stuff us in boxes that's where you want us

cardboard is boring, we brought our matches - look how it burns

Harley's small homey one-bedroom apartment had certainly seen better days, it looked like a fucking bomb went off inside of it. The furniture reduced to nothing but splinters and her possessions scattered in disarray. The place just started feeling like hers too, those painting hanging on the wall seemed to make it feel just like that, a home. How long had it been when anything found like a home, felt like hers? Great, she was going to have to live on a fucking garbage heap until she could afford to buy new furniture. For what? Just so some other vampire could obliterate it all.. again? This is why she couldn't have nice things. This is why... she was just another shattered fool with a pipedream.

It was Isolt's words that drew Harley's attention back toward her then, that look of utter disbelief settled upon those feminine features. "Yeah oooook there.. When unicorns take over this stupid city. It would be awesome though you gotta admit.. unicorns would fit right in.. don't you agree? They are just like horses with a murder weapon strapped to their head. Its kinda like.. vamp......." That sarcasm easily finds her then, gripping her resolutely as he tries to keep her frustration level to a dull roar for now. She gestures with a dramatic flick of her wrist while shrugging, still cradling her cherished pup within her arms like he were some fragile little creature that needed her.. or maybe she needed him in the moments. Too many things for the intoxicated brain to consider. Maybe if she could keep acting like she didn't give a shit she would soon believe it. That sounds like a marvelous plan, tally hoe! Suddenly there was a shift, a strange percolating feeling that causes the hair on the back of her neck to rise in a wash of power. What the hell was that?

In an instant, that room seemed to take a life of its own as the couch rights itself, the broken debris reformed into a solid piece of furniture once more. Harley's jaw went slack as she all but gapes, wide mouthed and shaken... as her apartment was once again righted, right before her very critical eyes. She was too drunk for this, it was trippy as fuck. She took a few steps back so her back met the solid surface of a wall, her heart beating with a wildness in her chest as she watches with... amazement. "God damn... You just bippity boppity booed my apartment!" She proclaimed, hardly unable to constrain that incredulousness. Those eyes wander through that room before she could hardly help but check it out herself. A child-like amazement over took her, along with a wave of endless possibility. "We might need to put this power of yours to good use.."

Sadly, that amusement was entirely short lived as Harley and Isolt moved toward that renewed pristine couch. How only a few minutes ago it was severed in two still boggled her inebriated mind. It wasn't long before Isolt began to fill in those gaping plot holes that seemed to expanse like continents between them. Harley shifted easily within that couch, wiggling into it noticing that it felt... more plushy than before. "Of course I remember. It was so long ago... I think we are getting old." Too old for vampires to come in and trash the fucking place.

"Yes and I told you it was a bad idea. Syn isn't safe. I told you, we should go to that other place. There was another bar that seemed way less sketchy." That other place that wasn't Syn.. because she knew the fucking crazy bitch that reigned there. She remembered her with perfect clarity. "I didn't know you still went.. I thought.. I thought when you didn't respond..." Harley paused.. she remembered that night. It was when fucking Ryker showed up. She remained silent, that bitter taste lingered like bile on her tongue. She allowed her crimson-haired companion to continue. The potent memory made her frown, made her heart feel like it was being deprived of oxygen. Fuck... all of.

The moment she mentions Syn, Harley froze like a rabbit facing a predator before it fucking ran like hell. Well a normal person would run, Harley was far from it.

"Dude Isolt... everyone knows! You NEVER EVER go with the hot guy into some dark secluded room. I don't care if his body is godly. It is 99.9% a fucking trap.. if you want to play.... Bring him home." Especially in a place called Syn. How she knew all too well that.. that place was a thing of nightmares. Her own time within those walls were fortunately brief.

Ace wriggled as if reminding her that she was gripping a little too tight. He seemed to be content there, for the most part, relishing in the warmth her body provided then. Despite his appearance of a floppy puppy, thanks to Sterling's seriously awesome magical talents. He had seen it all. Experienced it all along side of her. Nathaniel, Risque, Tetradore, Ryker. All of them, somehow. He had seen more of her own story than even her best friend, how she had been blissfully kept in the dark. It was a lifetime of stories, of torment. Yet Harley, for the first time in her life, she was faced with so many impossible threats.. she never cowered in the face of danger. But now, she cowers and it disgusts her. It disgusts her that she can't even open up to her cherished friend about all the wrongdoings that have been done to her.. even after Isolt had spilled her guts out to her. Maybe it was the alcohol that coursed through her veins, or what happened with Ryker then. She hardly knew the cause of what made her retreat, forced to silence.

How long had it been since the raven-haired woman cried? How the thought of tears almost seemed foreign, especially when they were a bright crimson. Yet still, her heart reached out to her companion who meant the absolute world to her. "NO, don't you do that. You could never be disgusting.. although crying blood, I have to admit is pretty badass." She reached out carefully, pushing back her own nerves and hatred for vampires to simply allow herself look at that woman who was her friend. For a moment she hesitates, well aware of those fangs that lingered behind her lips but when had Harley let fear truly drive her? The raven-haired woman wipes away a single rogue blood tear that streaks down her cheek, even though her hand near trembled to do so, it was startling how cool that liquid even was.

It was all too fucking soon, her own scars of bite marks littering her body, some still fading. How for a moment she felt a strange sensation wash over her, one that made her apprehensive and frustrated all at once? How she needed to remind herself that this was Isolt she was looking at. Not the bloodsucker that murdered her family, not the leaches that used and abused her just because they could. Because their powers, when turned against a lone human girl, made her weak. Weak, perhaps physically, but never her mind, not totally. A lone breath was drawn into her lungs an act meant to be steadying, to help ground her thoughts as she raises her vibrant eyes with that equally vibrant strength that ripples through her entire body. Along with the alcohol, it probably made her look almost a little dazed.

"Isolt, you gotta stay away from them at all costs.. You can't let them get you." Concern and anger create a strange cocktail within her with alcohol-filled veins, it makes her want to run into action.. To carve out revenge at what had been done to her. To rush the castle all by herself with the strength of a human, but the heart of an army. She would be squashed by a godly-like fist and she would be toast (or a meal, whatever, same thing). She swallowed that lump in her throat, she knew those people Isolt alluded to... How could she forget them? They were the things that haunted her dreams and yet... Isolt knew none of it. She knew nothing of the horrors that Harley had to face or why Ryker truly wanted her in the first place. For the first time, Harley shied away from those vile memories, barely allowing herself to glance at them too long as if by doing so it would beckon them to life. She hardly wished to face her own shame, her own disgust for herself.

"How... how did you get out?" She questioned, her voice almost seems fragile then, so unlike herself and yet it seemed like the sensible thing to ask. "Did you at least make them pay.. at least a little? Or am I going to have to go after them, I know... ways. Just not tonight ok? The room is a little loopy.. wait that might just be me." She laughed almost in spite of herself. Still cradling that little soft furball, who apparently didn't appreciate being coddled like this for such extended periods. But apparently, Harley needed it ok? She at last, placed him down, almost feeling reluctant to do so. Once all four paws met the floor, he shook his little body and zoomed off toward the kitchen where she could hear the sloshing of water, completely unphased by the nightly festivities. How like this very room, he seemed as good as new.

A realization then suddenly dawns upon her. "I know you have Damon now.. but.... Holy motherfucking steaming pile of horse shit, he is one of them too, isn't he? Fuck, I knew he seemed off! I knew it!" This was making her head hurt.

Now would be the time when Harley shared her story... you know, like a normal person should have. Yeah... what that wasn't happening. A) she was too drunk for it. B) she was a fucking coward for the first time in her life. C)She couldn't bear the look on her friends face when she did. So the secrets still lingered like a veil of smoke never to be lifted... perhaps.. it was for the better. It had to be.

Harley Westward