Beyond Redemption Ch. 07

I'm sorry for the long wait. to be honest this story isn't my favourite, I only come around to it now and again because I know some people actually like this stuff.

admittedly, against alot of remarks that the story is moving too fast, I feel the need to inform you all that nothing drastic will take place until all the characters have been properly established.

there is nothing I hate more than one dimentional characters that just fall in love, overcome a life-threatening crisis, and mate for life within the first week of an imaginary time-span.

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He could have sworn it was a baby, no, a child crying. it was faint, and lasted only for a second, but he was sure he heard it.

The grandfather clock in the hallway stopped ticking. The pendulum stopped moving. In the kitchen, a droplet of water that had just fallen from the tap was suspended in mid-air. Frozen in time.

His vision suddenly fogged up and he stumbled before reaching the first step. he reached out to grasp something to steady himself and with a sigh of relief he felt his hand close around the railing.

What was going on in this house?

was he losing his grip on reality? perhaps he was just overworking himself. yes, that's it.

He sat down on the bottom step, trying to rid himself of his disoriented state. It took him a couple of seconds to realise something was lazily moving in his peripheral vision, as the realisation struck him he jerked his head around but it was gone.

he stood up quickly, his gun at the ready. He definitely saw something. His mind was not playing tricks on him. There is was again!, He spun to face it, but once again, it had vanished. then it began anew, eerie and heartbroken, he heard the child cry from upstairs.

Victor followed the voice and went upstairs, slowly, checking behind him with every step he took. He resisted the urge to rush to the crying child.

He hadn't checked the second floor yet, so he cautiously stepped up on the landing, his paranoia flaring and his gun at the ready. In Victor's eyes, There were many terrible and sad things in this world, and at the tip of the summit, traumatised and abused children ranked first.

The landing was at the end of a long hallway, there were three doors, the one at the opposite end of the hallway was slightly ajar and it was where the crying came from.

Victor walked slowly towards it, checking the other two doors as he went. The doors swung open silently, almost as though they floated open.

The rooms were neat. The beds made and laundry folded, but they were empty and dusty, devoid of any presence. The light coming in from the window cast an oddly bluish hue to the rooms, further adding to the feeling of abandonment the place had.

Victor noticed for the first time since his vision fogged that nothing seemed to be as solid and concrete as it was just several minutes ago. The feeling was oddly reminiscent of lucid dreaming. He shook it off and continued to the last door.

It swung open as silently as the other two did, and the crying suddenly faded into silent whispers. There was someone else there with the child! Victor immediately feared for it.

"Come on out with your hands where I can see'em!" He ordered, his gun cocked and ready. The whispers continued, either unaware of him, or simply ignoring him.

"Detective gothello of the local PD! I am armed and coming in" He said curtly and cautiously edged into the room, his gun held close, ready to hold out and shoot.

What he saw nearly made him shoot himself in the foot.

The room looked like it belonged to a little boy. There were little action figured on shelves everywhere and the bed frame was shaped like a red camaro. The room was lit by the same strange blue surreal light streaming in from the windows. But that was not the source of his surprise.

In the corner next to the closet crouched a little boy, sniffling, but Victor could not see his face, for infront of the little boy crouched a young lady, her long red hair falling past her waist and touching the floor. She was facing the little boy, consoling him with soothing whispers and stroking the top of his head.

Victor approached the pair quietly. He had the distinct impression they could not see him for some reason. When he could finally see the little boys face, he was no longer sobbing and was smiling a little. He had curly blond hair and oversized light-brown eyes.

The girl was breathtaking. Her amber eyes were the colour of his favourite whiskey. She was olive-skinned and wore a white cotton shirt coupled with black worn Jeans. Her feet were bare and had very dark grass-stains on the bottom. He longed to touch her hair. But something told him not to.

He stood and stared at her. She wiped a tear that was sliding down the little boys cheek and kissed his head. He nuzzled into her embrace mumbling something in his cute little voice that sounded like "angel". she begun to hum a strange song as she affectionately stroked his head over and over while he played with a strand of her red hair until he fell asleep.

She stood up slowly and carefully walked over to the bed. Quietly she tucked the little boy in, kissed his cheek and whispered "Sleep well, Seth" in an odd accent before she disappeared out the window.

Victor stood flabberghasted. He walked up to the sleeping boy and his hand hovered over the childs cheek. But before he could touch the child however, he noticed the calendar pinned onto the wall over the bed. It was dated year 1993.

Aghast, Victor looked down at the child and surmised that he could not have been older than five years of age. He shook his head, suddenly coming to his senses. This was a crime scene for fucks sake! This child should not be here.

As Victor reached down to touch the little boy, the moment his fingertip came into contact with the child's hair, the entire room lurched and Victor knew no more.

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They Placed the still breathing but unconcious "gift" at her door and waited for her to come home in an alley, across the street from her building. She was away for some time.

Two, perhaps three hours later, they saw her get off the school bus, followed by a human. Ray was smiling and spoke to him in a most animated manner.

Grim looked apprehensive. Graze looked annoyed, with a hint of jealousy permeating his angular features.

"Who is that, do you think?" Graze asked, his annoyance becoming apparent to his twin.

Grim looked thoughtful for a few seconds before snapping his fingers knowingly. "I know!, She's just playing with him before she moves in for the kill"

Graze crossed his arms, His features now in an identicle thoughtful expression.

"That is so unlike her. She used to get impatient with us for doing that kind of stuff"

Grim smiled devilishly. "Maybe she got bored with the good old pounce-n-kill"

Still, he felt it was unfair that she was indulging in the very thing that she used to scold them for, that being "Don't play with your food!" usually followed by a sharp slap on the back of the head.

The twins watched as she entered the building along with her assumed prey. They then snuck out of the alley across the road and had a silent brawl over who got to climb the giant pipe that ran down the length of the building first.

After much cursing and death-staring at eachother, they were crouched outside her balcony and could see into the stairway window near by.

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Ray sensed something as soon as she got off the bus. The familiar prickling sensation on the back of her neck alerted her at once. Though she sensed no immediate danger, she kept on the alert. Being followed often ended in violence, she knew from experience.

Wait, what experience? She had no memory, but she felt elated over the meagre discovery about herself.

She understood that this feeling was something she had long been accustomed to.

She decided not to mention anything to Seth though. He would probably just overreact anyways.

She decided to keep him close however, so she convinced him to accompany her to her own apartment for a change of clothing before heading over to his.

They had established a daily routine of first homework, then eating dinner while watching horror movies at Seth's.

Seth quickly understood that her taste catered more to horror movies since she once gave him the silent treatment for a whole day (even during meal times) after he had attempted to show her various chick-flicks, of which envolved disgusting amounts of romance and drama, and to Ray's horror – "no one ever dies! Not even the annoying ones!".

Seth was at first hesitant to accompany her, afraid to see what she may have done with the den of evil that he cleansed upon their first encounter, but gave in after a deathstare that made him change his mind in 0,35 seconds.

Her nose twitched upon entering the building. The scent was curiously familiar. She saw a flash of amber eyes shadowed by thick black brows for a split second. Someone she knew from her past, she thought, excited. Perhaps they can answer her questions.

But her excitement faded as she realised that the scent was growing faint the further up the elevator went. Whoever it was, was no longer here, her heart fell.

When the elevator came to a halt at the seventh floor and the doors parted however, a different scent engulfed her. Fresh kill. No more than half an hours death. She had trouble not salivating. It smelled delicious.

As they walked out of the elevator, she looked for the source of the scent and found it laying on her doormat. A large and beautiful hare, laying in a pool of it's own blood.

Seth, who came out right behind her took a second longer to notice the "gift". Ray was ecstatic, this was the equivalent of a love letter. But even better, an edible love letter. She smacked her lips and approached the edible love letter but was instantly jerked back by a disgusted and nauseated Seth.

"holy shit! That is just disgusting!" he raged.

Ray almost bit his hand off out of reflex and felt a stab of annoyance towards him before recalling that Seth wasn't normal like she was. He was very strange, even among other strange people.

"cover your eyes and get back, I'll take care of it" he said in a strained voice. She knew he was trying to be nice, but it did nothing to improve her mood as he scooped up the dead rabbit using two pieces of notebook paper to avoid touching it directly with his hands and tossed it down the garbage shaft.

She was having trouble concealing her annoyance. ~ a perfectly yummy kill... thrown... garbage ~

He mistook her expression and tried to comfort her. She just sighed in dispair, sadly eyeing the shaft lid over his shoulder as he hugged her.

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Outside...

Grim and Graze were livid. How dare he throw it away! She ought to rip his head off for that! What an outrage!

Both almost lost their footing as they initially scrambled in attempt to rip Seth's head off for the offence. Only the shock of Ray's continued silence calmed them.

" stop grinding your teeth so loudly" snapped an annoyed Grim.

"Can you believe that!?" Graze raged.

"Something is wrong" Grim came to a realisation that his brother had yet to catch on to.

"what do you mean?" Graze was too annoyed to think for himself.

"One would think that she would realise it was from us and search the area for our scents..." Grim trailed off thoughtfully.

Graze looked to his twin listlessly. Approaching Ray as she seduced dinner was out of the question.

Grim shared Graze's concerned look then lowered his gaze sadly.

"don't you dare! If you start crying i'll never let you hear the end of it" snapped Graze.

Not being able to run up to Ray and squish-hug her after all this time immediately assraped his mood enough without him having to comfort this weepy idiot.

Grim sniffled but said nothing in reply.

Graze continued to observe a little longer as Seth stroked Ray's back while hugging, still grinding his teeth in irritation before laying a hand on Grim's shoulder.

"come along now, we'll try again at a more convenient time" He did TRY to sound comforting, but it came out as a growl as he slid down the pipe.

Grim nodded and slid down after his twin.

They both looked up towards the seventh stairway window wistfully before shifting in the dark alley and disappearing, melting into the the shadows.

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Feeling as though she would one day have to sit Seth down and explain a few things to him, Ray tried her hardest to not be annoyed with him, after all, he had no idea what he did was heresy.

Considering how he was feeling regarding the absence of his parents, she decided to forgive him for his paranoia, However, his hyptheses about the dead hare just kept getting more and more wild and absurd.

He was so preoccupied with his stalker-theory that he failed to immediately notice that Ray had redecorated. When the glaringly obvious finally registered with him, he was so shocked he hadn't noticed at once.

The place looked like a cross between a dragons lair, a dungeon, and if possible, the inside of old catacombs one would usually find under cathedrals.

There was a model skeleton standing in the corner and a suit of armour next to the livingroom entrance. The wallpaper was changed from white to a dark roman red, and the furniture looked antique.

Fake spiderwebs were put up along the upper corners of each room and a creepy looking anatomy model stood in her bedroom, where she had a fourposter bed made out of black iron.

Everything in the bedroom was either dark red, black or ivory-coloured. The whole apartment smelled like sandalwood insence.

He was in awe. "It looks like halloween in here!"

She spared him a glance, smiling slightly while shoving her coat in the closet and began to dig around for clothing.

"yes, I do love it, it's very relaxing and cosy"

He walked around open-mouthed and gazed enchanted at what appeared to be a real iron maiden standing against the wall next to the bathroom entrance.

"is this real?"

"none of it is, which is why the whole redecoration cost me a reasonable fee of fifty thousand dollars" She said, sounding almost like a commercial. Seth choked on his own saliva at the price.

"reasonable!? How is that reasonable!? And where did you get that money? Are you loaded or something?" He looked amazed.

"I am not sure" She sounded mildly curious. She dug around in her schoolbag and produced her wallet, she searched around in it for a minute and tossed a creditcard over to him.

"it appears to be mine as it has my name on it. I can't remember how I actually came to posess that kind of wealth though"

she gestured to the apartment in general.

"this is my apartment as well as everything in it, I own it not rent it" she rifled through the desk near the window and showed him the documents she found. She owned the apartment as well an estate out of the city, in the middle of a forest about half an hours drive away.

"Perhaps I inherited it" she mused. She was lying to him as she didn't have any parents but she didn't know what else to say. She was missing a huge chunk of her memory. A good two hundred years judging by the date.

"have you ever been to this estate?" He asked, still a little amazed by her wealth.

"if i have, then I do not recall it" She replied a little cautiously. He was going to suggest what she was thinking he would suggest.

"want to go check it out?" He felt his Sherlock Holms senses tingling with excitement. She was shaking her head before he even finished the question.

"Why not!?" he exclaimed, looking rather put out.

"I have no idea what we might find there. I imagine there is probably a very good reason that location is in the middle of a forest" She answered.

"Charging head first into the unknown with nothing but a mild sense of curiosity is hardly advantageous in any situation." She continued, looking pleadingly at him. She could already see that his curiosity was anything but "mild".

"But this is a chance for you regain some of your memory if we're lucky!" he argued, looking at her as though she were crazy. She was incredibly hesitant, which stumped him.

She had intended to investigate, but she continued to procrastinate for one reason or another.

She also did not want to bring him along. There was no telling what she would find. One look at his shining eyes changed her mind however. What was the worst that could happen, right?

"Alright, we can go and have a look, however!.."

she was interrupted as Seth began muttering to himself excitedly about what they may find. He bounced around the apartment and squish-hugged her with howls of joy. He was very reminiscent of a child about to go on his first school field-trip.

She bit her lip worriedly. She had a bad feeling about this. She was confident that she could explain away anything strange they may encounter out there, but if it were something dangerous, she understood that Seth would at some point have to be informed.

Rather have him on his guard and aware, than completely uninformed and unaware. Not that she would just stand aside and let him come to any harm... but his intellect was a powerful tool. He was not to be underestimated and could even be a great asset.

For all of her years and experience, she understood that he was gifted with a brain far more efficient than her own. Humans were curious creatures. Some of them are born with amazing abilities. If he so pleased, he probably wouldn't even have to attend highschool and just skip right ahead to university.

"however!" she continued, as he calmed a little.

"you will not wander off without me while we're on the premises" she ordered.

He nodded vigerously. "yes ma'am!"

"right, we will wait for a convenient holiday before going. We most certainly will not neglect school for this" She said briskly.

She needed time to investigate it first without him. She just didn't feel ready to tell him anything yet after all.

His face fell a little. "oh come on, it's not like we can't miss a few days!" He whined.

He stomped his foot like an angry toddler as she gave him a defiant glare that said quite plainly "no means no".

He sighed and slumped into the couch. They were quiet for a few minutes. She was calculating, he was pouting. Why did she make him feel like a child sometimes, when she herself was the one who required looking after most of the time, he fumed in his thoughts.

He made up his mind to go investigate the estitate himself in secret. She did not have to know. And as long as she did not find out, it would just be some harmless poking about. At least then, he could pick up on anything he missed the first time around when it was time to go with her.

He did feel a little guilty about betraying her trust, but he shoved his guilt aside feeling that he had atleast earned clearance to some more of her mysterious past. He had proven to be a reliable friend, had he not?

"Don't even think about going without me" She said, raising a brow. The guilty look on his face told her he had been planning to do exactly that.

"but...!" He started. "no ifs, no buts, no coconuts" She cut across him severely, her tone final.

He gave in with a sigh. She won... for now.

"well then, what would you like for dinner tonight, m'lady?" he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

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He slowly opened his eyes but shut them again with a groan. He heard footsteps all around him and the noise made his head pound. Someone was shining a small flashlight in his eyes, trying to assess his condition.

The forensic team had arrived and was in the process of collecting evidence and dusting for prints.