#coinquinatvs

"You know what I realized today?" A minute ago, he came in through the back door. There was still sweat on his forehead, and his hands were still clothed in soft leather gloves, and now he was squatting in front of Seth, who he stopped from getting up from the couch. "I realized what the most exciting moment in my whole life was. It was when I stepped backwards from that roof because I thought I was stepping into my death. I can't replay it. I can jump from all the roofs I see, but it won't be the same." He took Seth's hand in his, as if he were talking to a priest or a parent. "Before, I killed to feel like their lives seeped between my fingers, to breathe in their last breaths. Now I envy them. Because they can die. So, maybe it wasn't a gift at all? Maybe it's my punishment? And what should I do about it?

@coinquinatvs

By now she was used to the routine of being alone; make sure the door was locked, don’t answer it for anyone except Orm, and don’t leave unless there was an emergency. While she was there by herself, which wasn’t always so often, she would make the most of her time doodling and drawing on paper, then proceeding to show him immediately as soon as he returned home.

Today was no different, as she sat at the kitchen table, a jar situated in front of her which housed a small makeshift terrarium with a little caterpillar inside, she carefully began to draw the likeness of the critter onto her piece of paper. It was tricky, the pencil crayon wobbled as she concentrated on her work, focused solely on doing the job as efficiently as possible. No animal, insect or otherwise, deserved to stay cooped up inside a tiny jar, and Kay was determined to release it outside as soon as her dad got back.

“It – it wont be that - that long,” she promised the tiny bug, as she peered up at it from her work. “You’ll be out – outside again soon.” With her attention returned back to the piece of paper, she didn’t hear the sound of the front door being jimmied open until it was far too late.

The man had slipped inside unnoticed not long after Orm had left, expecting the residence to be vacant. The point he wanted to make was that Orm wasn’t untouchable, that winning every fight couldn’t stop him from being followed and found. Trash the place, loot it, and get the fuck out, the only thing he hadn’t factored in was the kid he found standing by the kitchen door.

Kay had first been alerted to the presence of someone inside when she heard things being tossed around. For only a minute she’d thought it was her dad returning, that he’d forgotten something and come back, but the moment she was up and by the kitchen door, she saw the stranger and froze in place. Fear quickly turned to panic as she watched his eyes widen as realization struck, then something else crossed his features, unreadable to her, but a plan forming in his mind. “No!” she shouted and turned to run just as he bolted for her. The stranger was faster, his hand snatching at the back of her hair as the two went crashing down. “No! Stop!” Panic swelled as a pulse built inside her, fingers beginning to ignite with blue static -

I don't want to hurt you!

But no sooner had the thought formed, Kay’s head was yanked back by the hold on her hair, and then brought down against hard kitchen tile. Pain ripped through her forehead, blood seeped out of an open wound and stars danced in front of her eyes as she was pulled back and brought down heavily again, this time the stars went out.

The man had made sure she was unconscious before he put his plan into motion, finishing with trashing the place, he then went and retrieved a blanket. Picking the child up off the floor, he wrapped her up and slung her carefully over his shoulder. Before going he dropped a set of matches on top of the picture Kay had been drawing, leaving his calling card behind. Orm would know where to find them.

“What do you mean?”

A grin spreads across her face as a blush does, red brushing from the tip of her nose up her cheekbones. “You mean my complete lack of coordination isn’t charming?”

Yes, okay, she’d been living in a city for a long time now. She’d forgotten how to deal with fields, and mud, and maybe she’d gotten overconfident. And she’d definitely worn the wrong shoes, hence why she was now in the middle of the field completely barefoot. Her shoes and socks were both goners, sucked into a puddle of mud too thick.

There against the fence, he tried to retrace his steps. He had fallen asleep against a brick wall in a decrepit house in New Orleans. Untethered sleep was a guarantee to sleepwalk. That's right. The Atrocities Realm. Something shitty had happened, that much was fucking obvious. Either he had been spat out of the Umbra or had crawled his way out.

The blood in his spit came as no surprise.

"Let me guess." The two had not been officially introduced as of yet, but there wasn't much that went on here that he didn't know about one way or another -- or so the rumors went, so she hadn't expected it to take long for him to want to change that on her first visit back that he was around for.