Moonlight Nocturne

Miri perks up, suddenly friendly. "...can you help us pick out snacks, Mr. Wilkins?"

 

"We can go out later, maybe." Nick waves a hand.

 

Elena smiles shyly at Nick, before going back to Miri, perking up. "... oh, yeah. We were going to make nachos. With venison?"

 

Gabriel chuckles, then sets about helping the girls get set up with delicious snacks and drinks!

 

Elena is not at all subtle about her crush; it's obvious to anyone who's even vaguely looking, even if her hands are too loaded up to hold Miriam's right now. "... do you still wanna watch Casino Royale?" she asks Miri.

 

"How could I not?" Miri smiles, grabbing their drinks.

 

Miriam is the cutest girl ever.

Elena follows her back, going to put the DVD in and curl back up on the couch, leaning comfortably into Miriam's side. This is the best night ever.

 

A few days pass, and Elena is happier than she's been in ... a long time. She's doing something, something useful, and the nagging terror of inadequacy is being kept at bay. At least, just enough for her to focus on her schoolwork, and go off to Nick and Miriam's every time she can. They haven't done a lot of serious searching yet; there's just... there's been a lot to do. She's been too distracted for the guilt to hit, yet.

Yet.

So by Wednesday, she's thinking more about her book report than monsters, on her way home from school. She's really not sure why anyone would like Oliver Twist. Oliver doesn't even do anything, he just sits around crying about how his life is hard, and then he gets lots of money. And she's pretty sure Fagin is racist.

 

She's halfway home when she realizes she's being followed. The man... looks like he's Peter's age.

 

She freezes, backing toward a wall, watching him. Is it... is it him? Or one of his friends?

She squints, trying to recognize him. It's only then that she realizes that someone following her might be a monster, and maybe she should have tried to hide, or lose him.

Oops. Too late now.

 

He... he looks like one of Peter's friends. But...

There's definitely something off about him. His clothes look a little too worn, and there's mud coating the bottom of his jeans... and he's making a slow, steady beeline for her.

 

She swallows, feeling for her knife. She wishes she had the dagger Nick gave her; it feels a lot more... solid than this.

Something is wrong. Something's really wrong. She glances left and right, her back against the wall, checking for escape routes.

"Nath...an?" She... thinks that's his name. Maybe. He looks familiar.

He also looks like a monster.

 

Well. She can always run for home? Nick should be at the antique shop, right now..

'Nathan' smiles, showing cracked, yellowing teeth. "Hhhell...oh..."

 

But she... she has to know. She has to know what's happening... What if he knows what happened to Peter?

She shivers, gripping her knife harder. "Where's Peter?"

 

"Y..ou. . Want to know?" His voice rasps wetly, like there's something wrong with how it's coming out. But.

Do monsters really come out in the daylight?

 

"... I want to know."

Monsters... She's never seen a monster in the daytime. But she's felt this kind of wrongness. She's gotten into fights. She's not safe when the sun is out. And she doesn't have Nick or the others here, now. She doesn't have her knife. She's just a kid, all alone.

"Tell me! What happened?!"

 

He grins wider, lips splitting at the corners add he steps closer. "Come here."

 

That's not normal. She backs away another step, sidling down the wall. "... what are you going to do?"

 

"Jussst... talk..." He breathes, wetly, then hesitates reaching up to pull out a rotting tooth and examine it, crushing the rotten black tooth between his fingers.

 

Nick... Nick said that not everyone who's scary and supernatural is evil. That they all can choose whether they're going to hurt someone.

She swallows, steeling herself, and steps closer. "... please tell me." Her voice is closer to a whisper than she wants it to be. Her knife feels very small in her hand.