IC Time: Evening of November 25th, 2006
Location: Thriftway in Forks
Synopsis: A blizzard strikes Forks unexpectedly. Shoppers at a local grocery store are stranded inside. As the lights flicker out, it soon becomes obvious there's something a lot more dangerous than the weather lurking inside the store…
Submitted by: Staff
The snow is falling in a torrent, churning the world outside the store into an opaque white froth. The roads are rapidly icing over, and everything seems to indicate that the people crammed into the store decided to stock up for the storm a bit late. There's already over two feet of snow on the ground, and it's accumulating rapidly. Many of the customers linger by the doors, unsure if it's even safe to try going home in this weather. Visibility on the roads is measured in feet and inches in these conditions, and the roads themselves can't be pleasant.
Thomas has been filling the shopping cart with relatively normal groceries, though he's buying more than he normally does, along with all the batteries that other customers haven't already taken (a pitifully small amount). He's currently standing at the end of a very long line, waiting impatiently to pay and occasionally glancing outside.
Standing there, looking almost as cold and restless as the weather outside, is a certain pale little girl. Alanna's in the women's hygiene aisle, staring at a package of tampons like they were interesting or something. Which they weren't; she didn't need them anymore anyway. Some human part of her -probably the part that was expecting such a change to occur in her life before she was turned- wanted to grab a pack and buy them. Just to, y'know, stick 'em in the sink under water and watch them bloat up. What fun.
Her expression, by no means, displays her excitment. No, instead, she's pulling off the constipated look quite well, with her face hard and her body stiff. Though, her heavy black and white scarf covers half of her face, and more importantly, her nose.
Josinda walks over to where she's left Thomas in line and tosses an armload full of things they'd forgotten into the cart. She grabs a few candybars and adds them to the growing pile. She glances around the store, looking at all the people and sighs to herself, chewing on her lip "We better get out soon. They run out of food, and these people look like they could go postal." she says to Thomas before she looks out at the snow.
Emily is browsing the aisles still, although she keeps stealing glances at the impossibly long line at the register, biting her lip with dread. Was she ever going to get out of here on time? The Quileute girl steers her cart down the freezer aisle, staring grimly at the frozen pie crusts for a moment before moving on. "I can't think of buying anything frozen now," she murmurs to herself, half amused as she walks instead toward the potato chip aisle. There's quite a few people she knows around, so she's been stopping to wave — but now, Emily looks more like a woman on a mission, her head bent as she navigates the store.
Darcy enters through the doors of the ThriftMart moments after the squeal of tires in the parking lot does. Apparently she doesn't have snow chains on her car. She's accompanied by a gust of snow and icy cold wind, and her hair is coated in the stuff. She stops just inside the doors and gives herself a shake, hoping she didn't take up more than two parking spots, three tops. Then she makes a b-line for what's left of the shopping carts and joins the other shoppers in their frantic stocking. Dog food, dog food…where's dog food?
The plan was to get to the bookstore grab a few things and then then grab a few things from the Thriftway and then get back to La Push. Well plans are always made to be broken as Lorelei is down said chip isle looking at what's left. "Good greif.." She mutters faintly while picking up a few bags of pretzel's, the place is nearly all clearned out from the looks of it.
An engine cuts out from beyond the doors leading into the swirling snow fall. Elijah and Sarah dismount a large police motorcycle, and Eli opts to wait until he is inside to remove his helmet. He gives a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that Sarah is there with him, "Better hurry, chickie. We need to get the doughnuts, and scram," is said to his coworker with a hard, serious expression. He is a man on a mission. Objective: Get the doughnuts. A quick glance at his jacket reveals his badge, but he is not on-duty. "It's getting worse," the boy observes and heads for the first aisle in search of the treasu- er, doughnuts.
A woman wearing nothing but a long-sleeved black sweater walks the perimeter of the parking lot, not shielding her face against the biting wind, not grumbling about the snow like many of the other trudging to their cars. She heads cautiously toward the store, her eyes zeroing in on the activity inside, her murky blue eyes very dark behind her contacts. Ramona isn't sure what brought her here — mere instinct, perhaps. She makes her way to the front windows and stares inside for a long moment. Some people pass by, but she keeps looking inside, like a kid in the candy store window.
Anjin quickly walks into the store from out of the snow. He is wearing a large heavy jacket covered in snow. He shakes the snow off of the coat, onto some of the poeple nearby, not caring about that too much. He begins walking through the store looking down the isles, seemingly looking for something that he cannot seem to find.
Neither was she on duty, however Sarah was on a MISSION so it seemed. The woman rolls her eyes, "You and your pastries!" She laughs before shivering and casting a baleful look to the outside world. Ugh. SNOW. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to move here, but this was /rediculous/. Grummblegrummble. She cradles her own helmet as she follows him instictively, eyes shifting every once in awhile to the other occupants of the store. Hmm.
The snow is falling in a torrent, churning the world outside the store into an opaque white froth. The roads are rapidly icing over, and everything seems to indicate that the people crammed into the store decided to stock up for the storm a bit late. There's already over two feet of snow on the ground, and it's accumulating rapidly. Many of the customers linger by the doors, unsure if it's even safe to try going home in this weather. Visibility on the roads is measured in feet and inches in these conditions, and the roads themselves can't be pleasant.
Jasper has arrived.
The snow is falling in a torrent, churning the world outside the store into an opaque white froth. The roads are rapidly icing over, and everything seems to indicate that the people crammed into the store decided to stock up for the storm a bit late. There's already over two feet of snow on the ground, and it's accumulating rapidly. Many of the customers linger by the doors, unsure if it's even safe to try going home in this weather. Visibility on the roads is measured in feet and inches in these conditions, and the roads themselves can't be pleasant.
Despite the cold and precipitation on the wrong side of the doorway, Henry lingers under the relatively thin doorframe for longer than is really considerate to the patrons indoors, before he finally enters the warmth of the store and lets the cold stay out where it belongs. Not that he hasn't brought snow with him - it takes longer than it should to melt off the shoulders of his gray jacket and down the parted sides of his hair. He breathes heavily, water pooling around his boots for a moment, before he continues forward, water trail following as he heads toward some aisle or another.
Walking through the snow, alice pulled her long burgundy sweater around her body in order to look as normal as possible. Since Bella was around more, they needed more supplies, and Alice was more than happy to travel into town to get them. Seeing the parking lot so full she shook her head "Oh dear, Jasper. We might be here a while." She looks up at his face and slides her arm around his waist for support.
Jasper wraps an arm around Alice's waist in an attempt to look like he is helping her keep warm, while holding a hand up to his mouth. His eyes look away from Alice and to the amount of people crowding in the store. A small feeling of dread starts to bubble in him, and he clasps his hand to his mouth; a bad habit he's developed to stop himself from breathing. He nods down at her, and looks straight ahead as they enter the store.
The line moves slowly, but steadily; interestingly, only about a quarter of the customers leave when they've meade their purchases; the rest seem to be hoping the weather will clear up before they set out. In the employee lounge, the manager is watching weather reports on a small TV, and frowns; the weather's not likely to clear up for a long time, and it looks like some people might have to stay the night. He stands, and begins to stroll over to the intercom.
Thomas frowns and nods to Josinda. "Yeah. Not sure how safe the roads are, though; won't be able to see much, and they're probably icy. I sure as hell don't fancy walking home in this weather, either. Too easy to get lost, and altogether too damn cold." He gradually eases the cart forward as the line moves.
More people coming in. Twitch. Alanna's eyes look like they're about to pop out of their sockets. Quickly, she grabs a package of tampons, just for something to 'accidentally' rip apart should she lose herself. Her pale fingers wrap around the edges of the pack, causing it to crinkle and crunch against such force. It's not that she can smell anything other than the scent she's put on her scarf, but more like the increasing population of the establishment. The more people here, the more people who might get hurt if she were set-off. Mechanically, she turns to the side and moves to the end of the aisle, only to spot Darcy on her way in. Another twitch, and her red eyes glint as she resists the urge to go all Chuck-Norris. Seeing Ramona through the window didn't help, either.
Josinda nods, still looking around the store. "Well, I'll let you drive us home then, really not a good day for me to have one of my driving experiences" the last two words are put in air quotes by Josinda's fingers. "Have i mentioned how much I hate snow?" She sighs and moves forward when the people in front of them do and leans against the cart.
"Hiya, Lorelei," Emily calls, spotting her friend at the end of the snack aisle grabbing pretzels. She pushes her grocery-laden cart forward, its wheels squeaking. "I think everyone in La Push and Forks had the same idea when they heard the weather forecast," she says grimly. "I don't think I'll be getting out of here anytime soon. Can I ask a favor?" Her voice rises in hopefulness, "If you're staying at your place down the road, mind if I stay for the night? I'm worried about the drive back to La Push in this sort of weather. If not, that's alright…" her voice fades away with uncertainty.
"Mock not the pastries," Elijah replies to Sarah in an uncharacteristically breezy sort of tone. It is a good indication that he's warming up to the newly arrived officer behind him. He hmms, and frowns once he gets a look at the aisle he assumes holds the doughnuts. "I'm going to settle for at least cookies. We're going to need something to ration off of when the blizzard hits, full force." After he speaks, he jerks his head forward and a whooping cough wheezes from his lungs. His face suddenly goes worried. In a grovery store, blocks away from his apartment…. without his medication. As a hypocondriac, this was a little more than disturbing to him, but he does a good job of masking it. "Anything you want?" Elijah offers Sarah, once he retrieves a container of little sugar coated doughnuts.
Darcy 's glare of displeasure at being surrounded by so many cattle, ehm humans, is enough to keep most people out of her direct path as she wheels her cart towards the pet food aisle. She feels Alanna's eyes on her, and keeps from hissing, but her jaw muscles jump slightly as she recognizes the girl and swallows the cry of rage she wants so badly to let loose. That little RAT is one of her kind now?! Preposterous. Oh well, at the moment, the more pressing of challenges presents herself in the form of dog food. "What kind of idiot builds these shelves this high?" she mutters to herself as she looks up at the bag of 'senior formula' on the top shelf, high about her natural reach. She's so distracted that she picks up a 40lb bag of food with one hand and throws it into her cart as though it weighed no more than a bag of apples. Oops. She looks around, checking to see if anyone caught her slip, before making a purposefully clumsy attempt to scale the shelves and grab one of the smaller bags of senior food. Despite her efforts, she still makes it look relatively easy to do so. As she slides back down the shelves and Elijah walks past she's distracted yet again. Weak member of the herd? Hello dinner.
Lorelei blinks as she glances up at the voice and offers a smile. "Hey Emily." She nods slightly while taking in a breath and mms softly before shrugging. "I didn't know it got that bad.. Ya sure your welcome to stay at the store with me." Great the last place she wanted to stay and now she doesn't have a choice? Well at least its basicly right across the street. "Marshall's gona worry I'm sure.." Oh well. "You find what ever you was looking for?" She questions curiously, her gaze drifting off slightly as she catches more voices and of course the scents of vampires around.. Which is rather unerving in this store.
The Cullens stride past Ramona on their way into the store, and she tilts her head, watching the couple. The shorter woman was one she hadn't seen before. Her eyes are thoughtful, and she follows them in after a moment, keeping behind a few paces, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, which isn't very exciting.
The scent of the supermarket hits her — a mix of overpoweringly disgusting human food scents mixed with the sweet scent of human blood, warmer than usual due to the stress some seem to be experiencing. It's all quite dizzying. She continues following the Cullen couple, but spots Alanna standing at the end of an aisle. Her looks transforms to one of bored indifference to an impish grin, and she abandons the Cullens, approaching Alanna. "Holy mother of God, if it isn't the poor, missing girl!" she drawls.
Anjin keeps walking throught the store, jacket held tightly to hide the inappropriate clothing the resided under it. He spys Alanna down the one aisle, watching her twitch as she looks around. He can't help himself remembering the newborn. He walks up beside her saying quitely yet in an incredibly smug and teasing voice, "So many /tasty/ treats about… I am suprised you haven't started gorging yourself yet."
Sarah scoffs. "Speak for yourself. I have a whole apartment stocked with food.." she wasn't the junk food type anyway. As he wheezes she frowns, a hand settling on his shoulder, "You ok?" At his question she simply shakes her head, eyes scanning the isles. Not.. really. She continues to glance around her curiously before shuffling uncomfortabley. Social Anxiety? Maybe. She eyes the outside world and groans, "It just keeps getting worse!"
The aisle in question turns out to be pull of pet supplies. Henry's water trail diminishes as he passes the dog food and the young woman hefting large bags of it into small carts. As he passes Alanna, one eyebrow raises slightly and the corners of his lips twitch as if he remembers something familiar, but he makes no extravagant gesture, nor attempt at conversation as of yet. His path takes him to the part of the aisle containing kitty litter, and there's still enough moisture left on him to pool around his feet as he easily slides an extra large bag off the shelf and tucks it under his arm. Cart? Don't need no stinkin' cart! Or perhaps he forgot.
Alice looks around the store and holds onto Jasper tighter, forcing a smile onto her face. This place smells /awful/. A little mix of everything is waiting here. Picking up a small basket from a stack next to the door, she urges Jasper along with her, wishing she'd never brought him. "Move your hand, Jasper. You look funny." she whipers up at him while walking down an aisle, tossing random things into the basket in order to et out of there as fast as possible.
Jasper gives her a sad, pitiful look and drops his hand to his side. He quickly shoves it in his pocket to hide his clenched fist. His hand helps grab a few bags and quickly drops them into the basket to help make haste with their shopping trip. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he can see the snow slowly piling up. It wouldn't look human for them to climb back in /that/ mess. With a groan, he drops his hand from Alice's waist and holds up a hand to tell her to slow down; they aren't going anywhere, anytime soon.
The intercom buzzes, and then a loud whine of feedback can be heard. Soon after, the manager's voice booms out across the store. "Uh…," he begins uncertainly, "Ladies and gentlemen, the weather is progressively worsening, and I've decided to close the store for the night. Everyone who lives within a couple blocks should probably go home; after some deliberation I've decided to allow everyone else to remain here for the night if they so choose. Uh…thank you for shopping at Thriftway." The intercom goes silent, replaced by the sound of over a hundred people talking to each other simultaneously.
Thomas chuckles, before nodding. "It's fun once it's stopped falling, but storms like this are nasty. Wouldn't want to get caught in one." He finally reaches the checkout counter, and is in the process of paying when the announcement is made. He swears softly. "Well, this is gonna be fun…"
The poor bag of tampons. Alanna's forced to drop it to the floor before she rips it clean in half. Which would be less covert than what she was going for when she considered entering the store. Her hands twitch and convulse, turning into fists and then releasing. Her body shivers, when she hears the teasing of the other vampires around her. Honestly, she's more likely to try and shove her foot so far up Ramona's rump that it'd come out her nose than feed off of a human. The difference between the two actions is that she REALLY FREAKING WANTED to hurt Ramona, and now Anjin and Darcy, apparently, but she didn't want to hurt a human. "Please stop…" she whispers, and her voice barely sounds like a human's. More feral, animalistic, and combined with a series of painful whinges and hisses. To any on-looker who didn't understand, she probably looked like someone had just texted her with a break-up messege. /That's/ how upset she looks.
"Snow might be fun but it's /cold/" Josinda nudges him playfully and then looks up at the ceiling like there was a person in it speaking to them. "Are you frigging kidding me? Tom, tell me this is a sick joke. Because either way…the punchline is not a funny one at all."
Emily looks relieved to hear Lorelei's response. "Wonderful, thanks. I mean, staying in town isn't really desirable, but either way we're in danger…" she trails off, not bothering to finish a rather morbid thought. "Yeah, I got everything I need. I'm going to head out, if you are?" Just then, the manager's voice booms over the intercom, and Emily blinks in surprise. Afterwards, she looks to Lorelei — she did not miss Lorelei's gaze drifting off a moment ago; and suspects something might be up. "Should we go, Lore? You looked concerned." She looks around cautiously, her eyes meeting the figure of the Cullens further down the aisle. At least two vampires are in the store.
Darcy has almost filled the cart with dog food and is muttering to herself under her breath, "What am I forgetting….?" normal food? to make this expedition to the grocery store look normal? Not too many people would go to the grocery store in the beginnings of a blizzard JUST for dog food. Then a look of relief and 'eureka' crosses her face and she digs into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone and a very crumpled grocery list. Thankfully one of them gave thought to looking normal. "Frozen pizza, bottled water, batteries, loaf of bread…" She trails off as the announcement echos from the speakers, and then lets a string of curses out opening the phone and hitting the speed dial. moments later she 's muttering angrily into it, "…wouldn't look normal…going to look a lot less normal if….well what do you want me to do..?!" She hangs the phone up with disgust, her nose twitching ever so slightly as she looks around. Werewolves, vampires, humans, fake-vampires…Ugh. She looks over towards Ramona, Anjin and Alanna and lifts an eyebrow, her expression conveying a mixture of distaste and questioning. 'WhatAreWeGonnaDo…??'
Lorelei is very concerned, her gaze drifts to the end of the aisle and she catches sight of Cullens, well that might be one reason she smells vampires but she knows others are around. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to get any sleep tonight?" She murmurs faintly before sighing as she picks up the little carrying basket with a few things she had in it. "Ya, we should." Is offered to Emily as she starts moving towards the front of the store. She glances at the voices over the speakers and mutters faintly. "For pete shakes.. It can't have gotten /that/ bad I was just outside." Though this catches as she catches sight of a window and ohs faintly, well then she was wrong wasn't she.
"Yes… but do you have satellite at your place? I didn't think so," Elijah quips back at Sarah, straightening again and taking in deep breaths. He calms himself, and Sarah's hand on his shoulder seems to help, too. "It's nothing. A bit unnerved by this storm is all." The boy shrugs his broad shoulders, making his leather jacket ruffle. Then, the intercom comes on, and he curses out loud, "Shit! Now what?" He growls. So much for a nice Tuesday night at his place, watching the sat with Sarah. He pauses, his lips puckering, "Do we still need to pay for these?" The doughnuts are given a shake in his right hand. His brow raises as his hand ventures to his side, searching for something within his jacket. His fingers trace over the shape of his gun - for some reason, he thought tonight he might need it. If not for crazed citizens attacking eachother for food -his green eyes catch sight of Darcy throwing a fit into her cellphone- then for the crazed -teenagers- hurling phones through windows…
Ramona eyes the Japanese vampire critically for a moment, but doesn't make a comment. It was rather funny to torment Stacy's beloved Alanna, anyway — her mouth remains curved in a cruel smile. "Some nosy-ass cop almost accused me of murdering you yesterday, missy. Although that /would/ be a rather nice achievement, I don't want the likes of YOU ruining my reputation as a rock star. You better turn yourself in, or I'm not going to stop, and I'm sure /your/ murder won't be the only one they are investigating tonight," she threatens Alanna.
The announcement sounds, and Ramona smirks, thinking of how hesitant the manager sounded. Perhaps she would pay a visit to his office. Her reverie is interrupted by Darcy rounding the corner. "Hmm." She glances outside. Sure they could just leave. "Wow, this is so terrible!" she exclaims with a wicked smile. "Looks like we'll have to cozy up here tonight with all these friendly people." She inches closer to the teenaged girl with the dog food and whispers to her. "That Cullen is here. The tight-wound one. I bet we could have a little fun." She doesn't notice Henry just yet; he's in another aisle.
Anjin smiles listening to the announcement over the speaker, then chuckles to himself, looking back at Alanna and Ramona, with a bemused expression on his face, "I wonder how long that scarf will keep the smell out, now that they are all stuck here." He finished his jesting before moving on from Alanna knowing his comment will cut her deep. He continues his search for the reason he came to the store in the first place, the smell that dragged him to come to this small town in the first place. He follows it down the aisle searching it out, then seeing her at the checkout, bingo, no need to be in any hurry now, he thinks to himself, a wicked smile crossing his face, hopefully they will be foolish enough to walk out into the snow so he can prounce on them. Thinking to himself that no one would notice anything strange about to people lost in the storm. So he sets into wait, looking at whatever is on the shelf closest to him, looking out the corner of his eye.
Sarah arches a thin brow, "Your the deputy and your asking if you still need to pay for your sugar dounuts even though we're stranded in here??" She pauses and can't help but laugh before sighing and eyeing everyone around them. Most everyone looks either worried, angry, or concerned. She could only assume it was due to teh storm raging around them. She grummbles, arms closing across her chest to pull her hoodie tighter as she takes a step closer to Elijah and scowls faintly. "Brilliant plan.." She winks at him jokingly before snagging the bag and ripping it open, popping a whole dounut in her mouth. "'ight 's 'ell. Pay 'ater." She beams a grin. She eyes him reaching within his jacket and frowns. A somewhat 'relax' expression plastered on her face.
With the announcement, the kitty litter bag slides a little. Or even a lot. Disappointment in the situation can be enough to circumvent grace and strength; the bag thuds dully on the floor, the moisture from Henry's shoes soaking into the brown paper of the bag. He exhales sharply and crouches to pick it back up swiftly, speaking to noone in particular in the process: "A couple of blocks? So literal. If the automobiles are all stuck, who would be the one to limit how far we walk." The snow, of course, but why be ticked off at the snow?
Alice stops dead in her tracks and looks around the store, grabbing Jasper's hand. No way she could have foreseen this one, she thinks to herself as she tries to think a normal way out of this situation quickly. She looks back at the door and then back to everyone inside. Humans. Humans who were really in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carlisle would know what to do, if there was anything to do, and it would be a way to keep him occupied for a few moments. "Jasper, I need you to call home. They need to know this. Can you do that for me?"
Jasper nods, grabbing Alice's hand and leaving their cart in the middle of the isle while making for one of the emptier parts of the store. He produces a silver mobile from his pocket and already has the number on the screen and the phone connecting before they are in their lone corner. Jasper hands her the phone when Carlisle connects, and rests his head in her hair while slipping his hands around her waist. The smell of her scent slowly helps block out the smell of the humans and wolves in the store.
There is much grumbling, and more than a few people leave, usually groups of two or three; when people finally stop filing out there are still about eighty people - plus several vampires - in the store. Most of them find a place to sit and settle down, conversing animatedly; a sizable number migrate into the employee lounge to watch TV. The intercom radio changes stations several times before finally settling on a local classic rock station currently playing an 80s mix.
Thomas frowns deeply, and shakes his head. "Doesn't appear to be." He is silent for a second, before smiling and drawing himself up. "Well, guess we better make the best of it. There's a magazine rack over there," he says, pointing. "We can kill some time, have a few snacks. There's probably a microwave in the employee lounge if we get hungry."
It's a little /too/ much for her to take. Alanna leans against the shelves, knocking over a few cartons of products where her hand goes. Her eyes are wide, and she's seeing in red, now. So desperately did her body want to listen to Anjin, and Ramona. Flames ignite in her throat, further urging her to take action and hunt. The desire for blood is almost impossible to resist, and the only thing that keeps her from tearing the store apart is that one shred of humanity she's retained from her previous life. She stumbles to the side, looking for a distraction. Her scarf is effective… but not effective enough. Because of her preoccupation with how delicious every human looks, she bumps into Henry, recognizing him as her own kind almost immediately by breathing through the material of the scarf, and his eyes. Good.. golden eyes… "Help…" she breathes to him, fighting off the frenzy.
"I'm rubbing off on you." Sin smiles, looking up at Tom "Making a bad situation good." she wraps her arms around one of his and looks at the line behind them, and all the people starting to talk louder and louder. This would have to be home for the night, in the town that they shouldn't even be in. Her eyes catch some movement and she grabs Tom's arm, tugging on it near frantic. No way to make this a good situation now. "Tom…that's the guy….from the bookstore." she whispers to him, tilting her head in Anjin's direction.
Emily pushes her cart and follows after Lorelei wordlessly. Turning the corner, she glances curiously down other aisles, checking out if people are staying or going. She catches sight of a man with a desperate-looking woman, and feels bad. She can't get a good look at them from far away, but she knows the girl looks perhaps high school aged, and she has a lot of experience with kids that age. "Hey Lore, something's wrong with her. I'm going to help," she says, concerned. Emily begins to walk toward the two. "Everything will be alright," she soothes, peering at Alanna and glancing at the man.
Darcy is intrigued, to say the least, and her lust for mischief is in high gear, as well as the need ofr mayhem, destruction, and all those other delightful things she loves to pass the time with. But then her eyes flit back to Alanna, "Yea…but if we set him off…we might set her off? And christ knows THAT will bring the Volturi down on our heads with fire and effing brimstone." She turns and grabs an air freshener off the shelf and tosses it towards Alanna."Try sniffin' at that and maybe we can get you some dryer sheets to tuck in to the scarf or something." She can only imagine how the smell of all this fresh meat must torment Alanna, especially after her discussion with Dahlia last night. It's making her want to drool, that's for sure. "Well if you think that would be safest…" she replies, this time loud enough for the nearby humans to hear. Safest = most fun, obviously. She takes her cell phone back up, and pretends to be texting someone, the whole time looking up at Ramona through her eyelashes and muttering, her lips hardly moving, "so did you ever see the movie 30 Days of Night?" Translation: Think we could massacre this place, light it on fire, and blame it on some horrible winter tragedy? Oh…well hello there Henry? "Oh christ… another vegetarian." And Emily? She was at the bookstore for the last set of antics! Dar heaves a sigh, and gives Ramona a long-suffering look, "Think they allow smoking indoors?"
Lorelei catches sight of Sin and Thomas and lifts a hand to wave at them, yes she's around isn't that normal? She humms faintly and glances over to Emily curiously and blinks as she watches her move towards Alanna, oh no.. This crosses her mind as she sets her hand basket down and is quick to follow after Emily. "Emily.." She hisses out a moment. Her gaze turns towards Darcy and Ramona next and then towards Henry, a new one? As to the thought about burning the place? So sorry Lore is here that would be a bit hard, speaking of which she hapens to catch sight of a few more from the pack near the back of the store. Well she's thankful for that and it makes her relax a wee bit before she looks back to Alanna eyeing her faintly.
"I am -off duty-." Elijah reminds Sarah promptly, snorting through his nostrils, and taking his hand from the inside of his pocket. Gun's there. He and Sarah are fine. He chuckles when his partner takes the doughnuts and consumes one, "See, you can't preach," He drawls and takes one of the pastries from the bag, biting down on it's edge with his teeth. He chews slowly, observing Sarah's reaction to him reaching in his jacket, "Don't worry, I'm just making sure…" In his mind? He's hyperventilating, panicing. Whatever one does when they're living through their worst nightmare. He. Has. No. Meds. "Think they have a pharmacy here?" He'd settle for Flinstone vitamins, even. At least they tasted good. Over hearing Darcy, he turns, taking a few steps towards her, and he uses his 'big cop' voice, "No, there are others in this building. Common courtesy."
Ramona looks balefully in Alanna's direction after Darcy's suggestion, although the little brat is off bothering some other golden-eye — Ramona assumes it's a Cullen. "She's always ruining things," she snaps. Ramona is quiet for a moment, eyeing Alanna and thinking, before turning back to Darcy to answer her question and inform her about the situation at the Elementary School last night. Instead, a male voice answers. She turns her head slightly to peer at Elijah, a brow raised for a short second before she plasters on a smile.
"Officer, am I ever glad to see you," she purrs. A glance it shot to Darcy as if to say "I'll-explain-later." "Not only is this situation very frightening, but I have other troubling issues I need to discuss with you." A glance is stolen in Alanna's direction.
Anjin while waiting to see what the couple at the checkout do, he glances around watching people mull about the store, looking for anyone who might get in his way. He notices the woman looks at him, "Shit" he whispers under his breath. He tries to look inconspicuous an picks up the first thing he sees eyeing it careful, its some kind of hair cleaning product, well no need for that, but it holds his gaze as he trys to watch it. He glances back down the aisle as his taunting has the desired affect, his wicked smile persists on his face. How much fun it can be to play with the new ones are his only thoughts. He spys Lore down with Alanna at the other end, well at least Alanna will keep her busy, she might not even notice me. His gaze returns to what he wants, the one name Sin, he can't get over the scent, it is like the finest dish he has ever smelled, but I must not cause too much of a scene, he reminds himself of his talks with Ramona.
Sarah crosses her arms once more across her chest and frowns faintly. She had the urge to stick her tounge out at him almost before she decides better of it. Ugh. Your a /grown/ /woman/. Ahem. She eyes him once more before blinking when he asks about the pharmacy, "Uh.. just got here," she points at herself, "I have /no/ idea. I'd assume probably." Sarah lets her gaze slide slowly to Darcy as Elijah speaks and then finally torwards Alanna. She frowns faintly taking a step in their direction but hesitates as Emily and Lorelei get closer. She'll observe for now but it looks like that girl is close to a panic attack. Little did she know. As Ramona's voice catches her attention when she addresses Elijah, the woman turns back in their direction, features hardening somewhat from habit.
Cue kitty litter drop number two. Off his guard, Henry stumbles back a step - a graceful stumble, sure, but a stumble nevertheless - as Alanna falls into him. For those first few instants before he sees her eyes, his jaw tightens and his lips press tight against his teeth to keep them from showing. He instantly relaxes to some degree, however, even in noting the red mixed with the gold of Alanna's eyes. "Help?" he repeats, not sounding entirely confident himself. "I was wondering about getting that myself…" This response is murmured, but as he calculates the larger situation at hand, he adds more distinctly, "Have you not…had food…before you came to the store?" Even at low volume, worry comes through strong.
Alice sighs and closes the phone, sliding it back into Jasper's pocket before reaching up and threaing her hands through his hair. "You're going to be just fine, Jasper. We'll find a place in the back to ride this out." Or is that a wise idea. She thinks about what Carlisle said and her eyes narrow, making a metal tally of everyone in the store. She shifts away from Jasper just slightly and walks down the aisle pretending to look at the cheap variety of makeup they offer.
Jasper nods at her, but doesn't follow as she walks around the store. More people would be looking at him, and he wouldn't — couldn't — breathe around them. He walks to the isle that Alice is walking down, and sits down at the end, his back resting against the shelf. His eyes close and he runs his fingers through his hair, berating himself on not breathing as much as he can.
The store manager gets the bright idea that people will be able to sleep better and relax better if he turns off half the lights, so he does so, pushing through the thirty-odd people crammed around the TV in the lounge to reach the controls. The store dims noticeably; it's still well-lit enough to read in most places, and the lounge, bank, deli, and checkout counters are still fully lit, but pools of shadow now occupy certain portions of the store; ironically, most people vacate these areas immediately and move to the better-lit areas.
Thomas smiles, wheeling the cart over to the magazine rack - or beginning to, at least, before Sin's comment stops him dead in his tracks. The smile vanishes, and he swears repeatedly under his breath. "Okay," he whispers to Sin, "it's important that we stay in public view. Make sure at least someone can see us. They're not likely to cause trouble if there's a risk of getting caught." Lore gets his attention and he somewhat frantically gestures for her to come over to where he's standing. He swears softly yet again as some of the lights dim; fortunately the magazine rack is right next to a checkout counter, and still reasonably well lit. "What idiot decided to do that?" he whispers sharply.
Alanna leans into Henry, both hands coming up to catch the air freshener Darcy tosses her from the side. The girl tears it open.
She practically eats it, doing all but chewing as she props it between her teeth underneath her scarf. If she didn't look strange before, all scantily clad in the middle of winter, well, now she did. "I'm just…" She can't bring herself to reply to Henry just yet, and she takes in the smell of the air freshener once again. Too strong for her likings, but it had to be sniffed. "I'm -new-." The girl murmurs to him, her voice nothing but a low squeel to human ears.
Josinda nods , still not willing to let go of his arm. "The same idiot who decided it was a good idea to keep us all in here?" she exhales sharply and and reaches for the first book that is within her reach, opening it. "Okay, no books. Really don't need to read about murder right now " She tosses the book back and runs a hand through her hair before picking up a magazine, glancing out of the corner of her eye to where Anjin was last located.
Emily doesn't notice Lorelei's wave to Tom and Sin, she's too busy worrying about the paniced young girl clawing at the man. "Hmm?" Lorelei's hiss does strike her, and she hesitates, trying to assess the situation again. However, as the lights dim, she doesn't notice the subtle characteristics that mark a majority of the people standing around as vampires. She looks questioningly to Lorelei. "I know, I'm coming in a second. I just want to help…" her voice trails off as the girl bites down on the air freshener. "Are you an epileptic?" she reaches out to touch Alanna.
Algernon has arrived.
Darcy is feeling thwarted at all turns, at this point, and might knock Elijah's head off his shoulders out of pure spite, if she didn't have complete faith in Ramona's ability to keep them entertained this evening, through one means or another. Oh that, and her keeper would hand her over to the Volturi gift-wrapped if she did something that stupid, "Temper, temper, Darcy Lillian…' Puke. She titls her head back so she can look up at Elijah, fully a foot taller than her, with her big violet eyes and bat her eyelashes slowly, before drawling in her south Boston accent "Well, officer, as you can see I'm a little under dressed to go outside for a cigarette. So do you want to lend me your coat and escort me so I don't get eaten by the abominable snowman or some reindeer on a rampage?" Her lips quiver slightly, as she tries to hold in a smirk, and she sniffs ever so slightly. Sounds like she has a runny nose, but in reality she's just checking to see if dinner needs any seasoning. Then Ramona jumps in and Darcy looks over at her, eyebrow lifting slightly, and the smirk fighting it's way onto her lips. just then, the lights go out and it's all Darcy can do to keep from cackling triumphantly. Oh…and the smell of wolf in her nostrils helps with that.
Lorelei gaze drifts towards Thomas and Sin as the lights go down, oh great.. "Emily, can you go stand over with Tom and Sin?" She questions softly while glancing to her a few moments, her gaze saying /go/ and don't ask questions. She looks back to Alanna and clears her throat while shifting closer to where she is with Henry, a glance offered towards Ramona as she goes towards the cops. Oh great. "Alanna.. you should leave before anything else happens." Lore murmus faintly as her bright gaze watches her.
"'cuse me?" Elijah says, when Ramona comes into the picture. Very rarely were people happy to see him, and he raises his brow questioningly, "I'm sure everything will be fine. We're safe inside the store," He tells Ramona with a dismissive gesture towards the blizzard at the entrance doors, "No big deal, as long as everyone keeps calm…" He spots Alanna down the aisle a ways, and nods to Henry and Emily, who seem to be trying to relax the girl. "Another troubling issue?" He asks Ramona, dying a little inside. As if he and Sarah didn't have enough to worry about already? "I'm off-duty," the boy informs the vampiress with a drawl, just incase she planned on asking him to actually take action or something that requires him to leave the bag of doughnuts alone. Speaking of which, he slides a hand into the bag as Sarah comes up beside him, and begins chewing again, waiting for Ramona to be the bearer of bad news for the two of them.
Elijah blinks at Darcy, his thick brows pulling together at her request. "I'm -off duty-" he repeats to the young girl, but ends up forking over his leather jacket. Luckily, all his gear is either tucked away in his tan sweater, or on his belt, clearly visible now. Lighter, pepper spray, blackjack, etc. The gun's in there somewhere, too. "Can't convince me to head out there, young miss."
The commotion with Alanna draws Ramona's faint interest, but what really causes her to pause for a moment is Lorelei. She sniffs tenatively, and identifies to thick scent of more wolves in the air. More people to ruin her fun! Turning back to Darcy and the pair of humans, she snickers at Darcy's comment. "Yes, you might want to be careful out there dear… never know what could be out in the night," she says lightly, clearly in on some kind of inside joke between Darcy and her.
Elijah's response to her "pressing issue" was disappointing — she presses her lips together into a seductive pout. "You were off duty in the bar the other night, and you still had time for me. I think you can find time for my friend and I," she presses. She eyes Sarah with a faint glimmer of a smirk.
Anjin sets the product he is holding back on the shelf as the lights go out. The wicked smile returns to his face, as he looks up to the sky. When Sin glances to where he was he is no longer there, he is standing beside her reaching out to pick up the book she just dropped, "I don't know, a good murder can /lighten/ the mood in a place like this quite… drastically." He says turning his semi wicked smile on Sin and Tom. His tone of voice indicating that he doesn't mean a story. He breaths in deeply the smile becoming broader as he closes his eyes just listening to Sin's heartbeat. "Thank you for delivering, I hate going for pick up." Anjin's darkish red eyes intent on Sin.
Sarah flenches noticeabley as the lights dim and takes a small step in Elijah's direction before she throws a squinty eyed look at Darcy. EwPuke. Her drawling tone is given a faint snort as she glances away in the direction once more of the panic-stricken looking young girl. A little protective? Maybe. She kinda liked him. He was /nice/. That and Sarah had a hard time getting along with other girls.. well.. Human girls. Vampire girls was apparently a little more difficult. XD Then its Ramona who's oh-too-thrilled voice at spying Elijah to speak to him about an issue grabs her attention. She shifts a look at the other officer, a brow arching. What was it with this guy and these women? They looked as if they wanted to eat him up. Lame. *cue eye roll* Sarah scowls vaugely at Ramona's mention of the bar and shifts slightly, arms crossing. What? She doesn't care. Nope …. b*tch. -_-
Henry winces at Alanna's explanation, lips pressing against his teeth again, though in frustrated contemplation rather than in an attempt at restraining urges of his own. "New," he repeats, voice matching hers in imperceptibility to humans. "I will never forget new. You're braver than I was around people then," he admits, somewhat unhelpfully. As the air freshener gets dismembered, Henry shoots a questioning look toward Darcy, eyes half-lidded in an attempt to obscure their color. They open fully again as he regards Alanna. "Uhm. We're in a shop…there is sometimes a butcher shop build into shops like these. Can you hold on well enough to try finding it? It's not…the same as what's out here, but something, and more isolated…"
Alice continues to wander the aisle slowly, and makes her way back to Jasper, picking up some perfume as she goes, pretending to be engrossed in the label. Once back to him, she sits close to him as she can and rips open the package. "Imposter" She scoffs and dabs it on her fingers, putting some on her neck before handing it to Jasper "It might help?" She looks at him with eyes half questioning and more full of concern than anything.
Jasper lifts his head to look up at her, and takes the bottle from her grasp. He lifts it to his nose and inhales, before holding it back out and pressing his nose into the crook of his other arm. "I-I'll be fine," he chokes out, putting it down and lifting his face away from his arm. "Jesus — remind me not to put it too close to my nose. If I ever forget and ever go close to /human/ products again." He rests his head against hers gently. "Just stay here. I'll be fine if you're here."
The deli/butchery section of the store is well lit, but it's closed for the night and cold as hell, so it's practically deserted. One or two people have wandered over to 'borrow' 'free samples', but they're gone now. Most of the people who aren't engrossed by the TV are situated near the bank or by the checkout counters; one or two people play arcade games near the door. Several have already begun to try to sleep, using whatever they can find that's relatively soft - dog or cat food bags, coats, each other, whatever. These are in the minority, however; most are animatedly talking about the weather, or local gossip, or just random stuff.
Algernon hadn't intended to stay /too/ long in the store— it's only that upon unpacking his things he'd discovered he hadn't packed as many extra books as he'd thought, and he needs reading material for his off-time. This, though— this he -hadn't- been expecting, much less the sheer /volume/ of non-humans in the store. The smell's so thick it makes him want to sneeze, and it's a bit before he makes his way to the front of the store, a few books tucked under his arm: already there are a few faces he thinks he recognises— Anjin, certainly, is hard to mistake.
Thomas rolls his eyes when Lore proceeds to do nothing at all, though he does notice that she appears to be speaking to a very agitated girl who he doesn't recognize at this distance, despite having met her on his first day in this town. He is silent for a while, thinking, and is about to say something when he recoils as Anjin materializes next to them. "What the hell do you want?" Tom asks, in a voice that's so cold it could flash-freze an active volcano.
Best not touch her, Emily. Alanna shakes when she feels the presence of a human right behind her, a high-pitched screech slipping past her lips. It's dog-whistle high, so humans can't hear it, just about supersonic. "Please… just go…" The creature's eyes roll back, and her sharp teeth snap the air freshener in half. If she were a dog, she'd be frothing at the mouth. It's torture resisting, but at the same time the guilt she'd feel afterwards would slowly eat away at her. A conscience is a horrible thing to have, yessir. Gradually, her hisses and whines become less high-pitched, more suitable for human ears, but at the same time alarming. Her mouth opens to release the freshener, and it drops to the ground. It's of no help now. She's over the edge. With blinding speed, she whips around, staring menacingly to Emily, like a wolf would its prey.
A blur, and she's beside the woman, her mouth hanging open.
Another second passes…. and everything just shuts down. Her breathing stops, and her legs no longer provide support, and down she goes. Granite hits tiled floors with a thud, and the girl is still twitching. Her spasms continue to jostle her body about, until she's flipped herself partially onto her back, the whites of her eyes the only thing that's showing in the sockets.
All movement ceases as she slips into a secure pocket of her mind, which effectively protects the humans around her as well. To even the greatest of humans doctors, she appears dead. Possum?
Sin curses under her breath and stands very still, not looking at Anjin at all ."Could you please just leave me the hell alone?" Her voice laced with fear as she drops the magazine and claims Tom's hand in her own, her grip turning her knuckles white. Being referred to as a delivery meal wasn't really sitting well with her. At least they were in a semi lighted area and still within public view. SAfe, right? What did safe mean anymore.
Just as Lorelei begs her to leave, Alanna begins to shake and spasm. It is then that Emily realizes the true danger in the situation — but being just a slow human, she does not manage to jump out of the way or run before the vampiress is right beside her. Her face drains of color, and her eyes squeeze shut. .o( I'm about to die, right here, because of my own stupidity. ) But suddenly, the threat is gone. She watches the vampire fall to the ground, and lets out a breath, turning at once to Lorelei. Lorelei must have done something, it was the only explanation. But what? She's so frightened she can hardly thing; she mere stands and shakes, her eyes becoming wet.
What a very accurate description of EXACTLY what Darcy would like to do to Elijah, Sarah! But don't be jealous, you're invited too. Dar has a big appetite for being such a little thing. She chuckles sardonically at Ramona's comment and smirks, her slightly husky voice speaking of more than a few years smoking. She takes the coat from Elijah and shrugs it on over her shoulders, it almost comically too big for her. She makes it look anything but silly though, in a way only vampires can. "Well, should I be abducted and devoured you can sleep easy knowing that you were off-duty, and there was nothin you could do for me," she remarks, wiggling in the coat slightly and attempting to give him an endearingly impish smile. No knowing of how he'll take it though, endearing isn't her strong suit. She's about to make a break for the exit, and the sweet outdoors where she can froth and plot to her hearts content…then Alanna dies. Again. "oh shit…" she mutters, grimacing and looking at Ramona. "Does this make her our problem?", she hisses holding back from darting towards Alanna and dragging her out into the snow to protect ALL of their vampiric asses.
Lorelei glances back to Tom and Sin catching sight of a certain vampire. For heave shakes.. Her gaze turns back to Alanna at the high pitched noise and a faint growl escaping her a few moments. Hey it hurt her hearing thankyou. She gives her head a shake and makes a gran for Emily's arm to pull her out of the way as Alanna goes for her and then.. then nothing? She just blinks as Alanna falls to the floor like a limp rag and just stares at her a few moments. "Why in the hell can I not have a normal night in this place anymore?" She mutters out before eyeing Emily. "Get over to where Tom and Sin is /now/." Don't piss the wolf off, just go. She crouches down and touches Alanna's arm slightly, giving her a faint shake. "Alanna?" Maybe its better she stays dead or what ever she is doing.
Truth be told? Elijah can only handle taking care of one woman in his life (Apart from his Mommy). Seeing as Sarah had moved after the bar incident, Ramona was knocked down a slot on his priority list, her vampiric good-looks notwithstanding. He crosses his arms over his broad chest, eyeing Darcy as she slips the jacket on, almost laughing at the fit. "Indeed, Ramona. But I'd had a few drinks, and you weren't presenting me with a problem, then." Elijah's just a jerk like that, and being equally protective of Sarah as she was to him, he scowls at the smirk his partner's given by the two other females.
"Argh, fuck me running…" The cop blurts out, when Darcy brings his attention to the collapsed girl. "What happened?" He booms, pushing past the people until he reaches Darcy and Alanna. He gestures away from the limp body, directing his commands to Lorelei, "Please stay back, Miss."
Ramona's eyes flash coolly toward Elijah before she throws Sarah a searing gaze. She did not take well to being snubbed. She was a /rock star/, for goddness sakes! She's about to reply, when the high pitched buzzed the newborn emits causes Ramona to stop and turn toward whatever havoc Alanna's wrecking. It's almost like a fun movie for a moment — stupid human, almost eaten, but then… wait! "Huh?" Ramona blinks at the occurance. "She get too excited?" she murmurs aloud, eyeing Darcy. There's some consideration before she shrugs. "Whatever. I could give two shits about her," she says stubbornly, watching as Elijah tries to take charge. "Off duty?" A brow is arched as she watches the scene unfold with mild interest.
Anjin's head tilts to the side, he looks at the man "I thought I made myself pretty clear…" he says while thinking, why must I always explain myself to humans. "Are you sure you want to know?" He looks back as dinner says something too him "Leave you alone, hmmmm, I don't think thats possible sorry." he says his wicked grin returning, his head moving so there noses almost touch, his breath filling her nostrels as he whispers so only she can hear "but /your/ just too appetizing my dear." With that finish his sword slides between the space that Sin's arm and body create, hidden from the view of most of the store.
She'd been mentally thinking about how unbelieveable pretty these women.. or /girls/ looked. Almost model like. Almost too good to be true. Berating herself mentally for even /worrying/ about these pale versions of L.A.'s runway women, Sarah turns her chin up and glances dismissively back in their direction. She promptly ignores any further conversation between the three of them, as well as any looks as her features take on a somewhat bored expression. That is until the paniced girl from earlier hits the floor. Sarah's right behind Elijah, trying to make space around the fallen girl. She smiles apologetically at Lorelei, "Please ma'am.. give her some space.." voice gentle before she glances at Eli', concern etched deeply into her face. "Should I tell the store manager? Do you think the phones work? Keep her head tilted to one side.. if she seized she could choke on her tounge or vomit.."
Algernon winces at the sound Alanna makes: it -carries-, especially to -their- ears. What the hell? He reaches the front of the store just as there's the thud of someone— collapsing? He sweeps a look around— and makes his choice, heading for Anjin, his step quick. He leaves his books left on some shelf or other— it's not like he won't be able to find ten others exactly like them at some later point.
"Anjin, what -is- going on?" he's glancing anxiously over at the group as he speaks, not as close to Anjin as he might be— he -wants- to go see what the source of that sound was.
Several people turn to stare at Alanna as she collapses; one or two glance idly over at Anjin, Sin, and Tom, though they don't see what's happening clearly.
Thomas swears savagely as the blade comes out. "Idiot," he says derisively, in an attempt to get rid of the creature before it guts him. "We're in a /store/, for God's sake. There's almost a hundred people here. You really think every single one will just sit and watch a double murder? You really expect to get away?"
"Jesus Christ, are you for real here?" Sin looks at the sword and listens to Tom before looking at him and then at Anjin "I didn't think I'd die in a damn grocery store grocery store." She looks over at Algernon when he appears and lets go of Tom's hand, throwing both of hers in the air "Who the hell are you? What is this, the buffet line at the sizzler?"
Emily manages to will her feet to move, casting a bewildered look at Lorelei before shuffling toward Sin and Tom. The situation over here doesn't seem much better, however; Emily's struck with a sense of foreboding as she moves closer to the couple. The angry look in Tom's eye, and Sin's frightened look signals to her. She freezes, unsure if she should move forward or not. The adrenaline in her blood hits her though, and Emily draws in a breath, then grabs the nearest display — a tower stacked high with glass Snapple bottles — and flings it at the ground, causing a loud crash. She wants to draw attention to Tom and Sin. The shadowy figure near Sin looks suspicious, and she doesn't exactly trust the man in the brown pin-striped suit (Algernon) either.
Darcy is too distracted by Alanna to be thinking about a meal right now, even if it is a rather pretty meal. One that could probably run pretty fast and might put up a fight. Instead, she keeps her eyes on Alanna and murmurs to Ramona, her lips moving imperceptibly, her voice so low only another vampire standing close by could possibly hear her, "I don't like her either, but if she's found out, the Volturi are going to be coming down on ALL our heads. Who the hell let her out? Is the person that turned her mentally challenged? Or just fucking out to ruin us all." She knew it was a bad idea coming here, she KNEW it. She told Tiernan time and time and time again, but nooooo! Never once has she even been close to being found out and they've been here for a month and this little brat is going to not only spoil her fun but get her in heavy shit. All she wanted to do was cause a little havoc, set something on fire, maybe chew on an officer of the law. Don't worry, Elijah, being dead makes life infinitely less simple. She's about to get lost in the reverie of 'why can't I just get my way all the time?' and 'what the hell are we going to do about Alanna?' when what is to her ears a deafening crash causes her to whirl around almost too quickly for a human, and she bites back a hiss, glaring towards the source of the noise.
"Alanna?" Lorelei questions softly, really worrying at the moment, what if she wakes up and is all RAW i'm gona eat your face on someone near by? She glances to Elijah and just glares at him slightly before she looks back to Alanna, don't you /dare/ wake up and chew this guys face off.. "She isn't having a seizure, she just passed out from being in this place. She got scared that's all." If the cops touch her then what? Alanna is like stone after all, and just as cold as one. Great, what next? She stands up and just sighs while letting the cops deal with her and steps away a bit. She looks towards Tom, Sin and then a certain sword happy vampire and just mutters, so much for that question. Leaving the cops with dear possum Alanna she is quick to follow after Emily, pausing next to her at the sudden crash. "That's one way to get attention.." Lore murmurs faintly.
Elijah gets to work in checking pulses, opening and closing Alanna's eyelids, even shaking her silly. Hrm. He tilts her head back and lays her back out straight, opening her airways. Forcefully, he uses both his palms to apply sudden jolts of pressure to her torso, hoping to jarr her awake. He shoots a glare to Ramona, but does not respond to her otherwise. He doesn't become suspicious of the girl's temperature, other than it being related to her collapsing and the fact that she's wearing onky a bikini top and pants… His hands were starting to hurt now, "This girl's like a fucking rock… Yes! Get the manager! I'd tell you to dial 911, but we're already here." He growls, breathing in deeply, and goes to his second to last resort, leaning down to press his lips over Alanna's. Huff, puff, He breathes air into her mouth, his eyes locked closed, but finds that no matter how hard he tries to pass the girl some oxygen, her lungs do not expand…
Panic sets in, and he rechecks the girl's pulse. And he rechecks again. And again. Until he's kept his fingers pressed to the side of her neck for over two minutes. She's a rock. To Elijah, she'd likely sink to the bottom of the ocean in this state. "I think…" He stutters, guilt kicking him in the side. He'd be blamed for this… "She's dead…" Not even the loud crash that Emily causes breaks his long, cold stare down at the limp girl in his arms.
Ramona looks sulky as the younger gothic-looking woman stands next to her; humans would not be able to decipher their nearly inaudible conversation. "You're right," she relents, almost wincing at the words. They were difficult to use, but Darcy had earned her respect in the short time she'd known the teenaged vampiress. The crash startles Ramona, and she whips around in a similar quick fashion, but after a moment of assessing the situation, she turns back toward the motionless Alanna, and the cop. "You think!?" she mutters to herself and Darcy, although her friend seems a bit distracted.
Swiftly, Ramona swoops down next to Elijah, grabbing Alanna a bit roughly and cradling her head in her lap. "No. She's got a condition." She rolls her eyes. "I hate to admit I know this brat, but she's close with a friend of mine." She stares seriously at Elijah, "You know Dr. Cullen, right? He's one of the more respected doctors in town. Well, Alanna's on a pretty strict diet and medication plan. She's seeing the doctor all of the time for her rare condition; perhaps you could call him?" Her eyes sweep across the store, "Or, I did see his son and daughter in here somewhere." As she glances down at Alanna, her jaw stiffens angrily.
Anjin glaces out of the corner of his eye, at Alg, "Stay out" he says to quickly for human ears, and at a volume only Alg would hear. He looks at Sin with a smile that answer's her last question with yes, then with Tom saying all that about double murder he laughs the wicked smile returning, "No I am not going to kill you, just give you a little cut." And with that his sword darts out towards Tom tip reaching for him, with lightning speed.
Alice stand up at all the commotion and drags Jasper up with her. She digs the phone out again and calls Carlisle once more. Her voice is high and rapid spilling the details to him. One done she slips the phone back in Jaspers pocket "The only thing we can do is wait" Her head tilts in the direction of Ramona, hearing Carlisle's name and she looks closely at them. "We should go see what they want, they've asked for us." She takes Jaspers hand in hers and moves over to where they are.
Jasper nods in agreement with her, and starts walking along side Alice. He hears glimpses of words spoken, but not much detail. With one last breath, he cuts off his air supply and starts to fill himself with a numb, calming feeling. As Alice and himself make themselves closer to the crowd, he grasps her hand tighter and begins to emanate the easeful feeling that is bubbling inside him.
Algernon glances, brief, at the people Anjin is hovering by:t here's something /off/ about their expressions— of course, Sin's disgusted exclamation rather clears things up for him, and when he moves in closer, he catches— glint of /steel/? "What the bloody /Christ/ are you playing at?" he spits out, and then—
"I bloody well will -not-, this is—" absolute /nonsense/. Rather than staying out, he moves in, darting to grab at Anjin's sword-hand with both arms, trying to redirect the blade's point downward and away from Tom, if not yank it out of Anjin's grasp entirely.
"You know the Volturi, idiot?" hissing it out, the words a low-pitched growl.
The glittering arc of silver from a swung blade is noticed immediately by the six or seven people alerted by the display case crashing down; a few people scream, and one darts off to fetch the manager.
All the color drains out of Tom's face as the blade swings toward him; he tries to duck out of the way, but it's clear the blade will still strike him until Algie deflects it. Tom lies on the floor, utterly silent, not even breathing.
Conlan has arrived.
With such unconsciousness, Alanna dreams. It's a treat - vampires never dream inside of sleep. She relives the horrific burning in her throat that she had just experienced, like the entire thing was on replay in her mind.
But you all know who can sense dreams, don't you…? Anjin, Ramona, and Darcy were about to have an entire group of evangelized persons to worry about aside from Algernon…
"What the /hell/!" Sin pulls back as soon as the sword is grabbed and looks down at Tom, then back at Anjin. "What did you do? I don't know why you won't leave me alone, but I'll tell you this. Lay off the pipe. Oh, and this weird sword weilding samaraui thing you got going on? Is really not working for you." She kneels down and puts her hands on Tom's face "Thomas, look at me. You better be allright, or I'm going to jail for murdering him."
Emily is among the people that noticed the blade — apparently the crazy Japanese dude was deaf or something, because even the other vampires jumped at that. She inches forward after the strike, watching the brown-suited vampire say something angrily, and then watching Tom fall. "Tom!" she cries, running forward next to Sin, hoping the angry-looking man would hold the swordsman off for a second. "A little help here?!" she calls out, hoping to get at least one of the concerned officers' attentions. They were trained in first aid, right?
Volturi? Volturi? Effing Volturi!?!?! That is not a word Darcy wanted to hear, and she finally lets out a low hiss of panick, blinking rapidly and turning on her heel, following Ramona over to Alanna, slide down onto her knees gracefully, taking Elijah's coat off an throwing it over Alanna in an attempt to get him to keep his hands off her. If he was in a less distraught state, he might have noticed something off about her. Darcy doesn't want to give him the chance to calm down and re-examine. Yea, she's dead alright, but not in the way Elijah is thinking. "She did this at school a few weeks ago, you know, holiday season coming up, exams looming and all that she forgets to take her pills and eat as often as she's supposed to." She gives Elijah what she hopes is a reassuring look, and absent of guile. "You're not supposed to poke and prod her too much… She bruises easily because of her condition." She looks back over towards where the other MORON of a vampire is making a very un-human scene. She lets her face betray her worry but keeps the rage felt towards someone who would endanger the rest of his kind so willfully and stupidly, "Uhh…officer, I think they may need your help more over there. Dr. Cullen's kids are on their way over, and I think they already called him." Come on, meal on wheels, take a hike.
"THERE IS NOT A DISORDER THAT CAUSES YOUR HEART TO STOP BEATING THAT ANY NORMAL HUMAN CAN LIVE THROUGH." Elijah screams to Ramona and Darcy, having lost his senses completely. "She's dead. No doubt about it… trust me, I know what I'm doing. YOU'RE BOTH BULLSHITTING ME." He says, reaching over to check Alanna's pulse AGAIN, but finding that it doesn't exist…
His head whips around when the crowd around him gasps at something nearer the store's windows. through the legs of the people, he sees the shimmer of the sword take down Thomas. He looks to Sarah, making sure she's near, before standing and abandoning Ramona and the corpse of a girl, his hand darting into his shirt. "CLEAR A WAY." He pumps a bullet from his hand gun, and it shoots a nice sized hole in the ceiling of the Thriftway, making a loud, ear-shattering crack as it's fired off. That seems to make people move, and Elijah is able to walk with a large berth towards Thomas, his gun held towards Anjin and Algernon. Yea. He's still off-duty, though.
Lorelei blinks as she catches sight of the sword.. "Dammit.." Is said while she moves quickly around the mess and over to Sin and Tom. Her gaze turns to the new vampire that has hold of the sword before she looks to Anjin and glares at him. "I'm so tired of your shit." She bearly catches the conversation behind her dealing with Alanna, an not that she likes Ramona in any form but she is over there dealing with it and that's fine for her. She moves more in front of Tom and Sin, trying to push Anjin backwrads away from them as a faint growl escapes her. "Get away from them.. An get the hell out of here.." She pauses and looks back startled as a gun is suddenly shot? Oh bloody great and now she is near the sword crazy vampire and Algernon. She slowly takes a few steps back towards Emily wishing she stayed at La Push with Marshall right about now..
As if on cue, the pair of Cullens she was walking behind appear, and Ramona shoots them an expressive look, as if to encourage them to play along. Inwardly, she winced. First, she had to make up an excuse for the reckless, bratty newborn, and then she had to make nice with the golden eyes? It wasn't even for something that would directly benefit her!
She snaps out of her reverie to deal with the officers. "Darcy's right, officer. She's known Alanna for a lot longer —" she begins to narrow her eyes, when Anjin saves the day by his recklessness, and the brave little copper runs off.
Ramona glances around, making sure nobody is really watching Alanna, aside from Darcy and the Cullens, and then grabs Alanna's stiff body and slings it over her shoulder, sprinting (at a fairly human speed) toward the back of the store. "Come on," she hisses, addressing Darcy, Jasper, and Alice. She aims to jump across the meat counter to privacy.
Alg catches Anjin's hand stopping the hand, however it opens up the sword seeming to fall to the ground. During it's fall it radicaly changes course going for Tom's still figure, knowing there is little chance laying on the floor for him to dodge the second attack from the now floating weapon. Anjin's nostrel so fulled with the scent of Sin, he can not help himself any longer, he must have her, Algernon's words and all the other noise flow off him without him hearing. Anjin has lost it.
Sarah tares her stricken gaze from Elijah and the stonelike girl as the commotion of the rack falling and the yelling behind her starts. WTF! She groans, Eli' could handle this, turning as Ramona drops to her knees beside him and she's vaugely aware of the chattering going on behind her as she strides towards the noise. Its when she turns that she catches the glint of steel and she instantly has her hand on the gun tucked into the back of her pants, teeth gritting, "HEY!" she growls remembering the freak job from the other day, "What did I tell you about that damn sword! DROP IT. NOW." So much for off-duty. Her voice is demanding and on edge, her pace slowing as she watches the man in the suit try to take control, her features still pulled into a scowl. She didn't want to pull her gun out, the people in here were already freaked out enough but naturally Elijah who happens beside to appear beside her ruins that plan. FriggenPlace. Emily's yell gets her attention and Sarah darts to their side, a glare shot at the skitzo Jap man before she turns to look at Tom, "Sir? Sir can you hear me? Blink, or nod, or something if you can hear me.." She half expects the man to be in shock. She would be if she just had a sword swung in /her/ face. She looks up again to make sure Elijah has the men under control and only notices the falling sword, she grabs the man and pulls with a great effort to slide him across and floor and out of the way, the blade raking her arm in the process. "FUCK!"
Alice shoots her eyes over at Alg and her nostrils flare. Volturi, this was going to end badly.She looks back at woman before her and reads her face, nodding in ageement to help her by going along with her story, even though something clearly was not right aobut this situation. She tugs on Jaspers hand and moves to follow Ramona, and the smell of sarah's blood fill sher nostrils. "Let's get you out of here, Japser. Now."
Jasper's eyes involuntarily drift towards the mess on the ground, and his grip tightens on Alice's hand. When he's allowed himself that one, easy simple breath that would allow him to loose control, Alice tugs on his hand and pulls him away from it. He lets her absently drag him away from the scene, as his head turns over his shoulder to look at it. /What a mess … what a waste …/
When they're out of site from the scenario, Jasper loosens his grip on Alice's hand, but still lets her drag him along, so he doesn't run back.
Algernon certainly isn't watching Alanna— he has his work cut out for him with Anjin. "Calm /down/!" he hisses at Thomas and Sin— and oh hell now everyone else has noticed.
Once the two humans hit the floor, he proceeds to ignore them.
"Did you hear me?" he demands of Anjin, but his words seem to fall on deaf ears and the sword's -floating-.
He hadn't intended on doing anything more than have a look around, get the feel of what's going on here, with this visit— but—
He's still holding the other vampire's arm, and his grip tightens a little as he concentrates, pushing -out- at Anjin with his mind. Very quickly, -everything- should begin to seem— louder, more distracting, so that the sounds of the group around Anjin rise to unbearable, nails-on-the-brain levels, as well as other sounds, even those normally as insignificant as the creak of floorboards and the drip of the spilled Snapple— everything equally, screamingly loud, like a wave of sound, impossible to take in and concentrate on anything else— a mental slap that should be sufficient to incapacitate.
Outside of the Thriftway a battle is coming to an end. One of the Sheriff's Office's cruiser calls it quits, the amount of snow on the road stopping the forward progress of the vehicle — even with its powerful engine and chains on the tires. Inside of it Detective Conlan sighs to himself as the snow piles up over the hood, and he comes to the realization that he is going to have to walk. The engine is shut off, and the flashing red and blue lights come on — lights which undoubtedly can be seen in the store.
Conlan slides carefully then from the vehicle, having to force the door open through the pile of snow outside of it, and attempts to stand without falling in the surrounding snow drift. "Well, aint this just lovely." He grumbles to himself, letting his hazel colored eyes scan the area, while his hands pull his trenchcoat tight about his body. His gaze falls upon the crowded Thriftway, and he simply shakes his head. Trudging through the snow then, he moves up to the door, and pushes it open — letting in a ice cold wind and snow with him.
Most of the store's patrons don't know what's going on, but about a dozen are now engrossed in the bizarre fight, including the manager with an old sawn-off, which he appears very, very hesitant to use; it isn't even loaded at the moment. All of them keep a safe distance.
"I'm oka-" Tom begins to say, though it cuts off mid-word as the blade falls toward him yet again; he doesn't even completely realize what is happening when Sarah pushes him out of the way. his eyes still focused on that one image. The blade rakes across her arm as he watches.
The backdoors into the storage room are pushed open, boxes pouring out while a lithe figure enters the main room of the establishment. Some may recognize her scent, while others just see a distraught teenage employee of the Thriftway, with her hands over her ears. The sound of the gun going off seems to have aggitated her greatly. Once the echo of the fire is gone, the blonde vampiress shakes her head violently. Just in time to meet Ramona making a get away with Alanna's body. "Ramona," Dahlia hisses, her eyes glowing red, but lacking the usual vibrancy they hold. "What have you done now?" She demands of the two, Darcy and Ramona, while gesturing over her shoulder to the little circular window across the storage room behind her.
Outside, the Coven De Quebec waits in hiding as back-up. Sans Alexis the other newborn, of course.
When Sarah grabs Tom and pulls him, Sin rushes to follow thm quickly. Seeing Sarah get cut, she swears and takes off her jacket, tossing it over the cut, tying the arms together as a makeshift bandage. Then she turns her attention back to Tom and leans over him again. "Are you hurt at all? Do you need anything? Just..talk to me okay? I need to hear your voice" She frantically checks him over for cuts while holding his hand.
Emily is glad for the officer's help, although the twisted turn of events causes her to yelp and then gasps, horrified at the cut — not only does that have to hurt, but there are /several/ vampires in the store. She can think of nothing but calling in the wolves. "Lorelei!" she cries out wildly. There are others, too. "She's cut!" Outside, the blue and red lights catch Emily's attention. An ambulence? She runs toward the door, only spotting one man, and not a paramedic, but still. "A police officer is hurt, she needs to be taken out of here!" she says to the newcomer, her words in a bit of a tangle.
Darcy 's face morphs to mask of fury for a brief instant, her upper lip curling and her pupils dilating, "/Don't/ raise your voice to me, law man. Don't even dream of it," she responds, her voice containing a soft, throaty growl. But then, he's off and firing shots, and she's fantasizing about using him as a chew toy for a moment before all hell breaks loose and the scent of blood dances in her nostrils. "We need to feed her and wake her the hell up, " she murmers, her leg muscles coiling as she prepares for the relatively easy leap to behind the counter. "Lets do this quickly, before they stop being fascinated by the shoot-out. Here ears are ringing from the gunshots. This discomfort is further aggravated by the tantalizing smell of blood making her throat ache and her head throb, and then…flashing red and blue lights. Oh how she hates those. "You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. Wake up, Alanna.." she hisses, "Wake up!" The pitch of her voice rises so humans can't hear, and Lor's ears are probably ringing slightly. She looks at Ramona and nods, and then leaps, hopefully with Ramona and dragging Alanna with them. She is met by unforeseen but very welcome reinforcements. "Dahlia…" she mutters, happily, but trying to keep her voice down, "WE didn't do anything. This one's out wandering around totally unable to control herself. WE tried to help." She makes an imploring face at Dahlia, "Can you do something with this?" she asks, gesturing towards Alanna's prone form.
Lorelei eyes widen slightly at the sudden scent of human blood hits the air. This is turning into a night from hell to say the least. She moves over to Sarah grabbing hold of Sin's jacket while she kneels down to try and press the jacket against Sarah's cut arm. "Just hold still, we're get it taken care of." She offers to Sarah with a friendly tone. The other few from the pack that was at the back of the store are now up from. Leah makes her way over to where Lore is with Seth not to far behind, both making sure none of the other vampire come to check out the sudden smell of blood in the store now. That would be bad indeed.
His gun is still held to Anjin and Algernon, and Elijah's face turns confused as he watches their movements, and the sword. This is what HAPPENS when he does not get his medication. If only he'd been able to reach the Flinstones vitamins, he wouldn't be hallucinating. "BACK." He demands of whatever's left of the crowd of people, and he directs them to the very back of the store, "Huddle in the corner. Sta- SARAH" He booms, turning in time to see his partner's arm get sliced. His arm shakes, and suddenly he becomes all the more /trigger-happy/. He resists the urge to pop a bullet through Anjin's skull, and drops beside Sarah, his hands working on getting his belt undone. He ties it tightly above the slice in her arm and the jacket Josinda uses as a bandage, hoping to stop the blood from gushing. "Fuck you stupid Floridian, I can't look away for ONE SECOND without being dying or being cut." Red and blue lights. Hallelujah. Hopefully he's not hallucinating. His hand goes to Sarah's cheek, petting her there soothingly. More for himself, than her, mind you.
Ramona isn't as welcome to meet Dahlia — her face turns sour. Or perhaps the sour face is aimed more toward the situation: a thick smell of blood wafts up from the front of the store, and Ramona turns her head longingly, forgetting about the current situation. Alanna was, after all, safely behind the counter, and there were several reinforcements around, the Cullens included. "She's just a stupid newborn. Maybe she died. At least that will give that goddamned detective something to get excited about," she snaps at Dahlia. The faux redhead frowns at Darcy, looking between the two with a jealous glint in her eye. "You guys know each other?" Nevermind that there's worse things going on. In fact, she only realizes this upon seeing the Cullens again. "You guys should do something. Isn't this like, what you do? Save people and stuff? Like Dahlia?" She speaks in tones only heard by the supernatural; she may have made a daring more, but she's not going to push it any further now.
Sarah begins to utter a VERY long string of cuss words as she allows the woman to wrap her arm. Dark eyes look up to Anjin and she all but snarls, if humans could, "I /swear/ to god I'm going to break your freaking neck you LUNATIC!" Sarah's pulling herself to her feet as she hears Emily and Lorelei is suddenly beside her holding her arm tightly. The officer scowls, "I'll survive, it isn't that bad." She didn't understand the fact that her /bleeding/ right now was probably NOT the best idea. She fidgets all the more when Elijah drops down to help and grits her teeth. There's a crazy man in here and they're worried about a tiny cut! She glances at her arm, eyes widening, eh.. ok so it WAS bleeding abit.. Wait.. was he /petting/ her?! Her cheeks flare crimson and she swats him away, fighting to stand. "I'm /fine/!" EMBARRESSED. But that usually doesn't kill people. Hopefully. Her eyes lock on Anjin, jaw dropping breifly, WHAT.. is.. he… O_O Maybe she did loose a lot of blood. She's going insane.
Sarah begins to utter a VERY long string of cuss words as she allows the woman to wrap her arm. Dark eyes look up to Anjin and she all but snarls, if humans could, "I /swear/ to god I'm going to break your freaking neck you LUNATIC!" Sarah's pulling herself to her feet as she hears Emily and Lorelei is suddenly beside her holding her arm tightly. The officer scowls, "I'll survive, it isn't that bad." She didn't understand the fact that her /bleeding/ right now was probably NOT the best idea. She fidgets all the more when Elijah drops down to help and grits her teeth. There's a crazy man in here and they're worried about a tiny cut! She glances at her arm, eyes widening, eh.. ok so it WAS bleeding abit.. Wait.. was he /petting/ her?! Her cheeks flare crimson and she swats him away, fighting to stand. "I'm /fine/!" EMBARRESSED. But that usually doesn't kill people. Hopefully.
"With Volturi in there, I don't think I'll be going in and exposing myself to humans." Alice directs her comment towards Ramona "I'm more curous as to why you brought my family into the situation with this newborn here." She looks at the group and then to the girl lying on the ground "I know her. She's…she's the missing girl?" She holds Jasper near her so he won't be tempted to go back to the blood inside, he'd been working so hard and this was about to ruin everything.
Jasper tries to get his mind focused on acting human, and not the amount of blood … blood that he could be drinking. He brings his hand to weave through his hair, roughly pulling on the ends to distract him. "Alice," he says in a quiet, strained voice. He swallows thickly in an attempt to cool his blood-lust. "Distract me, please. Something mindless." He tries to stay in focus, or as much as he can, so he doesn't end up emanating his lack-of-control to the two newborns in front of him … who have a lot more self restraint than he does. /Get ahold of yourself, Jasper …/
Now the air is thick with the smell of blood, and even with his training it's difficult— using his power takes energy, and that makes him -hungry-. Algernon shudders, his body tense, unable to keep from glancing towards the sources of that smell. Anjin has slid to the floor though, and he tries hard to focus just on dealing with /that/ particular problem— he's strong, but dead weight is dead weight, meaning it'd difficult to deal with.
He glances around, trying to catch the eye of someone— prefereably another vampire— who might help. Where are those people from the park— "I think he's settled down for now— he's fainted, or something—" vague, trying to figure out how he can take off -with- Anjin and maybe have a bit of a /chat/.
Conlan has had more then twenty years of experience as a Cop. He can size up a situation pretty quickly, and a man swinging a sword at unarmed civilians and even armed police is fairly easy to figure out. A pistol is drawn from inside the trench-coat. Police Issue. Large. Carefully, and quickly he begins to move forward. His gaze flicks from Anjin to Sarah, and finally to Elijah.
"Sheriff's Department. Everyone down on the ground." He barks in gruff and deep voice — made even more harsh by age and adrenaline. Conlan watches in amazement as the Officer stands down — while the man in front of him continues to hold a sword. "Officer. Shoot that man before he hurts anyone else." He growls, moving swiftly to the side, bringing his own pistol to bear — then Anjin drops his sword and lunges for Algernon. He obviously doesn't have a shot now. "Jesus, this town has gone nuts…" Conlan says dryly as Anjin slumps to the ground, and he begins to move forward — pulling a pair of handcuffs from behind his back.
Darcy looks from Dahlia to Ramona, maybe a little chagrin. "Yea, we met the other day…" This would happen to her, she would finally make not one but two friends…and they would hate each other. Goddamnit. and now the smell of blood makes her throat feel like it's on fire, and she has the vague sense of suffocating, which is ridiculous since she doesn't actually breathe. "But ladies, I gotta go. Or I'm going to lose it. I'm sorry to leave you with this but I'm /hungry/," she gives them a very distraught, apologetic look, "Let me know how the rest of this goes down, Mona, and we'll play with the deputy another time. And thanks again, Dahlia." She looks over her shoulder and almost winces at the sound of the 'Sheriff's Department' "And now the place is startin to stink like bacon too…" With that she turns and bolts for the back door, moving so fast it's unlikely that any of the humans will notice. She'll just be gone.
The store is dead silent; all of the patrons and employees who could hear followed Conlan's order, though some are looking around curiously.
After a lengthy period of silence, Tom finally groans from the floor, "S'okay, Sin. I'm alive. Think I might have shit myself, but I'm still breathing, all the major parts are still attached."
Dahlia stares at Ramona, Alanna, and Darcy for a few seconds, her lips slanting into a frown. She looks over her shoulder once again, mouthing a few commands to the coven member waiting by the back exit, "Make sure the way is clear. We'll take her back to the Church," the Coven leader says, and the dark figure nods, and disappears. "She's alive. I can still read her dreams…" That's why her eyes aren't as vibrant; they're glazed as her mind is part between reality, and the unconscious vampiress' dreams. She's distracted. "Get her, and come. We can't stay here any longer," She says, her voice lowering while she turns, urgently trying to usher Ramona and Darcy out the back. "We'll figure something out when we're away from all this…" When Darcy bolts, she jerks, like she wanted to move after her, but instead remains with Ramona. "Hurry…"
Sin breathes a sigh of relief and shifts down, kissing Tom on the forhead. "Okay..just yeah, scared me. just a little" She hugs him gently and runs her hand through his hair. "Lore, think we need to have someone look at him too?" She looks over at Sarah's arm and then down at Anjin "Is your arm okay, ma'am?"
Emily obeys the officer, dropping to the ground. Hopefully, the human law enforcement can straighten things out, if only by bringing attention everywhere. As the choas begins to sort itself out, Emily remains by her friends, quiet and a bit haunted by the events. She talks to Sam on her phone in hushed tones, and sticks by Lorelei — when and if Lore goes home, Em goes too.
Lorelei glances to Elijah faintly an moves away seeing how his taking over. She shakes her head slightly and sighs while glancing to Leah and Seth before turning her attention to Algernon. A new voice is heard and she just sighs while looking to Emily. "Next time it snows we are eatting tree bark.. Got it?" She questions with a mutter as she folds her arms in front of her as the show keeps playing before them. Her gaze turns to Thomas and Sin, and she would check on them but she figures moving at the moment would be a bad idea with all the cops here getting uneasy. "We just need to get him outa here. Still have the keys to the store figure we can go hold up there tonight."
Yes. He's petting Sarah. What else is Elijah supposed to do? Nothing much he /can/ do at this point. Elements of the supernatural have been brought in, and as an oblivious human… He's still under the impression that he's suffering from hallucinations. When Conlan moves in and utters a command, Elijah takes up his gun again, aiming to kill…. only to watch Anjin go down. It seems like this strange Algernon character has him mostly under control. He grunts when Sarah bats his hand away, but he just moves it up to her forehead, patting there instead while he switches the safety on his gun, and does the same to the one Sarah's got. He tries to put them both back into his belt… Er, wait. Sarah's got it on. Sighing heavily, he just puts the guns to his side for now. "Sir… What just happened?" Elijah twitches, panting, as he addresses Conlan with wide eyes. He'd answer Josinda, but he's much too busy shuddering. Shit as strange as the events of the Thriftway do. Not. Happen.
Ramona regards Alice with genuine surprise. "Because we could use Carlisle's help. She's… shut down. Have you ever seen our kind do this?" She was telling a half-truth, but smoothly covers it with her former acting skills. "Yes, that's her alright. Not so missing, huh?" she adds, gazing at Alice and then smirking while watching Jasper. "You might want to take a hint from Darcy and get out."
Ramona frowns at Dahlia. "Hmph. Well, whatever, alive or not, there's no way in HELL I'm carrying her. I already got the drill on her disappearance, carrying her limp body into the midnight is not something I want to sign up for. You do it, and I'll follow," she obliges.
Sarah eyes Conlan as he arrives, finally getting to her feet and putting one hand to her arm. Her face never looses the scowl except to give a soft thankful smile to Josinda and nod her head, "Yes, i'm ok." She finally looks to the detective, her tone a little more demanding then Eli's, "..WHat…The… HeLL.." HEY. She just got CUT. With a SWORD. She stands where she is, eyes narrowing to Eli's patting but she doesn't bat him away this time. She finally turns to him, "Get me out of here. /Now/. I don't care if that means dragging my lifeless frozen body across the friggen snow. This /floridian/ is about to freaking snap." She's thrown proper formalities to the wind in dealing with the deputy and her partner. She's /pissed/.
Unable to take the throb in his throat, Jasper gives a tug on Alice's hand and pulls away towards the back of the store. With the speed they are moving at, nobody can see how he's slipped through the back-exit and starts running off in the direction of the woods, with Alice following along while trying to ensure that they aren't seen by any of the persons in the store.
Algernon has to agree with Conlan's mutter. "Too bloody /right/," he growls, and drops along with everyone else, eyeing the sword. But— best to leave it where it is, he thinks; probably any reaching for sharp objects would get him a bullet in the hand.
Except here comes Conlan with the cuffs, predictably. Well /that/ won't do. He grunts: keeping Anjin out of human hands is better than the good will of the local law enforcement. He pulls the other vampire's limp body over his shoulder into a fireman's carry, and with that lightning speed they're capable of, darts off.
Conlan continues to move forward, looking down to the wounded who are being tended to, and then back to Anjin. As Algernon hoists Anjin up over his shoulders, the Detective states simply, "Put the man down…" And then the pair are gone. The middle aged man just stares at where they were for a long moment, and then eventually can only just shake his head. "This town has gone mad, and I think its getting me there too…" He growls underneath his breath.
Still he doesn't have long to linger on the sudden disapearance, as there are other matters to attend to, and his attention turns to Elijah first. "I don't know? You tell me Officer…" The Detective says in a low voice, and then looks to Sarah. "How is she…" Yet before he can finish his question, Sarah is on her feet, and her words cause the Detective's brow to furrow deeply. "Miss. You aint getting anywhere outside. I suggest you sit down, and wait for the Paramedics. Officer, get on your radio, and get Dispatch to send a snow plow and an ambulence down here."
Things are gradually calming down in the store; people are standing up, moving around, talking to each other. Someone turns the lights back on, and the intercom radio off (halfway through 'Stairway to Heaven').
After some time, Tom finally stands, shakily; he's uninjured, but still so jarred by his experience that he can't think straight. He sways in place for a while, silently, before leaning up against the magazine rack and sighing.
Dahlia shakes her head a bit, while blocking out her airways so she doesn't need to breathe in the scent of blood. Which, after 100+ years of living within human communities, she's grown to be able to resist quite well. She hefst Alanna easily up into her arms, hugging the girl close, which only increases the clarity of the readings she's getting from the newborn's mind. Without another word, she turns through the back exit, kicking boxes aside as she moves quickly, making sure to stay out of the police's sight. Once outside, her and her coven move out, braving the blizzard for a good 15 minutes before they're all able to make it back to their hide out at the Church.
"Guess that's an okay," Ramona says with a smirk, following Dahlia's leap out the window. She doesn't say much to the coven, though she does wink at the one she pounced on in the church. "Hiya, soldier." They continue walking; Ramona decides she will see what happens with the newborn. She "braves" the weather with the Coven de Quebec, and heads to the church.
Elijah tries to keep Sarah down by gently pushing on her shoulders, one of his hands still cutting off the circulation of the woman's injured arm. "This town was mad before you came here, sir. I'm looking forward to my vacation in California…" he drawls, mostly ignoring Sarah as she bickers back at him. "Calm down, Sarah… You're going to be fine. Just rest for now," He tells her, his voice raspy from all the yelling as he tries to guide her down to the floor once more, reaching for his jacket a little ways back and draping it over her to keep her warm. "Aye, sir." He says with an affirmative nod to Conlan, and searches for the radio within his jacket. Switching a button, he speaks urgently into his radio device, "This is Deputy Eli here at the Thriftway. We're going to need to get some medical help for Officer Smith and a plow to make way - over."
Lorelei glances to Emily slightly and takes out her keys while murmuring something to the other girl about going to open the bookstore and turn the heat on, an to take Leah an Seth with her. Lore moves over to where Thomas and Josinda is now. "Come on, lets get on to the store and you guys can get some rest."
Sarah grummbles absently to herself, ignoring the Detective and grudgingly sliding back to the floor. She lets Eli' drap the jacket around her and only then realizes how much her arm smarts. "I still want to get out of here.." Usually this would be a good thing coming from a woman to a man, "And not to any friggen hospital." Sarah mutters half-heartedly. She can't win. She leans her head against Eli's shoulder and closes her eyes, "Just wake me up when this nightmare is over?" She falls silent, a faint mummble coming from her, the only audible being, "..I need a beer.."
Thomas nods slowly, without saying anything, and fetches the groceries from the shopping cart with trembling hands. He moves to follow Lorelei, as does Sin.
As the night continues, a plow eventually makes it to the Thriftway several hours after the radio call was made. Elijah and Conlan work on getting Sarah to the hospital, and then assist the rest of the people inside the store, helping them get home. Or at least to a safer destination. The Thriftway is closed down, and police tape blocks others from entering it again until further investigation.
