The dead shades of the night (Hekazu and RyuChi)

OOC 'round here.


In the dim light of the upcoming night, a black carriage was moving through a pine forest. The two horses pulling it were gray, and the driver looked nothing out of the ordinary. The one thing that might have caught the eye of a passerby was the rather large golden symbol on the doors of the carriage: On both sides, there was the emblem of the shadowslayer order, a bat getting crushed by a cross from upper right. On the sky, the sun had descended below the horizon a good while ago, and the half-moon was hiding behind a bunch of clouds. The lone man sitting in the carriage found this whole situation rather unpleasant. He should have been in the village a few hours ago, at least according to his watch. Pocket watches were another luxury his order had, in these times all other means of counting time were either very inaccurate, or unable to be transported easily.

But every journey has an end. And as the carriage turned yet another curve in the road, the passenger saw his destination. The village of Egnos. Weird stuff had been happening in that village near the woods, young women disappearing to be precise. That is why Å was here. Such matters could not be allowed to be left alone, lest they could become nightmares of reality. As the carriage stopped, Å checked all his pockets and weapons. Everything was on their correct place. Opening the door slowly, he stepped out of the carriage, closed the door behind him, and waved his hand twice towards the road. The wheels of the carriage started turning again, and soon it had vanished behind a few buildings. Å did not watch it go though. He had already entered the local inn.

The body dropped with a satisfying thud on the gravel, the skin of the corpse was paper white and no blood seeped from its wound. Above it stood a dazzlingly beautiful woman who would have caught many eyes but the cruel gleam within her own showed another side. She whipped open her fan and fluttered it across her face as she turned and glided out of the dark alleyway and into a much brighter street. With no hesitation or remorse she walked the streets at night, dangerous for a young woman but a simple look at those who had things in mind sent them scurrying back into the shadows of the large buildings.

She finally reached a large building with black gates that twisted dangerously into the night sky, reaching for something untouchable. She placed a single gloved hand on the gates and swung them open before gliding to the house itself. Inside was cold and silent, eerily so, with no a mouse to be heard not even the wind reached through the walls. The lady was not bothered by this and simply opened the coffin that lay in the center of the room. It was empty with a dark red lining and black glossy wood and she happily laid down within it, as soon as she stopped moving and the lid began to close she truly did look dead.

Å entered the inn. At first, nobody seemed to notice, but as he closed the door behind him, causing it to make a strong slamming noise, heads turned. Slowly, but surely the voices that just a second ago had caused a mighty noise silenced. Only a rather large man with a short black beard had the courage to say the word: "The Shadowslayer..." Suddenly, the noise boomed again as people gathered around Å, asking questions he could not hear, and probably couldn't answer as of yet either. They were pushing him from all sides, emitting a very powerful noise, and unintentionally posing a threat to Å's equipment. "Would you people kindly step back! I need some breathing room!" Å said with pressure in his voice, without yet shouting. The flock withdrew rather fast, and then the bearded man asked Å a question: "You are finally here, o' shadowslayer! How should we call you?" "The title is Å (pronounced [o:] as far as I know). Now, I will need to attend this matter more fully tomorrow. I presume you have a free room for me?" "We have a room for our saviour... but I have to admit we cannot supply you with free food." "That I understand. I'll go to sleep now, let us discuss happenings in more detail tomorrow", Å ended the conversation, and headed upstairs with the key he was given. The room was nothing spectacular... a bed without any real sheets, and a simple desk. And a few hooks on the wall. And it would seem there was a small lamp of a sort. Å shrugged, set his hat on the desk, laid himself down on the bed, and fell asleep shortly.

The next morning he picked up his hat, checked his equipment again (everything was still in order) and headed downstairs. Nobody expect the innkeeper was there. She was a woman seemingly in her late forties. Å was the first one to open their mouth: "I thought people were interested in my arrival. Where would everyone be?" "In the same place my husband is, probably. Someone found a dead woman on a side alley, and most of the villagers have moved her near here. They are all waiting for you to check what could have caused their death." "Well they'll have to wait until I've eaten. Dead bodies don't do good to your appetite. How much would it cost?" "A coin for a bowl of porridge." "Nothing else? That is rather much, but it'll have to do",Å answered, and gave the woman a coin from his money pouch. He soon got a bowl of porridge that tasted like... nothing, to be honest. It had to be eaten nevertheless. His job took lots of energy. Once Å made it outside, the villagers literally shoved a dead body at his face. "What caused this?", "Why did you not do anything?" and "How could this happen?" were questions he made out from the crowd. As usual, they were expecting shadowslayers to be superhumans who could prevent all bad from happening. Å waited a good while for them to calm down, even made a few hand gestures to cause that, but nothing helped. Therefore, he had to shout: "Silence please! I cannot do anything if you just stand there breaking my concentration!" Å pressed back into his room with the corpse in his hands.

It was an easy case for Å. Bite marks on the skin, and the body was void of blood. Either a Nosferatu or a Blutsauger. The former was more common. The research had to be done thoroughly, so it had taken it's time. Å also had had to undress the corpse, but due to his personality, he had left the underwear on their place. And as he had thought, no marks anywhere else. Nobody was trying to frame a vampire. He dressed the body in it's clothes again, and brought it downstairs. "I've studied what I can. You are free to bury her. But then to what I found out... She has been attacked by a Nosferatu, or a Blutsauger. Both are a kind of a vampire, though Blutsaugers are much more rare. Therefore, I believe I can assume it was a Nosferatu. If anyone knows anybody who only moves at night, or is otherwise very cautious when it comes to sunlight, and probably is very beautiful or handsome as well... report to me. Lets get this case resting." As the villagers nodded at the shadowslayer's words, the sun outside was setting.

Maye awoke to the instant the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky was but a red glow as she pushed open her coffin and climbed out with an unnatural grace. Her bare feet did not feel the cool marble steps as she padded into the dressing room. Her hunger itched at the insides of her stomach and black veins started to become visible on her wrists and just below her eyes. With a touch of powder she covered the veins and returned to her eerily pale complexion. Her white hair was now falling loosely down her back and she slipped into an elegant place silk and lace dress. She had to admit that she did love being rich but her inability to live normally was the price she had to pay for immortality and youth.


She pulled her black heels on and headed for the door with a feeling that her hunger was clawing its way from the inside out. She pushed open the door and glided out the gates with elegance and soon found herself walking the streets under the stars, rumours came to ear as people past on the roadside, words like 'murdered' and 'vampire' came frequently and she bit her lip. She had not been careful last night but the disappearance of her Creator left her very unskilled. She walked a little faster and eyed the doors of restaurants and inns, waiting for the right, easily persuaded person to walk out.


A sharp tug on her dress made her whip around with knife in hand, ready to strike but what met her was a small child with large eyes and gaunt face. Her heart softened as she realized that the child were merely a beggar and she slipped her knife back into the folds of her dress and pulling out a few gold coin out of her coin purse. The child's eyes grew large as she did so and a smile broke across their face, "here you go, don't let anyone take those from you" Maye said with a soft smile as she handed the child the coins. The child turned and darted off into the night leaving her alone to watch for her dinner.

This was Å's first patrol during the night in this village. He would need to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious, just to avoid things like this from happening. If more were to die or disappear, he would lose oh so much respect of the villagers, and that would not help him trying to solve any matters. Out of his blades, he had the silver broadsword easily accessible on his right side, and the autoblade was in it's locked sheath on his back as usual. Any Nosferatu worth their name would try to avoid confrontation with a shadowslayer, but a Blutsauger would not have such thinking capability. These patrols would help more finding one of the latter, and as the culprit being was not yet clear, playing safe was the best bet.

The village was not that different from the rest. Each night, the drunkards gathered in the bar and kept too much noise, the more elderly citizens withdrew into their homes, and the children of the streets tried to earn their living, usually by stealing. One of them happened to run past Å. Or tried to, to be more precise, as Å grabbed the child's arm and asked calmly: "Hi there. Why are you in such a hurry?" The answer was blunt: "I got a coin from a nice woman. I won't give it to you!" "Oh, I was not going to take it. I was just curious. Some of you steal. Don't become one of those", Å said to the kid and let them free. Walking past the inn he stayed in, he noticed a figure that stood out of the usual villagers. This woman had a long black dress, and Å was sure he had not seen her earlier today, when he had informed villagers of the danger.

"Woman in the black dress! Please hold your ground, I need to speak with you!" Å yelled, trying to not sound impolite, and accelerated his steps. It was very unlikely for this woman to be the vampire, as they usually do not show up this publicly after leaving their "lunch" lying on the street like that. But it was a possibility. What Å was more concerned with though, was to get his warning across to as many as possible.

Maye stood alone and the sound of a voice, a yell to be more precise, sounded across the street. She turned to see a man, dressed quite handsomely coming toward her. She frowned and opened her fan so it covered her face but left her blue eyes visible as she studied the figure. As the man neared she felt a cold feeling slid down her spine like a block of ice, he was obviously no average man and had a sword at his hip that glinted in the moonlight. Her eyes widened as the realization came to her, what her Creator had told her of hunters called Shadowslayers. She had listened to stories of their brutality and greed against her race and others and she began to fill with fear.

She turned and quickly made her way into the shadows of an alleyway, she could easily blend with the shadows and hurriedly moved through a network of streets. If that man caught her it would be the end, she could take no chances and tried to put as much distance as she could between them for the sake of her life. Her hunger bit down on her like that of a dog, digging into her flesh with its black veins that ran across her skin, starting to gently show through her powder. She wouldn't last much longer before her other self, her Hunger took over leaving her trapped inside as it ran about on a murdering spree.

Å's eyes widened as he saw the woman turn and run away after a while. "Got you", he said with a grin, and dashed behind her. He knew a Nosferatu would outrun a shadowslayer on a straight line, and that this woman had an advantage as she knew the city better, but it did not stop Å. He ran, while shouting as often and loud as he could without hindering his run: "I found the vampire! Everyone after a woman in a long black dress!" He had the advantage of the villagers being on his side. This "hunt" seemed easy enough, as the vampire had not yet lost him from her tracks. "Just give up, your dress won't make it easier for you to run..." Å said silently between his huffing and puffing, not even expecting the woman to obey, or even hear his words. Chases like this were not everyday practice, but they spiced the job up every now and then. In the next intersection however, it seemed he had lost her. Å had no idea where the woman possibly could have went, but a villager from one alley yelled: "Over here Å!" There were a few on the rooftops trying to spy the woman's location, and three bigger groups down on the streets, trying to pin her between them, or into a dead end. And then there was Å.

The chase continued for a good while, but in the end Å had managed to get the vampire secluded into a smaller area with three exits. He left the 'mobs' watching after them, and unsheathed his silver blade. Carrying the shining weapon in his left hand, Å moved in-between the buildings and other obstacles, such as wagons, and tried to track the lady down. It was the policy of the shadowslayer order to hold the creatures for an execution that left no hope of surviving. This time, it'd be a sunbath, as with all vampiric creatures. Å had only seen one before, but the screams of the vampire had stayed in his head for a good while afterwards. Checking every alley, the shadowslayer worked his way through many corners, searching for the vampire. It was a win-win for him: the vampire could not get out. If it surrendered, it'd get held for execution. If it continued hiding, it would burn at dawn. Corner after a corner, Å kept on searching.

Maye gritted her teeth with the shouts that came after her, the Shadowslayer was on her trail and did not seem likely to give up. She kept on running though, never tiring but her hunger sank its teeth in deeper and deeper into her consciousness, making her fight just to stay in control. Her natural instinct told her she should be on her way home, the sun would be rising soon. The mans voice now called for the aid of the villagers, this was taking a turn for the worse and she didn't have many options left. A single human jumped in her path and with a jolt she lost control and Hunger took over racing towards them. She fought it back, if they were to survive she needed to stay in control no matter how hungry she was. She pulled herself back into her body and managed to flee past the human and into another alleyway.

She reeled back as she discovered her exits were slowly being blocked of with mobs of villagers, Hunger once again tried to take control but she turned and fled from the villagers with haste. The alleyways all seemed dangerous now, like chest that could either hold your fortune or your end. She fled down a particularly dark one and then stopped, there was a dead end. She wanted to cry as she placed her back against the wall, this was it, her final hours were now. She slid down the wall and hugged her knees, looking like a little child, she would not give into Hunger and die a monster. She went completely still, fighting for what little control she had left, at least she would de well dressed and beautiful, unlike starving on the streets as she would have only a month or so ago. She trembled slightly of the thoughts of burning in the sun, it was said to be the worst way to die, the way the Shadowslayers did it, cruel with no remorse for creatures of the night.

His search had been uneventful, until he noticed the woman in a dead end. Å approached the vampire slowly, and kept his blade ready for use, though not in a threatening position. "Here we are now, lady", he said, not even awaiting an answer. The woman had curled up like a little child, seeking safety from outside world. "Think about the bright side, you'll get to see the sun again", Å said, with his best comforting voice. "It is better than the traditional style I'd have to use if you were to attack me here." Even in this desperate situation, the Nosferatu was able to keep themselves under control. Good for them, truly. The traditional style of slaying which had to be followed when vampire fought back was rather unpleasant: Driving a stake through the heart, chopping the head off, breaking their knees and elbows, flowing out blood for two minutes, burning the whole trash and throwing all of the ashes in the river. Å had had to do it thrice, and he still found it disgusting. He hoped this beautiful creature would not need to suffer the same...

"Wait, what on earth just passed through my mind?!" he mentally yelled to himself. He could not grow attached to this thing. It was a murderer, and this was probably a trick of her, trying to weasel out of this situation. That would not do! Å kept his ground three metres away from the creature, and 'offered' his right hand towards her, with the cross facing the ground. "Rise up. I will need to take you somewhere so you won't slowly char to death. That is not how my order wants to do it, you were once humans too", Å made an offer to the creature, and waited for an answer.

The voice penetrated her focus, the voice of the Shadowslayer. She wanted to take his hand and get it done with but she was barley able to register the thought when Hunger took over, seizing its chance. A growl resonated from her throat, deep and angry, like a bear when its cubs were in danger. For her it was her own life, Hunger looked up at the Shadowslayer with eyes gleaming red with such a strong burning to them, they said it all. Those eyes were the typical eyes of a vampire gone rogue, a killing machine that was born of pure evil.

In a flash she was up, so fast that mortal eyes could not follow, her hand raised with nails like claws. She was about to bring down her hand and slice the Shadowslayer into bits but Maye fought hunger hard inside her mind, getting control. Her hand fell and clutched her head, she let out a cry of pain as she faltered back, battling for control of her own body. Her back hit the wall, still clutching her head in both hands her eyes danced from blood red to blue like lights unsure of what colour they should be. Black veins twisted across her face, throbbing then fading in out out of view. She didn't want to end her life at the tip of the sword, she wanted to die respected and like the women she should have been instead of the bloodthirsty monster that ate away at her.