World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Dorm Life (Volume One) [Finished]

[Adrian Moss]

{Tuesday, August 12th}

It takes me nine days to run this guy down. Nine days. It isn’t like what I’m looking for is rocket science. All I want is to crack open the files on this laptop I … acquired so that I can read them. And all that those files will do is bring me back to two deaths and a near bone-breaking experience for me.

To be honest, it only took seven days to get the contact. I had classes on Tuesday and Thursday and I usually do my homework after class and feeding. Besides that though, I’ve been working on getting a contact in the Hacker field to gets this project of mine going again. I admit that by day four I was wondering if someone had gotten the word out about what I was into and who had died, or more to the matter that anyone had died.

Now I have a name. He’s a student on campus that has as slight habit. I take care of some of that need and he does some work for me. Downside for us is that the meet is going to be face to face. I have his stuff and his normal handler won’t handle drugs, so he’s passing me straight on to the source. God I love this work. Not.

The problem with the cloak of night is that it doesn’t let you mesh with the physical world. Break into the physical continuity and Bam! - Your part of the visible world. I hate that. Maybe in a hundred years I’ll find away around it. Maybe.

Adrian walked up to the door and waited. This was the right dorm, but he needed an access pass, which he didn’t have. Instead he waited. Sure enough, some jock looking guy, oblivious to the world save his one physical talent, came along and threw open the door. Adrian waited around for a few ticks before grabbing it. The jock was already walking down toward the elevators. Adrian followed him in.

Antoine LaSalle had just dropped off his friend Gerry. Gerry was pretty good at the Science stuff and Antoine had thought seriously about getting some help this semester. With practice running late, and all those aches and pains, he had just remembered to ask him. He turned around and saw him, this shadowy guy who just popped into existence. Just like that, and the guy seemed to step out of a spider web of shadows … that now no longer existed, but the guy did. Antoine was so freaked by it that he stood by and did nothing as the Shadow Guy followed Gerry into his dorm.

I deal with my business with the guy at his door – dumbass. He takes his drugs like a starving jackal, takes my directions with as sneer that says ‘Is that all you want’ and ‘You can’t do that yourself?’ which would kind of negate me needing him now wouldn’t it? He tells me he’ll have it for me tomorrow, but I’ll have to do the file searching myself. He doesn’t know what I want with the laptop and he doesn’t want to know. Now that may make him smarter than me.

I head back downstairs mission accomplished. In retrospect, I’m too cocky and I should know better, but this whole Laptop thing has taken so damn long and I’m itching for something better to do. I need to hunt.

Okay. I don’t need to hunt, but I want to. I’m out of the elevator and at the door again when I see him. He’s coming on fast. He grabs me and spins me around into the building. I have my Glock out and am about to eviscerate Meat Wall #3 when I see him clearly in the street light. It’s …

“Who the fuck are you?” he breaths into my face in that deep drawl of his. “What are you?” he says in a quieter tone, to which I’m grateful.

“Hey! Your Antoine LaSalle,” I bring as my witty come back.

He presses into my throat with his forearm. It’s supposed to restrict my breathing, but then I don’t breathe anymore.

I tap his stomach with my Glock.

“Dude, it’s an honor to meet you. I’m so glad I went to your party,” not a total lie, “ and I feel I owe you one.”

[William Rose]

The hard metal prodded tough stomach muscles as the little creep's feet dangled a good foot above the ground. Fuck, didn't think that one through. Didn't expect a gun ... fuck Antoine eased off the creep's throat a bit but he didn;t even seem to notice just looked at Antoine with those eyes. Dead eyes, like there was nothing behind them. That's when Antoine realized that the dude's skin was cold, not like chilly but fucking room temp. Oh shit! Oh shit! Ohshitohshitohshit... Memory of the thing that had stalked the hospital years back came to his mind unbidden. Fuking sonovabitch ...

"You gonna shoot me punk? Perforate my ass right her not fifteen yards from a dorm?" Antoine did his best to loom over the twerp and hide his fear. The truth was he was terrified, he's done a great deal to convince himself that maybe just maybe he'd been imagining it or that maybe they weren't all over the place. Now he was reminded that "Yes Virginia, there are motherfucking monsters out to eat your goddamned soul." Run! Just fucking run! screamed part of his mind. But the angry part the part that constant nagged him to give in to wrath and just take what he could by force one this round, Fuck that, this little shit's probably gonna make a late nite snack out of Gerry, kick his fucking ass and put the fear of YOU into him. God's a punk, you're the son of a bitch with nearly two feet and more than a hundred pounds on him. Vampire or not you could twist his goddamn head off!

And so Antoine glared and loomed and generally looked threatening. Adrian hung against the wall, his dead neck bearing a great deal of force from Antoine's forearm and his left arm pinned by Antoine's other arm. "Answer me you shit, you think you can get away with shooting me this close to the dorm? What's your fucking buiness with Gerry? You think you can just make a snack out of good people?" As he spoke Antoine swapped hands, using his right he enveloped Adrian's neck in a meaty black paw and held him against the wall, stepping back so that Adrian was literally at arm's length and his left hand was free. Silently Adrian hung there pointing his gun at Antoine. Were he no longer dead his fear response may have made a mess of his demeanor. Instead he only felt the calm of death and the rage of the beast. You're gonna get KILLED! ... He's fine, this shit don't have the stones. Antione grabbed Adrian's hand but made no effort to move the gun from its aim at his midsection. "Answer me, because you should know that even if you shoot me I'll twist that dead fucking head from your shoulders..."

[Adrian Moss]

"Ummm ... okay. I'll put the gun away," and Adrian precedes to do just that into its shoulder holster.

"I can't shoot you. You're a star. Besides, you aren't with the guys I was expecting to find out here. Not by a long shot ... though they are as big as you."

It must get annoying when a vampire keeps talking when some three hundred pounds of muscle is leaning down on your voice box. We need less air.

"As for Gerry, I have no idea who you are talking about. Really. I had some business to conclude with someone in the dorm - private business - and then I was on my way to a club. You want to tag along? I owe you for the party, remember?"

Adrian seems cheerful and helpful, in total contrast to his captor.

[William Rose]

Antoine couldn't help it, the banality of the reply was just too much for his anger to hold back hi WTF reflex. Antoine's game face slid off to be replaced by his chemistry face; that is abject confusion. What the shit? Antoine noted with relief that the gun went away. In his mind curiosity wrestled with agression and somehow won. "Umm ... err, uh ... Gerry was the guy you were following into the dorm you ass, you telling me you weren't looking for a snack? And don't play dumb, I've seen your kind before. Nasferahtoo ..." Antoine mangled the word horribly, a combination of southern accent and French-Creole learning, simply didn't allow a German word to survive without molestation.

Adrian couldn't help but laugh, "Nosferatu? Not quite, I'm ...nevermind ... that's neither here nor there. So ... you game or what?" Seeing the look of confusion deepen on Antoine's face he smiled and repeated himself, "You. Me. A club? Maybe a bar? Drink beer?" He used small words so as to not confused the giant further.

As though slowed by the transmission through the denser portions of Antoine's skull Adrian's words finally got to Antoine's brain. The party? Huh? I'm so confused ... Chemistry face went away and was replaced by the nearly blank stare of computer science 1001. Slowly Antoine gathered enough words that made sense to speak again, "You ... were at the party? On Friday?" He let Adrian go and the smaller man dropped fourteen inches to the ground stumbling against the wall finally free. "Umm ... so you ... yeah, beer would be good. You ... you're not like ... looking to eat somebody?"

[Adrian Moss]

The walk back to Adrian's car was brutally awkward in that Antoine know that Adrian was an inhuman monster and Adrian knew that he knew. Neither man knew what to say until Antoine saw Adrian’s Jaguar.

“That’s your car?” he stuttered a bit.

“Sure thing,” Adrian said with dimming cheerfulness.

“How many people you have to kill to get it?” was he retort.

Adrian stopped and looked at him.

“Hey now. I don’t know who …”

“Or what …”

“… What you think I am, but I don’t eat people. I don’t kill people.”

Much. Only when I lose control, like were you are pushing me right now.

Antoine’s look showed he was far from convinced. Still, the big man got into the car and they took of with a jackrabbit start. After a few turns,

“Are you going to tell me what you are if you aren’t a Nos … whatever?

Adrian looked at him with hard eyes then turned back towards the road.

“Its complicated,” he began. “There are reasons I don’t talk about it.”

He looked back at Antoine, “Seriously bad, harsh reasons.”

“But cheer up,” Adrian says, trying to lighten the mood. “I’m not a killer and you really aren’t my type. Ummm, but if you ever have these suspicions, don’t bring them up away from a well lit area. Not everyone is a Bruins fan.”

Antoine shook his head in order to get some of the confusion out. This guy was denying he was some kind of Night Horror, but at the same time warning him against other Night Horrors. What kind of game was he playing out?

It took him a second to work it through. These things were killers and they would kill to keep their secrets. For whatever reason, Antoine had found himself a fan who had decided to not try and kill him, or was it something else?

Only at the club, with a few Lagers in him, did Antoine notice how truly bizarre this situation was. He was getting plenty of attention and it was difficult to keep an eye on the … whatever Adrian was. For that matter, where was the little creepy guy. He had been around just a second ago. He asked one of the girls.

“Oh, he went to the dance floor with Sally a minute ago,” she said hinting that she would like to follow suit … with Antoine.

Antoine’s gaze swept out over the floor and spied him leading the girl off into the poorly lit back concourse, all predatory like.

[William Rose]

What the ... aww, fuck no, not on my watch buddy ... Antoine tried to think fast, not his strong point in a situation such as this, but he formed a strategy none the less. Antoin pushed away from the bar shoving against the press of bodies, even on a Tuesday night the place was somewhat crowded. Luckily being seven foot three has advantages aside from grabbing the hidden cookies on the top shelf. Antoine was head and shoulders, and a little more, taller than anybody else in the joint and he was able to spy Adrian and Sally head toward the darkened back of the club and follow them.

After afew minutes of pushing and shoving his way through the crowd Antoin found himself free of the dance floor and in the back where the "make out" tables were. Walking up to Adrian he boomed, "Yo, Adrian! What the fuck man?" His voice was plenty lound enough to hear over the music and Adrian and Sally both looed up with irritated and suprised looks. Little fucking leech, no way, not while I can do anything about it. Antoine grabbed the front of Adrian's shirt and jacket and hauled him bodily out of the booth and away from Sally. "Piece of shit, what the hell do you think you are doing?" As Adrian tried to gather himself up Antoine turned to Sally, "Get the hell out of here chicka, this prick isn't going to cheat on my sister while I'm here."

Wide shocked eyes narrowed and turned on Adrian, "Asshole." She muttered as she slipped her arm back through the dress and bra straps and then stormed off. Antoine smiled as she went, tight little spinner body with a great rack. Had Adrian just been one of the guys Antoine would've felt like a complete jerk for blocking that hookup. Instead he shoved Adrian back into the booth and then crammed himself into the opposite side.

"You don't eat people eh? You think I'm a fuckin retard because I'm big 'n black?" Antoine's expression should have been stern and imposing but he couldn't quite hide the mixture of fascination and curiousity from his face. "I think you'd better lay it all out there, you're a damned vampire and we both know it. I've seen your kind's handiwork before so don't think you can pull a fast one. Bring my up to speed and maybe I wont force you to watch the sunrise with me..."

[Adrian Moss]

All kinds of emotions warred within Adrian. Anger near enough to rage, shock, and even some deal of relief were all there.

Finally Adrian put his hands on the table and spoke quietly and clearly.

"We don't talk about this because we aren't supposed to. Its against our laws. Now, you already know, so I'm not in too much trouble."

"Now, I'm going to make it easy on the both of us. I'm not going to tell you about," he hooks his fingers in quotation marks, "US. That's foolish for both our sakes."

Adrian holds up a hand to stop Antoine from coming across the table.

"If you want I guess we can talk about what you know. I can tell you what you've got wrong, and what you've got right. As I said, I'm a fan. I don't want to see something bad happen to you. You have to believe me, there are plenty more," he looks around to make sure no one is close, "Vamps more vicious than me. We are all predators and some are much more obssessed with that role than I. You have to be careful."

He looks wistfully off to were Sally has vanished into the crowd.

"Honestly, we don't kill when we feed, ya know? Most of us take only a little bit and leave our ... victims with a strange but wonderful experience. How else could so many of us survive?"

[William Rose]

Antoine regarded Adrian cooly, "So you don't need to kill to feed? Didn't know that. The one I saw, he was feeding from the dying in a hospital post Katrina. Those folks may not have been long for this world but against him they never stood a chance." He paused as though considering, "What did you mean by a strange and wodnerful experience?"

Adrian explained, "It's like ... well it's like sex. When we feed the victim experiences intence euphoria and phyiscal pleasure. Afterward they don't much remember anything aside from that." He held up a hand to forestall the inevitable question, "We can remove the bite marks completely, even if they wondered a little something there'd be no physical sign for them to know."

Antoine nodded, "That explains why they didn't fight back then. In a way I suppose that bloodsucker gave them his own form of mercy killing. Though he got lazy, they did find a puncture mark on the last one but wrote it off as a pre-existing wound. Shit. I'd damn near convinced myself this was just mind games. Now I'm staring at ... fuckin Dracula Junior..." Antoine smiled at the half joke.

For the next twenty minutes they conversed about everything right, wronge, and fucking stupid, that Antoine could think of that he thought he knew about vampires. Adrian never offered any more than the barest answer and several times just flat out refused to even do that. Finally, his mind overstuffed with stuff that he'd dismissed as "kid stuff" all his life Antione slumped down in the booth. "OK, so what's your deal then? Why were you at the dorm if not to sneak a bite? If you weren't there to feed you must be doing something else ... you don't strike me as a drug dealer."

[Adrian Moss]

Adrian chews his lower lip.

"I'm a budding detective."

Then to forstall laughter.

"I know - Vampire Detective, just like on TV, but I have a knack for it. My sire, the one who made me, told me to follow my instincts and do other things that engage my mind and keep me ... humanish."

When he doesn't see Antoine's disbelief in the big man's eyes, Adrian continues.

"I'm on a case. A murderered girl and young boy. The girl is a, or was, a UCLA student and a budding journalist. I think what she was working on got her killed. The cops aren't interested, so the only chance for Justice is me."

"I was at the dorm getting a contact to look into her computer files for me. A bit immoral, but so is letting that girl's murder go unsolved. Get were I'm coming from?"

[William Rose]

Antoine nodded slowly, "I'm pickin up what you're puttin' down. So you ... are trying to stay like sane right, not become some crazy bloodthirsty monster?" A nod from Adrian. Boy-o, you got yourself in some deep weird shit. Maybe yyou shoulda just stayed ignorant, safer as hell that way. He's more than what he seems though, by degrees. A vampire with a sense of justice and a preference for leaving his victims alive and well. Antoine shook his head and laughed, "You, sir, are completely not what I expected. Do you need help? I might be able to find out stuff that you can't. Lay it out, I'll try an follow with."

[Adrian Moss]

Adrian looked surprised at the offer.

"Honestly, the most I expected was a bit of mild disgust by you and a healthy desire to move on, but ..."

He seems to be mulling it over for a moment, than another.

"I think its more of what I can do for you. You have your sports, and your classes you have to keep up, and appearances you have to keep up too. I was thinking that if someone ever bothered you, you could call me. I have a better knack of staying in the shadows and fixing things."

Adrian gives a shy grin,

"At least that's my goal in life."

He slaps a hand on the table.

"You ready to go back, or can I make another run at the bar. Sorry, but I'm a bit hungry and this is prime bar time."

And he says that with pure innocence.

[William Rose]

Originally Posted By: Adrian Moss

Adrian looked surprised at the offer.
"Honestly, the most I expected was a bit of mild disgust by you and a healthy desire to move on, but ..."

"Don't assume I'm not disgusted. But you seem ok, and if you were a monster, more so than the walking blood drinking corpse that you are, you'd've either killed me or dumped my ass as quick as can be. Maybe you enjoy what you are maybe not, but you seem honest enough and that's worth something.

Originally Posted By: Adrian Moss

Adrian looked surprised at the offer.
"You ready to go back, or can I make another run at the bar. Sorry, but I'm a bit hungry and this is prime bar time."

Antione gave Adrian a dirty look. "That shit you do doesn't hurt them at all? No more than giving blood at red cross?" Antoine recieved only an exasperated look back. "Fine, gimme two shakes..." Antoine got up and moved into the crowd. He didn't precisely disappear, being a foot taller than even the tallest other men meant that his head was fully visible the whole while he was gone.

Adrian watched as he moved off into the crowd expecting him to disappear into the bathroom. Instead the giant stopped in the middle of the gyrating mass of co-eds and twenty somethings. It looked like he was talking to somebody. A few minutes later a smiling Antoine started to push back in the direction of the table. He emerged from the crowd leading a pair of women by the hands like little children. "Ladies, this is Adrian, they guy I was telling you about." They giggled and smiled, appearing both intoxicated and excited. "He's a vampire and he wants to suck your blood." The girls laughed outright. Antoine sat down and pulled the little asian onto his lap as the blonde sat down on Adrian's. "Adrian, that is Mindy, and this is Kimiko. They're very interested in having a good time, and they don't mind at all that you are a vampire." Across the table Antoine gave Adrian a look that said it all; Prove you aren't a monster and I don't need to see if you really do burst into flame when the sunlight hits you. Prove I can trust you enough to let you stay mobile and un-crispy.

[Adrian Moss]

Yeah, Adrian was shocked for a moment, but he recovered quickly enough. He popped in a piece of gum, mint-flavored, and took a few chews.

"Damn Antoine, you make it sound like I'm a lawyer."

Mindy giggled and Adrian whispered into her ear. Mindy looked at him for a second then turned around and straddled his lap.

They began kissing intently and their hands explored each other's bodies. It was becoming a hot make out scene. So hot that only Antoine noticed how he disappeared into her hair with her neck and head shielding him from view. Mindy's body arched up on an exstatic spasm and her moan carried over to the other pair. Mindy continued to ride Adrian for several seconds then collapsed into him as his head reappeard out of her hair.

Before Antoine could come across the table and throttle the Bloodsucker, Mindy stirred. She kissed Adrian again and said in an exhausted voice,

"Wow! That was ... wow."

She rubbed he hand along her neck.

"Sorry, no real marks," Adrian told her while looking at Antoine. His experssion told the message clearly enough.

This is my life you are playing with. It isn't a game.

Mindy tried to keep playing with Adrian and to get him to 'nuzzle' with her again, but he demured. Only when she slipped off and nearly fell to the floor did she stop. Adrian caught her. Antoine heard her apologize to her predator in a pathetic display of wanting what ails you.

"Sorry," she said, "I'm woozy. I must of had one too many. Let me powder my nose."

"Kimiko, lets go to the bathroom."

Kimiko didn't want to go. She had her own version of a lap dance going on, confusing Antoine's rage hard-on for a sexual thrust of another kind. Reluctantly, she dissengaged, but not before giving Antoine another tongue-pulling kiss.

When they were gone, Adrian leaned across the table.

"I can taste the coke in her blood - my blood now. What is your game? Now I'm full, but a bit high. Next time let me choose my own prey please."

[William Rose]

Antoine watched Kimiko go, reminded just what he had passed up Friday evening. Fuck me sideways, I just tossed a girl at a vampire like so many doggie treats to a puppy. Oh hell, coked out slut woulda found somebody to take something from her tonight, this might actually be the lesser of those evils. Antoine's head snapped back to Adrian as the girls disappeared into the crowd once more. "Bah, fuck it, live a little eh?" He laughed, not so much at his joke or with Adrian but at him, Fucking vampire got a contact high from the girl's blood ... priceless.

Antoine heaved himself out of the booth, "Lets go, I'm sick of this place. It reminds me of bad choices and that," he looks pointedly at Adrian, "Isn't something that will do either of us any good." Rather than force their way through the throng they took the back exit into a dingy alley. Their exit disturbed some guy from his blowjob from ... Oh! Ok, whatever works for you buddy.. from another guy. Adrian and he walked to the street again. As they emptied out onto the road Antoine looked down at the vampire and scrubbed his hands over his face and head.

"Everything in my guy tells me to kill you. But, I think maybe you're ok, aside from being something that shouldn't fucking exist. So you and me, we're gonna be freinds. Why? Cause I want to make sure you don't go over the deep end. And if you do, "Hello Mr. Sun," got it? I need to learn what's out there. I've already had run ins, and there's plenty of rumor out there. If I didn't know this shit existed I could ignore it but now... I don't think I can anymore, I can't live with the knowledge and just ignore it. You help me I'll help you. 'Kay?"

[Adrian Moss]

"Well, I don't envy you your vision, but I think that I should, umm, risk it." He brightens up and offers Antoine his hand.

"Sure, I'll help you out."

He pulls out his cellphone and flashes him a number. When they get to the car, Antoine has punched it into his own phone. He contemplates exchanging the favor then realizes the first time he calls the Dead Thing it will have his number anyway. Antoine finishes the exchange.

On the ride back, Adrian asks a bit about Katrina and the hospital during the disaster. Some of what Antoine has seen fits will within the Vampire Mythos, but others don't and Adrian tells him as much. He tells Antoine he knows of werewolves and how they live up in the hills.

He also tells him of stories he's heard of mortals who fight the Vampires, and Werewolves, and the other things that go bump in the night. These Monster Hunters have their own brand of fear assocaited with them, because they are all in some way crazy.

He also, at the last, hints that there is someone else in his life who knows, or so he thinks. He doesn't go on further about this person though, only that meeting her has helped him deal with meeting Antoine.

[William Rose]

Antoine is silent as they ride back to campus. He stares out the window, wondering just what things go bump in the night and if they are all as potentially complex and human seeming as Adrian. Is he a monster or a man? Or Both? The car pulled up to the curb. Antoine saw his dorm and seemed to slowly pull out of his reverie. "So, you know where to find me, I know how to reach you. Keep in touch, I'm serious about fighting back against the real monsters." He offered his hand to Adrian who took it after a moment. Antoine stood up and shut the door to the car, giving it a pat on the roof as he stepped back to the sidewalk. Adrian put the car into drive and it slowly slid away into the night, tires making that pebbly sound as the car moved away. Antoine shrugged and headed into the dorm. Down the rabbit hole I go, where it stops nobody knows. I think I need to get a Chesire cat ...