After the Lunacy [Night, open]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf noticed she didn't answer the first thing he had asked, but she seemed to be torn about why she did. She was also very suspicious of the waiter for some reason, he didn't know why. Something had happened to her recently and he had a feeling it had to do with something on the night of the full moon. He looked at her and wondered what it could have been. When she mentioned him turning into a dog, he laughed.

" I don't turn into a dog, I turn into a wolf. I can do that any time I want to do it as well." Night said to her with a smile. " What I'm talking about is if I tried to do anything to you. I don't know maybe mate with you or be very clingy and wanting to have as much physical contact as possible. I lose control of myself on full moons and act based on my primal urges, so I can do some strange things that I normally would never do. I want to apologize if I ever did anything that night or tried to do anything you didn't like. I just hope you didn't get hurt or anything just as bad."

[alice]

"What's the difference?" Dogs and Wolves were, basically, the same thing. Both were canines. So why did people feel the need to call them by different names? As he started to explain though, she stared at him, deep in thought. Everything that had happened.... Her memory was pretty spotty from that night, for obvious reasons. "You were very hyper."

Alice didn't seem to remember anything else... Like something had clouded most of her memories of the night... She looked away from him then, her thoughts returning to her memory loss. What was clouding her memories? ".........." She was silent, for what felt like minutes but couldn't be more then a few seconds. "I don't think you did anything else, just acted like a dog...."

She lay her head on the table deep in thought. "I forgot something though... But I can't remember anything that clearly after you left with the squeaky toy." She was sure something had happened.... The warning from her father.... But what was it? Why couldn't she remember...? Why was she having such severe trust issues? And why couldn't she make up her mind about Night?

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf watched her as she seemed like she was having a hard time trying to remember what had happened that night. He was glad to hear that he hadn't done anything and had just run around the woods, but what did she mean he acted like a dog? What exactly had he done that night with her? How could he have acted like a dog? He wasn't sure of that, but he was sure of one thing, he needed to try and help out Alice with remembering what happened that night. He looked at her for a moment as she was thinking before he put his hand on her shoulder.

" Alice, maybe I could help yo-" Night began to say to her before he suddenly fell into a sleep like state.

Next thing Night knew, he was standing in the shadow plane. Not far in front of him was a lone shadow wolf, an odd sight to see since they always traveled in packs. The wolf acted like it wished for him to follow it, so he began to go after it. The wolf lead him for an unknown amount of time until they finally came upon a strange sight. A giant shadow being and a shadow wolf twice the size of the other shadow wolves seemed to be holding a conversation. Neither of them seemed happy with the other. He wondered what it was they were talking about when the lone shadow wolf looked at him.

" They are talking about an experiment that they were forced to be apart of. It seems the experiment was to see if two human children could learn and adapt to be able to live in both our plane and your plane of existences. One child was male, the other female. The male child was to be raised by the shadow wolves, while the female was to be raised by that shadow being." the shadow wolf said to him, it's voice seeming to just spawn out of the air. " That male child was you John, and the female child was her, the girl called Alice."

[alice]

Perhaps Alice should have been a bit more specific. He'd acted like a pet dog. Tail wagging and all. But his behavior seemed to have been put on hold for now, as he was more interested in 'helping her'. Or... So he had started to say.

His hand on her shoulder made her flinch, but she didn't pull away, or couldn't. Because before she could.... Her eyes started to feel heavy. Night passed out first, and a second later, she followed.

She woke in the Shadow plane, just like Night. But.. He wasn't in sight. Neither was his shadow wolf guide. There was just her... And another shadow wolf. She recoiled from it. This new, unusual lack of trust in others was strongest towards the 'Guardians' of the shadow plane. In the back of her mind, she heard part of the warning she'd been trying to remember all day.

They want to take you away from me...

Nothing the wolf did could convince the girl to follow it. Finally, the creature had actually had to resort to gently taking her wrist in it's mouth and half dragging her.

Night had never seen Alice scared before now, and it definitely wasn't something you'd want to see again. The girl was convinced that the wolf would try to kill her, and she knew her powers wouldn't work on it. Finally though, it released her. She could see her parental figure at that point, as well as Night (but she didn't really care at the moment.). The girl tried to make a break for it, tried to reach her father and tell him to make them go away. But her own wolf guide stepped into her path, forcing the girl to take a few steps back, shaking in... fear.

She could hear the other wolf speaking, her own repeating what was said to make sure she was listening. She didn't say anything, or make any more breaks for her father. All she could hope for was that he'd realize she was there, and that the wolves were scaring her and come stop them..

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf just stood there unaware of Alice's presence nearby and just looked at the two beings arguing with each other. Them did not seem to notice them standing there, and it was probably for the best that they weren't noticed right now. The shadow wolves continued to say what was going on between the two beings.

" You have to be kidding me you filthy dog! Let the girl have her free will back? That is a laugh! The girl is mine! She was given to me to do with as I please!" the shadow said

" You have to let her think for herself! Your control and complete domination over what she thinks, what she feels, even how she acts is leaving her as nothing more then an empty shell! You know the experiment can not work if she can not even survive without you telling her what to do all the time! She is not some item that belongs to you for you to do with as you please!" the wolf said.

" You are one to talk! You let your child run around and do as he pleases and use him as a form of pleasure to watch! And you hide everything from him as well. You haven't told him a thing about this place, what he can do, or even about the experiment. You just follow him around and use him to entertain yourselves. What can you say about that? If you do nothing for him does that even show you care about him or the experiment?" the shadow said.

" We allow him his freedom of thought and choice! That is something you do not do for your child! You do not care for her, only for what you can do with her! You only care to control everything about her since it makes her easier for you to manipulate into doing what you want! And you use her to entertain yourself in ways that a child should not be used to do!" the wolf said with a growl.

[alice]

Alice still hadn't noticed Night, but she was a little to busy to really care. She was still trying to find a way around the shadow wolf, to run to her father. At the same time, she was basically being forced to listen to the argument between the untrustworthy wolf and her father.

What she heard.... Made her freeze, eyes wide.

Alice shook as she stood there, being forced to listen to, what she believed, were lies. No, the wolf was lying! It was trying to confuse her, take her away from her father. And Night was involved.... He thought they should be separated just like his wolves. He'd put them up to this. He wanted to frame her father, make her mistrust him. Make her think her father was the bad guy and he was innocent!

Suddenly, not only was she terrified of the wolves, but she wanted to destroy them. How dare they do this?! Why were they doing this?! She knew, she KNEW they shouldn’t be trusted! None of them! Not the humans, not the wolves, and not Night! And her father…. He’d tried to warn her….

Her eyes were black, everything (except for the shadow wolves and her ‘father’) in the shadow plane actually withering in pain from her growing rage and anguish. ”Go away….. All of you…. GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Her reaction was probably to be expected, after all, she’d been raised thinking her father could do no wrong, so why would she believe what they were saying?

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf couldn't believe what he was hearing, they had used him and Alice in some kind of experiment. What was worse was that they weren't arguing over how they were doing, but their different ways of going about it! They were sitting here arguing and talking about them like they didn't care about them at all! Night was angry, beyond angry, and he had not felt this way for some time now. He didn't care anymore what was going on, who was right or who was wrong, who to trust or who to ignore. All that he knew was that he needed to say something to them, to vent his anger at them. He quickly was upon them, the wolf had tried to stop him but couldn't. He didn't even notice what Alice was doing, and these didn't seem to notice her either.

" Experiments? Experiments?! Me and Alice are just experiments, things to do with as you please, to you? You are going to sit here and argue and bicker with each other over who has been more effective at raising us and you talk as if you don't even notice or care for our lives! Do you think so little of us? Do you think so highly of yourselves? Who is right and who is wrong? To hell with that! As far as I care, neither of you are right and neither of you are parents of ours! All you care about is the results of your experiments! What were you going to do with us if we were successes? Better yet, what would you have done if we were failures? Would it even matter? I'm sure you would have just left us and thrown us away as soon as your little experiment was over! It could still be over for all I know! But that doesn't matter, what matters now is what your experiment has done to Alice! You sat here and lied to her, used her, controled her, manipulated her, did what you please with her as if she didn't matter to you! You would do all of that to her and sit here and try to call yourselves guardians of the shadow plane or her own parents? You make me sick! You want to sit here and argue about who is right? Go ahead, but I'm going to take Alice and see to it that she is allowed to be and do what she wants to be, not what you want her to be!" Night yelled at them in a protective growl. " And if you try and stop me from getting her out of this experiment, I will destroy both of you!"

A strange shadow had formed around Night as he was speaking to the two beings. The shadow seemed as if it was alive and apart of Night himself. It hung off him as if it was a cloak made of a mist of shadows. The more he told them, the stronger the shadow grew around him until it had covered him completely and began to look like a hooded robe around him. His eyes shown through the part around his head like two moons shining into the pitch blackness of the night.

[alice]

No one seemed to care about Alice's growing tantrum, because, right around the time she had yelled, everyone's attention was on.... Night? He was behind it! This whole thing! Everything the wolves were doing!

Alice's rage was building and building as Night went on his rant, her power slowly going out of control. While he seemed to believe everything he'd heard, and was proving that he was, quite literally, a success. Alice on the other hand....

"Liars! She was screaming, the shadows thrashing in agony as her power went insane. "The wolves... You.... liars..." She was shaking in anger, her berserk powers so wild they were even going after Night's living shadow. She was so angry, in fact, that a few tears were streaming down her cheeks. "You... You're just like everyone else! I thought.... I thought...." No, he was just like them. He thought something was wrong with her. He'd acted like her friend, like he cared.... She was an idiot for thinking he'd be different...

And, like her father had warned her... He wanted to take her away from him. And... the shadow actually seemed to be smirking, as if knowing she'd react this way. There hadn't been a doubt in his mind that Alice wouldn't defend him, ignoring everything he was accused of, and instead focus in on the wolves, branding them as the enemy.

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf looked back at Alice seeming to have realize she was here. He was next to her as if in an instance and wrapped his arms around her. The shadow around him moved itself around her like a comforting blanket. Alice, who was throwing a tantrum, should have been able to feel the warmth and comfort of the shadow coming across her. The shadow would allow her to see what was going on and being said without the influence of anyone outside of herself. Night continued to hold her as he waited to see what she would do next.

The wolf and shadow both seemed to have noticed the change that had come over Night as soon as he had instantly traveled over to Alice. The wolf seemed to be feeling smug and full of itself while the shadow seemed to have grown angry and upset.

" Why him, why him? How could he have become one of the shadows while she did not? A failure! A failure! The girl is a failure! You wolves were just lucky that the boy was able to do that on his own! If I had been given the boy he would have been able to become a shadow being much faster! Bah! I was given the defective one! Why did I waste my time with the girl?" the shadow yelled as if he didnt realize Alice could hear him. " Maybe I will just send the girl out to kill some humans and cause your child to try and to stop her? He is so attached to her it sickens me! I'm glad I took some steps to separate her from him, he would just cause her to actually begin to think for herself. She is useless to me if she thinks for herself, I can't use a doll that thinks."

The shadow wolf just continued to sit there watching the shadow ranting on about how the they had lucked out in which child they had gotten and how the girl was a useless failure. Neither seemed to care or notice that both Night and Alice could hear and see them as they went on with their little scene.

[alice]

Alice, who never took kindly to being held, fought his embrace, trying to escape. His liviing shadow... She hated it. She hated and feared the feelings that were being triggered. Warmth.. Comfort... It hurt. She fought harder, screaming. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!' She kept repeating it over and over, hoping he'd finally realize that the emotions he was making her feel were hurting her. Even more proof that she was the 'failure'.

After a few moments though, she seemed to calm down. And by calm down.... At least she wasn't screaming and trying to hit him. Instead, she just trembled violently in his arms, the pain finally draining all her energy to the point that she couldn't fight. It was strange, how the girl actually registered emotional pain instead of physical. Hurt her, and she'd only blink. Make her feel an emotion that was previously outside her range of feelings... And it was like torture.

It seemed she'd fallen silent at the worst possible moment... Because she heard everything her 'father' said. Her eyes went wide, still trembling but there was a deathly stillness to her. A... Failure..? Is that... What she was..? Useless... Defective...

She'd never expected love from her shadow parent, she'd never expected him to truly care for her like humans cared for each other. She'd at least thought though... That she was useful.

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf continued to hold her tightly against him. He didn't even seem to notice how his living shadow had them wrapped together now as if in a blanket on a snowy night. She had stopped struggling, but only to hear what her father had said about her. He wanted to go over and do the most horrible and agonizing things he could to it for saying those things about Alice, but he couldn't leave her here alone after what had just happened. Her entire world had just come crashing down on her head, and the only thing holding her up at the moment seemed to be Night's embrace. He needed to help her, and he planed on doing everything he could to, even if he had to give up his own life for it.

" Alice, don't listen to what he is saying. You are not a failure and you are not useless to me. You are a beautiful, wonderful young woman who has been used, abused, manipulated, and descieved by the one she saw as being her family and I will not allow them to try and call you a failure. You may not have been able to become one with the shadow plane, but you don't need to. You are perfect the way you are. You are not a failure and you never will be." Night said to her in a comforting and soothing voice. " You don't belong to him and you shouldn't have been treated how you were. You didn't fail him, he failed you. You aren't useless to me. Without you, who would get into fights with Alex? Who would watch me all night when I'm hurt sitting in a chair in my infirmary room? Who would I have to play with when I'm in my wolf form? Your apart of my life now Alice, and I need you in it so how can you be useless or a failure?"

[alice]

Alice.... Couldn't even react. Couldn't speak, couldn't breath... Quite literally, she'd just lost the only thing she'd been sure of in her life. Her tiny world, that she'd been determined to keep the same... Had just shattered into a million pieces. Quite literally, she lost all drive to keep going.

Even Night's attempts to 'cheer her up' were spoken to unwilling, uncomprehending ears. All she really cared about right now, was the fact that somehow.... She'd let her father down. That she wasn't useful to him, that... he thought she was a failure. It didn't matter to her what anyone else said, she was used to cruel comments from humans but... It didn't matter that Night was trying desperately to tell her that none of it was true. What mattered... Was the one person (thing, actually) she'd wanted desperately to please... Thought she was a failure.

She vanished from his arms, her sorrow so deep that she'd (for the first time in her life) managed to return herself to the human plane. Back in the restaurant, she left before he woke. She couldn't stay there. She ran, ignoring everyone else in the place in a haze. Out on the streets, she picked up her pace, running as fast as she could, to get to the darkest, quietest place possible. Back to the park...

There, she collapsed on the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks and refusing to stop. She called out, using her power to try and send a message to the shadow plane, hoping, praying, that her 'father' would listen. "I promise I'll be good.... I'll.... I'll learn how to become a shadow... Just... Just let me be useful." Like the wolves had said.... She didn't know how to (or seem to want to) think for herself. With out his guidance.... she really was a failure...

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf sensed her leaving before she felt her absence from his arms. The shadow that had wrapped around her quickly retreated back to Night as she vanished. Night stood up and looked over at the shadow being that had raised Alice. It didn't seem to notice or care she was gone and continued to rant about how much of a failure and how useless Alice was. Night walked over to him and wordlessly slashed out a part of the shadow being. Night held the part in his hand as the shadow being hissed and began to make threats against Night. Night looked at him and simply crushed the part he had removed in the palm of his hand. The shadow seemed to scatter away as he destroyed it, but small threads of came out of his living shadow and pulled them inside of itself. The shadow being stared at his for a moment before it simply vanished from the area of the shadow plane they were in. Night had removed and absorbed the part of the shadow that it had used to communicate with Alice while she was in the human plane. Night didn't even look at the larger shadow wolf as he went back to the human plane.

Night woke up and smelled the air and quickly followed after Alice. He did not see her, but he could still smell her scent easily. He found her in the park laying on the ground breaking down. He could hear her, as if she spoke inside of his head, plead. He walked over and sat down on the ground next to her. He pulled her up off the ground and into his arms, having it so she was sitting in his lap. He began to stroke her head and rub her back as he smiled at her.

" You are a good girl Alice, and you don't have to learn to be a shadow. I told you before you were already useful to me, so you don't have to do anything to prove yourself to me. I want you to be who you want to be and to think for yourself. I want you to be happy Alice." Night thought as he continued to try and comfort her. " I know it will be hard for you, but I'm here for you Alice for whatever you need of me. Just trust me and let me help you Alice."

Night's thoughts rang through Alice's mind as clearly as the shadows had before. It was obvious he hadn't spoken and yet what she heard had to have come from him. Who knows how she would respond to what she heard?

[alice]

Alice was unaware of what happened between Night and her father figure. If she had known... Well, there was no telling what she might do. She couldn't communicate with him anymore, the only thing she desperately wanted right now. Him to tell her that he'd take her back. That the wolves had made him say those things, and it wasn't true, that he did still want her. She didn't care what for. She didn't care if he used her to wreck havoc on this plane, just as long as he'd take her back...

The silence that followed was agonizing, hoping he'd respond. It never came. Instead, she suddenly felt herself being grabbed and held. She struggled, knowing who it had to be before he even spoke. But... he didn't speak. He thought... And she heard.

It was like her head was splitting open, her thoughts trying to accept, and reject these foreign thoughts at the same time. Her 'programmed' mistrust in him instantly wanted to get him out of her head. While the part of her that always listened to the voice tried to accept it.

She fought harder, finally mustering the strength to escape from his embrace and stumble away from him, her whole body shaking. "No, no, no!" she kept repeating the word over and over again, to convince herself not to listen. Still, she'd never fought the voice in her head.... "You.. You did something! I can't hear him!" Her behavior was almost like what you'd expect from a chicken with it's head cut off. She was lost with out the shadow. Night and the wolves were behind it all, they'd taken her away from him...

[/justify]

[Night Wolf]

Night Wolf looked at Alice as she had a look that said she blamed him for everything and continued to believe the shadow would come back for her. The shadow had deemed her a failure and no longer wanted her. He was glad the shadow had left her, but how was he suppose to make her calm down and be willing to listen to him instead of the lies of that shadow? How could he get past the chains of lies, manipulation, and desciet that the shadow had used to control her? He needed her to see the truth.

" Alice, why would I want to separate you from the shadow before I found out about the experiment and him throwing you away, deemed as a failure? You can no longer feel or contact him anymore because he gave you up and cast you aside. He didn't want you anymore and called you a failure, so I took his place because I do want you Alice! I want you as you are now, how you use to be, and who you will be in the future! I just want you Alice, not for some experiment or to use for some plot or plan, but because of you yourself. I never separated you from him, he gave you over to me. After he had done all of that, you still trust him and don't trust me? Did you ever wonder why you shouldn't trust me besides that the shadow told you not to? What reason have I given you that you shouldn't trust me? Do you think I like the idea of them using us for some experiment? Do you think I like what that shadow did to you even if you don't realize it? I just want you to live your life as you want to live it without anyone telling you what you should think, do, or feel. I want you to live that life, but I'm also not leaving you to fend for yourself like those wolves did with me. I'm here for you Alice and I always will be here for you. I just want you Alice, I just want you and nothing else." Night said to her in a plead way.

Night tried to sound as honest and get his feeling across as well as he could with what he said, but it was more of the emotions that she should have felt from him from their connection that would have told her that more then his words. He didn't realize that this was happening and it was obvious he didn't. Alice would take it however she would right now.