When You Find Out Too Late
Author's Note: Just as a warning, this story is a lot less romantic (and quite a bit more disturbing) than my first Silverwing story. It doesn't take place at any particular point in the triology's timeline, as just sort of came to me one night randomly. Anyway, you can see the tags, so be warned. Please let me know what you think.
When You Find Out Too Late
Shade tried vainly to shake the rain from his fur before resigning himself to the dampness and wrapping his wings tightly around his body, hoping to keep out the cold. It was significantly warmer inside the small, hollowed out tree they had found-the wind no longer blasting at them-but he still felt himself shiver dejectedly in the cool air. It would be a long day.
Beside him, Marina looked equally cold and unhappy, also soaked to the bone as he was. Still, she never uttered a single complaint. Somehow, she never failed to amaze him with just how well she put up with everything, and he was often embarrassed to be the first to suggest that they roost. Really, it reflected her personality as a whole: no matter how much trouble they went through together, she had stuck by his side, never quitting and never complaining.
"We're never going to get any sleep like this," Marina sighed after folding and unfolding her wings several times, "It's too cold."
Shade nodded grimly, trying hopelessly to stop his teeth chattering as the two fell into silence. He wanted desperately to sleep, but it was impossible for him to relax properly when he was shivering so badly. There was no hope of rest like this.
Looking over at Marina again, an idea came to him suddenly. It was simultaneously exciting and horrifying, but every bone in his body told him that he should try it. He found it difficult to gather the courage for what he was about to do, sincerely worried of the undesired consequences it could have; but in the end, he knew there was no better alternative.
Trying to act calm and casual, he shuffled over along the tree's rotting wood, ever so slowly inching closer to Marina. Each small crunching noise he made seemed like a thunderclap to him, but she never once stirred. Finally, when he felt he was close enough, he tentatively unraveled his right wing before wrapping it around his companion in a way that he hoped was not too intimate.
Feeling the wing around her body, Marina looked up at him suddenly, frowning in mild confusion. Daringly, Shade pulled her in next to him without explanation, shivering for an entirely different reason as he felt her body press up tightly against his own. For a moment, he was surprised at how quickly their shared body heat had gathered, until he realized with further embarrassment that he was blushing shamelessly.
"What are you doing, Shade?" Marina asked softly. Her eyes were still questioning, searching the dark depths of Shade's own face.
"Like you said: we're never going to get any sleep unless we warm up."
Although his innate shyness screamed for him to let go of her immediately and pretend it had never happened, something stronger kept him rooted to the spot. Already, he could tell that his idea was working. They had both stopped shivering, and a strangely heightened mood seemed to accompany their newfound warmth.
"Thank you," Marina whispered.
She was still looking at him with an odd expression, and Shade couldn't quite decipher its meaning. However, something about it made him want to be ever closer to her. Their bodies were touching all along their sides, pressing against each other firmly-and yet he felt that it still wasn't close enough. Undeniably, something unknown had been stirred in him that day when he was first blown out to her lonely island, and it was only now that he recognized it for what it was.
Marina seemed to be sensing the same thing, for her head was gradually lowering itself towards his chest, almost uncertainly. It was strange to see her hesitant like this, Shade reflected, and he leaned his head to the side, resting it on hers as way of encouragement.
Suddenly, they were roosting together in much the same way Shade had often seen mated bats roost, side-by-side. He felt a strange fire burning inside him-something that told him that this was how things were meant to be. He wanted to be like this right now; he wanted to roost here with Marina wrapped in his wing as she was now, and he wanted to do it every day for the rest of his life. As she pressed her head against his chest and his whole body tingled in content, the two bats became so entranced in their affection that neither heard the wingbeats growing loud and ominous.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt this heartwarming display," an all too familiar voice rang out behind them. The mocking growl sounded only inches away. "But I think I would like a turn."
Too shocked to react, the bats were torn from each other's embrace by Goth's strong, three-foot wings, and Shade felt himself thrust roughly to the ground, crying out as his left wing crumpled beneath him. He tried to get up-tried to flee-but his arm stung terribly whenever he moved. With a suffocating feeling of despair, he realized that his wing was badly injured. He would not be able to fly.
Only a few wingbeats away, Marina was also thrown to the ground before him. He made to yell out to her-to tell her that he was injured, to go on without him-but it was useless. In just a few short seconds, Goth had descended onto Marina's back, crushing her against the splintered inside of the tree.
"How romantic you little bats are, here," Goth intoned derisively, "It's cute."
"Let me go!" Marina demanded, clearly having trouble breathing with the Vampyrum's immense weight on her chest.
"Oh," Goth said in a mock hurt tone, "but I'm hurt, Marina. You were so nice and cuddly with Shade a few moments ago. Why do I not get the same treatment?"
"Get off of her!" Shade yelled, not liking where this was going in the least.
"Of course," Goth obliged with a cruel smile, replanting his feet on either side of Marina's wings, "but I confess: I would like some romance too."
Goth let out a malicious laugh as he lifted his hand off of Marinaand brought it against his body. Marina's face contorted in fear, and with a kind of horrible certainty, Shade realized what the cannibal was planning to do. The thought made him want to vomit.
"Don't you dare!" Shade warned desperately, though he was hardly in any position to make demands.
Laughing nastily, the Vampyrum didn't answer. Instead he simply drew his hand lower across his body, eventually reaching below his waist to unsheathe his penis. It was a long, ugly, venous thing-pulsing and growing as he stroked it-and Shade felt a terrible sickness in his stomach as he contemplated what was about to happen. He would have preferred to have his heart torn out, or his eyes gouged rather than witness what was bound to be far worse. He couldn't even bring himself to warn her as Marina craned her neck wildly, vainly trying to catch a glimpse of what Goth was doing.
"Relax, now," Goth told her, "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me."
With terrifying force, he shoved his full length into her, laughing malevolently as she broke out into an anguished scream. Shade knew she had never been penetrated before, and now her eyes were wide with terror as Goth sank his cock deeper and deeper into her virginity. Clearly, she had not been expecting this, and Marinawas just as clearly in tremendous pain. Shade felt tears come to his eyes at the sight of his best friend being violated so ruthlessly and so carelessly-like she was a worthless toy to him.
"Ahh," Goth moaned, staring directly into Shade's eyes as though to taunt him, "It seems that you haven't gotten this far yet, have you little runt?"
Shade refused to meet his gaze any longer, trying to give Marina a comforting look. There was nothing he could possibly do to help her, but he was determined to try. She didn't meet his gaze however: her eyes were closed, streaming tears just as his were. She was visibly suffering intense physical pain, but as Goth began to develop a morbid rhythm of thrusting in and out, Shade could feel a different kind of pain well up inside him.
The two of them began to weep in hopeless silence as time dragged on. Marina let out a short, anguished sob with each thrust Goth delivered to her hole, and Shade felt his stomach clench fearfully as blood began to drip from her hindquarters. He was torn between his desire for it to end, and his fear for it to end, for he knew that when Goth finished...
Suddenly, the cannibal let out a deafening roar, plunging himself deeper than ever before into Marina's folds and holding, freezing hilt-deep inside her. As Goth's eyes rolled grotesquely inside his skull, Marina let out another scream, worse than her others. A thick, putrid, white liquid squeezed its way out of her vagina, spilling to the floor with an agonizing dripping sound. It mixed horribly with the blood, turning pink and worsening the stench and musk that had already filled the hollow tree. This was the part that Shade had shamefully feared the most, and now it turned his heart to stone.
"No...no..."
Marina kept repeating denials to herself in despair, her voice breaking as she sobbed. It was impossible for the full realization of what had happened to sink in given their position, and for the moment it hung hidden thinly behind the veil of shock. Still, Shade had some inkling of the terrible possibilities, gloomily imagining Marina as she gave birth to Goth's spawn. Surely such a thing was impossible?
"That was even more enjoyable that I had anticipated," Goth said with a wicked smile, "You're one tight little bitch, Marina, I'll give you that."
"Get the fuck off of her," Shade growled. He no longer cared for his safety-Goth had committed an unspeakable atrocity, and Shade's hatred towards the cruel beast surpassed all limits of conscious decisions.
"Soon," the Vampyrum promised, "but I'm not quite finished yet."
Pulling his still erect shaft from Marina's quivering body, he paused for only a moment before thrusting it mercilessly into her tailhole. Apparently, stealing her virginity had not been enough, and Shade convulsed in terror as he heard a sickening tearing sound-Goth's penis tearing its way into her bowels.
"No!" Marinascreamed, her sobs renewed in tandem with Shade's hopeless tears. Her mouth continued to hang open speechlessly, and her eyes bulged horrifically.
It was unbearable to watch her suffer torture like this. Never could he have imagined anyone going through such a traumatizing experience as now. Goth was bent on his pleasure, even if it meant wreaking irreparable havoc on Marina's young body. Shade hoped desperately that she would recover-more than her body, he pleaded that her mind would not snap from the strain.
Soon, he and Marina seemed to resign themselves to Goth's heartless actions, falling silent as they continued to weep. Time lost all context as Shade watched desolately, wincing with each thrust the beast made, shuddering at the horrifying slapping sound that rang out each time his hips pounded against her ass. The stench of feces was added to the air, further worsening the already foul odor given off by Goth's seed and Marina's blood.
Finally, the Vampyrum's body shuddered for a second time, releasing himself into the depths of Marina's bowels. This time, she absorbed all of his semen, not a drop of it leaking onto the floor. With the dreadful feeling of having little left to hope for, Shade tried to glean some relief from the fact that it was over at last.
"I'm sorry," Marina began to whisper repeatedly, staring him straight in the eye as her head collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, "I'm so sorry."
She had been raped, but she was apologizing to him. Somehow, Shade found himself understanding exactly what she meant, and he felt her sadness infect him as well.
Almost contemptuously, as though an afterthought, Goth removed his rapidly deflating member from Marina's anal passage, drawing with it a stream of blood, semen, and excrement that failed to make Shade feel any worse than he already did. Lifting his penis with his hands, he proceeded to urinate all over Marina's crumpled and decimated body, and she winced as the warm and putrid stream struck her.
Grunting loudly in perverted satisfaction, he finished his terrible deed. To the surprise of the two broken bats, the cannibal flew from the tree afterwards, leaving them alone to recover. With Goth finally gone, Shade crawled over to Marina, painfully dragging his injured wing along the ground as he hastened to comfort his distressed and devastated friend.
"Are you okay?" he whispered through his tears as his head came up just beside hers. He knew it was a foolish thing to ask, that she could never entirely be okay after such an experience, but it was all he could think to ask.
"I'm sorry, Shade," she said again, "I always meant for you to be the first."
Shade nodded and felt his stomach clench, for he had yearned for her to be his first as well-for them to share that special bond. However, Goth had stolen that from them. No longer could they enjoy the knowledge that each had been the other's only love. As much as it saddened him, Shade pushed the thought from his mind, more concerned with Marina's health than something that seemed colossally unimportant at the moment.
"It's okay. Don't worry about me," he said firmly, "Will you be alright?"
"I think so," she responded with a sniff, rolling over onto her side for a moment and drooping her head to survey the damage, "I should be able to recover. Well, my body will anyway."
Shade nodded, unable to imagine ever fully coming to terms with what had happened himself. He could only hope that she would one day be herself again.
Marina wrinkled her nose in disgust and burst into brand new tears.
"I smell terrible!" she cried unevenly, "I have that bastard's piss in my fur!"
With great difficulty, Shade laid his wing on her back, fighting the urge to withdraw it as it came into contact with the reeking seed and urine in her fur. Ignoring the protest from his nostrils, he nuzzled his head against hers soothingly. No amount of damage to her body or odour from Goth's deed could keep him away from her.
Marina looked over at him affectionately in response before nuzzling her head into his neck. He hated to see her in such a weakened state, but he was confident that she would recover. Nothing could ever keep her down forever-she had proven that time and time again. It would be a long process for both of them, but it was not the end.
"I love you, you know," Marina said quietly after her sobs had finally subsided, "I have for a long time now."
She pulled back to look into his eyes, and he felt his petrified heart melt back into its normal self. Gradually, they drew closer to each other. It took a great effort to draw up the right emotion for it amongst the pain and the stench, but eventually their lips met. It was a terrible time for a kiss, and it only added to the horrible gravity of their situation, but it was wonderful all the same.
Eventually, their bodies began to grow weary, and they soon shut their eyes, lying down resignedly in the pool of blood, and semen, and feces, and urine, their wings covering each other fondly.
"I love you too," Shade whispered finally, "and I have for as long as I can remember."
So, it was with a smile that the two bats-tired, crippled, and overwhelmed by the stresses they had been forced to endure-passed out on the sodden floor of the hollowed out tree. Despite the horrors they had suffered, at least one good thing had come from that day.