Pandora's Box

[Laguna89]

Hearing a crash I rolled over on my side and peered at the wall. My mind was still to busy reliving everything that had recently occurred for me to bother with examining what happened. Just the sound of Lestat's name brought back so much pain and suffering that made me just want to explode. Everyone close to me that I have lost, the children that I have seen dead, it all ties back to him....


Sitting up in a flash I shook my head and focused more on things that were going on now. Sitting on the floor with my hands dangling off my knees I started wondering just what that sound I heard early was. "Maybe it was Alex...." I said tilting my head to the couch were she was asleep. Raising an eyebrow as I noticed the end cochin was laying in the floor and Alex was missing.

Jumping to my feet I looked around the room for some sign of her, but there is just dark emptiness looming around. Doing a full turn as a slight breeze ruffles my jacket I notice a window on the far side of the room had been smashed recently.

Instinctively I grabbed all the weapons and ammo the both of us were careering, attached them somehow to my body and jumped out on the window sill. Standing on the side of the building and looking out through the night my eyes become glued on a dim light illuminating from a house in the distance.

Turning my back to the house I kicked my feet off the ledge, grabbing it where I had been standing, then letting go and landing on the ground. Turning towards the house and pulling out Alex’s pistol I took off in a dead sprint to try and find Alex. Running full speed through the cold night air all I could focus on was the little house in the distance. Thinking back of everyone that I’ve tried to protect and help, but always ended up failing, and just watching them die….I couldn’t let that happen to Alex too.

Finally approaching the house I slowed to a stop as three vampires came walking out from the front door. Raising the gun still in my hand I pointed it at the middle elder looking of the three and prepared to shoot them all if I needed to. “Where’s Alex?” I said in a calm voice, I was too determined to be scared right now.

Almost immediately after the words left my mouth the youngest looking of the three made a lung for me. Moving the gun slightly I pulled the trigger as the monster burst into flames and with a final low scream was nothing but ash. Angered by the death of his comrade the other fledgling began to move towards me but was stopped by the leader in the center.

“She is fine,” he spoke softly, “but you shall all be take care of soon enough.”

With that the last two jumped high in the air, over my head and out of sight. Lowering my gun I made my way into the house only to be greeted by Pandora’s cold eyes staring at me. Glancing around the room I spotted Alex sitting in the corner nursing the small cuts on her body.
“So,” I said turning to face Pandora, “who was that guy?”

[Soyokaze]

(OOC - Hey what happened to me? )

((OOC- okay, I was gonna wait for Quistis but forget it.))

My house was dark but I could see Alex's fragile body in the corner, bandaging herself. She sat on a chaise lounge I'd gotten in Thailand. I'd had a brief affair with a simeltaneous interpretor and had taken trips around the world with him. He had been such a lovely man. So pure and innocent That was the closest I'd gotten to a human in my many years of being a monster, and I'd known it had to end. I'd killed him, but he'd come so sweetly that it was hard to believe even now, thousands of years later, that he was truly dead.

I watched Alex carefully, the pain displayed in her features and the precious crimson drops that oozed from her cuts, clinging to her skin and dancing on my beige carpet. She looked up, her eyes meeting mine with some kind of annoyance, perhaps hatred, and went back to cleansing and bandaging herself. I could hear Aubrey's followers outside, discussing in hushed voices what to do now that their leader had fled. I wondered where Apophys and Lucia were.

Zak entered, his prescence announced by an unearthly cry and the smell of burning flesh. The few fledglings that had remained were gone now.
"So, who was that guy?" he asked gravely, his eyes locked on mine. I wasn't sure if I was insulted anymore, the more I spoke with them the less they seemed animals to be preyed upon and discarded. I dismissed the thought and decided not to respond. I instead let Lucia and Apophys know me, where I was. They would come.

[Quistis]

occ- sorry. i've been having a bad time. Soyokaze, I think Apophys was calling to u right? Zak, attacked other vampires not u ^^;;


"Thank you." Alex said reluctantly as she continued tending her wounds. Pandora just looked at her not really saying much. Her face exuded beauty and coldness at the same time that Alex found admirable nonetheless, despite the fact that Pandora was a vampire.

Gunshots fired from outside, which was not an uncommon thing for them these days but then Zak dashed from the door. Alex was glad to see him alive.

"So, who was that guy?" he said to Pandora. She did not seem want to answer so Alex opted to speak.

"That was the Aubrey guy that they talked about awhile ago. Apparently, he was the one who killed my family. He left me alive only to be fueled by hatred for vampires so I could contribute to his cause. He wanted me to be turned into one of them so I just jumped off the window. Kinda stupid but I'm alive anyways." she said almost not stopping on her sentences. Once she was done tending her wounds, Alex stood up still she could feel a little pain on her shoulders but it was a little bearable. In her mind she was confused, this vampire, Pandora, could've let her die right then and there but she saved her.

If I continue to kill vampires, I would just serve Aubrey's cause...but then..ah, now what? Alex asked herself.

"I honestly dont know what to do now Zak. Pandora, why did you help me? Were you the one who saved me from the vampires the other night? I saw how you killed them. It was the same way at how that other vampire died."

occ- sorry crap =(

Pandora thought for a moment, wondering how to respond to this. She stood and walked to the window, the moonlight illuminating the scene before her. A dark trickle of a road wound between the trees, approaching the house and circling back on itself. The forest crowded around it, walls and walls of trees streching up towards a strangely purple sky, the white moon like an iris, watching serenely from it's heavenly seat in the night.

"I was." She was reluctant to tell them this, but she saw no harm that could come of it now.

"But why?" Alex pursued.

An uneasy silence settled in which Pandora took a breath and let it out again, slowly. "I watched you from the forest. I watched you kill four of our kind and it seemed a shame, after such a commotion, to see you go down under such an ignorant opponent."
Pandora turned her back on the moonlight, facing in on the room. "There isn't much beauty left in this world." She stared hard into Alex's eyes. "I don't mean physical beauty, it's a sort of beauty of the soul. And people aren't what they used to be. They are cowards. They are selfish creatures, worse off then most of our kind. So when something beautiful comes along, you keep it alive for as long as you can."

Pandora nodded, her figure a silhouette against the window, her face serious. "But keep in mind, you mean very little to me. And I will kill you if there comes a need. Don't get too comfortable around any of our kind, we will always be hunters, and you will always be prey."

With that said she opened the door and started out into the night. She hadn't fed yet, and she could feel the blood thundering around in their veins, the heat scorching their bodies and flesh to life. She would not have restrained herself long.

[Sparx]

Trask walked quietly through the streets once more, in the sunlight the ruined buildings looked like broken fingers reaching for salvation. Perhaps this diing world was due its salvation, but in what form? The vampires? Or the humans? Just who was pulling the strings in the first place and why were they so eager to see the humans wiped out. Too many questions caused Trask to stop and rub his forehead slowly as the sun softly hid behind a cloud bank and took the harsh brightness away from what some would have called the perfect summer day. Trask knew differently for even as though this was daylight, there were still plenty of dangerous creatures around that could cause harm. Scavengers were one such breed of creature, and Trask had encountered them before on his return from taking out the vampire and the doctor at the same time. There were other creatures that festered during the day and some of them were infected with radiation after a reactor exploded some years ago after three vampires had managed to kill everyone inside the building and damage the cooling components of the reactors core and causing it to overload and spill contaminating everything within a 150 mile radius. Even then the fall out from that devastating event was felt a further hundred miles away as the entire surrounding landscape was reduced to a scorched radiation desert, and the things that once used to be human and normal living animals were given unnatural unlife as well as radiation contamination and are now undead monsters of death and dispair.

Trask took a smirk and headed of east where he followed the trail of broken vampire slaying weaponry - the majority of which would have never worked anyway.

"The stupid bastards... stakes and staves? what the hell were they trying to do burn a village? Any fool knows that stakes and crucifixes don't work on a vampire....they aint hell spawned demons of the nth dimension...honestly who ever wrote that mumbo jumbo has a lot to learn about the real world..jesus"

There was a brisk wind that had kicked up from nowhere and the sky instantly darkened as rain began to fall from the skies. Trask looked up and let the cool water land on his skin and let it saolk through his jumpsuit. Only the areas that were armoured were safe from the invading water as trask turned and looked in the direction of four shredded bodies and one with his throat torn out. No normal vampire coould have laid wast to five people as smoothly and fluidly as what he was witnessing. This carnage was the result of a more mature and more controlled vampire. One who knew how to harness their strengths effectively - unlike the fledglings of this era who were brash and arrogant, this one was subtle and more controlled. Trask instantly knew who had done this.

"Apophys..."

Trask picked up and broke into a tireless run. He'd cross the river styx if it meant catching Apophys and getting answers.

(ooc: not a long one but its the best i could do at short notice)

[Malevolence]

((OOC: Pardon the absence, AP hates me…))

The blood was good tonight. Plenty of evil to feed on. There were five of them this time, and each of them had just about enough blood in them to fill a bathtub. Or so it seemed. Apophys felt almost bloated, though he wasn’t sure if it was really possible for a Vampire to feel over-full. He continued his flight, when he received a message. It was from Pandora. A summons. She was with Alex and someone else, but Lila and Lucia were nowhere to be found. He would summon them to him later. This was more important.

He entered the old house. It was nothing to be spoken of, just an old Victorian with sparse furnishings and a lightproof chamber built into the basement. That was where he found them.

“What was so important that I had to be ‘summoned’?”

“Aubrey showed up.”

“I stay out for one hour and this happens? Explain.”

“He came to turn Alex into a Vampire. I stopped him, but then, of all things, he tried to get us to join him. Do you believe him?”

“Surprisingly, yes, I do. I may have been asleep for 50 years, but I wasn’t in an oblivious coma. I’ve heard about him on the sub-ether channels running around the planet. He’s rather committed. I just had no idea he had anything to do with this.”

“Like I said, he’s the leader of this whole thing.”

“So it seems.”

Alex interjected, “So, now what?”

“I’m not sure,” Apophys replied. “There really isn’t much we can do for now. We don’t know where Aubrey sleeps during the day, and we have no clue where he goes during the night. Until we find out more about him, which we can’t do alone, we’re pretty much dead in the water.”

Alex spoke again, “You know, I think—”

“Wait.” Apophys looked around. “Someone’s here…DOWN!” Apophys disappeared into air, and suddenly, Alex and Zak were lying prone on their backs on the cellar floor in a corner. Bullets ripped through the ceiling above, bursting into flame as they hit the ground. The ceiling slowly began to disintegrate. Both Apophys and Pandora immediately became overly alert, and stared up. In the split second between shots,
Apophys perceived his adversary. A hunter had found the house, and was standing above. He had already blasted through most of the above floor, allowing his bullets to rip through the last layer of concrete on the ceiling Apophys took initiative and leaped up over 30 feet through the concrete blasted tunnel. He seemed to appear out of thin air in front of this hunter, moving with such speed he was practically a blur when he wanted to be seen at all. The hunter’s shots followed his blurred form as he dashed around the upstairs room, off walls, off the ceiling, with blasts of flame following him but never so much as even licking at his ankles. He was moving too fast even for the hunter to lead his shots.

“I’m done,” he said while running, “so—”

Apophys stopped in front of the hunter, and grabbed his wrists. Hard. He dropped the two large pistols in his hands, and writhed, trying to relieve the vice-grip Apophys had put on his arms.

“Now don’t do that.”

“Get your corrupt hands off me!”

“Corrupt? What do you think I am, a zombie from one of your old horror movies?”

“No, you’re the living dead. You’re Apophys.”

Apophys froze. “How do you know who I am?”

“I know a lot about you.”

“Who are you?” The hunter said nothing. Apophys dug his right hand into the hunter’s wrist, drawing blood. “I ask again, who are you?!”

“My name is Trask.”

((OOC: Pardon the godmoding, but I just needed to do it. Do something.))

[Soyokaze]

Starled, Lila quickly jumped into a closet. Pushed up againsta hard wall and something poking her back, she left the door open just a crack. Enough to see everything. Before she had a chance to respond to a mental call, Lila pushed it out of her mind.

A woman, almost ridiculously clothed, if not for the pale beauty in her skin, thundered through the door. Due to her appearance, Lila knew instantly she was a vampire. But in surprise, Lila watched a mortal woman followed the female vamp into the house.

After some silent eye conversations, someone eventually spoke. The closet made it quite difficult for Lila to hear, and the only part of the conversation that seemed to have gotten to her was Pandoa's speech of beauty.

"Victoria was beautiful." Lila thought silently.

Suddenly loud pinging noises tore into the house. Lila sunk back into the closet wall and watched as the mortals scrammbled to the floor and the vampires disappearing. A stray bullet embedded itself into the floor between the door and the wall. Lila, forcing herself away from the commotion, crouched down and picked up the bullet.

Almost imediately, it burned into her skin. Lila abruptly dropped it and craddled her hand. It stung BAD. She looked back at the lethal object and then put her hands over her ears.

She began to rock back anf forth. What had she become? She used to kill these things! But now she was one of them! The kind that had indirectly brought her daughters life to an end.

Lila was unable to cry of feel pain, but the mental pressure of her conversion flooded her mind. She did not want to think. All the shots became silent. All the noise had quieted. Lila continued to rock.

In her mind, the song Victoria used to sing echoed and Lila chanted. She didn't even look up when someone opened the closet door.

[Sparx]

(ooc: no worries Malev. helps get the story along.. now to business...)

Apophys froze. “How do you know who I am?”

“I know a lot about you.”

“Who are you?” The hunter said nothing. Apophys dug his right hand into the hunter’s wrist, drawing blood. “I ask again, who are you?!”

“My name is Trask.”

Apophys had a quck flash of horror as he realised that this man was able to track them without being noticed so easily. He was an enigma by far and obviously a proper challenge than the weak bellied scum that called themselves hunters in the first place.

Trask bit backl the growl of pain that was lanching through his body thanks to Apophys nails scraping open the flesh of his arm through the polymesh jumpsuit that hugged to him like a glove. Although through the breif moment of confustion Trask managed to catch the wiley vampire off guard and broght his capped boot up into Apophy's groin before vaulting backwards using the kick as momentum and snatching up one of the warhead pistols and loosing off another shot intentionally letting it skip past Apophy's ear, and to the vampires augmented hearing, the sound of the whizzing scorpion detonator round sounded like a million nails being dragged down a chalkboard before the round detonated mid air sending a small flame charge into all directions.

Everyone froze as the doors to the cupboard were wrenched open and another younger female vampire bundled out looking up into the barrell of Trask's warhead pistol.

"Ok..now we're going to have a nice little chat....all civilised like!" Trask begand before being spun round and feeling a clenched fist strike him in the jaw. Blood flew from the side of Trask's mouth before he steadied himself and looked up at Apophys, a black rage glowing in Trasks vermillion eyes. This caused the vampires to hold their breath for a moment before there was a black and red blurr and Trask was holding Apophys by the throat, the muscles in his jumpsuit tensing madly as his grip tightened round Apophy's throat.

"I said civilised you idiot....you have no idea who you are really dealing with here...I could have killed you like i've killed other vampires...not as old as you mind but still ..a tally of 12 is good no?"

Trask let him go before turning and walking back to the younger female vampire who had been hiding inside the cupboard. She was confused at what was going on before Trask knelt infront of her and gnetly touched the side of her face.

"What the hell are you?..." The question began.

"I have no idea myself...But im not here to start a fight...."

"Thats a bit hypocritical...you dove in here with guns blazing trying to nail my ass to the wall you asshole!.." Apophys countered.

"Hypocritical, maybe...but how else was I supposed to get your attention from all the blabbering yo two were doing." Trask stood and removed the lightweight durasteel armour from his torso revealing a ragged lookin scar along his throat and four puncture wounds in both sides of his neck. Around his neck and hanging to the center of his chest was a leather loop around a silver chain, and on that chain were teeth. Not normal teeth, but the teeth of obviously the vampires he had slain.

"Those...teeth...they're?..." began the older more resplendant femal dressed in gorgeous yet age old finery.

"Not all are vampire teeth...only three sets are from vampires, the others are from other creatures that roam this blighted earth..."

"You said you killed 12..." The beautious female began.

"Yes i did Pandora....however not all of them were shot in the head. You see the scorpion ammunition i use combines a fire accelerant and a fragmentation device to create the perfect tool for use in my line of work, and not everyones head can be saved from one of those rounds..." Trask gave a dry laugh that internally rattled everyone. Especially Pandora who hid her surprise at him knowing her name.

"I must say though. It is an honour to be in the presence of two of the oldest vampires...and i dare say Apophys, you do put up a skilled fight... but lets just say i wasn't trying hard enough."

"Don't flatter yourself! Your arrogance betrays you, and shall be your downfall..."

"In my line of work it pays BIG to be arrogant Apophys..." Trask smirked "...do yo think that fat bastard Romellio would be sitting in his cosy halls trying not to shit his pants everytime someoen enters his office? No that fat pig is paying me more than enough to do his dirty work. But after overhearing fragments of your little tet a tet with the gorgeous Pandora here about someone pulling the strings I wonder if I'm hunting the right people..."

[Quistis]

occ- Im not gonna describe what just transpired. Im just gonna continue where trask left off. /lazy mode.pardon the crappy post.

Alex recognized the image of the armored man in front of her. It was the man she was looking for. He obviously haven't seen her yet as she was sitting right at the corner of the room which was a little dark. Alex stood up, almost not feeling the pain of her wounds anymore and walked closer to listen in to the conversation. Interestingly, another vampire appeared. She was hiding in the closet. She looked confuse and Alex could tell that the vampire was just sired recently.

"Trask....who are you?" Alex asked herself under her breath, pressing her back against the wall that separated her from the rest. Overhearing their conversation, it was evident that Trask was a hunter himself. But Alex wondered why the files that she found under her father's bed suggested that Trask was a threat as well.

And who is Romellio? there was obviously something bigger that was going on. Something more complicated than what Alex and her father dealt with when their base was still in tact. But her father knew more than she did. Frustrated and confused, Alex decided to listen in some more.

((Trask man, cool it on the Godding. And remember, if you get in a fight with us Vamps, we WILL win. Thats just how this works. lol. I'm not gonna go back, I'll just take it from where it lies.))

Pandora grew impatient at being interrupted. She'd had enough disgrace in the past two days. Here she sat in the very room with two humans and now a vampire hunter who disrrupted her house, shooting into her walls, and wouldn't let her speak. She felt a familiar burning in her stomach, anger boiling up inside ready to be wreaked in violent ways upon whoever came first to her hand. The blood from her last victim, still fresh on her tongue, made her heart race and mind buzz. She took control of herself, slowly, agonizingly.

"...I wonder if I'm hunting the right people." Trask finished, facing Pandora head on. Apophys stood aloof at his right, a bemused smirk on his face. She shot him a look, not even speaking to him with her mind, and he understood. 'just wait' she said 'just wait'. He seemed to have no intention of acting, he looked rather amused.

"You indeed are not hunting the right people. You shouldn't be hunting anyone. In fact, you should think twice before you impose on my house and my hospitality and degrade us with your presence. You ought to learn some manners, child."

She sighed loudly, stepping forward and giving in to an overwhelming urge to touch these scars the hunter wore so proudly. Her body was smooth and pale, all the scars from her human life faded and all of her new scars gone within minutes. She touched him with two fingers, running over the scars and down the length of his neck. His pulse beat rapidly just beneath the paper thin skin beneath her fingers. His life, his blood, was so violently displayed. A hurried pounding of the heart, short jagged breaths, the smell of his skin. She remembered faintly the life behind her, the choking sense of mortality she'd had then, but soon she regained her composure.

"So let us be civilized, shall we Apophys? I've nothing of my former dignity to preserve so please, you filthy mortal, come and sit in my home. Look in my eye. Speak to me as you please, why don't you?" She raised her voice, speaking to Alex where she breathed in the shadows. "All of you!"

Pandora felt the violence drain from her. This sarcastic and offensive speech had satisfied her for now. She fixed her eyes on Apophys, now completely genuine. Something breatless in her eyes.

"Let's be civilized."

((Sorry for the crap-o-la. Don't be offended Sparx, I'm in quite a violent mood myself. Try and take it well, alright? over and out.))

[Soyokaze]

Lila looked up at the gun in the man's hand, her eyes narrowing. That was death in a single action. Wanting to tear the man's arm out of the socket, Lila inched forward. But before she could do anything, the man had suddenly moved.

He briefly exchanged menacing words with an aged male vampire and then approached her. She fell backwards onto her bottom as he reached her. He placed a hand on her face, his palms rough and cool.

"What the hell are you?-" I asked before being interrupted.

More arrogant words were echanged and tension grew in the air as a elegant vampiress raged.

She commanded all to sit, and Lila silently obeyed. There was something brooding about that woman, and she didn't want to distrub or break the thin patience wavering in the air.

Suddenly, a wrenching pain stirred deep inside her. Lila clutched her chest, the seering growing stronger. She collaped onto the floor, the smell of dust and wood did not make her feel any better. "Ugh!" she yelped, as she felt the rest of her insides becoming hard.

Was the transformation not complete? What was wrong? she kept thinking. There was a burning sensation that tingled in the extremes in her knees, her, groin, her stomach, her chest and her head. It shot through her entire body like lighting, and when it peaked, Lila screamed. Her voice so shrill and chilling that is echoed through the hills.

But in an instant, the pain began to wash away. The small moment had past, but left Lila changed. Her emotions were robbed and now, a toughness was replaced and a desire for morbidity creeped into her mind.

She lay on her back, hand still over her chest. She had calmed and the twisting had stopped. Lila flashed open her eyes to see the mortals looking at her anxiously, but the vampires did not seem surprised.

A smile crept onto Lila's face and a trickle of her remaining blood slid down the side of her cheek from the corner of her lips. She had grown deathly pale, but her lips were still blood red. Lila got up like nothing had happened and turned to face the group, she felt rejuvinated, she felt different, she felt the bonds of mortality leave her.

"I'm hungry."