Boxes and Tarps [Open]

[John Doe]

... Meanwhile in the Sanctuary Basement Apartment of the Does...

The apartment smelled like a sickly combination of bleach, glade air freshener and gas-station incense. John and Jane sat on the couch next to one another staring at the large wrapped tarp in the center of their living room floor. No cops had been called for the intruder. No shots had been fired. Jane had taken out the intruder with her knife while John was oblivious in the shower. Even though Jane was a vampire she preferred to do her dirty work in her own time and under circumstances she created.

Now a human had wandered into her sanctuary and after the Day of Broken Glass’ events which left her Sire a smoldering pile of ash killed by hunters were being relived in their minds.

That day the hunters had come at noon. John had managed to ferry Jane away under a blanket to help to minimize the damage caused by the rays of the sun. This time the hunter had come by night. The fact the man had attacked so brazenly and openly covered in tattoos much like his own had John worried. He’d heard about the Order of Saint James falling though he knew very little about them and who they were or what the did, just that it was the same Order which had likely given him his own tattoos. He’d been a paladin berserker. Here. In their apartment. Hunting Jane.

The silence between them was tense, though each glanced to the other at the same time, both reached out for their drinks, his water, hers blood at the same time and after setting empty glasses on the table before them both rose at the same time. Neither said a word. They didn’t have to. Jane began packing with her clothes, John with his guns.

They both had known the day would come when the hunters would return for what they didn’t finish, but both were surprised it had come so quickly. Mid-way through packing up John breaks the silence between the siblings. “Where to?”

Jane glances up from packing at the question, her movement pausing as she considers. “Either the Handle Bar, the sewers or a new apartment across town.”

“We could look for a nocturnal roommate. Female only of course.” The thought of a male vampire brought flashes of ******** Number 2 into his mind. His sister’s Sire, his master for a time.

Jane kept her gaze on her brother. He was twisted, whatever he had in mind would likely be the same. “Do we have to?” She asked. “I’m pretty sure enough tapes have sold that we don’t need one.” It’s not that Jane was antisocial, anything but. The young Necromancer loved to be around people. She just didn’t like where she imagined John was heading with whatever idea he thought was good at that moment. “Besides, if our roommate has friends… they may notice her go missing right?”

“Hm,” was all the answer he gave, looking dejected as he continues stuffing their belongings into boxes. Finally finished the two walk over to the middle of the living room, both sets of eyes on the tarp laying on the floor. “How do we get him out of here?”

“We could take him straight up the elevator and then through the portal to the Quarantine Zone…” Jane looked to her brother to see what his suggestion would be. “Could smash out all his teeth, cut off his fingers, leave him here and torch the place.” He said quietly, eying her askance as though she may hit him for his suggestion. She didn’t. “My way is safer for everyone we should do that.”

John shook his head thinking. “Yeah but we could get seen.”

“So what? We’re moving out right? We’ll be carrying boxes back and forth all night. It’ll just be a few more boxes right?”

John arched an eyebrow at his sister, not having expected that sort of plan from her. It was rare that one sibling surprised the other, they were usually on the same wavelength.”Ok then… let’s get him to the bathroom and drain him. I’ll handle the rest. Lemme unpack a few things.” He makes his way over to two boxes, one labeled "power tools" and the other labeled "hand tools". He opens the latter.

An hour later, rinsed off and clothes changed, John finds himself moving their boxes upstairs as Jane is out renting a small U-Haul. The boxes are piled near to where the fadeportal is. Once they get the rest of their stuff into the truck, John plans on moving a few of those boxes through to give to the zombies in the Quarantine Zone as a treat. They do come in handy for eliminating evidence.

[Delaney]

They would never be coming back here, at least not every night like they had been for the last few months. Maybe the buxom beauty was feeling nostalgic after they made they big move. She loved the house they now owned and didn't regret the move in any way shape or form, but this was the first place they lived in together and the place where she was taught one of many lessons from Jedediah. It was something she hoped to never forget, and never wanted to forget; where they started because that was always important. To remember where you came from and what made you who you were over time. At least in Delaney's frame of mind.

She opened the door to what used to be their apartment (and still technically was, unless Jedediah would decide to sell it at some point), and scanned the room she first entered. She wasn't looking for anything, Delaney knew well and fully that Jedediah was thorough and that he wouldn't have forgotten a single thing. Even that leather couch he owned. No, instead Delaney was just 'watching' some of her favorite memories-or more like recalling all the things that transformed her, him and them together over the course of eight months or so.

The raven haired woman smiled, leaned up against the door frame and just 'listened' to some of their philosophical debates geared towards their individual lifestyle choices and their beliefs, along with some of the cheekier things she had said and done in the past to try and get her way with Jedediah. It didn't always work, but it didn't stop the woman from thinking about those things.

Once those memories were finished with, Delaney would close the door to their basement apartment and tread through to the bedroom and into the bathroom. She would open the medicine cabinet and look at the empty spaces in it, recalling where everyone's things had been placed, or resting at. Her products, which overtook the majority of the bathroom, versus Jedediah's very simple and few things. Shaver, shaving cream and a few other odds and ends. Where as she would have the same things, with about a dozen or so more things piled into the cabinet that would occasionally come spilling out if someone opened the door to quickly. She laughed at the memory, and shook her head before closing the medicine cabinet until the woman heard it shut with a 'click' ensuring it was securely latched.

The curvy woman turned on her leather boots (only because she was wearing pants instead of a preferred skirt due to the rainy, cool weather) and stood in the doorway of the bathroom to look into the bedroom. She could 'see' everything in the room, as if they weren't really gone and the things that had happened in the room. If Delaney could blush, there would be a red splash of color on her cheeks as she recalled the first night Jedediah had tied her to the bed and slept on that damn leather couch. Sleeping naked wasn't a big deal for Delaney, she found it freeing, having to wear eight or so items of clothing day in and day out. Here, in the privacy of her, or their, home and bedroom she could be as free as a bird. Her arms wrapped around her as she thought about how Delaney believed Jedediah to be cruel with the way he carried on, only now seeing how the way he acted was how he as trying to convey the way he lived and expected the two of them to live, being bound in a way no one could understand but the two of them, due to Kika siring the both of them on the same night, with their blood shared with one another from the atrocity of her actions. Not that Delaney was mad or upset with Kika-but it had been a right bloody mess she had made, with the assistance of her...lover.

Fingers went to the silver chain that rested at the base of Delaney's throat, her smile once again apparent in the dimples of her cheeks as her thoughts roamed back to Jedediah and Jedediah alone. She as proud of him, and proud to be with him; even if he clung on to the falsity of the lineage she removed herself from prior to Kika's disappearance. The woman sighed, thinking about how she missed seeing the woman's words, or face around the city and hoped she would come back soon. Not that Delaney blamed her or her other half for skipping town. The thought had entered her mind when she got wind of them not being in the city, and she probably would have, IF Delaney didn't have her beloved Jedediah.

She took a look around the room one last time, nodded her head and then moved to the doorway where Delaney would close the door behind her. It wasn't a closing of a chapter for her and Jedediah...more like an ending to a prologue for the couple. With one last look around, the woman flicked off the lights to the main part of the apartment, closed the door, locked it up and went to go meet someone about some floppy eared bunnies that would be perfect for their new home.

[John Doe]

John stepped out of the apartment with a box under each arm. One of the boxes was labeled "man cave", the other, kitchen. He'd not seen the woman before who was exiting the apartment nearby. She was pretty though and given where they were she was likely a vampire like his sister. Or a thrall like he knew some vampires had. No one else really lived down in the basement apartments that he was aware of. No wonder, hunters randomly walking in wouldn't make it a prime real estate location. John was torn between being a good neighbor and greeting the dark-haired woman, the potential for a business opportunity by kidnapping her and including her in one of his films, and simply fleeing back into the apartment, avoiding her and waiting for the coast to clear.

Of course there was another option. He could actually keep working, get the boxes where they needed to be upstairs and waiting for Jane to arrive with the truck.

Seemed like a plan. John headed toward the elevator, giving the woman a small nod as he stepped into its confines, holding the door a moment in case she was planning on going up.

[Delaney]

Delaney moved to the elevator, catching the sight of another doing the same thing. Heading to an elevator with a box. To her, it could only imply one of two things. He was moving out; an odd coincidental, but then again people moved all the time. Or he was shipping this box somewhere and going to drop it at the post office. Not that she cared; Laney didn't care about people's private life, especially stranger's private life.

"Hey." The woman said at the nod, nodding back a little as she went to press the 'G' button. Once that was done, Delaney tucked her hair behind her left ear and stared at the small wall space between the door opening and the other side of the elevator, not wanting to bother the guy that came into the elevator at just about the same time as she did.

As it started to ascend, Laney grabbed out her cellphone and started compiling a message to send to Jed; knowing she couldn't send it until the woman got out of the elevator. But by the time the elevator got to the main floor, the message should be composed and she could send it off the second she got off the elevator. Hey baby! I've got somewhere to stop before heading back home. See you soon! Love you! P.S. You might need to build a small cage outside. Or a fenced in area! Laney. With it composed, the phone rested in the woman's right hand as she waited for the doors to open so she could send him the message.

[John Doe]

That awkward elevator silence has been in modern times, largely broken up by the fact that people will simply lose themselves into their phones. It was also a largely effective way of avoiding people. John was grateful for that because a man carrying a box of pots and pans under one arm and the disembodied head in a box under the other like a fucked up combination of Wolfgang Puck and the killer from Se7en on the way to taunt Brad Pitt. Yeah, sometimes it was good to be ignored. Especially if (and in likelihood was) the only other person in an elevator coming up from creepy underground apartments was in fact a vampire. Stands quietly awaiting the familiar chime of the elevator opening.

It was probably easier to remain undetected and unnoticed in the box under the right arm wasn't leaking, a drop of blood forming at the corner ready to drop to the carpet beneath him. John, not being a vampire didn't catch the scent in the air. He's busy looking everywhere but the hottie in the elevator which she purposefully ignores him. Of course John, being John eventually cracks as the elevator reaches floor 2. His eyes move her direction. Then he shuffles slightly and re-positions his feet as if the boxes were heavy and he was getting more comfortable with them. Conflicted thoughts flow through his mind. She's hot, he wants to talk to her. She's probably a vampire. Maybe she's a nice vampire, like... He didn't really know any nice vampires. Well, Dawna he'd met at her concert. But she might be like him, her bite didn't make him all forgetful. Yeah! She's probably nice like Dawna. Should definitely talk to her.

Then he took a step back, slightly behind her and took his time checking her out before stepping forward and saying. "So, haven't seen you in the building before. You new here?"

[Delaney]

She was in her own world, shoulder against the wall as Laney focused on locating the email with the address for the person with the bunnies. Her fingers slide from the bottom of the phone's screen to the top as she browsed her already read messages. It was a farm on the other side of town, a few blocks north of the library, the woman added in as she talked about the floppy eared bunnies; how many she had left, what gender and even attached a few pics in the email so Laney could more or less see just what she was getting. Laney had already picked out the one she wanted without seeing the other two; the female bunny that was primarily the color of sand minus a few spots on the chest that were an off white.

The buxom beauty was in a blue corset, with a Victorian style dress, minus the fact the front came to her knees, while the back was to her ankles. The woman's hair was in a messy bun, a few strands slipping out of it at the nape of her neck and near her right cheek, being tucked behind her ear every now and again. Once Laney memorized the general area she was going to and the farm number, the phone was tucked away in a tiny, faux leather clutch, with general things like some petty cash and license. Maybe some frequent customer cards to places she once ate at, a store she shopped at, things like that; and a pen.

"What?" Delaney asked, as she was half paying attention to the man around her, because well bunnies were more important than some guy she didn't know from Adam. "New?" Laney had to think about when they moved here and she slowly shook her head. "Nope. Sorry. I just tend to stay inside. I don't have many reasons to go out." She admitted with a small shrug of her shoulders. "And I heard it's wise to never talk to strangers, so I never met any of the neighbors. The woman gave him a small smile before clicking the purse closed. "Must be that time of the month. Moving time." She commented idly before looking at the boxes in his arms. "We got a house. And it looks like you're moving somewhere better. Not that this place is bad." It wasn't bad at all; only Laney couldn't have her bunnies, chickens and other things...eventually if they lived here.