These Streaks of Blood

15

Galador gazes at the girl in interest.

A newborn separating herself from her master with packed bags and nowhere to go, though clearly lost and weak from lack of hunting. Very interesting.

He begins to stride forward, but ducks back into the shadows of the trees when Ryffin suddenly appears next to the girl. Galador can just hear what they're saying.

"Natalee, please, don't do this!"

Galador is shocked to hear that Ryffin sounds breathless, panicked. Why would he be begging this newborn, instead of giving her a simple order?

"Get away from me," the girl, Natalee, responds fiercely.

"You think I'm just going to hang out at home, knowing you plan on letting yourself starve? Letting yourself die?" he exclaims.

Natalee whips around and begins walking in the opposite direction, shouting as she goes, "Your home. Not mine. And yes, that is what I expect, because you're not in charge of my actions. You're not my father. You're a murderer, and I want nothing to do with you."

Ryffin freezes in place, horrified. Galador cocks his head. What a curious scene. If he didn't know better, he'd think that Ryffin cares a bit too much for this newborn. With that thought, Galador grins widely. Finally, Ryffin has made a mistake; he has a flaw, a weakness.

"Natalee..." Ryffin murmurs, vanishing and reappearing right in front of her to grasp her arm tightly. "Please, don't do this."

Natalee scowls and yanks her arm from his grip. "I'll do whatever I want. You don't know me, and I hardly know you, besides the fact that you're a monster and a murderer. It's not your place to tell me what to do. Kindly stay away from me, and stay the hell out of my life."

With that, she steps back, out of his reach, and disappears.

Ryffin stares at the spot she vanished from with unconcealed dismay. Right before Galador's eyes, he falls to his knees, hands stiff in his hair.

Galador looks up at the setting sun, absorbing all this newfound information. Nelye was right; there's a lot they can do with this situation. Galador has hated Ryffin for as long as he can remember, even since before Ryffin and Nelye had been together. It's about time the boy goes down, and Galador will be only too happy to take him out of the picture.

*                                        *                                                     *

Daniel walks along in silence. The streets have been very near deserted ever since it became clear that the police have little chance of catching the killer. Some family of Daniel's who live states away called him multiple times, begging him to come live with them at least until the whole mess is fixed, but Daniel turned them down every time. How can he leave this place, when this is where Olivia disappeared? This is the first place she'd return to, he knows it... plus, he's determined to help find the killer. This all needs to stop, and in order for it to, Daniel knows the authorities need all the help they can get. Due to this fact, he has decided to go about searching in an unconventional way.

Reaching the Gery's house, Daniel stops and stares up at it. It looks harmless from the outside; however, he knows from Patty's explanation of her own visit here that the inside is just as bad as the news reported it to be. By now, it may be cleaned up, but Daniel still has a terrible feeling, a gut instinct to steer clear of this place, even as he opens the front door and strolls inside.

He walks around slowly, examining everything carefully. All the rooms downstairs seem fine, but as he heads upstairs he notices small scraps of wood lying about, and when he enters what must be Emily's room, he gasps. The reporters weren't kidding; the place is demolished. Dents in the walls and floor, broken furniture, a few dark red stains in the carpet, a broken window... he had thought the police would have cleaned up such a crime scene by now, since they had finished searching it. Maybe they've just been too busy. Nobody is supposed to be in this house, anyway; they had roped it off for the duration of the investigation.