T

he room was smokey, and smelt of sweat and booze, but there was a window open and the breeze helped. There were a few huge cranks sitting around all with some kind of drink in there hand. One guy looked like he was passed out, but when Evelyn looked closer he was still awake, just laying sprawled in his chair and staring at one spot on the celling, his eyes glazed over he hardly blinked and didn't seem to know what was going on around him. 

"The Bliss." Goose growled. 

He put some pressure on her back and steered her into the back corner, by the window.  He sat on a wood chair propping his feet up onto the table and pulled her down onto his lap. His arm loosely draped over her waist. Instantly all her muscles tense and her back stiff. Her big green eyes were wide in fear, her jaw clamped shut. Her heart was slamming into her chest, and she forgot to breath. He leaned into her, burying his face into her hair. 

"Play along." He hissed in her ear.

"You finally grace us with your presences!" Switch Blade yelled, he pushed off the wall and sauntered over to where Evelyn and Goose were sitting.  He plunked down in a chair opposite them and Flower came and draped herself over him. 

"Yeah. Had some stuff to take care of." Goose shrugged. 

"Kitten's got some claws 'eh?" 

"Damn straight." 

Switch was eyeing her greedily, she heard a growl in his chest. He licked his lips like he was hungry. Goose took his feet off the table and slammed them onto the floor. His arm tightened around Evelyn's waist, pulling her closer into him possessively. 

"She's mine." He growled. 

"I can take her away just as easily." Switch shrugged like he was board, but his eyes were still watching her hungrily. He was ignoring Flower right now, even though she was draped all over him, his wild dark eyes were on Evelyn. She had no choice but to trust the crank who had his arm around her waist. With her heart beat even faster and harder she swallowed her fear, shoved it deep down and slammed a lid on it. She stood up abruptly, her face in a snarl. She swung the hatchet once, the axe head stopped just under Switch Blades chin. The entire room, except the guy drugged out on The Bliss moved at once but froze when the sharp blade was at their leaders throat. He even froze, his eye wide. His lips slid into a smirk, his crazy eyes held a twisted amusement to them. 

"This lost little Kitty found her owner. You try anything with me, Your Majesty," She mocked him,  "my feral claws come out to play, And Snake already tried...he's rotting in the back alley already." 

She lifted the hatchet just a little higher, making Switch Blade's head tilt higher. His eyes danced with a crazed amusement, his smirk grew even more. She heard him hum. She held his gaze, fear turned to anger and that fueled her courage. She felt Goose's huge body right behind her. He slid them around her waist and buried his face into her neck. Her empty heart felt a pain so sharp she almost broke. Newt used to do that. If she closed her eyes and used every ounce of her imagination she could almost pretend it was him. 

"Come on Kitten, come sit." He growled in her ear. He looked at Switch Blade and Flower, "I think she made her point. Keep your filthy crank hands off my new pet." He hissed, his voice was deep and threatening. 

She lowered the hatchet with a growl of her own, her eyes still glaring at the leader. Goose tugged her back down onto his lap in the chair. He kept his arm wrapped possessively around her. The tension in the room loosened, the loud wild chatter started up the gambling continued, one of the guys went back to the hardly clothed woman straddling his lap. Evelyn's stomach twisted in disgust.

"So Kitten, what do you drink?" Switch Blade asked her. 

She threw him a filthy look, "Surprise me." She spat. 

"Hmmm, warm milk perhaps?" He raised an eyebrow at her. She rolled her eyes, her hands were clenched so tight her nails were cutting into the palms of the leather gloves.

A minute later a glass cup with brown liquid was slide towards her. He had smirk on his scared stubbly face. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, he was watching her closely. She knew he was testing her, trying to find a weak point a breaking point. However, after drinking Gally's moonshine for three years, nothing could be worse. She picked up the glass and took a big sip. It had a warm burning all down her throat and into her gut. She felt the warmth spread into her limbs. It had a smokey caramelly taste. She took another sip, not as big. She actually liked the taste. Placing the glass down on the table she heard howls of laughter. 

She glanced over and Switch had thrown his head back and was howling with laughter. Flower gave her a small nod of approval from behind her once fiancé. Glancing over her shoulder at Goose he had also thrown his head back and let out a loud laugh. 

"Little Kitten has a taste for the hard stuff." He chuckled. 

"You have no idea the klunk I've had for the last three years, this is nothing." She shrugged.

"Oh? What were you drinking for three years?" Switch asked, his eyes narrowing. 

"A friend of mine made his own moonshine. It was disgusting." 

He howled again, this time it was wild and manic. It made Evelyn shiver. She sat quietly on Goose's lap, sipping the drink, watching the cranks around her. She answered the questions thrown at her in short snappy one or two word answers. She was tired. She was sore. And she was lonely. Her heart missed Newt and her boys. She missed Tessa and Sonya. She took a deep shuddering breath, and slowly let it out. She felt Goose shift, his hands on her hips, he stood her up. Standing up himself and took hold of her hand and pulled her across the room. Switch Blade wolf whistled and howled, making the other guys in the room do the same. 

"Have fun Goose! Watch those claws, she might pull out your feathers!" 

Goose flipped him off and pulled Evelyn with him and out the door back into the club. He then stomped around the back wall to another door, he took a key out and unlocked the door. There was narrow stairs leading up and down into a dark basement. Once the door closed behind them he dropped her hand and just made a gesture with his head. Again she really didn't have much choice. She wrapped her hands around herself and with her head hanging she followed him up the stairs. 

"Head up Kitten. You scared the crap outta Switch, that takes some major guts to hold a sharp deadly weapon to the leader of the biggest gang in the City." 

"I feel so proud." She said dryly. 

"You should. You have more guts then most of those idiots down there." 

He was leading her down the top floor hall. The music wasn't as loud, but it still made the floor vibrate and the thumping base was a constant. He opened the door at the end and stood back for her to entre. Hesitantly she stepped into the room. It was a small one room apartment. A small kitchen in one corner, a table and chairs. A huge bed took up one corner. There was a small closet and couch with a tv in the other. There was a small bathroom off the room. It was clean, everything looked really shabby, but it was surprisingly quite clean for a crank's home. She remembered Jorge and Jaz's explanation, it worked in stages, Goose must not be too far gone.

"You'll be safe here. Wait here and I'll go talk to Amanda, you could probably have some clothes and then go shower and I'll clean that bite mark." 

Evelyn turned to him. "Why are you helping me?" 

"You remind me of my little sister." He shrugged. 

Evelyn wasn't expecting that kind of answer. She frowned. "What happened to her?"

His eyes went vacant, staring at a spot on the opposite wall. He was lost in thought for a moment. Evelyn could see the pain in his eyes. He took a shuddering breath.

"She was 5 years younger than me, just graduated high school. When our parents turned she came to live with me...but she had already been infected. She turned fast. She begged me to end it. I put a bullet through her head." 

Evelyn had tears sliding down her cheeks again. Her empty heart felt like it being pulled further down into the dark pit. 

"I'm sorry, Goose, that's awful."

"It's Noah, actually." 

"Oh...well nice to meet you Noah." 

He gave her a grin that acutely made his eyes look kind behind the crank. 

"And you are? Or do you prefer kitten?" He snorted. 

"Evelyn." 

"Well, Evelyn, stay here. You're safe. I'll be back." 

He spun around and left without another word. The lock clicked, and Evelyn was left alone in a stranger man apartment. She hugged herself and slowly walked towards the window. Peeking through the curtains and the cracks in-between the boards out into the night. Over the loud thumps of the music she heard the wild screams of the past Gone Cranks. It made her shudder. A small part of her was thankful she was in  a building that had a door and some kind of protection. Then she felt guilty, her friends were all out there fighting for their lives. A tear slid down her cheek again. Did Teresa make it back to Captain Jaz? Where were Tommy and Brenda? Were they even here in this building? She swatted at the tears. Looking back out the window she could just made out the stretch of scorch beyond the city. 

It made her think of Winston. His body was out there somewhere. Same with Clint and many of her friends. Their bodies just left behind. Her chin trembled more and the tears came faster, she pressed a hand over her mouth and tried to hold the cries inside. But after everything that she had been through in the last few days all came surging to the surface. All the fear and panic, it all sprung to the surface and her legs buckled, she crumpled to the ground and cried. Deep body wrenching sobs. It had been two almost three days without Newt. She had no idea if they even made it out of the hall. She had shoved them all towards the exit. But what if they didn't make it? What if  they were all laying dead under the building? 

What if they were alive? How would they react to her now? After everything she did. After everyone she had killed. She could feel the Flare getting worse, it was hard to hold it back sometimes. Maybe it would be easier to just stay here, forget that they existed. She could crank out here in the scorch. Not like she could make it to the Safehaven anyways. Not like WICKED could use her much longer anyways. 

"Yes...become the murderous Witch everyone knows you are." 

"Please no! Go away!" She sobbed. She could hear the cackling. It was mixed with screaming now. She could hear the screams of every boy she couldn't save. Starting with George and Jack, all the way up to Shawn, burned up from the lightning. 

"Hahaha. Witch. You are no healer! Just prolonging the inevitable. You know your a witch. You unlovable witch. Even Newt went for Tommy. You believe the story of mind control? Do you really? Newt doesn't want a Witch. He doesn't want a wounded healer. He deserves someone whole and unaffected by the Flare. A wounded crank of a healer. A murderous witch."

"STOP!" Evelyn screamed. She had grabbed her head handfuls of her hair in her fists. She was thrashing her head so hard her neck was going to hurt. "NEWT HELP! MAKE IT STOP! NEWT! PLEASE!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! GO AWAY! STOP!" Evelyn sobbed, her entire body was shacking, her chest hurt from sobbing and screaming. The crawling in her brain was worse then ever. She whipped her head so hard she slammed it on the wall beside her. 

There was a loud bang and heavy footsteps. 

"Stop! Hey...Kitten! Uh Evelyn? Evelyn, stop! Your making it worse! Happy thoughts!" 

"I HAVE NONE! WICKED TOOK EVERYTHING!" She screamed. 

She thrashed her head again and slammed her head into the side of the wall again, trying to make the crank in her head stop and the crawling go away. Her world went black.

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Evelyn woke with a groan. Her head was pounding, and her body hurt. Like a herd of Grievers trampled her. She lifted a hand to her pounding head. She groaned again, her infected arm was sore. She rolled onto her good side. She slowly let her eyes adjust to the light that was coming through the cracks of the boarded window. She blinked a few times, trying to remember what happened. Everything came slamming back to her. She was the property of a Crank who was the second in command of the biggest crank gangs in the city.  She opened her eyes some more. 

Standing at the door was Goose, or Noah as he claimed his real name was. He was talking to another guy, he looked dirty, his clothes were disheveled and tattered. He was shorter and had short blond hair, he would have been handsome, except for the half crazed look in his eye. He was spinning a silver grimy pistol on his finger. His eyes slid over Goose's shoulder and landed on Evelyn. She was sitting up. And only realized she had slept in the bed, Her jacket and boots  were removed, and her shirt was ripped at the back, so it slid down exposing her shoulder and the front of her chest.

She gasped, her face going red and pulled the blanket up to cover herself. The blond cranks face lit up and it twisted into a creepy smile. Goose looked over his should at Evelyn. His face didn't change from the cold stone he had when he was talking to the other guy. 

"Enjoying the view?" He asked, looking back at the blond. 

The blond cranks eyes sparkled. Like Christmas had come early. 

"You wanna piece?" Goose asked. 

The blond was so busy licking his lips and drooling he didn't the change in Goose's tone. It was low and dangerous. She could see the tension in his shoulders and back. The veins in his neck stood out and the black veins in his bicep stood out. Evelyn knew she had to play the part. With her stomach twisting in humiliation and disgust, she dropped the blanket. Sliding to the edge of the bed she got up. The ripped shirt falling even more, exposing more than half her bra. Goose had turned to watch, his eyes dark, and a muscle twitching in his jaw. The blond crank was salivating like a dog. With slow deliberate movements she picked up the long dagger that was on the bedside table. Spinning it in her fingers, she swung her hips and walked towards the guys at the door. She was looking at the blond crank, her face impassive. she stopped beside Goose, who looked down at her. 

Without warning and quick as a cat she held the dagger under the blond cranks chin. He sucked in a breath, but any more movement and she would cut him. She had watched Brenda do this, and picked up the tip. Stepping closer she hissed with disgust. 

"I don't share with others. Keep it in your pants blondie. I'm his. If I feel your eyes on me I'll shucken dig them out with a rusty spoon. Do I make myself clear?" 

The crank didn't move, he swallowed hard. Evelyn pushed the blade just a bit more, and saw a small trickle of bright red blood drip onto the blade. 

"Good." She whispered. She pulled the blade away and turned, sliding her arms around Goose's waist. He put a protective arm around her. He growled dangerously at the blond crank who hadn't moved, he swiped at the trickle of blood. He narrowed his eyes at her. 

"That wasn't smart." He spat. 

"Touch her and you die." Goose snarled, "I don't share. I'm greedy like that. Now scram. I have things to do" He looked down at Evelyn with a wild darkness in his eyes. With an arm still holding her tight to his chest he used his free hand to slam the door shut on the cranks face. And locked the door.

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**Goose Mood Board**