The Lady from the Sea [OPEN]

With a pile of rocks stacked up next to her, the rocks being the size of massive boulders mind you, Alex thoughtlessly grabs from it one by one and using her ability throws it across the ocean as if skipping a small stone as normal people would do. Various small animals that lived within the forest surrounding the school warrily approached her, sniffing at the air about her only to realize that not only was she hardly paying attention to her surroundings but that Alex had no desire to hurt them, in fact, she wanted nothing more than to befriend them.

It had been many months since she had anything much to do with the school, even her position as campus police was tenuous as she had abruptly left to live a short life of a hermit away from the various issues that plagued Foresta. Alex had become accustomed to the lack of amenities that so many people take for granted that she built herself a small home just barely beyond the walls of the school. The various changes to the inner workings of the school did little to pique her interest; Alex only involved herself when something was dangerous to the wellbeing of the students or when the school as a whole was threatened by a source whether from within or from the various monsters that roamed the world.

"Veni, Vidi, Vici... I came, I saw, I conquered." A simple quote that an acquaintence of hers from some time ago was very fond of continued to persist wtithin her mind. Whenever there were hard times, this was what always gave the strength necessary. Her hand absently reached for another 'rock' only to discover that there were no more to throw, the pile having been the the equivalent of a small mountain.

The soothing sounds and the smell of the ocean swept over Alex as she gazed up at the sky. The minute grains of sand embedding themselves within the fabric of her clothes, something which Alex could blame no one but herslf. "Damn sand always getting into my clothes." Glancing towards the school, she notices bright lights moving about distantly on the ocean. "Strange. There shouldn't be anyone moving about at this time. Who could they be...?"

(( The thread was unmarked so I'm assuming it was intended to be open! ))

Nathaniel finally had some time to himself. He hadn't lived an easy life, but the past few days on the sea really sealed the deal. Nathaniel didn't have enough money on hand to pay for full passage as a traveler, so he offered what services he could to work off the rest... and it helped that he was willing to work graveyard shift. He had never worked on a cargo boat before and the captain realized that, but once you break water there's no turning back so the captain worked Nathaniel to the bone. Maybe it was because the captain had learned his secret, that he was a vampire, so they expected him to be capable of more. Able to lift more, work faster, he was supposed to be super human, right?

But that wasn't what was eating at Nathaniel. He had worked hard jobs before, harder and more dangerous than this one for sure, and it was a comforting condolence that he didn't have to keep such a big secret on such a small ship.

Because this boat was headed towards Foresta Academy, which was far away from the mess he left behind in New York. The captain and his crew were aware of the Gifted, and although Nathaniel's type of Gifted prefer to keep their existence under wraps, he had run low on options by that point. It's possible that he could have fled to LA, but then again he wasn't entirely sure he would make it out of New York by land. So, he told himself, Foresta was the right place to seek refuge until things blew over.

But, Mika. Nathaniel found himself in a sob before he could even process the memories, as he had every sunrise of every morning, and before every sunset that he woke without a full day of sleep. Their friend Evelyn had passed on the red scarf he now wore around his neck, and it still smelled of his sire, the Russian vampire Mika. It smelled of many other things too - Victims and places they had traveled together and they were all very comforting memories, so he clutched the soft fabric tightly in his grip. Some humans on board had taunted him regularly for the tears he audibly spilled, but that was probably more of their own defense mechanism than anything because they knew what he was and were not the least bit comfortable having someone like him on board. A predator. A vampire - One who hunts humans.

But there would be no hunting anymore. Even his own kind saw him as a threat, so he would have to change his ways in order to survive.

At Foresta Academy.

---

His train of thought was interrupted one sunset by a panic on board. He could hear the captain barking orders, which wasn't unusual in and of itself, but the waves were flowing heavy. It was enough to rock the boat and shake him out of his covered, windowless sleeping quarters where he fell haphazardly to the floor. The captain had called for all hands on deck.

Nathaniel wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it for himself. As soon as he was sure the sun had faded, he crept up the rampway to the deck to catch a glimpse of a boulder skipping across the sea as though it were thrown by a giant. Despite this apparent lack of weight, the size of it was formidable enough to displace a sizable amount of water when finally settled to sink and the resulting, distant waves pounded the ship at regular intervals. Some weather had delayed the vessel's travel time so they were late to begin with, but nothing so chaotic as this.

Nathaniel found himself terrified - He had spent most of his life running from something or other, but there was nowhere to run now that he was stuck aboard the ship. Weirdly enough the skips themselves weren't really the problem, they displaced some water sure but it was the act of sinking that upset the sea the most. All he could do from on board the ship was watch the incoming wave and brace for impact, that is until someone threw a bucket and some curse words at him and told him to get to work.

They may or may not have been the same lights on the ocean that were visible to an observer from the shore, but they were affected all the same by the displacement of water and every man and woman on board worked their asses off until the boulders mysteriously ceased to fling. Nathaniel had noticed a man crumpled over by starboard side and immediately rushed over to check on him - A wave had knocked the man over and unconscious by the side of the boat. He had been cut open on the arm, a sizable gash in the fleshy part of his upper arm but nothing that couldn't be patched up on-board.

But, the trip had been long. The ship didn't carry Nathaniel's food supply, he had to pack for himself in that respect, and his blood rations had run out two days prior. He hadn't taken enough to begin with, but on top of the weather delays they faced, and now this... They were almost there, he told himself, they were minutes from shore but he was so hungry... And there was no harm. The man was bleeding anyway. Just a little taste to hold him over.

"You fanged bastard!" A man shouted, only seconds after Nathaniel had begun to feed. Of course he would have been spotted, he was on the top deck of a ship, there were no hiding places here. He should have known, but he was so hungry it hadn't crossed his mind by the time he had done what came naturally to him. He turned his head with surprise - There was the incriminating blood dripping down his chin. "The vampire is killing Ben!" the man screamed in aftermath of the chaos. The crew were exhausted and emotional after the rocky voyage, Nathaniel knew they were uncomfortable with his presence in the first place, and he had just given the stirred up crew a new direction to vent their travel frustrations.

Nathaniel was rushed by a handful of men. He kicked the first one back and left his supposed victim where he lay, escaping off towards the nose of the ship. "I didn't," he protested. "I didn't attack him, I found him that way!"

But nobody would believe him - He was a vampire running from vampires and humans alike, and he had the evidence all over his face. The captain was shouting orders to stand down from the other side of the ship to calm his men, but Nathaniel was the straw that broke the camel's back and the men standing before him were livid. He was overwhelmed by a group of three, he tried to fight back, but in the disorder of the moment another wave hit the ship and Nathaniel was thrown overboard.

The winter-bit ocean froze him to the bone. He had been in the Atlantic before, but that was by Fort Tilden Beach or Coney Island. And never in the winter, but on the bright side, he had been farther out from shore than this before. His belongings were still on board and it sounded like the captain had restored order on ship because they were going through the motions of recovering him, but he was close enough to shore that he could make it on his own. Nathaniel was struggling to breathe and he had a lost considerable strength in the freezing cold water... But damn it, if he had just kept his hunger in check...

He ignored the recovery vest they offered him and he swam to shore. He was pretty certain that he wouldn't be harmed immediately once he was pulled on board, but he didn't trust that they would believe his side of the story so he felt it was better that he fought the water than the people on board. Rumors would spread of him, but maybe he could beat the passing word to Foresta. It took him all of his strength to swim the final stretch and he only arrived shortly after they did but he was bitterly frozen, hungry, and tired... At least it seemed like this part of the beach hadn't felt the worst of the winter - Sand clung all over his dripping wet clothes as he crawled up the shoreline to rest.

Nathaniel's makeup had gone and withered by now. If he hadn't seemed threatening to them before, he certainly would now. He looked by no means decayed or decrepit because his skin was still smooth as it ever was, but he looked tired and after a night like this that was accurate regardless. Deep, dark circles formed under his eyes and his lips had begun to flush red, while the night light hit his cheeks in a way that made them appear hollow. He looked like a sopping wet creature of the night, and he couldn't argue that he wasn't.

It had been the worst journey of his life, but he had made it.

To Foresta.

---

There were men rushing distantly from the port towards the beach, presumably to help the vampire and capture him for questioning but Nathaniel forced himself onto his feet to evade them. He was running haphazardly through the sand, shivering from the cold clothes clung to his skin when he came upon a woman - One who probably would have noticed some of the chaos had she been paying attention to the ocean. He wasn't sure what the best thing to say to her was but he wasn't the type to hesitate either, ever quick to think on his feet.

"Help me," he started as he closed the distance with her, half stumbling all the while. "The people on that boat, they attacked me!" He was out of breath and visibly on his last legs as he told the half-truth. His head was bobbed down from being so tired so she couldn't get a full view of his clearly vampiric face or the fang scars on his neck just yet, and he desired to keep that information under wraps as long as he could anyway. He struggled to make words, shivering through each one, "I need to get to school, I need sanctuary. Can you help me? Please?" He begged of her, rather completely at her mercy.

Alex's curiosity grew as she witnessed the mysterious boat, slowly but surely, floated towards the coast. The crew of the boat ever restless as the water displaced from the crashing boulders rocked the ship back and forth threatening to tip it onto its side dooming the people onboard to the harsh sea. Unfortunately for them, she had little concern for these strangers as no one was supposed to be arriving at Foresta at this time.

She picked up various pebbles hidden within the sand and threw them up into the air with a weight just heavy enough to prevent them from floating up into the stratosphere but light enough to float in the air as though it were a leaf in the wind. "You fan..." The rest of his angry tirade lost in the cacophany of the many sounds disturbing her very peace at that moment.

As she continued to observe the discord in the distance, a person was suddenly thrown overboard into the freezing water without a care in the world for what would happen. Alex stood up, calmly considered her options as the now somewhat visible man stumbled onto the shore in an attempt to escape the men who now persued him either to aid him or to harm him. "Help me,"

"Who are you? If you truely want my help then lift your head and look me in the eyes." Alex, ignoring his plea for help, questioned him as the crew from the boat drew ever closer. The school had been through too much to simply let anyone uninvited simply seek shelter within its walls. "I assure you no harm will come to you unless you give me reason." Her gaze briefly shifted to the people chasing the person now before her who had now come within range of her trap.

"Halt! Move one more step and that will be the last thing you do." All but one halted, wary of the woman before them now barking orders at them as though she commanded them. The other, a fool by society's standards, refused to heed her warning and continued advancing towards the two of them with a grin on his face. "And what are you planning on doing if we don't little lady?"

Without a single word, Alex simply pointed to the various rocks that hovered over them as she felt that a more verbal threat was hardly necessary when he had ignored her previous warning. A slight movement from her index finger caused a single rock, hardly more than a pebble in size, to plummet back towards the ground causing sand to explode with the force of a small bomb. She shifted her gaze back to the man begging for her aid with the assumption that they would not be bothered any further.

The vampire shivered in hesitation, but he was in no condition to argue with her. Too tired to fight, not that he expected he could win, too tired to run, not that he had anywhere to go. Nathaniel fell to his knees in response to the impact of the pebble displacing grains of sand in every direction, but that was a more comfortable position to rest in anyway. She seemed to have the retreating men behind him under control which was a greater blessing than he could have asked for in this situation, and he hoped that she would be more understanding than they were. He clutched at the red scarf that was wetly clung to his neck and slowly rose his head to meet her gaze as she requested. His hair was dripping wet over his face and his arms were huddled together to keep himself as warm as possible, but otherwise, his gaunt features were exposed to her.

"I'm a runaway from New York," he began tentatively with a mostly closed mouth. His teeth were chattering but he did his best to keep his fangs hidden - Force of habit at this point. "They'll tell you, the others, that I attacked someone on that ship but they're lying, they wanted me dead! Because of my Gift," he said honestly enough.

Nathaniel was shivering wildly by now as the symptoms of hypothermia had clearly set in. Still, as the words left his mouth he had the presence of mind to connect her apparent mastery of the rocks with the boulders from earlier and he wasn't a believer in coincidences. "But they'll say you attacked them, too. Because of your gift. You nearly sunk our ship," he put together the educated guess. "They'll want you dead, just like me." Which may have been an exaggeration, but she didn't need to know that right now.

((So, I'm going to be busy starting tomorrow so I'll try to reply whenever you do but it might take me a little bit to get back to you. Just wanted to let you know.))

Alex said nothing as the man before her explained his situation. His red scarf dripping wet as he clung to it desperately as to not lose it. She brushed off the sand now layering her clothes and her hair as she listened to the man explain what was going on to her.

"New York, huh? I hope you're telling the truth or else you'll have come a long way for no reason." Knowing full well the persecution of having the Gift from others that rejected things just because they did not understand them, Alex decided to trust what he was saying. Of course, that was not without a grain of salt since her job was campus police so she could not afford to let down her guard and let danger threaten the safetey of the school. "They can say what they will. This isn't the first time that someone has intruded without permission and it most likely won't be the last."


There was little time to waste on these fools when the person she had now decided to help was freezing to death. Alex hoped to settle this little affair and get the new student to Foresta to warm up and possibly get some food. "Are you going to kill us or what? I want to let you know that people will come looking for us if we don't return." The sound of the waves hitting the beach was the only thing to be heard as she turned to glare. Alex was sure no one was going to notice that they were gone but she also knew that they would say anything to get out of their current situation. No one could blame them for assuming their death was imminent when she had all but killed one of the men that dared to be bold in her presence.

"Leave. Say no one of what happened and forget you ever came here." The men hesitated, unsure of whether she would kill them once they had turned their backs. One of the crew darted away without a moments thought causing the rest to panic and run away as well. "Don't forget..." Alex shrugged as her attempt to warn them was lost in the wind as they had long since run away.

"My name's Alex. What's yours?" She extended a hand to her new acqaintence so as to assist him in standing up, using her power if necessary.

(( No worries, take your time. ))

"Alex? I hate that name," he said with a stunning lack of context. It had been his name once too, but on this night that felt like a lifetime ago.

An outstretched hand was held before him. She had helped him far too much for him to be insulted by the gesture, but damned if he was going to accept an offer he didn't need from a human. It took him effort, honestly more than would have been rational for him to bother with the avoidance, but Nathaniel successfully pushed himself up onto his feet. If Alex had assisted him with her power and she likely had, he stubbornly wouldn't have noticed anything amiss. His eyes were locked with hers, cold and seriously.

"Call me Nathaniel. I sent a letter ahead of myself, but I didn't exactly have time to wait for the school's answer stateside. It's a long, boring story..." he intentionally demeaned his exploits in the hopes that she wouldn't pry too much into his past. The night cold was biting away at his flesh, each word escaping through chattering teeth. "I'll tell you the truth now. I don't know if they want me here or not, but if you don't help me out of these clothes and into something warm tonight, I'm going to be dead on your hands. I have a backpack on that ship with clean clothes, but I don't fancy my chances retrieving it tonight."

The chaos had largely passed by this time, and it was really only now that he was able to start clearing his mind to process all of the things he had seen. Boulders? Could this human really have been behind that? She didn't deny his accusation, that's the same as admitting guilt is it not? Nathaniel had come to Foresta aware that he might see some interesting Gifts, but he hadn't expected something so... Beyond human. Maybe this one had proven worthy of his respect after all. Maybe the humans of Foresta weren't to be taken as lightly as the non-Gifted he had dealt with his entire life.

"...Thank you, by the way."

Alex couldn't help but grin as he expressed his disdain for her name. She had been named after her father and had also received his strong and unwavering attitude. Her name gave her nothing but pride regardless of what others thought of it.

Ignoring her outstretched hand in an effort to assist him in getting up, he pushed himself off the ground with great effort. Alex felt slightly insulted at the way he was acting towards her. Perhaps she should have allowed him to perish at the hands of the sea and the ignorant men who persued him.

"Nathaniel..."

Now she knew the name of the man who had thrown away her generosity. When given cause, Alex held grudges for a very long time before ever considering forgiving anyone. "I'll forgive your sudden intrusion for now but remember, there are many more Gifted that are just as strong as me within the school if you decide to cause any trouble."

She gestured to Nathaniel to follow her so that they could warm him and keep him from death's door. "I dont have any spare clothes for you but we can make a fire and dry the ones you're wearing. That will have to do until we get everything sorted out." Her power wore off at this moment, the pebbles from earlier now falling to the ground with their proper weight.

"Sure."

Upon reaching her quaint cabin, Alex lit a fire with the logs currently residing in the fireplace. Once the fire had reached a proper state, she opened her storage and pulled out some fresh meat she had put away the day before. "I want you to tell me the long boring story seeing as we have the time now." Forest had a current lack of administration so Alex felt it was her duty along with the rest of the campus police to vet new and incoming students.

Nathaniel practically clung to the fire once it was lit. He liked the cabin, in all honesty. It seemed like the kind of place he could live - Private, simple and he would assume quiet, but mostly because it was private. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she gathered some meat and asked of him the uncomfortable question. "I want you to tell me the long boring story seeing as we have the time now."

There was a rare hesitation in his response for someone who had a way of speaking too much, which Nathaniel played off by audibly shivering. He simply couldn't tell her everything, not now. Not so soon. That could get him kicked off of the island in a heartbeat and he got the impression Alex wasn't the forgiving type either, so what were his options? Their relative seclusion made for a good setting to cut her out of the picture but he was in no condition to win a fight, and of no mind to win the game of half truths. A conversational diversion was in order.

"This place is lovely, Alex, but who are you exactly? Are you, someone who lives outside the school walls, affiliated with the Academy?" He eyed her questioningly but calmly, adding in a yawn to further suggest he was in no state to be answering questions. Nathaniel had begun to unbutton his shirt to let it dry off of his body which exposed an upper body of lean, defined muscle that was probably half the reason he had been chosen by a vampire to begin with. He idly wondered how long it had been since Alex had a shirtless man in her home, but he knew it could only assist his endeavor to distract. "I would think," he added on quickly to maintain control of the conversation, "that someone so young and beautiful would have made for a good student. Is this where you learned to use your Gift? What is your Gift, exactly?"

Alex noticed an oddity in his voice as she prepared the food for both of them. She had no information about Nathaniel and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt but was entirely prepared to restrain him if needed. The heat from the fireplace permeated the small cabin as Alex plated the sandwhiches and brought them over to the strange man in her home.

She dropped the plate in front of him only just realizing that she hadn't considered whether he had any allergies. Oh well, he'll have to figure something out if this isn't any good. His query about Alex and her connection to the school, any normal person would be wonder why this cabin was this deep in the forest and not closer to the school. "I'm campus police but unlike the other staff I prefer to be secluded from the rest of the school if i can help it. I mostly take care of stuff out here and come into the school as necessary."

Now that all the excitement had come and gone, her body was overcome with a wave of fatigue due to not having slept since the night prior. Fortunately because of her position she was used to staying up for a few days without any sleep. It was at this exact moment that this man(as far as she knew) chose to remove his wet shirt. It had been quite some time since she had seen a naked man, let alone had one within her home. Alex blushed briefly before she was able to control the impulses of her body. It was a decision she had come to long ago when first starting her job as campus police at Foresta to never let her personal life interfere with the wellbeing of the school.

"Enough." She spoke with a calm but demanding voice. Alex didn't know what Nathaniel was doing but it had been long enough. "I didn't learn how to use my power here. I also didn't bring you here to talk about me. Things would be better for you if you were simply honest with me." She focused her mind on the task at hand to distract herself from the sight before her having long forgotten about the sandwhich before her.

Having stayed up most of the night, the sun had begun to rise and shine through the only window alerting them to the start of a new day. Her skin tingled as a sense of danger crept under skin. It just didn't feel like Foresta without something happening that needed to be taken care of.

The fire was warm, and Nathaniel was probably sitting closer than he should, but he had finally begun to warm up from the wet night. He didn't know how long he could keep up this charade with Alex but it was so far, so good. A plate of food was placed beside him and it was only then that he realized she had cooked something for him, too. It wasn't that the food didn't smell good to him but tonight, he was more concerned with a different kind of sustenance. Again, the vampire refused her generosity and pushed the plate away.

Alex told him that she was campus police, to which Nathaniel let out an uneasy sigh. She was literally the worst person he could have run into, but what else did he expect from someone he ran into in the middle of the night? He had plenty of altercations with the police back home, and none of them were pleasant experiences. The vampire doubted this one would prove any different.

The pressure must have been getting to him, because Nathaniel suddenly felt very warm which was weird because he was still wet. He shifted away from the fire that he was in too close of proximity to anyway, while Alex began to lay down the law. His diversions weren't going to keep working if she was pressing this hard to find out who he was but thankfully, he had bought himself enough time. He felt far more clearheaded now that he wasn't frozen cold, and he was ready to play the game of deceit and half-truths.

"Honestly it's like I said, I'm a runaway from New York. I'm a healer, I can regenerate over time... Which gets me into more trouble than you might think." Nathaniel frowned from his seated position near the fire, staring up towards Alex. He was sweating. "They wanted to cut me open to study me, so I ran away. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I've come to Foresta. I dropped out of high school anyway, so I thought it might be a good time to catch up on my studies."

Nathaniel had grown more than uncomfortable in such a short amount of time. He touched at the sweat beading down his forehead which was unusual, because he thought he had the conversation handled for now. On a whim he turned to look around the room and his vision went dark.

The vampire screamed as his eyes instinctively shut to block out the pain of the first rays of sunrise. When Nathaniel jerked his head back towards Alex's general direction, the agony on his face was readily apparent and his wide open mouth betrayed the pair of fangs he had done so well to hide up until that moment. The night had been a difficult one for him, and on top of traveling east, he had long lost track of when sunrise would arrive.

Tears streamed down his cheeks as his eyes desperately tried to water themselves down, but they would have no real impact. "Cover the window!" Nathaniel hastily demanded of Alex as he scrambled away to the far side of the room.

Alex simply kept quiet as Nathaniel refused her food. He must have had a reason that he could not tell her. She very rarely took things personally in the moments where she had decided to be considerate. Her experiences and tenure of campus police had made her very astute, Alex's statements had apparently made him slightly uneasy and she had no idea why.

All in all, Alex had grown very suspicious of the man that was now half-naked in her little cabin. There were many students who had come to the school as a result of being chased by regular people that did not understand Gifted but it felt like Nathaniel had something more that he was hiding from her. As Campus Police, she could not let this man go free without knowing everything there is to know pertaining to why he was here.

..."I'm a runaway from New York..." For a moment Alex had let her emotions feel for him but before it clouded her judgement she shook her head, clearing her head of these thoughts. As they continued their conversation, unbeknownst to her, he had slightly shifted away from the fireplace. This game they were playing had gone on long enough. It was time to give Nathaniel an ultimatum and see how he reacted to it.

Before she could do any such thing, he nervously looked around the room only to encounter the fine ray of sunshine that had penetrated through the window. Alex was fairly surprised as the prospective student screamed in agony, betraying the fangs that he had tried so hard to keep hidden. "Cover the windows!"She slowly got up and walked towards the windows. Alex was not an unusually cruel person but she felt he would be more forthcoming after being covered in sun, something which he obviously had problems with.

"Are you ready to tell me what I want to know? I don't mean to cause you unnecessary pain but you have obviously kept some very important things from me." The windows were now covered by the blinds, leaving the cabin dimly lit by the fireplace. Alex was close to letting Nathaniel go but after what had just happened, she now had more questions than ever before. What were those fangs? Was he a vampire? Where did he come from? Her mind raced with the possibilities

 She began to pace the room even while he was cowering in the corner. "Tell me what I want to know!" Alex screamed at him before coming to her senses. "I'm sorry. I'm not sure what came over me." She pulled an axe she had hanging on the wall and branished it at the now sniveling man.

The door rattled as a strong wind flowed though the island threatening to blow open the doors. "Damn it. I keep forgetting to fix that stupid door. Anyway, I believe that you sent a letter to become a student here but we both know you've been hiding some things." She sighed. This had become a whole lot more complicated than it should have been.

Nathaniel cried blood during his own personal chaos. His eyes felt like they were melting and the muscles in his face refused to let him open his eyelids to check the fidelity of his sight. The scent of charred flesh attacked the room, but the damage had been brief so it was not to the intensity of steam permeating off of his face.

And all the while, he could hear Alex screaming at him. The sound of a tool being removed from the wall. Was it a weapon? Nathaniel was blind and huddled defensively in the corner. Frantic words left his mouth in a jumble.

"I'm a vampire, that's my gift! They thought I attacked someone but I didn't," he referred to the naval crew, "they were just terrified of me! They thought I was going to eat them like some kind of monster, but nobody here knows me, I didn't want you to think I was some killer! The school would have believed them!"

The vampire's arms covered the wounds the sunlight had inflicted on his vision, but the agony on his face was still evident. The uncertainty of being trapped in a strange place with a human he didn't know while the sun was out horrified him. The wind rattled away at the door and he could feel her presence towering over him, to which he slunk lower in the corner.

"There are vampires looking for me back home, I got into trouble, they don't want to study me but they do want to cut me open! They already killed my sire, they'll find me if I go back," he cried out, utterly terrified of the prospect.

"That's it, I swear! I'm not here to cause trouble, but you humans always think we're out for blood! I don't want to die..."

Alex grimaced as he cried out in pain. Torture was not something that she was accustomed to. It was something that was almost entirely unnecessary when dealing with students even if they are Gifted. The smell from his burned flesh assaulted her sense of smell forcing her to breathe through her mouth in an attempt to deny her body from that scent.

"I'm a vampire, that's my gift!"

Ah ha! They were still around after all! Alex had at one point in her life gone in search of mythical creatures such as a vampire but had never really found one. Her suspicion turned to wonder as Nathaniel spewed out the truth that he had been hiding. She could never hope to know what kinds of things he had even if they were both Gifted because unlike him, she didn't have to hide her appearance physically. No one would even look twice at her if she didn't display her powers in front of them.

Alex's face softened at seeing this potential student sitting in agony in the corner of her cabin. "I apologize for all the pain I've caused you. I had to be sure. We're not going to do anything to you here. I can promise you that." She slowly lay down her axe and in a low soothing voice spoke to Nathaniel. "You don't have anything to fear from me." Alex crossed the room to her cabinet that contained her various herbs, grabbed the ones that would help with the pain and ground them into a paste.

"I know I haven't exactly been the nicest person but things will get a lot better once you've been properly accepted into the school. If you'll let me, I have a paste here that will help with your wounds. Although, you are a vampire so I'm not entirely sure that you need it." Alex sat down next to him, making sure that he knew where she was and what she was doing. This poor boy... No, he was no boy. This ageless man had been through quite enough and it was a miracle that he was not broken.

L.A. - That's where he should have gone. The vampire should have taken his chances escaping the city to start over in Los Angeles, because he had heard there were plenty of vampires over there. Nathaniel could have easily started a new life there whether he made contact with vampires of the territory or not - It was a simple matter for a vampire to prosper in a city. But leaving by port was faster and closer, therefore safer. Foresta Academy was supposed to be safe.

Yet nothing about his journey felt safe from the time he left New York where vampires wanted to kill him, to his naval voyage trapped on a boat with humans who wanted to kill him, to getting dragged up to a cabin with a Gifted who wanted to kill him. It seemed no matter where he went or who he met, someone wanted him dead. At least back in the city he had options, but this morning everything felt hopeless.

Nathaniel missed his old life of wrath, gluttony, pride and lust but it was an ongoing process to reconcile that his lifestyle was never sustainable. The will to survive had proven to be a hell of a motivator to keep him strong so far, as it had kept so many of his victims strong until those final fleeting moments when they finally gave in and accepted their fate. Those daily sins were precisely why he was in this mess to begin with, and for all the crimes he was guilty of he deserved whatever Alex was about to inflict on him.

Yet instead, Alex told him he had nothing to fear from her. Recent events suggested otherwise, but as it had been the case all night his trust in her was irrelevant because he was at the woman's mercy. When she crossed the room, Nathaniel inched up the wall to be sat up straight against it while he gave thought to the inferred lies. Maybe she was going to find a cleaner way to kill him than with a weapon - Humans were always up to something, and there was no end to their ingenuity.

The vampire thought about grabbing the weapon she laid down next to him. Could he strike fast enough? No - He couldn't even find her by scent because of the crisp scent emanating from his face. But what further crippled his will to defend himself was that Alex continued to apologize and she spoke to him in such a tone that Nathaniel just couldn't fight it anymore. It may have been a trick, it may not have been, but the aspiring student was out of moves and the emotional trauma he had endured had wracked his fortitude.

Alex sat next to him so Nathaniel gave in to his fate. He carefully removed his arm from his tender wounds to reveal an unseemly mass of black, charred skin that surrounded flaked eyelids that were practically seared shut from the flash of heat. It felt as bad as it looked and Nathaniel's head bobbed off to the side, faced generally in human's direction as he listened to her claim she wanted to help. The unconvinced vampire's shoulders dropped in submission, in recognition of what he felt would be his final fleeting moments.

"If you're going to kill me, please make it fast."

It had been almost three years since Alex had come into her position as part of the campus police at Foresta. Many things had happened ranging from a mage controlling spirits from the Otherside to previously employed groundskeeper turning into a dragon and rampaging but little had emotionally drained her as much as today had. She could hardly accept anyone claiming that they were supposed to come to the school but could not wait because of their personal circumstances.

Even so, Nathaniel had for the most part done nothing to harm her. He did lie to her but that was also partially her fault as she did not come off as very welcoming when it came to such things. This school is a safe haven for those Gifted who are lost in the world and need guidance on controlling their power.

Alex would have loved to have known about Foresta when she was younger and learning to use her power. She currently held the power to give this man the one thing he desires: a place where he wouldn't have to be afraid to reveal himself for what he is. It was decided. Nathaniel would join the ranks of his fellow Gifted at the school until it was time for him to leave and make his mark upon the world.

"I've already told you that I have no wish to kill you. I understand you've been through a lot throughout your entire life and also on your trip here."

She slowly stood up, making sure that he knew what was going on since he was blind at the moment. There were things to be done since Alex did not recieve much from the school at her own decision. "I have things that need to be done. You are welcome to stay here until you feel that you're ready to enter the school. I'll write you a note so that this doesn't happen to you again. Give it to a teacher at the school and everything should get sorted out. Welcome to Foresta."

Slowly holding his hand, Alex put the note into his hand so he wouldn't lose it. She cracked open the door ever so slightly so as not to harm the new student, Alex left in the morning light to do her duties as campus police. "I'll see you around."