Path of the Vampire forum

The thought of being attractive was far, far from Emerson’s mind as Bjorn looked her over. Instead, his eyes on her meant that he was noticing how stupid her outfit was for the weather (seriously, who in their right mind wore a cropped shirt in the snow? Granted, she did have a jacket zipped over it, but the material was thin), that he was picking out one of the hundreds of ways he could absolutely take her down like she was nothing, that he was regretting texting her and getting involved with her and not letting the Fadebeast actually rip her in half. Of course, none of that was true. Probably. True or not, it didn’t matter. With the not so welcomed interaction with the guy at the store and the barely there but there all the same exchanges with the other passengers on the bus and now this, things were just piling up and Emerson’s mind was going absolutely wild. When Bjorn made eye contact with her, it was all but for a split second before she looked away, gaze on her wriggling toes through her white sneakers and fingers pinching at the hem of her jacket so she could at least have a grip on something.

Emerson only looked up again when Bjorn continued to speak because it was the polite thing to do and she was half-heartedly able to convince herself that him looking her over could’ve been completely innocent - which it was. She followed his motion to the bag beside her own, nodding in reply. Her owned weapon was not exactly something exchanged for cash, so she understood that others would be in the same kind of boat. Although, in either case, was that considered stealing? Emerson didn’t think of herself as a thief. When she’d picked up that gun on her way out of possibly the worst part of the city ever, no one had stopped her and no one had really noticed. And if once upon a time there were weapons here, in a training center, wasn’t that just indicating for someone to use them? To take them? Her train of thought was in a far off station and Emerson gripped the bottom of her jacket a bit tighter in hopes to bring herself back to the situation at hand.

“Good?” she repeated, as if she hadn’t heard him the first time. “Um, yeah. I'm okay.” At that, she released her coat and smoothed out her hands against her legs, putting a smile on her face. “Whatever you’ve got planned, m’ready to go.” Because anything that was going to distract her from thinking about being picked apart was welcome. Totally, totally welcome.

When Bjorn informed Emerson that he didn’t have much of a plan, her first instinct was to panic. And that was silly, she realized, because this was just a casual thing. There really was nothing to panic about, but she liked to fall back on a plan, on a schedule, no matter how loosely strung together it was, at all times. Since this wasn’t possible for her current situation, she decided to just go with whatever was thrown at her. That was, more or less, how most of her Saturdays went anyways. Surely things could just work themselves out.

Three options were given and Emerson was required to choose one. It should’ve been easy enough, but things with the young brunette were never easy, especially so when it came to decision making. Emerson took the time to weigh the pros and cons of each option - how good she would be at it, how beneficial it would be to her. It was quickly pinpointed that she would fare the same skill in all three since she wasn’t exactly aware that she could do slightly better in one than in the others. She didn’t exactly own a sword, and even though she could probably swipe one up somewhere or another, or put her paycheck towards a fund to purchase the particular type of weapon, it seemed impractical. For now, at least. Emerson couldn’t see herself carrying around a sword casually or being able to stuff one into even the largest pocket of her backpack. Hitting someone with a stick was the same type of deal. She wouldn’t be carrying one around, but it would be useful to learn if certain circumstances landed her in the midst of a nearby stick when she was lacking a weapon. Maybe later. Then, she was most focused on trying to defend herself against two males that were, as far as she could tell, very human. If they ever did approach her, running away could come easy, but as Bjorn had said - **** happens. And that left her with the last option.

Emerson glanced down at her hands and curled them into small fists. There was no way she could throw a good punch, but maybe she could learn. Her legs were on the shorter side (as was the rest of her), but she had successfully kicked the Fadebeast when she’d needed to. There was potential in her, however little in amount. Given the right motives, the girl could probably end up surprising both Bjorn and herself. Probably.

“Hand-to-hand combat. To start?” she asked, head cocked to the side like a small puppy. “If that’s okay. I mean, I think it would be my go to if I ended up being any good.” Emerson pouted. “I don’t think they had swords, so.”

They. Who were they, exactly? That was a good question Emerson didn’t have the answer to just yet. However curious she was to get some more information on the pair that seemed oh so very involved with her and her whereabouts, the girl didn’t want to think of what she’d have to do in order to achieve that. She had a bad, bad gut feeling about them. It was probably only a matter of time until they approached her. They’d watched her for long enough that they’d know where she’d run to.

Emerson gave a small shrug of her shoulders as she made her way over to Bjorn. She mentally decided that she’d take her jacket off when she needed to. It wasn’t going to get in the way of anything, and she was still a bit chilly from her journey here. “There’s, like, two guys. I think I mentioned them before?” Had she? Emerson paused, trying to recall the instance in which she told Bjorn specifically, or anyone, for that matter, but none of her detailed memories from that night were particularly clear. She blamed that on the knock of her head.

“I dunno,” she continued. “They just seem super interested in me - like, everything about me - and I don’t know why. And I have no idea who they are. I mean, they could be people I just don’t remember…” she trailed off, only then noticing that she’d gone on for a little longer than she’d meant to. “I dunno,” Emerson repeated again. “They’re just big and tall and if they’re gonna try and grab me, I wanna be able to get away.”

“Sorry?” Emerson shook her head. Why was he apologizing? Had she made him feel inclined to? That was far from her intentions. And sure, she’d said something about it in their last meeting, but only fleetingly so. The information had tumbled out just as she’d stumbled herself into that situation with Bjorn - suddenly, without thought, without the consideration of consequence. In fact, that was how most of her decisions were made and how most of her end of the conversation went. Without some type of guidelines, the young brunette was lost and unintentionally reckless. “S’okay,” she told him. “Not your fault, or anything.” Not the memory loss, not the men following her, not anything.

As Bjorn presented her with two more questions, the girl was shaking her head again. Loose strands of hair fell into her face from doing so, and she moved to tuck them away behind her ears. Did she have a hair elastic? A quick once over at her wrists proved that to be negative. She’d have to deal with it, and hoped it wouldn’t prove as a distraction. After evaluating her own skill, little room was left for anything else that would interfere with her success. “Nope and nope,” she sighed. The sigh was not of disappointment, because she was rather happy that the pair of males hadn’t done much more than follow her around like a predator did prey, but rather, the sigh was of slight frustration. Because, seriously - what did they want? The paranoia that welled in the girl’s chest only increased every time she saw them out of the corner of her eye. It was like she couldn't live her life anymore.

Frustrations aside, Emerson focused on the present. She watched Bjorn’s movements with careful eyes as she continued. “I think they come close to it sometimes,” the brunette admitted, “but m’always on my feet.” Always on the move, that girl. From cafe to work to shop to home and back again, her life was, after a few months of wandering, in constant, steady motion. “And I’m not usually anywhere that’s crowded, but there’s enough people around to notice if something happened. They’re probably going to try to catch me on my way home. I’m usually alone, then.”

The first thing Emerson wasn’t expecting was for Bjorn to just jump her like that, without warning, but in a way, it made sense. If this were a real life situation, if one of the men were to sneak up behind her in the dead of the night, she wouldn’t be getting a warning. No one would be around to notice, to shout out and help her, and it’d be up for Emerson to react under a limited amount of time before the second man was joining in. There was no room for thinking up a plan, for trying to talk herself out of the situation. There was only room for reacting.

The second thing Emerson wasn’t expecting was for the hold to feel so ******* familiar. The spin was so quick that it left her dazed, only the feeling of his arm around her neck and his body against hers bringing her back to reality. Or, a sliver of reality. The action caused something to burn in her chest and something else to spark in her mind. She ignored both instances, disregarding their importance for anything more than fuel to her next move. The girl had been too caught off guard and wasn't alert enough to try and tuck her chin down, and thus, trying to spin her body to the side was hopeless. Bjorn was much stronger and much bigger than she’d anticipated, and her hands came up to grip his arm and uselessly attempted to pull it away. Blunt fingernails did nothing to aid her escape.

The third thing Emerson wasn’t expecting was for the panic to rise in her throat so suddenly. Because she was a vampire, she didn’t have to breathe anymore. Technically speaking, it wasn’t a requirement, just like having a heartbeat wasn't, but taking in oxygen was a force of habit and she still did it anyways. It acted as the final tie to her previous humanity. However, since it was such a force of habit, there was something about not being able to breathe that made Emerson absolutely terrified. Her already present anxiety all but heightened. As a last resort, the brunette sidestepped the male just barely and didn’t realize what she was doing until one of her hands were coming down in a fist to meet Bjorn in the groin.