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Her dreams had been of pain, of fire and of ice. She’d ran her calloused fingers across the intertwining scars that spread across her ankles and up her calves as they brought back conflicting memories of pain. Vicious slashing and spurts of blood played across her mind as she whimpered, her eyes tightly closed. She could feel and remember a car crash which had almost cost her the ability to walk, but overlapping this was a vivid image of a pompous man taunting her as his fellows chained her naked to the floor and set about slicing her flesh; a punishment they’d called it. It felt so real that she kept running her hands across her body wherever she’d seen a blade cut deep to reassure her that it hadn’t happened. That it couldn’t have happened.
Glancing at her watch she groaned before swinging her legs off the bed, grabbing a nearby, but mostly clean pair of worn jeans and pulling them on; hopping slightly on the cold floor as she did so with her face scrunching at the momentary chill on her bare feet. Yawning, she pushed open the doorway into the main blacksmithing part of the workshop and she straightened up her tank-top before shuffling towards the kitchen round the side of the building. Her eyes half-shut, she stifled yet another yawn as she slowly filled the coffee machine and lent groggily against the bench. Reaching over towards the small draining board she caught a glimpse of a sleeping figure through the window in the now disused office.
Thankfully it appeared her screaming clearly hadn’t woken the recent arrival, though she thought for the umpteenth time that Alex would probably be better served making use of a bed in her house or a hotel rather than the flea-bitten couch she simply hadn’t got around to throwing out yet. Then again, it wasn’t like she was doing much better since she’d been sleeping on little more than a mattress in an old storage room. As she poured herself her rich drink, savouring the sweet aroma she thought she could hear a noise coming from the office which she dismissed at first but quickly put down to Alex muttering in his sleep; after all she’d been screaming out not long ago herself. Though after sitting with the warm mug in her hands for a few minutes she looked back towards her house-guest as she made out clearly that he was beginning to make rougher and almost animalistic noises that could best be described as growls.
She felt snow, sharp and biting all around her as she stumbled through the dense forest. Her limbs felt heavy, blood and sweat stung her eyes as she darkness cried out with a chorus of wolfen voices raised in howl.
Starting suddenly, she jumped, her mug slipping from her hands before she caught it the brown liquid splashing onto her hands and still bare feet.
"Fucking bastard" she hissed, with a sharp intake of breath as she tried not to cry out too loudly. Setting the mug onto the counter she quickly grabbed a nearby cloth to wipe the drops from her skin as well as from the cold concrete floor.
Deciding that she might as well she made a start on readying the shop for opening, since it was fast becoming only a few hours away as dawn was slowly peeking into view.
Courtney sauntered through the dimly lit shop, resting her mug on a bench and slotting her phone into a nearby dock, her fingers flicking through various songs before settling on November Rain. Making sure the volume was loud enough for her to enjoy but not loud enough to wake Alex she grabbed an armful of wood from its bin in the corner and deposited it into the burner for the forge since there were a few parts she had planned on looked at today that would need a little extra tweaking.
As she flicked open her lighter the flame burst from the fork in a stream far beyond anything it should have been able to do, the accompanying surge of adrenaline almost causing her to fall forwards into the kindling. Pushing herself backwards to avoid being hit by the sudden flare she had created she glanced around the room in shock looking for something to smother the growing flames, but when she returned her focus to the fire it had dimmed back to normal levels and her lighter sat dead on the floor.
Gingerly picking herself off the floor she rubbing a hand against her temple where a dull headache from her twisted nightmares was growing into something much more painful, causing her thoughts to become jumbled as she returned to her, thankfully, still warm mug. Which she gulped down gratefully.
A loud and insistent banging on the metal shutters jolted her from her disjointed thoughts and back to the present. Glancing down at herself and checking she looked somewhat presentable she began to unlock the smaller door to the right of the larger garage one, and pulled it inwards before sticking her head round the corner into the chilly morning air.
"Yeah, what? We’re not open yet, Mahin isn’t it?"