"Maybe we could…?"

Angelus shook his head ruefully. "No. It'd be dangerous." He moved closer to her on their duvet, his arm around his shoulders. "Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to take one from it's home, raise it to be a monster, and change it ourselves?"

Darla laughed. "Perhaps. You really are a cruel one, Angelus."

XOX

"Mother, my collar itches terribly." Gerty pulled at her dress, only to have her hands slapped by her mother.

"You girls are ten years old! Pull at your dress one more time, and I'll take a switch to your legs when we get home."

Judy cringed, hearing her sister whine. She hated being a triplet. Her two sisters looked identical with long, straight, jet black hair and dark brown eyes. Since they look the same, three of them were expected to act the same as well.

Gerty was clumsy, the quieter of the three. She loved food. She was always tailing after their mother, trying to get approval for her latest culinary project. Her mother made a comment once that she believed her to be simple minded.

Juliet was mischievous. She liked jewelry, dresses, hats, sewing, embroidering, etc. all things material and feminine. She also had a mean streak a mile long and was constantly blaming her sisters for things she did. She was her mother's favourite so she was always believed.

The third daughter, Judith, was a little tomboy. She loved getting dirty and playing with Animals. She ran from lessons to hide up in the trees for her father to come fetch her. Her father called her his little squirrel and let her wear boy clothes when she was with the horses to not let her mother know what she'd been up to.

Judy and Juliet were rivals. Their father and mother would tell people that from birth, they had to be kept apart to keep from fighting each other. The two girls were constantly bickering and Gerty was always in the middle to balance them out.

The family left church to return to their farmhouse. Originally, the family would have breakfast and continue about their day but something stopped them on their journey back home.

People had gathered in the middle of the street. Some screaming, some crying. The girls' father got out of the carriage to take a look.

"Father, what is the matter?" Juliet asked, craning her head to take a look.

Judy looked to Gerty who was also stretching to look. Their mother rapped on her head with her knuckles.

"Gertrude, it's none of your business."

"But Julie's – "

"No back-talk either, young lady!"

Their father returned and opened the carriage door.

"Judy, I need your help. Come with me."

Juliet stood up at the same time as her sister.

"Father, perhaps it would be better if I –"

"Juliet, I asked for Judy. Come, child." He extended his arms to help her down the side.

Judy looked up at her father, hoping for an answer. He simply just set her down, retrieved a blanket from the Jockey box and took her hand to lead her down the road.

"Papa, what's wrong?"

"There's been another murder, Darling. The third one in the past two days, I'd say." He told her sadly. She squeezed his hand as a form of comfort.

Judy watched her father push through the crowd and watched the men load the body onto the blanket to carry it down to the nearest wagon headed for the funeral parlor in town. The man almost looked like he was sleeping if it wasn't for the ghostly shade of white his skin had become.

She didn't know that her father didn't really need her help but rather saw her as a something to be of comfort to those around. She was the epitome of childhood innocence.

XOX

And that is exactly what the two cloaked figures in the woods not even ten feet away from where she stood saw in her as well.

Angelus looked to Darla, a rare grin lighting up his face. "She's perfect. She's so innocent, corruptible, and old enough that she won't be forgetting what we're going to do anytime in the near future."

"Not including that with her hair and eyes, she could be easily mistaken as your daughter."

The two laughed, watching a man who must have been her father as he took her hand and returned to their carriage. They stayed in the woods and followed the horses to a secluded farmhouse in the woods.

"This just keeps improving, doesn't it, love?" Angelus mused. "No better time than the present, hmm?"

"Agreed. We attack at sundown."