The Night That Changed Everything

Jackie Smith was laying in her bed reminiscing about her odd encounter with a particularly shy rainbow- haired new girl in town. She had just moved into town a week ago; Jackie was out to buy supplies for her sister's new year at The University when she'd met her for the first time that day.
She was an awkward girl, pretty though, with an angelic face. She was well dressed in an pleasant yellow sweater and top quality blue kapris; which seemed out of character for her introverted nature and scruffy rainbow- hued hair. They had a light, although strained conversation and shared names before the mystery girl hesitantly headed for her new home on the highest hill near the edge of town.
"Beau..." Jackie sleepily mused to herself, smilingly. She wouldn't have minded meeting that shy little thing again soon, she did have some beautiful wings on her. For a girl, er, a Bast. Jackie nestled into her pillows with quiet anticipation, slowly dozing off thinking of her next chance encounter.
Until she heard a scream that chilled her blood. A scream that oddly enough was right outside her house.

She let out a scream as the small blade of the hatchet dug into her back with a dull thunk. She was just outside of a large old wooden farmhouse when she felt the burning agony that had just torn into her. She'd been running from one edge and across town, up a three mile dirt road to the sleepy orchards of Sweet Apple Acres covered in cuts and bruises; though now on the ground she had no choice but to face the sadist slowly making his way to her.

"Thought you could leave huh?" asked the cold voice of a monster as he lifted her to her knees with all too human hands. He smiled a malicious grin and jerked the hatchet out of his victim's back, severing any remaining sinew and muscle as he did. Grabbing the bloody hair beneath him he chuckled and relished his victory until the front door swung open to reveal a very confused farmgirl with a very large shotgun.

"What the HELL is goin' on out here..." the words died in Jackie's throat as she took in the sight before her. "Okay, what the FUCK are you doin'?" she screamed with renewed aggression at the stranger holding the hatchet.
"Discipline." he responded with no hint of remorse, excitement, or any kind of emotion. As he spoke he rose his weapon above his head; it's blade a sickening shade of red.
"Don't even think about it buster!"Jackie roared as loud as she could, waking the other members of the household who could be heard shuffling along in a sleepy daze until an ear-splitting gunshot rang out.
Three rushed figures stormed downstairs, terrified as to what could have possibly happened. An elderly old woman quickly hobbled her way downstairs, soon outrun by a frightened young girl no older than ten and walking giant of a man who could've by all right been three hundred pounds of raw working muscle. They all reached the door to witness a horrible display. A man lay dead not fifteen feet from their porch, his head and right shoulder torn to nothing by unyielding lead; and their family on her knees trying to wake up a bloody mess of a girl. A tattered convulsing wing and a gleaming hatchet lay not far from them.
"MAC! Call the HOSPITAL! She took a shot to the neck!" Screamed Jackie in an adrenaline-fueled panic; her t-shirt and underwear were soaked in red. She could feel the heat leaving the girl in her lap. Bloodshot eyes begged for help as she choked and sputtered, trying to speak. "T-Thank....Y-Y...." she weezed until a gentle hand found her ashen cheek.
"Hush now sugar, no talkin' till we get ya fixed up." Jackie cooed to the shaking form in her arms.
"AJ! They're on their way! Be here in a jiff." Her brother, Mac, was back in the doorway and blocking the view of their little sister Annabelle.
"Y'hear that?" Jackie asked sweetly, "Help is on the way!" she was having a hard time looking at this girl's pleading eyes and holding back her own tears; she couldn't fall apart, not now when someone's life was depending on her.
"Granny, tend to Annabelle." Mac requested in a deep and thickly accented voice. He briskly stomped over to his sister and knelt down. "Jackie..." Mac whispered trying to get the girl's attention. "Jackie? Jackie...Ajax!" he yelled, snapping her back to reality. "What happened here?"
"Man, over there," She answered mechanically, "He...chopped her wing off." she looked to her brother her face empty of expression but her eyes told everything; fear, anxiety, guilt shame, rage, and pain all swirled in a chaotic vortex inside her teary emerald orbs. "So I shot him."
Mac sat there as his normally unbreakable sister wept into his shoulder; quietly watching her suffer through her storm.

The ambulance and police arrived shortly after and rushed off with the girl in seconds. Jackie just stood there in a daze as the police asked her question after question; forcing Mac to try his best to answer.
"Do you know the victim?" a short, heavy set officer asked in a bored voice.
"Well, no sir..." Mac started
"Ah do." Jackie answered dejectedly, speaking up for the first time since everyone had arrived, "Her name's Beau."
"Might ah ask sir." Mac spoke up, " Who was that man?"
The officer looked back to another ambulance loading up the remains of the man in question before returning his attention to the brother and sister. "Well according to records..." he answered lazily, "He's the girls' father."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well the shrapnel missed the arteries in her throat but, her voice box was badly damaged..." Beau's vision slowly faded into focus to see a bald elderly doctor speaking with a tall blonde girl in an orange flannel shirt and an old worn Stetson. She recognized this girl, she'd met her in town the other day.
She was the one who'd saved her; the one who'd killed her father. "I don't know if she'll ever speak again," the doctor continued, "but if she can, it won't be very loud."
"That poor girl..." the farmgirl sighed looking over to the ragged form strapped into a hospital bed with various tubes and wires in, on, and around her body. Her pretty face was obscured by a clouded oxygen mask and her own matted technicolor hair. "What about her wing?" she asked. What was this girls name? What did they call her? AJ?
"We did what we could, but we've never seen anything this...extreme." The doctor answered while looking over his charts, "we...couldn't save the wing."
"Thank ya doc." AJ somberly replied, "Do ya mind if ah sit in here with her alone fer a bit?"
"Not at all. Visiting hours end at six pm so stay as long as you want." the doctor curtly exited the room and gently closed the door with a soft click.

Jackie was quiet for a minute. She surveyed the layout of the room and finally opted to take a seat in the chair next to Beau's bed. She looked over to the still resting patient and broke down. "Ah'm so...sorry Beau." she sobbed, "Ah've ruined your life! Ah couldn't save ya fast enough and yer pa is gone because of me." she was holding her face in her hands weeping uncontrollably now; she almost didn't notice the feathery touch of a pale hand on her shoulder. She looked up slowly, her face soaked wet from bitter tears, but what she saw made her heart catch in her throat.
Beau was smiling at her. Her neck and torso were wrapped tight in gauze and her face was pale, sickly, but her eyes were a vibrant chaotic swirl of rich blue and fiery red; and her smile was like an angel's. Jackie couldn't help but smile back.
"Th.....Than...k you..." Beau sighed in a raspy breath, "you....s-s-saved...me...AJ."
Jackie couldn't help but smile at the use of her nickname. Everything would be okay