Boulevard of Broken Shadows

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Diana

LOOK HOW CALM SHE IS
Original poster
ADMINISTRATOR
MYTHICAL MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Not accepting invites at this time
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per week
  2. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
10AM - 10PM Daily
Writing Levels
  1. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
Genres
Romance, Supernatural, Fantasy, Thriller, Space Exploration, Slice of Life
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I woke up in the morning with a hangover and twenty questions. My shadow looming over me like one of those old creepin' coroners in the old west. Gabbin' at me before I could even down a cup of coffee. Not even my ex wife talked that much. Though, the woman barely spoke three words to me before I left...

It doesn't matter. She disappeared in the blink of an eye. My shadow, not my ex wife. Can't be too sure where she vanished off too, but I'm grateful for the time to think. I got a family looking for a missing girl, and I'm not too sure how many missing dames I can juggle at once.



Sebastian Fox was sitting in his office, nursing his sixth cup of coffee during the rainy October afternoon. The skies outside were so overcast, one could mistake it for evening. But he was keeping an eye on the clock. He needed to get out of his office. Strewn across the top was a layer of papers. Lists of names with all of the people currently residing on the island. Photos where he could get them. Addresses of business. His journal near toppling off the far edge and being balanced precariously by a jar of pens.

Last night had been a joy. A real humdinger. Not everyday a shadow pops up asking for help. But he already had one missing girl to deal with, looking for the identity of a shadow with no memory wasn't high up there on his list. His coffee mug clonked on the desktop as he pushed away in his chair. Sebastian shrugged on his jacket, warily looking around his office for that shadow again. She'd be around here somewhere. He wasn't lucky.

Sebastian stepped out of his office in to the drizzly afternoon.
 
Alex tapped his pen against the corner of his desk a bit in between writing lines on his latest report for the Paranormal Enforcement Bureau.

"...the imps in question have been detained and sent back to their dimension of origin. Our inter-dimensional agents are still working on recovering the items stolen. At the time of writing the items remaining consist of a wedding ring, various cleaning supplies, and for some reason the family's doghouse. Thankfully the dog itself was not present at the time of theft..."

Alex shook his head and signed, "Imps...I hate imps," he wandered over the the window as the wind pushed the rain at just the right angle to batter his window. There had been no special cases recently. He hadn't seen any of his friends or old colleagues in two weeks. He reached for his umbrella and thought briefly about going out. Deciding there was nothing better to do, Alex stepped out into the rain and stood on the curb as he opened his umbrella and observed up and down the road, "Weird...lots of people outside considering the weather."
 
The two orderlies made their way down the hall, briefly stopping at each door to check in on the patients. It had started to rain outside when their shift began, and they were both glad to be inside, safe from getting soaked. They both heard a muffled laugh behind one of the doors, followed by some incoherent words. The orderlies looked at each other and shuddered. It had come from room thirty-seven, the one with several locks on the door. The patient, a former soldier, had made several escape attempts, and special precautions had to be taken to ensure he didn't escape again. "What's the deal with thirty-seven?" asked one of the orderlies. He hadn't worked here long.

"Thirty-seven? Story on him is he fought in the war, came back all balled up, thought his wife an' kid was German spies. Killed 'em right then and there. He's acted like nobody's home since then," the other orderly explained. Thirty-seven was the only patient that had terrified him. "Sometimes he talks to hisself." They walked closer to the room, peering in through the small window.

Dwight sat in the corner, his arms wrapped around himself in a straitjacket. It looked like he was giving himself a bear hug. He sat there, giggling uncontrollably. The two men looking at him through the window were wearing clown makeup; he had always loved clowns as a little boy. They stood there, making funny faces at him, making him laugh even harder. Moments later they left, he was going to call out to them, asking for them to stay, but she stopped him. She stepped out of the shadows, finger over her lips, shushing him. Nobody else could see her, but he could. He was grateful for her presence; she was going to help him break out.
 
The last good thing James has done for his descendants was when he helped Belladonna's grandfather get a job.
After that gramps got married, James saw the ceremony and thought is all was well, so he distanced himself, stayed a couple of years in Transylvania.
But now he has come back to check on his family, he can barely believe the misfortune of Belladonna.
James arrives to the island in the form of a bat swarm looking for a deserted place where he can return to his human form without drawing attenctions.
James then heads to the main city.
A sturdy, angry, determined look can be see in his eyes if you cross his path.
 
White. white. white. white. white. Everything was white. The walls were white. The pajamas she wore was white. White sheets. White furniture. Cleansing. Sterile. Maddening white. Was it supposed to sooth the fragile minds of patients? Bring a calm surrounding free from stimulation? Give you nothing to think about? Focus on? Just a big bright wall of white.

It didn't shut out the screaming.

Nor did it mask the sudden flickering of the lights. That loud buzzing sound as the power in the building went on the fritz. Suddenly all the white went pitch black dark. Haunted by the moans and startling howls of patients, excited, frightened... or just lost in their own madness.

She was starting to go mad too.

The lights flickered back on. Most of them. Two in her room were now busted out, leaving only a dim glow in her flawless white room. Finally, there were shadows. Things she could look at, focus on. Something different from the monotony.

"Time for a walk, missy. Up and at 'em." She hadn't even realized her door opened, but it was a welcome change. On her feet and stepping out in to the hall, she was left to wander on her own in the asylum halls. Precious few had that chance. The good patients. The well behaved ones that never caused any trouble, get that blissful taste of freedom. Allowed to walk up and down the halls. Sit in a common room and flip through magazines. As long as she didn't do anything crazy. Like try to escape... Oh... escaping... how that sounded like a wonderful idea...

Belladonna walked down the hall, barefoot and silent. Occasionally peeking in doors to see what there was to see. Her only opportunity to see something other than white, white, white.
 
James arrives in the town and looks around.
He should be able to feel the proximity of one of his own blood, so he focus, but he feels nothing.
He wanders around in this town looking around, he wasn't expecting this block, he's not carry a picture of Belladonna, nor does he know how she looks.
James feels a huge mystic aura all around this city, it could be blocking his connection with Belladonna, he decides to investigate this the old way, he walks into a restaurant and waits for a waiter/waitress to show up, maybe the right questions may put him on the right path.
 
Dwight was tired of his white surroundings. It was all too drab, and after the two clowns left, it had gotten boring. Dwight closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was on a beach. That was more like it. He stood up, and walked around, the soft white sound coursing over his feet. Hmm, that's odd, he thought. Why is there a door standing in the middle of the beach? Curious, he made his way over to the door, taking a good hard look at it. The sun started flickering overhead, and moments later, it went out. Several loud clicks came from the door.

Dwight turned the door knob, and peered out. Staring back at him was a gorgeous hallway, covered in moss, with flowers springing out of the ground every several feet. He much preferred being in a forest, so he walked out, taking a deep breath. There were other doors in the forest, the sounds of lovers screaming coming from behind them. Dwight snickered, he was dating a pretty young thing himself. Perhaps he should go find her? He started walking down the moss covered hallway, occasionally stopping to pick a flower for his Rosa. When he found her, maybe they could go dancing together. "She always did love to dance," he said, to no one in particular.
 
Vera looked out of the window of her small chinese resturant, her cigarette burning in her mouth as she blew smoke out of her nose slowly. She was never a fan of rain, it seemed to just take all of her will at times. It might have been the fact that her parents passed away when it was raining...or maybe because she was a fire dragon. Whatever the reason, she had a shop to run and could ont afford to be depressed.

At the moment, the place had some business. Some of the men from the mental hospital were getting lunch as were other working members of the community, she was one of the best and most affordable places to eat on the island...In fact, her only compitition was the bakery down the street which she bought from for her resturant. She turned away from the window as she took another drag of her cigarette, her heels clincking on the wooden floor of her shop as she made her way over to the hostess stand. She no longer worked in the back of the kitchen, her smoking habit having put the quality of the food at risk. Instead she had hired a hard working chinese couple that took turns in the back, both knowing how to cook the food very well.

The were old friends of her mother's and had been looking for jobs on Elswen when they had moved from the crowded blocks of New York to the smaller more open buildsing here. She gladly hired them since she herself could not be a hostess and chef at the same time. She also had hired a waiter, or waitress since honestly she could barely tell since they looked so feminine...Speaking of her waitress/ waiter...

"Erin, clean up that booth and collect your tip before I do~" She called lazily to her employee as she started to work on some papers at her stand, since she couldn't sit down at her desk to do the expenses like she would have prefered. Though she may of sounded a bit mean she really wasn't, Erin had been one of her best decisions she had ever made, ever if she could never tell his or her gender half of the time. She cared for him or her like a sibling if she could say, though she may have actted more like a pushy boss than anything else.
 
Long, slender legs like Kel's never stopped moving for even a moment when they were in Vera's restaurant, working the tables and tantalizing the male customers. At the moment they were twice as tantalizing, wrapped around the waist of a fine young gentleman.

"Sh-shouldn't we go some place private?" the man stuttered as Kel kissed and nipped at his neck. "A-and d-dinner first?" His voice broke when Kel's legs drew him closer.

"Dinner sounds great." A smirk crossing Kel's beautiful face, he slipped a hand up to the gentleman's nape and leaned in for a kiss. As their lips touched, he felt that familiar spark. No, not love. Life energy, pooling at the man's mouth, ready for the taking. And oh, how Kel took. He drew back from the kiss, a stream of life energy like vibrant blue fog reaching from one mouth to the other. Kel breathed the dose in and let his mouth slip shut for a moment while he savored the high. Then he unwrapped his legs from the gentleman and fixed his waitress uniform.

But as he turned for the door, "W-wait!" the man called weakly. "What about dinner?"

Kel considered for a moment, then decided it wasn't worth it. Everyone knew Kel was friends with Jason but a romance was only rumored. He didn't want to seem taken or his job as a waitress at Vera's restaurant would become less entertaining. Besides, this man had lived his usefulness to Kel and wouldn't be able to take another feeding. He'd die for sure. "No thanks," Kel purred as he turned back around. "I'm full."

He left the bathroom just in time to hear Vera chide him for leaving his tables unattended. "Yes, Miss Vera," he sang in reply and swept past the woman to do as he was told. His feet didn't hurt anymore, thanks to that little feeding, but he was coming to the end of his shift and he was grateful for it, despite the fact that he liked working there. It gave him something to do when Killian was busy and having the money to spend on whatever he wanted was definitely nice. Vera wasn't so bad either, regardless of how bossy she could be. But she was also motherly and Kel couldn't even count with his fingers and toes combined how many times she'd shown that side of her.

"And must you use that name?" he whined as he set dirty plates on a tray and wiped down the booth's tabletop. "I've told you a million times. It's Kel."
 
Vera glanced up just in time to see her employee wander out of the restroom, an innocent and confused looking young man following out a few minutes behind him, going unnoticed by most except her. She rolled her eyes a bit before looking back down at her expenses once again, having gotten used to Erin's sudden "breaks" to get with a random customer. At first she had been rather surprised by her employees need to get close to someone but she got over it soon, Erin brought in so many customers that she had to hire a second waitress to keep up, though most of the customers only came when Erin worked...

A small smile came to her face when Erin whined to hwe about using her real name instead of the name Kel that he or she prefered. She looked up at her waitress, taking note that a few customers were taking great interest in Erin's back side and quickly sent them a warning stare which made them look away. She set her pen to the side and grabbed some rolled silverware and placemates and held them out to Erin to replace on the table as she spoke to him or her plainly, slipping a hand under Erin's chin in a motherly manner.

"You're application says Erin, Your name tag says Erin and I'm certain your parents named you Erin...So I shall call you Erin." She said as she gave a playful smile before pulling back, giving her employees face a gentle pat and walking back to the hostess stand. "However, I may consider calling you "Kel" if you promise to work a double shift for me next week on Monday~" She said with a weak smile that a child would give a parent when they wanted something.

Vera hated to pressure Erin but her other waitress pulled out on her last minute because she 'didn't like the enviornment' though she knew that the girl was just jealous of Erin. This was not the first time this had happened to Vera and she was now left with only once waitress instead of the two that she would like.
 
Hands holding the silverware and placemats, Kel struggled with himself not to yank his chin away like a brat. Pouting cutely, his gaze strayed off to the side instead of looking Vera directly in the face as she continued to tease him. It was difficult to look that woman in the eye. He might even go as far as to call it intimidating, how wild her look could become, as if she weren't quite human. Someone like Kel would never dismiss that possibility.

His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment when Vera gave him a little pat. Clenching the silverware tighter in his hand, Kel turned on his heel to tend to the booth table again but then that evil woman caught his attention again. At first his mouth dropped open and he frowned when he heard Vera's words. "A double shift?!" he whined, making a childish face. But if it meant being called by his proper name instead of his given one...

With a soft sigh, he allowed a smile to form on his lips. "Alright... If it means helping you out, Miss Vera." He turned back to the table and set the places, picking up the tray of dirty dishes once he was done. His highheeled shoes clacked as he made his way for the kitchen door, pausing a moment to look back. "About Jessica quitting... I swear I had nothing to do with it."

Of course that was a lie. Not only had Jessica been jealous of Kel, but she'd had the nerve to confront him in the alley by the restaurant's back door. As he pushed the kitchen door open, he wondered how long it would be before someone found her body.
 
Vera smiled mischeviously as Erin, or Kel as she would not have to refer to him or her as, gave into her request for working the double shift. She loked back down at the expenses and started to write again, doing much of the math in her head as she called to Kel sweetly as he or she walked toward the kitchen.

"Thank you Kel~ Oh, and I'm sure you didn't chase her away with your popularity at all..." She ended a bit sarcastically, her smile only growing as she went back to looking over the restaurant.

She noticed that a new customer had wandered in and had taken a seat in a booth. He looked to be out of town for she had never seen him before at all. In fact, he looked to be completely forgien, maybe he was one of the latest arrivals just off the ships from Europe. Whatever his story was, he was a customer and needed to be tended too, and with Kel in the kitchen it would be up to her to at least get the man started. She grabbed a menu from the hostess stand and wandered over to the man slow and offically, putting her cigarette out in a nearby ash tray before stopping at his table.

"Hello Sir, Welcome to Shinmao's Cafe...Can I interest you in a menu?" She asked him politely and smoothly, actting every bit as professional as a hostess would at a five star restaurant.
 
James felt the mystical aura rise to such a degree he couldn't understand where it was comming from, after all it's not every day he came close to a real dragon, but neither could he tell, he mystical aura was so strong he's senses were confused, he tries to abstract from his higher senses and just act human.
He reaches his hand for the menu.
"Thank you very much." - he says in his accent revealing an ancient pronounce that only someone as ancient would recognise.
He then reads the menu.
"Come back in a short while please, while I make up my mind..."
 
"Of course..." Vera said as she slipped away quietly to leave her new customer to look over the menu.

She had never seen someone like that man before, in fact she was certain that he must have been a foreigner now for his accent had thrown her for a bit of a whirl. She never heard something like that before, not even the native born Russians that had come to the island sounded anything like him. It almost seemed as if his voice came from a different era. She really couldn't judge well though, she had never left the island and her only knowledge of other countries had come from her experience from the emigrates as well from her history class as a child. She didn't press her questioning for the man any further, she had expenses to do.

She returned to the hostess stand and started to work on the numbers once again, thinking over how strange this rainy day was starting to turn out. First she got a call that a waitress quit, 'Kel' was becoming a little more flirty with her customers and now there was a heavily accented foreigner in her restaurant...Ah well, she had stranger days than this, she'd get through it all the same.
 
On Main Street

With a grey fedora on to shield his head from the rain, Sebastian silently wondered why he never bothered to invest in an umbrella. Maybe it was the fact his ex-wife took everything useful he owned when he kicked her out of the house. Stepping under the cover of a shop awning, he pulled out a silver cigarette case and lit one up. Soft plumes of smoke rising to mingle in the drizzly afternoon air. Days like this reminded him of his ex-wife. The way she took all the color and joy out of the world, leaving his life a grey, miserable, squishy lump. His mouth cocked up in to a half smirk. Sardonic thoughts were not exactly his style. Must have been the lack of sleep thanks to that Shadow.

"Vermillion." he called out, as the man passed him on the street. Lucky git had himself an umbrella. Sebastian was really gonna have to pick one of those up. "Great day out for a stroll. Or on a case again?" Alex Vermillion was the only other detective on the island, outside of the local cops. Normally it would be a brutal competition, but Sebastian was aware that Vermillion's cases weren't exactly... normal. He himself had discovered there was a lot about Elswen Island that wasn't normal.


-----------------------------------------------------------

The Asylum

The power blinking in the place was causing one too many people to riot in their tiny little cells. More alarmed, a couple of the rooms had opened without warning, without supervision. People that weren't supposed to be able to get out. There was a small thrill that ran through her. Seeing this welcome opportunity for chaos, as orderlies and nurses were dashing this way and that in trying to figure out who was trying to run wild and escape. Being nonthreatening and certainly not high on their list, she passed by time and time again. After all, she wasn't acting like she was trying to escape.

As Belladonna turned the corner, her arms folded across her chest, she nearly ran in to one of those other roaming patients. She couldn't remember his name. She couldn't really remember anyone's name in this place. At the moment he was muttering about dancing, and Belladonna doubted he even knew where he was.

"Wouldn't go thaa-waaay." She muttered at him in a sing-song voice.
 
Alex looked up when he heard Sebastian call out to him. They must have been sharing a brain that day, "No, no case. Just wrapped up the paperwork on one though. I'll spare you the details. Your timing is uncanny; I was actually walking to drop on in you," Sebastian was probably one of the last people Alex knew whom Alex didn't behave differently around after the Richardson case. Maybe its because they were both a bit distorted after their line of work brought them into contact with unsettling things. Normally he'd be asking Sebastian if he wanted to go for a drink, but with the human laws the way they were right now he'd have to cross over to the Paranormal Enforcement Bureau's dimension, and he still wasn't entirely sure how much Sebastian knew about what he did or even if he had realized that Alex was an esper. Alex was fairly certain that he at least suspected. They had crossed paths a few times during the Richardson case and he was fairly certain that Sebastian had seen him use his warp blades while chasing Norman Richardson on at least two occasions.

"I just needed to get out of my office. I've had no special cases for a few weeks now. Its all thefts and minor disturbances. You know, stuff that you only need about a day or two to take care of," Alex paused as he looked Sebastian over, "You know you're only supposed to go swimming in the summer, right?"
 
"Heh. Clever, Vermillion, clever. You're one smart cat." Sebastian gave a half-hearted laugh at the joke, taking in another drag of his cigarette before tossing it to the ground and snuffing it out. He tilted his head at the sidewalk for the man to tag along as he walked.

"Always welcome a friendly stop by." As they walked, Sebastian gave a slight thought the cases Vermillion usually worked. If anyone would have an idea or at the very least a clue to his Shadow's little dilemma, it would be Vermillion. "Say, what do you know about shadowy people? Not the ghostly kind, mind you... just. Shadow people."
 
Frank whistled to himself as he walked under the black canopy of his umbrella. He didn't really mind getting wet, when in his wolf form it was a simple matter of a few shakes to get almost all the water off. Put people tended to be a little disapproving of a sopping wet human.

Still, a few drops here and there landed on his grey suit as he continued on down the sidewalk, apparently unconcerned by the rain. He was feeling a bit peckish, and as usual in a new town he was going to find a local, possibly run-down looking diner to eat at. You could tell a lot about a town by its eateries.

He stopped at a corner to light a cigarette, the only thing he seemed to want to keep dry, letting it dangle from his lips as he walked past two men. He gave them a friendly nod, tipping the brim of a nonexistent hat and saying, "Afternoon."
 
Soft, melodic laughter sounded from the kitchen and a few seconds later Kel emerged with a tray full of food in hand. "Pardon me, sirs," he said with a sweet tone once he arrived at the table that had ordered earlier, welcomed with cheerful greetings. These men were some of Kel's regulars, mostly because they were smitten with the femine waitress.

"Kel, darling! I missed you!"

He'd just set the last plate of food down when one of the men at the table snatched Kel's wrist and forced him down onto the man's lap. Normally, Kel could have easily escaped this situation, but since he was in public his hands were tied for the moment and he forced himself to play the hapless damsel in distress. "Let go of me, sir!" he growled, struggling in the man's grasp. "Where are your manners?!" Of course the table of men simply laughed and Kel was sure that they all smelled as badly of alcohol as the one holding him. Prohibition might have been in effect but few actually stayed true to the law.

And now the pig of a man holding him was licking his lips as if Kel were some kind of tasty meal. A shudder of disgust shook the young waitress when he realized the man's intentions. There was no way in hell he was going to let that smelly, boozed up pig put those lips anywhere near his! Unsure of how to slip out of this unpleasant situation without revealing his nature, Kel put on his best pleading face and glanced around the restaurant for help.
 
Vera finished her expenses just then a smiled a bit to herself, glad to finally have that mound of number done with for now. She set her pen to the side and picked up a box of cigarettes, grabbing a lighter and lighting it silently and taking a long grateful drag. At the sound of her waitress in distress she glanced out of the corner of her eye and the men harassing her dear Erin...Kel...Either way they had been causing a little bit of a distraction to other eaters and when she had seated them and even smelled a bit of alcohol.

With a swift step and a deadly glare and made her way over to the table and and reached out to grab the mans wrist, giving it a harsh squeeze so that he would let go of Kel.

"Sir,"She began in a low and obviously displeased tone. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you cannot respect the staff and other eaters."

She stared down at him with a serious expression, giving off the feeling that if she really tried she could snap his wrist in half, which she was about to do as she gave his wrist another harsh squeeze.