Where my demons hide -Chris-

[chris]

”Oh c’mon, Tori. I’m sure plenty of people care about you” He thought a moment… Should he have called her Tori?”[/b He hadn’t called her that, but maybe it was a bad idea that he had. She may have had a bad memory of that nickname from someone else. Or maybe she actually enjoyed it? Either way, he said what he said, and it wasn’t going to be able to be taken back.

He shook his head and almost laughed, then he realized she was being serious. She couldn’t have been a hunter. She didn’t hold her composure like a hunter, there was no way she killed demons for a living. He did crack up when she mentioned that she couldn’t cook ”What would that have to do with hunting? You don’t have to be a good cook to hunt…”

Her reaction was completely against what she said she was going to do. She had promised not to run, and Chris had promised to shoot her knee out if she did. He didn’t want to be called a liar, but at the same time, she was already freaked out. And if she was a human and he shot her, there would be no healing. She probably wouldn’t be able to walk ever again. Chris picked up his shotgun and took off out of the building after her.

When did it start raining? This wasn’t like a normal rain either, it was pouring. It was like being in a monsoon. He raised his gun and aimed at her but hesitated on pulling the trigger. With her in his sights, just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, he watched her topple down. Part of him felt terrible about scaring her that badly, another part of him though, felt like he could use this opportunity to capture her and get this job over with.

Chris sighed and started jogging toward her. He couldn’t do it… He wouldn’t turn her in. She was too innocent, and she was human. This was not how he was going to end her life, she was too young anyway. When he got to her, Chris knelt down next to her ”Listen… Victoria, I’m sorry. I’m not going through with this job… Not until I get some answers from my boss.” He looked around a moment to see if anyone was nearby. He didn’t catch any glimpses of any demons ”We need to get you somewhere warm and dry. Come to my house. You can get some rest and you won’t need to worry about anyone hurting you. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, I can keep you safe.”

[VICTORIA ALESSANDRA COLEMAN]

She was about to say that he shouldn't call her that but she knew it didn't matter. No one really called her it despite the fact that she actually preferred the name. She preferred it but only by people who cared to learn her name at all or inquire what name she liked best to be called. She'd gotten 'vic' or 'vicky' and it always made her wince. Tori had just always felt natural and on occasion she'd had a class mate or two call her 'V' something she had also grown used to. To hear the name come from the mouth of a stranger however was something new.

Until he got some answers so she wasn't safe, everything had strings attached, she was safe until they gave him a valid reason for him to hand her over to them, and they had lied to get him to come after her clearly so she assumed they wouldn't exactly be above lying again to convince him she was dangerous or whatever. She had clearly proven otherwise, she was far from dangerous she wasn't good at anything, not even at running away. Within seconds he had managed to catch up to her and she had just given up.

She had no doubt of that fact that he COULD keep her safe but she very much doubted whether or not not he actually would. He had everything to gain from handing her over and nothing to gain from keeping her hidden. She had learned early in life that people always put their own personal gain above the well being of others, it was just human nature, survival instinct. People said over and over they would 'take a bullet' for each other or throw themselves in front of a car to protect someone they care about but whenever it came down to it she knew it was just a bunch of lies, even if they believed it, they never acted on it, humans saved themselves and themselves only.

"Why should I trust you" she stated. He had hardly given her any reason to, he'd hunted her down in an abandoned building, she'd attacked her, accused her of being a demon, she had no reason to believe he was capable of anything good, the only bit of credit she could give him was that he'd put the gun down and despite his threats he hadn't shot her when she'd tried to escape.

[chris]

Chris needed answers. Whether she stuck around long enough for him to get them was up to her. He planned on finding out what the real reason for capturing her was. He wasn’t about to hold her hostage by any means. He was going to leave everything up to her, whether she’d take him up on any of the offers was completely up to her. Chris was not the type of guy to sell out for anything… Well, except for his life apparently. He made a deal with a demon to stay alive, but that was in a different time. Would he ever go back and change his decision? Maybe. When the circumstances are that high, people do crazy things.

Would Chris help this obviously confused girl in a situation when his life was in danger as well? That’s exactly what he was doing at that moment. He was risking everything that he had when he offered to help her. Demons had given him the opportunity to live again, surely they could reverse that unless he did what they asked. Luckily, the demons didn’t particularly keep tabs on Chris, he mostly had free reign to do whatever he wanted to, as long as the job got done. He didn’t really have a time limit on his assignments, which meant he would probably be ok for a while at least.

And if it came to anything attacking them physically, Chris knew he had to skills to fend off whatever it was. He had hunted almost everything in the book, and when you hunt something, it rarely goes as smoothly as you’d like. In which case you have to be able to defend yourself from whatever you’re hunting in case the situation backfires. But honestly, would he give his life for this girl? Probably not. Would he fight for her until he couldn’t anymore, maybe. He could withstand anything that came at him… Hell, he couldn’t die. But the real question was, would he throw himself into harm’s way for her to escape? Until he figured out that she isn’t the innocent girl he thought she was, yes he would. He wouldn’t let someone innocent die if he could help it.

He thought for a moment then spoke. ”Well, honestly, I can’t give you a straight answer to that. Other than you having to take my word on it. I didn’t shoot you, like I said I was going to. So I lied about that. But then again, I also told you I’d only pick up my gun if you ran… Guess what? I kept that promise.” He said with a smile. No, these weren’t the best of reasons, but he didn’t want to make it sound like he was desperate for her to stay with him. ”Look… If you come with me, there’s safety. If you don’t, there’s a huge chance that they will send someone else to finish the job. They may or may not have a heart, literally. And if they do have a heart, I seriously doubt that they will be willing to help you. So, there are my reasons, Tori. Whether you take me up on it is up to you. Either way, I’m leaving in about two minutes.”

[VICTORIA ALESSANDRA COLEMAN]

"So what? You lie just as much as you tell the truth" she muttered how was that any different than the rest of the world, generally though people seemed to lie more than they liked to tell the truth about anything and truthfully she had turned into that person a long time ago as a force of protection for herself and for those around her. She had to lie about what she could do, how could she be honest about it, it was a one way ticket into the psych ward at the hospital and who knew what they would do to her there to try and keep her 'sane'

She was crazy to even think of going with this guy that had only a short while ago attacked her but she couldn't help but feel like he had a point. She didn't know how many people were out there looking for her, or who they thought was her at least and if he was going to try to protect her she had to at last try and stay safe at least until he figured out that he was mistaken and she wasn't the person he was looking for, he would figure it out sooner or later.

It was pouring rain and anywhere seemed better than the cold damp building she had been hiding in before. He couldn't leave there with her though if they had known where to send him they were sure to be watching the area it would be a big red flag. "we can't go together" She said. She had learned a few things in hiding, mostly how to remain unnoticed during the night. "someones watching" her words were hushed but she felt it, something she couldn't explain they weren't alone, they just weren't.

Her brown eyes glanced around the alley as she tried to push herself up from the ground the rain was hiding the tears and that was something she was thankful for not that it was doing much good for anything else. "Go" she told him. If he could at least get away then she would have done something productive in the short time she'd been back something was giving her a horrible feeling.

[chris]

Chris shook his head ”That’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m trying to tell you that when I told you that I was going to hurt you, I didn’t.” He paused a moment ”What I’m trying to get across is that I’m can trust… You just have to give me a chance to do so.” He shrugged and shook his head slightly. He was hoping this girl would trust him enough, he truly believed that he could help her. Sure, it might take a lot of time and he’d have to probably put some of his other hunts on hold, but it was worth it.

He needed to find a way out of this deal, and maybe this was the way that could happen. There’s no telling how it could help, but right now, Chris was putting hope in this girl. As he sat there looking at her, he realized something… A thought passed through his mind that for some reason he hadn’t really noticed before. What if she thought he was just trying to get with her? He just offered for her to stay with him and they didn’t even know each other. Sure, Chris knew a little about her, but on no level were they ‘friends’.

Truthfully, she was cute, but in all honesty, the reason he wanted to help was not because he wanted to find a relationship with her… That was the furthest thing in his head at this point. But, he almost felt obligated to help. He had done so much bad in the past year, he wanted to fix it. No, he couldn’t take it all back, but even though he had been killing demons, which was technically good, he hated the circumstances. He turned his attention back to her and nodded ”They probably have a few demons watching… I need to fire a shot off to make them think I had to fire at you while you ran. There’s a fire escape on the building to the left. Go to the roof and climb down the opposite side and I’ll pick you up two blocks over.” He looked off to the right toward the street and tried to see if he could find anyone watching

”Run and I’ll shoot, but I’ll miss… I promise. This is where trust can be developed” He said with a small smile. ”Tori, be safe and meet me in front of the café in five minutes.” He nodded and waited for her to make her move.

[VICTORIA ALESSANDRA COLEMAN]

This was insane, she knew that trusting a guy who had just tried to hurt her. The problem was that for once in her life Victoria was absolutely desperate. She truly had no where to go and no one to help her. She had no family that cared, and had never been in one place long enough to make any real friends, not to mention her whole 'condition' had made her a little bit of a loner. She kept her head down unknown and out of trouble. The only problem was that now, staying invisible in her past meant that she had nowhere to run in the future.

He was right about a lot of things, he hadn't hurt her since he'd found out she was human, not that she could have really been anything else. She had to take what little safety she found in this fact and trust it. What was the worst that could happen. If he killed her, so be it, if he took her in and anything happen that was worse than death she could just kill herself if it came down to that. She simply nodded at his directions and waited for him to disappear before she made her way up the building. Climbing in the rain was not exactly easy and she might have actually thought it were an olympic sport if she didn't eventually seem to get the hang of it. Carefully she pulled herself onto the roof and bolted across the flat surface of it to the other side.

Waiting for a few moments she tried to see the street through the rain but nothing was really clear. She had no idea if it was safe down there but she also knew there was only one way she was going to find out. Climbing back over the edge she jumped down onto the landing of the fire escape and started her climb down. After slipping a few times and almost falling to her death she finally made it, feet flat on the ground. Heights were never really her thing, it wasn't so much the height she was afraid of, it was more the possibility of plummeting to her death.

Pulling the hood of her now soaked coat up she hurried into the street and made her way to the cafe she'd been told to stand in front of. Now was the real moment of truth she supposed, he would either be there as promised or someone would show up to take her away, be it the police or family services, she hoped, that she would never have to explain what she'd been through.

[chris]

The thought of being ripped apart by demons because he didn’t do his job was not appealing. Chris couldn’t imagine what they would do if they actually found out that he was helping one of his targets. Not only was he helping her run from them, but he was going to be helping her hide from them. If they found out where he was, he would have no chance in living through the torture they did to him. Or maybe they would keep him alive for eternity to torture him. That was not something he wanted to think about.

Chris shook the thought from his head and focused back on the situation. As soon as he snapped back to reality, he looked around and went running out onto the sidewalk and looked in the opposite direction of which Tori was going to run. He bolted around to the next alley and raised his shotgun and fired into a far away corner. Suddenly, he felt like someone was watching him. Chris turned and saw a figure standing about three feet from him. ”Well?” The man said as he stepped a bit closer. Chris lowered his gun and looked back as if needing to follow her ”Would you like me to make some coffee or can I go get her?” He asked through the loudness of the rain.

The demon looked at Chris and then the corner ”I know it’s been a while since your last job, but your aim was off”. His eyes shifted back to Chris and awaited a response. ”What can I say? You guys don’t keep me as busy as you used to. I’m guessing you don’t want me to chase her then?” The demon rolled his eyes ”Go. And don’t miss again…” Before he could say anything else, the demon was gone.

That was a little more of an adrenaline rush than he had hoped for, but he managed. Now that his heart was racing, Chris ran around the corner, pretending to search for Tori. Once a couple minutes went by, he jogged back to his car and got in, quickly turning it on and driving around toward the café, shining the spotlight down alleyways, ‘searching’ for Tori. Once finally in front of the café, he stopped and rolled the window down ”Get in slow, don’t be suspicious” When she got in, Chris drove off toward the hotel he was told to stay in, but passed it nonchalantly.

”First thing’s first… You need some dry clothes. I can’t go back to the hotel yet, they will probably be waiting for me. One of them actually confronted me in the alley. He looked at her for a moment and smiled lightly before looking back at the road. ”Can you live with wearing some of my clothes for the night until a shop opens in the morning?”

[VICTORIA ALESSANDRA COLEMAN]

For the first time since she'd woken up Tori Coleman did as she was told. She followed his directions because she wanted to stay alive. For whatever reason, despite his previous attempt on her safety osmething told her she could trust the guy and she also knew she didn't really have very many other options. The truth, the whole truth was that she was beyond curious about him now.

When he'd touched her, she hadn't felt anything, nothing had happened in regards to her abilities and she needed to know why. She had never not had a reaction from someone, she'd been getting them since she had been 8 years old and they had only grown worse with time. Each time she grew older the more severe the reactions seemed to become, to the point where she had taken to avoiding human companionship as a whole.

Finally making it outside the cafe that he had instructed her to wait at she leaned against the side of the building hiding in the rain the best she could. As he pulled up and instructed her to get in, slowly she did and fell silent as he explained that someone had already followed him. She still didn't understand what was going on, who was after her or why he had thought she was dangerous.

It was all crazy, but crazy and out of the rain seemed slightly better than crazy and alone in an abandoned building. She nodded "that's fine" she said quietly. She was hardly the type of girl that gave much thought into what she was wearing. As long as it was dark and covered her as much as possible then it was suitable in her opinion. It was these characteristics that had people misjudging and labeling her as goth or punk, whatever they called her behind her back. The truth was it was for practical reasons and that was it.

"Where do you have to go then?" she asked curiously if he couldn't go back to where he was staying where could he go? A suddenly feeling of guilt came over her. If she hadn't come back to life he wouldn't be betraying whoever and potentially be in this type of trouble.

[chris]

The thought of helping this girl was a little different for Chris. He wasn't used to doing anything good, other than killing monsters, but he never did it to benifit himself. Was that selfish? Not in his mind... Everything he was killing was for the benefit of demons and hell, never for anything he wanted to protect. The only plus side was it was one less monster in the world to hurt anyone.

His only question was still, why did they want her dead? There had to be something about this girl. She didn't seem to know anything about the supernatural, she didn't pose a threat to his knowledge. But then again, he had seen worse. Little girls that turn out to be demons, werewolves, vampires. So if anything was proof, his past could vouche for any situation... Except for this one apparently.

As he continued driving a bit longer, he looked over at her and instantly he thought back to something... She sort of reminded him of his mother. She was beautiful. Her eyes had a very large resemblance to his mother's. He turned his attention back to the road and flipped his wipers to the highest speed. The rain was pouring down and it was getting difficult to see. He was going to have to get to his safe house soon or he'd have to pull over, which would not be good at all.

With the risk of getting spotted by a demon if they pulled over, Chris sped up to beat the storm. "There's a safe house that I have about five minutes from here. It's a little hose that I found with no residants, so I took it over." He smiled lightly "Make it about two minutes. This storm is insane and I really don't want to drive in this crap."

"Tori... Be honest with me. What were you talking about back there when you said nothing happened when I touched you? Nobody just comes out and says that. I mean, that's just a bit weird." He asked as he started making a turn into a developing neighborhood. They were almost there. Soon enough, he'd get into the house and set up defenses so they could counter anything that came against them.

[VICTORIA ALESSANDRA COLEMAN]

"Aren't they following you?" she asked curiously. If they had seen her get away how had they not see her getting into his car, how would they not know that she was being hidden by him. Whatever, or whoever these people were, they weren't social services and she didn't understand why they seemed to want her so badly. "I don't understand what they want from me..." she wasn't special, no one knew of her gift so that couldn't be it, besides it was broken now, he had proved that when he grabbed her and nothing happened.

As if he were inside her mind she heard him asking her to be honest. What was she talking about? "That's nothing something I divulge to strangers" she said quietly as her eyes stayed focused on the window avoiding looking at him. What could she tell him, that he would really believe the truth from her. She didn't think he would ever believe the truth no matter what she said, it was insane even for a guy who had just tried to kill her. Any of the times she had told someone the truth they had told her she was lying, or that it was all her imagination, if only they could feel what she felt and they would know that it was not made up.

"Trust me...it's probably safer for you if you don't know" she added. The moment she'd told J.J the two of them had nearly died in a car crash, in fact, she had been killed in the crash. "Besides... I guess it doesn't matter anymore I must be cured" she was using hopeful words because she wasn't sure what she'd had was something that could be cured but it was the first time she had not had a reaction in ages.