A Vampire's Debut! (open to two)

The sun was just setting over the bright city. Many stores were beginning the process of closing their doors. The whole of the city would be calming down in just a few hours. All of it save one street.

Crash Alley.

If ever you wanted to have a night out, this is where you'd go. It seemed the party never stopped here in these streets. Though, some would argue that it never truly began. The streets were never safe and you had to watch your back with every step you took. In reality, it was at best a masquerade. Everyone wore a mask and never let their true personalities shine through. Some had worn the mask for so long that they could no longer remove it. Such is the case for the girl in the store right at this moment.

Her mask was sewn onto her face as an infant and has become a part of her to this day...

Anastasia walked into the small, Mom and Pop's styled store. There were about ten people in there when she walked in and she licked her lips. Humming 'Masquerade' from the Phantom of the Opera as she walked around for a few minutes before making her way back to the door. Without much effort at all she locked the door smoothly and then shut off the lights. Standing near a larger man, she began to panic along with the rest of them. No one seemed to think of turning the lights back on as they had a group hallucination appear on the opposite wall in front of them.

'Hello my darlings~ You will not be escaping this store tonight. I permit you to a phone call though! Call your loved ones and tell them you won't be home tonight. There's a VAMPIRE in town and she's playing with us~'

A laugh was heard from all throughout as Anastasia threw her voice to every corner. Many did indeed call people and Anastasia smirked, writing in the visions. 'Don't forget to mention me~ As soon as the man she was "cowering" behind got finished on the phone she reached up and sliced his neck, then doubling over and screaming herself to draw attention to the scene.

Many ran over to the two and a couple fainted in the background. Anastasia soaked up her role as the scared little girl and latched onto one of the women before plunging her dagger into the woman's stomach, causing her to cough up blood onto Anastasia's back.

This made the frightened little girl scream in terror. "T-THE VAMPIRE MUST BE INVISIBLE!!" Inside she was laughing maniacally at the wonderful display of human horror and licking her lips as she thought about the amount of blood she would be drinking tonight.

Ace stood quietly in the corner of the store, quietly surveying the scene around him. Man, I come to the roughest area in the city, and yet two hours later no one has done anything remotely illegal. What's a guy got to do to find some excitement around here? he wondered, right before the lights went out in the store.

...Apparently just complain to himself. he thought as he read the words on the wall. Call my loved ones, huh? Whelp, not much to do for that step, so let's take a look around. Ace moved quietly around the store, first towards the door to check it. Locked. Can't say I'm surprised though. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream. Following the movement of people toward the scream while still staying a bit behind them. Right as he got to the edge of the small group, another scream was let out.

And now people are dying. Alright, time to get a little more serious. he thought, retreating once again from the group. Let's see, vampires...silver and garlic. Well wouldn't you know, I'm fresh out of both. Okay, what else? They don't show up in mirrors...hey, wait a second. Mirrors have some silver, right? That could help. He moved back toward the corner that he had been in and felt around the shelf for a mirror he had seen earlier. Perfect. Now to find it. he thought, moving back to the door and flicking the light switch next to it. "Alright, nobody panic! As long as we all keep our heads, we can figure this out without too much insanity." he called out, holding the mirror out in front of him and passing it along the faces of everyone in the room.

One more denizen of Crash alley was here, a somber faced young man, barely out of his teenaged years and looking like he'd seen more than his fair share of crazy, scary, messed up...everything. The man looked around the store and sighed, a typical little grocery run gone south and all he could do at that point was fish through his jacket and produce a cigarette, of which he promptly stuffed between his teeth and rolled the filter tip left and right. He savored that menthol, minty flavor before looking around, he wasn't scared, more like, he had a listless expression on his face, an unenthusiastic frown that made him seem many years older than he really was.

"...Vampires? Really? Well, this is...terrifying" He clenched his jaw down on the cigarette, mashing the filter between his teeth, feeling the cotton filter grind and scrunch as he looked up at the person approaching with a mirror. Really? A mirror, does chuckles here think this is a movie? came the initial thought of, something that would have been hilarious if not for the fact that there was someone in here and they were actively picking people off one by one. No, Ethan wasn't going to laugh at a moment like this, even if he did let a little grin form on his lips, appreciating the irony of how close they were to all hallow's eve.

"Then again, this is kind of morbidly tasteful, considering how close to Halloween it is," and here came his rather infamous quips and snips, biting remarks and overall negative sarcasm. "Props to you, invisible vampire, like you didn't rip this from a horror movie..." He finished by finally producing a lighter from his jacket and with a quick little flick, lit the cancer stick up with little regard to everyone else's....objections because frankly he could really care less, he just wanted his daily dose of the poison known as Nicotine.

As the boy with Auburn hair and, gorgeous, red eyes spoke, Anastasia's inner self smirked. Her outside was still that of a frightened girl, now clinging to another's hand, the dagger stowed away in her jacket once more. Writing would appear in only Ace's vision, dripping blood bright crimson, unnatural. You IDIOT think that I won't show up in your STUPID mirror? Go ahead. Make me laugh.

The mirror was passed around and everyone was reflected on the surface. Mirrors are now made with a synthetic silver with only trace amounts of the authentic metal still inside. And even then it's coated on both sides and therefore wouldn't touch Anastasia. When the mirror came to her she even looked scared while looking into it, as if scared she might not show up even thought she absolutely knew she would. Inside she was laughing hysterically. She looked up at the boy with a sincerely concerned look on her face. "E-everyone showed up mister... W-what do we do now??"

Then came the snide remarks from the man with the poisonous cigarette between his lips. Anastasia smiled in adoration at his comment, writing in a softer red within only Ethan's vision. Why thank you~ May I ask your name? She wanted his blood next but, little Anastasia was a few people away from him. Though because both of these men seemed to either not be scared by her, or perhaps they were heroes, she didn't know. Her warfare plan changed.

The girl spoke up shyly. "W-what happens now? W-where is she!?" She started to panic and looked up at Ace with tears in her eyes. Psychological torment. She wanted to see the humans rip into each other themselves. Already it had begun. Some of the others were starting to bicker and place the blame on each other.

"It must be you! You were close to the door!" "What!? No! It must be the owner! He's the only one who could have done this!" "No! The employee! He's always hated working here and this is his revenge!" Etc...

Ace took a small step back in surprise when the writing appeared in his vision, however he quickly regained his composure. Alright, stay calm. Process what's being said. he thought to himself. Ace watched as the mirror was passed around the group and thought about the message that he had seen. Judging from the lack of a reaction from everyone else, he had been the only one to see it.

He looked up as the girl asked him what to do next and was about to reply before another teenager spoke up. "I wouldn't be so sure about the invisible part. I believe our blood-sucking predator may have just tipped her hand on that part." he replied. The girl spoke up again, and this time Ace noticed some tears in her eyes. "Well, now, in a calm and intelligent manner, we try to figure out who this vampire is while keeping her from getting anymore of us." he replied, right as the wild accusations started flying out.

Why did I not see this coming... "Alright, all of you, quiet!" he exclaimed, attempting to get everyone's attention. "Throwing out wild accusations will get us nowhere. We need to approach this in a calm manner before we start throwing each other at the mercy of the mob." he continued, attempting to keep some sense of order in the chaos that was quickly erupting.[/color]

Ethan had seen some interesting things in his life, giant eight foot tall mutants that must have had one too many dates with rosy palms, living slabs of concrete, living slabs of rubber, hell he had even seen a living slab of cotton candy which was....interesting. But blood writing in his vision? That was beyond interesting, maybe a little creepy of course he felt like responding, they did ask in a nice if creepy way. "James Madigan, and may I ask who you are then?" he flipped the cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other, as the cherry tip blazed red hot and his lungs filled with the acrid, poisonous, cancerous smoke. Of course he looked at the boy with the mirror with, not a little irritation as he exhaled a plume of bluish white cigarette smoke.

"Now listen here mirror-man Dan, I'm pretty calm, hell I've seen weirder things than this. Living cotton candy monsters even," he breathed in through his nose and took a step towards him, taking in another lung full of that cigarettes deadly payload, designed to keep it's hooks in you forever and ever, taking your life down in minutes and hours. But not him, no these things weren't gonna kill him, not for a very long time. A very, very long time indeed. "so perhaps we could smash out a window or two, get everyone out in the open, fresh air, before people start complaining about my smokin habit. Cause I ain't gonna stop even if they ask."

Anastasia smiled as Ethan replied to her, in her head of course. Little Anastasia was still freaking out with the rest of them. In Ethan's vision would appear more writing, again the standard dripping gore of all the great horror movies. My name is Anastasia...Then the writing changed to ice. Frost. If she could, she would have giggled after showing that she could do more than just blood; however, now wasn't the time for that.

Both of the "cool" guys were telling people to be calm, and it seemed to be working. One of them even mentioned a clever plan of getting everyone outside. Anastasia couldn't have that. That would be her food escaping. The only one that would be escaping this room is her. In her mind she growled at him. Her eyes darted around the shop, looking as if she was scared, or perhaps helping to scan for a good window to break. Then she saw what she was looking for.

One of the men in the back would see a bright crimson writing in only his vision. IF WE GO OUTSIDE THE MONSTER WILL ESCAPE!! DO YOU WANT THAT!? The man reacted better than she could have wished for. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" He pulled out his own hidden weapon and stabbed the employee who was still behind the counter, making it look very suspicious that he was the perpetrator in all of this. There were screams and gasps from everyone; however, if anyone paid attention to the little girl, all she did was blinked, almost looking impressed. But that was only for a split second before going wide eyed and hiding behind the lady she was close to, getting away from Ace, but closer to Ethan. "H-he went crazy!!" Indeed. He tried to stab the owner next.

Ace was momentarily angered by the comment that the only other calm person in the room made. Yeah, I get it. I was wrong. No need to keep reminding me. Once he got past the initial anger, however, he listened to what the guy had to say, impressed by his calmness, although at the same time a little suspicious. Hmm...while getting everyone out of here would be nice, that would also lead to letting the vampire out. If we keep everyone in here though, there's a chance we could have more victims...What to do...

Before he could respond, a man towards the back of the room seemed to completely freak out, stabbing one of the store's employees. The utter speed with which it happened shocked Ace, who stood there with his mouth open for a good couple of seconds. Then, the man went after another person, snapping Ace back to reality. He quickly opened his red deck of cards and launched two cards at the man one after the other: one aimed at his hand to injure it, the other at the knife in an attempt to knock it out of the hand. He then dashed towards the man, attempting to knock him down. "Congratulations man, you just earned yourself a fun trip to prison."

And then general panic ensued which, unfortunately, (or fortunately) was something Ethan was a little to familiar with back home. The sight of a panic stricken man made him &#!@ a raised eyebrow and slowly, those gears of his began to turn as he casually moved his torso forward, grabbed a bag of chips and proceeded to open it. As he took one more thick drag off his cigarette, and in that in one long drag the paper and narcotics burned away into smoke to be consumed and absorbed into his lungs. The young man spat the butt to the floor, stomped it out and exhaled with a pointed sigh. "Crash alley, my one home away from home..." Which reminded him, he had stuff to do as he looked for something heavy and blunt to grab, anything would work so long as it wasn't bolted down, deft fingers picking out chips and munching away at them as he watched the other man show an odd skill with playing cards.

Which was pretty cool in retrospect, but the guy looked more scared than psychotic. Of course he just...stabbed his favorite employee in the place. Now that didn't sit right with Ethan but for now, he was gonna wait a little first to get in his own two licks on the guy. "Having fun with your card tricks there pretty boy?" And right back to the insults. Which if anyone took notice was pretty par for the course with Ethan whom was almost always in some degree of a bad mood, sullen and otherwise sarcastic and brusque with other people. "I'm pretty sure the circus'd pay good money for that talent," he finished up by deftly popping four more chips into his mouth and slowly chewed with disregard and overall obliviousness to the girl creeping up on him...

Cards. Interesting. Anastasia took note of that for later. Right now she watched the scene unfolding with curiosity, though outwardly displaying a wonderful portrayal of shock and disgust. Tears still in the little girl's eyes, she smiled as Ace took down the murderer. "You did it mister!! You got the bad guy!!" As she was speaking though, she was again writing in the same poor old man's vision. I'm the real vampire, creep. The one with the cards. I just needed someone to go down as a decoy~ The old man gasped, believing the lie once more. "I-It'S HIM!! THE ONE ON TOP OF ME!! H-HE'S THE REAL MONSTER!!! DIDN'T YOU SEE HIS TRICK!? HE'S A META!!" Another in the group saw a vision in a rosy pink, almost as if it were her own thought. W-what if he's telling the truth and the vampire used him as a decoy to make himself look like the hero!? The woman went wide eyed and gasped. "I-I believe you!!" She took out her can of pepper spray and instantly went to spray Ace in the face.

Anastasia blinked in shock once more, but then thought about it. This was Crash Alley after all, of course everyone would have some form of self defense. A smirk formed in her mind, glad she had chosen this location indeed. The panic spread again as people didn't know what was what and almost everyone seemed to have forgotten about Ethan's plan. Anastasia looked back and forth between them all, looking nervous and slowly reached Ethan, grabbing his shirt and looking up at him with wide, crimson, eyes. Though they looked harmless. She whispered softly in true fear. "Y-you're not the scary monster, a-are you mister??" Everything was going better than expected. Now her thoughts were on how to vacate the area so that she could have her meal in peace...

Ace sighed with relief as the man went down, although he was only relieved for a moment. Then came the insults and the wild accusations. "Seriously? I just stopped you from stabbing someone! Why would I be a vampire?" he asked, rather taken aback by the accusation. Some people didn't seem to have a whole ton of common sense though, as the woman advancing on Ace demonstrated. He quickly threw up another card in front of the can's nozzle before rolling back away from the group of people and standing up.

Great. Now they think I'm the vampire. If I don't figure out who is taking us out soon, these people would probably have no qualms with offing me. So, how to draw out the hunter...? he thought, quickly running through a list of ideas in his head. No...no...wait...This is crazy, but it just might work...or it'll get me killed. Time to take that risk.

Having seemed to have tuned out everyone else in the shop momentarily, he returned his focus to the room, however his eyes looked much harder than before. "Heh. So, you all have figured me out then, have you? Well then, no other way around it. I'll just have to take you all out right now!" As he talked, his eyes darted around the room, looking for any unusual reactions. Either this works, or I'm in serious trouble.

Now everything was getting...stupid out of hand, and Ethan couldn't help but grimace at the resulting chaos that had broken out. A riot was one thing but...this was a moment of sheer insanity that not even he felt like bothering with as he continually looked for a heavy, blunt object to utilize on one of the windows. At least until he felt someone tug on his sleeve causing him to look down partially towards, of all things, a girl that was younger than he was. "Depends," came the brusque reply as he dug his hand into the bag of chips and set about consuming several handfuls once again, calmly watching the situation unfold, standing back and merely admiring the fact ye old circus guy was getting ganged up on.

"Shame about mr.card tricks though, really should have taken up work in a circus." He muttered softly. Calmness was his forte, and really it was equal parts calm with equal parts of not giving an absolute flying goddamn that set him apart from most everyone. Wasn't his problem, wasn't his concern, mostly because they weren't coming after him with murder and hate in their eyes. "Still need to smack a window out and get out of here, before I catch whatever crazy they've got," he spoke with a grunt, a gruff little rumble as he chowed down on the rest of the chips and went for another bag.

Anastasia hugged Ethan around the waist whenever he said depends. She obviously knew that, as far as she was concerned, he wasn't the monster right now and, to be quite honest, she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do with him. Tasting his blood would be so wonderful but that would draw the attention to her and her plan was working so smoothly, she didn't want to risk it. So she just stood there and watched, fear on her face, happy in her heart. Then Ace claimed to be the vampire.

Anastasia pouted. She wouldn't have a man take the glory for this beautiful display of insanity and the frailty of the human mind. That was just not going to happen. She whispered. "Meanie... Now I have to do something..." She sighed and closed her eyes, vaporizing into a mist that was only detectable by the smell of blood. Unfortunately, right now her blood was indistinguishable from the blood around her. After just a moment, she appeared standing on a shelf behind Ace.

All of her childish antics were wiped from her face and what shown before them now was a wicked smirk and blood lust in her eyes. Her voice was calm and silky smooth as she looked down at him, dagger in hand. "Now now... I can't have you stealing my credit for this grand debut of mine~ I'm afraid though that I'm not sure I can deal with your cards... So~ How about you all just leave and I'll eat my meal in peace?" Her smile was genuine as if that was the best negotiation of a lifetime. Of course she knew it wouldn't work, but she wanted to see his reaction first.

The place drew back in a unified gasp of shock. No one had expected it to be her and that made her heart jump for joy. They all then began calling her names like "monster" "vampire" "evil" the standards, but she could really not care less. Her focus was now entirely on the two that interested her. Ace and Ethan.

Ace grew more tense as the seconds passed. If this doesn't work, I'm going to get torn to pieces. Fortunately, the vampire turned out to be as prideful as he had hoped. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the girl vaporize. Well, well. Looks like our innocent little girl wasn't so innocent after all. he thought. He took a quick moment to think it through. I suppose it does make sense, considering that she was the closest to the two bodies. Not to mention she was the one who tried to throw us off-track with the whole invisible thing. Makes sense to me.

After a moment, he noticed the eyes of the people in front of him change from anger to fear. Turning around, he saw the girl standing behind him, holding a rather sharp-looking dagger. Ace could see some blood stains on it, probably from her previous victims. "Can't share the limelight for even a minute, hm? What a shame. If you had, this crowd probably would've taken me out, and then you'd have been free to finish them off. Anyway, I suppose you're right. You probably wouldn't be able to beat me in a fight. So, I guess this is really going to suck for you, pun intended." he replied, launching a red card towards Anastasia.

"Puns? Really now?" Ethan interjected, first verbally then he literally interjected between the girl and Ace with a grunt. The bag of chips was cast aside, discarded just like the litter, the hopes and the dreams of people the world over as he cracked his neck left and right, catching the card between his thumb and forefinger with a certain speed and accuracy that wasn't exactly normal for a human to possess. He also seemed to be smiling a little - this half-cocked listless grin, a signature of Ethan's that lacked in enthusiasm but made up for it with a certain casual, untroubled flippancy. Not at all concerned, worried or having a single problem with what he was doing as he stared right at Ace with those hard, hawk-like eyes.

"Now I'm not one to talk about morality issues but, didn't your mother ever teach you never to hit girls? Well, with the sole exception when they're trying to kill you in particular?" Yeah, morality that was a good way to make friends, and or enemies. Ethan wasn't the type to even bother. She wasn't his type mind you, but hey, a guy has to stick to his principles and what his principles dictated was, someone was about to get beaten down severely today. With a simple flick of his wrist - what made the act seem so simple, so casual, was that it was something he's done so many times before - he discarded the card off to the side, sent it flying like a little Frisbee towards the back of the store as he produced a cigarette from his coat, jammed the butt between his teeth and grunted. "So what're you waiting for Ringling brother, come at me."