A Life of Monotony

[Madison]

Every night it was the same. Well almost. Every night she fed, sometimes from Brick who was more than willing and occasionally from some poor sap she found on the streets on her way to where ever she was headed for the evening. Her nights consisted of three activities, sometimes only one or two of them, on rare occasions all three. She hunted ancients in the catacombs and mausoleum or she hunted feral vampires in the deserted asylum of the quarantine zone. She worked on her traps which meant that she was often breaking into the local businesses of Harper Rock looking for the parts she needed and sending Brick to the sewers to search for fungi. Luckily he had found some recently and she was not cultivating them in the hydroponics equipment she kept hidden in a dingy and run-down trailer in the trailer park. This was her routine, night after night.

It was the rare occasions that broke the monotony that Madison realized just how dull and tedious her life had become. Most of her social interaction was with her childer and even then, that wasn't really much. Mostly they just saw each other in passing and generally that was only Pierre. She hadn't heard from Elaina in some time and was starting to get worried. As much as she had grown to love the pair of fledglings that were her own, there was a growing sense of loneliness inside of her. Once that hole inside of her had been filled by Blake but she hadn't spoken to him in months. He was always busy it seemed and after awhile she had stopped calling and trying to see him and fallen into where she was now.

Alexandrea was the only one that she could call a close friend and was quite possibly the only friend that she even had. There was difficulty in calling Ripper a friend. He was more of an acquaintance whom came in handy every now and then. Granted he had bought her a Christmas gift this past year that she hadn't expected. A little rabbit's foots that currently hung off the keys to her apartment and car. More often than not he only contacted her when he needed something or thought that he may have items that she might need. In fact, just the other day he had approached her about a large quantity of crafting supplies, including an extremely rare power module. And all he wanted in return was a dozen inspires and a vial of paladin's blood. The inspires weren't a problem however the paladin's blood was. The only vial she had ever acquired she had given to Blake thinking that it might be useful in his rituals. If she was lucky, he would still have it and hoped that he might give it back, even if she had to pay for it. As long as he didn't want some ridiculous price.

Then there was Elliot Lancaster, or Elliot d'Artois as he was known by now. Madison still called him Lancaster or the shortened version, Lan. He was the closest person she could call a friend within the d'Artois. He was the only one in the entire family that had made an effort to keep in contact with her and she did enjoy the few times they had gotten together. Other than her childer, Lancaster was truly the only one she considered close to being family. She supposed that made him a friend too.

The fault lay completely with her. She hadn't been much of the social sort after Mike had been murdered in cold blood by that *****, Kira. There were times few and far between that she wondered how her former human friends were doing. Madison hadn't spoken to any of them since before she became a blood thief. At least back then she had Robert to confide in. There was an immense amount of regret concerning that man. Regret that she hadn't asked Alexandrea or Jack to turn her. Regret that her and Robert's relationship had fallen apart beyond repair. But there was also a massive amount of anger. Madison was beyond infuriated with her sire. His lack of care for anything but himself and what he believed in. He cared not for how his actions affected anyone around him and that had led to his being removed from the d'Artois. Had he not been, she may have never been asked to return by Pi.

It seemed that Madison was the master of acquaintances. She knew plenty of people but none of them were close enough to her that she would call them and see if they wanted to meet and do something together. Not that she really knew what they could do. She wasn't an allurist, which meant she couldn't imbibe food or drink. It made going to the bars rather dull since she didn't like to dance much. Madison had two left feet and refused to make a fool of herself on the dance floor unless she was drunk. That would never happen again. A big part of her missed being human. Being able to eat, to drink. to go out into the sunlight. It bothered her greatly some nights and on those nights she would sit outside on her balcony and watch the sunrise until it became too painful to sit under the rays. Then she would go inside and slip into the Vathia where she could do whatever she wanted, even if it was only in her head.

Something needed to change. And it needed to change soon.

[Madison]

"I have to start somewhere and what better time than now?"

The question kept repeating itself in Madison's mind as she tried to stay firm in her decision.

"But what if I don't see anyone I know or meet anyone new?"

Long blonde hair came forward over her bare shoulders as she shook her head at herself. The internal disagreement in her head had been going on ever since the idea to try to do something social popped in her head. It was getting rather irritating. Quickly Madison pulled on a ladies fitted t-shirt portraying a faded print of the local hockey team's logo. Pulling her hair out from under the shirt's collar, she looked to the mirror that held no reflection and spoke out loud, "You really, really need to get out more."

Madison had realized the other night that she spent a lot of her time avoiding majority of people. Like ninety-nine point nine percent of them. The last time she had gone somewhere public was when she had gone to meet Lancaster. That had been well over a month ago. Part of her was afraid that if she didn't spend time interacting with humans that she would forget how to pretend to be human. When was the last time she had tried to make it look like she was breathing?

The plan was simple in her head, or at least it would seem simple to anyone else. Go to a cafe. Use an actual computer to do her hacking (which might be a bit exciting since it was hard to triangulate a hacker from inside one's own head.) See if there is anyone she knew and if there wasn't, to stop at the pub on her way home and try to meet someone new. That should be simple right?

Probably not.