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elizabeth.myfastforum.org
An archive of my AB/DL stories.
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Elizabeth
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 172
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 Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:32 am Post subject: Episode One: Just the End of the World |
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The sun sank slowly towards the horizon, the world seeming to burst into flames around it, like the earth was taking one, last chance to prove how beautiful it could be, to prove that it deserved to stick around for a little longer. The dazzling lights fell over a sleepy little town, not too big, perhaps a little too small. All the schools, pre- to high, sat in a huddle at one end, even though the majority of families having children lived on the other side. A few stores lurked in between, the biggest being a newly built Wal-Mart that loomed over the others, largely family-owned places with decades of history to them.
The house was like the town - simple, effective. It wasn't overly large for the five occupants, but everyone except the parents had their own room, all of which were big enough that there was no need to complain. It was a bit on the old side, having been built about fifty years ago, but that gave it a kind of charm that the occupants wouldn't trade for anything. Most of the time. It was different from the houses on either side of it - of course, all the houses in the town were different in some way than the rest - but it gave every indication of being completely normal.
There was no way to tell, from the outside, that it contained the one thing capable of answering the sky and earth's silent cries for help, the only thing in the world capable of saving it.
"Those things will give you cancer, you know," Raven teased as she walked around the corner, coming upon her younger sister. She self-consciously adjusted the bag hanging over one shoulder, making sure it was fully zipped up, and nothing was peeking or poking out.
"Shut up. That's just a myth," Chyna glared, putting her hand over the mouthpiece of her cell phone. "Don't you have something to do besides bug me while I'm trying to maintain my social life?"
"Sadly, I do." Raven smiled and reached over to mess up her little sister's hair, but Chyna ducked out of the way and stormed away to her room. "Jeez, what's up with her?" she wondered out loud. She began to follow her, only to be stopped by the answer to her question.
"Might have something to do with giving her a ride to the movies after school," Ro shrugged. "Just a guess, though."
"That... was today?" Raven winced. "I thought that was on Wednesday."
Ro sighed. "It -is- Wednesday, Raven."
"No way. No, it's... umm... almost Thursday?" She shrugged as she checked her watch. "I'm surprised she hasn't killed me yet."
"Not nearly as surprised as me. She's been pretty pissed all day, though. Might want to steer clear." He patted her arm gently. "She'll get over it. I'm sure she'd understand if she knew what's been going on."
"Yeah, but she never will," Raven stated loudly, to remind her brother, and herself. "It's bad enough -you- know."
"Oh, you know you'd never make it without me," Ro grinned, and Raven was struck again, as she always was, by how different Ro and Chyna were from each other, despite being twins. She had always been the smaller of the two, and so she had been the baby of the family, and still was, though she would likely wreak bloody revenge on any who dared say that out loud. Ro was also a good bit more mature than Chyna was, which only made her seem even younger than he, though the difference in age was only seven minutes.
Then again, he had been through a lot more, so it was only natural that he would have matured more. He had been through things no fourteen year old should have to encounter. Or any seventeen year old, for that matter, not that Raven had any choice in the matter. It was her destiny and all that crap Saul had fed her up until he had gotten killed, the inconsiderate bastard, before he even told her how he knew all this. That was when Ro had found out the truth about just what his sister was up to all the time, and had offered to help, with the magics he had been studying even before then. He had kept that from his sister, somehow, and he managed to keep Raven's secret from her as well.
"Come on, we'd better get going," Ro insisted. "We don't have much time if what they said was true."
"I know," Raven said quietly. "Do you think she's gonna be all right by herself?"
"Always has been before. Mom and Dad should be home in a couple hours anyway, if... if anything goes wrong." Raven nodded, then followed her brother out of the house with a final glance towards the hallway where her little sister was moping. Hopefully she'd get a chance to apologize, to make it up to her sometime. It would be so much easier if she could just come out and admit to what she really was, but to do so would just endanger anyone she told, which she couldn't bear. Maybe someday Chyna would understand... But for now, Raven would just have to settle for keeping her safe without her knowing.
God, being a superhero was such a chore.
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"Okay, bye." Chyna pressed the button that hung up her cell phone with a sigh, tossing it onto her desk with a clatter that made her give a little shudder and rush over to make sure she hadn't broken it again. Not that it had been her fault the first time... Stupid Raven had taken it with her one night "just in case", and Chyna was dumb enough to let her, and when she got it back, the screen was smashed, and the rest of the phone was bent up pretty badly, which had reinforced an important lesson she had learned long ago, never to let her sister borrow anything. She wasn't sure she even wanted to know what Raven had done to the phone; she was a bit on the completely insane side. Not that it mattered. Her parents had told her that if she broke it again they wouldn't replace it, and that was the last thing she needed.
Seeing that her phone was unharmed, she walked to her door, pausing there for a moment to see if she heard Raven's voice. She was pretty sure the front door had closed a couple minutes ago, but she didn't want to risk the chance that she had imagined it, or that it had been Ro. She had plenty of righteous anger built up, though most likely she would never build up the courage to take it out on its rightful target - Raven was almost always annoying and bossy, but she could also be pretty damn scary when she wanted to be.
There wasn't a sound from beyond her door, not that that meant all that much. She opened it a crack and peeked out, still finding nothing. She slipped out, cautiously heading for the kitchen, encountering not a soul. If Raven had gone to her room, she almost certainly would have heard that, so more than likely she had gone out, like she almost always did around this time of the evening. Good.
"Ro? You here?" she called, despite her intuition telling her he wasn't. "Rooooland!" No answer. "Hrmph... Fine," she pouted. Obviously they didn't want her tagging along with them, wherever they were going. Raven had been like that for a while now, but it was only recently that Ro began abandoning her as well. She was used to it by now; it wasn't like anybody else was clambering to hang out with her either, and on the rare occasion someone actually did, something would happen and she wouldn't be able to make it. Which probably explained at least partially why people hardly ever bothered asking her to do things with them.
Fine. She didn't need any of them to have fun. She could entertain herself quite fine, thank you very much. Not a problem. Nope.
Sigh.
Her hand fell onto the handle of her refrigerator, where she traced its outline with her fingers a couple times before closing her hand around it and pulling it open. She hadn't been expecting too much, so luckily her hopes didn't fall from too high as she surveyed the contents. To the untrained eye, the most appetizing selection would have been the half of a cherry pie sitting on the top shelf. Chyna, however, was far from untrained in the ways of the food scavenging in this house, so she steered away from it. Her parents were health nuts, and refused to put refined sugar in most anything, including desserts. There were other, "healthier" ingredients that they could use, but when you came right down to it, pie just wasn't the same without sugar. Most food wasn't the same without sugar, so what was the point in eating it?
She glanced over the rest of the contents of the fridge, not finding anything particularly appetizing. Still, she was thirsty, so she grabbed the gallon of milk and dragged it out, smiling a little as she saw her new ring glittering there, beside all of her others. It was kind of a hobby of hers, collecting rings, albeit a hobby that was much more expensive than she could afford the majority of the time. She couldn't resist this one, though, even if she had to borrow money from Raven to get it, back before she had resolved to hate Raven's guts. Of course, she probably would have borrowed money from her for it even now, except with less intention to pay her back.
The owners of the store had claimed that the ring had magical properties when she had bought it, but she'd ignored that. It was a popular way to get more money out of something, to claim that it was magical, or even cursed. Most of the time it wasn't really. She had only heard of one or two times when it actually was, and even then the magic in them was usually rather weak, like granting the wearer the ability to see in the dark, or count things faster, or something like that. And there was that necklace that made people unable to stop dancing, but nobody liked talking about that, though it -was- pretty funny to watch.
She began to open the cabinet with the cups when she heard the opening strains of Ave Maria, growing ever louder. It took her a few seconds to realize that it was her phone, and Ro had been playing with her ring tone again, and then she slammed the cabinet shut, tossing the milk onto the counter before running back to her room to grab it before it fell once more into silence.
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Raven toed a rock out of the dirt beside the sidewalk so that she could kick it, sending it clattering off into the distance. "I'm an awful big sister," she said finally, the first words she had muttered since leaving the house.
Ro shifted his eyes over towards her before giving her a little smile. "Nah, I wouldn't say that. I might even be inclined to say you were the best big sister in the world..."
She didn't even have to look at him. "I'm not giving you money, Ro."
"Fine, be that way," Ro shrugged. "You're still not a bad big sister. She's going to be fine, just wait and see. If she knew what kind of stress you've been in the past couple weeks, she would understand. Anyway, I heard it was a pretty crappy movie."
"Then she probably would have loved it," Raven sulked, not ready to give up berating herself yet. "You know how her taste in movies is. Remember that one time when we went to see..." She paused for a moment, her mouth open, brain struggling.
"To see what?"
"Umm... That one movie... That you loved..." she smiled innocently. "It was going to be a more Chyna-centered example, at one time."
"Hrmph!" Ro closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards a bit, giving a pretty good imitation of his twin. Brother and sister were quiet for another few minutes, until Ro spoke up, voice quieter, revealing the fear that he had otherwise done a fair job of hiding. "Are you sure about this?"
"I don't see how we have much of a choice. Saving the world - kinda my job," Raven shrugged, though her own fear was starting to get to her more and more as they drew closer to their destination.
"You said there were too many last night... What makes you think there'll be any less tonight?"
Raven reached over to pat her brother's shoulder reassuringly. "Well, that's what you're here for, bro."
But Ro wasn't to be thrown off track so easily. "I can only do so much. I don't know that I can take down that many normal vamps, if they even are all just vampires. And we still don't know what the deal with their leader is."
"We'll be fine. I promise." She smiled uneasily, doubts creeping slowly into her mind. Well, it's not like I haven't already broken a promise to one sibling today, she told herself. Might as well go for both of them while she was at it. Not exactly two birds with one stone, but why bother conserving stones for anyway?
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Chyna gave a little squeal of joy as soon as her finger left the button pad of her phone, surprised she had been able to hold it in even that long. The phone fell to the soft, bouncy surface of her bed a fraction of a second before she joined it, letting herself fall backwards onto the bed, then rolled over to grab her pillow and hug it tightly to her chest. It was really happening! Really! She would have pinched herself to make sure it wasn't a dream, only she didn't want to find out if it was; it would be too good a dream to interrupt with that overrated reality thing.
There had been rumors, of course. There always were. Chyna may have only been in high school for part of a year, yet that had been long enough for her to learn not to trust most of the rumors that flew about, especially those involving her in a periphery sense that sounded too good to be true. But this, this was real, as long as it wasn't just a dream she was afraid to wake herself from! Vincent had finally realized they were destined to be together!
Vincent... Even his name inspired her heart to start beating just a little more quickly - the memory of his face making it feel like it might explode. His name just sounded so mature, as befitted a junior, not to mention dark and mysterious. Oh, she couldn't wait! And fortunately, she wouldn't have to for very long. Half an hour wasn't very much time to get ready for something of this magnitude, but it seemed that she was going to have to make due with it anyway. She was sure her parents wouldn't mind her going off with a boy two years older than her, that they had never met, on a school night, without asking their permission or even telling either of her vanished siblings where she would be. Or, even if they would, with a little luck they would never find out, so it wouldn't matter. It was worth the risk anyhow.
Her eyes flew open, dashing away her fleeting fantasies of her and Vincent's picnic by some sea in Spain, where she had somehow managed to learn to speak Spanish, despite the fact that she was failing that class in school at the moment. What was she thinking?! She didn't have time for this! She had to get moving! She hopped off of her bed, a little sad to be leaving her happy daydreams behind. The chance that those daydreams could very well be coming true if she just got dressed and ready, however, was more than enough to motivate her as she bounced over to her closet door and turned the knob.
Another girl stared out at her as the door swung open, a girl that looked remarkably like her, encased in glass. She put her ecstasy on pause for a minute as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, the reason for her doubts about the rumors concerning her and Vincent flooding back. Why would he want to go out with someone like her? She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hide her body from the glass, to make it stop showing her what she looked like, as if she didn't already know. She knew how incredibly plain and average she was, how boring.
Everything about her was just... normal. Ro would call her short, and when she was around him she felt that way, but in all honesty, she wasn't. She couldn't help it that her twin was just so freakin' tall. Raven was a little short for her age, but still taller than Chyna, being two years older and all. Some people told her that she was thin, though she would beg to differ. They were probably just trying to be nice, anyway. Other than that, nobody said anything about how she looked. Because there just wasn't that much to say. She wasn't like Raven, so pretty, yet with just a tinge of something lurking beneath the surface, something sinister and dangerous. Guys seemed to love that. Or Ro... Not that she wanted to look like him, but he had always been so tall, and all the girls in her class insisted that he was hot. Chyna couldn't see it. She'd probably be a bit disturbed if she could, seeing as how he was her brother and all. But her... nobody talked about.
She did look like her siblings in some ways, of course. Their hair was basically the same color - brown. Raven and Ro's hair was quite a bit lighter than hers, almost (not quite) to the point of being blond. Chyna's was most certainly brown, and newly cut to about halfway between her shoulders and her chin when she finally realized that she was never going to manage to get it to do what she wanted when it was so long. It still didn't. Somehow it even resisted being curled, like Raven usually kept hers, although a part of that could be attributed to her having no idea how to curl hair when she attempted it. Now, for the first time she could remember, she had the shortest hair among the children of her family, by a little bit. Ray used to keep her hair short, but lately had decided to let it grow out more for whatever reason, and now it was a bit below her shoulders. Ro's hair was around that length, too, perhaps even a little longer - it was hard to judge, since he kept it in a ponytail all the time - because he was too lazy to go get it cut. The three's eyes were all the same color, too, also brown. Ro's seemed darker than that sometimes, usually a night when they occasionally appeared almost black for some reason. Raven's were more bright and vibrant, yet always with that little dash of the mystery. Chyna's were just brown. Kind of a dull, boring brown at that.
Dull and boring. Like the rest of her. Like she knew everyone, including Vincent, saw her.
What if it was just a trick, some kind of cruel joke? She'd never actually had anything like this done to her before. It happened in movies, though. Then again, even if that was what was going to happen... Wasn't it still worth the risk? Well, she would just have to make sure she looked incredibly stunning, so that he would forget whatever prank he might be considering pulling.
Yeah. Like -that- could ever happen.
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Vampires. They didn't run into them much, as there wasn't that much free blood running around the town to be taken without drawing a lot of attention, but they did show up every now and again for some reason. Maybe this was just a popular undead hang out. Who knows? Raven was quite sure she didn't, nor did she particularly care. Vampires were usually the least of her worries. Unless they showed up in large groups, they were easy enough to kill. Or re-kill. Whatever the proper term was.
Unfortunately, this -was- a large group of them, the same dozen Raven had seen here the night before. It was a popular place for them. She had probably killed more vampires at this spot than anywhere else in the entire town. It was an old, abandoned farm, on the outskirts of town. There had been talk of tearing it all down ever since Raven could remember, especially since the barn was a popular place for kids to hang out and get bitten by the snakes that hid in between the old bales of hay, or step on protruding nails, as Chyna had when she was eight, and Raven herself had when she was in the middle of one of her first fights against a vampire. Everyone was afraid that it was going to fall down on top of some group of children and squash them. Not that that had ever stopped any kids.
The only good thing about the place was the fact that it -was- falling apart. The roof and walls had any number of holes in them where sunlight could get in, making it a less than ideal place for vampires to hide out in the daytime, even though if they could somehow keep from being burned to a crisp, the barn would basically be like a fresh blood delivery service. Raven had often considered burning it down, especially when there were several vampires inside, but Ro always stopped her, brought her back to reality, reminded her that if they did that, the flames would probably reach the fields around the barn, and if that happened they wouldn't be able to stop the fire before it reached the town.
A circle of some sort had been drawn on the floor of the barn, out of what looked like ashes from where Raven and Ro sat staring into one of the cracks in the wall. The vampires were arranged around it, staring in at the center, where the thing that Raven assumed was their leader was standing. He was standing in the center of the circle, with no shirt so that the sweat glistening on his body was quite visible, as well as the copy of the circle he was standing in drawn on his chest. There were other things that looked as if they had been etched into his skin with a knife or other equally sharp thing, though if they were for something other than decoration, it wasn't obvious. He looked to be a normal vampire, but there was more to him than that - more than that, or even how she knew that, Raven couldn't tell.
Quietly, Raven unzipped the bag she had brought with her. Inside were all manner of knives and wooden stakes, mostly the former, all the better to kill her enemies with. She only had eyes for one, however, and she reached in to take it out, sliding it out of its sheath, where it reflected the light of the newly risen moon back into the sky. It was the biggest knife she owned, almost the length of her forearm, and slightly curved. A work of art, some might say. A gift from Saul, although he hadn't been alive when she had gotten it.
Staking vampires was the generally accepted form of slaughter, she realized; hence the stakes. However, she liked having another weapon she could count on to at least slow them down a little, or even kill them if she had the time and opportunity to decapitate them with it, her favorite way of taking them out. It just had an ancient, primal feel to it that stabbing them with pieces of wood lacked. It made her feel connected to the past, somehow, and to the greater good. Besides, cutting things up was just a blast anytime she could manage it.
"What's the plan?" Ro whispered, kneeling down beside her and hunting through the stakes for one that looked sturdy. He wasn't a fighter, per se - he lacked his sister's super strength - but it was always good to have something to fall back on if he didn't have time for magic.
"Same as always," Raven shrugged. She hadn't given much thought to tactics. It wasn't her strong suit. She'd much rather just get in there and fight.
Ro rolled his eyes. "What, not even the Apocalypse warrants special plans?"
Raven turned and grinned at him. He could see something glimmering in her eyes, something he always noticed there before she got all violent, something that made his skin crawl every time. "Guess not."
Without warning, she sprang to her feet and was around the other side of the barn, the one with the door. Ro cursed loudly and followed as quickly as he could, but there was no way he could catch up with someone who had supernatural speed on her side. The door, nearly as tall as the barn itself, was already open when he got there, and Raven was staring at the circle of twelve, starting to circle, starting to choose her first victim.
"Oh, good, I've been waiting for you," the leader said, beginning to step towards Raven. "So nice of you to join us. Boys, continue this -" he gestured downwards, towards the circle on the ground, "- elsewhere, if you please."
"You don't actually think I'm going to let them leave, do you?" Raven growled.
"Oh, I don't think you'll have a choice." The leader smiled. And then he was running towards her, or so Ro assumed; he was moving so quickly he was barely more than a blur. Raven's eyes widened and she tried to jump out of his way, but he slammed into her, sending her flying back into the wall of the barn. Dust fell from the rafters, filtering down through the moonbeams, at the impact.
"Raven!" Ro yelling, running forward to help his sister, a ball of fire forming around the hand not holding a stake, barely noticing the dozen vampires leaving, even though they were moving a bit slower than he was used to seeing them. Raven was on the ground, trying to catch her breath as she stared at the leader, whatever he was, who was standing over her, gloating.
Ro threw the fireball with all his strength, though it wasn't strength that made it fly, really. The leader wasn't even looking at him, shouldn't have been able to react by the time it was close enough for him to hear it sizzling through the air at him. That didn't seem to bother him, and it certainly didn't keep him from dodging out of the way. He was beside Ro before he knew it, slammed him across the face with an arm much stronger than that of any vampire that had hit Ro before. He hit the wall next to Raven, stars and darkness taking turns circling before his eyes.
"Do you really think you can stop this?" The leader laughed. "Even if you manage to kill me somehow, your precious world will never be the same! The skies themselves will submit to our will, and your sun will never shine again! My kind shall rise up from their prison of darkness, and we shall rule, forever! Your time is over, human, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
Raven stumbled to her feet, still gasping for air. "And how are you going to do all that if I kill you?"
"Oh, that's the beauty of it." The leader grinned, beside Raven again, running his fingers up the side of her face. "You think we're stupid enough to start something that only one of us could finish? You would have to kill every one of my followers to stop us. But don't worry, you won't have to think about that, since you won't be making it out of this barn alive." His hand closed around her neck, and he picked her up and slammed her against the wall of the barn.
She hit the ground, coughing violently, her knife hitting the ground beside her as it fell from her fingers. She turned to see her brother, who was staring back at her, looking every bit as frightened as she felt, searching for some kind of reassurance that this was just another blow-hard vampire with nothing real to back up his claims. "Umm... Uh-oh?"
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Chyna resisted the urge to sink to the floor of her closet and hug her knees to her chest and then bang her head repeatedly against the wall. Just barely. Even though she had no idea what time it was now, and was too scared to check in case she discovered she had even less time than she thought, she knew this was taking way too long. But how could it not? She needed to look dazzling for Vincent, or stunning, or gorgeous, or basically anything other than herself.
How was she going to look stunning in any of the crap she had in her closet? She shook her head as she started searching through the hangers once more. The majority of the clothes they held were hand-me-downs from Raven, who had a good fashion sense for the few years ago when she had originally worn these clothes. Chyna, on the other hand, never seemed to know what was popular currently anyway, so it normally wouldn't hurt to look a couple years out of style. But this, this was a special occasion. She had to prove that she wasn't just some little teacher's pet that didn't pay any attention to anything but schoolwork.
No, none of this would do. Some of it was still fairly similar to the stuff she had seen Raven and her friends wearing not too far into the past. That was mostly the oldest of the clothes, and they hadn't aged wonderfully. And what if somehow Vincent remembered seeing Raven wearing that exact outfit, despite that hypothetical glance occurring long in the past? No, no, it just wouldn't work.
She had clothes of her own, of course. Unfortunately, as she wasn't inclined to dressing up all that much, most of her clothes were jeans and big, baggy, comfortable shirts - not what she wanted now. Her nice black skirt, the one thing even she would admit she looked good in, was downstairs waiting to be washed after a run-in involving a puddle and a speeding car outside school the day the yearbook pictures were being taken.
Other than that, she had her dresses. Normally, she hated wearing dresses, but she was still forced to once a year, at Easter, despite the fact that she normally got away with dressing regularly to go to church. For a date, she could perhaps be more easily persuaded into wearing one, if she had one that she would ever dream of wearing anywhere near someone she wanted to be attracted to her. Her mother wasn't quite over the concept of her little girl growing up, and hadn't considered actually asking Chyna what kind of dress she might want for Easter, nor did she seem to notice her daughter's ever-growing displeasure with the ones she picked.
Chyna shuddered to imagine what Vincent's reaction would be if she showed up in of those dresses, her mind just warming up before she forced it to shut off again. What she had already thought of before she stopped herself involved him asking where her mommy was, and if she was sure she was allowed to be awake this late. She could not afford to look like some immature little girl; sexy was the key word, if by some miracle her body was capable of that.
She lowered her eyes to the floor with a sigh, trying to come up with some kind of solution. Raven had some more fitting clothes in her closet.... Raven had also forbidden Chyna from borrowing her clothes without asking after Chyna got ketchup on one of Raven's favorite shirts, which she had incidentally borrowed without asking. That had been a few years ago, though, so maybe Raven had forgotten about it. And Chyna might end up getting home before her so that she could put anything she took back without her ever knowing.
Raven's closet wasn't anywhere near as organized as Chyna's - in fact, it greatly resembled an old building that had been imploded, then somehow contained within one tiny room. This could actually work in her favor, Chyna realized after a moment of despair. It would take her forever to find anything, yes, but it would also be a lot less likely that Raven would notice anything was missing. So she set about searching for the perfect outfit, time ticking away faster and faster. Finally, more out of desperation than anything, she grabbed a shirt almost at random. It wasn't too bad of a choice, really, if a bit sparkly for her taste.
After returning to her room, she took off the T-shirt she had been wearing - a Care Bears T-shirt, though she had personally never seen the show, and would never wear the shirt in public, especially not around people her own age - and pulled Raven's shirt over her head, pulling her closet door back open with her toe to get a good look at herself so she could figure out what to steal that would go with it. She groaned as she saw herself, giving in at last to the temptation to collapse on her floor, stopping just short of hitting her head against something.
It almost would be better just to wear one of her dresses, she thought bitterly. At least then she didn't give the impression of a little girl trying on her mommy's clothes. They fit her, anyway, while this just reminded her of yet another reason why Vincent shouldn't be bothering with her. Sure, some of the ill-fittingness of the shirt came from Raven just being taller and slightly less supposedly "skinny" than her, but the bigger part was the result of Chyna being what her friends and family politely called a "late bloomer". If the shirt hadn't been meant to show off the breasts that she had just started really getting a shorter time ago than she cared to think about, it might have worked.... Or at least not made her look quite as stupid.
She slammed her fist onto the floor beside her before she recognized the feeling of her fingers curling into a ball. Tears of frustration stung at the corners of her eyes, and she reached up to wipe them away, seeing a quick flash of gold as her new ring reflected the light from the ceiling fan in her room. She paused in her hysteria for a moment, bringing the ring back up to eye level with a little smile. It really was very pretty. Yellow topaz, all the way from Sri Lanka, the man in the shop assured her. Sri Lanka... That had always seemed like a nice place. It was cool because it had two words in its name, and both of them were weird and fun to say.
She smiled a little as she stared at it, watching light dance across every surface of the jewel. So pretty... She could almost forget about her problems, sitting here looking at it. Almost, but they were still there, nagging at the back of her mind. She would have to do something, certainly, but what? This was all obviously Raven's fault. If she had only bought better clothes in the past to give to Chyna once she was finished with them, everything would be fine, and Chyna wouldn't have to worry about looking like a little kid.
Well, maybe not -all- Raven's fault. Everything seemed so clear, so obvious. Her lips were moving, almost completely free of her will, forming a sentence. "I wish I could just have nice clothes of my own."
Suddenly, the light reflecting off of the ring began growing much, much brighter. Instinctively, Chyna pulled away, covering her eyes with her other arm with a little squeak of fear. After a moment, she lowered it again, slowly, only to jerk it back upwards with a much louder cry of surprise at the sight of the man who had just appeared in front of her. "Well," he said with a chuckle, "we'll just have to see what we can do about that, won't we?"
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The leader turned his back on Raven and Ro, a very dangerous thing to do. He didn't seem particularly worried, however, and neither of the people who had come to kill him appeared to be prepared to make an opportunity of this opening. Raven was barely staying standing, her eyes flashing with hatred and the desire for blood. Ro dragged himself to his feet, reaching into an inner pocket of his jacket as he began chanting the words of the only healing spell he knew. His expertise was more in the area of hurting things, not patching them up afterwards - he still needed material components for this kind of spell to work correctly.
"You know, I really expected more of a fight from you." The leader turned his head a little to see his opponents. "But this is just getting boring now."
"Oh, I'm just getting... started..." Raven assured him, the pause to catch her breath probably doing little to convince him of that.
The leader smiled. "I'm sure. I just don't know that I feel like waiting around for you to put your whole heart into it." He shrugged. "I'm an impatient man."
Raven sneered. "You're not a man."
His grin widened. "No, not really, if we want to be technical about it. I used to be, though, and now I'm so much more."
"You're just a vampire." Raven found the strength returning to her legs, and voice, and she smiled gratefully at her little brother. God, how could she have dragged him into this?
"Oh, I'm not sure I qualify a -just- a vampire anymore, Miss... What do they call you now? Raven?" He reached for something leaning against the wall of the barn, hidden in the shadows.
Raven tensed, bringing her knife up higher, moving a little further in front of Ro, still trying to sound unimpressed. "Yeah, that's my name. What do they call you?"
The vampire lifted his arm, bringing a sword with it. "I am known as Azrael."
Raven lifted an eyebrow, turning partway towards her brother. "Does it sound like he's trying to hard to you?"
Ro nodded. "Yeah, obviously overcompensating for something with an overdramaticly evil name."
Azrael glared towards them, a little taken aback. "How dare you mock..."
Raven pretended to ignore him, though she was still watching him from the corner of her eye. "Wasn't he on the Smurfs? He's less cat-like in person than I'd have guessed."
"No, no, he's obviously the Prince of Sorrow," Ro smiled.
"You wanna talk about names? How is a Raven like a writing desk?"
"Huh?" Raven looked questioningly at Ro, trying to figure out if he knew what the hell Azrael was talking about.
Azrael shrugged nonchalantly. "Never mind. I guess we'll skip the riddles and get right on to the killing you part." And with that, he was gone from the side of the barn, speeding towards the pair of insolent children. Who turned out not to be as unprepared as he had expected. Just as he was raising his sword, vaguely curious as to whether or not he would be able to cleave through both of them at once, Raven leapt towards Ro, shoving him away. He rolled away, already starting an entrapment spell as Raven jabbed her knife outwards, right where Azrael was charging.
He stopped in his tracks for a second, surprised that she had managed to harm him. It was all the time Ro needed as he finished the words of the spell, sending green energy to encircle the vampire. It wouldn't last for long, but it should give Raven the time to do something. Unfortunately, not much. She brought the hand with the knife upwards, slamming it against Azrael's, which caused him to drop his sword, but by the time she had begun to switch the direction of her swing to send the blade of her knife through his neck, he was stumbling backwards.
Raven slammed her foot down on the blade of the sword as soon as it hit the barn floor, keeping it from Azrael's hands. Ro's eyes flickered towards hers, and she nodded. A moment of silence while the three combatants tried to size up the new situation. Ro charged forward, dropping the stake in time to catch the knife Raven tossed at him as she moved her foot under the sword, then kicked it upwards, catching it in her hand a little clumsily, yet solidly enough not to drop it. Azrael was out of the way of Ro's charge before the boy had taken four steps, but that had never been the point anyway.
"Fine," Azrael growled. "I don't need weapons to defeat the likes of you."
Raven shook her head. "I'm hearing a lot of talk, Sorrow Prince... That ain't gonna get the job done."
"Fine." His eyes were filling with pure hatred now, hands curling into balls as muscles tensed in the moonlight. "Now you die."
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Chyna gasped, partly from the sudden appearance of the man, but mostly from the feeling that flooded over her now that the bubble of clarity had burst. Her mind felt... violated, somehow, as if there had been something, or someone, in there, poking around at her most private thoughts. It was mostly just a feeling, though a feeling she hated, wasn't sure she could endure, but there was also pain, she noticed now. She could hardly see how badly her hands were shaking through the sudden haze of tears.
The man was brushing non existent dust from his arms, shaking his head a little. "Not the most stimulating wish I've ever heard, but I suppose I can work with it."
"Who... Who are you?" Chyna whispered, wondering if she should stand up in case she needed to run away quickly.
"What, you haven't figured it out already?" The man shook his head. "I'm your genie, kid."
"Wha?" Chyna's head was still feeling foggy, so she shook it a little in an attempt to clear it. "Oh... I didn't realize I was actually wishing... Can I try again?" How could she waste a wish on something stupid like that, when she could have made herself so beautiful that it wouldn't matter what she was wearing, or given herself a zillion dollars so nobody would really care if she was pretty or not.
He narrowed his eyes in her general direction. "You've seen Aladdin. Take a wild guess."
"So that's a no?" she pouted, starting to feel a little better. She was just nervous, that's all. It wasn't often that supposedly magical jewelry really was magical, and even then she had never heard of this sort of thing happening in real life. And she still had two wishes, so it was all good.
The genie didn't appear to be listening as he glanced around her room, stretching. "Ahhh... It's good to be free."
"Yeah... umm... I bet it was kinda cramped in there."
He turned from his examination of himself in the mirror to give her a look that suggested just how stupid he thought she was at that very moment. "I wasn't really in the ring. I was in a pocket dimension. The ring was just the key, and gate." Very matter of fact, like it was the sort of thing anybody who had passed second grade should know.
"Oh," Chyna said quietly, unsure of what else to answer that with, her pride feeling a little wounded.
He didn't seem to notice the wounded tone to her voice, returning to examining himself. "I wonder how long I was stuck there..."
Recognizing a chance to redeem herself, Chyna spoke up helpfully, "Well, today is..."
He shook his head. "No, that's not gonna help. Time works differently in pocket dimensions. An hour here could be a year there; it's hard to tell." One second he was dressed much as Chyna had been before her foray into kleptomania, though with less Care Bears - jeans and a T-shirt. The next he had on a red suit, possibly even a tuxedo, as Chyna wasn't sure what the difference between the two was. He adjusted his tie, shook his arms a little, then turned with a large, obviously false, smile. "Let's get this over with, shall we, so I can be along my way?"
"On your... Don't I have two more wishes?"
"Don't believe everything you see in a Disney movie, kid." He bent over, offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly, noting that her hands were still shaking a little. "Though in this case, you kind of can. There were originally three wishes, but not for everyone who picked up the damn ring. Just three in all."
"What happened to the first person who had it?" Chyna asked, suddenly remembering the ill-fitting clothes she had on. She blushingly tried to adjust it before giving up and just standing with her arms folded over her chest so that the genie didn't try to look down her shirt, as if he hadn't already had ample opportunity.
"Oh, there've been two of them. You know how it is... They died."
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Raven had never technically used a sword before. It wasn't that she didn't want to, it was just that she wasn't sure where one would buy a weapon such as that in modern times, especially in a little town like this. She always kind of assumed that it was like a really big knife, so she wouldn't have too much trouble if and when she finally got her hands on one.
Not so much.
Still, she got the basic concept of how one was used. You swing it at the thing that you want dead. In this kind of fight, that worked, certainly. If Azrael had hidden another sword somewhere and was planning on a duel to the death with them, she was most definitely screwed. Still, even if she didn't know what she was doing, she could keep him further away from her just from the threat of a greater reach and what seemed to be a sharper blade than she kept on her knife.
So far, even with the longer blade she was now using, she had barely scratched the vampire, except for where she had stabbed him. And that wound appeared to be nearly healed already. What the hell was this guy's deal?! Hell, probably, or some variation thereof. She was starting to suspect that those symbols she had seen etched into his skin had something to do with it. If he would just stand still, she would test that theory by slicing one of them off; until then, it was just a theory.
Azrael laughed as he jumped out of the way of another wild swing of the sword. "You'll never defeat me, little girl! I am immortal!"
"Then won't it be incredibly ironic when I kill you?"
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"Let's see... What do we have to work with?" The genie eyed Chyna up and down as she squirmed uncomfortably at the attention, adjusting her arms once more. He could just take the easy route out, especially with that god-awful wish she had made, but he had a reputation to uphold, a message to send to the bastards who had trapped him in the first place, made him subservient to a bunch of humans. Still, death seemed too simple for this one... It was his final wish, after all, so he should celebrate.
He browsed back over the thoughts and memories he had been forced to swim through to force her to make a wish, any wish. Typical whiny adolescent, he noted with a little disgust. Perhaps he could just make her "nice clothes" out of snakes. Or leeches. He had always been fond of leeches. But it just wasn't grand enough. Just as he was about to give up, he stumbled across a little tidbit he had passed over before, a plan formulating itself instantaneously as he looked at the girl struggling to maintain her modesty. This he could work with.
"What's taking so long?" Chyna was starting to get impatient; Vincent would be ringing her doorbell any second now.
"Just deciding exactly what kind of clothes to make for you," he answered, semi-truthfully. He was thinking about clothes, partly, yet most of his mind was occupied in designing a world.
"You could always ask me," Chyna pouted, starting to feel like she did every Easter.
"But then where's the surprise in that?" The genie smiled, a smile that was beginning to look more and more sinister every time Chyna saw it. "You don't want your precious crush to think you look like a baby, right?" Chyna nodded, bewildered. How could he know that?! "Well, don't worry. -He- won't." The air around Chyna began to feel almost electric, as if some invisible power was passing through it.
"Maybe I should... go..." Chyna swallowed, trying to inch around the genie. There was something not right here. She could sense it, even if she didn't know what it was exactly that she was sensing. "It was nice to meet you..."
"Don't be like that. The fun has just begun!" The genie began to lift his arms. The feeling of wrongness grew about ten times stronger, stirring the muscles in her legs into action. She hurtled past him, moving as fast as her legs would take her, which was pretty fast, considering she kept them in good shape with five years of ballet classes. Something was wrong, different, but there wasn't time to worry about that as she dashed through the house, stopping only long enough to pull open the front door. Even that felt like it took too long. She would have sworn that she could feel the genie's breath on her neck... She was a little surprised that she was even able to leave the house at all.
"Chyna?" The voice was probably the only thing that could slow her thumping heart down any at this point; it nearly made it stop altogether. Rather curious, as normally it had the exact opposite effect. "What's wrong?" Vincent asked, picking up his pace as he walked down the driveway towards her.
She couldn't talk, so she just grabbed his arm and pulled as she shot past him. To his credit, he got the hint quickly, and the two of them were off; not quite the start to a romantic evening that Chyna had imagined. It sure beat staying with the genie, though.
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The genie stared out the window at the two rapidly vanishing forms for another minute before letting the curtain fall back into place. He could have caught them if he really wanted to, but it just wasn't worth the effort. It was better for her to be out of his way for a little longer, anyway, while he put the finishing touches on her wish. She wouldn't be free for long.
What appeared at first glance to be a woman, dressed much like Mary Poppins, complete with the umbrella, stepped out of thin air in front of him, just as he bid her to. At second glance, it was obvious that she was definitely not human, with her unnatural, pure white skin that her jet black veins shone through like the light of a flashlight through a piece of paper.
"Find her." The demon-woman nodded simply - the mission deserved nothing more than that. The genie watched her go with a sense of satisfaction, quite pleased with himself. This would be the best wish he had ever granted.
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"Damn it! Hang in there, Ro!" Raven cried as she saw her brother falling to the floor again with a violent cough that sprayed crimson over wood and hay. "Leave him alone!"
"Do you think you can make me?" Azrael looked perfectly fine now, with no sign that he had been injured at all during the fight.
Raven's hand tightened around the hilt of the sword until her knuckles went white, but it didn't help. The answer was still no.
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Chyna was the first to stumble, and the first to nearly fall. If it hadn't been for Vincent, she probably would have. She tried to form words, tried to tell him that they had to keep going, but when she looked behind her, she saw no sign of being followed. She collapsed to the ground, panting for air. Vincent sat down after a second, too, graciously trying to avert his eyes from the neckline of Chyna's shirt.
"What's going on, Chyna? Should we call the police?" he asked once they had both caught back their breath.
Chyna shook her head. What could the police do? What would she tell them that wouldn't land her in an insane asylum? She very much doubted they would find the genie back at her house, or that they would survive an encounter with him. Her mind was still reeling from hers, that sense of something being wrong still haunting her, though now it seemed more physical than in her head. The mental fog from before, aided by adrenaline and fear, was finally blowing away, ever so slowly.
"What happened?" His voice was gentler, obviously trying to calm her down, and maybe even himself some.
"It was..." What was there to say? She wanted him to think she was crazy even less than she wanted the police to. "Nothing."
"Nothing, huh? And why was this nothing so urgent that you ran out of your house like the devil himself was chasing you, without even putting your shoes on?" She looked up at him in confusion at this, then down at her own feet which were, indeed, free of shoes, or even socks, and covered with little cuts now. She hadn't even noticed. "What's going on, Chyna?"
Chyna started chewing on her bottom lip, a dead giveaway to people that knew her that she was thinking of a big fib to tell. If she somehow pulled this night off, and Vincent became her boyfriend, like she wanted, she would have to be more careful about doing that. For now, she was hoping she was a good enough liar. "I..." Her voice caught in her throat as her mind cleared enough to offer a suggestion of what was different that she had been unable to place before.
She cleared her throat, shifting her weight to get into a more comfortable position. Or so she hoped it looked like to Vincent. In reality, she was confirming her fears. Her mouth fell open as she looked for an explanation for why she was wearing a diaper under her jeans - surely he had noticed by now - and when nothing came, she jumped to her feet and started running again, tears streaming down her face.
She could hear Vincent calling to her, asking what was wrong. That went away after awhile, and she was alone, wherever she was. She didn't even care where she was, not that she would be able to tell through her tears even if she did bother to lift her head from the grass rushing by underneath her. She barely noticed her body running into someone, hardly saw the change from the green grass to charred grass with something red over top of it, making lines of some sort. She did realize she had run into a second someone when she ran straight into him/her, falling backwards onto her bottom.
"Damn it! Another circle ruined!" A man said from behind her. She rubbed her eyes, about to test her vocal cords to see if they were strong enough for a quick apology before she decided what to do next, when she looked up and saw that these people she had run into weren't people after all.
"Calm down, we still have plenty of time to finish," another man, one of the ones in front of her this time, answered, his fangs obvious in the bright moonlight. "In fact, I would bet that we even have time for a little snack."
Chyna gasped as the vampire advanced on her, skittering backwards, back into the center of the circle they had drawn on the earth. Her eyes flashed from side to side, trying to count how many there were - looked like an even dozen. Her brain tried to tell her that this was crazy, there were no such things as vampires, even as they moved closer to her, cutting off any possible chance of escape. A warm feeling suddenly formed around her bottom as her bladder released without her consent, the fear proving too much for it.
She closed her eyes; there was nothing left to do but that.
After a second, the screaming started.
She opened one eye, only a crack, just in time to see the end of an umbrella appearing from the chest of one of the vampires. It exploded in a cloud of dust, revealing the woman behind him, eyes completely void of emotion as she reached out with one hand and grabbed another vampire by the neck, ripping its head off with no more effort than if she had been squashing a lethargic ant. Chyna gasped again, squeezing her eyes as closed as they would go. As much as she appreciated not being killed by vampires, she still had no desire to see them slaughtered like this.
Not two minutes later, a cold hand closed around her arm, pulling her roughly to her feet. "It's time to go home," the woman informed her. Chyna opened her eyes again, wondering if she should be thanking this person. Until she saw her face, and then she was fairly certain her bladder would have let go if it hadn't already.
"What are you?"
"I'm your nanny." The demon said it without a smile, or any other show of emotion. "Let's go."
There didn't seem to be any reason for the last part, as the going didn't involve Chyna's cooperation. The nanny just pulled her along, as if she were a naughty little girl vainly resisting being given a bath. They had gone perhaps ten steps before the world started to shimmer in Chyna's sight, and by the sixth it was gone completely.
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Azrael crouched over the boy, hand reaching out for his neck. Ro started to scream, only to find it sticking in his throat. This was the end, he realized. Unless Raven could somehow...
Azrael sprang back with a gasp, back arching in pain. Raven's wide-eyed look of surprise found only a mirror when she looked at her brother to see what he had done, and then the two of them turned their attention to Azrael. One by one, the symbols etched into his body were glowing brightly, and then vanishing completely. "N-No... My... followers..." He fell to his knees, pain twisting his face. "This... cannot... be..."
"Guess again," Raven growled, pulling back her arm. Azrael was still aware enough to see this and get back to his feet, but all that accomplished was changing where the thrown sword hit from his neck to his stomach. He staggered backwards as the blade exploded out of his back, taking quite a lot of blood with it. Raven stalked forward, stopping for a moment to pick up Ro's dropped stake. Azrael was still stumbling backwards as she straightened back up, his hands now on the hilt of the sword stuck through him.
He let go of it as Raven drew closer, clumsily throwing a punch at her, now not nearly fast enough to keep her from blocking easily. She answered it by hitting him in the face, driving him further backwards. "What happened to your immortality now, Azrael?" She grinned, a lion about to take down an antelope. A hand darted out, pulling the sword free with another rush of blood. She ran the flat of the blade across his body slowly, before flipping it over and repeating the process, feasting on the fear emanating from the vampire. "I don't want your blood all over my sword," she explained in her quietly dangerous way, keeping her eyes firmly staring into his. And then the stake slammed down and through his chest.
"Isn't irony fun?" she asked, having just enough time to see the angry look on Azrael's face before his body disintegrated.
"You okay, Ro?" Her back was still turned to him, which he was grateful for. Perhaps it was a bit of an overstatement to call her primal when she was getting ready for a kill. It was an understatement if used to describe her afterwards.
"I will be." He brought out the rest of his healing herbs, making a mental note to bring more next time. There wasn't enough left to bring him back to full health, and he couldn't have by himself even if there were, but it would do. It would have to.
"Don't take long. We better find his followers." She turned now, flipping the sword over and over in her hands. "In case they're still alive." She hoped they were. She hadn't spilled nearly enough blood tonight.
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The room was pink. Very pink.
That was the first thing that came to Chyna's mind as reality began to fizzle back together, this time a much different reality than she had been in the rest of her life. The nanny let go of her arm once the walls had stopped seeming to shape, and Chyna quickly pulled away from her, trying to get some kind of feel for what kind of place she was now in.
Bright curtains with pictures of butterflies were draped over a large window, or what would have been a window if there was glass in it. Instead, the curtains were made to be pulled over what was just another section of the wall, though it appeared to have a split down the center of it, a gray spot at the center. How they were kept there, Chyna wasn't sure, as there was no curtain rod or anything of that sort. Chyna tentatively took a few steps toward the wall, reaching out shakily to brush her fingertips against it. They sank into the wall a little and then the wall gently began puffing back out, pushing her fingers back. There was only one door in the entire room, one that appeared to lead to a closet. No apparent entrance to a bathroom of any sort, though from the other furnishings in the room, that was probably intentional.
A large crib sat in one corner, bars reaching about to Chyna's neck. There were no blankets in it, but there was a pillow that seemed to be built into one end of the mattress. A few stuffed animals were strewn within, not too small but not very large, either. Against the opposite wall, there was a playpen, not quite as large as the crib, but probably still too tall for her to escape from if she were inside, which she was pretty sure was the idea. The sides were made out of some sort of mesh, so she could see through them to see a few plastic rings inside, and a few more stuffed animals, almost identical to the ones in the crib. A high chair sat vaguely near the center of the room.
Finally, the most terrifying of the four lurked beside the false window. It was what appeared to be a large table, made out of the same stuff as the walls. There were a few drawers on its underside, each one having a large gray spot like the one on the window on them. There were four loops of cloth on the top of the table, arranged to make a recantgle at its center. It took Chyna a few seconds to remember seeing those in an old movie about an insane asylum - four point restraints. A quick glance back at the crib revealed that there were restraints there, too.
"Are you finished gawking?" the nanny asked impatiently, not waiting for an answer before picking Chyna up easily, giving no indication of noticing the girl's violent struggles to get free. For a moment, Chyna thought she could get free once the nanny set her down on the changing table, before she had a chance to fasten the restraints. Unfortunately, the restraints snaked up and grabbed her wrists and ankles as soon as she touched the surface, trapping her quite securely, as she discovered when she tried in very much vain to break free.
The nanny pressed her hand against the gray spot, and one of the drawers sprang open. Something told Chyna that she wasn't going to be able to do that herself. That something was right. The nanny pulled out a pair of scissors, which she held in front of Chyna, opening and closing them a few times before speaking. "See these, baby girl? These are dangerous... That's why you'll never have to worry about laying your hands on them again."
Chyna threw herself forward, but was just held against the table regardless. "Let me out of here!" she yelled, new tears starting to roll down her already streaked face.
"Now why would I do that? You're safe here... Outside is dangerous - who knows what might happen to you there? Here I can keep you perfectly safe." She smiled, probably meant as some sort of comfort, though it just chilled Chyna's blood. The nanny walked away from her slowly, towards the closet door, straight in Chyna's path of vision. "I couldn't let you get hurt, because then how could you fully enjoy your wish? How could you appreciate all your nice, new clothes, made just for you?" She turned and smiled at Chyna again before throwing open the closet doors and stepping out of the way.
Chyna felt her eyes go wide as she stared through the doorway. Closet wasn't the right term here... Warehouse would be closer, yet still not sufficient. There were miles and miles of clothes rods, full to the brim with clothes of all sorts. Well, all sorts was a bit of a stretch... They were all baby clothes, made to fit her. Frilly dresses, and onesies, and sailor suits, everything she had ever seen any baby wear and much, much more. The nanny grabbed the first thing she saw, pulling it off of a hanger that instantly vanished. It was a flowery purple jumper with a matching shirt, a bit shorter than Chyna would have liked. But that was the idea, wasn't it?
The doors slammed shut again as the nanny walked back over to where Chyna lay helpless. "Aren't they all so wonderful?"
Chyna tried to give her the finger; it turned out to be harder than she would have thought while in restraints. Instead, she stuck her tongue out. It made her feel a little silly, but since it was the only thing she -could- do, she had to live with that. The nanny shook her head. "Tsk, tsk... Looks like I have a cranky baby. Probably has to do with those nasty grown up clothes she's wearing. Guess I'd better see to that." She draped the jumper over the end of the table, advancing on Chyna with the scissors again.
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Her tears flowed even more freely as the scissors blade slid between the shirt and her stomach, which began to churn as the scissors made their way upwards, slicing through the shirt and the bra underneath effortlessly. Then the nanny switched to the sleeves, slitting them in the same way before gently removing the shirt altogether, leaving Chyna naked from the waist up. "Please... Stop..." she begged, uselessly. The nanny didn't even seem to hear as she pulled Chyna's rings from her fingers, dropping them all into the drawer the scissors had emerged from. The scissors made quick work of the legs of her jeans. Chyna made one last effort to break free as the nanny began pulling them away, not wanting her wet diaper to be seen. Not that it mattered... The nanny would be seeing an awful lot of them from now on.
"See?" the nanny shook her head at the sight of the soaked diaper. "Dressing like a big girl doesn't make you one." With that, she untaped the diaper, setting it off somewhere Chyna couldn't see, the same thing she had done with her clothes. The scissors went back into the drawer, and a washcloth came out in its place. As if getting stripped by this thing wasn't bad enough... Her skin crawled as the cloth, which seemed to always be wet, was brought across it. Finally, the nanny reached her feet, and it looked like it was over at last, until she felt the restraints loosening and she was flipped over before she had a chance to do anything with the opportunity, the restraints refastening.
After what felt like an hour, Chyna was turned over again, the washcloth put away. "Well, I guess it's time to get you all diapered up again so you don't have another accident." Chyna glared hatefully at the woman, who ignored it and opened the next draw, pulling out a bottle of baby powder and... a diaper. It looked like it was a Pamper, though Pampers didn't make diapers that big, or that thick. Then again, obviously they did, at their factory in hell.
"No..." Chyna moaned as the white powder was sprinkled onto her liberally and then put away, the nanny's attention moving to the diaper. "No! No, no, no!" she screamed, so loudly her throat began to hurt after a moment. Despite this, she felt the padded surface of the diaper being slid underneath her bottom as the table's surface gave way for it. "Stop! Don't do this to me!" It was brought up between her legs and pulled tightly down across her lower body before it was securely taped in place, sealing her into it.
"My, my, aren't -we- cranky?" The nanny sighed. "Are we hungry?"
"Screw you," Chyna growled.
"I bet that's the problem," the nanny nodded to herself. The restraints around Chyna's wrists loosened, and the nanny let her sit up so that she could pull the new outfit over her head. "Let's get you something to eat." The nanny lifted Chyna from the table, a hand patting the thick padding around the girl's bottom before setting her down in the high chair. The tray brought itself down, locking Chyna's arms underneath. Not that she had been expected to be allowed to use them. She squirmed around as the nanny walked over to the window, laying her hand on the gray spot. The two sections of wall slid apart in opposite directions, revealing shelves full of jars upon jars of baby food and baby bottle full of all sorts of liquids.
Chyna found her eyes glued to the shelves, unable to move at all as the hopelessness of it all sank in. She was trapped. There was no getting out of this, no chance in hell. What was the use in even trying? She had seen what the nanny had done to the vampires, she had felt the helplessness as she was carried around by her like a baby - she had no doubt the woman, or whatever she was, could make her do anything she wanted. She sighed, shoulders slumping as she leaned back, folding her hands under the tray hopelessly.
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Ro jogged along beside his sister, half-heartedly looking out for any strange vampiric activity. "I really don't think we're gonna find them. Looked like he had a transference spell going with all of them. Those are only broken when the target dies, usually. Shock from it is supposed to be pretty bad, too."
Raven shrugged. "Well, better safe than the end of the world, I always say." A patch of black on the ground caught her eye, making her slow down. "Hey... What's that?" Ro stopped to follow her pointing finger. Wordlessly they readied their weapons, cautiously advancing. The circle from the barn had been redrawn on a patch of burned ground, though it appeared that a large scuffle had occurred on top of it.
"Satisfied?" Ro asked with a little smile that said "I told you so" without him having to actually verbalize it.
Raven shook her head. "What did this? Do you know of anything -good- that can take out twelve vampires?"
"Umm... Maybe that?" Ro nodded towards a figure moving rapidly towards Raven's back. She spun around, bringing the sword up into a close an approximation of a battle stance as she could manage, drawing upon every fantasy movie she had ever seen for inspiration.
"Hey, now, what's with the heavy artillery?" A well dressed man stepped closer to them, holding up his hands. "No need for that." He adjusted his tie as he surveyed the scene, nose twitching a bit. "Impressive," he murmured under his breath. Honestly, he hadn't been aware that the nanny demon was -this- dedicated to keeping little Chyna safe.
Raven kept her sword up. She knew better than to trust this person just because he appeared to be normal. "Who are you?"
"I think the real question is, who are you? I can smell all kinds of power coming off of you." The man smiled as he stepped closer to the pair. "No, I guess that isn't much of a question, either. I know who you are...."
With no more warning than that, he charged at Raven, a sword of fire starting to form in his hands. She was kind of getting tired of that happening to her today. She had a hunch that his little sword would vanish as soon as he was dead, so she charged right back while it was still being created, Azrael's sword starting to feel natural in her hands as she swung it. It sliced through the genie's neck, hardly even pausing for his spine.
"All right. Now I'm satisfied."
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The two headed for home, never noticing a form crouching behind them, shivering. Its dress had never been intended for being worn outside, but the majority of the shivering was coming simply from the fact that the figure -was- outside again. Chyna checked behind her frantically, almost sure that the nanny would be there to drag her back. There was nobody.
She reached out, brushing her fingers against the grass. It was real. How could this be?
She shook her head. It didn't matter. She was home.
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Chyna quickly shoved the garbage bag under her bed at the sound of the knocking on her door, pulling her comforter down so that it hung all the way to the floor. She didn't need questions about its contents, or why she had them, not now. Or ever. Explaining to her big sister why she had a wet diaper large enough for her was not her idea of a good time. Then again, neither was trying to inconspicuously run back to her house without letting anyone who might be looking out their window see what she was wearing, while trying to take the shortest possible route to beat her siblings back to the house so she could change, but she had done that.
She gave herself one more look, half expecting her pajamas to have transformed back into a diaper somehow without her noticing. When she was sure that it hadn't, she opened her door, coming face to face with Raven. "Hey, Chyna," she said nervously.
"Hey," Chyna answered, just as nervously. Her throat was feeling a little weak at the moment. Another thing she didn't want to explain.
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier... I didn't mean to flake on you like that." Raven cleared her throat, about to launch into a longer apology, not expecting Chyna to let her get by with just that for a second.
Chyna threw herself at Raven, hugging her so tightly that Raven was pretty sure she would have gotten a few cracked ribs if it wasn't for her super strength. "It's okay," Chyna whispered as she finally let go.
"You all right?" Chyna nodded. "Are you on drugs?" Chyna shook her head, sticking out her tongue. "Hmm... Okay..." Raven said skeptically. What was with her? She was never this happy to see her... "So, what'd you do tonight?"
"Nothing." Chyna coughed nervously. "What did you do?"
Raven suddenly found the upper frame of Chyna's door very interesting. "Nothing."
She glanced back down, catching Chyna's eye by mistake. They stared at each other for a minute, not sure of what to do or say. They broke free simultaneously, retreating to the sanctuary of their own rooms. The sound of two doors closing at the exact same time echoed quietly through the hallway.
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