Playing with dead things. (Ripper, Open)

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

A light touch. That was all it took and what was left of her soul seemed to snap. The human was starting to say something but it shimmered away like mist. The mortal didn't matter anymore but the presence holding her- that was a threat. All the built calm dematerialized in less that one heartbeat. Katalina turned on the older vampire with a teeth-snapping snarl and jerked the forearm he was holding up, hitting his chest, and pivoting her wrist so that her razor-like nails would dig in and gouge the **** out of him. In another second, the shadows seemed to pull away from her previous prey and barrel for them but they never made it, suddenly snuffed out like a light.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Katalina Black attempted to fight Ripper, but the attempt was a failure!

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Ripper (d) has initiated a battle against Katalina Black. Awaiting outcome.

[Ripper (d)]

The Paladin they had let leave, no longer sensing much of a threat coming from them; but the doppel wished that his master had not intervened in this fight after all.

The moment that Kat turned to tear into the frenzy of a blood craze, Ripper (d) came out of concealment where he had been waiting for this moment and struck down across the back of the head using a long piece of metal re bar.

Hopefully this impact would be enough needed to stun them.

[Storyteller]

=========AUTOMATED POST=========

The battle is over. Katalina Black's team are the victors!

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

The vanished shadows acted as though pulled in by the silhouette behind the feral vampire, who turned upon the older. Pulling back, she aimed a knee for Ripper's groin but he blocked it as easily as he did the fangs coming for his shoulder. Katalina never saw it coming. Even with her enhanced senses, the large re-bar nailed her right up the side of the head. It knocked her away from the true Ripper and landed her stumbling forward, straight into the snow. The demon howled and flipped over to find a shadow creature staring over her, ready to bludgeon her again. Katalina rolled to the left and scrambled to her feet. A darkness matted itself around the Shadow. Some part of the young vampiress knew it wouldn't denture the fragment long but it gave her just enough time to lash out and pry the weapon from the Shadow's hands. It slipped away easily, as if the creature barely had a hold on it. As the creature became free of her power, Katalina gave a full force swing of the re-bar like a baseball bat and much to her surprise, it knocked the Silhouette down rather than passing right through it. The monster within her hacked away at it like a crazy person; she was indeed completely out of her mind.

She wasn't sure when the doppelganger had disappeared or how long she had been sitting in the snow. There was a hand on her shoulder. Katalina felt it. It was the only thing she had truly felt in an interminable about of time. Where the clouded film had dissipated, tears stung in her eyes. She remembered everything yet it was as if her body were not her own. Part of her cringed at the thought of crying and the tears never did hit her face. Slowly, her chin lifted. It almost felt unnatural, as if she had slept for a very long time and she just awoke from a dream.
Katalina looked out to see if the human was anywhere to be found before tilting her eyes up the the man behind her. There was so many questions in her face, so many emotions racing through her yet she didn't trust herself to speak. "I- how-?" She started but vocal cords sounded hoarse and stammered. She actually didn't know what to say to the vampire that she attacked and yet saved her from herself.

[Ripper]

Katalina looked out to see if the human was anywhere to be found before tilting her eyes up the the man behind her. There was so many questions in her face, so many emotions racing through her yet she didn't trust herself to speak. "I- how-?" She started but vocal cords sounded hoarse and stammered. She actually didn't know what to say to the vampire that she attacked and yet saved her from herself.

It was a simple enough question, but the weight behind her query was enormous. What could possibly be said in reply to the process of losing your own soul to a hungry being that ravaged inside of you. Even if he could fully explain the scientific technicalities of all what physical changes would now occur this knowledge would come as cold and flat as to what she was really trying to grapple with right now.

The vampire looked at her in the understanding of one who had already gone through it once before. Back then he had never received that same sort of comfort or guidance; but what would he have wanted for some one to have told him then during those first tremulous nights?


“You were not yourself then...and never will be that person once again. Who it is that you will become now largely a matter of choice.”

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

There was a long silence. The last moments of her old life quaked through her head. The street, the woman on the ground, the blood, her running, a fight. She shuttered. There was more. More there than she could let herself remember but the vampire who took her life, that she could never forget. A haze seemed to fog her memory as most dreams seem to barley cling. It was hard for her to piece together what was before the demon took over Katalina and when she had left her Sire. The only thing she could recall as her chest tightened was the sense of dread at the thought of looking into that face again.

Katalina swallowed down the lump in her throat and took a breath. It was not until now that she noticed that she didn't need it and had not been breathing at all, it was merely out of habit. She wanted to deny his words. She did not want to accept it, even if she was wrong... yet they hung there. "No, no. My name is Katalina Black. She can't take that from me." Her sore throat rang with defiance but there also was loss there. As if she was fighting for some small part of her even though she had lost everything.

[Ripper]

It seems that he would be re-visiting the old mansion tonight after all.

"Come with me if you'd like to discuss it." he said simply and then walked away towards the ruins of that grand old manor of moonlight which still marked the very North Western corner of his town.

He paused, once, with further invitation (as was often in so many cases now needed by his kind--although if not in this particular instance).

"Something could be done for your hunger...Katalina." The promise came without embellishments nor with any further comforts behind it and in a few minutes he was gone from sight and had entered those still unlocked fading elegant double wide doors which swung leading inwards towards the emptily out ghosted dust covers that fluttered with a still ruffle in the early morning breeze.

If she followed him, so be it; he was not going to lead her. The Paladin was still sure to be lurking around not too far distant if Ms. Black was to continue her blood fueled rampage on furthermore into the nights of Cherrydale, or any one of the multiple soldiers still patrolling that precinct.

A thing which troubled him though is that he *Did recognize her Sire and even had known her for a brief time shortly while they also were in the process of becoming a fledgling. It could not help but to occur to him how very different occurrence those two occasions must have been; both were etched deeply in with their own kind or brand of madness.

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

In reality, she didn't want to move. Her arms tightened around her sides as if that would hold all the things she felt at bay. It wasn't about her past. What did she really have to go back to? A wrecked family hanging on by the memories of someone who no longer existed. No, it was the fact that she wasn't sure who she was anymore. No matter what she said to anyone or to herself. How many people's lives would she destroy by taking this path and not just dying back there in the snow? She closed her eyes, hanging her head and shaking it slowly. You're stronger than this. She told herself.

If it were her, she'd left herself sitting there paralyzed in the cold but she heard his light footsteps pause. Maybe he wasn't trying to caress her with words but there was something in hearing her name that pulled her off the ground. He didn't tell her 'no' and if she stayed out here? She'd be alone. Alone and forced to go back to that place or worse, lose control to the monster. He had turned back around before she stood but she made her legs do more than trudge forward to keep a few paces behind him.

Katalina stared at the old iron gates as she passed through, slightly taken by the fact they weren't completely rusted over. The blanket of white gave the place a hollow look but it was less creepy than what she could picture the place being in any other season. Stepping up the stairs to the door, she couldn't help but waver at the threshold after the vampire had stepped inside. Her hands rested on the solid wood. Could it be oak that was once set and stained with a polish or was it real walnut? She'd always loved these old places. Something about stepping out of this century and into the past that's what it felt like. The texture stayed even as she slipped inside and eased off the wood and let a slight shove close them behind her.