throat slashed

Why wasn’t he stopping her, Oliver wondered? Maybe it was because he caught sight of his sister through the corner of one eye, and then a couple of seconds later, he saw Dash. They were doing their own thing, even if their things were different— for Dash, working. For Lily, escaping her wine victim. “That sounds like something completely different from you stuffing your bread rolls in my pockets, so never say that again, Whittle.” 

Still, Oliver let her get away with it. They were wrapped in napkins, anyway, and Serena’s pretend dramatics were comical. Not that he believed in a higher power, but, “Someone up there has it out for me, I’m sure of it.”

There was an innocent confusion on Serena’s face, brows furrowed and mouth parted as she looked up at him. What did he mean by it sounded completely different? She jabbed her finger into his chest, “How could it sound different? And I’m gonna say whatever I want to. You have no control over me, not my boss.” She retracted her hand and body from near him, relaxing against the wall as she crossed her arms. 

She scanned her eyes across the crowd of people dancing, being jovial with the smattering of mischief in between that may have been accidental, or on purpose. Serena didn’t really know, but it almost made her want to hide away from everyone. “Because you have annoying coworkers? Or because you’ve been decreed my bun boy?” 

Mac thought about it. “It’d be tricky. I mean, if they were standing near a long drop, I could maybe pull it off, but there’s just not enough force behind it.” Realizing he was giving the matter too much thought, he shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “I wouldn’t trust anyone here enough to let them get that close. Pipsqueak.” Fair play, after all.

“If you launched a plate at someone with those arms you could hit them in the head, they’d be out, or at least startled. Deterred. Blah, blah, blah...” She teetered her weight from one foot to the other, looking across the crowd of people. “Hey, pipsqueak I may be, but it doesn’t mean I can’t put up a good fight. I’ll Mike Tyson the fuck out of any bastard.” 

:’) thanks im big stupid sometimes 

Everyone was on a high, reveling in each other and the marvel of humanity that was creating a dizzying effect for her. She had seen this all before, experienced this type of event of celebration that ended so quickly when her family had arrived. It was something her family had planned with other families for years, hearing the first inklings of the attack when she was only ten years old, but by the time she was fourteen was when the plan had come to fruition. They had rallied enough hunters, gotten all the equipment they needed and there Serena was, brainwashed into believing that all supernaturals were evil entities that deserved to be destroyed. Their powers were gifts of the devil himself, leeching life from humans to create carnage and chaos. That’s what they always said, that’s why they had to go on a night of celebration in their humanity’s roots. In that area they celebrated each and every blood moon as a night to not use their powers even if it was not the phenomenon that actually took them away. 

Innocent as all a young girl could be, matching some distinction of what the other party goers could be she was sent in first mask and all. There was a gentile atmosphere to her at the time, coaxed by her family to use it to her advantage so no one would suspect a thing as the family entered the party with smiles galore. The beautiful dresses and masks were mesmerizing to the young girl, never having experienced something so glorious and awe-inducing that rattled her senses. These weren’t monsters, agents of the devil. They were people, living their lives the best way they could. Eyes casting up at her parents, a feeling of detachment settling into her bones with her fingers clasped at the light material of her pants as their faces had a sickeningly happy smile etched into it. There was a coldness, calculated that she didn’t know if she liked. Of course, she loved her parents, but she was afraid of being a failure to them in these moments. What if she couldn’t go through with it? 

There was a small set of instructions hidden in her pocket along with some explosives hidden in the air-ducts that all the hunter children there were to activate at a specific time. Energy buzzed under her skin, anxiety building up in her stomach that wrapped around her throat as she wandered away from her parents as if she was some child just looking to grab a snack from the food bar. Instead, she dipped into an empty hallway to find the secluded room that she needed to use to enter the air-duct system to get to her designated explosive. The adults were too big, they couldn’t fit in there and it was up to the children. There was 15 of them in all that were doing this at this exact moment, crawling through the metal pathways to activate them with a thirty minute countdown until they all went off. 

Upon getting out of the labyrinth of metal, she was clammy and the anxiety twisted her stomach tighter, causing her to retch up any contents of her stomach in the corner of the room. The rancid smell disgusted her, backing off from it as she rubbed her mouth on the sleeve of her shirt before running out of the room with her mask loosely on her. Serena closed the door a little too loudly, flinching at the sound before she bolted down the hallway only to crash into someone much larger than she. Looking up, eyes wide it was a mammoth of a man as her mask knocked off her face, but he steadied her with kind hands. He spoke gently to her, made sure she was okay and aided her in replacing her mask to her face. It was barely a three minute interaction until she was back into the main ballroom, heart and stomach sunk down to her feet with every step leaded in her heels. Everything felt heavy, slow and she could hear her heartbeat in her ears before she felt the familiar tight grip of her mothers hand around her arm. 

They all left slowly, family by family of hunters who said their polite goodbyes to anyone they were talking to as their children finished with their duty. Everyone met on a secluded hill top in clear view of the building and as the bombs went off she could feel the pressure behind her eyes that she was fighting off at the loss of life that no one deserved to lose. Her father squeezed her under his shoulder, muffled sounds of proud voices filtering through her ears as she watched the building be destroyed before her very eyes, thinking of the happy people who were in celebration turned to carcasses by the hands of her own family and people like her. Serena was disgusted at the thought, turning away from her fathers hold to stand off and away from everyone, kicking the ground in anger and disappointment in herself. She had killed people, this was her fault. They had been nothing but nice to her and all of her family without even knowing they were hunters. 

The mixed feelings were rushing through her mind at the Hollow Grove Blood Moon celebration. Who were the true monsters? Those who held abilities, or those who hated and hunted those who did? Serena needed to get out of the room fast, she needed fresh air and a moment to get out of her head, or she would crumble before the night was over. 

“Swallow,” Oliver said, holding his hands up, palms facing her, to indicate that no, he did not want whatever she was offering him— presumably those bread rolls. “Then speak. I have no idea what the fuck you’re saying and I also don’t want to know anymore. This was too difficult.”

Serena chewed enough to swallow, glowering at Oliver for chastising her as if she was a child. Fine, she would be as child like as possible, so she put a couple of the napkin covered rolls in both his pockets. “I’m not going to be able to eat all of these right now and I don’t have pockets, so you’re going to be my official bun toter, Hastings.” She had a coy smile on her face as she placed the rolls in his pockets before backing away to take another chomp of her bread roll with a delighted look on her face. 

Serena had found the glory-filled gold mound of delicious bread that were baked to perfection. She cursed the fact she had no pockets, but decided to put as many as she could in her hands which equaled out to a meager five. Oliver was over in the corner, watching people and she knew why because they were both technically working. Walking over, having taken a bite from one of her bounty as she settled to stand next to him. 

“Wofna buhreaf rooolll?” mouth filled, holding up her hands in an offering of peace. Serena really didn’t know about the whole proper etiquette of being at a ball, but she loved the food that was there and didn’t want to waste a moment of it. Though, it caused her to still have that wolf-like, animalistic nature around her with her still curly, wild mane and lack of food manners. 

Mac normally viewed any party as a reason to kick back and have a good time, but this was work. Maggie was human, which was weird to think about, and so was he, so he had a lot fewer weapons in his arsenal. As such, he was armed to the teeth, practically clanking with weaponry, and kept checking the entryways. The problem was that the same people at this stupid shindig were exactly the people who might want her dead. “This was a stupid fucking idea. And I can’t even throw lightning bolts at people.”

Serena was amused at the lightly clinking man, her own gun tucked on her ankle in case of any kind of problems were to happen that required its use. When he spoke, probably to no one in particular, but she decided to reply. “You look like you could take someone out just be chucking a piece of fine china.” She gestured at all of the plates around them, head tilted to the side slightly with a smile sparkling her features. There was the odd feeling that was present whenever blood moons rose in the sky, the humanistic dullness of her senses that she was familiar with, but was thankful in those moments of her childhood that helped her handle herself if anything were to happen. “Or just suffocate them in a headlock, you’re a glorified giant.” 

“Yeah, basically. They outed Summerdale last year after the information given to the government and them by the same bitch that created the hybrids. The sting of the last war and the supernaturals losing still stings with them.” she replied, well versed in the supernatural wars of the past given her proximity to those who’d actually fought, and the fact that she had grown up hearing the stories. What had lead to her home town. “Because they crave power.” she replied simply, “They believe that the supernatural community is the more powerful species, and should therefore rule. Gods among men.”

“Either, both. We’re all targets for hunters, humans are rightfully scared of what we can do, despite the good majority of us just wanting to live in peace.” it frustrated her that they had to live their lives in fear, when all she wanted to do was keep her family safe. “The general basis is that they’re not entirely stable, their actions alone prove it.” she replied, before shrugging a little. “Yeah, I’ve never known anyone else. My grandparents and my mom were pretty active in the war, they provided a lot of magical weaponry, charms, talismans. Came natural to them that they settled down here when Hollow Grove was established.”

Serena listened to Pippa, lips pursed as she thought about the idea of a supernaturals being Gods among men. The idea of being a God would be that they could not be defeated, but plenty supernaturals had been killed by humans. “And they decided to do this in this era when technology is so advanced, especially military wise? That doesn’t make any sense.” 

Val opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it as he thought about it…and she was right. “I could listen to the audiobook,” he said after thinking about it. “Can even do it while I’m working at my desk. Sounds perfect…”

“Maybe it could even help relax, or excite you, but you said it is a movie, too, right? You could even spend a night watching it.” Serena was ignorant to the fact that it was a movie series, but just smiled up at Val. “Gotta lot of options and maybe you’ll enjoy it.” 

Ezra laughed a little. “Yeah, I can’t imagine coming here and not knowing anything about this world,” he said. “I can’t even imagine coming into your powers late. I’ve grown up with mine. And it’s nice to be so open about my powers for the first time, cause I grew up having to hide them from almost everyone I knew.” He smiled at her. “Well, it’s a classic, I think it definitely stands up to multiple viewings.”

“I think for some people they’d be absolutely mesmerized, intrigued and curious, but that can lead to some kind of... calamity. They might try to get bitten by a werewolf, or vampire, put themselves in dangerous situations. It’s almost terrifying to think about.” She tilted her head, letting out a sigh. “What was it like growing up with powers? I didn’t turn until I was 15 and it was kinda horrible.” 

                  The purpose of life is to live it, 

                                       to taste experience to the utmost,

                                                                  to reach out eagerly 

                  and without fear for newer 

Laura smiled. “Alright, fine. I can’t stop you from tipping me.” She laughed. Laura shrugged when the other mentioned her working on her birthday. “Oh, it doesn’t bother me, I love my job.” She nodded. “I love my job and my boss usually gives me the day off but someone called in sick and I’m the first person he calls when something goes wrong.” Laura replied. 

Serena listened to the woman, smiling softly at the fact that she liked her job. “That’s great that you like your job, I’m glad for you. Is it like coffee shops in the city that are always bustling and busy, or kinda chill with how small Hollow Grove is?” 

“I think that sounds like a good idea and I can get to know you a little bit more because I feel like we got off on the wrong foot and everyone deserves a friend or a second chance at friends right?” she knew that the other was a bit harsh when they first met which in return had Posey keeping her distance just in case it was a mood swing that could come around again but as she was hanging out with her she saw that she was anything like that initial meeting and saw potential for a friend within the other; “I definitely understand where you are coming from, the outside world I feel like doesn’t understand what we are; weather it’s a vampire, werewolf or witch and I feel like here in Hollow where there are so many of the similar kinds or at least grouped under the umbrella term ‘Supernatural’ we can at least be a unity”

“Friends would be great...” Serena trailed off, looking at the ground before looking up at Posey to smile. She really had never had someone to call a friend. There were people who had helped her out sometimes, but they were always kept at arms distance in fear of what could happen to her.