Vacation

It was morning and Michael barely managed to find his way back into his sleeping bag in time to get a quick little rest to rejuvenate his body.. He didn't have enough time to move and was rather surprised when no one had so much as moved. They had all remained exactly as they were when he had left. He supposed he shouldn't have been as surprised as he was, after all this was a foreign home to them, but the fact that they were sound asleep was rather surprising.

His visit with whatever used to be his mother went off without a hitch, he guessed. It was a shame he couldn't tell them, but if Lord Death got whiff of this place it was questionable what he would do. There were many stories of Lord Death giving everyone a second chance, but those stories didn't seem like they would apply to his mom. A ferocious killer that had been transformed by evil magic. While Lord Death didn't like witches, his opinion of Evil Humans are usually lower. He rarely seemed to show care of them and have them fill in a questionnaire about whether or not they had become a horrible monster by choice or not.

Even after going back in to see if the crew was asleep, Michael didn't feel too tired. He had rested on the long train ride up here, so that wasn't surprising. He didn't have many other options than to plop down in front of television and watch the news. This was probably what he was going to be doing for the rest of the stay here since the local villagers weren't too open to the idea of someone they knew being transformed into a golem so he probably wouldn't venture out too much.

Nothing else was going on, it was a small town, so it also wasn't surprising, but it felt weird. After fighting off Kishin after Kishin, after all this trouble, it seemed wrong just to sit back and eat waffles. His dad was rather happy having his son and his friend back, he lived on the edge of a small town in the middle of nowhere, nobody really comes around and visits so this was probably the first time in awhile he had company. He was happy and busily working to keep things going well.

Xander and Shi were busying themselves with eating all the waffles Michael's dad provided them with, though, at least Xander was using silverware. And May, Melody, and Ash wanted nothing to do with the sight going on in the dining room and excused themselves to the main room to watch some television. The news had flickered on at this time as was basically customary in the DWMA to check out if there were any Evil Human or witch sightings that they should be made aware of. And it turns out, there was!

A string of murders had apparently occurred in this little town last night. Three bodies turned up all around the town, each with a similar M.O. and strange cuts that the town's own little forensics 'experts' could not identify what kind of weapon had separated the arms from the people's bodies. It was admittedly supposed to be their vacation. Their time in the sun without having to worry about dealing with the irrationality of the Evil Humans after such a big war. But perhaps that was the problem, boredom had quickly settled in. Even just one night on the outskirts of this small town had already dulled the excitement of fighting Vigrid. Even if it hadn't, they were all itching for a win after that fight.

"Shi!" shouted Melody, probably the most anxious of them all to get back to school and leave this boring life behind them. She jumped to her feet and ran to the dining room to witness something she wished she hadn't. Shi positioned hir mouth at the edge of the table and without much care for appearances was raking the waffles in groups of two or three off of the table into hir mouth. The only time ze stopped was to douse them or hir own mouth in syrup.

Melody stumbled out of the dining room and into the main room once more. She wanted to get out and get fighting, but she wasn't too keen on being alone with Shi. And she knew for a fact that her and Xander definitely wouldn't get along and their soul wavelengths definitely wouldn't mesh. Ash got up and got Xander out anyways. This just left her and May left. "Wanna go hunt the Evil Human?" asked Melody hopefully, she really didn't want to remain cooped up in this house for the rest of the week, and this promised to be the most interesting thing that would ever happen.

May tossed her head back casually and looked in at Michael, who had yet to take note of the newsflash and as a result the Evil Human. She realized it seemed petty to drag Michael away from his father, who he hadn't seen in who knows how long just to satisfy her own boredom. "Sure, let's go!" said May, jumping up from her spot. In the very least, she wouldn't have to listen to Shi's monstrous appetite. The two girls quickly went off after Ash and Xander.

After a few hour of investigating on their own and trying to keep a low profile (they didn't want any police asking why two young females were actively searching a mass murderer), they just gradually stopped. It started off with just an interesting handmade clothing store that distracted them from there it was a slippery slope and now they were sitting in a small park sipping handmade smoothies from one of the vendors.

It had been awhile since they could relax like this. It was nice. For once it wasn't about hunting Evil Humans for Kishin Eggs, for once in a long while they could relax and let someone else handle the job. True it was their friends who the duty had been shoveled onto, but they didn't care. This was supposed to a vacation after all, maybe for once in a long while they'd just kick back and enjoy life.

The main problem with this plan was that across town at a small local pool Ash and Xander were coming to the same conclusion. Ash was stretched out on a towel with a book in hand and Xander was swimming about, trying to impress the local lifeguard with his fast swimming. In other words a monster was on the loose and the people who were supposed to fight said monster while swimming and drinking smoothies.

It was their vacation though.

(-With Zhavio-)

The Evil Human was going through the room with a smile. "The delicious scent of a distraction," he said with a cocky laugh soon following it. "They are now going to be chasing after a mindless minion who only concern is murdering the masses, but too bad for them they'll be chasing a figment of my imagination. I feel a slightly ashamed of resulting to such a tactic having to dirty my hands for such a pathetic ruse, but since its been bought so well by those fools, I'll let it slide. They were so easily tricked into buying my little act I almost feel like I should've been an actor instead of an architect!"

"You're not very good at either," brought up Noelle as she looked up at her compatriot. Zhavio looked insulted for a brief second, but he just laughed it off as he continued to walk around the room.

"Well, my job was done fairly easily last night. They are distracted, fooled into thinking a mysterious foe is present in their quaint little town," continued Zhavio, bragging about the fact that they were doing their job and investigating the possibility of the Evil Human, nonetheless, his cocky laugh cut through the air as he continued to bask in his own glory. "And you?" He asked the young girl, walking closer to her. "Did you do your job?"

Noelle nodded solemnly as she toyed with her own hands in the darkness. "I found the secret you wanted me to find. I'll have her out by tomorrow's sunrise as long as I'm not disturbed."

"Ah, and you won't be my darling," said Zhavio as he brought his four claws snapped out as he opened his hand. He brought the four claws raking across the curtain of the gloomy motel they were staying in. "I'll be the one making sure of it." Once more his insidious laugh boomed from his body and into the air around him. The people in the next room would certainly hear him, everyone in the entire motel should've heard him. And every living being did…but that only amounted to a few rats. The rest of the populace had already been butchered in preparations for his big show.

Noelle looked around for another second. "Why this Evil Human?" she asked, breaking apart Zhavio's moment of incredible madness. Zhavio paused for a moment as he looked over at his young ally. He smiled for another few seconds as he examined her worries.

"I know you have very horrible trust issues, especially for someone so young," mentioned Zhavio. He began to pace about as he continued to think about this issue. "I remember when we first met and you didn't even trust me. I extended an olive branch and you cut it in half. After all, these years, all my time spent nurturing you back to what you are now, I would expect a little trust on your behalf. Not in this mysterious stranger X, but in…" Zhavio was sent spiraling towards the ground. Noelle's shadowy arm was sticking up out of the ground, catching Zhavio's foot as he walked about and sent him down to the ground. Zhavio rumpled his mouth into a frown as he sat up.

"I trust you," said Noelle. "No one else. Other people can't be trusted, I know that. I've learned that throughout my entire life. People, witches, Evil Humans, no one can be trusted. They are all evil."

Zhavio chuckled to himself as he had to agree to Noelle's wild paranoia of other people. He didn't trust them as far as he could throw them, which was said just for the simple fact that it was saying that meant zero trust in people, Zhavio had the physical strength to chuck people quite far. "I remember it quite well. When you first opened up to me, you told me how you became what you are now. You told me what it was that transformed you into an Evil Human." Noelle had an obvious look of contempt written over her face as she glared at Zhavio.

"I understand your unwillingness to trust someone or anyone in your case," started Zhavio as he stood back up and walked over to the window, looking out of it and at the horrible scenery. This room probably had the worst view of the entire hotel. Of any hotels, possibly. Beneath their room sat the garbage. The lofty, horrible stench actually waft up and into Zhavio's nose. But he didn't care. "But could you really turn your back completely to someone who came up in the same situation as you?" Noelle entire body floated up right next to Zhavio, hanging in the air.

"You were the luck one," continued Zhavio. His eyes continuously drifting the window, "you may have turned into freak, but you kept shreds of your humanity here and there after the experimentation. Your body is still a dark shadow of your old self, you still have your brain, higher thought processes which makes you human. She on the other hand lost all of her humanity and more." Zhavio made a motion with his hand to the window and the garbage dump below. There was a small family of mice out there, feasting on the cornucopia of piled-up garbage. "Could you turn down someone who is almost like a sister to you?"

Days off are nice. Too bad for me instead of getting a day-off I decide to a do a bonus chapter. Why? Well, I noticed that tomorrow is the two-year anniversary for Unsound Body. So, bonus update for fun!