When they did collide...it was violent. It was not romantic. It was not a consensual release of pent-up sexual energy.
His scratches were not pleasing, they were painful and deep. His weigh was not comforting, it was heavy and crushing.
This was not love being showered upon Roan, this ritual was something ancient, dark, and twisted. It left him feeling hollow and cold whilst he hugged his body tightly in the corner, his bones as stiff as a board.
You will not find love in the pages of Roan's story because this is not a romance book. Their collision was violent, and it sent shockwaves throughout the Nine Realms.
"Where is he?" Heather runs up to the officers standing in front of the tape surrounding the crime scene. "Where is he?" she repeats when she does not immediately get a response. "Where is my best friend? What have you done with him?"
Inside the office next to the crime scene, Roan struggles to open his eyes and can barely manage to turn his head. "Heather?" he whispers, his voice cracking, a single hot tear leaving a red trail on his face.
"Heather?" he calls out a bit louder the second time.
The captain asks the female officer sitting with Roan. "What is he saying?"
"I want-" Roan swallows the lump in his throat. "I want my...I want my..." Roan becomes increasingly annoyed each time he starts over. "I want my best friend." he mumbles. "I want...I want..." Roan's head falls and he sinks lower into the chair they put him in.
She looks up at her Captain, who is standing in front of them. "He says he wants his friend."
The captain calls out to the other officers in front of the tape. "Alright, let her through."
Heather runs underneath the tape and collapses in front of Roan when she gets to the office. Her perfect waves now frizzy, her eyes red and puffy, her skin looking washed out and pale. "Roan, I know you are mad at me right now, but I am here for you."
Heather places her hands on top of Roan's. "And I am not going anywhere, do you understand? I'm not going-" Heather can't finish her sentence but she grips Roan's hands tighter. "I am here."
Roan's head stays tilted away from her. Heather expects him to ignore her like this for the rest of his life but Roan surprises her, taking her hands and lightly squeezing them back. When Heather smiles, diamonds fall from her eyes. "Everything is going to be okay." she promises.
The captain interrupts the conversation, taking out a little black book. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"I..." Roan's eyes flicker back and forth between the captain and the wall.
Heather stands up, turning towards the captain. "Don't you have any Mind or Time elves out there? They can tell you what happened. He shouldn't have to relive that moment."
"It is true, I have my people working their hardest out there, but it is in everyone's best interest that we get a statement from the Victim." The captain looks past Heather and waits for Roan to talk.
Roan shivers. "I was walking to the dorms. I saw the moon, it was big...pretty. Then I, he...he was there. He chased me...he pinned me down..." Roan shakes his head slowly. "He was so heavy." he cries.
"Who was there?"
Roan's chest rises and falls quickly. "It was Zarion but not Zarion."
"Explain?"
"He's an Alpha...he, he, he was in his other form." Roan's shivering intensifies.
The captain looks up from is black book. "If he was in his other form, how do you know it was him?"
"I know."
"How do you know?"
Roan looks the captain in the eyes for the first time. "I know." Roan looks away, crying silently. "I know it was him. I know, I know, I know..."
Heather turns to the female officer, anticipating she will find more empathy in her than in the captain. "Unless you are calling my friend a liar, I suggest you go and find the guy."
"We already have him in custody miss. He handed himself in an hour ago." The captain closes his black book and puts a lid on his pen. "We just wanted to make sure we got the right guy."
+/+
They take Roan to the Healers but Heather couldn't go in with him, so she sat outside the door and prayed to Harmonia, begging her to help her friend. "Please...he didn't deserve this." she sobs quietly so that no one hears her. "I know it is selfish to ask but please, please, please help him."
Inside the room, the Healers take swabs from him and put dressing over the giant claw mark on his neck. It is the deepest wound on his body and will leave scars.
"Roan, I'm going to need you to tell me about the attack." The Healer, with her long neck and sharp features, stands in front of Roan on the bed holding a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other.
"But I already told the officers everything." After having a glass of water, Roan's throat is no longer dry but he still sounds scratchy. "Can you just ask them?"
"Unfortunately, not, we keep a separate record."
"But why?"
"It's our policy."
"Your policy?" Roan repeats after her like an echo. "Your policy..." He inhales, looking down at the hands that grip the edge of the bed.
When Roan laughs, his shoulders shake with him but before long despair replaces the light feeling, turning them into silent sobs.
The Healer does not see his tears fall but she can see the damp blotches appearing on the material covering his legs. "Are you in pain? Is it your wound on your neck?"
Roan trembles silently, his grip on the bed tightening and threatening to snap if he squeezes any tighter. "What do I call you Healer?"
She blinks several times before deciding to answer his harmless question. "My name is Lucia."
"Healer Lucia..." Roan looks through the wet strands of hair in his face. "I have been broken which means that I am..." Roan squeezes his lips together and licks them. "Unhealable."
"I choose to believe anything can be healed." Lucia lowers the clipboard and pen. "But why do you say it like that?"
"When something breaks, something has to be taken away...something is missing!" Heather burst into the room, thinking Roan was in pain. "So, you may choose to believe you have healed me, but I am unhealable."
"...and that is the story that my scars will tell." Roan hovers his hand over the dressing on his neck before laying down on the bed and coiling up into the foetus position. "That is what you will write Healer. That I have been broken."