Chapter Two: Lullaby for Madness
Author's Notes: So, remember how I said I don't know where this is going? That means I don't have this planned out, as usual. You guys didn't know that? Nevi never outlines or plans any of her fics, but simply goes from the top of her head. Crazy Nev-nev, huh?
Important: I feel it's needed to be said that I feel that there is too much Vampire folklore to sit there and appease all my readers. I might like this, and you might like that. I might believe in this and you might hate that. In the end…we might bump heads.
Disclaimer and Warning: Can be found in first chapter.
Chapter Two: Lullaby for Madness
"Pale angel go away
Come again some other day
The devil has my ear today
I'll never hear a word you say
He promised I would find a little
Solace and some piece of mind
Whatever just as long as I don't feel so…" – Weak and Powerless by A Perfect Circle
Dedication: S. Wright – Because you always make writing worth it.
Shout out to Muse Taylor. Your art always inspires me.
"You're fucking mad."
The blond didn't so much as glance towards the brunette who never beat around any bush and sighed, "Why?"
Blue eyes flicked up from the book The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead and found his best friend standing in front of him with a face contorted between anger and pity. Kiba reached down, picking up the copy Vampires: The Occult Truth and shaking his head with a sigh before shaking the book roughly.
"Really? I thought you were joking?"
The blond's eyes crinkled shut before he let out a rumbling laugh that came straight from the gut, "Come on, really?"
Kiba gave another look, and the laughter immediately died in Naruto's throat, "Alright, alright. So, I have been known to pull a few pranks in my day."
"Every day."
"Whatever." Naruto bit.
Naruto reached forward and grabbed Vampires, Burials, and Death: Folklore and Reality and stacked it on top of Vampires and Vampirism: Legends from Around the World (Classics of Preternatural History) and handed them over with a smile.
"These are yours. Shika already finished."
Kiba snorted as he parted the books and held one in each hand and let his eyes flick from book to book. "Or never started. You're really going ahead with this whole theory, aren't you?"
The head of blond hair bobbed lightly, he actually seeming immersed in the book that was propped in his lap.
"Vampires?" Kiba spat the question like the word dirtied his mouth while he looked questionably at the blond, who was in fact, too into what he was reading to actually be enjoying it.
The brunette sighed, and reached over the edge of the book and grabbed at the opened, and newest issue, of Game Informer magazine. The blonde squawked and let the book crash to the floor as he grabbed for his magazine.
"No. You listen here, Uzumaki. Are you really entertaining the idea of vampires? No other theories have been tested. What about large amounts of Anticoagulants?"
The blonde chuckled, "You watch too many movies. You would be able to trace that substance in their body. In all sixteen cases this week, the forty-seven total, there has been complete drain without a trace."
"Okay!" Kiba threw his hands up in the air, almost tossing the books as well, "What about fangs! Markings from them, hm? Hmm!?"
Kiba angrily shook a book in Naruto's face instead of a finger, waiting for the blond to quit staring like he had lost his mind. He didn't lose it, he just snapped a little is all.
Naruto tapped the book lightly, waiting for Kiba to drop what he was waiting to become a weapon, "You've helped me throughout the years, right?"
The brunette finally plopped into the raggedy armchair across from the blond with a sigh, "Here we go."
It was true. Once Naruto took job as detective, he was never one to leave Kiba alone. Or Shikamaru or Gaara for that matter. Kiba was his makeshift partner through the years, and even though he should have taken the one that was supposed to come with the notepad, the blond didn't want him. So, when Naruto needed the help, he dragged Kiba along. At first, they both fainted. That's right – fainted. Hell, the crime scene was so much different than the photos given to him by Jiraiya.
And Jiraiya was the reason Naruto could bring his friends in on everything.
Sure, it was technically illegal, but it was a crooked as the old pervert got. The blond busted every case he was put on when he got his friends to help, and so, the old man allowed it.
Especially since it wasn't on his payroll, but more rolling out of Naruto's back pocket.
"You know my methods are over the top." Naruto attempted to soothe, "That's how we caught that freak in Philly, remember? You remember."
Kiba snorted looking at his friend with a shake to his head, "You blamed the Philly Phanatic for a string of murders that spread through North West like wild fire."
Naruto laughed, throwing a hand over his face lightly as he thought back to his crazed outcry to get his friends to go with him. "But! See…see? The more over the top, the more you all are willing to prove me wrong."
Kiba's shoulders drooped, his head dropping a little at the side as he gave an unbelieving look and aimed it towards his best friend, "So when you pressed Hambergaler being the reasoning behind that drug bust in Miami, you weren't serious?"
Naruto shook his shaggy blond head and Kiba let out a sigh of relief mixed with a laugh. "Thank god, maybe you can take after your father after all. Really Naruto, I've been wondering about you for awhile. I'm glad this," Kiba held up the books, "is all for show."
The blond shrugged as he bent over and picked up the large lifeless paperback that had fallen to the floor. Summer sky blue eyes twinkled before growing with exaggeration, "Wouldn't it be wild if it wasn't?"
Rubber soles of the Doc Martin boots rubbed awkwardly against the wet, paved pathway that cut through a dimly lit park. The walkway was lit by tall lamp posts that were spread out every few feet, hanging high and illuminating the path in a twinkle as water droplets clung to the glass.
The jeans that frayed at the bottom dragged against the damp ground, soaking up that rain that had previously poured from the angry gray sky that still lingered. Pale fingers came up to check the white muffler that seemed to be carelessly wrapped around a slender pale neck. A gentle sigh escaped with force, as the habit of roaming fingers continued to drift to the blazer before sliding down to the jeans; his fingers taking in the familiar feeling.
He felt weak, and the walk alone felt as though it was pulling the last remnants of his energy, but in order to restore what he lost he had to move. He silently cursed the rain as he continued to move at a swift human pace, what he assumed was as normal as he could get, his dark red eyes searching the park endlessly in a well composed hope.
He could technically smell her before he saw her. He could smell the egg whites she ate for breakfast and the last hint of perfume still clinging to her clothing. He could hear the rapid clicking of her heels as she rushed to where he assumed was home. But, best of all, he could hear the wonderful and drawling thrumming of her heartbeat.
It took him but a moment to catch up with her; always knowing when to control his speed and when to let his hunger control it for him. It was easy to cut off her scream, to easily drown it out and take her back from where he had come.
It wasn't as easy to feed in a park as they once made it.
Juugo wasn't waiting for him as he entered; he wasn't surprised in the least, and was more relived than he would ever let show. He could hear Karin humming a tune two floors up and could tell more by her mood that she had just fed.
So, as white fangs pierced the velvet skin the covered the neck of the woman without a name, whose face he wouldn't care to remember; Sasuke decided to join Karin in her happy spirits.
His new personal mantra played on absently in the back of his mind as his energy returned and the woman's life faded away in his hands.
Soon, Soon, Soon…
"Call just came in last night." Naruto shared.
"You finally get a date?" Kiba asked grumpily.
The blond stuck out his tongue, "No. Another random person was taken from the park."
Shikamaru sighed, sparing the energy to lean forward and grab a slice of toast, "Troublesome."
But not to talk too much.
"I can't see this being a serial killer anymore." Gaara spoke up, staring down at his eggs with a questioning look. Questioning, like, 'are they going to kill me if I eat them'?
Naruto looked up from the newspaper, frowning when Kiba snatched the comics right out of his grasp and threw it somewhere out of reach. The blond pouted towards his best friend who was always grumpy in the morning.
"Why can't it be a serial killer, Gaara?" Kiba strained.
"Yes, please don't leave Kibbles and Bits in suspense." The blond glared.
"Don't make it too complex for Barbie." The brunette snarled.
Gaara smacked a hand down on the table, causing the two to look away from each other and glare at opposing walls like children.
"The hits are too frequent for one. Serial killers are known to be abnormally patient. They want to make sure they have the right target as if the person they are going to kill is special in their mind. Even if that was dismissed simply, there is no pattern. Every serial killer has a pattern whether they know they are forming it or not."
Naruto's top lip curled up awkwardly, "You know too much about that."
"And you know too little to be a detective." Gaara replied in his usual drone voice, adding a slow blink in the equation.
"He's right," Shikamaru added slowly, "I researched serial killers the other night."
Naruto frowned, his brow creasing as he sunk into a deep thought, "Well…"
"We can all go back to our normal lives and pretended this never happened?" Kiba suggested with a grin, which was firmly erased by Naruto's rough jab.
"If you do that, everyone in town will fucking die!" Naruto barked loudly.
Kiba jabbed his pinky in his ear in attempt to drown out the noise, "I get it, I get it. Let's just move everyone and call it a day."
The blond jabbed his arm again, the same spot and causing Kiba to wince, "There have already been talks of evacuation. This isn't funny anymore."
The room fell silent as three sets of eyes drifted towards the snappish blond.
Kiba shook his head and waved his hands in front of his body before slamming them on the blond's dining room table, "Evacuation?"
Shikamaru worked the muscles in his face to frown, "Konoha was once known for peace. This is getting out of control."
"What's your father doing about it?" Gaara finally pushed the breakfast away, deciding not to dance with death.
Naruto sighed. "As Mayor, his hands are tied now. People are stepping in from all over the country."
"And so, you want to untie his hands and step on those people's toes and fuck us over." Kiba grumbled.
The blond shrugged, "Yeah, pretty much."
"Troublesome."
And this time, it wasn't only from Shikamaru.
"More rain is coming."
Sasuke looked up from the book that was perched in his lap; his legs crossed one over the other as his dark coal eyes stared with an empty expression.
"Juugo just got in." The woman chimed on in her ringing voice.
There was a shriek that ripped through the air from the floor above, causing the woman to glance up with a giggle and causing the raven to go back to reading his book.
"It's odd, wouldn't you agree Karin?"
The woman glanced back to the questioning voice with raised eyebrows, waiting for him to continue on with or without her allowing it.
"How we've disturb their living so, and yet they haven't changed one bit. They still don't cower in fear, but still walk the streets at night as if it were safe."
"Perhaps…" She paused, her lips quirking, "Perhaps they find it to be a fluke. Something that will fix itself. Something that's only temporary. Or am I wrong, Sasuke?"
Pale lips pulled into a smirk, his coal eyes drifting towards the window just as drops of rain began to patter against it.
"People notice."
And again, his smile pulled for a fraction of a second as he stared out of the window fading only at the thought of having to wait once more.
Soon, soon, soon…
Soon felt so far away.
Author's Notes (long…very long):
- The Philly Phanatic is the Mascost to the Baseball team the Phillies. Obviously.
- Hambergaler is that guy with Ronald and the McDonald's team. The awkward one…-pause- …never mind.
- Game Informer is a monthly magazine that combines all platform and PC games; gives you sneak previews, updates, and ratings.
- The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead was written by: J. Gordon Melton
- Vampires: The Occult Truth was written by: Konstantinos
- Vampires, Burials, and Death: Folklore and Reality was written by: Paul Barber
- Vampires and Vampirism: Legends from Around the World (Classics of Preternatural History) was written by: Dudley Wright
- Doc Martin are a brand of shoes/boots.
-sighs- That was a lot.
And once again, Updates, lengths of chapters and so forth are completely random and still undecided.
