Katelyn Beckett's Story

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Day: Saturday | Time: 9:00am | Weather: Clear skies, somewhat chilly.

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"Honey..." June called softly as she pushed the bedroom door open with her behind, carrying a tray of toast and juice in both hands whilst Waffle and Loki jumped excitedly around her feet. They were making it tremendously hard to walk, she had to admit, and she was finding it hard to fight the urge to boot them in their tiny little faces. That'd teach 'em. However, like most mornings when this thought had crept into her mind like an unwelcome guest at a previously fun party, she shook the it away and carried on walking, grumbling and cursing as she did so. "Honey," she repeated, receiving an irritated groan from her slumbering daughter, "You can't waste the whole day in bed now, can you?" Katelyn rolled so that she was lying on her back, throwing the pillow off her face and kicking the blanket away. "Sure I can," she replied, blinking tiredly. "Wanna see?" she asked, before she threw herself back onto her stomach and buried her face in her sheets. June simply smiled and walked forward, placing the tray on her daughter's back, carefully so that the juice wouldn't spill. When Katelyn gasped quietly, June's smile widened. "I'd like to see you get that tray off your back without spilling anything," she retorted, taking a few steps back, to her daughter's obvious disapproval. "Challenge accepted!" Katelyn yelled in determination, her voice as low and dramatic as possible.

~

Katelyn kept her head down, somewhat in shame, as she passed by her smirking mother. She felt the orange juice, having soaked her completely, sticking to her back and hair. The feeling alone made her shiver with revulsion, though she said nothing to her mother as she quietly admitted defeat and went to take a shower. She did, however, mutter some pretty hateful and bitter words of anger towards the entire world. That much could not be denied, at least. "And don't use up all the hot water while you're in there," June called from the bedroom as she stripped the juice-soaked sheets from the bed, "I've got work in a few hours." Katelyn stuck her finger up in the direction of her bedroom before slamming the bathroom door. When she emerged, on the other hand, she looked refreshed, happy, before she made her way into her room to change from the towel she'd wrapped around herself. She picked out an outfit for herself.

After she made herself a simple breakfast of Cornflakes, she plucked her phone from her jacket pocket and checked through her Facebook messages, only looking away when she felt a steady weight on her knee. She smiled at Simba and hugged the dog's head warmly, trying her best to avoid the slobber forming around her mouth. "Walkies, Simba?" Katelyn cooed, grinning when the girl's tail wagged and slapped heavily against the kitchen counter. "That's right," she continued, "I'll take you out in a minute. Go fetch your lead, Sim, go fetch it." When the Great Dane trotted dutifully off to find her lead, Katelyn picked her phone back up and sent a text out to her friends:

[We're still meeting at 10, right? You guys had better not cancel on me.]

She popped another spoonful of cereal into her mouth before placing the bowl in the sink and attaching the lead Simba had placed at her feet to the dog's collar. It was then that her mother walked in, carrying both Loki and Waffle under her arms like two incredibly hairy babies. It was almost unsettling. "Please, take them with you," the older woman growled, practically throwing them towards her before she shook her head. "It's hard enough keeping Simba on the lead," she whined, ignoring the way Simba's ears perked up at the mention of her name, "There's no way I'm going to be able to take them all. Besides, I'm meeting friends later and I don't want Loki to start peeing on them..." June, although disappointed, decided it best not to argue with her daughter on that; Loki did have a horrible habit of peeing on things, namely other people.

Katelyn said goodbye to her mother with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, before she left the house and closed the door behind her. With Simba trotting along side her, Katelyn made her way down the unbearably long forest path from her house to the town. Looking around, she remembered why she hated travelling down this path alone, especially during the early morning. The leaves of the trees darkened the forest and the path she had to follow, making it hard to see properly. She had a habit of seeing things in the darkness that weren't really there, which is why she was glad she had the oddly comforting sound of the female dog panting beside her; it let her know she wasn't alone. Not only that, but the girl's eyes were excellent and she was almost unreasonably protective over Katelyn. She felt safe knowing she had her beast beside her.

However, the peace she had previously felt shattered like glass when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw two dark figures running through the dim forest. The one in front was running in a more frantic manner, it seemed, while the one behind seemed more graceful and unhurried. It only made sense to believe that one was chasing the other, and Katelyn did not want to get caught up in something like that. Grabbing her dog's lead to keep her quiet, Katelyn hunkered down behind a tree until even the footsteps were gone from her range of hearing, before she finally thought it safe to stand and did just that. Heaving a breath, she continued on her way to the park, moving at a brisk pace.

When she finally arrived, she took a seat on the bench nearby the lake, just a few metres away from the park fence. She'd lost herself in her own thoughts, unable to wipe the memory of what she had just seen from her mind. It was riddled with questions she had no idea how to answer, but as hard as she tried she couldn't stop coming up with them. "How weird," she whispered.

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Alexander's muscles were practically screaming at him, begging him just to give up and stop running, but that was something he could not do. To give up would mean to surrender himself to one of his sister's lowly assassins. Such a thing was shameful beyond compare, even to an exile like himself. And so he carried on, despite his body's apparent exhaustion, running straight through the forests bordering the town of Parkwood. He'd managed to lead the assassin out of the town to save himself being figured out by the mortals, but running through the forest had been a major mistake on his part. With his muscles aching so badly, he was finding it hard to move with as much natural agility as he was used to, meaning that it was more of an effort to dodge the trees as he ran. This, of course, was slowing him down. Not to mentioned, he was pretty sure they'd just darted past a mortal. If not, then he seriously needed to check his eyesight some time.

Having distracted himself with this line of thought, Alex practically threw himself out of the way of a tree before he'd smashed his entire weight into it. He went into a roll and jumped up as quickly as possible, but this apparently was still not quick enough. He felt the assassin's thick fingers curling around his throat, and it was only when he squirmed and turned that he saw the man's face. He was angry-looking but could still be considered somewhat handsome, were it not for the jagged scar making its way down from the top right to the bottom left of is face, regrettably leaving him with a massive chunk of his nose missing as well. Dark-skinned, heavy built, hands that would soon cut off his air supply. All of this Alex had processed in the space of a few seconds as spittle flew from his lips, hands flying to pry the man's fingers away from his throat to weaken his grip. The man laughed at Alex's attempt, and that made the blonde more angry than the fact this man could kill him in seconds.

Alex felt the coldness sweep across his skin, and he knew it was turning black as night. Shadows curled around his body like thick smoke and drifted into the darkness of the surrounding forest. The smirk was gone from the assassin's face now, at least, and that was a clear sign he was starting to worry about his position in this fight. As soon as the darkness curled around his throat and covered the skin, the heavyset man hissed and let go, the skin on his hand sizzling from the white-hot pain of touching Alex's Wraith skin. Though unbearably cold from only a few inches away, Alex's skin was like a hot iron to the touch and could burn the skin from any man's hand without effort.

Now free, Alex spun and threw a kick into the man's chin so hard that his entire body crumpled and fell, lying still on the floor of the forest. "I thought you had me for a moment there," Alex said, the darkness slipping away very slowly so that the pale flesh of his glamour was once again visible. "But you're no match for a Prince. Not really." And with that, Alex left him in the woods, making his way back to the town. He was closer to the park by that point, so he thought it easier just to cut through that area instead of going all the way around.

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J was completely out, half sprawled on his bed, his legs on the floor, still in his uniform from work. He'd worked the night shift at the burger joint after a full day of busing tables, and when he got home he'd just sort of collapsed near his bed and fell asleep within minutes. That's why he still smelled heavily of fry grease, ten hours later. Thankfully he had today off. He'd worked his ass off to get the whole Saturday off, but in the end, all that really mattered was that he had the whole day to himself. Well, sort of. Spider, who was sleeping on his chest, jumped up and ran to the other side of the bed when his phone buzzed beside his head. J's eyes cracked open and he groaned as the bright light of his phone screen broke through the artificial darkness of his room. Then he bolted upright. It was already nine. If he didn't hurry up he'd be late...er than usual.

The dark haired male pried himself off the bed, shaking out his sore arms and legs. His hair was sticking up in all directions, gosh he looked like an absolute terror. He shielded his eyes and trudged out into the main hall. The house was usually kept pretty dim, maybe it was genetics that made him so adverse to bright lights, or maybe his family was secretly vampires or something, but it was still brighter than the dark sanctuary of his room. In the shower, he resisted the urge to drift off as the hot water drummed on his back, washing away all the sweat and hard work of the previous night. He groaned and stretched, a large yawn controlling his face for a few seconds before forcing himself to get out of the warm embrace of the shower and toweling off. He pulled on a light grey sweater with a dark blue, angular looking cat symbol on the chest, over a t-shirt, pulled on a pair of dark grey skinny jeans, and his black boots. And a blue, green and grey plaid scarf. His parents were already gone, at work or whatever it was they did when they weren't working, so he made himself some toast and split a can of tuna with Spider, who was following him around with his little tail straight up like a flag, mewling.

The cat climbed up his leg as he ate in front of the toaster, hastily eating the tuna and bread mixture. Then he pulled his hand through his hair, detached the kitten from his leg, and left, putting his phone and a bag of trail mix into his bag and locking the door behind him. Sadly, it was a clear day out, and the ten o'clock sun was already starting to bite at his eyes. He squinted and tugged at his ear with a frown. Oh well, it wasn't terrible. It was to his back as he walked down the street towards the park. He lived fairly close to the park, even though he didn't frequent it unless his friends wanted to meet up there. At night it was just too creepy, and during the day it was boring. And what did he look like, someone who went around, doing stuff when the sun was out? No thank you. Daytime was exhausting.

As he neared the park, he spotted a figure already sitting on a bench near the perimeter of the park. He squinted. Oh, it was Katelyn! Despite his semi-exhausted state, there was always time for a prank. She seemed to be lost in thought, because as he stealthily approached, his shoulders hunched and a grin on his face, only Simba looked over at him, but soon looked away, aparently disinterested by his usual antics. "Rawr!" He called out, and with a sudden movement jumped around her, barring his teeth and curling his fingers as if he were a monster. "Hello, Katelyn-Nuna." He said a few seconds later, laughter burbling from him, regardless of her reaction. "What's with the long face?" he knelt down to scratch the top of Simba's head and behind her ears. Then he dropped on the bench next to her, pulling a hand through his still damp hair, messing it up again. "You alright? You look, what's the word, uh, p-pensive?" Concern fluttered across his face for a few seconds before his mind shifted gear again.

"The others aren't here yet." he noted, leaning back and dragging his hands over his face. " I could have slept in later, I though I was going to be late." Then he groaned dramatically, until a yawn intercepted him and stretched out his mouth. He'd always played the tired schtick, which was actually pretty nice now, because he was legitimately tired most of the time now because of his odd work hours. This way he could complain without making anyone actually worry about him, he wasn't a fan of his friends getting all serious on him, and this was an excellent combination if there ever was one.