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Post by Clairice-Sarah on Dec 25, 2011 1:53:26 GMT -5
((Hey all. Not sure how active I can be but SR and I felt we needed to do some character building...))
Perhaps it was the frustration of constant draws between her and Aaron in their banter, or the boredom of not disappearing for the Christmas season like she always did...but tonight, Kerri wore boots with a rubber heel and an old, shiny, PVC coat.
She bought a pack of menthol cigarettes from the corner store near the bar district, smiling slowly and saying little. The attendant asked why she walked Bridgeport's streets alone dressed the way she did.
Kerri replied, "I don't drive," and walked away.
She didn't like smoking much. At least. not like this. She much preferred the style of Audrey Hepburn and Vogue slim ads. The whole action itself always seemed a little pointless outside of fishing and that, she decided, explained why she didn't understand the attachment Aaron or Telfer had to them.
Tonight, Kerri wore darker lipstick.
Sleepily she burnt through one cigarette after another, though only the first one ever made it to her mouth. As she turned down the back alley where she used to watch Telfer pick up his marijuana, she wondered if the police force was smart enough to follow her bread crumbs.
Like clockwork, a door at the back of the alley opened and the bouncer threw out a man, cussing and threatening. She let the still burning half-cigarette hit the concrete and pulled her hair over one shoulder. Kerri smiled, black tongue hidden behind white teeth.
'She had me at hello,' the man would have told his friends the next day, Kerri imagined. He would try to explain the black and yellow eyes and my, what teeth she had, and all that he saw and they would laugh at him and tell him this was why they didn't let him go home with girls from the bar. Kerri put her gloves in her pocket.
In the dark behind a pile of garbage, Kerri placed one hand above his cracked sternum and reached into the hot, split ribcage for a third time. Just one more handful and then it was time to go.
She could tell just by the taste, that these lungs had never smoked.
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Post by scribblerrigby on Dec 26, 2011 1:14:27 GMT -5
It wasn’t an officer, but a professor who would happen upon the woman’s breadcrumbs.
At least that’s how he would have described it.
He found another cigarette. It was a game. A gloved hand picked it up; it smelled of smoke, of menthol – and of the woman’s faint, dark, unplacable smell.
Even after nine months, her scent still raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
Idly, he fidgeted with the cigarette as he strode along. Then pocketed it, as he had the rest. Nobody else would have the chance to connect the dots.
The menthol trail continued; she was moving, but not in flight. That was just fine. He wasn’t in any hurry. He padded silently, almost leisurely along, twitching hands clenched and shoved in his pockets as to not betray his true, unbearable tension.
He caught the scent of blood as he closed in on the alley. And with it, a familiar salty taste that caused the small muscles beneath his skin to start, excitedly; the unmistakable remnants of the scent of fear threatening to override his thought. Judgment.
Trembling, he instead decided to feign calmness. Silently, he stepped into the alleyway, and leaned against the nearest building.
The tall form loomed; cruel, slit eyes glittered in a slightly flushed face as he observed his runaway.
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Post by Clairice-Sarah on Dec 26, 2011 2:04:50 GMT -5
She took her time. In Bridgeport, unlike New York, people didn't expect trouble behind blind spots. Kerri ran her teeth underneath her claws and curled her tongue around her fingers. Why had she waited this long? She made a note to go on vacation, next winter, and do it in some other country. This man did not fit Telfer's MO (she hadn't missed the news reports and the missing women), nor could he ever...
With her less bloodied hand she pulled a cloth and a bottle of water from her handbag. The blood came off the jacket without any effort and as she stood, her hands returned to their usual manicured appearance, albeit with dark brown lines beneath the french white tips.
Kerri yawned, sharp tongue stretching out as she did, before she folded the cloth and replaced it with the bottle in her purse.
"Mm, pity I don't have anywhere to put you for later. I don't live in that old hovel."
The smell of rust, gunpowder, and dirty soldiers came to her with the memory of that old basement in Corfu, and Kerri wrinkled her nose. Perhaps the alleyway was better. After all, back then, she'd left when she ran out of space to hang cleaner clothes.
She flipped open her compact to check her teeth, which had already shrunken back to their perfect, dazzling white, human shape. The eyes always took the longest, since they were the last to change...she rubbed the red smear under her chin and reapplied her lipstick.
It was in putting her curls back into place that she noticed the body at the alley entrance, just out of the streetlights. She recognized the hair touching his collar and the the way the fabric kinked - the way old coats did - at the elbow. At first, the yellow in her eyes became brighter and more distinct, but as she snapped the mirror shut and turned around, her usual lofty smile grew on her face and Kerri approached him.
Absently Kerri put her thumb in her mouth to get the last of the tissue out from under it, leaving a ring of dark lipstick. The whites of her eyes washed down to a hazy grey, though the irises retained a sodium-yellow colour.
"There's plenty left, if you wanted some," she said, moving on to the next fingernail. At least Aaron wasn't brandishing that camera he usually tucked away with him. Kerri looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes.
"No hello kiss?"
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Post by scribblerrigby on Dec 26, 2011 19:06:43 GMT -5
On the main street, a woman strolled by, leading her dog on a leash. While the dog began to strain towards the alley, the woman only gave Aaron a small smile in passing. Completely oblivious.
Highly strung on the beating of his own pulse, he continued to study from dark, intent, impenetrable sockets as Kerri approached him. The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk.
"I never said that –"
And then, all in one fluid motion, she was seized, pinned; he covered her mouth with his. Hungry for the dew of blood on her lips.
And just as suddenly as he had acted, he pulled back and gave her a casual, dead-eyed smile, as if nothing had happened
“Besides, I’ve already eaten. I think I’ll pass. I like the jacket.”
He glanced toward the corpse, then back to her, tilted his head slightly, and then spoke airily, as if he were discussing the weather.
“Was the turkey really that bad?”
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Post by Clairice-Sarah on Dec 29, 2011 23:18:24 GMT -5
Kerri raised an eyebrow in a smirk as he swooped in for the kiss, at her request. No one kept up to her games quite like Aaron. Maybe she needed a new library trip to think of some new ways to keep him guessing.
She smoothed the front of her jacket with a polite smile. "Oh? It's not my favourite but it works," she replied. "And no, it wasn't bad..." She shrugged, as if she'd been asked this question a million times. "I just prefer red meat."
Kerri replaced her gloves before she habitually tucked her hand into his elbow and tugged him away from the alley. "You're such a curious kitten, Aaron, were you worried about me?" She grinned up at him. "I appreciate it."
From her pocket she drew the last menthol cigarette and with it, a zippo lighter, and once lit she tucked her hand back in Aaron's elbow. "I thought you'd be longer driving Dagny. I'm going to miss her, you know." She flicked the ashes off the cigarette. "I don't mind that we have some time alone. You're uptight when your daughter is around."
Aaron was uptight all the time, really. She didn't know how to fix that, yet, but she was sure that once she did, she would be set for at least another fifteen years.
Unless that cage in the basement didn't hold out.
Kerri bit the inside of her cheek. She should keep the old house on the hill, just in case.
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Post by scribblerrigby on Jan 5, 2012 0:39:44 GMT -5
“Understandable.”
He lingered for one brief moment, looking back at the alley, drinking in the smells one last time. Not entirely confident in his earlier statement that he had had enough to eat.
But it was only a moment. Then, he allowed her to lead him.
“I feel like I have to be tense. She is my daughter. If anything happens to her, then I wouldn’t have done my job. And…I like being a father…BUT, she’s at her mother’s. We have your time.”
Effortlessly, he segued into the optimistic charmer.
“We have wine left. We have the entire town. The shops, the parks..."
He lowered his voice; there was genuine amusement in his eyes. “…the alleyways.”
He leaned in, smiling mischievously. Subtly catching her scent, wanting more. He had learned to ignore that small, primitive feeling that she was an inhuman thing to be avoided. He knew that, already. Funnily enough, it was part of what kept him coming back to her.
Lust? Oh yes. Love, no. Love had always seemed to breed pain.
Appetite, selfish appetite was what it was.
His free arm had traveled to his jacket pocket, fidgeting with the contents. How else could he keep her coming back?
He needed her.
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Post by Clairice-Sarah on Jan 5, 2012 21:35:58 GMT -5
"Oh, she's smart," Kerri chided, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sure she'll be fine if you relax, a little, too."
Kerri flicked her gaze up in his direction before she focused on the street in front of her, polite smile stretching into an amused smirk. "Are you saying you want to show me off or you want to hide me, Aaron?" She gave him a brief, flashy smile. "I love when you take me places. I know how much you don't like crowds."
Thought it was late and Bridgeport's night life was directed more at kids than it was adults.
But, Kerri did purchase new lingerie specifically for Christmas and it would be a shame to waste that. If that didn't capture Aaron for some well-earned affection, she didn't know what would. It was hard to keep him interested in her and not the things or people she knew.
"So what first? Should we go play somewhere we're not supposed to, Aaron?"
It wasn't really that cold, and it wasn't as if she could get frostbite anyway. On Christmas eve, Bridgeport was as quiet as a tomb. A small town like this didn't need to work overtime, didn't need a flashy district for the insomniacs and didn't even really have that reliable of a drug exchange. People would soon be too involved in the corpse near the bar to follow after them.
Kerri grew silent as she thought about the last time she'd walked out on Christmas eve. New York had significantly more snow and she'd been wearing a recently purchased blue wool coat. Kerri gave a small shake of her head and finished off the cigarette with a long drag. She flicked the butt away carelessly and held her breath at first, before she exhaled.
"So?"
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