The token

Illiyana followed him down the hall. Yet, when they opened the door to the lobby, she froze. There were speckles of blood on the ceiling above the exit. In the corner of her right eye, she could make out that there was a large, bloody mass behind the front desk. She knew that what would be seen could never be unseen. So she didn't look. She kept her eyes trained only on Benjamin.

"Should we be on our way or should we do something for her..?"

She shook her head. Her voice sounded dead to her own ears.

"No. She's not alive, so there's nothing we can do. Let's just get going."

She tried not to dwell upon the fact that the woman was engaged, and that her wedding was supposed to be next month. Or the fact that she'd actually been invited to attend the ceremony. She shoved this out of her head with an almost physical ferocity.

She strode past him, doing her best to keep her composure when she had a suddenly vivid image of her fiance's devastated tears. They'd been high school sweet hearts. Feels a very deep wave of sorrow sweep over her, and swallows to clear the sudden lump in her throat.

She rushed out the door in a rush. She held the door open, her voice a little more snappy then she intends it to be.

"Well?"

Upon glancing at him she catches sight of the receptionist's body, an unrecognizable bloody mass, and quickly snaps her eyes shut before she can take in the details. Her voice is softer when she speaks again.

"I'm a bit jittery right now. Excuse me. This really is a bit much."
 
"You don't have to tell me twice. I know the pain." He didn't want to talk about his experiences during the Island View Summer Camp massacre. So he escorted her to his car and got in on the driver's side. It would have been confusing to any other American that his steering wheel was on the right side, and not on the left. But the doctor didn't seem to mind. He was on his way, hiding the pendant under his shirt so that they wouldn't have to look at it and have it look back in its creepy fashion. "My name is Benjamin Pascualli, by the way. I saw the tag on your desk said Dr. Jasi." Had he called that name before? Probably not, she seemed like a very well organized lady.

"Since we'll be spending time together, what do you want me to call you? You can just call me Ben." He wanted to start some kind of conversation, because he already knew how to get to his next destination. He had seen it. "I say we should get to know each other after we get to your house." And probably find a few things they could do that didn't involve him being brutally murdered or her doing the murdering.
 
She stepped into the passenger's seat, waiting till she buckled herself in before she gave him an answer.

"Illiyana."

She was numb right now, and as a result her voice was flat when she answered him, making her wince inwardly. Then she realized he'd never asked for directions.

"My address is 460 cherry woods avenue. Would you like me to drive?"

She asked him before even thinking, realizing only after she'd offered that he may not be comfortable with her driving his car. Her father had a car like Ben's. She'd learned how to drive init, so a car different from the american model did not confuse her.

"Unless you;d just like some guidance."
 
Benjamin shook his head. "I know where it is." That little necklace was telling him a lot. He turned onto the freeway and watched out for the right exit. He was used to American roads by now, but he would sometimes laugh with his mates that everyone was on the wrong side. "What kind of food do you like and are you very picky?" They would have to stop at fast food places to eat. He would prefer diners whenever possible, but he knew that they would have to keep on the move as much as possible.

They would also have to get a hotel. That might be hard. Maybe he would try to purchase one of those discounted hotel plan things to make sure they had enough money to last however long they needed it. And where should they head after her house? He really wanted a shower. He had sweated so much that it was almost starting to smell. He sure could smell it.
 
Illiyana was thrown off by Ben's abrupt answer, and strange tremor go down her spine. How the hell did he know where she lived? She was about to ask him about it when he throws her off with another question.

"What kind of food do you like and are you very picky?"

She blinks, then answers.

"No, I'm not."

her voice is soft, but still has that slight grimness to it. It rings in her ears like an iron bell.

It is not long before they arrive at her home, a small two story house. It was a nice neighborhood, a quiet one. She wouldn't miss it.

She called back to him as she got out the car and strode to her door, pausing only unlock it.

"You can take a shower while i grab a few things that i need."

She heard him walk through the door as she went into her kitchen and grabbed an apple..

"The shower is down three doors and to the left. I don't think I have clothes that'll fit you, so i hope you have a change."

She grabbed a large duffer bag from the coat closet and began loading clothes into her bag, along with soap, her tooth brush, and so on, her brow furrowed in thought as she determined what she would need and what she could leave behind.
 
As soon as he heard that he could be graced with a shower before leaving, he went back to his car. It was always helpful to keep a spare outfit in the trunk. Fortunately, he did this time. Unfortunately, it was his slacks and a plaid button shirt. This wasn't going to be a really comfortable ride. But he could always buy normal street clothes from a store somewhere, right? He didn't even need a large department store to get a comfortable shirt. Warehouse stores would do just fine.

He came back in with his outfit and went to the shower as he was directed before. He didn't have his own soap, razor, shampoo, or anything except for some deodorant that he kept handy. His boss was quite particular about smells, and she would tell him if he didn't smell right, or smelled suspicious. He had a habit of smoking when things got particularly stressful. The only reason why he hadn't lately is because he didn't want to smoke in front of the doctor, and he didn't know where his last open pack was.

He would ask before buying another pack. Before starting the shower, or stripping at all, he called out. "We have a bit of time before we have to worry about anything, so you have time to pack as carefully as you need." He then proceeded to lock the door and strip down to get that needed shower, which he would have gotten done at his own house were it not for these wretched things chasing them now. He almost had to peel his clothes off, his sweat had poured out back in that office with those killers a couple of inches away from his face. What made it worse was that he could see them, but they couldn't see him, so he knew exactly how close they were.

Luckily for him, the shower pressure was pretty high and the water heated quickly, so he might be done with his shower before she got done packing. I'll be done long before she's done packing, he thought to himself as he climbed into the shower.
 
Little to his knowledge, Illiyana was not a sentimentalist. She packed enough clothing for nine days, surmising that she'd just wash the clothes when ever she got the chance. She chose to pack nothing but well fitted sweat pants, four t-shirts, and five tank tops.

She whirled towards the closet, only to yelp in pain when her own braid whip lashes and catches her in the eye.

She snatched her black sweater from the rack, and her ankle length, crimson trench coat for the upcoming winter. It was her favorite woolen coat, for it was light weight, able to be rolled into a tight ball for efficient transportation. But it was warm.

Her movements were swift, and she packed with a fervor she hadn't invested into the task before.

"We have a bit of time before we have to worry about anything, so you have time to pack as carefully as you need."

She ignored him, vaguely realizing that she couldn't slow down if she'd wanted to.

All the of the under garments she had were unceremoniously shoved into the duffer bag atop the clothes, along with her cell phone cord. She shoved her laptop in the bag, and she was done. She heard he shower go off, and sighed. She finally realized that she'd been shaking, badly.

She rubbed her sore eye absentmindedly as she picked up her small duffer bag and headed out the door and to Benjamin's car. Tossing it in the back seat, she became aware of a strange, eerie feeling that she hadn't felt before.

She frowned, her eyes darting about, afraid. It was night now, and the sky was starless. The moon was blocked by clouds, and she had a strange, euphoric feeling when a particularly strong gale sighs through the night, strong enough to make her sway.

Then, silence falls. A very, disturbing silence. She can no longer hear the crickets chirping.

Never good.

Unnerved, she walks back to her house, her gait swift.

Run.

She obeys, without thinking, sprinting for the door. She hears a distant low moan, an eerie sound that is continuous, distant. It's volume grows alarmingly, much like the roar of an upcoming train.

She makes a desperate leap through her open door, and lands upon her floor. rolling -

She spins in time to see a shadow, canine-like, crash onto her deck, ripping, tearing wood-

She lunges for the door and slams it shut.

And there she stays frozen, her eyes wide, her breathing heavy. She locks her door shut with a jerk of her wrist and stumbles away from it, staring at the entrance, waiting for the creature to rip through.

But nothing happens. Distantly she hears the shower turn off.

Still, she stands there, her mind a whirl wind as she subconsciously tries to register what had just happened.

After a while, she hears his foot steps pause a distance away from her. She can feel his questioning gaze at her back.

She realized that she must have been standing there for almost a quarter of an hour. She turns her head slightly towards him, but doesn't take her eyes of the door.

"We might have a bit of trouble getting to the car."
 
Ben still had a towel in hand and was drying off the top of his ear. He didn't seem very worried outwardly, but he was quite terrified inwardly. He whispered his next statement. "They don't know that we're here. All they know is that my car is here. As long as we don't make unneeded noise, whatever is out there will probably leave." He was concentrating and watching the dogs patrol his car. They weren't dogs, but they had the same shape.

He used the necklace to search around the house for something that might be a potential weapon, but all he could find were equipment that any doctor would have. He could take a scalpel and tie it to the end of a pole or something, but that wouldn't fend off these beasts. He needed something with a little more push behind it. Like a gun. But he couldn't see anything like that. "As soon as we can, we need to get a projectile weapon of some sorts." He was still whispering.

He looked back to the dogs at his car and the few that were on the patio. "There are seven of them this time... But they don't look like the things that were after us in your office. They're smaller, like bloodhounds. But... they're repulsive..." He couldn't concentrate on any one of them for too long or he would start getting sick.

He started sneaking around the house, wary of the windows. They would need another escape route, or a good place to hide, if they wanted to avoid these beasts. "If we can, we need to get underground or in a place that can cover our scent. I'm sure these hounds are only sticking around because they smell us." More than likely, they could smell the cologne that Ben was wearing. That should wear off soon because of the shower.
 
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