I'm sorry for the long wait. to be honest this story isn't my favourite, I only come around to it now and again because I know some people actually like this stuff.
admittedly, against alot of remarks that the story is moving too fast, I feel the need to inform you all that nothing drastic will take place until all the characters have been properly established.
there is nothing I hate more than one dimentional characters that just fall in love, overcome a life-threatening crisis, and mate for life within the first week of an imaginary time-span.
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He could have sworn it was a baby, no, a child crying. it was faint, and lasted only for a second, but he was sure he heard it.
The grandfather clock in the hallway stopped ticking. The pendulum stopped moving. In the kitchen, a droplet of water that had just fallen from the tap was suspended in mid-air. Frozen in time.
His vision suddenly fogged up and he stumbled before reaching the first step. he reached out to grasp something to steady himself and with a sigh of relief he felt his hand close around the railing.
What was going on in this house?
was he losing his grip on reality? perhaps he was just overworking himself. yes, that's it.
He sat down on the bottom step, trying to rid himself of his disoriented state. It took him a couple of seconds to realise something was lazily moving in his peripheral vision, as the realisation struck him he jerked his head around but it was gone.
he stood up quickly, his gun at the ready. He definitely saw something. His mind was not playing tricks on him. There is was again!, He spun to face it, but once again, it had vanished. then it began anew, eerie and heartbroken, he heard the child cry from upstairs.
Victor followed the voice and went upstairs, slowly, checking behind him with every step he took. He resisted the urge to rush to the crying child.
He hadn't checked the second floor yet, so he cautiously stepped up on the landing, his paranoia flaring and his gun at the ready. In Victor's eyes, There were many terrible and sad things in this world, and at the tip of the summit, traumatised and abused children ranked first.
The landing was at the end of a long hallway, there were three doors, the one at the opposite end of the hallway was slightly ajar and it was where the crying came from.
Victor walked slowly towards it, checking the other two doors as he went. The doors swung open silently, almost as though they floated open.
The rooms were neat. The beds made and laundry folded, but they were empty and dusty, devoid of any presence. The light coming in from the window cast an oddly bluish hue to the rooms, further adding to the feeling of abandonment the place had.
Victor noticed for the first time since his vision fogged that nothing seemed to be as solid and concrete as it was just several minutes ago. The feeling was oddly reminiscent of lucid dreaming. He shook it off and continued to the last door.
It swung open as silently as the other two did, and the crying suddenly faded into silent whispers. There was someone else there with the child! Victor immediately feared for it.
"Come on out with your hands where I can see'em!" He ordered, his gun cocked and ready. The whispers continued, either unaware of him, or simply ignoring him.
"Detective gothello of the local PD! I am armed and coming in" He said curtly and cautiously edged into the room, his gun held close, ready to hold out and shoot.
What he saw nearly made him shoot himself in the foot.
The room looked like it belonged to a little boy. There were little action figured on shelves everywhere and the bed frame was shaped like a red camaro. The room was lit by the same strange blue surreal light streaming in from the windows. But that was not the source of his surprise.
In the corner next to the closet crouched a little boy, sniffling, but Victor could not see his face, for infront of the little boy crouched a young lady, her long red hair falling past her waist and touching the floor. She was facing the little boy, consoling him with soothing whispers and stroking the top of his head.
Victor approached the pair quietly. He had the distinct impression they could not see him for some reason. When he could finally see the little boys face, he was no longer sobbing and was smiling a little. He had curly blond hair and oversized light-brown eyes.
The girl was breathtaking. Her amber eyes were the colour of his favourite whiskey. She was olive-skinned and wore a white cotton shirt coupled with black worn Jeans. Her feet were bare and had very dark grass-stains on the bottom. He longed to touch her hair. But something told him not to.
He stood and stared at her. She wiped a tear that was sliding down the little boys cheek and kissed his head. He nuzzled into her embrace mumbling something in his cute little voice that sounded like "angel". she begun to hum a strange song as she affectionately stroked his head over and over while he played with a strand of her red hair until he fell asleep.
She stood up slowly and carefully walked over to the bed. Quietly she tucked the little boy in, kissed his cheek and whispered "Sleep well, Seth" in an odd accent before she disappeared out the window.
Victor stood flabberghasted. He walked up to the sleeping boy and his hand hovered over the childs cheek. But before he could touch the child however, he noticed the calendar pinned onto the wall over the bed. It was dated year 1993.
Aghast, Victor looked down at the child and surmised that he could not have been older than five years of age. He shook his head, suddenly coming to his senses. This was a crime scene for fucks sake! This child should not be here.
As Victor reached down to touch the little boy, the moment his fingertip came into contact with the child's hair, the entire room lurched and Victor knew no more.
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They Placed the still breathing but unconcious "gift" at her door and waited for her to come home in an alley, across the street from her building. She was away for some time.
Two, perhaps three hours later, they saw her get off the school bus, followed by a human. Ray was smiling and spoke to him in a most animated manner.
Grim looked apprehensive. Graze looked annoyed, with a hint of jealousy permeating his angular features.
"Who is that, do you think?" Graze asked, his annoyance becoming apparent to his twin.
Grim looked thoughtful for a few seconds before snapping his fingers knowingly. "I know!, She's just playing with him before she moves in for the kill"
Graze crossed his arms, His features now in an identicle thoughtful expression.
"That is so unlike her. She used to get impatient with us for doing that kind of stuff"
Grim smiled devilishly. "Maybe she got bored with the good old pounce-n-kill"
Still, he felt it was unfair that she was indulging in the very thing that she used to scold them for, that being "Don't play with your food!" usually followed by a sharp slap on the back of the head.
The twins watched as she entered the building along with her assumed prey. They then snuck out of the alley across the road and had a silent brawl over who got to climb the giant pipe that ran down the length of the building first.
After much cursing and death-staring at eachother, they were crouched outside her balcony and could see into the stairway window near by.
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Ray sensed something as soon as she got off the bus. The familiar prickling sensation on the back of her neck alerted her at once. Though she sensed no immediate danger, she kept on the alert. Being followed often ended in violence, she knew from experience.
Wait, what experience? She had no memory, but she felt elated over the meagre discovery about herself.
She understood that this feeling was something she had long been accustomed to.
She decided not to mention anything to Seth though. He would probably just overreact anyways.
She decided to keep him close however, so she convinced him to accompany her to her own apartment for a change of clothing before heading over to his.
They had established a daily routine of first homework, then eating dinner while watching horror movies at Seth's.
Seth quickly understood that her taste catered more to horror movies since she once gave him the silent treatment for a whole day (even during meal times) after he had attempted to show her various chick-flicks, of which envolved disgusting amounts of romance and drama, and to Ray's horror – "no one ever dies! Not even the annoying ones!".
Seth was at first hesitant to accompany her, afraid to see what she may have done with the den of evil that he cleansed upon their first encounter, but gave in after a deathstare that made him change his mind in 0,35 seconds.
Her nose twitched upon entering the building. The scent was curiously familiar. She saw a flash of amber eyes shadowed by thick black brows for a split second. Someone she knew from her past, she thought, excited. Perhaps they can answer her questions.
But her excitement faded as she realised that the scent was growing faint the further up the elevator went. Whoever it was, was no longer here, her heart fell.
When the elevator came to a halt at the seventh floor and the doors parted however, a different scent engulfed her. Fresh kill. No more than half an hours death. She had trouble not salivating. It smelled delicious.
As they walked out of the elevator, she looked for the source of the scent and found it laying on her doormat. A large and beautiful hare, laying in a pool of it's own blood.
Seth, who came out right behind her took a second longer to notice the "gift". Ray was ecstatic, this was the equivalent of a love letter. But even better, an edible love letter. She smacked her lips and approached the edible love letter but was instantly jerked back by a disgusted and nauseated Seth.
"holy shit! That is just disgusting!" he raged.
Ray almost bit his hand off out of reflex and felt a stab of annoyance towards him before recalling that Seth wasn't normal like she was. He was very strange, even among other strange people.
"cover your eyes and get back, I'll take care of it" he said in a strained voice. She knew he was trying to be nice, but it did nothing to improve her mood as he scooped up the dead rabbit using two pieces of notebook paper to avoid touching it directly with his hands and tossed it down the garbage shaft.
She was having trouble concealing her annoyance. ~ a perfectly yummy kill... thrown... garbage ~
He mistook her expression and tried to comfort her. She just sighed in dispair, sadly eyeing the shaft lid over his shoulder as he hugged her.
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Outside...
Grim and Graze were livid. How dare he throw it away! She ought to rip his head off for that! What an outrage!
Both almost lost their footing as they initially scrambled in attempt to rip Seth's head off for the offence. Only the shock of Ray's continued silence calmed them.
