[CBE-177/"Anna"]

Only waking stopped the nightmares.



Despite the terror her dreams produced, they had a maddening similarity that made them almost tedious. Always the same view of her cell, the lab, her cage. Matsushita standing over her. The darkness of the Hakoirikappa closing over her. Then snapping awake, screaming her silent screams. She could never get back to sleep after that. She lay on the bed and the room seemed stifling. She needed air. This was the sixth night in a row.



Outside was only better by a hair's margin. She liked the city at night more than the city in the day, but even at night it remained too bright, too noisy, and too warm. She had been raised in a peasant's town surrounded by the big woods. She was not built for cities. She longed for wide, open spaces, cold nights, and deep silence. The best this could offer was a park with trees that hid the roads. It was better than nothing. She put on her boots and her hooded shirt and left Jack's house by the window. She walked along the sidewalk, head down, hands in her pockets. A few cars drove by, seeming not to notice.



When she got to the park she sat down on a rock, but only briefly. She wanted to move, not sit still. She was restless, wary, and filled with the sensation of lacking something she could not define. An urge inside her served as a reminder she had not had any blood in several hours. But she was not in the mood for hunting just now. Silently, she walked through the park, keeping in the shadow of the trees rather than on the main path. It suited her better. She walked, tired and unable to put her mind at rest. At last she found a large rock and lay on it, legs bent at the knee, looking up at the sky. There were no lights nearby, but the lights of the city were still close enough to block out the stars. It made her feel worse.



The rock was surprisingly comfortable. Rocks to her right and her left hid her from view to anyone who might come down the path until they were directly in front of her, and she could always get behind the rock she was lying on if she wanted to hide from people in front of her as well.



The trees were outlined in gray against the sky.



Her eyelids grew heavy as she lay and looked up. Shouldn't sleep... not here... not in the open...



She slept anyway.

[Quinton Summers]

Quinton was shattered. Whilst his body certainly regenerated and he might not feel the strain as acutely as some, he still required some rest. Mia however wasn't quite so picky. With her owner out of the house more often than he was in, she was keen to take advantage of every second that she had with him, especially when it meant that she was allowed a walk in the park.

Truth be told, her owner didn't much mind it either. It was better than being cooped up inside of the tiny four walls of his dingy damp little apartment. These parks were as close as he was going to get to the big wide open spaces he was accustomed to. At least, the man took some comfort in the fact that it didn't ever seem to get terribly chilly around this part of the country. One hand in his pocket and the other holding onto his leash, he walked behind the dog, relatively relaxed. Unlike some, he didn't particularly need to worry about getting mugged, not in the long run at any rate.

"Come here girl..." With the park relatively empty, he deemed that it was safe enough for him to allow her off of her leash. The retriever/shepherd mix wagged her tail but stayed nearby for a few moments, eyeing him expectantly. The young man smiled, retrieving an old tennis ball many times chewed from his pocket. "You want it?" He giggled the item around in front of her face for a few moments. The canine barked once excitedly, her tail wagging as she readied herself. Pulling his arm back, Quinton tossed the ball as far as he could watching as his dog charged after it. "Fetch!"

The instruction wasn't entirely required. The dog knew nothing else other than to chase after a ball and rush back with it so that it might be thrown once more. Her owner didn't know exactly how long he would be able to toss the ball for before she finally grew tired of it, if she ever would. Quinton walked along the path, pausing only when Mia brought the ball back to him so as to throw it once more. The stranger sleeping in the corner was something which he noticed but didn't pay a good deal of attention to. True, it had been a bit of a shock for a small town boy to come across but after a few months, he'd gradually grown somewhat accustomed to the unfortunate sight.

His mind was elsewhere, dreaming about the past, recent events and the future which seemed terribly uncertain to him. He was still alive and so far, was able to find enough work to ensure that both he and his dog stayed fed whilst also paying rent. How long that would last, he couldn't say for sure. He'd work it all out, that was what he told himself.

Tossing the ball once more without paying much attention, he didn't notice it roll underneath the bench where the unknown woman was sleeping whilst Mia inevitably gave chase.

[CBE-177/"Anna"]

Anna was a light sleeper. She always had been, at least as long as she could remember. Too much of her life had been spent needing to wake up fully alert at any moment. So it wasn't at all surprising that when the dog came sniffing around she awoke- alert, and hungry.

Her need for blood was, at times, capricious. A number of factors fell into place. The awakening, bringing with it instinctive aggression and the need for self-defense, her hunger, and the sudden sight of a source of blood, all came together in a fresh vampire need. With the dog in easy reach, what she did next was no surprise. She seized its neck. And squeezed.

A few moments passed, the dog struggling between her hands, her teeth bared and a red haze of her hunger settling over her vision. In those moments she was as lost as if she had still been asleep. Realization struck her like a second wakening. Something was brushing against her fingers- something rough and leathery. A collar.

She let go of the dog and the haze on her vision vanished with a gasp. A collar. Not a stray then, no. Someone's pet. Someone's per she had nearly killed and fed upon. A slight dizziness passed over her. Her control- she'd almost-

The dog was running away. She didn't blame it. Run, creature. Be happy, and live another day.

She got to her feet. She was just a little bit sore. The night was as dark and quiet as it had been when she had come here. She supposed she could go home. She at least had a bed to sleep in there. She wondered if she would attract attention walking home, a small woman by herself late at night. Hungry as she was, it would be too bad for anyone who tried to make something of it.

She glanced in the direction the dog had gone. For the first time it struck her that either the dog had run away from somewhere, or it must have come here with someone. And now she became aware of another person not too far off.

[Quinton Summers]

Mia was friendly and had never really been hurt by a human being. Her tail wagged excitedly right up until she was grabbed. She let out a slight yelp. The dog struggled. Her natural placidness mixed with panic meant that her first instinct was to get away before she tried to bite. She was quite close to do doing so when she was finally released. It didn't take anything else for the crossbreed to charge back to her owner, abandoning her stick as she did so.

The young man didn't quite see what happened. His night vision wasn't half as good as his pet and he couldn't quite make out just what had happened. So he guessed. He hadn't seen the woman sleeping, otherwise he most certainly wouldn't have thrown the stick in that direction. As soon as he saw that the woman was awake, he was quick to clip Mia back onto a leash. He gave her a few reassuring pats, taking note of his companion's tail tucked between her legs as she faced towards the stranger. He assumed that his dog must have been startled. Much like him, she was more accustomed to a rural and quiet lifestyle. Strangers especially in a large numbers of which there were plenty in the city, weren't something that she was used to coming across routinely.

Quinton was what could best be described as optimistically naive. 

In his hometown, there weren't half the dangers and uncertainties that the big city came to offer. Sure, he was aware that there were troublemakers and individuals whose intentions were anything but noble but he didn't quite know how to identify any of them. The young man saw the stranger, sized her up momentarily and deemed that she wasn't much of a risk. Unless she were to pull out a cleaver and begin chasing him through the park, he was confident that she could overpower her quite easily.

It didn't even cross his mind that the woman could have been a meta. 

"Sorry, didn't see you there!" He called out to her, in the hopes that he might be able to apologize. Mia was good-natured but decidedly excitable and the poor thing spent far too long cooped up. In the hopes of lightening the mood, he smiled. "She didn't get any drool on you, did she?" 

[CBE-177/"Anna"]

The other person was a man. Friendly, by the sound of his voice. Just a normal stranger out for a walk late at night. Well, she could hardly blame him for that, given her own situation. And if she had had a dog, she might have taken it with her, too.

She looked at him as he called, slightly amused that his dog getting drool on her was his biggest concern. It bespoke of a certain innocence, she thought, one that she did not share but was glad to see in someone else. Unable (of course) to speak in reply, she shook her head at his question, hoping he could see it in the dark.

She came closer to him. Most women, especially one of her size, would have avoided a strange man in the park in the middle of the night. Anna's abilities had worked in her a confidence that many in a dangerous world could not share. He was the sort of man who had a nervous source of happiness about him, like he was worried a faerie would jump out from behind a bush at any moment. It was his dog that she had nearly hurt. She could see the dog's reaction to her now: nervous, hanging back, tail between legs. She had frightened the creature, and understandably so. She felt bad about it. She needed blood, true, but her loss of control had been inexcusable. What would have happened if she had eaten this man's pet while he watched?

She wanted to apologize. As she came near she took out her phone and opened the notebook application. She held it out to the man as she approached.

Hello. I am mute.

I think I scared your dog. I am sorry.

Quinton Summers

[Quinton Summers]

The state of Mia was something which struck her owner as being a bit odd. Usually the crossbreed was unflappable. He hadn't seen her this worked up since she'd been a pup. He attributed it to the late hour and the fact that the big city was still a rather strange place for the former country dog.

Quinton raised an eyebrow. Whilst in many respects he was a simple man but by no means a stupid one, he was still able to pick up that there was something not quite right about the young woman he was faced with. She was brave to approach him in such a manner. Whilst his words and attitude were fairly innocuous, he wasn't without knowing that there were many people out there who would play such a part in the hopes that it caused her to drop her guard. Either she was naïve or able to handle herself. The meta was sure not to give her a reason to resort to the latter. He waited patiently whilst she keyed something into her phone, assuming that it was intended for him as opposed to being a text to one of her friends.

He would accept the phone, reading the screen. "Oh... Right." His voice trailed off, he almost apologized but held off. No doubt she received enough sympathy for strangers for her disability. She didn't need another person expressing his regret for her. "Don't worry about it. Mia's harmless but she can be a little too friendly. She'll get over it." 
 
He patted the dog's flank, doing his best to console the creature. "Hope you don't mind me asking, Mrs. but are you alright? It's kind of late..." He phrased things as delicately as possible, reluctant to sound like a concerned and condescending parent.

[CBE-177/"Anna"]

The man didn't seem worried about his dog. That was good; Anna didn't like to think that she might have hurt it. She needed blood, but she could control herself well enough to wait until she got home. The man was tall, thin, and seemed nervous. Not particularly threatening even if she had been an ordinary woman.

He asked her a question, a delicate way of asking if it was wise for her to be out this late at night. She knew why he was asking; she knew what she looked like. She was perfectly safe, of course, though she didn't intend to reveal that. She tilted her head, considering how to answer the question, and at last decided on half the truth. The reason she was outside had nothing to do with her abilities, after all.

I am called Anna. I could ask YOU the same question, could I not? It is late for everyone. But I am all right. I have dreams, at times, that I need the night air to lose.

@quinton

[Quinton Summers]

The woman seemed strange. Quinton wasn't about to deny it. He didn't quite know what it was but some subconscious part of him knew that there was something unusual about her. This wasn't a place for anyone to be out by themselves, not at this time. He could afford to take a few risks. For the most part, he was confident that he couldn't get hurt. Well... He could get hurt but it was unlikely to be anything permanent. 

"I work all day and this little lady-" He nodded towards his dog; Mia tail between her legs, refused to even do so little as blink in the presence of the stranger. Quinton took note of that much and found it odd but not so much so as to actually actively question it. Dogs were, after all, almost by nature rather odd creatures. So he remained relaxed. Chalking it down to just being one of these things about the animal he would never understand. "She needs out, so I don't have much of a choice but we keep each other company." Another discrete way of asking if she really was out here all by herself. Who knew, maybe the woman might need some help of one sort or another.

[CBE-177/"Anna"]

Anna found the man somewhat amusing. Perhaps that sounded a little demeaning, but she didn't mean it as such. She really just meant that he seemed like a fine diversion from the night and from the nightmares. The dog still disliked her, of course, and likely would for a while yet. Anna was sorry about that, but there was no fixing it. She didn't want to go back home just yet. She wasn't ready. Staying out, staying with someone, even someone she'd only just met, seemed far better. And the man seemed nice enough, not that she usually had to worry about someone hurting her. Yes. She thought she would like to wonder a bit with company, if he would have her.

She wrote:

I would like to walk with you, if you and your lady would have me. The night is less pleasant alone.

You did not tell me your name.

[Quinton Summers]

He was quick to clip Mia back onto her leash. He didn't know quite why the dog was worked up but he certainly wasn't going to take any chances with her. She didn't resist, although certainly the prospect of getting any closer to the stranger wasn't an appealing one. The canine dug her heels in as soon as he tried to encourage her to come within a yard or so of the woman. Unwilling to embarrass himself, the country boy decided not to insist in case the dog attempted to make a sudden run for it.

"My name's Quinton." He replied with an honest smile. "I'd welcome the company. Whereabouts are you heading?" Quinton had nowhere in particular to be and was out essentially for exercise. As such, he was more than willing to accompany her pretty much wherever she was heading, assuming that it wasn't ridiculously far out of the way given that he had work tomorrow.

[CBE-177/"Anna"]

She had not known the man very long, but she thought she liked him. There was a gentleness to his spirit and an easiness to his manner that Anna found appealing. She wanted quiet company and she thought this man would do well. Inside her, the predatory side reminded her that he was a source of the blood she was beginning to feel the need from, but she suppressed the urge. She was a woman, not a beast. Her bloodthirst could wait. She only felt that she did not want to be alone, not just then. She wanted the feeling of being close to someone else, anyone else, at least for a short time. Where they might go, she had no idea, but perhaps that was all right. Perhaps some experience worth having would come of it. If not, well, it was unlikely she would have slept more tonight anyway.

She wrote:

I have no special place to go tonight. I would enjoy a companion as I wonder... though I fear I am not much of a conversationalist.

@quinton

[Quinton Summers]

No matter the situation, Quinton was the sort who would appreciate company so long as it was friendly. Which, from his perspective, for the moment, the woman had been. 

Quinton could only offer an understanding smile in response to her written statement. They certainly weren't going to be able to have a quick fire exchange, not like this. "That's alright. I can talk enough for the both of us." That in itself wasn't entirely accurate. Whilst he was most certainly the friendly-sort, he wasn't exactly a chatterbox either. Perhaps he could make a change given his current company. He would once more free Mia from her leash. The golden retriever mix was quick to move away but curiously enough, rather than charge off in order to burn off some of her pent up energy as she usually would have, the dog opted to remain close to them, eyeing the stranger uneasily. That much was mostly lost on her owner but something still struck him as being rather unusual, he simply didn't associate it with his companion. "She's in a funny old mood tonight." He noted. 

The young man would allow Anna to dictate the pace and decide on just where they were going, having no real plans himself.