RIKKI It had been three days since she had arrived here. Three whole days since she had spoken to another person. The intense loneliness was beginning to creep in, locking away all motivation to find her niche in this new city she had chosen. But, rather than look for a job or an apartment, she had merely wandered. Each day, she learned a little bit more of the city. It was large, and daunting, but Rikki was determined to learn it all. She would find some semblance of happiness, even if it meant finding it on her own. And tonight was no different than the one before. Where the train would take her, she hadn’t a clue. She was sure about to find out, though.
Coming to Rikki’s decided stop, she swung her bag over her shoulder and stepped on the sidewalk. Her deep chocolate gaze moved up and down the street, searching for a landmark of some kind that would help her remember. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, she let her instincts take over and simply followed where her feet happened to take her. The summer sun had set and the night was finally cooling, making for the perfect night to roam.
Before long, the large victorian church rose up over the street. It stood like a guardian, watching over all those who passed below. Never being very religious, Rikki could count on one hand the number of times she had stepped foot into a church, and none of them had been particularly wonderful experiences.
If you would give it a chance, you might be surprised by the peace you find within .
The thought made her frown, but the nagging voice of reason sounded an awful lot like her grandmother. Up until the day she died, that woman had sworn that being a member of her congregation saved her life. Rikki never did find out what exactly that meant, but now, she had to wonder if, perhaps, it wasn’t all just stories.
So, there she stood, shifting from foot to foot in obvious hesitation. Teeth digging into her lip, she hummed in uncertainty, ”Mm…”
HARRISON The world was topsy turvy. The dead could come back to life; there were zombies and fairy creatures and who knew what else? And Harrison should have seen it coming. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He was a man who could speak to the spirits who were, for one reason or another, left behind when their bodies gave up on them. Why shouldn’t there be more that humanity did not know, or understand?
Still, it was a lot to take in. For a man as devout as Harrison, he didn’t know what it meant, that he should be both alive and dead at the same time. His body had stopped. His heart no longer beat. Hot blood no longer rushed through his veins. Had he died? Had his spirit briefly left this world only to be roughly yanked back? Was his life saved, or was this something entirely different? Was he brought back for a reason?
It mattered not, in the end. He was hindered by the coming and going of the sun, and he looked like a terminally ill patient who should be on bed rest, but he could still do what he had come here to do -- to help the restless spirits of the dead, of which there were many, meandering the streets aimlessly. And he did not need to create more restless spirits -- vampire though he was, his peculiar brand allowed him to feed without ever having to sink teeth into another’s neck. It was a blessing, a boon -- a silver lining that he could not rightly ignore. It was a gift.
Still, Harrison liked to pray. He’d discovered that the old stories weren’t all true, and that he could step inside a church and not be struck down by some higher power. Crosses had no effect on him, and he continued to wear his around his neck. He had found a church that he liked, one that was open all hours of the night. And he often found sanctuary within its pews, to talk to God. To think. Although he had only recently awoken, he’d awoken feeling dread. There was a heaviness to his otherwise buoyant heart. So he dressed, and headed for his sanctuary.
He arrived only fifteen minutes later. There was a priest who he’d spoken to a couple of times but otherwise he rarely saw anyone, the church frequented mostly during the day. Tonight, however, he found a woman lingering on the footsteps.
“Hello,” he said, Scottish brogue thick on his tongue. He smiled, his eyes bright despite the dark rings beneath them. Harrison was personable; he liked to talk to random strangers on the street (even if sometimes he wasn’t entirely sure whether they were real or ghosts). “Can I help you?” he asked. A genuine question.
RIKKI Rikki knew she was being irrational. Nothing about the church was out of the ordinary, but she stood frozen at the steps, unsure whether or not she was justified to go inside. For a good portion of her teenage and adult years, she questioned her family’s religious devotions. A logic driven child, Rikki had always preferred science and mathematics, where questions had answers. And the more she prayed to God, the less answers she seemed to get. Either He was communicating with the rest of her family and being purposely silent with her, or He may not actually be there to listen. In recent years, she had been inclined to think the latter.
It seemed wrong, in a way, to walk into a place of worship when you weren’t even sure that you believed in who you were supposed to be “talking” to. It felt...a little crazy. If He really wasn’t there, then wasn’t she just talking to herself?
With the knowledge that she couldn’t stand there all day, Rikki quickly made the decision to go inside. Perhaps she could simply stand at the back, an observer. Before she could change her mind, she reached out a shaky hand for the church doors when a sudden male voice interrupted.
“Oh!” Rikki yelped in surprise, hand pulling back from the doors as she took an involuntary step away from the direction in which the voice had come from. Embarrassed by her reaction, the woman turned to face the owner of the voice with a hand pressed against her chest.Despite the thundering of her heart, she quickly cleared her throat and straightened out her dress. ”I’m sorry, I was…” suddenly trailing off, she turned her head back toward the doors of the building. All motivation to go inside now gone, she sighed, ”...just thinking about leaving.”
Instead of dwelling on the moment, her lips twitched into a small, but grateful grin, [/b]“But thank you, for asking.”[/b]
HARRISON It was strange, to be this… thing. The woman brought attention to her heart as her hand pressed over it, as if by doing so she could keep it from jumping out of her chest. But it did nothing to dull the sound of it, which the vampire could hear over everything else; the steady drumbeat that was the siren call for any thirsty vampire.
Fortunately, Harrison was not hungry -- nor did he lack control because of it. There were plenty of other curses he had to deal with, but hunger and bloodlust were not one of them. Perhaps it was part and parcel with his devout belief in kindness, and goodness. Even as a carnivorous creature, innocent blood did not, and would never appeal to him.
The sound of the heart was a dead giveaway, too -- the girl was real. She wasn’t a spirit, lingering by the doors of a church as if it might help her to move on. She was merely a living person. Suffering a crisis of faith, maybe? Harrison took the couple of steps up, toward the door of the church. The stranger glowed -- she was radiant. Harrison tried not to stare, though his smile was steady upon his lips.
“Thinking about leaving?” he asked, curious. She was not certain, then. It wasn’t as if she’d been to church and now was heading home. “It’s a beautiful church. Have you been inside…?” he asked, angled toward the entrance.
RIKKI The stranger smiled at her in what she could only assume was genuine kindness. He moved closer as he edged toward the door, quick to question why it was she was leaving. And though the smile never faltered, it was his eyes that held her attention. They were such a brilliant shade of blue that she couldn’t help but keep her own gaze locked on his.
Without looking away, she shook her head in response to his question. Rikki wasn’t sure that she trusted herself enough to speak again, her heart rate still slowing after the initial fright. As she began to feel vulnerable while under the man’s watch. she finally broke their intense stare and looked up at the church with curiosity. “I...haven’t been inside, no...” she replied with a small shrug of her slender shoulders.
“In my defense, I am new to the city…” she further explained, running her fingers through her blonde locks and tucking them loosely behind her ear. “I only stumbled upon it by accident.” And she was more than happy to stumble right back the way she came, at this point. It couldn’t be helped that she was still turning over her decision not to go inside, though. For better or worse, this stranger was giving her time to have second thoughts about her second thoughts.
With a twinge of anxiety,, she immediately attempted to shift the focus. “Are you….familiar with the church? A...member? Or, just a good samaritan sensing my distress?” Her tone was teasing, but quiet. While she brought herself to joke about it, an uneasy tension had settled in her shoulders. .
Coming to Rikki’s decided stop, she swung her bag over her shoulder and stepped on the sidewalk. Her deep chocolate gaze moved up and down the street, searching for a landmark of some kind that would help her remember. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, she let her instincts take over and simply followed where her feet happened to take her. The summer sun had set and the night was finally cooling, making for the perfect night to roam.
Before long, the large victorian church rose up over the street. It stood like a guardian, watching over all those who passed below. Never being very religious, Rikki could count on one hand the number of times she had stepped foot into a church, and none of them had been particularly wonderful experiences.
If you would give it a chance, you might be surprised by the peace you find within .
The thought made her frown, but the nagging voice of reason sounded an awful lot like her grandmother. Up until the day she died, that woman had sworn that being a member of her congregation saved her life. Rikki never did find out what exactly that meant, but now, she had to wonder if, perhaps, it wasn’t all just stories.
So, there she stood, shifting from foot to foot in obvious hesitation. Teeth digging into her lip, she hummed in uncertainty, ”Mm…”
HARRISON The world was topsy turvy. The dead could come back to life; there were zombies and fairy creatures and who knew what else? And Harrison should have seen it coming. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He was a man who could speak to the spirits who were, for one reason or another, left behind when their bodies gave up on them. Why shouldn’t there be more that humanity did not know, or understand?
Still, it was a lot to take in. For a man as devout as Harrison, he didn’t know what it meant, that he should be both alive and dead at the same time. His body had stopped. His heart no longer beat. Hot blood no longer rushed through his veins. Had he died? Had his spirit briefly left this world only to be roughly yanked back? Was his life saved, or was this something entirely different? Was he brought back for a reason?
It mattered not, in the end. He was hindered by the coming and going of the sun, and he looked like a terminally ill patient who should be on bed rest, but he could still do what he had come here to do -- to help the restless spirits of the dead, of which there were many, meandering the streets aimlessly. And he did not need to create more restless spirits -- vampire though he was, his peculiar brand allowed him to feed without ever having to sink teeth into another’s neck. It was a blessing, a boon -- a silver lining that he could not rightly ignore. It was a gift.
Still, Harrison liked to pray. He’d discovered that the old stories weren’t all true, and that he could step inside a church and not be struck down by some higher power. Crosses had no effect on him, and he continued to wear his around his neck. He had found a church that he liked, one that was open all hours of the night. And he often found sanctuary within its pews, to talk to God. To think. Although he had only recently awoken, he’d awoken feeling dread. There was a heaviness to his otherwise buoyant heart. So he dressed, and headed for his sanctuary.
He arrived only fifteen minutes later. There was a priest who he’d spoken to a couple of times but otherwise he rarely saw anyone, the church frequented mostly during the day. Tonight, however, he found a woman lingering on the footsteps.
“Hello,” he said, Scottish brogue thick on his tongue. He smiled, his eyes bright despite the dark rings beneath them. Harrison was personable; he liked to talk to random strangers on the street (even if sometimes he wasn’t entirely sure whether they were real or ghosts). “Can I help you?” he asked. A genuine question.
RIKKI Rikki knew she was being irrational. Nothing about the church was out of the ordinary, but she stood frozen at the steps, unsure whether or not she was justified to go inside. For a good portion of her teenage and adult years, she questioned her family’s religious devotions. A logic driven child, Rikki had always preferred science and mathematics, where questions had answers. And the more she prayed to God, the less answers she seemed to get. Either He was communicating with the rest of her family and being purposely silent with her, or He may not actually be there to listen. In recent years, she had been inclined to think the latter.
It seemed wrong, in a way, to walk into a place of worship when you weren’t even sure that you believed in who you were supposed to be “talking” to. It felt...a little crazy. If He really wasn’t there, then wasn’t she just talking to herself?
With the knowledge that she couldn’t stand there all day, Rikki quickly made the decision to go inside. Perhaps she could simply stand at the back, an observer. Before she could change her mind, she reached out a shaky hand for the church doors when a sudden male voice interrupted.
“Oh!” Rikki yelped in surprise, hand pulling back from the doors as she took an involuntary step away from the direction in which the voice had come from. Embarrassed by her reaction, the woman turned to face the owner of the voice with a hand pressed against her chest.Despite the thundering of her heart, she quickly cleared her throat and straightened out her dress. ”I’m sorry, I was…” suddenly trailing off, she turned her head back toward the doors of the building. All motivation to go inside now gone, she sighed, ”...just thinking about leaving.”
Instead of dwelling on the moment, her lips twitched into a small, but grateful grin, [/b]“But thank you, for asking.”[/b]
HARRISON It was strange, to be this… thing. The woman brought attention to her heart as her hand pressed over it, as if by doing so she could keep it from jumping out of her chest. But it did nothing to dull the sound of it, which the vampire could hear over everything else; the steady drumbeat that was the siren call for any thirsty vampire.
Fortunately, Harrison was not hungry -- nor did he lack control because of it. There were plenty of other curses he had to deal with, but hunger and bloodlust were not one of them. Perhaps it was part and parcel with his devout belief in kindness, and goodness. Even as a carnivorous creature, innocent blood did not, and would never appeal to him.
The sound of the heart was a dead giveaway, too -- the girl was real. She wasn’t a spirit, lingering by the doors of a church as if it might help her to move on. She was merely a living person. Suffering a crisis of faith, maybe? Harrison took the couple of steps up, toward the door of the church. The stranger glowed -- she was radiant. Harrison tried not to stare, though his smile was steady upon his lips.
“Thinking about leaving?” he asked, curious. She was not certain, then. It wasn’t as if she’d been to church and now was heading home. “It’s a beautiful church. Have you been inside…?” he asked, angled toward the entrance.
RIKKI The stranger smiled at her in what she could only assume was genuine kindness. He moved closer as he edged toward the door, quick to question why it was she was leaving. And though the smile never faltered, it was his eyes that held her attention. They were such a brilliant shade of blue that she couldn’t help but keep her own gaze locked on his.
Without looking away, she shook her head in response to his question. Rikki wasn’t sure that she trusted herself enough to speak again, her heart rate still slowing after the initial fright. As she began to feel vulnerable while under the man’s watch. she finally broke their intense stare and looked up at the church with curiosity. “I...haven’t been inside, no...” she replied with a small shrug of her slender shoulders.
“In my defense, I am new to the city…” she further explained, running her fingers through her blonde locks and tucking them loosely behind her ear. “I only stumbled upon it by accident.” And she was more than happy to stumble right back the way she came, at this point. It couldn’t be helped that she was still turning over her decision not to go inside, though. For better or worse, this stranger was giving her time to have second thoughts about her second thoughts.
With a twinge of anxiety,, she immediately attempted to shift the focus. “Are you….familiar with the church? A...member? Or, just a good samaritan sensing my distress?” Her tone was teasing, but quiet. While she brought herself to joke about it, an uneasy tension had settled in her shoulders. .
