God, Help Me // Thai

[Jamie Ryan McKinnley]

Autumn was a beautiful female, but sometimes she was unforgiving in the evenings. Late September was chilly at night, and the homeless Jamie paced for God only knew how long wishing he hadn't wrecked his truck. For one, it had been good shelter. Breathing in deeply and holding it, the werewolf could taste a storming linger on the back of his tongue salty and metallic. Don't ask him how he knew a torrential down pour was coming, he just fucking knew. The truck had provided shelter from the harsh weather and unforgiving environment, but it had also given his aching feet a break. Damn, since he'd been having to hoof it for the past week, his socks were damp and his shit-kickers too tight. Too heavy. Especially after he'd just pulled a double shift at the strip club and he was all the way down to the bone exhausted. Head down to avoid the wind slicing at his cheeks with sharp talons, Jamie shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and kept on walking. He had no fucking clue where he was going, but evidently his boots did. The young man just let them do their thing. It was nearly an hour later when the werewolf felt the first fat raindrop hit his nose. He paused, tilting his face up to the heavens, and closed his eyes. Then came another, and then another, and then another. Cold as hell, it was as good a shower as any. Better than a cup of coffee too. Unbidden, Jamie chuckled and shook out his shaggy, dripping mop. The rain had quickly become a downpour. His hair and clothes were sopping wet and the wind was slicing right through it. The loud dim of thunder got his feet moving again. Death by lightning strike was pretty cool, if it actually killed him. With his luck he'd end up alive and a vegetable. Ducking into the first open door that he found, Jamie gasped in wonder as the church embraced him with a tangible warmth. It was...too good, and so the werewolf turned to escape the too-holy place. But something powerful held him within. Something potent but gentle. A sheepish expression crossed his face and he shook off the offending moisture; not wanting to leave foot prints on the clean wood floor.

[Thaila Elise Papillion]

It had taken her a while to get this far. Thaila was severely lacking in confidence and her fear of her brother was overwhelming, but every day she made it a little bit further, slowly leaving Derek's place until today. Today she finally made it out into the real world. Out past the safety and sanctuary of the woods and beyond the Hale grounds. That wasn't to say she wasn't scared. She kept her head down and avoided everyone and anyone. She would have known if Dane was close, she'd have smelt it, but that didn't mean that she didn't seek a new sanctuary as soon as it was to reveal itself to her. It was the way the sweet September sun glistened off the colorful glass that first compelled her towards the church, the stain glass windows captivating the teenager.

After circling the church, staring upwards at the window in awe at the gentle sparkle the sunlight shone upon them, the young girl finally ventured inside. Her footsteps were so dainty they barely made a sound in the already silent building. For a while she looked around, running her fingers over pictures and stone carvings as she moved. It was on her journey around the building that she noticed the kneelers on the floor. Her body moved to the floor, crawling beneath the pew and taking in the stunning tapestries embroidered into each other. She wasn't there long before her amber eyes bolted upwards and took in the sight of something else. Something less attractive but equality as appealing to the young girl... A book.

Sitting down beneath the pew, Thaila tucked herself away and pulled the book into her lap, reading the title she soon established that she'd not read this one before. To anyone else it was hardly surprising, there family was never religious and she'd never stayed at a school long enough to have learned about such things. Settling down, Thaila opened the front cover and started to read the words written before her. Thaila didn't read the words in the way a person with a belief or a religion would have, she didn't understand those sorts of things, instead Thaila read the words as though they were just a story, a story like any other she'd ever read and for that reason, those words and those images were compelling to her. Once her eyes were stuck on a book, she wasn't coming out, she would read that book cover to cover, letting the words gently soak over her.

She wasn't completely sure when nightfall came, she figured it was somewhere in the middle of her book. The dim candle light was much more appealing to her than the blare of the sun, the way the flames flickered and danced made her feel at home and then the heavens opened and offered her another little treat. Her head tilted back and her eyes closed as she listened to the sound of the rain tapping against the roof of the building. Her thin hands covered the pages of the book she was reading in case it should close or she should lose her place. There was something she'd always loved about the sound of the rain, since she was a child she would lay there and listen to it beating on their little house like a drum. As the wind whipped around, creating chaos against the falling moisture, a rare smile crept across the girls delicate features. In her mind she could feel her mothers hand run gently through her curls as the noise outside calmed her, creating a contrast to the normal sound of shouting or crockery smashing. Memories were all Thaila had to hold onto and the rain brought back the good ones.

Unfortunately for the little wolf, her safe place was to be demolished by the sudden sound of thunder. Jumping quickly, her eyes shot open and her body jolted, head hitting the pew. She muttered an 'Ow.' and lifted her hand to gently rub her head. She looked down to her book, the pages slightly crumpled where her hands moved so quickly to leave them. Nimble fingers ran over the pages in an attempt to smooth them desperately. All until she heard a noise. As soon as it became apparent to Thaila that she was no longer alone, her body froze. Her eyes were wide and shimmered gold in the candle light as she silently wished for her tiny form to not be seen.

[Jamie Ryan McKinnley]

Jamie had never been religious. Sure, he remembered the thin sliver of silver his mom had worn around her neck; a crucifix. He recalled the stung out woman dragging him to confession and how she would leave him waiting by himself in the pews while she went into the little box and... Well, he had seen what she did with men at the hotel room and having no knowledge of the female in any other capacity, the child had jumped over the moon as far as making conclusions went. The werewolf shook himself out of the reverie. This church looked a lot like that one had. Catholic, he believed. Yes, there was the line of confessionals lining the far wall to the back left of the pulpit. Jamie gave up on shaking off the moisture and pushed out of his boots instead. He bent to pick them up, glancing around to make sure he was alone before padding barefoot to the middle row. Right up close to the big statue of the Madonna. Jamie's gaze was transfixed on that effigy. God, she was beautiful and virtuous and... Had his own mother ever held him with such tenderness like the Mary did that stone child? Had she ever looked upon him with as much love as was in those alabaster eyes? He didn't think so. But what in the fuck had he ever done to deserve that kind of adoration? Other than being a royal pain in her ass and PROBABLY the cause of her death...nothing. That was what. Jamie finally sank down onto the long bench seat and dropped his head in his hands and rested his forearms on his thighs. What the hell was he doing here? He dragged a deep breath into his lungs and held it until the burn was too much to bare.  He scrubbed his scruffy, damp hair and then his whiskered face and then let his head fall back into his hands and his body into a lean forward. All the silence and peace in the temple did wonders for all the weight that seemed to be resting on his shoulders. Even the slight citrus smell from the furniture polish was like a gentle stroke of the Virgin's hand upon the small of his back. With his eyes closed he imagined...God, Jesus...whoever might look down on him and know that deep within he was still a decent man. If he could only believe it himself. Jamie was not looking for absolution. He was looking for a way out. If God ( or whoever) could just see the good in him, then maybe next time he blacked out the holy divinity would let him remain that way.

[Thaila Elise Papillion]

The sparkle in Thaila's world was ever lasting. Through the fear of another being invading her newly found sanctuary, it was like the church picked her up and wrapped its arms around her. Cuddled  up in it's warmth and embracing the shelter and serenity she'd achieved crouching under the pew. The slapping of feet against the cold wooden floor caused her body to tense, scared and waiting to see if the noise would come towards her. If she hadn't been so scared of what could happened, she'd have physically sighed with relief, instead she had to do so silently. It was in a sparkle of her eyes instead of an outwards flow of air.  There was part of Thaila that was so desperate to finish her book. Her eyes moved back to the slightly smudged type on the page before her but her nerves from being in a room with another person were making it hard for her to focus.

Thaila took a deep but silent breath, her fingers closing the book as quietly as was humanly possible. Her fingers wrapped around it, practically keeping a vice like grip as she tried to ease it back into the back of the seat. She wasn't sure how she expected to do it, but Thaila used her senses to work out where the other person was in the room and started to quietly crawl out from her hiding place, heading down aisle, keeping her head low like she had any chance of getting out of there unnoticed. She was thankful for her decision to keep the front of her hair pinned back as every single bright blonde curl on her delicate little head decided that at that moment it should fall and try to cover her eyes. As soon as she had turned that corner, the door practically started to glow like it was the light at the end of her hypothetical tunnel. The closer she got to the more she'd speed up until she was no longer aware of the noise she could be making.

For Thaila this had been an all too common objective far too often... Just getting away before someone could get to you. She'd been running and hiding since she was four years old, avoiding the harsh hand of her father and the words that tore her into a million pieces. Her fathers death should have been her salvation, instead it led to her inevitable undoing. To have the only person you'd ever really trusted turn on you was the best way to break a girl. She wasn't sure if she'd ever learn to trust again, she didn't know if she was capable let alone whether she wanted to. There was a part of her desperate to trust Derek, he was doing so much to try and help her, but she was so scared and he couldn't understand her fear. No one could. So instead she rushed towards the door.  

[Jamie Ryan McKinnley]

Jamie focused on the rows of white votive candles lined up under the feet of the Virgin Mary. Hundreds of tiny flames flickered; all dancing to the rhythm of a gentle breeze wafting in through the air conditioner vents. He scoffed, shaking his still-damp hair and wondering at the purpose of those luminous offerings. Were they wishes? Were they individual little fiery prayers left at the feet of the plaster divinity? Just how stupid do you have to be to believe in all that bull shit? To have faith that a lit candle left at the foot of an effigy was going to make some kind of a difference. That something actually existed up there. If Heaven was real and God or whoever was watching down over them well then why on earth would he have allowed an innocent kid to suffer the way he had? Still was. Jamie loosed an unamused snort and resisted the urge to blow out every single one of those effin' candles. Why should those people have hope? He was pretty damned sure none of them had the kind of troubles he had going on. The urge to kill those little glowing prayers grew too strong to ignore and so the male stood, meaning to do just that. Until a soft scraping noise alerted the werewolf to another person within the sanctuary and he froze in place. Miss-matched eyes darted across the expanse of the church but found nothing. What the fuck? He knew he was loosing his mind but... And there it was again. When the blonde head popped up from behind a pew Jamie realized she must have been hiding. Spying on him. The werewolf murdered the distance between them in a few long strides and then he was standing over her; a gloriously livid expression on his scarred face. "What the hell were you doing just now?" Jamie didn't so much accuse her with his question as much as his angry visage. He was positive she had been back there doing something wrong...and that's why she was hiding.

[Thaila Elise Papillion]

To look at Thaila Papillion she was nothing less than angelic, from the way he blonde curls cascaded down past her face to the way glowing gold eyes that went wide as they could as she jumped up to her feet upon being noticed. She knew she was too close to this man, that should he want her she probably couldn't get out of there quick enough, she didn't need to survey her distance from the door but she did it anyway. There was nothing but fear in this girl. The way her body quaked and quivered, how could anyone view her as a threat. She was so close to tears that her mouth wasn't able to form words despite the fact it looked for a long moment as though it was trying to. Instead her hands clung to the lacy white material around her torso. Held so tightly she could have sworn the material itself was about to bust open. She started to back up gently before her body hit the edge of a pew, her body (as well as all her werewolf reflexes) gave up on her and she fell back to the floor with a gasp and curled up into a ball, shaking and starting to sob. "I'm sorry... I didn't think anyone was here... I didn't mean to... I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... Please... Please don't hurt me??"

[Jamie Ryan McKinnley]

It was easy to see the young man had an explosive temper. The golden haired seraph had given him no indication she had been spying on him, or a threat in any way, shape, or form. You could blame it on one werewolf smelling another within his 'territory', but since Jamie had never really had anything to call his own, he wasn't a possessive type of guy. Just a friggin' asshole. The smell of fear and misery struck the wolf before tears even began to fill her unfathomable eyes. There was an ephemeral moment  of confusion when he realized this, and then the emotion was rapidly followed by a whole lot of blinking and backing up when she did the same and suddenly flipped over the wooden pew. He gasped and felt as if a dagger had been plunged through his chest, especially when her terrified pleas came out as a wind chime tremble. Oh god. What the hell kind of monster was he?! This was a church. She was an innocent girl! He belonged exactly where his mother's boyfriend had always said when they came home to the hotel after confession. He belonged in hell with the rest of the sinners. "Ah....fuck!" Jamie knelt down low to help her and stumbled over his words like a clumsy acrobat; all mental arm flailing and putting his big size 13 into his own mouth. He shook his head and dropped his miss-matched gaze to the floor and absently rubbed at his scar. "I....oh god....I'm...I wont hurt you. I swear it." Finally the husky mumbling stopped and he sighed heavily, looking at the shuddering ball of a young woman. "Please don't do that. Please don't cry..."