[Raven] A Little Death

[Alexis Brent (DELETED 8230)]

The workday had been long and uncharacteristically stressful, but the intense spinning class she’d attended immediately after had eased the tension from her body. Wilted, but infused with a sense of accomplishment, Alexis Brent had left the gym with shower-damp hair in order to make her way to her beauty appointment at Serenity Shore. It was a hole in the wall beauty shop not far from the gym, and much pricier than other places she’d been to, but the owner catered to her late hours and never disappointed. Plucked, primed, and ready for the week ahead, the blonde parted ways with her favourite aesthetician at the corner of the street, and began her trek back to the office.

The business district was a ghost-town at this time of night, and particularly unpleasant to trudge through in the cold, but practicality was the order of the day—everyday, and it was simpler to leave her car in the lot than fight for a parking spot at the gym during afterwork hours.

Taking care not to mess up her manicure, Alexis hoisted the strap of her duffle bag further up her shoulder and quickened her pace. The whirring sound of construction machines around the corner caught her off guard, and she was suddenly reminded that the route she’d taken to the gym would not be accessible what with the construction night crew at work. With an indignant huff, always one quick to anger at the slightest disturbance to her plan, she backtracked half a block and cut through a narrow, one-way street. If memory served her correctly, there were a few backroads that would grant her access to the underground parking lot a few blocks ahead.

Her heeled boots clicked against the damp pavement, the sound echoing across the empty alley. It was eerie, different from walking across the front of office buildings where the lobbies remained lit, often manned by a security guard. Were it not for the distant whir and clatter of the construction site a block over, Alexis could easily have been alone in the world.

Except, she wasn’t.

[Raven Talius]

Raven silently rested against a brick wall as she lit up a cigarette to inhale the toxic fumes. Well, toxic to humans. Her healing capabilities protected her against such silly diseases. It was amazing really, as she could smoke a whole packet of the cigarettes and it couldn’t permanently damage any part of her body. Perhaps that was why she had decided that it was a good idea to keep smoking such things even after turning. As she mused about this, the woman received yet another message and she dug her phone out of her jacket pocket to glance at it. The message was from Jesse, surprise, surprise. The man had been texting her non-stop for the past hour and she wondered if he had anything better to do other than harass someone who didn’t exactly want to listen to him. She placed the cigarette between her lips as she unlocked the phone to type a message, but her fingers stopped the moment that a blonde happened by.

Her brown hues watched the woman walk by holding a bag tightly grasped in perfect manicured hands and a smirk curved her lips. Dinner had just walked by, she mused as she typed a simple message back to Jesse. The man and his demands were not high upon her list right then and there, besides, she had something else in mind. She pocketed the phone after locking it and she dropped the cigarette, before she stamped it into the solid ground underneath her heeled boot. Her gaze shifted to the back of the woman then as she began to walk after the woman, keeping step with her steps. If the human was observant, which most weren’t when it came to their lives, the human would have noticed an extra echo to her steps. The shadow also noted, that she probably wouldn’t pay too much attention to the echo of her steps, due to the fact that there was also the sound of the construction site heavily masking the extra echo. An extra echo that was still plainly there should one listen carefully enough.

However, with each step that the human took down the side street, she knew that her window of opportunity was closing. The thought of a woman serial killer was almost an impossible thought to the sexist man, especially if they didn’t know that vampires existed, but they existed, the fledgling was proof of that. Raven’s footsteps quicken and her steps were then out of time with the human’s. ”Hey!” She called out before she began to run towards the other woman. Oh she liked stalking them, but she also like it when they knew that she was there and fought against her. A hand lashed out to grasp the woman by the shoulder before shoving her to the side with vampire force. Oh yes, she loved it when humans fought against her even though they would lose simply because of her enhanced vampiric strengths. She snickered then as she lifted both hands then to shove the woman by the shoulders back into the brick wall behind her.

The vampress was playing mostly, because the woman before her was a human who had perfectly manicured nails and most likely, a manicured life. Raven always hated those that looked down upon the riff raff of the street, because they always thought that they were better. However, a riff raff had the strength and upper hand. A riff raff, that was a serial killer by nature and she was going to add yet another human to that list. ”Little miss, you shouldn’t be walking around on your own so late. A serial killer just might like to add to their tally. I mean, you’re blonde so that may not help on the intelligence side so maybe I’ll just let that slide. Because lets face it, all blondes are stupid in some fashion. You just lack in common sense.” The woman snickered then as she baited the woman. She wanted to play a little, because she wanted to strip away her own humanity, to strip away the emotional pain that was held deep within her cold, dead heart.

[Wearing]

[Alexis Brent (DELETED 8230)]

Alexis braced herself against the paranoia creeping up her spine like a kudzu vine. The weight of someone’s eyes on her back deemed imaginary, she willed herself to straighten her shoulders, grip tightening on her sports bag.

The fine hairs on her nape stood to attention as she felt something shift behind her. The imperceptible catalyst to her growing unease had her heart jumping into overdrive, bloodstream flooded with adrenaline. Evolution had well-equipped the human mind with survival mechanisms, but learned rationality trampled on imagined ghosts. The boogeyman was a child’s nightmare, after all.

Hey!

In a man’s world, a female voice didn’t necessarily imply safety. Alexis was far too proud to quicken her pace and jog back to the safety of her car. She tentatively glanced over her shoulder as she continued walking. Her suspicions were sickeningly confirmed when she realised the stranger was closer than she’d thought. A hand settled on her shoulder, and before any self-defence lessons could kick in, she was stumbling back on black ice. Her back roughly collided with a granite wall, knocking the air out of her lungs.

Alexis wasn’t paralysed by the impact, instead using it to bounce back, however ungracefully. The adrenaline in her veins readied her for a defensive attack, but instead she found herself shoved into the wall once again, without time to react.

Little miss…

The words were clear over the deafening beat of her heart, but not all of them registered. Alexis glanced down to her bag, hooked haphazardly in the crook of her elbow. She gauged the distance between them before bringing her duffle bag to her stomach knowing full well how useless it’d be as a protective barrier should the other attack her again. After all, it was becoming clear that her strength was eclipsed. That initial shove had been… something, alright.

Alexis fumbled with the sports bag, hands shaking but resolve unwavering as she reached into the side pocket. Amidst the unraveled hand-wraps used for her combat class, she found the only weapon she had on her: black bladed kunai knives. She slid her index finger through the steel ring, and, once assured the weapon was secure in her hand, inched into a defensive pose. She still hugged the bag to her front, kunai-wielding hand tucked into the front pocket and hidden from sight.

“—and you lack a brain-to-mouth filter, *****,” she spat out.

What was it with villains and their verbose spiels? Couldn’t they just get to the point? Alexis shifted her weight and exhaled shakily. It took a bullshitter to spot another person’s ********. “What the **** do you want?”