Prompt 080

Title: Lycan Tales
Genre: drama, suspense, fantasy
Characters: Caine, old man, Marshal, psych patients/orderlies, Jonathon
Prompt: 080. Years
Word Count: 1925
Rating: R
Type: Series
Summary: Insanity or self-preservation?
Warnings: Some Violence and language


He ached. Caine slowly resurfaced from dark recesses of a dreamless sleep. Wincing he went to scratch an itch at the end of his nose and almost knocked himself out again when plaster met flesh. Blinking he stared down at the cast on his left arm and suddenly everything crystallized in his ten year old mind.

His dad was dead.

Tears burned his eyes and he took a deep, shuddering breath to try and prevent them from falling. His dad wouldn’t want him to cry but, his dad wasn’t here so he would never know. Burying his face into the cushions he let them soak up the torrent of tears that flowed freely as he cried silently. His body stilled when he heard the sound of a sliding door. Quickly he positioned himself as he had been before and tried to calm his breathing. He still didn’t know where he was or who had him. For all he knew his Uncle Ethan could be staring at him now. Slowly, carefully, he opened his eyes slightly when he heard voices.

“Look old man, you called me frantic because you hit the kid. All I did was patch him up. What you do with him is up to you. I can’t get involved in whatever you were doing. I’m trying to get through medical school and they kind of frown on doing outside work. Take him to the clinic.”
“How am I going to explain him?”
“Tell the truth. That he ran out in front of your car and you couldn’t stop.” Caine watched the younger man lean down and take a whiff of the older man. He quickly stepped back. “You might want to sober up first otherwise you’ll be charge with a DUI instead.”
“Marshal, can’t you take him to the hospital for me?” he whined before he stumbled and hit the wall. He tried to right himself but he ended up leaning hard against Marshal.

Caine watched as Marshal shoved him away from him before heading toward the door. “No, I can’t drop him off. I have a date and I’m in the Mercedes. The last thing I want to do is get blood in it. Look, the kid is still asleep. When he wakes up tell him that there was an accident and you saved him. I’m sure he’ll be grateful as will his parents and everyone will be happy.”
“I don’t know Marshal. When I was putting him in the back of the car I could hear this loud commotion in the forest. It sounded like…dogs or something. They were barking and howling and there was this tearing sound.”
“Maybe they caught a rabbit or something,” Marshal said with a shrug. “Find out where the kid lives and just drop him off.”
The door slammed behind him and the older man winced before rubbing his forehead. “Stupid boy! Think he’s so high and mighty ‘cause he’s some kinda doctor. Think he knows better than his ol’ man. Shithead. I oughta-”
His drunken rambling was interrupted by the sound of vomiting. Caine squeezed his eyes closed and started to roll over but stopped when his body protested. Swallowing a groan he stared at the ceiling. He continued to stare even when he heard the old man come stumbling from the bathroom.
“Hey kid? You awake?” Caine let the silence stretch out and he was just about to check and see if the man might have fallen asleep when he heard him grunt.
“Didn’t mean to run ya down. But you were runnin’ mighty fast. What were ya runnin' from huh? Huh?” The man grunted again before he walked into a room and shut the door.

Caine must have dozed but he woke when his stomach rumbled loudly. Swinging his legs from the couch he stretched and was amazed that his body was healing so rapidly. He still felt a few twinges but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before. Deciding to keep the light off, he didn't want to wake up the old man, he started to head toward the fridge but the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly rose when he heard another rumble…and this time it wasn’t from his stomach. Swallowing, he licked suddenly dry lips before slowly turning his gaze to the left. He could make out the shape of a wolf running full tilt toward the sliding door.

Spinining on his heels he started to run toward the door as he heard glass shatter behind him. He could feel the vibrations of its paws hitting the ground and the sound of breathing. And then he could feel its breath on the back of his neck as huge paws hit his shoulder blades and sent him sliding across the carpet.

He felt the heat from its large body as it crouched over him and growled low in its throat. Caine tried to crawl away but paw slapped against the small of his back and the growl grew louder and suddenly, to his amazement, he could understand what he was saying. His dad had told him about it but he had never experienced it.
Silly pup, he rumbled. Did you really think that you were going to get away from me? The voice was male and a strange chuffing sound came from over his head. Caine stiffened. He was laughing at him.
Your father, the almighty alpha, fell. Did you really think that we weren’t going to hunt you down and do to you what we did to your father? He thought his line was so powerful. He thought you all were better than us ‘normal’ werewolves because you could change into the something beyond a werewolf. Well, that didn’t seem to help your father did it?
“My father was the best alpha this pack has seen. Ask anyone,” Caine exclaimed then winced when a paw slapped against his face and claws dug into his cheeks.
What good is a dead alpha? No matter, as soon as we rid ourselves of you Ethan will take his place as alpha and I will be his beta.
Later, Caine swore he blacked out. He didn’t remember what happened. He just suddenly felt a ball of anger so large that it blinded him.



“What’s going on?” the old man slurred as he opened the door to his bedroom. “I thought I heard something br-….what the fuck??”

Ten Years Later
“Are we going to take our pills today Caine?”
Caine stared balefully at the orderlie grinning at him from between the bars. His eyes flicked briefly to the girl making faces behind her before he turned his attention back to the ceiling.
“Are we going to fuck off today?” he asked her in the same cheery voice she had spoken to him.
“Well, I’ll take that as a no. You should come out today Caine and socialize.” She waited to see if he would say something but when he didn’t she sighed and went to go make more rounds.

Caine looked away from the ceiling once she walked away. He hated this place but at the same time this was his home. He had been here ever since the old man had dropped him off that morning with nothing more than the clothes on his back. His file said that the old man had come out of his room to see him standing in a pool of blood and the battered body of a large dog was at his feet. He had been mumbling something about murder, alphas and werewolves and then he had curled into a ball and started to sob uncontrollable and then…nothing. He had just been a blank slate. His file said that that there had apparently been some tramua that he wanted to forget about. He remembered it now. Caine just didn’t want to talk about it.

“Caine, Caine, Caine.”
Heaving a sigh he got off the bed and walked toward the door were Crayola stood making faces at him. Crayola wasn’t her real name of course but that’s what she remind him of with her mismatch of make-up.
“What?” he growled.
“Come out!”
“Go bother someone else,” he snapped. She shrugged and raced off.

Shaking his head Caine headed out of his room and walked downstairs. The room fell quiet when he entered as everyone turned to stare at him before they hastily looked away. He saw that Crayola had went to mess with some other people and they didn’t look very pleased to have their game interrupted. Smiling he walked over to the window and stared out. He could feel the new orderlie looking at him.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said calmly. “You might intimidate all the others here but I don’t give a shit that you used to work at a maximum security prison. You ain’t there now so fuck off.” The orderlie looked away without a word and Caine headed toward a card table.
“Hey Flameboy, wanna play some cards?” His low rumble cut through the chatter and reached the person he was talking to.

“Why do you call me that?”
Dealing out the cards Caine shrugged. “Your entire family died in a fire and all you do is sit around staring into the fake fireplace. I have nicknames for everyone here.”

He nodded toward the other table. “You see Curly over there? Has some kind of hair phobia. He can’t stand hair on his body so he spends hours checking himself for body hair. Crayola there wears a ton of make-up to hide the sins. Apparently she did something , no one knows what, but when she starts feeling guilty she’ll pile on the make-up. I haven’ figured out the new chick yet. Give me time.”
They played a few hands before Flameboy cleared his throat. “What about you? What are you-”

“Wrong question. Game over.”

He walked out of the room only to hear Flameboy yelling at Curly ‘to get off the fucking table!’ Grinning he headed toward the kitchen but stopped when he heard low whispering. Looking he realized it was the new orderlie. There was something about her that made him uneasy. At odd times he would find her staring at him. Crouching down he listened to her conversation.

“I think I’ve found him alpha. Yes, he does look sickly. No, it won’t be a problem to slip him the same drug that you gave his father. I have it on me. Yes sir, I can do it tonight.”
Shit! This place was no longer safe. It was time for him to go. He knew it was only a matter of time before Ethan found him. He had thought it would be sooner than this but…he shrugged and then backtracking came out of the room whistling. The orderlie smiled at him.
“Hello Caine.”
“Hello.” Bitch. Literally.

Caine had never anyone guide him through the process of changing. Luckily his first change had occurred late at night when everyone was asleep. The first change was the hardest and was the only one that was uncontrollable. His dad had always wanted to share that experience with him. Shaking his head he got up from the bed. There was a flash of light, like a light bulb popping and then a large wolf slipped out from the room.
He could have left at any time but now he HAD to leave. And he was going to the emergency place he and his dad had always talked about.

Hopefully it was still there.