Clichés and Cigarettes

[xaxxa]

Xaxxa turned her nose toward the sky. The dark, ominous clouds hovered low, pregnant with fury as the first spittle of rain gave little warning to the imminent deluge that followed almost immediately. ‘Awww’, she thought to herself, wondering how many would be disappointed that the ever present, full moon of Ravenblack City would not be showing her lunar smile this eve. The sidewalks teemed with people that sought shelter, as if the sudden downpour was somehow unexpected, despite the heavy clouds and brilliant light show that had been swirling over head for some time now. She couldn’t help but overhear the male in the long overcoat that protectively held a newspaper over his head, comment to the random person next to him. “Woo…that came out of nowhere eh?” She drove her balled fists deep into the pockets of her jacket, resisting the urge to grab him by the throat and shake him until his eyeballs popped straight out of their sockets. She was feeling edgy lately and stupidity at this point seemed like as good a target as any to direct her pent up frustrations… but she remained motionless.

Several minutes passed as the crowd watched the heavens in the hope that the rain would abate but after deciding that it was set in for some time they began to slowly disperse, trading their evening plans for the shelter of their own homes. She watched with golden eyes as the humans scuttled about. Onto buses, into cars or back into the buildings they had come from and in what seemed like no time at all the busy street had become almost empty. Except, of course, for the odd wanderer who wasn’t afraid of a little water and the cars that passed by, the flashing red of their taillights burning their blurred image into her retinas. Xaxxa had been wandering with no set destination , her feet propelling her forward as her mind carried her in many other opposing directions. Her thoughts much like the many humans she had been watching…always moving but not really going anywhere. She stood, stoic, there in the rain until a hasty pedestrian bumped her in passing and quickly scurried off mumbling an almost inaudible apology.

Her hair hung wet and limp about her pallid features as she turned to inspect the building behind her. A movie theatre. How ironically appropriate she thought, her own unlife suddenly playing out as some random scene straight from the silver screen. Taking the few paces needed to deliver her to drier ground she shook a little of the weather from her hair and approached the booth. Behind the glass sat a bored looking woman who wore way too much makeup, aging her by at least 10 years beneath the scrutinizing glare of the flickering, fluorescent light. In silence Xaxxa slipped several coins across the small counter, snatching up the ticket that was tossed with little care in her general direction and scrunched it up in her palm as she ventured inside. While she much preferred to be out amid the action of the storm…she figured this would be far less conspicuous besides… she really needed something occupy her mind for a little while.

Her eyes adjusted quickly in the dim light and a quick survey of the room told her that more seats were empty than occupied. The movie itself was some old black and white classic, her surroundings becoming more and more cliché by the second. She slid quietly into the back row and reclined in the not so comfortable chair. Crossing her legs at the ankles she stretched them out over the back of the chair in front and watched the images dance across the screen before her. She had missed the beginning but the corny, creepy music soon gave indication that it was an old horror flick and the vampiress watched in mild amusement as the overcoat wearing male onscreen had suddenly become caught in unexpected rain. Making a hasty retreat he soon found himself in front of a movie theatre at which point he proceeded to buy a ticket and entered the building. “Oh for fuck’s sake”, she groaned out loud, arousing a few disgruntled mumbles from those within earshot.

Unable to stand it any longer she dug around her inside jacket pocket for her phone. Her fingers skipped deftly over the keypad as she punched out a quick text and sent it off to a few select numbers. Turning her attention to the lovers a few rows over she just hoped that the recipients to her call for help were not too busy to come and save her from the bleakness that threatened to engulf her this night…

[Irk]

The downpour had been welcomed by Irk, he had become accustomed to standing out in it at every chance he got. The idea that doing this made up for his lack of proper hygiene had arrived within his brain at some point though of course it didn’t help much. By now his hair and clothes had become saturated with the liquid. The long black tendrils of his hair all the more darker for the moisture which was now weighing it down upon his shoulders and clinging to the back of his shirt. In turn said shirt was clinging with its dampness to his skin, bare feet becoming engulfed in the mud that was steadily forming.

A high pitched beep caused his previously expressionless face to frown as he tried to place what it was exactly. Glancing down at the floor he cast his gaze about, seeking the source of the noise before his eyes alighted upon one of the boots he’d removed. With a small muttered noise of recognition Irk shifted his footing so as to bend down and up end the footwear, in doing this the mud oozed between his toes but it appeared not to bother him. Snatching the object that’d been dislodged from within his boot before it could hit the ground he held the phone within his hand, a text.
He read it twice to make sure that he’d read it correctly as was standard with him, his reading wasn’t quite up to scratch.

Shrugging at whatever it said Irk quickly pulled his boots back on without even bothering to shake any of the water out.
With the phone now safely within his pocket he trudged in the direction he thought this movie theatre was in, he’d never been inside it nor in any for that matter but he had a notion of where it was in any case.
The streets had cleared somewhat as humans had made for shelter when the rain had started though Irk still wrinkled his nose up with distaste whenever they passed by too close to him.

It hadn’t been that far it seemed, or maybe he’d lost track of time?
Irk was standing in front of the movie theatre before he even realised he’d stopped moving. Then the next moment he was stood before the ticket booth, a brief feeling of being lost swept over him. Digging around for some coins he deposited them before the women there, he may have never been into one of these places before but he’d the vaguest idea on how it worked.
Receiving the ticket from the women he’d barely even looked at he moved to the door he guessed he was meant to go through.

Someone had tried to get Irk to watch a television a few months ago but it had failed to grab his attention, he’d not thought that the screen in the movie theatre would be that much bigger. Eyeing it for a moment yet not taking in what was happening upon it at all he forgot why he was here. Unconsciously he’d taken a step forwards, it was this that’d stopped his mind from wandering quite so far. The surface of the floor bothered him, making up for the fact that the mud within his shoes did not.

Pushing this to the back of his mind he located Xaxxa, seated at the back only a few paces from him. Edging towards her he impulsively took up some of his hair within his hand and squeezed it so that it would drip upon her. “Psst,” he hissed, just a little too loud.

[Graciela]

Graciela stood beside a rickety bench starring at an empty lot directly in front of her. She held a broken umbrella in her right hand while the other slipped into her coat pocket. She tilted her head slightly to the left as she examined the lot, which was directly situated between two very large and ancient buildings. The empty space was full of weeds, random rubber tires and an overfilled trashcan. The smell of the crusty trashcan wafted to her noise, causing her to wrinkle it slightly. The piece of land puzzled her and made her wonder what kind of building was once there. It must have been a total failure for it to be completely torn down and all traces erased. She forced her gaze away from the lot and up at the darkened sky as the first drops of rain hit her forehead. The rain immediately began to pelt against the intact sections of her umbrella and seep through the ripped sections, soaking through her hair and back. She held out her free hand to feel the rain hit hard against it, as if needing more proof that it really was raining. “That’s right.. it was far too dry..” She mumbled, vainly shaking of the water from her hand.

Graciela tossed the useless umbrella aside and made her way back to the inner parts of the city. She leisurely strolled down the old sidewalk, in no rush to get out of the rain. It had been a while since she was out in the rain like this and figured there was no time like the present to enjoy such rain. She stealthily weaved in and out of crowds of people rushing to get out of the rain. She watched as men huddled under dry corners before quickly giving up the notion of outlasting the rain. She shook her head and smirked as the men scurried way. Just as she was about to turn a corner, two green specks appeared out of the corner of her eye. She took a step back to look into the door landing. She stepped closer and found a small shivering black fuzz ball with emerald green eyes peaking out. “Aw..” she quietly said, lifting the soaked kitten to examine it. The kitten mewed and pawed at her hand as she held it up to her face, her green eyes starring at the scared matching ones. The kitten hung limply from her hand, letting out another mew as water dripped from its tail. “Pathetic little thing, aren’t you?” She asked the kitten, stroking its head and bringing it close to her chest. Halfheartedly looking around for an owner, she decidedly tucked it into her coat and walked away.

After several minutes of aimless walking, her pocket buzzed once or maybe.. twice. She dug around her pocket for the source of the vibration. Pulling out her half-tapped-half-broken cell phone; she flipped it open to find a message waiting to be read. A smile danced across her face before she punched in a quick “I’m on my way..” Stopping quickly to orient her self about the city, she was en route to a rather mysterious theatre she had never heard of.

The rain had begun to fall more fervently, pouring down in deluge fashion. Rivers of water rushed through the now empty streets and towards the sewers below. At this point, Graciela was completely soaked; her boots sloshing through the rain as she made her way towards the theatre. As she leapt over rivers of water, she gave her coat a few pats in hopes of comforting the kitten buried within. In her rush to get out of the pouring rain, she had taken a few wrong turns before finally reaching her destination. She gave a sigh of relief as she finally saw the theatre across the street. Leaping towards it, Graciela snuck in past the snoozing woman at the front. Once inside, she wrung her long dark hair and shook off all excess water. She stole a few napkins from the bathroom to dry off the kitten and tiptoed in to find Xaxxa sitting in the back. Moving to stand next to her she made a gesture towards the screen and whispered to her, "What the fuck are you watching?"

[xaxxa]

Xaxxa laughed out loud as the movie plot unfolded, attracting some scolding hissing from those who for some reason were actually engrossed in the onscreen events. Of course it was a vampire movie. ‘Of course, of course, of course’, she shook her head as the irony of this night just kept dumping on her. Her lips twitched in one corner forming what could have been either a grimace or oddly twisted grin, either it way it wasn’t especially attractive. She mused over the ugly portrayal of the sanguinary villain. Nothing like the Hollywood version of today. Awww…the gold old days, she missed them. When the very mention of the word vampire struck fear into whole countries. When the very presence of a vampire would send unsettling jolts of apprehension coursing down the spines of those humans close by, without them even knowing why. Their fear was real then…it was intoxicating, it was addictive.

She blamed technology. As much as she enjoyed the modern age, the emergence of such things as television, the internet, Hollywood!! It had somehow made the humans impervious to such fears, most of them shrugging the reality off as some urban legend designed to entertain and titillate. The modern world now more afraid of political correctness than anything that might go bump in the night. There were a few places left that were still entrenched in the old ways….they still believed, they still feared. It made unlife so much more fulfilling. Perhaps she should travel more… she mused.

A small stream of water spattered on her thigh, followed by an overly loud Pssst. A smile crept across her dark lips as she turned her eyes to her sibling… “You made it”, she said, stating the obvious. “Get caught in the rain did you?” a sudden bout of ‘shushing’ rudely interrupting her question as she chuckled. Before Irk could answer Gracie appeared by her side with a question of her own, “What the fuck are you watching?” she whispered insistently. Xaxxa waved her hand toward the screen dismissively, “My existence flash before my eyes it seems”; she shrugged and rolled her golden orbs. Xaxxa motioned to the chairs either side of her… “Sit for a bit. Just waiting on another. Oh look Gracie there’s ya boyfriend”, she quipped pointing toward the fat human who appeared to be doing a little more with his hands than eating popcorn. She nudged Irk playfully, as she felt the apathy begin to lift its hold on her.

The vampires grinned in the darkness…she had no idea where this night was gonna lead but already it felt promising…

[Irk]

Irk shook himself briefly to rid himself of a little of the water, much like a dog would though he would hate to have himself compared to a dog, him not being fond of the overly dependant creatures. His head tilted to the side as Xaxxa spoke, he parted his lips to reply before hushing himself early as another joined them. Ringing his hair out a little on the floor behind the chairs, unmindful of any disapproving looks he was getting as he waited for a suitable gap in which to speak.

“I wasn’t caught,” he simply stated as if that said it all and perhaps it did, most of the time he didn’t have much to say of course. Glancing at Graciela he gave a slight nod of his head, just to be polite before flicking his gaze back towards the screen. The moving images made little sense to him, he couldn’t figure out how ones ‘existence’ could be viewed upon it. Only a short amount of time was put into puzzling this out, he didn’t care that much after all. Irk’s expressions soon smoothed themselves out leaving him with the vaguely amused look that was most common with him.

At the invitation to sit he clambered rather awkwardly over the seat before plonking down upon it as if he wasn’t at all capable of grace. From there his attention began to wander again as it was oft to do, the floor seemed to hold more interest for him than whatever was happening upon the screen. Though the concept of anything happening on it had escaped him, he just understood it to be a bunch of nonsensical images and nothing more.

A slight twitch was given from him at being nudged; in truth he wasn’t completely sure what it was that had been said previously. A question was instead elicited from him, “why is the floor sticky?” This said more to himself than to anyone else, talking to himself was not an uncommon occurrence. Some of what had been said then registered, “who’s the another that’s coming?” This said more clearly than the previous question what with it not being directed at himself who was obviously far more practised in understanding his own mutterings.

[Graciela]

Graciela managed a quick glance in Xaxxa’s suggested direction before sliding into her seat with a thump. She grimaced and stuck her tongue out in disgust, shaking her head at the humans disgusting appearance and behavior. The masochist in her forced her to look again and watch him for a few seconds. She finally turned her attention away when she heard a male voice speak beside her. She looked beside her in time to catch Irk nodding in her direction. Before she could smile or nod he looked away toward the screen.

Silently, she mirrored his actions and fixed her eyes on the screen. She watched intently as the characters played out the plot. It looked to be a cheesy black and white vampire movie. It was always amusing to her the way vampires were portrayed in such movies. They were like parodies, their actions exaggerated and almost silly. Her eyes eagerly scanned the screen as her body sank comfortably into the seat. As she was about to put her feet up and bring her knees close to her chest, a mew in protest came from her coat.

She gasped, reaching into her coat to pull out the source. She shook her head and whispered down at kitten, “How could I have forgotten about you.” Her hand went over its head as she affectionately stroked it. Remembering herself, she shifted in her seat and looked over at Xaxxa, leaning over to jab her shoulder with her finger. “Hey, how long will we be waiting here?” She asked a bit too loudly, earning herself some disgruntled shushing and a finger from her new boyfriend. Ignoring them, she followed with another more important question “and who exactly are we waiting for?”