Name : Jenn (Jennifer) Schaefer
Nationality : North American
Apparent Age : 26
Actual Age : 30
Clan : Toreador Antitribu
Appearance :
5'5" with sandy blond hair worn in a long pony tail, blue eyes and light complexion.
( And yes.. It seems I am a Toreador again... but I couldn't help it this time! This char came to me in a dream and it's the only clan that fits )
( This came out rather long so I'll put the beginning part in spoilers for anyone who wants to read it, and only leave the Embrace part below. )
( Added a pre-part to the story. Needed to write something while waiting. )
Jenn sat in a bar, a crowded and somewhat unpleasant one at that. The actual bar surface was wet with spilled drinks, the wood badly in need of repair from being soaked. She had ordered a beer which now sat before her, condensation dripping off the bottle and adding its own measure to the pool below it. She had been carded again... which was usual when she ordered drinks. She was 26 but looked a fair bit younger it seemed. She shrugged mentally, supposing it was or would be a good thing.
She glanced at her watch before taking another swig from her beer, then glanced at the entrance again.
As she did so, a drunk businessman, albeit a young and quite nice looking one came up to her.
"Can I buy you a drink?" he slurred.
Jenn looked at him up and down. He didn't seem the type to be in a dive like this nor this drunk when the night was still this young. She glanced at his hand and noticed a gold band. She rolled her eyes.
"Have one already." she said curtly, glancing back to the door, trying to make it apparent that she wasn't interested.
"Well, can I join you?" he insisted, starting to sit down on the stool beside her. He was completely oblivious.
"Look.. I'm sure you're a great guy but I'm waiting for someone, ok?"
With that, he mumbled an reply that was unintelligible except calling her a name best not repeated as he almost fell off his stool and stumbled away. She shook her head. This kind of thing happened to her more often than not in places like this, but she didn't come for guys to try to pick her up.. especially not married guys she thought, rolling her eyes. She was here for a job. A potential client wanted to meet her. He had insisted it be after dark and that it be a place they wouldn't recognized, noticed or interrupted. She worked in a bar, a much nicer one but all the employees and some regulars knew her there. This bar fit the bill. And now she was waiting.
She had no idea what this guy would look like and was surprised when a large, well built man sat down in the seat so recently occupied by the drunk businessman, the opposite side of her from the entrance. She glanced at him apprehensively and noticed him staring at her already. He smiled at her which she found very creepy. He turned towards her.
"Ms. Shaefer, I presume?" he asked. There was something scary about his gaze but she shook off that feeling. She nodded.
"Pleased to meet you." he continued as he reached out to shake her hand. As she took it, she noticed it felt cold.. not that was totally out of the ordinary, it was still cool at night in the early spring. "Call me Terrance."
"Jenn." she replied to him finally. He had a presence that put her on edge. Her friends were counting on her though.
"A pleasure." he smiled. He seemed to cordial, polite for the common New Yorker she thought. She smiled back and gave him a slight nod.
"Now down to business I suppose? I heard about you, through the grapevine as is said. I will not go into detail on how. It's not important. I wanted to meet you, judge your character before I entrusted you with a task. There is few certain items I require." He glanced around the dingy place, as if making sure nobody was paying attention to them.
"I can get whatever you need." Jenn responded with surety. She knew she was good at taking things that didn't belong to her and getting in and out of secure locations. "Just tell me what, where and when you need it."
"Oh, I know you can." he said, again with the creepy, almost too familiar smile. "You will certainly do. I'll need a way to contact you. I will phone you shortly with the information you need but I will say this. I will pay well. Better than any job you have done so far."
Jenn furrowed her brow, usually her jobs seemed far less.. formal and far more impulsive than this. She shrugged as he pulled out a business card and pen, flipping the card over to the blank side and holding the pen out to her. She took it, being careful not to get the card in the liquids on the bar top and wrote down the phone number to her apartment. She handed it back to him along with the pen, noticing that it was an expensive one.
He got up so quick that she almost didn't see him until he was standing. He gave her a slight bow.
"I will contact you shortly then. A pleasure." And with that, he left, heading towards the back of the dark room.
Jenn got up, paid her bill and left the bar. What kind of job would this be? Oh well, she thought, she needed it to keep food on the table for her and her friends not to mention to pay the apartment rent and utilities. She would do what she needed to do.
Jenn stood in a run down apartment, leaning on a dirty counter with a phone to her ear. She was wearing an old, beat up leather jacket, a dark t-shirt under that and a pair of well-worn jeans along with some heavy black boots.
She murmured an 'uh huh' every so often while toying with her long ponytail. A group of intent faces watched her from a nearby haggard-looking couch.
Finally she hung up the phone and turned to the group composed of two other girls and a guy, all in their early 20's, just a few years younger than herself.
Her closest friend of the three was Jess; the other two always teased them about their names being so close. Jess was only a couple of years younger than her while Sophia and Kristian, who were actually siblings, were a few years younger than that.
"We've got a job." she informed them with a sly smile and was greeted with some cheers.
They were running seriously low on funds, having to resort to con tricks and menial work to keep food on the table. Jenn's current employment was at a hotel bar. A job, a real heist would net them enough to live better for a good while, maybe even get into something a bit more stable. They had all been street kids, or at least near to it. Jenn had always been able to pull in just enough money, either legally or not, to keep herself well. Her friends she had met in a variety of circumstances and, being the oldest, had become something of an older sister to them.
"What is it?" her friend Jess asked.
She had met with the client once before, in person at a dive bar but it had been more of a interview, seeing if she was right for the job she suspected. The phone call had been the guy with what he needed, where to get it and where to meet him afterwards.
"Three antique bowls or something, from a place in the upscale part of town. Apparently there is going to be a party there tomorrow night. I'm supposed to sneak in and out while this is going on. Shouldn't be too hard. The guy said there isn't even a security system and with all the guests coming and leaving, nobody should even notice me as long as I play it cool." Jenn answered. "He is going to pay us a cool 50 grand for these bowls..."
She could hardly believe the reward herself. It was more than a lot of people made in a year but the guy seemed to really want these bowls and she wasn't going to say no to easy payday.
The next night, Jenn stood outside a large house *somewhere*, watching generally well-dressed people enter the open front doors in small groups.
Almost everyone she saw was quite young, younger than she would have expected with this amount of opulence being displayed.
She noticed that a number of the groups had one member, often not quite as well dressed following behind and she quickly found a couple that were heading for the door that did not and fell in to close step behind them, head down and imitating the body language of the others she had seen. The ones ahead seemed not to notice her. She got the impression that even if she had been, she would be beneath their attention anyhow.
She followed them into the entry hall of the house. There had been a burly man at the door, probably security but he had completely overlooked her as she trailed the couple. She had planned to slip away but as the hall seemed to be filled with many people standing around and chatting. A clock somewhere struck the hour and people from the hall started to make their way in to the large room. Jenn had no option but to keep following the two right into a large.. ballroom for lack of a better word.
She noticed that the second-class guests seemed to be congregating over in one corner so she moved away to join them. She stood there for a few moments, watching people chatting and moving around the floor. Many seemed to be congregating around one woman with short, blonde hair in particular. Most of the people here walked by her and stopped for at least a moment. Jenn guessed she must be the hostess of this do.
All of a sudden she was startled when a hand gripped her shoulder. It was a young man. "You new?"
"Yes... I am..." she said hesitantly.
"I could tell.. I've been to a number of these.. I hadn't seen you before. Who...." he started off but she quickly interrupted him.
"Where's the rest room?"
He gave her a look of surprise, as if he hadn't expected her to ask that so blatantly. "Out the doors and make a right."
It appeared he was going to say something else but she made a hasty exit. She had hoped not to be noticed at all. She made her way quickly.. but not so quickly as to arouse suspicion back into the hallway. She looked down the left and right halls which fell into darkness. She could hear someone coming from the entryway. Probably the guard. She knew from her client where the items were kept and ran down into the blackened left hall.
At the end of it, she found the room she wanted. It was locked, as she had expected, so she pulled out her tools. Fitting them into the lock, it didn't take long before the door popped open. With a prideful smile, she pushed her way into the room, closing the door again to make sure nobody would notice anything out of place.. yet. Jenn pulled a small pocket flashlight from her jacket pocket and started to move the beam around the dark room.
There, on the desk, she saw what she was looking for. Three very old looking clay bowls with marks, designs and icons drawn into them. She couldn't fathom why her client would want these but.. she couldn't complain about the money she was getting from him. She quickly stacked the bowls together and shoved them under her arm. She looked around the room but it seemed it was windowless. Odd. Maybe to deter thieves she thought with a laugh.
Instead, she went back to the door and put her ear against it, listening for a minute. When she heard nothing, she cracked it open a touch and making sure her flashlight was off, looked out into the hall. Nothing, no one. This would be easy. She couldn't leave by the front door but the plans the client had shown her had displayed a rear door to the house from the kitchens. The client had said the kitchens would be vacant. Jenn had been surprised though to find this to be true. She would have thought they would have been busy what with the party. Oh well, it wasn't a concern for her.
She quickly exited the building and made her way across the darkened grounds, keeping watch for anything or anyone who might be watching. Her friends were waiting for her down the street and she joined them.
"I've got them." she told the others, displaying the bowls.
Jess ran a finger along the edge of one of them. "Why didn't the guy just go to Ikea? They have better bowls.. and cheaper..." she said mockingly.
Jenn gave her a smile. "Let's get out of here." and the group took off running for their apartment.
As they were making their way across the parking lot near their abode, Jenn started falling behind. She wished they had had enough money for some form of transportation.. they would soon enough she consoled herself.
"Your getting old!" Jess called back to her with a smirk.
"You try running all this way carrying these!" she yelled back.
Just as she took another step, she felt something slam into her chest hard, knocking the wind from her lungs. She would had dropped the bowls but something seemed to have a firm grip on both them.. and her. Jenn gasped and floundered, trying to regain her breath and slumping towards the ground but something held her upright. She could see her friends, not having noticed, keep running into the apartment underground parking, their most commonly used entrance to their building.
The bowls were ripped from her weakened grip easily which caused Jenn to turn her head around. The force which was holding her, restraining her in an iron grip was the blonde woman she had seen at the party. How in hell had she been able to follow them, even more so, how the hell had she known? Jenn stared in shock with mouth open at the cold visage staring back at her with piercing, ice-blue eyes and skin like white marble.
The woman thrust the bowls into the hands of a man Jenn just noticed standing behind. "Get the car." she told him.
She turned back to Jenn. "You tried stealing from me. That is a very foolhardy thing to attempt."
Jenn was just starting to be able to breathe normally again but didn't have an answer. Her brain had yet to catch up to events.
For a second Jenn could have sworn she saw a small smile appear in the corner of the woman's mouth as she studied Jenn before she heard her name being called. Her friends had realized she was no longer with them and had come back. They saw the situation just as a car pulled up behind her and the lady. The woman ripped open one of the back doors and dragged her inside before she could even try to resist. The car sped away, her friends chasing on foot but were quickly left far behind.
Realizing she was trapped, Jenn began to fight; clawing and struggling in the woman's grasp but she was even stronger than Jenn could have believed. She held tight and smoothly put a hand to Jenn's throat, gripping it and choking off her airway for a moment causing Jenn to stop moving.
"Stay quiet or else." was all the woman said, and when Jenn didn't make another move, the cold hand on her throat relaxed.
Jenn stared at the woman who was intently looking ahead out the front of the car.
"What do you want with me?" Jenn asked. If fighting didn't work, maybe talking would. "I'm sorry... about the bowls.. What are you going to do? Please don't hurt me, don't kill me..." she pleaded.
"Hurt you? My, my.. no. I've been watching you. As for the other part, that is inevitable." the woman responded with a very creepy smile.
Jenn shuddered and shivered. Had she heard right? "I'll pay you back, I'll do whatever you want. Just please let me go... I was hired to take the bowls, I can tell you what I know..."
When the woman failed to respond, Jenn resigned herself to waiting until the car reached its destination and picking the right time to try to make a get away.
In short order, the car pulled up back at the house where the party had been. Instead of pulling up the front drive though, it drove around the back of the house to what looked to be a delivery entrance. During the rest of the ride, Jenn had been thinking of what had happened. Her friends hadn't been with her when she'd seen the woman at the party and even if they had, they'd been too far away from her near the apartments to see who had taken her clearly. They wouldn't go to the cops of course, not that they would believe a bunch of kids that one of their own had been kidnapped by a rich, white woman.
As the woman pulled her out of the car, Jenn took the opportunity to try to run for it. She didn't get more than a step when she felt hot pain sear through her scalp as her ponytail was grasped. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, her face stinging from a hard hit and with a hand on her neck, the woman scowling over her.
"DON'T try that again!" she hissed.
"Stand up."
When Jenn was slow to regain her feet, the woman hauled her up by Jenn's now bruised neck. As she was marched into one of the entrances, Jenn reached up to feel her cheek. It hurt to the touch and she was sure it was already beginning to bruise and swell from the hit she'd taken.
The servant, who had followed them with the bowls took his leave, probably returning the items to their previous location. Jenn was pushed ahead by the woman down a dark hallway to a room with a heavy wooden door. The woman opened the door, flipping on a light. She dragged Jenn in, shoving her onto the white marble floor. Jenn hit hard, once again, knocking some of the breathe out of her lungs with a gasp.
While on the ground, she took a quick glance around the room searching for any escape but all she saw was another windowless room, a clear white marble floor, cushioned benches and a daybed around the edges and many ornate, gold frames with pictures and paintings on the walls. As quickly as she could, Jenn crawled up, starting to try to rise to her feet. Even quicker still, the woman was there, grabbing her from behind and holding her close. Her hair was pulled, arching her whole body and head backwards and to the side slightly.
"You are a pretty one, aren't you.." the woman said in Jenn's ear with the deadly calm of a snake about to strike.
"Yes... I think I made the right decision." she added with a chuckle. "Though we will see afterwards, of course..."
The woman's grip on Jenn's hair quickly switched to pulling her head to the side, exposing the right side of Jenn's neck.
"No....." was all Jenn uttered before she felt something sharp stab into her neck.
Jenn gasped in pain for a split second before the sensation changed. The pain completely disappeared, replaced with a sense of calm.. and something else. A pleasurable sensation emanated from her neck. The woman's mouth was there which confused Jenn but the euphoria she was feeling overrode any other thoughts at that moment. She thought she felt something warm running down her neck and shoulder but paid it no heed.
It was only a minute or two, though it felt like an eternity, before Jenn noticed she felt very weak. She would have fallen to the ground had the woman behind her not been holding her up in that super-human grip. She noticed her eyesight starting to blur when the woman pulled away, dropping her back on the marble. With what strength she had left, Jenn managed to roll herself onto her back. She was shocked to see the woman with blood all over the lower half of her face. The woman looked down at Jenn, showing fangs then ran a finger through some of the blood dripping down her chin and licked it off with a demonic smile.
Jenn shivered on the cold floor, noticing she could feel warm wetness beneath her shoulder and back now. It was dulling the cold a bit but she realized she was going into shock. She just managed to reach up a hand to her neck and pulled it away drenched in red. Her hand dropped back down, she was losing a lot of blood she realized. All her strength was fading. The wound on her neck as still pumping away and the pool beneath her was growing.
"What..?" was all that Jenn managed in a whisper.
She couldn't even think straight now. Her breathe was coming in short, shallow gasps. Suddenly the woman was right before her again with a small knife. She sliced into her own wrist and thrust it towards Jenn's face. Jenn used what little strength she had left to turn her head away but the woman grasped her face tightly, forcing it back facing up and forced her jaw open. Not being able to fight anymore, blood from the woman's wrist dropped into Jenn's mouth. She couldn't even spit it out and was forced to swallow or choke.
With that, the woman pulled away again, laughing. "A strong one indeed. Fighting until the end."
She lay down on a daybed to the side, curling up to watch with an entertained expression.
Jenn noticed her vision was growing smaller, being swallowed around the edges by blackness. Sounds seemed far away as did the pain from the wound and any coldness. She struggled to get up, to even force her vision back to normal but it was a losing battle. She had lost too much blood she knew. She could just barely tell she had stopped shivering as the blackness overwhelmed her.
The last thing she thought was "So this is how death feels..." but instead of feeling her self dissolve as she always expected would be the case, her mind kept functioning. She saw shapes and images fly past her. A calmness settled on her but after what was both but a moment and also an eternity, she felt something again. She could feel heat from her stomach that quickly rose to burning pitch. She couldn't have imagined a pain worse as it spread out through the rest of her body. In her mind's eye, she screamed and curled up into a ball with the pain.
As the pain started to die down, she realized she could feel her body again. It was cold, stiff. She couldn't move at all. She began to panic at the thought of being trapped like this for eternity. Maybe this was Hell. She couldn't imagine anything worse than being aware in a cold, dead jail of flesh and bone.
She could feel something.. almost a presence enter her, skulking around the darkness of her mind. It was watching her, hungry and dark. She tried to scream but could not make her body respond in any way. She quickly realized she had been wrong... This was worse.
Suddenly Jenn realized she could see again, not her mind but the room she was in. She could move her eyes. The woman was still watching her, eagerly it seemed. She looked to be thoroughly enjoying the show. Little by little, Jenn felt more of her body responding to her commands. It felt different though, no longer warm but stiff and cold. It was like the times she had spent on the street in winter. The stiffness was the same, but even with the cold then, she had been able to feel an underlying warmth within her no matter how chilled she was. That feeling was utterly gone now.
Slowly she realized something was growing inside her. A hunger, desperate to be satiated. She could smell something delicious all around and was quickly turned around and lapping at the pool on the floor before she realized it was her own blood there.. but the thought was quickly pushed to the side. The taste of it, feeding this hunger was all that mattered.
A strong arm pulled her off the floor and she tried to strike out at the interruption before she could even think. The arm grasped hers before she could make contact and she was pushed towards one corner of the room. The thought of the blood on the floor was quickly forgotten as she her attention was riveted on a young man huddled there in fear. She could smell his blood. Jenn only dimly realized this was the same man who had talked to her at the party but it was of no consequence as she fell on him, ripping at his neck in an almost-frenzy with still-blunt, normal shaped teeth. She fed and fed until there was nothing left and the force driving her seemed to recede.
She stood, letting the body drop and realized she was covered in blood, both her own and that of her victim. She had only a moment to realize in shock and horror at what she'd done before pain encroached upon her once again. Jenn fell to her knees, keening in the pain. It felt like her insides were in spasm and shifting. She threw up, what she didn't know but nothing she had ever seen before. Her body was wracked with pain for what seemed like hours but finally, it passed.
Jenn had been lying on the ground but now slowly got up, putting a hand to the nearest wall. She stared down at her hands. The skin was now incredibly pale, lacking what colour it had once had. She could feel something out of place in her mouth, reaching up she now found she had.. fangs? Just like the ones she had seen the woman sporting. She studied the newly shaped teeth with her tongue. She realized her old teeth hadn't changed shape but these two new fangs seemed to be merely in front of her old eye-teeth. She hadn't seen fangs on the woman before she had.. attacked her... and as she thought that she felt her own retract, leaving her mouth feeling as it had before.
Suddenly she remembered and turned around quickly. The woman was back on the daybed watching her with an amused smile.
)
