, alright...just be careful out there, child."
"Will do. Drive safe, k?"
Jewel nodded and waved just before driving off. HLM sighed softly as she headed down the quiet sidewalk, her healed boots clicking along as she walked, tired mind thinking itself in circles. Her exhaustion was so overwhelming that she didn't notice she was being followed until her stalker had dragged her into the alley and had her pinned against the wall by her throat, her shades flying off in the process.
"I knew it! You lied to me, bitch!" he growled as he slammed her hard against the wall, her head hitting the bricks with a sharp crack and dazing her even more.
"I knew I was gonna make you mine, mutie," he snarled as he ripped her small leather top and mini-skirt off her stunned body. "Looks like ya ain't givin' me a choice of how now." He got out a switchblade and sliced her thong off, nicking her skin as he did so. The sharp pain snapped her out of her daze and she started struggling again, letting out a strangled growl when he tightened his grip on her throat.
"Don't even think about making a scene," he snarled, as he forced her legs apart and shoved himself painfully into her. She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut against the pain and humiliation. She tried to ignore him tearing at her insides, mauling her outsides with his hands and his obscene, primal grunting. She suffered in silence until the opening she was waiting for presented itself.
When his grip on her relaxed shortly after he shot his unwanted seed deep into her, she was able to twist away, sharp claws bursting from the back of her hands. Pain, humiliation and exhaustion are all swept away by the surging flood of rage that swept over her bruised and battered body.
The man's self-satisfied smirk was torn off his face, replaced instead with a grimace of anger and horror, when he saw the terrifying green glow of his victim's eyes and the feral snarl on her face. He brought up his blade in a futile attempt to ward off her claws. Every slice he managed to place on her was returned threefold. She sliced at him with the strategy of a general planning an attack, disabling him by removing the non-essential parts of his body, starting with his phallus, finishing with his head. The last thing he heard through the haze of pain was her voice, transformed into a demonic snarl.
"I belong to no one, least of all you. Rot in hell, you rotten excuse for a mother-fuckin' human being!"
Eventually, she returned to her senses, and, though horrified at what had happened, managed to thrust her wings out of her back, manifest some clothing on and gather the pieces of her attacker together into a rather large bundle.
With a mighty thrust of her wings, she lifted herself and her burden into the desolate night sky. Desperation fueled her wing-beats as she searched for a place too relieve herself of what used to be a living, breathing human being. When she reached an isolated section of the Hudson, she swooped down, let the bundle fall, and watched as it was swept away into the current before turning and letting the winds carry her home, heart heavy and soul sick.
Six months later, she walked wearily down the sidewalk toward her small street level apartment after a long day at work. The short sleeved blouse she wore fell gracefully over her belly, swollen with child, wings folded neatly against her back. She found out she was pregnant when she missed her period a few weeks after the rape. She was even more devastated than before. Eventually, though, she accepted the fact that she was going to have a baby, and as the child grew physically inside her, it grew in her mind as a symbol of hope for the future, the only thing that kept her clinging to the few slender strands of sanity she had left. She'd quit her stripping job, and was working as a temp in an insurance office and in the back office of the Barstage, the mutant-friendly bar she tended before she got pregnant. She disliked office work, and temping felt too much like she was selling her body again. At any rate, she was only doing that until after the baby was born.
She was about to open the door to her apartment building when she was distracted by what seemed to be a hurricane in the alley by the building. She arched a brow when the homeless man who was living there bolted out of the alley, screaming something about a banshee flying out of thin air at him. After manifesting her bag inside and placing a hand protectively over her rounded tummy, she went to the ally to investigate. What she saw there caused her to freeze in surprise.
In the alley lay a young woman covered in blood and grime, vibrant greens and yellows peeking out from under the filth along her arms and shoulders, tousled red curls tumbling into her face. There was a huge gash running from the outside of her right knee to the inside of her thigh, stopping short of her crotch by maybe half an inch, if that, blood spilling from it onto the filthy pavement. She wore rags that might once have been a skirt and blouse. Her soft groan broke HLM's shocked reverie.
The pregnant woman hurried to the injured woman's side to kneel down, pressing a hand to the woman's hip to slow the blood.
"I'm going to call nine-one-one, miss. You need a doctor."
Frightened, yet determined bright green eyes met freakish neon green on black ones as the red-haired woman whispered, "No...no doctors."
The dark haired woman chewed her lip a little as she put a temporary bandage on the mysterious woman before helping her to her feet.
"Wh...what're you...?"
"I'm taking you to my place."
"I...ah...thanks..."
The dark haired woman nodded. "No problem." She bit her lip a little, recalling her constant loneliness, fear and impending insanity, pressing always in on her. "I could use the company. Uhm," she opened the door, helping the other woman through, "I'm HLM..."
"It's an honor...I'm Diana."
Over the next month, the two women became very close, closer than most sisters get. They prepared for the upcoming birth of the baby, due date only two months away, and started plans for a place to build for mutants and outcasts that would be safe from those who would persecute them. They shared as much about their pasts as they could, which obviously couldn't be everything. Diana got a job as a tattoo artist, and had started teaching at a local Aikido dojo. She just came home from work when she found HLM in the kitchen, hand on her belly, face strained with discomfort. There's shattered glass on the floor, mixed in with what looked to be orange juice.
Diana dropped her bag on the kitchen/dining room table, bought at a Salvation Army Store, as she headed over to her friend to rest a gentle hand on her shoulder.
HLM's frightened eyes looked at her, the young woman's skin gleaming with a cold sweat.
"HLM? What's wrong?"
The winged woman swallowed, squeezed her eyes shut briefly, before opening them again and looking at her friend.
"D...Diana...something's going on with the baby...I...I think I'm in labor..."
Bright green eyes widened, and she stood for a moment in panicked silence before forcing herself out of it.
"Oh! Oh damn..." Diana rushed out of the kitchen, packed a bag quickly for HLM and picked up the phone to call a cab after she got her friend to sit down.
When they finally got to St. Patrick's, the only mutant hospital in town, they found out that HLM had indeed gone into premature labor, because of her strange physiology, and their depressingly limited technological resources, there was nothing they could do to delay the birth.
For two days, the pains got worse and worse, and eventually, she started pushing. After several hours of pushing, the exhausted woman's body began to give out, and the baby's heartbeat, strong up to that moment, started to falter.
At that point, the doctors finally decided to do a C-section, knowing that was the only option left. Diana paced outside the OR, her bandaged, broken hand the last thing on her mind, while HLM was being prepped for the surgery.
A nurse comfortingly stroked the top of the exhausted woman's head. "Don't worry, Miss Lee," he said softly, knowing the frightened young woman, barely nineteen, would have to endure this without pain-killers. They found out early on that nothing got rid of the torment. "Soon you'll have your baby in your arms, and everything will be ok."
HLM could only close her eyes, nod and pray to whatever gods there were that both she and her baby would be alright. She gripped the tick rolls of fabric that were placed into her hands, the powerful muscles in her forearms sticking out, and strangled the pained cry that came to her throat when they first slit her open. She sobbed quietly at the agony they inflicted upon her as they removed the baby and placenta from her womb as gently and quickly as they could.
"You have a daughter, Miss Lee," one of the doctors said as he held the tiny infant up for her to see for a fraction of a second. She was beautiful. Although she was covered with birthing fluids and her mother's blood, HLM could see her little face was that of an angel, her tiny hands and feet perfectly formed.
HLM longed to hold her child close, to feel her suckling at her breast. She couldn't understand why she wasn't allowed to do that; why the perfect little person wouldn't cry. Why won't she cry...?
As they closed her up, she looked desperately at the nurse, sensing something horribly, horribly wrong.
"M...my baby...?"
The nurse looked at her with sad lavender eyes. "They're working on her, Miss Lee..."
"Working on her...? Why would they..."
Her heart broke as the furious action around the infant stopped and the doctor, a different one than the one who showed her the baby, came over to kneel by her and look into her eyes, her own slit-pupiled orbs sad.
"Miss Lee..." she started softly, "your baby didn't make it." She wiped the tears from the young mother's cheeks.
"Can...can I hold her...? I...I know it won't help her...but..."
She nodded and got up, coming back with the still little body in her arms. She gently handed the bundle to HLM and backed off to do what paperwork she could.
The young woman let out a sob as she held her dead child close. The little girl was barely two pounds, her soft skin wrinkled and red. The sobbing woman stroked the velvety red-blond hair on the top of the infant's head and kissed the little face, so still in death.
Diana was allowed to come in then, and she knelt by HLM who still held the quiet infant.
"My friend..." she whispered, tears streaming down her own face, "I'm so sorry..."
HLM nodded a little, holding the tiny infant close, crying hopelessly, soundlessly, into Diana's shoulder, the room gravely silent with grief.
She can't believe that was three years ago now. She and Diana had turned all that grief, pain and anger into determined energy put towards putting together the asylum, haven, that they live in now. With a soft sigh, she wipes the dampness from her eyes and cheeks with the heals of her hands. She lifts the old box and puts it back into her closet, turning out the lights as she goes by the switch.
Sitting on the bed next to the young man, she looks down at him and strokes his cheek gently, smiling when his purr increases its volume. He yawns and stretches sleepily, beautiful blue eyes blinking open to look at her groggily.
"Mo'?" he asks in a soft voice as he wraps his arms around her, pulling her close. "You ok? Looks like you've been crying..."
"I'm ok, Klork," she answers just as softly, snuggling close and kissing him. "Was just thinkin'..."
"'Bout what?"
"Nothing important," she yawns a little, "just the past..."
"Wanna talk 'bout it...?"
"Nah...maybe in the morning." she rests an arm over him, chuckling softly at his blink.
"Ok...g'night..." He curls around her, his purring soothing her even more.
"Sweet dreams..."
Soon, she nods off, heart light for the first time in a long time, knowing for that, for once, her future now holds brightness, the past having made her stronger, the present giving her hope and joy.
~Finé~
