@Zanavy
Danielle blinked, frozen for a moment. She gulped. This was worrisome, startling even. Did the creature return for some reason? She did not know.
"W....who is there?"
She doubted if there would be a response. She took a step closer.

The library was indeed still closed when Jim and Creed approached, though most in the town knew the father and daughter pair that maintained the shelves often worked outside the actual hour of operation. The bolted lock switched back with a click as the door handled turned, Aleksander's half conscious expression faded to one of surprise as he registered that the young man before him was the same young boy that had been a dear friend of his daughter's.

"Creed? Is, is that really you?" The man was shocked, truly shocked.

Within the shop, Melissa came around a corner with a cup of coffee in one hand and a few books in the other. Creed? She couldn't have heard the name correctly. Creed was dead, just like his sister Molly. The creature had been greedy that year and took them both from her life. She stood almost as still as a statue, certain that this was a dream or that her father had been mistaken. She couldn't see past his broad frame and the solid entry door just yet.

@Kenshi

Aaranya Singh

Aaranya's heart beat faster at the woman's question. She was seen! The voice sounded shaky... was the quake of fear or fury? Either one could be likely. She also heard people moving, waking and walking inside the shop on which she sheltered. It was stupid, stupid to walk this road -- everyone would see!

And, of course, there were no voices to goad her on in this time they could actually be helpful. Aaranya had to be her own voice of fearful force.

Run, NOW!

Aaranya burst from her hiding place, supposedly dead girl sprinting for her life, attire whirling down the street like a lily in a hurricane.

@Vampiretwilight

@Zanavy
Danielle gasped. She was startled by the sudden movement. She froze in place for a time. She was not sure what to do, not at first. She took a deep breath. She decided to do something.

"Well....here goes nothing."

She began to run after the shadow, a human-like shadow, that had sped off.

"Wait! Stop!"
She gave chase. She hoped that she would not become out of breath before she caught up to them.

@Moonshadow
Creed shook hands with Melissa's dad, "It's good to see you sir."
Jim stepped forward, and introduced himself as well.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions you wanna ask, and I'll be happy to answer them." Creed said.
He looked over Martin's shoulder, and saw the most beautiful girl he has laid eyes on, and then it hit him, "Melissa is that you?"
Jim Thunderhawk asked if they could come inside, "We need your help."

Aaranya broke into a cold sweat as the woman shouted and chased after her. She envisioned a mob of torches and pitchforks forming behind her as she ran. Shoes clack clacked too loudly on the street. She had a head start, but her dizzy legs, her shoes. Torches. They were too fancy for running as the thing shouted and chased after her she had a head start clack clack but the distance between faded Aaranya breathed in sharp gulps. Exhausted, thirsty, pitchforks.

After a few minutes, Aaranya had to stop and lean against a gnarled tree to prevent herself from falling over. She turned halfway toward the following woman, attempting to use her frayed braid to hide her face.

"STOP! Don't come... uh... I'm a GHOST! St-stay away!"

@Vampiretwilight

@Zanavy
Danielle gasped. She tried to run faster.
"I said wait up!"
She shouted as loud as she could. Her eyes went wide when she heard how loud she was. But, she kept running. She was only able to catch up when the form suddenly stopped. This caught her off guard for a moment. She was surprised, confused even.

She was hesitant to step closer at first. This could be a stranger. But, then she heard the voice. She gasped, even louder than before, when she was close enough to see who it was in the light.

"Aa.......Aaranya??!!"

Aaranya Singh

Aaranya flinched at the figure's shout. This was the exact opposite of what she needed... all to hear, to know.

She recognized the woman, though, drifted near in the daybreak. Danielle. Aaranya had hoped to be friends with this former classmate, unfortunately met shortly before the time of hearing and watching. They rarely spoke several seasons, but they had managed to pass notes from time to time. Danielle's eyes heard her poetry.

Though the revelation of Danielle brought comfort - this one would likely not harass - Aaranya still wished not to interact with anyone until she reached home. She decided to double down. If anyone in history was ever in a position where 'I'm a ghost' seemed a believable story, it was Aaranya. She widened her eyes and sloooowly turned to Danielle with a stony stare, doing her best impression of a haunting gaze (and it was actually pretty good).

"Husshhh, mortal. I am the ghoooost of..."

Aaranya trailed off mid-sentence. She stared ahead for another second, then looked down at her feet in shame.

"...No, I'm not a ghost," she mumbled faintly. "That's a problem. Don't tell. I have to go home."

@Vampiretwilight

@Zanavy
Danielle blinked when the other girl had done a failed attempt to be a ghost. She frowned.
"Aaranya......"

She froze. She did not know what to say. Her friend was alive?! But how?! She was supposed to be sacrificed! That creature was supposed to take her away! What happened?! What was going on?!

She was more confused than ever. She was quite scared too.

"You...you're alive?!"
Her eyes were quite wide. She stumbled a bit. Her eyes were fixed on her friend.

"H....How?!"

"Of course, please come in." Alek answered as he opened the door a bit further for the pair and stepped aside.

The redhead's gaze leveled on the figures as her father stepped to the side at Jim's request to enter. She was confused for a flash of a moment, it couldn't have been her childhood friend. He was dead. Then those blue eyes met her own hazel gaze. The books and coffee cup she'd been holding slipped and collided with the ground with a loud crash and a splatter of hot liquid.

Alek abandoned the door, and the guests, immediately to rush over to his daughter. "Are you ok?"

Melissa blinked as her father neared, his presence filling her viewpoint and snapping her mind back. Hot. Ow. Her mind hissed as the recognition that she had dropped the items which had been in her hands hit. Her eyes went wide as a flush of color rushed her cheeks. "Y-yea, sorry. I.."

Melissa took a few steps back, kneeling down just as her father had to beginning cleaning up. She lowered her head to fetch shards of broken ceramic as her father tended to the books. Neither were attempting to be rude to the newly arrived guests, though some would have considered their abandonment of polite conversation to attend to books to be impolite. Creed would recall how much the books meant to the father-daughter pair, how proud they were to continue on their inherited position as the keepers of history within Warlington.

@Moonshadow
Creed walked over to help Melissa, bending down he said "Hey let me help ya."
His hand touched hers as they both went to grab the same broken piece.
Creed didn't pull his back, instead he lifted her chin up, so they could look each other in the eyes.
"Hi, I know this has to be a shock to you and your dad."

Jim followed Alek, and asked him if they had any books or documents dating back at the beginning of when this town was built, and if this was ever native American land.

" I know you have a lot of questions, and you probably would also like to punch my face in for not ever calling or writing, and I don't blame you if you did." Creed said smiling.

Aaranya Singh

Aaranya kept pressing against the lone tree, more for emotional than physical need at this point. She stayed a still silent statue for a moment.

"...I don't know," she murmured. "I did everything I was supposed to. I did my best."

Aaranya gazed off to the horizon. A slice of orange danced with mid-dawn blue. Soon more would rise and roam the roads.

The bedraggled woman lightly pushed off the tree and resumed her original path home. She passed by Danielle with barely a glance. As Aaranya shuffled a few feet past, she kept her eyes straight on the road while speaking to the woman behind.

"I have to go home. If you want to follow, I can't stop you. But be quiet."

@Vampiretwilight

@Zanavy
Danielle blinked. She tried to follow after her. She frowned, very very worried.
"Aaranya....."
The name was said in a whisper.

She was starting to resume her usual quiet tone and such. She did not run so much at the moment. But, she did her best to keep Aaranya within her line of sight.

"W....wait up...."
Her tone of voice did not change.

Aaranya Singh

Aaranya picked up the pace, spurred on by the watchful eye of the waking sun. She left the streets to power-walk through the shadows of an orchard. The girl was about to leave the shelter of nature when she froze like a doe, eyes twitching around her environment. She swore she was being followed.... oh yeah, it was Danielle. Okay.

Aaranya took one more side street to avoid passing by the library (did those people ever sleep?) and nearly sobbed as she rounded the corner to her own rustic cobblestone road. Her feet rushed forward of their own accord until she found herself tapping at the door. Aaranya stood there for an eon, or perhaps two minutes. Her eyes caught Danielle's at this time, and Aaranya responded with a nod, grateful that the woman chose to stay close rather than tell the whole town what she saw.

Worry rose like floodwaters near the end of the eon. This was not like Kabir, ever polite and formal. She pounded on the door this time. Finally, some muffled evidence of movement filtered through the walls. A minute later, a disheveled man in his mid-twenties opened the door with a look of exhausted indignation. His expression turned to blank shock when he registered the woman.

"Aaran... WHAT?"

Both siblings tried to think of words to say. Neither got a chance before Kabir embraced his sister, face remaining a mask of shock. Aaranya's own face scrunched up in tears, her limbs grew heavy and soft, finally able to let her guard down in safe harbor.

"Come- come inside," Kabir breathed, halfway dragging Aaranya across the threshold. His wide eyes seemed to look through Danielle rather than at her, but he acknowledged her presence and left the door open for the other woman who accompanied his sister for who-knows-what reason.

"What happened?" Kabir asked as he led Aaranya to the couch. "You're... of course, it's wonderful that you're here, but you're supposed to..."

Both Singhs were wordless, one seeking a proper way to speak the unspeakable, one struggling to make any sound other than squeaky sobs. Kabir directed his eyes toward something, anything else, and noticed his other guest again. Proper hospitality... that was an easier way to help.

"...You look like you had a rough night," Kabir addressed Aaranya, a little warmth returning to his voice. "Why don't I get you some breakfast, and then we can talk about it?"

Kabir breathed a sigh of relief as Aaranya answered with a silent nod. He gave his sister a kiss on the forehead and then headed to the kitchen. His racing thoughts slowed to a more manageable pace as the mundane task gave his mind something productive to do. At least, that's what Kabir tried to tell himself. Even as his quivering hands caused the bowl of oatmeal to harshly clink against the bottom of the microwave.

@Zanavy
Danielle followed closely. Luckily, it seemed as though Aaranya was slowing down now. That was good. Running tended to tire her out pretty often. She always hated gym class in school. All the running they had to do was just one reason for that, but still. Anyway, that was not important at the moment. Her friend and the fact that she was alive was the important thing right now.

Danielle would follow her all the way back to that house. She stayed quiet when the door was opened. She gasped, almost loudly, when her brother hugged her(Aaranya) and that exchange followed. She turned when when she finally acknowledged, and realized, how loud she had gotten. She quickly glanced around to make sure that no one had heard her. She sighed in relief when that was the case.

She raised an eyebrow when she saw the door left open for her. She had not expected to be invited inside. She had assumed some people, or most, would assume she was amongst those who wanted the girl to be sacrificed. She frowned as she thought about that. Anyway, she went inside. She had a seat in a small chair.

She looked between the two of them as those questions and, possible, answers were exchanged. She sighed a bit. She could not help it. Anyway, she had no answers herself. Why HAD the creature left her....alive? That was quite....odd.

She watched as the brother walked off to fetch something, breakfast she thought she had heard him say. Then, she glanced at Aaranya.

@Kenshi

Melissa's hazel gaze held Creed's blue one as her heart raced and her cheeks flushed. He was no longer an awkward teenager, then again neither was she. "You... you're not dead?"

Blinking a couple of times, she pushed him away as she rose back up to her feet and ignored the shattered coffee mug. "Six years, Creed! Years!"

She couldn't put any other words together, completely caught not only off-guard but also a bit flabbergasted. The redhead threw her hands up in the air, huffing, and shaking her head at her old friend. Her presumed dead friend not actually dead and with no contact whatsoever to let her know otherwise in six years!

Glancing at the children, as that's what they both still were in his eyes, Alek nodded to Jim and motioned towards another aisle. It was likely best to leave the pair to reconnect without on-lookers. "I have all records of the town since its creation, though it never was Native lands. From what I can tell of the records, it was avoided by the Native American Tribes. Should have been a fair warning to the settlers that something was up, but here we still stand."

Aaranya continued to gaze downward, but she could feel Danielle looking at her. After a minute, the former Sacrifice looked around for something. Aaranya stretched her arm and craned her neck in an awkward position in order to just barely reach a tissue from the end table without needing to actually move from her small claimed corner of the vast world. The woman cleaned up her eyes, blew her nose, and took a deep breath.

"I don't know what you're expecting," Aaranya mumbled to Danielle. "I said I don't know anything. I was at the fountain. I guess I fell asleep at some point. It's hard to tell what really happened and... what was a dream."

@Zanavy
Danielle sighed.
"I am....still in shock."
She took a deep breath. then, she continued.

"You were supposed to be sacrificed. I wanted to help you, after all you're my friend, but my parents and family would not let me anywhere near you. They kept a distance between us. The next morning, this morning, I was in mourning thinking you were....you know, but then, I saw you and, well, now I don't know what to think. I wonder what happened though. Did the creature change his mind and go back on our ancestors deal? Are we doomed after all? It's all....nerve-wracking."

Danielle, then, looked down at the floor, at her feet.

Aaranya Singh

Danielle had... wanted to help?

"How could you help?" Aaranya responded. "I was going..."

The woman had to take a centering breath before continuing.

"I was going to die. There's no way to help with that."

There was a long pause. Her feelings about Danielle's confessions were coffee. A sprinkle of longing sugar stirred in a bitter cup, enough to just taste the sweet before it dissolved into darkness.

Aaranya didn't like coffee. A plain glass of water would be a nice change of pace.

"I guess I'm alive now, though," Aaranya slowly continued. "Maybe you can help figure out what to do next. If there is a next."

"Tea will be ready in a couple minutes," Kabir declared as he walked back into the main room. He gently handed Aaranya a bowl of oatmeal with blackberries and cream. The woman immediately started gobbling down the meal. The oatmeal felt a little less warm than expected... it seemed Kabir had prepared for the possibility of Aaranya cramming it in with reckless abandon.

@Vampiretwilight

@Zanavy
Danielle sighed.
"If I could have, I would have snuck you out of town. Either way, no matter what, I felt....helpless. I was practically dragged off before I could do anything anyway. I...."

She started to tear up for a moment. She paused for a time when her friend seemed to ask about figuring out what to do next. She took a deep breath.

"Well...We need to think, firstly. We can not just run out, who knows what might happen. We...well...we need a plan."

She wiped away a tear just as Aaranyas' brother returned with the food for her. She blinked when she saw her gobble it down like that. She could almost chuckle a bit at the sight. She remembered her doing that when they were kids. It was a cherished memory.