rude awakenings

Who: Caleb, Mathias, Melia, and cameos by the Shadowdudes of Doom
When: Around/shortly after dawn
Where: The lake, then Caleb & Mathias' place

Melia had missed the fun with the shadowy figures in her reflection; she lived in the water and didn't have a mirrored surface big enough to catch them - and chances were she wouldn't use it that much even if she did feel like lugging one around with her. She hadn't escaped the feeling of being watched, however, and she'd been jumpy and on edge for days. Then, she'd woken up and found a shadowy being floating in the water beside her. That had scared years off her life. After that, even the watched feeling had disappeared. Until, of course, the next day. Where she found she was being followed through the water by two shadowy figures. It was startling at first, but all they did was watch and follow, and so it became sort of a game - especially when Melia found she could swim right through them. She did her best to lose them, and while it worked once, they found her again depressingly quickly. She'd gone to bed wondering what they were and what they wanted - or if it was some stupid joke being played on her by Alejandro.

That theory was quickly put to rest the next morning, though it could barely be called morning. Melia woke to a sudden pain searing her from shoulder to elbow. She jerked quickly away, blood immediately billowing around her from the deep scratches in her arm. It didn't take long to figure out the five shadowy figures in the water with her were attacking, and she managed to dodge another clawed swipe with only a tiny nick in her fin. Teeth bared, Melia went on the offensive, lunging for the nearest figure's throat to rip it out. She'd half-expected to pass through the figure like before, but this time her claws struck. Bits of shadow trailed up from where the wounds would have been, and the figure dissolved before her eyes. That had been easy, but Melia wasn't stupid and four on one were bigger odds than she wanted to deal with. Having created herself a hole, she dashed past the figures at top speed, injured arm tucked tightly against her side.

When she finally hit the shore, she wasn't close enough to Alejandro's house - but she was near Caleb's. And Caleb had used whatever magic he had against the vampires effectively enough that she decided to take her chances with him. If anything, she'd be safe enough in his house, assuming the things couldn't get inside with her. She raced to change and reach her nearest cache of human clothing, ripping the bag apart in her haste to get clothed. She normally wouldn't care, but in this case, clothing meant additional protection in case the shadows caught up with her again. She had no shoes but that didn't matter, and as soon as she'd zipped her jeans she was racing through town. Thankfully, she remembered the way to Caleb's house and in a short time (though not short enough with the shadows dogging her heels), she was running up to the door and pounding on it with all her considerable strength.

Melia wasn't the only one who'd had a rude awakening - Mathias had been asleep when the first of the figures attacked, scoring a line down his left arm. It was a short-lived attack though - Math slept with his knife under his pillow and the shadow was quickly dispatched with a slit throat before Mathias was even properly awake. The other two in the room didn't cause him that much more difficulty. He was just fucking pissed off and looking for a bandage when the hammering on the door began.

Caleb had slept through Math's attack, but the pounding on the door definitely roused him. He rolled out of bed literally, landing in a crouch beside it as he tried to catch up with current events. What the fuck time was it, anyways? He glanced at his clock, but the pounding hadn't stopped, so he got up and walked out towards the living room. "What the fuck's going on?" he asked, then noted blood. Caleb always noted blood. "You're bleeding." he pointed out unnecessarily, though not in a shocked or dismayed way. More just an observation. He also headed towards the door, to glance out and see who it was.

Running to Caleb's house had perhaps not been the best of plans. Melia had time to reflect on this as well as ponder her ability to break down the door to get inside, as the shadow creatures were quickly - too quickly - approaching, and she was weaponless in this state. On the other hand, breaking down the door would make it easier for them to get inside as well, so she scrapped that idea and kept banging, dodging another attack and a second that left rips in the thigh of her jeans but missed her skin.

"Fucking shadows that have been following me since we got back to town decided that they wanted to have a go while I was sleeping," Math told his brother as he found the first aid kit and upended it, rooting through for what he needed. "Got the fuckers, but not before they got a swipe in - not that bad, just caught me sleeping." Which pissed him off - things were quiet, that was for sure.

Caleb wrenched the door open, just as he was looking back at his brother. "The fuck?" he asked. "Shadows--oh fuck." he said as there was a Melia there--and behind her there seemed to be the aforementioned shadows.

Melia was so busy dodging and banging at the door that when it suddenly opened, she very nearly hit Caleb instead. With a look of relief, she dashed past him to the relative safety of his house and slammed the door shut behind her, bracing herself against it for a second to catch her breath.

Mathias waited, waiting to see if these fucking things could walk through walls, but nothing came through, which had him relaxing slightly. He finished taping up his arm and considered going back to his room to actually get dressed, given the sudden appearance of a guest, if that's what the mermaid could be called. That would probably be for the best, he decided, walking across the room and disappearing into his bedroom, leaving the other two to it for the moment.

Caleb reached out to steady her, but then she was leaned back against the door. "Are you okay?" he asked. Why he asked, he didn't know, it wasn't like she could give him a proper answer, now was it? He looked her over anyways, and saw...yeah that didn't look good. He moved over towards the front windows and looked out, moving the curtain aside to see the shadows out there. "...get away from the door, Mel." he said.

Well, she didn't think she was okay, but she wasn't about to keel over, so Melia nodded an affirmative to his question. She cradled her injured arm with her other one, trying not to drip any blood on Caleb's floor, and moved away from the door as he requested. She pointed towards the creatures with a question plainly written on her face, then mimed clawing the throat out of one and running. She wasn't about to change so she could talk, not with those things out there. She needed to be able to move if necessary.

Caleb nodded as he got what she was saying, and vaguely wondered if mermaid blood would work to fuel his spells. He wasn't sure, so he wouldn't try it. "...hold on a sec." he said, heading back to his room to retrieve his knife. Then he walked back into the living room, absently drawing the blade across the side of his wrist, just enough to draw blood. He had a few spells that might work...ones that wouldn't destroy the house, but they were wicked inaccurate--which was why he didn't usually use them. They didn't aim properly. It was almost like a shotgun, you didn't really aim. You picked a direction and then pulled the trigger--things fell down. He saw the doorknob turning, and then moved forward to lock it, figuring he'd clear possible massive property damage with his brother first, before he did it. Sure, it might do nothing, but still. One never knew with blood magic. That shit was unpredictable.

Mathias came back out of his room, pulling a shirt over his head, now thankfully dressed in jeans, his knife strapped to his waist, a gun in his other hand. He didn't usually carry a gun - they were unpredictable and not nearly as easily explainable as a knife, but he kept one anyhow, all properly licensed and everything (though not necessarily registered in his real identity) and now seemed a good time to have that. He looked toward Melia. "There's a first aid kit - you need patching up?" he asked her.

Melia glanced down at the deep scratches on her arm and sighed silently, nodding. She preferred to avoid human medicine when she could; she didn't trust it. But she was hurt and it looked like they still had a fight on their hands, so she might as well take the help when it was offered. She could always redo the patching when it was safe to go home. She frowned, not liking that Caleb had to cut himself in order to work his questionably-human magic, and pointed to the cut he'd made. Then she held out her injured arm in offering, since it appeared she had plenty of blood to spare.

Caleb glanced over. "...not sure if it'd work or not, Mel." he told her. "Might try later? But for right now, I'll stick with what works." Then he glanced to his brother. "So...property damage..." he started, just as it sounded like there were scrapings against the door, the handle jiggling and being found locked, they were definitely not pleased with the situation.

"We're fully insured and if they don't want to pay up, I got it covered," Mathias assured him, taking a step back. Yeah, he had it covered - he had everything covered. His finances were extraordinarily healthy given that he did the kind of work that paid stupidly well half the time and his outgoings were basically nil. Until now, of course. Now he was running a house, raising a teenager and hoping that Dorian's business would continue to support itself - if not, he'd be supporting that too. But, now wasn't the time to worry about finances. he knew he should really be worried about the things apparently trying to take a chunk out of him and the mermaid, but then again, things trying to kill him wasn't new to Mathias and he was unsurprisingly calm about the whole thing.

Melia stepped back a bit to give Caleb more room to work, though she stayed close enough to offer him some protection if those things broke through the door before he was done doing... whatever it was he was going to do. She dropped into a crouch, keeping her injured arm close, and gave the front door a steady, unblinking stare. Now that she had backup, so to speak, she was ready to chase away her attackers.

Caleb just nodded, then walked back up to the door. He unlocked it, and brought his hand up quickly, to already start tracing the symbols he needed into the air in front of him as he opened the door. So when it was fully open and there were shadows starting to come in, the spell went off. What it looked like was small arcs of red light. There were a lot of them, all fairly tiny, but they shredded outwards like little razorblades, going right through the shadows--but suddenly there were a lot less shadows. It all happened so fast, Caleb didn't know if the spell had worked, or if they'd just disappeared. He also saw that there were slices cleanly through some of the porch, and the doorframe...yeah that thing never was accurate. It was like sending out really fatal confetti.

"I'll check the back," Mathias told his brother, seeing that the guy had the front covered. Last thing they needed was something coming up behind them. He disappeared through to the kitchen. he checked that the back door was locked and then, pausing for a second, he shifted the fridge in front of it. Nothing was getting through that way, he decided as he lit up a cigarette and put some coffee on to brew before starting to check all the windows.

Melia had been ready to run out and start biting, as her human nails weren't strong enough to rip out throats, but Caleb's spell was rather distracting. She'd seen it before - or something like it - when they'd fought vampires, but she'd been busily occupied with killing things to really look at it. When she saw the little red lights and the shadows disappear, well, it was delightful. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as she did a little happy dance up to Caleb, clapping at the same time.

Caleb looked back and had to blink at Melia. He'd never seen anything like that before. The little happy dance thing. That was...new. He also moved to go shut the door again and flip the lock, just in case, but he looked back at Melia again. "I take it you approve?" he asked. Then turned his attention back to the door his brother had disappeared out of. "All clear, Math?"

"All clear," Mathias confirmed from the kitchen. He wandered back out into the lounge, exhaling smoke as he walked. "Coffee's on - how many of them are there out there?" he asked, as if there was nothing really to worry about here. He didn't see the shadow that emerged from the corridor to the bathroom straight away.

Melia had been grinning at Caleb, feeling rather proud of her smallish human for taking out the shadows for her, and turning to answer his brother. She was distracted by the sight of another shadow emerging from somewhere in the house, however, and was utterly baffled for a moment as she pointed to it. How the hell were they getting inside? And where were they coming from?

Caleb sighed in annoyance as he saw the shadow, then slipped regripped his knife, moving towards the stupid thing. He took a swing--which went through. This? Wasn't expected. So he was knocked a bit off balance, even if the knife did damage. He knocked his shoulder in to the wall, and watched as it totally ignored him, though apparently bled shadow from the wound he'd given it in the chest. "...the fuck...?"

"Yeah - that's what I want to know," Mathias agreed, turning as the others reacted to the shadow and crossing the room to it, stabbing his knife into the thing. He didn't need to use a gun inside and the noise would only attract unneeded attention. Firearms were strictly for emergencies.

Melia nodded her agreement, watching them kill the thing. It was strange that human weapons went right through it. She was getting tired of not being able to ask proper questions, though, and mimed writing using her palm as paper and an imaginary pen to Caleb. And while he was at it... She gestured to her arm, pretending to wrap something around it. She knew she'd be happier if she wasn't dripping blood all over their floor. She also pointed to his knife, then herself. She had teeth, sure, but she didn't know if she wanted to get close enough to those things to take a bite. Probably they were empty calories.

Caleb watched as the thing kinda...disappeared away or whatever from Math's stab. "...okaaay." he said in a slow tone. Then he shook his head. Whatever. "...paper, yeah. Hold on a sec." he said to Melia, and went to get a notebook for her, and the first aid kit from the bathroom. He hoped he didn't have to give stitches today. Last time hadn't been amusing. It was bound to be less so today. Either way he was back in a moment. He didn't know what to do on the knife situation. "How bad are you hurt?" he asked, holding the notebook and pen out to Melia, and he leaned closer to inspect her bleeding arm.

Mathias glanced across at the first aid kit that he'd left on the couch, the one he'd told the mermaid about when she'd first come in and shrugged. Whatever, if that's what they wanted. "I'm going to make coffee - anyone want?" he asked, grinding out the last of his cigarette in the ash tray on the table and heading for the kitchen. he glanced toward the bathroom, wondering where the hell that shadow had come from. That'd need to be checked, but damn, he needed caffeine.

Melia shook her head at Mathias, wrinkling her nose. Coffee was disgusting, if you asked her. She rooted through the first aid kit, not quite sure what she was looking for but willing to figure it out. I'm fine, she wrote for Caleb, lines slanting a little as she wasn't really paying attention. Finding a roll of some white material that looked as though it might suffice, she held it up with a questioning look. Do you know what those things are?

"Yes." Caleb called to his brother. He also just then noticed the first aid kit Math had been using. Oh well. He put aside the one he'd grabbed and sat on the couch to take the bandage from Melia. "No idea." he said, shrugging. "Never seen them before." He moved to start bandaging her arm up for her, making it tight enough but not too tight. Circulation was good.

Mathias thrust the gun into the waistband of his jeans for now as he poured a couple of strong coffees and headed back into the living room, setting Caleb's down on the table and taking a sip from his. "I'm gonna go see if I can figure out how that thing got in here," he said, wondering if someone had left a window open or something. Then again, how had three been in his room first thing? Since the ones outside didn't seem to be able to get through the door.

Melia frowned as Caleb took over the bandaging, then shrugged internally and let him get on with it. He'd do a better job than she would, at any rate. They can breathe underwater, she wrote for Caleb and Mathias, when he came back. Or they don't breathe at all. They attacked while I was sleeping. Her frown deepened as something occurred to her. And why didn't it attack you after you stabbed it? That didn't make any sense at all.

"You do that. My window might be open." Caleb said to his brother. He read Melia's note as he finished bandaging her up. "...I have no idea." he said. "It is weird it didn't attack me." And fucked up. And he wasn't complaining, per se, but he didn't know anything that wouldn't attack if someone jammed a knife into it.

"Right," Mathias said, heading out that way to look around. he headed into Caleb's bedroom and - yeah, his window was open. Well, that was easily remedied as he shut it and flipped the lock. He checked the other rooms before going back into the living room. "They must have got in through the window. Which meant they're specifically targetting me. great - wonder who I pissed off now. And how they found me," he added, that giving him chills that nothing else had done so far. People finding him wasn't good. Not good at all. Unless he'd upset people in town, but he'd been being good lately...

Melia scowled at Mathias, coming to the unhappy conclusion that if he was being specifically targeted, then she was as well. There is no reason for anyone to come after me, she wrote. I haven't even eaten anyone that would be missed. Lately. And there is no way they could have found me in the middle of the lake. But that is where they showed up. She gave the brothers a look that plainly said 'What now?'

Caleb had a bit of a cold feeling in his gut at that. They'd recently been to a demon bar, after all, and left one dead in the alley that was the entrance. So...that probably wasn't cool. Yeah. Awesome. Then he read Mel's notes, and scowled as he flopped back on the couch. "So you're both being hunted. Excellent. At least they seem to die quick." he added.

Did it make it better that it wasn't just him? It definitely made it less likely that it was someone from his past, that was a good thing, but it still had him on edge and Math moved around the room, closing the curtains so that nobody could see in, his face set as he reached for another cigarette.

Who would hunt the two of us? Melia wrote, frowning. We don't have anything in common. She knew what humans might want with her, of course, but she didn't know what they'd want with her and Caleb's brother both. The same creatures mean it's the same person after us. She reasoned so, at least.

Caleb shrugged. "No idea, and I don't especially care." he said. "Leija was talking about shadows too, and...fuck I actually still have to talk to Dean. I guess his family or something have seen things too. Seems a bit like a weird coincidence for it to all be different shit..." he trailed off.

"Don't discount weird coincidences - they happen sometimes," Mathias said, but he felt a little better as his brother rattled off different people who'd been experiencing things. "If you want to make some phonecalls at any time, feel free."

Weird coincidences would be finding another mermaid in the lake or... at a human store, Melia scribbled, looking scornful. Not shadow creatures trying to kill us both. She glanced at Caleb, nodding to show her interest in whether or not any of his friends had also been attacked.

Caleb thought a moment. "I'll leave messages if they don't pick up." he said, then ducked out of the room to head back to his. He'd get dressed while he was at it. Things that might fare better against shit with claws than what he wore to bed. His twitch with things was if people were having influxes of attack, and he called, that was probably a bit distracting, now wasn't it. So he expected to be ignored, though he'd probably still worry. So, he called Leija, and left her a message, and he called Dean and did the same. Short, simple, 'hey, shadows--attacking? Call.' types of messages, and then he got changed, taking a minute to glance out his window to see if he could see any more shadows.

Mathias sat down in one of the chairs, sipping his coffee and watching the mermaid casually. "So - you were attacked in the lake and you came here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "That must have been quite a run for you." But possibly the girl didn't have anywhere closer to go.

Melia shrugged. It had been closer than Alejandro had been at the time, and she didn't think Alejandro would've been terribly effective in a fight, especially if similar creatures had been attacking him. Caleb has magic. I thought he could help, was all she wrote on that subject. Then she blinked, remembering. And he did tell me to come to his house next time I needed help, she added, thinking back to the night they'd fought vampires.

Heading back out to the front room, but stopping into the bathroom to take a piss, he shut the door, figuring they could cover things for a few minutes. And really, things might've been fine, save for the fact that just as he was zipping back up, the medicine cabinet's mirror just up and started clouding over like black ink was dumped onto the back side of it, and then something started coming out of it. It didn't take long to figure it was one of the fuckers he'd nixed out on the porch, and he went with his automatic reaction--slash at the thing with his knife. The attack went through as usual and he hit the mirror, cracking it. That had an interesting effect, and he watched as it was definitely not coming through anymore. In fact, it kind of looked dead. Then it was gone, like the others. Awesome. This was a whole lot of not making sense. He paused as he tilted his hand to the side, looking at the backlash he'd picked up from the spell he'd done. The damage wasn't healing from these things. Well wasn't that great too. He flicked his hand, spattering the blood in the sink basin, then headed back out to the living room. "...so, fun fact. One of those things was trying to come out of the bathroom mirror."

Mathias took the few steps forward that he needed to to read the paper. "Fair enough," he agreed, wondering if Caleb had told all his friends that - and, if so, whether they were going to get more unexpected visitors. "You any good with a knife - I'm assuming you can't shoot, but with these things around, being armed isn't a bad idea," he suggested. He wouldn't be willing to give her his, but they had plenty in the kitchen if she wanted and he was about to suggest that when there was a crash from the bathroom and Caleb came out. "The mirror?" Math asked him, raising an eyebrow.

I usually use claws, Melia replied, but I can make do if I have something sharp. If you have another knife, I'll use it. Because she didn't want to be the only one who couldn't quickly take out one of the shadows. Sure, she could probably break its bones - if it had bones - but that would take time. If by shoot you mean with a gun, she added, no. I've been shot but I've never shot one. She blinked at the crash from the bathroom, followed by Caleb's announcement. Did you kill it? she asked him, figuring that's what the noise had been.

"Yeah, the mirror. Seemed like it was trying to...I don't know. Push out of it." Caleb said. Which was just fucked up, really. He looked at Melia's note to answer her too. "I don't know. Looked like it was dying." he said. But then again, the other things had just shredded and had no real substance, or so it seemed, since there was no resistance when you hit them. Soooo it was a matter of perspective, and he didn't know that he had a good enough one to make that judgement.

"So they're coming in from mirrors, not through the windows?" Mathias suggested, heading into the kitchen for a knife. he grabbed one from the block on the side and walked back out, offering it to Melia. "Okay - do we have any other mirrors in this place than the one in the bathroom?" he checked. No point sealing off the entrances if they could just emerge straight into the inside.

They probably try to come in through the windows if they can't get to a mirror, Melia suggested, writing quickly and taking the knife from Mathias with a nod of thanks. She didn't know if they had any other mirrors so she kept silent and looked to Caleb for an answer to that one, wondering where they'd come from in her case and if they'd had to swim out to the lake to do it.

"I don't know, they seemed to be trying to come in the door." Caleb said. He shrugged. "And I don't know. I don't have any, and don't remember seeing any. Check Dor's room?" he suggested. They weren't exactly vain people. That and with people like Math, who really didn't even have to put effort in to attract attention...seriously now. The Lockwood residence was not a hotbed of mirrors. He went to the front window to look out, to see if any more happened to be arriving.

Mathias wandered off again, muttering to himself something about being ordered around by his kid brother. Really, all he wanted to do was sit down and drink his coffee, actually wake up for a while - but nooooo, they had to be under siege. Not the way he wanted to start him day. "No mirrors in here," Mathias called, opening Dorian's closet door just in case there was one lurking about inside, feeling like he was intruding a little. Bedroom's were personal space, he always felt a little weird in other people's - well, unless they'd invited him in, of course. That was different.

Melia peered out the windows as well, scanning for any approaching shadow things. She was mirror free; she could probably count on two hands the number of times she'd seen her reflection in the silvered glass. She did a little wandering then, looking for mirrors on the walls or anything shiny and reflective just in case it didn't have to be an actual mirror-mirror. If Melia was good at anything, it was spotting things that were shiny. Finding nothing except the shards of the broken mirror in the bathroom, she peeked in at Mathias before heading back to the living room, shrugging. Are they all dead? she asked, flashing the notepad for everyone to read.

Caleb leaned against the wall in front of the front window, keeping watch. "No idea." he said. "But I figure we wait it out for a few, see what's up." Hopefully they'd fuck off, and that would be the end of it, because he didn't especially want to be doing this today. Not his brand of vodka as it were.