#3

Hello anyone reading this. I've had a couple questions about the different between pt 1 and pt 2. Most asked (okay, let's lay it out straight here. I've had all but 2 questions and I think 2 readers, so I'll just be honest)... Both asked if the first part was a dream.

No, pt 1 isn't a dream, it's supposed to be the night before. She did her job, saved that woman, went home and slept through the day. Pt. 2 begins when she's waking up just after nightfall.

Now, between when part 1 was written and part 2 written, there's about 8 or 9 months of space, so I think I lost the thread of where I planned to take that story long ago. Pt 1 is like the first seam in a quilt or shirt or pillow or other sewing project that got set aside. Because it's a new project, the shape is undetermined and changes as the sewer changes it. I don't start out with plans and outlines in my stories, I just sit down and write. The story unveils itself to me through the keyboard and my fingers. So it's just as new to me as to any readers out there.

Mostly this blog story is kinda practice for me. Helps me get into the habit of writing each day. Of course, I skipped yesterday- slap me on the hands with a ruler, please- but I'll try not to keep skipping anymore.

So, all said and done. Here we go.

* * * * * * * *

The upper stairwell of the floor was empty. It led to another heavy steel door, light shining from behind the cracks. She leaned against the door and listened.

She could hear the barest scurrying sounds and whispers behind it. She grasped the doorknob in her hand and twisted it slowly.

The door squeaked with alarm.

She yanked it open in the blink of an eye, desperate to catch whatever stood hide behind it.

A lightbulb, hanging from the ceiling swayed back and forth. It was another stairwell, presumably the one that led to the floors in the building.

The swinging light, dangling from it's wires, cast shadows and spread light throughout the room.

There was nothing here.

She walked around the wall partitioning this set of the stairs from the next, expecting to find her friend's attackers cowering in fear or preparing to ambush her. She readied herself.

But again there was nothing there.

She couldn't hear any more sounds. No shoes running rapidly down the stairs, no doors opening or closing. Just complete silence.

Disgusted by her incompetence to catch whomever had been making the noises she'd heard earlier, she ran back up the stairs to the roof.

She walked to where her friend's body had lain. It was gone. There were no blood stains on the tarred floor, no pieces of flesh, no flecks of bone, no shards of teeth. Nothing.

She knelt down and scoured the ground, her hands running at first gently, then roughly over the surface. There had to be something here. She'd seen the body, smelled it's death, heard her screams.

But there was nothing there.

Kyserean was frantic. She looked around, desperate for any signs of the struggle. She paced back and forth, running all around the rooftop.

She stopped, wearied with worry and scared- really scared for the first time in a very long time. Could she be going mad? Could the madness plaguing her kind finally be showing it's demonic face in her mind? Has it eaten away at her sanity already?

She felt out of control, upset, angry, but most of all confused. She was too weak to fly home. The fear that permeated her mind was playing havoc with her abilities.

Suddenly truly grateful for the coat she'd had specially fitted, she walked back to the stairwell, still empty of any sound or person, and made her way to the next floor where she took an elevator down.

Leaving the building through the double glass doors and passing a questioning night guard at the desk, she joined the passerbys in the streets, the city's night people- an insomniac society that crawled over the city's dark houses and late night businesses, purchasing stolen goods from black market vendors, dirty women from the streets, drugs to make them forget their waking days, or just a companion to stave off the encroaching loneliness of their lives.

If she had truly gone mad, these were the people she belonged with.
She drifted, allowing the crowds to guide her through the streets, going whichever way the people in front of her went. She walked into a few porno theaters, unaware of where she was going, and quickly walked out again, keeping close behind a new set of guides.

Questions ran through her mind like wildfire, spreading a painful blaze with each inadequate answer. Did she just have a nightmare? Was she just worn out from her nightly hunts, did she need a break? She'd been warned the job could get wearisome after a time, and indeed it had begun to feel more like a burden rather than the satisfying killing spree it had once been. There were many other hunters lined up for this city. They kept reserves, someone always on call to take over for whichever guardian began to lapse. Perhaps her days of hunting were at an end.

She found the idea of leaving the city laughable. Here she had grown up, here she had made her first kill; this place was her home, the only home she'd known. She would not- could not- give that up.

She'd stopped her meandering while her thoughts traced the possibilities. She looked up into the night sky, and stared at the stars for a while, the people brushing her body as they walked passed. She could smell her prey close by, but it did not excite her as it should have- as it always had. There was something wrong with her, she knew it well enough.

She took a deep breath, enjoying the slight chill in the air as it bite into her lungs. Yes, there is something wrong with her, but she was not going mad. She would not walk that path.

"First," she decided, speaking to herself aloud while people passing her gave her quick glance and then turned away, muttering about the crazies in the streets at night, "I will find Tabitha."

She took off immediately for the first dark alley, and removed her jacket. She peered around, piercing through the shadows with her sharp vision. Seeing no one, she spread her wings and took off for the stars.

She headed north, towards the upper richer end of the city, and her friend's apartment.