It's The Little Things (Aliyah)

[Roderic]

I move a box to the right side of my crafting table. The project is complete, finally. I step away from the desk and go to pull the broom from the closet in the hallway. I sweep away bits of fur and string, then collect it in a dust pan. I sweep the area for a second time to make sure I've collected every little bit that might give someone a sign of what I was working on, deposit that in a trash bin and put it away.

I look around my apartment and that's when I realize something isn't quite right. The box, the one I just put on the right side of the desk isn't right. Beneath it is a box that is a fraction of a centimeter at most that's shorter than the one above. I move to the small stack of boxes and re-stack them in the correct order. I step back, make another adjustment and then nod. Everything is as it should be. I send a text to Princess, telling her not to drown herself like a fish at the local bar and that I was going hunting. I'm not checking in with her, but I'm not sure I want her in my place alone. I have nothing to hide or worth great value, it's just a little strange. I wonder if I should have given her a key. But it was better than her camping her *** outside my door night after night.

With that taken care of, I move to my bedroom and begin to make the bed. It's a single, and seldom slept in, unless Sky's here. She can have it. I never sleep in it long. Not since I've been a vampire. When the bed is made, I move to the closet and pull out a simple gray t-shirt and my leather coat. I tug off the white tank top, put the gray shirt on and get in my coat.

I don't plan on going far. Just around the QZ for a few items. Zombie ears and corpses. Those are hard to come by and might do the faction some good for ritual purposes. Not the ears, the corpses. The ears could be for my own personal usage; to get a location of a vampire, or to help a ritualist that's better than me get through locks of the mystical sort.

I move from the bedroom, to another closet. Where I keep an assortment of blades. I pick a small one. This one will be used to collect zombie ears off those that perish at my feet as I troll through the QZ. I gather a larger one; one that Skylar made me. It's not as large as my broadsword, but it'll get the job done. I stuff the smaller blade into the side of my boot, and as for the larger, I strap it to the sheath I slip on as I head out the door and to the elevator. Killing things in here was a regular past-time. Seeing a guy with a large blade wasn't that uncommon.

[Aliyah]

Coming to terms with living on a nocturnal schedule was a rough one, a large yawn finding its way from Aliyah's mouth. Her hand reached up to cover the indecency of it, though she doubted anyone cared. Seeing as the only ones around her was animated walking corpses, it seemed ignorant to assume that they had any feelings toward her actions. Unless, of course, she attacked them. Which happened to be the plan of the night.

Jaeger had explained that she needed to get stronger, faster, and smarter if she wanted survive in this city of vampires. The vampire race had a secret to uphold, and that meant staying out of sight, and doing business in the dead of night, when fewer humans scouted the city streets. As it were, he said the best place for her, at the moment, was the Quarantine Zone. It was called such because it was blocked off from the rest of the city, the creatures that roam those streets more than mere humans. They were also creatures she could best, if she tried. 'But, stay away from the mooncalves. You aren't strong enough for that' were the words Jaeger had advised, and so far, she had stayed from them.

The QZ was a generally quiet area of the city, and for that, Aliyah was grateful. How she hated loud and bustling noises, everyone making as much noise as human possible. Cities were ignorant places, full of ignorant people. But, in this section of the city, her steps made no noise, the feeling as haunted as the QZ actually was.

The grunting around the corner gave Aliyah pause, training her ear in the direction she had heard it from. The sound of its shuffling feet created the illusion of it being right beside her, but Aliyah knew better. More than once her improved hearing had thrown her off-guard, leading her into situations that would have best been avoided. This time, though, she was confident that her ears would not fail her. This time, she would surprise the zombie, getting an upper hand before it even had a chance to react.

Slowly and carefully, she pulled the sword she had acquired from her belt, sadly not having a holster of any kind. The metal gleamed off a nearby flickering street lamp and she smirked. Her steps carried her quietly to the bend where she paused, closing her eyes with a deep breath. She could do this.

With a nod to herself, she jumped from the corner, and swung her sword down on the creature, the metal falling into its deformed shoulder.

Aliyah blinked, surprise filtering through her system like a poison, freezing her in place.

This was no zombie... the zombie she had heard standing a few feet behind the mooncalf she had now attacke, its teeth dripping near her face.

"S***..." she mumbled, steeling herself for the inevitable aftermath.

[Roderic]

My knife drags across the cheek of a decrepit body of what was once a male. I only know this because his hips are not as wide as a woman's and the few tattered remains of his clothing let me know that it was a business suit of some kind. Not the fitted sort. Like women wear. The parts of his shirt that are left hang, tucked out and frayed. He had been dead for a while. How he managed to stay alive in this state was anyone's guess. Did our kind not care to eradicate them from the city? I would think we would want to get rid of as many as possible because once the zombies and other nasty creatures behind these walls are discovered, we could be next.

My blade moves to the male's earlobe before my wrist flicks and dislodges the ear from the head of the skull. I pocket the ear, then move on. One ear isn't really going to cut it and I had my eyes on a bigger prize. A fadeling corpse. I had seen one, but never got my hands on one. Paige and Pyper both had one. The things I could do with one of those. If not for a ritual, then for one of my projects.

I always wonder as I leave the rest of the body there, if our kind should be doing more on the clean-up front. What would regular, every day people think of finding dozens of remains scattered on the streets, even in a place like this. In a place so forgotten by the soccer moms and suit and tie dads. Maybe I should talk to Velveteen and Nix about their thoughts on this.

I walk down a block and take a left, deciding to check out the supermarket. That's when I see her. I just watch. It's like a train wreck you can't take your eyes away from. Most people might jump at the chance to help her, but I don't. Not yet. Sometimes people could surprise you, but I had my doubts. Why she thought she would kill something that big with something that small just made me do what Skylar did. Only, internally. I internally face palmed. But maybe the blond had a few tricks up her sleeve, which was why I was waiting.

I decided to stop waiting when I recognized the woman didn't have any tricks and she was about to get her *** handed to her. But I pause for a second. She needed that second. To remember why she failed. How it felt to fail. So she wouldn't again. I take off in a sprint, my boots hitting the ground heavily, so heavy that they let the large mooncalf know someone else was here. There was a second potential target. It only looks at me, then returns it's snapping gaze at her.

From around me shadows pull towards me, then snake their way over to the woman. I'm undecided who or what I should enshroud in the inky abyss, but decide on the monster. I have not determined the intelligence of a mooncalf yet and if it could be tricked by some cheap parlor trick of 'now you see her, now you don't.' The monster scoots back, then shakes its head rigorously, attempting to break free from the shadows. This buys the woman a couple of inches to scoot away. "They aren't for petting." I tell the woman before another set of shadows lift up from under me with a swipe of my hand and then pierce through the body of the blanketed beast, ripping through its gut. I grab for my sword, toss it to her and then step aside. "Finish it." The thing was barely moving at this point and was an easy target. The blond felt defeat, but she needed to feel success as well. Not to deter her from every trying again, but to try again when the time was right.

[Aliyah]

It all moved in slow motion. The creature's jaw opened wide, an unnatural sound ending the momentary silence. Aliyah's skin crawled at the noise, the small hairs on her arms standing on end. As if the appearance of the mooncalf wasn't enough to instill any trace of fear, it's war cry would do the job just fine. She pitied the human who would happen across one some day, and right then, she pitied herself.

With a grunt, she tugged her blade from the creature's shoulder, poised to take another swing. If she was going to go down, she would go down swinging...except the swing never happened as the mooncalf charged, knocking her down with such force that her vision blurred. She shook her head in hopes of bringing her world back into focus, blonde locks moving in and out of her line of sight.

Aliyah heaved herself off the floor, using the side of a building for stability. The creature watched her, almost as if waiting for her to put up more of a fight. She took a staggering step from the wall and nodded, raising the sword once more. In one lunge, she managed to slice down the length of one of the creature's arms, but it did little to slow the pursuit. Before she could truly react, teeth clamped down on her arm, and ALiyah screamed.

Despite being a vampire, she was no better at maintaining a pain tolerance.

The shadows that suddenly descended upon them caused Aliyah to look around in shock. She hadn't done that...did she? No, there was no way she had done that. Her eyes trained on the mooncalf as it staggered away from her, shaking its head. "Wha...?" she whispered, more confused than she had ever been since entering the city.

Then a male voice came from behind her and she whipped around, cradling her torn arm to her chest. His condescending words made her snarl, but the help he was offered kept her from spouting back a reply. For now.

The blade tossed in her direction barely made it to her hand, the slick blood coating it making it hard to hold. Ali winced, trying her best to keep it upright, merely nodding to the male as she turned to face the beast once more. With a shake of her head, she swung down, the head of the beast rolling across the floor moments later.

When it was over, her arm dropped, the sword suddenly weighing down heavy. Her blue gaze locked on the male and she frowned. "Thank you..." she whispered, ashamed in her failure requiring aid.

"I wasn't trying to pet it..." Ali continued, her nose wrinkling in disdain at his words. No one treated her like a child.

[Roderic]

"Don't worry about it." I tell her with a shrug as my eyes go to the wound on her arm and I notice the wisps of shadows oozing from it. That made her path easy to identify. "No, from my angle it almost looked like you were going to give it a kiss." A faint grin pulled on my facial features before I move around her to get do a full inspection of her. "You should get that wrapped up. Maybe even stitched up. Might draw attention to yourself." I offer as a hand goes out for my sword. With the creature dead, she didn't really need it anymore.

"Need the bones?" I ask her as I see a couple, at most that could be used for ritual purposes. "If you don't, mind." I start digging through them before I even get an answer from her, but don't do anything with them outside of collecting them. Only one, as the other I thought that might be salvageable had a hairline fracture in it. Damaged goods. Wouldn't make me much money.

"Not to be condescending, but I have to ask. How did you think that was going to pan out?" I point to the dead remains of the mooncalf. "Don't you have a bigger, better sword? I only ask because it's better to keep a fair bit of distance between you and it so you always have the upper hand." I move away from the bones that would serve no purpose to me, by taking a step back. I had a way of making people uneasy, even when it wasn't always intentional. My social skills were improving, but not so much that people outside of Altaire and Tytonidae were comfortable with my presence. "Until you land the final, killing blow." I add in, kicking the head to the side. "You need help with that?" I point to her arm. The one that was a clear masquerade break. In the QZ it didn't matter much, but once she left these walls it would.

[Aliyah]

Aliyah's eyes followed the male closely, her inspection of him intense and calculating. In her experience, vampires of this city rarely helped unless they shared a bloodline, or wanted something in return. And this male was sadly mistaken if he thought she had anything of worth to offer him, except perhaps, the wedding band she had found. Not that she would offer it as payment.

Then he made a joke...a poorly timed joke, but a joke nonetheless. As hard as she tried to fight it, her lips twitched into a smirk and she quickly glanced away. She didn't know this guy, and the getting comfort around him seemed like the wrong thing to do. But, her gaze had averted to her arm, at the same time he noticed it. The black blood surrounded the wound like a blanket of shadows, and her smirk quickly faded.

As he reached out for his sword, Aliyah quickly handed it over, glad to be rid of the heavy thing. Her body was exhausted, the adrenaline having left her body as quickly as it had come. "The bones..?" she asked, her head tilting as he knelt down to inspect them. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, unsure what use they could be to him....or herself. "No, I guess I don't need them...help yourself?" she finished, though he had already taken what he wanted.

His following question made her glare, his assuming nature beginning to strike a nerve, "I wasn't going for the mooncalf," she snapped, glancing around for her original target, who had wandered a bit further away down the street. "That had been my target. This supernatural hearing thing throws me off...I miscalculated, attacked without better assessing the situation."

She moved a bit away from the remains they had created, in the direction of the zombie. If looks alone could kill, the corpse would have been newly dead...again. The male's offer to help in terms of her arm caused her to glance over her shoulder at him, then back at her arm. It was getting worse.

Turning back around to face him, she nodded. "I actually don't know what to do with it...to be honest, this..." she gestured to her arm with her good one. "...creeps me out."

[Roderic]

She was a new vampire. Her senses was still something she was getting used to. A few months ago, that piece of knowledge would have been extremely beneficial to me. Now? Not so much. I had a few donors; safe ones at that, which was probably better in the long run. No ash, no bodies to clean up, everyone wins.

"I could stitch it up." I offer. Not because I'm an overly nice guy, but because she had made the right choice. The woman recognized that she was going to catch some attention and wanted to rectify that. That earned her points and so I offered to help her hide it. "Shouldn't last more than a couple days. Maybe three at most. But it will always be like that. When you get hurt. When you bleed. I think it's pretty cool." I point in the direction of the flats after I give my opinion on the phenomenon that surrounded us Shadow folk.

"I live in those. You could wait in the lobby." I wasn't going to take her in my place, for a few reasons. Anyone could be working in there. Skylar could be doing god knows what in there and I didn't know, or trust the woman to let her in my space. Not like the others. Like Katerina, Pyper, Simone and Skylar. "I have a first aid kit. If you don't trust that I could do a good stitch job, I have gauze until you find someone you do trust and know." I put the sword behind my back in its sheath again. Obviously my plans had changed.

"I'm Ric." A name would probably help. Chances are she would probably be more willing to get her arm taken care of by a person she knew the name of, over some creepy stranger. Creepy being her word of choice.

[Aliyah]

Her attention shifted to the only truly occupied building in the QZ as he gestured in that direction. Despite it being full of vampires, she hadn't attempted to rest there, or even stepped foot inside. For some reason, it just came across as unwelcoming. Still, what harm could come to her in the lobby? The male hadn't offered to take her to his place, and for that she was grateful.

With her good arm, she raised her hand to her face, itching at her forehead. "Yes, I suppose I could use the help. I haven't quite mastered stitching with my non dominant hand." For emphasis, she gave her left arm a little lift before dropping it back down to her side, appearing nearly as useless as her torn up opposite one.

Suddenly she realized he had offered her a name and she blinked. Without making a sound, she formed the word ;Ric; on her lips and slowly nodded. Outside of Jaeger, she had minimal experience with others of her kind, and this new development was one she hadn't expected. "I'm Aliyah..." she finally replied, "Aliyah Hawthorne."

Aliyah offered him the smallest of smiles, though it quickly faded. The pain in her arm had diminished, but only slightly and she always had been a baby, a whimp. The sooner it could be taken care of, the better, but Ric's words stuck with her. They repeated in her head, almost like a broken record.

"How do all the vampires manage to hide it? Isn't black oozing blood sort of obvious? Surely they come across wounds in the main city, too?" she asked as she waited for him to lead on toward the building, canting her head at him in wonder. He obviously had more experience here than she did, and could be one of the best sources of information she currently had.

[Roderic]

I give a small grin again as she accepts my help. Not because she took the help, but because I found some humor in her statement. She probably never would be able to stitch anything up with that hand. Not unless she was ambidextrous (which she wasn't) or she trained herself. But even that might take a couple years. Maybe, I shouldn't smile at her unfortunate state, no matter how funny I find her words.

I take a few more steps to the flats, but stop when she gives me her name. Aliyah. I knew a Lia, which made me wonder if her name was actually Aliyah and she shortened it to something else. Or had been Aliyah as she called herself something else now. When she says a last name, I don't move. Hawthorne wasn't completely uncommon, but it wasn't a name I had ever run across before. Not in primary school, or in college. I suppose it's bound to happen once in your life; with having over six billion people in the world. And with the places I've been, it was only time I would run into another Hawthorne. Just because she had my last name, didn't necessarily mean anything. I doubt she was married to Nathan. But just to be sure, I check out her hands, more specifically her ring finger. With that done, I chalk this meeting up as nothing special. She wasn't married, and neither was my half-brother. At least, if he was, not to her.

"By stitching it up. But if something is bad enough, you stay indoors. Kind of hard to explain a missing arm or leg that won't stop oozing anything. Blood, or shadows." I shrug my shoulders as we get to the door of the lobby area and I open it slowly. I pause, close the door and reopen it. "Finger slipped." I tell her, even though I know that's not true. I don't know why I have the compulsion to do things like this, but I had become more aware of it since Skylar had brought it to my attention. Aliyah probably thought I was crazy, and she was probably a little right, but after I patched her up and sent her on her way, it wouldn't really matter-would it?

[Aliyah]

Aliyah had to fight the urge to ask him if he was okay after she announced her name, his silence on the matter off putting. Showing concern was not one of her strong suits, however, especially with the potential for it being misplaced. Instead, she simply let him continue on. Perhaps she would ask him about the matter later on, if he proved to be someone worth speaking to. If not, then she would be more than happy to get the hell out of his presence. He seemed like the type that wouldn't mind, especially in that latter of the two options.

She followed him as he moved on toward the flats, trying to wrap her head around the explanation he offered about wounds. "Wait...shadows? Is...is that what this is?!" she squeaked, her eyes wide. It was official, vampires were abominations, creatures meant to never exist. Shadows did not sustain life, they did not run through veins. They were the absence of light, due to someone or something blocking it.

Due to that thought, she glanced down at the ground behind her, searching for a shadow. Though it was night time, the few flickering street lamps created enough light that shadow should have been present. But, it wasn't. "My...my shadow..." she whispered, more to herself than the male walking beside her. To get away from the realization, she sped up a bit, refusing to look anywhere but ahead.

As they approached the building and he slipped inside, she moved to follow, only to have the door close on her face. She stepped back, shocked, sure she did not deserve it. As the door opened again and he offered a reason for his actions, she frowned. His...finger slipped? A vampire with unnatural speed couldn't have caught the door before it closed. A mere human could do that. "It's...fine."

Aliyah gave him a single nod as she moved inside, looking around the lobby with a trace of wonder. "I guess I will be here, waiting." she offered, searching for a chair that she might sit in as she waited for him to return. If he would return...

Wouldn't it be grand if he just left her here?