Hallowed (B. Barnes)

Chapter One

A glass of blood half drank rests on the bedside table, an open copy of Murder on the Orient Express sits next to it, the sun only just rising out the window behind them. Sydney sits up in bed, her laptop resting on her legs as she seeks out a hunt, police databases and newspaper articles are shown on screen. Music plays quietly as she scans the screens for anything that could be here thing. A maybe but nothing solid. She makes a note in her journal, just something to keep an eye on for now, no hard proof that there is something supernatural going on but there could be. She doesn't want a wasted journey. It would be a long way to travel if it was. She glances to the clock at the bottom of the screen and then sighs a little. She closes her laptop and stands from the bed to get ready for the day.

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Bucky jerks awake turning his head into his pillow to scream, his flesh hand coming up to rest on his shoulder where metal meets flesh as he curls up, the fetal position his best friend nowadays. Once free of the torments in his mind he uncurls and smooths out. Not gone just...easier to handle....in smile bite sized shapes. He lays there awake, escaping his nightmares. Flickers of memories flashing in his mind. Rattle of gunfire. Whirling of his metal arm. Screams. So much screaming. His eyes stare at the cracks in his ceiling as he takes deep breaths. Listening to the thundering of his heartbeat in his ears. Fear coursing through him. Fear and guilt. He blinks and a few tears leave his eyes. He reaches up and scrubs them away before sitting up. He's not going to wallow in bed all day. He has things to do now. A routine to stick to. He turns and sets his feet on the wood floor, stretching his toes in his socks before pulling his boots on. Always ready to run. He tightens the laces before standing and moving to the window. All of them are covered in newspapers to stop that...software people have nowadays with facial recognition. Plus he has no curtains or blinds to shut out the sun. Newspaper works just as well and cheaper. He pushes the newspaper on the window in front of him aside so he can look out on Bucharest. He stayed. He rubs his shoulder and cringes slightly at the ache. It's nothing he can't cope with. His eyes find a flash of blonde below. Familiar. He may have found an apartment right across the street from Sydney's. It was one of the nicest of the worst apartments plus it comes with a little job, maintenance, he fixes stuff and they let him stay. He watches as Sydney locks her door, a small smile working onto his lips and just like that his nightmare is pushed to the back of his mind, not forgotten just....ignored, for now. She turns and looks around dropping her keys into her bag before walking away. He turns from the window and grabs his jacket from the back of the couch and heads out the apartment shutting the door behind him.

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Sydney knows when he joins her. It's been the same for six weeks now. He is still following after her like a little puppy. She pretends she doesn't know. He's clearly not around to kill her, or to try to, they always try within a couple of days, and he's never approached her so she assumes that that must mean he doesn't want to kill her. So she leaves him be, keeping her abilities to herself in the comfort of her flat. She's just another local. He doesn't follow her out of the city, she's noticed that, when she gets into her car for a hunt he stays in Bucharest. Again he's taken the table directly across from her. He keeps his jacket on despite the heat of early August. Keeps his baseball cap lower over his eyes but she's seen them. Those piercing blue depths are hauntingly beautiful....and terribly sad. He glances to the waitress as she stops at his table. Orders an iced water and a cookie. Never anything else and never anything different. His eyes move back to Sydney when the waitress leaves him alone, his hand disappearing into his jacket to pull out a book. He's stopped using a newspaper to hide and opted for something a little more....normal. Some days he even tries to read it, when she's engrossed in whatever her work is he tries to read but always ends up going back to her.

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Sydney usually sits here for a couple of hours, writing, typing, working. He doesn't know what on but she seems to be really focused on it. She doesn't seem to go anywhere for work so maybe she works on her computer. Some form of freelancer or something. Maybe a writer or a journalist. If the latter he should be extra careful just in case. If she is a journalist and she figures out he's following her, and finds out what and who he is....she could be the end of him. She reads something on the screen before she is standing, sooner than usual, he watches as she grabs her things. Whatever it is, it's important, and he won't intrude, plus he has some repairs to do back at the apartment block. So he doesn't follow her. He leaves her be as she leaves.