Blood and Bones

     A tap against the bell with a finger lets out a DULLED chime. The silence is BROKEN, trained ears catching the soft echo of footsteps in the distance. A visitor to the Wrecker’s Yard? It can be a Trial, not with how soon his last one was.      He picks up Azarov’s Skull, walking towards the source. Wraith always knew the Survivors are mostly kept separate--no risk of them being killed by the more than sadistic Killers. . . so how did this one get away from the Campfire?

So far, his plan was going great! Sneak into Myer’s realm, locate a nice, abandoned house somewhere far away from Michael himself’s house, and take up residence. Yep, nothing with this plan could go wrong at all!

Honestly, why the entity didn’t give him his own realm, he would never understand. He’d even be happy with the hardware store that one of his last murders took place in. Literally anything would be better than mooching off of other killers who hated his guts, having been kicked out of several realms already. 

But the closer he got to the house, he felt that telltale sense that someone was looking at him. He turned his head in that direction, immediately spotting Michael. Fuck. Welp, time to initiate plan B.

Waving at the other masked man, Danny casually approached him. “Eeeyy! Michael, buddy! Listen. You’ve got a nice big realm to yourself with a bunch of empty houses, and I need a place to stay. Sooooo…I was thinking I could crash in one for a bit. Maybe that one aaallll the way down the street?” He pointed to the far off house on the opposite side, down at the end of the road.

Maybe, if he tried to play up the idea that he’d stay out of Michael’s way, he’d get somewhere with this. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably not.

     So many signs, senses that were ENHANCED to create the perfect hunter, the stalker from the shadows. The shape of a man could easily tell when one was trying to be unseen; how many of those survivors tried it? They try to hide and move slowly despite their very auras a beacon for him to follower. The only telltale sign of the Shape’s presence is the TINGLING down the spine as those black eyes stare them down.      The wave and casual approach gives way to a shift beneath the mask. All the others, those. . . Killers. . . greet him with the same HOSTILITY he brings to the table. 

“I’m sure we can find something. We should bring Valon along with us.”

“It’s all going down into a wreck.”

There was obvious signs in her dwelling of those teenagers had been in quite recently. Most likely she had let them roam around in the Red Forest and her home but had shooed them off not too long before his arrival. No doubt she watched over them and fawned over the four of them like a mother would.

This time she had a surprise for the Oni. Not a physical surprise, but one she had been working on with the Spirit’s help. Their language was difficult to learn, especially since his was an older dialect, but she wanted to understand what they were saying. Her head bowed in greeting and she stepped closer, holding her hands out to him. “Kon'nichiwa.” Her attempt to speak Japanese was quite poor and hard to understand due to her accent, but it was an attempt to speak the same language as him.

Indeed there was a tiny knick in the Eevee’s ear that only one in particular would have, one that was rescued by this man. Momo swished her fluffy tail in glee and chirped happily at him, only to hear a girl’s voice from behind.

“Momo! There you are! You can’t be wandering off by your-”

“Huh?”

The blonde paused for a moment and looked up towards the man. Who was he? And why was Momo so happy to see him? He did look somewhat familiar…

“Uhhhh m-my apologies if Momo was disturbing you, sir! S-She managed to get away from me.”