Smooth Surfaces

[Skylar]

Late night clubbing. What fun. Nothing better then hours of being around people who pretended more to be your friend then they actually were. Not that there was anything else to do really, and the music was alright, not to mention she liked to dance.

She hopped from puddle to puddle, unaware that it had even rained while she was inside the club, but none the less she always loved the way the water sounded underfoot. Slowly her eyes raised to the half moon peeking out from behind a cloud filled sky. She couldn't remember a night as dark as this one.

“Sophie, wait up!” She'd know that voice anywhere. “What Aron?” He was a nice guy really, not her type though, and his constant advances were more bothersome then flattering. “Want me to walk you home?” He had an impish grin that did little for his out of proportioned facial features. “Im'a big girl, I'll be fine.” She flashed him a smile and continued walking. “I'll call you in the morning then, ok?” What kinda woman would she be to squash the dreams of a horny young man? “Sure, I'll talk to you then.”

And they parted ways. He turned going back the other way, and she took a short cut through a not so nice part of town, but it made her walk home 20 minutes shorter.

She could still feel the music pounding through her chest, and quietly she hummed the last tune that came to her mind. “ 'Ey there pretty girl.” That voice...she didn't recognize and so she simply kept walking, only more quickly. “It's rude not to answer girlie, come're!” Before she knew what was happened she felt his iron grip around her upper arm. “Hey let go of me!” Quickly he twirled her around, her face inches from his, bathed in nothing more then the smell of cheap booze.

“Listen, I don't have any money or anything else of value. So take your hands off of me, and I'll be on my way.” Her voice was firm, she almost couldn't hear it from the sound of her heart drumming away a new melody now. “Oh I wouldn't say you didn't have anything of value.” His voice was haunting, and sent a chill up her spine as his serpentine tongue lashed out between rotted teeth to wet his cracked lips.

“Oh no..no no no...You get away from me.” She tried to jerk her arm free, but there was no breaking the tightness of his grip. “I assure you mister, you don't wanna do that.” He laughed at her words and backed her up against the cold wet brick of the building directly behind them. “And what makes you say that, because, I'm pretty sure I do.” His smile widened and his chuckle seemed more menacing.

Her eyes finally met his, but there was something off about her gaze. “Because I don't want to hurt you.” Her voice was almost child like, barely a whisper easily drown out my the wave of laughter to spew from his decaying mouth. “Welp, I'm not scared of you little girl.” As soon as the last word dripped from his tongue he reached down and began to pull her skirt up.

His laughter quickly turned to screams that echoed in the quietness of the night.....

“I told you, you didn't want to do that mister...” Her hands were at her sides, palms pointed outward toward him as she moved closer to him. His screams turned into a horribly disgusting gurgle as he crumpled into a pile of helplessness on the wet asphalt. His insides were boiling as she raised his internal temperature. As she was angry and felt her face grow warm with fear, he too would feel that heat, feel that fear that fueled her even now that he lay motionless.

With a gasp, she ceased moving toward him. Shaking her head, she quickly looked around. “Mister.....hey mister..” But he did not answer her, didn't move. She nudged him lightly with her foot, and still nothing. “Shit Sophie...what'd you do...what did you do....” Looking around again, panicked now, she noted that no one was around. Scared, she fled. Nothing but a flash of a shadow on the brick walls as she ran toward her apartment. The sound of the puddles under her feet no longer soothing....

[Ramlock]

Frank Jones, age 47. No wife, no kids, no surviving relatives within 500 miles. Not even a known friend or companion. By all accounts, not a likable man. No employment for three years, ten years prior a convicted felon for sexual assault, and thereafter registered sexual offender. Twice declared not guilty of the same for lack of evidence, excluding any victims who may not have reported an attack. Relatively healthy and certainly strong, aside from alcohol-related afflictions. Really, he was a fairly disgusting human being overall...

And yet, when a man turned up dead on a sidewalk in a relatively crowded neighborhood, someone had to care, no matter his past. Zeke Myers cared, at the moment. He wanted to find out, not only because of the fact that a man had died... A man had died in a very strange way. As the autopsy put it, he had been boiled. Not burnt, not combusted, boiled. Even stranger, he had only boiled internally. As if he had swallowed a gallon of boiling water, but for the fact that his throat and mouth weren't burnt. He laid dead on the street, with no clue as to how or why he was there...

It was now 36 hours after the fact, give or take a few hours. Several of the people living nearby reported screams at roughly 3:00 in the morning, a male voice that could be assumed to be Jones' perhaps during the fact. Not one of them had even bothered to look out the window or report the incident. The body was found at 9:00 the next morning by a young mother going to work. Intermittent rain through the night hadn't done much for evidence. There were no footprints, no fingerprints, no damage to surrounding buildings or even the ground under Jones' feet. About the only thing Zeke had to go on was a relative surety that Jones had died on the spot, inexplicably. The death certainly couldn't have been natural, though...

So, starting from nothing. He could assume whoever had killed Jones was on foot. There was little reason to stop a car in this neighborhood aside from perhaps a drug deal. Alcohol aside, there was little indication of drug use or possession by Jones, confirmed by the autopsy and examination. So, starting from the assumption that someone was on foot, they wouldn't have gone too far. Within roughly an hour's walking distance, 3 miles, were roughly 12,000 residents, and 700 businesses. Not much help, except for the fact that the area was industrial. At 3:00 in the morning, within that same distance, there were a handful of businesses open. A few gas stations, a smut shop... Not much else that Zeke could imagine. So the simplest way? Perhaps wandering for a night.

Zeke wanted to get an idea of the traffic at night around the area of the murder. Who exactly was out, and why or how could the death have occurred? Zeke himself was somewhat nondescript at the moment, though the idea of a man in his young twenties wandering about at night wasn't all that odd in the first place. Tall and athletic, he was in rather good shape, his jaw relatively thin and his cheekbones prominent. His eyes were obscured somewhat by glasses, despite how the retro style of the glasses appeared out of place on his face. Contact lens had never worked out... Zeke's hair was dark brown, styled and gelled upwards into a sort of spiked look, while he wore his face clean-shaven. Tonight, he was dressed in relatively simple clothes: jeans, sneakers, and a plain white T-shirt under a leather jacket. His plan for the moment was simple... Whatever crowd was most common nearby the area at night would give him a good location to start. He'd wander the streets nearby for the night, staying within the small area he'd plotted and just watching the sort of people to pass. He had a picture of the deceased in his pocket if he needed it, but there was probably a certain amount of notoriety in the death despite efforts to not publicize the manner or circumstances of the death...

[Skylar]

Home seemed hours away, despite her blurred vision from the tears that ran rampant down her face, she found her way there. The door slammed behind her, and with shaking fingers she locked all four locks on her door. Leaning her back against said door, she slid down it until her butt hit the floor.

In a daze, she looked around her apartment. It was neat, clean, everything in its place. She had always been like that. One thing she had never been was foolish, but tonight tossed that out the window. Years ago her mother was captured and god only knows what happened to her after that. And her father...well he didn't want any part of it, she had no idea where he was.

The simple fact was, she had no one to talk to. None of her friends, even Aron knew what she was. She had kept it to herself always. There was nothing about her life that would even hint that she was a witch. She didn't read about, she never used her powers in front of people....in fact she rarely used them, yet this is not to say that she wasn't well taught.

She took a deep breath, still smelling the whiskey on that mans breath. Shaking it off, she headed to the bathroom and stripped off her clothes. She felt dirty, unclean. It seemed a shower was in order. Palm against the wall, she stood motionless as the water pelted down on her head and cascaded over her body. She was almost glad she had been laid off work a week ago, she was in no shape to be around that many people.

Maybe he wasn't dead. Maybe he was just out cold....that could happen, right? “Get yourself together Sophie..” She knew there was no way he had survived. She had always had a problem controlling her prowess when she was emotionally distraught, thus the reason she stayed away from relationships and close friendships.

A strange noise brought her back from her thoughts rather quickly. For a moment she didn't recognize the sound of her own phone ringing. Turning the water off, she tossed her hair in a towel and slipped into her robe. “Hello.” She knew who it was already. Who in this day and age didn't have caller ID? “Hey Soph wanna go get some coffee this morning?” He was too nice for his own good, really. “No thanks Aron, I'm not feeling well. I think Im'a have coffee at home today and just take it easy.”

She wondered if he would be able to hear it in her voice. Would he know that something was wrong with her? It was odd how in tune he was with her, with as secretive as she was with him. “Oh...alright. Maybe I'll stop by later.” She wasn't in the mood to entertain, though even if she ignored him, he would just be happy to be in the same room with her. “Yeah, maybe...but I gotta go, just got outta the shower. I'll talk to ya later.” With that she hung up the phone. She wasn't sure what to do next. How could she carry on a day like nothing had happened when guilt raped most of her emotions now?

[Ramlock]

Zeke wandered about the area quietly, simply watching. It was close to midnight, and traffic was starting to die down in a big way. There were the occasional late-shift workers coming or going from work, a few illicit activities on sparing street corners... But nothing that seemed odd for the neighborhood. It was possible that any of the people around had something to do with the death, but nothing was really ordinary about the method of death. A knife or gun attack would have been much less significant, and would most likely have been barely looked into, truthfully...

Zeke didn't really expect the perpetrator of the killing to show up at the scene of the crime. Rather, he wanted to see what groups were around. With so little to go on, anyone could be responsible. Or anything, really. The cause of death, as strange as it was, couldn't have been normal. Hell, if there had been any sort of lab or military facility around, that might have been the first place to look. As it was, it was unlike anything...

With that in mind, Zeke would just wander afield and keep note of how people were dressed and where they were going. One night lost might get him closer to what he was looking for...

[Skylar]

Sophie hadn't had a good nights sleep since the accident. It had been a few days now, and her phone had been ringing off the hook. Message after message from her friends wanting to go out and party...go out and dance...just go out. It finally got to the point where she simply stopped answering the phone. The only thing she did convey was a message to Aron, after he sent her an almost pathetic note of worry. Her response was simple. “I'm alive. I need some time alone.”

Finally, mustering up some energy she decided she had to get out of the apartment. She was tired of feeling caged, and was in great need of some fresh air. She tossed on some unflattering clothes, nothing more then some jeans, a sweatshirt and some sneakers, and headed out the door.

It didn't take her long to get away from the apartment. It was a beautiful night, the air wasn't heavy, the moon was bright it curled her lips upward ever so slightly. She decided, maybe stopping in the club wasn't so bad, she could at least have a drink, and let her friends know she was well.

It was an obvious choice to not walk through the scene from a few nights ago, but she wouldn't go completely out of the way either. After all, it was a quiet night...or was it early morning? Time seemed to all blend together as of late. She'd have to make it a point to get herself back on a schedule of some sort.

There were a few people still out and about. No one that looked shady or creepy, and for that she was glad of. Instead of walking down that street, she went around the block, which only made her around 6 blocks from her favorite club. Which was exactly where she was heading....

[Ramlock]

Zeke wandered about for perhaps an hour, when he noticed something. A lot of the people he was seeing were young, dressed in clothes that were suited for clubs. There was a club somewhere in the industrial section of town that wasn't plainly advertised. It wasn't that uncommon, really, but it could explain a few things. The patrons of a club were going to be young, independent... And might well be walking through any nearby neighborhoods... Not to mention, they may be more involved in "strange" occurrences.

With that in mind, Zeke would stop to talk to a young man who appeared to heading out to this club. He looked enough like he might be going to a club that it shouldn't really arouse much suspicion, and he wasn't really that threatening of a person, especially with the glasses he wore. By this time, he was in the more industrial area, as well, rather than the poorer neighborhood where the death had occurred.

"Hey, excuse me. A friend of mine told me about this cool little club around here, but I'm a bit lost. You don't happen to know where it is, do you?"

Zeke could already guess that this was the young man's destination at 12:30 at night...

[Skylar]

A large lone stone became the focus of her attention as she continued on her way. Kicking it until she walked up to it only to kick it again. Finally she flipped her phone open and began to text Aron. Guilt always bubbled under the surface when she was around him. He was a great guy, her best friend. Though there was so much about her he didn't know. He'd do anything for her in a heartbeat and she couldn't offer him the only thing he wanted in return. Her love...

Hitting the send button, she turned the corner. The quiet sound of her favorite song filled the air between the voices of two men. “Aron?” How odd to happen upon him on his way there. This was almost perfect! She could have a drink or two with him and hang out, and this time...allow him to walk her home....

“Hey, whatcha doin?” As she got closer she realized she didn't recognize the man he was speaking to. She passed him an odd glance, and turned her attention back to Aron. “Everything ok?” The weird part to her was simple: Aron didn't have any friends she didn't know. And this guy, she had never seen before in her life...

[Ramlock]

"Everything's fine. Just trying to find a club around here..."

Zeke looked over Sophie, then Aron, then back to Sophie. She was a little bit strange... How many girls went out to clubs without doing some sort of dressing up? Maybe if she was going out with her boyfriend or something, but... Well, Zeke shouldn't speculate on these two. There was a certain look to unrequited love, however. A constant sort of eagerness to please, a change in body language... On one side.

"Zeke Myers. Or actually, Zed. That's what I usually go by. Your name?"

Zeke extended his hand to Sophie for a handshake, a pleasant if somewhat forced smile on his face. He was out here investigating a murder, after all. And while she wasn't by any means terrible to look at, for his purposes, she was essentially unremarkable...

[Skylar]

Her eyes immediately averted to his extended hand. “Eager, aren't we?” Her remark was snide to say the least, but the fact of the matter was, she refused to place her hand in the hand of a stranger. What if he possessed some kind of prowess that would allow him to know what she was... she couldn't take that risk.

It had been years since she had heard anything about her kind being hunted down like her mother was, but she wasn't dumb enough to take the chance. With a bit of a chuckle, Aron broke the rather unnatural silence. “Come on Soph, be nice.” Her chin fell ever so slightly as she eyed Aron with a no nonsense kinda look.

“I thought I'd grab a drink or two and see if you'd like to walk me home this evening.” Most of her sentence was spent eyeballing the new guy. Zed. What the hell kinda name was that? Her gaze however fluttered to Arons as her sentence ended.

“Ya know Zed, I don't believe I've ever seen you around here. New to town?” Sophie made it a point to know people, mostly for her safety and for the safety of those close to her. She had heard stories of how loved ones were tortured for information, thus why she kept her secrets just that. Though there was something about her eyes, something that said if he lied to her, she would see right through him....it was almost eerie...

[Ramlock]

Zed scoffed a bit, shrugging and offering his hand to Aron instead, in perhaps some kind of attempt to save face. He didn't particularly fazed by that, though. Rather, he seemed sort of intrigued. What kind of girl went out dancing to clubs and wouldn't even shake hands? Things were starting to seem stranger and stranger...

"I..."

Zed's voice, smooth before, actually caught for a minute as he met his eyes. She was... Ineffable. And not in a good way. Something nagged at the back of his mind, and perhaps it would be obvious that he wasn't telling the whole truth. It was unlikely to prove surprising, though...

"No. I'm not from around here."

That was the truth, at least.

[Skylar]

“Hm.” That was all she had to say in response to him. Least for now. “What do you say Aron, you game?” Perhaps he would be able to see the hope in her eyes that he would accept her offer, though she highly doubted he would refuse her. However, what he did do, annoyed her slightly..

“Sure Soph, sounds like fun. Wanna come along Zed?” She ran her tongue over her teeth as her eyes narrowed toward Aron. Was he really so nice that he couldn't see that she wanted nothing to do with this strange man?

“Oh great idea. Lets invite a stranger along with us. Not just a stranger, but a stranger making friends in the street after midnight.” Her attention turned again to Zed. While Aron was friendly enough, she wanted to make damn good and sure that this man knew that one of them questioned his motives. Normal people didn't stop others on the street this early in the morning looking to make friends. He was up to something, and while she couldn't put her finger on it, she wouldn't let him think she was totally oblivious to the obvious.

Something was off here....

[Ramlock]

"Thanks, I'd love to."

Zed smiled a bit at "Soph" and her outright hostility. Eerie though she was, her immediate distrust of him was almost... Comical? What could even possess someone to be like that? Unless... They had something to hide? Or knew something? And what was that about her wanting him to walk her home? Everything about the situation seemed odd. If nothing else, they must have heard about the death...

"How the hell did you wind up with this girl? You seem nice. Unless something happened lately..."

Zed didn't look at either Aron or Sophie, just trailing off. He'd walk behind or beside the two of them, whatever formation they took. And most likely, Sophie was going to be standing on the exact opposite side of Aron. She was using him for protection, even if she wasn't with him. And leading him on, maybe, from what he'd seen so far...

[Skylar]

Of course he would. And of course, Aron was glad to have him along. Sophie couldn't help but smile up at him, and in turn, shared said smile with Zed. She wasn't a hateful person, or spiteful either. Just cautious. Always.

“Hey wait...” She cut her words short. What does one say to a comment like that? Aron roared with laughter at Zeds comment. “Ah, you have her all wrong Zed. Sophie is a great gal. You just have to get to know her is all.” Again Sophie smiled. “Or maybe you're just too nice Aron.” With a wink, she laughed. An honest and true laugh.

“So Zed....go clubbing often?” She really wasn't one to comment on his attire being that, she really wasn't dressed for clubbing either. None the less, she went there...eying him up and down for a moment.

[Ramlock]

Zed smirked a bit at Sophie's laughter, trying to keep a relatively straight face.

"Not often, no."

It was the truth; he didn't really dance. Of course, he hadn't really been expecting to go to a club tonight, either. He rarely had time to do that sort of thing... Maybe something different would be good for now. There was no reason he had to always be looking for the cause of this man's death...

"Would you mind teaching me?"

There was no reason he couldn't mix business with a bit of pleasure, after all... Of course, Aron's presence had slipped his mind, in a way...

[Skylar]

Truth be told Aron had slipped her mind as well, as he did more often then not, and more often then he deserved. Her lips held firm to a smirk as she fell back to walk beside Zed. “I'm not sure you can handle my skills.” Her laughter echoed in the night air. It was almost angelic....

It took no time to get to the club. Idle chit chat and the like being passed between Sophie and Aron, and likewise between Sophie and Zed. “What on earth would make you come here?” There wasn't really a whole lot around where they were living. Mostly industry, but it hadn't always been that way.

The music would soon drown out their words as they neared the building. Surprisingly for a town of their size, there was a long line ahead of them. Passing the gentleman, and summoning them to follow her, she approached the massive fellow at the door.

“Hey Smalls, these two are with me.” With a wink, he stepped to the side and allowed the trio to enter....