Insanity © Lynn Falcon 2013

Chapter Nine: A Curious Beast

© Lynn Falcon 2013 Insanity

The pavement was painted orange and pink with the morning, and the smell of burning wood caught Amelia's sense of smell. Her blurry eyes only saw the colors of the ground, and now she could see the faint bit of red that trickled along the cracks of the road now. Before she could register what ti was, she was back in the depths of darkness once again.

Another moment she heard her name called out of the darkness. She tried reaching for the voice, trying to bring herself out of this darkness and back into reality, but no matter how hard she tried to latch onto that voice, she just couldn't keep her hold and she slipped away again.

"Amelia... Amelia, Please." 

Now she heard nothing but silence. She felt a bit numb, but a the back of her head throbbed still as if she had hit it.  As the feeling returned to her hands, she noticed that she was holding onto something soft. She then felt her head leaned against something a bit cold, but not uncomfortable. She strained to open her eyes, and when she did she looked up at a blurry figure with a golden halo. She couldn't stay awake though, and she quickly found herself falling back into darkness.

"Amelia."

***

Dante was crouched in a corner of his friend, Richard's, kitchen. He knew he couldn't race the sun home, so he decided that it would be safe to be with his human friend rather than risk it in the open London streets.

Richard made his way into the kitchen, standing in the small window of sunlight that Dante was currently trying his best to stay out of. He shook his head at his dark friend and closed a board over the window, throwing the room into darkness.

"It wasn't easy, but I managed to get you a bit of wine." Richard placed a bottle on a wooden table, looking over at Dante. The bottle did contain a red liquid, but it was clear to Dante that he wouldn't be getting drunk off of this substance. He stood and made his way over to the table, lifting the bottle to his lips.

The warmth meant that it was fresh, and that worried Dante slightly. Where would his friend find fresh blood like this? By the taste of it too, he wasn't exactly sure that it was animal. He placed the bottle back down, looking at his friend closely.

Richard was always a bit messy or tired looking from long, sleepless nights of writing. Today his friend looked almost sort of frightened. At this thought Dante grew more curious. What had his friend firghtened like this? He could see the shake of his hand, the tremor of his eyes, the twitch of his lips, and yet he tried his best to look calm.

"Rich, what's going on?" He asked finally, hearing the quickened beat of his heart. Richard shook his head, going over to a counter and picking up a newspaper. He handed it over to Dante silently, giving his dark friend a very stern stare.

Dante took it and looked down at the headline, and he quickly understood his friend's unease. In big, bold letters the headline screamed the truth behind the Crowley Brothers:

RIPPER GETS AWAY

The headline was clearly about Leo, but the date was recent. In fact, this was the morning's paper. The article talked about an assualt on a young woman, and how the suspected Jack the Ripper was the one to take her away into the depths of London. According to the article, everything happened last night.

This enraged Dante. There was no way that this could be his brother. He left Amelia there for this exact reason, to keep him out of trouble while he was away. He threw the paper down and the bottle fell off the table, shattering on the floor. The blood tricked between the cracks of the floor, leading away from the two men at the table.