Mayiamaru's Closed Threads

T-They… They died… She didn't mean to, and… and they fought her back. What was she supposed to do? Lay down her life and let them sell her off? Let them skin her alive? They saw what she could become, and they got so close… She hadn't meant to kill them, but they lay, necks shredded from her claws and bite marks from her human form along the male's arm. It had to be an older couple, a woman around her thirties and a man a tad younger than that. They… They scared her, and she… She defended herself! That was it!

She would have tried to hide the bodies, but… But she completely lost her mind to the panic while all the noise that they made during the struggle was sure to make others suspicious of this house. She just meant to get something to help support her and her family, but they scared her, and she tried to bluff them into letting her go, but… But…

Oh, she was screwed now. Mana stood with her red eyes wide and staring at the two bodies that lay face first on the kitchen before her, her tail quivering the most. She couldn't think about this right now. She had to run, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Their bodies were scratched and wounded as if attacked by a wild animal, but… Her footprints in their blood… And… There wasn't any more time to think about that.

Mana's powerful ears could already hear cars going up and down the street. It was just a matter of time before one of those cars would turn out to be a cop car. Unable to think clearly, she burst through the back door and ducked into the bushes far into the back of their yard, her hands over her head as she just hoped that she couldn't be found squished between the flower bushes and the backyard fence.

Early morning that was a new one to get a phone call. Charlye groaned from the position he was sleeping in, face down into the pillow on his stomach, as the sound of his phone going off next to him on the night stand. Of course it was the police by the sounds of which ring tone was going off, why would the hospital call him after getting off a double shift unless he messed something up. With a yawn he pushed himself up, reaching over to grab the phone to answer it. The police had a case, an interesting one at that, which they wanted him to come take a look at before they moved the bodies. Who was he to say no, especially when they agreed on getting him a proper box of sugar cookies this time.

Soon enough he found himself over at the crime scene heading up the drive way as he scratched at the back of his head. His hair probably looked like a mess despite his attempts to get it to look at least okay and he hadn't bothered with clean cloths, instead throwing on a pair of jeans and a wrinkled shirt. He was greeted by one of the officers that he knew who handed him a cup of coffee on top of his box of cookies.

"Man, you look like crap, good thing we grabbed you a coffee as well." The officer said to him as he lead him back towards the kitchen of the house.

"Yeah, lets see you work a double shift then get called to help with police work." Charlye smirked glancing over to the man before looking down at the two bodies. That didn't look good. What had happened here? Something looked like it had torn the two of them up in a way that a human wouldn't be able to. Then there was the foot print in the blood. Another killer in his area, or was it a one time thing? One thing he couldn't figure out though was how, if it was someone, did they make those sort of wounds.

It didn't take long at all. She wasn't in the bushes for more than five minutes when officers showed up on the property. How long had she been standing there, shocked and scared as she stared down at the bodies? Mana pulled her hoodie tighter around herself, her eyes shut tight as she hoped to herself that she wouldn't be discovered. It didn't even occur to her that she could transform into her fox form and escape that way. Though, even if it did… these clothes were expensive, and they couldn't afford for her to keep losing them. It wasn't like the movies or cartoons, where werewolves and other things could change their form but still keep their clothes. It was troublesome, and there was nothing that she could do to remedy the problem.

Mana could hear the footsteps of maybe six or so people… No, seven. Another one came… Crap… There were just too many people. Too many humans… And any one of them could be wanting her pelt. She had to run, but there was nowhere to go. Cops narrowly came close to discovering her, but somehow, she was able to keep her presence hidden. Some time passed, and she was starting to feel like she had some kind of hope for surviving this, waiting it out until all the officers were gone so that she could just run away and go back home. That is… until...

Rumble… Gurgle…

Her stomach… She hadn't eaten properly in three days, and it was starting to catch up to her. Of all the times for her stomach to start whining for food, it had to be now? She wrapped her arms tight around her waist and prayed to everything. The sun, the grass, the trees, the flowers. Anything and everything, praying that she wouldn't get discovered, her hood wrapped tight around her head, and a face mask hiding her face from the nose down. If they found her, they'd have her remove them. They'd see her face… And most fearfully of all, they'd see her nonhuman ears atop her head, flattened against her skull.

Charlye shook his head trying to wrap a thought around this, perhaps a dog. "Eh, I don't know, it looks like an animal did it. It's nothing that human could do even with something sharp that I know of, besides there is the foot print and a few lighter ones leading out the back door." He took a sip turning his head to raise an eyebrow at his cop buddy who responded with that there wasn't any dogs in the house and that the back yard had already been searched. At that he sort of gave a shrug.

"Maybe who ever it was brought a dog. You never know. When you get more information I'll come take a look but right now, I've got nothing other then these two don't look like they should be here." He spoke moving slowly over towards the back yard door that was still wide open. Stepping through and back to the outside he took a look around to see if there were any blood spots that the police would have missed or mistaken for something else. Well he had been at least. Not much longer after stepping out he caught sound of a small noise and he turned his head trying to figure out where it had come from.

Setting down his cup of coffee on the stone slab just outside the door he moved to go towards the outer perimeter of the back yard. His eyes kept roaming as he looked around until they fell onto a figure that was hiding behind one of the bushes up against the fence. "...Hey there. Hungry?"

Mana tried to keep herself as silent as possible, holding her breath the second that she could hear the sound of footsteps over grass. And they were getting closer… She was getting close to trying to beg the gods to let her remain undiscovered, but before the man passed her by…

Gurgle…

Great… The high wooden fence wasn't going to let her get away, and the bushes kept her from being able to move very much without drawing attention. There was some strange man looking at her, those eyes of his piercing despite their green colouring, a colour that she use to associate with calmness and freedom. There were no words for how terrified she was, her eyes wide and her body trembling, but what could she do? He wasn't calling other officers over to her…

Hesitantly, she nodded in response to his question, very slow in how she moved, though the gurgling of her tummy didn't stop, her face lighting up with a blush as her stomach rumbled again. If she could without alerting the people around the area, she would have told it to shut up already… But she was making enough of a fool of herself.

"P… P-Please… Don't tell them I'm here…" She whispered. Normally if confronted, Mana would have fought when everything she had, but she couldn't bring herself to be bold anymore. She was scared, and she just wanted to go home now. At least there, she could cower without having to worry about her secret getting out.

Crouching down he glanced over his shoulder at the officers in the kitchen talking to one another before looking back to who ever was hiding in the bushes. He couldn't see very well other then the red eyes peering back at him, but she was also wearing a hoodie along with a face mask on top of it. Red eyes. Huh, the only other person he knew with red eyes was his boss back at the hospital. Although she seemed really scared of something by the way she was shaking. Had she seen something or had she been the one to do it?

Charlye tilted his head to the side, hearing her speak up though she had spoken in a hushed whisper which made it harder to hear. The girl wanted to remain hidden and she was asking him to not tell the police that she was hiding there, what was she crazy. His shoulder dropped however, working the box of cookies he had gotten for coming to help on the job. He held them out to her thinking of what he was going to do about this. "Cookie?" He asked before moving on to the next thing.

"Don't tell them your here? Is there a reason you don't want to be found? They can help, you know." It was better not to freak her out more then she already was, or maybe it was that he was tired and didn't want to deal with anything difficult. Most likely the later, too much thinking and watching himself was involved in that.

The man seemed to be a great deal older than her, with narrow looking eyes and a rough stubble decorating his chin. Mana wasn't sure why, but he seemed a lot different than most other humans. It wasn't just his silence but the way that he was looking at her… No hungered or angry glares. He was suspicious, but definitely not more so than other humans. He didn't seem to recognize her as being inhuman, so that may have had to play a part in it…

Nonetheless, she needed to do something. Say… anything that could protect her. And she at least had somewhere to start. "Thank you…" She whispered, moving forward only to take a cookie. She felt bad for eating before her siblings this morning… But she needed something to stop her stomach from grumbling. Mana ate gratefully, fighting back a tear from having tasted something so good. It'd just been so long since last she ate snack foods like this. It put her at ease, stopped her from shaking at least.

"No… No, they can't. They… won't." Mana said, knowing very well what she had done. Though, she was more aware of what she was. She had her run in with enough humans to know how they reacted to her after learning that she wasn't human. The ears and tail she sported, once proved that they weren't just for show, were red flags. A human with the knowhow had the power to capture, disarm, and make a small fortune off her, and she didn't want to take the chance. "Just please. I-I can't go out there. A-A-And they won't help me." She whimpered.

He watched her as she ate the cookie turning to look back over his shoulder once more. One of the officers had picked up on what he was doing and the two of them were now looking over at him. Shaking his head slightly he motioned for them to stay back for now so they wouldn't decide to come walking over. That would fit under scaring her more since she didn't seem to think they would help. When he looked back he gave her a small smile setting the box down by his feet, shifting to sit down in the grass so he wouldn't fall over.

From the way she was eating she must have been hungry... or just a child. "They won't help you? They're officers they're suppose to help people." His smile faded and he shifted trying to get a better look at her, keeping his voice low and calm. "Were those people mean to you, is that why they're dead?" Charlye asked pulling one of the cookies out of the box for himself.

It was way too early, for him at least, to be dealing with this. Younger people always seemed so hard to deal with but it was even worse in the morning. Taking a bite out of his own cookie he tried to think of things he could do besides giving her up to the police and letting them deal with it. She had that look as if she had just killed someone for the first time. Oh all the times he had seen interns have the same look on their face... they all were the same, none of them had that look of a true killer inside of them, unlike him.

It was only a matter of time now. With the way that the man spoke to her, trying to insist that the police were good people who helped everyone, he would try to turn her in. The police were not as nice as everyone assumes. Among them are people who wish to keep supernatural trophies. But she knew that it was a sham… Besides…

"I'm not a person…" She grumbled under her breath, her face mask hanging around her neck now but her hood still hugging her head and hiding her foxy ears from sight. Would this person try to capture her if she showed him? Could she risk it?… Probably not, but one thing was for sure. He wasn't normal, and that could work to her advantage. He didn't seem too keep on just turning her in without a reason. It wasn't obvious that she was guilty of the crime at first glance, but she was hiding in the bushes near the scene of the crime. It was hard not to suspect her.

She had to think for a long time, choosing her words carefully. She was still in a panic, but shooting off her mouth was a surefire way to get herself killed or locked up, and she couldn't afford that. "T-They… I…" She stammered while trying to think, biting gently on her bottom lip in her anxiety, then cautiously, she lifted her head from between her shoulders, her tail squeezing against her waist as she watched the man with cautious red eyes partially hidden behind a curtain of black hair.

"I-I'll tell you what happened if you can get me out of here… I need to get home. I… I have a family that needs breakfast." She murmured softly, hoping to gain some kind of ground. Taking him to her place was the last thing she was ever going to do, but if they could at least get her away from the police, she wouldn't have to worry about never getting home again.

Charlye shook his head hearing her say that she wasn't a person. His green eyes traveled around the perimeter of the yard of what he could see from where he was sitting before they fixed once more on the girl. "You have heart that beats and organs that keep you alive. You're a person. Not every one is human." After making the mistake of trying to kill someone who wasn't, he had learned that the hard way.

He was sure by now the officers who had been watching over him were more then curious and wouldn't hold their position too much longer to come see what he was doing out side sitting in the grass. There might be a chance he could tell her about his past time activities since seeing how she had just killed two people, right now however wasn't the smartest choice with all the officers around. Intertwining his fingers together he tilted his head to the side. "I'll get you out away from them if you don't like them all that much but you're going to have to trust me here for a little bit. Think you could fake an asthma attack? Either that or we give you some kind of injury."

It would be easier to do what he was thinking in his opinion, she wouldn't have to try and run when the men around the house noticed her, besides he wanted to know what had happened which wasn't going to occur unless he got her out of here himself. What else he could do instead of giving her else to the cops. She even had kids she said she had to feed, that was something that he wouldn't want the kids to go without, thinking back to his own child hood. Although he was kind of hoping she would go for the second choice at this point, there was that killer side of him.

Mana's distrust in the man held firm until he spoke... Did he already know? Was he like her? If he was, then what was he? If not... Then why did he think like this? Mana's ears could easily tell that he wasn't lying, so surely, just this once for the sake of convenience, she could let him know what her secret was. She couldn't help but wonder, though. Just who was he? He was so unnaturally calm that it served to frighten her further. At times when she would've been difficult or hostile, she was quiet and behaved as a reaction to her fear. Maybe he was some kind of magical trainer... The thought was laughable, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

She wasn't actually sure what Asthma was... And she had enough old bruises and still healing wounds that she wasn't interested in reopening or adding to, so it was the easiest option.

"I-I think I have a better idea... I hope you like animals..." Mana whispered, still hesitant. She definitely didn't want to come out, but if she didn't want her human face to be seen, then she had to do this, tucking her legs as far into her hoodie as she could to make sure all her clothes would at least stay in the bundle. She could fake a broken leg. She'd done it before, and there weren't many people who would dare touch an injured fox.

The shifting process wasn't painless, but it was quick, bones giving way to the metamorphosis and a cat sized black fox the end result as she crawled out from her clothes and lay down on top, one hind leg looking limp as she looked up at the man.

While in this form, Mana didn't have the ability to speak, but this way, she wouldn't be seen while leaving... And i the man turned out to be different than she had perceived... She prepared herself to attack and mill him too if that was what needed to be done to keep him quiet and make sure that she was safe.

That was something new. He had never seen anyone turn into an animal before. Looks like they were going with fox with a broken leg, less exciting then he was hoping for but it worked. Black also wasn't a color that he had seen a fox either before, how did this girl blend in if she went about like this during the day. With a small sigh he pushed himself back up to his crouched position, reaching over to pick her up, moving her over to cradled her in one arm, grabbing the cloths afterwards to stuff them into the bag with the cookies.

Charlye supposed he was in time as well to as he could hear the footsteps coming from behind him. Standing up straight he turned having to adjust his hold on the fox. "Oi, can't you listen to orders, you're going to scare the poor thing worse, it took enough time to coax it out so I can take it to an animal hospital." The two of them looked down at the fox then back up at him. "Don't give me that look, tell Greg I'm leaving and if he gets anything else to call me."

He pushed his way past them heading back towards the house to get through it to the front where he parked, leaving behind his coffee. Setting her down in the passenger seat, he got in on the other side with another heavy sigh. It could have been worse, but it also could have been better...

As soon as he had gotten a little ways away from the house he glanced over at the girl for a moment before going back to watching the road. "...I hope I don't get caught because of you."

Still calm... Such a strange human. If this had been a different world, if she were a normal girl, then he would have been horrifying. But she found herself less scared and more intrigued, her tail still as she let him lift her up without making a fuss.

She remained quiet, nestled in the crook of the man's arm and sniffing around for... anything. Her instincts had kicked in, and she always had an overwhelming desire to just smell everything, the scents that stood out the most being the cookies in the bag, the coffee on his breath, and the blood in the kitchen, a scent that still clung to her boots. She decided to take the time to relax, shutting her eyes for the seconds of peace she was given. She had been up all night, and now that her panic had faded to anxiety, she had calmed down enough to feel tired.

Mana didn't dare to move until the man spoke again, her tail twitching then wagging now that she was away from that house. There certainly wasn't any guilt in having murdered those humans, but murder meant that she'd be caught. She preferred to avoid it when possible. It wasn't like killing a mouse and dragging it home for the others to eat. Humans were a protected species.

While the man drove, Mana got up, unsteady and unfamiliar with the movement of the car. She barked in response to his voice, though... He wouldn't be able to understand that now would he. Mana dug into the man's bag to retrieve her sweater, dragging it out and positioning herself inside. She had to wait until they were on a road with little to no people, but once she felt secure, she shifted back into her human form, her body clothed only in that sweater of hers, leaving her ears and tail exposed until she took the time to conceal them again.

"Thanks for that. I thought I'd be stuck there all day." She sighed, her tail wrapping its way around her waist to hide under her sweater, her ears flattening against her skull while she lifted her hood and went back to the man's bag to retrieve her boots.

He didn't even want to look over once he realized that she was speaking to him once more, despite the somewhat decency. Instead he kept his focus on the road figuring he would keep driving for now even if just to keep him away from the house and the police. What he had said though he had meant it, his work wasn't worth trowing away on trying to help a girl out from escaping the police, even if she wasn't human.

The surgeon took a turn down one of the side roads, eventually pulling the car over when he decided they were far enough away, other then that he remained silent for the time being. "Don't mention it. But now you're going to tell me what happened." After all he did consider this area his or part of his. He more or less dealt with several towns keeping his kills far enough away from his home so there would be less of chance of him getting caught. "You killed those two, I didn't get a straight answer before, were they being mean to you?"

One thing. One simple thing was all he had to follow, his profile of someone he deemed worthy to die. Those sorts of people were abusers and others of the like. Someone who didn't deserve to die for some reason was a waste especially if he could have killed them himself when he got around to it.

Charlye finally turned his eyes to look over at her as he waited for an answer only now realizing that he had left his coffee back at the house... maybe they would get him another one sometime along with his usual box of cookies.

The man's insistence was… odd. Mana had gotten herself partially dressed, having tied her hair back up and got her boots back on before she decided to answer his question.

"… Well.. Yes, they were." She murmured, taking her things and holding them in a bundle against her stomach. She had said that she'd tell him in exchange for him taking her out of there, but that didn't mean that she had to tell him that she was trying to steal from them… "The man grabbed me, his arms… here, and here." Mana said, motioning to her neck and waist. "It scared me… and I bit him, then the woman tried to hit me, so I scratched her… They threatened to turn me in to the police, but… I can't afford to spend too long away from my family. So we ended up fighting, yelling at each other… Hitting each other… And before I knew it, they stopped moving and it was already morning. I didn't know what to do and spent a little too long worrying about it rather than just leaving, so I hid just before the police showed up." Mana said, lowering her head with a sigh.

The situation did get out of hand… Just the thought of getting separated from home made her terrified, made her lose herself. She lowered her head further with a sigh, though… Thinking about it, why did he want to know so badly. He didn't seem to be an officer of the law and was comfortable around dead bodies. It couldn't be… that he…

Mana lifted her head again to watch him, her shoulders tense with the thought. No… That couldn't be the case, right? He was strange, but a person could only be so weird. "I-If that's it… I should get going. I need to do some shopping before I head home." Mana murmured, now nervous of the man again. He was strange, helpful, calculating, calm, but overall, he was unpredictable for a human. Should she have guarded herself more? Well… If he tried anything, then hopefully, she could bluff her way out of this.

A fight between them huh. So that was what had happened, and she was just in their home... She wasn't telling him everything but he wasn't going to press more on it seeing how she had tensed back up. Besides he already had an idea of what had gone on just from that. Charlye looked away from her, leaning back into the driver's seat. It would be better if he just let her go and be done with the whole mess, tell the police he didn't have the time to work on the case, go back to his own work or sleep. He would have let it go but something at the back of his mind kept nagging him to find out more and not leave the kids alone.

She was back to being nervous though, why was that? He had gotten her away from the police and it wasn't like he was threatening her himself. Charlye let out a groan wiping his hand over his face before brushing some bangs out from in front of his eyes. He could have already been out looking for his next victim, he probably could have already found a place for it to go down as well, but now he was stuck here right now because of his standards and having to the help the police so he could stand on top of things.

Oh why did he get himself into this, it was too much work on top of what he already had planned to get done. He glanced from the corner of his eyes back over at her to see her sitting their watching him. "Those kids can't possibly be yours, can they? Where are you're parents?"

Mana was aware that she was making it a little obvious that she was nervous, but she was too tired to really think much about it. She lowered her head again after a while, her head feeling light while she fought back her yawns. After she was back, she was going to take a nice, long nap before getting to her chores. Gratefully she wasn't being questioned about what happened anymore. Unfortunately, in exchange for not having to answer more about the murders, he moved on to the subject of her family.

Paling, she averted her gaze from the man and pursed her lips unsurely. Her birth mother was dead… And her father… "My father doesn't really do much for us. He pays for the bills for the house so their's water, heat, and electricity… That's it. There… isn't really a mom in the house." Mana said, rubbing the back of her neck with a sigh. "I may as well be their parents. I'm the oldest, so I have to be responsible." She murmured, nodding to herself before looking at the man again. His interest was… unsettling. And while he was in this car, just getting out and running for it didn't seem like a good action. This metal beast seems like it could run her down pretty easily. Technology and the like really weren't within her scope of knowledge.

Her tail unwrapped from around her waist, her eyes looking the man up and down. "… I have a question for you now… Why didn't you just report me? Anyone else would have, but you didn't…" She asked curiously, still keeping her distance, not leaning in or getting closer to the man than she needed to.

A father that only payed for bare living conditions... not even food? And leaving a young one to the task of taking care of the other children, that was something that the father shouldn't do. Unfortunately there were people like that in the world, he just took care of the more dangerous ones.

At the question from her he shifted his gaze looking out the front windshield and down the street. "There are several reasons..." A few of which he didn't want to explain at the moment but they all seemed to kind of be linked to each other. "For one that was the first time that you've probably killed someone judging by the way you looked. I've seen that look several times while training interns... I work as a surgeon at a hospital that deals with teaching new medical students. Two, you had said something about kids. I couldn't let them go hungry now could I." There was more explanation to it but for now that was all he was going to say, she didn't need to know about his crappy childhood or especially about the fact that he also killed people.

Other then that he didn't think the police officers would treat her very well either if he turned her in. They would ask questions and unlike his boss she didn't seem like the type of person who would do well with that. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes for a bit.

While watching the man, her ears couldn't detect any wavering. He was honest, at least, a trait that she could respect. She let her ears flick against her head, judging the man with what information she could gather by watching him. So it was clear that he was very serious about what was going on, which was good, but his emotions weren't very clear. She couldn't read his face, and it was bothering her.

"If that's the case, then… I guess we should wrap this up. It's almost time for breakfast, and my little brother worries the most if I don't get home on time." Mana said, using the bandana she used as a face mask to bind the rest of her clothes together. She stuffed her shirt, pants, and unmentionables into her hoodie's large front pocket and readied herself for whatever was supposed to be coming up next. She told him what happened to the couple in the house, and he knew by now that she was the one that killed them, but she wasn't so keen on letting him know that this kill was certainly not her first.

It was the first time she had ever unintentionally killed someone, though. Human life was just so hard to sustain, and she didn't know that a few scratches at their throats would kill them so easily. She hoped that she wouldn't need to explain anything else in more detail, her tail lulling about lazily as she leaned her hands on the space that separated the passenger seat from the driver's seat. She wondered… This man seemed to care, but was just the mention of children really enough to make a human disregard their responsibilities?

"Is there anything else you need to know?" She asked, her ears twitching curiously at what could be on his mind. Maybe she could pick something out about him from his expression, watching closely with a very critical, but guarded gaze.

Charlye rolled his head to the side opening his eyes back up to look over at her. He knew nothing could ever truly make up for his childhood, even if what he did was kill, it sort of made it worse, but he couldn't help but to think he could at least help a little bit. Those red eyes were looking at him again and it looked like she was trying to figure something out.

"Nothing that I 'need' to know, more of just small little questions in my head that I doubt you would answer. Even though you let me carry you out of there, you're skeptical of me. I was just a way to get away from the officers and you're just going to leave and run off back home." He chuckled slightly more to himself then anything. All the trouble he went through and it was going to end just like that. "At least let me pay for your food and take you home?" That much he could do instead of leaving the child hungry in the way he had found her.

He could knock out two birds with one stone, his own food supply was running low and he could use a few other things that he could easily get a grocery store for his use on other things. Charlye looked her over. "You'll of course have to get dressed properly though."