It was a crisp autumn morning. Erehwon was dressed up with pumpkins, and a slew of Halloween decorations. The town square was in the process of being set up for this weekend’s annual Fall Festival. Most of the fire department had volunteered to help the town council hang the banners, and twinkling lights all along Main Street. Erehwon always went all out when it came to holidays. People bustled about setting up booths, and covering hay bales in burlap for seating. Tupper farms, donated dozens of pumpkins for the carving contest. Mayor Thompson personally paid for the rental of a merry-go-round, and ferries wheel, just for the festival. Everyone was looking forward to the hay rides, hot apple cider, three legged race, and the high school's float parade. The high school’s homecoming court always road on the flashiest float, and it would be no different this year.

You could practically feel the lively energy and excitement bouncing throughout town. But there was also an edge of worry hidden under everyone’s smiling faces. The news of another person found dead in the town over, was weighing on everyone’s mind. Quite a few of Erehwon residents commuted to work over in Ruxbury, and this was the ninth unsolved murder in two months. For a town that averaged one murder or less a year this was scary. Another worry even closer to Erehwon was the seven campers that had gone missing in the past week. The Police department was in a frenzy to find them, or at least some clues to what happened. Last night half the town showed up to volunteer for the search party. A torn up pair of jeans, and a bloody sneaker was all that was found.

Oddly enough this year’s fall festival was taking place the same night a lunar eclipse was going to happen. All of the Mundane townsfolk were excited for the viewing. Most of the supernaturals though were preparing. Some people were gathering ingredients for rare potions that could only be concocted under a lunar eclipse. Most witches were setting up for some power enhancing ritual, or special coven magic. Others would be planning to chain themselves up in basements to combat a forced shift, or effects of moon madness. Full moons and lunar anomaly tended to mess with the Mundane and supernatural alike.



At Gringore, the new student orientation for this semester had just ended. As the students filed out of the auditorium, you could hear their excited chatter, and grumbles. Orientation was one of the few times during the school year; one could catch a glimpse of the famous Headmaster Alfred Gringore. Principal Honeycutt and other faculty had informed the newbies about the academy’s rules, policies, and code of honor. The presidents of each school club then had a few minutes to speak. The president of Gringore Auxiliaries speech was always popular.

It was your typical Gringore scene; nymphs dancing about in the courtyard, students relaxing in the halls. A group of gorgon sisters sat around the fountain gossiping, and making fun of peoples clothing choices. Two pixie girls flew overhead giggling as they sprinkled silver confetti over unsuspecting couples. A few Avians perched themselves on the roof. A circle of sorcerers flicked their fingers around showing off. The cafeteria was open, and serving everything you could imagine, from mundane things like burgers, waffles, sushi, and salads to the more exotic magical meals like fried newt, Elphyne ambrosia, and blood smoothies.

---

The Grand courtyard was in full bloom as it always was. It seemed eternal spring was the theme of the gardening club who tended the place. While the surrounding forests looked like fire, with all the autumn colors, plants at Gringore didn't seem to know it was the beginning of October. Classes started this morning, and for today most people were moving into the dorms, and getting settled.

Jadis had finished eating at the cafeteria and was meandering through the courtyard, when she spotted Drake Fitzroy and his buds on the roof with stacks of bright orange paper. They tossed all the paper off the roof, one sheet flew right into her face. People around her grabbed for them midair, but most of the paper fluttered to the ground. Apparently the whole school was now invited to the costume party at the Shack tonight, curtesy of the Fitzroy pack who was looking smug standing on the roof like they were royalty.

Jadis had grown up with a quarter of the students at Gringore, Drake was no different. He was a ladies man to say the least, but Jadis knew better and thankfully all she had to do was picture him back in third grade when they were once friends, and his favorite thing to do was catch frogs, make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, and tell fart jokes. Growing up is a small town was weird that way.

She made her way over to the gazebo that was thankfully not occupied by the Boggart couple that had practically never stopped making out in it last year. It was her third year at Gringore this time around; she had a long list of classes, and was even TAing for Professor Montesquie. Half of her friend group had graduated or left Gringore last semester. So first on her agenda was to find somebody to hang out with. Her roommate unfortunately turned out to be a no go. Kimbra Taipan was a snake of a woman, no pun intended, as she was in fact a gorgon. One of those stereotypical Gorgons who thought the sun shined out her ass, and that only her opinion mattered. Kimbra and her two sisters had basically take the dorm room over. There was now a huge painting of the three sisters on the wall in the living room area.

Jadis yawned and pulled her coat tighter as the autumn breeze picked up speed. She scanned the court yard for a familiar face, but saw none for the moment. Her thoughts switched to her list of materials and books she need to get before her first class started tomorrow. An orange piece of paper rustled at her feet, and so she picked it up glancing over the bold font, detailing the time and place of the party. She already knew about the party before hand. Her older brother owned The Shack, and the costume part of this party had been his idea. The place would most definitely be packed tonight, full of supernatrals and Mundanes. She still had no idea what to dress up as, but if she didn't figure something out she would probably just wear her pikachu kigurumi again, for the third year in a row...

---

Alice had woken up around seven in the morning, after sleeping for two hours. She felt refreshed, as she got ready for the day. The local news droned on the tv in the background. The news anchor man on looked worn out, as he babbled on about the fall festival coming up, the closing of the factory in Ruxbury, where to get flu shots, and that the local police wanted to thank everyone for their cooperation and efforts for yesterdays search. The weather girl was looking way to chipper this morning, as she explained today would be mild temperatures, 20% chance of rain, and that autumn was in full swing.

Alice turned the shower on. Undressing as she waited for the water to become hot. Looking in the mirror, a tall plain sad looking brunette was what Alice saw starring back at her. She had always liked her hazel eyes, and the shape for her lips, but she thought her chin was to big, and that her nose was not quite right.

The mirror began to fog from the steam of the shower. She stepped into the shower and let the hot water cascaded down her back. It soaked into her light brown hair, as she wondered what the day would bring. The problem with living for almost a 100 years isn't the loneliness or pain or the loss. Well, it is those things. But what really gets you is when life ceases to surprise you. And for Alice nothing really mattered anymore except for Etienne and his family. The idea that they would all be gone one day had been haunting her dreams lately. Journaling always helped her keep depressing thoughts at bay, so that what she had been doing for hours last night before going to sleep.

She stayed in shower until the water turned cold, and she stepped out smelling like her favorite honeysuckle soap. Wrapped in a soft ivory towel she walked into her closet, and sat down on the cushy ottoman. Alice had clothes and shoes from every decade she had been alive. She favored her clothes from the 40s, and missed the time when fancy hats were the norm. She glanced up on the shelves above, at the multitude of dust covered hat boxes. She slipped a gray dress off the hanger, and opened the dresser drawer to pull out a pretty sage sweater. She peeked at herself in the mirror again, fully dressed and ready for the day. Locking her door she went down stair into the shop. The place was full of antiques and vintage objects. Some of the items and furniture for sale were her own things she had collected over her long life.

She unlocked the stores front door, and flipped closed sign to open. She sat behind the register and opened up a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. With her vampire senses she could hear the crunch of fallen leaves under foot outside, the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls wafting from the bakery down the street, and all in all it was a pleasant morning.

---

Anya had woken up at the buttcrack of dawn. Between last call at the bar and having to help out with orientation at Gringore, sleep was never an option for her. Despite that, Anya is still excited to see new faces at the academy. It was just only in the last year did Anya and her sister Amari move to Nowhere. In that time, the Ngo sisters had a bit of a reputation for themselves. For starters, they opened up a trendy bar in town called the "Tipsy Dragon".

Anya wants to say that the place is popular for her killer drinks and karaoke nights she hosts. Unfortunately beneath all of the glamor is the business Amari truely wants to run. For the past century or so, there's been a rise in demand for dragon's blood after a few of them learned how to make a hard drug out of it; Zauberblut is the official name for it with DB being the street name.

At the beginning the drug was nearly just as deadly as injecting pure dragon's blood into you. The only difference is, Zauberblut gave you that insane high and rush. But now with improvements and trials, the process of it now, when done correctly- is as 'safe' as it will ever get. Now Amari herself has entered into the trade, starting out in the town of Nowhere; a place where DB hasn't fully hit the streets just yet.

Amari had guilt tripped convinced Anya to come along since she needed all the help she could get. By "help", Amari meant for Anya to run the front of the business while she ran the back.

Flashfoward to today, by evidence of Anya's bags beneath her eyes, things were going smoothly. As orientation came to an end, Anya still had to stick around and answer any questions (that had already been answered) from students (who were not paying attention the first time around). She looks around at the lively scene and wonders if any of her friends were also here, or anyone she knows for that matter of fact.

It was then orange flyers fluttered down on them. Anya manages to reach out and snag one, seeing that it detailed a costume party at The Shack. All she could think of is that if Amari got a whiff of this, she'd make Anya and a few of her guys go just to sell some DB to the supernatural youths of Nowhere. A small wrinkle formed at the base of her forehead as she let the paper fall to the ground.

Anya sighs and walks away, she wonders if she'd ever have time to get in on the social scene a lot more, join some clubs even. For now, karaoke night was about as much fun as she could get in this town.

"Up and over! Go!"

There was the thud of half a dozen pairs of shoes slamming against a wooden wall as Tony and five other Guardians Auxiliaries flung themselves at the structure, feet and hands scrabbling for purchase against a flat, smooth surface as they half climbed half leapt to grab at the outstretched hands of an equal number of auxiliaries hanging their torsos down from the top of the wall. Pushing off the wall at the last possible moment, Tony made contact with a hand and grasped it tight as he heard the cries of two or three other auxiliaries as they missed and fell back down into the sandpit below. His feet dangled several feet above the ground for a moment before the auxiliary at the top of the wall began pulling him up, Tony's feet returning to the wall to help push/pull himself up.

Taking his teammate's place at the top of the wall, Tony quickly swung around, half throwing himself back down the wall he just climbed up to catch the clawing hand of another auxiliary. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he pulled up the 170 pound student up the wall without falling off himself. Using his team mate as a counterweight, Tony pulled up his mate while simultaneously lowering himself down the other side of the wall, where he would jump and tumble back onto the track. From there, his feet pounded pavement in a dead sprint to the next station, where the rest of his squad stood waiting around a litter.

Tony breathed out heavily, his breath a visible cloud in the early morning air. Up earlier than most people in town had any business being up, Tony could see the first half of the sun as it rose into the sky, tinging the sky a mixture of orange and light purple. The light mixed with the odd mix of orange, and green, blue and purple of Gringore's courtyard against the background of Nowhere. Still catching his breath, Tony bent over, his hands resting on his knees and spat out coagulated spittle, his face dripping with sweat as he watched several others run up to their respective squads. He and the rest of the Aux Company- shorthand for the 'Grincore Academy Guardian Auxiliaries' had been on the track around the Academy's Courtyard since five in the morning. Just because the semester had just started didn't mean they were getting any days off, and more than one freshman had missed the first half off the workout and were still in the middle of doing their several dozen pushup punishments. Guardians were after all, expected to be in peak physical form as well as peak efficiency over their respective abilities.

Shaking his head, sending sweat flying off to his sides, Tony's eyes were drawn to some of the others bouncing in place, keeping their blood flowing. For some, these training sessions were a walk in the park- demi-gods, shifters, some fae, and even vampires, had it easier than others like him- Maagias, Witches, and other non-physically inclined metahuman races. Not that it mattered, all Guardians, human or superhuman were expected to adhere to strict physical regulations, which meant people like Tony were stuck doing near Olympian workouts for mere warmup.

"Alright, Penny, on the litter," their squad leader barked as the last of their squad made it to the station. "TK, let's go! We're just getting started!"

With a deep exhale, Tony looked up at Rickard, his squad leader and Captain, and nodded in breathless acknowledgement. Easy for him to say- Rickard, President and Commander of Aux Company was easily one of the strongest metahumans in Nowhere, a demi-god widely regarded as the second coming of Hercules. Still, Tony complied. They laid Penny, easily the lightest member of the squad on the litter, while Tony, Rickard, and two others each grabbed a leg of the litter and lifted. The squad proceeded to do a mile run around the tracks, four members carrying the litter, and two running behind, switching off with one of the litter carriers as they got tired.

After the squad relay, and strength training, came power usage practice, and then finally mock skirmishes and combat drills. While Tony only managed to stay above average when it came to keeping up with demigods and superhumans, he excelled when it came to using his powers and in practical drills. This continued until around 7, at which point they cooled down to the tune of classic pop-rock before Rickard finally let them go. After a long, cold shower, and a few muscle relaxing spells from one of the team's Sanabit Witches, Tony, along with several others were marched into the auditorium, where they stood around and acted cool and daring while Rickard gave his ever popular speeches and recruitment pitch.

---

His running shoes changed out for a pair of comfortable adidas shoes in a bright bold orange, he made an easy walk through the courtyard. One hand was stuck firmly in the pockets of his joggers, while the other hand casually held a covered cup of coffee, edges of the blue and white of his jacket- emblazoned with the crest of the Guardians Auxilaries floating and glowing over the breast, and his last name across its back- whipping and floating lightly in the morning breeze. His amplifier glinted brightly as it was occasionally hit with sunlight, accenting his outfit in a similar manner to a watch, the crystal face dull and unlit. His sling backpack was relatively deflated and hung lazily off his shoulder, currently holding little more than his running shoes, a sweaty pair of shorts and t-shirt, a sweaty towel and a water bottle.

Tony's cool and casual persona spluttered for a moment as a orange flyer slapped across his face, blocking his breath for a moment. Pulling the flyer off of his face, he furtively shot a glance left and right to see if anyone saw what had just happened. There were others in the courtyards but they all seemed distracted by conversations with each other or the flyers themselves to pay much attention to him. One of the gorgon sisters pointed at him and giggled, but they were just as likely judging him for some other obscure reason as they were for the flyer. Finally taking a look at the neon flyer, he saw that the Fitzroy pack was throwing a party at the Shack. Inviting the whole school was a bold move, to say the least. Tony was sure there were plenty of people that the Fitzroy boys wouldn't want to come, but throw on a costume, and no one really knows whose who.

Looking up, Tony got a glimpse of Anya in the distance. Like him, she was a relative newcomer to the town- he'd been here a bit longer, but not by much. Maybe that's why they got along. With a lazy stretch, Tony began quickening his pace to close the distance, easy enough thanks to his longer strides. Tony whistled as though he was cat calling her- sometimes, it annoyed her, but sometimes that was the reason he did it.

"Hey, Annie," Tony greeted as he slowed back down to her pace, "Jeez, you look like death." he commented as he got a good look at the bags under her eyes, offering her some of his coffee as a temporary solution.

---

Nadia wasn’t necessarily a morning person, but she did like the aesthetic and ambiance it provided. However, when you live in a dorm room, there are very few windows for natural light and the air is usually stuffy from living in close quarters with others. This morning still called for excitement, classes were about to begin. Nadia woke up to an annoying alarm beeping at her. Normally she woke up before her alarm, but it seemed as though the curtains were drawn over the window. Looking over at her roommate and adopted sister, Nadia saw Kayley awake and staring at the wall over her bed. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, the merrow sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

“What are you doing?” She asked, the sleep still prevalent in her groggy voice.

“One sec,” Kayley muttered as she finished pinning another image into her large corkboard. Nine unsolved murders. Seven missing campers. None of this was a coincidence. The supernatural world had to be involved. Kayley had visited the police station four times in the past week, but they had told her to stay out of it. All of the victim's’ blood had been drained, some even had missing limbs. The obvious answer was that a Vampire was at work. The news had released little to no information about the two events, but Kayley was determined to figure out the truth.

Kayley rubbed her tired eyes before glancing back at Nadia.“Good morning, Nadia. Sorry, I’ve been working on some stuff.”

“Oh, still trying to figure out those disappearances and what not?” Nadia crossed the short gap between their beds and examined the board briefly. ”You know you kinda look like a conspiracy theorist, right?”

“Yeah,” Kayley shrugged, “There’s something going on, Nadia. I just need to figure out who’s behind all of this.” With a hum, Nadia jumped back off the bed and traveled over to the window to finally let some light in. She was pleasantly surprised at the vibrant colors of the leaves. Just to be sure, Nadia checked the temperature on her phone.

“Yay! It’s finally fall weather. You know what that means,” Nadia rushed over to her closet. She had to jump, but she managed to grab a large box on the top shelf labeled ‘Sweaters’. When she opened it, the fabric inside puffed out, finally released from it’s tight confines. As Nadia went through her clothes trying to find something to wear, Kayley pulled her frizzy hair into a tight pony. She slipped into a pair of clean jeans, discarding the one she currently wore, and replaced her wrinkly t-shirt with a white blouse. She glanced at her neatly made bed and shook her head in regret. She often pulled all nighters to complete her projects and assignments, but they never became easier.

“I’m going to go grab some coffee, do you want to come?” Kayley asked, taking a peek at her face in the mirror. Bags fell under her eyes, visible despite her light makeup, and her already white skin looked sickly pale. Kayley sighed. She needed coffee. Coffee would help.

“Sure. Just a sec, though.” Nadia pulled out a long, deep red sweater. “What do you think? Should I do something more fall-ish?” A short black skirt sat at the edge of her bed as well. “I want to wear this new skirt, I have some black tights and boots that go great with it. Oh! I should add a scarf. Hmm, what color? I have a beige one. Or maybe a red plaid? As she continued to ramble, Nadia pulled out said articles of clothing from the depths of her closet.

Kayley raised her eyebrow at Nadia. “Don’t wear the red sweater, it’ll look off with both of your scarfs. Wear your pink sweater, you look cute in that one.”

“Oooh. You’re right! Then I could wear the cream scarf.” After a few moments, she got out the clothes and put the outfit on. Not wanting to waste too much time, Nadia went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit.

Taking the moment to look at her board again, Kayley started writing in her pocket sized composition notebook. Filled with various information about the supernatural world as well as her own combat techniques, she took the notebook wherever she went. Hundreds of them were stacked in a box under her bed. She would often flip through them every so often to refresh her memory. The current one she used was filled with theories of the murders and disappearances. She had been studying Vampires more closely as well.

When Nadia came back into the room, she quickly grabbed her grey backpack. It wasn’t very big and only really carried a laptop, a few noted books, and some writing utensils. ”Alright, let’s go! I have a class at 11 and I don’t know how long we want to spend at the coffee shop,”

Breaking her attention from her work again, Kayley grabbed her light pink backpack and held the door for Nadia. “I have class at 10:00 so we can’t spend too long there.” Nodding her head, Nadia exited and the two headed over to Coffee Central. The cafe was a ways away, but it was nice outside. As the two passed through the courtyard, it was obvious that a flurry of orange papers had been dumped all over the place. Nadia pick up one of the papers.

“It looks like someone’s throwing a party.” She tucked the paper in a side pocket. People really shouldn’t be littering. “I don’t think I want to go, but you should.”

“A party? There are so many more important things people could be doing than that, Nadia. I need to be focused on school work and all of these disappearances.” Students of all kinds of races walked by laughing carelessly. Kayley was the complete opposite of the majority of the students within her school. All of them had the luxury and freedom to go to parties, spend time with their friends, and enjoy school. Kayley couldn’t afford that. There was simply no time. She made a vow to her parents, and she would work her hardest until she had fulfilled that promise. “Let’s go, Nadia.” She said before rushing the two of them out of the crowd.

“Well I think you need to relax a little.” Nadia whined, but reluctantly followed. “Oh, I know! You should get a boyfriend. There are plenty of cute guys here. What about him?” Nadia pointed to a dark haired guy. He was talking to another girl, but that didn’t deter her. ”Isn’t he in the Guardian Auxiliary thing? You two could bond over your mutual goal of becoming a Guardian!”

At the mention of a boyfriend, Kayley eyes widened in both surprise and annoyance. “Nadia, what?” Kayley barely had enough time to sleep, let alone spend time with a boy. The thought was absolutely ridiculous. “Nadia, stop,” Kayley snapped. She glanced over to see if the boy overheard them, and identified him as Tony. Just Great. Quickly grabbing Nadia’s wrist, she hurried the two of them away from the courtyard. Once they were several paces from Tony, Kayley turned to face her. “You can’t do that, okay? I don’t have time for any of that. I made a promise, and you know how important that is to me. So please, stop.”

“I know your promise is important to you, but you spend so much time on it. I think you would do good to take a little time for yourself. At least get a good night’s rest every night.” Nadia felt herself shrink in. She didn’t like confrontations like this, but she cared for Kayley’s health too much to not say anything.

Clutching her hand tightly, Kayley took a deep breath before responding. “Nadia. I don’t have the luxury to sleep. I don’t care about boys or parties, all of that is childish and irrelevant to everything. I thought you understood that?” She heard her voice slowly grow louder, but she couldn’t help but feel hurt by Nadia’s request. Becoming a Guardian meant everything to Kayley. “I have to get to class now so let’s just do coffee another time.” Kayley hurriedly walked away from Nadia and the entire impossible situation.

Nadia could feel the hot pressure of tears in her eyes, but she was in public. There was no way she could cry in public. “I’m sorry,” She muttered after Kayley had left. It hurt to see her like that, but it seemed like no matter what she did, Kayley wouldn’t listen to her. Trying to keep it together, Nadia kept heading to the coffee shop. She’d at least be able to hide in the bathroom if she needed.

"Shut up!" and a thud.

The noise of glass breaking and a not so appropriate vocabulary being yelled by the residents next door were enough to wake Jack up, who, in his sleep, punched a nice little crack on the wall. He grunted, realizing he had to pay for the damage, as usual.

"Stupid wall..."

He spent the last three nights at Vertigo Motel, following a brawl he had at Greely's, which caused another dispute with his Pa. He didn't like sleeping at the motel, since it was noisy and he usually had a hangover, but the Harrisons were friends with his father and they were the few people unfazed by the fact that Jack was usually into trouble, probably because they knew him well.enough to know he usually has a reason to.

He sat at the edge of the bed to collect himself and stared at the window. People were moving around preparing for the Fall Festival. Everyone seemed to try to get the uneasiness of the eight murders out of their system by focusing on the upcoming festivities. The costumes, the decoration, the music, everything would contribute to cheer everyone up. Well, not everyone.

Festivals and celebrations were not Jack's cup of tea. It was certain that someone would try to show off to his girl or friends by picking on the town's infamous brawling drunkard or just be drunk enough to ask for a fight. A bad idea, considering Jack was stronger than your average Joe, leading to the other side's broken nose.

A few minutes were spent in silence, after which Jack decided to stand up from his bed. He had a bath, brushed his teeth, trimmed his beard a bit -he liked his beard a lot- and finally dressed himself -today's getup consisted of a simple black jeans, a black T-shirt and his beige-brown Timberland boots-, readying himself for the upcoming trouble. He opened the window and realized he should also wear a jacket, the autumn chill embracing his body. He went downstairs and met Ms. Martha Harisson, one of the owners of the motel. She was busy helping cleaning the place, as usual, she was psychotic with cleanliness, after all.

"Goodmorning Martha...I damaged your wall in the room, here is some money for the repairs", Jack said and picked some money out of his wallet.

He was down to his last 120 dollars and his flask was almost empty, so he had to be careful to keep some money for his liquor. He left 100 dollars on the reception counter and glanced at the Erehwon Report lying there. Another murder occured, under the same mysterious circumstances. Jack was quite sure that it was because of an alien -the name Jack uses for all supernaturals- going wild on the town.

"Another murder? What in the world is Archeletta doing, waiting Sherlock Holmes to catch the culprit?

After a brief chat with Ms. Harrison and having her deliciius omelette for breakfast, Jack headed for the liquor store, puffing a cigarette, the first of many during the day, on the way.

However, his Fall Festival bad luck had already started. A careless little girl just bumped on his foot, spilling some ice-cream she had on his jeans. Jack looked at the girl.

"You should be more careful, girl..."

"I...I am really sorry, m-mister..."

Jack' appearance and voice never madw a good impression with kids. The lite girl was really scared of the muscular bearded man facing her. Jack picked the last twenty bucks he had, patted the girl's head and gave her the money.

"Never mind...here, get yourself an even bigger and tastier ice-cream. Just be careful, it's cold now, your voice might get coarse...

The little girl was delighted to see that the stranger gave her enough money to buy a gigantic ice-cream cone.

"Thank you mister! You are not a bad person, after all!

Jack wiped the ice-cream off his jeans as much as he could, then sighed at his misfortune.

"Shit, now I am broke...Guess I will have to involve myself with the murder case after all. I hope they have issued a reward by now.

Jack changed his course to the Erehwon polixe department. If there was a chance to get some money, it was by finding a murderer and smacking him a new one and, to do that, he needed as much information as possible. Jack had to speak with his "friend" at the station, Terrence Archeletta.

---

Bartholomew was awoken from his slumber by the piercing ringing noise that resonated from the bedside alarm clock. Without opening his eyes he swiftly hit the top of the alarm clock to turn it off and slowly rose from his bed. Upon exiting his room, he began his normal everyday routine starting with making coffee before heading to the shower and letting the water help get him fully awake. Once dressed and having eaten and had his coffee he made his way out the door of his home and began the walk to work.

As he made his way to work his mind went to the preparations he needed to completed before the fall festival. It had been seven years since he had stumbled into the new world of Nowhere, seven years of discovering what it meant to be a shifter as well as a lycanthrope. While being a shifter provided benefits, the lycanthrope portion provided problems, at least only under the full moon. Thus he needed to take precautions as to keep the beast from doing harm to actual citizens, be it human or other supernaturals. The first couple of years of changing under the full moon, he had locked himself in his own basement, having built a quick home made cage room for him to contain the beast during those nights. It had not always worked out, and occasionally the beast did escape though luckily not to far off from home he would notice when waking up the next morning. He devised a better idea over time deciding to build a large shed out in his back yard, a little ways into the treeline of the woods. It had a concrete base, and four sturdy steel walls. He had managed a means of locking the door on the inside while not allowing the beast access to unlocking it, if it was even smart enough to do so. Commonly he brought fresh meat with him on those nights to the shed, as a means of hopefully in some way appeasing the monster that came out on the full moon.

Having the shed as a safe spot to change without harming anyone was good, but the monster still had always wanted out and did do a number on the walls that at time needed to be repaired so they kept there integrity. It was more important now with all the recent disappearances around Nowhere. He had garnered little trust from the local shifter population. Wile he was part shifter, he was still part lycanthrope something that shifters had strong hatred towards. He would rather not have fingers being pointed as him as some murderer that stalked the full moon nights from unwilling victims to disembowel and become some form of scapegoat.

He arrived at the Fireball Auto Repair an hour earlier then he needed to be there, as usual the first to arrive for the day of work ahead. He enjoyed having a little time to himself before his coworkers came into the shop as well. It let him focus on the idea that despite becoming part of something bigger he still was just a man making a living, still in some ways human. Thinking on the idea of being human he was reminded that he needed to give his family a call and see what had been going on since he had last checked in. He wished to tell them at times of all the things that had happened to him. They knew about the attack and the death of his friend but none of the things he had come to learn shortly there after, probably because saying it aloud without proof made it sound crazy.

---

A murder in the town over; It could just be a homicide. Another murder in the town over; it could be a serial killer. A ninth murder? This infuriated Nikita. Nine individuals, all of which had families, friends, significant others, and maybe even children. He clicked the remote, and his television set crackled off. He began to walk towards the kitchen.

How unbelievably selfish. He could understand human killers. Homicide was based on something sentimental. It had sustenance. Monsters killed because humans are tasty. They didn’t see a person. They saw an animal for slaughter. They were inhumane. They were irredeemable. They were the animals, and it was Nikita’s job to show them that.

Huh. How long had it been been? It’d been about seven years by now that he had been hunting on his own. That wasn’t that long at all, but Nikita felt like it had been a millennium. He had been hunting to some extent in back in Russia, but that was a lifestyle closely observed and maintained by his parents. This was something different entirely.

Ever since he had graduated from school, about three years ago, his entirely life has been solely about stocks and hunting. He had either spent his day following the news or following a trail, or some combination of both. And he had a lot to show for it. In his room, under his bed, were trophies he had taken from major kill. He had neglected to take souvenirs from his weaker prey; but if that was anything to go by, he has had a wildly successful career. On top of that, Nikita lived very frugally. He was not especially materialistic, although he may lean towards that side when it comes to equipment, and he was an extraordinary investor. If there was one thing that the townsfolk knew about Nikita, it was that he had a special way with money. In the past three years alone, he has increased his capital by a very considerable amount.

His kitchen was spotless but barren. There was hardly even a crumb out of place, and it seemed like it had never been used before. On one wall, next to the sink, was a whiteboard with a calendar grid. Next to that grid was another whiteboard, this one larger and filled with neat handwriting. There were different notes on the board written in Russian, such as “Lunar Eclipse”, “Campers - IIIIIIIII”, and “Ruxbury Murders - IIIIIIII ”.

Nikita grabbed a marker that was on top of the whiteboard and struck another dash next to the word Ruxbury Murders.

---

Since the Fall Festival was happening today, Nikita decided to volunteer at the town center in order to acquaint himself with his fellow townsfolk. It had not been long at all since he had moved here, and in all honesty he did not have any friends. Before he left his apartment, he made sure that everything in his backpack was in place, and took it with him. If there was one thing he had learned from his hunting, it was that the supernatural waits until you’re unprepared to rear its head.

As he walked from the Olympus Complex to the Town Square, he made a mental note of everyone he came across. Keeping track of a crowd was a good way to rat out the supernatural, as they seemed to have the delusion that a crowd was some sort of cover in which they could do whatever they’d like.

Once he arrived at the Square, he made some small talk with one of the vendors who was setting up a booth. Initially, the vendor had trouble understanding Nikita through his heavy accent, but eventually, Nikita found himself helping the vendor set up the booth. Although it seemed to be standard fare, Nikita got the feeling that this night was going to get interesting.

Terrence Archeletta

"Fuckin' bullshit." Terrence Archeletta, Terry to his small circle of friends, groaned as he slumped back in his worn office chair with calloused fingers pinching the bridge of her nose as he pushed the report aside. Victim number nine. Nine. That was on top of the seven missing campers, of which they had found precisely dick aside from one pair of bloody jeans. That was un-fucking-acceptable to a man like Terry, especially with the crowd he was charged with looking over. Which was why the whole situation was driving him up a wall; The murder was out of his jurisdiction, and without anything substantial to go with on the campers he would have to comb the woods for weeks, and even then he would be lucky if anything at all was found.

"So we are at square one on this little shitshow. Any news on where the Red Caps might be hidin'?" The detective asked of the lone officer in the office with him, lighting a Marlboro Black in blatant disregard of the 'No Smoking' sign hanging on the wall across from his office. Willard Douglas was new to the station, and a Mundy at that; Tall, lanky, redheaded and reminding most that saw him of a scarecrow when he stood at a distance, it would have been hard to buy him as a cop when he wasn't in uniform. Despite his mundane heritage, he was fully aware of Erewhon's peculiarities and was always the first to volunteer to help out his fellow man whatever the race. The deputy was scratching at the back of his head right then, looking just a little abashed at the situation himself.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Mr. Archeletta. They're doing like they were told far as I can tell. They haven't moved from the ranch and there's only been a few missing dogs and cats." Terry frowned hearing that. He never cared much for Fae, especially those Red Cap savages quartered off in their little ranch to the North where they did God knows what, mostly involving whichever of the town's family pets that were left unprotected that they could catch. In the past they hadn't been shy about taking the occasional child too, but ever since the town had rioted and killed nearly three quarters of those little monsters in response to a Witch boy turning up with a Red Cap knife in his belly, they'd been content to keep to less sapient prey. They were of course the first suspects in any new murder in this town, but to the Witch's disappointment he'd yet to have an excuse to arrest the lot of them for those crimes. It looked like this time wouldn't be any different.

"Well, we better get a cruiser down there anyway just in case. Sharpes and Deych only I think. Sheriff should be amenable to that." He said, taking a long, frustrated drag on his smoke, exhaling a pungent cloud as he swung his feet up onto the table. He wasn't sure if the Sheriff was in the know about the supernatural, but the man had always been happy to listen to his chief of detectives, and didn't blanch at the odder doings in town. He didn't expect much from the search at the farm, but best to eliminate all possibilities. He sighed, looking out the window of his office out toward the forest.

This was going to be the start of a long week.

* * * YESTERDAY * * *

Dimitri pulled up in his black Ford pick-up to the house whose address his sister Circe had given him and sent him pics of. He had been away at college and got into an exchange program three years ago. He had graduated a year ago. But it took him months to leave Paris and come back to the States. His dad had been the one to convince him, saying he'd fit right in in the new neighborhood. The family had relocated to Erehwon shortly after he went to France.

No sooner did he leave his vehicle and close the door than his step-mother arrived with a car full of groceries. Thea rolled the window down and after a quick greeting, asked for some assistance with the bags. He quickly agreed and took as many grocery bags as he could carry.

"Abby! Your brother's home!" Thea called out as they walked in and went to the kitchen. They put the bags on the floor, and made idle chatter about his time away and their time in this small town. It was slowly established that she loved it here, Abigail still refused to give the town a chance, and Dimitri was expected to get a real job quickly if he intended in staying at the house.

"As long as I can paint when I'm home." He shrugged.

"Of course you can. The attic is all yours while your here. Just no sneaking in any models in the middle of the night."

"Well," he smiled. "As long as sneak them out by morning, you'll never even know the rule was broken."

Thea whacked him with a bag of marshmallows in response.

"Honestly Dee, why you took Art History is beyond me! Your father and I told you that you'd need something to fall back on."

"That's why I minored in philosophy." He shot back with youthful assurance.

"Yes. And I'm sure they're hiring philosophers by the busload. Especially here in a small town."

"Hey, just because it's a small town does not mean there aren't curious souls wondering why they're here." Noticing his step-mother's frown, he changed to a more serious note. "Worst case scenario, I can go work at a café or deliver pizzas for a while. But Circe gave me a tip the last time she called. The local library might have some old books that need translated from French and Greek..."

It had taken a few minutes before a ruckus sounded upstairs. Shortly thereafter a wild teenager appeared in the kitchen, rummaged through the groceries and tore into a bag of chips like they were an elixer of everlasting youth and beauty. Once the bag was mostly demolished, she finally acknowledged Dimitri.

"Hey, Dickface, how was Europe?"

He just repeated the words mockingly, making a silly face, and slurring his speech to sound like a village idiot.

She rolled her eyes, but in a way that wasn't all that harsh. While Dimitri turned to Thea and said with obvious sarcasm. "Nice attitude! Where'd she pick that up at?

"Oh, I don't know," Thea continued putting groceries away while she spoke. "It might have something to do with the fact her father's always away on some top secret mission and her brother up and left us to go galavanting across Paris."

"Mom, it's called studying abroad-" he started to mount a defense but was abruptly cut off by his step-sibling.

"Only one?"

He laughed but played at being hurt. "Geez, are you guys even a little happy to see me at all?"

Abigail held out her hand and made a "so-so" gesture, but Thea went and hugged him and said that of course they were.

It looked like this was home now. At least for a while. It was too bad Circe wasn't there. And Dad was missing. Of course he worried about them both. But, unfortunately, he had to deal with that alone.

* * * LAST NIGHT * * *

If Paris had taught Dee anything, it was that a good woman could take a man's mind off his troubles in minutes. And a bad woman could do it in seconds. So he had gone out to see if he could find a bad woman.

Looking around he found a place called the Tipsy Dragon. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind. But he found a girl there. A young, lovely girl with the body of a succubus, and the face of an angel. A girl whom he absolutely HAD to paint. He told her so. And she laughed.

"No, I mean it. I MUST paint you. It can be however you feel comfortable. In any kind of style, but you are simply RADIANT! It will overwhelm the eyes to see your attitude, and complexity brought in to the light on canvas."

"You don't even know me." She continued to be amused. "How can you say that I am complex? I could be exceedingly simple, you know?"

"No, you couldn't." Dee spoke with all the certainty of an expert. The girl, who looked as if she wasn't even really 21 yet, raised an eyebrow. But he went on to explain. "You see if you were a simple girl, you would have been intimidated when you realized that talking about painting your portrait wasn't just some interesting pick-up strategy. And if you were EXCEEDINGLY simple... Well, then you would have been interested before you realized that."

She stared at him. Finding his boldness ridiculous. And she was smiling.

"How do I even know you're really an artist?" She said.

"I'll show you." He smiled, went to the bar, and came back with three mixed drinks, a glass of light beer and several napkins. The shots were red, green, and blue. And he proceeded to twist up some of the napkins to use by dipping into the drinks and "painting" onto the stack. When he was finished he turned the stack of soggy napkins to face her. She was unimpressed by the blobs of color she saw until he lifted the stack to reveal the bottom napkin. It was a proper representation of The Scream by Munch.

"Alright." She said, clearly impressed. "My name's Annette."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Annette." He took her hand, raised it in his, and kissed it. "My name is Dimitri, but you can call me Dee."

Annette grinned, and raised an eyebrow. But they said nothing now. They just prepared to leave together. And thus did the artist succeed in finding ample distraction for an evening.

* * * TODAY * * *

Dee opened his eyes, and was startled to find that the sun was up. Not good. He jumped to his feet, and getting dressed, went over to the window to look out front. His step-mom's car was gone. Good. She was at work. And his step-sister was probably on her to school. No need to sneak the girl out after all.

He went down to the kitchen where he made some eggs, bacon, and toast. He was planning to bring breakfast up to Annette, but she came down dressed, not hungry, and ready to part ways. Probably for good.

"Well, I'll call you. We can get together, and I can finish painting you."

Annette made that expression with her lips that humans make when they are trying to not hurt another human's feelings but finding it difficult to actually not do if they want to be honest.

"Look, Dee, I had fun last night. But it wasn't anything more than that."

Dimitri suddenly realized he was burning breakfast, and turned the stove off, and flipped everything on to a plate. When he turned around he was a clearly a little unnerved. Paris it seemed, had spoiled him.

"Alright. There's no need to exchange numbers, or anything. But you really aren't going to keep modeling for me?"

She shook her head.

"You're a talented painter. You don't need me to." And with that she left.

He turned to walk back up to the attic, when he was nearly startled out of his glamour by Abigail standing there in the doorway.

"Heeeeeeeyyy!" Dee did his best to sound extra innocent, and loving. "It's my favorite sibling!"

He quickly grabbed the food, and presented it to her. "Look: I made you breakfast."

"Nice try, Dimwit, but it's going to take more than burnt toast to buy your way out of this one." The teen was relentless. She was beginning to remind him of the evil step-sisters from those human legends.

"Awww, c'mon Abby! What do you want from me?!" He threw his arms up in exasperation as he spoke.

"Take me here. Let me do what ever I want. Don't bring me home until I'm ready." She threw an orange paper on the table with details of a costume party happening tonight. After a small while of internal diliberationn he agreed. After he agreed, she finished the meal and left to go to school.

He locked up, and went to his truck not long after. Time to find new diatractions, before he remembered to worry about things. Time to check out this town in depth. And for that, he would start at the Coffee Central.

---

---

Dark red eyes shot open in a dark room, what little sunlight that snuck in through heavy curtains glinted of a pair of white fangs; Ivan Weston awoke from sleep with a hunger that made his throat burn. He was having the dreams again, the ones that felt like they were pushing him toward madness. He couldn’t call them nightmares because in all honest, he enjoyed them. Dreams that were vivid memories of his past kills, and tonight’s was no different; this memory of an entire family he’d slaughtered while his humanity was turned off, the euphoria gorging on blood used to bring him. It made him wanted to give up control, either through turning that humanity off once again for good, or even just through drinking blood until he didn’t care about anything else. Every time he slept he wake up and have to fight to keep control, to remind himself why he couldn’t just let go.

Ivan rose from the lumpy and stiff mattress inside his room of the Vertigo Motel, his feet felt the uncomfortable tickle of the dark green shag carpet. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights, he could see just fine in the almost darkness and he didn’t have it in him to look at that hideous wallpaper, a cross between a psychedelic trip gone wrong and what it would look like if a rainbow could vomit, in the light of day. As unappealing as the Vertigo was aesthetically it was cheap and the owners were decent people who didn’t bother him too much. Ivan grabbed the one glass in the room as well as a bottle of whiskey from the end table and a bag of human blood from the mini fridge. He poured himself a drink that was two parts whiskey and one part blood and allowed the mixture to quench his thirst. He drank it slowly, focusing on calming himself down, controlling himself. He headed to the small bathroom within the room and washed his face with cold water, setting his drink down on the sink, and starring at his reflection. He tried to focus, tried to see whatever it was in him that she had seen within him that made him worthy of a second chance. He figured if he tried enough he would eventually see a better man looking back at him in that mirror, but today, just like every day, he saw the man that was just one moment of weakness away from causing a massacre.

Although he had slept for almost two hours, more than enough for a vampire, he was still so tired. His sleep, when he got any and it had been almost a week since he had, was restless. His dreams scared him, and every time he did sleep he either dreamed of his kills or even worse he dreamt that she was still around. For some people the initial loss of a loved one is the most painful thing imaginable, for Ivan there was something worse. There were the nights he dreamt of Amelia, his lost love, still alive and then waking up in that haze after a beautiful dream. Then there was living in those few seconds where he wasn’t sure if the dream was real or not, followed by the realization that it was just a dream. It was losing a person all over again, having hope snatched away, it was his own mind betraying him.

He finished off the remains of his drink, showered, and dressed himself in a dark jacket, black t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He made himself another drink, this one a bit more whiskey heavy, before the remaining bagged blood was placed back into the mini fridge. The whiskey helped with the thirst, it helped keep him calm, and it look a lot more alcohol to get a vampire drunk so watering down his blood with booze was Ivan’s current drug of choice. He rinsed the glass off in the bathroom sink and set it back by the nearly empty whiskey bottle by the bed. The room was cluttered with undone laundry, empty bottles, and a small trash can with empty blood bags inside. He needed to buy more whiskey and eventually he would need to do laundry but the latter would likely be put off until absolutely necessary.

Before he left the room, he made sure to hand the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on his door, he knew it was likely driving Mrs. Harrison crazy not being able to clean the room every day but he certainly couldn’t have humans poking around and finding blood bags in the fridge. He never ate with them, he couldn’t really stomach human food, some vampires could but he hadn’t eaten it in centuries and lost any taste for it long ago. He did stop to chat with Mr. Harrison, a man who kept insisting that Ivan call him Jimmy instead, about old western movies. The conversation seemed to please Jimmy who kept commenting on how most kids these days never appreciated the classics. It amused Ivan some to be referred to as a kid by a man who was likely a hundred year his junior. The first thing he did when he got outside was light up a cigarette, it had always brought him that small window of peace, ever since he shared his first cigarette with his father as a mortal boy. It was getting harder to find them unfiltered, vampires certainly weren’t worried about getting cancer, so he rolled his own now. He found it incredibly annoying that he couldn’t smoke indoors anymore, people these days were too sensitive.

Ivan had spent the past few days acclimating himself to the city of Erehwon, or Nowhere as supernaturals tended to call it. Nowhere was a fitting name; it was quaint, people were unnaturally friendly, and worst of all it was boring. For the past century, he’d spent his time in major cities; Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas, cities where there was always something exciting going on. The nightlife of this town seemed to consist of a barn called The Shack, he got a job here as it was the closest thing to fun this town had. He hadn’t made up his mind yet, whether or not he was here for a fresh start or to place himself in some sort of purgatory. Today was apparently the Fall Festival, something every person in the town seemed to be excited for, in fact he was pretty sure there was more talk about the night’s festivities than there was about the series of murders happening around the town.

The murders sounded like vampire attacks, so at first he thought of it as something to avoid. Being around other vampires brought out the more animalistic side of Ivan, he was too easily influenced by others, something he was well aware of, so staying away from any vampires actively killing around town was a must. Not to mention with it being so obviously supernatural, hunters would flock to the town to investigate and he didn’t feel like crossing paths with hunters either. Stay out of trouble, try and keep hold of his humanity, and learn to live like a person; that was the plan. On the other hand, if it was vampire’s maybe he could see if he could help stop them, find something useful to do with his time, maybe this was the right kind of trouble. If they could put a stop to this before any hunters came to town that would certainly be in his best interest, and stopping a murderous vampire would be easy on his heavy conscious as well.

Shortly after Amelia had died he’d tried to channel his grief and anger into hunting down his sire, Marius, the vampire who had turned him almost a hundred and sixty years ago. He spent months looking for the ancient vampire, he’d convinced himself that he’d find some kind of closer through an epic quest for vengeance, he’d clearly watched too many modern action films, only to find the vampire had been slain over a century ago. Back when he was busy tearing through every neck he could sink his teeth into some Guardians had taken the old psycho out. It made sense of course, Marius was vicious with no regard for other supernatural or whether or not he was risking exposure, turning as many and as often as he wanted, not covering his tracks. It had been foolish to think that he’d still be out there somewhere, and even stupid to believe that killing one vampire would solve his problems. There was no cinematic arch of redemption through vengeance for him, only the mundane every day struggle of trying to better than he was, all while knowing there would be no absolution for the things he’d done, he’d have to deal with his past by learning from it and by doing better.

Later that night he had a shift at The Shack during the costume party but he figured he’d check out the fall festival before that, try and enjoy himself a little bit, it was the human thing to do after all but before all that he thought he might poke around the police station, see if there was anything he could do to help. He wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to convince a mundane police department that he could potentially be helpful in tracking down the person responsible for multiple homicides, but since planning was never his strong suite he was just going to wing it and see what happened.

Upon arrival at the police station he wondered around the front for a bit the way a customer would wander a store. “Can I help you?” A slightly confused man at the front desk asked. Ivan paused for a bit before responding, he couldn’t exactly go with ‘Hi I’m a 158-year-old vampire looking to help you track down whatever supernatural, and probably more specifically vampire, you have murdering campers and folks just outside town’.

Instead he went with, “Yes, I was just wondering how the investigation was going, any leads on the Roxbury murders or those missing campers?”

“Are you with the Report because we already gave you our statement.” The guy responded, thinking Ivan was with the town newspaper.

“No, more of an independent investigation.”

“Like a blog or podcast, you’re not one of those true crime nuts, are you?” He asked annoyed.

I don’t think so.

“You wanna tell me why you’re here then?”

"I think I can help you with solve the case," Ivan paused, trying to think of a reason why he’d be able to help. "Because I’m psychic, I was thinking I could get a vision from any evidence you might have or…” Ivan went to plot of a tv show he’d seen once but was cut off by the man’s exasperated sigh. The guy behind the desk did not seem to be buying it one bit.

---

Alice was half way through the book. It was her twentieth time reading it, so her focus was on other matters as she flipped through the pages. This year’s Fall Festival was thankfully not cancelled due to the multiple homicides in Ruxbury. All the grieving and fear that had been surrounding the town for weeks now was lightened by the upcoming festivities. There were rumors that the Mayor and Chief of police were thinking of enacting a nightly curfew for all the teenagers in town. From the bits of gossip and news she had gathered, it seemed that all the murders were the work of someone supernatural. The culprit was most likely a Vampire or Demon. There was a small chance though it was actually a plain old human. Alice remembered back in 1946 when it was confirmed by guardians that Hitler was in fact a human. And in the late 1960s Charles Manson was confirmed to be a Mezmer Demon. Being alive for almost a hundred years Alice learned that all people, no matter what race were capable of good or evil. Even herself…

Her store was full of items from different decades. Most of her walk in customers came looking for engagement rings, and the occasional Tiffany lamp. It was brightly lit inside from the twenty or so chandeliers and light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. There was a whole wall of antique clocks, and paintings. There were cases full of jewelry, Fabergé eggs, snuff boxes, pocket watches, empty perfume bottles, rare coins and trinkets. All of the furniture in the store was antique, even the tables and shelves used for displays. The antique weapons were on display on the wall behind her, and the place was full of vases, candelabras, and oriental rugs. Classical music played quietly in the background, and the whole place smelled of jasmine thanks to the dozen or so candles lit around the front of the store.

The light chime from the bell hanging on the front door briefly surprised her. She always could hear someone coming into the store before they even opened it, so this was new. She looked up from her book, and placed it on the counter in front of her. The kid that came in seemed to already be dressed and ready for the costume party at the shack tonight. His steps were masterfully quite, no wonder she hadn’t heard him coming. The older gentleman on the other hand, was heavy footed and out of breath from running, so he was no surprise. Alice didn’t get many costumers under the age of thirty. The antique business had its niche, and teenage boys were not it. “Good Morning gentlemen. Are we looking for anything in particular today?” she asked as she stood up to greet them, and smiled. She caught the old man calling the boy Valon, but the idea that the teenager could be thee Valon didn't even cross her mind.

---

Anya interacting with: @vietmyke

Anya turns around, expecting to chew out one of the Fitzroy or Frat boys for even glancing at her. Instead she finds Tony, as per usual finding a way to her nerves. She couldn't help but crack a smile when he extended his cup of coffee out to her. She gladly took the cup into her hands and took a big sip before handing it back.

"When I told my sister I wanted a new bag for school, I was thinking maybe Jansport... not these." Anya joked as she pats the bags underneath her eyes. She best be careful not to run into any of the Taipan sisters. Who knows what they have to say about her current appearance. When Anya first came to Gringore, Kimbra befriended her since they both were cold-blooded. That quickly turned however, when Anya found out that the Taipan sisters only were nice to her just to get free drinks at the Tipsy Dragon. Besides her sister, she finally found more 'snakes' that were cold-blooded inside and out.

"How goes your training? Getting your ass kicked by anyone lately?" She teased at Tony.
When Anya first met Tony through the wonders of karaoke night, she hadn't a clue of his desire to become a Guardian. It was when Tony started being a regular at karaoke night did they become friends. Which makes her feel even more guilty to hide the fact that Amari is running a drug ring in this town.

Nadia managed to make it to Coffee Central without an incident by keeping her head down. By then she had gotten a hold of herself by focusing on the beautiful weather and excitement in the air. The wonderful smell of coffee helped soothe her as well, but also reminded her of the classes and work ahead of her. Sighing, she looked up at the menu to see the new in-season drinks available. There was of course, all of the pumpkin spice, but she was hoping for maybe something different. As she sat there contemplating, she kept to the side, not getting in line until she was sure of what she wanted.

Dee drove down the streets with the local rock radio station on. The windows were down. Enter Sandman came on and he cranked up the volume. Leaves danced in his wake, and cats glared at his approach. His speed increased, and for a moment he briefly considered just driving away until he got lost. Of course, he realized, that wasn't really a solid option. There was too much technology to allow him to actually get lost. Sure, he could throw his cell phone out the window. But then he wouldn't know if Circe called. Accursed practicality, always preventing cathartic bursts of random action. But then he had decided on his destination already, and he was nearly there.

He found parking a few storefronts away from Coffee Central and walked down from there. He passed a seemingly stressed out man standing in front of a traditional looking antique shop. He smoothed his hair back, double checking his appearance in the windows before heading in. He knew what he wanted. He wasn't a coffee drinker, himself. And though the scent of pumpkin and spice flavoring was a truly difficult temptation to overcome, he was not about to give in to distractions. Not even the distraction of an incredibly attractive young lady in line in front of him.

Just as Nadia decided on what to get, she started to step forward. However, her eyes were still glued to the menu. Just before she ran into him, she saw a taller dark figure out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, sorry,” She stopped moving, letting her eyes focus on the man in front of her. “You can go ahead,”

”Tah! Of course. Until we meet again, moya priyatel — Nono, not pray tell; Priyatel. Is term of endearment in Russia. Farewell.”

Before Dee had a chance to respond to Nadia, a loud man barged into the coffee shop. His accent was distinctly Russian, and his large coat reeked of Autumn. On various parts of his body were stray pieces of straw, and it was not clear where they had come from. Despite his boisterous first impression, the man quietly resigned himself to waiting in line.

For a moment, Nikita (the man) scrutinized the individuals in front of him; but whatever he was looking for — if he was looking for anything, even — he did not find. He then raised his sights to the menu, and cocked a fuzzy eyebrow in confusion. Although Nikita was more or less acquainted with American culture, he still found some of the finer aspects to be befuddling. What exactly was an Espresso Romano? It seemed that Nikita was also having trouble deciding what he was going to get.

Dimitri was about to respond the the polite, indecisive girl when he was distracted by a loud Russian accent at the entrance. This newcomer had a certain quality of speech that was very direct and not American at all. It reminded Dee of being out if the country. No time to reminisce though. There was a cute girl to talk to, after all. And she seemed to not know what to drink.

”I’d recommend hot ginger tea. You can't go wrong with hot tea on a day like today. Plus most of the coffee drinks are overpriced in these places, anyway.” Dimitri spoke with a crispness to his voice. It couldn't help but bring to mind the phrase happy-go-lucky. ”I'll tell you what. I’ll buy you one. If you don't like it, more tea for me. What do you think?”

The last question was shown to be somewhat rhetorical, as the long haired man stepped up, and placed the order anyway. Everything happened so quickly for Nadia that she had to take a moment to process it. On one hand she really needed the caffeine to keep her going through the day, but on the other, she really couldn’t refuse the stranger’s offer. Especially since he went ahead and placed the order. She turned to take a look at the loud customer who came in, but barely spared a glance as she had to catch up to Dimitri.

“Um, you didn’t have to do that, but thank you.” Nadia couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him. Talking to strangers wasn’t really her forte, but she needed to learn how to. “My name’s Nadia, by the way,” She hesitantly held out a hand, feeling a bit awkward. Hopefully this wasn’t a weird thing to do? It felt like everyone else in the store was staring at her, judging. Even though her ears turned red under her dark hair and her heart pounded, she kept her hand extended.

He smiled and took her hand, and lowered his head as if to kiss it. But he stopped short of actually doing so. Instead he merely lifted his gaze to hers saying ”Enchanté Nadia. My name is Dimitri. But you may call me Dee if you like.” with that he gently lowered her hand, slowly letting go. He then turned, grabbed the drinks, and started towards a table. ”Grab some sugar if you like. None for me though, thanks.”

Nadia was most definitely red at this point. She could feel her face burning. If that’s the response she got, next time, she’s gonna keep it to a simple introduction. Otherwise she was going to implode. To give herself a second to breathe, she turned to grab a couple of the raw sugar packets. Usually she didn’t take sugar with her tea, but it was a new drink and she needed the moment to take a look at her phone. It seemed like she had a bit of time before class. Then she headed towards the table and sat opposite of Dee, keeping her body posture rigidly straight.

Dimitri was not rigid in posture at all. But he was attentive. Her rigidity seemed forced, but after the morning he’d had so far, he wasn't about to let such things sway him from his path of getting to know Nowhere. The tea still needed time to steep, so he spoke up. ”So, Nadia, what do you do here in Erehwon? What does anyone do here for that matter? I’ve only just arrived yesterday, you see. My family lives here. But I have spent the past few years in Paris studying art.”

Now, the tea was ready to drink, so he drank, and prepared to listen. Nadia looked up surprised at the mention of Paris. It was only the most romantic place in the world, so of course topped her chart of ‘Top Ten Places’ she wanted to visit. However, she had a question to answer before she could ask about that.

“Erehwon is a small town, so there’s not too much to do around here.” Even as the words left her mouth Nadia wanted to retract them. Stupid. Anyone with eyes could see that. “I mean, a lot of people are here because they’ve always lived here. Others stay here because they like the small town environment or because…” She stopped herself before she said something even remotely relating to the supernatural part of town. “Uh, because they have family here,” She forced a smile to cover her mistake, but her gaze quickly fell to the cup to take a drink. “But, Halloween is coming up soon. There’s usually a big celebration for that.” There really was much here, but she was trying her best to keep up some sort of conversation. “But, I assume nothing here can come close to what Paris is like. I’ve always wanted to visit, but… Um, what was it like? In Paris, I mean.” Nadia took a long drink of her tea. At this point, she was too preoccupied with trying not to embarrass herself to even think about what the drink tasted like.

Now she had done it. Dee could go on about Paris for hours provided his audience seemed truly interested. But he wasn't going to rush in all at once. Besides, she had brought up an almost equally interesting topic as far as he was concerned. ”That's good to here. Halloween deserves a big celebration. They aren't too interested in it in France at. Too American. Too commercial. And they don't understand Trick’or’Treating at all. ‘Des bonbons ou un sort!’ the kids will say on the rare occasions when kids actually get to try it out. Which means “would you like candy or a spell?’. So that's a plus about being here, I guess. Better than some other places in America where some small-minded preachers are liable to tell you you're doing the devil's work by simply allowing kids to dress up like the little monsters that they oftentimes actually are.”That last sentence was carefully constructed to be noticed by someone who might have ties to the supernatural, while also being incredibly easy to dismiss as just a commonplace opinion. Dee also pronounced his French words with a full accent, which he considered proper to speaking the language.

Here, he paused to drink some more tea before continuing. ”But Paris itself… Astonishing. Vibrant. At times dangerous, but always full of love. It is like the ideal woman made into a city. Everybody in the U.S. knows about Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, the famous Opera House and all of these glorious places. Well, I can tell you, that in person they are even more glorious than you will picture them in your mind’s eye. And at the center of it all, a small island district, the Île de la Cité. Shaped like a ship. Or an eye. And of course, it is connected to many bridges. But the oldest bridge that has never been rebuilt is Pont Neuf. It goes all the way across the Seine, and sort of through the Île de la Cité, very near what you might call the corner of the eye. And that corner stretches out below and away from the bridge in a small triangle of grass, and pavement, and ancient trees. In that little park, beneath those elder trees they say that you can receive a holy vision.”

Meanwhile, as Dee and Nadia were discussing their endeavours in their origins and voyages, Nikita was struggling to actually order a coffee from the barista. After what felt like an hour, Nikita finally found himself in possession of something that barely even resembled a beverage. The bottom of a foggy gradient of white and black, and the top had something that resembled an… egg? Nikita hesitantly took a sip of this excrescence concoction, and scowled at the taste. Nikita didn’t often travel to coffee shops, and truthfully, he wasn’t here for the coffee. He still was perplexed by this aberration which he was somehow convinced to purchase.

As Nikita was walking to a seat near the back of the coffee shop, he couldn’t help but overhear Dee’s exposition. He might have ignored it, but his story of the holy visions caught Nikita’s attention.

”My pardon. You speak of holy visions under bridge? One in France, no? There is french folklore story I know of, that tells of an ancient family of magical creatures, traced all the way back to Romans. As story goes, these magical creatures reside in special locations, such as under a bridge, and grant wishes to the ones who seek them out. I have always been, ah-” Nikita cleared his throat “-em, interested by these stories, and yours reminded me of this one.” As Nikita spoke, he stared directly at Dee, and if he noticed whether Nadia was there or not was something ambiguous.

”Say, it sounds like you are not from around here, no? My name is Nick Bollo. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Nikita extended an almost too large hand towards Dee, and smiled heartily.

”And to meet you. Dimitri Calazans. Or Dee for short.”Dee accepted Nick’s hand in his, and shook it firmly.

”Well, I can't say that I saw any goblins or genies while I was there. Unfortunately no mermaids either. Though the stories of them were much more plentiful. Nor did I ever receive a vision. Although, I confess that I did try.” Dee took a sip of his tea and made eye contact with Nadia, hoping that he was keeping her interest, before returning his attention to the newcomer. ”It was the artists who told these particular stories, though. About the visions. They said that the old decadent painters and students from the Latin Quarter would go there and return to create masterful paintings. I guess since they were decadents, the very pious would presume the visions to have been demonic, rather than holy. But then I have never been very pious myself.

Dee then turned quite noticeably to Nadia and asked for her input. ”What about you, Nadia? Have you ever seen any evidence of the supernatural around here?”

Of all the conversations to stumble upon, this one was the absolute worst. Even at the mention of mermaids, Nadia could feel a different kind of panic rise in her throat. However, she did her best to maintain composure. There had to be someway to remove herself from this situation. “I’ve heard rumors of weird things happening, but they’re mainly stories made up by kids to scare each other. But small towns like this always have stories.” She shrugged seemingly uninterested. “The only thing that’s truly supernatural around here is how fast time flies.” She forced a laugh, picking up her things as well as her unfinished tea. “Thanks for the tea Dee, but I have a class to get to soon, so I’d best be off.” She waved at the two still at the table. “Have a good day!” Trying not to look like she’s running away, Nadia walked out of the store, pacing herself and taking deep breaths. She really needed to be better at talking with others.

”Tough break, huh?” Nikita remarked, watching Nadia. He squinted as she left, and frowned. ”I am sorry, I did not mean to chase off your devushka.”

Nikita then chuckled, a little uncomfortably. ”Well, it is as she says. Time really does fly, and I’ll be on my way.” Nikita looked around, confirming that him and Dee were the only ones within earshot. The tone of his voice changed remarkably, and he spoke a lot quieter. ”Listen. You’re interested in the Supernatural, right? I get a, ah, feeling you’ve come to the right town then. If you hear anything, even just some gossip or rumours, come find me. I promise I can make it worth your while.”

Nikita then turned, as if to leave, but stopped in front of the table. He turned back to Dee. ”Tah, one more thing, priyatel. You seem to have traveled around the world, and as a fellow proponent of odd occurrences, I have to ask. Does the name Valon Valerious ring any bells?”

”Don't worry, Nick, I don't think she was my devushka just yet anyway. I’ll tell you, I haven't been away that long, but I feel like American women are a bit odd.” Though, she certainly made an impression. And Dee did hope that they would meet again. ”You some kind of paranormal investigator, I guess. Well, sure, I can let you know if I hear about any hauntings or anything. As for that name: no. I couldn't pick it out of a room full of bad vampire novels.”

So Dee stayed sitting with his tea, Nick walked off with his coffee, and Nadia was getting farther from Coffee Central by the second.

(Collab post with Whacko/Terry Archeletta)

________________________________________________

Before making his way to the police deparmtment, Jack spent some time discussing about the murders with some townsfolk passing by. Of course, given the bad name Jack created for himself, speaking with the people in town was never easy. He was no criminal and it got on his nerves when people avoided him. The bully of a broken family, it was a prejudice he faced from a small age and it got even worse when he had to use his fists. Being physically stronger than his classmates bullying him never ended well for him, mostly because he didn't have a mother's support like the others after things had to be cleared out and his father wasn't helpful either.

"You are stronger than most people, you should be more mindful of your actions..." was Pa's usual lecture.

But, maybe, it was this lecture that kept Jack from despising or hating his fellow citizens, even though he kept almost everyone at arm's length to stay out of trouble.

The few peeople kind enough to spend a minute or two to share some info were not helpful either, commenting only on the mysterious mature of the murders and that the police is keeping the investigation a bit too secretive for a small town like this. It was to be expected of course. In small towns like Erehwon, news should spread like wildfire, especially when serial murders, something unusual for the town, are the topic. Of course, if aliens were involved, there would not be much to say, anyways, is what Jack thought. Other humans like him can not see aliens and most of them, do not even know of their existence, so it would be hard to explain that the murders occured due to other reasons.

After tbe unsuccesful information gathering, Jack arrived at the police station. It was obvious that the uproar of the murders and the disappearings, would cause the whole department to be on his toes, as everyone was uneasy. On the front desk, someone was speaking to the officer, a familiar face around town, Ivan something, if Jack remembered well. He knew about him, because his line of work is similar to his father's, being a bartender at the Shack, making fancy drinks for college brats. For some reason, Jack always felt uneasy when around him, although he never paid much attention to it. He heard a bit of the conversation, something along the lines of being a psychic and that he could help with the case, but ignored both of what they said and the front desk officer altogether, heading straight for Archeletta's office. The officer took notice of him, interrupted his conversation with Ivan for a moment and asked:

"Can i help you, sir?"

"Not at all, I am here to see Archeletta..."

"I am really sorry, he is busy in his office right now, he asked to not be interrupted"

"I do not have the time for formalities, fella...", Jack indifferently replied.

The front desk officer stopped Jack on his tracks.

"I strongly recommend that you do not cause trouble in a police department, sir..."

"Listen, pal...I am too sober to be in a good mood, so step aside..."

"Jesus Christ, let him in." Came a familiar, muffled voice from the office, the man's tone tired and with just the faintest hint of annoyance.Terry damn well knew that voice, and it was one of the last one he wanted to hear right now. Then again the man it belonged to might be one of the few that could be of genuine help in this shitshow. Mixed bags always sucked, he decided, lighting up a fresh smoke and taking a long drag as he waited for Jack to step through his office door.

The officer, although annoyed, followed his superior's orders, making way for Jack, who indifferently marched into Archeletta's office. Another guy was there, but it didn't stop Jack from saying:

"What the hell are you doing, you bastard? Are you waiting for the whole town to be murdered before you find the criminal?"

Jack said that more because he was constantly annoyed by Archeletta's preaching for the collateral damage caused when Jack chased criminals and his constant whining about the paperwork he has to take care of after he captured them, rather because of disrespect. In fact, Jack respecred both Terry's commitment to law and his work and his deductive prowess, although he would never admit it, despite believing that Archeletta knew it, which annoyed him even more.

"Never mind that. I want to help. I am broke and, this time, the case seems big enough for me to get a good reward. I just need your ok, any "strange" information that you might have and your permission to check Ruxbury up close."

"Don't you take that fuckin' tone with me, Jack. I'm doin' the best I can here but as you can see, I got dick to go on." Terry shot back with a scowl, tapping out the ashes from the tip of his cigarette as he glared at the hunter. " Please tell me where I should be looking. I got one body out of my jurisdiction and a half dozen that nobody can find. Where would you like me to look, hm?"

Jack had always been a source of mixed feelings for the detective. The man was never not in some sort of trouble with that temper of his, and he was in the county jail so often tha3t they had a cell that practically had a his name on it. On the other hand, Jack was a hunter whether he knew it or not. That made him useful. He was also a good, if rough man, which made Terry less reluctant to put him to work. He sighed then, taking another drag on the cig before he stood.

"We'll discuss a reward after you tell me what exactly you think you can do. And why I should bring you in for this instead of Troutdale." Troutdale Supernatural Services was the premeire hunter company in the region. There were in fact two differnet kinds of hunters in Terry's experience; The born type that most of his kind knew and loathed for their...zealous nature, and the more mundane, goverment liscenced and regulated hunters that were more akin to professional exterminators. The latter were more popular for obvious reasons, and because they tended to keep their mayhem limited to those rogues that were a danger to supernaturals and mundies. Troutdale was one of those; 24/7/365 rapid response, discretion, no more than three hours on site, all for the measly price of $1,000 a month. Terry'd been looking into getting them into the police budget, but that would mean telling the sheriff about the 'Unearthly Forces Department'. Not the kind of thing most small town cops were used to. So he had to settle for using Jack.

"I'm guessin' you can beat them on the job?"

Jack ignored the non-smocking sign on Terry's office as well and lit a cigarette on his own. From what he knew, Troudale is some kind of alien hunting pro group. Jack was not a pro, Archeletta usually sending him off to small scale cases, probably concerned of his well-being. Not that he ever had trouble beating crooks up to now, but apparently Archeletta was concerned enough to not send him to vicious superpowered aliens. He tried to think of a good enough reason to take this one and not let the opportunity slip. Inhaling a good puff and letting it out, he replied:

"Seeing as nine murders happened by now and you still have no leads, it seems that the guy in question is dangerous. So, worst comes to worst, it would be easier to explain my murder as a citizen of the town, than a bunch of outsiders popping out of nowhere and dying all the same. Plus, I am content with any price you name, as long as you also treat me to a nice single malt.

He puffed another deep one and added:

"Besides that, I always bring back the culprit alive. Killing people is not my style and it makes, at least, that part of your job easier!"

"A bottle of scotch and $2,000." Terry offered quickly, eyes narrowed at the other man. "And three conditions. First off you're not going to be getting into any brawls with the drunks at the Head of the Wolf again. Second, you'll report to me on everything you find before you do anything. Third, you will not go off guns blazing like some jackass cowboy and shoot up half the town. Am I clear?"

"I already told you that it was an accident, didn't I? I had to empty the gun so no one would get shot...besides, I didn't shoot anyone! Anyway, it's a deal! I'm off to Ruxbury. Anything I find, I report as soon as possible. I'm off", Jack replied.

He then put out his cigarette and headed for the exit. For Jack, next stop was Ruxbury.

---

---

Ivan studied the man who entered the police station, he recognized him as someone he’d seen around the motel before, his beard was rather memorable. Jack easily bypassed the somewhat grumpy office at the desk and headed straight for the office of the man in charge making Ivan wonder why he was wasting time talking to an underling. Jack seemed to know the man inside the office; Chief Detective Archeletta according to the name plate affixed to the door. His heighted hearing made it fairly easy to make out what the two men were discussing, the Roxbury murders; the same topic most of the town was obsessing over and the reason why he was at the police station. It didn’t sound like they had too much to go on.

“Like I said, we’re all very busy here working to solve these murders, you’ll know just as soon as everybody else when we have any more information.” The officer behind the desk told Ivan who was more focused on what they were discussing inside Archeletta’s office. He heard mention of Troutdales, the Pinkerton’s of the supernatural world, a group of hunters in it for the money which, in Ivan’s mind made them basically pond scum. Hunter’s that fought for a cause they believed in, protecting humanity for everything supernatural were understandable, there was nobility in that, Ivan had once been that and while his current state of being now made those hunter’s his enemy he could still respect them. Ivan glanced back at the officer who stood between him and what he wanted to know.

“I had this vision of…a horrible murder, blood everywhere and in it an owl told me I needed to come here, to help you stop these…horrible atrocities.” While Ivan was trying to sound convincing and only slightly dramatic, in reality, to the office in front on him, he sounded like a lunatic.

“I don’t know how much television you’ve been watching, son, but real police departments don’t actually work with ever nut case looking to involve themselves with police matters.” The officer was losing patience.

“Fine, let’s be real here, you’ve got steadily rising body count and no leads, don’t you think maybe, it’s worth taking a chance on someone who might be able to help, it’s not like I could make you guys look more incompetent.” Ivan continued wearing down the annoyed looking officer. “I mean you let that other guy help, right?”

“Fine,” The other man said. “You go talk to Archeletta and see what he says.” The annoyed man was more than happy with passing off the problem to his superior.

Ivan, finally passed the officer that acted as Archeletta’s gatekeeper, made his way towards the Chief Detective’s office and without bothering to knock he entered the room. The first thing he noticed was that both men were smoking so he immediately lit one of his own cigarettes glad to have found a place that was a bit less rigid about rules. He took a long drag on his cigarette; although he’d lost any taste for human food long ago, the robust flavor of tobacco and the effects of nicotine still satisfied him. A habit carried over from his mortal days that subtly reminded him of what it was like to be human.

“Sir, I have decided to offer my help in solving these terrible crimes.” He announced, before exhaling the smoke from his rarely used lungs; as a vampire his lungs only functioned when willed to. “The name’s Ivan, I happen to have a connection to the supernatural, as I was telling you’re associate out there,” Ivan paused and gestured through the doorway, as he had left the door wide open when he entered the room, to the exasperated officer at the desk, “I have abilities that could be of use to you in this case. And I am willing to help, free of charge, just think of me as an unpaid intern. Without the bringing you coffee part, I’m not doing that.” Ivan explained before taking another drag on his cigarette. He was sticking with the psychic lie as it was much easier to go with than the truth, that he was just a bored vampire.

“Nut-job thinks he’s psychic.” The officer from the desk exclaimed to his boss without looking up from his paperwork.

The drive back from the airport was relaxing. James had just spent the past two weeks in France paying his respects to fallen soldiers, people he had considered brothers, and culminating in a visit to the beaches of Normandy. Simply closing his eyes there transported him back seventy four years to that fateful day, D-Day. But that was another life, his previous one, his first one to be truthful. He was born as Alexander Marcus Reese and that was the name he used then during World War Two. The memories of that life left scars that he will carry the rest of his time on this Earth, not physically but they would be there. That was a benefit and a curse to being a dragon in this world. At the end of one cycle they would burst into flame, shedding the injuries of their past life and being reborn in a sense from the ashes, whole and unmarked. That was how he got his left leg back.

Shaking his head he banished those thoughts and thought instead about the new memories he was making. All the good he was doing in the community. He would return home and check in with the guys at the firehouse and see if there was any more murders had happened while he was away. It was scary and it brought the soldier mentality to the forefront of his mind. Eight murders in the past two months and this was just one town over in Roxbury. He would have to forge a knife when he got home. It wouldn’t be much but it would be something to protect himself with and something to help get his mind off the madness going on around him.

His Black 2007 Ford F-150 finally crossed the border to his hometown. It was good to be home again. The sights of Erehwon in the autumn as it prepared itself for the annual fall festival were something to behold. He pulled into the parking lot next to the fire department, just off of main and carefully pulled into the spot next to the Boss’ car. Putting the car in park he began to quietly make his way to the side entrance and scanned his key fob to let him in.

“Welcome back James!” Hollered a man’s voice from his left, just behind a closed door. This started off a chain reaction of all his coworkers coming in and clapping him on the back and welcoming him.

“How’d you know it was me Carl?”

“Your truck has a distinctive sound to it. Sounds like a piece of …”

“Woah woah woah. Don’t go dissing my truck. I take care of it and it still gets me from place to place so it’s good in my book.” He cut Carl off as most of the guys went back to what they were doing before hand.

“Just calling it like I see it man. It’s good to have you back. You enjoy your trip?” Carl asks as he walks out of the bathroom with a paper towel still in his hands. Carl Renard was a tall man, dark skinned and strong and was someone who enjoyed his job. Though a mundane, he is aware of the otherworldly nature that comprises a number of the town's citizens.

“Yeah. It was nice. First time I’ve been over there in a long time. Visited the Beaches, went to Paris. Relaxed.” He right ear twitched as he stated that last part.

“Yeah right, I somewhat doubt you would know what relaxation was if it went and smacked you in your face.” Carl shot back as embraced his friend.

“Yeah, I missed you too. Anyway I’m just stopping in to let you know I’m back and will be back on the clock tomorrow. I’m going to stop at the house and drop my stuff off, then head into town.” He said as he embraced his friend back quickly before backing off. He had jet lag real bad, but he would force himself to stay up so he could get a proper night’s sleep.

“Alright I’ll see you then. You be careful out there.” Carl told James.

“See you tomorrow, Boss.” James waved as he made his way back to the door. He had to stifle a yawn as he stepped outside. He looked out to the street and went to his truck. He needed coffee before he went anywhere else. Coffee Central was only few blocks away, he didn’t really need to drive there. He checked to see if he locked the door and began walking when he was confident that the truck was secure.

---

---

Alice watched the exchange between the two men in the front of the store. Oddly the older gentleman face looked to be twisted in pain, but he smiled back at her. It was forced, and there body language was unusual to say the least. This was becoming a slightly amusing, highly interesting situation to observe. Her curiosity was peaked, that was for sure, but she didn’t let on. She brushed a stray hair behind her hair, and preoccupied herself sorting through the emails on her laptop. “Feel free to browse, I’m here if you have questions.” she said in a practiced shopkeeper voice.

They walked just out of sight, but with her fancy ass vampire hearing the men’s private whispered conversation and threats didn’t go unheard. Alice didn’t have a habit of eavesdropping, but she was intrigued. Whoever they were it was obvious the kid was in charge. Once there was pause in their rather disturbing chat, the older guy looked defeated and left. The teenager on the other hand seemed completely stoic, as he came over the counter and placed an ancient looking ring in front of her.

Blissfully unaware human woman, was what she was going for as she politely smiled, and picked up the ring to examine. The way he spoke was extremely old fashioned and nothing like the teenagers of today. If anything he reminded her of the headmaster of Gingore. Alfred was the oldest person she had ever met. Then again it also sounded like English was not his first language, and so maybe he was just taught to speak overly eloquent and politely.

“We do buy antiques.“ She replied to him as she looked closer at the ring. It was genuine, though she couldn’t date it exactly. Her expertise had more to do with French, German, and Dutch antiques. “How much were you hoping to sell it for?” She asked looking him in the eye, trying to figure him out.

Valon was not exactly expecting her to ask him that, in truth he had no idea how much this ring was even worth to begin with. The only reason he was trying to sell it was because Councilor Lucretia told him to do so. He didn’t really understand the need for money, it was not like he really ate or drank anything anyways, in some ways he was pretty sure Lucretia just wanted him to fit in the best he could so he didn’t draw attention to himself. The ring in question was actually Lucretia’s from back when he was a Roman senator, in his words it was the only thing he would part with as he wanted no reminders to that era in time.

“I am… not exactly what you would call someone who sells antiques, more or less I appreciate them for their age and the status in which they represent. This ring dates back to at the very least two thousand years and it was worn by a prominent Roman senator of the time. In either case perhaps you can give me what you consider a fair price and I will… trust… your judgement. I am sure you would not give me… a bad deal.”

Valon lay his hand on the counter, the ring that gave him his disguise glinted in the light above. The ring was made of a black metal, the band was carved delicately with ancient glyphs. He eye’d Alice, took in her demeanor, her looks, her everything, almost as if he was trying to suss out her very soul. This would look rather eerie but he hardly realized it as this was something he usually did when he was making idle conversation with someone he did not know or really trust.

“Also… if its not impolite to ask… your not human, right?”

Alice smirked. “If the ring is as old as you claim I can give you three grand for it, but you would get more selling it to a museum, or at auction.” She said placing the ring back on the counter. Internally she was trying to figure out how in the hell he saw through her. She was pretty damn sure she hadn't done or said anything to give herself away. She was not some fae who used glamour or a shifter who smelled overwhelmingly like wet dog. She was a vampire, meaning unless he had better hearing then her, and could tell she had no heartbeat…there was no definite way of knowing she was anything but human. It’s not like he ever saw her feeding. For the last two decades she had been drinking from blood bags in the privacy of her own home.

His gaze was intense to say the least. And she felt just the slightest bit uncomfortable. Weirdly she was still amused though, so she decided to play along. “Not human? Is this a roundabout way of asking what I’ll be for Halloween?” she looked him up and down. “I see you’re enthusiastic…already in costume and everything.” She said in the friendliest of tones. “I’ll most likely dress up as a vampire.” She said looking him in the eye for a brief moment, before noticing the black ring he wore. It was definitely spelled for something. Her brows knit together and she looked back at him.

Valon looked at Alice silently, no emotion was playing across his face. He was however starting to get a notion that this line about him being dressed up for Halloween was becoming an constant occurrence. What exactly was so off about his clothing either with his disguise or original clothes that made him look like he was dressed up? It was safe to say in small ways that Valon did not like this country thus far, it made him wonder though, in no small amount… did everyone see him like this and they just didn’t tell him? A subtle thought did occur to him in that exact moment…

Everyday is Halloween around here, it's like a pirate with terrible taste, give him an eye patch and a peg leg and we could have a start to a bad movie.

Son of a bitch… they were talking about him… all those years of snide remarks about clothing… oh when he got back to Rome the recruits were going to pay… Valon mentally chastised himself from his self induced moment of realized future revenge and got back to the task at hand.

“I am afraid that I do not possess the time or… patience for sustained contact with other… humans. People tend to annoy me. Three thousand dollars will be fine for this ring, with that said I wish you luck on your Halloween costume. Although I get the feeling it won’t be too.. Hard to make it work.”

Valon became quite silent for a moment before he casually leaned in on the counter as to get closer to Alice so he could speak lower to her.

“The only reason I asked in the first place is because… I would appreciate it if you just forget the altercation with my… partner. We both know he only made it worse with terrible acting, and if your not human then surely you must have overheard what we spoke of. Specifically.. My name, I ask that you keep it to yourself.”

Valon leaned up off the counter he hoped that she understood the implications or at least that if his name got out, there could be complications.

The legendary Elder Guardian Valon Valerious, was this pirate costumed, teenage pretty boy? For some reason Alice didn’t have any trouble believing him. She had heard stories about Valon back during her first few months as a vampire. In the eight months Paul had kept her locked away, he would sometimes chatter away about the amazing bloodthirsty Mezmer Guardian. Not that she had paid much attention to Paul’s yammering. At the time, she had been more preoccupied with not losing her mind.

“Well…Mr. Customer, some friendly advice… Asking someone if they’re human, can be considered… tactless. People like their secrets. Especially the ones that keep them safe…” Alice said completely serious. The amusement from before was waning. She took the ring and then stepped back, and crouched down behind the counter to unlock the safe. “I hope hundreds work for you.” She said to him as she place the ring inside, and took out three stacks of bills. She placed the money in a blue paper shopping bag that had Treasures of Time in silver script on the front. After a few second of deliberating she also tossed in her business card.

She stood up and held out the bag for him to take. “Pleasure doing business with you, and considered it all forgotten.” She said calmly. If he was here that meant whatever was happening in Ruxbury was bigger then she had thought, unless he was here for something else?

Valon took the bag silently, perhaps he had been a bit too forward on such a subject, after all there were far too many dangers in this world. One can forget that when you spend to much time staring at an ancient brick wall in a converted dungeon. He opened the bag and looked inside, he didn’t bother to count the money, it didn’t matter as much if it was all their perfectly, he just needed it to fit in more around this town until he resolved this situation and returned to Rome. He noticed something foreign among the cash, it appeared to be a card, he reached in and turned it over in the bag and read it. He looked back up at Alice, turning his head he looked around the store but no one was around still and no one seemed to be outside within view.

“I don’t have much skill or tact when it comes to talking, I can be rather forward and even more so being I am in such a… new place. I think an apology might be in order… I am not good with… apologies so I will make up for it another way.”

Valon moved forward, farther out of sight from the door and reached down removing the black ring from his finger. His appearance changed instantly, the teenager gone replaced by the older man. It was only for a moment his Olive eye’s glowed just ever so slightly before he slipped the ring back on his finger and the teenage boy appeared before Alice.

“Perhaps… now, we're even. Thank you.”

Valon simply nodded without so much as another word and strode towards the front door to the shop.