#voidthread

He was twice her size but she had gone for him regardless, entirely aware and expecting the hassle. Another test on a live subject; her ability to disappear corpses was excellent but there wasn’t a guarantee she’d be capable of physically overpowering others. The blonde rolled with the stranger’s punch, watched him lunge into the motel desk he had not seen in the moonlit room. It’s the moment he placed a hand down to keep balance that she drove the knife through the flesh to keep him in place.

Breathing is forgotten in the final push to victory; the monster’s hand lashed out, blackened with something unnatural as she took hold of the base of his throat. Messy, she wanted higher but this would do because it had to. He made enough noise when she woke him up a minute ago; but now there was no noise left to make as he stilled, the unfamiliar feeling of nothingness enveloping him. It traveled through his body, dissolving away into an ash-like substance before even that faded.

Time was a concept she had forgotten about within this place; the first prison capable of suppressing her (for the moment) as she remained bound to a partially reclined chair. They fed her sedatives around the clock not just because her body could take it but to keep her mind swimming; her will subdued and unfocused. They kept bones broken to keep pain active alongside of the shocks and pricks of needles now and again. Dampen her mind, delay her recovery and put dormant her ability.

T H I S   W O U L D   N O T   L A S T   !

Her specialty was adapting in pursuit of her unchanging goal; this would be no different. If Lenny had to play the long game she would. Little by little she collected herself and forced her mind to become rewired towards the pain. Broken bones? Dealt with them before. The shocks and pinpricks were becoming old and irritating fast. The dosage of drugs kept her sluggish but she was working on dissolving the chemicals that swam through her obsidian blood.

She would overcome.

It’s in the process of her pulling her consciousness free further that she came to hear the person imprisoned next door. Loud one at that, those drugs really kept the blonde out of it to not have heard the banging before. It took about an hour before Lenny’s voice is raised to yell, “You close to being fucking done?” to whoever was on the other side of the wall.

It isn’t often that Lenny came across something injured and considered doing something about it. Perhaps it was the fact she was watching this man before he had the chance to take notice of her; a natural, pained response that was met with such little sound. No begging for a higher power or horrendous sobbing - a moment of silence and in that her tolerance was found.

That white of his shirt, stained so very red now, peeked through like bones breaching flesh. Whatever he endured he did so fiercely and that quirked her interest. Was he a friend to violence? Deceptive little thing; she could relate in the most basic way. All of this was hypothetical, of course, she knew nothing of him to make accurate assumptions. Dare she hope for something different.

         At her reply, Blaine tilted his head as brows raised high. Obviously, he wasn’t expecting that kind of answer as it caught him off-guard and unable to form an instant witty comeback. So instead, he simply nodded as though he understood where she was coming from. She was cute, so he’d probably go along with anything she said anyway. The way she looked him over caused uneasiness in the back of his mind but he pushed it aside. Maybe she’d seen him before? Maybe she knew of him? Blaine would have remembered her for sure though. “Fair enough.”

         It was when she referred to him as pretty, that he finally smirked. “Well, that’s something I’ve never been called before. Thanks, I think. I mean, with this Seattle weather, it’s tough to work on your tan, but what can you do, right?” What was he doing out here? Why return to a crime scene? Blaine was in the neighborhood anyway, so he figured why not take a quick peek. It appeared fate was taking over the rest of the evening. He gave a casual shrug as he explained. “Just passing through, saw a beautiful woman, wanted to make sure she was alright walking alone… Are you? I have time if you’d like me to walk you to your destination or at least to a nicer neighborhood?”

         Was he up to something? Not really. At least not yet anyway. So he gave a genuine smile and held out a hand in greeting. “The name’s Blaine, by the way.”

Lenny watched the stranger passively; she wasn’t an expert on gauging others, especially upon first meetings. It helped that he was an animated and expressive man - but he could just be a manipulator. She wasn’t about to make solid judgments on his character as of yet but he could still be terribly human in there.

The blonde’s head cocked a small fraction as she looked up at him mentioning Seattle weather - she could roll with that excuse on why her own complexion was pale enough to be worrisome. How nice of him to provide some groundwork - her ability to tolerate him would no doubt grow at this rate. He had potential thus far which was something others rarely had the luck of at the start of engaging with her.

The monster’s hand slid easily enough into his own, “Lenny.” She introduced herself in return and hardly hid how easily she brushed aside the flattery to focus on the main point of his question, “I won’t lie and say I’m at risk just to keep you here. I chose to live further that way,” Lenny motioned into the direction that led to the more unpleasant side of town. “so if you’re willing to take the risk in a rotten neighborhood, Blaine...”

“Well aren’t you fond of lurking in the dark spaces of this city.”

Not that she is one to talk; seated on the pillar of a tall stone wall as she overlooked the street many had since fled from. Fingers curled over the edge between where her legs sat parted; the black dress she wore draped down the surface of the pillar like a inky waterfall. Modestly covered in a single sheet of fabric from throat to feet, save for the cut out that revealed the entirety of her back. Death itself would be jealous - yet here the scrawny woman sat, on top of a end-cap of a wall.

“What a disgusting habit.”

The voice chimed in, likely in an unwanted fashion, from further down the alleyway. The sound of a plastic bag crinkling could be heard as the woman leaned against the dumpster beside her - zero concern for whatever might be festering within. The corpses of a few rats caused their bones to rattle together in the bag as she shifted her weight.

“What are you doing, girl?”

The question is asked from the darkness of the warehouse; spoken with enough force to not be a whisper, but enough softness to not be demanding. The breeze that sweeps through the old building, in from broken windows long since abandoned, sings against the rusted chains once used for stocking.

Without a sound the blonde appears upon the upper level, leaning against the railing and hardly looking all that intimidating.

This city was thick with a self-righteous aura; she had wandered in, piercing through their veil like the abomination she is. Ever since she has been wondering if the reason they live out this way was because they believed themselves mightier than the common rubes, or to protect themselves from outsiders. The large city remained quaint in a way, most of the beings seemed to be familiar with one another vaguely. Luckily for them her appearance didn’t alert them; she knew how to be quiet, how to soften her steps and fall out of their peripheral into the cracks of reality.

She released a slow breath at the sound of the front door groaning; the old church was emptied out hours ago before she took up residence here. Sat against the platform a priest would gloat behind; her vibrant gaze ticked upwards to the stranger that wandered in after hours. The blonde traced her tongue against her molars, pressing the muscle with nearly enough pressure to cause a tear. She relented and exhaled noisily, purposely to alert the other to her presence.