Curse of the Damned

[WickedWitch]

For a split second, the outside air is aggressive as it knocks into his senses, the natural and human scents stuffing his nose uncomfortably full. His gaze wavers and the dull thudding in his brain becomes strangers, the world splayed out before him tips and swirls underneath his glazed eyes. The sound of Eden speaking to him hurls him back to the real world, "Not here…" He says dumbly, regretting the words the moment they leave his mouth. Mentally he racks his brain for any place that was durable, or someplace near to where they were currently at . "We go back to where you found m--" Abruptly he clamps his mouth shut, the utterance falling involuntarily from his loose lips, "The wolf, where you found the wolf.." Harley picks back up, trying and in more ways than one, failing at assaying to dismiss the odd wording or blurt. Taking a shallow breath, he drags his feet and moves towards the car, the action sending another harsh throb through his skull. He's not quite sure if this was connected to the curse, or if the hunter's poison had somehow dug deeper than the surface. It would explain why his shifting was being erratic and frenzied.

 

[FlourPower]

Harlem fumbled over his directive of where to go and Eden wondered just how impaired his mental state was. He was clearly out of it, though if that was from the drugs, the blood loss, or some unnoticed hear injury, she couldn't tell. "Did you take something recently?" Eden asked, unlocking the doors and climbing in her car. The back seats were still folded down from where she'd transported the wolf yesterday. The vehicle smelled faintly of fur and blood. Eden rolled down the windows and tried not to look at her passenger. Being confined in a small space with the strange man only increased her anxiety. "If you want me to treat you, I need to know any substances you're under the influence of."

Eden glanced at herself in the rearview mirror. Her hair was a mess and her mascara from the day before was slightly smudged beneath her eyes. Eden scrubbed it away with a sigh. She could probably use a shower and a change of clothes too. Not that she was about to get it. It's was far from the worst thing about this situation, but if she did get murdered today, she'd rather not look like a hot mess when the police found her body. Eden nearly laughed at the surrealness of her thoughts. Maybe she was in shock. Eden turned the ignition with shaking hands. She didn't know why Harlem wanted to go to the Preserve (probably to dump her body) but it was a drive she could make in her sleep.

Eden's hands faltered on their way to the steering wheel. She finally looked at Harlem again. "You said where I found the wolf. I didn't tell you I found it." Eden wracked her brain, trying to remember if adrenaline was distorting her memory before deciding it wasn't. "I said I treated it, yes. But never that I was the one that found it." It would be far more likely that the park service had brought it in. For Harlem to guess that Eden stumbled across the animal herself in the park was improbable. For him to want to go where she'd discovered it was even stranger. "How did you know that?"

 

[WickedWitch]

Harley can barely hear Eden talking to him, her voice sounds far away yet his ears clench towards his skull like she's just too close, his vision is hazy and he doesn't quite remember getting into the car or how he even got outside. It's frightening, his memory harboring large black patches where past and even present happenings slip past his brains grasp, and he's left stumbling frantically in the real world. And when his eyes drift back open -he doesn't even recall closing them- he has to physically and mentally hold himself back from tearing his nails into the lush car seats from the smells that slam back into him, "I-I don't know what you mean, speak up.." He breathes harshly from underneath his breath, there's a visible tenseness in his shoulders, and an unwelcome and horrifying past ordeal that forces its hands against the forefront of his skull. Sticking like an icky tar against his conscience.

He tries to bury it underneath an indifferent look, but it is almost glaringly obvious in the sickly sheen that has taken like a second layer above his increasingly pale skin. Harley's heart thumps erratically inside his chest, and the buzzing in his ears doesn't help to tighten the loose lock on his lips, "You seemed more keen on making sure the wolf was okay, so I'm guessed you were the one that found it." Harley slurs the words out like it almost hurts to properly move his lips to work, it seemed that the bodily trauma was slowly working out whatever medicinal aid Eden had offered him. He needed to get out of this bloody car, fast, before he accidentally lashed out the very patently frightened woman beside him. He huffs a ragged breath from his nose, choosing to rip his nails from his scarred palms to clamp down against the car door without too much pressure.