I Hear Footsteps [End]

[Bee]

The dark, ripped fabric of the over-sized dress dragged on the ground behind her as she walked, quietly, behind the man she had been tailing for the last two hours. He was a man with a nervous disposition, twitching hands, and darting eyes. She had followed him distantly at first, making noise against something here and there, just to let him know there was something behind him, watching him.

His sideways glances gradually became more anxious. Here and there she darted into his peripheral vision, disappearing again just as quickly. Enough for a flash of dress, of blue hair, of startlingly white fur. Something, she hoped, suitably unholy.

Milena liked this game. The slow build of anticipation, their mounting fear and paranoia. It was better than cupcakes. And it was about to reach its payoff.

"You are Milena's now," she said in a happy whisper, creeping up on him to spring the final surprise.

[Greenie]

The Beast was in a semi-alert state, as it often was so soon after eating; it had left his last meal in the usual comatose state somewhere off in a park a few miles down, and had been lumbering around in the shadows in search of a new lair to use until it was hungry again. That was its life, and it was used to it just as many Cards became used to the monotony of their jobs and family. It looked forward to the sleep it would soon be embraced in.

That is, it did until it noticed a white figure with blindingly blue hair following a twitchy man. The man, though, did not interest it as much as the small girl did. What was she doing? Was she... stalking? Her movements were akin to its own when it was in search of prey, and before it knew what it was doing, it had begun following the small Biped in much the same manner that she was following the man.

The difference is that it was making no noise, and it did not want to be seen yet, so stayed behind objects big enough to safely hide its patchwork body. Fascinated, it peered out from around a garbage can to admire the girl's work, its gaping mouth hanging open in wonder.

[Bee]

Suddenly her footsteps echoed down the alley, as she stepped out of the shadows and the powers of her dress took effect. The twitchy man stopped dead in his tracks, turned, and stared with slack-jawed horror. His face twitched, mouth and nose and eyes, but otherwise he did not seem able to move. A gentle wind whipped about her. She smiled, widely, and continued to approach.

"You are Milena's," she told him, voice hollow. "She has come to claim you. You know what sins you have committed."

The man began to blubber, quietly and inelegantly. "I didn't--how could you--"

"Shhhh," she said. "Be still for Milena." She was almost close enough to touch him, now. "All she wants..." A small step. "...is to reach out..." Another step. "And take..." She shoved her hands against his chest, suddenly, as if trying to grab at something. His eyes rolled back. He fainted.

"Your soul!" she finished, cheerfully. She stared down at his insensate form, and for a moment, felt complete satisfaction with life.

[Greenie]

It watched, its fascination turning to almost worship as the girl approached her victim and seemed to render him unconscious with a slight push of her hands. Such miraculous power.. True, it was capable of absorbing energy from his victims by touching them, but that was more the essence of it rather than a power obtained by it. For a moment, it wondered what it would be like to be capable of holding such powers; its life was so unlike that of the creatures around him, though, that it couldn't sustain the image for more than a moment before it disappeared from its mind.

So lost in its singleminded thoughts was it, it failed to notice its own approach towards the girl and her prize. It slunk out from the shadows, though it remained mostly in the cover of darkness, thanks to the time of night. It slid falteringly, as if it were taking slow, abrupt footsteps, but it remained its usual few inches above the ground. Its hide twitched and swayed with its movement, the more ragged edges lightly scraping against the ground. It stopped many feet from both the man and the girl and stared down at the man, halfway tempted to absorb him; it almost moved closer, tendrils of its hide reaching forward as if it were about to leap, then it abruptly looked up and made eye contact with Milena.

Its gaze then slid between the man and the girl; it realized that it was not truly hungry, having just eaten, but it wanted to absorb this man to... impress the girl. Her powers were obviously of some note, despite her small and deceiving appearance. She had an air about her that it wanted to emulate, though it wasn't entirely sure why. It stopped where it was and seemed to want to sink into the ground where it 'stood,' now steadily watching Milena for a reaction. It didn't want to eat her at all, but it wouldn't do for her to run off screaming either.

[Bee]

Milena was considering what to do with the man, and largely decided to smear ink and kohl on his skin where she had grabbed him, scratch it up, let it ooze like she really had ripped something out of him. She wouldn't be there when he woke up, but imagining his reaction was enough.

Then suddenly. Just as she looked up. A thing, she spied, a most interesting thing off in the partial-darkness. It's golden-red eyes locked with her own, for just a moment, before looking down, then up. Milena tilted her head to the side curiously, wondering what it was, what it was doing here.

"Hello, beastie," she said, wishing she could see it better. It was like some kind of big, patchwork ragdoll. She wanted to beckon it closer. "Were you after this one too? Milena is through with him. He is all yours."

[Greenie]

The Beast froze in her gaze, expecting her to realize at any moment what she was looking at - though not understand - and to start screaming or yelling or something equally horrible. To be discovered out here, standing over an unconscious body that was now covered in some sort of black substance, would be the start of a hunt, if not an outright mob. It was very surprised when she did no such thing, but merely tilted her head and spoke as if she were faced with any normal Card, versus a creature made up of the skins of other beings.

Fascinating. She held no fear of him. She held no fear!

It moved forward, almost imperceptibly, now staring at her with a mixture of wonder and adoration. Still, it had an air of skittishness about it; it knew at some point she would revert back to her base instincts as a Card and run or attack it in self-defense, though it meant her no harm. Really, it had very little capacity to hate or toward anger, it merely tried to survive in a world that was not kind toward its nature. Most Cards simply saw its rag-tag body and assumed it must be some sort of evil creation, and thus prone to evil.

It ignored her words as if she had not spoken, as if it had not heard her, though it had. Its ability to speak was impaired by disuse and disinterest, and so while it understood her question, it couldn't think of how to respond appropriately in an appropriate amount of time, so simply kept staring.

[Bee]

She clasped her hands together in anticipation as the strange being came slowly closer, eying more intently different colors in its patchwork pelt, the scattered suit and rank markings. It was like this little beast was one with the world. She didn't have all those colors. She was a ghost.

She wondered what it was going to do. Part of her hoped it really would eat the fellow she had dropped on the ground, even though a larger part of her knew that wishing people to get eaten was on some level morally reprehensible. Then she wondered if she could get it to scare people for her. She could collect a lot more souls that way.

Though at the moment it looked almost cute. That was her most favorite kind of scary.

"Don't be shy," she said. "You can eat him before he even wakes up if you're quick."

[Greenie]

The Beast continued staring as she stared, as it had little way to break the impasse unless it ran or absorbed one of them. Neither seemed to be an opportune choice, as it wished to observe this little girl and her astounding presence for as long as possible. It blinked several times, rapidly, as she spoke about it eating once more.

Its 'stomach,' or whatever served as that organ, positively rolled at the thought. It had already eaten that day, the Selkie it had left in an alley, and it would not be possible to absorb again until the next day. To try to do so would probably make it very ill... or it simply would not work, and the man would find himself slammed back down on concrete for the second time that day. It very much so wanted to please this girl, but was it worth trying to eat the man to do so?

It stared down at the man, and inched forward until a tentacley bit of hide whispered forward above the man's face. It looked back up at Milena, then seemed to make its decision, as it lightly feathered the hide over the man's nose.

What happened wasn't exactly what it intended. The man disappeared for a split second and was immediately thrown violently across the street as the Beast slid the other way. It retched for a moment until the feeling of sickness went away, then stared guiltily at Milena. It had tried and it had failed - now what would she think?

[Bee]

Milena watched with no small amount of interest and delight as the man briefly disappeared from the world and was then flung across the alley. But then the patchy beast looked ill, then sort of sad almost, and she wondered if maybe the man had been too big to eat in one go, or maybe his blood had been filled with some kind of terrible poison.

"Poor beastie!" she said, soothingly. She didn't spare another thought to the fellow they had tormented; she assumed he would wake up and make a terror-crawl back to his home at some point, or else cry himself back to sleep in a dank corner somewhere. Besides, a coma was what he deserved for making this poor little thing's tummy upset. "He must have tasted very bad. Milena understands. Perhaps we can find you someone better to eat later. Are you okay?"

[Greenie]

The Beast's expression brightened visibly at her excitement and acceptance. It floated another inch or so above the ground, and it's hide began its usual wave-and-flow once more, instead of drooping as it had been. It stared at her with nothing short of total and blatant adoration, and wibbled in an excited fashion in response. A few odd, scratchy noises made its way out of its throat, as if it was trying to speak but had forgotten how, and those quickly stopped when it heard itself.

Instead, it floated closer to Milena, though it was careful to stay well out of reach of her arms. Should it touch her, the exact same thing would happen to hear as had happened to the man - if not worse. It had no wish to throw her across the alley, comatose. The Beast stayed low to the ground, and looked up at her with an expression that was both hopeful and pathetic.