Paranoia

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal had sneaked back to retrieve the TSX about an hour or so after she'd been camping out in some random person's back yard. She was hot and irritated and covered in soot, so she was in a pretty foul mood. The sun was clear in the sky when she arrived, pulling the car skillfully around her Cobra and back into her mother's parking spot in the garage. She walked into the stupidily massive house and threw her purse down on the counter, frowning at the burn marks on one of the straps.

She decided not to just call Jack right off, and sent him a brief text message that simply said, "Hey, I'm home fine. Thanks again." She was aching to get this dirty smell off of her, and so didn't feel like pounding out an editorial about how cute she thought he was. She was a little to emotionally unstable right now for that.

She took the liberty of a long, warm shower, complete with eyebrow management and total skin exfoliation. It felt nice to just soak in her little 'afterbath' of warm water and rose and lavendar extract. She inhaled deeply, willing herself to mellow out a little bit. At times like this, she wondered how she could have ever even contemplated suicide.

She dressed in a pair of glitter-sprinkled Sevens and a Juicy Couture logo T, then flopped down on the oversized couch in the equally gigantic living room and turned on the TV. She snuggled down against a velour throw and fell asleep watching reruns of Clueless.

She awoke with a start about two hours later. The sun had already set, and the house was quiet, though due to her compulsive light-turning-on well, it also remained well-lit. She sat up and blinked, trying to determine how long she'd been asleep, or what had awoken her. She felt scared again, for some reason, and as she came back to consciousness the feeling that someone was in the house, or had just been there, became like a weight pressing on the back of her neck.

She froze on the couch for a few minutes, trying to decide what the best way to approach this was. She was absolutely terrified on one hand, but on the other hand, she was a little angry at the possibility that her day was about to get even worse. She stood slowly, and began creeping through the house, turning off lights. She knew it like the back of her hand, so if there was a burgler in the house, he sure wouldn't.

It only occured to her after she pushed her bedroom door open and saw a rose sitting on her pillow that a burgler could just as easily have been there to take more than just money and jewelry, and perhaps also could have been supernatural at that. Griffon grabbed her from behind, but to his surprise Crystal swung her legs up and kicked off her door frame, sending the both of them stumbling back as he maintained his bear hug around her midsection. The impact was hard enough to push him off balance, and she kicked out again, causing him to fall backwards down the stairs.

They hit with a loud thud, and despite the pain, Crystal was up and running, with the vampire not far behind. Why Griffon didn't just use his power on her was anyone's guess - perhaps he was having too much fun with the thrill of the chase, knowing that he could have just killed her any moment he wanted to. Crystal didn't know this, though, and so thought she perhaps had a shred of a fighting chance.

She dove across the couch in the living room, pulling it over on top of her by accident, and heard her cell phone hit the floor with a crash. As she crawled towards it, Griffon pulled the couch off of her and ran past her, kicking it into the kitchen. She heard it skitter to a stop as it smacked a cabinet, and pulled herself up, half-crawling, half-running, trying to make a slide into the kitchen across the tile after it.

She wasn't fast enough, though, even for Griffon without abusing his power - the vampire as a human had been athletic enough that given the right time, he'd have caught Crystal anyways. He tackled her just as she crossed the doorway of the kitchen, and she slid on her stomach with him on top of her. Freshly waxed floors were making her life more difficult than it needed to be, and offhandedly the thought entered her mind to beg her mom to have the house re-carpeted... if she could make it that far.

Griffon rocked back and shifted his weight, flipping Crystal onto her back and had a moment's amusement as he pretended to actually fight away her hits and slaps. She was trying to mantain some degree of calmness, and it made him laugh aloud, which in turn got him a slap in the mouth. It didn't matter, there was little she could do to physically hurt him. She was his, and that was all that there was to that.

He started speaking to her, saying awful things to her about how much he'd missed her, how he didn't know why she fought him, that she was just denying herself the truth - that she'd enjoyed the bite, the... everything. Crystal managed to snake a hand away from his grasp long enough to grab her cell phone, and dialed out to the first number that had left her phone - Jack's. She slid it away so that Griffon couldn't smash it, and as soon as she heard noise on the other line, she began shouting.

"THERE'S SOMEONE IN THE HOUSE, PLEASE COME QUICK! THIS IS CRYSTAL DEBOIR, I'M AT 2434 PINE RIDGE WAY!" she screamed. She then let out a resounding "NO!" as Griffon jumped off of her and went for the phone. She crawled after him and grabbed his leg, unexpectedly enough that she pulled it out from under him, sending him on top of her at an awkward angle. The phone didn't last though, and he smashed it against the floor as he fell, crushing it literally into about 6 different pieces.

Crystal bit Griffon in the arm, hard enough to draw blood, and he yelled in surprise, giving her a swift forearm to the face. She fell backwards and wiggled out from underneath him, scrambling to her feet and broke into a run down the hall again. Griffon growled. The game was getting old. He let her get about 3/4 of the way up the stairs and then used his power to accelerate behind her, throwing her down on them.

She rolled onto her back and started kicking at him, trying to breathe since the wind had been knocked out of her, but he had her by her hair, and slammed her head into the ground before she could land any meaningful self defense motions in. He stopped suddenly as the sound of a police siren was heard close by, and bent down to Crystal's dazed form.

"Until later, sweetheart," he promised, giving her a peck on the cheek. As an afterthought he kissed her lips, revelling in the blood he'd drawn when he'd yanked her down face-first into the stairs. She literally slid down each step until she reached the bottom, not confident enough to trust her legs. The former cheerleader opened the front door and went outside to await the authorities.

When the police arrived, Crystal was sitting on her front porch, signs of getting into a scuffle evident. The house had been destroyed enough that the cops, despite finding no evidence of another person, definitely believed that she had indeed been the victim of a breaking and entering. She was studying her hands, wondering why, for the second time in less than 24 hours, she was surrounded by police and EMTs. A familiar voice broke through the commotion and she looked up, squinting against the bright lights of the flashlights and police lightbars.

[Jack Harker]

Jack had been expecting a phone call from Crystal for a little while, knowing the whole time that she was most likely never going to call or talk to him again.  She'd probably been nice just because he rescued her, and wanting to get as far away from him as possible, but he could still hope.

The LAST thing he was expecting was the call he got.

"THERE'S SOMEONE IN THE HOUSE, PLEASE COME QUICK! THIS IS CRYSTAL DEBOIR, I'M AT 2434 PINE RIDGE WAY!" screamed through the receiver with no warning, followed by a number of shouts and cries on her end that made him hesitant to hang up, but he knew better.  Chances were that she wouldn't get the chance to say anything else to him, and she was lucky she'd gotten as much out as she had.  He promptly dialed 911 on his cell as he shot out to his car, deciding to answer questions while he was on the way.

He got there at about the same time as the cops, not long after the call at all, but he had to fight his way through to get to the front stoop where Crystal was.  "Crystal?!  Oh, my God, are you okay?" he asked, pushing past someone else to get close to her, and he winced when he looked at her injuries.  

"Holy hell, you are NOT having a good day.  Someone broke in?" he asked, his tone surprisingly gentle despite his words.  He didn't want to upset her, but he couldn't believe she'd been in a fire AND a victim of a break-in all in the same day.  

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal jumped off of the porch and onto Jack, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Even if he wasn't very familiar, he was better than the other people investigating the scene right now. She wasn't crying, but she felt herself start to shake as she hugged him, and willed her nerves back down.

"Guess he didn't think anyone was home. I don't know how, but... my parents go out of town fairly often. I don't imagine the guy thought I would be as much trouble as I was. The cops said he split, though..." she trailed off. "And as soon as they let me back inside, I'm packing my shit and I'm staying somewhere else."

She folded her arms tightly. Crystal needed to get into the city or... somewhere away. She looked up at Jack. "Thanks for coming. I guess that must've been you I dialed. My phone is in about a bazillion pieces right now, so. Sorry." She frowned and looked back as the police seemed to be wrapping it up.

"I promise, I am not really as bad luck as I seem." She smiled a little, trying to seem upbeat. It didn't work.

[Jack Harker]

Really, having her LAUNCH herself at him like that was worth being scared half to death when he got that call and speeding over there, and he held onto her while she shook and tried to calm down.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" he asked, obviously concerned and NOT just trying to pick her up.  He behaved himself on occasion, and this was definitely one of those occasions.  That call had scared the hell out of him.  "Yes, it was definitely me you called.  I thought you were being murdered, you know."

He smiled some at her promise, which was fine with him since he hadn't been thinking she was bad luck.  He just figured it was a really bad day to be Crystal.  "Don't worry.  Even if you are, you just need to keep a gun handy or something, just in case," he teased back.  "A big dog might help.  Sucks to be the burglar who busts in on that."

[Crystal Deboir]

She snorted. "No, no. Parents took the dog with them. Believe me, PenPen isn't scaring anyone. He's a mid-sized American Eskie.. all he does is jump. A lot." She reluctantly slid from his grasp and took to leaning against him as one of the police officers approached her.

"Alrighty Miss Deboir, everything seems to be fine. You might want to talk to your parents about setting up a more effective alarm, but I don't think this guy will be back tonight. Still, if you don't feel comfortable, you shouldn't feel obligated to stay. We can post an officer in the neighborhood for the next few nights to see if this guy is up to anything." The officer gave her a questioning look as she leaned on Jack for support, physically as well as somewhat mentally, but said nothing.

"Okay. Thanks. I'm just going to pack some things and leave for the night, if it's all the same," she said. He nodded and walked away from them, leaving her alone with Jack again.

"I'm thinking of slumming it in the Hilton or something. I know, right? But... I think I deserve it after this shit," she said malevolently, folding her arms again. She was mentally making a check list of things she needed to get, and glanced up to Jack. "Walk inside with me while I pack?"

[Jack Harker]

"Big dog," he repeated with a grin.  The 'big' part mattered.  

"My family had one of those dogs growing up.  He was a spiteful little thing," he commented once the officer had left, not wanting to interrupt what the man had to say and instead thinking back to that little dog.  Someone had named the dog 'Rhett', like from Gone with the Wind.  His sister had been 'Scarlett', which made Jack wonder what the hell was wrong with that story that the main couple were siblings.

"Absolutely," he agreed to accompanying her inside to pack, and he glanced around as they entered.  It looked like it was a nice place, when it wasn't a victim of a burglar.  "Uh, not that you don't seriously deserve to be pampered as only the Hilton can, but if you'd like, you can stay at my place so you're not alone.  I'm supposed to be off the next two days, anyway."

He didn't really think she'd accept, but he wanted to at least make the offer, just in case.

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal was full of surprises. "Okay," she said absently as she pulled down a pink backpack. She whipped out a little notepad and flipped back a few pages, and then began checking things off of it as she found them and folded them neatly. Obviously Crystal had a habit of forgetting things - she'd made a check list so she couldn't.

As she wandered around the room and picked up various items, she smiled at Jack, who leaned against her doorframe. "Sorry for the girlish overload of the room. I'm a fan of pink, I guess it shoes." She smiled a little. "You sure you don't mind some random terribly confused girl bunking with you?"

Crystal had almost said 'teenage'. That would have been so bad.

[Jack Harker]

Yeah, her liking for pink definitely showed, and he was rather surprised by the girlish look of the bedroom, but he supposed that even older girls sometimes kept their rooms like this, and some of them even just because they hadn't bothered to change the decor since they were teenagers.  He knew she wasn't a teenager because she'd told him, but other than that, he was going on assumptions.  Besides, she was entitled to like the color.

He happened to miss the strangeness of her near slip, and merely shrugged.  "It's not a problem.  I snore, but I doubt you'll notice 'cause I don't think I'm THAT loud.  Oh, and you're not allergic to cats, are you?" he asked, actually worrying about that.  Arson had the run of the apartment all the time, so if Crystal was allergic or anything, that would be a problem.  Otherwise, he was fine.

[Crystal Deboir]

She laughed when he said he'd snored. Crystal'd had a boyfriend once who snored quite a bit. She elbowed him so hard once that she almost cracked one of his ribs. They broke up not too long after, so it wasn't a terribly big loss on her part anyways.

"No, not allergic to anything that I know of," she said. She gave her bag a steady shake and then wrapped her phone charger around her wrist and stuffed it into a small pocket towards the top.

"Okay, got everything. You sure you don't mind this?" she asked again, brows raised.  

[Jack Harker]

He grinned when she laughed, taking that as a good sign and rolling with it.  He always liked hearing people laugh.  "Good, because I have a cat who will probably love you, but the apartment is hers, so I'm sure she's got cat cooties all over the place.  So long as you don't mind, neither do I," he returned, stepping out of the room to get out of her way.  

"You don't need anything else?  Other than a maid, of course."  Just looking around, it was obvious cleaning up after that guy, whoever he was, would be a pain.  "I'm not bad at fixing things, though.  If you end up needing help getting this place together, you can let me know.  You have time to worry about that, though.  Come on, I'm parked a block down because I couldn't get past the police in the car.  I'll carry your bag."

He wasn't going to make her carry it after all that she'd been through that day, especially since they had to walk.  He'd have gone and driven it around to the front of the house, but he wasn't going to leave her alone.

[Crystal Deboir]

She wanted to protest, but she handed it out to him instead. She felt just like a break right about now, and why not if he offered. She even managed a small smile. He was really a nice guy, she decided. She felt bad on the inside for lying to him about her age, but... what harm could it do? It isn't like anything would ever happen, right? Crystal was damaged goods; nobody wanted her around.

She thought briefly of Alex, and just got angry all over again. Stupid.. boys. Promising things they couldn't deliver. She didn't feel any better about Jack, though. He was a human as far as she could see. What if...

She smiled at him again as he held a door open for her.

"So, how far is it? And should I grab some DVDs or something? I mean, I know I won't be able to sleep. Unless you need it to be quiet. Can I sleep with the cat, or does he not like people?" Annnd there came the Crystal-like questions. Her personality seemed to fade in and out, like she couldn't decide who she wanted to be anymore. She just kept changing her mind, her moods, trying to find something that would work for her again.

Oh, where was she? When would she come back? She didn't quite know. She missed herself.

[Jack Harker]

"I have a few movies at the apartment, but if there are some you like, bring them along," he told her with a shrug.  He didn't need quiet or anything.  He wasn't exactly a deep sleeper, but he wouldn't wake up over a little TV.  Fortunately, he didn't know what she was thinking about her age, or about how stupid boys were.  If he had, he'd have been sure to remind her that he wasn't a boy. 

"Arson loves people, especially people who give her attention.  If you want to cuddle and love her, she'll be your best friend until someone wants to pay more attention to her than you do.  Not the most loyal of animals," he pointed out as he waited for her to grab anything else she needed and led her out to the car.  Arson would be good for making Crystal feel better, though.  Or at least, he thought so.  "It's not far, just barely into the city."

[Crystal Deboir]

"Sweet," she said. She needed a cat right about now. She just walked past him to the front door and into the walkway that lead down to the yard. She didn't need anything else that she could think of, except for some Tylenol and a Sprite. She was pretty sore, actually, from fending off Griffon. She felt out of shape, and then reminded herself that she was only a human against a big supernatural bad guy. Which was funny, because if you think about it, Griffon was small peanuts in the grand scheme of things. She could have had any number of Midnight vampires kick the crap out of her that would make Griffon beating her ass feel like a walk in the park.

"Whoa, yeah, three ring circus out here. I see why you had to park so far down. I'd say this is a nice neighborhood and not to worry about your car, but, uh, yeah, kind of killed that idea about an hour ago." She frowned. At least she could still retain some of the teenage sarcasm she'd learned to rely on. As she ducked past a few officers who were wrapping it up, she tried to stay close to Jack. She wasn't really in the mood for any more questions.

[Jack Harker]

He made no move to leave her stranded in the see of people outside, and actually fell back to step up again between her and the majority of the people.  He knew how cops worked from having worked alongside them so often, and he didn't think she wanted anymore questions.

"Yeah, I would have just barreled right through, but the police kind of frown upon that," he returned with a smirk.  "At least they also frown upon stealing cars, so the beast was safe just outside of their area.  You know, I heard there were a couple of car jackings out here, though."

Not the smoothest change of subject, but at least it was something.

[Crystal Deboir]

She welcomed the subject change. "Mm, never been car jacked. Did have some crazy bitch refuse to get out of my car once, though. Let me tell you, if I ever see her again I'll beat her black and blue." Of course, Crystal had no idea that the girl had been in the very Guild Houses she might've wanted to try registering up for some time. Crystal wasn't above dropping the remnants of her pretty girl image if it meant Griffon never touching her again. And never having to rely on someone - ANYONE - to protect her.

She listened to Jack as they walked and talked, making a few comments when she managed to get him to the subject of movies. He was nice. He didn't deserve the trouble that she would bring. She felt bad, instantly, but she put that guilt away to deal with later. Now was not the time for emotion. Now was the time for flirting and faking happiness like she knew she could.

As she climbed into his car and pulled her seatbelt on, she leaned over and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Thanks, for everything. I know I seem like a real bad luck charm, but I promise, I just seem to be having a bad week. I think it'll be getting better now." She smiled at him.