#para33

Puck was pretty excited. His dad and Judy were going away for the weekend again. He hadn’t heard anything about Quinn having plans, but after their trip to Savannah, all he wanted was more time alone with her. He’d never been happier to have such un-involved parents. It was weird. He’d never felt the way he did about anybody before. And then Quinn comes along and suddenly he’s not interested in having sex with anyone else. Maybe it’s the fact that he promised her he wouldn’t sleep with Kitty, and in not sleeping with Kitty, he realized that there was more to life than just sex, and other things to do. The more he thought about it, though, the more he started to realize the truth, and he refused to accept it.

The sun was going down and he had just ordered pizza for the two of them, figuring the least they could do was eat and watch a movie or something. There were a couple parties going on around town, since school was starting back up on Monday. He wasn’t interested, though. And the fact that he didn’t find Quinn hogging the bathroom mirror told him that she wasn’t either. Hopefully she had the same thing on her mind that he did. The doorbell rang through the house and Puck was quick to grab his cash and head downstairs, ready to pay the pizza guy. But much to his disappointment, Finn was on the other side of the door. “Oh. Hey,” he mumbled, stepping aside. He must have been here to see Quinn.

“Don’t look so disappointed to see me, bro,” Finn laughed and stepped inside, taking off his jacket and shoes. It was a new rule that Judy had implemented. Since they didn’t have a housekeeper and she didn’t have the time to be sweeping and mopping up dirt from people’s shoes all the time. “Sorry. Thought you were the pizza I ordered,” Puck sighed and closed the door, “I’m guessing you’re here for Quinn?”

The days past by had become lost on Gwen. Had it been weeks since she had been taken? Or perhaps time had even stretched as far on as months. Wondering if there was any sort of news of her disappearance, mostly for the fact that she was still stuck under the guard of Kingpin and his men, as each day passed she lost that much more hope. Doing what she could in order to stay alive, looking for an escape at every turn, she had to hand it to Kingpin, he knew how to keep things in order, right where he wanted them. Wondering what the main goal was in all of this, she'd listened in on as many conversations as she could, and through her placement that hadn't been hard. It was obvious that this had to do with her involvement with Spider-Man, but what would come of it? Threats constantly wavered over her head, and yet they were never acted upon. It was this that rose more suspicion to Gwen, as of now she seemed to be nothing more than a pet.

It was sick what had become of her , an object to gawk upon. It was there that the threats came in. Not only was there the fact that she was involved with Spider-Man, someone who'd played a part in putting some of these men behind bars for a time, members of their families as well, but it was the fact that she was a Stacy as well - her father having played a part in putting his share of New York's least desirable away as well. Something about tonight, however, would be different than prior experiences yet.

Best friend was coming. After far too long of being apart from Colleen, she was finally coming into town. They were both probably rather exhausted after a long gameday, but none of that mattered. All football things aside, best friend was going to be there very soon and Kris couldn't have been more excited. The guest room was ready, the dogs were bathed, everything was in order for Colleen's impending arrival to the new Morgan household. It was a lot smaller than their home in Los Angeles, but that didn't matter at all. It was still home and best friend was still coming to visit. Becca was in the kitchen cooking up tacos and Kris was anxiously awaiting the time she was meant to pick her best friend up at the airport. 

When the text came that they were just touching down, Kris hopped up from the couch and sprinted into the kitchen, the dogs excitedly following along. Mom was excited, so they were excited to. Kissing Bec and saying her goodbye quickly, Kris left from the apartment and headed down to her car. Her eyes flickered to the side of the apartment building where a strange dark car was parked, but she paid it little mind as she hopped into the front seat and tore out of the parking lot to get to the airport. Her eyes flicked up at the rearview mirror a few times, a slightly confused expression on her face when she saw the same dark car following along behind her. That didn't seem right. Slightly more on edge, Kris tried to shove the feeling aside as she pulled into the parking lot of the airport. 

Grabbing the giant stuffed Bruin she had gotten for Colleen, Kris hopped out of the car with an easy smile, more than ready to go pick up best friend. However, she didn't make it more than a few steps until she was stopped in her tracks. The black car that had been following her was pulled in near her and hanging out of the driver's side was her grandfather. Frozen, Kris could do nothing more than stare nervously as he slid out of the seat and started walking towards her. The man was just as she remembered. Big, intimidating, and with not a shred of friendly feeling to him in the least. 

Time heals all wounds. At least, that was what everyone seemed to tell her, but Ari wasn't so certain she believed that anymore. The longer she thought about what had happened, the worse she seemed to feel about it all. Her father was dead, she was still hurt, and despite what she had managed to accomplish in her mission, the Obscura threat was worsening with each day. Without the full mobility of her dominant arm, Ari felt useless. There was still a lot she could do, certainly, but it didn't feel like it. The brace enveloping her shoulder made her feel constricted, a suffocating thought for someone like Ari. She wanted to move, to do something, to fight back against everything she was feeling, but she couldn't.

In Ari's situation, time was simply exacerbating the wounds and making them all the worse, a slow poison in her mind. The feelings of guilt had infected her every thought, making it nigh impossible to escape. No matter what Ari seemed to do, the thoughts were consistently there at the back of her head, festering and dragging her down with every passing second. Time wasn't healing anything and Ari was starting to question if it ever could. It didn't matter what she tried to do, everything ended up the same- a failed attempt to fix everything that was broken. Her arm would be fine, but Ari wasn't so sure if she would be. Whatever it was she needed to snap out of the current funk she was in just wasn't happening and she was starting to get quite perturbed by it.

On a normal day, Ari was already aggressively irritable, but those feelings were simply enhanced by the state of things, as well as the approaching full moon. With every passing day, the full moon was drawing nearing. Ari grew sicker from it's effects, but also angrier. If there was any overwhelming feeling in her at the moment, it was anger. Anger over her father's death, anger over her shoulder, but most of all, anger over the Obscura and everything they had done and were threatening to do to the remaining shreds of her life. They'd taken almost everything from her as it was, so she certainly didn't like the sinking feeling that they could just as easily finish the job.

Letting out a shaky breath, Ari gripped onto the side of her desk as her body started to shake again. The anger was taking over once more, Ari could feel it's effects seeping through her, and there was little she could do about it. She tried to calm herself down, she always did, but nothing seemed to work for her anymore. Not now, with the full moon looming ever closer. She was bound captive to the whims of the moon, the intensity of her feelings varying with the onset of the darkness each night. No matter how much Ari liked to think she was a free person, able to do as she pleased, she would forever remain bound to the moon and damage it wrought through her body day in and day out.

Despite her attempts to calm down and continue working, the rage building up inside her was starting to take over completely, rendering Ari completely incapable of functioning. Clenching her hand into a fist, Ari shoved her desk back away from her, shaking her head in her best attempt to clear it. Breathing out again, Ari was still unable to focus on anything, her mind a jumbled mess of emotions and thoughts. Sliding backwards in her chair with a loud clatter, Ari stalked out of her room, her three dogs trooping after her with concerned interest.

Howard paused, his head drooping when he realized that his human wasn't okay at all. Putting his nose down, Howard pushed Nutmeg back away from Ari, making sure the tiny pup didn't try to bother the human. The three dogs watched, their eyes growing with sadness when Ari left from the room, the door slamming behind her. Howard ushered the other two back into the bedroom, nosing at them lightly to head back in to the bed. Obviously, they had to keep their human's bed warm to make sure she was happy upon her return.

Without any destination in mind, Ari left from the castle in a daze, paying attention to nothing more than her feet moving one after the other, taking her away from her office. Keeping to the trend of the last few weeks, Ari found herself out by the lake again. It was the one place in the castle where she felt most at home. There weren't any people around, just the calmness of the lake expanding in her field of view. The small ripples battering against the shoreline in a rhythmic fashion tended to help Ari relax some, but for whatever reason it just wasn't helping that day. Though they calmed her minimally, she couldn't seem to put a cap on the rage coursing through her.

A low growl in her throat, Ari ripped at the brace around her shoulder, shredding it and ripping it from her arm, and letting her arm fall free. It was healing well, now capable of large movements, but the finer touches were still lost to her as it continued to slowly repair itself from the trauma she had endured. However, none of that mattered right now to Ari. She didn't want the restriction of the brace, she didn't want to feel suffocated. For a little while, she wanted to feel normal. Well, as normal as the situation would allow.

Balling her hands up into fists, Ari was blinded by the increasing anger as she started to pound her fists into the tree next to her. Every punch with her right arm sent intense, shooting pains up her arm, unsettling the healing process with each blow. Both of her fists started to tear up, the skin being ripped away from her knuckles as they dragged across the rough surface of the tree bark. Blood started to pool within the grooves of the tree, her efforts weakening more and more with every passing moment.