Into the Void

Joshua sits at the edge of his bed and takes in a deep breath. The smell of the room he is in flows smoothly up his nostrils, giving him the impression that this family enjoys the scent of lavender. He places a warm hand on his stomach and lets out a quiet sigh. He had gotten home from school nearly an hour ago and was stuck; what does he do now?

He feels a slight push in his tummy, where it forces his face to scrunch up. He can feel something rumbling inside of him and before he realizes it, his stomach growls in hunger. Joshua stands from his seat and pulls his hand away from his stomach. He had nearly forgotten about the digesting of food until now.

He makes his way toward the refridgerator, which looks like more than a foreign object to him. The last time he had come in contact with one of these was more than a few years ago. He gently tugs on the handle and pulls open the thick, metal door. He sheilds his face slightly from the light and soon finds himself slightly amazed.

He stands at the open door for a moment, allowing his mouth to gape open in disbelief. He had never seen so much delicious and abstract food before in his life. The pattering of foot steps meet his ears before a woman calls out, "You just going to stand there like a moron or actually get something to eat?"

He jumps and turns quickly, finding an older woman with her hand on her hip. She had long, red curls that fell to her mid waist and vibrant green eyes. She gave Joshua a questioning look before saying, "Well?"

"Sorry."Joshua reaches his hand in and takes hold of the first thing he sees; Blue Bunny Vanilla Ice Cream.

He was certainly hoping that rabbits had nothing to do with this food, so he simply pops the top and looks down at the white mess of satin. Joshua tilts his head slightly and soon finds that the woman before him is holding out a spoon. She chuckles lightly and jabs it into the ice cream. She pressed a kiss to his head and ruffles his hair before saying, "Just don't hurt yourself, Josh."

"Josh.'He whispered it so softly, as if he had never heard it before.

He had been referred to as many names, but Josh was a new one. He feels his lips curl up into a smirk before he pulls the spoon from it's winter wonderland. He carefully presses it against the tip of his tongue and is greeted by a wonderful sensation of flavors. Joshua quickly climbs onto the couch, where he gorges himself on the Blue Bunny Vanilla Ice Cream.

Within a few minutes, the container is nearly empty. Joshua falls back onto the couch and lets a loud, painful groan escape his lips. He never realized that a human can only take so much of this sweet, delicous treat. The woman with the red hair comes walking back into the living room and let's out a girlish giggle.

"What are you doing?!"She smiles."Joshua, I'm going to have to chain the refridgerator shut. I didn't expect you to eat all of it."

"Were there bunnies in it?"He moans.

"B - Bunnies?!"She cackles."You are something, you know that? Why don't you go explore the neighborhood a bit? See if any of your new friends live close by."

Joshua sits up and whispers, "New friends."

He knows that Aimee is only down the street from him, which was where he intended to go. Joshua slowly gets to his feet and looks at the aging woman. She picks up the ice cream container and gives him a questioning look.

"Bye?"She waved playfully to him, so he simply returned it.

She laughs quietly and makes her way back into the kitchen. Joshua finds the front door and pulls it open, only to wince at the sun light. He was used to getting a shock of jab of pain from the bright light, but now he can withstand it. With a smile on his face, he climbs down the few steps and onto the sidewalk.

Joshua turns his head in each direction before hearing the voices of two people. His feet kick him in that direction and before he can stop himself, he spots Aimee and a Shadow. He feels a low growl pucker in the bottom of his throat, like a male lion warning intruders to stay back and away from his land. The spirit turns toward him and instantly, her face shows pure fear.

Aimee looks at the spirit questioningly and asks, "What's wrong?"

I'll come back later.

The spirit vanishes, leaving Aimee and Joshua alone. He needs to keep acting casual, so he simply walks up to Aimee and offers her a warm smile.

"Hi! I didn't know you lived around here."He said."Unless you're stalking me of course."

"No."Aimee blushed."I live down the street."

"I'm right here."Joshua throws a thumb behind him, pointing at the dark blue house on the corner."Wanna take a walk with me, Aimee? I'm heading to nowhere."

Aimee chuckles lowly and nods her head in agreement.

"I can do that."She says softly."I know a park near by, if you want to go there."

"That sounds,"Joshua stops for a moment, as he needs to hide his conniving grin."nice. That sounds really nice."

Aimme stands a few feet away from Joshua, as if she could feel him eminating from the human form. The park comes up rather quicky along the way, where Aimee finds a seat on one of the rotting swings. She gives him a warm smile and points to the one next to her.

"Sit down."She smiles.

Joshua, despite wanting to leap from his human form and drain her of her energy, follows her orders. He sits down on the swing and laces his fingers around the small chain. The two stay quiet for a few moments, before Joshua gets an eery feeling. He perks his head up and finds that Stefan is only a few feet away, jaw dropping in pure disbelief.

Joshua lets a grin slowly crawl onto his lips, knowing that Stefan had no way of stopping him now. He quickly scampered in front of Aimee, who pretended he wasn't even there. Joshua turned toward her as well and asked, "Do you come here a lot, Aimee?"

Don't listen to him. You need to go home, Aimee! He's not who you think he is!

Stefan's pleading words fall limp as Aimee throws her hand up and through him, pretending to brush back her hair. She stutters out an, "Oh, yeah. Almost every day."

"This place is nice."Joshua watches as Stefan scoots back and gives him an angry glare.

He knows that Stefan has a bad feeling about this regular, every day kid, but he wont be able to get Aimee into believing him. Joshua smiles wildly and looks over at the young girl, who kicks back and forth on her swing. His eyes peek over to Stefan, who is secretly trying to find out what Joshua is up to.

He kicks lightly at the groud, moving his swing just slightly. If Aimee only knew what he had planned for her, she would be listening to Stefan right now. She didn't want him to know of her abilities, because he was the first real person to talk to her. She didn't want to lose him already to something she can't help.

Joshua looks up at Stefan and in a low, intimidating whisper, growls, "Only a matter of time, Stefan."