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Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 04:31
by Cotter (DELETED 6051)
Culled by the Mark
Near-white cyan slivers of reflected moonlight sliced silhouettes on the grass and between the trees of Algonquin Provincial Park. Under a blue-black midnight sky, mountain lion meat browned over a bright, fire orange pit as the cook munched on a sloppily made burger containing meat from the rib of the dangerous game. The smoke from the pan carried with it the pungent aroma which bore aloft the namesake of Sam Adams, dry and warm, mixed with the pleasing smell of the contents just beginning to blacken. The griller lazily flipped the pan, causing the sizzling grease to jump out, catching on his arm. He winced, but held onto the pan with liquid determination, gently setting it down only once he was sure the meat had flipped. He licked the wimpering red mark on his skin and rubbed the wet surface dry on his jeans. He huddled closer to the warm light, holding off the mild chill of night. He briefly played with the camo jacket hanging on his fold-out chair, then let it be, preferring the contrast of hot and cold than to put on a layer and become invariably, uncomfortably warm.
Dale Cotter had bagged the big cat early in the afternoon, skinned it and scraped the meat off, gradually adding it to the fire, spurred by a boorish notion for which he had no excuse other than he could think of nothing better to do. A notion heavily backed up partway through by a steady flow of booze, but a notion he nonetheless humored until the stars came out.
Once he’d finished eating and grilling, he put down his plate, turned down the volume from the mixtape playing in the radio, and stood up to raise an aluminum glass to the city - still standing in the wake of Black Thursday - and cleared his throat to speak, in a crisp, even-pitched tenor.
“To Harper Rock - Unshaken, unbroken, until the end of time,” he toasted alone, pouring out the contents of the can into the grass. It was a terrible toast, and the drink was wearing off, but it was probably just him alone out here, and he’d forgotten worse. He tapped his cigarette, letting the ash fall where it may, to take one last drag.
And it would be the last. He didn’t even see it coming. His body lurched to the ground from the impact, his head knocking against the thick dirt. He barely registered the weight crushing him as a face leaned toward him, canines suspiciously absent from a toothy scowl as his wild-eyed attacker held him fast. Dale cried out to his god as teeth clumsily struck his neck, half choking him and sinking in. He could have sworn the mountain lion he killed had come back to life, crying from the game bag containing its hide and bones. His blood curdled when he realized he was the one screaming, as his voice rapidly petered out from the abuse he was taking.
Suddenly moments later, the crazed offender leapt off, disappearing into the shadows of the trees, leaving him to brace as another shadow came to rest just above him. As it lingered, judging or appraising, he caught a faint ray of hope and reached out, begging as a tearing pain stained his fingers wet as they probed unfamiliar marks, which bored into his neck. The dark figure was gone as quickly as it and its predecessor had came, leaving him under that ray of moonlight, seeming as though it were brightening ever so slightly.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 11:25
by Mora
It was just a stroll. She didn’t expect anything to come of it. The Telepath had put away the papers from her business, putting them off until later – or for another night. She had kissed Judas goodbye, as she left the Crypt silently through the fadeportal. She even thought about going to the caverns, training her aim with her gun. Each to their own. This is what Mora wanted to do. The Telepath had been a vampire for almost three years, one of the years she couldn’t even remember. Damn amnesia. Veering to the left she headed into a park. Nothing like a nightly stroll in a park before killing some things.
Tonight she wore a black leggings, and a baggy, yet long wooly grey jumper. It was still quite cold, though Mora didn’t feel it much – being dead and all, but she could still tell it was that cold because of the items of clothing the humans wore. Her childer were quiet, but the only one who checked in with her was Jameson. He gave her source codes – the codes needed to create scripts to hack with. Something Mora considered a hobby.
A scream snapped her out of her thoughts as she whipped her head around to the general direction of the blood curdled scream. She moved quickly to the scene. Only to find a vampire feeding off a human, his heart raced as the rogue spotted Mora and let him go. She took out her rifle, pushing in each bullet into the chamber slowly. As she crept towards the human, her moss green orbs studied him curiously. His heart beat – he would live. For now, she muttered a ‘I’ll be back’ and moved after the rogue vampire at a quickened pace. She chased him down within a few minutes. He was slow, his belly full of blood as she pulled the trigger catching the rogue in the calf. He slowed and fired again. Over and over she fired her bullets until the vampire was a bloodied mess at her feet.
“You do not feed openly like that, there are witnesses.” She scorned the man. As she fired off one last bullet right into the head – as the vampire dispersed into ash. His spirit being sent to the shadow realm. Hopefully, he would come back wiser. Heeding her words. She put her rifle away and made her way back to the bloodied human, kneeling beside him.
“Can you hear me?” She asked him, her mane of golden hair protected him from the world around them.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 12:41
by Cotter (DELETED 6051)
Dale pawed weakly at his throat, not chancing to move lest the pain worsen. He coughed, and tasted blood. The light dimmed, its bath replaced by faint shocks of gold. A young lady in a jumper blocked the light, and he willed himself to feel the grass, the pain in the back of his head, the wetness on his fingers, to see her. To keep feeling, seeing, and thinking, meant he was still alive, yet.
To her question he coughed strongly, feeling blood trickle into his mouth and down his throat. He wasn't sure she could fulfill the request, but spoke it anyway. "H...elp."
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 14:48
by Mora
Mora could see the blood oozing from his mouth and neck, and she brought a hand out to inspect the neck wound further. Curious eyes looking him over, then he asked for help. Mora looked at him with wide green eyes and nodded her head slowly. There was only one way of helping really, that would be by turning him into a vampire, she didn’t hesitate. She lifted her wrist to her mouth, opening her lips to her wrist could neatly fit within the confines there fangs penetrating her skin with a soft crunch as the blood began to flow from the two small puncture wounds on her wrist, she then dropped her wrist to the mans mouth and opened his mouth with her thumb, dragging his lips down.
“Drink.” She commanded him, as she let her wrist rest against his lips, her own dark blood dripping down his trachea. The gift of immortality would soon be upon him, this was the only way she could save him really. She didn’t want to kill him, as that is the only other way she could help him, by killing him.
“The blood will heal you, turn you into something more.” She told him with a small sigh. She hated taking lives.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 15:32
by Cotter (DELETED 6051)
The hunter recoiled, at once confused and repulsed by this gesture. He coughed again, and this time resolved to hold his breath unless speaking when it was important. He expected a number of different things; a 911 call, a reassuring gesture, even dragging him across the rough ground - as idiotic as that would have been - wouldn't have surprised him as much. He was just as confused as before when she explained that it would keep him from dying, and a couple explanations of his own flashed through his mind in a second: an escaped mental ward runaway, a local crazy lady who liked to play pretend magic.
He had caught a glimpse of the bite wound before it covered his face. Puncture marks, two teeth. Nothing like the wound on his throat. At this point, it didn't really matter if she was crazy. The offer was on the table, and he would die before a doctor could begin treatment. So Dale drank.
Please, he thought, pleading to an unseen, unfelt observer, can't go like this...can't go...please...
He cringed as the blood ran over his tongue, the taste no different from any time he had licked his own flesh wounds, but it felt different. Not wrong, but 'off'. He hadn't tasted someone else's blood before. She said it was supposed to heal him, so he didn't hold back. He rested his unstained hand over her wrist to bring it further down. At a certain point, hazy when it passed, it began to feel natural, somehow familiar.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 22:38
by Mora
It would all be okay, in the end.
This is what Mora kept telling herself. Whenever she sired someone they often died. Some never made the change and some wandered outside the outskirts and were taken by the Fae, or died outside the confines of Harper Rock. She pushed a finger to her lips, thinking as the man drank and drank from her wrist, she could feel him pulling away her own life force. Her energy into him, to help heal what was left of him. Her moss hues looked to the bite mark on his neck. It wasn’t a clean bite – it looked like a first timer. Someone who hadn’t been taught how to feed. She shook her head in disgust. Whoever sired the thing, should have taught the bastards, because of their mistreatment of humans. **** like this happens, people get hurt – or to the point that they need to be turned to keep the secret of vampires.
After another few minutes she gently pried her wrist away from his mouth and sat down on the ground fully, not caring that the dirt caressed her leggings, bits of mud stuck to the fabric as she grabbed his head and placed it on her lap gently, so the crown of his head was resting against her knee. She placed her hand against his chest and kept it there, just in case the man threw up some of her blood. You had to be prepared for anything, when turning a human.
”Judas… please don’t be mad at me, I turned someone. He was attacked by a rogue..I didn’t know what else to do.” Her mind connected with his, as she cast her eyes downwards to the man who had closed his eyes – the change from human to vampire. She didn’t know how long it would take, sometimes it took a few minutes sometimes it took a second. It was different with each person
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 18 Feb 2015, 15:59
by Cotter (DELETED 6051)
He could do no more than look up, sky blue stare fixing on a point in front of him, glazing with each passing moment as he wondered and waited for his mind to slip away, a light at the end of the tunnel, et cetera. None of that came. Once again, he traced the wound on his neck, pain numbing with each moment, and coughed again. He didn't know where the impulse came from when he tried to swallow the mess inside his mouth. Tired, he closed his eyes, waiting for a rest he'd been needing for too long.
Time passed, and while the rest was relaxing and the pain numbed completely, he could still feel the blood on his hand, the grass beneath him, the kneecap resting against his head. He couldn't be sure how long he'd been lying there, but it was starting to feel like forever. His mind came to a standstill, becoming impatient...bored. The realization struck him as odd, to be bored waiting to die.
But Dale did not die, not like he would have expected to. It started quiet at first, like a constant dull chitter of a single insect. Over time, it unraveled and became a tapestry of a constant stream of murmurs, unfocused whispering winds, until they each became more defined, each unfolding into different "minds".
“Hope that doesn’t reflect poorly on their evaluation of my interview, maybe I’m…”
“Just push him and tell mommy the dog…”
“Was too close, need to remember to lock the door next time when I’m…”
“Listening to this song, I can’t help wondering if she’s listening it too…”
“Many times left behind, stuck cleaning the stalls, lousy…”
“Prickly pear fruit, gotta find some empty bottles so I can make…”
“More like him, If I don’t get some excitement soon, I might…”
“Make my own costume this year, gotta prepare, it’s gonna look…”
“Mean to do that, just wanted to win one time, they've always been…”
“Pushing her too far, one of these days she’s gonna…”
“Nap, I can barely keep my eyes open…”
Dale didn't realize his hands were latched onto his head until he stopped "hearing", eyes squinted shut, face flinching. He slowly opened his eyes and reached up to check his throat. Gone. His face registered shock as he moved to sit up, azure eyes flung wide.
If you check the time, you'll notice that time has passed by about 36 minutes.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 22 Feb 2015, 15:02
by Mora
Time passed slowly for the woman, she counted each minute by the seconds, yet he didn’t come back after five she began to worry. Scooping the man up into her arms she closed her eyes, teleporting herself just outside the Oldtown Graveyard. The crypt was the only place she could think of to take him. The man, this stranger would be within a safe place soon enough. Judas would help, she was sure of it. Heck, Jameson might be there too – or even Trinity or Tate. She slipped inside the gate of the graveyard and made her way to the right, passing the Crypts as she went until she found the correct Crypt. She slipped inside, ignoring the camera that never left the door.
Slipping passed the ritual alter she noticed Judas wasn’t there, he was probably out hunting in the castle like he normally did. He would be home soon, she was sure of it. Slipping into the main bedroom she dropped the man onto the silk sheets. If she bloodied the sheets with the humans blood, well she’d have to buy new sheets. After a moment she slipped out of the bedroom and moved to main area, trying to find another tee shirt – one that wasn’t so bloody.
After a moment she returned with a white tee shirt. It was Jameson’s she was sure of it. It looked about his size too. She was sure Jameson wouldn’t mind sharing. She by the edge of the bed, bringing her fingers to her mouth as she gnawed at the tips of her nails waiting to nervously find out if the man would survive the transition. Then his eyes opened, he looked alert as he sat up.
“You’re safe. You’re safe.” She said to him, as she held her arms up to the man. “I’m Mora, please tell me your name.” She said.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 23 Feb 2015, 11:08
by Cotter (DELETED 6051)
readers: 36 minutes retconned, now 12
Dale took a sweeping glance at the hotel-worthy abode around him and then at his rescuer, Mora. His eyes turned this way and that, out of focus and trying to process where he was and what had happened, while he stuttered out a response. "Dale...who - where am I?" he asked.
Re: Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)
Posted: 25 Feb 2015, 00:48
by Mora
“You are safe.” She told him, as he asked her where he was. “Actually, you’re in my fiance’s home, a crypt actually.” She rubbed at the back of her neck nervously. Trying to find the right words to say. “You were attacked. I found you, and saved you. By saving you I had to change you, you are no longer human. You are.” She paused, letting the last word roll of her tongue. “Vampire.” She got up and grabbed a contraband blood pack from the shop, nestled in the corner of the crypt and offered it to Cotter. “Are you hungry?”