Yawning, a certain reaper started his day. He wasn't in his own home and was still tired from his trip, but he got up anyway. If there was anything being part of a military group taught him, it was that routine could be helpful. He knew that if he slept in too late, it would be hard to get back into the habit when he returned to work. In this time, he managed to pour himself a bowl of cereal and sit down in front of the television with a blanket wrapped around himself.

Everyone was right about it being cold where the beach cottage was, but fortunately for him, it was heated. A fireplace would keep him warm, although he wasn't sure how to go about maintaining the pile of firewood during his stay. Audrey was certain that he would think of something. For now, he needed food, as he hadn't eaten anything since the day before. Fortunately, he had brought along some horrendously sugary American cereal he had ordered amoung other things.

"Damn, the Americans are doing cereal right." he said to himself after his first bite.

The man Did this for a while until he jumped as he heard the house settle. It groaned, as buildings sometimes do, causing his ears be at attention and his body to freeze. Audrey stayed this way for a few moments until he couldn't bear it anymore and needed to get up. His first action was to go to the kitchen and check the fridge door. He made sure that the seemingly random-looking phone number to the local H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. station was still there, as well to check his other box of cereal. It was a less sugary, off-brand kind that he had no intention of actually eating. Opening the box, he stuck his hand inside in an ungraceful fashion, gripping the handle of the pistol hidden inside.

Content with this, he washed his hands and moved to the entrance of the house and crouched in front of a machine. The moisture in the room was abnormal, even for a house along the beach. It was a reasonable thing, however, as he checked the small humidifier he had brought along with him and changed the water. It was a cheap way of vampire-proofing a room or entrance way, as he had filled the device with water that was blessed. He did need to replace the towel underneath the device, however, as it was soaked with what leaked onto the floor.

Essentially, the first thing he did upon arriving was attempt to make it impossible for the most common type of supernatural to get in. The rest was him trying to relax under these circumstances, which was turning out to be understandably difficult. It was just now that he was really starting to realise that his time at H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. had changed him somewhat. It was difficult for him to live outside the base, although history had proven that the base wasn't completely safe.

There was that incident with Preston, and then there were stories told to him by older soldiers about several attacks during the 1990s by the Millennium Letzte Battalion. Almost the entire payroll was wiped out, causing the organization to enlist the help of The Wild Geese mercenary group. When that was almost completely destroyed, they bought up several smaller private military companies to have under their command.

Either way, this place was too peaceful. Audrey kept expecting things to go wrong, cutting into his ability to enjoy himself. This problem persisted for several days and he was unable to shake it no matter what he did. He tried going into town, only to feel uncomfortable with the familiar area. He tried staying in and playing videogames, but not even that helped. Audrey was all alone.

In a matter of days, he grew tired of the solitude he sought and picked up the phone to call the doctor. He wasn't sure if she could help him, as she wasn't a psychologist, but he had hoped that hearing someone's voice might help him. Thus, after much nervous hesitation, he forced himself to dial.

"Hello?" answered a female voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Miranda? This is Audrey. I'm on my vacation."

"Oh, hey!" the woman finally perked up, snapping out of her daze. "Sorry, I'm kind of out of it today."

"You mean everyday?"

"Rude." Miranda snidely replied. "So, how are things turning out for you?"

"Not good." the reaper sighed, laying his head down on the counter while keeping his phone to his ear. "I keep acting like I'm on a mission. I can't relax at all..."

"Really? That's awful… But, it's not uncommon for military personnel." stated the researcher. "I can give you the number of a professional. We have people on staff to help with this."

"I know. I just… don't really want to?" Audrey said back. "I just wanna enjoy myself now without all that other stuff."

"You can't expect things to fix themselves, Baines."

"Why not? That's how it works in movies, at least."

"You know better than anybody that movies can't be trusted." Miranda stated with a sigh. "If there's one thing that H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. teaches the people who work here, it's that."

Audrey didn't answer right away. He sat there in silence, listening to the sound of the hands of the clock on the wall turning as the thought about what to say. The sound of waves and wind could be heard outside, doing nothing to help him.

"So..." he finally began, about to change the subject altogether. "What's happening at the base?"

"Lots of things..." the other replied, giving up on helping Audrey for now. "We have several new vampire specimens from the raid at that Wakefield bloke's place. I don't know all the details about what happened, since I'm not authorized to be in on their investigations or interviews, but rumour has it that their working on getting a firing squad together."

"Yikes. An execution?"

"After what they supposedly did, I would bet so..."

"True. H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. doesn't really take kindly to that sort of thing." Audrey mused. "Come to think of it, what do you need vampire specimens for?"

"To further our understanding of the species' functions." Miranda stated as a matter of fact. Although she was talking over the phone, Audrey could almost hear her smile. That might have been the wrong question to ask her. Once she started talking about her findings, she was very unlikely to stop.

"Their fangs are so odd! They retract and elongate in order to pierce the sternocleidomastoid muscle in order to tap into the veins in the neck. Otherwise, there would be no way they could get to the vital arteries underneath. They could possibly hit the external jugular, but it's smaller and would take a few tries to hit while their prey is thrashing."

"Sterno-what?" questioned Audrey, pausing her rambling for a moment. "Is that a word?"

"It's that big muscle in your neck that goes from behind your ear, to where your collarbones meet, Audrey."

"Oh. That makes sense, now."

"Surely you took a class on this when you first joined?" the woman questioned. "You have to pass it to even start. Otherwise, they put you in the HR department."

"I passed. It's just a hard word to remember." Audrey insisted, sitting up on his stool a bit more. "But surely you didn't just learn all that just now?"

"Psh, of course not! It's just that now we actually found the muscles that control it! I'm not sure what to call them..."

"Just mash a bunch of sounds together. That's how the regular scientists do it, looks like." the man jested. Although they were talking about vampires and the science behind them, the man was starting to relax a bit more. In fact, this was the most at ease he had felt since he arrived.

He spoke with Miranda for about an hour until she needed to get back to work. Then, he hung up despite the fact that he would have stayed on the line for much longer. Now, he was alone again and needed to find another way to occupy himself. Sitting up, he looked around the room for a bit before feeling compelled to stand up.

After checking his humidifiers one more time, he decided that it was time to put on clothes and go outside. He needed exercise, after all. The thing he spent the most time on, however, was not getting dressed, but rather, deciding if he wanted to bring a gun or a knife with him. In the end, he went with a concealed pistol, just in case. With that, he locked the door and went out for a run, marking the true "first day" of his vacation.


A/N: Sup. I had another thing I wanted to write about, but I forgot what it was. Either way, I was already a paragraph into this one, so I ran with it. What can ya do?

I want to kinda revert Audrey in a way? He's gotten kind of bland. I feel like what he really needs are appearances where he's not working, and thus, this side-plot was born! I dunno how long it will last, though... As I come up with shit, probably.

Oh! I just remembered! All it took was me sitting down and thinking about it, I guess. You'll have to wait until next time to see, though.

Though maybe I should add another fluff chapter as a buffer?

Or should I just snip this thread and get it out of the way now?

You tell me.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!