Path of the Vampire forum

“Well, are you going to take the case?”
”Of course, looks… unusual. You know I like the twisted ones.”
“He says he didn’t do it, but he was found at the scene of the crime - smothered in blood.”
”It says here the victim was completely drained of blood.”
“Perhaps he’s a devil worshiper, I’ve seen programs about it.”
”So you’re saying a small man like our convicted here, killed a big hulky man like this guy here in the photo, and then drained him of all his blood to offer to the devil?”
“People do it Clem, fucked up and twisted in the head if you ask me.”

She shook her head. Unsure what was in Josie’s coffee this morning. Instead she took the folder from her grip. ”Enjoy your coffee break, Jose..” The woman who she had been speaking to already had a breakfast bagel in her mouth, she waved at Clementine as she turned around and began to make her way to her small box shaped office. She closed the oak door behind her and slumped down into her leather office chair. She dropped the file on her desk and stared at it - flicking through the images of the crime scene, how could one man simply do all of this to a man who seemed to be twice his build. She blinked. Lifted her hand to rub it against her shaved head. A mug of lukewarm coffee was still sitting on her ’Best Mum’ coaster she got from her kids, when they were younglings. It was a mother's day present.

Her phone rang. She ignored it. It was probably her own lawyer. Regarding the divorce between her and paul. She had asked to defend herself in court - represent herself, ha. She wasn’t allowed - despite all her credentials you needed to have a lawyer present at the court hearings for her own divorce. **** Paul. She was still adamant he was shagging someone behind her back and was blaming it on her work. He needed to nut up and admit that he was a cheat. She huffed grabbing her beeper, phone and file and was out of the office. She told her secretary she was going to the crime scene to try and retrace the steps.

She got into her little red ford car - despite all the money she got from winning court cases, she could afford a better car - a much better car. She still had little herby. (It was named after the film.) It was a banger car, but it got her from A to B, never gave her problems. Nothing was wrong with a little faith in her car that she almost gave birth in, perhaps that was another reason why she kept it. She was on her way to Swansdale - that was where the murder happened. She pulled into a nearby street and parked the car making sure the clutch was engaged. She got out and made her way to the scene that was taped up.

She pulled out her pen and began to make notes. Blood splatter on the bricked alleyway walls, there was no weapon on the scene, nothing found on the accused. She tapped her chin in thought, how could someone be drained of blood without a weapon? There is the possibility that the accused hadn’t done it - or there was an accomplice and it was the accomplice that had the murder weapon.

She looked across the road and found a loose sewer grate. There was nothing mentioned in the police report about a sewer grate being checked out. Clementine was one of those women who liked to get hands on, make sure everything was alright - retracing steps. It was how she worked her cases so she had a better understanding. So now Clementine was going to go down into the sewers. In search of answers.

Making her way to the grate, she pulled it aside. Leaving her files, and trinkets on the side of the tarmac she descended into the dark depths. She would give it a quick look - half an hour, an hour or so? No harm in that. Right?

The woman sat crossed legged on the cool sewer floor in a secret niche that appeared no one knew about. Good for her, as Atabei was left alone from outsiders the majority of the night. Dark, dingy fingers sorted the piles of goods from her journeys in the sewers the last week or so. A single finger would make two piles, one for items that appeased the demi-fae. The other pile to appease the lwa she both respected and revered.

The first power included things like a severed head, some syringes, two charms, and something that had been floating in the sewer water that Atabei had never seen before. It was a thin textured object that lay on the top of the dirty water as the woman traveled through the depths of the sewers, returning back to the small alcove. The other pile, those objects and trinkets Atabei believed would make excellent sacrifices consisted of wallets with petty cash, coins, gold chains with a diversity of lengths and widths, and an old belt that she pulled out with the other hand that had been resting in her long, shaggy and bouncy hair that went every which direction due to its unkept and her feral nature. Her fingers burrowed into the belt with many leather strips woven together of a variety of colors until she pulled out a tan and coffee colored one and put the darker of the two over her shoulders, while the tan one she knotted over the biggest part of her skull, that was above her eyes.

The woman stood, moved to a pile of clothing that was shoved up against the wall opposite of the two piles she made, grabbed a sarong and wrapped it around her waist, the thing barely staying above her hip bones, threatening to inch down with each heavy step she took on her way out of the cranny. She had food to find and the night was only getting later. "Time be a wast'n." She said as the woman scrapped her way out of the secluded hole she used the majority of her nights for a variety of purposes. Mainly, to stay out of the eyes of others-human and vampire alike.

Clementine had left all her trinkets on the tarmac beside the sewer grate topside. The only thing she had taken was a flashlight, because the sewers from what she had seen in movies - the teenage ninja mutants mostly from when her children watched that film on repeat for a week straight - were dark and damp. Her feet touched down on the sewer floor, the scent of death filled her nostrils - and all other scents that were putrid filled her nostrils it made her cringe. She wrinkled her nose. Pulling her phone out she checked her reception. It was minimal at best, she pulled up Josie and sent her a quick text.

COMPOSE TEXT - JOSIE
RE: Hey love, I’m in the sewers, I think he might have had an accomplice if he did do it. Nothing in police report about the sewer grate being open or even checked. If you don’t hear from me in an hour call the police. - Clem x

She hit send, and stood still on the spot lifting her cellular device to the air until she finally heard that beep most iphones give off to signal that the text had gone through. She breathed out a sigh of relief. She had no idea what she would have done if that text didn’t go through, she was already in here - and if that so called accomplice was in here? Jesus. She would be dead.

She fussed with putting the mobile back in its hiding spot in her jacket pocket and made her way deeper into the sewers. She had to hold onto her nose at point, the scent of dead rats filled her nostrils. As she hovered her flashlight over them she noticed they didn’t move it looked like they had died - they were on their backs with their little paws up in the air. She gagged. Turning the other way and threw up her breakfast. A blueberry muffin and golden oat porridge, lovely.

Her phone beeped in her pocket then, as she was wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She blinked a few times and pulled out the mobile.

INCOMING TEXT - JOSIE
RE: Clem! You shouldn’t be in there alone. I’m calling the police now x

She sighed shaking her head and simply replied to her text letting her know that she was fine and there was nothing wrong - she hadn’t seen anyone - it was quiet besides some dead rats and her breakfast people a pile of orange mess on the floor all chunky looking. Moving her flashlight to the left she veered down a small hallway and noticed a woman with unkempt hair coming towards her..

”H--Hello?” She said to the woman that was coming towards her.

As Atabei moved through the depths of the underground tunnel system, the woman scratched at the scabs on her upper arms, feeling the constant itching of the healing wounds that were centuries old and had returned after her release from the dark place. She didn't feel one way or another about them remaining and seeming to never heal, if the spirits saw fit for them to be healed, they would do it. They didn't, so Atabei believed they remained for some purpose. A reminder, maybe. Or something she not yet be understanding, but something for her to find out one night.

From one opening she saw a woman of a darker skin tone than her, talking to someone the opposite way Atabei was coming. Some white woman with hair the color of embers in a hearth on a cool, fall night approaching her. Atabei wasn't one to get involved in other people's business, so she brushed right past the woman, but brushed a little too close and felt a sting of pain as the woman's scabbed arm scrapped against the woman's coat and ripped one of them open, blood glistening over her naked upper arm. Atabei snarled a little, not at the woman, but under her breath. It was her own doing, so there was no need to be mad at the other black woman in the sewers.

The woman with the orange hued hair moved past Atabei without any concern or regard, but quickened her steps and moved for the other woman. The other woman that was human, but humans weren't Atabei's problem or liking. She preferred to leave them alone, if they leave her alone and so Atabei kept moving on. Until common sense kicked in. The woman would be busy trying to get the other woman to feed off of. Too distracted with her own basic thirst, to notice Atabei coming at her. Atabei turned on her bare feet and watched things progress. Hunter vs the hunted, only there were two hunted tonight. The other just wasn't aware of it yet as she started revealing her upper hand prowess to the human as she lurched down into attack mode.

She had heard things.. About the sewers how people suddenly vanished and it did worry her come to think about it, now that she was down here in the sewers. The flashlight in her hand was flickering. The light dancing between on and off as she tried to get it working. Her chocolate hues was looking to the way where she saw the woman coming towards her. It was so dark down here that she could barely make out the woman’s fiery hair. It was so unkempt. It looked like she never ventured from these sewers. Her hands outstretched to her and she shuddered back. What if she had some kind of disease.

Clementine took another step back, side stepping her little mound of vomit. She shuddered. Not liking how weird this woman was still, as she approached her again.Closing the gap awfully quick. The way she looked at her. When the flashlight came back on she noticed hunger within those dark pools of hers. It frightened the chocolate woman. She didn’t notice the other woman on the scene. She wasn’t registering anywhere, not even when she brushed against her jacket - all thoughts, and movements was focused on the woman that was coming at her.

The way she moved reminded Clem of a zombie. Arms outstretched, hands grabbing at the woman wanting what she couldn’t have. She noticed then her mouth was slowly opening up, and her teeth.. They were larger. Larger, and… sharper? That normal teeth. They looked like they were chiselled to….. Fangs? What the hell.

Clementine spoke then. ”The cops are on their way. Stop. You’ll get arrested.” it didn’t phase the woman coming towards her, so Clementine didn’t have much time to act when she lunged for her. This woman with canines was trying to grab her throat. Clementine using whatever instincts she had slammed her flashlight down upon her head, smacking her at the crown of her head as hard as she could. This is self defense. This is self defense, if she died - it was self defense and this is what she would say in the courtroom.

The woman fell to the ground, after being bludgeoned on the head. Clementine stared at the body on the floor, how it twitched and writhed to life and lifted its head to stare at her.. How feral it looked. A snarl ripped through the redheads mouth - a carnal, primal snarl. She did the only thing her mind told her to do. She ran.

The hunted was talking to the other vampire. Threatening her. Atabei didn't know who or what 'cops' were, but they could oppress people it seemed. They had power to 'arrest' people. Do things to others. She wouldn't have stated it otherwise, if these cops didn't have a form of power. In an attempt to get the other vampire woman to stop.

Atabei was about to tell the woman that the cops, or whoever for that matter weren't going to help the woman in time. That she wouldn't even remember what happened when it was all said and done, and no one would be the wiser. Unless the woman was one of those vampires whose appetites was never sated. Feral, rabid, starving. Atabei heard about those types. Always thirsty, never satisfied. Greedy types. Every group had them. Humans and vampires alike. She suspected even animals had those types in their kingdom. Those who took more, made others go hungry.

The other woman lunged at the human and Atabei just waited. Waited for the right moment, but that moment never came. The woman was fighting for her life. A small amount of blood that wouldn't be missed-if this was just a regular, typical, every day, run of the mill vampire. But it wasn't. She was weak and went down without so much of a fight. A greedy, weak vampire. No real training and no control. An easy target to pray upon and Atabei took the opportunity. "Now look 'ere. Just 'da circul of life." Bei said quietly to the lesser of the vampires in this part of the sewers, fingers wrapping around a shoulder as Atabei crouched down on the flats of her feet and approached the woman on the ground with broken steps and jumps to the other sewer dweller. "Dun be need'n much. Just en'ugh." Atabei said as the hand on the woman's shoulder tightened as her fangs descended, mouth salivating as she thought about the sweet taste of vampire blood that would fill her mouth and quench the thirst she felt each night when Atabei woke in her coffin. Some would call her cliche, but coffins were where she felt safe and secure during the daylight hours. Where she had slept during her travels up to the north after being sired in the North America's by the Native American woman Hahnee. Where she slept while people hunted for the Black Witch that brought hardships on the settlers (or so it was theorized).

The other woman shook her head and moaned, groaning out the word no, and calling her a 'rat. As if it were something to be offended about. Atabei chuckled as a hand came to the woman's hair and she stroked it, much like a mother would a young child. "Let me tells yous sum'tin 'bout rats. Dey gun be 'round long afta da most of us. Quick, smart tings. Deys survivors." The hand came to stop at the back of the woman's neck as Atabei lifted her up and sunk her elongated fangs deep into the crook of the woman's neck and felt the euphoric wash of bliss wash over her as Atabei took her desired fill from the woman before she dropped her back down on the ground. "Yous best be on your way."

The human was of no consequence to Atabei and now that she had what Atabei needed for the night, the chestnut skinned tone woman retreated back in the direction she came from, which happened to be the direction the woman took off in. But that was no matter to Atabei, there were lots of twists and turns in the sewers and the chances of the woman finding her little nook in the sewers entirety was a ghosts chance in the Hispaniola's woman's mind.

She ran, she ran like her life depended on it. The images of her children came to her mind. Their beautiful faces filled her eyelids - forcing her to go on. She had to pump those little legs for her, what she couldn’t quite understand was why that woman wanted to attack her, was she a druggie? Was this a place where drug users went to. It frightened her, perhaps now she should have taken Josie’s advice and perhaps waited - perhaps had a police officer come down with her. She mentally cursed herself as she ducked around another corner and clung to the dirty wall, fumbling around in her pocket for her mobile. She pulled it out and tried to dial Josie’s number.

She put the phone to her ear only to receive the following message; ”The person you are trying to call is currently unavailable, please try again later - thank you.” The phone cut off then and a dial tone ensued. Meaning there was no one on the other end of the phone to pick up. She blinked a few times. Unsure what to do, she pulled the phone to her eye level to find that she had no signal, she must’ve been so far down in the sewers that there was no chance that she was able to call Josie, or even the police at this rate. She sighed. The sound of scuttling, as a rat ran past her feet rubbing against her leg like a cat would wanting attention.

She screamed at the top of her lungs alerting all the rabid beings down here to her location as she kicked the rat with her boot away from her with a squeak. She shook her hands like she was disgusted and ran off again, these sewers were such a bad idea. She completely understood it was a bad idea now. She whimpered as she ran for an extra five minutes zipping into a little nook she found, hidden by some shadows she clambered inside and made her way there. She hid herself behind a wall - panting for breathe. Was she safe? Probably not? Was there more rats? Of course.