Dancing With The Devil in the Pale Moonlight (Felicia, Open)

[Drake De Luca]

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Drake De Luca chuckled darkly to himself as finished reading the verse aloud. He looked up, the silver moonlight shining on his nearly opalescent black hair as he walked quietly through the forest surrounding this troublesome prison known as Ashford Academy. Was it blasphemy that a monster such as him should read from the holy book? He certainly thought so. Of course, that fact only made him giggle even more; the idea of taunting whatever foolish Creator had allowed him to be born was something he relished thoroughly. Flexing his hand, he snapped the King James Bible in his hand closed, stopping briefly in a moonlit clearing, closing his eyes lightly and grinning at a breeze of cool air making its way through the trees to him.

The night was truly his home, his habitat. Where most people saw menacing figures and twisted nightmares in the shadows stretching from the trees, Drake felt only a dark sense of delight. He saw power in the splotches of blackness that dotted the ground, and he saw death in the shadow of the tree branches that stretched out along the ground like skeletal fingers. Of course no students were meant to be out this late, so sayeth the "protectors of the peace," the prefects. On nights like these he almost wished one of the fools would cross his path. That they would dare to try to stop him; to make him do anything. There had been some who had bothered him before: that nuisance Gary, the fool of a king called Deven, the sickly sweet Naomi, to name a few. But they were gone now...all gone. The thought brought a twitch of a smile to his usually cold, emotionless mask of a face. That battle had been glorious; death on a massive scale, destruction and chaos rampant, the screams of the dying and injured filling the air like the piercing notes of a symphony. He had been there, stepped across bodies and through pools of blood, and he had been truly content.

With a sigh, he walked over to one of the trees, leaning against its trunk and frowning. It was a shame that the battle had been only temporary. A brief outpouring of chaos on this pittance of an island. Things were normally so calm; so blasé and peaceful that it almost made him physically ill. But for a brief moment, true human nature had shown through, and it had been beautiful. With a bitter smirk on his face, he looked up once more at the silver moon. How he longed to swallow it up in darkness as well, for its light to never grace the world again. "Not yet...one day, perhaps..." He held out a hand, the shadow of the tree he stood under suddenly flashing into opalescent blackness and coalescing in his hand, an orb of pure darkness forming in his hand. "After all..." He looked down at the Bible in his other hand with a grim smile. "The whole world doth lie in the power of the wicked one..." He tossed the book high into the air, almost at the top of the trees, and then hauled back, launching the orb of opalescent darkness at it. The orb hit the book, a small dome of black energy forming above the trees and blotting out the light of the moon briefly as it was obliterated. The sound started deep in his chest as a chuckle, then turned to a giggle, then a full blown fit of insane laughter as the dome slowly faded and small bits of paper started to rain down on the clearing.

"Even the holy book isn't safe...from a monster like me."

[Felicia Blackwood]

The light reflecting off the moon was quite dull that night. In fact, it was almost as if the hunk of rock was trying to resist captivity by avoiding the reflective light of the sun. The darkness was a good cover for those who wanted to cause trouble, and, as per her nature, she was going to be waiting for such troublemakers. Of course, it was hard for her to hide without getting noticed, but she supposed it was a small price to pay for the respect that she had earned. The perks of her position were also a nice trade-off for her inability to be stealthy. Sure, the bright badge gave away her position, but, at least she was able to stay out later than most students and have the peace and quiet that she had enjoyed so much as a child.

Despite her advanced training, her location probably would have been give away, even without the brass shine that came off the object pinned to her white blazer. Her long, silvery-white hair was not a typical sight to see. Many people asked her if she dyed it, but she simply told them that she had some kind of odd melanin deficiency in her hair follicles. No one quite understood what she meant by that, so she simply continued on, until someone mentioned her ruby eyes. She had been told in the past that said eyes made her look more like a fabled vampire than a mere human with special abilities. Of course, having psychic abilities was nothing to sneeze at, but she supposed that there was a wider range of possibilities for having powers than just psychic and the typical “elemental” abilities. She was hoping to avoid fighting any students until she was able to read all of the files properly. After all, one must know thine enemy, right? Sure, she would not know everything about the student she had read about, but at least she would have some sort of idea of what said student was like. She would not know the true character of the student until she met them, however.

It was her second time on night rounds after arriving at the school. The first time, she had been accompanied by a member of her team, though, it ultimately did not go over well. Said team member seemed to be sick that particular night, so she relieved the prefect of duty and head out by herself. She had chosen to take the areas “around the school”, meaning the forest and, beyond that, the beach. She had been surrounded by general noise and ruckus and, frankly, it was starting to get to her. Despite the fact that Caleb had come to live with her after a certain amount of time, she was still used to the quiet. Being surrounded by people her own age who jabbered on and on annoyed the hell out of her. The very thought of having to return made her grit her teeth as she stepped onto the soft earth to cross the grass of the courtyard. She came upon the forest quite quickly, thanks to the shortcut, and she was grateful; having to walk all the way down the courtyard and to the forest would have taken quite some time, considering her weak ankle. The agent who had been assigned to bring her to the school had tripped her and made her twist her ankle. Thankfully, she had recovered from the fall with her trademark dignity and grace, and she was sure to make up for looking like a fool in front of the few students who had been there. We cannot have a commander who looks bad in front of students. The prefects will lose respect that way, and that seems to be the last thing this school needs. She shook her head a little at her thoughts as she ducked slightly so a tree branch would not hit her in the face.

She had expected the forest to be empty at that time of night. Even if the curfew was nine o’clock, students were surely in their dorms, sleeping by nearly midnight. And even if they were not, she was sure that they were occupying themselves somehow so as to not be a nuisance. Despite what she wanted to believe, she knew that there would be someone who was willing to bend the rules. A noise drew her attention, despite the fact that she did not know what caused it. She followed the sound in the direction it was coming from and pressed her back against a tree, listening closely. Whoever was talking was clearly talking to himself, but it was not in a way that she considered “okay”. Sure, she talked to herself every now and again, but it seemed like he was falling into madness, which was almost fascinating to her. She wondered who he was, what he was doing out so late, and why he was destroying a book. She had heard the shred of paper and had almost stepped out to chide him for ruining a treasure, despite the fact that she did not know what book he had destroyed. She felt a flutter around her face and noticed bits of paper raining down from what seemed to be the sky. She heard the words ‘holy book’ and let out a soft huff, finally emerging from behind the tree, crossing her arms over her wide chest as she spoke in a bored, monotone voice.

“You know, there is more than one version of said ‘holy book’. Of course, that is not the reason I’ve come out of my hiding place. I would like to inform you that it is after curfew and, if you would mind telling me your excuse for being out so late, that would be fantastic as well…”