Collab with @lilly321
The stars had begun to fade, and the black of night was slowly making way for lighter colours as the moon retreated to his home in the west. Aurora was on her way, journeying through the late summer sky, painting it in gentler colours. It would be but a few hours before the sun would rise and lit the streets of Norland and at this hour, only a few living souls still dwelled those streets. Most had already found their way back home and the ones who had remained were rarely sober. Even fewer were on their way to work, most on their way home, and some to what would be
"really night's lass pub, promize yah".
One of these souls was walking down a small street not too far away from the city centre, towards an unknown destination. She was rather thin, bony even, with short, blond hair that hang loose. The girl seemed to be in her early twenties and her pale skin was quite noticeable. She was wearing a white blouse, light blue skinny jeans and black heels with little to protect her from the nightly cold. All in all, she formed a great contrast to the dark streets around her. Oblivious to the strong wind that carried the promise of autumn with it, she walked the streets with an unsteady pace, wobbling from left to right. To any human, the girl seemed drunk.
A soft song came over her lips, in a language that was rarely heard in these streets. The words slurred slightly, but one who spoke the language could still make out a sentence.
"C'est si simple d'aimer, de sourire à la vie... De se laisser charmer lorsque c'est notre envie..."
A smile on her face, the girl indeed seemed to have a love for life. However, the smile had something unsettling to it and didn´t quite reach her eyes. Her pace adjusted to the song's rhythm and she hummed along a long time after she had forgotten to mumble the words that came with it.
A black cat with a white dot on its head crossed her path and halted not too far away from her. Sensing something was off, his ears quickly turned to his back, and he hissed before jumping into an alleyway that was at right angles to the street the girl was on. The latter tilted her head slightly, seemingly at a loss at what to do.
"Kitty..." For no apparent reason, her tongue slowly licked her lips and she tried to drench the fire in her throat by swallowing. To no avail. She sped up her pace, rounded the corner, and followed the path which the cat had chosen. She was still humming but switched to another sweet and upbeat song that came to her...
"In a green, green, green, green, turnip land."
She had little trouble catching up with the cat. Somehow she found herself able to run at an extreme speed through the alleyway - in a straight line even. The cat saw only one way to escape as the girl cornered him against a wooden fence- jumping over it. However, the fence was tall and besides a few garbage bins, there was nothing to leap from besides the ground. The girl was closing in on him... There was no time left, so the cat took a chance and leaped-
"There were two hares, sitting very smart."
He managed to claw its way up the fence and after a few moments, he swiftly jumped off on the other side. The girl stood underneath him and watched the cat struggle, a smirk plastered to her face. To her, hunting down such a small animal was nothing more than a little game. One of the few that really entertained her these days. She waited until she was sure that the cat had jumped to the other side before she followed.
"And the one was blowing his flute."
She took a few steps back and swiftly jumped over the fence in one jump. Almost landing on the astonished cat, she barely managed to avoid crushing the poor thing. However, when jumping, she had forgotten about her heels and upon colliding with the ground, her ankle flipped in a nasty angle. After crawling up again, she only smiled as she took off her shoes, showing no signs of pain despite straining her ankle.
"U~seless." With some effort, she stood up, shoes in one hand, and looked around her. The cat had managed to get away while she was distracted and a soft sigh rolled over her lips as she noticed its disappearance.
"No kitty-drops this time?" She swiftly spun her head around as she heard footsteps approaching. Half-and-half expecting a hunter, the girl quickly took a few steps back, still ignoring the flaming pain that shot up through her leg. She wobbled slightly as she resumed her drunken-like behaviour. Her blood rushed to her head as she became aware of a familiar, delicious smell. Her heart pounded loudly and her eyes widened ever so slightly...
Humans.
"And the other one was drumming."
Her lips turned up into a smirk, as she appraised the two young men that came from the other end of the street. They were both tall, the first a blonde, the second brunette. They wobbled almost as badly as she did when walking, and the blonde was relying on his friend to keep from falling over. For the second time that evening, she licked her lips before they noticed her, waved and walked into her direction.
"Then came along a hunter, hunter man."
"Hey, hey, you, you missy. Would ya mind hang'n out with us fo'a while? Oh sure ya wouldn't. Name's Pete. Nigh's still yung, eh?", the blonde spoke -apparently named Pete-, grinning as he let go of his friend and stumbled towards her. She raised her nose ever so slightly and sniffed the air in a rather inhuman way. Besides the delicious smell of human blood, she now became aware of a few other smells. Tobacco, hair gel, curry, sweat, deodorant, perfume and alcohol. The typical smells of English youth after a night out. Pete's brown-haired friend was dragged along, but seemed not to mind at all as he grinned and winked at the woman his friend had addressed.
The girl, still smiling, put a single finger to her lips and pondered for a few moments, seemingly thinking over his proposal. After a while she lifted up one finger to them, almost touching Pete's lips.
"Only one of you. The handsomest." She added with a grin, looking up at the two of them. Her accent told of continental origins, most likely making them even more interested in the short girl. Playing with humans before eating was rather entertaining, and moreover, she wouldn't be able to handle shut up and hide two, not even if they were this drunk. The small, annoying voice in her head told her to stop and go somewhere else, but she swiftly shut it up and watched how the two would react to her statement.
"Awwe, wouldn't it be betta if ya first interoduce yaself? Ialready told ya I'm Pete. 'S unfair if ya don tell us yous y'know!" Pete appeared to be pouting, but he was so far gone that his sentences were almost too bad to be understood. His brunette friend shook his head, still sober enough to pity his friend.
"Well, I do think ya might just want to rethink tha, honey. Ya see, Pete here's too drunk to be any fun. I on the other hand, Thomas' the name, I'll be sure to entertain ya." With all of the bravo that drunk people are known for, Thomas first shoved Pete out of the way and then courteously offered the girl an arm. Pete however, didn't feel like being shoved and thus he shoved Thomas out of the way in return.
"Hey, Thomas, ya'asshole. Whaya doin me now ma'e?! Out togetha, home togetha, righ? Don just go an hit on 'er an leave ya buddy behin-!" Not appreciating being shoved either, Thomas' face darkened and he quickly responded by raising his arm.
"And he has shot the first one."
The girl didn't wait for Thomas' fist to find Pete's cheek and instead, she turned around and started walking down the street. Somehow, she was now able to walk without as much pain as before. She had just remembered that the small voice had complained about going to that vampire's house and thus she decided to give in to it. Besides, the vampire always had enough blood, blood she could use to stop the burning in her throat. It wasn't as good as human blood, but she had lost interest in Thomas and Pete and the voice would complain if she would kill. Drinking the nasty blood would surely shut it up. Or at least for a while.
"And the other, who one's thinking of."
With a happy grin on her face, she continued her journey to Sonna's house, speeding up her pace as she noticed that the sun would rise soon. Before she knocked onto the large family house' door, the girl finished her little song with a smirk.
"The other one died of sorrow."
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Sonna hummed happily as she was sewing in her back rook. She'd gotten a new order from one of her long time customers whose daughter was getting married in the coming weeks. They'd been all over the state looking for dresses but not a single one had appealed to her daughter. So she gave in and called Sonna to come over to their place to do a bunch of fittings and drawing for them. After spending a week at their place doing fittings and alterations to the design she was allowed to return home to make the many dresses and suits they needed. The number was large alright. The largest order this year. Twenty dresses and the same amount of suits. The dresses were all different in their own way and the suits were all the same, much to her relieve. She had three months to deliver and make alterations in terms of size.
She was happy for her friend's moment of joy and love in her life, it made her wish she could find her own. Sadly all the vampires she'd ever met just wanted to get in her pants and then leave the her the next night. So she just gave up on them and decided to live alone in her shop and do what she does and likes best. Making the best attires this side of the globe had ever seen. Or at least to the night dwellers world. Humans came to her now and then with requests as well but not as much as the vampires and other nightly creatures. She'd even served a hunter or two in her days. Of course they came with civilians and tried to stake her after wards. Not quite successful considering she wore a very full pin cushion on both her wrists.
Looking at the clock she decided it was time to close the front of her shop and open the back part of it to the dwellers who needed her the most. The ones who needed blood or just needed a place for the night. Setting down her needle and thread she closed up shop and retreated to the back rooms where she saw and tended to whom ever came to her for food, shelter or healing she'd take them in. Sonna blinked as she set her needle down and sniffed the air. She could tell there was a ghoul at her doorstep. She headed to the back door to see a girl at her door.
"Hello there" she said, looking at the girl "It's nice to see you again". She smiled as she invited her into the tiny sitting like room before she moved to her locked fridge where she kept her containers of blood and pulled one out to serve her guest. The girl had come to her a few times over the last few months. She was more than pleased to see a returning friend. After all it meant that she was doing her job and things were as she wanted it to be.
A hint of happiness appeared in the girl's eyes as soon as she spotted Sonna. She had met the vampire before, and she knew that her face would mean that she would get fed. She swiftly followed behind Sonna, nodding absentmindedly as the vampire mentioned that it was nice that they met again. She was humming to herself, barely audible, while she took up her new surroundings. The small room was decorated in a tidy, practical style. Obviously, this wasn't the place where the vampire herself lived, but the room still had something cosy to it, to make sure any who wandered in would experience something close to the feeling of "coming home".
She girl halted her inspection as soon as she heard Sonna returning. The smell of blood seeped through the container and immediately drew all the girl's attention to it. As usual, the girl didn't say a word and simply walked , still with some effort, towards the red-haired older woman. She halted before Sonna, and while no word crossed her lips, her wide, hopeful eyes told an entire story of their own. Her left hand stretched out, as if she'd try to grab the bag of blood and drink it all at once -something she had done before-. However, Sonna's kind smiling face made her halt and instead look from Sonna's face to the container and back again.
Her thirst had been worse than she had been aware of, and now that her sweet salvation was so close, her entire behaviour had changed. It was quite similar to a human child that wanted to take a candy from the candy pot but knew that it shouldn't. Her humming had stopped and instead a soft squeaking sound came over her lips.
"Son-..na... B-.. Blood. Please?" Her eyes had grown wide and no doubt they would soon start to tear up if she had to suppress her urge to drink any longer.
Sonna listened to her guest soft humming as she looked at her. She had to be the cutest ghoul that'd ever visited her store. With her innocent face and her childish antics when her food was so close. She decided not to torture her anymore than necessary and opened the container and handed it to her after she asked for it politely. Before she sat on the couch and pulled her in to her lap so she'd be comfortable while she fed and if she spilt any blood, she'd be able to clean it up easier if it was just on her clothing and not the hard wood or the carpet.
"Of course you can dear, that's why I'm open you know" she smiled, patting her head as she leaned back against the couch humming her own tune while watching her cute little ghoul.
Tears began to stream down the girl's face as soon as Sonna handed her the container, tears of happiness. Greedily, she began to drink while she nestled against Sonna. Sitting on the woman's lap added even more to the feeling of bliss and security that the young ghoul hadn't felt in a long while.
After she had drank every drop of blood, she let her head rest against Sonna's chest. A sleepy feeling slowly came over her. How long had it been since she had last slept and felt so secure? As she closed her eyes, she mumbled something to Sonna.
"Chloë."
A disturbed look crossed the girl's face as soon as the word escaped her lips. The voice had wanted to come out, but the ghoul suppressed it with the promise that it would be allowed to come out for a while after they had slept. As a sign of good will, she would relay a message. With a soft smile playing around her lips, she looked up at the vampire.
" Chloë remembers you. Thank you Sonna."
Sonna held the girl as she drank and cried happily. She patted and stroked the girls head much like her mother had done when she was alive and she had been much younger then what she was now. She enjoyed bringing warmth and security to others in their time of need. She may have failed her parents but she refused to fail others.
Soon her guest was asleep and she eased her onto the couch so she was laying down and went to get a blanket to cover her so she wouldn't get cold.
"I'm glad I could help" she said.
