Forums » General Roleplay » Hide and Seek (1x1)

Sterling's jaw dropped in surprise and horror. A cage? For the kid?

"I'm..." he didn't even know what to say to that. He scowled at his reflection in the window, his good mood sizzling like the ooze in the hydrant water. "Where are you planning on staying?" he asked Jonah, once his anger had cooled a little.

Jonah sighed and shrugged. "Dunno.. I usually stay in abandoned buildings and houses, where people are not likely to bother me." He scratched his ears and yawned a bit. He was tired, physically and mentally, if anything else happened to him today he would just pass out from the stress of it all.

Sterling chewed his lip and he never did that. He was wrestling with himself. On one hand, he prided himself on seeing every job through to completion. On the other hand, if this kid was being abused for something he hadn't done, there was no way he could support that. And he wasn't going to. But it left Jonah in a conundrum, for surely his parents would find other people to hunt him down.

"Abandoned buildings are no places for kids," Sterling said after a lengthy pause. "So here's my proposition to you." He turned to look at Jonah. "I have a house which I haven't used in years in a little backwater town. It's quiet, it's got food, and it's got a bed. It's also the only place you'd probably be safe until your parents give up searching for you. If they were able to get me a copy of your records, then you can bet that the cops do too. But my house is hard to find. You'd be safe there."

He tapped his fingers against the wheel of the car, once more looking out the windshield. It was outrageous, the idea of him letting this kid live in his house; even if he didn't use it anymore, Jonah had no reason to trust him. "What do you think?"

Jonah smirked, as if he was going to take handouts from a hunter. Pfft, funny. "No thanks, besides they'll find me sooner or later. Also cops can't do anything to them, they can try, but they'll just be slaughtered." He stretched his arms and opened the door on his side of the car. "I'll be better off on my own, but thanks anyways." He stepped out and waved, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off.

He sighed and watched Jonah walk off. He hadn't really expected the kid to take him up on the offer, though it still stood. After a few minutes, he looked down to find that the bottom of the car was getting soaked in hydrant water and he quickly stepped out of the demolished car.

He'd done what he could. He pulled the sheet of paper with Jonah's information on it and then headed for the local library. Maybe he could back track the paper trails and find the whereabouts of Jonah's family. If they really were keeping him locked in a cage in the attic, there would have to be proof...and that would be worth the loss of 100,000 right there.

Nothing lost, nothing gained, right?

Jonah wandered further into town, his stomach starting to growl. "Hnngh.." He looked around for the nearest store or restaurant, even though he only had a little bit of money in his pocket, less than five bucks. He walked into a nearby store and bought a bag of chips and a drink. "Junk food for dinner.. Normal kids would be jumping for joy." He muttered and sat in an alley way, munching on the chips and taking a sip of the drink.

Finishing his search, Sterling closed the tabs on his computer and then headed for the nearest fast food joint. He bought too much food as he wandered around the town, digesting what he had learned so far.

There were still questions about Jonah's appearance that hadn't been explained yet; at least not to his satisfaction. And so it was that he kept his eyes peeled for Jonah in the offchance he might find him again. Not that he was actually hunting the kid now. Nope. The crossbow was slung over his back rather than propped against his shoulder.

Jonah pored the remaining chips into his mouth and crumpled the bag, tossing it on the ground. "Sleepy.." He mumbled and leaned back against the wall, tucking his drink under his shirt so no one would take it. "What a day.." He yawned and closed his eyes, falling into a dream filled slumber.

Just as he was about to give up looking for Jonah--the kid had a knack for disappearing, he had to give him credit--a flicker of movement too fast and too abrupt to be entirely human distracted him.

He followed instinctively, readying his crossbow. Whatever he was following was quick, and he rather suspected it was a newly turned vampire--a daybreaker which had 30 days to adjust to living at night before the sun burned. It was also a good distraction from Sterling's earlier failure at collecting his earlier bounty. And besides that, if there was a daybreaker wandering around, it meant there might be master vampires around--and their bounty would suffice.

He followed long enough to catch the daybreaker. And then the creature leaped forward with astonishing speed. Sterling looked ahead to see what the target was--someone, a kid, was sleeping in one of the alleys.

"Oh no you don't," Sterling said, bringing his crossbow up. Ka-chak! The vampire didn't have a chance to scream before it dissolved into ash.

Jonah heard something and opened his eyes, yawning groggily. "Noisy people.." He mumbled and rubbed his eyes, reaching for the drink still tucked under his shirt. He took a sip and spit it out quickly, it had become to warm to drink from his body heat. "Bleh.." He pored it out and stood up, stretching his arms and legs. "Hm..?" He looked up to see ashes and the hunter from before. "Oh its you again, changed your mind about catching me or something?" He yawned, totally oblivious to the fact that he could've been killed by a vampire.

"No, but I recommend that you find somewhere safer to sleep. You were almost vampire bait." Sterling approached and then paused to lean against the wall. "I do have a question, though. About your parents. There's a possibility if I find them, you could bring them up on charges. Plus, there's the little detail about what, exactly, you are..."

The crossbow remained pointed at the ground.

Jonah blinked and scratched his head, confused. "Vampire bait..?" He looked at the crossbow and then at the ashes again. "Crap.. Looks like I owe you my life then.." He sighed and stretched again. "Believe me, you don't want to find them. They would kill you. And theres no way of charging them for anything, not in human law anyways." He dusted himself off.

"So what are they? And where might I find them?" Sterling pressed. "I've been doing this long enough that I'm not worried about an encounter."

Jonah brushed his fingers through his tail. "Wolf demons, similar to werewolves but without having to deal with transforming or the moon. Also I'm not gonna tell you where they are, if I did I'd really be in trouble. They wouldn't just send someone to catch me, but would come kill me themselves." He said solemnly.

"I've taken care of plenty of werewolves; wolf demons should be fun." He paused. "If they were so eager to kill you, why haven't they? For that matter, why did they keep you caged?"

He didn't really expect Jonah to answer them; but he was going to lay it all out there in the hopes he'd get something.

Jonah looked away, taking a moment before answering. "Because I'm the hated half breed child." He sighed and scratched his ears. "My father, a pure breed wolf demon, became infatuated with a human woman and I was the result of their time together. My mother died shortly after giving birth to me, so I never met her. And whenever my father got angry I was the one to feel his wrath. His mate, my stepmother, hates me to the point where she locked me away and often tried to poison my food. Only reason I'm free right now is because one of my brothers took pity on me and let me out." He sat down cross-legged and glared at the ground.

"That's rough, kid. My mother was turned into a werewolf while she was pregnant with me. I had silver shoved into my veins and was still destined to die. Only by making a pact with the Hunter's guild--in the off chance I did become a werewolf hybrid or whatever--did they let my father keep me. And then he disappeared when I was twelve."

"What is it you really want? You can't possibly stay on the run like this. Your brothers--perhaps they will take you in?"

Jonah hugged his knees and flicked his tail. "Life is rough.. And what I want is freedom, without having to worry about being killed. I don't want to run, but it can't be helped." He mumbled and looked up at the sky. "I'd basically be committing suicide if I tried to go to my brothers for help, as the whole family lives in one house together. My father would flip out and likely rip me to pieces." He growled quietly.

"So you can't go home, and you can't stay here. I'm tellin' you kid, you really should take me up on the offer of a place to stay. No one will find you there; it's barricaded and sealed against vampires and werewolves." At this point, he reloaded his crossbow, not because he saw another vampire, but because he just can't bring himself to stay unarmed.

"All I can offer you at this point, kid, is either deal with the problem at its source, or find a way around it. And my gut always tells me to deal with the source."

Jonah stood up and turned away, scratching his head. "Fine fine.. I'll stay there." He said reluctantly. "And don't even think about fighting my family, as much as I hate most of them, I can't let anyone hurt them. I'll find a way to deal with this without fighting and if that doesn't work out I'll just run again." He shoved his hands in his pockets, kicking a can near his foot across the alley. He was being stubborn, as usual.