G H O S T R U N N E R

<T W O>

“Shit! Are you okay?”

She nods before wincing at the pain in her head. It’s fine, she assures herself. It’ll heal in a few minutes and everything will be fine.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Sam says with a frown, “You sure your okay?”

The pain is gone now making nodding less nauseating.

“I’m sorry.” He mutters before holding up the thing in his hand, “See? It’s just a screwdriver to take that thing off. Don’t think I’ve missed you being in pain all the time you’ve been eating.”

She shakes her head as he comes near her moving back a bit.

“Please?” he pleads with guileless gray eyes.

She doesn’t want him to be hurt but she can’t say no to him. So hesitantly she nods and moves her hair around to the shoulder not facing him offering him her neck. If she were back at the pack this would be seen as the ultimate submissive gesture and one she has had to pose in often. She can’t help but think that its also the perfect one for this moment because she is trusting Sam not to hurt her.

And if he wanted to he could hurt her the worst.

“Fuck.” Sam mutters making her look at him.

His face is one of anger.

And Arden has never been more scared.

>< 

Sam can barely contain his rage as he looks at the collar. Fuck, its imbedded deeply in her neck and he can see the skin itself is black like scorched earth around the area as well telling him its been there a long time. Who would do this and why? Trying not to scare her worse then she is he doesn’t touch her but instead angles his head to inspect it better.

He almost sighs in relief when he sees a small flat head screw on the side of it. Looking up at her wide golden eyes he swallows the rock in his throat and scoots closer to her so they are knee to knee in their separate chairs. He tries not to notice the pleasant hum of electricity he feels with the near contact. He really needs to focus on the task at hand.

He studiously looks at the collar though he wants to look in her eyes, to be sure she’s okay but he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to make a wrong move and accidently hurt anymore then she already is. Using the screwdriver he slowly undoes the screw on the side and watches in muted horror as it loosens on her neck. Fuck, this is bad.

The skin under the collar is worse then the surrounding area, red, obviously singed and glistening with the sheen of new skin trying to heal. As he removes the collar gingerly he hears her take a deep labored intake of breath before her body sags in relief. He places the collar on the kitchen table with disgust heavy in his stomach.

“Better?” he asks softly looking up at her face.

She swallows thickly but nods.

“Can you talk now?”

She opens her mouth and another squeak escapes.

Sam smiles at her sadly, “Not yet?”

The girl sighs and shakes her head.

“Can you write?” he asks.

She frowns in contemplation before nodding slowly.

Seeing this as his chance Sam jumps up from the table and grabs a notepad and pencil from the junk drawer in the kitchen. He places them in front of her and she gives him a hesitant look before picking up the pencil shakily in her hand. Slowly enough to let him know it’s been awhile since she’s written she writes two words on the pale yellow notepad.