Looking (Open)

[corey]

Corey limped down an alleyway. She hadn't been in this part of town for a while. After her past experience here she despised the place. The only reason she was down was for a reason even she didn't know. She felt.... drawn to this place for some unexplained reason. She felt her good leg getting really tired. She looked around the dark, dank alleyway and spotted an old crate. She limped over, her cane clanking against the stone. When she reached the crate she slowly lowered herself down. When she was finally sitting she took a breath and leaned back, taking the weight off her legs. While she was leaning back she thought of the incident, that made her frighten of this part of time.

It happened not far from where she was now. She had only been on the streets for a little less than 6 months. She had been walking down an alley looking for anything edible. She was able to find a garbage behind a pub. She pulled out an apple, only one bite out of it. She took a bite. 'Finally some good fortune.' she thought to herself. She started limping downt he street, leaning heavily on her cane. She had gone about 30 feet when 2 guys came out from an alcove off to the left side of the alleyway.
"What do we have here?" the taller man had said, "A cripple. What should we do Alex?" the man had said to his partner. While he was saying this the 2 men were circling her. She limped as best as she could away from the men. She didn't want to get involved in this. Before se could get very far the other man grabbed her and spun her around. She lost grip on her cane and it clattered to the ground. The man had grabbed the apple and taken a large bite and took a bite out of it. Corey stared at him with death in her eyes. She hadn't eaten anything in about a week. This was one of the few things she was able to get to.

"Thanks cripple." said the man. He looked in her eyes and saw the death glare. The man started laughing. "Tom look at this, the cripple is angry." While was saying this to his partner, Corey was reaching down to grab her cane and didn't see what was coming. The other man, Tom, had laughed, but it was a mad laugh. No one challenged him, even a challenging look set him off. He stalked over while Corey was balancing and reaching for her cane, and kicked the back of her leg, causing he to fall backwards. Corey fell, hitting her head hard on the ground. She looked and saw everything was going in circle. ' This isn't good.' she thought. She saw a man come over to her and lean over and whispered in her ear. "I suggest that you don't do anything to anger us, Cripple." With that he pulled back his leg and kicked her in the head.
As she was fading into unconiousness she heard the kid named Alex say, "Dude, why'd you do that? She didn't really do anything. And what are we going to do to her anyway. Leave her hear. There are rat's bigger than her."
"Aw Alex has a heart. Well get rid of it. But your right. We should leave her here without having some more fun. I give that job to you." Tom said, pushing Alex towards her.
"Dude. I don't want to do it. She's like what 12. That's strange."
"Come on do it. We need to teach her a lesson. If you don't do it I'll do it." he said looking at Corey, seeing she was slightly awake. She's awake, she'll learn. Now go do it." he said shoving Alex towards Corey. Alex went over to Corey, taking off his shirt on the way. "Fine. But you have to do the next one." When he was on top of Corey, she passed out and couldn't remember a thing.

Corey woke up from her day dream, startled. She didn't like remembering stuff like that it freaked her out. She breathed in and leaned back again. Her neck was stretched as far as it could go. She felt someone staring and used her peripherial vision. In it she saw a shadowy figure and she felt a weird feeling. She had a feeling something bad was coming. She stayed as still as possible, hoping they would leave her alone, but she knew most likely they wouldn't.

[` Damion Gray]

Damion had been waiting in the alley, looking for a fight when he heard footsteps. He quickly slid into the shadows and waited to see who it was. At first he thought that it might be the guy he had gotten into a little bit of trouble with earlier and he had come back for blood. But then he realized that the footsteps were those of a much lighter, feminine human being.

He paused, surprised. What was a young human girl doing in a place like this? He listened closely, noticing that the rhythm of the footsteps were off and that she almost sounded like something was wrong with one of her feet or that she had a third, lighter foot.

Was she hurt? But Damion didn’t smell blood or pain. He just smelled a human girl. A very YOUNG human girl.
He waited until she came into view and then cocked his head curiously. She was tall, had dark brown hair, and she appeared to be limping. Damion quickly noticed the cane she was using to walk with and realized that that must have been the “third foot” that he had heard. To his surprised she turned down the alley where he had been waiting and headed to the far end to sit down on a crate.
He watched carefully as she leaned back and sighed, then appeared to be thinking about it. He thought that he could smell a little bit of fear but he didn’t know why. She hadn’t seen him yet.

After a few minutes, Damion quickly began to realize that she probably wasn’t leaving any time soon and it would be better to make his presence known by his own free will rather than for her to discover him when he cramped up and stumbled after staying still for too long.
Thanking the stars that he had actually thought to put on a shirt for once, he stepped out of the shadows and into her line of view.

He stood for a second, wondering what he should do next. He didn’t want to hurt her, she seemed to already have had enough of that, and he didn’t want to leave her here alone either. The guys who were after him didn’t have the same morals as he did.
While he contemplated this, he did not realize that he could have actually been scaring her or posing as any sort of thread.
“Are you alright?” He asked finally, knowing that staying silent wasn’t that good of an idea.

[corey]

Corey heard the shadow speak and jumped a little. She hadn't expected it to talk. She had expected it to just come up to her and attack her or something. She turned towards the shadow, which she guessed was a man from the voice, using only her abdomenal muscles, not wanting to move her leg. Even if she had expected the shadow to talk she wouldn't of expected it to ask if she was all right. "Yeah. I'm fine though that really isn't any of your business." she said gruffly.

She sighed and put her cane on the ground. She then stood up, leaning heavily on her cane. She hated showing that she had a bum leg but for some reason she felt is was necessary to show him. She scrutinized the shadow trying to distingush his feature but couldn't. She hated not know who she was talking to. It made her feel uneasy. She decided to see how close she could get to him without him backing away or advancing towards her. She stopped about 6 feet away from him, she still couldn't see his face. "So are you going to tell me who you are or what?" she said rudely.

She looked around the alley. It looked almos exactly like the alleyway where it happened. She shivered. She still had that eerie premonition because he hadn't said anything really to deter her from that frain of thinking. Even the polite question could've been a ruse. She started to flash back again, but she shook her head and made it disappear for the time being.

[` Damion Gray]

Damion could see he leg better now and wondered slightly what had happened. It looked like something she had had for a while but not that she had necesarily been born with he noticed. That was none of his business though and he knew that this girl would probably not tell him. She didn't exactly seem like the story type, but that could always change.

He smiled slightly at her rudeness, guessing that he was probably making her a bit nervous. But then again, you never knew with girls. He could never figure them out and had given up trying a while ago. This girl seemed interesting though. He couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared. He could tell that she was neither a vampire nor werewolf though. Though if she stayed here much longer without some sort of guardian, that might change. Vampire’s as well as werewolves hung around here all the time and he was surprised that no-one had snapped the pretty dark haired girl up yet.

"I am Damion, and you are...?" He asked, not stepping out of the shadows. He didn’t realize that she could not see him, forgetting that she didn’t have the eyesight of a supernatural being.


He realized that she was almost completely vulnerable right now and he could easily snap her up and kill her. But he restrained himself. That wasn't who he was anymore.
He watched her with concern as she shook her head, seemingly distressed, and unthinking he took a step nearer and into the light, raising his hands in case she might fall.

[corey]

Corey still couldn't see the man. She was going to say something to him when she saw the man come forward after she shook her head. She though he was going grab at her or something so she tried to back up. She didn't want to have happen last time happen again. She was usually able to back up but when she backed up this time she was paying attention to Damion and not the ground behind her. She took a step back and tripped over a broken piece of crate. She fell backwards, she was able to twist so that she was able to land with the weight on her hands. She landed on her hands and skinned them. A little bit of blood came to the surface.

"Great." she said out loud, looking at her hands. She hated it when she hurt herself. It made her feel more vunerable, even if it was something small like this. She turned over again, being careful of her leg. She looked around for her cane and saw it was out of her reach. "Oh. Wonderful." she said. At least if she had her cane she could defend herself, but since she didn't she felt like a deer in car headlights. She got up on her good knee and put the weight on it. She leaned on a box and started to stand. She hated having to get up like this, it made her feel open. After she was standing she sat down on the crate, breathing heavily. Standing up like that always made her tired. She really wanted to get out fo here, before this guys tries to attack her.

[` Damion Gray]

Damion tried to turn last minute, realizing that trying to help her might not be suck a good idea.
But it was too late as he watched her back up and trip over a broken crate. He mentally groaned and realizing that he had already done plenty of damage, it wouldn't hurt to help her up. Hopefully.
He stretched out an arm more cautiously this time then froze as he smelled something. Blood. His pupils dilated and he had a hard time forcing himself to remain in human form. Damn, he swore mentally. If he was having a hard time with this, then nearby vampires were also having an even harder time. And vampires didn't have a hard time, they just did what they wanted.
Glancing around to make sure that no-one was coming yet, Damion offered her his arm in order to steady her.
"Do you live around here?" He asked briskly, first looking at the sky and then at the mouth of the alley. They could come from either way. "If you do, you need to get out of here quick. There are some very nasty people around here."
He could smell vampire's nearby, but they seemed weary of him. Werewolves were vampires only enemies and rightfully so.
This could get nasty REALLY quick.

[corey]

Corey was fine sitting on the crate. She didn't want to have her help him, it would show even more that she was weak. She stood up slowly, leaning or her cane. She was not going to accept his help ever. It was his fault she had fell. She looked up and finally saw his face. He was handsome but he looked much older than her. She looked him in the eye and said, "It really isn't any of you business. Now is it. But if you must know I live wherever I want. I'm a street rat. If you couldn't guess." She hated telling people that she was a street rat but she wanted to show this nimrod that she could deal with him if he tried anything. Maybe.

She started walking away from him when she turned back, thinking of his second statement. "What do you mean there are some nasty people here. Everyone on the street is nasty, if you haven't happened to notice. Are you a street rat? Or are you just some rich kid looking for some fun in an alley. Either way you touch and you will wish you've never been born." She turned and start to head back out again. She turned the corner and started walking away. She stopped when she heard footsteps behind. If it was that kid she was going to hurt him. She turned but couldn't see who the person was. She was in the light of a street lamp while the other person was in the shadows. "If that's you kid I suggest you leave. I don't want to deal with you." She started to walk away, hoping whoever it was would back off.

[Melody Burns]

Melody was leaning against a building, not that far away. She held her head in her hands as she tried to concentrate. Being around humans was very uncomfortable for her. She had a hard time trying to remain calm and not suck someone's blood. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She could do this...just concentrate on something else. How about ripping to shreds some werewolf out there, that sounded fun. It made her not think of the lovely blood that seemed to be in everyone around her.

Melody was about to stand up and walk around again, when a particular scent hit her. BLOOD! She immediately lost all the control before, all she cared now was where the blood was coming from...someone was losing blood somewhere. She looked around cautiously, no one seemed to be paying attention to her. She clenched her fists as she started walking by in the streets. She tried to concentrate on just the blood, no one else. Her eyes were deep red, and people started giving her funny looks as they saw how tensed she looked. One person even came up to her and asked if she was ok. She just said, "Leave me alone."

The scent was so strong now, they had to be somewhere close. She looked around cautiously. There weren't many people over here...was this perfect or what? She then frowned at another scent....werewolf? Ok, maybe it wasn't as perfect as she wanted...She could still get the werewolf...but how to keep the human from escaping? Hmm, what to do. She decided she would just walk up casually to them. She walked further and stopped as she saw them. She remembered seeing that werewolf before....hmmm. The human was kind of small, what a shame. She tried to regain her composure, but it didn't help much. She walked up, one of her fists still clenched. She saw them and walked quietly up to them, she asked, "Do you guys need help?"

[Asmaa Darzi]

Asmaa didn't usually stalk the undergrounds- she found little sypmathy points in the run down neighboorhood- she stuck to the wealthier parts of L.A. found some philanthropist to take pity on her, she'd have him help her to her apartment, offer something to drink, the fix herself a drink.

However today she found herself walkingin soft-soled shoes throughout the streets. She could tell it was a bad neighborhood because the vibrations reaching her feet reverberated with cracks and holes. She hadn't been walking far before the ever-familiar smell drafted her way. Blood...not a lot.. but enough to grabher attention and lead her to a few more common scents that accompanied it. She never liked to share a meal....wolves don't usually hunt humans if they can avoid it....but there's another vamp down there...

She rounded the corner with the lightest of steps- staring blankly at the scene through her rose colored specs-"What have we here?" She vocalized with an arabic accent(she hadn't lost it in 150 years, it faded, but didn't vanish).

She wasn't sure what she'd happened upon, but nonethe less she stood with her legs shoulder width apart, her arms ina non-offesive stance, but her head was held up as if to look down upon them. A passerby would say she's respectful, but confident...to the trained eye her stance screamed predator. "This isn't exactly the place to throw a party..."

She stood for a moment and listened to the surroundings....alley...were...vamp...girl....cane?! who dine's on a cripple in the underground?

[corey]

Corey saw one girl step out of the shadows, Melody. 'Great.' she thought, ' Now I have to deal with another idiot.' She rolled her eyes and answered, "No I don't need any help." she paused to wipe some blood from her hands onto her pants so she could grip the cane, "If people would just buzz of I would be just fine." she said.

As she turned to leave another shadow moved and came into view, revealing Asmaa. "What is this the night of the freaks?" she said. She was looking between Damion, Asmaa, and Melody trying to think of how to avoid an attack. She had a feeling that either there was going to be a big fight between them or that they all hated each other and she was going to be stuck in the middle of it. She looked around for and exit.

The alley was covered and the sidewalk was covered. She looked and saw that the only possible escape was to cross the road. She moaned. The traffic was slow but if some idiot came screeching down the road she wouldn't be able to move fast enough to avoid it. She wiped her hand again and started to cross, hoping, no praying she could make it across before all heck broke loose.

[Asmaa Darzi]

Asmaa knew that Americans had a tendency to be rude, but this little street urchin took the cake. Asmaa wandered down here to see what was going on and the little punk had the cahones to mouth off to her? This girl, this Corey, must have known that they were all of another persuasion---or else she wouldn't be as comfortable as she was. She seemed to know the wolf and other vampire.

She listened as Corey's head surveyed the alley, and then hear her feet echo her cane agaisnt the ground. The girl was smart enough to make a run for it---in a word. Normally, Asmaa would have let the girl go, she had better things to do. She had more interesting thigns to do---but this girl needed to learn manners.

Asmaa hadn't so much moved from her stance in the alley during the whole interaction, but as the girl went to pass Asmaa, she stuck out her arm to stop the girl, then she turned to her and said, "If you don't need any help, that's fine," she said, gritting her teeth---the smell of the girl's blood made her fangs emit that ever burning venom---Asmaa swallowed the liquid heat, searing her throat once again as it raced down her throat, "But if I were you, I'd be more respectful in present company. You wouldn't want anyone to lose their temper."

Asmaa had no intentions of fighting the girl, she just didn't want to see the girl's cadaver along the dirty sidestreets of Los Angeles. "Not everyone you meet will be as nice as us you know," she added as she dropped her arm. Watching the girl, hoping she would continue crossing the street, being a little wiser as she went.

[corey]

When Asmaa grabbed her arm she stopped and looked at the women. She was beautiful, but it was the type of beautiful that made Corey sick. These were the type of people who thought they were better than everyone else because they were pretty. She hated them. When the women told her that she should be wiser in present company she about burst. No talks to her like that ever.

"You know I don't freakin' care about manners. All of you are just idiots who have nothing better to do with your time than prey on other people to get your self esteem high. Now I suggest you leave me alone, go on and prey on some innocent idiot who would fall into your stupid spell." she started to walk away when she stopped to add one more thing, "And I've meet people meaner than you. So I don't give a crap about you or what you say." She then turned and started back across the street. As she walked away she felt where the women's hand had been. It was freezing. 'What the heck is up with that?' she thought.

[Asmaa Darzi]

Unfortunately for this poor girl, she assaulted Asmaa with a series of rude, unitelligble shouts. Typical American...she thought to herself. Asmaa didn't need this, but this girl needed to be dealt with, regardless of anyone else's presence. She'd deal with them later.

This girl---Corey---(she avoided giving her a name so she'd sooner forget) had insulted her intelligence. Which almost made her laugh. Asmaa was an idiot who had nothing better to do? Well, she really didn't have anything better to do, otherwise she'd be somewhere else. But after about a hundred years you run out of useful activities. However, Asmaa was not about to stand there and take it like some sort of prey.

In one swift move, Asmaa snuck up on Corey, took her cane, and hit her in teh back of the head with it. Certainly not as hard as she could---that would surely kill her---but hard enough to get her point across. "I was trying to be nice, you American brat," she spat with a thick arabic accent, "being rude will get you nowhere. No go home before you get into anymore trouble."

Asmaa was not the violent sort, but something old and dormant swelled within her and threatened to incinerate her useless organs. As she sensed around to infer her guests reactions, she noticed that her shoes were a bit worn at the edges, even through the blurred vibrations she noticed that they were beginning to fray at the edges. I should get some new ones on the way home.

[corey]

As Corey was walking away she felt her cane slide through her grip and clatter to the ground. She was about to reach down and grab it when a blow struck the back of her head. She had felt worse but this was in the top 5. She fell to the ground, face first. She held out her hands to stop herself, but one hand landed on her cane and it slid, sending the cane a couple yards down the road, and her crashing harder than expected to the ground.

She felt her knees hit hard on the ground. She felt pain shoot up from her bad knee, she grimaced in pain and tried not to cry out. Her arms then fell and dragged along the pavement, bringing more blood to her hands. Then, her had still throbbing from the blow hit. The side of her head hit hard on the ground. She felt the severe pain and cried out. With one hand on her knee and the other on her head, trying to stop the blood, she bit her lip, trying to stop another cry from escaping her lips. She felt blood spread and dry through her hair. As Asmaa spoke, Corey picked up Arabic. She tried to answer without a hint of pain trailing in her voice but it was impossible. " And your a coward." she said, pausing to catch her breath. "You attacked a crippled girl, when her back was turned." she said. She tried to laugh but it didn't work. She was trying to mock Asmaa. Corey knew a couple people at least taht had attacked her, but they had attacked her face on, not when her back was turned.

[Asmaa Darzi]

Asmaa was shocked at her own strength. She'd intended the girl to need some aspirin afterwards, but not what'd actually happened. First she felt the pressure of the girl on the cane, and then heard ner knee make contact with the pavement, followed by her head and arms.

Corey had been hit so hard she cired out in pain. That sound didn't bother Asmaa anymore but it still wasn't a good sign. Asmaa'd hit her too hard. There was blood, she could smell it. Her mouth involuntarily filled with fiery venom, and---not wanting to cause a bigger scene---she swallowed it, send the flames down her throat.

However, it seems no matter what Asmaa did this girl continued to mock her. What is this world coming to?! She, looking straight ahead, spoke to the girl. "Coward? Hah!" Asmaa was anything but, the comment didn't even phase her. Mostly because she'd shut down her emotional grid so the wolf wouldn't attack if she tried to leave. Which was Asmaa's newest plan. Get the hell out of this madness. "Now my dear," she continued, "if I only attacked everyone who wasn't crippled from behind I'd be discriminating."

She stepped over the girl as she neared the mouth of the alley. She may have actually helped the girl and bought her a burger or whatever teenagers eat nowadays, if she'd merely given up. But she didn't, she continued to mock and taunt and be rude, and for that the girl got nothing. Not only that, she played the gimpy card.

She was nearly out of the alley before she stopped, and tuned around. "Oh, and by the way dollface, I'm blind. So that doesn't fly with me," and with that, she washed her hands of the whole thing.