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Chapter 10:Desperate Times; Desperate measures
Colera wakes up and lays in bed quietly listening. Hearing nothing in the house she slips out and going threw the closet and dresser find the least distasteful outfit (not to mention least frumpy) she can find, a simple ridding suit. Putting it on she slips quietly out of her room and down the hall. Keeping as quiet as she can she slips past the library, thankful that the door is closed and carefully opens the front door. The last scarlet rays of the sun set are fading quickly and gently from the few clouds that are in the sky. Grateful once again for a subtle time clock that has always seemed to be built into her head she slips quietly into the early hours of the night. She is minutely surprised that her ability to wake up within a given hour with out the aid of an alarm clock has become so precise as to enable her to wake up at the precise time she wished. She hurries down the street, moving as far away from the old building as she can so as to reduce the risk of detection.
After several blocks he pace slows and she looks around her. She is in a fairly nice area of town. One of the finer parts of what is obtain refereed to as the historic district. Nearly all of the buildings here were built when the town was new, a bustling trade district back in the 1800's. The buildings are well maintained and many of them are open to the public. A small antique shop here, a bed and breakfast there. A few small historic museums and the occasional privet residence can be seen. She has found herself in what was the main business district in the earliest days of the town. The streets are empty and there isn't a car to be seen. The streets are too narrow for two way traffic and the entire area is a large no parking zone. Back when these streets were built no one had even thought of utilizing a motorized vehicle for transport and horses and buggies are not nearly as wide as modern modes of transport. Far easier to ban parking and make all roads one way streets then to attempt to widen the path. As she walks along she notices that several of the stores are open all night long, and surprisingly a few are only just beginning to open for business. She suddenly realizes that the dark world she has been dragged into is far larger then one might imagine from the safety of a warm bed.
She stops at a small bench by the road side and sits down. For several minuets she sits thinking about her next move. She realizes that what she realy has to do is extremely dangerous. The only way to truly escape from what is a distasteful situation and a horde individual is to insure that there can be absolutely no risk what so ever of having that obnoxious man searching for her. The only way to make certain he doesn't come looking is to completely eliminate his very existence. All things considering she cant simply turn him in to the police. Chances are, considering what little she does understand about her new condition, they will assume that he is dead when they arrive to arrest him. His 'corpse' would be taken to the morgue, along with hers and she would wake up in an even worse situation then she is in now. As such she cant simply rely on the police by any stretch of the imagination.
Killing him herself is out of the question as well. She tried that last night after her entail fit in her room. She was not able to cause him any harm. When she went into the room he was sleeping in and tried to raise the peace of chair she had bracken up tin the hopes of plunging it into his abysmal chest she found she was not even able to lift it. No, she would have to utilize another for this task. Unfortunately, it would have to be someone capable of killing Storn who would do so willingly without having met him. Someone who would believe that Storn is as dangerous as she says, believe that he is what she says and would actually know how to eliminate him. She pulls a peace of paper out of her pocket. The vampire hunter would be up to the task, or attest he should be up to it. Anyone who would take vampire hunting upon themselves had best have a decent idea about what to expect or else they will have a very short carrier. She takes a deep breath, realizing that she isn't realy breathing except threw conscious effort. She will have to watch that.
She places her face in her hands as a small degree of fear washes over her. The first time she has felt fear seance she woke up as a young girl to find her mother had passed on during the night. They had been kicked out of the apartment they were living in and all of the shelters had been full. During the night her mother had placed her coat over the young girl so that she would stay warm. Years of fending for herself, despite foster care, have taught her to be strong even under desperate conditions. Sees been caring for and defending herself seance she was 16 but now she must do something that she has never even had to consider before. She must get help from a man who would destroy her, if he were to figure out what she is, to destroy another. She must figure out a way to use a hunter of what she realizes is her kind to eliminate her captor and yet keep him from coming after herself as well. Unfortunately she can see no other choice. Ironic that she must solve on problem by producing another. The sky darkens perceptible. There is no moon on this dismal night. How very appropriate.
She examines the address and recognizes the location. She knows the building fairly well having once resided there herself. The manager is a noisy little slob of a man who talks quite a bit who uses the name Doric Funt. Not someone she ever particularly liked but harmless. A long walk across town, good, give her time to figure something out. She stands up and begins walking. So lost is she in her own thoughts that she doesn't even notices as clean well lit streets give way to dark passages woos fettered stench drifting to the noses of passerby's most admirable speak for themselves. She smiles as she arrives and the old, crumbling building. In an almost poetic fashion she arrives at the solution to the second half of her dilemma as she arrives at the door. She pauses and carefully removes a necklace and locket that has a picture of Johan on one side and one of her mother on the other and places that in a small hankercheffe along with her engagement ring, even though she is loth to part with ether. In time these things are likely to find there way into Johns possession once again, and from there back into her own. The police may not be right for getting Storn out of her hair, but they are just the thing for keeping a vampire hunter off her back. She enters and heads purposefully to the apartment that is lifted on the paper.
She pauses clenching the hanky in her fist and breaths in deeply. Burring her nails into her palms she forces herself to start crying. With tears running down her face she begins to pound hysterically on the door. After a while The bizarre man who described himself as a vampire hunter answers and she deliberately collapses into his arms sobbing in what seems to be and uncontrolled fashion. After sometime she laws herself to be calmed very slowly and lead over to a small couch. She slips the hanky under the seat cushion, were a searcher is likely to find it. Van Rossin, unaware that the woman he is now comforting has been legally dead for the last three nights hands her a tissue and asks in a very conserved voice." Are you all right? What's happened?" Still sobbing deliberately Colera says threw bouts of near hysterical seeming tears "It, was" gasping slightly "It was horrific!" she begins wailing once again as Van Rossin hands her another tissue and asks with even greater concern "Shah, What was Horrific?" Colera sniffles ever so much "I was Just like ya seed, Ya know about vampires?" Van Rossin gets a very serious and concerned look on his face "What about vampires?" She looks him straight in the eyes "Hiss one of them. The flea I' been seein. Hiss got fangs and ever thing. He don come after me, I swear. Tried to bite me las night, but I fought him off. Inlet then I was trapped in his place till just for sun set." She bricks into sobs again and grabs another tissue before continuing "I ran home and found this paper" she hands him the paper with her address. "I member what you seed about vampires so I come here cause I thought you might be able ta help." Her story has the exact effect on Van Rossin that she was hopping for. He looks at her and says very quietly and seriously "You have done the right thing. Its best that you don't return to your home this evening." She nods her head "I was thicken I could go visit some friends he doesn't know about." Van Rossin nods, just stay off the streets this evening. Tomorrow, I'll deal with your vampire friend." She looks at him innocently and asks quietly "Why tomorrow?" Van Rossin smiles and replies "Because, there easier to kill during the day." He gets up and gets a pillow and some blankets and places them on the couch "You can stay here for the night." She lays down sobbing. As soon as she can here him sleeping she gets up and leaves.
She quickly begins making her way threw town arriving back at Sterns places and enters quietly unnoticed. As she walks down the hall she is spotted by Kandisten as the woman exits her room. Kandisten sees her and walks over to her with a look of release "Oh good, there you are. When I saw you were already up I was a bit worried that you might have goon out on your own. " Colera smiles at the woman and shrugs "I was just walking around this place a bit to get a feel for my new home. I spouse I'm bound to be living here for a considerable time to come." Kandisten smiles and takes her hand gently "Storn will be very pleased that you have come to accept things so very quickly. He is feeling a little bit off tonight however and we will be staying in. You can find something to read in the library I'm certain." Kandisten takes her to the library and leaving a bottle of reddish liquid behind departs with a side question "You will be able to find your room later allergist wont you?" Colera smiles "Absolutely." She reads for a while and drinks from the bottle. Some time after midnight she gets up and goes to her room. She makes the bed look as if someone is in it and then leaves. She heads to a place were she has stayed at times in the past. An old mausoleum that is broken down but still very impermeable to light. On her way there she leaves an anonymous tip at the police station that A Van Rossin might be involved with the killings.