Mein Licht

Kross watched the door, waiting for Mizuki to come back in. He couldn't hear any of the conversation; just some random mumbles. When Mizuki scream 'when do we leave?!' though, Kross heard that, loud and clear.
She's leaving too? I don't know if that will make things easier or just complicate them more... he thought. I wonder where she's going.
Harry came walking back into the living room, his red hair still damp, but showered and dressed nonetheless. "Are you and Mizuki going somewhere?" Kross asked him. When Harry shook his head, Kross assumed that Mizuki was just going, or she hadn't told Harry about it yet.
Once Mizuki came back inside, Kross sat up "Who was that?"

Shortly after hearing the bit about one week, Mizuki slipped back inside, barely having made it to where she could see both Harry -now showered and dressed- and Kross still sitting on the couch, when she was asked who was at the door. She shook her head softly at him. "That was the village leader. Apparently he's going around to everyone's houses," she said, coming in fully at this point and then sitting back in her chair.
"Well.... what did he want?" Harry asked with raised eyebrows, causing a semi-grin to appear on Mizuki's face. "Come on, Miz," he insisted.
This procured a small chuckle and she nodded a little. "Well, the village has been given an assigment. Apparently it will be about a month long, at least, and most of the hunters in the village will be going." she paused as she looked at her brothers. "We're leaving in about a week." She realized that Harry would know this would be her first assignment and would be happy for her, even if Kross might not understand, which was why she hadn't really said much to him about it. He was already awkward enough with the village in general, simply not being able to understand because of the different lifestyles.

Kross listened to the small amount of information he was given, deciding he probably wasn't his business if they weren't telling him.
While her and her brother talked, Kross stood up "Hey, I'm gonna go check out that library you told me about... I'll just meet you guys outside later, alright?" He waved to them and went to the door, stepping into his own black combat boots before going outside.
The village was bustling with people again, just like yesterday. He noticed several new booths set up, but there were many still there from yesterday, including the red tent. He could see the curtains moving from the outside as people moved around inside of it. It made him angry. Just hang in there for a few more hours, Lothaire... I'm coming. Kross walked closer to the tent and sent his thoughts to the vampire. If he joined Lothaire's group he had talked about last night, they would be able to communicate telepathically any time, but for now they had to be closer to each other. He waited a few more minutes for Lothaire to reply, finally leaving when he felt a sort of mental nod. He's probably in too much pain to maintain a single thought... Kross said, only to himself this time, ...I feel bad for making him wait another day.
Hopping up onto a fence post, Kross scanned the area until he spotted small wooden building, not too different in appearance than the rest of them, with a sign outside that read: Town Hall. He ran across the sea of people and made his way into the door. It was empty on the inside; no people except for Kross himself. There was a table in the center of the room with a map of the village and mountains engraved on its surface, plaques hung neatly on the wall behind it, as well as a line of photographs that Kross assumed was all of the village leaders from past to present, considering the last picture in the line was of the same sandy haired man that had talked to Mizuki a few minutes ago: Alistair Eveheart
To the left of the table was a tiny room, covered from floor to ceiling with books on each of the three walls. It wasn't very big, but it was more than enough information that Kross would ever need.
He started with a dictionary sized book with a dusty yellow cover and gold rimmed pages, titled: History of Crescent Stone Village - 1625
"Holy cow this is old..." he said to himself, carefully opening the cover so it would break apart. He scanned the table of contents, which gave information about the leaders, the battles fought, and goals for the future. He gave the Battles section a quick scan, but found nothing that he needed at the moment.
He looked at he shelves, flipping through the occasional book, until he finally found a tiny, pocket sized book, blood red in color called: The Creatures of the Mountains by a man named Pierre De Bayard, the same surname as Lothaire. He flipped through the thin pages until he finally found a story titled "How Vampires Came to Be"
Many, many years ago, long before Crescent Stone, vampire hunters, and even vampires themselves, demons roamed the earth. They were ruthless, brutal creatures who killed innocent people for their own pleasure. Though there was one, known to some as the King of Demons, who had a sudden change of heart. He fell in love with a mortal woman named Phaedra, and she bore his child.
When the child was born, he did not cry nor scream. Instead he looked around, eyes wide open. He was a beautiful boy; too beautiful for words. His skin was like porcelain and his eyes were like roses and his hair was like faded gold. He looked much like a human child, and Phaedra named him Jupiter, after the god of gods in Rome.
Jupiter grew rapidly. He was not like a mortal child on the inside; he thirsted for blood and had inhuman strength and speed. . . Once he was old enough to walk, he started attacking and biting humans, turning them into the blood thirsty creatures like him: thus the beginning of the vampire race.
The vampires rose quickly in number, and Phaedra watched in horror as they, too, ruthlessly murdered people for blood. With the demons killing and the vampires killing, there would soon be no more people left to kill.
So, Phaedra, shameful for what she had created, atoned for her sin and went to Jupiter's father. She seduced him once more, only to steal the key around his neck, and left before he could notice. With the key, Phaedra opened the gates of hell and sent all of the demons into the underworld, hoping the world would stay at peace. Unfortunately, the vampires kept killing, but Phaedra did not have the heart to cast away her own son. She begged with her son to stop the killing, but Jupiter could not do so. They had to kill to live. So, in honor of his mother and with permission to stay on earth, he made a treaty. The treaty forced the vampires not to prey on innocent people, only on those who trespassed on their territory or attacked them first. The other vampires were not happy with this, but they were forced to abide, as Jupiter was their creator.
The treaty will only be broken when the gates of hell open once more, and the demon king comes to claim his son. Once the first son is gone, free reign is upon everyone once more.
The key to the underworld is now lost somewhere in the endless puzzle of time. Countless people have searched for it, though none have found it, for it is still with the first son, Jupiter, where it will hopefully always remain. - Pierre De Bayard, 1732
Kross had a fear sink into him. This was it... The treaty was going to be broken, the gates of hell were going to open again, demons would walk the earth, and it would be a constant battle for survival.
He closed the book and began to put it back on the shelf, but Kross decided it may be of some use later on, so he put it in his pocket and darted outside. I have to find Jupiter... But who knows where he's at! He was born over a thousand years ago at the least... This is not going to be good...
Kross tried to wipe away the other thoughts in his mind as he saw Mizuki and Harry come out of their house. They didn't need to know about any of this right now.

"Okay," Mizuki and Harry said to Kross practically at the same time as he got up to leave. The twins fell back into slightly excited conversation shortly after as well. Mizuki wanted to make completely sure that Harry was going to be fine on his own, even if she had already agreed to go. He would just roll his eyes at her and assure her that everything would be fine -something which was very Harry like- but she believed her brother and she nodded.
Once they finished with their conversation, she then stood up and smiled at him. "What do you say we see if we can have some fun at the fair today?" She went over and pulled him up as he groaned.
"Do I have to? You already woke me up early," the red-head complained, to which she cast him a scathing look.
"Yes," she answered firmly. Not a couple of minutes later, they both had on shoes and exited the house, walking into the central bit of the village. There was less of a crowd of children today with more adults out, but after looking around a little, she easily caught sight of Kross. At first glance, he looked slightly distressed, but a blink later and he was smiling at them, waving as he sauntered over. "Find what you were looking for in the library?" Mizuki asked with faint curiosity. It wasn't really any of her business what he had been searching for in the first place or any of that, but what he had been looking for was a different story altogether.

Kross nodded "Yeah, I think so,"
He joined in line with the twins, standing on Mizuki's side, and walked around with them. "So, what do you guys want to try today? That throwing knife booth looks fun," he pointed to a long booth with targets lined up behind it. Each person would pay for a knife and try to hit the target; the closer to the bulls eye, the bigger the prize. Kind of like a twisted version of darts or Foosball... This was a vampire hunting village, after all.
Kross lead them to the booth, and paid for each of them to get two knives. He purposefully turned his vampire instincts on and hurtled the knife through the air. It spiraled until it landed smack dab in the center. This of course caught attention, and while everyone cheered, Kross slid the second knife into his pocket. I can use this to cut the binds Lothaire is in.
He looked at the choice of prizes, and went with something that looked the most like Mizuki's personality. He ended up going with an almost foot long gray stuffed animal and a lopsided head, with X stitched eyes and a snaggle toothed mouth. "Here you go," he smiled, handing his prize to her, "His name is... Grim,"

Mizuki was not only surprised by the fact that Kross had managed to get the knife straight in the center, but also as he handed off the stuffed animal he picked out to her, blinking at him for a moment. The wheels in her mind had started turning again, despite wanting to shut them off, and his incredible aim just then added into the list that had been formulating in her mind yesterday, to be filed off with everything else. "Erm, thanks," she muttered, feeling a bit awkward.
Harry stepped up then, his knives hitting pretty close but not quite on target. Then it was Mizuki's turn. The first one got quite a bit closer than Harry's, but then she had a thought, and closing her eyes for a moment, summoned her father. Hey, you were good with throwing knives, right? I got pretty close; wanna help me try? she nearly grinned as she waited for his response. It wasn't so much as a wanting to win a prize thing as she kind of wanted to get it dead on as well, plus she knew the dead missed human activity. When she 'borrowed' their abilities, she was still mentally there, but so were they, experiencing things through her body, and if she remembered, this was one of the games her dad had really liked.
Sure, I'll give it a try, Nathan agreed, and when Mizuki opened her eyes, instead of being blue, they were a color close to a pine green, much like her older brother's were. Knowing her voice would have been altered too and that would just be creepy, nothing was said as the other knife was thrown. Despite that Nathan was a bit rusty, he hit on the mark, at which point she closed her eyes again as she knew they would fade back to blue. Thanks, that was fun.
Hey, it's both of us, right? You shouldn't thank me; I should be thanking you. Let's just call it even, she said, to which he once more agreed with her, but when she was offered a prize, she gave a small shake of her head, putting her palms out to the man at the booth.
"No, I'm fine," she insisted. She thought for a moment before getting an idea. "If a little kid comes by, why don't you give whatever prize I would have won to them? They're not going to be able to hit the mark, and they'll enjoy it," she offered with a small smile. "Trust me. Some of these things are bigger than they are!"

Even though Kross should have been watching the knife, he had been watching Mizuki instead, so when her eyes suddenly changed colors, he knew she had used her ability.
Once they were several feet away from the booth, he bent down in her face "You cheated! I saw you!" he whispered, smiling wildly. "Did you use someone's powers? A ghost's?"
As he waited for her answer, the town's bell suddenly went off twelve times, marking noon. Confetti wafted through the air and suddenly everyone in the square was clapping in unison. A man came out dressed in all black, wearing a grumpy looking solid red mask. He walked in a crouch as the whole village made one big circle around him, which Kross, Harry, and Mizuki were all forced into.
Everyone took hands and jumped around, while unseen people banged on drums to create a beat for the dancing. The masked man, or 'vampire', would walk up to random people and they would have to playfully kick him away. Kross laughed as everyone spun around and danced and cheered, even though he was technically celebrating the death of his own people. That made him laugh even more.

Mizuki never got a chance to reply to Kross's questions as the bell rang. She had completely forgotten to warn him about what would happen, but before she could explain what was going on, the three of them were hearded into the tight circle to begin spinning around with cheers and laughs and a dance, all around the 'vampire'. They all obviously knew he wasn't actually one, or he no doubtedly would have been attacked on sight.
Still, a little kid with sky blue hair wriggled her way into the middle where the man was, a large stick in hand -large for her small size at least-, and she started to hit him with it. This made the crowd cheer more as the man theatrically began to cower away from the brave little girl who was giggling as she continued to chase him around in the middle of the circle and whack him with the stick. She wasn't hitting hard either, Mizuki knew, otherwise she might have been worried, but soon a few more kids began to join in until the man fell to the ground, acting like he was dead even when they continued to hit him a little more.
Finally the kids stopped, figuring out the man wasn't going to move anymore, and they raised their sticks with a cheer, older villagers following suit.

Kross roared with laughter as the kids beat the man with sticks. He was tempted to go and join them, but once he remembered what this all symbolized, he decided against it.
As the circle dispersed, Kross put a hand on his stomach "You guys hungry? It's lunch time," He looked around and saw people were lining up at food booths, or waiting to be seated at the villages only restaurant. Wanting to make this day memorable, Kross decided they should eat in the restaurant together. "Let's go there!" he said as he lead them inside the tiny building.
The entrance was covered with old stone flooring and a bar lined evenly with eight stools, and then branching out to the right was a wider room, with carpet and six tables and chairs of varying sizes, a fireplace, and an old chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Kross asked for a table for three, which was open, so they were seated instantly. "This is on me, guys, so order whatever you want," he told them, smiling as he was handed a menu. He ordered a steak, rare, not thinking anything of it. It just sounded good to him at the moment. The steak was the most expensive thing on the menu, at eleven dollars, so Kross would easily be able to pay for all of this.

Mizuki gave Kross an odd look when he offered to pay for lunch. "If you're a traveler, how do you earn money?" she asked curiously. She was sitting across from him with Harry at her side. She and Harry went ahead and ordered as well though, especially since money could be discussed while -or after- they ate. Harry ended up getting chicken tenders while Mizuki went with a burger.
An odd look momentarily came over her face at what Kross had ordered, though she masked it quickly, and sinking feeling starting in her stomach. What if her slight suspicion -more of a guess- was right? There was a strong possibility that he was part vampire, and would naturally want to hide it being in a place full of hunters. Combine everything she had noted, including how at first he had tried to stick up for vampires, and it would make sense on some level, if she could figure out how exactly.
She guessed there was something she could try too... she glanced at the silverware sitting on the table, actual silver -because it could be a handy weapon- and she idly wondered at something. Would silver hurt even someone only partially vampire? Probably...

"I do odd jobs for people and they pay me. I actually save a lot, since I don't have to pay bills or anything," Kross explained.
Once their food had arrived, Kross immediately began to eat, groaning obnoxiously again "Mmm... This is good," he said.
Kross's eyes caught sight of Mizuki playing with the silverware "Y'know, you can eat a burger with your hands, right?" he laughed at her, giving her a goofy, Kross-ish smile.
He watched the clock on the fireplace mantle tick away each second, and suddenly the knife in his pocket became a lot heavier... He still wasn't ready to say goodbye.

Mizuki, preoccupied with her thoughts, almost hadn't realized that their food had come in the first place, and she glanced up in surprise at his comment, her lips forming something of a wry smile as she shrugged. "Sorry, I was just thinking," she explained. "I just zoned out a bit." That was true enough, and shortly after she took her burger and munched into it. She and Harry had eaten here before and she knew it was good already, still enjoying it anyway though.
After they were all done, and still were just sitting there, Mizuki considered the silverware again, this time with her eyes only for the moment. She would really hate to just stab him with a fork or something -especially since they were in public and if the silver affected him, she was pretty sure she wouldn't be the only one to notice... but after a little while of debating this, it seemed like her best option.
So she waited a bit... and eventually he turned to say something to Harry, which she didn't hear as she picked up the fork, reaching out and shoving it into the top of his hand before she could chicken out or he could see what she was contemplating, doing it quickly before she pulled it back out again, watching carefully for a reaction.

"So I went to this village called--AAOW!" Kross suddenly yelled, jerking his hand off of the table. The puncture wounds in his hand began to ooze out dark blood, and he stared at Mizuki, not mad, just confused. "What was that for?!" he said, almost laughing as he took a napkin and began to dab up the blood.
Kross looked at the fork she had stabbed him with and gave a mental sigh of relief. One of the things he had learned a long time ago was that the silver you find in kitchen utensils was burnished and covered in all sorts of chemicals to keep its shine. Doing these things to it reduced the effects it had on vampires.
A waitress passed by and noticed the blood and quickly brought him a bandage, which he thanked her for before wrapping it around his palm. "You have an arm spasm or something?"

Mizuki was startled by Kross's sudden laughing, especially since she had just stabbed him, but just sighed and shook her head. She honestly didn't know how to explain herself. And then again... maybe her suspicions were wrong and Kross was just an odd sort of person? He had said that he had been wandering on his own for quite a while, and maybe picked up quite a few strange things along the way.
She gave him an apologetic look, shaking her head again. "I'm sorry," was all she managed to say. She still didn't know how to even try to explain herself, and felt bad for stabbing him at this point. Plus, even if she told him, wouldn't that just sound bad? She thought she was probably just paranoid...
"Sorry," she muttered again, if for nothing else except her guilty conscience this time around, Harry giving her an odd look. She could always tell him later. Then, to distract from the subject, "Well, most of the fun stuff happens in the morning, so how about we pay for the food and head back to the house? We can figure out something to do there. Harry and I can handle our own bill though," she added, half out of the guilt from stabbing him, a sentence away from offering to pay for his as well.

Kross smiled at her, chuckling "Don't be sorry. I would want to stab me too, if I were you,"
At her remark about them paying, he shook his head "Nope, I'm paying," this was a part of his farewell to them. A thank you for taking him in for the day. He rushed to the counter and paid before they could even leave the table. The cashier eyed his bandaged hand as he nodded to her "Thanks,"
He motioned for Harry and Mizuki to follow him out the door and back to their house... Likely his last time to ever be there. It was saddening.

Mizuki gave Kross another odd look at his comment, sighing and giving up at that point. She finally surrendered to the fact that she would never understand a thing he said or did, and it would probably be better for all of them if she simply didn't try to.
She gave him a faint glare when he just hopped up and paid anyway despite what she had said, but just let it go a moment later as they all started walking back to the house, eventually getting back. Well... and they didn't really have anything to do. Sit back and read? Just have a conversation?
As if reading her mind, Harry stepped in. "How about we just watch a movie?" he suggested, almost lightly. It was better than anything she could think of as well, and so she shrugged a little at her brother.
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. What do you think, Kross?" She looked to the black haired, blue eyed boy as she asked his opinion.

"...We should do something more exciting than that," he said as he ran to their back door and stepped into the garden, "Like... like..." he trailed off looking at the sky... some how, the sun was already starting to set. This day was moving by far too fast.
"...Like running! We can just run!" he said, thinking if they just ran, maybe they would never stop and just forget about all of the problems here. Before Harry or Mizuki even stepped outside, Kross was off, running on what little vampire speed he had. Still faster than a regular human, but not as fast as a full or even halfling.
He ran through the forest behind their house, his boots digging into the dirt and leaves and grass flying around as he whooshed by. Kross gripped the sleeves of his shirt in his hands, something he did when he was anxious, but kept running nonetheless, hoping that Mizuki was a step behind him.

@ Kross
(So, since these replies are basically just fillers now... I'm just gonna skip a little ways in because I honestly just have nothing to say about this post )

Later, after dinner, Mizuki found herself curled on the couch, wearing her pajamas. The bottoms were plaid shorts, with faded blue, green, and white coloring. The top was a plain gray tank top though. Harry had already gone off to sleep -for reasons unknown to her- and she had her book in her lap, resuming reading. The day had been surprisingly full, especially with the way Kross had all but dragged them all over the fair, and she was ready to settle down and just do something calm.
She actually honestly had no idea what Kross was doing, having lost track of him and Harry after dinner when she had gone to change and get her book out. The only reason she knew her brother was in the bed was because of the snores that were faintly coming through the walls from their shared bedroom. Usually she might have had to guess who it was, but since she'd been living with Harry for years and -as sad as it was- knew his snores by heart, that eliminated Kross from the possibility list. Add that in with the fact that there were only three of them in the house, and it was hard to say it wasn't Harry.
Sighing softly, she pushed her thoughts aside in order to try and concentrate on the reading, Rose Madder by Stephen King. She was a good ways in at the moment, and was just getting to what she assumed was a good part. Rosie's abusive husband was trying to find her after she had run away, and he had just found a boy who knew where she had gone. Mizuki read as Daniels went into the guy's home, a Jew apparently from what the book said. He turned the TV up all the way and took him down into the basement, referring to the guy as Thumper, and from there, he literally bit him to death, the screams being unable to be heard by the neighbors because of the TV.
Mizuki wrinkled her nose a bit as she read. With vampires, one bite could kill a person. Daniels was human though, and in order to kill the poor guy... he would have to bite him over and over and over. She wasn't even sure how someone could be bitten to death in such a manner. One thing was for sure though, she didn't want to find out. If it was half as painful as the book described, then she hoped that would never actually happened to anyone.

Kross had ran quite a ways through the forest without stopping, though once he felt the stitch in his side grow larger, he turned around and walked back to the Skye's home, the sun long gone and the moon up high. A tiny sliver was all that could be seen; tomorrow would be a new moon for sure.
Trudging back into the house, his posture almost melancholic, Kross slid right past the kitchen, though half smiled at the still full plate that either Harry or Mizuki had set for him whenever they had dinner. Even though he skipped out on the meal, he still wasn't hungry, so he quietly wrapped the food in aluminium foil and placed it in their fridge.
On the way back to his bedroom, Kross stopped and stared at the reading Mizuki, not even taking notice of him as she was so in to the book. Rose Madder... he thought, I'll have to remember that. Maybe it'll... though he trailed off in his mind, not even knowing what he was trying to say. Maybe it'll remind him of her? No... In all honesty, it was just something Mizuki had touched and read and seemingly enjoyed, so Kross wanted to be able to touch and read and enjoy it too... Even if she never knew he would.
Silently heading back into his, er Tom's, room, Kross pulled out his own bag and began to pack random bits of clothes. Nothing that would be missed, just a couple of t-shirts and a pair of jeans. Though he changed back into his original clothes, the black military-Esq cargo pants and combat boots. Something that would be better for travel and less noticeable in the dark. At the last second, Kross decided to throw the picture of Mizuki, Harry, and Tom in the bag too... He wanted some sort of visual memory.
He rolled up the long black sleeves of his shirt, strapped on his worn leather gloves, and slung the backpack over his shoulders before heading out of the room and into Harry's and Mizuki's. Harry was, of course, asleep soundly. He quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pen on a desk and wrote: Thanks a lot, friends. Bye. -Kross and placed it on Mizuki's pillow.
From there, the black headed boy opened up the bedroom window and leaped out, closing it back before he sneaked into the village.
Once back at the square, Kross swiftly strode in the shadows until it reached the red tent again. Inside, Lothaire was still bound to the floor, more wounds on him than the day before, and his head was bowed.
"Lothaire," Kross whispered, emotionless.
His head rose "Ah, Kross my boy. 'Tis about time you arrived,"
Kross ignored him and walked around the tent, blowing out all of the candles in the room. They were made from different herbs that caused weakness in vampires, growing stronger the longer they were exposed to it, which resulted in the sickly looking Lothaire not being able to break free from his binds. Kross pulled the knife out of his bag, and he began cutting away at the leather binds on the vampire's wrists.
"Did you find out anything?" Lothaire asked.
"Hm?" Kross muttered, focusing on his work. He still wasn't happy about leaving.
"Did you find anything? About the war?"
"Oh," Kross said, cutting through the last bit of leather and moving on to his ankles, "Yeah. The first vampire, son of a demon king and a mortal woman named Phaedra, Jupiter. From what I read, it sounds like the demon king is coming back to collect his child and make him a prince or something... It'll unleash all of hell on earth. Literally,"
Lothaire rubbed at the raw skin on his wrists as he listened to Kross, but soon his eyes grew wide and he looked more ashen than he normally did, if it were possible. "...You mean the Collection of Creation prophecy is coming true?"
Kross shrugged "s'what it sounded like to me... I don't see there being any other reason for a full blown war between the immortal,"
"...I just never thought I would live to see it," Lothaire whispered.
"But you're immortal...?" Kross was now finished with all the binds. He slid the knife back into his bag.
Lothaire shakily stood up and used Kross as a crutch, "Yes, yes I know. But that just seemed like something that... that would just never happen... even though we all knew it would... It's hard to explain without being alive as long as I have,"
Kross shrugged again but said nothing.
"Well, if this is true, we need to leave now. I have to talk to the others about this... Come, Kross. I cannot walk by myself just yet. I must regain my strength," Lothaire said as he and Kross lugged themselves out of the tent. Lothaire smiled at the night sky and inhaled deeply "Ah... the moon on my skin. Never thought I would have a chance to feel it again, honestly,"
And with that, Kross turned around and looked at the Skye's house once more before hobbling with Lothaire out of the village, unseen by all.

@ Kross
(Sorry I haven't replied yet >.<)

In the morning when she woke, Mizuki went about business as usual. She had her morning trek in the forest, which was really actually usual and then checked the garden. Though it was originally her mother's, her family had kept it thriving and even if Harry had a black thumb, she managed it by herself. The trade was that he was the house's cook, usually. So after picking some veggies, she set them aside on the counter, and then headed to get a shower. She noticed the door had been mysteriously fixed and shook her head for a moment before she went in and locked the door after grabbing some clothes and a towel.
She came out with damp hair, dressed in daytime clothes, and tossed her towel as well as her pajamas in the hamper before going to wake up Harry. It was easier today than it had been the day before, because she didn't have to pour cold water on him, and after he was awake, and since Kross hadn't emerged yet, she figured she might as well get him up too, despite the individual dangers that held... She could handle him, she was sure after having been around him for the better part of two days, and so she headed into Tom's room. She took pause as she stepped in the doorway though, looking on in confusion as she saw it devoid of the familiar, black-headed blue eyed boy. Along with that it was also cleaned up, the bed made up, and looking almost as if no one had even used it aside from a few, minor differences. Had he left?
Despite herself, there was a certain amount of disappoint growing in her chest that she was helpless to stop. She hadn't actually realized it but she had grown somewhat fond of him in the short time he had been staying with them, and she had really hoped that he would at least stay until the festival was over, despite some of the peculiar ways that the village had that he didn't exactly care for.
When she had actually started liking him was a mystery to her as well, although she supposed it might have been right off the bat. He was sarcastic, quirky, if not a bit forward and bold as well, and when he wasn't constantly attempting to flirt with her, she actually didn't mind his company. She sighed to herself as she thought about this and shook it out of her head as she left the room, not bothering to close the door.
When she came out, Harry was making breakfast already, and to his questioning look she merely shrugged. "I guess he just decided to leave. Maybe he didn't like the town, or something." She could probably understand wanting to leave better than anyone, though she wouldn't. "Maybe," her brother agreed, though he didn't sound so convinced. "I'm actually kind of glad," he admitted a moment later when the silence between them had become slightly awkward. "I didn't really like him all that much..."
Mizuki couldn't say she blamed him and a smile threatened at the corners of her lips as she opened her mouth to reply. "We-" A knock at their door cut her off and she frowned at her brother an instant, holding up a finger as she left him to his cooking to go answer. It was Alistair again, this time not looking so confident and cool but actually worried as he peered past her for an instant. "What's wrong?" she asked, not bothering to go outside or even step aside to let him in but just standing their in confusion.
"The festival... the vampire..." His words weren't making any sense and she shook her head. "The bonds that held him were cut and the vampire escaped. We've no idea where he is, but he's dangerous." He frowned as he looked at Mizuki. "Have you seen him anywhere?"
Mizuki shook her head. "No, I haven't. Harry just woke up, and I know he hasn't seen anything... I didn't catch any signs of vampires in the forest during my walk earlier either. Are you sure he's escaped?" she asked, growing more worried. Of course he was sure -vampires just didn't disappear when they were bound and destined to die at the end of a festival that everyone celebrated.
"Yes, I'm positive." He waved his hand at her, obviously in his own thoughts. "Now we just have to figure out who, and find him again before he can go and get help. It was outside work. We found the knife that was used there, which someone had previously reported stolen. With the festival going on... we didn't take it seriously."
Mizuki's face paled as Kross's image rose to her mind. His strange disappearance during the night without even the goodbye she had imagined he would've given first, the strange way he had been acting... it all seemed to make sense. The silverware weren't untarnished and if he was just a small amount of vampire it wouldn't affect him seriously, since a lot of pain would come from being stabbed with a fork, and if he was used to the sort of thing... he already knew he was in a village of hunters... what if he had done it? He hadn't liked the vampire being tied up and tortured in the first place. Even if he wasn't vampire, he might have done it anyway... Alistair's eyes narrowed on her then. "Do you know who might have done it, Miss Skye?"
Mizuki then did the one thing she never imagined herself doing. She pulled herself together and shook her head. "No, I haven't the slightest clue," she said, her voice somehow staying steady as she lied to her leader. He continued to study her a moment longer before he nodded. "Well, let me know if you do get a guess, hmm? We'll be looking."
With a couple of fairwells, Mizuki shut the door, ignoring Harry's shouts of asking her what it was about this time as she headed back to her room. Going into her closet, she pulled out some clothing that was black, made of a more durable cloth that would be better for what she was planning, as well as a couple of knives and a belt to strap around her waist. After she was dressed, she pulled her hair back in a ponytail, pinning it close to her head in a sort of bun, and then headed back towards the kitchen just as Harry came out with a worried look on his face and two plates of food in his hand. "Miz... what's going on?" he asked, frowning at her appearance.
"I'm going to find our guest... I think he betrayed the village," she answered vaguely, and then on a whim, kissed his cheek. "I should be back before night." She smiled softly at him as she strapped the belt around her waist with the two knives on either side, which were made of silver. "You don't need to worry unless three days pass."
Before he gained chance to argue with her though, she all but fled the house, heading out into the forest and sneaking around the gates. She figured that wherever he would go, it would be the way he had come since he didn't know the forest, which meant if she followed the path at a quick pace that led from the village, she should find him eventually.