Call me animal.

[phantastus]

WHO: Heather Mason and Maurice Hutch (OC)
WHERE: Dogtrot, Texas
WHEN: Just easing into spring.
WHAT: What probably would have been a night spent loitering around the drug store and breaking bottles in the alley like generic malcontent youths takes several unexpected turns when a vampire hunter interrupts Maurice while waiting for his friend from up north.
RATING: Probably PG. CW for violence, mild body horror and transformation.




awsum
ill be outside where the rentareel used to be

Maurice had put out the call and now he was in his place, hands in his coat pockets. He hadn't seen his friend for a while now. One thing or another would come up (said things including worrying mothers, various injuries, and plain bad weather) and now that at least the weather had calmed its bad self down, the world was ready to be trampled again.

And what a night for it! It was clear with chilly breezes sneaking around buildings and down alleyways. An orange moon hung low on the horizon and kept the clouds far on the edges of the horizon. It wouldn't rain for two more days. Spring was coming. The tiny green shoots had just barely started poking out of the ground where there was enough actual soil instead of the red clay of Dogtrot. Crispy dead leaves still hung in the corners where the buildings met the sidewalk. Easter candy all but overflowed on super market shelves.

The vampire thought of all the things they would do once Heather got there. They could graffiti the old building marked to be torn down the following week since it was technically not illegal anymore. They could eat pizza at Tod's until they were sick. And DRANKS. And Sega. If Meranda hadn't taken over the sofa for the night. An outlet in her room had blown (or so she said) so she spent a lot of time on the sofa during her WoW raids.

Something interrupted his thoughts. He had lived in Dogtrot for years now and not a lot surprised him. He knew the local vampires, he even knew a local spook or two. He knew the drug addicts and the few homeless and what they sounded like. What he heard on that empty chilly street was none of those things.

"Quack quack!" It was mechanical. Grainy.

Maurice lifted a brow and tugged his phone out wondering if Meranda had passive-aggressively changed the ring on it again.

"Quack quack!"

"The hell...?" It wasn't his phone. Maurice pocketed it and looked all around. The quack came from an alley across the street between a now defunct QUICK CASH and what was going to be a shiny new laundromat. Maurice looked both ways and ventured forward into the gloom.

The garbage can at the end of the alley quacked. Maurice screwed up his face in thought. Broken toy that suddenly came back to life? Stranded cyborge duck?

Up above on the rooftop, a long and lean and very crafty hunter was watching his prey fall for his trap hook, line, and sinker. His father had been a hunter--a normal hunter. Deer, ducks, rams. He had watched him make odd noises to get the attention of the deer. A whistle or a click to make them stop in just the right place. Sometimes to even lure them in.

Humans were the most curious animals that he knew of and though the thing in the alleyway wasn't human (not in the slightest) he had to watch it in fascination and amusement before he made his move.

Maurice peered into the trash. There was an old Talkboy straight from the eighties in the trash quacking away.

"Oh, man, sweet!" It was all his! He reached for it. Something dressed in full army camo descended upon him and drove a thin knife into his shoulder. Maurice screamed like a wildcat and the fight began.

Comments

[toothaches]

Guilt flickered across Maurice's face--but that could have just been a reflection off the pond.

"What? Naw..." He focused hard on his fishing line and after a beat guessed that wouldn't do. "I'm plenty cool with it. I just...dunno what to expect, y'know? I'm just a little bit flammable."

The vampire looked at the traces of soot left in the creases of his palm.

[foolishwren]

"... Yeah, I get you. Sorry... if I knew what to expect, I'd tell you."

She wound the fishing line around one big pointy finger.

[toothaches]

"Trial and error, I guess...wh-woah!" Something tugged on the end of Maurice's line. He quickly stood up and started reeling. "It's heavy!"

His line didn't jerk around in the water the way it would have if he'd snagged a fighting fish. Maurice grunted and walked his line back from the bank and reeled gradually. He only had so much fishing line and he didn't want to break it.

"God, it better not be a skull this time."

[foolishwren]

Heather had already looked over in interest at the commotion, but at the word 'skull', she stared.

"... Hold up, skull? Are you planning on elaborating on that, 'cuz..."

YEAH. :I

[toothaches]

Maurice walked backwards again and repeated this strange ritual until something made the water's surface swell and then break. For a moment it looked like a muck covered skull in the moonlight but the little paddling limbs revealed it to be a turtle.

"Aw man, not you! I didn't want you!" Maurice dropped his pole and began the delicate dance of trying to get the turtle to let go of the hook. It was a little snapper and it wasn't having none of their bullshit. Luckily it wasn't actually hooked at all. "And y--don't you dare! Yeah, me and my little cousin' was out here years ago. We dragged up a skull. Figure it was the head of that prostitute that was drowned out here way before I even moved to town. This pond's haunted by the way."

[foolishwren]

Can you feel those two fiery holes burning RIGHT INTO YOUR BACK, MAURICE? Because your friend the giant shadowy bird monster is staring at you HARD.

"... You're telling me this place might have a ghost hooker haunting it, and you didn't think to mention this EARLIER?"

MAURICE IF THIS ENDS UP BEING ANOTHER HOBO GHOST SEX INCIDENT, SHE SWEARS TO GOD.

[toothaches]

"What are you scared of? She never bothered me none. Ah!" Maurice jerked his hand back and managed to miss losing the tip of his finger. He carefully grabbed the ornery little reptile by the back of its shell and flipped it back into the water. It floundered and kicked up mud before it drifted back down to the bottom.

Maurice lifted his hook up and frowned. His bait was gone. "Hmf!"

[foolishwren]

"Well, for one thing, I don't particularly like ghosts."

Sure, she'd done the ouija board thing a few times for kicks with all her stupid high school friends, but ever since a wayward spirit shoved her in front of a speeding train, she was somewhat less enamored with the concept.

"Plus, I mean... ghost hooker."

[toothaches]

"Pfff, I wouldn't worry about no hooker ghost." Maurice set about rebaiting his line. "Now if it was like...a serial killer ghost, yeah, I'd be pretty freaked out."

He looked back up and met those spooky orange eyes. How could that have any fear of anything? Honestly, Maurice felt the teeniest bit jealous--not in a malicious way. More in a man I wish I turned into that instead of a stupid dog and a flying tennis ball kind of way.

"Have you caught anything?"

[foolishwren]

But Maurice, you're so cute as a flying tennis ball!

"No, because I was distracted by the fact that there's apparently a ghost hooker."

But she looked back to the water and gave her line a tentative tug, as though she expected a skull to come up with it.

[toothaches]

Maurice threw his arms in the air. Heather just couldn't let things go! Maybe Maurice was just biased because he was dead.

"Pffff." The vampire recast his line and dared that turtle to show back up. "She's probably nice..." And then a thought hit him and he glared at her across the water. "And what the hell did you do with that shoe?"

He'd lost track of it in his little temper tantrum.

[foolishwren]

"Nice or not, ghosts are bad news."

She had turned back to the pond and swished her rod in the water, but at his question, she looked back over to him with a big, innocent circle-eyed stare.

... Only to reach down next to her and pick up the shoe from where she'd put it down.

8D

[toothaches]

"...Don't lose it." Maurice hunched his shoulders and frowned at the end of his fishing line. It was HIS shoe, dammit!

Then a silence fell between them--or a silence of voices. Frogs still peeped, bugs buzzed, night birds whistled way off in the black trees. All of the nature sounds were muted--distant. As if there were a pocket around the two monsters at the fishing hole.

"I wish I'd brought my radio, fish like music."

[foolishwren]

"I won't."

All teasing about his supposed shoe fetish aside, Heather was pretty sure there wasn't anything wrong with the shoes aside from being left outdoors to get all grody. Making sure it was still in plain view of the vampire, she leaned her head back and lifted the shoe to try and perch it on the bridge of her.... beak? She couldn't rightfully call it a nose when it was like this.

"I didn't even know fish could hear."

[toothaches]

"They gotta be able to hear! Why else would Dad always want us kids to be quiet while we were out on the boat?"

Probably so that he could have some peace and quiet to be honest.

Maurice squinted suspiciously at the pond as if it might be suddenly be swimming with lies instead of perch and the odd catfish.

[foolishwren]

"I guess."

Even Alessa had never gone fishing, despite her home in the boonies. This was all new to Heather.

"So we literally just sit here waiting for something to bite?"

[toothaches]

"Yup. It's real zen-like!" Maurice announced happily before looking back at his line.

Part of him genuinely wanted to share the nice pastime with his friend. It helped him unwind and was a good excuse to get wasted in the woods. Another part of him wanted to see just how long she could sit still.

[foolishwren]

"And like... how long does it usually take them to bite?"

In Heather's experience, nothing involving waiting was fun. And she couldn't fathom why anyone would bother with something not fun on their own time. >8/

[toothaches]

Maurice stretched his arms above his head. "Oh, hours, usually. Sometimes all night." He paused and leaned back toward the backpack. "I did bring snacks."

Something off in the woods screamed and Maurice paused to listen. The scream was joined by another. And another--a chorus. Coyotes. Something strange was in their woods and they didn't like it.

"Now what's got into them..." Maurice leaned back up and stared off into the dark trees.

[foolishwren]

When the yapping shrieks started up, the hair--or feathers-- it was honestly a little hard to tell WHICH she was covered in-- stood up on end. She whipped her head around to look in the direction of the screams, glowing eyes wide and unblinking for a moment.

The sound brought back memories, although it was a wilder sort of noise than the howling of the roving packs of double-heads she'd had to evade on the streets of Silent Hill.

"... Well, that's fuckin' creepy."

She wasn't used to being the biggest baddest thing in the woods yet.

[toothaches]

The coyotes screamed on and a frown started to form on Maurice's face. He could see Heather's hackles raised. This was supposed to be a peaceful trip!

"Some dog or something must have them stirred up...they sound really agitated."

He was tempted to fly out and see what it was, but even if she was a giant leggy crow monster, he didn't fancy leaving Heather all alone by a very haunted pond.

"Just...try to ignore 'em."

[foolishwren]

"Preeetty hard to ignore."

But she stayed where she was sitting, although she started to squirm every so often.

The effect of SITTING STILL was starting to sink in.

[toothaches]

It was hard to ignore them because as the hour stretched on the howling and yipping grew closer. They were getting brave. Maurice hadn't caught a damn thing and decided that it was time for a break. He reeled in his line and dug a couple of sandwiches out of the backpack.

He looked at the sandwiches...then he looked at Heather and her giant freak hands and nearly hurt the roof of his mouth snorting as he imagined her taking bites out of the thing.

"Are you hungry?"

[foolishwren]

"Starved."

If he was hoping for the fish in his little area to remain un-scared-off, his dreams were about to be dashed because in a few big loping steps, Heather makes her way over to the vampire and now there's a big black bird head peering down over his shoulder to see what he had.

[toothaches]

The surface of the pond rippled as the tadpoles and fish darted out of the reeds they had been lazily hiding in. They hadn't feared the vampire at all but the thing that had come into their woods...

"Wh--hey!" Maurice noticed it too and he frowned between Heather's big storky feet at the water. Then he looked up at Big Bird and managed not to shudder this time at being towered over. He offered her the tiny sandwich.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious about what happened to things she put in her mouth.