"Albarn" she heard her name from somewhere deep in the library "yes?" Maka called back in the stillness of the massive room as she returned books to their rightful spot. "phone call, its your fiance." "tell her ill be just a minute." she looked at the spine of a book, if she dident put them back now she wouldn't be able to put all of the books back until she returned from her mission. "she sais its important." Maka looked up and set the book aside, she walked down the isles to where she heard the voice, a thin wirey man with black hair and handlebar mustache held the phone half way to his head and the other behind his back. He held the phone out to Maka. "thank you." she said. She held the phone to her ear but there was silence on the other line "hi crona." she began. "hay." "is something wrong?" silence. "Crona?" "we were right. Everything, everything is wrong." Maka squinted, she put a hand on her hip and looked at the floor. "what did you find out?" "dad told me how we were held back and why." she nodded, then she looked up. The man at the counter stared at her intently. Maka stared back for a short moment, the man returned to filling out papers. "you did a good job. But I dont think we should talk about that now." on the other side crona curled her lips inward a worried squint in her eyes. "o-okay." "we'll talk later." crona nodded. " bey" "bey crona." Maka leaned over the desk and put the phone back on its line. "maka." she heard her name again, this time from a deeper voice from behind her, she turned to sid who stood looking at her with his usual big toothed scoul. "yes?" Sid's expression softened with a hint of embarrassment "you do have the new Hary Potter novel in right?" he asked lowly. Maka was taken aback "yes its...up front.""thanks..if any one asks..." "i didn't see you here." Sid nodded "right." with that they walked away from one another.
(new england USA, TWO AM)
a sinister form appeared at the end of the street growling ominously as it drew closer. The black and white shell of the nineteen thirty six four dore ford gleamed in the streetlight, the blackened windows like slate of pure night. The license plate long expired with "L0RD D3TH" stamped into the metal. The cars engine was silent as a phantom only the faintest of whispers could be heard from the black mist wafting gently from the exhaust. Without a single squeal from the brakes the car came to a stop at Bill Pickmens house. A second passed, the streetlights began to dim over the entire block soon the street was dark. The back door of the car burst open, a long slider figure in tattered roads stood to the back of the car facing the house. The front door opend as well with another occupant standing to the side of the car. Their long faced metallic mask's in the shape of skulls Gothic in nature and their roads concealed all humanity, if they were after all human. A black mist flowed from the back door slowly weaving its way to the door of the house. From inside the house Bill had not moved sence he had opened the book, he was now content to die in that corner, to be free of the images that burned his mind. His doorbell rang even thogh now the power was out for the whole block. He slowly picked his head up. The bell rang once more but he was to week in his mind to get up and answer, the wispers were calling him again, to protect the book, to die for the book, he had to. A heavy fist pounded on the door, again and again. The two figures from the car levitated to the back door the largest figure of them all stood at the front door, his robes were the most complex, his hood reaching a shap peek, his mask carved of bone and inlayed with perfectly symmetrical patters, the eyes were black spiraling pits of doom foresaw only in the waking dreams of our most perceptive of outcast ancestors. It leaned on its sinister three bladed scythe like a cane, holding it like a mourning friend. The figure cocked its white gloved palm and slammed it into the door breaking it off its hinges and flayying into the house only to crash into the kitchen adjacent to it. He stared blankly into the darkness. A primal scream pierced the air as bill flung him self at the roabed figure, he was caught buy one giant hand around his throat and thrown back into the darkness, the firgure levitated into the house. Bill trying to pick himself up but he couldent stand in the presence of the dark figure, it was even worse than the book. "i should kill you." it said with a deep voice that boomed in bills ears like the voice of a god. "your corrupt, I smell it." it pushed bill's head against the floor with its scythe "your but a victim of circumstance." the other two specters floated through the house searching for other occupants. "are you the Devil?" the figure turned its back. "no. even the Beelzebub fears Death." there was a pause as the reality sank in to bills head"no.. no your dead!" lord death picked up the Necronomicon, its binding sisseld and burned in his hands. "this is mine now. Your grand father is lucky to have avoided me all these years. but no one escapes me in the end." "okay quit tormenting him." came a voice from the sythe. Lord Death ignored it "we'll be going now if there's nothing left to see." He turned to the specters behind him "immortals, what have you found?" they floated forward with an arm full of more books lesser though they were, even worse some necromantic paraphernalia. Lord Death shook his head. "burn them, the house as well." "my house?!" Bill sat up "no! Please!" one of the spectors swooped over to him and plucked him from the ground and the other slipped off into another corner of the house. "don't you think thats a little extreme?" came the voice again from his scythe, lord death slipped the Necronomicon into his road. "a casualty of the inquisition spirit." he said as flames began to crawl up the walls of the kitchen, he vanished into a black mist that scattered in the breeze.
( twelve hours later.)
"no." Maka stood with her phone to her ear. One palm on her face "nooo.." she shook her head in a loss for words from her frustration "i say that because I'm standing right here were this guys house used to be and all that's left are ashes." she looked over to Crona who ignored the police tape and walked up to the burnt skeletal remains of the house "i wish I could be more descriptive but all we have are ashes, there isn't anyone around...well the guy probably caught wind that we were coming and burned the place himself. We'll get the police to post an APB in the area." she leaned against the car. "no promises.." she hung up she watched Crona sift through the ashes but she wasn't having any luck finding something of use. A few people strolled by on the sunny peaceful day and some stopped and looked at the house. "you kids shouldn't be playing in there." an elderly woman in white jogging attire said. Maka smiled at her, she squared her shoulders to act professional. "were investigating ma'am." the woman seemed intrigued "are you reporters?" "were from the DWMA." maka said looking for her credentals, she took out the little leather paper keeper and flashed her ID. The woman seemed satisfied by the answer. "did you know the man who lived here?" Maka came closer to her on the sidewalk. "i knew his grandfather, his son died a while back then he passed away, the poor man, and now his grand son has disappeared. The pickman fammily's been all but mowed down in half a year." she seemed apathetic for their situation. "do you know anyone who would want to hurt bill?" the old woman shrugged. "like I said I didn't know the boy so well." Maka knew that there was something the woman wasn't telling her. "with a grand father like his, I'm sure you've herd things." the old woman agreed, she nodded slightly. "where do you think bill is now?" the woman leaned in "well I do hear he frequents the men's bath house." Maka was surprised at that answer. "i don't know that he would go there if he was in trouble. Any friends he would stay with? Any visitors?" the woman shook her head "I'm sorry..i got nothing." "that's okay, if you think of anything pleas talk to the authority's." Crona approached, her porcelain face stained with ashes, she turned her head to the woman, she silently waved. The woman suddenly became timid. "as you were.." she gently jogged away and after she was a bit aways she began to sprint. Crona rounded the car and opened the drivers side door, she sat heavily in the seat. "now what?" Maka sat in the passenger seat. "investigate." "can we take lunch first?" maka rolled her eyes "what ever happened to that self deprivation thing?" "I discovered
the joy of red meat, and so did my blood." crona started the car. "wow, its almost like soul never left."
(and yes I know you cant drive from California to New England in twelve hours, its a bloody cartoon.)
it was true, back in the day Crona usualy only ate once a day, by choice, but the resins were all in her head. She didn't eat because she didn't feel like she deserved it, just like many other things. She punished herself for her past by depriving her self of food and of the things she wanted. Eventually she out grew some of that. She started eating healthy portions but no amount of food could fill out her skeletal frame when the black blood constantly ate away all non-essential fat and nutrience for fuel.
But the extra intake made it even more powerful and she soon learned to use the effects of her diet to her advantage. Iron was most essential mineral to the health of a black blood cell, it gave it "the attitude", in essence its aggressive self defensive nature responsible for her ability to attack efectivly with the blood using bloody needle and such. Fat helped in the healing aspects, weaving stored fat into new bodily tissue like skin and even muscle. At twelve o-clock she sat in the parking lot of a "Big Kahuna Burger" burger-shopery stuffing her face with a number seven with frys because she is an American. Maka sat next to her studying a file on Bill Pickanm that they had acquired at the hall of records. "the guy is gone without a trace, the last Pickman alive is Barbra Pickman, his mother, shes in a nursing home, she has heavy dementia." "any history on the family? Where do they come from?" crona asked through a mouth full. She swallowed after remembering her manners. "what kind of ties did they h-have?" Maka huffed "its funny, uh. There's nothing documented before 1917 when ugustos Pickman migrated from a town somewhere in America called Dunwhich" crona repulsed slightly just hearing the name. "that sounds like an awful place." Maka shrugged "couldn't be worse than Silent Hill, that place is a dump." she closed the file and sat back in her seat. "so what then?" "so, we have nothing. We've looked and we've come up dry, chances are the book Kid wanted burned in the fire, probably along with bill. Both were more than likely incinerated. Youll probably find whats left of him on the bottom of your shoe." she sighed. "it would be a waist of time to stay here and look when there's nothing to go-" suddenly something slammed into the roof of the car, hard enogh to make it shake violently. Crona dropped the remainder of her burger. "s-son of bitch!" Crona cursed, she tossed the wrapper aside. Maka put her hand just inside of the great coat. They both stepped out of the car in a synchronized fasion and looked to the top of the car. A long tattered specter stood on top of the car. It looked down at Crona. "dont move!" Maka said with a Luger pointed right for center of mass. "step down from the car and lay on the ground." it looked at Maka with the lack of concern you would expect from the undead. Maka shot twice, but it dident even flinch. The iron mask sunken into the cowl shuttered, an odd hum filled the air. The horrid thing unleashed a scream similar to Crona's old screech resonance, maka was literally blown away, at least thirty feet. It watched her as she picked her self up off the ground, suddenly the specter fealt something wet and sloppy hit the back of it's road. Crona threw the remainder of her hamburger at is head. "you like wasting food? Do you think that's funny? Think of all the starving children!" she looked down at the roof of her car. "and my car! I had the only Caviler in the state of california that doesn't have a dint in it and you ruin it!" she scolded the wraith fiercely, the specter was taken aback by this. "e-explain yourself mister ghost!" the specter hissed and screamed once more. Crona cringed and grit her teeth. Two more bullets pierced the roab. Maka sprinted toward the car and lept onto the hood of the car much to Crona's dismay, she accidentally kicked off one of the windshield wipers. A fast set of motions ensued, the specters mask being thrown into the air and three thick lacerations carved into Maka's chest, she fell back onto the hood causing a small crack in the windshield. Crona looked up into the cowl. It was nothing but spiraling darkness. Quickly she yanked the robe with force, the robe fealt as though it were pulled right off of something of mass but it fell laisely to the ground and nothing was there. They both stood there dumb founded. The attacker was not invisible, it simply was no longer there. Maka sat up and looked at the deep cuts into her skin, they were certainly real. the blackish red blood seeped from the wounds unable to heal at the rate crona was capable, but that sort of blow would have disemboweled a normal person. "wow they really don't make em like the used to..." Maka put her feet on the ground. Crona's eyes were fixed on Maka's chest, her expression was wide and empty. Maka looked down to see her shirt which had been ripped open exposeing her breasts. "your just the worst kind of person." Maka shook her head. Crona looked away "huh? What? Your hurt, I-i was making sure you were okay." "shut up and look around. Make sure theres nothing else, im going to report this to Kid. that attack couldn't have been random." Crona was looking at her chest again "quit it!" she threw a book at Crona's head knocking her through the air with a solid thud. Crona sat up and rubbed her head. "cant even look at my own fiance..." she sulked. She staggered to her feet. That things mask was sitting on the pavement, she walked over to it and looked at it on the ground for a moment, she knelt down and picked it up and examined it. Heavy, some sort of cast metal with a chrome finish, it had some fine engraving around the edges, quite a trick considering the density of the metal. It peeked her curiosity, she healed it up to her face and looked thought the eye holes...then she really wished that she hadn't. Looking thogh the eyes of the mask they sky was ablaze with a neon cyan haze. She could see the stars glimmering. The fast food place and the city around her, the people, she could see there particles and atoms swimming around but confined to their shape. She could see the dirt under the concrete on which she stood, the gas in the tank of her car and petroleum molecules whiten the fuel. She pulled the mask away. And looked around. It was all normal, the world as she knew it. She set it aside. The cloak, upon further examination was just a normal cloak, nothing speacl. Regardless she took them both and placed them inside her trunk and slammed it closed.