Snippet #2290760

Drake leaned back slightly in his chair when the boy stirred. The young creature moved around a bit, obviously trying to make sense of his location. Drake smiled pleasantly when the blue eyes found him. The boy seemed to contemplate some thought for a few moments before speaking. The daemon tilted his head slightly to once side, resting his chin in the V of his index and middle finger. "Ah, good morning, Mister White, glad to see you've woken." He said pleasantly enough, his eyes flicking to the woman's form briefly to see if she had any notion of stirring as well. Alas, it seemed that he'd afforded the boy a lighter strike than he had the maid, because she was still unconscious. Oh well, she could catch up later if she needed to. "My name is Drake Stuart." he said disinterestedly, gaze wandering across the papered wall and across a cabinet displaying a regiment of china dishware and figurines. So he was a kidnapper now? Well, it was no lie, but Drake preferred more...refined terms for the hobby. Kidnapper sounded so...vulgar. And the boy would learn that it wasn't the proper word to affix to his host soon enough, once he realized he was in much deeper than a simple kidnapping.

When the boy spoke again, Drake couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, I'm not the one you'd best watch out for. I won't hurt you or your maid, lad, and I doubt she'll hurt me very much either." He spoke lazily, voice catlike and meandering. "But I suppose I should get to the point, now shouldn't I?" He mused, eyes sparking with sudden interest. "You do want to know what you're doing here, don't you? I wouldn't advise blundering about like an idiot, and you don't seem like one, lad." he spread his arms again, much more engaged now that he could speak.

"Listen close though, boy, I don't like repeating myself. We're going to play a game of last man standing. But what's a game without rules? There are four, or perhaps five, I'm not sure if Hassen's cleaned up yet, other boys and girls wandering my lovely manor, plus my two servants, James and Hassen, who are under orders to help those who take a liking to dawdling to speed the game up a bit. The last one alive wins the game, to put it simply. But there are a few other rules. You may not under any circumstance enter the library, my quarters, or the closed door on the second floor, or you will lose the game promptly." he flashed his teeth for a moment, but his smile was more feral than amiable by this point.

"Also, please do try not to get blood on the rugs, if you feel the urge to bleed to death, or inflict such an end on another. James isn't very skilled at cleaning the rugs." Drake chuckled briefly to himself. When would James break and decide he needed desperately to eat? It might be a few hours, long enough for the boy to recuperate, but Drake was confident that he ultimately end up hunting Miss Linnet down to stop the pain in his throat. He would need to remind the boy to clean up Dominic. And Lira. And his own blood. And Allease, after Hassen finished with her. Goodness, wasn't James slacking on his job. Drake made a mental note to reprimand the boy later.

Drake pulled himself back to the conversation at hand. "Oh, and if you kill my servants, I will be most displeased, so do try not to do them much damage or I'll have to hunt down replacements again." He shifted in his chair, his eyes moving back to focus on the boy before him again. "I do think that is all. Any questions?" He folded his hands in front of him, the faintest of smiles on his face, as if he'd just made mindless conversation about the weather instead of telling a captive human the rules of a game in which he must kill other humans to win. Win an impossible prize. He wondered if any of the longer staying residents would realize that there was no point to playing the game, they would die eventually, because he never let the population of his fair little home dwindle too far.

But they were humans, blinded by the immediate future, and they likely wouldn't live long enough to see the patterns, with the exception of Linnie, but the girl would die soon enough.

Humans lived such futile lives, didn't they.