The More things change...

[Rhadamanthys (DELETED 6453)]

In a blinding flash... it was all over. Wrong place and wrong ******* time...again. Only this time.... this time it was very wrong.... Something was very ******* wrong with this place. I could never tell what was wrong with this place. Yet for some unconscious reason, I still came to this place. Against better judgment, I walked into a place that was rumoured to have dark tidings and dealings; strange events and stranger. That flash... that blinding flash... then... darkness. I am floating here, in the darkness again. It feels is if I were back in the womb, this darkness with only the instinctive pulsating sound. The heart; that is it. It is heart I hear now. The sound... drives me closer to...

The Night. Reborn; A man of twenty-seven years given eternal life by someone he didn't know, much less understand. There was no regrets about staying in this place. Finding the man that did this to him would come later, much later. Right now, there were bigger problems ( a parched throat to be sure). The sound of the heartbeat faded; lungs never drew breath yet amber colored irises stared out into the darkness. Nothing could be heard that would quench this riotous thirst; a thirst yet so powerful it threatened immediately to make him quite upset. All that was around in this dark place is the scurrying of rats and the rustling winds.

The wind... it is a curious thing to me now. I sometimes wonder why it feels the way it does against my skin. How can I hear things so clearly as if I were blasting loud music through my headset? The image is sharper now, more than it has ever been before. I see with a new clarity; the smells... wait... I don't have to breathe? What the **** is going on here?!

Stepping out of the deeper darkness of the causeway and into the streets, where his eyes beheld a horror he would yet understand. If he had died, this sure was the antechamber to hell.

[Thistle]

She laid beneath the stars, in the park at the edge of the sidewalk. She pretended that night’s cloak would mask her body, though she really could care less who would stop or trip over her feet which lay one across the other against the cool cement squares. Her night started off pleasant. She had yet to feed. Already wandered through the castle and collected a few gems. She strolled through the edge of the woods, took the tram to a random part of town, then found a bench to sit upon. The girl was bored. Truly bored. Such that she kicked off her Dr. Martins. Left them slump along the base of the bench. She stuffed her socks into the base of the heel. Like a child toes wiggled upon the rocky surface. Tiny fractions of street lights gleamed between her toes where no dark spot be found. She eventually sat. Then laid back with the grass behind her.

Dishwater blonde strands strewn o’er her shoulders, matted against tiny brown and green blades of grass. Hazy grey-blues fixed upon the heavy clouds lumbering across the sky. Spring wind lapping against ivory skin of her cheeks. She felt the cool air. Absorbed it into her skin, purposely drew it into her lungs to feel icy fingers stretch into them, but quickly dissolve without really breathing out. The rest of her motionless, with exception of her wiggling toes and arms. They rose from the ground propped on round elbows which allowed her fingertips to stroke the fluffy marshmallows above.

Night’s creatures mingled about the ground beneath her. Ears sharp to swishes, swooshes, scratches against the soil. She grinned and closed her eyes. Pictures formed in her mind. Arms lay to rest across her chest. She began to focus-dig deep into her sensory system to collect trails of things around her. She was a tracker-ever in training and enjoyed the sport. Her nose picked up a new hint of a rabbit. It’s tiny patterned heart-beat and floppy feet lightly hopping across the ground. She waited for him to come closer. Her body as still as death. She picked up a different echo between approaching animal sounds. It was a heavy. It had depth with large dull swish or flap like a walking heel. She dismissed it for now. To focus upon the rabbit.

[Rhadamanthys (DELETED 6453)]

Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all..

That ******* phone again. Why of all times, does it have to ring now? I don't know where I am; why am I here?Why are these people calling me? They didn't know why I was here, much less that I was here. I had to get away from them... I couldn't remember why. It doesn't matter. I am here, yet I do not know why I am here. All that I know, I took a wrong turn into the darkness.... the darkness...

The phone thrown back into the inside pocket with this disgust; the solemnity of the thoughts were broken as his steps resounded into the open foot traffic of Harper Rock. The family he left behind continuously would look for him. They would always look for him since the day he left from him in such a hurry. It seemed, that the global positioning system told them he was here, in the place. It wouldn't be long before someone would come to try and find him. Could they find him again? They had found him once before... it was terrible to remember it. Then again, since his stroll into this dark place, he could not remember exactly anything that really happened in the days before.

Suddenly, the sounds of traffic snapped him back into reality. The shrill horns and bright headlights broke the haze around him long enough to realize that he was in a new place and something eerie crept his nerves. Still, that parched throat ached him so.

Something inside him shifted. The shift from man to predator. His eyes beheld a woman, whose comely form appealed to him long before he would reach her. He could hear her heartbeat faintly from where he stood, but her smile, her eyes....this image was never so sharp to him. It was as if he were entranced; a flower which must be picked. This woman, was a wine that must be tasted and in this, he could not have denied that his desire and his parched throat were both towards the woman. His hearing, sharper but not much stronger than a human's at this point, ignored everything and everyone else for the moment as he walked. As he moved, people found him slightly odd. He has casted... no shadow? He didn't noticed the attention he garnered, only the woman. Only her... her eyes, her smile. Her curves and stride...He wanted her...and wanted to take her into the good night.

Of course, he wasn't aware of what had befallen him. If only he knew that there were others like him in this place, Harper Rock. However, he couldn't know that, not yet. What he wanted, he knew not the words for it. Yet, if you could read his mind, you'd know it...

Blood.

[Nerissa Clemming]

She walked along the road, keeping to the shadows, and picked pockets as she walked by. She was getting pretty good at it, never getting caught and getting richer everyday. She grinned to herself as she thought about how much better her 'life' has become. It was hard getting used to staying on one place for so long, but the pros way outweighed the cons in staying.

As she walked she noticed a man pass by her, and something about him made her stop. She turned around and studied the man curiously, trying to figure out what caught her attention, then she noticed it. He didn't have a shadow. Her own shadow twitched at the realization, and Nerissa realized that this man wasn't quite human.

It seemed he was in a hurry. Why that was so, she didn't care. She just wanted to find out more about him, and why he interested her so. She carefully followed him, making sure to keep a safe distance and to stay in the darkness.

[Thistle]

The strange thing about tracking is the ability to concentrate on the target until intentions were met. Thus tuning nearly everything else around your person out. Thistle did this as she lie there. She listened attentively for the furry animal. Its nose sniffing furiously into the air, whiskers gently grazing along green blades of grass. It’s small feet rustling. It’s heart, a steady 220 beats per minute. Oh how she adored the song. Pitters reminded her of life. Life-so easily now, could be taken away. She knew well that it was a matter of time before Mr. Rabbit noticed a large blob perpendicular to its path. It would soon sway. It would turn than furiously jolt off with those tiny thighs across the lawn. Brown body rushing with the wind, white tail bobbing, darting to safety. Thistle deeply rooted, played the scene in her mind over and over like a good silent film.

The night was dark, she was still hungry.

On the contrary, wild game meant an insatiable hunger due to the limited blood supply. As with rodents that roamed the sewers, Thistle would need ‘rabbits’ (plural), not rabbit, tonight. Also, she felt their fluffy coat required flossing after a bite, so she rarely took a chomp out of their flesh directly. Alas.

He came closer.
She moved.

Quick stride, her hand met ankle, ivory digits plucked a silver blade from the hem of her jean. It burst to a shine beneath the wavering moon. A dark dense fog surrounded the shade to conceal movement from oncoming headlights that shone into the edge of the park. Bare toes gaining ground as the hare did run. And dart. And dash. Feet like nimble gymnasts tracing its stride. Left. Right. Left again. Until. Thistle twisted the manually sharpened kitchen knife in her palm, flat edge held between two fingers and thumb. In her own world, unaware of others approaching. She stepped out of the darkness. She wound up as if to toss a dart right to its target.

She threw it left.
It darted Left.

...

[Rhadamanthys (DELETED 6453)]

The game is afoot. This seductive draw to the woman... why am I drawn to her? Something about her soft baby cheeks... or is it her fiery tresses? Could it be her sultry green eyes? Why do I need her so much, right now. I scarely can swallow my own spittle on the account of my dry throat. My veins feel like.... broken glass and flame passing through them. What IS this need?

The streets seemed to blur for a moment. Individuals he should have noticed, he couldn't for the woman interested him only. She was magnificent specimen. Any other time, he might have taken to examine her anatomy for his (and her) pleasure. Strangely though, what normally should arouse him, the thought of his hands caressing her naked flesh for the carnal repast, were...gone. What happened during the working of the Dark Trick, that fundamentally altered him? It was too far put out of his mind, for The Thirst now had him. It was leading him to her, to the kill; he could not know that was what he meant to do. Alone, he was in the world at the moment, fixated with this beauty (whom he ogled, but didn't overtly do). As he walked slowly enough to be noticed, but not so much as if he were a creeper or someone who would do this tart violence, she notice him. Her smile, at first uneasy...then slightly warm. Something about his eyes that started to quell her.

It dawned on him. I know her.

Alina Marie Jones. Age 23 from the city limits of my old home. IQ 140, 5'6" tall weighing close to 123 pounds. We graduated from the university together. Came from a very traditional family and a Roman Catholic. Sexual attract was mild, yet nothing happened. Dated a jerk during Senior year at the University; a real rotten ******** who lately gotten a bit "handy" with her. Several nights of her sleeping in my dorm for protection. One major fight. Nearly beat him into brain damage. He was still in the hospital when I ...left. She, distraught that I hurt him, but distraught over her own confused lust.

Why is SHE here? Why did she come to this.... my phone. It wasn't just my parents calling. She was as well. She must of tracked me here. ****... What do I do? She will most definitely ask me to leave this place. A place, that, for the time being, I am bound to like flies to ****... Get out of... please go before I catch up to you. I do not know why I am drawn to you, only that I am. That alone, is dangerous.

She begins to walk to him. She wanted to say his name, as if to confirm him before she hugged him. Before she decided that her tongue would attempt to find his. Somehow, she was reacting powerfully in a way she wouldn't. It was as if her body willed something here. Her mind had told her terrible danger did lie in this place. Her flesh saw that danger and her heart longed for it. She had known only abuse in the last relationship. Her White knight, here at last to sweep her off to happily ever after, approached. Mentally, she knew something was very wrong here.

She waved... and ran across to meet him. All the while, written on her heart and lips was his name.

Michael

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa watched the man closely. He was obviously heading somewhere, or to someone. The latter appeared to be true as she saw a woman who seemed to recognize him run towards the man. Nerissa scoffed. Lovers? Really? That hardly interested her, but something kept her from turning away. Something seemed off.

She quickly analyzed the situation. The man didn't have a shadow, and weird things like that around here usually meant vampire. The girl was obviously human, but whether she knew the man was a vampire or not was uncertain. But seeing how the man approached her, hunger in his eyes, Nerissa figured that this wasn't a friendly lover's meet up after all. She pondered on how to deal with the situation when something caught her eye.

A woman was close to the ground, her arm extended. Nerissa followed the direction of the arm with her eyes and saw a knife embedded in the body of a rabbit. The woman was apparently hunting. Realizing she had taken her attention away from the man she looked back to see what had happened so far.

[Rhadamanthys (DELETED 6453)]

Michael.

The words never left the lips of the beauty, yet her eyes filled with sadness and despair. This place could have that effect on you if you truly knew what lurked at every corner, in every doorway... in every shadow. She had to know something was off about this place, but steady she came towards him. The swell of her bosom, the shape of her hips and the light of her eyes... the light made her all the more fragile, like a blooming rose that was to be picked, but would fall to bits if done. The wildness of the moment as they walked to each other seemed electric. the repast was soon to come. He couldn't contain this thirst.

Why have you come? You cannot leave her. I cannot let you go. Not because I know you will tell my family you have seen me. It's because.... I need you. I need...you so badly, my body burns as if it were aflame. But this is no sexual desire, no need for conquest. This is primal in another way.


"Michael..."

My heart, if had a beat, would have stop. It was at this point, he noticed more things. He had no heartbeat. This olfactory acuity took stock of the girl. She smelled of cherries, lotions, and ointments; her hair, like roses and floral grass. For the moment, he took to the thought to kiss her as if she were his. However, he couldn't. He felt...nothing. Strangley, he felt absolutely nothing but the need for something he couldn't know. He felt the need for something that his physiology was guiding him to unbeknownst to his conscious mind. She gazed on him, trying to find the familiar warmth in his eyes, in him. Confused, she noticed the flesh was clammy and chilled; his eyes were brighter as his skin more luminescent under the light. If one could believe in angels, he looked as one... a dark angel in this place.

"You are cold. Please, come with me into the bar. We must sit and talk. I have worried about you. I want to know why you've left so suddenly."

"Yes. I think that would be best."

He sounded different. She wouldn't know, the voice change was subtle, but an immortal who heard his voice before the turning would know the voice before and after. It was empty as his emotions, devoid of life, though not mechanical. It was chilling to hear him speak, if you knew what truly lay behind his words. He had become the predator. And soon, comes the kill.