Chapter Text
[Monday, January 24, 2011 - Almost sunset]
Emma crouched on the edge of a roof in ABB territory. This time, it had only taken Her a quarter of an hour to find a tough looking Asian man wearing red and green. He was in an alley behind a noodle place smoking a cigarette alone.
Benefits of hunting during the day, I guess, She thought, idly, as she dropped to the ground to silently approach the man from behind. Once She was close enough, She kicked the back of one of his knees to bring him down to kneeling and latched onto his neck with her mouth from behind while he was still reeling from the surprise. He tried to scream through Her hand covering his mouth.
While feeding, She pushed the man over, so he was face down on the alley floor, Her on top of his back. Instead of draining enough blood to kill him like She did with Her last meal, She broke away when She was full, pushing a knee into his back. The man struggled weakly to get up.
"Stop moving and tell me what I want to know or you die," She demanded coldly. The man stilled.
"You're a cape..." he said, almost a whine.
"No, I like drinking three gallons of human blood every week for fun," Emma deadpanned. "Lao and Yang, do you know them?"
"Yes! They-"
"Quiet," Emma interrupted, digging her knee in harder. "No yelling."
"I know them," the man whispered. I began to smell the acrid scent of urine.
"Good, how do I find them?"
"Yang goes to th-that rich school."
"Arcadia?"
"N-no, the other one."
"Immaculata."
"Y-yeah. Lives s-somewhere nearby, I don't know where, I promise!"
"And Lao?"
"Red Oni!"
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"It's a b-bar. Please don't hurt me anymore."
"He drinks at this bar?"
"Y-yes. I've seen him there."
"Where does he live?"
"I don't know! Please..."
"What's your name?"
"Andrew," the man said. Emma looked at him expectantly. After a few moments, he filled the silence: "A-Andrew Sun."
"Thank you, Mr. Sun," Emma said, placing Her hand back over his mouth, and sank Her fangs back into him.
The man pleaded into Her palm, muffled: "You said you wouldn't kill me."
In answer, She drank him dry, wiped Her bloody mouth and wet palm on his shirt, and stood up.
"No," She told the corpse. "I didn't."
--
He didn't seem like he was lying, Emma mused at me. Too scared. Caught off guard. She was pulling a foldable wagon--Her mom had bought it online for bringing groceries into the house--through the Docks. Several trash bags were piled inside, most of them filled with normal garbage, taken from the dumpster behind the noodle restaurant.
I believe You. You're better at that sort of thing than I am, I replied. What now? Are You going to investigate more angles, try to catch them in public, or stake them out and figure out where they live? Or maybe something else?
Hmm. I'm not sure yet. Gotta figure out some way to eat them and not get caught, though. I'll think about it. Emma shrugged. Not like I need to decide right away. It's been almost two years. I'm sure they'll keep a little longer.
I should probably learn to fight better than the little bit Sophia showed me, anyway, if I'm going to be fucking around with the gangs. I'm bound to run into someone who isn't a total pussy sooner or later.
A good plan, I agreed. I'm sure it would be easy to convince Your father to pay for self defense classes, given what happened to the two of You.
Emma hummed. That's a good point. I actually wonder why neither of my parents suggested it on their own. You'd think they'd want their daughter to stay safe. Blegh.
Emma's mood soured a bit from there, and we both stayed silent for the rest of the walk to the Boat Graveyard. When She reached the vicinity, She quickly climbed one of the taller stacks of shipping containers to look and sniff around.
When Emma was satisfied no one would happen upon Her, She descended to find something heavy for weighing down the late Mr. Sun. She found a large chunk of waterproof concrete with rebar sticking out of it, pushed the rebar through the corpse's torso, and hitched it with twine around the ribcage and concrete to stay in place.
Then She put new and improved Mr. Sun back into his garbage bag, tied it closed with more twine, and dropped the whole package into the watery abyss where it would hopefully remain, at least until any investigation of the murder would be impossible.
Well, that's that, Emma thought, rubbing Her hands clean in a gesture that didn't actually accomplish much. This keeps going pretty smooth, actually. Knock on wood, She vocalized internally, without bothering to find any wood to strike. Then She made Her way home with the wagon, dropping the noodle shop's trash She used as camouflage in one of the commercial dumpsters She passed on the way.
--
Ugh, I'm so booooored, Emma complained to me, tossing Her phone next to Her and flopping backwards onto Her pillow. There is literally nothing to do when no one wants to talk to me.
Taylor wants to talk to You, I observed.
Emma scowled. Yeah, what's up with that? Even if Sophia was right and she deserved everything we did to her, she has no reason to give me the time of day. Even if it's prey's fate to get eaten, that doesn't mean the prey wants to hang out with the predators.
Taylor isn't prey, though, I reminded Her. Has she had any friends since You turned on her?
Emma hummed. I doubt it. We definitely made sure anyone at school knew it would be social suicide, at least. And she's such a loser now that I can't imagine her going and making friends on the weekends. Or, at least, she was.
Emma shuddered. Or maybe it was more of a shiver. She's... different now. Not just the powers, I mean how she is. I don't know how to explain it, but I can tell.
Someone finally interceded on her behalf. She is no longer hopeless.
Yeah, I guess. Emma sighed. But you can't rely on other people.
Can't You? I asked, rhetorically. Trust is an interesting thing.