BURN IT DOWN (OPEN)

[Roderic]

I hear a scream and assume Renee is hard at work.
It wasn't a female scream, so I don't turn around.
If I heard one, it would have caused me to stop and make sure she's alright.
Two is better than one.

I don't stop, not even when the first bullet strikes me in my back.
Around my shoulder area.
Sure, I feel it, but I'm keeping my eye on the prize.
I do stop, stumble even. when a bullet catches me in my side.
Good thing I don't need organs anymore.

I turn around to see who is shooting me and I know him well.
He's the last one I saw before I found myself in that place.
That dark place.
The Umbra.
People call it something else, but it doesn't make sense to me.
They call it the Shadow Realm.
Sure, it's a realm, like this one is, but I'm not sure I would call it the shadow realm.
It's dark. Shadows can't be seen in the dark.
So I call it the Umbra.

The old man can wait.
For now.
I spot the brunette who came in with me, a few bodies and someone I don't know.
Who is she?
More importantly; what side is she on?
Mine or theirs?

More bullets go whizzing past my head.
More connect with my body as a slew of profanities come at me from the guy.
Questions and statements too.
Who was I?
What was I?
They killed me.
Why won't I die already?

I don't say anything.
I just keep walking to the guy.
A bullet lodges in my chest and that one slows me down.
That one burns.
Did he hit my heart?
Again, I don't need it, but it's a strange sensation.
I'm not used to my heart going through that sort of trauma.
I raise my blade up, slowly.
I groan in pain.
It feels heavy.
I know it's not, but it feels it.
Another one to my chest.
Wisps of black come from my body and disappear in to the air as it travels up.
I stab the guy in his side as I fall forward, exhausted.

[Shira Chess (DELETED 5266)]

She had pocketed her prizes and crouched against the wall as she watched the chaos. Bullets were flying and the "Invisible Man" was catching most of them in his body. She stared wide eyed as he kept moving. How in the hell? She shook her head, figuring he was on some sort of drugs. It was the only plausible explanation. Until he took one to the chest. One that looked like it hit him square in the heart. And yet he lifted his blade. Slowly, like he was struggling. Another bullet ripped through his chest and Shira leaped in to action.

The man managed to slice the guy in the side before he started sinking to the ground. The tiny woman managed to catch him and ease him down with a soft huff of air. He was heavier than he looked. Once he was safely down, she turned her attention to the gun wielding maniac. She jumped up and her knife went through the soft skin beneath his jaw. She shoved harder and harder, grunting with the effort to pierce the palate and drive the sharp blade in to the brain. She finally managed, but not with out some pain to herself. The bullet would have sunk deep in to her flesh if not for her special rock skin ability, as it was it barely made her bleed and only stung a little.

As the large man fell, she straddled him and fought to get her knife free, finally managing. She sat atop her victim and her head tilted to the side. Such pretty blue eyes he had. With a wicked smile, she managed to slip her small fingers in to the orbital sockets and pull them out, slicing through the ocular nerves and freeing her newest prizes. She stuffed them gently in her breast pocket, not wanting to crush the crystalline blue eyes. Her next course of action was to pry the mouth open and slice out the tongue, stuffing it in the pocket with the fingers she'd managed to take earlier.

Once she was done gathering her latest gifts, she crawled gently over to the shot man and then rolled him over. Patting him on the cheek, she tried to wake him up, wondering if he was even still alive and what in the world that inky black substance was. It looked like oil but evaporated like shadows exposed to the light. Certainly one of the stranger things she'd seen.

"Dude! This is no time for a nap. Wakey wakey!"

[Roderic]

I had no idea what was going on around me.
I just needed a minute at most.
To get up again.

The fighting continues, even though I'm down for the count.
I assume Renee is going hard and heavy.
As for that other woman, who knew what she was doing.
If she was even alive.
I'll be honest. I don't care if she is.
I don't know her.

Then I hear a voice in my head.
An unfamiliar one.
And it's not in my head.
It's actually above me.
I'm also moving.
Being shaken.
By the voice.

I don't say anything.
Instead I roll over.
It's her.
The woman I don't know.
I'm pretty sure she's human.
And I need blood.
Lots of it.

I get up like I'm going to sit up.
Only that's not all I do.
As I sit up, I lean in to her and make a move for her neck.
I need blood. And she had it. A lot of it.

[Renee]

As I am cutting through stupid human after stupid human I realize for a moment Ric is not up. I close my eyes for a moment before turning to where he is. He is sitting on the ground and there is a human female by him. I don't recall her face in the fighting but that doesn't mean much I was horrible with faces. I watch for a moment to see what will happen.

[Shira Chess (DELETED 5266)]

The curse that left her lips was explosive, pain making her see spots. The man, though injured, was a hell of a lot stronger than he looked and he was... biting her? A frown crossed her lips, shocking keeping her still. So all the rumors and what not were true. There really were vampires in Harper Rock. She mulled the thought over in her mind as the man fed from her, latched on like a, well, a vampire.

As she felt herself growing dizzy, she began to struggle slightly and shoved him back, feeling the flesh of her neck tear beneath his fangs. She clapped a hand over the bleeding wound and slapped him, almost as if she were trying to get some sense in to him.

"That's enough of that. I am not a buffet. And even if I was, this is not the right place for it.

As if to prove her point, she lunged at the man, dragging him to the ground as a bottle flew over their heads and shattered against the wall. She gave him an "I told you so." look as she scrambled to her feet and retrieved her bloody knife, searching for the next target, she offered him a hand and waggled her fingers at him so she could help him up.

C'mon now, there's killing to do!" She said gleefully.

[Roderic]

I didn't feel guilty about biting her.
I didn't feel anything about it, really.
It was essential and necessary.
I don't know how much I would have taken from her, but the thought never crossed my mind until she slapped me.
Then she speaks.
I blink and look at her.
Any sane person would have done something.
Ran away, tried to kill me, anything.
Instead she comes back with some sort of witty retort.

We're on the ground again and she's on top of me.
I'm sure most people, most men would have taken advantage of the situation, but not me.
I'm trying to figure out why we're on the ground.
Then I hear some glass break not far from both our heads and realize something had been thrown at her, or at me.

She's quick. I'll give her that much.
Strong too.
Though nothing sticks out at the moment to me about her being anything special.
Women could be quick and strong if they trained their bodies right. Even humans.
But now's not the time to wonder about her work out regime.

She's offering me a hand and I take it.
She's not an enemy. At least for now.
She could have killed me when she had the chance.
Twice now.
I'm off the ground and I shake my head, trying to remember what it was I was going to do.
Who I was after.
The old man.
"You see where he went? The old one?"
He's my main concern now.
If he got away he could rebuild what was lost. He could come back for me.
Take my by surprise. Like the last time.
"He's mine." I claim him as if he's a turkey leg or something at Thanksgiving time.
She could kill whoever she wanted, but he was off limits.

[Shira Chess (DELETED 5266)]

She snickered softly at the way he lay claim to his preferred target. She looked around the chaos, and spied what looked to be an old man shuffling down a hall, away from the bullets and the blood. She looks up at Roderic, then back down the hall and points.

"He went that way." She said, pointing with her blood stained knife. The adrenalin was flowing and now that she pointed out the target her temporary ally had claimed, her eyes were busily scanning for some one else to kill. Or maim. Either one worked.

She saw her chance when a foul smelling man came at Roderic from behind. She took advantage of his tall form, gripping the front of his shirt, she leap frogged over him like a circus monkey, landing on the guy that was coming from behind. Her slight weight wasn't enough to take him down, but she caught him by surprise enough that he stumbled back, arms flailing as she clung to him. With a gleeful, sadistic laugh, she plunged her knife in to his thick chest. Over and over she stabbed, blood spraying across her face and coveralls. She couldn't recall a time when she had this much fun. She only hoped it would last a while.

[Renee]

I see the two of them talking and it is strange to see at first but my thoughts are interrupted by a knife as it is plunged into my abdomen by one of the poor fuckers that was bleeding out. I kick him in the head as I pull the knife out. I look back up to see the human gleefully killing another one. If she lived through this she would make a good vampire some day.

[Roderic]

She didn't make a move for my claim.
She willingly gave him up.
I gave a nod of appreciation to her before I make my move.

Or would have if she hadn't made one first.
The woman grabs my shirt, but I don't react to it.
I'm interested in what she's going to do.
Stab me?
It would heal and I'd give her one back.
And another for good measure.

Instead she does something unpredictable.
I wouldn't have thought it up in the minute she has hold of me.
Ten, or even twenty minutes.
"What the hell?" I ask as she goes catapulting over me.

I turn to the direction she pointed at.
Not because of the old man, but to see what she was doing.
Why she did what she did.
What compelled her to leap over me like that.

I see her jamming a blade in to the chest of a man who had been coming towards us.
Behind me.
She seems to be enjoying herself.
Good for her.
Not many have the stomach to repeatedly stab someone and not bat a lash.
"See ya." I say before I take chase of the old ******** down the hallway.
Maybe she'll make it out of this.
Maybe not.
If she did, she was definitely an interesting specimen.

[Shira Chess (DELETED 5266)]

She gave a half wave to her temporary ally as he took off, keeping her focus on the man she clung to like a spider monkey. From the corner of her eye, she saw the dark haired woman as well. She must have done that cool trick of appearing from no where again. Ra would never forget that. Nor would she forget the woman's face. Some one doesn't just appear out of no where like that. Shrugging it off, she looked at the mauled, bloody chest of the man she was on. Why wasn't he dying? Was he high? Drunk? Something was keeping this mountain on his feet. Well she could easily fix that. Jerking the serrated blade free of his chest, she gripped it tightly and plunged it directly in to his eye, feeling the slight resistance, then give as it went in to the brain.

She gave a whoop of glee, victorious at last as the man fell to the floor like a tree fell in the forest, with a great crash that shook even the walls. Her glee was short lived as she realized the idiot had fallen face down, on her knife! Muttering curses, the tiny woman struggled to roll him over, grunting with the effort. The man was like four times her size. Why did these idiots always have to fall face down?

At last he was on his back, and she was standing on the bloody pulp of his chest. Grabbing the slick hilt of her knife, she pulled as hard as she could, an odd, almost cat like noise coming from her, slipping from her clenched teeth. When he had fallen, he had driven the knife in even deeper and she couldn't get it free. In frustration, she jumped on the dead mans great melon of a head, over and over again all the while yelling at him to give her her knife back.

When his head was nothing but pulp, she picked up her now free knife and looked around. Seeing nothing of interest, she scampered down the hall, wondering what was so fascinating to the guy, why he had chosen a specific target rather than engaging in mindless mayhem. She didn't realize she was leaving a trail of tiny, bloody boot prints on the floor as she set off in search of Roderic, flicking brain matter absently off her shoulder as she looked for him.