5. The name

Hannah stood in a dark room, and in front of her the headmaster was standing and to her right the shadow man. The headmaster was groping her, telling her how useless she was, how he would love to use her body for his own good. She didn’t look at him, but looked to her right side at the shadow of the tall dark, silent man. She looked into the green eyes, with just a hint of gold, she couldn’t place the colour. She felt so safe, he took her hand moved it to his lips and kissed it. The warmth from his touch, ignited small sparks on her skin, and she felt like home. “come with me, the shadow said, come with me my Queen” Suddenly she felt chains on her legs and turned back around, the headmaster, had chained her legs, he had the punish belt in the other hand, and all the kids from the orphanage was forced to watch, Toby in the front, black and blue from bruises. All the kids looked afraid. “I am sorry, I can’t leave them, she said to the shadow man. The headmaster grinned “I knew you would say that, I knew you would prefer me over him, you little whore” and then he swung the belt. Hannah closed her eyes listening to the sound of the belt, ready for it to hit her skin.

Hannah woke up with a start “it was just a dream; it was just a dream” she said to herself. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and it was pounding hard. The nightmares had become more frequent as she came closer to her birthday, but it was the first time the green-eyed shadow had been there. He must have left a bigger impression on her subconsciousness than she knew. Hannah got up, the sun had begun to rise, and she was in a hurry, all the chores needed to be done. She cleaned, wiped and washed; she did all her chores. When all the cleaning chores was done, Louise came down with 2 of the smallest kids, followed by Toby. Hannah made their breakfast, oatmeal, again. She made a huge batch, so they had enough for all the little ones as soon as they got up. She kissed Louise and the small ones on the cheek, tussled Toby’s hair, grabbed her bag and said “I will be home at time today, be careful” Toby nodded back at her, Louise was busy trying to feed the kids, she waved at them and left for school, her sanctuary.

Hannah, arrived at the school, before most of the other kids, she had walked fast this morning. She slipped through the door and went down to her locker. Trying to be as invisible as possible, hoping that she wouldn’t be noticed today. When she got to the lunchbreak, she still hadn’t been spotted by anyone. But as she walked towards the lunchroom her luck ran out the group of boys and girls, who bullied her yesterday saw her led by Bryan as usual. Bryan was the one who had called her a slut yesterday, was bruised, his right eye was black and swollen. He came towards her “well well well, isn’t it the soon-to be new whore in town” he got closer to her, she heard the rest of them giggle, as if he had said something funny. When he got so close, he could touch her, he reached out. Hannah stood there, and was ready for him to touch her, he leaned forward and whispered, “when I buy you, you will treat me in anyway I want as the whore you are.” He placed his hand on her breast. All of a sudden, a loud growl was heard in the hallway and the next thing she saw was Bryan being slammed into the wall, while a huge man was holding him by the throat. 2 guys and a girl also arrived they focused on the remaining part of the group, so no-one would interfere. Bryan led out a small sound and Hannah got scared that the huge man would kill Bryan, and she let out a scream “STOP”, she didn’t know who the man was, or why he was holding Bryan by his throat. When he heard her scream, he turned his head around and looked her in the eyes and she saw that it was him. It was the green-eyed guy from yesterday.

Hannah froze when her eyes met his and so did, he. The looks they exchanged was like it made everyone else disappear, Hannah could only see him it was like all the sounds disappeared, only they existed in the world at that moment. There was this warm feeling spreading in her body, and then she panicked. She closed her eyes and broke the silence; all the sounds were back. She looked up at his grip around Bryans throat and said with a low but firm voice, “don’t hurt him” the green-eyed guy looked at her, but now his eyes were golden, then back at Bryan, he leaned forward so she couldn’t see what happened. But he must have said something because Bryans eyes looked like they wanted to tumble out of his head. He loosened his grip around Bryan, and Bryan fell to the floor. Hannah crossed the hall kneeled near Bryan but not so close that he could touch her she still could feel his hands on her boobs. “are you okay? do you need help going to the nurse’s office?” she asked friendly. Bryan looked at her grinned and said “a whore like you should worry more about her upcoming birthday” Hannah heard someone moving, she instinctively knew green-eyed guy had heard what Bryan said. She also immediately knew that something bad was going to happen if she didn’t move. She moved between the green-eyed guy and Bryan, so she was facing the guy and had her back to Bryan “don’t “she said to the guy. “he just doesn’t know any better” the guy looked at her with surprise, as if she weren’t real. Then he grabbed her hard by the wrist and dragged her, Hannah didn’t know what to do, he seemed so angry, so she just followed, and truth to be told, she also liked the sparks on her skin. He walked so fast, so she had to run a little to follow him. But now she noticed his scent it was like the smell of forest after a new rain. It was the most amazing scent in the world, and it somehow calmed her mind which was racing. He dragged her into an empty classroom, and finally he stopped. He let go of her hand and she sighed and used her other hand to gently rub the wrist he let go off, to ease it a bit. Then he began yelling at her “What the f… why did you stand up for him? He called you a whore are you that kind of girl, that likes to be treated like dirt? Have you slept with him? His anger seemed to be explosive and Hannah pressed her body toward the table behind her, but she didn’t defend herself, she thought if he just kept yelling, then he would get all his anger out, she didn’t ask him to help her. She kept rubbing her wrist, it wasn’t like it still hurt, but it was comforting for the moment. He looked at her hands movement and let out an angry sound and smacked his fist into the wall. Hannah’s heart jumped and when she saw his hand bleed a little, she wanted to help and go check his knuckles, but he started pacing the room, so she decided to just wait a bit, watching his movements as a hawk. After a few moments he finally stopped, took a deep breath, looked at her and said; “did I hurt you?”

“no, not really Hannah answered him,.”

He closed his eyes, and let out a sigh, “don’t lie to me, I see the mark on your skin”

“there is no pain” Hannah answered him truly.

He sighed and mumbled to himself “that’s good, at least we didn’t hurt our mate”

Hannah heard him, but assumed he used the word as in friend or comrade, even though they didn’t really know each other, she didn’t even know his name.

“are you hurt?” she asked, “let me see your hands” He walked towards her, and she grabbed his hand carefully, His hands were big in her small hands, and a darker shade. If the word strong could be used about hands, then this is what strong hands would look like she thought. She felt small sparkles on her skin where their skin touched, it bled a little from the knuckles, she held his hand with one of her own carefully placed on each side “okay, can you stretch your fingers” He stretched his fingers.

“Can you bend them?” he bends them.

“Good! Nothing seems broken.” She dragged him towards the classroom sink, turned on the cold water and placed his hand under it, washing off the blood. Carefully she dried it with a paper cloth. But it looked like it was just a scraping. She let out a sigh. “well you are lucky, seems like it was just a scraping. She looked at his face, their eyes locked again, her blue eyes and his emerald green. She doesn’t know how long they are standing like that, but suddenly the door opens and the 2 boys that had been a wall during the fight between the green-eyed and Bryan barged in. Hannah looked at them; one of them was a tall, not as tall as Xander, but almost, dark-haired guy with brown eyes. The other one had short blond hair, green eyes and a tattoo of a wolf howling towards the moon on his left overarm and the girl had brown hair with blue stripes, that had been a wall during the fight.

“There you are Xander, we have been looking for you” the blonde guy said. The green-eyed guy, let his hand through his dark hair and didn’t answer, he walked past her and was almost out the door when she said “Xander is it? Thank you!” he stopped for a second “don’t mention it” he said and then he left. She heard the school bell, “oh dammit” she said began running. Luckily the next class was with her favourite teacher so she was pretty sure she wouldn’t get in trouble for being two minutes late.