Rice Bluff Need a hand

Divya did not remember the ambulance ride or much of anything after that until she had woken up in a hospital bed. A bed she very much could not afford and some questions she didn't want to answer. She didn't need to overhear a mention of some task force to get her butt in gear, though it certainly helped.

A quick search of the room showed that her cloths where no where to be found, probably gone off to fabric heaven. She had used the shirt to try and stop the bleeding on her arm. Her arm that was perfectly fine minus the lack of a hand. She got a start when she glanced at it while searching. A fucking big start at that, there wasn't any stitches no nothing, looked like there had never been a hand to begin with. She could freak out about it latter. For now she riffled through the closet in the room and tore into bags of other peoples cloths. Coming out with a somewhat mismatched outfit of a skirt and a hoodie. Some flip flops were thrown on her feet before she left the room.

Maybe thanks to the hoodie being pulled up over her head and covering the stump arm no one stopped her in the halls and she was able to make her out onto the street. She didn't bother looking for the truck pretty sure that had probably been found by the police with Eric's body in the front seat. Instead she chose a random direction and started walking looking to put as much space between her and the hospital as possible.

She made it a couple blocks before the throbbing in her arm that she hadn't notice finally poked through the adrenaline. Ducking into an alleyway she pressed up against a brick wall and pulled the sleeve of the hoodie down to take a look.

Outfit

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Plenty of reasons to be walking around and looking like a cat in a town you didn’t know. Gangly, sleek, short-haired.

She kept it simple: she felt like it. Felt like keeping herself company this way.

Didn’t expect for some disheveled looking kid to drop into the alley she was currently haunting. The midnight cat paused on the rooftop across from her, matching the colour of the night sky as she watched, equally as curious about what she was about to reveal.

It was a bit hard to see in the darkness of early morning. She had to lean towards what little light there was from the moon and the streetlights at the entrance of the alleyway. Unaware of the cat that was nearby. All her concentration was on her arm.

The hoodie would be pulled back to reveal the stump of her wrist. Far to smooth and clean considering the awful bite that had taken her hand from her. Except it wasn't exactly a nub there were five bumps raised from it.

A bolt of disgust and horror ran up her spine, and almost immediately she hunched over and threw up. Having not eaten in a while there wasn't anything in her stomach to come up and she was left dry heaving.

What the fuck

Even the cat would need to fixate, sharp eyes setting on the extremity. She'd seen all types of deformities before. Missing hands, missing arms--never had she seen bumps jutting out of nothing amputated before.

She continued watching curiously as the girl hunched over, heaving. Where was this kid coming from, Ruth wondered. She was dressed either for a madhouse or for the run. Maybe both.

The cat began to wander further along the roof, but much to her chagrin, she jolted to a stop when she startled half a dozen pigeons from their resting spot. Cover blown.

The chorus of flapping wings caught her attention and she looked up expression of course that of a guilty person being caught. It wasn't a police officer though, not unless they could scrunch up incredibly small. No she was betting it was some sort of animal, impossible to tell in the dark. Some feral cat or dog. Not something to keep her attention for long. She had shared more then enough alleys with animals to be afraid.

Her attention went back to the grotesque thing that was her wrist. Shakily she extend her other fully formed hand to give the briefest touch to one of the bumps. The minute skin connected with skin a intense pain flared up. As if spikes were running along the wrist. Like fucking crocodile teeth all over again.

She screamed and bite down hard on her lip. The taste of iron flooded her mouth.

The scream was shrill, irksome. Had the cat's disproportionately large ears turning back in an attempt to hear less of it. Who in their right mind would touch what they knew was likely gonna hurt? And even then, build a bridge, get over it.

Also seemed like she wasn't the only one who'd heard it.

A lone figure appeared at the end of the alleyway. Maybe a night worker clocking off. Their shadow was illuminated enough by the hazed streetlights to tell that it was an older woman. Thing with women, though, was they were rarely careless enough to wander down places like this by themselves. So she simply hung for a moment, asking if the kid was okay.

Fuck. Fuck. She pressed her arm into her stomach as if the movement itself would make the pain go away. Through wet eyes so noticed the shadow of someone. Didn't have time to react before the person was revealed to be an older woman. Thank fucking god for that at least. Not a hospital worker or a police officer. A quick she was fine and listening to a talking about how she shouldn't be alone at night and all that before the woman left.

Divya would wait a beat listening to the fading steps of the woman before she would spit some blood out onto the pavement. Off came the hoodie revealing the lack of a shirt underneath. At least she was wearing a bra even if had dried mud and blood on it.

With only one hand she had to press the hoodie against the ground to rip it. She was lucky it was already frayed otherwise it probably wouldn't have come apart at all. It was still a lot of work even for one strip. After a few good minutes of tugging she managed to get a big enough piece to wrap around the stump and its deformities, she tied it as tight as possible with her hand and teeth.

Alright, interesting. She had to admit that there was some basic human resilience in the girl, telling someone she was fine when she sure as shit wasn't. Ruth watched for an added moment as she stripped riskily against the cold, before the cat's supple legs carried her from the gutter to the fire escape, paws landing with a gentle thump. It didn't bring her to eye level, but it was a great deal closer than being on the rooftop.

Croaking a meow, her tail curled into the air behind her as she carried herself forward, extending her neck through the railing.

She paused with the fabric between her teeth attention caught by the sound of a cat's meow. Twisting her head up a bit her doe eyes would scan the alleyway. Luminous cat eyes were quickly found on the fire escape of one of the buildings. Some cat wanting attention. Divya didn't have a preference for animals she liked cats and dogs and just about everything else. But it wasn't the time to be concerned about some gutter cat. She was bound to be missed from the hospital so that meant she needed to get as far away as possible and soon.

Using the one last tug she would leave the makeshift bandage and get to her feet. Goosebumps riding up her stomach and shoulders at the cold air. Her legs were practically numb but the fever was keeping most of her warm. She knew it wasn't good that she could tell it was cold but not really feel it.

She needed to find a safe place.

It didn’t take the girl long to find her, make eye contact, and then ignore her.

Not a cat girl.

Ruth pulled back to press herself up against the railing with an infectious purr, watching the bedraggled kid rise out of the corner of her eye.

Slipping back to the entrance of the alleyway Divya would look from side to side before stepping out. Figuring she could make more headway on the main roads then getting lost in some back alley. She needed to get out of this area and find some hole to crawl into until the fever subsided.