I Thought You Died Alone, Long Long Ago [Closed]

[FlyingPanther]

Silvanus didn't go home the night his brother came to visit him in the streets. He didn't pick up his parcels. He simply stood up, and began making his way as quickly as possible to the only person he could think of going to. Ophelia.

They had not left last on the greatest of terms, and indeed, many years had passed since they had seen eachother last. Not doubt their children were grown and away from the house by now. He wondered if his negligence would get him sent the other way by his old friend...if she would still be angry at him from when last they spoke, but Silvanus needed to see someone. The world had done a backflip on him, and now everything was strange and dangerous. He needed to go to someone who might be able to help him in his hysteria.

Ophelia had always been there for him in the past. He only hoped she would be there for him now as he knocked on the door to her house in Corvistowne. He looked around, his eyes wide and frightened. His mane was matted and horrible, he smelled just as bad as he looked, and he was lanky. He was hardly in the shape she last left him in as he waited on her doorstep...wondering if she would answer the door...or if his brother would come out of the darkness and swallow him up in the blink of an eye.

[Vyn]

Ophelia twitched.

The day was growing late with night swiftly closing in. The last thing she had expected to hear was an unannounced knock at the door. The majority of the 'kids' that still lingered at home had gone to run errands with Maxwell in Capital and the rest had their own lives to attend to.

Ophelia was alone, and she was fine with this. She knew how to defend herself and had, on many occasions, done just that. So she strode to the door, Vilya coiled loosely around her neck and ready to strike if needed, and looked through the peep hole there.

What she found was possibly more shocking than the knock itself. Silvanus. After his great disappearance, she was the last person she expected to see. In fact, she'd grow quietly certain that he was dead although none of the children ever spoke of this. The doe was quick to pull open the door, eyes wide and distress furrowing her features.

"Silvanus! What...brings you here?" How much had changed since they'd last seen each other? She couldn't believe how much he'd changed...or how haggard he looked. "What happened?"

[FlyingPanther]

Silvanus opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a distressed studdering sound. His eyes were wider then a frightened child's. Indeed, the way he carried himself, the way he hunched, the way he kept looking behind him, and finally the way he looked at her like she was someone who could save him...it was all very childlike. A hand cluched a swollen arm to his chest, and it was already beginning to bruise. Silvanus wished he can speak, but he couldn't find the words to say anything. Fear and paranoia were evident in his body language. He closed his mouth for a moment while he tried to calm himself down enough to say something.

He looked behind him again, but just as he had seen several times before, only the night and dark houses stared back at him. He looked at Ophelia again, "Not safe..." he said barely above a whisper, afraid to speak much louder, and now that he had spoken...he seemed even more riled up inching his way over to Ophelia, his arm still cluched to his chest. "I'm going to die....he's going to kill me..." his words were unintellegible...but his fear was tangible, no doubt she could probably smell it wafting from him like a thick vapor. "Please....I don't have anyone to go to..." his eyes pleeded.

[Vyn]

For a long moment Ophelia was silent. Staring, listening...torn.

For the longest time she had longed to see this man again, had nursed fears of his death and the pain of realization that he simply might not want to see her again, and yet there he stood... and Ophelia wanted nothing more than to slam the door in his face.

He'd come back not because he missed her, not because he was sorry for vanishing on her...but because he had no one else to turn to? Because he was terrified and wounded and pitiful?!

Were she a lesser person, Ophelia would've made a snide comment just then but instead she opened the door wider and beckoned him inside. "Alright, Silv... Come inside, you can stay for the nightyou'll be safe here." There would be plenty of time to be angry with him when he wasn't frightened and miserable. Once he was inside, the doe shut the door behind him and locked it for his reassurance before ushering him toward the bathroom. "What happened, Silvanus? I'd suggest you tell me everything."

Ophelia wanted the truth. She wanted to know why the man she'd been falling for had vanished on her...only to reappear years later begging for him. Most of all, though, she wanted to know why she should throw him back out on the streets.

[FlyingPanther]

He could see the look on her face, the turmoil. It was as if he was trapped in his own mind. Part of him wanted to appologize...wanted to sooth her, but his need for safety, and his fear and paranoia were all consuming. It was like being drunk, unable to truely control yourself, but without the wonderful aloof feeling. No, he was trapped in a nightmare that would never go away. He was going to die. He made a fearful sound, like a wounded dog flinching away from being petted. He was going to die.

He walked inside as she told him to. It was all he could really do...was stare behind him and do what the female said. He shook his head at her words. "I'll never be safe....Never. I'm a dead man." he said, putting his good hand on his head, the other falling limply to his side. He grabbed his matted mane and yanked it slightly. "Surely he'll kill me...." he mumbled to himself as he was physically lead to the bathroom. He wouldn't be able to move himself. "He won't forgive me...he shouldn't forgive me...I don't forgive myself....why would he? He's going to kill me...I'm going to die." he held his arm again, and began hyperventelating.

His mind was to far gone...Ophelia would have to bring him back a notch in order to get him to say anything.

[Vyn]

Ophelia clenched a hand at her side where Silvanus couldn't see it. She didn't want him to see her frustration, her distress. Surely some leaked into her eyes, or escaped into tension lines which played across her face like wires drawn taunt under an invisible weight, but she didn't want to make the absolute depth of it clear.

There was plenty of time for that later.

Soon she had him in the bathroom, forcing him to sit on the lidded toilet as she took a hold of his wounded arm. "Who's going to kill you, Silv?" He was obviously incoherent and trying to get him to talk seemed increasingly less likely, but it was hard to sit in silence with his distraught ramblings running through her head. "They probably don't know you're here, Silv. They can't hurt you here."

Slowly her hands ran over his arm, testing the bone in various places to check if it was broken.

[FlyingPanther]

Pressure was put on his legs and he knew to sit down, bottom resting upon the toliet lid, and his tail falling limp to the side. He watched her in silence, his facial features unchaging, eyes continueing to show fear and the obvious repetative thoughts in his mind. "He found me. How would he knew where to look?" he finally said, shaking his head. He was sure that his brother had some sort of way to track him. He had to! They had lived in Avington as children...how would he know to look in Capital City? He shook his head, he was obviously afraid to tell her who was threatening to kill him. Suddenly his face turned white, and he looked at Ophelia as she felt along his arm for broken bones. She might very well have found one...the force of his arm being thrown against the cobblestones had been great, but that was not why the deer turned pale.

He had just realized that he might very well have put Ophelia in danger just for coming to her. Surely his brother, the monster that he was, wouldn't just be satisfied with just killing him. And what if Ophelia stood up to him? She was in danger now to...just because he came to her. He quickly got up off the toilet, "Oh no...what have I done..." his hysteria reach an all new high as he headed for the bathroom door, "I shouldn't have come here....I shouldn't have come here...He'll hurt you to....I shouldn't have come here..." but the bathroom door was locked. He wrestled with it a bit, but it didn't give way...and he was to paniced to realize he could just release the lock.

[Vyn]

Ophelia recoiled as Silvanus swung to his feet, rushing for the door as she stood and stared at him in shock. Vilya hissed quietly and Ophelia found herself sighing in frustration. Vilya didn't trust the delusional buck and, honestly, Ophelia was beginning to think that the Tove must've had more sense than she herself did.

"Silvanus." Ophelia moved slowly toward the buck, watching him struggle with the door with a growing sense of frustration. His ramblings had finally pushed the doe past her limit of tolerance. Without warning she swung forward, slapping him sharply across the face. The sting in her hand was almost satisfying. Almost. "You need to calm down, Silvanus. You need to calm down and listen to me. I won't listen to this much longer without an explanation!"

Her hands reached to catch his shoulders now, to force him against the door he'd been flailing at moment's before. "No one is going to come in here and hurt me. I know how to defend myself."

[FlyingPanther]

Silvanus was in a scary place, where everything was frightening and just building upon itself in a nightmarish way. Suddenly he was struck out of that place. A resonating slap echoed in his head, and he stopped, standing quite still, lifting his good hand to reach his blistering cheek. Moments later he could feel himself being pushed against the door, being forced to look into the snake-like doe's face. Green eyes angry, annoyed, and all he could do was continue to look at her with his own fearful baby blues...but he was less hysterical now. A little less anyway.

He shook his head, he didn't believe the doe. "He's big...bigger then I could have ever imagined him growing to be. Just like Him... he said...thinking back to his childhood antagonist. The creature that had ruined his life...his mother's life. The one who started it all. Tears came to his eyes. How similar was Adam to his father? How scared his mother must have been. He had created a monster. Guilt still coursed through him about his brother, but his fear outweighed it at the moment, understandibly. It was hard to feel guilty when the thing your feeling guilty about is threatening to end your life.

"My brother....he's alive..." he said, his voice quivering a bit. He had mentioned he had a brother in the past to Ophelia, though he wasn't wondering if she remembered or not. Finally he was beginning to give a piece of the puzzle.

[Vyn]

Ophelia was torn somewhere between slapping the buck a second time and hugging him.

They were both equally oblivious in many ways -- she had no clue what it was that was truly disturbing him and he had no clue just how capable she really was at defending herself. The doe sighed and leaned more heavily against her old friend, shaking her head with pity.

"Alright, Silv. I understand, he's big..." Concern won out over frustration. Slowly she ran her hands up from his shoulders to gently cup his face. "We need to sit down now, and talk. You're filthy and you're hurt. I'll take care of you today, but only if you tell me everything."

His brother... His dead brother? Another sigh escaped the doe but she forced her frustration down this time. If he was going to calm down, she needed to calm down.

"Come on, sit down. Start from the beginning, from your big disappearance."