The Four Seasons [Ravenous]

Serafíne

It was dusk at Red Rocks and by the time Alyssa drops them off someplace downtown, it is full dark. The atmosphere in Alyssa's vehicle is tense, but Sera stays close to Zoe, keeps a hand somewhere on her - on her shoulder, in her hair, on her thigh - if she allows and welcomes such contact the whole drive back. When it is ultimately clear that there will be no compromise - Alyssa, insistent on hiding them away in her apartment; Sera, certain that that would put Zoe in even more danger; Alyssa, sure that Sera's suggested refuge puts strangers in even more danger - Alyssa drops them off someplace near the luxury hotel and Sera is breathing all tight, her nerves jangling and raw. She's texted Dan, by then, and naturally he picks them up. Brings a change of clothes for Zoe, and a few more things thrown into one of Sera's twee hardsided suitcases. There's time for Zoe to change before Dan drops them off at the Four Seasons.

Sera hasn't been here much since Hawklsey moved out, but she remembers it well.

And she has a platinum AmEx with no evident credit limit so she secures a suit and checks them in and pulls Zoe with her into the elevator, carrying the suitcase alongside.

In the elevator, alone, going up up up -

"You have family in Denver? Or are they someplace else. Out of town?"

Flight

Zoe was quiet and unresponsive on the drive over, both in Alyssa'a car and then Dan's. Sera had healed the girl's physical wounds and wrapped her thoughts in a warm glow of safety, but she was still exhausted. Still numb with shock from having just seen her friends murdered in front of her. (From having nearly met the same fate herself.) Even during the midst of the tension and disagreement happening beside her, she just leaned her forehead against the car's window pane and stared out at the passing scenery.

After Alyssa dropped them off, she waited passively with Sera for Dan to arrive, and allowed herself to be ushered into this second vehicle driven by yet another stranger. When a change of clothes were offered to her, she put them on with tired, robotic motions.

It wasn't until she was standing with Sera in the elevator when something like life sparked again in Zoe's dark eyes. Sera asked about her family, and Zoe looked at her said, "They were my family."

Not by birth, no. But sometimes the bonds of friendship could hold stronger than those of blood. After a pause she added, quietly, "There isn't anyone else."

Serafíne

"Well - " The spark of life has Sera's dark eyes quick on Zoe's. There is a responsive note of something that is both immediate and intermediate to be read there, but Zoe - numb with grief and perhaps also howling with it - is not in any mood to read the secrets in a stranger's eyes.

And Sera smiles, sadly. Inhales long and deep as the numbers climb and climb. "I don't think that you'll be safe, in Denver. Not for a little while. If you could start over anywhere - where do you think that would be?"

Flight

"I don't know. We were always starting over. I don't think it matters."

Zoe leaned her back against the elevator and pushed a section of hair behind her ear. There was still some blood in it, but the black masked the color and no one had really seemed to pay the girl any mind while they'd waited in the lobby. There was something about her. Like Grace, she could make herself easy to miss. Easy to forget. Maybe that was why she'd escaped when none of the others had.

"We were going to try San Diego next." She glanced at Sera again. "I don't think anyone is safe here."

Serafíne

The elevator dings.

The doors slide open.

The hallway is as elegant and luxurious as one might imagine. Quite nearly cushioned, and Sera swings out and gestures Zoe forward and picks up the little suitcase, leading Zoe down the hall to the Presidential Suite. Which she opens, with a swipe of a clever little cardkey, ushering Zoe in to the suite. The glittering view of the city laid out beneath their feet.

"'Course it matters. It's your life. It may not feel like it matters now; but it does. There were people in NYC who helped me out when I needed it. I know a few folks - I think they're in Texas - who also get what it means to start over. But if you wanted to go to Paris, or London or Biarritz, you know, I could get you there too.

"I figure we stay here tonight. I get you a flight someplace in the morning. Hopefully even a name or two. Someone you can have a drink with. Maybe someone you can cry with, you know?"

The doors are closed - and locked and locked and locked - behind them. The suite has a living room, an elegant marble-topped bar, and on and on. Sera opens the fridge and starts pulling out miniature bottle of liquor, checking the labels, keeping some, setting others back inside.

"I'd like to know what happened. Where the house is. How many there are, the details, but you don't have to tell me and relive it. I can look back. Follow your timeline, you know.

"So you can get a shower if you want. I think Dan packed pajamas with feet and some without so you get your choice."

Flight

Zoe sat down on the bed and gazed at the window while Sera checked the mini-fridge. Sera made a compelling argument for getting away (for starting over) but when she was through talking, Zoe looked at her with remarkably clear eyes. Looked at her and said, in a steady, grounded voice, "If it had been your friends, would you just leave? Without..."

This girl knew better than any of them the threat that they were facing. She'd seen it. And she had to know that if she went back there then she might never make it out. Not even with help.

"Those men, and... whoever it was that was with them. Watching us. They killed my friends. My cabal. My family. If I leave now, then this will never be over."

She took a breath and closed her eyes. "Do what you have to do. But be careful. One of them is strong. Stronger than me. Stronger than you, I think."

Serafíne

"If you had died, but you knew someone you loved had survived - wouldn't you want her to safe, to mourn, to grieve, to live? Or would you want her to go back to what nearly killed her, without any promises or guarantees.

"You made it out. You survived. And I need you to be safe, for a little while.

"Not to be here and not to be a target, while we figure out what to do. Even if, when it's all over, you decide you need to come back here, or go to San Diego, or disappear altogether. But if you're not gonna shower, c'mere."

And Ser has settled on a settee with her array of bottles, one leg curled up beneath her body, the other outstretched. Hiking boots toed off, settled, sure, away, holding out her hands, palms up, until Zoe takes one. With the other, she throws back a shot.

1. Mind Shield, just in case!

2. Mind 3 / Time 3 Divination - centered on Zoe and her encounter with the cannibals.

Serafíne

Mind shield: Difficulty 5. -1 focus. -1 taking time.

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

Extending mind shield: Difficulty 4 this time.

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 4, 9) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Mind 3/Time 3/Prime 1 (Watch the Weaving) for the events surrounding the encounter with the cannibal dudes. Difficulty 7. -2 merit. -1 focus.

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

Extending: +1

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 6, 7) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Flight

Zoe didn't offer any argument to that, though neither did she offer agreement. Instead she grew quiet again, and there was a sense that this was not something they were likely to resolve in the span of one conversation. She was exhausted. She needed a shower and a long drink of water and probably something to eat. Most of all, she needed to rest. Whatever decision she was going to make, it would have to be on a clearer head.

So they left it there for now. And when Sera asked for her hands, Zoe crept down from the bed and sat down beside Sera, settling her hands into Sera's palms.

Sera did her work, and after a while the room grew dark, and she was seeing not through her own eyes, but through Zoe's.

They were in a car, driving through the countryside. Zoe and five other young willworkers. They were a tight fit in the small vehicle, but none of them seemed to mind. One of them, a tall, gangly boy with a quicksilver resonance, cracked a joke, and everyone laughed. Then the car slowed, and the red-headed boy who was driving (he felt like fire, burning and volatile) said, "That one."

Everyone looked out the window. They were stopped in front of a large property, not unlike the one the Chantry house sat upon. Only this house was larger, and the property gated. Surrounded by a tall iron fence. At the end of the long driveway sat a couple of expensive cars and one nondescript SUV. It was a prime target for a break-in. Whoever lived there obviously had money.

They talked about about how they were going to break in. Then the red-headed boy pulled the car around a bend and parked it out of sight of the house. The six of them were quiet as they scaled the fence and approached the building, moving through the tall grass as they approached. But as they neared the side of the building, Zoe stopped.

"Shane. There's something off about this place."

"I know."

"We should leave. This isn't safe."

"It's never fucking safe, Zoe. This is what we do. We take things from people like this. People who are so fucking hungry they'd eat the whole world if we let them."

"Not if it gets us killed," Zoe hissed. But it didn't matter. Because it was already too late. They came from behind the house. Five men, young and strong, their faces hidden in shadow. They didn't speak, or shout any warning. They just fanned out and ran straight for Zoe's cabal, weapons in hand.

It happened so. fast.

The tall, quicksilver boy was the first one killed. He took a knife to the throat and went down with blood pouring down the front of his shirt. The blond girl next to him shouted something anguished and incoherent, and then everything was a blur of blood and metal and screams. Shane wrestled one of them to the ground and stabbed him in the heart with his own pocket knife. Zoe was fast, and she fared better than many of her friends, but then one of the men managed to knock her down and bury a metal hook in her back. He dragged her about ten feet before Shane hit him with a bolt of electric energy diverted from the house's power lines.

It was enough to give Zoe her chance. When she got to her feet, she saw the carnage around her. She saw the men gang up on Shane and stab him over and over and over again.

And she ran.

At first, she could hear someone chasing after her, but she didn't look back. She bolted into the trees and kept to the shadows, running carefully, silently. And eventually the footsteps behind her receded.