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Marcellus Ellsworth arrived in Amity Park well after sunset. True, he was powerful enough that he need not fear the sun, but one did not live as long as he by tempting fate.
Even if it was rumored that his current quarry, despite being painfully young, could also walk in daylight.
No matter. One such as he would not be hiding on a night such as this. Not when hunger would inevitably drive him to hunt. To have enough self-control not to attack the humans he evidently interacted with so often, he would have to feed regularly.
The question was, where would he be?
Marcellus directed his driver to stop with a rap on the dividing window. Marcellus couldn't very well find the child without venturing beyond the blacked out windows of the limousine.
The child. Not for the first time, Marcellus wondered how such a thing came to be in a city so far off the beaten path for their kind. Did a loner make Amity Park their home, and finally break under the pressures of isolation? Or did a traveler pass through, fall to their hunger and, in a fit of either remorse or generosity, bestow a blood gift on their victim?
Well, either way, Marcellus was confident in his ability to benefit from the situation. A new child, from a different bloodline, in his debt would be a great boon. An ally in the form of the loner would be as well.
He stepped out into the night. It was quiet. Not much nightlife in this city. At least, not here. He nodded to the driver. The man would be ready when he called.
Marcellus turned towards the town's public part. Although he himself found the practice distasteful, many of the young went for the low-hanging fruit: the homeless.
As he got nearer, he made note of the benches. Only one was occupied. The occupant seemed to fit the description he had been given, however, it would be better to wait for more evidence. He'd hate to be forced to kill someone simply because he'd acted hastily. He settled in the shadows.
For a long while, nothing happened. Then, for just a moment, the figure on the bench seemed to flicker and vanish. Marcellus smiled. That was an unusual ability to be sure. A valuable ability. His smile only grew wider when the boy yawned, displaying dentition that never belonged to a human.
Marcellus stepped out of the shadows and approached the bench. "Greetings, child," he said.
"Um, hi," said the boy looking up from the book he'd been reading and waving. "What's up?"
The new idiom. Lovely.
"You have made quite a stir," said Marcellus. "I had to come see what all the fuss was about."
The boy tilted his head, brow drawn down. "Excuse me?"
Marcellus smiled, revealing his fangs. "You need not dissemble. I know what you are as well as I know my own nature."
"Do you," said the boy, skeptically, sliding away from Marcellus.
"Indeed. Tell me, did your sire leave you to face the hunger all on your own, or are they hiding in this city even now? Regardless, considering how little guidance they seem to have given you, I believe we can assist one another."
The boy blinked at him. "Oh," he said, finally, "you're a vampire."
Marcellus had hoped the boy would be cleverer than this. No matter.
"Yes, like you are, yourself, young one."
"But I'm not," said the boy, calmly. He closed his book and set it to the side. "A vampire, I mean." The boy looked up, meeting Marcellus' gaze.
Marcellus raised an eyebrow, then froze as the boy's eyes shone green.
Ah. That. That was not something his kind could usually do.
"You shouldn't be here," said the boy, a kind of hollow echo in his voice.
Marcellus had heard of these. Had heard from his elders of creatures they had dared not to cross. Of the reason some certain places and towns were forbidden to their kind.
"You should leave." This pronouncement was said in a much more normal voice, the boy looing away again. "If you hurt anyone, I'll know."
And you'll regret it, was unspoken.
Marcellus nodded and backed away.
Well. He might not have gotten what he wanted, but as one of his old teachers used to say, any situation he could walk away from could be considered a sort of success.