Thoughts of the Past

[Isabella]

He moved silently through the woods, listening to all the noises around he. He hear a few birds chirping here and there, the occassionally scurry of a rabbit as it ran from a 'prey' and into the safetly of its den. He played with his lip rings with his tongue, trying to find a way to make time pass by a little more quickly so he would get to his spot faster, but it seemed that time never really passed anymore. He remembered a quote... one that he'd heard while watching an anime it rung true 'Time passes fast for the living...but for me, for the dead, it pauses...it stands still, allowing few of us to be happy.' He sighed as he ducked under the branch of an oak tree and found the small stream that he'd come to grow so attached to over the last decade. There were people buried along the river line, but he had stopped that three weeks ago now the only thing he found the need to bury was animals such as cat and deer. He hated doing it, but one needed to feed.

He sat down upon his a large boulder and watched the stream as the fish were swimming, they always swam with the current, never against it...at least not that he'd ever seen. Then again, he had never been someone to study fish. He had once heard of a type of fish that swim down stream to mate...he always thought it was kind of foolish. He laid there, wondering if he'd run into anybody while being this far out in the forest...

[†Tempting.Grace†]

((I know this thread is sort of old... but would you mind if I joined ye?))

Walking through the dark forests of the small town of Forks had not been her intention when she had walked out of her upper-class apartment that morning--on the contrary, Grace was not one to waste $200 shoes, no matter how much money she had accumulated over the decades of her un-life. Yet, there was something that had drawn her there, and whilest her eyes were black as night and her need to feed was rather becoming difficult to control anyway--well, why not (and please excuse the horrid pun) kill two birds with one stone?

Humming the song Aluette, she smiled, remembering their literal translation in English, and loving the irony of it...

'Lark, nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you
I will pluck you the head
I will pluck you the head
And the head, and the head Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
I will pluck you the nose
I will pluck you the nose
And the nose, and the nose Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
I will pluck you the eyes
I will pluck you the eyes
And the eyes, and the eyes Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
I will pluck you the neck
I will pluck you the neck
And the neck, and the neck Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
I will pluck you the wings
I will pluck you the wings
And the wings, and the wings Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
Alouette, nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you
I will pluck you the back
I will pluck you the back
And the back, and the back Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you
I will pluck you the legs
I will pluck you the legs
And the legs, and the legs Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you Lark,
nice Alouette Lark
I will pluck you Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you
I will pluck you the tail
I will pluck you the tail
And the tail, and the tail Alouette,
Alouette O-o-o-o-oh Alouette,
nice Alouette Lark I will pluck you'

As she sang the song to herself, she walked through the wood unafraid--she was the scariest thing here, she was certain--and her voice was both melodic and maternal--reminding her suddenly of her own dear mother, lost to her nearly a century ago. The thought of the woman who had first brought her into the world, sent something of a pained look across her cold, pale visage. Yet, she instantly flung aside the thought when she came upon a new scent.

Rabbit. Yummy.

Though it would not be enough to satiate her hunger fully, Grace gave into her inner urges. Waiting for a long moment, she relaxed against a tree, watching her chosen prey hop along, thinking itself unseen in the quiet of the bushes. As it came just within reach, Grace shot forward with unnatural speed, and broke the small beast's neck before it could even utter a cry.

Then, looking down at the rabbit in her hands and stroking its soft pelt a few times, feeling utterly miserable and yet ravenous, she made a face and then bit into the furry flesh of the rabbit's neck.

When the rabbit was completely dry of blood, Grace pulled away from its small body and held it up to examine. Perhaps, she thought, the carcass could be used for something yet. She felt terribly guilty at simply leaving the body behind, after all. It just didn't seem right to her.

At the precise moment she was about to carry the rabbit back to her car (a 78' Ford Mustang Convertable--in acid-green), she noticed another scent that slapped her quite roughly in the nose.

Ah... Another was here to feed, and as she moved towards the scent, she completely forgot the rabbit, still clutched in one fist and dangling lifelessly at her side. Her black eyes--now softening into a yellow-grey from her recent feeding--stared unabashedly at the figure sitting down on a large boulder beside a stream. She had heard the stream before she had even come within view of it, and yet the vampire male before it, she had not sensed. ...Why? She wondered at this briefly, before tensing.

It would only be a matter of time before he sensed her, if he had not done so already. So--and it was truly something she had to consider--would she allow herself to make contact with another in the area of her kind so soon after her arrival in Forks? Or would she simply sink into the shadows as before?

Quickly, Grace, your time is running out...

[Isabella]

ooc: not at all. ^_^; I actually appreciate it.

ic;

He had sensed another vampire around for quite a while though. It had not approached him though so he felt no need to really worry about it. He was humming a song softly to himself...the one that his mother use to sing to him while he was still alive, when he had a family. He tensed suddenly, and stopped humming as the presence got closer. He could tell they were behind him. He didn't look, just watched the water right ahead of him. Eyes never leaving the stream, acting as if he hadn't even notice anyone come over. He continued humming softly, as if time trying to pass time by. As if time passed by quickly for him. It was probably one of those Cullen kids anyways, but slightly hoping that it wasn't he stopped humming once again and spoke. His voice soft and smooth and it floated on the air like honey.

"So...what brings you to these parts of the woods?"

He knew it wasn't a werewolf, so he wasn't to concerned about it turning into a fight. However he wasn't sure if the other vampire was a good one or a bad one...if you could really call anything that fed off of blood to be good. He still made no move to turn around, no move to even glance back at her.

"You can come join me...if you would like."

[†Tempting.Grace†]

((Sorry about the wait!!! I'll get right to it...))

Grace froze in her tracks as she heard the voice of the young man before her. Well... perhaps young man wasn't quite the right use of words. She held the looks of a young woman herself, but she, of course, was nearly a hundred years old... It was very possible that this 'boy' was older still...

Grace straightened visibly, but as the other's back was still turned to her, he likely didn't catch it. Her dark eyes grew cold, and she felt the urge to run, but held her ground. Her eyes softened only at his next and final words, and it was as if her body grew limp. Suddenly, she felt all of the fatigue she had been holding in at length--all because she hadn't wanted to go out feeding until she was certain her home in Forks was completely settled, and she had registered herself for high school as a typical student. Though it had been difficult getting the lady at the desk in the office to give Grace--who looked to be nothing but a mere 17-year-old--all the paperwork required to enroll in Forks High School, she had used her natural vampyric seduction, and in the end, got her way. It was surprisingly difficult, however. After all, no 17-year-old could possibly have the ability to fill out the parts intended for a 'legal guardian'. No. Certainly not. But then, Grace had been forging her late mother's signature for several decades--with a different last name always, of course. This time, Grace had decided to act as a foreign exchange student from France. It would be far easier to fit in that way, and if anyone noticed any odd behavior from her, they may simply shrug it off as being 'a crazy French thing'. And anyway, it had worked a few times before, and Grace was pleased--it meant she could use the language most dear and safe to her--the language she was born with. Finally, for the first time in a long time, she could be herself again...

And oh, how she missed herself...

Ah, but there were other, far more pressing matters at the moment, weren't there?

Staring at the vampire-boy's back, Grace inched forward with a slowness that was unnatural for someone so used to speed. She could feel every perfect muscle in her body, tense with just the effort of keeping herself calm. One of her hands still clutched the dead rabbit, now growing cold in her icy grip, but she had long forgotten it, her darkened eyes cast on the one before her.

Now, as she moved casually to stand beside him, Grace allowed a glance to pass his way, taking in his face and all its features, his hair, and the piercings that he wore with an odd sort of rebellion that made Grace almost start with surprise. What on earth would possess someone to pierce themselves for all eternity with something as sharp as a metal stud? To Grace, it seemed almost like wearing a shackle around one's wrists and ankles for all eternity... But then, who was she to judge? Fancy is as fancy does, she supposed. Whatever floats one's boat and all that...

Her voice was gentle and serene, like the look on her face, though beneath the mask, she was anything but. Her accent she allowed to drift out with her words, faint but real nonetheless, and though she had mastered the ability to alter her voice so that her accent was barely noticeable to human ears, she figured that in the presence of another vampire, this was useless. I didn't matter, she didn't feel any real hostility from him... at the moment, anyway.

"I am Grace." She stated simply, and continued after a short pause, eyeing the direction in which he was gazing, and seeing the water in the stream with a sharp clarity that had her remembering again the woman who had given birth to her... Why it was so, even Grace could not fully understand. "I'm... hunting." She cut herself off shortly, and then gazed down at the rabbit in her hand, suddenly noticing its almost absent weight once again, and dropping it suddenly with a look of shock. The rabbit fell with a morbid thunk that made its furry skull bounce and then fall again at an odd angle, per the break in its neck. She felt a sudden queasiness start to well up in her belly, but pushed this aside. It was kind of odd, she supposed, for a vampire to become ill at the sight of its own leftovers...

"And you are?" She suddenly asked, looking at him directly for the first time, openly extending the possibility for further talk, though she was wondering just how much this one was in the mood for it. After all, he was all alone in the woods, staring at a stream. Not exactly a place where one would go looking for some in-depth conversation... But then, Grace felt a selfish need to talk. She hadn't seen another of her kind in a while. And the thought that this guy might have some information on the Cullens, whom she was very interested in meeting, made her all the more stubborn.

[Isabella]

He turned his head, gaze looking at her. He had heard something hit the ground, but had decided not to look and see what it was. So...her name was Grace? He turned his gaze back to the water, trying to figure out what he should do, he scooted over on the boulder, making more room for her to sit down next to him.

"Me? My name is Deryck M' lady."

He said, his voice calm and would be slighly soothing to any human's ears. He typically polite unless given a reason to be otherwise. One day he would wake up and realize that these piercings probably needed to come out...they were nothing more than a keepsake from a previous life, one that he was no longer living.

His eyes were an odd shade of dark shade of gray, yet still soft in there own special way. Dead yet alive...not breathing yet still moving on. The living dead...He patted the spot on the boulder next to him, wondering if ahe would sit next to him.

[†Tempting.Grace†]

'Deryck... Hmm...'

Grace sighed--a sound that would be inaudible to human ears--and resisted the urge to push aside a stray hair that bounced just at her cheek, falling from the bun she had somehow managed to tame her dark curls into earlier. Currently, the dress she was wearing, which ended somewhere about mid-thigh and was a nice shade of navy-blue, contrasting greatly with her pale skin, was holding up fairly well on her walk through the forest. Her shoes, however, were another matter entirely.

Grace gave a gentle moan in the direction of her feet, and, eyeing Deryck's welcoming gesture, she finally gave in and sat beside him on the boulder. She felt her elbow brush him as she attempted to scoot away from the very edge of the huge rock, but didn't dare react. Inside, she felt an odd sensation like a tightening in her throat. Something told her this was normal, but it was still difficult to understand.

Hiding her own, inner confusion, she tore the now-flat, $200 navy-blue pumps from her feet, and eyed their damage in silent disgust before finally setting them beside her bare feet. Then, she took a deep breath, though she hadn't the need to, and turned to her companion. Giving a smile that was at once warm and kind, but then suddenly timid, her currently blackened pools stared gently into his dark grey ones. He was strikingly handsome, once she really looked at him, and though she knew this was not really abnormal for their kind, she was still given a sense of lowered self-worth at the sight of him. She knew her own looks were not to be scoffed at, but it was something deeper that made her feel... less in his presence. Perhaps she was growing ill? Ah, but no... Vampires didn't get ill. So, what then? Perhaps her MIND was growing ill? Ah... well...

She glanced again at the piercings on his lips, and she felt a sudden wash of realization. Perhaps, like her, with the collection of crosses she wore around her neck quite often, he kept them as a momento of some sort? It was perfectly understandable... things like that were hard to let go of, even for herself...

Grace let her eyes fall from his face, and she suddenly felt so terribly silly. For how long had she been staring at him, she wondered. Oh, if vampires could blush! But Grace wetted her lips with her tongue and cleared her throat, trying to act natural... as natural as one like she could act, of course...

"Deryck... that's a lovely name." She said, attempting to find some amount of safety in the conversation, before she let herself go into dangerous territory. She still had to ask about the Cullens, and from there... well...

"Have you been here long?" Well, at least she was beginning to get to it... Oh, for how long must you walk on tiptoes amongst nails, Grace?

[Isabella]

Deryck tensed slightly as her elbow brushed up against his own, though it wasn't for any normal reason. He wasn't afraid that she was going to attack him or anything, just...well...he wasn't to sure why. He turned his head to look at her as she was looking at him. He examined her as she examined him. A cross? on a vampire? well...he did have a few piercings that he had for probably the same reason that she held on to the cross. But for a Vampire to be wearing a cross was something that he hadn't seen in a while. His bangs were covering up his right eye as always, and it didn't get on his nerves that much, but for some reason he was intrigued by the women before him...and the hair was an aggrevation that was in the way of seeing her clearly. He watched as she looked away and a soft smile crossed his face. He nodded his head to get the bangs out of his face, revealing his right eye. It was shockingly different than left dark gray one. It was a grayish-blue, but alot lighter than the right one. He listened as she spoke...taking in every tone or her voice and wondering what she was thinking.

"My name is no near as lovely as your own."

He said, wondering if he had spoke the words correctly. He wasn't entirely sure why he had to think about how to reply to her...it usually came naturally when he was replying to other people.

"I haven't been out here to long."

He wasn't really sure when he had gotten out here...but he didn't think that it had been that long ago, but prehaps that was because he had stopped seeing time as minutes or hours, but instead as years and decades. He studied her some more hoping that she would not look up and catch him of guard. She was beautiful.