Waiting (( Open))

[Adrian]

clichen turned to the little group of strangers Akeelah indicated, three males and a single female. One was lying on the ground, dressed in some fancy suit whilst another, dressed in a light blue and maroon hooded jumper, was shaking him. "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" The sound of a palm meeting a cheek was heard, loud and clear, five times before before the guy took to yelling at the old man standing a few steps away. "GET THE FUCKING CANE, NOW!" Adrian was, to his surprise, completely ignored by these strangers though one of them drew a weapon. Adrian was not in control, unaware of what was going on and he hated not being on top of things. He was about to do something drastic when the bloody-faced figure opened his eyes and reached out to him. "Aaaa... drian." He managed to force a laboured groan and shakily waved Adrian closer to him.

Now, Adrian was not normally a person to comply such demands. He was what some would call paranoid, though he himself preferred to refer to it as 'somewhat cautious', but when it came to this one, he felt compelled to comply. Pushing his way past the girl with the knife, barely noticing the hooligan shoot him a worried look, he stared deep into the eyes of the figure on the ground and felt... something. He didn't want him to die. "Yoouuu must listeen to me." He coughed, more crimson stains colouring his once white shirt. "You must remember this day, 'tis very important that you do and, that when the time comes, that you make the sacrifice." Adrian looked at the pale face and the purple eyes in front of him, the blood and the long hair obscuring... something. "Listen, listen to me closely." He waved Adrian even closer and Adrian, hesitantly, complied. "I'm you, from the future." Adrian drew his head back in shock, staring at the figure in wide-eyed disbelief. "You're what?!" He could see now what the blood was hiding, the face, the colour, the shape, the eyes and the skin, so very much like his own... but surely not that much. "You don't age like those around you, come here, let me see you." Again, almost reluctantly, Adrian leaned and felt the pale, bleeding man run his fingers across his face. He was rewarded with a bloodied smile.

"I remember it so clearly." He spoke, his eyes gazing deep into Adrian's, filled with wonder. "This night, this fight, the confusion." He chuckled, a throaty sound the quickly became something else, spilling more crimson on the ground. "I remember that life, mother and father." His smile widened and softened, eyes growing distant. "Angel." The eyes snapped back into reality an instant later, training themselves on Adrian with great alarm. "You must take me to her now! The fate of the world to come depends on it!" "Whuh?" Adrian was still far from sure what to make of it all, this guy turned up out of nowhere and was claiming to be him... this had to be one of the biggest clichés of all time. But this bond this... connection he was feeling. Could it be true. "Why?" "I know this is a tremendouss act of faith on your part, but it must be done, I only have so much time left. I, you, we, die tonight." A gesture and the hooligan, dropping his pipe, helped him up to stand. "I've been modified." He explained, gesticulating and stifling another cough under his hand. "Our child will save the future." The figure(, Adrian?) was lifted up to stand at about the same time Adrian's jaw hit the ground. "You WHAT?!" "You, me, Adrian I understand, but there's simply no TIME! You must take me to her now, or it'll be too late." "If you think that I-" "-'ll take your word for it simply because you say so, you're a good deal less intelligent than you look."

Adrian froze, feeling something cold slide down his back. That had been his line. "I remember, I remember it a-" The figure convulsed violently, coughing heavily and almost falling back down on the ground again. Then Adrian saw something he had not expected to see: A smile. The figure burst intorapturouss laughter, coughing up blood even as he continued laughing. "You, you should've seen the look on your face." He managed to gasp before the whites in his eyes turned out and he went limp in the eyes of the hooligan. "CHARON, CANE, NOW!" The hooligan, who had until remained silent, yelled at the old man once more who, in turn, picked up a walking cane and tossed it to the hooligan. He, in turn, pressed it into the hand of the guy in his arms and closed the fingers around it. "There, we should be good now." He mumbled more to himself than to the others. His eyes then met Adrian's, accompanied by an apologetic grin. "My apologies, good Sir, the boss likes to play little games like those. Mind you, he's been wanting to play that one on you for a very long time. Oi, you." He turned his gaze to Rave and waved her closer. "Take 'is legs, would ya?" He would then proceed to carry him inside the McCoy household and place his nowunconsciouss leader on the nearest couch. "He should be fine in the morning." He would remark after retrieving his pipe, though he would say no more before asked. Adrian was still too shocked to properly formulate a question.

[Alison]

Alison gazed at the others, she was never one for groups so she shifted uneasily as she stood beside Angel. " Ummm...." She started, " Can we talk for a moment Angel?" She asked watched as the group walked the familiar man into the house, she felt a surge of something, but she couldn't quite place her finger on what it was. Part of her uncomfort may have been the lack of green for a while, it was surprising how the terrain down in hell just wasn't all that great for growing plants. Alison thought sarcastically.

She turned to face her friend, it was hard doing so after all the events from before. She felt like she didn't deserve to even stand here with her. " I'm sorry about Luke." She started, it was horrible, him being dead, and she knew how hard this must have been for her. " He was a great man. I really had a lot of respect for what he did." The words coming out of her mouth had been the most genuine words she had spoken, however this wasn't what she wanted to talk about, and she wasn't sure if she actually wanted to bring up anything that would upset Angel at the time, so she kept her mouth shut about the unsettling feeling she was getting. Instead she ran her hand through her friend's long unruly hair and smiled, " That's all." She smiled brightly as she pulled Angel by the arm. " You go spend time with that boyfriend of yours, I'll get started on that coffee."

[Angel Killer]

About to take a step forward Angel stopped hesitantly at the sound of Alison's voice. Caustiously she stood still and looked into the crystal clear eyes. Tears danced threateningly at the rim of her eyes as she listened to Alison speak, she could tell from her voice the sincerity in her voice, this was new, a side of Alison Angel had never really gotten to see. She was surprised and taken aback by it. She was almost on the verge of forgetting that there was a reason she needed to be cautious of Alison, however this was awoken as she felt the hand being ran through her hair.

" Was that all?" Angel asked feeling awkward around Alison, there was something more. She could feel it, something she wasn't telling her, however it seemed it would have to wait, she'd get the information out of her sometime.

Forcing somewhat of a smile, Angel allowed herself to be pulled away from the spot where they stood until they were in the house and and placed herself at the archway where she stood quietly trying not to draw any attention to herself while the man in the suit was being laid on the couch. Her mind wandered to earlier tonight when she had watched the small bullet fly into Luke's chest, it was an image that would stick with her for a long time, probably for the rest of her life.

Taking a deep sigh, Angel folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the wall, the house was in shambles thanks to Roman, she should be cleaning it, she thought as she looked around, however it was a task she just couldn't even consider right now, instead she continued observing the strangers that inhabited the living room.

[Akeelah]

Akeelah kept her eyes on the strange group in front of them but still kept some of her attention on Adrian in case he did something. He was after all much better now and capable of doing something drastic. If he tried anything she was going to make sure that this time he didn’t get hurt again. But it didn’t look like the other group would do much; they were so preoccupied with reviving their fallen leader that it was like everyone else didn’t even exist. Frankly Akeelah did not know how to feel about this. Thanks to that man Adrian was fine but there was no way that these men healed the boy out of the goodness of their hearts, something was up, something big but she couldn’t figure out what that was. Whatever they wanted Adrian was a part of it though the boy was just as confused about this as she was.

The fallen man finally came to, beckoning Adrian to come to him and to her surprise Adrian complied. Almost on impulse Akeelah almost went with him but she forced herself to stay behind. It was not her place to intrude here, this was Adrian’s problem not hers. Besides he didn’t have to go far, if someone tried anything she was still in a good position to stop it. For now she just watched them, she couldn’t really hear what the man was saying but judging by Adrian’s reaction she could tell that it was big.

The man collapsed again soon after and she watched the group scramble to pick him up and carry him back into the house. Silently she tagged along, having nothing else to do. It might not be a good idea to stay in this place even with the demon’s gone. For all they knew the brothers might come back later to finish the job. But they didn’t have much places to go to it seemed. Akeelah hung around in the background as everyone else went about their business. Glad to see that the other girls that she had left in the house were okay, though it was odd how normal they seemed to be after all that had just happened. Then again who in this place was normal?

She shifted her attention back to the others when they went silent, particularly the injured man on the couch. He didn’t look too good but from what the older one said he would be fine, that was probably true since he probably wasn’t human. That meant one less thing to worry about for the time being, but now she wanted some answers.

“So…” she said, breaking the silence, “Do you guys mind telling the rest of us who you are and what is going on?”

[Adrian]

"I'm sure the big man'd prefer to explain the particulars himself. All you need to know is that we're not your enemies. Fucking demons." He spat, settling down in a chair next to the couch with the pipe resting between his legs. "Why people keep confusing us, I can only imagine. Anything?" The last question was directed at the old man who, for several minutes now. He turned and shook his head. "Fucking figures, lazy cunts, all bleeding waffle." He rocked back and forth impatiently, though calmed some when he saw the bleeding of his leader had all but stopped. When he spoke again his voice had lost it's venom, sounding almost weary. "I suppose I could tell you, but trust me, the big man's the only one who can do it without it sounding completely ridiculous. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's been a long, unrewarding trip wince those little wankers decided to do a runner, and that date with the devil himself didn't exactly help." " 'Snot the devil." The old man spoke for the first time, not once removing his glare from the window. "Someone else, someone less." The hooligan simply gave a weary sigh and leaned back into the chair, soon snoring quite gently. From outside laughter erupted, loud, almost rapturous laughter. Adrian's mind had finally wrapped itself around what it had been, and more than a cracks had appeared in its lining.

[Alison]

Alison swept around the kitchen trying to locate the kettle, she found in the shelves above the stove the large jar of coffee that Luke always bought and her hand closed around the large jar pausing for a moment. The impact of Angel's words from before finally hitting her. Luke was dead, he would never buy coffee again. He would never go shopping, argue with Angel about driving the car too fast or......

Alison shut her eyes tightly for a moment, the kettle's whistle blew loudly and steam came out of it's spout. Alisons's eyes opened again and she put a shakey hand over the kettle's handle taking it off the hot stove top. Her saviour was in the next room, seemingly not feeling too well at the moment. Good. Alison thought, feeling a twinge of guilt at feeling that, but at the same time, it made her nervous to be around him, she didn't want anyone else in this house, at this time to know about her little excursion to hell and if he woke up and seen her there he may blurt out the whole thing.

Slowly, a cup of coffee in hand with enough surgar to put a diabetic into a coma. Alison passed the cup of coffee to her friend, " There's more in the kitchen if anyone wanst some." She motioned quietly. Her eyes scanning the man on the couch. Hell, if she was lucky she'd be able to sneak away from the crowd to partake in her drug of choice hidden deep within her pocket. This world was just as cruel as she remembered it to be.

[Angel Killer]

Angel continued to stand silently in the archway looking in at the living room. She jumpped nervously when Alison came in with the coffee and took a sip of liquid, feeling gratitude at it's warmth. She had noticed the shaking coming from Alison's hand and raised an eyebrow in response but kept silent about this. Than her mind wandered to their conversation, what had Alison really wanted to tell her?

She brushed this aside, Alison was one to be a secretive person, she'd tell her when she was ready, right now Angel's eyes wandered to the visitors who made themselves comfortable on the couch. There was something oddly familiar about them. They had power, that was one thing for sure, but there was something about them that was familiar, maybe she seen the old one in a book or something.

Angel shook her head, and took another small sip of coffee, she highly doubted it, maybe.....

" Thanks guys." She said suddenly out of the blue. There was no doubt about it, they had all saved her life tongiht, Adrian and Akee anyway. When they had first came she was about to let Roman end it, a simple fact she left out as continued to stare blankly at the others on the couch. She had a feeling though she owed credit to them for making Roman and Liam run off so she felt gratitude towards them for that.

[Akeelah]

Akeelah sighed, fine she would wait for ‘the big man’ to explain what the hell this was all about. As it was she was pretty confused enough as it was and if what the man had said was true then his explanation would only make the confusion worse. At this point all she needed to know he had already told her, that they weren’t the enemies here. Though it wasn’t always such a good idea to just blindly take some stranger’s word that they meant no harm their actions alone had cleared that little mess out already. Not only had they scared off Roman and Liam but their leader risked his life to save Adrian, he might’ve had his own agenda behind that but it was a good enough reason not to stab them to death.

She relaxed a little bit, taking a comfy seat on the floor while everyone else settled down, not really feeling like trying to find somewhere else to sit. Now that that was out of the way there were other things to think about, like what should be done now. The demons were gone for now but there was no telling when they might return. At least they wouldn’t be returning for another round tonight but after that there was no telling what might happen. Roman’s presence in this place was no coincidence, she seriously doubted that the little fiend had snuck in for some random chaos. He had been here for a reason, maybe to look for something. Or someone... Akeelah’s thoughts drifted to the girl named Angel, back to the moment she first entered the house. From the looks of it Roman might have been after the girl, whether he wanted to kill her or do something else though she couldn’t tell. No matter what the reason was Angel shouldn’t be here, no one should.

“Is there any particular reason why Roman was in your house tonight?” she asked the girl bluntly. First things first, Akeelah needed to know why Roman was here. She couldn’t figure out how to keep the girl safe without knowing that much.

[Adrian]

The hooligan remained inert, eyes closed and fingers resting on his weapon, for several minutes, mumbling something incomprehensible at Angel's declaration, whilst Charon only gave a simple nod. In the end however, the sound of Adrian's maddened laughter drove him to rise from his slumber, muttering something under his breath best left unmentioned, waded past the old man into the night and, after a loud exclamation and the sound of a fist hitting something soft, dragged Adrian's now unconscious body into the living-room, a long, slim cut on his face betraying the origin of his cry. "Ungrateful lil' bugger." He grumbled as he placed Adrian on the carpet and fitted a cushion under his head, his own bleeding already slowing. He touched the wound and looked at the stains of dark red on his fingertips. "Fast, though." A few seconds later he had settled back into the chair from before and was snoring again. His fingers never left the pipe, and Charon never left the window.

[Alison]

Alison folded her arms across her chest and listened intently. This was something she was interested in hearing too. The last time she had seen Roman before tonight, she had escaped from his castle over in Mallet Island where she had awoken to find herself tied to a bed. He had liberated her from the ties only when she swore she would not try to escape. How wrong he was though. It had been a breeze to sneak out of castle and off it's grounds.

" I knew he was trouble." Alison muttered under her breath. " Glad you upgraded." She looked at Adrian and gave him gave him a sweep with her eyes. " So, yeah, tell us what Roman was doing here." She encouraged, running her slender hand through Angel's hair once again.

[Angel Killer]

Angel took a deep breath before she answered an went to sit beside Adrian who laid unconscious on her living room floor.

She decided to keep things short. " Roman was here to kill my father." She answered honestly, her eyes caught the huntress' as she said this, all the while leaving out the mechanics on the word father. " However instead, I came home, Luke.... Dad, had been killed earlier tonight. "

Angel continued with her story, telling the roomful of strangers about the obsession Roman had with her, how he always seemed to show up where ever he went. She even shared the new knowledge she had with how Roman had framed her for murdering a guard behind the town's cathedral.

With another deep breath Angel wrapped up her story, somehow, although nearly everyone in the room were total strangers, talking made things clear. They at least lifted the haze even if it was just a little. She nodded to Akeelah, and for the first time since she had seen her tonight she recognized her. Another student from school perhaps? The details weren't exactly clear.

[Raven Alexander]

The boy was unconcious again, his so called allies had rendered him such and dragged him onto the floor in front of the group assembled. Standing torn between the idea of attacking the three men or letting it be, as none of the others were moving against them Raven decided maybe it would be best to fade into the ether from whence she came. Sliding the knife into its sheath against her spine she snapped the clip that held it in place. Pulling the MP3 player from her pocket and unravelling the now mess of wires she cursed under her breath, "how does this always happen, I put it away for 2 minutes and its a knotted mess" Without a word to the others she scoped out the nearest exit and made her way to it, she would complete her circuit then back home for a cup of coffee.

[Akeelah]

Adrian’s insane laughter had not gone completely unnoticed by the young huntress but she didn’t make any attempt to quiet it down. She was just too tired to deal with the unstable boy and with her thoughts drifting over why her target had come to this place her focus was more on Angel than anything else. Though the brief sounds of a scuffle and the abrupt end of laughter didn’t go unnoticed either. She watched as one of the men dragged the now unconscious Adrian back into the house. Well, that was one way to deal with that problem. Might make things more troublesome later when they had to drag two bodies out of the house later…Or when Adrian woke up later and try to kill the man who hit him. She really wouldn’t put it pass him to do something like that.

What Angel’s little friend said also caught her attention. From the little hint that the woman had dropped, these two knew Roman all too well and that made her even more interested in Angel’s case. That and the hint that Angel and Adrian were together. She really wasn’t expecting that though for the time being that was insignificant.

When Angel finally told Akeelah her story she couldn’t help but feel a mixture of sympathy for the girl and a deep seated hatred over the fiend that they had fought tonight. Her hatred over Roman had grown in an instant; he had to die not just to make his brother suffer but to at least protect this girl. One way or another she would see that that bastard met an early demise.

“I know how you feel…” she said sympathetically, “Losing someone you care about that is.” She wasn’t sure what to say about the girl’s father, and as much as she would like to explain how she knew what Angel must be going through Akeelah wasn’t as willing to talk about her history to a group of strangers. Besides there were more pressing matters to deal with so there was no time to waste in expanding on that. “I know it’s not an easy thing to deal with, but right now it’s better to focus on the present.”

“It’s better if you leave this house tonight in case Roman comes back. Is there any place that you can think of that is safe? Somewhere that Roman doesn’t know about?” Getting her out now was the best move that they could do now. If Angel had nowhere else to go then Akeelah would have to take the girl in, like it or not Angel couldn’t stay here for long.

[Adrian]

The door Adrian had been dragged through, still open and Raven's apparent destination, clicked shut. The figure on the bed stirred and growled. "Demons." "Boss?" "Help us stand, would you? Bastard took more than I thought." The hooligan, awakened from his slumber, helped his leader to stand, the blood on his face had long since dried, but there was still a glassy look over his eyes. He stumbled, and within the blink of an eye the old man was at his side, wordlessly lending his support. The leader coughed, deeply, hoarsely, almost keeling over. Then a wide grin spread across his pale features and he began to chuckle. "Not exactly the sort of dramatic entrance I had hoped for, but I'll take it. What's the..." His words trailed off as his gaze fell on Adrian's limp form. His two helpers let go of him and he straightened himself, his gaze slowly turned towards the hooligan.

"Rodney?" The hooligan gulped and let his own gaze fall to his feet. "Why is Adrian lying unconscious on the floor?" A moment of silence filled the little room, a moment in which the leader of three almost seemed to grow. "Did you forget the REASON WE CAME HERE IN THE FIR-" "Don't play games." The old man spoke again, the young man still staring at Rodney. "You know why." "Yes, I suppose I do." His gaze softened, and instead turned to the other people in the area. Then he smiled. "My sincerest apologies for the mess, the drama and-" He looked down at Adrian again, his grin not waning in the slightest. "The unconscious boyfriend. Thank you very much for use of your furniture, kind lady, and the support of all you. Alison..." His grin widened as his eyes met hers, his tone taking on an edge of amusement. "You look marvellous."

"I'm sure you all wonder who we are, where we're from and why we're here, but all that's not terribly important at this moment I'm afraid. However, for manner's sake," He indicated himself by placing one gloved hand on his chest, the other once again firmly clutching his cane. "My name is Nathaniel, Nathan to my friends. My two associates are Rodney, or Rod, and Charon." He indicated each of the two with a sweep of his hand. "We're here to help you out with your little demon problem. Now, please, might I ask for a pot of tea? We shall be up all night looking for ways to deal with these pesky little bugs, and we shall be heading back by the break of dawn." Once again, his eyes trailed downward to Adrian's limp body, breathing peacefully in a manner not too unlike what he had been a few minutes before. With a weary sigh and shake of his head, Nathaniel conceded his cheerful manner for a moment. "Would somebody please wake him up?"

[Alison]

Alison's eyes averted to the floor as Nathon had said the very unneeded comment, and she was all to willing to go and prepare the tea that was requested by him when it was asked for, anything to get away from the crowd, she'd let the others worry about the unconscious Adrian as she was not all to anxious for him to get up. Afterall, he had witnessed her at the school the day that it had went on fire and more so he had watched her disappearing act.

From the kitchen, Alison listened to Nathon as he went on to introduce the rest of the crew which was with him, she chuckeled when she heard him tell the rest what they were there for, then her eyes gazed out the kitchen window which was placed so carefully behind the stove where she stood waiting for the kettle to whistle.

Alison's mind wandered, she felt a numbness as that pesky feeling came back to her. Guilt, why hadn't she felt this before now, she had, afterall plenty to be guilty about. She had killed her own parents for one, did some pretty nasty things to her BFF and other people.

Alison put a hand to her head and let her eyes shut tightly before jumping to the sound of the kettle's whistle as it blew loudly where with shakey hands she finished making Nathaniel's tea.