A Trip Down Memory Lane (open)

[sliver]

The whip cracked, and another cut appeared on her back. Once again she had refused an order, and she was being punished...again. "Why won't you listen?!" her owner demanded, accentuating each word with another whip-crack. "It's *Crack* not *crack* that *Crack* hard *Crack*!" She tried to scream, but nothing came out. The silence echoed as a cold testament to the pain she was in. Finally, something broke, deep inside Nadia. Using a strength she had never known she had, she wrenched herself free of the two burly men holding her down and lunged at the man behind the whip. He did what most people would do when someone jumps at them, murder in their eyes, he ran. He didn't get far however, because what was chasing her was no longer Nadia Amherst, the pathetic slave child, but a large grey wolf. The wolf lunged, and the slave owner soon found himself face down on the hard concrete, with a large wolf holding him down. It then proceeded to rip out several important parts of the body, and the owner was no more.

She screamed, and she heard it. Nadia jumped from her makeshift bed and looked around, wide awake and alert. For a minute she couldn't remember where she was, then memory flooded back. She was in the run down department store, in The Menagerie. She looked out the shattered window her bed was by, and noticed how close it was to nightfall. The sunset was framed ever so perfectly by a creeper plant on the side of the wall. Had she not been in this hellhole, she would have seen beauty in such a sight, but not now, not after the dream. After a few minutes she realized that she was parched, and her throat burned from the lack of moisture in the summer air. She sat there for a few more minutes, listening to the sounds of a summer night slowly creep in. Another crack echoed, and for a brief moment she thought the dream had followed her into real life. This thought was put down however, when a decent sized chunk of the ceiling fell, landing in the mens department about ten yards to her right. Right when the chunk hit the ground, a nice breeze wafted through the doorway, blowing the dust at her. She sneezed, silently cursing her allergy like she had screamed in the nightmare. The mere thought of the dream made her shudder, and suddenly the nice cool breeze was far too cold. She wanted nothing more than to crawl back into her bed and sleep away her thirst and her fear, but she knew sleep was impossible, lest the dream wake her again. Instead, she got up and went looking for anything of value. She had made the search dozens of times without success, but if there was one thing that she could be happy about, it was helping others trapped in this perpetual nightmare with her.

[Bonifacio Russovo [RIP]]

Bonifacio limped through the department store, well raided now due to the passage of three years, but he hoped that it'd have some sort of bandaging in stock. Somewhere, anything cloth. But anything cloth in the Menagerie was very, very rare to find that wasn't competely soiled with dirt, grime or blood. He sighed, after several minutes of rummaging he didn't find much.

He came across kiddie toys, deeply saddened by them. He imagined he and his brother Desi playing as little kids in a lavish living room. Boni frowned deeply, supressing the strong desire to destroy those little toys. Instead he effectively shoved the memories down, struggling on through the department store with his wounded ankle and bleeding forearm. The blood flow had decreased substantially but he still needed to bandage it.

As he limped miserably through the endless aisles, drifting in his own thoughts as per usual, a scream resounded through the store and startled him. He jumped, falling against a shelf because the scream was so damned close! It was the next aisle over in fact, and after he recovered from knocking several items down with his large, almost ungraceful form he dashed around the corner, nearly slamming into a girl's small form.

"Oh, my!" He exclaimed sheepishly as he dodged to the right, looming over the poor girl. "I'm sorry but you scared me half to death." He remembred himself, dark navy eyes darting back and forth quickly through thick lensed glasses that framed his face attractively. He saw no immediate danger. "What were you caterwauling about anyway? If you don't mind me asking. Pardon my rude manners, my dear."

[Deleted]

During her wandering, a person almost appeared in front of her, and she started back a bit. She quickly regained her composure, and recognized the person that almost ran into her as Bonifacio. After hearing his question, and thinking about weather or not she should lie, Nadia answered. "Oh, just a nightmare. I get them pretty often" After her response, she immediately started to look around, still searching for anything of use. It was then that she noticed his injuries. "Oh my god! Are you okay?" A stupid question, as she almost new what he was going to say as soon as she asked it. It would probably sound something like "I'm okay" Another crack, and another piece of ceiling fell. "Do you need anything for that?" she asked, motioning towards the wound. It wasn't looking too good, and would need to be bandaged quickly, lest infection set in.

ooc// I can't think of anything to type >.<

[Bonifacio Russovo [RIP]]

"Sì, signora. Thank you for your concern." He paused, smiling tiredly down at the girl. "Though I admit I have seen much better days." Boni looked down at his arm, grimacing slightly at the deep knife wound. "Sì. Bandages would be molto buon, ah, very good. I was searching for it before I came upon you. "

He realized then that he was frowning down at his wound which began to throb anew, so that the jagged scars that etched a gruesome reminder, dragging from both corners of his mouth across tanned the skin of his cheekbones. How much pain these scars had caused him no one would ever truly know, for even after the agony of the wound itself had healed and the flesh had covered itself again, Boni still felt the pain of people's scared eyes and disgusted thoughts. It seemed every time he walked into a room all eyes drew to him, and he knew it wasn't just a matter of his self-conscious - it was the cold, hard truth.

Which was why Boni was grateful for the fading sunlight. How e loved the shadows, and how they covered the blemishes of the world. Boni remembered where he was, and he looked Nadia over quickly, ensuring she had no wounds of her own. "You are quite sure you are alright?" Ah, always so concerned for others.

[Deleted]

Nadia had never spoken Italian, so she had no idea half of what he said. "I don't have anything clean enough to serve as a bandage, but I have an old shirt that you can use as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding" She started walking back towards her little cubby-hole. "How did you come about such a wound anyway?" She asked, hoping to strike up a conversation, or at least a monologue, to get the dream out of her head. When she thought of the dream, she remembered his question, and gave him an answer. "Yes, I'm sure I'm fine. It was just a bad dream, a regular occurrence for me. Though I hope that isn't for you" she said, pointing back at the wound in his arm, which had fresh blood flowing. In truth however, she was not fine, the dream was becoming a problem, and it was interfering with her life. She wasn't getting enough sleep, and she felt it every morning. She silently hoped that her recurring problem hadn't been noticed, for she didn't want to be considered a burden to the ring, and possibly kicked out. During this not-so-good thought, she picked out the scent of rotting meat, and found the source. A wild animal, now unidentifiable, was laying under some rubble. Dead. It had probably crawled her to die from some wound or sickness, and had quickly been picked over by scavengers. She gagged, and was forced to resist several tempting urges to donate the contents of her bowels to the rotting carcass.

[Bonifacio Russovo [RIP]]

bonifacio

"Ah, I ran into a Carna. Her name was...Eris? Sì, I believe that was it. She was a serpente, a snake." He motioned to his ankle, which he was still keeping weight off of. "She bit me, also as a snake. I do not think she put much poison in, or I would be dead, certainly." He realized then how truly light headed he felt, and the fact that his limbs felt as heavy as lead. It was an odd feeling, two polar opposites battling inside his body, but he supposed it was an effect of the venom, what little of it had managed to get into his blood stream.

"You, what of you? I hope you don't mind, but, ah, I notice you have not the look of sleeping well." He paused, looking down at the crumpled, decaying body of the poor mammal. He, too, felt his stomach turn in disgust and he had to hold back the urge to empty the contents of his stomach; the stench was horrible. "Regularly, you say? How often have you this sogno, this dream?"

Boni's voice held concern for the girl as he moved past her, trying not to make her feel uncomfortable in his gaze, which had often been described as powerfully alluring to invite discomfort. He supposed it was because of his scars, really, though they had begun to bother him less and less as his time in the Menagerie decreased. "Where is this shirt you spoke of? The wound, it bleeds again." He motioned to where blood had begun to trickle from his arm again, the deep wound still wide open.

"Dio. I believe it may need stitches."







ooc; Italian :3 Boni speaks Italian, not Spanish ^^

[Deleted]

ooc//oops ^^ my bad

ic:Also moving away from the poor dead thing, she listened carefully to Boni's explanation of the wound, and how it was bleeding again. "Wait, poison! That's not good. And the shirt is right by my bed" she said, as they reached said bed. She started rummaging through her pack, searching for the shirt. After a moment, she pulled it out. She also took out a small knife, and with that began cutting out a large strip of the material. In response to his other questions, she answered, "I've had the dream two or three times a week in the summer. It's not so bad in the other seasons" A lie, of course. That was her secret, and if to many people found out about her secret, she could be branded as a weakling, a name she had been fighting since her first memory. "Yes, you probably need stitches, and I wouldn't even trust myself for giving you them. I'd get nervous and sew your fingers together or something" she said, a faint smile flickering across her features. She finished her clothing destruction and held out the band of fabric. "Hold out you arm" she ordered.