Edgehaven Yard

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Quickly stowing his PDA, Hadrian followed after the elder two, tredding lightly, one hand hovering over the holster for his trungon - he was a damn good shot, but, he disliked using guns in close quarters, his aim was good but not if the gun was getting slapped out of his hands, it would be more dangerous than safe.

He paused briefly at the stairs and frowned, running his fingers across the wood, "No sign of rot or insect damage," he muttered and then examined his fingertips, eyes widening a little in surprise, "The stairs don't have dust on them."

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright stopped jumping up and down on the floor boards, and turned to face Hadrian. His eyes narrowed.
"No dust... No rats... No rot..." He said to himself. "I'm just testing a theory here. Hold on." He shined his torch towards the wall and made his way towards it. He flicked the light switch and light filled the room.

"No rats in an abandoned house is wierd. No rats in a inhabitated house? Not so much..." He had to admit, leaving your house unlocked in Edgehaven was really stupid, but not unheard of. A lot of people still brought that 'vampires can't enter without an invite' thing and swore by it.

"I think we're guilty of breaking and entering." Wright pointed out. "Sergeant Mortymer! Arrest yourself!" He ordered quickly.

[Eleri Mortymer]

((Why would the stairs not have dust when the floor does? O.o))

Eleri had been waiting for Wright to go crashing through the floorboards when he stopped jumping and switched the light on instead. "No furniture, but they have electricity?" She wondered, switching off hre torch and putting it away. "This is just getting curiouser and curiouser..." She coughed slightly, there might not have been dust on the stairs but there sure as hell was on the floor, although most of it was now in the air.

"Technically, sir, I don't think I can arrest myself. I could arrest you or Hadrian though, if you'd prefer?" She said with a wry smile.

She wandered over to the stairs and stood beside Hadrian. "You're right, there isn't any dust here. Why would somebody dust their stairs, but not the rest of the room? Unless they're a new addition...or they've been used. But then there should be footprints in the dust on the floor...." she pondered.

"What if we've been barking up the wrong tree?" She wondered aloud. "What if they're not using the basements to get between buildings at all? What if they've been using an upper floor or the attic? It'd be structurally sounder, I would have thought...." She shook her head, confused. "None of this is making any sense."

[Hadrian Beaumont]

((I don't know. But it makes thing more interesting doesn't it? 8DD Also, I'm back in case you didn't notice my magical appearance heralding unicorns and sparkles and jesus music. Liverpool was fun, there was a Jesus shop there - sadly I had no camera to take a picture and show you. It was hilarious though.))


Hadrian for a moment considered joining in on the light hearted banter but with the Captain's reprimand still stinging his ears he was a lot more hesitant. Eleri's brainwave fortunately saved him from making a response that would have seemed out of character for him.

"They might..." Hadrian admitted thoughtfully, "I've heard about it in certain foreign countries, mostly tribal communities though where the area is prone to severe flooding. They have an entire road network suspending via ropes and bridges and branches and the like. I don't remember seeing anyone or anything roof hopping though."

[Eleri Mortymer]

((Aww.. ask Becci to take a picture of the Jesus shop for us xD))

"Hmm..." Eleri pondered. "They wouldn't necessarily have to be roof-hopping, it could be internal. That said, if the captain is right and we are dealing with vampires, some of them do have the ability to make themselves invisible, if only temporarily. Especially the older ones..."

She turned to Wright, still trying to work things out in her mind. "What do you think, sir? Is it worth going upstairs or should we stick to the original underground theory?" She didn't like to admit to herself that vampires were behind the mystery, but it was starting to look more and more likely that that was the case. She also didn't want to give the impression that she was taking charge, especially not after Wright's reprimand earlier.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright stood with his arms folded, staring at the stairs, as if trying to figure out what they reminded him of. He'd barely heard Eleri when he snapped out of his daze, and sprinted up the stairs. He stopped at the top, and found himself looking out of a small window, with a good view of the lower floor of the apartment building across from it.

He tried the window, but found it didn't open, and turned his eyes to the ground. He spotted something and grinned.

"The house is abandoned." He answered, running back to the top of the stairs. "But it's been used. Look!" He bent down by the window, and picked up what looked like an old cigerrette butt. "This isn't a passageway to that building. These are all signs of a stake out!" He told the others, manically.

"Somebody's been using this building to spy on the vampires in the apartment. Must be as curious as we are. They come in, walk up here, watch out the window. Have a smoke while they're at it." Wright explained, miming out the actions. "Except, they're vampires too. No food, not even a single crumb, and there's dust everywhere but here, and nobody does a decent stake out without sneaking off for a piss, and there must be a toilet somewhere." He explained, before his smile faded a little, the thrill of working it out fading into him realising there was a bigger problem.

"Which means whatever's in there has the vampire community as paranoid as us. And if they don't know about it, what could it possibly be?" He pondered.

((Okay, so I figured this was a good solution to the puzzle and would let us stick with our orginal plan . If an elder vampire is in there, it makes sense to me other vamps would be really paranoid as to why they hadn't been seen.))

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri jumped out of the way of Wright's sudden burst of engery and stood for a few moments, staring up the stairs in confusion. When he came in to view again, she followed him up the steps and watched him as he explained animatedly what had really been happening. She picked up another discarded cigarette butt and examined it carefully before throwing it back to the ground.

As Wright formed his somewhat disturbing conclusion, she nodded. "That's a worrying thought." She replied, frowning. "I wonder.... maybe we're dealing with another Lémartes-type group? Although...." she stopped in thought. "People like that tend to attract vampires, not make them paranoid."

She turned back to the window and raised a hand to the glass, laying her palm on the cold surface. "No condensation, means nobody's been here today," she said vaguely. Keeping her hand on the glass, she stared out of the window, trying to see through her own reflection and put herself in the mindset of this unknown vampire. "Whoever it was, they weren't just curious, they were worried. Really worried." She said, removing her hand from the glass, though she kept looking out of the window, staring at the back of the suspicious building. "What the hell is in there? If only we could see in there...."


((yeah, I'm having Eleri be all psychic... might as well make use of her vampire side xD))

[Hadrian Beaumont]

Hadrian frowned slightly, chewing on his lower lip, he peered out of a window and squinted at the house next door, "The windows are boarded up, why on earth would they be watching the place when they can't see anything and no one's evern been in or out?" he asked curiously before glancing to Eleri, "Could they be using their own powers to observe? Telepathy, empathy... that sort of thing?"

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright let the question hang in the air for a moment, trying to decide himself. He had to admit, such a possibility did seem pretty likely. The fact that Eleri thought whoever had been there before was worried was a fact worth remembering too.

Or it would be, if Wright ever listened to Eleri, or really thought about these things at any great length.
"Right then. Problem is, we can't see in. Solution. Well, that place does have a door." Wright pointed out, already turning to walk down the stairs.

He stopped, and turned around, with a sigh, already predicting the inevitable protest.
"Look. Whatever is in there is bad, right? So either way, we're gonna have to go in there. Why not just cut to the chase? At least we'll get it over with." He explained, and continued on out of the house.

Quite how he was planning to ram the door down was something he hadn't answered.

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri considered Hadrian's question for a moment. "It's a possibility. I don't know how far vampire telepathy stretches, but if we're talking a full-on vampire, then... maybe they can pick up something from whoever is inside. Assuming there is someone in there, of course."

As Wright spoke, she looked out of the window again, scanning the surrounding gardens for anything that might be useful. She was still looking when she realised that his voice was getting further and further away, and she pelted down the stairs after him. She was about to raise a protest when the captain stopped and quashed the argument before she could say it.

"... Right you are then, sir." She said, following him out of the house. "How are we going to break down the door?" She asked. "But then, do you think we'll need to? I mean, the door to that house was open, who's to say that one will be locked?"

[Hadrian Beaumont]

((I noticed. >>; sorry.))

Hadrian cringed slightly at the thought of busting in on a possible Vampire den, a den that had other vampires nervous. Again, he questioned the Captain's mental capacity, he was smart yes, but rather lacking in common sense the brunet felt. He chased after Eleri and saw her own almost reflexive beratement get swallowed and bit his tongue. Instead opting to check his equipment and make sure his Tazer was set to Stun, Wright hated killing and to be honest Hadrian wasn't too keen on it either, but he had no intention of getting Turned when he managed to avoid it for the last ten years or so.

[Eleri Mortymer]

As she followed Wright, Eleri became aware of Hadrian behind her and, more to the point, of the fact that he was nervous. She turned around to face him and rolled her eyes in Wright's direction in a way that said "here we go again". She noted that he was checking his equipment, which was a good idea, and checked her own.

She didn't think that Tasers and soforth would do much good against whatever was in there, mostly because of the feeling of dread she'd gotten from that window, which was why the first thing she checked were her guns. Considering she'd spent most of the time since she was 18 with her reliable old police-issue gun, which truth be told wasn't all that hard-hitting, she'd adapted nicely to the twin Magnum .44s.

She was horribly aware that she perhaps had less to lose than the two men. All that could happen to her was death, as far as she knew. But Wright and Hadrian.. they had their humanity to lose as well. Granted, she was only half a vampire, but that was enough to mean she wasn't human any more. She pushed such thoughts out of her head. Focus on the job at hand. Satisfied that everything was in working order, she turned back to Wright.

"Ready, sir?" She asked, casting the door of the Suspicious Building an apprehensive glance.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright didn't bother checking his equipment. He knew where everything was, and since he wasn't carrying a gun, he didn't have to check it. The good thing about a truncheon is that you didn't have to test that it was still working.

He walked up to the doors to the building, and observed the door. While it was locked, it was flimsy looking and old, and gave off the impression that it had been locked merely for show. Nobody seemed to even want to try and enter.

Wright shrugged off this deduction. His curosity outweighed anything sensible, like a survival instinct. and he kicked the door firmly, causing it to break open.

"Never get tired of doing that." He commented. Kicking down doors was always fun.

He stared at the darkened corridor inside and stepped inside. He was sure, like before, if anything was going to jump out on him, it'd be better to just get it over with.

[Eleri Mortymer]

With a sigh, Eleri pulled out her torch and a gun and took a few steps towards the door after Wright. She paused at the wreckage of the door, waiting to see whether or not she and Hadrian would need to rescue the captain from some horrible vampire monster thing. Really? she thought, "horrible vampire monster thing" is the best you can come up with?

When nothing happened, she took a few steps forward, looking behind to make sure Hadrian was following. She turned the torch on, highlighting Wright's frame against the gloom.

"I don't like this." She said, a second later in a low voice. "I don't like the.... I don't know, the atmosphere in here. It's creepy. Even for Edgehaven." Trying not to let her apprehension get the best of her, she shone the torch around the corridor. Nothing.

"I'm starting to get why our mystery watchman was so afraid." She muttered.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright had to admit, there was something on the air, but it wasn't quite something he could place. The air was stifled, in that way vampire dens often were. Vampires didn't need to breathe, so air flow was never a major consideration for them. But there was something else on the air. It wasn't quite the smell of death. There weren't dead bodies there (which in of itself was suspicious), but it smelt like something close.

He noticed on his left the first apartment door of the building. Huh. They even had them on the ground floor. No fancy foyer. He kind of liked that in a building.

He noticed the handle wasn't dusty, and knew that meant the room got used.
"Well, might as well start at the start." He mumbled, wishing he'd said something a little smoother, and kicked the door open.

His eyes went wide.

".....Okay, that I didn't expect." He managed to get out after a lengthy pause.

The entire room was fluffy pink. Pink curtains hung around a heart shaped fluffy pink bed. Golden rails ran around the bed with something small, pink and fluffy hanging off them. Wright stepped into the room to take a closer look at the objects. He recognised them pretty quickly.

"Well, the good news is if we run out of handcuffs, I've found spares!" He shouted out to the others.