When Scratch awoke, he saw that he was in a new place. Surrounding him was cold and dark with just a little bit of dim light. He appeared to be in the tunnels, but deeper. There was a hallway, and on either side of the hallway were walls made of bars. Were these some sort of cages? He thought to himself.
He suddenly noticed that two, or three wolves were staring at him, the red-eyed wolf, the female wolf and his brother.
The female stepped forward to take a better look at him. "Well, you didn't go very far... you thought you couldn't hide, but you can sure run!" She cackled. The female wolf turned to the other wolves.
"Mica, come with me! You, Hellhound, stay here with the prisoner! He shouldn't escape through those bars, but just in case...you know what to do!"
Hellhound didn't answer, he continuously stared at his younger brother as the two other wolves walked away. While they were walking away, the red-eyed wolf known as Mica gave Scratch a side eye.
They left Scratch face to face with Ben.
"Why do they call you Hellhound? That doesn't sound like you! Bloodhound maybe, or Scout, but you're not a hellhound!" His brother didn't respond in those cold dead eyes.
Scratch glanced down at the floor then back up at him. "Don't you remember me? Ben? You and I are brothers!"
Of course he didn't respond.
"What did they do to you?" Scratch whispered as he slumped down, feeling helpless.
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The boys made their last trip back to the tower, along with Rose, Valerian, and Scratch's father.
Where would he BE? Thunderbolt wondered.
"If they captured him, they would've thrown him in the prison cell inside the tunnels." Shadow explained.
"How are we going to get in without them seeing us?" Thunderbolt turned Shadow.
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"I have an idea!" Shadow said.
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Scratch lifted his head up after hearing the sound of a metal door slamming.
Who was that? Then it dawned on him, he slowly backed up to the walls of the cell. Scarlett entered and looked down at Ben. "Atta boy! You're doing a much better job than Beta!" She turned to Scratch.
"My boy, you're home after all of these years." She said sweetly.
Scratch was taken aback. "What the hell are you talking about?"
This had to have been a trick!
As if hearing his thoughts, she responded. "Oh my child, no one's told you? Not even your adopted mother? Or your deceitful father?"
Infuriated, he shouted. "Don't you dare speak of my father in front of me!"
She laughed. "Oh I know, I'm just as mad at him as you are! He betrayed me after all! We were one big family...I was deeply in love with him, until he left me for that wench!" Scratch had a hard time processing all of this...it was as if his brain froze.
"I'm sorry, Lady. I'm not your child...you got me confused with someone else! Now, will you leave me be?"
Scarlett tsked. "I'm afraid I can't, my child."
"STOP CALLING ME THAT! YOU'RE INSANE!"
She placed a hand over his head, and immediately his head was getting full of memories that weren't his.
In the memory, he saw Scarlett was holding hands with what looked like his father, the next scene showed her pregnant and talking to his father about a future marriage. They seemed to have been so happy together, it was hard to recognize that happy, bubbly woman as an evil witch. "I want to call him, Maxwell!" His father said.
"Maxwell?" The young Scarlett repeated.
"Doesn't that sound like a good name?" The father questioned, almost sounded like he was second guessing himself.
"It's a perfect name!" She replied.
As time went by, a year after he was born, Scarlett and his father had an argument that caused him to take Max with him to raise him. Scarlett was devastated with the fact her son was getting taken away from her.
A few years went by when Scarlett wanted to talk to him again, hoping to work something out between them and their son; but her heart shattered into a million pieces when she figured out, he wasn't the only one raising Max. There was another woman in the picture. Her heart was so broken, that she wanted vengeance.
So she tricked his father into meeting in the woods so they could talk, but he didn't want to. He wanted to do it near the Village, for he grew to hate the forest. When he approached her, asking her what it was, she confronted him as she changed him into a black furred beast. She turned to face the forest, then vanished.
Scarlett let go of her hand from Scratch's head and backed up two steps. Scratch was in a state of complete shock. It answered so many questions!
"See, you and I are not that different. We both hate your father!" She said.
"When I was four, he told me and the family that he was going to be gone for a few hours, but he never came back. My mother knew this whole time that he was out there, running back inside? She shut the door on him. He was trying to come back, but you cursed him! Because of you, I don't have a father!"
Right behind Scarlett, he heard the black wolf. "That's not quite true." He said calmly.