Ollie Minables parents arrived the next day, their fake concern for the girl was enough to fool the hospital staff that these people were eligible parents but Ollie could see it in their eyes just how cold and heartless they truly were. She had thought she had escaped them long ago when she first ran away and never came back, but now she was back in their merciless clutches.
They weren't surprised to see their supposed to be seventeen year-old daughter still seven. They knew the minute they laid eyes on her from the birth that she was anything but normal. Anything but human. When she was first born it took the girl two minutes to cry, when she was ten months old she died in her sleep, but the next day miraculously revived herself, she was only two and was only able to utter one word: Death. They knew as they watched her grow up she was something beyond anything God himself could have created. She was the Devil's work.
The doctors called it a miracle that Ollie was able to survive such a fall and be submerged under the frigid water for a little more than a day and not have a single scratch. They released her into her parents custody and let them to deal with the Press Corps waiting for them outside. It seemed like the whole world wanted to know why the girl was on the bridge and how she survived. Ollie didn't care about the first question but the second one was a mystery. How did she survive? Was Death just toying with her now?
She broke out of her thoughts with a sigh as she got in her parents silver 2001 Volvo station wagon. She knew this was just a rental car from the clear air, new car smell, and the lack of garbage coating the back seat floor. She stared at her lap, ignored the flashing cameras, and let her mind wonder to what the future had in store for her. She wondered what her parents were going to do with her, bring her back and make her into a slave like they did so long ago or let her roam free so they wouldn't have to concern themselves with her. She doubted they would want to keep her, but she knew the thought of having their only daughter serve them was pleasing to their sick minds. And she also doubted they would let her stay, she knew they would like her as a slave but she also knew how terribly afraid they were of her at times. They didn't like gore in anyway, but Ollie's life gravitated towards it. Every suicide attempt she had made in the past was linked to a bone shattering, gut wrenching, blood splattering scene; and it was even more disturbing when she tried to put herself back together again using temporary staples and tape.
Once the car's engine purred to life and Ollie's father - Roland - started to drive out of the parking garage the girl's mother - Alexandria - didn't bother turning around in her seat to look at her daughter as she spoke. She was still disturbed by Ollie's pale grey skin and chapped light purple lips.
"Oliver," she said the girl's full name in a cold tone. The girl didn't bother looking up from her lap, "once we retire to the hotel, you are required to bring our bags in then return to the car. Leave if you please or stay. The choice is yours."
"Yes Ma'am," Ollie replied quietly.
((HIM))
Mira Jane Stillman's body was slowly leaking blood from the many cuts he had given her when he had laid her on his bed and started dissecting her like she was a science project. She was dead before he could even consider torturing her, making him rush to harvest her organs and place them in separate bags before stuffing them into a small hand-held styrofoam cooler. He could only guess she had died when he had punched her, broke her nose, and sent fragments of bone to impale her brain tissue. But no matter, he needed to relocate soon or else police will find him here and will certainly be turned into a science project then. The only thing he needs to do before finding a new location is to stock up on food and he knew just the residence he could find more than enough humans all at once. Comfort Inn.
((HER))
Ollie's parents said nothing else throughout the short ride from the hospital to the Comfort Inn. It was a regular enough looking hotel; white paint was chipped on the exterior with three stories and a two star ranking. It was your average hotel. As darkness consumed the sunset, Ollie struggled to lug the two duffel bags to the hotel entrance, not drop them as her parents requested a room, then panted as she hauled them up three flights of stairs. She wasn't given permission to take the elevator to the third floor because her parents didn't want to stand in such a tight space with the girl. Once Ollie got to the room she knocked on the door, waited for it to open, then entered.
"We were waiting," the mother stated, not looking at the girl as she started to unpack their belongings into the dressers provided in the room.
"My apologies, Ma'am. I had some trouble with the stairs."
"That's no excuse, Oliver."
"My apologies again, Ma'am," she said lightly and then she proceeded to unpack without another word. Once she was done she stood, folded her hands in front of her and was about to leave when something caught her gaze. A spider had taken possession of the upper right hand corner of the window. Its spindle legs were prickled with hundreds of fine hairs. Its horrid, multifaceted eyes looked everywhere at once, and its rugged maw worked continuously as if in anticipation of the first living fly to become stuck in the trap that it had set. She jumped when a thick arm reach launched forward and caught the spider and its web, crushing both instantly.
"We said you are dismissed, Oliver," the girl's father stated as she watched him slowly retreat his hand and wipe the remnants of the spider on his faded jeans.
Ollie met his cold blank stare that was similar to the one her mother possessed but only for an instant before quickly looking down, apologizing again, then leaving the room.
((HIM))
The first story window had been unlocked while the room was vacant but difficult to open. The hinges at the top were corroded, and the frame was paint-sealed to the jamb in place. He made more noise than he intended, but he didn't think he had been loud enough to draw the attention of anyone in any of the other rooms. Then just as the paint cracked and the hinges moved to grant him access, a light had appeared on the third floor.
He had backed away from the window at once, even though the light went off again ever as he moved. He had taken cover in a stand of six-foot bushes near the property fence.
From there he saw her appear at the obsidian window, more visible to him, perhaps, than she would have been if she left the light on. It was the girl he had pushed off the bridge, the girl haunting his dreams. He could visibly see her dark brown hair - the same shade as his own - messy as it hung from her scalp, her pale grey eyes that held so much life but were distant at the same time, he could even see the small stretch of freckles that went from one cheek, across her nose, to the other cheek.
He stared at her in disbelief, then with a growing excitement. All this time since their first encounter he couldn't stop thinking, dreaming about this one being and he didn't understand why. At first he thought this was his subconscious second guessing his decision to push her off the bridge and had presumed her dead, but know he could see why he was so drawn towards her, so captivated by her all of a sudden. She - just like him - was not human. His subconscious must've picked up on her inhuman credibility without warning him and now he wanted nothing more but to kidnap her and take her to his hideaway to undergo high levels of examination and dissection before killing her off once and for all.
Separated from him by nothing but the night air and a thin pane of glass, the girl seemed to float above him as if she were a vision. In reality she was, if anything, exceptionally vital, so full of life, that he would not have been surprised if she could walk the night as confidently as he did, though for a reason different from his; she seemed to have within her all the light she needed to illuminate her path through any darkness. He drew back farther into the bush, convinced that she possessed the power to see him as clearly as he saw her.
She was like some princess locked in a tower, pining for a prince to climb up the vine and rescue her, The tower that served as her prison was life itself, and the prince for whom she waited was Death, and that from which she longed to be rescued was the curse of existence.
The words escaped his lips and he said softly, "I am here for you, princess," but he did not move from his hiding place, he was too absorbed with his past actions to do anything. Why did he say that?
Whatever the reasoning, he kept his gaze on her until after a few minutes she turned away from the window. Vanished. A void lay behind the glass where she had once stood.
He ached for her return, he didn't understand why, but he wanted one more brief look at her.
He waited five minutes, then another five. But she did not come to the window again.
At last, aware that dawn was closer than ever, he crept back to the window once more. Because he had already freed it, the window swung out silently this time. The opening was tight, but he eeled through with only the softest scraps of clothes against wood.
((HER))
Ollie exited the building through the back door to the third story and climbed down the fire escape as requested from her mother and father. They didn't want anyone to see her oddly colored skin and lips, but she didn't care what other people thought of her. She always knew she was different from other humans, but the catch was: she hasn't been human for ten years so how could she even compare her uniqueness to those beings?
Dismissing the thought she made it back to the Volvo station wagon only to figure out it was locked. She sighed and contemplated going back into the hotel to get the keys. Her mother and father surely won't be happy that she had interrupted them, but then again they had to have some sort of a heart if they were willing enough to let her sleep in the car and not in the bushes. Sighing she turned away from the car and headed back inside the building, not caring about the strange looks the clerks at the front desk gave her, then slipped inside the elevator before it could close.
As she rode the elevator to the top she started to think about what she was going to do after she got the keys to the car. She didn't know how to drive, and she wasn't going to go back to Rhode Island with her parents. Maybe she could nap in the car until dawn, leave the car with the keys still in her possession, then start her adventure to find Death again. It could be in California since she still had yet to check there along with Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and many other southern states.
Once she got to the third and final floor she got off the elevator and started down the hallway, but she could sense something was wrong. Terribly wrong. A strong ominous feel was hanging in the whole hotel and she only realized it until now. Her grey eyes scanned each and every door she passed as she slowly walked along, not daring to make a single sound. The doors were the same color, the same wood, the same size as compared to where she walked passed them on her way up a few minutes ago, but now they seemed twisted, disfigured, and intimidating. It was probably just her imagination getting a hold of her, but she still couldn't shake the feeling the something gruesome lie behind each door she has already passed and still has yet to.
Stopping her movements as soon as she got to her parents' room, she tried the knob that was almost taller than her before leaning her ear against the chilled wood of the door. It was of course locked, but she didn't think of herself stupid for trying, instead she felt relieved that whatever what in that room was safely behind this locked door and out of her sights. But she quickly found it hard to suppress a smile that found its way onto her lips at the thought of Death Itself being beyond this one inch thick door. If it was Death that was causing all of this chaos, then she will meet Him gleefully with her arms extended and a warm smile on her chapped purple lips.
Knocking on the door with the same smile on the face she said, "Ma'am? Are you asleep yet?" She had to keep Death's presence on the down-low. If other occupants on this floor were to know Death was here there will surely be a panic, she had seen this type of thing happen before.
Knocking again, she was about to speak up again when the door was flung open, nearly smashing in her skull but missing by a few centimeters, and was harshly pulled into the room by the collar of her black dress. A loud scream could be heard behind her as the person thrusted Ollie towards a hooded man's blade.
