FA+
Shop
325
Views
Views
3
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Story / Fantasy
Species Canine (Other)
Size 50 x 50
File Size 23.1 kB
Report this content
More from Alphaleader
Listed in Folders
Before the Enforcers-Velvet Arrow Year One Part 1
By Alphaleader
Been working on this story since 2016. Posted the first chapter and saved it along with the rest, until my USB got corrupted. Thankfully I had a few drafts still saved on my computer. That was a lot of time lost, but I'm back now, and here to try and bring the story of my Crimson Archer back to the spotlight.
Do feel free to critique my work. Any helpful advice is welcomed.
==============================================================================================================
Early morning in Hedgeshore, Los Angeles, CA.
“18 years ago in Luxury Hills.”
On a hillside sat a mansion overlooking the City, a normal morning routine was taking place on the driveway’s path as a White SUV was driving passed the automatic gates and followed the road leading out towards the city. Inside the vehicle’s driver seat was a tall male border collie with faint yellow mixed on his white fur obscured by his brown leather jacket, his amber colored eyes looking into the rear-view mirror and smiling back at his pup in the car-seat just as they were getting onto the highway.
“And we’re off to your first day at school Honey! I want you to be on your best behavior while I’m gone.”
“Daddy.”
“Yes pumpkin?”
“How long will I have to stay?”
A smile was still on his face, though he could see that his daughter was still worried about going to school, she was mostly homeschooled from the start. Still, he kept a light, reassuring smile. “…You’ll be fine pumpkin. Don’t worry about the time.” He answers back just before getting off of the highway and stopping at the intersection.
“Daddy…” she calls out again.
“Yes…”
“Are you gonna pick me up after school?”
“No…But your Mommy will. She’ll come and pick you up after school.” He replies.
“But I don’t want Mommy to do it… I want you to pick me up.” She whines. These words getting him to look back over his shoulder and make eye contact with his daughter.
“Michelle. Everything will be fine. …I promise.” He said warmly before driving her to school.
The familiarity of this moment slowly dissolves away in my mind, and from where I last seen my father. Placing me back into reality, staring back at my elephant of a therapist taking down notes on that little pad of hers as she judges me, curling her trunk for a moment. Her eyes soon focusing back on the adult “me” and I can’t help but feel like this was the second biggest mistake in my life.
“That was the last good memory of my Father. It hardly feels real anymore, and honestly I don’t know why it affects me so much. …I can’t describe what I feel everytime I think back to it. All I know is that it happened during a time that…I…felt nothing else matters. I just wanted to play with my Dad.”
I felt a bit of a tear coming from my right eye, I turned away to suppress that feeling…I don’t like talking about the past, I regret talking to this woman about my memories…about my life.
“Innocence”
“Huh?”
“I believe that’s what you were having a hard time describing. Innocence…You’ve been keeping that memory so close because you wanted to relive that time.”
“You mean…when I was Naïve.”
“No. I mean: that you cling to that moment of joy because it comforts you. It’s not uncommon for a person to hold onto a Nostalgic part of the past. Especially on one that was well before…a…tragedy. It’s not a sign of weakness to have good memories.”
My Shrink was explaining it as clear as day to me, I just didn’t want to accept that as being the big truth to myself.
“Michelle, a fond memory can be a good thing. But it can interfere with you moving forward with your life. I’ve seen plenty of patients who –“
“Yeah well, I’m not like other patients. I know your trying to help, it’s been 100 sessions now. I’m fine, there’s nothing more to discuss.” I claimed.
“…Nothing’s changed. You’ve grown into a young healthy woman… Yet you’re still struggling with expressing these emotions to other people. It’s not hard to see.”
I was getting close to developing a headache during the session, thankfully hearing her watch go off was enough to tell me that our time was done and that I could finally go to practice. I really wish I didn’t have to go to these Therapy sessions, though you can only run away so many times. The courts decided to make them a mandatory thing till I hit 21. I wish we could’ve finished this up a lot sooner. I wasted no time in getting up and grabbing my things.
“Michelle…”
I wish I didn’t stop when she called my name. Dammit, what does she want now!?
“…Do think about what we discussed today. I know we’ve cut our sessions down to a month, but I want to see some progress. Do be careful out there when you practice.”
“Thanks, but trying to act like my mother isn’t healthy for you or me.” Obviously my words weren’t very kind. I was pulling my punches with her since I wanted to blow off some steam after a long week of just dealing with other people and their crap. My outlet was the Range.
I was an Archer, and a promising one at that. Each arrow I unleashed down at the Rancho Archery School was me expressing all my frustrations of being in L.A. and wanting to get out, each bull’s eye I hit was another step for me getting out and heading into nationals. I was so sick of dealing with other people, sick of being stuck here against my will, and so sick of being in a city that had so much crime and drugs that I wanted to get away from all of it! It must have taken me 3 hours since I started target practice, I wanted to experiment with my shots rather than just turning my targets into pincushions. I did let up just to stop and bring in a new target, but never did I stray. I went so far as to do maneuvers and angled shots in different positions. Including jump-shots and falling shots! Thankfully this room was contained, as I didn’t want to damage anything here while performing these moves.
And all the while I was thinking about each of my mandatory therapy sessions. It’s been thirteen sessions now…and nothing has changed. I know that those sessions with my therapist are suppose to help me cope with society…or maybe with just my surroundings. But no matter how much that lady wanted to help me, she doesn’t understand me… Or what I feel right now, Growing up…alone….
I had to stop after my time was up…I wasn’t having fun anymore. I made my exit since I felt the need to retire for the night…there was Judo practice tomorrow. And I wanted to learn all that I could, even though I wasn’t good at breaking boards or breaking jaws, I wanted to feel strong…or at least stronger than who I am now.
A short walk and a row of hedges separated me from my car in the parking lot, usually in this area I would have nothing to fear, trouble tended to be a block or two away from here and I usually felt safe whenever I left the building late, it was already going on 8pm, there was usually nothing worry about during this time. But as I was heading to my car, I was unprepared to expect an encounter here in the lot!
Like a sharp tickle I felt it, my body trembled instinctually as I pulled out my tazer on this tall, rather lanky looking Dalmation who came up from behind! Thankfully he was still a bit of distance away, but there was no telling with him, and right now I was really scared!
“Ho, Ho Shit! Calm Down!” he spoke up.
“Calm down!?You’re the One Sneaking up out from nowhere!” I yelled, hoping to get somebody’s attention in the process.
With his hands up and displaying an oddly calm approach, I couldn’t tell what he was up to, and that only further put me on edge!
“Okay! Look, I’m sorry about sneaking up like that, but you are Michelle Hawthorne, right?”
Not everyone should know my name, I do my best to stay out of the spotlight as much as I could. Even so, just this guy knowing who I was had me feeling a mixture of fear and some ounce of curiosity…
“How do you even know my name!? And who the hell are you!?” I questioned defensively, I was very close to dropping my bags and pulling my bow out on this guy!
“My name is William Talson. I’m a representative of your late Mother, and a key-holder for your inheritance claim!”
Hearing that… made me lower my guard, I didn’t know how to react when hearing that. When my Mother… died, there was no word about an Inheritance, my mother left me with nothing but what she provided.
“Can we talk? I hope we can both be civil about it.” The Dalmation said to me with abit of a worried look on his face, and he was slow to pull out a envelope from his zipped up coat.
I wanted to keep my guard up around this canine since I’ve never seen him before till now. Still, when he pulled out that yellow envelope and said it was for me…it was enough to me to at least listen to him. My eyes could ignore the cursive spelling of my Mother’s name…and my own name written on the face of it!
“I know this must be hard for you. But your parents, especially your mother had planned to keep this inheritance claim a secret till you were of age. She explicitly stated that the information contained were to be for your eyes only. And to be passed on from the last known recipient…namely from her, to Gregory, and then down to me.” He stated plainly.
“Toss it to me!”
I asked of him without really knowing what’s in it, and honestly I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to! There was a weight on my shoulder, a hard pounding in my chest. William tossed the envelope my way. Clearly showing that he wasn’t a threat (though I still debated this in my head), all the while I felt more and more questions filling my poor head.
Why? Why now!? Why all the secrecy?!” he spoke with abit of a panic in my voice, something I started to notice, and never felt before.
“…I…I can’t answer that for you. I’m just the mail man… You should open what was given to you, then Go and get some rest.” Willaim said claimly, before I watch him take out a card and set it on the ground.
“I did what I was told to do. Still, if you want to talk…You have my card.” He said before he started backing away and walking off away from me. I honestly wasn’t sure why this man did any of this, but so much was going through my mind that I couldn’t help but pick up the card before I rushed back to my car and drove off. I had to go home, I had to go home, my mind seemed to repeat as I drove. I never expected feel my life change so suddenly like that. I was so scared…
It was all so unreal…
Going up to my room, I was timid at first to even bring this envelope inside my small, apartment home. It felt cursed.
What did I know? What didn’t I know about my Mom and Dad?! My mouth was so dry, and even though I was so scared…I took the leap. Something inside me was burning to know… I didn’t care so much about a clean opening, tearing off the top before I turned it upside-down and shook the contents loose. Onto my bed fell a key, and three small envelopes. One of them was thicker than the other two, but my eyes were already set on the first two, as they were both equal in size, one being white, and the other yellow.
I felt myself swelling with emotion as I saw that my Mom’s name “Cassandra” was written on the yellow one, and my father’s name was written in the plain white one. The only difference that I notice on my Mother’s envelope was that she was using a different last name: McDermett.
This was the first time I ever held anything in memory to both of them, after my mom had died and my father disappeared…I had nothing…not even a stuffed toy from them, it brought tears to my eyes, as I slowly opened and began to read.
To my darling baby girl.
If you are reading this Michelle, then it is probably out of unfortunate events that have taken place. I don’t want to think about what may...will happen to our family. But all I care about is you! I want you to to continue staying alive, to be safe and sound and away from the horrible truths about our family. I wish things hadn’t turned out this way, but I know this is the only way, and the only thing I can do to protect you.
It is the only gift I can give you.
Inside this envelope is the truth, the truth about me, your father, and your only hope of living a normal life, away from all the terrible things our past life has brought upon your life. I am so sorry. I never intended for any of this, I wish I could have done more for you when we still had time.
--Your Loving Mother, Cassandra Hawthorne.
The quiet of my room was now filled with my whimpering, I never cried this hard in years. Not since her death, not since that moment I felt everything crumble apart. I must’ve wept myself to sleep, I didn’t even know I could cry so intensely after finding out all of this. I was in so much pain, my eyes full of tears; I couldn’t but remember when I found my mother on the floor on that one day…
I had abandoned my Judo class that day, I couldn’t even bring myself to read my father’s letter. I felt a great amount of sorrow and distress. I needed to talk to Willaim, I had to call him. I needed to know, even though it was so hard to bare, I had to know why my mom died.
Chapter 1 end.
Been working on this story since 2016. Posted the first chapter and saved it along with the rest, until my USB got corrupted. Thankfully I had a few drafts still saved on my computer. That was a lot of time lost, but I'm back now, and here to try and bring the story of my Crimson Archer back to the spotlight.
Do feel free to critique my work. Any helpful advice is welcomed.
==============================================================================================================
Early morning in Hedgeshore, Los Angeles, CA.
“18 years ago in Luxury Hills.”
On a hillside sat a mansion overlooking the City, a normal morning routine was taking place on the driveway’s path as a White SUV was driving passed the automatic gates and followed the road leading out towards the city. Inside the vehicle’s driver seat was a tall male border collie with faint yellow mixed on his white fur obscured by his brown leather jacket, his amber colored eyes looking into the rear-view mirror and smiling back at his pup in the car-seat just as they were getting onto the highway.
“And we’re off to your first day at school Honey! I want you to be on your best behavior while I’m gone.”
“Daddy.”
“Yes pumpkin?”
“How long will I have to stay?”
A smile was still on his face, though he could see that his daughter was still worried about going to school, she was mostly homeschooled from the start. Still, he kept a light, reassuring smile. “…You’ll be fine pumpkin. Don’t worry about the time.” He answers back just before getting off of the highway and stopping at the intersection.
“Daddy…” she calls out again.
“Yes…”
“Are you gonna pick me up after school?”
“No…But your Mommy will. She’ll come and pick you up after school.” He replies.
“But I don’t want Mommy to do it… I want you to pick me up.” She whines. These words getting him to look back over his shoulder and make eye contact with his daughter.
“Michelle. Everything will be fine. …I promise.” He said warmly before driving her to school.
The familiarity of this moment slowly dissolves away in my mind, and from where I last seen my father. Placing me back into reality, staring back at my elephant of a therapist taking down notes on that little pad of hers as she judges me, curling her trunk for a moment. Her eyes soon focusing back on the adult “me” and I can’t help but feel like this was the second biggest mistake in my life.
“That was the last good memory of my Father. It hardly feels real anymore, and honestly I don’t know why it affects me so much. …I can’t describe what I feel everytime I think back to it. All I know is that it happened during a time that…I…felt nothing else matters. I just wanted to play with my Dad.”
I felt a bit of a tear coming from my right eye, I turned away to suppress that feeling…I don’t like talking about the past, I regret talking to this woman about my memories…about my life.
“Innocence”
“Huh?”
“I believe that’s what you were having a hard time describing. Innocence…You’ve been keeping that memory so close because you wanted to relive that time.”
“You mean…when I was Naïve.”
“No. I mean: that you cling to that moment of joy because it comforts you. It’s not uncommon for a person to hold onto a Nostalgic part of the past. Especially on one that was well before…a…tragedy. It’s not a sign of weakness to have good memories.”
My Shrink was explaining it as clear as day to me, I just didn’t want to accept that as being the big truth to myself.
“Michelle, a fond memory can be a good thing. But it can interfere with you moving forward with your life. I’ve seen plenty of patients who –“
“Yeah well, I’m not like other patients. I know your trying to help, it’s been 100 sessions now. I’m fine, there’s nothing more to discuss.” I claimed.
“…Nothing’s changed. You’ve grown into a young healthy woman… Yet you’re still struggling with expressing these emotions to other people. It’s not hard to see.”
I was getting close to developing a headache during the session, thankfully hearing her watch go off was enough to tell me that our time was done and that I could finally go to practice. I really wish I didn’t have to go to these Therapy sessions, though you can only run away so many times. The courts decided to make them a mandatory thing till I hit 21. I wish we could’ve finished this up a lot sooner. I wasted no time in getting up and grabbing my things.
“Michelle…”
I wish I didn’t stop when she called my name. Dammit, what does she want now!?
“…Do think about what we discussed today. I know we’ve cut our sessions down to a month, but I want to see some progress. Do be careful out there when you practice.”
“Thanks, but trying to act like my mother isn’t healthy for you or me.” Obviously my words weren’t very kind. I was pulling my punches with her since I wanted to blow off some steam after a long week of just dealing with other people and their crap. My outlet was the Range.
I was an Archer, and a promising one at that. Each arrow I unleashed down at the Rancho Archery School was me expressing all my frustrations of being in L.A. and wanting to get out, each bull’s eye I hit was another step for me getting out and heading into nationals. I was so sick of dealing with other people, sick of being stuck here against my will, and so sick of being in a city that had so much crime and drugs that I wanted to get away from all of it! It must have taken me 3 hours since I started target practice, I wanted to experiment with my shots rather than just turning my targets into pincushions. I did let up just to stop and bring in a new target, but never did I stray. I went so far as to do maneuvers and angled shots in different positions. Including jump-shots and falling shots! Thankfully this room was contained, as I didn’t want to damage anything here while performing these moves.
And all the while I was thinking about each of my mandatory therapy sessions. It’s been thirteen sessions now…and nothing has changed. I know that those sessions with my therapist are suppose to help me cope with society…or maybe with just my surroundings. But no matter how much that lady wanted to help me, she doesn’t understand me… Or what I feel right now, Growing up…alone….
I had to stop after my time was up…I wasn’t having fun anymore. I made my exit since I felt the need to retire for the night…there was Judo practice tomorrow. And I wanted to learn all that I could, even though I wasn’t good at breaking boards or breaking jaws, I wanted to feel strong…or at least stronger than who I am now.
A short walk and a row of hedges separated me from my car in the parking lot, usually in this area I would have nothing to fear, trouble tended to be a block or two away from here and I usually felt safe whenever I left the building late, it was already going on 8pm, there was usually nothing worry about during this time. But as I was heading to my car, I was unprepared to expect an encounter here in the lot!
Like a sharp tickle I felt it, my body trembled instinctually as I pulled out my tazer on this tall, rather lanky looking Dalmation who came up from behind! Thankfully he was still a bit of distance away, but there was no telling with him, and right now I was really scared!
“Ho, Ho Shit! Calm Down!” he spoke up.
“Calm down!?You’re the One Sneaking up out from nowhere!” I yelled, hoping to get somebody’s attention in the process.
With his hands up and displaying an oddly calm approach, I couldn’t tell what he was up to, and that only further put me on edge!
“Okay! Look, I’m sorry about sneaking up like that, but you are Michelle Hawthorne, right?”
Not everyone should know my name, I do my best to stay out of the spotlight as much as I could. Even so, just this guy knowing who I was had me feeling a mixture of fear and some ounce of curiosity…
“How do you even know my name!? And who the hell are you!?” I questioned defensively, I was very close to dropping my bags and pulling my bow out on this guy!
“My name is William Talson. I’m a representative of your late Mother, and a key-holder for your inheritance claim!”
Hearing that… made me lower my guard, I didn’t know how to react when hearing that. When my Mother… died, there was no word about an Inheritance, my mother left me with nothing but what she provided.
“Can we talk? I hope we can both be civil about it.” The Dalmation said to me with abit of a worried look on his face, and he was slow to pull out a envelope from his zipped up coat.
I wanted to keep my guard up around this canine since I’ve never seen him before till now. Still, when he pulled out that yellow envelope and said it was for me…it was enough to me to at least listen to him. My eyes could ignore the cursive spelling of my Mother’s name…and my own name written on the face of it!
“I know this must be hard for you. But your parents, especially your mother had planned to keep this inheritance claim a secret till you were of age. She explicitly stated that the information contained were to be for your eyes only. And to be passed on from the last known recipient…namely from her, to Gregory, and then down to me.” He stated plainly.
“Toss it to me!”
I asked of him without really knowing what’s in it, and honestly I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to! There was a weight on my shoulder, a hard pounding in my chest. William tossed the envelope my way. Clearly showing that he wasn’t a threat (though I still debated this in my head), all the while I felt more and more questions filling my poor head.
Why? Why now!? Why all the secrecy?!” he spoke with abit of a panic in my voice, something I started to notice, and never felt before.
“…I…I can’t answer that for you. I’m just the mail man… You should open what was given to you, then Go and get some rest.” Willaim said claimly, before I watch him take out a card and set it on the ground.
“I did what I was told to do. Still, if you want to talk…You have my card.” He said before he started backing away and walking off away from me. I honestly wasn’t sure why this man did any of this, but so much was going through my mind that I couldn’t help but pick up the card before I rushed back to my car and drove off. I had to go home, I had to go home, my mind seemed to repeat as I drove. I never expected feel my life change so suddenly like that. I was so scared…
It was all so unreal…
Going up to my room, I was timid at first to even bring this envelope inside my small, apartment home. It felt cursed.
What did I know? What didn’t I know about my Mom and Dad?! My mouth was so dry, and even though I was so scared…I took the leap. Something inside me was burning to know… I didn’t care so much about a clean opening, tearing off the top before I turned it upside-down and shook the contents loose. Onto my bed fell a key, and three small envelopes. One of them was thicker than the other two, but my eyes were already set on the first two, as they were both equal in size, one being white, and the other yellow.
I felt myself swelling with emotion as I saw that my Mom’s name “Cassandra” was written on the yellow one, and my father’s name was written in the plain white one. The only difference that I notice on my Mother’s envelope was that she was using a different last name: McDermett.
This was the first time I ever held anything in memory to both of them, after my mom had died and my father disappeared…I had nothing…not even a stuffed toy from them, it brought tears to my eyes, as I slowly opened and began to read.
To my darling baby girl.
If you are reading this Michelle, then it is probably out of unfortunate events that have taken place. I don’t want to think about what may...will happen to our family. But all I care about is you! I want you to to continue staying alive, to be safe and sound and away from the horrible truths about our family. I wish things hadn’t turned out this way, but I know this is the only way, and the only thing I can do to protect you.
It is the only gift I can give you.
Inside this envelope is the truth, the truth about me, your father, and your only hope of living a normal life, away from all the terrible things our past life has brought upon your life. I am so sorry. I never intended for any of this, I wish I could have done more for you when we still had time.
--Your Loving Mother, Cassandra Hawthorne.
The quiet of my room was now filled with my whimpering, I never cried this hard in years. Not since her death, not since that moment I felt everything crumble apart. I must’ve wept myself to sleep, I didn’t even know I could cry so intensely after finding out all of this. I was in so much pain, my eyes full of tears; I couldn’t but remember when I found my mother on the floor on that one day…
I had abandoned my Judo class that day, I couldn’t even bring myself to read my father’s letter. I felt a great amount of sorrow and distress. I needed to talk to Willaim, I had to call him. I needed to know, even though it was so hard to bare, I had to know why my mom died.
Chapter 1 end.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Canine (Other)
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 23.1 kB
Damn... I "fridged" her mother. :( Now I feel like crap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2D.....b9g&t=325s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2D.....b9g&t=325s
Comments