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Prologue - Jaylene Harris


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Re: Prologue - Jaylene Harris

Charles managed a bit of a smile, shifting a bit. "No, this is mostly my fault, don't blame yourself. How do you feel? Here, help me up..." He says slowly, in a rasping voice, starting to pull himself up.
 

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"Oh god, you're not dead," she gasped, half relieved and half nervous. He'd been on fire, for chrisakes, she hadn't expected him to actually be awake, let alone able to speak by now. Maybe Vincent hadn't been lying after all... Helping him up by propping an arm around his shoulders, offering further assistance if he wanted to his feet (though she doubted it), Jaylene replied, "I'm feeling fine... better than fine, actually. You saved my life, bud." Her voice held a kind of uncertain reverence. "I don't know how. You gonna be okay?"
 
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Charles got all the way to his feet, and started walking over to his car. A little stiff maybe, but still incredible. "I didn't save your life, Jaylene, I ended it. I'm sorry..." He said sadly, moving to open the trunk of his Neon.
 

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"Well, I feel fine," she countered, following him. "What, exactly, is going on here? I feel like someone took me and dropped me on the head. I've had bad nights before but this just about takes the cake, y'know? Did you hear what that Vincent guy said? We don't head to the old court house, he said, then we'd better get out of town. Something about a prince or something?"

She was fishing for her own keys before the memory of her car getting its door ripped clean off surfaced. "Oh, shit." She parted from him, going to see if that damage was real or remembered falsely. "That bastard just took my door off like it was nothing! Fuck!" She said the last more in disbelief than in anger. Talk about information overload. Or maybe culture shock. Probably some of both.
 
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Charles got his trunk open, and started fishing around in the back, coming out with a change of clothes, his current ones not much more than charred rags. "Maybe you'd better sit down." He said, gesturing to one of the doors on his car, so she'd be close enough to talk to. He waited until he had mostly changed before continuing. "Jaylene, listen. Me, Vincent, and that bastard over there, and now you, are vampires." He said, and then stopped, waiting for her reaction.
 

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((Forgot about the clothes. XD))

She returned as he finished getting dressed, having given him some privacy during the changing, there. When he had told her to sit down, she figured it was going to be something bad. When he told her about vampires, though...

Jaylene barked a laugh. "Oh, it stands to fucking reason, doesn't it?" she told him, shaking her head. Things were adding up such that she could see how that would be plausible. The teeth and the whole drinking of blood was a good starter. The things that Vincent had been doing had thrown her quite off track, however. Scrubbing her face with both hands, she asked, "how? No, why? No... wait. What next?" She was kind of wondering if maybe someone had slipped her something in a drink and she was just imagining this whole thing, but everything felt too real for that right now. And she was willing to humor him, at the very least.
 
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"Well, you have two choices, you can either go to the courthouse and integrate yourself into society, or you can come with me and get out of town, because they will kill me for saving you." He says calmly. "If you decide to stay, I'll give you my number so you aren't... God dammit." He says, checking his rags and pulling out his phone, which didn't work. "Alright, give me your number, and I can call you once I get a new phone. Unless your coming with, but you did say you weren't interested in a wild romp across the country..."
 

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Jaylene was still shaking her head a little as he spoke, just... flabbergasted. "And I have to decide like right now?" she asked, eventually sighing and leaning against the side of his car. "This blows. Charles, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to put a damned wanted sign over your head or anything." She fished around in the pockets of her simple black apron, which she'd neglected to take off. Usually she did that when she reached her car, and the habit hadn't yet left her. Pulling out a pad of paper and a nub of a pencil, she scrawled her number and passed it to him. "I'll have to find my phone, but there y'go."

She didn't think that she needed to add that she'd be staying in town. As much as ditching Red Deer for said 'wild ride' might be appealing, all of this had happened far too quickly. Jaylene didn't think she could handle much more of a change of pace. Besides, she figured that if she didn't see this 'prince' dude, she'd be run out of town, and this was still her home. A thought that was nagging at her needed to be voiced. "They're not gonna kill me, are they? I mean, if they're gonna kill you, they might just do away with me, right? I can't, y'know, tell this prince guy that you're a decent human being -- vampire being, whatever -- or something?"
 
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Charles took the paper gravely, shaking his head. "Nothing you could have done would have changed the outcome of this, they can't blame you for that. I made a conscious decision against the laws of our society, and that's why I'm in danger. You did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even that is mostly my fault. You'll be fine." He said, getting into his own car looking very sad. "I'm sorry, Jaylene." Was the last thing he said before closing his door and driving off as well...
 

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"Oh, hey," she began as he got into his car. "Hey, wait!" but he was gone... "Goddamnit," she cursed, scuffing a pebble in the parking lot.

Well, that was that. She wondered if driving around in a doorless car would get her pulled over or if maybe she should just walk...
 
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Re: Prologue - Jaylene Harris

The police aren't too common in the city, with the exception that the courthouse was only a block or two away from the station. Then again, Charles didn't take that biker's jacket, so his motorcycle keys were probably around here somewhere, if Jaylene thought she could ride that instead...
 

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Well, she'd ridden quads and trikes in the past, even if she didn't have a proper license for 'em. That thought in mind, the woman sifted through for the keys she was looking for after she'd found her phone and checked that its earlier fall hadn't broken it. She'd have to be careful if she was going to take the bike, not wearing a helmet or anything, and in her current outfit... road rash was something that she wanted to avoid, even though she'd seen Charles recover from far worse wounds.

Jaylene gathered what few things were close to her from her car -- A couple of CD's, a pewter rearview mirror gecko decoration, and a pair of shades... wait. She probably wasn't going to need those... ...well, she'd take them anyways; she'd spent months looking for just the right pair. She also pocketed her keys, though she ditched her apron in the car.

Donning the singed biker's jacket for extra protection, she mounted the great big chopper and settled in it for a minute, adjusting mirrors and dumping what she had in any saddle-bags or compartments in front of the seat if she could find the space (and rummaging through what space there was, if she could!) Ah, inheritance. Being one of the middle children, she'd gotten a lot of half-assed hand-me-downs. If this was being a vampire, she had a moment of 'I could enjoy this...' before revving the engine to life.

To the courthouse first, or home? Well... she could sneak in, tidy herself up, and continue on to the courthouse. She wasn't exactly looking in the best of condition! (The petty things one thinks about when one's by herself...) That figured out, the newly made Kindred pulled out of the lot and towards home, hoping to get there and get changed without either of her roommates questioning her. After that, she'd go to the courthouse as ordered... if only to get it done and over with.

((>_> If you want to toss her into the courthouse straight from here, I don't mind -- I made some assumptions considering you probably want to get everybody together sooner, though smack my hand if anything I wrote was too presumptuous!))
 
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((Bah, good luck getting me to play one of your roomies :p and I don't think I spotted anything out of line, so no worries. Only thing interesting in the saddlebags was one was half full of half-inch steel ball bearings. Getting everyone together is nice, and your time at home explains how you took so long to get there, despite being Vincent's first Neonate of the night ;) ))

Jaylene got in and out of her house silently enough to avoid waking her roommates, and was back on the bike and headed towards downtown. Parking near the courthouse, as everything actually at the place was full, she went down to the backdoor and knocked. A man opened the door enough to let his face through, spotting her and looking slightly confused. "Hello there, and who might you be?" He asked, surprisingly kindly, given what Jaylene was expecting.
 

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Dressed in some of her nicest clothing, over which a singed jacket resided, the young woman shifted uncomfortably. "I'm Jaylene... Vincent told me to come here to see the prince?" She'd been thinking about what to say, and couldn't come up with anything more polite or acceptable without sounding like she had no idea what she was talking about. "Some fucker told me that if I didn't get come here I'd get run out of town," was something that she'd had planned earlier on, but Jaylene cared for her life more than for venting angrily at the first stranger who crossed her path, so she'd put that aside for now.

"Am I in the right place?" she asked, immediately beginning to think that she'd been had.
 
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The man's face lit up in recognition. "Ah, you'd be the fairer half of that pair from downtown, I'd begun to think you two had left town, it's been so long. Where'd your crispy friend go?" He asked jovially, holding the door open for her.
 

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Looking through the door before moving through it, she replied, "out of town. He's probably the smarter one, too." She gave him a looking over after she'd finished looking down the hall, not sure what to think about the way he spoke. "That Vincent guy take a particular pleasure in burning people alive?" she asked, not sounding too impressed with the man's earlier behavior.
 
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The man shrugged. He was of pretty average height, built stockily, and had the faintest traces of English features and accent. "He does his job, and damn well too. Just stick to the rules and fly under his radar, and he won't bother you. Now come on, there can't be too many of you fresh ones left, everyone else is in a waiting room." He explains, heading off down the hall.
 

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Hmph. She didn't see how burning random vampires was getting a job done well. He should've been incinerating the ass who'd gotten her in this situation to begin with instead... even if she had to admit that, thinking back on it, putting holes through the big guy had been kind of satisfying. Knowing that made her squirm a little, but she wasn't going to deny what felt good.

Come to think of it, Charles had been pretty quick to dismiss her from sight and to take off. Jaylene wondered if he'd crumpled up her number and tossed it out his window on the way off, then shrugged it off... the thought kind of hurt, but what was done now was done, right?

"...Everyone else?" she asked, unaware that others were quite so 'fresh' as she was. "What do you mean?" She followed him down the hall, alternatingly curious and dreading being tossed all into one room like fish in a barrel...
 
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"There's been something of a party going on by the worse half of Kindred as a whole." Jack explained. "You make over a half dozen that have been Embraced tonight, which I think is some kind of record for this city. Vincent and a few others are still off hunting the ones responsible. Ah, here we are." He says, reaching one of the last door and holding it open for her...

*******End of Prologue********

((There ya go, go be socially nerdy ;) ))
 
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