OTA

[miss_ives]

Vanessa had always had sharp instincts, and had long since learned to follow them. That night, as she walked home after dark, there was that odd pinprick on the back of her neck. Someone was watching. And as it lingered, she trusted that she wasn't simply being watched, but actually followed.

Her heart beat a little faster as she picked up the pace, cursing the fact that she was far from any busier street.

London, her home, the city she knew and loved, suddenly felt like a strange, dark, dangerous place. The lampposts felt less efficient than normal, and her steps on the pavement sounded louder than they ought to. She glanced back and saw three men a few yards behind her, hardly more than dark figures, doing nothing to hide themselves.

When she turned into the next street over and they were still following, her mind was made up. She stopped walking and turned around, a forbidding look on her pale features.

The three men slowed their steps but eventually came into clearer view, stopping a few feet from her. They were even paler than her, with sunken, abnormally clear eyes, and they felt wrong to her. Not, she reflected, unlike Mina had.

"What do you want with me?" she demanded.

They shared a look, and the one in the middle replied, "We don't want anything with you. We're not allowed. Our Master, however..."

Their Master. Mina had used that word as well. "Where is he?"

"Do you want to meet him?" the same one offered, stepping slowly nearer Vanessa.


((Feel free to stumble across Vanessa having a chat in a dark street with some vampires, Penny Dreadful style! They'll probably attack you if you try to jump in and get her away from them. Good times!))

Comments

[kersenjr]

Bonnie wanted to scream, but she didn't get a chance. She panicked, kicked, scratched and grabbed at the other vampire, but it was useless.

[miss_ives]

"She'd be trouble," the other creature - vampire - replied, doing nothing to stop his companion.

So it was up to Vanessa to do something. She closed her eyes in resignation, even as she called out to that part of her that knew the language and the spells, despite never having learned them. They were a part of her, much as she sometimes wished they weren't. Sometimes; she was no more willing to let that young girl die than she had been to let Felix be consumed.

The words rushed out of her mouth much like an unstoppable torrent, the language an old, forgotten mix of other tongues, rough and violent. Her soul sang with the release of the evil spell, and as it culminated, the vampire holding the girl made a strangled noise. He seemed to be losing weight, until there was nothing but skin on his bones, and then desiccated to the point that when he fell to the ground, he crumbled into dust.

Vanessa turned her dark gaze on the remaining two. "Run, and do not come near me again." They seemed frozen in place, and so she raised her voice as she repeated the one word. "Run!" This seemed to snap them out of it, and they did as they were told.

[kersenjr]

Once Vanessa’s spell started to work, Bonnie stopped struggling and stared at the vampire in frozen horror. She could feel the hand wrapped around her throat drying down to nothing more than leather and bone. She looked into his eyes until he didn’t have eyes anymore. As soon as she could breathe again, she screamed. She wanted to get as far away from the dead man as possible, but with the mess right in front of her all she could do was press herself harder backwards into the wall.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa's focus stayed on the fleeing creatures even as the girl screamed. Everything about her seemed sharper and darker in that moment, and she could hear her old friend's voice warning her about the use of the Verbis Diablo.

But she could not have let the girl die.

Once they were out of sight, she closed her eyes and breathed in shakily, taking a moment to try to compose herself. Then she turned back around to the child.

[kersenjr]

Bonnie was pressed up against the wall and shaking, still too much in shock to do anything except stare at Vanessa with wide, frightened eyes.

[miss_ives]

"I'm not going to harm you," Vanessa told her, trying to sound less shaky than she felt. "But they were going to."

A wave of nausea went through her, but she fought it down mercilessly.

[kersenjr]

"What the fuck," was all Bonnie managed to choke out, with an edge of hysteria in her voice. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact the pile of dust in front of her used to be a person.

[miss_ives]

"Do you live very far?" Vanessa asked. She ought to see the girl home, if she would let her.

[kersenjr]

"How the fuck did you do that?" Bonnie asked, completely ignoring the question. She sounded like she was close to bursting into tears.

[miss_ives]

"Dark magic," Vanessa answered honestly. She wished she had not had to resort to it, but she could not have let them kill the child.

[kersenjr]

"No shit," Bonnie said. She was still standing pressed up against the wall, too horrified by the mess in front of her to move.

[miss_ives]

"I don't mean you any harm," Vanessa reiterated, watching the girl with concern.

[kersenjr]

"You exploded that fucking guy." It was going to take her a while to process this.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa was quite certain she had done nothing of the sort, but it was perhaps not the best time to argue about the exact manner in which she had annihilated the creature. "I wasn't sure what the magic would do," she simply answered, forcing herself to look up from the pile of dust he had turned into.

[kersenjr]

"Holy fucking shit," Bonnie said, her voice breaking and tears welling up in her eyes.

[miss_ives]

"Is it best if I leave you?" Vanessa asked, although she did not like the thought of it. But she was not certain that she wasn't making things worse.

[kersenjr]

Bonnie just cried for a moment, then asked, "Why were those guys following you?"

[miss_ives]

"I don't know," Vanessa answered. It was the truth; she did not know why, although she suspected part of the truth, she surmised.

[kersenjr]

Bonnie was quiet for a second, looking down at the dust that was clinging to her clothes. "There's bits of the guy on me."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa wasn't sure what kind of answer to make to that statement, inaccurate though it sounded. "Will you be all right?" she asked instead.

[kersenjr]

"I don't know," Bonnie said, her voice breaking with emotion.

[miss_ives]

"Will you let me walk you home?" Vanessa asked.

[kersenjr]

Bonnie wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't particularly like the idea of spending more time in the company of somebody who'd just killed someone else with black magic, and she didn't want to have to explain to Kersen who the woman was, but she didn't want to be alone, either.

"Sure. Whatever." She was still standing in the same spot, against the wall with the dead vampire's remains in front of her.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa was reaching the end of her patience, as it turned out. Responsible though she would have felt if the vampires had killed the girl, she could still feel the verbis diablo clinging to her like a film of something oily and wrong. The dismissive, sullen teenager attitude was fraying her already shot nerves, and she had just lost what might have been a chance of helping Mina.

"Where do you live?" she asked, somewhat still keeping a hold on herself.

[kersenjr]

"In a house," Bonnie said. She wasn't intentionally being a smartass. She was still in shock and her mouth seemed to be running on autopilot.