Path of the Vampire forum

Every street was lit with the warm glow of a lamp in this foreign city as a young woman walked wearily through the streets. Her head hung lower than usual as her abnormal eyes stole a glance at every new face she could peer into...only occasionally did she manage to find one that looked like hers though she knew right away after capturing their eyes that she needed to continue onward. It was easy to tell, really, she needed to only look at their eyes. Did they look like hers? No, they never did. Not back home and not in this city, either.

She was the picture of a very young but jaded woman. With a heart shaped face, milk and honey skin and full rosey lips it was hard not to stare. Even harder was to avoid her almond gaze, unnatural, as the color set inside them rivaled the jade earrings she wore.

Her long black hair drawn over one shoulder in loosened curls was wrapped around her long and delicate fingers and spun thoughtfully about as she stared up into the stars wistfully wondering what skies were to be seen in her faraway home.

Though a stranger in this land, her face is still known to many. She was something of a celebrity in her homeland. It didn't matter much here, and no one seemed to know anything about her or what she was looking for and that was the cookie crumbling in a sea full of spoiled milk for what had been the last week. Inside the pocket of her warm, too large, gold glittering jacket there was a treasure map; it was the only letter written to her by a sibling that existed somewhere in this city at least ten years older than her young age. She had so many questions for them, if she ever found them.

If...

A loud thud hit the counter of a local bar as the foreign child banged her head against the granite.

"I don't even know what they look-" There was a pause for a hiccup and she slumped over her drink at the bar she'd meandered inside. "Like... well, I have this." She reached into her coat and uncrumpled the folded note in front of her. No one could really make sense of the markings except her and in her state of inebriation, even she was struggling to make out the forms as they sat peacefully on the yellow, weathered page. She was approaching her 5th drink, finishing her fourth by this point now.

As he'd done all evening since she got there, the bartender didn't say a word. Just listened to her ramble on, one drink after the other. First about her father's business with tears running down her eyes and then about some gibberish he could hardly understand between the music playing overhead and the shouted orders of other patrons. He was certain at least, that in those moments she wasn't speaking English anymore.

"I just... I just. I don't know what to do..." The girl shook her head and and took in a deep breath. She propped her head against her limp wrist and stared into the assortment of colored bottles on display behind Jake? Was his name Jack or was it Jian? Jian, there's a nice name. Suddenly, the young girl was smiling at herself before she realized enough was enough...

Running her fingers through her hair she bit on her lip and fished through the small purse she'd been carrying beneath her arm, "I'm ready to pay," she held up a black card and frowned... not certain yet of where to go. Even in the past, when things were hard...she never had to concern herself with the small details of paying for her own food and drink....but she was going to be doing lots of things on her own now. And lots of things alone too.

It was after being stared down like an alien that the burly male with blonde hair took the card from her, and with no effort to hide his suspicion, attempted to pay for her purchases with the thin piece of plastic. It must have hit him as a big surprise, because they say that Jason's eyes grew three sizes that night as the card cleared and her drinks were paid for.

She watched him closely, waiting for her card to be returned to her with a frustrated look of knitted brows and a large pout as he took his time heading back towards relinquishing the mythical plastic into her possession. "xiè xie..." She mumbled once the card had exchanged hands. She slid off the red bar stool while simultaneously replacing the plastic back into her tiny purse... All that was left to her night or so she thought was to manage the distance between hither and the revolving doors she'd walked in through.

Fortune had it that she made it outside, safely, and not on her backside.

Inside the side pocket of her black jeans she could feel the outline of her phone move as she walked. A black jeweled fingernail hovered over its outline before pulling it from safety. As she walked, she browsed through the local news, still tapped into the sources back home while her fingers circled around one article in specific. The death of a prominent CEO, another victim of time. Old age had claimed the man peacefully in his sleep only just one month ago...leaving Daiyu all alone and in charge of the well-to-do company he'd spent his life building.

And just look at what Daiyu had done! She'd run away.

But not for any lack of knowing how to maintain a thriving business....

Daiyu slumped against the cold brick of a building of unknown status. It was unknown because she hadn't bothered to read its signage. Or to look inside. Jade orbs danced nervously to and from each street side before focusing back upon the stillness of the night that was in a way, unnerving. She couldn't help but feel unsettled beneath the flickering light of a fluorescent bulb that needed to either be changed or screwed back in properly. She wondered just how safe she was here in this country...as opposed to how safe she wasn't when back home.

She had given up for the time on her search. It had been a long week and her feet now ached with the amount of on-foot traveling she had encountered. Dark rings nested under her ethereal green eyes, even brighter now with the red veins painted over white, the brightness revealing the faint flecks of amber inside her eyes. An indicator that she had not slept very well, if at all. While gazing downward at the gold, thin banded watch that was easily mistaken for a bracelet, the young woman wore a heavy frown. She had been frowning quite a bit lately and Daiyu was acutely aware of it to the point of being made uncomfortable by her own outward image. It was in the slump of her shoulders, the bend of her back. It was in the way that she sighed lightly and looked forlornly upon couples and families. Daiyu had a glimpse of something, she had it for seven years. While many would be over the moon for even so much time, now that her window into that world had been barred shut she could only watch the many others with their smiling faces.

Sometimes a mother would chastise her child and she'd be reminded of the harsh atmosphere of her earliest environments, first a factory that manufactured electronics, then a servant for a well-off family. If anyone asked, she belonged to the family. The older sister to a older boy by four years who was then twice her size. If anyone had asked, she was the oldest child though she looked nothing like her "parents" and had been living with relatives for a while. Her existence then was largely a lie and her name a word that translated to Ugly, occasionally replaced by another that meant useless, in English. With hands shaking in tightened fists turning red, Daiyu pushed the thought of her days without freedom to the farthest reaches of her mind as much as she could while stubbornly refusing to acknowledge their existence now as she looked out into the sparsely occupied streets of nameless bodies as they made their rounds between the shops that lined the roads. She was waiting for a train now. A train that would take her back to the airport as she stopped her darkening thoughts and looked up at the sprawling city streets. They were magnificent pieces of architecture, there was an air about this city that made it feel so very different and Daiyu did not feel she belonged in the middle of it.

She looked at her pocket that contained the balled up treasure, crumpled up tightly in a moment of anger and frustration and tossed in a waste bin that she then... a little desperately, went back and retrieved after walking away from it for all of 20 something feet. Daiyu felt a drop of water hit her head, or so she thought. Then it happened again. She looked around and up at the sky when her cheek was met with another small drip and blinked. It started small, then in one great eruption the rain dropped full force, startling the girl to rub at her eyes as one drop had hit the left one precisely. Daiyu got up quickly and ran from the wood and iron bench she had occupied to take cover inside a parking garage not far away. A car was trying to come through, honking at her carelessness as she quickly got out of the car's way. When her back was pressed against a large column, out of the way she quickly pulled out the paper, making sure the ink hadn't been damaged in the downpour. She looked over her shoulder and around the column to find an elevator there, and then on the other side, more cars and nothing much to speak of.

Inside her chest, her heart beat strong and fast from her wild sprint. She might have been small but she was at least quick. Like a squatter, Daiyu slid to the earth and crossed her legs to take up residence inside the parking garage until she was either kicked out or the rain stopped. With he paper ball held out in front of her she started unfolding it gingerly, uncrumpling its corners first and smoothing them out between her fingers as best as she could. It would never look cleanly folded again but it eased her guilt some to take this time to be diligent and show the letter more care and consideration than she had given it in those brief few seconds it took her to completely devastate its smooth, flat terrain. Because it was old, the paper had a certain almost dusty texture to it in places where the smooth-to-touch coating had worn away. Tears started forming at her eyes and she lowered her head into the paper, she wasn't allowed with her tears for very long. A bullet shot off in the distance hit the space where her head had occupied of the column in front of her. The bullet bounced away and into the window of a car that faced it. It was time to run.

Daiyu scrambled. folding the paper up and shoving it in her pocket and getting out of the way before another shot, this time closer ripped past her arm. She kept going, out into the rain where she disappeared into an abandoned shop, a mistake once she realized its size. It offered no second floors, or rooms to hide in. Just small empty block. The remnants of other visitors were left behind in the form of emptied bottles, dorito bags and flattened coca cola cans. A thick layer of dust and dirt covered the floors and she just barely make out the checkered pattern of the floors beneath it. Frighten and shocked she rushed into one of the four corners, farthermost from the door and huddled inside it, her back to the wall for protection, her knees to her chest to minimize the space she consumed. Daiyu felt something crawl across her hand that touched the floor and shrieked. Her hand jerking away quickly, flinging the insect or spider across the room. She quickly covered her mouth, shaking, and leaned into her knees. She had no thoughts in her head, just the giant explosion of panic permeating every vain in her body pumped full with adrenaline. Well, she had maybe one thought, it repeated itself like the grating noise on a scratched compact disc. Will they find me here?