Post by hannavictoria on Sept 3, 2016 0:25:52 GMT -5
“Ms. Marlowe?” He knocked again “Ms. Marlowe?” “What!” a teenage boy answered the door. The stranger looked Blaine up and down “What do you want with Grandma?” He relaxed at that moment “I employ your brother, so if I could just…” he got no real response beyond a bored expression “Tell me stupid Victor didn’t get locked up for “observation”?”
‘Does he think I can’t talk Victor out of a mental health ward?’ he kept that comment to himself “No, I has Victor been acting odd?” Hector looked at him like he could not believe the question “Victor was born weird. You think I don’t remember you creeping around when I was growing up?” the hostility was a little jarring to say the least.
“I’m sorry?” The teen crossed his arms “Ya should be. Least I have the decency not to pretend like I’m there for him or whatever.” He tried to get the kid back on track “Look recently… Victor might um be…” he remembered very vividly the time he’d tried to convince one Sandra Marlowe her son was being honest about the vampires “I’m a little concern he might be befriending the “pests”.”
There was a low actually rather menacing canine growl coming from boy ‘Or he could already know and be a werewolf with every right to take offence to that remark.’ While Blaine was groaning the kid seemed to realize he was growling and swallowing down a whine called out too quickly “YeahsoI’mgonnagogetGrandmabye!”
‘That answers that question? Should I let Victor relay the werewolf policy or maybe he’ll calm down if his grandmother close by.’ He was a little hesitant to discuss it in front of her as he knew that Annabelle Marlowe didn’t believe either. “Blaine VanJulivan my word you look ten years younger!” He tried not to flinch “Yes well um, it’s good to see you to Ms. Marlowe.”
“Call me Annabelle, we’ve been over this young man!” she said with a smile. “Right…” he looked for a place to start “What do you think Victor does for me?” she smiled and beckoned him into the kitchen to start on coffee because of course she remembered how he took it “I take it you mean besides being a good friend? Well I don’t think he’s dealing drugs!”
She was quiet a long moment, “Did you know I was a nurse in the Vietnam War?” it seemed a bit of an odd thing to say “I haven’t always known what to make of Victor. Something has always been wrong! A new cut or bruise and the boy always had such terrible nightmares. I’ve seen troubled children and that can happen for lots of reasons, it’s the man that he’s grown into I can’t accept.”
He looked at her dumbstruck taking the coffee automatically “Don’t get me wrong I love Victor and there are things I find objectionable, but that isn’t what I mean when I say “can’t accept”; why does my boy have eyes like a soldier? Do you honestly expect me to accept fairies and werewolves did that?!”
Blaine sat there letting the coffee warm his hands before answering with a smile, “Expect you to? No not at all. Almost no one in the City accepts the forest is teeming with creatures or the alleyways or anywhere really.” She had a reflective look about her “You know there’s been a good many things said about you as well young man?” Smile not faltering he started listing them for her, “I’ve spent most of my life wandering back alleys in the middle of the night and have “squandered” my family fortune for a cause few understand; honestly it would be weirder if people hadn’t come up with any number of conspiracy theories.” ‘Usually ones that involve me pulling the strings behind the gangs in this town or the like.’
“Do…you know any of Victor’s friends?” she smiled “Yes, yes Hexavier, Mye, Toni, Zeno, that little blonde boy Menu; Mostly though it’s Charby.” He perked up, “Charby?” the old woman beamed “Like family that boy always been so sweet. Now Victor hated him once upon a time. Kept talking about how the boy was dangerous, but in time they were close as brothers.”
His heart sunk utterly and totally. He had some suspicions who this could be but there was no doubt that Charby wasn’t human. She put her hand over his, “I know you love Victor a lot and so does Charby.” That hadn’t been his concern but still it… wasn’t a statement to be taken lightly. It wasn’t uncommon for any number of creature to act with compassion waiting for their moment to strike but, “How long since you met Charby? And what does he look like, maybe I know him?”
She thought about it awhile “It’s been quite a while; months, years, longer I can’t be certain? Longer than Hector has lived here I do know that.” His unease grew again one suspicion making its way to the forefront the description sealed it Charby was undoubtedly “Little Devil” Even if he wasn’t responsible like Victor had said this was still the vampire who’d carved a bloody path through Kellwood’s history for over three hundred years.
He was honestly a little sick. The pleasant little friends that Victor had been introducing almost seemed like they were intent was to soften the blow. The idea that he was close, closest of all with one of the deadliest creatures in the forest put so many things in a different light, begged so many questions.
One of which made it to the forefront of his mind “Did they… happen to have a large fight recently?” it was vague, but Victor’s anger when she had first died had been all to genuine “When they were fighting over that girl?” there was an underlying tone of laughter in here voice ‘What.’ “Run that by me again?”
“Don’t let that cute little face fool you, Charby is much the same as Victor when it comes to women.” she sighed, “Though he could learn a thing or two from that boy, not that both don’t…” she huffed “I’m not saying they were treating her like a prize in so many words definitely not intentionally.” She finally noticed how awkward Blaine was finding all this “Sorry, sorry you don’t live through the seventies without coming to the conclusion everyone’s got there stumbling blocks when it comes to shoes they haven’t walked a mile in.”
“Anyway I never met this Vicki girl myself so perhaps that competitive nonsense was something they kept her out of. Anyway she turned Charby down outright and in that his behavior was exemplary. Bowed out and expressed wishes for her happiness and cried into a big plate of cookies. Of course the poor girl died scarcely a day later. Then they both really cried.” It was beginning to sink in how much contact she’d had with the little vampire. She appeared genuinely unaware of his situation though “He means a lot to you?”
She nodded “Absolutely. Boys got a mean streak I’ve seen from time to time, but he’s a downright sweet child. Macabre, speaks from a thesaurus, often wise beyond his years, but… sometimes I get the feeling he hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to truly be a child if you know what I mean.” He hadn’t known what to expect. The idea that he would hide behind the facade of a perfect angel had certainly been foremost. He had extremely limited contact with the vampire himself, but it seemed that perhaps he had been far more himself than Blaine ever would have guessed.
There was just one more question that came to mind, “After Victoria died… how was Victor?” She shifted uncomfortably “That first day I avoided him honestly. That boy looked genuinely ready to kill someone.” She paused for a solid minute just looking for the secrets of the universe in her tea “Then he came back the next morning or rather I spotted him on a bench about a block away when I went to get the mail.”
“He’d gotten lost and continued to get lost and putter about with his head in the clouds.” Blaine sat up “Any jumpiness, nightmares, insomnia, -” “You can stop listing symptoms. I still volunteer at the VA when I can. I most certainly did back when the original Acute Stress Disorder study was making the rounds.” He hung on the edge of his seat “I’m not a psychiatrist but it’s possible.” Then the part he wasn’t meant to hear “I’m just praying he didn’t dig the poor thing up and put her head between her ankles.”
He desperately needed to be anywhere but there. Didn’t even say goodbye, he was there then he was at a bench a block away. He kept walking for a long time until he bumped into George’s patrol pattern. “Sir?” and Blaine just started talking about everything so fast George couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it.
And so they ended up in a twenty-four-hour dinner, George ordered to two chicken soups and asked the waitress to leave the coffee pot. “Okay now, let’s try this again.” He didn’t say anything more when they instead ate in silence for another ten minutes. Blaine hadn’t actually remembered to eat anything all day so the soup really did help a lot.
“You’re not alone.” Blaine slammed his hand to the table so hard he knocked the ketchup over “That’s the problem; he’s after me.” ‘Everyone else wouldn’t be in this situation if I hadn’t put them there.’ George proceed to walk him with the menu “You aren’t cool enough to be Batman.” It was a terrible, insensitive orphan joke but by god after the week he’d been having he had to laugh at something.
‘And I thought this was bad when we just had a bad cop show villain with fangs wandering around.’ “So you want to patrol with me?” Blaine suddenly jumped to attention “What the hell were you doing out there alone in the first place!?!” like he’d only just really noticed “Well Vic and Rayna haven’t called back.” Which combined with Wes freshly rebroken tibia and the new rules “I was actually on my way home when you crashed into me so…”
“Hoping to get a date night? She isn’t still sick is she?” George looked miserable again and he dropped it “Go home.” But he wasn’t having it “Nice try. I know you. You’re going to be out there by yourself, I’m coming with you.” Blaine pulled out his phone to call up Victor as they left the diner, it went to voice mail “Victor, George and me just left Lucile’s. We need to talk about what you said earlier; if you really believe Little Devil is innocent I’d like to hear you out on it. It’s not like I wouldn’t prefer to talk things out… I just worry these- I worry about your safety and these chances. I would love to be proven wrong.”
“Wrong, huh?” George surveyed the area as best he could without looking directly at Blaine “So even vampires?” Blaine peaked down a side alley “Because no one’s ever tried with vampires before.” He was of course being sarcastic. Even the thugs he’d hired as a child had tried talking to them with mixed results. “Training a gun on them at all times does kind of makes “I come in peace” hard to swallow.” There was still skepticism in George’s voice because frankly he still had his reservations on vampirekind as a whole.
There was a trail of blood leading into a condemned building. It was a warehouse and not a modern one by any stretch, they passed a forklift small enough to fit between the cramped building’s dozens of pillars. ‘Well this is the perfect trap.’ But of course the door slammed locked behind them either that or it had jammed. They had no choice but to begin looking for a way out, ‘Oh please be an old building being creepy and not…’
A dog. Some poor little mutt with grievous but upsettingly non-specific wounds. They’d found the source of the blood, but… it was in no condition to walk in here on its own. No animal in the city supernatural or otherwise was big enough to pick up a dog that size.
George… honestly had trouble processing what happened next. Pain, red, a gun being fired. The first thing he was really aware of was his injury because Blaine was trying so hard to stop bleeding that couldn’t really be stopped. George didn’t have so much a hole in jugular so much as several inches of it were missing half the vein. Blaine just kept pressing down like nothing else existed and George couldn’t really think anymore; if he had it’d have probably have had something to do with the man with glowing eyes and fangs looming over the both of them.
‘Does he think I can’t talk Victor out of a mental health ward?’ he kept that comment to himself “No, I has Victor been acting odd?” Hector looked at him like he could not believe the question “Victor was born weird. You think I don’t remember you creeping around when I was growing up?” the hostility was a little jarring to say the least.
“I’m sorry?” The teen crossed his arms “Ya should be. Least I have the decency not to pretend like I’m there for him or whatever.” He tried to get the kid back on track “Look recently… Victor might um be…” he remembered very vividly the time he’d tried to convince one Sandra Marlowe her son was being honest about the vampires “I’m a little concern he might be befriending the “pests”.”
There was a low actually rather menacing canine growl coming from boy ‘Or he could already know and be a werewolf with every right to take offence to that remark.’ While Blaine was groaning the kid seemed to realize he was growling and swallowing down a whine called out too quickly “YeahsoI’mgonnagogetGrandmabye!”
‘That answers that question? Should I let Victor relay the werewolf policy or maybe he’ll calm down if his grandmother close by.’ He was a little hesitant to discuss it in front of her as he knew that Annabelle Marlowe didn’t believe either. “Blaine VanJulivan my word you look ten years younger!” He tried not to flinch “Yes well um, it’s good to see you to Ms. Marlowe.”
“Call me Annabelle, we’ve been over this young man!” she said with a smile. “Right…” he looked for a place to start “What do you think Victor does for me?” she smiled and beckoned him into the kitchen to start on coffee because of course she remembered how he took it “I take it you mean besides being a good friend? Well I don’t think he’s dealing drugs!”
She was quiet a long moment, “Did you know I was a nurse in the Vietnam War?” it seemed a bit of an odd thing to say “I haven’t always known what to make of Victor. Something has always been wrong! A new cut or bruise and the boy always had such terrible nightmares. I’ve seen troubled children and that can happen for lots of reasons, it’s the man that he’s grown into I can’t accept.”
He looked at her dumbstruck taking the coffee automatically “Don’t get me wrong I love Victor and there are things I find objectionable, but that isn’t what I mean when I say “can’t accept”; why does my boy have eyes like a soldier? Do you honestly expect me to accept fairies and werewolves did that?!”
Blaine sat there letting the coffee warm his hands before answering with a smile, “Expect you to? No not at all. Almost no one in the City accepts the forest is teeming with creatures or the alleyways or anywhere really.” She had a reflective look about her “You know there’s been a good many things said about you as well young man?” Smile not faltering he started listing them for her, “I’ve spent most of my life wandering back alleys in the middle of the night and have “squandered” my family fortune for a cause few understand; honestly it would be weirder if people hadn’t come up with any number of conspiracy theories.” ‘Usually ones that involve me pulling the strings behind the gangs in this town or the like.’
“Do…you know any of Victor’s friends?” she smiled “Yes, yes Hexavier, Mye, Toni, Zeno, that little blonde boy Menu; Mostly though it’s Charby.” He perked up, “Charby?” the old woman beamed “Like family that boy always been so sweet. Now Victor hated him once upon a time. Kept talking about how the boy was dangerous, but in time they were close as brothers.”
His heart sunk utterly and totally. He had some suspicions who this could be but there was no doubt that Charby wasn’t human. She put her hand over his, “I know you love Victor a lot and so does Charby.” That hadn’t been his concern but still it… wasn’t a statement to be taken lightly. It wasn’t uncommon for any number of creature to act with compassion waiting for their moment to strike but, “How long since you met Charby? And what does he look like, maybe I know him?”
She thought about it awhile “It’s been quite a while; months, years, longer I can’t be certain? Longer than Hector has lived here I do know that.” His unease grew again one suspicion making its way to the forefront the description sealed it Charby was undoubtedly “Little Devil” Even if he wasn’t responsible like Victor had said this was still the vampire who’d carved a bloody path through Kellwood’s history for over three hundred years.
He was honestly a little sick. The pleasant little friends that Victor had been introducing almost seemed like they were intent was to soften the blow. The idea that he was close, closest of all with one of the deadliest creatures in the forest put so many things in a different light, begged so many questions.
One of which made it to the forefront of his mind “Did they… happen to have a large fight recently?” it was vague, but Victor’s anger when she had first died had been all to genuine “When they were fighting over that girl?” there was an underlying tone of laughter in here voice ‘What.’ “Run that by me again?”
“Don’t let that cute little face fool you, Charby is much the same as Victor when it comes to women.” she sighed, “Though he could learn a thing or two from that boy, not that both don’t…” she huffed “I’m not saying they were treating her like a prize in so many words definitely not intentionally.” She finally noticed how awkward Blaine was finding all this “Sorry, sorry you don’t live through the seventies without coming to the conclusion everyone’s got there stumbling blocks when it comes to shoes they haven’t walked a mile in.”
“Anyway I never met this Vicki girl myself so perhaps that competitive nonsense was something they kept her out of. Anyway she turned Charby down outright and in that his behavior was exemplary. Bowed out and expressed wishes for her happiness and cried into a big plate of cookies. Of course the poor girl died scarcely a day later. Then they both really cried.” It was beginning to sink in how much contact she’d had with the little vampire. She appeared genuinely unaware of his situation though “He means a lot to you?”
She nodded “Absolutely. Boys got a mean streak I’ve seen from time to time, but he’s a downright sweet child. Macabre, speaks from a thesaurus, often wise beyond his years, but… sometimes I get the feeling he hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to truly be a child if you know what I mean.” He hadn’t known what to expect. The idea that he would hide behind the facade of a perfect angel had certainly been foremost. He had extremely limited contact with the vampire himself, but it seemed that perhaps he had been far more himself than Blaine ever would have guessed.
There was just one more question that came to mind, “After Victoria died… how was Victor?” She shifted uncomfortably “That first day I avoided him honestly. That boy looked genuinely ready to kill someone.” She paused for a solid minute just looking for the secrets of the universe in her tea “Then he came back the next morning or rather I spotted him on a bench about a block away when I went to get the mail.”
“He’d gotten lost and continued to get lost and putter about with his head in the clouds.” Blaine sat up “Any jumpiness, nightmares, insomnia, -” “You can stop listing symptoms. I still volunteer at the VA when I can. I most certainly did back when the original Acute Stress Disorder study was making the rounds.” He hung on the edge of his seat “I’m not a psychiatrist but it’s possible.” Then the part he wasn’t meant to hear “I’m just praying he didn’t dig the poor thing up and put her head between her ankles.”
He desperately needed to be anywhere but there. Didn’t even say goodbye, he was there then he was at a bench a block away. He kept walking for a long time until he bumped into George’s patrol pattern. “Sir?” and Blaine just started talking about everything so fast George couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it.
And so they ended up in a twenty-four-hour dinner, George ordered to two chicken soups and asked the waitress to leave the coffee pot. “Okay now, let’s try this again.” He didn’t say anything more when they instead ate in silence for another ten minutes. Blaine hadn’t actually remembered to eat anything all day so the soup really did help a lot.
“You’re not alone.” Blaine slammed his hand to the table so hard he knocked the ketchup over “That’s the problem; he’s after me.” ‘Everyone else wouldn’t be in this situation if I hadn’t put them there.’ George proceed to walk him with the menu “You aren’t cool enough to be Batman.” It was a terrible, insensitive orphan joke but by god after the week he’d been having he had to laugh at something.
‘And I thought this was bad when we just had a bad cop show villain with fangs wandering around.’ “So you want to patrol with me?” Blaine suddenly jumped to attention “What the hell were you doing out there alone in the first place!?!” like he’d only just really noticed “Well Vic and Rayna haven’t called back.” Which combined with Wes freshly rebroken tibia and the new rules “I was actually on my way home when you crashed into me so…”
“Hoping to get a date night? She isn’t still sick is she?” George looked miserable again and he dropped it “Go home.” But he wasn’t having it “Nice try. I know you. You’re going to be out there by yourself, I’m coming with you.” Blaine pulled out his phone to call up Victor as they left the diner, it went to voice mail “Victor, George and me just left Lucile’s. We need to talk about what you said earlier; if you really believe Little Devil is innocent I’d like to hear you out on it. It’s not like I wouldn’t prefer to talk things out… I just worry these- I worry about your safety and these chances. I would love to be proven wrong.”
“Wrong, huh?” George surveyed the area as best he could without looking directly at Blaine “So even vampires?” Blaine peaked down a side alley “Because no one’s ever tried with vampires before.” He was of course being sarcastic. Even the thugs he’d hired as a child had tried talking to them with mixed results. “Training a gun on them at all times does kind of makes “I come in peace” hard to swallow.” There was still skepticism in George’s voice because frankly he still had his reservations on vampirekind as a whole.
There was a trail of blood leading into a condemned building. It was a warehouse and not a modern one by any stretch, they passed a forklift small enough to fit between the cramped building’s dozens of pillars. ‘Well this is the perfect trap.’ But of course the door slammed locked behind them either that or it had jammed. They had no choice but to begin looking for a way out, ‘Oh please be an old building being creepy and not…’
A dog. Some poor little mutt with grievous but upsettingly non-specific wounds. They’d found the source of the blood, but… it was in no condition to walk in here on its own. No animal in the city supernatural or otherwise was big enough to pick up a dog that size.
George… honestly had trouble processing what happened next. Pain, red, a gun being fired. The first thing he was really aware of was his injury because Blaine was trying so hard to stop bleeding that couldn’t really be stopped. George didn’t have so much a hole in jugular so much as several inches of it were missing half the vein. Blaine just kept pressing down like nothing else existed and George couldn’t really think anymore; if he had it’d have probably have had something to do with the man with glowing eyes and fangs looming over the both of them.