A Haunting [Don]

[bloodsuckergirl]

Adélaïde walked down the street, humming one of her favorite songs. It was about a sailor who was in love with a girl. He loved the girl and the sea equally, so he was torn between sailing and staying on land with his sweetheart. In the end, he is on his ship on his way home, when a huge storm hits them and the ship sinks. It was terribly tragic, but the melody was lovely, haunting.

Her stilletos clicked on the pavement, echoing off the walls of the alley, creating an eerie echo. She smelled something she could not place. She started to hum louder to calm her nerves. Then she whispered the poem Eduoard always said to her when she was afraid:

"Step follows step.
Hope follows courage.
Set your face toward danger.
Set your heart on victory."[/center][/color]

[don]

Don listened to the melody being hummed in the distance. It seemed so familiar, yet he could not place it. He had lived a long time, picked up many songs, but this one seemed to strike some more personal memory. He closed his eyes and sat quietly on the step, trying to remember. His eyes flashed open. Oh yes, that song was a good old one. His sister’s friend Georgia used to hum it whenever the three went to the port in London. She insisted her father made it up, but of course he hadn’t. Don knew this because she was always making up words to go along with the song.
Don started to hum it as well, his deep voice echoing gently against the alleyway. He stopped abruptly. “Who’s humming that?” he called, standing and looking from one end of the alley to the other.

[bloodsuckergirl]

Adélaïde almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the man's voice come out of the darkness. She swung around, her huge brown eyes scanning the darkness. She caught the scent of a vampire, and walked toward it.

When she was close enough to see the man's face, she answered his question. "Adélaïde D'aubigne. What's your name?"

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[don]

Don grinned, fangs sinking like icicles among his other teeth, all as white as his skin. His skin itself looked bleached and creamy, but almost blue in the shadows. This night he wore a mismatched suede jacket and black Doors band t-shirt along with ratty old jeans. He looked like somebody’s father wearing his son’s clothes, but since he just wanted to walk, he hadn’t dressed for social hour.
“M’name’s Don,” he said, extending a cold hand. He came out unprepared for the winter night, but the cold made him feel away.
“Are you out for a walk too? Or are you out hunting?”
She was pretty and looked quite young. If he and Elizabeth had conceived a child when he was still human, she might have been around this vampire’s age. People had children so young then. Life went by so quickly.

[bloodsuckergirl]

"Not hunting. Just walking. I eat animals, not humans." She sneered at his apparent hunger for humans. Disgusting, she thought. "Would you like to take a walk?" she asked. It was only polite, after all.

Her silky skirt swirled around her thighs as a small breeze brushed by her. She put a hand down to smooth it, and to keep it from flying up too far. It had taken her years to get used to wearing short skirts. When she had been human, wearing anything above the ankle was forbidden. Now girls went around showing off everything, even their chests. Although she did have to admit that she liked the modern clothing and how flattering they looked on her.

[don]

Don returned her sneer with one of his own, turning his back to her as if to leave, walking a few steps, then changing his mind.
“Keep your saintly looks to yourself my dear vegetarian,” he said turning back to her with hellfire in his eyes. He hated vampires with attitude. Especially ones as innocent in appearance as this creature standing before him.
“And no, I would not like to go for a walk,” he added, leaning forward with a smug smile twitching at his lips.
“In fact, if walks were meant to be peaceful, you are the last vampire I would want to walk with.
Because you - you make me very, very NERVOUS.”

[bloodsuckergirl]

Adélaïde stepped back slowly, then looked at him appealingly. "I am sincerely sorry if I have offended you, sir. I'm afraid I often force my beliefs on others without thinking of how it may offend them. Please excuse my insolent behavior." She put on her most innocent puppy face, hoping to be forgiven. She was lonely and bored, and needed something to do. Although if he really was going to be this rude, she could always go to the bookstore, and check out the newest books. She watched his face to determine what his intentions were, waiting for his reply.

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[don]

Don shrugged, smiling mildly. The breeze felt cool and refreshing on his skin, calming him. He did not usually get so easily annoyed, but maybe it was the boredom he had felt that day. When nothing happens, it’s hard to wear out negative energy.
“I understand. Truthfully, I’d much rather talk with you than wait here and sit.”
He offered her his arm.
“Shall we?”

[bloodsuckergirl]

Adélaïde wrapped her arm around his, and they set off. She strolled along, enjoying the silence. She was tired, and didn't really want to have to have the burden of coming up with something to say. She waited for Don to start the conversation, and in the meanwhile busied herself by examining the distant surface of the moon.

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[don]

"So we're basicly walking without really knowing eachother," Don said as they turned a corner. The moon was a slice in the sky that night. Like a cut into the blackness with white light shining through. Don had always preferred this kind of moon to a full moon. It felt real to him. Unlike the legends attached to the full moon – superstitions attached to things like black cats, midnight, and run-down houses. All that was myth.
“Tell me what you like to do, where you go. What you do every night when sundown comes.”

[bloodsuckergirl]

"Hmm...." Adélaïde thought for a moment. "Well, during the day I read and paint or draw. At night.... Hmm. I walk around- like this- or go hunting in the forest, or just lay around and watch movies or read books. I'm afraid I have a very boring life. Oh, and I research various things on the internet, or go shopping, on the internet of course. Nothing else really. What about you?"

[/size]

[don]

"I'm a creature of habit," Don admitted, "Mostly I just feed and sleep. I'm a grown toddler. I suspect it's my fault that sometimes I get bored. But how many years old are you? I know that some vampire can live for thousands of years without life becoming dull."

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle dropped the corpse she was clutching by the neck. Having drained that one dry, she moved onto her next victim. This one was female, mid twenties. Giselle pushed herself up against the brick wall of the alley and waited for the woman to pass before Giselle seized her from behind. She sank her fangs into the flesh of the lady's neck and fed hungrily. After that, she picked up both bodies as if they weighed the same as styrofoam and hoisted them into the dump.

This was the beginning of Giselle's nightly routine; catch a few mortals down an alley, attack someplace where she could draw attention to herself, make herself known and then escape back to her grand mansion. This routine never ceased it's pleasure. Her main goal was to make herself known throughout Paris before she went to North America to start fresh.

Giselle examined her ring, she made a mess of the diamond and that was some rock. She licked the blood clean off of it and shuddered, cold blood, the worst. A little while away from the alley, she heard the unmistakable hum of a woman. She was heading for the very alley Giselle was standing in now. She supposed she had time for one more. In the corner of the alley by the dump, she hid in the shadows and waited for her victim to approach.

To her disappointment, it was a vampire, most likely doing the thing Giselle was doing, hunting. However, this was Giselle's turf, she claimed it her own and she would not let another vampire hunt here. When she was about to make herself known, another vampire entered the alley. She knew the scent well, and the voice that hummed along with the female vampire, it was no one other than Don Foremen, the gentleman she met in a garden.

She listened to the conversation being exchanged between the two vampires. Adélaïde, the female, was, in fact, not hunting. Still, Giselle didn't want her here. She was on a tight schedule. When Adélaïde mentioned that she didn't hunt humans, Giselle had to restrain herself from punching the metal of the dump. She scowled and pushed her fangs into her tongue to avoid swearing. She dug her long, crimson nails into the skin of her arms. What a stupid vampire, only to hunt animals. Giselle couldn't stand that. Adélaïde shouldn't be a vampire at all, she didn't deserve the gift.

Vampire's were created to specifically take mortal lives, not filthy animals. She didn't like this girl already. With some difficulty, she forced herself to stay put in the shadows, wanting to see what Don would do. She was relieved that Don wasn't keen on the idea either. And Adélaïde's attitude did disgust her. She was too perky and sweet, everything a real vampire wasn't. She cringed when Don offered her his arm and then she accepted and the two began walking.

Giselle took off after them, following from a good distance so they wouldn't detect her. They made small talk and frankly Giselle was bored. She took the moment after Don returned his answer to his own question to finally make herself known. She made her footsteps grow louder and she walked until she was mere feet away from them.

She pushed them apart, coming to stand in the middle of them both. She wrapped an arm around Don's shoulder’s and smiled wickedly. "And me monsieur Formen? I'm a true vampire to my kind. I take mortal lives and I enjoy it. I simply can't stand vampire's who are afraid of what they are so they resort to hunting animals. You just have to face the facts, we're beautiful monsters created to destroy mortals," she said, scowling in Adélaïde's direction.

[bloodsuckergirl]

Adélaïde sneered at Giselle's scowl. "Perhaps my kind are the stronger- we resist the urge to become murderers." She spat the words in the girl's face. "I am not a bad person. I do not believe that eternal life should cost me my integrity. I have more pride than to let myself become victim to my every whim and desire." She turned back to Don, and replied to his question. "To answer your question," she accentuated the word to make sure Giselle knew she was not wanted, "I am 112 years old, last February. Older than both of you, I believe. A few of my friends who live in England are over a millenia old." She took her much superior age seriously and looked down at Giselle, feeling a bit better.

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[don]

OOC: I don’t believe Giselle meant that she saw Adélaïde cringe. She was saying that Giselle cringed when she saw Don offering Adélaïde his arm, as an example of her disgust.

He couldn’t hide his surprise at seeing Giselle, although he didn’t mind her coming out of no where. He could appreciate an interesting entrance, and welcomed her entertainment. He grew bored when it came to speaking of himself. Many years ago, he’d have thought that so many years experiences would make conversations brilliant, but humans can’t appreciate it, and vampires have heard it all already. A vampire could write an interesting autobiography, but the mysteries of life were meant for a professor’s classroom.

Don used to love to teach. He had such faith in life and the fruits of the human mind and the students were so eager to learn, as if the concept of an education were new to them. Teaching English allowed him to press the creative minds of his young students, making them step out of their traditions and recognize the reality behind the language. He allowed this and they gave thoughts as valuable as any he could think of himself. One of his favorite exercises with new students was to bring in a shocking or controversial poem and get them excited about it, often creating a catalyst for an enthusiastic debate.

This instant competition between Giselle and Adélaïde reminded him of this, but with such a dangerous potential. The classroom provided a safe hole where people could escape reality, a padded wall between two rivals, but the street had no such barrier.
“Giselle,” Don said, turning her to face him with a mischievous smile.
“It’s nice for you to come see me, luv. Special occasion?”
He turned his attention to Adélaïde and shrugged, dark eyes shadowed under the bulk of the night.
“There is no ‘your kind’,” he told her, “There are simply vegetarians and carnivores, just like mortals categorize themselves. There is no shame in denying your vampire instincts, only in attempting to defend your actions.”

Personally, he saw no point in choosing between animals and humans. There were all animals and all their lives weighed the same. The difference was a point of intelligence. Don looked at the world as a food chain. Vampires were above mortals, like lions were above deer, or lizards above crickets.