who: Joshua and Mouse what: Lost little lamb saved by the hunter from the wolves when: Tuesday Evening where: Streets of Toronto/Super 8 Motel warnings: Language mainly.
The girl with no memory walked down the street, shivering in the cool night air. She was dirty, some dirt smeared on her cheek, other unknown smudged on her clothing. She had lost track of how many days she had been wandering, trying to remember, for something familiar to spark her mind, but so far all she had found was how hard life was s a homeless person.
Was she even homeless? What was her name? Where was she from? These were questions she had no answers to. Her memories began about a week ago in a park. She remembered nothing before that, though it was obvious to her with how old she was, or at least the estimation of an age, she should know things. Like her own name.
The girl flopped down on a bench that served as a bus stop, hugging herself. She hadn’t eaten in two days. She was cold, hungry, and scared. A small whimper came from her as she sniffled, fighting back tears. She wished she could remember something! Anything!
Joshua had been in a piss-poor mood lately, with Ophelia off doing God knows what, and Elias in a hospital, and yet he still couldn’t bring himself to go visit his brother. He felt as if he was failing them, and those feelings just made him want to kill something. He’d been tracking a vampire, a newly turned on at that, because the horrors being left in its wake were stupid choices. Granted that made the fucker easier to track, but where was the fun in that? He wanted the challenge.
He was oblivious to the girl sitting on the bench at the bus stop he passed at first, lost in his own thoughts and the trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with his family as of late. But when he heard the whimper, his body tensed. His hand then coming up to rub at his face, and the stubble that lined his jawline from forgetting to shave that morning. With a sigh, he turned back, getting a look at the girl, before resigning himself to move toward her, “You lost or somethin’?”
The girl hadn’t noticed him anymore than he had her at first, lost in the misery of knowing nothing. It wasn’t until he spoke that she saw him. She jumped a bit, wincing away from him as she looked up at him with wide eyes. A week on the street had taught her to fear people. Men especially. “I...I....” she stammered, inching away from him. “Y-y-yes I...I don’t know where...I don’t know...anything...” she managed out, ready to run if she needed to.
His brows knitted together, seeing the terror on her face, “Woah there, slow it down a little. You don’t know what?” He put up his hands to show her they were empty, even though he had a few weapons placed on his person. He never left ‘home’ without something to protect himself with. You never know what might happen out on the streets of .. well anywhere. He was concentrating on her more now, taking in what he was seeing before him, the fact that the girl looked pretty darn dirty, which he just assumed meant she had either been involved with something traumatic, or she had a fear of water? He was going to place his bets on the prior. “I’m not going to hurt you, I wont even move from this spot, just calm down and start from the beginning, what happened?” Even now he was still telling people what to do, some habits would never die.
There was something about him. Maybe it was his eyes. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She just knew it. Funny, as she didn’t know anything else. “I don’t know what happened. That’s the problem.” she said, her lower lip trembling. “I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything at all, not even my own name.” There were no visible injuries on her save for a few scratches just from living as she was. It wasn’t head trauma that caused her memory loss. “I think it was a week ago...I lost count. My memories start there. Just a park. I don’t know anything else...How can I not know my own name?” She was panicky now, tears going down her cheeks as she began to shake.
His eyes narrowed as he listened to her, trying to gauge on if she was actually telling the truth or not. But then again she seemed too scared to be making all of this up on the spot. Either she was telling the truth or the girl deserved a fucking emmy. His hand rose to rub at the back of his neck, “I’m going to move closer to you, so don’t freak out on me, alright?” He figured vocalizing his actions might help in this case. Still he needed to check the possibilities on why the girl wouldn’t remember who the hell she was. When he moved close enough to reach out a hand, he actually felt the back of her head for any cuts or lumps or anything that might explain the reasoning. There was a nagging at the back of his mind, especially when he was getting a closer look at her. “Huh. That would be extreme, even for them...” He thought aloud. Trying to figure out the puzzle that it seemed whatever fate deemed he needed on top of everything else.
She stayed absolutely still as he touched her head, like a prey animal waiting for danger to pass, hoping not to be noticed. She chewed her bottom lip, her eyes watching him closely. “Them? Them who?” She hadn’t a clue as to what he was talking about. Of course, she didn’t have a clue about anything so it wasn’t a far stretched that she wouldn’t understand. “You know who did this to me?”
He has his suspicions, but nothing concrete, so he completely ignored her questions, “C’mon Mouse, lets get you some food, and you could desperately use a shower.” He didn’t quite know why he called her Mouse, she didn’t have a name, and he wasn’t just going to say ‘hey you’. Sure he could be rude, but everyone needed some sort of name, even if he was comparing her to a mouse. She looked mousy enough, like the girl couldn’t defend herself if her life had depended on it. And if his suspicions were right, then why the fucking glamour, why didn’t they just kill the girl? Of course that was usually his fallback answer, blame the vampires. He put a hand on the small of her back, as if to help edge her along, just in case she wanted to keep playing the whole timid role, even after the offering of food.
Mouse. She knew what a mouse was, somehow. It wasn’t a memory, just some information stored somewhere. The man did seem to know how to get her to come with him though. Food and a shower. Both of those things sounded wonderful. She stayed close to him as they walked, jumping at every little noise. “Um, what is your name?” she asked. Mouse was already being adopted as her own name in her mind. She needed something to identify with for herself and Mouse was as good a name as anything. Now she wanted to know his name.
Now he had no idea on what type of food she liked, nor did he even think to ask her. He just figured that he’d grab some sort of take out on the way back to the motel. Which he could already get an inkling on what his siblings reactions to bringing home a ‘stray’ would be, Max wouldn’t mind much, he was the most like Joshua in his eyes, Elias wasn’t there so that wouldn’t pose a problem. Now Ophelia on the other hand, she’d probably cause some sort of bickering and then storm off as per usual lately. He hesitated when she asked his name though, wondering on if he should give one of his many aliases or if he should be truthful, after a bit of an internal debate, he finally settled on the latter. “Names Joshua,” He started, then figured he’d try to trigger something in her, “You sure you don’t remember anything, running into maybe a witch, or hell, even a vampire?”
Joshua. That was a nice name. Biblical. She seemed to possess knowledge, but any kind of personal memory seemed to be beyond her. Even if he asked what kind of food she liked, Mouse wouldn’t know. Considering the crap she had been eating this past week though, anything would be better. “Joshua.” she said with a nod. “And no, I don’t remember anything. First memory I have is of some park and it was dark out.”
It seemed like a glamor gone wrong to him, or maybe this was supposed to be the outcome, which just made him wonder on what the girl might have seen to piss off someone enough to wipe her whole memory. “We’ll figure it out, Mouse.” He tried to reassure her, before leading her into a gas station, “Pick whatever you think looks appetizing, granted it isn’t much of anything.” Still, he was used to grabbing food on the go, and even though he wasn’t going to get anything for himself, he didn’t want the girl to go hungry, and they weren’t too far from the motel. Which pissed him off even more in the fact that he had been tracking something so close to where he and his siblings were calling home for now. Maybe it was getting close to time to switch locations again, staying in the same city as there was just too much activity here to move on completely, but having something hunting too close was putting him at an unease. “Which park? If you don’t know the name, how far from here would you say it is?”
Mouse was starving, but she was afraid to take too much as she had no money. Nothing really looked familiar by way of brands but she chose a mini pizza, some apple juice, and a few odds and ends snacks. She seemed to be able to do math in her head easily and kept the purchase under ten dollars. “No, I don’t know which park or how far it is.” she said, biting her lip. “I’ve been wandering around, so I don’t remember.”
Joshua watched her as he moved around himself, grabbing a loaf of bread, and some lunch meat, as well as some bottles of water. The water he would probably keep for himself, the bread and lunch meat would be for whoever at the motel (including Mouse now) would want it. He didn’t look to happy when she said that she didn’t know which park it was, or the fact that she had been wandering around. He knew that without a place to start, tracking whatever did this to her would be difficult, not impossible, but difficult. Such was the life of a hunter though. “How long have you been like this?” He then asked, heading up to the counter, so that he could pay for the things they both had gathered up. Not only was the location important, but timing as well. Even if he could find the park on his own, if too much time had gone by, then the trail would certainly be cold by now.
She stayed close to him at the counter, her eyes flicking around nervously at the other patrons, however few they were. She seemed suspicious of everyone, and that wasn’t a bad thing considering. “I dunno, maybe a week or so.” she said, grabbing a tastycake as soon as it was rung up and beginning to eat it. She was starving. “I’m sorry, I wish I knew more...”
He chuckled when he noticed that she didn’t even wait until they were out of the store before trying to gobble something down. Rubbing at the back of his neck, he shook his head slightly, “Don’t be sorry, Mouse, as I said, we’ll figure it out.” A week was longer than he had hoped for, a few days would have been better, hell even the night before. It certainly wasn’t giving him a lot to go on. But, at least he had a somewhat time frame, that was starting something. Maybe he’d have to stop in to see Elias at the hospital afterall, even though he hated the idea of seeing his kid brother like that. But Elias was better when it came to computers and things technical like that. And it would be simple enough to see if there were any missing persons reported around that time frame. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, “Don’t make yourself sick eating too fast if it’s been awhile. I know you’re hungry, but if you rush it, it wont be pretty.”
“I know it’s been two days since I’ve eaten.” she mumbled out between food, eating still as they left the shop and headed to wherever he was taking her. He had bought her food, which very much endeared Joshua to her. He had also given her a name, Mouse. She kinda liked it. Somehow she managed to balance a drink and her pizza as they walked, scarfing it down. She had finished eating everything before they even got to the hotel. “Thank you.” she said after washing everything down with her juice.
It tore at him a little when she said she’d gone two days without food. But that was the kind of person he was, some of the time. Not that he let on to it much, “Well, that will be fixed too. For the time being I can put you in Ophelia’s room, she hasn’t been around, and Elias isn’t there.” He was thinking aloud, planning aloud. He often did that, but usually in the confines of his own room, when Max wasn’t around. He thought better when his thoughts were out in the air, or at least that was his way of thinking about it. “I could probably get her back to look after you while I go try to find out some answers. Wait, no, bad idea scratch that.” He looked at her then. “If I leave later, to go see my brother, will you stay put at the motel, and not run off so I can find out who or what did this to you and try to get it fixed for you?” He could see it now though, Ophelia would go total she-bitch on him, and Elias would probably make him feel bad for not visiting sooner, but he’d help, he had to, this was the type of shit that their parents wanted them to do.
“I’ll stay put, I promise.” He was willing to let her stay in his sister’s room and feed her and let her bathe. Why would she want to go anywhere? The only other option was to wander around more and she certainly didn’t want to do that. “I’ll probably just shower and sleep.” Mouse was exhausted from her ordeal the past week. She wanted to be clean and sleep in a nice, warm bed.
When the motel came into view up the street, he frowned a bit more, trying to think on what weapons were out and about, or the messes that might have been left. That could just start a whole slew of more problems with this whole situation. He rubbed at his face again, and nodded, “Good, you could probably use the rest too. Tomorrow though, we’ll work on some of those instincts you were showing back at the store. Being scared isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but we’ll work on making it so you wont be so damned timid.” The girl might as well earn a keep if she’d be sticking around for awhile, at least in the training aspect. He wasn’t about to send her back on the streets mindless and defenseless.
Mouse blushed and tucked her hair behind her ears. “I don’t really know who I am, I’m just sort of...surviving.” she said as she followed him, her eyes always watching their surroundings looking for any kind of trouble. It had grown to be second habit in the last week, to be careful like that. She had had to be. “But I’ll take any lessons you have to offer.” He was obviously a man who knew his way around the world. Mouse knew she could learn from him.
Joshua actually cracked a bit of a smile. Finally someone that wasn’t going to question him constantly, that was a bit of a relief. But then again it wasn’t, because if he was questioned that meant that people were thinking. She’d get to that point, “So it’s settled then.” He spoke while pulling the keycards for both rooms out of his pocket, and using the first to enter Ophelia and Elias’s room. “Just gonna grab you something clean.” He spoke, before going to where his sister kept her clothes and pretty much grabbing the first pajama looking things he could find. Then he left that room and opened the door to his own. “I’ll keep you in here tonight, don’t need my sister coming back at who knows what hour and finding you in there. She’s liable to react and then ask questions.” He handed her the clothes he had gotten for her, “Here’s these, shower’s in the back of the room, and you’ll get the bed.”
Clean clothes sounded wonderful and when they made it to his room, it was like a palace to her after a week on the streets and no memory of anything else. “Thank you.” she said, taking the clothes from him. She finally gave him a smile before going into the bathroom. She took a log, hot shower, cleaning all the grime and yucky smells off of her. Her clothes would need to be washed, so she left them on the floor. Once she was clean, she dried off and dressed in the clothes Joshua had gotten for her, presumably his sister’s. They were big in her tiny frame, but they were clean.
She emerged, her long hair hanging in damp curls around her face. The bed was turned down and it was chilly so she climbed right in, watching Joshua closely, still slightly suspicious. “Thank you, for helping me.” she said softly, peering at him from behind her glasses.
While she was in the shower, Joshua had pulled out his cellphone and was sending out texts to his siblings, the first one, letting Max know to not kill the woman that would be sleeping in his bed. The second text went to Elias, telling him to look for any missing person’s reports in the last week fitting the description of the one he was calling Mouse. And the final text was sent to his sister, Need your help, get your ass back to the motel. There that sounded urgent enough. Granted none of this was anything that couldn’t wait until the morning, but he liked to be a pain in the ass to his sister. She usually dished it, she could take it. After the texts were sent, he got the bed ready for the girl and then sat at the little desk like table in the room, grabbing his duffel bag along the way.
He watched her when she finally emerged from the bathroom, while he was in the middle of sharpening one of the daggers that he kept. Sure it probably looked a little frightening, but if the girl was going to be around, she’d have to get used to it. Granted, he did set the blade down on the table to make it less intimidating. “You’re welcome, I couldn’t just leave you there, not when it’s pretty obvious nothing natural caused this. And that’s what I’m good at, Mouse, fixing the unnatural.” A little bit of a smirk crossed on his lips then.
Mouse’s eyes flicked to the knife but she forced herself not to panic. There were plenty of legitimate reasons for having a knife, but that one didn’t exactly look like kitchen knife. She was exhausted though, so it was a little hard for her to get too worked up. “Thank you.” she said with a yawn, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes.
Joshua got up, and used a scrap piece of paper to write his cell number down, setting it next to the old looking phone that the motel room had in it. “You get some sleep, here’s my cell number in case you wake up and need anything and I’m not back yet.” He’d probably spend a little time right outside the rooms, waiting to hear back from his sister. And if that didn’t happen, then he’d go off looking on his own for a while. “Sleep well, Mouse.” He murmured before he grabbed his bag, and headed out the door.