- A bar, I'm not sure where it is. Maybe on Maitland Street? - (Jackie's Bar on Maitland St.)

I'm not ashamed of my job. Aside from the occasional A-hole of a customer that drifts in I actually enjoy it. Maybe i'm hypersexual. Maybe I like easy money. Maybe a little bit of both. Who's to say, I don't know myself well enough to tell. So, it wasn't the scrPpy girl's jibe that got me. No, I just don't like being challenged. Especially when I'm right.

"Okay then let me reword my tyraid." I start, it takes a good deal of my self control to not reach for my gun so as to blow her brains out. I'm trying to be a semi decent human and once again the world is makin it hard for me. Honestly, I'm beginning to think I was meant to be horrible. Life was easier back in the day when I was beating people's brains in.

"How about you get out of my car so that I can drive back to my apartment. Then, while I'm there, maybe I'll take a look in my fridge at all the food I bought with my money." The words feel good as they come out of my mouth, my tone feigns sweet and I grin at the girl from the rearview mirror. Yes, I am a lot better at being a frigid bitch than a whore with a heart. You know what? I don't feel bad about it.

The young girl turned her face to the car window as her eyes watered up. Why did comments about her lack of money hurt her so much? It wasn't as if she could get a job at her age. Either way she could tell she overstepped her boundaries.

"I'm sorry. Enjoy your fridge." she said quickly as she opened the car door and stepped out. She let it shut behind her as she half walked half jogged down the street. 'Enjoy your fridge'? What kind of a thing was that to say? She always had to stay stupid shit and get herself in trouble. She literally kicked herself as she turned the corner back into the alley by the bar. Only a few taers fell as she plopped down on the ground and leaned against the wall. She was hurt easily but she didn't cry very much anymore. After staring at the wall opposite her for far too long looking for pictures in the cracks, she pulled her knees up to her chest , ready to go into a couple hours of light sleep. She had to keep alert, you never know who might be running around at this hour...

The deserted streets were silent as a graveyard, the vacuum of the night seeming to leech away the sound that pervaded the city during the daytime. There was no moon out, only the stars serving to light the grimy back alleys. The people that usually swarmed about the busy streets and sidewalks were tucked safely in their homes, oblivious to the things that transpired under the cover of darkness, the things that wandered in the night.

The footsteps of one such wanderer echoed softly against the sidewalk, a sound that would normally be inaudible rendered a foreground noise in juxtaposition with the ubiquitous silence. Praetorious tugged at the gloves on his hands, making sure they fit snugly and securely. He focused straight ahead, his footsteps at a constant cadence, moving like a wraith through the darkness. Pulling at his long overcoat now, Praetorious' thoughts turned back to his quarry, the woman he'd seen a few days ago--- a prostitute. Praetorious had seen how her appearance changed periodically, watched the way she carried herself. He could sense something, feel something off about her, the same way he could about every Seeker. He knew.

Suddenly, a scrappy girl nearly collided with Praetorious as she ran past him, not even seeming to pay attention to where she was going. Looking over his shoulder, he could see her more clearly--- short and dirty, and still very young. Perhaps in the latter half of her teenage years. She appeared to be homeless. Praetorious kept walking. His focus was elsewhere.

Turning a corner, Praetorious suddenly found himself with a line of sight directly to an old car, parked right by a streetlight. Squinting a bit, Praetorious realized that he was staring at none other than the prostitute.

What luck.

Tracking her down (as well as a suitable vantage point) usually took much longer. Praetorious also noticed that there were other people with her. Two other men, one of whom was already in the car. Clients? He dismissed the thought quickly. She hadn't taken more than one client at a time so far, and she always used alleys and alcoves. This was something different. Taking care to avoid any streetlights himself, Praetorious fished his iPhone from his pocket, bringing up the camera function. Quietly and unassumingly, he zoomed in until he could get a decent shot, and snapped three pictures in rapid succession, one of each person at the car. That done, he retreated partially into an alley and leaned against a wall, blending in with the darkness and observing silently.

The girl hadn't had her head down for but a couple seconds when she thought she felt a presence in the alley. She shook it off at first. She had gone by a man but so what? He didn't look weird...not that she was paying attention. She got on her hands and knees and peeked out from behind the dumpster she was sitting on the other side of. She couldn't really see anyone, but she just couldn't shake her feeling. Maybe she should just get out of this particular alley...

She got up slowly, trying to pay as much attention as she could to her surroundings. She snuck past the dumpster and stuck close to the wall. Her eyes were looking everywhere but right in front of her, and just as she was almost to the exit she ran into something. She jumped back and looked up, letting out a short scream of surprise. She shoved her hand into a back pocket where one of her knives was waiting at she looked up at the imposing man.

"Wh-who are you?"


[[Ooc: yes i would like that to be Prae she just ran into XD]]

Ethan paused, looking back at the homeless girl running out of sight, and he couldn't help but feel a mixture of guilty and anxious. With a nervous glance, he glanced back at the man in the backseat, but he wasn't moving.

Ugh... He needed to take the edge off...

He flicked his cigarette butt out the window and slipped his pack out of his pocket.

"You smoke?" he asked as he put a fresh cig in his mouth.

Praetorious' calm was shattered when he felt someone collide with him from behind. He turned around to see the same ratty, dirty-looking girl letting out a startled yelp. Praetorious made note of the way her hand darted to her pocket.

Concealed weapon.

He calculated that it would take about a minute to silence her if necessary. Slightly less if she tried to brandish her knife (Praetorious assumed it was a knife) and he used it against her. All in all, she wasn't much of a threat.

"Wh-who are you?" The homeless girl asked. What an odd question. Was he really that imposing? He would have to work on that. For now, there was the more immediate problem of how he should answer the question. How would someone who was out this late at night act? Amiable and kind? Cagey? Hostile? He decided on the third, settling his features into a rather annoyed scowl. Crossing his arms, he looked down at her imposingly with his approximation of an irritated affect.

"What's it to you?"

Oh great, I just made some young girl cry. Even worse, a young homeless girl. I am a douche. I am a big ass vaginal cleaner. I watch her run off and I bite down hard on my tongue. Part of the punishment I was given down the road was a brand spanking new conscious to go with this fancy new body mine. A few months ago I would probably have laughed at this. Now? Well now I'm just a bit disgusted with myself.

"Yeah I do but. . ." I open the door and take my keys from the ignition. "Im sorry but I've gotta go find this kid." inrun my hand through my hair and throw Ethan a 'what can you do' look. "Would you mind watching drunky back there? You don't have to, I mean, it isn't too late bail out of this shit." And with that I'm off to go chase some girl I've only known for roughly ten minutes. Where in the blue hell have my priorities gone?

"Hey! Kid!" I shout as I round the corner she turned down. I'm running in a sort of jog which slows into a trot as I think I've found her. I don't even notice the man she seems to be talking to until I get closer. I chew on the inside of my cheek a bit as I attempt to remember her name. "Paige? Hey. Paige." I take a few more steps into the alley, only take a few more back. Maybe I'm just paranoid but something feels off.

"I'll watch him," he says shortly before Avery sets off in a sprint down the sidewalk. With a shrug, he gives one more glance to the man in the backseat before lighting his cigarette.

This isn't where he expected to be sitting tonight. But, what can you do? At least he was talking to people. Had been much too long since he'd done something like that.

Resting his head on seat, he gave a sigh. It would be a long and interesting night. Maybe he could look forward to it.

She backed quickly away from the man and towards the prostitute.

"Oh it's nothing to me. You just scared me is all. G'night!" the girl called a bit shakily.

After slightly brushing against the other woman to signal that she could follow if she wanted, the homeless girl turned abruptly and basically speed walked down the block back towards the car. She wasn't planning on getting back in, she'd learned her lessons for the night but there were more streetlights that way. She slowed down about halfway to the old Honda to see if Avery was catching up. Why did that man seem so strange? Paige shook it off. It had just been a long night, she was probably just on edge a little bit. She almost wished she smoked like everybody else she knew.

Praetorious blinked as the girl turned away abruptly, tossing a shaky "goodnight" at him. He hadn't expected his "annoyance" to resolve the situation so easily. Was he really that intimidating on sight? He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. It merited further exploration.

But even if she was leaving him alone, there was still the issue of a having witness. Judging by the way she reacted, he doubted that she would forget him. And while it was probably dark enough that she wouldn't have been able to see his face well, Praetorious knew he would be the first thing to come to her mind if any of the prostitute's crowd turned up dead.

Damn.

It looked to Praetorious like he would have to lay low.

But that was before he looked up and saw his quarry the prostitute walking directly toward him. The homeless girl brushed up against her as she hurried away. Did they know each other? Sisters, maybe? They didn't look to similar, but he couldn't be sure. And whatever the case, it didn't solve the problem that she was approaching them. Praetorious anticipated that she was just trying to collect the girl and wouldn't pay attention to him, but one could never be sure. Praetorious hadn't survived as long as he had by being sure of things. He leaned back against the wall so as to be as unassuming as possible.

A part of me wanted to sneer and wipe the area where Paige had brushed up against me. I suppose I'm still feeling catty. I'm going to have to break myself of this behavior. I'm older than her. While this doesn't mean I have to be a better person by defualt, it does mean I should show at least a degree of maturity.

Although the minute that kid steps foot in my house I'm locking her in the bathroom.

Looking up I notice my car from the alleyway. Now, the first thougt that peeps into my brain is something along the lines if 'awesome, that's convinient'. The second thing that pops into my head is 'why is some guy Paige seems to be afraid of standing in direct view of my car. Even worse, you probably can't seem him or me from the car. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Maybe the kid is more trouble than she's worth.

Now, it's more than likely in my nature to be passively challengig. Do I tap the man on the shoulder and try to start a fight? No, that would just be stupid. Do I turn around and follow Paige?No, my car is right there. I'm not about to just turn and walk the other way just because some suspicious looking creeper is standing on that side of the alleyway. I'm too confident in the murderer in me. As I start down the alley I wonder if, perhaps, I want him to attack me. It would give me an excuse to just call it quits on this good deed shit.

As I get closer my concious kicks in and buzzes about in the forfront of my mind. The last thing I want, no, the last thing I need is to get into a fight. I just want to go home. Besides, only an utter psyco would try to smack around a girl just for walking past him. But, if that's so, then why am I getting off such bad vibes from him?

As I pass him I can feel a horrible feeling of dread right at the pit of my stomach. I know this feeling. I've picked it up on a few people, the kind of people that aren't quit right; aren't quite human. People like me. Instead of heading straight to the car I turn my head back and look the man over briefly before turning back.

"Nice coat." I comment casually, with an undelying mocking tone. I want to stay, to maybe prod at him a bit and perhaps memorize that face of his, but I haven't got that kind of time. Besides, I won't be seeing this guy again.

"Nice coat."

The sarcasm in the prostitute's voice was about as subtle as a plane crash, and options ran through Praetorious' mind in instants. Should he respond? If so, how? Obliviousness? Apology? Or should he keep up his facade of irritability? It was bad enough already that she'd talked to him. Now she was aware of him, even if she didn't know his intentions. He was rapidly becoming entangled. Praetorious made a mental note to make himself less memorable.

As the woman passed by, Praetorious could sense something in her. Something off. Something not right. She was definitely different, that much he knew. And in her body language he could discern... aggression. A lot of it. And not the kind that came from everyday life, or even an active loathing of humanity. She'd killed before. Probably not in the same way Praetorious did, and perhaps not in as great of numbers, but he could tell nonetheless. Which gave him the feeling that she could probably tell the same about him. So how to respond? He couldn't imagine himself saying nothing. That would be odd, he thought.

"Nice dress," he responded just as sardonically, deciding that would be the retort to use. It preserved his hostile affect. It didn't make him seem out of the ordinary, either too aggressive or too passive. It seemed all in all like somewhat who wandered out late at night would say.

Praetorious tugged at his gloves idly, as if to denote that he wasn't particularly invested in his transient exchange with the prostitute. The black leather of his gloves was nearly immaculate, smooth and supple and uncreased, but he still felt the need to fix them. Some things could always use fixing.

The ride home was a little too quiet. Avery focused on the road, her jaw clenched tight, Paige was curled up on the backseat, and the drunk we picked up was drooling slightly on the armrest.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't say anything.

I hated situations like these. Even when I'm around people, tension hangs in the air like cobwebs. I didn't know what to say. This is why I couldn't make friends anymore.

Why did things like this always happen? One could only have so much bad luck. Ever since last summer he lost contact with all his friends, his family, lost his job... He even started failing all his classes, and he had always been a good student.

Ethan laid his head on the window and listened to the steady vibrations of the road passing under them. It was something he had always found hypnotizing.

How could he forget? It was ever since that mental institution. Ever since he walked in and ran out. Something about that... ruined his life.

He took a long draw on his cigarette. It gave him such a good feeling.

Before he knew it, the car suddenly slowed, and the car pulled into a driveway. They had reached the apartment.

Except there still is no noise.

My sister is crying. I can tell because her mascara is running. Wait. That's not Mascara. It's coming out of her eyes. What is that? It's not just my sister anymore. Black ooze comes out of everyone's eyes and mouth. But they keep eating. Keep indulging in their dinner. Bite after bite, the black sludge gets everywhere. What the fuck is going on?


I can't move.


Why can't I move? My arms...




They are chained down to the chair. Why? I want to move.




Let me move. I wanna move. Theyarelookingatme. Are they smiling? The Sun is gone and night fills the sky. But it's a different type of night, as the Black sun aborbs all of the light, spiraling it into a new abyss, one infinitly deeper.



Dreams reflect our subconcious right? So what does this mean? What I have forgotten? Or what have I remembered?


Did I create this prison?



I look down once more.


At the chains binding me.

At the chains.
The Chains.




My Prison.