<span style="color: #008040"><span style="font-weight: bold">Skyscraper rooftops </span></span><br/><br/>Julien narrowed his eyes purposefully at Jess. A streak of red crossing through his irises as he observed her.<br/><br/>Her feisty attitude was beginning to wear thin on him. However, he could sense from her earlier covert tactics that she wasn’t all words. She was buying time to assess his powers. He smirked in his own mind. He was doing the same. That’s why he was suspending this scenario on puppet strings for as long as he was. Sooner or later though, he’d grab the cords and suffocate everyone in his wake if he wanted to. Create a theatre of tragedy.<br/><br/>“Dance you say?” he laughed incredulously “you talk to me like you’re flirting with death. Yet I think you have this all wrong my dear…” he said straightening up. The smile of a handsome devil upon his face.<br/><br/>“I’m not your respected doctor, dance partner… and certainly<span style="font-weight: bold">not</span>your date!” Julien threw out his hand to reveal the 3rd eye which was surrounded by a perimeter of his clawed fingers “you already know what I am. And behind that spirited, young and so-called ‘headstrong’ personality, you’re just a scared little girl. Aren’t you?”<br/><br/>“Answering my questions with a question is obviously your fogging technique into confounding me to buy time for something… or someone,” Julien said explicitly. A dark shadow passing over him, before his purple form was made more apparent again. Eyes smiling as well as his teeth.<br/><br/>“Why don’t we cut to the chase and find out what you’re REALLY up to?” he snarled.<br/>A void of silence fell upon the scene. Ambient motions portrayed by distorted crackles.<br/>Another blanket of shadow veiled the scene. The distance closed as Jess found the devil standing right next to her now. Behind her, for that matter.<br/><br/>Wrists snatched. Vice-like grips before she was able to perceive the motions.<br/>The numbing effects of Julien’s grasp were instantaneous, cold, and sharp in the areas where he was gripping Jess’s wrists which were beginning to pale. Clawing at her skin which left gashes. The sky darkened with no limit to his summiting height. All sound of life from late night stragglers or home bound cars completely absent. An unnatural quarantine.<br/><br/>He was reaching out for her forehead with his left hand. A devious expression on his face as he did so.<br/><br/>He’d get into her mind. Find out who she was, what her powers were, what makes her tick… then, he’d<span style="font-style: italic">bite</span>her. Sink his teeth into her neck. That soft white throat.<br/><br/>Something was wrong.<br/><br/>He ignored it at first. Perhaps out of unfound tenacity or inflexible admission.<br/>His skin was burning. Boiling and sweltering. Similar to what had happened earlier during her assault on him. And it was occurring beneath the palms of his hands where he had gripped her. The purple hues of his skin being bleached to an ashen lilac with areas of necrotising blue macules.<br/><br/>He pulled away. A snarl on his face as he shook his hand free from the wounding heat.<br/>Jess backed up a bit herself. Shaking free from the straggling feeling of cascading sharps that felt like it was left lingering through her veins. She turned around in wonder to look at a silent Julien who was considering the sight of his own hands. She tilted her head to one side and couldn’t help but smile.<br/><br/>The surrounding scene became ever so slightly lighter. The surrounding hotel flags could be heard fluttering in the distance.<br/>“Wow doctor, if I didn’t know better… I’d say you’d just breached another one of your calls of duty,” Jess remarked “isn’t that regarded as battery?”<br/><br/>Julien ignored her. Looking at his hands with morbid fascination. The wounds closing up haphazardly, forming tertiary scar tissue before reforming to their former appearance.<br/><br/>He was hoping she’d spare the joke of being ‘too hot to handle’.<br/><br/>“Interesting,” he muttered, before smirking lightly in her direction “haven’t had this happen before…”<br/><br/>Now it was becoming clear to him what she really was. Resembled, spoke like and portrayed practically every manner of human. Yet she had an aura about her that resisted his imposing and overwhelming presence. There must’ve been something about her soul that gave her sanctuary from him. Or maybe he needed to build up tolerance towards the quintessence of holy light.<br/><br/>Whatever it was, he knew there was a way around it. After this session was done for tonight, he’d be sure to investigate her kind and a way to get around these minor problems.<br/>She was a Nephilim. No two ways about it. A creature he admittedly didn’t know as much about. Simply because he hadn’t come across any in this world until now.<br/><br/>His ear suddenly twitched followed by his head lowering to one side.<br/><br/>The girl… she was running away. He couldn’t feel her presence from his surgery any more. Nor smell her or hear her heart beat.<br/><br/>“Hey, it was battery!” Julien jumped back onto the subject erratically, feigning defeat as he threw his arms up in the air briefly “what are you going to do? Sue me?!” he laughed.<br/><br/>The darkness closed in on Jess again. Visibility as close to pitch black as ever.<br/><br/>“You’re brave for taking me on to protect the girl, my dear. But you’re also a fool.” He announced menacingly, before turning around. Disappearing into the night. Leaving Jess in the maze of darkness he had left behind.<br/><br/><br/>______________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/><span style="color: #008000"><span style="font-weight: bold">Medical hallways </span></span><br/><br/>The labyrinth of clinical hallways were long and monotonous. No rhyme or reason as to where the exit may be. The only sounds being the pounding of her own heart and heavy footsteps as Carly was stumbling through the hallways. The vicinity seemed to hold its own breath in pensiveness.<br/><br/>Dr. Julien Summerfield. Her own doctor who she had been seeing for almost a year now. That…<span style="font-style: italic">that</span>monster. It was all making sense now. Something wasn’t right about him.<br/><br/>She almost tumbled forwards as her feet ice skated around a slippery floored corner. Grabbing onto the edge of the corner wall for support. She only just caught herself. Her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest. He lungs choking dry of air.<br/><br/>The hallways lightings were a diffusion of black and bleached cyan. A clinical setting that felt dispassionate and starved of character. Furthermore, the veneered bricks were beginning to spin before her eyes.<br/><br/>A lone syringe had been left on the floor. Unseen by the running girl as her thought made contact with the body of it and tripped her up.<br/><br/>Landing sprawled on all fours. The friction grazing her skin.<br/><br/>Her breathing was high pitched and strained by now. A mixture of frantic panic and fear closing in on her consciousness.<br/>The syringe rolled down the hallway. Echoing louder and louder as it fleeted mockingly.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">’Nononononono….</span>she fell to her knees and clutched her head. Nailing her fingers into her head. Anything to keep her awake and conscious.<br/><br/>She looked to her side. Her heart skipping a bit as she saw a luminous green sign.<br/><br/>‘Fire Exit’<br/><br/>She was a nurse and remembered what she had been taught in fire training.<br/><br/>Dark green was what you saw before you lost consciousness. Here was a way out. Hopefully the stairs wouldn’t be too long way down.<br/><br/>Without giving herself too much time to think, she crawled over quietly now. Suddenly paranoid that all the noise she had made earlier would draw him to her.<br/><br/>A shadow passed her peripheral vision, causing her to freeze. She sat up carefully on her knees as she turned her head over her shoulder ever so slowly. She shuddered violently.<br/><br/>She knew he was here. His black silhouette was leaning against the wall. Red eyes piercing through the darkness<br/><br/>“Carly,” Julien called out “you’re here at a strange hour.”<br/><br/>The cat girl’s fur stood up as she plucked up the courage to swing her torso around and gaze at the devil looking down on her. Her ears lowering as her eyes widened.<br/><br/>The look alone rooted her to the ground.<br/><br/>“I g-g-g-got lost… heh…” Carly forced a laugh, before looking away timidly.<br/><br/>“Well…” Julien deliberated, unfolding his arms and walking over to her “can I… help you up?”<br/><br/>Something wasn’t right again.<br/><br/>Carly’s eyes were dipped towards his shoes. Shadows following his march. The stride wasn’t calm or reassuring. The footsteps were more hounding.<br/><br/>She screamed as she found herself wrenched by the arm. The force nearly dislocating her elbow from its socket.<br/><br/>What was worse was the grip. The pain was excruciating. Not just from the force but the numbing and deadening sensation that stripped her whole arm from control. Her veins feeling like they were being shredded with growing, malignant thorns.<br/><br/>She hung like a writhing rabbit Whimpering and struggling to break free as Julien continued to secure her.<br/>He sniggered at her cowardice, before shaking his head and tutting.<br/><br/>“How much do you know?” he demanded “or do I need to find out the hard way?!”<br/><br/>The eye within his free left hand was emerging and began to blink sinisterly. Palm slowly reaching out for her forehead.