Of Smoke And Shadows: Chapter 1
We start our journey with one sad vampire and an even sadder little borrower.
No beta we die like men
Tag list: Ask to be added.
This story will be posted under #Of Smoke And Shadows
And under #OSAS
Intro post
Detective Lumen.
Snow, This is the first time I have seen snow since I can remember.
There's something about it that reminds me of when I was young and innocent, of days that passed long ago.
It gives me a bittersweet feeling, a certain warmth in my heart. I still miss those days, but it is no use lingering in the past.
I light a cigarette and take a deep breath as I stare into space. Even though the cigarette does nothing, the warmth and the bitter taste give a semblance of life to my cold body.
My brother always complains about how nicotine is deadly and that I'm risking my health, he keeps mentioning how people die because of it. And I always remind him that we aren't people.
Standing in the alleyway, I let myself get lost in my thoughts as I watched everything around me get coated in snow, like a mountain of powdered sugar, or a soft white blanket.
Then, I feel a presence, and I hear a voice, I was not alone.
"M..Mister? Mister?"
I immediately look around me, searching for whoever was around here and just spoke up, until I realize...
It was down... Down... At my foot.
Wait... What?
I squint and rub my eyes, for I could see a little brown blob tugging at my coat.
No, it wasn't a brown blob, it was a little... Person? Girl? A little girl, only about three inches tall!
The poor wee thing was looking at me in both fear and desperation, shivering in the cold, it pained me to see her like this.
She was a creature called a "borrower", a small person that lives in house walls and makes a living out of unwanted, forgotten things, hence the "borrower".
I have never got to see one as close as this, they are usually shy creatures that won't reveal themselves to a human, let alone a monster like me.
I figured that the poor dear was in a dire situation, and she reached out to me to help her.
Alas, I will try my best.
I think of where to take her, of course! Arsen would love to see her, he always wanted to see a borrower from a close distance.
So I reach out to take her into my gloved hand, And no sooner than when she was in my hand that she awoke from whatever daze froze her.
She immediately leaped from my palm and she was free-falling.
"Fuck!" I exclaim as I catch the rather reckless bundle in my hands and quickly tuck her into my shirt pocket, and I'm filled with guilt as I hear her weak, soft voice begging me to let go.
"Shhh, It's okay, it's okay," I whisper to the little one as I pat my pocket, feeling her curling into a small ball.
"Sleep now, I won't hurt you, just going to take you somewhere safe."
A few moments pass, and I only hear her breathing, so I assume that she is asleep.
I take another breath of my cigarette, then I realize that my supervisor will be upset about my slacking, as she only allowed me a five-minute break.
When I walked back to her office, she looked quite upset at me.
"Lumen! You are late! And that cigarette is still burni_"
"Shh_"
She is too loud. I raise my finger over my lips as a gesture for her to be quiet, then I decide to show her what made me late.
As I reach into my pocket, the little blonde woman eyed me with a skeptical look. I take out the borrower, and I carefully laid her in my hand, noticing how serene she was in her sleep.
Now that she is close and still, I take a good look at her.
She is a small girl, with a huge cloud of curly brown hair that falls behind her back and on her shoulders. Her freckles spread all over her face and arms like cinnamon, especially on her plump cheeks and little button nose, I can notice how pallid her face was, how she was covered in dust, perhaps it's a good thing that I found her.
Charlotte stares at me, then at the little girl in my palm, I see a smile forming on her face as she coos softly.
"Aww, Gosh! What a cutie! What a little darling!"
The way she gushed over the borrower was getting on my nerves. Humans tend to overreact to things, and it makes me nervous.
"And what are you doing with her?" She asked.
"I'm taking her to Arsen, He will know_"
"Don't! He will hurt the poor baby! He can't be trusted_"
"I was informing you, not asking for your opinion."
I tell her in a firmer tone. It looks like I went too far, as she was taken aback by that.
Then I see that look in her blue eyes, that dreaded look, and I thought we were getting somewhere.
Guess we were never there, to begin with.
"L..looks like it's the end of your shift! You are dismissed, Lumen."
I heard a soft murmur and felt the subtle movements in my hand.
Right, the borrower.
I slip the small borrower I nearly forgot about back into my pocket, and I turn back to the exit.
I take one last breath from the cigarette I held, then I throw it and crush it under my foot, Charlotte doesn't deserve a clean office.
====
I'm back at my apartment's door, my safe and familiar apartment.
I knock on the door, and the raspy voice of Arsen answers me.
"Who the fuck is it?"
"Who would it be?" I replied.
"I don't know, The fucking police? a fairy who managed to get my name? A loan shark I didn't know I was indebted to? "
"It's the police then."
I say as I put my keys in the lock and turn it.
Arsen is jumpy and anxious, the last thing I want is for him to shoot me, it will be very inconvenient to have a bullet in my head right now.
I look at my brother and I remember why he doesn't go out of the apartment, he was even more inhumane than I am, with skin as dark as night, sunken eyes, sallow cheeks, crooked long ears, and sharp crooked teeth. Arsen is described by some as a "Tall goblin", and with his strange posture and alert looks, he wasn't different from one.
He stood at seven feet tall, although he was always hunched so he always looked a foot shorter, he was wearing a bright white lab coat atop his equally colored suit. The colors contrasted with his skin and matched his eye color.
The place was as organized as always, although Arsen did not believe in a god, there were crosses and other religious symbols everywhere. I always thought this was kind of strange, but Arsen insisted that "spirituality wards off the supernatural, and it does not contradict with science nor what he believes."
"I have something for you," I tell him.
"What is it?"
After washing my hands, I
reach into my pocket to take out the small girl, to which Arsen's eyes widened.
"Put it in this cage! Quickly! And change your clothes and wash your hands! Who knows where you found it and what sort of diseases it carries!"
I nod to him and go to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
It all went down so quickly, one minute I was putting on a shirt and the next I hear Arsen coughing his lungs out.
And as fast as I could, I run to the kitchen and I open a cabinet that I mentally marked, taking out an inhaler.
Helping my brother to sit down, I put the inhaler in his mouth and aided him as he took a puff, then another.
For a few minutes, he was breathing and slowly inhaling, as I tried my best to calm him down.
"It's alright, Arsen, you are still here, nothing happened, you are safe with me."
"I'm here for you, I did not forget."
Over and over, I stayed nearby and spoke as quietly and as gently as I could muster, until Arsen could feel that he can breathe again, there is no wheezing in his voice, and the air was entering his lungs normally.
"I took my medicine, this wasn't meant to happen!" He panicked, shivering like a frail leaf in the winds of October in my arms.
"You did, Arsen, you never forgot" I reassure him.
"Then why did i"_
"The windows are closed, the apartment is clean, I showered and changed my clothing, my shoes are outside the door, you did everything correctly and I did too." I try to reassure him, again.
"I must have forgotten something! You must have done something! It could have been the door or_"
I present him with his own notebook, where his checklist was completed, I also point at the door, which I made sure was closed tightly.
"It doesn't have to be for a reason, You have frail lungs, that isn't your fault."
"Not everything has to be for a reason."
I look at the small girl in the cage, she was watching all of this with wary curiosity.
"What are you going to do about her?" I ask him.
"You do, I must recheck if I missed something."
I nod, and I take the nearest chair, I pull it and sit next to the glass cage, And I see a book that s open wide next to it, Arsen must have been studying her.
I get closer to her and I notice her eyes, she had big, chocolate-brown eyes that were staring up at me in both awe and fear. Humans already tower over her like skyscrapers, I can't imagine how I look to her.
I sigh and lower my voice.
"It's time we have a talk."
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OC Favorites Tag~
Actually gonna snag an open tag for once (I’m feeling bold, I’m feeling risky, somebody stop me) from @alinacapellabooks <3
This’ll be for my girl Katty!! She stars in my wip OSAS, a dark fantasy series I’m writing with my bestie @isabellebissonrouthier <33
Rules: share photos of your OCs' favorite color, season, shoe choice, weapon, food & drink, clothing style, mode of transportation, animal, pastime, and breakfast and if they're an introvert/ambivert/extrovert then change up any one of the five favorite things categories for the next round. BONUS: Add some music/songs that fit their aesthetic (the songs don't have to be their favorite songs, just fit their vibe)!
Tagging: @annetilney @sliceoflifeshepard @dearunreliablenarrator @wordwizards @isabellebissonrouthier (specifically for Morannah bestie, make a patching post with me)
—
color: black or dark green
season: autumn
shoe choice: tall boots with stiletto heels
weapon: rapiers
food: pumpkin bread pudding radiates comfort for her, but she also loves fruit salad and zucchini
drink: cocktails or wine
clothing style: elegant, lots of black. best represented in the fashion moodboard for her!! find it here
preferred mode of transportation: walking
animal: cats. any cat. every cat. her name is Katty for a reason
hobbies: tarot reading! witchy stuff. but also knitting, reading, and singing. girlie has grandma energy trust me
breakfast: fruit, wine, bread, cheese. just like a Roman senator
introvert/ambivert/extrovert
songs:
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