HIM

[Dtannings]

Kodo watched as the hyena, Darla, was put in her place. She found no gain in the idea of fighting an adult with a weapon that he had no problem using. Strong or not, they were still children. It was best to play it safe for the moment.

Tomorrow, however, Kodo was going to find out where they were. With her parents' training, she had no problem being stealthy. Those abilities were finally going to come in handy for something other than stealing. She only wished she'd payed more attention to the self-defence and marial arts lessons. All she could do was hide and stab people with pencils.

[Entaru]

"Nurse Aike, you know that's cheating...that's why I've replaced what I took with one of my own.  Don't think that I don't know what you do."  Nero stated, his sing-song tone never wavering.  Nero was bluffing of course but Aike-Aike didn't know that.  Nero began singing his favorite song, transposed by himself into the range of a tenor, as he waited for the Nurse to cut the boy open.

"You lie...silent there before me
Your tears...they mean nothing to me
The wind...howling at the window
The love...you never gave...I give to you
Really don't deserve it...
But now...there's nothing you can do
So, sleep...in your only memory
Of me, my dearest mother...

Here's a lullaby to close your eyes (good-bye)
It was always you that I despised
I don't feel enough for you to cry (oh well)
Here's a lullaby to close your eyes
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye

So insignificant...sleeping dormant deep inside of me
Are you hiding away, lost under the sewers?
Maybe flying high in the clouds?
Perhaps you're happy without me
So many seeds have been sown in the field
And who could sprout up so blessedly, If I had died
I would have never felt sad at all
You will not hear me say "I'm sorry"
Where is the light? Wonder if it's weeping somewhere...

Here's a lullaby to close your eyes (good-bye)
It was always you that I despised
I don't feel enough for you to cry (oh well)
Here's a lullaby to close your eyes
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye

Good-bye..."

[Armalite_]

Dusty sat at his desk and looked up from his papers every twelve seconds. There were never any hands raised and for that he was happy. He always talked in detail that there would often never be any questions unless there was a child who needed to go to the washroom. He was still without his coffee and fel that it was inappropriate to smoke in front of the children. He was dying. He needed something to smoke or drink. He bent down and dug around in the cabinets and found the small box of nicotine patches. He struggled to get it open while children began to look up from their workbooks to see what their desperate teacher was doing. Dusty froze, the small box was hanging from his jaws while he tryed to pry it open with his teeth. He pulled it out of his mouth and looked at his students while some were cracking smiles. "What? You have work to do." The fox reminded them. The students shook their heads and went back to scribbling while Dusty went back to opening the box. The result was short of satisfactory. The box exploded sending patches all over the front of the classroom. The children roared with laughter. Dusty only smiled and shook his head while he got up to pick them all up. Instead of putting them back in the box, he applied them to patches of fur and skin all over his body. That kept the kids going.

He sat back down at his desk. He continued his work while the kids did the same but there were still minor giggles throughout the classroom. They stopped when Dusty looked up but would start up again when he went back to marking. He began to feel dizzy. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. The room began to spin and then everything went black. The students jumped when the loud thud of the teacher's head smacking against the table made them look up to see Dusty passed out on the floor.

[x]

Bridgette floated through the still air as one would float on a weightless sea, her flapping wings the only noise in the grey sky. She scanned the crumbling streets and buildings of the town as they passed below her: an old hotel, an old hospital, what was left of a church, some stores, a movie complex. All abandoned. Every now and then, she would think she saw what she wanted to see: a screaming child, a crumpled body, even just a bloodspot or monster squealing with glee as it ran off to hide. But each time…it proved to be just a trick of her imagination. After awhile, the alarm itself fell silent, not waiting for her to complete her duty.

“How inconvenient…” Bridgette mused. “Looks like I have to go back empty-handed….”

Just as she spoke this otherwise dismissive comment, an unholy scream ripped through the air and shattered the thin ties of regularity. It was a young voice, a girl…a child. Coming from a spot just a few blocks away.

Bridgette smiled. She sent a mental message back to Orphin, her head Prefect, and the one she could trust to actually hear and listen to her: I found a child. It’s not a Second-Death one, but it’s one nonetheless….I can’t seem to find the one that died. Just keep the new ones there and keep them satisfied. They might even fall asleep on you anyway. Death is a tiring thing.

_________________________________


Aike jumped when she heard those words. Don’t think I don’t know… But he couldn’t know. He couldn’t. That was no fair. She was supposed to be in control here. ”Oh, I’m sure,” she chastised, as she watched her hand wander the room out of the corner of her eye. She looked through the cupboards on the left side of the room. Everything checked out, but if Nero had replaced an object with one of his own like he said….if he was smarter than her….

“Oooooh you jerk!” Aike cried, standing up and slipping her notebook back in her pocket abruptly, but just as quickly her hands flew to her muzzle and she quieted herself. She was behaving like a little brat, a little brat of whom even cheating wasn’t enough to let them win. And she didn’t want to look like a brat in front of a Doctor.

Besides, she hadn’t lost all the way just yet. She’d only lost half of the game. She still had the other half to go. The fun half.

Give it up, hand. He’s too smart for us idiots.

Oooooohhhh, buuut neveeerrrr….Iiii’mmm peeeerrfectly fffine looooking for whaaat’s missing…Yooouuu caan’t just falll for him that eeeasy.

Aike squinted and looked over at her hand, watching as it rifled through cupboards and under-sink compartments. Then she rolled her eyes. Whatever. Go ahead. Guess I don’t need two hands to do this….do I? She walked back to the boy’s side, and as she went quickly realized she needed to guess before doing anything. It was a rule. A rule that would be too difficult for her to skirt around. Sighing, she turned to Nero and started to think. She was too dense to think or plan beyond an elementary school level…..so immediately decided to equate the object Nero had hidden to……to one of her favorite things in all of Purgatory. Because favorite things are often the first things that come to mind. Patting down her dress, she said: “Did you hide one of my syringes, Doctor? I love syringes. They’re all I can think about sometimes. You should know that isn’t functional inside a body. But I’m probably wrong anyway……..Don’t tell me whether or not ‘till I find it, though.”

Giving a last glance at her hand as it continued to ransack the place, it sunk in to Aike that the crazy thing had gone out-of-commission and wasn’t going to do anything she said until she picked it up and sewed it back on. Therefore….she would need another, one-handed tool if finding the object wasn’t going to be a disaster. “…..Never thought I’d have to use this.”

The sickening shhhlink of metal against flesh resounded as Aike’s ‘blade’ slid out of her arm. She brought the tip of the gleaming silver blade to her muzzle and tested her tongue against it….quite promptly she tasted her own blood. It tasted like lavender oil. The nurse closed her dark eyes, feeling inexplicably happy with her Afterlife. “Hmmmm….mmm….mmmmm………mmmmhhhhmmm. Still sharp. It’ll work. Now if only I can remember how to do this....'cutting' thingy…”

Aike’s getting the Nursing job had been an utter miracle. After all, she was not only clumsy, she often forgot how to do even the simplest medical procedures just like she forgot everything else solid and concrete. But Bridgette had been low on staff at the time, and even the most low-down of Purgatory wanderers that stumbled though the front gates could be offered a job if they asked.

She lowered her blade to the spot just below the boy’s collarbone. It rested up against something solid when she had been expecting something soft…but no matter. Sucking in a nervous breath and holding it, Aike haphazardly dug her blade into the boy, cutting through bone and cartilage alike, neither knowing nor caring how she should have really gone about this.

Then she kept cutting down, down all the way past the boy’s stomach, making a jagged gash of a cut that only a Frankenstein monster would be able to appreciate. The boy, incomprehensive but still awake, howled.

_________________

Darla pouted towards the boy. “Oh, well don’t think you’re so smart, kid. I happen to be very ticked off here….but you’re right. I don’t need to be fighting somebody with weapons like that…” Finally giving up the guff, she started to help Brenna finish her bed.

“That’s it,” Brenna said once they were done. “There’s always a way to make things end up nice and peaceful. When that one lady gets back, we can talk to her, huh?” Yawning, the Christian child let go of her rosary, letting it fall back down into it’s normal spot. It glinted in the white light. She climbed up on her bed and laid down. “Maybe we could all pray.”

“Pray? Pray? Girl, what are you smoking? God ain’t here right now.” Darla crawled up next to her friend and laid down beside her. “What we need to do is give that jerk what’s coming to him.”

“Darla….don’t say things like that. God’s everywhere. All the time. In every one of us. We pray through Jesus, his son, and…” Brenna trailed off and started to play with her rosary, holding it between two fingers and turning it back and forth, watching as the light danced off its silver surface.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Orphin nodded, but his reply was only a Yes Mistress... as he got up and walked over to Talin, who had taken out the chess board again after making his bed. "Uh... you wanna play a game with me?" Orphin nodded and sat down cross-legged as they both set up the chess game.

The chess board was rather ugly in how well-done the design was, the board had a sheen that almost looked wet and the boarders were bulging with almost flesh-like features. The pieces were even more disturbing, the white pieces were made of marble, and the pawns looked alot like children with various pitful features that looked like they were supposed to be dead. The Rooks were similar to the giant Pre-fect Orphin had floored earlier, and the Bishops were wearing doctor uniforms and carrying bonesaws. Not a single piece was similar to another, like the chess game was literally made by more than one idea and person. The oddest thing about the white pieces was that a figure similar to Orphin was labeled with "Queen" at the base, and one similar to Bridgette was labeled "King". It was probably because without the markings, people would have them confused and have the Orphin piece as King.

"Do you know who made this?" Orphin nodded, and took out the black pieces, all of them looking like various demons, their designs similar to their positions on the board. "I made the black pieces and the King piece... 'she', made the rest of the white pieces." Talin nodded in acknowledgement as they started their game, Orphin keeping a look-out for anyone who was trying to leave through the only door in the room.

[x]

Standing at the entrance to the tunnel, Bridgette used an incantation to call forth a glimmering yellow flame that would serve as a light source in the tar-black dark, flame that sprouted from between her gloved fingers like nothing. The sound of the scream had led her here…to a dank, horrible place that--- be she a fool to admit it ---Bridgette herself feared even more than she feared what laid beyond town limits.

For this was the tunnel that led down into the Underground.

Wretched be the child foolish enough to run there.

And horrid be the Headmistress who had been too slow to stop her.

The woman swallowed, nulling over a frightened lump in her throat….She turned and scanned the area, across the street at the empty store fronts, the reflections on their glass windows playing tricks with the unseen light. Then she turned and looked both ways down the unused street….nothing….It was true. The child wasn’t up here….she had truly gone down into the tunnel.

“No one can blame you for walking away

But too much protection
no love rejection.
Life can be easy
it's not always well

Don't tell me truth hurts
little girl

'cause it hurts like hell,”  Bridgette sung slowly, each word parting from her lips with the utmost care. Orphin and the other Prefects she had a Link with would be able to hear her, but she didn't care. They might as well know that she was feeling uneasy and scared.

Sighing, she held up the flame in front of her and began to walk down into the tunnel. Each stair was narrow, concrete, the two walls on each side wet with leaking water and crawling with undesirable algae and a few tiny parasites. Down, down, down, further and further she went…

“But down in the underground you'll find someone true
Down in the underground
a land serene and crystal.
It's only forever
not long at all.”

[Entaru]

Nero watched as Aike clumsily sliced the boy apart in search for the missing object.  She had guessed correctly but the probability of her finding it was slim.  No doubt it had moved farther down into the boy's lower intestines, his body believing it to be some strange new food to be digested. 

If his eyes weren't already covered, Aike would have seen him staring longingly at her.  Despite her clumsy nature, Nero felt that there was a grace in her movements (though many would severely disagree with him) and imagined what it would be like to spend eternity with her, rather than around her.

[x]

"Let's see....well, it's not in there...."   Aike said this as she 'pushed' the boy's ribcage back into place......leaving untold cartilage and muscle ripped and several of the ribs themselves askew......earlier, she had ripped the ribcage open and searched through the top half of his insides before coming to the slow-witted conclusion that it wasn't up there. As the last bone popped back into what she considered a normal place, blood spurted from some random organ she had punctured and compromised in her hasty mess, splattering wildly across her face and uniform. She took in a breath, stepping back from the table and shaking her head. "......Ewwwww, Doctor, you didn't say I'd get it on me...." she complained...."I wasn't that bad at the cutting, was I?" Aike eyed Nero, or, since she could not see his face, tried to. Then, in an unbelievably rapid change in emotion she shrugged, smiling. This was just a game. Right. Right? Just a game. She should relax. No need to get all worked up. She walked back to the table and started on the other half of her procedure. "You know, when Aike wants to feel good, she sings too. Just like you did, Doctor. But sometimes....she forgets how it goes. She sings it, but somehow she knows it's not the right words....." The wolf thought about it for awhile, working slower now, then finally decided that it was all right if she sang. No-one should care if she sang...not if it made her feel better.

"....anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain."

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Orphin almost snapped the chess piece he worked almost a day on when he heard the song. He immeadeatly got up and almost went out the door, but thought first to ask. Are you sure you're alright on your own Mistress, I'll gladly have someone else watch the children in my place... Talin noticed Orphin wasn't trying to hide his uneasiness, it almost looked like he would probably break the doors down just to leave the room.

[x]

......In truth, I may really need your help, Orphin. You know what sorts of thing lie down here in the Underground and how they make me cringe. Feel free to get a another babysitter and head over to back me up. But don't expect me to wait for you. I need to hurry if I'm gonna retrieve this child alive.

Bridgette continued onward. Once the stairs came to an end, she found herself on an even plane of concrete floor. Water was everywhere, leaking from some sort of pipe system. The flame in her hand kept dancing, turning the room into a tapestry of color. Every few meters she could see chain-link fences, set up in various perimeters to seperate one part of the maze from the other......Swallowing, the Headmistress walked around the edge of one of the fences, wondering when the child would finally reveal herself and how just far she had gone into this maze.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Orphin nodded, and looked at Talin. "I'll be off, another will come to watch over in my place, please don't wander off. Or there really will be a second-dead that I will have to get as well." Talin nodded and went back to inspecting the pieces. Then went into a rather new chest on the far right corner, and pulled out a gaming device with a game still inside. Talin played the game while Orphin left the room and put a 'becon' at the spot outside the door, so that any teacher or prefect who came across this area would have a feeling that there were children in here that needed to be kept in there.

He let his wings sprout out of the opening of his jacket and flew off at much faster speed than what Bridgette could do. She probably designed me to hunt monsters rather than protect the school, but whatever the reason, I will definatly catch up to her.

In moments after he started flying, he was at the tunnel and had retracted his wings so he could run into the tunnel...

((Quick, run before an adult arrives ))