[@SleepingSilence]  [@Jewels]

Terrence shook his head in response, ignoring what had happened and putting it in the back of his mind for the time being. As he saw Cas get up and leave the restroom. Watching her sit down on his sofa in his living room. [color=007236]“You should still wash the cuts even if they didn't cut through the skin,”[/color] he insisted, never taking chances when it came to health, beside his experiments, but now wasn't the time he was thinking about that. Terrence quickly ran to his kitchen which was the room across to soap up a rag, turning on his sink to dampen a rag. He let out a deep sigh as he was listening to what she was saying, coming back with the rag as he looked at her. [color=007236]“I do wish you would've stayed around until he left but I understand why you felt the way you did,”[/color] he stated and he smiled at her. [color=007236]“Don't worry dear, you didn't do anything that I can't fix. You’re my friend, your burdens are mine too,”[/color] he assured her trying to cheer her up a bit, seeing her troubled.

[color=thistle]“I was afraid you’d end up hurt,”[/color] the girl replied softly, taking the rag and using seeing to her cuts as an excuse not to meet his gaze.  [color=thistle]“If he wasn’t your friend, I would have gone somewhere else, and...and if he’d ended up hurt trying to hurt me, I wouldn’t mind so much.”[/color]  Her breath hissed through her teeth as the soap stung the lacerations on the back of her hands.  [color=thistle]“But...as things were, I needed somewhere I knew nothing would happen.  Somewhere with no shadows.”[/color]  She glanced at the watching creature.  [color=thistle]“I didn’t run.  I chose my battlefield.”[/color]

Terrence did his best to suppress the various opinions and emotions he had, that he didn't want to be expressing, thoughts accumulating in his mind, right now he just wanted to be kind and show sympathy, watching her closely. He had things he wanted to say but he kept them in the back of his mind. [color=007236]“I told Mason, to leave you be. If you have any worries you may hurt someone else. I'd prefer if you'd come to me than inflict any harm, and get yourself in danger,”[/color] He spoke up. [color=007236] “I only have your best interest, if it puts you in danger. That's a problem...I know you've said before he won't hurt you, but I'm honestly rather doubtful and you should be questioning if it's really safe,”[/color] he continued, referring to the demon, pacing around the center of the living room giving her some space.

Cas’s expression darkened, and she started fussing with the strap of her messenger bag.  [color=thistle]“I do my best to avoid hurting people, Terry, you know that.  If I’m able to escape the situation, that’s what I do.  It’s just not always possible.”[/color]  She gave him a crooked smile, but it took effort.  [color=thistle]“And I certainly can’t bring all my troubles here, though it’s a nice thought.”[/color]  Her gaze strayed back to her watching Shadow, and she shook her head.  [color=thistle]“It’s a menace, I know that.  I’d get rid of it if I could, but...well, particularly after today, I think nobody else would be safe near me if I tried.”[/color]  A haunted, guilty expression flitted across her face. [color=thistle]“But it won’t hurt me.  It needs me, though I don’t really understand why.”[/color]  She looked back at the doctor.  [color=thistle]“I’m not in danger from it, just everyone else.”[/color]

[color=007236]“I understand you try your best, but for this semi-symbiotic relationship, I'm concerned this thing is being reckless and endangering your safety. It needs to learn a little self restraint if it doesn't want to be seen as a threat.”[/color] Terrence responded seriously as he watched carefully. “If it tries to attack what you and what it shouldn't see as a threat, it's the kind of hostile I'm very uncomfortable with.” He continues expressing concern looking at her. [color=007236][i]“I'm certain I could get rid of it, but I wouldn't want to risk it in how dangerous my idea currently is but, I may end up having no choice if it keeps acting on seemingly insatiable blood lust,”[/i][/color] he thought in his head his eyes shifting away from her briefly, while rubbing the back of his neck.  As he curiosity suddenly reminded for all that she had told him about her shadow as she referred to it, he didn't actually know that much about it and after what happened he only wanted to know about it more. [color=007236]“So, what's exactly the full story about your...shadow?”[/color] he asked her, forcing himself to speak the last word.

[color=thistle]“It’s better than it was,”[/color] she protested, though without much conviction.  [color=thistle]“...I never did tell you how things ended up this way, did I?  I told you what I’ve learned, but not how it started.”[/color]  The girl’s voice turned pensive.  [color=thistle]“Honestly, the only reason I was okay telling you at all was because you have demons of your own.  And if you hadn’t seen it yourself the day you found me, I’m sure you would have thought I was insane.  Even I thought so, for a while.”[/color]  Cas looked down and sighed.  [color=thistle]“It’s hard to discuss.  That’s why I’ve never brought it up.  Remembering hurts, even after all these years...but I don’t much believe in keeping secrets from friends, so I really should.”[/color]  She looked off into space as she focused on the memories she tried so hard not to think about.  [color=thistle]“It was the week of my eleventh birthday.  This group of...I don’t even know who or what they were.  They grabbed me and my parents.  I had to watch while they killed them, and it wasn’t done quickly.  I’m sure they would have done the same to me, but something interfered.  I passed out, and when I wake up, everyone else is dead.  Torn apart.”[/color]  Her tone went flat as the girl starting closing up inside, trying to separate herself from events that had left deep mental and emotional scars.  [color=thistle]“I leave as fast as I can, and find my cousins’ house.  When I wake up in the morning two, three days later, they’re dead too.  A neighbor I know finds me and gets me out of there, but the next night, when his wife tucks me in and puts out the lights this.../thing/ comes out of the shadows.  It slices her open, and I start screaming.  I throw my little knife at it, but I’m not sure what I expected to accomplish, especially since I couldn’t use it well at all back then.  The thing turns toward me, and it gets in my face, before just vanishing.  That was when the hallucinations came for the first time.  My neighbor shows up -- he must have been too far away to reach or something, because my Shadow didn’t kill him.  He sees what happened, and doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.

“A group of thieves pick me up several days later, and by then I’ve got no clue what’s real and what’s not, because I’ve been seeing things pretty much constantly.  They were really nice kids -- didn’t mind that I was just this side of a raving lunatic, didn’t mind humoring me when I didn’t want them standing too close.  They even let me keep a lantern on at night -- until we forgot to make sure it had enough oil to last, and I wake up to chaos and screaming.”[/color]  The girl covered her face with her hands.  [color=thistle]“You know what happens after that, more or less.  It takes some trial and error to figure out what my Shadow can and can’t do, but the rumors that start spreading help some.”[/color]  The words came out slightly muffled.  [color=thistle]“It didn’t occur to me that it was trying to protect me until you told me it dragged you in order to get your help.”[/color]