Alex gratefully took the last deep drag off of the cigarette from his newly acquired packed, blowing the acrid blue smoke out of his nostrils in frustration as he flicked the glowing butt out into the street. The gas station "food" grumbled it's way down his digestive tract as he ambled down the sidewalk, and he was sure that he would regret it in a few hours time, but it had given him some renewed energy and, more importantly, dulled the headache he was nursing.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">You know that it could be worse.</span><br/><br/>"Shut up," the boy growled under his breath. The headache was not, as he had at first thought, from the drinking the night before, but caused by the asshole now walking next to him. He glanced sideways at the gaunt figure, a man in his late forties, wearing a disheveled business suit and a three day beard. The hole through the side of his head marked him as a dead man, so Alex knew he was the only one who could see him. The man was just trudging along beside him, and had been ever since he had left the motel, which had made getting his sustenance an awkward experience. Now he was just irritating.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Stop. Something is wrong.</span><br/><br/>"What, aside from the dead guy? Also, I said shut up."<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">STOP.</span></span><br/><br/>The word echoed menacingly around Alex's mind, and he immediately came to a halt. The dead man stood a pace behind him now as Amaranth guided his eyes for a brief moment, focusing on the woman moving towards him. She was tall, and blonde, and looked like she worked out. But Alex's eyes were focusing on her twice, because she certainly also appeared as dead. He hadn't ever seen this before. His left eye watered.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Damn it. This is not time for a bloody vampire to walk up.</span><br/><br/>"Sh-Shit!" Alex could do nothing. He felt cold. Amaranth had warned him they existed, but to actually see one was a completely different story. And she seemed to be walking directly at him, though it was hard to tell because of the ultra-focus she was in.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Of all the times...REALLY!?</span><br/><br/>Alex moved his gaze just slightly behind the woman. Three more of them moved out onto the street. This was absolutely not good. And then Alex's brain fizzed and his mind slid ever so slightly to the left, and he was no longer in control. Which was somewhat of a relief.<br/><br/>Amaranth grinned. He was back to steering a full twelve hours early thanks to the boy's panicking, and now there were playthings out, too. If they were paying attention, they probably knew he was here as well, but that just made the game more fun. He cleared his throat and ran his fingeres through his hair, trying to make it slightly more presentable.<br/><br/>"Excuse me, madam? Do you happen to have the time?"<br/><br/>-------<br/><br/>Fallon continued on her somewhat less merry way. She had stopped in to say hi to the nurses at the local hospital, and waved away a couple of youths near a liquor store(though she had no doubt they would return shortly.), but she had not yet seen anyone truly in need of her. It was almost as if all of the lost had scattered from the city, but that couldn't be right. Hardly anyone would leave once they had made a claim on something, especially something like a home. But all of the names she had gathered were gone, swept up somewhere into the detritus of the city that she couldn't access.<br/><br/>She was very lost in thought until she noticed a scrawny cat sitting outside an alley on a stack of boxes. Like most cats, it was completely unafraid of her, and vocalised that it wanted attention as she approached. It was maybe a few years old, but it had lived a hard life out on the streets, so not a housecat prowling for the night. She scritched it behind the ragged ears and it bumped her hand with its head, obviously pleased. "What's got you on lookout, hmm," she murmured to it, leaning up against the wall. She heard voices in the alley, but it didn't sound like a fight, so it probably wasn't anything to worry about. The cat purred, and its fur got a little sleeker in the orange light of the lamp above them. "Just a little help, friend. I know you have your pride, but that tooth is bad and you've got to eat better."<br/><br/>She stopped petting it, and the animal hopped down off of the boxes and trotted off into the night, on whatever business it had. Fallon shook her head in exasperation. Those animals were just too much for her. She preferred humans, who were so much simpler to work with. Well, most of them, at any rate. She stared up into the night, wondering what she should do next. She wanted to be home, but this life wasn't too bad, and she liked helping. Maybe tomorrow she would stop by the church and see Father Jacob.<br/><br/>Again, too wrapped up in her own thoughts, she did not notice that her healing of the cat had made her glow a soft golden hue, barely visible under the light of the lamp, nor did she notice that the area now smelled of lilacs and a slight hint of soap. She never noticed this when she healed, really, since it was her favourite scent and made her happy. She also did not notice that three more cats had emerged from the alley and scattering onto their own business.