((I am merely moving this topic K! Me and Nienna want to keep it up so yeah))<br/><br/>The dark clouds moved slowly across the sky, blocking some of the sun's light. Only few beams sprouted through to hit the ground. Tall green grass blades stood still in the shade of the tall weeping willows. The humid June air caused few streaks of heat to shimmer through the day. There were a couple of times a breeze blew by and cooled some of the air, but it still wasn't enough. Few rocks on the dirt road shook as the wheels of the black SUV drove. The air conditioner blew fresh cool air through the large car. In the back leather seats, a woman sat with her attention focused on the scenery that flew by. One of her long legs that were clad in loose black cotton dress capris were crossed over the other while her agile hand sat in her lap. Her torso was drapped in a sleeveless grey v-neck stripped polyester shirt reaveling her well toned arms with the tails untucked. Her black zip sandles tapped against the floor of the car in rythm with the trees that they drove by. A knitted black choker with a platnium crucifix was around her neck, a trinket that her mother had made her so many years ago. Her small chin rested on in the soft palm of her hand as her hazel eyes stared out the window. A bored expression tainted her caramel rounded face. She was bored and restless. Her legs needed stretching and her butt was starting to hurt from sitting in the car for about three whole hours. A lazy puff of breath blew the strands of her auburn whispy hair from in front of her eye to the side of her temple. This was Faith Deveraux, the top theologist of the Paranormal Investigation Center, a bored twenty five year old. Scratiching her thin eyebrow with her medium length black polished nails, Faith glanced at the back of the heads of her comrades that she was assigned with for this mission. Asher Nightshade and Markus Sturmewald, the Vampirologist and the Therianthrope Expert. Either of them she hardly knew personally but heard of them around HQ so it shouldn't be hard to work together. Atleast she hoped anyway.<br/><br/>Her fingers played with her diamond studs peircing in her ear replaying the assignment over in her mind. It was atleast three o' clock in the morning when she heard her phone going off next to her. It wasn't long til she made it to HQ where she was informed of the transmission, hearing it for herself. Faith knew that the mission most likely was going to be troublesome once they noted her that there were sending two other operatives along with her. It wasn't the first she was assigned with a partner but it was very rare for her to partner up with someone who is not in her field. So she wondered what type of creatures will befall her now. As usual, she made sure to spend time with her mother back up in North Carolina. Ever since her dad died, she made sure that she spent atleast a couple of days with her. Never know when your life going to end so she made sure she wouldn't have any regrets about not saying good-bye or I love you or some other sentimental stuff, she did. A low sigh escaped her soft full lips before she leaned forward between the two guys' seats.<br/><br/>"How much long til we arrive?"<br/><br/><br/>Markus let Asher do the driving so he could catch up on his reading. He'd brought several old books from his library concerning old lore and lycans. He had been silent the entire trip from the Center up until now when he heard Faith Deveraux's question.<br/>"Do you know the old saying 'patience is a virtue' Miss Deveraux?<br/>He sighed and looked at his watch before he carefully turned around to face her.<br/>"We're nearly there but please complain to the center on our return to ask for better transportation..." he told her with a smirk befitting him before he sighed again.<br/>"Sorry I feel a bit cranky...I am just glad I was in the neighbourhood when they called me and not at the ancestral home near Odense." He took the cd from his bag to play it off once more, since the operators at the P.I.C. had been taping everything they picked up from the air. "Anyway what did you think of the last transmission this detective send us?" he asked Faith as he pushed play to listen to it again.<br/><br/>"Do you know the old saying 'patience is a virtue' Miss Deveraux?<br/><br/>Faith narrowed her eyes on the Therianthrope Expert before sighing a long dragged out sigh and letting her head drop childishly. No matter how many people said that to her, it always somehow got under her skin. Patience, bleh. She raised her eyes back up at him at his remark before giving her a smirk and an annoyed sigh. Faith rolled her eyes and her chin on her fist, her eyes staring out the windowshield up at the gray clouds. To her Markus, seemed to be bugged out more than the rest of them and she couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Cranky? That's an understatement. She turned her attention back to him, listening to his words. Her thin eyebrow raised at the last part. He lived near Odense? For a strange reason, she thought she heard of that place from somewhere but she didn't usually traveled out of the country. It just made her a bit nervous. At his last remark, Faith shrugged her shoulders and stared ahead of her.<br/><br/>"Places in Louisiana is full of the unknown. I wouldn't be too surprise if there were any rituals going on in this place. The way that guy sounded..."<br/><br/>Faith trailed off, closing her eyes, the tone of the man's voice replaying in her thoughts. She didn't finished for she assumed that Markus already knew what she meant. The detective sounded so freaked out of his mind, so terrified like he saw the ending of the world or something. But if this guy truly was faced with the supernatural, it was her job to vanquish it. Taking her mind off of it, she smiled and spoke again, trying to start small talk. Hell if she was going to be working with them, might as well get to know them right?<br/><br/>"So, you're from a long ancestral line of experts at therianthropy, huh? That's impressive."<br/><br/><br/>He smiled inwardly at her attempt of smalltalk.<br/>"Well technically we are called that way, I personally don't fancy it. I am not a professor and neither were my forebears. They did however gather a lot of knowledge through time. Forged weapons against certain 'rogue' ones as we call them. Our family has been persecuted for it as well. In the old days they saw us as 'those who deal with the devil'...it was after a few decades that they realized that our way, the old way was preferable considering our opponents. We follow the old way as a law...perhaps you've seen Beowulf or The Ring of the Nibelungs? Well then you can perhaps grasp what I am talking about...The new faith however grew faster then we could have anticipated and..." Markus stopped cutting himself short an apologised again.<br/>"Forgive me my ramblings...I tend to get carried away." he said as offering her a small dagger.<br/>"You'll need that I think...it has a silver edge, just in case you run into trouble." he said before he took out a small pocket book and summed up what he had heard from the audio.<br/><br/>"He speaks of missing persons....obviously whatever it is it preys on humans, either for flesh or blood. This thing is nocturnal since it is said the victims disappear at night..." he said as he scribbled it down. "Further we have a ravaged body and growls baring its fans and drooling...so it has to be a carnivore, a predator if you will and one producing a certain quantity of saliva." He said frowning.<br/>"Continuing, it drags its victims off, so it is still fearful of being discovered or disturbed while eating. We can conclude this since it attacked the detective, but was scared off by some townspeople...and then there's the red irises...what do you make of that Miss Deveraux?"<br/><br/>Faith continued to stare ahead of her, gazing up at the clouds but occasionally sparing him a side glance so he wouldn't think that she wasn't listening. Many people always had this idea that if she wasn't looking directly at them, she wasn't listening. As if she had some attention defiency. But no, she heard every word that left his lips. It was interesting so was he. This guy had so much history behind him that she was somewhat surprised that he basically summed it up for her in this little bit of time. A man of law and history, well at least that was what it sounded like to her. He was smart and she had to give him his congrats for that. He knew his anscestral history, not many did. Hell she as hell didn't. An amused grin spread across her lips as he mentioned Beowulf and she couldn't help but picture him fighting that monster. It was immature, yes. But she couldn't help herself due to the fact that she hated that movie. But it was hilarious. She looked at him out the corner of her eye and she shook her head at the thought. That would be something. Faith stared at him once he stopped and she smirked. If he thought he was rambling, she wondered what he will think when she begin talking. Probably irritating. Most people did anyway. She stared blankly at the dagger that he had given her, noted that it was silver. Now the woman was no expert or even took any interest, but she did watched a lot of movies in which silver was used to repel most monsters. If there was any chance of her getting into danger, she could handle it. Did he think that she wasn't prepared or something. Listening to his accusations, Faith twirled the dagger between her fingers, performing small tricks.<br/><br/>"Red irises. I can assume that it's an irritation to light since it's nocturnal or it may show a deprivation of blood or food."<br/><br/>Fliping the dagger and catching it, Faith twirled it once more before pointing the hilt of the dagger lazily at him. An arrogant smirk spread across her lips and her eyebrow was raised in a question expression.<br/><br/>"Or it has a bad case of allergies. Here, you might this more than I do. Besides, I have my own little bag of toys to hunt big bad monsters with. And don't call me 'Miss Deveraux'. I sound like an old lady..."<br/><br/><br/>Asher laughed, "You two seem to be getting along great considering the fact that we have only been together for 2hrs." Asher smiled, he was comfortable around Markus so his fun joking side was always out. Faith seemed nice enough, he figured he might as well be friendly with her seeing as they were on this mission together. Asher had been on a few missions with Markus, they worked well together. Asher gathered the info, Markus put together what it meant and they both would go hunt down the beast. He hoped Faith would fit in alright, it must be kinda rough being the new person amongst two old friends. Asher decided he would do his best to make her feel included. Asher made a slightly rough turn to get out of the way of a large truck, "Don't people know how to drive around here!?" He shook his head and sped up. Asher flipped off the transmission, "If I have to listen to more droning I will fall asleep at the wheel! Asher plugged in his Ipod and flipped through it turning on some modern music with a good beat. "Thats better, now I can stay awake, Hope you don't mind this music Faith! If ya hear something ya don't like let me know and I can change it. I don't have country or rap so don't even think about asking for it."<br/><br/><br/>"Very well as you wish..." he said taking the dagger back placing it in his smaller traveling bag. He heard Asher comment laughing. "Glad you are amused by it, but you know I needed to see what kind of person she would be...after all I like to have my bases covered considering this case." He said as he opened up a landmap to look at their progress. "We should see the sign any moment now, if we haven't passed it already. The area's infrastructure looks poor maintained by the locals, so perhaps the landmarks and signs have been taken down or whithered away. And I am not a great lover of this side of the country...I prefer the white waifs above the swamp witches..." he said following the road with his indexfinger. "Not meant as an insult towards you btw..." he quickly clarified.<br/>"White waifs or literally witte wieven or white women, were the equivalent of the banshee or Sidhe in the more nothern european coutries..." he explained to Faith since he had preached to Asher about it on an earlier mission, so he knew what Markus was talking about.<br/>"And I'd rather fight what I know then to come accross a being that I'm unfamilliar with...but who knows this might be a first..." he suggested taking his notes and the map again.<br/>"It dragged its vitcim towards the stream...hmm this indicates strength and speed, after all, most animals may drag a human off, but not that quick. Since we may consider that this Mister Dubois might have tried to save the unfortunate, thus he would have ran...this also proves in him being careless enough to be caught by this thing itself." Markus frowned as he marked the swamp to the west.<br/>"We know they disappear in the southern area or most of them have anyway. The question is why?" he said as the pencil's point tapped on the map frequently. "I'd like to set up traps...but not in the southern woods...but here..." he said indicating the western swamp by encircling it in red.<br/>"The woods may be his hunting area with the town being in the middle of it, but in the end it retreats to its lair..." he said as he handed over the map with the notes to Faith for her to look over, explaining why he thought so.<br/>"It holds water and keep nasty intruders off since they don't like to venture in there...Also I like to take a look at the water...when animals refuse to enter somewhere it usually has to do with a. natural disaster or b. the unnatural and those often lead to c. a scent of death or coming death." He took a deep breath and sighed. "After we get out I need a smoke...." with Markus not being able to smoke for at least 6 hours straight he was dying for a smoke.<br/><br/>Asher rolled his eyes, "Can't go six hours without a smoke! I will stop at the next exit and pick up a coffee, you can smoke there." Asher looked at Faith in the rear view mirror, "Poor Markus here is not allowed to smoke in ANY car I am in... I can't stand the smell... Anyway are you going to want a coffee?? Cause I don't think we will get much rest once we get into town, we will hit the ground running. I am sure everyone will want to give us their version of the story." Asher took the next exit and parked at a Sarbucks.<br/><br/>Pressing her back against the leather seats once more, the theologist placed her hands behind her head, letting her eyelids fall nearly halfway closed. The ends of her lips curled upwards into a gentle smile listening to the Vampirologist's words. Seems to be getting along huh? Well at least he thought so. But it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be but the guy did seem to be a little uptight. Markus Sturmewald, uptight, intelligent guy. He wasn't so bad. Just needed to relax a little more, well she thought so anyway. Her relaxive state vanished when the car swirved, causing her to tip to the left, and a loud honk from the truck followed after. A chuckle escaped her as she regained her posture sitting back up and leaning back. Shaking her head, Faith stared at the back of Asher's head, watching him switch the tunes that blasted from his ipod. Taking his suggestion, she chuckled a simple OK before returning to stare out the window. Taping her feet to the melody of the song that played within the car, Faith listened to the two carefully. They seemed to be close friends. It wasn't unnatural to see it from other operatives though she couldn't help but wonder how. Markus was so stiff but Asher seemed more of a lively wild type kinda guy. It actually was kinda funny. Her attention directed towards Markus at his remark, though she wasn't really offended. Most people had said things like that about the south, especially places that were so used to the 'old' ways of religion.<br/><br/>"None taken."<br/><br/>Her eyes returned to him as he spoke of the map. She leaned forward once more, watching him point out the places on the map that he wanted to check out. There were so many places for things to happen. The swamp, the woods, and even the town. Taking the map, hazel irirses scanned over it, her teeth biting on the tip of her thumb in thought. Usually in some parts, animals like to hide thier kill for later use. So maybe... But if it was some sort of animal, what type of animal would be able to breath under murky water? It would be a nice place to hide but to any animal or relative to it, would be contaminated as well. Must be something else...<br/><br/>"If you're lucky, Markus you just might meet that swamp witch of yours."<br/><br/>Looking up, she smirked and transferred her attention to Asher who headed for the next exit. Coffee? Oh no she was nowhere allowed to be having caffine. At least, if she wanted a steady train of thought and not trailing all over the place. Hell, how was she suppose to do her job like that. As they pulled up to a Starbucks, Faith was the first to get out of the car. A wide smile framed her lips, inhaling the southern air and stretching her arms behind her back. It was refreshing to finally get out of the car. Oh thank God!!! she exclaimed in her thoughts before glancing back at the two guys.<br/><br/>"I'll think I'll get some tea and maybe a muffin! Never know if they're going to have one at the town anyway."<br/><br/>Markus too was relieved to be out of the car. His cigarettes were quicker in his hands then you could say Nicotinepatch. As he lit it he inhaled deeply, content with it and enjoying it. He smiled at Faith's reaction before he said. "Be so kind as to get me two hot coffee's blacker than black, no sugar and no milk..." he leaned against the wall tapping the ash off. "As for that swamp witch...perhaps...we'll have to see there is no telling what is out there...is it clear though on how it sustains...but the troublesome thing is what if this threat is not just one...perhaps it's a group animal...then we'd have to send Asher back to this place, cause it's fine when that thing scrambles up my sleep, it's another to deprive me of caffeine and nicotine..." he inhaled again tapping the cigarette off and exhaled.<br/>"Faith...do you regret doing this?" he asked her calmly. "Do you dislike it or is it something you look forward to?" His eyes caught hers before he dropped his cigarette and stepped on it.<br/>"Sometimes I do...and more than often I don't...but that's okay, it makes us what we are, it makes us human..<br/><br/>Faith continued to stretch her arms and twist her torso to get the cracks out of her body. One by one, she cracked her fingers, then her wrists, ankles, and her back by bending far enough for it to release the loud snap. A sigh of comfort left her lips and she glanced at Markus, remembering what he wanted. She was going in there anyway so it didn't bother her to get it since he was having his little 'time' over there enjoying that cancer stick. Her eyes narrowed for a minute taking in his accusation. Sadly, she was thinking the same thing. What if there were more than one troublesome creature going around devouring innocent people? Disgusting and unforgivable. But that was what the three were there for. To vanquish the evil from the small cursed town. Deprive of nicotine and caffine... She chuckled something about being an andrenaline junky and was about to go into the store but stopped at his question. The woman's eyes lowered to the ground, listening to him as if his remark had hit something but she quickly regained her humorous posture by sending him a smile.<br/><br/>"I deal with exorcisms, spiritual phenoma, and helping lost souls find the light. Really?"<br/><br/>She laughed, placing her hands on her hips and shaking her head. Calming herself down, she shrugged thinking about it more. There was truth to his words and she took it just as that. The truth.<br/><br/>"There are many things I regret, Mr. Sturmewald. This... 'job' is a way to make up for the mistakes I have made in this life. Since I am what I am, there aren't any ways to change the past, and I know it sounds silly trying to make up for the wrongs I have written. But sometimes you envy the supernatural. They're not burdened with these ideas. But no, Mr. Sturmewald. I do not regret this nor I look forward to it. Just something that has to be done."<br/><br/>A sadly smirk appeared on her face once she finished what she had said. Faith shrugged before disappearing into the shop.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Asher stood in line and ordered two coffees for Markus... he always needed a lot of caffein... Asher just got a grande iced white chocolate mocha, he saw Faith walk in and got her a tea as well, "My treat."<br/><br/>Asher picked up his drink and took a sip, "Ah, thats good, Markus hates all the stuff I put in my coffee... but I like sugar cream with a little coffee flavor." Asher stepped outside and handed Markus one of the cups, "Here is your black sludge, enjoy." Asher smiled and jumped back into the drivers seat... "Next time we rent a car I want a convertible... black. They are much faster... easier to run away from monsters that way." Asher looked at the map... "Looks like we are half an hour away, are you all ready to get this started?" He fingered tapped his long finger on their destination. He wondered what they were going to face here. He was a little worried, he had never been on a mission that required three operatives... this was probably going to turn out to be something far bigger than anything he had done before. He hoped everyone was up for the task.<br/><br/>Markus took his coffee looking frowning at the stuff Asher was drinking. "That stuff that you call 'your coffee' had to go through a blender and sounds like an icecream type, how you people can drink 'your coffee' that way is beyond me..." He huffed taking a sip of his sludge horrified at the thought showing Faith exactly what Asher had told her a few minutes before.<br/>"We have to be ready, I don't fancy dying out here..."<br/>He took another quick cigarette and finally done he stepped back in the car again, in a much better mood. "I still prefer horses above cars...if creatures follow you the car's speed won't protect you...the 'put it in reverse' is a complete other matter..." he said with a grin remembering one of their first missions. To not leave out Faith he started talking about it.<br/>"This happened on one of our first missions, at that time we couldn't stand each other. I specifically remember Asher telling me that if I continued preaching to him he'd send a religious priest to exorcise me..." he said grinning while he continued. "We faced a powerful vampire then, they feared werewolves were involved as well so they teamed us up. We both hated it up until the end in which we got a little for respect for each other. One of those moments was the car. Now picture an old european car called a beetle...Just a tincan car with little protection and having absolutely no power steering...Now we got ourselves into a bit of trouble seeing as the undead slaves the vampires had made by turning the whole town, came after us. So we were running for our lives and got in the car in time, but with that all was said. Asher was driving so he tried to shift it into the right gear. My door was pulled off and I was kicking the undeads away yelling; 'Hit the Gas! Hit the Gas!' The moment the car started moving it didn't move forwards but backwards riding over a few undeads along the way. As soon as we were out of there we looked at each other and I made the obvious remark almost accusingly; 'You put it in reverse...' before we started laughing and loving that hopeless car..And I mean hopeless it had a old casette player and radio, it was bright green, had a pair of fluffy dice on the rear mirror and one of the headlights was constantly flickering on and off..." he said with mirth in his voice. "We called it Mads or Maddy...standing for Motors And Dump...It served us faithful for a year before passing on..." He told Faith with a smile as he took another sip of his coffee.<br/><br/>Asher laughed, "Those were the good old days, you were SO annoying! And that car.... that damn! amazingly weird car...." Asher laughed more at the thoughts of his first mission, "I am glad to be rid of that pile of crap." Asher smiled and winked at Faith, "We shouldn't run into that kind of trouble here. Even though that mission was crazy it ended with me sticking that damn vampire with my sword. It was a great pleasure to kill it. I also enjoyed saving Markus..." Asher smiled a bit wider, "That kinda sealed out friendship."<br/><br/>Asher exited the highway and drove for another hour, they finally reached the town and he turned the car into the police station... it looked a little decrepit... okay really run down. It looked like a back water dump, this town held the scent of death, everything around here was ruled by one thing.... fear. Asher could smell it. "O-K- I normally don't have high expectations of the places I go but this... this seems a lot worse than normal. I hope they have a place for us to stay that isn't crawling with cockroaches. You all ready for this, cause as soon as we enter that station our job begins." Asher frowned and looked ahead, his face became more severe, this was the face he wore on the job, that is why most people would never talk to him. He looked back at Faith, "Hey if I seem rude or anything I apologies in advance, on the job I am not so fun to be around. When we get back alone I will be better but around other people I tend to be... very unapproachable."