WiJ 2022 - 13: Share a Sneak Peek of Something You're Working On
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A snippet of a chapter of Shifting Phases ;) I may've already sent this snippet to a few people, but I've changed a lot and it was a long while ago (and it was possibly in fragments), but it's still one of my favourite portions, and I would love to share it with others who may not have seen it yet.
The red sections are bits I'm still uncrinkling so, gl with that.
I'll def be getting day 12's prompt out at some point soon, but definitely before the end of the month lmao, it's just, taking a bit bc of the way my brain insists on doing it (read: trying to do the 2 most tricky parts at the same time)
CONTENT and WARNINGS: Non-human whumpee, mer/shifter whumpee, (school) bullying mention (all characters 18+), mild concussion/head injury, dehumanisation/animalisation, treatment of whumpee like property, rejection, needles (belunae-specific tranquiliser dart, fear and paralysis more than anything), drugging.
This one goes a bit hard on the emotional shit, so, hell yeah. This shit was fuckin harsh.
wc: ~1.2k
With a sudden jerk, the van came to a stop.
The drive itself had been mere minutes. At least, to Pete’s hazy mind, it felt that way. The gentle hills that rolled his limp body were much like those of the road that he rode to school, and as if his mind sensed his desire to be elsewhere, he saw the flower filled moors. They were beautiful in the summertime, filled with bright green grass and vivid heather blossoms. He could feel the fresh breeze run its cool fingers through his hair, taking his worries away.
For a time, he could live without a care in the world.
A sharp pull on his cuffed wrists brought Pete back to the surface, back to reality. The summer had faded, replaced by the cold floor of the van, and the hushed chatter of the hunters. They pulled again, harder, but to no avail—the way they’d dragged him in made it difficult to get him out again, since their hands found no purchase on the slippery scales that covered his tail.
His eyes focused a little, and he could only just make out their hazy silhouettes, but one’s strained, irritated tones were clear; “How heavy is this thing?”
“Get Nelson to drag it if you morons are too weak,” came the venomous, silken voice of the blond hunter. He seemed like the leader… He barked, “NELSON!”
There came a flurry of footsteps, and this time, a strong set of hands lifted Pete from the floor of the van and set roughly on the cobbled street. The warm lamplight was harsh on his eyes, and he blinked a few times before he could make out the familiar building beyond the small garden in front of them.
A small set of stairs led up to the door of a terrace…
His terrace.
Home.
The leader strode to the door, “Bring it up,” he said.
In seconds, the hunters were on him again. They grasped him by his coat shoulders and hauled him up the steps with strained grunts, keeping him there, dangling in the air with nothing to hold himself up.
Pete squirmed and twisted sharply. With his bound, webbed hands, he grabbed sleeve, earning himself a slightly repulsed look.
“N-n-nno, no, no pl-please,” he begged, “don’t—d-don’t do this, leave h-her out of this ple—"
A sharp slap cut his please short. “Shut it, belunae,” the leader snarled, before turning to rap harshly on the door.
Pete’s long, pointed ears drooped with dread, and he released the hunter’s sleeve, balling up his hands and weakly cowering, shielding his ears in one last feeble attempt to hide what he was.
It wouldn’t matter in a few minutes.
The door clicked open, releasing a gush of warm air into the night. In the doorway stood ma.
“Where’ve you b—” she started before yelping when the weaker two hunters tossed Pete to her feet. He connected hard with the unyielding stone doorstep, landing on bruised and broken ribs, the impact drawing a thin cry of pain from tight lungs.
“Your son,” Johnstone said with pause.
The hunters stood over Pete’s long form effectively, trapping him with the unspoken threat of trampling him.
Without so much as a glance at the strangers on her threshold, Kate dropped to her knees, tears stinging her eyes.
“Pete! What—what on earth happened to you, oh—” she said, tenderly wiping away the blood and grime from the cut on his head, “they hurt you bad didn’t they, Burton and his friends, it was them, wasn’t it, it always is… You never tell me anything anymore…” she stated sadly tilting his head up.
One hand cupped Pete’s cheek while the other worked its way through his hair, and her searching gaze through his tear-filled eyes.
He couldn’t stop a hiccupping sob escaping. Her hands were so gentle over his scalp, checking for more grazes. He wanted to close his eyes, to lean into his ma’s touch and cry his worries away and be held in her arms, like she used to when he was young, but he knew he couldn’t have that. Not when her hand reached his, and her expression changed from sadness to one of horrified confusion.
She pried his chilly hands from his hair, thumbing the cold metal cuffs that encircled his wrists. “Pete...?” she said in a quiet, high voice, “What are those? Are—are they cuffs…?!”
Tears finally spilled down his cheeks.
“’m s’rry ma,” he sobbed, unfurling his arms and desperately trying to worm forward to safety.
She watched, sickened by the sight of Pete’s webbed hands, reaching for her, the doorframe—anything to get him away from the hunters.
“Ma—Ma pl-pl-please, I’m s-s-s-sso sorry—I—I n-need help, help—” he choked, “please let-t go, let me go ple—”
An indistinct glimmer caught Kate’s eye. In the dim lamplight, she caught glimpses of the strange, inhuman movement of her son’s—the belunae’s—long body as he—it—squirmed forward, reaching for her hand.
“Ma, help, ‘m s’rry,” he whimpered between sobs, “I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
She swatted Pete’s arm away with a frightened, disgusted yell, and the leader caught his hand under the tread of his boot. He knelt, and grabbed a fistful of ratty auburn hair, and slammed the side of his head into the ground.
Pete cried out, he writhed with panic and tried to get up, but his efforts were swiftly quelled by the other two hunters that dropped and pinned his hips and tail.
“Katelyn Spencer,” he said, “your son is a dangerous belunae that we have just apprehended. Based on your familial relations, we are also taking you into our custody—”
“That,” she hissed, “is not my son.”
A strange hush fell over the hunters.
“Wh—…M-Ma..?” Pete stammered, shock staying his tears. “I—I d-don’t und-derstand—"
“Don’t dare call me that ever again. You’re a lying monster, you USED me! Now GET OUT!”
Pete cried out again. His heart splintered. Fear, confusion, and pain wound a tight knot in his stomach, making him nauseous, terrified, and distraught all at the same time. He twisted and struggled hard against the hunters, adrenaline filling his body, and tears streamed down his cheeks,
“N-no PLEASE—” he sobbed.
“OUT!”
. The leader growled at him, “Quit your pathetic whining, it’ll get you nowhere.
“Please—please… pl... plea… nn…”
The terror in Pete’s eyes dulled, and he fell slack in their arms as the effects of the art settled in. When the door slammed, but Pete didn’t flinch, even though it shook him to the core.
“That’s… that’s just cruel, man, and that’s coming from a hunter,” said.
“Hm,” the leader hummed, “it’s a shame that woman is not its birth mother… no matter,” he chuckled. “One of this rarity is more than enough to force that moron DePetro’s hand. That pitiful excuse for a man has already made himself reliant on us. It’s pathetic, really,” he spoke the name as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
With a dismissing wave, he said, “Greene, Elmer. Take it to back to the van and strip it. Clothes look ridiculous on a demon like that. It won’t be needing them.”
“Sir,” they said in unison.
Taglist:
@whumpmasinjuly
@dang-i-like-whump
@whump-cravings
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