A Wild Night

[Embroche (DELETED 9632)]

It was hours after the sun had gone down. Embroche and a group of friends staggered out the side door of a local bar. They laughed as they traversed the dark alleyway, completely unsure of their destination or even where they were. There were about 5 of them, all natives to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Tonight was the bachelor party of one of Embroche's childhood friends and they threw quite the party. Booze, music, games, strippers and some drugs. Now they were in the middle of bum **** Egypt and probably unaware of the fact.

This party started around 8 pm and now it was slightly past midnight. None of them knew how they reached Canada or this city in particular but at the moment none of them seemed to care. Lost in their drunkenness they all made their way down the alleyway, singing random ballads and tumbling every few feet or so. They laughed at nothing and heard nothing over the rabble of their group. Turning the corner they reached a dead end between the back entrances of two closed businesses and decided to take a rest for now. Embroche, wearing a slightly disheveled black tuxedo leaned up against the back wall. One of his friends collapsed near the entrance and closed his eyes as the other three huddled together to share a cigarette they found tucked away in a pocket.

The moon was slightly visible in the empty night sky. All stars seemingly run off by the terrible singing of the group. One of the group turns his head to look at a flag flapping in the night wind and stares for a moment.

"The ****?" He continues to stare in amazement at the piece of cloth.

Hearing someone speak up, Embroche looks up from his corner. "What is it?"

"We're in Canada!" At this, the entire group follows his line of sight. After a few moments they all begin to chuckle at the sight of the Canadian maple leaf.

"Well, hopefully we're not robbed by immigrants. Wait...that's Toronto I think." Embroche finally gives in to his drunken state and slides down against the wall and into a sitting position. The night was a lively one and they never had plans to leave the city much less the country. Amanda, the bride to be, would no doubt blame him somehow for this adventure. He'd known her since middle school. But there would be time for **** taking later as for now they needed somewhere to sleep. He assumed they would need a local to find them somewhere suitable. No one here was in the right mind to talk on the phone or read a map. Not that either were accessible anywhere nearby. And with the lack of locals around this time of night and the fact that they were in the middle of an alley didn't exactly help their situation.

Standing up, Embroche was prepared to lead the group onward to more adventure when he thought he spotted something move nearby. There were no streetlights down here and what he could see was with the aide of the moonlight. Again, he saw it to his left this time near his sleeping friend huddled on the ground. Dismissing it as his drunken mid playing tricks on him he began to search his pockets for his phone. He hoped he hadn't lost the damn thing as he was the only one with one. Being the designated...whatever the ****. How that worked out beautifully. If he could call his girlfriend back home she should know what to do.

[Eureka]

Anyone who saw Eureka walking down the street would either dismiss her as a homeless woman, or assume that she was hooked on some kind of life debilitating drug. The red hair, as per usual, was mostly unbrushed – though ever since Eureka had shacked up with Aaron she’d started to show minimal interest in her appearance. Her hair was merely just messy rather than tangled, now, in knots that were disentangleable. The otherwise silken smooth locks fell over bare shoulders, the vampiress wearing only a slip of a dress, striped, one that she had stolen from somewhere. Where? She couldn’t remember. The woman hadn’t a single penny to her name, and buying things, these days, was an outdated concept.

At least she was wearing a dress, which did something to cover her skin, which if left up to herself, she would leave uncovered at all times.

Her feet were bare, as per usual, and dirty. They made no sound as she wandered the streets, moving with an untethered grace that no drunkard, no homeless, woman, no drug addict could ever achieve. This was what confused people. This was what intrigued them, or scared them. On an instinctive level, they knew that Eureka was not human. She was something to avoid, like a gang lord or a biker with a vendetta. A slip of a thing, she shouldn’t have looked threatening to anyone. But snakes were slips of things, too, and they could be the most dangerous of all.

After hours of meandering, Eureka finally found her fun. It was past midnight and most of the streets were empty, aside from those around the nightclubs and bars. A group of drunken friends had broken away from the packs of miscreants; they’d wandered off on their own. The fact there were a few of them should have kept them safe, but to Eureka, the more the better. The more the merrier, right?

Slyly, she followed the group down into the dead-end of an alleyway. They were laughing, they were happy. They were completely unaware of what was about to befall them. The redhead slipped through the shadows, eventually crouching low over the man who’d fallen asleep, his skin reeking of alcohol. Eureka slipped her fingers through his hair as if she were soothing a sleeping toddler – but she left him alone, for now. They were no fun when they were sleeping.

No, instead, she broke from cover to leap upon the shoulders of one of the unwary; the man shouted in surprise, probably thinking it was one of his friends playing a joke. It was only when gleaming canines ripped into the flesh of his neck that he knew it was no joke; his shout turned into a scream, his cigarette fluttering to the ground. Eureka began to drink her fill.

EUREKA