[M] A whole new world (Lea_K/Numbers) (IC)

[Lea_K]

Closing the door behind him, she locked it’s multiple locks as he spoke of his driving and walking habits. Beautiful? Well he was quite forward wasn’t he? She turned to face him and raised an eyebrow at him as he spoke but then realised he was deadly serious with no apparent flirting; not something she was used to. He’d thrown her off slightly, “Umm i’m OK really” she said eventually as she began to walk down the empty main street. After a few steps, she stopped and turned on her heel to face him, “Tell you what...” she started, “I’ll let you walk me home if you tell me why no one really goes out at night.” She tilted her head slightly, “Everyone seems to get weird with me when I ask, you get weird and I walk home alone. Deal?”

She stood eagerly waiting for his answer but her feet were rooted to the spot, unmoving until she had some sort of answer. Having asked people, old and young the same question they all went quiet and quickly tried to change the subject as if there was something they were afraid of, something they or the whole town was scared of so she was non-the-wiser. Coming from California she had assumed it was something to do with gangs but there was no evidence of that.

[Numbers]

"Whose to say why? Small towns have traditions, myths, their own local spins on popular lore. Some people say vampires attack every once and a while. Others say werewolves, shape shifters, shadows. Some think that travelling at night will result in you freezing to death. Get lost in the dark nights, kidnapped, murdered. Whose to say if all this is true, or if it is all rooted in fear and superstition. Though you should know I chose to walk you home not because the night is dangerous, which it is. Lots of wild animals come into town all the time, and some will attack during the night. However my reason is simply kindness. Walking by yourself at night can sometimes be lonely." He said amusingly.

Seeing the direction that she took before stopping he started to walk in that direction, knowing that she would follow suit. He looked up at the night sky and saw that the clouds had cleared out, leaving a completely open sky, filled with stars and a bright full moon. The moon was so full in fact that outside was clearly lit like it was a city pretty much. He turned around to make sure she was following, and as he turned he threw a smile.

[Lea_K]

Emily stared at Schadde with a very serious expression on her face, her brow creased slightly as he spoke. She was silent for a couple of seconds before busting out laughing, her hand flying to her mouth as he began to walk away, “You’re funny” she said still laughing as she followed quickly catching up to his side, “Vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters....yeah right” she managed to calm her laughing until it was a small giggle but it took a short while. “Thanks....” she said taking a deep breath to compose herself, “I needed a laugh” She directed their walk with small waves of her hand the few times they needed to turn a corner. “I guess i’m just destined to not find out why everyone is so freaked out by the thought of being out at night” She shrugged, it wasn’t a big deal, just something she’d never come across in the travelling she’d done before reaching the sleepy little town, “Except you and me it seems” she added.

Once she had regained her composure from her outburst of laughter Emily glanced up to him as they walked through the deserted streets she realised it was nice having someone walk with her even just to fend off the eerie feeling she got when walking alone. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she silently conceded that he was right about the walking, “How long have you lived here?” she tried making conversation although it was something she had got out of the habit of doing. He seemed interesting; strange, but interesting so she didn’t quite mind the strange vibe he gave off.

[Numbers]

"Well I'm not really afraid of travelling at night because I know I can handle whatever the universe throws at me, werewolf and bear alike." He said with a still serious tone. "As for how long I have been here..." He hummed for a second as he counted the years in his head. "I don't really remember. Ten? Twelve? Thirteen? Maybe more? After a while the nights start to blend together. However I was around ten if I remember correctly when I moved." As he spoke with the last part, he scratched his head as if he was scratching his brain.

As they walked though he would occasionally look at her, looking at the details that made her up. The curves, the lines, the color of the hair, the color of her eyes, anything and everything he would need to memorize her. He didn't really have a lot of friends here, however that was of his own choosing. He didn't really let anyone get close to him because of what happened in the past. However something about her seemed familiar. Maybe it was just because the last friend he had that was a girl, was the one from the incident that started his troublesome past. He shook his head. There was no way that she had anything in similar but being a girl. His mind was just playing tricks on him.

[Lea_K]

Emily smirked as Schadde once again mentioned werewolves but she realised he wasn’t joking about it. There was the strangeness again. Moving past his apparent belief in the supernatural, she looked to him, “So why move here? It’s a bit out of the way” she was prying slightly, “Did your parents have work here?” she glanced ahead as they neared the motel, her time running out to find out more about the young man who was almost the only person in town to speak to her without a note if disdain in their voice.

Her face flushed slightly as she caught his eye; he was staring at her just as she had been trying not to stare at him. She wouldn’t deny he was good looking, not exactly prince charming but someone who she didn’t think would have any trouble getting girls. She’d been the complete opposite during her younger years, there were boys but they had all been scared off by her father as were the rest of her friends eventually.

Reaching the edge of the parking lot of the motel a couple of minutes later, she paused, “Well, this is it” she looked at the one story building with its peeling paint and faulty neon lights. There were raised voices coming from one of the rooms close to them, “Don’t mind them, they’ll make up in a few hours.....just as loudly” She joked and waved a hand in dismissal of the arguement, although it wasn’t an ideal living situation she still made light of it. There wasn’t much other choice at that moment in time.

[Numbers]

He looked at the room where the voices were coming from and he let out a small smile at what she was suggesting before letting his face return back to its mostly neutral expression. "Well my family moved out here...." He almost said why, at least the real reason why. "... we uhm, moved out here for the nature. My parents work as software engineers and work from home. It's most definitely out of the way that's for sure. However some people like my family value the privacy that comes with being out of the way. Less eyes to watch every action you do."

He just walked over to one of the walls that wasn't near the noise and he leaned his back against it, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked at her. He also put one foot against the wall keeping that leg bent. "What about you? How long have you been here and why did you move out here. A city girl like you deciding to move to a very small town like this? Why go from a location that has thousands of people in it, to a small town that maybe has a few hundred people in it?"

It was definitely a strange move if she didn't have a reason. Most people had to have a reason to move to a small town in Alaska, though even then it was hard to find a good reason. There wasn't a lot of stuff in Alaska, even industry wasn't to big in terms of variety. The main industry of Alaska were ore mines. There was the chance of oil, but currently it was illegal to mine oil in Alaska as they wanted to preserve the nature of Alaska.

[Lea_K]

The nature seemed like a good enough reason to move out to the sticks and privacy, well that was a given in the middle of the woods. Her questions were thrown back at her, “i’ve been here a few weeks, three? Four?” It was easy to lose count when every day was basically the same, it almost seemed like years had passed. The second part of his question; the why, was the hardest part of answer but she decided an element of truth was needed in her answer, “I moved because....” she hesitated before continuing, “I guess you could say I was running away from something at home and it’s easier to disappear out here.” She looked to her feet and shuffled some small stones around with the toe of her tatty Converse eventually looking back to him, “It’s peaceful too, yeah I miss the busyness of the city sometimes but it was sometimes too much if that makes sense?” She narrowed her eyes slightly trying to gauge if he understood what she was trying to say.

Emily looked to Schadde and suddenly felt like spilling everything to him but she held her tongue. She had disappeared and wanted to keep it that way. Some people felt the need to fix her problems when they found out more and without knowing everything, even with good intentions, they managed to cause more problems for her.

[Numbers]

"Running from something? Makes sense to come here." She was like him to a point. Probably not at bad as his, but like him she was running from something in her past. "Well whatever you're running from, if you need help my doors are open." He pulled out a notepad and pen from his pocket and wrote down two numbers on. He then ripped off the piece of paper and gave it to her. "The first number is the number of my phone in my office here in town. The second number is my cell. Since you have been here for only a few weeks, I would suggest taking your cell phone into the repair shop here in town. Mainly to get it modified. Being so far out we don't get a lot of reception so you need to have your cell phone modified to use the software of a satellite phone with the hardware of a cell phone. It won't be the best but it works."

"If you need me at some point tonight for some odd reason I'll be in my office here in town. You can find it right next to the bar." He had put his office next to the bar for the specific reason of if he got drunk he could just head to the office instead of home. Especially since the office building he owned only housed him in it. He handled website engineering jobs that his parents got, and he preferred to do it in town where there were people near by.

[Lea_K]

Emily stepped forward to take the paper from Schadde, “Uh thanks” she said slowly looking at the numbers in front of her, “Yeah i’ll take my phone in tomorrow” she added. Her phone had been pretty useless since she arrived, not that she’d needed to use it as she had no one to call. She was trying not to sound suspicious for the offer of help. She was a little distrusting of people on occasion but she was consciously trying to give people a chance. Giving a quick nod to acknowledge his whereabouts for the rest of the night she smiled, “Well thanks for walking me home” she said after a short pause, “...and the numbers” she held the piece of paper up before shoving it and her hand back in her pocket.

“I probably should get to bed, I have an early shift tomorrow” She looked towards the motel where the yelling had finally started to quieten down, “I’ll see you around maybe” She knew she would, it wasn’t like the town was big enough for them not to see each other again. Giving him a small wave, she turned and walked over the parking lot to her room as she swung her backpack from her shoulder and dug about in a front pocket for the key. As she got the door open, she turned to give him one last wave before stepping inside and closing the door behind her. The main lock and interior chain were fastened and the bag and coat were dumped on the floor on her way to the bed. Emily flopped on the bed, landing on her back and stared at the ceiling, “What a night” she rubbed her face before laughing lightly, “Vampires and werewolves and shape shifters” Schadde had amused her although she couldn’t quite shake his seriousness. Maybe he was just really good at a poker face? Whatever it was, she’d had a real conversation with someone and it was something she’d missed.

A quick shower and PJs later and Emily was in bed, her alarm set for some ungodly hour the next morning but despite her tiredness after the long and, for the most part, boring shift it took her an age to actually fall asleep.

[Numbers]

He watched her go into her hotel room and his hearing could pick up that she locked the door. He had plans to go back to the office however he got a bad feeling. After all he knew why the people of the town were afraid to go out at night. He sighed for he knew he shouldn't be protective of a stranger and shouldn't risk shifting near her but he was going to break his better judgement for once.

He looked around at the surrounding area and found a large van near the building. He ran at it and climbed it, climbing to the roof until he was above the room that Emily was staying in. From there he quickly shifted into his large arctic wolf form and then laid on the roof keeping vigil over the area. He didn't understand why but he figured it was because she didn't know about the truths of the murders. He knew what caused the murders but the people of the town thought many different things. Some thought a serial killer, some thought beasts, and most thought vampires amusingly. Only he knew which one was correct though.