Being Brave When All You Wanna Do Is Run - OPEN

Lilyanya walked out of her apartment taking a deep breath as she looked around. She was wearing a new cloak this one was considerably longer and was much heavier. Under it she wore a red and black velvet dress with her black heeled stilettos. Walking out of her small front yard then towards the heart of London her heels clicking the entire way. Taking in her surroundings as she kept a wary watchful eye out for the man who wanted her dead. There was no noise on the streets as she walked except those that her shoes made on the concrete. Her cloak made small sound of fabric sliding over the snow covered concrete, everything sounded so peaceful to her.

She stopped at the end of her street looking at the park across from her. Sighing softly to herself she crossed the road and entered the park. Stopping by a tree and leaning on it she knew that she was getting weaker by the minute but she knew she had to keep walking. Taking a breath she pushed herself off the tree and began walking towards the center of the park. It was where the trees were close together and would hide her until she was no more. She knew that it would break her family's heart but she didn't want to end up hurting someone. Anya knew what she needed to get but she didn't have it in her to do that to someone. So she knew this was going to be the only way, she had to wait for the man who wanted her dead. She was gonna try to end this before he came to it's nasty conclusion because she didn't want anything to happen to her family.

She had been allowed to take a walk, so long as she was quick and Pippy could spy on her from a distance. Finn was not going to complain, as she had not been allowed out of her castle for the entirety of winter break on her own, until the incident at the mall where she had seen Norman, her father's friend, sucking an innocent woman dry of every droplet of blood in her veins. It had traumatized Finn and her father had been given little choice than to concede to some of her demands for freedom. No, she was not allowed to return to Hogwarts. She was not allowed to be with her friends. She could not answer the door when Dimitri the delivery boy arrived. But she was now allowed to go for a walk.

She clutched her windbreaker around her shoulders, her dress wrapping around her legs as she walked. She slowed her movements and paused, closing to take a long breath. She glanced backwards and saw Pippy, her little house elf, peeking out at her from a bush. A spindly little arm slipped out of the bush and waved, anxious as usual. Finn raised a hand and rolled her fingers, sighing. Freedom had never felt more confined.

She turned, continuing on. There was a park that she was incredibly keen to spend some time at. She slowed however as a smell hit her nostrils - there was a vampire in this park. Her nose was not as attuned as her father's - he could smell another vampire from miles and miles off. She paused, looking about, and walked closer into the park. A figure was moving into a more heavily wooded area. There was a pop and Pippy was suddenly at Finn's side.

"Mistress Fiona mustn't - strangers are dangerous!"

Finn patted Pippy's head. "It's okay - I think she needs help... But watch out for me."

She moved carefully, crunching across the snowy park as she reached the edge of the wooded area. An arm slipped around a smooth birch as she watched the other vampire - it was a young woman, and she looked weak. Finn could not smell blood on her. If she wasn't certain... this vampire was in trouble.

Lilyanya was close to where she wanted to be before she collapsed in the snow. Sighing she dragged herself to a tree that was near by and leaned back against it. She never in her life as a vampire felt more like a weakling. She smoothed her cloak down around her dress as she sat there. Her thought began to wander to the day she was bitten but she quickly brought herself back. That was one thing she didn't want to remember for a while yet. Looking around she didn't see anything then she smelled another vampire. Oh no, not yet. She thought to herself as she looked around.

On the second pass she saw a girl hugging a tree and knew that was the person she smelled. Knowing it wasn't him her body relaxed as she looked at her. "H...Help." Anya said weakly, her voice wasn't very strong. "P..Please....I..I..need...help." Her shoulders slumped further down the tree as she kept her eyes on the girl. She never ran into another vampire before but she hoped that this one wouldn't harm her. She was weak and she felt like her limbs were made of iron. Then her body slid off the tree and hit the ground with a soft thump. Anya's eyes were still open but she could no longer see the girl.

Before Finn could really do or say anything, the vampire collapsed, leaving Finn in the silence of the clearing. Part of her wanted to turn and run, pretend as though she had never witnessed the strange figure in the park. She was not cut out for confrontations, and this situation was more dangerous and more difficult than her fifteen years experience allowed her to combat. If she had allowed her instincts to kick in, she would have turned, run, and then probably locked herself in her room and cried out of guilt for a solid hour.

But Finn was a straight moral arrow. She called "P-Pippy!" The house elf appeared immediately, looking up at her as she grabbed her Finn's hand. "Is Mistress okay?" The house elf spun around and gasped so hard that she fell backwards, and Finn had to catch her. Finn kneeled and spun the elf around, looking her in her eyes. "Look - that lady is like me, like dad, like Master Orpheus. We need to take her back to the castle. Can you take us? Please, Pippy?"

The house elf blinked, her eyes wide with terror, before slowly nodding. Finn nodded and the two hurried over to the figure. Between the tow of them, they pulled the woman up until a slumped sitting position and Pippy was able to snap her fingers, and they disapparated.

Pippy managed to bring them into the grand entry of Margam Castle. Finn immediately released the other vampire and ran towards the sitting room, where she expected to find her father. He was reading a book of poetry as she ran in and when he turned to look at her, he knew there was something wrong.

"What's happened?" he asked.

Finn swallowed. "There was a woman - a vampire. She's blood deficient, I think."

Orpheus paused and, for one moment, her father looked much older than usual as he considered the dilemma. Her irritation and fear towards her father in the past few days vanished and she stepped forward, looking up to her father for guidance. He brought a hand down and brushed her jawline, smiling. "You're a good girl," he said. "You did well." He hurried into the entryway and immediately stooped, lifting the woman into his arms, seeming suddenly younger than his real age. And Finn watched her father take the woman downstairs, where she was never allowed to go.


Orpheus had delivered the woman to the first room in his underground floor. It was the cleanest, the most normal, and kept as a place for experimentation when he needed it. It was clean and white, and a large stone table took up the majority of the room. The strange woman was stretched across it, and she had a feeding tube delivering fresh blood from one of his freshest victims straight into her system. He turned and began wiping his slightly bloodied hands in a shiny steel basin, waiting for her to wake up.

Anya heard the girl rush over just before her eyes closed. She couldn't keep them open any longer, she could hear everything around her though. Feeling her being taken somewhere unfamiliar and hearing voices soon after. Her fear began get the best of her but she decided to squash it. Then she passed out and welcomed the darkness.


Anya began to wake slowly as she felt the blood in her system. Testing her eyes she tried to open them at first it was hard then she was able to open them with ease. She looked around the room trying to figure out where she was. That's when her eyes found the man near a basin, she didn't know what was going to happen. She saw the feeding tube that was delivering blood into her system. That's when she realized that the young girl brought her to him. They helped her and she didn't know how she was going to ever repay them.

Orpheus heard movement behind him and the hundred year old vampire turned slowly, with grace and sophistication, his small eyes falling on the young woman stretched across the table. He lifted an arm to caress the blood bag that was currently ensuring the recovering of the young vampire - it was still warm to the touch, harvested as an IV re-hydrated her weakened body. Blood had replaced the water and had brought color back into her pale face, fluffing up frail looking limbs, bring a sense of life back into her eyelids. Now, as they fluttered open, Orpheus was glad to have had a victim at hand. And was even more glad Finn had not insisted on following.

He approached the table and looked down, smiling softly. "Don't move," he said, his voice low and lyrical. "You have the blood of a thirty year old sales clerk who used to play football rejuvenating you, currently. Athlete blood always seems to be more hearty." He paused. "When my daughter found you, you were pretty badly off. When was the last time you fed?"

Anya looked at the older vampire and wondering what he was going to do. She watched him approach the table and smile down at her. She remained motionless at his comment, wondering if all vampires had a somewhat lyrical voice about them. Her eyes went wide at the mention of the blood she was getting. "I.." She stammered then started again. "I fed three days ago, I'm being hunted by the man who bit me. I don't know why, he somehow poisoned my blood supply." She looked away from him knowing she was probably going to get yelled at. "Thank you for saving me sir." Anya said softly knowing that he would hear it.

Anya started getting more feeling back in her body as she laid there. "I'm forever in your debt sir, there's no way i know to repay you for this." She said as she looked over at him. She wondered what exactly happened to the man who's blood was now coursing through her. She had an idea of what happened but she definitely wasn't going to voice her opinion. "I hope that I wasn't a burden on your daughter. I didn't know where else to turn I was planning on trying to kill the man who's after me. That's when she found me in a park not far from my home. I realized then that if I stayed there I would have died. I never expected your daughter to bring me here, I owe her and you a great debt."

Orpheus was very concerned about other vampires as there were, naturally, the superior race. His motivations to protect and strengthen his fellow vampires was born out of the need to see vampires on top, beating humanity onto their knees, where they belonged. Though Orpheus was a doting father, he was not naturally nurturing. Fatherhood had sprung out of murder anyway, so it was not like the man had really ever done something for the real charity of it. It had always been done with an agenda, typically his vampire agenda, and this was no different.

"Three days," Orpheus said. "You're new, aren't you? Newly turned, I mean," he clarified. The corner of his lips lifted - she would need guidance, that was certain. "Welcome to a race of sophistication and power," he said, his voice gentle and yet somehow still full of authority. "Please don't thank me - just enjoy the fresh blood."

He strolled away to a table where he had left himself a glass of ancient red wine infused with blood, something he had been working on as he waited for the vampire to stir. He lifted the glass to his nose and swirled it, before drinking. She began to speak and he listened carefully, before turning, a charming smile on his face once more. "My daughter - oh, she'll just be glad to hear that you're okay. She's upstairs, working on an essay for school." He smiled, and drank, stepping forward and pulling a stool towards the table. He settled on it.

"Within a few minutes, you'll be able to sit up," he instructed. "While we wait - tell me about the man who turned you. I'm well connected in the vampire community. I may know him. May be able to intervene."

Anya looked at him and smiled softly at his words, "I've been a vampire for five years. I never had anyone to guide me, you and your daughter are the first vampires i came across who don't want me dead. The only other one I know is the man who bit me." She wasn't sure about what this man was about but maybe he could help her. "Thank you sir. Forgive my manners my name is Lilyanya Faulkner, I prefer to be called Anya. What is your name? If I may ask sir." Anya said making sure that she got his name because she felt stupid for not asking for it earlier.

She watched him pull the stool closer to the table and sit down. Nodding at him saying that she would be able to sit up in a few minutes. "I never saw his face, he attacked me in an alley when I was returning home. The only thing I saw were his hands and I heard his voice. He left me in the alley to make the change then has been stalking me since then. On his left hand I think that's the one I saw, was a scar. It looked like a crescent moon, other than that I have nothing on him." She said looking at him wondering if he might know the person. "Oh and he said something to me before he left me there. He said that I should thank him for the gift he was giving me." Anya didn't know if he knew of this man but she wasn't gonna tell him that her brother found him already. "I just want to know why he's still after me and why he's trying to kill me." She whispered softly looking away from him.

Orpheus smiled, the ancient vampire tilting his head as he considered the time lapse of five years. So long for the young, barely a minute for the old. "Five years may seem a long time - I apologize. When you get to my age, five years passes with the blink of an eye. My daughter proved that especially. One second she's wobbling around the next... well, she's saving vampires in parks." He ticked his head and raised the glass back to his lips, smiling around it with remembrances of his daughter growing up. She was so close to womanhood now - a terrifying concept.

There was nothing he could do to stop it.

He looked deeply into the glass of wine, swirling it so the fumes would waft up. She asked his name and he looked up. His face was momentarily indiscernible but the twinkle reappeared as he said, "Orpheus. Orpheus Grimm. It's nice to meet you. Here." He approached and carefully removed the IV, placing his thumb over the spot. He examined it and began to pack up the IV. "You can sit up - careful, though. Slowly. It'll take a little to feel stronger."

He settled back down as he listed to her story. He raised his head, eyes closing. "Interesting. Five years and no idea who he is?" He sighed, his eyes opening. "He certainly did give you a gift - I can't imagine why he'd want to kill you and take it all away."