Only by the night (Eli) « Thread Started on Oct 28, 2009, 11:35am »
Jenni Do, powers of Empathic Mimicry and 'Special' Sensing
Long stands of blonde hair flapped in the wind, the woman, Jenni, paced strongly down the tar-maced surface of the park path. Like a sore thumb Jenni stood out, her long red mac-style coat shined in the night, her black knee-high boots scuffing on the floor with every step her long, straight legs took. "Yeah, Okay" Jenni said, her left side of her face lit up but he light of her iPhone, the other half in the engulfing darkness. The green bushes sat beside her war path rustled with the wind, it was defiantly stronger than last night.
But the strong figure walked on, her height higher than normal, purposely chosen so she would look more imposing on a night than normal, chose for fashion not practicality. "Yes, I know, the children in Africa get every amount of money I get-" Jenni stopped, her facial expressions darkening with the tone of the voice at the other end of the phone. "Look, I cannot supply them with everything in the world, I simply cannot, now go find some other rich person." Jenni said, her iPhone in front of her lips, her finger hovering above the 'end call' button. She pressed it.
A small sight escaped Jenni's chest, and she began walking again. Thoughts swirling round her head, was that the right thing to do, was that the wrong thing to do, should she have even picked up the phone? All these questions rang out at her, like adults picking on a small child for taking one too many biscuits from the biscuit jar, but times that by a million. The voices wouldn't be shouting, it would be higher volume than that, and that, gave Jenni a headache, not only with the louder noises her boots were now making.
Suddenly, like a random lash of lightning, Jenni's mind was soon assaulted with the feeling that only brought annoyance, the pain banging in her head was blocked out, at least the ones swirling about questions, this was different, the pain which cursed her every cell, no matter how beautiful she was, nothing else could annoy her more than this. A special was close, how close? She couldn't tell, this 'one' was different, it wasn't stationary like the others she had met in the past, it was.. if anything, odd.
Picking up more of a pace, Jenni walked around the oval shaped Park, the path highlighting the edge of it before meeting the streets which branched off, the lights which were provided to make the walk more relaxing, on made it more uneasy to Jenni. "Oh god.." she said to herself, in a small hum. Jenni walked around, trying to keep her scuffing to a minimum, to see who this special could be, friend or foe? Villain or hero.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #1 on Oct 28, 2009, 11:52am »
Eli Axelsson
The wind brought nothing but cold and annoyance to most, but for Eli it brought much more than that. Sound and scent could be carried on it's strong wings, when you had the capacity to sense such things. The wind right now was whispering in her ear, giving her a warning. A familiar, if recently acquainted with scent, was still present. Present when it shouldn't be, the cynical and overly experienced part of Eli's predatory mind told her.
She would regularly pick up the scents of countless people, but rarely did she tend to experience the same scent for a consistent length of time. It usually meant one thing when she did, she was being followed. But by who? And more importantly, how? At that moment in time, she was prowling across a rooftop, high above the ground below, by all accounts invisible to anyone who might possibly have spotted her in the first place. Surely they'd have lost her trail by now.
Her instincts told her to simply lose them, to rapidly shift from her hunting path and move elsewhere, but her curiosity on the other hand, wanted to know more. In this case, it seemed like her curiosity was going to win the struggle. But first, she wanted to know what she was dealing with.
Stepping onto the rooftop ledge, she glanced into the nearby park for something out of the ordinary. It didn't take her long, with her considerably enhanced vision, to spot someone that looked out of place, or at the very least, somewhat disturbed. A girl, standing there looking around her. That was interesting, she thought to herself. If the girl was indeed following her, was she even conscious of it? There was only one way to find out.
Eli turned away from the park and took a running jump from one rooftop to another, landing in a crouched, feral position, and quickly leaping again onto the next roof, moving away from the park and into a secluded apartment section. There she remained, crouched down on the ledge, peering into the street beneath and waiting. Perhaps her curiousity wasn't warranted, and the girl wouldn't follow her. Maybe she was just getting paranoid after all these years. Regardless, it would only take a few minutes to find out whether she was right or wrong, and time as always was firmly on her side.
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #2 on Oct 28, 2009, 7:30pm »
Jenni's head span, as she walked, more slowly now that she realized that it as a special. This person was moving, and moving fast. Each little movement sent a wave into her head, Jenni stood still for a moment, her gloved hands placing gently on her temples and rubbing in small circular motions, something she had picked up from, her mother. Not only did this calm her head down, but it let her get a better focus on where this special as moving. Like a small little beep, as it got further away it got weaker, but if she picked up on it, she could follow it to get strong. Only to help, of course, Jenni knew that this person would have a considerable amount of control over his or hers ability, this intrigued Jenni's curiosity.
Now on the move again, Jenni began walked at a much more slower pace, her eyes shut and her steps a tad quieter than before, this person wasn't going to get away, but before Jenni could react, the signal strength began to drop, like a laptop being pulled away from the wireless router, but this router wasn't stationary. Jenni stood still, yet again she took time to breath, the long thoughts of where could this person go, be, swirled throughout her head, the idea of a mass murder didn't frighten Jenni, her ability would get their ability and off they go into a brawl. That part of her was 100% sure. Stepping forward once more Jenni picked up on it, he she or it was moving, and moving in distance.
But Jenni stopped, stumped of where this person could be, her ability told Jenni that she was near, but her eye sight, which wasn't the Best but wasn't the worst, told her that this person was not here. One last option she thought, before pulling air into her lungs, and looking around once more. "Hello?" Jenni shouted, and shouted loudly, not like she was shouting at someone, it was the shout that was for someone, and yes, the idea of a random person coming up to her and going 'Hello' scared Jenni, but she was wearing the type of boots, which used correctly, could stab into a leg. But the niggling feeling remained.
Silence.
Jenni looked around once more, hazard eyes flaring about in any direction in which is was grabbed to, leaves in the wind, leaves on bushes, the odd gate closing. Jenni's heart remained calm, the long breathes seemed to be doing a trick it wasn't originally for. "All I can do is wait" Jenni said, her ability sensed someone near, but her eyes still defied her. Only the person could settle this.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #3 on Oct 28, 2009, 7:50pm »
Peeking her head over the ledge with a look of distaste, Eli saw that she was indeed being followed. The revelation both interested and annoyed her. Interesting, because she'd never met anybody capable of tracking her like that before, and annoying because it meant she'd either left a very noticeable trail, or this person was special in some way. She seriously doubted it was the former. Eli was by no means an arrogant girl, but she hadn't been successfully tracked in any terrain for over one hundred years. Surely, she couldn't have gotten sloppy now? It just didn't make any logical sense. A frown fell upon her usually impassive features as the girl shouted out. Was that a greeting of some sort, used to draw her out of hiding? Perhaps this girl was unaware of who exactly she was following, and just wanted to meet someone like her. I'm not like you, go away. An instinctive thought from Eli, who didnt think of herself as being connected to others with inhuman abilities. Her ability wasn't a gift, it was a curse, and one she was doomed to bear for all eternity.
Seeing no physical threat to be found in the woman, at least not once immediately noticeable, Eli decided against her better judgement that she would find out what the girl wanted, and how she was able to follow her in that manner. If the situation turned sour, Eli would kill the girl, or disappear into thin air before the poor woman had time to blink. She may have been about to put herself into a vulnerable position, but there was nobody in the world better equipped to skirt around danger whenever it came calling. Leaning her body forward over the ledge she'd been stood on, she took a step forward and simply walked off the ledge, falling down a considerable distance and landing crouched down with barely the slightest sound, right behind the overly inquisitive girl. Standing upright with an unnatural amount of grace for any normal human being, she cleared her throat to announce her presence.
Looking at Eli, you would find it extremely difficult to believe the things she was capable of. There was certainly something about her that didn't seem in keeping with the modern day. She had the sort of face you might expect to find in a child's portrait from the 1700s. Her hair was kept in a wild sort of style, from an era where peasant folk were concerned more about keeping themselves alive and feeding their families, than making sure they had good haircuts. Indeed, Eli's brown curls had been exactly the same length for over two hundred years, one of the many unique attributes connected to her unusual biological situation. Wearing nothing other than a loose-fitting, cotton white shirt and a pair of jeans that were a few sizes too big for her, she looked distinctly out of place in the cold, harsh environment of the city. Barefooted, she could have been an orphan or homeless, but she had an aura about her that suggested a vastly different origin.. she could have just as easily been an actress in a film about time travel.
"Why, and how, are you following me?" She said with her soft, understated tone, getting straight to the point. Her eyes stared impassively at the woman in front of her. There was a mixture of childlike curiosity befitting her physical appearance, and cynical suspicion that suited her true age, to be found there. Eli had little patience for these unpredictable people with their special abilities. For all she knew, the girl would breathe fire upon her like some sort of walking, talking flamethrower. It wouldn't be the first time someone had tried that.
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #4 on Oct 30, 2009, 10:11am »
For a brief moment Jenni's mind seemed moving, but her body not. Like a horror movie, Jenni was meant to be moving, but she was not. Jenni's body remained still, the same way it had been for a few moments now, but her mind was telling her, shouting at her to run, but her body would not comply. Over come by the thought of seeing someone, it froze her. As still as an ice burg, without the slow movement.
The night seemed to have got more darker, maybe it was Jenni's eyes which made things seem darker after staring into nothingness for so long. But who knew? "Great" Jenni said, a large over exaggerated sigh escaping her. "Now I look like a right prick." She said to herself, whipping out her phone Jenni dialed the number for the nearest taxi firm. At least she could be a prick, in a car. Either way she would get out of th embarrassment of shouting and no-one reply. "Yes, the park please" Jenni said, a smile spreading across her carefully applied lip-stick covered lips.
Taking a step, a voice echoed into her ear. Spinning on the spot Jenni's eyes scanned faster than normal, nothing but a child. But her prescience gave off such a strong attack on Jenni's brain that it was mind-blowing, even for someone who has walked past many 'specials' throughout the day. This was largely different. "Following?" Jenni repeated, then suddenly the justice of where the person, girl was coming from made sense. Jenni didn't realize that she was technically following her. Mouth dropping Jenni bowed her head. "Sorry, had I realized what I was doing I would have stopped, but you." Jenni paused, shaking her head at the thought maybe the person didn't know it.
Shaking her head Jenni continued, "You moved so fast it was hard to keep up with you, I'm sorry if you're offended but I've never lost someone like that before" Jenni admitted, free willingly talking about her ability made her happy, and even though this person was child-like, Jenni didn't care. "I'm Jenni" She said with a smile, her pearly white teeth almost shining in the dark. Even though she didn't know who this person was, Jenni didn't care, the excitement of meeting someone 'special' was too overwhelming to care about such trivial matters like age, height or other features. Let alone if that person was dangerous, perhaps that was stupid, but Jenni's mother had always told her to look in the 'bright' side of people. So that's what she did.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #5 on Oct 30, 2009, 10:46am »
With a frown upon her face, Eli stared up at the woman who had introduced herself as Jenni. She immediately felt uncomfortable, having had no particular desire to learn the girl's name, or even to extend the conversation further than a few sentences. Her original intention had been to ask the girl to stop following her and leave her be, but now that her child-like curiosity had been caught, that didn't seem particularly likely. Running over what Jenni had said, she was able to quickly come to the conclusion that her initial suspicions had been correct. The girl had indeed been following her, without using any natural methods to do so. If that was all she could do, and it had apparently been unintentional on her part, then Eli at least didn't have to look at the girl as some sort of threat. Her instincts told her to leave now that she had found out what she wanted to know, but against her better nature, she stayed for the moment.
Fixing Jenni with a bemused stare, Eli took a few steps to the left, her feet padding against the cold ground beneath. Something about Eli's movements befitted a pacing, stalking cat of some sort, and the feral look on her eyes suggested that there was something inherently wild and animalistic about her. She was most definitely not just a child, that much was obvious to all but the most dim witted.
Eli felt unsure of what she should say in reply to the unusual introduction. It wasn't every day that a stranger tracked her without seeming to have any clear intentions when they actually found her. If the girl had been out to get Eli in some way, she wouldn't have had to think too much about how she'd react, but that certainly didn't seem to be the case. Her curiosity demanded an answer, as she continued to gaze upon Jenni in exactly the same way that a child might look upon something they didn't quite understand.
"How did you track me like that?" She said, her voice remaining soft, but there was something in her tone of voice that could be interpreted as aggression. Not outright hostility, but Eli was certainly suspicious of this woman and was perfectly prepared to show that. In her experience, holding back signs of suspicion and aggression was pointless in a situation like this. People tended to become much clearer and less confusing when they thought that you might rip them to pieces. That was not to say she had any intention of doing that to Jenni, who at the moment didn't seem to pose a threat to her, but if this was some sort of trick to lure her into a state of vulnerability, Eli would react in the only way she knew how. She by no means wanted to kill anyone, but she would if she had to.
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #6 on Oct 30, 2009, 11:58am »
Jenni sighed, she didn't expect such a, frosty. Reception from the girl. But it was amazing how the girl was intrigued the girl had been, like it was some kind of weakness, like Macbeth and ambition, only.. not. Which didn't really mean anything to Jenni, she wasn't going to lie nor was she not going to tell her. But it was shocking. "Well you see, I pick up on people's abilities, like yourself who have one" Jenni paused to breathe.
Fidgeting in her pockets for a moment Jenni pulled out her phone, unlocking it to show the display picture. Holding it out to the girl Jenni nodded toward it. "This is my mother, the first ability I picked up as a girl, and this ability lets me find others with abilities. Like you. But when I'm near you it gives me a headache" Jenni admitted, still out stretching the phone. "If you saw me rub my fingers on my temples that either helps me concentrate on you, or get rid of you from my mind. In this case, and I apologize, it was to find you." Jenni said plainly, her eyes flickering up and down the girl.
"You see when you moved so fast, initially I get people's abilities come on my radar, and I ignore it, but you moved so fast it was unbelievable. Which is why I followed you, because normally it is just people walking at normal rates and stuff so I choose to ignore it, but you moved so fast I had to know what you could do. Which is kind of why I'm here." Jenni continued, "What exactly is it you can do? You seem so young" Jenni said, but the girl's voice, shape and general prescience was off putting for Jenni to speak a lot like normal, she was just so interesting.
"You see I've never actually met another person with abilities, and when I've seen them they don't show it, you did kind of, but not if you get what I mean. I've only got this ability, and I know if I don't concentrate I get other peoples abilities. Not that I'm going to steal yours or anything." Jenni added with a small smirk. Leaving her question to linger Jenni awaited a reply, even though it was dark it seemed like the world had stopped around the pair, like time itself was waiting for them to stop talking to each other, go separate ways or do anything. The clouds was beginning to come in, the dark ones, the type of clouds producing rain, which only slightly worried Jenni, after all she was in a coat, even though it wasn't really made to be wet or get wet. "Aren't you freezing?" Jenni asked, trying to fill the silence, something which had started to bug her more now than ever.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #7 on Oct 30, 2009, 1:16pm »
Narrowing her eyes to such an extent that they almost became slits, Eli took a step back and away from the woman, her teeth being bared for a moment, a look of fear upon her face. She was not afraid of Jenni, however. It was instead something that the woman had said, the notion that she could somehow become like Eli, and that was something that Eli had absolutely no desire to happen. The power that Eli possessed, if it was indeed an 'anomalistic ability' as it had been suggested during one of her very rare encounters with a scientist, was something that nobody else should ever come to possess. It had taken her the better half of two centuries to learn to control her hunger, to learn to control the strength she possessed, and she was loathe to imagine that anyone else could ever become cursed with the same thing. She ws only partially reassured that Jenni said she wasn't going to try and gain her ability.
"How well can you control this? You don't want my ability. I should leave, it would be safer for you that way." She said, a worried expression upon her face. Considering the usually impassive attitude that Eli viewed the world with, her sudden rush of emotion was something very notable indeed. Jenni, having never met her before, would not have been able to understand it or notice any difference, but Eli was actuely aware that this was an encounter she didn't want to prolong. This girl seemed to be too light-hearted and cheerful for her own good. Eli was not some sort of comic book superhero, her power was grim, it was bloody.. it made her into a monster. By all accounts, it was evil. She was not proud of it and didn't want to have to tell the girl what she could do, if she could avoid it.
For now, she stood where she was, composing herself the best she possibly could under the circumstances. The 'inner adult' in Eli calmed her down, and so she took a step closer, trying not to appear quite as distant and arguably fierce as she currently did. It was not her intention to scare Jenni, although she might not have been overly concerned if she did cause the poor girl to run off screaming, it would probably have been safer for her if she did. However, it was not Eli's place to make decisions on what somebody else should do, and her slight curiosity over the girl's ability kept her standing there for the moment.
"Why do you want to know what I can do? What if it's something you wouldn't like to hear?"
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #8 on Nov 7, 2009, 2:00pm »
Right there, at the words of such a small person. Jenni was smacked into place. She was right. What if it was something she didn't want to know? See? Or hear about? What if this girl could make fires or start the plague, raise the dead and bring back Adolf Hitler? Start the world war all over again. Jenni's thoughts raced around her head, why was she falling this person? It was to find out. Even if she didn't want to know, how could she come this far and not stop knowing. It would be pointless, plus a waste of a good dollar, spending it on pain killers later. Her ability always cost her more than it was worth.
Mustering up all the worlds she could, Jenni spoke once more. "Because, I haven't mat another person like you, you're like a super hero to me, a dream, something which has never happened. You to me is like meeting all the right lottery numbers. You're what I call a 'special' which is why I was so intrigued to follow you, no matter what it is that you can do. It's past normal standards, weather you can look through walls or talk to them! You and me surpass human anatomy, we break all the rules." Jenni said, her voice like Obama trying to be the president, her voice spoke words of truth and hope. All of what she was feeling.
Moving around on the spot Jenni felt obliged to tell her more. "You see, I've been going round the world day to day. Living as a normal human being, have normal hearing and normal sight, having a normal day and a normal night. But tonight was different, I was myself. Even though I was some what following you, using my ability sets me free kind of. The rush I get from finding something knew" Jenni paused a moment, a small sigh escaping her. "It's hard for anyone to understand, but it's like I've been running around for years, as someone I'm not, as someone who can't do what I do." Jenni finished. Her blonde hair now wisping in the wind. "No matter what you can do, I'm sure you was given that ability for some reason." She quickly added, before allowing the girl to speak.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #9 on Nov 7, 2009, 3:27pm »
The cold, impassive expression upon Eli's face seemed to progressively change as the woman spoke. If the stranger was hoping that, with inspiring words, she would somehow convince Eli to start warming up to her, she would soon find herself rather mistaken. The attempt to rouse up some sort of similarity, sisterhood perhaps, between the woman and herself meant little to Eli. If anything, she felt a surge of electric anger, jolting through her nervous system. An anger that continued to build with each word that the woman spoke. She thinks I'm a superhero. A conscious feeling of unsurpressable rage flared up through her being, and Eli found herself unable to suffer anything more from the woman. She didn't want to hear that she was gifted, that she was special. No, the woman had to see for herself, had to know just who Eli was.
It seemed within less than a second, the distance between the woman and Eli had been closed. One moment, Eli had been standing at the opposite side of the alleyway, the next, she was very close to the girl. Too close. Her face had changed, somehow. The innocent, beautiful features of a young child had twisted, contorted with a seething anger that could only belong to someone who had experienced a lifetime of pain, of regret. Eli had been victim to more than just a lifetime. There was a snarl, the sort of feral sound that only an animal could make. It sounded cat-like, and in that moment, Eli could just have easily been a tiger, a creature of lethal, destructive power, capable of snapping the woman like a twig beneath her paws.
The girl's eyes, those sorrowful brown eyes that could have just as easily belonged to an old widow, had changed. Gone was the gentle, chocolate brown, replaced by a cold, deathly blue. Eli's pupils had changed from the wide, black orbs that they had once been, warped instantaneously into cat-like slits. Her lips had peeled back, the tools of her survival on perfect display for the woman to see. They were canines, but there was something so different about them than regular human teeth. They were longer, sharper.. these were the teeth of a predator, teeth that could effortlessly slice, and pierce through flesh. Eli's eyes were narrowed, an instantaneous transformation from child, to the world's most lethal predator.
Out shot a hand, with such force of movement behind it that it would have been nigh unstoppable. If the woman did not somehow manage to resist it, to push it away, then Eli would have coiled her small, white hand around the girl's throat. Her fingertips would then push down with such crushing, vice-like pressure, that for a few moments, the woman would feel her life seeping away. And then, lifting her from the ground ever so slightly, with a physical strength incomprehensible judging by her size and innocent demanour, Eli would snarl out her words with all the anguish, violence, and despair that haunted her very being.
"I am not a superhero! Do you know what I see, when I look at you now? Weakness, fragile, bloody weakness. With a clench of my hand, I could snap your neck in two. Tear the skin open, watch the blood flow.. you are nothing more than food for me. Is this what you want? Is that what you imagined? This is no dream!"
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #10 on Nov 7, 2009, 6:48pm »
Everything went so fast, from the moments Jenni stopped speaking to the moment the girl was speaking. Frozen, watching every detail from the frozen body which held her position Jenni's eyes screamed terror, not terror for her life, that was at the back of her mind. What terrorized her simple body's frame into submission and caused it not to respond was the fact that this being, this one person was, and is the worst Jenni could have thought of, she was evil. A negative morsel of a spot on the world, Jenni's world.
For every word the person, which now had erupt into some kind of beast spoke Jenni's body urged her to move, shout back word that meant she could change, that she didn't mean she was a super hero. The bubbling urge to speak over threw Jenni. "If you want to! Go do it. But why would you have stopped, climbed down from wherever you was just to break my skin and use me for food? You saw it too, something special. Whatever you can do happened for a reason. I do not mean for you to join some kind of super cult. That is not why I was here" Jenni paused, letting her harsh tone muster inside her. "I came to you, under the impression that you use your ability for some reason. Any reason. All be it killing, saving a life of a bloody damsel in distress or whatever. I couldn't care what you used it for, I couldn't care if you did not use it. Whilst I would have liked to known that you help or whatever with it, I am not fussed. I am not asking to be befriend, a simple understand of how it happened." Jenni stopped, her courage was diminishing with every word, but she couldn't stop there.
Breathing in a lung full of air Jenni braced herself for another speech. "Look, you've done something with your ability, i am not asking for you to repent to me, I am not asking for you to spill them out to me. I simply wanted to know what exactly you can do, but suddenly I see." Jenni paused. "You could go ahead and kill me, you can call me weak. But what I see is someone on the run, someone afraid of becoming known as weak, so you keep running. Like you was running when I saw you." Jenni paused, trying to make sure she didn't just listen to her and not get actually listened too. "I do not insist that you do in fact kill me, but understand me on this one. You didn't come down for no reason, what you saw in me was what I saw in you. Something different, it's why we're here." Jenni finished, her final draw and courage brought up to say the final words, maybe before the girl left or Jenni left her.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #11 on Nov 7, 2009, 7:08pm »
Her slender fingertips, still clenched around the woman's throat, twitched ever so slightly whilst the girl gave another little speech. Eli closed her eyes, the feral expression that had so suddenly flashed onto her features began to wash away once again, the childish innocence returning once more. When she was docile, it would be easy enough to remark that Eli was the most beautiful, serene child that you had ever seen in your life.. but when she was angry, as she had been moments before, she was terrifying. A nightmare child, taken out of some sort of horror movie. The brief spark of anger that had inspired her to grab the woman by the throat in the first place had began to disappate rapidly. Eli did not feel emotion in quite the same way as a normal person did, not after all this time. It was rare for her to hold onto such a seething anger for too long.
With a flick of her wrist, she could have indeed snapped the woman's neck with ease, just like breaking a pencil. Had she wanted to, it would have not been particularly difficult to wrench the poor girl's head off, to throw it into the nearby trashcan. But Eli was not violent, she was not a psychopath, she was a child who did what she had to do in order to survive. This woman had not harmed her, not yet. She may have managed to try her patience, but she had not tried to attack her, she had not yet signed her death warrant. Perhaps, if she had been starving with hunger, and this woman had said what she had just said, then things would have been different. The hunger would have been impossible for her to control, and the woman would already be dead. But no, Eli didn't want that to happen.
Allowing her grip to loosen, her fingertips to uncurl from the girl's neck, Eli let her arm fall limply down to her side, closing her eyes and forcing herself to calm down. She should not have reacted in such an impulsive manner. Perhaps that anger had been building up within her for years. Years of loneliness, years without a home. Taking a few steps back, away from the woman, she turned away with a bitter expression upon her face. For a brief moment, she looked like a child who had lost it's way, a hurt, desperate expression upon her face. She didn't want to be here anymore. This woman thought she was some sort of monster, and who could blame her? Eli was a monster.
Still, her pride was willing to speak in her defense, to not quite allow the woman away with such stinging barbs. Eli was not weak, she was far from it. "You don't know anything about me. I'm not a killer.. if you understood, maybe you'd think differently. This isn't a power to me, it's a disease. I have to feed.. on blood, on flesh.. in order to survive. I don't want to kill people. I wouldn't have killed you, I just.. you needed to see."
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #12 on Nov 7, 2009, 7:27pm »
Jenni's initial feelings were shock, but a maternal feeling crossed her, maybe it was because of how young she looked, who knew? Jenni had the urge to hug her, but she knew touching would be strictly off grounds unless she wanted to do. A sudden rush of maternal instinct left Jenni's eyes filling up with water. I can't cry, not after she just tried to choke me. Jenni thought, but she couldn't help it, and being the type of person which cried silently but whimpered Jenni's heart started to race, a small tear escaped her.
Whipping it off with her sleeve Jenni looked back at the girl. "I didn't know you would regard this as a disease, you're a cannibal, wow" Jenni said, trying to hide the churning in her stomach. "I didn't expect that, and yes, I see why you would see it as a disease, but what you have, you may not see it but I see it, is special. Whilst you can argue with me about it, see it from my view. I don't know everything about you, I don't see myself as anything like you or close to you, but you move incredibly fast, are incredibly strong and you can tear my flesh apart. That, all be it not the norm, is pretty darn special to me." Jenni paused, realizing the huge holes wrong with that sentence.
"I want to understand, whilst you want me not to or might do, I really want to know how it all happened, you see I'm trying to understand how these things happened" Jenni paused, a smile now creeping onto her face. "You see I got mine of my mother, I can get peoples abilities through being close to you, it doesn't work with you, which is why I'm questioning my ability." Jenni said plainly. "Sometimes I think my ability is a disease, but then I think what would I be like without it really" Jenni said, her blond hair stopping to whip in the wind, like the anger had left the area. "Do you wanna' tell me how your ability surfaced?" Jenni asked, "Trust me, nothing more can scare me after that" she said with a gentle rubbing of her neck.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #13 on Nov 7, 2009, 7:47pm »
Turning away from the woman, Eli deliberated whether she should simply leave. She'd ascertained that the girl was no real threat to her, didn't know who she was, and had only been following her by chance. Surely the girl's ability didn't allow her to track her too far. It wouldn't have been too difficult for Eli to simply scale the nearby wall, climb over the rooftops, disappear into the night, and try and forget that her encounter with the woman had ever happened. But no, she didn't have to do that. Didn't really want to do that. Maybe that's what she needed, to tell her story. But did the girl really need to know? She was reluctant at the best of times to delve into the memories of her past. They were painful, and difficult to relive. Eli felt like she'd been running from the guilt of the night she became cursed all her life.
"I was twelve at the time. Right now, I'm 237.. at least, I think that's about right. I've been twelve for a very long time.. even though I'm older than that, mentally.. I'm still twelve. I guess my brain can never grow up in the same way that my body can never grow up, either.. I was left abandoned along with my younger brother. We were starving, freezing.."
Eli closed her eyes, she didn't want to have to tell this story. All she wanted to do right now was to run away, to leave this girl behind, and keep her memories firmly trapped in the past. The tragic tale of Eli's life was something that she had done her very best to bury. Had constructed emotional walls around in her head. It was easier to see the world in a cold, gray light. She didn't feel human, hadn't felt human for centuries, and so it had began to feel very easy to simply just see herself as disconnected from the rest of the world. Even if this girl had some sort of special power of some sort, Eli did not identify with her. Couldn't empathise, couldn't see herself in the same light. She didn't have to rip a person's throat out and drain them dry in order to survive. She'd not been hunted down as a 'vampire' for much of her life.
There were no such things as vampires. Eli may have had a few things in common with them, but she knew that the supernatural creatures did not exist. If they did, she'd have bumped into one of them by now, surely. Eli did not need to sleep in a coffin, was not affected by the sunlight, even though her eyes had became sensitive to it after she had became largely nocturnal. She didn't need an invitation to come into someones home, didn't get burned by holy water. A stake might be able to seriously wound her but it wasn't fatal. She could heal from the damage, given enough time. Opening her eyes again slowly, she took a moment to continue her story, reluctantly.
"It was snowing, a blizzard.. I can remember being in a field, underneath a tree. There was no life around. Jakob died, he was weaker than I was because of his age.. and then it was just me. I couldn't go on without him, but something inside of me wanted to survive.. forced me to bite into him. To drink his blood, to chew on his neck.. and somehow, my body became alive again. I don't know if I died, if I'm undead.. no, I think I'm still alive. But since then, I have not aged, haven't changed in the slightest.. everything stays the same, as long as I feed. If I don't, I die.. it's that simple."
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #14 on Nov 7, 2009, 8:06pm »
So it was to be that the girl was a cannibal. That she fed off her own brother to survive, which was quite impressive to Jenni, in an odd way it made her admire the girl, she had the guts to basically eat her brother, how odd it may sound Jenni wasn't bothered, this girl had it in her, the ultimate survival instinct that saved her life, the one of the few things Jenni could have never done. But she couldn't think about that now, tackling one subject at a time was key in conversations like this. "Wow, you're almost 10 times how old I am. That, is pretty darn cool. It's like you're body was in survival mode and that's what it's stuck in now." Jenni said, trying to keep her tone mellow so she didn't give off the wrong impression that she liked the fact the girl had an ability she couldn't mimic.
The fact that the girl had become so survival instinct built, she had stopped aging, going through the world running at massively fast rates and super strong, with teeth like razors and a complexion to die for. This girl was the entity of the mixture of old and new, then and now. She had lived through the Victorian age, no matter where it was, she had lived through the invention of the computer and the Internet, watching it unfold year by year and never changing. That was impressive. Floods of questions swirled in Jenni's head, but she couldn't ask them all at once, one by one would have to be the only way for this situation.
Jenni thought about it for a few moments, the family the girl must have had must be six feet under and probably not there, she would have out lived on the average of 4 adults and watch them grow old and die. Which was odd, Jenni couldn't see herself there, being the one to see them go whilst she remained, wandering around the world as everyone around her was either dying or dying slowly, very slowly. Jenni was oddly amazed by it, it was one of the things she had thought about as a child whenever it came up into conversation 'what super power would you have' and she would say 'live forever' but this girl was living forever, and she didn't seem happy about it. Which was a large downer on Jenni's child dream.
"So do you have anywhere to go? See family or anything?" Jenni asked, it seemed like a stupid question but Jenni couldn't help but ask what she was doing around here, why she was running around near Jenni's house, not that she had actually been there for Jenni, but would she be visiting her mothers great great great great daughter? Jenni thought how would that go down if it happened to her, but shoved the thoughts out of her head. "I mean, why was you around here? Haven't you bee here in all of your 237 years of life?" Jenni corrected herself, might as well fix her sentence in the silence.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #15 on Nov 7, 2009, 8:27pm »
Eli winced, keeping her back turned away from the girl, not wanting to have to look at her. The mention of family had been like a proverbial stake through Eli's heart. Family. Mentioning her long deceased sibling had been bad enough, but to have to think about her mother, her father? That was more painful than she was able to comprehend. Little teardrops had forced themselves down her cheeks, and she was glad now that the other woman couldn't see her. She didn't want her to see the tears, didn't want her to know just how bad she had just made Eli feel, even if it hadn't been intentional.
No, Eli wouldn't hold the remark about family against this girl. It wasn't her fault, how could she have possibly known? To Eli's knowledge, every one of her family members was long dead. She had never known of any aunts, uncles, or grandparents when she had been together with her parents. The Swedish winter had taken them all away at one point or another, as far as she had been told. With the death of her mother soon after brother had been born, the disappearance and probable death of her father.. and Jakob's death, right beside her against the tree in the snow field, Eli had been left totally alone in the world. No, not totally alone. She'd met someone, only once, someone who had meant more to her than everything else in the world. Someone she had risked her life to protect.. killed to protect. But where was he now? Middle-aged, getting on.. probably didn't remember her.
A guiding hand reached into the depths of her mind, and yanked Eli's consciousness back from the inner most reaches of despair. The hand belonged to the inner adult that lurked within Eli. Although she would never grow past twelve physically and neurologically, she had still developed maturity vastly beyond her years, and that maturity often manifested itself when she needed it most, a comforting, almost motherly like voice, to console her, to keep her going. Eli often wondered if it was perhaps just a different manifestation of her hunger. Perhaps the hunger felt that in order to achieve its goal of being fed, of growing strong, it would need to nurture the host that it found itself in, to keep her alive, keep her happy. Happy.. When had Eli last felt happy? Truly happy? It was almost over 30 years ago now. Since then, her life had been lonely, and empty. Just as it had been ever since the snow field.
"No, I'm not here to visit family. My family are dead. They've been dead for a very long time. As for friends.. no, I don't have any. I have been living here for ten years now, but I do not stay in the same place, not for very long. My home is in Sweden.. can't you tell?" She asked, making reference to her rather strong accent. Eli had learned English, along with a host of other continental European languages, but her light, wispy Scandanavian accent always remained, heavily leaning in upon her words.
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #16 on Nov 8, 2009, 2:58pm »
Every emotion flooded out of Jenni, like small ripples in the water washed away from a wave of water. Caused by a big splash of a rock, the rock in this situation being the small child having nothing. Totally taken back Jenni paused for a moment, letting the information go in. "You have nothing, no sisters brother mothers or fathers." Jenni repeated the information, it was all shocking to her. Jenni felt a some what stabbing wound inside her, inside her heart. Like it was climbing out and going to the small girl. Her heart went out to her, for a young old girl she was strong, Jenni could give her that.
"I never did imagine having nothing, it must be so lonely." Jenni said, her tone was dark and toneless. What was she supposed to say? "You can be my child? Even though you're older" that sounded silly, even in her head. What was she supposed to do? Give her a hug, no, touching would be out of the question. Jenni pulled I'm air and decided to act on impulse. "If you need a friend, I'm a good candidate" Jenni said, her heart piecing up in pace once more.
Silence perused her words, leaves began to whip in the air once more. What was she supposed to do now? Scoop her up in her arms. No. Realizing she missed a vital question Jenni wanted to slap herself, very hard, on her head. "You do sound foreign, but I'm not good with exact locations. Places and accents can be applied anywhere, drama or TV. I just go a long with if you're on a vacation here you're foreign, if you live here you have an American accent. If that makes sense" Jenni said, shaking her head at what she said not making sense. "You get what I mean. You're either one from here or one from their" She corrected herself. A smile at her own correction spread across her lips.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #17 on Nov 8, 2009, 4:05pm »
As the woman spoke about family, and friends, Eli found her patience beginning to dwindle. It had been rapidly depleting since she had first gotten into conversation with the woman, but now it was just becoming too much. Her child? Her friend? The last thing Eli needed was a mother figure in her life, nevermind a friend. She'd met people in the past who had tried to take an interest in her, tried to be a parent, but there was no point. They weren't her Mama, or Papa. Never would be, it wasn't possible. If Eli could go back and time, she would have cherished every moment with her family that she had, but that wasn't to be. Life was cruel, but Eli could live with that. She'd been doing it for the past two centuries and wasn't going to suddenly succumb to weakness now.
The thought of simply up and leaving, abandoning the woman and letting her go back to her day to day life, was becoming increasingly tempting. Eli didn't want to befriend this woman. She seemed too kind for her own good, and didn't seem to think things through in advance. Why should Eli trust her enough to become her friend? Just because she said she'd be a good candidate? The thought of it was simply ridiculous. There was nothing about the woman that even slightly suggested that she'd be a good friend for Eli to make. She was too old, too emotionally invested in things. Eli was tempted to think that she was extremely naive, for that matter, but she didn't want to feel too harsh. Eli just couldn't place any trust in an adult, it wasn't her nature. She only felt comfortable with those her own age. Physically, at least.
Reaching back, tucking a tendril of slick, wet brown hair in behind one of her ears, Eli sighed softly and turned around to face the woman. The expression on her face suggested that she was very much frustrated by the topic of conversation. How could she tell the woman that she didn't want to be friends, without bluntly stating it? Eli didn't have enough conversational experience to be able to pretty up her words, to sound understanding and sympathetic. She could only be honest, and it looked as if she were going to have to be just that. Tell the truth, and hopefully the woman would leave her alone.
"Listen.. we can't be friends. I move around a lot. It's safer for me to not make connections." She said in a matter of fact manner. There was something about the expression on her face as she said it, the sort of childish stubbornness that adults hated to see, because they knew it was going to be almost impossible to work around. Eli had made up her mind there and then, and it was going to be extremely difficult to even come close to making her reconsider.
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #18 on Nov 8, 2009, 4:39pm »
Jenni didn't like the way this was going. It felt like there was a chance or an open window where she was going to run away. Not, letting this go.Jenni thought firmly to herself. "I wasn't asking for you to stay, I don't expect you be at my side 24/7. But you know, whenever you return to Washington or New York, you could come say Hi, catch up and things. Not that we're going to have much to catch up on. I don't do much" She said with a cold tone.
Jenni felt something burn inside her, a rage almost. It wasn't what the girl said, it was the fact that she was running again, she was going to run away from Jenni. "Please, will you not stop running for at least a few days? You know, come around with me and things. Just for a few days. Please, don't run." Jenni said, her tone wasn't upset, even though it should have been, it stayed at the same tone, somewhat toneless. "I'm not telling you to, I am asking you to" Jenni added quickly.
"I May seem like an over whelming person, I'm not asking us to have a girl night in and braid each others hair, but I want to give you some company. Especially if you Don't' stay long, if you don't stay long then you don't have the proper experience! Which obviously, isn't the best on your own. Trust me on that one. It's hard to live New York on your own. Of course, I'm not going to contract you into it. I can't control anyone." Jenni said once more. Her tone more light. Don't run, Don't run, Don't Run, Don't run Jenni thought to herself, her heart began to pick up at the idea of the girl going.
After all it would be perfect for the girl to stay, Jenni could speak about how she got her ability and learn a few things of the girl. "I don't wish to sound over zealous with this, but have you ever thought. How life could be if you stayed? Just ever thought what if I stop for a moment?" Jenni had to ask, she couldn't hold it in any more. "I'm sorry, that was out of order. I apologize." Jenni quickly added, turning away for a moment Jenni took in a deep breath, and let it out.
Joined: Oct 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 265 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Karma: 7
Re: Only by the night (Eli) « Reply #19 on Nov 8, 2009, 7:27pm »
Feeling a wash of annoyance work it's way through her body, Eli let her fingertips curl up, clenching her hands into fists. The woman didn't seem prepared to just her leave. Why did she care so much? Eli's life was none of her concern. Life was easy to understand when you believed that you were alone, and that everybody else only cared about themselves. It was when people started taking an active interest in you, in your well-being, that things became complicated. Eli wasn't sure what she could really say to the woman to discourage her. If she was to tell the girl that every adult person she stayed around for consistently had wound up dead by her hands sooner rather than later, she didn't think the conversation would take a turn for the better.
It was something that Eli had never been able to understand. Her hunger worked in strange, unusual ways. It had it's own temperment, it seemed. There were certain things that put her off from feeding. Cancer, and other diseases, made the blood of a victim taste like molded cheese. Made her want to throw up. But there were other, more complex things. If she remained too close to an adult, particularly if she didn't want to be around them, when she grew hungry it suddenly became a lot easier to throw aside her usual morals about only killing those who deserved it. Became all too easy to cling to their chest, to bite into their neck. Bring them down onto the floor, kicking and screaming, draining every last drop of blood from them until they were nothing more than pale, exsanguinated corpses. The hunger could sometimes be uncontrollable, even though Eli had spent the better part of a century trying to learn to control it.
Sometimes it just wasn't possible. But she knew one thing, children her own physical age were different. She'd been tempted in the past, yes, when she found herself playing with one. They were fragile, easy to kill.. but the temptations had been easily controlled. She would never feed on a child. They were the only humans that she could suffer, perhaps it was because she was able to.. regress when she was with them. To feel like a child once again. Maybe even play for a while. An adult could never understand the simple joy that a child could feel whilst playing a game, toying with a puzzle, playing hide and seek. She could be very, very good at hide and seek. Now, Eli knew she had to do something about this woman, had to discourage her, make her leave. The woman knew about Eli now, knew what she could do, knew that she moved around a lot. Eli felt that she'd given too much away, had been careless by speaking with this woman. She had to make her go.
"I don't want to stop running. It keeps me alive. If I stayed with you, you'd be dead within a couple of days. Don't you see? I can't help myself. I see you as something lower on the foodchain. I can control myself for a while, but not forever. That's why you have to let me leave. It's better this way, for both of us."
![[Home]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/home.jpg)
![[Help]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/help.jpg)
![[Search]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/search2.jpg)
![[Login]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/login.jpg)
![[Register]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/register.jpg)
![[Search This Thread]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/search.jpg)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/sendtopic.jpg)
![[Print]](http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/losted1234/HeroesSkin/Buttons/print.jpg)
Author
![[image]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tXYlkQtn2lA/SaNYVqu0TlI/AAAAAAAAACc/1FgTjZ_xmUw/s320/celebrity+-+blake+lively.jpg)
Logged![[image]](http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2006/features/magstories/060626/jake_gyllenhaal.jpg)
![[avatar]](http://i47.tinypic.com/28milw9.gif)
![[msn]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/msn.gif)
![[image]](http://i38.tinypic.com/uakpz.jpg)
![[image]](http://i33.tinypic.com/sdxv.jpg)