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The Lord of Chaos [Seraph and Cheshire Smirk]

Seraph

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Jan 24, 2009
When people said nothing ever happened in small towns, she mused that they never actually lived in a small town long enough to understand that big thing did happen. And they happened with increasing frequency in the town she had lived in since she was ten. When she was ten and up until she was about fifteen, nothing had really happened in Stalbrad. When she was fifteen, the fires had started and people had started getting hurt. The first few fires had been accidents, at least that was how the story went, and then the later ones seemed too...intentional to be accidents. And it all started to fall on the shoulders of one of the boys at school, he was thirteen the first time he was accused of doing something, but there was no evidence. At least, that was what she understand, since had never been arrested.

Being a couple years ahead of him, gave her the ability to watch without being questioned about it. After all, who would notice that the girl who's nose was constantly in a psychological thriller, or another psych text, was watching the town's trouble-maker. Although she had watched him until she graduated, she had never introduced herself to him. Her mother had told her on no uncertain terms that she was never to socialize with that boy since he was nothing but trouble. But from what she had seen, he really never did anything.

It wouldn't be until she was nineteen that she thought of him again to the extent she did when she was younger. She was planning on being a psychiatrist and a hopeful professor had asked all of the students over summer recess to pick out a single person in their community and watch how they interacted with others, where they would be ranked on Jung's Archetypes, did they suffer from any mental disorders, and so on. Of course, she had picked Vallios Vladric Xiloscient; her mother couldn't say 'no' since it was an assignment and now that she was nineteen. But, she did worry slightly, the damages around Stalbard had gotten worse while she had been away, and in the center of it was Vallios. And she had to get close to him.

She glanced in the mirror and took a steadying breath as she tied up her blonde hair in a ponytail and made sure that she was prepared for the record high-temperatures they were facing that year. She wasn't too happy with wearing the old pair of shorts she had on, or the tie-dye tanktop, especially since she wanted to make a semi-good impression on her unsuspecting subject, but she figured that it was better than showing up in a business suit or alternatively a bathing suit top and short-shorts (she would never get the picture of her little sister parading around in that).

She slammed the door behind her as she shouted into the house, "I'll be back later." Part of her hated coming back home since she always had to explain herself to her mother when she was there, but the other side of her was happy to have a full-sized kitchen with groceries she didn't have to buy herself, and meals she didn't have to eat alone. She checked her messenger bag for her notebook and made sure she hand enough pens, as if the fistful she had thrown in there earlier hadn't been enough.
 
"It's the nexus of the crisis; and the origin of storms..." A voice sang softly to the night.

Long tongues of flame licked at the night sky as the fifth house in 4 months caught fire. The owners were away on vacation in the Bahamas...With their cellphones still inside. There would be no way to break the bad news to the Joals until they pulled into the cul-de-sac and saw the charred ground where their $750,000 dollar house had once been. The wail of sirens shattered the silence of the night as the local fire department started it's response.

But of course, it was already too late. The fire was fueled by the unholy will of a demonic child, and would consume the house in a matter of minutes. Many people had stepped out of their homes to shake their heads and pray as another house was taken by fire. But, somewhere amongst the baleful stares there was one pleased gaze.

Two crimson eyes were set on the blaze, entranced by the beauty of destruction. In one of the highest branches of an ancient redwood tree sat Vallios, admiring his work from roughly 100 yards away. His ankle length black leather longcoat was pulled close to his body, black leather exterior blending perfectly with the dark night.
 
Elizabeth ended up running towards the smoke and flames she saw rising in the sky, hoping for a sight of her illusive subject. She stopped under a tree and looked around before she took her head, "Damnit...he's not here either." She slumped against the tree and watched as the police and fire-men attempted with all their might to put-out the flames. Elizabeth frowned slightly, those flames seemed almost...too fierce to be real and--did that tendril just lash out at one of the firemen?

She shook her head and mumbled, "You really should have stopped for that lemonade earlier, girl. You're seeing things."

She glanced at her wrist-watch and sighed, "I suppose today is a bust." She chewed on her bottom lip as she wiped the sticky tendrils of hair from her neck and thought over all the places she had gone to. The young psychology student had tried every typical hang-out she remembered from when she was here last--she had even tried the mall for crying out loud! Yet, Vallios was no where to be found. She had tried his house, but his parents had looked at her as if she were the oddest creature in the world before slamming the door in her face.

She pouted; she was used to getting her way, and getting what she wanted when she wanted it. She looked up at the sky and murmured, "Give me a sign to where he is? Eh?"
 
A sign? She was about to get a revelation. Vallios smirked as he looked down, noticing that his frustrated observer was standing below him. Yes; he was well aware of the years she'd spent watching, studying him from the shadows...Thinking she was being subtle. Vallios chuckled quietly as he heard her dispirited sigh. With a sigh Vallios turned to face the trunk, and dropped. He caught himself on a branch 10 feet down, then another 10, and then another ten, until he landed heavily but gracefully beside her.


Vallios rose slowly from his crouched position, throat length raven tresses hiding his face like a veil. He turned his head slowly to look at Elizabeth, allowing her to look straight into those blood-red orbs of his. When he spoke, his voice was a soft, silken purr that was laced with the slightest trace of a frigid northern accent. Naturally Vallios decided that a reference to the Hannibal series would be most appropriate, given the situations were strikingly similar...If you substituted serial killer for pyromaniac and anarchist.


"Hello Elizabeth..."

Vallios let out the softest of quiet laughs, the sound was mirthless and cruel, and seemed to promise suffering. Vallios' attention shifted slowly back to the flames, and he watched almost entranced as the demonic spirits of fire that he'd summoned did their work on the house, and the men attempting to fight the blaze.
 
She was about to push off the tree and head home when from the corner of her eye, she caught a sudden movement and she turned her head to look at him. She swallowed hard and slowly looked up as he rose, keeping her eyes on his red ones. She jumped slightly at his laugh, and cursed herself for being so jumpy as his eyes turned away from her and into the flames. She fiddled with the straps of her bag, "Nice to see you, Vallios. I didn't think you knew me."

She fidgeted a moment before she undid her hair and twisted it back up in a bun, keeping it off of her neck as she glanced to the fire, "I guess it's oil based or something? They really aren't having any luck with it."

She opened her bag and pulled out her notebook and jotted down a few notes about how he stared into the flames. Her letters were tight and slanted as she scribbled out, Possible pyromaniac. She coughed slightly before she spoke, "I've been looking for you all day, um...I was wondering you'd help me with an assignment?"
 
"Depends on what sort of assignment it is; I'm not much for academics."

Vallios shot Elizabeth that seductive smirk, those crimson eyes gleaming with a wicked light. Vallios wanted to get Elizabeth to admit that she'd been tailing him for years, just so he could criticize her lack of subtlety. That was just how Vallios worked; make you bear your soul, and then shred you apart verbally for your failures.

He tilted his head slightly as he watched the flames, wiling them to burn brighter. Loud cracks rent the night air as the house's support beams came tumbling down and the burning structure collapsed in a pile of cinders and embers, still glowing hot as the mouth of hell itself. He sighed ever so softly and began to walk away from the scene of the crime.
 
Elizabeth frowned a little as she considered how to explain the assignment to him and still make it sound as if she wasn't using him as an experiment. The university student thought too long and ended up watching Vallios begin to walk off and she shoved her notebook and pens back into her bag as she followed him. "Well, you see...I really just need to well...watch you. How you interact with people--it's for a paper."

She winced to herself, and thought to herself, Because that doesn't make you sound like a stalker, oh not at all! She shook off the feeling and murmured, "It's really important." She snapped her fingers, "What if we turn it into a deal?"
 
"A deal? What could you possibly offer me that a bit of hard work and some fortune can not?"

Vallios slowed his walk slightly, but continued to move away from Elizabeth. He was dangling himself like a piece of meat in front of her, teasing her with the possibility that he might stay...And also making it apparent that if she didn't manage to interest him, he'd also leave her just as easily. At this juncture in time Elizabeth was nothing more to Vallios than a source of amusement. She wanted to study him?

How fascinating; somebody wanted to examine the town crazy. Of course, Vallios wasn't officially considered the town crazy. But, if you brought him up there would definitely be tones of mistrust in the guarded words you'd hear. Everend was a small, friendly community after all, and gossip was generally looked down on.

Even if destruction and misery did seem to follow Vallios with every footstep.
 
"Well...I don't know; what would you want?" She frowned slightly as she followed Vallios; "Money? Tutoring? Someone to get you into R-rated movies?"

Elizabeth wasn't the best at making deals; she usually relied on being straight forward, but in this case if she told him the full reasons for wanting to study him, she had a feeling that he wouldn't agree. She gave a little huff, "It's just some questions and then me following you for a little bit--it's really nothing, so please?"

Part of her wondered if it would be easier just to find another person to study; her study-buddy in the class was going to do a study on her twin identical twin brothers and disprove that they had the same likes and dislikes. Elizabeth wondered if she could switch it? Before she shook her head and reminded herself that this was something she really wanted to do and was interested in. She didn't think that Vallios was a bad kid, maybe just a little misunderstood but with the right help he might make some friends and be well-adjusted. She glanced at him, well...maybe not well-adjusted but perhaps at least able to connect with people.
 
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